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- Aamodt, K., et al.
(author)
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The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC
- 2008
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - 1748-0221. ; 3:S08002
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a general-purpose, heavy-ion detector at the CERN LHC which focuses on QCD, the strong-interaction sector of the Standard Model. It is designed to address the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma at extreme values of energy density and temperature in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Besides running with Pb ions, the physics programme includes collisions with lighter ions, lower energy running and dedicated proton-nucleus runs. ALICE will also take data with proton beams at the top LHC energy to collect reference data for the heavy-ion programme and to address several QCD topics for which ALICE is complementary to the other LHC detectors. The ALICE detector has been built by a collaboration including currently over 1000 physicists and engineers from 105 Institutes in 30 countries, Its overall dimensions are 16 x 16 x 26 m(3) with a total weight of approximately 10 000 t. The experiment consists of 18 different detector systems each with its own specific technology choice and design constraints, driven both by the physics requirements and the experimental conditions expected at LHC. The most stringent design constraint is to cope with the extreme particle multiplicity anticipated in central Pb-Pb collisions. The different subsystems were optimized to provide high-momentum resolution as well as excellent Particle Identification (PID) over a broad range in momentum, up to the highest multiplicities predicted for LHC. This will allow for comprehensive studies of hadrons, electrons, muons, and photons produced in the collision of heavy nuclei. Most detector systems are scheduled to be installed and ready for data taking by mid-2008 when the LHC is scheduled to start operation, with the exception of parts of the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS), Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) and Electro Magnetic Calorimeter (EMCal). These detectors will be completed for the high-luminosity ion run expected in 2010. This paper describes in detail the detector components as installed for the first data taking in the summer of 2008.
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- Blokland, G. A. M., et al.
(author)
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Sex-Dependent Shared and Nonshared Genetic Architecture Across Mood and Psychotic Disorders
- 2022
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In: Biological Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0006-3223 .- 1873-2402. ; 91:1, s. 102-117
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Sex differences in incidence and/or presentation of schizophrenia (SCZ), major depressive disorder (MDD), and bipolar disorder (BIP) are pervasive. Previous evidence for shared genetic risk and sex differences in brain abnormalities across disorders suggest possible shared sex-dependent genetic risk. Methods: We conducted the largest to date genome-wide genotype-by-sex (G×S) interaction of risk for these disorders using 85,735 cases (33,403 SCZ, 19,924 BIP, and 32,408 MDD) and 109,946 controls from the PGC (Psychiatric Genomics Consortium) and iPSYCH. Results: Across disorders, genome-wide significant single nucleotide polymorphism–by-sex interaction was detected for a locus encompassing NKAIN2 (rs117780815, p = 3.2 × 10−8), which interacts with sodium/potassium-transporting ATPase (adenosine triphosphatase) enzymes, implicating neuronal excitability. Three additional loci showed evidence (p < 1 × 10−6) for cross-disorder G×S interaction (rs7302529, p = 1.6 × 10−7; rs73033497, p = 8.8 × 10−7; rs7914279, p = 6.4 × 10−7), implicating various functions. Gene-based analyses identified G×S interaction across disorders (p = 8.97 × 10−7) with transcriptional inhibitor SLTM. Most significant in SCZ was a MOCOS gene locus (rs11665282, p = 1.5 × 10−7), implicating vascular endothelial cells. Secondary analysis of the PGC-SCZ dataset detected an interaction (rs13265509, p = 1.1 × 10−7) in a locus containing IDO2, a kynurenine pathway enzyme with immunoregulatory functions implicated in SCZ, BIP, and MDD. Pathway enrichment analysis detected significant G×S interaction of genes regulating vascular endothelial growth factor receptor signaling in MDD (false discovery rate-corrected p < .05). Conclusions: In the largest genome-wide G×S analysis of mood and psychotic disorders to date, there was substantial genetic overlap between the sexes. However, significant sex-dependent effects were enriched for genes related to neuronal development and immune and vascular functions across and within SCZ, BIP, and MDD at the variant, gene, and pathway levels. © 2021 Society of Biological Psychiatry
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3. |
- Justice, A. E., et al.
(author)
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Genome-wide meta-analysis of 241,258 adults accounting for smoking behaviour identifies novel loci for obesity traits
- 2017
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Few genome-wide association studies (GWAS) account for environmental exposures, like smoking, potentially impacting the overall trait variance when investigating the genetic contribution to obesity-related traits. Here, we use GWAS data from 51,080 current smokers and 190,178 nonsmokers (87% European descent) to identify loci influencing BMI and central adiposity, measured as waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio both adjusted for BMI. We identify 23 novel genetic loci, and 9 loci with convincing evidence of gene-smoking interaction (GxSMK) on obesity-related traits. We show consistent direction of effect for all identified loci and significance for 18 novel and for 5 interaction loci in an independent study sample. These loci highlight novel biological functions, including response to oxidative stress, addictive behaviour, and regulatory functions emphasizing the importance of accounting for environment in genetic analyses. Our results suggest that tobacco smoking may alter the genetic susceptibility to overall adiposity and body fat distribution.
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4. |
- de Jong, S, et al.
(author)
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Applying polygenic risk scoring for psychiatric disorders to a large family with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder
- 2018
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In: Communications biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 1, s. 163-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Psychiatric disorders are thought to have a complex genetic pathology consisting of interplay of common and rare variation. Traditionally, pedigrees are used to shed light on the latter only, while here we discuss the application of polygenic risk scores to also highlight patterns of common genetic risk. We analyze polygenic risk scores for psychiatric disorders in a large pedigree (n ~ 260) in which 30% of family members suffer from major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder. Studying patterns of assortative mating and anticipation, it appears increased polygenic risk is contributed by affected individuals who married into the family, resulting in an increasing genetic risk over generations. This may explain the observation of anticipation in mood disorders, whereby onset is earlier and the severity increases over the generations of a family. Joint analyses of rare and common variation may be a powerful way to understand the familial genetics of psychiatric disorders.
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6. |
- Romagnoni, A, et al.
(author)
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Comparative performances of machine learning methods for classifying Crohn Disease patients using genome-wide genotyping data
- 2019
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In: Scientific reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 9:1, s. 10351-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Crohn Disease (CD) is a complex genetic disorder for which more than 140 genes have been identified using genome wide association studies (GWAS). However, the genetic architecture of the trait remains largely unknown. The recent development of machine learning (ML) approaches incited us to apply them to classify healthy and diseased people according to their genomic information. The Immunochip dataset containing 18,227 CD patients and 34,050 healthy controls enrolled and genotyped by the international Inflammatory Bowel Disease genetic consortium (IIBDGC) has been re-analyzed using a set of ML methods: penalized logistic regression (LR), gradient boosted trees (GBT) and artificial neural networks (NN). The main score used to compare the methods was the Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) statistics. The impact of quality control (QC), imputing and coding methods on LR results showed that QC methods and imputation of missing genotypes may artificially increase the scores. At the opposite, neither the patient/control ratio nor marker preselection or coding strategies significantly affected the results. LR methods, including Lasso, Ridge and ElasticNet provided similar results with a maximum AUC of 0.80. GBT methods like XGBoost, LightGBM and CatBoost, together with dense NN with one or more hidden layers, provided similar AUC values, suggesting limited epistatic effects in the genetic architecture of the trait. ML methods detected near all the genetic variants previously identified by GWAS among the best predictors plus additional predictors with lower effects. The robustness and complementarity of the different methods are also studied. Compared to LR, non-linear models such as GBT or NN may provide robust complementary approaches to identify and classify genetic markers.
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7. |
- Ade, P. A. R., et al.
(author)
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Planck 2015 results XIV. Dark energy and modified gravity
- 2016
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 594
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We study the implications of Planck data for models of dark energy (DE) and modified gravity (MG) beyond the standard cosmological constant scenario. We start with cases where the DE only directly affects the background evolution, considering Taylor expansions of the equation of state w(a), as well as principal component analysis and parameterizations related to the potential of a minimally coupled DE scalar field. When estimating the density of DE at early times, we significantly improve present constraints and find that it has to be below similar to 2% (at 95% confidence) of the critical density, even when forced to play a role for z < 50 only. We then move to general parameterizations of the DE or MG perturbations that encompass both effective field theories and the phenomenology of gravitational potentials in MG models. Lastly, we test a range of specific models, such as k-essence, f(R) theories, and coupled DE. In addition to the latest Planck data, for our main analyses, we use background constraints from baryonic acoustic oscillations, type-Ia supernovae, and local measurements of the Hubble constant. We further show the impact of measurements of the cosmological perturbations, such as redshift-space distortions and weak gravitational lensing. These additional probes are important tools for testing MG models and for breaking degeneracies that are still present in the combination of Planck and background data sets. All results that include only background parameterizations (expansion of the equation of state, early DE, general potentials in minimally-coupled scalar fields or principal component analysis) are in agreement with ACDM. When testing models that also change perturbations (even when the background is fixed to ACDM), some tensions appear in a few scenarios: the maximum one found is similar to 2 sigma for Planck TT + lowP when parameterizing observables related to the gravitational potentials with a chosen time dependence; the tension increases to, at most, 3 sigma when external data sets are included. It however disappears when including CMB lensing.
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9. |
- Czamara, D, et al.
(author)
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Integrated analysis of environmental and genetic influences on cord blood DNA methylation in new-borns
- 2019
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In: Nature communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 10:1, s. 2548-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Epigenetic processes, including DNA methylation (DNAm), are among the mechanisms allowing integration of genetic and environmental factors to shape cellular function. While many studies have investigated either environmental or genetic contributions to DNAm, few have assessed their integrated effects. Here we examine the relative contributions of prenatal environmental factors and genotype on DNA methylation in neonatal blood at variably methylated regions (VMRs) in 4 independent cohorts (overall n = 2365). We use Akaike’s information criterion to test which factors best explain variability of methylation in the cohort-specific VMRs: several prenatal environmental factors (E), genotypes in cis (G), or their additive (G + E) or interaction (GxE) effects. Genetic and environmental factors in combination best explain DNAm at the majority of VMRs. The CpGs best explained by either G, G + E or GxE are functionally distinct. The enrichment of genetic variants from GxE models in GWAS for complex disorders supports their importance for disease risk.
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10. |
- Osborn, H. P., et al.
(author)
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The PDS 110 observing campaign - photometric and spectroscopic observations reveal eclipses are aperiodic
- 2019
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 485:2, s. 1614-1625
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- PDS 110 is a young disc-hosting star in the Orion OB1A association. Two dimming events of similar depth and duration were seen in 2008 (WASP) and 2011 (KELT), consistent with an object in a closed periodic orbit. In this paper, we present data from a ground-based observing campaign designed to measure the star both photometrically and spectroscopically during the time of predicted eclipse in 2017 September. Despite high-quality photometry, the predicted eclipse did not occur, although coherent structure is present suggesting variable amounts of stellar flux or dust obscuration. We also searched for radial velocity (RV) oscillations caused by any hypothetical companion and can rule out close binaries to 0.1Ms. Asearch of Sonneberg plate archive data also enabled us to extend the photometric baseline of this star back more than 50 yr, and similarly does not re-detect any deep eclipses. Taken together, they suggest that the eclipses seen in WASP and KELT photometry were due to aperiodic events. It would seem that PDS 110 undergoes stochastic dimmings that are shallower and of shorter duration than those of UX Ori variables, but may have a similar mechanism.
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