Epidemiological Assessment of Risk Factors Associated with Bovine Ephemeral Fever Virus Exposure among Sheep and Goats in South Korea

Background: Bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV) is an arthropod-borne virus classified as a type species of the genus Ephemerovirus, family Rhabdoviridae. BEFV is the causative agent of bovine ephemeral fever (BEF), a non-contagious disease of acute febrile clinical signs in cattle and water buffalo. Some species might act as reservoir hosts, and antibodies to BEFV have also been found in asymptomatic sheep, goats, pigs, and many wild animals. This study aimed to conduct a retrospective cross-sectional serological screening in South Korea to address BEFV seroprevalence and identify risk factors for becoming seropositive for the virus in sheep and goats. Materials, Methods & Results: The apparent prevalence rates were considered to be the animal-level prevalence, defined as the proportion of serum neutralization test (SNT)-positive animals out of the total number of animals tested in the study area, and flock prevalence was defined as the proportion of SNT-positive flocks out of the total number of tested flocks in the area. A flock was classified as positive if at least one animal was SNT-positive. At the national level in 2011, 28 of 177 flocks (15.8%; 95% CI, 11.2−21.9%) and 71 of 498 heads (14.3%, 95% CI: 11.5-17.6%) that were analyzed showed serum neutralizing antibodies against BEFV. Our results revealed that age class, vector control, and geographic location affected seroprevalence to differing extents. In the univariate analysis, older age was a significant risk factor (OR, 2.327; 95% CI, 1.147-4.721; P = 0.017 in adults). The management risk factor attributes showed that preventive measures, such as routine application of insecticides in farms, decreased the odds of seropositivity for BEFV (OR, 0.514; 95% CI, 0.267-0.991; P = 0.044). Vector control was a significant protective factor, while animal species, flock size, and flock structure were not significantly associated. Differences in seroprevalence between variations in the presence of ruminant farms, lakes, or rice paddies within a 1-km radius or type of land use were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). We observed a significant difference in the individual likelihood of being positive in the southern provinces with respect to that in the northern provinces (OR, 2.166; 95% CI, 1.228-3.824; P = 0.007). Differences in seroprevalence between variations in the eastern and western regions were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The retrospective study results showed that the virus was widely distributed in sheep and goats in South Korea, with seropositive rates ranging from 7.8% to 19.7% between 2003 and 2008.Discussion: This is the first report of circulating antibodies against BEFV in sheep and goats in South Korea. The serological prevalence of BEFV infection in sheep and goats was significantly different between different age cohorts, vector control, and geographical locations: it was higher in the older group and the southern and western regions of South Korea. Determination of seropositivity rates often leads to an understanding of virus circulation dynamics and is useful in the formulation of disease control measures. Our results demonstrated that vector control was a significant protective factor; therefore, the summer control of vectors could be better implemented in provinces with elevated seropositivity rates. The results of this seroprevalence study may serve as a basis for future epidemiological studies on BEFV infection in South Korea

Self-Focused Attention and Career Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Career Adaptability

The purpose of this study was to examine how 2 forms of self-focused attention, self-reflection and self-rumination, influence career anxiety. The authors hypothesized that the association between these 2 types of self-focused attention and career anxiety would be mediated by career adaptability on the basis of a career construction model of adaptation. The participants were 326 undergraduate students in South Korea. The results of this study supported the hypothesized mediation model by indicating significant indirect effects of self-reflection and self-rumination on career anxiety via career adaptability. The direct effect of self-rumination on career anxiety was significant (B = .44, p < .01), but the direct effect of self-reflection on career anxiety was not significant (B = -.05, p > .05). The authors discuss implications for counselors to help college students manage career anxiety by encouraging and supporting increased career adaptability. Future research to examine the cross-cultural validity of the current findings is needed.N

Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict Korean College Students' Help-Seeking Intention

When dealing with the mental health concerns of college students, access to professional mental health services is necessary to enable early identification and prevention of severe mental health issues. Accordingly, this study used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework to determine the predictors of help-seeking intentions among college students in Korea. The authors developed a TPB questionnaire to measure attitudes, subjective norms, behavioral control, and intentions for seeking help and subsequently validated it via the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The authors considered mental health condition as a pre-existing factor that influences TPB variables. In addition, they deemed knowledge of professional mental health services as a factor influencing perceived behavioral control regarding help-seeking behavior among Korean college students. The research hypotheses were stated as follows: (H1) mental health conditions would influence TPB variables, which would in turn influence their intentions to seek help, and (H2) knowledge about professional mental health services would influence perceived behavioral control. With 300 undergraduate and graduate students, our results confirmed that mental health condition and knowledge about professional mental health services were associated with TPB variables, and all of the TPB variables we examined predicted intention to seek help.N

Experience in Close Relationships Scale-Short Version (ECR-S) Validation With Korean College Students

The goal of this study was to validate the Experience in Close Relationships Scale-Short version (ECR-S) in Korean college students. One item of the attachment avoidance subscale was deleted following confirmatory factor analysis. The results suggest that the ECR-S demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and construct validity.N

Electron Parallel Transport for Arbitrary Collisionality

Integral (nonlocal) closures [J.-Y. Ji and E. D. Held, Phys. Plasmas 21, 122116 (2014)] are combined with the momentum balance equation to derive electron parallel transport relations. For a single harmonic fluctuation, the relations take the same form as the classical Spitzer theory (with possible additional terms): the electric current and heat flux densities are connected to the modified electric field and temperature gradient by transport coefficients. In contrast to the classical theory, the dimensionless coefficients depend on the collisionality quantified by a Knudsen number, the ratio of the collision length to the angular wavelength. The key difference comes from the proper treatment of the viscosity and friction terms in the momentum balance equation, accurately reflecting the free streaming and collision terms in the kinetic equation. For an arbitrary fluctuation, the transport relations may be expressed by a Fourier series or transform. For low collisionality, the electric resistivity can be significantly larger than that of classical theory and may predict the correct timescale for fast magnetic reconnection

PD-1 deficiency protects experimental colitis via alteration of gut microbiota

Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) is a coinhibitory molecule and plays a pivotal role in immune regulation. Here, we demonstrate a role for PD-1 in pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Wild-type (WT) mice had severe wasting disease during experimentally induced colitis, while mice deficient for PD-1 (PD-1(-/-)) did not develop colon inflammation. Interestingly, PD-1(-/-) mice cohoused with WT mice became susceptible to colitis, suggesting that resistance of PD-1(-/-) mice to colitis is dependent on their gut microbiota. 16S rRNA gene-pyrosequencing analysis showed that PD-1(-/-) mice had altered composition of gut microbiota with significant reduction in Rikenellaceae family. These altered colon bacteria of PD-1(-/-) mice induced less amount of inflammatory mediators from colon epithelial cells, including interleukin (IL)-6, and inflammatory chemokines. Taken together, our study indicates that PD-1 expression is involved in the resistance to experimental colitis through altered bacterial communities of colon.112Ysciescopuskc

Study on Personal Characteristics and Emotional Affordances through User Activity Analysis

Design methodology should address psychological and cognitive aspects based on human emotion and feeling as well as physical and functional aspects based on product structure. Donald Norman introduced perceived affordances as characteristics in the appearance of an object that gives clues for its proper operations. We conducted a case study in a public space - building lobby - used by many general people. User activities and behaviors were analyzed in several specific tasks given to twenty participants with similar cultural background in the lobby of a building they have never been to before. Then we identified affordances and building structure elements, called affordance features, critically related to those affordances. While performing the tasks in the same building lobby, user activities can be classified into several different groups for each task based on affordance features involved in their activities. These user activity differences are then compared with their personal cognitive characteristics derived from their perception and judgment preferences using intuitive and factual perception orientation and objective and subjective decision making inclination respectively. For user of less common activities for some tasks, personal cognitive characteristics have been identified. This study could help in affordance-based design so that alternative affordance features are designed considering diverse user cognitive characteristics

The discovery and characterization of tungsten insertase in tungsten cofactor biosynthesis

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