In this paper, an adaptive neural output-constrained control algorithm is proposed for a class of non-affine kinetic kill vehicle (KKV) systems. The key point is that the non-affine control law can be designed and the output of the KKV system conform to the output limit with the aid of the proposed method. Due to the aerodynamic moments, the actual control torque is non-affine, which can be addressed by introducing an integral process to the design of the controller. Besides, in order to improve the control precision, a nonlinear mapping is put forward so that the output constraint can be transformed to the constraint of the introduced dynamic signal that can be simply achieved. From the simulation results it can be concluded that the states of the KKV system can track the desired trajectories in spite of different working conditions and the control precision is higher compared with other control methods.

In this paper, a super-twisting disturbance observer (STDO)-based adaptive reinforcement learning control scheme is proposed for the straight air compound missile system with aerodynamic uncertainties and unmodeled dynamics. Firstly, neural network (NN)-based adaptive reinforcement learning control scheme with actor-critic design is investigated to deal with the tracking problems for the straight gas compound system. The actor NN and the critic NN are utilised to cope with the unmodeled dynamics and approximate the cost function that are related to control input and tracking error, respectively. In other words, the actor NN is used to perform the tracking control behaviours, and the critic NN aims to evaluate the tracking performance and give feedback to actor NN. Moreover, with the aid of the STDO disturbance observer, the problem of the control signal fluctuation caused by the mismatched disturbance can be solved well. Based on the proposed adaptive law and the Lyapunov direct method, the eventually consistent boundedness of the straight gas compound system is proved. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed reinforcement learning-based STDO control algorithm.

The COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) project is a large international collaborative effort to analyze individual-level phenotype data from twins in multiple cohorts from different environments. The main objective is to study factors that modify genetic and environmental variation of height, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and size at birth, and additionally to address other research questions such as long-term consequences of birth size. The project started in 2013 and is open to all twin projects in the world having height and weight measures on twins with information on zygosity. Thus far, 54 twin projects from 24 countries have provided individual-level data. The CODATwins database includes 489,981 twin individuals (228,635 complete twin pairs). Since many twin cohorts have collected longitudinal data, there is a total of 1,049,785 height and weight observations. For many cohorts, we also have information on birth weight and length, own smoking behavior and own or parental education. We found that the heritability estimates of height and BMI systematically changed from infancy to old age. Remarkably, only minor differences in the heritability estimates were found across cultural–geographic regions, measurement time and birth cohort for height and BMI. In addition to genetic epidemiological studies, we looked at associations of height and BMI with education, birth weight and smoking status. Within-family analyses examined differences within same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins in birth size and later development. The CODATwins project demonstrates the feasibility and value of international collaboration to address gene-by-exposure interactions that require large sample sizes and address the effects of different exposures across time, geographical regions and socioeconomic status.

This cross-sectional study aimed to examine and compare prevalence and correlates of whole blood Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) DNA between HIV-positive and HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM). Five hundred and four HIV-positive MSM and 504 age-matched HIV-negative MSM were recruited from an HIV counseling and testing clinic in Shanghai, China from November 2014 to November 2015 and were administered with a face-to-face questionnaire interview. Whole blood EBV DNA was tested by nested polymerase chain reaction assays on EBNA-1, EBNA-2, and LMP-1 genes. The prevalence of whole blood EBV DNA was 56·0% (95% CI 51·7–60·3%) among HIV-positive MSM and 26·0% (95% CI 22·4–30·0%) among HIV-negative MSM. Whole blood EBV DNA positivity was significantly associated with HIV infection (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 3·43, 95% CI 2·58–4·57) and frequent intake of pickled, smoked, or salty food (aOR 1·71, 95% CI 1·02–2·86) in the whole sample, and with <200 cells/μl CD4 cell counts (aOR 1·79, 95% CI 1·05–3·05) and pickled, smoked, or salty food intake (aOR 3·14, 95% CI 1·39–7·08) in HIV-positive group. HIV-infected MSM are at higher risk of active EBV replication than HIV-uninfected MSM, underscoring needs of surveillance and research on EBV-related carcinogenesis in this population.

Laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) is an important parameter used to describe the resistance of optical thin films to laser damage. The service life and cost of optical systems depend on the LIDT of the film. Thus, the precision with which the film's LIDT can be measured impacts how well the service life and cost of the system can be predicted. Therefore, it is important to find a precise approach to diagnose a film's laser-induced damage. In this paper, characteristics of the peak sound pressure of laser-induced plasma shock waves from thin films have been systematically investigated experimentally. We found that the peak sound pressure decays rapidly with propagation distance during air transmission. Based on a theoretical analysis of the relationship between the peak sound pressure and the laser damage to a film, we propose a method for diagnosing laser damage using the peak sound pressure of a thin film's shock wave. Our results show that this method can simplify implementation, which will provide a new method with which to diagnose laser damage to thin films.

We investigated the prevalence of β-lactamase genes and plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) determinants in 51 carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) from five teaching hospitals in central China. The prevalence of carbapenem resistance in Enterobacteriaceae was 1·0% (51/5012). Of 51 CRE, 31 (60·8%) isolates were positive for one tested carbapenemase gene, while 10 (19·6%) were simultaneously positive for two tested carbapenemase genes. The positive rates of blaKPC-2, blaNDM-1, blaIMP-4, blaIMP-26 and blaIMP-8 were 54·9%, 17·6%, 11·8%, 11·8% and 3·9%, respectively. Of 10 CRE with two carbapenemase genes, three, five, one and one were positive for blaKPC-2 and blaIMP-4, blaKPC-2 and blaIMP-26, blaKPC-2 and blaIMP-8, and blaKPC-2 and blaNDM-1, respectively. Eight of nine blaNDM-1-positive isolates lacked carbapenemases by the modified Hodge test, while 27/28 isolates harbouring blaKPC-2 were positive for carbapenemases determined by this test; 41·2% of the CRE-positive isolates also harboured ESBL genes in various combinations (three and two positive for blaKPC-2 also carried blaDHA-1 and blaCMY-2). The positive rates of qnrS1, qnrA1, qnrB and aac-(6/)-Ib-cr in CRE were 25·5%, 9·8%, 23·5% and 15·7%, respectively. In particular, 7/9 isolates harbouring blaNDM-1 were positive for these quinolone resistance genes, of which five carried qnrS1 and two carried qnrS1 and qnrB4. All but two of 29 Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were grouped into 20 clonal clusters by PFGE, with the predominant cluster accounting for four blaKPC-2-positive isolates distributed in the same hospital. We conclude that there is a high prevalence of blaNDM-1 and PMQR determinants in CRE isolates in central China. Multiple resistance determinants in various combinations co-exist in these strains and we report for the first time the co-existence of blaKPC-2 and blaIMP-26 in a strain of Klebsiella oxytoca.

A cluster dynamics model based on rate theory has been developed to describe the accumulation and diffusion processes of helium in tungsten under helium implantation alone or synergistic irradiation with neutron, by involving different types of objects, adopting up-to-date parameters and complex reaction processes as well as considering the diffusion process along with depth. The calculated results under different conditions are in good agreement with experiments much well. The model describes the behavior of helium in tungsten within 2D space of defect type/size and depth on different ions incident conditions (energies and fluences) and material conditions (system temperature and existent sinks), by including the synergistic effect of helium-neutron irradiations and the influence of inherent sinks (dislocation lines and grain boundaries). The model, coded as IRadMat, would be universally applicable to the evolution of defects for ions/neutron irradiated on plasma-facing materials.

Synchrotron x-ray topographs taken using basal plane reflections indicate that the electron-hole recombination activated Shockley partial dislocations in 4H silicon carbide bipolar devices appear as either white stripes with dark contrast bands at both edges or dark lines. In situ electroluminescence observations indicated that the mobile partial dislocations correspond to the white stripes in synchrotron x-ray topographs, while immobile partial dislocations correspond to the dark lines. Computer simulation based on ray-tracing principle indicates that the contrast variation of the partial dislocations in x-ray topography is determined by the position of the extra atomic half planes associated with the partial dislocations lying along their Peierls valley directions. The chemical structure of the Shockley partial dislocations can be subsequently determined unambiguously and non-destructively.

The structure and magnetic properties of Nd8.4Fe86Mo1.1B4.5 nanostructured magnets prepared by mechanical alloying (MA), compared with those by mechanical milling (MM), were studied. The intrinsic coercivity μ0Hc, the reduced remanence Jr/Js, and the maximum magnetic energy product (BH)max for Nd8.4Fe86Mo1.1B4.5 magnets were prepared by MM were notably higher than the values of the corresponding MA-prepared samples. The average grain sizes of both α–Fe and Nd2Fe14B in the MM-prepared samples were measurably smaller than corresponding values of the MA-prepared samples. A more homogeneous distribution of α–Fe grains in the MM-prepared samples than in the MA-prepared samples was obtained.

Ion implantation induced intermixing of GaAs/AlGaAs and InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells was studied using low temperature photoluminescence. Large energy shifts were observed with proton implantation and subsequent rapid thermal annealing. Energy shifts were found to be linear as a function of dose for doses as high as ∼5×1016 cm−2. Proton implantation and subsequent rapid thermal annealing was used to tune the emission wavelength of InGaAs quantum well lasers as well as detection wavelength of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs). Emission wavelength of lasers showed blue shift whereas detection wavelength of QWIPs was red shifted with intermixing.

The results of high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) observation and image simulation show that Zr4Co4Si7 possesses the same structure type of Zr4Co4Ge7. Addition of Fe or Ni into the Zr4Co4Si7 compound, except that the dimensions changed slightly, does not change the lattice type and coordination in the crystal structure, maintaining the V-phase structure. Also, twins with coherent boundaries and partially coherent interfaces are observed. The image conditions of Zr4Co4Si7 and the structure differences between Zr4Co4Si7 and tetrahedral close-packed phases are also discussed.

Dislocations produced by 1300 °C indentation of the silicon-terminated (111) face of 3C-SiC were investigated by transmission electron microscopy. They were all found to be either widely separated partial dislocation pairs, or else, arrays of single partial dislocation half-loops on neighboring parallel slip planes and having the same Burgers vector. It was concluded that in the latter case, each array consisted of leading partial dislocations which had nucleated without accompanying trailing partial dislocations. The core nature of both dissociated dislocations and arrays of single partial dislocations has been determined by the technique of large angle convergent beam electron diffraction. The results indicate that the core of all single partial dislocation half-loops constituting an array consists of silicon atoms. It is concluded that, with the present deformation geometry, the Si-core partial dislocations are preferentially nucleated before the C-core partial dislocations. In the case of a dissociated dislocation, when a pair of partials was present, electron microscopy observations revealed that the morphology of the two partial dislocations was very different; while the Si-core partials were smooth, the C-core partial dislocations had a zig-zag morphology.

Single crystal GaN films with a wurtzite structure were grown on the basal plane of sapphire. A high density of threading dislocations parallel to the c-axis crossed the film from the interface to the film surface. They were found to have a predominantly edge character with a Burgers vector. In addition, dislocation hal-loops, elongated along the c-axis of GaN, were also found on the prism planes. These dislocations had a mostly screw character with a [0001] Burgers vector. Substrate surface steps with a height of were found to be accommodated by localized elastic bending of GaN (0001)GaN planes in the vicinity of the film/substrate interface. Observations show that the region of the film, with a thickness of ∼100 nm, adjacent to the interface is highly defective. This region is thought to correspond to the low-temperature GaN “buffer” layer which is initially grown on the sapphire substrate. Based on the experimental observations, a model for the formation of the majority threading dislocations in the film is proposed. The analysis of the results leads us to conclude that the film is under residual biaxial compression.

New processes for manufacturing Al/ceramic power substrates have been developed. These processes use a casting-bonding method to bond Al plates to the both sides of ceramic plates. The Al plates formed on the substrates are then chemically etched to be a desired shape using the conventional technology, followed by plating nickel on them. The power substrates manufactured by the process have both a perfect interface and an excellent thermal stress tolerance. Hence, these processes are especially suitable for assembling high reliability power devices such as IGBT power modules.

Attempts were made to produce bands of hexagonal diamond (Lonsdaleite) by high-temperature indentation of cubic diamond. (011) wafers of type I diamond were indented over the temperature range 1000–1300°C and the microstructure of the indentation plastic zone investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). No hexagonal diamond was produced; instead, the plastic zone consisted of arrays of dislocations lying on the {001} planes. A possible mechanism for the generation of such dislocations, and reasons for the absence of hexagonal diamond, are discussed.