Identification of a novel HLA-C*03 variant, C*03:465, using sequence-based typing in a Korean man.

HLA-C*03:465, differs from C*03:04:01:01 by a single nucleotide in codon 135 (GCC → GTC).

Demonstration of electron acceleration in a laser-driven dielectric microstructure.

The enormous size and cost of current state-of-the-art accelerators based on conventional radio-frequency technology has spawned great interest in the development of new acceleration concepts that are more compact and economical. Micro-fabricated dielectric laser accelerators (DLAs) are an attractive approach, because such dielectric microstructures can support accelerating fields one to two orders of magnitude higher than can radio-frequency cavity-based accelerators. DLAs use commercial lasers as a power source, which are smaller and less expensive than the radio-frequency klystrons that power today's accelerators. In addition, DLAs are fabricated via low-cost, lithographic techniques that can be used for mass production. However, despite several DLA structures having been proposed recently, no successful demonstration of acceleration in these structures has so far been shown. Here we report high-gradient (beyond 250 MeV m(-1)) acceleration of electrons in a DLA. Relativistic (60-MeV) electrons are energy-modulated over 563 ± 104 optical periods of a fused silica grating structure, powered by a 800-nm-wavelength mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. The observed results are in agreement with analytical models and electrodynamic simulations. By comparison, conventional modern linear accelerators operate at gradients of 10-30 MeV m(-1), and the first linear radio-frequency cavity accelerator was ten radio-frequency periods (one metre) long with a gradient of approximately 1.6 MeV m(-1) (ref. 5). Our results set the stage for the development of future multi-staged DLA devices composed of integrated on-chip systems. This would enable compact table-top accelerators on the MeV-GeV (10(6)-10(9) eV) scale for security scanners and medical therapy, university-scale X-ray light sources for biological and materials research, and portable medical imaging devices, and would substantially reduce the size and cost of a future collider on the multi-TeV (10(12) eV) scale.

Generating periodic terahertz structures in a relativistic electron beam through frequency down-conversion of optical lasers.

We report generation of density modulation at terahertz (THz) frequencies in a relativistic electron beam through laser modulation of the beam longitudinal phase space. We show that by modulating the energy distribution of the beam with two lasers, density modulation at the difference frequency of the two lasers can be generated after the beam passes through a chicane. In this experiment, density modulation around 10 THz was generated by down-converting the frequencies of an 800 nm laser and a 1550 nm laser. The central frequency of the density modulation can be tuned by varying the laser wavelengths, beam energy chirp, or momentum compaction of the chicane. This technique can be applied to accelerator-based light sources for generation of coherent THz radiation and marks a significant advance toward tunable narrow band THz sources.

Evidence of high harmonics from echo-enabled harmonic generation for seeding x-ray free electron lasers.

Echo-enabled harmonic generation free electron lasers hold great promise for the generation of fully coherent radiation in x-ray wavelengths. Here we report the first evidence of high harmonics from the echo-enabled harmonic generation technique in the realistic scenario where the laser energy modulation is comparable to the beam slice energy spread. In this experiment, coherent radiation at the seventh harmonic of the second seed laser is generated when the energy modulation amplitude is about 2-3 times the slice energy spread. The experiment confirms the underlying physics of echo-enabled harmonic generation and may have a strong impact on emerging seeded x-ray free electron lasers that are capable of generating laserlike x rays which will advance many areas of science.

Demonstration of the echo-enabled harmonic generation technique for short-wavelength seeded free electron lasers.

We report the first experimental demonstration of the echo-enabled harmonic generation technique, which holds great promise for generation of high-power, fully coherent short-wavelength radiation. In this experiment, coherent radiation at the 3rd and 4th harmonics of the second seed laser is generated from the so-called beam echo effect. The experiment confirms the physics behind this technique and paves the way for applying the echo-enabled harmonic generation technique for seeded x-ray free electron lasers.

Effects of cobalt-60 exposure on health of Taiwan residents suggest new approach needed in radiation protection.

The conventional approach for radiation protection is based on the ICRP's linear, no threshold (LNT) model of radiation carcinogenesis, which implies that ionizing radiation is always harmful, no matter how small the dose. But a different approach can be derived from the observed health effects of the serendipitous contamination of 1700 apartments in Taiwan with cobalt-60 (T(1/2) = 5.3 y). This experience indicates that chronic exposure of the whole body to low-dose-rate radiation, even accumulated to a high annual dose, may be beneficial to human health. Approximately 10,000 people occupied these buildings and received an average radiation dose of 0.4 Sv, unknowingly, during a 9-20 year period. They did not suffer a higher incidence of cancer mortality, as the LNT theory would predict. On the contrary, the incidence of cancer deaths in this population was greatly reduced-to about 3 per cent of the incidence of spontaneous cancer death in the general Taiwan public. In addition, the incidence of congenital malformations was also reduced--to about 7 per cent of the incidence in the general public. These observations appear to be compatible with the radiation hormesis model. Information about this Taiwan experience should be communicated to the public worldwide to help allay its fear of radiation and create a positive impression about important radiation applications. Expenditures of many billions of dollars in nuclear reactor operation could be saved and expansion of nuclear electricity generation could be facilitated. In addition, this knowledge would encourage further investigation and implementation of very important applications of total-body, low-dose irradiation to treat and cure many illnesses, including cancer. The findings of this study are such a departure from expectations, based on ICRP criteria, that we believe that they ought to be carefully reviewed by other, independent organizations and that population data not available to the authors be provided, so that a fully qualified epidemiologically-valid analysis can be made. Many of the confounding factors that limit other studies used to date, such as the A-bomb survivors, the Mayak workers and the Chernobyl evacuees, are not present in this population exposure. It should be one of the most important events on which to base radiation protection standards.

Studies on Formosan soft corals. II. Cytotoxic cembranolides from the soft coral Lobophytum michaelae.

Bioactivity-guided fractionation of a CHCl3 extract of the soft coral Lobophytum michaelae afforded a new cytotoxic cembranolide, lobomichaolide (1), and a known cytotoxic cembranolide, crassolide (2). The structure of 1 was determined by spectral and X-ray crystallographic analysis.

Reproductive Integration in Reef Corals.

The extent of colonial integration in structurally simple animals like scleractinian corals is poorly understood. We have used sexual reproductive characters (location of fertile polyps and colony size at maturation) to assess colony-level individuality, i.e., the development, in coral colonies, of characters above the polyp level. Ten morphologically-diverse species of reef corals were used: Acropora cervicornis, A. palmata, Diploria clivosa, D. strigosa, Favia fragum, Montastrea cavernosa, Porites astreoides, P. furcata, Siderastrea radians, and S. siderea. In no species were equally fertile polyps homogeneously distributed throughout a colony. Most inhomogeneities of fertile polyps could be attributed to intra-colony position or ontogenetic effects. The results of simple manipulations simulating natural wounds in three massive species strengthen the evidence that the position of polyps within a colony determines fertility. Small colonies are not reproductive. Puberty size (colony size at maturation) could be explained by the infertility pattern along the colony margin, which does not require colony-level integration. Shape-related growth constraints could also produce the puberty size patterns found in massive corals. Infertility in the short radial polyps of A. palmata and in the axial polyps of A. cervicornis provided the only clear evidence of reproductive integration in this study: both are related to a morphological characteristic (polyp dimorphism) commonly associated with integration in colonial invertebrates.

Spontaneous reactivation of covalently labeled proton adenosinetriphosphatase.

Bovine heart mitochondrial adenosinetriphosphatase selectively labeled by [14C]-N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide or [14C]-7-chloro-4-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole was used together with other components to form reconstituted submitochondrial particles. When assayed for ATP hydrolysis under normal hydrolysis condition, these labeled submitochondrial particles were found to increase slowly in specific activity with preincubation time, without losing the covalent label. But when assayed for oxidative phosphorylation, the ratio of the specific activity of the same labeled particles to that of the control particles was higher and was unaffected by preincubation. If the labeled particles had been treated by a simulated procedure for oxidative phosphorylation measurement before the ATPase assay, their specific activities for ATP hydrolysis were also found to be higher and unaffected by preincubation. These observations are difficult to reconcile with the alternating three-site model for proton adenosinetriphosphatase or any model which requires the sequential action of three identical sites for ATP hydrolysis and synthesis. A new model with one active and two latent interacting sites is proposed for interpreting the present data.