The prevalence, trends and heterogeneity in maternal smoking around birth between the 1930s and 1970s

This paper shows the prevalence, trends and heterogeneity in maternal smoking around birth in the United Kingdom, focusing on the war and post-war reconstruction period in which there exists surprisingly little systematic data on (maternal) smoking behaviours. Within this context, we highlight relevant events, the release of new information about the harms of smoking, and changes in (government) policy aimed at reducing smoking prevalence. We show stark changes in smoking prevalence over a 30-year period, highlight the onset of the social gradient in smoking, as well as genetic heterogeneities in smoking trends.<br/

Gender Disparities in Top Earnings:Measurement and Facts for Denmark 1980-2013

Extending the work of Atkinson et al. (J. Econ. Inequal. 16, 225-256, 2018), we decompose top-earnings gender disparities into a glass-ceiling coefficient and a top-earnings gender gap. The decomposition uses that both male and female top earnings are Pareto distributed. If interpreting top-earnings gender disparities as caused by a female-specific earnings tax, the top-earnings gender gap and glass-ceiling coefficient measure the tax level and tax progressivity, respectively. Using Danish data on earnings, we show that the top-earnings gender gap and the glass-ceiling coefficient evolve differently across time, the life cycle, and educational groups. In particular, while the top-earnings gender gap has been decreasing in Denmark over the period 1980-2013, the glass-ceiling coefficient has been remarkably stable

A −436C>A Polymorphism in the Human FAS Gene Promoter Associated with Severe Childhood Malaria

Human genetics and immune responses are considered to critically influence the outcome of malaria infections including life-threatening syndromes caused by Plasmodium falciparum. An important role in immune regulation is assigned to the apoptosis-signaling cell surface receptor CD95 (Fas, APO-1), encoded by the gene FAS. Here, a candidate-gene association study including variant discovery at the FAS gene locus was carried out in a case-control group comprising 1,195 pediatric cases of severe falciparum malaria and 769 unaffected controls from a region highly endemic for malaria in Ghana, West Africa. We found the A allele of c.−436C>A (rs9658676) located in the promoter region of FAS to be significantly associated with protection from severe childhood malaria (odds ratio 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.58–0.88, pempirical = 0.02) and confirmed this finding in a replication group of 1,412 additional severe malaria cases and 2,659 community controls from the same geographic area. The combined analysis resulted in an odds ratio of 0.71 (95% confidence interval 0.62–0.80, p = 1.8×10−7, n = 6035). The association applied to c.−436AA homozygotes (odds ratio 0.47, 95% confidence interval 0.36–0.60) and to a lesser extent to c.−436AC heterozygotes (odds ratio 0.73, 95% confidence interval 0.63–0.84), and also to all phenotypic subgroups studied, including severe malaria anemia, cerebral malaria, and other malaria complications. Quantitative FACS analyses assessing CD95 surface expression of peripheral blood mononuclear cells of naïve donors showed a significantly higher proportion of CD69+CD95+ cells among persons homozygous for the protective A allele compared to AC heterozygotes and CC homozygotes, indicating a functional role of the associated CD95 variant, possibly in supporting lymphocyte apoptosis

The prevalence, trends and heterogeneity in maternal smoking around birth between the 1930s and 1970s

This paper shows the prevalence, trends and heterogeneity in maternal smoking around birth in the United Kingdom, focusing on the war and post-war reconstruction period in which there exists surprisingly little systematic data on (maternal) smoking behaviours. Within this context, we highlight relevant events, the release of new information about the harms of smoking, and changes in (government) policy aimed at reducing smoking prevalence. We show stark changes in smoking prevalence over a 30-year period, highlight the onset of the social gradient in smoking, as well as genetic heterogeneities in smoking trends.<br/

Passive permeability controls synthesis for the allelochemical sorgoleone in sorghum root exudate

Input structures for a manuscript, along with selected output data and structures. This directory structure contains a cut-down copy of the directories used to generate the simulation data and the analysis. In order to make this fit into the 50GB Zenodo limit, it was constructed with the following tar command: tar -zcvf sorgoleonepermeability.tar.gz --exclude="*BAK" --exclude="*#" --exclude="*log" --exclude="*xsc" --exclude="*coor" --exclude="*vel" --exclude="*[0-9].out" --exclude="*old" --exclude="*dcd" --exclude="*tmp" --exclude="*ppm" --exclude="*png" --exclude="*pdf" --exclude="*catchy*" --exclude="*svg" --exclude="*restart*" --exclude="*history" --exclude="core.*" --exclude="FFTW_NAMD*" --exclude="*avi" --exclude="*mp4" sorgoleone-permeability, which intentionally excludes large files. The full dataset that includes trajectories is available upon request. The data is split into two directories initially "build" and "Simulations" "build" directory is the part where initial system for unbiased and biased simulation were build using "resolvate.tcl" and "smd-single-build-system.tcl" respectively. "Simulations" directory has the different namd files for running unbiased simulation, steered molecular dynamics and replica exchange umbrella sampling. The folder structure was generated using "gendirs*.py". The unbiased simulations were run using "run.namd". Steered molecular dynamics namd files were with name "step*.namd" and colvars configuration file are named "step*.conf". Replica exchange moleuclar dynamics (REUS) system was generated using "buildreplicas*.tcl". Replica windows size and force constant were written into a namd configuration file using "reus-genscript*.py". REUS general configuration file containing the parameters and forcefield is named as "base.namd". Colvars for leaflet exchange REUS are in "replicadistZcolvars.conf". Colvars for absorption into water REUS are in "replicadistcoordNumclovar.conf". Colvars for absorption into organic phase REUS are in "replica-blob-run4.conf" Umbrella sampling is performed with "umbrella.namd". For visualizing trajectories in VMD "load*.tcl" scripts were used

Role of fibrinogen in complement inhibition by streptococcal M protein.

M protein, the major virulence factor of group A streptococci, has antiopsonic activity in that it inhibits activation of the alternative complement pathway on the streptococcal surface. Two properties of M protein have been claimed to account for the inhibitory activity, namely, (i) its binding affinity for complement factor H, which is an inhibitor of alternative pathway activation, and (ii) its high binding affinity for fibrinogen. We have recently shown that fibrinogen, like M protein, inhibits alternative pathway activation by possessing binding affinity for factor H. Here we report that fibrinogen effectively competes with factor H for binding to M protein but retains its own binding affinity for factor H. The presence of fibrinogen did not significantly affect alternative pathway inhibition on the streptococcal surface