Ab-initio theory of NMR chemical shifts in solids and liquids

We present a theory for the ab-initio computation of NMR chemical shifts (sigma) in condensed matter systems, using periodic boundary conditions. Our approach can be applied to periodic systems such as crystals, surfaces, or polymers and, with a super-cell technique, to non-periodic systems such as amorphous materials, liquids, or solids with defects. We have computed the hydrogen sigma for a set of free molecules, for an ionic crystal, LiH, and for a H-bonded crystal, HF, using density functional theory in the local density approximation. The results are in excellent agreement with experimental data.Comment: to appear in Physical Review Letter

West Nile Virus Infections Projected from Blood Donor Screening Data, United States, 2003

Routine donor nucleic acid amplification testing is a valuable surveillance screening tool

Using Automated Health Plan Data to Assess Infection Risk from Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

We determined if infection indicators were sufficiently consistent across health plans to allow comparison of hospitals’ risks of infection after coronary artery bypass surgery. Three managed care organizations accounted for 90% of managed care in eastern Massachusetts, from October 1996 through March 1999. We searched automated inpatient and outpatient claims and outpatient pharmacy dispensing files for indicator codes suggestive of postoperative surgical site infection. We reviewed full text medical records of patients with indicator codes to confirm infection status. We compared the hospital-specific proportions of cases with an indicator code, adjusting for health plan, age, sex, and chronic disease score. A total of 536 (27%) of 1,953 patients had infection indicators. Infection was confirmed in 79 (53%) of 149 reviewed records with adequate documentation. The proportion of patients with an indicator of infection varied significantly (p<0.001) between hospitals (19% to 36%) and health plans (22% to 33%). The difference between hospitals persisted after adjustment for health plan and patients’ age and sex. Similar relationships were observed when postoperative antibiotic information was ignored. Automated claims and pharmacy data from different health plans can be used together to allow inexpensive, routine monitoring of indicators of postoperative infection, with the goal of identifying institutions that can be further evaluated to determine if risks for infection can be reduced

The Milky Way Tomography With SDSS. III. Stellar Kinematics

We study Milky Way kinematics using a sample of 18.8 million main-sequence stars with r 20 degrees). We find that in the region defined by 1 kpc < Z < 5 kpc and 3 kpc < R < 13 kpc, the rotational velocity for disk stars smoothly decreases, and all three components of the velocity dispersion increase, with distance from the Galactic plane. In contrast, the velocity ellipsoid for halo stars is aligned with a spherical coordinate system and appears to be spatially invariant within the probed volume. The velocity distribution of nearby (Z < 1 kpc) K/M stars is complex, and cannot be described by a standard Schwarzschild ellipsoid. For stars in a distance-limited subsample of stars (< 100 pc), we detect a multi-modal velocity distribution consistent with that seen by HIPPARCOS. This strong non-Gaussianity significantly affects the measurements of the velocity-ellipsoid tilt and vertex deviation when using the Schwarzschild approximation. We develop and test a simple descriptive model for the overall kinematic behavior that captures these features over most of the probed volume, and can be used to search for substructure in kinematic and metallicity space. We use this model to predict further improvements in kinematic mapping of the Galaxy expected from Gaia and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.NSF AST-615991, AST-0707901, AST-0551161, AST-02-38683, AST-06-07634, AST-0807444, PHY05-51164NASA NAG5-13057, NAG5-13147, NNXO-8AH83GPhysics Frontier Center/Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA) PHY 08-22648U.S. National Science FoundationMarie Curie Research Training Network ELSA (European Leadership in Space Astrometry) MRTN-CT-2006-033481Fermi Research Alliance, LLC, United States Department of Energy DE-AC02-07CH11359Alfred P. Sloan FoundationParticipating InstitutionsJapanese MonbukagakushoMax Planck SocietyHigher Education Funding Council for EnglandMcDonald Observator

Illness causal beliefs in Turkish immigrants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>People hold a wide variety of beliefs concerning the causes of illness. Such beliefs vary across cultures and, among immigrants, may be influenced by many factors, including level of acculturation, gender, level of education, and experience of illness and treatment. This study examines illness causal beliefs in Turkish-immigrants in Australia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Causal beliefs about somatic and mental illness were examined in a sample of 444 members of the Turkish population of Melbourne. The socio-demographic characteristics of the sample were broadly similar to those of the Melbourne Turkish community. Five issues were examined: the structure of causal beliefs; the relative frequency of natural, supernatural and metaphysical beliefs; ascription of somatic, mental, or both somatic and mental conditions to the various causes; the correlations of belief types with socio-demographic, modernizing and acculturation variables; and the relationship between causal beliefs and current illness.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Principal components analysis revealed two broad factors, accounting for 58 percent of the variation in scores on illness belief scales, distinctly interpretable as natural and supernatural beliefs. Second, beliefs in natural causes were more frequent than beliefs in supernatural causes. Third, some causal beliefs were commonly linked to both somatic and mental conditions while others were regarded as more specific to either somatic or mental disorders. Last, there was a range of correlations between endorsement of belief types and factors defining heterogeneity within the community, including with demographic factors, indicators of modernizing and acculturative processes, and the current presence of illness.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Results supported the classification of causal beliefs proposed by Murdock, Wilson & Frederick, with a division into natural and supernatural causes. While belief in natural causes is more common, belief in supernatural causes persists despite modernizing and acculturative influences. Different types of causal beliefs are held in relation to somatic or mental illness, and a variety of apparently logically incompatible beliefs may be concurrently held. Illness causal beliefs are dynamic and are related to demographic, modernizing, and acculturative factors, and to the current presence of illness. Any assumption of uniformity of illness causal beliefs within a community, even one that is relatively culturally homogeneous, is likely to be misleading. A better understanding of the diversity, and determinants, of illness causal beliefs can be of value in improving our understanding of illness experience, the clinical process, and in developing more effective health services and population health strategies.</p

Universal WBC reduction

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75583/1/j.1537-2995.2000.40060751.x.pd

The Milky Way Tomography with SDSS: III. Stellar Kinematics

We study Milky Way kinematics using a sample of 18.8 million main-sequence stars with r<20 and proper-motion measurements derived from SDSS and POSS astrometry, including ~170,000 stars with radial-velocity measurements from the SDSS spectroscopic survey. Distances to stars are determined using a photometric parallax relation, covering a distance range from ~100 pc to 10 kpc over a quarter of the sky at high Galactic latitudes (|b|>20 degrees). We find that in the region defined by 1 kpc <Z< 5 kpc and 3 kpc <R< 13 kpc, the rotational velocity for disk stars smoothly decreases, and all three components of the velocity dispersion increase, with distance from the Galactic plane. In contrast, the velocity ellipsoid for halo stars is aligned with a spherical coordinate system and appears to be spatially invariant within the probed volume. The velocity distribution of nearby ($Z<1$ kpc) K/M stars is complex, and cannot be described by a standard Schwarzschild ellipsoid. For stars in a distance-limited subsample of stars (<100 pc), we detect a multimodal velocity distribution consistent with that seen by HIPPARCOS. This strong non-Gaussianity significantly affects the measurements of the velocity ellipsoid tilt and vertex deviation when using the Schwarzschild approximation. We develop and test a simple descriptive model for the overall kinematic behavior that captures these features over most of the probed volume, and can be used to search for substructure in kinematic and metallicity space. We use this model to predict further improvements in kinematic mapping of the Galaxy expected from Gaia and LSST.Comment: 90 pages, 26 figures, submitted to Ap

The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11663 deg^2 of imaging data, with most of the roughly 2000 deg^2 increment over the previous data release lying in regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for 357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry over 250 deg^2 along the Celestial Equator in the Southern Galactic Cap. A coaddition of these data goes roughly two magnitudes fainter than the main survey. The spectroscopy is now complete over a contiguous area of 7500 deg^2 in the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930,000 galaxies, 120,000 quasars, and 460,000 stars. The data release includes improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC-2), reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45 milli-arcseconds per coordinate. A systematic error in bright galaxy photometr is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally, we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including better flat-fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end, better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and an improved determination of stellar metallicities. (Abridged)Comment: 20 pages, 10 embedded figures. Accepted to ApJS after minor correction

Genome-wide association and epidemiological analyses reveal common genetic origins between uterine leiomyomata and endometriosis

Abstract: Uterine leiomyomata (UL) are the most common neoplasms of the female reproductive tract and primary cause for hysterectomy, leading to considerable morbidity and high economic burden. Here we conduct a GWAS meta-analysis in 35,474 cases and 267,505 female controls of European ancestry, identifying eight novel genome-wide significant (P < 5 × 10−8) loci, in addition to confirming 21 previously reported loci, including multiple independent signals at 10 loci. Phenotypic stratification of UL by heavy menstrual bleeding in 3409 cases and 199,171 female controls reveals genome-wide significant associations at three of the 29 UL loci: 5p15.33 (TERT), 5q35.2 (FGFR4) and 11q22.3 (ATM). Four loci identified in the meta-analysis are also associated with endometriosis risk; an epidemiological meta-analysis across 402,868 women suggests at least a doubling of risk for UL diagnosis among those with a history of endometriosis. These findings increase our understanding of genetic contribution and biology underlying UL development, and suggest overlapping genetic origins with endometriosis

The effect of LRRK2 loss-of-function variants in humans

Analysis of large genomic datasets, including gnomAD, reveals that partial LRRK2 loss of function is not strongly associated with diseases, serving as an example of how human genetics can be leveraged for target validation in drug discovery. Human genetic variants predicted to cause loss-of-function of protein-coding genes (pLoF variants) provide natural in vivo models of human gene inactivation and can be valuable indicators of gene function and the potential toxicity of therapeutic inhibitors targeting these genes(1,2). Gain-of-kinase-function variants in LRRK2 are known to significantly increase the risk of Parkinson's disease(3,4), suggesting that inhibition of LRRK2 kinase activity is a promising therapeutic strategy. While preclinical studies in model organisms have raised some on-target toxicity concerns(5-8), the biological consequences of LRRK2 inhibition have not been well characterized in humans. Here, we systematically analyze pLoF variants in LRRK2 observed across 141,456 individuals sequenced in the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD)(9), 49,960 exome-sequenced individuals from the UK Biobank and over 4 million participants in the 23andMe genotyped dataset. After stringent variant curation, we identify 1,455 individuals with high-confidence pLoF variants in LRRK2. Experimental validation of three variants, combined with previous work(10), confirmed reduced protein levels in 82.5% of our cohort. We show that heterozygous pLoF variants in LRRK2 reduce LRRK2 protein levels but that these are not strongly associated with any specific phenotype or disease state. Our results demonstrate the value of large-scale genomic databases and phenotyping of human loss-of-function carriers for target validation in drug discovery.Peer reviewe