Autonomous ships are gaining in importance and are expected to shape the future of the global shipping industry. This evolutionary shift raises serious issues about compliance with the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972 (COLREGs). This paper reviews the literature on autonomous ships from the perspective of the obligations of good seamanship imposed by COLREGs. The authors conclude that to facilitate the introduction of autonomous ships, the application barriers presented by COLREGs need to be analysed. With this goal, this paper presents a perspective from navigational practice. Four nautical scientists and two deck officers were invited to give their opinions. The analysis indicates that COLREGs require further elaboration and amendments to eliminate uncertainty of interpretation. In particular, the paper highlights the need to amend the ‘look-out’ rule (COLREGs Rule 5) to permit look-out by ‘computer vision’ alone while, at the same time, preserving the distinction between vessels navigating in restricted visibility and in sight of one another.

The elastoplastic behavior of a Functionally Graded Material (FGM) simply supported beam consisting of elastic material A and elastoplastic material B under uniformly distributed load is investigated. A power function is used to describe the volume fractions of the constituent materials, and the average stress of the FGM beam is obtained by using the averaging method. This method can avoid the assumption of the varying properties of the whole material, and can consider the different Possion’s ratios of the different constituent materials. What’s more, only the elastoplastic material B in the FGM beam will yield, and the yield function is determined by the stress of material B only, rather than the average stress of the whole material. The method used in this work is more closer to the real material than the method by assuming the variation of the whole properties of FGM. The theoretical results show a good agreement with the finite element results, which indicates that the method provided in this work is valid. With this method, the variation of the elastic and plastic areas, the stress distribution on the cross section, variation of the curvature and neutral layer, and the residual stress distribution of the FGM beam are discussed through numerical results. This work can provide a new way for the design and in-depth investigation of FGM material.

Quantifying reasonable crop yield gaps and determining potential regions for yield improvement can facilitate regional plant structure adjustment and promote crop production. The current study attempted to evaluate the yield gap in a region at multi-scales through model simulation and farmer investigation. Taking the winter wheat yield gap in the Huang-Huai-Hai farming region (HFR) for the case study, 241 farmers’ fields in four typical high-yield demonstration areas were surveyed to determine the yield limitation index and attainable yield. In addition, the theoretical and realizable yield gap of winter wheat in 386 counties of the HFR was assessed. Results showed that the average field yield of the demonstration plots was 8282 kg/ha, accounting for 0.72 of the potential yield, which represented the highest production in the region. The HFR consists of seven sub-regions designated 2.1–2.7: the largest attainable yield gap existed in the 2.6 sub-region, in the southwest of the HFR, while the smallest was in the 2.2 sub-region, in the northwest of the HFR. With a high irrigated area rate, the yield gap in the 2.2 sub-region could hardly be reduced by increasing irrigation, while a lack of irrigation remained an important limiting factor for narrowing the yield gap in 2.3 sub-region, in the middle of the HFR. Therefore, a multi-scale yield gap evaluation framework integrated with typical field survey and crop model analysis could provide valuable information for narrowing the yield gap.

Synaptotagmin 1 (Syt1) is an abundant and important presynaptic vesicle protein that binds Ca2+ for the regulation of synaptic vesicle exocytosis. Our previous study reported its localization and function on spindle assembly in mouse oocyte meiotic maturation. The present study was designed to investigate the function of Syt1 during mouse oocyte activation and subsequent cortical granule exocytosis (CGE) using confocal microscopy, morpholinol-based knockdown and time-lapse live cell imaging. By employing live cell imaging, we first studied the dynamic process of CGE and calculated the time interval between [Ca2+]i rise and CGE after oocyte activation. We further showed that Syt1 was co-localized to cortical granules (CGs) at the oocyte cortex. After oocyte activation with SrCl2, the Syt1 distribution pattern was altered significantly, similar to the changes seen for the CGs. Knockdown of Syt1 inhibited [Ca2+]i oscillations, disrupted the F-actin distribution pattern and delayed the time of cortical reaction. In summary, as a synaptic vesicle protein and calcium sensor for exocytosis, Syt1 acts as an essential regulator in mouse oocyte activation events including the generation of Ca2+ signals and CGE.

Minor and major zygotic genome activation (ZGA) are crucial for preimplantation development. During this process, histone variants and methylation influence chromatin accessibility and consequently regulated the expression of zygotic genes. However, the detailed exchanges of these modifications during ZGA remain to be determined. In the present study, the epigenetic modifications of histone 3 on lysine 9 (H3K9), 27 (H3K27) and 36 (H3K36), as well as four histone variants were determined during minor and major ZGA and in post-ZGA stages of mouse embryos. Firstly, microH2A1, H3K27me3 and H3K36me3 were asymmetrically stained in the female pronucleus during minor ZGA but lost staining in major ZGA. Secondly, H3K9me2 and H3K9me3 were strongly stained in the female pronucleus, but weakly stained in the male pronucleus and disappeared after ZGA. Thirdly, H2A.Z and H3.3 were symmetrically stained in male and female pronuclei during minor ZGA. Moreover, H3K27me2 was not statistically changed during mouse early development, while H3K36me2 was only detected in 2- and 4-cell embryos. In conclusion, our data revealed dynamics of histone methylation and variants during mice ZGA and provided details of their exchange in mice embryogenesis. Moreover, we further inferred that macroH2A1, H2A.Z, H3K9me2/3 and H3K27me2/3 may play crucial roles during mouse ZGA.

This study explored how internet queries vary in facilitating monitoring of pertussis, and the effects of sociodemographic characteristics on such variation by city in Shandong province, China. We collected weekly pertussis notifications, Baidu Index (BI) data and yearly sociodemographic data at the city level between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2017. Spearman's correlation was performed for temporal risk indices, generalised linear models and regression tree models were developed to identify the hierarchical effects and the threshold between sociodemographic factors and internet query data with pertussis surveillance. The BI was correlated with pertussis notifications, with a strongly spatial variation among cities in temporal risk indices (composite temporal risk metric (CTRM) range: 0.59–1.24). The percentage of urban population (relative risk (RR): 1.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03–1.07), the proportion of highly educated population (RR: 1.27, 95% CI 1.16–1.39) and the internet access rate (RR: 1.04, 95% CI 1.02–1.05) were correlated with CTRM. Higher RRs in the three identified sociodemographic factors were associated with higher stratified CTRM. The percentage of highly educated population was the most important determinant in the BI with pertussis surveillance. The findings may lead to spatially-specific criteria to inform development of an early warning system of pertussis infections using internet query data.

The strong-coupling mode, called the “quasimode”, is excited by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in high-intensity laser–plasma interactions. Also SBS of the quasimode competes with SBS of the fast mode (or slow mode) in multi-ion species plasmas, thus leading to a low-frequency burst behavior of SBS reflectivity. Competition between the quasimode and the ion-acoustic wave (IAW) is an important saturation mechanism of SBS in high-intensity laser–plasma interactions. These results give a clear explanation of the low-frequency periodic burst behavior of SBS and should be considered as a saturation mechanism of SBS in high-intensity laser–plasma interactions.

Maternal supraphysiological estradiol (E2) environment during pregnancy leads to adverse perinatal outcomes. However, the influence of oocyte exposure to high E2 levels on perinatal outcomes remains unknown. Thus, a retrospective cohort study was conducted to explore the effect of high E2 level induced by controlled ovarian stimulation (COH) on further outcomes after frozen embryo transfer (FET). The study included all FET cycles (n = 10,581) between 2014 and 2017. All cycles were categorized into three groups according to the E2 level on the day of the human Chorionic Gonadotropin trigger. Odds ratios (ORs) and their confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the association between E2 level during COH and pregnancy outcomes and subsequent neonatal outcomes. From our findings, higher E2 level was associated with lower percentage of chemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, and live birth as well as increased frequency of early miscarriage. Preterm births were more common among singletons in women with higher E2 level during COH (aOR1 = 1.93, 95% CI: 1.22–3.06; aOR2 = 2.05, 95% CI: 1.33–3.06). Incidence of small for gestational age (SGA) was more common in both singletons (aOR1 = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.30–3.11; aOR2 = 2.51, 95% CI: 1.69–3.74) and multiples (aOR1 = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.03–2.45; aOR2 = 1.99, 95% CI: 1.05–3.84) among women with relatively higher E2 level. No association was found between high E2 level during COH and the percentage of macrosomia or large for gestational age. In summary, oocyte exposure to high E2 level during COH should be brought to our attention, since the pregnancy rate decreasing and the risk of preterm birth and SGA increasing following FET.

The experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary threonine (Thr) on growth performance, and muscle growth, protein synthesis and antioxidant related signaling pathways of hybrid catfish Pelteobagrus vachelli♀ × Leiocassis longirostris♂. The total of 1200 fish (14.19 ± 0.13 g) were randomly distributed into six groups with four replicates each, fed six diets with graded level of Thr (9.5, 11.5, 13.5, 15.4, 17.4, and 19.3 g kg-1 diets) for 56 days. Results showed (P< 0.05) that dietary Thr (1) increased percent weight gain (PWG), specific growth rate (SGR), feed efficiency (FE), and protein efficiency ratio (PER); (2) up-regulated growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), myogenic regulation factors (MyoD, Myf5, MyoG, and Mrf4), and MyHC mRNA levels; (3) increased muscle protein content via regulating AKT/TOR signaling pathway; (4) decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyl (PC) contents, increased CAT, GST, GR, and GSH activities, up-regulated mRNA levels of antioxidant enzymes related to NFE2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and γ-glutamylcysteine ligase catalytic subunit (GCLC). These results suggest that Thr has potential role to improve muscle growth and protein synthesis, which might be due to the regulation of GH-IGF system, muscle growth related gene, antioxidative capacity, and protein synthesis related signaling pathways. Based on the quadratic regression analysis of SGR, the Thr requirement of hybrid catfish (14.19–25.77 g) was estimated to be 13.77 g kg-1 of the diet (33.40 g kg-1 of dietary protein).

Three-dimensional nano-mulberries consisting of SnO2 nanoparticles have been successfully anchored onto the surfaces of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) to construct hierarchical hybrids—SnO2@RGO with a one-pot approach. The SnO2 nano-mulberries with different amounts of RGO have been produced for optimizing their composition effect on Li storage performance. Specifically, SnO2@RGO hybrids incorporated with optimized amount of RGO nanosheets (∼20.8%) exhibit highly enhanced capacity of ∼1025 mA h/g at 0.1 A/g and a reversible capacity of 750 mA h/g over 100 cycles at 0.2 A/g. The materials also deliver much better rate performance with average specific capacity of ∼498 mA h/g at 2 A/g in comparison with that of SnO2 nano-mulberries. After cycling for 600 times at 1 A/g, the SnO2@RGO electrodes still maintain high reversible capacity of ∼602 mA h/g, corresponding to 35% of the second cycle and 133% of the 70th discharge capacity.

Needles of Juniperus rigida are used in Chinese traditional medicine for the treatment of brucellosis, dropsy, skin disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. This is the first study that reports anatomical structures of the J. rigida needles collected at different altitudes. The most common anatomical, phytochemical, and histochemical techniques and methods are used. The results show that anatomical structures and chemical composition change significantly at different altitudes. The main anatomical characters are significant xeromorphic structures (thick epidermis, hypodermis, and cuticle), a stomatal band, a developed vascular bundle, and a marginal resin duct. The xeromorphic structures become more pronounced with increasing altitude. The phytochemical and histochemical results demonstrate that the content of the main chemical compounds (phenols and terpenoids) basically increases at a higher elevation. Histochemical analysis localizes the phenols in epidermal cells, sponge tissue, endothelial layer cells, and stomatal bands, and the terpenoids in palisade tissue, sponge tissue, and the edge of the resin duct. This work reveals the relation between anatomy and chemistry in J. rigida needles, contributes to the quality control of its ethno-medicine, and provides the evidence to develop the commercial cultivation.

To what degree are Chinese citizens concerned about the seriousness of global warming and climate change (GWCC) and what are the key factors that shape their concern? Drawing theoretical insights from extant literature and using recent data from a national representative public survey (N = 3,748) and provincial environmental and economic statistics, this study, the first of its kind, examines the variations and determinants of Chinese GWCC concern. Our data show that in China, compared to other countries, average public concern about GWCC is relatively low, and concern varies greatly among Chinese citizens, across different provinces and between coastal and inland areas. Statistical analyses reveal that the levels of Chinese GWCC concern are significantly influenced by individual sociodemographic characteristics, personal post-materialist values, and regional economic dependency on carbon-intensive industries. Specifically, women and younger Chinese with greater post-materialist values are more concerned about GWCC than their counterparts, and citizens from provinces with higher economic dependency on carbon-intensive industries tend to be less concerned about GWCC than people from provinces with lower carbon dependency. We discuss key policy implications and make suggestions for future research in the conclusion.

We report new U–Pb zircon age data, zircon in situ oxygen isotope, mineral chemistry, whole-rock geochemistry and Sr–Nd isotopic compositions from the Early Devonian ultrapotassic Gucheng pluton in the North China Craton, and discuss its petrogenesis. The Gucheng pluton is exposed in the northern part of the North China Craton and forms a composite intrusion, consisting of K-feldspar-bearing clinopyroxenite, clinopyroxene-bearing syenite and alkali-feldspar syenite. Mineral phases in these lithologies include clinopyroxene (Wo43–48En19–35Fs18–38), sanidine (An0Ab3–11Or89–97), and subordinate titanite, andradite and Na-feldspar. These rocks show homogeneous Sr but variable Nd isotopic compositions, and have relatively high zircon in situ oxygen isotopes (δ18O = 5.2–6.7). The Gucheng plutonic rocks formed through fractional crystallization and accumulation from ultrapotassic magmas, which were originated from partial melting of metasomatic vein systems in the subcontinental lithospheric mantle of the North China Craton. These vein networks developed as a result of the reactions of fluids derived from subducted pelitic sediments on the downgoing Palaeo-Asian ocean floor with the enriched, subcontinental lithospheric mantle peridotites. Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U–Pb zircon dating has revealed a crystallization age of 415 Ma for the timing of the emplacement of the Gucheng pluton that marks the early stages of alkaline magmatism associated with the Andean-type continental margin evolution along the northern edge of the North China Craton facing the Palaeo-Asian Ocean.

Laser pulses of 200 ps with extremely high intensities and high energies are sufficient to satisfy the demand of shock ignition, which is an alternative path to ignition in inertial confinement fusion (ICF). This paper reports a type of Brillouin scheme to obtain high-intensity 200-ps laser pulses, where the pulse durations are a challenge for conventional pulsed laser amplification systems. In the amplification process, excited Brillouin acoustic waves fulfill the nonlinear optical effect through which the high energy of a long pump pulse is entirely transferred to a 200-ps laser pulse. This method was introduced and achieved within the SG-III prototype system in China. Compared favorably with the intensity of $2~\text{GW}/\text{cm}^{2}$ in existing ICF laser drivers, a 6.96- $\text{GW}/\text{cm}^{2}$ pulse with a width of 170 ps was obtained in our experiment. The practical scalability of the results to larger ICF laser drivers is discussed.

Differences in pipe wall microstructure at various positions throughout the wall thickness of high strength aluminum alloy thick-wall pipes produced by reverse hot extrusion were investigated. The microstructures of the inner wall (IW), outer wall (OW), and half wall (HW) were compared. Further, heterogeneity in the mechanical properties of the pipe throughout the wall thickness was also investigated. Results revealed that the volume fraction of precipitation was highest at the HW position because of the higher Zn and Mg contents. Further, approximately 26% of grains were recrystallized in the OW position due to the greater strain during extrusion, while the recrystallization fractions of the IW and HW positions were 13% and 21%, respectively. The effects of precipitation strengthening and deformation strengthening contribute to the highest ultimate tensile strength and Vickers hardness of the HW position, and to the higher elongation of the IW and OW positions.

A kind of n–p (SnO2)1.3/(α ∼ Bi2O3)x/(β ∼ Bi2O3)1−x nanocomposite (SB-15) was synthesized with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a template by solid state synthesis. XRD and HR-TEM confirmed the formation of n–p (SnO2)1.3/(α ∼ Bi2O3)x/(β ∼ Bi2O3)1−x. Particle size is found to be about 18 nm from HR-TEM images. FE-SEM clearly detected the boundary between SnO2 nanoparticles and Bi2O3 polyhedron particles. The special morphology and coexisting of α-Bi2O3 and β-Bi2O3 in SB-15 make it have a stronger visible light absorption range as far as 725 nm. PL and photocurrent test shows that the SB-15 has the best photocarriers separation capability. About 99% decolorization ratio of Rh.B was achieved in only 5 min. About 70% Cr6+ was degraded within 20 min and it is about 60% for tetracycline in the coexisting system (Te with Cr6+ solution), introducing it as a promising photocatalytic material. This work has addressed the method of phase-selective synthesis of n–p SnO2/α ∼ Bi2O3/β ∼ Bi2O3 by convenient solid state synthesis, which should be useful for the studies of other composites.

We explore the meaning of parochialism (xiao nong yi shi, 小农意识) to explain certain paradoxical Chinese managerial behaviors. We discuss how cultural, political, and economic traditions in China formed a salient context to cultivate parochialism. Qualitative data from Chinese and American managers reveal that the conceptual framework of parochialism includes a cognitive dimension of closed-mindedness, a behavioral dimension of self-protection, and a relational dimension of in-group focused social relationship. Parochialism hampers effective globalization of Chinese firms because it negatively impacts key facets of organizational culture: employee development, communication, customer orientation, social responsibility, strategic planning, and innovation. The study offers theoretical and practical implications for Chinese management research and the development of global competence.

Geoffrey Robinson conjectured in 1996 that the $p$ -part of character degrees in a $p$ -block of a finite group can be bounded in terms of the center of a defect group of the block. We prove this conjecture for all primes $p\neq 2$ for all finite groups. Our argument relies on a reduction by Murai to the case of quasi-simple groups which are then studied using deep results on blocks of finite reductive groups.