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We aimed to examine the association between sleep duration and impaired cognitive function in different cognitive domains in Chinese community-dwelling older adults. A total of 1591 participants (≥60 years) were divided into five groups: ≤6 hours (very short sleep duration), >6 to 7 hours (short sleep duration), ≥7 to 8 hours (moderate sleep duration), >8 to 9 hours (moderately long sleep duration), and >9 hours (long sleep duration), according to sleep duration. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination. Long sleep duration significantly increased the likelihood of cognitive impairment. In addition to attention, long sleep duration was negatively related to poorer global cognition and other cognitive domain functions. With the stratification of age groups, long sleep duration was negatively associated with other cognitive domain functions except delayed recall in older elderly (≥75 years) people, but not in younger elderly (60-74 years) people. Long sleep duration was associated with higher rates of cognitive impairment, poorer global cognition, and declined orientation, memory, language ability, and executive function in Chinese community-dwelling older adults, which was more significant in older elderly people.

Background and Aims This study aimed atinvestigating the relationship between speech-frequency hearing loss (SFHL), high-frequency hearing loss (HFHL), and cognitive impairment (CI) and then to determine whether there are any differences in gender among older community dwellers in China. Methods 1012 adults aged ≥ 60 years (428 males; average age, 72.61 ± 5.51 years) and living in Chongming District, Shanghai were enrolled in the study. We used the audiometric definition of hearing loss (HL) adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Speech-frequencies were measured at 0.5 kHz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, and 4 kHz; high-frequencies were measured at 4 kHz and 8 kHz. Pure tone average (PTA) was measured as hearing sensitivity. Cognitive performance was measured using the mini mental state examination (MMSE). Results Our studies demonstrated a 37.6% prevalence of HL in males and a 36.0% prevalence of HL in females. Adjusted for confounding variables, the results from a multivariate analysis showed that SFHL was associated with CI in females (OR = 2.922, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.666–5.124) and males (OR = 2.559, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.252–5.232). However, HFHL was associated with CI only in females (OR = 3.490, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.834–6.643). HL was associated with poorer cognitive scores (P P Conclusions The associations between HL and CI varied according to gender in older community-dwellers, suggesting that different mechanisms are involved in the etiology of HL. Moreover, hearing sensitivity was negatively associated with cognition scores; therefore, early screening for HL and CI among older community-dwelling adults is advised.

To date, few studies have focused on examining either the direct or indirect effect of physical frailty on cognitive impairment. This study aimed to investigate the moderating effects of social relationships, including their individual components in the role of depressive symptoms as a mediator between frailty and cognitive impairment.This study included a total of 7525 Chinese older adults from the 2017-2018 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). Mediation analyses and moderated mediation effect analysis fully adjusted for all potential confounding factors were conducted.Significant correlations were found between frailty, depression, social relationships, and cognitive function. Depression partially mediated the association of frailty with cognitive function [B = -0.198; 95 % confidence interval (CI): (-0.258, -0.143)]. Social relationships moderated the effect of frailty on cognitive function through both path b (depression-cognitive function) [B = 0.137; 95 % CI: (0.045, 0.230)], and path c' (frailty-cognitive function) [B = 0.870; 95 % CI: (0.562, 1.178)]. In addition, social activities and social networks moderated both the direct and indirect effect of the moderated mediation model. Social support only moderated the direct effect.The cross-sectional design of this study precludes any conclusion from the results as to the causality of cognitive impairment.Social relationships moderated both the direct and indirect effects of depressive symptoms on the association between frailty and cognitive impairment. The findings suggest that interventions, such as paying attention to the mental health of old people and improving the quality of social relationships, may help break the link between frailty and cognitive impairment.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is efficient, strongly specific, and avirulent to humans, making it one of the most popular biopesticides in the world. Bt LLP29 is a mosquitocidal strain that was first isolated from Magnolia denudata. To understand its molecular mechanism against mosquitoes, the genome of Bt LLP29 was sequenced and annotated in this study. The LLP29 genome was found to have a total length of 5.99 Mb, with an average G + C content of 35.21%. A total of 6107 coding sequences were also detected, together with 42 rRNAs and 124 tRNAs and 135 other RNAs. With the help of annotation databases, including GO, COG, KEGG, Nr and Swiss-Prot, most unigene functions were identified. At the same time, a collinear analysis was performed on the genome of LLP29. There were also some virulence genes detected, including cry, chitinase, zwittermicin and vip.

The HECT-type UPL3 ligase plays critical roles in plant development and stress protection, but understanding of its regulation remains limited. Here, the multi-omics analyses of ubiquitinated proteins inupl3mutants were performed. A landscape of UPL3-dependent ubiquitinated proteins is constructed: Preferential ubiquitination of proteins related to carbon fixation represented the largest set of proteins with increased ubiquitination in theupl3plant, including most of carbohydrate metabolic enzymes, BRM, and variant histone, whereas a small set of proteins with reduced ubiquitination caused by theupl3mutation were linked to cysteine/methionine synthesis, as well as hexokinase 1 (HXK1) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase 2 (PPC2). Notably, ubiquitin hydrolase 12 (UBP12), BRM, HXK1, and PPC2 were identified as the UPL3-interacting partners in vivo and in vitro. Characterization ofbrm,upl3,ppc2,gin2, andubp12mutant plants and proteomic and transcriptomic analysis suggested that UPL3 fine-tunes carbohydrate metabolism, mediating cellular senescence by interacting with UBP12, BRM, HXK1, and PPC2. Our results highlight a regulatory pattern of UPL3 with UBP12 as a hub of regulator on proteolysis-independent regulation and proteolysis-dependent degradation.

Background: Both sarcopenia and loss of teeth are associated with aging. The purpose of this study was to investigate potential relationships between tooth loss and sarcopenia and components of sarcopenia, including declining muscle mass, muscle strength, and physical performance, in Chinese suburban community-dwelling older adults.Methods: The subjects were 1494 people over 60 years of age (average age: 71.64 ± 5.97 years；men, n=609) from Chongming District of Shanghai and Hangu District of Tianjin. The Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) criteria were used to define sarcopenia. The three basic diagnostic components of sarcopenia (muscle mass, muscle strength, and physical performance) were assessed using a bioelectrical impedance analyzer, a grip strength test, and a four-meter walk test, respectively. The subjects were divided into groups depending on self-reported loss of teeth. Results: After adjusting for confounding variables, we found no correlation between tooth loss and sarcopenia or muscle mass. However, the walking speed of female participants with at least 10 teeth lost was 0.059 m/s slower than that of participants with fewer than 10 teeth lost (P＜0.001), and grip strength was 1.577 kg lower among male participants with at least 10 teeth lost than among males with fewer than 10 teeth lost (P =0.023).Conclusion: Our results suggest that tooth loss is negatively correlated with muscle strength in males and average walking speed in females. These results are consistent with the importance of good oral hygiene in preventing declines of physical performance in older adults.

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) is one of the most difficult eco-regions for revegetation on degraded grassland because of its harsh environment. Micro-topography could affect habitat conditions important to ecological restoration on sandy land; however, the interaction between revegetation and micro-topography has been rarely reported on sand dunes of the QTP. Here, we quantified vegetation (including coverage, leaf area index (LAI), height, and crown diameter) and micro-topographic parameters (including elevation, slope, and aspect) to assess the effects of topography on revegetation using field observation data during 2008–2017 and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) in 2017. The results showed that: 1) the tested plant species for revegetation has changed significantly from 2008 to 2017, and the current dominant plant species were mainly introduced from north China, including Hedysarum scoparium, H. fruticosum, and Artemisia sphaerocephala. 2) The effectiveness of revegetation has been improved remarkably over the past ten years. The vegetation coverage varies from 68.4% to 80.5% at four big quadrats of 20 m × 20 m, while the LAI value varies from 2.30 to 3.27, the shrub height ranges from 1.12 m to 7.57 m, and the crown diameter ranges from 0.24 m to 6.96 m. 3) A total of 153 shrubs were extracted in these four quadrats using TLS; and 56.9%, 21.6% and 10.5% of them are distributed on the southeastern, southern, and eastern aspects, respectively. The height and crown diameter of individual shrubs are significantly correlated with the local slope (p

OBJECTIVE To examine the effect of different limits of acceptability on the Hoffmann method for selecting "healthy" populations from laboratory test data. METHODS Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) were measured in Shunyi Maternal and Children's Hospital of Beijing Children's Hospital. The sample size of participants of TSH and FT4 for reference intervals (RIs) establishment was 10,864 and 10,799, respectively. RIs were calculated by Hoffmann method with different acceptable deviations (α value). The validation data was collected prospectively and the out-of-range (OOR) values were calculated to examine the applicability of RIs with different acceptable deviations. The sample size for RIs validation was 880 and 867, respectively. The RIs were considered as valid when OOR was

Weibo Ma,1,* Yuewen Liu,1,* Ning Wu,1 Hui Zhang,1 Peipei Han,1 Feng Wang,1 Jingru Wang,1 Fandi Xie,2 Shumeng Niu,2 Hao Hu,2 Chenyu Zhang,1 Nuo Chen,1 Yichen Zhang,1 Qi Guo,1 Ying Yu1 1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Clinical Laboratory Center, Shanghai Jiangwan Hospital, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Qi GuoDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, No. 279 Zhouzhu Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, 201318, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-21-8333-6977Fax +86-21-8333-6977Email guoqijp@gmail.comYing Yu Email yuying@sumhs.edu.cnObjective: We examined the association between obesity and physical performance under different metabolic status.Methods: The sample included 1395 Chinese community-dwelling participants (mean age, 71.88 ± 5.87 years; 40.9% men). Being metabolically healthy was defined as having the presence of < 3 of 5 components of metabolic syndrome (MetS); obesity was defined as having a BMI > 28 kg/m2. Participants were divided into four groups based on BMI (non-obese/obese) and metabolic health (healthy/unhealthy). Physical performance was measured by grip strength, 4-m walking speed, and the timed up and go test (TUGT).Results: After multiple adjustments, compared with metabolically healthy non-obese group, the metabolically unhealthy obese group showed lower relative grip strength, lower 4-m walking speed, and higher TUGT (P all < 0.05), and only relative grip strength of the metabolically healthy obese group was significantly lower than that of metabolically healthy non-obese (P < 0.01). Relative grip strength was negatively associated with impaired fasting glucose (β = − 0.071), elevated triglycerides (β = − 0.062), abdominal obesity (β = − 0.230) and general obesity (β = − 0.225) (P all < 0.01). Walking speed and TUGT were only associated with general obesity, rather than other metabolic components. The associations of MetS with physical performance were mainly driven by abdominal obesity.Conclusion: Even in those who are metabolically healthy, obesity (especially general obesity) increases the risk of poor physical performance. Elderly people with general obesity and MetS, whether in combination or alone, have an increased risk of muscle dysfunction, and that combination produces a higher risk of impaired mobility.Keywords: metabolic health, obesity, physical performance, grip strength, 4-m walking speed, TUGT

This study aimed atinvestigating the relationship between speech-frequency hearing loss (SFHL), high-frequency hearing loss (HFHL), and cognitive impairment (CI) and then to determine whether there are any differences in gender among older community dwellers in China.1012 adults aged ≥ 60 years (428 males; average age, 72.61 ± 5.51 years) and living in Chongming District, Shanghai were enrolled in the study. We used the audiometric definition of hearing loss (HL) adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Speech-frequencies were measured at 0.5 kHz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, and 4 kHz; high-frequencies were measured at 4 kHz and 8 kHz. Pure tone average (PTA) was measured as hearing sensitivity. Cognitive performance was measured using the mini mental state examination (MMSE).Our studies demonstrated a 37.6% prevalence of HL in males and a 36.0% prevalence of HL in females. Adjusted for confounding variables, the results from a multivariate analysis showed that SFHL was associated with CI in females (OR = 2.922, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.666-5.124) and males (OR = 2.559, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.252-5.232). However, HFHL was associated with CI only in females (OR = 3.490, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.834-6.643). HL was associated with poorer cognitive scores (P 0.05). "Registration" (P 0.05) in MMSE was associated with speech- and high-frequency hearing sensitivity.The associations between HL and CI varied according to gender in older community-dwellers, suggesting that different mechanisms are involved in the etiology of HL. Moreover, hearing sensitivity was negatively associated with cognition scores; therefore, early screening for HL and CI among older community-dwelling adults is advised.

Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between speech-frequency hearing loss (SFHL), high-frequency hearing loss (HFHL), and cognitive impairment (CI). Then to determine whether there are any differences in gender among older community dwellers in China. Methods This study involved 1,012 adults aged ≥ 60 years (428 male; average age, 72.61 ± 5.51 years). The participants had their hearing and cognition measured using pure tone audiometry and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), respectively. We used the audiometric definition of hearing loss (HL) adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Speech-frequencies were measured as 0.5 kHz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, and 4 kHz; high-frequencies were measured as 4 kHz and 8 kHz. Pure tone average (PTA) was measured as hearing sensitivity. Results Our studies demonstrated a 37.6% prevalence of HL in males and a 36.0% prevalence of HL in females. Adjusted for confounding variables, the results from a multivariate analysis showed that SFHL was associated with CI in females (OR = 2.400, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.313–4.385) and males (OR = 2.189, 95% Confidence Interval = 0.599–2.944). However, HFHL was associated with CI only in females (OR = 2.943, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.505–5.754). HL was associated with poorer cognitive scores (P

Yuewen Liu,1,* Weibo Ma,2,* Ming Li,3 Peipei Han,1 Ming Cai,1 Feng Wang,2 Jingru Wang,2 Xiaoyu Chen,1 Jianrong Shi,4 Xiaoyan Zhang,4 Yiyi Zheng,1 Mengqiu Chen,1 Qi Guo,1 Ying Yu1 1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Nursing and Health Management, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3Office of the President, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences Affiliated Zhoupu Hospital, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Team, Buzhen Community Health Service Center, Chongming District, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Qi Guo; Ying Yu Email guoqijp@gmail.com; yuying@sumhs.edu.cnObjective: This study aimed to examine the relationship between physical performance and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Chinese older adults.Methods: The sample comprised 956 relatively healthy and aged ≥ 65 years old Chinese community-dwelling participants (mean age, 72.56 ± 5.43 years; 56.8% female), which did not include those with dementia, severe cognitive impairment, mental illness etc. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scale were used for the initial classification of patients with MCI. Physical performance was measured via hand grip, Timed Up and Go Test (TUGT), and 4-m walking speed.Results: The physical performance (grip strength, TUGT, and 4-m walking speed) correlated with MCI. The grip strength [odds ratio (OR) = 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.93– 0.99] and 4-m walking speed (OR = 0.25, 95% CI = 0.10– 0.64) correlated negatively with MCI, while TUGT (OR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.03– 1.13) and MCI correlated positively.Conclusion: The physical performance (grip strength, TUGT, and 4-m walking speed) correlated with MCI. Further analysis showed that the grip strength was associated with overall cognition, time orientation, recall, and language, while TUGT and 4-m walking speed were associated with overall cognition and various cognitive domains, except recall.Keywords: mild cognitive impairment, grip strength, TUGT, 4-meter walking speed

Background: In recent decades, vegetation surveys based on terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) have developed rapidly, especially on the forest inventory, but few studies have been conducted to the low-height vegetation. Because of the high investigation cost and subjectivity, it is impending to provide a scientific scanning scheme based on the TLS for the low-height vegetation survey (e.g. shrub, grassland, and meadow) in eco-fragile region (e.g. Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau). Method: In this study, we extracted the vegetation parameter i.e., number, height (H), and crown width (CW) of the two sample plots to evaluate the integrity of the data collected by TLS, on the restored sand land in southern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We assessed the difference between the scanning mode of single-scan (SS) and multiple-scan (MS), and evaluated the influence of terrain fluctuation (windward slope, leeward slope, and the peak of slope) on the determination of scanning spots.Results: The results showed that: (1) the accuracy of vegetation parameter extracted by the mode of SS was mainly affected by the occlusion and the distance from central scanning spot, the RMSE of vegetation parameters is the smallest (RMSEH = 0.186 m; RMSECW = 0.208 m) within 20 m from the central scanning spot. (2) For the MS mode, in addition to the central scanning spot, the scanning spot located at the peak of the slope is the most important, which was the connection of combining the data of windward slope and leeward slope.Conclusion: To sum up, the scientific layout of scanning spot is the key to collecting data by TLS efficiently, and topography is the main factor affecting the layout of scanning spot. Since occlusion effect cannot be avoided, it can only be compensated by setting up more scanning points. Secondly, the accuracy of different sensors will has influence on the distance between adjacent scanning spots.

Background Studies relating obesity to cognition in older people show conflicting results, which may be explained by the choice of obesity indicators. Objectives This study aimed to investigate the relationship between obesity-related indicators and cognitive impairment, especially between different age or gender subgroups, and explore whether obesity-related indicators were related to specific cognitive domains. Methods This was a cross-sectional study on 1753 participants aged ≥ 60 years (41.0% men; aged 71.36 ± 5.96 years). Obesity-related indicators included body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), calf circumference (CC), waist to hip ratio (WHR), waist to calf circumstance ratio (WCR), fat to fat-free mass ratio (FM/FFM). The Mini-Mental State Examination scale (MMSE) was used to assess cognitive function. Cognitive impairment was defined as a score ≤ 17 for illiterates, ≤ 20 for participants with primary school education, and ≤ 24 for those with junior high school degrees or above. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Restricted cubic splines were used to analyze and visualize the linear relationships. Results The prevalence of cognitive impairment was 18.77%. In the fully adjusted model, CC was negatively associated with cognitive impairment (OR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.90−0.98). Further analysis showed that CC correlated positively with recall and place orientation. A higher FM/FFM was found to be associated with a higher prevalence of cognitive impairment (OR: 1.44, 95%CI: 0.88–2.35, P for trend = 0.029); this association was notable in women (P for trend = 0.002) and the oldest (P for trend = 0.009), and so did the potential effect of BMI on cognitive impairment (70–80 years: P for trend = 0.011; ≥ 80 years: P for trend = 0.013). No statistically significant association was found between cognitive impairment and WC, WHR, or WCR. Conclusion CC and FM/FFM were associated with cognitive impairment in older people. Future research needs to distinguish the effects of fat and muscle mass on cognitive function, with special attention to different ages and genders.

To investigate the effects of mobile health based peripartum management of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) on postpartum diabetes and factors associated with postpartum diabetes.Women with GDM (n = 309) were randomly assigned to receive standard management (SM) or mobile management (MM). 75-g OGTT was performed at 6 weeks postpartum.The incidence of postpartum T2DM in the MM group was much higher than that in SM group (12.36% vs. 3.88%, P = 0.0291). The fasting, 1-h and 2 h OGTT at 24-28 weeks of gestation of T2DM women were higher than those women without T2DM (fasting, 6.08 vs. 4.90, P = 0.0052; 1-h, 13.20 vs. 10.00, P 0.0001; 11.96 vs. 8.83, P = 0.0026) in MM group. The 1-h and 2 h OGTT at 24-28 weeks of gestation of T2DM women were higher than those women without T2DM (11.54 vs. 9.78, P = 0.0484; 10.68 vs. 8.68, P = 0.0108) in SM group. Higher OGTT values at 24-28 weeks of gestation were risk factors of postpartum T2DM.Higher OGTT values at 24-28 weeks of gestation were risk factors to develop postpartum T2DM. Mobile health based peripartum management of GDM increased the risk of postpartum diabetes among women with GDM for lacking of postpartum management. Further studies of mobile health based postpartum management of GDM are needed. ClinicalTrials.gov registration number NCT03748576.

Aims To explore the relationship between blood glucose (BG) control rate and self-monitoring blood glucose (SMBG) compliance of women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods Women with GDM (n = 309) were randomized to receive routine clinical prenatal care or additional online management. Follow-up visits were conducted every two weeks (noted here as T) from enrollment to delivery. SMBG records were used for the analysis. Results Both the intervention group and the control group had an increasing BG control rate and decreasing SMBG compliance during the whole follow-up period. Detailed data analysis on separate follow-up periods showed that the SMBG frequency was negatively correlated with the BG control rate in most Ts and that the BG control rate of Tn-1 was negatively correlated with the SMBG frequency of Tn in the adjacent T. Only in the intervention group was T2 SMBG compliance not under the influence of the T1 BG control rate. Conclusions Our data suggested that regardless of management approach, the BG control rate increased, and the SMBG frequency decreased as gestational weeks increased in women with GDM. Even in separate follow-up periods, the SMBG frequency was negatively correlated with the BG control rate both within one follow-up period and between two adjacent follow-up periods.

The combination of having a low physical performance and obesity results in a vicious cycle, but the effect of this combination on the incidence of hypertension is still unknown. This article aims to examine the effect of obesity and low physical performance on the incidence of hypertension in older adults. The sample was comprised of 349 Chinese community-dwelling participants (199 women; mean age 66.30 ± 5.78 years) without hypertension at baseline. Obesity was defined as having a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 28 kg/m

Information-hiding technology has recently developed into an area of significant interest in the field of information security. As one of the primary carriers in steganography, it is difficult to hide information in texts because there is insufficient information redundancy. Traditional text steganography methods are generally not robust or secure. Based on the Markov chain model, a new text steganography approach is proposed that focuses on transition probability, one of the most important concepts of the Markov chain model. We created a state transition-binary sequence diagrams based on the aforementioned concepts and used them to guide the generation of new texts with embedded secret information. Compared to other related works, the proposed method exploits the use of the transition probability in the process of steganographic text generation. The associated developed algorithm also encrypts the serial number of the state transition-binary sequence diagram needed by the receiver to extract the information, which further enhances the security of the steganography information. Experiments were designed to evaluate the proposed model. The results revealed that the model had higher concealment and hidden capacity compared to previous methods.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. The HPLC chromatograms of DHM analysis in young and old leaves of vine tea. A, The standards chromatograms of dihydromyricetin (1), rutin (2), myricetin (3), quercetin (4) and kaempferol (5) at 285 nm; B and C, HPLC chromatograms of young (B) and old (C) leaves of vine tea.

Additional file 6: Figure S4. Gene Ontology (GO) classification of unigenes of A. grossedentata.

Additional file 4: Figure S2. Annotation of all the unigenes from vine tea transcriptome. Number of genes annotated by five representatively databases (nt, nr, kog, go, pfam) was showed in Venn diagram.

Additional file 7: Figure S5. KOG Function classification the transcriptome of A. grossedentata.

Additional file 5: Figure S3. Characteristics of unigenes annotated against Nr databases. A, E-value distribution of the top BLAST hits for each unigene (E-value of 1.0e− 5); B, Similarity distribution of the top BLAST hits for each unigene; C, homologous species distribution against Nr database.

Additional file 8: Figure S6. KEGG classification of unigenes of A. grossedentata.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of physical performance on the relationship between night sleep duration and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in elderly Chinese without CVD.Methods782 participants without CVD over 65 years (average: 70.82±3.86 years, 448 women) were included in this study. CVD risk was calculated by the Framingham Risk Score and participants were divided into four groups of night sleep duration (in hours): 8–9 hours and >9 hours. Upper extremity function was measured by grip strength and lower extremity function was measured by the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), consisting of balance, 4 m walk and chair stands tests.ResultsAfter adjusting for covariates, long night sleep duration (>9 hours) and CVD risk were significantly positively associated compared with moderate night sleep duration (≥7–8 hours) (β=1.152; 95% CI 0.05 to 2.25). SPPB total score (indirect effect ab=−0.122; 95% CI −0.291 to –0.0008) rather than grip strength partially mediated the relationship between long night sleep duration and CVD risk, in which chair stands played a major mediating role (indirect effect ab=−0.171; 95% CI −0.040 to –0.0006), while balance (indirect effect ab=−0.016; 95% CI −0.100 to 0.063) and 4 m walk (indirect effect ab=0.048; 95% CI −0.066 to 0.201) did not.ConclusionsLower extremity function, especially lower limb muscle strength, partially mediates a positive association between long night sleep duration and CVD risk in the elderly without CVD. Suitable interventions for physical performance and sleep may minimise the risk of subsequent CVD.

In the development process of the information hiding technology, text steganography is a challenging task for researchers because of the small redundancy of information and the difficulty in hiding information. In this paper, a coverless text steganography method is proposed based on the Markov model and the half frequency crossover rule, which accords with the statistical characteristics of natural language. In order to prove the effectiveness of the algorithm, we select two large scale datasets for modeling and testing. The experimental results show that, compared with similar methods, the proposed model shows better concealment and hidden capacity in steganography.

Information hiding technology usually uses video, audio, image, and text as carriers. Among them, text redundancy is less and it is difficult to hide information. However, the text is widely used, so text-based information hiding has very important research significance. In this paper, a coverless text steganography based on multi-rule language models alternation is proposed. It is different from the traditional steganographic text generation method based on a single gram model. The method proposed in the paper tries to combine models under different language rules alternately, and tries to extract more language features from the training text. In order to verify the effectiveness of the method, we design some relevant experiments. The results show that, compared with other text steganography methods, the method proposed in the paper not only satisfies the concealment but also improves the hiding capacity.

The leaves of Ampelopsis grossedentata have a long history of use as a health tea and herbal medicine. Data on the distribution of active metabolites in, and antioxidant capacities of, different vine tea tissues remain incomplete. The aim of this work was to investigate the content of metabolites from A. grossedentata different tissues and evaluate the antioxidant capacities of the extraction of the species in vitro and in oil systems: canola oil and sunflower oil. To evaluate the degree of lipid oxidation, the peroxide value (POV) and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance value (TBARS) were determined, and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1 H-NMR) was performed. The results revealed a high total flavonoid content in each of the four extractions (>580 mg/g dried weigh). Leaf extractions exhibited higher antioxidant ability, followed by fruit extract and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). The POVs of oils bearing extracts of A. grossedentata and BHT maintained less than 21.08 meq/kg oil against to control with 1,406.33 ± 52.63 meq/kg oil on day 32 in canola oil, and 27.87 meq/kg oil comparing to 1,892.96 ± 48.63 meq/kg oil in control on day 24 in sunflower oil. Concurring results were also obtained in TBARS and 1 H-NMR analysis. Our results indicated that these different tissues of A. grossedentata could be a potential antioxidant resource, and this work may contribute to the comprehensive utilization of this species. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Leaf extracts of Ampelopsis grossedentata showed effective antioxidant properties, followed by the fruit extract, which showed similar activity to that of the synthetic antioxidant of BHT. Moreover, the investigation of different tissues within the plant may contribute to the comprehensive utilization of this species.

The problem of heavy metal pollution of soils in China is severe. The traditional spectral methods for soil heavy metal monitoring and assessment cannot meet the needs for large-scale areas. Therefore, in this study, we used HyMap-C airborne hyperspectral imagery to explore the estimation of soil heavy metal concentration. Ninety five soil samples were collected synchronously with airborne image acquisition in the mining area of Yitong County, China. The pre-processed spectrum of airborne images at the sampling point was then selected by the competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) method. The selected spectral features and the heavy metal data of soil samples were inverted to establish the inversion model. An ensemble learning method based on a stacking strategy is proposed for the inversion modeling of soil samples and image data. The experimental results show that this CARS-Stacking method can better predict the four heavy metals in the study area than other methods. For arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn), the determination coefficients of the test data set (RP2) are 0.73, 0.63, 0.60, and 0.71, respectively. It was found that the estimated results and the distribution trend of heavy metals are almost the same as in actual ground measurements.

Research Highlights: This study carried out a feasibility analysis on the tree height extraction of a planted coniferous forest with high canopy density by combining terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) image&ndash, based point cloud data at small and midsize tree farms. Background and Objectives: Tree height is an important factor for forest resource surveys. This information plays an important role in forest structure evaluation and forest stock estimation. The objectives of this study were to solve the problem of underestimating tree height and to guarantee the precision of tree height extraction in medium and high-density planted coniferous forests. Materials and Methods: This study developed a novel individual tree localization (ITL)-based tree height extraction method to obtain preliminary results in a planted coniferous forest plots with 107 trees (Metasequoia). Then, the final accurate results were achieved based on the canopy height model (CHM) and CHM seed points (CSP). Results: The registration accuracy of the TLS and UAV image-based point cloud data reached 6 cm. The authors optimized the precision of tree height extraction using the ITL-based method by improving CHM resolution from 0.2 m to 0.1 m. Due to the overlapping of forest canopies, the CSP method failed to delineate all individual tree crowns in medium to high-density forest stands with the matching rates of about 75%. However, the accuracy of CSP-based tree height extraction showed obvious advantages compared with the ITL-based method. Conclusion: The proposed method provided a solid foundation for dynamically monitoring forest resources in a high-accuracy and low-cost way, especially in planted tree farms.