Research on the association between the Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI) and hyperuricemia (HUA) is scarce, and whether the association differs by sex is unclear. This research aimed to explore sex-specific associations between CVAI and HUA and to compare CVAI’s predictive performance with other adiposity indices using data from 22,171 adults (30–79 years) in the China Multi-Ethnic Cohort (CMEC) study (Chongqing region). The prevalence of HUA was 20.9% in men and 9.7% in women. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were utilized to assess the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). After multivariable adjustment, CVAI was associated with HUA in men (OR Q4 vs. Q1 = 3.31, 95% CI 2.73, 4.03) and women (OR Q4 vs. Q1 = 7.20, 95% CI 5.12, 10.12). Moreover, Significant interactions were observed between BMI and CVAI on HUA in both sexes (all Pinteraction <0.001), with the strongest associations in those with BMI <24.0 kg/m2. The ORs (95% CI) across different BMI groups (<24.0, 24.0–27.9, ≥28.0 kg/m²) were 1.87 (1.63, 2.13), 1.65 (1.48, 1.85), and 1.30 (1.14, 1.49) for men, and 2.76 (2.18, 3.51), 2.46 (1.98, 3.07), and 1.87 (1.47, 2.39) for women, respectively. Additionally, CVAI showed satisfactory predictive performance for HUA in women, with the largest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.735, but not in men (0.660). These findings suggest a close association between CVAI and HUA, particularly pronounced in those with BMI <24.0 kg/m², and a stronger association in women than in men.

China has taken significant steps to combat corruption since the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, whether and how the anti-corruption efforts influence the public's evaluation of local government performance remain understudied. Using multiple data sources, including panel survey data taken from the China Family Panel Studies from 2010 to 2018, this research examines how anti-corruption efforts improve evaluations of local government performance by reducing public perception of existing corruption. Additional analysis reveals that anti-corruption efforts reduce perceived corruption primarily when the public trusts officials or has had positive experiences with them. The positive impact on local government evaluations has been more pronounced in provinces with high levels of pre-existing corruption and since the 18th CCP National Congress in 2012. Moreover, the effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts has remained consistent across all time periods since 2012.

This study investigated the caregiving capacity of older Chinese carers and discussed whether the Chinese government needs to offer more support to them. In-depth interviews were conducted with forty older respondents aged sixty years or over caring for frail or sick family members. It was found that most respondents demonstrated firm traditional Chinese values by treating relatives bound by blood or marriage as family members and exhibiting a strong obligation towards them. However, the older carers bore a considerable burden and suffered from deteriorating physical and mental health. The Chinese government needs to introduce a nationwide policy for carers, defining its main support and providing clear guidelines for the local government to tackle the caregiving pressures of older carers. Moreover, the concept of ‘common prosperity’ can be adopted as an empowerment strategy by encouraging poor older carers to seek external support without feeling ashamed or dependent on others.

Bidirectional transformations (BXs) are a mechanism for maintaining consistency between multiple representations of related data. The lens framework, which usually constructs BXs from lens combinators, has become the mainstream approach to BX programming because of its modularity and correctness by construction. However, the involved bidirectional behaviors of lenses make the equational reasoning and optimization of them much harder than unidirectional programs. We propose a novel approach to deriving efficient lenses from clear specifications via program calculation, a correct-by-construction approach to reasoning about functional programs by algebraic laws. To support bidirectional program calculation, we propose contract lenses, which extend conventional lenses with a pair of predicates to enable safe and modular composition of partial lenses. We define several contract-lens combinators capturing common computation patterns including $\textit{fold}, \textit{filter},\textit{map}$, and $\textit{scan}$, and develop several bidirectional calculation laws to reason about and optimize contract lenses. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our new calculation framework based on contract lenses with nontrivial examples.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs (sRNAs) that regulate gene expression by inhibiting translation or degrading mRNA. Although the functions of miRNAs in many biological processes have been reported, there is currently no research on the possible roles of miRNAs in Micromelalopha troglodyta (Graeser) involved in the response of plant allelochemicals. In this article, six sRNA libraries (three treated with tanic acid and three control) from M. troglodyta were constructed using Illumina sequencing. From the results, 312 known and 43 novel miRNAs were differentially expressed. Notably, some of the most abundant miRNAs, such as miR-432, miR-541-3p, and miR-4448, involved in important physiological processes were also identified. To better understand the function of the targeted genes, we performed Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis. The results indicated that differentially expressed miRNA targets were involved in metabolism, development, hormone biosynthesis, and immunity. Finally, we visualized a miRNA-mRNA regulatory module that supports the role of miRNAs in host–allelochemical interactions. To our knowledge, this is the first report on miRNAs responding to tannic acid in M. troglodyta. This study provides indispensable information for understanding the potential roles of miRNAs in M. troglodyta and the applications of these miRNAs in M. troglodyta management.

Metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) might be an alternative valuable target in obesity treatment. We aimed to assess whether alternative Mediterranean (aMED) diet and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet were favourably associated with obesity and MHO phenotype in a Chinese multi-ethnic population. We conducted this cross-sectional analysis using the baseline data of the China Multi-Ethnic Cohort study that enrolled 99 556 participants from seven diverse ethnic groups. Participants with self-reported cardiometabolic diseases were excluded to eliminate possible reverse causality. Marginal structural logistic models were used to estimate the associations, with confounders determined by directed acyclic graph (DAG). Among 65 699 included participants, 11·2 % were with obesity. MHO phenotype was present in 5·7 % of total population and 52·7 % of population with obesity. Compared with the lowest quintile, the highest quintile of DASH diet score had 23 % decreased odds of obesity (OR = 0·77, 95 % CI 0·71, 0·83, P trend < 0·001) and 27 % increased odds of MHO (OR = 1·27, 95 % CI 1·10, 1·48, P trend = 0·001) in population with obesity. However, aMED diet showed no obvious favourable associations. Further adjusting for BMI did not change the associations between diet scores and MHO. Results were robust to various sensitivity analyses. In conclusion, DASH diet rather than aMED diet is associated with reduced risk of obesity and presents BMI-independent metabolic benefits in this large population-based study. Recommendation for adhering to DASH diet may benefit the prevention of obesity and related metabolic disorders in Chinese population.

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.

No relevant studies have yet been conducted to explore which measurement can best predict the survival time of patients with cancer cachexia. This study aimed to identify an anthropometric measurement that could predict the 1-year survival of patients with cancer cachexia. We conducted a nested case–control study using data from a multicentre clinical investigation of cancer from 2013 to 2020. Cachexia was defined using the Fearon criteria. A total of 262 patients who survived less than 1 year and 262 patients who survived more than 1 year were included in this study. Six candidate variables were selected based on clinical experience and previous studies. Five variables, BMI, mid-arm circumference, mid-arm muscle circumference, calf circumference and triceps skin fold (TSF), were selected for inclusion in the multivariable model. In the conditional logistic regression analysis, TSF (P = 0·014) was identified as a significant independent protective factor. A similar result was observed in all patients with cancer cachexia (n 3084). In addition, a significantly stronger positive association between TSF and the 1-year survival of patients with cancer cachexia was observed in participants aged > 65 years (OR: 0·94; 95 % CI 0·89, 0·99) than in those aged ≤ 65 years (OR: 0·96; 95 % CI 0·93, 0·99; Pinteraction = 0·013) and in participants with no chronic disease (OR: 0·92; 95 % CI 0·87, 0·97) than in those with chronic disease (OR: 0·97; 95 % CI 0·94, 1·00; Pinteraction = 0·049). According to this study, TSF might be a good anthropometric measurement for predicting 1-year survival in patients with cancer cachexia.

To investigate the effects of dietary fibre on follicular atresia in pigs fed a high-fat diet, we fed thirty-two prepubescent gilts a basal diet (CON) or a CON diet supplemented with 300 g/d dietary fibre (fibre), 240 g/d soya oil (SO) or both (fibre + SO). At the 19th day of the 4th oestrus cycle, gilts fed the SO diet showed 112 % more atretic follicles and greater expression of the apoptotic markers, Bax and caspase-3, and these effects were reversed by the fibre diet. The abundance of SCFA-producing microbes was decreased by the SO diet, but this effect was reversed by fibre treatment. Concentrations of serotonin and melatonin in the serum and follicular fluid were increased by the fibre diet. Overall, dietary fibre protected against high fat feeding-induced follicular atresia at least partly via gut microbiota-related serotonin–melatonin synthesis. These results provide insight into preventing negative effects on fertility in humans consuming a high-energy diet.

Although parasites and microbial pathogens are both detrimental to insects, little information is currently available on the mechanism involved in how parasitized hosts balance their immune responses to defend against microbial infections. We addressed this in the present study by comparing the immune response between unparasitized and parasitized pupae of the chrysomelid beetle, Octodonta nipae (Maulik), to Escherichia coli invasion. In an in vivo survival assay, a markedly reduced number of E. coli colony-forming units per microliter was detected in parasitized pupae at 12 and 24 h post-parasitism, together with decreased phagocytosis and enhanced bactericidal activity at 12 h post-parasitism. The effects that parasitism had on the mRNA expression level of selected antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) of O. nipae pupae showed that nearly all transcripts of AMPs examined were highly upregulated during the early and late parasitism stages except defensin 2B, whose mRNA expression level was downregulated at 24 h post-parasitism. Further elucidation on the main maternal fluids responsible for alteration of the primary immune response against E. coli showed that ovarian fluid increased phagocytosis at 48 h post-injection. These results indicated that the enhanced degradation of E. coli in parasitized pupae resulted mainly from the elevated bactericidal activity without observing the increased transcripts of target AMPs. This study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the immune responses of a parasitized host to bacterial infections.

In this paper, the characteristics of microwave propagation channels in drill pipe bore are analyzed by regarding the drill pipe as an irregular lossy cylindrical waveguide. An attenuation law is modeled using multipath propagation theory and an experimental statistical method. It is shown from physical measurement results that 5″ and $5^{1/2 \prime \prime} $ drill pipe bores, widely applied in the field of air drilling, can be used as 2.4 GHz band microwave channels with the caveat that the numerous reflective surfaces in the joint section of the drill pipe produce a great deal of reflected waves. Hence, the drill pipe bore has the characteristics of a dual cluster multipath channel, and multipath fading and delay are the primary factors affecting propagation quality. The study's constructed microwave attenuation model, based on multipath channels, can be regarded as the average attenuation of the unit length in the drill pipe bore, and can be used as the basis for simulation and analysis of the longer drill pipe string. In addition, a large delay between the two clusters leads to a significant increase of the root mean square delay spread. Consequently, multipath fading and delay are the main factors affecting the channel transmission rate.

Outside surface fluctuations of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) capsule greatly affect the implosion performance. An atomic force microscope (AFM)-based profilometer is developed to precisely characterize the capsule surface with nanometer resolution. With the standard nine surface profiles and the complete coverage data, 1D and 2D power spectra are obtained to quantitatively qualify the capsule. Capsule center fast aligning, orbit traces automatic recording, 3D capsule orientation have been studied to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the profilometer.

Structural distortions at the nanoscale are delicately linked with many exotic properties for ferroic thin films. Based on advanced aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, we observe BiFeO3 thin films with variant tensile strain states and demonstrate at an atomic scale the interplay of intrinsic spontaneous structural distortions with external constraints. Structural parameters (the rhombohedral distortion and domain wall shear distortion) under zero (BiFeO3/GdScO3) and 1.5% (BiFeO3/PrScO3) lateral strain states are quantitatively analyzed which are suppressed within a few unit cells near the film/substrate interfaces. In particular, an interfacial layer with asymmetrical lattice distortions (enhanced and reduced out-of-plane lattice spacing) on the two sides of 109° domain wall is resolved. These structural distortions near the film/substrate interface in ferroic thin films reveal intense tanglement of intrinsic distortions of BiFeO3 with external boundary conditions, which could provide new insights for the development of nanoscale ferroelectric devices.

The thermal properties of organic membranes attract much attention due to the fact that heat dissipation in electronic devices limits their functionality and reliability. Here, we enhance the thermal conductivity of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) membrane using nano-fibers fabricated by electrospinning. Measured by the 3-Omega method, the results show that the effective thermal conductivity of the electrospinning membranes (with/without Cu nanoparticles) are as high as 0.7 W/m-K at room temperature which is as twice as the value of thermal conductivity of amorphous spin-coated PVA membrane (0.35 W/m-K). The mechanism of enhancement are that, compared with amorphous membrane, the phonon scattering is attenuated and the crystallinity is improved in the electrospinning process. Our studies bring new insights in designing new kind of membrane with high thermal conductivity.

C3N4/Bi2WO6 heterojunction photocatalysts were successfully synthesized using consecutive hydrothermal and calcination processes. These photocatalysts were characterized using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and photoluminescence measurements. The results of these measurements indicated that the Bi2WO6 nanoparticles were approximately 30–50 nm and uniformly distributed on the surface of C3N4 lamellar structures. The 20% C3N4/Bi2WO6 displayed enhanced visible-light absorption from 432 nm to 468 nm. Photocatalytic tests also revealed that the 20% C3N4/Bi2WO6 photocatalyst exhibited significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity compared to that of pure C3N4 and Bi2WO6 under irradiation by visible light (λ > 420 nm). Furthermore, the excellent photocatalytic efficiency of the 20% C3N4/Bi2WO6 photocatalyst was determined to be related to the formation of C3N4/Bi2WO6 heterojunctions, and their presence was found to be generally beneficial for the separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs.