Vitrification has been widely used for oocyte cryopreservation, but there is still a need for optimization to improve clinical outcomes. In this study, we compared the routine droplet merge protocol with modified multi-gradient equilibration vitrification for cryopreservation of mouse oocytes at metaphase II. Subsequently, the oocytes were thawed and subjected to intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Oocyte survival and spindle status were evaluated by morphology and immunofluorescence staining. Moreover, the fertilization rates and blastocyst development were examined in vitro. The results showed that multi-gradient equilibration vitrification outperformed droplet merge vitrification in terms of oocyte survival, spindle morphology, blastocyst formation, and embryo quality. In contrast, droplet merge vitrification exhibited decreasing survival rates, a reduced proportion of oocytes with normal spindle morphology, and lower blastocyst rates as the number of loaded oocytes increased. Notably, when more than six oocytes were loaded, reduced oocyte survival rates, abnormal oocyte spindle morphology, and poor embryo quality were observed. These findings highlight that the vitrification of mouse metaphase II oocytes by the modified multi-gradient equilibration vitrification has the advantage of maintaining oocyte survival, spindle morphology, and subsequent embryonic development.

Habitat selection of Culicoides spp. (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) is influenced by the physicochemical factors such as temperature, pH, salinity, moisture, conductivity, organic and inorganic compounds of substrates. These factors determine the life history traits of the vectors. We studied the influence of substrate salinity (0–40 parts per thousand, ppt) and pH (pH 1–13) on oviposition, egg hatching, larval survivability, and adult emergence of Culicoides peregrinus Kieffer under laboratory conditions. Most eggs (80.74%) were laid in 0 ppt and 95% in pH 7 but lowered with increased salinity and pH levels. It was observed that the females did not lay eggs in 30 ppt to 40 ppt salinity; pH 1 and pH 13 but interestingly up to 95% of the eggs were retained within the abdomen. Little effect of salinity and pH on egg hatching was observed up to 5 ppt and 10 ppt except at the extreme values of 40 ppt and pH 1, pH 13. Pupation did not occur in rearing plates with high salinities, 30 ppt and 40 ppt, although the few eggs hatched when exposed to such salinity. In low salinity (0 to 2 ppt), occurrence of adult emergence was more and then decreased with increasing salinity. Maximum emergence was seen when the rearing media was alkaline. This study deals with the suitability of breeding substrate of C. peregrinus when exposed to salinity and pH ranges. Our study suggests the ambient salinity and pH ranges to be maintained during laboratory rearing of this vector species.

The present study investigates several linguistic factors that might be determinants of differences in the ease of acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) in L2 contexts, using the acquisition of English relative clauses by Kurdish Sorani native speakers. The analysis of 1440 subject and object RCs formed by Kurdish Sorani-speaking learners of English in a sentence combination task and a sentence translation task indicates that the syntactic functions of the noun phrase (NP) relativized in the RC, the position of the RC in the matrix clause (whether centre- or right-embedded), and the properties of RCs in L1 affect the acquisition and the formation of RCs in L2. The study also provides evidence that the syntactic functions of the relativized NP in the matrix clause, and the consistency/inconsistency of word orders in L1 and L2 do not influence the acquisition of RCs in L2.

Climate factors, pesticides, and landscape in coffee agroecosystems directly affect the populations of the coffee leaf miner and its parasitoids. This study aimed to investigate the effects of climate factors, insecticide use, and landscape on natural parasitism, parasitoid diversity, and infestation of L. coffeella in coffee plantations in the Planalto region, Bahia, Brazil. Mined leaves were collected monthly in six coffee plantations with varying edge density, vegetation cover, landscape diversity in scales of 500 to 3000 m of radius, insecticide use, and climate factors. Closterocerus coffeellae, and Proacrias coffeae (Eulophidae) predominated in the pest's natural parasitism. Our record is the first for the occurrence of Stiropius reticulatus, Neochrysocharis sp. 1, Neochrysocharis sp. 2, and Zagrammosoma sp. in Bahia. Higher temperature and larger forest cover increased the coffee leaf miner infestation. Higher rainfall values, insecticide use, and landscape diversity decreased the pest infestations. Natural parasitism and species diversity are favoured by increase in temperature, forest cover, and edge density, while increase in rainfall, insecticide use, and landscape diversity lead them to decrease.The natural parasitism and diversity of parasitoid species of the coffee leaf miner have been enhancing in the areas with greater forest cover and edge density associated with low use of insecticides. The areas composed of different lands with annual croplands surrounding the coffee plantations showed less natural parasitism and parasitoid species diversity. The ecosystem services provided by C. coffeellae and P. coffeae in coffee crops areas require conservation and these species are potential bioproducts for applied biological control programmes.

In this article, we document the gender of the noun “COVID-19” in a database of more than 76,000 tweets and in traditional media (approximately 500,000 articles) in French as spoken in Africa, (North) America and Europe. We find that North American media comply near-categorically with the recommendations of the feminine by the World Health Organization and local linguistic authorities in March 2020. The majority of North American tweets follow suit soon after. The African data show an increase of articles and tweets adopting the feminine after the Académie française's recommendation in May 2020. Finally, the feminine is negligible in the European data. We argue that among the factors at play are dialect-specific differences in French gender and loanword adaptation; the complex relationship among linguistic authorities, the public, and local media; and the relative delay in the Académie française's recommendation of the feminine.

The role that China is perceived to present for the global economy—much less global security—has changed remarkably since China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001. During the height of neoliberalism and third-wave democracies, China appeared more open to foreign capital than the developmental states of East Asia, which had restricted foreign direct investment (FDI) in favor of domestic industrialization during a comparable stage of economic development. Through the first 15 years of China’s WTO membership, many in academia and the policy world depicted a modernizing China undergoing market transition, in parallel to Eastern European countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The US-China relationship has worsened dramatically in recent years. After decades of pro-engagement policies toward China, a bipartisan consensus began to emerge around 2016 that engagement had neither accomplished US policy goals (such as encouraging China to liberalize politically) nor served US citizens well.1 At the same time, political changes within China have pointed to a declining appetite for engagement with the United States and sidelined the domestic constituencies who remained interested in cooperation and exchange. Further restrictions have shrunk the already limited space for media, civil society groups, and academic exchange in China. Pandemic-related border closures eliminated in-person exchanges almost completely for nearly three years. And some are concerned that China’s 2021 Personal Information Protection Law could be used to prosecute foreign researchers who conduct research in China (Lewis 2023).

The objective of this paper was to investigate how the predicted level of body energy mobilized and the stage of lactation affects performance and energy partitioning in lactating sows kept under commercial conditions. Seventy-seven lactating sows from three consecutive batches were weaned at 28 d and all measures were taken over the first 20 d. Total feed consumption was measured and sows’ live weight was registered when entering the lactation facilities and at 21 d of lactation. Blood samples were collected at farrowing and once a week thereafter. Net energy (NE) mobilization or loss was calculated by difference using the general NRC equation for ME partitioning. Compared to low mobilizers (low NE loss values), high mobilizing sows had lower feed intake and higher loss of live weight, body fat and body protein. High mobilizers also weaned more piglets and had heavier litters than low mobilizers. Energy mobilization (NE loss) was higher from day 1 to 10 of lactation compared to day 11 to 20, and the difference in mobilized energy between high and low mobilizing sows was also higher in the first than in the second half of lactation. Body weight and back fat thickness losses were significantly correlated with NE loss. A more accurate prediction of the changes in live weight or back fat thickness over lactation should help better predict total amount of energy mobilized, and more research is needed to assess the relative contribution of lean and fat to mobilized tissue.

In the spring of 2018, Sheena Greitens and I conducted the China Scholar Research Experience Survey, a survey of 562 China scholars in the social sciences.1 The goal of the survey was to understand the incidence rate of different repressive experiences in the conduct of research. We found that at the time, such incidents were a “rare but real” phenomenon. Approximately 9% of respondents stated that they had been “invited to tea” by authorities within the past 10 years; 26% of scholars who conduct archival research reported having had issues with access; and 5% of researchers cited some difficulty obtaining a visa (Greitens and Truex 2020).

Let $\mathbb F$ be a finite field of odd order and $a,b\in\mathbb F\setminus\{0,1\}$ be such that $\chi(a) = \chi(b)$ and $\chi(1-a)=\chi(1-b)$, where χ is the extended quadratic character on $\mathbb F$. Let $Q_{a,b}$ be the quasigroup over $\mathbb F$ defined by $(x,y)\mapsto x+a(y-x)$ if $\chi(y-x) \geqslant 0$, and $(x,y)\mapsto x+b(y-x)$ if $\chi(y-x) = -1$. We show that $Q_{a,b} \cong Q_{c,d}$ if and only if $\{a,b\}= \{\alpha(c),\alpha(d)\}$ for some $\alpha\in \operatorname{Aut}(\mathbb F)$. We also characterize $\operatorname{Aut}(Q_{a,b})$ and exhibit further properties, including establishing when $Q_{a,b}$ is a Steiner quasigroup or is commutative, entropic, left or right distributive, flexible or semisymmetric. In proving our results, we also characterize the minimal subquasigroups of $Q_{a,b}$.

John Owen (1616–83) was one of the foremost English Puritans of the seventeenth century. His story has been largely limited to events in Britain. The letters examined in this article, translated from the French, reveal Owen's reputation and activity among Huguenots at the end of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate. Responding to critics of English religion like Moïse Amyraut, they highlight the largely neglected internationality of Interregnum religion and politics in which Owen participated through epistolary and print culture. They display the apocalyptic themes behind attempts at international Protestant union where ecclesiological debates over the nature of synods, toleration, political sovereignty and Church-State relations were decisive.

Investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) has been heavily criticized from the perspective of human rights. However, the potential adverse human rights impacts of ISDS and the responsibilities of businesses to avoid causing or contributing to those impacts under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights have yet to be spelled out. Although states are currently reforming ISDS, progress has been slow, and businesses have an independent responsibility to ensure that their operations do not harm human rights. Against this background, this article unpacks how businesses might contribute to three non-exhaustive examples of potential human rights impacts of ISDS: namely, the chilling effect on human rights regulation, crippling mega-awards and direct impacts on third-party rights. This article breaks new ground by exploring how human rights due diligence could be a useful tool for businesses to identify and address these impacts.

Shovelhead worms are common polychaetes around the British Isles and have been recorded in numerous ecological surveys. Yet, understanding of their habitat conditions is poor, based heavily on visual observations of sediments from historical records. In this study, the drivers of abundance and geographical distribution of two morphologically and behaviourally diverse species Magelona alleni and Magelona minuta are investigated by reanalysing sediment characteristics and depths from museum marine monitoring surveys. Although both species are historically associated with muddy sediments, the records herein suggest that M. alleni occurs in an extensive range of sediments, but is more abundant at localities with more than 25% sand. In comparison, M. minuta shows a negative linear relationship between grain diameter and abundance, corroborating previous work that the species is abundant in fine-grained mud. The depth records show that while M. alleni predominates below 60 m, M. minuta is a distinct offshore species. These differences may be attributed to the interspecific variation in morphology and motility between the species: M. alleni is stout and tube-dwelling, while M. minuta is fragile, small, and fairly motile. To corroborate these findings, sediment grains from tubes of M. alleni were classified using the Udden–Wentworth grain size scale and suggest sand is the key component for tube construction. Overall, this study highlights that sediment parameters for M. alleni have been misinterpreted and generalised in historical records, emphasising the importance of quantitative sediment analysis in defining the habitat of Magelona.