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Social capital in the form of social resources or social networks is one of the most important livelihood capital of farmers, which can increase the labor productivity of poor households and increase income. It is important to explore the reasons underlying the livelihood strategy choices of farmers from the perspective of social capital under China's rural revitalization strategy. In this study, the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, a poverty-stricken mountainous area in southwestern China, was selected as the case study area, and multivariable linear regression models were constructed to analyze the influence of social capital on livelihood strategies. The results are as follows: (1) Individual social capital had a positive effect on non-agricultural livelihood strategies. On average, with a one-unit increase in individual social capital, the ratio of farmers' non-agricultural income to total productive income (Income_Rto) increased by 0.002% and 0.062%, respectively. Collective social capital, with the Peasant Economic Cooperation Organization (PECO) as the carrier, had a negative effect on the non-agricultural livelihood strategies of farmers; on average, with a one-unit increase in PECO, Income_Rto decreased by approximately 0.053%. However, this effect was only significant in the river valley area. (2) The income differences among the different livelihood strategy types were explained by the livelihood strategy choices of farmers. As non-agricultural work can bring more benefits, the labor force exhibited one-way migration from villages to cities, resulting in a lack of the subject of rural revitalization. It is necessary to implement effective measures to highlight the role of PECO in increasing agricultural income for farmers. Finally, based on the above conclusions, policy recommendations with respect to livelihood transformation of farmers and rural sustainable development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has put countries around the world under great pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Chinese government has proposed that China will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. A low-carbon lifestyle is becoming a new trend in China. Therefore, the products of firms that actively respond to climate change are more popular for consumers in China. In the Internet era, the carbon information disclosed by firms has become an important way for consumers to understand the behavior of firms in responding to climate change. In the existing literature on the influencing factors of carbon information disclosure, the psychological factors of executives are seldom investigated. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms in low-carbon pilot provinces and cities during the period of 2015–2019, this study explores the influence of government regulation and executive overconfidence on the quality of carbon information disclosure. The results show that government regulation has a significantly positive impact on the quality of carbon information disclosure. The results also reveal that executive overconfidence negatively affects the quality of carbon information disclosure. Moreover, executive overconfidence negatively moderates the relationship between government regulation and the quality of carbon information disclosure. Our findings make a significant contribution to the role of executive's psychological factors in firm's behaviors and provide new insights and policy implications for government, firms, consumers, and other stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, natural disasters and public health events caused by global warming have occurred frequently around the world. It has become a global consensus to actively respond to climate change. Firms are the main source of greenhouse gas emissions. The disclosure of carbon information is one of the most important ways for firms to respond to climate change. The effect of female directors on carbon information disclosure is still unclear. Considering that China is the largest country in greenhouse gas emissions and the social status of females in China is different from western countries, this paper explores the effect of female directors on carbon information disclosure by firms in China. Based on the sample of listed Chinese firms in high carbon industries during the period of 2012–2017, our empirical results show that female directors have a positive association with carbon information disclosure. In addition, we find that the power, educational level, and financial background of female directors have positive impacts on firms' carbon information disclosure. Our findings make a significant contribution to the ongoing debate on the role of female directors and provide new insights and policy implications for firms, regulators, and other stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As global warming has received widespread attention, the disclosure of firms' carbon information has been expected by increasing stakeholders. This study extends the previous literature on the determinants of firms' carbon information disclosure by examining the influence of academic independent directors and Confucianism on the quality of carbon information disclosure. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms in the CSI 300 Index during the period of 2012–2018, our empirical results show that academic independent directors have a significantly positive association with the quality of carbon information disclosure. The results also reveal that Confucianism positively affects the quality of carbon information disclosure. Moreover, Confucianism positively moderates the relationship between academic independent directors and the quality of carbon information disclosure. The results imply that Confucianism, as an informal system, can promote the governance effect of academic independent directors on firms' carbon information disclosure behaviour. Our findings offer shareholders, regulators, and other stakeholders an integrating perspective on motivating firms to disclose high quality carbon information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chrysanthemum morifolium plants are important commercial herbs in China, widely used in ornamental horticulture and traditional medicine. In this study, start codon targeted (SCoT) polymorphic markers were applied to assess genetic relationships among 32 populations of C. morifolium . Thirty-two SCoT primers produced 872 loci, 90% (785) of which showed polymorphism. Average polymorphism information content of the SCoT primers was 0.987 (0.950–0.993), showing that plenty of genetic diversity exists among Chinese C. morifolium cultivars. Cluster analysis of SCoT markers (based on UPGMA and PCoA method) grouped all the cultivars of C. morifolium into two clusters. The partition of clusters in the dendrogram and PCoA plot was similar and large degree of grouping according to their origin and ecological distribution. Our results will provide much more useful information for C. morifolium germplasm resource protection and will also useful to improve the current plant breeding programs. Our results also indicated that SCoT markers are informative and could be used to evaluate genetic diversity of Chinese medicinal C. morifolium cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the basic principle of vehicle electromagnetic brake is presented, the calculation formulae for air-gap magnetic induction, braking power and braking force of electromagnetic brake are derived based on electromagnetics theory. By using these formulae, the performance of retarder is calculated with results basically agreeing with experiment data, demonstrating the feasibility of the calculation method given, providing references for the design of electromagnetic brake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: China has recently become the largest auto market in the world due to an explosive growth in private car ownership. On one hand, Chinese policymakers must develop sustainable transportation policies including those of car demand reduction; on the other, they must continue to promote the auto industry in the name of economic growth. Understanding the cultural currents behind car ownership, future car growth, and driver behavior is critical for developing responsive and effective policies. However, little is known regarding the attitudes and socio-cultural context surrounding the explosive growth in car ownership. A survey of Chinese college students – consumers with greater future purchasing power – was conducted to understand student attitudes, social norms, and aspiration for car ownership. A strong desire for car ownership among the participants supports the assertion that rapid car growth is likely to continue, but most likely in smaller cities and rural areas. Moreover, perceived psychosocial values of car ownership such as feelings of freedom and control are more likely to be framed by the students’ immediate social environment. The psychosocial valuations dominate the aspiration for car ownership at a level greater than the instrumental valuations of car ownership – for example, speed or convenience of using a private car. Understanding and changing consumers’ psychosocial valuation of cars is increasingly critical in curbing future growth in car ownership and use. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: This study aims to explore appropriate model for predicting the disease burden of pneumoconiosis in Tianjin by comparing the prediction effects of Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model, Deep Neural Networks (DNN) model and multivariate Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network (LSTM) models., Methods: Disability adjusted life year (DALY) was used to evaluate the disease burden of occupational pneumoconiosis. ARIMA model, DNN model and multivariate LSTM model were used to establish prediction model. Three performance evaluation metrics including Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) were used to compare the prediction effects of the three models., Results: From 1990 to 2021, there were 10,694 cases of pneumoconiosis patients in Tianjin, resulting in a total of 112,725.52 person-years of DALY. During this period, the annual DALY showed a fluctuating trend, but it had a strong correlation with the number of pneumoconiosis patients, the average age of onset, the average age of receiving dust and the gross industrial product, and had a significant nonlinear relationship with them. The comparison of prediction results showed that the performance of multivariate LSTM model and DNN model is much better than that of traditional ARIMA model. Compared with the DNN model, the multivariate LSTM model performed better in the training set, showing lower RMES (42.30 vs. 380.96), MAE (29.53 vs. 231.20) and MAPE (1.63% vs. 2.93%), but performed less stable than the DNN on the test set, showing slightly higher RMSE (1309.14 vs. 656.44), MAE (886.98 vs. 594.47) and MAPE (36.86% vs. 22.43%)., Conclusion: The machine learning techniques of DNN and LSTM are an innovative method to accurately and efficiently predict the burden of pneumoconiosis with the simplest data. It has great application prospects in the monitoring and early warning system of occupational disease burden., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

To investigate the PM 2.5 pollution in the southern Sichuan urban agglomeration after the implementation of China's Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP), PM 2.5 samples were simultaneously collected in four cities (Neijiang, Zigong, Yibin, and Luzhou) from November 7 to 19, 2018. The pollution characteristics of PM 2.5 and main water-soluble ions were analyzed in combination with the synoptic situation, and the influence of regional transport on atmospheric pollution was also discussed in this study. The results showed that the mean ρ (PM 2.5 ) in this region was (67.2±38.3) μg·m -3 , being highest in Luzhou and lowest in Neijiang. The proportion of SNA (SO 4 2- , NO 3 - , and NH 4 + ) in PM 2.5 was 33.3%, among which NO 3 - was dominant. From the intermediate stage (2015) to the end(2018) of the implementation of APPCAP, ρ (PM 2.5 ) values were increased by 13.8%, 47.2%, and 69.1% in Neijiang, Yibin, and Luzhou, respectively, though unchanged in Zigong. Due to the significant reduction in ρ (SO 2 ) but slight decrease or increase in ρ (NO 2 ), as well as the lack of controlling NH 3 emissions, from 2015 to 2018, ρ (NO 3 - ) had increased by 36.7%-116.0%, whereas ρ (SO 4 2- ) decreased by 19.8%-40.2%, and ρ (NH 4 + ) changed slightly in four cities. On haze days, the nitrogen oxidation rate (NOR) increased by 60.0%-118.2%, whereas the sulfur oxidation rate (SOR) increased slightly or decreased, leading to a significant increase in ρ (NO 3 - ) (2.7-3.0 times that on clean days) and NO 3 - /SO 4 2- mass ratios (1.7-1.9 on haze days). These values indicated that the secondary formation of nitrate was the dominant chemical mechanism in this haze process. On haze days, the PM 2.5 pollution in this region was mainly affected by the regional transport within Sichuan Basin, particularly by the northeasterly air masses passing through Chongqing.

Context: We have found that hydrogen (dihydrogen [H2]) decreases plasma low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and improves high-density lipoprotein (HDL) function in patients with potential metabolic syndrome in a before-after self-controlled study., Objective: The purpose of this study was to further characterize the effects of H2-rich water (0.9 L/day) on the content, composition, and biological activities of plasma lipoproteins on patients with hypercholesterolemia and their underlying mechanisms in a double-blinded, randomized, and placebo-controlled trial., Design: This was a case-control study., Setting: The setting was the Zhoudian community, Tai'an, China., Patients: A total of 68 patients with untreated isolated hypercholesterolemia were randomly allocated to either drinking H2-rich water (n = 34) or placebo water (n = 34) for 10 weeks., Results: HDL isolated from the H2 group showed an increased ability to promote the ATP-binding cassette transporter A1-mediated cholesterol efflux ex vivo. Plasma pre-β-HDL levels were up-regulated although there were no changes in plasma HDL-cholesterol levels. Moreover, other HDL functions, assessed in protection against LDL oxidation, inhibition of oxidized-LDL-induced inflammation, and protection of endothelial cells from oxidized-LDL-induced apoptosis, were all significantly improved by H2 treatment. In addition, H2 treatment increased the effective rate in down-regulating plasma levels of total cholesterol (47.06% vs 17.65%) and LDL cholesterol (47.06% vs 23.53%). Western blot analysis revealed a marked decrease in apolipoprotein B100 and an increase in apolipoprotein M in plasma of the H2 group. Finally H2 treatment resulted in a significant reduction in the levels of several inflammatory and oxidative stress indicators in whole plasma and HDL particles., Conclusions: H2 activates ATP-binding cassette transporter A1-dependent efflux, enhances HDL antiatherosclerotic functions, and has beneficial lipid-lowering effects. The present findings highlight the potential role of H2 in the regression of hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis.