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In recent years, China's insurance industry has achieved rapid development and progress due to the support of national policies and the continuous adjustment of the social consumption structure, which indicates that more resources should flow to the life insurance industry but also faces great challenges. Therefore, this paper will analyze and evaluate the operating performance of current life insurance companies in China, and formulate effective policy suggestions. This paper introduces the research background and research meaning, selecting 25 2020 Chinese and foreign joint venture life insurance companies as the research sample, and from five aspects such as profitability, debt paying ability chosen from 20 indexes, set up the China life insurance business performance evaluation index system, through the principal component analysis (PCA), according to the common factor to explain the reasons for the influence of development conditions, Finally, combined with the factor ranking and the actual situation of China's insurance industry, the evaluation and analysis are carried out. The research results show that although China's insurance industry started late, the current development speed is objective. Small and medium-sized life insurance companies are also prominent in the overall ranking of business performance due to their operational flexibility and innovation. Based on the research results, the current problems of life insurance companies in China can be concluded, and reasonable suggestions can be put forward for further improving the business performance of life insurance companies.

The dietary patterns are closely associated with gut microbiota, which has been proved associated with kidney stones. To assess the association among the dietary patterns, gut microbiota, and kidney stones, patients with calcium oxalate stones and participants without kidney stones were recruited in West China Hospital and were divided into the low nephrolithiasis risk (LNR) and high nephrolithiasis risk (HNR) dietary pattern group based on the results of food frequency questionnaires. The genomic DNA of the fecal samples were extracted for 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. The non-kidney stone (NS) group comprised 39 LNR and 45 HNR individuals, while the kidney stone (KS) group consisted of 19 LNR and 50 HNR individuals. The distribution of oxalate in urine (p 0.01) but not calcium (p = 0.741) was significantly varied among the four groups. Significant difference was found in the dietary patterns of people with KS and NS controls (X

Porous scaffolds have widely been exploited in cartilage tissue regeneration. However, it is often difficult to understand how the delicate hierarchical structure of the scaffold material affects the regeneration process. Graphene materials are versatile building blocks for robust and biocompatible porous structures, enabling investigation of structural cues on tissue regeneration otherwise challenging to ascertain. Here, we utilize a graphene hydrogel with stable and tunable structure as a model scaffold to examine the effect of porous structure on matrix remodeling associated with ingrowth of chondrocytes on scaffolds. We observe much-accelerated yet balanced cartilage remodeling correlating the ingrowth of chondrocytes into the graphene scaffold with an open pore structure on the surface. Importantly, such an enhanced remodeling selectively promotes the expression of collagen type II fibrils over proteoglycan aggrecan, hence clearly illustrating that chondrocytes maintain a stable phenotype when they migrate into the scaffold while offering new insights into scaffold design for cartilage repair.

Understanding the effect of soil salinity on the diversity and species distribution of plant communities in inland salt marsh ecosystems could provide solutions for the management of regional saline soils and the protection of salt marsh wetland vegetation. A field experiment in succulent halophyte, Carex, and gramineous grass habitats in Ordos, Inner Mongolia (northwest China) was conducted to study the diversity and composition of plants in different saline habitats in inland salt marsh ecosystems. Results showed that plant diversity and species richness in the Carex habitat were significantly higher than the succulent halophyte habitat and the gramineous grass habitat (P

Background: Prostate cancer ranks the second in the cancer of male patients worldwide. And previous studies gave controversial conclusions on the prostate-cancer-prevention effect of vitamin C. This meta-analysis and Mendelian randomization aimed to investigate the causal association between vitamin C and prostate cancer.Materials and Methods: The meta-analysis included prospective cohort studies and randomized controlled trials (RCT) from multiple databases up to 2021 January to assess association between vitamin C supplementation and prostate cancer. In the two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis, instrumental variables of plasma vitamin C were-extracted from a large-scale genome wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis(n·=52,018). Outcome data of prostate cancer were from Prostate Cancer Association Group to Investigate Caner-Associated Alterations in the Genome (PRACTICAL) and FinnGen project with 208,525 participants. Inverse variance weighted, MR-Egger, weighted-median, and weighted mode methods were applied to assess the causal effect of plasma vitamin C on prostate cancer.Results: Four prospective cohorts and one randomized controlled trial with 44,651 participants were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled effect did not demonstrate an insignificant relationship between vitamin C supplementation and prostate cancer incidence (OR 1.03, 95% CI 0.95-1.11, p=0.089). Similarly, the results of MR provided insufficient evidence to support the causal association between plasma vitamin C and prostate cancer both on the data from PRACTICAL (IVW: OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.88-1.05, p=0.399) and FinnGen project (IVW: OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.75-1.24, p=0.767). Conclusions: The findings of meta-analysis and MR analysis provided insufficient evidence that neither vitamin C supplementation nor plasma vitamin C level were associated with prostate cancer.

The O2-type layered oxide cathode materials have attracted strong research interest recently because of their high specific capacity and their unique lattice structure that may help suppress the detrimental layer-to-spinel phase transition. These materials are metastable and commonly prepared through Li-Na exchange methods from the Na-containing P2-type oxides. Here we investigated the structural, chemical, and morphological changes during the ion-exchange processes in both the LiBr/hexanol solution and the LiNO3/LiCl molten salts. The solution method was more favorable in preparing high-capacity O2-type cathode materials, even though the structural reorganization was slower compared with the molten-salt method. The as-made O2-type cathode materials, contrary to the previous belief, were actually Li-deficient at their pristine states, but could accept more Li ions than that it was extracted during the first charge/discharge cycle. The O2-type cathode materials exhibited high capacities (up to 266 mAh g−1) but the cycle performance requires further improvements. XRD and Raman spectroscopy studies indicated that the structural changes in the bulk were quite reversible. Using a fluorinated electrolyte to address the interface instability improved the cycle performance. Our results provide a more complete understanding of the O2-type cathode materials and useful guidance in the design of low-cost, high-energy cathode materials for LIBs.

Background: Silodosin is a new high-selective α1A-adrenoceptors antagonist. A systematic review of literature and meta-analysis were performed to compare the clinical efficacy and safety outcomes of silodosin with placebo, tamsulosin, naftopidil and alfuzosin in treating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) males with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Materials and Methods: We systematically searched literature among EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, ScienceDirect and Web of Science databases until April 2019. 18 related randomized controlled trials were included according to eligibility criteria. Random-effects model were applied for data analysis. Results: 5,985 patients were included in our study. Silodosin presented superiority to placebo in improving LUTS and better efficacy than tamsulosin and naftopidil in improving IPSS void subscore and post-void residual urine volume with statistically significance (all P values < 0.05). Greater QoL index improvement were found in silodosin than alfuzosin groups (MD = -0.44, 95%CI: [-0.83, -0.05], P = 0.03) while no differences in total IPSS score and Qmax changes between these two groups. Retrograde ejaculation was significantly frequent in silodosin than placebo, tamsulosin and naftopidil groups (all P values < 0.05). Besides, silodosin increased incidence of upper respiratory tract infection compared to tamsulosin groups (RR = 0.69, 95%CI: [0.50, 0.96], P = 0.03). A higher rate of nasal congestion (RR = 7.76, 95%CI: [1.80, 33.41], P = 0.006) were found in silodosin than placebo groups while no difference for nasopharyngitis ((RR = 1.16, 95%CI: [0.54, 2.47], P = 0.71). Prevalence of headache (RR = 0.54, 95%CI: [0.27, 1.06], P = 0.07) and postural hypotension (RR = 0.14, 95%CI: [0.03, 0.77], P = 0.02) were lower in silodosin than tamsulosin groups, although dizziness and vertigo was more frequent in silodosin than placebo (RR = 2.26, 95%CI: [1.21, 4.21], P = 0.009). Conclusions: Our study demonstrated silodosin’s possible superiority to placebo and naftopidil while noninferiority to tamsulosin and alfuzosin in LUTS improvement of BPH males. Better cardiovascular safety was in silodosin groups, although incidence of retrograde ejaculation and respiratory adverse events were higher.

The benefits of ultrasonic vibration auxiliary metal forming have been shown by many studies. In this study, a series of experiments were carried out to investigate the deformation behavior of Ti foils under ultrasonic vibration in tension, and the tensile properties of Ti foils with/without the application of ultrasonic vibration were investigated. Then, the microstructure of different tensile samples was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results of the tensile experiments showed that the tensile strength of tensile samples was reduced when ultrasonic vibration was applied, while the elongation of these samples increased. The flow stress increased with increasing strain without applying ultrasonic vibration, while it decreased steeply when the ultrasonic vibration was applied, and this reduction of flow stress demonstrated the effect of acoustic softening on the properties of the material. Additionally, the range of flow stress reduction was inversely proportional to the time for which ultrasonic vibration was applied. The TEM images showed that there were remarkable differences in dislocation distribution and tangles with/without ultrasonic vibration. The dislocation distribution was inhomogeneous, and copious dislocation tangles were discovered without ultrasonic vibration. When it was applied, the parallel re-arrangement of dislocations could be observed and the mass of dislocation tangles was mostly absent.

A Fe2C nanocrystals encapsulated into a nitrogen and sulfur dual doped carbon matrix (Fe2C@C) was first synthesized by a simultaneous polymerization-precipitation technique followed with a high temperature pyrolysis process. This method can lead to an effective and homogenous distribution of core/shell Fe2C nanoparticles into the carbon matrix. The optimized material was applied as an anode for a lithium-ion battery, which showed a high capacity, excellent rate performance, and good cycling capability. It delivered a high specific capacity of 657.7 mA h g-1 at a current density of 0.2 A g-1, and even at a very high current density at 6 A g-1, the electrode still retained a very high specific capacity of 509.1 mA h g-1. After 150 cycles of charge/discharge at a current density of 1 A g-1, no capacity decay was observed which presents itself a promising high performance anode for LIBs. Also, the presence of Fe2C can greatly stabilize the structure of the electrode and the electrode process for the lithiation/delithiation of LIBs. Figure 1