The relationship between exposure to famine in early life and the risk of ascending aorta dilatation (AAD) in adulthood is still unclear; therefore, we aimed to examine the association in the Chinese population. We investigated the data of 2598 adults who were born between 1952 and 1964 in Guangdong, China. All enrolled subjects were categorised into five groups: not exposed to famine, exposed during fetal period, and exposed during early, mid or late childhood. AAD was assessed by cardiac ultrasound. Multivariate logistic regression and interaction tests were performed to estimate the OR and CI on the association between famine exposure and AAD. There were 2598 (943 male, mean age 58·3 ± 3·68 years) participants were enrolled, and 270 (10·4 %) subjects with AAD. We found that famine exposure (OR = 2·266, 95 % CI 1·477, 3·477, P = 0·013) was associated with elevated AAD after adjusting for multiple confounders. In addition, compared with the non-exposed group, the adjusted OR for famine exposure during fetal period, early, mid or late childhood were 1·374 (95 % CI 0·794, 2·364, P = 0·251), 1·976 (95 % CI 1·243, 3·181, P = 0·004), 1·929 (95 % CI 1·237, 3·058, P = 0·004) and 2·227 (95 % CI 1·433, 3·524, P < 0·001), respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that the effect of famine exposure on the association with AAD was more pronounced in female, current smokers, people with BMI ≥ 24 kg/m2 and hypertensive patients. We observed that exposure to famine during early life was linked to AAD in adulthood.

A deep ice core was drilled at Dome A, Antarctic Plateau, East Antarctica, which started with the installation of a casing in January 2012 and reached 800.8 m in January 2017. To date, a total of 337 successful ice-core drilling runs have been conducted, including 118 runs to drill the pilot hole. The total drilling time was 52 days, of which eight days were required for drilling down and reaming the pilot hole, and 44 days for deep ice coring. The average penetration depths of individual runs were 1 and 3.1 m for the pilot hole drilling and deep ice coring, respectively. The quality of the ice cores was imperfect in the brittle zone (650−800 m). Some of the troubles encountered are discussed for reference, such as armoured cable knotting, screws falling into the hole bottom, and damaged parts, among others.

The theory of plate tectonics suggests that deformation occurs mainly along plate boundaries; however, compression can result in the formation of orogens and basins within intracontinental settings. During these two tectonic processes, the sedimentation and environmental changes occur in response to marginal and intracontinental deformation. Early Jurassic – Early Cretaceous deformation and basin formation along the Qinling orogenic belt and the northwestern Sichuan Basin in central–SW China are ideal for investigating a reactivated tectonic belt and basin formation. We studied the Lower Jurassic – Lower Cretaceous sedimentary sequences and structures along the northwestern margin of the Sichuan Basin, and obtained detrital zircon U–Pb ages for these rocks. The structures show that deformation migrated SE-wards and S-wards into the Sichuan Basin along the Longmen Shan, Micang Shan and Daba Shan tectonic belts during middle–late Mesozoic time. The Lower Jurassic oligomictic conglomerates have a smaller grain size and thicken towards the south, indicating protracted transport from a northern source. The conglomerates deposited near-source record post-orogenic south-vergent thrusting during the Late Triassic – Early Jurassic epochs. The Lower Cretaceous conglomerates and sandstones have multiple sources, which indicate that they were rapidly deposited near their source, synchronous with thrusting that occurred in response to coeval SE-wards and S-wards thrusting in the Longmen Shan and Daba Shan tectonic belts during the Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous epochs. Detrital zircon grains from the Lower Jurassic – Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rocks yielded age peaks of 2600–2200, 1850–1600, 850–700, 540–400, 250–180 and 180–140 Ma. A comparison of these ages with those of surrounding exposed rocks indicates that the sediments in the northwestern Sichuan Basin were supplied from the Qinling orogenic belt, the northwestern Yangtze Block, the south margin of the North China Block and the Songpan–Garzê Terrane. The youngest peaks of detrital zircon U–Pb ages at 207 and 159 Ma constrain the two stages of intracontinental shortening and highlight the link between intracontinental deformation and sedimentation.

Resistance to penoxsulam among barnyardgrass populations is prevalent in rice fields in China. Seeds of penoxsulam-resistant (AXXZ-2) and penoxsulam-susceptible (JLGY-3) barnyardgrass populations, as well as the seeds of two rice varieties, including Wuyungeng32 (WY) and Liangyou669 (LY), were planted in plastic pots and then treated with a rate titration of acetochlor, anilofos, butachlor, clomazone, oxadiazon, pendimethalin, pretilachlor, pyraclonil, or thiobencarb. The two barnyardgrass populations exhibited similar susceptibility to acetochlor, anilofos, butachlor, oxadiazon, pretilachlor, or pyraclonil. However, the susceptibility differed between the barnyardgrass populations in response to clomazone, pendimethalin, and thiobencarb. For AXXZ-2, herbicide rates that caused 50% reduction in shoot biomass from the nontreated control (GR50) were 179, >800, and 1,798 g ha−1 for clomazone, pendimethalin, and thiobencarb, respectively; whereas JLGY-3 GR50 values were 61, 166, and 552 g ha−1, respectively. Both rice varieties demonstrated excellent tolerance to acetochlor, butachlor, oxadiazon, pretilachlor, and thiobencarb. However, substantial rice damage was observed when anilofos and clomazone were used. Anilofos at 352 g ha−1 and clomazone at 448 g ha−1 reduced rice shoot biomass by 41% and 50% from the nontreated, respectively. Averaged across herbicide rates, clomazone use resulted in a reduction in rice shoot biomass from that of the nontreated control by 52% and 34% for WY and LY, respectively; and pendimethalin use resulted in a reduction in rice shoot biomass from the nontreated control by 25% and 9% for WY and LY, respectively.

ABSTRACT IMPACT: Indiana CTSI Team Science to maximize rapid collection, analyses and dissemination of biosamples collected from patients with Covid-19 to provide preliminary data for grant applications on the pathogenesis and outcomes of patients with Covid-19. OBJECTIVES/GOALS: When Covid-19 hit Indiana in April, there was an immediate need to respond rapidly to coordinate research across our healthcare systems. The CTSI became a point of contact for coordinating research endeavors including activation of clinical trials and use of precious samples from patients with Covid-19 to maximize preliminary data for grants. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: The Indiana CTSI coordinated collection of biospecimens at multiple hospitals using in person and remote consenting via telephone or on a smartphone utilizing a QR code. We also retrieved existing samples from the Indiana Biobank previously collected for future research and from subject positive for Covid-19 by search of the linked electronic health record (EHR). A total of 224 subject samples (7 children, 36 previously collected, and 6 with both acute and recovered specimens) were obtained over a four month period. Our CTSI cores ran varied analyses collated to a single database, linked to the EMR for use as preliminary data for grant applications to avoid redundancy of measures on limited samples. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The 224 subject samples were used for whole exome DNA sequencing, RNA seq, analyses of 48 plasma cytokine/chemokines by multiplex analyses, and PBMC isolated for culture and assessment of secreted cytokines. The clinical data were linked and included demographics, hospitalization length of stay and need for mechanical ventilation, max and min oxygen levels, liver function tests, IL-6, D-dimer, CRP, LDH, and ferritin, need for dialysis, and echocardiography. Additional clinical data were available upon request. A survey was sent to our CTSI email to query for potential interest in the data with 87 inquiries, and to date 46 investigators have requested data and/or additional samples. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF FINDINGS: During the first surge of Covid-19, the CTSI coordinated analyses for the dissemination of results for use by CTSI investigators to minimize duplication of assays and increase availability. The collaboration of research coordinators, biobank, research cores, and informatics demonstrates the power and agility of team science in the Indiana CTSI.

This study aimed to evaluate to what extent the different interval times between trophectoderm (TE) biopsy and vitrification influence the clinical outcomes in preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) cycles. Patients who underwent frozen embryo transfer (FET) after PGT between 2015 and 2019 were recruited. In total, 297 cycles with single day 5 euploid blastocyst transfer were included. These cycles were divided into three groups according to the interval times: <1 h group, 1–2 h group, and ≥2 h group. Blastocyst survival, clinical pregnancy, miscarriage, and ongoing pregnancy rates were compared. The results showed that, in PGT-SR cycles, survival rate in the ≥2 h group (96.72%) was significantly lower than in the <1 h group (100%, P = 0.047). The clinical pregnancy rate in the ≥2 h group was 55.93%, significantly lower than in the <1 h group (74.26%, P = 0.017). The ongoing pregnancy rates in the 1–2 h group and the ≥2 h group were 48.28% and 47.46%, respectively, significantly lower than that in the <1 h group (67.33%, P < 0.05). The miscarriage rate in the 1–2 h group was 18.42%, significantly higher than that in the <1 h group (5.33%, P = 0.027). In PGT-A cycles, the clinical pregnancy and ongoing pregnancy rates in the <1 h group were 67.44% and 53.49%, respectively, higher than that in the 1–2 h group (52.94%, 47.06%, P > 0.05) and the ≥2 h group (52.63%, 36.84%, P > 0.05). In conclusion, vitrification of blastocysts beyond 1 h after biopsy significantly influences embryo survival and clinical outcomes and is therefore not recommended.

The last decade has witnessed a significant increase of research on English as a lingua franca (ELF) as today's world becomes progressively more globalized (Lei & Liu, 2018). However, studies on ELF in the Chinese contexts remain sparse although linguistic research in China has kept pace with the development of international linguistic academia. Moreover, many researchers studying ELF-informed teaching in China are either non-Chinese scholars or researchers working in countries other than China (Si, 2019). In other words, this newly emerged field of research has not yet been widely embraced by Chinese scholars, nor its paradigm has been promoted in English education while traditional native-English-based teaching has been challenged and initiatives have been taken to promote English education within the ELF paradigm in many countries in the expanding circle (see e.g., Sifakis & Tsantila, 2019). In this paper, we address the issue through identifying various hindrances to teaching ELF in Chinese classroom and analyzing the factors leading to the difficulties and problems with implementing the ELF-informed teaching in Chinese context. Following this, we explore the prospects for taking advantage of the pedagogical value of ELF research in the foreseeable future.

In this article, the electron trapping and acceleration in the wake field driven by an ultrarelativistic hollow electron beam is studied. When the hollow driver injects into plasma, there is a doughnut-shaped electron bubble formed because of the existence of a special ‘backflow’ beam in the centre of the electron bubble. At the same time, there is a transverse convergence of the hollow driver, which leads to the weakening of the backflow beam. This results in a local electron density transition at the rear of the bubble. During this process, there is an expansion of the longitudinal electron bubble size, and a bunch of background electrons is trapped by the wake field at the rear of the bubble. The tracks for the trapped electrons show that there are two sources: one is from the bubble sheath and the other is from the unique backflow beam. In the particle-in-cell simulation where the driving beam has initial energy of $1.0$ GeV per particle, the trapped beam can be accelerated to energy of more than $1.5$ GeV per particle and the corresponding transformer ratio is $1.5$. With the increase of driving beam energy up to $40.0$ GeV, a transformer ratio of $1.4$ still can be achieved. By adjusting the hollow beam density, it is possible to control the trapped beam charge value and beam quality, such as its energy spread and transverse emittance.

The aim of this study was to explore the frequency and distribution of gene mutations that are related to isoniazid (INH) and rifampin (RIF)-resistance in the strains of the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) in Beijing, China. In this retrospective study, the genotypes of 173 MDR-TB strains were analysed by spoligotyping. The katG, inhA genes and the promoter region of inhA, in which genetic mutations confer INH resistance; and the rpoB gene, in which genetic mutations confer RIF resistance, were sequenced. The percentage of resistance-associated nucleotide alterations among the strains of different genotypes was also analysed. In total, 90.8% (157/173) of the MDR strains belonged to the Beijing genotype. Population characteristics were not significantly different among the strains of different genotypes. In total, 50.3% (87/173) strains had mutations at codon S315T of katG; 16.8% (29/173) of strains had mutations in the inhA promoter region; of them, 5.5% (15/173) had point mutations at −15 base (C→T) of the inhA promoter region. In total, 86.7% (150/173) strains had mutations at rpoB gene; of them, 40% (69/173) strains had mutations at codon S531L of rpoB. The frequency of mutations was not significantly higher in Beijing genotypic MDR strains than in non-Beijing genotypes. Beijing genotypic MDR-TB strains were spreading in Beijing and present a major challenge to TB control in this region. A high prevalence of katG Ser315Thr, inhA promoter region (−15C→T) and rpoB (S531L) mutations was observed. Molecular diagnostics based on gene mutations was a useful method for rapid detection of MDR-TB in Beijing, China.