Triassic flysch in the Songpan‐Ganzi Complex (SGC), eastern Tibet, is an important and rich record of tectonism associated with evolution and closure of the eastern Paleo‐Tethys Ocean. However, ...current models for tectonic evolution of the ocean remain controversial, in large part due to ambiguity of the origin of SGC deposits. We constrain provenance of Middle‐Upper Triassic turbidites from central SGC and the adjacent Yidun and West Qinling terranes by using detrital zircon U‐Pb geochronology. The results show that the detrital zircon ages mainly comprise five populations: 240–310 Ma; 400–480 Ma; 750–1,000 Ma; 1,700–2,000 Ma; and 2,300–2,600 Ma. These ages indicate the East Kunlun and North China block served as major sediment sources for most of central SGC and West Qinling. The predominance of Paleozoic zircons in Upper Triassic turbidites indicates uplift and exhumation of the East Kunlun orogen during the Late Triassic. The southern SGC and Yidun turbidites display quite similar zircon age spectra (significant age peaks at approximately 1,850 Ma), implying that Songpan‐Ganzi and Yidun depocenters were adjacent to each other by the Middle Triassic. This finding suggests that the Ganzi‐Litang Ocean, as a part of eastern Paleo‐Tethys Ocean, probably had been closed by the Middle Triassic. We favor subsequent deformation and uplift of the Triassic flysch was coeval with or possibly predated latest Triassic shortening within the Longmenshan thrust belt, resulting in recycling of the flysch into surrounding sedimentary basins (e.g., Sichuan and Qamdo basins) since latest Triassic time.
Key Points
Amalgamation of the Songpan‐Ganzi Complex and Yidun terrane, and closure of the Ganzi‐Litang Ocean, had occurred by the Middle Triassic
The East Kunlun, on northern margin of the eastern Paleo‐Tethys, underwent significant exhumation and erosion during the Late Triassic
Deformation of the Songpan‐Ganzi and Yidun flysch strata was coeval with or predated latest Triassic shortening within Longmenshan
Long nanopore reads are advantageous in de novo genome assembly. However, nanopore reads usually have broad error distribution and high-error-rate subsequences. Existing error correction tools cannot ...correct nanopore reads efficiently and effectively. Most methods trim high-error-rate subsequences during error correction, which reduces both the length of the reads and contiguity of the final assembly. Here, we develop an error correction, and de novo assembly tool designed to overcome complex errors in nanopore reads. We propose an adaptive read selection and two-step progressive method to quickly correct nanopore reads to high accuracy. We introduce a two-stage assembler to utilize the full length of nanopore reads. Our tool achieves superior performance in both error correction and de novo assembling nanopore reads. It requires only 8122 hours to assemble a 35X coverage human genome and achieves a 2.47-fold improvement in NG50. Furthermore, our assembly of the human WERI cell line shows an NG50 of 22 Mbp. The high-quality assembly of nanopore reads can significantly reduce false positives in structure variation detection.
Critical patients with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), even those whose nucleic acid test results had turned negative and those receiving maximal medical support, have been noted to progress ...to irreversible fatal respiratory failure. Lung transplantation (LT) as the sole therapy for end-stage pulmonary fibrosis related to acute respiratory distress syndrome has been considered as the ultimate rescue therapy for these patients.
From February 10 to March 10, 2020, three male patients were urgently assessed and listed for transplantation. After conducting a full ethical review and after obtaining assent from the family of the patients, we performed three LT procedures for COVID-19 patients with illness durations of more than one month and extremely high sequential organ failure assessment scores.
Two of the three recipients survived post-LT and started participating in a rehabilitation program. Pearls of the LT team collaboration and perioperative logistics were summarized and continually improved. The pathological results of the explanted lungs were concordant with the critical clinical manifestation, and provided insight towards better understanding of the disease. Government health affair systems, virology detection tools, and modern communication technology all play key roles towards the survival of the patients and their rehabilitation.
LT can be performed in end-stage patients with respiratory failure due to COVID-19-related pulmonary fibrosis. If confirmed positive-turned-negative virology status without organ dysfunction that could contraindicate LT, LT provided the final option for these patients to avoid certain death, with proper protection of transplant surgeons and medical staffs. By ensuring instant seamless care for both patients and medical teams, the goal of reducing the mortality rate and salvaging the lives of patients with COVID-19 can be attained.
During the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), consistent and considerable differences in disease severity and mortality rate of patients treated in Hubei province compared to those in ...other parts of China have been observed. We sought to compare the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients being treated inside and outside Hubei province, and explore the factors underlying these differences.
Collaborating with the National Health Commission, we established a retrospective cohort to study hospitalised COVID-19 cases in China. Clinical characteristics, the rate of severe events and deaths, and the time to critical illness (invasive ventilation or intensive care unit admission or death) were compared between patients within and outside Hubei. The impact of Wuhan-related exposure (a presumed key factor that drove the severe situation in Hubei, as Wuhan is the epicentre as well the administrative centre of Hubei province) and the duration between symptom onset and admission on prognosis were also determined.
At the data cut-off (31 January 2020), 1590 cases from 575 hospitals in 31 provincial administrative regions were collected (core cohort). The overall rate of severe cases and mortality was 16.0% and 3.2%, respectively. Patients in Hubei (predominantly with Wuhan-related exposure, 597 (92.3%) out of 647) were older (mean age 49.7
44.9 years), had more cases with comorbidity (32.9%
19.7%), higher symptomatic burden, abnormal radiologic manifestations and, especially, a longer waiting time between symptom onset and admission (5.7
4.5 days) compared with patients outside Hubei. Patients in Hubei (severe event rate 23.0%
11.1%, death rate 7.3%
0.3%, HR (95% CI) for critical illness 1.59 (1.05-2.41)) have a poorer prognosis compared with patients outside Hubei after adjusting for age and comorbidity. However, among patients outside Hubei, the duration from symptom onset to hospitalisation (mean 4.4
4.7 days) and prognosis (HR (95%) 0.84 (0.40-1.80)) were similar between patients with or without Wuhan-related exposure. In the overall population, the waiting time, but neither treated in Hubei nor Wuhan-related exposure, remained an independent prognostic factor (HR (95%) 1.05 (1.01-1.08)).
There were more severe cases and poorer outcomes for COVID-19 patients treated in Hubei, which might be attributed to the prolonged duration of symptom onset to hospitalisation in the epicentre. Future studies to determine the reason for delaying hospitalisation are warranted.
We report here a general four‐component synthetic procedure for the preparation of β‐boryl ketones and β‐boryl vinyl esters. Joint catalyzed by palladium and copper catalysts, borocarbonylative ...reaction between vinylarenes, aryl halides/triflates, B2Pin2, and carbon monoxide proceed successfully. A variety of synthetically useful β‐boryl ketones were synthesized in good to high yields by using aryl iodides as the substrates. It is noteworthy that when aryl triflates were applied as the starting materials, β‐boryl vinyl esters were synthesized in a similar manner and with broad functional group tolerance. A rational mechanism for this reaction was also proposed.
Joint catalysis: The cooperative Cu/Pd‐catalyzed four‐component borocarbonylation of vinylarenes, aryl halides/triflates, B2Pin2, and CO generates β‐boryl ketones and β‐boryl vinyl esters in good to high yields. A rational mechanism was proposed for the synthesis of β‐boryl vinyl esters, which involves an acyl‐copper intermediate in the Cu cycle.
Previous GWAS studies identified non-coding loci with parent-of-origin-specific effects on Type 2 diabetes susceptibility. Here we report the molecular basis for one such locus near the KRTAP5-6 gene ...on chromosome 11. We determine the pattern of long-range contacts between an enhancer in this locus and the human INS promoter 460 kb away, in the human pancreatic β-cell line, EndoC-βH1. 3C long range contact experiments distinguish contacts on the two sister chromosomes. Coupling with allele-specific SNPs allows construction of maps revealing marked differences in organization of the two sister chromosomes in the entire region between KRTAP5-6 and INS. Further mapping distinguishes maternal and paternal alleles. This reveals a domain of parent-of-origin-specific chromatin structure extending in the telomeric direction from the INS locus. This suggests more generally that imprinted loci may extend their influence over gene expression beyond those loci through long range chromatin structure, resulting in parent-of-origin-biased expression patterns over great distances.
Oxidative stress and neuroinflammation contribute significantly to the development and progression of diabetic retinopathy. Fenofibrate has received great attention as it benefits diabetic patients ...by reducing retinal laser requirement. Nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a master regulator of anti-oxidative defense. Activation of nucleotide binding domain, leucine-rich repeat-containing receptor (NLR), pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome plays a pivotal role in neuroinflammation. The purpose of this study is to determine whether fenofibrate protects retinas from oxidative damage and neuroinflammation via modulating the Nrf2 pathway and blocking NLRP3 inflammasome activation during diabetes. Diabetes is induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin in mice. Fenofibrate was given to mice in rodent chow. Upregulation of Nrf2 and NLRP3 inflammasome, enhanced ROS formation, and increased leukostasis and vascular leakage were observed in diabetic mouse retinas. Notably, Nrf2 and Caspase-1 were mainly colocalized with glutamine synthetase, one of the Mȕller cell markers. Fenofibrate further increased the expression of Nrf2 and its target gene NQO-1 and HO-1 and reduced ROS formation in diabetic retinas. In addition, retinal expression of NLRP3, Caspase-1 p20, IL-1β p17, and ICAM-1 were dramatically increased in vehicle-treated diabetic mice, which were abolished by fenofibrate intervention. Moreover, fenofibrate treatment also attenuated diabetes-induced retinal leukostasis and vascular leakage in mice. Taken together, fenofibrate attenuates oxidative stress and neuroinflammation in diabetic retinas, which is at least partially through modulating Nrf2 expression and NLRP3 inflammasome activation.
We truly appreciate the comments from C.E. Leiva Sisnieguez and colleagues, who have performed a further analysis on the potential association between cardiovascular comorbidities and the clinical ...outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), particularly the mortality). We also applaud the suggestion to thoroughly adjust for potential confounding factors when interpreting the association between specific categories of cardiovascular comorbidities (
e.g.
hypertension) and the clinical outcomes of COVID-19. To this end, we have attempted to incorporate the cardiovascular diseases (including coronary heart disease) into the multivariate regression model 1. Findings of the model indicated a prominent collinearity between hypertension and coronary heart disease, and we have therefore elected to retain hypertension in the regression model for further analyses.
Comorbid hypertension correlates with poorer outcomes in patients with COVID-19
https://bit.ly/2zoT9f0
This paper presents a novel fractal defected ground structure (FDGS) to reduce mutual coupling between coplanar spaced microstrip antenna elements. The structure of the proposed FDGS is studied. ...Bandgap characteristic of second and third iterative FDGS is achieved. The second and third iterative FDGSs are used to reduce mutual coupling between microstrip antenna elements. Mutual coupling reduction performance of third iterative FDGS is better than that of second iterative FDGS. And dimension of FDGS can be decreased by using higher level iterative FDGS. The third iterative FDGS is fabricated and measured. Simulated and measured results both show that more than 35-dB mutual coupling reduction is obtained by using the third iterative FDGS. Moreover, the envelope correlation of antenna elements with FDGS is quite smaller than that of antenna elements without FDGS.
Carbonylation, an efficient and straightforward approach for installing a carbonyl group into their parent compounds, is an important area in modern organic synthesis. This Review outlines the recent ...advances in the development of nitrogen-centered carbonylation reactions, which consists of two parts: nitrogen-center-directed carbonylation reactions and carbonylative C–N bonds activation. According to the reaction mechanisms, two-electron- and single-electron-mediated carbonylation reactions were systematically classified and discussed in detail. Different inert bonds such as C(sp2)–H, C(sp3)–H, C–C, C(sp3)–N, and C(sp2)–N bonds can be activated and ready for a carbonylative transformation toward the synthesis of the corresponding carbonyl-containing compounds.
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