Systolic blood pressure (SBP) significantly associates with body composition in children and adolescents. However, which components of body composition is the dominant contributor to SBP in children and adolescents remains unclear. We therefore aimed to determine the dominant contributor to SBP among components of body composition in a large cohort of American children and adolescents derived from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with cross-sectional analysis. 13618 children and adolescents (median age 13 years; 6107 girls) with available data on whole-body dual-emission X-ray absorptiometry measurements were included. Multiple linear regression showed that SBP associated with higher total fat-free mass in boys (β=0.49, P<0.001) and girls (β=0.47, P<0.001) and with higher total fat mass only in boys (β=0.12, P<0.001), after adjustment for covariates. When taking fat distribution into consideration, SBP associated with higher trunk fat mass (Boys: β=0.28, P<0.001; Girls: β=0.15, P<0.001), but negatively associated with leg fat mass (Boys: β=-0.14, P<0.001; Girls: β=-0.11, P<0.001), in both boys and girls. Dominance analysis showed that total fat-free mass was the dominant contributor to SBP (boys: 49%; girls: 55.3%), followed by trunk fat mass (boys: 32.1%; girls: 26.9%); leg fat mass contributed the least to SBP in boys (18.9%) and girls (17.8%). Our findings indicated that total fat-free mass was not only associated with SBP, but also the most dominant contributor to SBP variation in American children and adolescents.

An increased number of rogue waves, relative to standard distributions, can be induced by unidirectional waves passing over abrupt decreases in water depth. We investigate this phenomenon in a more general setting of multidirectional waves. We examine the influence of the directionality on the occurrence probability of rogue waves using laboratory experiments and fully nonlinear potential flow simulations. Based on the analysis of the statistics of random waves, we find that directional spreading reduces the formation probability of rogue waves relative to unidirectional seas. Nevertheless, for typical values of directional spreading in the ocean ($15^{\circ }\unicode{x2013}30^{\circ }$), our numerical results suggest that there is still a significant enhancement to the number of rogue waves just beyond the top of a depth discontinuity.

Purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus L.) is a globally distributed noxious weed that poses a significant challenge for control due to its fast and efficient propagation through the tuber, which is the primary reproductive organ. Gibberellic acid (GA3) has proven to be crucial for tuberization in tuberous plants. Therefore, understanding the relationship between GA3 and tuber development and propagation of C. rotundus will provide valuable information for controlling this weed. This study shows that the GA3 content decreases with tuber development, which corresponds to lower expression of bioactive GA3 synthesis genes (CrGA20ox, two CrGA3ox genes) and two upregulated GA3 catabolism genes (CrGA2ox genes), indicating that GA3 is involved in tuber development. Simultaneously, the expression of two CrDELLA genes and CrGID1 declines with tuber growth and decreased GA3, and yeast two-hybrid assays confirm that the GA3 signaling is DELLA-dependent. Furthermore, exogenous application of GA3 markedly reduces the number and the width of tubers and represses the growth of the tuber chain, further confirming the negative impact that GA3 has on tuber development and propagation. Taken together, these results demonstrate that GA3 is involved in tuber development and regulated by the DELLA-dependent pathway in C. rotundus and plays a negative role in tuber development and propagation.

Risk of bias assessment is a critical step of any meta-analysis or systematic review. Given the low sample count of many microbiome studies, especially observational or cohort studies involving human subjects, many microbiome studies have low power. This increases the importance of performing meta-analysis and systematic review for microbiome research in order to enhance the relevance and applicability of microbiome results. This work proposes a method based on the ROBINS-I tool to systematically consider sources of bias in microbiome research seeking to perform meta-analysis or systematic review for microbiome studies.

Compared with nitrogen and argon, helium is lighter and can better reduce the beam loss caused by angular scattering during beam transmission. The molecular dissociation cross-section in helium is high and stable at low energies, which makes helium the prevalent stripping gas in low-energy accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). To study the stripping behavior of 14C ions in helium at low energies, the charge state distributions of carbon ion beams with −1, +1, +2, +3, and +4 charge states were measured at energies of 70–220 keV with a compact 14C-AMS at Guangxi Normal University (GXNU). The experimental data were used to analyze the stripping characteristics of C-He in the energy range of 70–220 keV, and new charge state yields and exchange cross-sections in C-He were obtained at energies of 70–220 keV.

A single-stage accelerator mass spectrometer (GXNU-AMS) developed for radiocarbon and tritium measurements was installed and commissioned at Guangxi Normal University in 2017. After several years of operational and methodological upgrades, its performance has been continuously improved and applied in multidisciplinary fields. Currently, the measurement sensitivity for radiocarbon and tritium is 14C/12C ∼ (3.14 ± 0.05) ×10–15 and 3H/1H ∼ (1.23 ± 0.17)×10–16, respectively, and the measurement accuracy is ∼0.6%, which can meet the measurement requirements in the nuclear, earth, environmental and life science fields. This study presents the performance characteristics of GXNU-AMS and several interesting application studies.

The subduction of the Bangong–Nujiang Ocean is important in the geological evolution of the Tibetan Plateau. In this paper, we report new zircon U-Pb age and Lu-Hf isotopic data and whole-rock elemental and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic data for Early Cretaceous dacites from the Rena-Co area (RCA) in the southern Qiangtang Terrane (QT), central Tibet and use these data to better understand the tectonic evolution of the Bangong–Nujiang suture. LA–ICP-MS dating of zircons yields ages of 109.5 ± 0.6 Ma to 109.6 ± 0.8 Ma for the dacites from the RCA. Geochemically, these dacites are medium-K calc-alkaline and show high SiO2 contents of 64.79–70.37 wt.%, high Sr contents of 517–598 ppm and low Y contents of 8.45–10.7 ppm, similar to those of typical adakites. Additionally, all the rocks are strongly enriched in light rare earth elements and some large ion lithophile elements (e.g. Rb, U, K and Cs) but significantly depleted in high-field-strength elements (e.g. Nb, Ta and Ti), consistent with the geochemical characteristics of arc-type magmas formed in the subduction zone. Moreover, these adakite-like dacites show whole-rock initial (87Sr/86Sr)i ratios of 0.705119 to 0.705491, (206Pb/204Pb)i ratios of 18.489 to 18.508, (207Pb/204Pb)i ratios of 15.591 to 15.612, (208Pb/204Pb)i ratios of 38.599 to 38.686, ϵNd(t) values of −0.28 to +1.25 and single-stage Nd model ages of 642 to 818 Ma, as well as significantly positive zircon ϵHf(t) values of 3.9–13.1, with young Hf-depleted mantle ages of 331 to 923 Ma. These geochemical and isotopic data indicate that they are most likely derived from the juvenile thickened mafic lower continental crust, which contains partial melts of metasomatized peridotite and subduction-related fluids in the magma source region. Based on previous studies and our new data, we propose that the RCA adakite-like dacites are most likely a result of the northwards subduction of the Bangong–Nujiang Ocean lithosphere beneath the southern QT during the Early Cretaceous and that a slab rollback model could explain the formation of the RCA adakite-like dacites.

Microbubble emission boiling (MEB), a phenomenon that occurs under highly subcooled boiling conditions, can achieve a high heat flux beyond critical heat flux. MEB has been observed to differ from nucleate boiling and is always accompanied by the emission of microbubbles from an oscillating bubble. The heat transfer mechanism of MEB differs from that of nucleate boiling and remains elusive. In this study, we measure the behaviour of a vapour bubble and its induced liquid flow simultaneously during subcooled boiling using the high-speed two-phase particle image velocimetry method. Different from nucleate boiling, we observe a rapid oscillating flow outside the bubble that constantly attaches on the heating surface in MEB. The spatially and temporally averaged velocity magnitude values under this oscillating flow, and their dependency on liquid subcooling and heat flux, are quantified. Then we derive a scaling law for the heat transfer of MEB as a function of Péclet and Jacob numbers. With such correlations, we suggest that the oscillating flow induced by bubble oscillations is important to MEB, thus elucidating a different heat transport process from nucleate boiling.

In this work, we report numerical results on the flow instability and bifurcation of a viscoelastic fluid in the upstream region of a cylinder in a confined narrow channel. Two-dimensional direct numerical simulations based on the FENE-P model (the finite-extensible nonlinear elastic model with the Peterlin closure) are conducted with numerical stabilization techniques. Our results show that the macroscopic viscoelastic constitutive relation can capture the viscoelastic upstream instability reported in previous experiments for low-Reynolds-number flows. The numerical simulations reveal that the non-dimensional recirculation length (LD) is affected by the cylinder blockage ratio (BR), the Weissenberg number (Wi), the viscosity ratio (β) and the maximum polymer extension (L). Close to the onset of upstream recirculation, LD with Wi satisfy Landau-type quartic potential under certain parameter space. The bifurcation may exhibit subcritical behaviour depending on the values of L2 and β. The parameters β and L2 have nonlinear influence on the upstream recirculation length. This work contributes to our theoretical understanding of this new instability mechanism in viscoelastic wake flows.

The plant Camellia fascicularis, belonging to family Theaceae, has high ornamental and medicinal value, and rare gene resources for genetic improvement of Camellia crops, but is currently threatened with extinction because of the unique and extremely small wild populations. Molecular markers have clarified the wild plant species’ genetic diversity structure, new gene resources and relationship with crops. This will be beneficial for conservation of these valuable crop-related wild species and crop improvement. In this study, we identified 95,979 microsatellite loci from 155,011 transcriptome unigenes, and developed 14 polymorphic expressed sequence tag-derived simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) microsatellite markers for C. fascicularis. The number of alleles (Na) per locus was 2–8 with a mean of 4.86. The genetic diversity of 40 individuals from four natural populations of C. fascicularis was analysed using these polymorphic markers. The number of alleles (Na) for EST-SSR ranged from 2 to 5, with the expected heterozygosities (He) and observed heterozygosities (Ho) in all loci ranging from 0.183 to 0.683, and from 0.201 to 0.700, respectively, implying a rich genetic variation present in wild C. fascicularis populations. Moreover, the phylogenetic analysis among four populations, using the 14 EST-SSR markers developed in this study, grouped 40 individuals into three groups, which coincide with their geographic distribution. These results showed that 14 EST-SSR markers are available for the analysis of genetic variation in C. fascicularis populations and genetic improvement of new Camellias cultivars by interspecific hybridization, and are beneficial for conservation of the endangered species.

The purpose of this study was to analyse the clinical characteristics of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) PCR re-positivity after recovering from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Patients (n = 1391) from Guangzhou, China, who had recovered from COVID-19 were recruited between 7 September 2021 and 11 March 2022. Data on epidemiology, symptoms, laboratory test results and treatment were analysed. In this study, 42.7% of recovered patients had re-positive result. Most re-positive patients were asymptomatic, did not have severe comorbidities, and were not contagious. The re-positivity rate was 39%, 46%, 11% and 25% in patients who had received inactivated, mRNA, adenovirus vector and recombinant subunit vaccines, respectively. Seven independent risk factors for testing re-positive were identified, and a predictive model was constructed using these variables. The predictors of re-positivity were COVID-19 vaccination status, previous SARs-CoV-12 infection prior to the most recent episode, renal function, SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM antibody levels and white blood cell count. The predictive model could benefit the control of the spread of COVID-19.

A multiple-vehicles time-coordination guidance technique based on deep learning is suggested to address the cooperative guiding problem of hypersonic gliding vehicle entry phase. A dual-parameter bank angle profile is used in longitudinal guiding to meet the requirements of time coordination. A vehicle trajectory database is constructed along with a deep neural network (DNN) structure devised to fulfill the error criteria, and a trained network is used to replace the conventional prediction approach. Moreover, an extended Kalman filter is constructed to detect changes in aerodynamic parameters in real time, and the aerodynamic parameters are fed into a DNN. The lateral guiding employs a logic for reversing the sign of bank angle, which is based on the segmented heading angle error corridor. The final simulation results demonstrate that the built DNN is capable of addressing the cooperative guiding requirements. The algorithm is highly accurate in terms of guiding, has a fast response time, and does not need inter-munition communication, and it is capable of solving guidance orders that satisfy flight requirements even when aerodynamic parameter disruptions occur.

To meet the increasing communication demands, the satellites need to be equipped with the high-accuracy and large-aperture antennas. One of the effective methods to construct the modular antennas with ultra-high accuracy and ultra-large aperture is on-orbit assembly technology. During the on-orbit assembly missions, the assembly error is a key factor to affect the surface accuracy of the modular antennas. This paper studies the node design of each module and the assembly error analysis of the modular antennas. A design method of the module nodes is presented with consideration of the assembly gap between two modules. Meanwhile, a soft connection mechanism is designed to ensure the mobility among the assembly modules. To investigate the transmission law of the assembly errors, an analytical model of assembly error is derived based on the exponential product method. In order to establish the deformation surface with rotation and displacement assembly errors, an error ball concept is proposed by the analytical model. To decrease the assembly errors, the actuators are installed among some modules. Moreover, an adjustment method is proposed to obtain the adjustment amounts of actuators. Finally, the correctness of analytical model and the effectiveness of the adjustment method are demonstrated by the numerical simulations.

Cytochrome P450 proteins (CYPs) in insects can encode various detoxification enzymes and catabolize heterologous substances, conferring tolerance to insecticides. This study describes the identification of a P450 gene (CYP6BQ8) from Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) and investigation of its spatiotemporal expression profile and potential role in the detoxification of terpinen-4-ol, a component of plant essential oils. The developmental expression profile showed that TcCYP6BQ8 expression was relatively higher in early- and late-larval stages of T. castaneum compared with other developmental stages. Tissue expression profiles showed that TcCYP6BQ8 was mainly expressed in the head and integument of both larvae and adults. The expression profiling of TcCYP6BQ8 in developmental stages and tissues is closely related to the detoxification of heterologous substances. TcCYP6BQ8 expression was significantly induced after exposure to terpinen-4-ol, and RNA interference against TcCYP6BQ8 increased terpinen-4-ol-induced larval mortality from 47.78 to 66.67%. This indicates that TcCYP6BQ8 may be involved in T. castaneum's metabolism of terpinen-4-ol. Correlation investigation between the CYP6BQ8 gene and terpinen-4-ol resistance in T. castaneum revealed that the TcCYP6BQ8 gene was one of the factors behind T. castaneum's resistance to terpinen-4-ol. This discovery may provide a new theoretical foundation for future regulation of T. castaneum.

This study is designed to explore the association between dietary betaine intake and risk of all-cause and cardiovascular death in patients with coronary artery diseases (CAD). In this cohort study, 1292 patients with CAD were followed up for a median of 9·2 years. Baseline dietary betaine intake was collected using a paper-based semi-quantitative FFQ and assessed according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) database and the data of betaine in common foods. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to analyse the association between dietary betaine intake and risks of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. During the follow-up periods, 259 deaths recorded in 1292 participants, of which 167 died of CVD. Patients in the highest tertile of dietary betaine intake had a lower risk of all-cause (P = 0·007) and cardiovascular death (P < 0·001) than those in the lowest tertile after adjusting for age and sex, traditional cardiovascular risk factors and other potential confounders. After further adjusting for plasma methionine metabolites and vitamins, hazard ratio across tertiles of dietary betaine intake were 1·00, 0·84 and 0·72 for all-cause mortality (P for trend = 0·124), and 1·00, 0·77 and 0·55 for cardiovascular mortality (P for trend = 0·021). Higher dietary betaine intake was associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular death after fully adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors, other potential confounders and plasma methionine metabolites and vitamins. However, the association between dietary betaine intake and risk of all-cause mortality was not statistically significant after further adjusting for plasma methionine metabolites and vitamins.

In this paper, a hydraulic soft gripper for underwater applications is designed to provide a solution for improving the gripping force as well as the sensing capability of the soft gripper. The soft gripper is made of silicone and has an integrated semi-circular hydraulic network inside. To enhance the rigidity and grasping performance of the soft gripper, we have integrated a restriction layer consisting of a spring steel plate in the soft gripper. Meanwhile, to enhance the sensing capability of this soft gripper, we have designed a water pressure sensor based on resistance strain gauges and integrated it on the spring steel plate. Before fabrication, we determined the structural parameters of the soft gripper by geometric analysis. Then we experimentally evaluated its pressure-bearing capacity, bending performance, the role of spring steel plates, and the accuracy of the sensor.The experimental results show that the spring steel plate improves the gripping force of the soft gripper, the sensor also has high accuracy, and the built four-finger gripping system has good adaptability to objects of different shapes and weights.Compared with the existing solutions, this solution takes a simpler structural form while improving the gripping force and sensing ability of the soft gripper, and integrates the issues of improving the gripping force and sensing ability. The spring steel plate used in this paper not only improves the gripping force of the soft gripper but also provides a stable and reliable platform for installing sensors.

One complication in mortality modelling is capturing the impact of risk factors that contribute to mortality differentials between different populations. Evidence has suggested that mortality differentials tend to diminish over age. Classical methods such as the Gompertz law attempt to capture mortality patterns over age using intercept and slope parameters, possibly causing an unjustified mortality crossover at advanced ages when applied independently to different populations. In recent research, Richards (Scandinavian Actuarial Journal 2020(2), 110–127) proposed a Hermite spline (HS) model that describes the age pattern of mortality differentials using one parameter and circumvents an unreasonable crossover by default. The original HS model was applied to pension data at individual level in the age dimension only. This paper extends the method to model population mortality in both age and period dimensions. Our results indicate that in addition to possessing desirable fitting properties, the HS approach can produce accurate mortality forecasts, compared with the Gompertz and P-splines models.

Previous studies have reported inconsistent associations between low-carbohydrate diets (LCD) and plasma lipid profile. Also, there is little evidence on the role of the quality and food sources of macronutrients in LCD in cardiometabolic health. We investigated the cross-sectional associations between LCD and plasma cardiometabolic risk markers in a nationwide representative sample of the US population. Diet was measured through two 24-h recalls. Overall, healthy (emphasising unsaturated fat, plant protein and less low-quality carbohydrates) and unhealthy (emphasising saturated fat, animal protein and less high-quality carbohydrate) LCD scores were developed according to the percentage of energy as total and subtypes of carbohydrate, protein and fat. Linear regression was used to estimate the percentage difference of plasma marker concentrations by LCD scores. A total of 34 785 participants aged 18–85 years were included. After adjusting for covariates including BMI, healthy LCD was associated with lower levels of insulin, homoeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), C-reactive protein (CRP) and TAG, and higher levels of HDL-cholesterol, with the percentage differences (comparing extreme quartile of LCD score) of −5·91, −6·16, −9·13, −9·71 and 7·60 (all P trend < 0·001), respectively. Conversely, unhealthy LCD was associated with higher levels of insulin, HOMA-IR, CRP and LDL-cholesterol (all P trend < 0·001). Our results suggest that healthy LCD may have positive, whereas unhealthy LCD may have negative impacts on CRP and metabolic and lipid profiles. These findings underscore the need to carefully consider the quality and subtypes of macronutrients in future LCD studies.