According to Hamilton's rule, matrilineal-biased investment restrains men in matrilineal societies from maximising their inclusive fitness (the ‘matrilineal puzzle'). A recent hypothesis argues that when women breed communally and share household resources, a man should help his sisters' household, rather than his wife's household, as investment to the later but not the former would be diluted by other unrelated members (Wu et al., 2013). According to this hypothesis, a man is less likely to help on his wife's farm when there are more women reproducing in the wife's household, because on average he would be less related to his wife's household. We used a farm-work observational dataset, that we collected in the matrilineal Mosuo in southwest China, to test this hypothesis. As predicted, high levels of communal breeding by women in his wife's households do predict less effort spent by men on their wife's farm, and communal breeding in men's natal households do not affect whether men help on their natal farms. Thus, communal breeding by women dilutes the inclusive fitness benefits men receive from investment to their wife and children, and may drive the evolution of matrilineal-biased investment by men. These results can help solve the ‘matrilineal puzzle'.

Starch content is an important trait in barley. To evaluate the genetic diversity and identify molecular markers of starch content in barley, 40 cultivated barley genotypes collected from different regions, including genotypes whose starch content is at either the high or low end of the spectrum (15), were used in this study. All the genotypes were re-sequenced by the double-digest-restriction associated DNA sequencing method, and a total of 299,103 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were obtained. The genotypes were divided into four sub-populations based on FASTSTRUCTURE, principal component analysis and neighbour-joining tree analysis. All four sub-populations had a high linkage disequilibrium, especially group 3, whose members were recently bred for malting in the Jiangsu coastal area. The starch content of the barley lines was evaluated during three growing seasons (2014–2017), and the average values of starch content across the three growing seasons at the low and high ends were 51.5 and 55.0%, respectively. The starch content was affected by population structure, the barley in group 2 had a low starch content, while the barley in group 4 had a high starch content. Twenty-six SNP markers were identified as being significantly associated with starch content (P ⩽ 0.001) based on the average values across the three growing seasons using the mixed linear model method. These SNP markers were located on chromosomes 1H and 4H, and were considered loci of qSC1-1 and qSC4-1, respectively. The major identified QTLs for starch content are helpful for further research on carbohydrates and for barley breeding.

Studies have indicated that psychological stress impairs human fertility and that various stressors can induce apoptosis of testicular cells. However, the mechanisms by which psychological stress on males reduces semen quality and stressors induce apoptosis in testicular cells are largely unclear. Using a psychological (restraint) stress mouse model, we tested whether male psychological stress triggers apoptosis of spermatozoa and spermatogenic cells through activating tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α signalling. Wild-type or TNF-α−/− male mice were restrained for 48 h before examination for apoptosis and expression of TNF-α and TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1) in spermatozoa, epididymis, seminiferous tubules and spermatogenic cells. The results showed that male restraint significantly decreased fertilization rate and mitochondrial membrane potential, while increasing levels of malondialdehyde, active caspase-3, TNF-α and TNFR1 in spermatozoa. Male restraint also increased apoptosis and expression of TNF-α and TNFR1 in caudae epididymides, seminiferous tubules and spermatogenic cells. Sperm quality was also significantly impaired when spermatozoa were recovered 35 days after male restraint. The restraint-induced damage to spermatozoa, epididymis and seminiferous tubules was significantly ameliorated in TNF-α−/− mice. Furthermore, incubation with soluble TNF-α significantly reduced sperm motility and fertilizing potential. Taken together, the results demonstrated that male psychological stress induces apoptosis in spermatozoa and spermatogenic cells through activating the TNF-α system and that the stress-induced apoptosis in spermatogenic cells can be translated into impaired quality in future spermatozoa.

Astronomy education and public outreach (EPO) is one of the important part of the future development of astronomy. During the past few years, as the rapid evolution of Internet and the continuous change of policy, the breeding environment of science EPO keep improving and the number of related projects show a booming trend. EPO is no longer just a matter of to teachers and science educators but also attracted the attention of professional astronomers. Among all activates of astronomy EPO, the data driven astronomy education and public outreach (abbreviated as DAEPO) is special and important. It benefits from the development of Big Data and Internet technology and is full of flexibility and diversity. We will present the history, definition, best practices and prospective development of DAEPO for better understanding this active field.

A high power laser system was used to drive the ignition of inertial confinement fusion (ICF), of which the high energy, the uniform focal spot, the accurate laser waveform, and the synchronization between the laser beams are key parameters. To accomplish this, global laser characteristics control should be assured, which was the main purpose of the injection laser system. In this paper, the key technological progress involved in the improvement of the performance of the injection laser of SG-II is reported, including frequency domain control, time domain control, near-field spatial shaping, pre-amplifier technology, and the optical parametric chirped pulse amplification pump source.

Methane produced from formate is one of the important methanogensis pathways in the rumen. However, quantitative information of CH4 production from formate has been rarely reported. The aim of this study was to characterize the conversion rate (CR) of formic acid into CH4 and CO2 by rumen microorganisms. Ground lucerne hay was incubated with buffered ruminal fluid for 6, 12, 24 and 48 h. Before the incubation, 13C-labeled H13COOH was also supplied into the incubation bottle at a dose of 0, 1.5, 2.2 or 2.9 mg/g of DM substrate. There were no interactions (P>0.05) between dose and incubation time for all variables evaluated. When expressed as an absolute amount (ml in gas sample) or a relative CR (%), both 13CH4 and 13CO2 production quadratically increased (P<0.01) with the addition of H13COOH. The total 13C (13CH4 and 13CO2) CR was also quadratically increased (P<0.01) when H13COOH was added. Moreover, formate addition linearly decreased (P<0.031) the concentrations of NH3-N, total and individual volatile fatty acids (acetate, propionate and butyrate), and quadratically decreased (P<0.014) the populations of protozoa, total methanogens, Methanosphaera stadtmanae, Methanobrevibacter ruminantium M1, Methanobrevibacter smithii and Methanosarcina barkeri. In summary, formate affects ruminal fermentation and methanogenesis, as well as the rumen microbiome, in particular microorganisms which are directly or indirectly involved in ruminal methanogenesis. This study provides quantitative verification for the rapid dissimilation of formate into CH4 and CO2 by rumen microorganisms.

Knowledge of regulation of glucose transport contributes to our understanding of whole-body glucose homoeostasis and human metabolic diseases. Isoleucine has been reported to participate in regulation of glucose levels in many studies; therefore, this study was designed to examine the effect of isoleucine on intestinal and muscular GLUT expressions. In an animal experiment, muscular GLUT and intestinal GLUT were determined in weaning pigs fed control or isoleucine-supplemented diets. Supplementation of isoleucine in the diet significantly increased piglet average daily gain, enhanced GLUT1 expression in red muscle and GLUT4 expression in red muscle, white muscle and intermediate muscle (P<0·05). In additional, expressions of Na+/glucose co-transporter 1 and GLUT2 were up-regulated in the small intestine when pigs were fed isoleucine-supplemented diets (P<0·05). C2C12 cells were used to examine the expressions of muscular GLUT and glucose uptake in vitro. In C2C12 cells supplemented with isoleucine in the medium, cellular 2-deoxyglucose uptake was increased (P<0·05) through enhancement of the expressions of GLUT4 and GLUT1 (P<0·05). The effect of isoleucine was greater than that of leucine on glucose uptake (P<0·05). Compared with newborn piglets, 35-d-old piglets have comparatively higher GLUT4, GLUT2 and GLUT5 expressions. The results of this study demonstrated that isoleucine supplementation enhanced the intestinal and muscular GLUT expressions, which have important implications that suggest that isoleucine could potentially increase muscle growth and intestinal development by enhancing local glucose uptake in animals and human beings.

Crack propagation behaviors in a precracked single crystal Ag under mode I loading at different temperatures are studied by molecular dynamics simulation. The simulation results show that the crack propagation behaviors are sensitive to external temperature. At 0 K, the crack propagates in a brittle manner. Crack tip blunting and void generation are first observed followed by void growth and linkage with the main crack, which lead to the propagation of the main crack and brittle failure immediately without any microstructure evolution. As the temperature gets higher, more void nucleations and dislocation emissions occur in the crack propagation process. The deformation of the single crystal Ag can be considered as plastic deformation due to dislocation emissions. The crack propagation dynamics characterizing the microstructure evolution of atoms around the crack tip is also shown. Finally, it is shown that the stress of the single crystal Ag changes with the crack length synchronously.

A new inverse Compton scattering scheme for production of high-energy Gamma-ray sources is proposed in which a Giga-electronvolt (GeV) electron beam is injected into a thermal hohlraum. It is found that by increasing the hohlraum background temperature, the scattered photons experience kinematic pileup, resulting in more monochromatic spectrum and smaller scattering angle. When a relativistic electron beam with energy 1 GeV and charge 10nC is injected into a 0.5 keV hohlraum, 80% of the scattered photons have energy above 0.5 GeV.

This paper gives out two kinds of novel well-behaved stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) mediums, FC-3283 and FC-770. Numerical calculation and experimental measurements show these two mediums both having lower absorption, higher optical loads and short phonon lifetime, which making them good candidate mediums for high-energy high-power SBS. Using them as the mediums in the compacted two-cell SBS phase-conjugation mirror, it is easily to generate ultrashort phased-conjugated Stokes pulses just with hundreds picoseconds. When the incident light energy is beyond 200 mJ, the pulse width of 8 ns can be compressed to 200 ps or less in both mediums. Especially, the FC-770 is very suitable to be chosen for generating the SBS picosecond pulses with the narrowest compression pulse width of 109 ps and the highest energy reflectivity of 80%.

The Chinese Astronomical Data Center (CAsDC) is a member of World Data System, hosted at National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences(NAOC). The CAsDC keeps close collaboration with IVOA, WDS and CODATA. The whole set of LAMOST data, including raw data and data products, are hosted at the CAsDC. Data resources and services of the CAsDC are introduced.

The driving mechanism of solar flares and coronal mass ejections is a topic of ongoing debate, apart from the consensus that magnetic reconnection plays a key role during the impulsive process. While present solar research mostly depends on observations and theoretical models, laboratory experiments based on high-energy density facilities provide the third method for quantitatively comparing astrophysical observations and models with data achieved in experimental settings. In this article, we show laboratory modeling of solar flares and coronal mass ejections by constructing the magnetic reconnection system with two mutually approaching laser-produced plasmas circumfused of self-generated megagauss magnetic fields. Due to the Euler similarity between the laboratory and solar plasma systems, the present experiments demonstrate the morphological reproduction of flares and coronal mass ejections in solar observations in a scaled sense, and confirm the theory and model predictions about the current-sheet-born anomalous plasmoid as the initial stage of coronal mass ejections, and the behavior of moving-away plasmoid stretching the primary reconnected field lines into a secondary current sheet conjoined with two bright ridges identified as solar flares.

Resonant acceleration of plasma electrons in combined circularly polarized Gaussian laser fields and self-generated quasistatic fields has been investigated theoretically and numerically. The latter includes the radial quasistatic electric field, the azimuthal quasistatic magnetic field and the axial one. The resonant condition is theoretically given and numerically testified. The results show some of the resonant electrons are accelerated to velocities larger than the laser group velocity and thus gain high energy. For peak laser intensity I0 = 1 × 1020 W cm−2 and plasma density n0 = 0.1ncr, the relativistic electron beam with energies increased from 207 MeV to 262 MeV with a relative energy width around 24% and extreme low beam divergence less than 1° has been obtained. The effect of laser intensity and plasma density on the final energy gain of resonant electrons is also investigated.