HIV-1 Gag-specific immunity induced by a lentivector-based vaccine directed to dendritic cells

Lentivectors (LVs) have attracted considerable interest for their potential as a vaccine delivery vehicle. In this study, we evaluate in mice a dendritic cell (DC)-directed LV system encoding the Gag protein of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (LV-Gag) as a potential vaccine for inducing an anti-HIV immune response. The DC-directed specificity is achieved through pseudotyping the vector with an engineered Sindbis virus glycoprotein capable of selectively binding to the DC-SIGN protein. A single immunization by this vector induces a durable HIV Gag-specific immune response. We investigated the antigen-specific immunity and T-cell memory generated by a prime/boost vaccine regimen delivered by either successive LV-Gag injections or a DNA prime/LV-Gag boost protocol. We found that both prime/boost regimens significantly enhance cellular and humoral immune responses. Importantly, a heterologous DNA prime/LV-Gag boost regimen results in superior Gag-specific T-cell responses as compared with a DNA prime/adenovector boost immunization. It induces not only a higher magnitude response, as measured by Gag-specific tetramer analysis and intracellular IFN-γ staining, but also a better quality of response evidenced by a wider mix of cytokines produced by the Gag-specific CD8^+ and CD4^+ T cells. A boosting immunization with LV-Gag also generates T cells reactive to a broader range of Gag-derived epitopes. These results demonstrate that this DC-directed LV immunization is a potent modality for eliciting anti-HIV immune responses

Inicjatywa „Belt and Road” oraz transformacja globalizacji

Globalisation contributed to the economic, social, political and cultural development of the deve- loped and developing countries. At the same time, it had an adverse effect, which is in-creasing disparity of income between various social groups and countries. The continuation of such process will lead to the weakening of globalisation, so there is a need to transform globalisation. According to the Author, the initiative of China, entitled: New Belt and New Road is an example of such actions and will contribute to giving new impetus to the process of globalisation in the future.Globalizacja przyczyniła się do ekonomicznego, socjalnego, politycznego i kulturalnego rozwoju krajów rozwiniętych i rozwijających się. Jednocześnie przyniosła negatywny efekt, jakim jest pogłębianie się dysparytetu dochodów pomiędzy różnymi grupami społecznymi i krajami. Kontynuacja takiego procesu będzie prowadzić do osłabienia globalizacji, dlatego potrzebna jest transformacja globalizacji. Zdaniem autora, inicjatywa Chin pn. New Belt and New Road, jest przykładem takiego działania i przyczyni się do nadania nowego impulsu procesowi globalizacji w przyszłości

New urbanisation under globalisation and the social implications in China

China launched a new urbanisation programme for the period of 2014–2020. The new urbanisation programme will produce positive impacts on China’s social and economic development through focusing on integrated urban and rural development, creating city clusters and promoting sustainable urban development. However, the new urbanisation programme may also bring some new social and economic problems, like widening the gap in urban development between different regions in China, leading to the formation of a new urban poor class, based on the current design and implementation. To minimise the negative effect, we suggest to better deal with the relationships between market and government and between economic and social development in the process of urbanisation. We argue that the key is to allow the market to determine the flows of capital, land and people in the process of urbanisation so as to achieve a sustainable development of China’s urbanisation. * Hu: Emerging Markets Institute, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Chen: Policy and Governance Program, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University, Acton, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia. Corresponding author: Chen, email chunlai.chen@ anu.edu.au

Governing urbanization and the New Urbanization Plan in China

This paper explains the reasons behind the growing social tension and increased number of conflicts in China after a good performance in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. In this paper, we map out the issues with old urbanization (1978–2014) and the problems unsolved by past policy, and analyse whether the new policy changes introduced by the New Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) may help to deal with those problems. We argue that the tensions that evolve into conflicts are often a result of unaddressed social anxiety. Using money to purchase social stability can only be part of the solution. There need to be more serious attempts to improve governance, which involve: improving multi-level governance and inter-regional coordination, enhancing policy transparency and rule by law, adjusting the level of redistribution, and integrating rural and urban community governance structure

Farm size and production efficiency in Chinese agriculture: output and profit

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between farm size and agricultural production efficiency from the aspects of output and profit in order to find an optimal farm size that achieves both output and profit efficiency in agricultural production in China

Evaluating Low-Carbon City Development in China: Study of five national pilot cities

This chapter develops a low-carbon city evaluation system to assess the performance of five pilot low-carbon city projects in China. Section two discusses and introduces the principles and the main indictors for evaluating the performance of low-carbon cities, including the methodology used herein. Section three uses the indicators to evaluate the performance of five national pilot low-carbon cities in China. The final section summarises the findings and provides policy suggestions based on our findings