Bis(μ-carboxyl­atoethyl­phospho­nato)bis­[aqua­(2,2′-bipyridine)manganese(II)]

The title compound, [Mn2(HO3PCH2CH2COO)2(C8H8N2)2(H2O)2], was obtained by hydro­thermal synthesis. The manganese(II) ions are six-coordinate and are linked by two 2-carboxy­ethyl­phospho­nate ligands, forming a centrosymmetric dimer. The Mn ions adopts a distorted octahedral coordination geometry. The dimers are further linked by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds and π–π stacking inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance 4.2754 (4) Å]

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

Enhanced Map-Matching Algorithm with a Hidden Markov Model for Mobile Phone Positioning

Numerous map-matching techniques have been developed to improve positioning, using Global Positioning System (GPS) data and other sensors. However, most existing map-matching algorithms process GPS data with high sampling rates, to achieve a higher correct rate and strong universality. This paper introduces a novel map-matching algorithm based on a hidden Markov model (HMM) for GPS positioning and mobile phone positioning with a low sampling rate. The HMM is a statistical model well known for providing solutions to temporal recognition applications such as text and speech recognition. In this work, the hidden Markov chain model was built to establish a map-matching process, using the geometric data, the topologies matrix of road links in road network and refined quad-tree data structure. HMM-based map-matching exploits the Viterbi algorithm to find the optimized road link sequence. The sequence consists of hidden states in the HMM model. The HMM-based map-matching algorithm is validated on a vehicle trajectory using GPS and mobile phone data. The results show a significant improvement in mobile phone positioning and high and low sampling of GPS data

Accelerating in-memory cross match of astronomical catalogs

New astronomy projects generate observation images continuously and these images are converted into tabular catalogs online. Furthermore, each such new table, called a sample table, is compared against a reference table on the same patch of sky to annotate the stars that match those in the reference and to identify transient objects that have no matches. This cross match must be done within a few seconds to enable timely issuance of alerts as well as shipping of the data products off the pipeline. To perform the online cross match of tables on celestial objects, we propose two parallel algorithms, zoneMatch and gridMatch, both of which divide up celestial objects by their locations in the spherical coordinate system. Specifically, zoneMatch divides the observation area by the declination coordinate of the celestial sphere whereas gridMatch utilizes a two-dimensional grid on the declination and the right ascension. With the reference table indexed by zones or grid, we match the stars in the sample table through parallel index probes on the reference. We implemented these algorithms on a multicore CPU as well as a desktop GPU, and evaluated their performance on both synthetic data and realworld astronomical data. Our results show that gridMatch is faster than zoneMatch at the cost of memory space and that parallelization achieves speedups of orders of magnitude. Copyright © 2013 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc

Establishment and application of a modified membrane-blot assay for Rhizomucor miehei lipases aimed at improving their methanol tolerance and thermostability

Directed evolution has been proved an effective way to improve the stability of proteins, but high throughput screening assays for directed evolution with simultaneous improvement of two or more properties are still rare. In this study, we aimed to establish a membrane-blot assay for use in the high-throughput screening of Rhizomucor miehei lipases (RMLs). With the assistance of the membrane-blot screening assay, a mutant E47K named G10 that showed improved thermal stability was detected in the first round of error-prone PCR. Using G10 as the parent, two variants G10-11 and G10-20 that showed improved thermal stability and methanol tolerance without loss of activity compared to the wild type RML were obtained. The T-50(60)-value of G10-11 and G10-20 increased by 12 degrees C and 6.5 degrees C, respectively. After incubation for 1 h, the remaining residual activity of G10-11 and G10-20 was 63.45% and 74.33%, respectively, in 50% methanol, and 15.98% and 30.22%, respectively, in 80% methanol. Thus, we successfully developed a membrane-blot assay that could be used for the high-throughput screening of RMLs with improved thermostability and methanol tolerance. Based on our findings, we believe that our newly developed membrane-blot assay will have potential applications in directed evolution in the future

Pollen allergens sensitization characteristics and risk factors among allergy rhinitis of children in mainland China: A multicenter study

Background: No comprehensive multicenter study of sensitization patterns among patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) to various common pollen allergens was available nationwide, and risks factors of pollen-induced allergic rhinitis (PiAR) in mainland China was unclear. This study aimed to fill this gap. Methods: A multicenter study was performed on 736 AR patients aged below 18 from four regions of mainland China. Patients completed a standardized questionnaire asking for the environmental risk factors and AR severity, and undertook skin prick tests (SPT) with 14 common pollen allergens. Findings: Among the 736 patients, 341 patients (46.33%) suffered at least one positive pollen allergen sensitization. The positive rate of pollen allergens was significantly higher in the high-age group (Damato et al., 2007; Wang et al., 2018; Luo et al., 2016; Demoly et al., 2011; Sampson and Albergo, 1984; Li et al., 2009; Luo et al., 2021; Ziska and Beggs, 2011; Melén et al., 2020; Jensen-Jarolim, 2017; Rönmark et al., 2017; Ge et al., 2017) [6-17] than the low-age group ( ≤ 5), while no significant difference was found between the sexes. The sensitizations to pollen allergens varied widely among four geographical areas. The positive rate was higher in north China and west China than in east China, and south China had the lowest positive rate. The region of residence, ages, ethnic minorities, history of pollen exposure, the material of living room floor and material of pillow were statistically significant risks of PiAR. Interpretation: This study provides new insights into the pollen allergens sensitization characteristics in AR and the factors affecting PiAR in mainland China

Enabling product customisation in manufacturing clouds

Cloud manufacturing has emerged as new manufacturing paradigm providing a service-oriented approach to integrate distributed manufacturing resources and to utilise available manufacturing capabilities for collaborative and networked production. With increasing demand for complex customer-oriented products, cloud manufacturing presents provides a promising solution to address the challenges involved in customised specification and production across the supply chain. In this chapter, a concept and architecture is proposed to enable the dynamic customisation of products based on the availabilities of the production network from the cloud manufacturing concept of Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS). An overview of the MaaS concept and architecture is described, which include the core components for product configuration, manufacturing service management and the integration of factory-IT systems. In addition, the proposed manufacturing service description used to enable the provision of customised options is presented. Finally, a case study is presented which demonstrates the feasibility of MaaS concept for customised products. This is followed by an evaluation of the implemented cloud manufacturing platform provided from an industrial perspective

The Efficacy and Safety of Icotinib in Patients with Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Previously Treated with Chemotherapy: A Single-Arm, Multi-Center, Prospective Study

<div><p>Background</p><p>Icotinib is a small molecule targeting epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase, which shows non-inferior efficacy and better safety comparing to gefitinib in previous phase III trial. The present study was designed to further evaluate the efficacy and safety of icotinib in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) previously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy.</p><p>Methods</p><p>Patients with NSCLC progressing after one or two lines of chemotherapy were enrolled to receive oral icotinib (125mg tablet, three times per day). The primary endpoint was progression-free survival. The secondary endpoints included overall survival, objective response rate, time to progression, quality of life and safety.</p><p>Results</p><p>From March 16, 2010 to October 9, 2011, 128 patients from 15 centers nationwide were enrolled, in which 124 patients were available for efficacy evaluation and 127 patients were evaluable for safety. The median progression-free survival and time to progression were 5.0 months (95%CI 2.9–6.6 m) and 5.4 months (95%CI 3.1–7.9 m), respectively. The objective response rate and disease control rate were 25.8% and 67.7% respectively. Median overall survival exceeded 17.6 months (95%CI 14.2 m-NA) according to censored data. Further follow-up of overall survival is ongoing. The most frequent treatment-related adverse events were rash (26%, 33/127), diarrhea (12.6%, 16/127) and elevation of transaminase (15.7%, 20/127).</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>In general, this study showed similar efficacy and numerically better safety when compared with that in ICOGEN trial, further confirming the efficacy and safety of icotinib in treating patients with advanced NSCLC previously treated with chemotherapy.</p><p>Trial Registration</p><p>ClinicalTrials.gov <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02486354?term=NCT02486354&rank=1" target="_blank">NCT02486354</a></p></div