A Qualitative Exploration of the Role of Antiretroviral Therapy on Chinese Rural Life

Objective To explore factors influencing the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS （PLHA） and receiving antiretroviral therapy （ART） in rural China. Methods In-depth interviews with 20 PLHA recruited from the USAID-funded Longitudinal cohort of eligible PLHA receiving treatment were conducted in March 1999. Participants were Enhanced Evaluation of ART Project, which tracks a at five collaborating treatment centers in Guangxi Autonomous Region, China. An interview guide （semi-structured with open-ended questions） was developed to provide a qualitative examination of the quality of life of PLHA. Results Participants identified that ART affects physical health, including the experience of pain, side effects, and opportunistic infections. ART imposes lifestyle constraints such as reduced mobility due to drug procurement, and social restrictions due to the daily drug regimen. Participants discussed the psychological burden of taking drugs, and the fear of accidental transmission to others, or having their disease status known by others, as well as optimistic feelings about their future due to ART. ART poses a significant drain on individual＇s economic resources due to related medical costs, and inability to seek seasonal migrant labor due to reduced mobility. Conclusion While China＇s national free ART program improved the physical health of those surveyed, their social and economic needs were left unaddressed. To improve life outcomes for PLHA, and by extension, the wider Chinese population, quality of life measures should be included when evaluating the success of the ART program.

Application of Survival Analysis in Studies of Human Ontogeny

The main goal of this work is to demonstrate the suitability of survival analysis for ontogenetic studies. The research material includes retrospective data of the age of the occurrence of ontogenetic events such as birth (N = 487), menarche (N = 2016) and menopause (N = 3597). In order to study the time of occurrence of ontogenetic events and to indicate the impact of environmental factors the survival analysis was applied. First, the percentiles of functions established for studied events were calculated. Next, the Kaplan-Meier survival curves were derived. In the last step theinfluence of environmental factors was established and the comparison of groups determined based on the chosen factors was performed. The delivery time shows that 14% of infants were bornpreterm. The risk of preterm delivery increases with the severity of factors disrupting pregnancy (from none to coexisting maternal and fetal risk factors) (;p < 0.001). In the case of menarche percentile positions indicate that the menarche occurs between the 12thand the 14thyear of life as the period in which most girls exceed the puberty threshold. The Cox’s proportional hazard model indicates that the time of menarche occurrence is significantly depended (;p < 0.001) on the place of the mother’s residence and number of children in the family (respectively p < 0.03 and p < 0.001). The time interval established for 50% occurrence of this experience was designated between the 49th and the 52nd years of life. The time of menopause occurrence is significantly depended on both of considered factors: the educational level and smoking cigarettes (, p < 0.001). Survival analysis is suitable for studies of the distribution in time of developmental events. It can be used to indicate the factors which significantly influence the course of development by modifying the duration of developmental stages.

Name and Reality, Physical Usages and Meaning: A Study on the Origin of Dan Culture

“Dan” is a Taoist method that integrates Chinese life culture. Between things and non-things, as the holy things that condense the essence of heaven and earth, Dan is not only the survival philosophy and life science passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years in China, but also the life aesthetics accompanied by the present reality. It creates, carries and reflects the thinking logic, perception mode and living habit of local traditional culture. It is the most important and rich “home heritage” of Chinese traditional culture.

Consolidation of Ancient Raw Materials Using a Reversible, Elastic, Soft Polymer

Aging of ancient raw materials usually finish with disintegration, which starts on surface of walls to progress toward the inside mass of a huge variety of mineral compounds. This is particularly harmful when antique buildings keep mural paintings, which suffers destruction before the wall itself. Same case appears on sculptures and monuments, whose surfaces are often attacked by living organisms which start a deterioration process previous to complete disintegration. The main factor to produce these unwanted effects is humidity, either rain for materials exposed to open air, or underground humidity going up by capillarity of minerals, in this case represented by porosity of associated salts forming the material. This paper describes a method to measure easily the relative porosity of diverse raw materials at laboratory level, by using a radioactive labeled solution, and also a procedure to reduce their porosity of those minerals. The efficiency of this procedure is measured in the same way, and so the results obtained at laboratory level have encouraged its use at real scale, where it has been quite successful for a number of materials in a limited span of five years.

Ancient genomic time transect unravels the population dynamics of Neolithic middle Yellow River farmers

In 1921,Swedish geologist Andersson and his Chinese colleagues carried out thefirst excavation of the Yangshaocun site in Sanmenxia City of central China’s Henan Province[1].Archaeologists reached a consensus that the relics unearthed in Yangshaocun were dated back to the Neolithic Age and described in archaeology as the“Yangshao culture”,named after the Yangshaocun site[2].The discovery of Yangshao culture in Yangshaocun marked the beginning of modern archaeology in China and overturned the claims that China has no Stone Age culture.

The Substantive Entity and Conceptual Ontology of the Object of Social Science Research and the Future of Anthropology

In this dialogue,Cai Hua and Maurice Godelier ask whether there has been a change in the research entity.This question concerns the representation of the“world of the other”and its impact on the intellectual world since the advent of postmodernism.Cai Hua states that when he was an overseas student in France in the 1980s,he could not see any traces of colonization.The postmodern movement is simply a kind of emotional catharsis and cannot be called“scientific research”in a rigorous sense.As a scientist,if your position is neutral,you cannot see the other in a dichotomous way;the other is simply what you research,and you arenot part of the other.

约4900年前东亚和东南亚枢纽地区狩猎采集向农业的转变

The southward expansion of East Asian farmers profoundly influenced the social evolution of Southeast Asia by introducing cereal agriculture.However,the timing and routes of cereal expansion in key regions are unclear due to limited empirical evidence.Here we report macrofossil,microfossil,multiple isotopic(C/N/Sr/O)and paleoproteomic data directly from radiocarbon-dated human samples,which were unearthed from a site in Xingyi in central Yunnan and which date between 7000 and 3300 a BP.Dietary isotopes reveal the earliest arrival of millet ca.4900 a BP,and greater reliance on plant and animal agriculture was indicated between 3800 and 3300 a BP.The dietary differences between hunter-gatherer and agricultural groups are also evident in the metabolic and immune system proteins analysed from their skeletal remains.The results of paleoproteomic analysis indicate that humans had divergent biological adaptations,with and without farming.The combined application of isotopes,archaeobotanical data and proteomics provides a new approach to documenting dietary and health changes across major subsistence transitions.

古基因组揭示河西走廊两千年以来的人群历史

The Hexi Corridor in northwest China has for millennia served as a crossroads for interactions between East Asia,Central Asia and lands further west,while also connecting the Chinese heartland and the northern Mongolian Steppe and Tibetan Plateau(TP)to the south(Fig.1a).Previous studies have revealed the details of this cross-continental material and cultural transmission as early as the Bronze Age onwards.Materials and technologies exchanged along the ancient Silk Road included East Asian millets and painted pottery,West Asian wheat and barley,bronze metal-lurgy,domesticated sheep,horses,and cattle[1].To date.

Estimation of stature by using the dimensions of the right hand and right foot in Han Chinese adults

The Han Chinese people are the main ethnic group in China and the largest ethnic group in the world.The dimensions of the hands and feet have been successfully used for the estimation of stature.A total of 26,927 healthy adult subjects,comprising 13,221 men and 13,706 women,were recruited.The survey samples were chosen through random cluster sampling.The mean values were significantly higher in men than those in women for all measurements(P<0.001).All the measurements showed a statistically significant correlation with stature(P<0.01).The combination of the right hand length and the right foot length was the best predictor of stature because it had the lowest standard error of estimate.The use of multiple regression equations yielded better results than did the use of linear regression equations.The accuracy of stature prediction ranged from ±4.81 to ±6.39 cm.The present study was of great importance with regards to improving the physical anthropology database of ethnic groups in China.

A dermatoglyphic study of the Kavalan aboriginal population of Taiwan

By the 1970s, a number of dermatoglyphic studies of Taiwan aborigines (Gaoshan nationality) had been published, however in each only a few dermatoglyphic variables were addressed. Since that time, little new research has been conducted. In this study, we collected and analyzed the dermatoglyphs of 100 individuals of Kavalan, a Taiwan aboriginal population, and we reported a wide range of dermatoglyphic variables including total finger ridge count (TFRC), a-b total ridge count (a-b RC), atd angle and axial triradius percent distance (tPD), and frequencies of fingerprint pattern, palmar thenar pattern, palmar interdigital pattern, palmar hypothenar pattern, and simian line. This study is the first comprehensive dermatoglyphic research of any Taiwan aboriginal population.

Effect of combined medicated thread moxibustion plus needle picking therapy of Zhuang nationality medicine on antioxidant levels in a rat model of sciatica

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect and underlying mechanisms of combined medicated thread moxibustion therapy plus needle picking therapy of Zhuang nationality medicine on antioxidant levels in a rat model of sciatica.METHODS: One hundred Wistar rats, of specific pathogen free level, were randomly divided into five groups: normal control group, model group,medicated thread moxibustion group, needle picking group, and combination group. Each group contained 20 rats. In the model, medicated thread moxibustion, needle picking, and combination groups,sciatica models were established through chronicconstriction injury of the sciatic nerve. After the model was established, the rats in the medicated thread moxibustion, needle picking, and combination groups were given the corresponding therapies for 21 days. The control and model groups received no treatment. Reactive oxygen species, superoxide dismutase, malondialdehyde, and total antioxidant capacity changes were determined.Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate(NADPH) oxidase subunit NADPH oxidases 4(NOX4) m RNA expression and the morphology of cells were observed to detect apoptosis of gamma-aminobutyric acid ergic(GABAergic) neurons.RESULTS: Compared with control group, reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde levels rose significantly in the model group(P < 0.01), while superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capacity levels were lowered(P < 0.05). Compared with the model group, reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde decreased in the needle picking group(P < 0.05), while superoxide dismutase levels were increased(P < 0.05); reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde significantly decreased in the combination group(P < 0.01). In addition, the model group had higher NOX4 m RNA expression than that of the control group(P < 0.05), and the combination group had lower expression levels than that of the model group(P < 0.05). Apoptosis of GABAergic neurons was observed in the model group, and was attenuated after combined therapy.CONCLUSION: The medicated thread moxibustion therapy plus needle picking therapy of Zhuang nationality medicine can prevent oxidative damage in the rat model of sciatica via down-regulating NOX4 expression, improving antioxidant capacity, and in-hibiting the oxidative damage pathway of GABAergic neurons.

Ancient Y-DNA with reconstructed phylogeny provides insights into the demographic history of paternal haplogroup N1a2-F1360

Northern Eurasia (nEA) has been considered crucial for the dispersal of the anatomically modern human (AMH) in recent studies.After the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM),ancient populations from different locations were redistributed throughout the region (Sikora et al.,2019;Yu et al.,2020;Kílínc et al.,2021;Mao et al.,2021).It is suggested that the emergence of many diverse ethnolinguistic groups.

SPECIAL ISSUE： LANGUAGE STUDIES AND METHODS FROM THE CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE ＂Emic, Etic＂ and Interdisciplinary Approaches

Linguistics and anthropology have much in common in terms of research category and methodology. Whereas the ＂emic/etic＂ approach in linguistics distinguishes between the social/psychological qualities of the sound system of a specific language and the physical/ physiological qualities of supra-language sounds, the ＂emic/etic＂ approach in anthropology attempts to make a distinction between the ＂inside＂ view and the ＂outside＂ view of culture. Both approaches involve a set of dualistic relationships between linguistic and cultural relativity and linguistic and cultural universality, as well as between linguistic/ cultural diversity and genetic diversity. Due to validation difficulties, ＂linguistic relativity＂ has received a cold welcome in the field of linguistics. However, ＂cultural relativity＂ now constitutes the core of modem anthropology. The inherent links and near identity of functions between linguistic/cultural diversity and biological diversity render possible methodological exchanges across the disciplines.

Growth patterns in children with mucopolysaccharidosis Ⅰ and Ⅱ

Background:Mucopolysaccharidosis(MPS)diseases lead to a profound disruption in normal mechanisms of growth and development.This study was undertaken to determine the general growth of children with MPS I and II.Methods:The anthropometric data of patients with MPS I and II(n=76)were retrospectively analyzed.The growth patterns of these patients were analyzed and then plotted onto Polish reference charts.Longitudinal analyses were performed to estimate age-related changes.Results:At the time of birth,the body length was greater than reference charts for all MPS groups(Hurler syndrome,P=0.006;attenuated MPS II,P=0.011;severe MPS II,P<0.001).The mean z-score values for every MPS group showed that until the 30th month of life,the growth patterns for all patients were similar.Afterwards,these growth patterns start to differ for individual groups.The body height below the 3rd percentile was achieved around the 30th month for boys with Hurler syndrome,between the 4th and 5th year for patients with severe MPS H and between the 7th and 8th year for patients with attenuated MPS H.Conclusions:The growth pattern differs between patients with MPS I and H.It reflects the clinical severity of MPS and may assist in the evaluation of clinical efficacy of available therapies.