Do small wording differences in message-based behavioral interventions have outsized effects on behavior? An influential initial study, examining this question in the domain of political behavior using two small-scale field experiments, argues that subtle linguistic cues in voter mobilization messages describing someone as a voter (noun) instead of one who votes (verb) dramatically increases turnout rates by activating a person's social identity as a voter. Two subsequent large-scale replication field experiments challenged this claim, finding no effect even in electorally competitive settings. However, these experiments may not have reproduced the psychological context needed to motivate behavioral change because they did not occur in highly competitive and highly salient electoral contexts. Addressing this major criticism, we conduct a large-scale, preregistered replication field experiment in the 2016 presidential election. We find no evidence that noun wording increases turnout compared to verb wording in this highly salient electoral context, even in competitive states.

A high-carbohydrate diet could achieve a protein-sparing effect, but it may cause negative impacts on the growth condition of fish due to their poor utilisation ability of carbohydrate. How to reduce the adverse effects caused by a high-carbohydrate diet is important for the development of aquaculture. In the present study, we aimed to identify whether inulin could attenuate the metabolic syndrome caused by a high-carbohydrate diet in fish. Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) (1·19 (sd 0·01) g) were supplied with 35 % carbohydrate (CON), 45 % carbohydrate (HC) and 45 % carbohydrate + 5 g/kg inulin (HCI) diets for 10 weeks. The results showed that addition of inulin improved the survival rate when fish were challenged with Aeromonas hydrophila, indicating that inulin had an immunostimulatory effect. Compared with the HC group, the HCI group had lower lipid accumulation in liver and the gene expression analyses indicated that addition of inulin down-regulated genes related to lipogenesis and up-regulated genes relevant to β-oxidation significantly (P < 0·05). Higher liver glycogen and glucose tolerance were found in the HCI group compared with the HC group (P < 0·05). These results indicated that inulin could alleviate the metabolic syndrome induced by a high-carbohydrate diet. Furthermore, addition of inulin to a high-carbohydrate diet changed the intestinal bacterial composition and significantly increased the concentration of acetic acid and propionic acid in fish gut which have the potential to increase pathogen resistance and regulate metabolic characteristics in fish. Collectively, our results demonstrated a possible causal role for the gut microbiome in metabolic improvements induced by inulin in fish.

Supported by (1) medical research grants CMRPG3C0041/42 from Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and NRRPG2H0031 from Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan to Chemin Lin (2) NMRPG3G6031/32 from Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan to Shwu-Hua, Lee (3) the KKHo International Charitable Foundation to Tatia Lee.

In the alloy materials, their mechanical properties mightly rely on the compositions and concentrations of chemical elements. Therefore, looking for the optimum elemental concentration and composition is still a critical issue to design high-performance alloy materials. Traditional alloy designing method via “trial and error” or domain experts’ experiences is barely possible to solve the issue. Here, we propose a “composition-oriented” method combined machine learning to design the Cu–Zn alloys with the high strengths, high ductility, and low friction coefficient. The method of separate training for each attribute label is used to study the effects of elemental concentrations on the mechanical properties of Cu–Zn alloys. Moreover, the elemental concentrations of new Cu–Zn alloys with the good mechanical properties are predicted by machine learning. The current results reveal the vital importance of the “composition-oriented” design method via machine learning for the development of high-performance alloys in a broad range of elemental compositions.

To address the challenges of limited language proficiency and provide necessary feedback in the implementation of task-based language teaching (TBLT), a mobile-supported TBLT application was developed to provide linguistic and task scaffolding. Sixty-six English as a foreign language (EFL) university learners participated in a three-week experiment as part of a general English course. They were assigned to either an experimental group (mobile-supported TBLT), which received TBLT with scaffolds built into the application, or a control group (traditional TBLT), which received traditional paper-based TBLT without the scaffolds. At the end of the experiment, an English achievement test of vocabulary, grammar, and conversation comprehension was administered to determine if the technological scaffolds enhanced the learning outcomes for the course. Students’ self-perceived use of oral communication strategies was also measured to explore how these scaffolds affected the conversational interaction essential for task performance. Results showed that the mobile-supported TBLT group outperformed the traditional TBLT group on the vocabulary and conversation comprehension tests but not so much on the grammar test. Also, the mobile-supported TBLT group reported greater awareness of fluency- and accuracy-oriented strategies for speaking than the traditional TBLT group. Implications for designing mobile learning to enhance TBLT in an EFL setting are drawn.

Not all plant-based and animal foods exert the same health effects due to their various nutrient compositions. We aimed to assess the quality of plant-based v. animal foods in relation to mortality in a prospective cohort study. Using data collected from a nationally representative sample of 36 825 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2014, we developed a de novo Comprehensive Diet Quality Index (cDQI) that assesses the quality of seventeen foods based on the healthfulness and separately scored the quality of eleven plant-based foods in a plant-based Diet Quality Index (pDQI) and six animal foods in an animal-based Diet Quality Index (aDQI). Mortality from all causes, heart disease and cancer were obtained from linkage to the National Death Index up to 31 December 2015. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % CI after multivariable adjustments. During a median follow-up of 8·3 years, 4669 all-cause deaths occurred, including 798 deaths due to heart disease and 1021 due to cancer. Compared with individuals in the lowest quartile, those in the highest quartile of cDQI had a lower risk of all-cause mortality (HR 0·75, 95 % CI 0·65, 0·86; P trend < 0·001), which largely reflected the inverse relationship between quality of plant-based foods (pDQI) and all-cause mortality (HR 0·66, 95 % CI 0·58, 0·74; P trend < 0·001). No independent association was found for the quality of animal foods (aDQI) and mortality. Our results suggest that consuming healthy plant-based foods is associated with lower all-cause mortality among US adults.

There is growing interest globally in using real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) for health technology assessment (HTA). Optimal collection, analysis, and use of RWD/RWE to inform HTA requires a conceptual framework to standardize processes and ensure consistency. However, such framework is currently lacking in Asia, a region that is likely to benefit from RWD/RWE for at least two reasons. First, there is often limited Asian representation in clinical trials unless specifically conducted in Asian populations, and RWD may help to fill the evidence gap. Second, in a few Asian health systems, reimbursement decisions are not made at market entry; thus, allowing RWD/RWE to be collected to give more certainty about the effectiveness of technologies in the local setting and inform their appropriate use. Furthermore, an alignment of RWD/RWE policies across Asia would equip decision makers with context-relevant evidence, and improve timely patient access to new technologies. Using data collected from eleven health systems in Asia, this paper provides a review of the current landscape of RWD/RWE in Asia to inform HTA and explores a way forward to align policies within the region. This paper concludes with a proposal to establish an international collaboration among academics and HTA agencies in the region: the REAL World Data In ASia for HEalth Technology Assessment in Reimbursement (REALISE) working group, which seeks to develop a non-binding guidance document on the use of RWD/RWE to inform HTA for decision making in Asia.

A control volume based analytical method for calculating the efficiency $\eta$ of flapping foil power generators was developed for single and tandem foil configurations. Ignoring unsteady effects and non-uniform pressures resulted in theoretical limits identical to the Betz ( $\eta =16/27$ for a single turbine) and Newman ( $\eta =16/25$ for tandem turbines) limits. Inclusion of unsteady flow and non-uniform pressure distributions produced theoretical efficiency maxima in excess of these limits. Simulation of single and tandem foil cases to determine the magnitude of these effects showed that the Betz limit would not be exceeded by a single foil system in practice, but that it is conceivable that a tandem foil system could exceed the Newman limit due to the strong unsteady vortex wake of the upstream turbine entraining additional energy into the path of the downstream turbine and maintaining pressures in the wake below ambient.

To detect low concentrations of formaldehyde selectively, the sensing properties of SnO2 nanostructured are enhanced by modifying with p-type semiconductor NiO. In this study, a nanostructured SnO2/NiO composite was prepared by a simple hydrothermal method. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) peak in 532.4 eV proved that the existence of the SnO2/NiO composite structure increased the amount of adsorbed oxygen O− and O2− significantly. Gas-sensing tests showed that these mixed phases SnO2/NiO are highly promising for gas sensor applications, as the gas response for formaldehyde was significantly enhanced in gas response, selectivity at an operating temperature of 230 °C. The sensor fabricated by SnO2/NiO composite can detect as low as 1 ppm of formaldehyde at 230 °C, and the corresponding response is 1.57. The results of physicochemical properties tests of the samples show that the enhancement in sensitivity and selectivity is attributed to the oxygen vacancies and heterojunction between SnO2 and NiO. The SnO2/NiO composites can be applied to sensitive materials of formaldehyde sensors.

This paper proposes and presents a millimeter-wave (MMW) fundamental and subharmonic hybrid mixer in a 65-nm CMOS technology. Based on a hybrid structure with two switching quads and a quasi-diplexer, the proposed circuit can function either as a fundamental mixer (FM) or a subharmonic mixer (SHM) for dual-band applications. An application of the MMW hybrid mixer in a concurrent dual-band receiver is also discussed, which indicates that the proposed mixer can operate at two different MMW frequency bands concurrently as long as the frequency conversion schemes are carefully designed. Measured results show that the 3-dB RF bandwidth of the MMW hybrid mixer ranges from 16 to 35 GHz for the FM mode and 30 to 53 GHz for the SHM mode, respectively.

We develop a dynamic general equilibrium growth model, where households purchase final goods on cash or credit and have different capital and money endowments, to investigate whether inflation affects trends in income and consumption inequality. We show that, under a strong substitutability between cash and credit goods, inflation has a negative relationship with income inequality, but a U-shaped relationship with consumption inequality. The divergence between income and consumption inequality explains several recent empirical observations. This result has important policy implications, as consumption inequality better reflects the welfare distribution whereas income inequality fails to capture consumption disparities resulting from different consumption and asset distributions across households. In the growth model with heterogeneous households, there is a mixed relationship between growth and income inequality, confirming the existence of the Kuznets curve. The inflation-driven asset reallocation might also produce a Mundell–Tobin effect, enhancing growth.