Stratospheric NO and NO2 profiles at sunset from analysis of high-resolution balloon-borne infrared solar absorption spectra obtained at 33 deg N and calculations with a time-dependent photochemical model

Simultaneous stratospheric vertical profiles of NO and NO2 at sunset were derived from an analysis of infrared solar absorption spectra recorded from a float altitude of 33 km with an interferometer system during a balloon flight. A nonlinear least squares procedure was used to analyze the spectral data in regions of absorption by NO and NO2 lines. Normalized factors, determined from calculations of time dependent altitude profiles with a detailed photochemical model, were included in the onion peeling analysis to correct for the rapid diurnal changes in NO and NO2 concentrations with time near sunset. The CO2 profile was also derived from the analysis and is reported

New atlas of IR solar spectra

Over 4500 absorption lines have been marked on the spectra and the corresponding line positions tabulated. The associated absorbing telluric or solar species for more than 90% of these lines have been identified and only a fraction of the unidentified lines have peak absorptions greater than a few percent. The high resolution and the low Sun spectra greatly enhance the sensitivity limits for identification of trace constituents

Infrared measurements in the spring 1987 ozone hole

Solar spectra were recorded from Arrival Heights (McMurdo), Antartica, with a FTIR system during the austral spring of 1987. Spectra were recorded on 22 days from September 13 through October 28. The instrument was setup with 2 detectors for simultaneous operation in 2 wavelength regions. Several stratospheric gases have measurable absorptions in these regions including HCl, HNO3, O3, ClONO2, and NO2. The system is equipped with an automatic solar tracking system and records data on tape cartridges. A portable personal computer allows Fourier transforming and initial processing of some of the data. The HNO3 gas column amount shows large variations, but no apparent correlation with stratospheric temperature. The HCl column shows a steady increase from 0.9 x 10 to the 15th power molecules/sq.cm. on September 13 to 1.5 x 10 to the 15th power on October 6. McMurdo moved out of the polar vortex for a few days, and the HCl column jumped to 2.9 x 10 to the 15th power by October 11. Although McMurdo moved back under the vortex, the HCl continued to increase, reaching 3.4 x 10 to the 15th power at the end of the period

Summertime stratospheric processes at northern mid-latitudes: comparisons between MANTRA balloon measurements and the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model

In this paper we report on a study conducted using the Middle Atmospheric Nitrogen TRend Assessment (MANTRA) balloon measurements of stratospheric constituents and temperature and the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM). Three different kinds of data are used to assess the inter-consistency of the combined dataset: single profiles of long-lived species from MANTRA 1998, sparse climatologies from the ozonesonde measurements during the four MANTRA campaigns and from HALOE satellite measurements, and the CMAM climatology. In doing so, we evaluate the ability of the model to reproduce the measured fields and to thereby test our ability to describe mid-latitude summertime stratospheric processes. The MANTRA campaigns were conducted at Vanscoy, Saskatchewan, Canada (52◦ N, 107◦ W)in late August and early September of 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004. During late summer at mid-latitudes, the stratosphere is close to photochemical control, providing an ideal scenario for the study reported here. From this analysis we find that: (1) reducing the value for the vertical diffusion coefficient in CMAM to a more physically reasonable value results in the model better reproducing the measured profiles of long-lived species; (2) the existence of compact correlations among the constituents, as expected from independent measurements in the literature and from models, confirms the self-consistency of the MANTRA measurements; and (3) the 1998 measurements show structures in the chemical species profiles that can be associated with transport, adding to the growing evidence that the summertime stratosphere can be much more disturbed than anticipated. The mechanisms responsible for such disturbances need to be understood in order to assess the representativeness of the measurements and to isolate longterm trends

Quantification of the overall contribution of gene-environment interaction for obesity-related traits

The growing sample size of genome-wide association studies has facilitated the discovery of gene-environment interactions (GxE). Here we propose a maximum likelihood method to estimate the contribution of GxE to continuous traits taking into account all interacting environmental variables, without the need to measure any. Extensive simulations demonstrate that our method provides unbiased interaction estimates and excellent coverage. We also offer strategies to distinguish specific GxE from general scale effects. Applying our method to 32 traits in the UK Biobank reveals that while the genetic risk score (GRS) of 376 variants explains 5.2% of body mass index (BMI) variance, GRSxE explains an additional 1.9%. Nevertheless, this interaction holds for any variable with identical correlation to BMI as the GRS, hence may not be GRS-specific. Still, we observe that the global contribution of specific GRSxE to complex traits is substantial for nine obesity-related measures (including leg impedance and trunk fat-free mass).This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Publisher URL to access it via the publisher's site.published version, accepted version, submitted versio

Contributions of Dopamine-Related Genes and Environmental Factors to Highly Sensitive Personality: A Multi-Step Neuronal System-Level Approach

Traditional behavioral genetic studies (e.g., twin, adoption studies) have shown that human personality has moderate to high heritability, but recent molecular behavioral genetic studies have failed to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) with consistent effects. The current study adopted a multi-step approach (ANOVA followed by multiple regression and permutation) to assess the cumulative effects of multiple QTLs. Using a system-level (dopamine system) genetic approach, we investigated a personality trait deeply rooted in the nervous system (the Highly Sensitive Personality, HSP). 480 healthy Chinese college students were given the HSP scale and genotyped for 98 representative polymorphisms in all major dopamine neurotransmitter genes. In addition, two environment factors (stressful life events and parental warmth) that have been implicated for their contributions to personality development were included to investigate their relative contributions as compared to genetic factors. In Step 1, using ANOVA, we identified 10 polymorphisms that made statistically significant contributions to HSP. In Step 2, these polymorphism's main effects and interactions were assessed using multiple regression. This model accounted for 15% of the variance of HSP (p<0.001). Recent stressful life events accounted for an additional 2% of the variance. Finally, permutation analyses ascertained the probability of obtaining these findings by chance to be very low, p ranging from 0.001 to 0.006. Dividing these loci by the subsystems of dopamine synthesis, degradation/transport, receptor and modulation, we found that the modulation and receptor subsystems made the most significant contribution to HSP. The results of this study demonstrate the utility of a multi-step neuronal system-level approach in assessing genetic contributions to individual differences in human behavior. It can potentially bridge the gap between the high heritability estimates based on traditional behavioral genetics and the lack of reproducible genetic effects observed currently from molecular genetic studies

Genome-Wide Diet-Gene Interaction Analyses for Risk of Colorectal Cancer

Dietary factors, including meat, fruits, vegetables and fiber, are associated with colorectal cancer; however, there is limited information as to whether these dietary factors interact with genetic variants to modify risk of colorectal cancer. We tested interactions between these dietary factors and approximately 2.7 million genetic variants for colorectal cancer risk among 9,287 cases and 9,117 controls from ten studies. We used logistic regression to investigate multiplicative gene-diet interactions, as well as our recently developed Cocktail method that involves a screening step based on marginal associations and gene-diet correlations and a testing step for multiplicative interactions, while correcting for multiple testing using weighted hypothesis testing. Per quartile increment in the intake of red and processed meat were associated with statistically significant increased risks of colorectal cancer and vegetable, fruit and fiber intake with lower risks. From the case-control analysis, we detected a significant interaction between rs4143094 (10p14/near GATA3) and processed meat consumption (OR = 1.17; p = 8.7E-09), which was consistently observed across studies (p heterogeneity = 0.78). The risk of colorectal cancer associated with processed meat was increased among individuals with the rs4143094-TG and -TT genotypes (OR = 1.20 and OR = 1.39, respectively) and null among those with the GG genotype (OR = 1.03). Our results identify a novel gene-diet interaction with processed meat for colorectal cancer, highlighting that diet may modify the effect of genetic variants on disease risk, which may have important implications for prevention. © 2014

Genetic modifiers of radon-induced lung cancer risk: a genome-wide interaction study in former uranium miners

PURPOSE: Radon is a risk factor for lung cancer and uranium miners are more exposed than the general population. A genome-wide interaction analysis was carried out to identify genomic loci, genes or gene sets that modify the susceptibility to lung cancer given occupational exposure to the radioactive gas radon. METHODS: Samples from 28 studies provided by the International Lung Cancer Consortium were pooled with samples of former uranium miners collected by the German Federal Office of Radiation Protection. In total, 15,077 cases and 13,522 controls, all of European ancestries, comprising 463 uranium miners were compared. The DNA of all participants was genotyped with the OncoArray. We fitted single-marker and in multi-marker models and performed an exploratory gene-set analysis to detect cumulative enrichment of significance in sets of genes. RESULTS: We discovered a genome-wide significant interaction of the marker rs12440014 within the gene CHRNB4 (OR = 0.26, 95% CI 0.11-0.60, p = 0.0386 corrected for multiple testing). At least suggestive significant interaction of linkage disequilibrium blocks was observed at the chromosomal regions 18q21.23 (p = 1.2 × 10-6), 5q23.2 (p = 2.5 × 10-6), 1q21.3 (p = 3.2 × 10-6), 10p13 (p = 1.3 × 10-5) and 12p12.1 (p = 7.1 × 10-5). Genes belonging to the Gene Ontology term "DNA dealkylation involved in DNA repair" (GO:0006307; p = 0.0139) or the gene family HGNC:476 "microRNAs" (p = 0.0159) were enriched with LD-blockwise significance. CONCLUSION: The well-established association of the genomic region 15q25 to lung cancer might be influenced by exposure to radon among uranium miners. Furthermore, lung cancer susceptibility is related to the functional capability of DNA damage signaling via ubiquitination processes and repair of radiation-induced double-strand breaks by the single-strand annealing mechanism