Is the NIH policy for sharing GWAS data running the risk of being counterproductive?

Through their current policy on data sharing, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are inadvertently placing a serious and potentially insuperable burden upon non-US researchers who perform patient-based genomics studies in collaboration with US institutions. Because this policy could adversely affect future transnational scientific collaborations, we explore some of its likely consequences and suggest possible courses of remedial action wherever feasible

Biomaterialbanken - Rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen

Der Aufbau und Betrieb von großen Biomaterialbanken wird zunehmend wichtiger: Materialbanken, die Proben langfristig für medizinisch-wissenschaftliche Analysen verfügbar machen, bieten ein großes Potential für die Klärung drängender Fragen der medizinischen Forschung. Dies gilt besonders, wenn die Proben mit Daten zum Erkrankungsverlauf der jeweiligen Patienten zusammengeführt werden. Die zunehmende Vernetzung in der biomedizinischen Forschung führt auch zum Aufbau übergreifender Daten- und Probensammlungen. Dabei stellt sich eine Vielzahl von rechtlichen und organisatorischen Fragen, für die in Deutschland bisher eine eindeutige Regelung fehlte. Die TMF hat diese Fragen aufgegriffen und in einem interdisziplinären Projekt viele Aspekte geklärt, die den Forschern nun in Form von Handlungsleitfäden und Mustertexten an die Hand gegeben werden. Der vorliegende zweite Band der TMF-Schriftenreihe beleuchtet aus juristischer Sicht die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen für den Aufbau und Betrieb von Biomaterialbanken: umfassendes Rechtsgutachten; Zusammenstellung der Rechtsvorschriften; Musterverträge können von der TMF zur Verfügung gestellt werden

Nutzung von Social-Media-Daten in der Bildungsforschung. Version 1.2

Diese Publikation möchte Forschende dabei unterstützen, Anforderungen und Prozesse bei der Erhebung und Verwendung von Social-Media-Daten zu erkennen und zu reflektieren und somit einen produktiven und rechtssicheren Umgang mit diesen Daten zu ermöglichen bzw. zu erleichtern. Die vorliegende Handreichung präsentiert zuerst einen allgemeinen Einstieg in die Definition von Social Media (Kapitel 2) und thematisiert verschiedene Zugangswege zu Social-Media-Daten sowie die Verknüpfung dieser Daten mit Daten aus anderen Erhebungsformaten (Kapitel 3). Anschließend wird vertiefend auf zentrale Rechtsbereiche eingegangen, die bei der Forschung mit Social-Media-Daten tangiert sein können (Kapitel 4). Die Beschreibung bezieht sich auf entsprechende Gesetze und Rechtsvorschriften, hat jedoch den Anspruch, anhand praktischer Bezüge die rechtlichen Grundlagen und ihre Bedeutung für die Forschungspraxis zu reflektieren. In Kapitel 5 wird der Aspekt des Datenschutzes konkret anhand des Themas der informierten Einwilligung diskutiert, wobei speziell auch auf Besonderheiten bei der Erhebung von Daten in und mit Social Media eingegangen wird. Die Handreichung gibt abschließend Hinweise und Empfehlungen für das Archivieren und Publizieren von Social-Media-Daten mit Hinweisen auf vertiefende Informationsquellen zu diesem Thema (Kapitel 6). (DIPF/Orig.

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV