A spatiotemporal meta-analysis of HIV/syphilis epidemic among men who have sex with men living in mainland China

Abstract Background Geographic differences in HIV, syphilis and condomless sex among men who have sex with men in China remained unknown. We aimed to elucidate these spatiotemporal changing patterns in China. Methods We conducted a spatiotemporal meta-analysis. We searched four databases for studies conducted between 2001 and 2015. We included studies that reported original data of HIV/syphilis prevalence in China, the study’s area/province, and period of data collection. We grouped studies into six regions and four time periods. We examined the changing patterns of national and regional prevalence of HIV, syphilis and condomless sex. Results Search results yielded 2119 papers, and 272 were included in the meta-analysis. The sample sizes of the studies ranged from 19 to 47,231. National HIV prevalence increased from 3.8% (95% CI 3.0–4.8) in 2001–07 to 6.6% (5.6–7.7) in 2013–15. In most regions, the rise occurred before 2010 and the HIV prevalence remained relatively stable afterwards, except for the Northwest which showed a considerable increase since 2008. National syphilis prevalence decreased from 12.3% (10.2–14.9) in 2001–07 to 7.1% (5.6–8.9) in 2013–15. Conclusions The trends of HIV and syphilis infections have been effectively curbed in MSM in most regions of China. Continuous efforts, particularly promotion of condom use, are needed to further reduce these infections

A spatiotemporal meta-analysis of HIV/syphilis epidemic among men who have sex with men living in mainland China.

BACKGROUND: Geographic differences in HIV, syphilis and condomless sex among men who have sex with men in China remained unknown. We aimed to elucidate these spatiotemporal changing patterns in China. METHODS: We conducted a spatiotemporal meta-analysis. We searched four databases for studies conducted between 2001 and 2015. We included studies that reported original data of HIV/syphilis prevalence in China, the study's area/province, and period of data collection. We grouped studies into six regions and four time periods. We examined the changing patterns of national and regional prevalence of HIV, syphilis and condomless sex. RESULTS: Search results yielded 2119 papers, and 272 were included in the meta-analysis. The sample sizes of the studies ranged from 19 to 47,231. National HIV prevalence increased from 3.8% (95% CI 3.0-4.8) in 2001-07 to 6.6% (5.6-7.7) in 2013-15. In most regions, the rise occurred before 2010 and the HIV prevalence remained relatively stable afterwards, except for the Northwest which showed a considerable increase since 2008. National syphilis prevalence decreased from 12.3% (10.2-14.9) in 2001-07 to 7.1% (5.6-8.9) in 2013-15. CONCLUSIONS: The trends of HIV and syphilis infections have been effectively curbed in MSM in most regions of China. Continuous efforts, particularly promotion of condom use, are needed to further reduce these infections

Design and construction of artificial photoresponsive protocells capable of converting day light to chemical energy

Design and construction of artificial photoresponsive protocells based on the encapsulation and activation of metallized peptide/porphyrin self-assembled nanofilaments within silica-nanoparticle-stabilized colloidosomes.</p

Systematical Detection of Significant Genes in Microarray Data by Incorporating Gene Interaction Relationship in Biological Systems

Many methods, including parametric, nonparametric, and Bayesian methods, have been used for detecting differentially expressed genes based on the assumption that biological systems are linear, which ignores the nonlinear characteristics of most biological systems. More importantly, those methods do not simultaneously consider means, variances, and high moments, resulting in relatively high false positive rate. To overcome the limitations, the SWang test is proposed to determine differentially expressed genes according to the equality of distributions between case and control. Our method not only latently incorporates functional relationships among genes to consider nonlinear biological system but also considers the mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis of expression profiles simultaneously. To illustrate biological significance of high moments, we construct a nonlinear gene interaction model, demonstrating that skewness and kurtosis could contain useful information of function association among genes in microarrays. Simulations and real microarray results show that false positive rate of SWang is lower than currently popular methods (T-test, F-test, SAM, and Fold-change) with much higher statistical power. Additionally, SWang can uniquely detect significant genes in real microarray data with imperceptible differential expression but higher variety in kurtosis and skewness. Those identified genes were confirmed with previous published literature or RT-PCR experiments performed in our lab

Synthesis and applications of porous non-silica metal oxide submicrospheres

© 2016 Royal Society of Chemistry. Nowadays the development of submicroscale products of specific size and morphology that feature a high surface area to volume ratio, well-developed and accessible porosity for adsorbates and reactants, and are non-toxic, biocompatible, thermally stable and suitable as synergetic supports for precious metal catalysts is of great importance for many advanced applications. Complex porous non-silica metal oxide submicrospheres constitute an important class of materials that fulfill all these qualities and in addition, they are relatively easy to synthesize. This review presents a comprehensive appraisal of the methods used for the synthesis of a wide range of porous non-silica metal oxide particles of spherical morphology such as porous solid spheres, core-shell and yolk-shell particles as well as single-shell and multi-shell particles. In particular, hydrothermal and low temperature solution precipitation methods, which both include various structure developing strategies such as hard templating, soft templating, hydrolysis, or those taking advantage of Ostwald ripening and the Kirkendall effect, are reviewed. In addition, a critical assessment of the effects of different experimental parameters such as reaction time, reaction temperature, calcination, pH and the type of reactants and solvents on the structure of the final products is presented. Finally, the practical usefulness of complex porous non-silica metal oxide submicrospheres in sensing, catalysis, biomedical, environmental and energy-related applications is presented

Defining the hidden burden of disease in rural communities in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Thailand: a cross-sectional household health survey protocol

Introduction In low-income and middle-income countries in Southeast Asia, the burden of diseases among rural population remains poorly understood, posing a challenge for effective healthcare prioritisation and resource allocation. Addressing this knowledge gap, the South and Southeast Asia Community-based Trials Network (SEACTN) will undertake a survey that aims to determine the prevalence of a wide range of non-communicable and communicable diseases, as one of the key initiatives of its first project-the Rural Febrile Illness project (RFI). This survey, alongside other RFI studies that explore fever aetiology, leading causes of mortality, and establishing village and health facility maps and profiles, will provide an updated epidemiological background of the rural areas where the network is operational. Methods and analysis During 2022-2023, a cross-sectional household survey will be conducted across three SEACTN sites in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Thailand. Using a two-stage cluster-sampling approach, we will employ a probability-proportional-to-size sample method for village, and a simple random sample for household, selection, enrolling all members from the selected households. Approximately 1500 participants will be enrolled per country. Participants will undergo questionnaire interview, physical examination and haemoglobin point-of-care testing. Blood samples will be collected and sent to central laboratories to test for chronic and acute infections, and biomarkers associated with cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Prevalences will be presented as an overall estimate by country, and stratified and compared across sites and participants' sociodemographic characteristics. Associations between disease status, risk factors and other characteristics will be explored. Ethics and dissemination This study protocol has been approved by the Oxford Tropical Research Ethics Committee, National Research Ethics Committee of Bangladesh Medical Research Council, the Cambodian National Ethics Committee for Health Research, the Chiang Rai Provincial Public Health Research Ethical Committee. The results will be disseminated via the local health authorities and partners, peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations. Trial registration number NCT05389540

Defining the burden of febrile illness in rural South and Southeast Asia: an open letter to announce the launch of the Rural Febrile Illness project.

In rural areas of South and Southeast Asia malaria is declining but febrile illnesses still account for substantial morbidity and mortality. Village health workers (VHWs) are often the first point of contact with the formal health system, and for patients with febrile illnesses they can provide early diagnosis and treatment of malaria. However, for the majority of febrile patients, VHWs lack the training, support and resources to provide further care. Consequently, treatable bacterial illnesses are missed, antibiotics are overused and poorly targeted, and patient attendance wanes along with declining malaria. This announces the start of a new initiative, the Rural Febrile Illness (RFI) project, the first in a series of projects to be implemented as part of the South and Southeast Asian Community-based Trials Network (SEACTN) research programme. This multi-country, multi-site project will begin in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar and will define the epidemiological baseline of febrile illness in five remote and underserved areas of Asia where malaria endemicity is declining and access to health services is limited. The RFI project aims to determine the incidence, causes and outcomes of febrile illness; understand the opportunities, barriers and appetite for adjustment of the role of VHWs to include management of non-malarial febrile illnesses; and establish a network of community healthcare providers and facilities capable of implementing interventions designed to triage, diagnose and treat patients presenting with febrile illnesses within these communities in the future. [Abstract copyright: Copyright: © 2021 Chandna A et al.

The Impact of Market Integration on Renewable Energy Technology Innovation: Evidence from China

China is vigorously building a unified domestic market, with priority given to regional market integration while maintaining a national unified market. Limited research has been conducted on whether market integration affects renewable energy technology innovation (RETI). This paper empirically studies this topic based on panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2004 to 2020 using FMOLS (Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares), DOLS (Dynamic Least Squares method), and FGLS (Feasible Generalized Least Squares). Research results have been verified by robustness tests. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Market integration has an important positive impact on RETI, namely, boosting it. This conclusion remains robust when different indicators of innovation and market segmentation are included. (2) The regional impacts of market integration on RETI are heterogeneous, being the greatest in east China, followed by west China and central China. (3) Market integration affects RETI through energy structure and technological innovation. It can optimize energy structure, improve technological innovation, and thus enhance RETI. Based on the above conclusions, in order to improve RETI in China and expand its contribution to carbon neutrality and carbon peaking, China needs to strengthen the construction of a national unified market and implement differentiated market integration policies in east, central, and west China. Furthermore, it is necessary to give full play to the role of energy structure and technological innovation in market integration by optimizing energy structure and improving technological innovation

Removing Chlorobenzene via the Synergistic Effects of Adsorption and Catalytic Oxidation over Activated Carbon Fiber Loaded with Transition Metal Oxides

This study focused on the elimination of chlorobenzene by dual adsorption/catalytic oxidation over activated carbon fibers (ACFs) loaded with transition metal oxides (TMOs). The TMOs were successfully loaded on the ACFs by the incipient wetness impregnation method, which has the advantages of easy preparation, low cost, and size uniformity. The removal effects for chlorobenzene (CB) were investigated on pristine ACFs and TMOs@ACFs in a fix-bed reactor. The adsorption/catalytic oxidation experiments result demonstrated that ACFs can be used as a very efficient adsorbent for the removal of low-concentration CB at the low temperature of 120 &deg;C; the breakthrough time of CB over pristine ACFs can reach 15 h at an inlet concentration of 5000 ppmv and space velocity of 20,000 h&minus;1. As the bed temperature rose above 175 &deg;C, the CB removal mainly contributed to the catalytic oxidation of MnO2; a preferable CB removal ratio was achieved at higher temperatures in the presence of more MnO2. Therefore, CB can be effectively removed by the dual adsorbent/catalyst of MnO2@ACF at the full temperature range below 300 &deg;C