Several novel anthropometric indices, including paediatric body adiposity index (BAIp) and triponderal mass index (TMI), have emerged as potential tools for estimating body fat in preschool children. However, their comparative validity and accuracy, particularly when compared with established indicators such as BMI, have not been thoroughly investigated. This cross-sectional study enrolled 2869 preschoolers aged 3–6 years in Wuhan, China. The non-parametric Bland–Altman analysis was employed to evaluate the agreement between BMI, BAIp and TMI with percentage of body fat (PBF), determined by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), serving as the reference measure of adiposity. Additionally, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was conducted to assess the effectiveness of BMI, BAIp and TMI in screening for obesity. BAIp demonstrated the least bias in estimating PBF, showing discrepancies of 3·64 % (95 % CI 3·40 %, 4·12 %) in boys and 3·95 % (95 % CI 3·79 %, 4·23 %) in girls. Conversely, BMI underestimated PBF by 3·89 % (95 % CI 3·70 %, 4·37 %) in boys and 4·81 % (95 % CI 4·59 %, 5·09 %) in girls, while TMI also underestimated PBF by 5·15 % (95 % CI 4·90 %, 5·52 %) in boys and 5·68 % (95 % CI 5·30 %, 5·91 %) in girls. BAIp exhibited the highest AUC values (AUC = 0·867–0·996) in boys, whereas in girls, there was no statistically significant difference between BMI (AUC = 0·936, 95 % CI 0·921, 0·948) and BAIp (AUC = 0·901, 95 % CI 0·883, 0·916) in girls (P = 0·054). In summary, when considering the identification of obesity, BAIp shows promise as a screening tool for both boys and girls.

A single-shot measurement of electron emittance was experimentally accomplished using a focused transfer line with a dipole. The betatron phase of electrons based on laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) is energy dependent owing to the coupling of the longitudinal acceleration field and the transverse focusing (defocusing) field in the bubble. The phase space presents slice information after phase compensation relative to the center energy. Fitting the transverse size of the electron beam at different energy slices in the energy spectrum measured 0.27 mm mrad in the experiment. The diagnosis of slice emittance facilitates local electron quality manipulation, which is important for the development of LWFA-based free electron lasers. The quasi-3D particle-in-cell simulations matched the experimental results and analysis well.

Heterogeneous magnesium matrix nanocomposites (Hetero-Mg-NCs) exhibited excellent strength–toughness synergy, but their damage behavior and toughness mechanism lacked of investigation. Here, atomic force microscopy was first employed to characterize the microstructure evolution and damage behavior of the Hetero-Mg-NCs after indentation. The heterogeneous structure comprised of pure Mg areas (soft phase) and Mg nanocomposite areas (hard phase) was revealed by the electrostatic force microscopy. Furthermore, the surface morphology and cracks of the deformed area were investigated with high resolution. The results indicated the soft phase undertook most of the deformation and played an important role in capturing and blunting the crack.

In this article, we propose two asymmetry measures for stock returns. Unlike the popular skewness measure, our measures are based on the distribution function of the data rather than just the third central moment. We present empirical evidence that the greater upside asymmetries calculated using our new measures imply lower average returns in the cross section of stocks. In contrast, when using the skewness measure, the relationship between asymmetry and returns is inconclusive.

We provide an entropy approach for measuring the asymmetric comovement between the return on a single asset and the market return. This approach yields a model-free test for stock return asymmetry, generalizing the correlation-based test proposed by Hong, Tu, and Zhou (2007). Based on this test, we find that asymmetry is much more pervasive than previously thought. Moreover, our approach also provides an entropy-based measure of downside asymmetric comovement. In the cross section of stock returns, we find an asymmetry premium: Higher downside asymmetric comovement with the market indicates higher expected returns.

Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 2, with its profound environmental and climatic changes from before the last glacial maximum (LGM) to the last deglaciation, is an ideal period for understanding the evolution of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and Indian summer monsoon (ISM), two Asian monsoon sub-systems. With 875 stable oxygen isotope ratios and 43 230Th dates from stalagmites in Sanxing Cave, southwestern China, we construct and interpret a new, replicated, Asian summer monsoon (ASM) record covering 30.9–9.7 ka with decadal resolution. δ18O records from this site and other reported Chinese caves display similar long-term orbitally dominated trends and synchronous millennial-scale strong and weak monsoonal events associated with climate changes in high northern latitudes. Interestingly, Sanxing δ18O and Arabian Sea records show a weakening ISM from 22 to 17 ka, while the Hulu and Qingtian records from East and Central China express a 3-ka intensifying EASM from 20 to 17 ka. This decoupling between EASM and ISM may be due to different sensitivities of the two ASM sub-systems in response to internal feedback mechanisms associated with the complex geographical or land-ocean configurations.

A laser deposition technique, based on the photo-reduction of silver ions from an aqueous solution, was used to fabricate silver nanostructure surfaces on glass cover slips. The resulting silver nanostructures exhibited plasmonic properties, which show promise in applications towards surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Using the standard thiophenol, the enhancement factor calculated for the deposits was approximately ∼106, which is comparable to other SERS-active plasmonic nanostructures fabricated through more complex techniques, such as electron beam lithography. The silver nanostructures were then employed in the enhancement of Raman signals from N-butyryl-L-homoserine lactone, a signaling molecule relevant to bacteria quorum sensing. In particular, the work presented herein shows that the laser-deposited plasmonic nanostructures are promising candidates for monitoring concentrations of signaling molecules within biofilms containing quorum sensing bacteria.

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of single-dose albendazole and vitamin A intervention on the anaemic status and Fe metabolism of pre-school children. This study was a randomised, placebo-controlled and double-blinded intervention trial. All eligible anaemic pre-school children were randomly divided into three groups: group 1 received no intervention, which served as the control group, group 2 received 400 mg single-dose albendazole administration and group 3 received a 60000 μg vitamin A capsule combined with 400 mg single-dose albendazole at the beginning of the study. The follow-up period was for 6 months. Anthropometry and biochemical index about Fe metabolism were measured before and after intervention. A total of 209 pre-school anaemic children were randomly divided into three intervention groups (sixty-four, sixty-two and sixty for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively). The mean age of the children in the study was 4·4 (sd 0·7) years and 50·5 % of the children were female (94/186). After a follow-up period of 6 months, the levels of serum retinol, ferritin, transferrin receptor-ferritin index and body total Fe content of children in group 3 were significantly higher compared with children in groups 1 and 2 (P<0·05). Moreover, the proportion of vitamin A deficiency, marginal vitamin A deficiency and Fe deficiency among children in group 3 were markedly lower compared with children in groups 1 and 2 (P<0·05). Albendazole plus vitamin A administration showed more efficacy on the improvement of serum retinol and Fe metabolic status.

Fast linear transformer driver (FLTD) has some advantages in repetitive operation compared with traditional pulsed power generators. However, different types of gas switches applied in the field of pulsed power technology in recent years cannot reach the requirements of repetitive operation of FLTD. Therefore, the capability of repetitive operation of a multigap gas switch has been investigated in a circuit similar to the basic discharge loop named as brick in this paper. The switch has been triggered more than 2000 times and the distribution of delay time and switch jitter are analyzed and reported. Also, the self-breakdown voltages of the switch during different segments of the triggered breakdown experiment have been tested. The experimental results indicate that the delay time obeys the Gauss distribution and the jitter of 2000 times of discharge is about 2.3 ns.

In this study, silicon nanowire (SiNW)/polycaprolactone composites with different surface topographies were fabricated by straightforward embedding or printing methods and their cytocompatibility was evaluated with a bone-relevant cell line derived from mouse stroma. The incorporation of biocompatible polymers with semiconducting SiNWs can ideally provide an enhanced environment to support proliferation and differentiation functions of bone cells. Cell/composite interactions were assessed with suitable assays including viability and alkaline phosphatase activity, while scanning electron microscopy characterization was used to study the morphology of cells grown on composites. Such results suggest that for nanowires in a vertical array, the presence of the polymer improves cellular attachment and overall viability relative to the nanowire-only system.

Survivin is a novel member of the inhibitor of apoptosis gene family that bear baculoviral IAP repeats (BIRs), whose physiological roles in regulating meiotic cell cycle need to be determined. Confocal microscopy was employed to observe the localization of survivin in rat oocytes. At the germinal vesicle (GV) stage, survivin was mainly concentrated in the GV. At the prometaphase I (pro-MI) and metaphase I (MI) stage, survivin was mainly localized at the kinetochores, with a light staining detected on the chromosomes. After transition to anaphase I or telophase I stage, survivin migrated to the midbody, and signals on the kinetochores and chromosomes disappeared. At metaphase II (MII) stage, survivin became mainly localized at the kinetochores again. Microinjection of oocytes with anti-survivin antibodies at the beginning of the meiosis, thus blocking the normal function of survivin, resulted in abnormal spindle assembly, chromosome segregation and first polar body emission. These results suggest that survivin is involved in regulating the meiotic cell cycle in rat oocytes.

The mysterious 21 μm emission feature seen in only 12 C-rich proto-planetary nebulae (PPNe) remains unidentified since its discovery in 1989. Over a dozen materials have been suggested as the carrier candidates while none of them has received general acceptance. We investigate the inorganic carrier candidates by applying the observational constraints of the feature strength and associated features. It is found that: (1) three candidates, TiC clusters, fullerenes with Ti impurity atoms, and SiS2, are not abundant enough to account for the emission power of the 21 μm band, (2) five candidates, doped-SiC, SiO2-mantled SiC dust, carbon and silicon mixtures, Fe2O3, and Fe3O4, all show associated features which are either not detected in the 21 μm sources or detected but with a much lower strength, and (3) FeO, which satisfies the abundance constraints, does not display any associated features which are not seen in the 21 μm sources. Moreover, FeO is more likely to survive in the C-rich environment than Fe2O3 and Fe3O4. Thus FeO seems to be the most plausible one among the inorganic carrier candidates.

Radiation transfer in low-density foam is influenced by the external radiation field which impacts on the foam when the size of plasma created in laboratory is not large to be opatical thick. The radiation transfers of different photon groups are sensitive probes of the conditions of the medium through which they propagate. The temporal behavior of photon groups to which the plasma is optical thin is quite different from that of photon groups to which the plasma is optical thick. The breakout times of different photon groups through the foam are distinguishable different in experiment when we measures them at the end of foam. The multi-group supersonic radiation transfer behavior in low-density foam is studied both by multi-group transfer numerical simulation and experiments. Two characteristic photon groups are chosen to do experimental research on the multi-group transfer behavior in low-density CH foam. A time-resolved chromatic streaked X-ray spectrometer measure the breakout of the two photon group from the far end of the foam cylinder. The distinguishable transfer time delay between two groups is observed.