Effects of Linpan nature therapy on health benefits in older women with and without hypertension

BackgroundNature therapy can significantly benefit the physiology and psychology of middle-aged and older people, but previous studies have focused on forest environments. The restoration potential of rural environments in urban fringe areas, which are more accessible to older people on a daily basis, has not been fully studied. This study assessed the effects of nature therapy on the physical and mental health of older women in a rural setting (locally known as Linpan) in the urban fringe area of Chengdu, China.MethodsWe recruited a total of 60 older women (65.3 ± 5.5 years old) living in cities for 3 days of nature therapy in the winter (30 subjects) and spring (30 subjects), including 20 hypertensive patients.ResultsThe results showed that the overall blood pressure, pulse and sleep dysfunction rating scores of the participants were significantly lower than the pretest levels, and the finger blood oxygen saturation, mid-day salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol were increased post-treatment. Increases in these biomarker indicates and increase in stress. There were significant differences in the changes in systolic blood pressure between the hypertension group (HTN) and the normal group (normal) (HTN decreased by 8.8%, normal decreased by 5.4%), salivary alpha-amylase content (HTN decreased by 0.3%, normal increased by 16.9%), and sleep dysfunction rating scores (HTN decreased by 59.6%, normal decreased by 54%). The decreases in systolic blood pressure and pulse in the winter group were higher than those in the spring group by 1.8 and 4.4%, respectively, while the increases in salivary alpha-amylase content and salivary cortisol content were lower than those in the spring group by 11.7 and 11.2%, respectively, and the decrease in sleep dysfunction rating scores was lower than that in the spring group by 7.1%.ConclusionOur study concluded that nature therapy based on various health activities in the Linpan has significant health effects on older women. It can regulate blood pressure and pulse in older women, relieve cardiovascular disease, improve sleep quality. Meanwhile, older women with high blood pressure experienced a more significant effect than the healthy group

Developing a research strategy to better understand, observe, and simulate urban atmospheric processes at kilometer to subkilometer scales

A Met Office/Natural Environment Research Council Joint Weather and Climate Research Programme workshop brought together 50 key international scientists from the UK and international community to formulate the key requirements for an Urban Meteorological Research strategy. The workshop was jointly organised by University of Reading and the Met Office

Occurrence of Trace Heavy Metals in Leaves of Urban Greening Plants in Fuxin, Northeast China: Spatial Distribution & Plant Purification Assessment

Trace element analysis, in the leaves of five kinds of greening plants (Buxus, Picea, Pine, Juniperus and Platycladus) from eight uniform distribution sites in Fuxin, a typical traditional resource-based city in northeast China, was carried out to study the purification ability difference of urban greening plants and spatial distribution tendency of heavy metal elements in the whole city area. In terms of the purification ability analysis, Platycladus had a better environmental purification capacity for Cd, As, Pb and Cr. Juniperus also showed a certain environmental purification potential for As, Pb and Cu. Furthermore, Mn has the highest point mean of element content in all plants, ranging from 64.044–114.290 µg/g, and the MnPA content of Buxus and Juniperus was 60% higher than that of the other three plants, which showed a better Mn purification effect. In terms of the spatial distribution tendency analysis, point pollution source location and the urban climate factors (mainly for the wind factor) were the main controlling factors. However, the specificity of Mn distribution suggested that its polluting behavior had a close relation with minerals transportation during exploiting and transferring in the city’s coal mining industry in the past

Occurrence of Trace Heavy Metals in Leaves of Urban Greening Plants in Fuxin, Northeast China: Spatial Distribution & Plant Purification Assessment

Trace element analysis, in the leaves of five kinds of greening plants (Buxus, Picea, Pine, Juniperus and Platycladus) from eight uniform distribution sites in Fuxin, a typical traditional resource-based city in northeast China, was carried out to study the purification ability difference of urban greening plants and spatial distribution tendency of heavy metal elements in the whole city area. In terms of the purification ability analysis, Platycladus had a better environmental purification capacity for Cd, As, Pb and Cr. Juniperus also showed a certain environmental purification potential for As, Pb and Cu. Furthermore, Mn has the highest point mean of element content in all plants, ranging from 64.044–114.290 µg/g, and the MnPA content of Buxus and Juniperus was 60% higher than that of the other three plants, which showed a better Mn purification effect. In terms of the spatial distribution tendency analysis, point pollution source location and the urban climate factors (mainly for the wind factor) were the main controlling factors. However, the specificity of Mn distribution suggested that its polluting behavior had a close relation with minerals transportation during exploiting and transferring in the city’s coal mining industry in the past

Realizing Reversible Conversion-Alloying of Sb(V) in Polyantimonic Acid for Fast and Durable Lithium- and Potassium-Ion Storage

Finding suitable electrode materials for alkali-metal-ion storage is vital to the next-generation energy-storage technologies. Polyantimonic acid (PAA, H2Sb2O6 · nH2O), having pentavalent antimony species and an interconnected tunnel-like pyrochlore crystal framework, is a promising high-capacity energy-storage material. Fabricating electrochemically reversible PAA electrode materials for alkali-metal-ion storage is a challenge and has never been reported due to the extremely poor intrinsic electronic conductivity of PAA associated with the highest oxidation state Sb(V). Combining nanostructure engineering with a conductive-network construction strategy, here is reported a facile one-pot synthesis protocol for crafting uniform internal-void-containing PAA nano-octahedra in a composite with nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (PAA⊂N-RGO), and for the first time, realizing the reversible storage of both Li+ and K+ ions in PAA⊂N-RGO. Such an architecture, as validated by theoretical calculations and ex/in situ experiments, not only fully takes advantage of the large-sized tunnel transport pathways (0.37 nm2) of PAA for fast solid-phase ionic diffusion but also leads to exponentially increased electrical conductivity (3.3 S cm−1 in PAA⊂N-RGO vs 4.8 × 10−10 S cm−1 in bare-PAA) and yields an inside-out buffer function for accommodating volume expansion. Compared to electrochemically irreversible bare-PAA, PAA⊂N-RGO manifests reversible conversion-alloying of Sb(V) toward fast and durable Li+- and K+-ion storage

Chemical characteristics and anti-Escherichia coli mechanism of water-soluble extracts from yeast cell walls

Abstract Background Antimicrobial resistance is a threat to global public health and requires the development of new antibiotic alternatives to treat bacterial infection. Infection with Escherichia coli (E. coli) is the most common cause of diarrhea in pigs, especially in weaning piglets. The objective of this study was to characterize chemical properties of water-soluble extract (WSE) obtained from yeast cell wall, and study its antibacterial activity and antimicrobial mechanisms against E. coli. Results WSE was extracted from yeast cell wall by hot water, followed by anhydrous ethanol precipitation and deproteinization by Sevag method to obtain water-soluble polysaccharides (WSP, accounting for 76.53 ± 5.91% by weight of WSE). WSP was purified by DEAE-52 cellulose column and Sephadex G-100 column to obtain three fractions of polysaccharides, WSNP, WSAP-1 and WSAP-2. Physicochemical properties of them were then characterized. The average molecular weights of WSNP, WSAP-1 and WSAP-2 were 105,130, 94,581 and 91,247 Da, respectively. WSNP was composed of glucosamine (GlcN), glucose (Glc), mannose (Man) and glucuronic acid (GlcA) in a molar ratio of 8.6:55.2:34.4:1.8, WSAP-1 was consisted of GlcN, Glc and Man in a molar ratio of 10.9:42.2:46.9, and WSAP-2 was consisted of GlcN, galactose (Gal), Glc and Man in a molar ratio of 9.0:1.0:55.1:34.9. Spectral analysis indicated that all three polysaccharides had pyran polysaccharides, triple-helix structure, α- and β-glycosidic bond. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of WSE and WSP on E.coli were 25 mg/mL and 100 mg/mL, respectively. WSE can not only disrupt the integrity of the cell wall and membrane of E.coli, but also increase the permeability of the outer membrane. Conclusions Our research elucidated chemical composition and structure of WSNP, WSAP-1 and WSAP-2. WSE exerted its bactericidal activity by damaging the bacterial cell wall and membrane and increasing outer membrane permeability. Yeast cell wall products have been recommended as a potential alternative to antibiotics. This work provides more information, regarding chemical properties and anti-E. coli mechanism of WSE, and facilitates the application of yeast cell wall products as a promising antibiotic alternative in animal feed

Strain Modulation for Light‐Stable n–i–p Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells

Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells are promising to penetrate photovoltaicmarket. However, the wide-bandgap perovskite absorbers used in top-celloften suffer severe phase segregation under illumination, which restricts theoperation lifetime of tandem solar cells. Here, a strain modulation strategyto fabricate light-stable perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells is reported. Byemploying adenosine triphosphate, the residual tensile strain in the wide-bandgapperovskite absorber is successfully converted to compressive strain,which mitigates light-induced ion migration and phase segregation. Basedon the wide-bandgap perovskite with compressive strain, single-junctionsolar cells with the n–i–p layout yield a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of20.53% with the smallest voltage deficits of 440 mV. These cells also maintain83.60% of initial PCE after 2500 h operation at the maximum power point.Finally, these top cells are integrated with silicon bottom cells in a monolithictandem device, which achieves a PCE of 26.95% and improved light stabilityat open-circuit