Mounting evidence suggests that the first few months of life are critical for the development of obesity. The relationships between the timing of solid food introduction and the risk of childhood obesity have been examined previously; however, evidence for the association of timing of infant formula introduction remains scarce. This study aimed to examine whether the timing of infant formula introduction is associated with growth z-scores and overweight at ages 1 and 3 years. This study included 5733 full-term (≥ 37 gestational weeks) and normal birth weight (≥ 2500 and < 4000 g) children in the Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study, a prospective cohort study with data collected at 6 weeks, 6, 12 and 36 months. Compared with infant formula introduction at 0–3 months, introduction at 4–6 months was associated with the lower BMI, weight-for-age and weight-for-length z-scores at 1 and 3 years old. Also, introduction at 4–6 months was associated with the lower odds of at-risk of overweight at age 1 (adjusted OR 0·72, 95 % CI 0·55, 0·94) and 3 years (adjusted OR 0·50, 95 % CI 0·30, 0·85). Introduction at 4–6 months also decreased the odds of overweight at age 1 year (adjusted OR 0·42, 95 % CI 0·21, 0·84) but not at age 3 years. Based on our findings, compared with introduction within the first 3 months, introduction at 4–6 months has a reduction on later high BMI risk and at-risk of overweight. However, these results need to be replicated in other well-designed studies before more firm recommendations can be made.

The development of doped photonic glass is of fundamental importance for various applications, including telecommunication, lasers, and photovoltaics. Despite the great advances in doping techniques, a long-standing barrier remains concerning how to gain better control over the properties of active dopants in disordered systems. Here, we provide a brief overview of recent progress on the engineering of the chemical environment and chemical state of dopants in glass by tuning the topological features, including sublattices and packing manner of the network. The methods allow us to finely tune the chemical state of active dopants over a wide range of length scales, from dispersed ions to aggregated clusters to nanoparticles, and also offer new opportunities to engineer the local crystal field around active dopants. This inherent structure-based strategy leads to intriguing optical phenomena such as tunable luminescence and notable enhancements in radiative transition probability.

We report on the absorption, static, and transient luminescence spectra of Sm3+-doped glasses. The dependences between absorption and emission cross sections as well as between luminescence quantum efficiencies and Sm3+ doping concentration are examined. The large stimulated absorption cross section and emission cross section combined with the long fluorescent lifetime make phosphate glasses doped with Sm3+ promising material for visible fiber lasers. Moreover, ΔT(Tx − Tg) of these glasses is about 290 °C, which guarantees their thermal stability against crystallization during the fiber drawing process.

Broadband spectral conversion from visible light to near-infrared radiation in Ce3+–Nd3+/Yb3+ codoped yttrium aluminum garnet is reported. Excitation, emission spectra, and decay curves have been measured to prove the energy transfer from Ce3+ to Nd3+ or Yb3+. The energy transfer efficiencies have been estimated, and the mechanisms of the energy transfer between Ce3+ and Nd3+/Yb3+ have been proposed. Ce3+–Nd3+ codoped YAG can obtain more effective emission in the desired near-infrared region (around 1100 nm) through broadband conversion, showing potential application to improve the conversion efficiency of Si solar cells.

Transparent glass ceramics containing Li2MgSiO4: Cr4+ nanocrystallites were prepared. Intense broadband near-infrared emission with full width at half-maximum larger than 200 nm and long fluorescence lifetime (τ > 100 μs) were observed. The temperature-dependent optical characteristics of the glass ceramics containing Li2MgSiO4: Cr4+ crystallites were compared to those of Li2MgSiO4: Cr4+ single crystals. The reason for extra-long near-infrared fluorescence lifetime was illuminated by the mixed effect between 3T2 and 1E levels. The crystal-filed-induced particular energy-level scheme makes the fluorescence lifetime of the glass ceramics containing Li2MgSiO4: Cr4+ crystallites one order longer than those of other Cr4+-doped glass ceramics.

Cr3+-doped LiInSiO4 phosphors were prepared by a solid-state reaction method. X-ray diffraction measurement was carried out for crystalline phase identification. Absorption, photoluminescence, excitation, and time-resolved spectra were measured to investigate the optical properties of the phosphors. Two broadband near-infrared emissions centered at 920 and 1172 nm were observed. Time-resolved spectra show that the emission at 1172 nm decays more quickly than the emission at 920 nm. The electron spin resonance spectra exhibit a broad resonance signal at g = 1.96 because of exchange-coupled Cr3+ pairs. The value of Dq/B for low and intermediate crystal fields was evaluated. We suggest that Cr3+ incorporated into different octahedral sites of the crystal is responsible for the different near-infrared luminescence.

In this article, the chemical and structural changes inside soda-lime glasses induced by femtosecond (fs) laser pulsing have been reported, based on transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy studies. Under fs-laser interaction, Na-rich phases are formed, and Na nanoparticles are also precipitated around the Na-rich phases. These findings demonstrate how powerful and efficient the fs-laser pulsing and interaction can be in making novel microstructures in soda-lime silicate glass, and they bridge the gap between the macroscale property changes and nanometer-scale structures.

Sm3+, Ce3+ codoped Al2O3–La2O3–SiO2 glasses were prepared and their luminescence properties were characterized. Blue-cyan to orange-red tunable luminescence was observed from these glasses with different excitation wavelengths ranging from 385 to 410 nm. White light emission with internal luminescence efficiency 42% has been observed using commercially available purple light-emitting-diode excitation. The energy transfer between Ce3+ and Sm3+ has also been investigated from fluorescence decay curves and spectral properties.

Cr3+/Ni2+ co-doped optically transparent magnesium aluminosilicate glass-ceramics containing MgAl2O4 nanocrystals have been prepared by heat-treatment. Greatly enhanced broadband near-infrared emission centered at 1216 nm in Cr3+/Ni2+ co-doped glass ceramics is observed when compared with the Ni2+ single-doped glass ceramics under 532 nm excitation. The observed enhancement of infrared emission is attributed to the energy transfer from Cr3+ to Ni2+ ions in the nanocrystalline phase, which leads to the emission due to 3T2(3F) → 3A2(3F) transition of octahedral Ni2+ ions.

In this article, we report on enhanced broadband near-infrared emission in Yb–Bi codoped phosphate glasses. The emission intensity of Yb–Bi codoped glass was ˜32 times larger than that of Bi-doped glass when excited with 980-nm laser diode. The highest 1/e fluorescent lifetime of Yb–Bi codoped glass reached 1650 μs. The dependence of emission intensity and fluorescent lifetime on Yb2O3 concentration was investigated. The enhancement of the near-infrared emission is due to energy transfer from Yb3+ (2F5/2–2F7/2) transition to Bi ions, and the highest energy transfer efficiency reached 50%. Yb–Bi codoped phosphate glass should be a promising candidate for broadband optical amplification.

Oxyfluoride aluminosilicate glasses with compositions of 50SiO2–20Al2O3–20BaF2–10GdF3–0.5PrF3–xYbF3(x = 0, 1.0, 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 mol%) have been prepared to study their thermal and optical properties. From the differential thermal analysis (DTA) measurement, glass-transition temperatures and onset crystallization temperatures have been evaluated and from them, glass-stability factors against crystallization were calculated. Glass stabilities were decreased gradually with fluoride content increment in all the studied glasses. The photoluminescence and decay measurements have also been carried out for these glasses. In these glasses, an efficient near-infrared (NIR) quantum cutting with optimal quantum efficiency approaching 160% have been demonstrated, by exploring the cooperative downconversion mechanism from Pr3+ to Yb3+ with 481 nm (3P0 → 3H4) excitation wave length. These glasses are promising materials to achieve high-efficiency silicon-base solar cells by means of downconversion in the visible part of the solar spectrum.

In this paper, we report on the multicolor luminescence in oxygen-deficient Tb3+-doped calcium aluminogermanate glasses. A simple method was proposed to control oxygen-deficient defects in glasses by adding metal Al instead of the corresponding oxide (Al2O3), resulting in efficient blue and red emissions from Tb3+-undoped glasses with 300 and 380 nm excitation wavelengths, respectively. Moreover, in Tb3+-doped oxygen-deficient glasses, bright three-color (sky-blue, green or yellow, and red) luminescence was observed with 300, 380, and 395 nm excitation wavelengths, respectively. These glasses are useful for the fabrication of white light-emitting diode (LED) lighting.

Broadband near-infrared (IR) luminescence in transparent alkali gallium silicate glass-ceramics containing Ni2+-doped β-Ga2O3 nanocrystals was observed. This broadband emission could be attributed to the 3T2g (3F) → 3A2g (3F) transition of octahedral Ni2+ ions in glass-ceramics. The full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the near-IR luminescence and fluorescent lifetime of the glass-ceramic doped with 0.10 mol% NiO were 260 nm and ∼1220 μs, respectively. It is expected that transparent Ni2+-doped β-Ga2O3 glass-ceramics with this broad near-IR emission and long fluorescent lifetime have potential applications as super-broadband optical amplification media.

Infrared (IR) luminescence covering 1.1 to ∼1.6 μm wavelength region was observed from bismuth-doped barium silicate glasses, excited by a laser diode at 808 nm wavelength region, at room temperature. The peak of the IR luminescence appears at 1325 nm. A full width half-maximum (FWHM) and the lifetime of the fluorescence is more than 200 nm and 400 μs, respectively. The fluorescence intensity increases with Al2O3 content, but decreases with BaO content. We suggest that the IR luminescence should be ascribed to the low valence state of bismuth Bi2+ or Bi+, and Al3+ ions play an indirect dispersing role for the infrared luminescent centers.

Bi-doped sodium–potassium aluminosilicate glasses were synthesized and characterized. Broadband near-infrared (IR) emission covered the whole telecommunication wavelength region, with a maximum peak at about 1250 nm, a full width at half-maximum of about 370 nm, and a lifetime longer than 420 μs. The present glasses are potential materials for tunable lasers and optical amplifiers. The decrease of active Bi center concentration with the increase of Na2O content and the addition of CeO2are first reported here, and the IR emission center in sodium–potassium aluminosilicate glasses might be ascribed to low-valence-state bismuth, most probably, Bi+.

We report on ultrabroad infrared (IR) luminescences covering the 1000–1700-nm wavelength region, from Bi-doped 75GeO2–20RO–5Al2O3–1Bi2O3(R = Sr, Ca, and Mg) glasses. The full width at half-maximum of the IR luminescences excited at 980 nm increases (315 → 440 → 510 nm) with the change of alkaline earth metal (Mg2+→ Ca2+→ Sr2+). The fluorescence lifetime of the glass samples is 1725, 157, and 264 μs when R is Sr, Ca, and Mg, respectively. These materials may be promising candidates for broad-band fiber amplifiers and tunable laser resources.

We report on photoreduction of Ag+ in aluminoborate glasses induced by irradiation of a femtosecond laser. Novel fluorescence was observed in the femtosecond laser irradiated glass when excited by a 365 nm ultraviolet lamp. Optical absorption, emission, and electron spin resonance spectra of the glass samples demonstrated that after the laser irradiation, portions of silver ions near the focused part of the laser beam inside the glass were reduced to silver atoms, which resulted in the formation of the characteristic fluorescence. The observed phenomenon may have promising applications in the fabrication of functional optical devices.

Femtosecond laser is a perfect laser source for materials processing when high accuracy and small structure size are required. Due to the ultra short interaction time and the high peak power, the process is generally characterized by the absence of heat diffusion and, consequently molten layers. Various induced structures have been observed inside glasses after the femtosecond laser irradiation. Here, we report the refractive index change, space-selective valence state manipulation of active ions, nano-grating and precipitation control of nanoparticles by a femtosecond laser in glasses. The mechanisms of the observed phenomena were also discussed.