| 1. |
- Namkoong, H, et al.
(författare)
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DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 609:7928, s. 754-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge1–5. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2,393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3,289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Wang, QBS, et al.
(författare)
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The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 13:1, s. 4830-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection.
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| 4. |
- Browne, F., et al.
(författare)
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Pairing Forces Govern Population of Doubly Magic Ca-54 from Direct Reactions
- 2021
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - : American Physical Society (APS). - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 126:25
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Direct proton-knockout reactions of Sc-55 at similar to 220 MeV/nucleon were studied at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. Populated states of Ca-54 were investigated through -ray and invariant-mass spectroscopy. Level energies were calculated from the nuclear shell model employing a phenomenological intemucleon interaction. Theoretical cross sections to states were calculated from distorted-wave impulse approximation estimates multiplied by the shell model spectroscopic factors, which describe the wave function overlap of the Sc-55 ground state with states in Ca-54. Despite the calculations showing a significant amplitude of excited neutron configurations in the ground-state of Sc-55, valence proton removals populated predominantly the ground state of Ca-54. This counterintuitive result is attributed to pairing effects leading to a dominance of the ground-state spectroscopic factor. Owing to the ubiquity of the pairing interaction, this argument should be generally applicable to direct knockout reactions from odd-even to even-even nuclei.
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| 5. |
- Kondo, Y., et al.
(författare)
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First observation of 28 O
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 620:7976, s. 965-970
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Subjecting a physical system to extreme conditions is one of the means often used to obtain a better understanding and deeper insight into its organization and structure. In the case of the atomic nucleus, one such approach is to investigate isotopes that have very different neutron-to-proton (N/Z) ratios than in stable nuclei. Light, neutron-rich isotopes exhibit the most asymmetric N/Z ratios and those lying beyond the limits of binding, which undergo spontaneous neutron emission and exist only as very short-lived resonances (about 10−21s), provide the most stringent tests of modern nuclear-structure theories. Here we report on the first observation of 28O and 27O through their decay into 24O and four and three neutrons, respectively. The 28O nucleus is of particular interest as, with the Z = 8 and N = 20 magic numbers1,2, it is expected in the standard shell-model picture of nuclear structure to be one of a relatively small number of so-called ‘doubly magic’ nuclei. Both 27O and 28O were found to exist as narrow, low-lying resonances and their decay energies are compared here to the results of sophisticated theoretical modelling, including a large-scale shell-model calculation and a newly developed statistical approach. In both cases, the underlying nuclear interactions were derived from effective field theories of quantum chromodynamics. Finally, it is shown that the cross-section for the production of 28O from a 29F beam is consistent with it not exhibiting a closed N = 20 shell structure.
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| 6. |
- Elekes, Z., et al.
(författare)
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Shape coexistence in 66Se
- 2023
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Ingår i: Physics Letters B. - : Elsevier. - 0370-2693 .- 1873-2445. ; 844
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The nuclear structure of 66Se, nucleus beyond the N=Z line on the proton-rich side of the valley of stability, was investigated by the neutron knock-out reaction 67Se(12C,X)66Se using a 12C target. The analysis of the singles spectrum of the γ-rays emitted during the de-excitation of the populated low-lying excited states revealed two previously detected (927(4) keV, 1460(32) keV) and three new (744(6) keV, 1210(17) keV, 1661(23) keV) transitions. The 744-keV, the 1210-keV, and the 1460-keV transitions were found to be in coincidence with the one at 927 keV. The spectrum coincident with the 927-keV transition showed a further possible transition at 299(35) keV, which was obscured by significant atomic background in the singles spectrum. This transition might correspond to a peak previously reported at 273(5) keV that could not be assigned to 66Se unambiguously. Based on a comparison of the experimental data to theoretical calculations, four new excited states are proposed which suggest that 66Se exhibits shape coexistence.
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| 7. |
- Holl, Matthias, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Border of the island of inversion: Unbound states in Ne-29
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical Review C. - 2469-9985 .- 2469-9993. ; 105:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The nucleus Ne-29 is situated at the border of the island of inversion. Despite significant efforts, no bound low-lying intruder f(7/2) state, which would place Ne-29 firmly inside the island of inversion, has yet been observed. Here, the first investigation of unbound states of Ne-29 is reported. The states were populated in Ne-30(p, pn) and Na-30(p, 2p) reactions at a beam energy of around 230 MeV/nucleon, and analyzed in terms of their resonance properties, partial cross sections, and momentum distributions. The momentum distributions are compared to calculations using the eikonal, direct reaction model, allowing assignments for the observed states. The lowest lying resonance at an excitation energy of 1.48(4) MeV shows clear signs of a significant l = 3 component, giving first evidence for f(7/2) single particle strength in Ne-29. The excitation energies and strengths of the observed states are compared to shell-model calculations using the SDPF-U-MIX interaction.
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| 8. |
- Maeda, Y., et al.
(författare)
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Differential cross section and analyzing power measurements for (n)over-right-arrowd elastic scattering at 248 MeV
- 2007
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Ingår i: Physical Review C. Nuclear Physics. - 0556-2813 .- 1089-490X. ; 76:1, s. 014004-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The differential cross sections and vector analyzing powers for nd elastic scattering at E-n=248 MeV were measured for 10 degrees-180 degrees in the center-of-mass (c.m.) system. To cover the wide angular range, the experiments were performed separately by using two different setups for forward and backward angles. The data are compared with theoretical results based on Faddeev calculations with realistic nucleon-nucleon (NN) forces such as AV18, CD Bonn, and Nijmegen I and II, and their combinations with the three-nucleon forces (3NFs), such as Tucson-Melbourne 99 (TM99), Urbana IX, and the coupled-channel potential with Delta-isobar excitation. Large discrepancies are found between the experimental cross sections and theory with only 2N forces for theta(c.m.)>90 degrees. The inclusion of 3NFs brings the theoretical cross sections closer to the data but only partially explains this discrepancy. For the analyzing power, no significant improvement is found when 3NFs are included. Relativistic corrections are shown to be small for both the cross sections and the analyzing powers at this energy. For the cross sections, these effects are mostly seen in the very backward angles. Compared with the pd cross section data, quite significant differences are observed at all scattering angles that cannot be explained only by the Coulomb interaction, which is usually significant at small angles.
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| 9. |
- Revel, A., et al.
(författare)
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Extending the Southern Shore of the Island of Inversion to F-28
- 2020
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - 1079-7114 .- 0031-9007. ; 124:15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Detailed spectroscopy of the neutron-unbound nucleus F-28 has been performed for the first time following proton/neutron removal from Ne-29/F-29 beams at energies around 230 MeV=nucleon. The invariant-mass spectra were reconstructed for both the F-27((*)) + n and F-26((*)) + 2n coincidences and revealed a series of well-defined resonances. A near-threshold state was observed in both reactions and is identified as the F-28 ground state, with S-n(F-28) = -199(6) keV, while analysis of the 2n decay channel allowed a considerably improved S-n(F-27) = 1620(60) keV to be deduced. Comparison with shell-model predictions and eikonal-model reaction calculations have allowed spin-parity assignments to be proposed for some of the lower-lying levels of F-28. Importantly, in the case of the ground state, the reconstructed F-27 + n momentum distribution following neutron removal from F-29 indicates that it arises mainly from the 1p(3/2) neutron intruder configuration. This demonstrates that the island of inversion around N = 20 includes F-28, and most probably F-29, and suggests that O-28 is not doubly magic.
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| 10. |
- Storck, Sonja, et al.
(författare)
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Lifetime measurement of the 26 0 g.s. At SAMURAI
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Physics: Conference Series. - : IOP Publishing. - 1742-6588 .- 1742-6596. ; 1643:1
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ground state of the neutron unbound nucleus O is speculated to have a lifetime in the pico-second regime. In order to determine the decay lifetime of the O ground state with high sensitivity and precision, a new method has been applied. The experiment was performed in December 2016 at the Superconducting Analyzer for MUlti-particle from Radio Isotope Beams (SAMURAI) at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) at RIKEN. A F beam was produced in the fragment separator BigRIPS and impinged on a W/Pt target stack where O was produced. According to the lifetime, the decay of O happens either in or outside the target. Thus, the velocity difference between the decay neutrons and the fragment O delivers a characteristic spectrum from which the lifetime can be extracted.
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