The nonlinear waves in a sheared liquid film on a horizontal plate at small Reynolds numbers are examined by theoretical and numerical approaches. The analysis employs the long-wave approximation along with finite difference schemes. The results show that the surface tension can suppress disturbances and prevent the occurrence of singularities. While the film flow is driven by the shear stress on the interface, its instability highly depends on the magnitude and direction of gravity. Specifically, when the direction of gravity is opposite to the wall-normal direction, perturbations are stabilized by gravity. In contrast, when these two directions are the same, the gravitational force is destabilizing, and stationary travelling waves can exist if a balance is reached between the effects of gravity and surface tension. For the steady solitary waves, there are quasi-periodic oscillations occurring between two stationary points, indicating the presence of heteroclinic trajectories. For periodic waves, the evolutions are sensitive to several parameters and initial disturbances, while one steady-state wave exhibits a sine function-like behaviour.

As optical parametric chirped pulse amplification has been widely adopted for the generation of extreme intensity laser sources, nonlinear crystals of large aperture are demanded for high-energy amplifiers. Yttrium calcium oxyborate (YCa4O(BO3)3, YCOB) is capable of being grown with apertures exceeding 100 mm, which makes it possible for application in systems of petawatt scale. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge, an ultra-broadband non-collinear optical parametric amplifier with YCOB for petawatt-scale compressed pulse generation at 800 nm. Based on the SG-II 5 PW facility, amplified signal energy of approximately 40 J was achieved and pump-to-signal conversion efficiency was up to 42.3%. A gain bandwidth of 87 nm was realized and supported a compressed pulse duration of 22.3 fs. The near-field and wavefront aberration represented excellent characteristics, which were comparable with those achieved in lithium triborate-based amplifiers. These results verified the great potential for YCOB utilization in the future.

The study was to evaluate the reproducibility and validity of the FFQ for residents of northeast China. A total of 131 participants completed two FFQ (FFQ1 and FFQ2) within a 3-month period, 125 participants completed 8-d weighed diet records (WDR) and 112 participants completed blood biomarker testing. Reproducibility was measured by comparing nutrient and food intake between FFQ1 and FFQ2. The validity of the FFQ was assessed by WDR and the triad method. The Spearman correlation coefficients (SCC) and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for reproducibility ranged from 0·41 to 0·69 (median = 0·53) and from 0·18 to 0·68 (median = 0·53) for energy and nutrients and from 0·37 to 0·73 (median = 0·59) and from 0·33 to 0·86 (median = 0·60) for food groups, respectively. The classifications of same or adjacent quartiles ranged from 73·64 to 93·80 % for both FFQ. The crude SCC between the FFQ and WDR ranged from 0·27 to 0·55 (median = 0·46) for the energy and nutrients and from 0·26 to 0·70 (median = 0·52) for food groups, and classifications of the same or adjacent quartiles ranged from 65·32 to 86·29 %. The triad method indicated that validation coefficients for the FFQ were above 0·3 for most nutrients, which indicated a moderate or high level of validity. The FFQ that was developed for residents of northeast China for the Northeast Cohort Study of China is reliable and valid for assessing the intake of most foods and nutrients.

No relevant studies have yet been conducted to explore which measurement can best predict the survival time of patients with cancer cachexia. This study aimed to identify an anthropometric measurement that could predict the 1-year survival of patients with cancer cachexia. We conducted a nested case–control study using data from a multicentre clinical investigation of cancer from 2013 to 2020. Cachexia was defined using the Fearon criteria. A total of 262 patients who survived less than 1 year and 262 patients who survived more than 1 year were included in this study. Six candidate variables were selected based on clinical experience and previous studies. Five variables, BMI, mid-arm circumference, mid-arm muscle circumference, calf circumference and triceps skin fold (TSF), were selected for inclusion in the multivariable model. In the conditional logistic regression analysis, TSF (P = 0·014) was identified as a significant independent protective factor. A similar result was observed in all patients with cancer cachexia (n 3084). In addition, a significantly stronger positive association between TSF and the 1-year survival of patients with cancer cachexia was observed in participants aged > 65 years (OR: 0·94; 95 % CI 0·89, 0·99) than in those aged ≤ 65 years (OR: 0·96; 95 % CI 0·93, 0·99; Pinteraction = 0·013) and in participants with no chronic disease (OR: 0·92; 95 % CI 0·87, 0·97) than in those with chronic disease (OR: 0·97; 95 % CI 0·94, 1·00; Pinteraction = 0·049). According to this study, TSF might be a good anthropometric measurement for predicting 1-year survival in patients with cancer cachexia.

The development of GaN-on-diamond devices offers bright prospects for the creation of high-power density electronics. This article presents a process of fabricating GaN-on-diamond structure by depositing diamond films on dual sides, including heat dissipation diamond film and sacrificial carrier diamond film. Prior to heat dissipation diamond film layer preparation, aluminum nitride (AlN) is chosen as a dielectric layer and pretreated by nanodiamond (ND) particles, to enhance the nucleation density. Zeta potential measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy are used to analyze the AlN surface after each treatment. The results show that oxygen-terminated ND particles tend to adhere to an AlN surface because the oxygen-terminated NDs have –COOH and –OH groups, and hold a negative potential. On the contrary, fluorine-terminated AlN prefers to attract the hydrogen-terminated ND seeds, which resulted in higher diamond nucleation density. Based on this preliminary study, a dense high-quality GaN-on-diamond wafer is successfully produced by using AlN as the dielectric layer and a diamond film as the sacrificial carrier.

The experimental study on thermocapillary convection in liquid bridges of large Prandtl number has been carried out on Tiangong-2 in space. The purpose of these experiments is to study the oscillation instability of thermocapillary convection, and to discover and recognize the mechanism of destabilization of thermocapillary convection in the microgravity environment in space. In this paper, the geometry of a half-floating-zone liquid bridge is featured by the aspect ratio Ar and volume ratio Vr, and its influence on critical conditions of oscillatory thermocapillary convection is studied. More than 700 sets of space experiments have been finished. The critical conditions and oscillation characteristics of thermocapillary convection instability in the Ar–Vr parameter space have been fully obtained under microgravity conditions for the first time. It is found that the Ar–Vr parameter space can be divided into two regions of different critical conditions and oscillation characteristics: the region of low frequency oscillation, and the region of high frequency oscillation. More importantly, we obtain the complete configuration of these two stability neutral curves, and find that the low frequency mode is a ‘’ type curve. Based on this, we discuss the influence of heating rate on the oscillation mode. It is found that the heating rate affects the selection of critical mode, which results in a jump change of critical temperature difference. The findings of this study are helpful to better understand the critical modes and transition processes of thermocapillary convection in liquid bridges with different configurations.

Thermocapillary convection has always been one of the most important research topics in microgravity fluid physics. A space experimental study on the thermocapillary convection in an open annular liquid pool – a typical thermocapillary flow system – has been conducted on the SJ-10 satellite of China. This space experiment has observed the spatial temperature distribution of the liquid free surface using an infrared thermal imager, obtained the flow pattern transition process, analysed the oscillation characteristics and revealed the instability mechanism of themocapillary convection. The shape effects on the flow instability are researched by changing the volume ratio, Vr, which denotes the ratio of the liquid volume to the volume of the cylindrical gap between the walls. The volume ratio effect has been focused on for the first time. For a certain volume ratio, the flow pattern would transform from the steady state to the oscillation state accompanied by directional propagating hydrothermal waves with increasing temperature difference. In addition, the significant influences of the volume ratio on the critical conditions and wavenumber selection have been analysed in detail.

We present a recent progress of the SG-II 5PW facility, which designed a multi-petawatt ultrashort pulse laser based on optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA). The prior two optical parametric amplifiers have been accomplished and chirped pulses with an energy of 49.7 J and a full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) spectrum bandwidth of 85 nm have been achieved. In the PW-scale optical parametric amplification (OPA), with the pump pulse that has an energy of 118 J from the second harmonic generation of the SG-II 7th beam, the pump-to-signal conversion efficiency is up to 41.9%, which to the best of our knowledge is the highest among all of the reported values for OPCPA systems. The compressed pulse is higher than 37 J in 21 fs (1.76 PW), and the focal spot is ${\sim}10~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ after the closed-loop corrections by the adaptive optics. Limited by the repetition of the pump laser, the SG-II 5PW facility operates one shot per hour. It has successfully been employed for high energy physics experiments.

Temporal contrast is one of the crucial physical determinants which guarantee the successful performance of laser–matter interaction experiments. We generally reviewed the influences on the temporal contrast in three categories of noises based on the requirement by the physical mechanisms. The spatiotemporal influences on temporal contrast at the focal region of the chromatic aberration and propagation time difference introduced by large-aperture broadband spatial filters, which were spatiotemporally coupled with compression and focusing, were calculated and discussed with a practical case in SG-II 5 PW ultrashort petawatt laser. The system-wide spatiotemporal coupling existing in large-aperture broadband ultrashort petawatt lasers was proved to be one of the possible causes of temporal contrast degradation in the focal region.

We examined the in vitro developmental competence of parthenogenetic activation (PA) oocytes activated by an electric pulse (EP) and treated with various concentrations of AZD5438 for 4 h. Treatment with 10 µM AZD5438 for 4 h significantly improved the blastocyst formation rate of PA oocytes in comparison with 0, 20, or 50 µM AZD5438 treatment (46.4% vs. 34.5%, 32.3%, and 24.0%, respectively; P < 0.05). The blastocyst formation rate was higher in the group treated with AZD5438 for 4 h than in the groups treated with AZD5438 for 2 or 6 h (42.8% vs. 38.6% and 37.2%, respectively; P > 0.05). Furthermore, 66.67% of blastocysts derived from these AZD5438-treated PA oocytes had a diploid karyotype. The blastocyst formation rate of PA and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos was similar between oocytes activated by an EP and treated with 2 mM 6-dimethylaminopurine for 4 h and those activated by an EP and treated with 10 µM AZD5438 for 4 h (11.11% vs. 13.40%, P > 0.05). In addition, the level of maturation-promoting factor (MPF) was significantly decreased in oocytes activated by an EP and treated with 10 µM AZD5438 for 4 h. Finally, the mRNA expression levels of apoptosis-related genes (Bax and Bcl-2) and pluripotency-related genes (Oct4, Nanog, and Sox2) were checked by RT-PCR; however, there were no differences between the AZD5438-treated and non-treated control groups. Our results demonstrate that porcine oocyte activation via an EP in combination with AZD5438 treatment can lead to a high blastocyst formation rate in PA and SCNT experiments.

The dispersion of a pair of prisms is analyzed by means of a ray-tracing method operating at other than tip-to-tip propagation of the prisms, taking into consideration the limited spectral bandwidth. The variations of the group delay dispersion and the third-order dispersion for a pair of prisms are calculated with respect to the incident position and the separation between the prisms. The pair of prisms can provide a wide range of independent and continuous third-order dispersion compensation. The effect of residual third-order dispersion on the pulse contrast ratio and pulse duration is also calculated. The residual third-order dispersion not only worsens the pulse contrast ratio, but also increases the pulse duration to the hundreds of femtosecond range for a tens of femtosecond pulse, even when the residual third-order dispersion is small. These phenomena are helpful in compensating for the residual high-order dispersion and in understanding its effect on pulse contrast ratios and pulse durations in ultrashort laser systems.

Introduction: Earthquake exposure has been associated with adverse consequences for coronary heart disease. However, the natural history and prognostic significance of earthquake-related, new-onset angina have not been characterized.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between episodes of depressive symptoms and one-year prognosis after the first admission to the hospital among adults with new-onset angina before and after the Sichuan earthquake.

Methods: One hundred forty-one first hospitalized patients with new-onset angina before and after the Sichuan earthquake underwent psychological assessments during their first admission to the hospital following the earthquake. Patients were followed for 12 months to determine survival status. The independent relationships between baseline variables and readmission risk after the earthquake were examined. Baseline somatic and psychosocial variables were collected with the aid of standard, validated questionnaires.

Results: The proportion of patients with moderate/severe depression symptom in the earthquake-related group is higher than among their counterparts (23.7% vs. 8.9%, p = 0.026). Patients with new-onset angina after the Sichuan earthquake had a higher risk of readmission (22.4% vs. 8.9%, p = 0.041) and longer total hospitalization (average of 13.4 ±6.8 vs. 10.7 ±5.5 days, p = 0.015). The risks for readmission was associated with moderate/severe depression (adjusted hazard ratio, 9.18 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 3.09–27.23, p = 0.0000]) and low ejection fraction (adjusted hazard ratio, 6.66 [95%CI = 2.131–20.781, p = 0.001]).

Conclusions: Among patients diagnosed with new-onset angina, those with first episode after the Sichuan earthquake generated more moderate/severe depressive symptoms and had a higher risk for readmission and longer hospital stay. Depressive symptoms upon admission and low ejection fractions were significant predictors of 12-month risk for readmission, which indicates that antidepressants should be prescribed.

The spatio-temporal expressed profiles of two kinds of chemical communication-related protein genes, the odorant-binding protein of Ac-ASP2 and chemosensory protein of Ac-ASP3, were identified by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results obtained using the 2−ΔΔCt method showed that Ac-ASP2 was a gene coding antenna-specific protein that did not express in larvae and pupae, but had discontinuous high abundance periods at 1, 9, 15, 27 and 30 days. The expressing abundance at such periods was at least ten times higher than that at other periods. From the distribution of Ac-ASP3 mRNA observed in different tissues, the transcript levels seemed to be higher in the wings, abdomen and thorax (of order ~106), and lower in the legs, antennae and head (of order ~105). From highest to lowest, the original copy number was found in the various body parts in the following order: wings, abdomen, thorax, legs, antenna, and head. The results suggest that Ac-ASP3 has an intimate relation with the chemosensory behaviour of wings and abdomen in Apis cerana cerana.

The construction of two cDNA libraries from young shoots of tea plant [Camellia sinensis cv. Longjing 43 and Anji Baicha], the sequencing of Longjing 43 cDNA clones and the analysis of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are reported. Totally, 4320 clones from the cDNA library of Longjing 43 were sequenced, and 2963 useful sequences were obtained, corresponding to 68.6% of clones. A total of 416 clones shorter than 150 bp and 863 repeated clones were excluded, the first 1684 valid tea plant ESTs were generated. Most of the ESTs were between 300 and 700 bp, with an average of 478 bp. Six hundred and seven ESTs with known function or putative function were identified by BlastN searches against the National Center of Biotechnology Institute (NCBI) non-redundant nucleotide databases, corresponding to more than 130 functional genes in the tea plant. The rest, 1077 ESTs, were novel gene partial or full sequences. The results indicated that EST sequencing was a rapid and effective approach to identification of novel functional genes for tea plant.

The need for alternative gate dielectrics to replace conventional SiO2 is increasing to facilitate further CMOS scaling. One of the most promising materials for use as an alternative gate dielectric is Zr silicate due to its thermodynamic stability on Si and its good interface quality with Si. In this study, ultra-thin Zr silicate films (45 – 60 Å thick) with different Zr compositions have been deposited on Si using magnetron reactive co-sputtering. The Zr composition was kept below the stoichiometric value of about 16% to prevent precipitation of ZrO2and to have Si rich films for better interface quality. Films were rapid thermal annealed in N2 ambient up to 9000C and Pt was used as the gate electrode. Electrical characterization of these films was done using HP 4156 and HP 4194 parameter analyzers. Based on these studies, we demonstrate Zr silicate films with equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of less than 14 Å with gate leakage significantly lower thanSiO2 of similar thickness and hysteresis of < 20mV ( in a sweep from –3 to 3 V). The films exhibit good thermal stability on Si even after 900 0C annealing as shown by a minimal increase in EOT with annealing. TEM and XPS analyses show high quality Zr silicate films that remain stable and amorphous even at 900 0C.

Hysteresis effect of barium strontium titanate (BST) thin films for gate dielectric application has been studied. It is found that the “counterclockwise” hysteresis has strong sweep voltage and operating temperature dependence. It can be reduced or eliminated by proper thermal annealing or by using a barrier layer. A charge trapping and detrapping mechanism has been proposed.

Reactive-magnetron-sputtered ZrO2 thin film has been deposited on Si directly for gate dielectric application. Both structural and electrical properties of the ZrO2 film have been investigated. An amorphous structure for 30Å ZrO2 and a semi-amorphous structure for 200Å ZrO2 have been revealed. The sputtered film shows a good stoichiometry and a good structural stability of ZrO2 based on the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy data. Thin equivalent oxide thickness of about 11.5Å was obtained without the consideration of quantum mechanical effects. A low leakage of less than 10−2 A/cm2 at ±1V relative to the flat band voltage was obtained for this 11.5Å equivalent oxide thickness Pt/ZrO2/Si structure. High effective dielectric breakdown and superior reliability properties have been demonstrated for ZrO2 gate dielectric.

HfO2 is the one of the potential high-k dielectrics for replacing SiO2 as a gate dielectric. HfO2 is thermodynamically stable when in direct contact with Si and has a reasonable band gap (∼5.65eV). In this study, MOS capacitors (Pt/HfO2/Si) were fabricated by depositing HfO2 using reactive DC magnetron sputtering in the range of 33∼135Å followed by Pt deposition. During the HfO2 deposition, O2 flow was modulated to control interface quality and to suppress interfacial layer growing. By optimizing the HfO2 deposition process, equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) can be reduced down to ∼11.2 Å with the leakage current as low as 1X10−2 A/cm2 at +1.0V and negligible frequency dispersion. HfO2 films also show excellent breakdown characteristics and negligible hysteresis after high temperature annealing. From the high resolution TEM, there is a thin interfacial layer after annealing, suggesting a composite of Si-Hf-O with a dielectric constant of ≈ 2 X K SiO2.

Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BST) is one of the high-k candidates for replacing SiO2 as the gate dielectric in future generation devices. The biggest obstacle to scaling the equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of BST is an interfacial layer, SixOy, which forms between BST and Si. Nitrogen (N2) implantation into the Si substrate has been proposed to reduce the growth of this interfacial layer. In this study, capacitors (Pt/BST/Si) were fabricated by depositing thin BST films (50Å) onto N2 implanted Si in order to evaluate the effects of implant dose and annealing conditions on EOT. It was found that N2 implantation reduced the EOT of RF magnetron sputtered and Metal Oxide Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) BST films by ∼20% and ∼33%, respectively. For sputtered BST, an implant dose of 1×1014cm−;2 provided sufficient nitrogen concentration without residual implant damage after annealing. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data confirmed that the reduction in EOT is due to a reduction in the interfacial layer growth. X-ray diffraction spectra revealed typical polycrystalline structure with (111) and (200) preferential orientations for both films. Leakage for these 50Å BST films is on the order of 10−8 to 10−5 A/cm2—lower than oxynitrides with comparable EOTs.