Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), the cryogenic infrared space telescope recently pre-selected for a ‘Phase A’ concept study as one of the three remaining candidates for European Space Agency (ESA's) fifth medium class (M5) mission, is foreseen to include a far-infrared polarimetric imager [SPICA-POL, now called B-fields with BOlometers and Polarizers (B-BOP)], which would offer a unique opportunity to resolve major issues in our understanding of the nearby, cold magnetised Universe. This paper presents an overview of the main science drivers for B-BOP, including high dynamic range polarimetric imaging of the cold interstellar medium (ISM) in both our Milky Way and nearby galaxies. Thanks to a cooled telescope, B-BOP will deliver wide-field 100–350 $\mu$ m images of linearly polarised dust emission in Stokes Q and U with a resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, and both intensity and spatial dynamic ranges comparable to those achieved by Herschel images of the cold ISM in total intensity (Stokes I). The B-BOP 200 $\mu$ m images will also have a factor $\sim $ 30 higher resolution than Planck polarisation data. This will make B-BOP a unique tool for characterising the statistical properties of the magnetised ISM and probing the role of magnetic fields in the formation and evolution of the interstellar web of dusty molecular filaments giving birth to most stars in our Galaxy. B-BOP will also be a powerful instrument for studying the magnetism of nearby galaxies and testing Galactic dynamo models, constraining the physics of dust grain alignment, informing the problem of the interaction of cosmic rays with molecular clouds, tracing magnetic fields in the inner layers of protoplanetary disks, and monitoring accretion bursts in embedded protostars.

Seed reserves play vital roles in seed germination and seedling growth and their variation may be related to various environment factors, plant traits and phylogenetic history. Here, the evolutionary correlation associated with seed mass and altitude and carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) allocation of seeds among 253 alpine herbaceous plants was tested. In this study, phylogeny had strong limitations on nutrient allocation of seeds across species, and species from younger phylogenetic groups tended to have higher N and P contents, which might be considered as the evolutionary selection of seed plants. Higher seed N and P content would help seedlings to gain more survival chance and stronger competitive capacity, and their progeny would be more likely to be preserved. When phylogeny was considered, altitude only had a significant positive effect on P content, but the negative effects on seed mass were all expressed. The independent effects of altitude and seed mass suggest that the nutrient allocation of seeds might be affected by both environment and plant traits. In addition, altitude and seed mass displayed partial overlapping effects on nutrient allocation of seeds. The negative effects of seed mass were affected slightly by altitude, whereas altitude only had a significant positive effect on P content when seed mass was controlled. Above all, seed P content showed obvious and general correlations with seed mass, altitude and age of clade, which indicated that higher seed P content might be an adaptive selection of species associated with growth and survival of progeny.

The overuse of antibiotics and the rapid emergence of antibiotic resistance prompted the launch of an antimicrobial stewardship programme in 2011. This study aimed to investigate the trends and correlations between antibiotic consumption and resistance of Staphylococcus aureus in a tertiary hospital of northwest China from 2010 to 2016. Trends were analysed by linear regression, and correlations were assessed by an autoregressive integrated moving average model. The total consumption of antibiotics halved during the 7-year study period, while the rates of resistance of S. aureus decreased significantly or remained stable; methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) declined markedly, from 73.3% at the beginning of the study to 41.4% by the end. This latter decrease was significantly correlated with the consumption of several classes of antibiotics. In conclusion, reduction in antibiotic use impacted significantly on resistance rates and contributed to a decline in MRSA prevalence.

Large strain extrusion machining (LSEM) emerges as an innovative severe plastic deformation method of fabricating ultrafine grained materials. However, substantial heat generated during LSEM would sacrifice the mechanical properties of materials. Cryogenic temperature (CT) LSEM is put forward to overcome this shortcoming. The Al 7075 was processed by cryogenic and room temperature (RT) LSEM to investigate their comparative effects on mechanical and microstructural properties. Results indicate that the chip morphology of CT LSEM is featured with better integrity. Grains are refined to less than 200 nm by CT LSEM. A more complicated microstructure with high dislocation density is observed in the CT LSEM specimens. The hardness of cryogenic and RT LSEM specimens increases with the compression ratio and reaches the highest values of 187HV and 170HV, respectively. Dislocation strengthening is the main contributor, accounting for the higher hardness of CT LSEM specimens.

Given a non-negative integer n and a complete hereditary cotorsion triple , the notion of subcategories in an abelian category is introduced. It is proved that a virtually Gorenstein ring R is n-Gorenstein if and only if the subcategory of Gorenstein injective R-modules is with respect to the cotorsion triple , where stands for the subcategory of Gorenstein projectives. In the case when a subcategory of is closed under direct summands such that each object in admits a right -approximation, a Bazzoni characterization is given for to be . Finally, an Auslander–Reiten correspondence is established between the class of subcategories and that of certain subcategories of which are -coresolving covariantly finite and closed under direct summands.

Essentially all biological processes are highly dependent on the nanoscale architecture of the cellular components where these processes take place. Statistical measures, such as the autocorrelation function (ACF) of the three-dimensional (3D) mass–density distribution, are widely used to characterize cellular nanostructure. However, conventional methods of reconstruction of the deterministic 3D mass–density distribution, from which these statistical measures can be calculated, have been inadequate for thick biological structures, such as whole cells, due to the conflict between the need for nanoscale resolution and its inverse relationship with thickness after conventional tomographic reconstruction. To tackle the problem, we have developed a robust method to calculate the ACF of the 3D mass–density distribution without tomography. Assuming the biological mass distribution is isotropic, our method allows for accurate statistical characterization of the 3D mass–density distribution by ACF with two data sets: a single projection image by scanning transmission electron microscopy and a thickness map by atomic force microscopy. Here we present validation of the ACF reconstruction algorithm, as well as its application to calculate the statistics of the 3D distribution of mass–density in a region containing the nucleus of an entire mammalian cell. This method may provide important insights into architectural changes that accompany cellular processes.

Graphene is a 2-D carbon material showing considerable prominence in a wide range of optoelectronics, energy storage, thermal and mechanical applications. However, due to its unique features which are typically associated with difficulty in handling (ultra-thin thickness and hydrophobic surface, to name a few), synthesis and subsequent deposition processes are thus critical to the material properties of the prepared graphene films. While existing synthesis approaches such as chemical vapor deposition and epitaxial growth can grow graphene with high degree of order, the costly high temperature and/or high vacuum process prohibit the widespread usage, and the subsequent graphene transfer from the growth substrates for deposition proves to be challenging. Herein, a low-cost one-step synthesis and deposition approach for preparing few-layer graphene (FLG) on flexible copper substrates based on dry ball-free milling of graphite powder is proposed. Different from previous reports, copper substrates are inserted into the milling crucible, thus accomplishing simultaneous synthesis and deposition of FLG and eliminating further deposition step. Furthermore, while all previously reported high energy milling processes involve using balls of various sizes, we adopt a ball-free milling process relying only on centrifugal forces, which significantly reduces the surface damage of the deposition substrates. Sample characterization indicates that the process yields FLG deposited uniformly across all tested specimens. Consequently, this work takes graphene synthesis and deposition a step closer to full automation with simple and low-cost process.

In this work, the high-performance silicon carbide particle SiCp[carbon nanotube (CNT)] hybrid reinforcement is currently explored to develop the advanced metal matrix composites. 17 wt% SiCp(CNT)/Al composites were fabricated by a powder metallurgy technique, in which SiCp(CNT) hybrid reinforcement with various CNT contents (e.g., 3, 6 and 9 wt%) were applied. Effects of CNT content on the morphology of SiCp(CNT) hybrid reinforcement, the microstructural characteristics, and the tensile mechanical behavior of SiCp(CNT)/Al composites were studied as well. Especially, the SiCp(CNT)/Al composites with 6 wt% CNT in SiCp(CNT) hybrid reinforcement exhibited the most significant enhancing effects in the elastic modulus and tensile strength. Meanwhile, the SiCp(CNT)/Al composites produced a synergistic strengthening effect of SiCp and CNT compared to SiCp/Al composites, while the SiCp(CNT)/Al composites with high CNT content in SiCp(CNT) hybrid reinforcement provided weak improvement in the tensile strength and ductility due to the forming agglomeration of CNT in the matrix.

The active region Boulder # 5395 (N34, L257), which appeared on the disk in March 1989, is one of the biggest active regions in fifty years. Study on the structure and dynamical characteristics of the region can help to understand the physics of solar flares. Many authors have studied morphology and sunspot motion of the region (e.g. Wang et al. 1991, and Zhao 1990); the magnetic emergence and shear; the relationship between the extrusion and the flares and the characteristics of the magnetic and velocity fields in the flare sites (Chen 1990; Li et al. 1990; Zhang et al. 1990). It comes into question that most of the regions display the features mentioned above but only a few of them produce such a high activity as AR5395 does. In other word, AR5395 must possess some particular features that are probably related to its high activity. Our attempt is to find what the special features are.

Nanocolloidal crystals (NCCs) have promising applications in optical and photonic devices. However, it is critical to mechanically reinforce NCCs for device reliability, since as-synthesized NCCs are fragile due to weak interparticle bonding. Thermal sintering is currently the most common reinforcement technique; however, this method could induce serious cracking and is not suitable for temperature-sensitive materials. In this study, by characterizing silica NCCs reinforced through sintering and alumina atomic layer deposition (ALD), we find that the ALD treatment is much more effective for hardening, stiffening, and more importantly toughening NCCs. Thermally sintered NCCs are prone to indentation-induced cracking due to large residual tensile stress, significantly impairing the toughness. In contrast, the ALD treatment toughens NCCs by much over 300%. Our finding provides insights for reinforcing and toughening various nanoparticle-based and nanoporous materials.

The solidification of undercooled Ni–3.3 wt% B alloy was studied by high-speed video analysis and microstructural analysis. For moderate initial undercooling (ΔT p = 75 K), the solidification interface for primary phase transformation manifests a shape of a planar dendrite, and possesses an constant growth velocity, for eutectic transformation whereas the interface presents multi-dendrite shape and spasmodic growth, so that a constant velocity cannot describe the interface exactly. These differences suggest that primary phase solidification is controlled by far-distance diffusion while eutectic solidification by short-distance diffusion. For large initial undercooling (ΔT p = 262 K), a kinds of large “white dendrites”, which is in fact composed of multiple phases, were found in the microstructure, from inside to outside of which, the eutectic phase changes from dot phases (anomalous structure) to irregular eutectic and then to regular eutectic, indicating that the center of “white dendrites” may be the nucleation zone of eutectic reaction.

This study presented a novel fabrication process for TiNi thin films by vacuum diffusion technology using reactive Ni/Ti/Ni multilayer thin films. The sandwiched thin films were prepared by chemical nickel plating. Ni/Ti/Ni multilayer films were heat treated for various diffusion times and temperatures and the influences of the temperature and diffusion time on the interdiffusion behavior of the Ti–Ni system were researched in detail. The results showed that a homogeneous TiNi thin film was obtained at 1173 K with a diffusion time of 4 h. Moreover, the formation sequence of the intermetallics in the Ti–Ni diffusion system was investigated by thermodynamic analysis and experiment. It was found that three compounds – TiNi3, Ti2Ni, and TiNi – formed in the diffusion process at the Ti/Ni interfaces. More importantly, the nucleation of TiNi3 and Ti2Ni was prior to that of TiNi because of the lower reaction Gibbs free energy and increasing interface energy of TiNi3 and Ti2Ni.

The survival behaviour of Vibrio cholerae in cholera epidemics, together with its attributes of virulence-associated genes and molecular fingerprints, are significant for managing cholera epidemics. Here, we selected five strains representative of V. cholerae O1 and O139 involved in cholera events, examined their survival capacity in large volumes of water sampled from epidemic sites of a 2005 cholera outbreak, and determined virulence-associated genes and molecular subtype changes of the surviving isolates recovered. The five strains exhibited different survival capacities varying from 17 to 38 days. The virulence-associated genes of the surviving isolates remained unchanged, while their pulsotypes underwent slight variation. In particular, one waterway-isolated strain maintained virulence-associated genes and evolved to share the same pulsotype as patient strains, highlighting its role in the cholera outbreak. The strong survival capacity and molecular attributes of V. cholerae might account for its persistence in environmental waters and the long duration of the cholera outbreak, allowing effective control measures.

X-ray powder diffraction data, unit-cell parameters, and space group for loratadine (C22H23ClN2O2) are reported [a = 28.302(18) Å, b = 4.996(3) Å, c = 29.154(19) Å, β = 109.158(2)°, unit-cell volume V = 3894.25 Å3, Z = 8, and space group C2/c]. All measured lines were indexed and are consistent with the C2/c space group. No detectable impurities were observed.

Solidification of undercooled Ni–4.5 wt% B alloy melt was investigated by glass fluxing and cyclic superheating. A maximum melt undercooling up to ΔTp = 283 K has been achieved. If ∆Tp < 175 ± 10 K, the primary solidification is L → Ni3B; the structure consists of Ni3B dendrite + lamellar eutectic; the phase sizes and fractions depend on ∆Tp. If ∆Tp ≥ 175 ± 10 K, the primary solidification is L → Ni/Ni23B6; the structure consists of the dot-phase region + the anomalous eutectic/network boundary; the phase fractions mainly depend on ∆Tr; the dot phases are determined as rod eutectic and dot precipitates, while the network boundary is the divorced eutectic. The solidification pathways show that there is a common critical nucleation temperature, 1227 ± 10 K, for metastable eutectic reaction in hypoeutectic and hypereutectic Ni–Ni3B alloys.