The reconfigurable mechanisms can satisfy the requirements of changing environments, working conditions, and tasks on the function and performance of the mechanism and can be applied to machine tool manufacturing, space detection, etc. Inspired by the single-vertex fivefold origami pattern, a new reconfigurable parallel mechanism is proposed in this paper, which has special singular positions and stable motion due to replicating the stabilizing kinematic properties of origami. Through analyzing the topologic change of the folding process of the pattern and treating it as a reconfigurable joint, a new reconfigurable parallel mechanism with 3, 4, 5, or 6 degrees of freedom is obtained. Then, the kinematics solution, workspace, and singularity of the mechanism are calculated. The results indicate that the singular configuration of the origami-derived reconfigurable parallel mechanism is mainly located in a special plane, and the scope of the workspace is still large after the configuration change. The mechanism has the potential to adapt to multiple tasks and working conditions through the conversion among different configurations by folding reconfigurable joints on the branch chain.

Multi-GeV proton radiography is an important tool for diagnosing density distribution of thick objects. The magnetic lens system called Zumbro lens is widely employed because it compensates for the image distortion induced by small angle multiple Coulomb scattering (MCS) that occurs when the charged protons passing through the object. However, radiography is still suffering from chromatic aberration induced blurring, if the momentum of transmitted proton is different from the reference value of Zumbro lens. In this paper, two methods are employed to reduce chromatic aberration. The first is based on magnetic lens optimization. In addition, a new lens system is first proposed locating the downstream of Zumbro. It is named “auxiliary” lens, which can correct the chromatic aberration for certain protons with momentum far away from the reference of Zumbro lens. Monte Carlo simulation shows that this proposed lens can decrease chromatic aberration and improve the radiography image evidently.

The current study aims to confirm the positive effects of dietary nano-Se on nutrients deposition and muscle fibre formation in grass carp fed with high-fat diet (HFD) before overwintering and to reveal its possible molecular mechanism. The lipid deposition, protein synthesis and muscle fibre formation in grass carp fed with regular diet (RD), HFD or HFD supplemented with nano-Se (0·3 or 0·6 mg/kg) for 60 d were tested. Results show that nano-Se significantly reduced lipid content, dripping loss and fibre diameter (P < 0·05), but increased protein content, post-mortem pH24 h and muscle fibre density (P < 0·05) in muscle of grass carp fed with HFD. Notably, dietary nano-Se decreased lipid deposition in the muscle by regulating amp-activated protein kinase activity and increased protein synthesis and fibre formation in muscle by activating target of rapamycin and myogenic determining factors pathways. In summary, dietary nano-Se can regulate the nutrients deposition and muscle fibre formation in grass carp fed with HFD, which exhibit potential benefit for improving flesh quality of grass carp fed with HFD.

The stability of the two-layer film flow driven by an oscillatory plate under long-wave disturbances is studied. The influence of key factors, such as thickness ratio ($n$), viscosity ratio ($m$), density ratio ($r$), oscillatory frequency ($\beta$) and insoluble surfactants on the stability behaviours is studied systematically. Four special Floquet patterns are identified, and the corresponding growth rates are obtained by solving the eigenvalue problem of the fourth-order matrix. A small viscosity ratio ($m\le 1$) may stabilize the flow but it depends on the thickness ratio. If the viscosity ratio is not very small ($m>0.1$), in the $(\beta ,n)$-plane, stable and unstable curved stripes appear alternately. In other words, under the circumstances, if the two-layer film flow is unstable, slightly adjusting the thickness of the upper film may make it stable. In particular, if the upper film is thin enough, even under high-frequency oscillation, the flow is always stable. The influence of density ratio is similar, i.e. there are curved stable and unstable stripes in the $(\beta ,r)$-planes. Surface surfactants generally stabilize the flow of the two-layer oscillatory membrane, while interfacial surfactants may stabilize or destabilize the flow but the effect is mild. It is also found that gravity can generally stabilize the flow because it narrows the bandwidth of unstable frequencies.

Mutation in CFAP43 leads to severe asthenozoospermia and multiple morphological abnormalities of the sperm flagellum (MMAF) in both human and mouse. Previous studies have shown that disruption of intra-manchette transport (IMT) caused failure of flagellum assembly and sperm head shaping. In a previous study, therefore, we postulated that disruption of IMT may contribute to the failure of sperm flagellum formation and result in MMAF, however the mechanisms underlying these defects are still poorly understood. Cfap43-deficient mice were studied here to reveal the cellular mechanisms of abnormal sperm head morphology and MMAF. Depletion of Cfap43 led to abnormal spermiogenesis and caused MMAF, sperm head abnormality and oligozoospermia. Furthermore, both abnormal manchette and disorganized ectoplasmic specialization (ES) could be observed at the elongated spermatids in Cfap43-deficient mice. Therefore, our findings demonstrated that, in mice, CFAP43-mediated IMT is essential for sperm head shaping and sperm flagellum formation.

Let $({\mathcal{X}},d,\unicode[STIX]{x1D707})$ be a metric measure space satisfying the geometrically doubling condition and the upper doubling condition. In this paper, the authors establish the John-Nirenberg inequality for the regularized BLO space $\widetilde{\operatorname{RBLO}}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D707})$.

This study was conducted to evaluate whether medium-chain TAG (MCT) could alleviate Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced intestinal injury by regulating intestinal epithelial inflammatory response, as well as necroptosis. A total of twenty-four weanling piglets were randomly allotted to one of four treatments in a 2×2 factorial arrangement including diet type (5 % maize oil v. 4 % MCT+1 % maize oil) and immune stress (saline v. E. coli LPS). The piglets were fed diets containing maize oil or MCT for 21 d. On 21 d, piglets were injected intraperitoneally with saline or LPS. The blood and intestinal samples were collected at 4 h post injection. Supplementation with MCT improved intestinal morphology, digestive and barrier function, indicated by increased jejunal villus height, increased jejunal and ileal disaccharidases (sucrase and maltase) activities, as well as enhanced protein expression of claudin-1. Furthermore, the protein expression of heat-shock protein 70 in jejunum and the concentration of TNF-α in plasma were reduced in the piglets fed diets supplemented with MCT. In addition, MCT down-regulated the mRNA expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and nucleotide-binding oligomerisation domain proteins (NOD) signalling-related genes in jejunum and ileum. Finally, MCT inhibited jejunal and ileal enterocyte necroptosis indicated by suppressed mRNA expression of the receptor-interacting protein 3 and mixed-lineage kinase domain-like protein. These results indicate that MCT supplementation may be closely related to inhibition of TLR4, NOD and necroptosis signalling pathways and concomitant improvement of intestinal integrity under an inflammatory condition.

The LAMOST Galactic surveys provide robust stellar atmospheric parameters, abundances, masses and ages of millions of stars, allowing a unprecedented mapping of matter distribution, spatial structure, star formation rate, chemistry and kinematics of the Galaxy. In this proceeding we present structure and metallicity of the Galactic disk revealed by mono-age stellar populations within a few kilo-parsec of the solar neighborhood.

The BiOBr/Ag3PO4 composites were fabricated by a facile in situ deposition of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles on the BiOBr microsheets and analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, high resolution transmission electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV–vis diffuse reflectance absorption spectra, Fourier transform infrared, Raman, photoluminescence (PL), and photoelectrochemical techniques. The photocatalytic performances of as-prepared samples were investigated and compared through degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) solution. The results suggested that 30 wt% amount of BiOBr in the composites possessed the highest photocatalytic activity. The remarkably improved photocatalytic performances of BiOBr/Ag3PO4 composites could be ascribed to the efficient separation of electron–hole pairs, due to suitable energy band potentials between BiOBr and Ag3PO4. Furthermore, the photoelectrochemical and PL tests verified the separation and transfer efficiency of charges was promoted.

In the present study, the surface properties and the corrosion behavior of a nanocrystalline surface layer fabricated on 45 steel by electropulsing-ultrasonic surface treatment (EUST) were investigated. EUST offered the specimen a smooth (R a < 0.33 µm) surface layer with nanoscale grains and compressive stress by the synergistic effect of high-energy electropulsing processing and ultrasonic impact. Open-circuit potential, potentiodynamic polarization, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy studies indicated that EUST-induced surface nanocrystallization decreased the corrosion susceptibility of 45 steel in 3.5 wt% NaCl aqueous solution, leading to a decrease in corrosion current density (i corr) by 55% and an increase in charge transfer resistance (R ct) by 36%. The enhancement in surface comprehensive mechanical properties and corrosion resistance can be explained in terms of the decrease in surface roughness, the extent of grain refinement and the change of stress state, which were closely related to the introduction of high-energy electropulsing processing.

We present calculation of critical voltage for AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with GaN cap layer. The calculation includes mechanical stress and relaxable energy in the GaN/AlGaN barrier layer. Under high voltage conditions, the high electric field results in an increase in stored relaxable energy. If this exceeds a critical value, crystallographic defects are formed. This degradation mechanism is voltage driven and characterized by a critical voltage beyond which non-reversible degradation takes place. The dependence of the GaN cap layer’s thickness on the critical voltage has been discussed. The calculated results indicate that thicker GaN cap layer results in higher critical voltage.

A theoretical study of transconductance characteristics (gm − Vgs profile) of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with a graded AlGaN layer is given in this paper. The calculations were made using a self-consistent solution of the Schrödinger-Poisson equations and an AlGaN/GaN HEMTs numerical device model. Transconductance characteristics of the devices are discussed while the thickness and Al composition of the graded AlGaN layer are optimized. It is found that graded AlGaN layer structure can tailor device’s gm − Vgs profile by improving polar optical phonon mobility and interface roughness mobility. Good agreement is obtained between the theoretical calculations and experimental measurements over the full range of applied gate bias.

In this work, we review current trends in China to investigate beam plasma interaction phenomena. Recent progresses in China on low energy heavy ions and plasma interaction, ion beam-plasma interactions under the influences of magnetic fields, high energy heavy ion radiography through marginal range method, energy deposition of highly charged ions on surfaces and Raman spectroscopy of surfaces after irradiation of highly charged ions are presented.

Centimetre-level RTK solutions are mainly influenced by satellite orbit errors, ionospheric and tropospheric delays, and measurement noise (including multipath effects). Estimation and mitigation of the main errors for the CM-level Compass RTK solutions over medium-long baselines are investigated. Tests conducted for this research lead to the following conclusions:

1. 1. For 100 km baselines, a 4 cm error in height component will be induced by a 10 m orbit error. For longer baselines, rapid precise ephemeris will be needed for CM-level accuracy RTK solutions.

2. 2. The residual ionospheric delay error can be eliminated using the optimal triple-frequency ionosphere-free linear combination with the coefficients of 2·6087, −0·5175 and −1·0912 respectively for observations on f1, f2 and f3 frequencies. This combination is optimal in terms of its noise level, e.g., the noise is only amplified three times. It can be used for high accuracy RTK positioning.

3. 3. The residual tropospheric delay can be resolved for the introduced relative zenith tropospheric delay (RZTD) parameters.

Ni0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4/Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 (NZO/BST) composites with high permittivity and low loss were synthesized via the hybrid processing route. The composites possess very dense and homogenous microstructure. The NZO/BST composites show good dielectric properties and magnetic properties with low loss in high frequency range. This indicates that this kind of magnetodielectric composites can be used in high-frequency communications for the capacitor-inductor integrating devices such as electromagnetic interference filters and antennas. The permittivities of the composites were also fitted using the combination of Maxwell–Wagner polarization and modified Curie–Weiss law.

The influence of BaCu(B2O5) (BCB) addition on the sintering temperature and microwave dielectric properties of Ba5Nb4O15 ceramics has been investigated. The addition of small amount of BCB can effectively lower the sintering temperature of Ba5Nb4O15 ceramics from 1400 to 875 °C and induce no obvious degradation of the microwave dielectric properties. The reduced sintering temperature was attributed to the BCB liquid phase. Typically, the 1.5 wt% BCB-added Ba5Nb4O15 ceramic sintered at 875 °C for 2 h exhibited good microwave dielectric properties of Q × f = 28,655 GHz, εr = 40.2, and τf = 60 ppm/°C. The dielectric ceramic demonstrated stability against the reaction with the Ag electrode, which suggests that the ceramics could be applied in multilayer microwave devices requiring low sintering temperatures.