The effect of information provision on consumers' risk perceptions of, support for a ban, and behavioral intention towards the preventive use of antibiotics in food animals.

BACKGROUND: Antibiotics have been widely used in feed and drinking water for food animals to prevent them from getting sick. Such preventive use of antibiotics has become a contributor to increasing antibiotic resistance and thus poses threats to human health. However, consumers have little knowledge about this practice and the associated health risks of increasing transmission of antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistant bacteria. This study aimed to examine the effect of information provision on consumers' risk perceptions, support for a ban, and behavioral intention regarding the preventive use of antibiotics in food animals. Especially, the study sought to test two competing hypotheses which were informed by two theoretical perspectives of fear appeal theory - the linear model and the plateau effect model. The former suggested that providing information on the health risks of both antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistant bacteria would have a stronger effect compared to providing information on only one of them, while the latter posited that providing information on both risks might not have additional influence, as the effect of information on either risk could reach the plateau. METHODS: An experimental study with four conditions was conducted where participants read different information on the health risks associated with the preventive use first and then answered questions regarding consumers' risk perceptions, support for a ban, and behavioral intention regarding the preventive use. Condition 1 was the control condition, where basic information about antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, and the preventive use was provided. Condition 2 and Condition 3 further added information on the health risk of antibiotic residues (Condition 2) and antibiotic resistant bacteria (Condition 3) due to the preventive use, respectively. Condition 4 provided all information contained in the first three conditions. RESULTS: The results showed that compared to participants in the control condition, participants in Conditions 2-4 reported higher risk perceptions, stronger support for a ban on the preventive use, and a higher intention to buy meat produced without the preventive use of antibiotics. However, there were no significant differences in these factors between Conditions 2-4, indicating that providing information on the health risk of either antibiotic residues, or antibiotic resistant bacteria, or both, has similar effect on these variables. That is, the hypothesis based on the plateau effect model was supported. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggested that informing the public with the health risk of either antibiotic residues or antibiotic resistant bacteria associated with the preventive use is effective enough to reach plateau effect in increasing risk perceptions, support for a ban, and behavioral intention, which has important implications for policymakers and livestock industries to develop effective communication strategies to promote responsible antibiotic use in food animals.

Robust method to probe the topological charge of a Bessel beam by dynamic angular double slits.

Precisely determining the topological charge (TC) of both integral Bessel beams (IBB) and fractional Bessel beams (FBB) is a key issue for their applications. However, most of the common methods could not probe both the IBB and FBB precisely and robustly. In this paper, we present a robust method to probe the topological charge of a Bessel beam by dynamic angular double slits (ADSs). We find that when a Bessel beam vertically illuminates on a dynamic ADS, the information of the TC can be retrieved from its Fourier transform patterns near the optical axis. Even though there is a small misalignment between the center of the beams and the ADS, the global variation tendency is still good enough to obtain the TC. Based on these properties, the dynamic ADS device combining the method of fitting the experimental data can be used to measure the TC of any Bessel light beam precisely and robustly. The error is less than 2% without the misalignment and is less than 6% with a small misalignment for our experimental data. This method paves a new way to measure the TC of vortex beams.

Protecting public's wellbeing against COVID-19 infodemic: The role of trust in information sources and rapid dissemination and transparency of information over time.

Objectives: This study examined how trust in the information about COVID-19 from social media and official media as well as how the information was disseminated affect public's wellbeing directly and indirectly through perceived safety over time. Methods: Two online surveys were conducted in China, with the first survey (Time1, N = 22,718) being at the early stage of the pandemic outbreak and the second one (Time 2, N = 2,901) two and a half years later during the zero-COVID policy lockdown period. Key measured variables include trust in official media and social media, perceived rapid dissemination and transparency of COVID-19-related information, perceived safety, and emotional responses toward the pandemic. Data analysis includes descriptive statistical analysis, independent samples t-test, Pearson correlations, and structural equation modeling. Results: Trust in official media, perceived rapid dissemination and transparency of COVID-19-related information, perceived safety, as well as positive emotional response toward COVID-19 increased over time, while trust in social media and depressive response decreased over time. Trust in social media and official media played different roles in affecting public's wellbeing over time. Trust in social media was positively associated with depressive emotions and negatively associated with positive emotion directly and indirectly through decreased perceived safety at Time 1. However, the negative effect of trust in social media on public's wellbeing was largely decreased at Time 2. In contrast, trust in official media was linked to reduced depressive response and increased positive response directly and indirectly through perceived safety at both times. Rapid dissemination and transparency of COVID-19 information contributed to enhanced trust in official media at both times. Conclusion: The findings highlight the important role of fostering public trust in official media through rapid dissemination and transparency of information in mitigating the negative impact of COVID-19 infodemic on public's wellbeing over time.

The efficacy of upfront craniocerebral radiotherapy and epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor-positive non-small cell lung cancer with brain metastases.

The present study aims to investigate the therapeutic value of third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) combined with cranial radiotherapy (RT) in patients with EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and brain metastases (BMs). Methodology: This is a retrospective study that involved 213 patients with EGFR-NSCLC and BMs, with the patients divided into two groups: the upfront cranial RT (ucRT) group (n = 96) and the non-ucRT group (n = 117). All patients were administered with osimertinib, and those in the ucRT group also underwent RT. The overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and intracranial PFS (IPFS) of the two groups were compared. Results: The ucRT group manifested a markedly higher IPFS than the non-ucRT group (29.65 months vs 21.8 months; P < 0.0001). The subgroup analysis revealed that patients with oligometastases (OLOGO-BMs; 1-3 BMs) demonstrated a notably longer OS (44.5 months vs 37.3 months; P < 0.0001), PFS (32.3 months vs 20.8 months; P = 0.6884) and IPFS (37.8 months vs 22.1 months; P < 0.0001) in the ucRT group than in the non-ucRT group. However, for patients with multiple BMs, there was no significant difference in OS (27.3 months vs 34.4 months; P = 0.0710) and PFS (13.7 months vs 13.2 months; P = 0.0516) between the ucRT group and the non-ucRT group; the ucRT group exhibited a higher IPFS (26.4 months vs 21.35 months; P = 0.0028). Cox's multivariate analysis of patients with OLOGO-BM indicated that the use of ucRT was linked to a better OS (heart rate [HR] = 0.392; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.178-0.863; P = 0.020) and PFS (HR = 0.558; 95% CI: 0.316-0.986; P = 0.044). Conclusion: Upfront cerebral cranial stereotactic radiosurgery can improve outcomes in EGFR-positive patients with NSCLC and OLOGO-BM. However, for patients with multiple BMs, the preferable strategy may be pre-treatment with EGFR-TKIs.

Measuring the Topological Charge of Orbital Angular Momentum Beams by Utilizing Weak Measurement Principle.

According to the principle of weak measurement, when coupling the orbital angular momentum (OAM) state with a well-defined pre-selected and post-selected system of a weak measurement process, there will be an indirect coupling between position and topological charge (TC) of OAM state. Based on this we propose an experiment scheme and experimentally measure the TC of OAM beams from -14 to 14 according to the weak measurement principle. After the experiment the intrinsic OAM of the beams changed very little. Weak measurement, Topological Charge, OAM beams.

GhEIN3, a cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) homologue of AtEIN3, is involved in regulation of plant salinity tolerance.

Ethylene insensitive 3 (EIN3), a key transcription factor in ethylene signal transduction, play important roles in plant stress signaling pathways. In this study, we isolated and characterized an EIN3-like gene from cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), designated as GhEIN3. GhEIN3 is highly expressed in vegetative tissues, and its expression is induced by 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) and NaCl. Ectopic expression of GhEIN3 in Arabidopsis elevated plants' response to ethylene, which exhibit smaller leaves, more root hairs, shorter roots and hypocotyls. The germination rate, survival rate and root length of GhEIN3 transgenic plants were significantly improved compared to wild type under salt stress. GhEIN3 transgenic plants accumulated less H2O2 and malondialdehyde (MDA), while higher superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities were detected under salt stress. In addition, expression of several genes related to reactive oxygen species (ROS) pathway and ABA signaling pathway was increased in the GhEIN3 transgenic plants under salt stress. In contrast, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of GhEIN3 in cotton enhanced the sensitivity of transgenic plants to salt stress, accumulating higher H2O2 and MDA and lower SOD and POD activities compared to control plants. Collectively, our results revealed that GhEIN3 might be involved in the regulation of plant response to salt stress by regulating ABA and ROS pathway during plant growth and development.