Although topographic mapping missions and geological surveys carried out by Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are becoming increasingly prevalent, the lack of precise navigation in these scenarios still limits their application. This paper deals with the problems of long-term underwater navigation for AUVs and provides new mapping techniques by developing a Bathymetric Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping (BSLAM) method based on graph SLAM technology. To considerably reduce the calculation cost, the trajectory of the AUV is divided into various submaps based on Differences of Normals (DoN). Loop closures between submaps are obtained by terrain matching; meanwhile, maximum likelihood terrain estimation is also introduced to build weak data association within the submap. Assisted by one weight voting method for loop closures, the global and local trajectory corrections work together to provide an accurate navigation solution for AUVs with weak data association and inaccurate loop closures. The viability, accuracy and real-time performance of the proposed algorithm are verified with data collected onboard, including an 8 km planned track recorded at a speed of 4 knots in Qingdao, China.

Suppose that $0<|\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}|<1$ and $m\geqslant 2$ is an integer. Let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C},m}$ be the self-similar measure defined by $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C},m}(\cdot )=\frac{1}{m}\sum _{j=0}^{m-1}\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C},m}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}^{-1}(\cdot )-j)$ . Assume that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}=\pm (q/p)^{1/r}$ for some $p,q,r\in \mathbb{N}^{+}$ with $(p,q)=1$ and $(p,m)=1$ . We prove that if $(q,m)=1$ , then there are at most $m$ mutually orthogonal exponential functions in $L^{2}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C},m})$ and $m$ is the best possible. If $(q,m)>1$ , then there are any number of orthogonal exponential functions in $L^{2}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C},m})$ .

Guangxi, a province in southwestern China, has the second highest reported number of HIV/AIDS cases in China. This study aimed to develop an accurate and effective model to describe the tendency of HIV and to predict its incidence in Guangxi. HIV incidence data of Guangxi from 2005 to 2016 were obtained from the database of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network models, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models, generalised regression neural network (GRNN) models and exponential smoothing (ES) were used to fit the incidence data. Data from 2015 and 2016 were used to validate the most suitable models. The model performances were evaluated by evaluating metrics, including mean square error (MSE), root mean square error, mean absolute error and mean absolute percentage error. The LSTM model had the lowest MSE when the N value (time step) was 12. The most appropriate ARIMA models for incidence in 2015 and 2016 were ARIMA (1, 1, 2) (0, 1, 2)12 and ARIMA (2, 1, 0) (1, 1, 2)12, respectively. The accuracy of GRNN and ES models in forecasting HIV incidence in Guangxi was relatively poor. Four performance metrics of the LSTM model were all lower than the ARIMA, GRNN and ES models. The LSTM model was more effective than other time-series models and is important for the monitoring and control of local HIV epidemics.

Seed germination, the first and critical step of the plant's life cycle, is affected by salt stress. However, the underlying mechanism of salt tolerance during early seed germination remains elusive. Here, a comparative RNA-seq analysis was performed using early germinating seeds either under normal conditions or in 100 and 150 mM sodium chloride. A total of 575 genes were up-regulated and 913 genes were down-regulated in the presence of 100 mM NaCl. Under the 150 mM NaCl treatment 1921 genes were up-regulated and 3501 genes were down-regulated. A total of 379 or 863 genes were up-regulated or down-regulated in both 100 and 150mM NaCl. These co-regulated genes were further analysed by GO enrichment. Genes in the categories abscisic acid signaling and synthesis and nutrient reservoir activity were significantly enriched in the up-regulated genes. Transcription factors responsive to gibberellin and auxin were significantly down-regulated by salinity stress. Genes related to anti-oxidant activity were significantly enriched in the down-regulated gene clusters by NaCl treatment. Our results suggest that salt stress inhibits seed germination by activating ABA synthesis and signalling, and depressing GA and auxin signalling, while preserving nutrition and down-regulated anti-oxidant activity. Our study provides more insight into the molecular mechanism of salt tolerance during early seed germination.

Conventional underwater navigation and positioning methods for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) either require the installation of acoustic arrays, which make AUVs less independent, or result in cumulative errors. This paper proposes an Underwater Terrain Positioning Method (UTPM) using Maximum a Posteriori (MAP) estimation and a Pulse Coupled Neural Network (PCNN) model for highly accurate navigation by AUVs. The PCNN model is used as a secondary discriminant to effectively identify pseudo-anchor points in flat terrain feature areas and to find the true positioning point, which significantly improves the matching positioning accuracy in these areas. Simulation results show that the proposed method effectively corrects Inertial Navigation System (INS) cumulative errors and has high matching positioning accuracy, which satisfy the requirements of AUV underwater navigation and positioning.

Camellia oleifera is an important woody plant producing healthy edible oils. People need a large number of molecular markers, especially microsatellite, in breeding of C. oleifera. In this study, we sequenced the root transcriptomes of C. oleifera, and then designed a novel set of microsatellite markers based on the root-expressed genes. We assembled a total of 57,121 unigenes with a length of 42.63 Mb, which harboured 15,902 microsatellites. Among these microsatellites, di-nucleotide repeat motifs were the most abundant group (56.45%), then followed by tri- (25.20%), mono- (12.12%), hexa- (3.21%), penta- (2.18%) and quad-nucleotide ones (0.84%). In total, 6738 primer pairs were designed successfully to amplify the microsatellite loci. To test these microsatellite markers, 48 primer pairs were randomly selected and synthesized and validated in C. oleifera and its eight relatives. Up to 75% of the primer pairs amplified in C. oleifera and its relatives, and 62.5% displayed polymorphism. The transferability and diverse alleles across its eight relatives were detected for each polymorphic primer pair. The novel set of microsatellites derived from the root transcriptomes here provided a useful resource for future molecular genetics improvement of C. oleifera and its relatives.

Alanyl-glutamine (Ala-Gln), a highly soluble and stable glutamine dipeptide, is known to improve gut integrity and function. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether dietary Ala-Gln supplementation could improve growth performance, intestinal development and digestive-absorption function in weaned piglets. A total of 100 purebred Yorkshire piglets weaned at 21 days of age were assigned randomly to four dietary treatment groups and fed a basal diet (control group) or a basal diet containing 0.15%, 0.30% and 0.45% Ala-Gln, respectively. Compared with the control group, piglets fed the Ala-Gln diets had higher average daily gain and lower feed : gain and diarrhea rate (P < 0.05). Moreover, dietary Ala-Gln supplementation increased villous height and villous height : crypt depth ratio in duodenum and jejunum (P < 0.05), as well as the activities of maltase and lysozyme in jejunum mucosa (P < 0.05). In addition, a decrease in serum diamine oxidase activity and crypt depth in duodenum and jejunum was observed in piglets fed the Ala-Gln diets (P < 0.05). Serum cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) concentration and gene expression of cPLA2, Na+-dependent glucose transporter 1, glucose transporter 2 and peptide transporter 1 in jejunum were increased by feeding Ala-Gln diets relative to control diet (P < 0.05). These results indicated that feeding Ala-Gln diet has beneficial effects on the growth performance of weaned piglets, which associated with maintaining intestinal morphology and digestive-absorption function.

This paper reports a visible and thermal drone monitoring system that integrates deep-learning-based detection and tracking modules. The biggest challenge in adopting deep learning methods for drone detection is the paucity of training drone images especially thermal drone images. To address this issue, we develop two data augmentation techniques. One is a model-based drone augmentation technique that automatically generates visible drone images with a bounding box label on the drone's location. The other is exploiting an adversarial data augmentation methodology to create thermal drone images. To track a small flying drone, we utilize the residual information between consecutive image frames. Finally, we present an integrated detection and tracking system that outperforms the performance of each individual module containing detection or tracking only. The experiments show that, even being trained on synthetic data, the proposed system performs well on real-world drone images with complex background. The USC drone detection and tracking dataset with user labeled bounding boxes is available to the public.

Energy chirp compensation of the electron bunch (e-bunch) in a laser wakefield accelerator, which is caused by the phase space rotation in the gradient wakefield, has been applied in many schemes for low energy spread e-bunch generation. We report the experimental observation of energy chirp compensation of the e-bunch in a nonlinear laser wakefield accelerator with a negligible beam loading effect. By adjusting the acceleration length using a wedge-roof block, the chirp compensation of the accelerated e-bunch was observed via an electron spectrometer. Apart from this, some significant parameters for the compensation process, such as the longitudinal dispersion and wakefield slope at the bunch position, were also estimated. A detailed comparison between experiment and simulation shows good agreement of the wakefield and bunch parameters. These results give a clear demonstration of the longitudinal characteristics of the wakefield in a plasma and the bunch dynamics, which are important for better control of a compact laser wakefield accelerator.

Living Caprini are dominant bovids in the pan-Tibetan area that are strongly adapted to dry steppe and high-mountain meadow habitats. Some taxa with Holarctic distributions, e.g., Ovis Linnaeus, 1758, were thought to originate on the Tibetan Plateau and subsequently dispersed elsewhere, which was depicted as an ‘out of Tibet’ story. However, except for some information on a stem caprine assemblage from the Qaidam Basin, the early evolution of Caprini around the Tibetan Plateau is poorly known. Here, we report new material of Olonbulukia tsaidamensis Bohlin, 1937, which was a member of this stem caprine assemblage, from the Wuzhong region, northern China, confirming the similarity of the Wuzhong Fauna and ‘Qaidam Fauna.’ Based on a biometric study of horncores from the ‘Qaidam’ and Wuzhong faunas, we recognize six taxa from this stem caprine assemblage: O. tsaidamensis, O. sp., Qurliqnoria cheni Bohlin, 1937, Tossunnoria pseudibex Bohlin, 1937, ?Protoryx cf. P. enanus Köhler, 1987, and cf. Pachytragus sp. Among these taxa, Q. cheni and T. pseudibex are probably related to some extant Tibetan endemic species, e.g., the Tibetan antelope, Pantholops hodgsonii (Abel, 1826), and the Himalayan tahr, Hemitragus jemlahicus (Smith, 1826). Others might be ancestral to the Turolian caprine assemblages and even possibly gave rise to the extant Caprina. This work reveals an early radiation of stem caprines along the northern side of the rising Tibetan Plateau and indicates a mixed pattern of pan-Tibetan stem caprine evolution prior to their dispersal out of the Tibetan Plateau.

The addition of vegetable to carbohydrate-based meals was shown to contribute to glycaemic management. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of homogenisation on vegetables added to rice meals in terms of acute glycaemic responses (GR). In a randomised crossover trial, sixteen healthy volunteers completed thirteen test sessions, which included two sessions for glucose control, two for rice and nine for different vegetable-rice mixed meals: cooked pak choi and cooked rice (CP+R); cooked cauliflower and cooked rice (CC+R); cooked eggplant and cooked rice (CE+R); and their homogenised counterparts, both raw or cooked. Postprandial GR tests, in vitro carbohydrate digestion and chemical analyses were carried out for each test meal. Compared with pure rice, CE+R, CP+R and CC+R meals achieved significantly lower glycaemic indexes (GI) of 67, 71 and 73, whereas their homogenised counterparts failed to show significant difference with rice. The hydrolysis indexes (HI) of CE+R, CP+R and CC+R were 69·6, 83·8 and 80·6 % of the HI of the rice control. CE had the greatest effect on lowering the GI, the incremental area under the blood glucose curve from 0 to 120 min, the peak glucose value, the maximum amplitude of glucose excursion in 0–120 min (MAGE0–120), the HI and rapid available starch. Both in vitro and in vivo tests demonstrated that incorporating non-homogenised cooked vegetables into a rice meal could slow the carbohydrate digestion and improve postprandial GR. Texture properties of vegetable may play an important role in underlying glycaemic control mechanisms.

The feature distinguishing typical angiosperms from gymnosperms is that their ovules are enclosed before pollination. Bennettitales were formerly related to angiosperms because of the flower-like organisation of the former's reproductive organs. There is little information on how the naked ovules of Bennettitales became enclosed in angiosperms because fossil evidence for such a transition, if it exists, has not been described. Here, we report a reproductive organ, Zhangwuia gen. nov., from the Middle Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China. Like many Bennettitales, the arrangement of the foliar parts around the female part in Zhangwuia demonstrates a resemblance to typical angiosperm flowers. It is noteworthy that the ovule is secluded from the exterior space in Zhangwuia, therefore implying the existence of angio-ovuly. Although Bennettitales have been related to angiosperms for more than a hundred years, their way of ovule-enclosing was not previously revealed. The discovery of Zhangwuia prompts a rethinking of the relationship between Bennettitales and angiosperms, as well as of the origin of angiosperms.

Resonant soft x-ray scattering (RSoXS) leverages chemical specificity to characterize thin films but is limited near the nitrogen edge. The challenge is that commercially available x-ray transparent substrates are composed of Si3N4 and thereby absorb incident x-rays and generate incoherent fluorescence. To overcome this challenge, we designed and fabricated Al2O3 free-standing films for use as RSoXS windows. Al2O3 films offer higher x-ray transmittance and minimal fluorescence near the nitrogen edge. As an example, Al2O3 windows allow for nitrogen RSoXS of conjugated block copolymer thin films that reveal domain spacings, which are not apparent with commercially available Si3N4 substrates.

Human experts evaluate singing quality based on many perceptual parameters such as intonation, rhythm, and vibrato, with reference to music theory. We proposed previously the Perceptual Evaluation of Singing Quality (PESnQ) framework that incorporated acoustic features related to these perceptual parameters in combination with the cognitive modeling concept of the telecommunication standard Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality to evaluate singing quality. In this study, we present further the study of the PESnQ framework to approximate the human judgments. First, we find that a linear combination of the individual perceptual parameter human scores can predict their overall singing quality judgment. This provides us with a human parametric judgment equation. Next, the prediction of the individual perceptual parameter scores from the PESnQ acoustic features show a high correlation with the respective human scores, which means more meaningful feedback to learners. Finally, we compare the performance of early fusion and late fusion of the acoustic features in predicting the overall human scores. We find that the late fusion method is superior to that of the early fusion method. This work underlines the importance of modeling human perception in automatic singing quality assessment.

The effects of the thermal cyclic aging treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 2060 Al–Li alloy laser beam welded joints were investigated. Aging treatments were conducted at different temperatures and for different cycles. Test results showed that the tensile strength of the weld joints increased and the elongation slightly decreased after the thermal cycling treatment. It was also found that the heat affected zone (HAZ) of the welds exhibited a significant increase in microhardness, whilst the microhardness variation of the nondendrite equiaxed zone (EQZ) can be neglected. The strengthening effect of the thermal cycling became more obvious as the temperature and cycles increased. The highest strength of around 513 MPa (96% of the base metal) was obtained at the temperature of 180 °C. Reprecipitation of strengthening phases such as T1 in the HAZ at 180 °C was observed by TEM, which can be considered as the main reason for the strengthening effect of the aging treatment.

A three-dimensional (3D) model of a novel 5-DoF type parallel manipulator with a couple-constrained wrench is constructed and its couple-constrained wrench is analyzed. First, the formulas are derived for solving the displacement, velocity, acceleration of the moving platform and moving links, and a workspace is constructed. Second, the formulas are derived for solving the inertial wrenches of the moving links. Third, a dynamics equation is established by considering the inertial wrenches and friction, and the formulas are derived for solving the dynamically active forces and the dynamically couple-constrained wrench. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the analytic solution of the kinematics and the dynamics, and the analytical solutions are verified by utilizing a simulation mechanism.

In high power laser facility for inertial confinement fusion research, final optics assembly (FOA) plays a critical role in the frequency conversion, beam focusing, color separation, beam sampling and debris shielding. The design and performance of FOA in SG-II Upgrade laser facility are mainly introduced here. Due to the limited space and short focal length, a coaxial aspheric wedged focus lens is designed and applied in the FOA configuration. Then the ghost image analysis, the focus characteristic analysis, the B integral control design and the optomechanical design are carried out in the FOA design phase. In order to ensure the FOA performance, two key technologies are developed including measurement and adjustment technique of the wedged focus lens and the stray light management technique based on ground glass. Experimental results show that the design specifications including laser fluence, frequency conversion efficiency and perforation efficiency of the focus spot have been achieved, which meet the requirements of physical experiments well.

Detailed structural, volcanic, and sedimentary investigations of the crustal response to the emplacement of the Middle–Late Permian Emeishan large igneous province show that a rifting system developed prior to the main stage of flood basalt eruptions, in the form of sedimentary breccias, clastic sedimentary deposits and mafic hydromagmatic units. Detrital zircon grains from sandstones yield ~750–800 Ma LA-ICP-MS 206Pb/238U age clusters, showing that material was sourced from the Yangtze crystalline basement. Gabbros and pegmatites intruded along the normal faults of the rift system yield zircon ages of 264–260 Ma, and thus constrain the timing of rifting. N–S-trending rift zones developed along the western flank of the Pan-Xi palaeo-uplift, with NE–SW- and NNE–SSW-trending rifts on the eastern side and along the western and eastern margins of the Yangtze Block. The rifting progressed in pulses, with an initial phase of normal faulting followed by rapid deposition of breccias. Later there was lower-energy deposition of sandstone, with accompanying rhyolitic eruptions. This was followed by low-energy sedimentation of mudstones and dolomites, with accompanying hydromagmatic deposits. Rift system formation was constrained by a combination of far- and near-field tectonic stresses due to plate motions and lithospheric interaction with initial Emeishan volcanism.