Development and Validation of a New Comprehensive Assessment Scale of HIV-Related Psychological Distress in China: A Methodological Study.

ABSTRACT: Instruments evaluating HIV-related psychological distress (HRPD) in people living with HIV may lack sensitivity to capture patients' psychological burden. We developed a comprehensive scale measuring HRPD and evaluated its psychometric properties. A mixed-method study was conducted from July 2021 to April 2022; it involved a literature review, semistructured interviews ( n = 15), three rounds of panel discussions, two rounds of Delphi studies ( n = 20), a pilot test ( n = 20) to generate new scale items, and a cross-sectional survey ( n = 659) to evaluate the psychometric properties of the HIV-related psychological distress scale. The scale contains 22 items across 4 subscales (i.e., disease-related distress, treatment adherence distress, identity distress, and disclosure distress). The confirmatory factor analysis revealed high goodness of fit (χ 2 /df = 2.412, comparative fit index = 0.916, incremental fit index = 0.917, and Tucker‒Lewis index = 0.902), showing that the HIV-related psychological distress scale is a reliable (Cronbach's α = 0.871 overall) and valid scale for evaluating HRPD in China and can be used to dynamically evaluate and monitor HRPD levels during patient follow-up.

Analysis of patterns and risk factors regarding the onset of nodules in the contralateral thyroid lobe during follow-up ultrasonography among patients after unilateral lobectomy for the treatment of papillary thyroid carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: This study tries to find the patterns of new nodules in contralateral thyroid lobe among papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs) after lobectomy using ultrasonography. METHODS: Of note, 456 PTCs were enrolled. Clinicopathological features of primary tumors and sonographic patterns of new nodules in contralateral lobe were documented. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors for new nodules. RESULTS: The overall incidence of new nodules was 41.9%. 96.3% of new nodules were no greater than 1 cm while only 10.5% of those were with high suspicion of malignancy. There was no difference in the incidence and sonographic patterns of new nodules between patients with an original tumor size <1 cm (n = 267) vs 1 to 4 cm (n = 189). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed age (OR, 1.021; 95% CI, 1.001-1.041; P = .036) played risk factor for new nodules while tumor size >1 cm did not. CONCLUSION: New nodules in the contralateral lobe were common, but usually small and benign by ultrasound features. Older age was found to be a risk factor to predict new nodules. This study supports lobectomy for 1-4 cm PTC in terms of incidence of new nodules on the remnant lobe.

Survival of GFP-tagged Rhodococcus sp. D310-1 in chlorimuron-ethyl-contaminated soil and its effects on the indigenous microbial community.

The recently isolated bacterial strain Rhodococcus sp. D310-1 can degrade high concentrations of chlorimuron-ethyl (up to 1000 mg L(-1)), indicating its potential for the bioremediation of soil contaminated with high levels of chlorimuron-ethyl. In this study, Rhodococcus sp. D310-1 was tagged with green fluorescent protein gene (gfp) to track its survival in soil. Subsequently, degradation activity of the gfp-tagged strain and its effects on indigenous microbial community were analyzed. Results showed the cell numbers of Rhodococcus sp. D310-1::gfp in non-sterilized soil maintained at 8.5 × 10(4) cells g(-1) dry soil 45 days after inoculation of 7.74 × 10(6) cells g(-1) dry soil and approximately 49% of chlorimuron-ethyl was removed. However, The cell numbers of Rhodococcus sp. D310-1::gfp in sterilized samples increased gradually to 7.85 × 10(7) cells g(-1) dry soil and approximately 78% of chlorimuron-ethyl was removed. PCR-DGGE demonstrated that inoculation of this gfp-tagged strain in chlorimuron-ethyl-contaminated soil has negligible impact on the community structure of bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi. These results indicate that Rhodococcus sp. D310-1 is effective for the remediation of chlorimuron-ethyl-contaminated soil and also provides valuable information about the behavior of the inoculant population during bioremediation, which could be directly used in the risk assessment of inoculant population and optimization of bioremediation process.