Xiangranggounan is an intensively occupied settlement associated with the Kayue culture on the north-eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Excavations in 2022 and 2023 revealed five house types with clear stratigraphic relationships that help to expand current understanding of the evolution of prehistoric settlement patterns in harsh plateau environments.

Mamyshev oscillators (MOs) exhibit the potential for generating high average power and ultrashort pulses. Herein, we construct an MO using flexible double-cladding ytterbium-fiber with a fusion-spliced-combiner pumped scheme. Consistent with the most reported research results, the offset filter separation significantly affects the pulse characteristics (spectrum, pulse duration, etc.). Notably, in comparison with red-shifting, blue-shifting the peak spectral emission of the grating filter relative to a constant central wavelength of the bandpass filter substantially enhances the laser output characteristics. This phenomenon, which has not been previously reported, results in an average power up to 2.23 W and a pulse duration as short as 49 fs. To our knowledge, this is the highest average power achieved in sub-50 fs pulse duration in the nonlinear polarization rotation-assisted mode-locked MO laser architecture. The presented technique offers unique scientific proof for developing ultrafast laser sources with higher average power and shorter pulse duration.

China is still among the 30 high-burden tuberculosis (TB) countries in the world. Few studies have described the spatial epidemiological characteristics of pulmonary TB (PTB) in Jiangsu Province. The registered incidence data of PTB patients in 95 counties of Jiangsu Province from 2011 to 2021 were collected from the Tuberculosis Management Information System. Three-dimensional spatial trends, spatial autocorrelation, and spatial–temporal scan analysis were conducted to explore the spatial clustering pattern of PTB. From 2011 to 2021, a total of 347,495 newly diagnosed PTB cases were registered. The registered incidence rate of PTB decreased from 49.78/100,000 in 2011 to 26.49/100,000 in 2021, exhibiting a steady downward trend (χ2 = 414.22, P < 0.001). The average annual registered incidence rate of PTB was higher in the central and northern regions. Moran’s I indices of the registered incidence of PTB were all >0 (P< 0.05) except in 2016, indicating a positive spatial correlation overall. Local autocorrelation analysis showed that ‘high–high’ clusters were mainly distributed in northern Jiangsu, and ‘low–low’ clusters were mainly concentrated in southern Jiangsu. The results of this study assist in identifying settings and locations of high TB risk and inform policy-making for PTB control and prevention.

Various psychosocial and psychological interventions have been developed to reduce schizophrenia relapse prevention. A better understanding of these active interventions is important for clinical practice and for meaningful allocation of resources. However, no bibliometric analysis of this area has been conducted. Studies were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. The publication outputs and cooperation of institutions were visualized with Origin 2021. Global cooperation was visualized using ArcGIS Pro3.0. VOSviewer was used to generate visualizations of network of authors and keywords. The number of annual publications generally showed a fluctuating upward trend over the past 20 years. Germany published the most relevant articles (361, 26.76%). The Technical University of Munich was the most productive institution (70, 9.86%). Leucht Stefan published the most articles (46, 6.48%) and had the highest number of citations (4,375 citations). Schizophrenia Research published the most studies (39, 5.49%). Keywords were roughly classified into three clusters: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), family interventions and family psychoeducation and other factors related to interventions. The findings provided the current status of research on psychosocial and psychological interventions for schizophrenia relapse prevention from a bibliometric perspective. Recent research has mainly focused on CBT, family interventions and family psychoeducation.

LongYan kaolin has a large Fe content which affects the coloring. Bioleaching treatments to remove Fe impurities were conducted here using indigenous dissimilatory Fe(III)-reducing bacteria. The factors that affect bioleaching efficiency include bioleaching time, carbon source, pH, temperature, pulp density, and inoculum density and these were examined. Environmental scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were used to examine any textural or mineralogical changes at the surface of the kaolin that may have occurred during the bioleaching. Iron impurities in the kaolin were reduced from 0.88% to 0.48% with an increase in the natural whiteness index from 60.8% to 81.5% after 7 days of bioleaching treatment. A granulometric analysis of dispersed kaolin demonstrated that the bioleaching resulted in a decrease in particle size. The results demonstrated that the bioleaching was very effective at improving the quality of the kaolin, where insoluble Fe(III), either adsorbed to the kaolin surfaces or admixed as amorphous forms, was leached out by micro-organisms as water-soluble Fe(II).

In vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) have allowed millions of infertile couples to achieve pregnancy. As an essential part of IVF/ICSI enabling the retrieval of a high number of oocytes in one cycle, controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) treatment mainly composes of the standard long gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH-a) protocol and the gonadotrophin-releasing hormone antagonist (GnRH-ant) protocol. However, the effectiveness of GnRH-ant protocol is still debated because of inconsistent conclusions and insufficient subgroup analyses. This systematic review and meta-analysis included a total of 52 studies, encompassing 5193 participants in the GnRH-ant group and 4757 in the GnRH-a group. The findings of this study revealed that the GnRH-ant protocol is comparable with the long GnRH-a protocol when considering live birth as the primary outcome, and it is a favourable protocol with evidence reducing the incidence of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome in women undergoing IVF/ICSI, especially in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Further research is needed to compare the subsequent cumulative live birth rate between the two protocols among the general and poor ovarian response patients since those patients have a lower clinical pregnancy rate, fewer oocytes retrieved or fewer high-grade embryos in the GnRH-ant protocol.

Constraining the timing and extent of Quaternary glaciations in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is significant for the reconstruction of paleoclimatic environment and understanding the interrelationships among climate, tectonics, and glacial systems. We investigated the late Quaternary glacial history of the Qinggulong and Juequ valleys in the Taniantaweng Mountains, southeastern TP, using cosmogenic 10Be surface exposure dating. Four major glacial events were identified based on 26 10Be ages. The exposure ages of the oldest late Quaternary glaciation correspond to Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 6. The maximum glacial extent was dated to 48.5–41.1 ka (MIS 3), during the last glaciation, and was more advanced than that of the last glacial maximum (LGM). Geochronology and geomorphological evidence indicate that multiple glacial fluctuations occurred in the study area during the Early–Middle Holocene. These glacial fluctuations likely were driven by the North Atlantic climate oscillations, summer solar insolation variability, Asian summer monsoon intensity, and CO2 concentration.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the mental health of healthcare workers (HCWs). We aimed to identify the factors associated with depression among HCWs during the pandemic. We conducted literature search using eight electronic databases up to July 27 2022. Observational studies with more than 200 participants investigating correlates of depression in HCWs after COVID-19 outbreak were included. We used fixed- and random-effects models to pool odds ratios (ORs) across studies, and Cochran's chi-squared test and I2 statistics to assess study heterogeneity. Publication bias was evaluated by funnel plots. Thirty-five studies involving 44,362 HCWs met the inclusion criteria. Female (OR=1.50, 95% CI [1.23,1.84]), single (OR=1.36, 95% CI [1.21,1.54]), nurse (OR=1.69, 95% CI [1.28,2.25]), history of mental diseases (OR=2.53, 95% CI [1.78,3.58]), frontline (OR=1.79, 95% CI [1.38,2.32]), health anxiety due to COVID-19 (OR=1.88, 95% CI [1.29,2.76]), working in isolation wards (OR=1.98, 95% CI [1.38,2.84]), and insufficient personal protective equipment (OR=1.49, 95% CI [1.33,1.67]) were associated with increased risk of depression. Instead, HCWs with a positive professional prospect (OR=0.34, 95% CI [0.24,0.49]) were less likely to be depressed. This meta-analysis provides up-to-date evidence on the factors linked to depression among HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the persistent threats posed by COVID-19, early screening is crucial for the intervention and prevention of depression in HCWs.

The 4H-SiC crystal is found to have great potential in terahertz generation via nonlinear optical frequency conversion due to its extremely high optical damage threshold, wide transparent range, etc. In this paper, optical rectification (OR) with tilted-pulse-front (TPF) setting based on the 4H-SiC crystal is proposed. The theory accounts for the optimization of incident pulse pre-chirping in the TPF OR process under high-intensity femtosecond laser pumping. Compared with the currently recognized LiNbO3-based TPF OR, which generates a single-cycle terahertz pulse within 3 THz, 4H-SiC demonstrates a significant advantage in producing ultra-widely tunable (up to over 14 THz, TPF angle 31°–38°) terahertz waves with high efficiency (~10–2) and strong field (~MV/cm). Besides, the spectrum characteristics, as well as the evolution from single- to multi-cycle terahertz pulses can be modulated flexibly by pre-chirping. The simulation results show that 4H-SiC enables terahertz frequency extending to an unprecedent range by OR, which has extremely important potential in strong-field terahertz applications.

Many protected areas worldwide have been established to protect the last natural refuges of flagship animal species. However, long-established protected areas do not always match the current distributions of target species under changing environmental conditions. Here we present a case study of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus in Xishuangbanna, south-west China, to evaluate whether the established protected areas match the species’ current distribution and to identify key habitat patches for Asian elephant conservation. Our results show that currently only 24.5% of the predicted Asian elephant distribution in Xishuangbanna is located within Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, which was established for elephant conservation. Based on the predicted Asian elephant distribution, we identified the most important habitat patches for elephant conservation in Xishuangbanna. The three most important patches were outside Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and together they contained 43.3% of the estimated food resources for Asian elephants in all patches in Xishuangbanna. Thus, we identified a spatial mismatch between immobile protected areas and mobile animals. We recommend the inclusion of the three identified key habitat patches in a new national park currently being planned by the Chinese authorities for the conservation of the Asian elephant.

We present a fast and accurate data-driven surrogate model for divertor plasma detachment prediction leveraging the latent feature space concept in machine learning research. Our approach involves constructing and training two neural networks: an autoencoder that finds a proper latent space representation (LSR) of plasma state by compressing the multi-modal diagnostic measurements and a forward model using multi-layer perception (MLP) that projects a set of plasma control parameters to its corresponding LSR. By combining the forward model and the decoder network from autoencoder, this new data-driven surrogate model is able to predict a consistent set of diagnostic measurements based on a few plasma control parameters. In order to ensure that the crucial detachment physics is correctly captured, highly efficient 1D UEDGE model is used to generate training and validation data in this study. The benchmark between the data-driven surrogate model and UEDGE simulations shows that our surrogate model is capable of providing accurate detachment prediction (usually within a few per cent relative error margin) but with at least four orders of magnitude speed-up, indicating that performance-wise, it has the potential to facilitate integrated tokamak design and plasma control. Comparing with the widely used two-point model and/or two-point model formatting, the new data-driven model features additional detachment front prediction and can be easily extended to incorporate richer physics. This study demonstrates that the complicated divertor and scrape-off-layer plasma state has a low-dimensional representation in latent space. Understanding plasma dynamics in latent space and utilising this knowledge could open a new path for plasma control in magnetic fusion energy research.