Compacted bentonite, used as an engineering barrier for permanent containment of high-level radioactive waste, is susceptible to mineral evolution resulting in compromise of the expected barrier performance due to alkaline–thermal chemical interaction in the near-field. To elucidate the mineral-evolution mechanisms within bentonite and the transformation of the nuclide adsorption properties during that period, experimental evolution of bentonite was conducted in a NaOH solution with a pH of 14 at temperatures ranging from 60 to 120°C. The results showed that temperature significantly affects the stability of minerals in bentonite under alkali conditions. The dissolution rate of fine-grained cristobalite in bentonite exceeds that of smectite, with the phase-transition products of smectite being temperature-dependent. As the temperature rises, smectite experiences a three-stage transformation: initially, at 60°C, the lattice structure thins due to the collapse of the octahedral sheets; at 80°C, the lattice disintegrates and reorganizes into a loose framework akin to albite; and by 100°C, it further reorganizes into a denser framework resembling analcime. The adsorption properties of bentonite exhibit a peak inflection point at 80°C, where the dissolution of the smectite lattice eliminates interlayer pores and exposes numerous polar or negatively charged sites which results in a decrease in specific surface area and an increase in cation exchange capacity and adsorption capacity of Eu3+. This research provides insights into the intricate evolution of bentonite minerals and the associated changes in radionuclide adsorption capacity, contributing to a better understanding of the stability of bentonite barriers and the effective long-term containment of nuclear waste.

This study aimed to explore the potential causal association between PUFA and the risk of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) using Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis. A two-sample MR analysis was conducted utilising large-scale European-based genome-wide association studies summary databases. The primary MR analysis was carried out using the inverse variance-weighted (IVW) method, complemented by other methods such as MR-egger, weighted-median and weighted mode. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to validate the robustness of the findings. Results indicated a 31 % reduced risk of ICP for every 1 standard deviation (sd) increase in n-3 fatty acids levels (OR = 0·69, 95 % CI: 0·54, 0·89, P = 0·004) and in the ratio of n-3 fatty acids to total fatty acids (OR = 0·69, 95 % CI: 0·53, 0·91, P = 0·008). Conversely, there was a 51 % increased risk of ICP for every 1 sd increase in the ratio of n-6 fatty acids to n-3 fatty acids (OR = 1·51, 95 % CI: 1·20, 1·91, P < 0·001) and a 138 % increased risk for every 1 sd increase in the ratio of linoleic fatty acids to total fatty acids (OR = 2·38, 95 % CI: 1·55, 3·66, P < 0·001). The findings suggest that n-3 fatty acids may have a protective effect against the risk of ICP, while n-6 fatty acids and linoleic fatty acids could be potential risk factors for ICP. The supplementation of n-3 fatty acids, as opposed to n-6 fatty acids, could be a promising strategy for the prevention and management of ICP.

Accidents are a prevalent feature of working in the maritime industry. While studies have shown to what extent accidents and fatalities have occurred, the current research has generally been limited to commercial shipping. There is nearly no academic research focusing on the safety issues in the superyacht industry. This paper analyses the importance of promoting safety culture in the superyacht industry, the role of maritime legislation in maintaining safety and the role of Port State Control in ensuring all legislation is implemented. It aims to provide a critical examination of safety culture in the superyacht industry and evaluate the appropriateness for further measures to ensure safe working practices. It found out that while some superyachts do maintain an effective safety system, there remains almost 50% of the investigated fleet that do not promote the desired safety culture. It becomes evident that complacency and poor education contribute to the reduced and limited safety culture. The lack of education and awareness is demonstrated when the study shows individuals believing they maintain good safety practices but still admitting to taking various life-threatening risks.

A new species of Moniliformis, M. tupaia n. sp. is described using integrated morphological methods (light and scanning electron microscopy) and molecular techniques (sequencing and analysing the nuclear 18S, ITS, 28S regions and mitochondrial cox1 and cox2 genes), based on specimens collected from the intestine of the northern tree shrew Tupaia belangeri chinensis Anderson (Scandentia: Tupaiidae) in China. Phylogenetic analyses show that M. tupaia n. sp. is a sister to M. moniliformis in the genus Moniliformis, and also challenge the systematic status of Nephridiacanthus major. Moniliformis tupaia n. sp. represents the third Moniliformis species reported from China.

Rodents and shrews are major reservoirs of various pathogens that are related to zoonotic infectious diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate co-infections of zoonotic pathogens in rodents and shrews trapped in four provinces of China. We sampled different rodent and shrew communities within and around human settlements in four provinces of China and characterised several important zoonotic viral, bacterial, and parasitic pathogens by PCR methods and phylogenetic analysis. A total of 864 rodents and shrews belonging to 24 and 13 species from RODENTIA and EULIPOTYPHLA orders were captured, respectively. For viral pathogens, two species of hantavirus (Hantaan orthohantavirus and Caobang orthohantavirus) were identified in 3.47% of rodents and shrews. The overall prevalence of Bartonella spp., Anaplasmataceae, Babesia spp., Leptospira spp., Spotted fever group Rickettsiae, Borrelia spp., and Coxiella burnetii were 31.25%, 8.91%, 4.17%, 3.94%, 3.59%, 3.47%, and 0.58%, respectively. Furthermore, the highest co-infection status of three pathogens was observed among Bartonella spp., Leptospira spp., and Anaplasmataceae with a co-infection rate of 0.46%. Our results suggested that species distribution and co-infections of zoonotic pathogens were prevalent in rodents and shrews, highlighting the necessity of active surveillance for zoonotic pathogens in wild mammals in wider regions.

We conducted a prospective, observational study to determine the incidence of feeding intolerance (FI) within 7 d of initiating enteral nutrition (EN) in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and to evaluate the association between FI and a poor prognosis. Patients who underwent CPB surgery at Fujian Medical University Union Hospital between March 2020 and June 2020 were enrolled. According to the presence or absence of FI within 7 d after EN, patients were divided into FI and non-FI groups. According to the occurrence of a poor prognosis (death, gastrointestinal haemorrhage, acute kidney injury, liver insufficiency, neurological events (cerebral infarction, cerebral haemorrhage and epilepsy) and prolonged mechanical ventilation (> 48 h)), patients were divided into poor prognosis and good prognosis groups. The mean age of the 237 CPB patients, including 139 men and ninety-eight women, was 53·80 (sd 12·25) years. The incidence of FI was 64·14 %. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed factors independently associated with poor prognosis after CPB included FI (OR 2·138; 95 % CI 1·058, 4·320), age (OR 1·033; 95 % CI 1·004, 1·063), New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III/IV cardiac function (OR 2·410; 95 % CI 1·079, 5·383), macrovascular surgery (OR 5·434; 95 % CI 1·704, 17·333) and initial sequential organ failure assessment score (OR 1·243; 95 % CI 1·010, 1·530). Thus, the incidence of FI within 7 d of EN after CPB was high, which was associated with a poor prognosis.

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.

Farmer training is important to improve weed management practices in tea cultivation. To explore the group characteristics of tea growers, we interviewed 354 growers in Guizhou Province, China. Sixty-one percent of the respondents planted tea for companies or cooperative groups, and 56% managed tea gardens larger than 10 ha. Self-employed tea growers tended to be older and smallholders, and to apply herbicides and conduct weed control less frequently (P < 0.05). Approximately 87% of the respondents conducted weed control two to four times yr−1, 83% spent between $200 and $2,000 ha−1 yr−1 for weed control, and 42% thought weed control costs would decrease by 5 years from this study. Twenty-eight species were mentioned by the respondents as being the most serious. According to canonical correspondence analysis, latitude, altitude, being self-employed or a member of a cooperative, having training experience in tea-garden weed management, and frequency and cost of weed control in tea gardens had significant (P < 0.05) influence on the composition of most troublesome weed species listed by respondents. Among the respondents, 60% had had farmer’s training on weed management in tea gardens. Of these, a significant number (P < 0.05) tended to think weed control costs would decrease, and a nonsignificant number (P > 0.05) tended to conduct weed control more frequently and have lower weed management costs in their tea gardens.

A novel and highly efficient Ag3VO4/C3N4/reduced TiO2 microsphere composite was obtained through a hydrothermal and depositional process. The microstructure, individual components with different proportions, and optical properties of the ternary nanocomposites were intensively studied. The prepared ternary composites exhibited superior photocatalytic performance of degradation of methylene blue compared with single component and S1 (C3N4/reduced TiO2) binary composites, demonstrating that the introduction of Ag3VO4 into g-C3N4/r-TiO2 can effectively improve the photocatalytic activity. Recycling experiments confirmed that the nanocomposites exhibited superior cycle performance. The enhanced capability could be attributed to a synergetic effect including the formation of heterojunction, large surface area, improved light absorption, matched energy band structure, and the improved separation efficiency of photogenerated charges coming from dual Z-scheme structure. Particularly, the introduction of Ag3VO4 makes the dual Z-scheme charge transfer pathway completed with improved separation efficiency and stronger redox ability of photogenerated electrons and holes. The work provides a promising method to develop a new dual Z-scheme photocatalytic system to remove environmental pollutant.

In this report, bulk graphene–reinforced titanium (Ti–Gr) nanocomposite with millimeter thickness was fabricated by selective laser melting process. Demonstrated by the characterizations of scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectra, graphene nanoplatelets were successfully embedded into the titanium matrix with a uniform dispersion due to a fast heating–cooling process. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy was used to investigate the interface between titanium and graphene, where a certain amount of carbide was formed attribute to the chemical reaction between them during multilayer laser melting. A high density of dislocations was observed surrounding the graphene nanoplatelets in titanium matrix. The strength and elastic modulus of the nanocomposites were significantly improved, which has been demonstrated by nano-indentation tests. The hardness of the bulk Ti–Gr nanocomposites was approximately 1.27 times higher than pristine Ti counterpart. The strengthening mechanisms were discussed in detail.

In this study, a three-phased multiwalled scaffold, composed of carbon nanotube (mwCNT), nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite (nHA), and polycaprolactone (PCL), was fabricated by the solvent evaporation technique. The structure character, mechanical properties, and degradation activity in simulated body fluid (SBF), along with osteoproductive ability in human osteosarcoma cell MG63, were investigated thoroughly. Results showed that the three phases in mwCNT/nHA/PCL composite presented excellent miscibility and stronger interfacial force when the weight content was 1/15/84 (wt%). Simultaneously, the composite had smaller porosity and slower degradation rate, and there was massive crystallized hydroxyapatite formed on the surface after being soaked in SBF. With regard to bioactivity, MG63s on this scaffolds presented good proliferation performance and differentiated into the osteogenic lineage by expressing high levels of ALP. It was concluded that mwCNTs/nHA/PCL composite scaffolds might be beneficial for bone tissue engineering at a relatively low concentration of mwCNTs and nHA.

The following paper investigates the prevalence and characteristics of asymptomatic norovirus infection in the population living around oyster farm sites. Two consecutive surveys were conducted from January 2014 to December 2014 and 4549 stool samples were screened during the same time period. The total asymptomatic infection rate was 4.04% (184/4549). Norovirus infection rate was 5.20% in oyster farming population which was significantly higher compared with non-farming population where the infection rate was 3.65% (χ2 = 5.49, P < 0.05). A total of 184 NoV positive samples were identified by real time-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and semi-nested RT-PCR and 136 sequences were obtained. The sequences were clustered into 14 genotypes. GI strains were clustered into six genotypes, including GI.2, GI.3, GI.5, GI.6, GI.8 and GI.9; while GII strains were clustered into GII.2, GII.3, GII.4, GII.5, GII.6, GII.8 and GII.13. GI.9 and GII.17 were the predominant and most prevalent genotypes, respectively. The GII.17 genotype replaced GII.4 becoming the dominant genotype in the oyster farming area in 2014. To sum up, long-term monitoring of asymptomatic infection is crucial for the detection of new variant strains and for identifying outbreaks during the early stage.

The first-principles plane-wave pseudopotential method is used to study the electronic and chemical structures of pyrite (FeS2) and arsenopyrite (FeAsS). The results indicate that an antibonding interaction occurs between Fe and As atoms in arsenopyrite. This interaction results in the Fe atom being repelled towards the S atom to stabilize antibonding orbitals, causing a larger S–Fe–S angle in arsenopyrite than in pyrite and a distortion in the arsenopyrite structure. In arsenopyrite, Fe–Fe distances are alternately long and short. The low spin density of the Fe d electrons supports this configuration in arsenopyrite. However, electron density calculations indicate that there is negligible electron density present between Fe atoms. This result indicates that cation-anion interactions are dominant in arsenopyrite. The pyrite Fe 3d orbital is split below the Fermi level, whereas the arsenopyrite Fe 3d orbital is not split, which can be attributed to the stronger interatomic bonding effects between Fe and S atoms in pyrite compared to arsenopyrite. It is found that the d-p orbital interactions between Fe and S atoms lead to bonding-antibonding splitting in both pyrite and arsenopyrite. However, the bonding effects between pyrite Fe and S atoms are stronger than in arsenopyrite. In arsenopyrite, the bonding interaction between the As 4p and Fe 3d orbitals is very weak, while the antibonding effect is very strong. The p-p orbital interaction is the dominant effect in As–S bonding. Frontier orbital calculations indicate that the Fermi levels of pyrite and arsenopyrite are notably close to each other, resulting in similar electrochemical activities. Orbital coefficient results show that the pyrite Fe 3d and S 3p orbitals are the active orbitals in the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO), respectively. In the case of arsenopyrite, Fe 3d orbitals are very active in both the HOMO and LUMO. Moreover, the activity of the As 4p in the HOMO is greater than S 3p, whereas the opposite situation occurs in the LUMO. Based on these results, As atoms could be one of the active sites for the oxidation of arsenopyrite. In addition, separation of arsenopyrite and pyrite could be achieved by utilizing the difference in chemical reactivities of iron in the two minerals.

A 50-yr resolution reconstruction of climate and environment variability during the period 43–14 ka was developed using 26 high-precision U/Th dates and 390 oxygen isotope (δ18O) data of a stalagmite (SJ1) collected from Songjia Cave in central China, which is close to the northwestern boundary of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM). The δ18O record in SJ1 displays significant millennial-scale changes that correlate well in timing and duration with Dansgaard/Oeschger (D/O) events 5–10 and Heinrich event 4 (H4) identified in high-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Four 230Th dates constrain the H4 event precisely to the period of 39.7 to 38.3 ka. Notable centennial variations of the ASM activity could be observed within the H4 event. The magnitude and duration of D/O event 4.1 recorded in SJ1 are similar to those archived in east China but different from those documented in southwest China, suggesting that the manifestation of this event may be regionally different. The timing, duration and structure of D/O events 5–10 and Heinrich event 4 suggest that temperature changes in both hemispheres have exerted significant influences on the ASM variations in central China.

Even though absorber layers fabricated by different methods may yield comparable efficiencies and appear to be similar under conventional probes, such as low power Raman, PL, XRD, they could in fact be quite different in their microscopic structures. We have developed a novel nondestructive spectroscopy approach, high-power-high-temperature (HPHT) Raman spectroscopy, which is capable of revealing the microscopic structural variations of complex alloys like CZTSe over a large area. CZTSe films prepared by sputtering and co-evaporation methods were examined and compared in both lateral and depth directions. In general, high power (HP) illumination brought qualitatively different changes to the CZTSe samples, not only in the CZTSe Raman peaks but also in the secondary phases, which suggests that there is some subtle microscopic differences between the two types of samples. In addition, 2D Raman mapping revealed a larger spatial extension of the local heating effect caused by HP illumination in the sputtered film, which also indicates that two nominally similar films might have different thermal conductivities. High temperature (HT) measurement, which offers uniform heating as opposed to local heating with high power, further enhances the capability of the approach.