The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of different cockpit primary flight display (PFD) interface designs on pilot cognitive efficiency and cognitive load. This study designed five optimised PFD interfaces and conducted interface cognition experiments to assess cognitive responses across six different PFD interface designs, including the original design. It compared various subjective and objective metrics across different interface designs and evaluated the impact of each design factor on cognitive task performance. The experimental results show that the PFD interface in the original interface design performs better under different flight symbol designs, and the interface with 50% increase in font size performs better among interface designs with different font sizes with relatively lower cognitive load. This study provides experimental support and optimization suggestions for the optimal design of cockpit PFD interface, which can help improve pilots’ perception and operational capabilities, and thus enhance task performance efficiency and flight safety. Future research can investigate the effects of various design factors on the cognitive effects of the interface to enhance the ongoing improvement and optimisation of interface design.

Food environments around secondary schools are a strong influence on adolescents’ food purchasing habits1. We conducted a repeat cross-sectional study using Google Street View to examine school food environments in regional and metropolitan NSW, Australia over 17-years. Findings showed that unhealthful food outlets such as fast-food franchises, consistently dominated school food environments over 2007-2023. Increasing levels of poor nutrition among youth has been raised as a concern2 by the Health Advisory Panel for Youth at the University of Sydney [HAPYUS] - an established group of 16 adolescents aged 13-18 years residing in NSW3. To gain further insight into the study findings and how it may impact adolescents’ health, it is critical to include voices of adolescents in this research. The aim of this sub-study was to engage with members of our youth advisory group and conduct a consultation exercise on these study findings, drawing upon their lived experiences of school food environments. In Aug-2023, we engaged four youth advisors from HAPYUS. Study authors provided an overview of the study and its findings to the youth advisors via a Zoom call. Youth advisors formulated a 500-word statement on their perspectives and lived experiences of food environments surrounding their high schools over the subsequent 4 weeks. Adolescents agreed that physical proximity to unhealthy food outlets around schools was a key contributor to unhealthy eating habits however also recognised social and economic factors which play a significant role in shaping poor diets. The following quotes from their combined statement reflect social and economic concerns: i) “[We] observed on a daily basis young people were opting to travel to the closest food court for fast food, or in some extreme cases, even order fast food via a meal delivery app, to be delivered to the school - as opposed to choosing the closest outlet” ii) “Overpriced foods in schools with some drinks costing 2x more than a heavily discounted KFC meal, no meaningful difference between foods sold at canteens and those sold at fast food outlets - heavily processed, packaged snacks, pre-made reheated foods” iii) “Most unhealthy food outlets choose a location that is not only close to schools but also close to major shopping centres and food courts… ideal for an after-school social catchup as it appears to accommodate the needs of a large group of people.” Consultation findings revealed the importance of social and economic factors that must be analysed in addition to adolescents’ physical proximity to food outlets around their schools. Youth advisors call for governments to take immediate action to implement policies that ensure schools have cheap and healthy foods at canteens to mitigate against the purchase of foods from nearby unhealthy food outlets.

In order to investigate the three-dimensional effects on the flow characteristics of the thin water film for the three-dimensional wings, the numerical simulation of the droplet impingement and film flow on the MS-0317 wing is implemented based on the open-source package OpenFOAM. The simulation focuses on the effects of the angle-of-attack and the angle of sweepback. The movement and impingement of the droplets are calculated using the Lagrangian method, and the film flow is simulated using the thin film assumption and the finite area method. The simulation of the water film flow of the three-dimensional MS-0317 wing shows that there is a spanwise flow of the water film due to the three-dimensional effects. This suggests that more research should be conducted on the warm glaze ice with surface water film of three-dimensional ice accretion on three-dimensional geometries.

Paravulvus zhongshanensis sp. nov., isolated from soil in a location at Jiangsu Province, China, is described and illustrated based on morphological, morphometric and molecular characterizations. The new species is characterized by its body 1.17–1.53 mm long, lip region offset by marked constriction and 12.1–13.8 μm broad, mural tooth deltoid and 9.6–11.7 μm long, neck 278–360 μm long, pharyngeal expansion 164–208 μm long or occupying more than one-half (54–62%) of total neck length, uterus 32.5–35.3 μm long or 1.0–1.1 times the corresponding body diameter, V = 47.8–53.4, paravulvae absent, female tail subcylindrical conoid (30.5–39.5 μm, c = 36.0–45.5, c′ = 1.7–2.2) with widely rounded end, and male unknown. The new species was compared with six known species of the genus including Paravulvus acuticaudatus, Paravulvus confusus, Paravulvus hartingii, Paravulvus iranicus, Paravulvus loofi and Paravulvus microdontus mainly by similarities in having conical tail and c′ value larger than 1.3. The rRNA and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 genes of the new species were obtained and were used for reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships of the new species.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between bone quality in terms of metabolism, homeostasis of elements, bone mineral density (BMD), and microstructure and keel-bone fractures in laying hens (Gallus gallus domesticus). One hundred and twenty 17 week old Lohmann White laying hens with normal keel bones were individually housed in furnished cages for 25 weeks. Birds were then euthanased and dissected to assess keel-bone status at 42 weeks. Serum and keel-bone samples from normal keel (NK) and fractured keel (FK) hens were collected to determine the previously mentioned bone quality parameters. The results showed FK hens to have higher levels of the components of osteocalcin, greater alkaline phosphatase activity in serum and keel bones, and greater tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) activity in keel bones, compared to NK hens. Additionally, FK hens also had higher concentrations of Li, B, K, Cu, As, Se, Sn, Hg, and Pb, but lower concentrations of Na, P, and Ca. Moreover, FK hens showed decreased bone microstructural parameters including bone volume/tissue volume, trabecular number, degree of anisotropy, connectivity density, and BMD, but increased trabecular separation. Meanwhile, no differences were detected in serum TRAP activity, trabecular thickness, bone surface, or bone surface/bone volume. Results showed laying hens with keel-bone fractures to have differences in bone metabolism, elements of home-ostasis, bone microstructure parameters, and BMD. These results suggest that keel-bone fractures may be associated with bone quality.

A disruption database characterizing the current quench of disruptions with ITER-like tungsten divertor has been developed on EAST. It provides a large number of plasma parameters describing the predisruptive plasma, current quench time, eddy current, and mitigation by massive impurity injection, which shows that the current quench time strongly depends on magnetic energy and post-disruption electron temperature. Further, the energy balance and magnetic energy dissipation during the current quench phase has been well analysed. Magnetic energy is also demonstrated to be dissipated mainly by ohmic reheating and inductive coupling, and both of the two channels have great effects on current quench time. Also, massive gas injection is an efficient method to speed up the current quench and increase the fraction of impurity radiation.

The γ″ phase (hexagonal structure with space group ${ P\bar{6}}2{ m}$) plays an important role in the strengthening of Mg–Gd–Y–Ag–Zr alloy. In this study, Cs-corrected high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy was applied to characterize the Mg–Gd–Y–Ag–Zr alloy in different conditions (as-cast, solution-treated, and isothermally aged at 200 °C). The nucleation, growing process, and transformation behavior of the plate-shaped γ″ phase were systematically investigated on the atomic scale. We found that the nucleation sites of the γ″ phase were separated by close-packed planes of the Mg matrix and the γ″ phase developed in two perpendicular directions of $\langle 10\bar{1}0 \rangle$ and ⟨0001⟩. The growing process of the γ″ phase on the atomic scale was captured. The γ″ phase was thermodynamically stable at room temperature, and no transformation behavior of the γ″ phase was observed up to 200 h during isothermal aging at 200 °C.

Feathers play a critical role in thermoregulation and directly influence poultry production. Poor feathering adversely affects living appearance and carcass quality, thus reducing profits. However, producers tend to ignore the importance of feather development and do not know the laws of feather growth and development. The objective of this study was to fit growth curves to describe the growth and development of feathers in yellow-feathered broilers during the embryonic and posthatching periods using different nonlinear functions (Gompertz, logistic and Bertalanffy). Feather mass and length were determined during the embryonic development and posthatching stages to identify which growth model most accurately described the feather growth pattern. The results showed that chick embryos began to grow feathers at approximately embryonic (E) day 10, and the feathers grew rapidly from E13 to E17. There was little change from E17 to the day of hatching (DOH). During the embryonic period, the Gompertz function (Y = 798.48e−203 431exp(−0.87t), Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) = −0.950 × 103, Bayesian information criterion (BIC) = −0.711 × 103 and mean square error (MSE) = 559.308) provided the best fit for the feather growth curve compared with the other two functions. After hatching, feather mass and length changed little from the DOH to day (D) 14, increased rapidly from D21 to D91 and then grew slowly after D91. The first stage of feather molting occurred from 2 to 3 weeks of age when the down feathers were mostly shed and replaced with juvenile feathers, and the second stage occurred at approximately 13 to 15 weeks of age. The three nonlinear functions could overall fit the feather growth curve well, but the Bertalanffy model (Y = 116.88 × (1−0.86e−0.02t)3, AIC = 1.065 × 105, BIC = 1.077 × 105 and MSE = 11.308) showed the highest degree of fit among the models. Therefore, the Gompertz model exhibited the best goodness of fit for the feather growth curve during the embryonic development, while the Bertalanffy model was the most suitable model due to its accurate ability to predict the growth and development of feathers during the growth period, which is an important commercial characteristic of yellow-feathered chickens.

Previous studies have demonstrated that type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) could be triggered by an early childhood infection. Whether maternal infection during pregnancy is associated with T1DM in offspring is unknown. Therefore, we aimed to study the association using a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eighteen studies including 4304 cases and 25 846 participants were enrolled in this meta-analysis. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were synthesised using random-effects models. Subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the robustness of associations. Overall, the pooled analysis yielded a statistically significant association between maternal infection during pregnancy and childhood T1DM (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.07–1.62). Furthermore, six studies that tested maternal enterovirus infection showed a pooled OR of 1.54 (95% CI 1.05–2.27). Heterogeneity from different studies was evident (I2 = 70.1%, P < 0.001) and was mainly attributable to the different study designs, ascertaining methods and sample size among different studies. This study provides evidence for an association between maternal infection during pregnancy and childhood T1DM.

A numerical comparison of the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation and the finite-difference method for pricing European options under a regime-switching framework is presented in this paper. We consider pricing options on stocks having two to four volatility regimes. Numerical results show that the MC simulation outperforms the Crank–Nicolson (CN) finite-difference method in both the low-frequency case and the high-frequency case. Even though both methods have linear growth, as the number of regimes increases, the computational time of CN grows much faster than that of MC. In addition, for the two-state case, we propose a much faster simulation algorithm whose computational time is almost independent of the switching frequency. We also investigate the performances of two variance-reduction techniques: antithetic variates and control variates, to further improve the efficiency of the simulation.

The ultimate goal of poultry hatching is to increase the hatching rate and to produce healthy hatched birds. In the incubation process, temperature is the most important factor for the egg hatching rate, the growth performance and offspring phenotype. This not only affects the early development of the offspring, but also has a continued influence on the physical characteristics of the birds, such as final body weight and meat quality. This article reviews the importance of incubation temperature on offspring phenotype, sex differentiation, organism immunity and the development of muscle fibre in poultry.

Pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs) are believed to be involved in the recognition of semiochemicals. In the present study, western blot analysis, fluorescence-binding characteristics and immunolocalization of CmedPBP4 from the rice leaffolder, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis, were investigated. Western blot analysis revealed that CmedPBP4 showed obvious antenna-specific expression patterns in female and male antenna, and made a clearly different sex-biased expression. Immunocytochemical labeling revealed that CmedPBP4 showed specific expression in the trichoid sensilla. Competitive fluorescence binding assays indicated that CmedPBP4 could selectively recognize three sex pheromone components (Z13-18:Ac, Z11-16:Al and Z13-18:OH) and eleven rice plant volatiles, including cyclohexanol, nerolidol, cedrol, dodecanal, ionone, (−)-α-cedrene, (Z)-farnesene, β-myrcene, R-(+)-limonene, (−)-limonene, and (+)-3-carene. Meanwhile the CmedPBP4 detection of sex pheromones and host odorants was pH-dependent. Our results, for the first time, provide further evidence that trichoid sensilla might be play an important role in detecting sex pheromones and host plant volatiles in the C. medinalis moth. Our systematic studies provided further detailed evidence for the function of trichoid sensilla in insect semiochemical perception.

The B-biotype of Bemisia tabaci (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) has become extremely resistant to commonly used insecticides in China. To further explore the mechanisms of resistance to diafenthiuron, the diafenthiuron induction profiles of carboxylesterase (COE1), glutathione S-transferase (GST) and seven cytochrome P450 genes in both resistant (R-DfWf) and susceptible (S-Lab) strains were characterized. The detoxification genes GST, CYP6CX4, CYP6DW3, CYP6DZ6 and CYP9F, which are known to be constitutively over-expressed in the R-DfWf strain, were significantly upregulated in R-DfWf and S-Lab strains exposed to diafenthiuron at LC50 compared with their levels in strains treated with distilled water (controls); however, CYP6CX1, another detoxification gene, was not upregulated. The upregulation was more pronounced in the R-DfWf strain than in the S-Lab strain exposed to different concentrations of diafenthiuron (LC10 or LC50). Interestingly, COE1, CYP6CM1 and CYP6A, which are not constitutively over-expressed in the R-DfWf strain, were all significantly upregulated after exposure to diafenthiuron. Similarly, significant differences in the expression of these detoxification genes, with the exception of CYP6CM1 in the S-Lab strain, were also observed after exposure to diafenthiuron. However, the induction of CYP6A and COE1 was more pronounced in the S-Lab strain than in the R-DfWf strain after treatment with diafenthiuron at both concentrations, indicating that diafenthiuron induction of CYP6CM1 is specific to the R-DfWf strain, while diafenthiuron induction of the other genes is common to both the R-DfWf and S-Lab strains. These results demonstrate that multiple detoxification genes are co-upregulated in the R-DfWf strain through both constitutive over-expression and induction mechanisms. This knowledge will be useful for rational selection of insecticides for use in resistance management and control of this species.

Genetic association studies of the cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10) and sepsis have provided inconsistent results. This work attempts to further quantitatively assess the association of three widely evaluated polymorphisms of IL-10 (−592C/A, −819C/T, −1082A/G) with sepsis susceptibility through a meta-analysis. A search of Pubmed, Web of Science and EMBASE databases was performed. Overall, the three polymorphisms have no strong association with sepsis risk. Subgroup analysis by ethnicity showed there was association between sepsis susceptibility with −592C/A in Caucasians (A vs. C: OR 0·78, 95% CI 0·62–1·00, P = 0·05; AA + CA vs. CC: OR 0·75, 95% CI 0·56–1·00, P = 0·05), and with −1082A/G in Asians (G vs. A: OR 1·41, 95% CI 1·04–1·91, P = 0·03; GG + AG vs. AA: OR 2·11, 95% CI 1·07–4·16, P = 0·03). This meta-analysis suggests that −592C/A and −1082A/G polymorphisms are associated with sepsis susceptibility in Caucasian, and Asian populations, respectively.

Several studies have evaluated the association between mannose-binding lectin (MBL) polymorphisms and sepsis. However, the results are inconclusive and conflicting. To better understand the roles of MBL polymorphisms in sepsis, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis. All relevant studies were searched from PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Knowledge databases, with the last report up to 7 May 2013. Twenty-nine studies addressing four MBL polymorphisms (–550G/C, –221G/C, structure variant A/O, Gly54Asp) were analysed for susceptibility to sepsis and one study for sepsis-related mortality. Overall, significant associations between structure variant A/O and susceptibility to sepsis were observed for AO + OO vs. AA [odds ratio (OR) 1·27, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·05–1·52, P = 0·01] and O vs. A (OR 1·19, 95% CI 1·02–1·40, P = 0·03). In subgroup analysis based on age group, increased risk was found in the paediatric group in the dominant model (OR 1·72, 95% CI 1·16–2·56, P = 0·007). Moreover, there was a slight association between the +54A/B polymorphism and susceptibility to sepsis in Caucasians (recessive model: OR 10·64, 95% CI 1·24–91·65, P = 0·03). However, no association was observed for –550G/C and –221G/C polymorphisms both overall and in subgroup analysis. For sepsis-related mortality, only one study suggested AO/OO was associated with in-hospital mortality in pneumococcal sepsis patients after controlling for confounding variables. Our meta-analysis indicated that MBL structure variants might be associated with susceptibility to sepsis but further studies with a large sample size should be conducted to confirm these findings.

Helianthus tuberosus L. is regarded as one of the most important bioenergy crops because of its tolerance to arid conditions and its high biomass production. Future breeding programmes will rely on the available germplasm, thus necessitating a critical assessment of genetic diversity and differentiation in the species. The germplasm diversity and regional differentiation of H. tuberosus L. was assessed for 60 accessions collected from East Asia and Europe by means of amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs), phenotypic traits and chemical analysis. The analysis did not reveal separate clusters for accessions from East Asia and Europe, with 5% for genetic and 0·27% for phenotypic variability, although some regional accessions were closely related to each other with respect to morphological, chemical and genetic variation. Both phenotypic and genetic relationships showed a moderate correlation with colour of tubers, which can be used as an important criterion for germplasm management of the crop. Three major genetic groups were identified from the accessions. Within the groups derived from the genetic data, both morphological and chemical traits were very variable. The most important features of Groups I, II and III were: Group I, strong sexual reproduction, higher above-ground biomass and nutrient content; Group II, longer vegetative growth; Group III, higher tuber yield and total sugar content. High diversity was found in both European and East Asian accessions as well as within each genetic group, suggesting that there is a strong base for future breeding from these plants.