Secondhand smoke exposure can increase the risk of first ischemic stroke: A 10.7-year prospective cohort study in China.

INTRODUCTION: Passive smoking is considered a major public health issue in China. Prospective evidence regarding the link between secondhand smoke (SHS) and ischemic stroke in China is scarce. METHODS: The China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) study in Liuzhou City recruited 50,174 participants during 2004-2008. Of these 30,456 never-smokers were included in our study. The median follow-up period was 10.7 years. The incidence of ischemic stroke was obtained through the China Disease Surveillance Points (DSP) system and the Health Insurance (HI) database. Cox proportional risk models were used to evaluate the association between SHS exposure and ischemic stroke. RESULTS: During 320,678 person-years of follow-up, there were 2059 patients with ischemic stroke observed and the incidence of ischemic stroke was 6.42 per thousand person-years. Participants exposed to SHS daily faced a 21 % higher risk of ischemic stroke (HR = 1.21, 95 %CI: 1.09-1.34) compared to those exposed to SHS less than once a week. Subgroup analyses revealed that daily SHS exposure was linked to heightened risk of ischemic stroke among women, non-employed, and non-weekly tea drinkers. CONCLUSIONS: Daily SHS exposure was associated with higher risks of ischemic stroke. Proactive tobacco control strategies are necessary to decrease the risk of ischemic stroke in never smokers.

What drives the spatial heterogeneity of cropping patterns in the Northeast China: The natural environment, the agricultural economy, or policy?

Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamic of crop cover types and the driving forces of cropping patterns in the Northeast China (NEC) is essential for establishing suitable and sustainable cropping patterns that are adapted to local conditions, and for promoting the optimal use of black soil resources. Here, we classified the major grain crop cover types and investigated their spatiotemporal dynamic in the NEC by combining multi-source remote sensing imagery and phenological information based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. A number of typical cropping patterns from 2017 to 2021 were defined and extracted, and the characteristics of their spatial heterogeneity were analyzed. Driving mechanisms for the spatial heterogeneity of cropping patterns were revealed using Geodetector. The results concluded that over the past five years (2017-2021), there has been a shift from soybean to maize in the NEC, while rice has remained stable in terms of spatiotemporal dynamics. Seven dominant cropping patterns showed high spatial heterogeneity and positive spatial agglomeration. The center of gravity of the cropping pattern shifted southwards as the frequency of maize planting increased, while the center of gravity shifted northwards as the frequency of soybean planting increased, while the rice cropping pattern remained stable. The interaction between black-soil productivity index (BPI) and total grain income trend (TGIT) exhibits the most pronounced impact on the spatial heterogeneity of cropping patterns, with a q statistic of 0.523. Following closely are the interactions of soybean subsidies trend (SST), rice subsidies trend (RST), and maize subsidies trend (MST) with TGIT, with q statistics of 0.481, 0.472, and 0.452, respectively. Among the seven dominant cropping patterns, the soybean-based cropping pattern had the highest level of TGIT and BPI, followed by the maize-based cropping pattern, while the rice-based cropping pattern had the lowest level. All of the natural environmental, agri-economic and policy factors have a synergistic effect in contributing to the spatial heterogeneity of cropping patterns. Natural environmental factors determine the overall spatial distribution of cropping patterns in the NEC, while economic and policy factors combine to influence farmers' decisions, resulting in diverse regional cropping patterns. It is recommended that maize-soybean rotations such as Maize-Soybean Alternate Cropping (MSAC) and Maize-Soybean Rotational Cropping (MSRC) should be promoted, especially in the central and southern regions of the NEC, to meet agricultural market demand and stabilize soil productivity.

Ultrafast Electronic Dynamics in Anisotropic Indirect Interlayer Excitonic States of Monolayer WSe2/ReS2 Heterojunctions.

Understanding ultrafast electronic dynamics of the interlayer excitonic states in atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides is of importance in engineering valleytronics and developing excitonic integrated circuits. In this work, we experimentally explored the ultrafast dynamics of indirect interlayer excitonic states in monolayer type II WSe2/ReS2 heterojunctions using time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy, which reveals its anisotropic behavior. The ultrafast cooling and decay of excited-state electrons exhibit significant linear dichroism. The ab initio theoretical calculations provide unambiguous evidence that this linear dichroism result is primarily associated with the anisotropic nonradiative recombination of indirect interlayer excitonic states. Measuring time-resolved photoemission energy spectra, we have further revealed the ultrafast evolution of excited-state electrons in anisotropic indirect interlayer excitonic states. The findings have important implications for controlling the interlayer moiré excitonic effects and designing anisotropic optoelectronic devices.

Coaction effect of radiative and non-radiative damping on the lifetime of localized surface plasmon modes in individual gold nanorods.

Revealing the coaction effect of radiative and non-radiative damping on the lifetime of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) mode is a prerequisite for the applications of LSPR. Here, we systematically investigated the coaction effect of radiative and non-radiative damping on the lifetime of the super-radiant and sub-radiant LSPR modes of gold nanorods using time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy (TR-PEEM). The results show that the lifetime of the LSPR mode depends on the length of the gold nanorod, and the different variation behavior of an LSPR mode lifetime exists between the super-radiative mode and the sub-radiative one with the increase of nanorod length (volume). Surprisingly, it is found that the lifetime of the super-radiant LSPR mode can be comparable to or even longer than that of the sub-radiant LSPR mode, instead of the usual claim that a sub-radiant LSPR mode has a longer life than the super-radiant mode. Those TR-PEEM experimental results are supported by finite-difference time-domain simulations and are well explained by the coaction effect with the calculation of the radiative and non-radiative damping rate with the increase of the nanorod volume. We believe that this study is beneficial to build a low-threshold nano-laser and ultrasensitive molecular spectroscopy system.

Metasurface Enabled Photothermoelectric Photoresponse of Semimetal Cd3As2 for Broadband Photodetection.

The artificial engineering of photoresponse is crucial for optoelectronic applications, especially for photodetectors. Here, we designed and fabricated a metasurface on a semimetallic Cd3As2 nanoplate to improve its thermoelectric photoresponse. The metasurface can enhance light absorption, resulting in a temperature gradient. This temperature gradient can contribute to thermoelectric photoresponse through the photothermoelectric effect. Furthermore, power-dependent measurements showed a linearly dependent photoresponse of the Cd3As2 metasurface device, indicating a second-order photocurrent response. Wavelength-dependent measurements showed that the metasurface can efficiently separate photoexcited carriers in the broadband range of 488 nm to 4 µm. The photoresponse near the metasurface boundaries exhibits a responsivity of ∼1 mA/W, which is higher than that near the electrode junctions. Moreover, the designed metasurface device provided an anisotropic polarization-dependent photoresponse rather than the isotropic photoresponse of the original Cd3As2 device. This study demonstrates that metasurfaces have excellent potential for artificial controllable photothermoelectric photoresponse of various semimetallic materials.

Age-Specific Associations Between Habitual Snoring and Cardiovascular Diseases in China: A 10-Year Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Limited convincing evidence is available of the relationship between habitual snoring and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). RESEARCH QUESTION: Is habitual snoring associated with total CVD and CVD subtypes in different age groups of Chinese adults? STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: The China Kadoorie Biobank study enrolled more than 0.5 million adults aged 30 to 79 years from 10 regions in China. Snoring status and other baseline characteristics were collected from 2004 to 2008, using an interviewer-administered laptop-based questionnaire. The current analysis included 489,583 participants without stroke or coronary heart disease at baseline. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate the adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) for habitual snoring vs nonhabitual snoring. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 9.6 years, 130,935 participants developed CVDs. Associations between habitual snoring and CVDs varied with age. Among participants aged younger than 50 years at baseline, habitual snoring was associated with an increased risk of total CVD (HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.07-1.14) after adjustment for known CVD risk factors, including systolic BP. The corresponding HRs (95% CIs) for ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, and hemorrhagic stroke were 1.18 (1.12-1.24), 1.12 (1.05-1.19), and 1.05 (0.92-1.19), respectively. However, such associations in adults aged 50 to 64 years were much weaker, and no statistically significant association was observed among individuals aged ≥65 years. Age-specific risk estimates were generally similar across sex and obesity subgroups. INTERPRETATION: Habitual snoring was associated with increased risks of total CVD, ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, but not hemorrhagic stroke in Chinese, and these associations were mainly limited to those aged <50 years. Clinicians in China are encouraged to identify snoring, particularly in younger adults.

The coexistence of invasive stratified mucin-producing carcinoma, mucinous carcinoma and non-specific type and squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix: a case report.

Located in the uterine cervix, cervical invasive stratified mucin-producing carcinoma (i-SMILE) is a rare, recently-identified tumor about which little is known. In extremely rare cases, other kinds of invasive carcinoma can accompany i-SMILE, such as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and adenocarcinoma, with different proportions. Here, we report a case of cervical carcinoma coexisting with i-SMILE, mucinous carcinoma, non-specific type (NOS), and SCC. We review the pathological diagnosis and describe the clinical pathological characteristics.

Distinct spatiotemporal imaging of femtosecond surface plasmon polaritons assisted with the opening of the two-color quantum pathway effect.

Accurately capturing the spatiotemporal information of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is the basis for expanding SPP applications. Here, we report spatio-temporal evolution imaging of femtosecond SPPs launched from a rectangular trench in silver film with a 400-nm light pulse assisted femtosecond laser interferometric time-resolved (ITR) photoemission electron microscopy. It is found that introducing the 400nm light pulse in the spatially separated near-infrared (NIR) laser pump-probe ITR scheme enables distinct spatiotemporal imaging of the femtosecond SPPs with a weak probe pulse in the ITR scheme, which is free from the risk of sample damage due to the required high monochromatic field for a clear photoelectron image as well as the entangled interference fringe (between the SPPs and probe pulse) in the usual spatially overlapped pump-probe ITR scheme. The demonstrated great improvement of the visibility of the SPPs spatiotemporal image with an additional 400nm light pulse scheme facilitates further analysis of the femtosecond SPPs, and carrier wavelength (785nm), group velocity (0.94C) and phase velocity (0.98C) of SPPs are extracted from the distinct spatio-temporal evolution images of SPPs. Furthermore, the modulation of photoemission induced by the quantum pathway interference effect in the 400nm-assisted scheme is proposed to play a major role in the distinct visualization for SPPs. The probabilities of electrons in different quantum pathways are obtained quantitatively through fitting the experimental results with the quantum pathway interference model. The probability that electrons emit through the quantum pathway allows us to quantitatively analyze the contribution to electron emission from the different quantum pathways. These findings pave a way for the spatiotemporal imaging of the near-infrared light-induced SPPs, such as the communication wave band using PEEM.

Polarization manipulated femtosecond localized surface plasmon dephasing time in an individual bowtie structure.

The performance of plasmon in applications is strongly related to plasmon damping, i.e., a dephasing of the optical polarization associated with the electron oscillation. Accurate measurement, manipulation, and, ultimately, prolongation of the dephasing time are prerequisites to the future development of the application of plasmonics. Here, we studied the dephasing time of different plasmonic hotspots in an individual bowtie structure by time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy and proposed an easy-to-operate method for actively and flexibly controlling the mode-dependent plasmon dephasing time by varying the polarization direction of a femtosecond laser. Experimentally, we achieved a large adjustment of the dephasing time ranging from 7 to 17 fs. In addition, a structural defect was found to drastically extend the plasmon dephasing time. Assisted with the finite-difference time-domain simulation, the underlying physics of the dephasing time extension by the structural defect was given.

Red meat, poultry and fish consumption and risk of diabetes: a 9 year prospective cohort study of the China Kadoorie Biobank.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Previous evidence linking red meat consumption with diabetes risk mainly came from western countries, with little evidence from China, where patterns of meat consumption are different. Moreover, global evidence remains inconclusive about the associations of poultry and fish consumption with diabetes. Therefore we investigated the associations of red meat, poultry and fish intake with incidence of diabetes in a Chinese population. METHODS: The prospective China Kadoorie Biobank recruited ~512,000 adults (59% women, mean age 51 years) from ten rural and urban areas across China in 2004-2008. At the baseline survey, a validated interviewer-administered laptop-based questionnaire was used to collect information on the consumption frequency of major food groups including red meat, poultry, fish, fresh fruit and several others. During ~9 years of follow-up, 14,931 incidences of new-onset diabetes were recorded among 461,036 participants who had no prior diabetes, cardiovascular diseases or cancer at baseline. Cox regression analyses were performed to calculate adjusted HRs for incident diabetes associated with red meat, poultry and fish intake. RESULTS: At baseline, 47.0%, 1.3% and 8.9% of participants reported a regular consumption (i.e. ≥4 days/week) of red meat, poultry and fish, respectively. After adjusting for adiposity and other potential confounders, each 50 g/day increase in red meat and fish intake was associated with 11% (HR 1.11 [95% CI 1.04, 1.20]) and 6% (HR 1.06 [95% CI 1.00, 1.13]) higher risk of incident diabetes, respectively. For both, the associations were more pronounced among men and women from urban areas, with an HR (95% CI) of 1.42 (1.15, 1.74) and 1.18 (1.03, 1.36), respectively, per 50 g/day red meat intake and 1.15 (1.02, 1.30) and 1.11 (1.01, 1.23), respectively, per 50 g/day fish intake. There was no significant association between diabetes and poultry intake, either overall (HR 0.96 [95% CI 0.83, 1.12] per 50 g/day intake) or in specific population subgroups. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: In Chinese adults, both red meat and fish, but not poultry, intake were positively associated with diabetes risk, particularly among urban participants. Our findings add new evidence linking red meat and fish intake with cardiometabolic diseases. DATA AVAILABILITY: Details of how to access the China Kadoorie Biobank data and rules of China Kadoorie Biobank data release are available from www.ckbiobank.org/site/Data+Access.

Habitual Tea Consumption and Risk of Fracture in 0.5 Million Chinese Adults: A Prospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Tea consumption may have favorable effects on risk of fracture. However, little is known about such association in Chinese adults. The aim of this study was to examine the association between tea consumption and risk of hospitalized fracture in Chinese adults. METHODS: The present study included 453,625 participants from the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB). Tea consumption was self-reported at baseline. Hospitalized fractures were ascertained through linkage with local health insurance claim databases. THE RESULTS: During a median of 10.1 years of follow-up, we documented 12,130 cases of first-time any fracture hospitalizations, including 1376 cases of hip fracture. Compared with never tea consumers, daily tea consumption was associated with lower risk of any fracture (hazard ratio (HR): 0.88; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.83, 0.93). Statistically significant reduced risk of hip fracture was shown among daily consumers who most commonly drank green tea (HR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.65, 0.97) and those who had drunk tea for more than 30 years (HR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.52, 0.87). Our conclusions: Habitual tea consumption was associated with moderately decreased risk of any fracture hospitalizations. Participants with decades of tea consumption and those who preferred green tea were also associated with lower risk of hip fracture.