Fine particulate matter (PM2·5) is a known risk factor for heart failure (HF), while plant-based dietary patterns may help reduce HF risk. This study examined the combined impact of PM2·5 exposure and a plant-based diet on HF incidence. A total of 190 092 participants from the UK Biobank were included in this study. HF cases were identified through linkage to the UK National Health Services register, with follow-up lasting until October 2022 in England, August 2022 in Scotland and May 2022 in Wales. Annual mean PM2·5 concentration was obtained using a land use regression model, while the healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI) was calculated using the Oxford WebQ tool based on two or more 24-hour dietary assessments of seventeen major food groups. Cox proportional hazard models assessed the associations of PM2·5 and hPDI with HF risk, and interactions were evaluated on additive and multiplicative scales. During a median of 13·4-year follow-up, 4351 HF cases were recorded. Participants in the highest PM2·5 tertile had a 23 % increased HF risk (hazard ratio: 1·23, 95 % CI: 1·14, 1·32) compared with those in the lowest tertile. Moderate or high hPDI was associated with reduced HF risk relative to low hPDI. The lowest HF risk was observed in individuals with high hPDI and low PM2·5 exposure, underscoring the protective role of a plant-based diet, particularly in areas with lower PM2·5 levels. A healthy plant-based diet may mitigate HF risk, especially in populations exposed to lower PM2·5 levels.

We reported on an efficient high-power continuous-wave laser operation on the 3H4 → 3H5 transition of Tm3+ ions in a diffusion-bonded composite YVO4/Tm:GdVO4 crystal. Pumped by a laser diode at 794 nm, a maximum output power of 7.5 W was obtained from a YVO4/Tm:GdVO4 laser at 2.29 μm, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 40.3% and exceeding the Stokes limit. To the best of our knowledge, this result represents the maximum power ever achieved from a Tm laser at 2.3 μm.

The Chengba site is the only city site dated from the late Warring States Period in eastern Sichuan Province, China. New discoveries of artefacts and structures at the site enable exploration of the regional role and management of counties that were established at this time by the central government.

Let $T=(V,E)$ be a tree in which each edge is assigned a cost; let $\mathcal{P}$ be a set of source–sink pairs of vertices in V in which each source–sink pair produces a profit. Given a lower bound K for the profit, the K-prize-collecting multicut problem in trees with submodular penalties is to determine a partial multicut $M\subseteq E$ such that the total profit of the disconnected pairs after removing M from T is at least K, and the total cost of edges in M plus the penalty of the set of still-connected pairs is minimized, where the penalty is determined by a nondecreasing submodular function. Based on the primal-dual scheme, we present a combinatorial polynomial-time algorithm by carefully increasing the penalty. In the theoretical analysis, we prove that the approximation factor of the proposed algorithm is $(\frac{8}{3}+\frac{4}{3}\kappa+\varepsilon)$, where $\kappa$ is the total curvature of the submodular function and $\varepsilon$ is any fixed positive number. Experiments reveal that the objective value of the solutions generated by the proposed algorithm is less than 130% compared with that of the optimal value in most cases.

Typical unconventional gas/liquid plays of China were studied using field-emission/focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for clay mineralogy and microstructural development. The SEM microstructural investigations of clay-rich shale and mudstone reservoirs provided significant information about clay mineral type, size, distribution and aggregates, which allows for interpretations regarding porosity preservation and petrophysical variability. The major clay-hosted porosity types are interparticle clay pores, intraparticle clay pores and aggregate pores. Interparticle clay pores occur in open spaces of the clay aggregates and include four subtypes: (1) elongated pores, (2) packed pores, (3) jagged pores and (4) card-house pores. Intraparticle clay pores are present within clay particles and have mostly secondary origin. These pores are diagenesis dependent and are restricted to secondary illite particles during the transformation of clay minerals from smectite to illite. Intraparticle clay pores constitute only isolated porosity and could not contribute to hydrocarbon molecule storage and migration. Aggregate pores were predominantly encountered in association with organic–clay and pyrite–clay aggregates. In places, organic–pyrite–clay aggregates can also display polymerization, but they do not contribute significantly to overall porosity and permeability. Combining SEM morphological analyses with the software ImageJ is critical in clay microstructure and porosity analyses via semi-quantitative characterization of the 3D pore surface, 2D pore profile, pore quantity, pore size, areal porosity, etc. These visual and semi-quantitative results highlight the significance of jagged pores and pyrite–clay aggregate pores in shale gas/liquid reservoirs because they may be important facilitators of gas storage and transmission.

There is still controversy about optimal dietary iodine intake as the Universal Salt Iodization policy enforcement in China. A modified iodine balance study was thus conducted to explore the suitable iodine intake in Chinese adult males using the iodine overflow hypothesis. In this study, thirty-eight apparently healthy males (19·1 (sd 0·6) years) were recruited and provided with designed diets. After the 14-d iodine depletion, daily iodine intake gradually increased in the 30-d iodine supplementation, consisting of six stages and each of 5 d. All foods and excreta (urine, faeces) were collected to examine daily iodine intake, iodine excretion and the changes of iodine increment in relation to those values at stage 1. The dose–response associations of iodine intake increment with excretion increment were fitted by the mixed effects models, as well as with retention increment. Daily iodine intake and excretion were 16·3 and 54·3 μg/d at stage 1, and iodine intake increment increased from 11·2 μg/d at stage 2 to 118·0 μg/d at stage 6, while excretion increment elevated from 21·5 to 95·0 μg/d. A zero iodine balance was dynamically achieved as 48·0 μg/d of iodine intake. The estimated average requirement and recommended nutrient intake were severally 48·0 and 67·2 μg/d, which could be corresponded to a daily iodine intake of 0·74 and 1·04 μg/kg per d. The results of our study indicate that roughly half of current iodine intakes recommendation could be enough in Chinese adult males, which would be beneficial for the revision of dietary reference intakes.

The purpose of the current study was to research the factors influencing thyroid volume (TVOL) in 6–12-year-old children and update the reference values. A cross-sectional study was carried out in iodine-sufficient areas of four provinces in China. Urine, edible salt and drinking water samples were collected from children. Children’s height, weight and TVOL were measured. Ridge regression was used to screen variables for solving the multicollinearity problem. Quantile regression was used to analyse the relationship between the quantiles of TVOL and other variables. In total, 5653 children aged 6–12 years were enrolled in this study, including 2838 boys and 2815 girls. There was no significant difference in TVOL between boys and girls (P > 0·05). Spearman correlation analysis showed that total TVOL was positively correlated with age, height, weight, body surface area (BSA) and BMI, and the correlation coefficients were 0·616, 0·663, 0·669, 0·685 and 0·479, respectively. Among them, the correlation between TVOL and BSA was the strongest. According to the ridge regression results, age and BSA influenced TVOL, and the ridge regression coefficients were 0·13 and 0·94, respectively. Quantile regression further showed that age and BSA had significant influences on the whole TVOL distribution (P < 0·001). Therefore, the TVOL of children aged 6–12 years in China was mainly influenced by age and BSA, and reference values for TVOL of different genders based on age and BSA were established.

It is well concluded that microbial composition and diversity of coral species can be affected under temperature alterations. However, the interaction of environmental accumulation of corals and temperature stress on symbiotic Symbiodiniaceae and bacterial communities are rarely studied. In this study, two groups of soft coral Sarcophyton trocheliophorum were cultured under constant (26 °C) and inconstant (22 °C to 26 °C) temperature conditions for 30 days as control treatments. After that, water was cooled rapidly to decrease to 20 °C in 24 h. The results of diversity analysis showed that symbiotic Symbiodiniaceae and bacterial communities had a significant difference between the two accumulated groups. The principal coordinate analyses confirmed that symbiotic Symbiodiniaceae and bacterial communities of both control treatments were clustered into two groups. Our results evidenced that rapid cooling stress could not change symbiotic Symbiodiniaceae and bacterial communities’ composition. On the other hand, cooling stress could alter only bacterial communities in constant group. In conclusion, our study represents a clear relationship between environmental accumulation and the impact of short-term cooling stress in which microbial composition structure can be affected by early adaptation conditions.

We report on a power-scalable sub-100-fs laser in the 2-μm spectral range using a Tm3+-doped ‘mixed’ (Lu,Sc)2O3 sesquioxide ceramic as an active medium. Pulses as short as 58 fs at 2076 nm with an average output power of 114 mW at a pulse repetition rate of approximately 82.9 MHz are generated by employing single-walled carbon nanotubes as a saturable absorber. A higher average power of 350 mW at 2075 nm is obtained at the expense of the pulse duration (65 fs). A maximum average power of 486 mW is achieved for a pulse duration of 98 fs and an optical conversion efficiency of 22.3%, representing the highest value ever reported from sub-100-fs mode-locked Tm lasers.

We report on a high-power Ho:YAG single-crystal fiber (SCF) laser inband pumped by a high-brightness Tm-fiber laser at 1908 nm. The Ho:YAG SCF grown by the micro-pulling-down technique exhibits a propagation loss of $0.05\pm 0.005~\text{cm}^{-1}$ at $2.09~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$. A continuous-wave output power of 35.2 W is achieved with a slope efficiency of 42.7%, which is to the best of our knowledge the highest power ever reported from an SCF-based laser in the 2 $\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ spectral range.

No risk assessment tools for the efficacy of folic acid treatment for hyperhomocysteinaemia (HHcy) have been developed. We aimed to use two common genetic risk score (GRS) methods to construct prediction models for the efficacy of folic acid therapy on HHcy, and the best gene–environment prediction model was screened out. A prospective cohort study enrolling 638 HHcy patients was performed. We used a logistic regression model to estimate the associations of two GRS methods with the efficacy. Performances were compared using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The simple count genetic risk score (SC-GRS) and weighted genetic risk score (wGRS) were found to be independently associated with the efficacy of folic acid treatment for HHcy. Using the SC-GRS, per risk allele increased with a 1·46-fold increased failure risk (P < 0·001) after adjustment for traditional risk factors, including age, sex, BMI, smoking, alcohol consumption, history of diabetes, history of hypertension, history of hyperlipidaemia, history of stroke and history of CHD. When used the wGRS, the association was strengthened (OR = 2·08, P < 0·001). Addition of the SC-GRS and wGRS to the traditional risk model significantly improved the predictive ability by AUC (0·859). A precise gene–environment predictive model with good performance was developed for predicting the treatment failure rate of folic acid therapy for HHcy.

As high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are being actively explored for next-generation structural materials, gaining a comprehensive understanding of their creep, fatigue, and fracture behaviors is indispensable. These three aspects of mechanical properties are particularly important because (i) creep resistance dictates an alloy’s high-temperature applications; (ii) fatigue failure is the most frequently encountered failure mode in the service life of a material; (iii) fracture is the very last step that a material loses its load-carrying capability. In consideration of their importance in designing HEAs toward applicable structural materials, this article offers a comprehensive review on what has been accomplished so far in these three topics. The sub-topics covered include a comparison of different creep testing methods, creep-parameter extraction, creep mechanism, high-cycle fatigue S–N relation, fatigue-crack-growth behavior, fracture toughness, fracture under different loading conditions, and fractography. Directions for future efforts are suggested in the end.

This paper considers the effect of the biases in Global Positioning System (GPS) observations on satellite clock offset estimation. GPS triple-frequency satellite clock and reference observations are discussed. When the reference observation is selected and the corresponding satellite clock offset is computed, satellite clock offsets for all observations are obtained based on the computed satellite clock offset and the biases between the reference observation and other observations. The characteristics of these biases are analysed, and a service strategy for the GPS triple-frequency satellite clock offset is presented. To evaluate the computed GPS satellite clock offset, the performance in single-point positioning is validated. The positioning results show that the average relative improvements are about 20%, 28% and 19% for north, east and vertical components, when the Differential Code Bias (DCB) (P1-P2), DCB (P1-P5) and modelled Inter-Frequency Clock Bias (IFCB) are corrected. The effect of DCB (P1-P2), DCB (P1-P5) and modelled IFCB on the altitude direction is more evident than on the horizontal directions.

Universal salt iodisation (USI) has been successfully implemented in China for more than 15 years. Recent evidence suggests that the definition of ‘adequate iodine’ (100–199 µg/l) be revised to ‘sufficient iodine’ (100–299 µg/l) based on the median urinary iodine concentration (MUI) in school-age children. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in populations after long-term salt iodisation and examine whether the definition of adequate iodine can be broadened to sufficient iodine based on the thyroid function in four population groups. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in six provinces in the northern, central and southern regions of China. Four population groups consisting of 657 children, 755 adults, 347 pregnant women and 348 lactating women were recruited. Three spot urinary samples were collected over a 10-d period and blood samples were collected on the 1st day. In the study, among the adults, pregnant women and lactating women, the prevalence rates of elevated thyroglobulin antibody and thyroid microsomal antibody levels were 12·4, 8·5 and 7·8 %, and 12·1, 9·1 and 9·1 %, respectively. Abnormally high thyroid dysfunction prevalence was not observed after more than 15 years of USI in China because the thyroid dysfunction rates were all <5 %. The recommended range should be cautiously broadened from adequate iodine to sufficient iodine according to the MUI of school-age children considering the high levels of hormones and antibodies in the other populations. Adults, particularly pregnant women positive for thyroid antibodies, should be closely monitored.

The Be-based materials with many particular properties lead to an important research subject. The investigation progresses in the fabrication technologies are introduced here, including main three kinds of Be-based materials, such as Be–Cu capsule, $\text{Be}_{2}\text{C}$ ablator and high-purity Be material. Compared with the pioneer workgroup on Be-based materials, the differences in Be–Cu target fabrication were described, and a grain refinement technique by an active hydrogen reaction for Be coating was proposed uniquely. $\text{Be}_{2}\text{C}$ coatings were first prepared by the DC reactive magnetron sputtering with a high deposition rate $({\sim}300~\text{nm}/\text{h})$. Pure polycrystalline $\text{Be}_{2}\text{C}$ films with uniform microstructures, smooth surface, high density $({\sim}2.2~\text{g}\cdot \text{cm}^{3})$ and good optical transparency were fabricated. In addition, the high-purity Be materials with metal impurities in a ppm magnitude were fabricated by the pyrolysis of organometallic Be.

A genuine finite volume method based on the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) for nearly incompressible flows is developed. The proposed finite volume lattice Boltzmann method (FV-LBM) is grid-transparent, i.e., it requires no knowledge of cell topology, thus it can be implemented on arbitrary unstructured meshes for effective and efficient treatment of complex geometries. Due to the linear advection term in the LBE, it is easy to construct multi-dimensional schemes. In addition, inviscid and viscous fluxes are computed in one step in the LBE, as opposed to in two separate steps for the traditional finite-volume discretization of the Navier-Stokes equations. Because of its conservation constraints, the collision term of the kinetic equation can be treated implicitly without linearization or any other approximation, thus the computational efficiency is enhanced. The collision with multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) model is used in the LBE. The developed FV-LBM is of second-order convergence. The proposed FV-LBM is validated with three test cases in two-dimensions: (a) the Poiseuille flow driven by a constant body force; (b) the Blasius boundary layer; and (c) the steady flow past a cylinder at the Reynolds numbers Re=10, 20, and 40. The results verify the designed accuracy and efficacy of the proposed FV-LBM.

By taking the machine stiffness into the classic Hertzian solution rather than assuming a constant machine stiffness, we developed an approach to simultaneously derive the spherical indenter tip radius and machine stiffness in arbitrary ranges of loads and indenter radii. In contrast, the direct Hertzian fitting method tends to underestimate the radius, especially for larger indenter tips. The success is based on indention tests on two materials with known material stiffness, and the displacement difference under the same load is not affected by the machine stiffness. A total of eight spherical indenter tips with the radii ranging from a few microns to hundreds of microns have been indented on fused silica and single crystal sapphire. Our method gives correct indenter radii for all indenters. The machine stiffness is found to indeed vary with the indentation load and indenter radius. This method has many potential applications in the area of nano-indentation with spherical indenters, such as indentation size effect, modulus and hardness measurement, and micropillar testing.