Integrated analysis of environmental and genetic influences on cord blood DNA methylation in new-borns

Epigenetic processes, including DNA methylation (DNAm), are among the mechanisms allowing integration of genetic and environmental factors to shape cellular function. While many studies have investigated either environmental or genetic contributions to DNAm, few have assessed their integrated effects. Here we examine the relative contributions of prenatal environmental factors and genotype on DNA methylation in neonatal blood at variably methylated regions (VMRs) in 4 independent cohorts (overall n = 2365). We use Akaike’s information criterion to test which factors best explain variability of methylation in the cohort-specific VMRs: several prenatal environmental factors (E), genotypes in cis (G), or their additive (G + E) or interaction (GxE) effects. Genetic and environmental factors in combination best explain DNAm at the majority of VMRs. The CpGs best explained by either G, G + E or GxE are functionally distinct. The enrichment of genetic variants from GxE models in GWAS for complex disorders supports their importance for disease risk

Measurement of diamond nucleation rates from hydrocarbons at conditions comparable to the interiors of icy giant planets

We present measurements of the nucleation rate into a diamond lattice in dynamically compressed polystyrene obtained in a pump-probe experiment using a high-energy laser system and in situ femtosecond x-ray diffraction. Different temperature-pressure conditions that occur in planetary interiors were probed. For a single shock reaching 70 GPa and 3000 K no diamond formation was observed, while with a double shock driving polystyrene to pressures around 150 GPa and temperatures around 5000 K nucleation rates between 1029 and 1034m-3 s-1 were recorded. These nucleation rates do not agree with predictions of the state-of-the-art theoretical models for carbon-hydrogen mixtures by many orders of magnitude. Our data suggest that there is significant diamond formation to be expected inside icy giant planets like Neptune and Uranus. © 2020 authors. Published by the American Physical Society

A past and a future for diversification on farms? Some evidence from large-scale, commercial farms in South East England

Diversification has been identified as a common response to the agricultural crisis of the 1980s and to the changing ethos of agricultural policy in the closing decade of the 20th century. In particular, farmers operating large-scale farms have been prominent in adopting this approach, just as they were innovative across a range of farming practices in the expansion and modernisation of their agricultural production in earlier decades. Can we identify serial diversifiers within this sector of the farming community, who are disposed to react in an entrepreneurial fashion to the changing fortunes of agriculture? The paper draws on results from a survey of large-scale commercial farmers in South East England and, by examining the sequence in which various forms of diversification were adopted, identifies a temporal pattern as farmers responded to the fluctuating fortunes of the agricultural industry over the last 30 years. But has the potential for diversification been exhausted? The paper also considers future prospects for diversification within the large-scale, commercially oriented sector of the agricultural industry