HIV-child with disseminated Talaromyces Marneffei (Penicillium marneffei) infection: a rare severe case report.

BACKGROUND: Talaromyces Marneffei (Penicillium marneffei, T.marneffei) has been frequently reported in patients with adult acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Still, cases of children with HIV combined with T.marneffei infection are very rare. This report describes the case of a HIV-child who is a girl from China. Her special clinical manifestations and laboratory diagnosis results can provide clinicians with the basis for diagnosis and treatment of T.marneffei related rare diseases. CASE PRESNTATION: We reported a single case of 7-year-old Chinese female patient who presented with fever, abdominal pain, multiple lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, left lower extremity ecchymosis, and bloody stool. The patient received anti-inflammatory therapy; however, her symptoms did not improve. Consequently, she was diagnosed with T.marneffei and HIV infection; it was also confirmed that her mother did not undergo HIV blocking therapy during pregnancy. Yet, the child's family refused all treatment, after which the child was discharged from the hospital. The patient died a few days later. CONCLUSION: This case suggested that children with AIDS suffering from fever, lymphadenopathy and coagulation dysfunction, penicilliosis should be suspected. Clinicians should diagnose the disease early through laboratory and imaging results, which can help reduce the mortality, prolong the survival time and improve the quality of life of children.

TiO2 @Perylene Diimide Full-Spectrum Photocatalysts via Semi-Core-Shell Structure.

A semi-core-shell structure of perylene diimide (PDI) self-assembly coated with TiO2 nanoparticles is constructed, in which nanoscale porous TiO2 shell is formed and PDI self-assembly presented 1D structure. A full-spectrum photocatalyst is obtained using this structure to resolve a conundrum-TiO2 does not exhibit visible-light photocatalytic activity while PDI does not exhibit ultraviolet photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, the synergistic interaction between TiO2 and PDI enables the catalyst to improve its ultraviolet, visible-light, and full-spectrum performance. The interaction between TiO2 and PDI leads to formation of some new stacking states along the Π-Π stacking direction and, as a consequence, electron transfer from PDI to TiO2 suppresses the recombination of e- /h+ and thus improves photocatalytic performance. But the stronger interaction in the interface between TiO2 and PDI is not in favor of photocatalytic performance, which leads to rapid charge recombination due to more disordered stacking states. The study provides a theoretical direction for the study of core-shell structures with soft materials as a core, and an idea for efficient utilization of solar energy.

The efficacy of initial ventilation strategy for adult immunocompromised patients with severe acute hypoxemic respiratory failure: study protocol for a multicentre randomized controlled trial (VENIM).

BACKGROUND: Acute respiratory failure (ARF) is still one of the most severe complications in immunocompromised patients. Our previous systematic review showed noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIV) reduced mortality, length of hospitalization and ICU stay in AIDS/hematological malignancy patients with relatively less severe ARF, compared to invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). However, this systematic review was based on 13 observational studies and the quality of evidence was low to moderate. The efficacy of NIV in more severe ARF and in patients with other causes of immunodeficiency is still unclear. We aim to determine the efficacy of the initial ventilation strategy in managing ARF in immunocompromised patients stratified by different disease severity and causes of immunodeficiency, and explore predictors for failure of NIV. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The VENIM is a multicentre randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing the effects of NIV compared with IMV in adult immunocompromised patients with severe hypoxemic ARF. Patients who meet the indications for both forms of ventilatory support will be included. Primary outcome will be 30-day all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes will include in-hospital mortality, length of stay in hospital, improvement of oxygenation, nosocomial infections, seven-day organ failure, adverse events of intervention, et al. Subgroups with different disease severity and causes of immunodeficiency will also be analyzed. DISCUSSION: VENIM is the first randomized controlled trial aiming at assessing the efficacy of initial ventilation strategy in treating moderate and severe acute respiratory failure in immunocompromised patients. The result of this RCT may help doctors with their ventilation decisions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02983851 . Registered 2 September 2016.

Subsurface oxygen defects electronically interacting with active sites on In2O3 for enhanced photothermocatalytic CO2 reduction.

Oxygen defects play an important role in many catalytic reactions. Increasing surface oxygen defects can be done through reduction treatment. However, excessive reduction blocks electron channels and deactivates the catalyst surface due to electron-trapped effects by subsurface oxygen defects. How to effectively extract electrons from subsurface oxygen defects which cannot directly interact with reactants is challenging and remains elusive. Here, we report a metallic In-embedded In2O3 nanoflake catalyst over which the turnover frequency of CO2 reduction into CO increases by a factor of 866 (7615 h-1) and 376 (2990 h-1) at the same light intensity and reaction temperature, respectively, compared to In2O3. Under electron-delocalization effect of O-In-(O)Vo-In-In structural units at the interface, the electrons in the subsurface oxygen defects are extracted and gather at surface active sites. This improves the electronic coupling with CO2 and stabilizes intermediate. The study opens up new insights for exquisite electronic manipulation of oxygen defects.

Ultrathin TiO2(B) Nanosheets as the Inductive Agent for Transfrering H2O2 into Superoxide Radicals.

A reflux method to synthesize ultrathin polycrystalline TiO2(B) nanosheets (NSs) which are assembled by single crystals, and further stacked into nanoflower structures, is described. On the basis of the theoretical calculations and experiments, H2O2 can easily substitute the ethylene glycol adsorbed on the surface of TiO2(B) NSs, forming H2O2-NS due to the lower adsorption energy and the unique structural features of ultrathin TiO2(B) nanosheets. TiO2(B) NSs and the H2O2 system can be accelerated to generate superoxide radicals under heat or light and thus exhibit a great degradation property on dye molecules; the total organic carbon (TOC) removal rate was 6 times higher than that for H2O2 alone. Meanwhile, TiO2(B) NSs and the H2O2 system have a good application on the selective oxidation due to the reactive species of superoxide radicals avoiding overoxidization of benzyl alcohol. The conversion of benzyl alcohol oxidized to benzaldehyde in water solution under low temperature and atmospheric pressure was 51.13%, while the selectivity was close to 100%. We believe that the present findings will provide valuable methods for highly efficient generation of superoxide radicals and broaden their applications in catalysis.