Personality traits that associated with generalized anxiety disorder among PhD students.

There is an association between personality traits and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). In order to differentiate the association between various personality traits and GAD, a survey was conducted among PhD students in northern China (mainland). Three conclusions could be drawn with the help of regression analysis. At first, there is a positive association between Honesty-Humility (HH)/Emotionality (E)/Conscientiousness (C)/Openness to experience (O) and GAD, whereas there is a negative association between Agreeableness (A)/eXtraversion (X) and GAD. Secondly, age, gender, major, monthly income, HH, E, X, A, C and O could explain a 21.80 % variance in GAD. Thirdly, E and C are two robust factors that associated with GAD among PhD students.

HEXACO as predictors of smartphone addiction in a college setting.

There are many factors that can associate with smartphone addiction, and personality traits are included. With the popularity of mobile phones, smartphone addiction has become increasingly common. To differentiate the association between various personality traits and smartphone addiction, a survey was conducted in northern China (mainland). With the help of bivariate analysis and regression analysis, three conclusions could be drawn. To begin with, there is a negative association between Honesty-Humility (H-H)/Agreeableness (A)/Conscientiousness (C)/Openness to experience (O) and smartphone addiction, whereas there is a positive association between Emotionality (E)/eXtraversion (X) and smartphone addiction. Secondly, Emotionality, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to experience could explain a 27.14% variance in smartphone addiction. Thirdly, Emotionality, eXtraversion and Agreeableness more significantly predict smartphone addiction than the other three personality traits.

Retraction notice to "HEXACO as predictors of smartphone addiction in a college setting" [Heliyon 9 (2023) e19617].

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19617.].

Association between personality traits and smoking cessation among Chinese adults.

BACKGROUND: Although the tobacco epidemic is one of the greatest public health threats, the smoking cessation rate among Chinese adults is considerably lower. Personality information may indicate which treatments or interventions are more likely to be effective. China is the largest producer and consumer of tobacco worldwide. However, little is known about the association between smoking cessation and personality traits in China. AIM: This study aimed to examine the association between successful smoking cessation and personality traits among Chinese adults. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used data from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies. Probit regression models were employed to analyze the association between successful smoking cessation and personality traits stratified by sex. RESULTS: Lower scores for neuroticism (Coef.=-0.055, p < 0.1), lower scores for extraversion (Coef.=-0.077, p < 0.05), and higher scores for openness to experience (Coef.=0.045, p < 0.1) predicted being a successful male quitter after adjusting for demographics. Moreover, lower scores for conscientiousness (Coef.=-0.150, p < 0.1) predicted being a successful female quitter after adjusting for demographics. CONCLUSION: The empirical findings suggested that among Chinese men, lower levels of neuroticism, lower levels of extraversion, and higher levels of openness to experience were associated with a higher likelihood of smoking cessation. Moreover, lower levels of conscientiousness were associated with successful smoking cessation among Chinese women. These results showed that personality information should be included in smoking cessation interventions.

The effect of personality traits on employees' annual salaries in Chinese startups.

Personality is a relatively regular habit of a person. It exerts a specific influence on personal behavior and the corresponding results. At the same time, personality can provide a certain degree of explanation for the differences among individuals in behavior and the related consequences. Economic differences are one of the discrepancies that exist among individuals. In order to explore the quantitative relationship between personality and individual income, this study takes 376 active employees of Chinese startups as the primary research objects. Additionally, considering the simplification and convenience of the survey, the annual salary investigated by this study is the pre-tax income of active startup employees. It uses quantitative methods to analyze the relationship between their personality traits and annual salary. Unlike the measures used in previous studies, this study employed the HEXACO-60 Inventory created by Ashton and Lee to investigate employees' personality traits. Compared to the Big Five model, HEXACO (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Consciousness, Open to Experience, and Agreeableness) adds a new dimension to evaluate personality traits, called Honesty-Humility (H-H). H-H did not appear in previous studies related to personality and individual income. Therefore, there is no reference to the relationship between H-H and personal earnings. Considering that the content of H-H is highly consistent with the components of inter locus of control and the core spirit advocated by the Confucian culture, which influences Chinese people profoundly, this paper proposes a bold hypothesis, that is, H-H has a positive correlation with employees' annual salaries. Meanwhile, other corresponding hypotheses for the correlation between the other personality traits in HEXACO and employees' annual salaries are proposed. After that, the above hypotheses are tested with the help of correlation analysis. Then, the following conclusions can be quickly drawn. Consciousness, eXtraversion, Open to Experience, and Honesty-Humility positively correlate with employees' annual salaries. In comparison, Emotionality and Agreeableness negatively correlate with employees' annual salaries.

Tobacco smoking and depressive symptoms in Chinese middle-aged and older adults: Handling missing values in panel data with multiple imputation.

Introduction: The high co-occurrence of tobacco smoking and depression is a major public health concern during the novel coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic. However, no studies have dealt with missing values when assessing depression. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the effect of tobacco smoking on depressive symptoms using a multiple imputation technique. Methods: This research was a longitudinal study using data from four waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study conducted between 2011 and 2018, and the final sample consisted of 74,381 observations across all four waves of data collection. The present study employed a multiple imputation technique to deal with missing values, and a fixed effects logistic regression model was used for the analysis. Results: The results of fixed effects logistic regression showed that heavy smokers had 20% higher odds of suffering from depressive symptoms than those who never smoked. Compared to those who never smoked, for short-term and moderate-term quitters, the odds of suffering from depressive symptoms increased by 30% and 22%, respectively. The magnitudes of the odds ratios for of the variables short-term quitters, moderate-term quitters, and long-term quitters decreased in absolute terms with increasing time-gaps since quitting. The sub-group analysis for men and women found that heavy male smokers, short-term and moderate-term male quitters had higher odds of suffering from depressive symptoms than those who never smoked. However, associations between smoking status and depressive symptoms were not significant for women. Conclusions: The empirical findings suggested that among Chinese middle-aged and older adults, heavy smokers and short-term and moderate-term quitters have increased odds of suffering from depressive symptoms than those who never smoked. Moreover, former smokers reported that the probability of having depressive symptoms decreased with a longer duration since quitting. Nevertheless, the association between depressive symptoms and smoking among Chinese middle-aged and older adults is not straightforward and may vary according to gender. These results may have important implications that support the government in allocating more resources to smoking cessation programs to help middle-aged and older smokers, particularly in men.

Shift work disorder and related influential factors among shift workers in China.

BACKGROUND: Shift work may cause insomnia and sleepiness in individuals. The present study aimed to exam shift work disorder (SWD), and to investigate their associations with individual characteristics. METHODS: A total of 1833 shift workers were assessed using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM), Circadian Type Inventory (CTI), Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and other self-compiled socio-demographic questionnaires. RESULTS: In the current sample, 17.1% shift workers have experienced insomnia symptoms, 20.9% were tested for daytime sleepiness, and 19.9% were categorized as having SWD. Logistics regressions revealed that history of mental disorders (OR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.30-3.21), chronic physical illness (OR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.17-1.99), CES-D scores (OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 1.02-1.05), BAI scores (OR = 1.04, 95% CI = 1.03-1.06), languid/vigorous tendencies (OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 1.03-1.10) were positively associated with the onset of SWD, while morningness (OR = 0.97, 95% CI = 0.94-0.99) decreased the odds of SWD onset. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested that attention should be drawn to individuals with mental and chronic diseases in when scheduling work shifts. While SWD and its associates should be considered when providing psychological services to shift workers.

Demography of Cacopsylla chinensis (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) Reared on Four Cultivars of Pyrus bretschneideri (Rosales: Rosaceae) and P. communis Pears With Estimations of Confidence Intervals of Specific Life Table Statistics.

The psyllid Cacopsylla chinensis (Yang & Li) (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) is a serious pest of pears in China. To determine and contrast the fitness of the psyllid on two endemic cultivars of Pyrus bretschneideri (i.e., BHXS and BSL) and two introduced cultivars of Pyrus communis (i.e., CB and CRB), we analyzed data on the development, survival, and fecundity from C. chinensis individuals reared on the four cultivars. The age-stage, two-sex life table theory was used in order to enable the inclusion of males in the analysis as well as a means of identifying the variation in developmental durations among individuals. Results indicated that C. chinensis can successfully develop and reproduce on all four pear cultivars. However, based on the lower preadult survival rate, longer preadult duration, longer total preoviposition period (TPOP), and lower fecundity that occurred on both cultivars of P. communis, these two cultivars are less favorable hosts for C. chinensis than the P. bretschneideri cultivars. The lower intrinsic rate of increase (r), finite rate of increase (λ), and net reproduction rate (R0) on CB and CRB pears showed these two introduced cultivars are more resistant to C. chinensis than the endemic BHXS and BSL pears. These resistant cultivars would be appropriate candidates for managing C. chinensis. We used the bootstrap technique to estimate the uncertainty of the population parameters (r, λ, R0, etc.), while also demonstrating that it can be used for estimating the 0.025 and 0.975 percentile confidence intervals of the age of survival rate.

An Effective Application of Bacteria Quorum Sensing and Circular Elimination in MOPSO.

In this paper, an approach that incorporates a turbulence mechanism and a circular elimination strategy is presented to strengthen the performance of multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO). For convergence enhancement, the turbulence mechanism derived from bacteria quorum sensing behavior is introduced to MOPSO to preserve the swarm diversity. Meanwhile, the circular elimination strategy is used to select particles for next iteration for better distribution of the Pareto-optimal solutions. The improved MOPSO algorithm has been tested on a set of benchmark functions and compared with representative multi-objective optimization algorithms. Simulation results illustrate that the algorithm outperforms the other algorithms on convergence while keep good spread performance, and could be used as an effective global optimization tool.

Sequential loss of genetic variation in flea beetle Agasicles hygrophila (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) following introduction into China.

The flea beetle (Agasicles hygrophila) was imported to Florida, USA and then introduced from Florida into China in 1987 as a biological control agent for the invasive plant alligator weed (Alternanthera philoxeroides). The initial beetle population was subsequently used for sequential introductions in other areas of China, but little is known about the genetic consequences of the introductions. In this study, the genetic diversity and population structure of five beetle populations, the source Florida population, three intentionally introduced China populations and one accidentally dispersed China population, were examined using amplified fragment length polymorphisms. The results showed a clear pattern of decreasing genetic diversity with the sequential introductions. The diversity was highest in the Florida population followed by the first introduction to Chongqing and then in Kunming and Fuzhou. The lowest diversity was found in the accidentally dispersed Guangzhou population that was first recorded in 1996. Both loci parameters and Nei's genetic diversity showed a high variation among these populations. Genetic differentiation among populations was further verified by the GST statistic (0.136-0.432). Beetles in Kunming had the highest gene flow with those in Guangzhou, and therefore lowest differentiation and closest genetic distance. These data show that sequential introduction influenced the genetic diversity of populations in China. Genetic diversity should be considered in planning introduction and long-term maintenance of populations.

[Genetic diversity of introduced natural enemy Agasicles hygrophila (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)].

Flea beetle Agasicles hygrophila Selman & Vogt, the most effective natural enemy of alligator weed Alternanthera philoxeroideis, is originated from South America, and has been introduced into China for more than 20 years to control the weed. In this study, the technique of random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was applied to assess the genetic diversity of four A. hygrophila geographic populations in Guangzhou, Chongqing, Kunming, and Fuzhou of China, and, taking the population in Florida of US as the reference, the relationships between the genetic differentiation and geographic differentiation among and within the populations were explored at molecular level. Thirteen primers that produced clear and reproducible products were selected from 111 random primers to amplify the 25 samples of the five A. hygrophila populations. The total polymorphic rate was 42.0%, and the polymorphic rate of Florida population was significantly higher than that of four China populations. The genetic differentiation among the four China populations was 25.5%. The cluster analysis by UPGMA indicated that there was a positive correlation between the genetic distance and geographic distance of different A. hygrophila geographic populations.