Vapour bubbles produced by long-pulsed laser often have complex non-spherical shapes that reflect some characteristics of the laser beam. The transition between two commonly observed shapes, namely, a rounded pear-like shape and an elongated conical shape, is studied using a new computational model that combines compressible multiphase fluid dynamics with laser radiation and phase transition. Two laboratory experiments are simulated, in which a holmium:YAG or thulium fibre laser is used to generate bubbles of different shapes. In both cases, the predicted bubble nucleation and morphology agree reasonably well with the experimental observation. The full-field results of laser irradiance, temperature, velocity and pressure are analysed to explain bubble dynamics and energy transmission. It is found that due to the lasting energy input, the vapour bubble's dynamics is driven not only by advection, but also by the continued vaporisation at its surface. Vaporisation lasts less than $1~{\rm \mu}$s in the case of the pear-shaped bubble, compared with over $50~{\rm \mu}$s for the elongated bubble. It is thus hypothesised that the bubble's morphology is determined by competition. When the speed of advection is higher than that of vaporisation, the bubble tends to grow spherically. Otherwise, it elongates along the laser beam direction. To test this hypothesis, the two speeds are defined analytically using a model problem, then estimated for the experiments using simulation results. The results support the hypothesis. They also suggest that when the laser's power is fixed, a higher laser absorption coefficient and a narrower beam facilitate bubble elongation.

The poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) based ferroelectric and relaxor materials have been proved to be good electrocaloric (EC) materials. To further enhance the EC effect in ferroelectric relaxor terpolymer poly(vinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE-CFE)), composites such as polymer-polymer blends and nanocomposites filled with inorganic nanoparticles are fabricated and investigated. It is found that the addition of small amount of filler (such as P(VDF-TrFE) or nano-ZrO2) can increase terpolymer’s crystallinity and enhance its relaxor behavior through interface couplings. The increased crystallinity and enhanced relaxor behavior together result in enhanced electrocaloric effect. The results demonstrate the promise of composite approaches in tailoring and enhancing ECE in the relaxor terpolymers.

Quiver Hopf algebras are classified by means of ramification systems with irreducible representations. This leads to the classification of Nichols algebras over group algebras and pointed Hopf algebras of type one.

An amplification fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) molecular linkage map with a relatively high density for location of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling the quantitative traits of silkworm (Bombyx mori) cocoons, was constructed using 91 individuals of the F2 generation. Among the 692 effective loci, 550 were allocated to subgroups a and b, of which 21 linkage groups in subgroup a had 233 molecular markers and 28 linkage groups in subgroup b had 317 markers. The number of markers on each linkage group in subgroups a and b ranged from 4 to 43 and 3 to 35, respectively. The total length of linkage groups for subgroup a was 1868.10 cM, and 2677.50 cM for subgroup b. The length of linkage group varied from 22.3 to 424.3 cM in subgroup a and from 2.4 to 366.5 cM in subgroup b. The average variation in the distance between markers was 3.39–17.43 cM in subgroup a and 0.8–26.96 cM in subgroup b. The average distance between the markers was 8.81 cM in subgroup a and 9.26 cM in subgroup b. There were 14 linkage groups, with an average distance below 10 cM, in subgroup a and 18 linkage groups in subgroup b. There were seven linkage groups with an average distance between 10 and 20 cM in subgroup a and ten linkage groups in subgroup b. Each linkage group in subgroup a had 11.1 loci on average, while there were 11.31 loci on each linkage group on average in subgroup b. The mean length for linkage groups in subgroups a and b was 89 and 95.6 cM, respectively. The total average length for both a and b subgroups was 2272.8, and 9.06 cM for the average marker distance, fulfilling the basic known requirements for locating QTLs.