Socioeconomic inequalities in human papillomavirus knowledge and vaccine uptake: evidence from a cross-sectional study in China

ObjectiveProviding the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is effective to eliminate the disparity in HPV-related cancers. It is unknown regarding inequality in the distribution of HPV vaccination in China since the vaccine was licensed and approved for use in 2016. This study aimed to examine socioeconomic inequalities in HPV-related knowledge and vaccination and identified factors associated with such inequalities.MethodsSelf-administered questionnaires measuring HPV-related knowledge and vaccine uptake were completed by 1,306 women through online survey platform. HPV knowledge was assessed using a 12-item question stem that covered the hazards of HPV infection, HPV vaccine dosage, benefits, and protection. Cluster analysis by combining monthly household income, educational level, and employment status was used to identify socioeconomic status (SES) class. The concentration index (CI) was employed as a measure of socioeconomic inequalities in HPV-related knowledge and vaccination. Linear regression and logistic regression were established to decompose the contributions of associated factors to the observed inequalities.ResultsThe CI for HPV-related knowledge and vaccine uptake was 0.0442 and 0.1485, respectively, indicating the higher knowledge and vaccination rate were concentrated in groups with high SES. Education and household income made the largest contribution to these inequalities. Age, residency and cervical cancer screening were also important contributors of observed inequalities.ConclusionSocioeconomic inequalities in HPV-related knowledge and vaccination uptake are evident in China. Interventions to diffuse HPV-related information for disadvantaged groups are helpful to reduce these inequalities. Providing low or no-cost HPV vaccination and ensuring accessibility of vaccines in rural areas are also considered to be beneficial

Genome-wide identification and expression profiling of auxin response factor (ARF) gene family in maize

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Auxin signaling is vital for plant growth and development, and plays important role in apical dominance, tropic response, lateral root formation, vascular differentiation, embryo patterning and shoot elongation. Auxin Response Factors (ARFs) are the transcription factors that regulate the expression of auxin responsive genes. The <it>ARF </it>genes are represented by a large multigene family in plants. The first draft of full maize genome assembly has recently been released, however, to our knowledge, the <it>ARF </it>gene family from maize (<it>ZmARF </it>genes) has not been characterized in detail.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, 31 maize (<it>Zea mays </it>L.) genes that encode ARF proteins were identified in maize genome. It was shown that maize <it>ARF </it>genes fall into related sister pairs and chromosomal mapping revealed that duplication of <it>ZmARFs </it>was associated with the chromosomal block duplications. As expected, duplication of some <it>ZmARFs </it>showed a conserved intron/exon structure, whereas some others were more divergent, suggesting the possibility of functional diversification for these genes. Out of these 31 <it>ZmARF </it>genes, 14 possess auxin-responsive element in their promoter region, among which 7 appear to show small or negligible response to exogenous auxin. The 18 <it>ZmARF </it>genes were predicted to be the potential targets of small RNAs. Transgenic analysis revealed that increased miR167 level could cause degradation of transcripts of six potential targets (<it>ZmARF3</it>, <it>9</it>, <it>16</it>, <it>18</it>, <it>22 </it>and <it>30</it>). The expressions of maize <it>ARF </it>genes are responsive to exogenous auxin treatment. Dynamic expression patterns of <it>ZmARF </it>genes were observed in different stages of embryo development.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Maize <it>ARF </it>gene family is expanded (31 genes) as compared to <it>Arabidopsis </it>(23 genes) and rice (25 genes). The expression of these genes in maize is regulated by auxin and small RNAs. Dynamic expression patterns of <it>ZmARF </it>genes in embryo at different stages were detected which suggest that maize <it>ARF </it>genes may be involved in seed development and germination.</p

COSORE: A community database for continuous soil respiration and other soil‐atmosphere greenhouse gas flux data

Globally, soils store two to three times as much carbon as currently resides in the atmosphere, and it is critical to understand how soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and uptake will respond to ongoing climate change. In particular, the soil‐to‐atmosphere CO2 flux, commonly though imprecisely termed soil respiration (RS), is one of the largest carbon fluxes in the Earth system. An increasing number of high‐frequency RS measurements (typically, from an automated system with hourly sampling) have been made over the last two decades; an increasing number of methane measurements are being made with such systems as well. Such high frequency data are an invaluable resource for understanding GHG fluxes, but lack a central database or repository. Here we describe the lightweight, open‐source COSORE (COntinuous SOil REspiration) database and software, that focuses on automated, continuous and long‐term GHG flux datasets, and is intended to serve as a community resource for earth sciences, climate change syntheses and model evaluation. Contributed datasets are mapped to a single, consistent standard, with metadata on contributors, geographic location, measurement conditions and ancillary data. The design emphasizes the importance of reproducibility, scientific transparency and open access to data. While being oriented towards continuously measured RS, the database design accommodates other soil‐atmosphere measurements (e.g. ecosystem respiration, chamber‐measured net ecosystem exchange, methane fluxes) as well as experimental treatments (heterotrophic only, etc.). We give brief examples of the types of analyses possible using this new community resource and describe its accompanying R software package