Chengdu City Research Articles

Improvement of residents’ happiness index in tourism destinations based on guiding significance and tourism development

ABSTRACT Tourism has been widely recognized as a powerful tool for economic growth in rural communities around the world. The growth of rural tourism has always been a significant start in targeting poverty alleviation and promoting economic change in rural China. Rural tourism development is the participation of rural people in tourism and full integration into tourism development. Rural tourism development depends on the participation and support of rural residents. Therefore, this research explores the influencing factors of rural tourism residents’ happiness and their influence on tourism support. The sample was selected from Anren Town, Chengdu City, China, and the research subjects were residents of Anren Town. In this study, data were collected from 370 residents of Anren Town via a questionnaire survey. The results show that Community Involvement (CI) and Community Attachment (CA) positively affect residents’ Authentic Happiness (AH). This research found that improving residents’ support for tourism development can promote the development of rural tourism. The study finding provides a new perspective for the treatment of residents’ problems in tourism development and has guiding significance for the improvement of residents’ happiness index in tourism destinations. If the community is better, the happiness of the residents will be stronger.

Numerical investigation of PVT coverage on an integrated building-solar-heat pump system: Technical and economic study

The application of Photovoltaic/Thermal and heat pumps in buildings is becoming more and more attractive to many scholars due to its advantage of providing building heating and cooling with clean energy that has less negative effects on the environment. In this research, we have investigated the energy coverage of different PVT sizes to satisfy the electricity demand of heat pump system to provide heating and cooling applications in a habitation building of three rooms in Chengdu city of China in the line of Zero Net Energy Homes. The Photovoltaic/Thermal system investigated here provides thermal energy for Domestic Hot Water while generating the electrical energy to the building equipment and operates air heat pump units responsible of cooling and heating the building. TRNSYS as thermal dynamic software is used to model and simulate the annual coverage of the Photovoltaic/Thermal module through solar fraction determination where the results show that there is a significant increase in solar electrical fraction with the increase of the Photovoltaic/Thermal area. The highest electrical solar factor of 0.85 and 0.56 were achieved with a Photovoltaic/Thermal module of total area of 78 m2 during the transition months of April and October, respectively. The economic analysis shows that the Photovoltaic/Thermal technology is not that much competitive in Chengdu city due to the weather with medium annual solar radiation intensity and high discount rate of Photovoltaic power in China.

Exploring the topological characteristics of urban trip networks based on taxi trajectory data

As an essential mode of travel for city residents, taxis play a significant role in meeting travel demands in an urban city. Understanding the modal characteristics of taxis is vital to addressing many difficulties regarding urban sustainability. The movement trajectory of taxis reflects not only the operating features of taxis themselves but also urban structure and human mobility. In this work, the taxi trajectory data of Chengdu and New York City is processed, and the corresponding urban trip networks are constructed based on geographic information systems. We empirically and systematically analyze these urban trip networks according to the network hierarchy based on complex network theory. First, we studied the low-order organization of the urban trip networks (i.e., degree distribution, cluster-degree coefficient, rich-club coefficient, and so on.). We uncover the nontrivial relationship between network density and trip distance and find that the urban trip network in Chengdu is more heterogeneous than that in New York City. Second, we investigate the meso-order organization of the urban trip networks by using community detection. The community detection results show that the community boundaries are more or less mismatched with the administrative boundaries. Finally, we detect the higher-order organizations of the urban trip networks and find some critical nodes and regions. These empirical results from the perspective of complex networks provide insight to better understand the urban structure and human mobility, and potentially amend urban planning.

Land dispossession, rural gentrification and displacement: Blurring the rural-urban boundary in Chengdu, China

Rural China is experiencing rapid socioeconomic transformations, including suburbanisation and rural gentrification. In this paper, we argue that to understand these processes, we have to take into account the changes in rural land rights. Based on an analysis of a pilot case for China's rural collective commercial construction land (RCCCL) reform policy at the edge of Chengdu City, we demonstrate how state-led rural land reform paves the way for stealthy land dispossession and rural gentrification. Our argument in this paper is threefold. First, given the entrenched collective land use rights of rural villagers in China, state-led land commodification, is a necessary condition for rural gentrification in China. Secondly, the prospect of capital accumulation through rural gentrification motivates entrepreneurial public and private actors to promote such reforms in ways that dispossess rural peasants and peasant collectives of their land (use) rights. Thirdly, the particularities of dispossession through state-led land reform result in particular experiences of displacement and displacement pressure on the side of affected rural communities. Our findings contribute to the decentring of rural gentrification theory, in that they underline the necessity to include the particular histories of land commodification and dispossession in our understanding of rural gentrification in contexts where rural land is partly or wholly shielded from market influences. In the case of China, dynamics of rural gentrification are blurring the rural-urban boundary on three dimensions: political economy (land use governance), material infrastructure (landscape and residential architecture), and socio-cultural practices (rural livelihoods and identity).

Remote-Sensing Drought Monitoring in Sichuan Province from 2001 to 2020 Based on MODIS Data

In this study, four drought monitoring indices were selected to simulate drought monitoring in the study area and a correlation analysis was conducted using the self-calibrated Palmer Drought Index (sc-PDSI) to screen for the most suitable drought monitoring index for the study area. Then, the spatio-temporal variation characteristics of drought in the study area were discussed and analyzed. The results showed that the Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) was most suitable for drought monitoring in the Sichuan Province. CWSI had the best monitoring in grasslands (r = 0.48), the worst monitoring in woodlands (r = 0.43) and the highest fitting degree of overall correlation (r = 0.47). The variation of drought time in the Sichuan Province showed an overall trend of wetting and the drought situation was greatly alleviated. In the past 20 years, the dry years in the Sichuan Province were from 2001 to 2007, in which the driest years were 2006 and 2007; 2012–2013 was the transition interval between drought and wet; any year from 2013 to 2020 was a wet year, showing a transition trend of “drought first and then wet”. The spatial distribution of drought was greater in the south than in the north and greater in the west than in the east. Panzhihua City and the southern part of the Liangshan Prefecture were the most arid areas, while the non-arid areas were the border zone between the western Sichuan Plateau and the Sichuan Basin. Looking at the spatial distribution of drought, “mild drought” accounted for the largest percentage of the total area (60%), mainly concentrated in the western Sichuan plateau. The second largest was “drought free” (33%), mostly concentrated in the transition area between the western Sichuan Plateau and the Sichuan Basin (western Aba Prefecture, Ya’an City, Leshan City and northern Liangshan Prefecture). The area of “moderate drought” accounted for a relatively small proportion (6%), mainly concentrated in Panzhihua City, the surrounding areas of Chengdu City and the southern area of the Liangshan Prefecture. The area of severe drought accounted for the least (1%), mostly distributed in Panzhihua City and a small part in the southern Liangshan Prefecture. The drought center ranged from 101.8° E to 103.6° E and 28.8° N to 29.8° N, with the movement trend of the drought center moving from the northeast to the southwest to the northeast.

The Dissemination Strategy of an Urban Smart Medical Tourism Image by Big Data Analysis Technology.

The advanced level of medical care is closely related to the development and popularity of a city, and it will also drive the development of tourism. The smart urban medical system based on big data analysis technology can greatly facilitate people's lives and increase the flow of people in the city, which is of great significance to the city's tourism image dissemination and branding. The medical system, with eight layers of architecture including access, medical cloud service governance, the medical cloud service resource, the platform's public service, the platform's runtime service, infrastructure, and the overall security and monitoring system of the platform, is designed based on big data analysis technology. Chengdu city is taken as an example based on big data analysis technology to position the dissemination of an urban tourism image. Quantitative analysis and questionnaire methods are used to study the effect of urban smart medical system measurement and tourism image communication positioning based on big data analysis technology. The results show that the smart medical cloud service platform of the urban smart medical system, as a public information service system, supports users in obtaining medical services through various terminal devices without geographical restrictions. The smart medical cloud realizes service aggregation and data sharing compared to the traditional isolated medical service system. Cloud computing has been used as the technical basis, making the scalability and reliability of the system have unprecedented improvements. This paper discusses how to effectively absorb, understand, and use tools in the big data environment, extract information from data, find effective information, make image communication activities accurate, reduce the cost, and improve the efficiency of city image communication. The research shows that big data analysis technology improves patients' medical experience, improves medical efficiency, and alleviates urban medical resource allocation to a certain extent. This technology improves people's satisfaction with the dissemination of urban tourism images, makes urban tourism image dissemination activities accurate, reduces the cost of urban tourism image dissemination, and improves the efficiency of urban tourism image dissemination. The combination of the two can provide a reference for developing urban smart medical care and disseminating a tourism image.

Urban flood susceptibility mapping based on social media data in Chengdu city, China

Increase in urban flood hazards has become a major threat to cities, causing considerable losses of life and in the economy. To improve pre-disaster strategies and to mitigate potential losses, it is important to make urban flood susceptibility assessments and to carry out spatiotemporal analyses. In this study, we used standard deviation ellipse (SDE) to analyze the spatial pattern of urban floods and find the area of interest (AOI) based upon related social media data that were collected in Chengdu city, China. We used the social media data as the response variable and selected 10 urban flood-influencing factors as independent variables. We estimated the susceptibility model using the Naïve Bayes (NB) method. The results show that the urban flood events are concentrated in the northeast-central part of Chengdu city, especially around the city center. Results of the susceptibility model were checked by the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, showing that the area under the curve (AUC) was equal to 0.8299. This validation result confirmed that the susceptibility model can predict urban flood with a satisfactory accuracy. The urban flood susceptibility map in the city center area provides a realistic reference for flood monitoring and early warning.

Distribution of heavy metals and the exploration of potential indicators and hyperaccumulators in Jiang'an River, Chengdu, PR China

As a highly toxic contaminant, heavy metals have been proven to be widely distributed in the water and sediments of the global oceans, rivers, and lakes. Due to the functional differences in urban areas, the extent, characteristics, and hazards of heavy metal pollution in rivers are also different. To monitor and eliminate heavy metal pollution in rivers, indicators and hyperaccumulators perform crucial roles. In this study, heavy metal concentrations in the water, sediment, benthic faunae and aquatic plants of the Jiang'an River (which flows through Chengdu city, Sichuan Province, P.R. China) were investigated, followed by heavy metal correlation analysis of different media to identify potential bioindicator and hyperaccumulator. The results demonstrated that, none of the heavy metals were detected in the water. However, the 6 heavy metals in the surface sediments showed dramatic spatial regional differences, with Ni-As, Ni-Pb, Ni-Cr, Cr-Cu and Cr-Zn being highly significantly correlated. Furthermore, heavy metal contents in surface sediments were highly significantly correlated with the enrichment capacity of Eriocheir sinensis, Polypogon fugax, and Setaria viridis, and significantly correlated with Erigeron acer. Moreover, all plants were poorly enriched with Pb, which may be related to the morphology of Pb in the sediments. Besides, Eriocheir sinensis is a potential indicator of Zn and Cr in the sediments, and Erigeron acer is a possible Zn hyperaccumulator. This research confirms that heavy metals migrated in the water–sediment-benthic-plant system. Therefore, this study can provide a theoretical foundation for river monitoring and administration in Chengdu city and Sichuan Province.

The Influence of Guozhuang Dance on the Subjective Well-Being of Older Adults: The Chain Mediating Effect of Group Identity and Self-Efficacy.

In the context of the gradually accelerating aging of the population, the subjective well-being of older adults has received extensive research attention. Guozhuang Dance is a collective aerobic exercise that plays an important role in the physical activity of older Chinese adults. Studying the intrinsic relationship between Guozhuang Dance and the subjective well-being can help improve the quality of life and well-being of older adults in their later years. This study was conducted in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China, where many older adults practice Guozhuang Dance. Previous studies pointed out that group identity and self-efficacy can influence well-being in a collective exercise. For this study, we recruited 520 adults (male = 228, female = 292) aged 65 years or older from Chengdu who participated in Guozhuang Dance, to conduct a survey to understand the effect of this exercise on their subjective well-being. The Guozhuang Dance exercise scale, the group identity scale, the self-efficacy scale, and the subjective well-being scale were used in the study. We used SPSS for the descriptive statistical analysis, and AMOS for the structural equation modeling. The results of the study show that Guozhuang Dance has a positive effect on enhancing the subjective well-being of older adults and can increase the subjective well-being through the chain mediating effect of group identity and self-efficacy. We suggest that effective measures should be taken to encourage older adults to participate in Guozhuang Dance, in order to enhance their subjective well-being.

Cost-oriented optimization of the location and capacity of charging stations for the electric Robotaxi fleet

Large-scale adoption of Robotaxi requires a comprehensive charging infrastructure as a guarantee, but the problems of insufficient capacity, low utilization, and unreasonable deployment of electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs) are still common. In this context, this study proposed a multi-stage optimization strategy consisting of fleet sizing, charging demand simulation, model construction and solution to achieve the location and capacity optimization of EVCSs for the electric Robotaxi fleet. In stage one, a vehicle shareable network model based on graph theory was developed to determine the minimum Robotaxi fleet size required to adequately meet user travel demand, which was solved using the Hopcroft-Karp algorithm. In stage two, the specific spatio-temporal distribution of fleet charging demand was obtained by Monte Carlo simulation, considering the decision-making characteristics of Robotaxi operation and charging process. In stage three, a charging station location and capacity optimization model was established with the objective of minimizing the comprehensive costs, and an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm applying genetic operators to improve the population diversity was proposed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm was analyzed and discussed based on a case study using the real passenger order and geographic data from the city of Chengdu, China.

Epidemiological Characteristics of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease and the Effect of EV71 Vaccination in Chengdu from 2012 to 2020

To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) in Chengdu from 2012 to 2020, to make comparison in order to examine the changes in incidence before and after vaccination was introduced, and to provide basis for the prevention of HFMD in the future. Descriptive epidemiological methods were adopted to analyze the incidence, mortality and rate of severe cases of HFMD cases reported in Chengdu from 2012 to 2020. From 2012 to 2020, the cumulative cases of HFMD reported in Chengdu were as many as 279216, of which, there were 2201 severe cases and 16 deaths. The incidence increased every other year, reaching 326.43 per 100000 person-years, the highest ever, in 2018. The rate of severe cases and mortality had shown a decreasing trend since 2016. A total of 11892 cases of EV71, CoxA16 and other enteroviruses were detected in the laboratory, accounting for 14.8%, 18.8% and 66.3%, respectively. Since 2016, HFMD cases caused by EV71 virus infection had shown an overall decreasing trend, cases caused by Cox A16 virus infection had increased every other year, and cases caused by other enteroviral infections had shown an overall increasing trend. The reported cases were mainly concentrated in children aged 0-5 years (92.1%), with those in the age group of 1-2 years reporting the highest number of cases. For children of different ages, male patients always outnumber female patients. The geographic distribution showed that the areas with high HFMD incidence were always located in the central part of Chengdu City, and the three districts with the highest incidence growth rate were Qingbaijiang District, Shuangliu District, and Longquanyi District. Temporal distribution of HFMD cases showed an obvious bimodal distribution, with most of the cases concentrated in May through August and October through December of each year. The number of new cases reached the highest (12309 cases) in July 2018. While continuing to promote EV71 vaccination in the future, Chengdu also needs to pay more attention to viral infection serotypes other than EV71 and Cox A16 and conduct research on multivalent vaccines against a variety of enteroviruses. The focus of prevention and control can be placed on areas with high population density, large floating populations, large numbers of agriculture-related communities, and insufficient individual awareness of hygiene. For the second circle of Chengdu city, the disinfection of agriculture-related communities should be strengthened, and information sessions or other health education activities could be organized for individuals and daycare facilities with low awareness of the importance of hygiene. In addition, more attention should be given to the prevention and control of HFMD in the high incidence seasons.

Exploring the influence of residential courtyard space landscape elements on people's emotional health in an immersive virtual environment.

A good residential courtyard space not only brings people a psychological feeling of emotional pleasure but also attracts people to actively engage in more physical activities, which is of great significance to improving people's physical and mental health. Green vegetation and fitness facilities as the most preferred landscape elements in residential courtyard spaces and their effects on people's emotional health have not been further investigated. In this research, a virtual experiment was constructed in a residential courtyard space in Chengdu City, China, and electrodermal sensors were used to measure the real-time emotional changes of people in different virtual scenarios to analyze the effects of two landscape elements, green vegetation and fitness facilities, on people's emotional health, and the differences of such effects among different genders and ages. The results confirm that the combination of virtual reality technology and wearable physiological sensor measurement technology could effectively identify health-promoting landscape elements in urban environments; In residential courtyard spaces, green vegetation is more emotionally healthy than fitness facilities, and fitness facilities have better emotional health benefits for men and people over 30 years of age. The results of the study provide a quantitative basis for the healthier design and transformation of residential courtyard spaces for both green vegetation and fitness facilities.

Responses of ozone concentrations to the synergistic control of NOx and VOCs emissions in the Chengdu metropolitan area

Simulations of 108 emission reduction scenarios for NOx and VOCs using Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx) were conducted for eight cities in the Chengdu metropolitan area (CMA). The isopleth diagrams were drawn to explore the responses and differences of ozone (O3) concentrations to NOx and VOCs emission changes under Chengdu, CMA and Sichuan Province emission reduction scenarios. The results show that the O3-sensitive regimes of eight cities may change under different emission reduction scenarios. Under Chengdu emission reduction scenario, the Chengdu city is in the transition regime and O3 formation will shift from transition to VOC-limited when the VOCs emissions decreased by 50%, and the decreases in O3 concentrations caused by VOCs emission reductions are small. For the CMA and Sichuan Province emission reduction scenarios, all cities are NOx-limited in the baseline cases and with at least a 66% and a 77% reduction in NOx emissions, respectively, the daily maximum 8-h average O3 (MDA8) can attain the O3 standard (160 μg m−3). Although reductions in VOCs emissions can also lessen the O3 concentration, the effectiveness is relatively small. The changes in O3 concentrations under different VOCs to NOx emission reduction ratios indicate that all cities achieve a relatively high O3 concentration decrement with low VOCs to NOx emission reduction ratios and that the decreasing O3 concentrations caused by non-local emission reductions are much higher than those achieved by local emission reductions. In addition, the decreases in O3 concentrations in Chengdu are quite close when the total NOx and VOCs emissions reduction percentages are less than 30% under the CMA and Sichuan emission reduction scenarios.

Protection and Tourism Development of Cultural Heritage of Place Names in Chengdu, China

Place names that contain rich regional cultural connotations are “living fossils” of history and culture, and they are of great tourist value. Taking the main urban area of Chengdu City as an example, this paper analyzes the cultural characteristics and connotations of place names, as well as their tourist values. This value is believed to mainly include stimulating tourists' interest in traveling, presenting local tourism features, enhancing the travel experience of the visitors and serving the tourism economy. Then this paper discusses the problems of place name cultural heritage and puts forward the tourism development strategies for Chengdu's place name culture. Such strategies could include establishing a tourism place name system of Chengdu scenic spot names, using place names in the restoration and development of ancient scenery, combining place names with food tourism resources and high-quality tourism commodities, developing cultural and creative products related to Chengdu place names, strengthening the theoretical discussion on Chengdu place name culture and conducting dissemination activities for Chengdu place name culture.

Environmental DNA metabarcoding reveals the impacts of anthropogenic pollution on multitrophic aquatic communities across an urban river of western China

Anthropogenic activities are intensively affecting the structure and function of biological communities in river ecosystems. The effects of anthropogenic pollution on single-trophic community have been widely explored, but their effects on the structures and co-occurrence patterns of multitrophic communities remain largely unknown. In this study, we collected 13 water samples from the Neijiang River in Chengdu City of China, and identified totally 2352 bacterial, 207 algal, 204 macroinvertebrate, and 33 fish species based on the eDNA metabarcoding to systematically investigate the responses of multitrophic communities to environmental stressors. We observed significant variations in bacterial, algal, and macroinvertebrate community structures (except fish) with the pollution levels in the river. Network analyses indicated a more intensive interspecific co-occurrence pattern at high pollution level. Although taxonomic diversity of the multitrophic communities varied insignificantly, phylogenetic diversities of fish and algae showed significantly positive and negative associations with the pollution levels, respectively. We demonstrated the primary role of environmental filtering in driving the structures of bacteria, algae, and macroinvertebrates, while the fish was more controlled by dispersal limitation. Nitrogen was identified as the most important factor impacting the multitrophic community, where bacterial composition was mostly associated with NO3−-N, algal spatial differentiation with TN, and macroinvertebrate and fish with NH4+-N. Further partial least-squares path model confirmed more important effect of environmental variables on the relative abundance of bacteria and algae, while macroinvertebrate and fish communities were directly driven by the algae-mediated pathway in the food web. Our study highlighted the necessity of integrated consideration of multitrophic biodiversity for riverine pollution management, and emphasized the importance of controlling nitrogen inputs targeting a healthy ecosystem.

Collaborative vehicle-drone distribution network optimization for perishable products in the epidemic situation

The collaborative vehicle-drone distribution network (CVDDN) optimization problem incorporates vehicle-drone collaboration mechanism, site selection, product perishability, and epidemic impact into the optimization framework. And it is formulated as a bi-objective mathematical model to minimize the total cost and the value loss for products distribution. An efficient two-phase hybrid heuristic algorithm based on the improved K-means clustering and the extended Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (ENSGA-II) is proposed to solve the investigated CVDDN optimization problem. The improved K-means clustering algorithm is employed to find an effective location strategy for “contactless” distribution sites (DS) and act as a base for collaborative vehicle routing problem with drones (VRPD). The ENSGA-II combines the NSGA-II algorithm framework and flexible tabu search rules to ensure a large effective search and fast parallel calculations, which generates a real-coded solution space to find the hybrid vehicle-drone delivery routes for VRPD. Various experimental instances tests show that the ENSGA-II outperforms other algorithms. An empirical case study of Chengdu city in China indicates the efficiency of our proposed optimization model and solving approach. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to identify the impact of various parameters on the CVDDN optimization problem.

Cultural exchange and integration: archaeometallurgical case study on underneath-blade bronze dagger-axes from Shuangyuan Village Site in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty

As typical artifacts of the Ba-Shu culture, bronze dagger-axes have always been highly valued by academia. Underneath-blade bronze dagger-axes were utilized widely in both the Central Plains and southwest China. However, opinions differ on whether these underneath-blade bronze dagger-axes which excavated from Ba-Shu culture were produced locally. Combined with archaeological typology study, p-XRF and MC-ICP-MS were used to analyze 12 underneath-blade bronze dagger-axes unearthed from Shuangyuan Village Site, an Eastern Zhou cemetery in Chengdu city, Sichuan Province, Southwest China in order to investigate the cultural exchange and integration centered on the Shu culture. The composition results show that the majority of samples were made from copper, tin, and lead ternary alloy. The data on lead isotopes indicate that underneath-blade bronze dagger-axes have different mineral sources. The lead isotope ratio 206Pb/204Pb of 18.3 can draw the conclusion to be used as one of the bases for judging that underneath-blade bronze dagger-axes originated in the Chengdu Plain or the Central Plains which was consistent with the typology. The southern China lead materials of underneath-blade bronze dagger-axes in the Ba-Shu and Central Plains style probably came from southern Sichuan; while the rest of underneath-blade bronze dagger-axes in the Central Plains style might use lead materials in the western Hunan-western Hubei area. The Shu culture which was represented by Shuangyuan Village Site in Chengdu Plain during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty had close cultural communication with the Central Plains and Chu cultures. This study reveals that Ba-Shu had a direct exchange of minerals or metal products with the Central Plains and Chu, as well as an imitation based on the identification of the foreign culture and the belief in the local Shu cultural traditions.

Effectiveness of early essential newborn care on breastfeeding and maternal outcomes: a nonrandomized controlled study

BackgroundBreastfeeding and maternal health play crucial roles in improving newborn health, which is closely related to the development of families and society. Early essential newborn care, which emphasizes early exclusive breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact, is recommended by the World Health Organization. This study aimed to explore the association of early essential newborn care with breastfeeding and maternal outcomes.MethodsA nonrandomized controlled study was carried out from May 2020 to January 2021 in a tertiary hospital in Chengdu city, China. Pregnant women were recruited from the maternity ward before they gave birth. Early essential newborn care was performed for 91 mother-newborn pairs after birth in the intervention group, while routine birth care was performed for 91 mother-newborn pairs in the control group. Data on breastfeeding and maternal outcomes were collected pre-test and post-test and were recorded by trained data collectors and retrieved from hospital case record files.ResultsCompared with the control group, the intervention group had a higher incidence of early breastfeeding initiation, an earlier initiation and longer duration for the first breastfeeding, a higher incidence of successful first breastfeeding, more exclusive breastfeeding at hospital discharge, higher maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy, a shorter duration of the third stage of labour, lower postpartum blood loss, and lower scores of maternal pain and anxiety postpartum; the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05).ConclusionThe implementation of high-quality early essential newborn care can help mothers initiate early breastfeeding, improve exclusive breastfeeding rates at hospital discharge, enhance breastfeeding self-efficacy, promote the woman’s recovery from labour, and reduce maternal anxiety and pain in the postpartum period. High-quality early essential newborn care is recommended to policymakers and medical professionals to improve breastfeeding and maternal outcomes.Trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry, Retrospective Registration (27/7/2021), registration number: ChiCTR2100049231.

Research on the Evolution of the Economic Spatial Pattern of Urban Agglomeration and Its Influencing Factors, Evidence from the Chengdu-Chongqing Urban Agglomeration of China

To investigate the spatial evolution process of economic development in the urban agglomeration and its influencing factors, the network construction method, modified gravity model, geographic detector and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model are used to analyze the intensity of urban association; then, the evolution of economic, spatial pattern and its influencing factors are further discussed, and the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration of China from 2005 to 2020 is studied as an example. The results show that: (1) the economically developed zones of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration mainly concentrated in the core cities of Chengdu and the central city of Chongqing, and the region shows an uneven spatial pattern of economic development distribution. (2) The share of economic linkages with the central city of Chengdu and Chongqing as the twin cities is significant, the intensity of Chengdu and its neighboring cities is gradually decreasing, while the central city of Chongqing has increased, but it still has an insufficient influence on the peripheral areas. (3) The intensities and directions of the factors influencing economic development in the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration are different. The total output value of the secondary industry, total social fixed asset investment, the number of beds in health institutions, and road freight turnover are significant factors with consistently strong explanatory ability for economic development. The promotion effect of these four significant factors on economic development is mainly concentrated in the eastern and western regions of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration, while the inhibiting effect is mainly on the cities in the south and north. Based on this study, relevant recommendations are made to promote the coordinated development of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration.

Chinese adolescents' depression, anxiety, and family mutuality before and after COVID-19 lockdowns: Longitudinal cross-lagged relations.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the longitudinal cross‐lagged association between family mutuality, depression, and anxiety among Chinese adolescents before and after the COVID‐19 lockdown in 2020.BackgroundLimited attention has been paid to the longitudinal links between family mutuality, depression, and anxiety in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic.MethodWe used self‐administered questionnaires to collect data from three high schools and two middle schools in Chengdu City at two time points: Time 1 (T1), December 23, 2019–January 13, 2020; Time 2 (T2), June 16–July 8, 2020. The sample consisted of 7,958 participants who completed two wave surveys before and after the COVID‐19 lockdown. We analyzed the data using cross‐lagged structural equation modeling.ResultsThe longitudinal cross‐lagged model showed family mutuality at T1 significantly predicted depression, anxiety, and family mutuality at T2. We observed a decreasing prevalence of depression and anxiety after the COVID‐19 lockdown.ConclusionFamily mutuality plays an important role in mitigating long‐term mental health disorders, such as depression and anxiety. More family‐centered psychological interventions could be developed to alleviate mental health disorders during lockdowns.ImplicationsImproving family mutuality (e.g., mutual support, interaction, and caring among family members) could be beneficial for reducing mental health disorders among Chinese adolescents during the COVID‐19 pandemic.