Nano-silicon has been regarded as the most promising anode material for next-generation lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, the preparation of nano-silicon suffers from high cost, complex procedures, and low yield, which hinders its commercial application. In this study, porous nano-silicon with particle sizes in the range of 50–100 nm was prepared through molten salt-assisted magnesiothermic reduction using porous nano-silica derived from clay minerals as the precursor. Through combining ball milling and acid activation, the synthesised nano-silica derived from montmorillonite exhibited smaller particle sizes (below 50 nm), higher specific surface area (647 m2 g–1), and total pore volume (0.71 cm3 g–1). This unique structure greatly facilitated the conversion efficiency of silica into nano-silicon by maximising the contact area between silica and magnesium powder and optimising the diffusion kinetics of magnesium atoms. When used as anodes in LIBs, the synthesised nano-silicon materials demonstrated a high specific capacity of up to 1222 mAh g–1 and an excellent capacity retention rate of 79% after 150 cycles at a current density of 0.5 A g–1. This method provides a novel approach for the cost-effective and large-scale production of nano-silicon materials for high-performance anodes.

The associations between obesity and liver diseases are complex and diverse. To explore the causal relationships between obesity and liver diseases, we applied two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) and multivariable MR analysis. The data of exposures (BMI and WHRadjBMI) and outcomes (liver diseases and liver function biomarker) were obtained from the open genome-wide association study database. A two-sample MR study revealed that the genetically predicted BMI and WHRadjBMI were associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis and autoimmune hepatitis. Obesity was not associated with primary biliary cholangitis, liver failure, liver cell carcinoma, viral hepatitis and secondary malignant neoplasm of liver. A higher WHRadjBMI was associated with higher levels of biomarkers of lipid accumulation and metabolic disorders. These findings indicated independent causal roles of obesity in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis and impaired liver metabolic function rather than in viral or autoimmune liver disease.

This paper retrospectively analysed the prevalence of macrolide-resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MRMP) in some parts of China. Between January 2013 and December 2019, we collected 4,145 respiratory samples, including pharyngeal swabs and alveolar lavage fluid. The highest PCR-positive rate of M. pneumoniae was 74.5% in Beijing, the highest resistance rate was 100% in Shanghai, and Gansu was the lowest with 20%. The highest PCR-positive rate of M. pneumoniae was 74.5% in 2013, and the highest MRMP was 97.4% in 2019; the PCR-positive rate of M. pneumoniae for adults in Beijing was 17.9% and the MRMP was 10.48%. Among the children diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), the PCR-positive and macrolide-resistant rates of M. pneumoniae were both higher in the severe ones. A2063G in domain V of 23S rRNA was the major macrolide-resistant mutation, accounting for more than 90%. The MIC values of all MRMP to erythromycin and azithromycin were ≥ 64 μg/ml, and the MICs of tetracycline and levofloxacin were ≤ 0.5 μg/ml and ≤ 1 μg/ml, respectively. The macrolide resistance varied in different regions and years. Among inpatients, the macrolide-resistant rate was higher in severe pneumonia. A2063G was the common mutation, and we found no resistance to tetracycline and levofloxacin.

Few studies have evaluated the joint effect of trace elements on spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB). This study aimed to examine the relationships between the individual or mixed maternal serum concentrations of Fe, Cu, Zn, Se, Sr and Mo during pregnancy, and risk of SPTB. Inductively coupled plasma MS was employed to determine maternal serum concentrations of the six trace elements in 192 cases with SPTB and 282 controls with full-term delivery. Multivariate logistic regression, weighted quantile sum regression (WQSR) and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) were used to evaluate the individual and joint effects of trace elements on SPTB. The median concentrations of Sr and Mo were significantly higher in controls than in SPTB group (P < 0·05). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, compared with the lowest quartile levels of individual trace elements, the third- and fourth-quartile Sr or Mo concentrations were significantly associated with reduced risk of SPTB with adjusted OR (aOR) of 0·432 (95 CI < 0·05). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, compared with the lowest quartile levels of individual trace elements, the third- and fourth-quartile Sr or Mo concentrations were significantly associated with reduced risk of SPTB with adjusted aOR of 0·432 (95 % CI 0·247, 0·756), 0·386 (95 % CI 0·213, 0·701), 0·512 (95 % CI 0·297, 0·883) and 0·559 (95 % CI 0·321, 0·972), respectively. WQSR revealed the inverse combined effect of the trace elements mixture on SPTB (aOR = 0·368, 95 % CI 0·228, 0·593). BKMR analysis confirmed the overall mixture of the trace elements was inversely associated with the risk of SPTB, and the independent effect of Sr and Mo was significant. Our findings suggest that the risk of SPTB decreased with concentrations of the six trace elements, with Sr and Mo being the major contributors.

Clay–organic interaction is an important natural process that underpins soil ecosystem services. This process can also be tailored to produce clay–organic nanocomposites for industrial and environmental applications. The organic moiety of the nanocomposites, typically represented by a toxic surfactant, could be replaced by hydrochar formed from biomolecules (e.g. glucose) via hydrothermal carbonization. The effect of montmorillonite (Mnt) and glucose dosage on hydrochar formation, however, has not been clarified. In addition, the mechanisms by which Mnt-hydrochar nanocomposites (CMnt) can detoxify and remove carcinogenic Cr(VI) from aqueous solution are not well understood. In the current study, research milestones in terms of clay–organic interactions are summarized, following which the synthesis and characterization of CMnt for Cr(VI) adsorption are outlined. Briefly, 1 g of Mnt was reacted with 75 mL of glucose solution (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 mol L−1) by hydrothermal carbonization at 200°C for 16 h. The resultant CMnt samples were analyzed for chemical composition, functional groups, morphological features, and Cr(VI) adsorptive properties. Mnt promoted the conversion of glucose to hydrochars, the particle size of which (~80 nm) was appreciably smaller than that formed in the absence of Mnt (control). Furthermore, the hydrochars in CMnt had an aromatic structure with low hydrogen substitution and high stability (C/H atomic ratio 0.34–0.99). The weakened OH (from hydrochar) and Si–O–Si stretching peaks in the Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of CMnt are indicative of chemical bonding between Mnt and hydrochar. The CMnt samples were effective at removing toxic Cr(VI) from acidic aqueous solutions. Several processes were involved, including direct reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III), complexation of Cr(III) with carboxyl and phenolic groups of hydrochar, electrostatic attraction between Cr(VI) and positively charged CMnt at pH 2 followed by indirect reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III), and Cr(III) precipitation.

L subshell X-rays of 48Cd and 49In have been measured for the impact of protons with energies from 75 to 250 keV. Obviously, it is found that Lγ2 (abbreviation Lγ2,3 for 48Cd and Lγ2,3,4 for 49In) X-ray emission is enhanced in comparison with Lγ1 X-ray emission. The relative intensity ratios of Lγ2 to Lγ1 X-ray are larger than the atomic data and increase with decreasing proton energy. This is caused by the multiple ionization of outer-shell electrons. To verify this explanation, the enhancements for relative intensity ratio of Lι and Lβ2 to Lα X-ray in experiments are discussed, and the direct ionization cross sections of 4d, 5s, and 5p electrons are calculated using BEA theory.

In applied linguistics generally and bilingualism research in particular, psychological variables remain a much under-investigated sub-category of individual differences compared with cognitive ones. To better understand the under-researched psychological effects of bilingualism, this study investigated well-being, a psychological construct, based on a big-data survey. Drawing upon a national survey (N = 12,582), we examined the influence of bilingualism (operationalised as foreign language (FL) proficiency) and 13 sociobiographical variables (e.g., socio-economic status, SES) on well-being. Among these 14 initial independent variables, perceived social fairness, SES, and health emerged as important predictors for well-being, with FL proficiency and national language (NL) proficiency as potentially important predictors; crucially, FL proficiency was more important than NL proficiency. As the first systematic attempt to link bilingualism with well-being, our study advocates (1) a more holistic perspective towards language (including NL and FL(s)) in any bilingual context and (2) fuller use of effect sizes.

High-intensity vortex beams with tunable topological charges and low coherence are highly demanded in applications such as inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and optical communication. However, traditional optical vortices featuring nonuniform intensity distributions are dramatically restricted in application scenarios that require a high-intensity vortex beam owing to their ineffective amplification resulting from the intensity-dependent nonlinear effect. Here, a low-coherence perfect vortex beam (PVB) with a topological charge as high as 140 is realized based on the super-pixel wavefront-shaping technique. More importantly, a globally adaptive feedback algorithm (GAFA) is proposed to efficiently suppress the original intensity fluctuation and achieve a flat-top PVB with dramatically reduced beam speckle contrast. The GAFA-based flat-top PVB generation method can pave the way for high-intensity vortex beam generation, which is crucial for potential applications in ICF, laser processing, optical communication and optical trapping.

The silkworm Bombyx mori (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) is a lepidopteran model insect of great economic importance. The parasitoid Exorista sorbillans (Diptera, Tachinidae) is the major pest of B. mori and also a promising candidate for biological control. However, the molecular interactions between hosts and dipteran parasitoids have only partially been studied. Gene expression analysis by reverse-transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is indispensable to characterise their interactions. Accurate normalisation of RT-qPCR-based gene expression requires the use of reference genes that are constantly expressed irrespective of experimental conditions. In this study, the expression stability of 13 traditionally used reference genes was estimated by five statistical algorithms (ΔCt, geNorm, Normfinder, BestKeeper, and RefFinder) to determine the best reference genes for gene expression studies in different tissues of B. mori under E. sorbillans parasitism. Specifically, TATA-box-binding protein was the best reference gene in epidermis and testis, while elongation factor 1α was the most stable gene in prothoracic gland and midgut. Elongation factor 1γ, ribosomal protein L3, actin A1, ribosomal protein L40, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A were the most suitable genes in head, silk gland, fat body, haemolymph, Malpighian tubule and ovary, respectively. Our study offers a set of suitable reference genes for gene expression normalisation in B. mori under the parasitic stress of E. sorbillans, which will benefit the in-depth exploration of host-dipteran parasitoid interactions, and also provide insights for further improvements of B. mori resistance against parasitoids and biocontrol efficacy of dipteran parasitoids.

Given a Borel probability measure µ on $\mathbb{R}^n$ and a real matrix $R\in M_n(\mathbb{R})$. We call R a spectral eigenmatrix of the measure µ if there exists a countable set $\Lambda\subset \mathbb{R}^n$ such that the sets $E_\Lambda=\big\{{\rm e}^{2\pi i \langle\lambda,x\rangle}:\lambda\in \Lambda\big\}$ and $E_{R\Lambda}=\big\{{\rm e}^{2\pi i \langle R\lambda,x\rangle}:\lambda\in \Lambda\big\}$ are both orthonormal bases for the Hilbert space $L^2(\mu)$. In this paper, we study the structure of spectral eigenmatrix of the planar self-affine measure $\mu_{M,D}$ generated by an expanding integer matrix $M\in M_2(2\mathbb{Z})$ and the four-elements digit set $D = \{(0,0)^t,(1,0)^t,(0,1)^t,(-1,-1)^t\}$. Some sufficient and/or necessary conditions for R to be a spectral eigenmatrix of $\mu_{M,D}$ are given.

Hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) is a severe and life-threatening complication, characterised by multi-organ failure and high short-term mortality. However, there is limited information on the impact of various comorbidities on HBV-ACLF in a large population. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between comorbidities, complications and mortality. In this retrospective observational study, we identified 2166 cases of HBV-ACLF hospitalised from January 2010 to March 2018. Demographic data from the patients, medical history, treatment, laboratory indices, comorbidities and complications were collected. The mortality rate in our study group was 47.37%. Type 2 diabetes mellitus was the most common comorbidity, followed by alcoholic liver disease. Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, pneumonia and hepatic encephalopathy (HE) were common in these patients. Diabetes mellitus and hyperthyroidism are risk factors for death within 90 days, together with gastrointestinal bleeding and HE at admission, HE and hepatorenal syndrome during hospitalisation. Knowledge of risk factors can help identify HBV-ACLF patients with a poor prognosis for HBV-ACLF with comorbidities and complications.

Due to the lack of research between the inner layers in the structure of colonic mucous and the metabolism of fatty acid in the constipation model, we aim to determine the changes in the mucous phenotype of the colonic glycocalyx and the microbial community structure following treatment with Rhubarb extract in our research. The constipation and treatment models are generated using adult male C57BL/6N mice. We perform light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to detect a Muc2-rich inner mucus layer attached to mice colon under different conditions. In addition, 16S rDNA sequencing is performed to examine the intestinal flora. According to TEM images, we demonstrate that Rhubarb can promote mucin secretion and find direct evidence of dendritic structure-linked mucus structures with its assembly into a lamellar network in a pore size distribution in the isolated colon section. Moreover, the diversity of intestinal flora has noticeable changes in constipated mice. The present study characterizes a dendritic structure and persistent cross-links have significant changes accompanied by the alteration of intestinal flora in feces in models of constipation and pretreatment with Rhubarb extract.

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.

In recent years, the controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score has increasingly became an effective indicator associated with tumor prognosis. This study was conducted to synthesise data on the prognostic value of CONUT score on patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) or renal cell carcinoma (RCC) undergoing nephrectomy. We designed and performed a systematic analysis of studies that verified the correlation between preoperative CONUT score and prognosis for UTUC and RCC using PubMed, Web of Science and Embase. The conclusion was clarified by pooled hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Subgroup analysis were further conducted in accordance with different primary tumor. Six studies involving 3529 patients were included in this evidence synthesis, which revealed that the CONUT score had a potential role to predict the survival of UTUC and RCC patients accepting surgery. Pooled analysis showed that the overall survival (OS, HR 2·32, p < 0·0001), cancer-specific survival (CSS, HR 2·68, p < 0·0001) and disease-free survival (DFS, HR 1·62, p < 0·00001) were inferior in the high CONUT score group when compared with low score group. Subgroup analysis revealed that this result was in line with UTUC (OS: HR 1·86, p = 0·02; CSS: HR 2·24, p = 0·01; DFS: HR 1·54, p < 0·00001) and RCC (OS: HR 3·05, p < 0·00001; CSS: HR 3·47, p < 0·00001; DFS: HR 2·21, p = 0·0005) patients respectively. Consequently, the CONUT score is a valuable preoperative index to predict the survival of patients with UTUC or RCC undergoing nephrectomy.

The provenance and tectonic setting of the Lower–Middle Triassic clastic sediments from the Napo basin, South China, have been examined here using detrital modes, whole-rock geochemistry and detrital zircon U–Pb ages. Field investigations indicate that these sediments consist of fan delta, slope and turbidity fan facies with dominantly southward palaeocurrent directions. Detrital modes and geochemical characteristics of the clastic rocks indicate that they were derived from mixed magmatic arc and Palaeozoic successions in a continental island arc setting, with no significant sediment recycling. The U–Pb age spectra of sandstone detrital zircons from different stratigraphic positions are similar, with one major group (300–230 Ma), two subordinate groups (400–320 Ma and 480–420 Ma, respectively) and two scattered groups (1200–800 Ma and 2000–1700 Ma, respectively). Thus, we consider that the north late Permian – Middle Triassic volcanic rocks and the uplifted Palaeozoic sedimentary/volcanic sequences constituted the predominant sources. The detritus derived from the late Permian Emeishan mafic rocks is subordinate and limited. The pre-Devonian zircons are likely sedimentary-recycled or magmatic-captured instead of directly derived from the early Palaeozoic orogen (e.g. Yunkai massif) and Neoproterozoic Jiangnan orogen because of the topographic barrier of a magmatic arc and carbonate platform. Considering the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of the volcanic arc and ophiolite, we suggest that the Triassic Napo basin was a fore-arc basin within a continental island arc setting, which developed in response to the northward subduction of the Babu–Cao Bang branch ocean beneath the South China Block.