A 60-d feeding trial was conducted to explore the potential regulatory effects of dietary Clostridium butyricum cultures (CBC) supplementation in high-carbohydrate diet (HCD) on carbohydrate utilisation, antioxidant capacity and intestinal microbiota of largemouth bass. Triplicate groups of largemouth bass (average weight 35·03 ± 0·04 g), with a destiny of twenty-eight individuals per tank, were fed low-carbohydrate diet and HCD supplemented with different concentration of CBC (0 %, 0·25 %, 0·50 % and 1·00 %). The results showed that dietary CBC inclusion alleviated the hepatic glycogen accumulation induced by HCD intake. Additionally, the expression of hepatic ampkα1 and insulin signaling pathway-related genes (ira, irb, irs, p13kr1 and akt1) increased linearly with dietary CBC inclusion, which might be associated with the activation of glycolysis-related genes (gk, pfkl and pk). Meanwhile, the expression of intestinal SCFA transport-related genes (ffar3 and mct1) was significantly increased with dietary CBC inclusion. In addition, the hepatic antioxidant capacity was improved with dietary CBC supplementation, as evidenced by linear decrease in malondialdehyde concentration and expression of keap1, and linear increase in antioxidant enzyme activities (total antioxidative capacity, total superoxide dismutase and catalase) and expression of antioxidant enzyme-related genes (nrf2, sod1, sod2 and cat). The analysis of bacterial 16S rRNA V3–4 region indicated that dietary CBC inclusion significantly reduced the enrichment of Firmicutes and potential pathogenic bacteria genus Mycoplasma but significantly elevated the relative abundance of Fusobacteria and Cetobacterium. In summary, dietary CBC inclusion improved carbohydrate utilization, antioxidant capacity and intestinal microbiota of largemouth bass fed HCD.

The Scaly-sided Merganser Mergus squamatus is a globally ‘Endangered’ species breeding in north-east Asia. Limited by information on the geographic distribution of suitable habitat, the conservation management programme has not been comprehensive or spatially explicit for the breeding population. This study combines potentially important environmental variables with extensive data on species occurrence to create the first species distribution model for the breeding Scaly-sided Merganser, followed by a GAP analysis to highlight the unprotected areas containing suitable habitat. The predictive map showing the most suitable breeding habitat for the Scaly-sided Merganser covered broad-leaved deciduous forest distributed in six provincial regions in south-east Russia, north-east China, and North Korea. The conservation GAP, i.e. 90% (38,813 km2) of highly suitable habitat, is mainly concentrated in the Sikhote-Alin and Changbai mountain ranges. This study suggests that prioritizing conservation of unprotected broad-leaved deciduous riverine forests within the above two mountainous regions should be included in international conservation planning, and the remaining suitable patches need to be preserved to allow range expansion in future. This predictive map improves the expert global assessment of breeding Scaly-sided Merganser distribution and provides a basic reference for establishing conservation areas or implementing conservation actions for the breeding Scaly-sided Merganser in north-east Asia.

In the present study, we analysed the effects of SNP rs174547 (T/C) in the fatty acid desaturase 1 (FADS1) gene on long-chain PUFA levels. Four databases were searched to retrieve related literature with keywords such as fatty acid (FA), SNP, FADS1 and rs174547. A meta-analysis of the data was performed using Stata12.0 software, including summary statistics, test for heterogeneity, evaluation of publication bias, subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis. The associations between rs174547 in FADS1 and seven types of FA, and Δ-5 (D5D) and Δ-6 fatty acid desaturase (D6D) activity were assessed based on the pooled results from eleven papers. A total of 3713 individuals (1529 TT and 2184 TC + CC) were included. The results demonstrated that minor C allele carriers of rs174547 had higher linoleic acid (LA; P < 0·001) and α-linolenic acid (P = 0·020) levels, lower γ-linolenic acid (GLA; P = 0·001) and arachidonic acid (P = 0·024) levels, and lower D5D (P = 0·005) and D6D (P = 0·004) activities than the TT genotype group. Stratification analysis showed that minor C allele carriers of rs174547 had higher LA and lower GLA levels and lower D6D activities in plasma (LA, P < 0·001; GLA, P < 0·001; D6D activity, P < 0·001) samples and in Asian populations (LA, P < 0·001; GLA, P = 0·001; D6D activity, P = 0·001) than the TT genotype group. In conclusion, minor C allele carriers of the SNP rs174547 were associated with decreased activity of D5D and D6D.

This article reports findings when using a molybdenum–tungsten (MoW) interlayer for diamond thin film deposition on steel substrates. The main focus was on the postdeposition stress within the diamond films and its impact on the coating's tribological properties. The effect of MoW interlayer thickness and the effect of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process temperature have been investigated. Nanocrystalline diamond films were deposited on steel substrates with MoW interlayers (thickness of 1.1, 4.5, and 8.3 μm) at two different deposition temperatures (650 and 875 °C). It was found that when depositing good quality diamond films on steel substrates, increasing interlayer thickness and decreasing CVD process temperature have to be jointly considered to obtain the optimal result. The diamond-coated steel substrates with the 8.3 μm interlayer deposited at the lower CVD processing temperature exhibited the least residual stress combined with excellent mechanical properties.

The synergetic effects of surface smoothing exhibited during the inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) of free-standing polycrystalline diamonds (PCDs) were investigated. Changing the assistive gas types generated variable surface oxidation states and chemical environments that resulted in different etching rates and surface morphologies. The main reaction bond mechanism (C–O) during ICP-RIE and the ratio of C–O–C/O–C=O associated with the existence of a uniform smooth surface with root mean square (RMS) roughness of 2.36 nm were observed. An optimal process for PCD smoothing at high etching rate (4.6 μm/min) was achieved as follows: 10% gas additions of CHF3 in O2 plasma at radio frequency power of 400 W. The further etched ultra-smooth surface with RMS roughness <0.5 nm at etching rate of 0.23 μm/min that being produced by transferring this optimum recipe on single crystal diamonds with surface patterns confirmed the effectiveness of the fast smoothing approach and its feasibility for diamond surface patterning.

Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) has been grown on oxide coated silicon wafers by microwave plasma assisted chemical vapour deposition using a novel seeding technique followed by optimised growth conditions, and leads to a highly-dense form of this material with grain sizes around 100nm for films approximately 1.5 microns thick. The electrical properties of these films have been investigated using Impedance Spectroscopy, which enables the contributions from sources characterised by differing capacitances, such as grain boundaries and grain interiors, to be isolated. After an initial acid clean the electrical properties of the film are not stable, and both grain boundaries and grains themselves contribute to the frequency dependant impedance values recorded. However, following mild oxidation grain boundary conduction is completely removed and the films become highly resistive (>1013 ohm/sq). This is most unusual, as conduction through NCD material is more normally dominated by grain boundary effects. Interestingly, the AC properties of these films are also excellent with a dielectric loss value (tan δ) as low as 0.002 for frequencies up to 10MHz. The dielectric properties of these NCD films are therefore as good as high quality free-standing (large grain) polycrystalline diamond films, and not too dissimilar to single crystal diamond, and are therefore ideally suited to future ‘silicon-on-diamond’ applications.

A diamond based insulated gate bipolar transistor is incorporated into a two-dimensional device simulator (MEDICI) to examine the current gain (β) and potential distribution across the device. Initially, work has focused on an important component of IGBT structure, the PNP bipolar transistor, which has been simulated and is reported upon in this paper. Empirical parameters for emitter and collector regions were used. Various carrier concentrations for base region were used to optimize the simulation. It was found that decreasing the thickness of base region leads to an increase in current gain. A buffer layer is needed to prevent the punch-through at low carrier concentration in the base region. Various approaches of increasing the current gain are also discussed in this paper.