Working time variation and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in China.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a significant shift in labor market dynamics, leading to a notable increase in labor market flexibilization. One prominent aspect of this transformation is the growing variation in working time patterns. The irregular and unpredictable nature of working time may contribute to increased stress levels, difficulty in establishing routines, and challenges in maintaining work-life boundaries. Drawing on China General Social survey 2021, this study aims to examine (1) the relationship between working time variation and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in China; (2) whether the relationship can be mediated by work-family conflict; (3) to what extent the relationship varies across occupations. We find that working time variation is associated with significantly worse mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in China, and around half of the negative effect can be mediated by increased work-family conflict. Moreover, the negative association is more pronounced among non-professional occupations than professional occupations. Overall, these findings shed light on the detrimental impact of working time variation on mental health and its potential mechanism, highlighting how novel work paradigm may interact with existing labor market inequalities to shape workers' mental health.

Temporal and spatial evolution of the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) in the Loess Plateau under climate change from 2001 to 2050.

Loess Plateau has great uncertainty on drought occurrence due to climate change. This paper analyzes the evolution of precipitation, potential evapotranspiration and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) based on the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) data and regional downscaling model (RegCM4.0). Results indicate that, under RCP2.6 Scenario, the precipitation will increase significantly (5% confidence level) at the rate of 16.40mm/10a. However, the potential evapotranspiration is showing non-significant decreasing trend at the rate of 2.16mm/10a. Moreover, the SPEI will decrease in the south and northernmost area and increase in the central northern area of Loess Plateau. Under RCP8.5 Scenario, the precipitation will increase significantly (5% confidence level) at the rate of 19.12mm/10a. The potential evapotranspiration will non-significantly decrease at the rate of 2.16mm/10a and the SPEI is showing increasing trend almost in the whole Loess Plateau. Generally, Loess Plateau is becoming wetter in the central part under RCP2.6 Scenario and the wet area will be enlarged to almost the whole plateau under RCP8.5 Scenario. Based on the results, the water resources will increase under global warming, which may alleviate the water scarcity issue in the Loess Plateau.

Actual ET modelling based on the Budyko framework and the sustainability of vegetation water use in the loess plateau.

Jointly influenced by the natural factors and the artificial protection measures, the ecological environment of Loess Plateau has been significantly improved in recent years, but which has already brought about some water-related problems. To maintain the balance between precipitation and water consumption is an important foundation for sustainable development of the ecology remediation. This study used Budyko Framework to simulate the actual water consumption of 161 sub-basins from 1990 to 2014. Based on the simulation results, the research also analyzed the evolution characteristics of water balance in Loess Plateau from 1990 to 2014. Results show that, with the increase of vegetation coverage, the regional precipitation and actual evapotranspiration were both showing a significant increasing trend, and the increasing rate of precipitation was 1.91mm/a on average, which was greater than the increasing rate of actual evapotranspiration of 1.34mm/a. To further demonstrate the water balance regime in Loess Plateau, the evapotranspiration coefficient (ECC) was used to quantitatively indicate the ratio of the vegetation water consumption and the total precipitation. The average values of ECC were 0.868, 0.863, 0.851 and 0.837 respectively in four sub-periods of 1990-1999, 2000-2004, 2005-2009 and 2010-2014. The above analyses indicate that with the vegetation recovery and ecological restoration, the percentage of evapotranspiration in the total precipitation is keeping decreasing and in turn the percentage of water yield in the total precipitation is keeping increasing. Consequently, it seems more sustainable for vegetation water use in most areas of Loess Plateau currently.