Natural infection by Trichinella sp. has been reported in humans and more than 150 species of animals, especially carnivorous and omnivorous mammals. Although the presence of Trichinella sp. infection in wild boars (Sus scrofa) has been documented worldwide, limited information is known about Trichinella circulation in farmed wild boars in China. This study intends to investigate the prevalence of Trichinella sp. in farmed wild boars in China. Seven hundred and sixty-one (761) muscle samples from farmed wild boars were collected in Jilin Province of China from 2017 to 2020. The diaphragm muscles were examined by artificial digestion method. The overall prevalence of Trichinella in farmed wild boars was 0.53% [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.51–0.55]. The average parasite loading was 0.076 ± 0.025 larvae per gram (lpg), and the highest burden was 0.21 lpg in a wild boar from Fusong city. Trichinella spiralis was the only species identified by multiplex polymerase chain reaction. The 5S rDNA inter-genic spacer region of Trichinella was amplified and sequenced. The results showed that the obtained sequence (GenBank accession number: OQ725583) shared 100% identity with the T. spiralis HLJ isolate (GenBank accession number: MH289505). Since the consumption of farmed wild boars is expected to increase in the future, these findings highlight the significance of developing exclusive guidelines for the processing of slaughtered farmed wild boar meat in China.

The assessment of seed quality and physiological potential is essential in seed production and crop breeding. In the process of rapid detection of seed viability using tetrazolium (TZ) staining, it is necessary to spend a lot of labour and material resources to explore the pretreatment and staining methods of hard and solid seeds with physical barriers. This study explores the TZ staining methods of six hard seeds (Tilia miqueliana, Tilia henryana, Sassafras tzumu, Prunus subhirtella, Prunus sibirica, and Juglans mandshurica) and summarizes the TZ staining conditions required for hard seeds by combining the difference in fat content between seeds and the kinship between species, thus providing a rapid viability test method for the protection of germplasm resources of endangered plants and the optimization of seed bank construction. The TZ staining of six species of hard seeds requires a staining temperature above 35 °C and a TZ solution concentration higher than 1%. Endospermic seeds require shorter staining times than exalbuminous seeds. The higher the fat content of the seeds, the lower the required incubation temperature and TZ concentration for staining, and the longer the staining time. And the closer the relationship between the two species, the more similar their staining conditions become. The TZ staining method of similar species can be predicted according to the genetic distance between the phylogenetic trees, and the viability of new species can be detected quickly.

The Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), is the key vector insect transmitting the Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) bacterium that causes the devastating citrus greening disease (Huanglongbing, HLB) worldwide. The D. citri salivary glands (SG) exhibit an important barrier against the transmission of HLB pathogen. However, knowledge on the molecular mechanism of SG defence against CLas infection is still limited. In the present study, we compared the SG transcriptomic response of CLas-free and CLas-infected D. citri using an illumine paired-end RNA sequencing. In total of 861 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the SG upon CLas infection, including 202 upregulated DEGs and 659 downregulated DEGs were identified. Functional annotation analysis showed that most of the DEGs were associated with cellular processes, metabolic processes, and the immune response. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses revealed that these DEGs were enriched in pathways involving carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, the immune system, the digestive system, the lysosome, and endocytosis. A total of 16 DEGs were randomly selected to further validate the accuracy of RNA-Seq dataset by reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. This study provides substantial transcriptomic information regarding the SG of D. citri in response to CLas infection, which may shed light on the molecular interaction between D. citri and CLas, and provides new ideas for the prevention and control of citrus psyllid.

In vitro rearing of honey bee larvae is ideal for bioassay studies; no honey bee stable cell lines are available. Inconsistency of internal development staging of reared larvae and a susceptibility to contamination are common problems encountered. Standardized protocols on rearing larvae in vitro to make the larvae growth and development more similar to that of natural colonies are necessary to ensure the accuracy of experimental results and promote honey bee research as a model organism. Here, we concluded that when larval fasting weight was >160 mg, the time point of gut emptying can be defined as the critical point separating the larval and prepupal stages. In this way, we can conduct precise studies on the prepupal stage, such as organ remodeling during metamorphosis. Simultaneously, we further verified that recombinant AccApidaecin in genetic engineered bacteria added to the larval diet upregulated antibacterial peptide gene expression, and did not stimulate the stress response in larvae, nor did it affect the pupation rate or eclosion rate. This demonstrated that feeding recombinant AccApidaecin can enhance the individual antibacterial ability at the molecular level.

Meat quality is not only influenced by breed but also rearing environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of different housing environments on growth performance, carcase traits, meat quality, physiological response pre-slaughter and fatty acid composition in two pig breeds. A total of 120 growing pigs at 60-70 days of age were arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial design with the breeds (Duroc × Landrace × Large White [D × L × LW] and Duroc × Landrace × Min pig [D × L × M]) and environmental enrichment (barren concrete floor or enriched with straw bedding) as factors. Each treatment was performed in triplicate with ten pigs per replicate. The pigs housed in the enriched environment exhibited a higher average daily gain, average daily feed intake, saturated fatty acid percentage and backfat depth than the pigs reared in the barren environment. Plasma cortisol levels were lower and growth hormone higher in enriched compared to barren pens. The D × L × M pigs showed lower cooking loss compared with the D × L × LW pigs. Moreover, the D × L × M pigs exhibited poor growth performance but had a better water-holding capacity. Only carcase traits and meat quality interaction effects were observed. We concluded that an enriched environment can reduce preslaughter stress and improve the growth performance of pigs and modulate the fatty acid composition of pork products.

New zircon U–Pb ages and whole-rock chemical data from four adakitic and two non-adakitic igneous rocks as tectonic blocks in the southern West Junggar accretionary complexes, northwestern China and one gabbro enclave in adakitic block provide further constraints on the initial subduction and following rollback process of the Junggar Ocean as part of southern Palaeo-Asian Ocean. The oldest adakitic monzonite in Tangbale is intruded by the non-adakitic quartz monzonite at 549 Ma, and the youngest adakitic diorite in Tierekehuola formed at 520 Ma. The Ediacaran–Cambrian magmatism show a N-wards younger trend. The high-SiO2 adakitic rocks have high Sr (300–663 ppm) and low Y (6.68–12.2 ppm), with Sr/Y = 40–84 and Mg no. = 46–60, whereas the non-adakitic rocks have high Y (13.2–22.7 ppm) and Yb (2.32–2.92 ppm), with Mg no. = 36–40. The gabbro has high MgO (14.81–15.11 wt%), Co (45–48 ppm), Cr (1120–1360 ppm) and Ni (231–288 ppm), with Mg no. = 72–73. All the samples show similar large-ion lithophile element (LILE) and light rare earth element (LREE) enrichment and Nb, Ta, Ti and varying Zr and Hf depletion, suggesting that they were formed in a subduction-related setting. The adakitic rocks were produced by partial melting of subducted oceanic slab, but the melts were modified by mantle wedge and slab-derived fluids; the non-adakitic rocks were likely derived from partial melts of the middle-lower arc crust; and the gabbro originated from the mantle wedge modified by slab-derived fluids. The magmatism could have been generated during the Ediacaran initial subduction and Cambrian slab rollback of the Junggar Ocean.

In a back pressured duct with incident shocks, the shock train exhibits violent oscillations or even a rapid movement when it passes through a shock-wave–boundary-layer interaction (SWBLI) region. In this study, the dynamics of a shock train system was investigated. Linear stability analysis was used to identify the underlying cause of the unstable behaviour. Results from the eigenvalue analysis indicated that as the shock train enters the SWBLI region, the divergent vibration, which is the outcome of a Hopf bifurcation, emerges. An analysis based on the feedback mechanism identified a criterion for this instability, i.e. the sign of the gradient of the maximal pressure that the boundary layer can sustain. Different unstable motions were also investigated according to the condition of the non-existence of a limit cycle. These motions were associated with the speed of the shock train and the configurations of the flow parameter gradients. It was shown in the controllability matrix that the rapid movement is uncontrollable, which indicates that there is a low correlation between the shock train motion and the flap actuator in the SWBLI region. However, for the remaining part of the unstable motion, a fast-response actuator is required. According to the observability analysis, the shock train movement contributes more to the variation in the pressure behind the first separation shock than the backpressure further downstream, which confirms that monitoring the pressure change along the tunnel is a better method for shock train detection rather than a polynomial model using the backpressure.

Cysticercosis caused by the metacestode larval stage of Taenia hydatigena formerly referred to as Cysticercus tenuicollis is a disease of veterinary importance that constitutes a significant threat to livestock production worldwide, especially in endemic regions due to condemnation of visceral organs and mortality rate of infected young animals. While the genetic diversity among parasites is found to be potentially useful in many areas of research including molecular diagnostics, epidemiology and control, that of T. hydatigena across the globe remains poorly understood. In this study, analysis of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of adult worms and larval stages of T. hydatigena isolated from dogs, sheep and a wild boar in China showed that the population structure consists of two major haplogroups with very high nucleotide substitutions involving synonymous and non-synonymous changes. Compared with other cestodes such as Echinococcus spp., the genetic variation observed between the haplogroups is sufficient for the assignment of major haplotype or genotype division as both groups showed a total of 166 point-mutation differences between the 12 mitochondrial protein-coding gene sequences. Preliminary analysis of a nuclear protein-coding gene (pepck) did not reveal any peculiar changes between both groups which suggests that these variants may only differ in their mitochondrial makeup.

We present an experimental study on controlling the number of vortices and the torque in a Taylor–Couette flow of water for Reynolds numbers from 660 to 1320. Different flow states are achieved in the annulus of width $d$ between the inner rotating and outer stationary cylinders through manipulating the initial height of the water annulus. We show that the torque exerted on the inner cylinder of the Taylor–Couette system can be reduced by up to 20 % by controlling the flow at a state where fewer than the nominal number of vortices develop between the cylinders. This flow state is achieved by starting the system with an initial water annulus height $h_0$ (which nominally corresponds to $h_0/d$ vortices), then gradually adding water into the annulus while the inner cylinder keeps rotating. During this filling process the flow topology is so persistent that the number of vortices does not increase; instead, the vortices are greatly stretched in the axial (vertical) direction. We show that this state with stretched vortices is sustainable until the vortices are stretched to around 2.05 times their nominal size. Our experiments reveal that by manipulating the initial height of the liquid annulus we are able to generate different flow states and demonstrate how the different flow states manifest themselves in global momentum transport.

The Weibel instability and the induced magnetic field are of great importance for both astrophysics and inertial confinement fusion. Because of the stochasticity of this magnetic field, its main wavelength and mean strength, which are key characteristics of the Weibel instability, are still unobtainable experimentally. In this paper, a theoretical model based on the autocorrelation tensor shows that in proton radiography of the Weibel-instability-induced magnetic field, the proton flux density on the detection plane can be related to the energy spectrum of the magnetic field. It allows us to extract the main wavelength and mean strength of the two-dimensionally isotropic and stochastic magnetic field directly from proton radiography for the first time. Numerical calculations are conducted to verify our theory and show good consistency between pre-set values and the results extracted from proton radiography.

In this paper, a tri-band bandpass filter (BPF) using asymmetric stub-loaded stepped-impedance resonator (SL-SIR) is presented. The asymmetric characteristic of SL-SIR broadens degrees of freedom for three controllable modes design. Also, the coupling coefficients (Mij) and the external quality factors (Qei) at each passband of the filter can be independently adjusted by the proposed mixed-type feedline structure. Besides, multi-transmission zeros are produced to improve the isolation and selectivity of the passbands. Finally, a tri-band BPF is operated at 1.9 GHz (time division long term evolution – TD-LTE band), 3.2 GHz (worldwide interoperability for microwave access – WiMAX band), and 5.8 GHz (wireless local area networks – WLAN band) and their insertion loss are 1.03, 0.94, and 1.27 dB, respectively. The measured results of the fabricated tri-band BPF exhibit good agreement with simulated results.

The role of oxidative stress in skeletal health is unclear. The present study investigated whether a high dietary intake of antioxidant nutrients (vitamins C and E, β-carotene, animal-derived vitamin A, retinol equivalents, Zn and Se) is associated with a reduced risk of hip fracture in elderly Chinese. This 1:1 matched case–control study involved 726 elderly Chinese with hip fracture and 726 control subjects, recruited between June 2009 and May 2013. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to determine habitual dietary intakes of the above-mentioned seven nutrients based on a seventy-nine-item FFQ and information on various covariates, and an antioxidant score was calculated. After adjustment for potential covariates, dose-dependent inverse associations were observed between the dietary intake of vitamin C, vitamin E, β-carotene, and Se and antioxidant score and the risk of hip fracture (P for trend ≤ 0·005). The OR of hip fracture for the highest (v. lowest) quartile of intake were 0·39 (95 % CI 0·28, 0·56) for vitamin C, 0·23 (95 % CI 0·16, 0·33) for vitamin E, 0·51 (95 % CI 0·36, 0·73) for β-carotene, 0·43 (95 % CI 0·26, 0·70) for Se and 0·24 (95 % CI 0·17, 0·36) for the antioxidant score. A moderate-to-high dietary intake of retinol equivalents in quartiles 2–4 (v. 1) was found to be associated with a lower risk of hip fracture (OR range: 0·51–0·63, P< 0·05). No significant association was observed between dietary Zn or animal-derived vitamin A intake and hip fracture risk (P for trend >0·20). In conclusion, a higher dietary intake of vitamins C and E, β-carotene, and Se and a moderate-to-high dietary intake of retinol equivalents are associated with a lower risk of hip fracture in elderly Chinese.

Let $Q$ be an infinite subset of $\mathbb{N}$. For any ${\it\tau}>2$, denote $W_{{\it\tau}}(Q)$ (respectively $W_{{\it\tau}}$) to be the set of ${\it\tau}$ well-approximable points by rationals with denominators in $Q$ (respectively in $\mathbb{N}$). We consider the Hausdorff dimension of the liminf set $W_{{\it\tau}}\setminus W_{{\it\tau}}(Q)$ after Adiceam. By using the tools of continued fractions, it is shown that if $Q$ is a so-called $\mathbb{N}\setminus Q$-free set, the Hausdorff dimension of $W_{{\it\tau}}\setminus W_{{\it\tau}}(Q)$ is the same as that of $W_{{\it\tau}}$, i.e. $2/{\it\tau}$.

Photosynthetic responses of 12 species including six fern species (Neottopteris nidus, Microsorum punctatum, Pseudodrynaria coronans, Asplenium finlaysonianum, Paraleptochilus decurrens and Tectaria fauriei) and seedlings of six fig species (Ficus curtipes, F. gibbosa, F. altissima, F. auriculata, F. oligodon and F. hookeriana) in different life forms to lightfleck were investigated, to test whether epiphytes and hemiepiphytes display a slower response to lightfleck and fast induction loss after a lightfleck compared with their terrestrial counterparts, and whether ferns display a slower response to lightfleck and slower induction loss compared to figs. The measurements of functional traits and physiological parameters were determined in a screenhouse of 4% full sunlight. Epiphytic ferns and hemiepiphytic figs had thicker leaves compared with their terrestrial counterparts. Compared with figs, ferns had thicker fronds, larger stomata with a low density, and lower stomatal conductance and photosynthetic capacity; ferns had lower light compensation point and dark respiration rate, conferring a positive carbon gain under low diffuse light beneath the canopy. The induction time to reach 90% maximum net photosynthetic rate (T90) upon the exposure to a saturated light varied strongly among life forms. Epiphytic ferns had slower T90 than terrestrial ferns (19.9–26.3 vs 5.9–16.3 min, respectively), and hemiepiphytic figs had slower T90 than terrestrial figs (13.1–20.4 vs 5.2–7.8 min, respectively). Compared with figs, ferns showed a slower response to lightfleck. Across ferns and figs, the induction time was negatively correlated with initial stomatal conductance. No significant difference in induction loss was found between two life forms within ferns or figs, whereas ferns had a significantly slower induction loss compared with figs. These results showed that the inherent conservative water use strategy of the epiphytes and hemiepiphytes constrain their lightfleck utilization.

This study aimed to explore high-throughput cDNA array monitoring technology and to apply it to the gene expression spectrum analysis of salinity-challenged tobacco plants. A Nicotiana tabacum cDNA library was sequenced and found to consist of 5927 high-quality sequences (GenBank accession nos CV015900-CV021826). By analysing the expressed sequence tags (ESTs), the proportion of N. tabacum genes was identified at the EST level. A cDNA array was constructed based on the tentative unique transcripts (TUTs) derived from EST assembling results. A total of 42 differentially expressed genes were identified, including plasma membrane intrinsic protein 2a, ethylene-responsive proteinase and pre-mRNA splicing factor prp31 gene, suggesting that there was a complicated biological response in N. tabacum under saline stress.