Molecular epidemiological features of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in an endemic region of Henan Province, China

Henan Province is one of the regions with the highest tuberculosis (TB) burden in China. Among isolates collected from Zhongmou County, Henan, 21.28% (10/47) of those from 2001 and 22.95% (10/61) from 2007 were resistant to at least one drug (isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol or streptomycin); 90.74% (98/108) of the isolates were from the Beijing family, and 108 exhibited 105 different mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units-variable number of tandem repeats patterns. This study preliminarily reveals that Henan Province is still a high prevalence region for drug-resistant TB, and strains collected from local TB cases have diverse genotypes, of which the Beijing family type is predominant.

Immunodiagnostic value of combined detection of autoantibodies to tumor-associated antigens as biomarkers in pancreatic cancer

Previous studies demonstrated that cancer sera contain antibodies, which react with a unique group of autologous cellular antigens called tumour-associated antigens (TAAs). This study determines whether a panel of TAAs would enhance antibody detection and be a useful approach in pancreatic cancer (PC) detection and diagnosis. The panel of TAAs was composed of six TAAs including p53, p16, p62, survivin, Koc and IMP1 full-length recombinant proteins. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect antibodies against these six TAAs in 23 sera from patients with PC and also 23 sera from normal individuals. Antibody frequency to any individual TAA in PC was variable and ranged from 14.7% to 30.4%. With the successive addition of TAAs to a final total of six antigens, there was a stepwise increase in positive antibody reactions reaching a sensitivity of 60.9% and a specificity of 87.0% in PC. Positive and negative likelihood ratio were 4.685 and 0.449, respectively. Positive and negative predictive values were, respectively, 82.4% and 69.0%. Agreement rate and Kappa value were 73.9% and 0.478, respectively. The data from this study support our previous hypothesis that using a panel of appropriately selected TAAs can enhance autoantibody detection in immunodiagnosis of PC. In 15 PC sera with carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) negative, 6 (40%) were found to have anti-TAA (anti-tumour associated antigens) antibodies. When CA19-9 and anti-TAAs were used together as markers in PC detection, the diagnostic sensitivity could be raised from 60.9% to 69.6%. Anti-TAA and CA19-9 were independent markers, and the simultaneous use of these two markers could raise the sensitivity of PC detection.

Association of KIR genotypes and haplotypes with syphilis in a Chinese Han population

Killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) can regulate the activation of NK and T cells in response to infection. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum spirochete bacterium. The objective of this study was to explore whether KIR genotypes and haplotypes were associated with syphilis in a Chinese Han population. Polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) was used to identify the KIR genotypes in 190 patients with syphilis and 192 healthy controls. The frequency of genotype P was higher in healthy controls than that in patients with syphilis (P = 0.002), and its OR was 0.304, while the frequencies of genotypes AE and AG were higher in patients with syphilis than those in healthy controls. The frequency of haplotype 17 was lower, and its OR was 0.321, whereas the frequencies of haplotype 1 and 6 were higher in patients with syphilis than those in healthy controls. KIR haplotypes A and B have distinctive centromeric (Cen) and telomeric (Tel) gene content motifs. The frequency of Tel-B/B was higher in patients with syphilis than that in healthy controls (P = 0.024). Based on these findings, it seems that individuals with the genotype AE, AG or Tel-B/B, or haplotypes 1 and 6 are susceptible to syphilis, whereas individuals with genotype P or haplotype 17 are protective from syphilis in the Chinese Han population.

Polaron-to-polaron transitions in the radio-frequency spectrum of a quasi-two-dimensional Fermi gas

We measure radio-frequency spectra for a two-component mixture of a 6Li atomic Fermi gas in a quasi-two-dimensional regime with the Fermi energy comparable to the energy level spacing in the tightly confining potential. Near the Feshbach resonance, we find that the observed resonances do not correspond to transitions between confinement-induced dimers. The spectral shifts can be fit by assuming transitions between noninteracting polaron states in two dimensions.

Strong constraints on the rare decays B(s)(0) → μ+ μ- and B0 → μ+ μ-

A search for B(s)(0) → μ+ μ- and B0 → μ+ μ decays is performed using 1.0  fb(-1) of pp collision data collected at sqrt[s] = 7  TeV with the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. For both decays, the number of observed events is consistent with expectation from background and standard model signal predictions. Upper limits on the branching fractions are determined to be B(B(s)(0) → μ+ μ-) < 4.5(3.8)×10(-9) and B(B0 → μ+ μ-) < 1.0(0.81)×10(-9) at 95% (90%) confidence level.

Opposite-side flavour tagging of B mesons at the LHCb experiment

The calibration and performance of the opposite-side flavour tagging algorithms used for the measurements of time-dependent asymmetries at the LHCb experiment are described. The algorithms have been developed using simulated events and optimized and calibrated with B⁺→J/ψK⁺, B⁰→J/ψK^∗0 and B⁰→D^∗-μ⁺ν_μ decay modes with 0.37 fb^-1 of data collected in pp collisions at [Formula: see text] during the 2011 physics run. The opposite-side tagging power is determined in the B⁺→J/ψK⁺ channel to be (2.10±0.08±0.24) %, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.

Measurement of production in collisions at [Formula: see text]

The production of ϒ(1S), ϒ(2S) and ϒ(3S) mesons in proton-proton collisions at the centre-of-mass energy of [Formula: see text] is studied with the LHCb detector. The analysis is based on a data sample of 25 pb-1 collected at the Large Hadron Collider. The ϒ mesons are reconstructed in the decay mode ϒ→μ+μ- and the signal yields are extracted from a fit to the μ+μ- invariant mass distributions. The differential production cross-sections times dimuon branching fractions are measured as a function of the ϒ transverse momentum pT and rapidity y, over the range pT <15 GeV/c and 2.0 Collapse

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Follicular development and expression of nuclear respiratory factor-1 and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1 alpha in ovaries of fetal and neonatal doelings

In livestock, the ovarian reserve of follicles is established during the fetal stage. However, at least two-thirds of the oocytes present in the reserve die because of apoptosis before birth. Notably, mitochondria have been reported to play a crucial role in the fate (life/death) of oocytes. In this study, mitochondrial regulators nuclear respiratory factor-1 (NRF-1) and PPAR γ coactivator-1 alpha (PGC-1α) were examined during this period of follicle development to investigate their effects on follicular development and apoptosis. Fetal and neonatal Capra haimen were used, ranging in age from 60 d postcoitum (dpc) to 30 d postpartum (dpp). Our data demonstrated that egg nests were the earliest recognizable gamete cells in ovaries of fetal and neonatal doelings. Proportions of egg nests decreased from 92.68 to 25.08% whereas single follicles increased from 7.32 to 74.92% between 60 and 120 dpc. Subsequently, between 90 and 120 dpc, the proportion of primordial follicles increased from 9.98 to 61.56% (P < 0.01). However, it did not change between 1 and 30 dpp (P = 0.12). The proportion of primary follicles increased from 1.23 to 37.93% between 90 dpc to 1 dpp (P = 0.01) but did not change between 1 and 30 dpp (P = 0.11). Meanwhile, proportions of secondary and tertiary follicles increased in an age-dependent manner. In addition, results of this study suggested that NRF-1 and PGC-1α proteins are mainly localized in germ cells of egg nests, cytoplasm of oocytes, and granulosa cells of follicles ranging from primordial to tertiary follicles. The transcript abundance of NRF-1 mRNA was up-regulated in 60-dpc-old ovaries compared with 1-dpp-old ovaries (P < 0.05), but the PGC-1α mRNA expression pattern did not change (P = 0.05). Nevertheless, the number of terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase UTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) positive cells and caspase-3 activity in 60-dpc-old ovaries was less than those in 1-dpp-old ovaries (P < 0.01, P = 0.01). In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the key stage of primordial follicle formation is between 90 and 120 dpc in Capra haimen. Also, this study suggests that NRF-1 and PGC-1α might have roles in cell apoptosis during ovarian development of fetal and neonatal Capra haimen. These results improve our understanding of apoptotic mechanisms in oogenesis and folliculogenesis.

WE-C-217BCD-05: A Novel Interpolation Method for the 3D Reconstruction of Cell Structures

PURPOSE

To develop a new interpolation method for accurate 3D reconstruction of cell morphology from laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) image data.

METHODS

Current techniques are based on the assumption that pixel intensity or contour shapes of images change linearly in the interpolation direction. Gray-value and position of the pixel in interpolated image slice are obtained through weighted average calculation with gray-values and distances of corresponding pixels in two adjacent original image slices, only information from adjacent image slices is considered, often fail to meet the need of 3D reconstruction for cells because of the complex cell morphology. The new method interpolates cellular organelle contours in polar coordinate system. Coordinate system origin is chosen to be the mass center weighted by pixel intensity instead of conventional geometric center, contour points of the organelle is sampled by their angles first and fitted with uniform cubic B-spline to perform interpolation. For complex organelle structures such as branched nuclei, a special method combining morphological information and corner detection technique based on curvature scale space has been developed to solve the contour division and related problems. New method was applied to confocal images of 130 different cells acquired with an LSCM system (LSM510, Zeiss), sampling step was set as 0.5 μm in longitudinal direction, pixel size in horizontal plane was 0.07 μm and the resolution was 512×512. Marching cubes algorithm was used for 3D reconstruction.

RESULTS

Experiments showed that reconstructed 3D images with new method have much smoother and more valid organelle surfaces for both cytoplasm and nucleus than those from conventional methods.

CONCLUSIONS

The new interpolation method can significantly improve the quality of 3D reconstruction and serve as a valid and effective tool for quantitative study of 3D cell morphology in radiation biology and other areas of life science.*support by NSFC- 81171342. Supported by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC- 81171342).

Measurements of the mass and width of the η(c) using the decay ψ(3686)→γη(c)

The mass and width of the lowest-lying S-wave spin singlet charmonium state, the η(c), are measured using a data sample of 1.06×10(8) ψ(3686) decays collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII storage ring. We use a model that incorporates full interference between the signal reaction, ψ(3686)→γη(c), and a nonresonant radiative background to describe the line shape of the η(c) successfully. We measure the η(c) mass to be 2984.3±0.6±0.6 MeV/c(2) and the total width to be 32.0±1.2±1.0 MeV, where the first errors are statistical and the second are systematic.

SU-E-I-75: A New Method for Prostate Cancer Localization Using Multispectral MRI

PURPOSE

To develop a new method for automatic localization of prostate cancer using multispectral MRI data.

METHODS

Multispectral MRI including MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI), T2 weighted MRI, diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI, has been used for cancer target localization. The combination of multiple MRI imaging technologies provides more useful information than one single technology alone about prostate cancer and has advantages for target definition in radotherapy treatment and quantitative evaluation of tumor response. However, manual cancer localization using multispectral MRI dataset is a tedious task and prone to inter-/intra-observer variability. Automatic localization methods using multispectral MRI data is highly desired. In this paper, a fuzzy fusion framework for automatically localizing prostate cancer with multispectral MRI data is presented. Firstly, for each kind of MRI images, a membership function is created to calculate the membership-degrees of image elements belonging to cancer region. Secondly, a fuzzy fusion operator is used to fuse different membership- degrees corresponding to the same regions. Lastly, the Result of fusion is further adjusted with fuzzy region growing process, leading to the final membership-degree map. And cancer volume is finally defined by setting up a threshold on the map.

RESULTS

The new method was tested with one multispectral MRI patient dataset and results from our experimental study are compared with the one obtained form a manual method performed by an experienced pathologist. Quantitative analysis shows that the specificity is 98.89%, sensitivity is 62.85% and accuracy is 95.42%, respectively. It illustrates the feasibility of utilizing this framework in the clinical application.

CONCLUSIONS

The feasibility study shows the new method reported in this paper achieves automatic localization for prostate cancer and can be easily implemented in clinical applications. We are currently conducting a clinical study for testing the effectiveness and reliability, and further developing this method. *supported by NSFC-81171342 support by National Science Foundation of China (NSFC-81171342).

The interaction between a drug and ultrasound in sonochemotherapy against ovarian cancers

PURPOSE

Sonochemotherapy is a promising modality for cancers, but the interaction between an anticancer agent and insonation has not been understood. The interactions in vitro and in vivo were quantified in this study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The combination index (CI) and dose reduction index (DRI) were calculated, thus determining the interaction. Human ovarian cancer cells 3AO, SKOV(3), SKOV(3) /ADR, HO-8910 and HO-8910PM were subjected to a drug or sonochemotherapy (a drug followed by nonlethal insonation but in 3AO cells). SKOV(3) /ADR was an adriamycin-resistant subclone and HO-8910PM was the subline with highly metastatic potential. Adriamycin was used for 3AO, SKOV(3) and SKOV(3) /ADR cells, and cisplatin or paclitaxel employed for HO-8910 and HO-8910PM cells. Effect of the sequence of administration of a drug and insonation on the interaction was investigated in 3AO cells.

RESULTS

A drug followed by ultrasound led to better anticancer effects and higher CI and DRI at each concentration compared with the alternate sequence. Sonochemotherapy resulted in a higher cell-death rate, compared with a drug alone. CIs were > 1.15 in 3AO, SKOV(3) /ADR and HO-8910 cells showing synergisms, and the value in SKOV(3) indicated an addition. In HO-8910PM cells, CI was above 1.15 at ≥ 2.0 µg/ml cisplatin or ≥ 18 µg/ml paclitaxel, and the interaction shifted from a slight antagonism, an addition to a synergism when increasing the level of cisplatin. A noticeable event in HO-8910PM cells was that a slight antagonism occurred but with a higher cell-death rate. DRIs were > 1 in all cells, indicating that the use of ultrasound reduced the required dose of a drug thus decreasing toxicities. In vivo trials resulted in a CI of 1.17 for SKOV(3) tumors and a value of 1.51 for SKOV(3) /ADR ones.

CONCLUSION

Sonochemotherapy was effective against cancers including chemoresistant and metastatic lesions, via a synergy and/or an addition. The interaction depended on both the anticancer drug and cell type. For a specific cell type and a specific drug, modulating the dose resulted in a shift of the interaction.

SU-E-J-209: A Simple Method to Minimize Uncertainty in ITV Delineation: Phantom Verification

PURPOSE

Irregular breathing causes variation in delineation of internal target volume (ITV), which is typically generated in the maximum intensity projection (MIP) images [1]. Previous studies have shown that MIP-based ITV can underestimate true tumor range [2]. This study examines a simple method to reduce such errors by combining the GTV of 3D-CT with the ITV of MIP.

METHODS

The Computerized Imaging Reference Systems (CIRS) Dynamic Thorax Phantom Model 008A (CIRS, Norfolk, VA) with CIRS motion control software was used to model 4 irregular patient respiratory profiles and one regular respiratory profile (sine wave). A 3 cm tumor insert was used as target. For each breathing profile, a 3D-CT and 3 repeated 4D-CT scans with random intervals within the breathing profile were performed on a 4-slice clinical scanner (Lightspeed, GE, WI). The RPM system (Varian, Palo Alto, CA) was used to track the respiratory profiles. GTV was contoured on 3D-CT, and ITV was contoured on each MIP (ITVMIP) using a consistent lung window by the same person. The new method of creating ITV was to combine the GTV and ITVMIP, namely ITVCOMB. To evaluate which ITV is more accurate, ITVCOMB and ITVMIP were compared to a 'ground truth' ITV (ITVGT) which was generated by combining the three ITVMIPs.

RESULTS

For the regular profile, both ITVMIP (27.25 cm³ ) and ITVCOMB (28.12 cm³ ) were comparable to ITVGT (27.25 cm³ ). For irregular profiles, the mean absolute difference between ITVCOMB and ITVGT (6.3%±4.9) was significantly (p-value=0.0078) smaller than that between ITVMIP and ITVGT (18.1%±12.3).

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that combining GTV of the 3D-CT with the ITV of the MIP is more accurate than the ITV of the MIP alone, and thus would be a simple method to reduce breathing irregularity induced errors in ITV delineation for treatment planning of lung cancer.