Our study aimed to develop and validate a nomogram to assess talaromycosis risk in hospitalized HIV-positive patients. Prediction models were built using data from a multicentre retrospective cohort study in China. On the basis of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we collected data from 1564 hospitalized HIV-positive patients in four hospitals from 2010 to 2019. Inpatients were randomly assigned to the training or validation group at a 7:3 ratio. To identify the potential risk factors for talaromycosis in HIV-infected patients, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted. Through multivariate logistic regression, we determined ten variables that were independent risk factors for talaromycosis in HIV-infected individuals. A nomogram was developed following the findings of the multivariate logistic regression analysis. For user convenience, a web-based nomogram calculator was also created. The nomogram demonstrated excellent discrimination in both the training and validation groups [area under the ROC curve (AUC) = 0.883 vs. 0.889] and good calibration. The results of the clinical impact curve (CIC) analysis and decision curve analysis (DCA) confirmed the clinical utility of the model. Clinicians will benefit from this simple, practical, and quantitative strategy to predict talaromycosis risk in HIV-infected patients and can implement appropriate interventions accordingly.

We demonstrated a method to improve the output performance of a Ti:sapphire laser in the long-wavelength low-gain region with an efficient stimulated Raman scattering process. By shifting the wavelength of the high-gain-band Ti:sapphire laser to the long-wavelength low-gain region, high-performance Stokes operation was achieved in the original long-wavelength low-gain region of the Ti:sapphire laser. With the fundamental wavelength tuning from 870 to 930 nm, first-order Stokes output exceeding 2.5 W was obtained at 930–1000 nm, which was significantly higher than that directly generated by the Ti:sapphire laser, accompanied by better beam quality, shorter pulse duration and narrower linewidth. Under the pump power of 42.1 W, a maximum first-order Stokes power of 3.24 W was obtained at 960 nm, with a conversion efficiency of 7.7%. Furthermore, self-mode-locked modulations of first- and second-order Stokes generation were observed in Ti:sapphire intracavity solid Raman lasers for the first time.

Background: Gram-negative bacilli (GNB) bacteremia is a common and potentially fatal infection with mortality rates estimated to be 14-34%, despite effective antimicrobial treatments. Follow-up blood cultures (FUBCs) are blood cultures that are repeated after an initial positive culture and are indicated in certain clinical scenarios, such as in candidemia or Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia to ensure clearance of the bloodstream infection. FUBCs are used in bacteremia to assess the appropriateness and duration of antimicrobial therapy. Currently, there are no guidelines in place regarding the use of FUBC for GNB bacteremia. Furthermore, the utility of FUBCs is not well-studied in adults living with cancer. The purpose of this study is to identify risk factors associated with persistent GNB bacteremia in adult patients with cancer. Methods: We conducted a single-center, retrospective study in patients aged ≥18 years, hospitalized during calendar year 2022, living with cancer, and with laboratory confirmed GNB bloodstream infection. FUBC was defined as a blood culture performed within 7 days of the initial positive blood culture. Patients were grouped as having the same organism on FUBC (+/same), FUBC with no growth (NG) (+/NG), and different organism on FUBC (+/Different). Patients with a different organism on FUBC were excluded from analysis. We gathered demographic information, suspected source of bacteremia, type of malignancy, identified organisms, presence of antimicrobial resistance, and comorbidities (eg. presence of central venous catheters, urinary catheters, end-stage renal disease). Categorical variables were compared using Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test. Continuous variables were compared using Wilcoxon rank sum tests. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the independent predictors of persistent GNB bacteremia. Results: 356 unique patients with FUBC were identified after inclusion/exclusion criteria. 93/356 (26%) of patients had persistent GNB bacteremia (+/same). Multivariate analysis identified history of bacteremia within the preceding year (OR 2.95, 95% CI [1.6-5.6]) and Achromobacter spp. bacteremia (OR 10.03, 95% CI [1.59-63.23] as independent risk factors for persistence. Organisms with multidrug resistance such as extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (OR 2.47, 95% CI [1.21-5.07]) and carbapenem-resistant organisms (OR 3.35, 95% CI [1.04-10.81]) were also associated with persistent GNB bacteremia. Conclusions: This is the first study to specifically identify risk factors for persistent GNB bacteremia in patients living with cancer. FUBC may be useful in GNB bacteremia with less common organisms and/or if they exhibit multidrug resistance on susceptibility testing. The utility of FUBC should be further explored in patients with cancer with certain risk factors.

Environmental exposures are known to be associated with pathogen transmission and immune impairment, but the association of exposures with aetiology and severity of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) are unclear. A retrospective observational study was conducted at nine hospitals in eight provinces in China from 2014 to 2019. CAP patients were recruited according to inclusion criteria, and respiratory samples were screened for 33 respiratory pathogens using molecular test methods. Sociodemographic, environmental and clinical factors were used to analyze the association with pathogen detection and disease severity by logistic regression models combined with distributed lag nonlinear models. A total of 3323 CAP patients were included, with 709 (21.3%) having severe illness. 2064 (62.1%) patients were positive for at least one pathogen. More severe patients were found in positive group. After adjusting for confounders, particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and 8-h ozone (O3-8h) were significant association at specific lag periods with detection of influenza viruses and Klebsiella pneumoniae respectively. PM10 and carbon monoxide (CO) showed cumulative effect with severe CAP. Pollutants exposures, especially PM, O3-8h, and CO should be considered in pathogen detection and severity of CAP to improve the clinical aetiological and disease severity diagnosis.

Zinc (Zn) is widely known as an essential trace element for fish and new ways to supply it to them are needed. Palygorskite (Pal) is a natural silicate clay mineral and the palygorskite structure contains nano-channels, which are filled with water and exchangeable ions. Zn-bearing palygorskites (Zn-Pal) prepared using ion exchange have attracted attention due to the durable antibacterial properties that limit pathogens and as a potential new Zn source for livestock. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Zn-Pal supplementation on the growth performance, nutrient retention, meat quality, Zn accumulation, and intestinal Zn transporter protein gene expression in blunt snout bream Megalobrama amblycephala. The fish were fed a basal diet without an exogenous Zn source and the basal diet was supplemented with 125 mg/kg Zn as Zn sulfate (ZnSO4) or 35, 80, or 125 mg/kg Zn as Zn-Pal. Each diet was tested using three replicates for 7 weeks. The results showed that dietary Zn-Pal supplementation quadratically (P<0.05) increased growth performance, nutrient retention, total and Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase activity, Zn content in scales, and intestinal Zn transporter protein gene expression. The muscular cooking loss in blunt snout bream decreased with the optimum Zn-Pal Zn level of 35 mg/kg. Compared to the fish treated with ZnSO4, the fish supplemented with 35 mg/kg as Zn-Pal exhibited similar growth performance and nutrient retention (P>0.05), increased mRNA expression of the metal-response element-binding transcription factor-1 in the intestine (P<0.05), and decreased cooking loss of muscle (P<0.05).The results suggested that 35 mg/kg Zn supplementation as Zn-Pal could improve the growth performance and body composition, increase nutrient retention and tissue Zn concentrations, enhance the muscle water-holding capacity, and enhance antioxidant status in blunt snout bream. The Zn-Pal was more efficient and could be used as an alternative Zn source to ZnSO4 in the diet of blunt snout bream.

The objective of this study was to understand and measure epigenetic changes associated with the occurrence of CHDs by utilizing the discordant monozygotic twin model. A unique set of monozygotic twins discordant for double-outlet right ventricles (DORVs) was used for this multiomics study. The cardiac and muscle tissue samples from the twins were subjected to whole genome sequencing, whole genome bisulfite sequencing, RNA-sequencing and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis. Sporadic DORV cases and control fetuses were used for validation. Global hypomethylation status was observed in heart tissue samples from the affected twins. Among 36,228 differentially methylated regions (DMRs), 1097 DMRs involving 1039 genes were located in promoter regions. A total of 419 genes, and lncRNA–mRNA pairs involved 30 genes, and 62 proteins were significantly differentially expressed. Multiple omics integrative analysis revealed that five genes, including BGN, COL1A1, COL3A1, FBLN5, and FLAN, and three pathways, including ECM-receptor interaction, focal adhesion and TGF-β signaling pathway, exhibited differences at all three levels. This study demonstrates a multiomics profile of discordant twins and explores the possible mechanism of DORV development. Global hypomethylation might be associated with the risk of CHDs. Specific genes and specific pathways, particularly those involving ECM–receptor interaction, focal adhesion and TGF–β signaling, might be involved in the occurrence of CHDs.

Integrating the literature on talent management and teams, and drawing upon the signaling theory as the overarching framework, we investigated the moderated indirect effects of talent inducements on employee creativity via employee work engagement in teams. Empirical data from matched leader-members indicated that team talent inducement was positively related to member work engagement, which was then positively associated with team and member creativity. In addition, individual learning and performance-approach goal orientation positively moderated this indirect relationship, whereas individual performance-avoidance goal orientation negatively moderated this indirect relationship. Together, these results illuminate a cross-level influence process of team talent inducements on creativity and individual goal orientations as boundary conditions.

A local COVID-19 outbreak with two community clusters occurred in a large industrial city, Shaoxing, China, in December 2021 after serial interventions were imposed. We aimed to understand the reason by analysing the characteristics of the outbreak and evaluating the effects of phase-adjusted interventions. Publicly available data from 7 December 2021 to 25 January 2022 were collected to analyse the epidemiological characteristics of this outbreak. The incubation period was estimated using Hamiltonian Monte Carlo method. A well-fitted extended susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered model was used to simulate the impact of different interventions under various combination of scenarios. There were 387 SARS-CoV-2-infected cases identified, and 8.3% of them were initially diagnosed as asymptomatic cases. The estimated incubation period was 5.4 (95% CI 5.2–5.7) days for all patients. Strengthened measures of comprehensive quarantine based on tracing led to less infections and a shorter duration of epidemic. With a same period of incubation, comprehensive quarantine was more effective in containing the transmission than other interventions. Our findings reveal an important role of tracing and comprehensive quarantine in blocking community spread when a cluster occurred. Regions with tense resources can adopt home quarantine as a relatively affordable and low-impact intervention measure compared with centralized quarantine.

While burgeoning research on China's state–society relations has paid attention to the Party, little is known about how the Party interacts with diverse actors and involves itself at the grassroots level in a specific region. This article delineates Party-advancement strategies at the community level in Shenzhen since 2013. To reclaim its leading role at the grassroots level, the Party opted for “Party–government disaggregation” by framing community governance as a Party-building affair, separating the government's affairs from those of the Party and “kicking” the government out of the community. Under the rubric of “reshaping Party–mass relations,” the Party penetrated deep into the community by innovating a “centre-periphery” organizational system, absorbing community elites in a top-down way and using a “service delivery taking the lead” method in a reciprocal exchange. In the end, the Party-governance structure, in which Party–mass relations are at the core, was reframed in the communities.

In recent years, the incidence of teratospermia has been increasing, and it has become a very important factor leading to male infertility. The research on the molecular mechanism of teratospermia is also progressing rapidly. This article briefly summarizes the clinical incidence of teratozoospermia, and makes a retrospective summary of related studies reported in recent years. Specifically discussing the relationship between gene status and spermatozoa, the review aims to provide the basis for the genetic diagnosis and gene therapy of teratozoospermia.

Resistant starch (RS) has received increased attention due to its potential health benefits. This study was aimed to investigate the effects of dietary corn RS on immunological characteristics of broilers. A total of 320 broiler chicks were randomly allocated to five dietary treatments: normal corn–soyabean (NC) diet group, corn starch diet group, 4 %, 8 % and 12 % RS diet groups. This trial lasted for 42 d. The relative weights of spleen, thymus and bursa, the concentrations of nitric oxide (NO) and IL-4 in plasma at 21 d of age, as well as the activities of total nitric oxide synthase (TNOS) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in plasma at 21 and 42 d of age showed positive linear responses (P < 0·05) to the increasing dietary RS level. Meanwhile, compared with the birds from the NC group at 21 d of age, birds fed 4 % RS, 8 % RS and 12 % RS diets exhibited higher (P < 0·05) relative weight of bursa and concentrations of NO and interferon-γ in plasma. Birds fed 4 % RS and 8 % RS diets showed higher (P < 0·05) number of IgA-producing cells in the jejunum. While compared with birds from the NC group at 42 d of age, birds fed 12 % RS diet showed higher (P < 0·05) relative weight of spleen and activities of TNOS and iNOS in plasma. These findings suggested that dietary corn RS supplementation can improve immune function in broilers.

This study is performed to figure out how the presence of diabetes affects the infection, progression and prognosis of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and the effective therapy that can treat the diabetes-complicated patients with COVID-19. A multicentre study was performed in four hospitals. COVID-19 patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) or hyperglycaemia were compared with those without these conditions and matched by propensity score matching for their clinical progress and outcome. Totally, 2444 confirmed COVID-19 patients were recruited, from whom 336 had DM. Compared to 1344 non-DM patients with age and sex matched, DM-COVID-19 patients had significantly higher rates of intensive care unit entrance (12.43% vs. 6.58%, P = 0.014), kidney failure (9.20% vs. 4.05%, P = 0.027) and mortality (25.00% vs. 18.15%, P < 0.001). Age and sex-stratified comparison revealed increased susceptibility to COVID-19 only from females with DM. For either non-DM or DM group, hyperglycaemia was associated with adverse outcomes, featured by higher rates of severe pneumonia and mortality, in comparison with non-hyperglycaemia. This was accompanied by significantly altered laboratory indicators including lymphocyte and neutrophil percentage, C-reactive protein and urea nitrogen level, all with correlation coefficients >0.35. Both diabetes and hyperglycaemia were independently associated with adverse prognosis of COVID-19, with hazard ratios of 10.41 and 3.58, respectively.

The staining procedure is critical for investigating intra- and extra-cellular ultrastructure of microorganisms by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Here, we propose a new ultra-low lead staining (ULLS) technique for preparing the ultrathin sections for TEM analysis. Sections of Enterobacter sp. (bacteria), Aspergillus niger (filamentous fungi), Rhodotorula mucilaginosa (fungi), and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (microalgae) were tested. Compared with the sections prepared by the typical double-staining technique, ULLS-based sections showed evident advantages: (i) the staining process only required the addition of Pb(NO3)2; (ii) the Pb level during incubation was set as low as 1 mg/L, which had negligible toxicity to most microbial cells; (iii) the Pb cations were added during microbial culture, which avoided complicated sample preparation as in typical double staining. Taking C. reinhardtii as an example, the ULLS technique allowed fine investigation of microbial ultrastructure, e.g., starch granule, mitochondrion, Golgi apparatus, vacuole, and vesicle. Meanwhile, the physiological processes of the cells such as cell lysis and exocytosis were successfully captured, with relatively high contrast. This study hence shows a bright future on preparation of the high-quality ultrathin sections of microbial cells by the ULLS technique.