New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

MACHINE: Mapping the Multimedia Terrain of Postmodern Society*

Sam Seawell for contributing his musical expertise to the Machine project and to Doug Kellner for his continued enthusuastic support of our work. &amp;quot;We are in uncharted waters, &amp;quot; remarked a commentator on National Public Radio on a July evening in 1996. &amp;quot;We have to stay infinitely adaptable in this age of uncertainty and change. &amp;quot; Although the person being interviewed was talking on the mercuric nature of the job market, these words seemed particularly relevant to the work we have been doing in Visual Sociology. American society, and other cultures dominated by the American media complex, have undergone profound shifts in the ways in which identity is understood (Clough 1994, Denzin 1995), ways in which language is both used and constructed, and our ways of dealing with information. These shifts have taken place in such a way that our modes of communication are undergoing changes that are no less significant. The purpose of this article is to utilize current understandings of postmodern culture in order to explicate the first multimedia social theoretical text in sociology: The Machine trilogy. Machine is the result of combining th