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In the search for stable and accurate atomic clocks, many-atom lattice clocks have shown higher precision than clocks based on single trapped ions, but have been less accurate; here, a stable many-atom clock is demonstrated that has accuracy better than single-ion clocks.
Warming of the north and tropical Atlantic Ocean, which is associated in part with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (a leading mode of sea surface temperature variability), is shown to affect sea-level pressure in the Amundsen Sea, explaining the accelerated warming of and sea-ice redistribution around the Antarctic Peninsula.
Relatedness can affect fitness through modulation of intrasexual competition in Drosophila melanogaster; male competition and female harm are lower when three related males compete over an unrelated female than when three unrelated males compete, but when two brothers and an unrelated male compete, the unrelated male sires twice as many offspring as either brother, suggesting that minorities of unrelated competitors may be able to infiltrate coalitions of relatives.
Haematopoietic stem cells are found to be regulated differently in male and female mice — haematopoietic stem cells in females divide more frequently than in males in response to oestrogen and this difference depends on the ovaries but not the testes; using a genetic approach, it is shown that the effect is dependent on expression of oestrogen receptor-α (ERα) in stem cells.
Exome sequence analysis of more than 5,000 schizophrenia cases and controls identifies a polygenic burden primarily arising from rare, disruptive mutations distributed across many genes, among which are those encoding voltage-gated calcium ion channels and the signalling complex formed by the ARC protein of the postsynaptic density; as in autism, mutations were also found in homologues of known targets of the fragile X mental retardation protein.
A genetic locus from the gut symbiont Bacteroides ovatus is identified and described that encodes a cohort of enzymes and carbohydrate-binding proteins necessary for the metabolism of xyloglucans—a predominant component of dietary fibre.
Tissue-resident macrophages are shown to stop lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation by spreading an anti-inflammatory calcium signal to alveolar epithelial cells through connexin-43-positive gap junction channels.
Evolutionary study of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) repertoires and expression patterns in 11 tetrapod species identifies approximately 11,000 primate-specific lncRNAs and 2,500 highly conserved lncRNAs, including approximately 400 genes that are likely to have ancient origins; many lncRNAs, particularly ancient ones, are actively regulated and may function mainly in embryonic development.
Here, the helix–loop–helix transcription factor Ascl2 is shown to be critically important for the initiation of follicular T-helper-cell development and the germinal centre response.
Observations of a cosmic web filament have been made in Lyman-α emission; the filament has a projected size of approximately 460 physical kiloparsecs, and its estimated cold gas mass is more than ten times larger than what is typically found in cosmological simulations.
Rates of river incision into bedrock are thought to reflect rates of rock uplift as well as the strength of climatic forcing of erosion over time, but here incision rate is shown to depend on the measurement interval.
Sea-ice leads (open water channels), which increase with an ongoing shift from perennial to seasonal sea ice, are shown to initiate convection in the Arctic boundary layer, thus supplying ozone and gaseous mercury to the surface and possibly leading to additional pollution effects.
A mouse model shows that osteoblast activating β-catenin mutations alone are sufficient to initiate the development of acute myeloid leukaemia acting through increased Notch signalling.
Direct neural recordings from electrodes over bilateral cortices show that sensory–motor transformations for speech occur bilaterally; neural responses are robust during both perception and production in an overt word-repetition task, and bilateral sensory–motor responses can perform transformations between speech-perception and speech-production representations during a non-word transformation task.
A global analysis shows that for most tree species the largest trees are the fastest-growing trees, a finding that resolves conflicting assumptions about tree growth and that has implications for understanding forest carbon dynamics, resource allocation trade-offs within trees and plant senescence.
A black hole with mass 3.8 to 6.9 times that of the Sun is found to be orbiting the nearby Be-type star MWC 656; the black hole is encircled by an accretion disk and X-ray quiescent, implying that Be binaries with black-hole companions are difficult to detect in conventional X-ray surveys.
The 1.8 Å high-resolution X-ray crystal structure of the human δ-opioid receptor is presented, with site-directed mutagenesis and functional studies revealing a crucial role for a sodium ion in mediating allosteric control in this receptor.
