The effects of an emergency nurse-led stress-reduction project during the first 120 days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 frontline nurses' stress-reduction programme by the cooperation of manager with the nurses is not-well developed. AIM: This study aimed to examine the effect of an emergency nurse-led stress-reduction project on reducing stress levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The action research was conducted using online and person-to-person group brainstorming strategies. The online survey was used to evaluate emergency nurses' stress levels, causes of stress and needs at the 50th, 80th and 110th days of the pandemic from March to May 2020. RESULTS: The numbers of nurses participating in three-time survey were 160, 166 and 160, respectively. There was a decrease in the nurses' work-related stress after implementing the improvement strategies. Stress from personal protective equipment (PPE), information about infection control and family's worry about being infected reduced across 2 months. Needs regarding PPE, COVID-19 information and a forum for sharing experiences of COVID-19 care decreased whereas needs of allowing more days off increased. CONCLUSIONS: The stress-reduction project targeting at nurses' views of their needs can reduce their stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The online and person-to-person group brainstorming building a good partnership between nurses and managers can be an effective nursing management.

Diversification through gustatory courtship: an X-ray micro-computed tomography study on dwarf spiders.

BACKGROUND: Sexual selection has been considered to promote diversification and speciation. Sexually dimorphic species have been used to explore the supposed effect, however, with mixed results. In dwarf spiders (Erigoninae), many species are sexually dimorphic-males possess marked prosomal modifications. These male traits vary from moderate elevations to bizarre shapes in various prosomal regions. Previous studies established that male dwarf spiders produce substances in these prosomal modifications that are taken up by the females. These substances can act as nuptial gifts, which increase the mating probability of males and the oviposition rate in females. Therefore, these dimorphic traits have evolved in the context of sexual selection. Here, we explore the evolutionary lability of this gustatory trait complex with the aim of assessing the role of this trait complex in species divergence by investigating (1) if erigonine modified prosomata are inherently linked to nuptial-gift-producing glands, (2) if the evolution of the glands evolution preceded that of the modified prosomal shapes, and by assessing (3) the occurrence of convergent/divergent evolution and cryptic differentiation. RESULTS: We reconstructed the position and extent of the glandular tissue along with the muscular anatomy in the anterior part of the prosoma of 76 erigonine spiders and three outgroup species using X-ray micro-computed tomography. In all but one case, modified prosomata are associated with gustatory glands. We incorporated the location of glands and muscles into an existing matrix of somatic and genitalic morphological traits of these taxa and reanalyzed their phylogenetic relationship. Our analysis supports that the possession of glandular equipment is the ancestral state and that the manifold modifications of the prosomal shape have evolved convergently multiple times. We found differences in gland position between species with both modified and unmodified prosomata, and reported on seven cases of gland loss. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the occurrence of gustatory glands in sexually monomorphic ancestors has set the stage for the evolution of diverse dimorphic external modifications in dwarf spiders. Differences among congeners suggest that the gland position is highly susceptible to evolutionary changes. The multiple incidences might reflect costs of glandular tissue maintenance and nuptial feeding. Our results indicate divergent evolutionary patterns of gustatory-courtship-related traits, and thus a likely facilitating effect of sexual selection on speciation.

Evaluation of the Impact of a Sequencing Assay for Detection of Drug Resistance on the Clinical Management of Tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: In 2012, the California Department of Public Health began using pyrosequencing (PSQ) to detect mutations associated with resistance to isoniazid, rifampin, quinolones and injectable drugs in Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. We evaluated the impact of the PSQ assay on the clinical management of tuberculosis (TB) in California. METHODS: TB surveillance and laboratory data for specimens submitted 1 August 2012 through 31 December 2016 were analyzed to determine time to effective treatment initiation. A survey of clinicians was used to assess how PSQ results influenced clinical decision making. RESULTS: Of 1957 specimens tested with PSQ, 52% were sediments and 46% were culture isolates, submitted a median of 8 and 35 days, respectively, after collection. Among 36 patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB who had a sediment specimen submitted for PSQ, median time from specimen collection to MDR-TB treatment initiation was 12 days vs 51 days when PSQ was not used. Completed surveys were returned for 303 patients, 177 of whom reported a treatment change; 75 (42%) of clinicians reported PSQ as a reason for change. Twenty-one patients either had an MDR-TB risk factor and a smear-positive sputum specimen, but had PSQ performed on a culture isolate (9/36 [25%]); or did not have PSQ used for MDR-TB diagnosis (12/38 [32%]) and thus had an opportunity for earlier MDR-TB diagnosis with PSQ on sediment. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with MDR-TB initiated effective treatment 5 weeks earlier when PSQ was used compared to those without PSQ. Survey data suggest clinicians use PSQ to devise effective TB drug regimens. To maximize the benefit of PSQ, earlier submission of specimens should be prioritized.

Effects of nonlinear phase in cascaded mode-locked Nd:YVO4 laser.

A diode-pumped mode-locked Nd:YVO4 laser via positive cascaded second-order Kerr lens using periodically poled MgO:LN at 1064 nm was reported. Mode-locking performances including output power, bandwidth, pulse duration, and time-bandwidth product were studied under different phase-mismatched conditions. The induced nonlinear phase combined with soft aperture effect yield a stable mode-locked operation in a wide phase-mismatched range (-8π < ∆kL < -π). Additionally, the mode-locking bandwidth was broadened by self-phase modulation and the time-bandwidth product was increased to be more than twice the ideal product for a sech2 pulse shape. Under 11 W diode pump power, the measured average power, pulse repetition rate and pulse duration are 1.3 W, 186 MHz and 2.8 ps, respectively.

Does Prosthesis-Based Breast Reconstruction Affect the Clinical Outcome of Postmastectomy Radiotherapy?

BACKGROUND: In the last 5 decades, there has been significant advancement of breast reconstruction and postmastectomy radiotherapy for breast cancer care. There has been concern that breast reconstruction may adversely affect the efficacy of postmastectomy radiotherapy. This, however, has not been proven by clear clinical evidence. METHODS: By comparing the locoregional recurrence rates and overall survival after postmastectomy radiotherapy between those with and without prosthesis-based breast reconstruction, a retrospective cohort study of the breast cancer patients was done. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to control the confounding factors. RESULTS: From January 1, 1998 to December 31, 2011, 1015 patients receiving postmastectomy radiotherapy were identified. Among them, 111 patients had prosthesis-based breast reconstruction, and the other 904 did not have breast reconstruction. Thirty-four of 904 (3.8%) patients in the nonreconstructed group and 4 of 111 (3.6%) patients in the reconstructed group developed locoregional recurrence. Multivariable survival analysis found no significant difference both in locoregional recurrence-free survival (hazard ratio, 0.852; P = 0.771) and in overall survival (hazard ratio = 1.317; P = 0.246) between the nonreconstructed group and reconstructed group. CONCLUSIONS: Although postmastectomy radiotherapy has been shown to affect the surgical and cosmetic outcomes of breast reconstruction, prosthesis-based breast reconstruction does not seem to have significant adverse impacts on the locoregional recurrence-free survival and overall survival of postmastectomy radiotherapy.

Shedding light on the performance of a pyrosequencing assay for drug-resistant tuberculosis diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: Rapid molecular diagnostics, with their ability to quickly identify genetic mutations associated with drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical specimens, have great potential as tools to control multi- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR-TB). The Qiagen PyroMark Q96 ID system is a commercially available pyrosequencing (PSQ) platform that has been validated for rapid M/XDR-TB diagnosis. However, the details of the assay's diagnostic and technical performance have yet to be thoroughly investigated in diverse clinical environments. METHODS: This study evaluates the diagnostic performance of the PSQ assay for 1128 clinical specimens from patients from three areas of high TB burden. We report on the diagnostic performance of the PSQ assay between the three sites and identify variables associated with poor PSQ technical performance. RESULTS: In India, the sensitivity of the PSQ assay ranged from 89 to 98 % for the detection of phenotypic resistance to isoniazid, rifampicin, fluoroquinolones, and the injectables. In Moldova, assay sensitivity ranged from 7 to 94 %, and in South Africa, assay sensitivity ranged from 71 to 92 %. Specificity was high (94-100 %) across all sites. The addition of eis promoter sequencing information greatly improved the sensitivity of kanamycin resistance detection in Moldova (7 % to 79 %). Nearly all (89.4 %) sequencing reactions conducted on smear-positive, culture-positive specimens and most (70.8 %) reactions conducted on smear-negative, culture-positive specimens yielded valid PSQ reads. An investigation into the variables influencing sequencing failures indicated smear negativity, culture negativity, site (Moldova), and sequencing of the rpoB, gyrA, and rrs genes were highly associated with poor PSQ technical performance (adj. OR > 2.0). CONCLUSIONS: This study has important implications for the global implementation of PSQ as a molecular TB diagnostic, as it demonstrates how regional factors may impact PSQ diagnostic performance, while underscoring potential gene targets for optimization to improve overall PSQ assay technical performance. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov ( #NCT02170441 ). Registered 12 June 2014.

Porphyrin Dye-Sensitized Zinc Oxide Aggregated Anodes for Use in Solar Cells.

Porphyrin YD2-o-C8-based dyes were employed to sensitize room-temperature (RT) chemical-assembled ZnO aggregated anodes for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). To reduce the acidity of the YD2-o-C8 dye solution, the proton in the carboxyl group of a porphyrin dye was replaced with tetrabuthyl ammonium (TBA⁺) in this work. The short-circuit current density (Jsc) of the YD2-o-C8-TBA-sensitized ZnO DSSCs is higher than that of the YD2-o-C8-sensitized cells, resulting in the improvement of the efficiency of the YD2-o-C8-based ZnO DSSCs. With an appropriate incorporation of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) as coadsorbate, the Jsc and efficiency of the YD2-o-C8-TBA-sensitized ZnO DSSC are enhanced due to the improvement of the incident-photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) values in the wavelength range of 400-450 nm. Moreover, a considerable increase in Jsc is achieved by the addition of a light scattering layer in the YD2-o-C8-TBA-sensitized ZnO photoanodes. Significant IPCE enhancement in the range 475-600 nm is not attainable by tuning the YD2-o-C8-TBA sensitization processes for the anodes without light scattering layers. Using the RT chemical-assembled ZnO aggregated anode with a light scattering layer, an efficiency of 3.43% was achieved in the YD2-o-C8-TBA-sensitized ZnO DSSC.

[Expression characteristics of the Ccdc70 gene in the mouse testis during spermatogenesis].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression characteristics of the gene of coiled-coil domain-containing protein 70 (Ccdc70) in the mouse testis and its potential role in spermatogenesis. METHODS: Using expression profile microarray, we screened the mouse testis-specific gene Ccdc70, studied its expression characteristics in the mouse testis by RT-PCR, real-time PCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry, followed by bioinformatic analysis of the Ccdc70 protein. RESULTS: The Ccdc70 gene was expressed highly in the testis but lowly in the epididymis of the mice. The Ccdc70 protein was expressed mainly in the spermatocytes and round spermatids of the testis and in the epithelial cells of the epididymis. Bioinformatic analysis showed a structural domain in the Ccdc70 protein, which was highly conserved in mammalian evolution. CONCLUSION: The Ccdc70 gene is highly expressed in the mouse testis and mainly in the spermatocytes, round spermatids, and epididymal epithelial cells, which indicates that it is involved in the regulation of spermatogenesis and epididymal sperm maturation.

Evaluation of pyrosequencing for detecting extensively drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis among clinical isolates from four high-burden countries.

Reliable molecular diagnostics, which detect specific mutations associated with drug resistance, are promising technologies for the rapid identification and monitoring of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates. Pyrosequencing (PSQ) has the ability to detect mutations associated with first- and second-line anti-tuberculosis (TB) drugs, with the additional advantage of being rapidly adaptable for the identification of new mutations. The aim of this project was to evaluate the performance of PSQ in predicting phenotypic drug resistance in multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR-TB) clinical isolates from India, South Africa, Moldova, and the Philippines. A total of 187 archived isolates were run through a PSQ assay in order to identify M. tuberculosis (via the IS6110 marker), and to detect mutations associated with M/XDR-TB within small stretches of nucleotides in selected loci. The molecular targets included katG, the inhA promoter and the ahpC-oxyR intergenic region for isoniazid (INH) resistance; the rpoB core region for rifampin (RIF) resistance; gyrA for fluoroquinolone (FQ) resistance; and rrs for amikacin (AMK), capreomycin (CAP), and kanamycin (KAN) resistance. PSQ data were compared to phenotypic mycobacterial growth indicator tube (MGIT) 960 drug susceptibility testing results for performance analysis. The PSQ assay illustrated good sensitivity for the detection of resistance to INH (94%), RIF (96%), FQ (93%), AMK (84%), CAP (88%), and KAN (68%). The specificities of the assay were 96% for INH, 100% for RIF, FQ, AMK, and KAN, and 97% for CAP. PSQ is a highly efficient diagnostic tool that reveals specific nucleotide changes associated with resistance to the first- and second-line anti-TB drug medications. This methodology has the potential to be linked to mutation-specific clinical interpretation algorithms for rapid treatment decisions.

Polarization bistability associated with 4F3/2→4I11/2 and 4F3/2→4I13/2 transitions in Nd:YVO4 laser with intra-cavity periodically poled lithium niobate Bragg modulator.

We experimentally demonstrate polarization bistability in a dual-wavelength Nd:YVO4 laser at 1064 nm (4F3/2→4I11/2) and 1342 nm (4F3/2→4I13/2) by using an intra-cavity electro-optic periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) Bragg modulator to control the loss at 1064 nm. An inverse hysteresis switch was observed between 1064 nm and 1342 nm lasers with orthogonal polarizations by increasing and reducing the loss induced by the PPLN. The size of the hysteresis increased with increasing pump power. This paper provides an explanation based on cross-gain saturation for this bistable behavior of polarization.

An adaptive supervisory sliding fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller for sensorless vector-controlled induction motor drive systems.

This paper presents the implementation of an adaptive supervisory sliding fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller (FCMAC) in the speed sensorless vector control of an induction motor (IM) drive system. The proposed adaptive supervisory sliding FCMAC comprised a supervisory controller, integral sliding surface, and an adaptive FCMAC. The integral sliding surface was employed to eliminate steady-state errors and enhance the responsiveness of the system. The adaptive FCMAC incorporated an FCMAC with a compensating controller to perform a desired control action. The proposed controller was derived using the Lyapunov approach, which guarantees learning-error convergence. The implementation of three intelligent control schemes--the adaptive supervisory sliding FCMAC, adaptive sliding FCMAC, and adaptive sliding CMAC--were experimentally investigated under various conditions in a realistic sensorless vector-controlled IM drive system. The root mean square error (RMSE) was used as a performance index to evaluate the experimental results of each control scheme. The analysis results indicated that the proposed adaptive supervisory sliding FCMAC substantially improved the system performance compared with the other control schemes.

[Expression of a testis-specific gene 1700001022RIK in mice and its bioinformatic analysis].

OBJECTIVE: To identify the expression characteristics of the 1700001022RIK (RIKEN cDNA 1700001022) gene in mice and explore its function by bioinformatic analysis. METHODS: Using the expression profile of gene microarray, we detected the expression of a new testis-specific gene, 1700001022RIK, in mice. We analyzed its expression characteristics in the testis tissue and their changes in different developmental stages of the testis by RT-PCR, real-time RT-PCR, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry. We performed bioinformatic analysis using a bioinformatic software. RESULTS: The 1700001022RIK gene was specifically expressed in the mouse testis in an age-dependent manner, most highly in the adult mice. The 1700001022RIK protein was mainly expressed in the spermatogonia, spermatocytes, and round spermatids of the adult mice. Bioinformatic analysis showed that the 1700001022RIK protein amino acid sequence had a high similarity in human and mice, which indicated that this gene was highly conserved in mammals. CONCLUSION: 1700001022RIK is a testis-specific gene mainly expressed in the spermatogonia, spermatocytes, and round spermatids of seminiferous tubules, which might be involved in the regulation of spermatogenesis.

[Determination of Nucleosides and Nucleobases in Natural, Cultured and Tissue Culture Anoectochilus roxburghii Using LC-MS].

OBJECTIVE: To establish a method for simultaneous determination of nucleosides and nucleobases in natural, cultured and tissue culture Anoectochilus roxburghii by high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization/ion trap mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI/MS). METHODS: The separation was performed on a Welch Ultimate XB-C18 column (250 mm x 4.6 mm,5 µm). 20 mmol/L ammonium acetate solution and methanol were adopted as the mobile phase with gradient elution. The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min. The injection volume was 20 µL. The column temperature and UV wavelength were set at 30 degrees C and 260 nm, respectively. RESULTS: Cytosine, uracil, cytidine, uridine, hypoxanthine, adenine, inosine, guanosine,fl-thymidine and adenosine were identified in natural, cultured and tissue culture Anoectochilus roxburghii. The total content of nucleosides and nucleotides in Anoectochilus roxburghii were 1.6639, 1.8568 and 2.2013 mg/g,respectively. CONCLUSION: The contents of nucleosides and nucleobases in herb are affected by its growth pattern. The total content of nucleosides and nucleotides was tissue culture herb > cultured herb > natural herb. This investigation would provide the theoretic basis for quality standards and applications of Anoectochilus roxburghii in clinical research.

Topologies on superspaces of TVS-cone metric spaces.

This paper investigates superspaces 𝒫0(X) and 𝒦0(X) of a tvs-cone metric space (X, d), where 𝒫0(X) and 𝒦0(X) are the space consisting of nonempty subsets of X and the space consisting of nonempty compact subsets of X, respectively. The purpose of this paper is to establish some relationships between the lower topology and the lower tvs-cone hemimetric topology (resp., the upper topology and the upper tvs-cone hemimetric topology to the Vietoris topology and the Hausdorff tvs-cone hemimetric topology) on 𝒫0(X) and 𝒦0(X), which makes it possible to generalize some results of superspaces from metric spaces to tvs-cone metric spaces.

A social diffusion model with an application on election simulation.

Issues about opinion diffusion have been studied for decades. It has so far no empirical approach to model the interflow and formation of crowd's opinion in elections due to two reasons. First, unlike the spread of information or flu, individuals have their intrinsic attitudes to election candidates in advance. Second, opinions are generally simply assumed as single values in most diffusion models. However, in this case, an opinion should represent preference toward multiple candidates. Previously done models thus may not intuitively interpret such scenario. This work is to design a diffusion model which is capable of managing the aforementioned scenario. To demonstrate the usefulness of our model, we simulate the diffusion on the network built based on a publicly available bibliography dataset. We compare the proposed model with other well-known models such as independent cascade. It turns out that our model consistently outperforms other models. We additionally investigate electoral issues with our model simulator.

[Centennial retrospective on the evolution and development of the nursing practice environment in Taiwan].

The practice environment for nurses has seen tremendous change over the past century due to the dedication and trailblazing work of nursing pioneers. This article describes how the nursing practice environment in Taiwan has evolved over this period. References used include nursing narratives, hospital accreditation standards, standard operating procedures, workplace safety standards, and worksite-related values and expectations. The efforts of the professional nursing community to realize a positive practice environment are further discussed. Over this century of change, the only thing that has remained unchanged is the commitment of nurses to "treat patients as one's own family". In the current as well as the previous periods of manpower shortages in nursing, the nursing community has managed to turn crisis into opportunity by using the situation to enhance pay and benefits. Nursing professionalism is widely respected and recognized throughout Taiwan society. The rapidly changing needs of the 21st century in aspects such as the advancement of high technology, the rapid growth of the elderly population, and the fast rate of social change seriously impact the development of the nursing profession. How to effectively apply high technology, simplify workflows, provide high quality and humanistic nursing care, build safe and quality workplaces, attract bright nursing students, and provide healthcare for the entire population will remain the responsibilities of nursing for generations to come.

Unilateral boundary time series forecasting.

Time series forecasting is an essential tool across numerous domains, yet traditional models often falter when faced with unilateral boundary conditions, where data is systematically overestimated or underestimated. This paper introduces a novel approach to the task of unilateral boundary time series forecasting. Our research bridges the gap in existing methods by proposing a specialized framework to accurately forecast within these skewed datasets. The cornerstone of our approach is the unilateral mean square error (UMSE), an asymmetric loss function that strategically addresses underestimation biases in training data, improving the precision of forecasts. We further enhance model performance through the implementation of a dual model structure that processes underestimated and accurately estimated data points separately, allowing for a nuanced analysis of the data trends. Additionally, feature reconstruction is employed to recapture obscured dynamics, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods through extensive experimentation with LightGBM and GRU models across diverse datasets, showcasing superior accuracy and robustness in comparison to traditional models and existing methods. Our findings not only validate the efficacy of our approach but also reveal its model-independence and broad applicability. This work lays the groundwork for future research in this domain, opening new avenues for sophisticated analytical models in various industries where precise time series forecasting is crucial.

[Impact of Mild SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Hematological Parameters and Suitability of Apheresis Platelets Donation in Blood Donors].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of mild SARS-CoV-2 infection on hematological parameters of adult blood donors and the suitability of apheresis platelet donation, the changes of the hematological parameters in blood donors with mild infection of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant strain were evaluated. METHODS: Seventy-two blood donors with mild COVID-19 symptoms who donated consecutive apheresis platelets for 3 times from December 2022 to January 2023, 42 cases among which were included in the infection-positive group, and 30 cases in the suspected infection group. Forty-two donors un-vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, un-infected, and donated three consecutive apheresis platelets from October to November 2022 were included in the control group. The changes of blood routine testing in the positive group and the suspected infection group were retrospectively compared before (Time1) and after (Time2 and Time3) the onset of symptoms, three consecutive times (Time1, Time2, Time3) in the control group by repeated measures analysis of variance. The Bayesian discriminant method was used to establish a discriminant equation to determine whether the recent infection of SARS-CoV-2 occurred or not. RESULTS: Simple effect of the number times of tests in the positive and suspected infection groups was significant（ Finfection-positive group=6.98, P < 0.001, partial η2=0.79, Fsuspected infection group=4.31, P < 0.001, partial η2=0.70）. The positive group and the suspected infection group had lower RBC, HCT, and HGB, and higher PLT and PCT at Time2 compared to Time1 and Time3(P < 0.05). The positive group and the suspected infection group showes RDW-CV and RDW-SD at Time3 higher than Time1 and Time2 (P < 0.001). The simple effect of the number times of tests in the control group was not significant ( F=0.96, P =0.55, partial η2=0.34). The difference of the whole blood count parameters in the control group for three times was not statistically significant (P >0.05). We established a discriminant equation to determine whether the recent infection of SARS-CoV-2 occurred or not. The equation had an eigenvalue of 0.22, a canonical correlation of 0.43 (χ2=27.81, P < 0.001), and an analysis accuracy of 72.9%. CONCLUSION: The hematological indicators of RBC, HCT, HGB, PLT, PCT, RDW-CV and RDW-SD in blood donors who had infected with mild COVID-19 showed dynamic changes. The discriminant equation for whether they are infected recently with COVID-19 has a high accuracy rate.

Anatomy of male and female genitalia of Acanthoscelidesobtectus (Say, 1831) (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Bruchinae) in interaction.

Armatures of the male intromittent copulatory structures have been surmised to increase male fitness by imposing physiological costs on female re-mating. Female kicking could, consequently, be a counterstrategy to avoid wounding or to prevent males from mating. The membranous endophallus of male Acanthoscelidesobtectus (Say, 1831) is armed with denticles. Checking if these denticles penetrate the wall of the female genital tract during copulation revealed that only the tip of the median lobe of the aedeagus is intromitted into the female genital opening during copulation. The everted endophallus extends over the full length of the ovipositor, and the spermatophore is placed in the bursa. Identification by means of light microscopy and Micro-CT of the exact relative position of male and female copulatory organs while mated confirmed that the denticles do not cause wounds in the vagina wall. Parts of the inner wall of the bursa copulatrix are covered with inward pointing denticles. Already mated females kick mounting males by vehement movements of their hind legs, thereby preventing mating. In contrast, virgin females usually accept the first male they encounter and terminate copulation by slower movements of their hind legs. The same applied to females who accepted re-mating the second day after the first copulation. Acanthoscelidesobtectus females kick males off to prevent rather than to terminate copulation. Copulatory structures as well as behaviour may have different functional roles in different beetle species, even within the Bruchinae.