Hierarchical Equations Research Articles

Unraveling trends in schistosomiasis: deep learning insights into national control programs in China.

To achieve the ambitious goal of eliminating schistosome infections, the Chinese government has implemented diverse control strategies. This study explored the progress of the 2 most recent national schistosomiasis control programs in an endemic area along the Yangtze River in China. We obtained village-level parasitological data from cross-sectional surveys combined with environmental data in Anhui Province, China from 1997 to 2015. A convolutional neural network (CNN) based on a hierarchical integro-difference equation (IDE) framework (i.e., CNN-IDE) was used to model spatio-temporal variations in schistosomiasis. Two traditional models were also constructed for comparison with 2 evaluation indicators: the mean-squared prediction error (MSPE) and continuous ranked probability score (CRPS). The CNN-IDE model was the optimal model, with the lowest overall average MSPE of 0.04 and the CRPS of 0.19. From 1997 to 2011, the prevalence exhibited a notable trend: it increased steadily until peaking at 1.6 per 1,000 in 2005, then gradually declined, stabilizing at a lower rate of approximately 0.6 per 1,000 in 2006, and approaching zero by 2011. During this period, noticeable geographic disparities in schistosomiasis prevalence were observed; high-risk areas were initially dispersed, followed by contraction. Predictions for the period 2012 to 2015 demonstrated a consistent and uniform decrease. The proposed CNN-IDE model captured the intricate and evolving dynamics of schistosomiasis prevalence, offering a promising alternative for future risk modeling of the disease. The comprehensive strategy is expected to help diminish schistosomiasis infection, emphasizing the necessity to continue implementing this strategy.

Two-Dimensional Electronic Spectroscopy Resolves Relative Excited-State Displacements.

Knowledge of relative displacements between potential energy surfaces (PES) is critical in spectroscopy and photochemistry. Information on displacements is encoded in vibrational coherences. Here we apply ultrafast two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy in a pump-probe half-broadband (HB2DES) geometry to probe the ground- and excited-state potential landscapes of cresyl violet. 2D coherence maps reveal that while the coherence amplitude of the dominant 585 cm-1 Raman-active mode is mainly localized in the ground-state bleach and stimulated emission regions, a 338 cm-1 mode is enhanced in excited-state absorption. Modeling these data with a three-level displaced harmonic oscillator model using the hierarchical equation of motion-phase matching approach (HEOM-PMA) shows that the S1 ← S0 PES displacement is greater along the 585 cm-1 coordinate than the 338 cm-1 coordinate, while Sn ← S1 displacements are similar along both coordinates. HB2DES is thus a powerful tool for exploiting nuclear wavepackets to extract quantitative multidimensional, vibrational coordinate information across multiple PESs.

Relationships between disease severity, psychological stress, and health-related quality of life among patients with acute coronary syndrome: mediation of illness perception.

Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) often experience reduced health-related quality of life (HRQOL), which may be attributable to the disease severity and psychological stress. While illness perception is speculated to be a potential pathway underlying these relationships, evidence supporting this mechanism remains limited. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between disease severity, psychological stress, and HRQOL and whether these relationships are mediated by illness perception in patients with ACS. Data were collected from June to July 2019 and June to September 2020 in the cardiology departments of four public hospitals in China. Eligible patients completed measures of disease severity, psychological stress, illness perception, HRQOL, and socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Data were analysed employing hierarchical multiple regression and structural equation modelling. This study included 405 participants (mean age 60.63 years, 67.4% male). After controlling for socio-demographic and clinical covariates, higher levels of disease severity (β = 0.115, P = 0.024) and psychological stress (β = -0.209, P＜0.001) were associated with poorer HRQOL; however, the relationships became non-significant after adding illness perception into the regression model. Structural equation modelling analysis suggested that illness perception played a mediating role between disease severity, psychological stress, and HRQOL, accounting for 45.95% and 65.79% of the total effects, respectively. This study found that illness perception mediated the relationships between disease severity, psychological stress, and HRQOL among patients with ACS. Improving patients' HRQOL should consider its important influencing factors with a focus on promoting positive illness perception.

Manipulation of internal blockage in triangular triple quantum dot

We utilize the calculation of hierarchical equations of motion to demonstrate that the spin-dependent properties between adjacent quantum dots (QDs) can be changed by breaking the internal symmetry configuration, corresponding to the inversion of dominant chiral states. In the linear triple quantum dots (LTQDs) connected to two electron reservoirs, we can observe that the blockage appears at the triangle triple quantum dots (TTQDs) by gradually increasing the coupling strength between next-nearest double QDs. When the initial coupling between LTQDs has altered, the internal chiral circulation also undergoes the corresponding transform, thus achieving qualitative regulation and detection of the blocking region. We also investigate the response of the chiral circulation to the dot–lead coupling strength, indicating the overall robust chiral circulation of the TTQDs frustration.

The Effectiveness of Text Support for Stopping Smoking in Pregnancy (MiQuit): Multi-Trial Pooled Analysis Investigating Effect Moderators and Mechanisms of Action.

Digital cessation support appeals to pregnant smokers. In two pooled RCTs, MiQuit, a pregnancy-specific tailored text messaging intervention, did not show effectiveness for validated prolonged abstinence. However, secondary outcomes and potential moderators and mediators have not been investigated. We aimed to determine, using pooled RCT data: (1) MiQuit effectiveness on a range of smoking outcomes; (2) whether baseline tobacco dependence or quit motivation moderate effectiveness; (3) whether hypothesized mechanisms of action (quitting determination, self-efficacy, baby harm beliefs, lapse prevention strategies) mediate effectiveness. Pooled data analysis from two procedurally identical RCTs comparing MiQuit (N = 704) to usual care (N = 705). Participants were smokers, <25 weeks pregnant, recruited from 40 English antenatal clinics. Outcomes included self-reported 7-day abstinence at 4 weeks post-baseline and late pregnancy, and prolonged abstinence. Late pregnancy outcomes were also biochemically validated. We used hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling. MiQuit increased self-reported, 7-day abstinence at 4 weeks (OR = 1.73 [95% CI 1.10-2.74]) and was borderline significant at late pregnancy (OR = 1.34 [0.99-1.82]) but not for prolonged or validated outcomes. Effectiveness was not moderated by baseline dependence (heaviness of smoking "low" vs. "moderate-high") or motivation (planning to quit ≤30 days [high] vs. >30 days [low]), but effects on self-reported outcomes were larger for the high motivation sub-group. MiQuit had a small effect on mean lapse prevention strategies (MiQuit 8.6 [SE 0.17], UC 8.1 [SE 0.17]; P = .030) but not other mechanisms. MiQuit increased short-term but not prolonged or validated abstinence and may be most effective for those motivated to quit sooner. Digital cessation support appeals to pregnant smokers. MiQuit, a tailored, theory-guided text messaging program for quitting smoking in pregnancy, has not shown effectiveness for validated prolonged abstinence in two previous RCTs but its impact on other smoking outcomes and potential mechanisms of action are unknown. When pooling trial data, MiQuit increased self-reported short-term abstinence, including making a quit attempt and abstinence at 4-week follow-up, but not late pregnancy, sustained, or validated abstinence. MiQuit appeared effective at late pregnancy for participants with high quitting motivation, but its mechanisms of action remain uncertain. Additional support components are likely required to enhance effectiveness.

Effects of Soliton Creation on Transient Transport through a Polymer Chain.

By using a nonadiabatic molecular dynamics method combined with the hierarchical equations of motion, we have investigated the nonequilibrium transient transport through a conjugated polymer chain. The polymer chain is described by the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, and its two ends are coupled with metal electrodes of different chemical potentials. In order to present the evolutions of the electronic injection and transport in the real-time domain, we have mainly discussed the dynamic relaxation processes of the excited states and transient transport currents. It is found that due to the existence of electron-phonon couplings in the conjugated polymers, creation of solitons not only affects the time of the system achieving the steady state but also leads to periodical oscillations of the steady-state transport currents with time in our simulations. Furthermore, with increasing applied bias voltage, the steady-state transport electronic current increases, which proved that the creation of the solitons can assist the electronic transport. These results have shown that the creation of the excited states is important in understanding the transport properties in organic nanostructures.

Challenge-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behaviors among Nurses: The Influence of Perceived Inclusive Leadership and Organizational Justice in High-Intensity Work Environment

Aims. This study was designed to investigate the impact of inclusive leadership on challenge-oriented citizenship behaviors and examine the mediating role of organizational justice on the relationship between inclusive leadership and challenge-oriented citizenship behaviors among nurses. Background. Leaders exhibiting an inclusive leadership style have the potential to create a positive work climate and motivate members of the organization. However, the mechanisms by which organizational justice contributes to this process remain to be explored, particularly in terms of how it motivates challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors. Method. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among nurses in China at the end period of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 527 registered nurses were enrolled and completed the self-report questionnaires including inclusive leadership scale, organizational justice scale, and challenge-oriented citizenship behavior scale. The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression analyses and structural equation modelling. Results. The results of empirical tests revealed that nurse leader’s inclusive leadership had a positive relationship on nurses’ challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (β = 0.823, p&lt;0.001) after controlling several demographic covariates. Meanwhile, inclusive leadership was positively linked to organizational justice (β = 0.747, p&lt;0.001), and the indirect effect of inclusive leadership on nurses’ challenge-oriented citizenship behaviors through organizational justice was statistically significant (β = 0.641, p&lt;0.001). Furthermore, the model fit indices were χ2/df = 1.952, RMSEA = 0.043, CFI = 0.979, and TLI = 0.977, indicating that the model had high quality. Conclusion. This study could help nurse leaders with inclusive leadership style have a better understanding and taking the advantages of the influence mechanism of organizational justice in inspiring nurses’ challenge-oriented citizenship behaviors. While nurse managers can inspire challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors through inclusive leadership, they should also emphasize the evaluative and behavioral-shaping effects of organizational justice. Both leadership and organizational justice are essential to motivate challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors and to foster organizational development. Moreover, managers should focus on the process and conditions of implementing organizational justice to ensure fairness within the organization and to create a conducive environment for challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors.

Simulating the operation of a quantum computer in a dissipative environment.

The operations of current quantum computers are still significantly affected by decoherence caused by interaction with the environment. In this work, we employ the non-perturbative hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) method to simulate the operation of model quantum computers and reveal the effects of dissipation on the entangled quantum states and on the performance of well-known quantum algorithms. Multi-qubit entangled states in Shor's factorizing algorithm are first generated and propagated using the HEOM. It is found that the failure of factorization is accompanied by a loss of fidelity and mutual information. An important challenge in using the HEOM to simulate quantum computers in a dissipative environment is how to efficiently treat systems with many qubits. We propose a two-dimensional tensor network scheme for this problem and demonstrate its capability by simulating a one-dimensional random circuit model with 21 qubits.

Flowering time responses to warming drive reproductive fitness in a changing Arctic.

The Arctic is warming at an alarming rate, leading to earlier spring conditions and plant phenology. It is often unclear to what degree changes in reproductive fitness (flower, fruit, seed production) are a direct response to warming versus an indirect response through shifting phenology. This study aims to quantify the relative importance of these direct and indirect pathways and project the net effects of warming on plant phenology and reproductive fitness under current and future climate scenarios. We used two long-term datasets on twelve tundra species in the Canadian Arctic as part of the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX). Phenology and reproductive fitness were recorded annually on tagged individual plants at both Daring Lake, Northwest Territories (64.87, -111.58) and Alexandra Fiord, Nunavut (78.83, -75.80). Plant species encompass a wide taxonomic diversity across a range of plant functional types with circumpolar/boreal distributions. We use Hierarchical Bayesian Structural Equation models to compare the direct and indirect effects of climate warming on phenology and reproductive fitness across species, sites and years. We find that warming, both experimental and ambient, drives earlier flowering across species, which leads to higher numbers of flowers and fruits produced, reflecting directional phenotypic selection for earlier flowering phenology. Furthermore, this indirect effect of climate warming mediated through phenology was generally ~2-3x stronger than the direct effect of climate on reproductive fitness. Under future climate predictions, individual plants showed a ~2 to 4.5-fold increase in their reproductive fitness (flower counts) with advanced flowering phenology. Our results suggest that, on average, the benefits of early flowering, such as increased development time and subsequent enhanced reproductive fitness, may outweigh its risks. Overall, this work provides important insights into population-level consequences of phenological shifts in a warming Arctic over multi-decadal time scales.

Investigating the dissipation of heat and quantum information from DNA-scaffolded chromophore networks.

Scaffolded molecular networks are important building blocks in biological pigment-protein complexes, and DNA nanotechnology allows analogous systems to be designed and synthesized. System-environment interactions in these systems are responsible for important processes, such as the dissipation of heat and quantum information. This study investigates the role of nanoscale molecular parameters in tuning these vibronic system-environment dynamics. Here, genetic algorithm methods are used to obtain nanoscale parameters for a DNA-scaffolded chromophore network based on comparisons between its calculated and measured optical spectra. These parameters include the positions, orientations, and energy level characteristics within the network. This information is then used to compute the dynamics, including the vibronic population dynamics and system-environment heat currents, using the hierarchical equations of motion. The dissipation of quantum information is identified by the system's transient change in entropy, which is proportional to the heat currents according to the second law of thermodynamics. These results indicate that the dissipation of quantum information is highly dependent on the particular nanoscale characteristics of the molecular network, which is a necessary first step before gleaning the systematic optimization rules. Subsequently, the I-concurrence dynamics are calculated to understand the evolution of the vibronic system's quantum entanglement, which are found to be long-lived compared to these system-bath dissipation processes.

Childhood trauma and major depression in Chinese college students: mediating role of Internet addiction and victimization of domestic violence

Aim: Major depression disorder in adolescents has received much attention around the world. While the factors correlated with major depression in adolescents have been extensively described, the mechanisms underlying the complexity of the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences and major depression have been less studied. This study investigated both the direct influence of childhood trauma on major depression and whether the mediation of domestic violence victimization and Internet addiction played a role in connecting childhood trauma to major depression. Method: The school-based mental health survey was conducted in April 2023 in northeast Chinas Heilongjiang Province. We collected sociodemographic information and targeted mental health outcomes with standardized questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple logistic regression and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data. Results: The study included 596 college students. The prevalence of major depression and Internet addiction was 31.2% and 21.6%, respectively. 16.4% of participants reported experiences of childhood trauma and 12.8% reported being victims of domestic violence. Childhood trauma, domestic violence victimization and Internet addiction have direct effects on major depression. The total effect of childhood trauma on suicidal ideation was 0.201 (p &amp;lt; 0.001). Domestic violence victimization and Internet addiction play mediating roles between childhood trauma and depression. Internet addiction plays a mediating role between domestic violence and major depression. Childhood trauma has direct and indirect effects on major depression of college students. Domestic violence victimization and Internet addiction play mediating roles in major depression of college students. Understanding these relationships will help develop and implement more targeted interventions and strategies to improve the mental health of Chinese college students.

Analysis of the Relation Between Balance Control Subsystems: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

Balance plays a crucial role in human life and social activities. Maintaining balance is a relatively complex process that requires the participation of various balance control subsystems (BCSes). However, previous studies have primarily focused on evaluating an individual's overall balance ability or the ability of each BCS in isolation, without considering how they influence (or interact with) each other. The first study used clinical scales to evaluate the functions of the four BCSes, namely Reactive Postural Control (RPC), Anticipatory Postural Adjustment (APA), Dynamic Gait (DG), and Sensory Orientation (SO), and psychological factors such as fear of falling (FOF). A hierarchical structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the relationship between the BCSes and their association with FOF. The second study involved using posturography to measure and extract parameters from the center of pressure (COP) signal. SEM with sparsity constraint was used to analyze the relationship between vision, proprioception, and vestibular sense on balance based on the extracted COP parameters. The first study revealed that the RPC, APA, DG and SO indirectly influenced each other through their overall balance ability, and their association with FOF was not the same. APA has the strongest association with FOF, while RPC has the least association with FOF. The second study revealed that sensory inputs, such as vision, proprioception, and vestibular sensing, directly affected each other, but their associations were not identical. Among them, proprioception plays the most important role in the three sensory subsystems. This study provides the first numerical evidence that the BCSes are not independent of each other and exist in direct or indirect interplay. This approach has important implications for the diagnosis and management of balance-related disorders in clinical settings and improving our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of balance control.

Dynamics of spin relaxation in nonequilibrium magnetic nanojunctions

We investigate nonequilibrium phenomena in magnetic nano-junctions using a numerical approach that combines classical spin dynamics with the hierarchical equations of motion technique for quantum dynamics of conduction electrons. Our focus lies on the spin dynamics, where we observe non-monotonic behavior in the spin relaxation rates as a function of the coupling strength between the localized spin and conduction electrons. Notably, we identify a distinct maximum at intermediate coupling strength, which we attribute to a competition that involves the increasing influence of the coupling between the classical spin and electrons, as well as the influence of decreasing local density of states at the Fermi level. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the spin dynamics of a large open system can be accurately simulated by a short chain coupled to semi-infinite metallic leads. In the case of a magnetic junction subjected to an external DC voltage, we observe resonant features in the spin relaxation, reflecting the electronic spectrum of the system. The precession of classical spin gives rise to additional side energies in the electronic spectrum, which in turn leads to a broadened range of enhanced damping in the voltage.

An Integrated Model of Customers’ Intention to Reuse Information Service: What’s New for Conversational Agents?

The application of conversational agents empowered by artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more common among tourism and hospitality businesses. Past research on AI has mostly investigated embodied robots rather than disembodied conversational agents. This study investigates the determinants of customers’ intention to reuse chatbots through integrating three different perspectives: technology acceptance model, computer-mediated communication theories, and interpersonal communication theories. Using online self-reported data analyzed by hierarchical regression and multigroup structural equation modeling, the efficacy of different theoretical models in predicting chatbot adoption were compared. A separate data set was collected from instant messaging (IM) users to provide implications that further explain the distinction between disembodied conversational agents and human conversational partners. Results suggest that variables associated with TAM and interpersonal attraction exert greatest influence on customers’ trust and reuse intention toward conversational agents. Managerial implications are suggested for practitioners to improve chatbot and IM design.

Effects of built environment on resident's immune level in cities under severely cold climate: An empirical study on sustainable residential areas for local health promotion

The urban residential environment has a significant impact on the human immune levels and sustainable development. Existing studies mostly measured immune levels indirectly through other physiological or psychological indicators, and rarely considered the impact of local climate factors. This study used medical physiological techniques to detect the immune level of typical residential residents in Harbin, which is located in severely cold areas, and synchronous recorded residents' subjective perception and outdoor activity characteristics. Hierarchical multiple regression and structural equation models are used to evaluate the impact of the built environment on immune levels. Research results have shown that a longer duration of outdoor activity, has a positive impact on residents' immune levels in winter (p<0.05). Further analysis shows that residents' subjective environment perception moderates the efficiency of outdoor in improving immune levels (p<0.05). Simultaneously, in residential areas with poorer cold climate adaptation design, residents' immune levels improvement is more inhibited. From the perspective of improving the immune levels, this study can provide a empirical basis for the sustainable and healthy residential areas outdoor environment design under severely cold climate background.

Development of Spatiotemporal Whole-Stem Models for Estimating End-Product-Based Fibre Attribute Determinates for Jack Pine and Red Pine

The objective of this study was to develop spatiotemporal whole-stem wood quality prediction models for a suite of end-product-based fibre attribute determinates for jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) and red pine (Pinus resinosa Aiton): specifically, for wood density (Wd), microfibril angle (Ma), modulus of elasticity (Me), fibre coarseness (Co), tracheid wall thickness (Wt), tracheid radial diameter (Dr), tracheid tangential diameter (Dt), and specific surface area (Sa). Procedurally, these attributes were determined for each annual ring within pith-to-bark xylem sequences extracted from 610 jack pine and 223 red pine cross-sectional disks positioned throughout the main stem of 61 jack pine and 54 red pine sample trees growing within even-aged monospecific stands in central Canada. Deploying a block cross-validation-like approach in order to reduce serial data dependency and enable predictive performance assessments, species-specific calibration and validation data subsets consisting of cumulative moving average values were systematically generated from the 27,820 jack pine and 11,291 red pine attribute-specific annual ring values. Graphical, correlation, regression and validation analyses were used to specify, parameterize and assess the predictive performance of tertiary-level (ring-disk-tree) hierarchical mixed-effects whole-stem equations for each attribute by species. As a result, the jack pine equations explained 46, 66, 74, 63, 59, 72, 42 and 48% of the variation in Wd, Ma, Me, Co, Wt, Dr, Dt and Sa, respectively. The red pine equations explained slightly higher levels of variation except for Me: 50, 71, 31, 83, 72, 78, 56 and 71% of the variation in Wd, Ma, Me, Co, Wt, Dr, Dt and Sa, respectively. Graphical assessments and statistical metrics related to attribute and species-specific residual error patterns and goodness-of-fit, lack-of-fit and predictive error metrics, revealed an absence of systematic bias, misspecification or aberrant predictive performance. Consequently, the resultant parameterized models were acknowledged as acceptable functional descriptors of the intrinsic spatiotemporal cumulative developmental patterns of the studied end-product fibre attribute determinates, for these two pine species. Although predicted development patterns were similar between the species with the greatest degree of nonlinearity occurring before a cambial age of approximately 30 years, irrespective of attribute, jack pine exhibited a greater degree of nonlinearity in the Wd and Dt developmental trajectories, whereas red pine exhibited a greater degree of nonlinearity in the Ma, Me, Co, Wt, Dr and Sa developmental trajectories. Potential biomechanical linkages underlying the observed attribute distribution patterns, as well as the potential utility of the models in forest management, are also discussed.

Current status and influencing factors of policy identification in health impact assessment: a case study of Zhejiang Province

BackgroundHealth impact assessment (HIA) is a procedure, method and tool for evaluating the potential health impacts of policies, plans and construction projects, as well as the distribution of these impacts on population. Majority of international studies on health impact assessment have focussed on conceptual papers or case evaluations, neglecting participants’ views on policies.MethodsA semi-structured interview with 30 health impact assessment experts was employed in this study, and the Nvivo software was utilized to analyse factors that influence policy identification. Subsequently, a multi-stage stratified random sampling method was adopted to survey 655 pilot staff members involved in health impact assessment in Zhejiang Province. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the current status and identify the factors influencing policy identification. In addition, hierarchical linear regression analysis and structural equation modelling were employed to determine the relationship between policy identification and influencing factors.ResultsStatistically significant differences were found among participants in the level of identification of policies across three dimensions. The policy sentiment dimension had the highest score (4.137 ± 0.664), followed by policy cognition (4.075 ± 0.632) and policy evaluation (3.631 ± 0.797) dimensions. Subject trust had a positive impact on policy cognition (β = 0.503, P < 0.001), policy sentiment (β = 0.504, P < 0.001) and policy evaluation (β = 0.465, P < 0.001). Procedural justice had a positive impact on policy sentiment (β = 0.085, P < 0.01) and policy evaluation (β = 0.084, P < 0.05), but not policy cognition (β = 0.056, P > 0.05). Policy identification is influenced by age and average monthly salary among other factors.ConclusionThese results highlight the importance of subjective trust and procedural justice in policy identification of health impact assessment. They provide valuable insights to developing interventions to overcome barriers to the implementation and enhancement of global identification of policies. Going forward, cross-sectoral synergies, enhanced international communication and training to increase participants’ trust in the policy should be optimized to improve health impact assessment. Additional measures should be taken, such as ensuring seamless communication channels, embedding health impact assessment in administrative mechanisms, and establishing strong oversight and grievance mechanisms to improve fairness and transparency in the implementation and results of health impact assessment.

Dispositional Optimism Mediate the Effect of Emotional Disorders On Self-Reported Psychological State: The Case of Çukurova University Students

This study examines whether dispositional optimism mediates the effects of emotional disorders (anxiety, depression) on self-reported current psychological state. For this purpose, indirect effects of anxiety and depression through dispositional optimism is tested for statistical significance. For preliminary results, a multivariate regression model including current psychological state as dependent variable and anxiety, depression and dispositional optimism as predictors was run. Anxiety and dispositional optimisim significantly predicted current psychological state. Depression subscale was not a significant predictor. Hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation modeling was performed to determine the mediating role of dispositional optimism. Hierarchical regression analysis results show that dispositional optimism significantly predicts psychological state beyond anxiety (∆F(1,851)=64.21, ∆R2=0.067, p

Vaccine Adherence and Behavioral Changes of Adults Regarding Prevention of COVID-19: A Community Survey Using the Theory of Planned Behavior

Considering the current context of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, people should equally comply with both vaccines and non-therapeutic health protective behaviors. This study investigated public adherence to vaccination, behavioral changes against COVID-19, and their determinants in Bangladesh during the pandemic. The study was conducted during March and April 2022 among 940 Bangladeshi adults selected by multi-stage sampling, and data were collected through face-to-face interviews using questionnaires. Significant determinants and their relationships were described through hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Nearly half of the subjects (48.2%) showed poor vaccine adherence and COVID-19 prevention practices. During the pandemic crisis, the majority of the respondents (86.7%) used face masks, but only 12.7% of the respondents used them regularly. Less than half (44.9%) received COVID-19 vaccines regularly. Along with some sociodemographic factors, knowledge (p &lt; .001), attitude (p &lt; .01), and intention (p &lt; .001) regarding COVID-19 prevention were significant in predicting vaccine adherence and healthy practices in a hierarchical regression. Self-control was highly significant in SEM, showing the highest effect (p &lt; .001). Policies based on the TPB model could be adopted to improve preventive behaviors against COVID-19.

An efficient Julia framework for hierarchical equations of motion in open quantum systems

The hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) approach can describe the reduced dynamics of a system simultaneously coupled to multiple bosonic and fermionic environments. The complexity of exactly describing the system-environment interaction with the HEOM method usually results in time-consuming calculations and a large memory cost. Here, we introduce an open-source software package called HierarchicalEOM.jl: a Julia framework integrating the HEOM approach. HierarchicalEOM.jl features a collection of methods to compute bosonic and fermionic spectra, stationary states, and the full dynamics in the extended space of all auxiliary density operators (ADOs). The required handling of the ADOs multi-indexes is achieved through a user-friendly interface. We exemplify the functionalities of the package by analyzing a single impurity Anderson model, and an ultra-strongly coupled charge-cavity system interacting with bosonic and fermionic reservoirs. HierarchicalEOM.jl achieves a significant speedup with respect to the corresponding method in the Quantum Toolbox in Python (QuTiP), upon which this package is founded.