Oxidative stress is associated with suspected non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and all-cause mortality in the general population

Background & Aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by excessive lipid accumulation, inflammation and an imbalanced redox homeostasis. We hypothesized that systemic free thiol levels, as a proxy of systemic oxidative stress, are associated with NAFLD. Methods: Protein-adjusted serum free thiol concentrations were determined in participants from the Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-Stage Disease (PREVEND) cohort study (n = 5562). Suspected NAFLD was defined by the Fatty Liver Index (FLI ≥ 60) and Hepatic Steatosis Index (HSI > 36). Results: Protein-adjusted serum free thiols were significantly reduced in subjects with FLI ≥ 60 (n = 1651). In multivariable logistic regression analyses, protein-adjusted serum free thiols were associated with NAFLD (FLI ≥ 60) (OR per doubling of concentration: 0.78 [95% CI 0.64-0.96], P =.016) even when adjusted for potential confounding factors, including systolic blood pressure, diabetes, current smoking, use of alcohol and total cholesterol (OR 0.80 [95% CI 0.65-0.99], P =.04). This association lost its significance (OR 0.94 [95% CI 0.73-1.21], P =.65) after additional adjustment for high-sensitive C-reactive protein. Stratified analyses showed significantly differential associations of protein-adjusted serum free thiol concentrations with suspected NAFLD for gender (P <.02), hypertension (P <.001) and hypercholesterolemia (P <.003). Longitudinally, protein-adjusted serum free thiols were significantly associated with the risk of all-cause mortality in subjects with NAFLD (FLI ≥ 60) (HR 0.27 [95% CI 0.17-0.45], P <.001). Conclusion: Protein-adjusted serum free thiol levels are reduced and significantly associated with all-cause mortality in subjects with suspected NAFLD. Quantification of free thiols may be a promising, minimally invasive strategy to improve detection of NAFLD and associated risk of all-cause mortality in the general population

Performance of six common beans cultivars in three different planting dates in Lichinga, Niassa, Mozambique.

A field experiment was conducted in the area of the Centro Zonal Norte do Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM), em Lichinga, Niassa, Moçambique, with the objective of checking out the performance of common beans cultivars in response to local environmental conditions. A complete 6x3 factorial experimental design was used, encompassing six cultivars of common beans (BRS Pontal, BRS Agreste, BRS Perola, and BRS Requinte, developed by Embrapa, Brazil; and two locals, Manteiga and Encarnada), and three planting dates (12/12/2012, 29/12/2012, e 13/01/2013). There was soil cover fertilization at planting (500 kg/ha of the mixed NPK 2-24-12) and after 20 days of plants emergency (130 kg de N/ha). Each treatment was replicated four times in the field, in randomized blocks (18 m2 each, with five liner of six lineal meters each, spaced 0,45 cm, with nine seeds seeded per meter). At harvest (area of 3 m within the central lines), it was evaluated the plant final stand, degree of lodging, number of pods per plant, number of grains per pod, weight of 100 grains, and productivity. The Brazilian cultivars showed higher productivity than the local ones within the studied conditions, especially BRS Agreste, with an average production of 2,387 kg of grains/ha. The best planting date was at the end of December

Response of six common beans cultivars to phosphate and potassium fertilization in Lichinga, Niassa, Mozambique.

A field experiment was conducted to check out the response of the common bean BRS 293 Pontal to basic fertilization with Phosphorus (P) and Potassium, in the environmental conditions of Lichinga, Niassa, Mozambique. A complete factorial 5x4 was used, with five rates of P2O5 (0, 35, 70, 140, and 280 kg/ha, as Triple Superphosphate) and four rates of K2O (0, 50, 100 and 200 kg/ha, as Potassium Chloride). The experimental area was also fertilized with 90 kg/ha of Nitrogen (N), as Urea, spliced in 23 kg N/ha at planting and 67 kg N/ha 20 days after plants emergency. Each treatment was replicated four time in the field, in randomized blocks (18 m2 each, with five liner of six lineal meters each, spaced 0,45 cm, with nine seeds seeded per meter). At harvest (area of 3 m within the central lines), it was evaluated the plant final stand, degree of lodging, number of pods per plant, number of grains per pod, weight of 100 grains, and productivity. Based in the analysis of the data, it is concluded that maximum productivity, equivalent to 3,616 kg of grains/ha, would be obtained with a combination of 406 kg/ha of P2O5 and 43 kg/ha of K2O. Such rate is above what would be expected, which indicates that new studies would be necessary for better recommendation of P2O5 fertilization in this area

Performance of six common beans cultivars in three different planting dates in Lichinga, Niassa, Mozambique.

A field experiment was conducted in the area of the Centro Zonal Norte do Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM), em Lichinga, Niassa, Moçambique, with the objective of checking out the performance of common beans cultivars in response to local environmental conditions. A complete 6x3 factorial experimental design was used, encompassing six cultivars of common beans (BRS Pontal, BRS Agreste, BRS Perola, and BRS Requinte, developed by Embrapa, Brazil; and two locals, Manteiga and Encarnada), and three planting dates (12/12/2012, 29/12/2012, e 13/01/2013). There was soil cover fertilization at planting (500 kg/ha of the mixed NPK 2-24-12) and after 20 days of plants emergency (130 kg de N/ha). Each treatment was replicated four times in the field, in randomized blocks (18 m2 each, with five liner of six lineal meters each, spaced 0,45 cm, with nine seeds seeded per meter). At harvest (area of 3 m within the central lines), it was evaluated the plant final stand, degree of lodging, number of pods per plant, number of grains per pod, weight of 100 grains, and productivity. The Brazilian cultivars showed higher productivity than the local ones within the studied conditions, especially BRS Agreste, with an average production of 2,387 kg of grains/ha. The best planting date was at the end of December

Response of six common beans cultivars to phosphate and potassium fertilization in Lichinga, Niassa, Mozambique.

A field experiment was conducted to check out the response of the common bean BRS 293 Pontal to basic fertilization with Phosphorus (P) and Potassium, in the environmental conditions of Lichinga, Niassa, Mozambique. A complete factorial 5x4 was used, with five rates of P2O5 (0, 35, 70, 140, and 280 kg/ha, as Triple Superphosphate) and four rates of K2O (0, 50, 100 and 200 kg/ha, as Potassium Chloride). The experimental area was also fertilized with 90 kg/ha of Nitrogen (N), as Urea, spliced in 23 kg N/ha at planting and 67 kg N/ha 20 days after plants emergency. Each treatment was replicated four time in the field, in randomized blocks (18 m2 each, with five liner of six lineal meters each, spaced 0,45 cm, with nine seeds seeded per meter). At harvest (area of 3 m within the central lines), it was evaluated the plant final stand, degree of lodging, number of pods per plant, number of grains per pod, weight of 100 grains, and productivity. Based in the analysis of the data, it is concluded that maximum productivity, equivalent to 3,616 kg of grains/ha, would be obtained with a combination of 406 kg/ha of P2O5 and 43 kg/ha of K2O. Such rate is above what would be expected, which indicates that new studies would be necessary for better recommendation of P2O5 fertilization in this area

The genetic history of admixture across inner Eurasia

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Research via the DOI in this record.Data Availability. Genome-wide sequence data of two Botai individuals (BAM format) are available at the European Nucleotide Archive under the accession number PRJEB31152 (ERP113669). Eigenstrat format array genotype data of 763 present-day individuals and 1240K pulldown genotype data of two ancient Botai individuals are available at the Edmond data repository of the Max Planck Society (https://edmond.mpdl.mpg.de/imeji/collection/Aoh9c69DscnxSNjm?q=).The indigenous populations of inner Eurasia, a huge geographic region covering the central Eurasian steppe and the northern Eurasian taiga and tundra, harbor tremendous diversity in their genes, cultures and languages. In this study, we report novel genome-wide data for 763 individuals from Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. We furthermore report additional damage-reduced genome-wide data of two previously published individuals from the Eneolithic Botai culture in Kazakhstan (~5,400 BP). We find that present-day inner Eurasian populations are structured into three distinct admixture clines stretching between various western and eastern Eurasian ancestries, mirroring geography. The Botai and more recent ancient genomes from Siberia show a decrease in contribution from so-called “ancient North Eurasian” ancestry over time, detectable only in the northern-most “forest-tundra” cline. The intermediate “steppe-forest” cline descends from the Late Bronze Age steppe ancestries, while the “southern steppe” cline further to the South shows a strong West/South Asian influence. Ancient genomes suggest a northward spread of the southern steppe cline in Central Asia during the first millennium BC. Finally, the genetic structure of Caucasus populations highlights a role of the Caucasus Mountains as a barrier to gene flow and suggests a post-Neolithic gene flow into North Caucasus populations from the steppe.Max Planck SocietyEuropean Research Council (ERC)Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR)Russian Scientific FundNational Science FoundationU.S. National Institutes of HealthAllen Discovery CenterUniversity of OstravaCzech Ministry of EducationXiamen UniversityFundamental Research Funds for the Central UniversitiesMES R

Beringian Standstill and Spread of Native American Founders

Native Americans derive from a small number of Asian founders who likely arrived to the Americas via Beringia. However, additional details about the intial colonization of the Americas remain unclear. To investigate the pioneering phase in the Americas we analyzed a total of 623 complete mtDNAs from the Americas and Asia, including 20 new complete mtDNAs from the Americas and seven from Asia. This sequence data was used to direct high-resolution genotyping from 20 American and 26 Asian populations. Here we describe more genetic diversity within the founder population than was previously reported. The newly resolved phylogenetic structure suggests that ancestors of Native Americans paused when they reached Beringia, during which time New World founder lineages differentiated from their Asian sister-clades. This pause in movement was followed by a swift migration southward that distributed the founder types all the way to South America. The data also suggest more recent bi-directional gene flow between Siberia and the North American Arctic

Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia.

High-coverage whole-genome sequence studies have so far focused on a limited number of geographically restricted populations, or been targeted at specific diseases, such as cancer. Nevertheless, the availability of high-resolution genomic data has led to the development of new methodologies for inferring population history and refuelled the debate on the mutation rate in humans. Here we present the Estonian Biocentre Human Genome Diversity Panel (EGDP), a dataset of 483 high-coverage human genomes from 148 populations worldwide, including 379 new genomes from 125 populations, which we group into diversity and selection sets. We analyse this dataset to refine estimates of continent-wide patterns of heterozygosity, long- and short-distance gene flow, archaic admixture, and changes in effective population size through time as well as for signals of positive or balancing selection. We find a genetic signature in present-day Papuans that suggests that at least 2% of their genome originates from an early and largely extinct expansion of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) out of Africa. Together with evidence from the western Asian fossil record, and admixture between AMHs and Neanderthals predating the main Eurasian expansion, our results contribute to the mounting evidence for the presence of AMHs out of Africa earlier than 75,000 years ago.Support was provided by: Estonian Research Infrastructure Roadmap grant no 3.2.0304.11-0312; Australian Research Council Discovery grants (DP110102635 and DP140101405) (D.M.L., M.W. and E.W.); Danish National Research Foundation; the Lundbeck Foundation and KU2016 (E.W.); ERC Starting Investigator grant (FP7 - 261213) (T.K.); Estonian Research Council grant PUT766 (G.C. and M.K.); EU European Regional Development Fund through the Centre of Excellence in Genomics to Estonian Biocentre (R.V.; M.Me. and A.Me.), and Centre of Excellence for Genomics and Translational Medicine Project No. 2014-2020.4.01.15-0012 to EGC of UT (A.Me.) and EBC (M.Me.); Estonian Institutional Research grant IUT24-1 (L.S., M.J., A.K., B.Y., K.T., C.B.M., Le.S., H.Sa., S.L., D.M.B., E.M., R.V., G.H., M.K., G.C., T.K. and M.Me.) and IUT20-60 (A.Me.); French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and French ANR grant number ANR-14-CE31-0013-01 (F.-X.R.); Gates Cambridge Trust Funding (E.J.); ICG SB RAS (No. VI.58.1.1) (D.V.L.); Leverhulme Programme grant no. RP2011-R-045 (A.B.M., P.G. and M.G.T.); Ministry of Education and Science of Russia; Project 6.656.2014/K (S.A.F.); NEFREX grant funded by the European Union (People Marie Curie Actions; International Research Staff Exchange Scheme; call FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IRSES-number 318979) (M.Me., G.H. and M.K.); NIH grants 5DP1ES022577 05, 1R01DK104339-01, and 1R01GM113657-01 (S.Tis.); Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant N 14-06-00180a) (M.G.); Russian Foundation for Basic Research; grant 16-04-00890 (O.B. and E.B); Russian Science Foundation grant 14-14-00827 (O.B.); The Russian Foundation for Basic Research (14-04-00725-a), The Russian Humanitarian Scientific Foundation (13-11-02014) and the Program of the Basic Research of the RAS Presidium “Biological diversity” (E.K.K.); Wellcome Trust and Royal Society grant WT104125AIA & the Bristol Advanced Computing Research Centre (http://www.bris.ac.uk/acrc/) (D.J.L.); Wellcome Trust grant 098051 (Q.A.; C.T.-S. and Y.X.); Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship grant 100719/Z/12/Z (M.G.T.); Young Explorers Grant from the National Geographic Society (8900-11) (C.A.E.); ERC Consolidator Grant 647787 ‘LocalAdaptatio’ (A.Ma.); Program of the RAS Presidium “Basic research for the development of the Russian Arctic” (B.M.); Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant 16-06-00303 (E.B.); a Rutherford Fellowship (RDF-10-MAU-001) from the Royal Society of New Zealand (M.P.C.)

Physics of the high specific impulse alternative low power hybrid ion engine (alphie): Direct thrust measurements and plasma plume kinetics

The Alternative Low Power Ion Engine (alphie) is a high specific impulse plasma thruster different from conventional gridded ion engines (GIEs). It uses only one external cathode and ions and electrons flow through the open spaces of its two grids, whereas only ions are transported through the GIE ion optics. Ionizing electrons from the cathode move inward to the alphie ionization chamber and ions, which are neutralized by electrons from the same cathode, exit along the opposite direction. These currents together with the voltages applied to the grids produce a self-consistent electric field that accelerates the charges. The one-dimensional ion velocity distribution and the electron energy spectra in the collisionless alphie plasma plume are studied along its axial axis of symmetry. The thruster produces a mesothermal plasma flow with a non-monotone plasma potential profile along the axial direction. The ion populations observed are of those accelerated by the self-consistent electric field and a low velocity group that results from the charge exchange collisions in the thruster. Both populations remain essentially unaltered in the plasma flow. Conversely, the two electron groups observed merge along the axial direction of the plume following the changes in the plasma potential. The temperatures of ion populations are high by the neutral gas heating inside the thruster by high-energy ionizing electrons. The direct measurement of thrusts of 0.8–3.5 mN for argon gives 13 900–20 000 s specific impulses. These high values might be explained by the additional contribution to the thrust by the remaining non-ionized hot neutral gas effusion through the apertures of grids

Physics of the high specific impulse alternative low power hybrid ion engine (alphie): Direct thrust measurements and plasma plume kinetics

The Alternative Low Power Ion Engine (alphie) is a high specific impulse plasma thruster different from conventional gridded ion engines (GIEs). It uses only one external cathode and ions and electrons flow through the open spaces of its two grids, whereas only ions are transported through the GIE ion optics. Ionizing electrons from the cathode move inward to the alphie ionization chamber and ions, which are neutralized by electrons from the same cathode, exit along the opposite direction. These currents together with the voltages applied to the grids produce a self-consistent electric field that accelerates the charges. The one-dimensional ion velocity distribution and the electron energy spectra in the collisionless alphie plasma plume are studied along its axial axis of symmetry. The thruster produces a mesothermal plasma flow with a non-monotone plasma potential profile along the axial direction. The ion populations observed are of those accelerated by the self-consistent electric field and a low velocity group that results from the charge exchange collisions in the thruster. Both populations remain essentially unaltered in the plasma flow. Conversely, the two electron groups observed merge along the axial direction of the plume following the changes in the plasma potential. The temperatures of ion populations are high by the neutral gas heating inside the thruster by high-energy ionizing electrons. The direct measurement of thrusts of 0.8–3.5 mN for argon gives 13 900–20 000 s specific impulses. These high values might be explained by the additional contribution to the thrust by the remaining non-ionized hot neutral gas effusion through the apertures of grids