Anisocotyly, the unequal development of cotyledons post germination, is a unique trait observed only in Old World Gesneriaceae (Lamiales). New World Gesneriaceae have isocotylous seedlings. In both Old and New World Gesneriaceae, cotyledons initially grow equally for a short period just after germination. In the New World species, both cotyledons cease their growth at the same time early on, whereas in Old World species one cotyledon continues to expand to become a macrocotyledon while the other withers away. In this study, cotyledon growth was observed in two European Old World Gesneriaceae: Haberlea rhodopensis and Ramonda myconi. The results were compared with those for the typical anisocotylous species Streptocarpus rexii and the typical isocotylous species Corytoplectus speciosus. We found that the cotyledon growth patterns in Haberlea rhodopensis and Ramonda myconi were intermediate between the typical anisocotylous or isocotylous species. Haberlea rhodopensis and Ramonda myconi showed irregular growth patterns, with some plants being slightly anisocotylous but most being isocotylous. The developmental basis for the residual anisocotyly, the extended basal meristem activity in the macrocotyledon, appeared to be identical in the European species to that in the typical Old World Streptocarpus rexii but weakly expressed, rare and terminated early. In conclusion, European Gesneriaceae retain a reduced anisocotylous growth that may be linked to their early plumule development.

The oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata is an important crop pest in eastern Asia. Nocturnal insects, including nocturnal moths, have phototactic behavior to an artificial light source. Phototactic behavior in insects is species-specific in response to different wavelengths of light sources. Our previous study showed that green (520 nm) light emitting diode (LED) light resulted in a significantly higher phototactic behavior in M. separata moths compared to the other wavelength LED lights. The goal of the present study is to investigate the influence of green light illumination on biological characteristics of different developmental stages in M. separata. Our results revealed that when different developmental stages of M. separata were exposed to the green light illumination in a dark period, several biological characteristics in all developmental stages except for egg stage were positively changed, but those of F1 generation M. separata which are next generation of the adults exposed to the green light did not significantly change compared with the control level. These findings suggest that green light illumination at night (or dark period) has a positive effect on the development and longevity of M. separata.

Salvia daiguii Y.K.Wei & Y.B.Huang, a new species from China, is described. Salvia daiguii belongs to Salvia subg. Glutinaria (Raf.) G.X.Hu, C.L.Xiang & B.T.Drew, sect. Sobiso (Raf.) G.X.Hu, A.Takano & B.T.Drew, and is distinguished from morphologically similar species by differences in its habit, leaves, inflorescences and flowers. It has a narrow distribution in a karst region of Yongding District, Hunan Province, central China. A key to the Chinese species of section Sobiso is also presented.

Copy number variations (CNVs), as an important source of genetic variation, can affect a wide range of phenotypes by diverse mechanisms. The somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2) gene plays important roles in cell proliferation and apoptosis. Recently, this gene was mapped to a CNV region, which encompasses quantitative trait loci of cattle economic traits including body weight, marbling score, etc. Therefore, SSTR2 CNV may exhibit phenotypic effects on cattle growth traits. In the current study, distribution of SSTR2 gene CNVs was investigated in six Chinese cattle breeds (XN, QC, NY, JA, LX and PN), and the results showed higher CNV polymorphisms in XN, QC and NY cattle. Next, association analysis between growth traits and SSTR2 CNV was performed for XN, QC and NY cattle. In NY, individuals with fewer copies showed better performance than those with more copies. Further, the effects of SSTR2 CNV on the SSTR2 mRNA level were also investigated, but revealed no significant correlation in either muscle or adipose tissue of adult NY cattle. The results suggested the potential for use of SSTR2 CNV as a marker for the molecular breeding of NY cattle.

Laser-based compact MeV X-ray sources are useful for a variety of applications such as radiography and active interrogation of nuclear materials. MeV X rays are typically generated by impinging the intense laser onto ~mm-thick high-Z foil. Here, we have characterized such a MeV X-ray source from 120 TW (80 J, 650 fs) laser interaction with a 1 mm-thick tantalum foil. Our measurements show X-ray temperature of 2.5 MeV, flux of 3 × 1012 photons/sr/shot, beam divergence of ~0.1 sr, conversion efficiency of ~1%, that is, ~1 J of MeV X rays out of 80 J incident laser, and source size of 80 m. Our measurement also shows that MeV X-ray yield and temperature is largely insensitive to nanosecond laser contrasts up to 10−5. Also, preliminary measurements of similar MeV X-ray source using a double-foil scheme, where the laser-driven hot electrons from a thin foil undergoing relativistic transparency impinging onto a second high-Z converter foil separated by 50–400 m, show MeV X-ray yield more than an order of magnitude lower compared with the single-foil results.

Characterisation of genetic diversity in a large number of European pig populations has been undertaken with EC support. The populations sampled included local (rare) breeds, national varieties of the major international breeds, commercial lines and the Chinese Meishan breed. A second phase of the project will sample a further 50 Chinese breeds. Neutral genetic markers (AFLP and microsatellites), with individual or bulk typing, were used and compared.

DNA from 59 European pig populations was extracted on samples of about 50 individuals per population. Individuals were typed for 50 microsatellites and for 148 AFLP bands. A subset of 25 populations was typed for 20 microsatellites on pools of DNA. Allele frequencies were estimated by direct allele counting for the co-dominant markers. Frequencies of AFLP negative alleles (absent bands) were obtained by taking the square root of absent band frequencies. Within-breed variability was summarised using standard statistics: expected and observed heterozygosity, mean observed and effective numbers of alleles, and F statistics. Between-breed diversity analysis was based on a bootstrapped Neighbor-Joining (NJ) tree derived from Reynolds distances (DR). The standard distance of Nei (DS) was also calculated.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of the population regarding severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) in endemic areas of Lu'an in China were assessed before and after an intervention programme. The pre-intervention phase was conducted using a sample of 425 participants from the 12 selected villages with the highest rates of endemic SFTS infection. A predesigned interview questionnaire was used to assess KAP. Subsequently, an intervention programme was designed and applied in the selected villages. KAP was re-assessed for each population in the selected villages using the same interview questionnaire. Following 2 months of the programme, 339 participants had completed the re-assessed survey. The impact of the intervention programme was evaluated using suitable statistical methods. A significant increase in the KAP and total KAP scores was noted following the intervention programme, whereas the proportion of correct knowledge, the positive attitudes and the effective practices toward SFTS of respondents increased significantly. The intervention programme was effective in improving KAP level of SFTS in populations that were resident in endemic areas.

TAOS II is a next-generation occultation survey with the goal of measuring the size distribution of the small end of the Kuiper Belt (objects with diameters 0.5–30 km). Such objects have magnitudes r > 30, and are thus undetectable by direct imaging. The project will operate three telescopes at San Pedro Mártir Observatory in Baja California, México. Each telescope will be equipped with a custom-built camera comprised of a focal-plane array of CMOS imagers. The cameras will be capable of reading out image data from 10,000 stars at a cadence of 20 Hz. The telescopes will monitor the same set of stars simultaneously to search for coincident occultation detections, thus minimising the false-positive rate. This talk described the project, and reported on the progress of the development of the survey infrastructure.

Understanding the organic chemistry of molecular clouds, particularly the formation of biologically important molecules, is fundamental to the study of the processes which lead to the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the Galaxy. Determining the level of molecular complexity attainable in the clouds, and the nature of the complex organic material available to protostellar disks and the planetary systems that form from them, requires an understanding of the possible chemical pathways and is therefore a central question in astrochemistry. We have thus searched for prebiologically important molecules in the hot molecular cloud cores: Sgr B2(N-LMH), W51 e1/e2 and Orion-KL. Among the molecules searched: Pyrimidine is the unsubstituted ring analogue for three of the DNA and RNA bases. 2H-Azirine and Aziridine are azaheterocyclic compounds. And Glycine is the simplest amino acid. Detections of these interstellar organic molecular species will thus have important implications for Astrobiology. Our preliminary results indicate a tentative detection of interstellar glycine. If confirmed, this will be the first detection of an amino acid in interstellar space and will greatly strengthen the thesis that interstellar organic molecules could have played a pivotal role in the prebiotic chemistry of the early Earth.

Most topology optimization methods seek optimal topologies that satisfy a minimum compliance with a pre-specified volume constraint in the design domain. However, practical designs often include various functional constraints and the optimal solid volume ratios are unknown a priori, which implies a gap between topology optimization methods and practical designs in industries. This paper studies the performance-based topology optimization (PTO) problem that searches for the optimal topology with minimum compliance to satisfy the pre-specified functional constraints without a pre-specified volume constraint. A novel element-based evolutionary switching method (ESM), which can automatically adjust solid volume ratio and material distribution, is developed and implemented using the commercial finite element software ABAQUS. The effects of displacement constraints on the optimal topologies are investigated, and the differences between PTO problems and the topology optimization problem which has a volume constraint are discussed. Numerical examples demonstrate that the optimal topologies are mainly determined by the load pattern and locally changed with respect to the location of the active displacement constraints. In addition, the displacement constraints to a large extent control the solid volume ratio of optimal topologies according to the allowable displacements in PTO problems. Finally, the proposed ESM could provide conservative solutions to the topology optimization with multiple displacement constraints problems.

A number of laser facilities coming online all over the world promise the capability of high-power laser experiments with shot repetition rates between 1 and 10 Hz. Target availability and technical issues related to the interaction environment could become a bottleneck for the exploitation of such facilities. In this paper, we report on target needs for three different classes of experiments: dynamic compression physics, electron transport and isochoric heating, and laser-driven particle and radiation sources. We also review some of the most challenging issues in target fabrication and high repetition rate operation. Finally, we discuss current target supply strategies and future perspectives to establish a sustainable target provision infrastructure for advanced laser facilities.

Introduction: The CJEM Social Media Team was created in 2014 to assist the journal with the dissemination of its research online. It consists of two Social Media Editors (Junior and Senior) and a team of volunteer medical students and residents to assist their work. Collaborative promotional agreements were developed to promote CJEM articles on the Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine (SGEM) podcast through the ‘Hot off the Press’ (HOP) series and the CanadiEM blog through an infographic series. Methods: CJEM papers were selected for promotion by the Team based on their perceived interest to the online community of emergency physicians. Altmetric scores, which are a measure of online dissemination derived from a weighted algorithm of social media metrics, were collated for articles promoted using the SGEM HOP or CanadiEM blogs. A control group was created using the articles with the top two Altmetric scores in each CJEM issue in 2015 and 2016. Erratum, Letters, and articles written by the social media editors were excluded from the control groups. The success of the social media promotion was quantified through the measurement of Altmetric scores as of January 1, 2017. Unpaired two-tailed t-tests with unequal variance were used to test for significant differences. Results: 106 and 82 eligible articles were published in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Four articles in 2015 and two articles in 2016 were excluded from the control groups because they were written by the social media editors. SGEM HOP podcasts promoted one article in 2015 and five articles in 2016. CanadiEM infographics promoted three articles in 2015 and eight articles in 2016. No articles were promoted in both series. The average Altmetric score was higher for SGEM HOP (61.0) than CanadiEM Infographics (31.5, p<0.04), 2015 controls (15.8, p<0.01), and 2016 controls (13.6, p<0.01). The average Altmetric score for CanadiEM Infographics was higher than 2015 controls (p<0.04) and 2016 controls (p<0.02). There was no significant difference between the control groups. Conclusion: The results suggest that collaborating with established social media websites to promote CJEM articles using podcasts and infographics increases their social media dissemination. Given the nonrandomized design of these results, causative conclusions cannot be drawn. A randomized study of the impact of social media promotion on readership is underway.

Introduction: Concern for occult serious conditions leads to variations in ED syncope management [hospitalization, duration of ED/inpatient monitoring including Syncope Observation Units (SOU) for prolonged monitoring]. We sought to develop evidence-based recommendations for duration of ED/post-ED ECG monitoring using the Canadian Syncope Risk Score (CSRS) by assessing the time to serious adverse event (SAE) occurrence. Methods: We enrolled adults with syncope at 6 EDs and collected demographics, time of syncope and ED arrival, CSRS predictors and time of SAE. We stratified patients as per the CSRS (low, medium and high risk as ≤0, 1-3 and ≥4 respectively). 30-day adjudicated SAEs included death, myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, structural heart disease, pulmonary embolism or serious hemorrhage. We categorized arrhythmias, interventions for arrhythmias and death from unknown cause as arrhythmic SAE and the rest as non-arrhythmic SAE. We performed Kaplan-Meier analysis using time of ED registration for primary and time of syncope for secondary analyses. Results: 5,372 patients (mean age 54.3 years, 54% females, and 13.7% hospitalized) were enrolled with 538 (10%) patients suffering SAE (0.3% died due to an unknown cause and 0.5% suffered ventricular arrhythmia). 64.8% of SAEs occurred within 6 hours of ED arrival. The probability for any SAE or arrhythmia was highest within 2-hours of ED arrival for low-risk patients (0.65% and 0.31%; dropped to 0.54% and 0.06% after 2-hours) and within 6-hours for the medium and high-risk patients (any SAE 6.9% and 17.4%; arrhythmia 6.5% and 18.9% respectively) which also dropped after 6-hours (any SAE 0.99% and 2.92%; arrhythmia 0.78% and 3.07% respectively). For any CSRS threshold, the risk of arrhythmia was highest within the first 15-days (for CSRS ≥2 patients 15.6% vs. 0.006%). ED monitoring for 2-hours (low-risk) and 6-hours (medium and high-risk) and using a CSRS ≥2 cut-off for outpatient 15-day ECG monitoring will lead to 52% increase in arrhythmia detection. The majority (82.2%) arrived to the ED within 2-hours (median time 1.1 hours) and secondary analysis yielded similar results. Conclusion: Our study found 2 and 6 hours of ED monitoring for low-risk and medium/high-risk CSRS patients respectively, with 15-day outpatient ECG monitoring for CSRS ≥2 patients will improve arrhythmia detection without the need for hospitalization or observation units.