Cinnamomum chago is a woody species of the family Lauraceae endemic to Yunnan province, China, previously known from only one location, and categorized as a Plant Species with Extremely Small Population. We surveyed to determine the distribution and population size of C. chago, characterize its habitat, identify any threats, assess its conservation status, and provide guidelines for its management and conservation. During 2014–2017 we found only 64 mature C. chago, in five locations. These small, fragmented populations occur along Lancang River in Dali Prefecture at altitudes of 2,200–2,400 m. The species' extent of occurrence is c. 923 km2, with an area of occupancy of c. 60 km2. The habitat of the species has been degraded by expansion of pastoral activities and deforestation. We recommend categorization of C. chago as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, prevention of the collection of seeds and wood of the species, protection and monitoring, and ex situ propagation for future reintroductions.

Two coaxial waveguide bend mode converters that transform coaxial transverse electromagnetic mode to TE11 coaxial waveguide mode are presented in this paper. Both converters are designed and optimized on the basis of the strictly derived mode coupling coefficients. Conversion efficiencies of both converters are over 99% and the power-handling capacities reach a gigawatt level. The combined dual-bend mode converter is fabricated and tested. The experimental results coincide well with the theoretical calculations and simulations, which demonstrates the feasibility of the designed converter.

Consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) in infants and young children are less explored in Asian populations. The Growing in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) cohort study examined associations between SSB intakes at ages 18 months and 5 years with adiposity measures at age 6 years. We studied Singaporean infants/children with SSB intake assessed by food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) at ages 18 months (n=555) and 5 years (n=767). The median (interquartile range) for SSB intakes is 28(5.5-98) ml at age 18 months and 111 (57-198) ml at age 5 years. Associations between SSB intakes (100 ml/day increments and tertile categories) and adiposity measures (BMI standard deviation scores (s.d. unit), sum of skinfolds (SSFs)) and overweight/obesity status were examined using multivariable linear and Poisson regression models, respectively. After adjusting for confounders and additionally for energy intake, SSB intakes at age 18 months were not significantly associated with later adiposity measures and overweight/obesity outcomes. In contrast, at age 5 years, SSB intakes when modelled as 100ml/day increments were associated with higher BMI by 0.09 (95% CI: 0.02, 0.16) s.d. unit, higher SSF thickness by 0.68 (0.06, 1.44) mm, and increased risk for overweight/obesity by 1.2 times (1.07, 1.23) at age 6 years. Trends were consistent with SSB intakes modelled as categorical tertiles. In summary, SSB intake in young childhood is associated with higher risks of adiposity and risk for overweight/obesity. Public health policies working to reduce SSB consumption need to focus on prevention programs targeted at young children.

English as a lingua franca (ELF) refers to ‘any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice, and often the only option’ (Seidlhofer, 2011, p. 7*). ELF research started relatively recently. It was only discussed occasionally in the last century. Landmark changes were the publications of Jenkins (2000*) and Seidlhofer (2001*). These works inspired more research into ELF, as witnessed by a dramatically increased interest in ELF since then, resulting in a large number of journal articles, monographs, edited books (e.g. Mauranen & Ranta, 2009*) and large corpora (e.g. the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English, the Corpus of English as a Lingua Franca in Academic Settings, and the Asian Corpus of English). In addition, ELF researchers have launched the annual conference series (International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca), the Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, and the De Gruyter book series Developments in English as a Lingua Franca. These publications move from an initial understanding of ELF as a ‘variety’ or ‘varieties’ to a later conceptualisation of ELF as a dynamic, fluid and variable phenomenon. ELF has become a major focus of discussions and activities among both applied linguists and English language teaching professionals (Jenkins, Cogo, & Dewey, 2011).

We recently reported Cambrowania ovata Tang and Xiao in Tang et al., 2019, from the early Cambrian Hetang Formation in South China and interpreted it as a problematic animal fossil, possibly related to either sponges or bivalved arthropods (Tang et al., 2019). Slater and Budd (2019) contested our taxonomic identification and phylogenetic interpretation; instead, they claimed that Cambrowania ovata is a large acritarch referable to morphotaxon Leiosphaeridia Eisenack, 1958, and thus is not an animal. Here we refute their criticisms, clarify the differences between Cambrowania and Leiosphaeridia and other acritarchs, and reiterate why an animal affinity for Cambrowania cannot be ruled out.

This article examines how small shareholders protected their interests from large shareholders’ expropriation by forming an alliance and taking collective action to block a convertible bonds issue by a Chinese bank that they considered harmful. Forming an alliance strengthened small shareholders’ network density, enhanced their salience (power, legitimacy, and urgency), and reduced the bank's centrality. This enabled small shareholders to change their strategy from being a subordinator to a compromiser and forced the controlling shareholders and their representatives to change their strategy from a commander to a compromiser. Apart from interest-based motives, the alliance provided small shareholders with identity-based incentives to persistently oppose expropriation by controlling shareholders. This article enriches the literature on small shareholder activism and principal-principal problem.

Facilitated by the establishment of terrestrial networks and satellite constellations of Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers, large quantities of spatial and temporal information that trace ships' paths have been collected. The exponential increase in the amount of AIS data has caused expensive and time-consuming transmission, calculation and storage problems. Using appropriate trajectory simplification methods in a timely manner to compress redundant information while minimising the loss of importation information is important. To minimise the simplification error, this paper proposes an online multi-dimensional simplification algorithm for AIS trajectory streaming data. The simplification algorithm takes into account position, direction and speed preservation. Finally, a comparison experiment with other algorithms is made to examine the effectiveness of this algorithm. The results indicate that the proposed online multi-dimensional simplification algorithm can effectively preserve a ship's motion state, including its position, speed and course.

Direct numerical simulation of the Navier–Stokes equations is carried out to investigate the interaction of a conical shock wave with a turbulent boundary layer developing over a flat plate at free-stream Mach number $M_{\infty }=2.05$ and Reynolds number $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}}\approx 630$ , based on the upstream boundary layer momentum thickness. The shock is generated by a circular cone with half opening angle $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{c}=25^{\circ }$ . As found in experiments, the wall pressure exhibits a distinctive N-wave signature, with a sharp peak right past the precursor shock generated at the cone apex, followed by an extended zone with favourable pressure gradient, and terminated by the trailing shock associated with recompression in the wake of the cone. The boundary layer behaviour is strongly affected by the imposed pressure gradient. Streaks are suppressed in adverse pressure gradient (APG) zones, but re-form rapidly in downstream favourable pressure gradient (FPG) zones. Three-dimensional mean flow separation is only observed in the first APG region associated with the formation of a horseshoe vortex, whereas the second APG region features an incipient detachment state, with scattered spots of instantaneous reversed flow. As found in canonical geometrically two-dimensional wedge-generated shock–boundary layer interactions, different amplification of the turbulent stress components is observed through the interacting shock system, with approach to an isotropic state in APG regions, and to a two-component anisotropic state in FPG. The general adequacy of the Boussinesq hypothesis is found to predict the spatial organization of the turbulent shear stresses, although different eddy viscosities should be used for each component, as in tensor eddy-viscosity models, or in full Reynolds stress closures.