Estimating the feed intake of grazing herbivores is critical for determining their nutrition, overall productivity and utilization of grassland resources. A 17-day indoor feeding experiment was conducted to evaluate the potential use of Medicago sativa as a natural supplement for estimating the total feed intake of sheep. A total of 16 sheep were randomly assigned to four diets (four sheep per diet) containing a known amount of M. sativa together with up to seven forages common to typical steppes. The diets were: diet 1, M. sativa + Leymus chinensis + Puccinellia distans; diet 2, species in diet 1 + Phragmites australis; diet 3, species in diet 2 + Chenopodium album + Elymus sibiricus; and diet 4, species in diet 3 + Artemisia scoparia + Artemisia tanacetifolia. After faecal marker concentrations were corrected by individual sheep recovery, treatment mean recovery or overall recovery, the proportions of M. sativa and other dietary forages were estimated from a combination of alkanes and long-chain alcohols using a least-square procedure. Total intake was the ratio of the known intake of M. sativa to its estimated dietary proportion. Each dietary component intake was obtained using total intake and the corresponding dietary proportions. The estimated values were compared with actual values to assess the estimation accuracy. The results showed that M. sativa exhibited a distinguishable marker pattern in comparison to the other dietary forage species. The accuracy of the dietary composition estimates was significantly (P < 0.001) affected by both diet diversity and the faecal recovery method. The proportion of M. sativa and total intake across all diets could be accurately estimated using the individual sheep or the treatment mean recovery methods. The largest differences between the estimated and observed total intake were 2.6 g and 19.2 g, respectively, representing only 0.4% and 2.6% of the total intake. However, they were significantly (P < 0.05) biased for most diets when using the overall recovery method. Due to the difficulty in obtaining individual sheep recovery under field conditions, treatment mean recovery is recommended. This study suggests that M. sativa, a natural roughage instead of a labelled concentrate, can be utilized as a dietary supplement to accurately estimate the total feed intake of sheep indoors and further indicates that it has potential to be used in steppe grassland of northern China, where the marker patterns of M. sativa differ markedly from commonly occurring plant species.

Globally, human immune deficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) continues to be a major public health issue. With improved survival, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS is increasing, with over 2 million among pregnant women. Investigating adverse pregnant outcomes of HIV-infected population and associated factors are of great importance to maternal and infant health. A cross-sectional data collected from hospital delivery records of 4397 mother–infant pairs in southwestern China were analysed. Adverse pregnant outcomes (including low birthweight/preterm delivery/low Apgar score) and maternal HIV status and other characteristics were measured. Two hundred thirteen (4.9%) mothers were HIV positive; maternal HIV infection, rural residence and pregnancy history were associated with all three indicators of adverse pregnancy outcomes. This research suggested that maternal population have high prevalence in HIV infection in this region. HIV-infected women had higher risks of experiencing adverse pregnancy outcomes. Rural residence predisposes adverse pregnancy outcomes. Findings of this study suggest social and medical support for maternal-infant care needed in this region, selectively towards rural areas and HIV-positive mothers.

AgNPs@g-C3N4 composite was synthesized from Ag-containing sol and g-C3N4 powder by the ultrasonic-assisted self-assembly method. The composite has hierarchical pore size distributions, which will be beneficial to the ion transport with different size. Ag nanoparticles with the size of 5 nm successfully adhere on the surface of g-C3N4. The AgNPs@g-C3N4 composite has excellent specific capacitance and specific power performance for the supercapacitors as an electrode material. The specific capacitance of composite is 4 times greater than that of g-C3N4. It can be ascribed to the introduction of Ag nanoparticles that the internal resistance of the composite is significantly decreased.

Rabies is one of the major public health problems in China, and the mortality rate of rabies remains the highest among all notifiable infectious diseases. A meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) vaccination rate and risk factors for human rabies in mainland China. The PubMed, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical and Wanfang databases were searched for articles on rabies vaccination status (published between 2007 and 2017). In total, 10 174 human rabies cases from 136 studies were included in this meta-analysis. Approximately 97.2% (95% confidence interval (CI) 95.1–98.7%) of rabies cases occurred in rural areas and 72.6% (95% CI 70.0–75.1%) occurred in farmers. Overall, the vaccination rate in the reported human rabies cases was 15.4% (95% CI 13.7–17.4%). However, among vaccinated individuals, 85.5% (95% CI 79.8%–83.4%) did not complete the vaccination regimen. In a subgroup analysis, the PEP vaccination rate in the eastern region (18.8%, 95% CI 15.9–22.1%) was higher than that in the western region (13.3%, 95% CI 11.1–15.8%) and this rate decreased after 2007. Approximately 68.9% (95% CI 63.6–73.8%) of rabies cases experienced category-III exposures, but their PEP vaccination rate was 27.0% (95% CI 14.4–44.9%) and only 6.1% (95% CI 4.4–8.4%) received rabies immunoglobulin. Together, these results suggested that the PEP vaccination rate among human rabies cases was low in mainland China. Therefore, standardised treatment and vaccination programs of dog bites need to be further strengthened, particularly in rural areas.

Records of absenteeism from primary schools are valuable data for infectious diseases surveillance. However, the analysis of the absenteeism is complicated by the data features of clustering at zero, non-independence and overdispersion. This study aimed to generate an appropriate model to handle the absenteeism data collected in a European Commission granted project for infectious disease surveillance in rural China and to evaluate the validity and timeliness of the resulting model for early warnings of infectious disease outbreak. Four steps were taken: (1) building a ‘well-fitting’ model by the zero-inflated Poisson model with random effects (ZIP-RE) using the absenteeism data from the first implementation year; (2) applying the resulting model to predict the ‘expected’ number of absenteeism events in the second implementation year; (3) computing the differences between the observations and the expected values (O–E values) to generate an alternative series of data; (4) evaluating the early warning validity and timeliness of the observational data and model-based O–E values via the EARS-3C algorithms with regard to the detection of real cluster events. The results indicate that ZIP-RE and its corresponding O–E values could improve the detection of aberrations, reduce the false-positive signals and are applicable to the zero-inflated data.

Thousand Island Lake (TIL) is a typical fragmented landscape and an ideal model to study ecological effects of fragmentation. Partial fragments of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene of 23 island populations of Dendrolimus punctatus in TIL were sequenced, 141 haplotypes being identified. The number of haplotypes increased significantly with the increase in island area and shape index, whereas no significant correlation was detected between three island attributes (area, shape and isolation) and haplotype diversity. However, the correlation with number of haplotypes was no longer significant when the ‘outlier’ island JSD (the largest island) was not included. Additionally, we found no significant relationship between geographic distance and genetic distance. Geographic isolation did not obstruct the gene flow among D. punctatus populations, which might be because of the high dispersal capacity of this pine moth. Fragmentation resulted in the conversion of large and continuous habitats into isolated, small and insular patches, which was the primary effect on the genetic diversity of D. punctatus in TIL. The conclusion to emphasize from our research is that habitat fragmentation reduced the biological genetic diversity to some extent, further demonstrating the importance of habitat continuity in biodiversity protection.

In the present study, calcium propionate (CaP) was used as feed additive in the diet of calves to investigate their effects on rumen fermentation and the development of rumen epithelium in calves. To elucidate the mechanism in which CaP improves development of calf rumen epithelium via stimulating the messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of G protein-coupled receptors, a total of 54 male Jersey calves (age=7±1 days, BW=23.1±1.2 kg) were randomly divided into three treatment groups: control without CaP supplementation (Con), 5% CaP supplementation (5% CaP) and 10% CaP supplementation (10% CaP). The experiment lasted 160 days and was divided into three feeding stages: Stage 1 (days 0 to 30), Stage 2 (days 31 to 90) and Stage 3 (days 91 to 160). Calcium propionate supplementation percentages were calculated on a dry matter basis. In total, six calves from each group were randomly selected and slaughtered on days 30, 90 and 160 at the conclusion of each experimental feeding stage. Rumen fermentation was improved with increasing concentration of CaP supplementation in calves through the first 30 days (Stage 1). No effects of CaP supplementation were observed on rumen fermentation in calves during Stage 2 (days 31 to 90). Supplementation with 5% CaP increased propionate concentration, but not acetate and butyrate in calves during Stage 3 (days 91 to 160). The rumen papillae length of calves in the 5% CaP supplementation group was greater than that of Con groups in calves after 160 days feeding. The mRNA expression of G protein-coupled receptor 41 (GPR41) and GPR43 supplemented with 5% CaP were greater than the control group and 10% CaP group in feeding 160 days calves. 5% CaP supplementation increased the mRNA expression of cyclin D1, whereas did not increase the mRNA expression of cyclin-dependent kinase 4 compared with the control group in feeding 160-day calves. These results indicate that propionate may act as a signaling molecule to improve rumen epithelium development through stimulating mRNA expression of GPR41 and GPR43.

Four complete platysiagid fish specimens are described from the Luoping Biota, Anisian (Middle Triassic), Yunnan Province, southwest China. They are small fishes with bones and scales covered with ganoine. All characters observed, such as nasals meeting in the midline, a keystone-like dermosphenotic, absence of post-rostral bone, two infraorbitals between dermosphenotic and jugal, large antorbital, and two postcleithra, suggest that the new materials belong to a single, new Platysiagum species, P. sinensis sp. nov. Three genera are ascribed to Platysiagidae: Platysiagum, Helmolepis and Caelatichthys. However, most specimens of the first two genera are imprints or fragmentary. The new, well-preserved specimens from the Luoping Biota provide more detailed anatomical information than before, and thus help amend the concept of the Platysiagidae. The Family Platysiagidae was previously classed in the Perleidiformes. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the Platysiagidae is a member of basal Neopterygii, and its origin seems to predate that of Perleidiformes. Moreover, platysiagid fishes are known from the Middle Triassic of the western Tethys region. The newly found specimens of platysiagids from Luoping provide additional evidence that both eastern and western sides of the Tethys Ocean were biogeographically more connected than previously thought.

Monolithic large-aperture diffraction grating tiling is desired to increase the output capability of multi-kilojoule petawatt laser facilities. However, the wavefront errors of input pulse and gratings will degrade the focal spot quality and the compressibility of the output pulse. In this work, the effects of wavefront error of input pulse, deformation and wave aberration of the grating for the large-aperture tiled-grating compressor are investigated theoretically. A series of numerical simulations are presented to discuss the changing trends of focal spot energy caused by wavefront error of input pulse and obtain the error tolerance for specific goals. The influences of coating stress and the wave aberration of holographic exposure gratings on the diffraction wavefront are also discussed. Some advice is proposed for improving the performance of large-aperture tiled-grating. This work paves the way for the design of practical large-aperture tiled-grating compressor for ultrahigh intensity laser facilities in the future.

This paper presents a numerical model for accurately representing the behaviors of lead-rubber bearings during earthquakes. This model, which is implemented in OpenSees as a user-defined element, accounts for the mechanical characteristics of bearings as follows: firstly, the bi-lateral interaction effect of hysteretic behaviors, as well as the variation in horizontal stiffness due to vertical load, is considered; secondly, the reduced vertical stiffness under large lateral displacement is incorporated by the piecewise linear formulation, and the linear reduction method is employed to determine the stability limit of bearings in the deformed configuration; furthermore, the cavitation and permanent damage effects in bearings are mathematically included. To validate the numerical model, simulation analyses are performed for a series of static and dynamic loading tests, and the numerical results show reasonable agreement with experimental ones, which indicates that the proposed model provides an effective tool for the failure mode analyses of bearings and the dynamic analyses of seismic isolated structures.

Aphelinus mali (Haldeman) is an effective natural enemy of woolly apple aphid (WAA), Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann). Previous studies have found that, with WAA from Shandong Province (Qingdao) as the host, there are significant differences in various biological characteristics between a Shandong clade and Liaoning clade of A. mali. The ability of the Shandong clade to control this aphid was significantly higher than that of the Liaoning clade in Shandong Province. In order to determine whether differences were caused by better adaptation of the Shandong parasitoid clade to the population of the host in that province or if it represents a more general fitness of this clade to control the host regardless of location, we compared the same parasitoid clades with hosts from Hebei Province. We found no significant differences in the developmental threshold temperature, effective accumulated temperature, fecundity, longevity, and oviposition period of the two clades, but the duration of host searching of the Shandong clade was significantly longer than that of the Liaoning clade. The instantaneous attack rate, the control ability (a/Th), the search parameter (Q) of the Shandong clade (0.0946, 0.543, 0.0725) of A. mali were higher than that of the Liaoning clade (0.0713, 0.382, 0.0381), and therefore, with WAA from Hebei Province as the host, the host adaptability of the Shandong clade of A. mali was not worse than that of the Liaoning clade, while the pest control ability of the Shandong clade was still greater than that of the Liaoning clade.

As lack of forage resource, alternative roughage sources have been developed for ruminant production and their inclusion would exert a great effect on the dietary nutrition, consequently affecting animal performance. Four silages (corn silage (CS), corn stalk silage (SS), inoculated CS and inoculated SS) were separately offered to 60 Bohai Black cattle (15 cattle/group) during a 24-week finishing period, in which the growth performance, carcass trait, beef quality and oxidative stability of steers were determined. Neither silage material nor silage inoculant exerted a significant effect on the growth performance, carcass trait and oxidative stability of beef cattle (P>0.05). As to beef quality, cattle offered CS had higher (P<0.05) contents of intramuscular fat than those offered SS along with a lower moisture content (P<0.05). The contents (mg/g muscle) of C10 : 0, C12 : 0, C14 : 1, C16 : 0, C16 : 1, C18 : 1n9c, C18 : 2n6c, C18 : 3n3, C20 : 1n9, C20 : 2, C20 : 3n6, saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids and n-6 fatty acids were higher (P<0.05) in the beef muscle of animals offered CS than those offered SS, whereas inoculated treatment made no difference (P>0.05) on the proximate components and fatty acids profile of beef muscle. There was neither an interaction (P>0.05) between inoculated treatment and silage material. There were no differences (P>0.05) in cholesterol content and meat quality traits in animals fed alternative silages. The collective findings suggest that it is not economical to substitute high-quality forage for relative low-quality forage in a high-concentrate finishing ration of beef cattle and silage inoculant inclusion would not exert a direct effect on animal performance.

Biomimetic motions are helpful to underwater vehicles and new conception airplanes design. The lattice Boltzmann method with an immersed boundary method technique is used to reveal the propulsion and lift enhancement mechanism of biomimetic motions. The flow past a sphere and an ellipsoidal flapping wing were validated respectively by comparing with other numerical methods. Then a single flapping wing and three flapping wings in a tandem arrangement are accomplished respectively. It founds that the mean thrust coefficient of three plate wings is bigger than the one of the single plate wing. Three ellipsoidal wings and single ellipsoidal wing are compared. It shows that the single ellipsoidal wing has larger thrust coefficients than the three ellipsoidal wings. Ellipsoidal flapping wing and plate wing were further compared to investigate the influence of wing shape. It indicates the mean thrust coefficient of the ellipsoidal wing is bigger than the plate wing.

Here, we examine the conditions for layer formation in a stratified shear flow. We reformulate the conditions for amplification of small perturbations to a uniform stratification first proposed by Phillips (Deep Sea Research and Oceanographic Abstracts, vol. 19, 1972, pp. 79–81, Elsevier) and Posmentier (J. Phys. Oceanogr., vol. 7 (2), 1977, pp. 298–300) using the sorted buoyancy coordinates introduced by Nakamura (J. Atmos. Sci., vol. 53 (11), 1996, pp. 1524–1537) and Winters & D’Asaro (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 317, 1996, pp. 179–193). We consider the possible dependence of the effective diffusivity on three non-dimensional parameters, the gradient Richardson number, the buoyancy Reynolds number and the Prandtl number, and obtain a simple expression for conditions favourable for layer formation. The new framework is applied to direct numerical simulations of stratified shear flow. We then apply a recent multi-parameter parameterization developed by Salehipour et al. (Geophys. Res. Lett., vol. 43 (7), 2016, pp. 3370–3379), which suggests that layer formation is favoured for large Prandtl numbers and moderate to large values of the gradient Richardson and buoyancy Reynolds numbers.

The strain gradient elasticity theory including only three independent material length scale parameters has been proposed by Zhou et al. to explain the size effect phenomena in micro scales. In this paper, the general formulations of strain gradient elasticity theory in orthogonal curvilinear coordinates are derived, and then are specified for the cylindrical and spherical coordinates for the convenience of applications in cases where orthogonal curvilinear coordinates are suitable. Two basic problems, one is the twist of a cylindrical bar and the other is the radial deformation of a solid sphere, are analyzed under the cylindrical and spherical coordinates, respectively. The results reveal that only the material length scale parameter l2 enters the torsion problem, while completely disappears in the problem of radial deformation of a sphere. The size effect of radial deformation of a solid sphere is controlled by the material length scale parameters l1 and l2. In addition, for the incompressible solid sphere especially, only the material length scale parameter l1 enters this radial deformation problem by neglecting the strain gradient terms associated with hydrostatic strains. Predictably, the present paper offers an alternative avenue for measuring the three independent material length scale parameters from bar twisting and sphere expansion tests.

Hundreds of small-scale influenza outbreaks in schools are reported in mainland China every year, leading to a heavy disease burden which seriously impacts the operation of affected schools. Knowing the transmissibility of each outbreak in the early stage has become a major concern for public health policy-makers and primary healthcare providers. In this study, we collected all the small-scale outbreaks in Changsha (a large city in south central China with ~7·04 million population) from January 2005 to December 2013. Four simple and popularly used models were employed to calculate the reproduction number (R) of these outbreaks. Given that the duration of a generation interval Tc = 2·7 and the standard deviation (s.d.) σ = 1·1, the mean R estimated by an epidemic model, normal distribution and delta distribution were 2·51 (s.d. = 0·73), 4·11 (s.d. = 2·20) and 5·88 (s.d. = 5·00), respectively. When Tc = 2·9 and σ = 1·4, the mean R estimated by the three models were 2·62 (s.d. = 0·78), 4·72 (s.d. = 2·82) and 6·86 (s.d. = 6·34), respectively. The mean R estimated by gamma distribution was 4·32 (s.d. = 2·47). We found that the values of R in small-scale outbreaks in schools were higher than in large-scale outbreaks in a neighbourhood, city or province. Normal distribution, delta distribution, and gamma distribution models seem to more easily overestimate the R of influenza outbreaks compared to the epidemic model.