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PCSMEI is of great value to stroke patients. This paper forms the basis for more widespread implementation of PCSMEI.

Abstract. Although many studies have been conducted on the interspecific competition between new arrivals and native plants, few of them have demonstrated how these processes interact with non-resource factors to determine vegetation pattern. This study investigated how salt stress mediates competition between native Phragmites australis and invasive Spartina alterniflora and thus changes plant communities in Dongtan, a Chinese coast salt marsh. The experiments revealed that the growth and reproduction of the native species declined with increasing salinity but that the invasive species performed well in the salinity range of 0-20%, illustrating why the invader could proliferate in the high salinity mudflats in Dongtan. Moreover, the native had a high growth rate and therefore exhibited a competitive dominance over the invader at low salinity of ca. 7%. Thus, the invader could not displace the native, and the native communities were stable in the low salinity zones. In contrast, the growth rate of the invader became higher when salinity increased; correspondingly, it gained the competitive dominance at high salinity of ca. 11%. As a result, the invader colonising the native communities in high salinity zones performed better and could displace the natives over time. Consequently, after invasive S. alterniflora colonisation, the vegetation pattern of Dongtan marsh gradually changed from ''mudflat-sedge-P. australis'' to ''mudflat-S. alterniflora'' and ''mudflat-S. alterniflora and natives'' along the elevation gradients. The findings of the case study demonstrated that if a new arrival has a wide tolerance range to major non-resource stress in an ecosystem, it can not only displace natives by interspecific competition in high stress zones but can also spread into the zones without natives; on the other hand, natives with a narrow ecological amplitude in relation to the non-resource stress can only persist in low stress zones. Therefore, the distribution area of new arrivals increases as the distribution area of natives decreases. Because some non-resource stresses have substantial positive effects on native community invasibility, the practices that change the level of non-resource stress and create favorable conditions for invasive species should be stopped.

The ability to use in situ soil moisture for large-scale soil moisture monitoring, model and satellite validation, and climate investigations is contingent on properly standardizing soil moisture observations. Percentiles are a useful method for homogenizing in situ soil moisture. However, very few stations have been continuously monitoring in situ soil moisture for 20 years or more. Therefore, one challenge in evaluating soil moisture is determining whether the period of record is sufficient to produce a stable distribution from which to generate percentiles. In this study daily in situ soil moisture observations, measured at three separate depths in the soil column at 15 stations in the United States and Canada, are used to determine the record length that is necessary to generate a stable soil moisture distribution. The Anderson–Darling test is implemented, both with and without a Bonferroni adjustment, to quantify the necessary record length. The authors evaluate how the necessary record length varies by location, measurement depth, and month. They find that between 3 and 15 years of data are required to produce stable distributions, with the majority of stations requiring only 3–6 years of data. Not surprisingly, more years of data are required to obtain stable estimates of the 5th and 95th percentiles than of the first, second, and third quartiles of the soil moisture distribution. Overall these results suggest that 6 years of continuous, daily in situ soil moisture data will be sufficient in most conditions to create stable and robust percentiles.

Childhood health in China was poor in the 1950s and 1960s because of limited nutrition. In the last three decades, China has distinguished itself through its tremendous economic growth and improvements in health and nutrition. However, prior to such growth, access to good nutrition was more variable, with potentially important implications, not only for childhood health, but also for adult health, because of its long-term effects lasting into adulthood. To shed light on these issues, this study examined the long-run association between childhood health and adult health outcomes among a middle-aged Chinese population and addresses the endogeneity of childhood health. A nationwide database from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) was employed. Three adult health outcomes variables were used: self-reported health status, cognition, and physical function. The local variation in grain production in the subjects’ fetal period and the first 24 months following birth was employed as an instrument for childhood health in order to correct for its endogeneity. Childhood health recalled by the respondents was positively and significantly associated with their adult health outcomes in terms of self-reported health status, cognition, and physical function in single-equation estimates that did not correct for the endogeneity of childhood health. A good childhood health status increased the probabilities of good adult health, good adult cognitive function, and good adult physical function by 16% (95% CI: 13–18%), 13% (95% CI: 10–15%), and 14% (95% CI: 12–17%), respectively. After correcting for endogeneity, the estimated effects of good childhood health were consistent but stronger. We also studied the male and female populations separately, finding that the positive effects of childhood health on adult health were larger for males. In China, childhood health significantly affects adult health. This suggests that early interventions to promote childhood health will have long-term benefits in China and that health-care policies should consider their long-term impacts over the life cycle in addition to their effects on specific age groups.