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Policy synergy is a unique way for the government to establish a policy network and a crucial way for cities to expand their carbon reduction channels. Using urban data from China, this paper empirically investigates how environmental governance policy synergy (EGPS) affects carbon emissions. In comparison to non-pilot cities, the environmental information disclosure (EID) policy and low-carbon city (LC) policy play an inhibitory role in carbon emissions. Furthermore, EGPS has a stronger effect and is heterogeneous by region. Through the use of technical advancement and industrial structure optimisation, EGPS lowers carbon emissions, and this effect of EGPS grows over time in tandem with the level of environmental pollution in the cities. Our paper proposes policy implications in order to improve the overall effect of environmental governance policy and help achieve the dual carbon targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases has been growing geometrically, especially among the elderly. Real-time heart rate monitoring becomes an effective measure for preventing cardiovascular diseases. Traditional contact-based real-time heart rate measurement methods require long-term wearing of contact electrodes, which can cause inconvenience to the elderly population. In this study, a wide spectrum full color night vision elderly face video heart rate automatic measurement and early warning system was designed and developed by combining imaging photoplethysmography (IPPG), video acquisition equipment based on starlight wide spectrum camera and high-speed face recognition signal processing algorithm based on deep learning. By constructing a software and hardware platform, a comprehensive evaluation of the system's application in elderly facial video heart rate measurement experiments was conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a widely used microbial insecticide. However, its persistence is limited because of ultraviolet (UV) rays or other environmental factors. The yhfS gene, which encodes acetyl‐CoA acyltransferase, plays an important role in lipid transport and metabolism in many organisms. To explore whether it is related to the stress resistance of Bt LLP29, the yhfS gene knockout strain LLP29 Δ‐yhfS and the complementary strain LLP29 R‐yhfS were generated successfully by homologous recombination technology, and the related phenotypic changes were compared in this study. RESULTS: Gene yhfS was found to be functional in response to UV radiation in Bt by comparing the survival rates of Bt LLP29 harboring yhfS or not under UV light. Enzyme activity assays of key enzymes showed the the Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas pathway was enhanced yet the tricarboxylic acid cycle as well as butanoate synthesis were repressed when the gene was deleted. At the same time, the amino acid content was decreased, but reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) content were increased. Most noteworthy, antioxidase (such as superoxide dismutase and peroxidase) activities and contents of some potent antioxidants (such as pyruvate, carotenoids and NADPH) were lower in LLP29 Δ‐yhfS than in LLP29. CONCLUSION: These tests revealed that the loss of the yhfS gene led to metabolic disorders and reduction of the antioxidant ability of Bt. Higher ROS level and lower anti‐oxidative capacity might be responsible for the reduced UV resistance when the gene was deleted. These results not only greatly enrich understanding of the mechanism of Bt UV resistance, but also provide an important theoretical basis for Bt application. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study is aimed to design wearable care equipment based on the narrow-band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) to assist in applying health-related big data and gain the optimum treatment time for patients with fractures. Methods: A wearable care equipment based on the NB-IoT technique (namely, a brace) was designed by combining sensors with embedded systems, man–machine interaction technique, and so on. Also, the exercise heart rate, the surface temperature of disease location, and the data on oxyhemoglobin saturation of patients were acquired using sensors. Next, these data were sent to an application (APP) on a cell phone after transmission to a single-chip machine for processing. Finally, the data on heart rate, body temperature, blood oxygen, and their variation curves were displayed on the APP. Results: The wearable care equipment could provide a normal average recovery curve for patients with fractures, which was instrumental for patients and doctors to fully grasp the rehabilitation condition. If the key indicators were abnormal and exceeded the threshold value, the wearable equipment generated an early warning signal to alert patients to seek medical attention in time. Conclusions: The test results indicated that the wearable care equipment based on the NB-IoT technique could realize the acquisition, storage, and analysis of the physiological parameters of patients. The wearable equipment had a series of characteristics, including low cost, low power dissipation, stable signal connection, and strong practicability, having a certain practical significance for the consistency of enhancing the health service and assisting the health-related big data development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Edge computing, an extension of cloud computing, is introduced to provide sufficient computing and storage resources for mobile devices. Moreover, a series of computing tasks in a mobile device are set as structured computing processes and flows to achieve effective management by the workflow. However, the execution uncertainty caused by performance degradation, service failure, and new service additions remains a huge challenge to the user's service experience. In order to address the uncertainty, a software‐defined network (SDN)‐based edge computing framework and a dynamic resource provisioning (UARP) method are proposed in this paper. The UARP method is implemented in the proposed framework and addresses the uncertainty through the advantages of SDN. In addition, the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm‐III is employed to optimize two goals, that is, the energy consumption and the completion time, to obtain balanced scheduling strategies. The comparative experiments are performed and the results show that the UARP method is superior to other methods in addressing the uncertainty, while reducing energy consumption and shortening the completion time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Edge computing (EC) emerges as a novel computing paradigm to offload computing tasks from user equipments (UEs) to edge notes (ENs) in fifth‐generation networks, which definitely breaks the resource limitation of UEs to a certain degree. However, it is troublesome to guarantee the overall operating performance of ENs due to the uneven distributed resource demands of UEs, the resulting transmission delay and the data loss for computation offloading between the covered EN and the deployed destination EN. In view of this challenge, a blockchain‐based computation offloading method, named BCO, is proposed in this paper. Technically, since blockchain is a promising technique for the decentralized system, a blockchain‐based EC framework is designed to degrade the data loss possibility by integrating blockchain and EC. Then, the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm, the third version (NSGA‐III), is leveraged to acquire the balanced offloading strategies. Furthermore, by taking advantage of Simple Additive Weighting and Multiple Criteria Decision Making, the optimal offloading strategy is identified. Finally, systematic experiments and analyses on the comparative experiment are conducted to verify the efficiency of our proposed method BCO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the applications related to Internet of connected vehicles (IoCV) have been greatly promoted by the roadside units (RSUs). To improve the transmission efficiency by the RSUs, 5G is introduced to the IoCV scenario for offering sufficient communication bandwidth. Generally, the traditional offloading destinations of the computing tasks in IoCV are the distant cloud servers, which consequently increases the response time of the tasks. Edge servers, placed together with macro base stations (MABSs) in 5G and RSUs, offer alternatives to host the tasks. However, the complicated locations of MABSs and RSUs make it difficult to distinguish the offloading destinations of the computing tasks in IoCV. In view of this, an adaptive computation offloading method, named ACOM, is devised for edge computing in 5G-envisioned IoCV to optimize the task offloading delay and resource utilization of the edge system. More specifically, the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D) is fully leveraged to generate the available solutions. Then, the optimal offloading solution is obtained by utility evaluation. Eventually, the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of ACOM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on exercise-induced neuroplasticity and the central mechanism of exercise therapy for chronic low back pain. Possible mechanisms of induced neuroplasticity in the treatment of low back pain include activation of the endogenous pain regulation mechanism, increased functional activity of sensorimotor brain areas, and increased concentration of brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Also noted is the positive impact of exercise therapy on central nervous system plasticity.

A good grasp of the relations between rapid economic development of China and stable energy supply is an important means to achieve coordinated development among energy, economy and society. This paper uses cointegration test, Granger causality test and vector error correction model, and other empirical method to analyze the relationship between the total amount of energy consumption and energy trade from 2000 to 2013, reveals that energy has a high degree of dependence on imported trade. The results showed that energy consumption has relatively strong positive impact on the energy business in the short term, then a weak negative effect in the long term. The impact of energy trading on the energy consumption is not significant in the short or long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The volatile aroma compounds in wines produced from Chinese wild/hybrid species were investigated in comparison to wines from European grapes. Volatiles were extracted by headspace solid‐phase micro‐extraction and identified by gas‐chromatography/mass‐spectrometry. The identification of analyte was performed by a combination of the linear retention index approach with the comparison of the obtained mass spectra. A total of 98 peaks were tentatively assigned as wine aroma components, and 15 odorants can be found at concentrations above their odor threshold among the odor activity values (OAVs) of 46 compounds evaluated in all of the wines. The "OAVs' aroma wheels" showed that the classes of aromatic series are first fruity, next herbaceous and roasty and no spicy and caramelized notes. Via principal component analysis, all the grape germplasm studied could be divided into four groups: "Jingsheng‐1," "Cabernet Gernischt," "Beibinghong," and others, which exhibited distinctive aroma features, respectively. Practical applications Chinese wild grape species have many desirable properties for wine grape breeding such as possessing strong resistant genes to fungal diseases and cold condition, especially after hybridization with European grapes. As an emerging wine country, wines from Chinese wild/hybrid species have achieved much success in the last few years. The chemical content and biological properties have been studied extensively in many but there are a few studies in our knowledge about the wine tastes of these species. In this paper, the key odorants in wines produced from the Chinese grape species of V. amurensis Rupr., V. davidii Foex., and V. quinquangularis Rehd. and its hybrids were characterized in comparison to wines produced from European grapes (V. vinifera). The findings will help to the further understanding of the key aroma components in the different Chinese grapevine germplasm, and make further efforts to enrich the wine types in the marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Managing chronic diseases and tobacco use is a formidable challenge in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with limited health literacy and access to quality healthcare. This study examines the empirical evidence from China, utilizing quasi-experimental approaches to assess the causal effect of chronic disease diagnoses on smoking behavior., Methods: Employing the diagnosis of chronic disease in the older cohorts of the population as a natural experiment, this study utilizes recent advancements in difference-in-difference estimation methods (CS-DID) to investigate the effect of a diagnosis on smoking behavior. Self-reported new diagnoses of conditions ascertained chronic disease diagnoses. CS-DID was run using the study sample from the 2011 to 2018 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, comparing results with traditional two-way fixed effects and event-study models., Results: The average treatment effect (ATT) of CS-DID is slightly greater than the effects reported using conventional difference-in-difference methods. We found that diagnoses of cancer, heart disease, and stroke reduced smoking rates by 16% (95% CI: -24 - -8), smoking intensity by 0.31 (95% CI: -0.46 - -0.15), and had lasting impacts on smoking cessation behavior (one wave after diagnosis ATT= -0.17; 95% CI: -0.34 - -0.00, two waves after diagnosis ATT= -0.17; 95% CI: -0.37-0.03). A diagnosis of a mild chronic disease, such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, chronic lung disease, liver disease, or gastric disease, had more negligible and transient effects on smoking behavior., Conclusions: Efforts to enhance smoking cessation in middle-aged and elderly patients with chronic diseases are crucial to improving health outcomes. The 'teachable moment' of chronic disease diagnosis should be seized to provide smoking cessation assistance to achieve the goal of healthy ageing., Competing Interests: The authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. The authors declare that they have no competing interests, financial or otherwise, related to the current work. All the authors report that since the initial planning of the work they received support from the National Social Science Fund of China (grant number 18BGL200), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (grant number ZR2022QG023), the Science and Technology Support Plan for Youth Innovation of Colleges and Universities of Shandong Province of China (grant number 2022RW032)., (© 2024 Chi X. et al.)

Background: Upper limb function reconstruction has been an important issue in the field of stroke rehabilitation. Due to the complexity of upper extremity dysfunction in stroke patients, the clinical efficacy produced by central or peripheral stimulation alone is limited. For this reason, our group has proposed acupuncture synchronized rehabilitation therapy (ASRT), i.e., simultaneous scalp acupuncture and intradermal acupuncture during rehabilitation. Pre-experiments results showed that this therapy can effectively improve the motor and sensory functions of upper limbs in post-stroke patients, but the clinical efficacy and safety of ASRT need to be further verified, and whether there is a synergistic effect between scalp acupuncture and intradermal acupuncture also needs to be studied in depth. Therefore, we designed a randomized controlled trial to compare the efficacy and safety of different therapies to explore a more scientific "synchronous treatment model.", Methods: This is a single-center, randomized controlled trial using a 2 × 2 factorial design. We will recruit 136 stroke survivors with upper extremity dysfunction and randomize them into four groups ( n = 34). All subjects will undergo routine treatment, based on which the Experimental Group 1: rehabilitation training synchronized with intradermal acupuncture treatment of the affected upper limb; Experimental Group 2: rehabilitation training of the affected upper limb synchronized with focal-side scalp acupuncture treatment, and Experimental Group 3: rehabilitation training synchronized with intradermal acupuncture treatment of the affected upper limb synchronized with focal-side scalp acupuncture treatment; Control Group: rehabilitation training of the affected upper limb only. The intervention will last for 4 weeks, 5 times a week. Both acupuncture treatments will be performed according to the Revised Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA). The primary outcome indicators for this trial are Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity and Somatosensory Evoked Potential. Secondary outcome indicators include Wolf Motor Function Test, Upper Extremity Function Test, revised Nottingham Sensory Assessment Scale, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, and Modified Barthel Index. The incidence of adverse events will be used as the indicator of safety., Discussion: The study will provide high-quality clinical evidence on whether ASRT improves upper limb motor and sensory function and activities of daily living (ADL) in stroke patients, and determine whether scalp acupuncture and intradermal acupuncture have synergistic effects., Clinical Trial Registration: https://www.chictr.org.cn/, Chinese Clinical Trial Registry [ChiCTR2200066646]., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer JH declared a shared parent affiliation with the authors to the handling editor at the time of review., (Copyright © 2023 Yu, Yang, Qin, Ma, Zhang, Leng, Bi and Liu.)

Introduction: Currently, the first choice for the clinical treatment of static tremor in Parkinson's disease (PD) is drug therapy, however side effects are common. In recent years, the effects of physical therapy on PD has become a serious research focus. Studies have indicated that aerobic and resistance exercises alleviate PD movement disorders and improve aerobic capacity, but the effects of Qigong on PD static tremor and aerobic capacity remain unknown., Methods and Analysis: OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of Zhan Zhuang Qigong on upper limb static tremor and aerobic capacity in patients with PD, we established a rigorous randomised, parallel-controlled, assignment hidden, evaluator-blinded protocol., Methods: Seventy-two patients with PD, at the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, were recruited and randomly divided into a control (n=36) and experimental group (n=36). The intervention group received conventional medicine plus Zhan Zhuang Qigong exercises five times a week at 30 min each time, over an 8-week period. The long-term effects of Zhan Zhuang Qigong on PD was investigated after the intervention. Phyphox APP, CRST, CPET, UPDRS(II, III) were used to evaluate tremor, aerobic capacity, and motor function in groups., Discussion: We are investigating the effects of Zhan Zhuang Qigong on upper limb static tremor and aerobic capacity in patients with PD. If positive are identified, they will add a new research direction and evidence for the clinical exploration of exercise therapy for PD., Ethics and Dissemination: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Approval Number: 2021-025-KY). The Committee will be informed of any changes to the trial protocol, such as intervention intensity, outcome indicators and data collection. Study results will be presented as a paper at an international conference or in a journal., Trial Registration Number: ChiCTR2100053529., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)