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  • Kvist posted an update 7 months, 2 weeks ago

    Atomically-sharp tips in close proximity of metal surfaces create plasmonic nanocavities supporting both radiative (bright) and non-radiative (dark) localized surface plasmon modes. Disentangling their respective contributions to the total density of optical states remains a challenge. Electroluminescence due to tunnelling through the tip-substrate gap could allow the identification of the radiative component, but this information is inherently convoluted with that of the electronic structure of the system. In this work, we present a fully experimental procedure to eliminate the electronic-structure factors from the scanning tunnelling microscope luminescence spectra by confronting them with spectroscopic information extracted from elastic current measurements. Comparison against electromagnetic calculations demonstrates that this procedure allows the characterization of the meV shifts experienced by the nanocavity plasmonic modes under atomic-scale gap size changes. Therefore, the method gives access to the frequency-dependent radiative Purcell enhancement that a microscopic light emitter would undergo when placed at such nanocavity.Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a strong genetic component whose knowledge evolves quickly. Next-generation sequencing is the only effective technology to deal with the high genetic heterogeneity of ASD in a clinical setting. However, rigorous criteria to classify rare genetic variants conferring ASD susceptibility are currently lacking. We have performed whole-exome sequencing to identify both nucleotide variants and copy number variants (CNVs) in 253 ASD patients, including 68 patients with intellectual disability (ID) and 90 diagnosed as Asperger syndrome. Using explicit criteria to classify both susceptibility genes and susceptibility variants we prioritized 217 genes belonging to the following categories syndromic genes, genes with an excess of de novo protein truncating variants and genes targeted by rare CNVs. We obtained a susceptibility variant detection rate of 19.7% (95% CI [15-25.2%]). The rate for CNVs was 7.1% (95% CI [4.3-11%]) and 12.6% (95% CI [8.8-17.4%]) for nucleotide variants. The highest rate (30.1%, 95% CI [20.2-43.2%]) was obtained in the ASD + ID subgroup. A strong contributor for at risk nucleotide variants was the recently identified set of genes (n = 81) harboring an excess of de novo protein truncating variants. Since there is currently no evidence that the genes targeted here are necessary and sufficient to cause ASD, we recommend to avoid the term “causative of ASD” when delivering the information about a variant to a family and to use instead the term “genetic susceptibility factor contributing to ASD”.The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft landed successfully on Mars and imaged the surface to characterize the surficial geology. Here we report on the geology and subsurface structure of the landing site to aid in situ geophysical investigations. InSight landed in a degraded impact crater in Elysium Planitia on a smooth sandy, granule- and pebble-rich surface with few rocks. Superposed impact craters are common and eolian bedforms are sparse. During landing, pulsed retrorockets modified the surface to reveal a near surface stratigraphy of surficial dust, over thin unconsolidated sand, underlain by a variable thickness duricrust, with poorly sorted, unconsolidated sand with rocks beneath. Impact, eolian, and mass wasting processes have dominantly modified the surface. Surface observations are consistent with expectations made from remote sensing data prior to landing indicating a surface composed of an impact-fragmented regolith overlying basaltic lava flows.It has been reported that ACE2 is the main host cell receptor of 2019-nCoV and plays a crucial role in the entry of virus into the cell to cause the final infection. To investigate the potential route of 2019-nCov infection on the mucosa of oral cavity, bulk RNA-seq profiles from two public databases including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Functional Annotation of The Mammalian Genome Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (FANTOM5 CAGE) dataset were collected. RNA-seq profiling data of 13 organ types with para-carcinoma normal tissues from TCGA and 14 organ types with normal tissues from FANTOM5 CAGE were analyzed in order to explore and validate the expression of ACE2 on the mucosa of oral cavity. Further, single-cell transcriptomes from an independent data generated in-house were used to identify and confirm the ACE2-expressing cell composition and proportion in oral cavity. The results demonstrated that the ACE2 expressed on the mucosa of oral cavity. Interestingly, this receptor was highly enriched in epithelial cells of tongue. Preliminarily, those findings have explained the basic mechanism that the oral cavity is a potentially high risk for 2019-nCoV infectious susceptibility and provided a piece of evidence for the future prevention strategy in dental clinical practice as well as daily life.Fox Insight is an online, longitudinal health study of people with and without Parkinson’s disease with targeted enrollment set to at least 125,000 individuals. Fox Insight data is a rich data set facilitating discovery, validation, and reproducibility in Parkinson’s disease research. The dataset is generated through routine longitudinal assessments (health and medical questionnaires evaluated at regular cycles), one-time questionnaires about environmental exposure and healthcare preferences, and genetic data collection. learn more Qualified Researchers can explore, analyze, and download patient-reported outcomes (PROs) data and Parkinson’s disease- related genetic variants at https//foxden.michaeljfox.org. The full Fox Insight genetic data set, including approximately 600,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), can be requested separately with institutional review and are described outside of this data descriptor.Epigenetic deregulation remarkably triggers mechanisms associated with tumor aggressiveness like epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Since EMT is a highly complex, but also reversible event, epigenetic processes such as DNA methylation or chromatin alterations must be involved in its regulation. It was recently described that loss of the cell cycle regulator p21 was associated with a gain in EMT characteristics and an upregulation of the master EMT transcription factor ZEB1. In this study, in silico analysis was performed in combination with different in vitro and in vivo techniques to identify and verify novel epigenetic targets of ZEB1, and to proof the direct transcriptional regulation of SETD1B by ZEB1. The chorioallantoic-membrane assay served as an in vivo model to analyze the ZEB1/SETD1B interaction. Bioinformatical analysis of CRC patient data was used to examine the ZEB1/SETD1B network under clinical conditions and the ZEB1/SETD1B network was modeled under physiological and pathological conditions.

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