Although a phonology-based coding system (i.e. Pinyin) is universally taught to beginning readers in mainland China, in Macau no such system is taught to children learning Cantonese. To examine whether providing such a system to Cantonese-speaking children is beneficial for reading development in both first (Cantonese) and second (English) language, the present study first attempted to implement a Cantonese phonology-based coding system (i.e. Jyutping) intervention with Cantonese-English bilingual children in Macau. Participants were 67 K3 children studying in a local kindergarten. Compared with the control group (N = 33, mean age 5.76 years), after five sessions of training, the children with Jyutping training (N = 34, mean age 5.85 years) showed a significant increase in Chinese and English phonological awareness at both syllable and phoneme levels. These results highlight the effectiveness of phonology-based coding systems in early literacy development and underscore the educational value of incorporating Jyutping instruction in kindergarten settings.

In this paper, we numerically investigate the orbit dynamics of three-dimensional symmetric Janus drops in shear flow using an improved ternary-fluids phase field method, focusing on how drop deformation and initial orientation affect the orbit drift of two configurations of Janus drops: dumbbell-shaped and near-spherical. We find that the motion of dumbbell-shaped drops eventually evolves into tumbling, while near-spherical drops attain stable spinning. We attribute this bifurcation in orbit drift to contrasting deformation dynamics and shape-dependent hydrodynamics of the two configurations. Specifically, the drift bifurcation is closely related to the aspect ratio of Janus drops at equilibrium, giving rise to two distinct mechanisms: (1) coupling between outer interface deformation and the surrounding flow field; and (2) interplay between inner interface deformation and vortices enclosed within the drop. In addition, we observe that for the dumbbell-shaped Janus drops with different aspect ratios, their tumbling dynamics resembles ellipsoids in shear flow. Moreover, the trajectories of the dumbbell-shaped Janus drops during orbit drift collapse onto a universal curve, independent of their initial orientations, and significant deformation and inertia accelerate the orbit transition. To quantitatively evaluate the effect of drop deformation on the orbit drift of the dumbbell-shaped Janus drops, we propose an effective aspect ratio model based on the drop shapes at equilibrium and at the maximum elongation. By incorporating the effective aspect ratio into Jeffery’s theory for solid particles, we accurately predict the rotation period and angular velocity of Janus drops in the tumbling regime and during the orbit drift, especially for drops with linear deformation. Moreover, the orbit parameter $C$ is found to vary exponentially with time for drops with linear deformation, while the time variation of $C$ transits from one exponential function to another for drops with nonlinear deformation.

This article examines the earliest known corpus of Chinese poetry written in the Spanish Philippines, preserved in Diego de Rueda y Mendoza’s Relación verdadera de las exequias funerales (1625), composed to commemorate the death of King Philip III. Among the numerous multilingual tributes collected in the manuscript, six poems were authored by members of the Sangley (Chinese) community in Manila—some Christianised, others gentile—marking a significant moment in the history of transcultural mourning, poetic diplomacy, and Chinese literary expression in a colonial Iberian setting. Three of the poems are written in classical Chinese and exhibit sophisticated Buddhist and literary references; the other three, composed in Spanish by Sangley authors, reflect a hybridised voice grounded in baroque rhetorical tradition. Rueda’s accompanying prose ‘translation’ of the Chinese poems reveals both a willingness to engage Chinese expression and a limited understanding of its linguistic and cultural nuances. This study offers a close reading of the Chinese poems, demonstrating how they employ imagery rich in Buddhist meaning, reflecting the Chinese cultural understanding of imperial rulership. It also compares these verses to their Spanish counterparts and Rueda’s summaries, revealing both overlap and erasure. The article argues that these poems, far from being mere colonial curiosities, testify to the complex cultural agency of Manila’s Chinese community and challenge dominant narratives of Hispanisation. Ultimately, the manuscript preserves a unique instance of literary and political negotiation that sheds light on the layered identities of early modern Chinese in the Philippines.

Obesity, a global health issue, is associated with numerous diseases and has been shown to affect male reproductive health by inducing endocrine hormonal changes, chronic inflammation, oxidative stress and epigenetic alterations in reproductive cells. This study investigates the impact of obesity on testicular gene expression across mice, monkeys and humans, identifying 730 conserved testis-specific genes. High-fat diet-induced obesity upregulates GNG5, INHA, MSH5, SLC30A8 and SLC7A4 in testes, suggesting their potential as regulatory targets in testicular damage associated with obesity. Single-cell analysis reveals species-conserved expression patterns of SLC7A4 in Sertoli cells and SLC30A8 in SPG cells. It also confirmed that SLC30A8 and SLC7A4 were significantly upregulated in the testes of spontaneously obese mice. The findings highlight the potential of these genes as regulatory targets in obesity-related testicular dysfunction, providing insights into male reproductive health impairments caused by obesity.

A comprehensive database of emotional prototypicality (EmoPro) scores for 1,122 words in second-language (L2) English was provided and aided in selecting L2 English emotion-label words. EmoPro refers to the degree to which a word clearly represents or conveys an emotion. The results showed that EmoPro was influenced by various factors, including valence, arousal, socialness, age of acquisition (AoA) and concreteness. EmoPro in the L2 context demonstrated its ability to predict naming and lexical decision performance. The similarities observed between EmoPro in the L2 and in the first language (L1) exhibited comparable correlations with other emotional and semantic factors and shared associations with predictors in the L1. This study also serves as a valuable tool for research on L2 emotion words, especially in the selection of prototypical emotion-label words in L2 English.

Although it is well established that gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with fetal overgrowth in singleton pregnancies, little is known about its role in twins. We aimed to explore the relationship between GDM and the longitudinal fetal growth in twin pregnancies. This was a retrospective matched cohort study of GDM and non-GDM twin pregnancies delivered ≥36 weeks without other complications. All the women performed ≥3 ultrasounds after 22 weeks. Linear mixed models (LMMs) were used to explore the relationships between longitudinal fetal growth trajectories and GDM. Group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM) and generalized estimating equation (GEE) were applied to identify the latent growth patterns and investigate their relationships with GDM. In total, 215 GDM and 645 non-GDM twins were included, the majority of the patients did not require medication therapy (n = 202, GDMA1). LMM revealed that, compared with non-GDM, GDM was associated with an average increase in fetal weight of 4.36 g (95% CI [1.25, 7.48]) per week. GBTM and GEE further revealed that GDM increased the odds of fetal weight trajectory to nearly 40% of the total fetal weight trajectory, classified into the high-speed group (aOR = 1.39, 95% CI [1.03, 1.88]), associating with a 49.44 g (95% CI [11.41, 87.48]) increase in birth weight. Subgroup analysis revealed that all these differences were only significant among the GDMA1 pregnancies (p < .05). GDM (GDMA1) is significantly associated with an increase in fetal weight during gestation in twin pregnancies. However, this acceleration is mild, and its significance requires further exploration.

Turbulent mixing is a pivotal phenomenon in fusion research with profound implications for energy gain. A Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes model capable of predicting realistic mixing transition processes is of significant importance for fusion applications, yet such a model remains elusive. This work addresses the limitations of prevalent global transition criteria, proposing a new idea to quantify local transition characteristics based on the mixing state, recognizing its direct relevance to fusion reaction rates. We delve into the description and analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution of the mixing state and its interplay with the transition process. Then, a local transition indicator is developed and compared with conventional global criteria using the large-eddy simulation (LES) of Rayleigh–Taylor turbulent mixing. Building upon this foundation, we introduce a novel eddy viscosity model based on the local transition indicator. A posterior assessment using LES data validates that it significantly outperforms standard gradient transport models during the transition stage. Consequently, we integrate this new eddy viscosity model with the Besnard–Harlow–Rauenzahn model to construct a comprehensive transition model, which demonstrates reasonably good performance in comparison with LES results. This work paves the way for future research in developing advanced modelling strategies that can effectively address the complexities of transitional flows in fusion engineering applications.

Understanding and predicting human cooperative behaviour and belief dynamics remains a major challenge both from the scientific and practical perspectives. Because of the complexity and multiplicity of material, social and cognitive factors involved, both empirical and theoretical work tends to focus only on some snippets of the puzzle. Recently, a mathematical theory has been proposed that integrates material, social and cognitive aspects of behaviour and beliefs dynamics to explain how people make decisions in social dilemmas within heterogeneous groups. Here we apply this theory in two countries, China and Spain, through four long-term behavioural experiments utilising the Common Pool Resources game and the Collective Risk game. Our results show that material considerations carry the smallest weight in decision-making, while personal norms tend to be the most important factor. Empirical and normative expectations have intermediate weight in decision-making. Cognitive dissonance, social projection, logic constraints and cultural background play important roles in both decision-making and beliefs dynamics. At the individual level, we observe differences in the weights that people assign to factors involved in the decision-making and belief updating process. We identify different types of prosociality and rule-following associated with cultural differences, various channels for the effects of messaging, and culturally dependent interactions between sensitivity to messaging and conformity. Our results can put policy and information design on firmer ground, highlighting the need for interventions tailored to the situation at hand and to individual characteristics. Overall, this work demonstrates the theoretical and practical power of the theory in providing a more comprehensive understanding of human behaviour and beliefs.

Investigations are conducted on the effect of wall proximity on the flow around a cylinder under an axial magnetic field, using the electrical potential probe technology to measure the velocity of liquid metal flow. The study focused on the impact of the inlet velocity of the fluid, the magnetic field and wall proximity on the characteristics of velocity fields, particularly on the vortex-shedding mode. Based on different magnitudes of the magnetic field and the distance from the cylinder to the duct wall, three types of vortex-shedding modes are identified, (I) shear layer oscillation state, (II) quasi-two-dimensional vortex-shedding states and (III) transition of the magnetohydrodynamic to hydrodynamic Kármán street. The transitions between these modes are analysed in detail. The experimental results show that the weak wall-proximity effect leads to the formation of the Kármán vortex street, while a reverse Kármán vortex street and secondary vortices emerge under a strong wall-proximity effect. It is noticed that the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability drives vortex shedding under regime I, leading to an increase in the Strouhal number (St) with stronger magnetic fields. Additionally, under a strong axial magnetic field, the wall-proximity effect (‘Shercliff layer effect’) promotes the instability of shear layers on both sides of the cylinder. These unique coupling effects are validated by variations in modal coefficients and energy proportions under different vortex-shedding regimes using the proper orthogonal decomposition method.

Milk is a fundamental food matrix that is widely consumed. Milk fat is important for producing dairy products such as butter, cream, cheese and whole milk powder. Aside from flavour, it has been linked to human health and its chemistry can be modulated by various means towards a more healthy fatty acid profile. Industry and stakeholders have different interests in milk fat, based on specific policies which reflect the type of research and funding initiatives currently performed in different countries. This position paper summarizes the current state-of-the-art with regards to milk fat research and industry as well as stakeholder initiatives, and then highlights new developments based on information gathered from North America (United States and Mexico), Europe (United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, and Finland), Africa (Egypt), Asia (China and Bangladesh) and Oceania (New Zealand). South America is an important contributor to the dairy industry but will not be considered here and thus this paper must be considered cross-continental rather than global. This manuscript intends to show a wide ‘picture’ of milk fat from different angles in different parts of the globe.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the world as we know it, impacting all aspects of modern society, basically due to the advances in computer power, data availability and AI algorithms. The dairy sector is also on the move, from the exponential growth in AI research, to ready to use AI-based products, this new evolution to Dairy 4.0 represents a potential ‘game-changer’ for the dairy sector, to confront challenges regarding sustainability, welfare, and profitability. This research reflection explores the possible impact of AI, discusses the main drivers in the field and describes its origins, challenges, and opportunities. Further, we present a multidimensional vision considering factors that are not commonly considered in dairy research, such as geopolitical aspects and legal regulations that can have an impact on the application of AI in the dairy sector. This is just the beginning of the third tide of AI, and a future is still ahead. For now, the current advances in AI at on-farm level seem limited and based on the revised data, we believe that AI can be a ‘game-changer’ only if it is integrated with other components of Dairy 4.0 (such as robotics) and is fully adopted by dairy farmers.