NIR observations of dEs in the Virgo cluster: a structural continuity with giant Ellipticals

The structural properties of a sample of 50 dEs in the Virgo cluster are here derived from Near InfraRed (NIR, H-band 1.65 micron) surface photometry and analysed. One-dimensional surface brightness (SB) profiles are extracted using elliptical isophote fitting. They are characterised by means of structural parameters, namely the half light radius R_e, the average surface brightness within R_e (mu_e), and a concentration index (c_31). We show that typical dEs have close-to-exponential NIR SB distributions. The relations between dEs and giant ellipticals (Es) are investigated by comparing the NIR structural parameters of 273 Es in nearby clusters. Further analysis is conducted using the optical-NIR colour B-H and by studying the relationships between structural and dynamical parameters (fundamental plane) for the two classes of galaxies. The transition between the two regimes is smooth and no dichotomy is seen.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, use iauc.cls. Poster presentation to appear in the proceedings of "IAU Colloquium 198 - Near-Field Cosmology with Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies", Les Diablerets 14-18 March 2005, B. Binggeli and H. Jerjen eds. GOLDMiNe website at http://goldmine.mib.infn.it

Evaluating Lipid-Lowering Drug Targets for Parkinson's Disease Prevention with Mendelian Randomization

Long-term exposure to lipid-lowering drugs might affect Parkinson's disease (PD) risk. We conducted Mendelian randomization analyses where genetic variants indexed expected effects of modulating lipid-lowering drug targets on PD. Statin exposure was not predicted to increase PD risk, although results were not precise enough to support benefits for prevention clearly (odds ratio [OR] = 0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.65, 1.07). Other target results were null, except for variants indicating Apolipoprotein-A5 or Apolipoprotein-C3 inhibition might confer protection. These findings suggest peripheral lipid variation may not have a prominent role in PD etiology, but some related drug targets could influence PD via alternate pathways. ANN NEUROL 2020;88:1043–104

The design and conduct of clinical trials to limit missing data

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94446/1/sim5519.pd

Discovery of 42 genome-wide significant loci associated with dyslexia

Reading and writing are crucial life skills but roughly one in ten children are affected by dyslexia, which can persist into adulthood. Family studies of dyslexia suggest heritability up to 70%, yet few convincing genetic markers have been found. Here we performed a genome-wide association study of 51,800 adults self-reporting a dyslexia diagnosis and 1,087,070 controls and identified 42 independent genome-wide significant loci: 15 in genes linked to cognitive ability/educational attainment, and 27 new and potentially more specific to dyslexia. We validated 23 loci (13 new) in independent cohorts of Chinese and European ancestry. Genetic etiology of dyslexia was similar between sexes, and genetic covariance with many traits was found, including ambidexterity, but not neuroanatomical measures of language-related circuitry. Dyslexia polygenic scores explained up to 6% of variance in reading traits, and might in future contribute to earlier identification and remediation of dyslexia. [Abstract copyright: © 2022. The Author(s).