There is a longstanding debate about whether the fiscal and institutional arrangements for the provision of quality urban services should be more dispersed or concentrated. We contribute to the debate by exploring the link between fiscal arrangements and public service quality by compiling a unique panel dataset of the quality indicators for major U.S. urban park systems and their funding sources from different types of overlapping local jurisdictions. This article shows that a more dispersed fiscal arrangement among cities, counties, and special districts is negatively associated with the quality of urban park systems. We conclude the article by discussing possible mechanisms of why such a negative correlation between more dispersed fiscal arrangement and the quality of public services applies to shared amenities like urban parks services. The nature of public services seems to be the key to understanding this relationship.

Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM) bear a high burden of syphilis infection. Expanding syphilis testing to improve timely diagnosis and treatment is critical to improve syphilis control. However, syphilis testing rates remain low among MSM, particularly in low-and middle-income countries. We describe the protocol for a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to assess whether provision of syphilis self-testing services can increase the uptake of syphilis testing among MSM in China.

Existing studies of government–nonprofit relationships have largely treated government funding as a revenue stream of nonprofit organizations. However, there is limited empirical research on how nonprofits respond to government spending changes in a public service subsector where they provide public services without relying heavily on government funding. In such public service subsectors, government spending cuts, thus, represent a reduction in governmental service provision rather than a revenue shock to nonprofits in the sector. Utilizing a unique panel data set of park-supporting nonprofits in large U.S. cities, this study examines how these nonprofits adjust financial management strategies in response to incremental and dramatic changes in the overall government spending on parks and recreation services in a city. The findings suggest that nonprofits increase fund-raising efforts and diversify revenue portfolios in response to incremental changes in the government spending environment. Facing a dramatic government budget cut on parks and recreation, nonprofits are more likely to reduce administrative expenses and spend more on programs to fill in the gap of service needs. Borrowing and using reserves seem not to be strategies nonprofits pursue in such circumstances.

How are government-nonprofit partnerships governed when nonprofits play significant roles in financing and creating public services? This article examines the linkage between governance mechanisms and various collaboration stages of government-nonprofit partnerships. Using a multiple case design of 10 government-nonprofit partnerships for public parks in major cities of the Ohio River Basin Region, four major mechanisms are identified: representing government on the nonprofit board, reaching a formal agreement, building relationships, and building leadership capacity. Several related propositions are presented to facilitate future theory testing.

Empirical studies and theories of government-nonprofit relationships have assumed a unidirectional funding flow from governments to nonprofits and therefore focusing on the impact of governments on nonprofits. By articulating multiple mechanisms of how nonprofits may influence government spending and utilizing a unique panel dataset that contains nonprofit and local government spending on parks, this article tests several prominent theoretical models of government-nonprofit relationships to answer the question of how spending by park-supporting charities influences the level of public spending on parks and recreation services. The findings indicate that spending by park-supporting charities spending has a decreasing effect on the level of public operational spending on parks, which supports the supplementary model. However, there is a net gain in total community support for parks and recreation services. Finally, this article suggests that government-nonprofit relationships are not identical when funding sources for public service provision differ in subsectors. A two-way understanding is essential for the theory building and testing in government-nonprofit relationships.

Substantial public budget constraints across the United States have increased reliance on charities for some public service provision. This article builds a unique historical dataset and presents the first systematic look at the charities supporting U.S. national and state parks through the lens of coproduction along with other major theories of government-voluntary interaction and its consequences. The results suggest that parks-supporting charities are involved in a multi-dimensional pattern of coproduction with distinct and differentiated forms of involvement in public service provision at the state and federal levels. Their growth over time reflects theories of government failure and philanthropic insufficiency. And their permanency suggests the value of greater understanding of public service reliance on private philanthropy.

Background: Even before the onset of age-related diseases, obesity might be a contributing factor to the cumulative burden of oxidative stress and chronic inflammation throughout the life course. Obesity may therefore contribute to accelerated shortening of telomeres. Consequently, obese persons are more likely to have shorter telomeres, but the association between body mass index (BMI) and leukocyte telomere length (TL) might differ across the life span and between ethnicities and sexes. Objective: A collaborative cross-sectionalmeta-analysis of observational studies was conducted to investigate the associations between BMI and TL across the life span. Design: Eighty-seven distinct study samples were included in the meta-analysis capturing data from 146,114 individuals. Studyspecific age- and sex-adjusted regression coefficients were combined by using a random-effects model in which absolute [base pairs (bp)] and relative telomere to single-copy gene ratio (T/S ratio) TLs were regressed against BMI. Stratified analysis was performed by 3 age categories ("young": 18-60 y; "middle": 61-75 y; and "old": >75 y), sex, and ethnicity. Results: Each unit increase in BMI corresponded to a-3.99 bp (95% CI: -5.17, -2.81 bp) difference in TL in the total pooled sample; among young adults, each unit increase in BMI corresponded to a -7.67 bp (95% CI:-10.03,-5.31 bp) difference. Each unit increase in BMI corresponded to a -1.58 × 10-3 unit T/S ratio (0.16% decrease; 95% CI: -2.14 × 10-3, -1.01 × 10-3) difference in ageand sex-adjusted relative TL in the total pooled sample; among young adults, each unit increase in BMI corresponded to a -2.58 × 10-3 unit T/S ratio (0.26% decrease; 95% CI: -3.92 × 10-3, -1.25 × 10-3). The associations were predominantly for the white pooled population. No sex differences were observed. Conclusions: A higher BMI is associated with shorter telomeres, especially in younger individuals. The presently observed difference is not negligible. Meta-analyses of longitudinal studies evaluating change in body weight alongside change in TL arewarranted.

days before the Chinese New Year of the Rat (the new start in the twelve-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac), the central government of China announced the lockdown of Wuhan, a city with over eleven million people, due to the outbreak of COVID-19. It was an unprecedented crisis that neither the government nor the society had ever encountered. COVID-19 patients flocked to hospitals and soon discovered that there was a dearth of available beds. Essential community services were cut off, leaving vulnerable populations-the elderly, pregnant women, people with chronic diseases-desperately seeking support. The shortage of medical supplies was so serious that medical workers had to bypass the government and send out individual pleas for donations. 1 Indeed, the government's responses to COVID-19 in the first few weeks were inadequate; the emergency plan developed by the government to deal with "normal" disasters was simply insufficient for such a sweeping crisis. When COVID-19 hit Wuhan, a city with no prior experiences of a pandemic, the whole society went into system shock. 2 Wuhan being the global ground zero for COVID-19, citizens did not know how dangerous and widespread the virus would turn out to be. The Chinese government was still collecting information in order to coordinate public health resources. Businesses were dealing with the beginning impacts of a looming economic shutdown. Nonprofits were trying to figure out how they could help-a tough order, given that they could not operate their normal disaster relief efforts on the ground. For two to three weeks after the emergency lockdown, things in Wuhan were chaotic. Heartbreaking stories broke on Chinese social media about frontline medical workers lacking medical supplies and unattended family members dying due to lack of care. Before February 21, 2020, when all the Fangcang shelter hospitals (hospitals built for COVID-19 patients) came into use, the situation was desperate. 3

Endogeneity is often regarded as a key barrier in establishing the causal relationship between the third sector and its societal impact in empirical research. Through a systematic literature review of the quantitative studies on the third sector's impact in the last two decades, we find that most quantitative studies of the third sector's societal impact are published in journals outside main third sector journals. We also offer specific examples of how recent methodological advancements in addressing endogeneity help third sector researchers better solve this problem. Based on the analysis of this literature review, we recommend that third sector scholars should (1) refocus on the big question of the third sector's impact on society, (2) catch up with the methodological advancement in addressing endogeneity, (3) be creative and transparent about addressing endogeneity, and (4) build better theories to link the third sector to broad societal outcomes. Keywords: Endogeneity, the societal impact of the third sector, quantitative analysis, methodology 3

Reflexivity statement The authors include three females and eight males and span multiple levels of seniority. While three of the authors specialize in health care quality and health policy in China and West Pacific, the rest includes epidemiologists, economists, and medical staffs with expertise in sextually transmitted diseases, health economics, and global health in the Africa and Asia. All authors have extensive experience conducting fieldwork in developing countries, especially in China and India.