The declining occurrence of moose () at the southernmost edge of its range raise conservation concerns.

The border region between Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany harbors the most south-western occurrence of moose in continental Europe. The population originated in Poland, where moose survived, immigrated from former Soviet Union or were reintroduced after the Second World War expanded west- and southwards. In recent years, the distribution of the nonetheless small Central European population seems to have declined, necessitating an evaluation of its current status.

Long-range DNA looping and gene expression analyses identify DEXI as an autoimmune disease candidate gene.

The chromosome 16p13 region has been associated with several autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes (T1D) and multiple sclerosis (MS). CLEC16A has been reported as the most likely candidate gene in the region, since it contains the most disease-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), as well as an imunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif. However, here we report that intron 19 of CLEC16A, containing the most autoimmune disease-associated SNPs, appears to behave as a regulatory sequence, affecting the expression of a neighbouring gene, DEXI.

Tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)tetrahedrane.

Tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)tetrahedrane 3 has been synthesized upon irradiation of tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)cyclobutadiene 8, which can be prepared either by thermal nitrogen elimination from trimethylsilyl[1,2,3-tris(trimethylsilyl)-2-cycloprop-1-enyl]diazomethane 7 or by mild oxidation of cyclobutadiene dianion 9 with 1,2-dibromoethane. The structural characterization of tetrahedrane 3 has been achieved by X-ray crystallography. The surprising thermal stability of 3 - which is stable up to 300 degrees C - is discussed.