Population genetic analyses of the past two decades confirmed an earlier hypothesis by L Tsacas and D Lachaise that the cosmopolitan species Drosophila melanogaster has an Afrotropical origin, and that it colonized the rest of the world only very recently. Maximum likelihood analyses based on multilocus data suggest that the putative ancestral African population expanded its size about 60 000 years ago (ya). These demographic changes were accompanied by the fixation of numerous beneficial mutations, as revealed by signatures of positive directional selection in the genome (selective sweeps). The estimated rate of adaptive substitution on the X chromosome is in the order of 10 À11 per nucleotide site per generation. Comparable (but not significantly higher) substitution rates are found in derived populations that colonized new habitats outside Africa, such as in a European population that branched off from the African lineage about 16 000 ya. Heredity (2007) 98, 65-68.

Blood pressure (BP) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and more than 200 genetic loci associated with BP are known. Here, we perform a multi-stage genome-wide association study for BP (max N = 289,038) principally in East Asians and meta-analysis in East Asians and Europeans. We report 19 new genetic loci and ancestry-specific BP variants, conforming to a common ancestry-specific variant association model. At 10 unique loci, distinct non-rare ancestry-specific variants colocalize within the same linkage disequilibrium block despite the significantly discordant effects for the proxy shared variants between the ethnic groups. The genome-wide transethnic correlation of causal-variant effect-sizes is 0.898 and 0.851 for systolic and diastolic BP, respectively. Some of the ancestry-specific association signals are also influenced by a selective sweep. Our results provide new evidence for the role of common ancestry-specific variants and natural selection in ethnic differences in complex traits such as BP.

This article demonstrates the manufacturing of microstructures in a thick polymer using electrostatic-induced lithography. Unlike previous work reported elsewhere, it focuses on the fabrication of structures from meso-to micro-scale. The electrostatic-induced lithography technique is proven to work with not only dc voltage but also ac voltage. Microstructures including microchannels, sinusoidal surface profile microstructures, waveguide core, microlens array and binary Fresnel zone plate have been successfully fabricated. The aspect ratio obtained for some samples is up to 4.5:1. The whole fabrication process is fast, cost-effective in terms of the simple experimental setup and no photosensitive material is needed. This process is expected to find applications in microfluidics, photonics or micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems.

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