In this work, hierarchical mesoporous Zn–Ni–Co–S–rGO/NF microspheres have been prepared by hydrothermal, sulfurization, and subsequent calcination process. The effect of different sulfurization time on the morphology and capacitance of composites was tested. The high electrochemical performance of (Zn–Ni–Co–S–rGO/NF) composite was obtained when the sulfurization time was 3 h (Zn–Ni–Co–S–rGO/NF-3h), where a specific capacitance of 627.7 F/g at 0.25 A/g and excellent rate capability of about 97.8% capacitance retention at 2 A/g after 4000 cycles were achieved. Moreover, an asymmetric supercapacitor fabricated by (Zn–Ni–Co–S–rGO/NF-3h) composite and activated carbon (AC) as the positive and the negative electrodes, respectively, showed a high energy density of 75.96 W h/kg at a power density of 362.49 W/kg with a remarkable cycle stability performance of 91.2% capacitance retention over 5000 cycles. This incredible electrochemical behavior illustrates that the hierarchical mesoporous Zn–Ni–Co–S–rGO/N-3h microsphere electrodes are promising electrode materials for application in high-performance supercapacitors.

The antennal sensilla of female Quadrastichus mendeli Kim & La Salle (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae: Tetrastichinae) were observed with scanning and transmission electron microscopy in this study. The antenna of Q. mendeli was geniculate, and the flagellum was composed of seven subsegments. Six distinct types of sensory receptors were observed, including sensilla basiconic capitate peg, sensilla böhm, sensilla chaetica, sensilla campaniformia, sensilla placodea and sensilla trichodea. Sensilla basiconic capitate pegs were found on the flagellomeres, and Böhm sensilla were found on the basal part of scape and the pedicel. Two morphological subtypes of sensilla chaetica were found on the antennae, and sensilla campaniformia were only found on the pedicel. Sensilla placodea were divided into two morphological subtypes that were found on the flagellomeres. Sensilla trichodea were found on the 2nd–6th flagellomere. By comparison to existing antennal sensilla, it was found that sensilla basiconic capitate peg, sensilla chaetica, sensilla placodea and sensilla trichodea were the most common sensilla of the parasitoids of Eulophidae. The external and internal morphology, types, number, distribution, length, and width of these sensilla were described, and their possible functions are discussed in conjunction with the host-detection behavior. Future studies on the host location mechanisms in Q. mendeli will be facilitated by these observations.

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have attracted interest due to their promise for future electronic and optoelectronic technologies. As one approaches the two-dimensional (2D) limit, thickness and local topology can greatly influence the macroscopic properties of a material. To understand the unique behavior of TMDs it is therefore important to identify the number of atomic layers and their stacking in a sample. The goal of this work is to extract the thickness and stacking sequence of TMDs directly by matching experimentally recorded high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscope images and convergent-beam electron diffraction (CBED) patterns to quantum mechanical, multislice scattering simulations. Advantageously, CBED approaches do not require a resolved lattice in real space and are capable of neglecting the thickness contribution of amorphous surface layers. Here we demonstrate the crystal thickness can be determined from CBED in exfoliated 1T-TaS2 and 2H-MoS2 to within a single layer for ultrathin ≲9 layers and ±1 atomic layer (or better) in thicker specimens while also revealing information about stacking order—even when the crystal structure is unresolved in real space.

To optimise patients’ outcomes and gain insight into transmitted drug resistance (TDR) among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 treatment-naive patients in Beijing, the prevalence of TDR was assessed. Demographic and clinical data of 1241 treatment-naive patients diagnosed between April 2014 and February 2015 were collected. TDR was defined using the Stanford University HIV drug resistance mutations database. The risk factors were evaluated by multi-logistic regression analysis. Among 932 successfully amplified cases, most were male (96.78%) and infected through men having sex with men (91.74%). Genotype were CRF01_AE (56.44%), B (20.60%), CRF07_BC (19.96%), C (1.61%) and other genotypes (1.39%). The overall prevalence of TDR was 6.12%. Most frequent mutations occurred in non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) (3.11%), followed by protease inhibitors (PIs) (2.25%) and nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) (1.32%). Furthermore, HIV-1 genotype was associated with high risk of resistance, in which genotype C and other genotype may have higher risk for resistance. The prevalence among treatment-naive patients in Beijing was low. Resistance to NNRTIs was higher than with PIs or NRTIs. Continuous monitoring of regional levels of HIV-1 TDRs would contribute to improve treatment outcomes and prevent failures.

This study aimed to determine the effects of supplementing the diet of adult Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus with phosphatidylcholine (PC) on growth performance, body composition, fatty acid composition and gene expression. Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia fish with an initial body weight of 83·1 (sd 2·9) g were divided into six groups. Each group was hand-fed a semi-purified diet containing 1·7 (control diet), 4·0, 6·5, 11·5, 21·3 or 41·0 g PC/kg diet for 68 d. Supplemental PC improved the feed efficiency rate, which was highest in the 11·5 g PC/kg diet. Weight gain and specific growth rate were unaffected. Dietary PC increased PC content in the liver and decreased crude fat content in the liver, viscera and body. SFA and MUFA increased and PUFA decreased in muscle with increasing dietary PC. Cytoplasmic phospholipase A 2 and secreted phospholipase A 2 mRNA expression were up-regulated in the brain and heart in PC-supplemented fish. PC reduced fatty acid synthase mRNA expression in the liver and visceral tissue but increased expression in muscle. Hormone-sensitive lipase and lipoprotein lipase expression increased in the liver with increasing dietary PC. Growth hormone mRNA expression was reduced in the brain and insulin-like growth factor-1 mRNA expression in liver reduced with PC above 6·5 g/kg. Our results demonstrate that dietary supplementation with PC improves feed efficiency and reduces liver fat in adult Nile tilapia, without increasing weight gain, representing a novel dietary approach to reduce feed requirements and improve the health of Nile tilapia.

To compare the ability of a body shape index (ABSI) and body adiposity estimator (BAE) to BMI, waist circumference (WC) and waist:height ratio (WHtR) for predicting development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in rural adult Chinese. The prospective cohort study included 11 687 eligible participants who were free of T2DM at baseline. The risk of new-onset T2DM for ABSI, BAE, BMI, WC and WHtR quintiles was estimated by Cox proportional-hazards regression at follow-up. We also compared the power of ABSI and BAE to BMI, WC and WHtR for predicting the development of T2DM. With increasing ABSI, BAE, BMI, WC and WHtR, T2DM incidence was substantially increased (P trend<0·0001). After adjustment for multi-covariates, risk of T2DM was increased from the second to fifth quintile as compared with first quintile for ABSI (1·27; 95 % CI 0·95, 1·69; 1·35; 95 % CI 1·00, 1·82; 1·75; 95 % CI 1·33, 2·32 and 1·87; 95 % CI 1·40, 2·49; P trend<0·0001); BAE (1·82; 95 % CI 1·38, 2·41; 1·93; 95 % CI 1·38, 2·68; 2·73; 95 % CI 1·94, 3·84 and 4·18; 95 % CI 2·98, 5·87; P trend<0·0001); BMI (1·42; 95 % CI 1·03, 1·97; 1·62; 95 % CI 1·18, 2·23; 2·59; 95 % CI 1·92, 3·50 and 3·90; 95 % CI 2·90, 5·26; P trend<0·0001); WC (1·53; 95 % CI 1·08, 2·17; 1·66; 95 % CI 1·18, 2·33; 2·72; 1·97, 3·76 and 4·09; 95 % CI 2·97, 5·62; P trend<0·0001); and WHtR (1·40; 95 % CI 0·98, 1·99; 2·06; 95 % CI 1·47, 2·88; 2·90; 95 % CI 2·10, 4·01 and 4·22; 95 % CI 3·05, 5·85; P trend<0·0001). ABSI, BAE, BMI, WC and WHR were effective and comparable in discriminating cases from non-cases of T2DM. Risk of T2DM was increased with elevated ABSI and BAE, but the predictive ability for T2DM did not differ than that of BMI, WC and WHtR in a rural Chinese population.

Laminate sheets attract increasing attention from researchers and engineers. In this paper, Al/Ti/Al laminate sheets were fabricated by using cryogenic roll bonding for first time. The edge defects, mechanical properties, and interface bonding of laminate sheets by cryogenic roll bonding technique were compared with these by room-temperature roll bonding technique. Results show that there are some edge cracks in laminate sheets by room-temperature roll bonding while they do not appear when subjected to cryogenic roll bonding. The ultimate tensile stress of laminate sheets by cryogenic roll bonding increases up to 36.7% compared to that by room-temperature roll bonding. When laminate sheets are rolled to 0.125 mm from 2.025 mm, the interfaces between Al and Ti layers are bonded well for both cryogenic roll bonding and room-temperature roll bonding. Finally, we discussed the improvement in edge quality and mechanical properties and the mechanism of interface bonding of Al/Ti/Al laminate sheets during cryogenic roll bonding.

The temporal dynamics of ciliate community structure in a southern Chinese shrimp aquaculture facility were investigated during the period June–September 2012. A total of 53 species belonging to 37 genera and 17 orders were recorded based on analyses of eight samples. Ciliate abundance peaked between 16 August and 14 September 2012, while the maximum number of species occurred on 26 June 2012. Clear temporal patterns were observed in the ciliate community structure. The patterns of succession of the 10 most abundant species were consistent with the results of a Canonical Analysis of Principal coordinates (CAP) analysis. Correlation analyses showed that these patterns of succession were related to temporal changes in environmental variables. In summary, the results demonstrate that the ciliate community responds predictably to environmental variations and recovers from shrimp cultivation.

A miniaturized substrate-integrated coaxial line (SICL) bandpass filter with improved upper stopband using asymmetrical spiral stub-loaded resonators is presented in this paper. Owing to the space-filling feature of the spiral structure, the size of the proposed filter is significantly reduced. A theoretical analysis is carried out to examine the resonance property of the proposed resonator. It is found that the frequency ratios of the second and third harmonics to the fundamental frequency can be extended to 2.86 and 4.4. Benefiting from the circuit structure and SICL technology, the designed filter has a small size, wide stopband, low crosstalk, and high-density integration ability. The measured results show that the proposed filter, with dimensions of 0.051λ 0 × 0.044λ 0, operates at 1.056 GHz and the 20-dB rejection band is extended to 3.94f 0.

The microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of ultrafine-grained (UFG) Al sheets subjected to accumulative roll bonding (ARB) and subsequent cryorolling was studied. Cryorolling can suppress the dynamic softening of UFG Al sheets subjected to ARB at room temperature. After the third ARB pass, the grains are slightly refined as the number of ARB passes increases. However, the grains are significantly refined further during cryorolling. The grain size of 460 nm achieved after the third ARB pass is reduced to 290 nm after two cryorolling passes with total reduction ratio 80%. Sheets subjected to ARB + cryorolling show improved mechanical properties compared to only ARB-processed sheets due to a change in the fraction of high-angle boundaries and elongated grains. The deformation mechanism for ultrafine grains at room temperature is determined by grain boundary sliding or dislocation-based recovery, while it is governed by dislocation glide at cryogenic temperature.

We apply a recently developed filtering approach, i.e. filter-space technique (FST), to study the scale-to-scale transport of kinetic energy, thermal energy, and enstrophy in two-dimensional (2D) Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) turbulence. Although the scaling laws of the energy cascades in 2D RT systems follow the Bolgiano–Obukhov (BO59) scenario due to buoyancy forces, the kinetic energy is still found to be, on average, dynamically transferred to large scales by an inverse cascade, while both the mean thermal energy and the mean enstrophy move towards small scales by forward cascades. In particular, there is a reasonably extended range over which the transfer rate of thermal energy is scale-independent and equals the corresponding thermal dissipation rate at different times. This range functions similarly to the inertial range for the kinetic energy in the homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. Our results further show that at small scales the fluctuations of the three instantaneous local fluxes are highly asymmetrically distributed and there is a strong correlation between any two fluxes. These small-scale features are signatures of the mixing and dissipation of fluids with steep temperature gradients at the fluid interfaces.

Excellent sites are necessary for developing and installing ground-based large telescopes. For very-high-resolution solar observations, it had been unclear whether there exist good candidate sites in the west areas in China, including the Tibetan Plateau and the Pamirs Plateau. The project of solar site survey for the next-generation large solar telescopes, i.e., the Chinese Giant Solar Telescope (CGST) and the large coronagraph, has been launched since 2011. Based on the close collaboration among Chinese solar society and the scientists from NSO, HAO and other institutes, we have successfully developed the standard instruments for solar site survey and applied them to more than 50 different sites distributed in Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Ningxia provinces. We have built two long-term monitoring sites in Tibet and the large Shangri-La to take systematic site data. Clear evidence, including the key parameters of seeing factor, sky brightness and water vapor content, has indicated that a few potential sites in the large Tibetan areas should obtain the excellent astronomical conditions for our purpose to develop CGST and large coronagraph. We introduce the fresh site survey results in this report.

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs, EC 2.5.1.18) are a family of super enzymes with multiple functions that play a major role in the detoxification of endogenous and xenobiotic compounds. In our previous study, we have predicted 23 putative cytosolic GSTs in the silkworm genome using bioinformatic methods. In this study, we cloned and studied the insect-specific epsilon-class GST gene GSTe4 from the silkworm, Bombyx mori. The recombinant BmGSTe4 (Bac-BmGSTe4) was overexpressed in SF-9 cell lines, and it was found to have effective GST activity. We also found that the expression of BmGSTe4 was especially down-regulated after the silkworms were fumigated with or ingested phoxim. Moreover, BmGSTe4 protected HEK293 cells against UV-induced cell apoptosis. These results demonstrated that BmGSTe4 has GST activity, is sensitive to phoxim, and plays a role in inhibition of UV-induced cell apoptosis.

Few studies have explored the relationship between dietary patterns and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Evidence from non-Western areas is particularly lacking. In the present study, we aimed to examine the associations between dietary patterns and the risk of GDM in a Chinese population. A total of 3063 pregnant Chinese women from an ongoing prospective cohort study were included. Data on dietary intake were collected using a FFQ at 24–27 weeks of gestation. GDM was diagnosed using a 75 g, 2 h oral glucose tolerance test. Dietary patterns were determined by principal components factor analysis. A log-binomial regression model was used to examine the associations between dietary pattern and the risk of GDM. The analysis identified four dietary patterns: vegetable pattern; protein-rich pattern; prudent pattern; sweets and seafood pattern. Multivariate analysis showed that the highest tertile of the vegetable pattern was associated with a decreased risk of GDM (relative risk (RR) 0·79, 95 % CI 0·64, 0·97), compared with the lowest tertile, whereas the highest tertile of the sweets and seafood pattern was associated with an increased risk of GDM (RR 1·23, 95 % CI 1·02, 1·49). No significant association was found for either the protein-rich or the prudent pattern. The protective effect of a high vegetable pattern score was more evident among women who had a family history of diabetes (P for interaction = 0·022). These findings suggest that the vegetable pattern was associated with a decreased risk of GDM, while the sweets and seafood pattern was associated with an increased risk of GDM. These findings may be useful in dietary counselling during pregnancy.