Compare HIV/syphilis infections between age groups and explore associated factors of HIV/ syphilis co-infections among men who have sex with men in Shenzhen, China, from 2009 to 2017

The aim of this study is to assess the HIV/syphilis epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) aged <50 years and ≥ 50 years in Shenzhen, and explore the associated factors of HIV/syphilis co-infections among MSM in Shenzhen, in order to help prevention and intervention programs determine their target sub-group. A serial cross-sectional study was conducted on MSM in Shenzhen city, China from 2009 to 2017. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic characteristics, history of HIV testing, history of blood donation and sexual behaviors. 5 ml of venous blood were collected for syphilis and HIV tests. The overall prevalence of HIV, syphilis, HIV/syphilis co-infection was 9.40%, 18.97%, and 4.91%, respectively. The prevalence of HIV (15.26%), syphilis (27.71%), HIV/syphilis co-infection (9.24%) in aged ≥ 50 years MSM was significantly higher than aged <50 years MSM (9.15%, 18.59% and 4.72%, respectively). The following factors were found to be significantly associated with HIV/syphilis co-infections (P<0.05): age≥50 years (OR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.10–2.87), high school or lower (OR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.10–2.01), monthly income ≤436.2 USD (OR = 1.74, 95% CI = 1.25–2.42), monthly income 436.4–727.2 USD (OR = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.05–2.03), ≥2 anal sex partners in the past 6 months (OR = 1.59, 95% CI = 1.02–2.49), ≥2 oral sex partners in the past 6 months (OR = 1.60, 95% CI = 1.08–2.36), inconsistent condom use during anal sex in the past 6 months (OR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.11–2.03). We found that aged <50 years and ≥50 years MSM in Shenzhen had a high prevalence of HIV/syphilis infection in a period from 2009 to 2017. Age-specific sexually transmitted diseases education, prevention, and intervention programs for aged ≥50 years MSM should be implemented urgently and integrated interventions of both HIV and syphilis infections on MSM are needed in the future

PIKfyve, a class III lipid kinase, is required for TLR-induced type I IFN production via modulation of ATF3

Type I IFN plays a key role in antiviral responses. It also has been shown that deregulation of type I IFN expression following abnormal activation of TLRs contributes to the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus. In this study, we find that PIKfyve, a class III lipid kinase, is required for endolysosomal TLR-induced expression of type I IFN in mouse and human cells. PIKfyve binds to phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate and synthesizes phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate, and plays a critical role in endolysosomal trafficking. However, PIKfyve modulates type I IFN production via mechanisms independent of receptor and ligand trafficking in endolysosomes. Instead, pharmacological or genetic inactivation of PIKfyve rapidly induces expression of the transcription repressor ATF3, which is necessary and sufficient for suppression of type I IFN expression by bin&apos;ding to its promoter and blocking its transcription. Thus, we have uncovered a novel phosphoinositide-mediated regulatory mechanism that controls TLR-mediated induction of type I IFN, which may provide a new therapeutic indication for the PIKfyve inhibitor.X111313Ysciescopu

Five tips for China to realize its co-targets of climate mitigation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

In 2018, a total of US$166 billion global economic losses and a new high of 55.3 Gt of CO2 equivalent emission were generated by 831 climate-related extreme events. As the world's largest CO2 emitter, we reported China's recent progresses and pitfalls in climate actions to achieve climate mitigation targets (i.e., limit warming to 1.5–2°C above the pre-industrial level). We first summarized China's integrated actions (2015 onwards) that benefit both climate change mitigation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These projects include re-structuring organizations, establishing working goals and actions, amending laws and regulations at national level, as well as increasing social awareness at community level. We then pointed out the shortcomings in different regions and sectors. Based on these analyses, we proposed five recommendations to help China improving its climate policy strategies, which include: 1) restructuring the economy to balance short-term and long-term conflicts; 2) developing circular economy with recycling mechanism and infrastructure; 3) building up unified national standards and more accurate indicators; 4) completing market mechanism for green economy and encouraging green consumption; and 5) enhancing technology innovations and local incentives via bottom-up actions

Shining Emitter in a Stable Host: Design of Halide Perovskite Scintillators for X-ray Imaging from Commercial Concept

Halide perovskite (HP) nanocrystals (NCs) have recently shown great potential for X-ray detection and imaging. However, the practical application still has a long way to go with many technical requirements waiting to be fulfilled, including structure optimization, stability enhancement, and cost reduction. A design principle in this beginning stage is urgently needed but still lacking. Herein, with an “emitter-in-matrix” principle refined from commercial scintillators, CsPbBr3@Cs4PbBr6 with emissive CsPbBr3 NCs embedded inside a solid-state Cs4PbBr6 host is subjected to X-ray sensing and imaging. The Cs4PbBr6 matrix not only enhances the attenuation of X-rays but also dramatically improves the stability of CsPbBr3 NCs. A favorable optical design with the Cs4PbBr6 matrix being transparent to the emission from CsPbBr3 NCs enables efficient light output. As a result, stable and sensitive scintillation response to X-ray signals is demonstrated with superior linearity and ultrahigh time resolution. In order to show the huge potential for practical applications, X-ray imaging using a large-area film (360 mm × 240 mm) by the blade-coating technique is carried out to obtain a high-quality image of interior structures invisible to the human eye. In addition to the above advantages in optics, CsPbBr3@Cs4PbBr6 also enjoys facile solution synthesis with large scalability, excellent repeatability, and low cost

Compact Broadband Terahertz Perfect Absorber Based on Multi-Interference and Diffraction Effects

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers via the DOI in this record.High absorption over a wide frequency band has attracted considerable interest due to its potential applications in imaging and anti-radar cloaking devices. In order to make these devices more integrated, the thickness of the absorber is crucial. In this paper, a compact, polarization-independent, broadband, omnidirectional terahertz (THz) absorber is proposed, fabricated, and evaluated. This THz absorber is based on the combined effect of the multi-interference and diffraction. It is experimentally demonstrated that over 95% absorption can be obtained in the frequency range from 0.75 to 2.41 THz. This well-designed thinner absorber not only reduces the device thickness to 120 μm, but also introduces more interference peaks so that the absorption spectrum is significantly enlarged. Five successive absorption peaks at 0.88, 1.20, 1.53, 1.96, and 2.23 THz are combined into a broadband THz absorption spectrum

Entanglement of single-photons and chiral phonons in atomically thin WSe2_2

Quantum entanglement is a fundamental phenomenon which, on the one hand, reveals deep connections between quantum mechanics, gravity and the space-time; on the other hand, has practical applications as a key resource in quantum information processing. While it is routinely achieved in photon-atom ensembles, entanglement involving the solid-state or macroscopic objects remains challenging albeit promising for both fundamental physics and technological applications. Here, we report entanglement between collective, chiral vibrations in two-dimensional (2D) WSe$_2$ host --- chiral phonons (CPs) --- and single-photons emitted from quantum dots (QDs) present in it. CPs which carry angular momentum were recently observed in WSe$_2$ and are a distinguishing feature of the underlying honeycomb lattice. The entanglement results from a "which-way" scattering process, involving an optical excitation in a QD and doubly-degenerate CPs, which takes place via two indistinguishable paths. Our unveiling of entanglement involving a macroscopic, collective excitation together with strong interaction between CPs and QDs in 2D materials opens up ways for phonon-driven entanglement of QDs and engineering chiral or non-reciprocal interactions at the single-photon level

Black Holes in Quasi-topological Gravity

We construct a new gravitational action which includes cubic curvature interactions and which provides a useful toy model for the holographic study of a three parameter family of four- and higher-dimensional CFT's. We also investigate the black hole solutions of this new gravity theory. Further we examine the equations of motion of quasi-topological gravity. While the full equations in a general background are fourth-order in derivatives, we show that the linearized equations describing gravitons propagating in the AdS vacua match precisely the second-order equations of Einstein gravity.Comment: 33 pages, 4 figures; two references adde

Topology optimization for human proximal femur considering bi-modulus behavior of cortical bones

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. The material in the human proximal femur is considered as bi-modulus material and the density distribution is predicted by topology optimization method. To reduce the computational cost, the bi-modulus material is replaced with two isotropic materials in simulation. The selection of local material modulus is determined by the previous local stress state. Compared with density prediction results by traditional isotropic material in proximal femur, the bi-modulus material layouts are different obviously. The results also demonstrate that the bi-modulus material model is better than the isotropic material model in simulation of density prediction in femur bone

Redox proteomics of the inflammatory secretome identifies a common set of redoxins and other glutathionylated proteins released in inflammation, influenza virus infection and oxidative stress

Protein cysteines can form transient disulfides with glutathione (GSH), resulting in the production of glutathionylated proteins, and this process is regarded as a mechanism by which the redox state of the cell can regulate protein function. Most studies on redox regulation of immunity have focused on intracellular proteins. In this study we have used redox proteomics to identify those proteins released in glutathionylated form by macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) after pre-loading the cells with biotinylated GSH. Of the several proteins identified in the redox secretome, we have selected a number for validation. Proteomic analysis indicated that LPS stimulated the release of peroxiredoxin (PRDX) 1, PRDX2, vimentin (VIM), profilin1 (PFN1) and thioredoxin 1 (TXN1). For PRDX1 and TXN1, we were able to confirm that the released protein is glutathionylated. PRDX1, PRDX2 and TXN1 were also released by the human pulmonary epithelial cell line, A549, infected with influenza virus. The release of the proteins identified was inhibited by the anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid, dexamethasone (DEX), which also inhibited tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α release, and by thiol antioxidants (N-butanoyl GSH derivative, GSH-C4, and N-acetylcysteine (NAC), which did not affect TNF-α production. The proteins identified could be useful as biomarkers of oxidative stress associated with inflammation, and further studies will be required to investigate if the extracellular forms of these proteins has immunoregulatory functions

Fast empirical Bayesian LASSO for multiple quantitative trait locus mapping

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Bayesian shrinkage technique has been applied to multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs) mapping to estimate the genetic effects of QTLs on quantitative traits from a very large set of possible effects including the main and epistatic effects of QTLs. Although the recently developed empirical Bayes (EB) method significantly reduced computation comparing with the fully Bayesian approach, its speed and accuracy are limited by the fact that numerical optimization is required to estimate the variance components in the QTL model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a fast empirical Bayesian LASSO (EBLASSO) method for multiple QTL mapping. The fact that the EBLASSO can estimate the variance components in a closed form along with other algorithmic techniques render the EBLASSO method more efficient and accurate. Comparing with the EB method, our simulation study demonstrated that the EBLASSO method could substantially improve the computational speed and detect more QTL effects without increasing the false positive rate. Particularly, the EBLASSO algorithm running on a personal computer could easily handle a linear QTL model with more than 100,000 variables in our simulation study. Real data analysis also demonstrated that the EBLASSO method detected more reasonable effects than the EB method. Comparing with the LASSO, our simulation showed that the current version of the EBLASSO implemented in Matlab had similar speed as the LASSO implemented in Fortran, and that the EBLASSO detected the same number of true effects as the LASSO but a much smaller number of false positive effects.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The EBLASSO method can handle a large number of effects possibly including both the main and epistatic QTL effects, environmental effects and the effects of gene-environment interactions. It will be a very useful tool for multiple QTL mapping.</p