In recent years, there have been a significant influenza activity and emerging influenza strains in China, resulting in an increasing number of influenza virus infections and leading to public health concerns. The aims of this study were to identify the epidemiological and aetiological characteristics of influenza and establish seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models for forecasting the percentage of visits for influenza-like illness (ILI%) in urban and rural areas of Shenyang. Influenza surveillance data were obtained for ILI cases and influenza virus positivity from 18 sentinel hospitals. The SARIMA models were constructed to predict ILI% for January–December 2019. During 2010–2018, the influenza activity was higher in urban than in rural areas. The age distribution of ILI cases showed the highest rate in young children aged 0–4 years. Seasonal A/H3N2, influenza B virus and pandemic A/H1N1 continuously co-circulated in winter and spring seasons. In addition, the SARIMA (0, 1, 0) (0, 1, 2)12 model for the urban area and the SARIMA (1, 1, 1) (1, 1, 0)12 model for the rural area were appropriate for predicting influenza incidence. Our findings suggested that there were regional and seasonal distinctions of ILI activity in Shenyang. A co-epidemic pattern of influenza strains was evident in terms of seasonal influenza activity. Young children were more susceptible to influenza virus infection than adults. These results provide a reference for future influenza prevention and control strategies in the study area.

Aiming at improving the poor real-time performance of existing nonlinear filtering algorithms applied to spacecraft autonomous navigation based on Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements and simplifying the algorithm design of navigation algorithms, a spacecraft autonomous navigation algorithm based on polytopic linear differential inclusion is proposed in this paper. Firstly, it is demonstrated that the nonlinear estimation error system of spacecraft autonomous navigation can be modelled as a polytopic linear differential inclusion system model according to the idea of global linearization. Thus, the filtering of a nonlinear system simplified to a filtering of a polytopic linear system with coefficients. Secondly, Tensor-Product (TP) model transformation is applied to determine the polytopic linear differential inclusion system model. The model error introduced by global linearization is reduced and the compromise between computational complexity and modelling accuracy is realised. Finally, a spacecraft autonomous navigation algorithm based on polytopic linear differential inclusion is designed by combining multi-model Kalman filtering with data fusion. Compared with an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), the proposed algorithm is simpler and easier to implement since it need not update the Jacobian matrices online. Simulation results demonstrate the same estimation accuracy of the proposed algorithm to that of EKF.

Earth was very dynamic during the Carboniferous with major components of the Pangea supercontinent being assembled from late Famennian to latest Pennsylvanian times, although maximum consolidation occurred during Late Permian – Early Triassic time. During the Carboniferous Period, our planet also underwent at least three major icehouse periods. The first two, in late Famennian – early Tournaisian and late Visean – Bashkirian times, indicate the onset of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age (LPIA) with ice sheets being confined to the alpine regions of southern Gondwana. The third icehouse regime during Gzhelian – Early Permian time represents the main episode of the LPIA when a continental ice sheet developed on the Australian, Antarctic and southern African components of southern Gondwana. During the Tournaisian equatorial areas in Euramerica were occupied by extensive arid belts, in which massive carbonate deposits formed on vast platforms in that time. From the late Tournaisian into the Visean and Serpukhovian much of the equatorial belt developed into a humid-tropical realm and the former arid belt split and shifted to higher latitudes. Shelf-carbonate deposition continued over extensive areas of the continental shelves and western Palaeo-Tethys but coal swamps were developing in the forelands of the rising Appalachian and Variscan orogens. The late Serpukhovian – early Bashkirian interval saw the closure of the Rheic Ocean and a continent–continent collision between Euramerica (Laurussia) and Gondwana to form Pangea. As a consequence, a marked transition from Visean carbonate deposition to the development of coal swamps and deposition of siliciclastics during the Serpukhovian Stage occurred in many regions.

Diatoms and geochemical stratigraphy were studied in sediment core samples collected from a heavily polluted urban lake (SE China) in order to track the history of eutrophication and heavy metal contamination. The sediment profile covered ca. 60 years (from ca. 1951 to 2011) based on 137Cs and Spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCP) dating, and encompassed a period of rapid industrial development in this region. Diatoms experienced two visible shifts, including the replacement of benthic and epiphytic taxa by planktonic species (e.g., Cyclotella meneghiniana Kützing) in 1972, and the dominance of Cyclotella atomus Hustedt and Nitzschia palea (Kützing) W. Smith after 1999. Metals (i.e., Cd, Pb and Zn), total phosphorus, total nitrogen and total organic carbon all increased in the past 60 years. Redundancy analysis was used to correlate diatom with chemical change and explained 50.3–60% of total variation in diatom data for three periods (from 1951 to 1999, between 1951 and 2011 and from 1972 to 2011). The combined effects of nutrients and metals were the predominant factor, capturing 29.6–42.8% of the total variance. Nutrients alone accounted for little more variance than did metals alone for the first flora shift about 1972. The further shift after 1999 was more influenced by the sole effect of metals than that of nutrients. Increases in species (e.g., N. Palea) able to tolerate both nutrient-related and metal-related stressors were related to persistent nutrient and metal inputs. In addition, climate warming might exacerbate eutrophication and metal contamination in this lake.

This study reports the conodont succession across the Visean–Serpukhovian (V/S) boundary interval at the Naqing section, South China. Continuous centimetre-scale sampling of the relatively deep-water section in recent years has provided new data for a more detailed biostratigraphy of conodonts across the Visean–Serpukhovian boundary. Three conodont zones were described in ascending order: the Gnathodus bilineatus, Lochriea nodosa and Lochriea ziegleri zones. The first appearance datum (FAD) of L. ziegleri has been moved down to 60.1 m above the base of the Naqing section. The correlation of the conodont succession across the Visean–Serpukhovian boundary in the Naqing section with other sections in Eurasia is discussed.

Strained SiGe vertical PMOSFETs with a channel length of 100 nm have been fabricated without sophisticated lithography and the whole process is compatible with a regular CMOS process. The source, channel and drain layers with in situ doping were grown by ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition (UHVCVD) at 500 °C. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) of the SiGe and silicon sample surfaces shows the RMS roughness to be 0.18 nm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) rocking curves of the Si (004) plane demonstrate that the SiGe layers do result in compressive strain. The drive current for the vertical SiGe PMOSFET was enhanced by as much as 80% as compared with the silicon control device, in both the forward and reverse modes of operation.

The band offsets and band gap are the most important parameters that determine the electrical and optical behavior of a heterojunction. In situ scanning tunneling spectroscopy was employed to measure the valence-band offset of strained Si1−xGex-on-Si (100) for the first time. The valence-band offsets of the strained Si0.77Ge0.23 and Si0.59Ge0.41 on Si(100) were found to be 0.21 and 0.36 eV, respectively. The results were in good agreement with theory and with results from other experimental methods. Due to band bending and surface states, it was difficult to determine the conduction band edge at the interface of the Si1−xGex/Si exactly but we found that the conduction band offset is much smaller than the valence-band offset.

The band offsets and band gap are the most important parameters that determine the electrical and optical behavior of a heterojunction. In situscanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) was employed to measure the valence band offset of strained Si1−xGex-on-Si (100) for the first time. The valence band offsets of strained Si0.77Ge0.23and Si0.59Ge0.41on Si(100) are found to be 0.21eV and 0.36eV, respectively. The results are in good agreement with theory and with results from other experimental methods. Due to band bending and surface states, it is difficult to determine the conduction band edge at the interface of Si1−xGex/Si exactly, but the conduction band offset is found to be much smaller than the valence band offset