Analysis of Sex-Specific Gene-by-Cohort and Genetic Correlation-by-Cohort Interaction in Educational and Reproductive Outcomes Using the UK Biobank Data.

Synthesizing prior gene-by-cohort (G×C) interaction studies, we theorize that changes in genetic effects by social conditions depend on the level of resource constraints, the distribution and use of resources, structural constraints, and constraints on individual choice. Motivated by the theory, we explored several sex-specific G×C trends across a set of outcomes using 30 birth cohorts of UK Biobank data (N = 400,000). We find that genetic coefficients on years of schooling and secondary educational attainment substantially decrease, but genetic coefficients on college attainments only moderately increase. On the other hand, genetic coefficients for education ranks are stable. Genetic coefficients on reproductive behavior increase for younger cohorts. Additional genetic-correlation-by-cohort analysis shows shifting genetic correlations between education and reproductive behavior. Our results suggest that the G×C patterns are highly heterogenous and that social and genetic factors jointly shape the diversity of human phenotypes.

Meat systems produced with Monascus pigment water-in-oil-in-water multiple emulsion as pork fat replacers.

Multiple emulsions have drawn great attentions from researchers in the production of low-fat foods. The Monascus pigment W/O/W multiple emulsions were prepared by a two-step emulsification procedure with Monascus pigment as inner water phase, flaxseed gum (FG) as internal water phase gel, soybean oil as oil phase, and pea protein isolate (PPI) as outer water phase. We aimed to investigate the quality of pork emulsion systems in which pork fat was replaced by W/O/W emulsions. The results revealed that addition of W/O/W emulsions reduced lipid contents from 11.22% to 5.09%, enhanced protein level from 15.77% to 17.02%, increased polyunsaturated fatty acid composition from 23.36% to 59.63%, improved water-holding capacity and oxidative stability compared to the control samples with pork fat. It was demonstrated that meat systems could achieve dual functions including decreasing the total fat content without affecting the hardness of the meat systems and color retention.

Effects of rapid stretching on explosive power of the lower extremity in long jump athletes / Efeitos do alongamento rápido no poder explosivo da extremidade inferior dos atletas em salto em distância / Efectos de los estiramientos rápidos en la potencia explosiva de las extremidades inferiores de los atletas en salto de longitud

ABSTRACT Introduction: The long jump is characterized by a high degree of combination of speed and strength. It belongs to the group of fast power items dominated by physical conditioning. To achieve good results in long jump, it is necessary to have good physical conditioning. Objective: In order to explore the effect of compound fast stretch training on the explosive power of lower limbs of athletes in long jump. Methods: Athletes from a certain city were selected as the research objects of the experiment, with a total of 100 people, and were divided into groups by random drawing, there were 50 people in the control group and 50 people in the experimental group, who received rapid stretching compound training. Results: After collecting the independent samples, statistical analysis was performed with T-test, the results showed confidence of P=0.09, higher than 0.05, indicating that there is no significant difference in the special performance of long jump between the two groups of students, the mean score of students in the experimental group was 0.13 meters higher than the control group. Conclusions: Rapid training composed of relaxation and contraction can effectively improve the special quality in long jump students. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment outcomes.

RESUMO Introdução: O salto em distância é caracterizado por um alto grau de combinação de velocidade e força. Pertence ao grupo de itens de energia rápida dominados pelo condicionamento físico. Para alcançar bons resultados no salto à distância, é necessário ter bom condicionamento físico. Objetivo: A fim de explorar o efeito do treinamento composto de alongamento rápido sobre o poder explosivo dos membros inferiores dos atletas em salto à distância. Métodos: Atletas de uma determinada cidade foram selecionados como objetos de pesquisa do experimento, com um total de 100 pessoas, e foram divididos em grupos por sorteio aleatório, havia 50 pessoas no grupo controle e 50 pessoas no grupo experimental, que receberam treinamento composto de alongamento rápido. Resultados: Após a coleta das amostras independentes, efetuou-se análise estatística com Teste-T, os resultados mostraram confiança de P=0,09, superior a 0,05, indicando que não há diferença significativa no desempenho especial do salto em distância entre os dois grupos de alunos, a pontuação média dos alunos no grupo experimental foi 0,13 metros maiores que a do grupo controle. Conclusões: O rápido treinamento composto de relaxamento e contração pode melhorar efetivamente a qualidade especial nos alunos de salto em distância. Nível de evidência II; Estudos terapêuticos - investigação dos resultados do tratamento.

RESUMEN Introducción: El salto de longitud se caracteriza por un alto grado de combinación de velocidad y fuerza. Pertenece al grupo de ítems de potencia rápida dominados por el acondicionamiento físico. Para conseguir buenos resultados en salto de longitud, es necesario tener una buena condición física. Objetivo: Explorar el efecto del entrenamiento de estiramiento rápido compuesto sobre la potencia explosiva de los miembros inferiores de los atletas en salto de longitud. Métodos: Se seleccionaron atletas de una determinada ciudad como objetos de investigación del experimento, con un total de 100 personas, y se dividieron en grupos por sorteo, había 50 personas en el grupo de control y 50 personas en el grupo experimental, que recibieron un entrenamiento de estiramiento rápido compuesto. Resultados: Después de recoger las muestras independientes, se realizó el análisis estadístico con la prueba T, los resultados mostraron una confianza de P=0,09, superior a 0,05, lo que indica que no hay diferencias significativas en el rendimiento especial de salto de longitud entre los dos grupos de alumnos, la puntuación media de los alumnos del grupo experimental fue 0,13 metros superior a la del grupo de control. Conclusiones: El entrenamiento rápido compuesto de relajación y contracción puede mejorar eficazmente la calidad especial en los alumnos de salto de longitud. Nivel de evidencia II; Estudios terapéuticos - investigación de los resultados del tratamiento.

A quantile integral linear model to quantify genetic effects on phenotypic variability.

Detecting genetic variants associated with the variance of complex traits, that is, variance quantitative trait loci (vQTLs), can provide crucial insights into the interplay between genes and environments and how they jointly shape human phenotypes in the population. We propose a quantile integral linear model (QUAIL) to estimate genetic effects on trait variability. Through extensive simulations and analyses of real data, we demonstrate that QUAIL provides computationally efficient and statistically powerful vQTL mapping that is robust to non-Gaussian phenotypes and confounding effects on phenotypic variability. Applied to UK Biobank (n = 375,791), QUAIL identified 11 vQTLs for body mass index (BMI) that have not been previously reported. Top vQTL findings showed substantial enrichment for interactions with physical activities and sedentary behavior. Furthermore, variance polygenic scores (vPGSs) based on QUAIL effect estimates showed superior predictive performance on both population-level and within-individual BMI variability compared to existing approaches. Overall, QUAIL is a unified framework to quantify genetic effects on the phenotypic variability at both single-variant and vPGS levels. It addresses critical limitations in existing approaches and may have broad applications in future gene-environment interaction studies.

Gene-by-peer-environment interaction effects on cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use among US high school students of European Ancestry.

Research has shown that adolescents' substance use behavior is determined not only by individual characteristics but also by peer environments, and an emerging literature in social genomics has also found that individual genotypes moderate peer effects on egos' substance use. However, the previous literature on genetic by peer environment (GxPE) interaction effects is limited by the use of genetic measures with limited power and a lack of focus on causality. Based on a sample of about 4000 adolescents of European Ancestry from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study utilizes polygenic scores to examine GxPE interactions between ego's genetics and peers' cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use. The results show peers' cigarette and marijuana use positively affect ego's substance use, and peer effects are stronger when the ego is genetically predisposed to substance use. However, genetic propensities toward risk tolerance are found to weaken the peer effects on the ego's marijuana use. Overall, our findings provide new evidence for the existence of GxPE effects on adolescent substance use and reveal the multidimensional nature of GxPE effects.

Estimating genetic nurture with summary statistics of multigenerational genome-wide association studies.

Marginal effect estimates in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are mixtures of direct and indirect genetic effects. Existing methods to dissect these effects require family-based, individual-level genetic, and phenotypic data with large samples, which is difficult to obtain in practice. Here, we propose a statistical framework to estimate direct and indirect genetic effects using summary statistics from GWAS conducted on own and offspring phenotypes. Applied to birth weight, our method showed nearly identical results with those obtained using individual-level data. We also decomposed direct and indirect genetic effects of educational attainment (EA), which showed distinct patterns of genetic correlations with 45 complex traits. The known genetic correlations between EA and higher height, lower body mass index, less-active smoking behavior, and better health outcomes were mostly explained by the indirect genetic component of EA. In contrast, the consistently identified genetic correlation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with higher EA resides in the direct genetic component. A polygenic transmission disequilibrium test showed a significant overtransmission of the direct component of EA from healthy parents to ASD probands. Taken together, we demonstrate that traditional GWAS approaches, in conjunction with offspring phenotypic data collection in existing cohorts, could greatly benefit studies on genetic nurture and shed important light on the interpretation of genetic associations for human complex traits.

Uncertainty in Continuous Scatterplots, Continuous Parallel Coordinates, and Fibers.

In this paper, we introduce uncertainty to continuous scatterplots and continuous parallel coordinates. We derive respective models, validate them with sampling-based brute-force schemes, and present acceleration strategies for their computation. At the same time, we show that our approach lends itself as well for introducing uncertainty into the definition of fibers in bivariate data. Finally, we demonstrate the properties and the utility of our approach using specifically designed synthetic cases and simulated data.

Cognitive limitations in older adults receiving care reduces well-being among spouse caregivers.

A large number of older adults have physical and/or cognitive challenges and require help to manage everyday activities. Many older adults receive care from a spouse. Over the long term, this has adverse consequences for caregiver health and well-being. Less is known about the outcomes associated with the early transition to becoming a spousal caregiver. Nor is it clear how mild-cognitive decline worsens caregiver outcomes. The present study uses dyadic data from 588 couples in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project to compare mental and social well-being in marital partners who became a spousal caregiver versus those who remained noncaregivers or became caregivers for someone other than a spouse between 2010 and 2015. Cognitive ability was assessed using a validated version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Moderated Actor-Partner Independence Models revealed that becoming a caregiver was associated with an increase in perceived stress in both men and women, and an increase in anxiety among men. Partners' cognitive limitations moderated, in a dose-dependent fashion, the association between becoming a caregiver and changes in well-being. Specifically, becoming a caregiver was associated with increased support from friends for wives at lower levels of husband's cognitive ability, and with increased anxiety for husbands at lower levels of wife's cognitive ability. Associations were independent of demographic characteristics and physical limitations. We discuss the value of using population-based samples to study the transition to caregiving and implications for interventions during the early transition to a caregiving role for even modestly cognitively impaired partners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Stability, Microstructure, and Microrheological Properties of Monascus Pigment Double Emulsions Stabilized by Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate and Soybean Protein Isolate.

Monascus pigment is a natural food pigment and is commonly used for coloring and as antiseptic of cured meat products, confectionery, cakes, and beverages. However, Monascus pigment is sensitive to environmental conditions. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) and soy protein isolate (SPI) on the particle size, zeta potential, physical stability, microstructure, and microrheological properties of Monascus pigment double emulsions. The effects of ionic strength, heating, and freeze thawing treatment on the stabilities of Monascus pigment double emulsions were also characterized. It was found that the optimum PGPR and SPI concentrations for fabricating Monascus pigment double emulsion were 3.6 and 3.0 wt%, respectively. The fabricated Monascus pigment double emulsion was composed of fine particles with narrow and uniform size distributions. Microrheological property results suggested that the elastic characteristic of the Monascus pigment double emulsion was dominated with increasing PGPR and SPI contents. It was mainly due to the increased collision and interaction between the droplets during the movement resulting in force increasing. Monascus pigment double emulsions with <5 mM CaCl2 prevented calcium to destroy the physical stability of emulsions, while Monascus pigment double emulsions with more than 10 mM CaCl2 formed creaming. After freeze thawing treatment, creaming occurred in Monascus pigment double emulsion. However, it was stable against heating treatment due to heating leading to a dense network structure. It could be contributed to the practical applications of Monascus pigment double emulsions in food products.