A high-energy picosecond 355 nm ultraviolet (UV) laser operating at 100 Hz was demonstrated. A 352 mJ, 69 ps, 1064 nm laser at 100 Hz was realized firstly by cascaded regenerative, laser diode end-pumped single-pass and side-pumped main amplifiers. The stimulated Raman scattering-based beam shaping technique, thermally induced birefringence compensation and 4f spatial filter-image relaying systems were used to maintain a relatively homogeneous beam intensity distribution during the amplification process. By using lithium triborate crystals for second- and third-harmonic generation (THG), a 172 mJ, approximately 56 ps, 355 nm UV laser was achieved with a THG conversion efficiency of 49%. To the best of our knowledge, it is the highest pulse energy of a picosecond 355 nm UV laser so far. The beam quality factor ${M}^2$ and pulse energy stability were ${M}_x^2$=3.92, ${M}_y^2$=3.71 and root mean square of 1.48%@3 hours. This laser system could play significant roles in applications including photoconductive switch excitation, laser drilling and laser micro-fabrication.

Integrated navigation systems made up of a strap-down inertial navigation system (SINS) and global positioning system (GPS) are increasingly being used to improve the position, speed, and attitude information of unmanned surface vessels (USV). However, a GPS outage could occur due to the dependence of GPS performance on the external environment and the number of available satellites. This study uses an innovative combination of Dempster–Shafer (DS) theory and broad learning (BL) method to design a SINS/GPS integrated navigation system. First, the velocity and position information derived from the SINS and their corresponding GPS were fused using DS fusion rules, while the SINS error was modelled using the BL method. A ‘virtual’ GPS was then designed using the proposed DS–BL approach to provide the speed and position information when the GPS signal was interrupted, thereby ensuring the continuous navigation of the USV. The results of both simulation and sea trial demonstrate that the proposed virtual GPS estimation approach is effective, and the navigational accuracy of the proposed method is superior to other methods.

Aquafeeds for carnivorous species face a nutritional–technological conundrum: containing sufficient starch to meet specific manufacturing requirements for binding, extrusion and expansion, but ideally containing as little starch as possible owing to their limited ability to utilise carbohydrates. The present study evaluated the effects of dietary starch with different amylose to amylopectin ratios and resistant starch contents on growth performance, hepatic glycogen accumulation and glucose metabolism of an important cultured carnivorous finfish, largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). A common starch source (α-cassava starch (CS)) was tested as is or after being enzymatically de-branched at three different inclusion levels in diets for largemouth bass. Results showed that the increased dietary starch levels compromised performance and high dietary α-CS content led to obvious liver damage. However, the growth performances of fish fed the diets with de-branched starch (DS) were improved, and no manifest liver damages were observed even at the higher inclusion level. The increasing dietary starch contents significantly increased hepatic glycogen accumulation, but not when DS was used. High dietary starch content, without regard to starch sources, had no effect on the expression of glucose metabolism-related genes, except for down-regulation of insulin receptor expression. However, the use of dietary DS promoted the expression of genes involved in the insulin pathway and glycolysis. In conclusion, this study showed that the use of starch sources with a high amylose to amylopectin ratio and resistant starch in the feed for cultured carnivorous finfish could alleviate the hepatic glycogen deposition through regulating the insulin pathway and glycolysis.

Outbreaks of norovirus-associated gastroenteritis have been reported in schools in recent decades in China. For early warning and response to infectious disease outbreaks, the Shanghai Infectious Diseases Bud Event Surveillance System (IDBESS) was established in 2016. Bud event is a term used for the early sign of a potential infectious disease outbreak in public settings when the first few cases appear. This study aimed to describe the epidemiological characteristics of Norovirus-associated gastroenteritis bud events from June 2016 to December 2017 and to understand factors influencing the severity of events. Data were extracted from the IDBESS, supplemented by field investigations and school absence surveillance. In total, 189 bud events of Norovirus-associated gastroenteritis were reported in schools and kindergartens, affecting 3827 individuals and 52.38% happened in primary schools. The attack rate of Norovirus-associated gastroenteritis was 3.82% on average in students in the affected schools. In each event, case numbers varied between 5 and 148, with a median of 16. The duration of bud events lasted for 2 days on average. School absence happened in 47.93% (1797/3749) of affected students and the average duration of absence was 3.07 days. It was found that a longer delay before reporting was associated with a longer-lasting duration of bud event (OR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.65, 3.07). In conclusion, ascribed to the sensitive threshold for alerting and the timely field investigation, the surveillance of bud events of Norovirus-associated gastroenteritis is effective in the control of Norovirus infection among preschool children and students in Shanghai.

This research communication describes a genome-wide association study for Italian buffalo mammary gland morphology. Three single nucleotide polymorphisms (AX-85117983, AX-8509475 and AX-85117518) were identified to be significantly associated with buffalo anterior teat length, posterior teat length and distance between anterior and posterior teat, respectively. Two significant signals for buffalo mammary gland morphology were observed in two genomic regions on the chromosome 10, and chromosome 20. One of the regions located on the chromosome 10 has the most likely candidate genes ACTC1 and GJD2, both of which have putative roles in the regulation of mammary gland development. This study provides new insights into the genetic variants of buffalo mammary gland morphology and may be beneficial for understanding of the genetic regulation of mammary growth.

Effective suppression of transverse stimulated Raman scattering (TSRS) in a large-aperture potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal is an important scientific and technical problem in high-intensity laser research and applications. In this work, a method to suppress TSRS using pulse stacking is proposed. The method suppresses TSRS significantly, with greater numbers of subpulses producing more obvious suppression effects, and the threshold intensity growth rate of the 3ω laser in the KDP crystal reaches up to about 1.9 when the stacked pulse contains four subpulses. This suppression effect is attributed to the fact that the polarization directions of adjacent subpulses are perpendicular to each other. The method can be used to suppress other nonlinear effects, including transverse stimulated Brillouin scattering in large-aperture optical devices and stimulated rotational Raman scattering in long air paths.

Transverse stimulated Raman scattering (TSRS) is strongly generated in the third-harmonic-generation crystal potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) and can even damage the KDP crystal in inertial confinement fusion drivers. In this work, a method to suppress TSRS is proposed in which the polarization control plate (PCP) is moved to a new position in the existing optical path. The proposed method can suppress TSRS significantly and doubles the laser threshold intensity in KDP crystal when the order of the PCP is 16. This result is attributed to the reduction of the gain length for the Stokes radiation. The proposed method may also be used to suppress other nonlinear effects, including transverse stimulated Brillouin scattering in large-aperture optical components.

The prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and diabetes mellitus (DM) has reportedly increased significantly among Chinese children and adolescents. We aimed to examine the prevalence of IFG and DM, the disparities in sex and region and related risk factors among Chinese children and adolescents. A total of 16 434 Chinese children aged 6–17 years were selected from a national cross-sectional survey, and fasting glucose was measured for all participants. Overall, mean fasting plasma glucose (FPG) concentration was (4·64 (sd 0·51)) mmol/l, and the prevalence of DM and IFG was 0·10 and 1·89 %, respectively. Compared with girls, boys had higher FPG concentration (4·69 v. 4·58 mmol/l, r 0·107, P<0·001) and IFG prevalence (2·67 v. 1·07 %, rφ 0·059, P<0·001). Compared with rural children and adolescents, urban children and adolescent had higher FPG concentration (4·65 v. 4·62 mmol/l, r 0·029, P<0·001) and DM prevalence (0·15 v. 0·05 %, rφ 0·016, P<0·01). In addition, self-reported fried foods intake and overweight/obesity were positively associated with IFG, and the proportion of consuming fried foods more than or equal to once per week and overweight/obesity prevalence in boys and urban children and adolescents were significantly higher than girls and rural children and adolescents, respectively (P<0·05). Although the prevalence of IFG and DM was relatively low in Chinese children and adolescents, sex and region disparities were observed, which may be associated with differences in overweight/obesity prevalence and dietary factors.

The present study was carried out to determine dietary Fe requirements for the full expression of Fe-containing enzyme in broilers chicks from 22 to 42 d of age. At 22 d of age, 288 Arbor Acres male chicks were randomly assigned to one of six treatments with six replicates and fed a basal maize–soyabean-meal diet (control, containing 47·0 mg Fe/kg) or the basal diet supplemented with 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100 mg Fe/kg from FeSO4.7H2O for 21 d. Regression analysis was performed to estimate the optimal dietary Fe level using quadratic models. Liver cytochrome c oxidase (Cox), heart Cox and kidney succinate dehydrogenase mRNA levels as well as heart COX activity were affected (P<0·08) by dietary Fe level, and COX mRNA level and activity in heart of broilers increased quadratically (P<0·03) as dietary Fe level increased. The estimates of dietary Fe requirements were 110 and 104 mg/kg for the full expression of Cox mRNA and for its activity in the heart of broilers, respectively. The results from this study indicate that COX mRNA level and activity in the heart are new and sensitive criteria to evaluate the dietary Fe requirements of broilers, and the dietary Fe requirements would be 104–110 mg/kg to support the full expression of COX in the heart of broiler chicks from 22 to 42 d of age, which are higher than the current National Research Council Fe requirement (80 mg/kg) of broiler chicks from 1 to 21 d or 22 to 42 d of age.

The effects of high magnetic fields on the solidification structures of ternary Al–Fe–Zr alloy were investigated. The results showed that the primary Al3Fe crystals mainly show bar-like form, whereas the unmelted Al3Zr crystals reveal tabular and the newly crystallized primary Al3Zr crystals have fine/coarse needle-like forms. When a 12 T magnetic field is applied, the primary Al3Fe crystals are distributed homogenously and the fine needle-like primary Al3Zr levitated. Moreover, the primary Al3Fe crystals align horizontally in the upper but vertically in the lower part of the specimen. The needle-like primary Al3Zr crystals align vertically, whereas the tabular ones have their two opposite corners on the large surfaces toward the positive and negative magnetic field direction. Crystallographic analysis indicates that 〈100〉 and 〈110〉 are the preferred axes of the primary Al3Fe and the Al3Zr crystals with respect to the magnetic field, respectively. The redistribution and realignments of the crystals are discussed.

Let $X,Y$ be two Banach spaces and $B_{X}$ the closed unit ball of $X$. We prove that if there is an isometry $f:B_{X}\rightarrow Y$ with $f(0)=0$, then there exists an isometry $F:X\rightarrow Y^{\ast \ast }$. If, in addition, $Y$ is weakly nearly strictly convex, then there is an isometry $F:X\rightarrow Y$. Making use of these results, we show that if $Y$ is weakly nearly strictly convex and there is an isometry $f:B_{X}\rightarrow Y$ with $f(0)=0$, then there exists a linear isometry $S:X\rightarrow Y$.

This paper presents a shallow water depth estimation methodology using S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the HJ-1C satellite. It is based on the shoaling and refraction of long surface gravity waves as they propagate shoreward. A two-scale Bragg scattering model is used to describe the imaging process of long waves by SAR. By computing the Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) for the selected sub image, wavelength and direction of the long wave can be retrieved from the two-dimensional (2D) spectra with wave tracking technology. Shallow water depths are then obtained from the linear dispersion relation with the calculated angular wave frequency obtained from other sources or first guesses of initial water depths or wave periods. Applicability and effectiveness are tested in the near-shore area of the Fujian province, China. Comparison between the derived results and water depths from an Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC) indicates that HJ-1C SAR is capable of higher resolution underwater topography detection, and the methodology can be used for shallow water depth estimation with good accuracy. The average absolute error and average relative error of the estimated results is 0·86 m and 11·05%, respectively.

The well-ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays with controlled aspect ratio are fabricated via potentiostatic anodization. The aspect ratio of TiO2 nanotube array can be tuned conveniently by changing the water content in electrolyte and anodization time. The formation of well-ordered TiO2 nanotube array is good for the photogenerated electron transfer. So, the well-ordered TiO2 nanotube array photoelectrodes have been used to fabricate dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). It is found that, with the optimum nanotube length and aspect ratio, DSSCs with TiO2 nanotube array photoelectrodes show better photoelectric conversion efficiency (2.60%) than that with TiO2 nanoparticles on Ti foil photoelectrode. It is elucidated by the interfacial electron transport of DSSCs, which are characterized quantitatively, using the electrochemical impedance spectra. The DSSC with optimal nanotube length and aspect ratio displays the fastest interfacial electron transfer and longer electron lifetime.

This paper investigates the linear minimum mean-square error estimation for discrete-time Markovian jump linear systems with delayed measurements. The key technique applied for treating the measurement delay is reorganization innovation analysis, by which the state estimation with delayed measurements is transformed into a standard linear mean-square filter of an associated delay-free system. The optimal filter is derived based on the innovation analysis method together with geometric arguments in an appropriate Hilbert space. The solution is given in terms of two Riccati difference equations. Finally, a simulation example is presented to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.