ALBERT

Description: Energy & Fuels DOI: 10.1021/ef3006228

Description: Although the general patterns of deglacial climate change are relatively well constrained, how, and to what magnitude, large parts of the Southern Hemisphere responded to deglacial forcings remains unknown, particularly for the early part of the last deglaciation. We investigate the timing and magnitude of early deglacial climate change using cosmogenic 10Be surface exposure ages of moraines deposited by glaciers in the Rio Guanaco Valley, adjacent to the Southern Patagonian Ice Field at 50°S. We demonstrate that the beginning of ice retreat from the local last glacial maximum occurred at 19.7 ± 1.1 ka, with significant retreat commencing at 18.9 ± 0.4 ka, concurrent with glacier retreat elsewhere in southern Patagonia and New Zealand and with warming of Southern Hemisphere middle to high latitudes. A third moraine shows that half of the deglacial retreat upvalley had occurred by 17.0 ± 0.3 ka. Equilibrium line altitudes and climate simulations show ∼1.5 °C of warming in southern Patagonia between 18.9 ± 0.4 ka and 17.0 ± 0.3 ka, one-third of the total estimated deglacial warming relative to present. The climate model links this warming to retreat of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets ca. 19 ka through changes in ocean circulation that caused a bipolar seesaw response resulting in Southern Hemisphere warming and driving initial deglaciation across southern Patagonia.

Description: Most cancer-associated genetic variants identified from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) do not obviously change protein structure, leading to the hypothesis that the associations are attributable to regulatory polymorphisms. Translating genetic associations into mechanistic insights can be facilitated by knowledge of the causal regulatory variant (or variants) responsible for the statistical signal. Experimental validation of candidate functional variants is onerous, making bioinformatic approaches necessary to prioritize candidates for laboratory analysis. Thus, a systematic approach for recognizing functional (and, therefore, likely causal) variants in noncoding regions is an important step toward interpreting cancer risk loci. This review provides a detailed introduction to current regulatory variant annotations, followed by an overview of how to leverage these resources to prioritize candidate functional polymorphisms in regulatory regions.

Description: C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration is a heritable systemic marker of inflammation that is associated with cardiovascular disease risk. Genome-wide association studies have identified CRP-associated common variants associated in ~25 genes. Our aims were to apply exome sequencing to (1) assess whether the candidate loci contain rare coding variants associated with CRP levels and (2) perform an exome-wide search for rare variants in novel genes associated with CRP levels. We exome-sequenced 6050 European-Americans (EAs) and 3109 African-Americans (AAs) from the NHLBI-ESP and the CHARGE consortia, and performed association tests of sequence data with measured CRP levels. In single-variant tests across candidate loci, a novel rare (minor allele frequency = 0.16%) CRP- coding variant (rs77832441-A; p.Thr59Met) was associated with 53% lower mean CRP levels ( P = 2.9 x 10 –6 ). We replicated the association of rs77832441 in an exome array analysis of 11 414 EAs ( P = 3.0 x 10 –15 ). Despite a strong effect on CRP levels, rs77832441 was not associated with inflammation-related phenotypes including coronary heart disease. We also found evidence for an AA-specific association of APOE- 2 rs7214 with higher CRP levels. At the exome-wide significance level ( P 〈 5.0 x 10 –8 ), we confirmed associations for reported common variants of HNF1A , CRP , IL6R and TOMM40 - APOE . In gene-based tests, a burden of rare/lower frequency variation in CRP in EAs ( P ≤ 6.8 x 10 –4 ) and in retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor α ( RORA ) in AAs ( P = 1.7 x 10 –3 ) were associated with CRP levels at the candidate gene level ( P 〈 2.0 x 10 –3 ). This inquiry did not elucidate novel genes, but instead demonstrated that variants distributed across the allele frequency spectrum within candidate genes contribute to CRP levels.

Description: The Journal of Organic Chemistry DOI: 10.1021/jo5000829

Description: Analytical Chemistry DOI: 10.1021/ac501839b

Description: We report on the origin of the anomalous temperature dependence of coercivity observed in some soft ferromagnets by studying the magnetic and electronic properties of FeZr films doped using ion implantation by H, He, B, C, and N. The anomalous increase of the coercivity with temperature was observed only in the C- and B-doped samples. Using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we show that the anomalous behavior of the coercivity coincides with the occurrence of an electron charge transfer for those implanted samples. The origin of the anomaly is discussed in terms of (i) magnetic softness, (ii) nature of the Fe-C and -B covalent bonds, and (iii) large charge transfer.

Description: Myocardial infarction (MI), a leading cause of death around the world, displays a complex pattern of inheritance. When MI occurs early in life, genetic inheritance is a major component to risk. Previously, rare mutations in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) genes have been shown to contribute to MI risk in individual families, whereas common variants at more than 45 loci have been associated with MI risk in the population. Here we evaluate how rare mutations contribute to early-onset MI risk in the population. We sequenced the protein-coding regions of 9,793 genomes from patients with MI at an early age (〈/=50 years in males and 〈/=60 years in females) along with MI-free controls. We identified two genes in which rare coding-sequence mutations were more frequent in MI cases versus controls at exome-wide significance. At low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), carriers of rare non-synonymous mutations were at 4.2-fold increased risk for MI; carriers of null alleles at LDLR were at even higher risk (13-fold difference). Approximately 2% of early MI cases harbour a rare, damaging mutation in LDLR; this estimate is similar to one made more than 40 years ago using an analysis of total cholesterol. Among controls, about 1 in 217 carried an LDLR coding-sequence mutation and had plasma LDL cholesterol 〉 190 mg dl(-1). At apolipoprotein A-V (APOA5), carriers of rare non-synonymous mutations were at 2.2-fold increased risk for MI. When compared with non-carriers, LDLR mutation carriers had higher plasma LDL cholesterol, whereas APOA5 mutation carriers had higher plasma triglycerides. Recent evidence has connected MI risk with coding-sequence mutations at two genes functionally related to APOA5, namely lipoprotein lipase and apolipoprotein C-III (refs 18, 19). Combined, these observations suggest that, as well as LDL cholesterol, disordered metabolism of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins contributes to MI risk.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4319990/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4319990/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Do, Ron -- Stitziel, Nathan O -- Won, Hong-Hee -- Jorgensen, Anders Berg -- Duga, Stefano -- Angelica Merlini, Pier -- Kiezun, Adam -- Farrall, Martin -- Goel, Anuj -- Zuk, Or -- Guella, Illaria -- Asselta, Rosanna -- Lange, Leslie A -- Peloso, Gina M -- Auer, Paul L -- NHLBI Exome Sequencing Project -- Girelli, Domenico -- Martinelli, Nicola -- Farlow, Deborah N -- DePristo, Mark A -- Roberts, Robert -- Stewart, Alexander F R -- Saleheen, Danish -- Danesh, John -- Epstein, Stephen E -- Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh -- Hovingh, G Kees -- Kastelein, John J -- Samani, Nilesh J -- Schunkert, Heribert -- Erdmann, Jeanette -- Shah, Svati H -- Kraus, William E -- Davies, Robert -- Nikpay, Majid -- Johansen, Christopher T -- Wang, Jian -- Hegele, Robert A -- Hechter, Eliana -- Marz, Winfried -- Kleber, Marcus E -- Huang, Jie -- Johnson, Andrew D -- Li, Mingyao -- Burke, Greg L -- Gross, Myron -- Liu, Yongmei -- Assimes, Themistocles L -- Heiss, Gerardo -- Lange, Ethan M -- Folsom, Aaron R -- Taylor, Herman A -- Olivieri, Oliviero -- Hamsten, Anders -- Clarke, Robert -- Reilly, Dermot F -- Yin, Wu -- Rivas, Manuel A -- Donnelly, Peter -- Rossouw, Jacques E -- Psaty, Bruce M -- Herrington, David M -- Wilson, James G -- Rich, Stephen S -- Bamshad, Michael J -- Tracy, Russell P -- Cupples, L Adrienne -- Rader, Daniel J -- Reilly, Muredach P -- Spertus, John A -- Cresci, Sharon -- Hartiala, Jaana -- Tang, W H Wilson -- Hazen, Stanley L -- Allayee, Hooman -- Reiner, Alex P -- Carlson, Christopher S -- Kooperberg, Charles -- Jackson, Rebecca D -- Boerwinkle, Eric -- Lander, Eric S -- Schwartz, Stephen M -- Siscovick, David S -- McPherson, Ruth -- Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne -- Abecasis, Goncalo R -- Watkins, Hugh -- Nickerson, Deborah A -- Ardissino, Diego -- Sunyaev, Shamil R -- O'Donnell, Christopher J -- Altshuler, David -- Gabriel, Stacey -- Kathiresan, Sekar -- 090532/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 095552/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 5U54HG003067-11/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- G-0907/Parkinson's UK/United Kingdom -- K08 HL114642/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- K08HL114642/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- P01 HL076491/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- P01 HL098055/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL107816/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01HL107816/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- RC2 HL-102923/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- RC2 HL-102924/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- RC2 HL-102925/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- RC2 HL-102926/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- RC2 HL-103010/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- T32 HL007208/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- T32HL00720/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- T32HL007604/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- UL1 TR000439/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/ -- Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada -- England -- Nature. 2015 Feb 5;518(7537):102-6. doi: 10.1038/nature13917. Epub 2014 Dec 10.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. [2] Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. [3] Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. [4] Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. ; 1] Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA. [2] Division of Statistical Genomics, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA. ; Department of Clinical Biochemistry KB3011, Section for Molecular Genetics, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospitals and Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 1165, Denmark. ; Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Mediche e Medicina Traslazionale, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Milano 20122, Italy. ; Division of Cardiology, Ospedale Niguarda, Milano 20162, Italy. ; Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. ; Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2J, UK. ; Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. ; Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA. ; University of Verona School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Verona 37129, Italy. ; John &Jennifer Ruddy Canadian Cardiovascular Genetics Centre, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4W7, Canada. ; Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TN, UK. ; MedStar Health Research Institute, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Hyattsville, Maryland 20782, USA. ; Department of Vascular Medicine, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam 1105 AZ, The Netherlands. ; Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester, and Leicester NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Cardiovascular Disease, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester LE3 9QP, UK. ; DZHK (German Research Centre for Cardiovascular Research), Munich Heart Alliance, Deutsches Herzzentrum Munchen, Technische Universitat Munchen, Berlin 13347, Germany. ; Medizinische Klinik II, University of Lubeck, Lubeck 23562, Germany. ; 1] Center for Human Genetics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA. [2] Department of Cardiology and Center for Genomic Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA. ; Department of Cardiology and Center for Genomic Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA. ; Division of Cardiology, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4W7, Canada. ; Department of Biochemistry, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada. ; 1] Department of Biochemistry, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada. [2] Department of Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada. ; 1] Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, Heidelberg University, Ludolf Krehl Strasse 7-11, Mannheim D-68167, Germany. [2] Clinical Institute of Medical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics, Medical University of Graz, Graz 8036, Austria. [3] Synlab Academy, Mannheim 68259, Germany. ; Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, Heidelberg University, Ludolf Krehl Strasse 7-11, Mannheim D-68167, Germany. ; The National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts 01702, USA. ; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Center for Population Studies, The Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts 01702, USA. ; Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. ; Department of Epidemiology, University of Alabama-Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35233, USA. ; Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. ; School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27106, USA. ; Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA. ; Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. ; 1] Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. [2] Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. ; Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. ; University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216, USA. ; Atherosclerosis Research Unit, Department of Medicine, and Center for Molecular Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm 171 77, Sweden. ; Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK. ; Merck Sharp &Dohme Corporation, Rahway, New Jersey 08889, USA. ; The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK. ; 1] The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK. [2] Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK. ; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20824, USA. ; 1] Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. [2] Group Health Research Institute, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, Washington 98101, USA. ; Section on Cardiology, and Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27106, USA. ; Jackson Heart Study, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi 39217, USA. ; Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA. ; 1] Division of Genetic Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. [2] Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, Washington 98105, USA. [3] Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405, USA. ; Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA. ; Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. ; Cardiovascular Institute, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. ; St Luke's Mid America Heart Institute, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri 64111, USA. ; 1] Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA. [2] Department of Genetics, Washington University in St Louis, Missouri 63130, USA. ; Department of Preventive Medicine and Institute for Genetic Medicine, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90033, USA. ; Cardiovascular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio 44195, USA. ; 1] Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA. [2] Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. ; Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA. ; Human Genetics Center, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. ; 1] Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. [2] Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. ; 1] Department of Clinical Biochemistry KB3011, Section for Molecular Genetics, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospitals and Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 1165, Denmark. [2] Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200 Kobenhavn N, Denmark. ; Center for Statistical Genetics, Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Missouri 48109, USA. ; 1] Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2J, UK. [2] The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK. ; Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. ; Department of Cardiology, Parma Hospital, Parma 43100, Italy. ; 1] Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. [2] Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; 1] Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. [2] Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25487149" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Analytical Chemistry DOI: 10.1021/ac501492f

Description: Article Immunosequencing enables cost-effective sequencing of repertoires of immune cells, but it often suffers from amplification biases when attempting cell quantification. Here, the authors present a powerful multiplex PCR assay that allows for quantitative and unbiased analysis of frequency of different T cell receptors. Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/ncomms3680 Authors: Christopher S. Carlson, Ryan O. Emerson, Anna M. Sherwood, Cindy Desmarais, Moon-Wook Chung, Joseph M. Parsons, Michelle S. Steen, Marissa A. LaMadrid-Herrmannsfeldt, David W. Williamson, Robert J. Livingston, David Wu, Brent L. Wood, Mark J. Rieder, Harlan Robins