Patients with refractory cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection following allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation are at high risk for CMV disease and non-relapse mortality

AbstractPre-emptive therapy is an effective approach for cytomegalovirus (CMV) control; however, refractory CMV still occurs in a considerable group of recipients after allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Until now, hardly any data have been available about the clinical characteristics and risk factors of refractory CMV, or its potential harmful impact on the clinical outcome following allo-HSCT. We studied transplant factors affecting refractory CMV in the 100 days after allo-HSCT, and the impact of refractory CMV on the risk of CMV disease and non-relapse mortality (NRM). We retrospectively studied 488 consecutive patients with CMV infection after allo-HSCT. Patients with refractory CMV in the 100 days after allo-HSCT had a higher incidence of CMV disease and NRM than those without refractory CMV (11.9% vs. 0.8% and 17.1% vs. 8.3%, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that refractory CMV infection in the 100 days after allo-HSCT was an independent risk factor for CMV disease (hazard ratio (HR) 10.539, 95% CI 2.467–45.015, p 0.001), and that refractory CMV infection within 60–100 days after allo-HSCT was an independent risk factor for NRM (HR 8.435, 95% CI 1.511–47.099, p 0.015). Clinical factors impacting on the risk of refractory CMV infection included receiving transplants from human leukocyte antigen-mismatched family donors (HR 2.012, 95% CI 1.603–2.546, p <0.001) and acute graft-versus-host disease (HR 1.905, 95% CI 1.352–2.686, p <0.001). We conclude that patients with refractory CMV infection during the early stage after allo-HSCT are at high risk for both CMV disease and NRM

Partial Wave Analysis of J/ψ→γ(K+K−π+π−)J/\psi \to \gamma (K^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-)

BES data on $J/\psi \to \gamma (K^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-)$ are presented. The $K^*\bar K^*$ contribution peaks strongly near threshold. It is fitted with a broad $0^{-+}$ resonance with mass $M = 1800 \pm 100$ MeV, width $\Gamma = 500 \pm 200$ MeV. A broad $2^{++}$ resonance peaking at 2020 MeV is also required with width $\sim 500$ MeV. There is further evidence for a $2^{-+}$ component peaking at 2.55 GeV. The non-$K^*\bar K^*$ contribution is close to phase space; it peaks at 2.6 GeV and is very different from $K^{*}\bar{K^{*}}$.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, Submitted to PL

Tip-functionalized carbon nanotubes under electric fields

We investigated the electronic structures of chemically modified carbon nanotube tips under electric fields using density functional calculations. Hydrogen, oxygen, and hydroxyl group-terminated nanotubes have been considered as field emitters or probe tips. In the case of the open-ended tubes, the field emission originates primarily from the dangling-bond states localized at the edge, whereas the pentagonal defects are the main source of the field emission in the capped tubes. The open-ended nanotube with a zigzag edge is an efficient field emitter because of the localized electronic states around the Fermi level and the atomic alignment of carbon-carbon bonds along with external electric fields. Tip functionalization alters the local density of states as well as the chemical selectivity of nanotubes in various ways. The correlations between atomic geometries of chemically functionalized tips and their electronic structures are further discussed. We propose that a hydrogen-terminated tube would be a promising probe tip for selective chemical imaging.open252

Effects of Water and Nitrogen Addition on Species Turnover in Temperate Grasslands in Northern China

Global nitrogen (N) deposition and climate change have been identified as two of the most important causes of current plant diversity loss. However, temporal patterns of species turnover underlying diversity changes in response to changing precipitation regimes and atmospheric N deposition have received inadequate attention. We carried out a manipulation experiment in a steppe and an old-field in North China from 2005 to 2009, to test the hypothesis that water addition enhances plant species richness through increase in the rate of species gain and decrease in the rate of species loss, while N addition has opposite effects on species changes. Our results showed that water addition increased the rate of species gain in both the steppe and the old field but decreased the rates of species loss and turnover in the old field. In contrast, N addition increased the rates of species loss and turnover in the steppe but decreased the rate of species gain in the old field. The rate of species change was greater in the old field than in the steppe. Water interacted with N to affect species richness and species turnover, indicating that the impacts of N on semi-arid grasslands were largely mediated by water availability. The temporal stability of communities was negatively correlated with rates of species loss and turnover, suggesting that water addition might enhance, but N addition would reduce the compositional stability of grasslands. Experimental results support our initial hypothesis and demonstrate that water and N availabilities differed in the effects on rate of species change in the temperate grasslands, and these effects also depend on grassland types and/or land-use history. Species gain and loss together contribute to the dynamic change of species richness in semi-arid grasslands under future climate change

Heterogeneous Light Supply Affects Growth and Biomass Allocation of the Understory Fern Diplopterygium glaucum at High Patch Contrast

Spatial heterogeneity in resource supply is common and responses to heterogeneous resource supply have been extensively documented in clonal angiosperms but not in pteridophytes. To test the hypotheses that clonal integration can modify responses of pteridophytes to heterogeneous resource supply and the integration effect is larger at higher patch contrast, we conducted a field experiment with three homogeneous and two heterogeneous light treatments on the rhizomatous, understory fern Diplopterygium glaucum in an evergreen broad-leaved forest in East China. In homogeneous treatments, all D. glaucum ramets in 1.5 m×1.5 m units were subjected to 10, 40 and 100% natural light, respectively. In the heterogeneous treatment of low patch contrast, ramets in the central 0.5 m×0.5 m plots of the units were subjected to 40% natural light and their interconnected ramets in the surrounding area of the units to 100%; in the heterogeneous treatment of high patch contrast, ramets in the central plots were subjected to 10% natural light and those in the surrounding area to 100%. In the homogeneous treatments, biomass and number of living ramets in the central plots decreased and number of dead ramets increased with decreasing light supply. At low contrast heterogeneous light supply did not affect performance or biomass allocation of D. glaucum in the central plots, but at high contrast it increased lamina biomass and number of living ramets older than annual and modified biomass allocation to lamina and rhizome. Thus, clonal integration can affect responses of understory ferns to heterogeneous light supply and ramets in low light patches can be supported by those in high light. The results also suggest that effects of clonal integration depend on the degree of patch contrast and a significant integration effect may be found only under a relatively high patch contrast

Single Spin Asymmetry ANA_N in Polarized Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering at s=200\sqrt{s}=200 GeV

We report a high precision measurement of the transverse single spin asymmetry $A_N$ at the center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV in elastic proton-proton scattering by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The $A_N$ was measured in the four-momentum transfer squared $t$ range $0.003 \leqslant |t| \leqslant 0.035$ \GeVcSq, the region of a significant interference between the electromagnetic and hadronic scattering amplitudes. The measured values of $A_N$ and its $t$-dependence are consistent with a vanishing hadronic spin-flip amplitude, thus providing strong constraints on the ratio of the single spin-flip to the non-flip amplitudes. Since the hadronic amplitude is dominated by the Pomeron amplitude at this $\sqrt{s}$, we conclude that this measurement addresses the question about the presence of a hadronic spin flip due to the Pomeron exchange in polarized proton-proton elastic scattering.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Search for Doubly-Charged Higgs Bosons at LEP

Doubly-charged Higgs bosons are searched for in e^+e^- collision data collected with the L3 detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV. Final states with four leptons are analysed to tag the pair-production of doubly charged Higgs bosons. No significant excess is found and lower limits at 95% confidence level on the doubly-charged Higgs boson mass are derived. They vary from 95.5 GeV to 100.2 GeV, depending on the decay mode. Doubly-charged Higgs bosons which couple to electrons would modify the cross section and forward-backward asymmetry of the e^+e^- -> e^+e^- process. The measurements of these quantities do not deviate from the Standard Model expectations and doubly-charged Higgs bosons with masses up to the order of a TeV are excluded

Search for Single Top Production at LEP

Single top production in e+e- annihilations is searched for in data collected by the L3 detector at centre-of-mass energies from 189 to 209 GeV, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 634 pb-1. Investigating hadronic and semileptonic top decays, no evidence of single top production at LEP is obtained and upper limits on the single top cross section as a function of the centre-of-mass energy are derived. Limits on possible anomalous couplings, as well as on the scale of contact interactions responsible for single top production are determined