Amplification of velocity gradients, a key feature of turbulent flows, is affected by the non-local character of the incompressible fluid equations expressed by the second derivative (Hessian) of the pressure field. By analysing the structure of the flow in regions where the vorticity is the highest, we propose an approximate expression for the pressure Hessian in terms of the local vorticity, consistent with the existence of intense vortex tubes. Contrary to the often used simplification of an isotropic form for the pressure Hessian, which in effect inhibits vortex stretching, the proposed approximate form of the pressure Hessian enables much stronger vortex stretching. The prediction of the approximation proposed here is validated with results of direct numerical simulations of turbulent flows.

A relation among invariants of filtered velocity gradients with two different filter sizes is derived. Based on this relation and physical reasoning, it is shown analytically that strain self-amplification contributes more to energy transfer than vortex stretching in homogeneous turbulence, as observed in recent numerical investigations of homogeneous isotropic turbulence. We note that the invariant relation studied and hence the inequality between strain self-amplification and vortex stretching apply to all homogeneous flows, not restricted to isotropic turbulence.

Background: Antithrombotic medications are used in the primary and secondary prevention of ischemic stroke. Previous studies have identified that up to 5.2% of ischemic strokes are associated with antithrombotic interruption, leading to significant mortality and healthcare burden. Our study aims to identify the prevalence of ischemic strokes presenting to a regional stroke centre associated with antithrombotic interruption, and to understand common reasons for medication interruption. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed, which included 193 patients with ischemic stroke presenting to Greater Niagara General Hospital from January 2018-December 2019. Baseline demographics were recorded and patient medical records were reviewed for evidence of antithrombotic interruptions. Results: Table 1. Conclusions: Our cohort identified a significant proportion (8.3%) of ischemic strokes with documented antithrombotic interruption. Most common reasons for interruption were non-adherence and discontinuation due to previous adverse event. The results identify possible areas for improvement within patient education and safe re-initiation of antithrombotics following adverse events.

The response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States has shown that even a serious public health crisis cannot escape the lens of partisanship. The literature shows that most Republicans have viewed the coronavirus as less serious than their Democratic counterparts. This study demonstrates that this partisan gap extends to the real behavior of the public during, and after, the coronavirus state lockdowns. Using location data from mobile phones, we find that county-level partisanship predicts compliance with state shutdown orders, even when controlling for local COVID-19 intensity. Further, the magnitude of this effect is stronger than that of other explanatory variables, such as age, education, and population density. These results show that partisan beliefs can affect behavior regarding issues that are not overtly political, even behaviors that could put one or others at risk.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a common pathogen associated with nosocomial infections and is characterised serologically by capsular polysaccharide (K) and lipopolysaccharide O antigens. We surveyed a total of 348 non-duplicate K. pneumoniae clinical isolates collected over a 1-year period in a tertiary care hospital, and determined their O and K serotypes by sequencing of the wbb Y and wzi gene loci, respectively. Isolates were also screened for antimicrobial resistance and hypervirulent phenotypes; 94 (27.0%) were identified as carbapenem-resistant (CRKP) and 110 (31.6%) as hypervirulent (hvKP). isolates fell into 58 K, and six O types, with 92.0% and 94.2% typeability, respectively. The predominant K types were K14K64 (16.38%), K1 (14.66%), K2 (8.05%) and K57 (5.46%), while O1 (46%), O2a (27.9%) and O3 (11.8%) were the most common. CRKP and hvKP strains had different serotype distributions with O2a:K14K64 (41.0%) being the most frequent among CRKP, and O1:K1 (26.4%) and O1:K2 (17.3%) among hvKP strains. Serotyping by gene sequencing proved to be a useful tool to inform the clinical epidemiology of K. pneumoniae infections and provides valuable data relevant to vaccine design.

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death among infectious diseases. China has a high burden of TB and accounted for almost 13% of the world's cases of multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB. Spinal TB is one reason for the resurgence of TB in China. Few large case studies of MDR spinal TB in China have been conducted. The aim of this research was to observe the epidemiological characteristics of inpatients with MDR spinal TB in six provinces and cities of China from 1999–2015. This is a multicentre retrospective observational study. Patients' information was collected from the control disease centre and infectious disease database of hospitals in six provinces and cities in China. A total of 3137 patients with spinal TB and 272 patients with MDR spinal TB were analysed. The result showed that MDR spinal TB remains a public health concern and commonly affects patients 15–30 years of age (34.19%). The most common lesions involved the thoracolumbar spine (35.66%). Local pain was the most common symptom (98.53%). Logistic analysis showed that for spinal TB patients, reside in rural district (OR 1.79), advanced in years (OR 1.92) and high education degree (OR 2.22) were independent risk factors for the development of MDR spinal TB. Women were associated with a lower risk of MDR spinal TB (OR 0.48). The most common first-line and second-line resistant drug was isoniazid (68.75%) and levofloxacin (29.04%), respectively. The use of molecular diagnosis resulted in noteworthy clinical advances, including earlier initiation of MDR spinal TB treatment, improved infection control and better clinical outcome. Chemotherapy and surgery can yield satisfactory outcomes with timely diagnosis and long-term treatment. These results enable a better understanding of the MDR spinal TB in China among the general public.

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.

Triploid and pentaploid breeding is of great importance in agricultural production, but it is not always easy to obtain double ploidy parents. However, in fishes, chromosome ploidy is diversiform, which may provide natural parental resources for triploid and pentaploid breeding. Both tetraploid and hexaploid exist in Schizothorax fishes, which were thought to belong to different subfamilies with tetraploid Percocypris fishes in morphology, but they are sister genera in molecule. Fortunately, the pentaploid hybrid fishes have been successfully obtained by hybridization of Schizothorax wangchiachii (♀, 2n = 6X = 148) × Percocypris pingi (♂, 2n = 4X = 98). To understand the genetic and morphological difference among the hybrid fishes and their parents, four methods were used in this study: morphology, karyotype, red blood cell (RBC) DNA content determination and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR). In morphology, the hybrid fishes were steady, and between their parents with no obvious preference. The chromosome numbers of P. pingi have been reported as 2n = 4X = 98. In this study, the karyotype of S. wangchiachii was 2n = 6X = 148 = 36m + 34sm + 12st + 66t, while that the hybrid fishes was 2n = 5X = 123 = 39m + 28sm + 5st + 51t. Similarly, the RBC DNA content of the hybrid fishes was intermediate among their parents. In ISSR, the within-group genetic diversity of hybrid fishes was higher than that of their parents. Moreover, the genetic distance of hybrid fishes between P. pingi and S.wangchiachii was closely related to that of their parental ploidy, suggesting that parental genetic material stably coexisted in the hybrid fishes. This is the first report to show a stable pentaploid F1 hybrids produced by hybridization of a hexaploid and a tetraploid in aquaculture.

Complex organic molecules (COMs) have been detected in the gas-phase in cold and lightless molecular cores. Recent solid-state laboratory experiments have provided strong evidence that COMs can be formed on icy grains through ‘non-energetic’ processes. In this contribution, we show that propanal and 1-propanol can be formed in this way at the low temperature of 10 K. Propanal has already been detected in space. 1-propanol is an astrobiologically relevant molecule, as it is a primary alcohol, and has not been astronomically detected. Propanal is the major product formed in the C2H2 + CO + H experiment, and 1-propanol is detected in the subsequent propanal + H experiment. ALMA observations towards IRAS 16293-2422B are discussed and provide a 1-propanol:propanal upper limit of < 0.35–0.55, which are complemented by computationally-derived activation barriers in addition to the performed laboratory experiments.

Cultivated pastures in southern China are being used to improve forage productivity and animal performance, but studies on grazing behaviour of goats in these cultivated pastures are still rare. In the current study, the grazing behaviour of Yunling black goats under low (5 goats/ha) and high (15 goats/ha) stocking rates (SRs) was evaluated. Data showed that the proportion of time goats spent on activities was: eating (0.59–0.87), ruminating (0.05–0.35), walking (0.03–0.06) and resting (0.01–0.03). Compared with low SR, goats spent more time eating and walking, and less time ruminating and resting under high SR. Goats had similar diet preferences under both SR and preferred to eat grasses (ryegrass and cocksfoot) more than a legume (white clover). The distribution of eating time on each forage species was more uniform under high v. low SR. Bites/step, bite weight and daily intake were greater under low than high SR. Results suggest that the SR affects grazing behaviour of goats on cultivated pasture, and identifying an optimal SR is critical for increasing bite weight and intake.

Iron cations in the octahedral sheet are a disadvantage to the industrial application of palygorskite clays. In this study, a palygorskite sample from eastern China (Mayaoshan deposit, Jiangsu Province) is shown to have an Fe content that is much greater than usual. The structural formula of the Fe-rich palygorskite sample was established as (Si7.48Al0.52) (Al1.24Fe0.94Mg1.77Ti0.03⁏1.02)O20(OH)2(OH2)4. The palygorskite is seen to be dioctahedral according to the structural formula, consistent with Fourier transform infrared data. Occurrences of AlFe3+ɏOH and Fe3+Fe3+ɏOH vibrations in the OH-stretching and -bending regions show that Fe atoms occupy inner sites of octahedral sheets. A Mössbauer spectrum confirmed that Fe ions occupy inner octahedral sites as trivalent Fe cations (Fe3+).

Increasing evidence has demonstrated that the environmental conditions experienced by parents can shape offspring phenotypes. Here, we examined the effects of the photoperiod and temperature experienced by parents on the incidence of diapause in their progeny in the cabbage beetle, Colaphellus bowringi, using three experiments. The first experiment examined parental diapause incidence under different photoperiods at 25°C and the incidence of diapause in progeny from both non-diapausing and diapausing parents under the same rearing conditions. The results revealed that the incidence of diapause among progeny was exactly opposite to that of their parents, i.e., higher parental diapause incidence led to lower progeny diapause incidence, showing a negative relationship in diapause incidence between the parental generation and the progeny generation. The incidence of diapause among progeny produced by diapausing parents was higher than that in progeny produced by non-diapausing parents. The second experiment examined parental diapause incidence at different temperatures under LD 12:12 and the incidence of diapause in progeny from both non-diapausing and diapausing parents under the same rearing conditions. Similarly, the incidence of diapause in progeny was also opposite to that of their parents. However, the incidence of diapause in progeny produced by non-diapausing parents was different from that in progeny produced by diapausing parents. In the third experiment, naturally diapausing adults were maintained at a constant temperature of 9, 28°C or the mean daily summer temperature of 27.84°C under continuous darkness for 3 months of dormancy. After dormancy, the progeny of these post-diapause parents were reared under different photoperiods at 25°C. The results showed that the incidence of diapause among progeny was higher when their parents experienced high temperatures than when they experienced low temperatures. All results demonstrate that the photoperiod and temperature experienced by parents may significantly affect the diapause incidence among progeny.