In this paper, we design and fabricate dual-tunable waveguides in a two-dimensional periodic plate with threaded holes. Dual tunability is realized by using rods held with nuts as well as assembly prestress of the nuts. A straight waveguide, a bent waveguide, and a wave splitter are designed by changing the distribution of rods and nuts in different circuits. The experimental and numerical results show that the frequencies of guided waves can be tuned by the assembly prestress. By increasing the amount of prestress, the frequency range of the passing band can be shifted upward. Confinements, guiding, and splitting of Lamb waves are clearly observed in both experimental measurements and numerical simulations. This work is essential for the practical design of reconfigurable phononic devices.

This paper intends to investigate the mutual benefits of examining sexual minority people’s rights in Hong Kong and Confucianism. It has four objectives. Firstly, it aims to discuss the components of Confucianism. Secondly, it seeks to explore three strategies for promoting Confucianism: ‘Ren’, ‘Li’, and ‘Ideal Society’. Thirdly, it aims to demonstrate how analysing these strategies can enhance our understanding of the relationship between sexual minority rights in Hong Kong and Confucianism. To achieve this objective, it undertakes two analytical tasks: first, to evaluate criticisms of efforts aimed at strengthening sexual minority people’s rights in Hong Kong through the lens of these three strategies; and second, to assess the potential usefulness of these strategies in exploring the compatibility between the sexual minority people’s ways of life and Confucianism. Finally, the paper aims to examine how studying sexual minority people’s rights in Hong Kong can contribute to the discussion of the Confucian welfare model.

Rodents and shrews are major reservoirs of various pathogens that are related to zoonotic infectious diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate co-infections of zoonotic pathogens in rodents and shrews trapped in four provinces of China. We sampled different rodent and shrew communities within and around human settlements in four provinces of China and characterised several important zoonotic viral, bacterial, and parasitic pathogens by PCR methods and phylogenetic analysis. A total of 864 rodents and shrews belonging to 24 and 13 species from RODENTIA and EULIPOTYPHLA orders were captured, respectively. For viral pathogens, two species of hantavirus (Hantaan orthohantavirus and Caobang orthohantavirus) were identified in 3.47% of rodents and shrews. The overall prevalence of Bartonella spp., Anaplasmataceae, Babesia spp., Leptospira spp., Spotted fever group Rickettsiae, Borrelia spp., and Coxiella burnetii were 31.25%, 8.91%, 4.17%, 3.94%, 3.59%, 3.47%, and 0.58%, respectively. Furthermore, the highest co-infection status of three pathogens was observed among Bartonella spp., Leptospira spp., and Anaplasmataceae with a co-infection rate of 0.46%. Our results suggested that species distribution and co-infections of zoonotic pathogens were prevalent in rodents and shrews, highlighting the necessity of active surveillance for zoonotic pathogens in wild mammals in wider regions.

This work demonstrates the generation of short pulse duration and high-beam-quality laser pulses using transient stimulated Brillouin scattering at a high repetition rate. Thermal effects and optical breakdown are identified as the main factors that restrict energy reflectivity and beam quality under high repetition rates and transient situations. Through experimental analysis, the interaction length and focal point size are determined to be the key parameters in reducing the thermal effect by reducing the absorption of the laser pulse by the medium. The obtained results show that pulses with a duration of 175 ps and beam quality M2 of around 1.2 can be achieved with a maximum energy reflectivity of over 40% under an interaction length of 50 mm. Furthermore, at an interaction length of 90 mm, a pulse output with a minimum duration of 115 ps (0.5τQ) is achieved.

In this study, the length scaling for the boundary layer separation induced by two incident shock waves is experimentally and analytically investigated. The experiments are performed in a Mach 2.73 flow. A double-wedge shock generator with two deflection angles ($\alpha _1$ and $\alpha _2$) is employed to generate two incident shock waves. Two deflection angle combinations with an identical total deflection angle are adopted: ($\alpha _1 = 7^\circ$, $\alpha _2 = 5^\circ$) and ($\alpha _1 = 5^\circ$, $\alpha _2 = 7^\circ$). For each deflection angle combination, the flow features of the dual-incident shock wave–turbulent boundary layer interactions (dual-ISWTBLIs) under five shock wave distance conditions are examined via schlieren photography, wall-pressure measurements and surface oil-flow visualisation. The experimental results show that the separation point moves downstream with increasing shock wave distance ($d$). For the dual-ISWTBLIs exhibiting a coupling separation state, the upstream interaction length ($L_{int}$) of the separation region approximately linearly decreases with increasing $d$, and the decrease rate of $L_{int}$ with $d$ increases with the second deflection angle under the condition of an identical total deflection angle. Based on control volume analysis of mass and momentum conservations, the relation between $L_{int}$ and $d$ is analytically determined to be approximately linear for the dual-ISWTBLIs with a coupling separation region, and the slope of the linear relation obtained analytically agrees well with that obtained experimentally. Furthermore, a prediction method for $L_{int}$ of the dual-ISWTBLIs with a coupling separation region is proposed, and the relative error of the predicted $L_{int}$ in comparison with the experimental result is $\sim$10 %.

Liriomyza trifolii is a significant pest of vegetable and ornamental crops across the globe. Microwave radiation has been used for controlling pests in stored products; however, there are few reports on the use of microwaves for eradicating agricultural pests such as L. trifolii, and its effects on pests at the molecular level is unclear. In this study, we show that microwave radiation inhibited the emergence of L. trifolii pupae. Transcriptomic studies of L. trifolii indicated significant enrichment of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in ‘post-translational modification, protein turnover, chaperones’, ‘sensory perception of pain/transcription repressor complex/zinc ion binding’ and ‘insulin signaling pathway’ when analyzed with the Clusters of Orthologous Groups, Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases, respectively. The top DEGs were related to reproduction, immunity and development and were significantly expressed after microwave radiation. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in the expression of genes encoding heat shock proteins or antioxidant enzymes in L. trifolii treated with microwave radiation as compared to the untreated control. The expression of DEGs encoding cuticular protein and protein takeout were silenced by RNA interference, and the results showed that knockdown of these two DEGs reduced the survival of L. trifolii exposed to microwave radiation. The results of this study help elucidate the molecular response of L. trifolii exposed to microwave radiation and provide novel ideas for control.

With the rapid development of the national economy, the demand for electricity is also growing. Thermal power generation accounts for the highest proportion of power generation, and coal is the most commonly used combustion material. The massive combustion of coal has led to serious environmental pollution. It is significant to improve energy conversion efficiency and reduce pollutant emissions effectively. In this paper, an extreme learning machine model based on improved Kalman particle swarm optimization (ELM-IKPSO) is proposed to establish the boiler combustion model. The proposed modeling method is applied to the combustion modeling process of a 300 MWe pulverized coal boiler. The simulation results show that compared with the same type of modeling method, ELM-IKPSO can better predict the boiler thermal efficiency and NOx emission concentration and also show better generalization performance. Finally, multi-objective optimization is carried out on the established model, and a set of mutually non-dominated boiler combustion solutions is obtained.

The fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), a destructive pest that originated in South and North America, spread to China in early 2019. Controlling this invasive pest requires an understanding of its population structure and migration patterns, yet the invasion genetics of Chinese S. frugiperda is not clear. Here, using the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene, triose phosphate isomerase (Tpi) gene and eight microsatellite loci, we investigated genetic structure and genetic diversity of 16 S. frugiperda populations in China. The Tpi locus identified most S. frugiperda populations as the corn-strains, and a few were heterozygous strains. The microsatellite loci revealed that the genetic diversity of this pest in China was lower than that in South America. Furthermore, we found moderate differentiation among the populations, distinct genetic structures between adjacent populations and abundant genetic resources in the S. frugiperda populations from China sampled across 2 years. The survival rate of S. frugiperda was significantly higher when it was fed on corn leaves than on rice leaves, and the larval stage mortality rate was the highest under both treatments. Our results showed that S. frugiperda probably invaded China via multiple independent introductions and careful pesticide control, continuous monitoring and further studies will be needed to minimize its potential future outbreak.

We consider the entrainment volume that results from the quasi-two-dimensional interactions of rising surface-parallel vorticity with an air–water interface. Based on systematic (three-dimensional) direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the canonical problem of a rectilinear vortex pair impinging on and entraining air at the free surface, we develop a phenomenological model to predict the resulting entrainment volume in terms of four key parameters. We identify a new parameter, a circulation flux Froude number $Fr^2_\Xi =|\varGamma |W/a^2\,g$, that predicts the dimensionless volume $\forall$ of entrained air initiated by a coherent vortical structure of circulation $\varGamma$, effective radius $a$, vertical rise velocity $W$ with gravity $g$. For $Fr^2_\Xi$ below some critical value $Fr^2_{\Xi cr}$, no air is entrained. For $Fr^2_\Xi >Fr^2_{\Xi cr}$, the average initial entrainment $\overline {\forall }_o$ scales linearly with ($Fr^2_\Xi -Fr^2_{\Xi cr}$). We also find that $\overline {\forall }_o$ is linearly dependent on circulation Weber number $We_{\varGamma }$ for a range of vortex Bond number $5 \lesssim Bo_{\varGamma } \lesssim 50$, and parabolically dependent on circulation Reynolds $Re_{\varGamma }$ for $Re_{\varGamma }\lesssim 2580$. Outside of these ranges, surface tension and viscosity have little effect on the initial entrainment volume. For the canonical rectilinear vortex problem, the simple model predicts $\overline {\forall }_o$ extremely well for individual coherent structures over broad ranges of $Fr^2_\Xi$, $We_{\varGamma }$, $Bo_{\varGamma }$ and $Re_{\varGamma }$. We evaluate the performance of this parameterisation and phenomenological entrainment model for air entrainment due to the complex periodic vortex shedding and quasi-steady wave breaking behind a fully submerged horizontal circular cylinder. For the range of parameters we consider, the phenomenological model predicts the event-by-event dimensionless entrainment volume measured in the DNS satisfactorily for this complex application.

This paper studies a composite problem involving decision-making about the optimal entry time and dynamic consumption afterwards. In Stage 1, the investor has access to full market information subject to some information costs and needs to choose an optimal stopping time to initiate Stage 2; in Stage 2, the investor terminates the costly full information acquisition and starts dynamic investment and consumption under partial observation of free public stock prices. Habit formation preferences are employed, in which past consumption affects the investor’s current decisions. Using the stochastic Perron method, the value function of the composite problem is proved to be the unique viscosity solution of some variational inequalities.