The European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) guidelines recommend the Royal Free Hospital-Nutritional Prioritizing Tool (RFH-NPT) to identify malnutrition risk in patients with liver disease. However, little is known about the application of the RFH-NPT to screen for the risk of malnutrition in China, where patients primarily suffer from hepatitis virus-related cirrhosis. A total of 155 cirrhosis patients without liver cancer or uncontrolled co-morbid illness were enrolled in this prospective study. We administered the Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS-2002), RFH-NPT, Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) and Liver Disease Undernutrition Screening Tool (LDUST) to the patients within 24 h after admission and performed follow-up observations for 1·5 years. The RFH-NPT and NRS-2002 had higher sensitivities (64·8 and 52·4 %) and specificities (60 and 70 %) than the other tools with regard to screening for malnutrition risk in cirrhotic patients. The prevalence of nutritional risk was higher under the use of the RFH-NPT against the NRS-2002 (63 v. 51 %). The RFH-NPT tended more easily to detect malnutrition risk in patients with advanced Child–Pugh classes (B and C) and lower Model for End-stage Liver Disease scores (<15) compared with NRS-2002. RFH-NPT score was an independent predictive factor for mortality. Patients identified as being at high malnutrition risk with the RFH-NPT had a higher mortality rate than those at low risk; the same result was not obtained with the NRS-2002. Therefore, we suggest that using the RFH-NPT improves the ability of clinicians to predict malnutrition risk in patients with cirrhosis primarily caused by hepatitis virus infection at an earlier stage.

In this contribution, we devoted ourselves to fabricating aggregation-induced emission (AIE) activity copolymers via one-pot combination of RAFT polymerization and Biginelli reaction for the first time. When the feeding ratio of TPB was 33.5%, the molar fraction of TPB was, respectively, about 14.2 and 22.5% in PEG-PTE1 copolymers by two-step strategy and PEG-PTE2 copolymers by one-pot strategy with the similar structure. The Mn of PEG-PTE1 increased to 59,300 from 52,800 of PEG-AE presoma with narrow PDI, which was more than Mn of PEG-PTE2 with 52,300. As compared with PEG-PTE2, when the feeding ratio of TPB was 48.6%, the molar fraction of TPB increased to 32.6% in PEG-PTE3. In aqueous solution, the as-obtained PEG-PTE2 copolymers can self-assemble into fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) with 100–180 nm spherical morphology, the maximal emission peak of which presented at 460 nm with the obvious AIE phenomenon. Moreover, due to the low toxicity and excellent cell dyeing behavior, the as-prepared PEG-PTE2 copolymers displayed great potential for biomedical applications.

The Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion (SPICE) is globally distributed in late Cambrian sedimentary records but controversially heterogeneous in its magnitudes. Here we use multiple geochemical proxies to investigate the late Cambrian carbonates from the Tangwangzhai section in North China, which were deposited in a shallow coastal environment with three depositional sequences (S1–S3). Each sequence comprises a transgressive systems tract (TST) and a highstand systems tract (HST). The REE + Y and trace element records are consistent with the depositional condition and indicate that terrigenous influence was more significant in the TST than HST. δ13Ccarb and δ34SCAS are low in the TST relative to HST, consistent with the scenario that terrigenous inputs were profoundly aggressive to seawater by introducing 13C-depleted and 34S-depleted materials. Within the TST of S2, the SPICE excursion shows a scaled-down δ13Ccarb positive shift (∼1.7 ‰) relative to its general records (∼4–6 ‰); the corresponding δ34SCAS show no positive excursion. This ‘atypical’ SPICE record is attributed to enhanced 13C-depleted and 34S-depleted terrigenous influence during the TST, which would reduce the amplitude of δ13Ccarb excursion, and even obscure δ34SCAS excursion. Meanwhile the subaerial unconformity at the base of TST would also cause a partially missing and a ‘snapshot’ preservation. Our study confirms significant local influence to the SPICE records, and further supports the heterogeneity and low sulphate concentrations of the late Cambrian seawater, because of which the SPICE records may be vulnerable to specific depositional conditions (e.g. sea-level, terrigenous input).

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.

Polysynthetically-twinned TiAl crystals were deformed by compression with loading axis parallel and perpendicular to the lamellar interfaces. The deformation structures on the free surfaces were scanned using a dimension AFM with scan directions parallel and perpendicular to the lamellar interfaces. Abnormal deformation behaviors were observed to occur in both orientations. When the compression axis is parallel to the lamellar interfaces, the gamma and alpha lamellae deform primarily by shear in planes inclined with the lamellar interface, while the shear vectors lie in the interface. However, in-plane shear, shear in slip planes parallel to the lamellar interfaces, also occurs along the lamellar interfaces. When the loading axis is perpendicular to the lamellar interface, in-plane shear was found to be dominant at the beginning stage of plastic deformation and contributes more to the macroscopic strain. These behaviors are controversial to the Schmid's Law since the applied resolved shear stress for these deformation systems is zero. The abnormal phenomenon was explained by the large coherency stresses along the lamellar interfaces.

PST TiAl samples of different orientations were prepared and deformed by compression at room temperature. The deformation structures on the free surfaces were scanned using an AFM. It was found that when the angle between the lamellar interfaces and the loading axis is between 20 degree and 80 degree, PST samples deform primarily by shear in slip planes parallel to the lamellar interfaces. When the angle is below 20 degree, both the gamma phase and the alpha 2 phase deform by shear in slip planes inclined with the lamellar interfaces, but the shear vectors lie in the interface. When the angle is close to 90 degree, complex deformation behavior occurs. Shear in planes parallel to the lamellar interfaces contributes more to the overall strain in the directions perpendicular to the loading axis and the out-of-plane shear contributes to the strain in the compression direction. The characteristic U-shape curve of the yield stress versus the angle between the loading axis and the lamellar interfaces can be explained quite well using different C.R.S.S. for the three different deformation modes.

PST TiAl crystals oriented such that the deformation axis lies in the (111) interfacial planes have been deformed in compression. This deformation produces so-called “channeled flow” in which the strain perpendicular to the (111) interfaces is zero, while the other two strains are equal and opposite in sign. Thus the sample simply shortens axially and spreads laterally in the channels defined by the (111) interfacial planes. We have examined the fine structure of deformation bands on the free surface of these deformed samples using AFM to see how the deformation processes interact with the boundaries. By measuring the offset angle at the surface we have been able to show that not only is the macroscopic displacement vector parallel to the lamellar boundaries, but the total shear vector in each layer is also parallel to the lamellar boundaries. However these deformation bands have very different characters, requiring complex deformation processes at the boundaries in order to satisfy this requirement. Some consist of either just super dislocations or just ordinary dislocations with Burgers vectors lying in the interface. But others consist of a special combination of twinning and ordinary dislocations in fixed ratio, such that the net shear vector also lies in the boundary, even though the individual twinning and dislocation shear directions are inclined to it. This results in deformation that is homogeneous and completely ‘channeled’ inside each lamella with no shear vector perpendicular to the lamellar boundaries. We have also shown that the cooperative twinning and slip is homogeneous on the nano-scale, i.e., the twinning and slip occurs in the same volume of material.