The aerodynamic performance of a wing model with a row of distributed engines are investigated at the vertical take-off condition. The engines are installed near the trailing edge of the wing. During vertical take-off, the jets exit from the engines and impinge perpendicularly to the ground, providing a thrust for the aircraft. Due to the ground effects, complex vortex structures are induced by the jets. The vortices are categorised into the spanwise vortices and the chordwise vortices. The underwing vortices can lead to low-pressure regions on the lower surface of the wing, resulting in an undesirable downward force. The underwing vortex structures are affected by the ratio of the engine distance to the engine diameter ($S/D$). At a small $S/D$ = 1.10, the flow field is dominated by the spanwise vortices; at a large $S/D$ = 2.78, the flow field is dominated by the chordwise vortices. The range and strength of the spanwise vortices are affected by the vortices interaction. Competition mechanism exists between the range and strength effects, which results in the non-linear variation of the wing lift coefficient with engine spacing. The details of the flow physics underneath the wing and its mechanism on the lift of the wing during take-off are investigated.

This article reinterprets the tension between sound and music in Pierre Schaeffer's 1966 Treatise on Musical Objects. Schaeffer famously insisted that the Treatise did not address music or composition; scholars have therefore engaged with it primarily as a theoretical text on sound and listening. In this article, however, I argue that the denial and deferral of music throughout the Treatise should be considered a discrete and key part of its theoretical contributions. By the early 1960s, Schaeffer's aesthetic frustration with the practice of musique concrète had blossomed into something of an ethical imperative and paradox. He saw it necessary to suspend all musical activity in the present, so as to salvage music's future. This dynamic is key to understanding Schaeffer's controversial and influential calls for the deferral of cultural responses to sound in the Treatise, as illustrated by the practices of ‘deconditioning’ and ‘reconditioning’.

We report the experimental results of the commissioning phase in the 10 PW laser beamline of the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF). The peak power reaches 2.4 PW on target without the last amplifying during the experiment. The laser energy of 72 ± 9 J is directed to a focal spot of approximately 6 μm diameter (full width at half maximum) in 30 fs pulse duration, yielding a focused peak intensity around 2.0 × 1021 W/cm2. The first laser-proton acceleration experiment is performed using plain copper and plastic targets. High-energy proton beams with maximum cut-off energy up to 62.5 MeV are achieved using copper foils at the optimum target thickness of 4 μm via target normal sheath acceleration. For plastic targets of tens of nanometers thick, the proton cut-off energy is approximately 20 MeV, showing ring-like or filamented density distributions. These experimental results reflect the capabilities of the SULF-10 PW beamline, for example, both ultrahigh intensity and relatively good beam contrast. Further optimization for these key parameters is underway, where peak laser intensities of 1022–1023 W/cm2 are anticipated to support various experiments on extreme field physics.

This study aimed to investigate the association between hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) severity and early enteral tube feeding on cardiometabolic markers in offspring cord blood. We included women admitted for HG, who participated in the MOTHER randomised controlled trial (RCT) and observational cohort. The MOTHER RCT showed that early enteral tube feeding in addition to standard care did not affect symptoms/birth outcomes. Among RCT and cohort participants, we assessed how HG severity affected lipid, c-peptide, glucose and free thyroxine cord blood levels. HG severity measures were severity of vomiting at inclusion and 3 weeks after inclusion, pregnancy weight gain and 24-h energy intake at inclusion, readmissions and duration of hospital admissions. Cord blood measures were also compared between RCT participants allocated to enteral tube feeding and those receiving standard care. Between 2013-2016, 215 women were included: 115 RCT and 100 cohort participants. Eighty-one cord blood samples were available. Univariable not multivariable regression analysis showed that lower maternal weight gain was associated with higher cord blood glucose levels (β: –0·08, 95% CI –0·16, –0·00). Lower maternal weight gain was associated with higher Apo-B cord blood levels in multivariable regression analysis (β: –0·01, 95% CI –0·02, –0·01). No associations were found between other HG severity measures or allocation to enteral tube feeding and cord blood cardiometabolic markers. In conclusion, while lower maternal weight gain was associated with higher Apo-B cord blood levels, no other HG severity measures were linked with cord blood cardiometabolic markers, nor were these markers affected by enteral tube feeding.

This study aimed to analyse the survival of patients admitted to Brazilian hospitals due to the COVID-19 and estimate prognostic factors. This is a retrospective, multicentre cohort study, based on data from 46 285 hospitalisations for COVID-19 in Brazil. Survival functions were calculated using the Kaplan–Meier's method. The log-rank test compared the survival functions for each variable and from that, hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated, and the proportional hazard model was used in Cox multiple regression. The smallest survival curves were the ones for patients at the age of 68 years or more, black/mixed race, illiterate, living in the countryside, dyspnoea, respiratory distress, influenza-like outbreak, O2 saturation <95%, X-ray change, length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), invasive ventilatory support, previous heart disease, pneumopathy, diabetes, Down's syndrome, neurological disease and kidney disease. Better survival was observed in the influenza-like outbreak and in an asthmatic patient. The multiple model for increased risk of death when they were admitted to the ICU HR 1.28, diabetes HR 1.17, neurological disease HR 1.34, kidney disease HR 1.11, heart disease HR 1.14, black or mixed race of HR 1.50, asthma HR 0.71 and pneumopathy HR 1.12. This reinforces the importance of socio-demographic and clinical factors as a prognosis for death.

Dynamic soaring improves the endurance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) by obtaining energy from the horizontal wind shear gradient. The use of dynamic soaring in small solar UAVs can mitigate the trade-off between energy capacity and battery weight to achieve continuous all-day flight. The goal of this study is to determine the optimal energy acquisition methods for small solar UAVs using dynamic soaring and to decrease the battery weight to achieve all-day flight. A dynamic soaring UAV model that considers the influence of the wind shear gradient and a solar power energy model are established. The conditions to obtain a closed-loop energy system during daytime and nighttime flights are discussed, and the minimum mass of the energy system required for these conditions is determined. Simulations of single-cycle circular flights and a 72-h continuous flight of a small solar UAV are performed. The analyses and simulation results show that: (1) the combination of dynamic soaring and solar technology significantly reduces the energy consumption and reduces the required battery weight, (2) the flight speed and flight attitude angles have significant effects on the optimal total energy acquisition and (3) wind fields with a large horizontal gradient and strong solar illumination provide energy and load advantages.

In China, one percent of the richest population holds more than one-third of the wealth, while the poorest 25% shares no more than two percent of the total. The country’s rapid economic development has resulted in increasing socio-economic disparities, and a rapidly deteriorating environment. This puts the Chinese citizens, especially the most vulnerable and deprived socio-economic status (SES) groups, at high risks of environmental inequality (EI). In most SES-based EI studies conducted in China, household wealth has often been overlooked, though it potentially serves a good economic indicator to capture the socio-economic effect of environmental change in China. Nevertheless, existing SES databases in China are of low spatial resolution and are insufficient to support fine-grained EI studies at the intra-city level in China. The core research challenge is to develop a representative household wealth proxy in high-spatial resolution for China. This study highlights the research gaps and proposes a new household wealth proxy, which integrates both fine-grained data/features such as daytime satellite imagery and easily accessible wealth indicators such as house prices. We also capitalize on everyday economic activity data retrieved from personal mobile phones and online transaction/social platforms in the composition of our wealth proxy to achieve a higher accuracy in estimating household wealth at fine-grained resolution via machine learning. Finally, we summarize the challenges in improving both the quality and the availability of Chinese socio-economic datasets, while protecting personal privacy and information security during the data collection process for household wealth proxy development in China.