Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Ecological concepts in organic farming and their consequences for an organic crop ideotype

Currently, organic farmers largely depend on varieties supplied by conventional plant breeders and developed for farming systems in which artificial fertilizers and agro-chemicals are widely used. The organic farming system differs fundamentally in soil fertility, weed, pest and disease management, and makes higher demands on product quality and yield stability than conventional farming. Organic farming systems aim at resilience and buffering capacity in the farmecosystem by stimulating internal self-regulation through functional agrobiodiversity in and above the soil, instead of external regulation through chemical protectants. For further optimization of organic product quality and yield stability new varieties are required that are adapted to organic farming systems. The desired variety traits include adaptation to organic soil fertility management, implying low(er) and organic inputs, a better root system and ability to interact with beneficial soil micro-organisms, ability to suppress weeds, contributing to soil, crop and seed health, good product quality, high yield level and high yield stability. In the short run, organic crop ideotypes per crop and per market segment can help to select the best varieties available among existing (conventional) ones. However, until now many of the desired traits have not received enough priority in conventional breeding programmes. Traits like adaptation to organic soil fertility management require selection under organic soil conditions for optimal results. The limited area of organic agriculture will be the bottleneck for economic interest in establishing specific breeding programmes for organic farming systems. The proposed organic crop ideotypes may benefit not only organic farming systems, but in the future also conventional systems that move away from high inputs of nutrients and chemical pesticide

An international multicenter association study of the serotonin transporter gene in persistent ADHD.

Contains fulltext : 88135.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common behavioral disorder affecting children and adults. It has been suggested that gene variants related to serotonin neurotransmission are associated with ADHD. We tested the functional promoter polymorphism 5-HTTLPR and seven single nucleotide polymorphisms in SLC6A4 for association with ADHD in 448 adult ADHD patients and 580 controls from Norway. Replication attempts were performed in a sample of 1454 Caucasian adult ADHD patients and 1302 controls from Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and USA, and a meta-analysis was performed also including a previously published adult ADHD study. We found an association between ADHD and rs140700 [odds ratio (OR ) = 0.67; P = 0.01] and the short (S) allele of the 5-HTTLPR (OR = 1.19; P = 0.06) in the Norwegian sample. Analysis of a possible gender effect suggested that the association might be restricted to females (rs140700: OR = 0.45; P = 0.00084). However, the meta-analysis of 1894 cases and 1878 controls could not confirm the association for rs140700 [OR = 0.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.67-1.09; P = 0.20]. For 5-HTTLPR, five of six samples showed a slight overrepresentation of the S allele in patients, but meta-analysis refuted a strong effect (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.00-1.21; P = 0.06). Neither marker showed any evidence of differential effects for ADHD subtype, gender or symptoms of depression/anxiety. In conclusion, our results do not support a major role for SLC6A4 common variants in persistent ADHD, although a modest effect of the 5-HTTLPR and a role for rare variants cannot be excluded.1 juli 201

Exploring DRD4 and its interaction with SLC6A3 as possible risk factors for adult ADHD: a meta-analysis in four European populations

Contains fulltext : 97904.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common behavioral disorder affecting about 4-8% of children. ADHD persists into adulthood in around 65% of cases, either as the full condition or in partial remission with persistence of symptoms. Pharmacological, animal and molecular genetic studies support a role for genes of the dopaminergic system in ADHD due to its essential role in motor control, cognition, emotion, and reward. Based on these data, we analyzed two functional polymorphisms within the DRD4 gene (120 bp duplication in the promoter and 48 bp VNTR in exon 3) in a clinical sample of 1,608 adult ADHD patients and 2,352 controls of Caucasian origin from four European countries that had been recruited in the context of the International Multicentre persistent ADHD CollaboraTion (IMpACT). Single-marker analysis of the two polymorphisms did not reveal association with ADHD. In contrast, multiple-marker meta-analysis showed a nominal association (P = 0.02) of the L-4R haplotype (dup120bp-48bpVNTR) with adulthood ADHD, especially with the combined clinical subtype. Since we previously described association between adulthood ADHD and the dopamine transporter SLC6A3 9R-6R haplotype (3'UTR VNTR-intron 8 VNTR) in the same dataset, we further tested for gene x gene interaction between DRD4 and SLC6A3. However, we detected no epistatic effects but our results rather suggest additive effects of the DRD4 risk haplotype and the SLC6A3 gene