The very high temperature reactor (VHTR) is a development of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) and one of the six proposed Generation IV reactor concept candidates. The 10 MW high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR-10) is the first pebble-bed gas-cooled test reactor in China. A sampling system for the measurement of carbon-14 (14C) was established in the helium purification system of the HTR-10 primary loop, which could sample 14C from the coolant at three locations. The results showed that activity concentration of 14C in the HTR-10 primary coolant was 1.2(1) × 102 Bq/m3 (STP). The production mechanisms, distribution characteristics, reduction routes, and release types of 14C in HTR-10 were analyzed and discussed. A theoretical model was built to calculate the amount of 14C in the core of HTR-10 and its concentration in the primary coolant. The activation reaction of 13C has been identified to be the dominant 14C source in the core, whereas in the primary coolant, it is the activation of 14N. These results can supplement important information for the source term analysis of 14C in HTR-10 and promote the study of 14C in HTGRs.

At present, the number of people with tuberculosis in China is second only to India and ranks second in the world. Under such a severe case of tuberculosis in China, prevention and control of pulmonary tuberculosis are urgently needed. This study aimed to study the temporal and geographical relevance of the pathogenesis of pulmonary tuberculosis and the factors affecting the incidence of tuberculosis. Spatial autocorrelation model was used to study the spatial distribution characteristics of pulmonary tuberculosis from a quantitative level. The research results showed that the overall incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis (IPT) in China was low in the east, high in the west and had certain seasonal characteristics. We use Spatial Lag Model to explore influencing factors of pulmonary tuberculosis. It indicates that the IPT is high in areas with underdeveloped economics, poor social services and low average smoking ages. Additionally, the IPT is high in areas with high AIDS prevalence. Also, compared with Classical Regression Model and Spatial Error Model, our model has smaller values of Akaike information criterion and Schwarz criterion. Besides, our model has bigger values of coefficient of determination (R2) and log-likelihood (log L) than the other two models. Apart from that, it is more significant than Spatial Error Models in the spatial dependence test for the IPT.

Using an age-structured process-based simulation model for diamondback moth (DBM), we model the population dynamics of this major Brassica pest using the cropping practices and climate of Guangdong, China. The model simulates two interacting sub-populations (demes), each representing a short season crop. The simulated DBM abundance, and hence pest problems, depend on planting regime, crop hygiene and biological control. A continuous supply of hosts, a low proportion of crop harvested and long residue times between harvest and replanting each exacerbate pest levels. Biological control provided by a larval parasitoid can reduce pest problems, but not eliminate them when climate is suitable for DBM and under certain planting practices. The classic Integrated Pest Management (IPM) method of insecticide application, when pest threshold is reached, proved effective and halved the number of insecticide sprays when compared with the typical practice of weekly insecticide application.

This paper aims to build the finite element model of the composite sinusoidal specimens and to carry out the parametric analysis. In this paper, the damage behaviour and the energy-absorbing results of composite sinusoidal specimens have been studied by quasi-static crushing experiments. The failure mechanisms of specimens under quasi-static crushing is further analysed. A numerical simulation has been performed by using the finite element model code LS-DYNA. The numerical results, in terms of load -displacement data, have been compared against experimental data, and good agreement has been found. Moreover, a sensitivity study has been carried out by varying material properties in order to assess their influence on the numerical results, and the material parameter selection scheme is optimised based on the constructed corresponding response surfaces. The results show that the response surface model has passed the test of goodness of fit, and the optimisation method can effectively assist the finite element modelling, and greatly decrease the numbers of trial and error.

Lutein benefits human health significantly, including that of the eyes, skin and heart. Therefore, increasing lutein content in soybean seeds is an important objective for breeding programmes. However, no information about soybean lutein-related quantitative trait loci (QTL) has been reported, as of 2016. The aim of the present study was to identify QTLs underlying the lutein content in soybean seeds. A population including 129 recombinant inbred lines was developed from the cross between ‘Dongnong46’ (lutein 13·10 µg/g) and ‘L-100’ (lutein 23·96 µg/g), which significantly differed in seed lutein contents. This population was grown in ten environments including Harbin in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015; Hulan in 2013, 2014 and 2015; and Acheng in 2013, 2014 and 2015. A total of 213 simple sequence repeat markers were used to construct the genetic linkage map, which covered approximately 3623·39 cM, with an average distance of 17·01 cM between markers. In the present study, eight QTLs associated with lutein content were found initially, which could explain 1·01–19·66% of the observed phenotypic variation in ten different tested environments. The phenotypic contribution of qLU-1 (located near BARC-Satt588 on chromosome 9 (Chr 9; linkage group (LG) K)) was >10% across seven tested environments, while qLU-2 (located near Satt192 of Chr 12 (LG H)) and qLU-3 (located near Satt353 of Chr12 (LGH)) could explain 5–10% of the observed phenotypic variation in more than seven environments, respectively. qLU-5, qLU-6, qLU-7 and qLU-8 could be detected in more than four environments. These eight QTLs were novel, and have considerable potential value for marker-assistant selection of higher lutein content in soybean lines.

A ground-based hyperspectral imaging system covering the spectral range of 384–1034 nm was used for Sclerotinia Stem Rot (SSR) detection. Two sample sets of oilseed leaves were collected. Four vegetation indices were extracted and evaluated by analysis of variance (ANOVA) combined with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) for the two sample sets. Discriminant models were built using the 4 vegetation indices. The discriminant results of the two sample sets were good with classification accuracies of the calibration set and the prediction set over 85%. The overall results indicated that vegetation indices calculated from ground-based hyperspectral imaging could be used as reliable and accurate indices for SSR detection.

In individuals with latent tuberculosis (TB) infection, those living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) had a 20–37 times higher risk of developing active TB compared to those without HIV infection. Systematic testing and treatment of latent TB infection are priorities in HIV-infected persons. In China, the prevalence of HIV infection in men who have sex with men (MSM) has gradually increased in the past decade. However, the prevalence of TB infection has been studied sparsely in HIV-infected MSM. Hence, we conducted a pilot study in MSM living with HIV infection in Xi'an city to evaluate TB infection status by means of interferon-γ release assay (IGRA). A total of 182 HIV-infected MSM were included in this study, the prevalence of IGRA positivity was observed to be 8·79% (16/182). IGRA quantitative results were not statistically influenced by the CD4 cell counts of the study participants. However, IGRA positivity was found to be lower than our previously reported data from the general population. This suggests that immunological deficiency might decrease the sensitivity of IGRA and thus increase the number of false negatives. Our primary results, suggesting systematic testing and treatment of latent TB infection together with active case-finding, were equally important for TB control in persons living with HIV infection.

A total of 1145 samples were collected from chicken breeder farms, hatcheries, broiler farms, a slaughterhouse and retail refrigerated chicken stores in an integrated broiler supply chain in Guangdong Province, China, in 2013. One-hundred and two Salmonella enterica strains were isolated and subjected to serotyping, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, virulence profile determination and molecular subtyping by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The contamination rates in samples from breeder farms, hatcheries, broiler farms, the slaughterhouse and retail stores were 1·46%, 4·31%, 7·00%, 62·86% and 54·67%, respectively. The isolated strains of S. enterica belonged to 10 serotypes; most of them were S. Weltevreden (46·08%, 47/102) and S. Agona (18·63%, 19/102). Isolates were frequently resistant to streptomycin (38·2%), tetracycline (36·3%), sulfisoxazole (35·3%) and gentamicin (34·3%); 31·4% of isolates were multidrug resistant. The isolates were screened for 10 virulence factors. The Salmonella pathogenicity island genes avrA, ssaQ, mgtC, siiD, and sopB and the fimbrial gene bcfC were present in 100% of the strains. PFGE genotyping of the 102 S. enterica isolates yielded 24 PFGE types at an 85% similarity threshold. The PFGE patterns show that the genotypes of S. enterica in the production chain are very diverse, but some strains have 100% similarity in different parts of the production chain, which indicates that some S. enterica persist throughout the broiler supply chain.

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating a continuous core from Lake Gun Nur, northern Mongolia, shows a period between 10 and 8 ka BP that could not be dated accurately. Further dating on alkali-insoluble residue and humic acid from the same samples in the Gun Nur core suggest that this AMS 14C date anomaly is neither analytical nor material related. We hypothesize that the 14C anomaly may be derived from increasing production rates of 14C caused by diminished solar activity, a low 14CO2/14CO ratio in the atmosphere, or an unstable 14C flux in the lower atmosphere caused by changing geomagnetic field strength. Our results imply that the 14C data used for 14C age calibration cannot correct the age-depth regression between 8 and 10 ka BP to fit the age-depth model along with other time intervals.

There are six strains of the complete genomic sequences of black queen cell virus (BQCV) published in the GenBank, including South Africa (AF183905), South Korea (JX149531), Hungary 10 (EF517515), Poland 4 (EF517519), Poland 5 (EF517520) and Poland 6 (EF517521). Based on the six BQCV strains published in the GenBank, ten pairs of primers were designed in the present study using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction to obtain the first complete genome sequence of a BQCV strain in China, called the BQCV China-JL1 strain (KP119603). A phylogenetic tree was then built to analyse their genetic relationships. The BQCV China-JL1 strain showed 86–93% similarity with the six strains published in the GenBank. The BQCV China-JL1 strain consisted of 8358 nucleotides (nt). The 5′-proximal open reading frame (ORF1) initiated at nt position 546 and terminated at nt position 4676, ORF3 initiated at nt position 4891 and terminated at nt position 5433, and the 3′-proximal ORF (ORF2) was located between nt positions 5750 and 8203.

A novel image-based method is presented in this paper to estimate the poses of commercial aircrafts in a runway end safety area. Based on the fact that similar poses of an aircraft will have similar geometry structures, this method first extracts features to describe the structure of an aircraft's fuselage and aerofoil by RANdom Sample Consensus algorithm (RANSAC), and then uses the central moments to obtain the aircrafts’ pose information. Based on the proposed pose information, a two-step feature matching strategy is further designed to identify an aircraft's particular pose. In order to validate the accuracy of the pose estimation and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, we construct a pose database of two common aircrafts in Asia. The experiments show that the designed low-dimension features can accurately capture the aircraft's pose information and the proposed algorithm can achieve satisfied matching accuracy.

Orthocoelium streptocoelium is a common paramphistome species parasitizing the rumen and/or reticulum of small ruminants, leading to significant losses. This study first determined the complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of O. streptocoelium. The complete mt genome of O. streptocoelium was amplified, sequenced, assembled, analysed and then compared with those of other digeneans. The entire mt genome of O. streptocoelium is 13,800 bp in length, which is smaller than those of other digeneans except for Opisthorchis viverrini. This mt genome contains 12 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes and two non-coding regions. The arrangement of the O. streptocoelium mt genome is the same as those of other digeneans except for Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma spindale. Phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated amino acid sequences of the 12 protein-coding genes representing 16 digeneans were conducted to assess the relationship of O. streptocoelium with other digeneans. The result indicated that O. streptocoelium is closely related to Paramphistomum cervi and Fischoederius elongates, which is in accordance with their relationships by taxonomy. This complete mt genome of O. streptocoelium enriched the mitochondrial genome data of paramphistomes and provided important molecular markers for diagnostics and studies of population variation, epidemiology, ecology and evolution of O. streptocoelium and other digeneans.

Diamondback moth or DBM is the major pest of Brassica vegetable production worldwide. Control has relied on insecticides, and DBM resistance to these compounds has evolved rapidly. We review and summarize data on DBM population dynamics across a large latitudinal gradient from southwest to northeast China: DBM is, on average, more common in southern locations than in northern locations. The species' phenology is consistent: in southern and central locations there is a decline during hot summer months, while in the north, the species can only exist in the summer following migrations from the south. A cohort-based discrete-time model, driven by daily maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall, which was built using the DYMEX modelling software, captures the age-structured population dynamics of DBM at representative locations, with year round cropping and threshold-based insecticide applications. The scale of the simulated pest problem varies with cropping practices. Local production breaks and strict post-harvest crop hygiene are associated with lower DBM populations. Biological control appears to improve the management of DBM. Of the management strategies explored, non-threshold based applications of insecticides with reduced spray efficacy (due to poor application or resistance) appear the least effective. The model simulates the phenology and abundance patterns in the population dynamics across the climatic gradient in China reasonably well. With planned improvements, and backed by a system of field sampling and weather inputs, it should serve well as a platform for a local pest forecast system, spanning the range of DBM in China, and perhaps elsewhere.

A novel approach for synthesis of few layer graphene films on SiC has been developed which uses halogen based inductively coupled-reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) and rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in atmospheric pressure argon. These films have been characterized using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. Surface characterization by XPS reveals the presence of defects similar to those observed for graphene oxide (GO) but at a much lower levels that those observed for GO. As in the case for GO, the defect density could be further reduced by chemical methods which improved carbon to defect ratio based on XPS analyses. Raman spectroscopy showed the presence of D, G and 2D peaks at 1330 cm-1, 1599 cm-1 and 2671 cm-1, respectively, which is comparable with similar graphene films formed by thermal annealing of SiC. The full widths at half max (FWHM) for these peaks was, however, comparable to those observed for GO. Electrical characterization of these graphene films using collinear four point probe measurements showed the electrical resistivity of these films is consistent with the observed values for few layer exfoliated graphene. Gas sensor structures were fabricated using lithography free methods, and initial gas response studies were performed for H2.

Nano-graphite oxide has been synthesized from graphite flakes using modified Hummer’s method. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) data, x-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed functionalization of the synthesised nano-graphitic platelets with oxygenated bonds. Using thermal embedding technique for the fabrication of self-assembled films, electrodes of nano-graphite oxide have been fabricated for enzyme free detection of cholesterol electrochemically. The electrodes provided a linear response for the enzyme less detection in the range of 50mg/dl to 500mg/dl with a correlation coefficient, R, of 0.99784 and sensitivity of 1.0587 µA/mg.