A genome-wide genetic signature of Jewish ancestry perfectly separates individuals with and without full Jewish ancestry in a large random sample of European Americans

A principal components analysis of genomic information showed that individuals with full Jewish ancestry formed a clearly distinct cluster from those individuals with no Jewish ancestry

Discussion

Since the start of large-scale waves of mobilisation in 2011, the importance of identity in the study of collective action via computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been a source of contention. Hence, our research sets out to systematically review and synthesise empirical findings on identity and collective action via CMC from 2012 to 2016. We found that the literature on the topic is broad and diverse, with contributions from multiple disciplines and theoretical and methodological approaches. Based on our findings, we provide directions for future research and propose the adoption of an integrative approach that combines the study of identity and networks to advance our understanding of collective action via CMC. This review contributes to the crossroad of social movement, collective action, communication and media studies. Our results also have practical implications for the organisation of collective action in a society characterised by the pervasive influence of CMC

How does private adaptation motivation to climate change vary across cultures? Evidence from a meta-analysis

© 2020 The Authors Natural hazards, exacerbated by climate change, increasingly affect societies worldwide. The accelerating risks entail that private adaptation complement more traditional public climate change adaptation measures. Culture plays an important role in framing how individuals experience hazards and behave toward them. Yet, empirical research explicitly measuring whether and how climate change adaptation varies across cultures is lacking. To address this gap, we collect meta-analytic data on factors motivating individual flooding adaptation from 25 countries and more than 50 publications. Employing Hofstede's Cultural Rankings as a metric of national culture, we model the effect of culture on adaptation motivation of individual households using meta-regression analysis. We find a number of statistically significant relationships between culture and factors motivating private climate change adaptation. Hence, cultural context is vital to consider when designing and implementing climate change adaptation policies, simulating the uptake of individual hazard prevention measures, or integrating private adaptation in assessing costs of climate change in integrated assessment models. These findings are among the first to provide empirical evidence on the interaction effects between culture and private climate change adaptation motivation

High quality epitaxial thin films and exchange bias of antiferromagnetic Dirac semimetal FeSn

FeSn is a topological semimetal (TSM) and kagome antiferromagnet (AFM) composed of alternating Fe3Sn kagome planes and honeycomb Sn planes. This unique structure gives rise to exotic features in the band structures such as the coexistence of Dirac cones and flatbands near the Fermi level, fully spin-polarized 2D surface Dirac fermions, and the ability to open a large gap in the Dirac cone by reorienting the N\'eel vector. In this work, we report the synthesis of high quality epitaxial (0001) FeSn films by magnetron sputtering. Using FeSn/Py heterostructures, we show a large exchange bias effect that reaches an exchange field of 220 Oe at 5 K, providing unambiguous evidence of antiferromagnetism and strong interlayer exchange coupling in our films. Field cycling studies show steep initial training effects, highlighting the complex magnetic interactions and anisotropy. Importantly, our work provides a simple, alternative means to fabricate FeSn films and heterostructures, making it easier to explore the topological physics of AFM TSMs and develop FeSn-based spintronics.Comment: accepted by AP

Anomalous Hall and Nernst effects in epitaxial films of topological kagome magnet Fe3Sn2

The topological kagome magnet (TKM) Fe3Sn2 exhibits unusual topological properties, flat electronic bands, and chiral spin textures, making it an exquisite materials platform to explore the interplay between topological band structure, strong electron correlations, and magnetism. Here we report the first synthesis of high-quality epitaxial (0001) Fe3Sn2 films with large intrinsic anomalous Hall effect close to that measured in bulk single crystals. In addition, we measured a large, anisotropic anomalous Nernst coefficient Syx of 1.26 {\mu}V/K, roughly 2-5x greater than that of common ferromagnets, suggesting the presence of Berry curvature sources near the Fermi level in this system. Crucially, the realization of high-quality Fe3Sn2 films opens the door to explore emergent interfacial physics and create novel spintronic devices based on TKMs by interfacing Fe3Sn2 with other quantum materials and by nanostructure patterning.Comment: accepted by Physical Review Material

Exome sequencing followed by large-scale genotyping suggests a limited role for moderately rare risk factors of strong effect in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder with strong heritability and marked heterogeneity in symptoms, course, and treatment response. There is strong interest in identifying genetic risk factors that can help to elucidate the pathophysiology and that might result in the development of improved treatments. Linkage and genome-wide association studies (GWASs) suggest that the genetic basis of schizophrenia is heterogeneous. However, it remains unclear whether the underlying genetic variants are mostly moderately rare and can be identified by the genotyping of variants observed in sequenced cases in large follow-up cohorts or whether they will typically be much rarer and therefore more effectively identified by gene-based methods that seek to combine candidate variants. Here, we consider 166 persons who have schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and who have had either their genomes or their exomes sequenced to high coverage. From these data, we selected 5,155 variants that were further evaluated in an independent cohort of 2,617 cases and 1,800 controls. No single variant showed a study-wide significant association in the initial or follow-up cohorts. However, we identified a number of case-specific variants, some of which might be real risk factors for schizophrenia, and these can be readily interrogated in other data sets. Our results indicate that schizophrenia risk is unlikely to be predominantly influenced by variants just outside the range detectable by GWASs. Rather, multiple rarer genetic variants must contribute substantially to the predisposition to schizophrenia, suggesting that both very large sample sizes and gene-based association tests will be required for securely identifying genetic risk factors. © 2012 The American Society of Human Genetics

Clinical application of exome sequencing in undiagnosed genetic conditions

BACKGROUND: There is considerable interest in the use of next-generation sequencing to help diagnose unidentified genetic conditions, but it is difficult to predict the success rate in a clinical setting that includes patients with a broad range of phenotypic presentations. METHODS: The authors present a pilot programme of whole-exome sequencing on 12 patients with unexplained and apparent genetic conditions, along with their unaffected parents. Unlike many previous studies, the authors did not seek patients with similar phenotypes, but rather enrolled any undiagnosed proband with an apparent genetic condition when predetermined criteria were met. RESULTS: This undertaking resulted in a likely genetic diagnosis in 6 of the 12 probands, including the identification of apparently causal mutations in four genes known to cause Mendelian disease (TCF4, EFTUD2, SCN2A and SMAD4) and one gene related to known Mendelian disease genes (NGLY1). Of particular interest is that at the time of this study, EFTUD2 was not yet known as a Mendelian disease gene but was nominated as a likely cause based on the observation of de novo mutations in two unrelated probands. In a seventh case with multiple disparate clinical features, the authors were able to identify homozygous mutations in EFEMP1 as a likely cause for macular degeneration (though likely not for other features). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that next-generation sequencing can have high success rates in a clinical setting, but also highlights key challenges. It further suggests that the presentation of known Mendelian conditions may be considerably broader than currently recognised

Kondo physics in antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal Mn3+xSn1-x films

Topology and strong electron correlations are crucial ingredients in emerging quantum materials, yet their intersection in experimental systems has been relatively limited to date. Strongly correlated Weyl semimetals, particularly when magnetism is incorporated, offer a unique and fertile platform to explore emergent phenomena in novel topological matter and topological spintronics. The antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal Mn3Sn exhibits many exotic physical properties such as a large spontaneous Hall effect and has recently attracted intense interest. In this work, we report synthesis of epitaxial Mn3+xSn1-x films with greatly extended compositional range in comparison with that of bulk samples. As Sn atoms are replaced by magnetic Mn atoms, the Kondo effect, which is a celebrated example of strong correlations, emerges, develops coherence, and induces a hybridization energy gap. The magnetic doping and gap opening lead to rich extraordinary properties as exemplified by the prominent DC Hall effects and resonance-enhanced terahertz Faraday rotation

Experimental Investigation of the Ne 19 (p,γ)20Na Reaction Rate and Implications for Breakout from the Hot CNO Cycle

The Ne19(p,γ)Na20 reaction is the second step of a reaction chain which breaks out from the hot CNO cycle, following the O15(α,γ)Ne19 reaction at the onset of x-ray burst events. We investigate the spectrum of the lowest proton-unbound states in Na20 in an effort to resolve contradictions in spin-parity assignments and extract reliable information about the thermal reaction rate. The proton-transfer reaction Ne19(d,n)Na20 is measured with a beam of the radioactive isotope Ne19 at an energy around the Coulomb barrier and in inverse kinematics. We observe three proton resonances with the Ne19 ground state, at 0.44, 0.66, and 0.82 MeV c.m. energies, which are assigned 3+, 1+, and (0+), respectively. In addition, we identify two resonances with the first excited state in Ne19, one at 0.20 MeV and one, tentatively, at 0.54 MeV. These observations allow us for the first time to experimentally quantify the astrophysical reaction rate on an excited nuclear state. Our experiment shows an efficient path for thermal proton capture in Ne19(p,γ)Na20, which proceeds through ground state and excited-state capture in almost equal parts and eliminates the possibility for this reaction to create a bottleneck in the breakout from the hot CNO cycle