This qualitative research study investigates the effectiveness of gamified handicrafts as an inspiration for teenagers to practice recycling and upcycling. The study utilises focus group interviews and thematic analysis to explore the perceptions and experiences of 15 teenagers who participated in an educational programme called Edcraft, which combines gamification and handicrafts to promote sustainable practices among youth. The findings reveal that Edcraft successfully motivates teenagers to engage in recycling and upcycling activities through its gamified approach, which includes challenges, rewards and social interaction. Themes such as ‘social connections are vital’, ‘convenience and rewards are significant motivators’, ‘gamified activities help attract and engage teens’ and ‘environmental knowledge is crucial to prolonging recycling’ emerged from the thematic analysis. The results also highlight the positive impact of Edcraft on teenagers’ attitudes towards the environment and their willingness to adopt sustainable behaviours beyond the programme. The implications of these findings for promoting environmental education and sustainability among teenagers are discussed, and recommendations for future research and practice are provided.

An improved Monte-Carlo algorithm is proposed to address the problem of an unclear workspace boundary in a multi-robot coordinated lifting system. The spatial configuration of a multi-robot coordinated lifting system with rolling base is analyzed, and the kinematics and static workspace of the system are established. To solve the workspace boundary, first, the error introduced by the layers is reduced using an intra-layer thinning method. Second, each layer is divided simultaneously based on rows and columns, and the initial boundary points are extracted by searching for the best value. Third, random three-dimensional points are added in the neighborhood, and pseudo-boundary points are removed using three-dimensional local spherical coordinates to achieve a high-precision solution for the workspace boundary. Finally, the workspace volume is used to analyze the influence of structural parameters on the workspace boundary. The results show that the lifting system has limited carrying capacity and a data reference for selecting the structural parameters by analyzing the factors that affect the workspace. Findings provide a basis for further studies on the structural configuration and optimization of the lifting system.

Although the specific outcrop from which the original kaolin at Kauling (Gaoling) Mine, China, was collected cannot now be relocated, samples were collected and studied from the mine tunnel, country rock, and pegmatite which constitute the sources of kaolin in this region. The kaolin is a residual product of weathering. Where the parent rock was a granite the clay is a mixture of platy and elongate kaolin-group minerals, whereas from the pegmatite portion of the parent rock it is halloysite(10Â) with elongate morphology. These mineral identifications are based on X-ray powder diffractograms, scanning electron micrographs, differential thermograms, and an infrared spectrum hitherto not documented for material from this area.

Although the Kauling locality is the region for which kaolin is named, the mineral kaolinite is a defined species without a specific type locality. The 11th century Chinese locality was not mentioned in the two classic research papers defining kaolinite. The data on the Chinese kaolin, therefore, cannot be used directly to provide criteria for sharply differentiating the otherwise vague boundary between the minerals kaolinite and halloysite(7Å). Pertinent questions on these kaolin-group mineral relationships are brought into clearer focus.

The widespread use of finite-element analysis (FEA) in industry has led to a large accumulation of cases. Leveraging past FEA cases can improve accuracy and efficiency in analyzing new complex tasks. However, current engineering case retrieval methods struggle to measure semantic similarity between FEA cases. Therefore, this article proposed a method for measuring the similarity of FEA cases based on ontology semantic trees. FEA tasks are used as indexes for FEA cases, and an FEA case ontology is constructed. By using named entity recognition technology, pivotal entities are extracted from FEA tasks, enabling the instantiation of the FEA case ontology and the creation of a structured representation for FEA cases. Then, a multitree algorithm is used to calculate the semantic similarity of FEA cases. Finally, the correctness of this method was confirmed through an FEA case retrieval experiment on a pressure vessel. The experimental results clearly showed that the approach outlined in this article aligns more closely with expert ratings, providing strong validation for its effectiveness.

Gentiana straminea Maxim. (Gentianaceae) is an important traditional Tibetan herb that is mainly distributed on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Despite its agricultural and pharmacological importance, there remains a paucity of microsatellite markers, particularly expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers, available for this local endemic species. In this study, based on previous Illumina transcriptome data of G. straminea, a total of 96 EST-SSR markers were initially designed and tested. Thirty-two of 96 loci (33.33%) were successfully amplified and verified for validation. Among them, 10 were polymorphic and had clear bands. The polymorphism information content values were 0.09–0.799, the number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 14, and the levels of observed and expected heterozygosity were 0.078–0.722 and 0.238–0.884, respectively, which suggested a high level of information. Moreover, cross-amplification was successful for 10 loci in two other related species, Gentiana macrophylla Pallas and Gentiana dahurica Fischer. These EST-SSR markers provide a valuable tool for investigating the genetic diversity related to quantitative traits and population genetic studies on G. straminea and related species in sect. Cruciata Gaudin.

When do smaller states defer to and when do they defy stronger powers? How and why? This article traces and explains the changing patterns of deference and defiance in Malaysia's China policy. There are three findings. First, deference and defiance are essential elements in all inter-state relations, especially asymmetric ones. The greater the power asymmetry, the greater the inclination to defer and defy. Second, states often pursue defiance and deference concurrently and selectively, with approaches adapted in accordance with changing external and internal conditions. The concurrent adoption of the two behaviors often manifest in hedging, an insurance-seeking policy aimed at offsetting multiple risks by counteracting the effects of the other behavior: deference without defiance risks subservience and dependency; defiance without deference invites hostility and confrontation. Third, the specific patterns and proportions of the deference–defiance mix are attributable more to domestic than external determinants, i.e., the needs to balance security, prosperity, and autonomy, as necessitated by the prevailing pathways of elite legitimation. This explains why Malaysia's open deference vis-à-vis China has been accompanied by an indirect and quiet defiance especially in recent years, as best evidenced by the second Mahathir administration's dualistic approaches toward the Belt and Road, South China Sea, and Xinjiang.

Coastal eutrophication and hypoxia remain a persistent environmental crisis despite the great efforts to reduce nutrient loading and mitigate associated environmental damages. Symptoms of this crisis have appeared to spread rapidly, reaching developing countries in Asia with emergences in Southern America and Africa. The pace of changes and the underlying drivers remain not so clear. To address the gap, we review the up-to-date status and mechanisms of eutrophication and hypoxia in global coastal oceans, upon which we examine the trajectories of changes over the 40 years or longer in six model coastal systems with varying socio-economic development statuses and different levels and histories of eutrophication. Although these coastal systems share common features of eutrophication, site-specific characteristics are also substantial, depending on the regional environmental setting and level of social-economic development along with policy implementation and management. Nevertheless, ecosystem recovery generally needs greater reduction in pressures compared to that initiated degradation and becomes less feasible to achieve past norms with a longer time anthropogenic pressures on the ecosystems. While the qualitative causality between drivers and consequences is well established, quantitative attribution of these drivers to eutrophication and hypoxia remains difficult especially when we consider the social economic drivers because the changes in coastal ecosystems are subject to multiple influences and the cause–effect relationship is often non-linear. Such relationships are further complicated by climate changes that have been accelerating over the past few decades. The knowledge gaps that limit our quantitative and mechanistic understanding of the human-coastal ocean nexus are identified, which is essential for science-based policy making. Recognizing lessons from past management practices, we advocate for a better, more efficient indexing system of coastal eutrophication and an advanced regional earth system modeling framework with optimal modules of human dimensions to facilitate the development and evaluation of effective policy and restoration actions.

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 (Pfor 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.

During the movement of an optical mirror processing robot (OMPR), the movement error of each branch chain leads to contour errors of the grinding tool, which reduce the accuracy of the optical mirror surface. To improve the processing accuracy of an OMPR, it is necessary to study the control and compensation strategy of its contour error. In this study, first, a kinematics analysis of an OMPR is conducted, and the trajectory of the end execution point in the world coordinate system is transformed into the fixed coordinate system of the robot. Combined with the common trajectory of optical mirror processing, based on the Frenet coordinate system, contour error models of the OMPR in straight line, arc, and spiral trajectories are established. Subsequently, the contour error, feedforward channel gain, and compensation channel gain models of the parallel module are established in the task space, and concurrently, the control variables and stability of the system are analyzed. Finally, the established feedforward combined multi-axis cross-coupling contour control compensation strategy is analyzed experimentally to verify its accuracy and effectiveness. It provides a theoretical basis for a robot to directly face the precision processing object using the control and compensation strategy in a future research study to improve the molding accuracy of a surface and optimize the processing technology of a large-scale optical mirror.

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.

The Harihada–Chegendalai ophiolitic mélange, which is located between the Bainaimiao arc and the North China Craton, holds significant clues regarding the tectonic setting of the southern margin of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. The ophiolitic mélange is mainly composed of gabbroic and serpentinized ultramafic rocks. Here, zircon U–Pb dating, in situ zircon Hf isotopic, whole-rock geochemical and in situ mineral chemical data from the ophiolitic mélange are reported. The zircons in the gabbroic rocks yielded concordia U–Pb ages of 450–448 Ma and exhibited slightly positive ϵHf(t) values (0.87–4.34). The geochemical characteristics of the gabbroic rocks indicate that they were generated from a mantle wedge metasomatized by subduction-derived melts from sediments with continental crust contamination, in a fore-arc tectonic setting. These rocks also experienced the accumulation of plagioclase. The geochemical characteristics of the ultramafic rocks and their Cr-spinels indicate that they may constitute part of residual mantle that has experienced a high degree of partial melting and has interacted with fluids/melts released from the subducted slab in the same fore-arc tectonic setting. The ophiolitic mélange may therefore have formed in this fore-arc tectonic setting, resulting from the northward subduction of the South Bainaimiao Ocean beneath the Bainaimiao arc during Late Ordovician time, prior to the collision between the Bainaimiao arc and the North China Craton during the Silurian to Carboniferous periods.