Methodology for Y Chromosome Capture: A complete genome sequence of Y chromosome using flow cytometry, laser microdissection and magnetic streptavidin-beads

This study is a comparison of the efficiency of three technologies used for Y chromosome capture and the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies applied for determining its whole sequence. Our main findings disclose that streptavidin–biotin magnetic particle-based capture methodology offers better and a deeper sequence coverage for Y chromosome capture, compared to chromosome sorting and microdissection procedures. Moreover, this methodology is less time consuming and the most selective for capturing only Y chromosomal material, in contrast with other methodologies that result in considerable background material from other, non-targeted chromosomes. NGS results compared between two platforms, NextSeq 500 and SOLID 5500xl, produce the same coverage results. This is the first study to explore a methodological comparison of Y chromosome capture and genetic analysis. Our results indicate an improved strategy for Y chromosome research with applications in several scientific fields where this chromosome plays an important role, such as forensics, medical sciences, molecular anthropology and cancer sciences.Spanish Alfonso Martin Escudero Foundation for the financial support to one of the authors of the present work (MJ Alvarez –Cubero)

Feasibility of pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling at 7 T with whole-brain coverage

Neuro Imaging Researc

Diode-pumped ultrafast Yb:KGW laser with 56 fs pulses and multi-100 kW peak power based on SESAM and Kerr-lens mode locking

A high-power sub-60 fs mode-locked diode-pumped Yb:KGW laser based on hybrid action of an InGaAs quantum-dot saturable absorber mirror and Kerr-lens mode locking was demonstrated. The laser delivered 56 fs pulses with 1.95 W of average power corresponding to 450 kW of peak power. The width of the generated laser spectrum was 20.5 nm, which was near the gain bandwidth limit of the Yb:KGW crystal. To the best of our knowledge, these are the shortest pulses generated from the monoclinic double tungstate crystals (and Yb:KGW laser crystal in particular) and the most powerful in the sub-60 fs regime. At the same time, they are also the shortest pulses produced to date with the help of a quantum-dot-based saturable absorber. High-power operation with a pulse duration of 90 fs and 2.85 W of average output power was also demonstrated

Coastal flooding by tropical cyclones and sea-level rise

The future impacts of climate change on landfalling tropical cyclones are unclear. Regardless of this uncertainty, flooding by tropical cyclones will increase as a result of accelerated sea-level rise. Under similar rates of rapid sea-level rise during the early Holocene epoch most low-lying sedimentary coastlines were generally much less resilient to storm impacts. Society must learn to live with a rapidly evolving shoreline that is increasingly prone to flooding from tropical cyclones. These impacts can be mitigated partly with adaptive strategies, which include careful stewardship of sediments and reductions in human-induced land subsidence

Refrustration and competing orders in the prototypical Dy₂ Ti₂ O₇ spin ice material

Spin ices, frustrated magnetic materials analogous to common water ice, have emerged over the past 15 years as exemplars of high frustration in three dimensions. Recent experimental developments aimed at interrogating anew the low-temperature properties of these systems, in particular whether the predicted transition to long-range order occurs, behoove researchers to scrutinize our current dipolar spin ice model description of these materials. In this work, we do so by combining extensive Monte Carlo simulations and mean-field theory calculations to analyze data from previous magnetization, diffuse neutron scattering, and specific-heat measurements on the paradigmatic Dy2 Ti2 O7 spin ice material. In this work, we also reconsider the possible importance of the nuclear specific heat C nuc in Dy 2 Ti 2 O 7 . We find that C nuc is not entirely negligible below a temperature ∼ 0.5 K and must therefore be taken into account in a quantitative analysis of the calorimetric data of this compound below that temperature. We find that in this material, small effective spin-spin exchange interactions compete with the magnetostatic dipolar interaction responsible for the main spin ice phenomenology. This causes an unexpected “refrustration” of the long-range order that would be expected from the incompletely self-screened dipolar interaction and which positions the material at the boundary between two competing classical long-range-ordered ground states. This allows for the manifestation of new physical low-temperature phenomena in Dy 2 Ti 2 O 7 , as exposed by recent specific-heat measurements. We show that among the four most likely causes for the observed upturn of the specific heat at low temperature [an exchange-induced transition to long-range order, quantum non-Ising (transverse) terms in the effective spin Hamiltonian, the nuclear hyperfine contribution, and random disorder], only the last appears to be reasonably able to explain the calorimetric data. </p