Metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) might be an alternative valuable target in obesity treatment. We aimed to assess whether alternative Mediterranean (aMED) diet and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet were favourably associated with obesity and MHO phenotype in a Chinese multi-ethnic population. We conducted this cross-sectional analysis using the baseline data of the China Multi-Ethnic Cohort study that enrolled 99 556 participants from seven diverse ethnic groups. Participants with self-reported cardiometabolic diseases were excluded to eliminate possible reverse causality. Marginal structural logistic models were used to estimate the associations, with confounders determined by directed acyclic graph (DAG). Among 65 699 included participants, 11·2 % were with obesity. MHO phenotype was present in 5·7 % of total population and 52·7 % of population with obesity. Compared with the lowest quintile, the highest quintile of DASH diet score had 23 % decreased odds of obesity (OR = 0·77, 95 % CI 0·71, 0·83, Ptrend < 0·001) and 27 % increased odds of MHO (OR = 1·27, 95 % CI 1·10, 1·48, Ptrend = 0·001) in population with obesity. However, aMED diet showed no obvious favourable associations. Further adjusting for BMI did not change the associations between diet scores and MHO. Results were robust to various sensitivity analyses. In conclusion, DASH diet rather than aMED diet is associated with reduced risk of obesity and presents BMI-independent metabolic benefits in this large population-based study. Recommendation for adhering to DASH diet may benefit the prevention of obesity and related metabolic disorders in Chinese population.

Renal fibrosis is common especially in the elderly population. Recently, we found that vitamin D deficiency caused prostatic hyperplasia. This study aimed to investigate whether vitamin D deficiency promotes renal fibrosis and functional impairment. All mice except controls were fed with vitamin D-deficient (VDD) diets, beginning from their early life. The absolute and relative kidney weights on postnatal week 20 were decreased in VDD diet-fed male pups but not in female pups. A mild pathological damage was observed in VDD diet-fed male pups but not in females. Further analysis showed that VDD-induced pathological damage was aggravated, accompanied by renal dysfunction in 40-week-old male pups. An obvious collagen deposition was observed in VDD diet-fed 40-week-old male pups. Moreover, renal α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), a marker of epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), and Tgf-β mRNA were up-regulated. The in vitro experiment showed that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 alleviated transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1)-mediated down-regulation of E-cadherin and inhibited TGF-β1-evoked up-regulation of N-cadherin, vimentin and α-SMA in renal epithelial HK-2 cells. Moreover, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 suppressed TGF-β1-evoked Smad2/3 phosphorylation in HK-2 cells. These results provide experimental evidence that long-term vitamin D deficiency promotes renal fibrosis and functional impairment, at least partially, through aggravating TGF-β/Smad2/3-mediated EMT in middle-aged male mice.

In this study, Mg-substituted tricalcium phosphate (Mg-TCP) nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrothermal reactions of Mg-calcite mesocrystals from echinoderm skeletons. Following the biomineralization of echinoderms, Mg-calcite powder was synthesized via the solid-state transition of Mg-amorphous calcium carbonate prepared by a wet-chemical precipitation method, which can also be used to fabricate Mg-TCP. We illustrated that Mg-calcite with a certain level of Mg substitution led to the formation of Mg-TCP through the ion-exchange reactions in the hydrothermal system. Therefore, this study provides a new pathway for the synthesis of Mg-TCP nanoparticles.

This study aimed to determine the effects of supplementing the diet of adult Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus with phosphatidylcholine (PC) on growth performance, body composition, fatty acid composition and gene expression. Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia fish with an initial body weight of 83·1 (sd 2·9) g were divided into six groups. Each group was hand-fed a semi-purified diet containing 1·7 (control diet), 4·0, 6·5, 11·5, 21·3 or 41·0 g PC/kg diet for 68 d. Supplemental PC improved the feed efficiency rate, which was highest in the 11·5 g PC/kg diet. Weight gain and specific growth rate were unaffected. Dietary PC increased PC content in the liver and decreased crude fat content in the liver, viscera and body. SFA and MUFA increased and PUFA decreased in muscle with increasing dietary PC. Cytoplasmic phospholipase A2 and secreted phospholipase A2 mRNA expression were up-regulated in the brain and heart in PC-supplemented fish. PC reduced fatty acid synthase mRNA expression in the liver and visceral tissue but increased expression in muscle. Hormone-sensitive lipase and lipoprotein lipase expression increased in the liver with increasing dietary PC. Growth hormone mRNA expression was reduced in the brain and insulin-like growth factor-1 mRNA expression in liver reduced with PC above 6·5 g/kg. Our results demonstrate that dietary supplementation with PC improves feed efficiency and reduces liver fat in adult Nile tilapia, without increasing weight gain, representing a novel dietary approach to reduce feed requirements and improve the health of Nile tilapia.

The metamorphic responses of mussel (Mytilus coruscus) larvae to pharmacological agents affecting G proteins and the adenylate cyclase/cyclic AMP (AC/cAMP) pathway were examined in the laboratory. The G protein activators guanosine 5′-[β,γ-imido]triphosphate trisodium salt hydrate and guanosine 5′-[γ-thio]triphosphate tetralithium salt only induced larval metamorphosis in continuous exposure assays, and the G protein inhibitor guanosine 5′-[β-thio]diphosphate trilithium salt did not exhibit inducing activity. The non-specific phosphodiesterase inhibitor theophylline and the cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase IV inhibitor 4-(3-Butoxy-4-methoxybenzyl)imidazolidin-2-one exhibited inducing activity, while the non-specific phosphodiesterase inhibitor 3-Isobutyl-1-methylxanthine only showed inducing activity at 10−4 M in continuous exposure assays. The cyclic nucleotide analogue N6,2′-O-Dibutyryladenosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate sodium salt did not exhibit significant inducing activity. Both the adenylate cyclase activator forskolin and the adenylate cyclase inhibitor nitroimidazole exhibited inducing activity at 10−4 to 10−3 M concentrations in continuous exposure assays. Among these tested agents, the adenylate cyclase inhibitor (±)-miconazole nitrate salt showed the most promising inducing effect. The present results indicate that G protein-coupled receptors and signal transduction by AC/cAMP pathway could mediate metamorphosis of larvae in this species.

In this paper, the recent studies of laboratory astrophysics with strong magnetic fields in China have been reviewed. On the Shenguang-II laser facility of the National Laboratory on High-Power Lasers and Physics, a laser-driven strong magnetic field up to 200 T has been achieved. The experiment was performed to model the interaction of solar wind with dayside magnetosphere. Also the low beta plasma magnetic reconnection (MR) has been studied. Theoretically, the model has been developed to deal with the atomic structures and processes in strong magnetic field. Also the study of shock wave generation in the magnetized counter-streaming plasmas is introduced.

We consider perturbation bounds and condition numbers for a complex indefinite linear algebraic system, which is of interest in science and engineering. Some existing results are improved, and illustrative numerical examples are provided.

Bionic engineering has been a focus in the field of robotic researches. Inverse dynamic analysis is significant for the determination of dynamic parameters of bionic robots. The present paper uses a newly developed robot modular named Sambot to construct a caterpillar robotic mechanism, and designs a gait of trapezoidal wave locomotion for it. Two open-link models are put forth to simulate the dynamic behavior of such a locomotion. The inverse dynamic differential equations are derived by Kane's method and are then solved numerically by the Runge–Kutta method of the fourth order. Based on the numerical solutions of these differential equations, the applied joint torques required to produce the harmonic trapezoidal wave locomotion are determined finally, providing us important information on the gait control of the caterpillar robotic mechanism. Finally, the theoretical values of the joint torques are applied onto the present caterpillar mechanism to perform a locomotion experiment, which verifies the effectiveness of the present dynamics analysis.

Ultrathin SiC buffer layers have been grown on Si (100) substrates by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition. The evolution of buffer layer morphological properties as a function of carbonization parameters is investigated by atomic force microscopy. Based on the quantitative analysis of the dependences of void density, void depth, void width, and surface roughness on carbonization parameters, a buffer layer growth model is proposed, and the effects of carbonization parameters on buffer layer morphology are clarified. The void density is related to the carbonization temperature, temperature ramp-up rate, and C3H8 concentration by affecting the initial SiC nuclei density. The void size is evolved with processing time and mainly dependent on the carbonization temperature but slightly affected by C3H8 and H2. The buffer layer morphology is deteriorated with increasing H2 flow rate when the C3H8 concentration is fixed.

The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene of Bombyx mori cypovirus 1 (BmCPV-1) (China strain) was cloned in three fragments using step-by-step reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The whole RdRp gene of 3691 bp was sequenced (GenBank accession number: AY496445). Vector pET-28b(+) was used to construct the expression vector pET28b–RdRp which was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) induced with isopropyl β-d-thiogalactoside (IPTG). The molecular weight of the expression product was about 138 Da. The primary antibody employed was rabbit antibody against BmCPV–RdRp recombinant protein and the secondary antibody was 15 nm immunogold-labelled goat anti-rabbit IgG. Immunogold was mostly bound to the virions which were dispersed in a virus generation matrix and polyhedron in the columnar cells of the midgut of the silkworms, and the average marking ratio was about 35%. This result demonstrated that BmCPV–RdRp complexes are indeed located at the BmCPV capsid.