University of Queensland

About: University of Queensland is a education organization based out in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 51138 authors who have published 155721 publications receiving 5717659 citations. The organization is also known as: UQ & The University of Queensland.

GWAS of 126,559 Individuals Identifies Genetic Variants Associated with Educational Attainment

Abstract: A genome-wide association study of educational attainment was conducted in a discovery sample of 101,069 individuals and a replication sample of 25,490. Three independent SNPs are genome-wide significant (rs9320913, rs11584700, rs4851266), and all three replicate. Estimated effects sizes are small (R2 ≈ 0.02%), approximately 1 month of schooling per allele. A linear polygenic score from all measured SNPs accounts for ≈ 2% of the variance in both educational attainment and cognitive function. Genes in the region of the loci have previously been associated with health, cognitive, and central nervous system phenotypes, and bioinformatics analyses suggest the involvement of the anterior caudate nucleus. These findings provide promising candidate SNPs for follow-up work, and our effect size estimates can anchor power analyses in social-science genetics.

2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing: Methods and key findings.

Abstract: Objective: To provide a description of the methods and key findings of the 2007 Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Method: A national face-to-face household survey of 8841 (60% response rate) community residents aged between 16 and 85 years was carried out using the World Mental Health Survey Initiative version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Diagnoses were made according to ICD-10. Key findings include the prevalence of mental disorder, sex and age distributions of mental disorders, severity of mental disorders, comorbidity among mental disorders, and the extent of disability and health service use associated with mental disorders. Results: The prevalence of any lifetime mental disorder was 45.5%. The prevalence of any 12 month mental disorder was 20.0%, with anxiety disorders (14.4%) the most common class of mental disorder followed by affective disorders (6.2%) and substance use disorders (5.1%). Mental disorders, particularly affective disorders, were disabling. One in four people (25.4%) with 12 month mental disorders had more than one class of mental disorder. One-third (34.9%) of people with a mental disorder used health services for mental health problems in the 12 months prior to the interview. Conclusions: Mental disorders are common in Australia. Many people have more than one class of mental disorder. Mental disorders are associated with substantial disability, yet many people with mental disorders do not seek help for their mental health problems.

The Dark Energy Survey: more than dark energy - an overview

Abstract: US Department of Energy; US National Science Foundation; Ministry of Science and Education of Spain; Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; Higher Education Funding Council for England; National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago; Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics at the Ohio State University; Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy at Texas AM University; Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos; Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico and the Ministerio da Ciencia; Tecnologia e Inovacao; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Collaborating Institutions in the Dark Energy Survey; National Science Foundation [AST-1138766]; University of California at Santa Cruz; University of Cambridge, Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas-Madrid; University of Chicago, University College London; DES-Brazil Consortium; University of Edinburgh; Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai (IEEC/CSIC); Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat Munchen; European Research Council [FP7/291329]; MINECO [AYA2012-39559, ESP2013-48274, FPA2013-47986]; Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa [SEV-2012-0234]; European Research Council under the European Union [240672, 291329, 306478]

HIN-200 proteins regulate caspase activation in response to foreign cytoplasmic DNA.

Abstract: The mammalian innate immune system is activated by foreign nucleic acids. Detection of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) in the cytoplasm triggers characteristic antiviral responses and macrophage cell death. Cytoplasmic dsDNA rapidly activated caspase 3 and caspase 1 in bone marrow-derived macrophages. We identified the HIN-200 family member and candidate lupus susceptibility factor, p202, as a dsDNA binding protein that bound stably and rapidly to transfected DNA. Knockdown studies showed p202 to be an inhibitor of DNA-induced caspase activation. Conversely, the related pyrin domain-containing HIN-200 factor, AIM2 (p210), was required for caspase activation by cytoplasmic dsDNA. This work indicates that HIN-200 proteins can act as pattern recognition receptors mediating responses to cytoplasmic dsDNA.

Nanoparticle-induced unfolding of fibrinogen promotes Mac-1 receptor activation and inflammation

Abstract: The chemical composition, size, shape and surface characteristics of nanoparticles affect the way proteins bind to these particles, and this in turn influences the way in which nanoparticles interact with cells and tissues. Nanomaterials bound with proteins can result in physiological and pathological changes, including macrophage uptake, blood coagulation, protein aggregation and complement activation, but the mechanisms that lead to these changes remain poorly understood. Here, we show that negatively charged poly(acrylic acid)-conjugated gold nanoparticles bind to and induce unfolding of fibrinogen, which promotes interaction with the integrin receptor, Mac-1. Activation of this receptor increases the NF-κB signalling pathway, resulting in the release of inflammatory cytokines. However, not all nanoparticles that bind to fibrinogen demonstrated this effect. Our results show that the binding of certain nanoparticles to fibrinogen in plasma offers an alternative mechanism to the more commonly described role of oxidative stress in the inflammatory response to nanomaterials.