Search

Due to exponential increases in incidences, low risk papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) has become a clinical and social issue in recent years. An active surveillance (AS) management approach is an alternative to immediate surgery for patients with low risk PTMC. With decreased doubts about the safety and validity due to evidence from a large number of studies, the AS approach has become increasingly popular worldwide. However, Chinese thyroid surgeons still lag behind other countries in their knowledge of clinical practices and research related to AS. To promote the implementation of AS in China, thyroid surgeons should understand the implications, advantages, and disadvantages of management approaches for AS, and should also consider the willingness of Chinese patients, the impact on the medical billing system, and the enthusiasm of doctors. Thus, a management approach for AS based on the Chinese population should be developed to reduce the risk of disease progression and enhance patient adherence. Herein, we summarize the recent research achievements and deficiencies in AS approaches, and describe the initial experiences regarding AS in the Chinese population, in order to assist Chinese thyroid surgeons in preparing for AS management in the era of PTMC precision medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the quality of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for otorhinolaryngology in China. Materials and Methods: A systematic search of relevant literature databases (CBM, WANFANG, VIP, CNKI, China Guideline Clearinghouse) published between 1978 and March 2012 was undertaken to identify and select CPGs related to otorhinolaryngology. Four independent reviewers assessed the eligible guidelines using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE II) instrument. Their degree of agreement was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Result: From 170 citations, 21 relevant guidelines were included. The overall agreement among reviewers was moderate (ICC = 0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.78-0.91). The scores for each of the AGREE domains were the following: "scope and purpose" (mean 6 standard error [SE] = 45.4 ± 4.4; ICC = 0.92), "stakeholder involvement" (mean 6 SE = 30.4 ± 3.1; ICC = 0.81), "rigor of development" (mean 6 SE = 20.9 ± 2.8; ICC = 0.87), "clarity of presentation" (mean 6 SE = 48.8 ± 3.7; ICC = 0.80), "applicability" (mean 6 SE = 12.6 ± 1.7; ICC = 0.72), and "editorial independence" (mean 6 SE = 6.2 ± 0.8; ICC = 0.76). Three guidelines (14%) mentioned updates, and the average update frequency was 7 years. None used the GRADE system. Conclusion: The quality of otorhinolaryngology guidelines in China is low. Greater efforts are needed to provide high-quality guidelines that serve as a useful and reliable tool for clinical decision-making in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a Chinese peasant woman, Hu Xinkui's ..., as a looking lens, this article unfolds the socio-cultural change of rural China in the transitional period from around Liberation in 1949 up to 1978, and even into the twenty-first century, covering a wide range of issues regarding footbinding, child brides, forced conscription, bridal lamentation, communist collectivization, and a series of political movements such as land reform, the Great Leap Forward, the Socialist Education Movement, the Four Clearing-ups Movement, and the Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants Association. Hu Xinkui, born in 1934 in Jiangyong County of Hunan Province in south China, was a child bride who was promoted as a director of Women's Affairs after Liberation because of her suppressed inferior status. It was also because of the Liberation-implemented new marriage law that laid the foundation for her husband to divorce her in 1959, for the reason of her apparent infertility and lack of romance, as well as her concern for an unmarried brother, which preoccupied her to the detriment of her own marriage. She remarried in 1964 and retired from her active political life after she had children; since then she has committed herself to being an extremely hard-working housewife. With her husband being an active and honest party cadre (including being the deputy to the 9th Party Congress in 1969), she had to find every possible source to maintain the family finance in order to receive a great deal of visiting guests and peasants, at a cost of neglecting the education of her children, two of whom were addicted to gambling. Her life story manifests how an ordinary village woman engaged with local women's expressive traditions, called ...(women's script) and ... (women's song), and how her personal life changed along with the transformation of China. Also worth noting, the life history interviews with Xinkui were conducted in the company of her daughter and son-in-law, who have assisted my nüshu research for more than a decade -- and they had never learned about Hu Xinkui's past until then. Their participation throws additional reflective light on Xinkui's life experiences in China's changing rural context. With Hu Xinkui's life history as the axis, this article aims to draw attention to the life narrative approach as a tool for collecting ethnographic data and to bring about a rethinking of its use as a conceptual framework. Recognizing the possible limitations of life narrative in terms of its partiality, lapses, mistakes, and exaggeration, I employ narratives from multiple subjects and diverse resources (e.g., literary composition, local oral traditions, and historical documents) to open up the dialogical horizon of a life narration. I demonstrate that life history as a lived experience and an account of life not only speaks to a person's lifeworld; it is also an intertextualization of the voices of multiple subject-positions: narrating subject, addressee, researcher, and the embedded context. In the case of Hu Xinkui, her life narration not only encodes her history and historiography, but also manifests how the next generation, especially her daughter, decodes her story and writes it onto their own. Life narrative in this sense is a convergence of history and culture, whereby history continues and culture persists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the lens of dialogism, a performance-sensitive perspective, and the conception of emotion as evocative and transformative, this research explores the "expressive depths" of bridal lamentation that was practiced in rural south China. Carrying multiple layers of meaning, bridal lamentation provides all its participants-not only the bride but also her interlocutor and audience-diverse expressive niches from which they intertextually formulate the social wisdom that facilitates identity reconfiguration, emotional transformation, and humanistic cultivation of empathetic listening and the moral spirit of fortitude that would equip the bride for her lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper discusses the application of the content analysis method in the analysis of food safety reports. Several subjects, such as food chain, food category, violative testing Items, hazard of violative food samples and data in food safety reports from April 1st to June 1st 2009, were investigated. Based on the research, 50% of food safety reports selected came from the food distribution stage, 32% of the food safety reports mentioned one or several food additives. Among the selected reports, “beverages”, “cereals and cereal products”, and “salts, spices, soups, sauces, salads and protein products” are the top three (3) food groups mentioned. Only 20% of food safety reports contained the treatment information about violative food samples, while 8% contained a description about the potential hazard. Over 50% of the food safety reports were described with the types of violative food samples and Violation Rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I analyze a changben (song book) ballad of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai transliterated into nüshu ("female writing"), a script circulated exclusively among peasant women in Jiangyong County, Hunan Province, China. Conceptualizing genre as the intertextualization of an event, narrative poetics, and social context, I will discuss how the male-composed Liang-Zhu narrative ballad was read and received by nüshu women in rural Jiangyong, and through this process trace out the expressive niches of the changben genre. I will show that despite its transcription into nüshu, the Liang-Zhu changben narrative did not merely mirror Jiangyong women's life worlds. Instead, it reflected and in the meantime refracted their inner feelings and social reality. Reflection and refraction intersect to create an expressive arena where audiences articulate their intricate sensibilities of conforming to the existing social order while simultaneously transforming it, and where they can project unrealistic but fulfilling fantasies of existence. Through changben, they contemplate being in-the-world, probing beneath the surface of existence, and searching for hope in everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinoenstatite exsolution lamellae have been discovered in clinopyroxene grains of garnet peridotite from the Bixiling massif of the ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic (UHPM) terrane in the Dabie Mountains, China. Using transmission electron microscopy, we show here that although the lamellae are low clinoenstatite (Lclen) with P21/c space-group symmetry, they contain nanometer-scale antiphase domains indicating that the originally precipitating phase had C2/c space-group symmetry. The lamellae are oriented parallel to [010] and ∼18° to [001] of the host--approximately parallel to (401). Both the very cold exhumation path of the Dabie UHPM terrane and the orientation of the lamellae preclude the possibility that the originally precipitating phase could have been high-temperature clinoenstatite (HTclen). We conclude that the lamellae precipitated as high-pressure clinoenstatite (HPclen) and subsequently inverted to Lclen. Analysis of the incomplete high-pressure crystallographic data available for compositions approximating those of the lamellae and host suggests a minimum pressure of precipitation of ∼9 GPa for Dabie and about 12 GPa for similar exsolution previously observed in the Alpe Arami peridotite, Switzerland. The Bixiling complex is a crustal cumulate, hence this result extends the minimum depth of subduction of continental rocks in the Dabie/SuLu orogen to ∼300 km (P > 9 GPa). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I investigate how peasant women in Jiangyong County of southern Hunan defined and practiced a female-specific written script known as nüshu ('female writing'). With an emphasis on sisterhood relationships, I explore how women employed nüshu to construct meaning, experience autonomy, and acknowledge the androcentric impositions made upon them, which in turn highlights the dual nature of nüshu literacy. On the one hand, nüshu empowered women by allowing them to expand female connections beyond the confines of male-derived familial ties and village boundaries; on the other hand, it embodied Jiangyong peasant women's frustration over their failure to sustain such connections after marriage. To contrast nüshu with the gentry women's literary communities in the Lower Yangzi region during late imperial China, this research demonstrates how literacy dynamically interacts with the social forces of gender and class. Whereas female literati's social networks were able to expand and be sustained and even succeeded in penetrating male scholarly circles, nüshu sisterhood communities often failed to survive in face of the challenges set by village exogamy, mainly due to the lack of male support and to Jiangyong's rural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the textual, contextual and performative meanings of nushu in China. Part of human phenological experience; Predominant reason for nushu's lack of recognition that involves the interplay between Confucian gender ideology and moral concerns; Factors that function as energy flow that prompted inspiration and engagement.

Presents a study of nushu and nuge literature examining widowhood among peasant women in Jiangyong County, China. Influence of fertility on the decision of widows to remarry; Financial security in terms of the hardships of widowhood; Fidelity in nushu and nuge discourse on widowhood.

The distribution and main controlling factors of the organic matter carbonization points/zones of over-mature marine shale are important issues for shale gas exploration. This paper focuses on the Lower Cambrian and Lower Silurian shales in the Sichuan Basin and its periphery. Based on the detailed anatomy of key carbonization zones, predictions of shale organic matter carbonization zones and regional mapping of thermal maturity are carried out to explore and reveal the distribution and main controlling factors of the carbonization zones of organic matter in the two sets of shales. Four preliminary conclusions were obtained: (1) There are four organic matter carbonization zones in the Lower Silurian shale distribution area, namely eastern Sichuan-western Hubei, northwestern Hubei, west of southern Sichuan, and Renhuai-southwestern Chongqing, covering an area of nearly 40 x 10³ km². The main part of the western carbonization zone in the southern Sichuan is located in the Emei basalt distribution area. (2) The organic matter carbonization zone accounts for more than 80% of the Lower Cambrian shale distribution area, The noncarbonization zone is only distributed in Weiyuan-Ziyang, Moxi-Gaoshiti, Changyang, and Weng'an-Zhenyuan with an area of about 62.6 x 10³ km². (3) The Lower Silurian and Lower Cambrian shales in the west of southern Sichuan experienced an increase in thermal maturity RO values of 0.2%-0.4% and 0.2%-1.0%, respectively, as a result of the Emei large igneous province, an extreme heat event in the Late Permian. The Lower Cambrian and Lower Silurian shales have the highest degree of carbonization of organic matter in Mabian-Ebian, which is also in the high-value area of the Emei basalt thickness. (4) The main controlling factors of organic matter carbonization of the Lower Cambrian and Lower Silurian shales have similarities and differences. The main controlling factor of the former is the long-term deep burial background, and the extreme thermal event in the Late Permian only exacerbated the degree of carbonization in some areas more seriously. The latter's main controlling factors are relatively complex and are controlled by deep burial background in the three regions of Renhuai-southwestern Chongqing, eastern Sichuan-western Hubei, and northwestern Hubei. It was governed by a deep burial background and a high geotemperature in the Late Permian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species, Cyclorhiza puana J. Zhou & Z.W. Liu (Apiaceae) from Sichuan Province of China, is described and illustrated here. Morphological comparisons with congeneric species revealed that it is distinguished by its slender habit, sparse annular scars, 4-pinnatisect leaf blade with ultimate segments linear (2-4x0.5-1 mm), subequal rays, oblong fruits with slightly thickened ribs, obconic stylopodium and slightly concave seed face. A molecular analysis based on nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences indicated that C. puana is genetically distinct from the other two species of the genus. A distribution map, as well as an updated key, are provided for the species of Cyclorhiza. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic changes have played an important role in societal reorganizations. Particularly, the late 16th and early 17th century coincided with severely cold condition, extremely weak summer monsoon and widespread population decline in China. Here we present new speleothem oxygen isotope records across North and South China, which in concert with historical documents, allow us to characterize the "Late Ming Weak Monsoon Periods" (LMWMP) at an unprecedented annual temporal resolution. Our analysis suggests that as a weak summer monsoon event not seen for nearly 500 years in China, the LMWMP spatiotemporally coincided with the late Ming Dynasty peasant uprising (1627-1658 CE), and thus the transition from Ming to Qing Dynasty. This suggests a plausible role of climate change in shaping the important chapters of the Chinese history. In addition, both speleothem and historical documents reveal that the LMWMP appears to be a north to south time-transgressive event on decadal-timescale. Plain Language Summary This study presents two new speleothem paleoclimate records across northern and southern China, which in concert with the historical documents, allow us to characterize the Late Ming Weak Monsoon Periods (LMWMP) (1580-1660 CE). The records offer that the unprecedented, long-lasting aridity/weakening monsoon period was spatiotemporally synchronized with the late Ming peasantry uprising (1627-1658 CE) and the fall of the Ming Dynasty. The comparisons with many regional paleoclimate records show that the severest drought during the LMWMP was timetransgressive on decadal-timescale: from northern China to the Jiang-Huai region. Mechanistically, solar activity may provide a centennial scale background of precipitation decreases for LMWMP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many applications using accelerator beams require a nearly uniform beam distribution at the target. A nested structure magnet producing a step-like magnet field has been proposed to transform an originally Gaussian or even irregular distribution into a more-or-less uniform one at targets. In this paper, the prototyping of a step-like field magnet is presented, which is based on the application in the China Spallation Neutron Source where the magnets are used to obtain a uniform beam profile from an initially irregular distribution at the spallation target. It includes the magnet design, 3D magnetic field calculation, prototype fabrication and field measurement. The prototyping confirms the technical feasibility of the magnet structure and the magnetic field quality consistent with the field calculations. The design improvements are discussed from the prototyping experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: A cross-section study was conducted to explore the association between polymorphism of δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) and lead poisoning in Uygur and Han children in China. Methods: The ALAD genotyping was determined by PCR-RFLP in 443 Uygur and 469 Han children aged 6–10 years from Urumqi in Xinjiang province. Results: The blood lead levels of 912 environmentally exposed children ranged from 0.5 to 48.2 μg/dL, with a mean of 5.45 μg/dL and a standard deviation of 0.22 μg/dL, and 23. Thirty-one percent individuals were with blood lead level ≥10 μg/dL. The mean and standard deviation of blood lead levels were 5.57 ± 0.223 μg/dL and 5.30 ± 0.224 μg/dL in Uygur and Han children, respectively. The frequencies of the allele ALAD1 and ALAD2 in Uygur subjects were 90.52% and 9.48%, and in Han subjects were 95.73% and 4.27%, respectively (chi-square = 19.55, p < 0.05). No statistic correlation between the distribution of ALAD alleles and the blood lead level was found in both populations. Conclusion: A significant difference was seen in the frequency distribution of ALAD genotype between the different races. The genetic susceptibility of ALAD polymorphism to lead toxicity may exhibit in a lead dose-dependent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helicon plasma source is known as efficient generator of uniform and high density plasma. A helicon plasma source was developed for investigation of plasma neutralization and plasma lens in the Institute of Modern Physics in China. In this paper, the characteristics of helicon plasma have been studied by using Langmuir four-probe and a high argon plasma density up to 3.9×1013 cm-3 have been achieved with the Nagoya type III antenna at the conditions of the magnetic intensity of 200 G, working gas pressure of 2.8×10-3 Pa, and rf power of 1200 W with a frequency of 27.12 MHz. In the experiment, the important phenomena have been found: for a given magnetic induction intensity, the plasma density became greater with the increase in rf power and tended to saturation, and the helicon mode appeared at the rf power between 200 and 400 W. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The standard treatment for esthesioneuroblastoma, a rare malignant nasal vault neoplasm, is not established.Methods: We retrospectively assessed the clinicopathological features, prognostic factors and treatment methods for 187 patients with esthesioneuroblastoma treated in China between 1981 and 2015. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank tests.Results: Twenty-three (12.3%), 48 (25.7%) and 113 (60.4%) patients had Kadish stage A, B and C esthesioneuroblastoma; 3 (1.6%) had unknown stage. Overall, 117 (62.6%) patients received surgery and combined radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy; 35 (18.7%) received radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy; 32 (17.1%) received surgery alone; and 3 (1.6%) received palliative treatment. Three-year OS and DFS for the entire cohort were 66.7% and 57.5%, respectively. Three-year OS for stage A, B and C were 91.3%, 91.2% and 49.5% (P < 0.0001). Three-year OS was 16.7% and 66.7% for patients with and without distant metastasis (P < 0.0001). Surgery and combined radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy led to better OS and DFS than other treatment modes (both P < 0.0001). Univariate and multivariate analysis showed distant metastasis (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.162, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.145, 4.082, P = 0.017) and not receiving a combined modality treatment (HR = 2.391, 95% CI = 1.356, 4.218, P = 0.003) were independent prognostic factors for poor OS and DFS.Conclusions: This study indicates surgery and combined radiotherapy may currently be the optimal treatment for esthesioneuroblastoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some Shanghai Clinical Center f a role of Niemann-Pick type C1 (NPC1) for obesity traits. However, whether the loss-of-function mutations in NPC1 cause adiposity in humans remains unknown. We recruited 25 probands with rare autosomal-recessive Niemann-Pick type C (NP-C) disease and their parents in assessment of the effect of heterozygous NPC1 mutations on adiposity. We found that male NPC1+/- carriers had a significantly higher BMI than matched control subjects or the whole population-based control subjects. Consistently, male NPC1+/- mice had increased fat storage while eating a high-fat diet. We further conducted an in-depth assessment of rare variants in the NPC1 gene in young, severely obese subjects and lean control subjects and identified 17 rare nonsynonymous/frameshift variants in NPC1 (minor allele frequency <1%) that were significantly associated with an increased risk of obesity (3.40% vs. 0.73%, respectively, in obese patients and control subjects, P = 0.0008, odds ratio = 4.8, 95% CI 1.7-13.2), indicating that rare NPC1 variants were enriched in young, morbidly obese Chinese subjects. Importantly, participants carrying rare variants with severely damaged cholesterol-transporting ability had more fat accumulation than those with mild/no damage rare variants. In summary, rare loss-of-function NPC1 mutations were identified as being associated with human adiposity with a high penetrance, providing potential therapeutic interventions for obesity in addition to the role of NPC1 in the familial NP-C disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conclusion: In the northwest of China, the prevalence of mutations of the three prominent deafness-related genes, GJB2, SLC26A4, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 12S rRNA, among Tibetan, Tu nationality, and Mongolian subjects is high, at 19%, 28.57%, and 21.05%, respectively. Molecular genetic screening for these mutations and genetic counseling are effective methods to prevent the occurrence of hereditary hearing loss. Objective: To analyze the prevalence of the three common deafness genes GJB2, mtDNA, and SLC26A4 gene mutations in Tibetan, Tu nationality, and Mongolian patients with nonsyndromic hearing impairment in the Northwest region of China. Methods: Genomic DNA was extracted from a total of 189 Tibetan, Tu nationality, and Mongolian probands from the northwest of China. PCR and direct sequencing were used to analyze the coding region of GJB2, mtDNA, and SLC26A4 genes. Results: The mutant allele rate of GJB2 gene was 6.2% in Tibetan and 11.22% in Tu nationality patients, c.235delC was the most prevalent mutation, accounting for 75% of the mutant GJB2 alleles. Mutant allele frequency of SLC26A4 in Tibetan, Tu nationality, and Mongolian subjects was 4.54%, 6.12%, and 15.79% respectively; p.IVS7-2A>G was the most common form. Mongolian cases were significantly higher than Tibetan cases (χ2 = 7.281, p = 0.007 and p < 0.05). mtDNA A1555G mutation was detected in six Tibetan, five Tu nationality, and one Mongolian subject; one Tibetan patient carried the C1494T mutation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two contrasting intrusive suites have been identified from the northern margin of the North China craton: a Late Carboniferous diorite-granodiorite suite mainly made up of quartz diorite, diorite, granodiorite, tonalite, and hornblende gabbro, and a Late Permian-- Middle Triassic suite of granitoid intrusions consisting of monzogranite, syenogranite, and quartz monzonite. Plutons from the Late Carboniferous suite exhibit variable SiO2 contents and calc-alkaline or high-K calc-alkaline, metaluminous geochemical features. Most have low negative whole-rock εNd(T) values (where T is the crystallization age) of -17.1 to -11.5 and zircon εHf(T) values of -38.3 to -11.2, indicating that they were derived mainly from anatectic melting of the ancient lower crust with some involvement of mantle materials. However, an older pluton in the suite exhibits higher εNd(T) values of -11.5 to -9.9, Nd model ages of 1.82-1.64 Ga, lower initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios of 0.7046-0.7048, and it contains some zircon grains that are characterized by high negative to positive zircon εHf(T) values of -8.7 to 1.2, indicating strong involvement of juvenile materials derived from the lithospheric mantle. The Late Carboniferous plutons are interpreted as subduction- related and to have been emplaced in an Andean-style continental-margin arc during the southward subduction of the paleo-Asian oceanic plate beneath the North China craton. Rocks from the Late Permian-Middle Triassic intrusive suite display geochemical signatures ranging from highly fractionated I-type to A-type. They exhibit higher zircon εHf(T) values of -14.9 to -6.7, whole-rock εNd(T) values of -10.6 to -8.8, and younger Hf and Nd model ages than most of the Late Carboniferous plutons, indicating that they could have been produced by extreme fractional crystallization of hybrid magmas resulted from mixing of coeval mantle- and crust-derived melts. They are interpreted as postcollisional/ postorogenic granitoids linked to lithospheric extension and asthenosphere upwelling due to slab break-off and subsequent sinking after final collision and suturing of the Mongolian arc terranes with the North China craton. These two contrasting intrusive suites suggest that the final closure of the paleo--Asian Ocean and collision between the Mongolian arc terranes and the North China craton occurred during the Late Permian, and these events were followed by postcollisional/ postorogenic extension, large-volume magmatism, and significant continental growth. No significant syncollisional crustal thickening, high-pressure metamorphism, or S-type granitoid magmatism occurred during the collision process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study which analyzes the mutation characteristics of the hepatic enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) in four ethnic populations with phenylketonuria (PKU) in Xinjiang, China. It notes that PKU is an autosomal recessive disorder of amino acid metabolism, caused by the inadequacy of PAH that controls L-phenylalanine catabolism. It suggests that the region could be an ideal genetic resource repertoire for studying diversity of gene mutations and heterogeneity of PAH gene.

Background. Cross-sectional studies investigated the impact of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) gene polymorphism on left ventricular mass index (LVMI) with conflicting results. We conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the influence of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion (l/D) and angiotensinogen (AGT) M235T and angiotensin 11 type 1 receptor (ATI R) A1166C gene polymorphisms on the LVMI and geometry. Methods. Of 1500 people screened, 110 nondiabetic normotensive elderly Chinese persons were recruited and received echocardiography at baseline and at the 2nd and 4th year follow-up. No participants had a history of organic heart disease or chronic medication. The gene polymorphisms were analyzed by using polymerase chain reaction. Results. Participant age was 71.9 ± 3.9 years (range 60-81 years). The prevalence of concentric remodeling, eccentric hypertrophy, and concentric hypertrophy was significantly increased as well as LVMI after 4 years (all p < .05). These changes and the magnitude of LVMI increase were significantly higher in participants carrying the ACE D allele than non-D-allele carriers (all p < .05). This association was still significant in multivariate analyses (p < .02). A similar analysis showed a borderline significance in the ATI R but not in the AGT gene polymorphism. Conclusions. This longitudinal study showed that the aging process was associated with an increase of LVMI and changes of geometry. The RAS gene polymorphism, especially the ACE D allele, might modulale these changes in the Chinese population. This provides further knowledge that is essential in the assessment of cardiac disease and the determination of the left ventricular structure in older persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on over 50,000 parental descriptors of children gathered in eight different countries, we used a combination of focus group sorting of descriptors in each country and factor analyses of instruments developed in four of the countries (United States, China, Greece, and the Netherlands) to describe children ages 3 to 12 years to select items for an instrument that would work well across countries to access personality. Through many factor analyses of indigenous items in each country, a core set of 141 items was used in three of the countries, with over 3000 parents responding to our instruments in China, Greece, and the United States. Much cross-comparative research analysis has resulted in 15 robust midlevel scales that describe the structures of parental descriptors that are common to the three countries. The data on the English (U.S.) sample are presented in detail. Links to temperament and behavior problems are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the results of a wide-angle seismic profile, over 700 km long, across the southern margin of the Tarim Basin. A crustal structure that best fits the observed data, that tests and verifies the earlier discovery that the crystalline basement dips southward from the area of the petroleum industry seismic reflection profiling and geological investigation is presented. The profile also reveals that the Moho dips southward beneath the southern Tarim, at an angle in concordance to that of the crystalline basement. This result is thought to be the first evidence for the underthrusting of the Tarim crust beneath the western Kunlun. Additional evidence of underthrusting is that the relatively weak western Kunlun crust has contracted, and expressed by a lower crust, which is more than 20 km thick, with an uplift of the Kunlun basement, accompanied by northward-directed thrusts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]