This paper provides an overview of the current status of ultrafast and ultra-intense lasers with peak powers exceeding 100 TW and examines the research activities in high-energy-density physics within China. Currently, 10 high-intensity lasers with powers over 100 TW are operational, and about 10 additional lasers are being constructed at various institutes and universities. These facilities operate either independently or are combined with one another, thereby offering substantial support for both Chinese and international research and development efforts in high-energy-density physics.

Using double auction market experiments with both human and agent traders, we demonstrate that agent traders prioritising low latency often generate, sometimes perversely so, diminished earnings in a variety of market structures and configurations. With respect to the benefit of low latency, we only find superior performance of fast-Zero Intelligence Plus (ZIP) buyers to human buyers in balanced markets with the same number of human and fast-ZIP buyers and sellers. However, in markets with a preponderance of agents on one side of the market and a noncompetitive market structure, such as monopolies and duopolies, fast-ZIP agents fall into a speed trap. In such speed traps, fast-ZIP agents capture minimal surplus and, in some cases, experience near first-degree price discrimination. In contrast, the trader performance of slow-ZIP agents is comparable to that of human counterparts, or even better in certain market conditions.

Immunological castration can be an alternative to traditional surgical castration. The active immunization against GnRH or kisspeptin has a castrating effect. To date, the fusion protein vaccine of combination with GnRH and kisspeptin have not been studied. Thus, the present study will develop a GnRH6-kisspeptin vaccine by genetic engineering method and investigate its immunocastration effect in male rats. Twenty 20-day-old male rats were randomly divided into two groups: the control group (n=10) and the immunization group (n=10). The initial immunization took place at week 0 followed by three booster doses administered intervals. The control group received an equivalent dose of white oil adjuvant. Orbital blood samples were collected at various time points following the initial immunization, at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 weeks, respectively. The entire left testis was weighed and its volume measured at week 12. Samples from the right testis were obtained for histological analysis. Serum levels of GnRH and kisspeptin antibodies, as well as testosterone levels were determined using ELISA. The results showed that the serum levels of GnRH and kisspeptin antibody titres of the immunized rats were significantly higher compared to the control group (P<0.05). Additionally, the testosterone concentration was effectively reduced following the intensified immunization. The testes of the immunized group exhibited a reduction in size and a significant decrease in the number of spermatogonia in the testicular tissue compared to the control group (P<0.05). These data indicate that the recombinant GnRH6-kisspeptin protein effectively induced immunological castration in rats.

Based on a 4f system, a 0° reflector and a single laser diode side-pump amplifier, a new amplifier is designed to compensate the spherical aberration of the amplified laser generated by a single laser diode side-pump amplifier and enhance the power of the amplified laser. Furthermore, the role of the 4f system in the passive spherical aberration compensation and its effect on the amplified laser are discussed in detail. The results indicate that the amplification efficiency is enhanced by incorporating a 4f system in a double-pass amplifier and placing a 0° reflector only at the focal point of the single-pass amplified laser. This method also effectively uses the heat from the gain medium (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet) of the amplifier to compensate the spherical aberration of the amplified laser.

Although it is well established that gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with fetal overgrowth in singleton pregnancies, little is known about its role in twins. We aimed to explore the relationship between GDM and the longitudinal fetal growth in twin pregnancies. This was a retrospective matched cohort study of GDM and non-GDM twin pregnancies delivered ≥36 weeks without other complications. All the women performed ≥3 ultrasounds after 22 weeks. Linear mixed models (LMMs) were used to explore the relationships between longitudinal fetal growth trajectories and GDM. Group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM) and generalized estimating equation (GEE) were applied to identify the latent growth patterns and investigate their relationships with GDM. In total, 215 GDM and 645 non-GDM twins were included, the majority of the patients did not require medication therapy (n = 202, GDMA1). LMM revealed that, compared with non-GDM, GDM was associated with an average increase in fetal weight of 4.36 g (95% CI [1.25, 7.48]) per week. GBTM and GEE further revealed that GDM increased the odds of fetal weight trajectory to nearly 40% of the total fetal weight trajectory, classified into the high-speed group (aOR = 1.39, 95% CI [1.03, 1.88]), associating with a 49.44 g (95% CI [11.41, 87.48]) increase in birth weight. Subgroup analysis revealed that all these differences were only significant among the GDMA1 pregnancies (p < .05). GDM (GDMA1) is significantly associated with an increase in fetal weight during gestation in twin pregnancies. However, this acceleration is mild, and its significance requires further exploration.

Reliability analysis of stress–strength models usually assumes that the stress and strength variables are independent. However, in numerous real-world scenarios, stress and strength variables exhibit dependence. This paper investigates the reliability estimation in a multicomponent stress–strength model for parallel-series system assuming that the dependence between stress and strength is based on the Clayton copula. The estimators for the unknown parameters and system reliability are derived using the two-step maximum likelihood estimation and the maximum product spacing methods. Additionally, confidence intervals are constructed by utilizing asymptotically normal distribution theory and bootstrap method. Furthermore, Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to compare the effectiveness of the proposed inference methods. Finally, a real dataset is analyzed for illustrative purposes.

The ubiquitous marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) constrains the construction of reliable chronologies for marine sediments and the further comparison of paleoclimate records. Different reference values were suggested from various archives. However, it remains unclear how climate and MREs interact. Here we studied two pre-bomb corals from the Hainan Island and Xisha Island in the northern South China Sea (SCS), to examine the relationship between MRE and regional climate change. We find that the MRE from east of Hainan Island is mainly modulated by the Southern Asian Summer Monsoon-induced precipitation (with 11.4% contributed to seawater), rather than wind induced upwelling. In contrast, in the relatively open seawater of Xisha Island, the MRE is dominated by the East Asian Winter Monsoon, with relatively more negative (lower) ΔR values associated with high wind speeds, implying horizontal transport of seawater. The average SCS ΔR value relative to the Marine20 curve is –161±39 14C years. Our finding highlights the essential role of monsoon in regulating the MRE in the northern SCS, in particularly the tight bond between east Asian winter monsoon and regional MRE.

When a word is being translated, its immediately adjacent lexical items may impact the translation of the target word. However, the impact of adjacent lexical items on the oral translation of a target word situated in central vision remains unexplored. This behavioral study used a bilingual version of the flanker paradigm to examine the impact of within- and cross-language semantic effects on oral word translation. Unbalanced bilinguals were presented with a central target word that was flanked by two flanking words on either side. The target-flanker relations were manipulated as a function of semantic relatedness (identical, related and unrelated) and language congruency (congruent and incongruent). The task was to orally translate the target word from L1 to L2 (forward translation) in one session and from L2 to L1 (backward translation) in the other while ignoring the flanker words. Results showed faster responses for forward compared to backward translation. Moreover, in within-language (congruent) but not in cross-language (incongruent) contexts, semantic priming effects were observed in both directions of translation, with the effects being larger for backward than forward translation. Additionally, substantial cross-language semantic repetition priming effects were obtained. The findings are discussed within the framework of a two-process account for oral word translation.

Stimulated Raman scattering is a third-order nonlinear optical effect that is not only effective for wavelength converting laser output, but also for single longitudinal-mode output due to the absence of spatial hole burning. Diamond is a prominent Raman-active medium that has significant potential for linewidth narrowing and wavelength converting lasers at high power levels due to its high thermal conductivity, long Raman frequency shift and wide spectral transmission range. In this work we utilize diamond in a resonantly mode-matched external cavity to achieve cascaded Raman conversion of a 1064 nm laser. By fine-tuning the length of this external cavity, we can obtain narrow linewidth emission at 1240 and 1485 nm. When operating at maximum power, the measured linewidths were more than twofold narrower than the linewidth of the fundamental field. In addition, the noise levels of the Stokes fields are lower than that of the fundamental field throughout the entire noise frequency range, and the intrinsic linewidth of the second Stokes field, which is expressed at the hertz level (~3.6 Hz), is decreased by approximately three orders of magnitude compared to that of the pump. This work represents the first measurement and analysis of the linewidth and noise characteristics of cascaded diamond Raman lasers and, significantly, offers a new means by which high-power, narrow linewidth laser output can be produced from wavelength-converted laser systems.

The objective of this study was to investigate the genetic link between the age at first birth (AFB) and the occurrence of preterm labor and delivery, utilizing Mendelian randomization (MR) data alongside genomewide association analysis (GWAS). We obtained AFB-related GWAS summary data from the European Bioinformatics Institute database and preterm labor and delivery data was sourced from the FinnGen Consortium. The study considered AFB as exposure variables, with the incidence of preterm labor and delivery serving as the outcome variable. Several MR analysis methods, such as inverse-variance weighted (IVW), MR Egger, weighted median, simple, and weighted mode were utilized. Besides MR-Egger intercepts, Cochrane’s Q test evaluated heterogeneity in the MR data, while MR-PRESSO test checked for horizontal pleiotropy. To assess the association’s sensitivity, A leave-one-out approach was utilized to evaluate the sensitivity of the association. The IVW analysis validated that AFB is an independent risk factor for preterm labor and delivery (p < .001). Horizontal pleiotropy was unlikely to bias causality (p > .05). The likelihood of horizontal pleiotropy affecting causality was low (p > .05), and there was no indication of heterogeneity among the genetic variants (p > .05). Ultimately, a leave-one-out analysis confirmed the stability and reliability of this correlation. Our research indicated that AFB is a protective factor for preterm labor and delivery. Further research is required to clarify the possible mechanisms.

Aiming at the problem of fast and consensus obstacle avoidance of multiple unmanned aerial systems in undirected network, a multi-quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs (QUAVs) finite-time consensus obstacle avoidance algorithm is proposed. In this paper, multi-QUAVs establish communication through the leader-following method, and the formation is led by the leader to fly to the target position automatically and avoid obstacles autonomously through the improved artificial potential field method. The finite-time consensus protocol controls multi-QUAVs to form a desired formation quickly, considering the existence of communication and input delay, and rigorously proves the convergence of the proposed protocol. A trajectory segmentation strategy is added to the improved artificial potential field method to reduce trajectory loss and improve the task execution efficiency. The simulation results show that multi-QUAVs can be assembled to form the desired formation quickly, and the QUAV formation can avoid obstacles and maintain the formation unchanged while avoiding obstacles.

The self-generated magnetic field in three-dimensional (3-D) single-mode ablative Rayleigh–Taylor instability (ARTI) relevant to the acceleration phase of a direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosion is investigated. It is found that stronger magnetic fields up to a few thousand teslas can be generated by 3-D ARTI rather than by its two-dimensional (2-D) counterpart. The Nernst effects significantly alter the magnetic field convection and amplify the magnetic fields. The magnetic field of thousands of teslas yields the Hall parameter of the order of unity, leading to profound magnetized heat flux modification. While the magnetic field significantly accelerates the bubble growth in the short-wavelength 2-D modes through modifying the heat fluxes, the magnetic field mostly accelerates the spike growth but has little influence on the bubble growth in 3-D ARTI. The accelerated growth of spikes in 3-D ARTI is expected to enhance material mixing and degrade ICF implosion performance. This work is focused on a regime relevant to direct-drive ICF parameters at the National Ignition Facility, and it also covers a range of key parameters that are relevant to other ICF designs and hydrodynamic/astrophysical scenarios.