Oil palm has been criticized for being an environmentally unfriendly oil crop. In recent decades, oil palm plantations have extended into conservation landscapes, causing severe environmental damage and harming biodiversity. Nevertheless, oil palm remains a highly productive oil crop from which most of the world's vegetable oil is produced. Therefore, measuring the environmental impact of oil palm plantations and identifying suitable land to support its sustainable development is crucial.

To meet the rising global palm oil demand sustainably, we tracked annual land cover changes in oil palm plantation and mapped areas worldwide suitable for sustainable oil palm cultivation. From 1982 to 2019, 3.6 Mha of forests were converted to oil palm plantations. Despite a recent decline in overall conversion, the shift from forest to oil palm plantations has become increasingly more common over the last decade, rising from 14.1 to 34.5% between 2009 and 2019. During 1982–2019, 2.23 Mha of peatland and 0.1 Mha of protected areas were converted for oil palm plantations. The potential sustainable land amounts to 103.5–317.9 Mha (Asia: 44.6–105.1 Mha, Africa: 34.7–96.4 Mha, and Latin America: 35.2–116.5 Mha). Future oil palm expansion is anticipated to take place in countries like Brazil, Nigeria, Colombia, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ghana, where more sustainable land is available for cultivation. Malaysia, on the other hand, is about to exceed the area of sustainable cultivation, and further expansion is not recommended. These findings can advance our understanding of the environmentally damaging impacts of oil palm and enhance the feasibility of sustainable oil palm development.

How should suitable land be chosen for the establishment of oil palm plantations to support the sustainable development of the oil palm plantation industry?

Residual negative symptoms and cognitive impairment are common for chronic schizophrenia patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia patients with residual negative symptoms.

In this 6-week, randomized, single-blind, controlled study, a total of 100 schizophrenia patients with residual negative symptoms were randomly assigned to the MBI or control group. The 6-week MBI group and the control group with general rehabilitation programs maintained their original antipsychotic treatments. The scores for the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), and the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) were recorded at baseline and week 6 to assess psychotic symptoms, cognitive performance, and emotional state, respectively.

Compared with general rehabilitation programs, MBI alleviated the PANSS-negative subscore, general psychopathology subscore, and PANSS total score in schizophrenia patients with residual negative symptoms (F = 33.77, pBonferroni < 0.001; F = 42.01, pBonferroni < 0.001; F = 52.41, pBonferroni < 0.001, respectively). Furthermore, MBI improved RBANS total score and immediate memory subscore (F = 8.80, pBonferroni = 0.024; F = 11.37, pBonferroni = 0.006), as well as SCL-90 total score in schizophrenia patients with residual negative symptoms (F = 18.39, pBonferroni < 0.001).

Our results demonstrate that MBI helps schizophrenia patients with residual negative symptoms improve clinical symptoms including negative symptom, general psychopathology symptom, and cognitive impairment.

ChiCTR2100043803.

Individual with internet gaming disorder (IGD) often experience a high level of loneliness, and neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that amygdala function is associated with both IGD and loneliness. However, the neurobiological basis underlying these relationships remains unclear.

In the current study, Granger causal analysis was performed to investigate amygdalar subdivision-based resting-state effective connectivity differences between 111 IGD subjects and 120 matched participants with recreational game use (RGUs). We further correlated neuroimaging findings with clinical measures. Mediation analysis was conducted to explore whether amygdalar subdivision-based effective connectivity mediated the relationship between IGD severity and loneliness.

Compared with RGUs, IGD subjects showed inhibitory effective connections from the left pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) to the left laterobasal amygdala (LBA) and from the right medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to the left LBA, as well as an excitatory effective connection from the left middle prefrontal gyrus (MFG) to the right superficial amygdala. Further analyses demonstrated that the left pACC-left LBA effective connection was negatively correlated with both Internet Addiction Test and UCLA Loneliness scores, and it mediated the relationship between the two.

IGD subjects and RGUs showed different connectivity patterns involving amygdalar subdivisions. These findings support a neurobiological mechanism for the relationship between IGD and loneliness, and suggest targets for therapeutic approaches that could be used to treat IGD.

To assess the prevalence and to identify the associated factors of malnutrition among elderly Chinese with physical functional dependency.

Face-to-face interviews using standardised questionnaires were conducted to collect demographic information, health-related issues and psychosocial status. Physical function was measured by the Barthel Index (BI), and nutrition status was assessed by the Mini Nutritional Assessment–Short Form. Multivariate binary logistic regression was used to assess associated factors of malnutrition.

China.

A total of 2323 participants (aged ≥ 60 years) with physical functional dependency in five provinces in China were enrolled using a multistage cluster sampling scheme.

The prevalence of malnutrition was 17·9 % (95 % CI 16·3, 19·4). Multivariable binary logistic regression revealed the independent risk factors of poor nutrition status were being female, older age, lower educational status, poor hearing, poor physical functional status, lack of hobbies, low religious participation, poor social support, lack of social participation and changes in social participation. The study found that the most significant independent risk factor for malnutrition was complete physical functional dependence (OR 4·46, 95 % CI 2·92, 6·82).

The findings of the study confirm that malnutrition and the risk of malnutrition are prevalent in Chinese older adults with physical functional dependency. In addition to demographic and physical health-related factors, psychosocial factors, which are often overlooked, are independently associated with nutrition status in Chinese older adults with physical functional dependency. A holistic approach should be adopted to screen for malnutrition and develop health promotion interventions in this vulnerable population.

Studies of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) suggest an imbalanced relationship between cognitive control and reward processing in people with IGD. However, it remains unclear how these two systems interact with each other, and whether they could serve as neurobiological markers for IGD.

Fifty IGD subjects and matched individuals with recreational game use (RGU) were selected and compared when they were performing a cue-craving task. Regions of interests [anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), lentiform nucleus] were selected based on the comparison between brain responses to gaming-related cues and neutral cues. Directional connectivities among these brain regions were determined using Bayesian estimation. We additionally examined the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in a separate analysis based on data implicating the PCC in craving in addiction.

During fixed-connectivity analyses, IGD subjects showed blunted ACC-to-lentiform and lentiform-to-ACC connectivity relative to RGU subjects, especially in the left hemisphere. When facing gaming cues, IGD subjects trended toward lower left-hemispheric modulatory effects in ACC-to-lentiform connectivity than RGU subjects. Self-reported cue-related craving prior to scanning correlated inversely with left-hemispheric modulatory effects in ACC-to-lentiform connectivity.

The results suggesting that prefrontal-to-lentiform connectivity is impaired in IGD provides a possible neurobiological mechanism for difficulties in controlling gaming-cue-elicited cravings. Reduced connectivity ACC-lentiform connectivity may be a useful neurobiological marker for IGD.

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is becoming a matter of concern around the world. However, the neural mechanism underlying IGD remains unclear. The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences between the neuronal network of IGD participants and that of recreational Internet game users (RGU).

Imaging and behavioral data were collected from 18 IGD participants and 20 RGU under a probability discounting task. The independent component analysis (ICA) and graph theoretical analysis (GTA) were used to analyze the data.

Behavioral results showed the IGD participants, compared to RGU, prefer risky options to the fixed ones and spent less time in making risky decisions. In imaging results, the ICA analysis revealed that the IGD participants showed stronger functional connectivity (FC) in reward circuits and executive control network, as well as lower FC in anterior salience network (ASN) than RGU; for the GTA results, the IGD participants showed impaired FC in reward circuits and ASN when compared with RGU.

These results suggest that IGD participants were more sensitive to rewards, and they were more impulsive in decision-making as they could not control their impulsivity effectively. This might explain why IGD participants cannot stop their gaming behaviors even when facing severe negative consequences.

The present study aimed to explore the associations between food away-from-home (FAFH) consumption and body weight outcomes among Chinese adults.

FAFH was defined as food prepared at restaurants and the percentage of energy from FAFH was calculated. Measured BMI and waist circumference (WC) were used as body weight outcomes. Quantile regression models for BMI and WC were performed separately by gender.

Information on demographic, socio-economic, diet and health parameters at individual, household and community levels was collected in twelve provinces of China.

A cross-sectional sample of 7738 non-pregnant individuals aged 18–60 years from the China Health and Nutrition Survey 2011 was analysed.

For males, quantile regression models showed that percentage of energy from FAFH was associated with an increase in BMI of 0·01, 0·01, 0·01, 0·02, 0·02 and 0·03 kg/m2 at the 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 95th quantile, and an increase in WC of 0·04, 0·06, 0·06, 0·04, 0·06, 0·05 and 0·07 cm at the 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 95th quantile. For females, percentage of energy from FAFH was associated with 0·01, 0·01, 0·01 and 0·02 kg/m2 increase in BMI at the 10th, 25th, 90th and 95th quantile, and with 0·05, 0·04, 0·03 and 0·03 cm increase in WC at the 5th, 10th, 25th and 75th quantile.

Our findings suggest that FAFH consumption is relatively more important for BMI and WC among males rather than females in China. Public health initiatives are needed to encourage Chinese adults to make healthy food choices when eating out.