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Background: Small bowel adenocarcinoma (SBA) is a rare occurrence and few studies have addressed it adequately, especially in China. Methods: Clinicopathological features, survival and prognostic analysis were retrospectively done in SBA patients admitted between 2001 and 2011 in the People's Liberation Army General Hospital. Results: The study included 68 men and 51 women with a median age of 56.5 year. Tumors mainly occurred in duodenum (93.3%). Abdominal pain was the most frequent symptom (36.8%). Patients (30.3%) who received postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy had an increased, but not significant, median overall survival (MOS) rate compared to those who did not receive chemotherapy (37 vs 35 months, p = .324). One year disease free survival rate was higher in patients receiving postoperative chemotherapy (83.3% vs 71.1%). Patients survived longer in the curative surgery group (median survival time of 49.0 months) than those in the palliative group (7.0 months) ( p < .001). Node-negative patients survived longer than node-positive patients (median OS: 49.0 vs 21.0 months, p = .004). Depth (95% CI: 1.013-1.517, p = .037), node involvement (95% CI: 1.234-3.890, p = .007), palliative surgery (95% CI, 2.998-10.555, p = .0005), and the site of tumor (95% CI: 0.052-0.970, p = .045) were independent predictors of OS in a multivariate analysis. Conclusions: SBA is rare and there is lack of obvious clinical manifestations. Depth, node involvement, palliative surgery, and the site of tumor are associated with a poor prognosis. Our analysis highlights the need for further studies to find out the exact role of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Plastids and mitochondria are endosymbiotic organelles that store genetic information. The genomes of these organelles generally exhibit contrasting patterns regarding genome architecture and genetic content. However, they have similar genetic features in Selaginellaceae, and little is known about what causes parallel evolution. Here, we document the multipartite plastid genomes (plastomes) and the highly divergent mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) from spikemoss obtained by combining short‐ and long‐reads. The 188‐kb multipartite plastome has three ribosomal operon copies in the master genomic conformation, creating the alternative subgenomic conformation composed of 110‐ and 78‐kb subgenomes. The long‐read data indicated that the two different genomic conformations were present in almost equal proportions in the plastomes of Selaginella nipponica. The mitogenome of S. nipponica was assembled into 27 contigs with a total size of 110 kb. All contigs contained directly arranged repeats at both ends, which introduced multiple conformations. Our results showed that plastomes and mitogenomes share high tRNA losses, GC‐biased nucleotides, elevated substitution rates and complicated organization. The exploration of nuclear‐encoded organelle DNA replication, recombination and repair proteins indicated that, several single‐targeted proteins, particularly plastid‐targeted recombinase A1, have been lost in Selaginellaceae; conversely, the dual‐targeted proteins remain intact. According to the reported function of recombinase A1, we propose that the plastomes of spikemoss often fail to pair homologous sequences during recombination, and the dual‐targeted proteins play a key role in the convergent genetic features of plastomes and mitogenomes. Our results provide a distinctive evolutionary pattern of the organelle genomes in Selaginellaceae and evidence of their convergent evolution. Significance Statement: Plastid and mitochondrial genomes usually exhibit contrasting patterns of conserved plastid genomes and diverged mitochondrial genomes. Here, we document that both the organelle genomes in Selaginellaceae exhibit parallel genetic features. In addition, we explore which factor is likely responsible for the unconventional features of plastid genomes, and convergent evolution of the two organelle genomes. This study helps explain the distinctive evolutionary patterns of organelle genomes in Selaginellaceae, and advance our current understanding of organelle genomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) was firstly identified in mainland China in 2009 and the geographic distribution has expanded in recent years. In this study, we constructed ecological niche models (ENM) of SFTS with meteorological factors, environmental factor, and density of domestic animals using MaxEnt. We found four significant associated factors including altitude, yearly average temperature, yearly accumulated precipitation, and yearly average relative humidity which accounted for 94.1% percent contribution. SFTS occurrence probability was high when altitude was between −100 m and 100 m, and the probability was nearly 0 when altitude was beyond 3000 m. Response curves of SFTS to the yearly average temperature, yearly accumulated precipitation, and yearly average relative humidity were all reversed V-shape. SFTS occurrence probability was high where the yearly average temperature, yearly accumulated precipitation, and yearly relative humidity were 12.5–17.5 °C, 700–2250 mm and 63–82%, respectively. ENMs predicted that the potential high-risk areas were mainly distributed in eastern areas and central areas of China. But there were some predicted potential high-risk areas where no SFTS case was reported up to date. More researches should be done to make clear whether SFTS case had occurred in these areas. Unlabelled Image • We firstly constructed ENMs based on national SFTS data of China using MaxEnt. • Altitude, temperature, and precipitation contributed greatly to SFTS spatial distribution. • SFTS occurrence probability was high when these factors were 12.5–17.5 °C, 700–2250 mm and 63–82%. • In contrast to ENMs prediction, some predicted high-risk areas have no SFTS cases reported yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]