Qinglan Sun

Dynamic reassortments and genetic heterogeneity of the human-infecting influenza A (H7N9) virus

Influenza A (H7N9) virus has been causing human infections in China since February 2013, raising serious concerns of potential pandemics. Previous studies demonstrate that human infection is directly linked to live animal markets, and that the internal genes of the virus are derived from H9N2 viruses circulating in the Yangtze River Delta area in Eastern China. Here following analysis of 109 viruses, we show a much higher genetic heterogeneity of the H7N9 viruses than previously reported, with a total of 27 newly designated genotypes. Phylogenetic and genealogical inferences reveal that genotypes G0 and G2.6 dominantly co-circulate within poultry, with most human isolates belonging to the genotype G0. G0 viruses are also responsible for the inter- and intra-province transmissions, leading to the genesis of novel genotypes. These observations suggest the province-specific H9N2 virus gene pools increase the genetic diversity of H7N9 via dynamic reassortments and also imply that G0 has not gained overwhelming fitness and the virus continues to undergo reassortment.

White light from polymer light-emitting diodes: Utilization of fluorenone defects and exciplex

A white light polymer light-emitting diode was demonstrated with a double layer configuration: poly[N,N′-bis(4-butylphenyl)-N,N′-bis(phenyl)benzidine] (poly-TPD) blended with poly(N-vinylcarbazole) as both hole-transporting layer and electron-blocking layer, blue-emissive poly(9,9-dihexylfluorene-alt-co-2,5-dioctyloxy-para-phenylene) (PDHFDOOP) blended with green-emissive poly[6,6′-bi-(9,9′-dihexylfluorene)-co-(9,9′-dihexylfluorene-3-thiophene-5′-yl)] as an emissive layer. By annealing the emissive layer at a relatively high temperature, fluorenone defects were generated into PDHFDOOP, which formed an exciplex with poly-TPD, as a red emitter. The devices exhibit a maximum brightness of ∼4800cd∕m2 and a maximum luminous efficiency of ∼3cd∕A. Moreover, the Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage coordinates of the emitted light is close to that of pure white light and is insensitive to the applied voltages.

Enhanced performance of white polymer light-emitting diodes using polymer blends as hole-transporting layers

AU: PLEASE CONFIRM CHANGES MADE IN THE BYLINE.White polymer light-emitting diodes (WPLEDs) with the Commission Internationale de l’Enclairage coordinates of (0.32, 0.34) are demonstrated with poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-2,7-diyl) as host and poly(5-methoxy-2-(2′-ethyl-hexylthio)-p-phenylenevinylene) as guest. Blends of poly[N,N′-bis(4-butylphenyl)-N,N′-bis(phenyl)benzidine] (poly-TPD) and poly(N-vinyl-carbazole) (PVK) are introduced into bilayer devices as hole-transporting layers (HTLs). Because the blends combined the hole-injection and hole-transporting capabilities of poly-TPD with electron-blocking capability of PVK, WPLEDs with the blends as HTLs exhibit enhanced performance in comparison with single-layer device and bilayer devices with pure poly-TPD or pure PVK as HTL. With a 1:1 weight ratio of poly-TPD to PVK in the blend, the WPLED achieves a maximum brightness of ∼5000cd∕m2 with a maximum electroluminescent efficiency of 3.15cd∕A.

Analyses of the Similarity and Difference of Global Gene Expression Profiles in Cortex Regions of Three Neurodegenerative Diseases: Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (sCJD), Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI), and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)

Neurodegenerative disease is a general designation for the disorders that are progressive loss of structure or function and final death of neurons, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, prion diseases, etc. In this study, we comparatively analyzed 21 individual microarray data sets of the cortex tissues from 11 sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), 3 fatal familial insomnia (FFI), 3 Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and 4 normal controls. After normalization, a collection of 730 differently expressed sets (DESets) were obtained by comparison of the data of three diseases with their original controls. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed a background-related distribution within the groups of FFI, AD, and normal control, but two apparently different subgroups within the group of sCJD were observed. Review of the clinical materials of 11 sCJD patients identified the difference in brain PrPSc deposits between two subgroups. Hierarchical cluster analysis illustrated the relatively independent clusters of normal controls, FFIs, six sCJD cases (subgroup 1) with more PrPSc deposits, respectively, while an overlapped cluster of five cases of sCJD2 (subgroup 2) with less PrPSc deposits and AD patients. Despite of the presence of special gene expressions, many common features were found among those neurodegenerative diseases. The most commonly changed biological processes (BPs) were signal transduction, synaptic transmission, and neuropeptide signaling pathway. The most commonly changed pathways were MAPK signaling pathway, Parkinson’s disease, and oxidative phosphorylation. Our data here provide the similarity and difference in global gene expressions among the patients with sCJD, FFI, and AD, which may help to understand the common mechanism of neurodegenerative diseases.

Identification of climate factors related to human infection with avian influenza A H7N9 and H5N1 viruses in China.

Human influenza infections display a strongly seasonal pattern. However, whether H7N9 and H5N1 infections correlate with climate factors has not been examined. Here, we analyzed 350 cases of H7N9 infection and 47 cases of H5N1 infection. The spatial characteristics of these cases revealed that H5N1 infections mainly occurred in the South, Middle, and Northwest of China, while the occurrence of H7N9 was concentrated in coastal areas of East and South of China. Aside from spatial-temporal characteristics, the most adaptive meteorological conditions for the occurrence of human infections by these two viral subtypes were different. We found that H7N9 infections correlate with climate factors, especially temperature (TEM) and relative humidity (RHU), while H5N1 infections correlate with TEM and atmospheric pressure (PRS). Hence, we propose a risky window (TEM 4–14 °C and RHU 65–95%) for H7N9 infection and (TEM 2–22 °C and PRS 980-1025 kPa) for H5N1 infection. Our results represent the first step in determining the effects of climate factors on two different virus infections in China and provide warning guidelines for the future when provinces fall into the risky windows. These findings revealed integrated predictive meteorological factors rooted in statistic data that enable the establishment of preventive actions and precautionary measures against future outbreaks.

Polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells with the block copolymers containing PEO segments

Abstract Polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) were fabricated and characterized with three block copolymers containing PEO segments as the luminescent polymers. The block copolymers are composed of PPV segments with three phenylene vinylene units and PEO segments with three ethylene oxide units. Blue–green light-emission of the LECs was demonstrated with the onset voltage lower than 3 V and EL efficiency of 0.74 cd/A at 2.8 V. The response time of the LECs is approximately 5 s. The transient response and a.c. impedance data indicate that the operating mechanism of the LECs is an electrochemical doping model.

Web resources for microbial data.

There are multitudes of web resources that are quite useful for the microbial scientific research community. Here, we provide a brief introduction on some of the most notable microbial web resources and an evaluation of them based upon our own user experience.

The global catalogue of microorganisms 10K type strain sequencing project: closing the genomic gaps for the validly published prokaryotic and fungi species

Abstract Genomic information is essential for taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional studies to comprehensively decipher the characteristics of microorganisms, to explore microbiomes through metagenomics, and to answer fundamental questions of nature and human life. However, large gaps remain in the available genomic sequencing information published for bacterial and archaeal species, and the gaps are even larger for fungal type strains. The Global Catalogue of Microorganisms (GCM) leads an internationally coordinated effort to sequence type strains and close gaps in the genomic maps of microorganisms. Hence, the GCM aims to promote research by deep-mining genomic data.

BOLDMirror: a global mirror system of DNA barcode data.

DNA barcoding is a novel concept for taxonomic identification using short, specific genetic markers and has been applied to study a large number of eukaryotes. The huge amount of data output generated by DNA barcoding requires well‐organized information systems. Besides the Barcode of Life Data system (BOLD) established in Canada, the mirror system is also important for the international barcode of life project (iBOL). For this purpose, we developed the BOLDMirror, a global mirror system of DNA barcode data. It is open‐sourced and can run on the LAMP (Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP) environment. BOLDMirror has data synchronization, data representation and statistics modules, and also provides spaces to store user operation history. BOLDMirror can be accessed at http://www.boldmirror.net and several countries have used it to setup their site of DNA barcoding.

利用表面增强拉曼光谱技术分析温度及pH 值对H1N1 亚型流感病毒增殖的影响

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy technology (SERS), using gold nanoparticles as a base, was developed for rapid and sensitive detection of virus strains. SERS can be used as a rapid and reliable method to distinguish the titers of viral replication. In the present study, we characterized H1N1 subtypes of influenza A virus strains in different conditions of pH or temperatures, while we analyzed data from SERS technology using gold nanoparticles as a base and cell cultures were employed to further confirm the data from virus strains. Origin8.0 was used to collect Raman spectra, smooth and homogenize data, and to contrast spectra. Our results indicated that the peaks of different virus strains in optimal environmental conditions (T=37 ℃/pH=7.2) reached ≥3 000. This criterion was verified by subsequent virological method. The present data indicate that the established SERS protocol can be used as a rapid and reliable method to distinguish the replication rate of virus, which can be further used in clinical samples.