Molecular cloning and expression analysis of HAG1 in the floral organs of Hyacinthus orientalis L

HAG1 gene was isolated from the floral organs of Hyacinthus orientalis L. by using RT-PCR. Sequence analysis showed that this gene was homologous to AGAMOUS. Northern hybridization indicated that HAG1 was specifically expressed in floral organs using 3' end of HAG1 as a probe. Further, transcript of this gene was not detected in differentiating tepals induced by lower concentration of hormones, however, it was detected in differentiating stemans by higher concentration of hormones in vitro. It is possible that there is a close relationship between the concentration of hormones, homeotic genes and identities of floral organs.

Production of highly charged ion beams with SECRAL

Superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source with advanced design in Lanzhou (SECRAL) is an all-superconducting-magnet electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) for the production of intense highly charged ion beams to meet the requirements of the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL). To further enhance the performance of SECRAL, an aluminum chamber has been installed inside a 1.5 mm thick Ta liner used for the reduction of x-ray irradiation at the high voltage insulator. With double-frequency (18+14.5 GHz) heating and at maximum total microwave power of 2.0 kW, SECRAL has successfully produced quite a few very highly charged Xe ion beams, such as 10 e microA of Xe(37+), 1 e microA of Xe(43+), and 0.16 e microA of Ne-like Xe(44+). To further explore the capability of the SECRAL in the production of highly charged heavy metal ion beams, a first test run on bismuth has been carried out recently. The main goal is to produce an intense Bi(31+) beam for HIRFL accelerator and to have a feel how well the SECRAL can do in the production of very highly charged Bi beams. During the test, though at microwave power less than 3 kW, more than 150 e microA of Bi(31+), 22 e microA of Bi(41+), and 1.5 e microA of Bi(50+) have been produced. All of these results have again demonstrated the great capability of the SECRAL source. This article will present the detailed results and brief discussions to the production of highly charged ion beams with SECRAL.

Objective evaluation of speech signal quality by the prediction of multiple foreground diagnostic acceptability measure attributes

A methodology is described to objectively diagnose the quality of speech signals by predicting the perceptual detectability of a selected set of distortions. The distortions are a statistically selected subset of the broad number of distortions used in diagnostic acceptability measure (DAM) testing. The justification for such a methodology is established from the analysis of a set of speech signals representing a broad set of distortions and their respective DAM scores. At the heart of the ability to isolate and diagnose the perceptibility of the individual distortions is a physiologically motivated cochlear model. The philosophy and methodology is thus distinct from traditional objective measures that are typically designed to predict mean opinion scores (MOS) using well versed functional psychoacoustic models. Even so, a weighted sum of these objectively predicted set of distortions is able to predict accurate and robust MOS scores, even when the reference speech signals have been subject to the Lombard effect.

Influence of electron cyclotron resonance ion source parameters on high energy electrons

In order to diagnose the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma, a high-efficiency collimation system has been developed at the Institute of Modern Physics, and the bremsstrahlung spectra in the range of 10 keV-300 keV were measured on a third generation superconducting ECR ion source, SECRAL-II, with a CdTe detector. Used as a comparative index of the mean energy of the high energy electron population, the spectral temperature, T_s, is derived through a linear fitting of the spectra in a semi-logarithmic representation. The influences of some main source parameters, such as the neutral gas pressure, extraction voltage, microwave power, and bias disk voltage, on the high energy electrons are systemically investigated.

Abstract PD4-01: Acupuncture for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in breast cancer, preliminary results of a pilot randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is one of the major dose-limiting side effects in breast cancer patients, with up to 97% of patients receiving an adjuvant taxane experiencing this symptom in the months and years after breast cancer treatment. CIPN often leads to loss of physical function; difficulties in activities of daily living and decreased of quality of life (QOL). Few effective interventions have been developed to alleviate CIPN in this patient population. We conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial to assess the feasibility, safety and preliminary effect of an acupuncture intervention on CIPN in breast cancer survivors.

METHODS: Patients with stage I-III breast cancer who were experiencing CIPN after the completion of a taxane-containing adjuvant chemotherapy regimen were enrolled and randomized 1:1 to immediate participation in an acupuncture intervention or to a delayed intervention control group. Participants randomized to the acupuncture arm received 18 sessions of a standardized acupuncture protocol over 8 weeks while the control group received a lower-dose acupuncture protocol consisting of 9 acupuncture sessions over 8 weeks, after the initial 8-week control period. Measures including the Patient Neurotoxicity Questionnaire (PNQ), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Neurotoxicity subscale (FACT-NTX), and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Chemotherapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy 20 (EORTC QLQ-CIPN20) were collected at baseline and at 8 weeks after enrollment.

RESULTS: A total of 40 patients were enrolled; 20 were randomized to the immediate acupuncture group and 20 to control. All enrolled patients were female, median age was 54, median time between enrollment and completion of chemotherapy was 14.3 months, and 72.5% of participants were White. Thirty-two patients (84%) completed at least 80% of the required sessions. No serious acupuncture-related side effects were observed. Participants randomized to the acupuncture arm experienced improvements in the PNQ sensory score (p=0.02), FACT-NTX summary score (p=0.002) and EORTC QLQ-CIPN20 score (p=0.006), respectively equivalent to 40%, 36% and 53% improvement in CIPN symptoms, as compared to controls.

MeasurementsTime pointsAcupunctureUsual CareP-valueNMeanSDMeanSDPNQ summary sensory score (0-4)Baseline202.50.82.50.90.97Changes at 8 week15-1.00.9-0.30.60.02FACT-NTX summary score (0-44)Baseline2025.08.422.19.40.40Changes at 8 week159.09.21.25.40.002EORTC QLQ-CIPN20 sensory score (0-100)Baseline2044.919.945.022.30.93Changes at 8 week15-23.818.1-5.16.40.006

CONCLUSIONS: Women with CIPN after adjuvant taxane therapy for early breast cancer experienced a significant and clinically meaningful improvement in neuropathy symptoms as a result of an 8-week acupuncture protocol. Given the prevalence of taxane-induced neuropathy in women treated for early breast cancer, acupuncture could significantly improve QOL and functional status of thousands of women treated for breast cancer every year. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings and evaluate the impact of acupuncture on functional measures in women with CIPN.

Citation Format: Lu W, Giobbie-Hurder A, Freedman R, Yung R, Lin N, Partridge A, Shockro L, Stecker K, O'Connor KA, Rosenthal DS, Ligibel JA. Acupuncture for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in breast cancer, preliminary results of a pilot randomized controlled trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PD4-01.

Correction: Genetic inhibition of neurotransmission reveals role of glutamatergic input to dopamine neurons in high-effort behavior

In Figure 1e and f, "F4 control" should be "Cre/tdTomato" and "F4Cre KO" should be "F4Cre/tdTomato". In addition, in the Figure1f legend, the first sentence should end with "(Cre/tdTomato: n = 10, F4Cre/tdTomato: n = 14)".In the 'Materials and Methods' section, under 'Electrophysiology,' the n values for evoked action potential recordings were omitted. The sentence 'For high-frequency stimulus-induced action potentials, the stimulus electrode was placed in the rostral part of VTA and a train of 100 Hz stimuli (1 s) was applied' should end with '(Cre/tdTomato: n=10, F4Cre/tdTomato: n=14).'Later in the same paragraph, in 'For recording evoked EPSCs (Cre/tdTomato, n=13, F4Cre/tdTomato, n=15; AMPA EPSCs were recorded at -70  mV and NMDA EPSCs were recorded at +40 mV)', the phrase 'Cre/tdTomato, n=13, F4Cre/tdTomato, n=15' should be deleted; those n values should have appeared at the end of the later sentence beginning 'Miniature ESPCs...'. The complete, corrected sentence is 'Miniature EPSCs (mEPSCs) were acquired in the presence of 0.5-1 μM TTX and 100 μM picrotoxin and semiautomatically detected by offline analysis using in-house software in Igor Pro (Wavemetrics, Portland, OR, USA) (Cre/tdTomato, n=13, F4Cre/tdTomato, n=15).'Finally, in the 'Materials and Methods' section, third sentence under 'Immunohistochemistry,' information for one TH antibody was omitted. The list of antibodies should end with 'or Millipore MAB5280, 1:1000-1:2000.'

[Predictive value for esophageal varices using acoustic radiation force impulse elastography in post-hepatitis B cirrhosis patients]

Objective: A retrospective analysis of the predictive value of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography for esophageal varices in post-hepatitis B cirrhosis patients. Methods: 124 patients with post-hepatitis B cirrhosis who were admitted to Tianjin Second People's Hospital from August 2016 to August 2017 were selected. According to the shape of esophageal varices under gastroscopy and the risk of bleeding, patients were divided into 4 groups, none, mild, moderate and severe. In ARFI mode, the VTQ function was used to detect the VTQ values of the liver and spleen. The receiver operating characteristic curve and area under the curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the diagnosis of esophageal varices by VTQ values of the liver and spleen. Analysis of variance was performed on the data between the groups, and χ (2) test was performed for categorical data. Results: The difference in liver VTQ values between groups were statistically significant (F = 12.623, P < 0.01). There was a statistically significant difference in VTQ values between spleens (F = 9.022, P < 0.01). The liver VTQ predicts that the AUC value of mild esophageal varices in patients with cirrhosis was 0.701 (0.575-0.827); moderate varices was 0.802 (0.701-0.902); severe varices was 0.885 (0.784-0.986). The best cutoff value was 2.235, the specificity was 97.37%, the negative predictive value was 88.10%, and the accuracy was 90.16%. The VTQ value of spleen predicts the AUC value of mild esophageal varices in patients with liver cirrhosis was 0.688 (0.539-0.798); moderate varices were 0.762 (0.651-0.873); severe varices were 0.800 (0.671-0.928). The best cutoff value was 2.885, the specificity was 84.21%, and the negative predictive value was 82.05%. Conclusion: The application of ARFI elastography in the determination of VTQ values of liver and spleen has certain predictive value for esophageal varices and it might be useful for primary screening of esophageal varices in post-hepatitis B cirrhosis patients.

First Report of a Chaetomella sp. Causing a Leaf Spot on Sansevieria trifasciata in China

Sansevieria trifasciata originates from tropical West Africa. It is widely planted as a potted ornamental in China for improving indoor air quality (1). In February 2011, leaves of S. trifasciata plants in an ornamental market of Anle, Luoyang City, China, were observed with sunken brown lesions up to 20 mm in diameter, and with black pycnidia present in the lesions. One hundred potted plants were examined, with disease incidence at 20%. The symptomatic leaves affected the ornamental value of the plants. A section of leaf tissue from the periphery of two lesions from a plant was cut into 1 cm² pieces, soaked in 70% ethanol for 30 s, sterilized with 0.1% HgCl₂ for 2 min, then washed five times in sterilized distilled water. The pieces were incubated at 28°C on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Colonies of two isolates were brown with submerged hyphae, and aerial mycelium was rare. Abundant and scattered pycnidia were reniform, dark brown, and 200 to 350 × 100 to 250 μm. There were two types of setae on the pycnidia: 1) dark brown setae with inward curved tops, and 2) straight, brown setae. Conidia were hyaline, unicellular, cylindrical, and 3.75 to 6.25 × 1.25 to 2.50 μm. Morphological characteristics suggested the two fungal isolates were a Chaetomella sp. To confirm pathogenicity, six mature leaves of a potted S. trifasciata plant were wounded with a sterile pin after wiping each leaf surface with 70% ethanol and washing each leaf with sterilized distilled water three times. A 0.5 cm mycelial disk cut from the margin of a 5-day-old colony on a PDA plate was placed on each pin-wounded leaf, ensuring that the mycelium was in contact with the wound. Non-colonized PDA discs were placed on pin-wounded leaves as the control treatment. Each of two fungal isolates was inoculated on two leaves, and the control treatment was done similarly on two leaves. The inoculated plant was placed in a growth chamber at 28°C with 80% relative humidity. After 7 days, inoculated leaves produced brown lesions with black pycnidia, but no symptoms developed on the control leaves. A Chaetomella sp. was reisolated from the lesions of inoculated leaves, but not from the control leaves. An additional two potted plants were inoculated using the same methods as replications of the experiment, with identical results. To confirm the fungal identification, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA of the two isolates was amplified using primers ITS1 and ITS4 (2) and sequenced. The sequences were identical (GenBank Accession No. KC515097) and exhibited 99% nucleotide identity to the ITS sequence of an isolate of Chaetomella sp. in GenBank (AJ301961). To our knowledge, this is the first report of a leaf spot of S. trifasciata caused by Chaetomella sp. in China as well as anywhere in the world. References: (1) X. Z. Guo et al. Subtropical Crops Commun. Zhejiang 27:9, 2005. (2) T. J. White et al. PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. M. A. Innis et al., eds. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1990.

Physical Mechanism of the Transverse Instability in Radiation Pressure Ion Acceleration

The transverse stability of the target is crucial for obtaining high quality ion beams using the laser radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) mechanism. In this Letter, a theoretical model and supporting two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are presented to clarify the physical mechanism of the transverse instability observed in the RPA process. It is shown that the density ripples of the target foil are mainly induced by the coupling between the transverse oscillating electrons and the quasistatic ions, a mechanism similar to the oscillating two stream instability in the inertial confinement fusion research. The predictions of the mode structure and the growth rates from the theory agree well with the results obtained from the PIC simulations in various regimes, indicating the model contains the essence of the underlying physics of the transverse breakup of the target.

Electrically-controlled rapid femtosecond pulse duration switching and continuous picosecond pulse duration tuning in an ultrafast Cr4+:forsterite laser

We demonstrate rapid switching between picosecond and femtosecond operational regimes in a Cr(4+):forsterite laser, using an electrically-contacted GaInNAs SESAM with saturable absorption characteristics controlled via the quantum-confined Stark effect. Additionally, continuous picosecond pulse duration tuning by over a factor 3 is reported.

TNF-derived peptides inhibit tumour growth and metastasis through cytolytic effects on tumour lymphatics

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) is a multi-functional cytokine with profound and diverse effects on physiology and pathology. Identifying the molecular determinants underlying the functions and pathogenic effects of TNF is key to understanding its mechanisms of action and identifying new therapeutic opportunities based on this important molecule. Previously, we showed that some evolutionarily conserved peptides derived from TNF could induce cell death (e.g. apoptosis and/or necrosis), a feature of immune defence mechanisms shared by many vertebrates. In this study, we demonstrated that necrosis-inducing peptide P16 kills human glioblastoma cancer cells and primary human hepatoma or renal cancer cells isolated from patients who had not responded to standard treatments. Importantly, we show that the necrosis-inducing peptide P1516 significantly improves survival by inhibiting tumour metastasis in a 4T1 breast cancer syngeneic graft mouse model. Because the lymphatic system is an important metastatic route in many cancers, we also tested the effect of TNF-derived peptides on monolayers of primary human lymphatic endothelial cells (hDLEC) and found that they increased junctional permeability by inducing cytoskeletal reorganization, gap junction formation and cell death. Transmission electron microscopy imaging evidence, structural analysis and in-vitro liposome leakage experiments strongly suggest that this killing is due to the cytolytic nature of these peptides. P1516 provides another example of a pro-cytotoxic TNF peptide that probably functions as a cryptic necrotic factor released by TNF degradation. Its ability to inhibit tumour metastasis and improve survival may form the basis of a novel approach to cancer therapy.

[A clinical study of haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in the treatment of pediatric patients with acquired severe aplastic anemia: single center experience]

目的

探讨单倍型造血干细胞移植（haplo-HSCT）治疗儿童获得性重型再生障碍性贫血（SAA）的疗效。

方法

回顾性分析2011年12月1日至2017年12月1日接受haplo-HSCT的59例SAA患者。

结果

①全部59例SAA患儿中男37例、女22例，中位年龄4.5（1.2~14.8）岁，中位体重43（12~80）kg；SAA-Ⅰ型47例，SAA-Ⅱ型12例，26例为极重型再生障碍性贫血（VSAA）；首次移植56例，二次移植3例。②预处理选用白消安+环磷酰胺+抗胸腺细胞球蛋白（ATG）方案或白消安+氟达拉滨+环磷酰胺+ATG方案；采用环孢素A（CsA）+霉酚酸酯+甲氨蝶呤方案预防急性GVHD；回输单个核细胞中位数为15.60（7.74~21.04）×10⁸/kg，CD34⁺细胞中位数为4.86（3.74~7.14）×10⁶/kg。③全部59例患儿均获得中性粒细胞和血小板植入。中性粒细胞植入中位时间为13（10~19）d，血小板植入中位时间为19（9~62）d。④Ⅰ~Ⅱ、Ⅲ/Ⅳ度急性GVHD发生率分别为45.76%（27/59）、13.56%（8/59），慢性GVHD发生率为8.47%（5/59）。巨细胞病毒血症发生率为59.32%（35/59）、EB病毒血症发生率为28.81%（17/59）。⑤中位随访时间30（8~80）个月，57例无病存活，2例死亡（均死于GVHD），5年总生存率、无失败生存率均为（96.4±2.5）%。

结论

haplo-HSCT是儿童SAA疗效较好的治疗方法。

Using Diffuse Scattering to Observe X-Ray-Driven Nonthermal Melting

We present results from the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser facility, where we used a high intensity (∼10^{20}  W/cm^{2}) x-ray pump x-ray probe scheme to observe changes in the ionic structure of silicon induced by x-ray heating of the electrons. By avoiding Laue spots in the scattering signal from a single crystalline sample, we observe a rapid rise in diffuse scattering and a transition to a disordered, liquidlike state with a structure significantly different from liquid silicon. The disordering occurs within 100 fs of irradiation, a timescale that agrees well with first principles simulations, and is faster than that predicted by purely inertial behavior, suggesting that both the phase change and disordered state reached are dominated by Coulomb forces. This method is capable of observing liquid scattering without masking signal from the ambient solid, allowing the liquid structure to be measured throughout and beyond the phase change.