China is currently the largest emitter in the world. Moreover, the construction industry is the biggest contributor to CO2 emissions. Most scholars use the averaging method to explore CO2 emissions driving factors. However, the actual socio-economic variables distribution isn’t often normal, with the tail having hidden important information. Based on panel data from 2004-2016, this paper investigates the driving forces of CO2 emissions through the quantile regression approach. The empirical results show that the impacts of economic growth on CO2 emissions in the 10th-25th, 50th-75th and 75th-90th quantile provinces are higher than those in the other quantile provinces. The influences of urbanization on CO2 emissions in the upper 90th are strongest in all the quantile provinces. The affects of construction development on CO2 emission in the 25th-50th and upper 90th quantile provinces is greater than those in the other quantile provinces, while the effects of energy intensity on CO2 in the lower 10th and 10th-25th quantile provinces are lower than those in other quantile provinces due to the difference. Consequently, emission reduction departments should take into account the differences of carbon emissions driving forces in different provinces and reasonably formulate policies in mitigating carbon emission.

Feng Xiong, Ruimin Xu, Tongju Li, Jinyu Wang, Qingchuan Hu, Xiaojing Song, Guangjun Wang, Huanhuan Su, Shuyong Jia, Shuyou Wang, Zongxiang Zhu, Weibo Zhang. J Acupunct Meridian Stud 2023;16:101-8. https://doi.org/10.51507/j.jams.2023.16.3.101

The study is to observe the influence of electroacupuncture (EA) stimulation at “Zusanli” (ST36) on the release of nitric oxide (NO) and blood perfusion (BP) in the liver and further explore whether the hepatic blood perfusion (HBP) changes were regulated by EA ST36 induced NO in nitric oxide synthase inhibited mice. The HBP change of the mice was detected by laser speckle perfusion imaging (LSPI) before and after being given interventions, and the NO in liver tissue was detected by nitric acid reductase in each group. The NO levels and HBP in the L-NAME group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.01). The NO level and HBP increase in EA group were significantly higher than those in control group (P<0.05). The NO level in the L-NAME EA group was slightly higher than that in the L-NAME group. The HBP increase in the L-NAME EA group was not statistically significant. These results showed that EA could accelerate the synthesis of NO and thereby increase HBP via vasodilation in liver tissue.

The objective of this study was to investigate the spectra characteristics (SC) at wavelengths of 400~1000 nm and 2.5~15.5 μm of pure moxa stick (MS) during its 25‐minute burning process using new spectral imaging techniques. Spectral images were collected for the burning pure MS at 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 min using hyperspectral imaging (HSI) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for the first time. The results showed that, at wavelengths of 400~1000 nm, the spectral range of the cross section of MS burning was 750~980 nm; the peak position was 860 nm. At wavelengths of 2.5~15.5 μm, the spectral range of the cross section of MS burning was 3.0~4.0 μm; the peak position was approximately 3.5 μm. The radiation spectra of MS burning include litter red and amount of infrared (but mainly near infrared) wavelengths. The temperature, blood perfusion, and oxygen saturation increase of Shenshu (BL23) after moxibustion radiation were observed too. According to mechanism of photobiological effects and moxibustion biological effects, it was inferred that moxibustion effects should be linked with moxibustion SC. This study provided new data and means for physical properties of moxibustion research.

The visual evaluation of liver function (LF) has always been a hot topic in research on liver diseases. In vivo fluorescence imaging (IVFI) of the Cy5.5-galactosylated polylysine (Cy5.5-GP) probe targeting asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR), for evaluating LF in chronic alcoholic liver injury (cALI) mice was investigated in this study. The decrease of fluorescence signals in the livers showed a biological relationship with the liver ASGPR expression, histology, and serum marker levels of LF in cALI mice. The targeted IVFI of ASGPR as a novel method can intuitively and noninvasively display the characteristics of liver’s ASGPR level to provide a reference for evaluating LF.

In more than half a century, exploring the biological connotation of the meridians was one of the core components of scientific research studies in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Based on the previous works of low hydraulic resistance channel (LHRC) along meridians (LHRCM), the differential proteomics between the Alcian blue track (ABT) on LHRC along the conception vessel (CV) and nonmeridians tissue next to the CV were investigated in this study to explore the material basis and biological function of LHRCM. Proteomics based on LC-MS was introduced into the subcutaneous connective tissues (SCT) of ABT along the CV and the adjacent nonmeridian (1cm from the CV). A total of 2328 proteins were identified from ABT along the CV and adjacent nonmeridian based on data-dependent acquisition (DDA) mode. In total, 1970 proteins were quantified based on the SWATH (sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ions) label-free model, and the nonstandard and quantitative methods of MSALL were applied to analyze the data. There were 468 proteins differentially expressed. GO analytic results showed that the differential proteins were of varieties in molecular function and biological process. Most of differential proteins were involved in metabolic process, cellular process, response to hormone, and response to wounding. Further analysis showed that the upregulated differential proteins involved in ATP metabolism (ATP5E, GAPDH), redox reactions (Gpx-3), and Ca²⁺ transmembrane transport (CACNA2D1) were closely related to meridian phenomenon and acupuncture effect. These differential proteins would be potential characteristic proteins of the LHRC along the CV in rats which may be useful to deepen the knowledge on LHRCM.