Sleep characteristics modify the association between genetic predisposition to obesity and anthropometric measurements in 119,679 UK Biobank participants

Background - Obesity is a multifactorial condition influenced by genetics, lifestyle and environment. Objective - To investigate whether the association between a validated genetic profile risk score for obesity (GPRS-obesity) with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) was modified by sleep characteristics. Design - This study included cross-sectional data from 119,859 white European adults, aged 37-73 years, participating on the UK Biobank. Interactions between GPRS-obesity, and sleep characteristics (sleep duration, chronotype, day napping, and shift work) in their effects on BMI and WC were investigated. Results - The GPRS-obesity was associated with BMI (β:0.57 kg.m-2 per standard deviation (SD) increase in GPRS, [95%CI:0.55, 0.60]; P=6.3x10-207) and WC (β:1.21 cm, [1.15, 1.28]; P=4.2x10-289). There were significant interactions between GPRS-obesity and a variety of sleep characteristics in their relationship with BMI (P-interaction <0.05). In participants who slept <7 hrs or >9 hrs daily, the effect of GPRS-obesity on BMI was stronger (β:0.60 [0.54, 0.65] and 0.73 [0.49, 0.97] kg.m-2 per SD increase in GPRS, respectively) than in normal length sleepers (7-9 hours; β:0.52 [0.49, 0.55] kg.m-2 per SD). A similar pattern was observed for shiftworkers (β:0.68 [0.59, 0.77] versus 0.54 [0.51, 0.58] kg.m-2 for non-shiftworkers) and for night-shiftworkers (β:0.69 [0.56, 0.82] versus 0.55 [0.51, 0.58] kg.m-2 for non-night- shiftworkers), for those taking naps during the day (β:0.65 [0.52, 0.78] versus 0.51 [0.48, 0.55] kg.m-2 for those who never/rarely had naps) and for those with a self-reported evening chronotype (β:0.72 [0.61, 0.82] versus β:0.52 [0.47, 0.57] kg.m-2 for morning chronotype). Similar findings were obtained using WC as the outcome. Conclusions – This study shows that the association between genetic risk for obesity and phenotypic adiposity measures is exacerbated by adverse sleeping characteristics

Alzheimer disease genetic risk factor APOE e4, and cognitive abilities in 111,739 UK Biobank participants

Background: the apolipoprotein (APOE) e4 locus is a genetic risk factor for dementia. Carriers of the e4 allele may be more vulnerable to conditions that are independent risk factors for cognitive decline, such as cardiometabolic diseases. Objective: we tested whether any association with APOE e4 status on cognitive ability was larger in older ages or in those with cardiometabolic diseases. Subjects: UK Biobank includes over 500,000 middle- and older aged adults who have undergone detailed medical and cognitive phenotypic assessment. Around 150,000 currently have genetic data. We examined 111,739 participants with complete genetic and cognitive data. Methods: baseline cognitive data relating to information processing speed, memory and reasoning were used. We tested for interactions with age and with the presence versus absence of type 2 diabetes (T2D), coronary artery disease (CAD) and hypertension. Results: in several instances, APOE e4 dosage interacted with older age and disease presence to affect cognitive scores. When adjusted for potentially confounding variables, there was no APOE e4 effect on the outcome variables. Conclusions: future research in large independent cohorts should continue to investigate this important question, which has potential implications for aetiology related to dementia and cognitive impairment

Dietary fat and total energy intake modifies the association of genetic profile risk score on obesity: evidence from 48 170 UK Biobank participants

Background: Obesity is a multifactorial condition influenced by both genetics and lifestyle. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the association between a validated genetic profile risk score for obesity (GPRS-obesity) and body mass index (BMI) or waist circumference (WC) was modified by macronutrient intake in a large general population study. Methods: This study included cross-sectional data from 48 170 white European adults, aged 37–73 years, participating on the UK Biobank. Interactions between GPRS-obesity, and macronutrient intake (including total energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate and dietary fibre intake) and its effects on BMI and WC were investigated. Results: The 93-SNPs genetic profile risk score was associated with a higher BMI (β:0.57 kg.m−2 per standard deviation (s.d.) increase in GPRS, [95%CI:0.53–0.60]; P=1.9 × 10−183) independent of major confounding factors. There was a significant interaction between GPRS and total fat intake (P[interaction]=0.007). Among high fat intake individuals, BMI was higher by 0.60 [0.52, 0.67] kg.m−2 per s.d. increase in GPRS-obesity; the change in BMI with GPRS was lower among low fat intake individuals (β:0.50 [0.44, 0.57] kg.m-2). Significant interactions with similar patterns were observed for saturated fat intake (High β:0.66 [0.59, 0.73] versus Low β:0.49 [0.42, 0.55] kg.m-2, P-interaction=2 × 10-4), and total energy intake (High β:0.58 [0.51, 0.64] versus Low β:0.49 [0.42, 0.56] kg.m−2, P-interaction=0.019), but not for protein intake, carbohydrate intake and fiber intake (P-interaction >0.05). The findings were broadly similar using WC as the outcome. Conclusions: These data suggest that the benefits of reducing the intake of fats and total energy intake, may be more important in individuals with high genetic risk for obesity

Fatty acid profile of lamb meat from two portuguese autochthonous breeds

In Portugal, sheep and goat meat production accounts for 2.8% of the total meat production in the country; and it is capable of supplying approximately 82% of the domestic demand (INE, 2015). Churra-Galega-Bragançana (CGB) and Bordaleira-entre-Douro-e-Minho (BEDM) are two native breeds of the north of Portugal, classified as endangered lamb breeds. These breeds are exploited for meat production, the former in the Atlantic bio-region and the latter in the Mediterranean area. Production factors, such as breed, have a great influence on nutritional aspects related with the content and quality of fat and fatty acid profile (Frank et al., 2016), which are considered important quality indicators that have a great influence on consumer acceptability (Andersen et al., 2005), especially nowadays as consumers have become increasingly concerned about health and the relationship between meat consumption and saturated fatty acids (Leroy and De Smet, 2019). These autochthonous breeds constitute an important genetic heritage that must be preserved, so assessing their fatty acid profile will allow a correct characterization of these breeds and their products.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Genome-wide association study of multisite chronic pain in UK Biobank

Chronic pain is highly prevalent worldwide and represents a significant socioeconomic and public health burden. Several aspects of chronic pain, for example back pain and a severity-related phenotype ‘chronic pain grade’, have been shown previously to be complex heritable traits with a polygenic component. Additional pain-related phenotypes capturing aspects of an individual’s overall sensitivity to experiencing and reporting chronic pain have also been suggested as a focus for investigation. We made use of a measure of the number of sites of chronic pain in individuals within the UK general population. This measure, termed Multisite Chronic Pain (MCP), is a complex trait and its genetic architecture has not previously been investigated. To address this, we carried out a large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) of MCP in ~380,000 UK Biobank participants. Our findings were consistent with MCP having a significant polygenic component, with a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) heritability of 10.2%. In total 76 independent lead SNPs at 39 risk loci were associated with MCP. Additional gene-level association analyses identified neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, nervous system development, cell-cycle progression and apoptosis genes as enriched for genetic association with MCP. Genetic correlations were observed between MCP and a range of psychiatric, autoimmune and anthropometric traits, including major depressive disorder (MDD), asthma and Body Mass Index (BMI). Furthermore, in Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses a causal effect of MCP on MDD was observed. Additionally, a polygenic risk score (PRS) for MCP was found to significantly predict chronic widespread pain (pain all over the body), indicating the existence of genetic variants contributing to both of these pain phenotypes. Overall, our findings support the proposition that chronic pain involves a strong nervous system component with implications for our understanding of the physiology of chronic pain. These discoveries may also inform the future development of novel treatment approaches

Adverse metabolic and mental health outcomes associated with shiftwork in a population-based study of 277,168 workers in UK biobank

Background: Reported associations between shiftwork and health have largely been based on occupation-specific, or single sex studies that might not be generalizable to the entire working population. The objective of this study was to investigate whether shiftwork was independently associated with obesity, diabetes, poor sleep, and well-being in a large, UK general population cohort. Methods: Participants of the UK Biobank study who were employed at the time of assessment were included. Exposure variables were self-reported shiftwork (any shiftwork and night shiftwork); and outcomes were objectively measured obesity, inflammation and physical activity and self-reported lifestyle, sleep and well-being variables, including mental health. Results: Shiftwork was reported by 17% of the 277,168 employed participants. Shiftworkers were more likely to be male, socioeconomically deprived and smokers, and to have higher levels of physical activity. Univariately, and following adjustment for lifestyle and work-related confounders, shiftworkers were more likely to be obese, depressed, to report disturbed sleep, and to have neurotic traits. Conclusions: Shiftwork was independently associated with multiple indicators of poor health and wellbeing, despite higher physical activity, and even in shiftworkers that did not work nights. Shiftwork is an emerging social factor that contributes to disease in the urban environment across the working population

Positive specific heat of the quantum corrected dilaton black hole

Path integral quantization of dilaton gravity in two dimensions is applied to the CGHS model to the first nontrivial order in matter loops. Our approach is background independent as geometry is integrated out exactly. The result is an effective shift of the Killing norm: the apparent horizon becomes smaller. The Hawking temperature which is constant to leading order receives a quantum correction. As a consequence, the specific heat becomes positive and proportional to the square of the black hole mass.Comment: 18 pages, JHEP style, 1 eps figure, v2: extended the discussion, added new formulas for mass change, added three new references (in particular [35]

Disordered Bosons: Condensate and Excitations

The disordered Bose Hubbard model is studied numerically within the Bogoliubov approximation. First, the spatially varying condensate wavefunction in the presence of disorder is found by solving a nonlinear Schrodinger equation. Using the Bogoliubov approximation to find the excitations above this condensate, we calculate the condensate fraction, superfluid density, and density of states for a two-dimensional disordered system. These results are compared with experiments done with ${}^4{\rm He}$ adsorbed in porous media.Comment: RevTeX, 26 pages and 10 postscript figures appended (Figure 9 has three separate plots, so 12 postcript files altogether