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Statement of the Problem: The concentration of medical students in the classroom is important in promoting their mastery of knowledge. Multiple teaching characteristics, such as speaking speed, voice volume, and question use, are confirmed to be influential factors., Purpose: This research aims to analyze how teachers' linguistic characteristics affect medical students' classroom concentration based on a speech recognition toolkit and face recognition technology., Materials and Methods: A speech recognition toolkit, WeNet, is used to recognize sentences during lectures in this study. Face recognition technology (FRT) is used to detect students' concentration in class. The study involved 80 undergraduate students majoring in stomatology. The classroom videos of 5 class hours in the dental anatomy course were collected in October 2022. A quantitative research methodology is used in this study. Pearson correlation, Spearman correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were used to analyze the impact of time and teachers' linguistic characteristics on students' concentration., Results: As a result of regression analysis, the explanatory power of the effect of the linguistic characteristics was 7.09% (F = 83.82, P < 0.001), with time, volume and question being significant influencing factors (P < 0.01). The local polynomial smooth of the scatter between the concentration degree and the use of questions with time appears to fluctuate cyclically and suggests a potential inverse relationship between the use of questions and the concentration degree., Conclusions: The results of this study support the significant positive influence of volume and questioning technique, the negative influence of time, and the insignificant influence of speaking speed and the interval between sentences on students' concentration. This study also suggested that teachers may adjust their questioning frequency based on their observation of students' concentration., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Grapholita molesta (Busck) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), Oriental fruit moth (OFM), attacks fruits and shoots of the economically important trees in Rosaceae. Amygdalin is a cyanogenic glucoside of rosaceous plants that may be related to the seasonal patterns of infestation in many pests. The amygdalin concentration of fruits and shoots of peach, pear, and apple varies over the growing season. However, the relationship between the amygdalin concentration and G. molesta performance has not been reported. Here, we measured the performance (feeding, growth, development, and fecundity) of G. molesta larvae (as subsequent adults) reared on artificial diets with six amygdalin concentrations (0, 3, 6, 12, 24, and 48 mg/g), and we then calculated the population parameters. We found that these different concentrations of amygdalin affected the developmental time and fecundity, except for the proportion of larvae feeding on the diet and the survival rates of larvae and pupae. When compared with the control diet without amygdalin, diets with 3 or 6 mg/g (low and moderate concentrations) of amygdalin shortened developmental times and increased the number of eggs laid by females; however, a diet with 12 mg/g (moderate concentration) of amygdalin only increased the number of eggs laid by females and did not affect the larval and pupal developmental rate. A diet with 48 mg/g (high concentration) of amygdalin prolonged developmental times and reduced the number of eggs laid by females when compared with the control diet without amygdalin. Furthermore, the intrinsic rate of increase (r m ) for insects reared on diets with 3 or 6 mg/g (low and moderate concentrations) of amygdalin versus the control diet without amygdalin showed a slightly improved population growth. However, this increase in the r m value did not persist over ten successive generations of rearing on the same diet. We concluded that the diet with 6 mg of amygdalin per g of diet can enhance the performance and population growth of G. molesta , but the effects of amygdalin are concentration-dependent.

The short-lived polygamous moth Grapholita molesta (Busck) is an important fruit pest worldwide. Trapping males by synthetic female sex pheromones is not an effective reproductive control strategy. It is important to improve this technology by understanding the mating system of G. molesta. This study investigated mating opportunities and fertile egg production by altering the operational sex ratio, mating age, and male mating history in repeated single mating and multiple mating in the two sexes. Our results showed that the mating and reproductive parameters of virgin males were affected by the number and age of virgin females. Males preferred a female number ≤three-fifths of the male number or ≤2-day-old females, while they discriminated against a female number ≥three times of the male number or ≥5-day-old females. On the other hand, the mating and reproductive parameters of virgin females were affected by repeated single mating and especially multiple mating under different male mating histories. Females preferred once-mated males and discriminated against virgin males. These results indicated that mating systems including more and older virgin females for virgin males and different virgin males for virgin females may be suitable for suppressing G. molesta populations. Hence, these results revealed that preventing mating of virgin adults by synthetic female sex pheromones should be most effective in controlling G. molesta.

For oligophagous insects, larval performance is very important to evaluate host suitability in host use. However, key indices among all performance traits including survival, development, and fecundity of the adult insect to predict host suitability are not clear. To investigate the key performance indices, we observed the performance of an oligophagous moth Grapholita molesta (Busck) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), a pest mainly damaging rosaceous plants, on three apple varieties, three peach varieties, and three pear varieties in the laboratory by placing its eggs on fruits. The moth's fitness was evaluated by the intrinsic rate of increase at fruit variety- and species-level variability. Our results showed that the preovipositional period of female moths and longevity of male moths were the indices primarily predicting intrinsic rates of increase for fruit variety and for fruit species. However, the preovipositional period of female moths was different at species-level variability but not at variety-level variability, whereas the longevity of male moths was not different at variety- or species-level variability. These results revealed that preovipositional period of female moths was a key predictor for host suitability in G. molesta. This study highlighted that gravid females may be a principal indicator in host resource optimization for oligophagous insects., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)