Listeriosis is a rare but serious foodborne disease caused by Listeria monocytogenes. This matched case–control study (1:1 ratio) aimed to identify the risk factors associated with food consumption and food-handling habits for the occurrence of sporadic listeriosis in Beijing, China. Cases were defined as patients from whom Listeria was isolated, in addition to the presence of symptoms, including fever, bacteraemia, sepsis and other clinical manifestations corresponding to listeriosis, which were reported via the Beijing Foodborne Disease Surveillance System. Basic patient information and possible risk factors associated with food consumption and food-handling habits were collected through face-to-face interviews. One hundred and six cases were enrolled from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020, including 52 perinatal cases and 54 non-perinatal cases. In the non-perinatal group, the consumption of Chinese cold dishes increased the risk of infection by 3.43-fold (95% confidence interval 1.27–9.25, χ2 = 5.92, P = 0.02). In the perinatal group, the risk of infection reduced by 95.2% when raw and cooked foods were well-separated (χ2 = 5.11, P = 0.02). These findings provide important scientific evidence for preventing infection by L. monocytogenes and improving the dissemination of advice regarding food safety for vulnerable populations.

Engineered biomaterials provide unique functions to overcome the bottlenecks seen in biomedicine. Hence, a technique for rapid and routine tests of collagen is required, in which the test items commonly include molecular weight, crosslinking degree, purity, and sterilization induced structural change. Among them, the crosslinking degree mainly influences collagen properties. In this study, second harmonic generation (SHG) and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy are used in combination to explore the collagen structure at molecular and macromolecular scales. These measured parameters are applied for the classification and quantification among the different collagen scaffolds, which were verified by other conventional methods. It is demonstrated that the crosslinking status can be analyzed from SHG images and presented as the coherency of collagen organization that is correlated with the mechanical properties. Also, the comparative analyses of SHG signal and relative CARS signal of amide III band at 1,240 cm−1 to δCH2 band at 1,450 cm−1 of these samples provide information regarding the variation of the molecular structure during a crosslinking process, thus serving as nonlinear optical signatures to indicate a successful crosslinking.

The relationship between exposure to famine in early life and the risk of ascending aorta dilatation (AAD) in adulthood is still unclear; therefore, we aimed to examine the association in the Chinese population. We investigated the data of 2598 adults who were born between 1952 and 1964 in Guangdong, China. All enrolled subjects were categorised into five groups: not exposed to famine, exposed during fetal period, and exposed during early, mid or late childhood. AAD was assessed by cardiac ultrasound. Multivariate logistic regression and interaction tests were performed to estimate the OR and CI on the association between famine exposure and AAD. There were 2598 (943 male, mean age 58·3 ± 3·68 years) participants were enrolled, and 270 (10·4 %) subjects with AAD. We found that famine exposure (OR = 2·266, 95 % CI 1·477, 3·477, P = 0·013) was associated with elevated AAD after adjusting for multiple confounders. In addition, compared with the non-exposed group, the adjusted OR for famine exposure during fetal period, early, mid or late childhood were 1·374 (95 % CI 0·794, 2·364, P = 0·251), 1·976 (95 % CI 1·243, 3·181, P = 0·004), 1·929 (95 % CI 1·237, 3·058, P = 0·004) and 2·227 (95 % CI 1·433, 3·524, P < 0·001), respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that the effect of famine exposure on the association with AAD was more pronounced in female, current smokers, people with BMI ≥ 24 kg/m2 and hypertensive patients. We observed that exposure to famine during early life was linked to AAD in adulthood.

Direct numerical simulations have been applied to simulate flows with polymer additives. FENE-P (finite-extensible-nonlinear-elastic-Peterlin) dumbbell model solving for the conformation tensor is adopted to investigate the influence of the polymer on the flowfield. Boundary treatments of the conformation tensor on the flowfield are examined first, where boundary condition based on the linear extrapolation scheme provides more accurate results with second-order accurate error norms. Further simulations of the turbulent channel flow at different Weissenberg numbers are also conducted to investigate the influence on drag reduction. Drag reduction increases in tandem with the increase of Weissenberg number and the increase saturates at Weτ~200, where the drag reduction is close to the maximum drag reduction (MDR) limit. At the regime of y+ > 5, the viscous layer thickens with the increase of the Weissenberg number showing a departure from the traditional log-law profile, and the velocity profiles approach the MDR line at high Weissenberg number. The Reynolds stress decreases in tandem with the increase of Weτ, whereas the levels of laminar stress and polymer stress act adversely. However, as the Weissenberg number increases, the proportion of the laminar stress in the total stress increases, and this contributes to the drag reduction of the polymer flow.

Salmonella is a leading cause of foodborne outbreaks in Taiwan. On 27 April 2018, a salmonellosis outbreak among customers of a restaurant was reported to the Taiwan CDC. We investigated the outbreak to identify infection sources and prevent further transmission. We interviewed ill customers and their dining companions. We conducted a case-control study to identify foods associated with the illness. Case-patients were those who had diarrhoea within 72 h after eating at the restaurant during 16–27 April 2018. Specimens, food samples and environmental samples were collected and tested for enteric pathogens. Salmonella isolates were analysed with pulse-field gel electrophoresis and whole-genome sequencing. We inspected the restaurant sanitation and reviewed kitchen surveillance camera recordings. We identified 47 case-patients, including one decedent. Compared with 44 controls, case-patients were more likely to have had a French toast sandwich (OR: 102.4; 95% CI: 18.7–952.3). Salmonella Enteritidis isolates from 16 case-patients shared an indistinguishable genotype. Camera recordings revealed eggshell contamination, long holding time at room temperature and use of leftovers during implicated food preparation. Recommendations for restaurant egg-containing food preparation are to use pasteurised egg products and ensure a high enough cooking temperature and long enough cooking time to prevent Salmonella contamination.

Underground Nuclear Astrophysics in China (JUNA) will take the advantage of the ultra-low background in Jinping underground lab. High current accelerator with an ECR source and detectors were commissioned. JUNA plans to study directly a number of nuclear reactions important to hydrostatic stellar evolution at their relevant stellar energies. At the first period, JUNA aims at the direct measurements of 25Mg(p,γ)26 Al, 19F(p,α) 16 O, 13C(α, n) 16O and 12C(α,γ) 16O near the Gamow window. The current progress of JUNA will be given.

An idea of designing oscillation-less and high-resolution hybrid schemes is proposed and several types of hybrid schemes based on this idea are presented on block-structured grids. The general framework, for designing various types of hybrid schemes, is established using a Multi-dimensional Optimal Order Detection (MOOD) method proposed by Clain, Diot and Loubère [1]. The methodology utilizes low dissipation or dispersion but less robust schemes to update the solution and then implements robust and high resolution schemes to deal with problematic situations. A wide range of computational methods including central scheme, MUSCL scheme, linear upwind scheme and Weighted Essentially Non Oscillatory (WENO) scheme have been applied in the current hybrid schemes framework. Detailed numerical studies on classical test cases for the Euler system are performed, addressing the issues of the resolution and non-oscillatory property around the discontinuities.

Investigation of customer participation in new product development (NPD) performance has yielded conflicting results. This study explores the idea that intensive customer participation is not always better. Instead, the usefulness of customer participation in NPD is determined by the fit between product innovativeness and customer participation as information providers and as co-developers. An empirical study of 196 NPD projects of Taiwanese high-tech firms is analyzed by structural equation modeling. The findings show that product innovativeness negatively moderates the impact of customer participation as information providers on NPD outcome. Thus, the greater the involvement of customer participation as information providers in radical innovation projects, the lower the NPD outcome. Moreover, our results also indicate that product innovativeness positively affects the relationship between customer participation as a co-developer and NPD outcome, which suggest that the more customer participation as a co-developer in a radical innovation project, the better the NPD outcome.

In this paper, we use a perylene diimide derivative serving as a destructive and an absorption layer of the “black cathode” of an organic light-emitting device (OLED). A thin and semitransparent metal between the electron transport layer and the perylene diimide is used for better electron injection and also serves as the destructive interference. The thickness of such layer is critical since thinner metal results in lower reflectance, but higher diving voltage due to worse electron injection. To enhance the electron injection capability, the thickness of the thin metal increases which in turns to increase the reflectance. Here, we used a double-metal configuration to decrease the reflectance and maintain the electron injection capability at the same time.

Mid-gap work function (∼4.7eV) for mono-nickel-silicide (NiSi) was obtained by extrapolating flat band voltages of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with different gate oxide thickness. Both silicidation temperature and time can affect the nickel silicide work function as a result of different Ni:Si ratio close to the gate oxide interface. Arsenic implantation into the polysilicon before silicidation can shift the NiSi work function towards the silicon conduction band, which makes it suitable for high performance NMOS applications. The physical mechanism responsible for this work function shift is arsenic pile-up at the oxide interface during the nickel silicidation process. Therefore, dual work function metal gate can be obtained by using a single gate full silicidation process. Silicidation temperature and time also affect the work function shift from arsenic dopant, and the incomplete gate silicidation can have the maximum work function modification effect. Arsenic activation temperature before silicidation was found to have a significant effect on the work function shift. Un-annealed samples exhibit a minimum shift in work function due to the low dopant pile-up concentration at the oxide interface.

The thermal stress behavior of silicon/quartz bonded wafer pairs is examined. Sliding, debonding, and cracking are the observed mechanisms of relaxation. When the elastic energy due to the different thermal expansion coefficients of silicon and quartz exceeds the bonding energy, sliding will start and lead to a serrated curve on the curvature-versus-temperature graph. Finally, debonding will occur once the peeling stress exceeds the interface bonding strength. The debonded parts crack due to the overhang structure, and debonding-cracking processes continue during a further temperature increase. The stress behavior of the hydrogen-implantation induced layer splitting process (the so-called “Smart-Cut process”) of silicon/quartz pairs is also monitored in a stress measurement setup. It is observed that Smart-Cut process is a sudden process in agreement with the observations reported in the literature.