Fluorite Precipitation in a Calcareous Soil Irrigated with High Fluoride Water

Lysimeters filled with Freedom silt loam soil (fine-silty, mixed, mesic, Xerollic Calciorthids) were irrigated with geothermal well water from south central Idaho. The water contained 7 mg F/L. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) was grown in the lysimeters and the water was applied at a rate to give either a 0.30 or 0.15 leaching fraction. After irrigating the 1.0 m deep soil samples for 600 d, over 98% of the added F remained in the soil. Soil extract and lysimeter leachate analysis showed that fluorite precipitation was occurring in the upper profile, but only after another fluoride adsorption mechanism was saturated and the fluoride and calcium ion activities exceeded the CaF? ion activity product. The F concentration in the upper profile extracts exceeded 20 mg F/L and with the additional high F water irrigation, the soluble F would be expected to leach deeper in the soil. Under field conditions the F would be expected to eventually move into the groundwater with continued irrigation with high F water

A mitochondria-targeted mass spectrometry probe to detect glyoxals: implications for diabetes

The glycation of protein and nucleic acids that occurs as a consequence of hyperglycaemia disrupts cell function and contributes to many pathologies, including those associated with diabetes and aging. Intracellular glycation occurs following the generation of the reactive 1,2-dicarbonyls methylglyoxal and glyoxal and disruption to mitochondrial function is associated with hyperglycemia. However, the contribution of these reactive dicarbonyls to mitochondrial damage in pathology is unclear due to uncertainties about their levels within mitochondria in cells and in vivo. To address this we have developed a mitochondria-targeted reagent (MitoG) designed to assess the levels of mitochondrial dicarbonyls within cells. MitoG comprises a lipophilic triphenylphosphonium cationic function, which directs the molecules to mitochondria within cells and an o-phenylenediamine moiety that reacts with dicarbonyls to give distinctive and stable products. The extent of accumulation of these diagnostic heterocyclic products can be readily and sensitively quantified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), enabling changes to be determined. Using the MitoG-based analysis we assessed the formation of methylglyoxal and glyoxal in response to hyperglycaemia in cells in culture and in the Akita mouse model of diabetes in vivo. These findings indicated that the levels of methylglyoxal and glyoxal within mitochondria increase during hyperglycaemia in both cells and in vivo, suggesting that they can contribute to the pathological mitochondrial dysfunction that occurs in diabetes and aging

Origins of the Ambient Solar Wind: Implications for Space Weather

The Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees, and solar plasma flows out into interplanetary space at supersonic speeds. This paper reviews our current understanding of these interrelated problems: coronal heating and the acceleration of the ambient solar wind. We also discuss where the community stands in its ability to forecast how variations in the solar wind (i.e., fast and slow wind streams) impact the Earth. Although the last few decades have seen significant progress in observations and modeling, we still do not have a complete understanding of the relevant physical processes, nor do we have a quantitatively precise census of which coronal structures contribute to specific types of solar wind. Fast streams are known to be connected to the central regions of large coronal holes. Slow streams, however, appear to come from a wide range of sources, including streamers, pseudostreamers, coronal loops, active regions, and coronal hole boundaries. Complicating our understanding even more is the fact that processes such as turbulence, stream-stream interactions, and Coulomb collisions can make it difficult to unambiguously map a parcel measured at 1 AU back down to its coronal source. We also review recent progress -- in theoretical modeling, observational data analysis, and forecasting techniques that sit at the interface between data and theory -- that gives us hope that the above problems are indeed solvable.Comment: Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Special issue connected with a 2016 ISSI workshop on "The Scientific Foundations of Space Weather." 44 pages, 9 figure

Associations of autozygosity with a broad range of human phenotypes

In many species, the offspring of related parents suffer reduced reproductive success, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In humans, the importance of this effect has remained unclear, partly because reproduction between close relatives is both rare and frequently associated with confounding social factors. Here, using genomic inbreeding coefficients (FROH) for >1.4 million individuals, we show that FROH is significantly associated (p < 0.0005) with apparently deleterious changes in 32 out of 100 traits analysed. These changes are associated with runs of homozygosity (ROH), but not with common variant homozygosity, suggesting that genetic variants associated with inbreeding depression are predominantly rare. The effect on fertility is striking: FROH equivalent to the offspring of first cousins is associated with a 55% decrease [95% CI 44–66%] in the odds of having children. Finally, the effects of FROH are confirmed within full-sibling pairs, where the variation in FROH is independent of all environmental confounding

Novel Loci for Adiponectin Levels and Their Influence on Type 2 Diabetes and Metabolic Traits : A Multi-Ethnic Meta-Analysis of 45,891 Individuals

J. Kaprio, S. Ripatti ja M.-L. Lokki työryhmien jäseniä.Peer reviewe

Fluorite Precipitation in a Calcareous Soil Irrigated with High Fluoride Water

Lysimeters filled with Freedom silt loam soil (fine-silty, mixed, mesic, Xerollic Calciorthids) were irrigated with geothermal well water from south central Idaho. The water contained 7 mg F/L. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) was grown in the lysimeters and the water was applied at a rate to give either a 0.30 or 0.15 leaching fraction. After irrigating the 1.0 m deep soil samples for 600 d, over 98% of the added F remained in the soil. Soil extract and lysimeter leachate analysis showed that fluorite precipitation was occurring in the upper profile, but only after another fluoride adsorption mechanism was saturated and the fluoride and calcium ion activities exceeded the CaF? ion activity product. The F concentration in the upper profile extracts exceeded 20 mg F/L and with the additional high F water irrigation, the soluble F would be expected to leach deeper in the soil. Under field conditions the F would be expected to eventually move into the groundwater with continued irrigation with high F water