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Objectives This study aims to assess the effectiveness of delivering Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) through telecommunication with a group of adolescents who present anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak. We hypothesize that participants who are randomly assigned to receive 2–4 sessions of Solution Focused Brief Therapy would have better clinical outcomes than participants who are in the waitlist group. We additionally hypothesized that using SFBT can also change participants’ depression levels and their coping strategies in dealing with distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trial design This study employs a randomized delayed crossover open label controlled trial in adolescents who are presenting anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak. Participants who meet the enrollment criteria stated below will be invited to participate in this study through telecommunication. Those accepting will be randomly allocated to the intervention group or waitlist group. Participants The inclusion criteria for participants are: Adolescents between 11 and 18 years old who are currently in grade 7–12 Manifesting anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) 7 ≥ 10 Having a legal guardian who has signed the informed consent and an adolescent willing to participate in this study Have a stable internet condition and a quiet space for receiving internet-based counseling The exclusion criteria are: Reporting suicidal ideation or plan during the past 2 weeks Receiving counseling service elsewhere Taking psychiatric medication Having another severe mental health diagnosis (e.g., bipolar disorder, psychosis) Unwilling to have legal guardian sign the informed consent or participate in this study All data were collected through a Chinese online survey tool called “Wen Juan Xing” ( https://www.wjx.cn/ ) from the Faculty of Psychology at Beijing Normal University. Intervention and comparator The intervention group will receive Solution Focused Brief Therapy 2–4 times within a 2 week period through telecommunication (e.g., using a platform such as Zoom). The comparators will be assigned to the waitlist group. They will also receive 2–4 sessions of counseling service after the 1 month follow-up data is collected. Main outcomes The primary outcome measures of the study are intended to assess the difference in adolescents’ anxiety levels when comparing the SFBT group and the waitlist group. Level of anxiety will be measured by two measurements: GAD-7 and STAI-Y (C). Follow up 2 weeks and 1 month. Baseline scores (GAD-7, STAI-Y(C), PHQ-9, CSS) will be collected from all participants and their legal guardian (Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale-Parent report, Patient Health Questionnaire − 9) before beginning treatment. After 2 weeks’ treatment, participants from both the intervention group and waitlist group will complete the assessments (GAD-7, STAI-Y(C), PHQ-9, CSS, CSQ-8), and their legal guardian will also complete several assessments (SCAS-Parent report, PHQ-9). After 1 month of treatment, data will be collected again. Note: GAD-7 (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7); STAI-Y(C) (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory); PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire-9); CSS (Coping Style Scale for Secondary School Students); CSQ-8 (Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8), SCAS (Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale). Randomization The Random Number Generator, an internet-based randomization tool, is used to assign participants to the intervention group and waitlist group. The allocation ratio is 1:1. Blinding (masking) Participants will be informed about the group assignment due to the nature of the study design. The research assistant who will have access to the outcome data is blinded to group assignment. Numbers to be randomized (sample size) The study plans to enroll a total of 76 participants. Thirty-eight participants are to be randomized to each group. Trial status The Protocol version number is 02, with ethical approval number 202003130012. The recruitment is ongoing. It started on March 20th, and we estimate it will finish by the 30 June 2020. Trial registration The trial was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry on March 20th, 2020. Registration number is ChiCTR2000030989. Full protocol The full protocol is attached as an additional file, accessible from the Trials website (Additional file 1 ). In the interest of expediting dissemination of this material, the familiar formatting has been eliminated; this letter serves as a summary of the key elements of the full protocol.

Oxygen isotope records from Chinese caves characterize changes in both the Asian monsoon and global climate. Here, using our new speleothem data, we extend the Chinese record to cover the full uranium/thorium dating range, that is, the past 640,000 years. The record’s length and temporal precision allow us to test the idea that insolation changes caused by the Earth’s precession drove the terminations of each of the last seven ice ages as well as the millennia-long intervals of reduced monsoon rainfall associated with each of the terminations. On the basis of our record’s timing, the terminations are separated by four or five precession cycles, supporting the idea that the ‘100,000-year’ ice age cycle is an average of discrete numbers of precession cycles. Furthermore, the suborbital component of monsoon rainfall variability exhibits power in both the precession and obliquity bands, and is nearly in anti-phase with summer boreal insolation. These observations indicate that insolation, in part, sets the pace of the occurrence of millennial-scale events, including those associated with terminations and ‘unfinished terminations’. Records of the Asian monsoon have been extended to 640,000 years ago, and confirm both that the 100,000-year ice age cycle results from integral numbers of precessional cycles and that insolation influences the pacing of major millennial-scale climate events. A 640,000-year record of the Asian monsoon Prior records of the Asian monsoon have revealed cyclic variations over hundreds of thousands of years, probably driven by variations in insolation caused by the precession of Earth's orbit. Hai Cheng and colleagues now provide a speleothem record from Chinese cave samples that extends earlier records to 640,000 years ago, close to the maximum age possible with uranium/thorium dating. This spectacular record confirms that the characteristic '100,000-year' ice age cycle corresponds to an integral number (four or five) of precession cycles, and that insolation influences millennial-scale variations in monsoon strength.

Background The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease is causing considerable acute risk to public health and might also have an unanticipated impact on the mental health of children and adolescents in the long run. This study collected data during the national lockdown period in China and aims to understand whether there is a clinically significant difference in anxiety, depression, and parental rearing style when comparing adolescents from Wuhan and other cities in China. This study also intends to examine whether gender, grade in school, single child status, online learning participation, parents’ involvement in COVID-19 related work, and parents being quarantined or infected due to the disease would lead to clinically significant differences in anxiety and depression. Beyond that, this study explored the pathways among the different variables in order to better understand how these factors play a part in impacting adolescents’ mental health condition. Results Results showed that there was a statistically significant difference in anxiety symptoms between participants who were from Wuhan compared to other urban areas, but not in depressive symptoms. In addition, participants’ grade level, gender, relative being infected, and study online have direct positive predictive value for depressive and anxiety symptoms, whereas location and sibling status have indirect predictive value. Having relatives who participated in COVID-19 related work only had positive direct predictive value toward depression, but not anxiety. Conclusions This study discovered several risk factors for adolescents’ depression and anxiety during the pandemic. It also called for a greater awareness of Wuhan parents’ mental wellbeing and recommended a systematic approach for mental health prevention and intervention.

Background China has the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population. This study assessed the discrimination experienced by LGBT individuals in China in a comprehensive way, covering discrimination perpetrated by family, media, medical services, religious communities, schools, social services, and in the workplace. Methods The current study involved a national survey of 31 provinces and autonomous regions. Discrimination was measured both in terms of heterosexual participants’ attitudes towards LGBT individuals, and LGBT participants’ self-perceived discrimination. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to examine the difference between heterosexual participants’ attitudes towards LGBT individuals and LGBT participants’ self-perceived discrimination. Linear regression was used to investigate the association between gross domestic product per capita and discrimination. Results Among 29,125 participants, 2066 (7.1%) identified as lesbian, 9491 (32.6%) as gay, 3441 (11.8%) as bisexual, 3195 (11.0%) as transgender, and 10,932 (37.5%) as heterosexual. Heterosexual people were generally friendly towards the LGBT community with a mean score of 21.9 (SD = 2.7, total scale score = 100) and the grand averaged score of self-perceived discrimination by LGBT participants was 49.9 (SD = 2.5). Self-perceived discrimination from family and social services is particularly severe. We created a series of provincial level choropleth maps showing heterosexual participants’ acceptance towards the LGBT community, and self-perceived discrimination reported by members of the LGBT community. We found that a higher level of economic development in provinces was associated with a decrease in discrimination, and we identified that every 100 thousand RMB increase in per capita GDP lead to a 6.4% decrease in discriminatory events perpetrated by heterosexuals. Conclusions Chinese LGBT groups consistently experience discrimination in various aspects of their daily lives. The prevalence of this discrimination is associated with the economic development of the province in which it occurs. In order to reduce discrimination, it is important for future studies to discover the underlying reasons for discrimination against LGBT individuals in China.

China story Stalactites, stalagmites and the many other forms of mineral deposits found in caves are a mainstay of climate studies, recording oxygen isotope ratios in limestone laid down over time. That pattern links to the water temperature of ancient oceans, and thus to climate. A new oxygen isotope record from Sanbao Cave, central China, tells the story of the region's climate stretching back 200,000 years, filling gaps in the record of a particularly important climate event, the East Asian monsoon. High-resolution speleothem records from China have provided insights into the factors that control the strength of the East Asian monsoon 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . Our understanding of these factors remains incomplete, however, owing to gaps in the record of monsoon history over the past two interglacial–glacial cycles. In particular, missing sections have hampered our ability to test ideas about orbital-scale controls on the monsoon 5 , 6 , 7 , the causes of millennial-scale events 8 , 9 and relationships between changes in the monsoon and climate in other regions. Here we present an absolute-dated oxygen isotope record from Sanbao cave, central China, that completes a Chinese-cave-based record of the strength of the East Asian monsoon that covers the past 224,000 years. The record is dominated by 23,000-year-long cycles that are synchronous within dating errors with summer insolation at 65° N (ref. 10 ), supporting the idea that tropical/subtropical monsoons respond dominantly and directly to changes in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation on orbital timescales 5 . The cycles are punctuated by millennial-scale strong-summer-monsoon events (Chinese interstadials 1 ), and the new record allows us to identify the complete series of these events over the past two interglacial–glacial cycles. Their duration decreases and their frequency increases during glacial build-up in both the last and penultimate glacial periods, indicating that ice sheet size affects their character and pacing. The ages of the events are exceptionally well constrained and may thus serve as benchmarks for correlating and calibrating climate records.

The detailed anatomy of Termination I (TI) is well depicted, but whether changes across Termination II (TII) resemble TI remains controversial. Here we present high-resolution Asian monsoon records covering TII using Shima Cave stalagmites from China. Correlating marine and ice-core records to our U/Th-dated records via millennial-scale variabilities, we find an initial CO 2 rise from 139 ± 1 ka BP concordant with boreal summer insolation increase, which was followed by a major rise phase of CO 2 between 135.7 ± 1 and 129 ± 1 ka BP. The major rise phases of CO 2 were comparable during TI and TII, but the initial CO 2 rise before TII was distinct from CO 2 behavior before TI, likely forced by the Earth’s internal variabilities, in particular an ice-sheet collapse event and a 50% reduction in southern hemisphere dust flux. Here, we show that ~4000–5000-year-long gradual changes in CO 2 , along with insolation rise, preconditioned glacial terminations, supporting the “tipping point” theory. U/Th-dated Asian monsoon records from Shima Cave, covering 142–122 ka BP, constrain the timing of a CO 2 rise at ~139 ka BP caused by millennial-scale variabilities, which, along with increasing orbital solar radiation, prepare for the end of ice age.

Our understanding of climate dynamics during millennial-scale events is incomplete, partially due to the lack of their precise phase analyses under various boundary conditions. Here we present nine speleothem oxygen-isotope records from mid-to-low-latitude monsoon regimes with sub-centennial age precision and multi-annual resolution, spanning the Heinrich Stadial 2 (HS2) — a millennial-scale event that occurred at the Last Glacial Maximum. Our data suggests that the Greenland and Antarctic ice-core chronologies require +320- and +400-year adjustments, respectively, supported by extant volcanic evidence and radiocarbon ages. Our chronological framework shows a synchronous HS2 onset globally. Our records precisely characterize a centennial-scale abrupt “tropical atmospheric seesaw” superimposed on the conventional “bipolar seesaw” at the beginning of HS2, implying a unique response/feedback from low-latitude hydroclimate. Together with our observation of an early South American monsoon shift at the HS2 termination, we suggest a more active role of low-latitude hydroclimate dynamics underlying millennial events than previously thought. New cave records from monsoon regions improve the Greenland ice core chronological framework around the Heinrich Stadial 2 by an order of magnitude, suggesting a more active role of low-latitude hydroclimate in millennial-scale climate oscillations.

Actions are typically accompanied by sensory feedback (or action-effects). Action-effects, in turn, influence the action. Theoretical accounts of action control assume a pre-activation of action-effects prior to action execution. Here we show that when participants were asked to report the time of their voluntary keypress using the position of a fast-rotating clock hand, a predictable action-effect (i.e. a 250 ms delayed sound after keypress) led to a shift of visuospatial attention towards the clock hand position of action-effect onset, thus demonstrating an influence of action-effects on action representation. Importantly, the attention shift occurred about 1 second before the action execution, which was further preceded and predicted by a lateralisation of alpha oscillations in the visual cortex. Our results indicate that when the spatial location is the key feature of action-effects, the neural implementation of the action-effect pre-activation is achieved through alpha lateralisation. Combined evidence from behaviour, electrophysiology, and cognitive modelling supports a pre-activation of relevant action-effect codes when performing a voluntary action.

High-resolution oxygen isotope (δ18O) profiles of six stalagmites from Sanbao Cave in Hubei province, central China, established with 1413 oxygen isotope data and 65 230Th ages, provide a continuous history of East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) intensity for the period from 13—0.2 thousand years before present (ky BP, relative to AD 1950). The δ 18O record includes four distinct stages in the evolution of the EASM: (1) an abrupt transition (~11.5 ky BP) into the Holocene; (2) a period of gradual increase in monsoon intensity (11.5—9.5 ky BP); (3) the maximum humid period (9.5—6.5 ky BP); and (4) a period of gradual decline in monsoon intensity (6.5—0.2 ky BP). Comparison of Sanbao with regional records of comparable resolution reveals that the timing of the beginning and end of the Holocene Optimum (as defined by the minimum in δ18 O) was similar in the Indian and East Asian monsoon systems. This supports the idea that shifts in the monsoon tied to shifts in the mean position of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) may control monsoon intensity throughout the entire low-latitude region of Asia on orbital timescales. This observation also supports the idea that the fluctuations in δ18 O recorded across southern Asia reflect broad changes in the monsoon, as opposed to local meteoric precipitation. The EASM records from Sanbao largely follow orbital-scale insolation changes, yet exhibit similar variability to Greenland ice core δ18O on millennial to centennial scales during the early to middle Holocene (r = 0.94).

What are the main findings? A network modeling and quality assessment method for drone swarm command and control (C2) systems based on complex networks has been proposed. This method effectively evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of drone swarm C2 structures as well as their mission adaptability from a topological perspective. The evaluation framework can serve as a reference for analyzing and evaluating other combat systems. Taking same-scale networks with different C2 structures as the basis for case analysis, this study demonstrates that the three types of distributed C2 structures each have their own advantages and disadvantages under different scenarios, such as static scenarios, random attacks, and targeted attacks. The dynamic network evaluation further demonstrates the universality of the evaluation method for networks with different structures, which can be used to guide the design of C2 system architectures. What is the implication of the main finding? Complex networks can accurately characterise the structure of the drone swarm C2 system. Through network modeling of the drone swarm C2 system, complex network theory can be used to effectively analyze the system. The method can be applied to research on other complex combat systems. The Leader–Follower-based network exhibits good performance in terms of static structure and under random attacks, but has the worst performance under targeted attacks. It is suitable for long-endurance, long-range tasks such as security patrols and reconnaissance surveillance, as well as large-scale deployment scenarios, but not for combat missions involving high confrontation. Although the BA network and ER network have relatively poor performance in terms of static structure and under random attacks, they perform better under targeted attacks; in particular, the ER network structure is most suitable for high-confrontation tasks. To address the issues of structural diversity, modeling complexity, and the lack of evaluation methods in drone swarm command and control (C2) networks, this paper proposes a complex network-based quality evaluation method for drone swarm C2 networks from a network topology perspective. First, by analyzing the structure of the drone swarm C2 system, three hierarchical C2 network models are constructed, which are based on the Leader–Follower architecture, BA scale-free network, and ER random network, respectively. Subsequently, a drone swarm network quality evaluation indicator, system integrating network connectivity, load status, and transmission efficiency is established, along with an evaluation model that considers both static and dynamic characteristics. Finally, an analysis is conducted using networks of the same scale but different C2 structures. The evaluation results demonstrate that this method can effectively distinguish the performance of networks with different structures and exhibits good applicability under both random and targeted attack scenarios. Under static scenarios, distributed C2 networks exhibit the highest quality values, while centralized networks demonstrate the lowest. In random attack scenarios, the Leader–Follower structure achieves the highest network quality among the three hierarchical architectures, outperforming BA and ER network structures by 117% and 25%. In targeted attack scenarios, the ER network structure achieves the highest network quality, surpassing Leader–Follower and BA network structures by 66% and 17%. It provides a quantitative reference for the design and optimisation of the drone swarm C2 system structure.