The convergence of non-communicable disease (NCD) and infectious disease (ID) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) presents new challenges and new opportunities to enact responsive changes in policy and research. Most LMICs have significant dual disease burdens of NCDs such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, and IDs including tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and parasitic diseases. A combined strategy is needed in surveillance and disease control; yet, experts, institutions and policies that support prevention and control of these two overarching disease categories have limited interaction and alignment. NCDs and IDs share common features, such as long-term care needs and overlapping high-risk populations, and there are also notable direct interactions, such as the association between certain IDs and cancers, as well as evidence of increased susceptibility to IDs in individuals with NCDs. Enhanced simultaneous surveillance of NCD and ID comorbidity in LMIC populations would generate the empirical data needed to better understand the dual burden, and to target coordinated care. Where IDs and NCDs are endemic, focusing on vulnerable populations by strengthening social protections and improving access to health services is crucial, as is the re-alignment of efforts to combine NCD and ID screening, treatment programmes, and the assessment of their impact. Integrating public health activities for ID and NCD should extend beyond health care services to prevention, which is widely seen as crucial to successful NCD and ID control campaigns alike. The convergence of NCD and ID in LMICs has the potential to overstretch already strained health systems. With some LMICs now focused on major health system reforms, a unique opportunity is available to address NCD and ID challenges with newfound urgency and novel approaches.

Beck’s insight—that beliefs about one’s self, future, and environment shape behavior—transformed depression treatment. Yet environment beliefs remain relatively understudied. We introduce a set of environment beliefs—primal world beliefs or primals—that concern the world’s overall character (e.g., the world is interesting, the world is dangerous). To create a measure, we systematically identified candidate primals (e.g., analyzing tweets, historical texts, etc.); conducted exploratory factor analysis (N = 930) and two confirmatory factor analyses (N = 524; N = 529); examined sequence effects (N = 219) and concurrent validity (N = 122); and conducted test-retests over 2 weeks (n = 122), 9 months (n = 134), and 19 months (n = 398). The resulting 99-item Primals Inventory (PI-99) measures 26 primals with three overarching beliefs—Safe, Enticing, and Alive (mean α = .93)—that typically explain ∼55% of the common variance. These beliefs were normally distributed; stable (2 weeks, 9 months, and 19 month test-retest results averaged .88, .75, and .77, respectively); strongly correlated with many personality and wellbeing variables (e.g., Safe and optimism, r = .61; Enticing and depression, r = −.52; Alive and meaning, r = .54); and explained more variance in life satisfaction, transcendent experience, trust, and gratitude than the BIG 5 (3%, 3%, 6%, and 12% more variance, respectively). In sum, the PI-99 showed strong psychometric characteristics, primals plausibly shape many personality and wellbeing variables, and a broad research effort examining these relationships is warranted.

The objective of positive education is not only to improve students’ well-being but also their academic performance. As an important concept in positive education, growth mindset refers to core assumptions about the malleability of a person’s intellectual abilities. The present study investigates the relation of growth mindsets to psychological well-being and school engagement. The study also explores the mediating function of resilience in this relation. We recruited a total of 1260 (658 males and 602 females) Chinese students from five diversified primary and middle schools. Results from the structural equation model show that the development of high levels of growth mindsets in students predicts higher psychological well-being and school engagement through the enhancement of resilience. The current study contributes to our understanding of the potential mechanisms by which positive education (e.g., altering the mindset of students) can impact psychological well-being and school engagement.

The current study investigated the relationships among growth mindset, work engagement, perseverance of effort and well-being for secondary school teachers in the Chinese educational context. We adopted Growth Mindset Inventory, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Grit Scale (Perseverance subscale), and PERMA profiles that measure five dimensions of well-being. Participants included 472 secondary school teachers from 10 secondary schools in central China. Correlation analysis showed that growth mindset, well-being, and perseverance of effort could all predict work engagement. Moreover, the structural equation model and mediation analysis further suggested that well-being and perseverance of effort could partially mediate the relationship between growth mindset and work engagement. This study permitted to advance our knowledge about the relationship between growth mindset and work engagement, which should be considered for future teaching practices and teacher development.

Human clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common solid lesion within kidney, and its prognostic is influenced by the progression covering a complex network of gene interactions. In our study, we screened differential expressed genes, and constructed protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and a weighted gene co-expression network to identify key genes and pathways associated with the progression of ccRCC (n = 56). Functional and pathway enrichment analysis demonstrated that upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were significantly enriched in response to wounding, positive regulation of immune system process, leukocyte activation, immune response and cell activation. Downregulated DEGs were significantly enriched in oxidation reduction, monovalent inorganic cation transport, ion transport, excretion and anion transport. In the PPI network, top 10 hub genes were identified (TOP2A, MYC, ALB, CDK1, VEGFA, MMP9, PTPRC, CASR, EGFR and PTGS2). In co-expression network, 6 ccRCC-related modules were identified. They were associated with immune response, metabolic process, cell cycle regulation, angiogenesis and ion transport. In conclusion, our study illustrated the hub genes and pathways involved in the progress of ccRCC, and further molecular biological experiments are needed to confirm the function of the candidate biomarkers in human ccRCC.

Growth mindset and grit have attracted much attention in educational research recently. Yet the underlying mechanisms that relate these variables to each other as well as to other variables remain largely unclear. This study investigates the relationships among growth mindset, learning motivations, and grit. We recruited a total of 1,842 students (884 males and 958 females) from third to ninth grade in a Chinese city. Results from the structural equation model analyzing the students’ responses showed that learning motivations partially mediate the relationship between growth mindset and grit. Specifically, intrinsic motivation and identified regulation of extrinsic motivation are positively associated with growth mindset and grit, while external regulation of extrinsic motivation is negatively associated with them. Additionally, introjected regulation of extrinsic motivation is uncorrelated with these two variables. This study furthers the understanding of the underlying mechanisms through which growth mindset and grit positively impact education.

BackgroundVitex negundo L (Verbenaceae) is an aromatic shrub that is abundant in Asian countries. A series of compounds from Vitex negundo have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of various diseases. Cutaneous melanoma is one of the most aggressive malignancies. A significant feature of melanoma is its resistance to traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy; therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel treatments for melanoma.MethodsWe first examined the effects of VB1 (vitexin compound 1) on cell viability by CCK-8 (cell counting kit) and Colony Formation Assay; And then, we analyzed the apoptosis and cell cycle by flow cytometry, verified apoptosis by Immunoblotting. The in vivo effect of VB1 was evaluated in xenograft mouse model. Potential mechanisms of VB1’s antitumor effects were explored by RNA sequencing and the key differential expression genes were validated by real-time quantitative PCR. Finally, the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level was detected by flow cytometry, and the DNA damage was revealed by Immunofluorescence and Immunoblotting.ResultsIn this study, we show that VB1, which is a compound purified from the seed of the Chinese herb Vitex negundo, blocks melanoma cells growth in vitro and in vivo, arrests the cell cycle in G2/M phase and induces apoptosis in melanoma cell lines, whereas the effects are not significantly observed in normal cells. To study the details of VB1, we analyzed the alteration of gene expression profiles after treatment with VB1 in melanoma cells. The findings showed that VB1 can affect various pathways, including p53, apoptosis and the cell cycle pathway, in a variety of melanoma cell lines. Furthermore, we confirmed that VB1 restored the P53 pathway protein level, and then we demonstrated that VB1 significantly induced the accumulation of ROS, which resulted in DNA damage in melanoma cell lines. Interestingly, our results showed that VB1 also increased the ROS levels in BRAFi (BRAF inhibitor)-resistant melanoma cells, leading to DNA cytotoxicity, which caused G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis.ConclusionsTaken together, our findings indicate that vitexin compound 1 might be a promising therapeutic Chinese medicine for melanoma treatment regardless of BRAFi resistance.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-018-0897-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Abstract. The aim of the present study was to determine a more specific, efficient and simple method for the induction of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in rats. Different strains of rats were injected at the base of the tail with bovine type II collagen (CII) emulsified in incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA). The onset and severity of arthritis were evaluated by clinical assessment. The established CIA model was analyzed using a comprehensive examination of clinical, hematological, histological and radiological parameters. The results demonstrated that Wistar rats were the most susceptible strain to CIA followed by Wistar Furth rats, with Sprague Dawley rats being the least susceptible. Following primary and booster immunization, female Wistar rats developed severe arthritis, with an incidence of >83% and low variability in clinical signs. The development of arthritis was accompanied by a significantly elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate compared with that in the control rats. The radiographic examination revealed bone matrix resorption, considerable soft tissue swelling, periosteal new bone formation and bone erosion in the arthritic joints of the CIA rats. Histopathologically, the synovial joints of CIA rats were characterized by synovial hyperplasia, pannus formation, marked cellular infiltration, bone and cartilage erosion and narrowing of the joint space. The administration of an intradermal injection of only 200 µg bovine CII emulsified in IFA at the base of the tail therefore leads to the successful development of a CIA rat model. This well-characterized CIA rat model could be specifically used to study the pathophysiology of human rheumatoid arthritis as well as to test and develop anti-arthritic agents for humans.