GeneLink: a database to facilitate genetic studies of complex traits

BACKGROUND: In contrast to gene-mapping studies of simple Mendelian disorders, genetic analyses of complex traits are far more challenging, and high quality data management systems are often critical to the success of these projects. To minimize the difficulties inherent in complex trait studies, we have developed GeneLink, a Web-accessible, password-protected Sybase database. RESULTS: GeneLink is a powerful tool for complex trait mapping, enabling genotypic data to be easily merged with pedigree and extensive phenotypic data. Specifically designed to facilitate large-scale (multi-center) genetic linkage or association studies, GeneLink securely and efficiently handles large amounts of data and provides additional features to facilitate data analysis by existing software packages and quality control. These include the ability to download chromosome-specific data files containing marker data in map order in various formats appropriate for downstream analyses (e.g., GAS and LINKAGE). Furthermore, an unlimited number of phenotypes (either qualitative or quantitative) can be stored and analyzed. Finally, GeneLink generates several quality assurance reports, including genotyping success rates of specified DNA samples or success and heterozygosity rates for specified markers. CONCLUSIONS: GeneLink has already proven an invaluable tool for complex trait mapping studies and is discussed primarily in the context of our large, multi-center study of hereditary prostate cancer (HPC). GeneLink is freely available at

The Grizzly, January 26, 1999

A Work in Progress • Area Congressmen Discuss Leadership in the 21st Century • Montco Welcomes Clintons, Gores • Classes Held Martin Luther King Day • The Message of Dr. King Remembered • Students Honored for Fundraising • Spring/Summer Internships • Collegeville Squares is a Hit • Opinion: State of Surreality; Impeachment: Democracy on Trial? • Film Society: New & Improved! • Ursinus Gymnastics Back in Full Swing • First Conference Win for UC Swimming • Winter Sports Wrap-uphttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1431/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, September 22, 1998

Ursinus Gears Up for Family Day • Dr. Fouts Gives Lecture on Chimpanzee Research • Freshman Class Election Results • Opinion: Ursinus\u27 Movement Towards Diversity; In Response to Has America Sunk to the Level of Terrorists? • Presentations on Family Day • Help is out There • Old Dogs Don\u27t Need New Tricks • Big, Big Band: Big, Big Success • Theater Life • Field Hockey Wrap-Up • UC Volleyball Evens Out at 2-2 • Bears Recognized in Centennial Conference Honor Roll • Lady Bears Suffer Conference Losses • Men\u27s Soccer Split Games • Football Falls in Conference Opener • Flo Jo Dies at 38 • Ripken Ends Streakhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1424/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, September 29, 1998

Construction Begins for New Bookstore • Ursinus Students Named Smith Scholars • Econ. Students Apply Classroom Knowledge • Opinion: Terrorist Debate Continues; Ursinus Keeps up With the Times; Students Vote Two Thumbs up for Co-ed Living • Is Home the way you Left it? • Students Spending Weekends Differently • Hugs Help Pottstown Hospital • Family Day \u2798 = Success • Kelley on Photography • Berman Exhibits Not Well Attended • Volleyball Hit With Key Injury • UC Football Gets Terrorized • Men\u27s Soccer Drops Two • Women\u27s Soccer Shuts-Out Dickinson • Who\u27s in Charge Here? • Women\u27s Rugby Overpowered by Lock Haven University • Centennial Conference Newshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1425/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, November 3, 1998

President\u27s Proposal Summons Bears to the Roundtable • Pay...Now or Later • Myrin Security a Necessity • Close of Olin\u27s Open Door Policy • Opinion: Random Rudeness and Senseless Acts of Destruction; Why This Election Matters; College Students: Get Out and Vote! • Group Helps Students Cope with Loss • Kicking the Habit, One Habit at a Time • New Course Tackles The Big Questions • A Night of Jazz • Intercollegiate Choir • Graffiti Tribe Returns • Men\u27s Soccer Dominates Swarthmore • Season High for UC Volleyball • Field Hockey Victorious Over Colgate • UC Swimmers Test the Water • Women\u27s Soccer Season Ends Its Third Year • Football Loses to Muhlenberg in Overtimehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1427/thumbnail.jp

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Just do it? Investigating the gap between prediction and action in toddlers' causal inferences

Adults’ causal representations integrate information about predictive relations and the possibility of effective intervention; if one event reliably predicts another, adults can represent the possibility that acting to bring about the first event might generate the second. Here we show that although toddlers (mean age: 24 months) readily learn predictive relationships between physically connected events, they do not spontaneously initiate one event to try to generate the second (although older children, mean age: 47 months, do; Experiments 1 and 2). Toddlers succeed only when the events are initiated by a dispositional agent (Experiment 3), when the events involve direct contact between objects (Experiment 4), or when the events are described using causal language (Experiment 5). This suggests that causal language may help children extend their initial causal representations beyond agent-initiated and direct contact events.James S. McDonnell Foundation (Causal Learning Collaborative)American Psychological FoundationTempleton Foundatio

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