\u27Nothing\u27 between a Novelist and a Playwright in Nostromo

千葉大学社会文化科学研究科研究プロジェクト報告書第107集『モダニズム研究-国際比較の観点から』所収The study of modernism : from the international comparative perspective : report on the research project

Challenges in and lessons learned during the implementation of the 1-3-7 malaria surveillance and response strategy in China: a qualitative study

Background: China has made great progress in malaria control over the last century and now aims to eliminate malaria by 2020. In 2012, the country launched its 1-3-7 surveillance and response strategy for malaria elimination. The strategy involves to case reporting within 1 day, case investigation within 3 days, and focus investigation and public health actions within 7 days. The aim of this study was to evaluate the challenges in and lessons learned during the implementation of the 1-3-7 strategy in China so far. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in two provinces in China: Gansu province (northwestern China) and Jiangsu province (southeastern China) in 2014. Key informant interviews (n = 6) and in-depth interviews (n = 36) about the implementation aspects of the 1-3-7 strategy were conducted with malaria experts, health staff, laboratory practitioners, and village doctors at the provincial, city, county, township, and village levels. Results: Broad themes related to the challenges in and lessons learned during the implementation of the 1-3-7 strategy were identified according to: case reporting within 1 day, case investigation within 3 days, focus investigation within 7 days, and the overall strategy. The major challenges outlined were related to respecting the timeline of surveillance procedures, the absence of or difficulties in following guidelines on conducting focus investigations, diagnostics, and the increasing number of returning migrant workers from malaria-endemic countries. Important lessons learned revolve around the importance of continuous capacity building, supervision and motivation, quality control, information technology support, applied research, governmental commitment, and intersectoral collaboration. Conclusions: Surveillance is a key intervention in malaria elimination programs. The Chinese 1-3-7 strategy has already proven to be successful but still needs to be improved. In particular, dealing appropriately with imported malaria cases through the screening of migrant workers from malaria-endemic countries is essential for achieving and sustaining malaria elimination in China. China has perfect preconditions for successful malaria elimination provided political commitment and financial investment are guaranteed. The 1-3-7 strategy may also be considered as a model for other countries

Malaria training for community health workers in the setting of elimination: a qualitative study from China

Background: Continuous training of health workers is a key intervention to maintain their good performance and keep their vigilance during malaria elimination programmes. However, countries progressing toward malaria elimination have a largely decreased malaria disease burden, less frequent exposure of health workers to malaria patients, and new challenges in the epidemiology of the remaining malaria cases. Moreover, competing health priorities and usually a decline in resources and in political commitment also pose challenges to the elimination programme. As a consequence, the acceptability, sustainability, and impact of malaria training and education programmes face challenges. However, little is known of the perceptions and expectations of malaria training and education programmes of health workers being engaged in countries with malaria elimination programmes. Methods: This qualitative study provides information on perceptions and expectations of health workers of malaria training programmes from China, which aims to malaria elimination by the year 2020. This study was embedded into a larger study on the challenges and lessons learned during the malaria surveillance strategy in China, involving 42 interviews with malaria experts, health staff, laboratory practitioners, and village doctors at the provincial, city, county, township, and village levels from Gansu province (northwestern China) and Jiangsu province (southeastern China). Results: In the context of an increasing number of imported malaria cases in China, the majority of respondents emphasized the necessity and importance of such programmes and complained about a decreasing frequency of training courses. Moreover, they called for innovative strategies to improve the implementation and sustainability of the malaria training programmes until the elimination goal has been achieved. Perceptions and expectations of health workers from different health centres were quite different. Health workers from higher-level facilities were more concerned about technical training aspects, while health workers from periphery of the health system expected to receive more training on field work coordination and on specific public health actions with regard to case detection and focus investigation. Conclusions: There is need to guarantee an ongoing good training of health workers in China on malaria aspects until the year 2020 and probably beyond

Biochar Addition Alters C: N: P Stoichiometry in Moss Crust-Soil Continuum in Gurbantünggüt Desert

The biogeochemical cycling of soil elements in ecosystems has changed under global changes, including nutrients essential for plant growth. The application of biochar can improve the utilization of soil nutrients by plants and change the stoichiometry of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) in plants and soil. However, the response of ecological stoichiometry in a moss crust-soil continuum to local plant biochar addition in a desert ecosystem has not been comprehensively explored. Here, we conducted a four-level Seriphidium terrae-albae biochar addition experiment (CK, 0 t ha−1; T1, 3.185 t ha−1; T2, 6.37 t ha−1; T3, 12.74 t ha−1) to elucidate the influence of biochar input on C: N: P stoichiometry in moss crusts (surface) and their underlying soil (subsurface). The results showed that biochar addition significantly affected the C, N, and P both of moss crusts and their underlying soil (p 3−N), N: P, C: P, EC, pH, soil moisture content (SMC), and N have significant effects on the C, N, and P of moss crusts in turn. This study revealed the contribution of biochar to the nutrient cycle of desert system plants and their underlying soil from the perspective of stoichiometric characteristics, which is a supplement to the theory of plant soil nutrition in desert ecosystems

Genetic diversity and population structure of Plasmodium vivax in Central China.

BACKGROUND: In Central China the declining incidence of Plasmodium vivax has been interrupted by epidemic expansions and imported cases. The impact of these changes on the local parasite population, and concurrent risks of future resurgence, was assessed. METHODS: Plasmodium vivax isolates collected from Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, Central China between 2007 and 2010 were genotyped using capillary electrophoresis at seven polymorphic short tandem repeat markers. Spatial and temporal analyses of within-host and population diversity, population structure, and relatedness were conducted on these isolates. RESULTS: Polyclonal infections were infrequent in the 94 isolates from Anhui (4%) and 25 from Jiangsu (12%), with a trend for increasing frequency from 2008 to 2010 (2 to 19%) when combined. Population diversity was high in both provinces and across the years tested (H(E) = 0.8 - 0.85). Differentiation between Anhui and Jiangsu was modest (F'(ST) = 0.1). Several clusters of isolates with identical multi-locus haplotypes were observed across both Anhui and Jiangsu. Linkage disequilibrium was strong in both populations and in each year tested (I(A)(S) = 0.2 - 0.4), but declined two- to four-fold when identical haplotypes were accounted for, indicative of occasional epidemic transmission dynamics. None of five imported isolates shared identical haplotypes to any of the central Chinese isolates. CONCLUSIONS: The population genetic structure of P. vivax in Central China highlights unstable transmission, with limited barriers to gene flow between the central provinces. Despite low endemicity, population diversity remained high, but the reservoirs sustaining this diversity remain unclear. The challenge of imported cases and risks of resurgence emphasize the need for continued surveillance to detect early warning signals. Although parasite genotyping has potential to inform the management of outbreaks, further studies are required to identify suitable marker panels for resolving local from imported P. vivax isolates

Ameliorating Mitochondrial Dysfunction of Neurons by Biomimetic Targeting Nanoparticles Mediated Mitochondrial Biogenesis to Boost the Therapy of Parkinson's Disease

Abstract Mitochondrial dysfunction of neurons is the core pathogenesis of incurable Parkinson's disease (PD). It is crucial to ameliorate the mitochondrial dysfunction of neurons for boosting the therapy of PD. Herein, the remarkable promotion of mitochondrial biogenesis to ameliorate mitochondrial dysfunction of neurons and improve the treatment of PD by using mitochondria‐targeted biomimetic nanoparticles, which are Cu2‐xSe‐based nanoparticles functionalized with curcumin and wrapped with DSPE‐PEG2000‐TPP‐modified macrophage membrane (denoted as CSCCT NPs), is reported. These nanoparticles can efficiently target mitochondria of damaged neurons in an inflammatory environment, and mediate the signaling pathway of NAD+/SIRT1/PGC‐1α/PPARγ/NRF1/TFAM to alleviate 1‐methyl‐4‐phenylpyridinium (MPP+)‐induced neuronal toxicity. They can reduce the mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, restore mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), protect the integrity of mitochondrial respiratory chain, and ameliorate mitochondrial dysfunction via promoting mitochondrial biogenesis, which synergistically improve the motor disorders and anxiety behavior of 1‐methyl‐4‐phenyl‐1,2,3,6‐tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)‐induced PD mice. This study demonstrates that targeting mitochondrial biogenesis to ameliorate mitochondrial dysfunction has a great potential in the treatment of PD and mitochondria‐related diseases

Boosting Microglial Lipid Metabolism via TREM2 Signaling by Biomimetic Nanoparticles to Attenuate the Sevoflurane‐Induced Developmental Neurotoxicity

Lipid metabolism has been considered as a potential therapeutic target in sevoflurane-induced neurotoxicity that can potentially affect the learning and memory function in the developmental brain. Recently, triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) is identified as a crucial step in regulating lipid metabolism and associated with the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Herein, it is reported that quercetin modified Cu2- x Se (abbreviated as CSPQ) nanoparticles can ameliorate sevoflurane-induced neurotoxicity by tuning the microglial lipid metabolism and promoting microglial M2-like polarization via TREM2 signaling pathway, in which the apolipoprotein E (ApoE), and adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette transporters (ABCA1 and ABCG1) levels are upregulated. Furthermore, the protective effects of CSPQ nanoparticles against sevoflurane-induced neurotoxicity via TREM2 are further demonstrated by the small interfering RNA (siRNA)-TREM2 transfected BV2 cells, which are obviously not influenced by CSPQ nanoparticles. The cell membrane coated CSPQ (referred as CSPQ@CM) nanoparticles can significantly reduce sevoflurane-induced learning and memory deficits, improve lipid metabolism dysfunction, and promote the remyelination in the hippocampus of mice. The study shows great potential of targeting microglial lipid metabolism in promoting remyelination of neurons for treatment of neurotoxicity and neurodegenerative diseases

Piloting a programme tool to evaluate malaria case investigation and reactive case detection activities : results from 3 settings in the Asia Pacific

Background: Case investigation and reactive case detection (RACD) activities are widely-used in low transmission settings to determine the suspected origin of infection and identify and treat malaria infections nearby to the index patient household. Case investigation and RACD activities are time and resource intensive, include methodologies that vary across eliminating settings, and have no standardized metrics or tools available to monitor and evaluate them. Methods: In response to this gap, a simple programme tool was developed for monitoring and evaluating (M&E) RACD activities and piloted by national malaria programmes. During the development phase, four modules of the RACD M&E tool were created to assess and evaluate key case investigation and RACD activities and costs. A pilot phase was then carried out by programme implementers between 2013 and 2015, during which malaria surveillance teams in three different settings (China, Indonesia, Thailand) piloted the tool over a period of 3 months each. This study describes summary results of the pilots and feasibility and impact of the tool on programmes. Results: All three study areas implemented the RACD M&E tool modules, and pilot users reported the tool and evaluation process were helpful to identify gaps in RACD programme activities. In the 45 health facilities evaluated, 71.8% (97/135; min 35.3-max 100.0%) of the proper notification and reporting forms and 20.0% (27/135; min 0.0-max 100.0%) of standard operating procedures (SOPs) were available to support malaria elimination activities. The tool highlighted gaps in reporting key data indicators on the completeness for malaria case reporting (98.8%; min 93.3-max 100.0%), case investigations (65.6%; min 61.8-max 78.4%) and RACD activities (70.0%; min 64.7-max 100.0%). Evaluation of the SOPs showed that knowledge and practices of malaria personnel varied within and between study areas. Average monthly costs for conducting case investigation and RACD activities showed variation between study areas (min USD $844.80-max USD$2038.00) for the malaria personnel, commodities, services and other costs required to carry out the activities. Conclusion: The RACD M&E tool was implemented in the three pilot areas, identifying key gaps that led to impacts on programme decision making. Study findings support the need for routine M&E of malaria case reporting, case investigation and RACD activities. Scale-up of the RACD M&E tool in malaria-eliminating settings will contribute to improved programme performance to the high level that is required to reach elimination