The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Abies nephrolepis (Pinaceae: Abietoideae)

AbstractThe plant chloroplast (cp) genome has maintained a relatively conserved structure and gene content throughout evolution. Cp genome sequences have been used widely for resolving evolutionary and phylogenetic issues at various taxonomic levels of plants. Here, we report the complete cp genome of Abies nephrolepis. The A. nephrolepis cp genome is 121,336 base pairs (bp) in length including a pair of short inverted repeat regions (IRa and IRb) of 139 bp each separated by a small single copy (SSC) region of 54,323 bp (SSC) and a large single copy region of 66,735 bp (LSC). It contains 114 genes, 68 of which are protein coding genes, 35 tRNA and four rRNA genes, six open reading frames, and one pseudogene. Seventeen repeat units and 64 simple sequence repeats (SSR) have been detected in A. nephrolepis cp genome. Large IR sequences locate in 42-kb inversion points (1186 bp). The A. nephrolepis cp genome is identical to Abies koreana’s which is closely related to taxa. Pairwise comparison between two cp genomes revealed 140 polymorphic sites in each. Complete cp genome sequence of A. nephrolepis has a significant potential to provide information on the evolutionary pattern of Abietoideae and valuable data for development of DNA markers for easy identification and classification

Association of uncoordinated sucking pattern with developmental outcome in premature infants: a retrospective analysis

Background Stress signals during sucking activity such as nasal flaring, head turning, and extraneous movements of the body have been attributed to incoordination of sucking, swallowing, and respiration (SSR) in premature infants. However, the association of uncoordinated sucking pattern with developmental outcomes has not yet been investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate whether uncoordinated sucking pattern during bottle-feeding in premature infants is associated with the developmental outcomes at 8–12 and 18–24 months of age (corrected for prematurity). Methods We retrospectively reviewed the medical records and video recordings for the Neonatal Oral-Motor Assessment Scale (NOMAS) of premature infants and divided them into two groups based on the presence or absence of incoordination. The Bayley-III cognition composite scores of the incoordination-positive and incoordination-negative group were compared at 8–12 and 18–24 months of age. Results Seventy premature infants exhibited a disorganized sucking pattern according to the NOMAS. The average Bayley-III cognition composite scores at 8–12 months of age were 92.5 ± 15.6 and 103.0 ± 11.3 for the incoordination-positive (n = 22) and incoordination-negative groups (n = 48), respectively (p = 0.002). The average Bayley-III cognition composite scores at 18–24 months were 90.0 ± 17.9 and 100.7 ± 11.5 for the incoordination-positive (n = 21) and incoordination-negative groups (n = 46), respectively (p = 0.005). A multiple linear regression analysis indicated that the presence of uncoordinated sucking pattern, grade 3 or 4 germinal matrix hemorrhage–intraventricular hemorrhage, and moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia were independently associated with cognitive development at 18–24 months of age. Conclusions Uncoordinated sucking pattern in premature infants was independently associated with a higher risk of abnormal developmental outcome in the cognitive domain of the Bayley-III at both 8–12 and 18–24 months. There may be a need for periodic follow-up and early intervention for developmental delay when incoordination of SSR that results in stress signals on the NOMAS is observed before 40 weeks postmenstrual age

Clinical and pathological significance of ROS1 expression in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Background: More knowledge about genetic and molecular features of cholangiocarcinoma is needed to develop effective therapeutic strategies. We investigated the clinical and pathological significance of ROS1 expression in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Methods: One hundred ninety-four patients with curatively resected intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma were included in this study. Tumor tissue specimens were collected and analyzed for ROS1 gene rearrangement using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and ROS1 protein expression using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Results: ROS1 immunohistochemistry was positive (moderate or strong staining) in 72 tumors (37.1 %). ROS1 protein expression was significantly correlated with well differentiated tumors, papillary or mucinous histology, oncocytic/hepatoid or intestinal type tumors, and periductal infiltrating or intraductal growing tumors (vs. mass-forming cholangiocarcinoma). ROS-expressing tumors were associated with better disease-free survival (30.1 months for ROS1 expression (+) tumors vs. 9.0 months for ROS1 (-) tumors, p = 0.006). Moreover, ROS1 expression was an independent predictor of better disease-free survival in a multivariate analysis (HR 0.607, 95 % CI 0.377-0.976; p = 0.039). Although break-apart FISH was successfully performed in 102 samples, a split pattern indicative of ROS1 gene rearrangement was not found in the examined samples. Conclusion: ROS1 protein expression was associated with well-differentiated histology and better survival in our patients with resected intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. ROS1 gene rearrangement by break-apart FISH was not found in the examined samples

A Case of Hypersensitivity Syndrome to Both Vancomycin and Teicoplanin

Drug hypersensitivity syndrome to both vancomycin and teicoplanin has not been previously reported. We describe here a 50-yr-old male patient with vertebral osteomyelitis and epidural abscess who developed hypersensitivity syndrome to both vancomycin and teicoplanin. Skin rash, fever, eosinophilia, interstitial pneumonitis, and interstitial nephritis developed following the administration of each drug, and resolved after withdrawing the drugs and treating with high dose corticosteroids. The vertebral osteomyelitis was successfully treated with 6-week course of linezolid without further complications. Skin patch tests for vancomycin and teicoplanin was done 2 months after the recovery; a weak positive result for vancomycin (10% aq.,+at D2 and +at D4 with erythema and vesicles; ICDRG scale), and a doubtful result for teicoplanin (4% aq.-at D2 and±at D4 with macular erythema; ICDRG scale). We present this case to alert clinicians to the hypersensitivity syndrome that can result from vancomycin and teicoplanin, with possible cross-reactivity, which could potentially be life-threatening

Safety of reduced dose of mycophenolate mofetil combined with tacrolimus in living-donor liver transplantation

Background/AimsThe dose of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) has been reduced in Asia due to side effects associated with the conventional fixed dose of 2-3 g/day. We aimed to determine the pharmacokinetics of a reduced dose of MMF and to validate its feasibility in combination with tacrolimus in living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT).MethodsTwo sequential studies were performed in adult LDLT between October 2009 and 2011. First, we performed a prospective pharmacokinetic study in 15 recipients. We measured the area under the curve from 0 to 12 hours (AUC0-12) for mycophenolic acid at postoperative days 7 and 14, and we performed a protocol biopsy before discharge. Second, among 215 recipients, we reviewed 74 patients who were initially administered a reduced dose of MMF (1.0 g/day) with tacrolimus (trough, 8-12 ng/mL during the first month, and 5-8 ng/mL thereafter), with a 1-year follow-up. We performed protocol biopsies at 2 weeks and 1 year post-LDLT.ResultsIn the first part of study, AUC0-12 was less than 30 mgh/L in 93.3% of cases. In the second, validating study, 41.9% of the recipients needed dose reduction or cessation due to side effects within the first year after LDLT. At 12 months post-LDLT, 17.6% of the recipients were administered a lower dose of MMF (0.5 g/day), and 16.2% needed permanent cessation due to side effects. The 1- and 12-month rejection-free survival rates were 98.6% and 97.3%, respectively.ConclusionsA reduced dose of MMF was associated with low blood levels compared to the existing recommended therapeutic range. However, reducing the dose of MMF combined with a low level of tacrolimus was feasible clinically, with an excellent short-term outcome in LDLT

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

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

Stress Signals During Sucking Activity Are Associated With Longer Transition Time to Full Oral Feeding in Premature Infants

Several treatments have been proposed to shorten the time to the attainment of full oral feeding (FOF) for premature infants, but there are only a few evaluation methods useful in estimating predictors of this period. We investigated whether specific items within the disorganized sucking patterns described by the Neonatal Oral-Motor Assessment Scale (NOMAS) could estimate the time to FOF in preterm infants with feeding difficulty. Preterm infants diagnosed with a disorganized sucking pattern in the NOMAS evaluation before 50 weeks of postmenstrual age were included. Video recordings of at least 2 min of oral feeding were further analyzed retrospectively by two assessors and the premature infants who exhibited disorganized sucking patterns (n = 109) were divided into three clusters (clusters 2–4). The observational items compatible with disorganization in the original NOMAS were divided into three groups: cluster 2 (disorganized: arrhythmical), cluster 3 (disorganized: arrhythmical + unable to sustain), and cluster 4 (disorganized: arrhythmical + incoordination ± unable to sustain) and further divided into incoordination-positive (cluster 4) and incoordination-negative groups (clusters 2 and 3). Premature infants in the incoordination-positive group (cluster 4, which means stress signals) showed a median transition time of 22 days (range: 4–121 days) which was longer than that in the incoordination-negative group (median 6 days; range: 1–25 days). Univariate linear regression analysis revealed that the presence of incoordination among disorganized sucking patterns (NOMAS cluster 4 vs. clusters 2 and 3), birth weight, total parenteral nutrition (TPN) duration, non-invasive positive pressure ventilation duration, the presence of moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia, pulmonary hypertension, sepsis, small for gestational age (SGA), and necrotizing enterocolitis are associated with the transition time to FOF. In a multivariate linear regression analysis, the variables revealed to be associated with the transition time were TPN duration, SGA, and the presence of stress signals (incoordination-positive group) among disorganized sucking patterns. When selecting premature infants to be treated with swallowing therapy, it is reasonable to pay more attention to the incoordination-positive group described in the NOMAS, that is, premature infants with stress signals to shorten the time to attain FOF

Synthesis of High Surface Area TiO2 Aerogel Support with Pt Nanoparticle Catalyst and CO Oxidation Study

We demonstrate the preparation and catalytic testing of nanocatalysts composed of TiO2 synthesized in aerogel using a supercritical drying process with Pt nanoparticles deposited on the mesopore oxide surface. By controlling the aging time, we found conditions that led to TiO2 with a surface area among the highest ever reported for a TiO2 material in aerogel form (similar to 685 m(2) g(- 1)). The chosen synthesis route also features good control over the pore volume and pore size. Even though our aerogel TiO2 support showed an amorphous structure before calcination, 90.2% anatase and 9.8% rutile phases co-existed after calcination at 500 A degrees C for 2 h with an average particle size of about 17 nm based on XRD results. The as-synthesized TiO2 and Pt/TiO2 were both used as catalysts for the CO oxidation reaction. Uncalcined Pt/TiO2 showed 100% conversion at 300 A degrees C. After calcination, Pt/TiO2 exhibited a significantly higher catalytic activity, showing 100% conversion at 125 A degrees C and an activation energy of only 13.4 kcal mol(- 1). We show that TiO2 synthesized by the aerogel method can be an excellent support material for nanocatalysis because of its high surface area and facile and scalable synthesis. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 201