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- Namkoong, H, et al.
(author)
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DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19
- 2022
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 609:7928, s. 754-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)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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- Abe, K., et al.
(author)
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J-PARC Neutrino Beamline Upgrade Technical Design Report
- 2019
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Reports (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this document, technical details of the upgrade plan of the J-PARC neutrino beamline for the extension of the T2K experiment are described. T2K has proposed to accumulate data corresponding to 2×1022 protons-on-target in the next decade, aiming at an initial observation of CP violation with 3σ or higher significance in the case of maximal CP violation. Methods to increase the neutrino beam intensity, which are necessary to achieve the proposed data increase, are described.
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3. |
- Abe, K., et al.
(author)
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Neutron tagging following atmospheric neutrino events in a water Cherenkov detector
- 2022
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - : Institute of Physics (IOP). - 1748-0221. ; 17:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present the development of neutron-tagging techniques in Super-Kamiokande IV using a neural network analysis. The detection efficiency of neutron capture on hydrogen is estimated to be 26%, with a mis-tag rate of 0.016 per neutrino event. The uncertainty of the tagging efficiency is estimated to be 9.0%. Measurement of the tagging efficiency with data from an Americium-Beryllium calibration agrees with this value within 10%. The tagging procedure was performed on 3,244.4 days of SK-IV atmospheric neutrino data, identifying 18,091 neutrons in 26,473 neutrino events. The fitted neutron capture lifetime was measured as 218 +/- 9 mu s.
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- Gould, A., et al.
(author)
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MOA-2010-BLG-523:" Failed Planet"= RS CVn Star
- 2013
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In: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X. ; 763:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Galactic bulge source MOA-2010-BLG-523S exhibited short-term deviations from a standard microlensing light curve near the peak of an A(max) similar to 265 high-magnification microlensing event. The deviations originally seemed consistent with expectations for a planetary companion to the principal lens. We combine long-term photometric monitoring with a previously published high-resolution spectrum taken near peak to demonstrate that this is an RS CVn variable, so that planetary microlensing is not required to explain the light-curve deviations. This is the first spectroscopically confirmed RS CVn star discovered in the Galactic bulge.
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7. |
- Ryu, Y. -H., et al.
(author)
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OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb : The First Spitzer Bulge Planet Lies Near the Planet/Brown-dwarf Boundary
- 2018
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In: Astronomical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-6256 .- 1538-3881. ; 155:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the discovery of OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb, which is likely to be the first Spitzer microlensing planet in the Galactic bulge/ bar, an assignation that can be confirmed by two epochs of high-resolution imaging of the combined source-lens baseline object. The planet's mass, M-p = 13.4 +/- 0.9 M-J, places it right at the deuteriumburning limit, i. e., the conventional boundary between planets and brown dwarfs. Its existence raises the question of whether such objects are really planets (formed within the disks of their hosts) or failed stars (lowmass objects formed by gas fragmentation). This question may ultimately be addressed by comparing disk and bulge/bar planets, which is a goal of the Spitzer microlens program. The host is a G dwarf, M-host = 0.89. +/- 0.07 M-circle dot, and the planet has a semimajor axis a similar to 2.0 au. We use Kepler K2 Campaign 9 microlensing data to break the lens-mass degeneracy that generically impacts parallax solutions from Earth-Spitzer observations alone, which is the first successful application of this approach. The microlensing data, derived primarily from near-continuous, ultradense survey observations from OGLE, MOA, and three KMTNet telescopes, contain more orbital information than for any previous microlensing planet, but not quite enough to accurately specify the full orbit. However, these data do permit the first rigorous test of microlensing orbital-motion measurements, which are typically derived from data taken over < 1% of an orbital period.
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8. |
- Kato, Norihiro, et al.
(author)
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Trans-ancestry genome-wide association study identifies 12 genetic loci influencing blood pressure and implicates a role for DNA methylation
- 2015
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In: Nature Genetics. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 47:11, s. 1282-1293
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We carried out a trans-ancestry genome-wide association and replication study of blood pressure phenotypes among up to 320,251 individuals of East Asian, European and South Asian ancestry. We find genetic variants at 12 new loci to be associated with blood pressure (P = 3.9 × 10−11 to 5.0 × 10−21). The sentinel blood pressure SNPs are enriched for association with DNA methylation at multiple nearby CpG sites, suggesting that, at some of the loci identified, DNA methylation may lie on the regulatory pathway linking sequence variation to blood pressure. The sentinel SNPs at the 12 new loci point to genes involved in vascular smooth muscle (IGFBP3, KCNK3, PDE3A and PRDM6) and renal (ARHGAP24, OSR1, SLC22A7 and TBX2) function. The new and known genetic variants predict increased left ventricular mass, circulating levels of NT-proBNP, and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality (P = 0.04 to 8.6 × 10−6). Our results provide new evidence for the role of DNA methylation in blood pressure regulation.
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9. |
- Blondel, A., et al.
(author)
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The SuperFGD Prototype charged particle beam tests
- 2020
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - : IOP PUBLISHING LTD. - 1748-0221. ; 15:12
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A novel scintillator detector, the SuperFGD, has been selected as the main neutrino target for an upgrade of the T2K experiment ND280 near detector. The detector design will allow nearly 47r coverage for neutrino interactions at the near detector and will provide lower energy thresholds, significantly reducing systematic errors for the experiment. The SuperFGD is made of optically-isolated scintillator cubes of size 10 x 10 x 10 mm(3), providing the required spatial and energy resolution to reduce systematic uncertainties for future T2K runs. The SuperFGD for T2K will have close to two million cubes in a 1920 x 560 x 1840 mm(3) volume. A prototype made of 24 x 8 x 48 cubes was tested at a charged particle beamline at the CERN PS facility. The SuperFGD Prototype was instrumented with readout electronics similar to the future implementation for T2K. Results on electronics and detector response are reported in this paper, along with a discussion of the 3D reconstruction capabilities of this type of detector. Several physics analyses with the prototype data are also discussed, including a study of stopping protons.
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15. |
- Schmitt, T, et al.
(author)
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Resonant soft X-ray emission spectroscopy of doped and undoped vanadium oxides
- 2004
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In: Journal of Alloys and Compounds. - 0925-8388 .- 1873-4669. ; 362:1-2, s. 143-150
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Resonant soft X-ray emission (RSXE) spectra of NaV2O5, MoxV1-xO2 and V2O3 have been recorded for a series of excitation energies at resonances of the V L- and O K-absorption band. Resonant excitation allows us, firstly, to separate V 3d and O 2p projected density-of-states of the valence band and, secondly, to study charge-neutral low-energy excitations due to resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS). We found that both the V L- and the O K-emission spectra clearly show components originating from O 2p- and V 3d-states, reflecting the high degree of hybridization of the valence band in all compounds. At threshold excitation we observed that NaV2O5 spectra are dominated by RIXS whereas MoxV1-xO2 and V2O3 spectra show bandlike features, which may be due to differences in the correlation effects of the compounds. We compared the RSXE spectra with cluster model calculations, which gives a good account for NaV2O5 whereas the RSXE spectra of the other compounds show RIXS only at certain energies well above the threshold. In fact, we interpret the trend in the RSXE spectra of the MoxV1-xO2 compound system as a successive filling of the (rigid) V 3d band with increasing Mo content. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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16. |
- Sumi, T., et al.
(author)
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The first Neptune analog or super-earth with a Neptune-like orbit : MOA-2013-BLG-605LB
- 2016
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In: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X. ; 825:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present the discovery of the first Neptune analog exoplanet or super-Earth with a Neptune-like orbit, MOA-2013-BLG-605Lb. This planet has a mass similar to that of Neptune or a super-Earth and it orbits at 9 ∼ 14 times the expected position of the snow line, a snow, which is similar to Neptune's separation of 11 a snow from the Sun. The planet/host-star mass ratio is q = (3.6 ± 0.7) × 10-4 and the projected separation normalized by the Einstein radius is s = 2.39 ± 0.05. There are three degenerate physical solutions and two of these are due to a new type of degeneracy in the microlensing parallax parameters, which we designate "the wide degeneracy." The three models have (i) a Neptune-mass planet with a mass of Mp = 21-7 +6M⊕ orbiting a low-mass M-dwarf with a mass of Mh = 0.19-0.06 +0.05M⊙, (ii) a mini-Neptune with Mp = 7.9-1.2 +1.8M⊕ orbiting a brown dwarf host with Mh = 0.068-0.011 +0.019M⊙, and (iii) a super-Earth with Mp = 3.2-0.3 +0.5MM⊕ orbiting a low-mass brown dwarf host with Mh = 0.025-0.0004 +0.005M⊙, which is slightly favored. The 3D planet-host separations are 4.6-1.2 +4.7au, 2.1-0.2 +1.0au, and 0.94-0.02 +0.67au, which are 8.9-1.4 +10.5, 12-1 +7, or 14-1 +11 times larger than a snow for these models, respectively. Keck adaptive optics observations confirm that the lens is faint. This discovery suggests that low-mass planets with Neptune-like orbits are common. Therefore processes similar to the one that formed Neptune in our own solar system or cold super-Earths may be common in other solar systems.
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- Brett, Calvin, et al.
(author)
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Humidity-Induced Nanoscale Restructuring in PEDOT:PSS and Cellulose Nanofibrils Reinforced Biobased Organic Electronics
- 2021
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In: Advanced Electronic Materials. - : Wiley. - 2199-160X. ; 7:6, s. 2100137-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In times where research focuses on the use of organic polymers as a base for complex organic electronic applications and improving device efficiencies, degradation is still less intensively addressed in fundamental studies. Hence, advanced neutron scattering methods are applied to investigate a model system for organic electronics composed of the widely used conductive polymer blend poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) together with nanocellulose as flexible reinforcing template material. In particular, the impact of relative humidity (RH) on the nanostructure evolution is studied in detail. The implications are discussed from a device performance point of view and the changing nanostructure is correlated with macroscale physical properties such as conductivity. The first humidification (95% RH) leads to an irreversible decrease of conductivity. After the first humidification cycle, however, the conductivity can be reversibly regained when returning to low humidity values (5% RH), which is important for device manufacturing. This finding can directly contribute to an improved usability of emerging organic electronics in daily live.
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20. |
- Hirao, Yuki, et al.
(author)
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OGLE-2017-BLG-0406 : Spitzer Microlens Parallax Reveals Saturn-mass Planet Orbiting M-dwarf Host in the Inner Galactic Disk
- 2020
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In: Astronomical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-6256 .- 1538-3881. ; 160:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the discovery and analysis of the planetary microlensing event OGLE-2017-BLG-0406, which was observed both from the ground and by the Spitzer satellite in a solar orbit. At high magnification, the anomaly in the light curve was densely observed by ground-based-survey and follow-up groups, and it was found to be explained by a planetary lens with a planet/host mass ratio of q = 7.0 x 10(-4) from the light-curve modeling. The ground-only and Spitzer-only data each provide very strong one-dimensional (1D) constraints on the 2D microlens parallax vector pi(E). When combined, these yield a precise measurement of pi(E) and of the masses of the host M-host = 0.56 +/- 0.07 M-circle dot and planet M-planet = 0.41 +/- 0.05 M-Jup. The system lies at a distance D-L = 5.2 +/- 0.5 kpc from the Sun toward the Galactic bulge, and the host is more likely to be a disk population star according to the kinematics of the lens. The projected separation of the planet from the host is a(perpendicular to) = 3.5 +/- 0.3 au (i.e., just over twice the snow line). The Galactic-disk kinematics are established in part from a precise measurement of the source proper motion based on OGLE-IV data. By contrast, the Gaia proper-motion measurement of the source suffers from a catastrophic 10 sigma error.
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21. |
- Ito, T., et al.
(author)
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On Similarity of Turbulence Statistics of a Turbulent Planar Jet Taking the Static Pressure into Account
- 2021
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In: Progress in Turbulence IX. - Cham : Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. ; , s. 43-49
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The pressure gradient in a jet is usually regarded as negligibly small when deriving the streamwise velocity profile from the momentum equations. In addition one assumes that the bulk streamwise momentum is conserved in the streamwise direction. On the other hand, it is known that the pressure distribution in the jet is well balanced with the square of the lateral velocity fluctuation, indicating that pressure is not negligible in the lateral momentum equation. The purpose of this study is to determine the importance of the pressure in the jet by evaluating balances in the streamwise and lateral momentum equations from experimental data measured by a static pressure tube and an X-probe. The turbulence fluctuations and the static pressure indicate similarities in their lateral distributions and are well balanced in the streamwise and lateral momentum equations. Although the contribution of the static pressure to the streamwise momentum is small, it is of the same order as that of the turbulent statistics in the lateral momentum equation.
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