Controlling Ferromagnetic Easy Axis in a Layered MoS2 Single Crystal

We report the effective methods to induce weak ferromagnetism in pristine MoS2 persisting up to room temperature with the improved transport property, which would lead to new spintronics devices. The hydrogenation of MoS2 by heating at 300 degrees C for 1 h leads to the easy axis out of plane, while the irradiation of proton with a dose of 1 x 10(13) P/cm(2) leads to the easy axis in plane. The theoretical modeling supports such magnetic easy axes.open16

Controlling ferromagnetic easy axis in a layered MoS2 single crystal

We report the effective methods to induce weak ferromagnetism in pristine MoS2 persisting up to room temperature with the improved transport property, which would lead to new spintronics devices. The hydrogenation of MoS2 by heating at 300 degrees C for 1 h leads to the easy axis out of plane, while the irradiation of proton with a dose of 1 x 10(13) P/cm(2) leads to the easy axis in plane. The theoretical modeling supports such magnetic easy axes.open116160Nsciescopu

A Case of Crohn's Disease with Improvement after Azathioprine-Induced Pancytopenia

The immunosuppressant azathioprine (AZA) is widely used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) for both inducing and maintaining remission. However, the adverse effects of AZA can often necessitate a dose reduction or discontinuation. Bone marrow suppression is one of the most serious complications with AZA treatment. On the other hand, some reports have suggested that neutropenia during AZA therapy reduced the relapse rates of IBD patients, and there have been some cases where eradication of the sensitized leukocytes by leukapheresis or bone marrow transplantation improved the IBD, which may explain the relevant role of neutropenia in controlling disease activity. This report describes the case of a 22-year-old male patient who had Crohn's colitis and complicated perianal fistulas that required immunosuppression; he achieved endoscopically determined remission and showed accelerated mucosal healing as well as clinical remission following the AZA-induced pancytopenia

Corrected QTc interval combined with troponin value and mortality in acute ischemic stroke

Background and PurposeCardiac biomarkers including, elevated troponin (ET) and prolonged heart rate-corrected QT (PQTc) interval on electrocardiography are known to frequent and have a prognostic significance in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). However, it is still challenging to practically apply the results for appropriate risk stratification. This study evaluate whether combining ET and PQTc interval can better assess the long-term prognosis in AIS patients.MethodsIn this prospectively registered observational study between May 2007 and December 2011, ET was defined as serum troponin-I ≥ 0.04 ng/ml and PQTc interval was defined as the highest tertile of sex-specific QTc interval (men ≥ 469 ms or women ≥ 487 ms).ResultsAmong the 1,668 patients [1018 (61.0%) men; mean age 66.0 ± 12.4 years], patients were stratified into four groups according to the combination of ET and PQTc intervals. During a median follow-up of 33 months, ET (hazard ratio [HR]: 4.38, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.94–6.53) or PQTc interval (HR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.16–2.01) alone or both (HR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.16–2.71) was associated with increased all-cause mortality. Furthermore, ET, PQTc interval alone or both was associated with vascular death, whereas only ET alone was associated with non-vascular death. Comorbidity burden, especially atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure, and stroke severity gradually increased both with troponin value and QTc-interval.ConclusionsIn patients with AIS, combining ET and PQTc interval on ECG enhances risk stratification for long-term mortality while facilitating the discerning ability for the burden of comorbidities and stroke severity

Oncogenic CagA Promotes Gastric Cancer Risk via Activating ERK Signaling Pathways: A Nested Case-Control Study

Background: CagA cellular interaction via activation of the ERK signaling pathway may be a starting point in the development of gastric cancer. This study aimed to evaluate whether genes involved in ERK downstream signaling pathways activated by CagA are susceptible genetic markers for gastric cancer. Methods: In the discovery phase, a total of 580 SNPs within +/-5 kbp of 30 candidate genes were genotyped to examine an association with gastric cancer risk in the Korean Multi-center Cancer Cohort (100 incident gastric cancer case-control sets). The most significant SNPs (raw or permutated p value??0.02) identified in the discovery analysis were re-evaluated in the extension phase using unconditional logistic regression model (400 gastric cancer case-control sets). Combined analyses including pooled-and meta-analysis were conducted to summarize all the results. Results: 24 SNPs in eight genes (ERK, Dock180, C3G, Rap1, Src, CrkL, Mek and Crk) were significantly associated with gastric cancer risk in the individual SNP analyses in the discovery phase (p??0.05). In the extension analyses, ERK rs5999749, Dock180 rs4635002 and C3G rs7853122 showed marginally significant gene-dose effects for gastric cancer. Consistently, final combined analysis presented the SNPs as significantly associated with gastric cancer risk (OR = 1.56, [95% CI: 1.19-2.06], OR = 0.61, [95% CI: 0.43-0.87], OR = 0.59, [95% CI: 0.54-0.76], respectively). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that ERK rs5999749, Dock180 rs4635002 and C3G rs7853122 are genetic determinants in gastric carcinogenesis

TRAF6 Mediates IL-1β/LPS-Induced Suppression of TGF-β Signaling through Its Interaction with the Type III TGF-β Receptor

Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is an important anti-inflammatory cytokine that modulates and resolves inflammatory responses. Recent studies have demonstrated that inflammation enhances neoplastic risk and potentiates tumor progression. In the evolution of cancer, pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β must overcome the anti-inflammatory effects of TGF-β to boost pro-inflammatory responses in epithelial cells. Here we show that IL-1β or Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) suppresses TGF-β-induced anti-inflammatory signaling in a NF-κB-independent manner. TRAF6, a key molecule in IL-1β signaling, mediates this suppressive effect through interaction with the type III TGF-β receptor (TβRIII), which is TGF-β-dependent and requires type I TGF-β receptor (TβRI) kinase activity. TβRI phosphorylates TβRIII at residue S829, which promotes the TRAF6/TβRIII interaction and consequent sequestration of TβRIII from the TβRII/TβRI complex. Our data indicate that IL-1β enhances the pro-inflammatory response by suppressing TGF-βsignaling through TRAF6-mediated sequestration of TβRIII, which may be an important contributor to the early stages of tumor progression

Genetic Susceptibility on CagA-Interacting Molecules and Gene-Environment Interaction with Phytoestrogens: A Putative Risk Factor for Gastric Cancer

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether genes that encode CagA-interacting molecules (SRC, PTPN11, CRK, CRKL, CSK, c-MET and GRB2) are associated with gastric cancer risk and whether an interaction between these genes and phytoestrogens modify gastric cancer risk. METHODS: In the discovery phase, 137 candidate SNPs in seven genes were analyzed in 76 incident gastric cancer cases and 322 matched controls from the Korean Multi-Center Cancer Cohort. Five significant SNPs in three genes (SRC, c-MET and CRK) were re-evaluated in 386 cases and 348 controls in the extension phase. Odds ratios (ORs) for gastric cancer risk were estimated adjusted for age, smoking, H. pylori seropositivity and CagA strain positivity. Summarized ORs in the total study population (462 cases and 670 controls) were presented using pooled- and meta-analysis. Plasma concentrations of phytoestrogens (genistein, daidzein, equol and enterolactone) were measured using the time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay. RESULTS: SRC rs6122566, rs6124914, c-MET rs41739, and CRK rs7208768 showed significant genetic effects for gastric cancer in both the pooled and meta-analysis without heterogeneity (pooled OR = 3.96 [95% CI 2.05-7.65], 1.24 [95% CI = 1.01-1.53], 1.19 [95% CI = 1.01-1.41], and 1.37 [95% CI = 1.15-1.62], respectively; meta OR = 4.59 [95% CI 2.74-7.70], 1.36 [95% CI = 1.09-1.70], 1.20 [95% CI = 1.00-1.44], and 1.32 [95% CI = 1.10-1.57], respectively). Risk allele of CRK rs7208768 had a significantly increased risk for gastric cancer at low phytoestrogen levels (p interaction<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that SRC, c-MET and CRK play a key role in gastric carcinogenesis by modulating CagA signal transductions and interaction between CRK gene and phytoestrogens modify gastric cancer risk

The COMBREX Project: Design, Methodology, and Initial Results

© 2013 Brian P. et al.Prior to the “genomic era,” when the acquisition of DNA sequence involved significant labor and expense, the sequencing of genes was strongly linked to the experimental characterization of their products. Sequencing at that time directly resulted from the need to understand an experimentally determined phenotype or biochemical activity. Now that DNA sequencing has become orders of magnitude faster and less expensive, focus has shifted to sequencing entire genomes. Since biochemistry and genetics have not, by and large, enjoyed the same improvement of scale, public sequence repositories now predominantly contain putative protein sequences for which there is no direct experimental evidence of function. Computational approaches attempt to leverage evidence associated with the ever-smaller fraction of experimentally analyzed proteins to predict function for these putative proteins. Maximizing our understanding of function over the universe of proteins in toto requires not only robust computational methods of inference but also a judicious allocation of experimental resources, focusing on proteins whose experimental characterization will maximize the number and accuracy of follow-on predictions.COMBREX is funded by a GO grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) (1RC2GM092602-01).Peer Reviewe

Observation of Z production in proton-lead collisions at LHCb

The first observation of Z boson production in proton-lead collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per proton-nucleon pair of root(s) N N = 5TeV is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.6 nb(-1) collected with the LHCb detector. The Z candidates are reconstructed from pairs of oppositely charged muons with pseudorapidities between 2.0 and 4.5 and transverse momenta above 20 GeV/c. The invariant dimuon mass is restricted to the range 60-120 GeV/c. The Z production cross-section is measured to be sigma(Z ->mu+mu-) (fwd) = 13.5(-4.0)(+5.4)(stat.) +/- 1.2(syst.) nb in the direction of the proton beam and sigma(Z ->mu+mu-) (bwd) = 10.7(-5.1)(+8.4)(stat.) +/- 1.0(syst.) nb in the direction of the lead beam, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic