The lattice parameters of rare earth metal disilicides at high temperature play a crucial role in the growth of these disilicide nanowires, which takes place at about 873K. In the present study, the lattice parameters of Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Sc and ErxGd1-x disilicides with AlB 2 structure were measured from room temperature to about 873K by high temperature X-ray diffraction (HTXRD), from which the linear coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) along each crystallographic axis was determined. The influence of the CTEs on the growth of nanowires will be discussed in terms of anisotropic strain. With these CTEs, the composition of a ternary disilicide, (ErxGd1-x)Si1.67, for example, with optimal lattice parameters at nanowire growth temperature can be engineered to meet the requirement for the growth of high-quality nanowires.

Asthma is a common chronic respiratory disease characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR). The genetics of asthma have been widely studied in mouse and human, and homologous genomic regions have been associated with mouse AHR and human asthma-relate

Inhaled short-acting beta-agonist (SABA) medication is commonly used in asthma patients to rapidly reverse airway obstruction and improve acute symptoms. We performed a genome-wide association study of SABA medication response using gene-based association

The causes of individual relapses in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) remain incompletely understood. We evaluated the contribution of germline genetic factors to relapse in 2225 children treated on Children's Oncology Group trial AALL0232. We identified 302 germline single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with relapse after adjusting for treatment and ancestry and 715 additional SNPs associated with relapse in an ancestry-specific manner. We tested for replication of these relapse-associated SNPs in external data sets of antileukemic drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and an independent clinical cohort. 224 SNPs were associated with rapid drug clearance or drug resistance, and 32 were replicated in the independent cohort. The adverse risk associated with black and Hispanic ancestries was attenuated by addition of the 4 SNPs most strongly associated with relapse in these populations (for blacks: model without SNPs hazard ratio (HR)=2.32, P=2.27 × 10^-4, model with SNPs HR=1.07, P=0.79; for Hispanics: model without SNPs HR=1.7, P=8.23 × 10^-5, model with SNPs HR=1.31, P=0.065). Relapse SNPs associated with asparaginase resistance or allergy were overrepresented among SNPs associated with relapse in the more asparaginase intensive treatment arm (20/54 in Capizzi-methorexate arm vs 8/54 in high-dose methotrexate arm, P=0.015). Inherited genetic variation contributes to race-specific and treatment-specific relapse risk.