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

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Whole-genome sequence-based analysis of thyroid function

Tiina Paunio on työryhmän UK10K Consortium jäsen.Normal thyroid function is essential for health, but its genetic architecture remains poorly understood. Here, for the heritable thyroid traits thyrotropin (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4), we analyse whole-genome sequence data from the UK10K project (N = 2,287). Using additional whole-genome sequence and deeply imputed data sets, we report meta-analysis results for common variants (MAF >= 1%) associated with TSH and FT4 (N = 16,335). For TSH, we identify a novel variant in SYN2 (MAF = 23.5%, P = 6.15 x 10(-9)) and a new independent variant in PDE8B (MAF = 10.4%, P = 5.94 x 10(-14)). For FT4, we report a low-frequency variant near B4GALT6/ SLC25A52 (MAF = 3.2%, P = 1.27 x 10(-9)) tagging a rare TTR variant (MAF = 0.4%, P = 2.14 x 10(-11)). All common variants explain >= 20% of the variance in TSH and FT4. Analysis of rare variants (MAFPeer reviewe

Small-Scale Desalination (Semester Unknown) EnPRO 354

Freshwater is one of Earth’s most precious resources and is now increasing in scarcity. Global warming induced climate change is now changing rain patterns and causing record drought, growing global populations are increasing demand, and the individual demand per person is increasing and human populations urbanize and adopt modern plumbing. The biggest contributor to increasing demand for water is mismanagement and pollution. However for this project we will be focusing on water quantity rather than quality.Deliverable

Small-Scale Desalination (Semester Unknown) EnPRO 354: Small-ScaleDesalinationEnPRO354FinalPresentationtSp10

Freshwater is one of Earth’s most precious resources and is now increasing in scarcity. Global warming induced climate change is now changing rain patterns and causing record drought, growing global populations are increasing demand, and the individual demand per person is increasing and human populations urbanize and adopt modern plumbing. The biggest contributor to increasing demand for water is mismanagement and pollution. However for this project we will be focusing on water quantity rather than quality.Deliverable

Small-Scale Desalination (Semester Unknown) EnPRO 354: Small-ScaleDesalinationEnPRO354BrochureSp10

Freshwater is one of Earth’s most precious resources and is now increasing in scarcity. Global warming induced climate change is now changing rain patterns and causing record drought, growing global populations are increasing demand, and the individual demand per person is increasing and human populations urbanize and adopt modern plumbing. The biggest contributor to increasing demand for water is mismanagement and pollution. However for this project we will be focusing on water quantity rather than quality.Deliverable

Small-Scale Desalination (Semester Unknown) EnPRO 354: Small-ScaleDesalinationEnPRO354FinalReportSp10

Freshwater is one of Earth’s most precious resources and is now increasing in scarcity. Global warming induced climate change is now changing rain patterns and causing record drought, growing global populations are increasing demand, and the individual demand per person is increasing and human populations urbanize and adopt modern plumbing. The biggest contributor to increasing demand for water is mismanagement and pollution. However for this project we will be focusing on water quantity rather than quality.Deliverable

Small-Scale Desalination (Semester Unknown) EnPRO 354: Small-ScaleDesalinationEnPRO354ProjectPlanSp10_redacted

Freshwater is one of Earth’s most precious resources and is now increasing in scarcity. Global warming induced climate change is now changing rain patterns and causing record drought, growing global populations are increasing demand, and the individual demand per person is increasing and human populations urbanize and adopt modern plumbing. The biggest contributor to increasing demand for water is mismanagement and pollution. However for this project we will be focusing on water quantity rather than quality.Deliverable

Small-Scale Desalination (Semester Unknown) EnPRO 354: Small-ScaleDesalinationEnPRO354PosterSp10

Freshwater is one of Earth’s most precious resources and is now increasing in scarcity. Global warming induced climate change is now changing rain patterns and causing record drought, growing global populations are increasing demand, and the individual demand per person is increasing and human populations urbanize and adopt modern plumbing. The biggest contributor to increasing demand for water is mismanagement and pollution. However for this project we will be focusing on water quantity rather than quality.Deliverable