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Objective To examine the association between habitual sleep duration and obesity among Chinese adults. Methods The association of sleep duration and obesity was investigated among 7,094 community-dwelling Chinese adults. Sleep duration was self-reported. In this study, obesity was defined as follows: body mass index (BMI) ≥ 28 kg/m 2 , waist circumference (WC) ≥ 85 cm in men and ≥ 80 cm in women, and percent body fat (%BF) ≥ 25 in men and ≥ 35 in women. Logistic and quantile regressions were employed to examine relationships of interest. Results Overall, 6.42% of the participants reported short sleep durations (< 6 h/d) while 14.71% reported long (≥ 9 h/d) sleep durations. Long sleepers (≥ 9 h/d) represented a greater frequency of women with obesity [odds ratio ( OR ): 1.30; 95% confidence interval ( CI ), 1.02–1.67] and high body fat (1.43, 1.04–1.96) than those who slept 7–8 h/d. An association between long sleep times and higher BMI estimations was found across the 10 th −75 th percentile of the BMI distribution. Among men, long sleepers (≥ 9 h/d) presented lower risks of developing abdominal obesity compared with individuals who slept 7-8 h/d ( OR = 0.79, 95% CI : 0.44–0.99). Conclusion Our study suggests that long sleep durations are associated with general obesity in Chinese women but reduced waist circumferences in men. Confirmatory studies are needed to determine the heterogeneous association of sleep time and obesity by gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To understand the associations of physical activity domains with metabolic syndrome among a middle-aged Chinese population. Methods In all, 3326 professional adults aged 35-64 years from Beijing and Zhejiang province were recruited with a cluster random sampling method. The Global Physical Activity Questionnaire was modified, and the recommended Asia-Pacific cut-offs of waist circumstance were introduced into the criteria for metabolic syndrome from the Adult Treatment Panel III. A binary logistic regression model was applied to examine the association of all physical activity domains with the risk of the syndrome. Results Participants who engaged in domestic activity for ≥1176 MET-min/week had a 41.6% less chance of having metabolic syndrome [odds ratio (OR), 0.584; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.480-0.710] than those without this activity. In adjusted models, adults who actively commuted for ≥33 MET-min/week but <528 MET-min/week had a 25% less chance of having the syndrome (OR, 0.750; 95% CI, 0.582-0.966) than those who did not. No interaction was detected between the two domains of activity and the syndrome. Conclusion This study highlighted the independently negative association of traffic and house activity with the prevalence of the syndrome in this sample with a generally low level of moderate activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: MicroRNAs (MiRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate their target genes expression at the post-transcriptional level. As accumulating properties of miR-205 have been identified, complex roles of miR-205 in tumor initiation and progression are emerging. MiR-205 acts either as a tumor suppressor through inhibiting proliferation and invasion, or as an oncogene through facilitating tumor initiation and proliferation, depending on the specific tumor context and target genes. In this review, we focus on the properties of miR-205 in cancers to shed light on better management of various fatal malignancies. Moreover, we discuss epigenetics that may account for the fluctuation of miR-205 expression. In addition, we sketch a network of miR-205 and its targets to further elucidate the mechanisms through which miR-205 exerts its multiple functions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recently, mindfulness interventions have been extensively applied in the field of nursing education. However, no consensus has been reached on whether these interventions can reduce anxiety and depression in nursing students. This meta-analysis was designed to determine the effect of mindfulness interventions on levels of depression, anxiety, stress and mindfulness for nursing students. Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. The following Chinese and English databases were searched for relevant articles: Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane library, Web of Science, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) and Wanfang. The search encompassed the establishment of these databases up until January 2020. Two reviewers separately entered the data into Review Manager Software 5.3. A total of 10 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were reviewed. It was found that mindfulness interventions significantly lowered levels of depression (SMD = −0.42, 95% CI:−0.56 to −0.28, P < 0.001), anxiety (SMD = −0.32, 95% CI:−0.47 to −0.17, P < 0.001) and stress (SMD = −0.50, 95% CI:−0.65 to −0.35, P < 0.001) in nursing students. Furthermore, the interventions raised levels of mindfulness in this group (SMD = 0.54, 95% CI:0.33–0.75, P < 0.001). Mindfulness interventions can significantly reduce nursing students' negative emotions, helping them to manage their stress and anxiety. College nursing educators should consider adopting mindfulness interventions in nursing education to promote the mental health of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high resistance caused by water in the barrel during the underwater launch poses a daunting challenge to launch safety. To solve this problem, a new method is proposed to form a gas curtain based on the principle of the gas-curtain launcher. The key to the method is setting up several rectangular grooves on the barrel inner wall to guide the gas flow and form a gas curtain. A three-dimensional unsteady model is established to simulate the formation of the gas curtain under different aspect ratios of the grooves. The simulation results show that as the aspect ratio increases, the convergence effect is weakened, the drainage effect is gradually improved in the near-wall region and decreased in the center of the tube. With the increase of the aspect ratio, the pressure around the projectile head increases, the high-pressure region expands in the initial stage of jet expansion and the region of pressure fluctuation is reduced in the latter stage. When the aspect ratio increases from 0.625 to 1.6, the average drainage mass per unit time is increased by 3%, and the gas efficiency-cost ratio is increased by 6%. ∙ A new gas-curtain formation method is proposed, which is to design several rectangular grooves on the inner wall of the barrel. ∙A three-dimensional mathematical model is established to simulate the formation and the drainage process of the gas curtain. ∙The influence of the aspect ratio of rectangular grooves has been investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]