This paper presents a new method to reveal the relation between the surface deformation and near-field amplitude of a reflector antenna based on complex geometrical optics, which could be used as an efficient way to estimate the antenna surface verified by simulation results. The measurement process based on this method is envisaged to be realized by a single scanning of the near-field amplitude which would overcome many limitations of radio holography and phase retrieval methods such as the frequency and elevation. The largest source of error in the original deformation-amplitude equation (DAE) has been corrected by considering the Gaussian feed as a complex point source. To track the ray trajectory so that the improved DAE could be solved, an iteration method including a golden section search algorithm is designed to make the solution converge. By solving the modified DAE, simulation result shows that a more accurate solution could be obtained, and the antenna surface could be recovered to a root mean square error of under 30 microns.

Hexangulaconulariids (Cambrian stages 1–2) are an extinct group of medusozoan polyps having a biradially symmetrical, fan-shaped periderm that is distinct from those of medusozoan polyps showing three-, four-, five-, or six-fold radial symmetry. Hexangulaconulariids exhibit substantial variation in gross morphology, including variation in the number of faces on each of the two major sides of the periderm. An intermediate taxon of hexangulaconulariids with ten faces (five on each major side) was expected. Here we describe a new hexangulaconulariid, Decimoconularia isofacialis new genus new species from Bed 5 of the Yanjiahe Formation (Cambrian Stage 2) in the Three Gorges area of Hubei Province, China. The new taxon differs from other hexangulaconulariids (Arthrochites, Hexaconularia, and Septuconularia) mainly in possessing a total of ten faces. The two lateral margins are each marked by a ridge in about the apertural half of the periderm and by a collinear furrow in about the apical half, while the five faces on each major side are bounded by a furrow in about the apertural half and by a collinear ridge in about the apical half. Among hexangulaconulariids, Decimoconularia and Septuconularia may be more closely related to each other than either genus is to Arthrochites or Hexaconularia.

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Octapyrgites elongatus n. gen. n. sp., a relatively rare, tetraradial olivooid (Cnidaria, Medusozoa), is described from Bed 5 of the Yanjiahe Formation (Cambrian Stage 2) near Yichang, China. Although similar to Olivooides and Quadrapyrgites from the Fortunian Stage in consisting of a partially corrugated (longitudinal) periderm with a quadrate (transverse) apical portion and V-shaped apertural lobes, O. elongatus is substantially larger than other olivooids. The elongate apical region of O. elongatus is similar to four-sided Anaconularia anomala (Barrande, 1867), though with a flat tip that may have been an adaption for a sessile mode of life. As in other olivooids, embryonic development in O. elongatus may have been direct. Last, the paucity of olivooids and the absence of pentaradial cnidarians and carinachitids in Cambrian Stage 2 indicate a marked decline in the disparity of cnidarians near the Fortunian–Cambrian Age 2 boundary, when by contrast bilaterians underwent rapid diversification.

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Extant medusozoans (phylum Cnidaria) are dominated by forms showing tetraradial symmetry, but stem-group medusozoans of early Cambrian age collectively exhibit tetra-, bi-, penta-, and hexaradial symmetry. Moreover, the developmental and evolutionary relationships between four-fold and other types of radial symmetry in medusozoans remain poorly understood. Here we describe a new hexangulaconulariid, Septuconularia yanjiaheensis new genus new species, from Bed 5 of the Yanjiahe Formation (Cambrian Stage 2) in the Three Gorges area of Hupei Province, China. The laterally compressed, biradially symmetrical periderm of this species possesses 14 gently tapered faces, the most of any hexangulaconulariid described thus far. The faces are bordered by longitudinal ridges and crossed by short, irregularly spaced transverse ribs. Longitudinally, the periderm consists of three regions that probably correspond, respectively, to an embryonic stage, a transient juvenile stage, and a long adult stage. Septuconularia yanjiaheensis may have been derived from six-faced Hexaconularia (Fortunian Stage), which is morphologically intermediate between Septuconularia yanjiaheensis and Arthrochites. Furthermore, conulariids sensu stricto, carinachitids, and hexangulaconulariids may constitute a monophyletic group united by possession of an organic or organophosphatic periderm exhibiting longitudinal (corner) sulci, a facial midline, and offset of transverse ribs along the facial midline.

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(1 − x)Ba(Mg1/3Ta2/3)O3–xBa(Co1/3Nb2/3)O3 (BMT–BCN, x = 0.0, 0.20, 0.25, 0.30, 0.40) ceramics were prepared using the traditional solid-state reaction method. X-ray diffraction patterns have shown that the intensities of (001) and (100) super-lattices decrease with the increase in the BCN content. Seven main Raman vibrational modes are observed, assigned, and illustrated, in particular. Raman shifts of Eg(O) modes and the FWHM values of F2g(O)/A1g(O) modes have close relationship with the dielectric properties. The calculated values by the four-parameter semiquantum model based on IR reflectivity match well with the measured data (@3.8 GHz), which means that most of dielectric contribution to the system may be ascribed to the absorption of structural phononic oscillations at the infrared region, and the contribution from the scattering of the defective phonons is small. The contributions of each vibrational mode on the dielectric responses were investigated in detail, indicating that the low-frequency modes (A2u(1) and Eu(1)) have a decisive role to the dielectric properties.

Several epidemiological studies have investigated that Na or K intakes might be associated with the metabolic syndrome (MetS). However, little evidence has evaluated the association between Na:K ratio and the MetS. In this study, we assessed the association between the dietary Na:K ratio and the MetS. The cross-sectional study was conducted among adults aged 18 years and older in Nanjing, using a multi-stage random sampling method, which resulted in a sample size of 1993 participants. Dietary Na and K intakes were assessed by 3 consecutive days of dietary recollection combined with condiments weighing method. Health-related data were obtained by standardised questionnaires, as well as physical examinations and laboratory assessments. The prevalence rate of the MetS was 36·5 % (728/1993). After adjusting for various lifestyle and dietary factors of the MetS, participants in the highest quartile of dietary Na:K ratio were at a higher risk of developing MetS (OR=1·602; 95 % CI 1·090, 2·353) compared with those in the lowest quartile. Each 1-sd increase in dietary Na:K ratio was associated with a higher risk of prevalent MetS (OR=1·166; 95 % CI: 1·018, 1·336). Among the components of the MetS, dietary Na:K ratio was positively associated with high blood pressure (quartile 3 v. quartile 1: OR=1·656; 95 % CI 1·228, 2·256) and hypertriacylglycerolaemia (quartile 4 v. quartile1: OR=1·305; 95 % CI 1·029, 1·655) in multivariate analysis. These results revealed that higher dietary Na:K ratio significantly increased the risk of the MetS in Chinese adults. Further studies are needed to verify this association.

Disarticulated net-like plates of the lobopod Microdictyon had a near cosmopolitan distribution from the early to middle Cambrian but are yet to be documented from the North China Platform. Here we report isolated plates of Microdictyon from the lower Cambrian Xinji Formation (Stage 4, Series 2) of the North China Platform, extending the paleogeographic distribution of Microdictyon in the early Cambrian. The plates of Microdictyon from the Xinji Formation are similar to those of other species established on the basis of isolated plates but do bear some new characters, such as mushroom-shaped nodes with a single inclined platform-like apex and an upper surface that displays radial lines. However, the plates documented here are left under open nomenclature due to inadequate knowledge of intraspecific and ontogenetic variation and low specimen numbers. Through comparison of the node shapes of the isolated plates of different Microdictyon species, we consider that low mushroom-shaped nodes could be a primitive and conservative character of Microdictyon while tall mushroom-shaped nodes may be a derived character. Subtle differences in shape and number of node apices may also represent intraspecific or ontogenetic variation.

The early Cambrian Carinachitidae, a family in the subclass Conulata, are intriguing and important small shelly fossils. Their gently tapering, tube-shaped skeletons consist of convex faces separated from each other by broad, deep corner sulci, and they exhibit triradial, pentaradial, or predominantly tetraradial symmetry. However, the morphology of the aperture and the modes of growth of carinachitid skeletons as well as the anatomy of their soft parts are unknown. Examination of a single new, exceptionally well-preserved specimen of tetramerous Carinachites spinatus Qian, 1977, collected from the lower Cambrian Kuanchuanpu Formation in South China, reveals: (1) that its aperture is connected to a small mass of relic soft tissue and (2) that the apertural end of each of the four faces is developed into a subtriangular lappet or oral lobe that is smoothly folded toward the long axis of the tube, partially closing the tube aperture. Similarities between thorn-like spines on the faces and the oral lobes indicate that the transverse ribs were periodically displaced from the perradial portion of the aperture during formation of new ribs. In addition, the tube walls may have undergone secondary thickening during growth. The growth pattern of the tube and the spatial relationships between the tube aperture and soft parts are analogous to those of co-occurring olivooids. These findings further strengthen the previously proposed hypothesis that coeval carinachitids, olivooids, hexangulaconulariids, and Paleozoic conulariids are closely related taxa within the subphylum Medusozoa. Finally, carinachitids most likely represent an evolutionary intermediate between olivooids and hexangulaconulariids.

To improve the lower contrast ratio of yellow-white dual color electrophoretic display cell, dispersion polymerization, and miniemulsion polymerization method were used to obtain good performance of Pigment Yellow 110 (PY110) composite particles. Crude PY110 particles and Span80 were suspended into the ethanol by dispersion method to obtain PY110-S, which were subsequently coated with styrene (St) through a mini-emulsion polymerization procedure to acquire PS/PY110-S as an electronic ink material. The modified pigments were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), UV–vis spectroscopy. Furthermore, the Pigment Red 146 which coated with styrene (St) through a miniemulsion polymerization procedure was doped into the PS/PY110-S. Then, the obtained mixed particles were successfully incorporated in an electrophoretic display cell. And the contrast ratio of yellow-white electrophoretic display cell was significantly improved. The contrast ratio reached 1.58.

The Tannuolinidae includes only two known genera—Micrina Laurie, 1986 and Tannuolina Fonin and Smirnova, 1967, both from the Lower Cambrian. They are phosphatic bimembrate small shelly fossils, consisting of two types of sclerites—the mitral and sellate sclerites. These sclerites show basal-internal accretional growth, spaced growth lamellae, carinae (in mitral sclerites of Tannuolina) or teeth (in mitral sclerites of Micrina), and unevenly distributed pores and canals. The scleritome of tannuolinids is poorly known because they are often preserved as disarticulated sclerites. Here we describe Micrina xiaotanensis new species and Tannuolina zhangwentangi Qian and Bengtson, 1989 from the Lower Cambrian Shiyantou and Yu'anshan formations (upper Meishucunian to Qiongzhusian stages) at Xiaotan, eastern Yunnan, South China. The new material not only extends the geographic range of Micrina, previously known only in Australia, but also includes two composite specimens of T. zhangwentangi: one with a pair of dextral and sinistral mitrals juxtaposed along the apertural margin of their decrescent sides, and the other with a smaller sellate ontogenetically merged with the sella of a larger sellate. Perhaps as a result of being contacting or imbricating surfaces, the decrescent, sella, and duplicature sides are also characterized by negative allometry (relative to other sides) and a sparse distribution of pores. The new fossils do not support reconstructions that place a sellate and a mitral sclerite, respectively, at the anterior and posterior end of the Tannuolina animal, in a way similar to Halkieria evangelista Conway Morris and Peel, 1995. Instead, they are consistent with the traditional view that the scleritome of Tannuolina consisted of four anterior-posterior files of sclerites: two opposing mitral rows flanked by two imbricated sellate series. The bimembrate Micrina may or may not have had a similar scleritome. If Tannuolina and Micrina form a monophyletic group outside the total group of brachiopods, then Micrina is likely to have had a multisclerite scleritome similar to that of Tannuolina. This implies that microstructural similarities between the tannuolinids and some linguliformean brachiopods are probably symplesiomorphic or convergent. Alternatively, Tannuolina and Micrina may represent stem groups leading to the linguliformeans while Halkieria represents a stem group leading to the calcareous brachiopods—a radical hypothesis that would imply that the two brachiopod groups independently evolved the bivalved body plan.

The basal Cambrian marks the beginning of an important chapter in the history of life. However, most paleontological work on the basal Cambrian has been focused on skeletal animal fossils, and our knowledge about the primary producers—cyanobacteria and eukaryotic phytoplankton (e.g., acritarchs)—is limited. In this research, we have investigated basal Cambrian acritarchs, coccoidal microfossils, and cyanobacteria preserved in phosphorites and cherts of the Yanjiahe Formation in the Yangtze Gorges area (South China) and the Yurtus Formation in the Aksu area (Tarim Block, northwestern China). Our study confirms the occurrence in these two formations of small acanthomorphic acritarchs characteristic of the basal Cambrian Asteridium–Comasphaeridium–Heliosphaeridium (ACH) assemblage. These acritarchs include abundant Heliosphaeridium ampliatimi (Wang, 1985) Yao et al., 2005, common Yurtusia uniformis n. gen. and n. sp., and rare Comasphaeridium annulare (Wang, 1985) Yao et al., 2005. In addition, these basal Cambrian successions also contain the clustered coccoidal microfossil Archaeophycus yunnanensis (Song in Luo et al., 1982) n. comb., several filamentous cyanobacteria [Cyanonema majus n. sp., Oscillatoriopsis longa Timofeev and Hermann, 1979, and Siphonophycus robustum (Schopf, 1968) Knoll et al., 1991], and the tabulate tubular microfossil Megathrix longus L. Yin, 1987a, n. emend. Some of these taxa (e.g., H. ampliatum, C. annulare, and M. longus) have a wide geographic distribution but occur exclusively in basal Cambrian successions, supporting their biostratigraphic importance. Comparison between the stratigraphic occurrences of microfossils reported here and skeletal animal fossils published by others suggests that animals and phytoplankton radiated in tandem during the Cambrian explosion.

The early Cambrian calcareous skeletal fossil Apistoconcha Conway Morris is characterized by its two valves having posterior teeth and internal umbonal cavities. It has been reported from lower Cambrian Botomian-equivalent carbonate rocks in Australia, Mongolia, and Greenland. Here we report a new occurrence of Apistoconcha in the lower Cambrian Xinji Formation of Luonan, southeast Shaanxi Province, North China Platform. Based on material (five ventral and four dorsal valves) from the Xinji Formation, Apistoconcha cf. apheles is systematically described and the taxonomic affinity of Apistoconcha is discussed. The shell of Apistoconcha possesses an ‘antero-posterior’ plane of bilateral symmetry, and its two valves apparently articulated in life, although the tooth-like structures and pits show little resemblance to the teeth and sockets, respectively, of bivalved shells of rhynchonelliform brachiopods or pelecypods. Apistoconcha cannot be assigned to the crown groups of either brachiopods or mollusks, even though functional morphological analysis indicates that Apistoconcha may be a ‘stem-group brachiopod’. Unlike Apistoconcha, the morphologically similar Tianzhushanella Liu is known only from a single type of valve lacking posterior teeth and pits. Tianzhushanella may represent either a univalved animal or a bivalved animal, the other valve of which has not yet been identified. Even though both Apistoconcha and Tianzhushanella may represent stem-group brachiopods, they probably correspond to different stages of brachiopod evolution. Thus assignment of Apistoconcha and Tianzhushanella to the same family (Tianzhushanellidae) may obscure their phylogenic implications.

Phosphatized and phosphatic small shelly fossils are a major source of information concerning the evolution of animals during the early Cambrian. Although progress has been made in understanding some of these fossils, many remain enigmatic, both with regard to their phylogenetic affinities and the overall morphology of the animal from which isolated sclerites came. Two unusual fossils from the upper lower Cambrian (Qiongzhusian or Atdabanian) Xihaoping Member of the Dengying Formation from Xiaowan, Xixiang County, southeastern Shaanxi Province, China are described herein. The first of these is a cap-shaped fossil we describe as Cambroskiadeion xiaowanense new genus and species. On its concave surface it bears a spine, the base of which is covered with numerous hemispherical verruculae. The long spine indicates that this was a sclerite rather than a univalved shell, although it remains unclear from what sort of animal it came. Similar fossils have been hypothesized to be halkieriid valves; although the rarity of halkieriid sclerites in the present samples argues against this view, it is possible these fossils are part of a similar multi-element skeleton. The second fossil is Acidocharacus longiconus Qin and Ding, 1988; it is known only from the Xihaoping Member and consists of a tall spine, often bearing barbs or bumps, attached to a rounded conical base. The base is covered with verruculae similar to those found on Cambroskiadeion. The function of these elements, and whether they were internal or external, remains unknown.

Cambrothyra ampulliformis Qian and Zhang, 1983, is a jar- or vase-shaped fossil known from the Lower Cambrian of Shaanxi and Hubei provinces, China. It has been interpreted as a protistan test or cyst or a metazoan sclerite. A large collection of specimens from the Xihaoping Member of the Dengying Formation in southern Shaanxi Province permits its detailed redescription. These fossils are highly variable in shape but this variation is continuous and does not support the current recognition of multiple species for this material. They were originally hollow with a restricted basal foramen and a calcareous wall probably composed of fibrous aragonite. All of these features support the identification of Cambrothyra as sclerites of a coeloscleritophoran, a problematic group of Cambrian scleritome-bearing metazoans. Furthermore, the walls of Cambrothyra sclerites contain numerous pores, a feature shared with other coeloscleritophorans. Cambrothyra resembles chancelloriids in particular due to the shared presence of a verruculose texture around the foramen and the absence of mirror-image pairs of asymmetric sclerites. However, unlike chancelloriids, which have rosette-like compound sclerites, the scleritome of Cambrothyra was dominated by isolated sclerites, with only a few pairs and clusters of sclerites and twin sclerites. Consequently, we hypothesize that Cambrothyra forms a clade with other chancelloriids, but represents a basal lineage that plesiomorphically retained isolated sclerites. The morphology of Cambrothyra sclerites, which shares features with both chancelloriids and halkieriids, thus supports the hypothesis that all coeloscleritophorans form a natural group.

In this paper, we study the distribution of chromospheric magnetic fields and analyze reversed polarity structures on chromospheric magnetograms in active regions.

We analyzed eight active regions with more than 600 flare kernels and ribbons, and relevant time sequence Hβ chromospheric Dopplergrams. These data showed that during several hours prior to the flares, the velocity field evolves so that the sites of the flare kernels and ribbons become close to the inversion line of the velocity field. This result holds regardless of whether or not the flare sites are wholly located in blue-shifted areas, or are far from the the inversion line of the line-of-sight velocity field, or are partly within red-shifted areas.

The reversed polarity structures of chromospheric magnetic fields are magnetic gulfs and islands of opposite polarity relative to the underlying photospheric fields. In this paper data were analyzed from the Solar Magnetic Field Telescope of the Huairou Solar Observing Station (HSOS) in Beijing. From more than 300 pairs of photospheric magnetograms (in FeI λ5324.19 Å) and relevant chromospheric magnetograms (in Hβλ4861.34 Å), the reality of the reversed polarity structures is demonstrated. According to an analysis of the fine structures of the magnetic fields in the two layers of active regions, we found that there are probably four different types.

By means of Solar Magnetic Field Telescope, the fine structure of video magnetic fields (5324A) and sight-of-line velocity fields (4861A) of flare active region on July 23 (E53, S19) and Aug. 8(W25, S28) in 1987 has been obtained. The main characters are following:

1. The flares occur in places where there are compressive and osmotic motion between opposite magnetic poles. In some causes, the osmotic opposite magnetic pole dissipates after the flares.