This paper investigates the monolithic edge-cladding process for the elliptical disk of N31-type Nd-doped phosphate laser glass, which will be utilized under liquid cooling conditions for high-power laser systems. The thermal stress, interface bubbles and residual reflectivity, which are due to high-temperature casting and bonding during the monolithic edge-cladding process, are simulated and determined. The applied mould is optimized to a rectangular cavity mould, and the casting temperature is optimized to 1000°C. The resulting lower bubble density makes the mean residual reflectivity as low as 6.75 × 10−5, which is enough to suppress the amplified spontaneous emission generated in the Nd-glass disk, and the resulting maximum optical retardation is converged to 10.2–13.3 nm/cm, which is a favourable base for fine annealing to achieve the stress specification of less than or equal to 5 nm/cm. After fine annealing at the optimized 520°C, the maximum optical retardation is as low as 4.8 nm/cm, and the minimum transmitted wavefront peak-to-valley value is 0.222 wavelength (632.8 nm). An N31 elliptical disk with the size of 194 mm × 102 mm × 40 mm can be successfully cladded by the optimized monolithic edge-cladding process, whose edge-cladded disk with the size of 200 mm × 108 mm × 40 mm can achieve laser gain one-third higher than that of an N21-type disk of the same size.

We aimed to evaluate the relationship of plasma Mg with the risk of new-onset hyperuricaemia and examine any possible effect modifiers in hypertensive patients. This is a post hoc analysis of the Uric acid (UA) Sub-study of the China Stroke Primary Prevention Trial (CSPPT). A total of 1685 participants were included in the present study. The main outcome was new-onset hyperuricaemia defined as a UA concentration ≥417 μmol/l in men or ≥357 μmol/l in women. The secondary outcome was a change in UA concentration defined as UA at the exit visit minus that at baseline. During a median follow-up duration of 4·3 years, new-onset hyperuricaemia occurred in 290 (17·2 %) participants. There was a significantly inverse relation of plasma Mg with the risk of new-onset hyperuricaemia (per sd increment; OR 0·85; 95 % CI 0·74, 0·99) and change in UA levels (per sd increment; β −3·96 μmol/l; 95 % CI −7·14, −0·79). Consistently, when plasma Mg was analysed as tertiles, a significantly lower risk of new-onset hyperuricaemia (OR 0·67; 95 % CI 0·48, 0·95) and less increase in UA levels (β −8·35 μmol/l; 95 % CI −16·12, −0·58) were found among participants in tertile 3 (≥885·5 μmol/l) compared with those in tertile 1 (<818·9 μmol/l). Similar trends were found in males and females. Higher plasma Mg levels were associated with a decreased risk of new-onset hyperuricaemia in hypertensive adults.

Copula function has been widely used in insurance and finance for modeling inter-dependency between risks. Inspired by the Bernstein copula put forward by Sancetta and Satchell (2004, Econometric Theory, 20, 535–562), we introduce a new class of multivariate copulas, the composite Bernstein copula, generated from a composition of two copulas. This new class of copula functions is able to capture tail dependence, and it has a reproduction property for the three important dependency structures: comonotonicity, countermonotonicity and independence. We introduce an estimation procedure based on the empirical composite Bernstein copula which incorporates both prior information and data into the estimation. Simulation studies and an empirical study on financial data illustrate the advantages of the empirical composite Bernstein copula estimation method, especially in capturing tail dependence.

Large aperture Nd:phosphate laser glass is a key optical element for an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) facility. N31, one type of neodymium doped phosphate glasses, was developed for high peak power laser facility applications in China. The composition and main properties of N31 glass are given, together with those of LHG-8, LG-770, and KGSS-0180 Nd:phosphate laser glasses, from Hoya and Schott, and from Russia. The technologies of pot melting, continuous melting, and edge cladding of large size N31 phosphate laser glass are briefly described. The small signal gain profiles of N31 glass slabs from both pot melting and continuous melting at various values of the pumping energy of the xenon lamp are presented. N31 glass is characterized by a stimulated emission cross section of $3.8 \times 10^{{-20}}\ \text {cm}^{{2}}$ at 1053 nm, an absorption coefficient of 0.10–0.15% $\text {cm}^{{-1}}$ at laser wavelength, small residual stress around the interface between the cladding glass and the laser glass, optical homogeneity of $\sim $2 $\times $ $10^{{-6}}$ in a 400 mm aperture, and laser damage threshold larger than $42\ \text {J/cm}^{{2}}$ for a 3 ns pulse width at 1064 nm wavelength.