Jiawen Xie

Dietary fibers/probiotics may relieve constipation via optimizing gut microbiome, yet with limited trial-based evidences. We aimed to evaluate the effects of formulas with dietary fibers or probiotics on functional constipation symptoms, and to identify modulations of gut microbiota of relevance. We conducted a 4-week double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled trial in 250 adults with functional constipation. Intervention: A: polydextrose; B: psyllium husk; C: wheat bran + psyllium husk; D: Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis HN019 + Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus HN001; Placebo: maltodextrin. Oligosaccharides were also included in group A to D. 16S rRNA sequencing was used to assess the gut microbiota at weeks 0, 2, and 4. A total of 242 participants completed the study. No time-by-group effect was observed for bowel movement frequency (BMF), Bristol stool scale score (BSS), and degree of defecation straining (DDS), while BSS showed mean increases of 0.95–1.05 in group A to D (all P < 0.05), but not significantly changed in placebo (P = 0.170), and 4-week change of BSS showed similarly superior effects of the interventions as compared placebo. Group D showed a marginal reduction in plasma 5-hydroxytryptamine. Group A resulted in a higher Bifidobacterium abundance than placebo at week 2 and 4. Fourteen genera showed intervention-specific increasing or decreasing trends continuously, among which Anaerostipes showed increasing trends in groups B and C, associated with BMF increase. Random forest models identified specific baseline microbial genera panels predicting intervention responders. In conclusion, we found that the dietary fibers or probiotics may relieve hard stool, with intervention-specific changes in gut microbiota relevant to constipation relief. Baseline gut microbiota may predispose the intervention responsiveness. ClincialTrials.gov number, NCT04667884.

Municipal wastewater treatment plays an indispensable role in enhancing water quality by eliminating contaminants. While the process is vital, its environmental footprint, especially in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, remains underexplored. Here we offer a comprehensive assessment of GHG emissions from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) across China. Our analyses reveal an estimated 1.54 (0.92–2.65) × 104 Gg release of GHGs (CO2-eq) in 2020, with a dominant contribution from N2O emissions and electricity consumption. We can foresee a 60–65 % reduction potential in GHG emissions with promising advancements in wastewater treatment, such as cutting-edge biological techniques, intelligent wastewater strategies, and a shift towards renewable energy sources.

Shang X, Fisher KR, Xie J. Discrimination against children with disability in China Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 298–308 © 2009 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Families' experiences in connection with having a child with disability have been little researched in China. This study applies a child‐based human rights framework to analyse families' experiences of children's disability rights and their experience of discrimination. It applies the framework to families in a disadvantaged, rural case‐study community in China. It finds that children and their families experience significant discrimination in the four child disability domains of rights to care and protection, economic security, developmental support and social participation. The impact is both direct in terms of poor support for the children and their families, and indirect in terms of cumulative pressure on the family, which accentuated the poor social development of the child. The research contributes to understanding child disability rights in China and social policy responses, and raises questions for further research.

The increasing importance of innovation-driven development requires empowering enterprises as the main drivers of innovation in emerging energy technologies. The existing literature primarily emphasizes government support for renewable innovation, with limited research on external collaborations. This paper searches and collects announcements of listed renewable energy companies regarding strategic alliances during 2009–2021 to explore whether renewable energy alliances promote innovation and their mechanism to motivate innovation efforts, using the Two-way Fixed Effects Model . The main results suggest that renewable energy alliances increase innovation output significantly. The mechanism analysis reveals that establishing renewable energy alliances indirectly enhances innovation output via transaction cost savings and alleviates financing constraints. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that factors such as firm ownership, size, knowledge absorption capacity, green investor concerns, and enterprise life cycle significantly impact the innovation incentives from renewable energy alliances. This paper enriches the research on the drivers of renewable energy innovation and provides policy insights for encouraging autonomous innovation in renewable energy enterprises.