The atomic structure of protons and hydrides in Sm1.92Ca0.08Sn2O7-δ pyrochlore from DFT calculations and FTIR spectroscopy

A combined density functional theory and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy study of the structure and specific site preference of protons and hydrides in the pyrochlore Sm1.92Ca0.08Sn2O7-delta is presented. Two protonic sites of particular high stability are identified, both located on O(1) oxygen atoms closely associated with a Ca dopant. Further, the unexpected presence of Ho hydride defects in undoped, oxygen deficient Sm2Sn2O7 is reported. Finally, the stretching frequencies and relative intensities for these and other sites are calculated. The main features of the Fourier transform infrared spectra are hereby resolved. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4737786

Association of fish consumption and dietary intake of marine n-3 PUFA with myocardial infarction in a prospective Danish cohort study

AbstractSeveral studies have investigated the potential benefits of marine n-3 PUFA in CVD, generally suggesting a lower risk of CHD. However, recent trials have questioned these results. This study investigated the association of fish consumption with dietary intake of marine n-3 PUFA with incident myocardial infarction (MI). In a Danish cohort study, 57 053 subjects between 50 and 64 years of age were enrolled from 1993 to 1997. From national registries, we identified all cases of incident MI. Dietary fish consumption was assessed using a semi-quantitative food questionnaire, including twenty-six questions regarding fish intake. In addition, we calculated the intake of total and individual marine n-3 PUFA. During a median follow-up of 17·0 years, we identified 3089 cases of incident MI. For both men and women, a high intake of fatty fish was inversely related to incident MI. Thus, when comparing the highest and the lowest quintile of fatty fish intake, we found a 12 % lower relative risk of MI in men (hazard ratio (HR) 0·88; 95 % CI 0·77, 1·00) and a 22 % lower relative risk in women (HR 0·78; 95 % CI 0·63, 0·96) after adjustments. For women, similar associations were observed for individual and total marine n-3 PUFA. In contrast, intake of lean fish was not associated with MI. In conclusion, incident MI was inversely related to a high intake of fatty fish, but not lean fish. However, test for trends across quintiles was not statistically significant. In general, this study supports the view that consumption of fatty fish may protect against MI.</jats:p

An isotopic analysis of ionising radiation as a source of sulphuric acid

Sulphuric acid is an important factor in aerosol nucleation and growth. It has been shown that ions enhance the formation of sulphuric acid aerosols, but the exact mechanism has remained undetermined. Furthermore some studies have found a deficiency in the sulphuric acid budget, suggesting a missing source. In this study the production of sulphuric acid from SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; through a number of different pathways is investigated. The production methods are standard gas phase oxidation by OH radicals produced by ozone photolysis with UV light, liquid phase oxidation by ozone, and gas phase oxidation initiated by gamma rays. The distributions of stable sulphur isotopes in the products and substrate were measured using isotope ratio mass spectrometry. All methods produced sulphate enriched in &lt;sup&gt;34&lt;/sup&gt;S and we find an enrichment factor (&amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;34&lt;/sup&gt;S) of 8.7 ± 0.4&amp;permil; (1 standard deviation) for the UV-initiated OH reaction. Only UV light (Hg emission at 253.65 nm) produced a clear non-mass-dependent excess of &lt;sup&gt;33&lt;/sup&gt;S. The pattern of isotopic enrichment produced by gamma rays is similar, but not equal, to that produced by aqueous oxidation of SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; by ozone. This, combined with the relative yields of the experiments, suggests a mechanism in which ionising radiation may lead to hydrated ion clusters that serve as nanoreactors for S(IV) to S(VI) conversion

proGenomes3: approaching one million accurately and consistently annotated high-quality prokaryotic genomes

The interpretation of genomic, transcriptomic and other microbial 'omics data is highly dependent on the availability of well-annotated genomes. As the number of publicly available microbial genomes continues to increase exponentially, the need for quality control and consistent annotation is becoming critical. We present proGenomes3, a database of 907 388 high-quality genomes containing 4 billion genes that passed stringent criteria and have been consistently annotated using multiple functional and taxonomic databases including mobile genetic elements and biosynthetic gene clusters. proGenomes3 encompasses 41 171 species-level clusters, defined based on universal single copy marker genes, for which pan-genomes and contextual habitat annotations are provided. The database is available at http://progenomes.embl.de/

Substitution of Fish for Red Meat or Poultry and Risk of Ischemic Stroke

We investigated the risk of ischemic stroke and its subtypes when red meat or poultry was substituted with fish. A total of 57,053 participants aged 50&#8315;65 years at baseline were included in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health study. All participants filled in a food-frequency questionnaire at recruitment. Potential ischemic stroke cases were identified by linkage to the Danish National Patient Register, and all cases were validated and subclassified. Substitutions were investigated as 150 g/week of fish for 150 g/week of red meat or of poultry using multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression models. During 13.5 years of follow-up, 1879 participants developed an ischemic stroke. Replacing red meat or poultry with fish was not associated with the rate of total ischemic stroke, but there was a statistically significant lower rate of large artery atherosclerosis when fish replaced processed (hazard ratio (HR): 0.78; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.67; 0.90) and unprocessed (HR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.75; 0.99) red meat. A statistically significant higher rate of cardioembolism was found when poultry was replaced by total fish (HR: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.04; 1.93). When fatty fish replaced unprocessed red meat, a statistically significant lower rate of small-vessel occlusion was found (HR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.77; 0.99). In conclusion, replacing red meat with fish was not associated with risk of total ischemic stroke but was associated with a lower risk of subtypes of ischemic stroke

Association and Mutation Analyses of 16p11.2 Autism Candidate Genes

Autism is a complex childhood neurodevelopmental disorder with a strong genetic basis. Microdeletion or duplication of a approximately 500-700-kb genomic rearrangement on 16p11.2 that contains 24 genes represents the second most frequent chromosomal disorder associated with autism. The role of common and rare 16p11.2 sequence variants in autism etiology is unknown.To identify common 16p11.2 variants with a potential role in autism, we performed association studies using existing data generated from three microarray platforms: Affymetrix 5.0 (777 families), Illumina 550 K (943 families), and Affymetrix 500 K (60 families). No common variants were identified that were significantly associated with autism. To look for rare variants, we performed resequencing of coding and promoter regions for eight candidate genes selected based on their known expression patterns and functions. In total, we identified 26 novel variants in autism: 13 exonic (nine non-synonymous, three synonymous, and one untranslated region) and 13 promoter variants. We found a significant association between autism and a coding variant in the seizure-related gene SEZ6L2 (12/1106 autism vs. 3/1161 controls; p = 0.018). Sez6l2 expression in mouse embryos was restricted to the spinal cord and brain. SEZ6L2 expression in human fetal brain was highest in post-mitotic cortical layers, hippocampus, amygdala, and thalamus. Association analysis of SEZ6L2 in an independent sample set failed to replicate our initial findings.We have identified sequence variation in at least one candidate gene in 16p11.2 that may represent a novel genetic risk factor for autism. However, further studies are required to substantiate these preliminary findings

Upper limits on the strength of periodic gravitational waves from PSR J1939+2134

The first science run of the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors presented the opportunity to test methods of searching for gravitational waves from known pulsars. Here we present new direct upper limits on the strength of waves from the pulsar PSR J1939+2134 using two independent analysis methods, one in the frequency domain using frequentist statistics and one in the time domain using Bayesian inference. Both methods show that the strain amplitude at Earth from this pulsar is less than a few times $10^{-22}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the Proceedings of the 5th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, Tirrenia, Pisa, Italy, 6-11 July 200