Blind Video Quality Prediction by Uncovering Human Video Perceptual Representation.

Blind video quality assessment (VQA) has become an increasingly demanding problem in automatically assessing the quality of ever-growing in-the-wild videos. Although efforts have been made to measure temporal distortions, the core to distinguish between VQA and image quality assessment (IQA), the lack of modeling of how the human visual system (HVS) relates to the temporal quality of videos hinders the precise mapping of predicted temporal scores to the human perception. Inspired by the recent discovery of the temporal straightness law of natural videos in the HVS, this paper intends to model the complex temporal distortions of in-the-wild videos in a simple and uniform representation by describing the geometric properties of videos in the visual perceptual domain. A novel videolet, with perceptual representation embedding of a few consecutive frames, is designed as the basic quality measurement unit to quantify temporal distortions by measuring the angular and linear displacements from the straightness law. By combining the predicted score on each videolet, a perceptually temporal quality evaluator (PTQE) is formed to measure the temporal quality of the entire video. Experimental results demonstrate that the perceptual representation in the HVS is an efficient way of predicting subjective temporal quality. Moreover, when combined with spatial quality metrics, PTQE achieves top performance over popular in-the-wild video datasets. More importantly, PTQE requires no additional information beyond the video being assessed, making it applicable to any dataset without parameter tuning. Additionally, the generalizability of PTQE is evaluated on video frame interpolation tasks, demonstrating its potential to benefit temporal-related enhancement tasks.

Food-derived skin-care ingredient as a promising strategy for skin aging: Current knowledge and future perspectives.

Skin aging involves complex biochemical reactions and has attracted a growing concern recently. For it, there is a great desire to replace the hazardous and easy-recurring "therapy means" with "daily care" based on some natural and healthy ingredients. According to a novel theory called "homology of cosmetic and food", the safety, efficacy and accessibility of food-derived skin-care ingredients offer an attractive option for combating skin aging, which will be an inevitable trend of dermatology in the future. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a major trigger of skin aging. It acts on the skin and generates reactive oxygen species, which causing oxidative stress. More, matrix metalloproteinase and melanin levels are also upregulated by the UV-activated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and tyrosinase, respectively, resulting in collagen degradation and melanin deposition in the extracellular matrix. Through the existing studies, the relevant key biomarkers and biochemical pathways can be effectively controlled by skin-care ingredients from animal-derived and plant-derived foods as well as traditional herbs, thus preserving human skin from UV-induced aging in terms of antioxidant, collagen protection and melanin inhibition. To extend their application potential, some carriers represented by nanoliposomes can facilitate the transdermal absorption of food-derived skin-care ingredients by the variation of molecular weight and lipid solubility. The present review will provide an overview of the trigger mechanisms of skin aging, and focus on the molecular biology aspects of food-derived skin-care ingredients in skin matrix and the critical summarize of their research state.

π-electron injection activated dormant ligands in graphitic carbon nitride for efficient and stable uranium extraction.

Graphitic carbon nitride (CN) as an adsorbent exhibit promising potential for the removal of uranium in water. However, the lack of active sites seriously restricts its practical application. In contrast to the traditional method of introducing new ligands, we propose a strategy to activate original ligands on CN by injecting π electrons, which can be realized by grafting 4-phenoxyphenol (PP) on CN (PCN). Compared with CN, the maximum adsorption capacity of PCN for uranium increased from 150.9 mg/g to 380.6 mg/g. Furthermore, PCN maintains good adsorption properties over a wide range of uranium concentrations (1 ∼ 60 mg/L) and pH (4 ∼ 8). After 5 consecutive cycles, PCN exhibited sustained uranium removal performance with a little of losses. The experimental and theoretical results show that the enhancement of adsorption performance is mainly due to the ligands activation of CN by delocalization of π electrons from PP. Furthermore, this activation can be enhanced by irradiation, as the CN can be photoexcited to provide additional photoelectrons for PP. As a result, dormant ligands such as N-CN, C-O-C, C-N-H and N-(C)3 can be activated to participate in coordination with uranium. This work provides theoretical guidance for the design and preparation of high efficiency uranium adsorbent.

Colletotrichum aeschynomenes Causing Anthracnose in Combretum indicum in Guangxi, China.

Combretum indicum（L.）Jongkind, distributed in Southeast Asia, is widely planted in southern China for its ornamental and medicinal value. In February 2023, anthracnose symptoms were observed on C. indicum leaves in Nanning Garden Expo (N22°43', E108°28'), Guangxi, China, causing severe defoliation of infected plants with a foliar disease incidence ranging from 40 to 60% (n = 100) in a 2 ha field. Disease symptoms began with small red spots (2 to 3 mm by 2 to 3 mm) on the leaves and gradually enlarged to larger irregular light grey lesions with yellowish halos (3 to 5 mm by 2 to 8 mm). In the late stage, spots merged into larger irregular lesions (5 to 15 mm by 6 to 13 mm) and the necrotic lesions abscised. Three diseased samples in total were collected from plants in three different locations. Symptomatic leaves were cut into small pieces (3×3 mm), disinfected with 75% ethanol solution for 10 s, 2% NaClO for 1 min followed by three washes in sterile distilled water. Tissue pieces were separately plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 25°C for five days. One representative isolate from each sample (SJ-1, SJ2-1 and SJ3-1) were chosen for further analysis. Colonies were villiform, initially white, later turning gray in 7 days on PDA at 25℃. The average diameter for colonies were 8.1 cm, 8.0 cm and 8.1 cm for SJ1-1, SJ2-1 and SJ3-1, respectively. Conidia were aseptate, hyaline, cylindroid, and averaged 11.94 µm × 5.04 µm, 11.78 µm × 5.14 µm and 11.74 µm × 4.59 µm (n=90) for SJ1-1, SJ2-1 and SJ3-1, respectively. The characteristics were close to the descriptions of Colletotrichum spp. (Weir et al. 2012). Genomic DNA was extracted from 7-day-old aerial mycelia of these isolates. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), actin (ACT), ß-tubulin (TUB2), chitin synthase (CHS-1), calmodulin (CAL) and the intergenic region between apn2 and MAT1-2-1 (ApMat) were amplified using primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), GDF/GDR, ACT-512F/ACT-783R, T1/Bt2b, CHS-79F/CHS-354R, CL1C/CL2C (Weir et al. 2012) and AM-F/AM-R (Silva et al. 2012), respectively. Sequences were deposited in GenBank (ITS: OR540240-OR540242; GAPDH: PP328968-PP328970; ACT: PP328959-PP328961; TUB2: PP328971-PP328973; CHS-1: PP328965-PP328967; CAL: PP328962-PP328964 and ApMat: OR548253-OR548255). A phylogenetic analysis was made via Bayesian inference based on the concatenated sequences (ITS, GAPDH, ACT, TUB2, CHS-1, CAL and ApMat). According to morphology and phylogenetic analysis, SJ1-1, SJ2-1 and SJ3-1 were identified as C. aeschynomenes. Pathogenicity was confirmed on leaves with and without wounds of 24 one-year-old C. indicum plants in a greenhouse in Nanning, Guangxi Province. The wound was made with a sterilized needle. Wounded and unwounded leaves were inoculated with 20 µl of conidial suspension (106 spores/ml in 0.1% sterile Tween 20) of the three isolates and control plants were inoculated with water containing 0.1% sterile Tween 20 (6 leaves/plant, 3 plants/treatment). All plants were covered with plastic bags to maintain a high humidity environment and placed in a 28°C growth chamber with constant light. After 7 days of incubation, necrotic lesions were observed on inoculated wounded leaves, whereas unwounded leaves and control plants showed no symptoms. The fungi were re-isolated from symptomatic leaves, completing Koch's postulates. These species can cause severe diseases in a variety of plants worldwide, such as Manihot esculenta, Theobroma cacao and Myrciaria dubia (Sangpueak et al. 2018; Nascimento et al. 2019; Matos et al. 2020). To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. aeschynomenes causing C. indicum leaf anthracnose in China. The results will provide valuable information for management of anthracnose in C. indicum.

Preparation of chitosan photodynamic antibacterial film loaded with VK3 complex in the preservation of chilled mutton.

To effectively utilize the photodynamic antibacterial ability of vitamin K3 (VK3), by solving the photothermal instability of VK3, it was combined with natural polymers to apply the preservation of chilled mutton. We encapsulated VK3 in the (2-Hydroxypropyl)-ß-cyclodextrin (HP-ß-CD) to construct VK3-HP-ß-CD complex and then introduced the complex to chitosan (CS) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to fabricate an antibacterial film (CS/PVA-VK3-HP-ß-CD film). Through the packaging performance test of the film, the content of VK3-HP-ß-CD was an important factor determining the properties of film including tensile strength, elongation at break, water vapor permeability, water content and water contact angle. Meanwhile, CS/PVA-VK3-HP-ß-CD films could continuously release ROS under light and suspended in dark, thus realizing >99 % antibacterial rate for Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. In the application experiment of chilled mutton, CS/PVA-VK3-1-HP-ß-CD film could significantly inhibit the increase of total viable count (TVC), pH value (pH) and total volatile base nitrogen (TVB-N) of chilled mutton, and extended its shelf life for at least 12 days. These results indicated that the CS/PVA film with the VK3-HP-ß-CD complex might have promising potential as an antibacterial material for packaging and preserving food.

Identification of vilazodone as a novel plasminogen activator inhibitor to overcome Alzheimer's disease through virtual screening, molecular dynamics simulation, and biological evaluation.

Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (PLAU), a member of the S1 serine peptidase family in Clan PA, plays a crucial role in the conversion of plasminogen into active plasmin. However, the precise role of PLAU in the central nervous system remains incompletely elucidated, particularly, in relation to Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we successfully identified that PLAU could promote cell senescence in neurons, indicating it as a potential target for AD treatment through a systematic approach, which included both bioinformatics analysis and experimental verification. Subsequently, a structure-based virtual screening approach was employed to identify a potential PLAU inhibitor from the Food and Drug Administration-approved drug database. After analyzing docking scores and thoroughly examining the receptor-ligand complex interaction modes, vilazodone emerges as a highly promising PLAU inhibitor. Additionally, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations were performed to generate a complex structure between the relatively stable inhibitor vilazodone and PLAU. Of note, vilazodone exhibited superior cytotoxicity against senescent cells, showing a senolytic activity through targeting PLAU and ultimately producing an anti-AD effect. These findings suggest that targeting PLAU could represent a promising therapeutic strategy for AD. Furthermore, investigating the inhibitory potential and structural modifications based on vilazodone may provide valuable insights for future drug development targeting PLAU in AD disorders.

First Report of Anthracnose Caused by Colletotrichum plurivorum on Passion fruit in Guangxi, China.

Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims.) is popular for its rich taste and nutritional value. The planting area of passion fruit in Guangxi has reached 24,300 ha, with an annual output of 380,000 t (Qian 2023). In March 2023, leave spots on more than half of the plants (cv. Qinmi "NO.9"). Moreover, the incidence of disease on the leaves was approximately 20% in Shabu Town, Qinnan District, Qinzhou City, Guangxi, China (N20˚54'-22˚41', E107˚27'-109˚56'). Leaf diseases were orbicular or irregular in shape, white, whitish-grey, yellowish, or gray in color. When leaves were severely affected, larger blotches were formed with yellow halos. For pathogen isolation, three diseased leaf samples were collected from three gardens, respectively, and 5×5 mm tissues were cut from infected margins, surface-disinfected in 75% ethanol for 15 s, followed by 2% sodium hypochlorite for 1 min, rinsed three times with sterile water, and incubated on PDA at 25°C under 12/12 h light/darkness. After 5 days, ninety cultures were isolated, sixty isolates with similar morphology were retained, and three representative isolates BY-1, BY-2, and BY-4 were randomly selected for further study. On PDA, colonies of the three isolates displayed white or grayish-white. Conidia were single-celled, hyaline, and cylindrical, measuring 17.3±1.5 × 6.3±0.7 µm, 17.8±1.7 × 6.0±0.6 µm, and 16.3±1.4 × 6.4±0.6 µm (n=90) for BY-1, BY-2, and BY-4, respectively. Appressoria were single, brown or black, and irregular in shape, measuring 10.2±1.1×6.5±0.5 µm, 10.5±1.3×7.3±0.6, and 10.9±0.8×7.0±0.8 (n=90) for BY-1, BY-2, and BY-4, respectively. These morphological characteristics were similar to Colletotrichum spp. as previously described (Damm et al. 2019). The isolates were further identified by sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS-ITS1/ITS4), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH-GDF/GDR), actin (ACT-512F/783R), partial sequences of the chitin synthase 1 (CHS-1-79F/354R), and beta-tubulin 2 (TUB2-T1/Bt2b) (Zhang et al. 2023). All sequences were deposited in GenBank (ITS: OR741759 to OR741761, GAPDH: OR767654 to OR767656, ACT: OR767657 to OR767659, CHS-1: OR767660 to OR767662, TUB2: OR767651 to OR767653). A phylogenetic tree was built with RAxML version 8.2.10 based on concatenated sequences of ITS-GAPDH-ACT-CHS-1-TUB2. The results revealed that the three isolates clustered with C. plurivorum. To confirm the pathogenicity of the three isolates, attached leaves of healthy 5-month-old passion fruit plants were injured in the middle region with sterile toothpicks and inoculated with 20 µL of spore suspension (106 conidia/mL), and the noninoculated control received 0.05% Tween-20 (6 leaves/plant, 3 plants/treatment). The inoculated plants were kept in a greenhouse at 25°C and covered with plastic bags to maintain high humidity. After 9 days, all inoculated leaves were symptomatic, whereas no symptoms were observed in the control. C. plurivorum was reisolated from infected leaves, confirming Koch's postulates. C. plurivorum has been reported to infect Abelmoschus esculentus (Batista et al. 2020) and Carya illinoinensis in China (Zhang et al. 2023). However, this is the first report of anthracnose caused by C. plurivorum on passion fruit in China. The results can provide a robust basis for scientific prevention and control of anthracnose.

TOPIQ: A Top-Down Approach From Semantics to Distortions for Image Quality Assessment.

Image Quality Assessment (IQA) is a fundamental task in computer vision that has witnessed remarkable progress with deep neural networks. Inspired by the characteristics of the human visual system, existing methods typically use a combination of global and local representations (i.e., multi-scale features) to achieve superior performance. However, most of them adopt simple linear fusion of multi-scale features, and neglect their possibly complex relationship and interaction. In contrast, humans typically first form a global impression to locate important regions and then focus on local details in those regions. We therefore propose a top-down approach that uses high-level semantics to guide the IQA network to focus on semantically important local distortion regions, named as TOPIQ. Our approach to IQA involves the design of a heuristic coarse-to-fine network (CFANet) that leverages multi-scale features and progressively propagates multi-level semantic information to low-level representations in a top-down manner. A key component of our approach is the proposed cross-scale attention mechanism, which calculates attention maps for lower level features guided by higher level features. This mechanism emphasizes active semantic regions for low-level distortions, thereby improving performance. TOPIQ can be used for both Full-Reference (FR) and No-Reference (NR) IQA. We use ResNet50 as its backbone and demonstrate that TOPIQ achieves better or competitive performance on most public FR and NR benchmarks compared with state-of-the-art methods based on vision transformers, while being much more efficient (with only  âˆ¼ 13% FLOPS of the current best FR method). Codes are released at https://github.com/chaofengc/IQA-PyTorch.

Fusarium pernambucanum Causing Peduncle Rot on Grape in Guangxi, China.

Grape (Vitis vinifera) is regarded as one of the most economically important fruit crops throughout the world and is widely cultivated in China. In March 2023, peduncle rot symptoms were observed on ripe grape (cv. Kyoho) of Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Nanning, Guangxi Province (20°54' to 26°24' N, 104°26' to 112°04' E), causing severe shrink of infected grapes with incidence of 20 to 40%. Initially, a small portion of the grape peduncles turned from light brown to darker brown and gradually spread to the entire bunch of grape peduncles. Then the peduncles gradually dried up and became dark brown, resulting in necrosis and shedding of the fruits. Symptomatic peduncles were cut into small pieces (approximately 3 mm long), surface disinfected with 75% alcohol for 10 s, 1% NaOCl for 2 min followed by three washes in sterile distilled water and separately transferred to potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates. Forty-six Fusarium isolates were obtained from the seventy-five tissue pieces after 5 days of incubation at 25°C on PDA (average isolation frequency 61%). Based on the morphology, a representative isolate of Fusarium was selected for each of the three samples. Single spore isolates (PT1-1, PT3-1, and PT3-2) were selected for further study. The colonies produced abundant whitish to yellowish aerial mycelium on PDA after 7 days incubation at 25°C in the dark. Macroconidia cultured on carnation leaf agar (CLA) for 7 days were falcate, multiseptate, with a curved apical cell and foot-shaped basal cell, mostly 1-3-septate, measuring 21.3 ± 0.5 µm × 4.8 ± 0.1 µm, 24.3 ± 0.5 µm × 4.5 ± 0.1 µm, 21.9 ± 0.3 µm × 4.5 ± 0.1 µm (n=90) for PT1-1, PT3-1, and PT3-2, respectively. Microconidia were hyaline, fusoid or ovoid, 0- or 1-septate, measuring 10.5 ± 0.2 µm × 3.5 ± 0.1 µm, 10.4 ± 0.3 µm × 3.6 ± 0.1 µm, 10.0 ± 0.2 µm × 3.6 ± 0.1 µm (n=90) for PT1-1, PT3-1, and PT3-2, respectively. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS), translation elongation factor (TEF1), calmodulin (CAM) and partial RNA polymerase second largest subunit (RPB2) were amplified using primers ITS4/ITS1, EF1/EF2, CL1/CL2A, and 5F2/7cR, respectively (White et al. 1990; O'Donnell et al. 1998, 2000; Reeb et al. 2004; Liu et al. 1999). Sequences from the three isolates were deposited in GenBank (ITS: OR511756-OR511758; TEF1: OR535156-OR535158; CAM: OR535153-OR535155; RPB2: OR535159-OR535161). A maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree was constructed with RAxML version 8.2.10 based on the concatenated sequences (ITS, CAM, TEF1, RPB2). According to morphology and phylogenetic analysis, the isolates were identified as Fusarium pernambucanum (Santos et al. 2019). A pathogenicity test was performed with three isolates on twenty-four asymptomatic strings of grapes in a field in Nanning, Guangxi Province, China. On twelve strings of ripe grapes (cv. Kyoho), 3-mm-long wounds were made on the peduncle of each string of grapes with a sterile needle, followed by inoculation with conidial suspension (106spores/ml in 0.1% sterile Tween 20) by misting with an atomizer until runoff (Lorenz et al. 1995). Three isolates were separately inoculated onto three strings of grapes. Controls were inoculated with water containing 0.1% sterile Tween 20 under the same conditions. The same inoculation was applied to twelve strings of non-wound grapes. Plants were covered with polythene bags to maintain high humidity for 7 days. Typical dark brown lesions were observed on all inoculated peduncles with conidia. After 14 days, the necrotic lesions spread to the entire peduncles causing them to shrivel and die. No symptoms were observed on controls. Koch's postulates were completed by reisolating the fungus from the inoculated tissues. The results of morphological identification and multigene sequence analysis obtained by reisolation were consistent with original isolates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. pernambucanum causing peduncle rot on grape in China. These results will provide valuable information for prevention and management of peduncle rot on grape.

Regulation of the migration of colorectal cancer stem cells via the TLR4/MyD88 signaling pathway by the novel surface marker CD14 following LPS stimulation.

Cell surface markers are most widely used in the study of cancer stem cells (CSCs). However, cell surface markers that are safely and stably expressed in CSCs have yet to be identified. Colonic CSCs express leukocyte CD14. CD14 binding to the ligand lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is involved in the inflammatory response via the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) signaling pathway. TLR4 and MyD88 have been reported to promote the proliferation, metastasis and tumorigenicity of colon cancer cells, which is consistent with the characteristics of CSCs. In the present study, the proposed experimental method to detect cell proliferation, metastasis and tumorigenesis was used to confirm that, under LPS stimulation, CD14 promoted the proliferation, migration and tumorigenesis of colonic CSCs via the TLR4/MyD88 signaling pathway. Cell Counting Kit-8 and 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine assays were used to assess the proliferation and migration of the cells. Colony formation and nude mouse xenograft assays were used to assess the capacity of cells to form tumors. Using western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, the mRNA and protein levels of CD14, TLR4 and MyD88 were examined. It was confirmed that CD14 promoted the proliferation, metastasis and tumorigenesis of colon CSCs in response to LPS stimulation via the TLR4/MyD88 signaling pathway, and CD14+ colon cancer cells were successfully isolated and sorted. According to the results of proliferation assay, it was determined that CD14 regulated the LPS-induced proliferation of colon CSCs. CD14, TLR4 and MyD88 protein and mRNA expression was upregulated in colon CSCs in response to LPS stimulation. This indicates a potential novel target for colon CSC-related studies.

Recent Advances in Nanotechnology-Based Targeted Delivery Systems of Active Constituents in Natural Medicines for Cancer Treatment.

Owing to high efficacy and safety, natural medicines have found their way into the field of cancer therapy over the past few decades. However, the effective ingredients of natural medicines have shortcomings of poor solubility and low bioavailability. Nanoparticles can not only solve the problems above but also have outstanding targeting ability. Targeting preparations can be classified into three levels, which are target tissues, cells, and organelles. On the premise of clarifying the therapeutic purpose of drugs, one or more targeting methods can be selected to achieve more accurate drug delivery and consequently to improve the anti-tumor effects of drugs and reduce toxicity and side effects. The aim of this review is to summarize the research status of natural medicines' nano-preparations in tumor-targeting therapies to provide some references for further accurate and effective cancer treatments.

Corrigendum to "Effects of a symptom management intervention based on group sessions combined with a mobile health application for persons living with HIV in China: A randomized controlled trial" [Int J Nurs Sci 8 (2021) 370-379].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnss.2021.07.002.].

The effect of hyperthyroidism on cognitive function, neuroinflammation, and necroptosis in APP/PS1 mice.

BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence has linked the thyroid dysfunction to the pathogenesis of dementia. Evidence from clinical studies has demonstrated that hypothyroidism is related to an increased risk of dementia. But the association of hyperthyroidism with dementia is largely unknown. METHODS: We used the adenovirus containing thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) amino acid residues 1-289 (Ad-TSHR289)-induced Graves' disease (GD) phenotype in Alzheimer's disease (AD) model mice (APP/PS1 mice) to evaluate the effect of hyperthyroidism on the cognitive function and ß-amyloid (Aß) accumulation. RESULTS: GD mice exhibited a stable long-term hyperthyroidism and cognitive deficits. Single Cell RNA-sequencing analysis indicated that microglia function played a critical role in the pathophysiological processes in GD mice. Neuroinflammation and polarization of microglia (M1/M2 phenotype) and activated receptor-interacting serine/threonine protein kinase 3 (RIPK3)/mixed lineage kinase domain-like pseudo-kinase (MLKL)-mediated necroptosis contributed to the pathological process, including Aß deposition and neuronal loss. RIPK3 inhibitor could inhibit GD-mediated Aß accumulation and neuronal loss. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings reveal that GD hyperthyroidism aggravates cognitive deficits in AD mice and induces Aß deposition and neuronal loss by inducing neuroinflammation and RIPK3/MLKL-mediated necroptosis.

Modification and validation of the COVID-19 stigma instrument in nurses: A cross-sectional survey.

Background: Nurses taking care of patients with infectious diseases have suffered from noticeable societal stigma, however currently, there is no validated scale to measure such stigma. This study aimed to revise and validate the COVID-19 Stigma Instrument-Nurse-Version 3 (CSI-N-3) by using item response theory (IRT) as well as classical test theory analysis. Methods: In phase I, the Chinese CSI-N-3 was modified from the English version of HIV/AIDS Stigma Instrument-Nurse based on standard cross-cultural procedures, including modifications, translation/back translations, pilot testing, and psychometric testing with classical test theory and Rasch analysis. In phase II, a cross-sectional study using cluster sampling was conducted among 249 eligible nurses who worked in a COVID-19-designed hospital in Shanghai, China. The influencing factors of COVID-19-associated stigma were analyzed through regression analysis. Results: In phase I, the two-factor structure was verified by confirmatory factor analysis, which indicated a good model fit. The 15-item CSI-N-3 achieved Cronbach's α of 0.71-0.84, and composite reliability of 0.83-0.91. The concurrent validity was established by significant association with self-reported physical, psychological, and social support levels (r = -0.18, -0.20, and -0.21, p < 0.01). In IRT analysis, the CSI-N-3 has ordered response thresholds, with the Item Reliability and Separation Index of 0.95 and 4.15, respectively, and the Person Reliability and Separation Index of 0.20 and 0.50, respectively. The infit and outfit mean squares for each item ranged from 0.39 to 1.57. In phase II, the mean score for the CSI-N-3 in Chinese nurses was 2.80 ± 3.73. Regression analysis showed that social support was the only factor affecting nurses' COVID-19-associated stigma (standardized coefficients ß = -0.21, 95% confidence interval: -0.73 ~ -0.19). Conclusion: The instrument CSI-N-3 is equipped with rigorous psychometric properties that can be used to measure COVID-19-associated stigma during and after the COVID-19 pandemic among nurses. The use of this instrument may facilitate the evaluation of tailored stigma-reduction interventions.

Case report: Hypnic headache responds to agomelatine-a potential prophylactic treatment option.

Introduction: Hypnic headache (HH) is a rare primary headache that is characterized by strict sleep-related attacks. However, the pathophysiology of HH remains unclear. The nocturnal nature of this activity suggests a hypothalamic involvement. The pathogenesis of HH may involve the brain structure that regulates circadian rhythms and is related to an imbalance between hormones, such as melatonin and serotonin. Currently, evidence-based medicine for HH pharmacotherapy is lacking. Acute and prophylactic treatment of HH is based on only a few case reports. Here, we report a case study in which agomelatine showed desirable responsiveness for the prophylactic treatment of HH for the first time. Case description: We present the case of a 58-year-old woman with a 3-year history of nocturnal left temporal pain that awakened her during the wee hours. Brain magnetic resonance imaging did not reveal any midline structural abnormalities associated with circadian rhythms. Polysomnography revealed headache-related awakening at approximately 5:40 am, after the last rapid eye movement phase. No sleep apnea-hypopnea events were observed, without oxygen saturation or blood pressure abnormalities. The patient was prescribed agomelatine 25 mg at bedtime as a prophylactic treatment. In the following month, the frequency and severity of the headaches decreased by 80%. After 3 months, the patient's headache completely resolved, and the medication was discontinued. Conclusion: HH only occurs during sleep in the real world, leading to substantial sleep disturbances in older populations. Headache center neurologists need to focus on the prophylactic treatment of patients before bedtime to avoid nocturnal awakening. Agomelatine is a potential prophylactic treatment option for patients with HH.

Cichoric acid aerosol for inhalation therapy in respiratory syncytial virus.

Cichoric acid (CA) is a caffeic acid derivative, which has significant anti respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) effect and low toxicity. However, due to the low oral bioavailability and poor intestinal absorption of CA, it is not suitable to be made into oral preparations. In this study, CA was made into metered dose inhaler (MDI), allowing the drug to target the site of action, thus achieving more effective treatment. Through preliminary experiments, the drug content and prescription composition of the preparation were determined. Clarity and stability of solution were used as indexes to screen the composition of latent solvent. Single factor and orthogonal test were used to optimize the amount of latent solvent in CA-MDI, and the optimal prescription was verified. The aerosol prepared according to the optimal formula was characterized and preliminary stability was studied. The final formula of CA-MDI was: CA 15 mg, absolute ethanol 1 g, propylene glycol 0.4 g and 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane 10 g. CA-MDI was prepared with the best prescription, with the specification of 150 actuation per bottle and 75 µg per actuation. After quality inspection, three batches of inhaled aerosols showed that the main drug content per bottle was 77.91 ± 1.63 µg (n = 3), and the total number of bottles was 185 ± 3 (n = 3), all of which met the standards of China Pharmacopoeia and the proposed specifications. The preliminary stability study showed that the quality of inhaled aerosols in CA was stable and reliable.

Lost in Translation: Impact of Language Barriers and Facilitators on the Health Care of Asian Americans Living with HIV.

Language barriers are major obstacles that Asian American immigrants face when accessing health care in the USA. This study was conducted to explore the impact of language barriers and facilitators on the health care of Asian Americans. Qualitative, in-depth interviews and quantitative surveys were conducted with 69 Asian Americans (Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and mixed Asian backgrounds) living with HIV (AALWH) in three urban areas (New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles) in 2013 and from 2017 to 2020. The quantitative data indicate that language ability is negatively associated with stigma. Major themes emerged related to communication, including the impact of language barriers on HIV care and the positive impact of language facilitators-family members/friends, case managers, or interpreters-who can communicate with healthcare providers in the AALWH's native language. Language barriers negatively impact access to HIV-related services and thus result in decreased adherence to antiretroviral therapy, increased unmet healthcare needs, and increased HIV-related stigma. Language facilitators enhanced the connection between AALWH and the healthcare system by facilitating their engagement with health care providers. Language barriers experienced by AALWH not only impact their healthcare decisions and treatment choices but also increase levels of external stigma which may influence the process of acculturation to the host country. Language facilitators and barriers to health services for AALWH represent a target for future interventions in this population.

Fear of COVID and Physical Health Among People Living with HIV in China: Mediation Effects of HIV Stigma, Social Support, and Substance Use.

The COVID-19 pandemic has uniquely impacted people living with HIV (PLWH) worldwide. The negative impacts on PLWH's mental health from fear of COVID-19 are labeled as "a double stress." The association between fear of COVID-19 and HIV (internalized) stigma has been found among PLWH. Studies that explore the relationships between fear of COVID-19 and physical health outcomes are few, especially among PLWH. In this study, we explored the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and physical health among PLWH and the mediated effects of HIV stigma, social support, and substance use. A cross-sectional online survey of PLWH (n = 201) from November 2021 to May 2022 was carried out in Shanghai, China. The data on socio-demographics, fear of COVID-19, physical health, HIV-related perceived stigma, social support, and substance use were gathered and analyzed by structure equation modeling (SEM). In SEM analysis, fear of COVID-19 showed a significant and indirect effect on physical health (ß=-0.085) which was primarily mediated by HIV stigma. In SEM analysis, the final model had a good fit. Fear of COVID-19 showed a significant effect on HIV stigma (ß = 0.223) with the majority being direct effects (ß = 0.262) and a small indirect effect via substance use (ß=-0.039). Furthermore, HIV stigma showed a significant effect on physical health (ß=-0.382), the majority of which was direct (ß=-0.340), and a small indirect effect via social support (ß=-0.042). This is one of the first studies to explore how fear of contracting COVID-19 can affect PLWH's coping behaviors (e.g., using substances and obtaining social support) used to combat HIV stigma as well as to achieve better physical health in China.

Leaf Spot of Sanhua Plum caused by Botryosphaeria wangensis in China.

Sanhua plum (Prunus salicina L.) is planted widely in Babu district of Hezhou, Guangxi with a planting history of more than 70 years (Zhou et al., 2021). In August 2021, leaf spot disease was observed with approximately 50% incidence on Sanhua plum leaves in Babu district in Hezhou, Guangxi (N23°49'-24°48', E111°12'-112°03'). The symptoms initially appeared as small, round, and chlorotic spots. As the disease progressed, the lesions enlarged and margins became dark brown. To isolate the pathogen, small pieces (5 × 5 mm) of the infected tissue margins were sterilized by exposure to 75% ethanol for 10 sec, 2% sodium hypochlorite for 1 min and rinsed three times in sterile water. Pieces were incubated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 28℃. In total, 75 isolates were obtained from leaves which were collected from three trees. Fifty of them were morphologically identical with a 67% average isolation frequency. Three representative isolates (HZ13-1, HZ26-3 and HZ47-1) were selected for further study. The cultures on PDA were initially white, fluffy with uneven margins and turned smoky gray to olivaceous at the surface. The reverse sides were olivaceous gray to iron gray after seven days. The growth rate of mycelium was 2.5 cm/day. Conidia were produced after two weeks by exposure to near-fluorescent light for 10 hours per day. Conidia were fusiform, hyaline, thin-walled, smooth with granular contents unicellular, and 19.7 ± 0.13 × 5.8 ± 0.06 µm (n=90), 19.8 ± 0.09 × 6.5 ± 0.23 µm (n=90), and 20.6 ± 0.20 × 6.7 ± 0.12 µm (n=90) for HZ13-1, HZ26-3 and HZ47-1, respectively. These characteristics were consistent with the descriptions of the Botryosphaeria wangensis (Hattori et al. 2021). The DNA was extracted from mycelia, and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), elongation factor 1-alpha gene (EF1-α) and ß-tubulin (TUB2) were amplified using the primer pairs ITS1/ITS4, EF1-728F/EF1-986R and T1/BT2b (White et al. 1990, Carbone et al. 1999, Yu et al. 2021), respectively. The sequences were compared with GenBank and they all showed over 99% identity to the type strain of B. wangensis CERC 2298 (Li et al. 2020). Sequences of the three isolates were deposited in GenBank (Accession Nos.: ITS, OP804110-OP804112; EF1-α, OP821748-OP821750; TUB2, OP821745-OP821747). The three isolates were identified as B. wangensis based on the maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of concatenated sequences of ITS, EF1-α, and TUB2 with RAxML version 2.0. Pathogenicity tests were performed on healthy leaves of 2-year-old Sanhua plum, which were wounded by a sterilized needle in a greenhouse. A 5-mm-diam hyphal plug was placed on the wound. Each isolate was used to inoculate three plants, with 20 leaves per plant. Control plants were inoculated with sterile PDA plugs. All the plants were sprayed with distilled water and covered with plastic bags. After four days of incubation at 28℃ with constant light, lesion began to develop in the inoculated leaves. After ten days, the average diameter of lesions was up to 1.5 cm but controls remained symptom-free. The fungi were reisolated from inoculated symptomatic leaves and were identical to the inoculated isolates, thus completing Koch's postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of B. wangensis associated with leaf spot of Sanhua plum in China. The results will contribute to accelerating the development of future epidemiological studies of B. wangensis on Sanhua plum.