In February 2020, a novel coronavirus (SARS-COV2) broke out in Wuhan city of China. The Chinese government decisively imposed nationwide confinement. This study comprised a structured, online questionnaire, based on 40 items inquiring about socio-demographic information and anthropometric data (reporting weight and height), as well as changes in food intake, physical activity, and sleep during the COVID-19 outbreak. Questionnaires were distributed to residents of Jiangsu and other provinces from 29 March to 5 April. A total of 889 respondents were included, aged between 16 and 70 years (61% females). There was a significant increase in total food intake by 9.8% and a slight increase by 29.2% of respondents, and a significant decrease in physical activity by 31.5% and a slight decrease by 23.4% of respondents, especially in snacks and drinks, and outdoor activities. The rate of weight gain in the total population was 30.6% and the average weight gain was 0.5 ± 2.8 kg. The main factors contributing to weight gain were increased food intake and reduced physical activity. Additionally, normal-weight people were more likely to gain weight than people with overweight/obesity during the COVID-19 confinement. This study provided a good warning and educational reference value on lifestyle changes during the COVID-19 confinement.

No abstract

Thermotropic side-chain liquid crystalline polymer (SLCP) and corresponding side-chain liquid crystalline ionomer (SLCI) containing sulfonate acid were used in the blends of polypropylene (PP) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) by melt-mixing respectively, and thermal behavior, morphological, and mechanical properties of two series of blends were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy, and tensile measurement. Compared with the immiscible phase behavior of PP/PBT/ SLCP blends, SLCI containing sulfonate acid groups act as a physical compatibilizer along the interface and compatibilize PP/PBT blends. FTIR analyses identify specific intermolecular interaction between sulfonate acid groups and PBT, and then result in stronger interfacial adhesion between these phases and much finer dispersion of minor PBT phase in PP matrix. The mechanical property of the blend containing 4.0 wt % SLCI was better than that of the other blends.

A series of liquid-crystalline polysiloxanes synthesized by cholest-5-en-3-ol (3beta)-10-undecenoate and 4'-octanoyloxy-biphenyl-4-yl 4-allyloxy-3-sulfo-benzoate were prepared in a one-step reaction with sulfonic acid group contents ranging between 0 and 2.73 wt %. All the polymers displayed smectic mesophases with a large temperature range for the mesophases. With an increase of sulfonic acid containing mesogens in the polymers, the temperature of the glass transition did not change greatly, while the temperature of the clear point decreased. The hydrogen-bonding mesogen aggregates in the domains disturb the liquid-crystalline molecular mobility and orientation, leading to a decrease in temperature from the mesophase to the isotropic transition. Unlike the polymers containing lower sulfonic acid mesogens, some polymers showed a dendritic texture of the SmB* phase, indicating that the sulfonic mesogens enhanced the rigid moieties of the supermolecular structure of the liquid-crystalline phases. All the polymers displayed sharp and strong peaks at low angles around 2theta approximately 2.6 degrees and broad peaks at wide angles around 2theta approximately 17 degrees in X-ray measurements. The intensity of the strong peak at low angles in the X-ray profiles decreased with an increase of sulfonic acid mesogens in the polymer systems.

Identification of bacterial type III secreted effectors (T3SEs) has become a popular research topic in the field of bioinformatics due to its crucial role in understanding host-pathogen interaction and developing better therapeutic targets against the pathogens. However, the recognition of all effector proteins by using traditional experimental approaches is often time-consuming and laborious. Therefore, development of computational methods to accurately predict putative novel effectors is important in reducing the number of biological experiments for validation. In this study, we proposed a method, called iT3SE-PX, to identify T3SEs solely based on protein sequences. First, three kinds of features were extracted from the position-specific scoring matrix (PSSM) profiles to help train a machine learning (ML) model. Then, the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) algorithm was performed to rank these features based on their classification ability. Finally, the optimal features were selected as inputs to a support vector machine (SVM) classifier to predict T3SEs. Based on the two benchmark datasets, we conducted a 100-time randomized 5-fold cross validation (CV) and an independent test, respectively. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method achieved superior performance compared to most of the existing methods and could serve as a useful tool for identifying putative T3SEs, given only the sequence information.

ABSTRACT:A series of cyclosiloxane-based cholesteric LCEs were synthesized by using a LC monomer cholest-5-en-3-ol(3)-4-(2-propenyloxy)benzoate and an ionic divinyl monomer 2,2 0 -(1,2-ethenediyl)-bis [5-[(4-undecenoyloxy)phenyl]-azo]-benzenesulfonic acid. The polymers were prepared in a one-step reaction with ionic crosslinking contents ranging between mass content 0 and 11.8%. Their chemical structures and liquid-crystalline properties were characterized by FT IR, 1 H NMR, DSC, POM and X-ray measurement. The effective crosslink density (M c ) was determined by swelling experiments in mixed buffer/organic solvent mixtures, using Brannon-Peppas models. All the polymers exhibit thermotropic LC properties and reveal cholesteric phase. With increase of ionic crosslinking component in the polymers, the melting behavior disappears and the temperature of clear point decreases. Reflection spectra of cholesteric mesophase of the series of polymers showed that the reflected wavelength becomes broad and shifts to long wavelength with increase of the ionic crosslinking component in the polymer systems. [DOI 10.1295/polymj.37.277] KEY WORDS Liquid-Crystalline Elastomer / Sulfonate Groups / Cholesteric Phase / Polysiloxane / Slightly crosslinked liquid crystalline (LC) polymers that combine the properties of liquid crystalline phases and the elastic properties and form stability of polymeric networks are known as liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs). They possess unique features originating from rubber elasticity, and the orientation of the mesogens can be controlled by mechanical forces as well as by electric and magnetic fields. As a result of these remarkable characteristics LCEs are promising materials for optoelectrical applications, including polarization halography, optical memory, integrated optical circuitry, and nonlinear optical generators.

A series of new side chain cholesteric liquid crystalline elastomers (P-2-P-6) containing the nematic crosslinking monomer 4-(10-undecen-1-yloyloxy)benzoyl-4'-allyloxybenzoyl-pbenzenediol bisate (M-1) and the cholesteric monomer 4-cholesteryl 4-(10-undecen-1-yloyloxy)benzoate (M-2) were synthesized. The chemical structures of the monomers and elastomers obtained were confirmed by FTIR and 1 H NMR spectroscopy. Their liquid crystalline properties and phase behaviour were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The effect of the crosslinking units on phase behaviour is discussed. Elastomers containing less than 20 mol % of the crosslinking units showed elasticity, reversible phase transitions and cholesteric Grandjean texture. The experimental results demonstrated that the glass transition and isotropization temperatures of P-2-P-6 increased with the increasing concentration of crosslinking unit M-1.

Some main-chain liquid-crystalline polymers were synthesized with pendent sulfonic acid groups (0-6 wt %) on the polymer backbone. The solution viscosity behavior, the chemical structures, and the liquid-crystalline (LC) properties were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, 1 H-NMR, differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing optical microscopy, and X-ray measurements. All the polymers displayed a smectic mesophase with a mesogenic range of 142-1558C and good thermal stability. With an increasing concentration of sulfonic acid groups in the polymer systems, some of the polymers exhibited two kinds of mesophases, including smectic and nematic phases. The glass-transition temperatures and isotropic-transition temperature were elevated slightly, whereas the temperature of the smectic-nematic phase transition changed a little. For polymers with a few sulfonated benzene groups, the regular mesogen/soft matrix structures led to a smectic structure because of microdomains between the mesogenic moieties and the soft main-chain matrix, whereas for polymers with an increased number of sulfonic groups, the ionic groups were distributed in both the soft matrix and the LC microphase. Although the increased ionic interactions between mesogens led to more crystalline phases, the strong electrostatic interactions in the ionic group/mesogen/soft matrix systems may have been tangled in domains. Therefore, they disturbed the regular mesogen/soft matrix smectic phase structure, leading to the appearance of a smectic-nematic transition.