The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of glucose, soya oil or glutamine on jejunal morphology, protein metabolism and protein expression of the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signalling pathway in jejunal villus or crypt compartment of piglets. Forty-two 21 d-weaned piglets were randomly allotted to one of the three isoenergetic diets formulated with glucose, soya oil or glutamine for 28 d. On day 14 or 28, the proteins in crypt enterocytes were analysed with isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification and proteins involved in mTORC1 signalling pathway in villus or crypt compartment cells were determined by Western blotting. Our results showed no significant differences (P > 0·05) in jejunal morphology among the three treatments on day 14 or 28. The differentially expressed proteins mainly took part in a few network pathways, including antimicrobial or inflammatory response, cell death and survival, digestive system development and function and carbohydrate metabolism. On day 14 or 28, there were higher protein expression of eukaryotic initiation factor-4E binding protein-1 in jejunal crypt compartment of piglets supplemented with glucose or glutamine compared with soya oil. On day 28, higher protein expression of phosphor-mTOR in crypt compartment was observed in piglets supplemented with glucose compared with the soya oil. In conclusion, the isoenergetic glucose, soya oil or glutamine did not affect the jejunal morphology of piglets; however, they had different effects on the protein metabolism in crypt compartment. Compared with soya oil, glucose or glutamine may be better energy supplies for enterocytes in jejunal crypt compartment.

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. The present study explored genetic risk scores (GRS) of genetic variants that influence the MetS and the effect of interactions between GRS and nutrient intake on MetS risk. The genetic variants that influence MetS risk were selected by genome-wide association study after adjusting for age, sex, area of residence and BMI in 8840 middle-aged adults. GRS were calculated by summing the risk alleles of the selected SNP and divided into low (0–1), medium (2–3) and high (4–7) risk groups, and the relationships between the MetS and GRS were determined by logistic regression after adjusting covariates involved in MetS risk. We also analysed the interaction between GRS and lifestyles. Four genetic variants (APOA5_rs651821, EFCAB4B_rs4766165, ZNF259_rs2160669 and APOBEC1_rs10845640) were selected because they increased MetS risk after adjusting for covariates. Individuals with medium-GRS and high-GRS alleles had a higher MetS risk by 1·48- and 2·23-fold, respectively, compared with those with low-GRS after adjusting for covariates. The increase in MetS risk was mainly related to serum TAG and HDL-cholesterol concentrations. The GRS had an interaction with carbohydrate (CHO) and Na intakes and daily physical activities for MetS risk. In conclusion, Asian middle-aged adults with high-GRS alleles were at increased MetS risk mainly due to dyslipidaemia. High daily physical activity (≥1 h moderate activity per d) reduced the MetS risk but a low-CHO diet (<65 % of total energy intake) increased the risk in carriers with high-GRS alleles. Low Na intake (<1·6 g Na intake/4 MJ) did not decrease its risk.

Conventional silicon-based electronics have faced challenges in the realization of soft bioelectronics, such as wearable and implantable integrated devices, which necessitate electrically and mechanically interactive biotic–abiotic interfacing without disturbing the daily life of the user or posing biocompatibility issues. Recently, much effort has been directed at overcoming the mechanical limitations of conventional rigid electronics by replacement of bulky, thick, and rigid electronic materials with biocompatible, soft, and nanoscale electronic materials, which exhibit intrinsic mechanical deformability as well as superior electrical properties. Recent advances in the synthesis of unconventional nanomaterials, surface functionalization methods, and integrated device fabrication techniques have resulted in further improvements in the performance of nanomaterials-based soft bioelectronics. Numerous studies have focused on the biological, electrical, and mechanical analyses of heterogeneous nanomaterial–biosystem interfaces as well as the development of efficient integration processes of soft nanomaterials into devices. In this article, we summarize the latest advances and future prospects in nanomaterials synthesis, processing, and integration strategies for flexible and stretchable bioelectronics, and their application to wearable and implantable devices.

3D ordered bimodal mesoporous carbon (OBMC) with a high specific surface area of 1368.7 m2/g, ordered large mesopores, and small mesopores on the walls is prepared by a surfactant-free rapid method using SiO2 nanosphere arrays as templates. The resulting OBMC is then composited with sulfur to prepare S/OBMC hybrids via a simple solution infiltration method followed by a heat treatment process. In S/OBMC composite, sulfur is uniformly infiltrated inside the 3D hierarchical pores of OBMC. On the basis of this systematic design, the obtained S/OBMC cathode shows a large discharge capacity value of 1590 mA h/g at first cycle and maintains 989 mA h/g after 100 cycles at 0.2 C. Furthermore, at 1 C charge–discharge rate, a reversible discharge capacity of 733 mA h/g after 100 cycles is reached. The extraordinary electrochemical property of S/OBMC derives from the unique bimodal mesoporous structure with large mesopores and small mesopores that can facilitate the mass transfer and strict dissolution of polysulfide species into the electrolyte.

AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets were A-TIG-welded through a coating of flux, which contained different ratios of Ce powder and nano-sized SiC as reinforcement particles and equal mass of TiO2 as activating fluxes. The microscopic analysis results illustrated that relatively low content of Ce in the reinforcement particles caused the formation of Al3Ce precipitates and refined the grains of α-Mg phase together with β-Mg17Al12 and SiC particles. The increase in microhardness and ultimate tensile strength of the joints was 6.2% and 19.2%, respectively, when reinforcement particles contain 20 wt% Ce compared to the joints coated without Ce. By studying the electrochemical test results, when using 20 wt% Ce + 80 wt% SiC as reinforcement particles, the corrosion current density was the lowest and the corrosion resistance reached the largest value, reflecting the improvement of corrosion property of the joint affected by Ce element.

Three photosensitizers containing zinc(II) porphyrin, ruthenium(II) dipyridine, and their combined porphyrin–polypyridyl metal complexes were used to modify TiO2 nanotubes that were obtained through the hydrothermal method to get inorganic–organic nanocomposite photocatalysts. The photosensitizer with distinctive structure can expand the photoresponse range of TiO2 toward the range of visible light, and the complexes with large conjugated π-electron systems are beneficial for improving the separation of photoelectrons from vacancies, effectively extending the life of excited electrons and thus enhancing the photocatalytic efficiency, thus establishing a favorable foundation for an efficient photocatalysis reaction. The photocatalytic reduction of CO2 aqueous solution into methanol was used to evaluate the photocatalytic effect of sensitized samples. All the photosensitized catalysts exhibited superior selectivity in liquid products during this process and methanol was the only liquid product in the system. The ZnPyP–RuBiPy sensitized TiO2 nanotubes showed the best photocatalytic effect. A possible mechanism for the photoreduction was also proposed in this paper.

In the present paper, analytical formulae for the shear lift forces on nanocylinders moving in linear shear flows in the free molecule regime are derived on the basis of the gas kinetic theory. The model takes into account the intermolecular interactions between the nanocylinders and gas molecules, i.e., the non-rigid-body effect. It is shown that the resulting formulae are consistent with the previous theory in the limit of rigid-body collisions. The lift forces acting on carbon nanotubes and long-chain $n$ -alkanes are evaluated as examples. It is found that the non-rigid-body effect is of great importance for small nanocylinders at low temperatures.

In the past few years, our group worked on the area of transformation from the two-dimensional (2-D) nanocrystalline films to one-dimensional (1-D) nanomaterials by using thermal oxidation. In this paper, we overview the research work on the controllable growth processes, transformation phenomena, growth mechanisms and applications. In general, the preparation process includes the following steps: 1) prepare a pure metal nanocrystalline film via a pulse electro – deposition; 2) grow variant 1-D nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon nanofibers (CNFs), and 1-D metal oxide nanoneedles involving ZnO, CuO and Fe3O4, etc. by using this film as catalyst. This process exhibits the following features: 1) the 1-D nanomaterials grow according to “base growth” model and no residual catalyst exists at the tip of the products; 2) the diameter of the 1-D nanomaterials can be controlled by controlling grain sizes of the 2-D films through adjusting pulse electro-deposition parameters; 3) it is more easily to get the 1-D nanomaterials with large area, uniform, vertical alignment and good shape on the substrates. We propose a “solid state based-up diffusion growth mechanism” for growth of the 1-D metal oxide nanoneedles, and “base growth model” for the 1-D carbon nanomaterials. The physical properties, such as Field emission and magnetics, of the 1-D metal oxide nanoneedles were studied, which showed desired values. In addition, we couple the ZnO nanoneedles with NiO, TiO2, graphene, Au nanoparticles, etc. for enhancing photocatalytic properties in the areas of environmental purification.

In this paper, we experimentally investigated the extreme frequency shift in high-power Raman fiber laser (RFL). The RFL was developed by using a pair of fiber Bragg gratings with fixed and matched central wavelength (1120 nm) combined with a piece of 31-m-long polarization maintaining (PM) passive fiber adopted as Raman gain medium. The pump source was a homemade high-power, linearly polarized (LP) wavelength-tunable master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) source with ${\sim}25~\text{nm}$ tunable working range (1055–1080 nm). High-power and high-efficiency RFL with extreme frequency shift between the pump and Stokes light was explored. It is found that frequency shift located within 10.6 THz and 15.2 THz can ensure efficient Raman lasing, where the conversion efficiency is more than 95% of the maximal value, 71.3%. In addition, a maximum output power of 147.1 W was obtained with an optical efficiency of 71.3%, which is the highest power ever reported in LP RFLs to the best of our knowledge.

For 2D elastic-plastic flows with the hypo-elastic constitutive model and von Mises’ yielding condition, the non-conservative character of the hypo-elastic constitutive model and the von Mises’ yielding condition make the construction of the solution to the Riemann problem a challenging task. In this paper, we first analyze the wave structure of the Riemann problem and develop accordingly a Four-Rarefaction wave approximate Riemann Solver with Elastic waves (FRRSE). In the construction of FRRSE one needs to use an iterative method. A direct iteration procedure for four variables is complex and computationally expensive. In order to simplify the solution procedure we develop an iteration based on two nested iterations upon two variables, and our iteration method is simple in implementation and efficient. Based on FRRSE as a building block, we propose a 2nd-order cell-centered Lagrangian numerical scheme. Numerical results with smooth solutions show that the scheme is of second-order accuracy. Moreover, a number of numerical experiments with shock and rarefaction waves demonstrate the scheme is essentially non-oscillatory and appears to be convergent. For shock waves the present scheme has comparable accuracy to that of the scheme developed by Maire et al., while it is more accurate in resolving rarefaction waves.

The in vivo effects of administering free and microencapsulated Lactobacillus plantarum LIP-1 cells (2·0×109 colony-forming units/d) were evaluated in high-fat-diet-induced hyperlipidaemic rats. Results from real-time quantitative PCR targeting to LIP-1 cells showed a higher colon colonisation count of LIP-1 in the rats receiving microencapsulated cells compared with free cells (P<0·05). Moreover, the microencapsulated LIP-1 treatment resulted in a more obvious lipid-lowering effect (P<0·05). Meanwhile, their faecal samples had significantly less lipopolysaccharide-producing bacteria (especially Bilophila, Sutterella and Oscillibacter) and mucosa-damaging bacteria (Bilophila and Akkermansia muciniphila), whereas significantly more SCFA-producing bacteria (P<0·05) (namely Lactobacillus, Alloprevotella, Coprococcus, Eubacterium and Ruminococcus) and bacteria that potentially possessed bile salt hydrolase activity (Bacteroides, Clostridium, Eubacterium and Lactobacillus), and other beneficial bacteria (Alistipes and Turicibacter). Further, Spearman’s correlation analysis showed significant correlations between some of the modulated gut bacteria and the serum lipid levels. These results together confirm that microcapsulation enhanced the colon colonisation of LIP-1 cells, which subsequently exhibited more pronounced effects in improving the gut microbiota composition of hyperlipidaemic rats and lipid reduction.

This article outlines the evolution of a rescue team in responding to adenovirus prevention with a deployable field hospital. The local governments mobilized a shelter hospital and a rescue team consisting of 59 members to assist with rescue and response efforts after an epidemic outbreak of adenovirus. We describe and evaluate the challenges of preparing for deployment, field hospital maintenance, treatment mode, and primary treatment methods. The field hospital established at the rescue scene consisted of a medical command vehicle, a computed tomography shelter, an X-ray shelter, a special laboratory shelter, an oxygen and electricity supply vehicle, and epidemic prevention and protection equipment. The rescue team comprised paramedics, physicians, X-ray technicians, respiratory therapists, and logistical personnel. In 22 days, more than 3000 patients with suspected adenovirus infection underwent initial examinations. All patients were properly treated, and no deaths occurred. After emergency measures were implemented, the spread of adenovirus was eventually controlled. An emergency involving infectious diseases in less-developed regions demands the rapid development of a field facility with specialized medical personnel when local hospital facilities are either unavailable or unusable. An appropriate and detailed prearranged action plan is important for infectious diseases prevention. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:109–114)

A series of oxidation experiments were carried out on these novel γ/γ′-strengthened cobalt-based alloys of the systems Co–9Al–10W and Co–9Al–10W–0.02X (X = La, Ce, Dy, Y) at 900 °C. The appropriate amounts’ addition of rare earth elements leads to improved oxidation properties at 900 °C, especially La elements show the best oxidation resistance (129.008 mg/cm2). However, the base Co–9Al–10W alloy shows the worst oxidation performance (151.544 mg/cm2). Multilayer oxide layers formed during the oxidation process, the outer were mainly CoO and Co3O4 oxides, and the middle layer contained complex oxides (containing Co, Al, and W). The inner layer consists of little discontinuous oxides, included few Al2O3 oxides. There existed a different crack width and the base alloy had the widest crack. Moreover, there exists a phase transformation (γ/γ′ to γ/Co3W) at the interface between oxide film and substrate.