Objectives. Research in China has shown that women are significantly disadvantaged in cognitive functioning in old age. This article adds to this line of inquiry by examining gender differentials in ...the odds of having cognitive impairment at baseline and during follow-up among the Chinese oldest old, as well as the potential pathways linking gender and the likelihood of having cognitive impairment. Methods. Using two waves (1998 and 2000) of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, the researcher estimated logistic and multinomial regression models of cognitive impairment for a nationwide sample of people aged 80–105 years old (N = 8,291). Results. Among the Chinese oldest old, women were at higher risk than men for having cognitive impairment both at baseline and during 2-year follow-up, controlling for age, activities of daily living disability, and rural residence. Women's disadvantages in socioeconomic status, social network, and participation in leisure activities partially accounted for the gender differentials in cognitive impairment. Discussion. The findings suggest that oldest old Chinese women are a vulnerable group at higher risk for cognitive impairment than oldest old men. Closing gender disparities in formal education will significantly reduce the gender gap in cognitive impairment in old age.
The fetal origins hypothesis posits that adverse prenatal exposures, particularly malnutrition, increase the risk of poor adult health. Studies using famine as a natural experiment to test the fetal ...origins hypothesis present conflicting findings, partly because of data limitations and modeling flaws. Capitalizing on the biomarker data and prefecture-level geographic information from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this study estimates the effects of prenatal exposure to China's 1959–61 famine on later-life risks of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Our analysis addresses the problems of measurement error and intrinsic cohort differences that challenge prior studies. We use provincial and prefecture-level geographic variations in famine severity, a proxy for prenatal malnutrition, for model identification. We construct instrumental variables from geocoded newspaper archive data to adjust for measurement error in famine exposure. We find that estimates of the famine effects are highly sensitive to the choices of health indicators, measures of famine severity, and regression model specifications. Overall, we find little evidence supporting the fetal origins hypothesis. In fact, it appears that prenatal exposure to famine reduces later-life disease risks in certain cases. We interpret this finding as evidence of mortality selection among the famine survivors at work. We conclude that using famine as a natural experiment in itself does not guarantee correct statistical inference about the long-term health impacts of prenatal malnutrition when other analytical challenges remain unresolved.
•We examine the long-term health effects of prenatal famine exposure in China.•Four estimators which vary in their ability to make causal inference are compared.•Estimates of the famine effects are sensitive to measurement and modeling choices.•Overall, there is little evidence supporting the fetal origins hypothesis.
Objective: Studies have reported that rural elders in China have higher levels of depression than their urban peers. We aimed to examine the extent to which four sets of factors (socioeconomic status ...SES, health care access, health status, and social support and participation) account for such rural–urban differences. Method: Cross-sectional data from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were analyzed. A representative sample (N = 5,103) of older Chinese (age 60+) was included. Depressive symptoms were measured by the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10). Multilevel linear regression was conducted. Results: Rural elders had more depressive symptoms than urban elders. When SES at the individual, household, and community level was simultaneously controlled, the rural–urban difference lost its statistical significance. Health status, social support, and social participation accounted for some, whereas health care access explained almost none, of the rural–urban difference. Discussion: Results suggest that SES is the predominant factor accounting for the rural–urban depression gap in China.
Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins are large groups of hydrophilic proteins with major role in drought and other abiotic stresses tolerance in plants. In-depth study and characterization of ...LEA protein families have been carried out in other plants, but not in upland cotton. The main aim of this research work was to characterize the late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) protein families and to carry out gene expression analysis to determine their potential role in drought stress tolerance in upland cotton. Increased cotton production in the face of declining precipitation and availability of fresh water for agriculture use is the focus for breeders, cotton being the backbone of textile industries and a cash crop for many countries globally.
In this work, a total of 242, 136 and 142 LEA genes were identified in G. hirsutum, G. arboreum and G. raimondii respectively. The identified genes were classified into eight groups based on their conserved domain and phylogenetic tree analysis. LEA 2 were the most abundant, this could be attributed to their hydrophobic character. Upland cotton LEA genes have fewer introns and are distributed in all chromosomes. Majority of the duplicated LEA genes were segmental. Syntenic analysis showed that greater percentages of LEA genes are conserved. Segmental gene duplication played a key role in the expansion of LEA genes. Sixty three miRNAs were found to target 89 genes, such as miR164, ghr-miR394 among others. Gene ontology analysis revealed that LEA genes are involved in desiccation and defense responses. Almost all the LEA genes in their promoters contained ABRE, MBS, W-Box and TAC-elements, functionally known to be involved in drought stress and other stress responses. Majority of the LEA genes were involved in secretory pathways. Expression profile analysis indicated that most of the LEA genes were highly expressed in drought tolerant cultivars Gossypium tomentosum as opposed to drought susceptible, G. hirsutum. The tolerant genotypes have a greater ability to modulate genes under drought stress than the more susceptible upland cotton cultivars.
The finding provides comprehensive information on LEA genes in upland cotton, G. hirsutum and possible function in plants under drought stress.
This study examines the relationship between education and mortality, its underlying mechanisms, and its gender and age variations among older adults in China, using data from the 2002 to 2011 waves ...of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. There is an inverse relationship between education and mortality risk. The relationship is explained in full by each of the three mechanisms: other socioeconomic attainments, social relationships and activities, and health status, and partially by physical exercise. In addition, primary education has a stronger effect on mortality for men than for women and the effect of education is stronger for the young old than for the oldest old. These findings underscore the importance of national and subpopulation contexts in understanding the relationship between education and mortality.
•There is an inverse education–mortality relationship among older Chinese adults.•It is explained by other SES attainments, marriage, activities, and health status.•Primary school education has a stronger effect on mortality for men than for women.•The education effect is stronger for the young old than for the oldest old.
Objectives. This article examines the effects of early life socioeconomic conditions on the risk of cognitive impairment among oldest old persons in China. We also examine whether adult socioeconomic ...status mediates the association between early life socioeconomic status and cognitive impairment in old age. Methods. Data derived from two waves (1998–2000) of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. We estimated logistic and multinomial regression models of cognitive impairment for a nationwide sample of people aged 80 to 105 (N = 8,444). Results. Among both men and women, urban residence in early life as well as education was associated with lower odds of cognitive impairment at baseline. We found modest support for a protective effect of advantaged childhood background on the odds of cognitive impairment onset during the 2-year follow-up, especially among women. Discussion. Our findings suggest that socioeconomic environment throughout the life course, early life in particular, can influence the risk of cognitive impairment in old age. Not only can public policy that targets illiteracy, hunger, and poverty improve the lives of tens of thousands of children, but ultimately such investments will pay significant dividends many decades later in enhancing the cognitive well-being of older persons.
Cotton is a pioneer of saline land crop, while salt stress still causes its growth inhibition and fiber production decrease. Phenotype identification showed better salt tolerance of a wild diploid ...cotton species Gossypium klotzschianum. To elucidate the salt-tolerant mechanisms in G. klotzschianum, we firstly detected the changes in hormones, H2O2 and glutathione (GSSH and GSH), then investigated the gene expression pattern of roots and leaves treated with 300 mM NaCl for 0, 3, 12, 48 h, and each time control by RNA-seq on the Illumina-Solexa platform. Physiological determination proved that the significant increase in hormone ABA at 48 h, while that in H2O2 was at 12 h, likewise, the GSH content decrease at 48 h and the GSSH content increase at 48 h, under salt stress. In total, 37,278 unigenes were identified from the transcriptome data, 8,312 and 6,732 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were discovered to be involved in salt stress tolerance in roots and leaves, respectively. Gene function annotation and expression analysis elucidated hormone biosynthesis and signal transduction, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and salt overly sensitive (SOS) signal transduction related genes revealed the important roles of them in signal transmission, oxidation balance and ion homeostasis in response to salinity stress. This is a report which focuses on primary response to highly salty stress (upto 300 mM NaCl) in cotton using a wild diploid Gossypium species, broadening our understanding of the salt tolerance mechanism in cotton and laying a solid foundation of salt resistant for the genetic improvement of upland cotton with the resistance to salt stress.
Abiotic stresses have negative effects on plants growth and development. Plants, being sessile, have developed specific adaptive strategies that allow them to rapidly detect and respond to abiotic ...stress factors. The detoxification efflux carriers (DTX)/multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) transporters are of significance in the translocation of abscisic acid (ABA), a phytohormone with profound role in plants under various abiotic stress conditions. The ABA signaling cascades are the core regulators of abiotic stress responses in plants, triggering major changes in gene expression and adaptive physiological responses. We therefore carried out genome-wide analysis of the
gene family, transformed a
gene in Arabidopsis and carried out functional analysis under drought, salt, and cold stress conditions. We identified 128, 70, and 72
genes in
, and
, respectively. The proteins encoded by the
genes showed varied physiochemical properties but they all were hydrophobic. The
(
) over-expressing Arabidopsis lines were highly tolerant under drought, salt, and cold stress with high production of antioxidant enzymes and significantly reduced levels of oxidants. Lipid peroxidation, as measured by the level of malondialdehyde concentrations was relatively low in transgenic lines compared to wild types, an indication of reduced oxidative stress levels in the transgenic plants. Based on physiological measurements, the transgenic plants exhibited significantly higher relative leaf water content, reduced excised leaf water loss and a significant reduction in ion leakage as a measure of the cell membrane stability compared to the wild types. Abiotic stress responsive genes,
, and
were highly expressed in the transgenic lines compared to the non-transformed wild type plants. The protein encoded by the
(
) gene was predicted to be located within the plasma membrane. Since signals from extracellular stimuli are transmitted through the plasma membrane most of which are conducted by plasma membrane proteins it is possible the
(
) gene product could be important for this process.
An increasing number of older Korean women have played an important role in taking care of their grandchildren to help their adult children. This study investigates the effects of grandparenting on ...older women’ health in South Korea. Using the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (N = 3,092), we estimated ordinal logistic regression models with lagged dependent variable to examine whether and how grandparenting type and transition and grandparenting intensity are associated with older women’s self-rated health. Results show that grandmothers who provide long-term nonresidential grandparenting have better self-rated health than grandmothers who are not engaged in grandparenting. Grandmothers caring for grandchildren in skipped-generation households or multigenerational households do not suffer from a deficit in health. Grandparenting intensity is not associated with grandmothers’ health. Our findings suggest that the implications of grandparenting for older women’s health may differ in different social and cultural contexts.
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