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Making comparative archaeological and historical urbanism rigorous and open access through the URBank data platform
No full textAdapting to a global urban future requires diverse, long-term perspectives on urbanism. URBank supports this by bringing together global deep-time urban datasets in a modern open-science computing platform. Its design eschews checklist definitions of cities, representing the variability of past urbanism and enabling systematic comparative spatiotemporal research.Introduction Dynamic ontology Open FAIR science Designed to evolve, built to last URBank in action Outloo
Global gyrokinetic simulation code utilizing field-aligned coordinates for studying electromagnetic turbulence in tokamak plasmas
No full textGenetic dissection of serum pro-neurotensin suggests potential causal impact on brain structure
No full textBackground: Pro-neurotensin (pro-NT) is the stable circulating precursor of neurotensin (NT), a neuropeptide expressed mainly in the central nervous system and small intestine that regulates key physiological processes like fatty acid absorption in the gut and suppresses appetite via central mechanisms. Studies in NT-deficient mice and humans implicate NT in obesity and insulin resistance, highlighting its role in metabolic regulation.Methods: To explore the genetic determinants of circulating pro-NT and its causal relationships with obesity and brain phenotypes, we conducted a genome-wide meta-analysis of serum pro-NT levels in 10,096 individuals of European ancestry across four independent cohorts. We further examined causal effects of pro-NT on brain structures and function using Mendelian Randomisation (MR) and analysed brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from a subset (N = 1090) of the LIFE-Adult cohort.Findings: Three genome-wide significant loci associated with serum pro-NT were identified on chromosomes 4 (rs6822751), 11 (rs41392245), and 12 (rs2723889). MR analyses revealed causal links between elevated pro-NT and structural variation in selected subcortical brain regions, notably the pallidum and brainstem. MRI analyses in the LIFE-Adult subset showed reduced reward network coherence in alleles linked to higher pro-NT levels, suggesting a potential neural mechanism contributing to obesity.Interpretation: These findings suggest a potential causal relationship between serum pro-NT levels and variance in structural brain phenotypes that could be implicated in obesity
