Urbanization and industrialization have contributed to the rapid growth of solid waste production, posing serious challenges to the urban governance field. Consequently, the concept of “zero waste” (ZW) has gradually become the common goal pursued by human society. At the end of 2021, China initiated the second phase of ZW city (ZWC) construction. Several pilot areas were selected and these areas have exhibited the characteristics of regionalization in distribution. However, previous studies on China’s ZWCs have mainly summarized and reflected on the results of the first phase of practice, ignoring the development requirements of city cluster construction. The transformation from the ZWC to “zero-waste city clusters” (ZWCCs) requires the government, as a leader, to change its role to adapt to the new development trend. This study selects Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta City Cluster (PRDCC) in the pilot cities as the research objects to discuss the successful experience of Shenzhen in terms of the improvement of the legal framework, establishment of a centralized park governance model, and establishment of an information platform. Based on the specific situation of the PRDCC, the study analyzes how the government should accomplish the transformation of its role and re-stablish its positioning. Furthermore, a case study reveals that the government should change its dominant role to a collaborator’s role to effectively promote ZWC construction, given the problems of unbalanced regional economic level, inconsistent solid waste treatment capacity, noncooperation among multiple subjects, and imperfect coordination mechanism. The study provides three recommendations for this purpose, including supporting enterprises and social organizations with institutional incentives and establishing a benign interaction model with multiple actors as well as a sound publicity and monitoring model. In conclusion, the transformation of China from ZWCs to ZWCC is in accordance with the development law, and the government must adapt to the law and change the governance model accordingly. The study provides a reference for ZWC construction in other countries or regions.

BackgroundForest therapy has gained popularity in Japan and even other nations/regions due to its health benefits. In addition, forest therapy has contributed to the development of circular economy and industrial upgrading. Japanese successful practice can serve as a model for other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. To this end, the aim of this study was to determine whether forest therapy can improve the whole well-being of the participants and has a positive effect on the development of circular economy in the region.MethodsBoth empirical and inductive research methods were used; empirical approach was conducted to perform comparative analysis of regional data that was retrieved from the research project of Japanese Forestry Agency in 2015. Specifically, the efficacy of forest therapy on physical (blood glucose, blood pressure, body weight) and mental (sleep quality e.g.,) health outcomes among 815 participants was investigated. Regional data are from the statistics of Iiyama City from 1990 to 2005. After the concept of forest therapy became popular in the late 1990s, this element had a great positive impact on the economic benefits of Ishiyama City and other major forest scenic areas. We summarize and analyze a series of policies made by relevant departments of the Japanese government in the years from 2019 to 2021 to promote forest therapy and related circular industry development.ResultsSignificant (pre-to-post participation) changes in physical measure was observed. Firstly, mean weight of those overweight participants decreased across three different time points (pre-test/enrollment = 79.7 kg, 3-month participation = 77.2, and 6-month participation = 76.8 kg), while overall mean weight of the participants decreased to 61, 60.5, and 60.4 kg, respectively. Secondly, Participant with normal weight showed a decrease on mean HbA1C (from 6.09 to 6.06) at Week 24, while overweight participants demonstrated a slight change 6.03–6.01 after 6 months the average HOMA-IR for overweight participants decreased from 3.5 to 2.5 at Week 24, while participants with normal weight demonstrated a decrease from 2.2 to 1.7 at Week 24. Forest Therapy has emerged in Japan since Mid-1990s and has attracted a large number of tourists all over the world due to its unique health benefits.ConclusionForest therapy in Japan has positive effects on whole well-being of Japanese residents and it has helped public mental health promotion and economic growth. Under the guidance and support of government policies, it can promote the development of circular economy and industrial transformation and set a model of Japanese forest therapy development for other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

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In this paper, the hot tensile deformation of a GH3230 superalloy double-sheet was conducted under deformation temperatures ranging from 1123~1273 K and strain rates ranging from 0.001~0.2 s−1. The flow behavior of the GH3230 superalloy double-sheet was analyzed in detail. The hot tensile deformation process of the GH3230 superalloy double-sheet includes four stages of elastic deformation, strain hardening, steady state and fracture. The true stress decreases with the increasing deformation temperature and decreasing strain rate. The variation of the strain rate sensitivity index and strain hardening index with processing parameters were discussed. The average apparent activation energy for hot tensile deformation is 408.53 ± 46.96 kJ·mol−1. A combined Johnson-Cook and Hensel-Spittle model considering the couple effect of strain hardening, strain rate hardening and thermal softening was established to describe the hot tensile behavior of the GH3230 alloy double-sheet. Compared to Johnson-Cook model and Hensel-Spittle model, this model has the highest predicting accuracy. The average absolute relative error of true stress between the experimental and the predicted is only 2.35%.