Cross-sectional Perspective Research Articles

Investigating the Impact of Tea Consumption on Cognitive Function and Exploring Tea-Genetic Interactions in Older Adults Aged 65-105 Years: Findings from the 2002-2018 CLHLS Data.

As the global population ages, cognitive impairment (CI) becomes more prevalent. Tea has been one of the most popular drinks in the world. Several studies have demonstrated that tea consumption has an impact on cognitive function. This study aims to examine the association between tea consumption and cognitive function and explore the potential effect of genetics on the relationship between tea consumption and CI risk in older adults. This is a prospective longitudinal study using data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). Six waves of data from CLHLS containing 76,270 subjects were analyzed. Generalized estimation equations (GEE) with a logit link function were adopted to estimate the effect of tea consumption on CI risk from a cross-sectional and longitudinal perspective. A population-based cohort of adults aged 65-105 years. The frequency and type of tea consumption were obtained by questionnaires. CI was measured based on MMSE. Polygenic risk was measured using the polygenic score approach described by the International Schizophrenia. The results showed that drinking green tea had a better protective effect on cognitive function than other types of tea, the incidence of CI gradually decreased with the increase of tea consumption frequency, and men were more likely to benefit from tea consumption. Additionally, we also found a significant interaction between tea consumption and genetic risk, measured by polygenic risk score (PRS). Based on current research evidence, tea consumption, may be a simple and important measure for CI prevention.

Cortical structure reorganization and correlation with attention deficit in subcortical stroke: An underlying pattern analysis

BackgroundSubcortical stroke may significantly alter the cerebral cortical structure and affect attention function, but the details of this process remain unclear. The study aimed to investigate the neural substrates underlying attention impairment in patients with subcortical stroke. Materials and MethodsIn this prospective observational study, two distinct datasets were acquired to identify imaging biomarkers underlying attention deficit. The first dataset consisted of 86 patients with subcortical stroke, providing a cross-sectional perspective, whereas the second comprised 108 patients with stroke, offering longitudinal insights. All statistical analyses were subjected to false discovery rate correction upon P < 0.05. ResultsIn the chronic-stage data, the stroke group exhibited significantly poorer attention function compared with that of the control group. The cortical structure analysis showed that patients with stroke exhibited decreased cortical thickness of the precentral gyrus and surface area of the cuneus, along with an increase in various frontal, occipital, and parietal cortices regions. The declined attention function positively correlated with the superior frontal gyrus cortical thickness and supramarginal gyrus surface area. In the longitudinal dataset, patients with stroke showed gradually increasing cortical thickness and surface area within regions of obvious structural reorganization. Furthermore, deficient attention positively correlated with supramarginal gyrus surface area both at the subacute and chronic stages post-stroke. ConclusionsSubcortical stroke can elicit dynamic reorganization of cortical areas associated with attention impairment. Moreover, the altered surface area of the supramarginal gyrus is a potential neuroimaging biomarker for attention deficits.

THE EFFECTS OF INTELLECTUAL AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF MEDICAL STUDENTS

Background:The selection of new students is crucial in the medical faculty. The selection may predict students' academic achievement during their learning journey. Different selection tools are commonly utilized, yet further investigation is required to ascertain the most effective instrument. While intellectual intelligence is frequently measured, emotional intelligence is scarcely employed in evaluating college applicants. This study seeks to examine how both intellectual and emotional intelligence levels influence a student's academic performance.Methods: This study employs a descriptive-analytical observational design with a cross-sectional perspective. Intellectual and emotional intelligence were assessed through an adapted questionnaire, The Stenberg Triarchic Abilities Test and the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. The questionnaire outcomes were validated against secondary data from student admissions, deploying the Intelligenz Structure Test and Edward Personality Preference Schedule for cross-validation. Furthermore, the Structural Equation Model - Partial Least Squares approach was utilized to analyze the questionnaire data.Results: The T-statistic value for intellectual intelligence is 3.134, with a path coefficient of 0.137. Meanwhile, the T-statistic value for emotional intelligence is 28.152, with a path coefficient of 0.83. Both intellectual and emotional intelligence influence students' academic achievement, with an R-Square value of 0.815, indicating that the exogenous variables (i.e., intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence) can explain the endogenous variable of academic achievement up to 81.5%.Conclusion: Greater intellectual and emotional intelligence levels lead students to increase academic accomplishments.

Narrative literature review on the complexity of the internal anatomy of root canals

The intricate and highly variable nature of the internal anatomy of root canals poses significant challenges for effective endodontic treatments. The aim of the study was to interpret the complexity of the internal anatomy of root canals through a narrative literature review. This study adopted an exploratory methodology and was characterized by its observational and descriptive nature, analyzing information from a cross-sectional and retrospective perspective. An exhaustive evaluation of 25 articles was conducted on PubMed, Google Scholar, and Elsevier through ScienceDirect, from 2016 to 2023. This study revealed that a deep understanding of the internal root anatomy and its variations is essential for the success of endodontic treatments, highlighting the importance of advanced diagnostic techniques, such as Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT), for identifying anomalies. It was found that anatomical variations, including C-shaped canals, lateral canals, and apical deltas, are more prevalent in posterior teeth. Moreover, anterior lower teeth rarely exhibit more than one root, with Vertucci type I classification predominating in their internal anatomy, which implies less complexity compared to posterior teeth. It concludes that success in endodontics critically depends on detailed knowledge of the internal root anatomy. The findings emphasize the need to apply precise diagnostic techniques and adapt treatment strategies to the specific anatomical complexity of each tooth, especially in those with more complex root configurations

Returning Secondary Genomic Findings to a Sickle Cell Disease Cohort

Introduction: As gene therapy for sickle cell disease (SCD) continues to advance, there is growing potential for genomic screening to be utilized in determining eligibility for this therapy. With this comes the ethical obligation to look for secondary findings (SF) in clinical exome and whole genome sequencing. The American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) has issued recommendations for returning SF in clinical care and annually updates a list of pathogenic variants. This abstract reports on our experience with returning SF to a SCD study population in research. Methods: The INSIGHTS Study (NCT02156102) is a cross-sectional perspective research study examining phenotypic variation in adults living with SCD. All study participants consented to whole genome sequencing (WGS) and agreed to have secondary genomic findings returned. Participants completed the study between 2014-2020. To date, 264 samples have undergone WGS, performed at the National Institutes of Health Intramural Sequencing Center. Results: In accordance with the guidelines issued by ACMG, 12 participants (4.5%) were found to have genetic variants on the current list (ACMG SF v3.2) that were eligible for return (Table 1). Additionally, one participant was found to have a sex chromosome aneuploidy, and after a full ethics board review, it was determined this result should also be returned based on its clinical actionability and the risk/benefit analysis. Of these 12 participants, three were deceased. One participant was already aware of the secondary finding. We contacted the remaining eight participants and as of July 2023 five participants provided a new sample for CLIA confirmation. Results were returned in consultation with the Secondary Findings Consult Service at the National Human Genome Research Institute, which provided a genetic counselor. Participants met with a clinical member of the study team and the genetic counselor either by telephone or in person. The consultation consisted of sharing the result and associated risk of disease, obtaining pertinent medical history and detailed family history, and providing recommendations and referrals. Discussion: With the expansion of genomics into hematological and sickle cell disease research, it is paramount that the implications of its integration continue to be examined. The responsibility of the research team to facilitate and/or provide ancillary care to their study participants to best support them in receiving SF results should be clearly defined. In addition, each patient will have unique needs that should be considered and may require specialized assistance. Questions on how the SF affects the patient's primary diagnosis will need to be addressed, which will require a multidisciplinary approach to care. These consultations will require a high level of patient coordination and clinical support. It is important that these patient encounters 1) involve a known and trusted medical professional; 2) provide accurate and understandable information on the genomic finding, usually by a genetic counselor; and 3) refer the patient to an appropriate clinical provider who is an expert in that disease.

Exploring Cross-Section Risk Governance Mechanisms for Transportation and Energy Infrastructures in China

This study aims to examine the national risk governance mechanism of critical infrastructure in China from a cross-section perspective. The first research objective is to identify whether horizontal collaboration exists in the risk governance of critical infrastructure. Building on this, the second research objective is to investigate the extent of cross-section collaboration in the transportation and energy domains. The third research objective is to identify the pathways of horizontal collaboration at various levels. The data for this research consists of policy documents retrieved from the official websites of the Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China, the National Energy Administration, and the Peking University Legal Information Website. A total of 127 documents were collected using specific search keywords. To analyze data, content analysis is adopted to generate a co-word matrix so that semantic network centrality can be explored. The result indicates that in the transportation domain “engineering” and “road” feature in the top 10 for both standardized degree and degree proportion, while “administration” ranks third highest in share proportion. In the energy infrastructure risk governance keyword network, the fourth highest closeness centrality value is 54.762, associated with keywords such as “administration” and “engineering”. These findings suggest that horizontal collaboration is evident at both institutional and personal levels. Moreover, the results imply that the inner collaboration within national risk governance is intricate and interdependent. The study reveals interconnections between different industries and administration levels, contributing a fresh perspective to urban risk governance theory exploration.

Social Protection Supports and Management of Non-Communicable Diseases in Ghana: A Qualitative Cross-Sectional Perspective of Health Stakeholders

Introduction: Africa faces a double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Already, health systems in Africa are overwhelmed with a high burden of communicable diseases with perennial outbreaks of highly infectious diseases. The rise in NCDs comprises an already fragile health system challenging its ability to provide comprehensive care to people living with these diseases. Without responsive social support systems, NCDs will draw more people into catastrophic health financing, worsening health outcomes, and poverty. This study explores how vulnerable people negotiate major disease burdens with the social protection supports available in Ghana. Methods: The study applied a cross-sectional design with a qualitative approach involving healthcare professionals and non-healthcare professionals in 4 regions in Ghana with a total of 32 qualitative interviews analyzed thematically. Results: The main social protection support for the health sector in Ghana is the National Health Insurance Scheme. Other social protection supports such as free maternal healthcare, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, and conventional informal social protection mechanisms do not directly target people afflicted with NCDs. Even though national health insurance covers about 90% of diseases, the quality of care is questionable. Again, the exclusion of diagnostic investigations makes national health insurance a setback to NCD disease management. Also, NCD patients still do out-of-pocket expenses though they have valid national health insurance. Informal social protection supports which used to be effective sometime back are dwindling due to the rising cost of living, gradual breakdown of the African system of reciprocity, and infiltration of Western lifestyles. Conclusion: NCD patients have very limited social protection for the management of their condition. Health insurance which is the only option for many has limited applications. A multidisciplinary body is established by the government to outline more effective ways of offering social protection support for health services, especially chronic conditions such as NCDs which affect a greater proportion of the population.

Race, Poverty, and Foster Care Placement in the United States: Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Perspectives.

Although the connections between race, poverty, and foster care placement seem obvious, the link has not in fact been studied extensively. To address this gap, we view poverty and placement through longitudinal and cross-sectional lenses to more accurately capture how changes in poverty rates relate to changes in placement frequency. The longitudinal study examines the relationship between poverty rate changes and changes in the placement of Black and White children between 2000 and 2015. The cross-sectional study extends the longitudinal analysis by using a richer measure of socio-ecological diversity and more recent foster care data. Using Poisson regression models, we assess the extent to which changes in race-differentiated child poverty rates are correlated with Black and White child placement frequencies and placement disparities. Regardless of whether one looks longitudinally or cross-sectionally, we find that Black children are placed in foster care more often than White children. Higher White child poverty rates are associated with substantially reduced placement differences; however, higher Black child poverty rates are associated with relatively small changes in placement disparity. Black and White child placement rates are more similar in counties with the fewest socio-ecological assets.

The predictability of skewness risk premium on stock returns: Evidence from Chinese market

Skewness risk premium is the difference between realized skewness and implied skewness. This paper provides empirical evidence of the predictive power of skewness risk premium for the stock returns both from cross-sectional and time series. We find that the skewness risk premium exists in the Chinese market and is positively correlated with future index excess returns, as evidenced by both in-sample and out-of-sample analyses. From a cross-sectional perspective, we find stocks with high exposure to the skewness risk premium yield higher average excess returns. When controlling for common risk factors, the forecasting power of the skewness risk premium remains robust. In addition, this paper also examines the impact of investor sentiment and risk aversion on the predictability of skewness risk premium. We find the risk-return relation is weaker during high investor sentiment and low risk aversion.

Opioids for Osteoarthritis: Cross-Sectional Survey of Patient Perspectives and Satisfaction

Patients often take opioids to relieve osteoarthritis (OA) pain despite limited benefits and potential harms. This study aimed to compare cross-sectional perspectives of patients that were taking prescription opioid (N = 471) or nonopioid medications (N = 185) for OA in terms of satisfaction, expectations of effectiveness, and concerns. Patients prescribed opioids (>7 days) reported more prior treatments (2.47 vs. 1.74), greater mean pain intensity (5.47 vs. 4.11), and worse quality of life (EQ-5D-5L index value mean 0.45 vs. 0.71) than patients prescribed nonopioid medications (all p < 0.0001). Based on linear regression models adjusting for demographics and pain intensity, patients prescribed opioids were less satisfied with overall regimen (3.40 vs. 3.67, p = 0.0322), had less belief that medications were meeting effectiveness expectations (2.72 vs. 3.13, p < 0.0001), and had more concerns about treatments being "not very good" (3.66 vs. 3.22, p = 0.0026) and addiction (3.30 vs. 2.65, p < 0.0001) than patients prescribed nonopioid regimens. When the models were replicated for subgroups with ≥30 days' medication regimen duration, the findings were consistent with the main analyses. Patients have concerns about the risk of opioid addiction, but those with greater disease burden and more prior treatments continue taking opioid regimens.

Developing a Place–Time-Specific Transmissibility Index to Measure and Examine the Spatiotemporally Varying Transmissibility of COVID-19

The transmission rate of COVID-19 varies by location and time. A proper measure of the transmissibility of an infectious disease should be place- and time-specific, which is currently unavailable. This research aims to better understand the spatiotemporally changing transmissibility of COVID-19. It contributes to COVID-19 research in three ways. First, it presents a generally applicable modeling framework to estimate the transmissibility of COVID-19 in a specific place and time based on daily reported case data, called space-time effective reproduction number, denoted as Then, the developed model is used to create a spatiotemporal data set of values at the county level in the United States. Second, it investigates relationships between and dynamically changing context factors with multiple machine learning and spatial modeling techniques. The research examines the relationships from a cross-sectional perspective and a longitudinal perspective separately. The longitudinal view allows us to understand how local human dynamics and policy factors influence changes in over time in the place, whereas the cross-sectional view sheds light on the demographic, socioeconomic, and environmental factors behind spatial variations of at a specific time slice. Some general trends of the relationships are found, but the level of impact by each context factor varies geographically. Third, the best performing local longitudinal models have promising potential to simulate or forecast future transmissibility. The random forest and the exponential regression models based on time-series data gave the best performances. These models were further evaluated against ground truth data of county-level reported cases. Their good prediction accuracies in the case study prove that these machine learning models are promising in their ability to predict transmissibility in hypothetical or foreseeable scenarios.

Development of Human Lateral Prefrontal Sulcal Morphology and Its Relation to Reasoning Performance.

Previous findings show that the morphology of folds (sulci) of the human cerebral cortex flatten during postnatal development. However, previous studies did not consider the relationship between sulcal morphology and cognitive development in individual participants. Here, we fill this gap in knowledge by leveraging cross-sectional morphologic neuroimaging data in the lateral PFC (LPFC) from individual human participants (6-36 years old, males and females; N = 108; 3672 sulci), as well as longitudinal morphologic and behavioral data from a subset of child and adolescent participants scanned at two time points (6-18 years old; N = 44; 2992 sulci). Manually defining thousands of sulci revealed that LPFC sulcal morphology (depth, surface area, and gray matter thickness) differed between children (6-11 years old)/adolescents (11-18 years old) and young adults (22-36 years old) cross-sectionally, but only cortical thickness showed differences across childhood and adolescence and presented longitudinal changes during childhood and adolescence. Furthermore, a data-driven approach relating morphology and cognition identified that longitudinal changes in cortical thickness of four left-hemisphere LPFC sulci predicted longitudinal changes in reasoning performance, a higher-level cognitive ability that relies on LPFC. Contrary to previous findings, these results suggest that sulci may flatten either after this time frame or over a longer longitudinal period of time than previously presented. Crucially, these results also suggest that longitudinal changes in the cortex within specific LPFC sulci are behaviorally meaningful, providing targeted structures, and areas of the cortex, for future neuroimaging studies examining the development of cognitive abilities.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recent work has shown that individual differences in neuroanatomical structures (indentations, or sulci) within the lateral PFC are behaviorally meaningful during childhood and adolescence. Here, we describe how specific lateral PFC sulci develop at the level of individual participants for the first time: from both cross-sectional and longitudinal perspectives. Further, we show, also for the first time, that the longitudinal morphologic changes in these structures are behaviorally relevant. These findings lay the foundation for a future avenue to precisely study the development of the cortex and highlight the importance of studying the development of sulci in other cortical expanses and charting how these changes relate to the cognitive abilities those areas support at the level of individual participants.

Evaluation of Tourism Efficiency in Jiangsu Province Based on Three-stage DEA Model and Malmquist Index Model

This paper innovatively uses a three-stage DEA model in combination with the Malmquist index to assess the tourism development efficiency and situation of municipalities in Jiangsu Province from 2016-2019 in both a cross-sectional and vertical comparison perspective. The results showed that: all cities in Jiangsu Province are in the state of increasing scale payoff or efficiency frontier surface, total factor productivity is almost all greater than 1, the tourism industry as a whole is developing well, and management inefficiency is the main factor that restricts the further development of tourism. The tourism industry in southern Jiangsu [1] is in a highly de- veloped and mature stage, with high tourism efficiency, and tourism development is more closely related to technological progress; the tourism industry in central Jiangsu[2]and northern Jiangsu[3] is in a rapidly developing and rising stage, with low tourism efficiency but rapid development, and tourism development is more closely related to technological and management efficiency.

Exploration or exploitation? A study on equity incentive design, dynamic decision making, and economic consequences.

We examine whether equity incentive can encourage exploratory innovation from the perspective of dynamic innovation decision-making process. Using the data of equity incentives in China's listed companies from 2006 to 2017, we construct exploratory intensity of innovation strategy and analyze the impact of equity incentive on corporation exploratory innovation strategy from both the cross-sectional and time-series perspectives. We find a positive relationship between the vesting period and explorative innovation strategy in the cross-sectional dimension. However, the time-series analyses show that the innovation strategy becomes less explorative and more exploitative after the third period during equity incentive. The effect of vesting period is stronger in smaller firms and during the non-financial crisis period. Further analysis reveals that followed by the changes in innovation strategy, the growth rates of innovation output and firm performance also decline.

Role of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour in Firm Performance: A Cross-Sectional Perspective

Employees' independent decisions to support the overall effectiveness and success of their company are referred to as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). It encompasses actions like supporting coworkers, offering to complete extra work, taking initiative, and acting ethically in the workplace. As companies look for ways to boost their performance and stay ahead of the competition, OCB is becoming more and more significant in today's competitive business environment. As businesses become more aware of the value of employee behavior in accomplishing their objectives, the idea of OCB is gaining ground in India.Increased productivity, work happiness, and staff retention are some benefits of OCB that affect business performance. Employees who participate in OCB are more likely to give outstanding service and go above and beyond for their clients, which can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Despite the potential advantages of OCB, it can be difficult for organizations to promote and reward these behaviors. This is so because OCB is optional and not included in an employee's job description. However, companies may encourage employees to engage in these behaviors and profit from higher performance by fostering a culture that values and encourages OCB.

A Case Report of Danish Students’ Wellbeing and Stress in a Time of Crisis and Recoveries

This article examines Danish students’ wellbeing, distinguishing between emotional, social, and academic wellbeing and between different types of stressors, understood as factors that can respectively induce and mitigate the risk of stress. An exploratory factor analyses on data from Danish students in December 2022 empirically confirm the three dimensions of wellbeing and identify two stressor factors (anxiety and security). The article illustrates how the wellbeing and stressor factors can be used in a cluster analysis to identify and clarify students at risk. In a cross-sectional perspective focusing on December 2022, the article identifies six clusters of Danish students with different levels of wellbeing and stressors. The students in the different clusters have varying characteristics with regard to the five factors (three wellbeing and two stressors) and thus also to what degree they each suffer. By applying The Stress Framework, we characterize the different clusters as a cluster with no stress (20% of the students), a cluster with positive-to-tolerable stress (20% of the students), a cluster with tolerable stress (23% of the students), a cluster with tolerable-to-toxic stress (16% of the students), and two clusters with toxic stress (9% and 12% of the students respectively). Finally, we discuss which of the clusters of students that are in risk of negative long-term educational consequences, and we suggest that it is important to implement mitigating initiatives aimed at students with characteristics as those in the identified clusters with tolerable-to-toxic and toxic stress.

Cross-Sectional Perspective Study of Post-COVID Syndrome Characteristics in Benghazi, Libya

Cross-Sectional Perspective Study of Post-COVID Syndrome Characteristics in Benghazi, Libya

Understanding Contemporary Security: A Prolegomenon to the Interplay Between Technology, Innovation and Policy Responses

Contemporary security is shaped by a variety of factors which determine the changing dynamics of connections and interdependencies within and between social groups and political actors. The growing importance of technology and innovation for states and societies has been a critical factor in the infrastructural, organizational and decision-making dimensions. This article aims to integrate some aspects of contemporary security into current dynamics of technology and innovation as vehicles of rapid and substantial changes in security policies and actions. Designed as an essay based on qualitative method in social sciences, this paper raises theoretical and empirical questions concerning modernization and innovation as determinants of contemporary security structures and policies. The empirical dimension of technology, innovation and politics are presented in the microscale (local security), in the mesoscale (state security, national security, sectoral security) and in the macroscale (international security in regional and global dimensions), as well as from the cross-sectional (transversal) perspective.

The Initial Corrosion Behavior of 20# Steel under the CO2/Aqueous Solution Gas–Liquid Two-Phase Bubble Flow Condition

The initial corrosion behavior of 20# steel under the condition of gas–liquid (CO2/aqueous solution) two-phase bubble flow was studied through weight loss, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results showed that the corrosion rate decreased rapidly when the corrosion time was less than 3 h, increased rapidly, even to 19.4% of the initial corrosion rate, when the corrosion time was from 3 h to 5 h, and then decreased slowly to about 63% of the initial corrosion rate after the corrosion time exceeded 5 h under different CO2 pressure conditions. The corrosion happened first at the defects area with a high activity such as the cross points of scratches, gradually formed corrosion pits, and then extended around until the corrosion products covered the whole pipe wall surface. At the beginning stage of the corrosion process, the corrosion products were composed of acicular corrosion products and a small number of flocculent corrosion products and formed the corrosion product layer with micro-cracks. With the extension of the corrosion time, the spherical corrosion particles started to form on the initial corrosion product layer’s surface and gradually covered the initial corrosion product layer completely. The whole corrosion product layer with dual-structure characteristics formed. The inner corrosion product sub-layer was composed of initial corrosion products with columnar characteristics from the cross-section perspective, and the outer corrosion product sub-layer was composed of spherical corrosion products that were relatively dense. There was no obvious interface between the inner columnar sub-layer and the dense outer sub-layer. As time went on, the corrosion product particles with a broccoli shape characteristic formed on the dual-structure corrosion product layer’s surface and finally formed the outermost layer of the whole corrosion product layer. In the end, the whole corrosion product layer with three sub-layers formed, namely, the columnar bottom sub-layer, the relatively dense middle sub-layer, and the surface dense sub-layer composed of particles with a broccoli shape. The main components of the corrosion products were Fe, C, and O, and the main phases of the corrosion products were Fe3C, FeCO3, Fe3O4, Fe2O3, and FeOOH.

Rational numbers and proportional reasoning in Chinese primary schools: Patterns, latent classes, and reasoning processes

Rational numbers and proportional reasoning are challenging topics in school mathematics. Though much research has been conducted, the learning of these topics is rarely explored among learners taught by expert teachers. Existing research also lacks sufficient attention toward latent classes and reasoning processes among primary learners at scale. The current study thus looks into the learning of the topics among 2,642 fifth and sixth graders taught by master mathematics teachers in China. Utilizing items identified as top level tasks in previous research, the article captures performance patterns, latent classes and reasoning processes of the learners, from a cross-sectional perspective. Data are analyzed with Rasch, mixture Rasch model (MRM), and complementary statistical methods. Variation between grades and gender is scrutinized where possible. The results show that, at the macro level, students have an average success rate of 78%, 78%, and 52% in decimals, fractions, and proportional reasoning, respectively; sixth graders outperform fifth graders; gender gap exists in the majority of Grade 5 but closes in Grade 6. At the meso level, two to three latent classes emerge in each grade with differential performance. Microlevel analyses show that different characteristics of reasoning lead to different performance of members affiliated to different latent classes.