We present a high-energy, hundred-picosecond (ps) pulsed mid-ultraviolet solid-state laser at 266 nm by a direct second harmonic generation (SHG) in a barium borate (BaB2O4, BBO) nonlinear crystal. The green pump source is a 710 mJ, 330 ps pulsed laser at a wavelength of 532 nm with a repetition rate of 1 Hz. Under a green pump energy of 710 mJ, a maximum output energy of 253.3 mJ at 266 nm is achieved with 250 ps pulse duration resulting in a peak power of more than 1 GW, corresponding to an SHG conversion efficiency of 35.7% from 532 to 266 nm. The experimental data were well consistent with the theoretical prediction. To the best of our knowledge, this laser exhibits both the highest output energy and highest peak power ever achieved in a hundred-ps/ps regime at 266 nm for BBO-SHG.

Hypertension represents one of the most common pre-existing conditions and comorbidities in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. To explore whether hypertension serves as a risk factor for disease severity, a multi-centre, retrospective study was conducted in COVID-19 patients. A total of 498 consecutively hospitalised patients with lab-confirmed COVID-19 in China were enrolled in this cohort. Using logistic regression, we assessed the association between hypertension and the likelihood of severe illness with adjustment for confounders. We observed that more than 16% of the enrolled patients exhibited pre-existing hypertension on admission. More severe COVID-19 cases occurred in individuals with hypertension than those without hypertension (21% vs. 10%, P = 0.007). Hypertension associated with the increased risk of severe illness, which was not modified by other demographic factors, such as age, sex, hospital geological location and blood pressure levels on admission. More attention and treatment should be offered to patients with underlying hypertension, who usually are older, have more comorbidities and more susceptible to cardiac complications.

A series of CoCrFeNiMox (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2) high-entropy alloys were designed to develop a eutectic high-entropy alloy system and to acquire a superfine eutectic structure. The results show that for the CoCrFeNiMox alloys, with the increase of Mo content from 0.2 to 1.2, the microstructures shift from a typical dendrite structure to a hypoeutectic microstructure (x = 0.6), and then to a fully eutectic microstructure (x = 0.8) with a lamellar spacing only 110 nm, and finally culminate in the hypereutectic structure (x = 1.0, x = 1.2). The XRD results show that CoCrFeNiMox alloys have a single FCC phase when x is 0.2 or 0.4. When Mo content is over 0.6, it begins to separate Cr9Mo21Ni20 intermetallic compounds. The hardness of the CoCrFeNiMox alloys is increasing significantly from 172.8 to 763.7 HV with the increase of Mo content. Meanwhile, the fracture strength increased but the ductility decreases. Among these alloys, the CoCrFeNiMo0.6 alloy shows excellent integrated mechanical properties of compressive fracture strength and strain, which are 2051 Mpa and 23%, respectively.

In this paper, the recent studies of laboratory astrophysics with strong magnetic fields in China have been reviewed. On the Shenguang-II laser facility of the National Laboratory on High-Power Lasers and Physics, a laser-driven strong magnetic field up to 200 T has been achieved. The experiment was performed to model the interaction of solar wind with dayside magnetosphere. Also the low beta plasma magnetic reconnection (MR) has been studied. Theoretically, the model has been developed to deal with the atomic structures and processes in strong magnetic field. Also the study of shock wave generation in the magnetized counter-streaming plasmas is introduced.

We aimed to examine the contribution of blood lipids to the association between BMI and blood pressure (BP) in children with overweight and obesity. Data were collected in elementary and high schools of Chaoyang District, Beijing, China in 2012. Participants’ weight, height, BP and fasting plasma lipid profile were measured by standard protocols. Mediation analysis was used to examine the mediation role of blood lipids on the relation between BMI and BP, with age included as a covariate. We found that in boys 8·29 % (mediation effect=0·106, P=0·012) of the association between BMI and systolic BP was mediated through TAG. TAG mediated 12·53 % (mediation effect=0·093, P=0·018) and LDL-cholesterol mediated 7·75 % (mediation effect=0·57, P=0·046) of the association between BMI and diastolic BP was mediated by TAG and LDL-cholesterol, respectively. However, blood lipids did not show the mediation effect in girls. Our findings suggested that there was a sex difference in the contribution of blood lipids to the association between BMI and BP. Controlling TAG or LDL-cholesterol may be beneficial for reducing the risk of the BMI-related high BP in overweight boys; however, this outcome is not the case when controlling TAG or LDL-cholesterol in girls. This study may provide clues to explore the underlying mechanism of the association between obesity and hypertension.

A joint diagnostic system was established for the diagnosis of laser-driven shock wave experiments. The system has high temporal resolution (time resolution ~12 ps) and high spatial resolution (spatial resolution ~7 μm) and fits for diagnostics of the experiment with small sample size and short time physical process. The joint diagnostic system was applied for shock wave measurement on the Shenguang-II laser facility. The passive shock breakout signal and active diagnostic signal were simultaneously obtained. The temporal measurement reliability of the system was verified using a multi-layered target. The experimental results show that the two measurement results were consistent.

The preference of fertilized (IVF) and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) presumptive zygotes for different media when cultured in vitro to the blastocyst stage was evaluated in this study. The experiment comprised two zygote production methods (IVF and SCNT) × two culture media (mSOF and G1.5/G2.5) factorial design in which culture droplets that contained approximate 30 presumptive zygotes formed the experimental plots for the assessment of cleavage and blastocyst development. There were 15 to 20 replicates (culture droplets) per treatment combination. Sub-samples 30 to 41 of the blastocysts produced were assessed for cell number and cell apoptosis. A further 10 blastocysts per treatment combination were used for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to evaluate the relative abundance of Hsp70 and Bax mRNA. Presumptive zygotes produced by IVF were developmentally more competent than SCNT zygotes in terms of cleavage rate (66.9 vs. 57.0%; P < 0.05) and blastocyst development rates (blastocysts of presumptive zygotes 29.7 vs. 24.8%; blastocysts of cleaved zygotes 44.4 vs. 36.6%; P < 0.05). Over both zygote production systems, however, the results were similar whether culture was in mSOF or in G1.5/G2.5 media for cleavage rate (63.2 vs. 62.4%; P > 0.05) and blastocyst development rate (blastocysts of presumptive zygotes 26.4 vs. 25.7%; P > 0.05; blastocysts of cleaved zygotes 41.8 vs. 41.2%; P > 0.05). There was, however, a significant interaction between the method of zygote production and culture medium for the apoptotic index of blastocysts. The interaction was such that IVF-produced zygotes cultured in mSOF had a lower apoptotic index compared with those cultured in G1.5/G2.5 (4.7 ± 1.2% vs. 9.8 ± 0.9%; P < 0.05) whereas SCNT zygotes had a higher apoptotic index when cultured in mSOF compared with those cultured in G1.5/G2.5 (11.9 ± 1.5% vs. 4.5 ± 1.2%; P < 0.05). Moreover, RT-PCR analysis showed that embryos from IVF-produced zygotes cultured in mSOF had a lower expression level of stress-related and apoptosis genes (Hsp70 and Bax) than those cells cultured in G1.5/G2.5 medium, while SCNT-derived embryos cultured in mSOF had a higher expression level of these genes than those embryos cultured in G1.5/G2.5 medium. The results of this study show that bovine IVF- and SCNT-produced presumptive zygotes have different nutrient requirements for in vitro culture to the blastocyst stage of development. IVF-derived zygotes have a preference for mSOF as the culture medium whereas the G1.5/G2.5 medium is more suitable for the culture of bovine SCNT-derived zygotes.

Accumulated evidence suggests that social support is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. However, there are little data that examine this issue from Asian samples. We reported results from a preliminary study that examined familial effects on social support in a Chinese adult twin sample. We administered a 10-item social support instrument that measures three dimensions of social support (i.e., objective support, subjective support, and utilization of support) developed for the Chinese population. Two hundred forty-two same-sex twin pairs, where both members of the pair completed the personal interview, were included in the final analysis. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate additive genetic (A), shared environmental (C), and nonshared environmental (E) effects on each dimension of social support. Familial factors (A+C) explained 56.63% [95% CI = 45.48–65.72%] and 42.42% [95% CI = 29.93–53.25%] of the total phenotypic variances of subjective support and utilization of support, respectively. For the objective support, genetic effects did not exist, but common environmental effect explained 37.56% [95% CI = 26.17–48.28%] of the total phenotypic variances. Neither gender nor age effects were seen on any dimension of social support. Except for objective support, genetic factors probably influence variation in subjective support and utilization of support. Shared environmental factors may influence all dimensions of social support.

The effects of specific components in culture medium on embryo physiology have been extensively investigated to optimize in vitro culture systems; however, little attention has been paid to antibiotics, the reagents used most commonly in culture systems to prevent contamination. To investigate the potential effects of routine use of antibiotics on cultured embryos, mouse zygotes were cultured with or without antibiotics. In both groups, the developmental rate and cell number of blastocysts appear to be normal. The proportion of embryos with blastomere fragmentation increased slightly when embryos were cultured with antibiotics. In contrast, the presence of antibiotics in the embryo culture system significantly disturbs expression of zygotically activated genes, damages chromatin integrity and increases apoptosis of cultured embryos. These results provide evidence that, when cultured with antibiotics, embryos with normal appearance may possess intrinsic physiological and genetic abnormalities. We demonstrate that the adverse effects of antibiotics on mammalian embryos are more severe than we previously presumed and that antibiotics are not essential for sterility of embryo culture system therefore abolishing antibiotic supplementation during embryo culture.

In exploring an effective and reliable karyotyping method in Brassica crop plants, Brassica oleracea was successfully karyotyped using genomic in situ hybridization (GISH). B. oleracea genomic DNA was labelled as probe using DIG-high prime mix kit, with B. rapa genomic DNA acting as blocking agent. Specific fluorescent signals were detected on each pair of homologous chromosomes, and nine pairs of chromosomes of B. oleracea were clearly identified according to the signal characteristics. A practical and accurate method for conducting karyotyping of small chromosomes has been demonstrated.

Bacillus cereus can produce α-amylase, which has important industrial production value and can endure high temperatures. The enzymatic characteristics of two α-amylases from B. cereus (B905 and B904) were studied. The results showed that both preserved their activity at 90–100°C. Their thermal stability and enzymatic activity did not depend on Ca2+. However, their protein molecular weights were obviously different. The structural genes of amy905 and amy904 were cloned successfully using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and expressed in Escherichia coli. The amy904 and amy905 genes were 1362 bp and 1761 bp long and their protein molecular weights were about 55 kDa and 68 kDa, respectively.

To improve the developmental potential of somatic cell cloned embryos derived from demecolcine (DC) induced-enucleated nuclear transfer (INT), we modified the INT procedures by transferring donor nuclei into recipient cytoplasts prior to the induced enucleation of the recipient cytoplasts, and we called this modified INT technique as reverse-order and induced-enucleated nuclear transfer (RINT). Standard nuclear transfer (SNT) and INT were performed as controls. The dynamic changes of maternal and transferred donor nuclei in the RINT oocytes were monitored to evaluate the feasibility of this new nuclear transfer (NT) technique by timed immunofluorescence. Timed immunofluorescence showed that RINT is feasible because none of the transferred donor nuclei were expelled with the second polar body (Pb) in the RINT oocytes, while 42.2% of the oocytes showed extrusion of all maternal chromosome and spindles with the second Pb at 60 min after activation and DC treatment. Although there was no difference in cleavage rate (86.6% vs. 82.1%), the rates of successful enucleation and blastocyst formation were significantly increased in RINT compared with INT (44.1% vs. 27.5% and 43.3% vs. 12.8%, respectively; p < 0.01). Compared with SNT, there was no difference in cleavage rate (86.6% vs. 78.4%), but the blastocyst developmental rate was significantly increased in the RINT group (43.3% vs. 25.3%; p < 0.01). Blastocysts derived from RINT had a higher total cell number than those from SNT (45.1 ± 3 vs. 37.6 ± 4; p < 0.05). Our results provide evidence that RINT is feasible and may provide a more efficient and simple method for NT than INT.

Bacillus thuringiensis strain WZ-9, isolated from soil in Hebei province, China, was effective against Henosepilachna vigintioctomaculata larvae. The strain presented bipyramidal crystals with a protein band of 130 kDa in SDS–PAGE. The pH changes of the culture media showed important fluctuations during the 24 h growth cycle. The pH varied less in log and stationary phases than it did in the exponential phase. Bioassay results showed that the WZ-9 strain was only harmful to larvae of H. vigintioctomaculata and not to either adults of H. vigintioctomaculata or other several lepidopteran and coleopteran insects. LC50 to second-instar larvae of H. vigintioctomaculata was 2.95×107 cells/ml after 72 h. Genotypic investigations showed that this strain possessed the cry7 gene. Sequence analysis demonstrated that the encoding gene contained an open reading frame (ORF) of 3414 bp and encoded 1138 amino acid residues. The deduced amino acid sequence was 99.65% identical to that of the reported Cry7Ab2 sequences. This gene was designated by the Bt δ-endotoxin nomenclature committee as Cry7Ab3 with accession number BI 1015188 in the GenBank database.