ALBERT

Description: Maintenance of genome stability is carried out by a suite of DNA repair pathways that ensure the repair of damaged DNA and faithful replication of the genome. Of particular importance are the repair pathways, which respond to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), and how the efficiency of repair is influenced by...

Description: A critical phenomenon is an intrinsic feature of traffic dynamics, during which transition between isolated local flows and global flows occurs. However, very little attention has been given to the question of how the local flows in the roads are organized collectively into a global city flow. Here we characterize...

Description: Understanding the genetic structure of human populations has important implications for the design and interpretation of disease mapping studies and reconstructing human evolutionary history. To date, inferences of human population structure have primarily been made with common variants. However, recent large-scale resequencing studies have shown an abundance of rare variation in humans, which may be particularly useful for making inferences of fine-scale population structure. To this end, we used an information theory framework and extensive coalescent simulations to rigorously quantify the informativeness of rare and common variation to detect signatures of fine-scale population structure. We show that rare variation affords unique insights into patterns of recent population structure. Furthermore, to empirically assess our theoretical findings, we analyzed high-coverage exome sequences in 6,515 European and African American individuals. As predicted, rare variants are more informative than common polymorphisms in revealing a distinct cluster of European–American individuals, and subsequent analyses demonstrate that these individuals are likely of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Our results provide new insights into the population structure using rare variation, which will be an important factor to account for in rare variant association studies.

Description: The ‘Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1), Human Interaction Database’, available through the National Library of Medicine at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/viruses/retroviruses/hiv-1/interactions , serves the scientific community exploring the discovery of novel HIV vaccine candidates and therapeutic targets. Each HIV-1 human protein interaction can be retrieved without restriction by web-based downloads and ftp protocols and includes: Reference Sequence (RefSeq) protein accession numbers, National Center for Biotechnology Information Gene identification numbers, brief descriptions of the interactions, searchable keywords for interactions and PubMed identification numbers (PMIDs) of journal articles describing the interactions. In addition to specific HIV-1 protein–human protein interactions, included are interaction effects upon HIV-1 replication resulting when individual human gene expression is blocked using siRNA. A total of 3142 human genes are described participating in 12 786 protein–protein interactions, along with 1316 replication interactions described for each of 1250 human genes identified using small interfering RNA (siRNA). Together the data identifies 4006 human genes involved in 14 102 interactions. With the inclusion of siRNA interactions we introduce a redesigned web interface to enhance viewing, filtering and downloading of the combined data set.

Description: CCAAT/enhancer binding protein beta protects muscle satellite cells from apoptosis after injury and in cancer cachexia Cell Death and Disease 7, e2109 (February 2016). doi:10.1038/cddis.2016.4 Authors: F Marchildon, D Fu, N Lala-Tabbert & N Wiper-Bergeron

Description: 〈span〉〈div〉SUMMARY〈/div〉Electrical surveys are among the most important geophysical applications to understand the subsurface Earth, where anisotropic rock matrix is frequently encountered. Knowledge of the electrical properties of such rocks and their relationships with information of geological features included in the anisotropic rocks is crucial for the interpretation of electrical survey data. For this purpose, we first derive rigorous theoretical models for the electrical anisotropy of transversely isotropic (TI) rocks with spheroidal inclusions. The models assume the anisotropic background behaves isotropically in the direction whey the electrical field is applied parallel to the TI axes, and account for both aligned and randomly distributed inclusions and reduce to classical electrical models in the case of isotropic background. We then study systematically, through the obtained new models, the combined effects of geometry, concentration and alignment of both conductive and insulating spheroidal inclusions on the electrical anisotropy of TI rocks. We show that for aligned inclusions, the impact of inclusion volume fraction and aspect ratio is most significant in the direction when the electrical conductivity is measured along and perpendicular to the inclusions for conductive and insulating inclusions, respectively. For randomly distributed inclusions, both horizontal and vertical conductivity increases with decreasing aspect ratio of conductive inclusions and decreases with reducing aspect ratio of insulating inclusions. Most importantly, it is shown that the effects of randomly distributed conductive and insulating inclusions on the electrical anisotropy are similar although the rocks with insulating inclusions exhibit greater electrical anisotropy. The results provide new insights into the roles of spheroidal inclusions on the electrical anisotropy of TI rocks and pave a way for the successful interpretation of electrical survey data acquired in anisotropic rocks.〈/span〉

Description: 〈span〉In the original version of this article, a mistake was made in the title: ‘isotrpic’ has now been changed to ‘isotropic’. The author apologises for the error.〈/span〉

Description: 〈span〉〈div〉Abstract〈/div〉In this study, we measured the sound velocities of single-crystal periclase by Brillouin light scattering (BLS) combined with in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) up to ~30 GPa and 900 K in an externally heated diamond-anvil cell (EHDAC). Our experimental results were used to evaluate the combined effects of pressure and temperature on the elastic moduli of single-crystal periclase using third-order Eulerian finite-strain equations. All of the elastic moduli increased with increasing pressure but decreased with increasing temperature, except the off-diagonal modulus 〈span〉C〈/span〉〈sub〉12〈/sub〉, which remained almost constant up to ~30 GPa and 900 K. The derived aggregate adiabatic bulk and shear moduli (〈span〉K〈/span〉〈sub〉S0〈/sub〉, 〈span〉G〈/span〉〈sub〉0〈/sub〉) at ambient conditions were 162.8(±0.2) and 130.3(±0.2) GPa, respectively, consistent with literature results. The pressure derivatives of the bulk [(〈span〉∂KS/∂P〈/span〉)〈sub〉300 K〈/sub〉] and shear moduli [(〈span〉∂G/∂P〈/span〉)〈sub〉300 K〈/sub〉] at ambient conditions were 3.94(±0.05) and 2.17(±0.02), respectively, whereas the temperature derivatives of these moduli [(〈span〉∂KS/∂T〈/span〉)〈sub〉P〈/sub〉 and (〈span〉∂G/∂T〈/span〉)〈sub〉P〈/sub〉] at ambient conditions were –0.025(±0.001) and –0.020(±0.001) GPa/K, respectively. A comparison of our experimental results with the high-pressure (〈span〉P〈/span〉) and high-temperature (〈span〉T〈/span〉) elastic moduli of ferropericlase (Fp) in the literature showed that all the elastic moduli of Fp were linearly correlated with the FeO content up to approximately 20 mol%. These results allowed us to build a comprehensive thermoelastic model for Fp to evaluate the effect of Fe-Mg substitution on the elasticity and seismic parameters of Fp at the relevant 〈span〉P-T〈/span〉 conditions of the lower mantle. Our modeling results showed that both the increase of the Fe content in Fp and the increasing depth could change the compressional wave anisotropy (〈span〉AV〈/span〉〈sub〉P〈/sub〉) and shear wave splitting anisotropy (〈span〉AV〈/span〉〈sub〉S〈/sub〉) of Fp in the upper parts of the lower mantle. Furthermore, using our modeling results here, we also evaluated the contribution of Fp to seismic lateral heterogeneities of thermal or chemical origin in the lower mantle. Both the thermally induced and Fe-induced heterogeneities ratios (〈span〉R〈/span〉〈sub〉S/P〈/sub〉 = 〈span〉∂〈/span〉ln〈span〉V〈/span〉〈sub〉S〈/sub〉/〈span〉∂〈/span〉ln〈span〉V〈/span〉〈sub〉P〈/sub〉) of Fp from 670 to 1250 km along a representative lower mantle geotherm increased by ~2–5% and ~15%, respectively. The thermally induced 〈span〉R〈/span〉〈sub〉S/P〈/sub〉 value of Fp20 is ~30% higher than Fp10, indicating that the Fe content has a significant effect on the thermally induced 〈span〉R〈/span〉〈sub〉S/P〈/sub〉 of Fp. Compared to the seismic observation results (〈span〉R〈/span〉〈sub〉S/P〈/sub〉 = 1.7–2.0) in the upper regions of the lower mantle, the Fe-induced 〈span〉R〈/span〉〈sub〉S/P〈/sub〉 value of Fp is more compatible than the thermally induced 〈span〉R〈/span〉〈sub〉S/P〈/sub〉 value of Fp20 (the expected composition of Fp in the lower mantle) within their uncertainties. Thus, we propose that Fe-induced lateral heterogeneities can significantly contribute to the observed seismic lateral heterogeneities in the Earth's lower mantle (670–1250 km).〈/span〉

Description: The absorption capacity of CO 2 in DEAE –AMP aqueous solution was investigated at temperatures ranging from 303.2K to 323.2K. The mass fraction of DEAE and AMP respectively ranged from 0.3 to 0.4 and 0 to 0.15. On the basis of experimental measurement, the mass fraction and temperature dependences of the absorption capacity are illustrated.

Description: Apparent absorption rates of CO 2 in DEAE-AMP aqueous solutions were measured at temperatures ranging from 303.2K to 323.2 K. The mass fraction of DEAE and AMP respectively ranged from 0.3 to 0.4 and 0 to 0.15. On the basis of experimental measurements, the effects of temperature, mass fraction of AMP on apparent absorption rate were demonstrated.