With the escalating laser peak power, modulating and detecting the intensity, duration, phase and polarization of ultra-intense laser pulses progressively becomes increasingly arduous due to the limited damage thresholds of conventional optical components. In particular, the generation and detection of ultra-intense vortex lasers pose great challenges for current laser technologies, which has limited the widely potential applications of relativistic vortex lasers in various domains. In this study, we propose to reconstruct the vortex phase and generate and amplify the relativistic vortex lasers via surface plasma holograms (SPHs). By interfering with the object laser and reference laser, SPHs are formed on the target and the phase of the interfering laser is imprinted through the modulation of surface plasma density. In particular, using the quadrature phase-shift interference, the vortex phase of the object laser can be well reconstructed. The generated vortex lasers can be focused and enhanced further by one order of magnitude, up to $1.7\times {10}^{21}$ W/cm${}^2$, which has been demonstrated by full three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. For the first time, we provide a practical way to detect the phase of relativistic vortex lasers, which can be applied in large 1–10 PW laser facilities. This will promote future experimental research of vortex-laser–plasma interaction and open a new avenue of plasma optics in the ultra-relativistic regime.

A high-energy pulsed vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) solid-state laser at 177 nm with high peak power by the sixth harmonic of a neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) amplifier in a KBe2BO3F2 prism-coupled device was demonstrated. The ultraviolet (UV) pump laser is a 352 ps pulsed, spatial top-hat super-Gaussian beam at 355 nm. A high energy of a 7.12 mJ VUV laser at 177 nm is obtained with a pulse width of 255 ps, indicating a peak power of 28 MW, and the conversion efficiency is 9.42% from 355 to 177 nm. The measured results fitted well with the theoretical prediction. It is the highest pulse energy and highest peak power ever reported in the VUV range for any solid-state lasers. The high-energy, high-peak-power, and high-spatial-uniformity VUV laser is of great interest for ultra-fine machining and particle-size measurements using UV in-line Fraunhofer holography diagnostics.

Fiber Bragg grating-based Raman oscillators are capable of achieving targeted frequency conversion and brightness enhancement through the provision of gain via stimulated Raman scattering across a broad gain spectrum. This capability renders them an exemplary solution for the acquisition of high-brightness, specialized-wavelength lasers. Nonetheless, the output power of all-fiber Raman oscillators is typically limited to several hundred watts, primarily due to limitations in injectable pump power and the influence of higher-order Raman effects, which is inadequate for certain application demands. In this study, we introduce an innovative approach by employing a graded-index fiber with a core diameter of up to 150 μm as the Raman gain medium. This strategy not only enhances the injectable pump power but also mitigates higher-order Raman effects. Consequently, we have successfully attained an output power of 1780 W for the all-fiber Raman laser at 1130 nm, representing the highest output power in Raman fiber oscillators with any configuration reported to date.

This study aimed to demonstrate the utilization value of 1PN embryos. The 1PN zygotes collected from December 2021 to September 2022 were included in this study. The embryo development, the pronuclear characteristics, and the genetic constitutions were investigated. The overall blastocyst formation and good-quality blastocyst rates in 1PN zygotes were 22.94 and 16.24%, significantly lower than those of 2PN zygotes (63.25 and 50.23%, respectively, P = 0.000). The pronuclear characteristics were found to be correlated with the developmental potential. When comparing 1PN zygotes that developed into blastocysts to those that arrested, the former exhibited a significantly larger area (749.49 ± 142.77 vs. 634.00 ± 119.05, P = 0.000), a longer diameter of pronuclear (29.81 ± 3.08 vs. 27.30 ± 3.00, P = 0.000), and a greater number of nucleolar precursor body (NPB) (11.56 ± 3.84 vs. 7.19 ± 2.73, P = 0.000). Among the tested embryos, the diploidy euploidy rate was significantly higher in blastocysts in comparison with the arrested embryos (66.67 vs. 11.76%, P = 0.000), which was also significantly higher in IVF-1PN blastocysts than in ICSI-1PN blastocysts (75.44 vs. 25.00%, P = 0.001). However, the pronuclear characteristics were not found to be linked to the chromosomal ploidy once they formed blastocysts.

In summary, while the developmental potential of 1PN zygotes is reduced, our study shows that, in addition to the reported pronuclear area and diameter, the number of NPB is also associated with their developmental potential. The 1PN blastocysts exhibit a high diploidy euploidy rate, are recommend to be clinically used post genetic testing, especially for patients who do not have other 2PN embryos available.

To characterize fluid flow in the slip regime, the use of Navier–Stokes–Fourier (NSF) equations with slip boundary conditions is prevalent. This trend underscores the necessity of developing reliable and accurate slip boundary conditions. According to kinetic theory, slip behaviours are intrinsically linked to the gas scattering processes at the surface. The widely used Maxwell scattering model, which employs a single accommodation coefficient to describe gas scattering processes, reveals its limitations when the difference between accommodation coefficients in the tangential and normal directions becomes significant. In this work, we provide a derivation of velocity slip and temperature jump boundary conditions based on the Cercignani–Lampis–Lord scattering model, which applies two independent accommodation coefficients to describe the gas scattering process. A Knudsen layer correction term is introduced to account for the impact of the surface on the velocity distribution function, which is associated with the scattering model. The governing equation of the correction term is established based on the linearized Boltzmann equation. Additionally, two moments are derived to capture the collision effect in the Knudsen layer: a conserving moment of collision invariants, and an approximate higher-order conserving moment. These moments are then employed to determine the coefficients in the correction term. We demonstrate that the derived slip coefficients align closely with numerical results obtained by solving the Boltzmann equation in the Knudsen layer. Besides, we apply the derived slip boundary conditions within the framework of the NSF equations, yielding numerical results that exhibit excellent consistency with those obtained through molecular-level simulations.

We aimed to evaluate the association of coffee consumption with different additives, including milk and/or sweetener (sugar and/or artificial sweetener), and different coffee types, with new-onset acute kidney injury (AKI), and examine the modifying effects of genetic variation in caffeine metabolism. 194 324 participants without AKI at baseline in the UK Biobank were included. The study outcome was new-onset AKI. During a median follow-up of 11·6 years, 5864 participants developed new-onset AKI. Compared with coffee non-consumers, a significantly lower risk of new-onset AKI was found in coffee consumers adding neither milk nor sugar to coffee (hazard ratio (HR), 0·86; 95 % CI, 0·78, 0·94) and adding only milk to coffee (HR,0·83; 95 % CI, 0·78, 0·89), but not in coffee consumers adding only sweetener (HR,1·14; 95 % CI, 0·99, 1·31) and both milk and sweetener to coffee (HR,0·96; 95 % CI, 0·89, 1·03). Moreover, there was a U-shaped association of coffee consumption with new-onset AKI, with the lowest risk at 2–3 drinks/d, in unsweetened coffee (no additives or milk only to coffee), but no association was found in sweetened coffee (sweetener only or both milk and sweetener to coffee). Genetic variation in caffeine metabolism did not significantly modify the association. A similar U-shaped association was found for instant, ground and decaffeinated coffee consumption in unsweetened coffee consumers, but not in sweetened coffee consumers. In conclusion, moderate consumption (2–3 drinks/d) of unsweetened coffee with or without milk was associated with a lower risk of new-onset AKI, irrespective of coffee type and genetic variation in caffeine metabolism.

Melting and solidification in periodically time-modulated thermal convection are relevant for numerous natural and engineering systems, for example, glacial melting under periodic sun radiation and latent thermal energy storage under periodically pulsating heating. It is highly relevant for the estimation of melt rate and melt efficiency management. However, even the dynamics of a solid–liquid interface shape subjected to a simple sinusoidal heating has not yet been investigated in detail. In this paper, we offer a better understanding of the modulation frequency dependence of the melting and solidification front. We numerically investigate periodic melting and solidification in turbulent convective flow with the solid above and the melted liquid below, and sinusoidal heating at the bottom plate with the mean temperature equal to the melting temperature. We investigate how the periodic heating can prevent the full solidification, and the resulting flow structures and the quasi-equilibrium interface height. We further study the dependence on the heating modulation frequency. As the frequency decreases, we found two distinct regimes, which are ‘partially solid’ and ‘fully solid’. In the fully solid regime, the liquid freezes completely, and the effect of the modulation is limited. In the partially solid regime, the solid partially melts, and a steady or unsteady solid–liquid interface forms depending on the frequency. The interface height can be derived based on the energy balance through the interface. In the partially solid regime, the interface height oscillates periodically, following the frequency of modulation. Here, we propose a perturbation approach that can predict the dependency of the oscillation amplitude on the modulation frequency.

An ultrasonic phased array system is introduced to study the three-dimensional (3-D) movement of a single bubble in a GaInSn alloy under a transverse magnetic field (MF), which is verified by bubble experiments in water. The 3-D motion trajectories of individual bubbles in the GaInSn are obtained under a horizontal MF. As the MF becomes stronger, the bubble successively oscillates in random directions (R mode), a direction perpendicular to the MF (V mode), a direction parallel to the MF (P mode) and finally it rises straight (S mode). The significant anisotropy of the oscillation directions at a moderate MF intensity may be due to the anisotropy of the vortex structure around the bubble. Furthermore, the oscillation amplitude gradually declines with increasing MF intensity until the bubble trajectory finally becomes a straight line. Our measurements allow us to specify the characteristic regions for the observed bubble modes in the $N-Eo-Re$ parameter space (N is the magnetic interaction parameter, Eo is the Eötvös number and Re is the Reynolds number). In addition, more detailed characteristics of bubble terminal velocity are revealed, showing that the bubble velocities are closely related to the motion modes. The increase in bubble velocity at a moderate MF intensity is caused by the weakening oscillation. At a high strength, the MF monotonically suppresses the rise velocity of the bubble with a fixed scaling law.

Euwallacea interjectus, a recently discovered pest in poplar plantations, poses a significant economic threat due to its role in causing widespread tree mortality. This pest's cryptic behaviour has hindered research and control efforts, making laboratory rearing a valuable tool for studying its development and biology. We investigated the development period and biological characteristics of E. interjectus using artificial diets and fungal medium. Our findings revealed that the development time for eggs, larvae, and pupae averages approximately 6, 18, and 6 days, respectively. Notably, first and second instar larvae displayed peak moulting periods at 3.45 ± 0.64 SD and 7.92 ± 1.77 SD days, respectively. Furthermore, we measured head capsule widths of postmolt larvae, yielding values of 318.02 ± 7.38 SD μm for first-instar larvae, 403.01 ± 11.08 SD μm for second-instar larvae, and 549.54 ± 20.74 SD μm for third-instar larvae. Our research also uncovered a positive correlation between the number of progeny (eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults) and the mean length of the gallery system. Interestingly, the haplodiploid reproductive strategy did not significantly affect the number of offspring produced by the foundress. Additionally, we observed that foundresses displayed higher fecundity when subjected to nutrient-rich diets as compared to nutrient-poor diets. Our results will deepen our understanding of the biology of E. interjectus and provide criteria for larval instar classification. Additionally, managing nutrient availability within the colony could be considered a viable approach to regulating population size.

Power scaling in conventional broad-area (BA) lasers often leads to the operation of higher-order lateral modes, resulting in a multiple-lobe far-field profile with large divergence. Here, we report an advanced sawtooth waveguide (ASW) structure integrated onto a wide ridge waveguide. It strategically enhances the loss difference between higher-order modes and the fundamental mode, thereby facilitating high-power narrow-beam emission. Both optical simulations and experimental results illustrate the significant increase in additional scattering loss of the higher-order modes. The optimized ASW lasers achieve an impressive output power of 1.1 W at 4.6 A at room temperature, accompanied by a minimal full width at half maximum lateral divergence angle of 4.91°. Notably, the far-field divergence is reduced from 19.61° to 11.39° at the saturation current, showcasing a remarkable 42% improvement compared to conventional BA lasers. Moreover, the current dependence of divergence has been effectively improved by 38%, further confirming the consistent and effective lateral mode control capability offered by our design.

As an important component of prehistoric subsistence, an understanding of bone-working is essential for interpreting the evolution of early complex societies, yet worked bones are rarely systematically collected in China. Here, the authors apply multiple analytical methods to worked bones from the Longshan site of Pingliangtai, in central China, showing that Neolithic bone-working in this area, with cervid as the main raw material, was mature but localised, household-based and self-sufficient. The introduction of cattle in the Late Neolithic precipitated a shift in bone-working traditions but it was only later, in the Bronze Age, that cattle bones were utilised in a specialised fashion and dedicated bone-working industries emerged in urban centres.

In large-scale galaxy surveys, particularly deep ground-based photometric studies, galaxy blending was inevitable. Such blending posed a potential primary systematic uncertainty for upcoming surveys. Current deblenders predominantly depended on analytical modelling of galaxy profiles, facing limitations due to inflexible and imprecise models. We presented a novel approach, using a U-net structured transformer-based network for deblending astronomical images, which we term the CAT-deblender. It was trained using both RGB and the grz-band images, spanning two distinct data formats present in the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) database, including galaxies with diverse morphologies in the training dataset. Our method necessitated only the approximate central coordinates of each target galaxy, sourced from galaxy detection, bypassing assumptions on neighbouring source counts. Post-deblending, our RGB images retained a high signal-to-noise peak, consistently showing superior structural similarity against ground truth. For multi-band images, the ellipticity of central galaxies and median reconstruction error for r-band consistently lie within $\pm$0.025 to $\pm$0.25, revealing minimal pixel residuals. In our comparison of deblending capabilities focused on flux recovery, our model showed a mere 1% error in magnitude recovery for quadruply blended galaxies, significantly outperforming SExtractor’s higher error rate of 4.8%. Furthermore, by cross-matching with the publicly accessible overlapping galaxy catalogs from the DECaLS database, we successfully deblended 433 overlapping galaxies. Moreover, we have demonstrated effective deblending of 63 733 blended galaxy images, randomly chosen from the DECaLS database.

Data on epidemiology trends of paediatric tuberculosis (TB) are limited in China. So, we investigated the clinical and epidemiological profiles in diagnosed TB disease and TB infection patients at Beijing Children’s Hospital. Of 3 193 patients, 51.05% had pulmonary TB (PTB) and 15.16% had extrapulmonary TB (EPTB). The most frequent forms of EPTB were TB meningitis (39.05%), pleural TB (29.75%), and disseminated TB (10.33%). PTB patients were significantly younger and associated with higher hospitalization frequency. Children aged 1–4 years exhibited higher risk of PTB and TB meningitis, and children aged 5–12 years had higher risk of EPTB. The proportion of PTB patients increased slightly from 40.9% in 2012 to 65% in 2019, and then decreased to 17.8% in 2021. The percentage of EPTB cases decreased from 18.3% in 2012 to 15.2% in 2019, but increased to 16.4% in 2021. Among EPTB cases, the largest increase was seen in TB meningitis. In conclusion, female and young children had higher risk of PTB in children. TB meningitis was the most frequent forms of EPTB among children, and young children were at high risk of TB meningitis. The distribution of different types of EPTB differed by age.