Staphylococcus aureus has been recognised as one of the important zoonotic pathogens. However, knowledge about the epidemiology and genetic characteristics of S. aureus in rabbits was limited. The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of 281 S. aureus isolated from dead rabbits of nine rabbit farms in Fujian Province, China. All the isolates were characterised by multi-locus sequencing typing, detection of virulence factors and antimicrobial susceptibility test. The results showed that the 281 isolates were grouped into two sequence types, ST121 (13.52%, 38/281) and ST398 (86.48%, 243/281). Surprisingly, the ST121 strains were only recovered from the lung samples from one of the nine rabbit farms studied. In the 281 isolates, the virulence genes of nuc, hla, hlb, clfA, clfB and fnbpA were positive, whereas the sea, seb, tsst, eta and etb genes were negative. Notably, the 38 ST121 isolates carried the pvl gene. All the 281 isolates were methicillin-susceptible S. aureus, and the isolates were susceptible to most of the used antibiotics, except for streptomycin, kanamycin, azithromycin and penicillin, and the resistance rates of which were 23.84%, 19.57%, 16.01% and 11.03%, respectively. This study first described the epidemiology and characteristics of S. aureus in rabbits in Fujian Province, which will help in tracking the evolution of epidemic strains and preventing the rabbit–human transmission events.

We investigate the conditions that determine the detachment of a water drop from different vibrating textured plates by using vertical vibrations. The plate surfaces were patterned by a lattice of pillars of different shapes with different geometrical arrangements. The acceleration threshold for the water droplet to bounce off the surfaces was measured as a function of the excitation frequency. In each case, the acceleration threshold presents a minimum at the natural frequency of the droplet. The minimum acceleration required for the take-off is larger for small droplets than for large droplets. Namely, one finds that the value of the threshold depends on the size of the droplet and on the maximum apparent contact area between the droplet and the substrate. The theoretical model takes into account the energy necessary to break the capillary bridges between the droplet and the pillars of the surface. This model captures the main ingredients explaining the drop size dependence of the acceleration threshold for the take-off.

Altered gut microbial ecology contributes to the development of metabolic diseases including obesity. However, studies based on different populations have generated conflicting results due to diet, environment, methodologies, etc. The aim of our study was to explore the association between gut microbiota and Body Mass Index (BMI) in Chinese college students. 16S next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to test the gut microbiota of 9 lean, 9 overweight/obesity, and 10 normal-weight male college students. The differences of gut microbiota distribution among three groups were compared, and the relationship between the richness, diversity, composition of gut microbiota and BMI were analyzed. The predominant phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were further confirmed by real-time PCR. Metagenomic biomarker discovery was conducted by Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) Effect Size (LEfSe). NGS revealed that gut microbiota composition was different among three groups, but there was no difference in the abundance ratio of Firmicutes/ Bacteroidetes. Several bacterial taxa were in linear relationship with BMI (positive relationship: uncultured bacterium (Bacteroides genus); negative relationship: Porphyromonadaceae, Acidaminococcaceae, Rikenellaceae, Desulfovibrionaceae, Blautia, Anaerotruncus, Parabacteroides, Alistipes). Moreover, gut microbiota diversity decreased with the increase of BMI. And LEfSe analyze indicated that Blautia, Anaerotruncus and its uncultured species were significantly enriched in the lean group (LDA score≥3), Parasuterella and its uncultured species were significantly enriched in the overweight/obese groups(LDA score≥3). In general, gut microbiota composition and microbial diversity were associated with BMI in Chinese male college students. Our results might enrich the understanding between gut microbiota and obesity.

Evaluation of Cr, Mn, Fe, Zn and Se in humans is challenged by the potentially high within-individual variability of these elements in biological specimens, which are poorly characterised. This study aimed to evaluate their within-day, between-day and between-month variability in spot samples, first-morning voids and 24-h collections. A total of 529 spot urine samples (including eighty-eight first-morning voids and 24-h collections) were collected from eleven Chinese adult men on days 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 30, 60 and 90 and analysed for these five elements using inductively coupled plasma-MS. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were utilised to characterise the reproducibility, and their sensitivity and specificity were analysed to assess how well a single measurement classified individuals’ 3-month average exposures. Serial measurements of Zn in spot samples exhibited fair to good reproducibility (creatinine-adjusted ICC = 0·47) over five consecutive days, which became poor when the samples were gathered months apart (creatinine-adjusted ICC = 0·33). The reproducibility of Cr, Mn, Fe and Se in spot samples was poor over periods ranging from days to months (creatinine-adjusted ICC = 0·01–0·12). Two spot samples were sufficient for classifying 60 % of the men who truly had the highest (top 33 %) 3-month average Zn concentrations; for Cr, Mn, Fe and Se, however, at least three specimens were required to achieve similar sensitivities. In conclusion, urinary Cr, Mn, Fe, Zn and Se concentrations showed a strong within-individual variability, and a single measurement is not enough to efficiently characterise individuals’ long-term exposures.

Laser pulses of 200 ps with extremely high intensities and high energies are sufficient to satisfy the demand of shock ignition, which is an alternative path to ignition in inertial confinement fusion (ICF). This paper reports a type of Brillouin scheme to obtain high-intensity 200-ps laser pulses, where the pulse durations are a challenge for conventional pulsed laser amplification systems. In the amplification process, excited Brillouin acoustic waves fulfill the nonlinear optical effect through which the high energy of a long pump pulse is entirely transferred to a 200-ps laser pulse. This method was introduced and achieved within the SG-III prototype system in China. Compared favorably with the intensity of $2~\text{GW}/\text{cm}^{2}$ in existing ICF laser drivers, a 6.96- $\text{GW}/\text{cm}^{2}$ pulse with a width of 170 ps was obtained in our experiment. The practical scalability of the results to larger ICF laser drivers is discussed.

Excessive intake of high-energy diets is an important cause of most obesity. The intervention of rats with high-fat diet can replicate the ideal animal model for studying the occurrence of human nutritional obesity. The proteomics and bioinformatics analysis can help us to systematically and comprehensively study the effect of high-fat diet on rat liver. In this study, 4056 proteins were identified in rat liver by using tandem mass tag. A total of 198 proteins were significantly changed, of which 103 were significantly up-regulated and 95 were significantly down-regulated. These significant differentially expressed proteins are primarily involved in lipid metabolism and glucose metabolism processes. The intake of a high-fat diet forces the body to maintain physiological balance by regulating these key protein spots to inhibit fatty acid synthesis, promote fatty acid oxidation, and accelerate fatty acid degradation. This study enriches our understanding of metabolic disorders induced by high-fat diets at the protein level.

X-ray powder diffraction data, unit-cell parameters, and space group for 17- hydroxy-16-methyl-9,11-epoxypregna-1,4,6-triene-3,20-dione, C22H26O4, are reported [ a = 18.435(1) Å, b = 12.269(3) Å, c = 8.251(5) Å, α = 90°, β = 90°, γ = 90°, unit-cell volume V = 1866.43 Å3, Z = 4, ρcal = 1.261 g cm−3 and space group P212121]. All measured lines were indexed and are consistent with the P212121 space group. No detectable impurities were observed.