The study was to evaluate the reproducibility and validity of the FFQ for residents of northeast China. A total of 131 participants completed two FFQ (FFQ1 and FFQ2) within a 3-month period, 125 participants completed 8-d weighed diet records (WDR) and 112 participants completed blood biomarker testing. Reproducibility was measured by comparing nutrient and food intake between FFQ1 and FFQ2. The validity of the FFQ was assessed by WDR and the triad method. The Spearman correlation coefficients (SCC) and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for reproducibility ranged from 0·41 to 0·69 (median = 0·53) and from 0·18 to 0·68 (median = 0·53) for energy and nutrients and from 0·37 to 0·73 (median = 0·59) and from 0·33 to 0·86 (median = 0·60) for food groups, respectively. The classifications of same or adjacent quartiles ranged from 73·64 to 93·80 % for both FFQ. The crude SCC between the FFQ and WDR ranged from 0·27 to 0·55 (median = 0·46) for the energy and nutrients and from 0·26 to 0·70 (median = 0·52) for food groups, and classifications of the same or adjacent quartiles ranged from 65·32 to 86·29 %. The triad method indicated that validation coefficients for the FFQ were above 0·3 for most nutrients, which indicated a moderate or high level of validity. The FFQ that was developed for residents of northeast China for the Northeast Cohort Study of China is reliable and valid for assessing the intake of most foods and nutrients.

Thyroid cancer (TC) incidence has increased greatly during the past decades with a few established risk factors, while no study is available that has assessed the association of the Chinese Health Dietary Index (CHDI) with TC. We conducted a 1:1 matched case–control study in two hospitals in Shanghai, China. Diet-quality scores were calculated according to CHDI using a validated and reliable FFQ. Conditional logistic regression analysis and restricted cubic spline analysis were used to reveal potential associations between CHDI score and TC risk. A total of 414 pairs of historically confirmed TC patients and healthy controls were recruited from November 2012 to December 2015. The total score of cases and controls were 67·5 and 72·8, respectively (P < 0·001). The median score of total vegetables, fruit, diary products, dark green and orange vegetables, fish, shellfish and mollusk, soyabean, whole grains, dry bean and tuber in cases was significantly lower than those in controls. Compared with the reference group (≤60 points), the average (60–80 points) and high (≥80 points) levels of the CHDI score were associated with a reduced risk of TC (OR: 0·40, 95 % CI 0·26, 0·63 for 60–80 points; OR: 0·22, 95 % CI 0·12, 0·38 for ≥80 points). In age-stratified analyses, the favourable association remained significant among participants who are younger than 50 years old. Our data suggested that high diet quality as determined by CHDI was associated with lower risk of TC.

TLR3 and IL-10 play a crucial role in antiviral defence. However, there is a controversy between TLR3 rs3775291 and IL-10 rs1800871 polymorphisms and the risk of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the two single nucleotide mutations and the risk of HBV infection by meta-analysis. Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science, CNKI, China Wanfang database were searched for the case-control studies on the relationship between TLR3 rs3775291 and IL-10 rs1800871 polymorphism and susceptibility to HBV, updated to June 2020. The data were analysed by Stata 15.0 software. A total of 22 articles were included. The results showed that in the analysis of IL10 rs1800871 polymorphism and the risk of HBV infection, the pooled OR was 1.21 (95% CI 1.06–1.37), 1.28 (95% CI 1.04–1.56) and 1.20 (95% CI 1.06–1.37) and 1.40 (95% CI 1.07–1.83) in the allele model (C vs. T), dominant model (CC+CT vs. TT), recessive model (CC vs. CT+TT) and homozygous model (CC vs. TT), respectively. There was no statistical significance in the heterozygote model. A subgroup analysis of the Asian population showed similar results. The analysis of TLR3 rs3775291 polymorphism and the risk of HBV showed that in the allele model (T vs. C), the pooled OR was 1.30 (95% CI 1.05–1.61). Except for the recessive model, no significances were found in other genetic models. In conclusion, TLR3 rs3775291 and IL-10 rs1800871 polymorphisms are associated with the risk of HBV. Allele C and genotype CC at IL10 rs1800871 loci, as well as allele T and genotype TT at TLR rs3775291 loci, may increase susceptibility to Hepatitis B infection.

Tempering cooling rate plays a significant role in the impact toughness of 2CrMoV weld metal. Three different tempering cooling rate experiments were carried out; it is found that the impact toughness of weld metal improved from 44.61 to 117.49 J as the cooling rate increased from 5 to 40 °C/h. Microstructure characterization revealed that the large blocky M–A constituents and cluster precipitation were considered to act as stress concentration sources and cleavage fracture initiators at a cooling rate of 5 °C/h. Under the cooling rate of 20 °C/h, the decrease of blocky M–A constituents as well as homogeneous distribution of precipitation induced the transition from cleavage to interfacial decohesion. The chance of crack propagation in intragranular ferrite matrix was increased, which needed to absorb more energy and improve impact toughness. When the tempering cooling rate reached at 40 °C/h, the cracks mainly propagated in the ferrite matrix; meanwhile, fine and homogeneous distribution of precipitation greatly inhibited crack propagation and led to higher impact toughness.

Selecting pivot features that connect a source domain to a target domain is an important first step in unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA). Although different strategies such as the frequency of a feature in a domain, mutual (or pointwise mutual) information have been proposed in prior work in domain adaptation (DA) for selecting pivots, a comparative study into (a) how the pivots selected using existing strategies differ, and (b) how the pivot selection strategy affects the performance of a target DA task remain unknown. In this paper, we perform a comparative study covering different strategies that use both labelled (available for the source domain only) as well as unlabelled (available for both the source and target domains) data for selecting pivots for UDA. Our experiments show that in most cases pivot selection strategies that use labelled data outperform their unlabelled counterparts, emphasising the importance of the source domain labelled data for UDA. Moreover, pointwise mutual information and frequency-based pivot selection strategies obtain the best performances in two state-of-the-art UDA methods.

In north-central China, subsistence practices transitioned from hunting and gathering to millet-based agriculture between the early and middle Holocene. To better understand how ancient environmental changes influenced this shift in subsistence strategies and human activities at regional to local levels, we conducted palynological and lithologic analyses on radiocarbon-dated sediment cores from the Luoyang Basin, western Henan Province. Our palynological results suggest that vegetation shifted from broad-leaved deciduous forest (9230–8850 cal yr BP) to steppe-meadow vegetation (8850–7550 cal yr BP), and then to steppe with sparse trees (7550–6920 cal yr BP). Lithologic analyses also indicate that the stabilization of the Luoyang Basin’s floodplain after ~8370 cal yr BP might have attracted people to move into the basin, promoting the emergence of millet-based agriculture during the Peiligang culture period (8500–7000 cal yr BP). Once agricultural practices emerged, the climatic optimum after ~7550 cal yr BP likely facilitated the expansion of the Yangshao culture (7000–5000 cal yr BP) in north-central China. As agriculture intensified, pollen taxa related to human disturbance, such as Urtica, increased in abundance.

We examined the in vitro developmental competence of parthenogenetic activation (PA) oocytes activated by an electric pulse (EP) and treated with various concentrations of AZD5438 for 4 h. Treatment with 10 µM AZD5438 for 4 h significantly improved the blastocyst formation rate of PA oocytes in comparison with 0, 20, or 50 µM AZD5438 treatment (46.4% vs. 34.5%, 32.3%, and 24.0%, respectively; P < 0.05). The blastocyst formation rate was higher in the group treated with AZD5438 for 4 h than in the groups treated with AZD5438 for 2 or 6 h (42.8% vs. 38.6% and 37.2%, respectively; P > 0.05). Furthermore, 66.67% of blastocysts derived from these AZD5438-treated PA oocytes had a diploid karyotype. The blastocyst formation rate of PA and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos was similar between oocytes activated by an EP and treated with 2 mM 6-dimethylaminopurine for 4 h and those activated by an EP and treated with 10 µM AZD5438 for 4 h (11.11% vs. 13.40%, P > 0.05). In addition, the level of maturation-promoting factor (MPF) was significantly decreased in oocytes activated by an EP and treated with 10 µM AZD5438 for 4 h. Finally, the mRNA expression levels of apoptosis-related genes (Bax and Bcl-2) and pluripotency-related genes (Oct4, Nanog, and Sox2) were checked by RT-PCR; however, there were no differences between the AZD5438-treated and non-treated control groups. Our results demonstrate that porcine oocyte activation via an EP in combination with AZD5438 treatment can lead to a high blastocyst formation rate in PA and SCNT experiments.

Thermoluminescence (TL) and radioluminescence (RL) spectra of the long-lasting phosphorescence of SrA12O4:Eu2+,Dy3+ with A1N addition and commercially used SrA12O4:Eu2+,Dy3+ were compared. Their spectra were slowly recorded over the temperature range from 25 to 673 K (400 °C). A1N offers a higher temperature TL peak, which should lengthen the phosphor lifetime. However, both TL and RL, especially that below room temperature, reveal that there are additional decay paths for the samples of SrA12O4:Eu2+,Dy3+ with A1N additions. These new defect sites reduce the phosphor efficiency. Some speculative models of potential sites are proposed and discussed. In addition, discontinuous intensity changes have been observed for both sample types in TL and RL spectra, which are assigned to the transitions of embedded impurity phases. The justification for this model is explained. Suggestions for future experimentation are also considered.

NiCrMoV steels used in nuclear rotor with heavy section were successfully fabricated by ultra-narrow gap submerged arc welding method. In this study, the mechanical properties including the tensile and impact toughness of the welded joints (WJs) with a wide temperature range were systematically investigated. Microstructural characterization indicated that the high-temperature tempered martensite and tempered bainite, as the main microstructure in WJ, were responsible for the improved comprehensive mechanical properties of the WJ. Microhardness across the WJ was measured as well, showing that the highest value of hardness occurred at the heat-affected zone which represents the appropriate lowest impact toughness of WJ. However, compared with the base metal, the ultimate tensile strength of the WJ displayed approximately equivalent values, while the yield strength was increased with increasing temperature. All the fracture of the WJ specimens occurred on the weld metal. In addition, the Charpy impact energy of weld metal was obtained at various temperatures, and the transition temperature (Tt) of welded metal was determined as 5 °C, which helps for the application design. The fractography indicated that the ductile fracture modes changed to quasi-cleavage ones gradually with decreasing temperature, and also the dimples became smaller and shallower.

Few studies have explored the relationship between dietary patterns and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Evidence from non-Western areas is particularly lacking. In the present study, we aimed to examine the associations between dietary patterns and the risk of GDM in a Chinese population. A total of 3063 pregnant Chinese women from an ongoing prospective cohort study were included. Data on dietary intake were collected using a FFQ at 24–27 weeks of gestation. GDM was diagnosed using a 75 g, 2 h oral glucose tolerance test. Dietary patterns were determined by principal components factor analysis. A log-binomial regression model was used to examine the associations between dietary pattern and the risk of GDM. The analysis identified four dietary patterns: vegetable pattern; protein-rich pattern; prudent pattern; sweets and seafood pattern. Multivariate analysis showed that the highest tertile of the vegetable pattern was associated with a decreased risk of GDM (relative risk (RR) 0·79, 95 % CI 0·64, 0·97), compared with the lowest tertile, whereas the highest tertile of the sweets and seafood pattern was associated with an increased risk of GDM (RR 1·23, 95 % CI 1·02, 1·49). No significant association was found for either the protein-rich or the prudent pattern. The protective effect of a high vegetable pattern score was more evident among women who had a family history of diabetes (P for interaction = 0·022). These findings suggest that the vegetable pattern was associated with a decreased risk of GDM, while the sweets and seafood pattern was associated with an increased risk of GDM. These findings may be useful in dietary counselling during pregnancy.

Weighted interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method is developed to solve the two-dimensional non-equilibrium radiation diffusion equation on unstructured mesh. There are three weights including the arithmetic, the harmonic, and the geometric weight in the weighted discontinuous Galerkin scheme. For the time discretization, we treat the nonlinear diffusion coefficients explicitly, and apply the semi-implicit integration factor method to the nonlinear ordinary differential equations arising from discontinuous Galerkin spatial discretization. The semi-implicit integration factor method can not only avoid severe timestep limits, but also takes advantage of the local property of DG methods by which small sized nonlinear algebraic systems are solved element by element with the exact Newton iteration method. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the validity of discontinuous Galerkin method for high nonlinear and tightly coupled radiation diffusion equation.

In this paper, a new discontinuous Galerkin method is developed for the parabolic equation with jump coefficients satisfying the continuous flow condition. Theoretical analysis shows that this method is L2 stable. When the finite element space consists of interpolative polynomials of degrees k, the convergent rate of the semi-discrete discontinuous Galerkin scheme has an order of . Numerical examples for both 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional problems demonstrate the validity of the new method.

For $k\geq 2$ and $r\geq 1$, we prove that the number of odd $k$-perfect numbers with $r$ distinct prime factors is at most $4^{r^2}(k-1)^{2r^2+3}$.

In 2008 January the 24th Chinese expedition team successfully deployed the Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR) to Dome A, the highest point on the Antarctic plateau. CSTAR consists of four 14.5cm optical telescopes, each with a different filter (g, r, i and open) and has a 4.5°×4.5° field of view (FOV). Based on the CSTAR data, initial statistics of astronomical observational site quality and light curves of variable objects were obtained. To reach higher photometric quality, we are continuing to work to overcome the effects of uneven cirrus cloud cirrus, optical “ghosts” and intra-pixel sensitivity. The snow surface stability is also tested for further astronomical observational instrument and for glaciology studies.

The purpose of this study was to determine the aetiology of acute diarrhoea and improve knowledge of gastrointestinal pathogens in China. Faecal specimens from 1526 outpatients with diarrhoea were collected from 20 hospitals in Henan province and the prevalence of seven bacterial and five viral diarrhoeagenic pathogens were determined. Bacterial pathogens were recovered from 279/1526 (18·3%) stool specimens and viral pathogens were detected in 178/1526 (11·7%) stool specimens. The top five pathogenic species were diarrhoeagenic E. coli (n = 140, 9·2%), rotavirus (n = 79, 5·2%), Shigella spp. (n = 69, 4·5%), Salmonella spp. (n = 66, 4·3%) and norovirus (n = 56, 3·7%). The prevalence of pathogens showed correlation with age, season and clinical symptoms. Several dominant serotypes were identified in Shigella and Salmonella isolates, and high prevalence of multiple drug-resistant isolates was observed in both species. This important information will have a significant effect on public health policy development and resource prioritization practices.

Butyrophilin 1A1 (BTN1A1), which is a member of the Ig superfamily, is highly expressed in the lactating mammary gland and is secreted into milk in association with lipid droplets, and concentrated in the apical plasma membranes of mammary epithelial cells. Because butyrophilin is expressed only during lactation, it appears to be essential for milk fat globule production. However, there is little information about its properties in the dairy goat. The objective of this study was to confirm whether butyrophilin was related to milk changes in different lactation periods of Xinong Saanen goats. Using suppression subtractive hybridization analysis, we identified a significant increase in butyrophilin mRNA in Xinong Saanen goat mammary gland at middle lactation when compared to that of late lactation. The gBTN1A1 complementary DNA has an open reading frame of 1581 nucleotides encoding a putative protein of 526 amino acids. Amino acids 1–26 were the signal peptide domain. The homologies of nucleotide and peptide sequences of goat butyrophilin with bovine (NM_174508), human (NM_001732) and mouse (AK145168) butyrophilin were 97 and 96%, 88 and 84%, 84 and 70%, respectively. The secondary structure, transmembrane domain and hydrophilicity of goat butyrophilin were similar to the those of the bovine, human and mouse protein. In conclusion, we confirmed that the goat mammary gland mRNA level of gBTN1A1 was responsible for goat milk fat globule secretion.

Duck interleukin (IL)-18 mature protein gene was amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from total RNA extracted from Ma duck (Tadorna ferruginea) splenocytes. The PCR product was cloned into pGEM-T Easy vector for sequencing. The result revealed that the nucleotide sequence of duck IL-18 mature protein gene (mDuIL-18) consisted of a 513 bp band. A prokaryotic plasmid of mDuIL-18, pQE30-mDuIL18, was obtained by subcloning the encoding region of the DuIL-18 mature peptide into pQE30. pQE30-mDuIL18 transformed Escherichia coli M15. The expression of mDuIL-18 gene was identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. Its molecular weight was 19.76 kDa, and could be specifically recognized by rabbit sera to chicken IL-18. The expressed products existed as inclusion bodies. After being degenerated, then renatured, the activities of the inclusion bodies were detected by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay. In ducks injected intramuscularly with mDuIL-18 protein (150 ng or 200 ng per duck) and Avian influenza virus (AIV) vaccine 2 weeks after immunization, the average titres of haemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibodies to AIV reached 7.5–7.7 log2, while those of HI antibody ranged between 6.3 and 6.6 log2 in ducks vaccinated with AIV vaccine only or with 100 ng mDuIL-18 and AIV vaccine. The results clearly showed that 150 ng mDuIL-18 per duck strengthened the in vivo immune responses induced by the inactivated oil emulsion AIV vaccine.