Early pregnancy cardio metabolic risk factors and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome 10 years after the first pregnancy

Background We aimed to compare risk factors for CVD 10 years postpartum among women who had ≥ 1 compared to no cardio metabolic risk factor in early first pregnancy. Methods Women of the SCOPE (Screening fOr Pregnancy Endpoints) study from Adelaide, South Australia were invited to participate in a cardiovascular risk assessment 10 years after the delivery of the first child. Data from 141 women who completed all the assessments are included in the analyses. Result Compared to women who did not have any cardio metabolic risk factor at 15 ± 1 weeks’ gestation during the first pregnancy, those who had ≥ 1 risk factor were 5.5 times more likely to have metabolic syndrome 10 years postpartum (aOR = 5.5, 95% CI 1.8–17.3, p = 0.004). Women who had ≥ 1cardio metabolic risk factor during the first pregnancy were more likely to be obese (p = 0.001), have high total cholesterol levels (p <0.001) or have increased insulin resistance (p <0.001) 10 years later compared to women who had no risk factor during the first pregnancy. 63.5% of the women with no cardio metabolic risk factor compared to 39% of women who had ≥ 1 risk factor in first pregnancy, had neither a complicated first pregnancy nor was diagnosed with MetS 10 years postpartum (p = 0.023). Conclusion Cardio metabolic risk factors at the booking visit in the first pregnancy may be useful in identifying young women at risk of future CVD.Prabha H. Andraweera, Michelle D. Plummer, Amy Garrett, Shalem Leemaqz, Melanie R. Wittwer, Emily Aldridge, Maleesa M. Pathirana, Gus A. Dekker, Claire T. Roberts, Margaret A. Arstal

Virus infection and grazing exert counteracting influences on survivorship of native bunchgrass seedlings competing with invasive exotics

1.  Invasive annual grasses introduced by European settlers have largely displaced native grassland vegetation in California and now form dense stands that constrain the establishment of native perennial bunchgrass seedlings. Bunchgrass seedlings face additional pressures from both livestock grazing and barley and cereal yellow dwarf viruses (B/CYDVs), which infect both young and established grasses throughout the state. 2.  Previous work suggested that B/CYDVs could mediate apparent competition between invasive exotic grasses and native bunchgrasses in California. 3.  To investigate the potential significance of virus-mediated mortality for early survivorship of bunchgrass seedlings, we compared the separate and combined effects of virus infection, competition and simulated grazing in a field experiment. We infected two species of young bunchgrasses that show different sensitivity to B/CYDV infection, subjected them to competition with three different densities of exotic annuals crossed with two clipping treatments, and monitored their growth and first-year survivorship. 4.  Although virus infection alone did not reduce first-year survivorship, it halved the survivorship of bunchgrasses competing with exotics. Within an environment in which competition strongly reduces seedling survivorship (as in natural grasslands), virus infection therefore has the power to cause additional seedling mortality and alter patterns of establishment. 5.  Surprisingly, clipping did not reduce bunchgrass survivorship further, but rather doubled it and disproportionately increased survivorship of infected bunchgrasses. 6.  Together with previous work, these findings show that B/CYDVs can be potentially powerful elements influencing species interactions in natural grasslands. 7.  More generally, our findings demonstrate the potential significance of multitrophic interactions in virus ecology. Although sometimes treated collectively as plant ‘predators’, viruses and herbivores may exert influences that are distinctly different, even counteracting

Investigation of excited 0+ states in 160Er populated via the (p, t) two-neutron transfer reaction

Many efforts have been made in nuclear structure physics to interpret the nature of low-lying excited 0+ states in well-deformed rare-earth nuclei. However, one of the difficulties in resolving the nature of these states is that there is a paucity of data. In this work, excited 0+ states in the N = 92 nucleus 160Er were studied via the 162Er(p, t)160Er two-neutron transfer reaction, which is ideal for probing 0+ → 0+ transitions, at the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratorium in Garching, Germany. Reaction products were momentum-analyzed with a Quadrupole-3-Dipole magnetic spectrograph. The 0+2 state was observed to be strongly populated with 18% of the ground state strength

Multi-ancestry transcriptome-wide association analyses yield insights into tobacco use biology and drug repurposing

Most transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs) so far focus on European ancestry and lack diversity. To overcome this limitation, we aggregated genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics, whole-genome sequences and expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data from diverse ancestries. We developed a new approach, TESLA (multi-ancestry integrative study using an optimal linear combination of association statistics), to integrate an eQTL dataset with a multi-ancestry GWAS. By exploiting shared phenotypic effects between ancestries and accommodating potential effect heterogeneities, TESLA improves power over other TWAS methods. When applied to tobacco use phenotypes, TESLA identified 273 new genes, up to 55% more compared with alternative TWAS methods. These hits and subsequent fine mapping using TESLA point to target genes with biological relevance. In silico drug-repurposing analyses highlight several drugs with known efficacy, including dextromethorphan and galantamine, and new drugs such as muscle relaxants that may be repurposed for treating nicotine addiction

Genetic determinants of telomere length from 109,122 ancestrally diverse whole-genome sequences in TOPMed

Genetic studies on telomere length are important for understanding age-related diseases. Prior GWASs for leukocyte TL have been limited to European and Asian populations. Here, we report the first sequencing-based association study for TL across ancestrally diverse individuals (European, African, Asian, and Hispanic/Latino) from the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. We used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of whole blood for variant genotype calling and the bioinformatic estimation of telomere length in n = 109,122 individuals. We identified 59 sentinel variants (p &lt; 5 × 10−9) in 36 loci associated with telomere length, including 20 newly associated loci (13 were replicated in external datasets). There was little evidence of effect size heterogeneity across populations. Fine-mapping at OBFC1 indicated that the independent signals colocalized with cell-type-specific eQTLs for OBFC1 (STN1). Using a multi-variant gene-based approach, we identified two genes newly implicated in telomere length, DCLRE1B (SNM1B) and PARN. In PheWAS, we demonstrated that our TL polygenic trait scores (PTSs) were associated with an increased risk of cancer-related phenotypes

Environmental effects of a tritium release from the Savannah River Plant

On March 27, 1981, a small amount of tritiated water was inadvertently released from the tritium-processing facility during a routine maintenance operation. This report describes the environmental effects of this release both on the SRP site and offsite. Also, the operation of the WIND (Wind Information and Display) emergency response system during the incident is discussed, and the predicted and diagnosed behavior of the tritium plume is compared with tritium concentrations deduced from air, vegetation, soil, and bioassay samples

Remediation of DOE hazardous waste sites: Planning and integration requirements

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is faced with a immense challenge in effectively implementing a program to mitigate and manage the environmental impacts created by current operations and from past activities at its facilities. The current regulatory framework and public interest in the environmental arena have made operating DOE facilities in an environmentally responsible manner a compelling priority. This paper provides information on the results of a project funded by DOE to obtain a better understanding of the regulatory and institutional drivers in the hazardous waste market and the costs and timeframes required for remediation activities. Few realize that before remediating a hazardous waste site, a comprehensive planning process must be conducted to characterize the nature and extent of site contamination, calculate the risk to the public, and assess the effectiveness of various remediation technologies. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others have found that it may take up to 7 years to complete the planning process at an average cost of $1.0 million per site. While cost information is not yet available for DOE sites, discussions with hazardous waste consulting firms indicate that average characterization and assessment costs will be 5 to 10 times this amount for DOE sites. The higher costs are expected because of the additional administrative requirements placed on DOE sites, the need to handle mixed wastes, the amount and extent of contamination at many of these sites, and the visibility of the sites. 15 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs