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 purpose of this study was to analyse the clinical characteristics of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) PCR re-positivity after recovering from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Patients (n = 1391) from Guangzhou, China, who had recovered from COVID-19 were recruited between 7 September 2021 and 11 March 2022. Data on epidemiology, symptoms, laboratory test results and treatment were analysed. In this study, 42.7% of recovered patients had re-positive result. Most re-positive patients were asymptomatic, did not have severe comorbidities, and were not contagious. The re-positivity rate was 39%, 46%, 11% and 25% in patients who had received inactivated, mRNA, adenovirus vector and recombinant subunit vaccines, respectively. Seven independent risk factors for testing re-positive were identified, and a predictive model was constructed using these variables. The predictors of re-positivity were COVID-19 vaccination status, previous SARs-CoV-12 infection prior to the most recent episode, renal function, SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM antibody levels and white blood cell count. The predictive model could benefit the control of the spread of COVID-19.

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.

We conducted a replication of Shafir (1993) who showed that people are inconsistent in their preferences when faced with choosing versus rejecting decision-making scenarios. The effect was demonstrated using an enrichment paradigm, asking subjects to choose between enriched and impoverished alternatives, with enriched alternatives having more positive and negative features than the impoverished alternative. Using eight different decision scenarios, Shafir found support for a compatibility principle: subjects chose and rejected enriched alternatives in choose and reject decision scenarios (d = 0.32 [0.23,0.40]), respectively, and indicated greater preference for the enriched alternative in the choice task than in the rejection task (d = 0.38 [0.29,0.46]). In a preregistered very close replication of the original study (N = 1026), we found no consistent support for the hypotheses across the eight problems: two had similar effects, two had opposite effects, and four showed no effects (overall d = −0.01 [−0.06,0.03]). Seeking alternative explanations, we tested an extension, and found support for the accentuation hypothesis.

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.

Bias Blind Spot (BBS) is the phenomenon that people tend to perceive themselves as less susceptible to biases than others. In three pre-registered experiments (overall N = 969), we replicated two experiments of the first demonstration of the phenomenon by Pronin et al. (2002). We found support of the BBS hypotheses, with effects in line with findings in the original study: Participants rated themselves as less susceptible to biases than others (d = –1.00 [–1.33, –0.67]). Deviating from the original, we found an unexpected effect that participants rated themselves as having fewer shortcomings (d = –0.34 [–0.46, –0.23]), though there was support for the target’s main premise that BBS was stronger for biases than for shortcomings (d = –0.43 [–0.56, –0.29]). Extending the replications, we found that beliefs in own free will were positively associated with BBS (r ∼ 0.17–0.22) and that beliefs in both own and general free will were positively associated with self-other asymmetry related to personal shortcomings (r ∼ 0.16–0.24). Materials, datasets, and code are available on https://osf.io/3df5s/.

The dispersed phase in turbulence can vary from almost inviscid fluid to highly viscous fluid. By changing the viscosity of the dispersed droplet phase, we experimentally investigate how the deformability of dispersed droplets affects the global transport quantity of the turbulent emulsion. Different kinds of silicone oil are employed to result in the viscosity ratio, $\zeta$, ranging from $0.53$ to $8.02$. The droplet volume fraction, $\phi$, is varied from 0 % to 10 % with a spacing of 2 %. The global transport quantity, quantified by the normalized friction coefficient $c_{f,\phi }/c_{f,\phi =0}$, shows a weak dependence on the turbulent intensity due to the vanishing finite-size effect of the droplets. The interesting fact is that, with increasing $\zeta$, $c_{f,\phi }/c_{f,\phi =0}$ first increases and then saturates to a plateau value which is similar to that of the rigid particle suspension. By performing image analysis, this drag modification is interpreted from the point of view of droplet deformability, which is responsible for the breakup and coalescence effect of the droplets. The statistics of the droplet size distribution show that, with increasing $\zeta$, the stabilizing effect induced by interfacial tension becomes substantial and the pure inertial breakup process becomes dominant. The measurement of the droplet distribution along the radial direction of the system shows a bulk-clustering effect, which can be attributed to the non-negligible coalescence effect of the droplet. It is found that the droplet coalescence effect could be suppressed as $\zeta$ increases, thereby affecting the contribution of interfacial tension to the total stress, and accounting for the observed emulsion rheology.

By varying the oil volume fraction, the microscopic droplet size and the macroscopic rheology of emulsions are investigated in a Taylor–Couette turbulent shear flow. Although here oil and water in the emulsions have almost the same physical properties (density and viscosity), unexpectedly, we find that oil-in-water (O/W) and water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions have very distinct hydrodynamic behaviours, i.e. the system is clearly asymmetric. By looking at the micro-scales, the average droplet diameter hardly changes with the oil volume fraction for O/W or for W/O. However, for W/O it is about $50\,\%$ larger than that of O/W. At the macro-scales, the effective viscosity of O/W is higher when compared to that of W/O. These asymmetric behaviours are expected to be caused by the presence of surface-active contaminants from the walls of the system. By introducing an oil-soluble surfactant at high concentration, remarkably, we recover the symmetry (droplet size and effective viscosity) between O/W and W/O emulsions. Based on this, we suggest a possible mechanism responsible for the initial asymmetry and reach conclusions on emulsions where interfaces are fully covered by the surfactant. Next, we discuss what sets the droplet size in turbulent emulsions. We uncover a $-6/5$ scaling dependence of the droplet size on the Reynolds number of the flow. Combining the scaling dependence and the droplet Weber number, we conclude that the droplet fragmentation, which determines the droplet size, occurs within the boundary layer and is controlled by the dynamic pressure caused by the gradient of the mean flow, as proposed by Levich (Physicochemical Hydrodynamics, Prentice-Hall, 1962), instead of the dynamic pressure due to turbulent fluctuations, as proposed by Kolmogorov (Dokl. Akad. Nauk. SSSR, vol. 66, 1949, pp. 825–828). The present findings provide an understanding of both the microscopic droplet formation and the macroscopic rheological behaviours in dynamic emulsification, and connects them.

Microtubule-severing proteins (MTSPs) play important roles in mitosis and interphase. However, to the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have evaluated the role of MTSPs in female meiosis in mammals. It was found that FIGNL1, a member of MTSPs, was predominantly expressed in mouse oocytes and distributed at the spindle poles during meiosis in the present study. FIGNL1 was co-localized and interacted with γ-tubulin, an important component of the microtubule tissue centre (MTOC). Fignl1 knockdown by specific small interfering RNA caused spindle defects characterized by an abnormal length:width ratio and decreased microtubule density, which consequently led to aberrant chromosome arrangement, oocyte maturation and fertilization obstacles. In conclusion, the present results suggested that FIGNL1 may be an essential factor in oocyte maturation by influencing the meiosis process via the formation of spindles.

The great demographic pressure brings tremendous volume of beef demand. The key to solve this problem is the growth and development of Chinese cattle. In order to find molecular markers conducive to the growth and development of Chinese cattle, sequencing was used to determine the position of copy number variations (CNVs), bioinformatics analysis was used to predict the function of ZNF146 gene, real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used for CNV genotyping and one-way analysis of variance was used for association analysis. The results showed that there exists CNV in Chr 18: 47225201-47229600 (5.0.1 version) of ZNF146 gene through the early sequencing results in the laboratory and predicted ZNF146 gene was expressed in liver, skeletal muscle and breast cells, and was amplified or overexpressed in pancreatic cancer, which promoted the development of tumour through bioinformatics. Therefore, it is predicted that ZNF146 gene affects the proliferation of muscle cells, and then affects the growth and development of cattle. Furthermore, CNV genotyping of ZNF146 gene was three types (deletion type, normal type and duplication type) by Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (qPCR). The association analysis results showed that ZNF146-CNV was significantly correlated with rump length of Qinchuan cattle, hucklebone width of Jiaxian red cattle and heart girth of Yunling cattle. From the above results, ZNF146-CNV had a significant effect on growth traits, which provided an important candidate molecular marker for growth and development of Chinese cattle.

Due to the lack of research between the inner layers in the structure of colonic mucous and the metabolism of fatty acid in the constipation model, we aim to determine the changes in the mucous phenotype of the colonic glycocalyx and the microbial community structure following treatment with Rhubarb extract in our research. The constipation and treatment models are generated using adult male C57BL/6N mice. We perform light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to detect a Muc2-rich inner mucus layer attached to mice colon under different conditions. In addition, 16S rDNA sequencing is performed to examine the intestinal flora. According to TEM images, we demonstrate that Rhubarb can promote mucin secretion and find direct evidence of dendritic structure-linked mucus structures with its assembly into a lamellar network in a pore size distribution in the isolated colon section. Moreover, the diversity of intestinal flora has noticeable changes in constipated mice. The present study characterizes a dendritic structure and persistent cross-links have significant changes accompanied by the alteration of intestinal flora in feces in models of constipation and pretreatment with Rhubarb extract.

Based on the measurements conducted over the landfast sea ice in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica during the sea-ice growth season in 2016, various parameterization schemes in the high-resolution thermodynamic snow/ice model HIGHTSI are evaluated. The parameterization scheme of turbulent fluxes produces the largest errors compared with the parameterization schemes for other surface heat fluxes. However, the sea-ice thickness simulation is most sensitive to the differences in upward longwave radiation at the surface. In addition, the sea-ice thickness simulation during the growth season is highly sensitive to the oceanic heat flux, and a new oceanic heat flux parameterization scheme based on the bulk method is proposed. The new parameterization scheme is tested in a second year, and it significantly improves the model performance relative to the standard configuration when compared against observations. Finally, the seasonal variation in the heat budget and its influence on the sea-ice thickness variation are analyzed. The net shortwave radiation, sensible heat flux and conductive heat flux (the net longwave radiation and latent heat flux) are found to be the surface heat sources (heat sinks) during the growth season. The larger conductive heat flux and the smaller oceanic heat flux can intensify the growth of sea ice.

This study examined the influences of coated folic acid (CFA) and coated riboflavin (CRF) on bull performance, nutrients digestion and ruminal fermentation. Forty-eight Angus bulls based on a randomised block and 2 × 2 factorial design were assigned to four treatments. The CFA of 0 or 6 mg of folic acid/kg DM was supplemented in diets with CRF 0 or 60 mg riboflavin (RF)/kg DM. Supplementation of CRF in diets with CFA had greater increase in daily weight gain and feed efficiency than in diets without CFA. Supplementation with CFA or CRF enhanced digestibility of DM, organic matter, crude protein, neutral-detergent fibre and non-fibre carbohydrate. Ruminal pH and ammonia N content decreased and total volatile fatty acids concentration and acetate to propionate ratio elevated for CFA or CRF addition. Supplement of CFA or CRF increased the activities of fibrolytic enzymes and the numbers of total bacteria, protozoa, fungi, dominant fibrolytic bacteria and Prevotella ruminicola. The activities of α-amylase, protease and pectinase and the numbers of Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens and Ruminobacter amylophilus were increased by CFA but were unaffected by CRF. Blood concentration of folate elevated and homocysteine decreased for CFA addition. The CRF supplementation elevated blood concentrations of folate and RF. These findings suggested that CFA or CRF inclusion had facilitating effects on performance and ruminal fermentation, and combined addition of CFA and CRF had greater increase in performance than CFA or CRF addition alone in bulls.

We experimentally investigate the drag modification by neutrally buoyant finite-size particles with various aspect ratios in a Taylor–Couette (TC) turbulent flow. The current Reynolds number, $Re$, ranges from $6.5\times 10^3$ to $2.6\times 10^4$, and the particle volume fraction, $\varPhi$, is up to $10\,\%$. Particles with three kinds of aspect ratio, $\lambda$, are used: $\lambda =1/3$ (oblate), $\lambda =1$ (spherical) and $\lambda =3$ (prolate). Unlike the case of bubbly TC flow (van Gils et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 722, 2013, pp. 317–347; Verschoof et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 117, issue 10, 2016, p. 104502), we find that the suspended finite-size particles increase the drag of the TC system regardless of their aspect ratios. The overall drag of the system increases with increasing $Re$, which is consistent with the literature. In addition, the normalized friction coefficient, $c_{f,\varPhi }/c_{f,\varPhi =0}$, decreases with increasing $Re$, the reason could be that in the current low volume fractions the turbulent stress becomes dominant at higher $Re$. The particle distributions along the radial direction of the system are obtained by performing optical measurements at $\varPhi =0.5\,\%$ and $\varPhi = 2\,\%$. As $Re$ increases, the particles distribute more evenly in the entire system, which results from both the greater turbulence intensity and the more pronounced finite-size effects of the particles at higher $Re$. Moreover, it is found that the variation of the particle aspect ratios leads to different particle collective effects. The suspended spherical particles, which tend to cluster near the walls and form a particle layer, significantly affect the boundary layer and result in maximum drag modification. The minimal drag modification is found in the oblate case, where the particles preferentially cluster in the bulk region, and, thus, the particle layer is absent. Based on the optical measurement results, it can be concluded that, in the low volume fraction ranges ($\varPhi =0.5\,\%$ and $\varPhi = 2\,\%$ here), the larger drag modification is connected to the near-wall particle clustering. The present findings suggest that the particle shape plays a significant role in drag modification, and the collective behaviours of rigid particles provide clues to understand the bubbly drag reduction.