5,817 research outputs found
A case of acute myeloid leukemia with promyelocytic features characterized by expression of a novel RARG-CPSF6 fusion
Key Points
Novel RARG-CPSF6 fusion in an AML case with promyelocytic features and no evidence of PML-RARA or X-RARA fusion. Gene fusions involving RARG can initiate AML with promyelocytic morphological features.</jats:p
A common founding clone with TP53 and PTEN mutations gives rise to a concurrent germ cell tumor and acute megakaryoblastic leukemia
We report the findings from a patient who presented with a concurrent mediastinal germ cell tumor (GCT) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Bone marrow pathology was consistent with a diagnosis of acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AML M7), and biopsy of an anterior mediastinal mass was consistent with a nonseminomatous GCT. Prior studies have described associations between hematological malignancies, including AML M7 and nonseminomatous GCTs, and it was recently suggested that a common founding clone initiated both cancers. We performed enhanced exome sequencing on the GCT and the AML M7 from our patient to define the clonal relationship between the two cancers. We found that both samples contained somatic mutations in PTEN (C136R missense) and TP53 (R213 frameshift). The mutations in PTEN and TP53 were present at ∼100% variant allele frequency (VAF) in both tumors. In addition, we detected and validated five other shared somatic mutations. The copy-number analysis of the AML exome data revealed an amplification of Chromosome 12p. We also identified a heterozygous germline variant in FANCA (S858R), which is known to be associated with Fanconi anemia but is of uncertain significance here. In summary, our data not only support a common founding clone for these cancers but also suggest that a specific set of distinct genomic alterations (in PTEN and TP53) underlies the rare association between GCT and AML. This association is likely linked to the treatment resistance and extremely poor outcome of these patients. We cannot resolve the clonal evolution of these tumors given limitations of our data
Rapid state purification protocols for a Cooper pair box
We propose techniques for implementing two different rapid state purification
schemes, within the constraints present in a superconducting charge qubit
system. Both schemes use a continuous measurement of charge (z) measurements,
and seek to minimize the time required to purify the conditional state. Our
methods are designed to make the purification process relatively insensitive to
rotations about the x-axis, due to the Josephson tunnelling Hamiltonian. The
first proposed method, based on the scheme of Jacobs [Phys. Rev. A 67,
030301(R) (2003)] uses the measurement results to control bias (z) pulses so as
to rotate the Bloch vector onto the x-axis of the Bloch sphere. The second
proposed method, based on the scheme of Wiseman and Ralph [New J. Phys. 8, 90
(2006)] uses a simple feedback protocol which tightly rotates the Bloch vector
about an axis almost parallel with the measurement axis. We compare the
performance of these and other techniques by a number of different measures.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures. v2: Revised version after referee comments.
Accepted for publication by Physical Review
Interacting damage models mapped onto Ising and percolation models
We introduce a class of damage models on regular lattices with isotropic
interactions, as e.g. quasistatic fiber bundles. The system starts intact with
a surface-energy threshold required to break any cell sampled from an
uncorrelated quenched-disorder distribution. The evolution of this
heterogeneous system is ruled by Griffith's principle which states that a cell
breaks when the release in elastic energy in the system exceeds the
surface-energy barrier necessary to break the cell. By direct integration over
all possible realizations of the quenched disorder, we obtain the probability
distribution of each damage configuration at any level of the imposed external
deformation. We demonstrate an isomorphism between the distributions so
obtained and standard generalized Ising models, in which the coupling constants
and effective temperature in the Ising model are functions of the nature of the
quenched-disorder distribution and the extent of accumulated damage. In
particular, we show that damage models with global load sharing are isomorphic
to standard percolation theory, that damage models with local load sharing rule
are isomorphic to the standard Ising model, and draw consequences thereof for
the universality class and behavior of the autocorrelation length of the
breakdown transitions corresponding to these models. We also treat damage
models having more general power-law interactions, and classify the breakdown
process as a function of the power-law interaction exponent. Last, we also show
that the probability distribution over configurations is a maximum of Shannon's
entropy under some specific constraints related to the energetic balance of the
fracture process, which firmly relates this type of quenched-disorder based
damage model to standard statistical mechanics.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure
Generalized "Quasi-classical" Ground State for an Interacting Two Level System
We treat a system (a molecule or a solid) in which electrons are coupled
linearly to any number and type of harmonic oscillators and which is further
subject to external forces of arbitrary symmetry. With the treatment restricted
to the lowest pair of electronic states, approximate "vibronic"
(vibration-electronic) ground state wave functions are constructed having the
form of simple, closed expressions. The basis of the method is to regard
electronic density operators as classical variables. It extends an earlier
"guessed solution", devised for the dynamical Jahn-Teller effect in cubic
symmetry, to situations having lower (e.g., dihedral) symmetry or without any
symmetry at all. While the proposed solution is expected to be quite close to
the exact one, its formal simplicity allows straightforward calculations of
several interesting quantities, like energies and vibronic reduction (or Ham)
factors. We calculate for dihedral symmetry two different -factors (""
and "") and a -factor. In simplified situations we obtain . The formalism enables quantitative estimates to be made for the dynamical
narrowing of hyperfine lines in the observed ESR spectrum of the dihedral
cyclobutane radical cation.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figure
Spectroscopy of a Cooper-Pair box in the Autler-Townes configuration
A theoretical spectroscopic analysis of a microwave driven superconducting
charge qubit (Cooper-pair box coupled) to an RLC oscillator model is performed.
By treating the oscillator as a probe through the backreaction effect of the
qubit on the oscillator circuit, we extract frequency splitting features
analogous to the Autler-Townes effect from quantum optics, thereby extending
the analogies between superconducting and quantum optical phenomenology. These
features are found in a frequency band that avoids the need for high frequency
measurement systems and therefore may be of use in qubit characterization and
coupling schemes. In addition we find this frequency band can be adjusted to
suit an experimental frequency regime by changing the oscillator frequency.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures. v2: Revised version after referee comments.
Accepted for publication by Physical Review
Replication fork rescue in mammalian mitochondria
Replication stalling has been associated with the formation of pathological mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) rearrangements. Yet, almost nothing is known about the fate of stalled replication intermediates in mitochondria. We show here that replication stalling in mitochondria leads to replication fork regression and mtDNA double-strand breaks. The resulting mtDNA fragments are normally degraded by a mechanism involving the mitochondrial exonuclease MGME1, and the loss of this enzyme results in accumulation of linear and recombining mtDNA species. Additionally, replication stress promotes the initiation of alternative replication origins as an apparent means of rescue by fork convergence. Besides demonstrating an interplay between two major mechanisms rescuing stalled replication forks - mtDNA degradation and homology-dependent repair - our data provide evidence that mitochondria employ similar mechanisms to cope with replication stress as known from other genetic systems.Peer reviewe
Magnetic anisotropies and general on--site Coulomb interactions in the cuprates
This paper derives the anisotropic superexchange interactions from a Hubbard
model for excitations within the copper 3d band and the oxygen 2p band of the
undoped insulating cuprates. We extend the recent calculation of Yildirim et
al. [Phys. Rev. B {\bf VV}, pp, 1995] in order to include the most general
on--site Coulomb interactions (including those which involve more than two
orbitals) when two holes occupy the same site. Our general results apply when
the oxygen ions surrounding the copper ions form an octahedron which has
tetragonal symmetry (but may be rotated as in lanthanum cuprate). For the
tetragonal cuprates we obtain an easy--plane anisotropy in good agreement with
experimental values. We predict the magnitude of the small in--plane anisoComment: 25 pages, revte
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