University of Bristol

About: University of Bristol is a education organization based out in Bristol, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 44253 authors who have published 113186 publications receiving 4947181 citations. The organization is also known as: Bris..

Green radio: radio techniques to enable energy-efficient wireless networks

Abstract: Recent analysis by manufacturers and network operators has shown that current wireless networks are not very energy efficient, particularly the base stations by which terminals access services from the network. In response to this observation the Mobile Virtual Centre of Excellence (VCE) Green Radio project was established in 2009 to establish how significant energy savings may be obtained in future wireless systems. This article discusses the technical background to the project and discusses models of current energy consumption in base station devices. It also describes some of the most promising research directions in reducing the energy consumption of future base stations.

Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links

Abstract: Parasitism is the most common consumer strategy among organisms, yet only recently has there been a call for the inclusion of infectious disease agents in food webs. The value of this effort hinges on whether parasites affect food-web properties. Increasing evidence suggests that parasites have the potential to uniquely alter food-web topology in terms of chain length, connectance and robustness. In addition, parasites might affect food-web stability, interaction strength and energy flow. Food-web structure also affects infectious disease dynamics because parasites depend on the ecological networks in which they live. Empirically, incorporating parasites into food webs is straightforward. We may start with existing food webs and add parasites as nodes, or we may try to build food webs around systems for which we already have a good understanding of infectious processes. In the future, perhaps researchers will add parasites while they construct food webs. Less clear is how food-web theory can accommodate parasites. This is a deep and central problem in theoretical biology and applied mathematics. For instance, is representing parasites with complex life cycles as a single node equivalent to representing other species with ontogenetic niche shifts as a single node? Can parasitism fit into fundamental frameworks such as the niche model? Can we integrate infectious disease models into the emerging field of dynamic food-web modelling? Future progress will benefit from interdisciplinary collaborations between ecologists and infectious disease biologists.

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.