The transmembrane protein LRIG2 increases tumor progression in skin carcinogenesis

Over the last few decades, the number of cases of non‐melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) has risen to over 3 million cases every year worldwide. Members of the ERBB receptor family are important regulators of skin development and homeostasis and, when dysregulated, contribute to skin pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated leucine‐rich repeats and immunoglobulin‐like domains 2 (LRIG2), a transmembrane protein involved in feedback loop regulation of the ERBB receptor family during NMSC. LRIG2 was identified to be up‐regulated in various types of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), but little is known about LRIG2 in cutaneous SCC (cSCC). To investigate the function of LRIG2 in cSCC in vivo, we generated a skin‐specific LRIG2 overexpressing transgenic mouse line (LRIG2‐TG) using the Tet‐Off system. We employed the 7,12‐dimethylbenz(a)anthracene/12‐O‐tetra‐decanoylphorbol‐13‐acetate (DMBA/TPA) two‐stage chemical carcinogenesis model and analyzed the skin during homeostasis and tumorigenesis. LRIG2‐TG mice did not exhibit alterations in skin development or homeostasis but showed an interaction between LRIG2 and thrombospondin‐1, which is often involved in angiogenesis and tumorigenesis. However, during carcinogenesis, transgenic animals showed significantly increased tumor progression and a more rapid development of cSCC. This was accompanied by changes in the ERBB system. After a single TPA application, inflammation of the epidermis was enhanced during LRIG2 overexpression. In human skin samples, LRIG2 expression was identified in the basal layer of the epidermis and in hair follicles of normal skin, but also in cSCC samples. In conclusion, epidermal LRIG2 excess is associated with activated EGFR/ERBB4‐MAPK signaling and accelerated tumor progression in experimentally induced NMSC, suggesting LRIG2 as a potential oncoprotein in skin

The impact of percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration on sperm quality in mice

In laboratory mice, sperm quality is usually assessed in spermatozoa collected from the cauda epididymidis of freshly sacrificed males. Percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration (PESA) is a non-terminal alternative that would allow repeated sperm collection for sperm quality assessment in living males. To test whether PESA is a suitable method to assess sperm quality, we compared sperm traits between samples collected by PESA vs the commonly applied terminal cauda epididymidis dissection. The collected sperm samples were analyzed using computer-assisted sperm analysis and various parameters, including sperm motility, swimming velocity and morphology, were determined. We were able to retrieve motile sperm from all mice using PESA and the terminal cauda epididymidis dissection. Based on computer-assisted sperm analysis, however, sperm motility and swimming velocity were significantly lower after PESA compared to samples obtained by cauda epididymidis dissection. In addition, we found significantly more morphological abnormalities in PESA samples, probably induced as a side effect of the sampling technique. Although sperm samples collected by PESA are successfully used for in vitro fertilization, we cannot recommend PESA as a suitable method to assess sperm quality in mice, since the procedure seems to impair various sperm traits

Measuring the Higgs Sector

If we find a light Higgs boson at the LHC, there should be many observable channels which we can exploit to measure the relevant parameters in the Higgs sector. We use the SFitter framework to map these measurements on the parameter space of a general weak-scale effective theory with a light Higgs state of mass 120 GeV. Our analysis benefits from the parameter determination tools and the error treatment used in new--physics searches, to study individual parameters and their error bars as well as parameter correlations.Comment: 45 pages, Journal version with comments from refere

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of √s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≥6 to ≥9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal