Fully resolved measurements of turbulent boundary layers are reported for the Reynolds number range $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}=6000{-}20\,000$ . Despite several decades of research in wall-bounded turbulence there is still controversy over the behaviour of streamwise turbulence intensities near the wall, especially at high Reynolds numbers. Much of it stems from the uncertainty in measurement due to finite spatial resolution. Conventional hot-wire anemometry is limited for high Reynolds number measurements due to limited spatial resolution issues that cause attenuation in the streamwise turbulence intensity profile near the wall. To address this issue we use the nano-scale thermal anemometry probe (NSTAP), developed at Princeton University to conduct velocity measurements in the high Reynolds number boundary layer facility at the University of Melbourne. The NSTAP has a sensing length almost one order of magnitude smaller than conventional hot-wires. This enables us to acquire fully resolved velocity measurements of turbulent boundary layers up to $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}=20\,000$ . Results show that in the near-wall region, the viscous-scaled streamwise turbulence intensity grows with $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}$ in the Reynolds number range of the experiments. A second outer peak in the streamwise turbulence intensity is also shown to emerge at the highest Reynolds numbers. Moreover, the energy spectra in the near-wall region show excellent inner scaling over the small to moderate wavelength range, followed by a large-scale influence that increases with Reynolds number. Outer scaling in the outer region is found to collapse the energy spectra over high wavelengths across various Reynolds numbers.

The influence of heat treatment (homogenization) on the microstructure, mechanical behavior, and soft magnetic properties of a face-centered cubic (fcc)-based high-entropy alloy (HEA), Fe29Co28Ni29Cu7Ti7, fabricated by casting, was investigated in detail. The as-cast Fe29Co28Ni29Cu7Ti7 HEA was composed of a primary fcc phase containing coherent dispersed L12 nanoprecipitates and trace amounts of a needle-like phase. The tensile yield strength (σ0.2), ultimate strength, and total elongation of the as-cast alloy are 917 MPa, 1060 MPa, and 1.8%, respectively. Following homogenization, the alloy having a single fcc phase shows a decrease of ∼ 55% in yield strength and a decrease of ∼ 36% in ultimate strength; however, the total elongation is increased from 1.8 to 52%. Saturation magnetization (Msat) is decreased from 111.54 to 110.34 Am2/kg, by contrast, coercivity (Hc) is increased from 266.65 to 966.89 A/m. The dissolution of precipitates and grain growth are mainly responsible for the changes in magnetic properties and mechanical behavior.

Mastery of strengthening strategies to achieve high-capacity anodes for lithium-ion batteries can shed light on understanding the nature of diffusion-induced stress and offer an approach to use submicro-sized materials with an ultrahigh capacity for large-scale batteries. Here, we report solute strengthening in a series of silicon (Si)–germanium (Ge) alloys. When the larger solute atom (Ge) is added to the solvent atoms (Si), a compressive stress is generated in the vicinity of Ge atoms. This local stress field interacts with resident dislocations and subsequently impedes their motion to increase the yield stress in the alloys. The addition of Ge into Si substantially improves the capacity retention, particularly in Si0.50Ge0.50, aligning with literature reports that the Si/Ge alloy showed a maximum yield stress in Si0.50Ge0.50. In situ X-ray diffraction studies on the Si0.50Ge0.50 electrode show that the phase change undergoes three subsequent steps during the lithiation process: removal of surface oxide layer, formation of cluster-size Lix(Si,Ge), and formation of crystalline Li15(Si,Ge)4. Furthermore, the lithiation process starts from higher index facets, i.e., (220) and (311), then through the low index facet (111), suggesting the orientation-dependence of the lithiation process in the Si0.50Ge0.50 electrode.

Cucumber powdery mildew is a destructive foliar disease caused by Podosphaera xanthii (formerly known as Sphaerotheca fuliginea) that substantially damages the yield and quality of crops. The control of this disease primarily involves the use of chemical pesticides that cause serious environmental problems. Currently, numerous studies have indicated that some plant extracts or products potentially have the ability to act as natural pesticides to control plant diseases. It has been reported that turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) and its extract can be used in agriculture due to their insecticidal and fungicidal properties. However, the most effective fungicidal component of this plant is still unknown. In the current study, the crude extract of C. longa L. was found to have a fungicidal effect against P. xanthii. Afterwards, eight fractions (Fr.1–Fr.8) were gradually separated from the crude extract by column chromatography. Fraction 1 had the highest fungicidal effect against this pathogen among the eight fractions. The active compound, (+)-(S)-ar-turmerone, was separated from Fr 1 by semi-preparative high-performance liquid chromatography and identified based on its 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and 13C NMR spectrum data. The EC50 value of (+)-(S)-ar-turmerone was found to be 28.7 µg/ml. The compound also proved to have a curative effect. This is the first study to report that the compound (+)-(S)-ar-turmerone has an effect on controlling this disease. These results provide a basis for developing a new phytochemical fungicide from C. longa L. extract.

The stability of a shale containing smectite with different exchangeable cations (Na+, Ca2+) was improved using optimum solutions containing polyether amine (PA), poly-alcohol (PO) or KCl. Two types of shale samples with Na+ and Ca2+ as the main exchangeable cations, respectively, were used and the optimized solutions were determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), an adsorption test, an oedometer swelling test, and an immersion test. The use of KCl prevented intercalation of PA or PO and maintained the stability of the Na-smectite-bearing shale. PA or PO adsorption reduced water adsorption sites on the clay layer, and K+ reduced hydration of exchangeable Na+, resulting in good shale stability in mixed solutions of KCl+PA, and KCl+PO. More stable shale was achieved in KCl+ PA mixed solution, whereas in the KCl+ PO solution the transport of water or solute molecules in the shale was reduced. In the shale containing mainly Ca-smectite, PA, PO and KCl maintained shale stability when applied separately or in common, as PA or PO cannot exchange Ca2+ in the smectite interlayer. As a result, PA or PO should be used together with KCl during drilling in shale formations containing Na-smectite, whereas in shales with Ca-smectite, PA, PO or KCl may be used separately.

Mechanisms responsible for excellent marbling in Japanese black cattle, Wagyu, remain to be established. Because both muscle cells and intramuscular adipocytes are developed from mesenchymal progenitor cells during early muscle development, we hypothesized that intramuscular progenitor cells in Wagyu cattle have attenuated myogenic capacity in favor of adipogenesis, leading to high marbling but reduced muscle growth. Biceps femoris muscle biopsy samples were obtained from both Angus (n=3) and Wagyu (n=3) cattle at 12 months of age. Compared with Angus, the density of satellite cells was much lower in Wagyu muscle (by 45.8±10%, P<0.05). Consistently, the formation of myotubes from muscle-derived progenitor cells was also lower (by 64.2±12.9%, P<0.05), but adipogenic capacity was greater in Wagyu. The average muscle fiber diameter was larger in Wagyu (by 23.9±6.8%, P=0.089) despite less muscle mass, suggesting less muscle fiber formation in Wagyu compared with Angus cattle. Because satellite cells are derived from fetal myogenic cells, the reduction in satellite cell density together with lower muscle fiber formation suggests that myogenesis was attenuated during early muscle development in Wagyu cattle. Given the shared pool of mesenchymal progenitor cells, the attenuated myogenesis likely shifts progenitor cells to adipogenesis during early development, which may contribute to high intramuscular adipocyte formation in Wagyu cattle.

A numerical time-stepping algorithm for differential or partial differential equations is proposed that adaptively modifies the dimensionality of the underlying modal basis expansion. Specifically, the method takes advantage of any underlying low-dimensional manifolds or subspaces in the system by using dimensionality-reduction techniques, such as the proper orthogonal decomposition, in order to adaptively represent the solution in the optimal basis modes. The method can provide significant computational savings for systems where low-dimensional manifolds are present since the reduction can lower the dimensionality of the underlying high-dimensional system by orders of magnitude. A comparison of the computational efficiency and error for this method are given showing the algorithm to be potentially of great value for high-dimensional dynamical systems simulations, especially where slow-manifold dynamics are known to arise. The method is envisioned to automatically take advantage of any potential computational saving associated with dimensionality-reduction, much as adaptive time-steppers automatically take advantage of large step sizes whenever possible.

The musk deer (Moschus berezovskii) is an economically important species from which musk is extracted and used in perfumes and medicines. Cestodes (parasitic flatworms) of the genus Moniezia are important parasites that infect this endangered species and can cause high mortality in young deer. In 1982, Moniezia (S.) sichuanensis sp. nov. was described from a specimen obtained from wild musk deer. The new species was distinct from the other described species of Moniezia by the sawtooth-shaped interproglottidal glands, the thick vagina and the absence of a cirrus spine. In the present study, 12 cestodes collected from musk deer were examined morphologically and confirmed to be M. sichuanensis. Molecular characterization was performed by amplifying and comparing the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) and 5.8S rRNA gene (ITS1–5.8S) of ribosomal DNA with available sequences from other Moniezia species. The amplified sequences ranged from 761 to 764 bp and similarity ranged from 98.7–100%, compared to 67.8–92.4% with other Moniezia spp. Construction of a phylogenetic tree using the neighbour-joining method indicated that all 12 ITS1–5.8S sequences formed a single clade, confirming M. sichuanensis as a separate species. This study provides novel molecular insight into M. sichuanensis that could prove useful for future diagnosis and control of monieziasis in musk deer.

In this paper, we perform an absolute equation of state (EOS) measurement on the principal Hugoniot of aluminum using a near-symmetric impact method. The flyer plates are accelerated to high velocities using the laser-ramp-driven method. An aluminum flyer plate of ~25 µm is accelerated to the velocity range from 4 to 12 km/s. Then the aluminum flyer plate propagates across a vacuum gap and impacts with an aluminum step target. A line-imaging optical recording velocity interferometer for any reflector (ORVIS) is used to measure the aluminum flyer plate and the shock velocity simultaneously. Aluminum EOS data were measured with pressures range from 50 to 200 GPa. This absolute EOS measurement method may be used for studying a variety of materials.

Studies of schizophrenia at drug-naive state and on antipsychotic medication have reported a number of regions of gray-matter (GM) abnormalities but the reports have been inconsistent. The aim of this study was to conduct multimodal meta-analysis to compare the cross-sectional voxel-based morphometry studies of brain GM in antipsychotic-naive first-episode schizophrenia (AN-FES) and those with antipsychotic treatment within 1 year (AT-FES) to determine the similarities and differences in these groups. We conducted two separate meta-analyses containing 24 studies with a sample size of 801 patients and 957 healthy controls. A multimodal meta-analysis method was used to compare the findings between AN-FES and AT-FES. Meta-regression analyses were done to determine the influence of different variables including age, duration of illness, and positive and negative symptom scores. Finally, jack-knife analyses were done to test the robustness of the results. AN-FES and AT-FES showed common patterns of GM abnormalities in frontal (gyrus rectus), superior temporal, left hippocampal and insular cortex. GM in the left supramarginal gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus were found to be increased in AN-FES but decreased in AT-FES, whereas left median cingulate/paracingulate gyri and right hippocampus GM was decreased in AN-FES but increased in AT-FES. Findings suggest that both AN-FES and AT-FES share frontal, temporal and insular regions as common anatomical regions to be affected indicating these to be the primary regions of GM abnormalities in both groups.

A new approach is proposed to analyze Bremsstrahlung X-rays that are emitted from laser-produced plasmas (LPP) and are measured by a stack type spectrometer. This new method is based on a spectral tomographic reconstruction concept with the variational principle for optimization, without referring to the electron energy distribution of a plasma. This approach is applied to the analysis of some experimental data obtained at a few major laser facilities to demonstrate the applicability of the method. Slope temperatures of X-rays from LPP are determined with a two-temperature model, showing different spectral characteristics of X-rays depending on laser properties used in the experiments.

Ectropis grisescens Warren and Ectropis obliqua (Prout) are two morphologically similar sibling species with overlapping ranges. In this study, manipulative laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the possibility of reproductive interference in sympatric populations of E. grisescens and E. obliqua and the potential consequences of the mating interaction. Our results showed that the presence of males or females of different species could incur mating interference and significant reduction of F 1 offspring. The reduction was not significant relevant to the initial relative abundance of E. grisescens and E. obliqua. Detailed observations of mating opportunity showed that female mating frequencies of both species were not significantly affected by the absolute species density, but the mating success of E. obliqua females with conspecific males depended on species ratio. In addition, adding males to the other species resulted in lower number of offspring suggesting that the males’ behaviour might be linked with mating interference. Males of both E. grisescens and E. obliqua could interfere the intraspecific mating of the other species, but the impact of the mating interference differed. These combined data indicated that asymmetric reproductive interference existed in E. grisescens and E. obliqua under laboratory conditions, and the offspring of the mixed species were significantly reduced. The long term outcome of this effect is yet to be determined since additional reproductive factors such as oviposition rate and progeny survival to adulthood may reduce the probability of demographic displacement of one species by the other in overlapping niches.

A total of 1145 samples were collected from chicken breeder farms, hatcheries, broiler farms, a slaughterhouse and retail refrigerated chicken stores in an integrated broiler supply chain in Guangdong Province, China, in 2013. One-hundred and two Salmonella enterica strains were isolated and subjected to serotyping, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, virulence profile determination and molecular subtyping by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The contamination rates in samples from breeder farms, hatcheries, broiler farms, the slaughterhouse and retail stores were 1·46%, 4·31%, 7·00%, 62·86% and 54·67%, respectively. The isolated strains of S. enterica belonged to 10 serotypes; most of them were S. Weltevreden (46·08%, 47/102) and S. Agona (18·63%, 19/102). Isolates were frequently resistant to streptomycin (38·2%), tetracycline (36·3%), sulfisoxazole (35·3%) and gentamicin (34·3%); 31·4% of isolates were multidrug resistant. The isolates were screened for 10 virulence factors. The Salmonella pathogenicity island genes avrA, ssaQ, mgtC, siiD, and sopB and the fimbrial gene bcfC were present in 100% of the strains. PFGE genotyping of the 102 S. enterica isolates yielded 24 PFGE types at an 85% similarity threshold. The PFGE patterns show that the genotypes of S. enterica in the production chain are very diverse, but some strains have 100% similarity in different parts of the production chain, which indicates that some S. enterica persist throughout the broiler supply chain.

A sample with a radiocarbon concentration estimated to be greater than 105 times Modern was inadvertently graphitized and measured in the Xi'an AMS system last year. Both the sample preparation lines and the ion source system were seriously contaminated and a series of cleaning procedures were carried out to remove the contamination from them. After repeated and careful cleaning as well as continuous flushing with dead CO2 gas, both systems have recovered from the contamination event. The machine background is back to 2.0 x 10–16 and the chemical blank is beyond 50 kyr.