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AbstractObjectiveTo assess the epidemiological evidence on the joint effects of climate variability and socioecological factors on dengue transmission.MethodsFollowing PRISMA guidelines, a detailed literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus. Peer‐reviewed, freely available and full‐text articles, considering both climate and socioecological factors in relation to dengue, published in English from January 1993 to October 2015 were included in this review.ResultsTwenty studies have met the inclusion criteria and assessed the impact of both climatic and socioecological factors on dengue dynamics. Among those, four studies have further investigated the relative importance of climate variability and socioecological factors on dengue transmission. A few studies also developed predictive models including both climatic and socioecological factors.ConclusionsDue to insufficient data, methodological issues and contextual variability of the studies, it is hard to draw conclusion on the joint effects of climate variability and socioecological factors on dengue transmission. Future research should take into account socioecological factors in combination with climate variables for a better understanding of the complex nature of dengue transmission as well as for improving the predictive capability of dengue forecasting models, to develop effective and reliable early warning systems.

Light is one of the most important energy sources and signals providing critical information to biological systems. The photoreceptor rhodopsin, which possesses retinal chromophore (vitamin A aldehyde) surrounded by seven transmembrane alpha-helices, is widely dispersed in prokaryotes and in eukaryotes. Although rhodopsin molecules work as distinctly different photoreceptors, they can be divided according to their two basic functions such as light-energy conversion and light-signal transduction. Thus rhodopsin molecules have great potential for controlling cellular activity by light. Indeed, a light-energy converter channel rhodopsin is used to control neural activity. From 2001, we have been working on various microbial sensory rhodopsins functioning as light-signal converters. In this review, we will introduce rhodopsin molecules from microbes, and will describe artificial and light-dependent protein expression system in Escherichia coli using Anabeana sensory rhodopsin (ASR). The newly developed tools would be widely useful for life scientists.

The potential impacts of climate-induced changes in air pollution levels and its impacts on population health were investigated. The IPCC scenario (SRES A2) was used to analyse the effects of climate on future PM10 concentrations over Portugal and their impact on short-term population exposure and mortality. The air quality modelling system has been applied with high spatial resolution looking on climate changes at regional scale. To quantify health impacts related to air pollution changes, the WHO methodology for health impact assessment was implemented. The results point to 8% increase of premature mortality attributed to future PM10 levels in Portugal. The pollution episodes with daily average PM10 concentration above the current legislated value (50 μg·m−3) would be responsible for 81% of attributable cases. The absolute number of deaths attributable to PM10 under future climate emphasizes the importance of indirect effects of climate change on human health.

Abstract The growth and development of maize (Zea mays L.) largely depends on its nutrient uptake through the root. Hence, studying its growth, response, and associated metabolic reprogramming to stress conditions is becoming an important research direction. A genome-scale metabolic model (GSM) for the maize root was developed to study its metabolic reprogramming under nitrogen stress conditions. The model was reconstructed based on the available information from KEGG, UniProt, and MaizeCyc. Transcriptomics data derived from the roots of hydroponically grown maize plants were used to incorporate regulatory constraints in the model and simulate nitrogen-non-limiting (N+) and nitrogen-deficient (N−) condition. Model-predicted flux-sum variability analysis achieved 70% accuracy compared with the experimental change of metabolite levels. In addition to predicting important metabolic reprogramming in central carbon, fatty acid, amino acid, and other secondary metabolism, maize root GSM predicted several metabolites (l-methionine, l-asparagine, l-lysine, cholesterol, and l-pipecolate) playing a regulatory role in the root biomass growth. Furthermore, this study revealed eight phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol metabolites which, even though not coupled with biomass production, played a key role in the increased biomass production under N-deficient conditions. Overall, the omics-integrated GSM provides a promising tool to facilitate stress condition analysis for maize root and engineer better stress-tolerant maize genotypes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, educational mobile games may play a significant role to facilitate students’ learning. Several studies have indicated that these games using mobile phones may improve students’ learning motivation and effectiveness when they are equipped with appropriate learning strategies. However, investigating the impact of learning strategies in students’ utilization of educational mobile games has received little scholarly attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, this research proposed two learning games scenarios to fill this gap. In the first scenario, students were offered an educational mobile game with a learning strategy called ‘scaffolding strategy’; while in the second scenario, the same game was offered without the strategy. To achieve this objective, an experimental design with a research model was developed to examine the role of scaffolding learning strategy in students’ use of educational mobile games. In this experimental study, 43 students from two classes participated in the two learning scenarios. The results indicate that educational mobile gaming with the scaffolding learning strategy significantly influenced students’ utilization of the mobile game. In addition, the adoption of the learning strategy significantly affected students’ perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioural intention to use, compared with the same game without the learning strategy. The results also indicate that the introduction of the scaffolding learning strategy into the educational mobile game will increase students’ learning effectiveness and motivation.

Prenatal alcohol use is a threat to healthy pregnancy outcomes for many U.S. women. During 1999, approximately 500,000 pregnant women reported having one or more drinks during the preceding month, and approximately 130,000 reported having seven or more alcohol drinks per week or engaging in binge drinking (i.e., five or more drinks in a day). These heavier drinking patterns have been associated with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorders (ARND). Lower levels of alcohol consumption (i.e., fewer than seven drinks per week) also have been associated with measurable effects on children's development and behavior. Although the majority of women reduce their alcohol use substantially when they realize they are pregnant, a large proportion do not realize they are pregnant until well into the first trimester and, therefore, might continue to drink alcohol during this critical period of fetal development. To reduce alcohol-exposed pregnancies, CDC initiated a multisite pilot study (phase I clinical trial) in 1997 to investigate the use of a dual intervention focused on both alcohol-use reduction and effective contraception among childbearing-aged women at high risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy (Project CHOICES). This report describes the association between baseline drinking measures and the success women have achieved in reducing their risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy. The analysis compares the impact of the motivational intervention at 6-month follow-up on women drinking at high-, medium-, and low-risk drinking levels. The findings indicate that although 69% of the women in the study reduced their risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy, women with the lowest baseline drinking measures achieved the highest rates of outcome success, primarily by choosing effective contraception and, secondarily, by reducing alcohol use. Women with higher baseline drinking measures chose both approaches equally but achieved lower success rates for reducing their risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy. A randomized controlled trial of the motivational intervention is under way to further investigate outcomes of the phase I study.

“Low expectation of success” is proposed as a factor in relation to problem behavior in the comprehensive theoretical model of problem behavior (CTMPB). Based on the framework of CTMPB, this study aimed to further examine the association between confidence in the future (including parental confidence in the adolescent future and adolescent self-confidence in the future in this study) and problem behavior. A nationwide representative sample data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) were used in this study. A total of 8328 middle school students and their parents were included. Among the students, 4081 (49.0%) were boys, the mean age was 14.53 years (SD = 0.70); among the parents, 3908 (46.9%) were male, the mean age was 41.15 years (SD = 5.14). The results reveal that parental confidence in adolescent future (PCAF) can play a role in adolescent problem behavior through adolescent perceived parental confidence in adolescent future (APPCAF) and adolescent self-confidence in the future (ASF). Low levels of both PCAF and ASF are vulnerability risk factors in adolescent problem behavior. Lowering PCAF and ASF might increase the likelihood of engaging in problem behavior. However, this study was based on cross-sectional data only and is required to be supported by further experimental or longitudinal studies.