Straightplasma channels are widely used to guide relativistic intense laser pulses over several Rayleigh lengths for laser wakefield acceleration. Recently, a curved plasma channel with gradually varied curvature was suggested to guide a fresh intense laser pulse and merge it into a straight channel for staged wakefield acceleration [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 154801 (2018)]. In this work, we report the generation of such a curved plasma channel from a discharged capillary. Both longitudinal and transverse density distributions of the plasma inside the channel were diagnosed by analyzing the discharging spectroscopy. Effects of the gas-filling mode, back pressure and discharging voltage on the plasma density distribution inside the specially designed capillary are studied. Experiments show that a longitudinally uniform and transversely parabolic plasma channel with a maximum channel depth of 47.5 μm and length of 3 cm can be produced, which is temporally stable enough for laser guiding. Using such a plasma channel, a laser pulse with duration of 30 fs has been successfully guided along the channel with the propagation direction bent by 10.4°.

Land expropriation, where peasants’ property rights are encroached by the state, has been recognized as a primary source of social dissension in rural China. Since the end of the last century, the Administrative Litigation Law (ALL) has provided people with a legal weapon to defend themselves against violations by state power. Drawing on the theory of relative deprivation, this paper proposes that peasants are more likely to sue the state when they feel deprived. To examine this hypothesis, we first present a case study to depict the causal process and then use quantitative research to improve the external validity of our findings. We created a novel and unique database of prefecture-level administrative litigations and relative deprivation for Poisson regression analysis. The quantitative results prove that the more peasants feel relatively deprived, the more likely they are to sue the state. Furthermore, the positive effect of relative deprivation on administrative litigations has become more significant over time, implying peasants’ growing awareness of legal resistance. This paper concludes that a critical step towards eliminating social inequity and maintaining social stability in rural China is to reduce the relative deprivation of peasants by, for example, allowing them to share in land value appreciation in the process of urbanization.

To address the shortcomings of existing methods for rotorcraft searching, positioning, tracking and landing on a ship at sea, a dual-channel LIDAR searching, positioning, tracking and landing system (DCLSPTLS) is proposed in this paper, which utilises the multi-pulse laser echoes accumulation method and the physical phenomenon that the laser reflectivity of the ship deck in the near-infrared band is four orders of magnitude higher than that of the sea surface. The DCLSPTLS searching and positioning model, tracking model and landing model are established, respectively. The searching and positioning model can provide estimates of the azimuth angle, the distance of the ship relative to the rotorcraft and the ship's course. With the above parameters as inputs, the total tracking time and the direction of the rotorcraft tracking speed can be obtained by using the tracking model. The landing model can calculate the pitch and the roll angles of the ship's deck relative to the rotorcraft by using the least squares method and the laser irradiation coordinates. The simulation shows that the DCLSPTLS can realise the functions of rotorcraft searching, positioning, tracking and landing by using the above parameters. To verify the effectiveness of the DCLSPTLS, a functional test is performed using a rotorcraft and a model ship on a lake. The test results are consistent with the results of the simulation.

Introducing susceptible-infected-recovered epidemiology dynamics with vaccines into an endogenous growth model, we investigate the impact of government infectious disease policy on macroeconomic performance. We find that any expenditure that improves health, whether to reduce the contact rate or increase the recovery rate or the vaccination rate, and regardless of whether it comes directly from the households or the government, has a positive impact on economic growth, but does not necessarily improve the welfare. The reason people’s health has improved but their welfare has fallen is because government expenditures must be covered by taxes, which will reduce their disposable income and consumption.

This study is performed to figure out how the presence of diabetes affects the infection, progression and prognosis of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and the effective therapy that can treat the diabetes-complicated patients with COVID-19. A multicentre study was performed in four hospitals. COVID-19 patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) or hyperglycaemia were compared with those without these conditions and matched by propensity score matching for their clinical progress and outcome. Totally, 2444 confirmed COVID-19 patients were recruited, from whom 336 had DM. Compared to 1344 non-DM patients with age and sex matched, DM-COVID-19 patients had significantly higher rates of intensive care unit entrance (12.43% vs. 6.58%, P = 0.014), kidney failure (9.20% vs. 4.05%, P = 0.027) and mortality (25.00% vs. 18.15%, P < 0.001). Age and sex-stratified comparison revealed increased susceptibility to COVID-19 only from females with DM. For either non-DM or DM group, hyperglycaemia was associated with adverse outcomes, featured by higher rates of severe pneumonia and mortality, in comparison with non-hyperglycaemia. This was accompanied by significantly altered laboratory indicators including lymphocyte and neutrophil percentage, C-reactive protein and urea nitrogen level, all with correlation coefficients >0.35. Both diabetes and hyperglycaemia were independently associated with adverse prognosis of COVID-19, with hazard ratios of 10.41 and 3.58, respectively.

Athetis lepigone Möschler (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) is a common maize pest in Europe and Asia. However, there is no long-term effective management strategy is available yet to suppress its population. Adults rely heavily on olfactory cues to locate their optimal host plants and oviposition sites. Pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs) are believed to be responsible for recognizing and transporting different odorant molecules to interact with receptor membrane proteins. In this study, the ligand-binding specificities of two AlepPBPs (AlepPBP2 and AlepPBP3) for sex pheromone components and host plant (maize) volatiles were measured by fluorescence ligand-binding assay. The results demonstrated that AlepPBP2 had a high affinity with two pheromones [(Z)-7-dodecenyl acetate, Ki = 1.11 ± 0.1 μM, (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate, Ki = 1.32 ± 0.15 μM] and ten plant volatiles, including (-)-limonene, α-pinene, myrcene, linalool, benzaldehyde, nonanal, 2-hexanone, 3-hexanone, 2-heptanone and 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one. In contrast, we found that none of these chemicals could bind to AlepPBP3. Our results clearly show no significant differences in the functional characterization of the binding properties between AlepPBP2 and AlepPBP3 to sex pheromones and host plant volatiles. Furthermore, molecular docking was employed for further detail on some crucial amino acid residues involved in the ligand-binding of AlepPBP2. These findings will provide valuable information about the potential protein binding sites necessary for protein-ligand interactions which appear as attractive targets for the development of novel technologies and management strategies for insect pests.

We report the crystal structure of allanite-(Ce), with composition (Ca1.0REE0.9□0.1)Σ2.0(Al1.46Fe3+0.52Fe2+0.76Mg0.12Ti0.15)Σ3.01Si3O12(OH) from the Xinfeng rare earth element (REE)-bearing granite in Guangdong Province, China. It has the unit cell a = 8.9550(4) Å, b = 5.77875(16) Å, c = 10.2053(4) Å, β = 114.929(5)° and Z = 2 in space group P21/m and is characterised by site splitting at M3 into M3a and M3b, at a distance of 0.38(3) Å, which are occupied partially by Fe0.764Mg0.12 and Ti0.15, respectively. The structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and refined with anisotropic full-matrix least-squares refinement on F2 to R1 = 2.82%, wR2 = 7.77% for 1856 independent reflections (8772 collected reflections). However, M3 splitting is not present in either ferriallanite-(Ce) or epidote, in which M3 is almost fully occupied either by Fe2+ or by Fe3+. Comparisons of bond lengths and volumes in cation polyhedra among allanite-(Ce), ferriallanite-(Ce) and epidote tend to indicate that the essential factor that facilitates site splitting of M3 in allanite-(Ce) is heterovalent substitution and occupation of a crystallographic site between Fe2+(Mg2+/Mn2+)–Al3+(Ti4+), a common phenomenon in minerals, such as the plagioclase series. Fine structure analysis of the M3 split model revealed that deformation of A2 is related closely to distorted M3, which is consistent with Fe2+ incorporation following REE substitution.

Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) play a vital role in the gastrointestinal motility. However, information on ICC in lower vertebrates is rare. Here, ICC and ICC-like features of the gastric wall in the bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) were observed by light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The lengths and distances of the ICC/ICC-like features were measured by morphometric analysis. The gastric wall contained mucosa, submucosa, tunica muscularis, and serosa. The gastric glands contained mucous cells and oxynticopeptic cells. The ICC with 1–3 processes were located among smooth muscle cells (SMC) of the tunica muscularis. Moreover, the ICC-like features were observed among oxynticopeptic cells of the mucosa. The processes of ICC established direct contacts with SMC. Also, the gap junctions were observed between the processes of ICC and nerve fiber bundles in the tunica muscularis. The multivesicular bodies, including shedding exosomes, were frequently observed between ICC and SMC. In addition, ICC-like features and their processes were observed in close proximity to oxynticopeptic cells and blood vessels. Our findings illustrated that ICC are present in the gastric tunica muscularis, and ICC-like features were in the mucosal lamina propria of the gastric wall of R. catesbeiana. These histological evidences supported the notion that ICC are implicated in gastric motility.

Extrinsic mortality risks calibrating fast life history (LH) represent a species-general principle that applies to almost all animals including humans. However, empirical research also finds exceptions to the LH principle. The present study proposes a maternal socialization hypothesis, whereby we argue that the more human-relevant attachment system adds to the LH principle by up- and down-regulating environmental harshness and unpredictability and their calibration of LH strategies. Based on a longitudinal sample of 259 rural Chinese adolescents and their primary caregivers, the results support the statistical moderating effect of caregiver–child attachment on the relation between childhood environmental adversities (harshness and unpredictability) and LH strategies. Our theorizing and findings point to an additional mechanism likely involved in the organization and possibly the slowdown of human LH.

The findings regarding the associations between red meat, fish and poultry consumption, and the metabolic syndrome (Mets) have been inconclusive, and evidence from Chinese populations is scarce. A cross-sectional study was performed to investigate the associations between red meat, fish and poultry consumption, and the prevalence of the Mets and its components among the residents of Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, China. A total of 4424 participants were eligible for the analysis. A logistic regression model was used to estimate the OR and 95 % CI for the prevalence of the Mets and its components according to red meat, fish and poultry consumption. In addition, the data of our cross-sectional study were meta-analysed under a random effects model along with those of published observational studies to generate the summary relative risks (RR) of the associations between the highest v. lowest categories of red meat, fish and poultry consumption and the Mets and its components. In the cross-sectional study, the multivariable-adjusted OR for the highest v. lowest quartiles of consumption was 1·23 (95 % CI 1·02, 1·48) for red meat, 0·83 (95 % CI 0·72, 0·97) for fish and 0·93 (95 % CI 0·74, 1·18) for poultry. In the meta-analysis, the pooled RR for the highest v. lowest categories of consumption was 1·20 (95 % CI 1·06, 1·35) for red meat, 0·88 (95 % CI 0·81, 0·96) for fish and 0·97 (95 % CI 0·85, 1·10) for poultry. The findings of both cross-sectional studies and meta-analyses indicated that the association between fish consumption and the Mets may be partly driven by the inverse association of fish consumption with elevated TAG and reduced HDL-cholesterol and, to a lesser extent, fasting plasma glucose. No clear pattern of associations was observed between red meat or poultry consumption and the components of the Mets. The current findings add weight to the evidence that the Mets may be positively associated with red meat consumption, inversely associated with fish consumption and neutrally associated with poultry consumption.

Spodoptera litura is an important pest that causes significant economic damage to numerous crops worldwide. Sex pheromones (SPs) mediate sexual communication in S. litura and show a characteristic degree of rhythmic activity, occurring mainly during the scotophase; however, the specific regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we employed a genome-wide analysis to identify eight candidate circadian clock genes in S. litura. Sequence characteristics and expression patterns were analyzed. Our results demonstrated that some circadian clock genes might regulate the biosynthesis and perception of SPs by regulating the rhythmic expression of SP biosynthesis-related genes and SP perception-related genes. Interestingly, all potential genes exhibited peak expression in the scotophase, consistent with the SP could mediate courtship and mating behavior in S. litura. Our findings are helpful in elucidating the molecular mechanism by which circadian clock genes regulate sexual communication in S. litura.

The tobacco cutworm Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a polyphagous pest with a highly selective and sensitive chemosensory system involved in complex physiological behaviors such as searching for food sources, feeding, courtship, and oviposition. However, effective management strategies for controlling the insect pest populations under threshold levels are lacking. Therefore, there is an urgent need to formulate eco-friendly pest control strategies based on the disruption of the insect chemosensory system. In this study, we identified 158 putative chemosensory genes based on transcriptomic and genomic data for S. litura, including 45 odorant-binding proteins (OBPs, nine were new), 23 chemosensory proteins (CSPs), 60 odorant receptors (ORs, three were new), and 30 gustatory receptors (GRs, three were new), a number higher than those reported by previous transcriptome studies. Subsequently, we constructed phylogenetic trees based on these genes in moths and analyzed the dynamic expression of various genes in head capsules across larval instars using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Nine genes–SlitOBP8, SlitOBP9, SlitOBP25, SlitCSP1, SlitCSP7, SlitCSP18, SlitOR34, SlitGR240, and SlitGR242–were highly expressed in the heads of 3- to 5-day-old S. litura larvae. The genes differentially expressed in olfactory organs during larval development might play crucial roles in the chemosensory system of S. litura larvae. Our findings substantially expand the gene inventory for S. litura and present potential target genes for further studies on larval feeding in S. litura.

With the progress in science and technology, hazardous chemicals are becoming more essential in chemical products, industrial and agricultural production, and daily life. Hazardous chemicals have poisoning, corrosive, explosive, and combusting natures; once on fire, they can trigger a chain of catastrophic incidences, resulting in casualties, property loss, and environmental pollution and posing hazards to life and property. Using the “8–12” explosion of the Ruihai Logistics warehouse in Tianjin Port (Binhai New District, China), the present study analyzes the characteristics of trauma of the casualties in this accident and the emergency medical rescue strategies. The goals were to improve the ability of emergency rescue in such accidents and to save people’s lives and property to the maximum extent.

The association between dietary Fe intake and diabetes risk remains inconsistent. We aimed to explore the association between dietary Fe intake and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk in middle-aged and older adults in urban China. This study used data from the Guangzhou Nutrition and Health Study, an on-going community-based prospective cohort study. Participants were recruited from 2008 to 2013 in Guangzhou community. A total of 2696 participants aged 40–75 years without T2DM at baseline were included in data analyses, with a median of 5·6 (interquartile range 4·1–5·9) years of follow-up. T2DM was identified by self-reported diagnosis, fasting glucose ≥ 7·0 mmol/l or glycosylated Hb ≥ 6·5 %. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % CI. We ascertained 205 incident T2DM cases during 13 476 person-years. The adjusted HR for T2DM risk in the fourth quartile of haem Fe intake was 1·92 (95 % CI 1·07, 3·46; Ptrend = 0·010), compared with the first quartile intake. These significant associations were found in haem Fe intake from total meat (HR 2·74; 95 % CI 1·22, 6·15; Ptrend = 0·011) and haem Fe intake from red meat (HR 1·86; 95 % CI 1·01, 3·44; Ptrend = 0·034), but not haem Fe intake from processed meat, poultry or fish/shellfish. The association between dietary intake of total Fe or non-haem Fe with T2DM risk had no significance. Our findings suggested that higher dietary intake of haem Fe (especially from red meat), but not total Fe or non-haem Fe, was associated with greater T2DM risk in middle-aged and older adults.