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Intervention mapping (IM) is a planning approach that reflects the intricate decision-making process involved in the design of behavior interventions. The development and implementation of IM is complex in preventing HIV/AIDS transmission. Therefore, it is significant to conduct a perfect preliminary work to successfully implement HIV/AIDS prevention. The objectives of this review were to collect and evaluate the data of the first three steps using IM to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission, and summarize the key points in the preliminary steps of IM. A total of 18 studies were identified, and six studies completely described the tasks in the first three steps of IM. Three studies described the logic model of the problem (n = 3). Six studies reported the matrix of behavior changes (n = 6), including personal and environmental determinants. Among the selected determinants, most studies reported the personal level determinants (self-efficacy and skills, knowledge, attitudes, and norms). The most used practical applications in reducing HIV/AIDS risk behaviors were video roles (n = 8) and role-model stories (n = 5). The review may be helpful for healthcare professionals to carefully design and implement the key procedures of the first three steps of the IM programs for people with HIV/AIDS in preventing HIV/AIDS transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational thinking (CT), acknowledged as a crucial twenty-first century skill, has attracted considerable attention. However, cultivating CT in resource-limited rural schools is challenging, with limited research on its development in these settings. Unplugged programming, not constrained by the availability of computer hardware, may offer a promising approach to fostering CT skills within rural schools. This study conducted a six-week quasi-experimental project in a rural school in Guizhou, China. In this study, 43 students participated in unplugged activities in the experimental group, while 45 students in the control group did not engage in any form of programming activities. The findings are noteworthy: post-intervention, the experimental group showed notable improvements in CT skills and resilience, unlike the control group. Additionally, the study explored gender differences, revealing that students of all genders exhibited similar growth in CT skills and resilience through unplugged activities. Resilience was identified as a key factor in enhancing CT skills. Interviews further enriched the quantitative findings. This research provides valuable insights for educators to improve rural education and promote CT education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the application of quality control charts, most of the researches in profile monitoring are based on accurate measurements. Measurement errors, however, often exist in many manufacturing and service environment. In this paper, first, we investigate the effect of neglecting measurement errors on the performance of four common control charts for Phase II monitoring of polynomial profiles. Simulation studies in terms of average run length (ARL) metric show that neglecting the measurement errors adversely affects the capability of all mentioned control charts. Then, we reconstruct the control charts based on two consistent estimators and two remedial approaches including multiple measurement and increasing sample size are utilized to decrease the effect of measurement errors. The results show that the remedial approaches compensate for the mentioned effect to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect children's development, and their harm to health is pervasive throughout the life course. To identify ACEs and their risk factors in Chinese household with or without parental mental illness. A controlled study was conducted among 181 young adults with parental mental illness (positive group) and 201 demographically matched individuals without parental mental illness (negative group). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to study the correlation between ACEs and their risk factors. The positive group suffered emotional abuse, domestic violence, bullying, and cumulative ACEs more frequently than the negative group. In the positive group, living in rural areas and having a low household economic status during childhood were identified as risk factors for cumulative ACEs, whereas a higher education level of the mother was a protective factor for cumulative ACEs in univariate analyses. Low household economic status remained an independent risk factor for cumulative ACEs in the positive group in multivariate analyses. Children living with parental mental illness are more vulnerable to ACEs, and our findings highlight the importance of socioeconomic factors in increasing the risk of ACEs. To alleviate the deleterious impact of parental mental illness on offspring, multidimensional supports are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Pichia pastoris fermentation process with multi-operating conditions, it is difficult to predict the cell concentration under the new operating conditions by the soft sensor model established under the specific operating conditions. Inspired by the idea of transfer learning, a method based on an improved balanced distribution adaptive regularization extreme learning machine (IBDA-RELM) was proposed to solve the problem. The domain adaptation (DA) method in transfer learning is developed to reduce distribution distance by transforming data. However, the joint distribution adaptation (JDA) and the balanced distribution adaptation (BDA) in DA cannot be directly applied to regression problems. The fuzzy sets (FSs) method was proposed to solve this issue. Finally, a soft sensor model of Pichia pastoris cell concentration was realized by inputting the converted data to the RELM model. Simulation verification was carried out with three operating conditions at the scene of fermentation. The transfer effects of three DA methods, including transfer component analysis (TCA), improved joint distribution adaptation (IJDA) as well as IBDA, were compared. The predicted results show that IBDA-RELM had a better performance in the soft sensor of Pichia pastoris cell concentration under multi-operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlorogenic acid (CGA) has many biological properties, including antibacterial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and is one of the most abundant phenolic acids available in the human diet. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of CGA on regulation of the gut microbiota, and on the levels of free amino acids and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, serotonin). Ninety-six healthy growing pigs were randomly assigned to two treatment groups: the Ctrl group (control group, standard feed) and the CGA group [standard feed plus 0.05% 3-caffeoylquinic acid (3-CQA)] for 60 days. The diversity of the gut microbiota was increased after CGA supplementation. Changes in these microbes were significantly associated with the serum free amino acid levels and colonic 5-HT level. Compared with the Ctrl group, the levels of serum aspartic acid, threonine, alanine, arginine, and colonic 5-HT were significantly increased (p < .05). These data suggest important roles for CGA in regulating the gut microbiota and increasing the serum free amino acid levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addressing the adaptive neural backstepping control for multiple-input and multiple-output nonlinear systems in pure-feedback form with time-delay and input quantisation, we construct a high-gain state observer and an output-feedback adaptive control scheme using backstepping method, with neural networks to estimate the uncertain nonlinear functions. Then, we propose an output feedback neural controller that ensures all the state trajectories in the time-delay quantised nonlinear systems are ultimately bounded, with the control signal being quantised by either a hysteretic quantiser or a logarithmic quantiser. An illustrative example is presented to show the applicability of the new control method developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the containment control of general linear multi-agent systems with or without time delay. The observer-based event-triggered control schemes will be considered. For the conventional distributed containment control protocol, we will not update the relative state continuously, i.e. the relative state will be updated by some events which happen intermittently. A completely decentralised event trigger will be designed for leader–follower systems. Under the proposed protocol, if we design some appropriate feedback gain matrices, all followers will asymptotically converge to the convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders. Numerical simulations are also provided and the results show highly consistent with the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of adaptive control is studied for a class of nonlinearly parameterised systems with quantised input signal and unknown control directions. The homogeneous domination approach and the Nussbaum-type gain method are applied to design an adaptive state-feedback controller. A hysteretic type of quantiser is incorporated to reduce actuator chattering. The proposed controller can ensure that all signals of the nonlinear system are globally bounded, and that the system state asymptotically converges to zero. Two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of the proposed techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effects of 935-MHz electromagnetic radiation (ER) on fertilization and subsequent embryonic development in mice. Ovulating mice were irradiated at three ER intensities for 4 h/day (d) or 2 h/d for three consecutive days; the ova were then harvested for in vitro fertilization to observe the 6-h fertilization rate (6-FR), 72-h morula rate (72-MR), and 110-h blastula rate (110-BR). Compared with the control group, the 6-FR, 72-MR, and 110-BR were decreased in the low ER intensity group, but the differences were not significant; in the mid- and high-intensity ER groups, 72-MR and 110-BR in the 4 h/d and 2 h/d subgroups were decreased, showing significant differences compared with the control group. Moreover, the comparison between 4 h/d and 2 h/d subgroups showed significant differences.Mid- and high-intensity ER at 935 MHz can reduce the fertilization rate in mice, and reduce the blastulation rate, thus reducing the possibility of embryo implantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aim: Insulin resistance (IR) is an established risk factor for colorectal cancer (CRC) and both IR and CRC physiologically overlap. As such, this study explored the relationship of IR-related gene polymorphisms and CRC risk. Subjects and methods: A total of 400 case-control pairs were profiled in terms of their lifestyle, dietary habits and blood sample. Classification and regression tree (CART) and generalized multi-factor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) were employed to test the gene–environment interactions in CRC risk. Results: ADIPOQ rs2241766 TG + GG, ADIPOQ rs1501299 GT + TT and CAPN-10 rs3792267 GA + AA were significantly related to CRC risk. In CART, individuals with high red meat consumption, CAPN-10 rs3792267 GG, ADIPOQ rs1501299 GG and ADIPOQ rs2241766 TG + GG had an OR of 1.821 (95% CI = 1.124–2.951). The overall best GMDR model including the four factors had the maximal TBA (0.5943) and CVC (10/10) (p = 0.0010). Subjects with high red meat consumption and the three risk genotypes had a CRC risk 10.195-times (95% CI = 2.164–48.030) greater than those with low red meat and null risk genotypes. Conclusions: ADIPOQ rs2241766, ADIPOQ rs1501299 and CAPN-10 rs3792267 are significantly associated with CRC risk and the combination of the three polymorphisms and red meat affect CRC risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: The etiology of gastric cancer is unclear; its therapeutic effect is poor; the anatomical factor and lack of specific diagnostic markers are part of the reason. Recent reports indicate corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) is associated with the pathogenesis of cancer. This study is designed to assess the levels of CRH in gastric tissue of a group of patients with gastric cancer and gastric chronic inflammation. Methods: Fifty-two patients with gastric cancer (GC) and 213 patients with gastric chronic inflammation were recruited into this study. The levels of CRH in the gastric biopsies were assessed. The correlation between the levels of CRH in the gastric biopsies and the tumorigenesis was assessed. Results: High levels of (458.6 pg/mg protein) CRH were detected in the biopsies of 52 patients with gastric cancer, which were also detected in the gastric biopsies of 213 patients with chronic gastritis (less than 100 pg/mg protein). CRH was below the detectable levels in the normal gastric mucosa. Of the 213 patients with chronic gastritis, 50 patients developed into cancer 3-5 years after the first diagnosis of chronic gastric cancer. Conclusions: CRH may be involved in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV), a member of the genus Megalocytivirus in the family Iridoviridae, can infect over fifty fish species and cause significant economic losses in Asia. Our previous study showed that hypoxia triggers the hypoxia-inducible factor pathway (HIF-pathway), leading to increased replication of ISKNV through promoting the upregulation of viral hypoxic response genes like orf077r. This study delved into the molecular mechanism behind how ISKNV manipulates the HIF-pathway to enhance its replication. In vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed that ISKNV infection activated the HIF-pathway, which in turn promoted ISKNV replication. These findings suggest that ISKNV actively manipulates the HIF-pathway. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments revealed that the ISKNV-encoded protein VP077R interacts with the Von Hippel−Lindau (VHL) protein at the HIF-binding region, competitively inhibiting the interaction of HIF-1α with VHL. This prevents HIF degradation and activates the HIF-pathway. Furthermore, VP077R interacts with factor-inhibiting HIF (FIH), recruiting FIH and S-phase kinase-associated protein 1 (Skp1) to form an FIH – VP077R – Skp1 complex. This complex promotes FIH protein degradation via ubiquitination, further activating the HIF-pathway. These findings indicated that ISKNV takes over the HIF-pathway by releasing two “brakes” on this pathway (VHL and FIH) via VP077R, facilitating virus replication. We speculate the hypoxia initiates a positive feedback loop between ISKNV VP077R and the HIF pathway, leading to the outbreak of ISKNV disease. This work offers valuable insights into the complex interactions between the environment, host, and virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]