Meta-analysis of genome-wide association for migraine in six population-based European cohorts

Migraine is a common neurological disorder with a genetically complex background. This paper describes a meta-analysis of genome-wide association (GWA) studies on migraine, performed by the Dutch-Icelandic migraine genetics (DICE) consortium, which brings together six population-based European migraine cohorts with a total sample size of 10,980 individuals (2446 cases and 8534 controls). A total of 32 SNPs showed marginal evidence for association at a P-value<10(-5). The best result was obtained for SNP rs9908234, which had a P-value of 8.00 x 10(-8). This top SNP is located in the nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR) gene. However, this SNP did not replicate in three cohorts from the Netherlands and Australia. Of the other 31 SNPs, 18 SNPs were tested in two replication cohorts, but none replicated. In addition, we explored previously identified candidate genes in the meta-analysis data set. This revealed a modest gene-based significant association between migraine and the metadherin (MTDH) gene, previously identified in the first clinic-based GWA study (GWAS) for migraine (Bonferroni-corrected gene-based P-value=0.026). This finding is consistent with the involvement of the glutamate pathway in migraine. Additional research is necessary to further confirm the involvement of glutamate.

The shared genetics of migraine and anxious depression

OBJECTIVES To investigate: - (1) whether shared genetic factors influence migraine and anxious depression; - (2) whether the genetic architecture of migraine depends on anxious depression; - (3) whether the association between migraine and anxious depression is causal. BACKGROUND Migraine and anxious depression frequently occur together, but little is known about the mechanisms causing this association. METHODS A twin study was conducted to model the genetic architecture of migraine and anxious depression and the covariance between them. Anxious depression was also added to the model as a moderator variable to examine whether anxious depression affects the genetic architecture of migraine. Causal models were explored with the co-twin control method. RESULTS Modest but significant phenotypic (rP=0.28), genetic (rG=0.30), and nonshared environmental (rE=0.26) correlations were found between the 2 traits. Interestingly, the heritability of migraine depended on the level of anxious depression: the higher the anxious depression score, the lower the relative contribution of genetic factors to the individual differences in migraine susceptibility. The observed risk patterns in discordant twins are most consistent with a bidirectional causal relationship. CONCLUSIONS These findings confirm the genetic association between migraine and anxious depression and are consistent with a syndromic association between the 2 traits. This highlights the importance of taking comorbidity into account in genetic studies of migraine, especially in the context of selection for large-scale genotyping efforts. Genetic studies may be most effective when migraine with and without comorbid anxious depression are treated as separate phenotypes.

Meta-analysis identifies 13 new loci associated with waist-hip ratio and reveals sexual dimorphism in the genetic basis of fat distribution

Waist-hip ratio (WHR) is a measure of body fat distribution and a predictor of metabolic consequences independent of overall adiposity. WHR is heritable, but few genetic variants influencing this trait have been identified. We conducted a meta-analysis of 32 genome-wide association studies for WHR adjusted for body mass index (comprising up to 77,167 participants), following up 16 loci in an additional 29 studies (comprising up to 113,636 subjects). We identified 13 new loci in or near RSPO3, VEGFA, TBX15-WARS2, NFE2L3, GRB14, DNM3-PIGC, ITPR2-SSPN, LY86, HOXC13, ADAMTS9, ZNRF3-KREMEN1, NISCH-STAB1 and CPEB4 (P = 1.9 × 10−9 to P = 1.8 × 10−40) and the known signal at LYPLAL1. Seven of these loci exhibited marked sexual dimorphism, all with a stronger effect on WHR in women than men (P for sex difference = 1.9 × 10−3 to P = 1.2 × 10−13). These findings provide evidence for multiple loci that modulate body fat distribution independent of overall adiposity and reveal strong gene-by-sex interactions.

North American Jewish Students Appeal records, undated, 1962, 1964-1996 (bulk 1971-1995)

The records of the North American Jewish Students Appeal (NAJSA or APPEAL) contains documents on two levels of concern: those documents dealing with the NAJSA as a student-run organization promoting Jewish identity among college-aged youth; and those documents dealing with the APPEAL as a fundraising organization for several well-known student constituent organizations. The Constituents were: the Jewish Student Press Service, Lights in Action, the North American Jewish Students Network, the Progressive Zionist Caucus, Response: A Contemporary Jewish Review, Yavneh Religious Students Organization, and Yugntruf Youth for Yiddish. Documents include correspondence, financial records, minutes, press releases, information on grants awarded to student organizations for programming and publishing, student journals, and newspapers, photographs, and ephemera.

Two Complete Genome Sequences of Phasey Bean Mild Yellows Virus, a Novel Member of the Luteoviridae from Australia

We present here the complete genome sequences of a novel polerovirus from Trifolium subterraneum (subterranean clover) and Cicer arietinum (chickpea) and compare these to a partial viral genome sequence obtained from Macroptilium lathyroides (phasey bean). We propose the name phasey bean mild yellows virus for this novel polerovirus.

Towards a typology of hashtag publics: A large-scale comparative study of user engagement across trending topics

Twitter’s hashtag functionality is now used for a very wide variety of purposes, from covering crises and other breaking news events through gathering an instant community around shared media texts (such as sporting events and TV broadcasts) to signalling emotive states from amusement to despair. These divergent uses of the hashtag are increasingly recognised in the literature, with attention paid especially to the ability for hashtags to facilitate the creation of ad hoc or hashtag publics. A more comprehensive understanding of these different uses of hashtags has yet to be developed, however. Previous research has explored the potential for a systematic analysis of the quantitative metrics that could be generated from processing a series of hashtag datasets. Such research found, for example, that crisis-related hashtags exhibited a significantly larger incidence of retweets and tweets containing URLs than hashtags relating to televised events, and on this basis hypothesised that the information-seeking and -sharing behaviours of Twitter users in such different contexts were substantially divergent. This article updates such study and their methodology by examining the communicative metrics of a considerably larger and more diverse number of hashtag datasets, compiled over the past five years. This provides an opportunity both to confirm earlier findings, as well as to explore whether hashtag use practices may have shifted subsequently as Twitter’s userbase has developed further; it also enables the identification of further hashtag types beyond the “crisis” and “mainstream media event” types outlined to date. The article also explores the presence of such patterns beyond recognised hashtags, by incorporating an analysis of a number of keyword-based datasets. This large-scale, comparative approach contributes towards the establishment of a more comprehensive typology of hashtags and their publics, and the metrics it describes will also be able to be used to classify new hashtags emerging in the future. In turn, this may enable researchers to develop systems for automatically distinguishing newly trending topics into a number of event types, which may be useful for example for the automatic detection of acute crises and other breaking news events.

Efecto del sistema lactoperoxidasa en la conservación de la leche cruda en dos fincas de la comunidad Monte Rosa, El Rama - RAAS, Nicaragua

RESUMEN Con el objetivo de conocer el efecto del sistema lactoperoxidasa, mejor conocido como stabilak, para la conservación de la leche, se desarrollo un estudio en El Rama ubicado en la Región Autónoma Sur de Nicaragua, en las fincas El paraíso y Las Lomas, del 17 de Agosto al 24 de Septiembre – 2011, se determinaron dos tratamientos T1 con stabilak y T2 sin stabilak o testigo, se tomaron un total de 480 muestras y se analizaron, para valorar su calidad. En las fincas seleccionadas se realizó el muestreo, tres veces por semana, en cada día se tomaba tres muestras de leche, para cada una de ellas se les determinó la prueba de acidez (204 muestras) y la prueba de alcohol (204 muestras), excepto para la prueba de reductasa que se realizó una por día (72 muestras). Los datos, se pr ocesaron en los programas estadísticos SAS y SPSS. Se encontró que los mejores comportamientos de preservación de la leche fue en la finca Las Lomas y cuando se utilizó el stabilak, donde la acidez reportó veinte y siete muestras con acidez aceptable, de 1 5 a 16 ml NaOH 0.1N/100 ml, con la prueba de alcohol, veinte y siete muestras negativas, en cambio en El Paraíso, veinte y cuatro muestras con acidez aceptable y con la prueba de alcohol reportaron 27 muestras negativas. La clasificación de la leche, A, B y C, se realizó, con la prueba de Reductasa en: A Las Lomas con 13 muestras y El Paraíso con 8, en B: 10 muestras en El Paraíso, 5 en Las Lomas, en C no se reportó ninguna. En conclusión, el efecto del stabilak, mantiene los parámetros de calidad, según normativas nacional, Siendo el sistema lactoperoxidasa más eficaz, cuando se aplican las buenas prácticas de higiene en el ordeño.

Evaluación preliminar de dos variedades de frijol común (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) inoculadas en diferentes etapas fenológicas con el virus del mosaico común del frijol BCMV

Con el objetivo de evaluar la respuesta de dos variedades de frijol Phaseolus vulgaris L. al virus del mosaico común del frijol (BCMV) se llevó acabo este trabajo en dos etapas de investigación; La etapa I se realizó en la Universidad Nacional Agraria, en los meses de julio a septiembre de 1991, y la etapa II en la estación experimental La Compañía, en los meses de octubre a diciembre de 1991. Para la etapa I, se sembraron en 40 maceteras, semillas de frijol de las variedades Criolla A-1936 y Revolución 79. En la etapa II los tratamientos estaban arreglados en un Bloque Completamente al Azar en un arreglo de parcelas divididas con tres repeticiones. En las dos etapas las variedades fueron inoculadas mecánicamente en tres momentos a los 7, 15, y 21 días después de la emergencia (DDE), y un testigo sin inocular en la etapa I. Se describieron los síntomas y se tomaron los datos de rendimiento. En las dos etapas de investigación ambas variedades resultaron susceptibles al virus. Tendiendo a ser más afectada en los rendimientos la variedad Revolución 79 que la Criolla a-1936 en la etapa II. El momento de inoculación en el que las variedades fueron más afectadas fue a los 15 DDE y no a los 7 DDE y de manera más notable en la variedad Criolla A-1936, esta respuesta se atribuye a: la temperatura, la concentración del virus y a la respuesta de hipersensibilidad en el caso particular de la variedad Criolla A-1936.

Validación de cuatro híbridos de repollo (Brassica oleracea vr. capitata) en época de riego a la comunidad Almaciguera - Estelí 2003

El repollo (Brassica oleracea vr capitata), es una de las hortalizas de mayor importancia económica y consumo en Nicaragua, ocupando el primer lugar dentro de los vegetales de hojas, tallos, brotes y flores. Las zonas de siembra del cultivo son Matagalpa, Jinotega, Carazo, El Crucero y Estelí. Uno de los obstáculos en la producción de repollo ha sido la continua utilización del híbrido lzalco, lo que ha provocado la pérdida de sus propiedades agronómicas como resistencia a plagas y enfermedades, generando pérdidas por los altos costos y los bajos precios en el mercado, para esto ha sido necesario buscar alternativas de recursos genéticos (variedad o híbrido) que sustituya al tradicional. El presente estudio se realizó en el departamento de Estelí, comunidad La Almaciguera, finca Las Nubes (1250 - 1450 msnm), en época de riego con el fin de validar características agronómicas de cuatro híbridos de repollo, involucrando a los productores en el proceso de validación. Se estableció un semillero en Enero del 2003. El diseño experimental utilizado fue un BCA (Bloque completo al Azar), con un área experimental de 462.30 m2 el que contaba con tres repeticiones. Los tratamientos validados fueron los híbridos EM-245, EM-532, Valverde e lzalco (testigo). Las variables se midieron en tres etapas: semillero, desarrollo vegetativo y cosecha. Los datos se analizaron a través de ANDEVA mediante el programa Excel (Microsoft Windows 98), las separaciones de medias se realizaron de forma manual utilizando la tabla de Duncan (Pr < 0.05). Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que para la etapa de semillero el tratamiento que sobresalió en las variables largo de hoja y altura de la planta fue EM-532, en cambio el mayor ancho de hojas lo obtuvo lzalco. En desarrollo vegetativo la mayor altura de planta la presentó Valverde y en el ancho de hoja el híbrido que sobresalió durante toda la etapa fue EM-532. En cosecha los híbridos EM-245, EM-532 y Valverde superaron a lzalco en cuanto a diámetro polar, peso y rendimiento.

San Francisco Bay regional sediment management strategy development

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), in continued partnership with the San Francisco Bay Long Term Management Strategies (LTMS) Agencies, is undertaking the development of a Regional Sediment Management Plan for the San Francisco Bay estuary and its watershed (estuary). Regional sediment management (RSM) is the integrated management of littoral, estuarine, and riverine sediments to achieve balanced and sustainable solutions to sediment related needs. Regional sediment management recognizes sediment as a resource. Sediment processes are important components of coastal and riverine systems that are integral to environmental and economic vitality. It relies on the context of the sediment system and forecasting the long-range effects of management actions when making local project decisions. In the San Francisco Bay estuary, the sediment system includes the Sacramento and San Joaquin delta, the bay, its local tributaries and the near shore coastal littoral cell. Sediment flows from the top of the watershed, much like water, to the coast, passing through rivers, marshes, and embayments on its way to the ocean. Like water, sediment is vital to these habitats and their inhabitants, providing nutrients and the building material for the habitat itself. When sediment erodes excessively or is impounded behind structures, the sediment system becomes imbalanced, and rivers become clogged or conversely, shorelines, wetlands and subtidal habitats erode. The sediment system continues to change in response both to natural processes and human activities such as climate change and shoreline development. Human activities that influence the sediment system include flood protection programs, watershed management, navigational dredging, aggregate mining, shoreline development, terrestrial, riverine, wetland, and subtidal habitat restoration, and beach nourishment. As observed by recent scientific analysis, the San Francisco Bay estuary system is changing from one that was sediment rich to one that is erosional. Such changes, in conjunction with increasing sea level rise due to climate change, require that the estuary sediment and sediment transport system be managed as a single unit. To better manage the system, its components, and human uses of the system, additional research and knowledge of the system is needed. Fortunately, new sediment science and modeling tools provide opportunities for a vastly improved understanding of the sediment system, predictive capabilities and analysis of potential individual and cumulative impacts of projects. As science informs management decisions, human activities and management strategies may need to be modified to protect and provide for existing and future infrastructure and ecosystem needs. (PDF contains 3 pages)

Multilayer Active Shell Mirrors

This thesis presents a novel active mirror technology based on carbon fiber composites and replication manufacturing processes. Multiple additional layers are implemented into the structure in order to provide the reflective layer, actuation capabilities and electrode routing. The mirror is thin, lightweight, and has large actuation capabilities. These features, along with the associated manufacturing processes, represent a significant change in design compared to traditional optics. Structural redundancy in the form of added material or support structures is replaced by thin, unsupported lightweight substrates with large actuation capabilities.

Several studies motivated by the desire to improve as-manufactured figure quality are performed. Firstly, imperfections in thin CFRP laminates and their effect on post-cure shape errors are studied. Numerical models are developed and compared to experimental measurements on flat laminates. Techniques to mitigate figure errors for thicker laminates are also identified. A method of properly integrating the reflective facesheet onto the front surface of the CFRP substrate is also presented. Finally, the effect of bonding multiple initially flat active plates to the backside of a curved CFRP substrate is studied. Figure deformations along with local surface defects are predicted and characterized experimentally. By understanding the mechanics behind these processes, significant improvements to the overall figure quality have been made.

Studies related to the actuation response of the mirror are also performed. The active properties of two materials are characterized and compared. Optimal active layer thicknesses for thin surface-parallel schemes are determined. Finite element simulations are used to make predictions on shape correction capabilities, demonstrating high correctabiliity and stroke over low-order modes. The effect of actuator saturation is studied and shown to significantly degrade shape correction performance.

The initial figure as well as actuation capabilities of a fully-integrated active mirror prototype are characterized experimentally using a Projected Hartmann test. A description of the test apparatus is presented along with two verification measurements. The apparatus is shown to accurately capture both high-amplitude low spatial-frequency figure errors as well as those at lower amplitudes but higher spatial frequencies. A closed-loop figure correction is performed, reducing figure errors by 94%.