During the Neolithic and Bronze Age, goods and ideas moved between Central Asia and the Chinese Central Plain via north-western China. While the crops, animals and technologies exchanged are well documented, the local and social bases of these interactions are poorly known. Here, the authors use petrographic analysis of ceramic sherds from Gansu Province, China, to document the local production of pottery vessels and their circulation between sites. Individual vessel forms are associated with multiple paste recipes indicating the production of similar products by different communities of practice. It is argued the circulation of these vessels forged inter-community relationships. In aggregate, these local networks underpinned longer-distance exchange between Central and East Asia.

Patients with cirrhosis experience worse health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and attempts are warranted further exploration of modifiable factors to improve HRQoL. Data on the impact of malnutrition risk on HRQoL among cirrhosis are limited; thus, we aimed to strengthen understanding by clarifying the relationship between nutritional status and low HRQoL in patients with decompensated cirrhosis. Consecutive inpatients with cirrhosis attending our department within a tertiary hospital were studied. Generic health profiles and malnutrition risk were evaluated by the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D) and Royal Free Hospital-Nutritional Prioritizing Tool (RFH-NPT) score, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine association of malnutrition risk with low HRQoL. In this cohort of 364 patients with median age of 64 years and 49·5 % male, 55·5 % of the study population reported impairment pertinent to HRQoL in at least one dimension in terms of the EQ-5D. Moreover, malnutrition risk (RFH-NPT score: β coefficient = −0·114, P = 0·038) was proved to be independently associated with poor HRQoL in multiple analysis, after adjustment for significant variables like age, BMI and markers of decompensation. Notably, we found that health dimensions representing physical function (i.e. mobility, self-care and usual activities) are substantially affected, while malnourished patients reported less frequencies of complaints in other domain such as anxiety/depression. In conclusion, the risk of malnutrition assessed by the RFH-NPT score is independently associated with low HRQoL. It is operational to improve HRQoL by identifying patients at high malnutrition risk and providing timely nutrition treatment.

Fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5 (FNDC5) is a transmembrane protein and the precursor of irisin, which serves as a systemic exerkine/myokine with multiple origins. Since its discovery in 2012, this hormone-like polypeptide has rapidly evolved to a component significantly involved in a gamut of metabolic dysregulations and various liver diseases. After a decade of extensive investigation on FNDC5/irisin, we are still surrounded by lots of open questions regarding its diagnostic and therapeutic values. In this review, we first concentrated on the structure–function relationship of FNDC5/irisin. Next, we comprehensively summarised the current knowledge and research findings regarding pathogenic roles/therapeutic applications of FNDC5/irisin in the context of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, fibrosis, liver injury due to multiple detrimental insults, hepatic malignancy and intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. Moreover, the prominent molecules involved in the underlying mechanisms and signalling pathways were highlighted. As a result, emerging evidence reveals FNDC5/irisin may act as a proxy for diagnosing liver disease pathology, a sensitive biomarker for assessing damage severity, a predisposing factor for surveilling illness progression and a treatment option with protective/preventive impact, all of which are highly dependent on disease grading and contextually pathological features.

Current studies on inhibitory effects of n-3 PUFA on pro-inflammatory cytokines have inconsistent results. Thus, a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials was conducted to identify the effects of n-3 PUFA administration on circulating IL-6 and TNF in patients with cancer. Studies that examined the effects of n-3 PUFA administration on circulating IL-6 and TNF in patients with cancer were identified by searching PubMed and EMBASE from January 1975 to February 2021. Differences in n-3 PUFA administration and control conditions were determined by calculating standardised mean differences (SMD) with 95 % CI. Twenty studies involving 971 patients met the inclusion criteria. The overall SMD were 0·485 (95 % CI 0·087, 0·883) for IL-6 and 0·712 (95 % CI 0·461, 0·962) for TNF between n-3 PUFA administration and control conditions. Sources of heterogeneity were not found through subgroup and meta-regression analyses. Publication bias was observed in TNF with a slight contribution to the effect size. n-3 PUFA can reduce circulating IL-6 and TNF levels in patients with cancer. Results supported the recommendation of n-3 PUFA as adjuvant therapy for patients with cancer, possibly excluding head and neck cancer, owing to their anti-inflammatory properties.

We performed U–Pb dating of detrital zircons and conducted petrological and whole-rock geochemical analyses to assess the provenance of the Upper Triassic – Lower Jurassic clastic rocks in the southeastern margin of the South China Block. Detrital zircon U–Pb ages are mainly classified into age groups of 2000–1700, 900–700, 490–390 and 280–210 Ma, consistent with derivation from the Jiangnan orogenic belt, Nanling Belt, as well as Wuyi and Yunkai domains. Lower Jurassic samples yield a special main age population of 200–190 Ma, and these detrital zircon grains have low Th/U and Nb/Hf ratios and high Th/Nb and Hf/Th ratios, showing they are derived from a continental magmatic arc. However, the cross-correlation and likeness coefficients of kernel density estimates of Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic sandstones are 0.8608 and 0.8403, indicating that their populations are highly similar. Since the tectonic setting is the key factor in controlling the relationship between source and sink, the stable supply of identical provenance suggests that the tectonic setting did not significantly change during Late Triassic – Early Jurassic time. Sandstone petrography, regional facies distribution and the detrital zircon age patterns all reflect a consistent tectonic setting for the South China Block during Late Triassic – Early Jurassic time. The Palaeo-Pacific subduction therefore did not control the tectonic evolution of the South China Block until after the Early Jurassic Epoch.

We aim to determine the correlation between parental rearing, personality traits, and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) in different quantiles. In particular, we created an intermediary effect model in which parental rearing affects OCD through personality traits. All predictors were measured at the time of the survey, comprising parental rearing (paternal rearing and maternal rearing), demographics (grade and gender), and personality traits (neuroticism, extroversion, and psychoticism). These results suggest that (a) paternal emotional warmth was negatively correlated with OCD at the 0.40–0.80 quantile, while maternal emotional warmth was positively correlated with the OCD at the 0.45–0.69 quantile. (b) The correlation between negative parental rearing and OCD ranged from the 0.67 to 0.95 quantile for paternal punishment, 0.14–0.82 quantile for paternal overprotection, 0.05–0.36 and >0.50 quantile for maternal over-intervention and overprotection, and 0.08–0.88 quantile for maternal rejection. (c) Extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism were not only associated with OCD in a particular quantile but also mediated between parental rearing (namely parental emotional warmth, paternal punishment, paternal overprotection, maternal rejection, maternal over-intervention, and overprotection) and OCD. These findings provide targets for early interventions of OCD to improve the form of family education and personality traits and warrant validation.

The impact of diet on the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and CVD has been investigated widely, but few studies have investigated the association between dietary patterns (DP) and the predicted CVD, derived from reduced rank regression (RRR). The objectives of this study were to derive DP using RRR and principal component analysis (PCA) and investigate their associations with the MetS and estimated 10-year atherosclerotic CVD (ASCVD). We used the baseline dataset from the Xinjiang multi-ethnic cohort study in China, collected from June 2018 to May 2019. A total of 14 982 subjects aged 35–74 years from Urumqi, Huo Cheng and Mo Yu were included in the analysis. The 10-year ASCVD risk was estimated using the Chinese ASCVD risk equations. The associations of DP with the MetS and 10-year ASCVD were determined using multivariable logistic regression models. In Urumqi and Mo Yu, the increased RRR DP score was associated with a higher OR of having the MetS and with a higher OR of elevated 10-year ASCVD risk. However, only the first DP determined by PCA in Urumqi was inversely associated with the MetS and elevated 10-year ASCVD risk. The prevalence of the MetS and elevated ASCVD risk in urban population is higher than that in rural areas. Our results may help nutritionists develop more targeted dietary strategies to prevent the MetS and ASCVD in different regions in China.

This paper is concerned with the asymptotic behaviour of solutions to a class of non-autonomous stochastic nonlinear wave equations with dispersive and viscosity dissipative terms driven by operator-type noise defined on the entire space $\mathbb {R}^n$. The existence, uniqueness, time-semi-uniform compactness and asymptotically autonomous robustness of pullback random attractors are proved in $H^1(\mathbb {R}^n)\times H^1(\mathbb {R}^n)$ when the growth rate of the nonlinearity has a subcritical range, the density of the noise is suitably controllable, and the time-dependent force converges to a time-independent function in some sense. The main difficulty to establish the time-semi-uniform pullback asymptotic compactness of the solutions in $H^1(\mathbb {R}^n)\times H^1(\mathbb {R}^n)$ is caused by the lack of compact Sobolev embeddings on $\mathbb {R}^n$, as well as the weak dissipativeness of the equations is surmounted at light of the idea of uniform tail-estimates and a spectral decomposition approach. The measurability of random attractors is proved by using an argument which considers two attracting universes developed by Wang and Li (Phys. D 382: 46–57, 2018).

Since the outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection in Wuhan City, China, pediatric cases have gradually increased. It is very important to prevent cross-infection in pediatric fever clinics, to identify children with fever in pediatric fever clinics, and to strengthen the management of pediatric fever clinics. According to prevention and control programs, we propose the guidance on the management of pediatric fever clinics during the nCoV pneumonia epidemic period, which outlines in detail how to optimize processes, prevent cross-infection, provide health protection, and prevent disinfection of medical staff. The present consideration statement summarizes current strategies on the pre-diagnosis, triage, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of 2019-nCoV infection, which provides practical suggestions on strengthening the management of pediatric fever clinics during the nCoV pneumonia epidemic period.

Wireless power transfer (WPT) has attracted attention from academia and industry in recent years. WPT has natural electrical isolation between primary and secondary side, which ensures safe charging in an underwater environment. This breakthrough technology greatly facilitates the deep-sea power transmission. However, at the current stage the transferred power and energy efficiency level are not up to that of the WPT system in the air. The major concerns include the attenuation is seawater, extreme temperature and pressure conditions, disturbance of ocean currents, and bio-security. Three questions are answered in this paper: first, the expressions of eddy current loss and attenuation of electromagnetic wave in seawater are unified, and the influence of seawater as transmission medium on the WPT system is discussed. Second, the evolution of electromagnetic coupling structure suitable for underwater applications is studied. Third, the loss and heating effects of an underwater WPT system and the corresponding bio-fouling phenomenon are investigated. The questions above were addressed through analysis of electrical properties, coupler structures, and bio-fouling effects of the underwater WPT system. This paper will facilitate the study and research on underwater WPT applications.

As an important dimensionless parameter for the vortex formation process, the general form of the formation time defined by Dabiri (Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech., vol. 41, 2009, pp. 17–33) is refined so as to provide better normalization for various vortex generator configurations. Our proposed definition utilizes the total circulation over the entire flow domain rather than that of the forming vortex ring alone. It adopts an integral form by considering the instantaneous infinitesimal increment in the formation time so that the effect of temporally varying properties of the flow configuration can be accounted for properly. By including the effect of buoyancy, the specific form of the general formation time for the starting forced plumes with negative and positive buoyancy is derived. A theoretical prediction based on the Kelvin–Benjamin variational principle shows that the general formation time manifests the invariance of the critical time scale, i.e. the formation number, under the influence of a source–ambient density difference. It demonstrates that the general formation time, based on the circulation production over the entire flow field, could take into account the effect of various vorticity production mechanisms, such as from a flux term or in a baroclinic fluid, on the critical formation number. The proposed definition may, therefore, serve as a guideline for deriving the specific form of the formation time in other types of starting/pulsatile flows.