Postmortem Quantitative Analysis of Prion Seeding Activity in the Digestive System

Human prion diseases are neurodegenerative disorders caused by prion protein. Although infectivity was historically detected only in the central nervous system and lymphoreticular tissues of patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, recent reports suggest that the seeding activity of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease prions accumulates in various non-neuronal organs including the liver, kidney, and skin. Therefore, we reanalyzed autopsy samples collected from patients with sporadic and genetic human prion diseases and found that seeding activity exists in almost all digestive organs. Unexpectedly, activity in the esophagus reached a level of prion seeding activity close to that in the central nervous system in some CJD patients, indicating that the safety of endoscopic examinations should be reconsidered

Mutation Analysis of 2009 Pandemic Influenza A(H1N1) Viruses Collected in Japan during the Peak Phase of the Pandemic

BACKGROUND: Pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus infection quickly circulated worldwide in 2009. In Japan, the first case was reported in May 2009, one month after its outbreak in Mexico. Thereafter, A(H1N1) infection spread widely throughout the country. It is of great importance to profile and understand the situation regarding viral mutations and their circulation in Japan to accumulate a knowledge base and to prepare clinical response platforms before a second pandemic (pdm) wave emerges. METHODOLOGY: A total of 253 swab samples were collected from patients with influenza-like illness in the Osaka, Tokyo, and Chiba areas both in May 2009 and between October 2009 and January 2010. We analyzed partial sequences of the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes of the 2009 pdm influenza virus in the collected clinical samples. By phylogenetic analysis, we identified major variants of the 2009 pdm influenza virus and critical mutations associated with severe cases, including drug-resistance mutations. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Our sequence analysis has revealed that both HA-S220T and NA-N248D are major non-synonymous mutations that clearly discriminate the 2009 pdm influenza viruses identified in the very early phase (May 2009) from those found in the peak phase (October 2009 to January 2010) in Japan. By phylogenetic analysis, we found 14 micro-clades within the viruses collected during the peak phase. Among them, 12 were new micro-clades, while two were previously reported. Oseltamivir resistance-related mutations, i.e., NA-H275Y and NA-N295S, were also detected in sporadic cases in Osaka and Tokyo

One-Step Detection of the 2009 Pandemic Influenza A(H1N1) Virus by the RT-SmartAmp Assay and Its Clinical Validation

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>In 2009, a pandemic (pdm) influenza A(H1N1) virus infection quickly circulated globally resulting in about 18,000 deaths around the world. In Japan, infected patients accounted for 16% of the total population. The possibility of human-to-human transmission of highly pathogenic novel influenza viruses is becoming a fear for human health and society.</p> <h3>Methodology</h3><p>To address the clinical need for rapid diagnosis, we have developed a new method, the “RT-SmartAmp assay”, to rapidly detect the 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus from patient swab samples. The RT-SmartAmp assay comprises both reverse transcriptase (RT) and isothermal DNA amplification reactions in one step, where RNA extraction and PCR reaction are not required. We used an exciton-controlled hybridization-sensitive fluorescent primer to specifically detect the HA segment of the 2009 pdm influenza A(H1N1) virus within 40 minutes without cross-reacting with the seasonal A(H1N1), A(H3N2), or B-type (Victoria) viruses.</p> <h3>Results and Conclusions</h3><p>We evaluated the RT-SmartAmp method in clinical research carried out in Japan during a pandemic period of October 2009 to January 2010. A total of 255 swab samples were collected from outpatients with influenza-like illness at three hospitals and eleven clinics located in the Tokyo and Chiba areas in Japan. The 2009 pdm influenza A(H1N1) virus was detected by the RT-SmartAmp assay, and the detection results were subsequently compared with data of current influenza diagnostic tests (lateral flow immuno-chromatographic tests) and viral genome sequence analysis. In conclusion, by the RT-SmartAmp assay we could detect the 2009 pdm influenza A(H1N1) virus in patients' swab samples even in early stages after the initial onset of influenza symptoms. Thus, the RT-SmartAmp assay is considered to provide a simple and practical tool to rapidly detect the 2009 pdm influenza A(H1N1) virus.</p> </div

カワラヨモギの「ほふく型」と「直立型」の開花日, 頭花サイズ, 頭花中の利胆成分含量及び分子レベルの相違について

[論文

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Contrasting volcanism in the Michoacán-Guanajuato Volcanic Field, central Mexico: Shield volcanoes vs. cinder cones

El Campo Volcánico de Michoacán-Guanajuato (40,000 km2), de la Faja Volcánica Trans-Mexicana (FVTM), contiene volcanes de tamaño pequeño y mediano, y carece de grandes volcanes compuestos. Los volcanes de tamaño pequeño incluyen a 900 conos cineríticos y 100 volcanes de otros tipos tales como conos, domos y gruesos derrames de lava no asociados con conos y maares. En contraste, los volcanes de tamaño medio incluyen más de 300 volcanes y algunos domos de lava. Ambos grupos de volcanes coexisten en tiempo y espacio. Las lavas asociadas a conos cineríticos poseen un amplio rango composicional de 47 a 67 % en contenido de Si02, con abundantes basaltos de olivino calcialcalinos y andesitas basálticas. Existen también unas cuantas rocas alcalinas. Las lavas de volcanes escudo son todas andesitas calcialcalinas que muestran un rango limitado de Si02 (comúnmente 55%-61% ), con ocurrencia común de fenocristales de ortopiroxeno. Se han encontrado composiciones similares para flujos de lava que no están asociados a conos. Estas lavas y las de los escudos, representan erupciones efusivas, menos explosivas. Los volcanes escudo tienen derrames de lava más largos y volúmenes mayores que los derrames que no están asociados con conos, indicando con esto una tasa efusiva y un aporte de magma mayores que estos últimos. Debido a que sus lavas están más fraccionadas que las lavas calcialcalinas de conos cineríticos, pero que se grafican en el mismo tren composicional que éstas, po- ~ siblemente aquéllas sean producto de cristalización fraccionada de basaltos primitivos calcialcalinos, los cuales se encuentran en algunos conos cineríticos. doi: https://doi.org/10.22201/igeof.00167169p.1994.33.1.54

Southwestward volcanic migration in the western Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt during the last 2 Ma

Fechamientos K-Ar y resultados paleomagnéticos para la región de Chapala nos permiten estimar la edad de las rocas del Grupo Tizapan (Mioceno Tardío-Plioceno Temprano), Grupo Chapala (Mioceno Tardío-Plioceno Temprano), Grupo Travasaño (Plioceno Temprano), Grupo Grande, Grupo Palo Verde y Grupo Zacoalco (Plioceno Tardío-Pleistoceno Temprano), Grupo Santa Cruz y Grupo Acatlán (Pleistoceno Temprano). En el Campo Volcánico de Michoacán-Guanajuato (CVMG) los estudios magnetoestratigráficos permiten documentar los patrones temporales y espaciales del vulcanismo. Las características del vulcanismo en el CVMG sugieren una migración de la actividad volcánica de aproximadamente 90 km hacia la trinchera durante el período comprendido entre los Crones Brunhes y Matuyama (0.78 Ma). En la región de Chapala se observa un patrón diferente, consistente en una migración espacial transicional y de menor magnitud ocurrida entre el Plioceno y, el Pleistoceno. Esta migración implica un cambio en la evolución magmática que se manifiesta en una disminución en el tamaño de los edificios volcánicos

A Propensity Score-Matching Analysis of Transthoracic Echocardiography and Abdominal Ultrasonography for the Detection of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

Introduction We previously reported that the prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) was higher in patients undergoing scheduled transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) than in patients undergoing abdominal ultrasonography (AUS); however, intergroup patient backgrounds differed significantly in that report. Purpose We tested the hypothesis that TTE could detect AAA as effectively as AUS. Design A propensity score-matching analysis of a cross-sectional study was adopted as the design for this study. Methods We enrolled 7,619 and 15,433 patients scheduled to undergo TTE with additional evaluation of abdominal aorta at the end of the routine study and AUS, respectively, from 2009 to 2010 in our hospital, as reported. A propensity score for profiles of patients who underwent TTE or AUS was developed to adjust for potential confounding bias. Consequently, 4,388 patients in each group were matched for analyses. Results In propensity-matched patients, AAA was detected in 59 patients of the TTE group and in 48 patients of the AUS group; the prevalence of AAA detection did not differ significantly between TTE and AUS groups ( P = 0.331). Positive associations were observed between AAA detection and male sex (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 3.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.05-5.15; P < 0.001), older age (adjusted OR: 1.029; 95% CI: 1.01-1.04; P < 0.001), and the presence of ischemic heart disease (adjusted OR: 1.78; 95% CI: 1.04-3.03; P = 0.033) and hypertension (adjusted OR: 2.16; 95% CI: 1.38-3.37; P = 001). Conclusion TTE detected AAA with comparable efficacy as AUS in propensity-matched groups who underwent scheduled TTE and AUS