Travel, sexual behaviour, and the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases

This study investigates sexual behaviour and the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases among travellers departing from Hong Kong, with an aim supporting the design of local intervention in continuing health promotion. Travellers were interviewed by five trained multilingual interviewers in the departure lounge at Kai Tak International Airport, Hong Kong, between May and June 1996, by using a structured, pretested questionnaire. Forty-four percent (168/383) of the respondents who travelled at least once within the previous year had had sex with strangers during their travel and 37% (139/376) of the respondents reportedly do not use condoms during sexual intercourse. Middle-aged and married travellers were more likely to be in the high-risk group. These findings reflect the urgent need to target travellers in any strategy that is designed to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in Hong Kong and Asia Pacific region.published_or_final_versio

A smart adaptive lighting system for a multifunctional room

Young professionals and millennials who live alone or are living in small groups and seek practicality, trigger the trend of smaller, modular and micro houses and apartments which are faster and cheaper to build. Multifunctional or flexible room is one of the important parts of the home. This particular room needs well-designed lighting for comfort. It should give an adequate illuminance for every activity and even pattern of light. This paper presents the factors for developing the smart adaptive lighting system which can provide lighting comfort for the occupants. The simulation is being done in 5 scenarios in the LJMU BRE 2010 house model using DIALux Software with the dimmable type of LED independent luminaire. The proposed system structure uses a wireless sensor network (WSN) and big data processing as the main components. The design employs an Artificial Intelligence (AI) sub-system which has the capability to predict and adaptively regulate the illumination level based on the occupant needs or routine. The simulation shows that this system is able to give even lighting pattern for luminance values 200, 250, 300, 500, and 750 lux which are needed by the occupants. With the possibility of user-defined lighting values, this system can be developed to accommodate the needs of special groups of occupants such as the elder or disabled groups. © 2019 IEEE

Smoking reduction intervention for smokers not willing to quit smoking: a randomised controlled trial

Key Messages 1. This smoking reduction study examined the effectiveness of smoking reduction counselling together with free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for smoking cessation and tested the effectiveness of brief counselling on adherence to NRT among Chinese smokers who were not willing to quit but intended to reduce cigarette consumption. 2. The smoking reduction intervention was effective in helping the unmotivated smokers in quitting (intervention: 17.0% vs control: 10.2%, P=0.012) and in reducing their daily cigarette consumption by 50% or more (intervention: 50.9% vs control: 25.7%, P<0.001) at 6-month follow-up. 3. Our results provided evidence for the effectiveness of smoking reduction intervention, which is important for planning smoking cessation services. 4. Free NRT was widely accepted by participants (8-week NRT adherence rate: 54.5%). Free NRT together with smoking reduction counselling was a feasible and cost-effective approach to help unmotivated smokers to reduce and quit smoking, especially in developing countries like China where NRT is expensive and not used extensively. 5. The motivation to quit smoking was not undermined by smoking reduction intervention. To the contrary, offering assistance to reduce smoking could attract smokers who were not willing or ready to quit.published_or_final_versio

On Convergence and Threshold Properties of Discrete Lotka-Volterra Population Protocols

In this work we focus on a natural class of population protocols whose dynamics are modelled by the discrete version of Lotka-Volterra equations. In such protocols, when an agent $a$ of type (species) $i$ interacts with an agent $b$ of type (species) $j$ with $a$ as the initiator, then $b$'s type becomes $i$ with probability $P\_{ij}$. In such an interaction, we think of $a$ as the predator, $b$ as the prey, and the type of the prey is either converted to that of the predator or stays as is. Such protocols capture the dynamics of some opinion spreading models and generalize the well-known Rock-Paper-Scissors discrete dynamics. We consider the pairwise interactions among agents that are scheduled uniformly at random. We start by considering the convergence time and show that any Lotka-Volterra-type protocol on an $n$-agent population converges to some absorbing state in time polynomial in $n$, w.h.p., when any pair of agents is allowed to interact. By contrast, when the interaction graph is a star, even the Rock-Paper-Scissors protocol requires exponential time to converge. We then study threshold effects exhibited by Lotka-Volterra-type protocols with 3 and more species under interactions between any pair of agents. We start by presenting a simple 4-type protocol in which the probability difference of reaching the two possible absorbing states is strongly amplified by the ratio of the initial populations of the two other types, which are transient, but "control" convergence. We then prove that the Rock-Paper-Scissors protocol reaches each of its three possible absorbing states with almost equal probability, starting from any configuration satisfying some sub-linear lower bound on the initial size of each species. That is, Rock-Paper-Scissors is a realization of a "coin-flip consensus" in a distributed system. Some of our techniques may be of independent value

Phytochemical profile, Antioxidant, Enzyme inhibitory and acute toxicity activity of Astragalus bruguieri

 تم استخدام النباتات الطبية (أنواع استراغالوس) تقليديًا كمضاد للالتهابات ومضاد للأكسدة ومضاد لمرضى السكر. يبحث البحث الحالي في الكيمياء النباتية وبعض النشاط البيولوجي لمستخلص الميثانول لأجزاء مختلفة من Astragalus bruguieri Bioss.، وهو نبات طبي بري ينمو في جبل سفين، أربيل، العراق. تم تحليل المستخلصات الميثانولية للنبات A. bruguieri لمعرفة محتويات الفينول والفلافونويد والسابونين. تم تحليل نشاط مضادات الأكسدة في المختبر بواسطة مقايسات 2،2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) و2،2'azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS). علاوة على ذلك، تم فحص المستخلصات النباتية لمعرفة النشاط المثبط للإنزيم المختبري والسمية شبه الحادة في الجسم الحي. أظهرت النتائج أعلى محتوى إجمالي من الفينول (28.83، 20.62 مجم GAEs / جم) في الأوراق والجذور على التوالي. بينما وجد أعلى محتوى إجمالى من الفلافونويد (50.08، 44.01 مجم REs / جم) في الأجزاء الهوائية والأوراق على التوالي. كان إجمالي الصابونين أكثر انتشارًا (25.33، 23.18 مجم من مستخلص GAEs / جم) في الجذور والأجزاء الهوائية، على التوالي. أظهر قياس نشاط مضادات الأكسدة في المختبر بواسطة مقايسة (DPPH) أن الأوراق كجزء متفوق في هذا النشاط (42.19   mg مستخلص TEs / g)، بينما أشار تقييم مضادات الأكسدة بواسطة مقايسة (ABTS) إلى أن الجذور هي الجزء الأكثر نشاطًا (86.90   mg TEs / مستخلص ز). تم العثور على α-glucosidase وα-amylase لتكون 0.45-0.67 و1.2-1.8 مللي مول ACAEs / جم على التوالي. أشار اختبار السمية الفموية الحادة إلى سلامة جرعة 600 مجم / كجم لأجزاء مختلفة من A. bruguieri على الجرذان البيضاء دون حدوث خلل سلوكي أو الموت. تعتبر الدراسة الحالية أول تقرير عن A. bruguieri كمصدر جديد محتمل للمواد المتوافقة حيويًا للعديد من المنتجات الصناعية.The medicinal plants (Astragalus species) have been used traditionally as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and Anti-diabetics. The current research investigates the phytochemistry and some biological activity of methanol extract of different parts of Astragalus bruguieri Bioss., a wild medicinal plant grows on Safeen mountain, Erbil, Iraq. The methanol extracts of A. bruguieri were analyzed for total phenolic, flavonoid, and saponin contents. In-vitro antioxidant activity was analyzed by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assays. Furthermore, the plant extracts were examined for in-vitro enzyme inhibitory activity and in-vivo sub-acute toxicity. The results have shown the highest total phenolic (28.83, 20.62 mg GAEs/g extracts) contents, in the leave and root extracts, respectively. While the highest total Flavonoid (50.08, 44.01 mg REs/g) contents, were found in the extracts of aerial parts and leaves, respectively. The total saponin was higher (25.33, 23.18 mg GAEs/g extracts) in the roots and aerial parts, respectively. In-vitro antioxidant   measurement by (DPPH) assay showed leaves as superior part in this activity (42.19mg TEs/g extract), while antioxidant evaluation by (ABTS) assay indicated roots as the most active part (86.90mg TEs/g extract). The α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibitory activity were found as 0.45-0.67, and 1.2-1.8 mmol ACAEs/g, respectively. The oral acute toxicity test indicated the safety of 600mg/kg dosage of different parts of A. bruguieri on albino rats without behavioral abnormality or mortality. The current study is considered as the first report on the A. bruguieri as a possible new source of biocompatible material for many industrial products

University students’ satisfaction and future outlook towards forced remote learning during a global pandemic

Technology has enabled the higher education ecosystem to tailor to the students who have diverse needs and to engage with them remotely, especially when face-to-face interaction is not possible. This research contributes knowledge in forced remote learning during the unprecedented global pandemic situation of Covid-19. Using a cross-sectional quantitative method, a total of 480 respondents among undergraduate students from five private universities in Malaysia participated in this study. The data was analysed using structural equation modelling and results indicated that online feedback, online future relevance, online interaction, online teaching effectiveness, and personal well-being were statistically significant in influencing students’ satisfaction. Moreover, online learning satisfaction directly predicted 68.3% of the students’ continuous usage intention while their usage intention was heightened with higher levels of proficiency in online learning. Students’ satisfaction was found to be a significant mediator between all the factors towards usage intention except online assessment, online support, and personal well-being. This study provides the higher education institutions with insights to continuously improve their online delivery strategies and bridge the gap with their students during the pandemic crisis

Interpreting and acting upon home blood pressure readings: A qualitative study

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ 2013 Vasileiou et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Recent guidelines recognize the importance of home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) as an adjunct to clinical measurements. We explored how people who have purchased and use a home blood pressure (BP) monitor make sense of, and act upon, readings and how they communicate with their doctor about the practice of home monitoring. Methods: A qualitative study was designed and participants were purposively recruited from several areas in England, UK. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 users of home BP monitors. The transcribed data were thematically analysed. Results: Interpretation of home BP readings is complex, and is often characterised by uncertainty. People seek to assess value normality using ‘rules of thumb’, and often aim to identify the potential causes of the readings. This is done by drawing on lay models of BP function and by contextualising the readings to personal circumstances. Based on the perceived causes of the problematic readings, actions are initiated, mostly relating to changes in daily routines. Contacting the doctor was more likely when the problematic readings persisted and could not be easily explained, or when participants did not succeed in regulating their BP through their other interventions. Most users had notified their doctor of the practice of home monitoring, but medical involvement varied, with some participants reporting disinterest or reservations by doctors. Conclusions: Involvement from doctors can help people overcome difficulties and resolve uncertainties around the interpretation of home readings, and ensure that the rules of thumb are appropriate. Home monitoring can be used to strengthen the patient-clinician relationship

Developing a Reliable Shallow Supervised Learning for Thermal Comfort using Multiple ASHRAE Databases

The artificial intelligence (AI) system faces the challenge of insufficient training datasets and the risk of an uncomfortable user experience during the data gathering and learning process. The unreliable training data leads to overfitting and poor system performance which will result in wasting operational energy. This work introduces a reliable data set for training the AI subsystem for thermal comfort. The most reliable current training data sets for thermal comfort are ASHRAE RP-884 and ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II, but the direct use of these data for learning will give a poor learning result of less than 60% accuracy. This paper presents the algorithm for data filtering and semantic data augmentation for the multiple ASHRAE databases for the supervised learning process. The result was verified with the visual psychrometric chart method that can check for overfitting and verified by developing the Internet of Things (IoT) control system for residential usage based on shallow supervised learning. The AI system was a Wide Artificial Neural Network (ANN) which is simple enough to be implemented in a local node. The filtering and semantic augmentation method can increase the accuracy to 96.1%. The control algorithm that was developed based on the comfort zone identification can increase the comfort acknowledgement by 6.06% leading to energy saving for comfort. This work can contribute to 717.2 thousand tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year which is beneficial for a more sustainable thermal comfort system and the development of a reinforced learning system for thermal comfort

Gastroprotective, Biochemical and Acute Toxicity Effects of Papaver decaisnei against Ethanol-Induced Gastric Ulcers in Rats

Papaver decaisnei (P. decaisnei) has been used as folkloric medicine for many health issues including gastric problems. The current study investigates the gastroprotective roles of P. decaisnei against ethanol-induced ulcers in rodents. Sprague Dawley rats (30) were separated into five groups: the normal group (G1) and the ulcer control group (G2) were orally administered 0.5% carboxymethylcellulose (CMC); the reference group (G3) was administered 20 mg/kg of Omeprazole; two experimental groups were fed with 200 mg/kg (G4) and 400 mg/kg (G5) of the P. decaisnei extract (PDE), respectively. Next, the rats were given absolute ethanol and sacrificed for the analysis of the gastric mucosal injury through microscopic, enzymatic, histologic, and immunohistochemistry assays. The ulcer controls showed significant superficial hemorrhagic gastric mucosal lesions, with a decreased gastric wall mucus and edema production, whereas fewer were found for the reference and planttreated rats. Furthermore, the PDE pre-treated rats had a significantly reduced the periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining intensity, produced the upregulation of the HSP70 protein, and the downregulation of the Bax protein expressions in the stomach epithelium. P. decaisnei displayed a significant role in the upregulation of endogenous antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, and PGE2), significantly reduced malondialdehyde (MDA), TNF-a, IL-6, and upraised the IL-10 levels. Based on the positive impacts, the PDE can be proposed as the protective/treatment agent against gastric ulcers and stomach lesions

Preventing type 2 diabetes mellitus in Qatar by reducing obesity, smoking, and physical inactivity: mathematical modeling analyses.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of reducing the prevalence of obesity, smoking, and physical inactivity, and introducing physical activity as an explicit intervention, on the burden of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), using Qatar as an example. METHODS: A population-level mathematical model was adapted and expanded. The model was stratified by sex, age group, risk factor status, T2DM status, and intervention status, and parameterized by nationally representative data. Modeled interventions were introduced in 2016, reached targeted level by 2031, and then maintained up to 2050. Diverse intervention scenarios were assessed and compared with a counter-factual no intervention baseline scenario. RESULTS: T2DM prevalence increased from 16.7% in 2016 to 24.0% in 2050 in the baseline scenario. By 2050, through halting the rise or reducing obesity prevalence by 10-50%, T2DM prevalence was reduced by 7.8-33.7%, incidence by 8.4-38.9%, and related deaths by 2.1-13.2%. For smoking, through halting the rise or reducing smoking prevalence by 10-50%, T2DM prevalence was reduced by 0.5-2.8%, incidence by 0.5-3.2%, and related deaths by 0.1-0.7%. For physical inactivity, through halting the rise or reducing physical inactivity prevalence by 10-50%, T2DM prevalence was reduced by 0.5-6.9%, incidence by 0.5-7.9%, and related deaths by 0.2-2.8%. Introduction of physical activity with varying intensity at 25% coverage reduced T2DM prevalence by 3.3-9.2%, incidence by 4.2-11.5%, and related deaths by 1.9-5.2%. CONCLUSIONS: Major reductions in T2DM incidence could be accomplished by reducing obesity, while modest reductions could be accomplished by reducing smoking and physical inactivity, or by introducing physical activity as an intervention