| 1. |
- Artigas Soler, María, et al.
(författare)
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Genome-wide association and large-scale follow up identifies 16 new loci influencing lung function.
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1546-1718 .- 1061-4036. ; 43:11, s. 1082-90
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pulmonary function measures reflect respiratory health and are used in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We tested genome-wide association with forced expiratory volume in 1 second and the ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 second to forced vital capacity in 48,201 individuals of European ancestry with follow up of the top associations in up to an additional 46,411 individuals. We identified new regions showing association (combined P < 5 × 10(-8)) with pulmonary function in or near MFAP2, TGFB2, HDAC4, RARB, MECOM (also known as EVI1), SPATA9, ARMC2, NCR3, ZKSCAN3, CDC123, C10orf11, LRP1, CCDC38, MMP15, CFDP1 and KCNE2. Identification of these 16 new loci may provide insight into the molecular mechanisms regulating pulmonary function and into molecular targets for future therapy to alleviate reduced lung function.
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| 2. |
- Thompson, Paul M., et al.
(författare)
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The ENIGMA Consortium : large-scale collaborative analyses of neuroimaging and genetic data
- 2014
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Ingår i: BRAIN IMAGING BEHAV. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1931-7557 .- 1931-7565. ; 8:2, s. 153-182
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium is a collaborative network of researchers working together on a range of large-scale studies that integrate data from 70 institutions worldwide. Organized into Working Groups that tackle questions in neuroscience, genetics, and medicine, ENIGMA studies have analyzed neuroimaging data from over 12,826 subjects. In addition, data from 12,171 individuals were provided by the CHARGE consortium for replication of findings, in a total of 24,997 subjects. By meta-analyzing results from many sites, ENIGMA has detected factors that affect the brain that no individual site could detect on its own, and that require larger numbers of subjects than any individual neuroimaging study has currently collected. ENIGMA's first project was a genome-wide association study identifying common variants in the genome associated with hippocampal volume or intracranial volume. Continuing work is exploring genetic associations with subcortical volumes (ENIGMA2) and white matter microstructure (ENIGMA-DTI). Working groups also focus on understanding how schizophrenia, bipolar illness, major depression and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affect the brain. We review the current progress of the ENIGMA Consortium, along with challenges and unexpected discoveries made on the way.
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| 3. |
- Bakris, George L, et al.
(författare)
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Divergent results using clinic and ambulatory blood pressures report of a darusentan-resistant hypertension trial
- 2010
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Ingår i: Hypertension. - 0194-911X .- 1524-4563. ; 56:5, s. 824-830
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Patients with resistant hypertension are at increased risk for cardiovascular events. The addition of new treatments to existing therapies will help achieve blood pressure (BP) goals in more resistant hypertension patients. In the current trial, 849 patients with resistant hypertension receiving ≥3 antihypertensive drugs, including a diuretic, at optimized doses were randomized to the selective endothelin A receptor antagonist darusentan, placebo, or the central α-2 agonist guanfacine. The coprimary end points of the study were changes from baseline to week 14 in trough, sitting systolic BP, and diastolic BP measured in the clinic. Decreases from baseline to week 14 in systolic BP for darusentan (−15±14 mm Hg) were greater than for guanfacine (−12±13 mm Hg; P<0.05) but not greater than placebo (−14±14 mm Hg). Darusentan, however, reduced mean 24-hour systolic BP (−9±12 mm Hg) more than placebo (−2±12 mm Hg) or guanfacine (−4±12 mm Hg) after 14 weeks of treatment (P<0.001 for each comparison). The most frequent adverse event associated with darusentan was fluid retention/edema at 28% versus 12% in each of the other groups. More patients withdrew because of adverse events on darusentan as compared with placebo or guanfacine. We conclude that darusentan provided greater reduction in systolic BP in resistant hypertension patients as assessed by ambulatory BP monitoring, in spite of not meeting its coprimary end points. The results of this trial highlight the importance of ambulatory BP monitoring in the design of hypertension clinical studies.
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| 4. |
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A Bird is Not a Stone : An Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Poetry translated into the Languages of Scotland
- 2014
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- A major collection of contemporary Palestinian poetry translated by 24 of Scotland's very best writers including Alasdair Gray, Liz Lochhead, James Robertson, Jackie Kay, William Letford, Aonghas MacNeacail, DM Black, Tom Pow, Ron Butlin and John Glenday. A Bird is not a Stone is a unique cultural exchange, giving both English and Arabic readers a unique insight into the political, social and emotional landscape of today's Palestine. Includes both established and emerging Palestinian poets. Foreword by Scotland's Mackar (Poet Laureate) Liz Lochhead.
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| 5. |
- Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Climate-related soil changes in tundra ecosystems at Latnjajaure, northern Sweden – an ITEX-IPY project
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Polar Year Oslo Science Conference.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the 90'ies, the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) was established as a leading project in arctic and alpine ecology, and has become a model for many later network establishments. The present study capitalizes on the early efforts of ITEX and aims at assessing ecosystem changes in the alpine areas of northern Sweden above timberline, i.e. the tundra, in relation to global change. By using the "old" ITEX plots established during the early years of the program we have measured ecosystem respiration (ER), the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, and nitrogen (N) mineralization over the growing season. In addition, have soil samples been taken to quantify changes in the carbon (C) and N pool, including 13C and 15N. After 12 to 15 years of open top chamber (OTC) treatment no statistical effect was found on the soil temperature (10 cm soil depth), although the was an overall increase in all OTC by +0.2°C. However, the soil moisture decreased significantly by 3-14%, depending on plant community, in the OTCs compared to ambient conditions. Preliminary, there was a 20-37% non-significant higher mean ER in the OTC compared to the ambient plots over the growing season. Furthermore, the OTC treatment did not affect the growing season mineralization of inorganic N, or total C and N content of the soil. The stable isotope data showed both enrichment and depletion as a consequence of the OTC treatment, but no general pattern was discerned. Thus, this non-significant higher ER is most likely of plant origin than soil, as the plant standing biomass has increased in the OTCs. This study does not support the current consensus that tundra soils will alter their C and N dynamics in response to climate change.
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| 6. |
- Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Long-term warming effects on carbon and nitrogen dynamics in tundra soils
- 2012
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Ingår i: 20th Anniversary ITEX Workshop, El Paso, USA, 17–21 January 2012.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During IPY 2008 we used the ITEX experiment in Latnjajaure (northern Sweden), established during the early years of the program, to investigate long-term warming effects on ecosystem respiration (ER), carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pool (including d13C and d15N), soil organic C (SOC) chemical composition, and N mineralization among plant communities. After 12 to 15 years of open top chamber (OTC) treatment no statistical effect was found on the soil temperature (10 cm soil depth), although the was an overall increase in all OTC by +0.2°C. However, the soil moisture decreased significantly by 3-14%, depending on plant community, in the OTCs compared to ambient conditions. Preliminary, there was a 19-61% non-significant increase in annual growing season ER in the OTC compared to the ambient plots over the growing season. The were distinct differences in the SOM functional composition among plant communities with c 10% more O-alkyls stored in tussock tundra than in dry meadow. The OTCs did not consistently alter the SOM composition among the vegetation types but clearly showed a trend for reduced aliphatic and O-alkyl C in the OTCs suggesting increased decomposition (or reduced inputs) of these compounds. Thus, the non-significantly higher ER may in some communities be of plant origin linked to greater plant biomass in the OTCs, and in other (e.g. tussock tundra) from increased decomposition rates. In conclusion, this study showed that 12-15 years of OTC treatment had a modest effects impact C and N dynamics in tundra soils specific to distinct plant communities.
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| 7. |
- Chasman, Daniel I., et al.
(författare)
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Integration of genome-wide association studies with biological knowledge identifies six novel genes related to kidney function
- 2012
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Ingår i: Human Molecular Genetics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0964-6906 .- 1460-2083. ; 21:24, s. 5329-5343
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In conducting genome-wide association studies (GWAS), analytical approaches leveraging biological information may further understanding of the pathophysiology of clinical traits. To discover novel associations with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a measure of kidney function, we developed a strategy for integrating prior biological knowledge into the existing GWAS data for eGFR from the CKDGen Consortium. Our strategy focuses on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in genes that are connected by functional evidence, determined by literature mining and gene ontology (GO) hierarchies, to genes near previously validated eGFR associations. It then requires association thresholds consistent with multiple testing, and finally evaluates novel candidates by independent replication. Among the samples of European ancestry, we identified a genome-wide significant SNP in FBXL20 (P 5.6 10(9)) in meta-analysis of all available data, and additional SNPs at the INHBC, LRP2, PLEKHA1, SLC3A2 and SLC7A6 genes meeting multiple-testing corrected significance for replication and overall P-values of 4.5 10(4)2.2 10(7). Neither the novel PLEKHA1 nor FBXL20 associations, both further supported by association with eGFR among African Americans and with transcript abundance, would have been implicated by eGFR candidate gene approaches. LRP2, encoding the megalin receptor, was identified through connection with the previously known eGFR gene DAB2 and extends understanding of the megalin system in kidney function. These findings highlight integration of existing genome-wide association data with independent biological knowledge to uncover novel candidate eGFR associations, including candidates lacking known connections to kidney-specific pathways. The strategy may also be applicable to other clinical phenotypes, although more testing will be needed to assess its potential for discovery in general.
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| 8. |
- Elmendorf, Sarah C., et al.
(författare)
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Assessments of recent tundra change based on repeated vegetation surveys.
- 2010
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Ingår i: Abstract GC53B-05 presented at 2010 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, Calif., 13-17 Dec..
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Results from experimental warming studies suggest tundra vegetation will respond rapidly and dramatically to climate warming, and indeed, NDVI data from remote sensing and repeat aerial photography suggest such changes may already be occurring. NDVI changes, however, may reflect responses to a variety of processes. Repeat measurements of permanently marked plots offer an invaluable opportunity to monitor detailed changes in vegetation composition and abundance. Here, we report results from a synthesis of repeat measurements of 195 permanent plots in Arctic and alpine tundra plant communities in North America (90 plots), Europe (82 plots), Asia (10 plots), Australia (12 plots), and Antarctica (1 plot) that were revisited at least twice between 1980 and 2010, with an average timespan of 13 years between first and last sampling periods. Annual air-temperature warming over the sampling period varied considerably among sites, ranging from slight cooling to increases of nearly 2°C per decade. In our preliminary analyses, we found significant tundra-wide increases in vegetation height as well as abundance of evergreen shrubs and graminoids, but declines in mosses. We anticipated that changes in vegetation height, abundance of deciduous shrubs, and percent of vegetated ground would be highest in areas where climate warming is occurring most rapidly, but found no support for these predictions in our observational dataset. It is possible that local vegetation dynamics in these areas are affected more by other longer-term non-equilibrium processes such as recovery from glaciation, or an alternative suite of local drivers, such as snow cover, precipitation, disturbance or herbivory.
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| 9. |
- Elmendorf, Sarah C., et al.
(författare)
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Global assessment of experimental climate warming on tundra vegetation : heterogeneity over space and time
- 2012
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Ingår i: Ecology Letters. - : Wiley. - 1461-023X .- 1461-0248. ; 15:2, s. 164-175
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding the sensitivity of tundra vegetation to climate warming is critical to forecasting future biodiversity and vegetation feedbacks to climate. In situ warming experiments accelerate climate change on a small scale to forecast responses of local plant communities. Limitations of this approach include the apparent site-specificity of results and uncertainty about the power of short-term studies to anticipate longer term change. We address these issues with a synthesis of 61 experimental warming studies, of up to 20 years duration, in tundra sites worldwide. The response of plant groups to warming often differed with ambient summer temperature, soil moisture and experimental duration. Shrubs increased with warming only where ambient temperature was high, whereas graminoids increased primarily in the coldest study sites. Linear increases in effect size over time were frequently observed. There was little indication of saturating or accelerating effects, as would be predicted if negative or positive vegetation feedbacks were common. These results indicate that tundra vegetation exhibits strong regional variation in response to warming, and that in vulnerable regions, cumulative effects of long-term warming on tundra vegetation and associated ecosystem consequences have the potential to be much greater than we have observed to date.
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| 10. |
- Elmendorf, Sarah C., et al.
(författare)
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Plant communities in a warming tundra: a synthesis of experimental and monitoring plot data.
- 2011
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Ingår i: 29th Oikos meeting, Tjärnö, Sweden, 7-9 February 2011.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Remote sensing data indicate that rapid and dramatic changes in tundra vegetation data may already be occurring over much of the Arctic. Repeat measurements of long-term warming experiments and permanently marked monitoring plots offer invaluable opportunities to hone predictions about future climate impacts and assess recent change. Here, we report results from two synthesis projects with sites spanning North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. Data sets include 59 warming experiments up to 20 years in length, as well as observational data from 156 tundra vegetation monitoring studies, conducted in 43 sites, over a 5-25 year period. Experimental data confirmed that warming increases the height of vascular plant groups and the abundance of deciduous shrubs, but longer-term experiments suggest some vegetation responses may not be sustained. Monitoring plots showed some indications of tundra greening over time, but links between temporal vegetation change and the degree of ambient climate change at the study site were weak.
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