Cordierite foams were prepared by thermo-foaming of alumina–microsilica–talc powder dispersions in molten D-glucose anhydrous followed by reaction sintering at 1400 °C, which exhibited an interconnected cellular morphology and three-dimensional porous cell walls. The cordierite foam had a porosity of up to 96%, and its corresponding thermal conductivity was as low as 0.057 W/(m·K). The foam structures showed a great promise for gas filtration and gas catalytic support. The formation of interconnected cellular morphology, the variations of cell wall thickness, and cell size were explained from the perspective of viscosity and weak points in this paper. The linear shrinkage of cordierite foams having a density of 0.102–0.226 g/cm3 was in the range of 13.0–6.9%. And the compressive strength (0.05–0.28 MPa) was determined by the large cell size (1.1–1.3 mm), ultra-high porosity (91–96%), and characteristic of cordierite.

The aim of this meta-analysis was to provide a comprehensive overview of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 subtypes and to investigate temporal and geographical trends of the HIV-1 epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) in China. Chinese and English articles published between January 2007 and December 2017 were systematically searched. Pooled HIV-1 prevalence was calculated, and its stability was analysed using sensitivity analysis. Subgroups were based on study time period, sampling area and prevalence. Publication bias was measured using Funnel plot and Egger's test. A total of 68 independent studies that included HIV-1 molecular investigations were eligible for meta-analysis. Circulating recombinant form (CRF) 01_AE (57.36%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 53.76–60.92) was confirmed as the most prevalent HIV-1 subtype among MSM in China. Subgroup analysis for time period found that CRF01_AE steadily increased prior to 2012 but decreased during 2012–2016. Further whereas CRF07_BC increased over time, B/B′ decreased over time. CRF55_01B has increased in recent years, with higher pooled estimated rate in Guangdong (12.22%, 95% CI 10.34–13.17) and Fujian (8.65%, 95% CI 4.98–13.17) provinces. The distribution of HIV-1 subtypes among MSM in China has changed across different regions and periods. HIV-1 strains in MSM are becoming more complex. Long-term molecular monitoring in this population remains necessary for HIV-1 epidemic control and prevention.

Opinion surveys often employ multiple items to measure the respondent’s underlying value, belief, or attitude. To analyze such types of data, researchers have often followed a two-step approach by first constructing a composite measure and then using it in subsequent analysis. This paper presents a class of hierarchical item response models that help integrate measurement and analysis. In this approach, individual responses to multiple items stem from a latent preference, of which both the mean and variance may depend on observed covariates. Compared with the two-step approach, the hierarchical approach reduces bias, increases efficiency, and facilitates direct comparison across surveys covering different sets of items. Moreover, it enables us to investigate not only how preferences differ among groups, vary across regions, and evolve over time, but also levels, patterns, and trends of attitude polarization and ideological constraint. An open-source R package, hIRT, is available for fitting the proposed models.

In this paper, we review the status of the multifunctional experimental platform at the National Laboratory of High Power Laser and Physics (NLHPLP). The platform, including the SG-II laser facility, SG-II 9th beam, SG-II upgrade (SG-II UP) facility, and SG-II 5 PW facility, is operational and available for interested scientists studying inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and a broad range of high-energy-density physics. These facilities can provide important experimental capabilities by combining different pulse widths of nanosecond, picosecond, and femtosecond scales. In addition, the SG-II UP facility, consisting of a single petawatt system and an eight-beam nanosecond system, is introduced including several laser technologies that have been developed to ensure the performance of the facility. Recent developments of the SG-II 5 PW facility are also presented.

Political scientists are increasingly interested in causal mediation, and to this end, recent studies focus on estimating a quantity called the controlled direct effect (CDE). The CDE measures the strength of the causal relationship between a treatment and outcome when a mediator is fixed at a given value. To estimate the CDE, Joffe and Greene (2009) and Vansteelandt (2009) developed the method of sequential g-estimation, which was introduced to political science by Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen (2016). In this letter, we propose an alternative method called “regression-with-residuals” (RWR) for estimating the CDE. In special cases, we show that these two methods are algebraically equivalent. Yet, unlike sequential g-estimation, RWR can easily accommodate several types of effect moderation, including cases in which the effect of the mediator on the outcome is moderated by a posttreatment confounder. Although common in the social sciences, this type of effect moderation is typically assumed away in applications of sequential g-estimation, which may lead to bias if effect moderation is in fact present. We illustrate RWR by estimating the CDE of negative media framing on public support for immigration, controlling for respondent anxiety.

Plasma levels of very-long-chain SFA (VLCSFA) are associated with the metabolic syndrome (MetS). However, the associations may vary by different biological activities of individual VLCSFA or population characteristics. We aimed to examine the associations of VLCSFA and MetS risk in Chinese adults. Totally, 2008 Chinese population aged 35–59 years were recruited and followed up from 2010 to 2012. Baseline MetS status and plasma fatty acids data were available for 1729 individuals without serious diseases. Among 899 initially metabolically healthy individuals, we identified 212 incident MetS during the follow-up. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate OR and 95 % CI. Cross-sectionally, each VLCSFA was inversely associated with MetS risk; comparing with the lowest quartile, the multivariate-adjusted OR for the highest quartile were 0·18 (95 % CI 0·13, 0·25) for C20 : 0, 0·26 (95 % CI 0·18, 0·35) for C22 : 0, 0·19 (95 % CI 0·13, 0·26) for C24 : 0 and 0·16 (0·11, 0·22) for total VLCSFA (all Pfor trend<0·001). The associations remained significant after further adjusting for C16 : 0, C18 : 0, C18 : 3n-3, C22 : 6n-3, n-6 PUFA and MUFA, respectively. Based on follow-up data, C20 : 0 or C22 : 0 was also inversely associated with incident MetS risk. Among the five individual MetS components, higher levels of VLCSFA were most strongly inversely associated with elevated TAG (≥1·7 mmol/l). Plasma levels of VLCSFA were significantly and inversely associated with MetS risk and individual MetS components, especially TAG. Further studies are warranted to confirm the findings and explore underlying mechanisms.

For one-dimensional nanomaterials, the performances are strongly related to the diameters, lengths, morphologies, and structures, implying that it is of great significance to understand the related growth mechanisms and thus to achieve the desired nanostructures. Thermal oxidation of copper has been widely used to fabricate CuO nanowires (NWs), whereas the growth mechanism still remains controversial in spite of the extensive investigations. Therefore, this review aims to offer a critical discussion about the growth mechanisms. First, the effects of different growth conditions on the growth of CuO NWs are introduced for basic understanding. Subsequently, the proposed mechanisms in different literature studies, i.e., the vapor–solid, self-catalyzed growth, stress-induced growth, stress grain boundary (GB) diffusion, and oxygen concentration gradient, are discussed and summarized. It seems that the combination of “stress GB diffusion” and “oxygen concentration gradient” mechanisms could be relevant for the growth of CuO NWs via thermal oxidation of copper.

Previous studies have indicated that some food items and nutrients are associated with uric acid metabolism in humans. However, little is known about the role of dietary patterns in hyperuricaemia. We designed this case–control study to evaluate the associations between dietary patterns and newly diagnosed hyperuricaemia in Chinese adults. A total of 1422 cases and 1422 controls were generated from 14 538 participants using the 1:1 ratio propensity score matching methods. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated self-administered FFQ. Dietary patterns were derived by factor analysis. Hyperuricaemia was defined as concentrations of serum uric acid higher than 7 mg/dl (416·5 μmol/l) for men and 6 mg/dl (357 μmol/l) for women. Three dietary patterns were derived by factor analysis: sweet pattern; vegetable pattern; animal foods pattern. The animal foods pattern characterised by higher intake of an animal organ, seafood and processed meat products was associated with higher prevalence of newly diagnosed hyperuricaemia (P for trend<0·01) after adjustment. Compared with the participants in the lowest quartile of the animal foods pattern, the OR of newly diagnosed hyperuricaemia in the highest quartile was 1·50 (95 % CI 1·20, 1·87). The other two dietary patterns were not associated with the prevalence of newly diagnosed hyperuricaemia after adjustment. In conclusion, a diet rich in animal organ, seafood and processed meat products is associated with higher prevalence of newly diagnosed hyperuricaemia in a Chinese population. Further cohort studies and randomised controlled trials are required to clarify these findings.

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) effect is currently the major limitation for the power scaling of single-frequency/narrow linewidth fiber laser systems. A single-mode linearly polarized all-fiber amplifier system is set up to investigate SBS effect in triple-frequency high-power amplifiers. With this amplifier, up to 302 W output power with 83% slope efficiency is achieved and the SBS threshold is scaled up to 12 dB. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power of multifrequency laser from a single-mode polarization maintaining fiber. Good spectral properties and high brightness make this laser source available for the application of second harmonic generation, coherent beam combining.

This paper optimises two-ship collision-avoidance manoeuvres accounting for both collision risk and fuel use. A collision-avoidance manoeuvring optimisation model is developed to minimise fuel consumption while assuring ships' operational safety. The model can optimally determine when to begin collision-avoidance actions, how to change courses, and what rudder angles are needed. A quantitative scenario simulation is developed to illustrate the model application. The methodology can be further developed to guide practical ship collision-avoidance manoeuvring decisions made under more operational scenarios. In particular, this research can contribute to the development of computer-aided collision-avoidance operations to improve the safety and energy efficiency of maritime transportation.

The exaggerated grain growth, anisotropic crystallite morphology, and thermal expansion are the main reasons for the microcracking of sintered TiB2, wherein grain coarsening and anisotropic crystallite morphology are believed to be controlled by the surface stabilities of TiB2. To deeply understand the grain growth mechanism, the anisotropic stability and bonding features of TiB2 surfaces, including $\left( {11\bar 20} \right)$ , two types of (0001), and three types of $\left( {10\bar 10} \right)$ , are investigated by first-principles calculations. By employing the two-region modeling method, surface energies are calculated and the $\left( {11\bar 20} \right)$ surface is found to be more stable than (0001) and $\left( {10\bar 10} \right)$ surfaces. Hexagonal plate-like grain morphology is predicted. The different bonding conditions of surface Ti and B atoms contribute to the difference of surface structure relaxation between surfaces with Ti- and B-termination, which lead the B-terminated ones to be more stable. It is also found that the surface energies of TiB2 are much higher than those of ZrB2 with a similar structure, which may be responsible for the easy coarsening of TiB2.

In this paper, we present a preconditioned positive-definite and skew-Hermitian splitting (PPSS) iteration method for continuous Sylvester equations AX + XB = C with positive definite/semi-definite matrices. The analysis shows that the PPSS iteration method will converge under certain assumptions. An inexact variant of the PPSS iteration method (IPPSS) has been presented and the analysis of its convergence property in detail has been discussed. Numerical results show that this new method is more efficient and robust than the existing ones.

Novel porous Yb3Al5O12 ceramics are successfully fabricated via a green and simple foam-gelcasting approach. Using a nontoxic water-soluble copolymer of isobutylene and maleic anhydride (Isobam), together with a surfactant EMAL TD (Surf-E), 50 vol% solid loading Yb3Al5O12 aqueous ceramic slurries are prepared. Thanks to the small contents of organic additives (0.4 wt% Isobam and 1 vol% Surf-E) added, low linear shrinkage (∼13.9%), and mass loss (∼2.21 wt%) are obtained after pressureless sintering of gelcasted green body at 1600 °C for 4 h under an air atmosphere. Furthermore, porous Yb3Al5O12 ceramics with controlled porosity and spherical-like cells possess excellent structural and shape stability. The flexural strength and compressive strength of the as-prepared porous Yb3Al5O12 ceramics with a relative density of 20% remain as high as 6.3 and 19.7 MPa, respectively, and the gas permeability can be tuned between 4.3 × 10−13 and 7.8 × 10−11 m2 with exponentially increasing porosity from 58% to 84%.

SG-III laser facility is now the largest laser driver for inertial confinement fusion research in China. The whole laser facility can deliver 180 kJ energy and 60 TW power ultraviolet laser onto target, with power balance better than 10%. We review the laser system and introduce the SG-III laser performance here.

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.

We apply a recently developed filtering approach, i.e. filter-space technique (FST), to study the scale-to-scale transport of kinetic energy, thermal energy, and enstrophy in two-dimensional (2D) Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) turbulence. Although the scaling laws of the energy cascades in 2D RT systems follow the Bolgiano–Obukhov (BO59) scenario due to buoyancy forces, the kinetic energy is still found to be, on average, dynamically transferred to large scales by an inverse cascade, while both the mean thermal energy and the mean enstrophy move towards small scales by forward cascades. In particular, there is a reasonably extended range over which the transfer rate of thermal energy is scale-independent and equals the corresponding thermal dissipation rate at different times. This range functions similarly to the inertial range for the kinetic energy in the homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. Our results further show that at small scales the fluctuations of the three instantaneous local fluxes are highly asymmetrically distributed and there is a strong correlation between any two fluxes. These small-scale features are signatures of the mixing and dissipation of fluids with steep temperature gradients at the fluid interfaces.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the mechanistic basis of protein deficiency during pregnancy in mother that is transduced to offspring. To this end, timed-pregnant Sprague–Dawley rats were fed either a control (20 % of energy from protein) or low-protein (LP, 8 % of energy from protein) diet during gestation. Tissues were collected after delivery from rat dams, and skeletal muscle was collected at postnatal day 38 from the offspring. Quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot analyses were performed to determine mRNA and protein levels. Histological analysis was performed to evaluate myofibre size. LP dams gained significantly less weight during pregnancy, developed muscle atrophy, and had significantly lower circulating threonine and histidine levels than control dams. The mRNA expression of the well-known amino acid response (AAR) pathway-related target genes was increased only in the skeletal muscle of LP dams, as well as the protein expression levels of activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) and phosphorylated eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (p-eIF2α). The mRNA expression of autophagy-related genes was significantly increased in the skeletal muscle of LP dams. Moreover, the mRNA expression of genes involved in both AAR and autophagy pathways remained elevated and was memorised in the muscle of LP offspring that consumed a post-weaning control diet. Additionally, the LP diet increased an autophagy marker, microtubule-associated proteins 1A/1B light chain 3B (LC3B) protein expression in the skeletal muscle of rat dams, consistent with the initiation of autophagy. The LP diet further increased ATF4 binding at the predicted regions of AAR and autophagy pathway-related genes. Increased binding of ATF4 unveils the crucial role of ATF4 in the activation of autophagy in response to protein restriction. Our data suggest that molecular changes in maternal muscle are memorised in the offspring long after gestational protein restriction, reinforcing the role of maternal signalling in programming offspring health.

In this contribution, the structural, mechanical, and thermal properties of MSiO4 have been investigated theoretically and the anisotropy of elastic properties has been discussed in detail. The heterogeneous bonding nature was revealed from density functional theory computations and chemical bond theory (CBT). The Young's modulus and shear modulus of MSiO4 were anisotropic and the anisotropy on different planes was quite different. The thermal expansion coefficients of MSiO4 estimated from CBT were 5.1 × 10−6 and 4.4 × 10−6 K−1 for ZrSiO4 and HfSiO4, respectively. These results were quite consistent with the experiments. The temperature dependent thermal conductivities of MSiO4 were estimated from Slack's model, the minimum thermal conductivity was predicted to be 1.54 and 1.24 W m−1 K−1 for ZrSiO4 and HfSiO4, respectively. Our theoretical results show that MSiO4 are excellent thermal barrier materials with good tolerance to withstand the mechanical damage.