IMPORTANCE A vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is urgently needed. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of an investigational inactivated whole-virus COVID-19 vaccine in China. INTERVENTIONS In the phase 1 trial, 96 participants were assigned to 1 of the 3 dose groups (2.5, 5, and 10 μg/dose) and an aluminum hydroxide (alum) adjuvant-only group (n = 24 in each group), and received 3 intramuscular injections at days 0, 28, and 56. In the phase 2 trial, 224 adults were randomized to 5 μg/dose in 2 schedule groups (injections on days 0 and 14 [n = 84] vs alum only [n = 28], and days 0 and 21 [n = 84] vs alum only [n = 28]). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Interim analysis of ongoing randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 1 and 2 clinical trials to assess an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine. The trials were conducted in Henan Province, China, among 96 (phase 1) and 224 (phase 2) healthy adults aged between 18 and 59 years. Study enrollment began on April 12, 2020. The interim analysis was conducted on June 16, 2020, and updated on July 27, 2020. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary safety outcome was the combined adverse reactions 7 days after each injection, and the primary immunogenicity outcome was neutralizing antibody response 14 days after the whole-course vaccination, which was measured by a 50% plaque reduction neutralization test against live severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). RESULTS Among 320 patients who were randomized (mean age, 42.8 years; 200 women [62.5%]), all completed the trial up to 28 days after the whole-course vaccination. The 7-day adverse reactions occurred in 3 (12.5%), 5 (20.8%), 4 (16.7%), and 6 (25.0%) patients in the alum only, low-dose, medium-dose, and high-dose groups, respectively, in the phase 1 trial; and in 5 (6.0%) and 4 (14.3%) patients who received injections on days 0 and 14 for vaccine and alum only, and 16 (19.0%) and 5 (17.9%) patients who received injections on days 0 and 21 for vaccine and alum only, respectively, in the phase 2 trial. The most common adverse reaction was injection site pain, followed by fever, which were mild and self-limiting; no serious adverse reactions were noted. The geometric mean titers of neutralizing antibodies in the low-, medium-, and high-dose groups at day 14 after 3 injections were 316 (95% CI, 218-457), 206 (95% CI, 123-343), and 297 (95% CI, 208-424), respectively, in the phase 1 trial, and were 121 (95% CI, 95-154) and 247 (95% CI, 176-345) at day 14 after 2 injections in participants receiving vaccine on days 0 and 14 and on days 0 and 21, respectively, in the phase 2 trial. There were no detectable antibody responses in all alum-only groups. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this interim report of the phase 1 and phase 2 trials of an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine, patients had a low rate of adverse reactions and demonstrated immunogenicity; the study is ongoing. Efficacy and longer-term adverse event assessment will require phase 3 trials.

IMPORTANCE Although effective vaccines against COVID-19 have been developed, additional vaccines are still needed.OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy and adverse events of 2 inactivated COVID-19 vaccines.DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Prespecified interim analysis of an ongoing randomized, double-blind, phase 3 trial in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain among adults 18 years and older without known history of COVID-19. Study enrollment began on July 16, 2020. Data sets used for the interim analysis of efficacy and adverse events were locked on December 20, 2020, and December 31, 2020, respectively.INTERVENTIONS Participants were randomized to receive 1 of 2 inactivated vaccines developed from SARS-CoV-2 WIV04 (5 μg/dose; n = 13 459) and HB02 (4 μg/dose; n = 13 465) strains or an aluminum hydroxide (alum)-only control (n = 13 458); they received 2 intramuscular injections 21 days apart. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESThe primary outcome was efficacy against laboratory-confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 14 days following a second vaccine dose among participants who had no virologic evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection at randomization. The secondary outcome was efficacy against severe COVID-19. Incidence of adverse events and reactions was collected among participants who received at least 1 dose. RESULTS Among 40 382 participants randomized to receive at least 1 dose of the 2 vaccines or alum-only control (mean age, 36.1 years; 32 261 [84.4%] men), 38 206 (94.6%) who received 2 doses, contributed at least 1 follow-up measure after day 14 following the second dose, and had negative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction test results at enrollment were included in the primary efficacy analysis. During a median (range) follow-up duration of 77 (1-121) days, symptomatic COVID-19 was identified in 26 participants in the WIV04 group (12.1 [95% CI,] per 1000 person-years), 21 in the HB02 group (9.8 [95% CI, 6.4-15.0] per 1000 person-years), and 95 in the alum-only group (44.7 [95% CI,] per 1000 person-years), resulting in a vaccine efficacy, compared with alum-only, of 72.8% (95% CI, 58.1%-82.4%) for WIV04 and 78.1% (95% CI, 64.8%-86.3%) for HB02 (P < .001 for both). Two severe cases of COVID-19 occurred in the alum-only group and none occurred in the vaccine groups. Adverse reactions 7 days after each injection occurred in 41.7% to 46.5% of participants in the 3 groups; serious adverse events were rare and similar in the 3 groups (WIV04: 64 [0.5%]; HB02: 59 [0.4%]; alum-only: 78 [0.6%]). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEIn this prespecified interim analysis of a randomized clinical trial, treatment of adults with either of 2 inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines significantly reduced the risk of symptomatic COVID-19, and serious adverse events were rare. Data collection for final analysis is pending.

ultivated peanut or groundnut (A. hypogaea L.) is among the most important oil and food legumes, grown on 25 million ha between latitudes 40° N and 40° S with annual production of ~46 million tons (http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home). It presumably was domesticated in South America ~6,000 years ago and then was widely distributed in post-Columbian times 1. Combining richness in seed oil (~46-58%) and protein (~22-32%), peanut is important in fighting malnutrition and ensuring food security.

Obesity in humans is a major public health crisis worldwide. In addition, livestock species exhibit excessive subcutaneous fat at market weight. However, there are currently few means of reducing adiposity in mammals. This study was conducted with a swine model to test the hypothesis that dietary L-arginine supplementation may increase muscle gain and decrease fat deposition. Twenty-four 110-day-old barrows were assigned randomly into two treatments, representing supplementation with 1.0% L-arginine or 2.05% L-alanine (isonitrogenous control) to a corn- and soybean meal-based diet. Growth performance was measured based on weight gain and food intake. After a 60-day period of supplementation, carcass and muscle composition were measured. Serum triglyceride concentration was 20% lower (P < 0.01) but glucagon level was 36% greater (P < 0.05) in arginine-supplemented than in control pigs. Compared with the control, arginine supplementation increased (P < 0.05) body weight gain by 6.5% and carcass skeletal-muscle content by 5.5%, while decreasing (P < 0.01) carcass fat content by 11%. The arginine treatment enhanced (P < 0.05) longissimus dorsi muscle protein, glycogen, and fat contents by 4.8, 42, and 70%, respectively, as well as muscle pH at 45 min post-mortem by 0.32, while reducing muscle lactate content by 37%. These results support our hypothesis that dietary arginine supplementation beneficially promotes muscle gain and reduces body fat accretion in growing-finishing pigs. The findings have a positive impact on development of novel therapeutics to treat human obesity and enhance swine lean-tissue growth.

In this paper, we reported the in situ fabrication of highly luminescent formamidinium lead bromide (FAPbBr) nanocrystal thin films by dropping toluene as an anti-solvent during the spin-coating with a perovskite precursor solution using 3,3-diphenylpropylamine bromide (DPPA-Br) as a ligand. The resulting films are uniform and composed of 5-20 nm FAPbBr perovskite nanocrystals. By monitoring the solvent mixing of anti-solvent and precursor solution on the substrates, we illustrated the difference between the ligand-assisted reprecipitation (LARP) process and the nanocrystal-pinning (NCP) process. This understanding provides a guideline for film optimization, and the optimized films obtained through the in situ LARP process exhibit strong photoluminescence emission at 528 nm, with quantum yields up to 78% and an average photoluminescence lifetime of 12.7 ns. In addition, an exciton binding energy of 57.5 meV was derived from the temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurement. More importantly, we achieved highly efficient pure green perovskite based light-emitting diode (PeLEDs) devices with an average external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 7.3% (maximum EQE is 16.3%) and an average current efficiency (CE) of 29.5 cd A (maximum CE is 66.3 cd A) by adapting a conventional device structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/TFB/perovskite film/TPBi/LiF/Al. It is expected that the in situ LARP process provides an effective methodology for the improvement of the performance of PeLEDs.

This study tested the hypothesis that l-arginine (Arg) may stimulate cell proliferation and prevent lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced death of intestinal cells. Intestinal porcine epithelial cells (IPEC-1) were cultured for 4 days in Arg-free Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s-F12 Ham medium (DMEM-F12) containing 10, 100 or 350 μM Arg and 0 or 20 ng/ml LPS. Cell numbers, protein concentrations, protein synthesis and degradation, as well as mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling pathways were determined. Without LPS, IPEC-1 cells exhibited time- and Arg-dependent growth curves. LPS treatment increased cell death and reduced protein concentrations in IPEC-1 cells. Addition of 100 and 350 μM Arg to culture medium dose-dependently attenuated LPS-induced cell death and reduction of protein concentrations, in comparison with the basal medium containing 10 μM Arg. Furthermore, supplementation of 100 and 350 μM Arg increased protein synthesis and reduced protein degradation in both control and LPS-treated IPEC-1 cells. Consistent with the data on cell growth and protein turnover, addition of 100 or 350 μM Arg to culture medium increased relative protein levels for phosphorylated mTOR and phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 kinase-1, while reducing the relative levels of TLR4 and phosphorylated levels of nuclear factor-κB in LPS-treated IPEC-1 cells. These results demonstrate a protective effect of Arg against LPS-induced enterocyte damage through mechanisms involving mTOR and TLR4 signaling pathways, as well as intracellular protein turnover.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are promising candidates for the next generation of photovoltaic technologies due to their constantly improved efficiencies, which gain much attention from both the scientific and industrial communities. Although the performance of PSCs is dramatically enhanced, most certified or reported high‐efficiency PSCs are still limited to a relatively small active area. The degradation of efficiency and stability accompanied by upscaling must be solved, being a bottleneck toward industrialization. This review focuses on the research progress, challenges, and strategies on large‐area PSCs, especially each functional material in various device architectures, including perovskites, hole transport materials, electron transport materials, and electrodes. Finally, the main issues related to each functional layer of PSCs from laboratory to industry are presented and an outlook on the research direction of large‐area PSCs is given.

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