The internal electric field of a 2D P-N junction of a semiconductor is mapped out by two techniques: measuring the deflection of the transmitted beam in micro-STEM mode with acquisition and data fitting of an un-scattered beam image, and through the derivative of electrostatic potential maps by dual lens electron holography. Comparable results of the P-N junction internal electric field measured with these two techniques are reported.

High-Mg andesites (HMAs) are crucial for the reconstruction of plate tectonics, continental margin formation and lithospheric evolution. In this study, we present new fossil age, whole-rock geochemical and Sr–Nd isotope data on the newly discovered Dundunshan Group HMAs in the Dundunshan area of the Beishan orogen (central-southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt). The Dundunshan HMA samples are characterized by high MgO (6.47–7.02 wt%) contents and high Mg# values (67.27–68.77), with SiO2 (58.57–62.13 wt%), Al2O3 (14.49–16.07 wt%) and CaO (5.05–6.24 wt%) resembling typical HMAs. The Dundunshan HMA samples are calc-alkaline and strongly enriched in light rare earth elements (LREEs) and large-ion lithophile elements (LILEs), with slightly negative Eu anomaly and high-field-strength element (HFSE) depletions. Their (87Sr/86Sr)i ratios (0.7041–0.7057) and ϵNd(t) (3.73–5.59) indicate that the Dundunshan HMAs were mainly formed by the interactions between subducted oceanic sediment-derived melts and mantle peridotites. Fossil evidence and published radiometric age data constrain the formation of the Dundunshan HMAs to early Late Devonian time. Sedimentological features of the Middle Devonian Sangejing Formation and regional tectonic correlation suggest that the Hongliuhe–Niujuanzi–Xichangjing Ocean in the Dundunshan area was likely closed during late Middle Devonian time, and that the Dundunshan HMAs were formed in a post-collision extensional setting.

Thermal convection of fluid is a more efficient way than diffusion to carry heat from hot sources to cold places. Here, we experimentally study the Rayleigh–Bénard convection of aqueous glycerol solution in a cubic cell with suspensions of rod-like particles made of polydimethylsiloxane. The particles are inertial due to their large thermal expansion coefficient and finite sizes. The thermal expansion coefficient of the particles is three times larger than that of the background fluid. This contrast makes the suspended particles lighter than the local fluid in hot regions and heavier in cold regions. The heat transport is enhanced at relatively large Rayleigh number ($\textit {Ra}$) but reduced at small $\textit {Ra}$. We demonstrate that the increase of Nusselt number arises from the particle–boundary layer interactions: the particles act as ‘active’ mixers of the flow and temperature fields across the boundary layers.

A 1178 J near diffraction limited 527 nm laser is realized in a complete closed-loop adaptive optics (AO) controlled off-axis multi-pass amplification laser system. Generated from a fiber laser and amplified by the pre-amplifier and the main amplifier, a 1053 nm laser beam with the energy of 1900 J is obtained and converted into a 527 nm laser beam by a KDP crystal with 62% conversion efficiency, 1178 J and beam quality of 7.93 times the diffraction limit (DL). By using a complete closed-loop AO configuration, the static and dynamic wavefront distortions of the laser system are measured and compensated. After correction, the diameter of the circle enclosing 80% energy is improved remarkably from 7.93DL to 1.29DL. The focal spot is highly concentrated and the 1178 J, 527 nm near diffraction limited laser is achieved.

We study singular jets from the collapse of drop-impact craters, when the drop and pool are of different immiscible liquids. The fastest jets emerge from a dimple at the bottom of the rebounding crater, when no bubble is pinched off. The parameter space is considerably more complex than for identical liquids, revealing intricate compound-dimple shapes. In contrast to the universal capillary–inertial drop pinch-off regime, where the neck radius scales as $R\sim t^{2/3}$, for a purely inertial air dimple the collapse has $R \sim t^{1/2}$. The bottom dimple dynamics is not self-similar but possesses memory effects, being sensitive to initial and boundary conditions. Sequence of capillary waves can therefore mould the air dimple into different collapse shapes, such as bamboo-like and telescopic forms. The finest jets are only $12\ \mathrm {\mu }\textrm {m}$ in diameter and the normalized jetting speeds are up to one order of magnitude larger than for jets from bursting bubbles. We study the cross-over between the two power laws approaching the singularity. The singular jets show the earliest cross-over into the inertial regime. The fastest jets can pinch off a toroidal micro-bubble from the cusp at the base of the jet.

Transmission of varicella occurs frequently in schools and households. We investigated the characteristics of varicella cases derived from within-household transmission and the modes of varicella transmission between school and household settings in Shanghai, China, from 2009 to 2018. Within-household transmission occurred in 278 households, of which 134 transmission events were between children. Sixty-one household varicella transmission events may be attributed to isolation procedures for infected students during school outbreaks, and 7.6% of school outbreaks were caused by schoolchildren cases derived from within-household transmission. The frequency of ‘school-household-school’ transmission adds an additional layer of complexity to the control of school varicella outbreaks. Administration of varicella vaccine as post-exposure prophylaxis after exposure is considered to be an effective measure to control varicella spread within households and schools.

Iron carbide (Fe1−xCx) thin films were successfully grown by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) using bis(N,N′-di-tert-butylacetamidinato)iron(II) as a precursor and H2 plasma as a reactant. Smooth and pure Fe1−xCx thin films were obtained by the PEALD process in a layer-by-layer film growth fashion, and the x in the nominal formula of Fe1−xCx is approximately 0.26. For the wide PEALD temperature window from 80 to 210 °C, a saturated film growth rate of 0.04 nm/cycle was achieved. X-ray diffraction and transition electron microscope measurements show that the films grown at deposition temperature 80–170 °C are amorphous; however, at 210 °C, the crystal structure of Fe7C3 is formed. The conformality and resistivity of the deposited films have also been studied. At last, the PEALD Fe1−xCx on carbon cloth shows excellent electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution.

Two coaxial waveguide bend mode converters that transform coaxial transverse electromagnetic mode to TE11 coaxial waveguide mode are presented in this paper. Both converters are designed and optimized on the basis of the strictly derived mode coupling coefficients. Conversion efficiencies of both converters are over 99% and the power-handling capacities reach a gigawatt level. The combined dual-bend mode converter is fabricated and tested. The experimental results coincide well with the theoretical calculations and simulations, which demonstrates the feasibility of the designed converter.

Facilitated by the establishment of terrestrial networks and satellite constellations of Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers, large quantities of spatial and temporal information that trace ships' paths have been collected. The exponential increase in the amount of AIS data has caused expensive and time-consuming transmission, calculation and storage problems. Using appropriate trajectory simplification methods in a timely manner to compress redundant information while minimising the loss of importation information is important. To minimise the simplification error, this paper proposes an online multi-dimensional simplification algorithm for AIS trajectory streaming data. The simplification algorithm takes into account position, direction and speed preservation. Finally, a comparison experiment with other algorithms is made to examine the effectiveness of this algorithm. The results indicate that the proposed online multi-dimensional simplification algorithm can effectively preserve a ship's motion state, including its position, speed and course.

The trace elements in quartz, Al and Ti, contain considerable information about mineral genesis, and determining their concentrations is of great importance in geology. Electron probe microanalysis has the advantages of non-destructive testing and high spatial resolution; however, it is a challenge to improve the accuracy and precision of trace element detection using this method. The important factors affecting accuracy include the fragility of quartz lattices at high beam currents and the methods used to determine the background. In this paper, the peaks of Al-Kα and Ti-Kα, and their backgrounds, were found to exhibit intensity variations at high beam currents and small beam diameters; therefore, it is necessary to select a large beam diameter (up to 20 µm) to avoid variations in intensity at high currents (500 nA). For background determination of Al, a multipoint background method is proposed to determine the background value, which greatly improves the accuracy of the results. For Ti, the choice of background measurement does not affect the result. In addition, it is verified that the background obtained from other quartz samples can be used as the background of an unknown quartz sample, which reduces the analysis time and minimizes sample damage.

Laser pulses of 200 ps with extremely high intensities and high energies are sufficient to satisfy the demand of shock ignition, which is an alternative path to ignition in inertial confinement fusion (ICF). This paper reports a type of Brillouin scheme to obtain high-intensity 200-ps laser pulses, where the pulse durations are a challenge for conventional pulsed laser amplification systems. In the amplification process, excited Brillouin acoustic waves fulfill the nonlinear optical effect through which the high energy of a long pump pulse is entirely transferred to a 200-ps laser pulse. This method was introduced and achieved within the SG-III prototype system in China. Compared favorably with the intensity of $2~\text{GW}/\text{cm}^{2}$ in existing ICF laser drivers, a 6.96-$\text{GW}/\text{cm}^{2}$ pulse with a width of 170 ps was obtained in our experiment. The practical scalability of the results to larger ICF laser drivers is discussed.

Pulmonary artery sling is a congenital cardiovascular disease and is usually accompanied by tracheobronchial stenosis. Generally, infants diagnosed with pulmonary artery sling should have surgery. However, the treatment of tracheobronchial stenosis is still controversial. Our team developed a customised, degradable, three-dimensional printed splint and successfully applied it in the treatment of pulmonary artery sling associated with severe bilateral bronchus stenosis. We suggested that three-dimensional printing may be a novel and effective way to treat tracheobronchial stenosis and other diseases in children.

The characteristics and mechanism for unsteady shock train motions were experimentally studied in a constant-area rectangular duct. High-speed Schlieren techniques and high-frequency pressure measurements were utilized in this research. The results show that the shock train undergoes periodical motions in response to downstream periodical excitations. The mechanism for unsteady shock train motions is that the shock train keeps changing its moving speed to change the relative Mach number ahead of shock train to match the varying back-pressure condition. It can be found that the unsteady shock train motion can be predicted well with a theoretical model, which is based on this mechanism. A correlation between the amplitude of shock train motions and some flow parameters was illustrated using an analytical equation, which was confirmed by the experimental results.

Several previous prospective studies suggest that consumption of green leafy and cruciferous vegetables may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). We investigated the association between consumption of different types of vegetables in relation to T2D risk in an Asian Population. We included 45 411 participants (age range: 45–74 years) of the Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS) free of diabetes, cancer or CVD at baseline (1993–1998). Dietary information was collected using a validated FFQ. Physician-diagnosed incident diabetes was reported at follow-up I (1999–2004) and II (2006–2010) interviews. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratio (HR) and 95 % CI of T2D risk. An updated meta-analysis was also conducted to summarise results for green leafy and cruciferous vegetables. During 494 741 person-years of follow-up, 5207 incident T2D occurred. After adjustment for potential confounders, neither total vegetables (top v. bottom quintile HR=1·08; 95 % CI 0·98, 1·18, Ptrend=0·66) nor specific vegetables including dark green leafy vegetables (HR=1·05; 95 % CI 0·96, 1·15, Ptrend=0·21) and cruciferous vegetables (HR=0·97; 95 % CI 0·88, 1·06, Ptrend=0·29) were substantially associated with risk of T2D. A meta-analysis (eleven studies with 754 729 participants and 58 297 cases) including the SCHS and all previous prospective studies suggested borderline significant inverse associations between green leafy (summary relative risk (RR)=0·91; 95 % CI 0·84, 1·00) and cruciferous vegetable consumption (RR=0·87; 95 % CI 0·76, 1·00) and T2D risk, with moderate-to-high heterogeneity. In conclusion, green leafy or cruciferous vegetable consumption was not substantially associated with risk of T2D in an Asian population. Meta-analysis of available cohort data indicated that evidence for a beneficial effect of green leafy or cruciferous vegetable consumption on T2D risk is not convincing.

Impedance matching is very important to improve transmission efficiency not only for wireless communication but also for wireless power transfer. Lumped reactive elements are usually used in the impedance matching circuit. These reactive components such as inductors and capacitors have ohmic loss. An exact approach to design the lumped matching circuit at the presence of the ohmic loss is derived in this paper. Moreover, the condition for selection of impedance matching topology is deduced not only for lossless case but also for lossy case. Finally, the effect of the ohmic loss in the impedance matching circuit on the transmission efficiency is demonstrated quantitatively.

Terrestrial plant remains in the sediments of lakes from semi-arid and arid regions are rare and therefore the establishment of a sediment chronology depends on accurate assessment of the reservoir effect of the lake water. In a study of Genggahai Lake in the Gonghe Basin, northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, we used accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating to determine the age of (1) dissolved inorganic carbon in the water (DICLW), (2) macrophyte remains in the uppermost samples of core sediments, (3) living P. pectinatus in the lake, and (4) dissolved inorganic carbon of spring water in the catchment. The results show that the ages of the DICLW (910 14C yr BP on average) were much younger than the ages of the groundwater (6330 14C yr BP on average), which may result mainly from CO2 exchange between the lake water and the atmosphere. In addition, the 14C ages of DICLW and macrophyte remains in the uppermost core sediments varied from site to site within the lake, which we ascribe to the different photosynthesis rates of Chara spp. and vascular plants. The higher photosynthesis rate of Chara spp. decreases lake-water pCO2, which leads to more atmospheric CO2 being absorbed by the lake water, and thereby greatly reducing the age of carbon species in areas dominated by Chara spp. Although Genggahai Lake is well mixed, the differences between the apparent ages of the lake water are significantly modulated by the photosynthesis intensity of submerged plants.