Background. Seven persons in one family living in eastern China developed fever and thrombocytopenia during May 2007, but the initial investigation failed to identify an infectious etiology. In ...December 2009, a novel bunyavirus (designated severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome bunyavirus SFTSV) was identified as the cause of illness in patients with similar clinical manifestations in China. We reexamined this family cluster for SFTSV infection. Methods. We analyzed epidemiological and clinical data for the index patient and 6 secondary patients. We tested stored blood specimens from the 6 secondary patients using real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), viral culture, genetic sequencing, micro-neutralization assay (MNA), and indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA). Results. An 80-year-old woman with fever, leucopenia, and thrombocytopenia died on 27 April 2007. Between 3 and 7 May 2007, another 6 patients from her family were admitted to a local county hospital with fever and other similar symptoms. Serum specimens collected in 2007 from these 6 patients were positive for SFTS viral RNA through RT-PCR and for antibody to SFTSV through MNA and IFA. SFTSV was isolated from 1 preserved serum specimen. The only shared characteristic between secondary patients was personal contact with the index patient; none reported exposure to suspected animals or vectors. Conclusions. Clinical and laboratory evidence confirmed that the patients of fever and thrombocytopenia occurring in a family cluster in eastern China in 2007 were caused by a newly recognized bunyavirus, SFTSV. Epidemiological investigation strongly suggests that infection of secondary patients was transmitted to family members by personal contact.
The far-reaching impacts of central Pacific El Niño events on global climate differ appreciably from those associated with eastern Pacific El Niño events. Central Pacific El Niño events may become ...more frequent in coming decades as atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations rise, but the instrumental record of central Pacific sea-surface temperatures is too short to detect potential trends. Here we present an annually resolved reconstruction of NIÑO4 sea-surface temperature, located in the central equatorial Pacific, based on oxygen isotopic time series from Taiwan tree cellulose that span from 1190 AD to 2007 AD. Our reconstruction indicates that relatively warm Niño4 sea-surface temperature values over the late twentieth century are accompanied by higher levels of interannual variability than observed in other intervals of the 818-year-long reconstruction. Our results imply that anthropogenic greenhouse forcing may be driving an increase in central Pacific El Niño-Southern Oscillation variability and/or its hydrological impacts, consistent with recent modelling studies.
The most recent version of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Clinical Practice Guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of gastric cancer (GC) was published in 2016, and ...covered the management and treatment of local, locoregional, locally advanced and metastatic disease. At the ESMO Asia Meeting in November 2017 it was decided by both ESMO and The Japanese Society of Medical Oncology (JSMO) to convene a special guidelines meeting immediately after the JSMO Annual Meeting in 2018. The aim was to adapt the ESMO 2016 guidelines to take into account the ethnic differences associated with the treatment of metastatic GC in Asian patients. These guidelines represent the consensus opinions reached by experts in the treatment of patients with metastatic GC representing the oncological societies of Japan (JSMO), China (CSCO), Korea (KSMO), Malaysia (MOS), Singapore (SSO) and Taiwan (TOS). The voting was based on scientific evidence and was independent of both the current treatment practices and the drug availability and reimbursement situations in the individual participating Asian countries.
Based on an e+e− collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 567 pb−1 taken at the center-of-mass energy of s=4.6 GeV with the BESIII detector, we measure the absolute ...branching fraction of the inclusive decay Λc+→Λ+X to be B(Λc+→Λ+X)=(38.2−2.2+2.8±0.9)% using the double-tag method, where X refers to any possible final state particles. In addition, we search for direct CP violation in the charge asymmetry of this inclusive decay for the first time, and obtain ACP≡B(Λc+→Λ+X)−B(Λ¯c−→Λ¯+X)/B(Λc+→Λ+X)+B(Λ¯c−→Λ¯+X)=(2.1−6.6+7.0±1.6)%, a statistically limited result with no evidence of CP violation.
A number of patient-specific and leukemia-associated factors are related to the poor outcome in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, comprehensive studies regarding the impact ...of genetic alterations in this group of patients are limited. In this study, we compared relevant mutations in 21 genes between AML patients aged 60 years or older and those younger and exposed their prognostic implications. Compared with the younger patients, the elderly had significantly higher incidences of PTPN11, NPM1, RUNX1, ASXL1, TET2, DNMT3A and TP53 mutations but a lower frequency of WT1 mutations. The older patients more frequently harbored one or more adverse genetic alterations. Multivariate analysis showed that DNMT3A and TP53 mutations were independent poor prognostic factors among the elderly, while NPM1 mutation in the absence of FLT3/ITD was an independent favorable prognostic factor. Furthermore, the status of mutations could well stratify older patients with intermediate-risk cytogenetics into three risk groups. In conclusion, older AML patients showed distinct genetic alterations from the younger group. Integration of cytogenetics and molecular mutations can better risk-stratify older AML patients. Development of novel therapies is needed to improve the outcome of older patients with poor prognosis under current treatment modalities.
Understanding magnetic phases in quantum mechanical systems is one of the essential goals in condensed matter physics, and the advent of prototype quantum simulation hardware has provided new tools ...for experimentally probing such systems. We report on the experimental realization of a quantum simulation of interacting Ising spins on three-dimensional cubic lattices up to dimensions 8 × 8 × 8 on a D-Wave processor (D-Wave Systems, Burnaby, Canada). The ability to control and read out the state of individual spins provides direct access to several order parameters, which we used to determine the lattice's magnetic phases as well as critical disorder and one of its universal exponents. By tuning the degree of disorder and effective transverse magnetic field, we observed phase transitions between a paramagnetic, an antiferromagnetic, and a spin-glass phase.
Using a data sample of ${e}^{+}{e}^{{-}}$ collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $567\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{pb}}^{{-}1}$ collected at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=4.6\text{ ...}\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ with the BESIII detector, we measure the absolute branching fraction of the inclusive semileptonic ${\mathrm{{\Lambda}}}_{c}^{+}$ decay with a double-tag method. We obtain $\mathcal{B}({\mathrm{{\Lambda}}}_{c}^{+}{\rightarrow}X{e}^{+}{{\nu}}_{e})=(3.95\pm{}0.34\pm{}0.09)%$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. Using the known ${\mathrm{{\Lambda}}}_{c}^{+}$ lifetime and the charge-averaged semileptonic decay width of nonstrange charmed mesons (${D}^{0}$ and ${D}^{+}$), we obtain the ratio of the inclusive semileptonic decay widths $\mathrm{{\Gamma}}({\mathrm{{\Lambda}}}_{c}^{+}{\rightarrow}X{e}^{+}{{\nu}}_{e})/\overline{\mathrm{{\Gamma}}}(D{\rightarrow}X{e}^{+}{{\nu}}_{e})=1.26\pm{}0.12$.
Abstract
From December 2019 to June 2021, the BESIII experiment collected approximately 5.85 fb
−1
of data at center-of-mass energies between 4.61 and 4.95 GeV. This is the highest collision energy ...BEPCII has reached to date. The accumulated
annihilation data samples are useful for studying charmonium(-like) states and charmed-hadron decays. By adopting a novel method of analyzing the production of
pairs in
annihilation, the center-of-mass energies are measured with a precision of
0.6 MeV. Integrated luminosities are measured with a precision of better than 1% by analyzing the events of large-angle Bhabha scattering. These measurements provide important inputs to analyses based on these data samples.
The mutagenic effect of hepatitis B (HBV) integration in predisposing risk to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains elusive. In this study, we performed transcriptome sequencing of HBV-positive HCC ...cell lines and showed transcription of viral-human gene fusions from the site of genome integrations. We discovered tumor-promoting properties of a chimeric HBx-LINE1 that, intriguingly, functions as a hybrid RNA. HBx-LINE1 can be detected in 23.3% of HBV-associated HCC tumors and correlates with poorer patient survival. HBx-LINE1 transgenic mice showed heightened susceptibility to diethylnitrosamine-induced tumor formation. We further show that HBx-LINE1 expression affects β-catenin transactivity, which underlines a role in activating Wnt signaling. Thus, this study identifies a viral-human chimeric fusion transcript that functions like a long noncoding RNA to promote HCC.
•HBV integration into the host genome can cause transcription of viral-human chimeras•HBx-LINE1 exerts oncogenic functions as a long noncoding RNA-like transcript•HBx-LINE1 promotes tumorigenicity via activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling•HBx-LINE1 increases risk of HCC development
Lau et al. discover a viral-human fusion transcript that is detectable in a quarter of hepatitis B virus-associated hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). This chimeric transcript promotes HCC by functioning like a long noncoding RNA to activate the Wnt pathway.
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