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Since the 1970s, mankind has become increasingly sensitive to major world environmental protection issues, and the globalenvironmental protection laws and regulations system formed to deal with suchspecific issues has rapidly expanded in scope and depth. From the initial environmental issues in the study of international relations theory to the development of environmental issues in the study of global governance, and then the concept of global environmental governance came out and developed rapidly. This trend provides a desire to deal with many environmental protection issues and various issues related to worldenvironmental protection issues. But are these wishes real? We must also doubtthe rationality of the legal systems of various countries that have been formedand fought to deal with all environmental protection relations, especially theworld environmental protection issues. Today, the world environmental problemhas formed a relatively perfect academic field. The concept theory of globalproblems starting from ecological problems has moved from ecological problemsto world governance problems. With the introduction and rapid improvement ofthe concept of world ecological problems. The articlestarts from the role of non-state actors in the original internationalframework, further expands and deepens, and presents a multiangle andall-round perspective, showing that international law can still play a crucial role in the settlement of international environmental problems. It not only caters to the needs of the current international situation and development but also provides forward-looking guidance for future environmental governance at the global level.

BackgroundThe HIV epidemic in key populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM) is a public health issue of worldwide concern. China has seen an increase in newly diagnosed HIV infections through male–male sexual contact in the past decade. In a long-term cohort, how the complex behaviour pattern of MSM changed and the association with the HIV risk are unclear at present.MethodsThis study was conducted from October 2011 to December 2019 in Tianjin. MSM were recruited by snowball sampling through online and offline ways. Demographic and sexual behavioural data were collected for analysis. Three indicators (condom use in last anal sex, frequency of condom use during anal sex and the number of sexual partners) were used to define the behaviour change. Participants with zero, one, and two or three risk indicators were categorised into behaviour types of ‘protective’, ‘moderate’, and ‘fragile’, respectively. Change in behaviour type between baseline and each visit was considered. Time-varying Cox models were performed to evaluate HIV infection risk.ResultsOf 2029 MSM included in the study, 127 were new HIV diagnoses. The overall incidence rate was 3.36 per 100 person-years. The percentage of ‘protective’ and ‘moderate’ behaviour types had a conspicuous growth trend as the follow-up. Furthermore, the HIV incidence rate in each visit among different behaviour transition types showed a general downward trend as the number of total follow-up times increased. Individuals who remained in ‘fragile’ (adjusted HR (aHR): 25.86, 95% CI: 6.92 to 96.57) or changed from ‘protective’ to ‘moderate’ (aHR: 4.79, 95% CI: 1.18 to 19.47), ‘protective’ to ‘fragile’ (aHR: 23.03, 95% CI: 6.02 to 88.13), and ‘moderate’ to ‘fragile’ (aHR: 25.48, 95% CI: 6.79 to 95.40) between baseline and the last follow-up had a higher HIV risk. Gained risk indicators were associated with the increase of HIV risk (gained one indicator, aHR: 2.67, 95% CI: 1.68 to 4.24; gained two or three indicators, aHR: 4.99, 95% CI: 3.00 to 8.31) while losing just one risk indicator could halve the risk (aHR: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.21 to 0.90).ConclusionsAmong MSM in Tianjin, it is necessary to get timely behaviour change for those with high-incidence behaviour patterns while sustaining for those with low-incidence patterns.Trial registration numberChinese Clinical Trials Registry (ChiCTR2000039500).

To promote the application of Trichoderma, many countries have collected Trichoderma resources. In the present study, nine isolates were isolated from a rhizosphere soil of Phellodendron amurense and were identified as three species: Trichoderma brevicompactum (one isolate), T. asperellum (two isolates), T. atroviride (six isolates). Dual culture experiments showed that T. asperellum T-Pa2 grew fast and produced the best inhibition rates against six tested pathogens (80.25–91.65%) via competition and mycoparasitism. Populus davidiana × P. alba var. pyramidalis Louche (PdPap poplar) was treated with T-Pa2, which increased the catalase activity, nitrate reductase activity, and content of osmosis molecules significantly (P

The accumulation of synthetic plastics used in packaging applications in landfills and the environment is a serious problem. This challenge is driving research efforts to develop biodegradable, compostable, or recyclable barrier materials derived from renewable sources. Cellulose, chitin/chitosan, and their combinations are versatile biobased packaging materials because of their diverse biological properties (biocompatibility, biodegradability, antimicrobial properties, antioxidant activity, non-toxicity, and less immunogenic compared to protein), superior physical properties (high surface area, good barrier properties, and mechanical properties), and they can be assembled into different forms and shapes (powders, fibers, films, beads, sponges, gels, and solutions). They can be either assembled into packaging films or used as fillers to improve the properties of other biobased polymers. Methods such as preparation of composites, multilayer coating, and alignment control are used to further improve their barrier, mechanical properties, and ameliorate their moisture sensitivity. With the growing application of cellulose and chitin-based packaging materials, their biodegradability and recyclability are also discussed in this review paper. The future trends of these biobased materials in packaging applications and the possibility of gradually replacing petroleum-based plastics are analyzed in the “Conclusions” section.

Objectives Despite being a key population in whom to initiate pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the awareness of and willingness to use PrEP are still unclear in Chinese young men who have sex with men (YMSM). We report factors associated with PrEP awareness and willingness in the population. Methods From 1 August to 31 December 2018, 495 participants aged 15-24 years were included in a cross-sectional study about awareness of and willingness to use PrEP among YMSM. Logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with two outcomes: awareness of PrEP; and willingness to use PrEP. Results Among 495 eligible participants, 129 participants (26.1%) knew about PrEP. PrEP awareness among YMSM was associated with higher education level [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.812, 95% CI: 1.113-2.951] and previous HIV testing (aOR = 3.507, 95% CI: 1.261-9.752). YMSM with shorter local residence time (aOR = 0.317, 95% CI: 0.101-0.992) and internet-based partner-seeking (aOR = 0.171, 95% CI: 0.096-0.305) were less likely to be aware of PrEP. In those with previous knowledge of PrEP, 36 (27.9%) conveyed their willingness to use it. PrEP willingness was associated with internet-based partner-seeking (aOR = 9.593, 95% CI: 1.965-46.844). The main barriers influencing those who knew about PrEP but refused to use it were the high price of PrEP (69.9%), the need to use condoms consistently (52.7%), and concerns about side effects (39.8%) and effectiveness of prevention (22.6%). Conclusions Chinese YMSM have low awareness of and willingness to use PrEP. Adequate PrEP promotions should be implemented, especially on the Internet and dating software.

Background- Recreational drug use among young men who have sex with men (YMSM) was a public health issue of worldwide concern. Evidence had shown the relevance between recreational drug use and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. This study aimed to investigate the current prevalence state of recreational drug use among YMSM in Tianjin, discern the characteristics of YMSM who used recreational drugs or not and examine the interaction effect of recreational drug use and unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) on HIV infection.Methods- In 2018, a cross-sectional study was conducted in Tianjin, China. The snowball sampling method was used to recruit YMSM. Participants were recruited from gay bars, gay bathhouses, social network sites (WeChat, QQ, gay chat website), gay apps and peer referrals. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data.Results- A total of 1075 YMSM met the eligibility criteria and were included in the study eventually. The overall HIV prevalence was 4.3% (46/1075). Of all the recreational drugs involved in this study (rush poppers, methamphetamine, capsule No.0), rush poppers (406/517,78.5%) were the most popular among YMSM in Tianjin. Compared with non-drug users, drug users were more likely to have first sex earlier, be bisexual, be male sex worker (MSW), have a higher education level, seek sex partners through physical venues, engage in UAI, have sexually transmitted infection (STI), and receive HIV testing. Moreover, recreational drug use and UAI were associated with the increased risk of HIV infection [adjusted OR:3.6 (95%CI: 1.7-7.6) and 4.9 (95%CI: 2.2-10.4), respectively]. There was additive interaction of recreational drug use and UAI on HIV infection [relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI): 6.949 (95%CI: 0.011‐13.887); attributable proportion due to interaction (AP): 0.809 (95%CI: 0.578‐1.039)].Conclusions- Recreational drug use was common and correlated with HIV infection among YMSM in Tianjin. There was an urgent need to build novel targeted HIV prevention strategies to discern and reduce recreational drug use among YMSM in China.

The present study examined how sexual behaviors transit over time among men who have sex with men (MSM) and whether these transitions were associated with acute and early HIV (AEH) infection. An open cohort study was conducted using snowball sampling to recruit MSM via physical venues and Internet venues from 2011 to 2019, in China. Cox models were used to estimate the correlates of risk factors and AEH infection. We used Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) to describe behavioral profile and explore latent behavioral "trans-phenotypes," then examined the effect between different "trans-phenotypes" and AEH infection risk and explored the effect of characteristics as possible predictors of sexual behavior transition. Of 6502 MSM, a total of 1974 individuals with negative human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tests at baseline and at least 2 visit records were included in the final analysis from 2011 to 2019. During an average 1.84 years of follow-up, 64 AEH infections were documented. In the multivariable Cox model, the association between condom use in last anal sex (HR: 0.095, 0.038-0.205), fewer sexual partners (HR: 0.375, 0.205-0.712), low frequency of condom use (HR: 3.592, 1.186-11.272), and AEH acquisition were found. The percentage of MSM with "maintain/develop safety-profile," "consistent risky-profile," and "safety-profile to risky-profile" were 52.48, 40.17, and 7.35%, respectively. Compared with "maintain\develop safety-profile," "consistent or develop risky-profile" had an increasing likelihood of AEH infection. Meanwhile, male sex workers (MSWs) or older MSM were more likely to consist or transit in "risky-profile." Having middle education is a risk factor to transit in "risky-profile" for MSM with "safety-profile" at baseline. In addition, MSM who accept health services in the past year engaged in higher proportion of developing safety-profile. Approximately half of MSM maintain or develop risky behavior with the increasing likelihood of AEH acquisition in China, which suggested that targeted and intensive interventions should be prioritized to maintain safety-profile. Clinical Trial Number: ChiCTR2000039500.

The TabZIP15 gene encoding a 396 amino acid (aa) polypeptide in the fungus Trichoderma asperellum ACCC30536 was cloned and characterised. The protein includes a basic region motif (NR-x2-QR-x2-R) and has a pillar-like structure. The 25 basic region/leucine zipper transcription factors (TFs) identified in the T. asperellum genome were divided into YAP (14 TFs), ATF2 (5), GCN4 (2), Zip1 (2), BRLZ (1) and u1 (1) subfamilies based on conserved domains. T. asperellum was cultured in minimal media (MM) control, C-Hungry and N-Hungry medium (to simulate nutrient competition and interaction with pathogens, respectively), and differential expression analysis showed that 14 TabZIP genes (including TabZIP15) were significantly altered under both conditions; TabZIP23 responded strongly to N-Hungry media and TabZIP24 responded strongly to C-Hungry media. However, only YAP genes TabZIP15, TabZIP12 and TabZIP2 were significantly upregulated under both conditions, and expression levels of TabZIP15 were highest. T. asperellum was also cultured in the presence of five fungal pathogenic toxins, and RT-qPCR results showed that TabZIP15 was significantly upregulated in four of the five toxin stress conditions (MM + Rhizoctonia solani, MM + Fusarium oxysporum, MM + Alternaria alternata and MM + Cytospora chrysosperma).

Introduction: As both parties to commercial sex, MSW and SB are both at high risk of HIV infection. However, there are few studies on the comparison of HIV infection rates between these two groups of people.Methods: The method of snowball sampling was used to recruit research participants by means of baths, bars, and the Internet. The recruited participants should cooperate with the investigators to complete the questionnaire (including general demographic characteristics, high risky behaviors, status of HIV and AIDS infection, awareness of AIDS knowledge )and blood antibody / antigen tests / oral mucosal exudate antibody tests. The difference analysis was performed using the c2 test, and the correlates of HIV infection were analyzed using logistic regression.Results: The final analysis included 435 MSWs and 729 SBs with HIV infection rates of 7.1% and 2.6%, respectively. Compared with SB, the HIV infection rate of MSW was 2.775 (1.340 -5.746) times higher (after adjusting for age and marital status), 3.173 (1.512-6.659) times higher (after further adjusting the awareness rate of AIDS-related knowledge), 3.688 (1.711-7.950) times higher (after further adjusting the frequency of condom use in homosexual intercourse and commercial sex in the past six months).Conclusions: MSW is more likely to infect HIV than SB. Therefore, effective preventive measures should be focused on MSW.

Wireless networks of implantable electronic sensors and actuators at the microscale (sub-mm) level are being explored for monitoring and modulation of physiological activity for medical diagnostics and therapeutic purposes. Beyond the requirement of integrating multiple electronic or chemical functions within small device volumes, a key challenge is the development of high-throughput methods for the implantation of large numbers of microdevices into soft tissues with minimal damage. To that end, we have developed a method for high-throughput implantation of ~100–200 µm size devices, which are here simulated by proxy microparticle ensembles. While generally applicable to subdermal tissue, our main focus and experimental testbed is the implantation of microparticles into the brain. The method deploys a scalable delivery tool composed of a 2-dimensional array of polyethylene glycol-tipped microneedles that confine the microparticle payloads. Upon dissolution of the bioresorbable polyethylene glycol, the supporting array structure is retrieved, and the microparticles remain embedded in the tissue, distributed spatially and geometrically according to the design of the microfabricated delivery tool. We first evaluated the method in an agarose testbed in terms of spatial precision and throughput for up to 1000 passive spherical and planar microparticles acting as proxy devices. We then performed the same evaluations by implanting particles into the rat cortex under acute conditions and assessed the tissue injury produced by our method of implantation under chronic conditions. A low-injury, high-throughput technique to embed neural interfaces into brain tissue brings the idea of a ‘smart body’ closer to home. While some research groups focus on miniaturizing sensors and bio-actuators to implantable sizes, Brown University’s Stefan Sigurdsson and a team of US researchers have developed a technique to embed these devices into cortical tissue. In their method, microparticles (used in lieu of functional implants) are suspended in super-thin needles of polyethylene glycol, which are driven into the brain at high speed to minimize tissue damage. The polyethylene glycol is absorbed into the brain and the injection apparatus is removed, leaving the implants behind. The method can be scaled for rapid implantation of high numbers of devices and could see use in the development of human-computer integrations.

Wireless networks of implantable electronic sensors and actuators on the microscale (sub-mm) are being explored for monitoring and modulation of physiological activity for medical diagnostics and therapeutic purposes. Beyond the requirement of integrating multiple electronic or chemical functions within small device volumes, a key challenge is the development of high-throughput methods for implantation of large numbers of microdevices into soft tissues with minimal damage. To that end, we have developed a method for high-throughput implantation of ∼100-200 μm size devices which are here simulated by proxy microparticle ensembles. While generally applicable to subdermal tissue, our main focus and experimental testbed is the implantation of microparticles into the brain. The method deploys a scalable delivery tool composed of a 2-dimensional array of polyethylene glycol tipped microneedles which confine the microparticle payloads. Upon dissolution of the bioresorbable polyethylene glycol, the supporting array structure is retrieved and the microparticles remain embedded in the tissue, distributed spatially and geometrically according to the design of the microfabricated delivery tool. We first evaluated the method in an agarose testbed in terms of spatial precision and throughput for up to 1000 passive spherical and planar microparticles acting as proxy devices. We then performed the same evaluations of particles implanted into the rat cortex under acute conditions and assessed the tissue injury produced by our method of implantation under chronic conditions.

For the reason of high temperature strength, high oxidation resistance and low density, Ti2AlNb-based alloy is expected to replace nickel-based alloy in the range of working temperature 600–800 °C and become a new generation of high-temperature structural alloys in the aerospace industry. However, Ti2AlNb-based alloys have great high-temperature deformation resistance and high brittleness, which greatly restricts its preparation and processing using traditional technology. In this research, an innovation method named double-wire arc additive manufacturing technology was adopted to in-situ manufacture Ti-22Al-24Nb (at%) alloy, and the TiNb and pure Al wire with designed feeding speed were taken as raw materials. The deposited component was investigated systematically. Results show that the composition error between the average testing value and designed value are under 1.1%, but there are also existing local segregation of composition and microstructure. The segregation phenomenon further deteriorates its mechanical properties, which means the ultimate tensile properties and elongation under room temperature and high temperature (650 °C) are 504 ± 38.59 MPa, 0.41 ± 0.03% and 375 ± 32.60 MPa, 0.76 ± 0.05% respectively on average. At the same time, the prepared alloy exhibits fully lamellar structure and XRD results show that the basic composition phases B2, O and α2 of the Ti2AlNb-based alloy successfully appeared. The in-situ manufacturing method demonstrated in this work is expected to significantly promote the wider application of AM due to its low cost advantage and high flexibility.

Background HIV prevalence among young men who have sex with men (YMSM) (

In the NeurIPS 2018 Artificial Intelligence for Prosthetics challenge, participants were tasked with building a controller for a musculoskeletal model with a goal of matching a given time-varying velocity vector. Top participants described their algorithms in this paper. Many solutions use similar relaxations and heuristics, such as reward shaping, frame skipping, discretization of the action space, symmetry, and policy blending. However, each team implemented different modifications of the known algorithms by, for example, dividing the task into subtasks, learning low-level control, or by incorporating expert knowledge and using imitation learning.

We address the estimation problem for general finite mixture models, with a particular focus on the elliptical mixture models (EMMs). Compared to the widely adopted Kullback-Leibler divergence, we show that the Wasserstein distance provides a more desirable optimisation space. We thus provide a stable solution to the EMMs that is both robust to initialisations and reaches a superior optimum by adaptively optimising along a manifold of an approximate Wasserstein distance. To this end, we first provide a unifying account of computable and identifiable EMMs, which serves as a basis to rigorously address the underpinning optimisation problem. Due to a probability constraint, solving this problem is extremely cumbersome and unstable, especially under the Wasserstein distance. To relieve this issue, we introduce an efficient optimisation method on a statistical manifold defined under an approximate Wasserstein distance, which allows for explicit metrics and computable operations, thus significantly stabilising and improving the EMM estimation. We further propose an adaptive method to accelerate the convergence. Experimental results demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed EMM solver., This work has been accepted to AAAI2020. Note that this version also corrects a small error on the Equation (16) in proof

To better apply the biocontrol agent Trichoderma spp. in Northeast China, collecting and screening more suitable native Trichoderma strains is necessary. In the present study, 10 isolates were obtained from Juglans mandshurica rhizosphere soils in Heilongjiang Province, and were identified as T. asperellum (four isolates), T. harzianum (four), T. hamatum (one), T. atroviride (one). The fastest-growing isolate per species on potato dextrose agar medium were further evaluated in stress tolerance tests (salt, alkali, nutritional stress, and low temperature) and confrontation assays (eight pathogens), which showed that T. asperellum TaspHu1 possessed the best adaptation and biological control ability. Then, Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) seeds were sown and treated with a series of concentrations of TaspHu1 spore suspension, as was unsown soil. Tomato seedlings treated by TaspHu1 had a significantly greater height, stem diameter, soluble protein content and soluble sugar content. Furthermore, their nitrate reductase activity and catalase activity were significantly increased, and these promoting effects depended on the concentration of the spore suspension. Meanwhile, a decrease in chlorophyll content was observed in the tomato seedlings treated with TaspHu1. In addition, strain TaspHu1 enhanced the tomato seedlings' absorption of available nitrogen, but did not influence the soil available nitrogen content. Furthermore, the resistance of tomato seedlings against Alternaria alternata was enhanced by TaspHu1 (smaller, fewer leaf spots), the seedlings' hormone signal transduction genes JAR1, MYC2, NPR1, PR1, and GH3.2 were highly expressed. Thus, TaspHu1 is a promising biocontrol candidate for use in agriculture and forestry.

To study the anatomical characteristics of the medial sural vessels and the clinical effects of treatment for leg skin and soft tissue defect with free flaps.6 adult lower limbs were treated by latex perfusion and then observed the origin of the blood supply to gastrocnemius muscle, measure the number of the arteries and veins, the length and diameter of the medial sural vessels. From July 2009 to May 2013,15 clinical cases of serious skin and soft tissue defect were repaired by using free flap with medial sural vessels. The areas of wound surface were ranging from 13 cm × 7 cm-24 cm × 12 cm.10 of them were treated by anterolateral thigh flap, the other of them were treated by latissimus dorsi flap. The donor site were directly sutured or repaired by free skin graft. .The blood supply of gastrocnemius mucle was multifocal. The medial sural arteries and lateral sural arteries were both origin from popliteal artery. The medial sural vessels include 1 artery and 2 veins. With the length 4-7 cm (average,5.4 cm),the arterial diameter of the origin 2.6-2.9 mm (average,2.7 mm) and the entry point 1.9-2.3 mm (average,2.1 mm),the vein diameter of the origin 1.8-2.2 mm (average,2.0 mm)and the entry point 2.7-3.4 mm(average,2.9 mm).Totally 15 cases flaps were survived with primary healing. The mean follow-up period was 16.5 months(range,11-21 months),The flaps had satisfactory appearance, soft texture, good elasticity and achieved protective sensation at the last followed-up.The medial sural vessels are with constant anatomical position, deeply position, hardly damage, long pedicle. Thus, the medial sural vessels combine with free flap is an good choice for the reconstruction of leg skin and soft tissue defect

We previously demonstrated that for long-term spastic limb paralysis, transferring the seventh cervical nerve (C7) from the nonparalyzed side to the paralyzed side results in increase of 17.7 in Fugl-Meyer score. One strategy for further improvement in voluntary arm movement is selective activation of five target muscles innervated by C7 during recovery process. In this study, we develop an implantable multisite optogenetic stimulation device (MOSD) based on shape-memory polymer. Two-site stimulation of sciatic nerve bundles by MOSD induces precise extension or flexion movements of the ankle joint, while eight-site stimulation of C7 nerve bundles induce selective limb movement. Long-term implant of MOSD to mice with severed and anastomosed C7 nerve is proven to be both safe and effective. Our work opens up the possibility for multisite nerve bundle stimulation to induce highly-selective activations of limb muscles, which could inspire further applications in neurosurgery and neuroscience research., Optogenetic stimulation of damaged peripheral nerves has advantages over electrical stimulation but it’s limited to single-site stimulation. Here the authors develop a spiral-shaped LED implant for precise optogenetic stimulation of peripheral nerve bundles at multiple sites and use it to induce distinct limb movements in mice.

Graphene nanoplatelets (GnP) can be made into a thin 'paper' through vacuum filtration of GnP suspension. Electrodes were fabricated from the compressed GnP paper and then by coating the surface with epoxy. The electrostatic actuator was constructed from two parallel-aligned composite papers fixed at the anode and a cathode connected to ground. The two composite papers would then separate when a voltage was applied. The GnP paper was also modified to increase surface area by introducing porosity or adding ∼10 wt% C750 (GnP with diameter less than 1 μm); or changing the relative permittivity by adding barium titanate particles; or combining these two effects by adding CNCs. Overall the output work could be significantly improved to over 400%.