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This cross sectional study was conducted in 2018 in Côte d'Ivoire to assess PrEP acceptability among men who have sex with men (MSM). Two hundred and one men were asked on their intention to use PrEP if made available. Logistic regression accounting for the sampling design was used to analyze associations between high PrEP acceptability and different independent variables including barriers and facilitators. Participants were mostly young (mean age = 25 years), educated (82% with secondary/postsecondary education) and single (95.5%). On average, 3.4 episodes of anal sex were reported monthly and 37.8% of men did not use a condom at last sex. Most MSM (72.6%) had heard of PrEP before enrollment. Overall, 35.3% reported that they would use PrEP very probably if made available. In multivariate analysis, factors associated with high PrEP acceptability were condom use at last sexual intercourse (Odds ratio (OR) = 2.51; 95%Confidence interval (95%CI) = 1.45–4.33); insertive sex as compared to versatile sex (OR = 2.56; 95%CI = 1.14–5.67); free PrEP delivery (OR = 2.45; 95%CI = 1.07–5.59), concerns about side effects (OR = 0.66; 95%CI = 0.48–0.90), and being preoccupied by the fact that post-PrEP antiretroviral therapy could be inefficient (OR = 0.25; 95%CI = 0.14–0.44). PrEP implementation among MSM in Côte d'Ivoire should be accompanied by awareness raising campaigns explaining its utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including the toxicity of quantum dots (QDs), the dosimetry of nanomaterials, and nanotoxicology.

In cell culture studies, foetal calf serum (FCS) comprising numerous different proteins is added, which might coat the surface of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) and thus could profoundly alter their biological activities. In this study, a panel of industrially most relevant metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) was screened for toxic effects in A549 lung epithelial cells and RAW264.7 macrophages in the presence and absence of FCS. In medium without FCS amorphous SiO2-NPs were the most cytotoxic NPs and induced a significant pro-inflammatory response in both cell types. An increased anti-oxidative response after exposure to SiO2-NPs was, however, only observed in RAW264.7 macrophages. Furthermore, pre-coating of SiO2-NPs with FCS proteins or simply bovine serum albumin abrogated responses in A549 lung epithelial cells. Thus, the protein corona bound to the surface of SiO2-NPs suppresses their biological effects, an issue which needs to be more carefully considered for in vitro-in vivo extrapolations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usually, the aperture of x-ray refractive lenses is small and limits their field of view. To overcome this limit, we developed a new process and have fabricated a 2D array of sub-lenses in an integrated way. With a 3 × 3 lens array, the effective field of view, consisting of nine subfields, was enlarged by a factor of three in both directions. The subfields however are not directly connected in the object plane. Two of these lens arrays with different apertures, one used as a condenser multi-lens and one as an objective multi-lens, mounted on one optical axis form a multi-field x-ray microscope. The optical properties of such a setup were tested. The microscope was capable of imaging in the multi-field mode with a spatial resolution down to 186 nm at a photon energy of 14 keV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]