A single-shot measurement of electron emittance was experimentally accomplished using a focused transfer line with a dipole. The betatron phase of electrons based on laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) is energy dependent owing to the coupling of the longitudinal acceleration field and the transverse focusing (defocusing) field in the bubble. The phase space presents slice information after phase compensation relative to the center energy. Fitting the transverse size of the electron beam at different energy slices in the energy spectrum measured 0.27 mm mrad in the experiment. The diagnosis of slice emittance facilitates local electron quality manipulation, which is important for the development of LWFA-based free electron lasers. The quasi-3D particle-in-cell simulations matched the experimental results and analysis well.

The Lochkovian, Pragian, and basal part of the Emsian, which represent the post-Kwangsian Orogeny strata in the South China Block, are mainly composed of siliciclastic rocks. This lithological composition impedes investigation of Pragian and Lochkovian conodont biostratigraphy in the South China Block, which results in a persistent controversy on the age of relevant lithological units. The present study provides new evidence by reporting for the first time Lochkovian conodonts obtained from the South China Block, specifically the Gaoling Member of the Nahkaoling Formation at the Lingli section, central Guangxi. The conodont fauna, consisting of Pandorinellina exigua lingliensis Lu n. subsp., Pandorinellina exigua exigua, Zieglerodina? tuojiangensis Lu n. sp., Amydrotaxis praejohnsoni, and Eognathodus cf. E. irregularis, places the studied interval of the Gaoling Member in the lower or middle Lochkovian (contingent upon varying definitions for the base of the middle Lochkovian) to lower Pragian. Moreover, Amydrotaxis praejohnsoni, which was reported previously only in North America and eastern Australia, is herein also recorded in the South China Block, and thus may play an important role in intercontinental biostratigraphical correlation. By shedding light on the age of the upper limit of the underlying Lianhuashan Formation at the Lingli section, the present study indicates that the Kwangsian Orogeny ended before the late Lochkovian. This date is slightly earlier than the previously estimated late Lochkovian based on studies of fossil plants from the siliciclastic rocks deposited after the Kwangsian Orogeny.

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We demonstrate an ultra-broadband high temporal contrast infrared laser source based on cascaded optical parametric amplification, hollow-core fiber (HCF) and second harmonic generation processes. In this setup, the spectrum of an approximately 1.8 μm laser pulse has near 1 μm full bandwidth by employing an argon gas-filled HCF. Subsequently, after frequency doubling with cascaded crystals and dispersion compensation by a fused silica wedge pair, 9.6 fs (~3 cycles) and 150 μJ pulses centered at 910 nm with full bandwidth of over 300 nm can be generated. The energy stability of the output laser pulse is excellent with 0.8% (root mean square) over 20 min, and the temporal contrast is >1012 at –10 ps before the main pulse. The excellent temporal and spatial characteristics and stability make this laser able to be used as a good seed source for ultra-intense and ultrafast laser systems.

Pie charts are often used to communicate risk, such as the risk of driving. In the foreground-background salience effect (FBSE), foreground (probability of bad event) has greater salience than background (no bad event) in such a chart. Experiment 1 confirmed that the displays format of pie charts showed a typical FBSE. Experiment 2 showed that the FBSE resulted from a difference in cognitive efforts in processing the messages and that a foreground-emphasizing display was easier to process. Experiment 3 manipulated subjects’ information processing mindset and explored the interaction between displays format and information processing mindset. In the default mindset, careless subjects displayed a typical FBSE, while those who were instructed to be careful reported similar risk-avoidant behavior preference reading both charts. Suggestions for improving risk communication are discussed.

We report dispersion management based on a mismatched-grating compressor for a 100 PW level laser, which utilizes optical parametric chirped pulse amplification and also features large chirped pulse duration and an ultra-broadband spectrum. The numerical calculation indicates that amplified pulses with 4 ns chirped pulse duration and 210 nm spectral bandwidth can be directly compressed to sub-13 fs, which is close to the Fourier-transform limit (FTL). More importantly, the tolerances of the mismatched-grating compressor to the misalignment of the stretcher, the error of the desired grating groove density and the variation of material dispersion are comprehensively analyzed, which is crucially important for its practical application. The results demonstrate that good tolerances and near-FTL compressed pulses can be achieved simultaneously, just by keeping a balance between the residual second-, third- and fourth-order dispersions in the laser system. This work can offer a meaningful guideline for the design and construction of 100 PW level lasers.

We report on a vortex laser chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) system that delivers pulses with a peak power of 45 TW. A focused intensity exceeding 1019 W/cm2 has been demonstrated for the first time by the vortex amplification scheme. Compared with other schemes of strong-field vortex generation with high energy flux but narrowband vortex-converting elements at the end of the laser, an important advantage of our scheme is that we can use a broadband but size-limited q-plate to realize broadband mode-converting in the front end of the CPA system, and achieve high-power amplification with a series of amplifiers. This method is low cost and can be easily implemented in an existing laser system. The results have verified the feasibility to obtain terawatt and even petawatt vortex laser amplification by a CPA system, which has important potential applications in strong-field laser physics, for example, generation of vortex particle beams with orbital angular momentum, fast ignition for inertial confinement fusion and simulation of the extreme astrophysical environment.

Business process management (BPM) has been the main driver behind company optimization and operational efficiency. However, the digitization era we live in necessitates that organizations be agile and adaptable. Delivering unprecedented rates of automation-fueled agility is necessary to be a part of this digital revolution. On the other hand, BPM automation cannot be done only by concentrating on procedure space and traditional planning methodologies. With the introduction of BPM, where the deployment of BPM with cloud computing has undergone enormous development lately, cloud computing has been considered a particularly active topic of study. Cloud computing points to the provision of dependable computing environments based on improved infrastructure availability and service quality without imposing a significant cost load. This research aims to discover the relationship between technical factors, financial factors, environmental factors, security of the cloud-based information systems, and the agile development of industrial BPM (IBPM). The present study aims to fill this gap and show how partial least squares structural equation modeling (SEM) can be employed in this field. Importance–performance map analysis (IPMA) evaluated the importance and performance of factors in the SEM. IPMA enables the identification of factors with relatively low performance but relatively high importance in shaping dependent variables. The empirical findings showed that four key factors (technical, financial, environmental, and security) positively influence the agile development of IBPM.

Athetis lepigone Möschler (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) is a common maize pest in Europe and Asia. However, there is no long-term effective management strategy is available yet to suppress its population. Adults rely heavily on olfactory cues to locate their optimal host plants and oviposition sites. Pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs) are believed to be responsible for recognizing and transporting different odorant molecules to interact with receptor membrane proteins. In this study, the ligand-binding specificities of two AlepPBPs (AlepPBP2 and AlepPBP3) for sex pheromone components and host plant (maize) volatiles were measured by fluorescence ligand-binding assay. The results demonstrated that AlepPBP2 had a high affinity with two pheromones [(Z)-7-dodecenyl acetate, Ki = 1.11 ± 0.1 μM, (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate, Ki = 1.32 ± 0.15 μM] and ten plant volatiles, including (-)-limonene, α-pinene, myrcene, linalool, benzaldehyde, nonanal, 2-hexanone, 3-hexanone, 2-heptanone and 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one. In contrast, we found that none of these chemicals could bind to AlepPBP3. Our results clearly show no significant differences in the functional characterization of the binding properties between AlepPBP2 and AlepPBP3 to sex pheromones and host plant volatiles. Furthermore, molecular docking was employed for further detail on some crucial amino acid residues involved in the ligand-binding of AlepPBP2. These findings will provide valuable information about the potential protein binding sites necessary for protein-ligand interactions which appear as attractive targets for the development of novel technologies and management strategies for insect pests.

PU- and P*U*-equivalent parallel mechanisms (PMs) are critical families of PMs with one translational and two rotational (1T2R) degree of freedoms and have always been a research hotspot among lower mobility PMs. However, researches on these two families of PMs remain to be inadequate, and existing types are few and uncomprehensive. In this study, first, general wrench systems of PU-equivalent are derived based on virtual-chain approach and screw theory, revealing its constraint characteristics under general configuration. Cause of one parasitic motion is put forward and general wrench systems of P*U*-equivalent PMs with one parasitic motion are obtained. In addition, constraint analysis has been carried out to figure out constraint characteristics of P*U*-equivalent PMs with three parasitic motions. Second, branch chains are divided by generating constraints, and their structures are synthesized based on the presented rules. Then, the process for type synthesis of PU-equivalent PMs and P*U*-equivalent PMs and a series of novel 1T2R PMs are attained based on this. Finally, a novel PU-equivalent PM, 2PRU-PRUPc, and a novel P*U*-equivalent PM with one parasitic motion, 2PRU-PUU PM, are analyzed, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed type synthesis method.

We present an experimental study of the large-scale vortex (or large-scale circulation, LSC) in turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection in a $\varGamma =\text {diameter}/\text {height}=2$ cylindrical cell. The working fluid is deionized water with Prandtl number ($Pr$) around 5.7, and the Rayleigh number ($Ra$) ranges from $7.64\times 10^7$ to $6.06\times 10^8$. We measured the velocity field in various vertical cross-sectional planes by using the planar particle image velocimetry technique. The velocity measurement in the LSC central plane shows that the flow is in the single-roll form, and the centre of the single-roll (vortex) does not always stay at the centre of the cell; instead, it orbits periodically in the direction opposite to the flow direction of the LSC, with its trajectory in the shape of an ellipse. The velocity measurements in the three vertical planes in parallel to the LSC central plane indicate that the flow is in the vortex tube form horizontally filling almost the whole cell, and the centre line of the vortex tube is consistent with the so-called ‘jump rope’ form proposed by a previous study that combined numerical simulation and local velocity measurements in the low $Pr$ case (Vogt et al., Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 115, 2018, pp. 12674–12679). In addition, we found that the oscillation of the local velocity in $\varGamma =2$ cells originates from the periodical orbiting of the vortex centre. Our velocity measurements further indicate that the vortex centre orbiting is absent in $\varGamma =1$ cells, at least in the $Ra$ range of our experiments.

This retrospective study investigated the predictive value of the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score in patients with intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who received transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Nomograms were developed to predict progression-free and overall survival (PFS, OS). The medical data of 228 patients with HCC and treated with TACE were collected. The patients were apportioned to 2 groups according to CONUT score: low or high (<4, ≥4). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using Cox regression for OS and PFS. OS and PFS were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier curve and compared with the log-rank test. Nomograms were constructed to predict patient OS and PFS. The nomograms were evaluated for accuracy, discrimination, and efficiency. The cut-off value of CONUT score was 4. The higher the CONUT score, the worse the survival; Kaplan-Meier curves showed significant differences in OS and PFS between the low and high CONUT score groups (P = 0·033, 0·047). The nomograms including CONUT, based on the prognostic factors determined by the univariate and multivariate analyses, to predict survival in HCC after TACE were generated. The CONUT score is an important prognostic factor for both OS and PFS for patients with intermediate HCC who underwent TACE. The cut-off value of the CONUT score was 4. A high CONUT score suggests poor survival outcomes. Nomograms generated based on the CONUT score were good models to predict patient OS and PFS.