Teenagers are important carriers of Neisseria meningitidis, which is a leading cause of invasive meningococcal disease. In China, the carriage rate and risk factors among teenagers are unclear. The present study presents a retrospective analysis of epidemiological data for N. meningitidis carriage from 2013 to 2017 in Suizhou city, China. The carriage rates were 3.26%, 2.22%, 3.33%, 3.53% and 9.88% for 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. From 2014 to 2017, the carriage rate in the 15- to 19-year-old age group (teenagers) was the highest and significantly higher than that in remain age groups. Subsequently, a larger scale survey (December 2017) for carriage rate and relative risk factors (population density, time spent in the classroom, gender and antibiotics use) were investigated on the teenagers (15- to 19-year-old age) at the same school. The carriage rate was still high at 33.48% (223/663) and varied greatly from 6.56% to 52.94% in a different class. Population density of the classroom was found to be a significant risk factor for carriage, and 1.4 persons/m2 is recommended as the maximum classroom density. Further, higher male gender ratio and more time spent in the classroom were also significantly associated with higher carriage. Finally, antibiotic use was associated with a significantly lower carriage rate. All the results imply that attention should be paid to the teenagers and various measures can be taken to reduce the N. meningitidis carriage, to prevent and control the outbreak of IMD.

Underground Nuclear Astrophysics in China (JUNA) will take the advantage of the ultra-low background in Jinping underground lab. High current accelerator with an ECR source and detectors were commissioned. JUNA plans to study directly a number of nuclear reactions important to hydrostatic stellar evolution at their relevant stellar energies. At the first period, JUNA aims at the direct measurements of 25Mg(p,γ)26 Al, 19F(p,α) 16 O, 13C(α, n) 16O and 12C(α,γ) 16O near the Gamow window. The current progress of JUNA will be given.

Understanding the radiation model of a flash lamp is essential for the reflector design of a laser amplifier. Reflector design often involves several simplifying assumptions, like a point or Lambertian source; either of these assumptions may lead to significant errors in the output distribution. In practice, source non-idealities usually result in sacrificing the amplifier’s gain coefficient. We propose a novel test technique for attaining the xenon flash lamp absolute spectral intensity at various angles of view, and then accurately predict radiation distributions and generate the reflector shape. It is shown that due to the absorption of emitted radiation by the lamp itself, the behavior of the radiation model at various wavelengths is different. Numerical results of xenon plasma absorption coefficient were compared with the measured data. A reasonable agreement was obtained for the absorption coefficient parameters. Thus, this work provides a useful analytical tool for the engineering design of laser amplifier reflectors using xenon flash lamps as pumps.

The solid-state phase equilibria of the copper (Cu)–dysprosium (Dy)–titanium (Ti) ternary system at 973 K has been experimentally investigated. The existence of nine binary compounds, Cu4Ti, Cu3Ti2, Cu4Ti3, CuTi, CuTi2, CuTi3, CuDy, Cu2Dy, and Cu5Dy was confirmed. The controversial phase of CuTi3 was found in this work. The temperature range of Cu7Dy was determined to be from 1112 to 1183 K. The phase relations at 973 K are governed by ten ternary phase regions, 21 binary phase regions, and 12 single-phase regions. The solid solubility of Cu in Dy is undetectable. None of the other phase in this system reveals a remarkable homogeneity range at 973 K.

The chromosome number and karyotype of amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense were studied using embryonic cells. The diploid chromosome number (2n) of B. belcheri tsingtauense is 36, and its karyotype 2n=36, 2st+34t, FN=36. This is the first report on the karyotype of the cephalochordate. Evidence suggesting the possible presence of a pair of sex-chromosomes in the amphioxus has been provided.