Forest therapy is a fast-growing treatment approach, as it has the potential to alleviate stressful life events and to improve psychological well-being and physical health. Bamboo forests are widespread in southwestern China. Nevertheless, a knowledge gap on the specific health benefits of bamboo forest (BF) therapy still exists. To explore the psycho-physiologic responses of participants to the effects of BF therapy, 60 male adults aged between 19 and 24, with similar healthy conditions, were selected to participate in this study. A one-group pretest-posttest design was used for the BF sites and the city site (CS) to compare the difference in the psycho-physiologic responses of participants before and after the test. Participants at the BF sites participated in a three-day bamboo forest therapy session, and those at the CS participated in a three-day urban program. Blood pressure, heart rate, and peripheral oxygen saturation were measured as the physical signs, and the profile of mood state (POMS) questionnaire was completed by the participants for the psychological evaluation. Blood was sampled, and natural killer (NK) activity, the number of NK cells, and the levels of corticosterone, granulysin, perforin, and granzyme A/B in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) were measured. All the measurements mentioned above were performed at 08:00 on the first and fourth days within the test. Results indicated that the three-day BF therapy was capable of enhancing positive mood states and also reducing negative mood states in the male participants. The blood pressure and heart rates of the male participants decreased, while the peripheral oxygen saturation increased after the three-day BF therapy session. Furthermore, BF therapy significantly increased NK activity and the number of NK cells and perforin-, granulysin-, and granzyme A/B-expressing cells and significantly decreased the corticosterone level in PBLs in the male participants. The three-day BF therapy session improved the psychological and physiological well-being and enhanced the immune functions of the male college students.
Cultivated land planting structure is directly related to China’s food security. The Central Rural Work Conference in 2021 pointed out that to ensure food security, attention should be paid to the adjustment of planting structure. Therefore, it is necessary to explore whether land tenure security has an impact on farmers’ cultivated land non-grain behavior. Based on the micro survey data of 550 farmers in the Guanzhong Plain, this paper explores the impact of land tenure security on farmers’ cultivated land non-grain behavior with the help of the OLS model and the Binary Probit model, and further explores its internal transmission mechanism through the mediation effect model. It is found that land tenure security significantly promotes farmers’ cultivated land non-grain behavior. After replacing model estimation, core variables for robustness tests, and solving endogeneity problems, the research conclusion is still valid. The analysis of the influence mechanism shows that land tenure security affects farmers’ cultivated land non-grain behavior by increasing land transfer and agricultural productive investment. Among them, agricultural productive investment has the greatest impact, followed by land transfer. In addition, the study also found that land tenure security can promote their cultivated land non-grain behavior by strengthening their credit availability for farmers with low fragmentation. Heterogeneity analysis results show that off-farm employment and social services can effectively alleviate the impact of land tenure security on farmers’ cultivated land non-grain behavior. This paper provides a new research perspective for analyzing the incentives of cultivated land non-grain from the micro-mechanism. At the same time, it revealed the inner root of the government’s predicament in the governance of cultivated land non-grain. It provided a new reference for the government to formulate new policies for managing non-grained cultivated land.
The distribution and evolution of city size are critical for town layout optimization. Based on the most recent classification standards and census data for 2010 and 2020, this paper aims to explore China’s city size distribution above the prefecture level. Using the rank-size law, Kernel density estimation, Spatial Gini coefficient, and Markov transition matrix, the newest city size distribution characteristics and spatial evolution patterns in China are shown from national and regional viewpoints. Our main findings are as follows: (1) Over the period from 2010 to 2020, China’s city size distribution follows the rank-size law but deviates from Zipf’s ideal. The distribution of city size is centralized in general. (2) China’s city-size hierarchy exhibits a good “olive” structure, with fewer megacities but larger populations. The growth rate of small and medium-sized cities is higher than the number of medium-sized cities. (3) China’s cities have grown greatly in size, with more than a third of them expanding. Over the last decade, high-ranking cities have become the primary driver of change. (4) There are disparities in city size between regions. A diminishing trend can be seen in three key economic zones.
Spatial agglomeration, as a phenomenon of commodity trading markets, reflects regional economic development in China. This study explores the spatial agglomeration of commodity trading markets and analyzes its influencing factors. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2019, this article first calculated the location quotient of the transaction volume of commodity trading markets and analyzed their temporal and spatial trends. Finally, a spatial econometric model was used to conduct an empirical examination of the influencing factors determining the spatial agglomeration of commodity trading markets. The results show that the agglomeration pattern of China’s commodity trading markets has changed significantly from 2010 to 2019. In terms of geographic variations, we discovered that the eastern region has a higher degree of commodity trading market concentration than the central and western regions. In terms of influencing factors, this study found that the level of economic development, the degree of openness, and the development of private industrial enterprises still positively affect the spatial agglomeration of commodity trading markets. However, the level of social consumption has no significant impact. Based on these findings, this article puts forward relevant policy recommendations to promote the further development of China’s commodity exchange market.
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