A global study for acute myeloid leukemia with RARG rearrangement

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with retinoic acid receptor γ (RARG) rearrangement has clinical, morphologic, and immunophenotypic features similar to classic acute promyelocytic leukemia. However, AML with RARG rearrangement is insensitive to alltrans retinoic acid (ATRA) and arsenic trioxide (ATO) and carries a poor prognosis. We initiated a global cooperative study to define the clinicopathological features, genomic and transcriptomic landscape, and outcomes of AML with RARG rearrangements collected from 29 study groups/institutions worldwide. Thirty-four patients with AML with RARG rearrangements were identified. Bleeding or ecchymosis was present in 18 (54.5%) patients. Morphology diagnosed as M3 and M3v accounted for 73.5% and 26.5% of the cases, respectively. Immunophenotyping showed the following characteristics: positive for CD33, CD13, and MPO but negative for CD38, CD11b, CD34, and HLA-DR. Cytogenetics showed normal karyotype in 38% and t(11;12) in 26% of patients. The partner genes of RARG were diverse and included CPSF6, NUP98, HNRNPc, HNRNPm, PML, and NPM1. WT1- and NRAS/KRAS-mutations were common comutations. None of the 34 patients responded to ATRA and/or ATO. Death within 45 days from diagnosis occurred in 10 patients (∼29%). At the last follow-up, 23 patients had died, and the estimated 2-year cumulative incidence of relapse, event-free survival, and overall survival were 68.7%, 26.7%, and 33.5%, respectively. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering using RNA sequencing data from 201 patients with AML showed that 81.8% of the RARG fusion samples clustered together, suggesting a new molecular subtype. RARG rearrangement is a novel entity of AML that confers a poor prognosis. This study is registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2200055810)

Eco-Sponge Elasticity and its Indices Developed to Assess the Performance of Infrastructure in Sponge Cities: A Case Study in Xiamen, China

In recent years techniques for assessing the “sponge city” concept in practice have been developed and diversified at a rapid pace, therefore a unified assessment framework based on sponge techniques is becoming more and more important for comparing and analysing the performance of different techniques across different sponge city projects. However, previous work has mainly focused on enhancing or developing a certain single sponge technique. This research tries to establish a framework through integrating the resilience of the natural ecosystem with that of engineered infrastructure of sponge cities, forming a new concept of ‘Eco-sponge resilience\u27, and quantifying \u27Eco sponge Elasticity\u27. In particular, a set of elasticities with a unified dimension are developed. The eco-sponge elasticity mainly consists of five types of sponge elasticity and two types of ecological elasticity, including factors such as infiltration, storage, detention, transportation and decontamination, ecological vegetation and natural ecological water elasticities, with which the value of eco-sponge elasticity of a sponge city project can be easily estimated. This research also considers a case study to interpret how to assess the eco sponge elasticities of six pilot sites of sponge city projects in Xiamen. The result shows that the presented evaluation method is feasible and helpful for assessing and enhancing the performance of sponge cities considering four aspects: the water environment, water resources, water security and water ecosystem of the urban system

French Automobiles and the Chinese Boycotts of 2008: Politics Really Does Affect Commerce

We explore the economic impact of boycotts of French automobiles in China during the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Conditions were favorable for a boycott, enabling Chinese consumers to overcome the collective action problems that can prevent boycott success and other voluntary contributions to public goods. We use brand and model level data in a difference-in-difference specification to investigate the boycotts’ effects on sales. A robust pattern of large impacts emerges: sales of French automobile brands fell 25-33% or more. Consumers substituted mostly toward Chinese and other Asian cars. The sales of the French models did not experience similar relative sales declines in countries other than China—triple-difference estimates point toward even larger relative loss of market share in China. Our results provide evidence that commerce can be used as an effective political weapon

Variant rs2200733 and rs10033464 on chromosome 4q25 are associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation after catheter ablation: Evidence from a meta-analysis

Background: Common genetic polymorphisms at chromosome 4q25 were associated with increased susceptibility to atrial fibrillation (AF). However, it remained controversial whether these variants could be used as risk predictors for AF recurrence after catheter ablation. We therefore performed a metaanalysis to quantify the association between rs2200733 C>T/rs10033464 G>T and AF recurrence. Methods: Relevant studies were systematically retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier database and Cochrane library through November 2016. Data were abstracted and pooled using Stata 12.0 software. Results: A total of 2,145 patients undergoing catheter ablation were included. Patients with rs2200733 TT or TT+CT showed an overall increased susceptibility to AF recurrence (homozygous model [TT vs. CC]: odds ratio [OR] = 2.03, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.49–2.76, p = 0.000; dominant model [TT+TC vs. CC]: OR = 1.48, 95% CI 1.17–1.87, p = 0.001; recessive model [TT vs. TC+CC]: OR = 1.88, 95% CI 1.12–3.15, p = 0.017). Subgroup analysis also identified a positive relation in Caucasians and late recurrence of AF in allelic, homozygous and dominant comparison. Moreover, a significant increased risk of AF recurrence was observed in patients with rs10033464 TG or TT+TG (heterozygous model [TG vs. GG]: OR = 1.46, 95% CI 1.01–2.12, p = 0.047; dominant model [TT+TG vs. GG]: OR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.04–2.17, p = 0.029). Conclusions: After catheter ablation, rs2200733 (TT or TT+TC) and rs10033464 (TT+TG or TG) were associated with increased risk of AF recurrence