Forensic Assessment of Kinship, Genomic Ancestry, and Natural History of an Iconic Tiger of Harlem-New York City.

In the fall of 2003, a two-year-old tiger named Ming, weighing some four hundred pounds, was discovered living in an apartment in Harlem, New York. Ming's rescue by NYPD was witnessed, recalled, and venerated by scores of neighbors. The tiger's history and ancestry stimulated considerable media interest, investigative sleuthing, and forensic genomic analyses.

Segmental analysis of human hair reveals intra-annual variation in 25(OH)D concentrations in modern and archaeological individuals.

Vitamin D is essential for healthy skeletal growth and is increasingly recognised for its role in chronic disease development, inflammation and immunity. 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations are an indicator of vitamin D status and are normally analysed in plasma or serum samples in clinical settings, while archaeological studies rely on the identification of skeletal markers of vitamin D deficiency, such as rickets. Here, we determined 25(OH)D concentrations in hair specimens ('locks') that had been sampled close to the root, aligned by cut end, and sliced into sequential segments from participants (n = 16), from Aberdeen, Scotland, using a modified protocol designed to minimise sample size.

Association between neighborhood walkability and physical activity in a community-based twin sample.

We investigated associations between neighborhood walkability and physical activity using twins (5477 monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic pairs) as "quasi-experimental" controls of genetic and shared environment (familial) factors that would otherwise confound exposure-outcome associations. Walkability comprised intersection density, population density, and destination accessibility. Outcomes included self-reported weekly minutes of neighborhood walking and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and days per week using transit services (eg, bus, commuter rail).

Smartphone Google Location History: A Novel Approach to Outdoor Physical Activity Research.

Background: Outdoor physical activity (PA) is an important component of overall health; however, it is difficult to measure. Passively collected smartphone location data like Google Location History (GLH) present an opportunity to address this issue.

Objectives: To evaluate the use of GLH data for measuring outdoor PA.