Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk.

Blood pressure is a heritable trait influenced by several biological pathways and responsive to environmental stimuli. Over one billion people worldwide have hypertension (≥140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure or  ≥90 mm Hg diastolic blood pressure). Even small increments in blood pressure are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. This genome-wide association study of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which used a multi-stage design in 200,000 individuals of European descent, identified sixteen novel loci: six of these loci contain genes previously known or suspected to regulate blood pressure (GUCY1A3-GUCY1B3, NPR3-C5orf23, ADM, FURIN-FES, GOSR2, GNAS-EDN3); the other ten provide new clues to blood pressure physiology. A genetic risk score based on 29 genome-wide significant variants was associated with hypertension, left ventricular wall thickness, stroke and coronary artery disease, but not kidney disease or kidney function. We also observed associations with blood pressure in East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry individuals. Our findings provide new insights into the genetics and biology of blood pressure, and suggest potential novel therapeutic pathways for cardiovascular disease prevention

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion

Inferring the electron temperature and density of shocked liquid deuterium using inelastic X-ray scattering

An experiment designed to launch laser-ablation-driven shock waves (10 to 70 Mbar) in a planar liquid-deuterium target on the OMEGA Laser System and to diagnose the shocked conditions using inelastic x-ray scattering is described. The electron temperature (T e) is inferred from the Doppler-broadened Compton-downshifted peak of the noncollective (α s = 1kλ D > 1) x-ray scattering for T e > T Fermi. The electron density (n e) is inferred from the downshifted plasmon peak of the collective (α scatter > 1) x-ray scattering. A cylindrical layer of liquid deuterium is formed in a cryogenic cell with 8-μm-thick polyimide windows. The polyimide ablator is irradiated with peak intensities in the range of 10 13 to 10 15 W/cm 2 and shock waves are launched. Predictions from a 1-D hydrodynamics code show the shocked deuterium has a thickness of ∼0.1 mm with spatially uniform conditions. For the drive intensities under consideration, electron density up to ∼5 × 10 23 cm -3 and electron temperature in the range of 10 to 25 eV are predicted. A laser-irradiated saran foil produces Cl Ly αemission. The spectrally resolved x-ray scattering is recorded at 90° for the noncollective scattering and at 40° for the collective scattering with a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) crystal spectrometer and an x-ray framing camera. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd

Measurements of low-mode asymmetries in the areal density of laser-direct-drive deuterium-tritium cryogenic implosions on OMEGA using neutron spectroscopy

Areal density is one of the key parameters that determines the confinement time in inertial confinement fusion experiments, and low-mode asymmetries in the compressed fuel are detrimental to the implosion performance. The energy spectra from the scattering of the primary deuterium–tritium (DT) neutrons off the compressed cold fuel assembly are used to investigate low-mode nonuniformities in direct-drive cryogenic DT implosions at the Omega Laser Facility. For spherically symmetric implosions, the shape of the energy spectrum is primarily determined by the elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections for both neutron-deuterium and neutron-tritium kinematic interactions. Two highly collimated lines of sight, which are positioned at nearly orthogonal locations around the OMEGA target chamber, record the neutron time-of-flight signal in the current mode. An evolutionary algorithm is being used to extract a model-independent energy spectrum of the scattered neutrons from the experimental neutron time-of-flight data and is used to infer the modal spatial variations (l = 1) in the areal density. Experimental observations of the low-mode variations of the cold-fuel assembly (ρL0 + ρL1) show good agreement with a recently developed model, indicating a departure from the spherical symmetry of the compressed DT fuel assembly. Another key signature that has been observed in the presence of a low-mode variation is the broadening of the kinematic end-point due to the anisotropy of the dense fuel conditions

Advanced-ignition-concept exploration on OMEGA

Advanced ignition concepts, such as fast ignition and shock ignition, are being investigated at the Omega Laser Facility. Integrated fast-ignition experiments with room-temperature re-entrant cone targets have begun, using 18 kJ of 351 nm drive energy to implode empty 40 νm thick CD shells, followed by 1.0 kJ of 1053 nm wavelength, short-pulse energy. Short pulses of 10 ps width have irradiated the inside of a hollow gold re-entrant cone at the time of peak compression. A threefold increase in the time-integrated, 2 to 7 keV x-ray emission was observed with x-ray pinhole cameras, indicating that energy is coupled from the short-pulse laser into the core by fast electrons. In shock-ignition experiments, spherical plastic-shell targets were compressed to high areal densities on a low adiabat, and a strong shock wave was sent into the converging, compressed capsule. In one experiment, 60 beams were used with an intensity spike at the end of the laser pulse, and the implosion performance was studied through neutron-yield and areal-density measurements. In a second experiment, the 60 OMEGA beams were split into a 40+20 configuration, with 40 low-intensity beams used for fuel assembly and 20 delayed beams with a short, high-intensity pulse shape (up to 1 × 1016 W cm-2) for shock generation. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd