Rapid changes in economic, environmental and social conditions generate both problems and opportunities in agriculture. The cycle from problem identification through discovery of potential solutions is lengthy. The objective of this study was to use collaborative methods to speed the cycle of discovery in sustainable organic strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) production systems in the southeastern USA. This method, stakeholder-driven adaptive research (SDAR), combines farmers' experiential knowledge with scientists' experimental knowledge to develop rigorous research design collectively. Farmers evaluated our biological research and co-designed research experiments with scientists. Farmers and other stakeholders (1) evaluated on-station experiments individually and then made recommendations as a group, (2) served as advisory council members to direct our goals and objectives, and (3) conducted farmer field trials where they implemented aspects of our on-station experiments under their management regimes. The results eliminated potential solutions that were not feasible, ineffective or too costly for farmers to adopt. Key results included eliminating treatments using high tunnel systems altogether on one field trial on a University of Florida (UF) research facility, adding a leguminous cover crop mix treatment, adding companion planting, and eliminating strawberry cultivars Strawberry Festival and Florida Beauty from our research trials. Our proposed methodology allows farmers and other stakeholders to inform the biological research from design through dissemination to reduce the time needed to create research products in an era of rapid bio-physical, social and economic change. Accelerating the discovery cycle could significantly improve our ability to identify and address threats to the USA and global food and fiber production system.

Particle–wall interactions have broad biological and technological applications. In particular, some artificial microswimmers capitalize on their translation–rotation coupling near a wall to generate directed propulsion. Emerging biomedical applications of these microswimmers in complex biological fluids prompt questions on the impact of non-Newtonian rheology on their propulsion. In this work, we report some intriguing effects of shear-thinning rheology, a ubiquitous non-Newtonian behaviour of biological fluids, on the translation–rotation coupling of a particle near a wall. One particularly interesting feature revealed here is that the wall-induced translation by rotation can occur in a direction opposite to what might be intuitively expected for an object rolling on a solid substrate. We elucidate the underlying physical mechanism and discuss its implications on the design of micromachines and bacterial motion near walls in complex fluids.

Companies that produce energy transmit it to any or all households via a power grid, which is a regulated power transmission hub that acts as a middleman. When a power grid fails, the whole area it serves is blacked out. To ensure smooth and effective functioning, a power grid monitoring system is required. Computer vision is among the most commonly utilized and active research applications in the world of video surveillance. Though a lot has been accomplished in the field of power grid surveillance, a more effective compression method is still required for large quantities of grid surveillance video data to be archived compactly and sent efficiently. Video compression has become increasingly essential with the advent of contemporary video processing algorithms. An algorithm’s efficacy in a power grid monitoring system depends on the rate at which video data is sent. A novel compression technique for video inputs from power grid monitoring equipment is described in this study. Due to a lack of redundancy in visual input, traditional techniques are unable to fulfill the current demand standards for modern technology. As a result, the volume of data that needs to be saved and handled in live time grows. Encoding frames and decreasing duplication in surveillance video using texture information similarity, the proposed technique overcomes the aforementioned problems by Robust Particle Swarm Optimization (RPSO) based run-length coding approach. Our solution surpasses other current and relevant existing algorithms based on experimental findings and assessments of different surveillance video sequences utilizing varied parameters. A massive collection of surveillance films was compressed at a 50% higher rate using the suggested approach than with existing methods.

We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band (${\sim}60\%$), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability.

Feathers play a critical role in thermoregulation and directly influence poultry production. Poor feathering adversely affects living appearance and carcass quality, thus reducing profits. However, producers tend to ignore the importance of feather development and do not know the laws of feather growth and development. The objective of this study was to fit growth curves to describe the growth and development of feathers in yellow-feathered broilers during the embryonic and posthatching periods using different nonlinear functions (Gompertz, logistic and Bertalanffy). Feather mass and length were determined during the embryonic development and posthatching stages to identify which growth model most accurately described the feather growth pattern. The results showed that chick embryos began to grow feathers at approximately embryonic (E) day 10, and the feathers grew rapidly from E13 to E17. There was little change from E17 to the day of hatching (DOH). During the embryonic period, the Gompertz function (Y = 798.48e−203 431exp(−0.87t), Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) = −0.950 × 103, Bayesian information criterion (BIC) = −0.711 × 103 and mean square error (MSE) = 559.308) provided the best fit for the feather growth curve compared with the other two functions. After hatching, feather mass and length changed little from the DOH to day (D) 14, increased rapidly from D21 to D91 and then grew slowly after D91. The first stage of feather molting occurred from 2 to 3 weeks of age when the down feathers were mostly shed and replaced with juvenile feathers, and the second stage occurred at approximately 13 to 15 weeks of age. The three nonlinear functions could overall fit the feather growth curve well, but the Bertalanffy model (Y = 116.88 × (1−0.86e−0.02t)3, AIC = 1.065 × 105, BIC = 1.077 × 105 and MSE = 11.308) showed the highest degree of fit among the models. Therefore, the Gompertz model exhibited the best goodness of fit for the feather growth curve during the embryonic development, while the Bertalanffy model was the most suitable model due to its accurate ability to predict the growth and development of feathers during the growth period, which is an important commercial characteristic of yellow-feathered chickens.

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.

Although application of organic fertilizers has become a recommended way for developing sustainable agriculture, it is still unclear whether above-ground and below-ground crops have similar responses to chemical fertilizers (CF) and organic manure (OM) under the same farming conditions. The current study investigated soil quality and crop yield response to fertilization of a double-cropping system with rapeseed (above-ground) and sweet potato (below-ground) in an infertile red soil for 2 years (2014–16). Three fertilizer treatments were compared, including CF, OM and organic manure plus chemical fertilizer (MCF). Organic fertilizers (OM and MCF) increased the yield of both above- and below-ground crops and improved soil biochemical properties significantly. The current study also found that soil-chemical properties were the most important and direct factors in increasing crop yields. Also, crop yield was affected indirectly by soil-biological properties, because no significant effects of soil-biological activities on yield were detected after controlling the positive effects of soil-chemical properties. Since organic fertilizers could not only increase crop yield, but also improve soil nutrients and microbial activities efficiently and continuously, OM application is a reliable agricultural practice for both above- and below-ground crops in the red soils of China.

This study aims to investigate the prevalence and genotype distribution of anal human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among men with different sexual orientations with or without human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in China. A cross-sectional study was conducted during 2016–2017 in Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province. Convenient sampling was used to recruit male participants from HIV voluntary counselling and testing clinics and Center for Disease Control and Prevention. A face-to-face questionnaire interview was administered and an anal-canal swab was collected for HPV genotyping. A total of 160 HIV-positive and 113 HIV-negative men participated in the study. The prevalence of any type HPV was 30.6% for heterosexual men, 74.1% for homosexual and 63.6% for bisexual men among HIV-positive participants, while the prevalence was 8.3%, 29.2% and 23.8% respectively among HIV-negatives. The most prevalent genotypes were HPV-58 (16.9%), HPV-6 (15.6%) and HPV-11 (15.0%) among HIV-positive men, and were HPV-16 (4.4%), HPV-52 (4.4%) and HPV-6 (3.5%) among HIV-negative men. Having ever had haemorrhoids and having ever seen blood on tissue after defaecation was associated with HPV infection. One-fourth of the HPV infections in this study population can be covered by the quadrivalent vaccine in market. The highly prevalent anal HPV infection among men especially HIV-infected men calls for close observation and further investigation for anal cancer prevention.

Measurements in the infrared wavelength domain allow direct assessment of the physical state and energy balance of cool matter in space, enabling the detailed study of the processes that govern the formation and evolution of stars and planetary systems in galaxies over cosmic time. Previous infrared missions revealed a great deal about the obscured Universe, but were hampered by limited sensitivity.

SPICA takes the next step in infrared observational capability by combining a large 2.5-meter diameter telescope, cooled to below 8 K, with instruments employing ultra-sensitive detectors. A combination of passive cooling and mechanical coolers will be used to cool both the telescope and the instruments. With mechanical coolers the mission lifetime is not limited by the supply of cryogen. With the combination of low telescope background and instruments with state-of-the-art detectors SPICA provides a huge advance on the capabilities of previous missions.

SPICA instruments offer spectral resolving power ranging from R ~50 through 11 000 in the 17–230 μm domain and R ~28.000 spectroscopy between 12 and 18 μm. SPICA will provide efficient 30–37 μm broad band mapping, and small field spectroscopic and polarimetric imaging at 100, 200 and 350 μm. SPICA will provide infrared spectroscopy with an unprecedented sensitivity of ~5 × 10−20 W m−2 (5σ/1 h)—over two orders of magnitude improvement over what earlier missions. This exceptional performance leap, will open entirely new domains in infrared astronomy; galaxy evolution and metal production over cosmic time, dust formation and evolution from very early epochs onwards, the formation history of planetary systems.

Materials designed for nuclear waste disposal include a range of ceramics, glass ceramics and glass waste forms. Those with crystalline phases have provided the momentum for studies of minerals as a means to understand aspects of waste-form crystal chemistry, behaviour in aqueous systems and radiation damage over geological periods of time. Although the utility of natural analogue studies varies, depending upon the degree of analogy to the proposed geological repository and other factors such as chemical composition, the available data suggest that Th-U host phases such as brannerite, monazite, pyrochlore, zircon and zirconolite are resistant generally to dissolution in aqueous fluids at low temperatures. Geochemical durability may or may not extend to hydrothermal systems depending on the specifics of fluid composition, temperature and pressure. At elevated temperatures, for example, davidite may break down to new phase assemblages including titanite, ilmenite and rutile. Perovskite is generally less resistant to dissolution at low temperatures and breaks down to TiO2, releasing A-site cations to the aqueous fluid. Studies of radiation damage indicate that the oxide and silicate phases become amorphous as a result of the gradual accumulation of alpha-recoil collision cascades. Monazite tends to remain crystalline on geological time scales, a very attractive property that potentially eliminates major changes in physical properties such as density and volume, thereby reducing the potential for cracking, which is a major concern for zircon. In spite of recent success in describing the behaviour of Th-U minerals in geological systems, considerable work remains in order to understand the P-T-X conditions during alteration and T-t history of the host rocks.

Litter size has a great impact on the profit of swine producers. Uterine development is an important determinant of reproduction efficiency and could hence affect litter size. Chinese Erhualian pig is one of the most prolific breeds in the world, even though large phenotypic variation in litter size was observed within Erhualian sows. To dissect the genetic basis of the phenotypic variation, we herein conducted genome-wide association studies for total number born and number born alive (NBA) of Erhualian sows. In total, one significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (P<1.78e−06) and 11 suggestive SNPs (P<3.57e−05) were identified on 10 chromosomes, confirming seven previously reported quantitative trait loci (QTL) and uncovering six QTL for litter size or uterus length. One locus on Sus scrofa chromosome (SSC) 13 (79.28 to 90.43 Mb) harbored a cluster of suggestive SNPs associated with multiparous NBA. The SNP (rs81447100) within this region was confirmed to be significantly (P<0.05) associated with litter size in Erhualian (n=313), Sutai (n=173) and Yorkshire (n=488) populations. Retinol binding protein 2 and retinol binding protein 1 functionally related to the development of uterus were located in a region of 2 Mb around rs81447100. Moreover, four genes related to embryo implantation and development were also detected around other significant SNPs. Taken together, our findings provide a potential marker (rs81447100) for the genetic improvement of litter size not only in Chinese Erhualian pigs but also in European commercial pig breeds like Yorkshire, and would facilitate the final identification of causative variant(s) underlying the effect of SSC13 QTL on litter size.

The study of the mechanical properties of polycrystalline alloy materials under dynamic impact, namely, the prediction of mechanical behavior after yield stress and the establishment of a constitutive model, has attracted much attention in the field of engineering. The stress-strain curves of 5083 aluminum alloy were obtained under strain rates varying from 0.0002 s-1 to 7130 s-1 through uniaxial compression experiments. The equipment used included a CRIMS RPL100 tester, Instron tester, and split Hopkinson test system. In addition, based on dislocation dynamics and the strengthening mechanism of metals, the plastic flow of the 5083 aluminum alloy was systematically analyzed under a wide range of strain rates. It was found that the abnormal yield behavior of the 5083 aluminum alloy under a wide range of strain rates increased, and the experimental phenomenon of hardening rate decreased with an increase in strain rate. This study also revealed that the abnormal yield behavior is caused by the different dislocation mechanisms of two-phase alloy elements under different strain rates. Based on the thermal activation theory and the experimental data, a constitutive model was developed. A comparison showed good agreement between the experimental and model curves. This indicates that this model has good plastic flow stress prediction ability for such types of materials.

Piglets are characteristically cold intolerant and thus susceptible to high mortality. However, browning of white adipose tissue (WAT) can induce non-shivering thermogenesis as a potential strategy to facilitate the animal’s response to cold. Whether cold exposure can induce browning of subcutaneous WAT (sWAT) in piglets in a similar manner as it can in humans remains largely unknown. In this study, piglets were exposed to acute cold (4°C, 10 h) or chronic cold exposure (8°C, 15 days), and the genes and proteins of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1)-dependent and independent thermogenesis, mitochondrial biogenesis, lipogenic and lipolytic processes were analysed. Interestingly, acute cold exposure induced browning of porcine sWAT, smaller adipocytes and the upregulated expression of UCP1, PGC1α, PGC1β, C/EBPβ, Cidea, UCP3, CKMT1 and PM20D1. Conversely, chronic cold exposure impaired the browning process, reduced mitochondrial numbers and the expression of browning markers, including UCP1, PGC1α and PRDM16. The present study demonstrated that acute cold exposure (but not chronic cold exposure) induces porcine sWAT browning. Thus, browning of porcine sWAT could be a novel strategy to balance the body temperature of piglets, and thus could be protective against cold exposure.

The potential combined effects of oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids supplementation on lactation performance and the milk fatty acid (FA) profile in dairy cows have not been well investigated. Our objective was to examine the effects of supplementation with a combination of these FA as well as the effects of removing each from the combination on lactation performance and the milk FA profile in dairy cows. Eight Holstein cows (101±11 days in milk) received four intravenously infused treatments in a 4×4 Latin square design, and each period lasted for 12 days which consisted of 5 days of infusion and 7 days of recovery. The control treatment (CTL) contained 58.30, 58.17 and 39.96 g/day of C18 : 1 cis-9; C18 : 2 cis-9, cis-12; and C18 : 3 cis-9, cis-12, cis-15, respectively. The other three treatments were designated −−C18 : 1 (20.68, 61.17 and 41.72 g/day of C18 : 1 cis-9; C18 : 2 cis-9, cis-12; and C18 : 3 cis-9, cis-12, cis-15, respectively), −C18 : 2 (61.49, 19.55 and 42.13 g/day of C18 : 1 cis-9; C18 : 2 cis-9, cis-12; and C18 : 3 cis-9, cis-12, cis-15, respectively) and −C18 : 3 (60.89, 60.16 and 1.53 g/day of C18 : 1 cis-9; C18 : 2 cis-9, cis-12; and C18 : 3 cis-9, cis-12, cis-15, respectively). Dry matter intake and lactose content were not affected by the treatments, but the milk protein content was lower in cows treated with −C18 : 2 than that in CTL-treated cows. Milk yield as well as milk fat, protein and lactose yields were higher in cows treated with −C18 : 3 than the yields in CTL-treated cows, and these yields increased linearly as the unsaturation degree of the supplemental FA decreased. Compared with the CTL treatment, the −C18 : 2 treatment decreased milk C18 : 2 cis-9 content (by 2.80%) and yield (by 22.12 g/day), and the −C18 : 3 treatment decreased milk C18 : 3 cis-9, cis-12, cis-15 content (by 2.72%) and yield (by 22.33 g/day). In contrast, removing C18 : 1 cis-9 did not affect the milk content or yield of C18 : 1 cis-9. The −C18 : 2-treated cows had a higher C18 : 1 cis-9 content and tended to have a higher C18 : 1 cis-9 yield than CTL-treated cows. The yields of C8 : 0, C14 : 0 and C16 : 0 as well as <C16 : 0 tended to increase linearly as the unsaturation degree of the supplemental FA decreased (P=0.06, 0.07, 0.07 and 0.09, respectively). These results indicated that supplementation with C18 unsaturated FA might not independently affect the lactation performance and the milk FA profile of dairy cows.

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.

In individuals with latent tuberculosis (TB) infection, those living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) had a 20–37 times higher risk of developing active TB compared to those without HIV infection. Systematic testing and treatment of latent TB infection are priorities in HIV-infected persons. In China, the prevalence of HIV infection in men who have sex with men (MSM) has gradually increased in the past decade. However, the prevalence of TB infection has been studied sparsely in HIV-infected MSM. Hence, we conducted a pilot study in MSM living with HIV infection in Xi'an city to evaluate TB infection status by means of interferon-γ release assay (IGRA). A total of 182 HIV-infected MSM were included in this study, the prevalence of IGRA positivity was observed to be 8·79% (16/182). IGRA quantitative results were not statistically influenced by the CD4 cell counts of the study participants. However, IGRA positivity was found to be lower than our previously reported data from the general population. This suggests that immunological deficiency might decrease the sensitivity of IGRA and thus increase the number of false negatives. Our primary results, suggesting systematic testing and treatment of latent TB infection together with active case-finding, were equally important for TB control in persons living with HIV infection.

Insect defensins, are cationic peptides that play an important role in immunity against microbial infection. In the present study, an anionic defensin from Plutella xylostella, (designated as PxDef) was first cloned and characterized. Amino acid sequence analysis showed that the mature peptide owned characteristic six-cysteine motifs with predicted isoelectric point of 5.57, indicating an anionic defensin. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that PxDef was significantly induced in epidermis, fat body, midgut and hemocytes after injection of heat-inactivated Bacillus thuringiensis, while such an induction was delayed by the injection of live B. thuringiensis in the 4th instar larvae of P. xylostella. Knocking down the expression of nuclear transcription factor Dorsal in P. xylostella by RNA interference significantly decreased the mRNA level of PxDef, and increased the sensitivity of P. xylostella larvae to the infection by live B. thuringiensis. The purified recombinant mature peptide (PxDef) showed higher activity against Gram-positive bacteria, with the minimum inhibition concentrations of 1.6 and 2.6 µM against B. thuringiensis and Bacillus subtilis, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first report about an anionic PxDef, which may play an important role in the immune system of P. xylostella against B. thuringiensis.