The University of Winnipeg

FRAX®, which is used to assess fracture probability, considers body mass index (BMI) but BMI may not reflect individual variation in body composition and distribution. We examined the effect of BMI‐discordant abdominal thickness on FRAX‐derived fracture probability for major osteoporotic fracture (MOF) and hip fracture. We studied 73,105 individuals, mean age 64.2 years. During mean 8.7 years, 7048 (9.6%) individuals sustained incident MOF, including 2155 (3.0%) hip fractures. We defined abdominal thickness index (ATI) as the difference between abdominal thickness measured by DXA and thickness predicted by BMI using sex‐stratified regression. ATI was categorized from lower (< −2 cm, −2 to −1 cm) to higher (1 to 2 cm, > +2 cm) with referent around zero (−1 to +1 cm). Adjusted for FRAX probability, increasing ATI was associated with incident MOF and hip fracture (p < 0.001). For the highest ATI category, MOF risk was increased (HR 1.23, 95% CI 1.12–1.35) independent of FRAX probability. Similar findings were noted for hip fracture probability (HR 1.28, 95% CI 1.09–1.51). There was significant age‐interaction with much larger effects prior to age 65 years (HR 1.44, 95% CI 1.23–1.69 for MOF; 2.29, 95% CI 1.65–3.18 for hip fracture). In contrast, for the subset of individuals with diabetes there was also increased risk for those in the lowest ATI category (HR 1.73, 95% CI 1.12–2.65 for MOF, 2.81, 95% CI 1.59–4.97 for hip fracture). Calibration plots across ATI categories demonstrated deviation from the line of identity in women (calibration slope 2.26 for MOF, 2.83 for hip fracture). An effect of ATI was not seen in men, but this was inconclusive as the sex‐interaction terms did not show significant effect modification. In conclusion, these data support the need to investigate increased abdominal thickness beyond that predicted by BMI and sex as a FRAX‐independent risk factor for fracture. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

The loss of multiyear sea ice (MYI) in the Arctic Ocean is a significant change that affects all facets of the Arctic environment. Using a lagrangian ice age product we examine MYI loss and quantify the annual MYI area budget from 1980‐2021 as the balance of export, melt and replenishment. Overall, MYI area declined at 72,500 km ² /yr, however a majority of the loss occurred during two stepwise reductions that interrupt an otherwise balanced budget and resulted in the northward contraction of the MYI pack. First, in 1989, a change in atmospheric forcing led to a +56% anomaly in MYI export through Fram Strait. The second occurred from 2006‐2008 with anomalously high melt (+25%) and export (+23%) coupled with low replenishment (‐8%). In terms of trends, melt has increased since 1989, particularly in the Beaufort Sea, export has decreased since 2008 due to reduced MYI coverage north of Fram Strait, and replenishment has increased over the full time series due to a negative feedback that promotes seasonal ice survival at higher latitudes exposed by MYI loss. However, retention to older MYI has significantly declined, transitioning the MYI pack towards younger MYI that is less resilient than previously anticipated and could soon elicit another stepwise reduction. We speculate that future MYI loss will be driven by increased melt and reduced replenishment, both of which are enhanced with continued warming and will one day render the Arctic Ocean free of MYI, a change that will coincide with a seasonally ice‐free Arctic Ocean.

The 2017 Chinese Time Use Survey has obtained detailed data on the time allocation of Chinese residents. Based on these data, the first section of this chapter presents a basic overview of the time use of Chinese residents in 2017, comparing the time use of different genders, urban and rural areas, ages, and education levels.

The revolution of information technology has dramatically changed the way of production and living. Especially since the last decade, the popularity of cell phones has made the Internet accessible to everyone. Cell phones are also becoming increasingly functional, encompassing all aspects of calling, chatting, searching, reading, video, music, payment, and medical care, as people move from real daily life to an online life centered on digital information technology.

Education directly affects people's income and welfare, and equity in education is an important part of achieving social justice. Education is a long-term process of accumulating human capital for each person in the early and middle stages of the life cycle. The education level at each stage is a prerequisite for entering the next stage of education. The existence of externalities also makes the benefits generated by the investment in education at each stage incremental in nature. The difference in educational investments directly leads to inequity at the start of education, which also causes the continuous expansion of the human capital gap in subsequent stages and eventually leads to social inequality. Hence, it is especially important to study the impact of the difference in starting point on education inequity.

As an early investment in human capital, childcare, which includes the care of children's lives, recreation, and education, is critical to promoting children's health, cognitive and non-cognitive development, and thus largely determines the future income and well-being of children. The family production model ultimately combines investment in material and time to maximize family utility. Time investment in childcare impacts early human capital development and is a critical channel leading to the intergenerational transmission of education. Parents’ time investment in childcare is positively correlated with parents’ education and income levels, and the average participation length of childcare is significantly higher for highly educated and high-income parents than for low-educated and low-income parents, a phenomenon referred to in the literature as the educational gradient and income gradient of childcare time.

As China gradually enters an aging society, how to make all older people well-raised, well-taken-care-of, well-entertained, and well-secured is drawing more and more attention from society and policymakers.

“The children are desperately studying when they should be playing; the young people are desperately playing games when they should be studying.” On June 21st, 2018, Minister of Education Chen Baosheng said at the National Conference on Undergraduate Education in the New Era that the phenomenon of “hard-working high schools and happy universities” in Chinese education should be reversed, and that “the burden should be effectively reduced for primary and middle school students and reasonably increased for college students”, so as to enhance the raise challenges of college students. Compared with the busy high school life, after entering university, the time and form of classes have been greatly adjusted, and students have the right to choose between study and leisure to a large extent, so they have significantly more time at their disposal. College students are mainly self-management; how to make good use of study time efficiently and how to make good use of after-school time are important questions that contemporary college students need to think deeply about.

The traditional gender division of labor within the family determines the status of couples in the family and society. In most countries around the world, the traditional gender division of labor is that “men’s work centers around outside, while women’s work centers around home”, i.e., men are mainly responsible for paid market labor, while women are mainly responsible for unpaid labor such as housework and care-giving.

In China, the relationship between a husband and a wife (marriage) is one of the “Five Rites” of Confucianism.

“Unpaid labor refers to service activities performed by individuals at home or in the community to satisfy final consumption without direct monetary return, mainly including housework, care for the elderly, children and the sick, and voluntary activities”. As a productive input to human resources, unpaid labor is not only essential to improving the health and well-being of the population, but also determines the quality and quantity of a country's present and future labor supply, thereby influencing the speed and sustainability of economic growth. Thus, unpaid labor is by nature as important to national welfare as market-based economic activities. Neglecting unpaid labor leads to insufficient investment in household consumption and care for children and the elderly, which affects people's living standards and health welfare, and is thus detrimental to social and economic development.

Employment is the main way for most people in modern society to obtain income and social recognition.

Sufficient sleep positively impacts the healthy development of children and adolescents physically and mentally.

This chapter introduces the respondents, interview methods, survey contents, and sample distribution of the 2017 Chinese Time Use Survey (CTUS) based on a review of the history and the current status of the Global Time Use Survey (GTUS).

Leisure and social activities refer to the activities people engage in their free time after completing paid labor, unpaid labor, studying and training, and self-care, which includes sports and fitness, reading, hobbies, watching TV, resting, socializing, etc.

Using a unique administrative panel data from Denmark, this article documents the dynamic evolution of households' financial wealth, the equity market participation rate (extensive margin), and the conditional risky asset share of financial wealth (intensive margin) over a 7‐year period around a house purchase. We find that households' equity market participation rate falls during the year of house purchase. Conditional on participation, the risky asset share of financial wealth follows a V‐shape around the house purchase. It decreases and reaches the lowest point 1 year before a house purchase, but jumps up immediately after. This finding suggests that of the three channels identified in the literature that are related to the risky asset demand after a house purchase, the debt retirement channel and the diversification effect dominate the liquidity concern.

A collection of isolates of the fungi Leptosphaeria maculans and L . biglobosa , which cause blackleg disease on Brassica napus (canola/oilseed rape) and other Brassicaceae species, was assembled to represent the global diversity of these pathogens and a resource for international research. The collection consists of 226 isolates (205 L . maculans and 21 L . biglobosa ) from 11 countries. The genomes of all 205 L . maculans isolates were sequenced, and the distribution and identity of avirulence gene alleles were determined based on genotypic information and phenotypic reactions on B . napus lines that hosted specific resistance genes. Whilst the frequencies of some avirulence alleles were consistent across each of the regions, others differed dramatically, potentially reflecting the canola/oilseed rape cultivars grown in those countries. Analyses of the single‐nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) diversity within these L . maculans isolates revealed geographical separation of the populations. This "open access" resource provides a standardized set of isolates that can be used to define the basis for how these fungal pathogens cause disease, and as a tool for discovery of new resistance traits in Brassica species.

Opportunities exist to reduce nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from nitrogen (N) fertilizers using enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EFF) and managing application timing. This study examined i) application timing (fall/spring) and ii) fertilizer N source on N2O emissions, yield and N uptake of Canadian hard red spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Southern Manitoba. Fertilizer N sources included granular urea and four EEF products: i) polymer‐coated urea (environmentally smart nitrogen (ESN)); ii) urea plus nitrification inhibitor (eNtrench); iii) urea plus urease inhibitor (Limus); iv) urea plus nitrification and urease inhibitor (SuperU). Nitrification‐inhibited products most consistently reduced N2O emissions while maintaining productivity. Compared to urea alone, urea+eNtrench was most effective in reducing cumulative N2O emissions by 47 to 64% at four of six site‐years. SuperU reduced N2O emissions by 37 to 57% at three of six site‐years. ESN and urea+Limus did not affect emissions in most years. Wheat yield, protein, and N uptake were unaffected by N source in five of six site‐years. Compared to spring, fall application gave greater N2O emissions by 33 to 67% at three of six site‐years due to spring‐thaw emissions. Fall was inferior to spring application in wetter site years, with lower yield, protein, and N uptake. Overall, nitrification‐inhibited products – either alone or with a urease inhibitor – are a promising tool to reduce N2O emissions while maintaining wheat productivity in Manitoba. However, given that there were few consistent increases in yield or protein, the additional cost of the inhibitors will be a barrier to adoption. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Sperm competition is a crucial aspect of male reproductive success in many species, including Drosophila melanogaster, and seminal fluid proteins (Sfps) can influence sperm competitiveness. However, the combined effect of environmental and genotypic variation on sperm competition gene expression remains poorly understood. Here, we used Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) inbred lines and manipulated developmental population density (i.e. larval density) to test the effects of genotype, environment and genotype-by-environment interactions (GEI) on the expression of the known sperm competition genes Sex Peptide, Acp36DE and CG9997. High larval density resulted in reduced adult body size, but expression of sperm competition genes remained unaffected. Furthermore, we found no significant GEI but genotypic effects in the expression of SP and Acp36DE. Our results also revealed GEI for relative competitive paternity success (second male paternity; P2), with genes’ expression positively correlated with P2. Given the effect of genotype on the expression of genes, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and identified polymorphisms in putative cis-regulatory elements as predominant factors regulating the expression of SP and Acp36DE. The association of genotypic variation with sperm competition outcomes, and the resilience of sperm competition genes’ expression against environmental challenges, demonstrates the importance of genome variation background in reproductive fitness.