PTPRD (protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type delta) is associated with restless legs syndrome

We identified association of restless legs syndrome (RLS) with PTPRD at 9p23-24 in 2,458 affected individuals and 4,749 controls from Germany, Austria, Czechia and Canada. Two independent SNPs in the 5' UTR of splice variants expressed predominantly in the central nervous system showed highly significant P values (rs4626664, P(nominal/lambda corrected) = 5.91 x 10(-10), odds ratio (OR) = 1.44; rs1975197, P(nominal/lambda corrected) = 5.81 x 10(-9), OR = 1.31). This work identifies PTPRD as the fourth genome-wide significant locus for RLS.     

高压下MgO-ZnO-SiO2体系的亚固相相关系

在１．０ＧＰａ和１２００℃条件下,利用活塞圆筒高压装置实验确定了ＭｇＯ－ＺｎＯ－ＳｉＯ２体系的亚固相相关系,结果显示该体系具有不同于其他类似的三元体系的相组合特征,无法形成Ｍｇ２ＳｉＯ４－Ｚｎ２ＳｉＯ４橄榄石和Ｍｇ２ＳｉＯ６－Ｚｎ２Ｓｉ２Ｏ６辉石续固溶体,这种相组合特征是由Ｚｎ＾２＋具有（Ａｒ）３ｄ＾１０外层电子结构,不同于其他过渡金属离子,如Ｆｅ＾２＋,Ｎｉ＾２＋和Ｃｏ＾２＋的性质所制约。     

Local and Global Properties of the World

The essence of the method of physics is inseparably connected with the problem of interplay between local and global properties of the universe. In the present paper we discuss this interplay as it is present in three major departments of contemporary physics: general relativity, quantum mechanics and some attempts at quantizing gravity (especially geometrodynamics and its recent successors in the form of various pregeometry conceptions). It turns out that all big interpretative issues involved in this problem point towards the necessity of changing from the standard space-time geometry to some radically new, most probably non-local, generalization. We argue that the recent noncommutative geometry offers attractive possibilities, and gives us a conceptual insight into its algebraic foundations. Noncommutative spaces are, in general, non-local, and their applications to physics, known at present, seem very promising. One would expect that beneath the Planck threshold there reigns a "noncommutative pregeometry", and only when crossing this threshold does the usual space-time geometry emerges.     

Orbital forcing of the martian polar layered deposits

Since the first images of polar regions on Mars revealed alternating bright and dark layers, there has been speculation that their formation might be tied to the planet's orbital climate forcing. But uncertainties in the deposition timescale exceed two orders of magnitude: estimates based on assumptions of dust deposition, ice formation and sublimation, and their variations with orbital forcing suggest a deposition rate of 10(-3) to 10(-2) cm yr(-1) (refs 5, 6), whereas estimates based on cratering rate result in values as high as 0.1 to 0.2 cm yr(-1) (ref. 7). Here we use a combination of high-resolution images of the polar layered terrains, high-resolution topography and revised calculations of the orbital and rotational parameters of Mars to show that a correlation exists between ice-layer radiance as a function of depth (obtained from photometric data of the images of the layered terrains) and the insolation variations in summer at the martian north pole, similar to what has been shown for palaeoclimate studies of the Earth. For the best fit between the radiance profile and the simulated insolation parameters, we obtain an average deposition rate of 0.05 cm yr(-1) for the top 250 m of deposits on the ice cap of the north pole of Mars.