Exploring the contribution of lifestyle to the impact of education on the risk of cancer through Mendelian randomization analysis

Data availability: UK Biobank individual level data used in this work can be accessed after applying for access at https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/enable-your-research/apply-for-access. Genetic association data are publicly available in the original studies.Supplementary Information is available online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1038/s41598-024-54259-7#Sec17 .Educational attainment (EA) has been linked to the risk of several types of cancer, despite having no expected direct biological connection. In this paper, we investigate the mediating role of alcohol consumption, smoking, vegetable consumption, fruit consumption and body mass index (BMI) in explaining the effect of EA on 7 cancer groupings. Large-scale genome wide association study (GWAS) results were used to construct the genetic instrument for EA and the lifestyle factors. We conducted GWAS in the UK Biobank sample in up to 335,024 individuals to obtain genetic association data for the cancer outcomes. Univariable and multivariable two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses and mediation analyses were then conducted to explore the causal effect and mediating proportions of these relations. MR mediation analysis revealed that reduced lifetime smoking index accounted for 81.7% (49.1% to 100%) of the protective effect of higher EA on lower respiratory cancer. Moreover, the effect of higher EA on lower respiratory cancer was mediated through vegetable consumption by 10.2% (4.4% to 15.9%). We found genetic evidence that the effect of EA on groups of cancer is due to behavioural changes in avoiding well established risk factors such as smoking and vegetable consuming.Brunel Research Initiative and Enterprise Fund to FD. This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource under project 44566 (https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/2018/12/genetic-and-non-genetic-factors-able-to-predict-and-modify-the-risk-of-different-types-of-cancer/)

A bifunctional dermaseptin–thanatin dipeptide functionalizes the crop surface for sustainable pest management

To reduce pesticide use while preserving crop productivity, alternative pest and disease control measures are needed. We thought of an alternative way of functionalizing leaves of soybean to fight its most severe disease, Asian soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi). To do so, we produced bifunctional peptides that adhere to the soybean leaf surface and prevent the germination of P. pachyrhizi spores. In detail, amphiphilic peptides liquid chromatography peak I (LCI), thanatin (THA), tachystatin A2 (TA2), and lactoferricin B (LFB) were all fused to enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP). Of these fusion peptides, eGFP–LCI and eGFP–THA bound strongly and in a rainfast manner to the surface of soybean, barley, and corn leaves. eGFP–THA binding to soybean also withstood high temperature, sunlight and biotic degradation for at least 17 days. The dipeptides seem to bind mainly to the surface wax layer of leaves because eGFP–THA and eGFP–LCI did not stick to the wax-depleted cer-j59 mutant of barley or to corn leaves with their surface wax removed. A fusion of the antimicrobial peptide dermaseptin 01 and THA (DS01–THA) inhibits the germination of P. pachyrhizi spores in vitro and reduces Asian soybean rust disease in a rainfast manner. Therefore, this study reveals that bifunctional peptides can be used to functionalize the crop surface for sustainable disease management

Medieval universities, legal institutions, and the commercial revolution

We present new data documenting medieval Europe’s Commercial Revolution using information on the establishment of markets in Germany. We use these data to test whether medieval universities played a causal role in expanding economic activity, examining the foundation of Germany’s first universities after 1386 following the papal schism. We find that the trend rate of market establishment breaks upward in 1386 and this break is greatest where the distance to a university shrank most. There is no differential pre-1386 trend associated with the reduction in distance to a university, and there is no break in trend in 1386 where university proximity did not change. These results are robust to estimating a variety of specifications that address concerns about the endogeneity of university location. Universities provided training in newly rediscovered Roman and canon law; students with legal training served in positions that reduced the uncertainty of trade in the Middle Ages. We argue that training in the law, and the consequent development of legal and administrative institutions, was an important channel linking universities and greater economic activity in medieval Germany

The Repertorium Academicum Germanicum (RAG) and the Geography of German Universities and Academics (1350-1550)

Using material on a famous scholar from the University of Heidelberg, this chapter presents the Repertorium Academicum Germanicum (RAG, www.rag-online.org), a prosopographic database providing CVs for the estimated 60,000 scholars active in knowledge-based societies within the territory of the Holy Roman Empire between 1250 and 1550. “Academics” are defined as persons who earned at least either the degree of magister artium from the Arts Faculty of any university in Europe or the bachelor’s, licentiate, or doctor’s degrees from one of the higher faculties (law, medicine, or theology). The concept includes persons such as noblemen who completed a course of study in one of the higher faculties without graduating. The chapter also presents a web-based geographical who’s who of scholars—the Gelehrtenatlas—an emerging information system for analyzing and cartographically mapping the mobility of academics in and around the catchment areas of their universities and the areas of their subsequent professional development