Urban energy performance improvement policy selection in China based on policy effect prediction: An analysis from the dimensions of economy, environment and well-being.

The environmental pollution and social well-being issue caused by the huge energy consumption in cities reflect the urgency of improving urban energy performance from multiple dimensions of economy, environment, and well-being. As a result, various countries and cities have promulgated a series of policies. However, the complexity of the policies makes the categories and utilities need to be further clarified, and the diseconomy caused by the lag of policy effect evaluation makes the focus of policy implementation need to be clear in advance. Therefore, based on public choice theory, this research follows the idea of "prior analysis" and takes Chinese cities as the research object. Firstly, the collected energy performance improvement policies of Chinese cities were analyzed and classified by the content analysis method, and the main utilities of all policies and the specific utilities of each category were summarized. Based on the multiple dimensions of urban energy performance research (namely, economy, environment and well-being dimensions), this research summarized the policy utilities that help to improve the urban energy performance of each dimension, and also preset the policy utility values. Secondly, the effect prediction model for urban energy performance improvement policies in each dimension was constructed by Back-propagation (BP) neural network. Thirdly, the energy performance of Chinese cities in 2020 measured by Data Envelopment Analysis method was taken as the benchmark value, and the energy performance of Chinese cities in 2025 measured by the policy effect prediction model was taken as the comparison value. According to the results of performance improvement, the energy performance improvement policies of Chinese cities were selected respectively from the dimensions of economy, environment and well-being. This research shows that: the energy performance improvement policies of Chinese cities mainly include six categories, namely energy conservation and emission reduction policies, energy development policies, ecological environmental policies, fiscal and tax policies, industrial policies and economic and social policies. It is needed to focus on ecological environmental policies, fiscal and tax policies and industrial policies to improve urban energy performance from the economic dimension. For the environmental dimension, the key and priority policies are ecological environmental policies. Compared with the economic dimension, the focus of implementing policies adds economic and social policies in the well-being dimension. In the implementation of policies, the differences of energy performance among cities can be reduced through multi-feature analysis of cities or regions, appropriate adjustment of specific measures and targets, and improvement of digital information management of urban energy performance. This research can effectively help cities clarify which policies require higher implementation intensity and attention before and during policy implementation, thereby maximizing multi-dimensional urban energy performance.

Catalytic degradation of benzene over non-thermal plasma coupled Co-Ni binary metal oxide nanosheet catalysts.

Non-thermal plasma (NTP) has been demonstrated as one of the promising technologies that can degrade volatile organic compounds (VOCs) under ambient condition. However, one of the key challenges of VOCs degradation in NTP is its relatively low mineralization rate, which needs to be addressed by introducing catalysts. Therefore, the design and optimization of catalysts have become the focus of NTP coupling catalysis research. In this work, a series of two-dimensional nanosheet Co-Ni metal oxides were synthesized by microwave method and investigated for the catalytic oxidation of benzene in an NTP-catalysis coupling system. Among them, Co2Ni1Ox achieves 60% carbon dioxide (CO2) selectivity (SCO2) when the benzene removal efficiency (REbenzene) reaches more than 99%, which is a significant enhancement compared with the CO2 selectivity obtained without any catalysts (38%) under the same input power. More intriguingly, this SCO2 is also significantly higher than that of single metal oxides, NiO or Co3O4, which is only around 40%. Such improved performance of this binary metal oxide catalyst is uniquely attributed to the synergistic effects of Co and Ni in Co2Ni1Ox catalyst. The introduction of Co2Ni1Ox was found to promote the generation of acrolein significantly, one of the key intermediates found in NTP alone system reported previously, suggest the benzene ring open reaction is promoted. Compared with monometallic oxides NiO and Co3O4, Co2Ni1Ox also shows higher active oxygen proportion, better oxygen mobility, and stronger low-temperature redox capability. The above factors result in the improved catalytic performance of Co2Ni1Ox in the NTP coupling removal of benzene.

The effectiveness of psychoeducational interventions on family function among families after stroke: A meta-analysis.

AIMS: This meta-analysis aimed to synthesize the available evidence on the effectiveness of psychoeducational interventions on family function among families after stroke. BACKGROUND: Family function may be improved by psychoeducational intervention, but findings about the effect of psychoeducation on family function among families after stroke have been mixed. METHODS: This was a meta-analysis carried out by searching five international electronic databases, including Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and CINAHL, as well as four national electronic databases, including Chinese Biological Medicine (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP and Wanfang. Two groups of researchers screened the studies independently, assessed the quality of the studies and extracted data. Meta-analysis was performed by using the RevMan 5.3 software. RESULTS: Five studies on psychoeducational interventions were included. Pooled analysis of these studies showed a small effect of the interventions on improving family function (WMD: -0.13, 95% CI: -0.24 to -0.01, P < 0.05). Subgroup analysis showed significant differences between the psychoeducation and control groups at 1 month postintervention (WMD: -0.12, 95% CI: -0.18 to -0.05, P < 0.05) and more than 6 months postintervention (WMD: -0.14, 95% CI: -0.24 to -0.04, P < 0.05). The psychoeducational interventions also had positive effect on improving the problem solving (WMD: -0.22, 95% CI: -0.14 to -0.03, P < 0.05) and communication (WMD: -0.23, 95% CI: -0.41 to -0.05, P < 0.05) functions of the family. There were significant differences in the group of dyad intervention (WMD: -0.14, 95% CI: -0.25 to -0.02, P < 0.05) and the group using face to face method (WMD: -0.58, 95% CI: -0.84 to -0.32, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Synthesized results demonstrated the favourable effect of psychoeducational interventions on the improvement of the family function among families after stroke, especially in terms of family problem solving and family communication. Future psychoeducational intervention research design should consider the combination of multiple intervention methods and the applicable population of intervention.

Benzene decomposition by non-thermal plasma: A detailed mechanism study by synchrotron radiation photoionization mass spectrometry and theoretical calculations.

Non-thermal Plasma (NTP) catalysis is considered as one of the most promising technologies to address a wide range of environmental needs, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and NOx removal. To meet the updated environmental emission standard, the NTP catalysis reaction system needs to be better understood and further optimized. In this work, the degradation process of benzene in NTP, which is still regarded as a "black box" process, was explored by synchrotron vacuum ultraviolet photoionization mass spectrometry (SVUV-PIMS). For the first time, we observed over 20 representative species by PIMS and identified their structures accurately by photoionization efficiency (PIE) spectra. Phenol, acetylene and acrolein were recognized as the three main products. More intriguingly, concentration profiles demonstrated that a large amount of acrolein and also several higher-order products, which were usually neglected in previous research, were produced during the NTP destruction process. The details of the benzene degradation reaction mechanism, were finally established by the combination of SVUV-PIMS results, thermochemistry and theoretical calculations. This work helps to complete the mechanistic picture of plasma chemistry, which may be helpful on raveling the more complicated NTP catalysis mechanism in the future therefore contributing to design of improved NTP system for environmental applications.

Catalytic oxidation of dimethyl phthalate over titania-supported noble metal catalysts.

Semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) are organic compounds with the boiling point ranging between 240/260 ℃ and 380/400 ℃. Detailed knowledge regarding catalytic removal of SVOCs from indoor environment is very limited as it remains challenge to explore such reaction due to the viscosity nature of target contaminants. Here, we established a facile methodology to explore the heterogeneous catalytic oxidation reaction of dimethyl phthalate (DMP), a model SVOC, over the surface of supported catalyst. DMP was found to be gradually oxidized over the surface of titania supported catalysts including palladium (Pd), platinum and ruthenium with increasing temperature. The cleavage of side chain of DMP occurs at 75 ℃ over the surface of Pd/TiO2, which is significantly lower than that of the other two catalysts. Carbon dioxide was observed as the main product of the catalytic oxidation reaction. However, aromatic products and small molecule products were still observed as side-product in different temperature range. Density functional theory calculations further show that DMP can react with reactive oxygen species to form phthalic acid. While the cleavage of the DMP side chain occurs to form products such as methyl benzoate. This work thus provides basic knowledge about indoor SVOCs catalytic oxidation removal.

Measurement properties of family resilience assessment questionnaires: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: There have been numerous measurement questionnaires to estimate the level of family resilience. However, we lack published evidence regarding the most appropriate family resilience questionnaire in different adversity domains. OBJECTIVE: This study critically assesses and contrasts the measurement properties of questionnaires measuring family resilience in two domains: health care domain and social domain. METHODS: Ten electronic databases were searched for studies concerning the establishment, adaptation or evaluation of the measurement properties of a family resilience assessment questionnaire. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) checklist. On the basis of methodological quality and scoring criteria for the quality of questionnaires, the overall evidence of each questionnaire was rated. RESULTS: A total of 4084 initial studies were obtained, 23 of which met our inclusion criteria assessing 12 different questionnaires. The structural validity (23 studies) and internal consistency (22 studies) were the most frequently used measurement properties. Only two studies tested responsiveness, and the measurement error was not examined in any studies. The Family Resilience Assessment Scale (FRAS) and Italian version of the Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire (Walsh-IT) showed positive evidence in health care domain. The FRAS performed well in social domain with specific adversity, and the Family Resilience Questionnaire (FRQ) received a good score in social domain without specific adversity. CONCLUSION: For health care domain, we recommend the FRAS and Walsh-IT. For social domain with specific adversity, we recommend the FRAS questionnaire. For social domain without specific adversity, the FRQ is recommended.