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Background Cardiopulmonary problems will increase the risk of health harms yet they are often neglected in clinical rehabilitation treatment for stroke patients. In addition, sleep problems also often affect the rehabilitation effect in these patients, while routine drug treatment could not achieve satisfactory effect. Objective To assess the effect of precisely prescribed exercise on cardiopulmonary fitness and sleep quality in stroke patients. Methods Sixty-four stroke inpatients were recruited from Rehabilitation Department, Changzhou Dean Hospital from April 2020 to August 2021, and equally randomized into a control group and an experimental group. At baseline, cardiopulmonary fitness was assessed using cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) , and sleep quality was assessed using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for both groups. Then control group received 12-week routine rehabilitation training, while experimental group received 12-week routine rehabilitation training plus aerobic exercise precisely prescribed based on baseline CPET parameters. Intra- and inter-group comparisons were made between pre- and post-training major CPET parameters, dyspnea and leg fatigue measured by the Borg Scale and sleep quality. Results At the end of training, the experimental group demonstrated higher peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) , percentage of predicted peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak%pred) , peak metabolic equivalent (METpeak) , peak heart rate (HRpeak) , peak load, and anaerobic threshold (AT) , and lower intensity of perceived dyspnea and leg fatigue than the control group (P

Many croplands in the tropics of China have been converted over the last decades into areca nut plantations due to their high economic returns. This land-use transition was accompanied by changes in agricultural practices such as soil moisture regimes and fertilizer inputs, which may affect soil organic carbon (SOC) and its fractions, especially in tropical soils with low fertility and high nitrogen loss. Yet, how the time since land-use transition from rice paddy cultivation to areca nut plantations affects soil carbon dynamics and their underlying mechanisms in the tropics of China remains elusive. Here, areca nut plantation soils with different ages (2, 5, 10, 14, and 17 years) and paddy fields in the tropical region of China were investigated. The study result indicates that the contents of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), particulate organic carbon (POC), easily oxidized organic carbon (EOC), light organic carbon (LFOC), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) decreased significantly with increased time since land-use transition from rice paddy cultivation to areca nut plantations. Similarly, the ratios of DOC/SOC, MBC/SOC, POC/SOC, LFOC/SOC, and EOC/SOC decreased significantly with increased time since land-use transition. Compared with the paddy soil, the carbon pool management index decreased by 36.6–76.7% under the areca nut plantations, concluding that increasing the time since land-use transition from rice paddy cultivation to areca nut plantations with high application rates of chemical fertilizers resulted in reduced soil active carbon fractions and SOC supply capacity. Therefore, agricultural practices such as the use of organic fertilizers should be applied to improve the soil's ability to supply organic carbon in managed plantation ecosystems in the tropics of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]