An experimental investigation of the stereocamera's systematic error is carried out to optimize three-dimensional (3-D) dust observation on the HL-2A tokamak. It is found that a larger 3-D region occupied by all calibration points is able to reduce the 3-D reconstruction systematic error of the stereocamera. In addition, the 3-D reconstruction is the most accurate around the region where the calibration points are located. Based on these experimental results, the design of the stereocamera on the HL-2A tokamak is presented, and a set of practical procedures to optimize the 3-D reconstruction accuracy of the stereocamera are proposed.

Accumulating evidence suggests that supplementation of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω−3 PUFAs) was associated with reduction in risk of major cardiovascular events. This meta-analysis was to systematically evaluate whether daily supplementation and accumulated intake of ω−3 PUFAs is associated with improved left ventricular (LV) remodeling in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Articles were obtained from Pubmed, Clinical key and Web of Science from inception to January 1 in 2021, and a total of 12 trials involving 2162 participants were eligible for inclusion. The sources of study heterogeneity were explained by I2 statistic and subgroup analysis. Compared with placebo groups, ω−3 PUFAs supplementation improved LV ejection fraction (LVEF) (11 trials, 2112 participants, WMD=2.52, 95%CI 1.25 to 3.80, I2=87.8%) and decreased LV end-systolic volume (LVESV) (5 studies, 905 participants, WMD=−3.22, 95%CI −3.67 to −2.77, I2=0.0%) by using the continuous variables analysis. Notably, the high accumulated ω−3 PUFAs dosage groups (≥600g) presented a prominent improvement in LVEF, while the low and middle accumulated dosage (≤300g and 300-600g) showed no effects on LVEF. In addition, ω−3 PUFAs supplementation decreased the levels of pro-inflammatory mediators including tumor necrosis factor−α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and hypersensitive-c-reactive protein (Hs-CRP). Therefore, the present meta-analysis demonstrated that ω−3 PUFAs consumption was associated with a substantial improvement of LV function and remodeling in patients subjected to CHF. The accumulated dosage of ω-3 PUFAs intake is vital for its cardiac protective role.

The efficiency of establishing pig pluripotent embryonic stem cell clones from blastocysts is still low. The transcription factor Nanog plays an important role in maintaining the pluripotency of mouse and human embryonic stem cells. Adequate activation of Nanog has been reported to increase the efficiency of establishing mouse embryonic stem cells from 3.5 day embryos. In mouse, Nanog starts to be strongly expressed as early as the morula stage, whereas in porcine NANOG starts to be strongly expressed by the late blastocyst stage. Therefore, here we investigated both the effect of expressing NANOG on porcine embryos early from the morula stage and the efficiency of porcine pluripotent embryonic stem cell clone formation. Compared with intact porcine embryos, NANOG overexpression induced a lower blastocyst rate, and did not show any advantages for embryo development and pluripotent embryonic stem cell line formation. These results indicated that, although NANOG is important pluripotent factor, NANOG overexpression is unnecessary for the initial formation of porcine pluripotent embryonic stem cell clones in vitro.

Accurate predetermination of the quantum yield ratio (QA/QD) and the extinction coefficient ratio (KA/KD) between acceptor and donor is a prerequisite for quantitative fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging. We here propose a method to measure KA/KD and QA/QD by measuring the excitation–emission spectra (ExEm-spectra) of one dish of cells expressing m (≥3) kinds of FRET constructs. The ExEm-spectra images are unmixed to obtain the weight maps of donor (WD), acceptor (WA), and acceptor sensitization (WS). For each cell, the frequency distribution plots of the WS/WD and WS/WA images are fitted by using a single-Gaussian function to obtain the peak values of WS/WD (SD) and WS/WA (SA). The statistical frequency-SD/SA plots from all cells are fitted by using a multi-Gaussian function to obtain the peak values of both SD and SA, and then the ranges of WS/WD (RSD) and WS/WA (RSA) for each FRET construct are predetermined. Based on the predetermined RSD and RSA values of FRET constructs, our method is capable of automatically classifying cells expressing different FRET constructs. Finally, the WS/WD–WA/WD plot from different kinds of cells is linearly fitted to obtain KA/KD and QA/QD values.

Several candidates of universal influenza vaccine (UIV) have entered phase III clinical trials, which are expected to improve the willingness and coverage of the population substantially. The impact of UIV on the seasonal influenza epidemic in low influenza vaccination coverage regions like China remains unclear. We proposed a new compartmental model involving the transmission of different influenza subtypes to evaluate the effects of UIV. We calibrated the model by weekly surveillance data of influenza in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, China, during 2010/11–2018/19 influenza seasons. We calculated the percentage of averted infections under 2-month (September to October) and 6-month (September to the next February) vaccination patterns with varied UIV effectiveness and coverage in each influenza season, compared with no UIV scenario. A total of 195 766 influenza-like illness (ILI) cases were reported during the nine influenza seasons (2010/11–2018/19), of which the highest ILI cases were among age group 0–4 (59.60%) years old, followed by 5–14 (25.22%), 25–59 (8.19%), 15–24 (3.75%) and ⩾60 (3.37%) years old. The influenza-positive rate for all age groups among ILI cases was 17.51%, which is highest among 5–14 (23.75%) age group and followed by 25–59 (16.44%), 15–24 (16.42%), 0–4 (14.66%) and ⩾60 (13.98%) age groups, respectively. Our model showed that UIV might greatly avert influenza infections irrespective of subtypes in each influenza season. For example, in the 2018/19 influenza season, 2-month vaccination pattern with low UIV effectiveness (50%) and coverage (10%), and high UIV effectiveness (75%) and coverage (30%) could avert 41.6% (95% CI 27.8–55.4%) and 83.4% (80.9–85.9%) of influenza infections, respectively; 6-month vaccination pattern with low and high UIV effectiveness and coverage could avert 32.0% (15.9–48.2%) and 74.2% (69.7–78.7%) of influenza infections, respectively. It would need 11.4% (7.9–15.0%) of coverage to reduce half of the influenza infections for 2-month vaccination pattern with low UIV effectiveness and 8.5% (5.0–11.2%) of coverage with high UIV effectiveness, while it would need 15.5% (8.9–20.7%) of coverage for 6-month vaccination pattern with low UIV effectiveness and 11.2% (6.5–15.0%) of coverage with high UIV effectiveness. We conclude that UIV could significantly reduce the influenza infections even for low UIV effectiveness and coverage. The 2-month vaccination pattern could avert more influenza infections than the 6-month vaccination pattern irrespective of influenza subtype and UIV effectiveness and coverage.

Manganese (Mn) oxides have been prevalent on Earth since before the Great Oxidation Event and the Mn cycle is one of the most important biogeochemical processes on the Earth's surface. In sunlit natural environments, the photochemistry of Mn oxides has been discovered to enable solar energy harvesting and conversion in both geological and biological systems. One of the most widespread Mn oxides is birnessite, which is a semiconducting layered mineral that actively drives Mn photochemical cycling in Nature. The oxygen-evolving centre in biological photosystem II (PSII) is also a Mn-cluster of Mn4CaO5, which transforms into a birnessite-like structure during the photocatalytic oxygen evolution process. This phenomenon draws the potential parallel of Mn-functioned photoreactions between the organic and inorganic world. The Mn photoredox cycling involves both the photo-oxidation of Mn(II) and the photoreductive dissolution of Mn(IV/III) oxides. In Nature, the occurrence of Mn(IV/III) photoreduction is usually accompanied with the oxidative degradation of natural organics. For Mn(II) oxidation into Mn oxides, mechanisms of biological catalysis mediated by microorganisms (such as Pseudomonas putida and Bacillus species) and abiotic photoreactions by semiconducting minerals or reactive oxygen species have both been proposed. In particular, anaerobic Mn(II) photo-oxidation processes have been demonstrated experimentally, which shed light on Mn oxide emergence before atmospheric oxygenation on Earth. This review provides a comprehensive and up-to-date elaboration of Mn oxide photoredox cycling in Nature, and gives brand-new insight into the photochemical properties of semiconducting Mn oxides widespread on the Earth's surface.

This study proposed a novel ensemble analysis strategy to improve hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) prediction by integrating environmental data. The approach began by establishing a vector autoregressive model (VAR). Then, a dynamic Bayesian networks (DBN) model was used for variable selection of environmental factors. Finally, a VAR model with constraints (CVAR) was established for predicting the incidence of HFMD in Chengdu city from 2011 to 2017. DBN showed that temperature was related to HFMD at lags 1 and 2. Humidity, wind speed, sunshine, PM10, SO2 and NO2 were related to HFMD at lag 2. Compared with the autoregressive integrated moving average model with external variables (ARIMAX), the CVAR model had a higher coefficient of determination (R2, average difference: + 2.11%; t = 6.2051, P = 0.0003 < 0.05), a lower root mean-squared error (−24.88%; t = −5.2898, P = 0.0007 < 0.05) and a lower mean absolute percentage error (−16.69%; t = −4.3647, P = 0.0024 < 0.05). The accuracy of predicting the time-series shape was 88.16% for the CVAR model and 86.41% for ARIMAX. The CVAR model performed better in terms of variable selection, model interpretation and prediction. Therefore, it could be used by health authorities to identify potential HFMD outbreaks and develop disease control measures.

Tian’s criterion for K-stability states that a Fano variety of dimension n whose alpha invariant is greater than ${n}{/(n+1)}$ is K-stable. We show that this criterion is sharp by constructing n-dimensional singular Fano varieties with alpha invariants ${n}{/(n+1)}$ that are not K-polystable for sufficiently large n. We also construct K-unstable Fano varieties with alpha invariants ${(n-1)}{/n}$ .

A disruption database characterizing the current quench of disruptions with ITER-like tungsten divertor has been developed on EAST. It provides a large number of plasma parameters describing the predisruptive plasma, current quench time, eddy current, and mitigation by massive impurity injection, which shows that the current quench time strongly depends on magnetic energy and post-disruption electron temperature. Further, the energy balance and magnetic energy dissipation during the current quench phase has been well analysed. Magnetic energy is also demonstrated to be dissipated mainly by ohmic reheating and inductive coupling, and both of the two channels have great effects on current quench time. Also, massive gas injection is an efficient method to speed up the current quench and increase the fraction of impurity radiation.

This article is the first to report the nationwide public support rate for the death penalty in China. Using a national representative sample with 31,664 respondents, it shows that 68 per cent of China's citizens are for the death penalty, while 31 per cent are opposed to it. These numbers suggest that support for capital punishment in China, although strong, is much weaker than in some other East Asian jurisdictions and less than first assumed by commentators. However, contrary to previous notions that public support for the death penalty derives from uninformed popular prejudice, it is the elites in China – i.e. those who receive higher education – who are more in favour of the death penalty. Further empirical analyses suggest that this is not because of political ideology or fear of crime. Rather, the reason is likely that the elites know fewer, and sympathize less with, criminal offenders, who generally come from underprivileged groups. These findings challenge a range of prevailing perceptions of public attitudes to the death penalty in China, especially the culture explanation for the Chinese public's punitiveness, and have important policy implications.

Silver/titanium dioxide (Ag/TiO2) membranes were successfully deposited on poly(sulfone amide) substrates by direct current magnetron sputtering and radio frequency magnetron sputtering techniques with pure silver (Ag) and TiO2 targets. The prepared membranes were systematically characterized by scanning electron microscopy X-ray diffraction, insulation tests, and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry. The dependence of the main sputtering parameters on optical and thermal properties of the film was investigated by an orthogonal analysis method. Optimal parameters of fabricate Ag/TiO2 membranes with better comprehensive performances could be obtained ultimately. The infrared reflection rate and temperature difference of the Ag/TiO2 film deposited with the optimized parameters were 81.6% and 90 °C, respectively. The high infrared reflection and excellent thermal conductivity properties of the Ag/TiO2 composite membrane make it a promising candidate for thermal insulating coatings on fabrics, and can be used for the development of high-performance protective garments in the future.

The turbulent–non-turbulent interface (TNTI) of supersonic turbulent boundary layers is a fundamental but relatively unexplored physics problem. In this study, we present experimental results from fractal analysis on the TNTI of supersonic turbulent boundary layers, and test the applicability of the additive law for these flows. By applying the nanoparticle-tracer planar laser scattering (NPLS) technique in a supersonic wind tunnel, we obtain data covering nearly three decades in scale. The box-counting results indicate that the TNTI of supersonic turbulent boundary layers is a self-similar fractal with a fractal dimension of 2.31. By comparing data sets acquired from two orthogonal planes, we find that the scaling exponent does not depend on direction, consistent with the validity of the additive law for the TNTI of turbulent boundary layers in a scale range with the large-scale limit not exceeding approximately $0.05\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$.

In insect, the cytochrome P450 plays a pivotal role in detoxification to toxic allelochemicals. Helicoverpa armigera can tolerate and survive in 2-tridecanone treatment owing to the CYP6B6 responsive expression, which is controlled by some regulatory DNA sequences and transcription regulators. Therefore, the 2-tridecanone responsive region and transcription regulators of the CYP6B6 are responsible for detoxification of cotton bollworm. In this study, we used yeast one-hybrid to screen two potential transcription regulators of the CYP6B6 from H. armigera that respond to the plant secondary toxicant 2-tridecanone, which were named Prey1 and Prey2, respectively. According to the NCBI database blast, Prey1 is the homology with FK506 binding protein (FKBP) of Manduca sexta and Bombyx mori that belongs to the FKBP-C superfamily, while Prey2 may be a homology of an unknown protein of Papilio or the fcaL24 protein homology of B. mori. The electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed that the FKBP of prokaryotic expression could specifically bind to the active region of the CYP6B6 promoter. After the 6th instar larvae of H. armigera reared on 2-tridecanone artificial diet, we found there were similar patterns of CYP6B6 and FKBP expression of the cotton bollworm treated with 10 mg g−1 2-tridecanone for 48 h, which correlation coefficient was the highest (0.923). Thus, the FKBP is identified as a strong candidate for regulation of the CYP6B6 expression, when the cotton bollworm is treated with 2-tridecanone. This may lead us to a better understanding of transcriptional mechanism of CYP6B6 and provide very useful information for the pest control.

A compact dual ports antenna with high isolation is proposed for handheld radio frequency identification (RFID) reader which is rarely reported in open literatures. Different with conventional handheld RFID reader antennas with single port, the proposed antenna transmits and receives signal separately. The proposed antenna operating with full duplex mode can enhance effectively sensitivity of reader, since the strong transmitting signal of reader with single port is usually highly coupled with weak receiving backscatter signal of tag. The antenna utilizes E-shaped aperture-coupled patch structure that occupies less volume and provides further space-saving efficiency. The height of the proposed antenna is only 6.8 mm and the volume of that is 80 mm × 80 mm × 6.8 mm, which is easy to integrate in handheld RFID readers. The antenna uses two E-shaped coupling apertures to excite two orthogonal modes for dual-polarized operation. High isolation of around −30 dB is obtained by proper arrangement of the length of coupling apertures and the position of the stubs. The measured results show −10 dB matching band and −25 dB isolation band from 2.32 to 2.6 GHz and from 2.3 to 2.55 GHz, respectively. The antenna is suitable for applications in handheld RFID readers.

We conducted a systematic review to compare resistance to third-generation cephalosporins (TGCs) in Shigella strains between Europe-America and Asia-Africa from 1998 to 2012 based on a literature search of computerized databases. In Asia-Africa, the prevalence of resistance of total and different subtypes to ceftriaxone, cefotaxime and ceftazidime increased markedly, with a total prevalence of resistance up to 14·2% [95% confidence interval (CI) 3·9–29·4], 22·6% (95% CI 4·8–48·6) and 6·2% (95% CI 3·8–9·1) during 2010–2012, respectively. By contrast, resistance rates to these TGCs in Europe-America remained relatively low – less than 1·0% during the 15 years. A noticeable finding was that certain countries both in Europe-America and Asia-Africa, had a rapid rising trend in the prevalence of resistance of S. sonnei, which even outnumbered S. flexneri in some periods. Moreover, comparison between countries showed that currently the most serious problem concerning resistance to these TGCs appeared in Vietnam, especially for ceftriaxone, China, especially for cefotaxime and Iran, especially for ceftazidime. These data suggest that monitoring of the drug resistance of Shigella strains should be strengthened and that rational use of antibiotics is required.

The porous Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2 nanoplate is prepared by colloidal crystal template assembled by the poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) beads. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy results show that the nanoplates of porous solid solution cathodes are composed of nanoparticles with a size range of 30 nm, which interweave together forming an open porous structure. Electrochemical tests show that porous Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2 cathode could deliver higher discharge capacity than that of bulk Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2 cathode at all C-rates. The enhanced structural stability reflected by high ratios of integrated Intensity I(003)/I(104) and lattice parameters c/a, high specific surface area, a fast reaction and ionic diffusion kinetics of the nanoplates are considered attributable to the improved electrochemical properties.

A Plate Infinite Element Method (PIEM) formulation based on Reissner-Mindlin theory is proposed for the stress analysis of cracked plates under bending and tension. The validity of the proposed formulation is demonstrated by comparing the results obtained for the normalized Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) under various loading conditions with the solutions presented in the literature. Importantly, the proposed formulation enables the effects of different crack lengths to be analyzed without the need to re-mesh the computational domain for each simulation/analysis. Overall, the PIEM formulation provides an accurate and computationally-efficient means of analyzing a wide variety of plate bending problems.