Suchergebnisse

During the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the lockdown of the densely-populated metropolis caused panic and disorderly behavior among its population. Community governance systems (CGSs) were mobilized to lead community engagement to address the challenges and issues brought about by the sudden quarantine measures, still unprecedented in any part of the world during that time. This commentary aims to describe and analyze the roles of the CGSs, its implementation of culturally-tailored strategies and the performance of new functions as called for by the outbreak. We will introduce the community governance structure which has two parallel administrative units of government including the branches of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The pandemic showed that the roles of the CGSs evolved and may continue to be improved in the future. It is important to engage the community and to have community-based approaches in addressing issues brought about by lockdowns. This community experience in Wuhan provides important lessons for the rest of the world.

The current decolonizing global health movement is calling us to take a post-colonial perspective at the research and practice of global health, an area that has been re-defined by contemporary scholars and advocates with the purpose of promoting equity and justice. In this article, we summarize the main points of discussion from the Symposium organized by the editorial board of Global Health Research and Policy, convened in July 2021 in Wuhan, China. Experts participating in the symposium discussed what decolonizing global health means, how to decolonize it, and what criteria to apply in measuring its completion. Through the meeting, a consensus was reached that the current status quo of global health is still replete with various forms of colonial vestiges-ideologies and practices-, and to fully decolonize global health, systemic reforms must be taken that target the fundamental assumptions of global health: does investment in global health bring socioeconomic development, or is it the other way around? Three levels of colonial vestiges in global health were raised and one guiding principle was proposed when thinking of solutions for them. More theoretical discussion needs to be explored to guide practices to decolonize global health.

Abstract
Background
Lake-terrestrial ecotone is a transition zone between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Linking land and lake, it is thus highly sensitive and vulnerable to disturbances. It includes three parts, namely, radiant belt toward land, shoreline zone and radiant belt toward lake. Extending from multi-year average low water level line to open water, radiant belt toward lake is a key part of lake-terrestrial ecotone. However, the delimitation method for radiant belt toward is unsolved, which is a big obstacle to protecting lake-terrestrial ecotone effectively. Wave is a major hydrodynamic factor in lakes, especially large shallow lakes. For linking landward and waterward directions, the boundary of radiant belt toward lake may be affected by waves. Hence, exampled as Lake Taihu, this research was carried out from wave perspective.

Results
In July 2021, a total of 12 species aquatic macrophyte were collected, including 3 species of floating-leaved and 9 submerged macrophyte within radiant belt toward lake of Lake Taihu. Aquatic macrophyte were incorporated into calibrated wave models driven by constant winds via MIKE21 SW. Wave height attenuation was successfully simulated, ranging − 0.19% ~ 8.89% under eastern-wind condition and − 0.08% ~ 23.37% under western-wind condition. In general, wave height gradually attenuates from shore to water. The abrupt change point in relative wave height was used as the boundary of the radiant belt toward lake. A total of 26 sampling lines from bank to water around the whole lake of Lake Taihu were set, ranging 701 ~ 2155 m. Based on the setups of sampling lines, the delimitation range of Lake Taihu is about 1 ~ 2 km.

Conclusions
A novel approach was developed for quantitative delimitation of radiant belt toward lake. Both wind forcing and aquatic vegetation has slight impact on results of delimitation, indicating the feasibility of this approach. It determines a theoretical boundary of lake-terrestrial ecotone, which is helpful to a more precise protection and restoration of large shallow lakes. Moreover, it could provide a potential method for quantitative delimitation for large shallow lakes with similar conditions.

Centralizing procurement for prescription drugs has the potential to reduce drug spending by creating economies of scale and by improving purchasing power. In March 2019, the Chinese government launched a volume-based purchasing (VBP) pilot program using a competitive bidding process to purchase accredited generic drugs for which branded drug substitutes were available. We performed an interrupted time-series design to estimate the change in monthly drug purchase quantity and spending comparing 14 months before and 7 months after the VBP pilot. We obtained monthly prescription drug purchase data for all purchases from public medical institutions in the three large pilot cities (Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an) and two non-pilot cities (Changsha and Zhengzhou) between January 2018 to September 2019. We used negative binomial regression and log-linked Gamma Generalized Linear Model for purchase quantity and spending respectively. We evaluated heterogeneity of impact by pilot city, drug type (selected or non-selected drugs), and therapeutic class (cardiovascular disease, mental disorder and cancer) separately. The implementation of the pilot reform was associated with a 132% (95%-CI: 104–165%, p < 0.001) increase in the purchase quantity of selected drugs in pilot cities compared to an 17% decrease (95%-CI: 9–25%, p < 0.001) in control cities. In contrast, the purchase quantity of branded and other drugs in pilot cities decreased by 38% (95%-CI: 27–46%, p < 0.001) and 77% (95%-CI: 71–81%, p < 0.001), respectively; while in control cities, these remained at similar levels. Overall, in pilot cities, there was a 35% (95%-CI: 28–41%, p < 0.001) decrease in the purchase spending for all drugs in the first post-policy month, from 8.1 billion CNY estimated in the absence of VBP down to 5.3 billion CNY; in control cities, the change was negligible. The largest reduction in spending occurred for drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The evidence suggests a positive impact of the VBP pilot in ...

Bicontinuous hierarchically porous Mn2O3 single crystals (BHP-Mn2O3-SCs) with uniform parallelepiped geometry and tunable sizes have been synthesized and used as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The monodispersed BHP-Mn2O3-SCs exhibit high specific surface area and three dimensional interconnected bimodal mesoporosity throughout the entire crystal. Such hierarchical interpenetrating porous framework can not only provide a large number of active sites for Li ion insertion, but also good conductivity and short diffusion length for Li ions, leading to a high lithium storage capacity and enhanced rate capability. Furthermore, owing to their specific porosity, these BHP-Mn2O3-SCs as anode materials can accommodate the volume expansion/contraction that occurs with lithium insertion/extraction during discharge/charge processes, resulting in their good cycling performance. Our synthesized BHP-Mn2O3-SCs with a size of ~700 nm display the best electrochemical performance, with a large reversible capacity (845 mA h g(-1) at 100 mA g(-1) after 50 cycles), high coulombic efficiency (>95%), excellent cycling stability and superior rate capability (410 mA h g(-1) at 1 Ag(-1)). These values are among the highest reported for Mn2O3-based bulk solids and nanostructures. Also, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy study demonstrates that the BHP-Mn2O3-SCs are suitable for charge transfer at the electrode/electrolyte interface. ; This work was realized in the frame of a program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team (IRT1169) of the Chinese Ministry of Education. B. L. Su acknowledges the Chinese Central Government for an "Expert of the State" position in the Program of the "Thousand Talents". Y. Li acknowledges Hubei Provincial Department of Education for the "Chutian Scholar" program. T. Hasan acknowledges funding from a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship and EPSRC IAA Grant (GRASS). This work is also financially supported by the Ph.D. Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (20120143120019), This work is also financially supported by Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation (2014CFB160) and Self-determined and Innovative Research Funds of the SKLWUT (2015-ZD-7). We thank J.L. Xie, X.Q. Liu and T.T. Luo for TEM analysis from the Research and Test Center of Materials, Prof. L.Q. Mai for EIS analysis from WUT-Harvard Joint Nano Key Laboratory at Wuhan University of Technology. ; This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from NPG via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep14686