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Parassi mullet (Mugil incilis) is an ecologically and economically important species that supports small-scale artisanal fisheries. However, scarce knowledge of its reproductive biology limits the development of management and conservation strategies. This research describes key milt and sperm characteristics, including milt volume, sperm concentration, motility, and ultrastructural features. Males produced an average of 40.0 +/- 20 & micro;L of milt, with sperm concentrations between 6.00 and 20.37 & times; 109 spermatozoa mL-1. Sperm motility varied between 10% and 80%, with a mean duration of 14.13 +/- 4.49 min. Mature spermatozoa measured 33.79 +/- 0.67 & micro;m and exhibited a subspherical head without an acrosome, a short midpiece, and a cylindrical flagellum. The nucleus contains electron-dense heterogeneous chromatin. The centriolar complex was positioned outside the nuclear fossa consistent with Type II spermiogenesis. The flagellum comprises a main piece and tapering end piece. The axoneme had 9 + 0 arrangement at the basal body region and the typical 9 + 2 configuration along its length. These results provide the first detailed description of sperm morphology in parassi mullet and contribute to an understanding of its reproductive biology, supporting future applications in taxonomy, toxicology, conservation and aquaculture programs.
Debates on the ethical status of disembodied neural organoids (DNOs) focus on whether, and when, precautionary principles should apply given the uncertain possibility of organoid consciousness. Some advocate applying precautionary principles to DNOs despite uncertainty; others deem such measures premature given current simplicity but foresee their future necessity; while more skeptical views hold that genuinely conscious DNOs remain too remote to warrant present ethical concern. By contrast, Croxford and Bayne [1] defend a more radical skepticism, as they claim that there is little reason to ascribe consciousness not only to current DNOs, but to DNOs as such. They ground this view on a constraint-based approach composed of an Embodiment Constraint (EC) and a Representational Constraint. EC is presented as enjoying broad cross-theoretical support among externalists and internalists, and thus undermining the grounds for a precautionary ethical concern regarding DNOs. We examine EC and argue that, as stated, fails to meet the authors’ own requirement of representing a broad consensus among externalists and internalists.
Executive functions (EFs) are key cognitive processes for behaviour. However, there is little information about interaction with the dimensions of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), therefore the objective of this study was to analyse the association between lifestyle habits (physical activity and screen time), sleep, HRQoL and EFs in children and adolescents. Specifically, this study aimed to identify the extent to which perceived well-being dimensions are associated with EFs and to determine the potential mediating role of HRQoL in the relationships between lifestyle habits and these cognitive domains, examining whether these direct and indirect pathways remain robust after adjusting for gender and age. A total of 943 children and adolescents (51.3% female) aged 10-17 years participated. Lifestyle parameters (PA Krece Plus, sleep duration and KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire) and EFs (CogniFit neurocognitive assessment battery) were evaluated. The analysis of the individual KIDSCREEN-10 items revealed that perception of school performance presented the most consistent association with EFs, being positively related to attention (b = 16.39, p = 0.018), cognitive flexibility (b = 30.65, p = 0.005), inhibition (b = 24.66, p = 0.022), and working Memory (b = 42.33, p < 0.001). Furthermore, parental fairness reported a significant association for three out of four domains: attention (b = 13.89, p = 0.006), flexibility (b = 22.93, p = 0.003), and working Memory (b = 25.42, p < 0.001). Having enough time for self was also significantly related to attention performance (b = 12.60, p = 0.026). Regarding lifestyle habits, the composite lifestyle index (PA + ST) showed the most consistent positive association across all cognitive domains, while sleep duration was inversely associated with attention, cognitive flexibility, and working Memory. The mediation analysis revealed that global HRQoL significantly mediated the relationship between lifestyle habits and executive functions, accounting for 9.55% of the total effect on attention, 5.45% on cognitive flexibility, and 4.14% on working memory, whereas no mediation was observed for inhibition. In conclusion personal time, parental fairness, and school adjustment were positively associated with EFs. HRQoL and physical activity levels also showed consistent links with all EFs, whereas sleep duration was inversely related. Furthermore, mediation analysis revealed that global HRQoL acts as a critical indirect pathway, explaining a significant proportion of the lifestyle habits' total effect on attention, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. Overall, these findings highlight the multifactorial and interrelated mechanisms shaping executive functioning in children and adolescents.
We study the dynamical and scattering properties for the Euler-Heisenberg BH surrounded by perfect fluid dark matter. The geometry contains a compact non-linear electrodynamic correction governed by the EH coupling and a logarithmic dark-matter contribution governed by the surrounding PFDM halo. We study the scalar, electromagnetic and a particular effective axial spin-2 channel constructed on the fixed EH plus PFDM background, acting as a proxy for the gravitational-like perturbation problem and not for the fully coupled gravitational perturbation problem. We compute the quasinormal-mode spectrum employing a thirteenth-order WKB method supplemented with Padé resummation and compare it with the eikonal prediction calculated in terms of the angular frequency of the photon sphere and the Lyapunov exponent. Moreover, we study the near-extremal configurations and derive a purely imaginary branch of quasinormal frequencies in the near-horizon region, whose damping rate increases with the PFDM parameter and is nearly spin-independent. We then compute exact greybody factors by direct numerical integration of the radial wave equation and compare them to analytical lower bounds. We also analyze the absorption cross sections and the Hawking emission spectra. We also calculate the relativistic enhancement of the neutrino-antineutrino annihilation channel outside the EHPFDM black hole. We find that the PFDM parameter contracts the optical structure, increases the oscillation frequency, enhances the damping rate and suppresses transmission. On the other hand, the Euler-Heisenberg correction leads to a weaker near-horizon deformation whose effect becomes relevant for sufficiently large charge. These results provide a common scattering framework for comparing the impact of dark-matter environments and nonlinear electrodynamics
We study the propagation of massive scalar fields in the background of asymptotically flat regular black holes supported by a phantom scalar field with a scalar charge A. This parameter regularizes the geometry by removing the central singularity. Focusing on wave dynamics, we analyze scalar perturbations, quasinormal modes, and greybody factors, emphasizing the role of the regularization parameter on the effective potential and the decay properties of the modes. Using WKB methods beyond the eikonal limit, we show that the presence of scalar hair modifies both the oscillation frequencies and damping rates of quasinormal modes. In particular, we demonstrate the occurrence of an anomalous decay rate for massive scalar perturbations, and, above a critical field mass, the longest-lived modes correspond to lower angular momentum, in contrast with the massless case. We derive analytical expressions for the critical mass and study its dependence on the scalar charge and overtone number. Furthermore, we apply the Horowitz-Hubeny method to compute the quasinormal frequencies and show that the results obtained from the WKB and Horowitz-Hubeny approaches exhibit excellent agreement in the regime where both methods are valid. In addition, we compute reflection and transmission coefficients and analyze the corresponding greybody factors, clarifying how regularity effects imprint themselves on black-hole scattering properties. Our results show that regular black holes with scalar hair exhibit distinctive dynamical signatures that can be probed through quasinormal ringing and wave propagation.
