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Due to waning immunity and protection against infection with SARS-CoV-2, a third dose of a homologous or heterologous COVID-19 vaccine has been proposed by health agencies for individuals who were previously primed with two doses of an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine.We did a randomised, open-label, controlled trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of heterologous boost immunisation with an orally administered aerosolised adenovirus type-5 vector-based COVID-19 vaccine (Ad5-nCoV) in Chinese adults (≥18 years old) who had previously received two doses of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-Sinovac CoronaVac. Eligible participants were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to receive a heterologous booster vaccination with a low dose (1·0 × 10Between Sept 14 and 16, 2021, 420 participants were enrolled: 140 (33%) participants per group. Adverse reactions were reported by 26 (19%) participants in the low dose group and 33 (24%) in the high dose group within 14 days after the booster vaccination, significantly less than the 54 (39%) participants in the CoronaVac group (p0·0001). The low dose group had a serum NAb GMT of 744·4 (95% CI 520·1-1065·6) and the high dose group had a GMT of 714·1 (479·4-1063·7) 14 days after booster dose, significantly higher than the GMT in the CoronaVac group (78·5 [60·5-101·7]; p0·0001).We found that a heterologous booster vaccine with an orally administered aerosolised Ad5-nCoV is safe and highly immunogenic in adults who have previously received two doses of CoronaVac as the primary series vaccination.National Natural Science Foundation of China and Jiangsu Provincial Key Research and Development Program.

The demonstration of batch-to-batch consistency is indispensable for quality control of vaccines. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, parallel-controlled trial to evaluate the immunogenicity consistency of a single shot of Ad5-nCoV in healthy adults who had not previously received any COVID-19 vaccine. All eligible participants were randomly assigned equally to receive one of the three consecutive batches of Ad5-nCoV (5 × 1010 viral particles/vial, 0.5 mL). The primary endpoint was geometric mean titers (GMTs) of serum SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD)-specific IgG on day 28 post-vaccination. One thousand fifty participants were enrolled, with 350 (33%) participants per group. On day 28 post-vaccination, GMTs in three groups were 78.3 binding antibody units (BAU)/mL (95% CI 70.3–87.3), 82.9 BAU/mL (73.9–92.9), and 78.8 BAU/mL (70.2–88.4), respectively. The two-sided 95% CIs for the GMT ratios between each pair of batches were all between 0.67 and 1.5. The highest incidence of solicited adverse reactions within 7 days post-vaccination was reported by batch 3 recipients (23.1% versus 15.1% in batch 1 recipients and 14.6% in bath 2 recipients; p = 0.0039). None of the serious adverse events were related to vaccination. Immunogenicity consistency between consecutive batches of Ad5-nCoV was well established in adults. This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05313646).

We present timing solutions of PSR B0950+08, using 14 years of observations at Nanshan 26-m Radio Telescope of Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory. The braking index of PSR B0950+08 varies from --367 392 to 168 883, which shows an oscillation with large amplitude ($\sim 10^5$) and uncertainty. Considering the variation of braking indices and the most probable kinematic age of PSR B0950+08, a model withe long-term magnetic field decay modulated by short-term oscillations is proposed to explain the timing data. With this magnetic field decay model, we discuss the spin and thermal evolution of PSR B0950+08. The uncertainties of its age are also considered. The results show that three-component oscillations are the more reasonable for the spin-frequency derivative distributions of PSR B0950+08, and the initial spin period of PSR B0950+08 must be shorter than $97\rm\ ms$ when the age is equal to the lower bound of its kinematic age. The standard cooling model could explain the surface temperature of PSR B0950+08 with its most probable kinematic age. Vortex creep heating with a long-term magnetic field decay could maintain a relatively high temperature at the later stages of evolution and explain the thermal emission data of old and warm pulsars. Coupling with the long-term magnetic field decay, an explanation of the temperature of PSR B0950+08 with roto-chemical heating needs an implausibly short initial rotation period ($P_0 \lesssim 17\rm{ ms}$). The spin and thermal evolution of pulsars should be studied simultaneously. Future timing, ultraviolet or X-ray observations are essential for studying the evolution and interior properties of pulsars., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Objectives: To investigate the usefulness of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and arterial spin labeling (ASL) for predicting final infarct volume in patients with acute atherothrombotic subtype cerebral infarction (AT-type stroke). Methods: The data of 77 patients with AT-type stroke were retrospectively analyzed. ASL and DWI values of minimum apparent diffusion coefficient (minADC), mean ADC (meanADC), minimum cerebral blood flow (minCBF), and mean CBF (meanCBF) of the infarction lesions were measured. Changes in cerebral infarction volume (ΔVolume) were determined by DWI reexamination on the 7th day after onset. Correlations of ADC and CBF with ΔVolume were analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to determine the usefulness of ADC and CBF values for predicting final infarct volume. Results: There was significant difference in the distribution of the ΔVolume in AT-type stroke (P < 0.0001). The ADC and minCBF values were negatively correlated with the infarct ΔVolume (P < 0.05); meanCBF and ΔCBF were not correlated with ΔVolume. When minADC was ≤0.303 × 10−3 mm2/s, minCBF1.5 ≤2.415 mL/100 g/min, or minCBF2.5 ≤4.25 mL/100 g/min, ΔVolume was likely to be large. The ROC curve showed highest predictive value for minADC and minCBF. Conclusions: Distinctive patterns of quantitative ADC and CBF can be used as a simple and rapid method for predicting change of infarction volume in AT-type stroke.