Orthocoelium streptocoelium is a common paramphistome species parasitizing the rumen and/or reticulum of small ruminants, leading to significant losses. This study first determined the complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of O. streptocoelium. The complete mt genome of O. streptocoelium was amplified, sequenced, assembled, analysed and then compared with those of other digeneans. The entire mt genome of O. streptocoelium is 13,800 bp in length, which is smaller than those of other digeneans except for Opisthorchis viverrini. This mt genome contains 12 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes and two non-coding regions. The arrangement of the O. streptocoelium mt genome is the same as those of other digeneans except for Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma spindale. Phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated amino acid sequences of the 12 protein-coding genes representing 16 digeneans were conducted to assess the relationship of O. streptocoelium with other digeneans. The result indicated that O. streptocoelium is closely related to Paramphistomum cervi and Fischoederius elongates, which is in accordance with their relationships by taxonomy. This complete mt genome of O. streptocoelium enriched the mitochondrial genome data of paramphistomes and provided important molecular markers for diagnostics and studies of population variation, epidemiology, ecology and evolution of O. streptocoelium and other digeneans.

The Asian corn borer, Ostrinia furnacalis enters diapause as fully grown larvae. Owing to geographical variation in photoperiodic control of diapause, the subtropical strain from Hefei city (HF) enters diapause in response to short daylengths, whereas the tropical strain from Ledong county (LD) exhibits almost no diapause under the same conditions. The two strains were used in crosses to study the inheritance of diapause. The HF strain showed a typical long-day response with a critical daylength of approximately14.97 h at 22 °C, 14.60 h at 25 °C and 13.68 h at 28 °C. The LD strain showed weak photoperiodic responses at 22 and 25 °C; and the F1 progeny also showed a long-day response with significantly shorter critical daylength compared with the HF strain. However, the LD × HF (F × M) crosses had significantly longer critical daylengths than HF × LD crosses, indicating a sexual bias in the inheritance of diapause induction, with the male parent having more influence on the F1 progeny. The critical daylength in a backcross to HF was significantly longer than a backcross to LD. Whether the inheritance of diapause fits an additive hypothesis or not depended on photoperiod, with results from different photoperiods showing additive inheritance or incomplete dominance of either diapause or non-diapause. Unlike diapause induction, the duration of diapause for reciprocal crosses was equally influenced by each parent, suggesting that diapause incidence and maintenance are controlled by separate systems in O. furnacalis.

As a consequence of geographical variation in diapause mechanism in the cabbage beetle, Colaphellus bowringi, the southern strains enter diapause as an adult in response to long photoperiod, whereas the northern strains enter diapause in response to temperature. In the present study, we examined the inheritance of diapause by crossing a southern Xiushui strain (XS) with a most-northern Harbin strain (HB). The southern XS strain showed a clear short-day response for the induction of diapause, whereas the most-northern strain entered diapause regardless of photoperiod. Interestingly, the XS×HB progeny showed a short-day response, but the HB×XS progeny had no photoperiodic response, indicating that photoperiodic induction of diapause is influenced by maternal genotype. The incidence of diapause of F1 progeny was intermediate between their parents under short daylengths of 12 and 13 h. However, there was a sexual asymmetry, with the female parent exerting a greater effect on diapause incidence than the male parent, indicating a sex linkage in the inheritance of diapause induction. The χ2 test in C. bowringi revealed that the inheritance of diapause does not fit an additive hypothesis and also that the capacity for diapause is transmitted genetically (or possibly epigenetically) in a manner of incomplete dominance. These results suggest that a number of genetic factors are associated with differences in diapause capability in this beetle.

Under field conditions, the cabbage butterfly, Pieris melete, displays a pupal summer diapause in response to relatively low daily temperatures and gradually increasing day-length during spring and a pupal winter diapause in response to the progressively shorter day-length. To determine whether photoperiod is ‘more’ important than temperature in the determination of summer and winter diapause, or vice versa, the effects of naturally changing day-length and temperature on the initiation of summer and winter diapause were systematically investigated under field conditions for five successive years. Field results showed that the incidence of summer diapause significantly declined with the naturally increasing temperature in spring and summer generations. Path coefficient analysis showed that the effect of temperature was much greater than photoperiod in the determination of summer diapause. In autumn, the incidence of diapause was extremely low when larvae developed under gradually shortening day-length and high temperatures. The incidence of winter diapause increased to 60–90% or higher with gradually shortening day-length combined with temperatures between 20.0°C and 22.0°C. Decreasing day-length played a more important role in the determination of winter diapause induction than temperature. The eco-adaptive significance of changing day-length and temperature in the determination of summer and winter diapause was discussed.

Growth morphologies and mechanisms of the carbide of group IVB and VB elements (MC carbide), a typical faceted crystal, were studied with an estimated cooling rate from 102 to 105 K/s. Results showed that although the growth morphologies of the MC carbide vary remarkably with solidification cooling rate, the solid/liquid interface is always atomically smooth, and the growth mechanisms are always lateral growth. The growth mechanism transition from lateral to continuous growth mode, which was predicted by the classic crystal growth theory, was not observed for the TiC type MC carbide within the estimated cooling rate range of 102–105 K/s.

Silver phenylacetylide prepared by one-step process was characterized as a linear coordinated polymeric compound by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectroscopy. Its prominent third-order optical nonlinearity was detected by heterodyned ultrafast optical Kerr effect (OHD-OKE) measurement. The second-order hyperpolarizability was enhanced by 2 orders of magnitude by means of incorporation of proper electron-pushing groups. The structure status was further investigated by quantum chemical calculation and molecular modeling.

Metal-insulator-semiconductor structures are fabricated by depositing SiO2 films on an MOCVD-grown n-type GaN epitaxial layer and a GaN/Al0.4Ga0.6N/GaN double heterojunction. The SiO2 films are grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. High-frequency C-V characteristics show the agreement of the measured C-V curve of SiO2/n-GaN with an ideal curve in deep depletion and the very small hysteresis, which indicates that the interface traps concentration in the sample is low. However, for SiO2/GaN/Al0.4Ga0.6N/GaN, the measured C-V curves show a notable flat-band shift of about 9.2 V and a typical polarization hysteresis window. These show the influence of the polarization charges in this structure. The capacitance on SiO2/GaN/Al0.4Ga0.6N/GaN reaches a minimum value under around –5V bias. The saturation at a minimum value of the C-V curve indicates the presence of holes accumulation in the MIS structure. These results imply that the piezoelectric effect in GaN/Al0.4Ga0.6N/GaN play an important role for the formation of the p-channel.

Monodispersed CdSe nanocrystals with average diameter of ∼5 nm were synthesized from SeSO32− and rich Cd2+ ionic reagents in aqueous solution. Two-dimensional (2D) close-packed colloidal CdSe films were formed on the electrode surface by electric-field induced deposition method. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images show that colloidal CdSe films exhibit different states, named “gas”, “liquid” and “solid” states, which can be transformed by adjusting applied field (E) or deposition time (T). The experimental results demonstrate that the average nearest-neighbor distance of clusters on the electrode surface is inversely proportional to the ET product.

We have grown and characterized heteroepitaxial films of InP on GaAs. We demonstrate that by using flow-rate modulation epitaxy to grow the interface layer in a two-step process, we can improve the quality of heteroepitaxy films. The full-widths-at-half-maximum of the x-ray rocking curve and the 10-K photoluminescence spectrum for a 6.2-μm-thick InP/GaAs are 144 arcsec and 1.28 meV, respectively.

A simple method for determining layer composition and mismatch of semiconductor hetero-epitaxial samples is by measuring the separation of peaks in x-ray rocking curve (XRC). This method fails if the peak separation is affected by other factors. For a small layer thickness, the layer peak position is affected by the x-ray amplitudes of the substrate or other thicker layers through the interference and overlap effects. In this case, a diffraction theory fitting process is necessary for a correct determination of layer parameters. We have used dynamical and kinematical x-ray diffraction theories to calculate the layer peak position as a function of its thickness for various layer/substrate combinations. These two theories yield substantially different results, indicating that the kinematical diffraction theory analysis is no longer valid for these thin layers. When a thick layer is present along with the thin layer, the thick layer is more influential than the substrate to the thin layer peak position, making the dynamical theory fitting necessary even from higher thickness.