Coupling of clearance joint and harsh aerodynamic heating environment is an inevitable nonlinear factor in folding mechanism of the fin of high-speed aircrafts that remarkably modifies natural frequencies and modes of vibration from the initial design state. However, accurately predicting dynamic properties of deployable fin with full consideration of these effects is not common industry practice. A practical semi-analytical model based on Hertz contact theory and ESDU-78035 model is proposed in this study to investigate high-temperature connection stiffness of local hinged–locked mechanisms. Material property degradation and clearance variation caused by thermal expansion are comprehensively considered and quantified in this model. Vibration characteristics of the assembled deployable fin are then solved using finite element method (FEM). The real-time evolutionary process of thermal mode of the fin is discussed. And natural frequencies of fixed-value and time-varying connection stiffness are compared. The simulation results of this study demonstrate that the relative error of structure temperature between the sequential approach and fully coupled simulations is less than 6.98%. The connection stiffness (slope of the load-displacement curve) of the folding mechanism under high temperature conditions decreases by 3.52%, and the variation is mainly caused by the degradation of the elastic modulus of the material, while the clearance change due to the thermal expansion has no significant effect on the slope. The natural frequency of the deployable fin exhibits an inverse correlation with the temperature change trend, and the first three frequencies decrease by 1.67, 7.75, and 16.28 Hz compared to the initial value, respectively.

The target backsheath field acceleration mechanism is one of the main mechanisms of laser-driven proton acceleration (LDPA) and strongly depends on the comprehensive performance of the ultrashort ultra-intense lasers used as the driving sources. The successful use of the SG-II Peta-watt (SG-II PW) laser facility for LDPA and its applications in radiographic diagnoses have been manifested by the good performance of the SG-II PW facility. Recently, the SG-II PW laser facility has undergone extensive maintenance and a comprehensive technical upgrade in terms of the seed source, laser contrast and terminal focus. LDPA experiments were performed using the maintained SG-II PW laser beam, and the highest cutoff energy of the proton beam was obviously increased. Accordingly, a double-film target structure was used, and the maximum cutoff energy of the proton beam was up to 70 MeV. These results demonstrate that the comprehensive performance of the SG-II PW laser facility was improved significantly.

The doctrine of ‘best interests of the child’ has guided courts in determining post-divorce child custody cases in Taiwan since 1996 amendments to the Civil Code. Amended Article 1055-1 requires judges to consider factors such as ‘the age, sex, and wishes of the child’ and ‘the age, occupation, character, health condition, economic condition, and lifestyle of the parents.’ However, previous studies have not clarified which factors judges consider primary. This article collects Taiwanese family court decisions from 2012 to 2017, involving 1,126 children whose parents were both Taiwanese and who both sought to acquire custody, in which Taiwanese district courts granted sole custody to the husband or wife. The article employs decision tree methodology, a commonly used machine learning technology. The article concludes that the three most significant factors considered by Taiwanese judges are first, which parent is the child's current primary caregiver, followed by the wishes of the child and the judge's assessment of parent-child interaction. This result runs counter to widely held beliefs that parental gender and parents’ occupations and economic resources are still prime factors in judges’ contemplation. Decision tree learning, we suggest, can assist parents’ and lawyers’ case evaluations and speed up extrajudicial custody determination arrangements.

In this paper, sliding panels are used to increase the bending stiffness of the classic corrugated flexible skin, and the corresponding application procedure for aircraft structures is developed. After the conceptual design of the corrugated flexible skin with sliding panels is proposed, the analytical models to calculate the equivalent tensile and bending properties are investigated. At the same time, its flexibility in the corrugation direction and the load-bearing capacity (is proportional to the bending stiffness) in the direction perpendicular to corrugation are studied by numerical simulation and experiment. The application procedure is established based on geometric analysis and strain definition, and according to this procedure, the corrugated flexible skin with sliding panels is applied to the drooping leading edge to eliminate the gap on the upper skin. The results show that the corrugated flexible skin with sliding panels has more bending stiffness than the classic corrugated flexible skin in the direction perpendicular to corrugation while maintaining the deform ability in the corrugation direction, and the application procedure is effective and can be applied to other parts of the aircraft structure.

The great demographic pressure brings tremendous volume of beef demand. The key to solve this problem is the growth and development of Chinese cattle. In order to find molecular markers conducive to the growth and development of Chinese cattle, sequencing was used to determine the position of copy number variations (CNVs), bioinformatics analysis was used to predict the function of ZNF146 gene, real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used for CNV genotyping and one-way analysis of variance was used for association analysis. The results showed that there exists CNV in Chr 18: 47225201-47229600 (5.0.1 version) of ZNF146 gene through the early sequencing results in the laboratory and predicted ZNF146 gene was expressed in liver, skeletal muscle and breast cells, and was amplified or overexpressed in pancreatic cancer, which promoted the development of tumour through bioinformatics. Therefore, it is predicted that ZNF146 gene affects the proliferation of muscle cells, and then affects the growth and development of cattle. Furthermore, CNV genotyping of ZNF146 gene was three types (deletion type, normal type and duplication type) by Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (qPCR). The association analysis results showed that ZNF146-CNV was significantly correlated with rump length of Qinchuan cattle, hucklebone width of Jiaxian red cattle and heart girth of Yunling cattle. From the above results, ZNF146-CNV had a significant effect on growth traits, which provided an important candidate molecular marker for growth and development of Chinese cattle.

Background: Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations recommend both cardiac monitoring and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) to assess for cardioembolic sources of stroke. TTE has a diagnostic yield, which is historically low at 5-10%. The goal of this project was to evaluate the practicality of a bedside, focused approach to TTE in ischemic stroke. Methods: A cross-sectional study evaluating patients undergoing echocardiography for evidence of possible cardioembolic stroke was developed. It compared the standard and focused TTE imaging approaches. Of the 61 patients reported, data is currently available for 15 participants. Independent samples t-test were performed to compare measurements. Results: Mean time to finish image acquisition for the focused, bedside TTE was significantly shorter than the complete TTE (12 min or less vs 30 min or more) (p<0.0001). No cardiac sources of stroke were found by either mechanism in this cohort, representing 100% agreement between the two modalities. Conclusions: Focused, bedside echocardiography studies are quicker to execute and employ more affordable, portable, digital TTE devices. The test is done at bedside, reducing the need for patient transport. Image acquisition takes approximately half the time to obtain, potentially allowing for more rapid clinical decision making and facilitation of discharge from hospital.

Root-lesion nematodes (Pratylenchus spp.) are a group of economically important pathogens that have caused serious economic losses in many crops. In 2019, root-lesion nematodes were recovered from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) root samples collected from Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China (PRC). Extracted nematodes were disinfected, and one individual female was cultured on a carrot disc for propagation at 25 °C by parthenogenesis and designated the SC isolate. Afterwards, the isolate was identified on the basis of morphometric and molecular markers. Both morphometric characters and molecular analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region gene (ITS) of ribosomal DNA, the D2-D3 expansion region of the 28S rDNA gene and the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtDNA-COI) gene revealed that the species of root-lesion nematode was Pratylenchus scribneri. The Bayesian tree inferred from the ITS rDNA, 28S rDNA and mtDNA-COI gene sequences also showed that this isolate formed a highly supported clade with other P. scribneri isolates. The pathogenicity of the root-lesion nematode SC isolate on tomato was assessed, showing that tomato was a suitable host for P. scribneri. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of P. scribneri on tomato in Sichuan Province, PRC. These are also the first molecular data obtained from P. scribneri on tomato in the PRC, and the pathogenicity of P. scribneri to tomato was studied for the first time. This study provides scientific data for the detection, identification and control of tomato root-lesion nematode disease.

Background: Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations recommend both cardiac monitoring and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) to assess for cardioembolic sources of stroke. TTE has a diagnostic yield which is historically low at 5-10%. The goal of this project was to evaluate the practicality of a bedside, focused approach to TTE in ischemic stroke. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study evaluating patients undergoing echocardiography for evidence of possible cardioembolic stroke. It compared the standard and focused TTE imaging approaches. Of the 61 patients reported, data is currently available for 15 participants. Independent samples t-test were performed to compare measurements. Results: Mean time to finish image acquisition for the focused TTE was significantly shorter than the complete TTE (12 min or less vs 30 min or more) (p<0.0001). No cardiac sources of stroke were found by either mechanism in this cohort, representing 100% agreement between the two modalities. Conclusions: Focused echocardiography studies are quicker to execute and employ more affordable, portable, digital TTE devices. The test is done at bedside, reducing the need for patient transport. Image acquisition takes approximately half the time to obtain. This potentially allows for more rapid clinical decision making and can facilitate discharge from the hospital.

Few studies have evaluated the relationships between intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and intermediate biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk. Associations between artificially sweetened beverages (ASB) and fruit juice with cardiometabolic biomarkers are also unclear. We investigated habitual SSB, ASB and fruit juice intake in relation to biomarkers of hepatic function, lipid metabolism, inflammation and glucose metabolism. We analysed cross-sectional data from 8492 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study who were free of diabetes and CVD. Multivariate linear regression was used to assess the associations of SSB, ASB and fruit juice intake with concentrations of fetuin-A, alanine transaminase, γ-glutamyl transferase, TAG, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol, C-reactive protein (CRP), intracellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion protein 1, adiponectin, insulin and HbA1c as well as total cholesterol:HDL-cholesterol ratio. More frequent intake of SSB was significantly associated with higher concentrations of fetuin-A, TAG, CRP, ICAM-1, adiponectin and insulin, a higher total cholesterol:HDL-cholesterol ratio, and a lower concentration of HDL-cholesterol (Ptrend ranges from <0·0001 to 0·04) after adjusting for demographic, medical, dietary and lifestyle variables. ASB intake was marginally associated with increased concentrations of CRP (Ptrend=0·04) and adiponectin (Ptrend=0·01). Fruit juice intake was associated with increased concentrations of TAG and HbA1c and a lower concentration of adiponectin (Ptrend ranges from <0·0001 to 0·01). In conclusion, habitual intake of SSB was associated with adverse levels of multiple cardiometabolic biomarkers. Associations between ASB and fruit juice with cardiometabolic risk markers warrant further exploration.

Parent–child relationships have long-term effects on health, particularly later inflammation and depression. We hypothesized that these effects would be mediated by later romantic partner relationships and elevated stressors in young adulthood, helping promote chronic, low grade, inflammation as well as depressive symptoms, and driving their covariation. It has been proposed recently that youth experiencing harsher parenting may also develop a stronger association between inflammation and depressive symptoms in adulthood and altered effects of stressors on outcomes. In the current investigation, we test these ideas using an 18-year longitudinal study of N = 413 African American youth that provides assessment of the parent–child relationship (at age 10), pro-inflammatory cytokine profile and depressive symptoms (at age 28), and potential mediators in early young adulthood (assessed at ages 21 and 24). As predicted, the effect of harsher parent–child relationships (age 10) on pro-inflammatory state and increased depressive symptoms at age 28 were fully mediated through young adult stress and romantic partner relationships. In addition, beyond these mediated effects, parent–child relationships at age 10 moderated the concurrent association between inflammation and depressive symptoms, as well as the prospective association between romantic partner relationships and inflammation, and resulted in substantially different patterns of indirect effects from young adult mediators to outcomes. The results support theorizing that the association of depression and inflammation in young adulthood is conditional on earlier parenting, and suggest incorporating this perspective into models predicting long-term health outcomes.

Trichinella spiralis is a parasitic helminth that can infect almost all mammals, including humans. Trichinella spiralis infection elicits a typical type 2 immune responses, while suppresses type 1 immune responses, which is in favour of their parasitism. DNA vaccines have been shown to be capable of eliciting balanced CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses as well as humoral immune responses in small-animal models, which will be advantage to induce protective immune response against helminth infection. In this study, serine protease (Ts-NBLsp) was encoded by a cDNA fragment of new-born T. spiralis larvae, and was inserted after CMV promoter to construct a DNA vaccine [pcDNA3·1(+)-Ts-NBLsp]. Ts-NBLsp expression was demonstrated by immunofluorescence. Sera samples were obtained from vaccinated mice, and they showed strong anti-Ts-NBLsp-specific IgG response. Mice immunized with the pcDNA3·1(+)-Ts-NBLsp DNA vaccine showed a 77·93% reduction in muscle larvae (ML) following challenge with T. spiralis ML. Our results demonstrate that the vaccination with pcDNA3·1(+)-Ts-NBLsp plasmid promoted the balance of type 1 and 2 immune responses and produced a significant protection against T. spiralis infection in mice.

A combined experimental and computational study on a rectangular lobed mixer is performed. A series of simulations based on a steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes Simulation (RANS) are conducted to analyse the mixing mechanisms of large-scale streamwise structure shed by the trailing edge of lobed mixer, with emphasis being placed on the effect of turbulence modeling and inflow conditions. The simulations are validated in respect of velocity and scalar distribution against the data obtained through Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Nanoparticle-based Planar Laser Scattering (NPLS) technique. The computational results predicted by the SST k –ω turbulence model show better agreement with the experimental data. But the small-scale turbulence structures are not captured accurately by these turbulence models. The convoluted shear layer shed from trailing edge is stretched and rotated by the large-scale streamwise vortices, forming an unstable ‘pinching-off’ structure, which increases the interfacial area. And at the interface of two streams, a large number of small-scale turbulence structures are formed, which contribute a lot to the mixing enhancement along with the increased interfacial area. The streamwise vorticity decays more rapidly with the decrease of velocity ratio and total pressure ratio of two streams. The scalar thickness which reflects the mixing rate of two streams increases with the decreasing velocity ratio and total pressure ratio.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

In this paper, the thermomechanical behavior of shape memory alloys (SMAs) subjected to uniaxial cyclic loading is investigated. To obtain experimental data, the strain-controlled cyclic loading-unloading tests are conducted at various strain-rates and temperatures. Dislocations slip and deformation twins are considered to be the main reason that causes the unique cyclic mechanical behavior of SMAs. A new variable of shape memory residual factor was introduced, which will tend to zero with the increasing of the number of cycles. Exponential form equations are established to describe the evolution of shape memory residual factor, elastic modulus and critical stress, in which the influence of strain-rate, number of cycles and temperature are taken into account. The relationship between critical stresses and temperature is modified by considering the cycling effect. A macromechanical constitutive model was constructed to predict the cyclic mechanical behavior at constant temperature. Based on the material parameters obtained from test results, the hysteretic behavior of SMAs subjected to isothermal uniaxial cyclic loading is simulated. It is shown that the numerical results of the modified model match well with the test results.