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Abstract Purpose The adverse health consequences of premarital sex and childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are both global public health problems. Based on a random sample of college students from a Chinese city, this study investigated the relationship between CSA severity and premarital sex among students, focusing on sex differences. Methods A total of 2722 college students from 4 schools in Luzhou were recruited by multistage random sampling. Self-administered questionnaires were used to measure CSA experiences and premarital sex. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to analyse the relationship between CSA and premarital sex. Results The prevalence of CSA was 9.39%, and that of mild, moderate and severe CSA was 4.04%, 2.90% and 2.46%, respectively. The premarital sex reporting rate was 22.42%. After adjusting for confounding variables, CSA was positively associated with premarital sex. Notably, a cumulative effect of CSA on premarital sex was observed among students. Further stratification analyses showed that males who experienced CSA had a higher premarital sex rate than females, and this sex difference was also observed among students with different CSA severities. Conclusion CSA and its severity were associated with premarital sex among college students. Furthermore, this association was stronger for males than females. Therefore, it is important to emphasize CSA prevention, especially for boys. These findings can promote understanding of the effects of CSA on premarital sex, and CSA prevention and intervention strategies should consider CSA severity and sex differences.

Abstract Background To investigate the association of four insulin resistance (IR) indicators with hepatic steatosis and fibrosis in patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS), as well as to compare the diagnostic value of these indicators in identifying hepatic steatosis and fibrosis in individuals with MetS. Methods This cross-sectional study used the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2017–2018. IR indicators included homeostasis model assessment of IR (HOMA-IR), triglyceride/glucose (TyG) index, triglyceride glucose-waist-to-height ratio (TyG-WHtR), and metabolic score for IR (METS-IR). The main endpoints of this study were hepatic steatosis and hepatic fibrosis. Weighted univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were employed to evaluate the association between four IR indicators and both hepatic steatosis, hepatic fibrosis. The efficacy of various IR indicators in the detection of hepatic steatosis and hepatic fibrosis were assessed using receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC). Results A total of 876 participants with MetS were enrolled. Among the participants, hepatic steatosis was observed in 587 MetS individuals, while hepatic fibrosis was identified in 151 MetS individuals. In multivariate logistic regression model, HOMA-IR, TyG, TyG-WHtR, and METS-IR were related to the increased odd of hepatic steatosis. Additionally, HOMA-IR, TyG-WHtR, and METS-IR were associated with increased odd of hepatic fibrosis. According to the ROC analysis, the area under the curve (AUC) of the TyG-WHtR (AUC = 0.705, 95%CI: 0.668–0.743) was higher than HOMA-IR (AUC = 0.693, 95%CI: 0.656–0.730), TyG (AUC = 0.627, 95%CI: 0.587–0.666), and METS-IR (AUC = 0.685, 95%CI: 0.648–0.722) for identifying hepatic steatosis of MetS patients. Likewise, TyG-WHtR was also higher than HOMA-IR, TyG, and METS-IR for identifying hepatic fibrosis of MetS patients. Conclusion HOMA-IR, TyG-WHtR, and METS-IR may be associated with the risk of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis among the U.S. adult population with MetS. In addition, TyG-WHtR may have a good predictive value for hepatic steatosis and hepatic fibrosis.

The early warning of coal spontaneous combustion is difficult to solve the perception of fire information. The acoustic emission (AE) signal generated by thermal damage and destruction on coal rock can perceive the temperature, and then issue a warning on the evolutionary state of coal spontaneous combustion. In order to study the change of AE signal in the process of coal heating and combustion, we explore the difference of and the time and frequency changes of the AE signals released by coal in different temperatures in the process of coal spontaneous combustion, and study the generation mechanism of the AE signal, so as to provide a theoretical basis for the inversion of coal temperature and for monitoring coal spontaneous combustion. The AE signal test system is constructed. By choosing the bituminous coal from Dongtan coal mine as the research subject, we test and analyze the change of the AE signal during coal heating process, analyze the evolutionary process of coal deformation and cracking under the influence of temperature and the change of coal composition, and examine the generation mechanism of AE signal in the process of coal heating. The results show that the ringing counts of coal increase sporadically from heating to combustion, and the correlation coefficient exceeds 0.87 by linear fitting, indicating that the frequency of coal deformation and cracking increases during the heating process. With the increase of temperature, the growth rate of ringing counts and the average frequency (AF value) of AE signal generated by coal are lower in the initial heating stage, but are higher when the temperature rises rapidly. The cumulative damage parameters show an inflection point when the coal temperature exceeds 80°C, and the main damage mode changes from rapid expansion damage to progressive damage. By analyzing the macro- and microscopic changes of coal structure and composition at different temperatures, we find that the mineral conversion rate in coal affects the main damage mode inside the coal body with the increase of temperature, and that the high mineral conversion rate corresponds to the rapid expansion damage inside the coal body, which promotes the derivative expansion of coal pores and cracks, and produces gradually increasing AE signals.

Abstract Background The NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain‑containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is a critical component of the innate immune system. It has been known to play an important role in the carcinogenesis and prognosis of breast cancer patients. While the clinical evidence of the relationship between NLRP3 inflammasome activation and long-term survival is still limited, the possible roles of parenchymal or immune-stromal cells of breast cancer tissues in contributing to such carcinogenesis and progression still need to be clarified. This study is an analysis of patients receiving breast cancer surgery in a previous clinical trial. Methods Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the expression levels of NLRP3 inflammasome pathway-related proteins, including NLRP3, caspase-1, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC), IL-1β, and IL-18, in parenchymal and immune-stromal cells of breast cancer tissues compared to those of adjacent normal tissues, respectively. The relationship between NLRP3 inflammasome expression and clinicopathological characteristics, as well as 5-year survivals were analyzed using the Chi-square test, Kaplan–Meier survival curves, and Cox regression analysis. Results In the parenchymal cells, ASC and IL-18 protein levels were significantly up-regulated in breast cancer tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues (P

In the present study, we investigated the impact of a word-problem intervention in retention and acquisition of knowledge after the intervention ended. We based analyses upon Grade 4 students experiencing mathematics difficulty (average age at pretest = 8.77) who received one of two variants of a word-problem intervention (with [n = 111] vs. without [n = 110] embedded pre-algebraic reasoning instruction) and students within a business-as-usual condition (BaU [n = 127]) separately. Findings revealed that students who received the intervention not only tended to retain less, but they also showed more active knowledge acquisition after the intervention ended. Furthermore, word-problem intervention altered the contributions of some prior knowledge and skills on both retention and acquisition.

This quasi-experimental study was designed to investigate the initial efficacy of a fraction-vocabulary intervention for Grade 4 students with mathematics difficulty (MD) and to explore its impact on relevant fraction competencies. Thirty-three students were assigned to either the intervention condition (n = 16) or a business-as-usual comparison condition (n = 17). The intervention occurred 3 sessions per week for 4 weeks, for a total of 11 sessions. Results indicated the main effect of the fraction-vocabulary intervention was significant for fraction-vocabulary posttest and one fraction competency-fraction arithmetic. That is, students with MD can successfully learn fraction vocabulary via a brief intervention, and improved fraction-vocabulary knowledge may positively affect their fraction competencies.