Testing Makes Us Stronger™: Evaluating the correlation between exposure and intermediate outcomes targeted by the campaign's messages.

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether self-reported exposure to Testing Makes Us Stronger™ (TMUS), an HIV testing health communication campaign for black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (BMSM), was associated with key intermediate outcomes targeted by the campaign's messages. METHODS: Data from sexually active, HIV-negative or unknown status BMSM aged 18-44 (N = 590) were collected through an anonymous Web-based survey that measured sociodemographics, campaign exposure, attitudinal beliefs, normative beliefs, self-efficacy, and HIV testing intentions, among other variables. The association between exposure to TMUS and intermediate outcomes was evaluated using propensity-score weight adjusted correlations. RESULTS: Exposure to TMUS was high (43%) among the priority audience. Exposure to the campaign was correlated with 8 of 11 intermediate outcomes measured, including key attitudinal beliefs about the accessibility of the test and benefits to the individual, injunctive norms, self-efficacy, and HIV testing intention. CONCLUSION: Adhering to principles of effective campaign design, such as using theory as a conceptual foundation for message design, can increase a campaign's chances for successfully meeting its goals and objectives. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Findings from this study can be used to inform message design for other communication efforts to promote HIV testing among BMSM.

Predicting age groups of Twitter users based on language and metadata features.

Health organizations are increasingly using social media, such as Twitter, to disseminate health messages to target audiences. Determining the extent to which the target audience (e.g., age groups) was reached is critical to evaluating the impact of social media education campaigns. The main objective of this study was to examine the separate and joint predictive validity of linguistic and metadata features in predicting the age of Twitter users. We created a labeled dataset of Twitter users across different age groups (youth, young adults, adults) by collecting publicly available birthday announcement tweets using the Twitter Search application programming interface. We manually reviewed results and, for each age-labeled handle, collected the 200 most recent publicly available tweets and user handles' metadata. The labeled data were split into training and test datasets. We created separate models to examine the predictive validity of language features only, metadata features only, language and metadata features, and words/phrases from another age-validated dataset. We estimated accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 metrics for each model. An L1-regularized logistic regression model was conducted for each age group, and predicted probabilities between the training and test sets were compared for each age group. Cohen's d effect sizes were calculated to examine the relative importance of significant features. Models containing both Tweet language features and metadata features performed the best (74% precision, 74% recall, 74% F1) while the model containing only Twitter metadata features were least accurate (58% precision, 60% recall, and 57% F1 score). Top predictive features included use of terms such as "school" for youth and "college" for young adults. Overall, it was more challenging to predict older adults accurately. These results suggest that examining linguistic and Twitter metadata features to predict youth and young adult Twitter users may be helpful for informing public health surveillance and evaluation research.

CDC'S Testing Makes Us Stronger (TMUS) Campaign: Was Campaign Exposure Associated With HIV Testing Behavior Among Black Gay and Bisexual Men?

This study assessed exposure among Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (BMSM) to a communication campaign, Testing Makes Us Stronger (TMUS), and its association with HIV testing to determine campaign effectiveness. Data from an online survey (N = 3,105) were analyzed using propensity score weight-adjusted logistic regression to examine the effect of exposure on HIV testing. Among BMSM aged 18-44 (n = 702), 43.2% reported TMUS exposure. The majority of those exposed were aged 25-34 (54%), HIV-negative (65%), and had some college education (87%). TMUS exposure was associated with reported increased HIV testing behaviors at 6- and 12-month frequencies. Communication campaigns with clear implementation strategies, focused objectives, and online and event presence can be associated with longer-term outcomes such as HIV testing.

Effect of Δ9-stearoyl-ACP-desaturase-C mutants in a high oleic background on soybean seed oil composition.

KEY MESSAGE: Two new sources of elevated seed stearic acid were identified and the feasibility of an elevated stearic acid, high oleic acid germplasm was studied. Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] oil typically contains 2-4% stearic acid. Oil with at least 20% stearic acid is desirable because of its improved baking properties and health profile. This study identifies two new sources of high stearic acid and evaluates the interaction of high stearic and oleic acid alleles. TCHM08-1087 and TCHM08-755, high stearic acid 'Holladay' mutants, were crossed to FAM94-41-3, a line containing a point mutation in a seed-specific isoform of a Δ9-stearoyl-acyl carrier protein-desaturase (SACPD-C). F2-derived lines were evaluated for fatty acid content in four field environments. Sequencing of SACPDs in TCHM08-1087 and TCHM08-755 revealed distinct deletions of at least one megabase encompassing SACPD-C in both lines. After genotyping, the additive effect for stearic acid was estimated at +1.8% for the SACPD-C point mutation and +4.1% for the SACPD-C deletions. Average stearic acid in lines homozygous for the deletions was 12.2%. A FAM94-41-3-derived line and TCHM08-1087-11, a selection from TCHM08-1087, were crossed to S09-2902-145, a line containing missense mutations in two fatty acid desaturases (FAD2-1A and FAD2-1B). F1 plants were grown in a greenhouse and individual F2 seed were genotyped and phenotyped. No interaction was observed between either FAD2-1A or FAD2-1B and any of the SACPD-C mutant alleles. Seed homozygous mutant for SACPD-C/FAD2-1A/FAD2-1B contained 12.7% stearic acid and 65.5% oleic acid while seed homozygous for the SACPD-C deletion and mutant for FAD2-1A and FAD2-1B averaged 10.4% stearic acid and 75.9% oleic acid.

Effect of a novel mutation in a Δ9-stearoyl-ACP-desaturase on soybean seed oil composition.

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] oil typically contains 2-4% stearic acid. Seed oil with 20% stearic acid would be useful for solid fat applications, both for its cooking properties and health benefits. Breeding lines with high stearic acid have been developed, but many suffer from agronomic problems. This study identifies a new source of high stearic acid, determines its relationship with another high stearic locus and presents molecular markers for it is use in breeding. TCJWB03-806-7-19, a 'Holladay' mutant with high stearic acid, was crossed to two FAM94-41-derived lines that contained a point mutation in a seed-specific isoform of a Δ9-stearoyl-acyl carrier protein-desaturase (SACPD-C). Fatty acid analysis was performed over two growing seasons with F(2)-derived lines and transgressive segregation for stearic acid content was observed. Sequencing of SACPD isoforms in TCJWB03-806-7-19 revealed the deletion of an 'A' nucleotide in exon 3 of SACPD-B, which results in a protein whose final 28 amino acids are predicted to differ from Williams 82 SACPD-B. Sorting intolerant from tolerant (SIFT) analysis revealed that this frameshift mutation may affect SACPD-B protein function. Allele-specific genotyping for the SACPD-C point mutation and SACPD-B nucleotide deletion was performed in both populations. Additive effects and R(2) for stearic acid were +3.3 and 0.55 for SACPD-C and +1.9 and 0.19 for SACPD-B. Average stearic acid in lines homozygous for both mutations was 14.6%. This SACPD-B mutation represents a novel high stearic allele.