Personal Involvement Moderates Message Framing Effects on Food Safety Education among Medical University Students in Chongqing, China.

This study explored whether the efficacy of food safety education interventions can be increased by message framing among medical university students, and demonstrated the role of personal involvement within the message recipient in moderating framed effects. A cross-sectional study of food safety message framing was conducted among medical university students (randomly selected 1353 participants). An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information. Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Ordered multivariate logistic regression were utilised in the data analyses. The present study showed significant differences in acceptance between the gain- and loss-framed groups ( < 0.001). Participants with higher personal involvement had higher acceptance than those with low personal involvement in gain- and loss-framed message models ( < 0.001). The acceptance of participants who were concerned about their health condition was higher than those who were neutral regarding their health condition ( < 0.001) and participants who suffered a food safety incident had higher acceptance than those who did not ( < 0.05). This study portrayed the selection preference of message framing on food safety education among medical university students in southwest China. Participants exposed to loss-framed messages had higher message acceptance than those exposed to gain-framed messages. Personal involvement may affect the food safety message framing. Public health advocates and professionals can use framed messages as a strategy to enhance intervention efficacy in the process of food safety education

Observing exoplanets with the JWST NIRCam grisms

The near-infrared camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will incorporate 2 identical grisms in each of its 2 long wavelength channels. These transmission gratings have been added to assist with the coarse phasing of the JWST telescope, but they will also be used for slitless wide-field scientific observations over selectable regions of the λ = 2.4 − 5.0 μm wavelength range at spectroscopic resolution R ≡ λ/δλ ≃ 2000. We describe the grism design details and their expected performance in NIRCam. The grisms will provide point-source continuum sensitivity of approximately AB = 23 mag in 10,000 s exposures with S/N = 5 when binned to R = 1000. This is approximately a factor of 3 worse than expected for the JWST NIRSpec instrument, but the NIRCam grisms provide better spatial resolution, better spectrophotometric precision, and complete field coverage. The grisms will be especially useful for high precision spectrophotometric observations of transiting exoplanets. We expect that R = 500 spectra of the primary transits and secondary eclipses of Jupiter-sized exoplanets can be acquired at moderate or high signal-to-noise for stars as faint as M = 10 − 12 mag in 1000 s of integration time, and even bright stars (V = 5 mag) should be observable without saturation. We also discuss briefly how these observations will open up new areas of exoplanet science and suggest other unique scientific applications of the grisms

Evidence for Transgenerational Transmission of Epigenetic Tumor Susceptibility in Drosophila

Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance results from incomplete erasure of parental epigenetic marks during epigenetic reprogramming at fertilization. The significance of this phenomenon, and the mechanism by which it occurs, remains obscure. Here, we show that genetic mutations in Drosophila may cause epigenetic alterations that, when inherited, influence tumor susceptibility of the offspring. We found that many of the mutations that affected tumorigenesis induced by a hyperactive JAK kinase, HopTum-l, also modified the tumor phenotype epigenetically, such that the modification persisted even in the offspring that did not inherit the modifier mutation. We analyzed mutations of the transcription repressor Krüppel (Kr), which is one of the hopTum-l enhancers known to affect ftz transcription. We demonstrate that the Kr mutation causes increased DNA methylation in the ftz promoter region, and that the aberrant ftz transcription and promoter methylation are both transgenerationally heritable if HopTum-l is present in the oocyte. These results suggest that genetic mutations may alter epigenetic markings in the form of DNA methylation, which are normally erased early in the next generation, and that JAK overactivation disrupts epigenetic reprogramming and allows inheritance of epimutations that influence tumorigenesis in future generations

Effects of Goal-Framed Messages on Mental Health Education Among Medical University Students: Moderating Role of Personal Involvement.

Mental health problem among university students is an emerging public health issue, and mental health education has always been the focus of attention for universities. However, limited attention has been paid to the effect of students' acceptance of health messages. Previous studies have found that message framing plays a key role in the process of responding to health-promoting messages. In this backdrop, the study aimed to examine the effects of goal-framed messages on mental health education among medical university students and investigate the moderating role of personal involvement. A cross-sectional study was conducted on medical university students. An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Wilcoxon rank-sum test and ordinal logistic regression were used for data analysis. Results showed significant differences in message acceptance between the gain- and loss-framed groups ( < 0.001). Participants with high personal involvement had higher message acceptance than those with low personal involvement in gain- and loss-framed message models ( < 0.05). Specifically, participants who related to roommates with high intimacy had higher message acceptance than those who related to roommates generally ( < 0.05). Participants who were concerned about their health condition had higher message acceptance than those who were neutral about their health condition ( < 0.001). Evidence of advantages of gain- over loss-framed messages on mental health among medical university students was found. The hypothesis that personal involvement with a health issue affects the acceptance of message framing was supported. Public health advocates can use framed message as a strategy to improve the efficacy of intervention in mental health education

Driving forces and impacts of food system nitrogen flows in China, 1990 to 2012

Food nitrogen (N), which includes animal-food (AN) and plant-food N (PN), has been driven by population growth (PG), dietary changes associated with incomegrowth (DC) andrural-urban migration (M) over the past three decades, andthese changes combined with theirNcost, have caused some effect onNuse in China's food system. Although there is an increasing literature on food N and its environmental impacts in China, the relative magnitude of these driving forces are notwell understood. Here we first quantify the differences in per capita AN and PNconsumption in urban and rural areas and their impacts on N input to the food system during 1990–2012, and then quantify the relative contributions of DC, PG andMin the overall N change during this period. Our results show that a resident registered as living in city required 0.5 kg more AN yr−1 and 0.5 kg less PN yr−1 than one living in a rural area, in 2012. DC, PG and M accounted for 52%, 31% and 17% of the total AN increase, respectively. These three factors caused 46% of the increased N use for food production over the past two decades. Another 54% was mainly caused by the declining in N use efficiencies of the food system. Foodsourced N loss intensity in urban and rural areas were 502 and 162 kg N hm−2 in 2012, a three-fold difference due to the increasing amount and a linear rural-urbanflowofNinput, and inadequateNrecovery via solid waste and wastewater treatment in cities. Our study highlights China is facing higher risks of environmental N pollution with urbanization, because of the high demand for AN and higher food-sourced N loss intensity in urban than in rural areasThis manuscript is based on the several projects, sponsored by the National Basic Research Program of China (2014CB953801), the Young Talents Projects of the Institute of Urban Environment, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IUEMS201402) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31500391)

Effects of Different Inducers on Higher Alcohol Dehydrogenase from Galactomyces geotrichum

The inducers of the chemical or physical factors could affect the gene expression and transcription of strain directly or indirectly. In order to explore the inductive effect of higher alcohol on Galactomyces geotrichum, the G. geotrichum S12, derived from the soil, was induced by five higher alcohols, including n-propanol, n-butanol, isobutanol, n-hexanol and isoamyl alcohol. The effects of induction dose and induction time for degradation activity of different higher alcohols by strain S12 and its transforming enzyme were studied. The results showed that the enzyme activity formed by strain S12 was higher when the inducers were chosen as n-hexanol and isobutanol. The optimum induction time was 6 h when n-propanol, n-butanol, isobutanol and n-hexanol were used as inducers. While the optimum induction time of strain S12 and enzyme induced by isoamyl alcohol was 12 h. When n-propanol and n-hexanol were used as inducers, the optimal concentration was 1.5 g/L. While the optimal concentrations of strain S12 and enzyme induced by n-butanol, isobutanol and isoamyl alcohol were 1.0, 0.5 and 2.5 g/L, respectively. The results of native polyacryplamide gel electrophoresis (Native-PAGE) indicated that dehydrogenase formation, molecular weight about 223 kDa, was induced by five higher alcohols. In particular, the strain, induced by hexanol, had much higher capability in degrading five higher alcohols at the same time. The products of the above five higher alcohols after catalyzing by G. geotrichum S12 induced by hexanol were their corresponding acids and esters

Observing exoplanets with the JWST NIRCam grisms

The near-infrared camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will incorporate 2 identical grisms in each of its 2 long wavelength channels. These transmission gratings have been added to assist with the coarse phasing of the JWST telescope, but they will also be used for slitless wide-field scientific observations over selectable regions of the λ = 2.4 − 5.0 μm wavelength range at spectroscopic resolution R ≡ λ/δλ ≃ 2000. We describe the grism design details and their expected performance in NIRCam. The grisms will provide point-source continuum sensitivity of approximately AB = 23 mag in 10,000 s exposures with S/N = 5 when binned to R = 1000. This is approximately a factor of 3 worse than expected for the JWST NIRSpec instrument, but the NIRCam grisms provide better spatial resolution, better spectrophotometric precision, and complete field coverage. The grisms will be especially useful for high precision spectrophotometric observations of transiting exoplanets. We expect that R = 500 spectra of the primary transits and secondary eclipses of Jupiter-sized exoplanets can be acquired at moderate or high signal-to-noise for stars as faint as M = 10 − 12 mag in 1000 s of integration time, and even bright stars (V = 5 mag) should be observable without saturation. We also discuss briefly how these observations will open up new areas of exoplanet science and suggest other unique scientific applications of the grisms

Assessing the Environmental Impact and Cost of the Tourism-Induced CO2, NOx, SOx Emission in China

Tourism, as one economic activity, results in a full range of environmental impacts globally as well as in China. However, the evaluation of environmental impacts is insufficient because of the strong correlation effect between tourism and other industries. This study attempted to assess the environmental impact and cost of the tourism-induced pollutant emissions (in a broad sense) at the national scale through constructing the environmental-economic input-output model. Our results suggested that the China&rsquo;s total emission of CO2, NOx, SOx related to tourism industry increased from 42 &times; 106 t, 162 kt, 345 kt in 1995 to 157 &times; 106 t, 527 kt, 854 kt in 2009. The indirect CO2, NOx, and SOx emissions of tourism and related industries were nearly 6.8&ndash;11 times of their direct emission in travel agency. Most of these indirect emissions (73% of CO2 in 2009, 54% of NOx in 1995, 62% of SOx in 2009) are derived from the energy plants and industrial sectors. The sustainable tourism should largely depend on the realization of sustainable mobility and transportation, through the low-emission behavior and energy-saving technology. The emission reduction cost of tourism industry in China was 30,170 and 172,812 million CNY in 1995 and 2009, accounting for nearly 14% of the total tourism revenue

Assessing the Environmental Impact and Cost of the Tourism-Induced CO₂, NO_x, SO_x Emission in China

Tourism, as one economic activity, results in a full range of environmental impacts globally as well as in China. However, the evaluation of environmental impacts is insufficient because of the strong correlation effect between tourism and other industries. This study attempted to assess the environmental impact and cost of the tourism-induced pollutant emissions (in a broad sense) at the national scale through constructing the environmental-economic input-output model. Our results suggested that the China’s total emission of CO2, NOx, SOx related to tourism industry increased from 42 × 106 t, 162 kt, 345 kt in 1995 to 157 × 106 t, 527 kt, 854 kt in 2009. The indirect CO2, NOx, and SOx emissions of tourism and related industries were nearly 6.8–11 times of their direct emission in travel agency. Most of these indirect emissions (73% of CO2 in 2009, 54% of NOx in 1995, 62% of SOx in 2009) are derived from the energy plants and industrial sectors. The sustainable tourism should largely depend on the realization of sustainable mobility and transportation, through the low-emission behavior and energy-saving technology. The emission reduction cost of tourism industry in China was 30,170 and 172,812 million CNY in 1995 and 2009, accounting for nearly 14% of the total tourism revenue