American Society of Hematology 2021 guidelines on the use of anticoagulation for thromboprophylaxis in patients with COVID-19

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related critical illness and acute illness are associated with a risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE).Objective: These evidence-based guidelines of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) are intended to support patients, clinicians, and other health care professionals in decisions about the use of anticoagulation for thromboprophylaxis for patients with COVID-19-related critical illness and acute illness who do not have confirmed or suspected VTE.Methods: ASH formed a multidisciplinary guideline panel and applied strict management strategies to minimize potential bias from conflicts of interest. The panel included 3 patient representatives. The McMaster University GRADE Centre supported the guideline-development process, including performing systematic evidence reviews (up to 19 August 2020). The panel prioritized clinical questions and outcomes according to their importance for clinicians and patients. The panel used the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach, including GRADE Evidence-to-Decision frameworks, to assess evidence and make recommendations, which were subject to public comment.Results: The panel agreed on 2 recommendations. The panel issued conditional recommendations in favor of prophylactic-intensity anticoagulation over intermediate-intensity or therapeutic-intensity anticoagulation for patients with COVID-19-related critical illness or acute illness who do not have confirmed or suspected VTE.Conclusions: These recommendations were based on very low certainty in the evidence, underscoring the need for high-quality, randomized controlled trials comparing different intensities of anticoagulation. They will be updated using a living recommendation approach as new evidence becomes available.Thrombosis and Hemostasi

American Society of Hematology living guidelines on the use of anticoagulation for thromboprophylaxis in patients with COVID-19: May 2021 update on the use of intermediate-intensity anticoagulation in critically ill patients

Background: COVID-19-related critical illness is associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Objective: These evidence-based guidelines of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) are intended to support patients, clinicians, and other health care professionals in making decisions about the use of anticoagulation for thromboprophylaxis in patients with COVID-19-related critical illness who do not have confirmed or suspected VTE.Methods: ASH formed a multidisciplinary guideline panel that included 3 patient representatives and applied strategies to minimize potential bias from conflicts of interest. The McMaster University Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Centre supported the guideline development process by performing systematic evidence reviews (up to 5 March 2021). The panel prioritized clinical questions and outcomes according to their importance for clinicians and patients. The panel used the GRADE approach to assess evidence and make recommendations, which were subject to public comment. This is an update on guidelines published in February 2021.Results: The panel agreed on 1 additional recommendation. The panel issued a conditional recommendation in favor of prophylactic-intensity over intermediate-intensity anticoagulation in patients with COVID-19-related critical illness who do not have confirmed or suspected VTE.Conclusions: This recommendation was based on low certainty in the evidence, which underscores the need for additional high-quality, randomized, controlled trials comparing different intensities of anticoagulation in critically ill patients. Other key research priorities include better evidence regarding predictors of thrombosis and bleeding risk in critically ill patients with COVID-19 and the impact of nonanticoagulant therapies (eg, antiviral agents, corticosteroids) on thrombotic risk.Thrombosis and Hemostasi

Measurement of vector boson production cross sections and their ratios using pp collisions at √s = 13.6 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract available from publisher's website

Searches for exclusive Higgs boson decays into D⁎γ and Z boson decays into D0γ and Ks0γ in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Searches for exclusive decays of the Higgs boson into D⁎γ and of the Z boson into D0γ and Ks0γ can probe flavour-violating Higgs boson and Z boson couplings to light quarks. Searches for these decays are performed with a pp collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 136.3 fb−1 collected at s=13TeV between 2016–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In the D⁎γ and D0γ channels, the observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits on the respective branching fractions are B(H→D⁎γ)<1.0(1.2)×10−3, B(Z→D0γ)<4.0(3.4)×10−6, while the corresponding results in the Ks0γ channel are B(Z→Ks0γ)<3.1(3.0)×10−6

Beam-induced backgrounds measured in the ATLAS detector during local gas injection into the LHC beam vacuum

Inelastic beam-gas collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), within a few hundred metres of the ATLAS experiment, are known to give the dominant contribution to beam backgrounds. These are monitored by ATLAS with a dedicated Beam Conditions Monitor (BCM) and with the rate of fake jets in the calorimeters. These two methods are complementary since the BCM probes backgrounds just around the beam pipe while fake jets are observed at radii of up to several metres. In order to quantify the correlation between the residual gas density in the LHC beam vacuum and the experimental backgrounds recorded by ATLAS, several dedicated tests were performed during LHC Run 2. Local pressure bumps, with a gas density several orders of magnitude higher than during normal operation, were introduced at different locations. The changes of beam-related backgrounds, seen in ATLAS, are correlated with the local pressure variation. In addition the rates of beam-gas events are estimated from the pressure measurements and pressure bump profiles obtained from calculations. Using these rates, the efficiency of the ATLAS beam background monitors to detect beam-gas events is derived as a function of distance from the interaction point. These efficiencies and characteristic distributions of fake jets from the beam backgrounds are found to be in good agreement with results of beam-gas simulations performed with theFluka Monte Carlo programme

Genetic diversity and association mapping in a collection of selected Chinese soybean accessions based on SSR marker analysis

For broadening the narrow genetic base of modern soybean cultivars, 159 accessions were selected from the Chinese soybean collection which contained at least one of seven important agronomic traits: resistance to soybean cyst nematode (SCN) or soybean mosaic virus (SMV), tolerance to salt, cold, or drought, high seed oil content or high protein content. Genetic diversity evaluation using 55 microsatellite loci distributed across the genome indicated that a large amount of genetic diversity (0.806) and allelic variation (781) were conserved in this selected set, which captured 65.6% of the alleles present in Chinese soybean collection (1,863 accessions). On average, 9.4 rare alleles (frequency\5%) per locus were present, which were highly informative. Using model-based Bayesian clustering in STRUCTURE we distinguished four main clusters and a set of accessions with admixed ancestry. The four clusters reflected different geographic regions of origin of the accessions. Since the clusters were also clearly different with respect to the seven agronomic traits, the inferred population structure was introduced when association analysis was conducted. A total of 21 SSR markers on 16 chromosomes were identified as significantly (P\0.01) associated with high oil content (6), high protein content (1), drought tolerance (5), SCN resistance (6) and SMV resistance (3). Twelve of these markers were located in or near previously identified quantitative trait loci (QTL). The results for both genetic relationship and trait-related markers will be useful for effective conservation and utilization of soybean germplas

Analysis of SSRs uncovers hierarchial structure and genetic diversity in Chinese soybean landraces

For clarifying the hierarchical patterns of population structure of soybean landraces in China, the seven clusters previously identified using Bayesian clustering of 1 504 soybean landraces based on SSR markers genotyping data were further analyzed. Using the largest value of ¿K, these landraces could be split into 20 sub-clusters, which was supported by highly significant pairwise Fst-values and generally in accordance with the geographic origin and sowing types. The autumn-sowing types ended up in one distinct sub-cluster from the otherwise summer-sowing type, where the autumn-sowing types are most likely derived from. The division into 20 sub-clusters explained 7.3% of the genetic variation, next to 9.7% present among the seven clusters, 81.1% residing among landraces within sub-clusters, and 1.9% within the landraces. The distribution pattern of genetic diversity among the sub-clusters of each cluster was uneven, with two HSuM sub-clusters (Central China) and some South China sub-clusters showing significantly higher level of genetic diversity

Development of SNP markers and haplotype analysis of the candidate gene for rhg1, which confers resistance to soybean cyst nematode in soybean

Soybean cyst nematode (SCN; Heterodera glycines Ichinohe) is one of the most destructive pests in the cultivation of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) worldwide. Markers based on the SCN resistance gene will enable efficient marker-assisted selection (MAS). We sequenced the candidate gene rhg1 in six resistant and two susceptible soybean genotypes and identified 37 SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) among the sequences, of which 11 were in the coding region. Seven of these 11 SNPs led to changes in the amino acid sequence of the gene. The amino acid sequence we obtained differs from the previously published one by a stretch of 26¿27 amino acids. Six codominant allele-specific SNP markers based on agarose gel detection were developed and tested in 70 genotypes, among which occurred only nine different haplotypes. Two neutrality tests (Tajima¿s D and Fu and Li¿s F) were significant for the six SNP loci in the 70 genotypes, which is consistent with intensive directional selection. A strong LD pattern was detected among five SNPs except 2868T > C. Two SNPs (689C > A and 757C > T) formed one haplotype (689C-757C) that was perfectly associated with SCN resistance. The new allele-specific PCR markers located in the alleged sequence of the rhg1 candidate gene, combined with the microsatellite marker BACR-Satt309, will significantly improve the efficiency of MAS during the development of SCN-resistant cultivars

Analysis of average standardized SSR allele size supports domestication of soybean along the Yellow River

Soybean (Glycine max) was domesticated in China from its wild progenitor G. soja. The geographic region of domestication is, however, not exactly known. Here we employed the directional evolution of SSR (microsatellite) repeats (which mutate preferentially into longer alleles) to analyze the domestication process and to infer the most ancestral soybean landraces. In this study, the average standardized SSR allele sizes across 42 SSR loci in 62 accessions of G. soja were determined, and compared with those in 1504 landraces of G. max, collected from all over China and representing the diversity in the gene bank. The standardized SSR allele size in the landraces (0.009) was significantly (P = 8.63 × 10-58) larger than those in G. soja (-0.406). Pairwise comparisons between inferred clusters and sub-clusters of Chinese landraces indicated that the average standardized SSR allele size also increased with the further differentiation of landraces populations. Spring-sowed types had the shortest size, followed by summer-sown types, while the sub-cluster of autumn-sown type had the largest length. The spring-sowed landraces located near the middle region along the Yellow River had the smallest allele sizes, indicating that this is the most ancestral population of cultivated soybean. We concluded that soybean was most likely domesticated in the middle region of the Yellow River in central China, initially as a spring-sown type

Signaling via a novel integral plasma membrane pool of a serine/threonine protein kinase PRK1 in mammalian cells

10.1096/fj.04-1876fjeFASEB Journal18141722-1724FAJO