Patent data have been utilized for engineering design research for long because it contains massive amount of design information. Recent advances in artificial intelligence and data science present unprecedented opportunities to mine, analyse and make sense of patent data to develop design theory and methodology. Herein, we survey the patent-for-design literature by their contributions to design theories, methods, tools, and strategies, as well as different forms of patent data and various methods. Our review sheds light on promising future research directions for the field.

Sixty growing male pigs were used to test the hypothesis that high dietary Ca content reduces P absorption to a greater extent in microbial phytase-supplemented diets via reducing inositol phosphate (IP) degradation and enhancing P precipitation. Pigs were equally allotted over diets with three Ca contents 2.0, 5.8 and 9.6 g/kg with or without microbial phytase (0 vs. 500 FTU/kg) in a 2×3 factorial arrangement. Faeces and urine were collected at the end of the 21-day experimental period. Subsequently, pigs were euthanized and digesta quantitatively collected from different gastrointestinal tract (GIT) segments. Increasing dietary Ca content reduced apparent P digestibility in all GIT segments posterior to the stomach (P<0.001), with greater effect in phytase-supplemented diets in the distal small intestine (Pinteraction=0.007) and total tract (Pinteraction=0.023). Nonetheless, increasing dietary Ca to 5.8 g/kg enhanced P retention, but only in phytase supplemented diets. Ileal IP6 degradation increased with phytase (P<0.001) but decreased with increasing dietary Ca content (P=0.014). Proportion of IP esters in total IP (∑IP) indicated that IP6/∑IP was increased while IP4/∑IP and IP3/∑IP were reduced with increasing dietary Ca content, also with a greater impact in phytase-supplemented diets (Pinteraction=0.025, 0.018 and 0.009, respectively). In all GIT segments, P solubility was increased with phytase (P<0.001) and tended to be reduced with dietary Ca content (P<0.096). Measurements in GIT segments showed that increasing dietary Ca content reduced intestinal apparent P digestibility via reducing IP degradation and enhancing P precipitation, with a greater impact in phytase-supplemented diets due to reduced IP degradation.

The early identification and prediction of hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) play an important role in the disease prevention and control. However, suitable models are different in regions due to the differences in geography, social economy factors. We collected data associated with daily reported HFMD cases and weather factors of Zibo city in 2010~2019 and used the generalised additive model (GAM) to evaluate the effects of weather factors on HFMD cases. Then, GAM, support vectors regression (SVR) and random forest regression (RFR) models are used to compare predictive results. The annual average incidence was 129.72/100 000 from 2010 to 2019. Its distribution showed a unimodal trend, with incidence increasing from March, peaking from May to September. Our study revealed the nonlinear relationship between temperature, rainfall and relative humidity and HFMD cases and based on the predictive result, the performances of three models constructed ranked in descending order are: SVR > GAM> RFR, and SVR has the smallest prediction errors. These findings provide quantitative evidence for the prediction of HFMD for special high-risk regions and can help public health agencies implement prevention and control measures in advance.

Mars exploration motivates the search for extraterrestrial life, the development of space technologies, and the design of human missions and habitations. Here, we seek new insights and pose unresolved questions relating to the natural history of Mars, habitability, robotic and human exploration, planetary protection, and the impacts on human society. Key observations and findings include:

1. – high escape rates of early Mars' atmosphere, including loss of water, impact present-day habitability;

2. – putative fossils on Mars will likely be ambiguous biomarkers for life;

3. – microbial contamination resulting from human habitation is unavoidable; and

4. – based on Mars' current planetary protection category, robotic payload(s) should characterize the local martian environment for any life-forms prior to human habitation.

Some of the outstanding questions are:

1. – which interpretation of the hemispheric dichotomy of the planet is correct;

2. – to what degree did deep-penetrating faults transport subsurface liquids to Mars' surface;

3. – in what abundance are carbonates formed by atmospheric processes;

4. – what properties of martian meteorites could be used to constrain their source locations;

5. – the origin(s) of organic macromolecules;

6. – was/is Mars inhabited;

7. – how can missions designed to uncover microbial activity in the subsurface eliminate potential false positives caused by microbial contaminants from Earth;

8. – how can we ensure that humans and microbes form a stable and benign biosphere; and

9. – should humans relate to putative extraterrestrial life from a biocentric viewpoint (preservation of all biology), or anthropocentric viewpoint of expanding habitation of space?

Studies of Mars' evolution can shed light on the habitability of extrasolar planets. In addition, Mars exploration can drive future policy developments and confirm (or put into question) the feasibility and/or extent of human habitability of space.

Schistosomiasis has been subjected to extensive control efforts in the People's Republic of China (China) which aims to eliminate the disease by 2030. We describe baseline results of a longitudinal cohort study undertaken in the Dongting and Poyang lakes areas of central China designed to determine the prevalence of Schistosoma japonicum in humans, animals (goats and bovines) and Oncomelania snails utilizing molecular diagnostics procedures. Data from the Chinese National Schistosomiasis Control Programme (CNSCP) were compared with the molecular results obtained.

Sixteen villages from Hunan and Jiangxi provinces were surveyed; animals were only found in Hunan. The prevalence of schistosomiasis in humans was 1.8% in Jiangxi and 8.0% in Hunan determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), while 18.3% of animals were positive by digital droplet PCR. The CNSCP data indicated that all villages harboured S. japonicum-infected individuals, detected serologically by indirect haemagglutination assay (IHA), but very few, if any, of these were subsequently positive by Kato-Katz (KK).

Based on the outcome of the IHA and KK results, the CNSCP incorporates targeted human praziquantel chemotherapy but this approach can miss some infections as evidenced by the results reported here. Sensitive molecular diagnostics can play a key role in the elimination of schistosomiasis in China and inform control measures allowing for a more systematic approach to treatment.

The long-term inflammatory impact of diet could potentially elevate the risk of periodontal disease through modification of systemic inflammation. The aim of the present study was to prospectively investigate the associations between a food-based, reduced rank regression (RRR)-derived, empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) and incidence of periodontitis. The study population was composed of 34 940 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, who were free of periodontal disease and major illnesses at baseline (1986). Participants provided medical and dental history through mailed questionnaires every 2 years and dietary data through validated semi-quantitative FFQ every 4 years. We used Cox proportional hazard models to examine the associations between EDIP scores and validated self-reported incidence of periodontal disease over a 24-year follow-up period. No overall association between EDIP and the risk of periodontitis was observed; the hazard ratio comparing the highest EDIP quintile (most proinflammatory diet) with the lowest quintile was 0·99 (95 % CI 0·89, 1·10, P-value for trend = 0·97). A secondary analysis showed that among obese non-smokers (i.e. never and former smokers at baseline), the hazard ratio for periodontitis comparing the highest EDIP quintile with the lowest was 1·39 (95 % CI 0·98, 1·96, P-value for trend = 0·03). In conclusion, no overall association was detected between EDIP and incidence of self-reported periodontitis in the study population. From the subgroups evaluated, EDIP was significantly associated with increased risk of periodontitis only among non-smokers who were obese. Hence, this association must be interpreted with caution.

Previous studies have revealed associations of meteorological factors with tuberculosis (TB) cases. However, few studies have examined their lag effects on TB cases. This study was aimed to analyse nonlinear lag effects of meteorological factors on the number of TB notifications in Hong Kong. Using a 22-year consecutive surveillance data in Hong Kong, we examined the association of monthly average temperature and relative humidity with temporal dynamics of the monthly number of TB notifications using a distributed lag nonlinear models combined with a Poisson regression. The relative risks (RRs) of TB notifications were >1.15 as monthly average temperatures were between 16.3 and 17.3 °C at lagged 13–15 months, reaching the peak risk of 1.18 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02–1.35) when it was 16.8 °C at lagged 14 months. The RRs of TB notifications were >1.05 as relative humidities of 60.0–63.6% at lagged 9–11 months expanded to 68.0–71.0% at lagged 12–17 months, reaching the highest risk of 1.06 (95% CI 1.01–1.11) when it was 69.0% at lagged 13 months. The nonlinear and delayed effects of average temperature and relative humidity on TB epidemic were identified, which may provide a practical reference for improving the TB warning system.

Research on flight emissions at airports is very important for environmental policymaking. This study analysed the trend of aircraft air pollutant emissions at mainland China airports from 1990 to 2017, mainly focusing on standard landing and take-off (LTO) cycles. Total flight movements increased 29-fold from 1990 to 2017 at Chinese airports. Over the same period, the emissions of NOx, SOx, CO, hydrocarbons (HC), and particulate matter (PM) increased 46, 27, 12, 5, and 4 times, respectively. Emissions at the 216 public airports showed a growth trend. It was estimated that in 2017, Chinese airports emitted 12,875 kilotons of CO2, 59 kilotons of NOx, 3 kilotons of SOx, 38 kilotons of CO, 5 kilotons of HC, and 0.4 kilotons of PM. The largest 30 airports produced 68.2% of the total emissions. Emissions from B737-800, A320, A321, B737-700, A330-300, and A319 aircraft accounted for more than 75% of aircraft LTO emissions at Chinese airports in 2017. Results show that average emissions per passenger have decreased for CO2, CO, HC, SOx, PM, and NOx from 1990 to 2017.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a common pathogen associated with nosocomial infections and is characterised serologically by capsular polysaccharide (K) and lipopolysaccharide O antigens. We surveyed a total of 348 non-duplicate K. pneumoniae clinical isolates collected over a 1-year period in a tertiary care hospital, and determined their O and K serotypes by sequencing of the wbb Y and wzi gene loci, respectively. Isolates were also screened for antimicrobial resistance and hypervirulent phenotypes; 94 (27.0%) were identified as carbapenem-resistant (CRKP) and 110 (31.6%) as hypervirulent (hvKP). isolates fell into 58 K, and six O types, with 92.0% and 94.2% typeability, respectively. The predominant K types were K14K64 (16.38%), K1 (14.66%), K2 (8.05%) and K57 (5.46%), while O1 (46%), O2a (27.9%) and O3 (11.8%) were the most common. CRKP and hvKP strains had different serotype distributions with O2a:K14K64 (41.0%) being the most frequent among CRKP, and O1:K1 (26.4%) and O1:K2 (17.3%) among hvKP strains. Serotyping by gene sequencing proved to be a useful tool to inform the clinical epidemiology of K. pneumoniae infections and provides valuable data relevant to vaccine design.

We describe system verification tests and early science results from the pulsar processor (PTUSE) developed for the newly commissioned 64-dish SARAO MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. MeerKAT is a high-gain ( ${\sim}2.8\,\mbox{K Jy}^{-1}$ ) low-system temperature ( ${\sim}18\,\mbox{K at }20\,\mbox{cm}$ ) radio array that currently operates at 580–1 670 MHz and can produce tied-array beams suitable for pulsar observations. This paper presents results from the MeerTime Large Survey Project and commissioning tests with PTUSE. Highlights include observations of the double pulsar $\mbox{J}0737{-}3039\mbox{A}$ , pulse profiles from 34 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) from a single 2.5-h observation of the Globular cluster Terzan 5, the rotation measure of Ter5O, a 420-sigma giant pulse from the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR $\mbox{J}0540{-}6919$ , and nulling identified in the slow pulsar PSR J0633–2015. One of the key design specifications for MeerKAT was absolute timing errors of less than 5 ns using their novel precise time system. Our timing of two bright MSPs confirm that MeerKAT delivers exceptional timing. PSR $\mbox{J}2241{-}5236$ exhibits a jitter limit of $<4\,\mbox{ns h}^{-1}$ whilst timing of PSR $\mbox{J}1909{-}3744$ over almost 11 months yields an rms residual of 66 ns with only 4 min integrations. Our results confirm that the MeerKAT is an exceptional pulsar telescope. The array can be split into four separate sub-arrays to time over 1 000 pulsars per day and the future deployment of S-band (1 750–3 500 MHz) receivers will further enhance its capabilities.

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed serious challenges. It is vitally important to further clarify the epidemiological characteristics of the COVID-19 outbreak for future study and prevention and control measures. Epidemiological characteristics and spatial−temporal analysis were performed based on COVID-19 cases from 21 January 2020 to 1 March 2020 in Shandong Province, and close contacts were traced to construct transmission chains. A total of 758 laboratory-confirmed cases were reported in Shandong. The sex ratio was 1.27: 1 (M: F) and the median age was 42 (interquartile range: 32–55). The high-risk clusters were identified in the central, eastern and southern regions of Shandong from 25 January 2020 to 10 February 2020. We rebuilt 54 transmission chains involving 209 cases, of which 52.2% were family clusters, and three widespread infection chains were elaborated, occurring in Jining, Zaozhuang and Liaocheng, respectively. The geographical and temporal disparity may alert public health agencies to implement specific measures in regions with different risk, and should attach importance on how to avoid household and community transmission.