77,652 research outputs found
Counseling Customers: Emerging Roles for Genetic Counselors in the Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing Market
Individuals now have access to an increasing number of internet resources offering personal genomics services. As the direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC GT) industry expands, critics have called for pre- and post-test genetic counseling to be included with the product. Several genetic testing companies offer genetic counseling. There has been no examination to date of this service provision, whether it meets critics’ concerns and implications it may have for the genetic counseling profession. Considering the increasing relevance of genetics in healthcare, the complexity of genetic information provided by DTC GT, the mediating role of the internet in counseling, and potential conflicts of interest, this is a topic which deserves further attention. In this paper we offer a discourse analysis of ways in which genetic counseling is represented on DTC GT websites, blogs and other online material. This analysis identified four types of genetic counseling represented on the websites: the integrated counseling product; discretionary counseling; independent counseling; and product advice. Genetic counselors are represented as having the following roles: genetics educator; mediator; lifestyle advisor; risk interpreter; and entrepreneur. We conclude that genetic counseling as represented on DTC GT websites demonstrates shifting professional roles and forms of expertise in genetic counseling. Genetic counselors are also playing an important part in how the genetic testing market is taking shape. Our analysis offers important and timely insights into recent developments in the genetic counseling profession, which have relevance for practitioners, researchers and policy makers concerned with the evolving field of personal genomics.
Keywords
Genetic counseling Internet Direct-to-consumer genetic testing Discourse analysis
Nonlocal Modulation of Entangled Photons
We consider ramifications of the use of high speed light modulators to
questions of correlation and measurement of time-energy entangled photons.
Using phase modulators, we find that temporal modulation of one photon of an
entangled pair, as measured by correlation in the frequency domain, may be
negated or enhanced by modulation of the second photon. Using amplitude
modulators we describe a Fourier technique for measurement of biphoton wave
functions with slow detectors
Ultrabright Backward-wave Biphoton Source
We calculate the properties of a biphoton source based on resonant
backward-wave spontaneous parametric down-conversion. We show that the
biphotons are generated in a single longitudinal mode having a subnatural
linewidth and a Glauber correlation time exceeding 65 ns.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Traveling waves and homogeneous fragmentation
We formulate the notion of the classical
Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovskii-Piscounov (FKPP) reaction diffusion equation
associated with a homogeneous conservative fragmentation process and study its
traveling waves. Specifically, we establish existence, uniqueness and
asymptotics. In the spirit of classical works such as McKean [Comm. Pure Appl.
Math. 28 (1975) 323-331] and [Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 29 (1976) 553-554], Neveu
[In Seminar on Stochastic Processes (1988) 223-242 Birkh\"{a}user] and Chauvin
[Ann. Probab. 19 (1991) 1195-1205], our analysis exposes the relation between
traveling waves and certain additive and multiplicative martingales via laws of
large numbers which have been previously studied in the context of
Crump-Mode-Jagers (CMJ) processes by Nerman [Z. Wahrsch. Verw. Gebiete 57
(1981) 365-395] and in the context of fragmentation processes by Bertoin and
Martinez [Adv. in Appl. Probab. 37 (2005) 553-570] and Harris, Knobloch and
Kyprianou [Ann. Inst. H. Poincar\'{e} Probab. Statist. 46 (2010) 119-134]. The
conclusions and methodology presented here appeal to a number of concepts
coming from the theory of branching random walks and branching Brownian motion
(cf. Harris [Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 129 (1999) 503-517] and Biggins
and Kyprianou [Electr. J. Probab. 10 (2005) 609-631]) showing their
mathematical robustness even within the context of fragmentation theory.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AAP733 the Annals of
Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Final analysis/design and prototype construction of a selected mobility and restraint device Final report
Underwater tests of prototype construction of selected mobility and restraint devic
High efficiency photon counting using stopped light
Single-photon detection and photon counting play a central role in a large
number of quantum communication and computation protocols. While the efficiency
of state-of-the-art photo-detectors is well below the desired limits, quantum
state measurements in trapped ions can be carried out with efficiencies
approaching 100%. Here, we propose a method that can in principle achieve ideal
photon counting, by combining the techniques of photonic quantum memory and
ion-trap fluorescence detection: after mapping the quantum state of a
propagating light pulse onto metastable collective excitations of a trapped
cold atomic gas, it is possible to monitor the resonance fluorescence induced
by an additional laser field that only couples to the metastable excited state.
Even with a photon collection/detection efficiency as low as 10%, it is
possible to achieve photon counting with efficiency approaching 100%.Comment: 4 page
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