Abstract: We examined whether persistence of epigenetic DNA methylation (DNA-me) alterations at specific loci over two different time points in people with diabetes are associated with metabolic memory, the prolonged beneficial effects of intensive vs. conventional therapy during the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) on the progression of microvascular outcomes in the long-term follow-up Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) Study. We compared DNA-me profiles in genomic DNA of whole blood (WB) isolated at EDIC Study baseline from 32 cases (DCCT conventional therapy group subjects showing retinopathy or albuminuria progression by EDIC Study year 10) vs. 31 controls (DCCT intensive therapy group subjects without complication progression by EDIC year 10). DNA-me was also profiled in blood monocytes (Monos) of the same patients obtained during EDIC Study years 16–17. In WB, 153 loci depicted hypomethylation, and 225 depicted hypermethylation, whereas in Monos, 155 hypomethylated loci and 247 hypermethylated loci were found (fold change ≥1.3; P 〈 0.005; cases vs. controls). Twelve annotated differentially methylated loci were common in both WB and Monos, including thioredoxin-interacting protein ( TXNIP ), known to be associated with hyperglycemia and related complications. A set of differentially methylated loci depicted similar trends of associations with prior HbA1c in both WB and Monos. In vitro, high glucose induced similar persistent hypomethylation at TXNIP in cultured THP1 Monos. These results show that DNA-me differences during the DCCT persist at certain loci associated with glycemia for several years during the EDIC Study and support an epigenetic explanation for metabolic memory.

Abstract: In type 2 diabetes, hyperuricemia is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the metabolic syndrome (MetS), but associations in type 1 diabetes (T1D) have not been well-defined. This study examined the relationships between serum urate (SU) concentrations, clinical and biochemical factors, and subsequent cardiovascular events in a well-characterized cohort of adults with T1D. In 973 participants with T1D in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications Study (DCCT/EDIC), associations were defined between SU, measured once in blood collected 1997–2000, and (a) concurrent MetS and (b) incident ‘any CVD’ and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) through 2013. SU was higher in men than women [mean (SD): 4.47 (0.99) vs. 3.39 (0.97) mg/dl, respectively, p  〈  0.0001], and was associated with MetS features in both (men: p = 0.0016; women: p  〈  0.0001). During follow-up, 110 participants (11%) experienced “any CVD”, and 53 (5%) a MACE. Analyzed by quartiles, SU was not associated with subsequent CVD or MACE. In women, SU as a continuous variable was associated with MACE (unadjusted HR: 1.52; 95% CI 1.07–2.16; p = 0.0211) even after adjustment for age and HbA1c (HR: 1.47; 95% CI 1.01–2.14; p = 0.0467). Predominantly normal range serum urate concentrations in T1D were higher in men than women and were associated with features of the MetS. In some analyses of women only, SU was associated with subsequent MACE. Routine measurement of SU to assess cardiovascular risk in T1D is not merited. Trial registration clinicaltrials.gov NCT00360815 and NCT00360893.

Abstract: Intensive treatment (INT) of type 1 diabetes reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events compared with conventional treatment (CONV), but it also results in more weight gain. Our objective was to examine whether excessive weight gain from INT of type 1 diabetes is independently associated with subsequent CVD events. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Quartiles (Q) of weight gain in 1,213 participants aged 18 years and older at enrollment in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) were determined within randomized treatment groups (INT vs. CONV) using change in BMI from baseline to the closeout DCCT visits. Effects of this weight gain on CVD risk factors and outcomes during an additional 20 years of observational follow-up were then determined. RESULTS The Q4 INT group experienced greater proportional weight gain (median change in BMI, 6.08 kg/m2), increases in CVD risk factors, and need for medications for hypertension and lipids compared with the Q1–3 INT and comparable CONV groups. Over a mean of 26 years of follow-up, the numbers of major and total CVD events were not statistically different in Q4 compared with Q1–3 of either the INT or CONV group. By year 14, however, the incident CVD event curve became significantly higher in the Q4 INT group than in the Q1–3 INT groups (P = 0.024) and was similar to that for the CONV group. CONCLUSIONS For the first 13 years after DCCT, INT for type 1 diabetes reduced macrovascular events compared with CONV, even when excessive weight gain occurred. After this, total CVD events significantly increased in the Q4 INT group, becoming equivalent to those in the CONV group. Longer follow-up is needed to determine whether this trend continues and results in more major CVD events.

Abstract: The Kuiper Belt is a distant region of the outer Solar System. On 1 January 2019, the New Horizons spacecraft flew close to (486958) 2014 MU 69 , a cold classical Kuiper Belt object approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. Such objects have never been substantially heated by the Sun and are therefore well preserved since their formation. We describe initial results from these encounter observations. MU 69 is a bilobed contact binary with a flattened shape, discrete geological units, and noticeable albedo heterogeneity. However, there is little surface color or compositional heterogeneity. No evidence for satellites, rings or other dust structures, a gas coma, or solar wind interactions was detected. MU 69 ’s origin appears consistent with pebble cloud collapse followed by a low-velocity merger of its two lobes.

Abstract: Hyperglycemia leading to increased oxidative stress is implicated in the increased risk for the development of macrovascular and microvascular complications in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Methods and Results A random subcohort of 349 participants was selected from the DCCT / EDIC (Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications) cohort. This included 320 controls and 29 cardiovascular disease cases that were augmented with 98 additional known cases to yield a case cohort of 447 participants (320 controls, 127 cases). Biosamples from DCCT baseline, year 1, and closeout of DCCT , and 1 to 2 years post‐ DCCT ( EDIC years 1 and 2) were measured for markers of oxidative stress, including plasma myeloperoxidase, paraoxonase activity, urinary F 2α isoprostanes, and its metabolite, 2,3 dinor‐8 iso prostaglandin F 2α . Following adjustment for glycated hemoblobin and weighting the observations inversely proportional to the sampling selection probabilities, higher paraoxonase activity, reflective of antioxidant activity, and 2,3 dinor‐8 iso prostaglandin F 2α , an oxidative marker, were significantly associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease (−4.5% risk for 10% higher paraoxonase, P 〈 0.003; −5.3% risk for 10% higher 2,3 dinor‐8 iso prostaglandin F 2α , P =0.0092). In contrast, the oxidative markers myeloperoxidase and F 2α isoprostanes were not significantly associated with cardiovascular disease after adjustment for glycated hemoblobin. There were no significant differences between DCCT intensive and conventional treatment groups in the change in all biomarkers across time segments. Conclusions Heightened antioxidant activity (rather than diminished oxidative stress markers) is associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk in type 1 diabetes mellitus, but these biomarkers did not change over time with intensification of glycemic control. Clinical Trial Registration URL : https://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifiers: NCT 00360815 and NCT 00360893.

Abstract: —J. BLUNDEN, T. BOYER, AND E. BARTOW-GILLIES Earth’s global climate system is vast, complex, and intricately interrelated. Many areas are influenced by global-scale phenomena, including the “triple dip” La Niña conditions that prevailed in the eastern Pacific Ocean nearly continuously from mid-2020 through all of 2022; by regional phenomena such as the positive winter and summer North Atlantic Oscillation that impacted weather in parts the Northern Hemisphere and the negative Indian Ocean dipole that impacted weather in parts of the Southern Hemisphere; and by more localized systems such as high-pressure heat domes that caused extreme heat in different areas of the world. Underlying all these natural short-term variabilities are long-term climate trends due to continuous increases since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the atmospheric concentrations of Earth’s major greenhouse gases. In 2022, the annual global average carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere rose to 417.1±0.1 ppm, which is 50% greater than the pre-industrial level. Global mean tropospheric methane abundance was 165% higher than its pre-industrial level, and nitrous oxide was 24% higher. All three gases set new record-high atmospheric concentration levels in 2022. Sea-surface temperature patterns in the tropical Pacific characteristic of La Niña and attendant atmospheric patterns tend to mitigate atmospheric heat gain at the global scale, but the annual global surface temperature across land and oceans was still among the six highest in records dating as far back as the mid-1800s. It was the warmest La Niña year on record. Many areas observed record or near-record heat. Europe as a whole observed its second-warmest year on record, with sixteen individual countries observing record warmth at the national scale. Records were shattered across the continent during the summer months as heatwaves plagued the region. On 18 July, 104 stations in France broke their all-time records. One day later, England recorded a temperature of 40°C for the first time ever. China experienced its second-warmest year and warmest summer on record. In the Southern Hemisphere, the average temperature across New Zealand reached a record high for the second year in a row. While Australia’s annual temperature was slightly below the 1991–2020 average, Onslow Airport in Western Australia reached 50.7°C on 13 January, equaling Australia's highest temperature on record. While fewer in number and locations than record-high temperatures, record cold was also observed during the year. Southern Africa had its coldest August on record, with minimum temperatures as much as 5°C below normal over Angola, western Zambia, and northern Namibia. Cold outbreaks in the first half of December led to many record-low daily minimum temperature records in eastern Australia. The effects of rising temperatures and extreme heat were apparent across the Northern Hemisphere, where snow-cover extent by June 2022 was the third smallest in the 56-year record, and the seasonal duration of lake ice cover was the fourth shortest since 1980. More frequent and intense heatwaves contributed to the second-greatest average mass balance loss for Alpine glaciers around the world since the start of the record in 1970. Glaciers in the Swiss Alps lost a record 6% of their volume. In South America, the combination of drought and heat left many central Andean glaciers snow free by mid-summer in early 2022; glacial ice has a much lower albedo than snow, leading to accelerated heating of the glacier. Across the global cryosphere, permafrost temperatures continued to reach record highs at many high-latitude and mountain locations. In the high northern latitudes, the annual surface-air temperature across the Arctic was the fifth highest in the 123-year record. The seasonal Arctic minimum sea-ice extent, typically reached in September, was the 11th-smallest in the 43-year record; however, the amount of multiyear ice—ice that survives at least one summer melt season—remaining in the Arctic continued to decline. Since 2012, the Arctic has been nearly devoid of ice more than four years old. In Antarctica, an unusually large amount of snow and ice fell over the continent in 2022 due to several landfalling atmospheric rivers, which contributed to the highest annual surface mass balance, 15% to 16% above the 1991–2020 normal, since the start of two reanalyses records dating to 1980. It was the second-warmest year on record for all five of the long-term staffed weather stations on the Antarctic Peninsula. In East Antarctica, a heatwave event led to a new all-time record-high temperature of −9.4°C—44°C above the March average—on 18 March at Dome C. This was followed by the collapse of the critically unstable Conger Ice Shelf. More than 100 daily low sea-ice extent and sea-ice area records were set in 2022, including two new all-time annual record lows in net sea-ice extent and area in February. Across the world’s oceans, global mean sea level was record high for the 11th consecutive year, reaching 101.2 mm above the 1993 average when satellite altimetry measurements began, an increase of 3.3±0.7 over 2021. Globally-averaged ocean heat content was also record high in 2022, while the global sea-surface temperature was the sixth highest on record, equal with 2018. Approximately 58% of the ocean surface experienced at least one marine heatwave in 2022. In the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand’s longest continuous marine heatwave was recorded. A total of 85 named tropical storms were observed during the Northern and Southern Hemisphere storm seasons, close to the 1991–2020 average of 87. There were three Category 5 tropical cyclones across the globe—two in the western North Pacific and one in the North Atlantic. This was the fewest Category 5 storms globally since 2017. Globally, the accumulated cyclone energy was the lowest since reliable records began in 1981. Regardless, some storms caused massive damage. In the North Atlantic, Hurricane Fiona became the most intense and most destructive tropical or post-tropical cyclone in Atlantic Canada’s history, while major Hurricane Ian killed more than 100 people and became the third costliest disaster in the United States, causing damage estimated at $113 billion U.S. dollars. In the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Batsirai dropped 2044 mm of rain at Commerson Crater in Réunion. The storm also impacted Madagascar, where 121 fatalities were reported. As is typical, some areas around the world were notably dry in 2022 and some were notably wet. In August, record high areas of land across the globe (6.2%) were experiencing extreme drought. Overall, 29% of land experienced moderate or worse categories of drought during the year. The largest drought footprint in the contiguous United States since 2012 (63%) was observed in late October. The record-breaking megadrought of central Chile continued in its 13th consecutive year, and 80-year record-low river levels in northern Argentina and Paraguay disrupted fluvial transport. In China, the Yangtze River reached record-low values. Much of equatorial eastern Africa had five consecutive below-normal rainy seasons by the end of 2022, with some areas receiving record-low precipitation totals for the year. This ongoing 2.5-year drought is the most extensive and persistent drought event in decades, and led to crop failure, millions of livestock deaths, water scarcity, and inflated prices for staple food items. In South Asia, Pakistan received around three times its normal volume of monsoon precipitation in August, with some regions receiving up to eight times their expected monthly totals. Resulting floods affected over 30 million people, caused over 1700 fatalities, led to major crop and property losses, and was recorded as one of the world’s costliest natural disasters of all time. Near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Petrópolis received 530 mm in 24 hours on 15 February, about 2.5 times the monthly February average, leading to the worst disaster in the city since 1931 with over 230 fatalities. On 14–15 January, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai submarine volcano in the South Pacific erupted multiple times. The injection of water into the atmosphere was unprecedented in both magnitude—far exceeding any previous values in the 17-year satellite record—and altitude as it penetrated into the mesosphere. The amount of water injected into the stratosphere is estimated to be 146±5 Terragrams, or ∼10% of the total amount in the stratosphere. It may take several years for the water plume to dissipate, and it is currently unknown whether this eruption will have any long-term climate effect.