The authors‘ previous research has demonstrated that parallel mechanisms (PMs) with hybrid branch chains (i.e., branch chains containing planar or spatial loops) can possess symbolic forward position (SFP) solutions and motion decoupling (MD). In order to further study the conditions of a three-chain six degrees of freedom (DOF) parallel mechanism with SFP and MD, this paper proposes one 6-DOF branch chain A and two 5-DOF branch chains B and C. Based on these, a class of four 6-DOF PMs with three branch chains is devised. The symbolic position analysis of three of four such PMs is performed consequently, featuring partial MD and SFPs, which reveals that if the position or orientation of a point on the moving platform can be determined by the position of the hybrid branch chain, the PM exhibits partial MD and SFP. Finally, the accuracy of the symbolized forward and inverse solution algorithms is verified through numerical examples. This research brings a new insight into the design and position analysis of 6-DOF PMs, particularly those with SFP and partial MD.

The purpose of this study is to further investigate the relationship between sweetener exposure and the risk of endometrial cancer (EC). Up until December 2022, a literature search in an electronic database was carried out utilizing PubMed, Web of Science, Ovid, and Scopus. The odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) were used to evaluate the results. Sweeteners were divided into nutritional sweeteners (generally refers to sugar, such as sucrose and glucose) and non-nutritional sweeteners (generally refers to artificial sweeteners, such saccharin and aspartame). Ten cohort studies and two case-control studies were eventually included. The study found that in 12 studies, compared with the non-exposed group, the incidence rate of EC in the sweetener exposed group was higher (OR = 1·15, 95 % CI = [1·07, 1·24]). Subgroup analysis showed that in 11 studies, the incidence rate of EC in the nutritional sweetener exposed group was higher than that in the non-exposed group (OR = 1·25, 95 % CI = [1·14, 1·38]). In 4 studies, there was no difference in the incidence rate of EC between individuals exposed to non-nutritional sweeteners and those who were not exposed to non-nutritional sweeteners (OR = 0·90, 95 % CI = [0·81, 1·01]). This study reported that the consumption of nutritional sweeteners may increase the risk of EC, whereas there was no significant relationship between the exposure of non-nutritional sweeteners and the incidence of EC. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended to reduce the intake of nutritional sweeteners, but it is uncertain whether use of on-nutritional sweeteners instead of nutritional sweetener.

It has been suggested that added sugar intake is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, previous studies only focused on sugar-sweetened beverages; the evidence for associations with total added sugars and their sources is scarce. This study aimed to examine the associations of total added sugars, their physical forms (liquid v. solid) and food sources with risk of NAFLD among adults in Tianjin, China. We used data from 15 538 participants, free of NAFLD, other liver diseases, CVD, cancer or diabetes at baseline (2013–2018 years). Added sugar intake was estimated from a validated 100-item FFQ. NAFLD was diagnosed by ultrasonography after exclusion of other causes of liver diseases. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were fitted to calculate hazard ratios (HR) and corresponding 95 % CI for NAFLD risk with added sugar intake. During a median follow-up of 4·2 years, 3476 incident NAFLD cases were documented. After adjusting for age, sex, BMI and its change from baseline to follow-up, lifestyle factors, personal and family medical history and overall diet quality, the multivariable HR of NAFLD risk were 1·18 (95 % CI 1·06, 1·32) for total added sugars, 1·20 (95 % CI 1·08, 1·33) for liquid added sugars and 0·96 (95 % CI 0·86, 1·07) for solid added sugars when comparing the highest quartiles of intake with the lowest quartiles of intake. In this prospective cohort of Chinese adults, higher intakes of total added sugars and liquid added sugars, but not solid added sugars, were associated with a higher risk of NAFLD.

Prospective cohort studies linking organ meat consumption and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are limited, especially in Asian populations. This study aimed to prospectively investigate the association between organ meat consumption and risk of NAFLD in a general Chinese adult population. This prospective cohort study included a total of 15 568 adults who were free of liver disease, CVD and cancer at baseline. Dietary information was collected at baseline using a validated FFQ. NAFLD was diagnosed by abdominal ultrasound after excluding other causes related to chronic liver disease. Cox proportional regression models were used to assess the association between organ meat consumption and risk of NAFLD. During a median of 4·2 years of follow-up, we identified 3604 incident NAFLD cases. After adjusting for demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, vegetable, fruit, soft drink, seafood and red meat consumption, the multivariable hazard ratios (95 % CI) for incident NAFLD across consumption of organ meat were 1·00 (reference) for almost never, 1·04 (0·94, 1·15) for tertile 1, 1·08 (0·99, 1·19) for tertile 2 and 1·11 (1·01, 1·22) for tertile 3, respectively (P for trend < 0·05). Such association did not differ substantially in the sensitivity analysis. Our study indicates that organ meat consumption was related to a modestly higher risk of NAFLD among Chinese adults. Further investigations are needed to confirm this finding.

Pyroptosis is a recently identified mechanism of programmed cell death related to Caspase-1 that triggers a series of inflammatory reactions by releasing several proinflammatory factors such as IL-1β and IL-18. The process is characterised by the rupture of cell membranes and the release of cell contents through the mediation of gasdermin (GSDM) proteins. GSDMD is an important member of the GSDM family and plays a critical role in the two pathways of pyroptosis. Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a microvascular complication of diabetes and a major cause of end-stage renal disease. Recently, it was revealed that GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis plays an important role in the occurrence and development of DN. In this review, we focus on two types of kidney cells, tubular epithelial cells and renal podocytes, to illustrate the mechanism of pyroptosis in DN and provide new ideas for the prevention, early diagnosis and molecular therapy of DN.

Evidence has suggested that honey intake has a beneficial impact on glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes. Whether these findings apply to adults with prediabetes is yet unclear. The aim of the present study was to examine whether honey intake is associated with a lower prevalence of prediabetes. A cross-sectional study was performed in 18 281 participants (mean age 39·6 (sd 11·1) years; men, 51·5 %). Dietary intake was assessed through a validated 100-item FFQ. Prediabetes was defined according to the American Diabetes Association criteria: impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance or raised glycosylated Hb. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the association between honey consumption and prediabetes. As compared with those who almost never consumed honey, the multivariable OR of prediabetes were 0·94 (95 % CI 0·86, 1·02) for ≤3 times/week, 0·77 (95 % CI 0·63, 0·94) for 4–6 times/week and 0·85 (95 % CI 0·73, 0·99) for ≥1 time/d (Pfor trend < 0·01). These associations did not differ substantially in sensitivity analysis. Higher honey consumption was associated with a decreased prevalence of prediabetes. More large prospective cohort studies are needed to investigate this association.

The topological structure of a parallel manipulator (PM) determines its intrinsic topological properties (TPs). The TPs further determine essential kinematic and dynamic properties of the mechanism. TPs can be expressed through topological characteristics indexes (TCI). Therefore, defining a set of TCIs is an important issue to evaluate the TPs of PMs. This article addresses the evaluation of topological properties (ETP) of PMs based on TCI. A general and effective ETP method for PMs is proposed. Firstly, 12 TCIs are proposed, including 8 quantitative TCIs, that is, position and orientation characteristics sets (POC), dimension of the POC set, degrees of freedom (DOF), number of independent displacement equations, types and number of an Assur kinematic chain (AKC), coupling degrees of the AKCs, degrees of redundancy and the number of overs; as well as 4 qualitative TCIs, that is, selection of actuated joints, identification of inactive joints, DOF type and Input–Output motion decoupling. Secondly, the ETP method is illustrated by evaluating some well-known PMs including the Delta, Tricept, Exechon, Z3, H4 and the Gough–Stewart platform manipulators, as well as 28 other typical PMs. Via the ETP analysis of these mechanisms also some valuable design knowledge is derived and guidelines for the design of PMs are established. Finally, a 5-DOF decoupled hybrid spraying robot is developed by applying the design knowledge and the design guidelines derived from the ETP analysis.

The microstructure evolution of a typical nickel-based superalloy was studied in the strain range of 0.1–0.9 at 1110 °C/0.01 s−1 by using the electron backscattered diffraction technique. It was found that the evolution of recrystallized microstructures, grain boundary characteristics, and textures was closely related to strain level. With the increasing strain level, the fraction of equiaxed dynamic recrystallization (DRX) grains increased significantly at the expense of the large non-recrystallized grains, and there was a decrease in total low angle grain boundaries fraction and a simultaneous increase in the fraction of high angle grain boundaries. In addition, the occurrence of DRX promoted the formation of Σ3 boundaries, and the coherent Σ3 boundaries were much easier to form at the strain above 0.5. On the other hand, 〈100〉 component of the textures became stronger with the increasing strains, and the lack of 〈111〉 orientations can also be observed in the textures at high strains above 0.7.

A series of zeolite–zeolite composites were prepared by a two-step hydrothermal crystallization procedure in which the mixture of presynthesized ZSM-5 zeolite acts as nutrients for the growth of postsynthesized Y zeolite, and the as-synthesized products are denoted as MFI–FAU. The structural, crystalline, and textural properties of the as-synthesized materials, as well as the references Y, ZSM-5, and a corresponding physical mixture composed of Y and ZSM-5 zeolite, were characterized by x-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FTIR), temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia, N2 adsorption–desorption, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectrometry, and Thermogravimetry. The results show that the ratio of Y to ZSM-5 in the composite can be adjusted by controlling the hydrothermal treatment time of the second-step synthesis. Steric hindrance provoked by the concurrently growing crystals offers the postsynthesized Y zeolite phase, a relatively smaller size. A hierarchical pores system, which results from the extraction of silicon species from ZSM-5 and the polycrystalline accumulation of Y zeolite, has been created in the zeolite–zeolite composite. Catalytic performances of the zeolite–zeolite composite catalysts as well as the references catalysts were investigated during the catalytic cracking of isopropylbenzene. As compared with the corresponding physical mixture, the composite catalysts display the excellent catalytic performances with a higher conversion of isopropylbenzene as well as a longer catalytic life because of the introduced hierarchical pores system and the formation of special composite structure.

This paper investigates the problem of how to design the distance between a mobile buoy and the target to derive maximum positioning accuracy with a Moving Long Baseline (MLBL). To that end, the positioning model and the error sources of MLBL are derived, respectively. It is assumed that the position measurement of the mobile buoy and the distance measurement between the mobile buoy and the target are corrupted by white Gaussian noises, and the variance of the distance measurement is distance-dependent. Using tools from estimation theory, the Positioning Accuracy Metric (PAM) is designed with the distance error and the position errors are considered. Based on the PAM, the optimal distance between the mobile buoy and target is deduced when the mobile buoys are in optimal geometry. Simulation examples illustrate the results.

Polymeric materials undergo rapid erosion when exposed to the harsh low-earth-orbit (LEO) environment. Coatings can reduce the erosion rate of polyimide Kapton from atomic oxygen (AO) attack. Specifically, we are investigating how thin Al coatings can protect Kapton. Protective Al layers with variations in layer thickness and growth conditions were deposited on Kapton H. The quality of these protective coatings were evaluated by mass loss measurement and compared to Kapton alone and the SiO2 coating, where dramatically decreased erosion rate was noted. To understand how these coatings protect Kapton as well as how the AO interacts with the coatings, we are investigating the microstructure of these coated materials by plane view and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods. To understand the AO degradation mechanism, we attempted to correlate the mass loss with growth conditions and microstructures. We noted a slight improvement in erosion resistance of the Al coating due to the presence of the dendrimer, but a major improvement when the Al coating is deposited under ultrahigh vacuum conditions.