Methylation profiling of SOCS1, SOCS2, SOCS3, CISH and SHP1 in Philadelphia-negative myeloproliferative neoplasm

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Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal stem cells are superior to adult bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of limb ischemia

Conference invited speaker: Dr. Lian, QOral Presentation: Session S31 - Genetic Determinants of Heart Disease, Gene and Cell Based Therapies, Basic Research: abstract no. 1489postprintThe 16th World Congress on Heart Disease of the International Academy of Cardiology Annual Scientific Sessions 2011, Vancouver, B.C., 23-27 July 2011

Surgical debridement with prostheses retention for the treatment of acute periprosthetic infections following total knee arthroplasty

Free Paper Presentation Session 6 – Adult Joint Reconstruction: no. 6.3INTRODUCTION: Periprosthetic infection after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is difficult to treat. Surgical debridement with retention of prostheses is one of the valid methods ...postprin

Bounds and Inequalities Relating h-Index, g-Index, e-Index and Generalized Impact Factor

Finding relationships among different indices such as h-index, g-index, e-index, and generalized impact factor is a challenging task. In this paper, we describe some bounds and inequalities relating h-index, g-index, e-index, and generalized impact factor. We derive the bounds and inequalities relating these indexing parameters from their basic definitions and without assuming any continuous model to be followed by any of them.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, 5 table

The Paleoproterozoic Chibaisong Mafic-Ultramafic Intrusion and Cu-Ni Deposit, North China Craton: SHRIMP Zircon U-Pband Re-Os Geochronology and Geodynamic Implications

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Sequence Variations of Full-Length Hepatitis B Virus Genomes in Chinese Patients with HBsAg-Negative Hepatitis B Infection

BACKGROUND: The underlying mechanism of HBsAg-negative hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is notoriously difficult to elucidate because of the extremely low DNA levels which define the condition. We used a highly efficient amplification method to overcome this obstacle and achieved our aim which was to identify specific mutations or sequence variations associated with this entity. METHODS: A total of 185 sera and 60 liver biopsies from HBsAg-negative, HBV DNA-positive subjects or known chronic hepatitis B (CHB) subjects with HBsAg seroclearance were amplified by rolling circle amplification followed by full-length HBV genome sequencing. Eleven HBsAg-positive CHB subjects were included as controls. The effects of pivotal mutations identified on regulatory regions on promoter activities were analyzed. RESULTS: 22 and 11 full-length HBV genomes were amplified from HBsAg-negative and control subjects respectively. HBV genotype C was the dominant strain. A higher mutation frequency was observed in HBsAg-negative subjects than controls, irrespective of genotype. The nucleotide diversity over the entire HBV genome was significantly higher in HBsAg-negative subjects compared with controls (p = 0.008) and compared with 49 reference sequences from CHB patients (p = 0.025). In addition, HBsAg-negative subjects had significantly higher amino acid substitutions in the four viral genes than controls (all p<0.001). Many mutations were uniquely found in HBsAg-negative subjects, including deletions in promoter regions (13.6%), abolishment of pre-S2/S start codon (18.2%), disruption of pre-S2/S mRNA splicing site (4.5%), nucleotide duplications (9.1%), and missense mutations in "alpha" determinant region, contributing to defects in HBsAg production. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest an accumulation of multiple mutations constraining viral transcriptional activities contribute to HBsAg-negativity in HBV infection.published_or_final_versio

Surgical treatment of sporadic vestibular schwannoma in a series of 1006 patients = Trattamento chirurgico degli schwannomi vestibolari: Risultati su una serie di 1006 pazienti

The management of sporadic vestibular schwannoma (VS) has evolved in the last decades. The aim of this study was to analyse the evolution in surgical outcomes of VSs operated by a neurotological team between 1990 and 2006 by different approaches. A monocentric retrospective review of medical charts of 1006 patients was performed. In order to assess eventual changes and progress, the 17-years period was divided in three periods, each one comprehending 268 VS (1990-1996), 299 VS (1997-2001), and 439 VS (2002-2006). Mean follow-up was 5.9 ± 2.4 years. Overall, complete VS removal was achieved in 99.4% of cases. Mortality rate was 0.3%, meningitis and CSF leaks were observed in 1.2 % and 9 % of the cases, respectively. CSF leakage decreased from 11.6% to 7.1% between the first and last period (p &lt; 0.01) as well as revision surgery from 3.4 % to 0.9 % (p &lt; 0.05). Facial nerve was anatomically preserved in 97.7% of cases. At one year, a good facial nerve function was observed in 85.1% of patients (grade I and II of House-Brackmann grading scale), which ranged between the first and last period from 78.4% to 87.6% (p &lt;0.05). At one year, hearing preservation was obtained in 61.6% of patients, which increased from the first period to the last one from 50.9% to 69.0% (p &lt; 0.05) (class A+B+C from the AAO-HNS classification). Useful hearing (class A+B) was observed in 33.5% of cases overall, with 21.8% and 42% in the first and last period, respectively (p &lt; 0.01). Surgical outcomes of sporadic vestibular schwannoma have improved concerning facial nerve function outcomes, hearing preservation and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks, mainly due to the neuro-otological team’s experience. Functional results after complete microsurgical removal of large VS depend on experience gained on small VS removal

Investigation on July 2012 Indian blackout

Twice Indian blackouts occurred at the end of July in 2012 left over 600 million of people in the dark for several hours. In these two-day, Indian grid disturbances were regarded as the most serious and large-scale blackout in the world in history. A report has been generated by the enquiry committee which was organized by the Ministry of Power, Government of India, to investigate the factors which led to the initiation of the grid disturbance. Recommendations were also generated by the committee in order to provide the plan for Indian grid enhancement. Further to the recommendations by Enquiry Committee, this paper will give further suggestions to minimize blackouts in future. An insight into decision support requirement for power network operation will be made

Identification of Hepatitis B Virus DNA Polymerase Sequences to Predict Virological Response to Entecavir Therapy

Poster Presentations: Emerging / Infectious DiseasesConference Theme: Translating Health Research into Policy and Practice for Health of the Populationpublished_or_final_versio

Spherical montmorillonite-supported nano-silver as a self-sedimentary catalyst for methylene blue removal

Supported metal nanoparticles using various substrates have been proven as a highly efficient approach for solving the problems of aggregation and recyclability of metal nanoparticles. However, the reusability procedure often involved the abundant devices, which obviously increased the cost and heavily limited the large-scale application of metal nanoparticles. In this work, spherical montmorillonite was used firstly as the substrate for supporting silver nanoparticles on its surface through polydopamine chemistry method. The loading of silver nanoparticles with 40 nm in diameter was 15.2 wt% and the specific surface area of this prepared spherical montmorillonite supported silver nanoparticles catalyst was 45.3 m(2)/g, giving the catalyst an optimized apparent reduction rate constant k of 1.22 min(-1) for the reduction of methylene blue. Furthermore, the prepared catalyst with quickly self-sedimentary property in aqueous solution were conveniently recovered and reused without any devices involves. The spherical morphology and catalytic performance of prepared catalyst were almost unaltered after 5 cycles. Our research aims at opening a new avenue to easily realize the reusability of silver nanoparticles through using the substrate with the self-sedimentary property