Probing Lattice Dynamics and Electronic Resonances in Hexagonal Ge and SixGe1-x Alloys in Nanowires by Raman Spectroscopy

Recent advances in nanowire synthesis have enabled the realization of crystal phases that in bulk are attainable only under extreme conditions, i . e ., high temperature and/or high pressure. For group IV semiconductors this means access to hexagonal-phase Si x Ge 1- x nanostructures (with a 2H type of symmetry), which are predicted to have a direct band gap for x up to 0.5-0.6 and would allow the realization of easily processable optoelectronic devices. Exploiting the quasi-perfect lattice matching between GaAs and Ge, we synthesized hexagonal-phase GaAs-Ge and GaAs-Si x Ge 1- x core-shell nanowires with x up to 0.59. By combining position-, polarization-, and excitation wavelength-dependent μ-Raman spectroscopy studies with first-principles calculations, we explore the full lattice dynamics of these materials. In particular, by obtaining frequency-composition calibration curves for the phonon modes, investigating the dependence of the phononic modes on the position along the nanowire, and exploiting resonant Raman conditions to unveil the coupling between lattice vibrations and electronic transitions, we lay the grounds for a deep understanding of the phononic properties of 2H-Si x Ge 1- x nanostructured alloys and of their relationship with crystal quality, chemical composition, and electronic band structure

A histologic scoring system for prognosis of patients with Alcoholic hepatitis

BACKGROUND & AIMS: There is no histologic classification system to determine prognoses of patients with alcoholic hepatitis (AH). We identified histologic features associated with disease severity and created a histologic scoring system to predict short-term (90-day) mortality. METHODS: We analyzed data from 121 patients admitted to the Liver Unit (Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain) from January 2000 to January 2008 with features of AH and developed a histologic scoring system to determine the risk of death using logistic regression. The system was tested and updated in a test set of 96 patients from 5 academic centers in the United States and Europe, and a semiquantitative scoring system called the Alcoholic Hepatitis Histologic Score (AHHS) was developed. The system was validated in an independent set of 109 patients. Interobserver agreement was evaluated by weighted κ statistical analysis. RESULTS: The degree of fibrosis, degree of neutrophil infiltration, type of bilirubinostasis, and presence of megamitochondria were independently associated with 90-day mortality. We used these 4 parameters to develop the AHHS to identify patients with a low (0-3 points), moderate (4-5 points), or high (6-9 points) risk of death within 90 days (3%, 19%, and 51%, respectively; P < .0001). The AHHS estimated 90-day mortality in the training and test sets with an area under the receiver operating characteristic value of 0.77 (95% confidence interval, 0.71-0.83). Interrater agreement values were 0.65 for fibrosis, 0.86 for bilirubinostasis, 0.60 for neutrophil infiltration, and 0.46 for megamitochondria. Interestingly, the type of bilirubinostasis predicted the development of bacterial infections. CONCLUSIONS: We identified histologic features associated with the severity of AH and developed a patient classification system that might be used in clinical decision making

Genome-wide association study identifies 30 loci associated with bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable psychiatric disorder. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 20,352 cases and 31,358 controls of European descent, with follow-up analysis of 822 variants with P &lt; 1 × 10-4 in an additional 9,412 cases and 137,760 controls. Eight of the 19 variants that were genome-wide significant (P &lt; 5 × 10-8) in the discovery GWAS were not genome-wide significant in the combined analysis, consistent with small effect sizes and limited power but also with genetic heterogeneity. In the combined analysis, 30 loci were genome-wide significant, including 20 newly identified loci. The significant loci contain genes encoding ion channels, neurotransmitter transporters and synaptic components. Pathway analysis revealed nine significantly enriched gene sets, including regulation of insulin secretion and endocannabinoid signaling. Bipolar I disorder is strongly genetically correlated with schizophrenia, driven by psychosis, whereas bipolar II disorder is more strongly correlated with major depressive disorder. These findings address key clinical questions and provide potential biological mechanisms for bipolar disorder

A modular toolbox for gRNA-Cas9 genome engineering in plants based on the GoldenBraid standard

[EN] Background: The efficiency, versatility and multiplexing capacity of RNA-guided genome engineering using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology enables a variety of applications in plants, ranging from gene editing to the construction of transcriptional gene circuits, many of which depend on the technical ability to compose and transfer complex synthetic instructions into the plant cell. The engineering principles of standardization and modularity applied to DNA cloning are impacting plant genetic engineering, by increasing multigene assembly efficiency and by fostering the exchange of well-defined physical DNA parts with precise functional information. Results: Here we describe the adaptation of the RNA-guided Cas9 system to GoldenBraid (GB), a modular DNA con¿ struction framework being increasingly used in Plant Synthetic Biology. In this work, the genetic elements required for CRISPRs-based editing and transcriptional regulation were adapted to GB, and a workflow for gRNAs construction was designed and optimized. New software tools specific for CRISPRs assembly were created and incorporated to the public GB resources site. Conclusions: The functionality and the efficiency of gRNA¿Cas9 GB tools were demonstrated in Nicotiana benthamiana using transient expression assays both for gene targeted mutations and for transcriptional regulation. The availability of gRNA¿Cas9 GB toolbox will facilitate the application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology to plant genome engineeringThis work has been funded by Grant BIO2013-42193-R from Plan Nacional I + D of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Vazquez-Vilar M. is a recipient of a Junta de Ampliacion de Estudios fellowship. Bernabe-Orts J.M. is a recipient of a FPI fellowship. We want to thank Nicola J. Patron and Mark Youles for kindly providing humanCas9 and U6-26 clones. We also want to thank Eugenio Gomez for providing Arabidopsis thaliana genomic DNA and Concha Domingo for providing rice genomic DNA. We also want to thank the COST Action FA1006 for the support in the development of the software tools.Vázquez-Vilar, M.; Bernabé-Orts, JM.; Fernández Del Carmen, MA.; Ziarsolo Areitioaurtena, P.; Blanca Postigo, JM.; Granell Richart, A.; Orzáez Calatayud, DV. (2016). A modular toolbox for gRNA-Cas9 genome engineering in plants based on the GoldenBraid standard. Plant Methods. 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-016-0101-2S12Ran FA, Hsu PD, Wright J, Agarwala V, Scott DA, Zhang F. Genome engineering using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Nat Protoc. 2013;8(11):2281–308. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2013.143 .Yang X. Applications of CRISPR-Cas9 mediated genome engineering. Mil Med Res. 2015;2:11. doi: 10.1186/s40779-015-0038-1 .Wang H, Yang H, Shivalila CS, Dawlaty MM, Cheng AW, Zhang F, et al. One-step generation of mice carrying mutations in multiple genes by CRISPR/Cas-mediated genome engineering. Cell. 2013;153(4):910–8. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.04.025 .Bortesi L, Fischer R. The CRISPR/Cas9 system for plant genome editing and beyond. Biotechnol Adv. 2015;33(1):41–52. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2014.12.006 .Belhaj K, Chaparro-Garcia A, Kamoun S, Patron NJ, Nekrasov V. Editing plant genomes with CRISPR/Cas9. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2015;32:76–84. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2014.11.007 .Shan Q, Wang Y, Li J, Zhang Y, Chen K, Liang Z, et al. Targeted genome modification of crop plants using a CRISPR-Cas system. Nat Biotechnol. 2013;31(8):686–8. doi: 10.1038/nbt.2650 .Gao J, Wang G, Ma S, Xie X, Wu X, Zhang X, et al. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted mutagenesis in Nicotiana tabacum. Plant Mol Biol. 2015;87(1–2):99–110. doi: 10.1007/s11103-014-0263-0 .Fauser F, Schiml S, Puchta H. Both CRISPR/Cas-based nucleases and nickases can be used efficiently for genome engineering in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant J. 2014;79(2):348–59. doi: 10.1111/tpj.12554 .Schiml S, Fauser F, Puchta H. The CRISPR/Cas system can be used as nuclease for in planta gene targeting and as paired nickases for directed mutagenesis in Arabidopsis resulting in heritable progeny. Plant J. 2014;80(6):1139–50. doi: 10.1111/tpj.12704 .Piatek A, Ali Z, Baazim H, Li L, Abulfaraj A, Al-Shareef S, et al. RNA-guided transcriptional regulation in planta via synthetic dCas9-based transcription factors. Plant Biotechnol J. 2015;13(4):578–89. doi: 10.1111/pbi.12284 .Beerli RR, Barbas CF 3rd. Engineering polydactyl zinc-finger transcription factors. Nat Biotechnol. 2002;20(2):135–41. doi: 10.1038/nbt0202-135 .Bogdanove AJ, Voytas DF. TAL effectors: customizable proteins for DNA targeting. Science. 2011;333(6051):1843–6. doi: 10.1126/science.1204094 .Nielsen AA, Voigt CA. Multi-input CRISPR/Cas genetic circuits that interface host regulatory networks. Mol Syst Biol. 2014;10:763. doi: 10.15252/msb.20145735 .Eeckhaut T, Lakshmanan PS, Deryckere D, Van Bockstaele E, Van Huylenbroeck J. Progress in plant protoplast research. Planta. 2013. doi: 10.1007/s00425-013-1936-7 .Mikami M, Toki S, Endo M. Comparison of CRISPR/Cas9 expression constructs for efficient targeted mutagenesis in rice. Plant Mol Biol. 2015. doi: 10.1007/s11103-015-0342-x .Patron NJ, Orzaez D, Marillonnet S, Warzecha H, Matthewman C, Youles M, et al. Standards for plant synthetic biology: a common syntax for exchange of DNA parts. New Phytol. 2015. doi: 10.1111/nph.13532 .Liu W, Stewart CN Jr. Plant synthetic biology. Trends Plant Sci. 2015;20(5):309–17. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2015.02.004 .Sarrion-Perdigones A, Vazquez-Vilar M, Palaci J, Castelijns B, Forment J, Ziarsolo P, et al. GoldenBraid 2.0: a comprehensive DNA assembly framework for plant synthetic biology. Plant Physiol. 2013;162(3):1618–31. doi: 10.1104/pp.113.217661 .Vazquez-Vilar M, Sarrion-Perdigones A, Ziarsolo P, Blanca J, Granell A, Orzaez D. Software-assisted stacking of gene modules using GoldenBraid 2.0 DNA-assembly framework. Methods Mol Biol. 2015;1284:399–420. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-2444-8_20 .Duportet X, Wroblewska L, Guye P, Li Y, Eyquem J, Rieders J, et al. A platform for rapid prototyping of synthetic gene networks in mammalian cells. Nucleic Acids Res. 2014;42(21):13440–51. doi: 10.1093/nar/gku1082 .Guo Y, Dong J, Zhou T, Auxillos J, Li T, Zhang W, et al. YeastFab: the design and construction of standard biological parts for metabolic engineering in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Nucleic Acids Res. 2015;43(13):e88. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkv464 .Engler C, Gruetzner R, Kandzia R, Marillonnet S. Golden gate shuffling: a one-pot DNA shuffling method based on type IIs restriction enzymes. PLoS ONE. 2009;4(5):e5553. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005553 .Sarrion-Perdigones A, Falconi EE, Zandalinas SI, Juarez P, Fernandez-del-Carmen A, Granell A, et al. GoldenBraid: an iterative cloning system for standardized assembly of reusable genetic modules. PLoS ONE. 2011;6(7):e21622. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021622 .Lei Y, Lu L, Liu HY, Li S, Xing F, Chen LL. CRISPR-P: a web tool for synthetic single-guide RNA design of CRISPR-system in plants. Mol Plant. 2014;7(9):1494–6. doi: 10.1093/mp/ssu044 .Mali P, Yang L, Esvelt KM, Aach J, Guell M, DiCarlo JE, et al. RNA-guided human genome engineering via Cas9. Science. 2013;339(6121):823–6. doi: 10.1126/science.1232033 .Li JF, Norville JE, Aach J, McCormack M, Zhang D, Bush J, et al. Multiplex and homologous recombination-mediated genome editing in Arabidopsis and Nicotiana benthamiana using guide RNA and Cas9. Nat Biotechnol. 2013;31(8):688–91. doi: 10.1038/nbt.2654 .Bikard D, Jiang W, Samai P, Hochschild A, Zhang F, Marraffini LA. Programmable repression and activation of bacterial gene expression using an engineered CRISPR-Cas system. Nucleic Acids Res. 2013;41(15):7429–37. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkt520 .Xie K, Minkenberg B, Yang Y. Boosting CRISPR/Cas9 multiplex editing capability with the endogenous tRNA-processing system. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015;112(11):3570–5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1420294112 .Weber E, Engler C, Gruetzner R, Werner S, Marillonnet S. A modular cloning system for standardized assembly of multigene constructs. PLoS ONE. 2011;6(2):e16765. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016765 .Sakuma T, Nishikawa A, Kume S, Chayama K, Yamamoto T. Multiplex genome engineering in human cells using all-in-one CRISPR/Cas9 vector system. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5400. doi: 10.1038/srep05400 .Ma X, Zhang Q, Zhu Q, Liu W, Chen Y, Qiu R, et al. A robust CRISPR/Cas9 system for convenient, high-efficiency multiplex genome editing in monocot and dicot plants. Mol Plant. 2015. doi: 10.1016/j.molp.2015.04.007 .Lowder LG, Zhang D, Baltes NJ, Paul JW 3rd, Tang X, Zheng X, et al. A CRISPR/Cas9 toolbox for multiplexed plant genome editing and transcriptional regulation. Plant Physiol. 2015;169(2):971–85. doi: 10.1104/pp.15.00636 .Nekrasov V, Staskawicz B, Weigel D, Jones JD, Kamoun S. Targeted mutagenesis in the model plant Nicotiana benthamiana using Cas9 RNA-guided endonuclease. Nat Biotechnol. 2013;31(8):691–3. doi: 10.1038/nbt.2655 .Upadhyay SK, Kumar J, Alok A, Tuli R. RNA-guided genome editing for target gene mutations in wheat. G3. 2013;3(12):2233–8. doi: 10.1534/g3.113.008847 .Senis E, Fatouros C, Grosse S, Wiedtke E, Niopek D, Mueller AK, et al. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome engineering: an adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector toolbox. Biotechnol J. 2014;9(11):1402–12. doi: 10.1002/biot.201400046 .Port F, Chen HM, Lee T, Bullock SL. Optimized CRISPR/Cas tools for efficient germline and somatic genome engineering in Drosophila. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2014;111(29):E2967–76. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1405500111 .Xing HL, Dong L, Wang ZP, Zhang HY, Han CY, Liu B, et al. A CRISPR/Cas9 toolkit for multiplex genome editing in plants. BMC Plant Biol. 2014;14:327. doi: 10.1186/s12870-014-0327-y

The continuity of effect of schizophrenia polygenic risk score and patterns of cannabis use on transdiagnostic symptom dimensions at first-episode psychosis: findings from the EU-GEI study.

Diagnostic categories do not completely reflect the heterogeneous expression of psychosis. Using data from the EU-GEI study, we evaluated the impact of schizophrenia polygenic risk score (SZ-PRS) and patterns of cannabis use on the transdiagnostic expression of psychosis. We analysed first-episode psychosis patients (FEP) and controls, generating transdiagnostic dimensions of psychotic symptoms and experiences using item response bi-factor modelling. Linear regression was used to test the associations between these dimensions and SZ-PRS, as well as the combined effect of SZ-PRS and cannabis use on the dimensions of positive psychotic symptoms and experiences. We found associations between SZ-PRS and (1) both negative (B = 0.18; 95%CI 0.03-0.33) and positive (B = 0.19; 95%CI 0.03-0.35) symptom dimensions in 617 FEP patients, regardless of their categorical diagnosis; and (2) all the psychotic experience dimensions in 979 controls. We did not observe associations between SZ-PRS and the general and affective dimensions in FEP. Daily and current cannabis use were associated with the positive dimensions in FEP (B = 0.31; 95%CI 0.11-0.52) and in controls (B = 0.26; 95%CI 0.06-0.46), over and above SZ-PRS. We provide evidence that genetic liability to schizophrenia and cannabis use map onto transdiagnostic symptom dimensions, supporting the validity and utility of the dimensional representation of psychosis. In our sample, genetic liability to schizophrenia correlated with more severe psychosis presentation, and cannabis use conferred risk to positive symptomatology beyond the genetic risk. Our findings support the hypothesis that psychotic experiences in the general population have similar genetic substrates as clinical disorders

Daily use of high-potency cannabis is associated with more positive symptoms in first-episode psychosis patients: the EU-GEI case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Daily use of high-potency cannabis has been reported to carry a high risk for developing a psychotic disorder. However, the evidence is mixed on whether any pattern of cannabis use is associated with a particular symptomatology in first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients. METHOD: We analysed data from 901 FEP patients and 1235 controls recruited across six countries, as part of the European Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI) study. We used item response modelling to estimate two bifactor models, which included general and specific dimensions of psychotic symptoms in patients and psychotic experiences in controls. The associations between these dimensions and cannabis use were evaluated using linear mixed-effects models analyses. RESULTS: In patients, there was a linear relationship between the positive symptom dimension and the extent of lifetime exposure to cannabis, with daily users of high-potency cannabis having the highest score (B = 0.35; 95% CI 0.14-0.56). Moreover, negative symptoms were more common among patients who never used cannabis compared with those with any pattern of use (B = -0.22; 95% CI -0.37 to -0.07). In controls, psychotic experiences were associated with current use of cannabis but not with the extent of lifetime use. Neither patients nor controls presented differences in depressive dimension related to cannabis use. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide the first large-scale evidence that FEP patients with a history of daily use of high-potency cannabis present with more positive and less negative symptoms, compared with those who never used cannabis or used low-potency types.The work was supported by: Clinician Scientist Medical Research Council fellowship (project reference MR/M008436/1) to MDF; the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care South London at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to DQ; DFG Heisenberg professorship (no. 389624707) to UR. National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The EU-GEI Project is funded by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement No. HEALTH-F2-2010-241909 (Project EU-GEI). The Brazilian study was funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation under grant number 2012/0417-0

Cannabis use as a potential mediator between childhood adversity and first-episode psychosis: results from the EU-GEI case-control study

Background Childhood adversity and cannabis use are considered independent risk factors for psychosis, but whether different patterns of cannabis use may be acting as mediator between adversity and psychotic disorders has not yet been explored. The aim of this study is to examine whether cannabis use mediates the relationship between childhood adversity and psychosis. Methods Data were utilised on 881 first-episode psychosis patients and 1231 controls from the European network of national schizophrenia networks studying Gene–Environment Interactions (EU-GEI) study. Detailed history of cannabis use was collected with the Cannabis Experience Questionnaire. The Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire was used to assess exposure to household discord, sexual, physical or emotional abuse and bullying in two periods: early (0–11 years), and late (12–17 years). A path decomposition method was used to analyse whether the association between childhood adversity and psychosis was mediated by (1) lifetime cannabis use, (2) cannabis potency and (3) frequency of use. Results The association between household discord and psychosis was partially mediated by lifetime use of cannabis (indirect effect coef. 0.078, s.e. 0.022, 17%), its potency (indirect effect coef. 0.059, s.e. 0.018, 14%) and by frequency (indirect effect coef. 0.117, s.e. 0.038, 29%). Similar findings were obtained when analyses were restricted to early exposure to household discord. Conclusions Harmful patterns of cannabis use mediated the association between specific childhood adversities, like household discord, with later psychosis. Children exposed to particularly challenging environments in their household could benefit from psychosocial interventions aimed at preventing cannabis misuse

A Histologic Scoring System for Prognosis of Patients With Alcoholic Hepatitis

There is no histologic classification system to determine prognoses of patients with alcoholic hepatitis (AH). We identified histologic features associated with disease severity and created a histologic scoring system to predict short-term (90 day) mortality

Redshift distributions of galaxies in the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification shear catalogue and implications for weak lensing

We present photometric redshift estimates for galaxies used in the weak lensing analysis of the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification (DES SV) data. Four model- or machine learning-based photometric redshift methods—ANNZ2, BPZ calibrated against BCC-Ufig simulations, SKYNET, and TPZ—are analyzed. For training, calibration, and testing of these methods, we construct a catalogue of spectroscopically confirmed galaxies matched against DES SV data. The performance of the methods is evaluated against the matched spectroscopic catalogue, focusing on metrics relevant for weak lensing analyses, with additional validation against COSMOS photo-z’s. From the galaxies in the DES SV shear catalogue, which have mean redshift 0.72 0.01 over the range 0.3 < z < 1.3, we construct three tomographic bins with means of z ¼ f0.45; 0.67; 1.00g. These bins each have systematic uncertainties δz ≲ 0.05 in the mean of the fiducial SKYNET photo-z nðzÞ. We propagate the errors in the redshift distributions through to their impact on cosmological parameters estimated with cosmic shear, and find that they cause shifts in the value of σ8 of approximately 3%. This shift is within the one sigma statistical errors on σ8 for the DES SV shear catalogue. We further study the potential impact of systematic differences on the critical surface density, Σcrit, finding levels of bias safely less than the statistical power of DES SV data. We recommend a final Gaussian prior for the photo-z bias in the mean of nðzÞ of width 0.05 for each of the three tomographic bins, and show that this is a sufficient bias model for the corresponding cosmology analysis

The Dark Energy Survey : more than dark energy – an overview

This overview paper describes the legacy prospect and discovery potential of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) beyond cosmological studies, illustrating it with examples from the DES early data. DES is using a wide-field camera (DECam) on the 4 m Blanco Telescope in Chile to image 5000 sq deg of the sky in five filters (grizY). By its completion, the survey is expected to have generated a catalogue of 300 million galaxies with photometric redshifts and 100 million stars. In addition, a time-domain survey search over 27 sq deg is expected to yield a sample of thousands of Type Ia supernovae and other transients. The main goals of DES are to characterize dark energy and dark matter, and to test alternative models of gravity; these goals will be pursued by studying large-scale structure, cluster counts, weak gravitational lensing and Type Ia supernovae. However, DES also provides a rich data set which allows us to study many other aspects of astrophysics. In this paper, we focus on additional science with DES, emphasizing areas where the survey makes a difference with respect to other current surveys. The paper illustrates, using early data (from ‘Science Verification’, and from the first, second and third seasons of observations), what DES can tell us about the Solar system, the Milky Way, galaxy evolution, quasars and other topics. In addition, we show that if the cosmological model is assumed to be +cold dark matter, then important astrophysics can be deduced from the primary DES probes. Highlights from DES early data include the discovery of 34 trans-Neptunian objects, 17 dwarf satellites of the Milky Way, one published z > 6 quasar (and more confirmed) and two published superluminous supernovae (and more confirmed)