Optimal nutrition supply to the developing foetus is paramount in achieving appropriate foetal growth and development. The Australian dietary guidelines advise about the amounts and types of foods for pregnancy(1). However, previous studies in reproductive aged women(2) and in pregnant women(3) showed suboptimal adherence to dietary recommendations. There is no evidence on the experience of sourcing nor uptake of the dietary guidelines among pregnant women. The aim of this study is to qualitatively explore women’s knowledge and understanding of nutrition information for pregnancy, including the current Australian dietary guidelines for pregnancy. Twelve pregnant women were recruited from a longitudinal study from the first through third trimester of pregnancy. Purposive sampling was adopted with an intention to recruit for diverse health information seeking habits. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women at different trimesters, transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically. Three themes were generated regarding information sourcing, uptake and evaluation. (i) Women had limited knowledge about the pregnancy dietary guidelines, leaving them to source pregnancy related nutrition information elsewhere. (ii) Women described other healthy eating advice that contributed to confusion and potential incompatibility with their dietary beliefs and lifestyle practices. (iii) Women shared that they were capable of seeking and evaluating the identified dietary advice, but the inconsistency across information sources contributed to over-cautious behaviour and dietary restrictions. Our findings suggest there is a general lack of awareness of the official dietary guidelines for pregnancy. To optimise pregnancy nutritional intake, efforts should be made to increase utilisation of the Australian dietary guidelines for pregnancy and to support uptake of dietary advice among pregnant women.

Improving neonatal piglet survival is a key driver for improving pig production and enhancing animal welfare. Gestational diabetes is a risk factor for neonatal morbidities in humans, such as hypoglycaemia and respiratory distress(1). There is limited knowledge on the association of gestational diabetes with neonatal survival in commercial pigs. An early study suggested that the diabetic condition of late-gestating sows was positively correlated with the first-week newborn piglet mortality(2). Genetic selection in recent decades for heavier birth weight may have increased the prevalence or severity of gestational diabetes in pigs, considering the positive correlation between gestational diabetes and birth weight. We hypothesised that the diabetic condition of late gestating sows positively correlates with the neonatal piglet mortality rate in sows with modern genetics. Mixed-parity sows (1.5 ± 1.6 parity for mean ± standard deviation (SD); Large White × Landrace) from a commercial piggery in Australia were randomly selected and participated in an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) during two seasons (118 sows in winter and 118 sows in summer). On the d109 day of gestation, sows were fed 3.0 g dextrose per kg of metabolic body weight after fasting overnight. Tail blood glucose concentrations were measured using a glucometer (Accu-Chek ®, Roche Diabetes Care Australia Pty) at −10, 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 105, 120 minutes relative to dextrose feeding. The glucose increment (2.5 ± 1.29 mM for mean ± SD) during OGTT was calculated using the maximum concentration substrating the fasting concentration of blood glucose. The 24-hour piglet mortality rate (5% ± 8.8% for mean ± SD) was calculated as the ratio between piglets that died during the first 24 hours and the total number of born alive on a litter basis. The effect of sow glucose increment, season (winter vs summer), glucose increment × season, number of piglets born alive, and sows parity on the 24-h piglet mortality rate as analysed using a Generalised Linear Model (SPSS 27th Version, IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk). Results showed that the 24-hour piglet mortality rate was numerically higher in winter than in summer although insignificant (5.7% vs 4.2%, p = 0.41). The glucose increment of gestating sows was positively correlated with the 24-hour piglet mortality rate during winter but not summer, as evidenced by an interaction trend between glucose increment and season (p = 0.059). The regression coefficient suggested that every extra unit (mM) of glucose increment during OGTT corresponded to a 1.4% increase in the 24-hour piglet mortality rate in winter. In conclusion, the diabetic condition of late-gestating sows is a risk factor for neonatal piglet mortality in winter. Developing nutritional strategies to mitigate the diabetic condition of late-gestating sows may benefit neonatal piglet survival.

In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal is often interpreted as a measure of neural activity. However, because the BOLD signal reflects the complex interplay of neural, vascular, and metabolic processes, such an interpretation is not always valid. There is growing evidence that changes in the baseline neurovascular state can result in significant modulations of the BOLD signal that are independent of changes in neural activity. This paper introduces some of the normalization and calibration methods that have been proposed for making the BOLD signal a more accurate reflection of underlying brain activity for human fMRI studies.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a noninvasive method for measuring brain function by correlating temporal changes in local cerebral blood oxygenation with behavioral measures. fMRI is used to study individuals at single time points, across multiple time points (with or without intervention), as well as to examine the variation of brain function across normal and ill populations. fMRI may be collected at multiple sites and then pooled into a single analysis. This paper describes how fMRI data is analyzed at each of these levels and describes the noise sources introduced at each level.

Aiming at the problem of fast and consensus obstacle avoidance of multiple unmanned aerial systems in undirected network, a multi-quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs (QUAVs) finite-time consensus obstacle avoidance algorithm is proposed. In this paper, multi-QUAVs establish communication through the leader-following method, and the formation is led by the leader to fly to the target position automatically and avoid obstacles autonomously through the improved artificial potential field method. The finite-time consensus protocol controls multi-QUAVs to form a desired formation quickly, considering the existence of communication and input delay, and rigorously proves the convergence of the proposed protocol. A trajectory segmentation strategy is added to the improved artificial potential field method to reduce trajectory loss and improve the task execution efficiency. The simulation results show that multi-QUAVs can be assembled to form the desired formation quickly, and the QUAV formation can avoid obstacles and maintain the formation unchanged while avoiding obstacles.

This study investigates practicing clinician and staff perspectives on potential protocol modifications for the “Nasal Irrigation, Oral Antibiotics, and Subgroup Targeting for Effective Management of Acute Sinusitis” (NOSES) study, a pragmatic randomized controlled trial aiming at improving acute rhinosinusitis management. Focus groups with clinicians and staff at the pretrial stage recommended expanding participant age inclusion criteria, incorporating patients with COVID-19, and shortening the supportive care phase. Participants also discussed patient engagement and recruitment strategies. These practical insights contribute to optimizing the NOSES trial design and underscore the value of qualitative inquiries and healthcare stakeholder engagement in informing clinical trial design.

In this paper, a brand-new adaptive fault-tolerant non-affine integrated guidance and control method based on reinforcement learning is proposed for a class of skid-to-turn (STT) missile. Firstly, considering the non-affine characteristics of the missile, a new non-affine integrated guidance and control (NAIGC) design model is constructed. For the NAIGC system, an adaptive expansion integral system is introduced to address the issue of challenging control brought on by the non-affine form of the control signal. Subsequently, the hyperbolic tangent function and adaptive boundary estimation are utilised to lessen the jitter due to disturbances in the control system and the deviation caused by actuator failures while taking into account the uncertainty in the NAIGC system. Importantly, actor-critic is introduced into the control framework, where the actor network aims to deal with the multiple uncertainties of the subsystem and generate the control input based on the critic results. Eventually, not only is the stability of the NAIGC closed-loop system demonstrated using Lyapunov theory, but also the validity and superiority of the method are verified by numerical simulations.

One species-general life history (LH) principle posits that challenging childhood environments are coupled with a fast or faster LH strategy and associated behaviors, while secure and stable childhood environments foster behaviors conducive to a slow or slower LH strategy. This coupling between environments and LH strategies is based on the assumption that individuals’ internal traits and states are independent of their external surroundings. In reality, individuals respond to external environmental conditions in alignment with their intrinsic vitality, encompassing both physical and mental states. The present study investigated attachment as an internal mental state, examining its role in mediating and moderating the association between external environmental adversity and fast LH strategies. A sample of 1169 adolescents (51% girls) from 9 countries was tracked over 10 years, starting from age 8. The results confirm both mediation and moderation and, for moderation, secure attachment nullified and insecure attachment maintained the environment-LH coupling. These findings suggest that attachment could act as an internal regulator, disrupting the contingent coupling between environmental adversity and a faster pace of life, consequently decelerating human LH.

Background: Hyperacute stroke care demands rapid, coordinated care. Traditional metrics like Door-to-Needle time are pivotal but insufficient for capturing the complexity of endovascular stroke interventions. The SMILES collaboration aims to standardize and optimize protocols for door-to-intervention times, incorporating Crew Resource Management (CRM). Methods: The multidisciplinary initiative integrates both hospitals, ED, neurology, and QI teams. We employed a comprehensive approach: stakeholder engagement, simulation-based learning, process mapping, and literature review. Emphasis was placed on enhancing situational awareness, triage and prioritization, cognitive load management, role clarity, effective communication, and debriefing. Results: The collaboration led to PDSA cycles and development of refined stroke protocols. Interventions included: 1) A ’zero point survey’ for team pre-arrival briefings, enhancing situational awareness and role clarity; 2) Streamlined patient registration to reduce cognitive load and improve triage efficiency; 3) Direct transfer of patients to imaging. Additionally, digital tools were implemented to facilitate communication. Simulation sessions reinforced CRM principles, leading to improved team cohesion and operational performance. Conclusions: The SMILES initiative is grounded in CRM principles by standardizing protocols and emphasizing non-technical skills crucial for high-stakes environments. This improves outcomes but also fosters a culture of safety and efficiency. Future directions include an evaluation of these protocols’ impact on patient factors.

Ultrafast optical probing is a widely used method of underdense plasma diagnostic. In relativistic plasma, the motion blur limits spatial resolution in the direction of motion. For many high-power lasers the initial pulse duration of 30–50 fs results in a 10–15 μm motion blur, which can be reduced by probe pulse post-compression. Here we used the compression after compressor approach [Phys.-Usp. 62, 1096 (2019); JINST 17 P07035 (2022)], where spectral broadening is performed in thin optical plates and is followed by reflections from negative-dispersion mirrors. Our initially low-intensity probe beam was down-collimated for a more efficient spectral broadening and higher probe-to-self-emission intensity ratio. The setup is compact, fits in a vacuum chamber and can be implemented within a short experimental time slot. We proved that the compressed pulse retained the high quality necessary for plasma probing.

Schistosoma species have traditionally been arranged in groups based on egg morphology, geographical origins, and the genus or family of snail intermediate host. One of these groups is the ‘S. indicum group’ comprising species from Asia that use pulmonate snails as intermediate hosts. DNA sequences were obtained from the four members of this group (S. indicum, S. spindale, S. nasale and S. incognitum) to provide information concerning their phylogenetic relationships with other Asian and African species and species groups. The sequences came from the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of the ribosomal gene repeat, part of the 28S ribosomal RNA gene (28S), and part of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) gene. Tree analyses using both distance and parsimony methods showed the S. indicum group not to be monophyletic. Schistosoma indicum, S. spindale and S. nasale were clustered among African schistosomes, while S. incognitum was placed as sister to the African species (using ITS2 and 28S nucleotide sequences and CO1 amino acid sequences), or as sister to all other species of Schistosoma (CO1 nucleotide sequences). Based on the present molecular data, a scenario for the evolution of the S. indicum group is discussed.

The status of Schistosoma sinensium (samples from Thailand and from Sichuan, China) relative to other species of the genus Schistosoma was investigated using DNA sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) gene (partial) and the nuclear ribosomal DNA second internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2). Trees inferred from these sequences place S. sinensium as sister to the S. japonicum group and suggest a basal position in the clade utilizing snails of the family Pomatiopsidae. The sequence differences between specimens of S. sinensium from China and Thailand are at least as great as between S. malayensis and S. mekongi. Schistosoma sinensium is probably best regarded as a species complex.

This multi-method longitudinal study sought to investigate linkage in parental neuroendocrine functioning – indicated by cortisol – over two measurement occasions. In addition, we examined how parental cortisol linkage may operate as an intermediate factor in the cascade of contextual risks and parenting. Participants were 235 families with a young child (Mage = 33.56, 36.00 years for mothers and fathers respectively), who were followed for two annual measurement occasions. Parental cortisol linkage was measured around a laboratory conflict discussion task at both measurement occasions (i.e., pre-discussion, 20- and 40-minute post-discussion for each measurement occasion). Maternal and paternal parenting behavior was observed during a parent-child discipline discussion task. Findings indicated similar levels of cortisol linkage between parents over the two measurement occasions. Furthermore, cortisol linkage between parents operated as an intermediate factor between contextual risks and more compromised parenting behavior. That is, greater contextual risks, indicated by greater neighborhood risk and interparental conflict, were linked to greater cortisol linkage between parents over time, which was in turn linked to greater authoritarian parenting during parent-child interaction. Findings highlighted the importance of understanding physiological-linkage processes with respect to the impact of contextual risks on family functioning and may have crucial implications for clinical work.