We used a novel NF-08-TM transplant protocol based on intravenous busulfan, cyclophosphamide, fludarabine, and thiotepa in 82 consecutive patients with ␤-thalassemia major (TM), including 52 with allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) from unrelated donors (UDs) with well-matched human leukocyte antigens and 30 with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from matched sibling donors (MSDs). The median age at transplantation was 6.0 years (range, 0.6-15.0 years), and the ratio of male-to-female patients was 56:26. The median follow-up time was 24 months (range, 12-39 months). The estimated 3-year overall survival and TMfree survival were 92.3% and 90.4% in the UD-PBSCT group and 90.0% and 83.3% in the MSD-HSCT group. The cumulative incidences of graft rejection and grades III-IV acute graft-versus-host disease were 1.9% and 9.6%, respectively, in the UD-PBSCT group and 6.9% and 3.6%, respectively, in the MSD-HSCT group. The cumulative incidence of transplant-related mortality was 7.7% in the UD-PBSCT group and 10.0% in the MSD-HSCT group. In conclusion, UD-PBSCTs using the welltolerated NF-08-TM protocol show similar results to MSD-HSCTs and can be used to treat ␤-thalassemia patients in the absence of MSDs. (Blood. 2012;120(19): 3875-3881)

Characterizing diversity and the antigenic relatedness of norovirus remains a primary focus in understanding its biological properties and vaccine designs. The precise antigenic and serological features of GI genotypes have not been studied. The study represented an investigation on a gastroenteritis outbreak related to GI.3 norovirus and the three most detected GI genotypes, GI.2 (belonging to immunotype B), GI.3 and GI.9 (belonging to immunotype C), were selected to characterize their phylogenetic relationship, HBGA binding profiles and antigenic relatedness within (intra-immunotype), and between (inter-immunotypes) genotypes using mouse sera and patient’s serum samples from the GI.3 related outbreak. Wide HBGA binding profiles and evolution of binding affinity were observed in the three GI genotypes studied. A low specific blockade antibody to GI.3 in the population generated the pool of susceptible individuals and supported virus spread in the outbreak. We found strong blockade immune response in homologous strains, moderate intra-immunotype blockade but weak inter-immunotypes blockade in humans following GI.3 norovirus infections. These findings further support the immunotypes grouping and will be valuable for optimizing the design of norovirus vaccine.

S-triazine di-sulfanilic guar gum (TSG) was successfully prepared by monochlorotriazine di-sulfanilic (TS) and guar gum (GG) in order to improve the printing properties in reactive printing. The results showed that the optimized synthesis condition of TSG was at sodium carbonate solution 1.2 g/L at 90℃ for 75 min through the single-factor experiment. Compared to GG, TSG had better flowability, mainly viscous effects and higher viscosity recoverability, which was more appropriate as a thickener in reactive printing. In the cotton printing experiment, TSG had higher paste add-on, color yield, penetration and levelness than GG. Furthermore, the printing effects of TSG on cotton drew near to those of sodium alginate, which could obtain evenly colored large patterns and excellent outline sharpness.

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