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Background: Cities consume a disproportionate amount of energy for internal temperature regulation. Being able to reduce cities’ cooling load on hot summer days can decrease energy consumption while improving occupants’ thermal comfort. The urban canopy is an effective shading agent, adding cooling benefits to existing buildings and streets while providing other ecological and physiological values. Yet the building and street shading dynamic is a highly complex system that involves micro-level building components and macro-level variables. Introducing urban canopy to such a complex system creates another challenge, as urban canopy variables can also interact with buildings at both micro- and macro-levels. In order to accurately represent the urban canopy shading effect, it is necessary to account for the interactions among buildings, streets, and urban canopies. Methods: This study simulates the shading effect of urban canopy measured by aerial laser scanning (ALS) in the City of Vancouver, Canada, through the integration of a Radiance daylight simulation engine and geographic information system (GIS) data. All trees detected by ALS were included in the analysis. Results: The results indicate that street surfaces receive more solar irradiance reduction than building roofs and façades (i.e., exterior walls). Neighborhoods with less density and lower buildings were shaded noticeably better than areas with higher density and taller buildings. Among Vancouver’s 22 neighborhoods, 2 neighborhoods, Kitsilano and the West End, demonstrated a promising sign where both building density/height and urban canopies are maintained. There was evidence of high canopy shading and high-density urban morphologies. Conclusion: Overall, this work provided an authentic canopy assessment from single building to city scale, creating opportunities to investigate intracity urban canopy variations, equality, and the balance between urban greening and urban densification.

While being major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, cities also suffer some of the most severe climate change impacts. Urban forests have gained increasing recognition as nature-based solutions to climate change via the various benefits they provide, such as carbon sequestration and temperature regulation. Many cities have developed climate change and/or urban forest policies to enhance climate resilience and support urban livability. However, it is still unclear whether these policies consider and address potential alignment between climate action and urban forest planning and management. This study explored whether and to what extent urban forest and climate change policies are mutually supportive and reinforcing, by conducting a review of climate change and urban forest policies in the largest 20 Canadian cities. Results suggest significant gaps and discrepancies between these policies, across and within study cities, indicating potential weaknesses related to stakeholder/actor engagement, policy integration, departmental collaboration and communication, and cohesive management priorities and practices. Only three (15 %) of the cities have developed climate change and urban forest policies that align to some extent. Furthermore, despite some commonalities, most cities defined their urban forests differently, highlighting locally-specific understanding and needs in addition to a lack of cohesion across Canadian municipalities concerning urban forest planning and management. Across most cities, both types of policies included general and locally-relevant information related to impacts of climate change. However, gaps and inconsistencies found between and within many municipalities’ policies may present a major barrier to effective policy implementation and mutually-reinforcing management actions. Areas for improvement are suggested for policy planning and implementation to ensure alignment between urban forest and climate change policies, which should also prove useful for municipalities outside of the study scope.

为满足实际应用, 自旋电子学器件需要自旋在特定方向发生自发取向, 但这通常是难以控制的. 在本文中, 我们观察了沿b轴的单晶Gd0.75La0.25FeO3在室温下伴随着弱铁磁(wFM)成分的反铁磁(AFM)磁有序. 与普通的AFM材料不同, 这里的wFM磁矩是离散的, 类似于二维量子阱, 可以通过一个小磁场在两个状态之间切换. 量子阱中的势垒使得矫顽力在50–350 K的宽温度范围内保持稳定, 并在17 K时产生独特的自旋翻转现象. 此外, 在RFeO3(R=稀土)中, 稀土和铁的次晶格之间普遍存在着一种AFM耦合. 而在Gd0.75La0.25-FeO3中, Gd与Fe次晶格之间的AFM耦合被破坏, 使得Gd被诱导出的磁矩与Fe磁矩方向不再相反, 而是表现出与Fe磁矩方向相同的诱导磁矩. 由于在GdFeO3或LaFeO3中不存在自旋翻转, 因此AFM耦合的破坏也被认为是材料表现出一种独特的自旋翻转现象的主要原因. 以上性质使得Gd0.75La0.25FeO3在信息存储方面具有更优良的可控性.

Background: Virtual Reality (VR) has been widely used in health-related fields. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of virtual reality-based physical and psychological exercise on depression.Methods: A total of 752 patients with stroke from 11 randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies were included in this meta-analysis and the studies derived from 6 electronic databases searched from database inception to August 2021. For continuous results, the standardized mean differences (SMDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to synthesize the effects.Results: The meta-analysis showed that compared with control group, VR-based interventions significantly decreased the depression scale score (SMD = −0.71, 95% CI: −1.32, −0.10) in the subjects. The results showed that the the patient age and total intervention time had a significant impact on the outcome of depression. The smaller the age and longer the intervention duration, the greater the impact on the outcome of depression.Conclusions: The current meta-analysis indicated the virtual reality-based physical and psychological exercise has a significant effect on depression in stroke patients compared to controls. The study showed an outstanding reduction in depression for aged under 60 participants and intervention longer than 8 weeks. At the same time, clinical studies of different ages and different intervention time also need further in-depth study.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma has low levels of long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) RP1130. However, the effects of LncRNA RP1130 in hepatocellular carcinoma still unknown. Materials and Methods: Expression of LncRNA RP1130-1 in HCC and cell lines were detected by real-time PCR. Cell proliferation was assessed by CCK-8. Wound-healing and Transwell assays were performed for HCC cell migration and invasion. Western blotting was carried out to evaluate cell cycle, migration and invasion associated proteins in HCC. Results: Expression levels of LncRNA RP1130-1 was dramatically lower in HCC tissues than in normal control. Similarly, LncRNA RP1130-1 was downregulated in HCC cell lines compared with LO2. The cellular experiments revealed that high expression of LncRNA RP1130-1 in HCC inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion. In addition, overexpression of LncRNA RP1130-1 inhibited the expression of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, and TGF-β reversed the effects of LncRNA RP1130 in HCC cell lines. Conclusions: LncRNA RP1130 exerts anti-tumor effects mediated by inhibiting TGF-β. In summarize, our results indicate that LncRNA RP1130/TGFβ may be a potential therapeutic target for HCC.

This cross-sectional study aimed at measuring the correlation and association between serum levels of cortisol, inflammatory cytokines, and depression and to measure the detection accuracy of serum levels of cortisol in serum samples. In total, 89 male participants were recruited into this study from June 15, 2017, to September 31, 2017. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used to investigate the mental health status of the participants. Serum concentrations of cortisol and inflammatory cytokines were determined. The serum cortisol concentration, anxiety level, and sleep quality were included in the final logistic regression model. Serum cortisol was able to accurately distinguish between patients with depression and those without depression. There was a significant positive correlation between serum cortisol levels and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores.

Morita therapy was developed for common mental problems, and our aim was to evaluate the clinical effect of Morita therapy on schizophrenia. The literature was searched in 10 databases, namely, PubMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Sinomed, Wanfang, Cochrane Library, UpToDate, Web of Science, Medline, PsycINFO and Embase, from inception to September 4, 2019. Random-effects models were used. For continuous results, the standardized mean differences (SMDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to synthesize the effects. Thirty studies were included, with a total of 2651 patients with schizophrenia. Compared to pharmacotherapy alone and standard care alone, Morita therapy plus pharmacotherapy and Morita therapy plus standard care both had significant effects on mental state (pooled effect size = -1.09, 95% CI: -0.35, -0.83), social functioning (pooled effect size = -0.61, 95% CI: -2.30, -0.92) and behavior (pooled effect size = 1.13, 95% CI: 0.75, 1.51). Significant heterogeneity between studies was found for mental state (I2 = 89%, p < 0.05) and social functioning (I2 = 95%, p < 0.05), but no heterogeneity was found for behavior (I2 = 0%, p = 0.84). Morita therapy has positive effects on mental state and social functioning among patients with schizophrenia, but it leads to some problems with behavior among these patients. Most included studies have unclear bias, and the forest plots show high heterogeneity among the results. Thus, Morita therapy cannot be implemented in clinical practice as a feasible strategy, the conclusion has yet to be confirmed, and new trials and future studies are desired.

The target of the current research was to investigate the anticancer activity of sitagliptin on diethylnitrosamine (DENA)-induced cancer in the liver. Wistar rats were treated with or without sitagliptin before DENA treatment. We detected liver weight, blood glucose, and histopathology of the liver. Serum biochemical markers like serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum alkaline phosphatase (SALP), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGTP), total bilirubin (TBR), total protein (TPR), and albumin (ALB) were also evaluated. In addition, lipid profile parameters comprising total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein were also measured. Inflammatory mediators like interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1beta (IL-1β), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) were determined in liver homogenate. Furthermore, the activity of nuclear factor (NF-κB) was also measured. Our results showed that sitagliptin (10 and 20 mg/kg) in a dose-dependent manner expressively decreased the DENA-induced elevation of SGPT, SGOT, SALP, and GGTP. Whereas sitagliptin (10 and 20 mg/kg) in a dose-dependent mode reduced the level of TBR and increased the TPR and ALB as well as improved the liver histopathology alterations in DENA-exposed rats. Lipid profile was also restored by the sitagliptin (10 and 20 mg/kg) in a DENA-treated rats. The level of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α were suggestively suppressed. Moreover, pretreatment with sitagliptin (10 and 20 mg/kg) prevented the activation of NF-κB. In conclusion, sitagliptin (10 and 20 mg/kg) has a potential protective effect against DENA-induced liver cancer by inhibition of inflammation and NF-κB activation.

Morita therapy is a systematic psychological therapy that aims to improve everyday functioning rather than target specific symptoms. However, there has been no systematic review evaluating the evidence of the effectiveness of Morita therapy in the treatment of depression. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical efficacy of Morita therapy in combination with pharmacotherapy in patients 18 and older who were diagnosed with current depressive disorder. A total of 840 patients with depression from 11 randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies were included in this meta-analysis after a literature search of 10 databases was performed from database inception to July 1, 2017. All the eligible studies were determined to have an unclear or high risk of bias. Morita therapy plus pharmacotherapy was significantly superior to pharmacotherapy alone in reducing depression severity. The remission rate of the Morita therapy plus pharmacotherapy group was better than that of the pharmacotherapy alone group. Morita therapy significantly reduced depression severity symptoms and improved the remission rate. Due to the relatively weak quality of the included studies, definitive conclusions cannot be made. Thus, multi-center, well-designed clinical trials with larger cohorts are urgently needed to support the clinical application of Morita therapy.

Antiferromagnetic spin dynamics is important for both fundamental and applied antiferromagnetic spintronic devices; however, it is rarely explored by external fields because of the strong exchange interaction in antiferromagnetic materials. Here, the photoinduced excitation of ultrafast antiferromagnetic spin dynamics is achieved by capping antiferromagnetic RFeO

We report electric-field control of magnetism of (Co/Pt)

Compounds in the pseudo-binary BaTiO3-Ba(Fe1/2Ta1/2)O-3 system have been synthesized at 1500degreesC in air and characterized by X-ray and electron diffraction as well as impedance analysis and Mossbauer spectroscopy. The symmetry of Ba(Fe1/2Ta1/2)O-3 is found to be trigonal with the space group P3m1. Two solid solutions exist in the BaTi1-xFex/1Tax/1O3 system at room temperature. The first (SS1) is in the composition range 0 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 0.07 and is tetragonal, P4mm, while the second broader solid solution, (SS2) 0.12 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 1, is trigonal and has the space group P3ml. The conductivity becomes higher with reduced amount of Ti in the structure. The activation energy of conductivity differs between the two solid solutions, 0.80eV for SS1 and 0.30eV for SS2, which indicates different mechanisms. The maximum of the real part of the pemittivity recorded for compounds in SS1 decreases towards room temperature with increasing amount of Fe/Ta doping and a high dielectric constant of around 7000 is found for BaTi(0.94)Fc(0.03)Ta(0.03)O(3). (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.