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To explore the relationship between family resilience and preschool children's problem behaviours and the role of maternal parenting stress and parenting self-efficacy in this relationship, a total of 1282 mothers of preschool children were surveyed. The results showed that: (1) family resilience could significantly negatively predict preschool children's problem behaviours. (2) Maternal parenting stress completely mediated the relationship between family resilience and preschool children's problem behaviours. (3) Maternal parenting self-efficacy completely mediated the relationship between family resilience and preschool children's problem behaviours. (4) Maternal parenting stress and parenting self-efficacy played a mediating chain role between family resilience and preschool children's problem behaviours. This study deepened the understanding of the relationship between family resilience and children's social adjustment by discussing and outlining the relationship between family resilience to its influence on children's problem behaviours.

Objectives: The present study examined the moderating effect of children's resilience on the relations between unsociability and social adjustment (i.e., prosocial behaviors, peer exclusion, interpersonal skills, internalizing problems) in Chinese preschool migrant children. Methods: Participants were N = 148 children (82 boys, Mage = 62.32 months, SD = 6.76) attending two public kindergartens in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Mothers provided ratings of children's unsociability and resilience; teachers assessed children's social adjustment outcomes, and children reported their receptive vocabulary. Results: Unsociability was positively associated with peer exclusion and internalizing problems, and negatively associated with prosocial behaviors and interpersonal skills among Chinese preschool migrant children. Moreover, children's resilience significantly moderated the relationship between unsociability and social adjustment. Specifically, among children with lower levels of resilience, unsociability was significantly and positively associated with peer exclusion and internalizing problems, while among children with higher levels of resilience, unsociability was not associated with social adjustment difficulties. Conclusion: The current findings inform us of the importance of improving children's resilience to buffer the negative adjustment among Chinese migrant unsociable young children. The findings also highlight the importance of considering the meaning and implication of unsociability for preschool migrant children in Chinese culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recalcitrant understory fern layer is an important ecological filter for seedling regeneration, yet how the fern layer influences seedling regeneration dynamics remains unclear. Here we transplanted 576 seedlings of four dominant tree species, Castanopsis fargesii, Lithocarpus glaber, Schima superba and Hovenia acerba, to the treatments of Diplopterygium glaucum retention and removal under an evergreen broad-leaved forest in eastern China. We monitored the survival, growth and biomass data of these seedlings for 28 months, and then used generalized linear mixed models to evaluate the treatment effects on seedling survival, growth, biomass and rootshoot ratio. Our results showed that fern retention significantly inhibited the seedling establishment of all four species. During the seedling development stage, the seedling relative growth rate of L. glaber decreased under fern retention, which was not the case for the other three species. Root-shoot ratio of C. fargesii and L. glaber increased significantly under fern retention. Our findings provide new evidence of the filtering effect of a recalcitrant fern understory. Notably, we observed that the response of tree seedlings to the recalcitrant fern understory was more sensitive in the establishment stage. Finally, our work highlights that the filtering effect of the recalcitrant fern understory changes depending on the regeneration stages, and that shadetolerant species, C. fargesii and L. glaber were even more affected by fern disturbed habitats, suggesting that effective management should attempt to curb forest fern outbreaks, thus unblocking forest recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a severe complication of diabetes mellitus (DM). However, the prevalence of CKD among DM patients with diabetic foot (DF) is unknown. Accordingly, we conducted a cross-sectional study at a tertiary hospital to explore the prevalence of CKD among DF patients. Methods: A total of 42 132 inpatients with DM were enrolled from May 2015 to October 2018. Four hundred and forty-seven DF patients were selected, and 116 patients with incomplete data were excluded. CKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate < 60 mL/min per 1.73 m2 or presence of proteinuria (urine protein =1). We compared the CKD prevalence of DF patients with non-DF patients and general CKD patients hospitalized in China. Multivariable regression analysis was performed to explore the relationship between different variables in DF patients and CKD. Results: A total of 361 DF patients aged 67.9 ± 12.2 years were analyzed. Of these patients, 63.7% of were males. The prevalence of CKD was 49.0% (n = 177), which was higher than that observed for the general inpatients (4.5%, n = 871 742). However, 59.9% of CKD patients were not diagnosed during their hospitalizations. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, after adjusting for potential confounders, the following variables were correlated with CKD: uric acid (odds ratio (OR) = 1.49, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.22-1.82), homocysteine (OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.00-1.10), and HBA1C (OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.04-1.47). Conclusion: This study revealed that the prevalence of CKD among DF patients was high, and special attention should be paid to these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the effects of fertilization on physiological and biochemical parameters in the blood of the Wumeng semi-fine wool sheep and select the optimum fertilizer type, we carried out fertilization and grazing experiments on the perennial artificial grassland in Wumeng Prairie. The content of mineral elements in soil, forage and animal tissues was analyzed by atomic emission spectrometry. The blood parameters were analyzed by automatic blood cell analyzer and the blood biochemical parameters were detected by automatic biochemical analyzer. The results showed that fertilization significantly increased nitrogen content (P<0.01), but there was no significant difference between different fertilization treatments. Ammonium sulfate substantially increased the sulfur content of forage (P<0.01) and dramatically decreased the selenium content of forage (P<0.01). At the end of the grazing experiment, the content of copper, iron and selenium in the blood of the Wumeng sheep in the grassland enriched with ammonium sulfate was significantly lower than that in the grassland enriched with ammonium nitrate and the control group (P<0.01), and the sulfur content in the blood of the animals was obviously higher than that in the prairie enriched with ammonium nitrate and the control group (P<0.01). Ammonium sulfate fertilization evidently reduced the hemoglobin and erythrocyte hematocrit capacity of the sheep (P<0.01), while serum ceruloplasmin content, serum superoxide dismutase activity, serum glutathione peroxidase activity and serum catalase activity were significantly lower than that in the prairie enriched with ammonium nitrate and the control group (P<0.01). There were no significant differences in other trace elements, blood parameters and serum biochemical parameters between the fertilization treatment and the control group. Consequently, it is concluded that ammonium sulfate fertilization inhibit the metabolism of trace elements and decline some of the blood physiological and biochemical parameters in the sheep, which has a negative effect on their health, so we have suggested that the use of ammonium sulfate fertilizer should be reduced in pastures with low selenium, iron and copper contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On sunny in April, July, October, 2014, the photosynthetic measuring instrument (Lcpro +) in UK was used to study the diurnal variations of forage photosynthesis in Guizhou karst rocky desertification area. Four gramineous forages were selected to test the net photosynthetic rate, transpiration and water use efficiency. The results showed that the highest net photosynthetic rate of gramineous forage is Festuca elata, followed by Bromus catharticus, Lolium perenne and Dactylis glomerata. The highest transpiration rates of four gramineous forages are Festuca elata and Dactylis glomerata, followed by Bromus catharticus and Lolium perenne. The annual water use efficiency of Bromus catharticus and Lolium perenne is the highest, followed by Festuca elata, the lowest is Dactylis glomerata. The net photosynthetic rate of Cichorium intybus is in front of legume forage and gramineous forage, transpiration rate of Cichorium intybus is lower than them, and water use efficiency is the highest in eight kinds of pasture. Planting artificial forage in karst rocky desertification area should consider the net photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate and water use efficiency, take configuration measures of different grasses. It can reduce the transpiration rate to reduce water loss, while improving water use efficiency and easing the arid status in rocky desertification area. Planting mixed pasture, with high photosynthetic rate and transpiration, low photosynthetic rate and transpiration, can improve the biological diversity and productive potential of forage in karst rocky desertification area. It has value to widely promote and good prospects for development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Strengthening primary care is key to Hong Kong's ongoing health system reform. Primary care remains unregulated, private sector dominated and financed mainly out-of-pocket. This study sought to examine the association between patients' socioeconomic status (SES), source of health payments and the quality of primary care they accessed to inform policy discussions. Methods Data was collected from 1,994 respondents in a stratified random telephone survey with a 68% response rate, using the validated primary care assessment tool (PCAT). Education, household-income and type of housing were selected as indicators of SES. Multivariable ordinal logistic regression models were created to examine associations between indicators of SES and scores of quality. Results Higher household-income was most significantly associated with better experiences of quality. Respondents with HK$ 15000-39999 (USD1934-5158) and HK$40000(USD5159) and above were 47% (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.10-1.96) and 2 times (OR 2.07, 95% CI 1.38-3.09) more likely to experience better quality than the lowest-income group respectively. Income group HK$ 40000 (USD5159) and above was 84% more likely to have better utilization (OR 1.84, 95% CI (1.21-2.78), and 2 times more likely to receive better comprehensiveness (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.26-2.87). Patients who used only private insurance were 80% (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.20-2.68) more likely to experience better quality than those who paid out-of-pocket. Conclusions Our results show that the quality of primary care experienced in HK tended to be higher for those who had higher income and private insurance, and were able to pay out-of-pocket for the care. This indicated that the inequality in primary care is likely to be related with the private dominated primary care system in Hong Kong. More public responsibility on primary health care should be sought for in HK and similar contexts to reduce the inequality in primary care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a promising candidate for the treatment of cancer, because it preferentially induces apoptosis in numerous cancer cells with little or no effect on normal cells. 5,7-Dihydroxyflavone is a dietary flavonoid commonly found in many plants. Here we show that the combined treatment with 5,7-dihydroxyflavone and TRAIL at subtoxic concentrations induced strong apoptotic response in human hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells, acute leukemia Jurkat T cells, and cervical carcinoma HeLa cells. We further investigated the mechanisms by which 5,7-dihydroxyflavone augments TRAIL-induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells. 5,7-Dihydroxyflavone up-regulated the expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax, attenuated the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2, Mcl-1, and IAPs, and reduced the phosphorylation levels of Akt and STAT3, weakening the anti-apoptotic signals thus facilitating the process of apoptosis. Moreover, 5,7-dihydroxyflavone and TRAIL were well tolerated in mice, and the combination of 5,7-dihydroxyflavone and TRAIL reduced tumor burden in vivo in a HepG2 tumor xenograft model. Interestingly, 5,7-dihydroxyflavone-mediated sensitization to TRAIL-induced cell death was not observed in normal human hepatocytes L-O2. These results suggest that the 5,7-dihydroxyflavone in combination with TRAIL might be used for cancer prevention and/or therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The healthcare system of mainland China is undergoing drastic reform and the optimal models for healthcare financing for provision of primary care will need to be identified. This study compared the performance indicators of the community health centres (CHCs) under different healthcare financing systems in the six cities of the Pearl River Delta region. Methods: Approximately 300 hypertensive patients were randomly recruited from the computerized chronic disease management records provided by one CHC in each of the six cities in 2011 using a multi-stage cluster random sampling method. The major outcome measures included the treatment rate of hypertension, defined as prescription of ≥ one antihypertensive agent; and the control rate of hypertension, defined as systolic blood pressure levels <140 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure levels <90 mmHg in patients without diabetes mellitus, or <130/80 mmHg among patients with concomitant diabetes. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted with these two measures as outcome variables, respectively, controlling for patients' socio-demographic variables. The financing system (Hospital- vs. Government- vs. private-funded) was the independent variable tested for association with the outcomes. Results: From 1,830 patients with an average age of 65.9 years (SD 12.8), the overall treatment and control rates were 75.4% and 20.2%, respectively. When compared with hospital-funded CHCs, patients seen in the Government-funded (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.462, 95% C.I. 0.325-0.656) and private-funded CHCs (AOR 0.031, 95% C.I. 0.019-0.052) were significantly less likely to be prescribed antihypertensive medication. However, the Government-funded CHC was more likely to have optimal BP control (AOR 1.628, 95% C.I. 1.157-2.291) whilst the privately-funded CHC was less likely to achieve BP control (AOR 0.146, 95% C.I. 0.069-0.310), irrespective of whether antihypertensive drugs were prescribed. Conclusions: Privately-funded CHCs had the lowest rates of BP treatment and control due to a variety of potential factors as discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on cryptic diversity in Chinese rhinolophids and hipposiderids through complete sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. According to the study conducted in China, where 99 specimens where taken, found that there is high divergence of over 5 percent within Hipposideros pomona, Coelops frithi and Aselliscus stoliczkanus which reflect the possibility of cryptic diversity. It also showed that R. macrotis S.l. and an unidentified species have similar genetics.