The timely identification of the high-risk groups for nosocomial infections (NIs) plays a vital role in its prevention and control. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate whether the ABO blood group is a risk factor for NI. In this study, patients with NI and non-infectionwere matched by the propensity score matching method and a logistic regression model was used to analyse the matched datasets. The study found that patients with the B&AB blood group were susceptible to Escherichia coli (OR = 1.783, p = 0.039); the A blood group were susceptible to Staphylococcus aureus (OR = 2.539, p = 0.019) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (OR = 5.724, p = 0.003); the A&AB blood group were susceptible to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (OR = 4.061, p = 0.008); the AB blood group were vulnerable to urinary tract infection (OR = 13.672, p = 0.019); the B blood group were susceptible to skin and soft tissue infection (OR = 2.418, p = 0.016); and the B&AB blood group were vulnerable to deep incision infection (OR = 4.243, p = 0.043). Summarily, the patient’s blood group is vital for identifying high-risk groups for NIs and developing targeted prevention and control measures for NIs.

Hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) is one of the rate-determining enzymes in the hydrolysis of TAG, playing a crucial role in lipid metabolism. However, the role of HSL-mediated lipolysis in systemic nutrient homoeostasis has not been intensively understood. Therefore, we used CRISPR/Cas9 technique and Hsl inhibitor (HSL-IN-1) to establish hsla-deficient (hsla-/-) and Hsl-inhibited zebrafish models, respectively. As a result, the hsla-/- zebrafish showed retarded growth and reduced oxygen consumption rate, accompanied with higher mRNA expression of the genes related to inflammation and apoptosis in liver and muscle. Furthermore, hsla-/- and HSL-IN-1-treated zebrafish both exhibited severe fat deposition, whereas their expressions of the genes related to lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation were markedly reduced. The TLC results also showed that the dysfunction of Hsl changed the whole-body lipid profile, including increasing the content of TG and decreasing the proportion of phospholipids. In addition, the systemic metabolic pattern was remodelled in hsla-/- and HSL-IN-1-treated zebrafish. The dysfunction of Hsl lowered the glycogen content in liver and muscle and enhanced the utilisation of glucose plus the expressions of glucose transporter and glycolysis genes. Besides, the whole-body protein content had significantly decreased in the hsla-/- and HSL-IN-1-treated zebrafish, accompanied with the lower activation of the mTOR pathway and enhanced protein and amino acid catabolism. Taken together, Hsl plays an essential role in energy homoeostasis, and its dysfunction would cause the disturbance of lipid catabolism but enhanced breakdown of glycogen and protein for energy compensation.

In this paper, a broadband, low insertion loss, and compact folded substrate integrated waveguide (FSIW) phase shifter is proposed for the first time. By loading the complementary split-ring resonators (CSRRs) on the middle metal layer of the FSIW, a closed-type slow-wave transmission line (TL) is obtained, which can provide a wideband phase shift (39%) compared with the equal-length fast-wave one. The enclosed structure of the CSRR-loaded FSIW prevents the CSRRs from radiation as suffered in the previous reported CSRR-loaded TLs, resulting in a low insertion loss. This feature greatly reduces the amplitude imbalance between the main line and the reference line of the phase shifter. In addition, no transition structure is required between the FSIWs with and without CSRRs for broadband impedance matching, which makes the phase shifter more compact and easier to integrate with other FSIW devices. To validate the performance of the proposed phase shifter and to illustrate its ease integration, a novel FSIW 180° directional coupler that consists of an FSIW 90° coupler and an FSIW 90° phase shifter is designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured results agree well with the simulated data.

Nowadays, automated essay evaluation (AEE) systems play an important role in evaluating essays and have been successfully used in large-scale writing assessments. However, existing AEE systems mostly focus on grammar or shallow content measurements rather than higher-order traits such as ideas. This paper proposes a new formulation of graph-based features for concept maps using word embeddings to evaluate the quality of ideas for Chinese compositions. The concept map derived from the student’s composition is composed of the concepts appearing in the essay and the co-occurrence relationship between the concepts. By utilizing real compositions written by eighth-grade students from a large-scale assessment, the scoring accuracy of the computer evaluation system (named AECC-I: Automated Evaluation for Chinese Compositions—Ideas) is higher than the baselines. The results indicate that the proposed method deepens the construct-relevant coverage of automatic ideas evaluation in compositions and that it can provide constructive feedback for students.

In this paper, a millimeter-wave (MMW) dual-mode and dual-band switchable Gilbert up-conversion mixer in a commercial 65-nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process is presented. By simply changing the bias, the proposed CMOS Gilbert up-conversion mixer can be switched between subharmonic and fundamental operation modes for MMW dual-band applications. With a low local oscillator pumping power of 3 dBm and low dc power consumption of 6 mW, the proposed CMOS Gilbert up-conversion mixer exhibits a measured conversion gain of −0.5 ± 1.5 dB from 37 to 50 GHz and 2.5 ± 1.5 dB from 17.5 to 32 GHz for the subharmonic and fundamental modes, respectively.

To address the challenges of limited language proficiency and provide necessary feedback in the implementation of task-based language teaching (TBLT), a mobile-supported TBLT application was developed to provide linguistic and task scaffolding. Sixty-six English as a foreign language (EFL) university learners participated in a three-week experiment as part of a general English course. They were assigned to either an experimental group (mobile-supported TBLT), which received TBLT with scaffolds built into the application, or a control group (traditional TBLT), which received traditional paper-based TBLT without the scaffolds. At the end of the experiment, an English achievement test of vocabulary, grammar, and conversation comprehension was administered to determine if the technological scaffolds enhanced the learning outcomes for the course. Students’ self-perceived use of oral communication strategies was also measured to explore how these scaffolds affected the conversational interaction essential for task performance. Results showed that the mobile-supported TBLT group outperformed the traditional TBLT group on the vocabulary and conversation comprehension tests but not so much on the grammar test. Also, the mobile-supported TBLT group reported greater awareness of fluency- and accuracy-oriented strategies for speaking than the traditional TBLT group. Implications for designing mobile learning to enhance TBLT in an EFL setting are drawn.

This paper proposes and presents a millimeter-wave (MMW) fundamental and subharmonic hybrid mixer in a 65-nm CMOS technology. Based on a hybrid structure with two switching quads and a quasi-diplexer, the proposed circuit can function either as a fundamental mixer (FM) or a subharmonic mixer (SHM) for dual-band applications. An application of the MMW hybrid mixer in a concurrent dual-band receiver is also discussed, which indicates that the proposed mixer can operate at two different MMW frequency bands concurrently as long as the frequency conversion schemes are carefully designed. Measured results show that the 3-dB RF bandwidth of the MMW hybrid mixer ranges from 16 to 35 GHz for the FM mode and 30 to 53 GHz for the SHM mode, respectively.

A higher dietary intake or serum concentration of betaine has been associated with greater lean body mass in middle-aged and older adults. However, it remains unknown whether betaine intake is associated with age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass (SMM). We assessed the association between dietary betaine intake and relative changes in SMM after 3 years in middle-aged adults. A total of 1242 participants aged 41–60 years from the Guangzhou Nutrition and Health Study 2011–2013 and 2014–2017 with body composition measurements by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry were included. A face-to-face questionnaire was used to collect general baseline information. After adjustment for potential confounders, multiple linear regression found that energy-adjusted dietary betaine intake was significantly and positively associated with relative changes (i.e. percentage loss or increase) in SMM of legs, limbs and appendicular skeletal mass index (ASMI) over 3 years of follow-up (β 0·322 (se 0·157), 0·309 (se 0·142) and 0·303 (se 0·145), respectively; P < 0·05). The ANCOVA models revealed that participants in the highest betaine tertile had significantly less loss in SMM of limbs and ASMI and more increase in SMM of legs over 3 years of follow-up, compared with those in the bottom betaine tertile (all Ptrend < 0·05). In conclusion, our findings suggest that elevated higher dietary betaine intake may be associated with less loss of SMM of legs, limbs and ASMI in middle-aged adults.

Outbreaks of norovirus-associated gastroenteritis have been reported in schools in recent decades in China. For early warning and response to infectious disease outbreaks, the Shanghai Infectious Diseases Bud Event Surveillance System (IDBESS) was established in 2016. Bud event is a term used for the early sign of a potential infectious disease outbreak in public settings when the first few cases appear. This study aimed to describe the epidemiological characteristics of Norovirus-associated gastroenteritis bud events from June 2016 to December 2017 and to understand factors influencing the severity of events. Data were extracted from the IDBESS, supplemented by field investigations and school absence surveillance. In total, 189 bud events of Norovirus-associated gastroenteritis were reported in schools and kindergartens, affecting 3827 individuals and 52.38% happened in primary schools. The attack rate of Norovirus-associated gastroenteritis was 3.82% on average in students in the affected schools. In each event, case numbers varied between 5 and 148, with a median of 16. The duration of bud events lasted for 2 days on average. School absence happened in 47.93% (1797/3749) of affected students and the average duration of absence was 3.07 days. It was found that a longer delay before reporting was associated with a longer-lasting duration of bud event (OR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.65, 3.07). In conclusion, ascribed to the sensitive threshold for alerting and the timely field investigation, the surveillance of bud events of Norovirus-associated gastroenteritis is effective in the control of Norovirus infection among preschool children and students in Shanghai.

Cruciferous vegetables contain high levels of glucosinolates (GSL) and isothiocyanates (ITC). ITC are known to induce glutathione S-transferases (GST) and thus exert their anticarcinogenic effects. This study explored the combined effects of cruciferous vegetable, GSL and ITC intake and GST polymorphisms on breast cancer risk. A total of 737 breast cancer cases and 756 controls were recruited into this case–control study. OR and 95 % CI were assessed by multivariable logistic regression. Higher cruciferous vegetable, GSL and ITC intakes were inversely associated with breast cancer risk, with adjusted OR of 0·48 (95 % CI 0·35, 0·65), 0·54 (95 % CI 0·40, 0·74) and 0·62 (95 % CI 0·45, 0·84), respectively. Compared with women carrying the GSTP1 rs1695 wild AA genotype and high cruciferous vegetable, GSL or ITC intake, carriers of the AA genotype with low cruciferous vegetable, GSL and ITC intake had greater risk of breast cancer, with adjusted OR of 1·43 (95 % CI 1·01, 1·87), 1·34 (95 % CI 1·02, 1·75) and 1·37 (95 % CI 1·05, 1·80), respectively. Persons with the GSTM1-null genotype and lower intake of cruciferous vegetables, GSL and ITC had higher risk of breast cancer than those with the GSTM1-present genotype and higher intake, with OR of 1·42 (95 % CI 1·04, 1·95), 1·43 (95 % CI 1·05, 1·96) and 1·45 (95 % CI 1·06, 1·98), respectively. Among women possessing the GSTT1-present genotype, low intake of cruciferous vegetables, GSL or ITC was associated with higher risk of breast cancer. But these interactions were non-significant. This study indicated that there were no significant interactions between cruciferous vegetable, GSL or ITC intake and GST polymorphisms on breast cancer risk.

B vitamins (including folate, vitamin B2, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12) and methionine are essential for methylation reactions, nucleotide synthesis, DNA stability and DNA repair. However, epidemiological evidence among Chinese populations is limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate B vitamins and methionine in relation to colorectal cancer risk in a Chinese population. A case–control study was conducted from July 2010 to April 2019. A total of 2502 patients with colorectal cancer were recruited along with 2538 age- (5-year interval) and sex-matched controls. Dietary data were collected using a validated FFQ. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess OR and 95 % CI. The intake of folate, vitamin B2, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 was inversely associated with colorectal cancer risk. The multivariable OR for the highest quartile v. the lowest quartile were 0·62 (95 % CI 0·51, 0·74; Ptrend < 0·001) for folate, 0·46 (95 % CI 0·38, 0·55; Ptrend < 0·001) for vitamin B2, 0·55 (95 % CI 0·46, 0·76; Ptrend < 0·001) for vitamin B6 and 0·72 (95 % CI 0·60, 0·86; Ptrend < 0·001) for vitamin B12. No statistically significant association was found between methionine intake and colorectal cancer risk. Stratified analysis by sex showed that the inverse associations between vitamin B12 and methionine intake and colorectal cancer risk were found only among women. This study indicated that higher intake of folate, vitamin B2, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 was associated with decreased risk of colorectal cancer in a Chinese population.

The effects of dietary vitamin D, Ca and dairy products intakes on colorectal cancer risk remain controversial. The present study investigated the association between these dietary intakes and the risk of colorectal cancer in Guangdong, China. From July 2010 to December 2018, 2380 patients with colorectal cancer and 2389 sex- and age-matched controls were recruited. Dietary intake data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a validated FFQ. Unconditional multivariable logistic regression models were used to calculate the OR and 95 % CI after adjusting for various confounders. Higher dietary vitamin D and Ca intakes were associated with 43 and 52 % reductions in colorectal cancer risk, with OR of 0·57 (95 % CI 0·46, 0·70) and 0·48 (95 % CI 0·39, 0·61), respectively, for the highest quartile (v. the lowest quartile) intakes. A statistically significant inverse association was observed between total dairy product intake and colorectal cancer risk, with an adjusted OR of 0·32 (95 % CI 0·27, 0·39) for the highest v. the lowest tertile. Subjects who drank milk had a 48 % lower risk of colorectal cancer than those who did not (OR 0·52, 95 % CI 0·45, 0·59). The inverse associations of dietary vitamin D, Ca, total dairy products and milk intakes with the risk of colorectal cancer were independent of sex and cancer site. Our study supports the protective effects of high dietary vitamin D, Ca and dairy products intakes against colorectal cancer in a Chinese population.

Mental impasse has long been recognized as a hallmark of creative insight, but its precise role has been unexplored. The aim of the present work, consisting of two studies, was to experimentally probe mental impasse perspective from insight experience, namely impasse-related experience during insight. In Study 1, participants were requested to complete a compound remote association task and a forced-choice subjective experience depiction task that could provide data on impasse-related experience. The results showed that reports of negative experience, such as feelings of loss (t = –5.51, p < .001, Cohen d = 1.07) and personal experience (mirrored by ‘other’ response; t = –2.62, p < .05, Cohen d = 0.48), were more common in the impasse condition than in the no-impasse condition; correspondingly positive affect and positive cognitive experiences such as happiness (t = 4.20, p < .001, Cohen d = 0.77), ease (t = 5.90, p < .001, Cohen d = 1.20), certainty (t = 7.46, p < .001, Cohen d = 1.36) and calmness (t = 4.42, p < .001, Cohen d = 0.81) were experienced more frequently in the no-impasse condition. These findings were replicated in Study 2, in which participants were invited to solve a set of classic insight problems and to freely report any feelings of being at an impasse. Across two studies, this work suggests that impasse-related experience during insight problem solving is multi-faceted and consists of negative affective and cognitive components. The implications of these findings are discussed.