Search Results (1,931)

Reproductive biology is fundamental for understanding fish population dynamics and for guiding fisheries management and aquaculture practices. Key reproductive and fishery-related variables such as catch size, age at maturity, spawning season, aggregation behavior, and the implementation of seasonal closures are critical to ensuring fish population sustainability. Snappers have been targeted for commercial aquaculture development due to their plasticity and ability to adapt to captive conditions. In Mexico, reproductive biology information on snappers remains fragmented and largely species-specific along both Pacific and Gulf coasts. This review reveals a lack of integrated perspective on snappers’ reproductive biology and identifies key knowledge gaps that may limit the development of effective conservation measures and aquaculture strategies. The absence of species-specific regulations for many snapper species along the Mexican Pacific coast reflects limited biological information and restricts the development of effective management policies. Increasing catch rates may indicate overexploitation, highlighting the need for targeted research to address existing information gaps and support effective conservation strategies for snapper populations. This review synthesizes available information on snapper reproductive biology and discusses how these traits can inform broodstock management, spawning control, and seed production in snappers from the Mexican coastal regions. Full article

Eating behavior and eating habits are shaped from the earliest stages of life through interactions among biological, familial, social, and environmental factors. The aim of this narrative review is to integrate evidence on the early-life determinants of eating behavior and their influence on dietary intake from infancy to adolescence. A narrative review was conducted with a structured search approach prioritized on longitudinal studies, intervention trials, and policy evaluations when available, and using cross-sectional evidence mainly to describe patterns and sociodemographic factors. Synthesizing the current evidence, our framework proposes that breastfeeding, responsive complementary feeding, and self-regulatory parenting are associated with higher responsiveness to internal hunger, satiety cues, and preference for nutrient-dense foods. Conversely, coercive practices, early exposure to highly palatable foods, and the influence of food marketing are linked to dominant hedonic responses and impulsive consumption patterns. Furthermore, family environments characterized by stress or food insecurity, together with high access to low-nutrient foods, may increase vulnerability to poor eating habits and emotional eating during adolescence. Overall, the evidence highlights the need for preventive interventions that integrate parenting support, school food education, digital marketing regulation policies, and the promotion of healthy food environments across multiple sectors. Understanding the biological, psychological, and social factors linking early determinants to dietary intake and eating behaviors across development is essential for promoting a balanced relationship with food and preventing chronic diseases from an early age. Full article

The sustainable development of forest ecotourism relies on the effective stimulation of tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior, and the intervention of participatory art and aesthetics provides a new driving force for this process. Taking Xiqiaoshan National Forest Park (Nanhai Land Art Festival) as a case study, we propose an extended stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) theoretical framework to reveal the psychological perception and transmission mechanism of participatory art and aesthetic experience in empowering the sustainable development of ecotourism. We used a hybrid approach combining PLS-SEM and artificial neural networks (ANNs) to analyze survey data from 596 Chinese tourists. The study found that sensory impressions driven by art and aesthetics significantly and positively influence tourists’ natural connections, perceived value, and ecotourism attitudes. These three constructs function as significant parallel mediators between sensory impressions and environmentally responsible behavior, while chain mediation effects are statistically significant but of small magnitude. The new environmental paradigm (NEP), conceptualized as an individual trait boundary condition, exhibits a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between sensory impressions and connectedness to nature. ANN sensitivity analysis further complements the findings by demonstrating the prominent nonlinear predictive role of ecotourism attitudes in behavioral transformation. This study extends the application boundaries of the S-O-R theory to art-integrated ecotourism research, clarifies the internalization process of tourist experiences from sensory perception to behavioral enactment, and provides empirical evidence for forest tourism managers to optimize experience design and implement differentiated guidance strategies. Full article

Background/Objectives: Anhedonia, the inability to derive pleasure from typically enjoyable activities, is prevalent in psychiatric and neurological disorders, and is linked to conditions such as obesity and eating disorders. Simultaneously, characteristics of altered eating behavior have been observed amongst these segments, yet the link between anhedonia and eating behavior, and its mechanisms remain underexplored. Methods: This current narrative review synthesizes evidence for a relationship between pleasure perception and eating behavior among individuals with anhedonic traits, emphasizing the role of reward processing and its variations across different segments. Results: Our narrative review identified specific segments with anhedonic traits and described the link to characteristics of their eating behavior. Conclusions: This research can significantly contribute to a better understanding of the differences in the relationship between pleasure and eating behavior amongst individuals with anhedonic traits, which is crucial for developing effective treatment strategies for individuals affected by anhedonia and disturbed eating. Full article

Phormia regina (Meigen, 1826) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), a necrophagous blow fly of significant forensic value, plays a crucial role in postmortem interval (PMI) estimation. The intra-puparial period of this species constitutes approximately half of its entire immature developmental duration. Therefore, precise aging of intra-puparial specimens is essential to improve the accuracy of PMI estimation. This study was performed at a constant 25 °C, examining intra-puparial morphology, histological sections, and body weight across different developmental stages. Additionally, full-length transcriptome profiling was conducted via a hybrid sequencing strategy combining PacBio single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing and Illumina short-read next-generation sequencing (NGS). Morphological studies revealed the intra-puparial morphological characteristics, the reconstruction process of tissues and organs, and the continuous body weight loss during the intra-puparial period. Transcriptomic research identified a total of 425,349 full-length non-chimeric (FLNC) sequences. After redundancy removal, 84,852 transcript sequences were obtained, of which 46,325 transcripts were annotated. Using day-0 puparia (D0) as the control, differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis was performed on samples from subsequent developmental stages (D1–D5), identifying 4242, 7964, 9509, 10,526, and 10,011 DEGs, respectively. Results from GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analyses provided reasonable explanations for the behavioral traits of different developmental stages. Eight candidate genes for intra-puparial development were screened, most of which were highly expressed at different time points during the intra-puparial period. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) results showed consistent gene expression trends with the RNA-seq data, confirming the reliability of the RNA-seq results. This study provides key morphological and molecular markers for P. regina in forensic PMI estimation. Full article

Within the conceptual framework of the Unified Flexibility & Mindfulness (UFM) model, the current study applied a contextual behavioral science lens to understanding the challenges and dynamics of classroom teaching in the United States. In particular, the study sought to highlight the specific flexibility processes linked to lower teacher burnout and to greater use of adaptive instructional and behavior management strategies—deepening the conceptualization and operationalization of teachers’ Social and Emotional Competence (SEC). Toward that end, a sample of 308 K-12 teachers (79% female, 85% white, M_age = 42 years old) with an average of 13 years of teaching experience completed a relational task (RT) indirectly assessing relational thinking about students along with teacher-report measures of: (1) their own use of 14 forms of mindful flexibility (and distracted, reactive inflexibility) in the classroom, (2) their conscious perceptions of student engagement and disaffection with learning, (3) their use of adaptive instructional and behavior management strategies, and (4) a measure of work-related and student-related burnout. Exploratory network analyses largely supported the Unified Flexibility and Mindfulness model shaping teachers’ functioning in the classroom. The results further highlighted unique links from categorical thinking on the RT (i.e., viewing all positive or negative adjectives as essentially the same in students) to greater burnout and unique links from more nuanced thinking on the RT (i.e., the ability to see negative and positive traits coexisting in students) to greater perceptions of both student engagement and disaffection. Teachers’ engagement of committed action and self-as-context (maintaining a broader perspective in the face of disruptive behavior) along with perceptions of greater student engagement emerged as some of the most robust predictors of using adaptive classroom strategies. In contrast, teachers’ engagement in fusion and inaction (along with perceptions of greater student disaffection and lower student engagement) emerged as the most robust predictors of teacher burnout. Implications are discussed. Full article

Sunflower is predominantly cultivated and extensively studied as an oil-type crop, which has contributed to the development of broad genetic variability within oil-type germplasm. In contrast, ornamental sunflower has received considerably less research attention. Therefore, the existing genetic variability of oil-type sunflower represents a valuable resource that can be explored and tested for ornamental traits, including postharvest performance and suitability for cut-flower production. This is particularly relevant given the increasing market demand for decorative sunflower types and the growing interest in diversified cut-flower assortments. The objective of this study was to assess the ornamental potential of oil-type sunflower genotypes, with particular emphasis on postharvest performance of cut-flowers. Genotypes from the breeding collection of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, were evaluated for key ornamental morphological traits and postharvest longevity. The experiment comprised treatments combining two storage regimes (room conditions and chamber storage) and two holding solutions (distilled water and 10% sucrose), applied across two sowing dates. To identify possible structural determinants of postharvest behavior, three morphologically contrasting genotypes (ĆMD U 12, AS 87, and LIP P 98) were further subjected to anatomical analysis of the peduncle. Postharvest longevity was significantly affected by genotype, sowing date, storage regime, sucrose treatment, and their interactions, demonstrating the strong influence of both genetic background and postharvest handling conditions. Chamber storage consistently affected postharvest longevity in most genotypes, while sucrose supplementation further improved it in several genotypes. Substantial genotypic variation in postharvest performance was detected. Substantial genotypic variation in postharvest performance was detected. Genotype ĆMD U 12 exhibited outstanding postharvest longevity under several storage environments, particularly in the second sowing date, whereas AS 87 showed markedly reduced postharvest longevity, particularly under ambient storage conditions. Morphological traits alone were not reliable predictors of postharvest longevity. In contrast, anatomical analyses revealed clear differences in peduncle tissue organization and vascular architecture among the selected genotypes, indicating that variation in supportive tissues and xylem vessel characteristics may play an important role in postharvest water relations and flower postharvest longevity. The results demonstrate the potential of IFVCNS oil-type sunflower germplasm for developing ornamental cut-flower genotypes adapted to dense sowing conditions, while also identifying postharvest treatments that significantly improve postharvest longevity and commercial usability. Full article

Pyrethroid insecticides are widely used in agriculture, but their sublethal effects on male reproduction in Antheraea pernyi (Guérin-Méneville, 1855) (Saturniidae) remain largely unknown. Here, we evaluated the effects of sublethal β-cypermethrin exposure (LC₂₀ = 0.0074 mg/L) on gonadal development, testicular morphology, sperm quantity and function, mating behavior, and post-mating egg traits from the larval to adult stages and investigated the molecular mechanisms using transcriptome sequencing. Insecticide stress impaired testicular development and disrupted spermatogenesis, leading to a 25% reduction in eupyrene sperm bundles, a 10.72% decrease in acrosin activity, and a 16.75% decrease in the curvilinear velocity of apyrene sperm. Mating willingness decreased by 17.78 percentage points, and females mated with treated males produced 20.45% fewer eggs. Transcriptome analysis identified 1193 differentially expressed genes (|log₂FC| > 1, FDR < 0.01). Detoxification and stress response genes (e.g., CYP3A27, GSTD1, ABCB1, and Hsp70) were predominantly up-regulated, while reproduction-related genes (e.g., dnal1, tubb1, ATPsynbeta, far1, JHAMT, mei-41, and dna2) were down-regulated. This study demonstrates that sublethal β-cypermethrin exposure induces male reproductive toxicity in A. pernyi through a “dual-hit” mechanism: persistently activating the detoxification system (leading to energy depletion) while directly suppressing reproductive genes, ultimately resulting in impaired germ cell development, defective sperm function, and reduced fertility. Full article

Detailed attention and cognitive rigidity contribute to poorer social functioning and mental health. These cognitive functions can be measured using questionnaires or behavioral tasks but existing methods have limitations. The Detail and Flexibility Questionnaire (DFlex) addresses several of these limitations. This study developed a Japanese translation of the DFlex and collected valid evidence for its intended score interpretations. Sixty participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 140 without ASD, and five participants who chose not to disclose whether they had an ASD diagnosis completed the Japanese version of the DFlex and the Japanese version of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Data from 192 participants were analyzed. Internal consistency was good as was the internal structure, except for one item. McDonald’s omega and Cronbach’s alpha demonstrated good internal consistency and item–total correlation was acceptable, except for one item. The Japanese DFlex correlated strongly with the AQ Attention to Detail and Attention Switching subscales, supporting convergent validity. Regarding known-group validity, the ASD and non-ASD groups showed significant differences on the Cognitive Rigidity and Attention to Detail subscales. Based on its reliability and internal structural validity, the Japanese DFlex provides a better understanding of ASD-related cognitive traits for both research and clinical practice. Full article

Background/Objectives: Child-to-parent violence (CPV) refers to persistent physical, psychological, or financial violence perpetrated by children or adolescents against their parents. Although CPV has attracted increasing academic and professional attention in recent years, evidence regarding its predictors remains fragmented. This systematic literature review aimed to synthesize empirical evidence on the predictors of adolescent CPV, with a particular focus on developmental victimization, personality traits, and psychopathology. Violence refers to the intentional use of physical, psychological, or symbolic force to cause harm, control, or suffering, while aggression corresponds to intentional behavior aimed at harming another individual, which may or may not involve physical violence and is often broader and more situational. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines and prospectively registered in PROSPERO (CRD42024596076). Searches were carried out in January 2025 across six electronic databases (PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, MEDLINE, and CINAHL). Empirical studies published between 2000 and 2025 examining predictors of CPV in adolescence, namely developmental victimization, personality traits, and psychopathology, were included. Methodological quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Results: The search identified 862 records, of which 46 studies met the inclusion criteria and were retained for full-text analysis. Most studies were quantitative in design and published within the last 15 years, with Spain accounting for most of the empirical evidence. The findings consistently demonstrated associations between CPV and exposure to direct or vicarious family victimization, maladaptive personality traits—particularly psychopathic features—and a range of psychopathological symptoms, including substance use, mood and anxiety disorders, and neurodevelopmental conditions. Conclusions: The results support a multifactorial and developmental understanding of CPV, highlighting early victimization as a central risk context interacting with personality and mental health vulnerabilities. Limitations of the existing literature are discussed, and directions for future research are proposed, emphasizing the need for longitudinal and qualitative studies to inform prevention and intervention strategies. Full article

Apis cerana (A. cerana) is a native and widely managed honey bee species in China. Body size and body weight are crucial breeding traits, as colonies possessing individuals with large body weight tend to be healthier and exhibit high productivity. This study aimed to clarify the relationships between body size and body weight in A. cerana and to evaluate their associations with geographic, climatic, and colony productive traits for selective breeding. Body size and body weight were measured in virgin queens, drones, and workers from Jinfo Mountain, Chongqing, and additional measurements of queens and drones were implemented in five other regions across China. Linear mixed-effects models confirmed that body size had a significant positive effect on body weight in virgin queens, drones, and workers. However, correlations of body-size and body-weight traits among different bee groups were weak and non-significant after FDR correction, indicating that drones or workers cannot be used as direct substitutes for queen body-size traits in the present dataset. Standardized model estimates showed that queen and drone body-size and body-weight traits were consistently negatively associated with annual minimum and annual mean temperatures, but positively associated with latitude after FDR adjustment. Annual precipitation was also negatively associated with queens’ body size, queens’ body weight, and drones’ body size, whereas annual maximum temperature, longitude, and elevation showed no significant associations after FDR adjustment. Moreover, queens’ body size and body weight were significantly positively associated with honey yield, honey yield during the main nectar flow, and colony gentleness after FDR correction, whereas their associations with the number of effective eggs laid by queens, colony strength, and robbery were not significant after FDR correction. These findings suggest that queen body-type traits may serve as useful auxiliary indicators for selecting colonies with higher honey production and gentler behavior, but their relationships with other colony traits should be interpreted cautiously. This research is beneficial for initiating a body size-weight selective breeding program for A. cerana, as it can help optimize breeding objectives and accelerate genetic progress. Full article

The deployment of small language models (SLMs) at the edge raises a fundamental behavioral question: under a fixed word budget, how do these models prioritize semantic content? This paper investigates content selection in two representative edge SLMs—gemma3n-e4b and Llama-3.2-3B—under systematic word-budget compression when generating person descriptions in English and Thai. A 2 × 2 (model × language) factorial design yielded 9360 observations across 18 profiles, 13 budget levels (1–25 words, odd-step intervals), and 10 trials per cell. Output richness was quantified via an Information Density Score (IDS), a binary annotation-based metric capturing seven attributes: name, occupation, gender, education, income, and two personality traits. Results confirm strong, generally increasing IDS–budget relationships across all conditions (Pearson r = 0.663–0.903). In English, gemma3n-e4b reached every key threshold exactly four words ahead of Llama-3.2-3B (B50: w = 7 vs. 11; B70: w = 13 vs. 17; B80: w = 17 vs. 21). In Thai, both models converged at B50 (w = 9), but gemma retained a four-word lead at B70 (w = 13 vs. 17), while Llama never reached B80 (max IDS = 0.796 at w = 25). Occupation was the invariant anchor across all conditions (retention ≥ 0.969). Models diverged on secondary attributes: gemma suppressed Gender (4.8% English, 24.2% Thai), while Llama deprioritized Education (23.6% English, 15.2% Thai; 0.267 at w = 25 in Thai). In Thai, gemma’s personality traits overtook Income in the salience hierarchy—a reordering absent in English. Gemma showed 2.5–3.8× higher within-trial consistency than Llama in both languages. These findings indicate that content selection under budget pressure is determined primarily by model architecture rather than linguistic context, and that Thai reduces but does not eliminate the cross-architecture compression efficiency gap. Full article

High-dimensional small-sample data are widely encountered in medical diagnosis, bioinformatics, and industrial inspection, where traditional feature selection methods often suffer from premature convergence and local optima. To address these issues, this paper proposes a Hybrid Breeding-based Co-evolutionary Ant Colony Optimization method (HBACO) for feature selection. Inspired by the principle of hybrid breeding, in which individuals with distinct traits produce superior offspring through cross recombination, inheritance of desirable genes and continuous evolution, the proposed algorithm establishes a three-population collaborative framework. It consists of an ACO-based search population, an HRO-based evolutionary population and a cooperative feedback population that evolve iteratively together. Furthermore, we devise a heuristic strategy integrating correlation and genetic characteristics to help mine high-value feature subsets. Meanwhile, a collaborative pheromone updating mechanism is adopted to realize efficient knowledge sharing among populations. Experiments conducted on 13 high-dimensional datasets, including Colon and Lung, demonstrate that HBACO achieves superior classification accuracy, feature reduction performance, and convergence behavior compared with 10 representative algorithms. Specifically, HBACO improves the average classification accuracy by 3.9% and achieves an average feature dimensionality reduction rate of 91.4%. Statistical tests further confirm the significance of the proposed method. The results indicate that HBACO provides an effective and robust solution for high-dimensional feature selection problems. Full article

Gait is a behavioral biometric trait that enables non-invasive person recognition based on individual walking patterns. Camera-based gait acquisition is convenient, but silhouette sequences often contain substantial motion-irrelevant appearance information, such as body shape, clothing, and carried objects. To address this problem, a multi-scale time series differencer is proposed to acquire tensor difference data between adjacent frames, so as to extract dynamic feature information in motion gait image sequences. Experiments on the CASIA-B dataset show that the proposed method achieves Rank-1 accuracies of 97.7%, 94.6%, and 80.0% under NM, BG, and CL conditions, respectively. Ablation results further demonstrate that MTDU improves the mean accuracy from 84.7% to 90.8% compared with single-scale temporal differencing. The multi-scale time series differencer shows potential for fields including sports motion gait detection and recognition, surveillance security motion gait identity authentication, and medical motion gait recovery assessment for sports injuries, demonstrating practical application value. Full article

Epilepsy is a heritable neurological disorder that is frequently comorbid with sleeping difficulties, including short/long sleep duration and insomnia. Although epidemiological studies have consistently reported the comorbidity between sleep disturbances and epilepsy, the shared genetic architecture and molecular mechanisms underlying this relationship remain poorly characterized, hindering therapeutic development. In this study, we integrated large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics of European ancestry to dissect the genetic and molecular links between sleep traits and epilepsy. Using LDSC and GWAS-pw, we identified modest but statistically significant (Bonferroni-corrected) global and local genetic correlations between sleep behaviors and epilepsy. Subsequent CPASSOC cross-trait meta-analysis and transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) pinpointed specific pleiotropic loci and shared candidate genes, including SPAG7, VRK2, and LINC00925, which are functionally associated with neuroimmune signaling. While preliminary Phenome-Wide Association Study (PheWAS) profiling of these candidate targets did not identify major adverse associations in current databases, we emphasize that rigorous in vitro and in vivo experimental validations are required before considering them for therapeutic strategies. Finally, pleiotropy-robust bidirectional Mendelian Randomization (MR) analyses suggested unidirectional causal liability from epilepsy to short sleep duration. Although the estimated causal effect size was minimal, it reflects lifelong polygenic architecture rather than acute clinical magnitude. In conclusion, our multi-omics approach unveils the shared genetic architecture of the sleep-epilepsy axis and highlights potential biomarkers for future functional investigation. Full article