Asia harbors substantial cultural and linguistic diversity, but the geographic structure of genetic variation across the continent remains enigmatic. Here we report a large-scale survey of autosomal variation from a broad geographic sample of Asian human populations. Our results show that genetic ancestry is strongly correlated with linguistic affiliations as well as geography. Most populations show relatedness within ethnic/linguistic groups, despite prevalent gene flow among populations. More than 90% of East Asian (EA) haplotypes could be found in either Southeast Asian (SEA) or Central-South Asian (CSA) populations and show clinal structure with haplotype diversity decreasing from south to north. Furthermore, 50% of EA haplotypes were found in SEA only and 5% were found in CSA only, indicating that SEA was a major geographic source of EA populations.

It is being realized that identification of subgroups within normal controls corresponding to contrasting disease susceptibility is likely to lead to more effective predictive marker discovery. We have previously used the Ayurvedic concept of Prakriti , which relates to phenotypic differences in normal individuals, including response to external environment as well as susceptibility to diseases, to explore molecular differences between three contrasting Prakriti types: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha . EGLN1 was one among 251 differentially expressed genes between the Prakriti types. In the present study, we report a link between high-altitude adaptation and common variations rs479200 (C/T) and rs480902 (T/C) in the EGLN1 gene. Furthermore, the TT genotype of rs479200, which was more frequent in Kapha types and correlated with higher expression of EGLN1 , was associated with patients suffering from high-altitude pulmonary edema, whereas it was present at a significantly lower frequency in Pitta and nearly absent in natives of high altitude. Analysis of Human Genome Diversity Panel-Centre d’Etude du Polymorphisme Humain (HGDP-CEPH) and Indian Genome Variation Consortium panels showed that disparate genetic lineages at high altitudes share the same ancestral allele (T) of rs480902 that is overrepresented in Pitta and positively correlated with altitude globally ( P < 0.001), including in India. Thus, EGLN1 polymorphisms are associated with high-altitude adaptation, and a genotype rare in highlanders but overrepresented in a subgroup of normal lowlanders discernable by Ayurveda may confer increased risk for high-altitude pulmonary edema.

We investigate surface plasmon amplification in a silver nanoparticle coupled to an externally driven threelevel gain medium, and show that quantum coherence significantly enhances the generation of surface plasmons. Surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation is achieved in the absence of population inversion on the spasing transition, which reduces the pump requirements. The coherent drive allows us to control the dynamics, and holds promise for quantum control of nanoplasmonic devices. 78.20Bh,78.45.+h Quantum nanoplasmonics is a promising active field of research which involves quantum mechanical control of plasmon resonances [1,2], quantum optical applications using plasmons [3,4] and the development of active plasmonic devices [5]. Surface plasmons (SPs) localize the light within subwavelength volumes which makes them an ideal tool for enhancing and controlling the light-matter interaction at the nanoscale. Although amplification of light is generally bound to the limit of diffraction, it has been shown that stimulated emission of SPs can coherently amplify optical fields in smaller volumes, thus generating highly localized field of interest for both applied and fundamental physics [5][6][7][8]. Spasers and nano-lasers have been experimentally demonstrated recently [9-13] and may find applications, for example, in sensing, bio-imaging and spectroscopy [14]. Recent progress in nanophotonics has led to the possibility of controlling many aspects of light with a single layer of nanostructured elements [15][16][17]. These techniques based on optical phase discontinuities, require light amplification at the nanoscale to achieve high throughput.Several technical challenges, however, must be overcome in order to realize reliable, efficient, high-gain spasers. First, spasers have high thresholds which may limit their use in applications [18]. Second, in addition to the threshold problem, spasers have low efficiencies, generating only few plasmons per spasing mode [5][6][7][8]. These limitations of spasers with two-level gain medium are related to the effect of gain saturation caused by the feedback of SP modes on the gain medium. After a short time, absorption and emission become equal, leading to saturation. One way to circumvent this is by adding a saturable absorber (bistable spaser) [8] which poses technological challenges. Moreover, further increase of the input field intensity leads to extra Ohmic losses due to heating of the metallic surface.The field of nanophotonics would benefit from the development of nanoscale coherent sources with increased field intensity output, lower threshold and with performance con- The threelevel gain medium is excited by an external incoherent pump g to the upper state |3 which decays to states |1 and |2 . The |2 → |1 transition is nearly resonant with the plasmon mode of the silver nanosphere such that the state |2 decays by emitting SPs via energy transfer. The plasmonic oscillations of the nanosphere stimulate this emission, supplying coherent feedb...

IHC is an easy and quick method of detecting IDH1-R132H mutations, but there may be some discrepancies between IHC and DNA sequencing. Although there were no false-negative cases, cross-reactivity with IDH1-R132L was seen in 3, a finding not reported thus far. Because of more universal availability of IHC over genetic testing, cross-reactivity and staining heterogeneity may have bearing over its use in detecting IDH1-R132H mutation in gliomas.