Genome-wide association of sleep and circadian phenotypes

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies suggest genetic influences on sleepiness and circadian rhythms. The Sleep Heart Health Study collected questionnaire data on sleep habits and sleepiness from 2848 Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort participants. More than 700 participants were genotyped using the Affymetrix 100K SNP GeneChip, providing a unique opportunity to assess genetic linkage and association of these traits. METHODS: Sleepiness (defined as the Epworth Sleepiness Scale score), usual bedtime and usual sleep duration were assessed by self-completion questionnaire. Standardized residual measures adjusted for age, sex and BMI were analyzed. Multipoint variance components linkage analysis was performed. Association of SNPs to sleep phenotypes was analyzed with both population-based and family-based association tests, with analysis limited to 70,987 autosomal SNPs with minor allele frequency ≥10%, call rate ≥80%, and no significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p ≥ 0.001). RESULTS: Heritability of sleepiness was 0.29, bedtime 0.22, and sleep duration 0.17. Both genotype and sleep phenotype data were available for 749 subjects. Linkage analysis revealed five linkage peaks of LOD >2: four to usual bedtime, one to sleep duration. These peaks include several candidate sleep-related genes, including CSNK2A2, encoding a known component of the circadian molecular clock, and PROK2, encoding a putative transmitter of the behavioral circadian rhythm from the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Association tests identified an association of usual bedtime with a non-synonymous coding SNP in NPSR1 that has been shown to encode a gain of function mutation of the neuropeptide S receptor, whose endogenous ligand is a potent promoter of wakefulness. Each copy of the minor allele of this SNP was associated with a 15 minute later mean bedtime. The lowest p value was for association of sleepiness with a SNP located in an intron of PDE4D, which encodes a cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase widely expressed in human brain. Full association results are posted at. CONCLUSION: This analysis confirms prior reports of significant heritability of sleepiness, usual bedtime, and usual sleep duration. Several genetic loci with suggestive linkage to these traits are identified, including linkage peaks containing circadian clock-related genes. Association tests identify NPSR1 and PDE4D as possible mediators of bedtime and sleepiness.National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study (N01-HC 25195); National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute;s Sleep Heart Study (U01 HL53941); National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources Shared Instrumentation grant (1S10RR163736-01A1); Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute's young clinical scientist awar

Dallas with balls: televized sport, soap opera and male and female pleasures

Two of the most popular of television genres, soap opera and sports coverage have been very much differentiated along gender lines in terms of their audiences. Soap opera has been regarded very much as a 'gynocentric' genre with a large female viewing audience while the audiences for television sport have been predominantly male. Gender differentiation between the genres has had implications for the popular image of each. Soap opera has been perceived as inferior; as mere fantasy and escapism for women while television sports has been perceived as a legitimate, even edifying experience for men. In this article the authors challenge the view that soap opera and television sport are radically different and argue that they are, in fact, very similar in a number of significant ways. They suggest that both genres invoke similar structures of feeling and sensibility in their respective audiences and that television sport is a 'male soap opera'. They consider the ways in which the viewing context of each genre is related to domestic life and leisure, the ways in which the textual structure and conventions of each genre invoke emotional identification, and finally, the ways in which both genres re-affirm gender identities

Two new species of Marmosopus (Acari: Astigmata) from rodents of the genus Scotinomys (Cricetidae) in Central America

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57139/1/OP703.pd

Multi-dimensional parameter estimation of heavy-tailed moving averages

In this paper we present a parametric estimation method for certain multi-parameter heavy-tailed L\'evy-driven moving averages. The theory relies on recent multivariate central limit theorems obtained in [3] via Malliavin calculus on Poisson spaces. Our minimal contrast approach is related to the papers [14, 15], which propose to use the marginal empirical characteristic function to estimate the one-dimensional parameter of the kernel function and the stability index of the driving L\'evy motion. We extend their work to allow for a multi-parametric framework that in particular includes the important examples of the linear fractional stable motion, the stable Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, certain CARMA(2, 1) models and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes with a periodic component among other models. We present both the consistency and the associated central limit theorem of the minimal contrast estimator. Furthermore, we demonstrate numerical analysis to uncover the finite sample performance of our method

A New Method of Measuring 81Kr and 85Kr Abundances in Environmental Samples

We demonstrate a new method for determining the 81Kr/Kr ratio in environmental samples based upon two measurements: the 85Kr/81Kr ratio measured by Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA) and the 85Kr/Kr ratio measured by Low-Level Counting (LLC). This method can be used to determine the mean residence time of groundwater in the range of 10^5 - 10^6 a. It requires a sample of 100 micro-l STP of Kr extracted from approximately two tons of water. With modern atmospheric Kr samples, we demonstrate that the ratios measured by ATTA and LLC are directly proportional to each other within the measurement error of +/- 10%; we calibrate the 81Kr/Kr ratio of modern air measured using this method; and we show that the 81Kr/Kr ratios of samples extracted from air before and after the development of the nuclear industry are identical within the measurement error

Heat conduction in the disordered harmonic chain revisited

A general formulation is developed to study heat conduction in disordered harmonic chains with arbitrary heat baths that satisfy the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. A simple formal expression for the heat current J is obtained, from which its asymptotic system-size (N) dependence is extracted. It is shown that the ``thermal conductivity'' depends not just on the system itself but also on the spectral properties of the fluctuation and noise used to model the heat baths. As special cases of our heat baths we recover earlier results which reported that for fixed boundaries $J \sim 1/N^{3/2}$, while for free boundaries $J \sim 1/N^{1/2}$. For other choices we find that one can get other power laws including the ``Fourier behaviour'' $J \sim 1/N$.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Simulational Study on Dimensionality-Dependence of Heat Conduction

Heat conduction phenomena are studied theoretically using computer simulation. The systems are crystal with nonlinear interaction, and fluid of hard-core particles. Quasi-one-dimensional system of the size of $L_x\times L_y\times L_z(L_z\gg L_x,L_y)$ is simulated. Heat baths are put in both end: one has higher temperature than the other. In the crystal case, the interaction potential $V$ has fourth-order non-linear term in addition to the harmonic term, and Nose-Hoover method is used for the heat baths. In the fluid case, stochastic boundary condition is charged, which works as the heat baths. Fourier-type heat conduction is reproduced both in crystal and fluid models in three-dimensional system, but it is not observed in lower dimensional system. Autocorrelation function of heat flux is also observed and long-time tails of the form of $\sim t^{-d/2}$, where $d$ denotes the dimensionality of the system, are confirmed.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figure

Virtual Design of a Four-Bed Molecular Sieve for Exploration

Aboard the International Space Station, CO2 is removed from the cabin atmosphere by a four-bed molecular sieve (4BMS) process called the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA).1 This 4BMS process operates by passing the CO2-laden air through a desiccant bed to remove any humidity and then passing the dried air through a sorbent bed to remove the CO2. While one pair of beds is in use, the other pair is thermally regenerated to allow for continuous CO2 removal