Random effects meta-analysis model is an important tool for integrating results from multiple independent studies. However, the standard model is based on the assumption of normal distributions for both random effects and within-study errors, making it susceptible to outlying studies. Although robust modeling using the t distribution is an appealing idea, the existing work, that explores the use of the t distribution only for random effects, involves complicated numerical integration and numerical optimization. In this article, a novel robust meta-analysis model using the t distribution is proposed (tMeta). The novelty is that the marginal distribution of the effect size in tMeta follows the t distribution, enabling that tMeta can simultaneously accommodate and detect outlying studies in a simple and adaptive manner. A simple and fast EM-type algorithm is developed for maximum likelihood estimation. Due to the mathematical tractability of the t distribution, tMeta frees from numerical integration and allows for efficient optimization. Experiments on real data demonstrate that tMeta is compared favorably with related competitors in situations involving mild outliers. Moreover, in the presence of gross outliers, while related competitors may fail, tMeta continues to perform consistently and robustly.

We demonstrated a method to improve the output performance of a Ti:sapphire laser in the long-wavelength low-gain region with an efficient stimulated Raman scattering process. By shifting the wavelength of the high-gain-band Ti:sapphire laser to the long-wavelength low-gain region, high-performance Stokes operation was achieved in the original long-wavelength low-gain region of the Ti:sapphire laser. With the fundamental wavelength tuning from 870 to 930 nm, first-order Stokes output exceeding 2.5 W was obtained at 930–1000 nm, which was significantly higher than that directly generated by the Ti:sapphire laser, accompanied by better beam quality, shorter pulse duration and narrower linewidth. Under the pump power of 42.1 W, a maximum first-order Stokes power of 3.24 W was obtained at 960 nm, with a conversion efficiency of 7.7%. Furthermore, self-mode-locked modulations of first- and second-order Stokes generation were observed in Ti:sapphire intracavity solid Raman lasers for the first time.

The AIMTB rapid test assay is an emerging test, which adopted a fluorescence immunochromatographic assay to measure interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production following stimulation of effector memory T cells in whole blood by mycobacterial proteins. The aim of this article was to explore the ability of AIMTB rapid test assay in detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection compared with the widely applied QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) test among rural doctors in China. In total, 511 participants were included in the survey. The concordance between the QFT-Plus test and the AIMTB rapid test assay was 94.47% with a Cohen’s kappa coefficient (κ) of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.79–0.90). Improved concordance between the two tests was observed in males and in participants with 26 or more years of service as rural doctors. The quantitative values of the QFT-Plus test was higher in individuals with a result of QFT-Plus-/AIMTB+ as compared to those with a result of QFT-Plus-/AIMTB- (p < 0.001). Overall, our study found that there was an excellent consistency between the AIMTB rapid test assay and the QFT-Plus test in a Chinese population. As the AIMTB rapid test assay is fast and easy to operate, it has the potential to improve latent tuberculosis infection testing and treatment at the community level in resource-limited settings.

This study aimed to explore extracellular microRNA derived from Echinococcus multilocularis (EM) in the plasma of patients with alveolar echinococcosis (AE) and assess its potential as a diagnostic biomarker. EM-derived miRNAs were identified in plasma samples from 20 AE patients through miRNA sequencing. Three novel miRNA molecules (emu-miR-novel 1, 2 and 3) were predicted through bioinformatic analysis to elucidate their chromosomal locations, secondary structures and precursor forms. Subsequently, plasma samples from 30 AE patients and 30 controls were utilized to establish an assay via stem-loop reverse transcription PCR, optimizing primers, reaction systems, and conditions to assess cross-reactivity and sensitivity. Clinical validation revealed that emu-miR-novel 1 had the highest diagnostic accuracy, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.8994, a P value of less than 0.0001, a sensitivity of 83.3%, and a specificity of 86.7%. Statistically significant differences were observed between the groups for emu-miR-novel 1 (P < 0.05), whereas emu-miR-novel 2 and 3 showed AUC values of 0.7922 and 0.6883, with P values of 0.0001 and 0.012, respectively, indicating no significant difference between groups (P > 0.05). Furthermore, the assay showed no cross-reactivity with samples from 18 common viruses, 4 parasitic infections, and miRNAs from AE sequenced from 8 species, confirming its high specificity. Emu-miR-novel 1 exhibited a sensitivity of 1 femtomolar. Emu-miR-novel 1 holds promise as a key diagnostic tool for AE, offering a novel perspective and approach for disease diagnosis.

Suppressing mode degradation is the key issue for high-power laser delivery; however, diagnosing mode degradation in its entirety, ranging from the contents and origins to locations, has always been a major obstacle. Here, a versatile approach for tracing the origins of mode coupling is demonstrated through addressing the differential intermodal dispersions of fiber modes. Full recognition for modal contents and the origins of mode degradation are experimentally completed in a two-mode fiber laser delivery system, which assists a significant improvement of beam quality M2 from 1.35 to 1.15 at the highest power of over 300 W. This method yields a quantitative characterization for manipulating the individual mode of dual-mode coupling origins or their combinations. This work points toward a promising strategy for the online tracing of mode coupling in cascade fiber links, thus enabling further pursuit of seeking extreme beam quality in high-power fiber laser systems.

In two-dimensional (2D) electron systems, the viscous flow is dominant when electron-electron collisions occur more frequently than the impurity or phonon scattering. In this work, a quantum hydrodynamic model, considering viscosity, is proposed to investigate the interaction of a charged particle moving above the two-dimensional viscous electron gas. The stopping power, perturbed electron gas density, and the spatial distribution of the velocity vector field have been theoretically analyzed and numerically calculated. The calculation results show that viscosity affects the spatial distribution and amplitude of the velocity field. The stopping power, which is an essential quantity for describing the interactions of ions with the 2D electron gas, is calculated, indicating that the incident particle will suffer less energy loss due to the weakening of the dynamic electron polarization and induced electric field in 2D electron gas with the viscosity. The values of the stopping power may be more accurate after considering the effect of viscosity. Our results may open up new possibilities to control the interaction of ions with 2D electron gas in the surface of metal or semiconductor heterostructure by variation of the viscosity.

Humic acid (HA) can cause environmental pollution, due to which, its removal from aqueous solutions has become an increasingly important issue. Although bentonite has an affinity for HA, the adsorption capacity of raw bentonite is still poor. As a commonly used organic modifier, 3-aminopropyltriethoxyorganosilane (APTES) exhibits excellent flocculation capability for HA. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of the addition of 3-aminopropyltriethoxyorganosilane (APTES) to raw bentonite to increase the adsorption of HA from aqueous solution. The experimental results showed that, when the solid-to-liquid ratio was 1:1, the amino-modified bentonite exhibited the highest adsorption capacity (qmax = 272.23 mg g-1). The adsorption affinity of amino-modified bentonite was mainly determined by the number of amino groups loaded onto its surface. The adsorption of HA on amino-modified bentonite occurred through electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonding. These findings demonstrate the excellent potential of amino-modified bentonite in effectively remediating HA pollution.

While individuals’ proactive career behaviors (PCBs) are critical to sustainable career outcomes, knowledge of how and when PCBs translate into these outcomes is limited. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory and the socially embedded model of thriving, this study examines the psychological process through which PCBs translate into two sustainable career outcomes (i.e., subjective career success and perceived employability). Based on data collected from 228 participants in a Chinese company, our findings reveal that PCBs positively predict subjective career success and perceived employability by fostering thriving at work. Furthermore, the indirect association between PCBs and perceived employability via thriving at work is strengthened when participants’ perception of humble leadership is high. This study extends our knowledge by identifying a psychological mechanism that explains how employees’ PCBs translate into sustainable career outcomes and enriches our understanding of the boundary conditions of PCBs by identifying humble leadership as an important factor.

As frontline workers, pharmacists often face significant work stress, especially in psychiatric settings. A multicenter cross-sectional design was conducted in 41 psychiatric hospitals. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale–21 (DASS-21) was used to measure the mental health of 636 pharmacists. We also collected demographic data and work-related variables. The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress was 20.60%, 22.96% and 8.96%, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression showed that several common factors were associated with depression, anxiety and stress, including professional identity (odds ratio [OR] = 0.132, 0.381 and 0.352) and verbal violence (OR = 2.068, 2.615 and 2.490). Those who were satisfied with their job were less likely to develop depression (OR = 0.234) or anxiety (OR = 0.328). We found specific factors associated with mental health. Older age (OR = 1.038) and perceived negative impact (OR = 2.398) of COVID-19 on medical work were associated with anxiety, and those with frontline experience with COVID-19 patients (OR = 2.306) were more likely to experience stress. More than one-fifth of pharmacists in psychiatric hospitals experienced symptoms of depression or anxiety during the pandemic, highlighting the need for policy change to improve workplace conditions and psychological well-being for this professional group.

We present the third data release from the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) project. The release contains observations of 32 pulsars obtained using the 64-m Parkes ‘Murriyang’ radio telescope. The data span is up to 18 yr with a typical cadence of 3 weeks. This data release is formed by combining an updated version of our second data release with $\sim$3 yr of more recent data primarily obtained using an ultra-wide-bandwidth receiver system that operates between 704 and 4032 MHz. We provide calibrated pulse profiles, flux density dynamic spectra, pulse times of arrival, and initial pulsar timing models. We describe methods for processing such wide-bandwidth observations and compare this data release with our previous release.

The target backsheath field acceleration mechanism is one of the main mechanisms of laser-driven proton acceleration (LDPA) and strongly depends on the comprehensive performance of the ultrashort ultra-intense lasers used as the driving sources. The successful use of the SG-II Peta-watt (SG-II PW) laser facility for LDPA and its applications in radiographic diagnoses have been manifested by the good performance of the SG-II PW facility. Recently, the SG-II PW laser facility has undergone extensive maintenance and a comprehensive technical upgrade in terms of the seed source, laser contrast and terminal focus. LDPA experiments were performed using the maintained SG-II PW laser beam, and the highest cutoff energy of the proton beam was obviously increased. Accordingly, a double-film target structure was used, and the maximum cutoff energy of the proton beam was up to 70 MeV. These results demonstrate that the comprehensive performance of the SG-II PW laser facility was improved significantly.

In recent years, a Trigonorhinus sp. (Coleoptera) has caused serious damage to Caragana liouana Zhao Y. Chang and Yakovlev, a major ecological restoration shrub in China. Here, we survey the occurrence and damage pattern of Trigonorhinus sp. and its galls and compare the growth of affected and unaffected plants. Trigonorhinus sp. larvae usually infest the main trunk and lateral branches of the plant, causing the affected branches to become partially swollen and verrucose. Galls develop in stages depending on whether eggs are laid in May or July and proceed in sequence over three years from egg-laying to formation, expansion, dormancy, maturity, dormancy, maturity, and death. Galls inhibit plant development to some extent. On average, six (at least one, and no more than 18; standard error of the mean = 3) larvae occupy each gall, and the number of larvae within a gall did not significantly affect gall size. Gall size significantly affected branch dieback, and large-diameter infested branches had larger galls. This study clarifies the growth dynamics of Trigonorhinus sp. galls and provides a basis for further research into the growth mechanism of the species’ galls.

Everyone faces uncertainty on a daily basis. Two kinds of probability expressions, verbal and numerical, have been used to characterize the uncertainty that we face. Because our cognitive concept of living things differs from that of non-living things, and distinguishing cognitive concepts might have linguistic markers, we designed four studies to test whether people use different probability expressions when faced with animate or inanimate uncertainty. We found that verbal probability is the preferred way to express animate uncertainty, whereas numerical probability is the preferred way to express inanimate uncertainty. The “verbal-animate” and “numerical-inanimate” associations were robust enough to persist when tested with forced-choice response patterns regardless of the information (e.g., equally likely outcomes, frequencies, or personal beliefs) used to construct probabilities of events. When the response pattern was changed to free-responses, the associations were evident unless the subjects were asked to write their own probability predictions for vague uncertainty. Given that the world around us consists of both animate (i.e., living) and inanimate (i.e., non-living) things, “verbal-animate” and “numerical-inanimate” associations may play a major role in risk communication and may otherwise be useful for practitioners and consultants.

According to the positive time-discounting assumption of intertemporal decision-making, people prefer to undergo negative events in the future rather than in the present. However, negative discounting has been identified in the intertemporal choice and loss domains, which refers to people’s preference to experience negative events earlier rather than later. Studies have validated and supported the "anticipated dread" as an explanation for negative discounting. This study again explored the effect of anticipated dread on intertemporal choice using content analysis; that is, having participants identify anticipated dread among reasons for negative discounting. This study also validated the effect of anticipated dread on negative discounting by manipulating anticipated dread. This study adds empirical and direct evidence for the role of anticipated dread in negative discounting.

Intertemporal choices involve tradeoffs between outcomes that occur at different times. Most of the research has used pure gains tasks and the discount rates yielding from those tasks to explain and predict real-world behaviors and consequences. However, real decisions are often more complex and involve mixed outcomes (e.g., sooner-gain and later-loss or sooner-loss and later-gain). No study has used mixed gain-loss intertemporal tradeoff tasks to explain and predict real-world behaviors and consequences, and studies involving such tasks are also scarce. Considering that tasks involving a combination of gains and losses may yield different discount rates and that existing pure gains tasks do not explain or predict real-world outcomes well, this study conducted two experiments to compare the discount rates of mixed gain-loss intertemporal tradeoffs with those of pure gains or pure losses (Experiment 1) and to examine whether these tasks predicted different real-world behaviors and consequences (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 suggests that the discount rate ordering of the four tasks was, from highest to lowest, pure gains, sooner-loss and later-gain, pure losses, and sooner-gain and later-loss. Experiment 2 indicates that the evidence supporting the claim that the discount rates of the four tasks were related to different real-world behaviors and consequences was insufficient.

Recently, Scholten and Read (2014) found new violations of dominance in intertemporal choice. Although adding a small receipt before a delayed payment or adding a small delayed receipt after an immediate receipt makes the prospect objectively better, it decreases the preference for that prospect (better is worse). Conversely, although adding a small payment before a delayed receipt or adding a small delayed payment after an immediate payment makes the prospect objectively worse, it increases the preference for that prospect (worse is better). Scholten and Read explained these violations in terms of a preference for improvement. However, to produce violations such as these, we find that the temporal sequences need not be constructed as Scholten and Read suggested. In this study, adding a small receipt before a dated receipt (thus constructed as improving) or adding a receipt after a dated payment (thus constructed as improving) decreases preferences for those prospects. Conversely, adding a small payment after a dated receipt (thus constructed as deteriorating) or adding a small payment before a delayed payment (thus constructed as deteriorating) increases preferences for those prospects.