After over 30 years of rapid development in the wooden flooring industry in China, there is an imperative need to address the resulting environmental impacts. Therefore, this study analyzed the ...environmental impacts of the four most common types of wooden flooring in China, such as solid wood flooring, multi-layer engineered wood flooring, three-layer engineered wood flooring, and laminated flooring, utilizing the life-cycle assessment approach. This study assessed 12 environmental indicators, the comprehensive index of energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER), and the eco-efficiency of the four wooden flooring types. A trade-off was observed among the various impact categories, making it challenging to rank the environmental performance of the four types of wooden flooring. Contribution analysis revealed that woody raw materials and electricity consumption in the production process were the primary environmental hotspots of wooden flooring. The ECER index indicated that the multi-layer engineered wood flooring exhibited the highest environmental impacts, followed by laminated flooring, three-layer engineered wood flooring, and solid wood flooring. The eco-efficiency of solid wood flooring was 237%, 767%, and 1454% higher than that of three-layer engineered wood flooring, multi-layer engineered wood flooring, and laminated flooring, respectively. Sensitivity analysis revealed that enhancing the environmental performance of wooden flooring lies in reducing power consumption and woody raw material consumption during the production process. These findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the environmental impacts associated with wooden flooring manufacturing, while also serving as a reference for further improvements in reducing their environmental impacts.
•The environmental burden of four types of wooden flooring production were compared.•It was challenging to select the superior flooring based on a single indicator.•The SWF had the lowest overall environmental burden, followed by three-layer EWF, LF, and multi-layer EWF.•The value of SWF was significantly higher than that of other floorings under the same environmental burden.
Owing to the similarities in raw materials, technology, and application fields between fiberboard and particleboard, it is crucial to perform a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) on these two ...types of panels. This comparison can greatly contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the environmental impact of these panels. However, there is a limited number of studies available regarding the comparative LCA study of these panels. Therefore, in this study, the environmental effects of manufacturing process of dry-process fiberboard (medium-density fiberboard, MDF) and particleboard (PB) were compared. A cradle-to-gate LCA model was developed using eFootprint software. The results showed that PB exhibited better environmental performance than MDF because of the lower power consumption and the amount of urea-formaldehyde (UF) resin required in the manufacturing process. The total environmental impact of PB from cradle to gate was 27.5% lower than that of MDF, and the eco-efficiency of PB was 18.8% higher than that of MDF. Regardless of the panel type, the greatest environmental effect occurred in the raw and auxiliary materials production phase, followed by the board production phase. The environmental effect of the transportation phase was minimal. The production of UF resin and the consumption of electricity were identified as the main environmental hotspots. Finally, two approaches to enhance environmental performance were proposed and applied: first, replacing UF resin with a soy-based adhesive, and second, switching from thermal power to hydropower. In addition, the environmental impacts before and after implementing these approaches were compared.
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•Particleboard has better environmental performance than medium density fiberboard.•Urea-formaldehyde resin and electricity are the key environmental hotspots.•Soy-based adhesive doesn't outperform urea-formaldehyde resin in all impacts.
Preclinical and clinical studies have suggested a neuroprotective effect of remote ischemic conditioning (RIC), which involves repeated occlusion/release cycles on bilateral upper limb arteries; ...however, robust evidence in patients with ischemic stroke is lacking.
To assess the efficacy of RIC for acute moderate ischemic stroke.
This multicenter, open-label, blinded-end point, randomized clinical trial including 1893 patients with acute moderate ischemic stroke was conducted at 55 hospitals in China from December 26, 2018, through January 19, 2021, and the date of final follow-up was April 19, 2021.
Eligible patients were randomly assigned within 48 hours after symptom onset to receive treatment with RIC (using a pneumatic electronic device and consisting of 5 cycles of cuff inflation for 5 minutes and deflation for 5 minutes to the bilateral upper limbs to 200 mm Hg) for 10 to 14 days as an adjunct to guideline-based treatment (n = 922) or guideline-based treatment alone (n = 971).
The primary end point was excellent functional outcome at 90 days, defined as a modified Rankin Scale score of 0 to 1. All end points had blinded assessment and were analyzed on a full analysis set.
Among 1893 eligible patients with acute moderate ischemic stroke who were randomized (mean SD age, 65 10.3 years; 606 women 34.1%), 1776 (93.8%) completed the trial. The number with excellent functional outcome at 90 days was 582 (67.4%) in the RIC group and 566 (62.0%) in the control group (risk difference, 5.4% 95% CI, 1.0%-9.9%; odds ratio, 1.27 95% CI, 1.05-1.54; P = .02). The proportion of patients with any adverse events was 6.8% (59/863) in the RIC group and 5.6% (51/913) in the control group.
Among adults with acute moderate ischemic stroke, treatment with remote ischemic conditioning compared with usual care significantly increased the likelihood of excellent neurologic function at 90 days. However, these findings require replication in another trial before concluding efficacy for this intervention.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03740971.
Intravenous thrombolysis is increasingly used in patients with minor stroke, but its benefit in patients with minor nondisabling stroke is unknown.
To investigate whether dual antiplatelet therapy ...(DAPT) is noninferior to intravenous thrombolysis among patients with minor nondisabling acute ischemic stroke.
This multicenter, open-label, blinded end point, noninferiority randomized clinical trial included 760 patients with acute minor nondisabling stroke (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale NIHSS score ≤5, with ≤1 point on the NIHSS in several key single-item scores; scale range, 0-42). The trial was conducted at 38 hospitals in China from October 2018 through April 2022. The final follow-up was on July 18, 2022.
Eligible patients were randomized within 4.5 hours of symptom onset to the DAPT group (n = 393), who received 300 mg of clopidogrel on the first day followed by 75 mg daily for 12 (±2) days, 100 mg of aspirin on the first day followed by 100 mg daily for 12 (±2) days, and guideline-based antiplatelet treatment until 90 days, or the alteplase group (n = 367), who received intravenous alteplase (0.9 mg/kg; maximum dose, 90 mg) followed by guideline-based antiplatelet treatment beginning 24 hours after receipt of alteplase.
The primary end point was excellent functional outcome, defined as a modified Rankin Scale score of 0 or 1 (range, 0-6), at 90 days. The noninferiority of DAPT to alteplase was defined on the basis of a lower boundary of the 1-sided 97.5% CI of the risk difference greater than or equal to -4.5% (noninferiority margin) based on a full analysis set, which included all randomized participants with at least 1 efficacy evaluation, regardless of treatment group. The 90-day end points were assessed in a blinded manner. A safety end point was symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage up to 90 days.
Among 760 eligible randomized patients (median IQR age, 64 57-71 years; 223 31.0% women; median IQR NIHSS score, 2 1-3), 719 (94.6%) completed the trial. At 90 days, 93.8% of patients (346/369) in the DAPT group and 91.4% (320/350) in the alteplase group had an excellent functional outcome (risk difference, 2.3% 95% CI, -1.5% to 6.2%; crude relative risk, 1.38 95% CI, 0.81-2.32). The unadjusted lower limit of the 1-sided 97.5% CI was -1.5%, which is larger than the -4.5% noninferiority margin (P for noninferiority <.001). Symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage at 90 days occurred in 1 of 371 participants (0.3%) in the DAPT group and 3 of 351 (0.9%) in the alteplase group.
Among patients with minor nondisabling acute ischemic stroke presenting within 4.5 hours of symptom onset, DAPT was noninferior to intravenous alteplase with regard to excellent functional outcome at 90 days.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03661411.
Abstract
Estimating industrial carbon dioxide emissions at the national scale is crucial for China's carbon peak and carbon neutralization targets, as well as the low-carbon development of the ...Chinese furniture manufacturing industry. For this purpose, in this study the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Tier-2 methodology was used to evaluate the carbon dioxide emissions of the Chinese furniture manufacturing industry at the national scale. The results show that carbon dioxide emissions increased from 219.50 × 10,000 tons of CO2 equivalent in 2000 to 850.68 × 10,000 tons of CO2 equivalent in 2019. Moreover, carbon dioxide emission intensity decreased from 9.50 tons of CO2 per million dollars to 1.73 tons of CO2 per million dollars in this period. Moreover, electricity and raw coal were observed to have a significant influence on carbon dioxide emissions, followed by diesel oil, gasoline, heat energy, and natural gas. The results reveal that the Chinese furniture manufacturing industry has generally realized low-carbon development over the past two decades. This work proposes several suggestions to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the Chinese furniture manufacturing industry, including promoting the use of clean electricity, the installation of photovoltaic cells, industrial transformation and upgrading, the optimization of transport modes for product delivery and material supply, and the employment of low-carbon raw materials.
We aim to explore the effect of head-down position (HDP), initiated within 24 hours of onset, in moderate anterior circulation stroke patients with probable large artery atherosclerosis (LAA) ...etiology. This investigator-initiated, multi-center trial prospective, randomized, open-label, blinded-endpoint, multi-center and phase-2 trial was conducted in China and completed in 2021. Eligible patients were randomly assigned (1:1) into the HDP group receiving -20° Trendelenburg, or control group receiving standard care according to national guideline. The primary endpoint was proportion of modified Rankin Scale (mRS) of 0 to 2 at 90 days, which is a scale for measuring the degree of disability after stroke. 90-day mRS was assessed by a certified staff member who was blinded to group assignment. A total of 96 patients were randomized (47 in HDP group and 49 in control group) and 94 (97.9%) patients were included in the final analysis: 46 in HDP group and 48 in control group. The proportion of favorable outcome was 65.2% (30/46) in the HDP group versus 50.0% (24/48) in the control group (unadjusted: OR 2.05 95%CI 0.87-4.82, P = 0.099). No severe adverse event was attributed to HDP procedures. This work suggests that the head-down position seems safe and feasible, but does not improve favorable functional outcome in acute moderate stroke patients with LAA. This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03744533.
Quantifying carbon dioxide (CO
2
) emissions from China’s wood and bamboo processing industry is associated with China’s emissions reduction targets, as well as mitigating global climate change. This ...study employed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Tier-2 methodology to investigate spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of carbon dioxide emission from the wood and bamboo processing industry in China from 2000 to 2019. The results showed that energy consumption reached a maximum value of 312,900.35 TJ in 2012. Energy consumption has been gradually transformed from raw coal to electricity and other clean energy. Energy intensity dropped from 1.39 TJ per million yuan of corrected production value in 2000 to 0.15 TJ per million yuan of corrected production value in 2019. Accordingly, CO
2
emissions reached their peak value of 31,148.1 thousand tons of CO
2
in 2012. Raw coal and electricity had profound impacts on CO
2
emissions. The CO
2
emission intensity declined from 140.04 tons CO
2
per million yuan of corrected production value in 2000 to 19.62 tons CO
2
per million yuan of corrected production value in 2019. We conclude that China’s wood and bamboo processing sector is a green, low-carbon industry. The spatial distribution pattern of CO
2
emissions is highly consistent with the industrial spatial layout. Furthermore, several mitigation paths were put forward.
China is one of the biggest producers of wooden doors all over the world, and the wood-based composite doors are the most popular wooden door type in the country. In the context of energy-efficient ...and environment-friendly, assessing the environmental impacts of wood-based composite doors has become a necessity. The aim of this study was to comprehensively estimate the cradle-to-grave environmental effects of wood-based composite doors by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Using the eFootprint software, LCA study of wood-based composite doors was conducted according to the rules of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The selected environmental indicators were: respiratory inorganics (RI), global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP), water use (WU), primary energy demand (PED), acidification potential (AP), photochemical oxidation formation potential (POFP), abiotic depletion potential (ADP), and ozone depletion potential (ODP). The results indicated that the production phase of raw and auxiliary material was the largest contributor to the environmental effects in terms of ADP, AP, PED, EP, GWP, RI, WU, ODP, and POFP, with the relative share ranging from 49 % to 99 %. The medium density fiberboard was the largest environmental hotspot because of the use of urea-formaldehyde resin. The end-of-life disposal also had a noticeable influence on environmental impact of the door. While the door manufacturing phase and transport phase had less environmental effects. The improvement measures were put forward from two aspects of door manufacturers and their suppliers. In addition, the feasibility and environmental benefits of door recycling was also discussed. The current results can help wood-based composite door manufacturers understand and improve the environmental performance of products.
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•Environmental impacts of a wooden door have attracted increasing attention.•Overall environmental impacts of a wooden door by LCA were evaluated.•MDF was the biggest contributor in relation to the constituents of a wooden door.•Improvement scenarios were proposed for door manufacturers and their suppliers.•Recycling waste wooden doors can reduce the environmental impact.
China is one of the largest manufacturers, consumers, and traders of wood-based panels (WBPs) globally. The Chinese manufacturing process for WBPs is significantly different from that used in other ...countries and the greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint assessment of this process has not yet received attention. And a comprehensive evaluation of the effect of different approaches to estimate the delayed emission of biogenic carbon on the GHG footprints of different WBP types is still missing. This study aims to quantify: i) the GHG footprint of WBPs produced in China, and ii) the influence of different methods to assess the delayed emission of biogenic carbon. Cradle-to-gate life cycle models are developed for plywood (PLY), fiberboard (FB), particleboard (PB) and oriented strand boards (OSB). Based on two common end-of-life (EoL) destinations (i.e., incineration and landfill), three approaches to the estimation of the delayed emissions of biogenic carbon in cradle-to-grave assessments are compared. The cradle-to-gate results show that the GHG footprints of PLY, FB, PB and OSB without considering biogenic carbon storage are 538 kg CO2 e/m³, 406 kg CO2 e/m³, 348 kg CO2 e/m³ and 552 kg CO2 e/m³, respectively. For the four types of WBPs, resources extraction stage provides the largest contribution to the GHG footprints (55%–81%), followed by the production process (18%–31%) and raw material transportation (1%–18%). The methodologies used to assess delayed emissions in cradle-to-grave WBP GHG footprint assessments play an important role, especially for incineration scenarios. Finally, emission reduction measures are proposed based on reducing the consumption of adhesives and of energy use in the production process.
•We analyzed a greenhouse gas footprint case study of the four different types of wood-based panel production in China.•The main emissions hotspots were identified and two emission reduction measures were proposed.•Three approaches to the estimation of the delayed emissions of biogenic carbon were compared.•The methodologies used to assess delayed emissions in wood-based panel GHG footprint assessments play an important role, especially for incineration scenarios.
