Genomic and phenotypic insights from an atlas of genetic effects on DNA methylation

DNA methylation quantitative trait locus (mQTL) analyses on 32,851 participants identify genetic variants associated with DNA methylation at 420,509 sites in blood, resulting in a database of >270,000 independent mQTLs.Characterizing genetic influences on DNA methylation (DNAm) provides an opportunity to understand mechanisms underpinning gene regulation and disease. In the present study, we describe results of DNAm quantitative trait locus (mQTL) analyses on 32,851 participants, identifying genetic variants associated with DNAm at 420,509 DNAm sites in blood. We present a database of >270,000 independent mQTLs, of which 8.5% comprise long-range (trans) associations. Identified mQTL associations explain 15-17% of the additive genetic variance of DNAm. We show that the genetic architecture of DNAm levels is highly polygenic. Using shared genetic control between distal DNAm sites, we constructed networks, identifying 405 discrete genomic communities enriched for genomic annotations and complex traits. Shared genetic variants are associated with both DNAm levels and complex diseases, but only in a minority of cases do these associations reflect causal relationships from DNAm to trait or vice versa, indicating a more complex genotype-phenotype map than previously anticipated.Molecular Epidemiolog

Slips of the tongue in the London-Lund corpus of spontaneous conversation

Contains fulltext : 6017.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)This paper presents a list of slips of the tongue which occur in a corpus of English conversation transcribed from tape recordings. The kinds of error included in the list are briefly discussed, as are the criteria for detecting errors. The work forms a basis for an estimate of the frequency of such errors in ordinary speech

Human factors in process operations A report of the Human Factors Study Group of the Loss Prevention Working Party of the European Federation of Chemical Engineers

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:92/17084(Human) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The Intermediate Value Theorem for Polynomials over Lattice-ordered Rings of Functions

The classical intermediate value theorem for polynomials with real coefficients is generalized to the case of polynomials with coefficients in a lattice-ordered ring that is a subdirect product of totally ordered rings. Several candidates for a generalization are investigated, and particular attention is paid to the case when the lattice-ordered ring is the algebra C(X) of continuous real-valued functions on a completely regular topological space X. For all but one of these generalizations, the intermediate value theorem holds only if X is an F-space in the sense of Gillman and Jerison. Surprisingly, for the most interesting of these generalizations, if X is compact, the intermediate value theorem holds only if X is an F-space and each component of X is an hereditarily indecomposable continuum. It is not known if there is an infinite compact connected space in which this version of the intermediate value theorem holds

Australian democracy and priveleged parliamentary speech

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.comThis article responds to recent cases of parliamentary speech which reflect the ascendancy of a totalising ‘mainstream’ approach to public discourse and a political leadership that may, at times, be overly attentive to the majority-rule dimension of democracy. These developments spark a more general discussion of the phenomenology of privileged parliamentary speech, the role of speech freedoms in liberal democratic orders and the duties of parliamentary representatives within them. I make two general conclusions. First, the ways in which we normally argue and think about free speech will not generally apply to the speech of parliamentarians because their speech rights cannot be universalised. Secondly, even if parliamentary speech could be treated as standard speech there would be no legitimate defence (from a liberal democratic point of view) for a strictly populist approach to its use since this could undermine the deliberative function of parliament and lead to the violation of other important liberal democratic principles.Lisa Hil

Holocene environmental reconstruction of sediment-source linkages at Crummock Water, English Lake District, based on magnetic measurements

To reconstruct Lateglacial and Holocene environmental changes in the British uplands, two c. 5.8 m long sediment cores from Crummock Water (NW England), together with several hundred soil samples from the Crummock Water catchment, were studied using magnetic techniques. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating using fine silt quartz and 14C dating of terrestrial plant macrofossils were used to establish a chronology for the lake sediments. A good agreement between optical and 14C ages indicates first, that the OSL dating method can be used to date lake sediments in the British Isles; second that macrofossil-based 14C dating can be used to avoid the problem of 'old carbon' error associated with bulk sample 14C dating of lake sediments and third, that the established chronology is robust. The lake sediment magnetic properties indicate a series of changes in sediment composition during the Holocene, which correlate well with sediment lithology, water content and weight-loss-on-ignition. The first change corresponds to the Lateglacial/Postglacial climatic shift at around 11400 years ago; the subsequent suite of changes corresponds to a probable regional onset of human activity at 2000 BC, and particularly to the intensification of human activity at around AD 900. A comparison of the lake sediment magnetic properties and those of the catchment soils shows a clear linkage for the Lateglacial period, and for the period after AD 900. In contrast, detailed magnetic measurements of the early- through mid-Holocene sediments suggest that their magnetic properties are dominated by bacterial magnetosomes