This paper focus on the mechanical and martensitic transformation behaviors of axially functionally graded shape memory alloy (AFG SMA) beams. It is taken into consideration that material properties, such as austenitic elastic modulus, martensitic elastic modulus, critical transformation stresses and maximum transformation strain vary continuously along the longitudinal direction. According to the simplified linear SMA constitutive equations and Bernoulli-Euler beam theory, the formulations of stress, strain, martensitic volume fraction and governing equations of the deflection, height and length of transformed layers are derived. Employing the Galerkin’s weighted residual method, the governing differential equation of the deflection is solved. As an example, the bending behaviors of an AFG SMA cantilever beam subjected to an end concentrated load are numerically analyzed using the developed model. Results show that the mechanical and martensitic transformation behaviors of the AFG SMA beam are complex after the martensitic transformation of SMA occurs. The influences of FG parameter on the mechanical behaviors and geometrical shape of transformed regions are obvious, and should be considered in the design and analysis of AFG SMA beams in the related regions.

Growth patterns are known to differ between breastfed and formula-fed infants, but little is known about the relative impact of maternal smoking in pregnancy v. feeding mode on growth trajectory in infancy. We conducted a secondary analysis of a trial, the Tolerance of Infant Goat Milk Formula and Growth Assessment trial involving 290 healthy infants, to examine whether smoking in pregnancy modified the association between feeding mode and body composition of infants. Fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) were estimated at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12 months of age using bioimpedance spectroscopy. Formula-fed infants (n 190) had a higher mean FFM at 4 months (mean difference (MD) 160 g, 95 % CI 50·4, 269·5 g, P < 0·05)) and 6 months (MD 179 g, 95 % CI 41·5, 316·9 g, P < 0·05) compared with the breastfed infants (n 100). Sub-group analysis of breastfed v. formula-fed infants by maternal smoking status in pregnancy showed that there were no differences in the FM and FFM between the breastfed and formula-fed infants whose mothers did not smoke in pregnancy. Formula-fed infants whose mothers smoked in pregnancy were smaller at birth and had a lower FM% and higher FFM% at 1 month compared with infants of non-smoking mothers regardless of feeding mode, but the differences were not significant at other time points. Adequately powered prospective studies with an appropriate design are warranted to better understand the relative impact of maternal smoking, feeding practice and the growth trajectory of infants.

Enhancing the supply of arginine (Arg), a semi-essential amino acid, has positive effects on immune function in dairy cattle experiencing metabolic stress during early lactation. Our objective was to determine the effects of Arg supplementation on biomarkers of liver damage and inflammation in cows during early lactation. Six Chinese Holstein lactating cows with similar BW (508 ± 14 kg), body condition score (3.0), parity (4.0 ± 0), milk yield (30.6 ± 1.8 kg) and days in milk (20 ± days) were randomly assigned to three treatments in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square design balanced for carryover effects. Each period was 21 days with 7 days for infusion and 14 days for washout. Treatments were (1) Control: saline; (2) Arg group: saline + 0.216 mol/day l-Arg; and (3) Alanine (Ala) group: saline + 0.868 mol/day l-Ala (iso-nitrogenous to the Arg group). Blood and milk samples from the experimental cows were collected on the last day of each infusion period and analyzed for indices of liver damage and inflammation, and the count and composition of somatic cells in milk. Compared with the Control, the infusion of Arg led to greater concentrations of total protein, immunoglobulin M and high density lipoprotein cholesterol coupled with lower concentrations of haptoglobin and tumor necrosis factor-α, and activity of aspartate aminotransferase in serum. Infusion of Ala had no effect on those biomarkers compared with the Control. Although milk somatic cell count was not affected, the concentration of granulocytes was lower in response to Arg infusion compared with the Control or Ala group. Overall, the biomarker analyses indicated that the supplementation of Arg via the jugular vein during early lactation alleviated inflammation and metabolic stress.

This work focuses on the temperature (passive scalar) and velocity characteristics within a turbulent Kármán vortex using a phase-averaging technique. The vortices are generated by a circular cylinder, and the three components of the fluctuating velocity and vorticity vectors, $u_{i}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{i}$ ( $i=1,2,3$ ), are simultaneously measured, along with the fluctuating temperature $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}$ and the temperature gradient vector, at nominally the same spatial point in the plane of mean shear at $x/d=10$ , where $x$ is the streamwise distance from the cylinder axis and $d$ is the cylinder diameter. We believe this is the first time the properties of fluctuating velocity, temperature, vorticity and temperature gradient vectors have been explored simultaneously within the Kármán vortex in detail. The Reynolds number based on $d$ and the free-stream velocity is $2.5\times 10^{3}$ . The phase-averaged distributions of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}$ and $u_{i}$ follow closely the Gaussian distribution for $r/d\leqslant 0.2$ ( $r$ is the distance from the vortex centre), but not for $r/d>0.2$ . The collapse of the distributions of the mean-square streamwise derivative of the velocity fluctuations within the Kármán vortex implies that the velocity field within the vortex tends to be more locally isotropic than the flow field outside the vortex. A possible physical explanation is that the large and small scales of velocity and temperature fields are statistically independent of each other near the Kármán vortex centre, but interact vigorously outside the vortex, especially in the saddle region, due to the action of coherent strain rate.

The seasonality of individual influenza subtypes/lineages and the association of influenza epidemics with meteorological factors in the tropics/subtropics have not been well understood. The impact of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic on the prevalence of seasonal influenza virus remains to be explored. Using wavelet analysis, the periodicities of A/H3N2, seasonal A/H1N1, A/H1N1pdm09, Victoria and Yamagata were identified, respectively, in Panzhihua during 2006–2015. As a subtropical city in southwestern China, Panzhihua is the first industrial city in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The relationship between influenza epidemics and local climatic variables was examined based on regression models. The temporal distribution of influenza subtypes/lineages during the pre-pandemic (2006–2009), pandemic (2009) and post-pandemic (2010–2015) years was described and compared. A total of 6892 respiratory specimens were collected and 737 influenza viruses were isolated. A/H3N2 showed an annual cycle with a peak in summer–autumn, while A/H1N1pdm09, Victoria and Yamagata exhibited an annual cycle with a peak in winter–spring. Regression analyses demonstrated that relative humidity was positively associated with A/H3N2 activity while negatively associated with Victoria activity. Higher prevalence of A/H1N1pdm09 and Yamagata was driven by lower absolute humidity. The role of weather conditions in regulating influenza epidemics could be complicated since the diverse viral transmission modes and mechanism. Differences in seasonality and different associations with meteorological factors by influenza subtypes/lineages should be considered in epidemiological studies in the tropics/subtropics. The development of subtype- and lineage-specific prevention and control measures is of significant importance.

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.

Political scientists are increasingly interested in causal mediation, and to this end, recent studies focus on estimating a quantity called the controlled direct effect (CDE). The CDE measures the strength of the causal relationship between a treatment and outcome when a mediator is fixed at a given value. To estimate the CDE, Joffe and Greene (2009) and Vansteelandt (2009) developed the method of sequential g-estimation, which was introduced to political science by Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen (2016). In this letter, we propose an alternative method called “regression-with-residuals” (RWR) for estimating the CDE. In special cases, we show that these two methods are algebraically equivalent. Yet, unlike sequential g-estimation, RWR can easily accommodate several types of effect moderation, including cases in which the effect of the mediator on the outcome is moderated by a posttreatment confounder. Although common in the social sciences, this type of effect moderation is typically assumed away in applications of sequential g-estimation, which may lead to bias if effect moderation is in fact present. We illustrate RWR by estimating the CDE of negative media framing on public support for immigration, controlling for respondent anxiety.

The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of animals is capable of sensing various kinds of nutrients via G-protein coupled receptor-mediated signaling transduction pathways, and the process is known as ‘gut nutrient chemosensing’. GPR40, GPR41, GPR43 and GPR119 are chemoreceptors for free fatty acids (FFAs) and lipid derivatives, but they are not well studied in small ruminants. The objective of this study is to determine the expression of GPR40, GPR41, GPR43 and GPR119 along the GIT of kid goats under supplemental feeding (S) v. grazing (G) during early development. In total, 44 kid goats (initial weight 1.35±0.12 kg) were slaughtered for sampling (rumen, abomasum, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, cecum, colon and rectum) between days 0 and 70. The expression of GPR41 and GPR43 were measured at both mRNA and protein levels, whereas GPR40 and GPR119 were assayed at protein level only. The effects of age and feeding system on their expression were variable depending upon GIT segments, chemoreceptors and expression level (mRNA or protein), and sometimes feeding system × age interactions (P<0.05) were observed. Supplemental feeding enhanced expression of GPR40, GPR41 and GPR43 in most segments of the GIT of goats, whereas G enhanced expression of GPR119. GPR41 and GPR43 were mainly expressed in rumen, abomasum and cecum, with different responses to age and feeding system. GPR41 and GPR43 expression in abomasum at mRNA level was greatly (P<0.01) affected by both age and feeding system; whereas their expression in rumen and abomasum at protein level were different, feeding system greatly (P<0.05) affected GPR41 expression, but had no effect (P>0.05) on GPR43 expression; and there were no feeding system×age interactions (P>0.05) on GPR41 and GPR43 protein expression. The expression of GPR41 and GPR43 in rumen and abomasum linearly (P<0.01) increased with increasing age (from days 0 to 70). Meanwhile, age was the main factor affecting GPR40 expression throughout the GIT. These outcomes indicate that age and feeding system are the two factors affecting chemoreceptors for FFAs and lipid derivatives expression in the GIT of kids goats, and S enhanced the expression of chemoreceptors for FFAs, whereas G gave rise to greater expression of chemoreceptors for lipid derivatives. Our results suggest that enhanced expression of chemoreceptors for FFAs might be one of the benefits of early supplemental feeding offered to young ruminants during early development.

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.

Coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and viral hepatitis is associated with high morbidity and mortality in the absence of clinical management, making identification of these cases crucial. We examined characteristics of HIV and viral hepatitis coinfections by using surveillance data from 15 US states and two cities. Each jurisdiction used an automated deterministic matching method to link surveillance data for persons with reported acute and chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, to persons reported with HIV infection. Of the 504 398 persons living with diagnosed HIV infection at the end of 2014, 2.0% were coinfected with HBV and 6.7% were coinfected with HCV. Of the 269 884 persons ever reported with HBV, 5.2% were reported with HIV. Of the 1 093 050 persons ever reported with HCV, 4.3% were reported with HIV. A greater proportion of persons coinfected with HIV and HBV were males and blacks/African Americans, compared with those with HIV monoinfection. Persons who inject drugs represented a greater proportion of those coinfected with HIV and HCV, compared with those with HIV monoinfection. Matching HIV and viral hepatitis surveillance data highlights epidemiological characteristics of persons coinfected and can be used to routinely monitor health status and guide state and national public health interventions.

A new helminthomorph millipede, Sinosoma luopingense new genus new species, from the Triassic Luoping biota of China, has 39 body segments, metazonites with lateral swellings that bear a pair of posterolateral pits (?insertion pits for spine bases), and sternites that are unfused to the pleurotergites. This millipede shares a number of characters with nematophoran diplopods, but lacks the prominent dorsal suture characteristic of that order. Other “millipede” material from the biota is more problematic. Millipedes are a rare part of the Luoping biota, which is composed mainly of marine and near-shore organisms. Occurrences of fossil millipedes are exceedingly rare in Triassic rocks worldwide, comprising specimens from Europe, Asia, and Africa, and consisting of juliform millipedes and millipedes that are either nematophorans or forms very similar to nematophorans.

In ovo feeding (IOF) of l-arginine (Arg) can affect growth performance of broilers, but the response of IOF of Arg on breast muscle growth is unclear, and the mechanism involved in protein deposition remains unknown. Hense, this experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of IOF of Arg on breast muscle growth and protein-deposited signalling in post-hatch broilers. A total of 720 fertile eggs were collected from 34-week-old Arbor Acres breeder hens and distributed to three treatments: (1) non-injected control group; (2) 7.5 g/l (w/v) NaCl diluent-injected control group; (3) 0.6 mg Arg/egg solution-injected group. At 17.5 days of incubation, fertile eggs were injected 0.6 ml solutions into the amnion of the injected groups. Upon hatching, 80 male chicks were randomly assigned to eight replicates of 10 birds each and fed ad libitum for 21 days. The results indicated that IOF of Arg increased relative breast muscle weight compared with those of control groups at hatch, 3-, 7- and 21-day post-hatch (P<0.05). In the Arg-injected group, the plasma total protein and albumen concentrations were higher at 7- and 21-day post-hatch than those of control groups (P<0.05). The alanine aminotransferase activity in Arg group was higher at hatch than that of control groups (P<0.05). The levels of triiodothyronine at four time points and thyroxine hormones at hatch, 7- and 21-day post-hatch in Arg group were higher than those of control groups (P<0.05). In addition, IOF of Arg increased the amino acid concentrations of breast muscle at hatch, 7- and 21-day post-hatch (P<0.05). In ovo feeding of Arg also enhanced mammalian target of rapamycin, ribosomal protein S6 kinase-1 and eIF4E-bindingprotein-1 messenger RNA expression levels at hatch compared with those of control groups (P<0.05). It was concluded that IOF of Arg treatment improved breast muscle growth, which might be associated with the enhancement of protein deposition.

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.