Although dietary factors have been examined as potential risk factors for liver cancer, the evidence is still inconclusive. Using a diet-wide association analysis, our research evaluated the associations of 126 foods and nutrients on the risk of liver cancer in a Chinese population. We obtained the diet consumption of 72,680 women in the Shanghai Women’s Health Study using baseline dietary questionnaires. The association between each food and nutrient and liver cancer risk was quantified by Cox regression model. A false discovery rate of 0.05 was used to determine the foods and nutrients which need to be verified. Totally 256 incident liver cancer cases were identified in 1,267,391 person-years during the follow-up duration. At the statistical significance level (P ≤ 0.05), higher intakes of cooked wheaten foods, pear, grape and copper were inversely associated with liver cancer risk, while spinach, leafy vegetables, eggplant and carrots showed the positive associations. After considering multiple comparisons, no dietary variable was associated with liver cancer risk. Similar findings were seen in the stratification, secondary and sensitivity analyses. Our findings observed no significant association between dietary factors and liver cancer risk after considering multiple comparisons in Chinese women. More evidence is needed to explore the associations between diet and female liver cancer occurrence.

Background: Healthcare-associated central line associated bloodstream infection (HA-CLABSI) surveillance is important for monitoring healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and evaluating effectiveness of infection prevention (IP) measures. However, implementing it is a laborious and time-consuming approach. Exclusive focus on central lines neglects HAI risk due to peripheral vascular catheters. This study aimed to assess whether HA-CLABSI incidence could be inferred from HA-bloodstream infection (BSI) trends and explore shift to HA-BSI surveillance. Methods: The study was performed in a Singaporean tertiary care hospital. Electronic medical records review was performed to determine whether positive blood cultures met Centers for Disease Control/National Health Safety Network (CDC/NHSN) definitions for HA-CLABSI and HA-BSI. Incident episodes of HA-BSI were included (excluding positive cultures repeated within 14 days). Incident organisms were explored to identify common causative pathogens (excluding same organisms isolated from cultures repeated within 14 days). CLABSI and BSI occurring ≥72hrs after admission were considered healthcare-associated. Patients under oncology or hematology service were considered immunocompromised. Incidence rates (IR) per 10,000 patient-days, patient characteristics and causative pathogens were compared between both indicators. Results: From January 2022 to October 2023, mean IR for HA-CLABSI was 0.63 (n=68) and for HA-BSI was 10.06 (n=1094). Median age of patients with HA-CLABSI was 66 years and HA-BSI was 68 years. HA-CLABSI and HA-BSI were more common in males (60.86% & 58.68%). Median duration between admission to HA-CLABSI was 20 days and to HA-BSI was 12 days. Median duration between central line insertion to HA-CLABSI was 16 days. Of 1094, 631 (57.7%) patients had vascular catheter(s) (i.e., IV cannula, port-a-cath, peripherally-inserted central catheter or central line) inserted at time of HA-BSI diagnosis, of whom 46 (7.3%) patients had CLABSI ±2days from positive blood culture. There was no significant correlation between monthly aggregate data from these indicators (Spearman’s correlation coefficient= 0.36, p-value=0.1). Predominant organisms causing HA-CLABSI and HA-BSI were gram negative bacteria (GNB, 40% & 57.21%), gram positive bacteria (24.71% & 22.23%), and fungi. Common GNB in CLABSI patients were Pseudomonas spp. and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (8.24%), followed by Serratia marcescens and Klebsiella pneumoniae (5.88%). The frequent GNB in HA-BSI patients were Escherichia coli (15.4%), Klebsiella pneumonia (12.68%), and Pseudomonas spp. (6.69%). Common multi-drug resistant organisms were vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (10.59% & 3.69%) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (10.59% & 3.07%). Conclusion: HA-BSI did not correlate with HA-CLABSI. HA-BSI reflects heterogenous population outcomes. For utilization as surveillance indicator, further assessment on exclusion criteria is required to improve specificity.

The assessment of seed quality and physiological potential is essential in seed production and crop breeding. In the process of rapid detection of seed viability using tetrazolium (TZ) staining, it is necessary to spend a lot of labour and material resources to explore the pretreatment and staining methods of hard and solid seeds with physical barriers. This study explores the TZ staining methods of six hard seeds (Tilia miqueliana, Tilia henryana, Sassafras tzumu, Prunus subhirtella, Prunus sibirica, and Juglans mandshurica) and summarizes the TZ staining conditions required for hard seeds by combining the difference in fat content between seeds and the kinship between species, thus providing a rapid viability test method for the protection of germplasm resources of endangered plants and the optimization of seed bank construction. The TZ staining of six species of hard seeds requires a staining temperature above 35 °C and a TZ solution concentration higher than 1%. Endospermic seeds require shorter staining times than exalbuminous seeds. The higher the fat content of the seeds, the lower the required incubation temperature and TZ concentration for staining, and the longer the staining time. And the closer the relationship between the two species, the more similar their staining conditions become. The TZ staining method of similar species can be predicted according to the genetic distance between the phylogenetic trees, and the viability of new species can be detected quickly.

Adsorption desulfurization is a potential new method for deep desulfurization of fuel oil. The development of adsorbents with high adsorption capacity and selectivity is the core of deep adsorption desulfurization. The adsorption behavior of thiophene in MCM-41 mesoporous materials modified by various metal ions was studied in order to understand the adsorption desulfurization process of molecular sieves. The Fe-, Co-, and Zn-modified MCM-41 materials were prepared using a one-step in situ hydrothermal synthesis method. The modified MCM-41 molecular sieves maintained the mesoporous structure, and the metal ions had specific dispersion on the surface of the molecular sieves. Adsorption of thiophene on the surfaces of molecular sieves had both physical and chemical characteristics. The adsorption desulfurization performance of the modified molecular sieve was superior to that of the pure silica molecular sieve. In the simulated gasoline with sulfur content of 220 μg/g, when the amount of adsorbent used was 100 mg, the adsorptive desulfurization performance tended to be in equilibrium, and the optimum adsorption temperature was 30°C. Fe-MCM-41 and MCM-41 molecular sieves reached adsorption equilibrium after ~60 min, but the desulfurization rate of Co-MCM-41 and Zn-MCM-41 still increased slightly. The kinetic simulation results indicated that the pseudo-second-order kinetics adsorption model described well the adsorption process of thiophene on molecular sieves. The molecular sieve Fe-MCM-41 had the best desulfurization performance with an equilibrium adsorption capacity of 14.02 mg/g and the desulfurization rate was ~90%.

Objectives: Influenza vaccination is encouraged for all healthcare workers (HCWs) to reduce the risk of acquiring the infection and onward transmission to colleagues and patients during the influenza season. Thus, vaccination was introduced at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) in 2007 and has been offered to all HCWs at no cost. The HCW influenza vaccination program is conducted annually in October and biannually during years with vaccine mismatch. However, influenza vaccine uptake remained low among HCWs. We sought to determine the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on influenza vaccine uptake among HCWs. Methods: At SGH, 2 methods of vaccine delivery are offered: centralized (1-month drop-in system during office hours) and decentralized (administered by vaccination teams in offices or ward staff in inpatient locations). In the 4-year study period between 2018 and 2021, 6 influenza vaccination exercise campaigns were conducted during 8 influenza seasons. During each exercise, ~9,000 HCWs were eligible for vaccination. Results: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine uptake in the Southern Hemisphere was 77.6% (6,964 of 8,977) in 2018 and 84.2% (7,296 of 8,670) in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, vaccine uptake in the Southern Hemisphere increased by 10% to 94.1% (8,361 of 8,889). In the Northern Hemisphere, vaccine uptake was 79.2% (7,114 of 8,977) in 2018, and this increased by 17.9% to 97.1% (8,926 of 9,194) during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. During the 2021 Southern Hemisphere influenza season, no vaccination program was conducted because the risk of influenza was considered low due to the closure of international borders and the implementation of public health measures. In addition, priority was given to COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Conclusions: Increased uptake of the influenza vaccination was observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anxiety created by the respiratory disease pandemic and debate surrounding vaccines likely contributed to increased awareness and uptake in influenza vaccine among HCWs.

Many protected areas worldwide have been established to protect the last natural refuges of flagship animal species. However, long-established protected areas do not always match the current distributions of target species under changing environmental conditions. Here we present a case study of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus in Xishuangbanna, south-west China, to evaluate whether the established protected areas match the species’ current distribution and to identify key habitat patches for Asian elephant conservation. Our results show that currently only 24.5% of the predicted Asian elephant distribution in Xishuangbanna is located within Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, which was established for elephant conservation. Based on the predicted Asian elephant distribution, we identified the most important habitat patches for elephant conservation in Xishuangbanna. The three most important patches were outside Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and together they contained 43.3% of the estimated food resources for Asian elephants in all patches in Xishuangbanna. Thus, we identified a spatial mismatch between immobile protected areas and mobile animals. We recommend the inclusion of the three identified key habitat patches in a new national park currently being planned by the Chinese authorities for the conservation of the Asian elephant.

Several studies have been conducted on collision avoidance (CA) and path planning for maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) based on artificial potential field (APF) and electronic navigation chart (ENC) data. However, to date, accurate, highly efficient, and automatic modelling of complicated geometry environment potential fields (EPFs) has not been realised. In this study, an accurate EPF model is established using ENC data to describe different types of obstacles, navigable areas, and non-navigable areas. The implicit equations of complex polygons are constructed based on the R-function theory, and the discrete-convex hull method is introduced to realise the automatic modelling of EPF. Moreover, collaborative CA and obstacle avoidance (OA) experiments are designed and conducted in a simulated environment and based on the ENC data. The results show that the proposed EPF modelling method is accurate, reliable, and time-efficient even with numerous ENC data and complex shapes owing to the R-function representation for geometric objects and discrete-convex hull method. The combination of improved APF and EPF models is proven to be effective for CA and OA. This paper presents a practical EPF modelling approach for APF-based ship path planning.

Background: Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is the largest acute tertiary-care hospital in Singapore. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at risk of acquiring COVID-19 in both the community and workplaces. SGH has a robust exposure management process including prompt contact tracing, immediate ring fencing, lock down of affected cubicles or single room isolation for patient contacts, and home isolation orders for staff contacts of COVID-19 cases during the containment phase of the pandemic. Contacts were also placed on enhanced surveillance with PCR testing on days 1 and 4 as well as daily antigen rapid tests (ARTs) for 10 days after exposure. Here, we describe the characteristic of HCWs with COVID-19 during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This retrospective observational study included all SGH HCWs who acquired COVID-19 during the third wave (ie, the 18-week period from September 1 to December 31, 2021) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Univariate analysis was used to compare characteristics of work-associated infection (WAI) and community-acquired infection (CAI) among HCWs. Results: Among a workforce of >10,000 at SGH, 335 HCWs acquired COVID-19 during study period. CAI (exposure to known clusters or household contact) accounted for 111 HCW infections (33.1%). Also, 48 HCWs (14.3%) had a WAI (ie, acquired at their work places where there was no patient contact). Among WAsI, only 5 HCWs had hospital-acquired infection (confirmed by phylogenetic analysis). The sources of exposure for the remaining 176 HCWs were unknown. Weekly incidence of COVID-19 among HCWs was comparable to the epidemiology curve of all cases in Singapore (Fig. 1 and 2). The mean age of HCWs with COVID-19 was 39.6 years, and most were women. At the time of positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test, 223 HCWs were symptomatic, and 67 (20.0%) of them had comorbidities. Only 16 HCWs (4.8%) required hospitalization, and all recovered fully with no mortality (Table 1). Being female was associated with community COVID-19 acquisition (OR, 4.6, P Conclusions: During the thrid wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a higher percentage of HCWs at SGH acquired the infection from the community than from the workplace. Safe management measures, such as universal masking, social distancing, and robust exposure management processes including prompt contact tracing and environmental disinfection, can reduce the risk of COVID-19 in the hospital work environment.

Funding: None

Disclosures: None

Sporadic clusters of healthcare-associated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) occurred despite intense rostered routine surveillance and a highly vaccinated healthcare worker (HCW) population, during a community surge of the severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) B.1.617.2 δ (delta) variant. Genomic analysis facilitated timely cluster detection and uncovered additional linkages via HCWs moving between clinical areas and among HCWs sharing a common lunch area, enabling early intervention.

The dependence of fishbone cycle on energetic particle intensity has been investigated in EAST low-magnetic-shear plasmas. It is observed that the fishbone mode growth rate, saturation amplitude as well as fishbone cycle frequency clearly increase with increasing neutral beam injection (NBI) power. Moreover, enhanced electron density and temperature perturbations as well as energetic particle loss were observed with greater injected NBI power. Simulation results using M3D-K code show that as the NBI power increases, the resonant frequency and the energy of the resonant particles become higher, and the saturation amplitude of the mode also changes, due to the non-perturbative energetic particle contribution. The relationship between the calculated energetic particle pressure ratio and fishbone cycle frequency is obtained as ${f_{\textrm{FC}}} = 2.2{(1000{\beta _{\textrm{ep,calc}}} - 0.1)^{5.9 \pm 0.5}}$. Results consistent with the experimental observations have been achieved based on a predator–prey model.

Primary liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Most patients are diagnosed at late stages with poor prognosis; thus, identification of modifiable risk factors for primary prevention of liver cancer is urgently needed. The well-established risk factors of liver cancer include chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV), heavy alcohol consumption, metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, and aflatoxin exposure. However, a large proportion of cancer cases worldwide cannot be explained by current known risk factors. Dietary factors have been suspected as important, but dietary aetiology of liver cancer remains poorly understood. In this review, we summarised and evaluated the observational studies of diet including single nutrients, food and food groups, as well as dietary patterns with the risk of developing liver cancer. Although there are large knowledge gaps between diet and liver cancer risk, current epidemiological evidence supports an important role of diet in liver cancer development. For example, exposure to aflatoxin, heavy alcohol drinking and possibly dairy product (not including yogurt) intake increase, while intake of coffee, fish and tea, light-to-moderate alcohol drinking and several healthy dietary patterns (e.g. Alternative Healthy Eating Index) may decrease liver cancer risk. Future studies with large sample size and accurate diet measurement are warranted and need to consider issues such as the possible aetiological heterogeneity between liver cancer subtypes, the influence of chronic HBV or HCV infection, the high-risk populations (e.g. cirrhosis) and a potential interplay with host gut microbiota or genetic variations.

In a high-level radioactive waste repository, bentonite may react with the alkaline solution produced by cement degradation. In this study, bentonite was mixed with alkaline solution in a closed system and reacted for 3–24 months. Furthermore, swelling tests were conducted on the alkaline-dissolved bentonite immersed in distilled water. The swelling deformation decreased significantly with increases in the concentration of NaOH solution and reaction time, and this was mainly due to montmorillonite dissolution. The fractal e–p relationship (e is the void ratio and p is the vertical pressure) with two calculation coefficients (the swelling coefficient and the fractal dimension) was employed to determine the swelling of alkaline-dissolved bentonite. The fractal dimension increased slightly with increasing reaction time or concentration of NaOH solution, as the dissolution traces caused by the alkaline solution favoured an increase in the irregularity and fractality of the bentonite surface. The swelling coefficient decreased linearly with decreasing montmorillonite content. In addition, the swelling coefficient and the fractal dimension were related exponentially to the reaction time in alkaline solution. A relationship between the swelling of alkaline-dissolved samples and the reaction time was proposed, which might be used to assess the swelling properties of bentonite barriers that would be affected by long-term dissolution of the alkaline solution in a closed repository.

Swelling deformation tests of Kunigel bentonite and its sand mixtures were performed in distilled water and NaCl solution. The salinity of NaCl solution has a significant impact on the swelling properties of bentonite, but not on its surface structure. The surface structure was characterized using the fractal dimension Ds. Based on the fractal dimension, a unique curve of the em–pe relationship (em is the void ratio of montmorillonite and pe is the effective stress) at full saturation was introduced to express the swelling deformation of bentonite–sand mixtures. In mixtures with a large bentonite content, the swelling deformation always followed the em–pe relationship. In mixtures with a small bentonite content, when the effective stress reached a threshold, the void ratio of montmorillonite em deviated from the unique em–pe curve due to the appearance of a sand skeleton. The threshold of vertical pressure for mixtures in different solutions and the maximum swelling strains were estimated using the em–pe relationship. The good agreement between estimates and experimental data suggest that the em–pe relationship might be an alternative method for predicting the swelling deformation of bentonite–sand mixtures in salt solution.

The aim of this article was to investigate the mechanism of appetite suppression induced by high-fat diets (HFD) in blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala). Fish (average initial weight 40·0 (sem 0·35) g) were fed diets with two fat levels (6 and 11 %) with four replicates. HFD feeding for 30 d could significantly increase the weight gain rate, but feeding for 60 d cannot. Food intake of M. amblycephala began to decline significantly in fish fed the HFD for 48 d. HFD feeding for 60 d significantly reduced the expression of neuropeptide Y and elevated the expression of cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART), actions both in favour of suppression of appetite. The activation of fatty acid sensing was partly responsible for the weakened appetite. In addition, inflammatory factors induced by the HFD may be involved in the regulation of appetite by increasing the secretion of leptin and then activating the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 2·0 mg/kg of fish weight) was administered to induce inflammation, and sampling was performed after 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 and 48 h of LPS injection. Within 6–24 h of LPS injection, the food intake and appetite of M. amblycephala decreased significantly, whereas the mRNA expression of leptin and mTOR increased significantly. Our results indicate that inflammatory cytokines may be the cause of appetite suppression in M. amblycephala fed a HFD.

A series of CoCrFeNiMox (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2) high-entropy alloys were designed to develop a eutectic high-entropy alloy system and to acquire a superfine eutectic structure. The results show that for the CoCrFeNiMox alloys, with the increase of Mo content from 0.2 to 1.2, the microstructures shift from a typical dendrite structure to a hypoeutectic microstructure (x = 0.6), and then to a fully eutectic microstructure (x = 0.8) with a lamellar spacing only 110 nm, and finally culminate in the hypereutectic structure (x = 1.0, x = 1.2). The XRD results show that CoCrFeNiMox alloys have a single FCC phase when x is 0.2 or 0.4. When Mo content is over 0.6, it begins to separate Cr9Mo21Ni20 intermetallic compounds. The hardness of the CoCrFeNiMox alloys is increasing significantly from 172.8 to 763.7 HV with the increase of Mo content. Meanwhile, the fracture strength increased but the ductility decreases. Among these alloys, the CoCrFeNiMo0.6 alloy shows excellent integrated mechanical properties of compressive fracture strength and strain, which are 2051 Mpa and 23%, respectively.

The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey Rhinopithecus strykeri was discovered in 2010 on the western slopes of the Gaoligong Mountains in the Irrawaddy River basin in Myanmar and subsequently in the same river basin in China, in 2011. Based on 2 years of surveying the remote and little disturbed forest of the Gaoligong Mountains National Nature Reserve in China, with outline transect sampling and infrared camera monitoring, a breeding group comprising > 70 individuals was found on the eastern slopes of the Gaoligong Mountains in the Salween River Basin. Given the Critically Endangered status of this primate (a total of < 950 individuals are estimated to remain in the wild), efforts to protect the relatively undisturbed habitat of this newly discovered population and to prevent hunting are essential for the long-term survival of this species.

To investigate the effect of Mn on antioxidant status and on the expressions of heat shock proteins/factors in tissues of laying broiler breeders subjected to heat challenge, we used a completely randomised design (n 6) with a factorial arrangement of 2 environmental temperatures (normal, 21±1°C, and high, 32±1°C)×3 dietary Mn treatments (a Mn-unsupplemented basal diet (CON), or a basal diet supplemented with 120 mg Mn/kg diet, either as inorganic Mn sulphate (iMn) or as organic Mn proteinate (oMn)). There were no interactions (P>0·10) between environmental temperature and dietary Mn in any of the measured indices. High temperature decreased (P<0·003) Mn content, and also tended (P=0·07) to decrease Cu Zn superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) activity in the liver and heart. However, an increased Mn superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) activity (P<0·05) and a slight increase in malondialdehyde level (P=0·06) were detected in breast muscle. Up-regulated (P<0·05) expressions of heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) and HSF3 mRNA and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) mRNA and protein were found in all three tissues. Broiler breeders fed either iMn or oMn had higher tissue Mn content (P<0·0001), heart MnSOD and CuZnSOD activities (P<0·01) and breast muscle MnSOD protein levels (P<0·05), and lower (P<0·05) breast muscle HSP70 mRNA and protein levels compared with those fed CON. Broiler breeders fed oMn had higher (P<0·03) bone Mn content than those fed iMn. These results indicate that high temperature decreases Mn retention and increases HSP70, HSF1 and HSF3 expressions in the tissues of laying broiler breeders. Furthermore, dietary supplementation with Mn in either source may enhance the heart’s antioxidant ability and inhibit the expression of HSP70 in breast muscle. Finally, the organic Mn appears to be more available than inorganic Mn for bone in laying broiler breeders regardless of environmental temperatures.