Objectives: Increasing evidence demonstrates the benefits of forest environment on human health. However, the effect of tree-species-specific forest environment on human health was rarely studied. As one of the medical plants, cinnamomum camphora (C. camphora) have been found to possess anti-inflammatory activities. Thus, the present study explored the effects of C. camphora forest environment on elderly patients with hypertension (HTN). Study design: Cohort study. Methods: 31 elderly patients with essential HTN were randomly divided into two groups. Blood pressure (BP), pulse oxygen saturation (SpO2%), heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV) and levels of plasma high-sensitive-reactive protein (hs-CRP), as well as profile of mood states (POMS) test, were measured. Categorical variables were compared by Chi-square analysis. T-test was used to compare continuous data. Results: After three-day/ two-night forest bathing, patients in the forest group showed significantly lower levels of diastolic blood pressure (DBP), low frequency (LF), the ratio of low frequency and high frequency (LF/HF) and hs-CRP than in control group. However, levels of SpO2% and high frequency (HF) were greatly higher than control group. Furthermore, negative mood subscale scores of POMS were significantly lower following forest bathing, while the positive score was much higher. Conclusions: C. Camphora environment could significantly decrease the DBP and inflammatory level, balance the autonomic activity and improve the mood state of participates, implying it might be an adjunctive therapy for HTN patients.

A B S T R A C TThe relatively low total column ozone (TCO) above the Tibetan Plateau (TP) observed in summer is only partly due to the thinness of the atmospheric column. In this paper the effect of the TP on the TCO is further investigated using satellite data [Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) ozone column and Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II) ozone profiles], ECMWF ERA-40 reanalysis data and a 3-D chemistry-climate model (CCM). It is found that the low TCO over the TP is also closely related to large-scale uplift and descent of isentropic surfaces implied by seasonal and longitudinal variations in the tropopause height. The variations in tropopause height, with a maximum in summer, can be driven by various processes including convective activity, air expansion as well as the monsoon system. While previous studies have showed an important role of troposphere-to-stratosphere transport in contributing to the observed low ozone column over the TP, the mechanism revealed in this study is an alternative amendment to the causes of the TCO low over the TP. It is also found that the monsoon anticyclone circulation induces an isentropic transport of trace gases from high latitudes towards the TP in the lower stratosphere and hence modifies tracer distributions. For the vertical distribution of ozone, the modulation by the TP is most significant below ∼20 km, that is, in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). The smaller differences in NO x between Eastern TP and TP compared to large dynamically caused differences in ozone and methane imply the TCO low over the TP is mainly due to transport processes rather than chemistry.

The variations of tropospheric blockings and their connections with the stratospheric polar vortex during different stages of the life cycle of extreme stratospheric polar vortex events (i.e. strong vortex (SV) events and weak vortex (WV) events) are investigated. The blocking frequency decreases over the Euro-Atlantic sector and increases over the western North Pacific during the onset and maturation stages of SV events. There are more blocking days over the western North Pacific and weakened upward planetary wave fluxes in the stratosphere during the maturation stage of shorter time-scale SV events than during longer time-scale SV events and the weakening of the upward planetary wave fluxes mainly results from the linear wave interference effect. The blocking frequency is increased over the Euro-Atlantic sector during the decline stage of SV events. This increase is found to be related to the descending stratospheric zonal wind anomalies and the poleward displacement of the eddy-driven jet stream, which lasts for about 10 days and is associated with the descending positive stratospheric Northern Annular Mode (NAM) anomalies. The increased blocking frequency leads to an enhancement of the planetary wave fluxes in the stratosphere via both the linear wave interference (for shorter time-scale SV events) and nonlinear wave interference (for longer time-scale SV events) effect.The changes of the blocking frequency during the growth stage of WV events are almost opposite to those observed during the onset and maturation stages of SV events. The blocking frequency decreases over the Euro-Atlantic sector after the central dates of WV events, which are related to the descending stratospheric zonal wind anomalies and the equatorward displacement of the eddy-driven jet stream preceded by the descending negative stratospheric NAM anomalies about 10 days. We found that the nonlinear wave interference begins to make a considerable contribution to the weakening of the upward wave fluxes in the stratosphere after the central date of WV events and this is not emphasized in previous literature.

Constrained by ERA-Interim, a cloud-resolving model is employed to characterize cloud systems over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and east China. The authors focus on analyzing the role of different physical processes on cloud macro- and microscale properties of the cloud systems, especially convective cloud systems between east China and the TP. It is found that convective clouds over the TP are thinner than over east China. This difference is also reflected in the albedo at the top of the atmosphere, where smaller albedos are found for the clouds over the TP. Furthermore, the lifetimes of the deep cloud systems over the TP are shorter than over east China. For the entire simulated period, the latent heat released by phase transitions contributes the most to the total heating and moisture budget, followed by eddy transport over all regions. In addition, radiative heating also plays a nonnegligible role in the total heating effects over the TP. These results also suggest that the influence of ice phase processes is more important over the TP than east China, especially during deep convective periods. Affected by strong surface heat flux, the cloud-top height of convective clouds over the TP exhibits a diurnal cycle, leading to a diurnal cycle of rainfall.