International cooperation for decarbonizing energy intensive industries: the case for a Green Materials Club

Basic materials are traded globally and responsible for roughly 22 % of global carbon emissions. It is technically possible for the energy intensive industries (EIIs) that produce these materials to reach zero emission, but at a cost. So far, the fear of carbon leakage has been a barrier for implementing ambitious domestic climate policies that targets theses globally traded commodities. The introduction of border carbon adjustments (BCAs) for levelling the global playing field has been suggested to ameliorate these concerns. However, another way is to focus more on innovation, adopting green industrial policies and to cooperate internationally for developing technologies for net zero EIIs. In this chapter we explore the opportunities for enhanced cooperation for enabling deep decarbonisation for EIIs and how that links to BCAs. We argue for establishing a green materials club focussing on long-term technology development and discusses limitation and opportunities for this approach. A green materials club could ease the conflicts between trade and ambitious climate policy and complement BCAs

The Human Virome in Children and its Relationship to Febrile Illness

This study investigates the relationship of viruses to febrile illness in children. Subjects are normal children 2-36 months of age with fever along with normal children of the same age without fever, plus immunocompromised children with fever along with immunocompromised children without fever. Specimens obtained include blood, nasopharyngeal secretions, and feces. Specimens are analyzed using a panel of virus-specific PCR assays and also by high throughput sequencing using 454 and Illumina platforms

HIV-1 CRF 02 AG polymerase genes in Southern Ghana are mosaics of different 02 AG strains and the protease gene cannot infer subtypes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Little is known about the detailed phylogeny relationships of CRF 02_AG HIV-1 polymerase genes in Ghana. The use of the protease gene of HIV-1 for subtyping has shown conflicting results.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The partial polymerase gene sequences of 25 HIV-1 strains obtained with Viroseq reagents were aligned with reference subtypes and alignments trimmed to a 300 bp protease, 661 bp and 1005 reverse transcriptase sequence alignments. Phylogenetic relationships of these alignments were determined with the Neighbour-Joining method using 1000 replicates and recombination patterns determined for the sequences with RIP 3.0 in the HIV sequence database.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Unlike the other alignments, the protease gene had nodes with bootstrap values < 100% for repeat control sequences. Majority of the CRF 02_AG sequences from Ghana were made up of fragments of several strains of CRF 02_AG/AG strains. The protease gene alone is not suitable for phylogenetic analysis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The polymerase genes of HIV-1 strains from Ghana are made up of recombinants of several CRF 02_AG strains from Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon, but the clinical implications are unknown. Using the HIV-1 protease gene for subtyping will not infer subtypes correctly.</p

Short-term treatment outcomes in human immunodeficiency virus type-1 and hepatitis B virus co-infections

BACKGROUND: Co-infection of HIV with HBV is common in West Africa but little information is available on the effects of HBV on short-term therapy for HIV patients. A 28 day longitudinal study was conducted to examine short-term antiretroviral therapy (ART) outcomes in HIV infected individuals with HBV co-infection. METHODS: Plasma from 18 HIV infected individuals co-infected with HBV and matched controls with only HIV infection were obtained at initiation, and 7 and 28 days after ART. HIV-1 viral load changes were monitored. Clinical and demographic data were also obtained from patient folders, and HIV-1 drug resistance mutation and subtype analysis performed. RESULTS: The presence of HBV co-infection did not significantly affect HIV-1 viral load changes within 7 or 28 days. The CD4(+) counts on the other hand of patients significantly affected the magnitude of HIV-1 viral load decline after 7 days (ρ = −0.441, p = 0.040), while the pre-ART HIV-1 VL (ρ = 0.844, p = <0.001) and sex (U = 19.0, p = 0.020) also determined HIV-1 viral load outcomes after 28 days of ART. Even though the geometric sensitivity score of HIV-1 strains were influenced by the HIV-1 subtypes (U = 56.00; p = 0.036), it was not a confounder for ART outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: There may be the need to consider the confounder effects of sex, pre-ART CD4(+), and pre-ART HIV-1 viral load in the discourse on HIV and HBV co-infection

Incidence and survival of HNSCC patients living with HIV compared with HIV-negative HNSCC patients

Purpose: The aim was to analyze the incidence and survival of patients living with HIV (PLWH) with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and to compare with a control group of HIV-negative HNSCC patients. Methods: Clinicopathological data and predictors for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were investigated (2009-2019). Results: 50 of 5151 HNSCC patients (0.97%) were PLWH, and 76% were smokers. Age <= 60 years, HIV-PCR <= 50 copies, CD4 cells <= 200/mm(3), cART treatment, T and UICC classification, oral cavity and nasal/paranasal sinuses, and therapy were significantly associated with OS in univariate analysis. In the multivariate analysis, only age and HIV-PCR independently predicted OS. The OS of the 50 PLWH was not significantly altered compared with the 5101 HIV-negative controls. However, OS and DFS were significantly inferior in advanced tumor stages of PLWH compared with an age-matched control group of 150 HIV-negative patients. Conclusions: PLWH were diagnosed with HNSCC at a significantly younger age compared to HIV-negative patients. Taking into account patient age at initial diagnosis, both OS and DFS rates in PLWH are significantly worse compared with a matched control group of HIV-negative patients in advanced tumor stages UICC III/IV. The prognosis (OS) is improved when taking cART treatment, the HIV viral load is undetectable and CD4 count is high

DNA bar coding and pyrosequencing to identify rare HIV drug resistance mutations

Treatment of HIV-infected individuals with antiretroviral agents selects for drug-resistant mutants, resulting in frequent treatment failures. Although the major antiretroviral resistance mutations are routinely characterized by DNA sequencing, treatment failures are still common, probably in part because undetected rare resistance mutations facilitate viral escape. Here we combined DNA bar coding and massively parallel pyrosequencing to quantify rare drug resistance mutations. Using DNA bar coding, we were able to analyze seven viral populations in parallel, overall characterizing 118 093 sequence reads of average length 103 bp. Analysis of a control HIV mixture showed that resistance mutations present as 5% of the population could be readily detected without false positive calls. In three samples of multidrug-resistant HIV populations from patients, all the drug-resistant mutations called by conventional analysis were identified, as well as four additional low abundance drug resistance mutations, some of which would be expected to influence the response to antiretroviral therapy. Methods for sensitive characterization of HIV resistance alleles have been reported, but only the pyrosequencing method allows all the positions at risk for drug resistance mutations to be interrogated deeply for many HIV populations in a single experiment

The future of medical diagnostics: Review paper

While histopathology of excised tissue remains the gold standard for diagnosis, several new, non-invasive diagnostic techniques are being developed. They rely on physical and biochemical changes that precede and mirror malignant change within tissue. The basic principle involves simple optical techniques of tissue interrogation. Their accuracy, expressed as sensitivity and specificity, are reported in a number of studies suggests that they have a potential for cost effective, real-time, in situ diagnosis. We review the Third Scientific Meeting of the Head and Neck Optical Diagnostics Society held in Congress Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria on the 11th May 2011. For the first time the HNODS Annual Scientific Meeting was held in association with the International Photodynamic Association (IPA) and the European Platform for Photodynamic Medicine (EPPM). The aim was to enhance the interdisciplinary aspects of optical diagnostics and other photodynamic applications. The meeting included 2 sections: oral communication sessions running in parallel to the IPA programme and poster presentation sessions combined with the IPA and EPPM posters sessions. © 2011 Jerjes et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd