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The ionosphere is an important component of near-Earth space that has a significant impact on communication and navigation. Furthermore, the total electron content (TEC) of the ionosphere is a widely used parameter in near-Earth plasma environment studies. A design of a digital beacon receiver system for automatically measuring TEC is presented. Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) hardware equipment with software-defined radio technology was used in the tri-band beacon digital receiver to receive and rapidly preprocess beacon signals from satellites in different frequency bands. A software system is built to implement the automatic control of the receiver and to enable data processing of the preprocessed data in order to obtain its phase information and derive the TEC. The tri-band digital beacon receiver system is experimentally proven to automatically detect and archive transit satellites in real time, automatically receive and process satellite beacon signals with recording, and automatically generate TEC measurement results.

With the development of new materials and technology, high entropy alloy (HEA) nitride films have attracted much attention of researchers due to their excellent optical properties and mechanical properties. Herein, a novel SS/NbMoTaWN (HEAN)/NbMoTaWON (HEAON)/SiO2 coatings are prepared, which shows a high spectral selectivity of α/ε = 0.944/0.12. The preparation and optimization of the coating are studied by combining experiments with ellipsometric program and CODE software. High temperature thermal stability test is performed in depth, which proves that the coating could bear 400 °C in air for 2 h, and 600 °C for 2 h in vacuum. Long-term thermal stability researches indicate that the SSACs still keep good optical properties (α = 0.902, ε = 0.106) even after annealing at 600 °C for 100 h. The failure mechanism is analyzed by XRD and Raman spectra. In addition, neutral salt spray test is performed to investigate the anti-corrosion ability, which indicates the coating has a good optical performance after soaking in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution for 30 days. Obviously, this work provides a new strategy to construct solar absorber coatings based on NbMoTaW high entropy alloy.

High entropy alloys (HEAs), which is at the expense of high cost compared to traditional alloy, should not be confined to the mechanical properties, but should be employed to devise a novel combination with unique functional and mechanical performances. In this work, high entropy alloy nitride (HEAN) is utilized as a novel double absorption layer to improve solar absorption in the high temperature solar selective absorbing coatings (SSACs). Our primary motivation is to lower thermal emittance (ε) and enhance solar absorptance (α). In order to realize this goal, coating design (CODE) software is employed to design and optimize the proposed HEAN based SSACs using appropriate dielectric function model. The ultimate as-deposited coating shows good optical properties with a high α value of 0.965 and a low ε value of 0.086 (at 82 °C). The estimate of thermal stability tests indicates that HEAN based SSACs has the ability to resist instability in high working temperature, which keeps good optical properties (α = 0.925, ε = 0.070) after annealing at 600 °C for 10 h.

Flowering time, a key transition point from vegetative to reproductive growth, is regulated by an intrinsic complex of endogenous and exogenous signals including nutrient status. For hundreds of years, nitrogen has been well known to modulate flowering time, but the molecular genetic basis on how plants adapt to ever-changing nitrogen availability remains not fully explored. Here we explore how Arabidopsis natural variation in flowering time responds to nitrate fluctuation. Upon nitrate availability change, we detect accession- and photoperiod-specific flowering responses, which also feature a accession-specific dependency on growth traits. The flowering time variation correlates well with the expression of floral integrators, SOC1 and FT, in an accession-specific manner. We find that gene expression variation of key hub genes in the photoperiod-circadian-clock (GI), aging (SPLs) and autonomous (FLC) pathways associates with the expression change of these integrators, hence flowering time variation. Our results thus shed light on the molecular genetic mechanisms on regulation of accession- and photoperiod-specific flowering time variation in response to nitrate availability.

AIM: To evaluate the effects of pranoprofen on the retinal structure and serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)in patients with cataract surgery.METHODS: One hundred and seventy two cataract patients(200 eyes)were enrolled in this study. All the patients were randomly divided into observation group and control group. The patients of observation group were treated with pranoprofen combined with normal post-operative therapy for 1mo. We set 4 points(1d, 7d, 15d and 30d after surgery)to dynamically analyze the fluctuation of inflammation score, central macular retinal thickness(CMT), macular foveola retinal thickness(MFRT), and the light receptor inner segment and outer segment layer(IS/OS). We set two points(before and 30d after surgery)to dynamically observe the alteration of superoxide dismutase(SOD), malondialdehyde(MDA)and VEGF.RESULTS: The levels of inflammation index in control group were higher than those in observation group 7d, 15d and 30d after surgery, respectively(PPPPPPPCONCLUSION: Pranoprofen considerably relieve levels of inflammation injury and down-regulate circulating levels of VEGF, which contributes its promotion in the recovery of retinal structure after surgery.

Undernutrition during early life may lead to obesity in adulthood. This study was conducted to examine the relationship between famine exposure during early life and the risk of abdominal obesity in adulthood. A total of 18,984 and 16,594 adults were surveyed in 2002 and 2010–2012 in two nationally representative cross-sectional surveys, namely China Nutrition and Health Survey, respectively. The risk of abdominal obesity was evaluated for participants born during 1956–1961 and compared with that of participants born during 1962–1964. The overall prevalence of abdominal obesity in adulthood showed a positive association with famine exposure during early life. The odds ratios of famine exposure were 1.31 (1.19–1.44) and 1.28 (1.17–1.40) in 2002 during fetal life and infancy and 1.09 (1.00–1.19) in 2012 during fetal life, respectively. The relationships between famine exposure and abdominal obesity across the famine exposure groups were distinct among females and those who lived in urban areas and were physical inactive (p < 0.05). Exposure to famine during early life was associated with increased risks of abdominal obesity in adulthood, which was partially alleviated by healthy lifestyle factors (e.g., physical activity).

Childhood obesity is associated with both near- and longer-term health implications. Few studies have been conducted to explore the associations between dietary patterns and obesity among Chinese children and adolescents. The present study was designed to identify dietary patterns and their relationships with childhood obesity in medium and small cities. This is a cross-sectional study of children participants aged 6–17 years old in the 2010–2012 China Nutrition and Health Survey (CNHS). Socio-demographics, life-style, physical activity, anthropometric variables, and hundred-item food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) were collected. Household income was classified as low, middle, and high. Traffic tools, from non-advanced to advanced, included walking, biking, bus, and car. Dietary patterns were identified using factor analysis of data from FFQs. Two dietary patterns were identified: a Westernized pattern (i.e., high cakes, snacks, sugary beverages, aquatic products, red meat, fruits, and nuts) and a Traditional Chinese pattern (i.e., high cereals, tubers, legumes, fried cereal food, and vegetables). The Westernized pattern was positively correlated with energy intake, household income, traffic tools, and negative correlated with age and housework time. The Traditional Chinese pattern was positively correlated with age, energy intake, and housework time, and negatively correlated with household income and traffic tools. After adjusting for confounding factors, the Westernized pattern was found to be associated with BMI increment, yielding β coefficients (95% confidence interval, 95% CI) of 0.57 (0.40, 0.85) for the fourth quartile. In addition, the Westernized pattern was also found to be significantly associated with an increased risk of obesity, yielding an odds ratio (OR, 95% CI) of 1.49 (1.21, 1.84) from fully-adjusted confounders. Promoting healthier eating patterns could help to prevent obesity in Chinese children. The findings of this study could be used to guide the development of evidence-based preventive nutrition interventions to curb childhood obesity epidemic in small–medium cities in China.