Risk Factors of HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections in China: A Systematic Review of Reviews.

BACKGROUND: Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are a global challenge. China, once said to have eradicated STIs, is now facing a rapid rise in the prevalence of HIV/STIs. This review of reviews aims to map HIV/STI risk factors among the Chinese population, with the objective of identifying risk factors to inform the formulation of effective prevention strategies. METHODS: A systematic search using key terms related to HIV/STIs, risk factors and the Chinese population in both English and Chinese databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library; Wanfang data, CNKI, VIP and SINOMED) was conducted, and peer-reviewed systematic reviews on the topic from 1991 to 2014 were selected. Identified risk factors were grouped into different level determinants based on the HIV Social Epidemiology Model, and then evaluated and reported based on the PRISMA checklist. FINDINGS: Of the twenty-eight reviews included, the majority were focused on well-established, individual level risk factors within key populations, with some highlighting the complexity of interacting factors (e.g., alcohol use and higher income in male migrants). While twenty-two reviews covered individual factors, only ten mentioned social factors and five had contents on structural factors. There are gaps in the evidence on social and structural level impacts of HIV/STIs, such as on stigma, discrimination, health policy, access to care, and illicit drug control policies. Migration and social expectation appear to pose a significant threat in aggravating the HIV/STI situation in China; for example, incarceration patterns indicated a significant risk of HIV/STIs for female sex workers. CONCLUSIONS: Since international guidelines recommend an integrated and multi-level approach to HIV/STI prevention, a comprehensive approach targeting interventions at all levels along the continuum of care is needed to effectively curtail HIV/STI transmission in China. More research is needed to better understand the impact of socio-political interventions within a Chinese context

Multi-Stage Tuberculosis Subunit Vaccine Candidate LT69 Provides High Protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection in Mice

Effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine should target tubercle bacilli with various metabolic states and confer long-term protective immunity. In this study, we constructed a novel multi-stage TB subunit vaccine based on fusion protein ESAT6-Ag85B-MPT64(190-198)-Mtb8.4-HspX (LT69 for short) which combined early expressed antigens and latency-associated antigen. The fusion protein was mixed with an adjuvant being composed of N, N’-dimethyl-N, N’-dioctadecylammonium bromide (DDA) and polyriboinosinic polyribocytidylic acid (PolyI:C) to construct subunit vaccine, whose immunogenicity and protective ability were evaluated in C57BL/6 mice. The results showed that LT69 had strong immunogenicity and high protective effect against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) H37Rv aerosol challenge. Low-dose (2 μg) of LT69 generated long-term immune memory responses and provided effective protection, which was even higher than traditional vaccine BCG did at 30 weeks post the last vaccination. In conclusion, multistage subunit vaccine LT69 showed high and long-term protection against M. tuberculosis infection in mice, whose effect could be enhanced by using a relative low dosage of antigen.National Major Science and Technology Projects (China) (2012ZX10003-008-006)National Natural Science Foundation (China) (31470895)National Natural Science Foundation (China) (81072499)China. Ministry of Education (Doctoral Fund 20120211110038

Nonparametric End-to-End Probabilistic Forecasting of Distributed Generation Outputs Considering Missing Data Imputation

In this paper, we introduce a nonparametric end-to-end method for probabilistic forecasting of distributed renewable generation outputs while including missing data imputation. Firstly, we employ a nonparametric probabilistic forecast model utilizing the long short-term memory (LSTM) network to model the probability distributions of distributed renewable generations' outputs. Secondly, we design an end-to-end training process that includes missing data imputation through iterative imputation and iterative loss-based training procedures. This two-step modeling approach effectively combines the strengths of the nonparametric method with the end-to-end approach. Consequently, our approach demonstrates exceptional capabilities in probabilistic forecasting for the outputs of distributed renewable generations while effectively handling missing values. Simulation results confirm the superior performance of our approach compared to existing alternatives

Deformable Feature Alignment and Refinement for Moving Infrared Dim-small Target Detection

The detection of moving infrared dim-small targets has been a challenging and prevalent research topic. The current state-of-the-art methods are mainly based on ConvLSTM to aggregate information from adjacent frames to facilitate the detection of the current frame. However, these methods implicitly utilize motion information only in the training stage and fail to explicitly explore motion compensation, resulting in poor performance in the case of a video sequence including large motion. In this paper, we propose a Deformable Feature Alignment and Refinement (DFAR) method based on deformable convolution to explicitly use motion context in both the training and inference stages. Specifically, a Temporal Deformable Alignment (TDA) module based on the designed Dilated Convolution Attention Fusion (DCAF) block is developed to explicitly align the adjacent frames with the current frame at the feature level. Then, the feature refinement module adaptively fuses the aligned features and further aggregates useful spatio-temporal information by means of the proposed Attention-guided Deformable Fusion (AGDF) block. In addition, to improve the alignment of adjacent frames with the current frame, we extend the traditional loss function by introducing a new motion compensation loss. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed DFAR method achieves the state-of-the-art performance on two benchmark datasets including DAUB and IRDST

Color Control and White Light Generation of Upconversion Luminescence by Operating Dopant Concentrations and Pump Densities in Yb\u3csup\u3e3+\u3c/sup\u3e, Er\u3csup\u3e3+\u3c/sup\u3e, and Tm\u3csup\u3e3+\u3c/sup\u3e Tri-Doped Lu\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3eO\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e Nanocrystals

We synthesized a series of Yb3+, Er3+ and Tm3+ tri-doped Lu2O3 nanocrystals with various dopant concentrations by the hydrothermal approach. Due to a unique electronic state at the top of the valence band, Lu2O3 based materials exhibit intense upconversion luminescence involving 1G4 → 3H6 of Tm3+ in blue, (2H11/2, 4S3/2) → 4I15/2 in green and 4F9/2 → 4I15/2 in red of Er3+ upon near infrared excitation at 980 nm. The variation of upconversion spectra and color points with dopant concentrations and pump densities are studied in detail on the basis of energy transfer processes. An ideal white upconversion light with color coordinates of (0.327, 0.339) is obtained by controlling the intensity of red, green, and blue emission in Lu1.906Yb0.08Er0.008Tm0.006O3nanocrystals under a pump density of 8 W cm−2. Based on the present experimental data, we may predict the dopant concentrations and pump densities for any color point within or around the white light region in the tri-doped Lu2O3 nanocrystals

The effects of cognitive behavioural therapy on depression and quality of life in patients with maintenance haemodialysis: a systematic review

Depression is highly prevalent among Haemodialysis (HD) patients and is known to results in a series of adverse outcomes and poor quality of life (QoL). Although cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been shown to improve depressive symptoms and QoL in other chronic illness, there is uncertainty in terms of the effectiveness of CBT in HD patients with depression or depressive symptoms. All randomised controlled trials relevant to the topic were retrieved from the following databases: CINHAL, MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO and CENTRAL. The grey literature, specific journals, reference lists of included studies and trials registers website were also searched. Data was extracted or calculated from included studies that had measured depression and quality of life using valid and reliable tools -this included mean differences or standardised mean differences and 95% confidence intervals. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to identify the methodological quality of the included studies. Six RCTs were included with varying methodological quality. Meta-analysis was undertaken for 3 studies that employed the CBT versus usual care. All studies showed that the depressive symptoms significantly improved after the CBT. Furthermore, CBT was more effective than usual care (MD = - 5.28, 95%CI - 7.9 to - 2.65, P = 0.37) and counselling (MD = - 2.39, 95%CI - 3.49 to - 1.29), while less effective than sertraline (MD = 2.2, 95%CI 0.43 to 3.97) in alleviating depressive symptoms. Additionally, the CBT seems to have a beneficial effect in improving QoL when compared with usual care, while no significant difference was found in QoL score when compared CBT with sertraline. CBT may improve depressive symptoms and QoL in HD patients with comorbid depressive symptoms. However, more rigorous studies are needed in this field due to the small quantity and varied methodological quality in the identified studies

Two-Stage Differential Hydrocarbon Enrichment Mode of Maokou Formation in Southeastern Sichuan Basin, Southwestern China

AbstractSichuan Basin is one of the most potential areas for natural gas exploration and development in China. The Maokou Formation in the basin is one of the important gas-bearing layers in southeastern Sichuan. In recent years, several exploration wells have obtained industrial gas flow in the first member of the Middle Permian Maokou Formation (hereinafter referred to as the Permian Mao-1 member of Maokou Formation), revealing that it may become a new field of oil and gas exploration in Sichuan Basin. Drilling and field survey results show that the shale of Maokou Formation in southeastern Sichuan contains eyeball-shaped limestone. Early studies suggest that the Permian Mao-1 member of Maokou Formation in Sichuan Basin is a set of high-quality carbonate source rocks, but ignoring its oil and gas exploration potential as an unconventional shale reservoir similar to the shale. The enrichment regularity of unconventional natural gas has not been studied from the perspective of source-internal accumulation. And there is a lack of analysis of oil and gas enrichment mode. In this study, we took the Permian Mao-1 member of Maokou Formation in southeastern Sichuan as the target layer. Through macroscopic outcrop observation and geochemical analysis and based on unconventional oil and gas enrichment theory, we carried out a study on natural gas enrichment mode of eyeball-shaped limestone of the Permian Mao-1 member of Maokou Formation in Sichuan Basin. The results show that the hydrocarbon enrichment pattern of the Maokou Formation in southeastern Sichuan is different from the accumulation and occurrence process of common unconventional shale gas reservoirs and conventional carbonate reservoirs. It is a special new hydrocarbon accumulation mode between the above two. According to the difference in the charging time of the hydrocarbon, the background of the reservoiring dynamics, and the occurrence state of oil and gas, we divide the two-stage differential enrichment mode of oil and gas, that is, “early intralayer near-source enrichment” and “late interlayer pressure relief adjustment.

Reducing food loss and waste in supply chain operations

This paper presents a review of research on food loss and waste (FLW) from the perspective of operations management (OM). Supply chain FLW represents a significant challenge for researchers and practitioners grappling with issues of famine and inequitable access to food supplies. Our broad literature pool includes 346 articles published in prestigious OM, management, and prominent economics, environment, and food science journals. The contribution of this review is threefold. First, we provide insights into FLW studies from the lens of specific stages within the food supply chain and from the perspective of the entire food supply chain. Second, we identify overarching research themes in the FLW literature. Third, we draw insights from our literature sample, presentations in the leading OM conferences, working papers, and 30 semi-structured interviews of food supply chain stakeholders to provide a projection of future research opportunities. Such a review approach ensures our analysis being relevant to practice