The association between dietary Cu intake and mortality risk remains uncertain. We aimed to investigate the relationship of dietary Cu intake with all-cause mortality among Chinese adults. A total of 17 310 participants from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, a national ongoing open cohort of Chinese participants, were included in the analysis. Dietary intake was measured by three consecutive 24-h dietary recalls in combination with a weighing inventory over the same 3 d. The average intakes of the 3-d dietary macronutrients and micronutrients were calculated. The study outcome was all-cause mortality. During a median follow-up of 9·0 years, 1324 (7·6 %) participants died. After adjusting for sex, age, BMI, ever alcohol drinking, ever smoking, education levels, occupations, urban or rural residents, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and the intakes of fat, protein and carbohydrate, the association between dietary Cu intake and all-cause mortality followed a J-shape (P for nonlinearity = 0·047). When dietary Cu intake was assessed as quartiles, compared with those in the first quartile (<1·60 mg/d), the adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were 0·87 (95 % CI (0·71, 1·07)), 0·98 (95 % CI (0·79, 1·21)) and 1·49 (95 % CI (1·19, 1·86)), respectively, in participants in the second (1·60–<1·83 mg/d), third (1·83–<2·09 mg/d) and fourth (≥2·09 mg/d) quartiles. A series of subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses showed similar results. Overall, our findings emphasised the importance of maintaining optimal dietary Cu intake levels for prevention of premature death.

This study is performed to figure out how the presence of diabetes affects the infection, progression and prognosis of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and the effective therapy that can treat the diabetes-complicated patients with COVID-19. A multicentre study was performed in four hospitals. COVID-19 patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) or hyperglycaemia were compared with those without these conditions and matched by propensity score matching for their clinical progress and outcome. Totally, 2444 confirmed COVID-19 patients were recruited, from whom 336 had DM. Compared to 1344 non-DM patients with age and sex matched, DM-COVID-19 patients had significantly higher rates of intensive care unit entrance (12.43% vs. 6.58%, P = 0.014), kidney failure (9.20% vs. 4.05%, P = 0.027) and mortality (25.00% vs. 18.15%, P < 0.001). Age and sex-stratified comparison revealed increased susceptibility to COVID-19 only from females with DM. For either non-DM or DM group, hyperglycaemia was associated with adverse outcomes, featured by higher rates of severe pneumonia and mortality, in comparison with non-hyperglycaemia. This was accompanied by significantly altered laboratory indicators including lymphocyte and neutrophil percentage, C-reactive protein and urea nitrogen level, all with correlation coefficients >0.35. Both diabetes and hyperglycaemia were independently associated with adverse prognosis of COVID-19, with hazard ratios of 10.41 and 3.58, respectively.

Listeriosis is a rare but serious foodborne disease caused by Listeria monocytogenes. This matched case–control study (1:1 ratio) aimed to identify the risk factors associated with food consumption and food-handling habits for the occurrence of sporadic listeriosis in Beijing, China. Cases were defined as patients from whom Listeria was isolated, in addition to the presence of symptoms, including fever, bacteraemia, sepsis and other clinical manifestations corresponding to listeriosis, which were reported via the Beijing Foodborne Disease Surveillance System. Basic patient information and possible risk factors associated with food consumption and food-handling habits were collected through face-to-face interviews. One hundred and six cases were enrolled from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020, including 52 perinatal cases and 54 non-perinatal cases. In the non-perinatal group, the consumption of Chinese cold dishes increased the risk of infection by 3.43-fold (95% confidence interval 1.27–9.25, χ2 = 5.92, P = 0.02). In the perinatal group, the risk of infection reduced by 95.2% when raw and cooked foods were well-separated (χ2 = 5.11, P = 0.02). These findings provide important scientific evidence for preventing infection by L. monocytogenes and improving the dissemination of advice regarding food safety for vulnerable populations.

Sarcopenia is a core contributor to several health consequences, including falls, fractures, physical limitations and disability. The pathophysiological processes of sarcopenia may be counteracted with the proper diet, delaying sarcopenia onset. Dietary pattern analysis is a whole diet approach used to investigate the relationship between diet and sarcopenia. Here, we aimed to investigate this relationship in an elderly Chinese population. A cross-sectional study with 2423 participants aged more than 60 years was performed. Sarcopenia was defined based on the guidelines of the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia, composed of low muscle mass plus low grip strength and/or low gait speed. Dietary data were collected using a FFQ that included questions on 100 food items along with their specified serving sizes. Three dietary patterns were derived by factor analysis: sweet pattern, vegetable pattern and animal food pattern. The prevalence of sarcopenia was 16·1 %. The higher vegetable pattern score and animal food pattern score were related to lower prevalence of sarcopenia (Ptrend = 0·006 and < 0·001, respectively); the multivariate-adjusted OR of the prevalence of sarcopenia in the highest v. lowest quartiles were 0·54 (95 % CI 0·34, 0·86) and 0·50 (95 % CI 0·33, 0·74), separately. The sweet pattern score was not significantly related to the prevalence of sarcopenia. The present study showed that vegetable pattern and animal food pattern were related to a lower prevalence of sarcopenia in Chinese older adults. Further studies are required to clarify these findings.

Nutritional Risk Screening index is a standard tool to assess nutritional risk, but epidemiological data are scarce on controlling nutritional status (CONUT) as a prognostic marker in acute haemorrhagic stroke (AHS). We aimed to explore whether the CONUT may predict a 3-month functional outcome in AHS. In total, 349 Chinese patients with incident AHS were consecutively recruited, and their malnutrition risks were determined using a high CONUT score of ≥ 2. The cohort patients were divided into high-CONUT (≥ 2) and low-CONUT (< 2) groups, and primary outcomes were a poor functional prognosis defined as the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of ≥ 3 at post-discharge for 3 months. Odds ratios (OR) with 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for the poor functional prognosis at post-discharge were estimated by using a logistic analysis with additional adjustments for unbalanced variables between the high-CONUT and low-CONUT groups. A total of 328 patients (60·38 ± 12·83 years; 66·77 % male) completed the mRS assessment at post-discharge for 3 months, with 172 patients at malnutrition risk at admission and 104 patients with a poor prognosis. The levels of total cholesterol and total lymphocyte counts were significantly lower in high-CONUT patients than low-CONUT patients (P = 0·012 and < 0·001, respectively). At 3-month post discharge, there was a greater risk for the poor outcome in the high-CONUT compared with the low-CONUT patients at admission (OR: 2·32, 95 % CI: 1·28, 4·17). High-CONUT scores independently predict a 3-month poor prognosis in AHS, which helps to identify those who need additional nutritional managements.

Rare earth elements (REE) in marine minerals have been widely used as proxies for the redox status of depositional and/or diagenetic environments. Phosphate nodules, which are thought to grow within decimetres below the sediment–water interface and to be able to scavenge REE from the ambient pore water, are potential archives of subtle changes in REE compositions. Whether their REE signals represent specific redox conditions or they can be used to track the overlying water chemistry is worth exploring. Through in situ laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), we investigate the REE compositions of a drill-core-preserved phosphate nodule from the lower Cambrian Niutitang Formation in the Daotuo area, northeastern Guizhou Province, South China. REE distributions of the nodule show concentric layers with systematic decreases in Ce anomalies (Ce/Ce*) from the core to the rim. The lowest Ce/Ce* appears in the outer rim where REE concentrations are relatively high. These results are interpreted to reflect REE exchange with pore water at a very early stage or bathymetric variation during apatite precipitation. The origin of the shale-normalized middle REE (MREE) enrichment in our sample is less constrained. Possible driving factors include preferential MREE substitution for Ca in the apatite lattice, degradation of organic matter and deposition beneath a ferruginous zone. Although speculative, the last possibility is consistent with the chemically stratified model for early Cambrian oceans, in which dynamic fluctuations of the chemocline provided an ideal depositional context for phosphogenesis.

The aim of this study was to develop and externally validate a simple-to-use nomogram for predicting the survival of hospitalised human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) patients (hospitalised person living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs)). Hospitalised PLWHAs (n = 3724) between January 2012 and December 2014 were enrolled in the training cohort. HIV-infected inpatients (n = 1987) admitted in 2015 were included as the external-validation cohort. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method was used to perform data dimension reduction and select the optimal predictors. The nomogram incorporated 11 independent predictors, including occupation, antiretroviral therapy, pneumonia, tuberculosis, Talaromyces marneffei, hypertension, septicemia, anaemia, respiratory failure, hypoproteinemia and electrolyte disturbances. The Likelihood χ2 statistic of the model was 516.30 (P = 0.000). Integrated Brier Score was 0.076 and Brier scores of the nomogram at the 10-day and 20-day time points were 0.046 and 0.071, respectively. The area under the curves for receiver operating characteristic were 0.819 and 0.828, and precision-recall curves were 0.242 and 0.378 at two time points. Calibration plots and decision curve analysis in the two sets showed good performance and a high net benefit of nomogram. In conclusion, the nomogram developed in the current study has relatively high calibration and is clinically useful. It provides a convenient and useful tool for timely clinical decision-making and the risk management of hospitalised PLWHAs.

Camellia oleifera is an important woody plant producing healthy edible oils. People need a large number of molecular markers, especially microsatellite, in breeding of C. oleifera. In this study, we sequenced the root transcriptomes of C. oleifera, and then designed a novel set of microsatellite markers based on the root-expressed genes. We assembled a total of 57,121 unigenes with a length of 42.63 Mb, which harboured 15,902 microsatellites. Among these microsatellites, di-nucleotide repeat motifs were the most abundant group (56.45%), then followed by tri- (25.20%), mono- (12.12%), hexa- (3.21%), penta- (2.18%) and quad-nucleotide ones (0.84%). In total, 6738 primer pairs were designed successfully to amplify the microsatellite loci. To test these microsatellite markers, 48 primer pairs were randomly selected and synthesized and validated in C. oleifera and its eight relatives. Up to 75% of the primer pairs amplified in C. oleifera and its relatives, and 62.5% displayed polymorphism. The transferability and diverse alleles across its eight relatives were detected for each polymorphic primer pair. The novel set of microsatellites derived from the root transcriptomes here provided a useful resource for future molecular genetics improvement of C. oleifera and its relatives.

In this paper, we experimentally investigated the extreme frequency shift in high-power Raman fiber laser (RFL). The RFL was developed by using a pair of fiber Bragg gratings with fixed and matched central wavelength (1120 nm) combined with a piece of 31-m-long polarization maintaining (PM) passive fiber adopted as Raman gain medium. The pump source was a homemade high-power, linearly polarized (LP) wavelength-tunable master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) source with ${\sim}25~\text{nm}$ tunable working range (1055–1080 nm). High-power and high-efficiency RFL with extreme frequency shift between the pump and Stokes light was explored. It is found that frequency shift located within 10.6 THz and 15.2 THz can ensure efficient Raman lasing, where the conversion efficiency is more than 95% of the maximal value, 71.3%. In addition, a maximum output power of 147.1 W was obtained with an optical efficiency of 71.3%, which is the highest power ever reported in LP RFLs to the best of our knowledge.

Three types of multilayer flyer energy conversion elements (MFECEs) through integrating different laser pulse absorption/ablation layer of nano-film materials into a laser-driven flyer plates between thermal barrier of alumina and transparent substrate have been investigated in this study. The relationships among the velocity of flyer plates, initiation performance of hexanitrostilbene (HNS-IV), and initiation energy were analyzed, comparing with single-layer Al flyer plate. The photonics Doppler velocimetry and James criterion were utilized in the experiments to characterize the velocity of flyer plates and shock initiation of laser-driven flyer detonator, respectively. The surface reflectivity measurements of the Al, C/Al and Mg/Al layers were performed using laser reflectivity. HNS-IV without initiation was analyzed by scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometer. Caused by aluminum/alumina/aluminum (Al/Al2O3/Al) flyer plate, the residual fragments were found in the pit on the surface of charge. The results obtained were shows that three types of multilayer flyer plates can initiate HNS-IV successfully under the lower laser pulse energy, although all four kinds of flyer plates have successfully initiated HNS-IV with laser pulse energy in the range of 53.80–166.80 mJ. Changing the ablation layer structure and adding thermal insulation layer to the multilayer flyer plates, reduces the shock initiation laser pulse energy of HNS-IV to 53.80 mJ. The laser-driven flyer detonator has significant advantages in providing safety and reliability, especially in a strong electromagnetic environment. The MFECEs of laser-driven flyer detonator exhibited a high level of integration and proved to have promoted laser-driven energy coupling rate, which can significantly be used to improve the performance of the laser-driven flyer detonator in military and civilian applications.

An experimental investigation into laser ablation of secondary explosives, cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX), has been carried out by using a solid-state laser at the wavelength of 1064 nm. The ion particles of decomposition were detected by using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Possible attributions of both negative ions and positive ions were obtained. Some obvious peaks were found at m/z = 18, 28, 46, 60, and 106, corresponding to H2O, CO/N2/H2CN, NO2, CH2NO2/N2O2, and N(NO2)2/CH2(NO2)2, respectively. According to the distribution of the particles, three possible pathways were proposed to explain the process of particles. The results may shed some light on the possible decomposition mechanism of HMX under laser initiation.

Previous studies have investigated the association between dietary inflammatory potential and the development of cancer. For breast cancer the results have been equivocal. The present study aimed to investigate whether higher Dietary Inflammatory IndexTM (DII) scores were associated with increased risk of breast cancer among Chinese women. A total of 867 cases and 824 controls were recruited into the present case–control study from September 2011 to February 2016. DII scores were computed based on baseline dietary intake assessed by a validated 81-item FFQ. The OR and 95 % CI were assessed by multivariable logistic regression after adjusting for various potential confounders. DII scores in this study ranged from −5·87 (most anti-inflammatory score) to +5·71 (most proinflammatory score). A higher DII score was associated with a higher breast cancer risk (adjusted ORquartile 4 v. 1 2·28; 95 % CI 1·71, 3·03; adjusted ORcontinuous 1·40; 95 %CI 1·25, 1·39). In stratified analyses, positive associations also were observed except for underweight women or women with either oestrogen receptor+ or progesterone receptor+ status (but not both). Results from this study indicated that higher DII scores, corresponding to more proinflammatory diets, were positively associated with breast cancer risk among Chinese women.

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is an acute contagious condition caused by a spectrum of human enteroviruses. HFMD reinfection is common in the absence of cross-protection from other virus subtypes. This study focused on reinfection in children in Anhui province, China between 2008 and 2013 using surveillance system data. We classified 8960 cases as reinfected, corresponding to a rate of 2·02%. The reinfection rate was higher in boys than in girls [odds ratio (OR) 1·27, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·21–1·32, P < 0·001], children aged < 3 years (OR 3·82, 95% CI 3·58–4·07, P < 0·001), and children living in rural areas (OR 1·09, 95% CI 1·04–1·14, P = 0·001). The reinfection rate in children who were originally infected with non-enterovirus A71 (non-EVA71) enteroviruses was higher than those infected with EVA71 (OR 1·36, 95% CI 1·02–1·80, P = 0·034). Influential factors of reinfection rate included annual incidence (β coefficient = 0·715, P = 0·002) and the proportion of EVA71 in patients with mild HFMD (β coefficient = −0·509, P = 0·018). These results demonstrate that boys aged <3 years, especially those in rural areas or regions with a lower EVA71 proportion are more prone to reinfection, and specific health education programmes should be developed to protect these susceptible populations.

Chemical bath deposition (CBD) techniques for the growth of CdS polycrystalline thin films are now well developed. However, there usually appear different structures, grain sizes and energy gaps in CdS polycrystalline films by CBD, which implies that the influence of growth process on the structures and properties of CBD CdS thin films must be considered. In this paper, the optical, compositional and structural properties of CBD CdS thin films in the reaction process have been studied by XRD, AFM, XPS and optical transmission spectra measurements. The results can be explained using atomic mechanism and lattice transition in the CdS thin films.

In the paper, Cd1-xZnxTe polycrystalline films have been prepared by co-evaporation, which can control the zinc content, using CdTe and ZnTe as the evaporation sources. The cubic phase in these films as-deposited and annealed has been demonstrated by XRD. The XRD peaks of Cd1-xZnxTe films are always between the corresponding peaks of CdTe and ZnTe. According to Vegard Formula, x values of Cd1-xZnxTe films have been confirmed from XRD data, which shows that both the calculated and experimental x values are almost identical. The optical transmission of Cd1-xZnxTe films has been measured, and the optical energy gaps have been calculated from the transmission. The band gaps vary in a quadratic way with x values, and increase with annealing temperatures. When application of Cd1-xZnxTe film as a buffer of around 80nm thick in CdS/CdTe solar cells, the structure of the cells becomes CdS/CdTe / Cd1-xZnxTe / ZnTe:Cu and their average conversion efficiency is improved by 40% where x is in the range of 0.55 to 0.65. The mentioned above results are discussed.

The metal/ceramic interface in an in situ synthesized Ti/TiCP composite coating by laser processing was analyzed using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The TiC particles were distributed uniformly in the matrix and were highly faceted. The interfaces between the TiC particles and the β matrix were abrupt and free of any other reaction phases. It was the Ti-terminated TiC surface that bonded to the β matrix, resulting in the metallic bonding between the TiC particles and the matrix.