The Chinese National Twin Registry (CNTR), initiated in 2001, has now become the largest twin registry in Asia. From 2015 to 2018, the CNTR continued to receive Chinese government funding and had recruited 61,566 twin-pairs by 2019 to study twins discordant for specific exposures such as environmental factors, and twins discordant for disease outcomes or measures of morbidity. Omic data, including genetics, genomics, metabolomics, and proteomics, and gut microbiome will be tested. The integration of omics and digital technologies in public health will advance our understanding of precision public health. This review introduces the updates of the CNTR, including study design, sample size, biobank, zygosity assessment, advances in research and future systems epidemiologic research.

Rumen-protected betaine (RPB) can enhance betaine absorption in the small intestine of ruminants, while betaine can alter fat distribution and has the potential to affect the meat quality of livestock. Hence, we hypothesized that RPB might also affect the meat quality of lambs. Sixty male Hu sheep of similar weight (30.47 ± 2.04 kg) were selected and randomly subjected to five different treatments. The sheep were fed a control diet (control treatment, CTL); 1.1 g/day unprotected-betaine supplemented diet (UPB); or doses of 1.1 g/day (low RPB treatment; L-PB), 2.2 g/day (middle RPB treatment; M-PB) or 3.3 g/day (high RPB treatment; H-PB) RPB-supplemented diet for 70 days. Slaughter performance, meat quality, fatty acid and amino acid content in the longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle, shoulder muscle (SM) and gluteus muscle (GM) were measured. Compared with CTL, betaine (including UPB and RPB) supplementation increased the average daily weight gain (ADG) (P < 0.05) and average daily feed intake (P < 0.01) of lambs. Rumen-protected betaine increased ADG (P < 0.05) compared with UPB. With increasing RPB doses, the eye muscle area of the lambs linearly increased (P < 0.05). Compared with CTL, betaine supplementation decreased water loss (P < 0.05) in SM and increased pH24 in the SM (P < 0.05) and GM (P < 0.05). Compared with UPB, RPB decreased water loss in the GM (P < 0.01), decreased shear force (P < 0.05) in the LD and SM and increased the pH of the meat 24 h after slaughter (pH24). With increasing RPB doses, the shear force and b* value in the LD linearly decreased (P < 0.05), and the pH24 of the meat quadratically increased (P < 0.05). Compared with CTL, betaine supplementation increased the polyunsaturated fatty acid in the GM (P < 0.05). Compared with UPB, RPB supplementation decreased the saturated fatty acid (SFA) content in the LD (P < 0.05) and increased the unsaturated fatty acids (UFA), mono-unsaturated fatty acids and UFA/SFA ratio in the LD (P < 0.05). Compared with CTL, the content of histidine in the LD increased with betaine supplementation. Compared with UPB, RPB supplementation increased the content of total free amino acids and flavor amino acids in the LD of lambs (P < 0.05). With increasing RPB, the isoleucine and phenylalanine contents in the LD linearly increased (P < 0.05). Overall, the data collected indicated that the meat quality of lambs (especially in the LD) improved as a result of betaine supplementation, and RPB showed better effects than those of UPB.

Three-dimensional graphene (3D-GN)/Cu/Fe3O4 composite support materials were synthesized by a modified chemical reduction method using graphene oxide precursor. A 3D-GN/Cu/Fe3O4 biosensor was prepared by coating the electrode with laccase. The electrochemical properties of the biosensor were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry using potassium ferricyanide, phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution, and bisphenol A (BPA) solution. The current response of 3D-GN/Cu/Fe3O4 biosensors presents a remarkable sensitivity based on CV. The linear range of BPA is 7.2–18 μM using differential pulse voltammetry in PBS solution (pH = 4.0). A linear fitting equation of the laccase biosensor was observed for the current response as a function of BPA concentration. The detection limit was decreased to 1.7 μM. The detection approach herein turns out to be highly sensitive, has a wide linear range, and exhibits excellent stability.

Metal oxides are promising candidates as the anodes of next-generation lithium ion batteries. However, the low electronic conductivities hinder their practical applications. Herein, through a facile calcination process using ammonium bicarbonate (NH4HCO3) as the N source, the nitrogen heteroelement was introduced into the ZnO/CoO micro-/nanospheres, which greatly improves the conductivity of the composites. As the lithium-ion battery anode, the N-doped ZnO/CoO micro-/nanosphere demonstrates much enhanced electrochemical performance. It displays a high initial capacity of 911.8 mA h/g at a current density of 0.2 A/g and long-term cycling stability, with a reversible capacity of 977.8 mA h/g remained after 500 cycles at a current density of 1 A/g. Furthermore, the N-doped ZnO/CoO composite presents an outstanding rate performance, with 605 mA h/g remained even at 5 A/g. The excellent electrochemical properties make N-doped ZnO/CoO micro-/nanospheres a promising candidate as high-performance anodes for next-generation rechargeable LIBs.

Multidimensional instabilities always develop with time during the process of radiation pressure acceleration, and are detrimental to the generation of monoenergetic proton beams. In this paper, a sharp-front laser is proposed to irradiate a triple-layer target (the proton layer is set between two carbon ion layers) and studied in theory and simulations. It is found that the thin proton layer can be accelerated once to hundreds of MeV with monoenergetic spectra only during the hole-boring (HB) stage. The carbon ions move behind the proton layer in the light-sail (LS) stage, which can shield any further interaction between the rear part of the laser and the proton layer. In this way, proton beam instabilities can be reduced to a certain extent during the entire acceleration process. It is hoped such a mechanism can provide a feasible way to improve the beam quality for proton therapy and other applications.

A Pickering emulsion was prepared via synergistic stabilization of a lipase and palygorskite particles. The optimum conditions for the stabilization of the Pickering emulsion, such as the concentrations of the palygorskite particles and lipase, were explored. The morphology of emulsion droplets was examined using digital optical microscopy and polarizing optical microscopy. The palygorskite–lipase co-stabilized Pickering emulsions were investigated by determination of the adsorption rate, pH and zeta potential of the aqueous dispersion, as well as by determining the contact angle values of the lipase solution on a palygorskite disc that was immersed in toluene. The catalytic performance of the immobilized lipase in the Pickering emulsion was studied via the investigation of its thermal stability, storage stability and reusability. The immobilized lipase showed greater stability than the free lipase. The lipase immobilized by Pickering emulsion retained a high level of activity even after seven periods of recycling.

A series of compact filtering power dividers (FPDs) with simple layouts are proposed based on coupling topology. The structure of the presented FPD1 is composed of three resonators and one isolating resistor. These FPDs can be designed based on coupling matrix filter theory. A half-wave transmission line is employed in FPD2 to introduce a transmission zero (TZ) locating at 1.27f0. The FPD3 is designed by replacing quarter-wave transmission lines in FPD2 with quarter-wave coupled lines, which will produce a TZ locating at 1.96 f0 and extend upper stopband bandwidth. For verification, three FPDs centered at 2.45 GHz are fabricated and measured. All measured results are in good agreement with the full-wave simulation results.

The continental shelf strata provide information regarding sea-level fluctuation and climate changes in the Quaternary period. A 5831.47-km-long high-resolution seismic profile and borehole core (YS01) were acquired to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the strata in South Yellow Sea (SYS) during the late Pleistocene. The strata recorded three transgression events (HI, HII, and HIII) and three stages of paleochannel development (LI, LII, and LIII). Based on the distribution, thickness, and volume of the strata formed in the three transgressions, we concluded that the scale of the three transgressions during the late Pleistocene was HIII, HI, and HII, in descending order. In addition, our data show that the Yellow River extended to the Yellow Sea Trough during the last glacial maximum. The influence of the tectonic framework on sedimentation in the SYS was completely concealed by sea-level changes and sediment supply in the late Pleistocene (~Marine Isotope Stage 5). Since then, the accommodation space, a crucial prerequisite for sedimentation, has been controlled solely by sea-level changes in the SYS. Furthermore, two “source to sink” models of the neritic shelf in the marine and terrestrial environments were established, including high sea-level and shelf-exposure models.

This paper presents a neural network-based four-direction search scheme of path planning for mobile agents, given a known environmental map with stationary obstacles. Firstly, the map collision energy is modeled for all the obstacles based on neural network. Secondly, for the shorted path-search purpose, the path energy is considered. Thirdly, to decrease the path-search time, a variable step-length is designed with respect to collision energy of the previous iteration path. Simulation results demonstrate that the variable step-length is effective and can decrease the iteration time substantially. Lastly, experimental results show that the mobile agent tracks the generated path well. Both the simulation and experiment results substantiate the feasibility and realizability of the presented scheme.

In order to reveal the quantitative relationship between fatigue crack deflection path and cross-sectional grain boundary (GB) arrangement of metallic nanolayered composites (NLCs), a stochastic model was established based on the interface-dominant fatigue damage for the ultrafine-scale NLCs. The model indicates that the crack deflection length decreases with decreasing GB arrangement deviation and grain size of constituent layers. The observation and quantitative analysis of fatigue cracking behavior of the Cu/W multilayers with a layer thickness of 5 and 20 nm was conducted to verify the model.

Annexin A2 (ANXA2) is reported to be associated with cancer development. To investigate the roles ANXA2 plays during the development of cancer, the RNAi method was used to inhibit the ANXA2 expression in caco2 (human colorectal cancer cell line) and SMMC7721 (human hepatocarcinoma cell line) cells. The results showed that when the expression of ANXA2 was efficiently inhibited, the growth and motility of both cell lines were significantly decreased, and the development of the motility relevant microstructures, such as pseudopodia, filopodia, and the polymerization of microfilaments and microtubules were obviously inhibited. The cancer cell apoptosis was enhanced without obvious significance. The possible regulating pathway in the process was also predicted and discussed. Our results suggested that ANXA2 plays important roles in maintaining the malignancy of colorectal and hepatic cancer by enhancing the cell proliferation, motility, and development of the motility associated microstructures of cancer cells based on a possible complicated signal pathway.

Suppose that $0<|\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}|<1$ and $m\geqslant 2$ is an integer. Let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C},m}$ be the self-similar measure defined by $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C},m}(\cdot )=\frac{1}{m}\sum _{j=0}^{m-1}\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C},m}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{-1}(\cdot )-j)$ . Assume that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}=\pm (q/p)^{1/r}$ for some $p,q,r\in \mathbb{N}^{+}$ with $(p,q)=1$ and $(p,m)=1$ . We prove that if $(q,m)=1$ , then there are at most $m$ mutually orthogonal exponential functions in $L^{2}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C},m})$ and $m$ is the best possible. If $(q,m)>1$ , then there are any number of orthogonal exponential functions in $L^{2}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C},m})$ .

Fatigue properties of Mo/W multilayers with individual layer thickness (λ) of 5, 20, 50 and 100 nm on flexible polyimide substrates were investigated. The experimental results show that the fatigue resistance increases with decreasing λ from 100 nm to 20 nm, and reaches the maximum at λ=20 nm, and then decreases when further decreasing λ. Fatigue cracks of Mo/W multilayers with different λ were found to propagate along columnar grain boundary in the out-of-plane direction and along the boundary of cluster structures. The enhanced fatigue resistance is attributed to the larger cluster inclination angles and the more tortuous in-plane cracking paths.