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IntroductionThe large number of key populations in China who would benefit from HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in the context of limited health system capacity and public awareness will pose challenges for timely PrEP scale-up, suggesting an urgent need for innovative and accessible interventions. This study aims to develop and pilot test a theory-informed, tailored mobile phone intervention that was codeveloped by young gay men, HIV clinicians and public health researchers to increase engagement in PrEP education and initiation among Chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), who bear a disproportionate burden of HIV infections and remain underserved in the healthcare system.Methods and analysisThis two-phase study includes a formative assessment using in-depth interviews (N=30) and a 12-week experimental pilot study using a two-arm randomised controlled trial design (N=70). The primary intervention is delivered through a WeChat-based mini-app (a program built into a Chinese multipurpose social media application) developed by young GBMSM from a 2019 crowdsourcing hackathon. Using mixed methods, we will further investigate the specific needs and concerns among GBMSM in terms of using PrEP as an HIV prevention strategy, how their concerns and PrEP use behaviours may change with exposure to the mini-app intervention during the study period and how we can further refine this intervention tool to better meet GBMSM’s needs for broader implementation.Ethics and disseminationThis study and its protocols have been reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA (19-3481), the Guangdong Provincial Dermatology Hospital, China (2020031) and the Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital, China (202022155). Study staff will work with local GBMSM community-based organisations to disseminate the study results to participants and the community via social media, workshops and journal publications.Trial registration numberThe study was prospectively registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04426656) on 11 June 2020.

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BackgroundAntiviral therapies against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which has caused a global pandemic of respiratory illness called COVID-19, are still lacking.MethodsOur study (NCT04252885, named ELACOI), was an exploratory randomized (2:2:1) controlled trial assessing the efficacy and safety of lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) or arbidol monotherapy for treating patients with mild/moderate COVID-19.FindingsThis study successfully enrolled 86 patients with mild/moderate COVID-19 with 34 randomly assigned to receive LPV/r, 35 to arbidol and 17 with no antiviral medication as control. Baseline characteristics of the three groups were comparable. The primary endpoints, the average time of positive-to-negative conversion of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid and conversion rates at days 7 and 14, were similar between groups (all P>0.05). There were no differences between groups in the secondary endpoints, the rates of antipyresis, cough alleviation, or improvement of chest CT at days 7 or 14 (all P>0.05). At day 7, eight (23.5%) patients in the LPV/r group, 3 (8.6%) in the arbidol group and 2(11.8%) in the control group showed a deterioration in clinical status from moderate to severe/critical(P =0.206). Overall, 12 (35.3%) patients in the LPV/r group and 5 (14.3%) in the arbidol group experienced adverse events during the follow-up period. No apparent adverse event occurred in the control group.ConclusionsLPV/r or arbidol monotherapy present little benefit for improving the clinical outcome of patients hospitalized with mild/moderate COVID-19 over supportive care.FundingThis study was supported by project 2018ZX10302103-002, 2017ZX10202102-003-004 and Infectious Disease Specialty of Guangzhou High-level Clinical Key Specialty (2019-2021).

// Zhang Yiwen 1, 2, 3, * , Gao Shilin 1, 2, 3, * , Chen Yingshi 1, 2, 3 , Su Lishi 1, 2, 3 , Luo Baohong 1, 2, 3 , Liu Chao 1, 2, 3 , Li Linghua 4 , Pan Ting 1, 2, 3 , Zhang Hui 1, 2, 3 1 Institute of Human Virology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China 2 Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control of Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China 3 Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Antimicrobial Agent and Immunotechnology, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China 4 Department of Infectious Diseases, Guangzhou 8th People’s Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Zhang Hui, email: zhangh92@mail.sysu.edu.cn Pan Ting, email: pant8@mail.sysu.edu.cn Keywords: B-lymphocytes, APC, BAFF, HIV-immunotherapy, tumor Received: April 07, 2016 Accepted: October 14, 2016 Published: October 21, 2016 ABSTRACT Efficient antigen presentation is indispensable for cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)-mediated immunotherapy. B-lymphocytes propagated with CD40L have been developed as antigen-presenting cells (APCs), but this capacity needs further optimization. Here, we aimed to expand human B-lymphocytes on a large scale while maintaining their antigen-presenting ability by using both CD40L and B-cell activating factor (BAFF). The addition of BAFF enhanced the expansion efficiency and prolonged the culture time without causing apoptosis of the expanded B-cells. This method thus provided an almost unlimited source of cellular adjuvant to achieve sufficient expansion of CTLs in cases where several rounds of stimulation are required. We also showed that the addition of BAFF significantly enhanced the expression of major costimulatory molecules, CD80 and CD86. Subsequently, the antigen-presenting ability of the B-lymphocytes also increased. Consequently, these B-lymphocytes showed robust CTL responses to inhibit tumor growth after tumor-specific peptide pulses. A similar method induced potent antigen-specific CTL responses, which effectively eradicated human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) latency in CD4 T-lymphocytes isolated from patients receiving suppressive anti-retroviral therapy (ART). Together, our findings indicate that potent antigen-specific CTLs can be generated using BAFF-activated B-lymphocytes as APCs ex vivo. This approach can be applied for CTL-mediated immunotherapy in patients with cancers or chronic viral infections.

Several algorithms for association rules are discussed which are AIS algorithm, SETM algorithm, Apriori algorithm etc. Their strengths and weaknesses are investigated. Their performance are compared and analyzed. Among all the algorithms, the most inefficient one is SETM algorithm but it is the most convenient one to combine DBMS.

Flexibility is one of important indicators for measuring the characteristics of supply chain; the author introduces and evaluates four ways of measuring the flexibility of supply chain by reviewing the research results of measurement model of flexibility of supply chain. Basing on this way, it builds a measurement model of flexibility of supply chain which faces to customer directly, and shows the affects on flexibility which made by the four factors: cost, lead time, service level, information-sharing from a quantitative angle. Based on this model, this paper analyzes the trends of the four factors after implementing of VMI model strategy combining with the characteristics of VMI strategy, and comes to a conclusion that the VMI strategy can enhance the flexibility of supply chain significantly. At the end, it makes a summary and prospect.