The crucial role of single-stranded DNA binding in enhancing sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents for Schlafen 11 and Schlafen 13.

Schlafen (SLFN) 11 enhances cellular sensitivity to various DNA-damaging anticancer agents. Among the human SLFNs (SLFN5/11/12/13/14), SLFN11 is unique in its drug sensitivity and ability to block replication under DNA damage. In biochemical analysis, SLFN11 binds single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), and this binding is enhanced by the dephosphorylation of SLFN11. In this study, human cell-based assays demonstrated that a point mutation at the ssDNA-binding site of SLFN11 or a constitutive phosphorylation mutant abolished SLFN11-dependent drug sensitivity. Additionally, we discovered that nuclear SLFN13 with a point mutation mimicking the DNA-binding site of SLFN11 was recruited to chromatin, blocked replication, and enhanced drug sensitivity. Through generating multiple mutants and structure analyses of SLFN11 and SLFN13, we identified protein phosphatase 2A as a binding partner of SLFN11 and the putative binding motif in SLFN11. These findings provide crucial insights into the unique characteristics of SLFN11, contributing to a better understanding of its mechanisms.

Berry curvature contributions of kagome-lattice fragments in amorphous Fe-Sn thin films.

Amorphous semiconductors are widely applied to electronic and energy-conversion devices owing to their high performance and simple fabrication processes. The topological concept of the Berry curvature is generally ill-defined in amorphous solids, due to the absence of long-range crystalline order. Here, we demonstrate that the Berry curvature in the short-range crystalline order of kagome-lattice fragments effectively contributes to the anomalous electrical and magneto-thermoelectric properties in Fe-Sn amorphous films. The Fe-Sn films on glass substrates exhibit large anomalous Hall and Nernst effects comparable to those of the single crystals of topological semimetals Fe3Sn2 and Fe3Sn. With modelling, we reveal that the Berry curvature contribution in the amorphous state likely originates from randomly distributed kagome-lattice fragments. This microscopic interpretation sheds light on the topology of amorphous materials, which may lead to the realization of functional topological amorphous electronic devices.

A Noble-Metal-Free Spintronic System with Proximity-Enhanced Ferromagnetic Topological Surface State of FeSi above Room Temperature.

Strongly spin-orbit coupled states at metal interfaces, topological insulators, and 2D materials enable efficient electric control of spin states, offering great potential for spintronics. However, there are still materials challenges to overcome, including the integration into advanced silicon electronics and the scarce resources of constituent heavy elements of those materials. Through magneto-transport measurements and first-principles calculations, here robust spin-orbit coupling (SOC)-induced properties of a ferromagnetic topological surface state in FeSi and their controllability via hybridization with adjacent materials are demonstrated. In comparison to the case of its naturally oxidized surface, the ferromagnetic transition temperature is greatly increased beyond room temperature and the effective SOC strength is almost doubled at the surface in proximity to a wide-bandgap fluoride insulator. Those enhanced magnetic properties enable room-temperature magnetization switching, being applicable to spin-orbit torque based spintronic devices. Realization of strong SOC in the noble-metal-free silicon-based compound will accelerate spintronic applications.

Emergence of spin-orbit coupled ferromagnetic surface state derived from Zak phase in a nonmagnetic insulator FeSi.

FeSi is a nonmagnetic narrow-gap insulator, exhibiting peculiar charge and spin dynamics beyond a simple band structure picture. Those unusual features have been attracting renewed attention from topological aspects. Although the surface conduction was demonstrated according to size-dependent resistivity in bulk crystals, its topological characteristics and consequent electromagnetic responses remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate an inherent surface ferromagnetic-metal state of FeSi thin films and its strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) properties through multiple characterizations of two-dimensional conductance, magnetization, and spintronic functionality. Terminated covalent bonding orbitals constitute the polar surface state with momentum-dependent spin textures due to Rashba-type spin splitting, as corroborated by unidirectional magnetoresistance measurements and first-principles calculations. As a consequence of the spin-momentum locking, nonequilibrium spin accumulation causes magnetization switching. These surface properties are closely related to the Zak phase of the bulk band topology. Our findings propose another route to explore noble metal­free materials for SOC-based spin manipulation.

Non-human primates as a model for human development.

Human development has been studied for over a century, but the molecular mechanisms underlying human embryogenesis remain largely unknown due to technical difficulties and ethical issues. Accordingly, mice have been used as a model for mammalian development and studied extensively to infer human biology based on the conservation of fundamental processes between the two species. As research has progressed, however, species-specific differences in characteristics between rodents and primates have become apparent. Non-human primates (NHPs) have also been used for biomedical research, and are now attracting attention as a model for human development. Here, we summarize primate species from the evolutionary and genomic points of view. Then we review the current issues and progress in gene modification technology for NHPs. Finally, we discuss recent studies on the early embryogenesis of primates and future perspectives.

Quick and accurate selection of hand images among radiographs from various body parts using deep learning.

BACKGROUND: Although rheumatoid arthritis (RA) causes destruction of articular cartilage, early treatment significantly improves symptoms and delays progression. It is important to detect subtle damage for an early diagnosis. Recent software programs are comparable with the conventional human scoring method regarding detectability of the radiographic progression of RA. Thus, automatic and accurate selection of relevant images (e.g. hand images) among radiographic images of various body parts is necessary for serial analysis on a large scale. OBJECTIVE: In this study we examined whether deep learning can select target images from a large number of stored images retrieved from a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) including miscellaneous body parts of patients. METHODS: We selected 1,047 X-ray images including various body parts and divided them into two groups: 841 images for training and 206 images for testing. The training images were augmented and used to train a convolutional neural network (CNN) consisting of 4 convolution layers, 2 pooling layers and 2 fully connected layers. After training, we created software to classify the test images and examined the accuracy. RESULTS: The image extraction accuracy was 0.952 and 0.979 for unilateral hand and both hands, respectively. In addition, all 206 test images were perfectly classified into unilateral hand, both hands, and the others. CONCLUSIONS: Deep learning showed promise to enable efficiently automatic selection of target X-ray images of RA patients.

Fermi-level tuning of the Dirac surface state in (Bi1-x Sb x )2Se3 thin films.

We report on the electronic states and the transport properties of three-dimensional topological insulator (Bi1-x Sb x )2Se3 ternary alloy thin films grown on an isostructural Bi2Se3 buffer layer on InP substrates. By angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we clearly detected Dirac surface states with a large bulk band gap of 0.2-0.3 eV in the (Bi1-x Sb x )2Se3 film with x = 0.70. In addition, we observed by Hall effect measurements that the dominant charge carrier converts from electron (n-type) to hole (p-type) at around x = 0.7, indicating that the Fermi level can be controlled across the Dirac point. Indeed, the carrier transport was shown to be governed by Dirac surface state in 0.63 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.75. These features suggest that Fermi-level tunable (Bi1-x Sb x )2Se3-based heterostructures provide a platform for extracting exotic topological phenomena.

Effect of arginine vasopressin on systemic and pulmonary arterial pressure in a patient with pulmonary hypertension secondary to pulmonary emphysema: a case report.

Although data from several studies support the use of arginine vasopressin (AVP) for the treatment of hypotension concomitant with pulmonary hypertension (PH) in the cardiac surgery setting, to our knowledge, no previous studies have reported the effect of AVP on the systemic and pulmonary circulation of patients with PH secondary to lung diseases. In this report, we present the hemodynamic responses to bolus administrations of AVP and noradrenaline in a patient with PH secondary to pulmonary emphysema. The patient showed low systemic vascular resistance hypotension during off-pump single-lung transplantation. The bolus administration of AVP (0.5 U) increased systemic arterial pressure by 35.2%, with a minimal change in pulmonary arterial pressure, resulting in a significant decrease in the pulmonary arterial pressure/systemic arterial pressure ratio. In contrast, the bolus administration of noradrenaline (10 or 20 µg) increased both systemic and pulmonary arterial pressures by 14.8 and 6.7%, respectively. In summary, the bolus administration of AVP effectively increased systemic arterial pressure with a minimal effect on pulmonary arterial pressure in a patient with PH secondary to pulmonary emphysema. This case highlights the potential utility of AVP to treat low systemic vascular resistance hypotension in patients with PH secondary to lung diseases.

Identification of Giant Mott Phase Transition of Single Electric Nanodomain in Manganite Nanowall Wire.

In the scaling down of electronic devices, functional oxides with strongly correlated electron system provide advantages to conventional semiconductors, namely, huge switching owing to their phase transition and high carrier density, which guarantee their rich functionalities even at the 10 nm scale. However, understanding how their functionalities behave at a scale of 10 nm order is still a challenging issue. Here, we report the construction of the well-defined (La,Pr,Ca)MnO3 epitaxial oxide nanowall wire by combination of nanolithography and subsequent thin-film growth, which allows the direct investigation of its insulator-metal transition (IMT) at the single domain scale. We show that the width of a (La,Pr,Ca)MnO3 nanowall sample can be reduced to 50 nm, which is smaller than the observed 70-200 nm-size electronic domains, and that a single electronic nanodomain in (La,Pr,Ca)MnO3 exhibited an intrinsic first-order IMT with an unusually steep single-step change in its magnetoresistance and temperature-induced resistance due to the domains arrangement in series. A simple model of the first-order transition for single electric domains satisfactorily illustrates the IMT behavior from macroscale down to the nanoscale.

Dual field effects in electrolyte-gated spinel ferrite: electrostatic carrier doping and redox reactions.

Controlling the electronic properties of functional oxide materials via external electric fields has attracted increasing attention as a key technology for next-generation electronics. For transition-metal oxides with metallic carrier densities, the electric-field effect with ionic liquid electrolytes has been widely used because of the enormous carrier doping capabilities. The gate-induced redox reactions revealed by recent investigations have, however, highlighted the complex nature of the electric-field effect. Here, we use the gate-induced conductance modulation of spinel ZnxFe3₋xO4 to demonstrate the dual contributions of volatile and non-volatile field effects arising from electronic carrier doping and redox reactions. These two contributions are found to change in opposite senses depending on the Zn content x; virtual electronic and chemical field effects are observed at appropriate Zn compositions. The tuning of field-effect characteristics via composition engineering should be extremely useful for fabricating high-performance oxide field-effect devices.

5d iridium oxide as a material for spin-current detection.

Devices based on pure spin currents have been attracting increasing attention as key ingredients for low-dissipation electronics. To integrate such spintronics devices into charge-based technologies, electric detection of spin currents is essential. The inverse spin Hall effect converts a spin current into an electric voltage through spin-orbit coupling. Noble metals such as Pt and Pd, and also Cu-based alloys, have been regarded as potential materials for a spin-current injector, owing to the large direct spin Hall effect. Their spin Hall resistivity ρSH, representing the performance as a detector, is not large enough, however, due mainly because of their low charge resistivity. Here we report that a binary 5d transition metal oxide, iridium oxide, overcomes the limitations encountered in noble metals and Cu-based alloys and shows a very large ρSH~38 µΩ cm at room temperature.

Controlled fabrication of artificial ferromagnetic (Fe,Mn)3O4 nanowall-wires by a three-dimensional nanotemplate pulsed laser deposition method.

We have developed a new method to fabricate extremely small transition-metal oxide nanowires. Using a combination of nanoimprint template patterning and inclined substrate pulsed laser deposition, we successfully fabricated magnetic oxide Fe(2.5)Mn(0.5)O(4) nanowall-wires, and controlled the width in a range from 120 nm down to about 20 nm by varying deposition parameters. Magnetoresistance measurements revealed ferromagnetic properties of the Fe(2.5)Mn(0.5)O(4) nanowall-wire. This method enables the study of mesoscopic transport properties of transition-metal oxides towards the development of oxide-based nanodevices.