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China has experienced an increasing number of "drifting elderly" (elderly inter-province migrants because of non-employment reasons) due to urbanization and aging. Living in different environments, the elderly are susceptible to mental health problems. Thus we explore the well-being of the drifting elderly under the Chinese cultural context. According to the grounded theory approach, a qualitative study with 54 elderly inter-provincial migrant samples was conducted in Shanghai. Drawing from the "cognition, affection, and conation" theory and the migration theory, we built a framework for the drifting elderly's well-being, including the impact factors (motivation, adaption pressure, and personality), well-being status (subjective well-being, psychological well-being, and social well-being), and consequences (future plan). Implications and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Maoist period, the Chinese socialist state encouraged the genre of "speaking bitterness" in order to give expression to past sufferings and cultivate a class consciousness. In the post-Mao era, scholars have noted how marginalized figures express discontent through public displays of bitterness and how state agents use "speaking bitterness" as a governing strategy for diffusing class antagonism and ensuring stability. The communication of bitterness, however, does not necessarily have an intrinsic or performative relationship with political action; it has a social life beyond political governance. Based on my ethnographic research with rural-urban migrants in Shanghai, this article explores the communication of bitterness as an affective and ethical force situated between speaking and enduring. The ineffable gap between speaking and enduring does not mark passivity, but decenters the speaking subject and opens up a social space for criticism, recognition and hope for a different future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of various emission sources and quantification of their contributions comprise an essential step in formulating scientifically sound pollution control strategies. Most previous studies have been based on traditional offline filter analysis of aerosol major components (usually inorganic ions, elemental carbon – EC, organic carbon – OC, and elements). In this study, source apportionment of PM 2.5 using a positive matrix factorization (PMF) model was conducted for urban Shanghai in the Yangtze River Delta region, China, utilizing a large suite of molecular and elemental tracers, together with water-soluble inorganic ions, OC, and EC from measurements conducted at two sites from 9 November to 3 December 2018. The PMF analysis with inclusion of molecular makers (i.e., MM-PMF) identified 11 pollution sources, including 3 secondary-source factors (i.e., secondary sulfate; secondary nitrate; and secondary organic aerosol, SOA, factors) and 8 primary sources (i.e., vehicle exhaust, industrial emission and tire wear, industrial emission II, residual oil combustion, dust, coal combustion, biomass burning, and cooking). The secondary sources contributed 62.5 % of the campaign-average PM 2.5 mass, with the secondary nitrate factor being the leading contributor. Cooking was a minor contributor (2.8 %) to PM 2.5 mass while a significant contributor (11.4 %) to the OC mass. Traditional PMF analysis relying on major components alone (PMF t) was unable to resolve three organics-dominated sources (i.e., biomass burning, cooking, and SOA source factors). Utilizing organic tracers, the MM-PMF analysis determined that these three sources combined accounted for 24.4 % of the total PM 2.5 mass. In PMF t , this significant portion of PM mass was apportioned to other sources and thereby was notably biasing the source apportionment outcome. Backward trajectory and episodic analysis were performed on the MM-PMF-resolved source factors to examine the variations in source origins and composition. It was shown that under all episodes, secondary nitrate and the SOA factor were two major source contributors to the PM 2.5 pollution. Our work has demonstrated that comprehensive hourly data of molecular markers and other source tracers, coupled with MM-PMF, enables examination of detailed pollution source characteristics, especially organics-dominated sources, at a timescale suitable for monitoring episodic evolution and with finer source breakdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by the progressive degeneration of the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) region. Acteoside has displayed multiple biological functions. Its potential role against PD and the underlying signaling mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we showed that oral administration of acteoside significantly attenuated parkinsonism symptoms in rotenone-induced PD rats. Further, acteoside inhibited rotenone-induced α-synuclein, caspase-3 upregulation and microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) downregulation in PD rats. The molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation results indicated that acteoside may directly bind to and inhibit caspase-3. Acteoside formed hydrogen bonds with at least six residues of caspase-3: ThrA177, SerA178, GlyA238, SerB339, ArgB341 and TrpB348. In addition, a pi-pi interaction was formed between acteoside and caspase-3’s HisA237, which might further stabilize the complex. MD simulation results demonstrated that the binding affinity of the caspase-3-acteoside complex was higher than that of caspase-3 and its native ligand inhibitor. Together, we show that acteoside binds to caspase-3 and exerts neuroprotection in the rotenone rat model of PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field campaigns rarely measure individual polar organic compounds online, leaving unexplored their potential in tracking the formation dynamics of secondary organic aerosol (SOA). In a three-week-long field campaign in urban Shanghai, we deployed a commercial Thermal desorption Aerosol Gas chromatograph system (TAG) that integrates sampling, in-situ derivatization, and thermal desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis, producing hourly measurement of polar organics including a set of biogenic and anthropogenic SOA tracers. The abundance and variations of these SOA tracers were examined in relation to five PM 2.5 episodes, varying from 4 to 64 h in duration, during the field campaign from 9 November to 3 December 2018. The episodes were associated with stagnant air parcels. In comparison with the non-episodic hours, the episodic hours showed distinct chemical characteristics of a large mass increment of nitrate (an average of 4.7 fold) and secondary organic compounds (~3–6.4 fold), exceeding those of primary pollutants (1.6–1.9 fold). These results clearly indicate the significant contributions of secondary inorganic and organic production processes to forming PM 2.5 episodes. The SOA concentration estimated by the set of TAG-measured SOA tracers reached an average concentration of 2.6 μg/m3, accounting for a significant portion of OA in view of that the total organic matter (OM) in PM 1 measured by an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer was 7.9 μg/m3. Among them the SOA attributed to monoaromatic compounds (e.g., toluene) accounted for a noticeable portion of the total OM, implying that control strategies targeting local anthropogenic emissions would be effective in reducing the severity of episodic PM pollution. Examining the ratio of two monoterpene-derived SOA products, we found evidence of less-aged SOA in urban Shanghai, and this result was collaborated by the O/C value (0.4) of bulk OA. This work demonstrates hourly SOA tracer measurements by TAG are uniquely specific on identification of major SOA precursors for episodic events and observing the evolution of SOA. Image 1 • Online measurement of individual aerosol organics was made for the first time in urban Shanghai. • Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) tracers specific to a few common precursors were tracked. • Significant mass enhancement of SOA tracers and nitrate was observed during 5 PM 2.5 episodes. • Toluene and other monoaromatics SOA tracer had a mass increment of 5.6 during episodes vs. <2 for primary pollutants. • The diagnostic ratio of two α-pinene SOA tracers suggested fresh SOA in urban Shanghai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]