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Ceratovacuna lanigera Zehntner is a major leaf pest of sugarcane. Widely distributed, it affects both the yield and quality of sugarcane in China. This study aimed to assess real yield and sugar yield losses, and the effect of C. lanigera damage on emergence of newly planted and ratoon cane under current production levels. Field experiments were carried out from 2014 to 2016 in Yunnan Province China. At maturity, plants were harvested and weighed to determine yield, and the effect on sugarcane quality and sucrose content analyzed. Real yield decreased by average of 46,185 kg hm−2 (range: 37,545–61,845 kg hm−2) in damaged versus undamaged areas, with an average yield loss rate of 35.9% (28.5–45.7%). Juice yield decreased by an average of 3.01% (2.4–4.13%) and sucrose content by 6.38% (5.48–8.16%). Juice brix decreased by an average of 7.66°BX (6.95–9.05°BX) and juice gravity purity by 12.35% (8.43–19.97%). In contrast, the reducing sugar content increased by an average of 1.21% (1.01–1.3%). Emergence rates of newly planted cane decreased by an average of 26.0% (24.7–27.3%). The emergence number of ratoon cane decreased by 66,834 hm2 (57,429–76,238 hm−2) and relative emergence loss rates of ratoon cane decreased by an average of 57.8% (57.6–58.0%). These findings confirm that C. lanigera damage severely affects sugarcane yield and quality in Yunnan Province. The results will help the implementation of effective control measures, thereby supporting sustainable development of the Chinese sugar industry.

Objective To investigate the financial burden of patients who had various stages of hepatitis B virus-related diseases and the level of alleviation from financial burden by health insurance schemes in Yunnan province of China. Study design A cross-sectional survey. Methods Patients' information was consecutively recorded at the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, from December 2012 to June 2013. Consecutive cases of hepatitis B virus (HBV) (520), compensated cirrhosis (91), decompensated cirrhosis (198) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (131) were recruited from the outpatient and inpatient departments. The total direct costs, hospital charge, outpatient costs, hospitalization fees being reimbursed and household catastrophic health expenditure were estimated for each disease group. Results The average annual direct costs for each disease group were 19,496 RMB for HBV, 28,466 RMB in compensated cirrhosis, 46,061 RMB for decompensated cirrhosis, and 33,044 RMB for HCC patients. Catastrophic health expenditure occurred in all four groups. Health insurance reimbursement released the financial burden incurred by medical expenses of patients under a high level of household economic status. Public health insurance schemes helped the patients to various extents. Conclusions Among these patient groups, direct costs represent a significant economic burden. Health expenditure and financing systems must be considered to prevent the increase of household catastrophe, particularly among the poor.

Stretchable tactile sensor (STS) is promising for wearable electrical devices, human-machine interfaces, and electronic skin. However, developing a STS based on piezoresistive composite high-pressure sensitivity and dynamic stability remains challenging because stretching deformation destroys the original dispersed state of conductive fillers. This interference of stretching strain on the pressure sensing greatly reduces device performance. Here, we realize an STS based on a piezoresistive composite with different elastic modulus in its functional regions. The composite contains high elastic modulus region (59.1 MPa) of vertically aligned columns of urchin-shaped nanoparticles, and low elastic modulus region (2.4 MPa) of pure matrix. The sensor exhibits high-pressure sensitivity (12.05 kPa−1) owing to the increased conductive contact area between urchin-shaped nanoparticles in the high elastic modulus region. While stretching to 400% strain, the sensor exhibits excellent dynamic stability via strain accommodation in the low elastic modulus region. Our design to separate sensing from multiple stimulus by elastic modulus regulation is easy operative and universal. In addition, the sensor has a low hysteresis coefficient (5.25%), a good detection limit (22 mg), a low response/recovery time (

The hot power backward spinning(HPBS) of the high strength cast aluminums (HSCA) cylinder is a complex metal forming process. To analysis the plastic deformation of HSCA cylinder in HPBS process, a 3D coupled thermo-mechanical FE model of the process was built under the ABAQUS/explicit environment based on the solution of several key techniques, such as heat boundary condition treating, material properties definition, ALE adaptive meshing technology, etc., and verified by theoretical evaluation. Then simulation and analysis of HPBS of the process were carried out. The results show that the strain gradient which leads to the serious inhomogeneous deformation is produced in the thickness direction of the workpiece during the process.

A laccase, with HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitory activity (IC50 = 12.7 μM) and antiproliferative activity against HepG2 cells (IC50 = 5.6 μM) and MCF7 cells (IC50 = 6.5 μM), was purified from fresh fruiting bodies of the edible white common Agrocybe cylindracea mushroom. The laccase, which had a novel N-terminal sequence, displayed a molecular mass of 58 kDa within the range reported for most other mushroom laccases. The purification protocol entailed ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, SP-Sepharose, and Q-Sepharose and gel filtration on Superdex 75. The laccase was adsorbed on DEAE-cellulose and Q-Sepharose, but unadsorbed on SP-Sepharose. Its optimum pH was pH 3–4 and its optimum temperature was 50 °C. The activity of the isolated laccase differed from one substrate to another. The ranking was ABTS > N,N-dimethyl-1,4-phenylenediamine > hydroquinone > catechol > 2-methylcatechol > pyrogallol.

This study documents the characteristics of bainite transformations in deformed austenite during continuous cooling of a low-carbon microalloyed steel. In particular, it describes the distinguishing features of the two types of bainite observed: conventional bainite (CB) and acicular ferrite (AF). CB nucleates at prior austenite grain boundaries and grows as packets of parallel ferrite laths. Growth of CB packets is limited by either the deformation substructure (“mechanical stabilization”) or austenite grain boundaries. AF nucleates at intragranular sites and grows as individual ferrite laths or groups of parallel laths. In an AF group of parallel laths, some neighboring laths have the same orientation, but a significant number have dissimilar orientations. Neighboring laths having dissimilar orientation are two variants of either Kurdjumov–Sachs (KS) or Nishiyama–Wasserman (NW). It is proposed that the AF nucleation sites are dislocation boundaries having a relatively high misorientation (i.e., microbands (MBs) and minimized by the variant selection mechanism).

7A09 aluminum alloy is served as an important structural material in many fields. In this paper, power spinning of semi-continuous casting 7A09 aluminum alloy tube blank was carried out, and the effects of process parameters, such as spinning temperature and roller feeding ratio, on spinnability were analyzed, further the mechanical property was tested on a tensile testing machine. The results show that: at 300°C and 1.2mm/r roller feeding ratio, semi-continuous casting 7A09 aluminum alloy tube blank has good spinnability; after spun, the yield strength is increased 44%, and elongation is increased 130%.

The Dabie–Sulu Triassic orogen in central-eastern China was created by northward subduction of the Yangtze cratonal plate beneath the Sino-Korean craton. Eclogites, garnet peridotites and the surrounding country rock gneisses in the collision zone were subjected to in situ ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphism based on the presence of widespread coesite inclusions in eclogitic minerals and in gneissic zircons, and on virtually identical metamorphic ages of the various UHP rocks. P–T estimates combined with investigations of mineral exsolution textures and high-P polymorphs indicate that recovered depths of continental subduction in east-central China may have reached 200 km or more. Parageneses of mineral inclusions reflecting pre-peak, peak, and retrograde metamorphism in zoned zircon prisms, combined with SHRIMP U–Pb age data imply exhumation rates of 5–10 km/Myr for the Dabie–Sulu UHP terrane. Petrochemical and zircon U–Pb + Hf isotopic studies of various rocks suggest that initial crustal growth of the Yangtze craton occurred in the Archean, but significant Neoproterozoic addition of continental crust along the northern margins of the Yangtze craton is indicated by the formation of abundant bimodal igneous rocks during supercontinental rifting in response to the breakup of Rodinia at about 750–780 Ma. Mineral oxygen isotope and zircon U–Pb data from many surface specimens, and CCSD-main hole core samples over a 3.3 km depth range indicate that three-dimensional 18 O depletion took place in more than 100,000 km 3 in the Dabie–Sulu collision zone; the northern edge of the Yangtze craton was attended by Snowball Earth conditions, and extensive meteoric water-rock interactions occurred during the Neoproterozoic. Most Sulu garnet peridotites were derived from a depleted and metasomatized mantle, representing the subcontinental lithosphere beneath the southern margin of the Sino-Korean craton. Although significant progress has been made in studies of the Dabie–Sulu orogenic belt, critical questions remain unanswered. With new approaches and advanced technologic applications, many petrochemical, mineralogical and isotopic surprises and new tectonic models are anticipated for the years to come.

The purpose of this study is to determine the thermal reliability and corrosion of the Al–34%Mg–6%Zn alloy as a latent heat energy storage material with respect to various numbers of thermal cycles. The differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis technique was applied to the alloy after 0, 50, 500 and 1000 melting/solidification cycles in order to measure the melting temperatures and the latent heats of fusion of the alloy. The containment materials were stainless steel (SS304L), carbon steel (steel C20) in the corrosion tests. The DSC results indicated that the change in melting temperature for the alloy was in the range of 3.06–5.3 K, and the latent heat of fusion decreased 10.98% after 1000 thermal cycles. The results show that the investigated Al–34%Mg–6%Zn alloy has a good thermal reliability as a latent heat energy storage material with respect to thermal cycling for thermal energy storage applications in the long term in view of the small changes in the latent heat of fusion and melting temperature. Gravimetric analysis as mass loss (mg/cm2), corrosion rate (mg/day) and a microscopic or metallographic investigation were performed for corrosion tests and showed that SS304L may be considered a more suitable alloy than C20 in long term thermal storage applications.

In modern smart grid, smart meter which has replaced human operators to do the power measuring work becomes very popular. However, the application of smart meter will leak power consumption data to untrusted attacker. The exposure of these data will be dangerous to users’ privacy. Only privacy related problems be solved, will the power users trust smart meters. In this paper, we investigate a previous work, and find it having many disadvantages. Then we propose a corresponding measuring protocol. The comparison results between our proposed protocol and the investigated protocol show our proposed protocol works better in many aspects. The application of our proposed protocol in smart grid will surely promote the application of smart meter into smart grid and simplify the engineering project management in smart grid. Keywordsenergy-metering; smart grid; power engineering project management

This paper is concerned with the oscillation of all solutions of the delay difference equations and where {pn} and {pi(n)} are sequences of nonnegative real numbers an k and ki are positive integers. New oscillation criteria of the forms for equation (*) and for equation (**) are obtained, where α = lim infn→∞ (1/k) Σn−1i=n−k pi and C(α) is the “the best possible” function of α in some sense.

In this paper, we consider the nonexistence of eventually positive solutions of the difference inequality ϰ n+1 − ϰ n + ∑ i=1 m pi(n)ϰ n−k i (n) ≤ 0. Let m be a positive integer. Then for each positive integer i: 1 ≤ i ≤ m, {ki(n)}∞n=0 and {pi(n)}∞n=0 are a sequence of positive integers and a sequence of nonnegative real numbers, respectively. A sufficient condition guaranteeing the nonexistence of eventually positive solutions is obtained with the help of a new method. As an application of the main result, a conjecture is proved.

tion, all with p

We discuss a discrete population model describing single species growth with periodic harvest/stock. The theory of coincidence degree is applied to show that the model equation admits two periodic solutions. Under minor technical assumptions, we show that one of these two periodic solutions is positive and attracts almost all positive solutions.