Pollockmark2658

Objectives Our aim was to conduct a systematic review to determine which technology-driven diabetes prevention interventions were effective in producing clinically significant weight loss, and to identify the behaviour change techniques and digital features frequently used in effective interventions. Methods We searched five databases (CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and Pubmed) from inception to September 2018 and reviewed 19 experimental and non-experimental studies of 21 technology-driven diet plus physical activity interventions for adults (≥18 years) at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Behaviour change techniques were coded using the BCT taxonomy v1, and digital features were identified via thematic analysis of intervention descriptions. Results Sixty-three per cent of interventions were effective in the short term (achieving ≥3% weight loss at ≤6 months), using an average of 5.6 more behaviour change techniques than non-effective interventions, and 33% were effective in the long term (achieving ≥5% weight loss at ≥12 months), using 3.7 more behaviour change techniques than non-effective interventions. The techniques of social support (unspecified), goal setting (outcome/behaviour), feedback on behaviour, and self-monitoring of outcome(s) of behaviour were identified in over 90% of effective interventions. Interventions containing digital features that facilitated health and lifestyle education, behaviour/outcome tracking, and/or online health coaching were most effective. Conclusion The integration of specific behaviour change techniques and digital features may optimise digital diabetes prevention interventions to achieve clinically significant weight loss. Additional research is needed to identify the mechanisms in which behaviour change techniques and digital features directly influence physical activity, dietary behaviours, and intervention engagement. © The Author(s) 2020.The purpose of this study was to develop a statistical model of anhedonia of depression. The study included 748 healthy controls (350 women, 46.79%, age 21.27 ± 4.72) and 80 patients (32 women, 40%, age 38.36 ± 16.42). The Physical Anhedonia Scale (PhAS), the Social Anhedonia Scale (CSAS), the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) and the Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) were administered. selleck inhibitor Classical Measurement Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) were applied to the collected data. We observed that the general factor of depression status was significantly related with positive emotion (r = -0.37, P less then 0.05), negative emotion (r = 0.62, P less then 0.05) and BDI (r = 0.48, P less then 0.01). A significant difference also was observed between controls and patients. The bifactor model of anhedonia of depression provided a better fit to the data than a unidimensional model. The bifactor model appears to be useful to describe anhedonia in depression. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).Maintaining appropriate migratory strategies is important in conservation; however, translocations of migratory animals may alter locally evolved migration behaviours of recipient populations if these are different and heritable. We used satellite telemetry and experimental translocation to quantify differences and assess heritability in migration behaviours between three migratory Asian houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii) breeding populations (640 km range across eastern, central and western Uzbekistan). Adults from the eastern population migrated twice as far (mean = 1184 km ± 44 s.e.) as the western population (656 km ± 183 s.e.) and showed significantly less variation in migration distance than the central population (1030 km ± 127 s.e.). The western and central populations wintered significantly further north (mean +8.32° N ± 1.70 s.e. and +4.19° N ± 1.16 s.e., respectively) and the central population further west (-3.47° E ± 1.46 s.e.) than individuals from the eastern population. These differences could arise from a differing innate drive, or through learnt facultative responses to topography, filtered by survival. Translocated birds from the eastern population (wild-laid and captive-reared, n = 5) migrated further than adults from either western or central recipient populations, particularly in their second migration year. Translocated birds continued migrating south past suitable wintering grounds used by the recipient populations despite having to negotiate mountain obstacles. Together, this suggests a considerable conserved heritable migratory component with local adaptation at a fine geographic scale. Surviving translocated individuals returned to their release site, suggesting that continued translocations would lead to introgression of the heritable component and risk altering recipient migration patterns. Conservation biologists considering translocation interventions for migratory populations should evaluate potential genetic components of migratory behaviour. © 2020 The Authors.Understanding the failure modes of curved hollow tree trunks is essential from both safety and conservation perspectives. Despite extensive research, the underlying mechanism that determines the cracking failure of curved hollow tree trunks remains unclear due to the lack of theoretical analysis that considers both the initial curvature and orthotropic material properties. Here we derive new mathematical expressions for predicting the bending moment, M crack, at which the cracking failure occurs. The failure mode of a tree species is then determined, as a function of t/R and cR, by comparing M crack with M bend, where t, R and c are, respectively, the trunk wall thickness, outer radius and initial curvature; M bend is the bending moment for conventional bending failure. Our equation shows that M crack is proportional to the tangential tensile strength of wood σT , increases with t/R, and decreases with the final cR. We analyse 11 tree species and find that hardwoods are more likely to fail in conventional bending, whereas softwoods tend to break due to cracking. This is due to the softwoods' much smaller tangential tensile strength, as observed from the data of 66 hardwoods and 43 softwoods. For larger cR, cracking failure is easier to occur in curvature-decreasing bending than curvature-increasing due to additional normal tensile force F acting on the neutral cross-section; on the other hand, for smaller cR, bending failure is easier to occur due to decreased final curvature. Our formulae are applicable to other natural and man-made curved hollow beams with orthotropic material properties. Our findings provide insights for those managing trees in urban situations and those managing for conservation of hollow-dependent fauna in both urban and rural settings. © 2020 The Authors.The ability of female insects to retain and use sperm for days, months, or even years after mating requires specialized storage organs in the reproductive tract. In most orders, these organs include a pair of sclerotized capsules known as spermathecae. Here, we report that some Drosophila melanogaster females exhibit previously uncharacterized structures within the distal portion of the muscular duct that links a spermatheca to the uterus. We find that these 'spermathecal duct presences' (SDPs) may form in either or both ducts and can extend from the duct into the sperm-storing capsule itself. We further find that the incidence of SDPs varies significantly between genotypes, but does not change significantly with the age or mating status of females, the latter indicating that SDPs are not composed of or stimulated by sperm or male seminal proteins. We show that SDPs affect neither the number of first male sperm held in a spermatheca nor the number of offspring produced after a single mating. However, we find evidence that SDPs are associated with a lack of second male sperm in the spermathecae after females remate. This raises the possibility that SDPs provide a mechanism for variation in sperm competition outcome among females. © 2020 The Authors.Biodiversity of hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean, particularly those on the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR), are still relatively poorly understood. The Tiancheng field on the SWIR was initially reported with only a low-temperature diffuse flow venting area, but here we report two new active areas, including a chimney emitting high-temperature vent fluids. Biological sampling in these new sites doubled the known megafauna and macrofauna richness reported from Tiancheng. Significantly, we found several iconic species, such as the scaly-foot snail and the first Alviniconcha population on the SWIR. Tiancheng shares a high proportion of taxa with vents on the Central Indian Ridge (CIR) and lacks a number of key taxa that characterize other vents investigated so far on the SWIR. Population genetics of the scaly-foot snail confirmed this, as the Tiancheng population was clustered with populations from the CIR, showing low connectivity with the Longqi field. Unlike the previously examined populations, scales of the Tiancheng scaly-foot snail were coated in zinc sulfide, although this results only from precipitation. The close connection between Tiancheng and CIR vents indicates that the dispersal barrier for vent endemic species is not the Rodriguez Triple Junction as previously suggested but the transformation faults between Tiancheng and Longqi, warranting further studies on deep currents in this area to resolve the key barrier, which has important implications for biological conservation. © 2020 The Authors.Birds are declining in agricultural landscapes around the world. The causes of these declines can be better understood by analysing change in groups of species that share life-history traits. We investigated how land-use change has affected birds of the Tasmanian Midlands, one of Australia's oldest agricultural landscapes and a focus of habitat restoration. We surveyed birds at 72 sites, some of which were previously surveyed in 1996-1998, and tested relationships of current patterns of abundance and community composition to landscape and patch-level environmental characteristics. Fourth-corner modelling showed strong negative responses of aerial foragers and exotics to increasing woodland cover; arboreal foragers were positively associated with projective foliage cover; and small-bodied species were reduced by the presence of a hyperaggressive species of native honeyeater, the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala). Analysis of change suggests increases in large-bodied granivorous or carnivorous birds and declines in some arboreal foragers and nectarivores. Changes in species richness were best explained by changes in noisy miner abundance and levels of surrounding woodland cover. We encourage restoration practitioners to trial novel planting configurations that may confer resistance to invasion by noisy miners, and a continued long-term monitoring effort to reveal the effects of future land-use change on Tasmanian birds. © 2020 The Authors.Inner surface of Nepenthes slippery zone shows anisotropic superhydrophobic wettability. Here, we investigate what factors cause the anisotropy via sliding angle measurement, morphology/structure observation and model analysis. Static contact angle of ultrapure-water droplet exhibits the value of 154.80°-156.83°, and sliding angle towards pitcher bottom and up is 2.82 ± 0.45° and 5.22 ± 0.28°, respectively. The slippery zone under investigation is covered by plenty of lunate cells with both ends bending downward, and a dense layer of wax coverings without directional difference in morphology/structure. Results indicate that the slippery zone has a considerable anisotropy in superhydrophobic wettability that is most likely caused by the lunate cells. A model was proposed to quantitatively analyse how the structure characteristics of lunate cells affect the anisotropic superhydrophobicity, and found that the slope/precipice structure of lunate cells forms a ratchet effect to cause ultrapure-water droplet to roll towards pitcher bottom/up in different order of difficulty.