Females of many species mate with multiple males, thereby inciting competition among ejaculates from rival males for fertilization. In response to increasing sperm competition, males are predicted to ...enhance their investment in sperm production. This prediction is so widespread that testes size (correcting for body size) is commonly used as a proxy of sperm competition, even in the absence of any other information about a species' reproductive behaviour. By contrast, a debate about whether sperm competition selects for smaller or larger sperm has persisted for nearly three decades, with empirical studies demonstrating every possible response. Here, we synthesize nearly 40 years of sperm competition research in a meta-analytical framework to determine how the evolution of sperm number (i.e. testes size) and sperm size (i.e. sperm head, midpiece, flagellum and total length) is influenced by varying levels of sperm competition across species. Our findings support the long-held assumption that higher levels of sperm competition are associated with relatively larger testes. We also find clear evidence that sperm competition is associated with increases in all components of sperm length. We discuss these results in the context of different theoretical predictions and general patterns in the breeding biology and selective environment of sperm. This article is part of the theme issue 'Fifty years of sperm competition'.
This study investigates the relationships between social connectedness and communication patterns from seven countries across the globe. In contrast to most existing studies, which focus on either ...single medium use or ICT-mediated multimodal connectedness, the study considers how people select and combine a set of communication modes for social connectedness. With survey data from the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and the Chinese mainland, the study examines the complexity of multimodal connectedness, that is, the diversity and the frequency of multiple communication modes and media through which people maintain their connections with different social relations. A latent class analysis identifies six clusters in the diversity and the frequency to illustrate the similarities and differences of communication patterns. Sociodemographic and country variables play distinct roles in predicting the clusters in the diversity and frequency dimensions, respectively. The theoretical and practical implications of this comparative study are discussed.
In this study, the parameters affecting the relative thermal conductivity (RTC) of SWCNT (15%)-Fe3O4 (85%)/Water Hybrid Ferro-Nanofluid (HFNF) are investigated. The contributions of temperature and ...the solid volume fraction (SVF) are carefully studied and analyzed. The initial increase of TC of produced HFNF relative to water at SVF = 0.03% and T = 30 °C is equal to 0.9%, but the maximum amount of RTC is reported to be 32.20%, which is a significant amount. The contribution of each parameter in increasing the RTC is considered in present sutdy. In this study, in addition to the laboratory study the response surface methodology (RSM) is used as mathematical based method to predict the TC behavior of studied HFNF and after that, the MOD and sensitivity of RTC are applied to check the accuracy f predictions. As the result of the RSM a new correlation with R2 = 0.9941 is also predicted for the studied HFNF and as another result the highest RTC sensitivity is reported at + 1.58%.
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Background
A web-based survey is a novel method for data capture. Some studies have applied web-based surveys in pediatrics, but few of them have reported data on the differences between web-based ...and traditional questionnaire surveys.
Objective
The objective of our study was to evaluate the internal consistency of a web-based survey and compare it with a traditional questionnaire survey in pediatrics.
Methods
A convenience sample of caregivers was invited to participate in the survey on feeding patterns and their children’s eating behaviors if their children were aged 2 to 7 years. A web-based survey and a traditional questionnaire survey were carried out between October 2018 and July 2019. A total of 1085 caregivers were involved in this study, and they were divided into the following three groups based on methods and sources: (1) web-based survey from a web source, (2) web-based survey from a hospital source, and (3) traditional questionnaire survey from a hospital source. The data were then compared and analyzed.
Results
A total of 735 caregivers participated in the web-based survey and 350 caregivers participated in the traditional questionnaire survey, and 816 cases were then included in the analyses after data processing. The effective rate of the web-based survey was 70.1% (515/735), and the completeness rate of the traditional questionnaire survey was 86.0% (301/350). There were no significant differences between web-based surveys from different sources. However, demographic characteristics were significantly different between the web-based and traditional questionnaire surveys, mainly in terms of age and caregivers (χ²4=16.509, P=.002 and χ²4=111.464, P<.001, respectively). Caregivers of children aged 2 to 3 years and grandparents were more likely to respond to the web-based survey. Age-specific stratified analysis showed that the score of “monitoring” and the reporting rate of “poor appetite” in children aged 2 to 3 years were significantly higher in the web-based survey compared to the traditional questionnaire survey after adjusting for demographic characteristics.
Conclusions
A web-based survey could be a feasible tool in pediatric studies. However, differences in demographic characteristics and their possible impacts on the results should be considered in the analyses.
Source code static analysis has been widely used to detect vulnerabilities in the development of software products. The vulnerability patterns purely based on human experts are laborious and error ...prone, which has motivated the use of machine learning for vulnerability detection. In order to relieve human experts of defining vulnerability rules or features, a recent study shows the feasibility of leveraging deep learning to detect vulnerabilities automatically. However, the impact of different factors on the effectiveness of vulnerability detection is unknown. In this paper, we collect two datasets from the programs involving 126 types of vulnerabilities, on which we conduct the first comparative study to quantitatively evaluate the impact of different factors on the effectiveness of vulnerability detection. The experimental results show that accommodating control dependency can increase the overall effectiveness of vulnerability detection F1-measure by 20.3%; the imbalanced data processing methods are not effective for the dataset we create; bidirectional recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are more effective than unidirectional RNNs and convolutional neural network, which in turn are more effective than multi-layer perception; using the last output corresponding to the time step for the bidirectional long short-term memory (BLSTM) can reduce the false negative rate by 2.0% at the price of increasing the false positive rate by 0.5%.
Background
The diagnosis of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) is challenging in hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐infected patients, due to the overlapping clinical manifestations and atypical imaging ...patterns compared to patients without HBV.
Purpose
To investigate the preoperative imaging characteristics of iCCA in patients with HBV in comparison to those without HBV.
Study Type
Retrospective.
Subjects
431 patients with histopathologically confirmed iCCA (143 HBV‐positive and 288 HBV‐negative patients) were retrospectively enrolled from three institutes, and patients were allocated to the training (n = 302) and validation (n = 129) cohorts from different institutes or time period; 100 matching HBV‐positive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients were also enrolled.
Field Strength/Sequence
1.5‐T and 3‐T, including T1‐ and T2‐weighted, diffusion‐weighted and dynamic gadopentetate dimeglumine‐enhanced imaging.
Assessment
Clinical and MRI features were analyzed and compared between HBV‐positive and HBV‐negative patients with iCCA, and between HBV‐positive patients with iCCA and HCC.
Statistical Tests
Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses with odds ratio (OR) to identify independent features for discriminating HBV‐associated iCCA. Diagnostic model generation by incorporating independent features, and the performance for discrimination was evaluated by receiver operating characteristics with the area under the curve (AUC) and 95% confidence interval (CI). AUCs were compared by the DeLong's method. A P‐value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results
Compared to patients without HBV, washout or degressive enhancement pattern (OR = 51.837), well‐defined tumor margin (OR = 8.758) and no peritumoral bile duct dilation (OR = 4.651) were independent significant features for discriminating HBV‐associated iCCAs. All these features were also the predominant MRI manifestations for HBV‐associated HCC. The combined index showed an AUC of 0.798 (95% CI 0.748–0.842) in the training cohort and an AUC of 0.789 (95% CI 0.708–0.856) in the validation cohort for discrimination. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were all >70%, which was superior to each single feature alone in both cohorts. Correction added after first online publication on 29 June 2023. The Field Strength/Sequence has been updated from 5‐T to 1.5‐T.
Data Conclusion
Preoperative MRI may help to discriminate HBV‐associated iCCA.
Evidence Level
3
Technical Efficacy Stage
2
Background:
Suicidality is common in major depressive disorder (MDD), but there has been no systematic review published about all aspects of suicidality. This meta-analysis and systematic review ...compared the prevalence of the whole range of suicidality comprising suicidal ideation (SI), suicide plan (SP), suicide attempt (SA), and completed suicide (CS), between patients with MDD and non-MDD controls.
Methods:
Major international (PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, EMBASE) and Chinese (Chinese Nation Knowledge Infrastructure and WANFANG) databases were systematically and independently searched from their inception until January 12, 2021.
Results:
Fifteen studies covering 85,768 patients (12,668 in the MDD group and 73,100 in the non-MDD group) were included in the analyses. Compared to non-MDD controls, the odds ratios (ORs) for lifetime, past month, past year, and 2-week prevalence of SI in MDD were 2.88 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.30–27.22,
p
= 0.36, 49.88 (95% CI = 2–8.63,
p
< 0.001), 13.97 (95% CI = 12.67–15.41,
p
< 0.001), and 24.81 (95% CI = 15.70–39.22,
p
< 0.001), respectively. Compared to non-MDD controls, the OR for lifetime SP in MDD was 9.51 (95% CI = 7.62–11.88,
p
< 0.001). Compared to non-MDD controls, the ORs of lifetime and past-year prevalence of SA were 3.45 (95% CI = 1.58–7.52,
p
= 0.002), and 7.34 (95% CI = 2.14–25.16,
p
= 0.002), respectively, in MDD patients. No difference in the prevalence of CS between MDD and controls was found (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.23–2.02,
p
= 0.50).
Conclusions:
MDD patients are at a higher risk of suicidality, compared to non-MDD controls. Routine screening for a range of suicidality should be included in the management of MDD, followed by timely treatment for suicidal patients.
Systematic Review Registration:
Identifier INPLASY202120078.
This study investigates the functions and implications of contemporary filial piety in three Chinese societies, namely, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, using large-scale cross-national datasets from ...the 2006 East Asian Social Survey. Despite the shared Confucian cultural values among these three societies, they have sharply differed in their paths toward modernization and in the development of their sociopolitical structures over the last century. The authors propose that the implications and influences of filial piety tend to be more similar in Taiwan and Hong Kong, but may be different in China because of profound differences in its sociopolitical system. Using the dual filial piety model as the baseline for comparative analyses, the results show that dual filial piety can be found in all three societies, although there are some componential alterations in China. The study also goes beyond the common practice of treating filial piety within the confines of caring for family elders by considering its functional utility to influence an individual’s sociopsychological outcomes. The regression results support the significance of dual filial piety and its close association with various aspects of daily life in contemporary Chinese societies.
Although providing equal educational opportunity for all children is the common goal for inclusive education around the world, the way of implementation is influenced by cultural, historical, and ...socioeconomic factors of each country. This study aims to compare Saudi and Japanese teachers' attitudes and self-efficacy in inclusive education. Data were collected from 185 Saudi and 359 Japanese in-service teachers using a survey. Quantitative analysis revealed that there was no difference between Saudi and Japanese teachers' attitudes towards including students with disabilities. The Japanese teachers' overall self-efficacy was lower than that of the Saudi teachers, but this result was discussed with consideration to the modesty bias prevalent in Japanese culture. The findings provide useful insights for developing pre-service and in-service teacher education, where skills considering managing student behaviour and collaboration need to be more emphasised in Saudi Arabia and knowledge of policies regarding inclusive education should be stressed in Japan.
The fundamental objective of accounting is to provide the fairest representation possible of the financial reality of an entity and it is therefore a basic condition, but not sufficient, for economic ...decisions. It is necessary for the financial reality to be capitalized upon through the financial analysis. The companies constantly enjoy a wealth that, by virtue of the dynamism provided by their economic activity, increases or decreases with the results obtained. Thus, two directions of capitalization are delineated – one primarily, focusing on wealth, namely the financial position, and one secondary, focusing on results, namely the performance, which are interdependent with the former. In the current economic context, three major types of economic activities are identified, namely the production, the trade, and the services. They present convergences and divergences in terms of their uses and forms, of their financing needs and sources, as well as of their result generation. This material comparatively analyzes the main financial indicators in the context of three representative entities from the Romanian business environment, one predominantly engaged in production, one predominantly engaged in trade, and one predominantly engaged in services.
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