ObjectiveTo examine the associations between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD), ischaemic heart disease (IHD), major coronary events (MCE), haemorrhagic stroke as well as ischaemic stroke.MethodsDuring 2004–2008, over 0.5 million adults aged 30–79 years were recruited from 10 diverse survey sites in China. Participants were asked about the frequency of egg consumption and were followed up via linkages to multiple registries and active investigation. Among 461 213 participants free of prior cancer, CVD and diabetes, a total of 83 977 CVD incident cases and 9985 CVD deaths were documented, as well as 5103 MCE. Stratified Cox regression was performed to yield adjusted hazard ratios for CVD endpoints associated with egg consumption.ResultsAt baseline, 13.1% of participants reported daily consumption (usual amount 0.76 egg/day) and 9.1% reported never or very rare consumption (usual amount 0.29 egg/day). Compared with non-consumers, daily egg consumption was associated with lower risk of CVD (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.87 to 0.92). Corresponding multivariate-adjusted HRs (95% CI) for IHD, MCE, haemorrhagic stroke and ischaemic stroke were 0.88 (0.84 to 0.93), 0.86 (0.76 to 0.97), 0.74 (0.67 to 0.82) and 0.90 (0.85 to 0.95), respectively. There were significant dose-response relationships of egg consumption with morbidity of all CVD endpoints (P for linear trend <0.05). Daily consumers also had an 18% lower risk of CVD death and a 28% lower risk of haemorrhagic stroke death compared to non-consumers.ConclusionAmong Chinese adults, a moderate level of egg consumption (up to <1 egg/day) was significantly associated with lower risk of CVD, largely independent of other risk factors.

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ObjectivesChronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is associated with a higher risk of liver diseases. Substantial uncertainty remains, however, about the associations of HBV infection with mortality from extrahepatic causes, especially from subtypes of cardiovascular diseases. We prospectively examined the association of chronic HBV infection with total and cause-specific mortality.DesignPopulation-based prospective cohort study.SettingChina Kadoorie Biobank in which participants from 10 geographically diverse areas across China were enrolled between 2004 and 2008.Participants475 801 participants 30–79 years of age without reporting major chronic diseases at baseline were enrolled. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) was tested using an on-site rapid test strip at baseline.Primary and secondary outcome measuresTotal and cause-specific mortality.ResultsA total of 35 822 deaths were recorded during ~10 years of follow-up. In multivariable-adjusted analyses, compared with HBsAg-negative participants, HBsAg-positive participants had an increased risk of total mortality (HR=2.01, 95% CI: 1.91 to 2.12), which was higher in men (HR=2.16, 95% CI: 2.01 to 2.31) than in women (HR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.60 to 1.90). Presence of HBsAg was associated with increased mortality from liver cancer (1339 deaths, HR=13.95, 95% CI: 12.46 to 15.62), infections (410 deaths, HR=10.30, 95% CI: 8.21 to 12.94), digestive diseases (688 deaths, HR=6.83, 95% CI: 5.49 to 8.50), intracerebral haemorrhage (4077 deaths, HR=1.38, 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.68) and ischaemic heart diseases (4624 deaths, HR=1.31, 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.58). The positive association between HBsAg status and risk of death was stronger in participants younger than 50 years, smokers, physically active or non-hypertensive participants.ConclusionsAmong Chinese adults, chronic HBV infection was associated with increased mortality from a range of hepatic and extrahepatic diseases.

The present work optimizes the global chemical mechanism of methane MILD combustion from Jones and Lindstedt (Combust. Flame 1988, 73, 233–249), named “JL”, using artificial neural network (ANN) for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Such an optimized JL mechanism, abbreviated as “JL-ANN”, is obtained by ANN searching for the optimal reaction parameters that lead to the results matching those from GRI-Mech 3.0, the detailed mechanism for burning methane in a plug flow reactor. This JL-ANN mechanism is then checked by comparing its performance with that of GRI-Mech 3.0 and that of previous JL mechanisms whose reaction parameters were refined in various CFD simulations against experimental measurements available for reference. Results demonstrate that JL-ANN performs significantly better than all the previous JL mechanisms for numerical simulations of both a nonpremixed methane-jet flame in hot coflow and in-furnace MILD combustion. Therefore, the ANN method can be considered as a promising tool in optimizing various global mechanisms of combustion chemistry for CFD simulations of MILD combustion or any mode of combustion.

ObjectiveTo comprehensively examine the potential impacts of prenatal experience of the Chinese Great Famine on chronic disease risks in the middle age.MethodsThis study included 92 284 participants aged 39–51 years from China Kadoorie Biobank born around the famine period and without major chronic diseases at baseline. We categorised participants into non-famine births (born between 1 October 1956 and 30 September 1958, and 1 October 1962 and 30 September 1964) and famine births (born between 1 October 1959 and 30 September 1961). The outcomes were incident cardiovascular disease, cancer and respiratory system disease. Cox regression was used to estimate adjusted HR and 95% CI for famine exposure. Subgroup analyses were performed according to baseline characteristics.ResultsDuring a median 10.1 years of follow-up, we identified 4626 incident ischaemic heart disease (IHD) cases, 7332 cerebrovascular disease cases, 3111 cancer cases and 16 081 respiratory system disease cases. In the whole population, prenatal famine exposure was not statistically associated with the risks of developing any chronic diseases in adulthood. However, for urban participants, compared with non-famine births, famine births had a higher risk of cerebrovascular disease (HR 1.18; 95% CI 1.09 to 1.28); such association was not shown for rural participants (p for interaction <0.001). Also, we observed the associations of prenatal famine exposure with IHD (HR 1.15; 95% CI 1.05 to 1.26) and cerebrovascular disease (HR 1.13; 95% CI 1.05 to 1.21) in participants with lower physical activity level, but not in those with higher ones (all p for interaction=0.003).ConclusionOur findings indicate that prenatal exposure to the Chinese famine might be associated with an increased cardiovascular risk and such risk may be modified by adult lifestyle.

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ObjectiveTo prospectively examine the association between tea consumption and the risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD).MethodsProspective study using the China Kadoorie Biobank; participants from 10 areas across China were enrolled during 2004–2008 and followed up until 31 December 2013. After excluding participants with cancer, heart disease and stroke at baseline, the present study included 199 293 men and 288 082 women aged 30–79 years at baseline. Information on IHD incidence was collected through disease registries and the new national health insurance databases.ResultsDuring a median follow-up of 7.2 years, we documented 24 665 (7.19 cases/1000 person-years) incident IHD cases and 3959 (1.13 cases/1000 person-years) major coronary events (MCEs). Tea consumption was associated with reduced risk of IHD and MCE. In the whole cohort, compared with participants who never consumed tea during the past 12 months, the multivariable-adjusted HRs and 95% CIs for less than daily and daily tea consumers were 0.97 (0.94 to 1.00) and 0.92 (0.88 to 0.95) for IHD, 0.92 (0.85 to 1.00) and 0.90 (0.82 to 0.99) for MCE. No linear trends in the HRs across the amount of tea were observed in daily consumers for IHD and MCE (PLinear >0.05). The inverse association between tea consumption and IHD was stronger in rural (PInteraction 0.006 for IHD, <0.001 for MCE), non-obese (PInteraction 0.012 for MCE) and non-diabetes participants (PInteraction 0.004 for IHD).ConclusionsIn this large prospective study, daily tea consumption was associated with a reduced risk of IHD.

This study investigates the influence of burner configuration on nonpremixed flameless combustion (FLC) of propane in a cylindrical furnace. Two nozzle patterns are adopted, i.e., a central fuel/oxidizer nozzle symmetrically with two oxidizer/ fuel nozzles aside (OFO/FOF), whereas six values of the fueloxidizer nozzle separation S (1.1−14D eq , where D eq is the equivalent jet diameter) are considered. Both experiments and numerical simulations are conducted under varying global equivalence ratio Φ (0.6−1.0) and thermal input P in (10 and 15 kW). The measurements are made of the mean temperatures in furnace and exhaust NO x emissions. While the experiments show different performances of FLC burners under various test conditions, the CFD simulations characterize corresponding combustion processes and explain experimental observations. Results demonstrate that, as Φ increases, the maximum temperature (T max ) and NO emission (E NO ) both reduce for all OFO and FOF cases but one exception of the OFO pattern at S = 1.1D eq (i.e., OFO-1.1); and hotspots are generated at low Φ ≤ 0.8. For the OFO-1.1 burner, no hotspots occur at any Φ and E NO increases with increasing Φ, like the premixed counterpart. Moreover, for all the test burners, T max and thus E NO reduces as S is either increased or decreased from around S = 6D eq . In general, the preferable configuration for the nonpremixed FLC burner should be such that integrates a central fuel nozzle with two or more oxidizer nozzles distributed uniformly, where the fuel-oxidizer nozzles should be separated by a distance as small as possible.