Erratum: Evaluation of DNA Methylation Episignatures for Diagnosis and Phenotype Correlations in 42 Mendelian Neurodevelopmental Disorders (The American Journal of Human Genetics (2020) 106(3) (356–370), (S0002929720300197), (10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.01.019))

(The American Journal of Human Genetics 106, 356–370; March 5, 2020) In the version of this paper originally published, the underlying cause for Hunter McAlpine syndrome was incorrectly described in Table 1. The relevant description has been changed to read “Chr5q35-qter duplication involving NSD1” in the updated Table 1 reflected here. The authors apologize for this error

Evaluation of DNA Methylation Episignatures for Diagnosis and Phenotype Correlations in 42 Mendelian Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

Genetic syndromes frequently present with overlapping clinical features and inconclusive or ambiguous genetic findings which can confound accurate diagnosis and clinical management. An expanding number of genetic syndromes have been shown to have unique genomic DNA methylation patterns (called episignatures ). Peripheral blood episignatures can be used for diagnostic testing as well as for the interpretation of ambiguous genetic test results. We present here an approach to episignature mapping in 42 genetic syndromes, which has allowed the identification of 34 robust disease-specific episignatures. We examine emerging patterns of overlap, as well as similarities and hierarchical relationships across these episignatures, to highlight their key features as they are related to genetic heterogeneity, dosage effect, unaffected carrier status, and incomplete penetrance. We demonstrate the necessity of multiclass modeling for accurate genetic variant classification and show how disease classification using a single episignature at a time can sometimes lead to classification errors in closely related episignatures. We demonstrate the utility of this tool in resolving ambiguous clinical cases and identification of previously undiagnosed cases through mass screening of a large cohort of subjects with developmental delays and congenital anomalies. This study more than doubles the number of published syndromes with DNA methylation episignatures and, most significantly, opens new avenues for accurate diagnosis and clinical assessment in individuals affected by these disorders

Multi-scale analysis of the crack propagation mechanisms in oxide glasses

Cette thèse de doctorat a pour cadre l'étude des mécanismes physiques qui régissent la propagation d'une fissure dans les verres d'oxydes et questionne notamment l'existence et la portée de mécanismes dissipatifs aux petites échelles. Pour ce faire, la propagation sous critique d'une fissure est pilotée par un chargement en géométrie Double Cleavage Drilled Compression sous environnement contrôlé. Elle fait alors l'objet d'analyses expérimentales in-situ et postmortem sur plus de six décades d'échelles de longueur (du nm au mm) par techniques optiques et microscopie à force atomique (AFM). Une analyse 2D/3D de l'échantillon est réalisée en mécanique linéaire élastique de la rupture pour pouvoir assurer le contrôle à toutes les échelles de l'essai mécanique et exploiter les résultats. L'effet mécanique du condensat capillaire observé par AFM en pointe de fissure est modélisé sur l'exemple du modèle de zone cohésive. Ceci permet d'évaluer la pression de Laplace négative du liquide confiné et d'expliquer le mécanisme de refermeture des fissures. Une technique de corrélation d'image (DIC) est utilisée sur des séries d'images AFM in-situ. Nous montrons que la solution élastique pour le champ de déplacement de surface est valable jusqu'à une distance de 10 nm de la pointe de la fissure. Une étude expérimentale prometteuse de fractoémission a permit l'accès à la taille de la zone d'endommagement nanométrique dans les verres fracturé en régime dynamique. Les fonctions de corrélations de hauteur le long d'images AFM de surfaces de rupture lente ont été analysées. Nous montrons que la longueur de coupure de l'ordre de quelques dizaines de nm, interprétée comme taille de zone d'endommagement, découle plus probablement de la taille finie de la sonde de balayage de l'AFM et qu'en accord avec la DIC, aucune zone d'endommagement de taille supérieure à 20 nm n'est observable.The aim of this thesis is to study the physical mechanisms which govern crack propagation in oxide glasses and to investigate in particular the existence of dissipative mechanisms at small scales. The subcritical crack propagation is controlled by a loading cell on Double Cleavage Drilled Compression samples under controlled atmosphere. Postmortem and in-situ analysis are performed on more than six decades of length scales (from nm to mm) by optical techniques and atomic force microscopy (AFM). An 2D/3D analysis of this sample is realized according to linear elastic fracture mechanics in order to discuss the experimental results and to ensure the mechanical test control at all scales. The mechanical effect of capillary condensation observed by AFM at the crack tip is modelled according to a cohesive zone model. This allows evaluating the negative Laplace pressure in the liquid and explaining the crack closure mechanism in glass. A digital image correlation technique is used on series of consecutive AFM in-situ images. We show that the elastic solution for the surface displacement field is valid up to a distance of 10 nm from the crack tip. A promising experimental study of fractoemission allowed us to access the nanometric process zone size in glasses during dynamic fracture. The height correlation functions along the AFM images of fracture surfaces were analyzed. We show that the cutoff length, found close to few ten nm and preiously interpreted as the process zone size, is most probably due to the finite size of the AFM scanning probe and in agreement with the DIC, no process zone larger than 20 nm is observable

Analyse multi-échelle des mécanismes de propagation de fissure dans les verres d'oxydes

Cette thèse de doctorat a pour cadre l'étude des mécanismes physiques qui régissent la propagation d'une fissure dans les verres d'oxydes et questionne notamment l'existence et la portée de mécanismes dissipatifs aux petites échelles. Pour ce faire, la propagation sous critique d'une fissure est pilotée par un chargement en géométrie Double Cleavage Drilled Compression sous environnement contrôlé. Elle fait alors l'objet d'analyses expérimentales in-situ et postmortem sur plus de six décades d'échelles de longueur (du nm au mm) par techniques optiques et microscopie à force atomique (AFM). Une analyse 2D/3D de l'échantillon est réalisée en mécanique linéaire élastique de la rupture pour pouvoir assurer le contrôle à toutes les échelles de l'essai mécanique et exploiter les résultats. L'effet mécanique du condensat capillaire observé par AFM en pointe de fissure est modélisé sur l'exemple du modèle de zone cohésive. Ceci permet d'évaluer la pression de Laplace négative du liquide confiné et d'expliquer le mécanisme de refermeture des fissures. Une technique de corrélation d'image (DIC) est utilisée sur des séries d'images AFM in-situ. Nous montrons que la solution élastique pour le champ de déplacement de surface est valable jusqu'à une distance de 10 nm de la pointe de la fissure. Une étude expérimentale prometteuse de fractoémission a permit l'accès à la taille de la zone d'endommagement nanométrique dans les verres fracturé en régime dynamique. Les fonctions de corrélations de hauteur le long d'images AFM de surfaces de rupture lente ont été analysées. Nous montrons que la longueur de coupure de l'ordre de quelques dizaines de nm, interprétée comme taille de zone d'endommagement, découle plus probablement de la taille finie de la sonde de balayage de l'AFM et qu'en accord avec la DIC, aucune zone d'endommagement de taille supérieure à 20 nm n'est observable.The aim of this thesis is to study the physical mechanisms which govern crack propagation in oxide glasses and to investigate in particular the existence of dissipative mechanisms at small scales. The subcritical crack propagation is controlled by a loading cell on Double Cleavage Drilled Compression samples under controlled atmosphere. Postmortem and in-situ analysis are performed on more than six decades of length scales (from nm to mm) by optical techniques and atomic force microscopy (AFM). An 2D/3D analysis of this sample is realized according to linear elastic fracture mechanics in order to discuss the experimental results and to ensure the mechanical test control at all scales. The mechanical effect of capillary condensation observed by AFM at the crack tip is modelled according to a cohesive zone model. This allows evaluating the negative Laplace pressure in the liquid and explaining the crack closure mechanism in glass. A digital image correlation technique is used on series of consecutive AFM in-situ images. We show that the elastic solution for the surface displacement field is valid up to a distance of 10 nm from the crack tip. A promising experimental study of fractoemission allowed us to access the nanometric process zone size in glasses during dynamic fracture. The height correlation functions along the AFM images of fracture surfaces were analyzed. We show that the cutoff length, found close to few ten nm and preiously interpreted as the process zone size, is most probably due to the finite size of the AFM scanning probe and in agreement with the DIC, no process zone larger than 20 nm is observable.MONTPELLIER-BU Sciences (341722106) / SudocSudocFranceF

Roughness of oxide glass sub-critical fracture surfaces.: How to measure and how to interpret?

International audienceAn original setup combining a very stable loading stage, an atomic force microscopy and an environmental chamber, allows to obtain very stable sub-critical fracture propagation in oxide glasses under controlled environment, and subsequently to finely characterize the nanometric roughness properties of the crack surfaces. In this presentation, I will focus, on one hand, on the special experimental care that has to be devoted to measure the metrological properties of such nanometric rough surface by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and, on the other hand, on the interest of analyses in terms of physical indicators related to the self-affine nature of the fracture surfaces. Due to the comparable nanometric amplitude of the surface roughness, the AFM tip size and the instrumental noise, it seems interesting to discuss about potential experimental artefacts highlighted by Lechenault et al. The roughness amplitude of several oxide glasses was shown to decrease as a function of the stress intensity factor, to be quite insensitive to the relative humidity and to increase with the content of network modifiers . These results will be discussed in terms on several modellings concerning the coupling between crack propagation, material heterogeneity, crack tip plastic deformation and water diffusion at the crack tip taking into account the self-affine nature of the fracture surfaces

Mechanical effect of capillary forces in the crack tip of a DCDC specimen

International audienceDCDC is widely used to study sub-critical crack propagation in brittle materials due to elevated crack propagation stability. This quality has made this test suitable for in-situ AFM observations of the neighbourhood of the crack tip at low propagation velocities. In a recent work we reported direct evidence of the presence of a submetric liquid condensate at the crack tip of a fused silica glass. The AFM phase imaging technique allows measuring the condensation length as a function of the applied stress intensity factor and relative humidity. In order to relate this length to a critical condensation distance between the opposite crack surfaces, a detailed knowledge of the crack opening is required. We realized an experimental investigation of the crack opening profile by reflection interferometry and compared the results with a 2D finite element simulation of a cracked DCDC specimen including the mechanical effect induced by the liquid condensation

Quantitative Analysis of Crack Closure Driven by Laplace Pressure in Silica Glass

Crack tips in silica glass in moist atmosphere are filled with an equilibrium liquid condensation of a few hundred nanometers length. Not only does this local environment affect the chemistry of slow crack propagation by stress corrosion, but it also has an important mechanical effect due to its highly negative Laplace pressure. The present article presents an original technique for measuring the physical properties of the liquid condensation in terms of the Laplace pressure and critical condensation distance. This is achieved by combining in situ atomic force microscopy measurements of the condensate length and optical determination of the crack closure threshold in a double cleavage drilled compression specimen

Multiscale investigation of stress-corrosion crack propagation mechanisms in oxide glasses

International audienceFracture propagation involves the coupling of many length scales ranging from the sample loading geometry to the molecular level. In brittle materials, the length scales of the damage process zone are reduced to a submicrometric scale and the coupling with the macroscopic scale is expected to be the domain of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). However, although 2D elastic analyses are generally adequate to describe the sample deformation at macroscopic scales, local investigations of failure mechanisms at the sample free surface require the use of 3D mechanical tools due to the crack front local curvature and to the corner point singularities at the intersection between the crack front and the external surfaces of the sample. We present here a thorough multiscale investigation of-2-the slow crack growth of a sharp crack in oxide glasses in the stress-corrosion regime, combining experimental and numerical analyses of the displacement fields from the millimeter scale to the nanoscale range. The principal aim of the study is identifying the length and time scales of the mechanisms of damage and interaction between water and glass, which have been the subject of an extensive debate in the last decades