Crystallographic textures

In material science, crystallographic texture is an important microstructural parameter which directly determines the anisotropy degree of most physical properties of a polycrystalline material at the macro scale. Its characterization is thus of fundamental and applied importance, and should ideally be performed prior to any physical property measurement or modeling. Neutron diffraction is a tool of choice for characterizing crystallographic textures: its main advantages over other existing techniques, and especially over the X-ray diffraction techniques, are due to the low neutron absorption by most elements. The obtained information is representative of a large number of grains, leading to a better accuracy of the statistical description of texture

Stratification strength and light climate explain variation in chlorophyll a at the continental scale in a European multilake survey in a heatwave summer

To determine the drivers of phytoplankton biomass, we collected standardized morphometric, physical, and biological data in 230 lakes across the Mediterranean, Continental, and Boreal climatic zones of the European continent. Multilinear regression models tested on this snapshot of mostly eutrophic lakes (median total phosphorus [TP] = 0.06 and total nitrogen [TN] = 0.7 mg L−1), and its subsets (2 depth types and 3 climatic zones), show that light climate and stratification strength were the most significant explanatory variables for chlorophyll a (Chl a) variance. TN was a significant predictor for phytoplankton biomass for shallow and continental lakes, while TP never appeared as an explanatory variable, suggesting that under high TP, light, which partially controls stratification strength, becomes limiting for phytoplankton development. Mediterranean lakes were the warmest yet most weakly stratified and had significantly less Chl a than Boreal lakes, where the temperature anomaly from the long-term average, during a summer heatwave was the highest (+4°C) and showed a significant, exponential relationship with stratification strength. This European survey represents a summer snapshot of phytoplankton biomass and its drivers, and lends support that light and stratification metrics, which are both affected by climate change, are better predictors for phytoplankton biomass in nutrient-rich lakes than nutrient concentrations and surface temperature

Genome-wide Association Study of Methotrexate-Induced Liver Injury in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients.

Hepatotoxicity is a serious adverse drug reaction related to methotrexate (MTX). However, the cause of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is still unclear and unpredictable. Genetic risk factors may predispose for MTX-DILI. Therefore, we conducted a nested case-control genome-wide association study to explore genetic risk factors associated with MTX-DILI. Seven international groups contributed blood samples and data of patients with rheumatoid arthritis who used MTX. MTX-DILI was defined as an alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level of at least three times the upper limit of normal (ULN), to increase contrast controls ALT levels did not raise above two times the ULN. Per study site, control subjects and patients with MTX-DILI (ratio 3:1) were matched for age, gender, and duration of MTX use. Patients were genotyped using Illumina GSA MD-24v1-0 and data were imputed using the 1000 Genomes reference panel. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were analyzed using an additive genetic model, corrected for sex, country, and age. A P-value of ≤ 5 × 10(-8) was considered significant, whereas a  P-value of ≤ 5 × 10(-6) was considered suggestive. A total of 108 MTX-DILI cases and 311 controls were included for association analysis. None of the SNPs were significantly associated with MTX-DILI. However, we found seven suggestive genetic variants associated with MTX-DILI (P-values 7.43 × 10(-8) to 4.86 × 10(-6) ). Of those, five SNPs were in the intronic protein-coding regions of FTCDNL1, BCOR, FGF14, RBMS3, and PFDN4/DOK5. Investigation of candidates SPATA9 (rs72783407), PLCG2 (rs60427389), RAVER2 (rs72675408), JAK1 (rs72675451), PTPN2 (rs2476601), MTHFR C677T (rs1801133), and into the HLA region did not show significant findings. No genetic variants associated with MTX-DILI were found, whereas suggestive SNPs need further investigation

Proteomic technology for biomarker profiling in cancer: an update

The progress in the understanding of cancer progression and early detection has been slow and frustrating due to the complex multifactorial nature and heterogeneity of the cancer syndrome. To date, no effective treatment is available for advanced cancers, which remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Clearly, there is urgent need to unravel novel biomarkers for early detection. Most of the functional information of the cancer-associated genes resides in the proteome. The later is an exceptionally complex biological system involving several proteins that function through posttranslational modifications and dynamic intermolecular collisions with partners. These protein complexes can be regulated by signals emanating from cancer cells, their surrounding tissue microenvironment, and/or from the host. Some proteins are secreted and/or cleaved into the extracellular milieu and may represent valuable serum biomarkers for diagnosis purpose. It is estimated that the cancer proteome may include over 1.5 million proteins as a result of posttranslational processing and modifications. Such complexity clearly highlights the need for ultra-high resolution proteomic technology for robust quantitative protein measurements and data acquisition. This review is to update the current research efforts in high-resolution proteomic technology for discovery and monitoring cancer biomarkers