The aim of this study is to explore the influence of tea consumption on diabetes mellitus in Chinese population. This multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted in eight sites from south, east, north, west and middle regions in China by enrolling 12,017 subjects aged 20–70. Sociodemographic and general information were collected by standardized questionnaire. Standard procedure was used to measure anthropometric characteristics and obtain blood samples. The diagnosis of diabetes was determined using a standard 75-g oral glucose tolerance test. In the final analysis, 10,825 participants were included, and multiple logistic models and interaction effect analysis were applied for assessing the association between tea-drinking with diabetes. Compared with non-tea drinkers, the multivariable-adjusted odds ratios for newly-diagnosed diabetes were 0.80(0.67, 0.97), 0.88(0.71, 1.09) and 0.86(0.67, 1.11) for daily tea-drinkers, occasional tea-drinkers and seldom tea-drinkers, respectively. Furthermore, drinking tea daily was related to decreased risk of diabetes in female by 32%, elderly (>45y) by 24% and obese (BMI>30kg/m2) by 34%. Moreover, drinking dark tea was associated with reduced risk of diabetes by 45% [OR: 0.55 (0.42, 0.72), P < 0.01]. The results imply that drinking tea daily was negatively related to risk of diabetes in female, elderly and obese people. In addition, drinking dark tea was associated with decreased risk of T2DM.

This article aimed at developing an adaptive version of the subjective well-being (SWB) scale to measure a comprehensive concept of SWB among Chinese university students. Item response theory was employed to formulate the item bank of the SWB scale and computerized adaptive testing (CAT) for SWB (CAT-SWB), based on several commonly used SWB scales, after unidimensionality testing, model selection, local dependence testing, parameter estimation, item fit test and differential item functioning (DIF) analysis were performed. Finally, two CAT simulations using simulated-data and real-data were carried out to verify and evaluate the CAT-SWB. Results indicated that the proposed CAT-SWB had an excellent performance in that it largely reduces the number of test items and the length of test time without losing measurement precision.

This study applied a bifactor approach to investigate the structures and simultaneously compare the psychometric properties of three popular self-report internet addiction (IA) instruments. A bifactor confirmatory factor analysis was used to address the structures of the three scales, while the bifactor multidimensional item response model was employed to compare the psychometric properties of the three scales. Results of bifactor confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the bifactor structures were suitable for the three scales. These corresponding bifactor structures were used in the subsequent bifactor multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) analysis. Results of the bifactor MIRT showed that: three instruments of IA performed well as a whole; the Generalised Problematic Internet Use Scale (GPIUS) and Internet Addiction Test (IAT) provided more test information and had less standard error of measurement, which ranged from −3 to −1 standard deviations of theta or IA severity; the Game Addiction Scale (GAS) performed better than the other two scales in that it can provide more test information in the large area of IA severity (from −1 to +3 SDs). These suggest that the GPIUS and IAT may be the best choice for epidemiological IA studies and for measuring those with lower IA severity. Meanwhile, the GAS may be a good choice when we recruit those with various levels of IA severity.

To obtain rich information about the cognitive diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD), this study attempted to retrofit a traditional borderline personality questionnaire so that the improved assessment (called CDA-BPD) could provide more diagnostic information. The retrofitting processes included the following steps: (1) applied an cognitive diagnosis model to analyze the psychometric characteristics of the traditional questionnaire; (2) under the guidance of cognitive diagnosis assessment (CDA), high-quality items were chosen to develop the CDA-BPD and tested on 1,097 subjects; (3) the quality of the CDA-BPD was evaluated; (4) the structure of the CDA-BPD was analyzed. Results indicated that: (1) the CDA-BPD had acceptable reliability and validity; (2) the CDA-BPD had sensitivity of 0.985 and specificity of 0.853 with area under curve (AUC) = 0.956; (3) the two structural factors of the traditional questionnaire were confirmed in the CDA-BPD; χ2 was 83.01 with df = 26, p < .0001, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.97, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.045. It was concluded that the practice of retrofitting a traditional borderline personality assessment for cognitive diagnostic purpose was feasible. Most importantly, under the cognitive diagnosis model framework, CDA-BPD could simultaneously provide general-level information and the detailed symptom criteria-level information about the posterior probability of satisfying each symptom criterion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th edition; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) for each individual, which gave further insight into tailoring individual-specific treatments for borderline personality disorder.

Energy restriction (ER) has been widely studied as a novel intervention, and its ability to prolong life has been fully demonstrated. For example, ER can significantly extend the lifespans of model flies, worms, rodents and other mammals. The role of ER in renal protection has also been elucidated. In preclinical studies, adjusting total energy intake or consumption of specific nutrients has prophylactic or therapeutic effects on ageing-related kidney disease and acute and chronic kidney injury. Amino acid restriction has gradually attracted attention. ER mimetics have also been studied in depth. The protective mechanisms of ER and ER mimetics for renal injury include increasing AMP-activated protein kinase and sirtuin type 1 (Sirt1) levels and autophagy and reducing mammalian target of rapamycin, inflammation and oxidative stress. However, the renal protective effect of ER has mostly been investigated in rodent models, and the role of ER in patients cannot be determined due to the lack of large randomised controlled trials. To protect the kidney, the mechanism of ER must be thoroughly researched, and more accurate diet or drug interventions need to be identified.

This study quantified the fatty acid profile with emphasis on the stereo-specifically numbered (sn) 2 positional distribution in TAG and the composition of main phospholipids at different lactation stages. Colostrum milk (n 70), transitional milk (n 96) and mature milk (n 82) were obtained longitudinally from healthy lactating women in Shanghai. During lactation, total fatty acid content increased, with SFA dominating in fatty acid profile. A high ratio of n-6:n-3 PUFA was observed as 11:1 over lactation due to the abundance of linoleic acid in Chinese human milk. As the main SFA, palmitic acid showed absolute sn-2 selectivity, while oleic acid, linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid, the main unsaturated fatty acids, were primarily esterified at the sn-1 and sn-3 positions. Nervonic acid and C22 PUFA including DHA were more enriched in colostrum with an sn-2 positional preference. A total of three dominant phospholipids (phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholine (PC) and sphingomyelin (SM)) were analysed in the collected samples, and each showed a decline in amount over lactation. PC was the dominant compound followed by SM and PE. With prolonged breast-feeding time, percentage of PE in total phospholipids remained constant, but PC decreased, and SM increased. Results from this study indicated a lipid profile different from Western reports and may aid the development of future infant formula more suitable for Chinese babies.

In this paper we present new petrological and whole-rock geochemical data for the Palaeoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks in the upper part of the Ji'an Group within the Jiao–Liao–Ji Belt, China, as well as zircon U–Pb age dates and in situ Lu–Hf isotope data. The new data improve our understanding of the original nature of the metasedimentary rocks, further providing insights into their tectonic setting and the evolutionary history of the northern segment of the Jiao–Liao–Ji Belt. The zircons can be divided into two groups, viz., one of magmatic origin and the other of metamorphic origin. Zircon U–Pb dating gave mean or statistical peak ages for the magmatic zircons at 2035, 2082, 2178, 2343–2421, 2451–2545, 2643–2814 and 2923–3446 Ma, and mean peak ages for the metamorphic zircons at 1855 and 1912 Ma, which indicate a maximum depositional age of 2.03 Ga and two-stage metamorphic events at c. 1.91 and 1.85 Ga for the metasedimentary rocks. Geochemical data show that (1) the protoliths of these rocks were mainly sandstones, greywackes and claystones, together with some shales; (2) the main sources of the sedimentary material were Palaeoproterozoic granites and acid volcanic rocks, with minor contributions from Archaean granitic rocks; and (3) the sediments were deposited in an active continental margin setting. Moreover, along the northeastern margin of the Eastern Block of the North China Craton there is evidence of ancient crustal materials as old as 3.76 Ga, and multiple crustal growth events at 3.23–3.05, 2.80–2.65, 2.54–2.45 and 2.28–2.08 Ga.

Determination of canopy resistance (rc) is necessary for accurate estimating hourly latent heat flux (LET), using the Penman–Monteith (PM) model for tea crop. In this study, a non-linear relationship between rc and climatic resistance (r*) was obtained for tea plants based on micro-meteorological data and LET from the end of 2014 to the beginning of 2016 in southern China. The proposed rc model was integrated to the PM method and compared with measured LET using a Bowen ratio energy balance method. The root mean square error (RMSE) and the index of agreement (d) were calculated for assessing the accuracy of the proposed rc model. RMSE and d values for rc and LET were 167.4 s m−1 and 29.7 W m−2 and 0.93 and 0.99, respectively. As compared to data from a single season, the rc sub-model based on data from different seasons was more reliable for estimating LET of tea field when integrated to the PM model.

Previous studies have investigated the association between dietary inflammatory potential and the development of cancer. For breast cancer the results have been equivocal. The present study aimed to investigate whether higher Dietary Inflammatory IndexTM (DII) scores were associated with increased risk of breast cancer among Chinese women. A total of 867 cases and 824 controls were recruited into the present case–control study from September 2011 to February 2016. DII scores were computed based on baseline dietary intake assessed by a validated 81-item FFQ. The OR and 95 % CI were assessed by multivariable logistic regression after adjusting for various potential confounders. DII scores in this study ranged from −5·87 (most anti-inflammatory score) to +5·71 (most proinflammatory score). A higher DII score was associated with a higher breast cancer risk (adjusted ORquartile 4 v. 1 2·28; 95 % CI 1·71, 3·03; adjusted ORcontinuous 1·40; 95 %CI 1·25, 1·39). In stratified analyses, positive associations also were observed except for underweight women or women with either oestrogen receptor+ or progesterone receptor+ status (but not both). Results from this study indicated that higher DII scores, corresponding to more proinflammatory diets, were positively associated with breast cancer risk among Chinese women.

Petroleum coke (PC) is a low-cost and potential carbon source for electrochemical energy storage. To expand the utilization of PC in supercapacitor, PC-based activated carbons (PCACs) with heteroatoms-doped were prepared from PC by KOH chemical activation. The as-prepared carbon exhibited a high surface area (2326.4 m2/g) and hierarchical micro-mesoporous structure, resulting in a high specific capacitance (421 F/g at 1 A/g) and excellent rate performance in KOH electrolyte (217 F/g at 50 A/g). Meanwhile, to improve the high-rate capacitive performance of PCACs in H2SO4 electrolyte, functionalized activated carbon (HQ/PCAC-4) was prepared by physically adsorbing the hydroquinone (HQ) on PCACs. The HQ/PCAC-4 showed an unprecedented capacitance value of 300.2 F/g even at an ultrahigh current density of 50 A/g. In addition, the energy density of HQ/PCAC-4 in H2SO4 electrolyte reached 19.5 W h/kg. The high energy density and excellent rate performance ensured their prosperous application in high-power energy storage system.

Flavonoids may play an important role in the protective effects of vegetables, fruits and tea against colorectal cancer. However, associations between flavonoids and colorectal cancer risk are inconsistent, and a few studies have evaluated the effect of flavonoids from different dietary sources separately. This study aimed to evaluate associations of flavonoids intake from different dietary sources with colorectal cancer risk in a Chinese population. From July 2010 to December 2015, 1632 eligible colorectal cancer cases and 1632 frequency-matched controls (age and sex) completed in-person interviews. A validated FFQ was used to estimate dietary flavonoids intake. Multivariate logistical regression models were used to calculate the OR and 95 % CI of colorectal cancer risk after adjusting for various confounders. No significant association was found between total flavonoids and colorectal cancer risk, with an adjusted OR of 1·06 (95 % CI 0·85, 1·32) comparing the highest with the lowest quartile. Anthocyanidins, flavanones and flavones intakes from total diet were found to be inversely associated with colorectal cancer risk. Compared with the lowest quartile, the adjusted OR for the highest quartile were 0·80 (95 % CI 0·64, 1·00) for anthocyanidins, 0·28 (95 % CI 0·22, 0·36) for flavanones and 0·54 (95 % CI 0·43, 0·67) for flavones. All subclasses of flavonoids from vegetables and fruits were inversely associated with colorectal cancer. However, no significant association was found between tea flavonoids and colorectal cancer risk. These data indicate that specific flavonoids, specifically flavonoids from vegetables and fruits, may be linked with the reduced risk of colorectal cancer.

Choline and betaine are essential nutrients involved in one-carbon metabolism and have been hypothesised to affect breast cancer risk. Functional polymorphisms in genes encoding choline-related one-carbon metabolism enzymes, including phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PEMT), choline dehydrogenase (CHDH) and betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase (BHMT), have important roles in choline metabolism and may thus interact with dietary choline and betaine intake to modify breast cancer risk. This study aimed to investigate the interactive effect of polymorphisms in PEMT, BHMT and CHDH genes with choline/betaine intake on breast cancer risk among Chinese women. This hospital-based case–control study consecutively recruited 570 cases with histologically confirmed breast cancer and 576 age-matched (5-year interval) controls. Choline and betaine intakes were assessed by a validated FFQ, and genotyping was conducted for PEMT rs7946, CHDH rs9001 and BHMT rs3733890. OR and 95 % CI were estimated using unconditional logistic regression. Compared with the highest quartile of choline intake, the lowest intake quartile showed a significant increased risk of breast cancer. The SNP PEMT rs7946, CHDH rs9001 and BHMT rs3733890 had no overall association with breast cancer, but a significant risk reduction was observed among postmenopausal women with AA genotype of BHMT rs3733890 (OR 0·49; 95 % CI 0·25, 0·98). Significant interactions were observed between choline intake and SNP PEMT rs7946 (P interaction=0·029) and BHMT rs3733890 (P interaction=0·006) in relation to breast cancer risk. Our results suggest that SNP PEMT rs7946 and BHMT rs3733890 may interact with choline intake on breast cancer risk.

In order to understand the role of the protein zona pellucida 2 in fertilization, an antibody against a central segment of the zona pellucida 2 peptide, segment 190–505 (Z2eH), was prepared. The influence of the antibody on sperm–zona interaction was tested using the sperm–egg binding assay. The effect of the antibody on fertility was evaluated by passive immunization with anti-Z2eH antibody. Immunohistochemical assay showed that an antibody from rabbit reacted specifically with the natural zona pellucida on mouse ovarian sections. Immunofluorescence assay showed that the antibody bound specifically to the zonae pellucidae of the ovulated oocytes and 2-cell embryos after passive immunization. The antibody-treated oocytes bound capacitated sperm as control oocytes, passive immunization did not impede the action of sperm to fertilize the oocyte in vivo. These findings suggest that the central peptide of ZP2 (190–505) is immunogenic and contains zona pellucida-specific epitopes, however the central polypeptide might not be the crucial part from which to construct a functional domain to bind sperm.

Narrow gap submerged arc welding method accompanied with multilayer and multipass technology was used to manufacture advanced 9Cr and CrMoV dissimilarly welded joint used as a newly developed turbine rotor. The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the high cycle fatigue (HCF) behavior of the welded joint at room temperature. Uniaxial-stress controlled HCF tests at stress ratio R = −1 were performed with specimens chipped from the welded joint of mockup and the S–N curve up to 1.0 × 108 cycle lifetime was obtained. It was found that the fracture location transferred from heat affected zone (HAZ) of CrMoV side to weld metal (WM) with decreasing stress amplitude. The microstructure of the welded joint was characterized and microstructure diversity was found to be responsible for the failure locations both in the CrMoV–HAZ and WM. Fracture morphology of failure samples were also investigated by a scanning electron microscope. It is detected that the stress amplitude required to drive the inclusion to be the crack initiation of the CrMoV–HAZ lies behind the transition. With decreasing stress amplitudes, void in the WM more easily tends to be the initiation of a fatigue crack than inclusion.

Previous epidemiological studies have revealed the anti-cancer effect of dietary circulating carotenoids. However, the protective role of specific individual circulating carotenoids has not been elucidated. The purpose of this study was to examine whether serum carotenoids, including α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene and lutein/zeaxanthin, could lower the risk for breast cancer among Chinese women. A total of 521 women with breast cancer and age-matched controls (5-year interval) were selected from three teaching hospitals in Guangzhou, China. Concentrations of α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene and lutein/zeaxanthin were measured using HPLC. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to calculate OR and 95 % CI using quartiles defined in the control subjects. Significant inverse associations were observed between serum α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene, lutein/zeaxanthin and the risk for breast cancer. The multivariate OR for the highest quartile of serum concentration compared with the lowest quartile were 0·44 (95 % CI 0·30, 0·65) for α-carotene, 0·27 (95 % CI 0·18, 0·40) for β-carotene, 0·41 (95 % CI 0·28, 0·61) for lycopene and 0·26 (95 % CI 0·17, 0·38) for lutein/zeaxanthin. However, no significant association was found between serum β-cryptoxanthin and the risk for breast cancer. Stratified analysis by menopausal status and oestrogen receptor (ER)/progesterone receptor (PR) showed that serum α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene and lutein/zeaxanthin were inversely associated with breast cancer risk among premenopausal women and among all subtypes of ER or PR status. The results suggest a protective role of α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene and lutein/zeaxanthin, but not β-cryptoxanthin, in breast cancer risk.

The association of 24 h urinary Na and potassium excretion with the risk of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) has not been studied in China. The aim of the present study was to examine this association by analysing the data from 1906 study participants living in north China. To this end, 24 h urine samples were collected. Of the 1906 participants, 471 (24·7 %) had the MetS. The mean urinary Na and K excretion was 228·7 and 40·8 mmol/d, respectively. After multivariate adjustment, the odds of the MetS significantly increased across the increasing tertiles of urinary Na excretion (1·00, 1·40 and 1·54, respectively). For the components of the MetS, the odds of central obesity, elevated blood pressure and elevated TAG, but not the odds of low HDL-cholesterol and elevated fasting glucose, significantly increased with the successive tertiles of urinary Na excretion. Furthermore, for every 100 mmol/d increase in urinary Na excretion, the odds of the MetS, central obesity, elevated blood pressure and elevated TAG was significantly increased by 29, 63, 22 and 21 %, respectively. However, urinary K excretion was not significantly associated with the risk of the MetS. These findings suggest that high Na intake might be an important risk factor for the MetS in Chinese adults.

In this paper, the mechanisms of material removal in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) processes are investigated in detail by the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. The feature-scale behaviours of slurry flow, rough pad, wafer defects, moving solid boundaries, slurry-abrasive interactions, and abrasive collisions are modelled and simulated. Compared with previous work on CMP simulations, our simulations incorporate more realistic physical aspects of the CMP process, especially the effect of abrasive concentration in the slurry flows. The preliminary results on slurry flow in CMP provide microscopic insights on the experimental data of the relation between the removal rate and abrasive concentration and demonstrate that SPH is a suitable method for the research of CMP processes.

Cu and Cu–Al alloys with different stacking fault energies (SFEs) were processed using rolling and the Split Hopkinson pressure bar followed by rolling. The effect of strain rate on the microstructures and mechanical properties of the alloys were investigated using x-ray diffraction analyses, transmission electron microscopy, and tensile tests. Tensile testing results demonstrated that the strength and ductility of the samples increased simultaneously with decreasing SFE. Microstructural observations indicated that the average grain size of the samples decreased with decreasing SFE, but the twin and dislocation densities increased. With decreasing SFE, twinning becomes the dominant deformation mechanism. Our findings indicated that the SFEs significantly affect the strength and ductility of the materials because they play a key role in determining the deformation mechanism. Decreasing the SFE of Cu alloys has proved to be the optimum method to improve the ductility without compromising the strength of the material.

We investigate void properties in f(R) models using N-body simulations, focusing on their differences from General Relativity (GR) and their detectability. In the Hu-Sawicki f(R) modified gravity (MG) models, the halo number density profiles of voids are not distinguishable from GR. In contrast, the same f(R) voids are more empty of dark matter, and their profiles are steeper. This can in principle be observed by weak gravitational lensing of voids, for which the combination of a spectroscopic redshift and a lensing photometric redshift survey over the same sky is required. Neglecting the lensing shape noise, the f(R) model parameter amplitudes fR0=10-5 and 10-4 may be distinguished from GR using the lensing tangential shear signal around voids by 4 and 8 σ for a volume of 1 (Gpc/h)3. The line-of-sight projection of large-scale structure is the main systematics that limits the significance of this signal for the near future wide angle and deep lensing surveys. For this reason, it is challenging to distinguish fR0=10-6 from GR. We expect that this can be overcome with larger volume. The halo void abundance being smaller and the steepening of dark matter void profiles in f(R) models are unique features that can be combined to break the degeneracy between fR0 and σ8.