Analysis of Acute Transfusion Reactions and Their Occurrence Times

Acute transfusion reactions (ATRs) are significantly relevant to the morbidity and mortality of patients. ATRs are mostly not severe and rarely cause severe conditions, including anaphylactic shock. The aim of this study was to clarify the frequency of ATRs and the time of event occurrence. A total of 18,745 transfusions were administered to 11,718 patients during a 3-year period. Adverse reactions including at least one sign or symptom were collected through a report system in 143 of 2,478 (5.7%) platelet concentrate transfusions, 105 of 6,629 (1.6%) red blood cell component transfusions and 51 of 2,307 (2.2%) fresh frozen plasma transfusions. Allergic signs and symptoms accounted for 70% of all adverse events. Severe signs and symptoms were observed in 7.1% of patients. These events appeared significantly earlier than those of non-severe signs and symptoms (median time 20 min vs 100 min, P < 0.05). For patients who have had repetitive transfusion-associated adverse events, preventive treatments for adverse events should be proactively promoted

Detection of Progeny Immune Responses after Intravenous Administration of DNA Vaccine to Pregnant Mice

A number of factors influence the development of tolerance, including the nature, concentration and mode of antigen presentation to the immune system, as well as the age of the host. The studies were conducted to determine whether immunizing pregnant mice with liposome-encapsulated DNA vaccines had an effect on the immune status of their offspring. Two different plasmids (encoding antigens from HIV-1 and influenza virus) were administered intravenously to pregnant mice. At 9.5 days post conception with cationic liposomes, injected plasmid was present in the tissues of the fetus, consistent with trans-placental transfer. When the offspring of vaccinated dams were immunized with DNA vaccine, they mounted stronger antigen-specific immune responses than controls and were protected against challenge by homologous influenza virus after vaccination. Moreover, such immune responses were strong in the offspring of mothers injected with DNA plasmid 9.5 days after coitus. These results suggest that DNA vaccinated mothers confer the antigen-specific immunity to their progeny. Here we describe the methods in detail as they relate to our previously published work

First Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program

The Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) is a three-layered imaging survey aimed at addressing some of the most outstanding questions in astronomy today, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy. The survey has been awarded 300 nights of observing time at the Subaru Telescope and it started in March 2014. This paper presents the first public data release of HSC-SSP. This release includes data taken in the first 1.7 years of observations (61.5 nights) and each of the Wide, Deep, and UltraDeep layers covers about 108, 26, and 4 square degrees down to depths of i~26.4, ~26.5, and ~27.0 mag, respectively (5sigma for point sources). All the layers are observed in five broad bands (grizy), and the Deep and UltraDeep layers are observed in narrow bands as well. We achieve an impressive image quality of 0.6 arcsec in the i-band in the Wide layer. We show that we achieve 1-2 per cent PSF photometry (rms) both internally and externally (against Pan-STARRS1), and ~10 mas and 40 mas internal and external astrometric accuracy, respectively. Both the calibrated images and catalogs are made available to the community through dedicated user interfaces and database servers. In addition to the pipeline products, we also provide value-added products such as photometric redshifts and a collection of public spectroscopic redshifts. Detailed descriptions of all the data can be found online. The data release website is https://hsc-release.mtk.nao.ac.jp/.Comment: 34 pages, 20 figures, 7 tables, moderate revision, accepted for publication in PAS

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

The Hyper Suprime-Cam SSP survey: Overview and survey design

Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is a wide-field imaging camera on the prime focus of the 8.2-m Subaru telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. A team of scientists from Japan, Taiwan, and Princeton University is using HSC to carry out a 300-night multi-band imaging survey of the high-latitude sky. The survey includes three layers: the Wide layer will cover 1400 deg2 in five broad bands (grizy), with a 5 σ point-source depth of r ≈ 26. The Deep layer covers a total of 26 deg2 in four fields, going roughly a magnitude fainter, while the UltraDeep layer goes almost a magnitude fainter still in two pointings of HSC (a total of 3.5 deg2). Here we describe the instrument, the science goals of the survey, and the survey strategy and data processing. This paper serves as an introduction to a special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, which includes a large number of technical and scientific papers describing results from the early phases of this survey