This paper examines the career mobility and performance evaluation of the leaders of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) at the central, provincial and prefectural levels. Using data on executive turnover within publicly listed SOEs, we find that central and local SOE leaders have a similar career flow pattern. Specifically, vertical mobility within the same business group is common and more than 60 per cent of SOE leaders leave their office within three years. Only a minority of SOE leaders achieve political promotion. We also find that performance evaluation criteria are different across central and local SOEs. The leaders who provide better economic outcomes for central SOEs obtain a higher evaluation score, while close political connections boost the promotion prospects of local SOE leaders. Overall, our findings provide granular evidence on the personnel management of China's SOEs from a comparative perspective.

Evidence of the relationship between fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) levels, dietary quality and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in rural populations is limited. Here, we aimed to investigate the association between fecal SCFA levels and T2DM and the combined effects of dietar quality on T2DM in rural China. In total, 100 adults were included in the case–control study. Dietary quality was assessed by the Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010 (AHEI-2010), and SCFA levels were analysed using the GC-MS system. Generalised linear regression was conducted to calculate the OR and 95 % CI to evaluate the effect of SCFA level and dietary quality on the risk of T2DM. Finally, an interaction was used to study the combined effect of SCFA levels and AHEI-2010 scores on T2DM. T2DM participants had lower levels of acetic and butyric acid. Generalised linear regression analysis revealed that the OR (95 % CI) of the highest acetic and butyric acid levels were 0·099 (0·022, 0·441) and 0·210 (0·057, 0·774), respectively, compared with the subjects with the lowest tertile of level. We also observed a significantly lower risk of T2DM with acetic acid levels > 1330·106 μg/g or butyric acid levels > 585·031 μg/g. Moreover, the risks of higher acetic and butyric acid levels of T2DM were 0·007 (95 % CI: 0·001, 0·148), 0·005 (95 % CI: 0·001, 0·120) compared with participants with lower AHEI-2010 scores (all P < 0·05). Acetate and butyrate levels may be important modifiable beneficial factors affecting T2DM in rural China. Improving dietary quality for body metabolism balance should be encouraged to promote good health.

Breast milk leptin plays a potential role in preventing childhood obesity. However, the associations of breast milk leptin with maternal metabolism in pregnancy and dietary patterns during lactation are still unclear. We aimed to explore associations of breast milk leptin with maternal metabolic profiles in pregnancy and dietary patterns during lactation. A total of 332 participants were recruited for this retrospective cohort study. Breast milk samples were collected at approximately 6 weeks postpartum. Breast milk leptin and twenty-three metabolic profiles in pregnancy were measured in this study. A semi-quantitative FFQ was used to gather dietary information during lactation. Both principal component analysis and the diet balance index were used to derive dietary patterns. Among twenty-three maternal metabolic profiles, maternal serum glucose (β = 1·61, P = 0·009), γ-glutamyl transferase (β = 0·32, P = 0·047) and albumin (β = −2·96, P = 0·044) in pregnancy were correlated with breast milk leptin. All dietary patterns were associated with breast milk leptin. Given the joint effects of maternal metabolism in pregnancy and dietary patterns during lactation, only diet quality distance was significantly associated with leptin concentrations in breast milk (low level v. almost no diet problem: β = −0·46, P = 0·011; moderate/high level v. almost no diet problem: β = −0·43, P = 0·035). In conclusion, both maternal metabolism in pregnancy and dietary patterns during lactation were associated with breast milk leptin. Maternal diet balance during lactation was helpful to improve breast milk leptin concentration.

This study presents a novel context awareness multihuman–robot interaction (MHRI) system that allows multiple operators to interact with a robot. In the system, a monocular multihuman 3D pose estimator is first developed with the convolutional neural network. The estimator first regresses a set of 2D joints representations of body parts and then restores the 3D joints positions based on these 2D representations. Further, the 3D joints are assigned to the corresponding individual with a priority–redundancy association algorithm. The whole 3D pose of each person is reconstructed in real time, even in crowded scenes containing both self-occlusion of the body and inter-person occlusion. Then, the identities of multiple persons are recognized with action context and 3D skeleton tracking to improve interactive efficiency. For context-awareness multitask interaction, the robot control strategy is designed based on target goal generation and correction. The generated goal is taken as a reference to the model predictive controller (MPC) to generate motion trajectory. Different interactive requirements are adapted by adjusting the weight parameters of the energy function of the MPC controller. Multihuman–robot interactive experiments, including dynamic obstacle avoidance (human–robot safety) and cooperative handling, demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the MHRI, and the safety and collaborative efficiency of the system are evaluated with HRI metrics.

To improve the uniformity of coating thickness and spraying efficiency, new point cloud modeling and slicing algorithm are proposed to deal with free-form surfaces for the spray painting robot in this paper. In the process of point cloud modeling, the edge preservation algorithm is firstly presented to avoid damaging the edge characteristic of the point cloud model. For the spraying gun, the coating deposition model on the free-form surface is determined on the basis of the elliptic double β distribution model. Then, the grid projection algorithm is proposed to obtain grid points between adjacent slices on the free-form surface. Based on this, the analytical solution for calculating the coating thickness at each grid point is obtained. The cross-section contour points are obtained by intercepting the point cloud model with several parallel slices, which is important for the trajectory planning of the spray painting robot. Finally, the uniformity of coating thickness is optimized in terms of the moving speed of the spraying gun and the slice thickness. The simulation and numerical experiment results show that the uniformity of coating thickness and spraying efficiency are improved using the proposed point cloud modeling and slicing algorithm.

Catheter-related blood-stream infections (CRBSIs) are the most common healthcare-associated blood-stream infections. They can be diagnosed by either semi-quantitative or quantitative methods, which may differ in diagnostic accuracy. A meta-analysis was undertaken to compare the diagnostic accuracy of semi-quantitative and quantitative methods for CRBSI. A systematic search of Medline, Scopus, Cochrane and Embase databases up to January 2020 was performed and subjected to a QUADAS (quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies 2) tool to evaluate the risk of bias among studies. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of the methods were determined and heterogeneity was evaluated using the χ2 test and I2. Publication bias was assessed using a Funnel plot and the Egger's test. In total, 45 studies were analysed with data from 11 232 patients. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of semi-quantitative methods were 85% (95% CI 79–90%) and 84% (95% CI 79–88%), respectively; and for quantitative methods were 85% (95% CI 79–90%) and 95% (95% CI 91–97%). Considerable heterogeneity was statistically evident (P < 0.001) by both methods with a correspondingly symmetrical Funnel plot that was confirmed by a non-significant Deek's test. We conclude that both semi-quantitative and quantitative methods are highly useful for screening for CRBSI in patients and display high sensitivity and specificity. Quantitative methods, particularly paired quantitative cultures, had the highest sensitivity and specificity and can be used to identify CRBSI cases with a high degree of certainty.

In late December 2019, patients of atypical pneumonia due to an unidentified microbial agent were reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Subsequently, a novel coronavirus was identified as the causative pathogen which was named SARS-CoV-2. As of 12 February 2020, more than 44 000 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been confirmed in China and continue to expand. Provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions of China have launched first-level response to major public health emergencies one after another from 23 January 2020, which means restricting movement of people among provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. The aim of this study was to explore the correlation between the migration scale index and the number of confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and to depict the effect of restricting population movement. In this study, Excel 2010 was used to demonstrate the temporal distribution at the day level and SPSS 23.0 was used to analyse the correlation between the migration scale index and the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. We found that since 23 January 2020, Wuhan migration scale index has dropped significantly and since 26 January 2020, Hubei province migration scale index has dropped significantly. New confirmed COVID-19 cases per day in China except for Wuhan gradually increased since 24 January 2020, and showed a downward trend from 6 February 2020. New confirmed COVID-19 cases per day in China except for Hubei province gradually increased since 24 January 2020, and maintained at a high level from 24 January 2020 to 4 February 2020, then showed a downward trend. Wuhan migration scale index from 9 January to 22 January, 10 January to 23 January and 11 January to 24 January was correlated with the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases per day in China except for Wuhan from 22 January to 4 February. Hubei province migration scale index from 10 January to 23 January and 11 January to 24 January was correlated with the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases per day in China except for Hubei province from 22 January to 4 February. Our findings suggested that people who left Wuhan from 9 January to 22 January, and those who left Hubei province from 10 January to 24 January, led to the outbreak in the rest of China. The ‘Wuhan lockdown’ and the launching of the first-level response to this major public health emergency may have had a good effect on controlling the COVID-19 epidemic. Although new COVID-19 cases continued to be confirmed in China outside Wuhan and Hubei provinces, in our opinion, these are second-generation cases.

Taurine (TAU) plays important roles in the metabolism of bile acids, cholesterol and lipids. However, little relevant information has been available in fish where TAU has been identified as a conditionally essential nutrient. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary TAU on the metabolism of bile acids, cholesterol and lipids in tiger puffer, which is both an important aquaculture species and a good research model, having a unique lipid storage pattern. An 8-week feeding trial was conducted in a flow-through seawater system. Three experimental diets differed only in TAU level, that is, 1·7, 8·2 and 14·0 mg/kg. TAU supplementation increased the total bile acid content in liver but decreased the content in serum. TAU supplementation also increased the contents of total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol in both liver and serum. The hepatic bile acid profile mainly includes taurocholic acid (94·48 %), taurochenodeoxycholic acid (4·17 %) and taurodeoxycholic acid (1·35 %), and the contents of all these conjugated bile acids were increased by dietary TAU. The hepatic lipidomics analysis showed that TAU tended to decrease the abundance of individual phospholipids and increase those of some individual TAG and ceramides. The hepatic mRNA expression study showed that TAU stimulated the biosynthesis of both bile acids and cholesterol, possibly via regulation of farnesoid X receptor and HDL metabolism. TAU also stimulated the hepatic expression of lipogenic genes. In conclusion, dietary TAU stimulated the hepatic biosynthesis of both bile acids and cholesterol and tended to regulate lipid metabolism in multiple ways.

Endometrial injury is an important cause of intrauterine adhesion (IUA), amenorrhea and infertility in women, with limited effective therapies. Recently, stem cells have been used in animal experiments to repair and improve injured endometrium. To date, our understanding of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) in endometrial injury repair and their further therapeutic mechanisms is incomplete. Here, we examined the benefit of ADSCs in restoration of injured endometrium by applying a rat endometrial injury model. The results revealed by immunofluorescence showed that green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labelled ADSCs can differentiate into endometrial epithelial cells in vivo. At 30 days after ADSCs transplantation, injured endometrium was significantly improved, with increased microvessel density, endometrial thickness and glands when compared with the model group. Furthermore, the fertility of rats with injured endometrium in ADSCs group was improved and had a higher conception rate (60% vs 20%, P = 0.014) compared with the control phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) group. However, there was no difference in the control group compared with the sham group. In addition, expression levels of the oestrogen receptor Eα/β (ERα, ERβ) and progesterone receptor (PR) detected by western blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were higher in the ADSCs group than in the PBS group. Taken together, these results suggested that ADSC transplantation could improve endometrial injury as a novel therapy for IUA.

The glaciers on Yulong mountain (5596 m a.s.l.), China, are the southernmost in mainland Eurasia. The largest is Baishui glacier No. 1. Up to 90% of the annual precipitation there falls in summer, when warm moisture-rich air masses associated with the southwest monsoon reach the area from the Indian Ocean. The winter climate is influenced by air masses with a continental origin and by the southern branch of the westerlies. The snow that accumulates on Baishui glacier No. 1 includes marine aerosols associated with the summer monsoon, and dust brought in winter from central/west Asia, Africa or the Thar Desert area. Studies in May 2006 at two sites, one in the accumulation area (4900 m) and one in the ablation area (4750 m), revealed differences between the ionic composition of the snow that had accumulated in the 2005/06 winter and that of the snow which had been deposited during the preceding summer monsoon. Differences in the chemistry of the summer-accumulated snow at the two sites probably reflected local differences in ablation and elution rates, rather than differences in ion supplies. Differences in the chemistry of the winter-accumulated snow may reflect the influence of up-valley winds, which bring more crustal material to the lower site.

In this work, the influence of Al-solutes on the mechanical behavior of Cu–AlX solid solutions has been studied using indentation strain rate jump tests for single crystalline and ultrafine-grained (UFG) microstructures from high pressure torsion (HPT) processing. Al-solutes in Cu classically lead to a solid solution strengthening, coupled with a decrease in stacking fault energy, which influences also the grain size after HPT processing. For all alloys, a higher hardness is found at lower indentation depths, which can be nicely described by a modified Nix/Gao model down to 100 nm indentation depth. Among the single crystals, the largest size effects are found for the higher solute contents, indicating a stronger work hardening at small length scales for the solid solutions. The dilute UFG solid solutions showed a strong softening after a strain rate reduction test, with a pronounced transient region. Cu–Al15 is, however, quite stable, showing abrupt changes in hardness without strong transients. This indicates that solute solution strengthening does not only influence the indentation size effect and structure formation during HPT processing but also stabilizes the grain structure during subsequent deformation.

Concerns have been raised about the benefits of Fe-containing supplements on infant birth weight among women with normal/high Hb levels at baseline. Thus far, no clinical trials have examined whether the effects of prenatal Fe-containing supplements on birth weight vary by maternal Hb levels. We compared the effects of Fe–folic acid (IFA) or multiple micronutrients (MMN) with folic acid (FA) supplements on birth weight among pregnant women with mild/no anaemia or high Hb levels. A double-blind randomised controlled trial was conducted in 2006–2009. In total, 18 775 pregnant women with mild/no anaemia (<100 g/l) were enrolled from five counties in north China. During the period from before 20 weeks of gestation to delivery, the women randomly received a daily supplement containing the following: (1) FA (400 μg); (2) IFA (FA, 400 μg; Fe, 30 mg); or (3) MMN (FA, Fe and thirteen additional vitamins and minerals). Birth weight was measured within the 1st hour of birth. Maternal Hb concentration was determined at enrolment. Among women with normal (≤132 g/l) or high (133–145 g/l) baseline Hb levels, IFA or MMN supplementation had no effect on birth weight. Among women with very high (>145 g/l) baseline Hb levels, IFA and MMN supplements increased birth weight by 91·44 (95 % CI 3·37, 179·51) g and 107·63 (95 % CI 21·98, 193·28) g (P<0·05), respectively, compared with the FA group. No differences were found between the IFA and the MMN group, regardless of maternal Hb concentration. In conclusion, the effects of Fe-containing supplements on birth weight depended on baseline Hb concentrations. The Fe-containing supplements improved birth weight in women with very high Hb levels before 20 weeks of gestation.

Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) films with flat surfaces and with 27nm, 190nm, 300nm, 400nm, and 520nm surface features were synthesized using a template method with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) molds. The nano patterns were transferred from the self-assembled polystyrene beads to the PLGA films through PDMS molds. After synthesis, the nano patterns were confirmed by AFM height scans. In order to investigate the influence of the materials on bone cells, healthy human osteoblasts were cultured on the PLGA films. The 27nm PLGA surface showed the maximum osteoblast adhesion density and a significant increase compared with the other surface features. For these reasons, and since previous studies have highlighted that similar nanometer surface features on PLGA decreased functions of other cancer cells, this study suggests that PLGA with 27nm surface features should be further studied for bone cancer applications where healthy bone cell functions need to be promoted and cancerous bone cell functions inhibited.

With multifunctionality and nanoscale dimensions, self-assembled rosette nanotubes (RNTs) exhibit unique biological and mechanical properties, making them promising to serve as a new generation of implants. Synthetic twin G^C base features the hydrogen bonding arrays of both guanine and cytosine and has the ability to self-organize spontaneously into nanotubes with a 3.5 nm outer diameter, a 1.1 nm inner channel running the length of the nanotube which can reach several micrometers in length. In this study, a twin G^C motif functionalized with an aminobutyl side chain (referred to as TBL) was synthesized, assembled into bioactive RNTs and used along with poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) and hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles to prepare RNTs/HA/pHEMA composites for orthopedic applications. The properties of these composites was investigated, notably the solidification process, surface morphology, mechanical properties, and cytocompatibility properties. The RNTs assembled from TBL and HA nanoparticles were found to be effective towards increasing the bioactivity of the composites thus establishing the potential of TBL/HA/pHEMA composites as very promising injectable orthopedic implant materials.

Sol-gel derived Poly(methyl methacrylate)-titania hybrid materials were synthesized by using acrylic acid or allyl acetylacetone (3-allyl-2,4-pentanedione) as coupling agents. Titanium butoxide modified with acrylic acid (or titanium isopropoxide modified with allyl acetylacetone) was hydrolyzed to produce a titania network, and then poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) chains formed in situ through a radical polymerization were chemically bonded to the forming titania network to synthesize a hybrid material. Transparent hybrid materials with different contents of titania were achieved. With the increase of the titania content, the colors of the products changed from yellow to dark red. The synthesis process was investigated step by step by using FTIR spectroscopy, and the experimental results demonstrated that acrylate or acetylacetonato groups bound to titanium remain in the final hybrid materials. The thermal stability of the hybrid materials was considerably improved relative to pure PMMA. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) analyses showed the hybrid materials are porous and pore diameters vary from 1 Onm to I 00nm. The hybrid materials using allyl acetylacetone as the coupling agent exhibited thermochromic effects that both pure PMMA and titania do not have.