Effects of "audience effects"on animal mate choice: A review.

The information tranfered among individual animals can be shared by a network, which is consisted of the sender, the receiver, and the extra bystander of the communication signals. The bystanders can read and use the signal that is not sent directly to them and make use of it to interfere with the sender and the receiver, which is known as "audience effects" in the research area of animal behaviors. The processes of mate choice and mating of animals occur mainly in the network that is composed of the particular species. Increasing evidence show that the audience effects play an important role in regulating mating preference and mating strategy, resulting in changes in species evolution. Here, we review the role of audience effects on animal mate choice and evolution by clarifying the definition and functional explanations of audience effects, the factors contributing to audience effects, as well as the different impacts of audience effects on males and females. It would provide novel ideas to study the impacts of audience effects on mate choice and species evolution in the future.

Gua sha therapy for chronic low back pain: A protocol for systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Non-specific chronic low back pain (LBP) is a debilitating disease that profoundly impacts patients' daily physical function and quality of life. Gua sha therapy, as an easy-to-use and noninvasive complementary modality, has been widely used clinically in patients with non-specific chronic LBP. The aim of this study is to test the potential benefits and harms of gua sha therapy on patients with non-specific chronic LBP. METHODS: Ten English databases, 3 Korean databases, 6 Chinese databases, 1 Japanese database, and 2 Brazilian databases will be searched from their inception to September 2019. Randomized controlled trials will be included if gua sha therapy was used as the sole treatment or as a part of combination therapy with other treatments in patients with non-specific chronic LBP. Two reviewers will independently extract the data and assess the methodological quality using the Cochrane criteria for risk of bias. The meta-analysis will be performed using Review Manager 5.3 software. RESULTS: The findings of this systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSION: This systematic review will provide more evidence regarding the clinical usage of gua sha therapy for non-specific chronic LBP. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42019134567.

Design and construction of a novel instrument for high-frequency micro-force electrical sliding friction testing.

Sliding electrical contact exists in various electrical equipment. However, its performance is significantly affected by the sliding condition such as the load, electricity, and the surface state of friction pairs. In this study, a novel instrument is designed and constructed for high-frequency microforce electrical sliding friction testing. The new instrument provides a unique experimental platform that enables high-frequency reciprocating friction and microforce loading, and it has an innovative data collection system that includes a cantilever beam structure to measure the microforce. In this instrument, parameters (positive force, friction, displacement, and voltage of frictional pair) are obtained and monitored in real time. The steel sheet and nickel-plated steel wire were used as materials to conduct an experiment, and the steel sheet morphology after the experiment was observed using a light microscope. Results show that the voltage and positive load significantly influence the friction coefficient and friction wear, which is crucial in understanding friction and wear behaviors.

Live Bird Exposure among the General Public, Guangzhou, China, May 2013.

BACKGROUND: A novel avian-origin influenza A(H7N9) caused a major outbreak in Mainland China in early 2013. Exposure to live poultry was believed to be the major route of infection. There are limited data on how the general public changes their practices regarding live poultry exposure in response to the early outbreak of this novel influenza and the frequency of population exposure to live poultry in different areas of China. METHODOLOGY: This study investigated population exposures to live birds from various sources during the outbreak of H7N9 in Guangzhou city, China in 2013 and compared them with those observed during the 2006 influenza A(H5N1) outbreak. Adults were telephone-interviewed using two-stage sampling, stratified by three residential areas of Guangzhou: urban areas and two semi-rural areas in one of which (Zengcheng) A(H7N9) virus was detected in a chicken from wet markets. Logistic regression models were built to describe practices protecting against avian influenza, weighted by age and gender, and then compare these practices across residential areas in 2013 with those from a comparable 2006 survey. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Of 1196 respondents, 45% visited wet markets at least daily and 22.0% reported buying live birds from wet markets at least weekly in April-May, 2013, after the H7N9 epidemic was officially declared in late March 2013. Of those buying live birds, 32.3% reported touching birds when buying and 13.7% would slaughter the poultry at home. Although only 10.1% of the respondents reported raising backyard birds, 92.1% of those who did so had physical contact with the birds they raised. Zengcheng respondents were less likely to report buying live birds from wet markets, but more likely to buy from other sources when compared to urban respondents. Compared with the 2006 survey, the prevalence of buying live birds from wet markets, touching when buying and slaughtering birds at home had substantially declined in the 2013 survey. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Although population exposures to live poultry were substantially fewer in 2013 compared to 2006, wet markets and backyard poultry remained the two major sources of live bird exposures for the public in Guangzhou in 2013. Zengcheng residents seemed to have reduced buying live birds from wet markets but not from other sources in response to the detection of H7N9 virus in wet markets.