It is well-known that many modern lifestyles, including the use of artificial light, shift work, irregular or short sleep, sedentary activity, and unhealthy diet can disrupt the circadian rhythm. This disruption can result in the so-called Circadian Syndrome (CircS) which has been identified as a risk factor for a variety of chronic diseases. The concept of Circadian Syndrome (CircS) was first proposed by Zimmet et al in 2019. CircS has been shown to be a better predictor for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) than the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in adults in China and USA 1,2. Dietary patterns are found to be associated with CircS 3, whereby western dietary pattern was positively related, while prudent pattern was inversely associated, with CircS in the US adults. However, no prior study has investigated the association between fiber intake and CircS. We, thus, aimed to fill this research gap. We analysed data from 10,486 adults aged 20 years and above years who attended the 2005-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Fiber and other nutrients intake were assessed using two days 24 hours recall. CircS was derived from all five components of MetS (i.e. central obesity, elevated fasting glucose, elevated triglyceride, reduced HDL-Cholesterol and elevated blood pressure), in addition to short sleep (sleep duration <6 hours/day) and depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 score ≥5). A cut-off for CircS was set as ≥ 4 components. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between fiber intake and CircS. Mean age of participants was 50.3(SD 17.6) years, and 41.3% had CircS. The mean (SD) fiber intake was 7.8 (2.1), 12.9 (1.3), 17.9 (1.7), and 28.9 (8.2) g/day across the quartiles of fiber intake. The prevalence of CircS decreased across quartiles of fiber intake (44.5% in Q4 and 37.1% in Q1). In the multivariable logistic model adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, energy intake, education and lifestyle factors, across the quartiles of fiber intake, the odds ratios (ORs) (95%CI) for CircS were: 1.00, 0.91 (0.76-1.08), 0.82 (0.70-0.96), 0.79 (0.63-0.98) (p trend 0.012), respectively. No significant interactions were found between fiber intake and race, gender, smoking, alcohol drinking, and physical activity, in relation to CircS. In conclusion, a high fiber intake was associated with a lower prevalence of CircS among US adults. The findings highlight the importance of fiber intake for the prevention of metabolic and circadian syndrome, suggesting a potentially accessible and cost-effective lifestyle approach to improve public health. Our results underscore the concern that most of the US adults had fiber intake below the recommended level. Longitudinal studies are needed to validate the findings in different populations.

Chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) are diseases of the respiratory tract and are among the most prominent causes of disability and mortality globally(1). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer are among the leading cause of death among all CRDs(2). Evidence showed that diet, particularly ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are strongly associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and depression(3). However, the link between UPFs intake and CRDs has rarely been investigated. we aimed to examine the association between UPF consumption and risk of mortality due to CRDs overall, COPD and lung cancer among adults in the USA. A total of 96,607 participants aged 55 years and over were obtained from Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) cancer study, a randomised trial designed to investigate the effects of screening on cancer-related mortality. However, data collected also afforded the opportunity to examine the relationships between UPF intake and mortality caused by respiratory diseases. Dietary history of participants was collected at baseline using a validated food frequency questionnaire as was the presence of respiratory diseases. Food items were grouped into one of the four NOVA food classification system(4). Cox regression was fitted to estimate the risk of all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality due to increased consumption of UPFs over time. Competing risk regression was used to account for the competing risks events and effect of participant loss. During the follow-up period of 1,379,655.5 person-years (median 16.8 years), 28700 all-cause, 4,901 all respiratory, 2,015 lung cancer and 1,536 COPD mortalities occurred. A dose-response association was found between higher UPF intake and mortality from all respiratory diseases and COPD, but not lung cancer. After considering competing events, higher intake of UPF increased the risk of mortality from all respiratory diseases by 10% (HR: 1.10; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.21) and COPD by 20% (HR: 1.20; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.42). After imputation for missing data, the risk of lung cancer increased by 25% among participants in the highest quintile of UPF intake. The PLCO trial data highlighted that consumption of UPF increased respiratory mortality, among those with COPD, however further mechanistic studies are recommended to further clarify the link between UPF and lung cancer. This study also indicated that a high intake of UPF generally increases the risk of mortality of those with respiratory diseases and contributes to a large body of evidence indicating that higher UPF consumption increases the overall risk of mortality.

Multiple herbicide–resistant (MHR) Palmer amaranth is among the most problematic summer annual broadleaf weeds in Nebraska and several other states. A new MHR corn cultivar (resistant to 2,4-D/glufosinate/glyphosate, also known as Enlist corn) has been commercially available in the United States since 2018. Growers are searching for herbicide programs for control and reduce seed production of MHR Palmer amaranth among Enlist corn crops. The objectives of this study were to evaluate herbicides applied preemergence, early postemergence, or preemergence followed by (fb) late postemergence for the management of MHR Palmer amaranth in Enlist corn fields and to assess their effect on Palmer amaranth biomass, density, seed production, and corn yield. Field experiments were conducted near Carleton, NE, in 2020 and 2021, in a grower’s field of Enlist corn infested with acetolactate synthase–inhibitor/atrazine/glyphosate–resistant Palmer amaranth. Herbicides applied preemergence, such as flufenacet/isoxaflutole/thiencarbazone-methyl, acetochlor/clopyralid/flumetsulam, or acetochlor/clopyralid/mesotrione, provided 75% to 99% control of Palmer amaranth 30 d after preemergence. Preemergence fb late postemergence herbicides resulted in 94% Palmer amaranth control 90 d after late postemergence, reduced weed density to 0 to 8 plants m−2 30 d after late postemergence, and reduced biomass to 2 to 14 g m−2 15 d after late postemergence compared to preemergence-only (59% control, 0 to 15 plants m−2, and 4 to 123 g m−2) and early postemergence–only herbicides (78% control, 6 to 30 plants m−2, and 8 to 25 g m−2). Based on contrast analysis, Palmer amaranth seed production was reduced to 14,050 seeds m–2 in preemergence fb late postemergence herbicide programs compared with 325,490 seed m–2 in preemergence-only and 376,750 seed m–2 in early postemergence–only programs. Based on orthogonal contrast, higher corn yield of 12,340 and 11,730 kg ha−1 was obtained with preemergence fb late postemergence herbicide programs compared with preemergence-only (10,840 and 11,510 kg ha−1) and early postemergence–only programs (10,850 and 10,030 kg ha−1) in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

We report the discovery of a bow-shock pulsar wind nebula (PWN), named Potoroo, and the detection of a young pulsar J1638$-$4713 that powers the nebula. We present a radio continuum study of the PWN based on 20-cm observations obtained from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and MeerKAT. PSR J1638$-$4713 was identified using Parkes radio telescope observations at frequencies above 3 GHz. The pulsar has the second-highest dispersion measure of all known radio pulsars (1 553 pc cm$^{-3}$), a spin period of 65.74 ms and a spin-down luminosity of $\dot{E}=6.1\times10^{36}$ erg s$^{-1}$. The PWN has a cometary morphology and one of the greatest projected lengths among all the observed pulsar radio tails, measuring over 21 pc for an assumed distance of 10 kpc. The remarkably long tail and atypically steep radio spectral index are attributed to the interplay of a supernova reverse shock and the PWN. The originating supernova remnant is not known so far. We estimated the pulsar kick velocity to be in the range of 1 000–2 000 km s$^{-1}$ for ages between 23 and 10 kyr. The X-ray counterpart found in Chandra data, CXOU J163802.6$-$471358, shows the same tail morphology as the radio source but is shorter by a factor of 10. The peak of the X-ray emission is offset from the peak of the radio total intensity (Stokes $\rm I$) emission by approximately 4.7$^{\prime\prime}$, but coincides well with circularly polarised (Stokes $\rm V$) emission. No infrared counterpart was found.

Novel ST398 methicillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) in the United States was first observed in New York City (2004–2007); its diffusion across the country resulted in changing treatment options. Utilizing outpatient antimicrobial susceptibility data from the Veterans Health Administration from 2010 to 2019, the spatiotemporal prevalence of potential ST398 MSSA is documented.

The great demographic pressure brings tremendous volume of beef demand. The key to solve this problem is the growth and development of Chinese cattle. In order to find molecular markers conducive to the growth and development of Chinese cattle, sequencing was used to determine the position of copy number variations (CNVs), bioinformatics analysis was used to predict the function of ZNF146 gene, real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used for CNV genotyping and one-way analysis of variance was used for association analysis. The results showed that there exists CNV in Chr 18: 47225201-47229600 (5.0.1 version) of ZNF146 gene through the early sequencing results in the laboratory and predicted ZNF146 gene was expressed in liver, skeletal muscle and breast cells, and was amplified or overexpressed in pancreatic cancer, which promoted the development of tumour through bioinformatics. Therefore, it is predicted that ZNF146 gene affects the proliferation of muscle cells, and then affects the growth and development of cattle. Furthermore, CNV genotyping of ZNF146 gene was three types (deletion type, normal type and duplication type) by Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (qPCR). The association analysis results showed that ZNF146-CNV was significantly correlated with rump length of Qinchuan cattle, hucklebone width of Jiaxian red cattle and heart girth of Yunling cattle. From the above results, ZNF146-CNV had a significant effect on growth traits, which provided an important candidate molecular marker for growth and development of Chinese cattle.

John Robert Lawrence Allen (Fig. 1), an internationally distinguished sedimentologist, was born on 25 October 1932 in Birmingham, UK. He died in Thatcham, UK, on 18 October 2020, aged 87, after a short illness.

Gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars encode information about nuclear matter at extreme densities, inaccessible by laboratory experiments. The late inspiral is influenced by the presence of tides, which depend on the neutron star equation of state. Neutron star mergers are expected to often produce rapidly rotating remnant neutron stars that emit gravitational waves. These will provide clues to the extremely hot post-merger environment. This signature of nuclear matter in gravitational waves contains most information in the 2–4 kHz frequency band, which is outside of the most sensitive band of current detectors. We present the design concept and science case for a Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO): a gravitational-wave interferometer optimised to study nuclear physics with merging neutron stars. The concept uses high-circulating laser power, quantum squeezing, and a detector topology specifically designed to achieve the high-frequency sensitivity necessary to probe nuclear matter using gravitational waves. Above 1 kHz, the proposed strain sensitivity is comparable to full third-generation detectors at a fraction of the cost. Such sensitivity changes expected event rates for detection of post-merger remnants from approximately one per few decades with two A+ detectors to a few per year and potentially allow for the first gravitational-wave observations of supernovae, isolated neutron stars, and other exotica.

The butterfly plastic zone theory based on Mohr Coulomb criterion has been widely used in coal mine production. In order to verify the universality of the theory, it is necessary to compare the distribution of plastic zone under different strength criteria. Based on the elastic-plastic mechanics, the principal stress distribution function around the circular tunnel is deduced in the paper, and the boundary and radius of the plastic zone under different strength criteria are calculated. The results show that the change laws of the plastic zone around the circular tunnel under different strength criteria has the following commonness: firstly, with the increase of the lateral pressure coefficient, the shape of the plastic zone presents the change laws of “circle ellipse butterfly”; Secondly, with the increase of the lateral pressure coefficient, the radius of the plastic zone is exponential distribution, while the characteristic value is different when the radius of the plastic zone is infinite. At same time, it shows that the butterfly plastic zone has a low sensitivity dependence on the strength criterion, no matter which strength criterion is adopted, and the butterfly plastic zone will inevitably appear in the surrounding rock mass of circular tunnel in the high deviator stress environment; The plastic zone with butterfly shape is highly sensitive to the stress change, and the small stress change may promote the expansion of the plastic zone. This result is significant for us to understand and prevent rock engineering disasters and accidents.

‘Recurrence’ of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has triggered numerous discussions of scholars at home and abroad. A total of 44 recurrent cases of COVID-19 and 32 control cases admitted from 11 February to 29 March 2020 to Guanggu Campus of Tongji Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College Huazhong University of Science and Technology were enrolled in this study. All the 44 recurrent cases were classified as mild to moderate when the patients were admitted for the second time. The gender and mean age in both cases (recurrent and control) were similar. At least one concomitant disease was observed in 52.27% recurrent cases and 34.38% control cases. The most prevalent comorbidity among them was hypertension. Fever and cough being the most prevalent clinical symptoms in both cases. On comparing both the cases, recurrent cases had markedly elevated concentrations of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (P = 0.020) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (P = 0.007). Moreover, subgroup analysis showed mild to moderate abnormal concentrations of ALT and AST in recurrent cases. The elevated concentrations of ALT and AST may be recognised as predictive markers for the risk of ‘recurrence’ of COVID-19, which may provide insights into the prevention and control of COVID-19 in the future.

Previous work led to the proposal that the precision feeding of a high-concentrate diet may represent a potential method with which to enhance feed efficiency (FE) when rearing dairy heifers. However, the physiological and metabolic mechanisms underlying this approach remain unclear. This study used metabolomics analysis to investigate the changes in plasma metabolites of heifers precision-fed diets containing a wide range of forage to concentrate ratios. Twenty-four half-sib Holstein heifers, with a similar body condition, were randomly assigned into four groups and precision fed with diets containing different proportions of concentrate (20%, 40%, 60% and 80% based on DM). After 28 days of feeding, blood samples were collected 6 h after morning feeding and gas chromatography time-of-flight/MS was used to analyze the plasma samples. Parameters of oxidative status were also determined in the plasma. The FE (after being corrected for gut fill) increased linearly (P < 0.01) with increasing level of dietary concentrate. Significant changes were identified for 38 different metabolites in the plasma of heifers fed different dietary forage to concentrate ratios. The main pathways showing alterations were clustered into those relating to carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism; all of which have been previously associated with FE changes in ruminants. Heifers fed with a high-concentrate diet had higher (P < 0.01) plasma total antioxidant capacity and superoxide dismutase but lower (P ≤ 0.02) hydroxyl radical and hydrogen peroxide than heifers fed with a low-concentrate diet, which might indicate a lower plasma oxidative status in the heifers fed a high-concentrate diet. Thus, heifers fed with a high-concentrate diet had higher FE and antioxidant capacity but a lower plasma oxidative status as well as changed carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism. Our findings provide a better understanding of how forage to concentrate ratios affect FE and metabolism in the precision-fed growing heifers.

The present study was designed to detect three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located on 22q11 that was thought as being of particularly importance for genetic research into schizophrenia. We recruited a total of 176 Chinese family trios of Han descent, consisting of mothers, fathers and affected offspring with schizophrenia for the genetic analysis. The transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) showed that of three SNPs, rs10314 in the 3′-untranslated region of the CLDN5 locus was associated with schizophrenia (χ2 = 4.75, P = 0.029). The other two SNPs, rs1548359 present in the CDC45L locus centromeric of rs10314 and rs739371 in the 5′-flanking region of the CLDN5 locus, did not show such an association. The global chi-square (χ2) test showed that the 3-SNP haplotype system was not associated with schizophrenia although the 1-df test for individual haplotypes showed that the rs1548359(C)-rs10314(G)-rs739371(C) haplotype was excessively non-transmitted (χ2 = 5.32, P = 0.02). Because the claudin proteins are a major component for barrier-forming tight junctions that could play a crucial role in response to changing natural, physiological and pathological conditions, the CLDN5 association with schizophrenia may be an important clue leading to look into a meeting point of genetic and environmental factors.

Accumulated studies indicate that schizophrenia patients are prone to present the type 2 diabetes symptoms, but the potential mechanisms behind their association remain unknown. Here we explored the pathogenetic association between SCZ and T2D based on pathway analysis and protein-protein interaction. To explore the pathway crosstalk, we constructed a pathway-based network including all of those significant pathways. Our results revealed that some pathways are shared by both SCZ and T2D diseases through a number of susceptibility genes. With 382 unique susceptibility proteins for SCZ and T2D, we further built a protein-protein interaction network by extracting their nearest interacting neighbours. Among 2,104 retrieved proteins, 364 of them were found simultaneously interacted with susceptibility proteins of both SCZ and T2D, and proposed as new candidate risk factors for both diseases. Moreover, some proteins were hub proteins with high connectivity and interacted with multiple proteins involved in both diseases.Some of these hub proteins are the components of our identified enriched pathways, including calcium signaling, g-secretase mediated ErbB4 signaling, adipocytokine signaling, insulin signaling, AKT signaling and type II diabetes mellitus pathways. Through the integration of multiple lines of information, we proposed that those signaling pathways, such as AKT signaling, that contain susceptibility genes for both diseases, could be the key pathways to bridge SCZ and T2D. AKT could be one of the important shared components and may play a pivotal role to link both of the pathogenetic processes. Our study provides the general pathway-based view of pathogenetic association between two diseases.

This study aimed at comparing the factors associated with the natural progression between typical progressors (TPs) and rapid progressors (RPs) in HIV-infected individuals. A retrospective study was conducted on 2095 eligible HIV-infected individuals from 1995 to 2016 in a high-risk area of Henan Province, China. Propensity score matching was used to balance covariates, and the conditional logistic regression analyses were performed to explore the factors of natural disease progression among HIV infectors. A total of 379 pairs of RPs and TPs were matched. The standardised difference values of all covariates were less than 10%. HIV-infected individuals transmitted through sexual transmission (odds ratio (OR) 0.56, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.36–0.85) were more likely to progress to AIDS compared with those infected through contaminated blood. Older age at diagnosis of HIV-infected individuals (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.58–0.89) exhibited a faster progression to AIDS. HIV-infected individuals identified through a unique survey (OR 7.01, 95% CI 2.99–16.44) were less likely to progress to AIDS compared with those identified through medical institutions. HIV-infected individuals who had higher baseline CD4+T cell counts (OR 3.37, 95% CI 2.59–4.38) had a slower progression to AIDS. These findings provide evidence for natural disease progression from HIV to AIDS between TPs and RPs.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) enters latency after primary infection and can reactivate periodically with virus excreted in body fluids which can be called shedding. CMV shedding during the early stage of pregnancy is associated with adverse pregnancy outcome. The shedding pattern in healthy seropositive women who plan to have babies has not been well characterised. Vaginal swabs, urine and blood were collected from 1262 CMV IgG-positive women who intended to have babies and tested for CMV DNA by fluorogenic quantitative PCR method. Serum IgM was also detected. The association between sociodemographic characteristics and CMV shedding prevalence was analysed. Among 1262 seropositive women, 12.8% (161/1262) were detected CMV DNA positive in at least one body fluid. CMV DNA was more frequently detected in vaginal secretion (10.5%) than in urine (3.2%) and blood (0.6%) also with higher viral loads (P < 0.00). CMV shedding was more likely detected in IgM-positive women than IgM-negative women (29.5% (13/44) vs. 12.2% (148/1218); OR 3.03, 95% CI 1.55–5.93; P = 0.001). CMV shedding in vaginal secretion was highly correlated with shedding in urine, the immune state of IgM, the adverse pregnant history and younger age. CMV shedding was more commonly detected in vaginal secretion than in urine or blood with higher viral loads among healthy seropositive women of reproductive age. Further studies are needed to figure out whether the shedding is occasional or continuous and whether it is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes.