This paper studied the use of eye movement data to form criteria for judging whether pilots perceive emergency information such as cockpit warnings. In the experiment, 12 subjects randomly encountered different warning information while flying a simulated helicopter, and their eye movement data were collected synchronously. Firstly, the importance of the eye movement features was calculated by ANOVA (analysis of variance). According to the sorting of the importance and the Euclidean distance of each eye movement feature, the warning information samples with different eye movement features were obtained. Secondly, the residual shrinkage network modules were added to CNN (convolutional neural network) to construct a DRSN (deep residual shrinkage networks) model. Finally, the processed warning information samples were used to train and test the DRSN model. In order to verify the superiority of this method, the DRSN model was compared with three machine learning models, namely SVM (support vector machine), RF (radom forest) and BPNN (backpropagation neural network). Among the four models, the DRSN model performed the best. When all eye movement features were selected, this model detected pilot perception of warning information with an average accuracy of 90.4%, of which the highest detection accuracy reached 96.4%. Experiments showed that the DRSN model had advantages in detecting pilot perception of warning information.

In this paper, the generation of relativistic electron mirrors (REM) and the reflection of an ultra-short laser off the mirrors are discussed, applying two-dimension particle-in-cell simulations. REMs with ultra-high acceleration and expanding velocity can be produced from a solid nanofoil illuminated normally by an ultra-intense femtosecond laser pulse with a sharp rising edge. Chirped attosecond pulse can be produced through the reflection of a counter-propagating probe laser off the accelerating REM. In the electron moving frame, the plasma frequency of the REM keeps decreasing due to its rapid expansion. The laser frequency, on the contrary, keeps increasing due to the acceleration of REM and the relativistic Doppler shift from the lab frame to the electron moving frame. Within an ultra-short time interval, the two frequencies will be equal in the electron moving frame, which leads to the resonance between laser and REM. The reflected radiation near this interval and corresponding spectra will be amplified due to the resonance. Through adjusting the arriving time of the probe laser, a certain part of the reflected field could be selectively amplified or depressed, leading to the selective adjustment of the corresponding spectra.

Recently, Echinacea purpurea and its extracts have gained much interest due to their improvement on meat quality, but little information is available on the application of the purified Echinacea purpurea polysaccharide (4-O-methyl-glucuronoarabinoxylan, 4OMG). Thus, this trial aimed at assessing the effects of dietary supplementation of 4OMG on growth performance, thigh meat quality and small intestine development of broilers. A total of 240 1-day-old female broiler chicks were randomly distributed to four groups with three replicates of 20 within each group. Each group received either 0, 15, 20 or 25 g 4OMG/kg DM of diet. During the entire experiment, broilers had ad libitum access to water and feed, and the feed intake was recorded daily. All broilers were weighed before and end of the experiment. For each group, three pens with a total of 20 broilers were randomly selected to slaughter after 30 days. Increasing dietary supplementation of 4OMG linearly increased final live weight and daily body weight gain (P = 0.013) of broilers, Gain-to-Feed ratio (P < 0.001), muscle pH (P = 0.024) and redness (P = 0.001), but decreased drip loss (P = 0.033), shear force value (P = 0.004) and hardness (P = 0.022) of the thigh meat. Broilers fed diet with higher 4OMG had greater weight index, villus height and ratio of villus height to crypt depth in both duodenum and jejunum. These results indicated that increasing dietary supplementation of 4OMG was beneficial for growth performance, meat quality and development of the small intestine of broilers.

Feathers play a critical role in thermoregulation and directly influence poultry production. Poor feathering adversely affects living appearance and carcass quality, thus reducing profits. However, producers tend to ignore the importance of feather development and do not know the laws of feather growth and development. The objective of this study was to fit growth curves to describe the growth and development of feathers in yellow-feathered broilers during the embryonic and posthatching periods using different nonlinear functions (Gompertz, logistic and Bertalanffy). Feather mass and length were determined during the embryonic development and posthatching stages to identify which growth model most accurately described the feather growth pattern. The results showed that chick embryos began to grow feathers at approximately embryonic (E) day 10, and the feathers grew rapidly from E13 to E17. There was little change from E17 to the day of hatching (DOH). During the embryonic period, the Gompertz function (Y = 798.48e−203 431exp(−0.87t), Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) = −0.950 × 103, Bayesian information criterion (BIC) = −0.711 × 103 and mean square error (MSE) = 559.308) provided the best fit for the feather growth curve compared with the other two functions. After hatching, feather mass and length changed little from the DOH to day (D) 14, increased rapidly from D21 to D91 and then grew slowly after D91. The first stage of feather molting occurred from 2 to 3 weeks of age when the down feathers were mostly shed and replaced with juvenile feathers, and the second stage occurred at approximately 13 to 15 weeks of age. The three nonlinear functions could overall fit the feather growth curve well, but the Bertalanffy model (Y = 116.88 × (1−0.86e−0.02t)3, AIC = 1.065 × 105, BIC = 1.077 × 105 and MSE = 11.308) showed the highest degree of fit among the models. Therefore, the Gompertz model exhibited the best goodness of fit for the feather growth curve during the embryonic development, while the Bertalanffy model was the most suitable model due to its accurate ability to predict the growth and development of feathers during the growth period, which is an important commercial characteristic of yellow-feathered chickens.

Echinococcus granulosus sensu stricto is regarded to have the highest zoonotic potential of all Echinococcus taxa. Globally, human infection due to this species constitutes over 88.44% of the total cystic echinococcosis (CE) burden. Here, we report a CE infection in a Nigerian camel caused by E. granulosus G1 genotype. To the best of our knowledge, this report is the first encounter of the G1 genotype in the West Africa sub-region where the G6 genotype is reportedly prevalent, suggesting that the epidemiology of this highly zoonotic group could have a wider host range and distribution in the sub-region, and emphasizes the need for further investigation into the genetic diversity of Echinococcus spp. in Nigeria and across the sub-region.

AgNPs@g-C3N4 composite was synthesized from Ag-containing sol and g-C3N4 powder by the ultrasonic-assisted self-assembly method. The composite has hierarchical pore size distributions, which will be beneficial to the ion transport with different size. Ag nanoparticles with the size of 5 nm successfully adhere on the surface of g-C3N4. The AgNPs@g-C3N4 composite has excellent specific capacitance and specific power performance for the supercapacitors as an electrode material. The specific capacitance of composite is 4 times greater than that of g-C3N4. It can be ascribed to the introduction of Ag nanoparticles that the internal resistance of the composite is significantly decreased.

The current experiment aimed at assessing the effects of dietary supplementation of guanidino acetic acid (GAA) on growth performance, thigh meat quality and development of small intestine in broilers. A total of 360 1-day-old female broiler chicks were distributed randomly to four groups of 90 birds each, and each group received GAA dosages of 0, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.2 g/kg of feed dry matter. During the whole experiment of 60 days, broilers had ad libitum access to water and feed and the feed intake was recorded daily. All broilers were weighed before and after the experiment, and 30 broilers of each group were selected randomly to slaughter at the end. Increasing dietary supplementation of GAA increased final live weight and daily body weight gain, gain-to-feed ratio, thigh muscle pH value and fibre diameter of broilers, but decreased daily feed intake, drip loss, cooking loss, shear force value, hardness, gumminess and chewiness of thigh meat. In addition, increasing supplementation of GAA quadratically increased duodenal, jejunal and ileal villus height and width and ratio of villus height to crypt depth, but decreased crypt depth. The results indicated that GAA as a feed additive may support better development of small intestine, thereby resulting in improvement of growth performance and meat quality of broilers.

The triplite LiFeSO4F displays both the highest potential ever reported for an Fe-based compound, as well as a comparable specific energy with that of popular LiFePO4. The synthesis is still a challenge because the present approaches are connected with long time, special equipments or organic reagents, etc. In this work, the triplite LiFeSO4F powder was synthesized through an ambient two-step solid-state route. The reaction process and phase purity were analyzed, coupled with structure refinement and electrochemical test.

Studies of schizophrenia at drug-naive state and on antipsychotic medication have reported a number of regions of gray-matter (GM) abnormalities but the reports have been inconsistent. The aim of this study was to conduct multimodal meta-analysis to compare the cross-sectional voxel-based morphometry studies of brain GM in antipsychotic-naive first-episode schizophrenia (AN-FES) and those with antipsychotic treatment within 1 year (AT-FES) to determine the similarities and differences in these groups. We conducted two separate meta-analyses containing 24 studies with a sample size of 801 patients and 957 healthy controls. A multimodal meta-analysis method was used to compare the findings between AN-FES and AT-FES. Meta-regression analyses were done to determine the influence of different variables including age, duration of illness, and positive and negative symptom scores. Finally, jack-knife analyses were done to test the robustness of the results. AN-FES and AT-FES showed common patterns of GM abnormalities in frontal (gyrus rectus), superior temporal, left hippocampal and insular cortex. GM in the left supramarginal gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus were found to be increased in AN-FES but decreased in AT-FES, whereas left median cingulate/paracingulate gyri and right hippocampus GM was decreased in AN-FES but increased in AT-FES. Findings suggest that both AN-FES and AT-FES share frontal, temporal and insular regions as common anatomical regions to be affected indicating these to be the primary regions of GM abnormalities in both groups.

Soluble starch synthase II (SSII) plays an important role in the biosynthesis of starch and in rice it consists of three isoforms encoded by SSII-1, SSII-2 and SSII-3. However, the genetic effects of various SSII alleles on grain quality have not been systematically characterized. In the present study, the japonica alleles on SSII-1, SSII-2 and SSII-3 (SSIIa) loci from a japonica cultivar, Suyunuo, were respectively introgressed by molecular marker-assisted selection into a typical indica cultivar, Guichao2, through successive backcrossing, generating three sets of near-isogenic lines (NILs). Grain quality and starch property analysis showed that NIL-SSII-3j exhibited significant decreases in the following parameters: amylose content, average granule size, and setback viscosity and consistency; but increases in peak viscosity, hot paste viscosity, gelatinization temperature and relative crystallinity. Moreover, the proportion of short amylopectin chains and branching degree also increased when compared with those of NIL-SSII-3i (Guochao2). Similar effects were observed in NIL-SSII-1j, and certain alterations in the fine structure of starch (granule size) were revealed. However, NIL-SSII-2j did not exert significant effect on grain quality and starch properties. In brief, among the SSII gene family, the functional diversity occurred on SSII-1 and SSII-3, and not on SSII-2. Therefore, it appears that more attention should be directed to SSII-1 and SSII-3 loci for improving the eating and cooking quality of rice.

The objective of this study was to determine if a moderate or high reduction of dietary CP, supplemented with indispensable amino acids (IAA), would affect growth, intestinal morphology and immunological parameters of pigs. A total of 40 barrows (initial BW=13.50±0.50 kg, 45±2 day of age) were used in a completely randomized block design, and allocated to four dietary treatments containing CP levels at 20.00%, 17.16%, 15.30% and 13.90%, respectively. Industrial AA were added to meet the IAA requirements of pigs. After 4-week feeding, blood and tissue samples were obtained from pigs. The results showed that reducing dietary CP level decreased average daily gain, plasma urea nitrogen concentration and relative organ weights of liver and pancreas (P<0.01), and increased feed conversion ratio (P<0.01). Pigs fed the 13.90% CP diet had significantly lower growth performance than that of pigs fed higher CP at 20.00%, 17.16% or 15.30%. Moreover, reducing dietary CP level decreased villous height in duodenum (P<0.01) and crypt depth in duodenum, jejunum and ileum (P<0.01). The reduction in the dietary CP level increased plasma concentrations of methionine, alanine (P<0.01) and lysine (P<0.05), and decreased arginine (P<0.05). Intriguingly, reducing dietary CP level from 20.00% to 13.90% resulted in a significant decrease in plasma concentration of IgG (P<0.05), percentage of CD3+T cells of the peripheral blood (P<0.01), also down-regulated the mRNA abundance of innate immunity-related genes on toll-like receptor 4, myeloid differentiation factor 88 (P<0.01) and nuclear factor kappa B (P<0.05) in the ileum. These results indicate that reducing dietary CP level from 20.00% to 15.30%, supplemented with IAA, had no significant effect on growth performance and had a limited effect on immunological parameters. However, a further reduction of dietary CP level up to 13.90% would lead to poor growth performance and organ development, associated with the modifications of intestinal morphology and immune function.

Glutamate, which is one of the most important contributors to oxidative metabolism in the intestinal mucosa, is mainly transported by the excitatory amino acids transporters (EAATs) that are expressed in enterocytes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of in ovo administration of l-trans pyrrolidine-2,4-dicarboxylic acid (l-trans-PDC), a potent competitive inhibitor of glutamate uptake by EAATs, on the growth of the small intestine in chicks. Two series of experiments were conducted with hatching eggs; 100 μl of various l-trans-PDC solutions (0, 0.075 or 0.225 mg/egg for the Control group, low-dose l-trans pyrrolidine 2,4-dicarboxylic acid group (L-PDC) or high-dose l-trans pyrrolidine 2,4-dicarboxylic acid group (H-PDC), respectively) was injected into the albumen sac of these hatching eggs before incubation. Hatchlings were sacrificed by cervical dislocation to determine the embryonic development in Experiment I, whereas the birds in Experiment II were raised or sampled at hatching, days 7 and 14 (D7 and D14) for further study. Gene expression in the small intestines was determined by real-time RT-PCR; and serum concentration of free amino acids was determined by an amino acid analyzer. The results showed that the hatchability was decreased by in ovo administration of l-trans-PDC. The small intestinal weights of the H-PDC group were decreased (P<0.05) at hatching and increased (P<0.05) on D7 and D14 compared with those in the Control group. In addition, the gene expression of EAAT2 in the completed or segmental small intestines was not changed (P>0.05); EAAT3 gene expression in the duodenum (P<0.05), jejunum (P=0.084) and ileum (P=0.060) on D14 was lower in the H-PDC group than in the Control group. Furthermore, the serum concentrations of free proline, threonine and phenylalanine but not glutamate or aspartate were increased (P<0.06) in H-PDC group. In conclusion, this paper is the first to report that in ovo administration of l-trans-PDC induces small intestinal growth retardation during the embryonic period and catch-up growth after hatching.

The phylogenetic and epidemic relationships of 104 clinical isolates of Clostridium difficile from three hospitals of different geographical and population sources in China were investigated by multilocus sequence typing. Twenty-two sequence types (STs) were identified, four of which, ST117, ST118, ST119 and ST129, were novel. No geographically specific and host population-specific phylogenetic lineages were found and there was no correlation between geographical origin or host population and strain genotype. ST37 was the dominant type in our survey but the four novel STs underline the high genetic diversity and unique polymorphisms in C. difficile from China.

To evaluate the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and/or hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections in HIV-infected patients in China, an epidemiological serosurvey was conducted from May 2007 to September 2008 using a random cluster sampling design of infectious disease hospitals in seven high HIV-prevalent provinces (municipalities). Univariate analysis and logistic regression were used to study the determinants of HIV and HBV and/or HCV co-infection. The overall prevalence was 41·83% (95% CI 40·36–43·30) for anti-HCV and 12·49% (95% CI 11·50–13·48) for HBsAg, respectively. The prevalence of anti-HCV and HBsAg varied according to the route of HIV transmission. Compared to those with sexually acquired HIV infection, intravenous drug users and blood donors/recipients had the greatest risk of carrying anti-HCV. Needle sharing and unprotected sexual exposures are important modes of transmission for HBV. Further interventions including health education and harm reduction strategies should be implemented in high-risk populations.

An outbreak of rabies affected domestic raccoon dogs on an animal farm in Inner Mongolia, China in 2007. A study was conducted to characterize the aetiological agent and clarify the origin of the rabies virus. Brain tissues were obtained from five rabid raccoon dogs. Viral nucleoprotein antigen was detected in the brain tissues and five rabies viruses were isolated from these rabid animals. Phylogenetic analysis of the N and G gene sequences showed that these isolates were closely related to Arctic-like rabies viruses isolated from the far-eastern region of Russia and South Korea, but distinct from the rabies viruses that are widely distributed in endemic areas in China. Epidemiological data suggested that the likely source of infection was from one wild raccoon dog that was captured and placed in the same type of pen used for domestic raccoon dogs.

A series of field and plant growth chamber experiments were conducted in 2006 and 2007 to study how relative humidity (RH), genotypes and nitrogen application rates affect organ temperatures and spikelet fertility rates in rice. It was observed that organ temperatures varied with air temperature, RH, genotype and nitrogen application rate. Increases in RH at constant air temperature and increasing air temperature with a constant RH both increased organ temperatures significantly. Cultivars also exhibited differences in organ temperatures; those cultivars with erect panicles recorded lower organ temperatures than those with droopy panicles under similar climatic conditions. Similarly, cultivars with panicles above the flag leaf had lower temperatures at the panicle when compared to those plants with the panicle below the flag leaf. It was also found that panicle temperature showed a significant negative correlation with both grain filling rate and seed setting rate. Spikelet fertility could be maintained by reducing spikelet temperature under decreasing RH in a high-temperature environment. Panicle fertilizer application rates had a significant effect on the organ and canopy temperatures. The canopy temperature of rice grown with an ample supply of nitrogen was generally cooler than the canopy temperature of a nitrogen-deficient treatment.

We determined the genetic relationships and origin of the dengue virus (DENV) responsible for an outbreak of dengue fever (DF) in Guangdong province, China, in 2006. Five DENV type 1 (DENV-1) isolates were obtained from human serum samples collected from DF patients during the outbreak. The nucleotide sequences of the E (envelope) gene were compared with those of 48 previous DENV-1 isolates: 18 from Guangdong province, one from Fujian province, one from Zhejiang province, and 28 from other countries in the South Asian region. The results suggested that four DENV-1 isolates identified in Guangdong province in 2006 might be in general circulation there, although these DENV-1 viruses may have been originally introduced into the province from other countries. In contrast, one isolate from Guangzhou city in 2006, may have been introduced by a recently imported case from Cambodia.

Reciprocal hybridizations between Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) and Helicoverpa assulta (Guenée) were studied. The cross between females of H. armigera and males of H. assulta yielded only fertile males and sterile individuals lacking an aedeagus, valva or ostium bursae. A total of 492 larvae of the F1 generation were obtained and 374 of these completed larval development and pupated. Only 203 pupae were morphologically normal males, the remaining 171 pupae were malformed. Larvae and pupae that gave rise to morphologically abnormal adults exhibited longer development times. Sterility was not only associated with malformed external sex organs, but also a range of abnormalities of the internal reproductive system: (i) loss of internal reproductive organs, (ii) with one to three copies of an undeveloped bursa copulatrix; or (iii) with one or two undeveloped testes. Normal male hybrid adults showed higher flight activity in comparison with males of both species. In contrast, the cross between females of H. assulta and males of H. armigera yielded morphologically normal offspring (80 males and 83 females). The interaction of the Z-chromosome from H. assulta with autosomes from H. armigera might result in morphological abnormalities found in hybrids and backcrosses, and maternal-zygotic incompatibilities might contribute to sex bias attributed to hybrid inviability.

We report on direct measurements of surface potentials on cross sections of a-Si:H and a-SiGe:H n-i-p solar cells using scanning Kelvin probe microscopy. External bias voltage (Vb)induced changes in the electric field distributions in the i layer were further deduced by taking the derivative of the Vb-induced potential changes. This procedure avoids the effect of surface charges or surface Fermi-level pinning on the potential measurement. We found that the electric field does not distribute uniformly through the i layer of a-Si:H cells, but it is stronger in the regions near the n and p layers than in the middle of the i layer. The non-uniformity is reduced by incorporating buffer layers at the n/i and i/p interfaces in the a-Si:H solar cells. For a-SiGe:H solar cells, the electric field at the p side of the i layer is much stronger than at the n side and the middle. The non-uniformity becomes more severe when a profiled Ge content is incorporated with a high Ge content on the p side. We speculate that the increase in defect density with increasing of Ge content causes charge accumulation at the i/p interface.