Circasemiannual chronomics: half-yearly biospheric changes in their own right and as a circannual waveform

Time related variations in stem cell harvesting of umbilical cord blood

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) contains hematopoietic stem cells and multipotent mesenchymal cells useful for treatment in malignant/nonmalignant hematologic-immunologic diseases and regenerative medicine. Transplantation outcome is correlated with cord blood volume (CBV), number of total nucleated cells (TNC), CD34+ progenitor cells and colony forming units in UCB donations. Several studies have addressed the role of maternal/neonatal factors associated with the hematopoietic reconstruction potential of UCB, including: gestational age, maternal parity, newborn sex and birth weight, placental weight, labor duration and mode of delivery. Few data exist regarding as to how time influences UCB collection and banking patterns. We retrospectively analyzed 17.936 cord blood donations collected from 1999 to 2011 from Tuscany and Apulia Cord Blood Banks. Results from generalized multivariable linear mixed models showed that CBV, TNC and CD34+ cell were associated with known obstetric and neonatal parameters and showed rhythmic patterns in different time domains and frequency ranges. The present findings confirm that volume, total nucleated cells and stem cells of the UCB donations are hallmarked by rhythmic patterns in different time domains and frequency ranges and suggest that temporal rhythms in addition to known obstetric and neonatal parameters influence CBV, TNC and CD34+ cell content in UBC units.

Chronomics of autism and suicide

We examine whether autism may be influenced by non-photic environmental factors, among others, in a California database consisting of the number of cases added quarterly to the system between 1993 and 2004. Instead of a precise calendar (1.0)-year-long spectral component, we detect unseen primarily helio- and geomagnetic signatures, including a newly discovered near-transyear of 1.09-year length. In this case, it overrides any undetected seasonal effects, the topic of much previous unrewarding research, also analyzed herein without overcoming the limitation by stacking. Since we could not get additional data on autism, data on suicides, the final "detachment" and failure to bond, were also analyzed, again revealing a spectrum of non-photic signatures. What we do not see and do not anticipate can exist and can override the seasons, as resolved time-microscopically by chronomics, the study of chronomes (time structures). Just as spatial microscopy and electron microscopy resolved infectious agents, so does microscopy in time resolve the signature of environmental agents in human behavior in health and disease.

Yearly and perhaps transyearly human natality patterns near the equator and at higher latitudes

Data on the daily numbers of births in Davao, Philippines, available from 1993 to 2003 are re-analyzed herein by linear-nonlinear rhythmometry, as are data from Italy and Japan. A transyear, characterizing the solar wind and other non-photic physical environmental factors, corresponds to a spectral peak of the near-equatorial natality series. This component with a period of about 1.3 years is found to have an amplitude larger than the calendar year, the amplitude ratio being 134%. Whereas the transyear is validated nonlinearly, the 95% confidence interval for the period extending from 1.21 to 1.38 years and the 95% confidence interval for the amplitude not overlapping zero (P < 0.05), the annual variation is only demonstrable by linear least squares analysis. The results bring added evidence for an influence of non-photic environmental effects on human physiology, in this case data collected near the equatorial region, Davao being situated at 7 degrees N, 126 degrees E. They are in keeping with some degree of generality of a rule of reciprocity among mutually supporting physical and biological periodicities. They do not detract from the fact that in other longer data sets at higher latitudes, the calendar year, presumably reflecting climatic influences, dominates the spectrum.

Incidence of sudden cardiac death, myocardial infarction and far- and near-transyears

We analyzed cycles with periods, tau, in the range of 0.8-2.0 years, characterizing, mostly during 1999-2003, the incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD), according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD10), code I46.1. In the tau range examined, only yearly components could be documented in time series from North Carolina, USA; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Hong Kong, in the latter two locations based on relatively short time series. By contrast, in Minnesota, USA, we found only a component with a longer than (= trans) yearly (transyearly) tau of 1.39 years; the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the tau extended from 1.17 to 1.61 years, falling into the category of transyears (defined as a tau and a 95% CI between 1.0 and 2.0 years, with the limits of the 95% CI of the spectral component's tau overlapping neither of these lengths). During the same span from 1999 to 2003 in Arkansas, USA, a component of about 1-year in length was present, and in addition, one with a tau of 1.69 year with a CI extending from 1.29 to 2.07 years, a far-transyear candidate, far-transyears being defined as having a tau with a CI between 1.20 and 2.0 year, with the CI overlapping neither of these lengths. In the Czech Republic, there was also a calendar-yearly tau and one of 1.76 years. In the latter two geographic/geomagnetic areas, the about-yearly and the longer cycles' amplitudes were of similar prominence. The taus are only candidate transyears; the 95% CIs of their taus overlap the 2-year length. When a series on SCD from 1994 to 2003 from the Czech Republic was analyzed, the 95% CI of the transyear's tau no longer overlapped the 2-year length. Transyears were also found in the Czech Republic for myocardial infarctions (MI), meeting the original transyear definition in both a shorter and a longer series. Moreover, in the 1994-2003 series on MI from the Czech Republic, a near-transyear was also found, meeting the definition of a period with a 95% CI overlapping neither precisely 1.0 year nor 1.2 years, along with a far-transyear, defined as a tau between 1.2 and 2.0 years, again with the 95% CI covering neither of these lengths. Herein, we discuss near- and far-transyears more generally in the light of their background in physics and the concept of reciprocal cyclicities.

Chronomics: circadian lead of extrapineal vs. pineal melatonin rhythms with an infradian hypothalamic exploration

A circadian rhythm is documented for plasma, pineal, and hypothalamic melatonin of male and female rats kept on staggered lighting regimens. Log[_10]-transformation of the data usually normalizes, when need be, the distribution of residuals from the 24-hour cosine curve fits. A tentative circadian acrophase chart is presented that shows a lead in circadian acrophase of duodenal over pineal melatonin. The use of antiphasic lighting regimens facilitates circadian studies that can be carried out for several days, thereby allowing the assessment of infradian components such as a circasemiseptan variation in hypothalamic melatonin documented herein. The results are qualified by the presence of a second extremum of a double magnetic storm at the start of mapping.

Near-transyear in solar magnetism

Daily data on solar magnetism, available from May 1975 to April 2002, were analyzed by linear-nonlinear rhythmometry, with particular focus on the near-transyear, slightly longer than the calendar year. The time structure of solar magnetism is compared to that of solar activity, gauged by Wolf numbers. An about 27-day component corresponding to the solar rotation period, is common to both variables but differs in harmonic content. About 10-year component characterizes solar activity but not solar magnetism. A near-transyear with a period of about 1.05 years is detected in solar magnetism. In solar activity, a near-transyear is also found but its period of about 1.10 years is longer than that characterizing solar magnetism, and it may be paired with an about 0.9-year component to correspond to an about 10-year modulation in amplitude or phase of an about-yearly component.

Transdisciplinary unifying implications of circadian findings in the 1950s

Afew puzzles relating to a small fraction of my endeavors in the 1950s are summarized herein, with answers to a few questions of the Editor-in-Chief, to suggest that the rules of variability in time complement the rules of genetics as a biological variability in space. I advocate to replace truisms such as a relative constancy or homeostasis, that have served bioscience very well for very long. They were never intended, however, to lower a curtain of ignorance over everyday physiology. In raising these curtains, we unveil a range of dynamics, resolvable in the data collection and as-one-goes analysis by computers built into smaller and smaller devices, for a continued self-surveillance of the normal and for an individualized detection of the abnormal. The current medical art based on spotchecks interpreted by reference to a time-unqualified normal range can become a science of time series with tests relating to the individual in inferential statistical terms. This is already doable for the case of blood pressure, but eventually should become possible for many other variables interpreted today only based on the quicksand of clinical trials on groups. These ignore individual differences and hence the individual's needs. Chronomics (mapping time structures) with the major aim of quantifying normalcy by dynamic reference values for detecting earliest risk elevation, also yields the dividend of allowing molecular biology to focus on the normal as well as on the grossly abnormal.