In this work, the dynamics of two-dimensional rotating Janus drops in shear flow is studied numerically using a ternary-fluid diffuse interface method. The rotation of Janus drops is found to be closely related to their deformation. A new deformation parameter $D$ is proposed to assess the significance of the drop deformation. According to the maximum value of $D$ ($D_{max}$), the deformation of rotating Janus drops can be classified into linear deformation ($D_{max}\le 0.2$) and nonlinear deformation ($D_{max}> 0.2$). In particular, $D_{max}$ in the former depends linearly on the Reynolds and capillary numbers, which can be interpreted by a mass–spring model. Furthermore, the rotation period $t_R$ of a Janus drop is found to be more sensitive to the drop deformation than to the aspect ratio of the drop at equilibrium. By introducing a corrected shear rate and an aspect ratio of drop deformation, a rotation model for Janus drops is established based on Jeffery's theory for rigid particles, and it agrees well with our numerical results.

The target backsheath field acceleration mechanism is one of the main mechanisms of laser-driven proton acceleration (LDPA) and strongly depends on the comprehensive performance of the ultrashort ultra-intense lasers used as the driving sources. The successful use of the SG-II Peta-watt (SG-II PW) laser facility for LDPA and its applications in radiographic diagnoses have been manifested by the good performance of the SG-II PW facility. Recently, the SG-II PW laser facility has undergone extensive maintenance and a comprehensive technical upgrade in terms of the seed source, laser contrast and terminal focus. LDPA experiments were performed using the maintained SG-II PW laser beam, and the highest cutoff energy of the proton beam was obviously increased. Accordingly, a double-film target structure was used, and the maximum cutoff energy of the proton beam was up to 70 MeV. These results demonstrate that the comprehensive performance of the SG-II PW laser facility was improved significantly.

We document statistically significant relations between mutual fund betas and past market returns driven by fund feedback trading. Against this backdrop, evidence of “artificial” market timing emerges when standard market timing regressions are estimated across periods that span time variation in fund systematic risk levels, as is typical. Artificial timing significantly explains the inverse relation between timing model estimates of market timing and stock selectivity. A fund’s feedback trading relates to its past performance and remains significant after accounting for trading on momentum. Fund flows suggest that investors value feedback trading, which helps hedge downside risk during bear markets.

The great demographic pressure brings tremendous volume of beef demand. The key to solve this problem is the growth and development of Chinese cattle. In order to find molecular markers conducive to the growth and development of Chinese cattle, sequencing was used to determine the position of copy number variations (CNVs), bioinformatics analysis was used to predict the function of ZNF146 gene, real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used for CNV genotyping and one-way analysis of variance was used for association analysis. The results showed that there exists CNV in Chr 18: 47225201-47229600 (5.0.1 version) of ZNF146 gene through the early sequencing results in the laboratory and predicted ZNF146 gene was expressed in liver, skeletal muscle and breast cells, and was amplified or overexpressed in pancreatic cancer, which promoted the development of tumour through bioinformatics. Therefore, it is predicted that ZNF146 gene affects the proliferation of muscle cells, and then affects the growth and development of cattle. Furthermore, CNV genotyping of ZNF146 gene was three types (deletion type, normal type and duplication type) by Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (qPCR). The association analysis results showed that ZNF146-CNV was significantly correlated with rump length of Qinchuan cattle, hucklebone width of Jiaxian red cattle and heart girth of Yunling cattle. From the above results, ZNF146-CNV had a significant effect on growth traits, which provided an important candidate molecular marker for growth and development of Chinese cattle.

In order to realize the online allocation of collaborative processing resource of smart workshop in the context of cloud manufacturing, a multi-objective optimization model of workshop collaborative resources (MOM-WCR) was proposed. Considering the optimization objectives of processing time, processing cost, product qualification rate, and resource utilization, MOM-WCR was constructed. Based on the time sequence of workshop processing tasks, the workshop collaborative manufacturing resource was integrated in MOM-WCR. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) was adopted to simplified the multi-objective problem into the single-objective problem. Then, the improved firefly algorithm which integrated the particle swarm algorithm (IFA-PSA) was used to solve MOM-WCR. Finally, a group of connecting rod processing experiments were used to verify the model proposed in this paper. The results show that the model is feasible in the application of workshop-level resource allocation in the context of cloud manufacturing, and the improved firefly algorithm shows good performance in solving the multi-objective resource allocation problem.

Although altimeters have been widely used to monitor the spatiotemporal variation of sea-ice thickness, they are unable to separate sea-ice freeboard from snow depth. We use a floating GPS deployed on sea ice to derive the freeboard and snow depth near China's Zhongshan Station. Our results show that the standalone floating GPS can monitor freeboard with a precision of 4.2 cm. If time-varying dynamic ocean topography provided by, for example, a bottom pressure gauge is available, then the precision of GPS-derived freeboard can improve to 1.3 cm. The daily snow depth inverted by GPS interferometric reflectometry captures three precipitation events during our experiment, showing that the floating GPS can monitor the variation in snow depth and observe the freeboard variation at the same time. By studying the relationship between freeboard, snow depth and sea-ice thickness, we find that sea-ice thickness will be greatly underestimated by the negative single-point freeboard under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium. As a supplement to existing technologies, the GPS-derived freeboard and snow depth can be used both to evaluate the altimeter observations directly and to improve our understanding of the real-time variation of freeboard and snow depth in the experimental area.

Seasonal influenza virus epidemics have a major impact on healthcare systems. Data on population susceptibility to emerging influenza virus strains during the interepidemic period can guide planning for resource allocation of an upcoming influenza season. This study sought to assess the population susceptibility to representative emerging influenza virus strains collected during the interepidemic period. The microneutralisation antibody titers (MN titers) of a human serum panel against representative emerging influenza strains collected during the interepidemic period before the 2018/2019 winter influenza season (H1N1-inter and H3N2-inter) were compared with those against influenza strains representative of previous epidemics (H1N1-pre and H3N2-pre). A multifaceted approach, incorporating both genetic and antigenic data, was used in selecting these representative influenza virus strains for the MN assay. A significantly higher proportion of individuals had a ⩾four-fold reduction in MN titers between H1N1-inter and H1N1-pre than that between H3N2-inter and H3N2-pre (28.5% (127/445) vs. 4.9% (22/445), P < 0.001). The geometric mean titer (GMT) of H1N1-inter was significantly lower than that of H1N1-pre (381 (95% CI 339–428) vs. 713 (95% CI 641–792), P < 0.001), while there was no significant difference in the GMT between H3N2-inter and H3N2-pre. Since A(H1N1) predominated the 2018–2019 winter influenza epidemic, our results corroborated the epidemic subtype.

The paper presents the results of a study on propagation and focusing of high-intensity pulsed ion beams, produced by a self-magnetically insulated diode of semi-cylindrical geometry at the TEMP-6 accelerator (120 ns, 200–250 kV). We examined the space-charge neutralization of the beam, the energy density in the focus, the divergence of the beam, and its shot-to-shot displacement in the focal plane. It is found that the concentration of low-energy electrons in the beam is 1.3–1.5 times higher than the concentration of ions. We observed additional ion focusing by its own space charge. With an increase in the density of the net negative (electrons and ions) charge of the beam from 3.6 to 9 µC/cm2, the total divergence (the sum of the beam divergence in the vertical and horizontal planes) decreases from 11.4 to 4.5°. It leads to an increase in the energy density in the focus from 4 up to 10–12 J/cm2. To increase the electrons concentration in the beam, a metal grid installed in the ion beam transport region was used.

Highly dense zirconia dental ceramic coatings were fabricated by aqueous electrophoretic deposition (EPD) and subsequently sintered between 1250 and 1450 °C. Microstructural examination revealed that aqueous EPDZrO2 coatings possessed a tetragonal phase structure and the grain size increased with increasing sintering temperature. Nanoindentation study proved that the aqueous EPDZrO2 coating also had excellent mechanical properties. The effect of different applied loads on hardness and elastic modulus of the 1350 °C-sintered sample at room temperature was investigated by the method of progressive multicycle measurement nanoindentation. The simulative experiment proved that hardness of aqueous EPDZrO2 exhibited reverse indentation size effect (ISE) behavior and then displayed the normal ISE response. The analysis indicates that the reverse ISE is attributed to the relaxation of surface stresses resulting from indentation cracks at small loads and normal ISE is caused by geometrically necessary dislocations. The tetragonal–monoclinic stress-induced phase transformation during nanoindentation is the primary cause of dental zirconia failures.

Dairy cows with type II ketosis display hepatic fat accumulation and hyperinsulinemia, but the underlying mechanism is not completely clear. This study aimed to clarify the regulation of lipid metabolism by insulin in cow hepatocytes. In vitro, cow hepatocytes were treated with 0, 1, 10, or 100 nm insulin in the presence or absence of AICAR (an AMP-activated protein kinase alpha (AMPKα) activator). The results showed that insulin decreased AMPKα phosphorylation. This inactivation of AMPKα increased the gene and protein expression levels of carbohydrate responsive element-binding protein (ChREBP) and sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c), which downregulated the expression of lipogenic genes, thereby decreasing lipid biosynthesis. Furthermore, AMPKα inactivation decreased the gene and protein expression levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα), which upregulated the expression of lipid oxidation genes, thereby increasing lipid oxidation. In addition, insulin decreased the very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) assembly. Consequently, triglyceride content was significantly increased in insulin treated hepatocytes. Activation of AMPKα induced by AICAR could reverse the effect of insulin on PPARα, SREBP-1c, and ChREBP, thereby decreasing triglyceride content. These results indicate that insulin inhibits the AMPKα signaling pathway to increase lipid synthesis and decrease lipid oxidation and VLDL assembly in cow hepatocytes, thereby inducing TG accumulation. This mechanism could partly explain the causal relationship between hepatic fat accumulation and hyperinsulinemia in dairy cows with type II ketosis.

The Cu0.8Mg1.2Si2O6 pyroxene has been synthesized using a soft chemistry method. Its crystal structure was determined from powder X-ray diffraction data. Cu0.8Mg1.2Si2O6 crystallizes with the lowclinopyroxene monoclinic structure (space group P21/c). The role of the Jahn-Teller-distorted Cu2+ cation on the stability of this strongly distorted structure is investigated. Cu2+ shows a strong preference for the M2 site, attributed to a better adaptation of its JT-distorted coordination polyhedron to this already distorted and more flexible site. Comparison with previously reported compounds indicates that increasing the Cu content enhances the M2 site distortion, eventually leading to symmetry lowering from orthorhombic Pbca to monoclinic P21/c. These observations bring new insight into the mechanisms of formation and chemical composition of pyroxene minerals in the presence of JT cations.

High-intensity pulsed ion beam (HIPIB) technology is developed as an advanced manufacturing method for components with improved wear, corrosion and/or fatigue performance, etc. Robust HIPIB equipment with stable repetitive operation, long-lifetime, and easy maintenance are desired for industrial applications, on which stability of ion beam parameters is critical to achieve consistent result of reproducibility. Here, magnetically insulated ion diodes (MIDs) as ion source with durable graphite anode are investigated in a simple self-magnetic field configuration under repetitive operation. Influence of background pressure on ion beam generation and transportation is emphasized since ion beam sources were intrinsically a vacuum-based system. Comparative experiments were conducted on two types of HIPIB equipment, that is, TEMP-6 and TEMP-4M, differing in vacuum packages where turbo-molecular pump or oil diffusion pump was used. Both the HIPIB equipments are operated on a bipolar pulse mode, that is, a first negative pulse of 150–200 kV with pulse duration 450–500 ns to generate anode plasma on explosive electron emission, and a second positive pulse of 200–250 kV with 120 ns to accelerate the ions. Ion beam energy density up to 8 J/cm2 is achievable using MIDs of geometrical focusing configuration, and the total energy, energy density distribution along cross-section, deflection and divergence, and charge neutralization of the ion beams are assessed under background pressures in a wide range of two orders of magnitude, that is, 1–100 mPa. No appreciable change in the parameters is observed up to 50 mPa, and merely a slight increase in the beam deflection from about ±3 mm to about ±4 mm at the focal point over 50 mPa. The stability of ion beam at the varied pressure is mainly facilitated by the higher pressure up to several Pa in anode–cathode gap during plasma generation and good neutralizing effect for ion beam transportation.

Ritchmyer–Meshkov instability on an air/SF$_{6}$ interface is experimentally studied in a coaxial converging shock tube by a high-speed laser sheet imaging technique. An unperturbed case is first examined to obtain the characteristics of the converging shock and the shocked interface. For sinusoidal interfaces, the wave pattern and the interface morphology of the whole process are clearly observed. It is quantitatively found that the perturbation amplitude first decreases due to the shock compression, then experiences a rapid growth to a maximum value and finally drops quickly before the reshock. The reduction of growth rate is ascribed to the Rayleigh–Taylor stabilization caused by the interface deceleration motion that is present in the converging circumstance. It is noted that the influence of the wavenumber on the amplitude growth is very little before the reshock, but becomes significant after the reshock.

In November 2014, a total of 164 health care workers were dispatched by the Chinese government as the first medical assistance team to Liberia. The tasks of this team were to establish a China Ebola treatment unit (ETU), to commence the initial admission and treatment of suspected and confirmed Ebola patients, and to provide public health and infection control training for relevant local personnel. Overall, during the 2-month stay of this first medical assistance team in Liberia, 112 Ebola-suspected patients presented to the ETU, 65 patients were admitted, including 5 confirmed cases, and 3 confirmed cases were cured. Furthermore, 1520 local people were trained, including health care workers, military health care workers, staff members employed by the ETU, and community residents. Most importantly, as the first Chinese medical assistance team deployed to Liberia fighting the Ebola virus on the frontline, not a single member of this team or the hired local staff were infected by Ebola virus. This highly successful outcome was due to the meticulous infection control initiatives developed by the team, thereby making a significant contribution to China’s ETU “zero infection” of health workers in Liberia. The major infection control initiatives conducted in the China ETU that contributed to achieving “zero infection” of all health workers in the ETU are introduced in this report. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:262–266)

Glacier change has been recognized as an important climate variable due to its sensitive response to climate change. Although there are a large number of glaciers distributed over the southeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, the region is poorly represented in glacier databases due to seasonal snow cover and frequent cloud cover. Here, we present an improved glacier inventory for this region by combining Landsat observations acquired over 2011–13 (Landsat 8/OLI and Landsat TM/ETM+), coherence images from Advanced Land Observing Satellite Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar images and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DEM. We present a semi-automated scheme for integrating observations from multi-temporal Landsat scenes to mitigate cloud obscuration. Further, the clean-ice observations, together with coherence information, slope constraints, vegetation cover and water classification information extracted from the Landsat scenes, are integrated to determine the debris-covered glacier area. After manual editing, we derive a new glacier inventory containing 6892 glaciers >0.02 km2, covering a total area of 6566 ± 197 km2. This new glacier inventory indicates gross overestimation in glacier area (over 30%) in previously published glacier inventories, and reveals various spatial characteristics of glaciers in the region. Our inventory can be used as a baseline dataset for future studies including glacier change assessment.

A 100-J-level Nd:glass laser system in nanosecond-scale pulse width has been constructed to perform as a standard source of high-fluence-laser science experiments. The laser system, operating with typical pulse durations of 3–5 ns and beam diameter 60 mm, employs a sequence of successive rod amplifiers to achieve 100-J-level energy at 1053 nm at 3 ns. The frequency conversion can provide energy of 50-J level at 351 nm. In addition to the high stability of the energy output, the most valuable of the laser system is the high spatiotemporal beam quality of the output, which contains the uniform square pulse waveform, the uniform flat-top spatial fluence distribution and the uniform flat-top wavefront.

We investigate the entrainment of liquid films on a partially wetting plate vertically withdrawn from a reservoir of viscous liquid using a combination of diffuse-interface numerical simulation and lubrication analysis. So far available theoretical investigations were commonly conducted by focusing on separate parameter regions, and a complete description of the flow regimes with increasing plate speed is still missing. By solving the full Stokes equations, we present a complete scenario of film transition in the presence of moving contact line. With increasing plate speed, we identify numerically four successive flow regimes in terms of the interfacial morphologies: (1) a stationary meniscus, (2) a speed-independent thick film connected to the liquid bath through a stationary dimple, (3) coexistence of a thick film and the classical Landau–Levich–Derjaguin (LLD) film connected by a propagating capillary shock and (4) a film with a monotonically varying thickness. The characteristics of the film profiles in different regions of the interfaces are analysed with lubrication theory as applicable, and satisfactory agreements with the numerical results are obtained. In particular, we confirm that the onset of film deposition occurs at a vanishing apparent contact angle, consistent with the predictions of lubrication theory. Numerical results suggest that the critical capillary number for the onset of film deposition is smaller than that for the onset of LLD film despite the fact that it is higher than the experimentally observed one, showing that the thick film can be realized in the two-dimensional model. We also demonstrated that the LLD film is triggered by the bifurcation of the stationary dimple, which is found to admit multiple branches of stable and unstable solutions.

Elevated levels of blood interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumour necrosis factor–α (TNF–α) increase insulin resistance and result in inflammation. It is not clear whether elevated blood level of acetoacetate (ACAC) and decreased blood level of glucose, which are the predominant characteristics of clinical biochemistry in ketotic dairy cows, increase proinflammatory cytokines and subsequent inflammation. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that ACAC and glucose activate the NF-κB signalling pathway to regulate cytokines expression in bovine hepatocytes. Bovine hepatocytes were cultured with ACAC (0–4·8 mm) and glucose (0–5·55 mm) with or without NF-κB inhibitor PDTC for 24 h. The secretion and mRNA levels of cytokines were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The NF-κB signalling pathway activation was evaluated by western blotting. Results showed that the secretion and expression of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α increased in an ACAC dose-dependent manner. Additionally, there was an increase in the secretion and mRNA expression of these three cytokines in glucose treatment group, which increased significantly when the glucose concentrations exceed 3·33 mm. Furthermore, both ACAC and glucose upregulated NF-κB p65 protein expression and IκBα phosphorylation levels. However, these effects were reduced by PDTC. These results demonstrate that elevated levels of ACAC and glucose increase the synthesis and expression of proinflammatory factors by activating NF-κB signalling pathway in hepatocytes, which may contribute to inflammation injury in ketotic dairy cows.