A facile one-pot and environmentally friendly method was developed to synthesize multi-branched flowerlike gold (Au) nanostructures by reducing chlorate gold (HAuCl4) with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the presence of sodium citrate. The multibranched Au nanostructures were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectroscopy. The molar ratio of sodium citrate to HAuCl4 and the concentrations of the reacted reagents play important roles in the formation of multibranched Au nanostructures. The multibranched Au nanostructures with sharp tips exhibit excellent surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) ability of 4-aminothiophenol (PATP). The experimental and simulated results both confirm that the photoinduced catalytic coupling reaction of PATP transformation to 4,4′-dimercaptoazobenzene occurs on the surface of multibranched Au nanostructures at a high power during the SERS measurement. It is believed that these multibranched Au nanostructures may find potential applications in SERS, biosensors, and the photoinduced surface catalytic application fields.

A conventional Differential GPS (DGPS) techniques-based velocity and acceleration method (named here as ‘DVA’) may be difficult to implement in the Antarctic as there is a sparse distribution of reference stations over Antarctica. Thus, in order to overcome the baseline limitations and to obtain highly accurate and reliable velocity and acceleration estimates for airborne gravimetry, a network-based velocity and acceleration determination approach (named here as ‘NVA’), which introduces a wide network of stations and is independent of precise clock information, is applied. Here its performance for velocity and acceleration determination is fully exploited by using Global Positioning System (GPS), GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou observations. Additionally, a standalone receiver-based method named ‘SVA’, which requires precise clock information, is also implemented for comparison. During static tests and a flight experiment over Antarctica, it was found that the NVA method yields more robust results than the SVA and DVA methods when applied to a wide area network. Moreover, the addition of GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou systems can increase the accuracy of velocity and acceleration estimates by 39% and 43% with NVA compared to a GPS-only solution.

Flower-like AgI/Bi5O7I hybrid photocatalysts were fabricated via a hydrothermal method and the subsequent heating process with AgI/Bi4O5I2 as the intermediate. X-ray powder diffraction, Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectra, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, photoluminescence, and electrochemical methods were used to reveal the structure, elemental content, morphology, and charge separation capabilities of the as-prepared samples. The photocatalytic test showed that the AgI/Bi5O7I composites own much higher photoactivity than pure AgI and Bi5O7I. Based on the result of XPS analysis, the composite is believed to be the Ag/AgI/Bi5O7I system. Due to the suitable band potentials of AgI and Bi5O7I, the ternary system can form a heterojunction structure which works in a Z-scheme mechanism with Ag nanoparticles as the transfer media. The guided charge transfer in the composite prolongs the life time of charge carriers and eventually leads to the high photocatalytic activity of AgI/Bi5O7I. Additionally, the flower-like structure of the composite also contributes to the photocatalytic reaction.

We are constructing a collector for capturing Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) and space debris on space shuttle. The unit consists of three pieces of thin polyester film, equally spaced 7 cm apart, and an aerogel disk of 3 cm thickness. For each particle captured in the aerogel disk, we determine its direction of impact and its speed, from which we can trace its trajectory. The purpose of the experiment is to study the compositions of IDPs from different origins.

In tropical plant communities with diverse species, many congeners are found to coexist. Do environment or biotic interactions structure the coexistence of congeners in tropical forest communities? In this paper, we aimed to disentangle the effect of environment (first-order effects) and species interactions (second-order effects) on the spatial distributions of tree species. We used a classification scheme and torus-translation to test the first-order interaction of 48 species from 17 genera in a fully mapped 20-ha dipterocarp tropical seasonal rain-forest plot in Xishuangbanna, south-west China. Then we used heterogeneous Poisson null models to reveal significant uni- and bivariate second-order interactions. The results demonstrated that (1) 34 of the 48 studied species showed a significant relation with at least one topographic variable. This confirmed that topographical heterogeneity is important for distribution of these congeners. Spatial segregation (36.6%) and partial overlap (34.8%) were the most common bivariate association types in Xishuangbanna plot, which indicated first-order effects (environment) were strong. (2) For small-scale associations, 51% saplings (1 to ≤ 5 cm) (68.8% for large trees with dbh > 5 cm) of the species showed non-significant associations. For large-scale associations, 61.6% saplings (81.2% for large trees) of the species showed non-significant associations. Lack of significant species interactions provides evidence for the unified neutral theory. In conclusion, both environment and biotic interactions structure congeneric species' coexistence in tropical seasonal rain forest in this region.

We suggest that the broad-line regions (BLRs) of QSOs with broad emissionlines (BALs) are expanding, i.e., the clouds are undergoing radial outflow, as illustrated simply in Fig. 1. At least the following observational facts can be explained:

1. 1.Optical observations show that some moderate and high-redshift QSOs have BALs. The number of these QSOs is about 3–10% of all QSOs (Foltz et al. 1990). One can see in Fig. 2 that very low-redshift QSOs have no BALs.
2. 2.Almost all BAL QSOs exhibit zabs < zem .
3. 3.High-resolution observations reveal that the widths of the broad absorption lines are narrower than that of the corresponding emission line for all BAL QSOs, i.e. Δλ ab < Δλ em .

The exact mechanism of ethanol's effects on glucose tolerance has not been well determined. The present study focuses for the first time on hypoxia and low-grade inflammation in adipose tissue (AT). In the in vivo experiments, twenty-four male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into control and ethanol feeding groups. Ethanol-treated rats received edible ethanol once a day at a total dosage of 5 g/kg per d, and the controls received distilled water. Ethanol volumes were adjusted every week. At the end of 8 weeks, we carried out an oral glucose tolerance test. Blood and AT were collected for measuring hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), GLUT1, TNF-α, IL-6, leptin and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In the in vitro experiments, differentiated OP9 adipocytes were incubated with 100 mm of ethanol for 48 h; the media and cells were then collected for measuring HIF-1α, GLUT1, TNF-α and IL-6. The results showed that long-term ethanol consumption impaired glucose tolerance in rats. Ethanol consumption had little influence on body weight, but both epididymal and perirenal AT were markedly enlarged in the ethanol-treated rats as compared to the controls. Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) had accumulated, and the protein levels of HIF-1α and GLUT1, the indicators of hypoxia in rat epididymal AT and OP9 adipocytes, were elevated. Secondary to the AT hypoxia, the levels of inflammation-related adipokines, such as TNF-α, IL-6, leptin and VEGF, were increased. Based on these findings, we conclude that VAT hypoxia and low-grade inflammation might be a new mechanism in the treatment of ethanol-related diabetes.

Few studies have explored the relationship between dietary patterns and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Evidence from non-Western areas is particularly lacking. In the present study, we aimed to examine the associations between dietary patterns and the risk of GDM in a Chinese population. A total of 3063 pregnant Chinese women from an ongoing prospective cohort study were included. Data on dietary intake were collected using a FFQ at 24–27 weeks of gestation. GDM was diagnosed using a 75 g, 2 h oral glucose tolerance test. Dietary patterns were determined by principal components factor analysis. A log-binomial regression model was used to examine the associations between dietary pattern and the risk of GDM. The analysis identified four dietary patterns: vegetable pattern; protein-rich pattern; prudent pattern; sweets and seafood pattern. Multivariate analysis showed that the highest tertile of the vegetable pattern was associated with a decreased risk of GDM (relative risk (RR) 0·79, 95 % CI 0·64, 0·97), compared with the lowest tertile, whereas the highest tertile of the sweets and seafood pattern was associated with an increased risk of GDM (RR 1·23, 95 % CI 1·02, 1·49). No significant association was found for either the protein-rich or the prudent pattern. The protective effect of a high vegetable pattern score was more evident among women who had a family history of diabetes (P for interaction = 0·022). These findings suggest that the vegetable pattern was associated with a decreased risk of GDM, while the sweets and seafood pattern was associated with an increased risk of GDM. These findings may be useful in dietary counselling during pregnancy.

It is well established that estrogen and progesterone are critical endogenous hormones that are essential for implantation and pregnancy in females. However, the distribution of estrogen receptor α (ERα) and progesterone receptor (PR) in female reproductive tracts is elusive. Herein, we report that after serial treatments with pregnant mare's serum gonadotrophin (PMSG) with or without anti-PMSG (AP), mice could regulate the distribution of ERα and PR in the murine ovary, oviduct and uterus and the level of estradiol in serum. ERα and PR regulation by PMSG and anti-PMSG was estrous cycle-dependent and critical for promoting the embryo-implantation period. Furthermore, our results suggested that AP-42 h treatment is more effective than the other treatments. In contrast, other treatment groups also affected the distribution of ERα and PR in mouse reproductive tracts. Thus, we found that anti-PMSG has the potential to restore the distribution of ERα and PR, which could effectively reduce the negative impact of residual estrogen caused by the normal superovulation effect of PMSG in mice.

The highly ordered mesoporous chromium–alumina catalysts (denoted as OMCA(x)) with different nAl/nCr ratios of 10 and 20 have been successfully synthesized via an evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) pathway associated with thermal treatment and were applied to the liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexane with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an oxidant. For comparison studies, a chromium catalyst with the nAl/nCr ratio of 10 supported on an ordered mesoporous alumina support [denoted as Cr/OMA(10)] was also prepared by an incipient wetness impregnation (IWI) method. Although both kinds of catalysts retained a unidimensionally ordered mesoporous structure, textural properties of the catalysts were significantly affected by the preparation method. The characteristic results from XRD, N2 adsorption, TEM, UV-Vis, 27Al MNS NMR, and H2-TPR showed that the OMCA(x) catalysts exhibited much more highly ordered hexagonal mesostructure, narrower pore-size distribution, higher Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area and pore volume, and more homogeneous distribution of Cr species in mesoporous alumina framework in the form of tetrahedrally coordinated hexavalent Cr-oxide moieties than those of Cr/OMA(10) synthesized by an IWI method. In addition, in comparison with Cr/OMA(10), OMCA(x) catalysts showed higher catalytic activity and stability for the liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexane.

We review the present status and future prospects of fast ignition (FI) research of the theoretical group at the IAPCM (Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing) as a part of the inertial confinement fusion project. Since the approval of the FI project at the IAPCM, we have devoted our efforts to improving the integrated codes for FI and designing advanced targets together with the experimental group. Recent FI experiments [K. U. Akli et al., Phys. Rev. E 86, 065402 (2012)] showed that the petawatt laser beam energy was not efficiently converted into the compressed core because of the beam divergence of relativistic electron beams. The coupling efficiency can be improved in three ways: (1) using a cone–wire-in-shell advanced target to enhance the transport efficiency, (2) using external magnetic fields to collimate fast electrons, and (3) reducing the prepulse level of the petawatt laser beam. The integrated codes for FI, named ICFI, including a radiation hydrodynamic code, a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation code, and a hybrid fluid–PIC code, have been developed to design this advanced target at the IAPCM. The Shenguang-II upgraded laser facility has been constructed for FI research; it consists of eight beams (in total $24~ {\rm kJ}/3\omega $ , 3 ns) for implosion compression, and a heating laser beam (0.5–1 kJ, 3–5 ps) for generating the relativistic electron beam. A fully integrated FI experiment is scheduled for the 2014 project.

Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) single crystals are the only nonlinear crystals currently used for electro-optic switches and frequency converters in inertial confinement fusion research, due to their large dimension and exclusive physical properties. Based on the traditional solution-growth process, large bulk KDP crystals, usually with sizes up to 600  $\times $  600 mm $^{{2}}$ so as to make a frequency doubler for the facility requirement loading highly flux of power laser, can be grown in standard Holden-type crystallizers, without spontaneous nucleation and visible defects, one to two orders of magnitude faster than by conventional methods. Pure water and KDP raw material with a few ion impurities such as Fe, Cr, and Al (less than 0.1 ppm) were used. The rapid-growth method includes extreme conditions such as temperature range from 60 to 35 $^{\circ }$ C, overcooling up to 5 $^{\circ }$ C, growth rates exceeding 10 mm/day, and crystal size up to 600 mm. The optical parameters of KDP crystals were determined. The optical properties of crystals determined indicate that they are of favorable quality for application in the facility.

The Archaean Jiaodong Terrane is located in the southern segment of the Palaeoproterozoic Jiao-Liao-Ji Belt, which separates the Eastern Block of the North China Craton into the Longgang and Langrim blocks. Controversy has long surrounded the issue of whether the Jiaodong Terrane is part of the North China Craton or an exotic terrane. This study presents new zircon U–Pb ages for the major lithologies of the Jiaodong Terrane, and the results indicate that the terrane underwent two main magmatic events at ~2.89 Ga and 2.62–2.56 Ga and two metamorphic events at ~2.5 Ga and 1.9–1.8 Ga. These ages are consistent with those of other metamorphic complexes in the Eastern Block, suggesting that the Jiaodong Terrane was part of the Neoarchaean basement of the Eastern Block, which was reworked at 1.9–1.8 Ga in association with the development of the Palaeoproterozoic Jiao-Liao-Ji Belt.

Fine-sized powders of BaSi3Al3O4N5:Eu2+ phosphors with high stability and improved photoluminescence properties were successfully synthesized by the traditional solid-state reaction method under a reductive atmosphere using BaF2-fluxing additives in the raw powder mixture. The produced phosphors had strong blue emission under excitation in ultraviolet (UV) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light, due to the 4f 5d–4f7 transition of Eu2+ ions. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, XANES, and the photoluminescence (PL) spectra under UV and VUV were used to characterize the as-received samples. The experimental results showed that the addition of BaF2 flux improved the crystalline regime and the PL properties of the produced phosphors. Most significantly, it allowed control of the particle size and particle size distribution in the final powders but did not jeopardize the high thermal and chemical stability of the phosphors produced. With the modification of the BaF2 flux, the blue-emitting BaSi3Al3O4N5:Eu2+ phosphors will show excellent packing and coating properties and could be a good candidate for the light-emitting diodes and plasma display panels.

The microstructure evolution and diffusion of silicon during heat-treatment and plastic deformation process were studied on the clad plates of Al–Mn/Al–Si aluminum composite fabricated by continuous casting. The results show that when the clad slab is homogenized and hot rolled, silicon diffuses across the interface from the Al–Si alloy (4004) side to the Al–Mn alloy (3003) side and dissolves into the 3003 matrix forming a solid solution. However, after deformation by cold-rolling, the increased driving force for precipitation of the solute elements in the core alloy side along with the abundant defects introduced by the severe deformation promotes the precipitation. Some Mg2Si particles precipitate from the solid solutions to form a transition region close to the interface of the two components. The presented transition area not only benefits the microstructure of the clad sheet but also improves the distribution of the microhardness across the interface, a tendency of gradient transition.

Cu–In–Ga precursor thin films were deposited onto soda lime glass by magnetron cosputtering CuIn and CuGa alloy targets. After that, Cu(In,Ga)Se2(CIGSe) absorbers were formed by selenizing those alloy precursors with Se vapor at 550 °C. The influence of the precursor temperature on the properties of CIGSe thin film was investigated. The results show that a lot of pinholes existed in the CIGSe thin film produced by selenizing the Cu–In–Ga alloy precursor, which was sputtering deposited at ambient temperature. After sputtering substrate temperature of 250 °C was applied, pinholes were avoided. The surface roughness of Cu–In–Ga precursor increased with the increase of sputtering substrate temperature. Due to the volume expansion of selenization process, even the precursor with high surface roughness could be converted to smooth and compact CIGSe thin film.

Yang L, Ruan L-M, Ye H-H, Cui H-B, Mu Q-T, Lou Y-R, Ji Y-X, Li W-Z, Sun D-H, Chen X-B. Depression is associated with lower circulating endothelial progenitor cells and increased inflammatory markers.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that depression status in subjects without cardiovascular diseases (CVD) or diabetes is associated with depletion of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and impaired endothelial function.

Method: Thirty depressive persons with the first episode of depression (case group) diagnosed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) and 30 healthy people (control group) were investigated. The depression status was estimated using Hamilton Rating Scale of Depression from which the criteria of depression are determined to be >21 score. EPCs labeled with CD34-ECD, CD133-phycoerythrin and kinase insert domain receptor (KDR)-fluorescein isothiocyanate antibodies were counted by flow cytometry in the peripheral blood of patients and control subjects. Mononuclear cells that were positive for CD34/KDR, CD133/KDR and CD34/CD133/KDR within the lymphocyte population were characterised as different phenotypes of EPCs.

Results: There were no significant differences in baseline clinical characteristics between patients and healthy individuals (all p > 0.05). However, patients with depression had significantly lower levels of circulating CD34+CD133+KDR+ EPCs (132.20 ± 17.27 vs. 225.93 ± 9.88, p = 0.000) and endothelial colony-forming units (26.40 ± 3.79 vs. 36.60 ± 2.88, p = 0.000) than that of healthy subjects. Furthermore, CD34+CD133+KDR+ EPCs had a negative correlation with tumour necrosis factor-α (Spearman's ρ = 0.433, p = 0.000) and interleukin-6 (Spearman's ρ = 0.441, p = 0.032).

Conclusion: Our result shows that depression was associated with lower levels of circulating EPCs, which may contribute to the development of endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis.