Stem Cells Matter in Response to Fasting

The molecular processes underlying intestinal adaptation to fasting and re-feeding remain largely uncharacterized. In this issue of Cell Reports, Richmond et al. report that dormant intestinal stem cells are regulated by PTEN and nutritional status

Control of photon propagation via electromagnetically induced transparency in lossless media

We study the influence of a lossless material medium on the coherent storage and quantum state transfer of a quantized probe light in an ensemble of $\Lambda$-type atoms. The medium is modeled as uniformly distributed two-level atoms with same energy level spacing, coupling to a probe light. This coupled system can be simplified to a collection of two-mode polaritons which couple to one transition of the $\Lambda$-type atoms. We show that, when the other transition of $\Lambda$-type atoms is controlled by a classical light, the electromagnetically induced transparency can also occur for the polaritons. In this case the coherent storage and quantum transfer for photon states are achievable through the novel dark states with respect to the polaritons. By calculating the corresponding dispersion relation, we find the ensemble of the three-level atoms with $\Lambda$-type transitions may serve as quantum memory for it slows or even stops the light propagation through the mechanism of electromagnetically induced transparency. the corresponding dispersion relation, we find the ensemble of the three-level atoms with $\Lambda$-type transitions may serve as quantum memory for it slows or even stops the light propagation through the mechanism of electromagnetically induced transparency.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Structural phase transitions in epitaxial perovskite films

Three different film systems have been systematically investigated to understand the effects of strain and substrate constraint on the phase transitions of perovskite films. In SrTiO$_3$ films, the phase transition temperature T$_C$ was determined by monitoring the superlattice peaks associated with rotations of TiO$_6$ octahedra. It is found that T$_C$ depends on both SrTiO$_3$ film thickness and SrRuO$_3$ buffer layer thickness. However, lattice parameter measurements showed no sign of the phase transitions, indicating that the tetragonality of the SrTiO$_3$ unit cells was no longer a good order parameter. This signals a change in the nature of this phase transition, the internal degree of freedom is decoupled from the external degree of freedom. The phase transitions occur even without lattice relaxation through domain formation. In NdNiO$_3$ thin films, it is found that the in-plane lattice parameters were clamped by the substrate, while out-of-plane lattice constant varied to accommodate the volume change across the phase transition. This shows that substrate constraint is an important parameter for epitaxial film systems, and is responsible for the suppression of external structural change in SrTiO$_3$ and NdNiO$_3$ films. However, in SrRuO$_3$ films we observed domain formation at elevated temperature through x-ray reciprocal space mapping. This indicated that internal strain energy within films also played an important role, and may dominate in some film systems. The final strain states within epitaxial films were the result of competition between multiple mechanisms and may not be described by a single parameter.Comment: REVTeX4, 14 figure

Structural and molecular basis of ZNRF3/RNF43 transmembrane ubiquitin ligase inhibition by the Wnt agonist R-spondin

The four R-spondin (Rspo) proteins are secreted agonists of Wnt signalling in vertebrates, functioning in embryogenesis and adult stem cell biology. Through ubiquitination and degradation of Wnt receptors, the transmembrane E3 ubiquitin ligase ZNRF3 and related RNF43 antagonize Wnt signalling. Rspo ligands have been reported to inhibit the ligase activity through direct interaction with ZNRF3 and RNF43. Here we report multiple crystal structures of the ZNRF3 ectodomain (ZNRF3ecto), a signalling-competent Furin1–Furin2 (Fu1–Fu2) fragment of Rspo2 (Rspo2Fu1–Fu2), and Rspo2Fu1–Fu2 in complex with ZNRF3ecto, or RNF43ecto. A prominent loop in Fu1 clamps into equivalent grooves in the ZNRF3ecto and RNF43ecto surface. Rspo binding enhances dimerization of ZNRF3ecto but not of RNF43ecto. Comparison of the four Rspo proteins, mutants and chimeras in biophysical and cellular assays shows that their signalling potency depends on their ability to recruit ZNRF3 or RNF43 via Fu1 into a complex with LGR receptors, which interact with Rspo via Fu2

The Circulating Concentration and 24-h Urine Excretion of Magnesium Dose- and Time-Dependently Respond to Oral Magnesium Supplementation in a Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background: Accurate determination of Mg status is important for improving nutritional assessment and clinical risk stratification. Objective: We aimed to quantify the overall responsiveness of Mg biomarkers to oral Mg supplementation among adults without severe diseases and their dose- and time responses using available data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods: We identified 48 Mg supplementation trials (n = 2131) through searches of MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library up to November 2014. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to estimate weighted mean differences of biomarker concentrations between intervention and placebo groups. Restricted cubic splines were used to determine the dose- and time responses of Mg biomarkers to supplementation. Results: Among the 35 biomarkers assessed, serum, plasma, and urine Mg were most commonly measured. Elemental Mg supplementation doses ranged from 197 to 994 mg/d. Trials ranged from 3 wk to 5 y (median: 12 wk). Mg supplementation significantly elevated circulating Mg by 0.04 mmol/L (95% CI: 0.02, 0.06) and 24-h urine Mg excretion by 1.52 mmol/24 h (95% CI: 1.20, 1.83) as compared to placebo. Circulating Mg concentrations and 24-h urine Mg excretion responded to Mg supplementation in a dose- and time-dependent manner, gradually reaching a steady state at doses of 300 mg/d and 400 mg/d, or after ~20 wk and 40 wk, respectively (all P-nonlinearity ≤ 0.001). The higher the circulating Mg concentration at baseline, the lower the responsiveness of circulating Mg to supplementation, and the higher the urinary excretion (all P-linearity < 0.05). In addition, RBC Mg, fecal Mg, and urine calcium were significantly more elevated by Mg supplementation than by placebo (all P-values < 0.05), but there is insufficient evidence to determine their responses to increasing Mg doses. Conclusions: This meta-analysis of RCTs demonstrated significant dose- and time responses of circulating Mg concentration and 24-h urine Mg excretion to oral Mg supplementation

Conclave: secure multi-party computation on big data (extended TR)

Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) allows mutually distrusting parties to run joint computations without revealing private data. Current MPC algorithms scale poorly with data size, which makes MPC on "big data" prohibitively slow and inhibits its practical use. Many relational analytics queries can maintain MPC's end-to-end security guarantee without using cryptographic MPC techniques for all operations. Conclave is a query compiler that accelerates such queries by transforming them into a combination of data-parallel, local cleartext processing and small MPC steps. When parties trust others with specific subsets of the data, Conclave applies new hybrid MPC-cleartext protocols to run additional steps outside of MPC and improve scalability further. Our Conclave prototype generates code for cleartext processing in Python and Spark, and for secure MPC using the Sharemind and Obliv-C frameworks. Conclave scales to data sets between three and six orders of magnitude larger than state-of-the-art MPC frameworks support on their own. Thanks to its hybrid protocols, Conclave also substantially outperforms SMCQL, the most similar existing system.Comment: Extended technical report for EuroSys 2019 pape

Detection of a superconducting phase in a two-atom layer of hexagonal Ga film grown on semiconducting GaN(0001)

The recent observation of superconducting state at atomic scale has motivated the pursuit of exotic condensed phases in two-dimensional (2D) systems. Here we report on a superconducting phase in two-monolayer crystalline Ga films epitaxially grown on wide band-gap semiconductor GaN(0001). This phase exhibits a hexagonal structure and only 0.552 nm in thickness, nevertheless, brings about a superconducting transition temperature Tc as high as 5.4 K, confirmed by in situ scanning tunneling spectroscopy, and ex situ electrical magneto-transport and magnetization measurements. The anisotropy of critical magnetic field and Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless-like transition are observed, typical for the 2D superconductivity. Our results demonstrate a novel platform for exploring atomic-scale 2D superconductor, with great potential for understanding of the interface superconductivity

Observation of Quantum Griffiths Singularity and Ferromagnetism at Superconducting LaAlO3/SrTiO3(110) Interface

Diverse phenomena emerge at the interface between band insulators LaAlO3 and SrTiO3, such as superconductivity and ferromagnetism, showing an opportunity for potential applications as well as bringing fundamental research interests. Particularly, the two-dimensional electron gas formed at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface offers an appealing platform for quantum phase transition from a superconductor to a weakly localized metal. Here we report the superconductor-metal transition in superconducting two-dimensional electron gas formed at LaAlO3/SrTiO3(110) interface driven by a perpendicular magnetic field. Interestingly, when approaching the quantum critical point, the dynamic critical exponent is not a constant but a diverging value, which is a direct evidence of quantum Griffiths singularity raised from quenched disorder at ultralow temperatures. Furthermore, the hysteretic property of magnetoresistance was firstly observed at LaAlO3/SrTiO3(110) interfaces, which suggests potential coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism

Mitochondrial dynamics quantitatively revealed by STED nanoscopy with an enhanced squaraine variant probe.

Mitochondria play a critical role in generating energy to support the entire lifecycle of biological cells, yet it is still unclear how their morphological structures evolve to regulate their functionality. Conventional fluorescence microscopy can only provide ~300 nm resolution, which is insufficient to visualize mitochondrial cristae. Here, we developed an enhanced squaraine variant dye (MitoESq-635) to study the dynamic structures of mitochondrial cristae in live cells with a superresolution technique. The low saturation intensity and high photostability of MitoESq-635 make it ideal for long-term, high-resolution (stimulated emission depletion) STED nanoscopy. We performed time-lapse imaging of the mitochondrial inner membrane over 50 min (3.9 s per frame, with 71.5 s dark recovery) in living HeLa cells with a resolution of 35.2 nm. The forms of the cristae during mitochondrial fusion and fission can be clearly observed. Our study demonstrates the emerging capability of optical STED nanoscopy to investigate intracellular physiological processes with nanoscale resolution for an extended period of time