Iodine intake and excretion vary widely; however, these variations remain a large source of geometric uncertainty. The present study aims to analyse variations in iodine intake and excretion and provide implications for sampling in studies of individuals or populations. Twenty-four healthy women volunteers were recruited for a 12-d sampling period during the 4-week experiment. The duplicate-portion technique was used to measure iodine intake, while 24-h urine was collected to estimate iodine excretion. The mean intra-individual variations in iodine intake, 24-h UIE (24-h urinary iodine excretion) and 24-h UIC (24-h urinary iodine concentration) were 63, 48 and 55 %, respectively, while the inter-individual variations for these parameters were 14, 24 and 32 %, respectively. For 95 % confidence, approximately 500 diet samples or 24-h urine samples should be taken from an individual to estimate their iodine intake or iodine status at a precision range of ±5%. Obtaining a precision range of ±5% in a population would require twenty-five diet samples or 150 24-h urine samples. The intra-individual variations in iodine intake and excretion were higher than the inter-individual variations, which indicates the need for more samples in a study on individual participants.

We examined the in vitro developmental competence of parthenogenetic activation (PA) oocytes activated by an electric pulse (EP) and treated with various concentrations of AZD5438 for 4 h. Treatment with 10 µM AZD5438 for 4 h significantly improved the blastocyst formation rate of PA oocytes in comparison with 0, 20, or 50 µM AZD5438 treatment (46.4% vs. 34.5%, 32.3%, and 24.0%, respectively; P < 0.05). The blastocyst formation rate was higher in the group treated with AZD5438 for 4 h than in the groups treated with AZD5438 for 2 or 6 h (42.8% vs. 38.6% and 37.2%, respectively; P > 0.05). Furthermore, 66.67% of blastocysts derived from these AZD5438-treated PA oocytes had a diploid karyotype. The blastocyst formation rate of PA and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos was similar between oocytes activated by an EP and treated with 2 mM 6-dimethylaminopurine for 4 h and those activated by an EP and treated with 10 µM AZD5438 for 4 h (11.11% vs. 13.40%, P > 0.05). In addition, the level of maturation-promoting factor (MPF) was significantly decreased in oocytes activated by an EP and treated with 10 µM AZD5438 for 4 h. Finally, the mRNA expression levels of apoptosis-related genes (Bax and Bcl-2) and pluripotency-related genes (Oct4, Nanog, and Sox2) were checked by RT-PCR; however, there were no differences between the AZD5438-treated and non-treated control groups. Our results demonstrate that porcine oocyte activation via an EP in combination with AZD5438 treatment can lead to a high blastocyst formation rate in PA and SCNT experiments.

The high-cycle fatigue (HCF) behavior is significantly affected by surface roughness, especially for high strength metal FV520B-I. However, with surface roughness effect, neither the fatigue property, nor the high-cycle fatigue life model about FV520B-I with surface roughness has been reported. In this paper, designed fatigue experiment using the specimen with different surface roughness is presented to study the effectiveness of the roughness to the fatigue. The observations of the fatigue crack initiation sites and the crack propagation. Then the high cycle fatigue behavior of FV520B-I affected by surface roughness is analyzed. The existing very-high-cycle fatigue life model is not well-fit for high-cycle fatigue model of FV520B-I. A NEW high-cycle fatigue life prediction model of FV520B-I, taking surface roughness as a main effective variable is proposed. The model is built up by a comprehensive use of experimental data and the traditional fatigue modeling theory. The new finding between the fatigue strength coefficient and stress amplitude, with surface roughness, is adopted, leading to a NEW modified life prediction model. Study on fatigue model of FV520B-I with surface roughness is a very beneficial effort in fatigue theory and fatigue engineering development.

The effects of stress-aging processing on corrosion resistance of an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy were investigated. It is found that the one-stage stress-aged alloy is strongly sensitive to the electrochemical corrosion. The poor corrosion resistance of the one-stage stress-aged alloy can be attributed to fine intragranular aging precipitates and continuous distribution of grain boundary precipitates. Meanwhile, the incomplete precipitation of solute atoms results in high electrochemical activity of aluminum matrix. However, when the alloy is two-stage stress-aged, the corrosion resistance is greatly improved. Furthermore, the corrosion resistance decreases firstly and then increases with increasing the first stage stress-aging temperature. Increasing external stress can enhance the corrosion resistance of the two-stage stress-aged alloy. These phenomena are mainly related to aging precipitates within grains and along grain boundaries. The coarse and relatively low-density intragranular aging precipitates, as well as the discontinuously distributed grain boundary precipitates can enhance the corrosion resistance of the stress-aged alloy.

The effects of pre-treatments on the precipitate microstructures of an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy are investigated. Meanwhile, the creep-rupture behavior of the under-aged and peak-aged alloys are comparatively analyzed. Additionally, the effects of pre-treatment on the fracture mechanisms are discussed. It is found that the precipitate microstructures are sensitive to pre-treatments. The intragranular precipitates of the peak-aged alloy are larger than those of the under-aged. The precipitate free zone of the peak-aged alloy is wider than that of the under-aged. Some large intergranular precipitates appear on the grain boundaries of the under-aged alloy, and induce the nucleation of microvoids. Eventually, the creep fracture of the under-aged alloy is accelerated. Therefore, the differences in microstructures lead to the shorter creep-rupture life of the under-aged alloy, compared to the peak-aged alloy.

The microstructural evolution of spray-formed high speed steel during hot deformation was investigated as well as the effects of spray forming parameters on the porosity formation. Four distinct zones are identified in the as-deposited material, and interstitial porosity is present in the bottom and peripheral zones, while gas-related porosity is mainly found in the central zone. It can keep the porosity at a minimum value by using the optimum parameters, e.g., the average porosity of central zone is 3.7% for a superheat of 170 °C and a gas-to-metal flow rate of 0.7. During hot deformation at 1150 °C, the amount of porosity can be obviously decreased by increasing the height reduction which also plays a key role in breaking up eutectic carbides. The critical height reduction for the breakdown of the eutectic carbides is 50%, the dominant mechanism being mechanical fragmentation.

The functional mitochondrial protein alternative oxidase (AOX) gene was used as a marker to analyse the phylogenetic relationship between Cryptosporidium isolates. This gene was characterized, and the phylogentic tree was established from Cryptosporidium isolates and compared to those generated from 18S rRNA and heat-shock protein 70 (HSP70) gene sequences. The present trial aimed at finding out whether the AOX gene is suitable for phylogenetic analysis of the Cryptosporidium genus. The results revealed that the genus Cryptosporidium contained the phylogenetically distinct species C. parvum, C. hominis, C. suis and C. baileyi, which were consistent with the biological characterization and host specificity reported earlier. Cryptosporidium species formed two clades: one included C. hominis, C. suis, C. parvum cattle genotypes and C. parvum mouse genotype; and the other comprised C. meleagridis and C. baileyi isolates. Within C. parvum, both the mouse genotype and the pig genotype I (also known as C. suis) isolates differed from cattle and human (also known as C. hominis) genotypes, based on the aligned nucleotide sequences. The sequence identity of the AOX gene was higher between C. meleagridis and C. baileyi than between C. meleagridis and C. parvum. The phylogenetic trees showed that C. meleagridis was closer to C. baileyi than to C. parvum. This result was inconsistent with the phylogenetic analysis deduced from 18S rRNA and HSP70 gene sequences, respectively. The present results suggest that the AOX gene is not only equally suitable for the phylogenetic analysis of Cryptosporidium, but also provides an outstanding and new approach in determining Cryptosporidium heredity.