Solar Neutrinos and the Principle of Equivalence

We study the proposed solution of the solar neutrino problem which requires a flavor nondiagonal coupling of neutrinos to gravity. We adopt a phenomenological point of view and investigate the consequences of the hypothesis that the neutrino weak interaction eigenstates are linear combinations of the gravitational eigenstates which have slightly different couplings to gravity, $f_1G$ and $f_2G$, $|f_1-f_2| << 1$, corresponding to a difference in red-shift between electron and muon neutrinos, $\Delta z/(1+z) \sim |f_1 - f_2|$. We perform a $\chi^2$ analysis of the latest available solar neutrino data and obtain the allowed regions in the space of the relevant parameters. The existing data rule out most of the parameter space which can be probed in solar neutrino experiments, allowing only $|f_1 - f_2| \sim 3 \times 10^{-14}$ for small values of the mixing angle ($2 \times 10^{-3} \le \sin^2(2\theta_G) \le 10^{-2}$) and $10^{-16} \stackrel{<}{\sim} |f_1 - f_2| \stackrel{<}{\sim}10^{-15}$ for large mixing ($0.6 \le \sin^2(2\theta_G) \le 0.9$). Measurements of the $^8{\rm B}$-neutrino energy spectrum in the SNO and Super-Kamiokande experiments will provide stronger constraints independent of all considerations related to solar models. We show that these measurements will be able to exclude part of the allowed region as well as to distinguish between conventional oscillations and oscillations due to the violation of the equivalence principle.Comment: 20 pages + 4 figures, IASSNS-AST 94/5

Water soluble aerosols and gases at a UK background site. Part 1: Controls of PM2.5 and PM10 aerosol composition

There is limited availability of long-term, high temporal resolution, chemically speciated aerosol measurements which can provide further insight into the health and environmental impacts of particulate matter. The Monitor for AeRosols and Gases (MARGA, Applikon B.V., NL) allows for the characterisation of the inorganic components of PM10 and PM2.5 (NH4+, NO3-, SO42-, Cl-, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+) and inorganic reactive gases (NH3, SO2, HCl, HONO and HNO3) at hourly resolution. The following study presents 6.5 years (June 2006 to December 2012) of quasi-continuous observations of PM2.5 and PM10 using the MARGA at the UK EMEP supersite, Auchencorth Moss, SE Scotland. Auchencorth Moss was found to be representative of a remote European site with average total water soluble inorganic mass of PM2.5 of 3.82 μg m−3. Anthropogenically derived secondary inorganic aerosols (sum of NH4+, NO3- and nss-SO42−) were the dominating species (63 %) of PM2.5. In terms of equivalent concentrations, NH4+ provided the single largest contribution to PM2.5 fraction in all seasons. Sea salt was the main component (73 %) of the PMcoarse fraction (PM10-PM2.5), though NO3- was also found to make a relatively large contribution to the measured mass (17 %) providing evidence of considerable processing of sea salt in the coarse mode. There was on occasions evidence of aerosol from combustion events being transported to the site in 2012 as high K+ concentrations (deviating from the known ratio in sea salt) coincided with increases in black carbon at the site. Pollution events in PM10 (defined as concentrations > 12 μg m−3) were on average dominated by NH4+ and NO3-, where smaller loadings at the site tended to be dominated by sea salt. As with other western European sites, the charge balance of the inorganic components resolved were biased towards cations, suggesting the aerosol was basic or more likely that organic acids contributed to the charge balance. This study demonstrates the UK background atmospheric composition is primarily driven by meteorology with sea salt dominating air masses from the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic, whereas secondary inorganic aerosols tended to dominate air masses from continental Europe

Making things happen : a model of proactive motivation

Being proactive is about making things happen, anticipating and preventing problems, and seizing opportunities. It involves self-initiated efforts to bring about change in the work environment and/or oneself to achieve a different future. The authors develop existing perspectives on this topic by identifying proactivity as a goal-driven process involving both the setting of a proactive goal (proactive goal generation) and striving to achieve that proactive goal (proactive goal striving). The authors identify a range of proactive goals that individuals can pursue in organizations. These vary on two dimensions: the future they aim to bring about (achieving a better personal fit within one’s work environment, improving the organization’s internal functioning, or enhancing the organization’s strategic fit with its environment) and whether the self or situation is being changed. The authors then identify “can do,” “reason to,” and “energized to” motivational states that prompt proactive goal generation and sustain goal striving. Can do motivation arises from perceptions of self-efficacy, control, and (low) cost. Reason to motivation relates to why someone is proactive, including reasons flowing from intrinsic, integrated, and identified motivation. Energized to motivation refers to activated positive affective states that prompt proactive goal processes. The authors suggest more distal antecedents, including individual differences (e.g., personality, values, knowledge and ability) as well as contextual variations in leadership, work design, and interpersonal climate, that influence the proactive motivational states and thereby boost or inhibit proactive goal processes. Finally, the authors summarize priorities for future researc

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Closed-Form transformation between geodetic and ellipsoidal coordinates

We present formulas for direct closed-form transformation between geodetic coordinates(Φ, λ, h) and ellipsoidal coordinates (β, λ, u) for any oblate ellipsoid of revolution.These will be useful for those dealing with ellipsoidal representations of the Earth's gravityfield or other oblate ellipsoidal figures. The numerical stability of the transformations for nearpolarand near-equatorial regions is also considered

Multiethnic meta-analysis identifies ancestry-specific and cross-ancestry loci for pulmonary function

Nearly 100 loci have been identified for pulmonary function, almost exclusively in studies of European ancestry populations. We extend previous research by meta-analyzing genome-wide association studies of 1000 Genomes imputed variants in relation to pulmonary function in a multiethnic population of 90,715 individuals of European (N = 60,552), African (N = 8429), Asian (N = 9959), and Hispanic/Latino (N = 11,775) ethnicities. We identify over 50 additional loci at genome-wide significance in ancestry-specific or multiethnic meta-analyses. Using recent fine-mapping methods incorporating functional annotation, gene expression, and differences in linkage disequilibrium between ethnicities, we further shed light on potential causal variants and genes at known and newly identified loci. Several of the novel genes encode proteins with predicted or established drug targets, including KCNK2 and CDK12. Our study highlights the utility of multiethnic and integrative genomics approaches to extend existing knowledge of the genetics of l

Associations of common breast cancer susceptibility alleles with risk of breast cancer subtypes in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers

Introduction: More than 70 common alleles are known to be involved in breast cancer (BC) susceptibility, and several exhibit significant heterogeneity in their associations with different BC subtypes. Although there are differences in the association patterns between BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers and the general population for several loci, no study has comprehensively evaluated the associations of all known BC susceptibility alleles with risk of BC subtypes in BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers. Methods: We used data from 15,252 BRCA1 and 8,211 BRCA2 carriers to analyze the associations between approximately 200,000 genetic variants on the iCOGS array and risk of BC subtypes defined by estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and triple-negative- (TN) status; morphologic subtypes; histological grade; and nodal involvement. Results: The estimated BC hazard ratios (HRs) for the 74 known BC alleles in BRCA1 carriers exhibited moderate correlations with the corresponding odds ratios from the general population. However, their associations with ER-positive BC in BRCA1 carriers were more consistent with the ER-positive as

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk