Triceps skinfold thickness (TSF) is a surrogate marker of subcutaneous fat. Evidence is limited about the association of sex-specific TSF with the risk of all-cause mortality among maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. We aimed to investigate the longitudinal relationship of TSF with all-cause mortality among MHD patients. A multicenter prospective cohort study was performed in 1034 patients undergoing MHD. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the association of TSF with the risk of mortality. The mean (standard deviation) age of the study population was 54.1 (15.1) years. 599 (57.9%) of the participants were male. The median (interquartile range) of TSF was 9.7 (6.3–13.3 mm) in males and 12.7 (10.0–18.0 mm) in females. Over a median follow up of 4.4 years (interquartile range, 2.4-7.9 years), there were 548 (53.0%) deaths. When TSF was assessed as sex-specific quartiles, compared with those in quartile 1, the adjusted HRs (95%CIs) of all-cause mortality in quartile 2, quartile 3 and quartile 4 were 0.93 (0.73, 1.19), 0.75 (0.58, 0.97) and 0.69 (0.52, 0.92), respectively (P for trend =0.005). Moreover, when analyzed by sex, increased TSF (≥9.7 mm for males and ≥18mm for females) was significantly associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality (quartile 3-4 vs. quartile 1-2; HR, 0.70; 95%CI: 0.55, 0.90 in males; quartile 4 vs. Quartile 1-3; HR, 0.69; 95%CI: 0.48, 1.00 in females). In conclusion, high TSF was significantly associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality in MHD patients.

This paper provides an overview of the current status of ultrafast and ultra-intense lasers with peak powers exceeding 100 TW and examines the research activities in high-energy-density physics within China. Currently, 10 high-intensity lasers with powers over 100 TW are operational, and about 10 additional lasers are being constructed at various institutes and universities. These facilities operate either independently or are combined with one another, thereby offering substantial support for both Chinese and international research and development efforts in high-energy-density physics.

Knowledge of the critical periods of crop–weed competition is crucial for designing weed management strategies in cropping systems. In the Lower Yangtze Valley, China, field experiments were conducted in 2011 and 2012 to study the effect of interference from mixed natural weed populations on cotton growth and yield and to determine the critical period for weed control (CPWC) in direct-seeded cotton. Two treatments were applied: allowing weeds to infest the crop or keeping plots weed-free for increasing periods (0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 20 wk) after crop emergence. The results show that mixed natural weed infestations led to 35- to 55-cm shorter cotton plants with stem diameters 10 to 13 mm smaller throughout the season, fitting well with modified Gompertz and logistic models, respectively. Season-long competition with weeds reduced the number of fruit branches per plant by 65% to 82%, decreasing boll number per plant by 86% to 96% and single boll weight by approximately 24%. Weed-free seed cotton yields ranged from 2,900 to 3,130 kg ha−1, while yield loss increased with the duration of weed infestation, reaching up to 83% to 96% compared with permanent weed-free plots. Modified Gompertz and logistic models were used to analyze the impact of increasing weed control duration and weed interference on relative seed cotton yield (percentage of season-long weed-free cotton), respectively. Based on a 5% yield loss threshold, the CPWC was found to be from 145 to 994 growing degree days (GDD), corresponding to 14 to 85 d after emergence (DAE). These findings emphasize the importance of implementing effective weed control measures from 14 to 85 DAE in the Lower Yangtze Valley to prevent crop losses exceeding a 5% yield loss threshold.

The Early-Middle Jurassic impression/compression macroflora and the palynoflora from the Qaidam Basin in the northeastern Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau have been well studied; however, fossil wood from this region has not been previously documented systematically. Here, we describe an anatomically well-preserved fossil wood specimen from the Lower Jurassic Huoshaoshan Formation at the Dameigou section in northern Qinghai Province, northwestern China. This fossil exhibits typical Metapodocarpoxylon Dupéron-Laudoueneix et Pons anatomy with usually araucarian radial tracheid pits and variable cross-field pits, representing a new record for Metapodocarpoxylon in the Qaidam Basin. This discovery indicates that trees with this type of wood anatomy were not confined to northern Gondwana but also grew in more northerly regions in Laurasia. The wood displays distinct growth rings, with abundant, well-formed earlywood and narrow latewood. This observation, along with previous interpretations based on macroflora, palynoflora and sedimentological data, suggests that a warm and humid climate with mild seasonality prevailed in the region during the Early Jurassic.

Missed detection probability is a critical metric for the integrity performance of receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) in the presence of faults. The traditional missed detection probability evaluation method for RAIM is limited by impractical time consumption because of the absence of accurate searching interval for the magnitude of a worst-case fault. To address this issue, the searching interval for the magnitude of a worst-case fault is constructed by the combination of minimum detectable magnitude and minimum hazardous magnitude, and the searching interval adjustment is designed to avoid the absence of worst-case fault magnitude so that the maximum missed detection probability can be accurately evaluated. The simulation result indicates that the proposed method can achieve higher accuracy for the worst-case fault magnitude searching. Furthermore, the accuracy of worldwide evaluated missed detection rate can achieve an improvement of 57·66% at most by the proposed method for the different classical RAIM algorithms.

Varicella is a vaccine-preventable infectious disease. Since 1 December 2018, the varicella vaccine has been included in the local Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in Wuxi, China, and children born after 1 December 2014 are eligible for free vaccination. To evaluate the effect of varicella vaccination in Wuxi city, we selected 382 397 children born from 2012 to 2016 as subjects. Their disease data were obtained from the Chinese Disease Prevention and Control Information System, and their vaccination data were obtained from the Jiangsu Province Vaccination Integrated Service Management Information System. The incidence of breakthrough varicella cases increased in the first 4 years and reached the peak in the fifth year. With the increase of vaccination rate, the incidence of varicella decreased significantly. The vaccine effectiveness (VE) was found to be 88.17%–95.78% for one dose and 98.65%–99.93% for two doses. Although the VE per dose decreased from 99.57% in the first year to 93.04% in the eighth year, it remained high. These findings confirmed the effectiveness of varicella vaccination in children, supported the use of a two-dose varicella vaccination strategy to achieve better protection, and provided important insights into the optimal vaccination strategy for varicella prevention in children.

Organo-montmorillonite (OMnt) has wide applications in paints, clay-polymer nanocomposites, biomaterials, etc. In most cases, the dispersibility and swellability of OMnt dictate the performance of OMnt in the target products. Previous studies have revealed that the properties can be improved when multiple organic species are co-introduced into the interlayer space of montmorillonite (Mnt). In the present study, single surfactant erucylamide (EA), dual-surfactants cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and octadecyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (OTAC), and ternary-surfactants EA, CTAB, and OTAC were co-introduced into Mnt by solution intercalation. The resulting OMnts were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetry-differential thermogravimetry (TG-DTG), water contact-angle tests, scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), laser particle-size analysis, and swelling indices. Mnt co-modified by ternary CTAB, OTAC, and EA led to a large d001 value (4.20 nm), surface hydrophobicity with a contact angle of 95.6°, swellability (50 mL/g) with small average particle sizes (2.1−2.8 μm) in xylene, and >99% of the OMnt particles were kept as <5 μm in deionized water. The formation of EA-modified-Mnt was proposed according to hydrophobic affinity, hydrogen bonding, and van der Waals forces. The nanoplatelets of the CTA+, OTA+, and EA co-modified OMnts in xylene were assembled into a house-of-cards structure by face-to-edge and edge-to-edge associations. The electrostatic attractions, electrostatic and steric repulsions, and hydrophobic interactions were responsible for the good dispersibility of OMnt in xylene. The ternary surfactant co-modified OMnt with high dispersion and swellability will make OMnt better suited for real-world applications.

It is now generally believed that elderly may have slightly higher dietary protein requirements than those of the young-middle-aged adults. We have previously conducted related studies by the indicator amino acid oxidation (IAAO) technique, but more research data are needed to revise the protein requirements of the elderly. The main objective was to reevaluate the dietary protein requirements of healthy Chinese adults (65–80 years) without sarcopenia by using the IAAO technique. Nine healthy adult men and seven healthy adult women participated in the study, with protein intakes ranging from 0·1 to 1·8 g/(kg·d). Diets that delivered energy at a 1·5 resting energy expenditure were isocaloric. The amounts of phenylalanine and tyrosine needed to remain constant for each protein dosage. By applying a nonlinear mixed-effects model analysis on the F13CO2 data, which revealed a breakpoint in F13CO2 in response to graded protein intakes, the mean protein requirement was calculated. The mean estimated average requirement (EAR) for healthy elderly Chinese adults without sarcopenia was determined to be 0·94 g/(kg·d). The protein recommended nutrient intake (RNI) determined using various derivation approaches ranged from 1·13 to 1·36 g/(kg·d). The EAR for Chinese adults without sarcopenia aged 65–80 years in this study is 6·8 % higher than the current recommended EAR (0·88 g/(kg·d)). The RNI derived using various derivation approaches are all greater than the current RNI (0·98 g/(kg·d)). This trial was registered with the Chinese clinical trial registry as ChiCTR2200061382.

Increasing evidence shows that maternal hyperglycemia inhibits cardiomyocyte (CM) proliferation and promotes cell apoptosis during fetal heart development, which leads to cardiac dysplasia. Accumulating evidence suggests that the overexpression of miR-21 in CMs has a protective role in cardiac function. Therefore, we investigated whether miR-21 can rescue CM injury caused by high glucose. First, we performed biological function analysis of miR-21-5p overexpression in H9c2 cells treated with high glucose. We found that the proliferation of H9c2 cells treated with high glucose decreased significantly and was rescued after overexpression of miR-21-5p. CCK-8 and EdU incorporation assays were performed to assess cell proliferation. The cell proliferation of the miR-21-5p mimic transfection group was improved compared with that of the NC mimic group (*p < 0.05, miR-21-5p mimics vs. NC mimics) when the proliferation of H9c2 cells was reduced by high glucose (****p < 0.0001, high glucose (HG) vs. normal glucose (NG)). Then, we verified the targeted and negative regulation of miR-21-5p on Rhob using a dual-luciferase activity assay and RT-qPCR, respectively. We further demonstrated that miR-21-5p regulates Rhob to rescue the inhibition of CM proliferation induced by high glucose. The CCK-8 results showed that the cell proliferation of the siRNA-Rhob group was higher than that of the NC mimic group (***p < 0.001) and that of the cotransfection group with Up-Rhob plasmids and miR-21-5p mimics was lower than that of the miR-21-5p mimic group (*p < 0.05). Conclusion: Overexpression of miR-21-5p rescues the inhibition of high glucose-induced CM proliferation through regulation of Rhob.

By combining the technique of energy selective surface and frequency selective rasorber, an energy selective rasorber is proposed, which performs selective energy protection in the low communication frequency band (0.8–2 GHz) and wave-absorbing property in the high-frequency band (6–18 GHz). The design consists of two layers, of which the bottom one contains a lumped diode structure for energy selection function in the transmission band, while together with the top layer, they perform a wideband wave absorbing function. The simulated and measured results agree well with each other, and both show good absorption in 6–18 GHz and energy-selective property around 1.86 GHz. That is, when the incident power changes from −30 to 14 dBm, the reflection coefficient changes from below −22 dB to above −2 dB, while the transmission coefficient changes from above −3 dB to below −17 dB.

Aging plays a crucial role in the mechanisms of the impacts of genetic and environmental factors on blood pressure and serum lipids. However, to our knowledge, how the influence of genetic and environmental factors on the correlation between blood pressure and serum lipids changes with age remains to be determined. In this study, data from the Chinese National Twin Registry (CNTR) were used. Resting blood pressure, including systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), and fasting serum lipids, including total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TGs) were measured in 2378 participants (1189 twin pairs). Univariate and bivariate structural equation models examined the genetic and environmental influences on blood pressure and serum lipids among three age groups. All phenotypes showed moderate to high heritability (0.37–0.59) and moderate unique environmental variance (0.30–0.44). The heritability of all phenotypes showed a decreasing trend with age. Among all phenotypes, SBP and DBP showed a significant monotonic decreasing trend. For phenotype-phenotype pairs, the phenotypic correlation (Rph) of each pair ranged from −0.04 to 0.23, and the additive genetic correlation (Ra) ranged from 0.00 to 0.36. For TC&SBP, TC&DBP, TG&SBP and TGs&DBP, both the Rph and Ra declined with age, and the Ra difference between the young group and the older adult group is statistically significant (p < .05). The unique environmental correlation (Re) of each pair did not follow any pattern with age and remained relatively stable with age. In summary, we observed that the heritability of blood pressure was affected by age. Moreover, blood pressure and serum lipids shared common genetic backgrounds, and age had an impact on the phenotypic correlation and genetic correlations.

Pharmacological treatment of major depressive disorder is often inefficient, and multiple strategies are used for inadequate response to antidepressants. Second-generation antipsychotics are used as augmentation measures in clinical practice; evidence of their efficacy and acceptability is insufficient, and it remains confusing as to which drug should be selected first. In this systematic review and network meta-analysis, we included randomised controlled trials of second-generation antipsychotics used as adjunctive treatment in patients with suboptimal responses. Outcome measures were efficacy (response and remission) and acceptability (dropout due to any reason and adverse events). Thirty-three trials comprising 10 602 participants were included. Regarding efficacy, response rates indicated that all antipsychotics except for ziprasidone were more efficacious than the placebo, with the odds ratios (ORs) ranging from 1.34 for olanzapine and cariprazine [95% credible interval (CrI) 1.04–1.73 and 1.07–1.67, respectively] to 2.17 for risperidone (95% CrI 1.38–3.42). When considering remission, cariprazine was not effective (OR 1.21, 95% CrI 0.96–1.54). For acceptability, quetiapine (OR 0.68, 95% CrI 0.50–0.91), brexpiprazole (OR 0.69, 95% CrI 0.55–0.86), and cariprazine (OR 0.61, 95% CrI 0.46–0.82) were worse than the placebo. With regards to tolerability, only olanzapine (OR 0.51, 95% CrI 0.25–1.07) and risperidone (OR 0.48, 95% CrI 0.10–2.21) showed no significant differences compared with placebo. The administration of adjunctive antipsychotics is associated with high effectiveness and low acceptability. Risperidone and aripiprazole are more efficacious and accepted than other atypical antipsychotics.