Seroepidemiology of human Toxoplasma gondii infection in China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Toxoplasmosis is an important zoonotic parasitic disease worldwide. In immune competent individuals, <it>Toxoplasma gondii </it>preferentially infects tissues of central nervous systems, which might be an adding factor of certain psychiatric disorders. Congenital transmission of <it>T. gondii </it>during pregnancy has been regarded as a risk factor for the health of newborn infants. While in immune-compromised individuals, the parasite can cause life-threatening infections. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of <it>T. gondii </it>infection among clinically healthy <b>i</b>ndividuals and patients with psychiatric disorders in China and to identify the potential risk factors related to the vulnerability of infection in the population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Serum samples from 2634 healthy individuals and 547 patients with certain psychiatric disorders in Changchun and Daqing in the northeast, and in Shanghai in the south of China were examined respectively for the levels of anti-<it>T. gondii </it>IgG by indirect ELISA and a direct agglutination assay. Prevalence of <it>T. gondii </it>infection in the Chinese population in respect of gender, age, residence and health status was systematically analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall anti-<it>T. gondii </it>IgG prevalence in the study population was 12.3%. In the clinically healthy population 12.5% was sero-positive and in the group with psychiatric disorders 11.3% of these patients were positive with anti-<it>T. gondii </it>IgG. A significant difference (P = 0.004) was found between male and female in the healthy population, the seroprevalence was 10.5% in men versus 14.3% in women. Furthermore, the difference of <it>T. gondii </it>infection rate between male and female in the 20-19 year's group was more obvious, with 6.4% in male population and 14.6% in female population.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A significant higher prevalence of <it>T. gondii </it>infection was observed in female in the clinically healthy population. No correlation was found between <it>T. gondii </it>infection and psychiatric disorders in this study. Results suggest that women are more exposed to <it>T. gondii </it>infection than men in China. The data argue for deeper investigations for the potential risk factors that threat the female populations.</p

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Analytical large deformation shear strength for bolted rough discontinuous rock

Presented a new analytical model for studying the shear-tensile large deformation behavior near the vicinity of joint interface for bolted rough discontinuous rock, and presented the formulation estimating global shear strength for bolted joints under shearing-tensile loads. The analytical strength curves of bolts contribution on reinforced discontinuous rocks as the function of joint displacements or deformation angle of a bolt at rock joints was obtained. Based on Barton's equation on JRC roughness profiles, the theoretical shearing strength of bolted rough joints was also established. Test results on bolted granite and marble specimen confirm the validity of the analytical approach.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

An efficient and accurate iterative stress solution for an infinite elastic plate around two elliptic holes, subjected to uniform loads on the hole boundaries and at infinity

Using the Schwarz's alternating method and the Muskhelishvili's complex variable function techniques, an efficient and accurate stress solution for an infinite elastic plate around two elliptic holes, subjected to uniform loads on the hole boundaries and at infinity, is presented in this paper. The present algorithm can be used to compute the stress concentration factors (SCF), i.e., the ratio of the maximum tangential hoop stress to the applied uniform load, on the boundaries of the two elliptical holes of different sizes and layouts under different loading conditions, as illustrated in two numerical cases. © 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Engineering geological characteristics, failure modes and protective measures of Longyou rock caverns of 2000 years old

The Longyou rock caverns are a group of large ancient underground caverns. They were caved manually in pelitic siltstone in the Quxian Formation of Upper Cretaceous. They have the following five characteristics: more than 2000 years old, man-caved, large spanned, near ground surface and medium to hard surrounding rock. They were unearthed by local farmers who were pumping water out of five small pools on a rough-flat ground in 1992. This discovery called the attention of many specialists from China, Japan, Poland, Singapore and USA. One of the most interesting and challenging questions is why the five caverns have been able to keep their integrity for more than 2000 years. To address this question, this paper presents the engineering geological conditions of the caverns and their adjacent areas. They include the following five conditions: (a) geological setting, (b) hydrogeological conditions, (c) seepage in integrity caverns, (d) fractures in integrity caverns and (e) failed caverns. Based on these investigation results, the paper further examines the potential failures of the integrity caverns and their protective measures. Crown Copyright © 2008.link_to_subscribed_fulltex