Modifying the Recess Before Lunch Program: A Pilot Study in Kaneohe Elementary School

Moving recess before lunch (RBL), though a simple schedule change, may provide many benefits for both students and elementary schools. Having recess before lunch has been shown to decrease plate waste (Bergman, et al., 2003; Gettlinger, 1996; Montana OPI, 2003; Ruppenthal & Hogue, 1977), and may improve discipline problems. The RBL schedule change has not previously been implemented in Hawai‘i schools. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of implementing a modified version of RBL into elementary schools in Hawai‘i . The modified version of RBL allows for implementation into a three-bell lunch system, a system used by many elementary schools in Hawai‘i. A one-grade-per-lunch period RBL switch was assessed among 6th grade students for 1) shorter lunch line wait, 2) increased access to recess equipment 3) decrease in conduct-related referrals, and 4) moderate decrease in food and milk waste for the affected grade(s). Results indicate a significant decrease in lunch line wait, a decrease in discipline referrals, and a slight non-significant decrease in lunch waste. Additional comments from administrators and teaching staff indicate positive changes in student behavior on the playground, in the cafeteria, and in the classroom. One major finding was the reduction in discipline problems after the implementation of RBL, as seen in both the quantitative referral counts and qualitative teacher and administrator questionnaires. The positive results of this study support further implementation of RBL into schools in Hawai‘i. Kaneohe Elementary School has continued to apply recess before lunch to the sixth grade lunch periods and is considering further implementation into other grades. The Hawai‘i Action for Healthy Kids team plans to approach more schools in Hawai‘i about using the modified recess before lunch program

The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in August 2008, with new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies and the quasar Ly alpha forest, and a radial velocity search for planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg^2 in the Southern Galactic Cap, bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg^2, or over a third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Evolution (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed through an improved stellar parameters pipeline, which has better determination of metallicity for high metallicity stars.Comment: Astrophysical Journal Supplements, in press (minor updates from submitted version

Active gas features in three HSC-SSP CAMIRA clusters revealed by high angular resolution analysis of MUSTANG-2 SZE and XXL X-ray observations

International audienceWe present results from simultaneous modelling of high angular resolution GBT/MUSTANG-2 90 GHz Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect (SZE) measurements and XMM-XXL X-ray images of three rich galaxy clusters selected from the HSC-SSP Survey. The combination of high angular resolution SZE and X-ray imaging enables a spatially resolved multicomponent analysis, which is crucial to understand complex distributions of cluster gas properties. The targeted clusters have similar optical richnesses and redshifts, but exhibit different dynamical states in their member galaxy distributions: a single-peaked cluster, a double-peaked cluster, and a cluster belonging to a supercluster. A large-scale residual pattern in both regular Compton-parameter y and X-ray surface brightness distributions is found in the single-peaked cluster, indicating a sloshing mode. The double-peaked cluster shows an X-ray remnant cool core between two SZE peaks associated with galaxy concentrations. The temperatures of the two peaks reach ∼20–30 keV in contrast to the cool core component of ∼2 keV, indicating a violent merger. The main SZE signal for the supercluster is elongated along a direction perpendicular to the major axis of the X-ray core, suggesting a minor merger before core passage. The and y distributions are thus perturbed at some level, regardless of the optical properties. We find that the integrated Compton y parameter and the temperature for the major merger are boosted from those expected by the weak-lensing mass and those for the other two clusters show no significant deviations, which is consistent with predictions of numerical simulations

DNA Methylation Signatures of Chronic Low-Grade Inflammation Are Associated with Complex Diseases

Background: Chronic low-grade inflammation reflects a subclinical immune response implicated in the pathogenesis of complex diseases. Identifying genetic loci where DNA methylation is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation may reveal novel pathways or therapeutic targets for inflammation. Results: We performed a meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of serum C-reactive protein (CRP), which is a sensitive marker of low-grade inflammation, in a large European population (n = 8863) and trans-ethnic replication in African Americans (n = 4111). We found differential methylation at 218 CpG sites to be associated with CRP (P \u3c 1.15 × 10–7) in the discovery panel of European ancestry and replicated (P \u3c 2.29 × 10–4) 58 CpG sites (45 unique loci) among African Americans. To further characterize the molecular and clinical relevance of the findings, we examined the association with gene expression, genetic sequence variants, and clinical outcomes. DNA methylation at nine (16%) CpG sites was associated with whole blood gene expression in cis (P \u3c 8.47 × 10–5), ten (17%) CpG sites were associated with a nearby genetic variant (P \u3c 2.50 × 10–3), and 51 (88%) were also associated with at least one related cardiometabolic entity (P \u3c 9.58 × 10–5). An additive weighted score of replicated CpG sites accounted for up to 6% inter-individual variation (R2) of age-adjusted and sex-adjusted CRP, independent of known CRP-related genetic variants. Conclusion: We have completed an EWAS of chronic low-grade inflammation and identified many novel genetic loci underlying inflammation that may serve as targets for the development of novel therapeutic interventions for inflammation

Genetic loci associated with plasma phospholipid N-3 fatty acids: A Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide association studies from the charge consortium

Long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) can derive from diet or from α-linolenic acid (ALA) by elongation and desaturation. We investigated the association of common genetic variation with plasma phospholipid levels of the four major n-3 PUFAs by performing genome-wide association studies in five population-based cohorts comprising 8,866 subjects of European ancestry. Minor alleles of SNPs in FADS1 and FADS2 (desaturases) were associated with higher levels of ALA (p = 3×10-64) and lower levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, p = 5×10-58) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, p = 4×10-154). Minor alleles of SNPs in ELOVL2 (elongase) were associated with higher EPA (p = 2×10-12) and DPA (p = 1×10-43) and lower docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, p = 1×10-15). In addition to genes in the n-3 pathway, we identified a novel association of DPA with several SNPs in GCKR (glucokinase regulator, p = 1×10-8). We observed a weaker association between ALA and EPA among carriers of the minor allele of a representative SNP in FADS2 (rs1535), suggesting a lower rate of ALA-to-EPA conversion in these subjects. In samples of African, Chinese, and Hispanic ancestry, associations of n-3 PUFAs were similar with a representative SNP in FADS1 but less consistent with a representative SNP in ELOVL2. Our findings show that common variation in n-3 metabolic pathway genes and in GCKR influences plasma phospholipid levels of n-3 PUFAs in populations of European ancestry and, for FADS1, in other ancestries

Down-Sizing in Galaxy Formation at z~1 in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS)

We use the deep wide-field optical imaging data of the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS) to discuss the luminosity (mass) dependent galaxy colours down to z'=25.0 (5 x 10^9 h_{70}^{-2} Msun) for z~1 galaxies in colour-selected high density regions. We find an apparent absence of galaxies on the red colour-magnitude sequence below z'~24.2, corresponding to ~M*+2 (~10^{10} Msun) with respect to passively evolving galaxies at z~1. Galaxies brighter than M*-0.5 (8 x 10^{10} Msun), however, are predominantly red passively evolving systems, with few blue star forming galaxies at these magnitudes. This apparent age gradient, where massive galaxies are dominated by old stellar populations while less massive galaxies have more extended star formation histories, supports the `down-sizing' idea where the mass of galaxies hosting star formation decreases as the Universe ages. Combined with the lack of evolution in the shape of the stellar mass function for massive galaxies since at least z~1, it appears that galaxy formation processes (both star formation and mass assembly) should have occurred in an accelerated way in massive systems in high density regions, while these processes should have been slower in smaller systems. This result provides an interesting challenge for modern CDM-based galaxy formation theories which predict later formation epochs of massive systems, commonly referred to as ``bottom-up''.Comment: proof corrected version (MNRAS in press), 10 pages, 12 figures (of which 3 are in jpg format

Association analyses of East Asian individuals and trans-ancestry analyses with European individuals reveal new loci associated with cholesterol and triglyceride levels

Large-scale meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified >175 loci associated with fasting cholesterol levels, including total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides (TG). With differences in linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure and allele frequencies between ancestry groups, studies in additional large samples may detect new associations. We conducted staged GWAS meta-analyses in up to 69,414 East Asian individuals from 24 studies with participants from Japan, the Philippines, Korea, China, Singapore, and Taiwan. These meta-analyses identified (P < 5 × 10-8) three novel loci associated with HDL-C near CD163-APOBEC1 (P = 7.4 × 10-9), NCOA2 (P = 1.6 × 10-8), and NID2-PTGDR (P = 4.2 × 10-8), and one novel locus associated with TG near WDR11-FGFR2 (P = 2.7 × 10-10). Conditional analyses identified a second signal near CD163-APOBEC1. We then combined results from the East Asian meta-analysis with association results from up to 187,365 European individuals from the Global Lipids Genetics Consortium in a trans-ancestry meta-analysis. This analysis identified (log10Bayes Factor ≥6.1) eight additional novel lipid loci. Among the twelve total loci identified, the index variants at eight loci have demonstrated at least nominal significance with other metabolic traits in prior studies, and two loci exhibited coincident eQTLs (P < 1 × 10-5) in subcutaneous adipose tissue for BPTF and PDGFC. Taken together, these analyses identified multiple novel lipid loci, providing new potential therapeutic targets

Erratum: “The eighth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: first data from SDSS-III” (2011, ApJS, 193, 29)

Section 3.5 of Aihara et al. (2011) described various sources of systematic error in the astrometry of the imaging data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). In addition to these sources of error, there is an additional and more serious error, which introduces a large systematic shift in the astrometry over a large area around the north celestial pole. The region has irregular boundaries but in places extends as far south as declination δ ≈ 41◦. The sense of the shift is that the positions of all sources in the affected area are offset by roughly 250 mas in a northwest direction. We have updated the SDSS online documentation to reflect these errors, and to provide detailed quality information for each SDSS field

SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems

Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of four spectroscopic surveys on three scientific themes: dark energy and cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way, and the population of giant planets around other stars. In keeping with SDSS tradition, SDSS-III will provide regular public releases of all its data, beginning with SDSS DR8 (which occurred in Jan 2011). This paper presents an overview of the four SDSS-III surveys. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.5 million massive galaxies and Lya forest spectra of 150,000 quasars, using the BAO feature of large scale structure to obtain percent-level determinations of the distance scale and Hubble expansion rate at z<0.7 and at z~2.5. SEGUE-2, which is now completed, measured medium-resolution (R=1800) optical spectra of 118,000 stars in a variety of target categories, probing chemical evolution, stellar kinematics and substructure, and the mass profile of the dark matter halo from the solar neighborhood to distances of 100 kpc. APOGEE will obtain high-resolution (R~30,000), high signal-to-noise (S/N>100 per resolution element), H-band (1.51-1.70 micron) spectra of 10^5 evolved, late-type stars, measuring separate abundances for ~15 elements per star and creating the first high-precision spectroscopic survey of all Galactic stellar populations (bulge, bar, disks, halo) with a uniform set of stellar tracers and spectral diagnostics. MARVELS will monitor radial velocities of more than 8000 FGK stars with the sensitivity and cadence (10-40 m/s, ~24 visits per star) needed to detect giant planets with periods up to two years, providing an unprecedented data set for understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planet systems. (Abridged)Comment: Revised to version published in The Astronomical Journa

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