Genetic Sharing with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Diabetes Reveals Novel Bone Mineral Density Loci.

Bone Mineral Density (BMD) is a highly heritable trait, but genome-wide association studies have identified few genetic risk factors. Epidemiological studies suggest associations between BMD and several traits and diseases, but the nature of the suggestive comorbidity is still unknown. We used a novel genetic pleiotropy-informed conditional False Discovery Rate (FDR) method to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with BMD by leveraging cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated disorders and metabolic traits. By conditioning on SNPs associated with the CVD-related phenotypes, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein, triglycerides and waist hip ratio, we identified 65 novel independent BMD loci (26 with femoral neck BMD and 47 with lumbar spine BMD) at conditional FDR < 0.01. Many of the loci were confirmed in genetic expression studies. Genes validated at the mRNA levels were characteristic for the osteoblast/osteocyte lineage, Wnt signaling pathway and bone metabolism. The results provide new insight into genetic mechanisms of variability in BMD, and a better understanding of the genetic underpinnings of clinical comorbidity

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

Aspects of late Cainozoic Aeolian landscapes in Arabia: implications for early Man

Active sand seas of the Arabian Peninsula are well-known - the Nafud, Ad-Dahna, Al Jafura, Ar Rub al Khali, Ar Ramlat Sabatain, and the Wahiba - and some of these are known too to be underlain by the cores of older dunes. This research examines other significant, and relatively unknown, regions with Pre-Holocene sand accumulation and relict dune status, in six field areas of Arabia. Our work, a reconnaissance, has looked at the chronology of these aeolian formations in Arabia; how they appear to have been linked in space and time; and the features of dune paleosols. Numerous previous reviews of aeolian geomorphology miss the importance of ancient dunes in Arabia but, our observations apart, published data relating to these has been accululating in the geo-literature for over 50 years. From observations made over large parts of Arabia it is apparent that: modern and active dunes can be underaline by older aeolian formations, and that abrupt soil morphological changes may occur between these units; that older aeolian sand deposits can be covered and buried by gravelly to loamy alluvium and soils; and that traces or relicts of even more ancient aeolian features appear to be quite widespread. Our OSL dates indicate that aeolian activity was present at 275ka, the oldest known to date. In addition, it is our view that the Arabian Peninsula shows traces of past aeolian landscapes that could take the record of aridity in Arabia far back, certainly to the Early Pleistocene, and probably into the late Tertiary. It is hoped that this work will stimulate investigations at more detailed levels on how these sandy lands might have been utilised in the past by wildlife, domesticated animals and man

Repeat photography for studies on environmental changes and geomorphological processes in northern Ethiopia

none6noneNYSSEN J.; BILLI P.; MUNRO R.N J.; FRANKL A.; MITIKU HAILE; POESEN JNyssen, J.; Billi, Paolo; Munro, R. N. J.; Frankl, A.; Mitiku, Haile; Poesen, J

Long-term gully and river channel dynamics in Tigray

none8noneFRANKL A.; NYSSEN J.; DE DAPPER M.; MITIKU HAILE; BILLI P.; MUNRO R.N.; DECKERS J.; POESEN J.;Frankl, A.; Nyssen, J.; DE DAPPER, M.; Mitiku, Haile; Billi, Paolo; Munro, R. N.; Deckers, J.; Poesen, J

Succinct Suffix Arrays based on Run-Length Encoding

Mäkinen V, Navarro G. Succinct Suffix Arrays based on Run-Length Encoding. In: Apostolico A, ed. Proc. 16th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2005). Lecture notes in computer science. Vol 3537. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg; 2005: 45-56