In the pipeline industry, it is often necessary to monitor cracks and damage in pipelines, or need to clean the inside of the pipeline regularly, or collect adhesive on the inner wall of the pipe, but the pipe is too narrow and difficult for humans to enter, it is necessary to use a pipe machine to complete the work. In this paper, a newly designed screw-driven in-pipe inspection robot (IPIR) is proposed. Compared with common robots, this robot innovatively designs adapting mechanism. The robot can not only adapt to the change of the inner diameter size of the pipeline by using the bionic principle and the deformation characteristics of flexible components but also can pass smoothly in the horizontal/oblique/vertical pipelines and has a certain ability to cross obstacles. In addition, it can transmit images of the inner wall of the pipeline wirelessly for data analysis. Finally, through theoretical analysis and prototype construction, the performance of the robot is verified. The results show that the prototype robot can not only smoothly pass through the acrylic pipe with inner diameter of 120–138 mm but also pass through boss with a height of 3 mm.

Background. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most prevalent malignant tumor of the lung cancer, for which the molecular mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, we identified novel biomarkers associated with the pathogenesis of NSCLC aiming to provide new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for NSCLC by bioinformatics analysis. Methods. From the Gene Expression Omnibus database, GSE118370 and GSE10072 microarray datasets were obtained. Identifying the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between lung adenocarcinoma and normal samples was done. By using bioinformatics tools, a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed, modules were analyzed, and enrichment analyses were performed. The expression and prognostic values of 14 hub genes were validated by the GEPIA database, and the correlation between hub genes and survival in lung adenocarcinoma was assessed by UALCAN, cBioPortal, String and Cytoscape, and Timer tools. Results. We found three genes (PIK3R1, SPP1, and PECAM1) that have a clear correlation with OS in the lung adenocarcinoma patient. It has been found that lung adenocarcinoma exhibits high expression of SPP1 and that this has been associated with poor prognosis, while low expression of PECAM1 and PIK3R1 is associated with poor prognosis (P < 0.05). We also found that the expression of SPP1 was associated with miR-146a-5p, while the high expression of miR-146a-5p was related to good prognosis (P < 0.05). On the contrary, the lower miR-21-5p on upstream of PIK3R1 is associated with a higher surviving rate in cancer patients (P < 0.05). Finally, we found that the immune checkpoint genes CD274(PD-L1) and PDCD1LG2(PD-1) were also related to SPP1 in lung adenocarcinoma. Conclusions. The results indicated that SPP1 is a cancer promoter (oncogene), while PECAM1 and PIK3R1 are cancer suppressor genes. These genes take part in the regulation of biological activities in lung adenocarcinoma, which provides a basis for improving detection and immunotherapeutic targets for lung adenocarcinoma.

Nonlinear compression has become an obligatory technique along with the development of ultrafast lasers in generating ultrashort pulses with narrow pulse widths and high peak power. In particular, techniques of nonlinear compression have experienced a rapid progress as ytterbium (Yb)-doped lasers with pulse widths in the range from hundreds of femtoseconds to a few picoseconds have become mainstream laser tools for both scientific and industrial applications. Here, we report a simple and stable nonlinear pulse compression technique with high efficiency through cascaded filamentation in air followed by dispersion compensation. Pulses at a center wavelength of 1040 nm with millijoule pulse energy and 160 fs pulse width from a high-power Yb:CaAlGdO4 regenerative amplifier are compressed to 32 fs, with only 2.4% loss from the filamentation process. The compressed pulse has a stable output power with a root-mean-square variation of 0.2% over 1 hour.

Many cross-language sentence processing studies showed structural priming, which suggests a shared representation across languages or separate but interacting representations for each language. To investigate whether multilinguals can rely on such representations to predict structure in comprehension, we conducted two visual-world eye-tracking priming experiments with Cantonese–Mandarin-English multilinguals. Participants were instructed to read aloud prime sentences in either Cantonese, Mandarin, or English; then they heard a target sentence in Mandarin while looking at the corresponding target picture. When prime and target had different verbs, there was within-language structural priming only (Mandarin-to-Mandarin, Experiment 1). But when prime and target had translation-equivalent verbs, there was not only within-language but also between-language priming (only Cantonese-to-Mandarin, Experiment 2). These results indicate that structure prediction between languages in comprehension is partly lexically-based, so that cross-linguistic structural priming only occurs with cognate verbs.

In this study, we analysed the prevalence of diabetes in Inner Mongolia and explored the relationship between dietary patterns and diabetes using the Chinese Dietary Balance Index-16 (DBI-16). This study was a surveillance survey of Chronic Disease and Nutrition Monitoring among Chinese Adults in Inner Mongolia in 2015. Dietary data were collected using the 24-h dietary recall and weighing method over three consecutive days. Dietary quality was evaluated via the DBI-16. A generalised linear model was used to examine the associations between the DBI-16 and dietary patterns. The relationship between dietary patterns and diabetes was analysed using logistic regression. In Inner Mongolia, the diabetes prevalence was 8·5 % and the estimated standardised prevalence was 6·0 %. Four major dietary patterns were identified: ‘meat/dairy products’, ‘traditional northern’, ‘high cereal/tuber’ and ‘high-salt/alcohol’. Generalised linear models showed that the ‘meat/dairy product’ pattern was relatively balanced (βLBS = –1·993, βHBS = –0·206, βDQD = –2·199; all P < 0·05) and was associated with a lower diabetes risk (OR 0·565; 95 % CI 0·338, 0·945; P < 0·05) after adjusting for potential confounders. The other three dietary patterns (i.e. ‘traditional northern’, ‘high cereal/tuber’ and ‘high-salt/alcohol’) exhibited relatively unbalanced dietary quality and were unassociated with diabetes risk. Diabetes prevalence in Inner Mongolia was moderate. The dietary quality of the ‘meat/dairy product’ pattern was relatively balanced and was correlated with a decreased risk of diabetes prevalence, suggesting that dietary quality may help decrease diabetes prevalence and provide a suggestion for local dietary guidelines.

Resistant starch (RS) was recently approved to exert a powerful influence on gut health, but the effect of RS on the caecal barrier function in meat ducks has not been well defined. Thus, the effect of raw potato starch (RPS), a widely adopted RS material, on microbial composition and barrier function of caecum for meat ducks was determined. A total of 360 Cherry Valley male ducks of 1-d-old were randomly divided and fed diets with 0 (control), 12, or 24 % RPS for 35 d. Diets supplemented with RPS significantly elevated villus height and villus height:crypt depth ratio in the caecum. The 16S rRNA sequence analysis indicated that the diet with 12 % RPS had a higher relative abundance of Firmicutes and the butyrate-producing bacteria Faecalibacterium, Subdoligranulum, and Erysipelatoclostridium were enriched in all diets. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium were significantly increased in the 24 % RPS diet v. the control diet. When compared with the control diet, the diet with 12 % RPS was also found to notably increase acetate, propionate and butyrate contents and up-regulated barrier-related genes including claudin-1, zonula occludens-1, mucin-2 and proglucagon in the caecum. Furthermore, the addition of 12 % RPS significantly reduced plasma TNF-α, IL-1β and endotoxin concentrations. These data revealed that diets supplemented with 12 % RPS partially improved caecal barrier function in meat ducks by enhancing intestinal morphology and barrier markers expression, modulating the microbiota composition and attenuating inflammatory markers.

As a source of competitive advantages for firms, innovation has boosted scholars’ interest in the identification of its main determinants from the perspective of organizational culture. However, there is a lack of research on innovation cultures in the context of emerging markets. Based on survey data from 433 manufacturing firms (331 Chinese firms and 102 Vietnamese firms), this study addresses this research gap using a hierarchical regression analysis to explore the impact of organizational innovation culture on firms’ new product performance and to examine the moderating effects of institutional environments and organizational cohesion on this relationship. We find that there are positive relationships between organizational innovation culture and firms’ new product performance. In contrast to recent research on organizational cohesion, we report that organizational cohesion has both a direct, positive effect on new product performance and a positive moderating role in organizational innovation culture and firms’ new product performance. Furthermore, regarding the institutional environment in the context of emerging markets, we find that the effects of organizational innovation culture on firms’ new product performance are stronger in China than in Vietnam. Therefore, this paper enriches organizational culture research by providing a multidimensional theoretical framework and extends institutional theory in the context of emerging markets by examining the moderating effect of institutional environments on the relationship between organizational innovation culture and firms’ new product performance in both China and Vietnam.

The effect of zirconium alloying on the crystal structures and mechanical properties of binary tungsten–zirconium alloys is investigated in this study using the first-principles method. Firstly, we investigate the cell volumes, lattice constants, and formation energies of binary W1−xZrx (x = 0, 0.0625, 0.125, 0.1875, 0.25, and 0.5) alloys. It is shown that binary tungsten–zirconium alloys maintain BCC structures. When the concentration of zirconium atoms is lower than 12.5%, the structures of binary tungsten–zirconium alloys can be thermodynamically stable. The elastic constants of binary tungsten–zirconium alloys are calculated based on the optimized atomic lattice. Then, the elastic modulus and other mechanical parameters are deduced according to the relevant formulas. It is shown that the mechanical strength of binary tungsten–zirconium alloy decreases with an increasing concentration of zirconium atoms, which is lower than the mechanical strength of pure tungsten metal. However, the mechanical strength of binary tungsten–zirconium alloys is higher than that of pure zirconium metal. In addition, zirconium alloying can be effective in improving the ductility of pure tungsten metal.

Both genetic selection and increasing nutrient density for improving growth performance had inadvertently increased leg problems of meat ducks, which adversely affects animal welfare. We hypothesised that slowing weight gain with improving tibia quality probably enhanced tibial mechanical properties and alleviated leg deformities. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of graded Ca supplementation in a low-nutrient density (LND) diet on tibia composition and bone turnover in meat ducks. A total of 720 15-d-old male meat ducks were randomly assigned and fed a standard nutrient density positive control (PC) diet containing 0·9 % Ca, and four LND diets with 0·5, 0·7, 0·9 and 1·1 % Ca, respectively. Ducks fed the 0·5 % Ca LND diet and the PC diet had higher incidence of tibial dyschondroplasia (TD). When compared with the 0·5 % Ca LND diet, LND diets with ≥0·7 % Ca significantly improved tibia composition, microarchitecture and mechanical properties, and consequently decreased the incidence of TD. Furthermore, LND diets with ≥0·7 % Ca increased osteocyte-specific gene mRNA expression, blocked the expression of osteoblast differentiation marker genes including osteocalcin, collagenase-1 and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and also decreased the expression of osteoclast differentiation genes, such as vacuolar-type H+-ATPase, cathepsin K and receptor activator of NF-κB. Meanwhile bone markers such as serum ALP, osteocalcin (both osteoblast markers) and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (an osteoclast marker) were significantly decreased in at least 0·7 % Ca treated groups. These findings indicated that LND diets with ≥0·7 % Ca decreased bone turnover, which subsequently increased tibia quality for 35-d-old meat ducks.

Three-dimensional (3D) density distribution of inhomogeneous dense deuterium tritium plasmas in laser fusion is revealed by the energy loss of fast protons going through the plasmas. The fast protons generated in the laser–plasma interaction can be used for the simulation of a plasma density diagnostics. The large linear and ill-posed equation set of the densities of all grids is obtained and then solved by the Tikhonov regularization method after dividing a 3D area into grids and knowing the initial and final energies of the protons. 3D density reconstructions with six proton sources are done without and with random noises added to the final energy. The revealed density is a little smaller than the simulated one in most simulated zones and the error is as much as those of 2D reconstructions with four proton sources. The picture element N is chosen as 2744 with consideration of smoothness and calculation memory of the computers. With fast calculation speed and low error, the Tikhonov regularization method is more suitable for 3D density reconstructions with large calculation amount than simultaneous iterative reconstruction method. Also the analytical expressions between the errors and the noises are established. Furthermore, the density reconstruction method in this paper is particularly suitable for plasmas with small density gradient. The errors without noises and with 2% noises added to the final proton energies are 3 and 20%, respectively, for the homogeneous plasma.

Lead halide perovskites have proven their great power conversion efficiency (PCE) in the last few years and attracted more and more attentions. Evaporation is an important method to get high quality perovskite films, especially for surface and interface investigation, which is important for the solar cell performance. In this paper, we present our investigations on growing PbI2 and CH3NH3I films by evaporation, and then CH3NH3PbI3 films by co-evaporation. X-ray photoemisson spectroscopy (XPS) was used to characterize the films. The results showed that CH3NH3I film was not stable in vacuum. Both N and I decreased in vacuum with time elapsing. PbI2 and CH3NH3PbI3 films are quite stable. The atomic ratio of CH3NH3PbI3 films (C: N: Pb: I =1.29:1.07:1.00:2.94) is very close to the ideal CH3NH3PbI3, which indicates that evaporation is a good method to get high quality perovskite films with accurate atomic ratio.

Methylammonium lead halide perovskites have been developed as highly promising materials to fabricate efficient solar cells in the past few years. We have investigated degradation of co-evaporated CH3NH3PbI3 films in ambient air, oxygen and water respectively using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), small angle x-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The CH3NH3PbI3 film has an excellent atomic ratio and crystallinity. XPS results indicate that the film is not sensitive to oxygen and dry air, while ambient and water exposures achieve similar effects. XRD further indicates a structural conversion to PbI2 and a drastic morphology change from smooth to rough is revealed by AFM and SEM. The experiment indicated that H2O plays a dominated role in the degradation of CH3NH3PbI3 films. The degradation can be characterized by almost complete removal of N, substantial reduction of I, residual of PbI2, C, O, and I compounds on the surface.

To determine the effects of dietary Fe concentration on Mn bioavailability in rats fed inorganic or organic Mn sources, fifty-four 22-d-old male rats were randomly assigned and fed a basal diet (2·63 mg Fe/kg) supplemented with 0 (low Fe (L-Fe)), 35 (adequate Fe (A-Fe)) or 175 (high Fe (H-Fe)) mg Fe/kg with 10 mg Mn/kg from MnSO4 or Mn–lysine chelate (MnLys). Tissues were harvested after 21 d of feeding. Serum Mn was greater (P<0·05) in MnLys rats than in MnSO4 rats, and in L-Fe rats than in A-Fe or H-Fe rats. Duodenal divalent metal transporter-1 (DMT1) mRNA was lower (P<0·05) in H-Fe rats than in A-Fe rats for the MnSO4 treatment; however, no significant difference was observed between them for MnLys. Liver DMT1 mRNA abundance was greater (P<0·05) in MnSO4 than in the MnLys group for H-Fe rats. The DMT1 protein in duodenum and liver and ferroportin 1 (FPN1) protein in liver was greater (P<0·05) in the MnSO4 group than in the MnLys group, and in L-Fe rats than in H-Fe rats. Duodenal FPN1 protein was greater (P<0·05) in L-Fe rats than in A-Fe rats for the MnLys treatment, but it was not different between them for the MnSO4 treatment. Results suggest that MnLys increased serum Mn concentration as compared with MnSO4 in rats irrespective of dietary Fe concentration, which was not because of the difference in DMT1 and FPN1 expression in the intestine and liver.

Grains of indica rice (Oryza sativa cv. Peiza 67) exhibit an increase in endo-β-mannanase activity, mostly after the completion of germination. According to tissue blots, the initial increase occurs in association with the embryo, and possibly the scutellum, although the largest sustained increase in activity is in the peripheral regions of the endosperm. The aleurone layer, being the only living region of the endosperm, is presumably the site of synthesis and secretion of the enzyme into the non-living, starch-laden region. β-Mannosidase activity is low throughout germination and subsequent seedling growth, particularly in the endosperm regions. Its activity profile does not mimic that of endo-β-mannanase. In the intact grain, gibberellin (GA) causes a relatively small increase in endo-β-mannanase activity, while abscisic acid (ABA) causes a large decrease; this inhibition is overcome to a considerable extent when GA is supplied along with ABA. β-Mannosidase activity is little affected by either GA or ABA. Embryoless half-grains imbibed in water exhibit only a small increase in endo-β-mannanase activity with time of imbibition, showing the necessity for a stimulus from the embryo for this to occur. Incubating half-grains in the presence of GA results in a large increase in enzyme activity; ABA reduces the amount of activity compared to the water controls. GA is capable of reversing the inhibitory effect of ABA with respect to endo-β-mannanase activity. As in the intact grains, β-mannosidase activity in the half-grains is unaffected by either GA or ABA. It is concluded that the major site for the production of endo-β-mannanase activity is the aleurone layer, and this event is influenced by the presence of the embryo; in the absence of the latter, the increase in enzyme activity is stimulated by GA. β-Mannosidase activity is low throughout germination and post-germination, it is not influenced by GA and ABA, and thus its activity is not regulated in a coordinated manner with that of endo-β-mannanase.

The structure of Ag nanoparticles, embedded in crystalline SiO2 by high-dose implantation, was investigated. It was found that single crystal is favored over multiple-twinned particles. In addition, the contracted (111) lattice spacing of the Ag nanocrystals was measured by x-ray diffraction.