Palynological Characteristics of Near-Shore Shell-Bearing Pliocene Through Holocene Sediments of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina

Seventeen pollen-bearing samples· from sites in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida were analyzed for their pollen content. The samples range in age from Late Pliocene to Holocene. The initial objective of the study was to use the samples to help define the age of the physiographic feature known as Trail Ridge. All samples were marine sediments, and many were from marine mollusk-dominated strata. Pollen of Pinus and Quercus were abundant in all samples; Taxodium was abundant in about half of them. Carya, Liquidambar, Compositae, Gramineae, and ChenopodiaceaeAmaranthaceae were present as accessory taxa. Dinoflagellate cysts, microforams, and pyrite were present, or abundant, in several of the samples. The only regionally extinct taxa were Pterocarya and Sciadopitys (?), and these were not abundant in any samples. The bio- and chronostratigraphic positions of the samples were established using mollusk, ostracode, and vertebrate fossil data, and radiocarbon dates where possible. In spite of the fact that the samples represent a considerable span of time (back to 2.2 million years) the pollen floras are very uniform. There is, for all practical purposes, no way of distinguishing the sampled Pliocene strata from the Pleistocene or Holocene units on the basis of pollen assemblages. The pollen floras seem to have been strongly influenced by taphonomic factors, such as sorting by wind, currents, and waves. Although this has nearly eliminated their value as biostratigraphic indicators, the pollen assemblages are useful indicators of a distinct kind of depositional setting. The taphonomic interpretation is corroborated by data derived from molluscan and vertebrate paleoecology

Geologic Evolution of Trail Ridge Eolian Heavy-Mineral Sand and Underlying Peat, Northern Florida

The southern portion of Trail Ridge in Clay County, Fla., has been an important domestic source of altered ilmenite, zircon, and other minerals since 1949. The ridge as a physiographic feature extends in a north-south direction over 160 km and is 1 to 2 km wide. The ore is a fine- to medium-grained sand body that extends down from the crest of the ridge about 20 m. Average heavy-mineral content is about 4 percent. Over half of the ilmenite and zircon is contained in thin, dark laminae dipping 26° to 41 ° southwest; these laminae extend deep within the ore and outline the slip faces of a great eolian dune complex. The subordinate dark laminae differ in heavy mineralogy and grain size from the encasing light-colored sand. The dark laminae have a modal grain size of 0.2 mm and average about 6 percent heavy minerals, among which altered ilmenite, zircon, and rutile predominate. The light-colored laminae have a coarser modal grain size of 0.3 mm and average only 1 percent heavy minerals, among which the lighter heavy minerals staurolite, sillimanite, and tourmaline form half. Grain size variables and grain surfaces are appropriate for eolian sand. Over­printed on these original features of the dune are a surficial weathering zone over 3 m thick, where tan leucoxene takes the place of black altered ilmenite, and several underlying humate-cemented zones that probably represent water-table stillstands. The immediately underlying unit is a lignitic peaty layer 1.5 m thick, here referred to as peat. The organic fraction is derived entirely from freshwater plants. In-place tree stumps have been noted, but the predominant component of the peat is fragments of wood and other transported plant debris. The peat and its constituents indicate depo­sition in a swamp environment, and local horizons enriched with charcoal and fungal remains indicate periodic subaerial exposure. Vegetation varied from open shrub swamp to cypress forest. The age of the peat has been determined palynologically as post­Miocene. Its carbon-14 age is greater than 4.5 x 104 years; that is, pre-latest Pleistocene. The upper portion of the peat layer contains admixtures of sand. This sand is present as isolated grains embedded in laminated organic matrix and is dominantly well rounded and frosted. As a grain population, the sand in the peat matches the overlying Trail Ridge ore sand in mineralogy and grain morphology but is slightly finer in grain size. This sand we regard as an important clue to the history of the area. The sand was apparently deposited from aerial suspension, and its characteristics were acquired in the adjacent high-energy eolian environment. Upward increase of sand in peat records the approach of the dune that eventually prograded the swamp. The peat and the overlying sand are essentially the same age. Fine sand found in peat represents the sand fraction remaining suspended in flow separation at the top of the slip face of the dune. Ore represents the traction-load fraction. The Trail Ridge dune itself is probably the drainage dam that impounded the swamp it later overrode. The sand embedded in peat is also an important clue to the weath­ering history of Trail Ridge heavy minerals, as entombment in peat probably arrested oxidation. The presence of leucoxene, and other features of the mineral assemblage, shows that the minerals were already weathered at deposition. This evidence is in accord with grain-surface features and grain-size-density relations. Thus, mineral alteration at Trail Ridge occurred in two stages, one before and one after deposition. Trail Ridge apparently represents a coast-parallel transgressive dune complex, analogous to younger dunes elsewhere that have become completely decoupled from parental shorelines. The Trail Ridge body was probably composite, made up of individual parabolic dunes, each migrating southwestward. The base of the Trail Ridge body was probably originally higher at the southern end than at the northern end

A biography and obituary of Alfred Traverse (1925–2015)

Professor Alfred (‘Al’) Traverse passed away following a long illness at 90 years of age on September 15th 2015 at Juniper Village, State College, Pennsylvania, USA. With his death, the twin sciences of palaeobotany and palynology have lost one of their most influential and productive of practitioners and teachers. He had a stellar student career, was a coal petrologist, an industrial palynologist and held parallel positions in the Episcopal (Anglican) church. However he is principally defined by his 30-year tenure as a professor at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) from 1966 to his full retirement in 1996. Al was an incredibly diverse scientist; the topics of his numerous research papers are highly eclectic. He demonstrated a truly polymathic approach to palaeobotany and palynology. Most notably, he published two editions of the only single-author textbook ever published in English on pre-Quaternary palynology. This short article seeks to celebrate and document Al's fascinating, fulfilling, long and productive life, hence it is designated as both a biography and an obituary. The authors have drawn on their collective memories, Al's publications, online information and other obituaries such as Anonymous (2015) and Rich & Strother (2015)

Proceedings of the Fourth Caldwell Conference, St. Catherines Island, Georgia, March 27-29, 2009.

391 p. : ill. (chiefly col.), maps (chiefly col.) ; 26 cm. "Issued March 23, 2011."This edited volume addresses the geoarchaeology of St. Catherines Island (Georgia). The field of geoarchaeology has typically been defined as either geology pursued within an archaeological framework or (sometimes the reverse) as archaeology framed with the help of geological methodology. Either way, the formalized objectives of geoarchaeology define a broad range of pursuits, from placing archaeological sites into relative and absolute temporal context through the application of stratigraphic principles and absolute dating techniques, to understanding the natural processes of site formation, to reconstructing the landscapes that existed around a site or group of sites at the time of occupation. The editors of this volume have generally followed the lead of G.R. Rapp and C.L. Hill (2006, Geoarchaeology : the earth-science approach to archaeological interpretation) by stressing the importance of multiple viewpoints and methodologies in applying geoscience techniques to evaluate the archaeological record. In the broadest sense, then, Geoarchaeology of St. Catherines Island applies multiple earth science concepts, techniques, or knowledge bases to the known archaeological record and the processes that created that record. This volume consists of 16 papers presenting the newest research on the stratigraphic and geomorphological evolution of the St. Catherines Island landscape. Of particular interest are presentations addressing the relative timing and nature of sedimentation, paleobiology, sea level change, stream capture, hydrology, and erosional patterning evident on St. Catherines Island (and to some degree the rest of the Georgia Bight). These papers were initially presented at the Fourth Caldwell Conference, cosponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and the St. Catherines Island Foundation, held on St. Catherines Island (Georgia), March 27-29, 2009. Table of contents: Why this archaeologist cares about geoarchaeology : some pasts and futures of St. Catherines Island / David Hurst Thomas -- Evolution of late Pleistocene-Holocene climates and environments of St. Catherines Island and the Georgia Bight / Fredrick J. Rich, Anthony Vega, and Frank J. Vento -- Geoarchaeological research at St. Catherines Island : defining the geological foundation / Gale A. Bishop, Brian K. Meyer, R. Kelly Vance, and Fredrick J. Rich -- Development of a late Pleistocene-Holocene genetic stratigraphic framework for St. Catherines Island : archaeological implications / Frank J. Vento and Patty A. Stahlman -- Ichnological diagnosis of ancient storm-washover fans, Yellow Banks Bluff, St. Catherines Island / Anthony J. Martin and Andrew K. Rindsberg -- Quaternary vegetation and depositional history of St. Catherines Island / Fredrick J. Rich and Robert K. Booth -- Recent shoreline erosion and vertical accretion patterns, St. Catherines Island / Donald B. Potter Jr. -- Role of storm events in beach ridge formation, St. Catherines Island / Harold B. Rollins, Kathi Beratan, and James E. Pottinger -- Drainage changes at Ossabaw, St. Catherines, and Sapelo sounds and their influence on island morphology and spit building on St. Catherines Island / Timothy M. Chowns -- Vibracores and vibracore transects : constraining the geological and cultural history of St. Catherines Island / Gale A. Bishop, David Hurst Thomas, Matthew C. Sanger, Brian K. Meyer, R. Kelly Vance, Robert K. Booth, Fredrick J. Rich, Donald B. Potter, and Timothy Keith-Lucas -- Application of ground penetrating radar to investigations of the stratigraphy, structure, and hydrology of St. Catherines Island / R. Kelly Vance, Gale A. Bishop, Fredrick J. Rich, Brian K. Meyer, and Eleanor J. Camann -- Postsettlement dispersal and dynamic repopulation of estuarine habitats by adult Mercenaria mercenaria, St. Catherines Island / Robert S. Prezant, Harold B. Rollins, and Ronald B. Toll -- The foundation for sea turtle geoarchaeology and zooarchaeology : morphology of recent and ancient sea turtle nests, St. Catherines Island, Georgia, and Cretaceous Fox Hills Sandstone, Elbert County, Colorado / Gale A. Bishop, Fredric L. Pirkle, Brian K. Meyer, and William A. Pirkle -- Sea turtle habitat deterioration on St. Catherines Island : defining the modern transgression / Gale A. Bishop and Brian K. Meyer -- Modeling indigenous hunting and harvesting of sea turtles and their eggs on the Georgia Coast / Gale A. Bishop, David Hurst Thomas, and Brian K. Meyer -- Geomorphology, sea level, and marine resources : St. Catherines Island / Harold B. Rollins and David Hurst Thomas -- Appendix 1. Noncultural radiocarbon record from St. Catherines Island : a compendium -- Appendix 2. Vibracore record from St. Catherines Island : a compendium.Conference sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and the St. Catherines Island Foundation

Fine-Scale Mapping of the 4q24 Locus Identifies Two Independent Loci Associated with Breast Cancer Risk

Background: A recent association study identified a common variant (rs9790517) at 4q24 to be associated with breast cancer risk. Independent association signals and potential functional variants in this locus have not been explored. Methods: We conducted a fine-mapping analysis in 55,540 breast cancer cases and 51,168 controls from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Results: Conditional analyses identified two independent association signals among women of European ancestry, represented by rs9790517 [conditional P = 2.51 × 10−4; OR, 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02–1.07] and rs77928427 (P = 1.86 × 10−4; OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02–1.07). Functional annotation using data from the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project revealed two putative functional variants, rs62331150 and rs73838678 in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with rs9790517 (r2 ≥ 0.90) residing in the active promoter or enhancer, respectively, of the nearest gene, TET2. Both variants are located in DNase I hypersensitivity and transcription factor–binding sites. Using data from both The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC), we showed that rs62331150 was associated with level of expression of TET2 in breast normal and tumor tissue. Conclusion: Our study identified two independent association signals at 4q24 in relation to breast cancer risk and suggested that observed association in this locus may be mediated through the regulation of TET2. Impact: Fine-mapping study with large sample size warranted for identification of independent loci for breast cancer risk

Common non-synonymous SNPs associated with breast cancer susceptibility: findings from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium.

Candidate variant association studies have been largely unsuccessful in identifying common breast cancer susceptibility variants, although most studies have been underpowered to detect associations of a realistic magnitude. We assessed 41 common non-synonymous single-nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) for which evidence of association with breast cancer risk had been previously reported. Case-control data were combined from 38 studies of white European women (46 450 cases and 42 600 controls) and analyzed using unconditional logistic regression. Strong evidence of association was observed for three nsSNPs: ATXN7-K264R at 3p21 [rs1053338, per allele OR = 1.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.04-1.10, P = 2.9 × 10(-6)], AKAP9-M463I at 7q21 (rs6964587, OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.03-1.07, P = 1.7 × 10(-6)) and NEK10-L513S at 3p24 (rs10510592, OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.07-1.12, P = 5.1 × 10(-17)). The first two associations reached genome-wide statistical significance in a combined analysis of available data, including independent data from nine genome-wide association studies (GWASs): for ATXN7-K264R, OR = 1.07 (95% CI = 1.05-1.10, P = 1.0 × 10(-8)); for AKAP9-M463I, OR = 1.05 (95% CI = 1.04-1.07, P = 2.0 × 10(-10)). Further analysis of other common variants in these two regions suggested that intronic SNPs nearby are more strongly associated with disease risk. We have thus identified a novel susceptibility locus at 3p21, and confirmed previous suggestive evidence that rs6964587 at 7q21 is associated with risk. The third locus, rs10510592, is located in an established breast cancer susceptibility region; the association was substantially attenuated after adjustment for the known GWAS hit. Thus, each of the associated nsSNPs is likely to be a marker for another, non-coding, variant causally related to breast cancer risk. Further fine-mapping and functional studies are required to identify the underlying risk-modifying variants and the genes through which they act.BCAC is funded by Cancer Research UK (C1287/A10118, C1287/A12014) and by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement n8 223175 (HEALTH-F2–2009-223175) (COGS). Meetings of the BCAC have been funded by the European Union COST programme (BM0606). Genotyping of the iCOGS array was funded by the European Union (HEALTH-F2-2009-223175), Cancer Research UK (C1287/A10710), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for the ‘CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer’ program and the Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade of Quebec (PSR-SIIRI-701). Additional support for the iCOGS infrastructure was provided by the National Institutes of Health (CA128978) and Post-Cancer GWAS initiative (1U19 CA148537, 1U19 CA148065 and 1U19 CA148112—the GAME-ON initiative), the Department of Defence (W81XWH-10-1-0341), Komen Foundation for the Cure, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. The ABCFS and OFBCR work was supported by grant UM1 CA164920 from the National Cancer Institute (USA). The content of this manuscript does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the National Cancer Institute or any of the collaborating centers in the Breast Cancer Family Registry (BCFR), nor does mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations imply endorsement t by the US Government or the BCFR. The ABCFS was also supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the New South Wales Cancer Council, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (Australia) and the Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium. J.L.H. is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellow and M.C.S. is a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. The OFBCR work was also supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research ‘CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer’ program. The ABCS was funded by the Dutch Cancer Society Grant no. NKI2007-3839 and NKI2009-4363. The ACP study is funded by the Breast Cancer Research Trust, UK. The work of the BBCC was partly funded by ELAN-Programme of the University Hospital of Erlangen. The BBCS is funded by Cancer Research UK and Breakthrough Breast Cancer and acknowledges NHS funding to the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, and the National Cancer Research Network (NCRN). E.S. is supported by NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King’s College London, UK. Core funding to the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics was provided by the Wellcome Trust (090532/Z/09/Z). I.T. is supported by the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. The BSUCH study was supported by the Dietmar-Hopp Foundation, the Helmholtz Society and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). The CECILE study was funded by the Fondation de France, the French National Institute of Cancer (INCa), The National League against Cancer, the National Agency for Environmental l and Occupational Health and Food Safety (ANSES), the National Agency for Research (ANR), and the Association for Research against Cancer (ARC). The CGPS was supported by the Chief Physician Johan Boserup and Lise Boserup Fund, the Danish Medical Research Council and Herlev Hospital.The CNIO-BCS was supported by the Genome Spain Foundation the Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer and grants from the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer and the Fondo de Investigación Sanitario PI11/00923 and PI081120). The Human Genotyping-CEGEN Unit, CNIO is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. D.A. was supported by a Fellowship from the Michael Manzella Foundation (MMF) and was a participant in the CNIO Summer Training Program. The CTS was initially supported by the California Breast Cancer Act of 1993 and the California Breast Cancer Research Fund (contract 97-10500) and is currently funded through the National Institutes of Health (R01 CA77398). Collection of cancer incidence e data was supported by the California Department of Public Health as part of the statewide cancer reporting program mandated by California Health and Safety Code Section 103885. HAC receives support from the Lon V Smith Foundation (LVS39420). The ESTHER study was supported by a grant from the Baden Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and Arts. Additional cases were recruited in the context of the VERDI study, which was supported by a grant from the German Cancer Aid (Deutsche Krebshilfe). The GENICA was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Germany grants 01KW9975/5, 01KW9976/8, 01KW9977/0 and 01KW0114, the Robert Bosch Foundation, Stuttgart, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Heidelberg Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr University Bochum (IPA), as well as the Department of Internal Medicine , Evangelische Kliniken Bonn gGmbH, Johanniter Krankenhaus Bonn, Germany. The HEBCS was supported by the Helsinki University Central Hospital Research Fund, Academy of Finland (132473), the Finnish Cancer Society, The Nordic Cancer Union and the Sigrid Juselius Foundation. The HERPACC was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Culture and Technology of Japan, by a Grant-in-Aid for the Third Term Comprehensive 10-Year strategy for Cancer Control from Ministry Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, by a research grant from Takeda Science Foundation , by Health and Labour Sciences Research Grants for Research on Applying Health Technology from Ministry Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan and by National Cancer Center Research and Development Fund. The HMBCS was supported by short-term fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Program (to N.B), and the Friends of Hannover Medical School (to N.B.). Financial support for KARBAC was provided through the regional agreement on medical training and clinical research (ALF) between Stockholm County Council and Karolinska Institutet, the Stockholm Cancer Foundation and the Swedish Cancer Society. The KBCP was financially supported by the special Government Funding (EVO) of Kuopio University Hospital grants, Cancer Fund of North Savo, the Finnish Cancer Organizations, the Academy of Finland and by the strategic funding of the University of Eastern Finland. kConFab is supported by grants from the National Breast Cancer Foundation , the NHMRC, the Queensland Cancer Fund, the Cancer Councils of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia and the Cancer Foundation of Western Australia. The kConFab Clinical Follow Up Study was funded by the NHMRC (145684, 288704, 454508). Financial support for the AOCS was provided by the United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (DAMD17-01-1-0729), the Cancer Council of Tasmania and Cancer Foundation of Western Australia and the NHMRC (199600). G.C.T. and P.W. are supported by the NHMRC. LAABC is supported by grants (1RB-0287, 3PB-0102, 5PB-0018 and 10PB-0098) from the California Breast Cancer Research Program. Incident breast cancer cases were collected by the USC Cancer Surveillance Program (CSP) which is supported under subcontract by the California Department of Health. The CSP is also part of the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, under contract number N01CN25403. LMBC is supported by the ‘Stichting tegen Kanker’ (232-2008 and 196-2010). The MARIE study was supported by the Deutsche Krebshilfe e.V. (70-2892-BR I), the Federal Ministry of Education Research (BMBF) Germany (01KH0402), the Hamburg Cancer Society and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). MBCSG is supported by grants from the Italian Association ciation for Cancer Research (AIRC) and by funds from the Italian citizens who allocated a 5/1000 share of their tax payment in support of the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, according to Italian laws (INT-Institutional strategic projects ‘5 × 1000’). The MCBCS was supported by the NIH grants (CA122340, CA128978) and a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Breast Cancer (CA116201), the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and a generous gift from the David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Family Foundation and the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation. MCCS cohort recruitment was funded by VicHealth and Cancer Council Victoria. The MCCS was further supported by Australian NHMRC grants 209057, 251553 and 504711 and by infrastructure provided by Cancer Council Victoria. The MEC was supported by NIH grants CA63464, CA54281, CA098758 and CA132839. The work of MTLGEBCS was supported by the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant CRN-87521) and the Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade (grant PSR-SIIRI-701). MYBRCA is funded by research grants from the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (UM.C/HlR/MOHE/06) and Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation (CARIF). Additional controls were recruited by the Singapore Eye Research Institute, which was supported by a grant from the Biomedical Research Council (BMRC08/1/35/19,tel:08/1/35/19./550), Singapore and the National medical Research Council, Singapore (NMRC/CG/SERI/2010). The NBCS was supported by grants from the Norwegian Research council (155218/V40, 175240/S10 to A.L.B.D., FUGE-NFR 181600/ V11 to V.N.K. and a Swizz Bridge Award to A.L.B.D.). The NBHS was supported by NIH grant R01CA100374. Biological sample preparation was conducted the Survey and Biospecimen Shared Resource, which is supported by P30 CA68485. The OBCS was supported by research grants from the Finnish Cancer Foundation, the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, the Academy of Finland, the University of Oulu, and the Oulu University Hospital. The ORIGO study was supported by the Dutch Cancer Society (RUL 1997-1505) and the Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI-NLCP16). The PBCS was funded by Intramural Research Funds of the National Cancer Institute, Department of Health and Human Services, USA. pKARMA is a combination of the KARMA and LIBRO-1 studies. KARMA was supported by Ma¨rit and Hans Rausings Initiative Against Breast Cancer. KARMA and LIBRO-1 were supported the Cancer Risk Prediction Center (CRisP; www.crispcenter.org), a Linnaeus Centre (Contract ID 70867902) financed by the Swedish Research Council. The RBCS was funded by the Dutch Cancer Society (DDHK 2004-3124, DDHK 2009-4318). SASBAC was supported by funding from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore (A∗STAR), the US National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation KC was financed by the Swedish Cancer Society (5128-B07-01PAF). The SBCGS was supported primarily by NIH grants R01CA64277, R01CA148667, and R37CA70867. Biological sample preparation was conducted the Survey and Biospecimen Shared Resource, which is supported by P30 CA68485. The SBCS was supported by Yorkshire Cancer Research S305PA, S299 and S295. Funding for the SCCS was provided by NIH grant R01 CA092447. The Arkansas Central Cancer Registry is fully funded by a grant from National Program of Cancer Registries, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Data on SCCS cancer cases from Mississippi were collected by the Mississippi Cancer Registry which participates in the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC or the Mississippi Cancer Registry. SEARCH is funded by a programme grant from Cancer Research UK (C490/A10124) and supported by the UK National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. The SEBCS was supported by the BRL (Basic Research Laboratory) program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2012-0000347). SGBCC is funded by the National Medical Research Council Start-up Grant and Centre Grant (NMRC/CG/NCIS /2010). The recruitment of controls by the Singapore Consortium of Cohort Studies-Multi-ethnic cohort (SCCS-MEC) was funded by the Biomedical Research Council (grant number: 05/1/21/19/425). SKKDKFZS is supported by the DKFZ. The SZBCS was supported by Grant PBZ_KBN_122/P05/2004. K. J. is a fellow of International PhD program, Postgraduate School of Molecular Medicine, Warsaw Medical University, supported by the Polish Foundation of Science. The TNBCC was supported by the NIH grant (CA128978), the Breast Cancer Research Foundation , Komen Foundation for the Cure, the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research and a generous gift from the David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Family Foundation and the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation. Part of the TNBCC (DEMOKRITOS) has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek National Funds through the Operational Program ‘Education and Life-long Learning’ of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF)—Research Funding Program of the General Secretariat for Research & Technology: ARISTEIA. The TWBCS is supported by the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica and the National Science Council, Taiwan. The UKBGS is funded by Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). ICR acknowledges NHS funding to the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. Funding to pay the Open Access publication charges for this article was provided by the Wellcome Trust.This is the advanced access published version distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which can also be viewed on the publisher's webstie at: http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/07/04/hmg.ddu311.full.pdf+htm

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Peat, Its Origins, Characteristics, and Geological Transformations

Peat is a naturally existing sedimentary material that is both common and unusual; its origins are due to botanical and geological processes, and significant contributions to any peat deposit are attributable to animals, plants, and diverse groups of microbial taxa. Peat deposits develop where the accumulated remains of biological communities exceed the capacity of the environment to destroy or recycle those components; otherwise individual peats have little in common. Many peats represent sediment accumulation under the cold conditions of the Arctic, though temperate peats are abundant in such places as Ireland, and subtropical peats have developed for thousands of years in the Okefenokee Swamp and the Everglades in the southeastern US. As a sediment composed of discrete particles, peat could only have accumulated after plants, particularly, had developed the capacity to remain intact after plant parts had been deposited as sedimentary debris. The development of woody tissue, waxy cuticle, and, eventually, spores, pollen, and resins eventually lead to the formation of vast amounts of chiefly botanical debris after the initiation of the Carboniferous Period. The steady evolution of plant groups from mosslike organisms, to tree-sized ferns, conifers, and, eventually angiosperms such as Sassafras allowed for a continuous and highly variable accumulation of sediments that we know as coal. Diagenetic changes in peats, attributable to microbial activity, geochemical changes in the environments of deposition, and the intervention of geological processes including increased heat, lithostatic pressure, and metamorphism have lead to a wide variety of coals being available for human use. These might be known as lignite, bituminous coal, or anthracite, but they all owe their origins to the presence of microbes and plants that could produce geologically durable remains