Introduction and Expression of a Rabbit β-globin Gene in Mouse Fibroblasts

The cloned chromosomal rabbit ß-globin gene has been introduced into mouse fibroblasts by DNA-mediated gene transfer (transformation). In this report, we examine the expression of the rabbit gene in six independent transformants that contain from 1 to 20 copies of the cloned globin gene. Rabbit globin transcripts were detected in two of these transformants at steady-state concentrations of 5 and 2 copies per cell. The globin transcripts from one cell line are polyadenylylated and migrate as 9S RNA on methylmercury gels. These transcripts reflect correct processing of the two intervening sequences but lack 48 ± 5 nucleotides present at the 5' terminus of rabbit erythrocyte globin mRNA

The pair potential of colloidal stars

We report on the construction of colloidal stars: 1 micrometer polystyrene beads grafted with a dense brush of 1 micrometer long and 10 nm wide semi-flexible filamentous viruses. The pair interaction potentials of colloidal stars are measured using an experimental implementation of umbrella sampling, a technique originally developed in computer simulations in order to probe rare events. The influence of ionic strength and grafting density on the interaction is measured. Good agreements are found between the measured interactions and theoretical predictions based upon the osmotic pressure of counterions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Changed conten

Prochlo: Strong Privacy for Analytics in the Crowd

The large-scale monitoring of computer users' software activities has become commonplace, e.g., for application telemetry, error reporting, or demographic profiling. This paper describes a principled systems architecture---Encode, Shuffle, Analyze (ESA)---for performing such monitoring with high utility while also protecting user privacy. The ESA design, and its Prochlo implementation, are informed by our practical experiences with an existing, large deployment of privacy-preserving software monitoring. (cont.; see the paper

Sfermion Precision Measurements at a Linear Collider

At future e+- e- linear colliders, the event rates and clean signals of scalar fermion production - in particular for the scalar leptons - allow very precise measurements of their masses and couplings and the determination of their quantum numbers. Various methods are proposed for extracting these parameters from the data at the sfermion thresholds and in the continuum. At the same time, NLO radiative corrections and non-zero width effects have been calculated in order to match the experimental accuracy. The substantial mixing expected for the third generation sfermions opens up additional opportunities. Techniques are presented for determining potential CP-violating phases and for extracting tan(beta) from the stau sector, in particular at high values. The consequences of possible large mass differences in the stop and sbottom system are explored in dedicated analyses.Comment: Expanded version of contributions to the proceedings of ICHEP'02 (Amsterdam) and LCWS 2002 (Jeju Island

Detection, evaluation, and management of preoperative anaemia in the elective orthopaedic surgical patient: NATA guidelines

Previously undiagnosed anaemia is common in elective orthopaedic surgical patients and is associated with increased likelihood of blood transfusion and increased perioperative morbidity and mortality. A standardized approach for the detection, evaluation, and management of anaemia in this setting has been identified as an unmet medical need. A multidisciplinary panel of physicians was convened by the Network for Advancement of Transfusion Alternatives (NATA) with the aim of developing practice guidelines for the detection, evaluation, and management of preoperative anaemia in elective orthopaedic surgery. A systematic literature review and critical evaluation of the evidence was performed, and recommendations were formulated according to the method proposed by the Grades of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Working Group. We recommend that elective orthopaedic surgical patients have a haemoglobin (Hb) level determination 28 days before the scheduled surgical procedure if possible (Grade 1C). We suggest that the patient's target Hb before elective surgery be within the normal range, according to the World Health Organization criteria (Grade 2C). We recommend further laboratory testing to evaluate anaemia for nutritional deficiencies, chronic renal insufficiency, and/or chronic inflammatory disease (Grade 1C). We recommend that nutritional deficiencies be treated (Grade 1C). We suggest that erythropoiesis-stimulating agents be used for anaemic patients in whom nutritional deficiencies have been ruled out, corrected, or both (Grade 2A). Anaemia should be viewed as a serious and treatable medical condition, rather than simply an abnormal laboratory value. Implementation of anaemia management in the elective orthopaedic surgery setting will improve patient outcome

Discovering the constrained NMSSM with tau leptons at the LHC

The constrained Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (cNMSSM) with mSugra-like boundary conditions at the GUT scale implies a singlino-like LSP with a mass just a few GeV below a stau NLSP. Hence, most of the squark/gluino decay cascades contain two tau leptons. The gluino mass >~ 1.2 TeV is somewhat larger than the squark masses of >~ 1 TeV. We simulate signal and background events for such a scenario at the LHC, and propose cuts on the transverse momenta of two jets, the missing transverse energy and the transverse momentum of a hadronically decaying tau lepton. This dedicated analysis allows to improve on the results of generic supersymmetry searches for a large part of the parameter space of the cNMSSM. The distribution of the effective mass and the signal rate provide sensitivity to distinguish the cNMSSM from the constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model in the stau-coannihilation region.Comment: 18 pages, 3 Figure

An Application of Molecular Genotyping in Mice

Microsatellite markers are simple sequence repeats within the mammalian genome that can be used for identifying disease loci, mapping genes of interest as well as studying segregation patterns related to meiotic nondisjunction. Different strains of mice have variable CA repeat lengths and PCR based methods can be used to identify them, thus allowing for specific genotypes to be assigned. Molecular genotyping offers such identification at any developmental stage, which allows for a broad range of anomalies to be studied. We studied chromosomal segregation in relation to nondisjunction in early-gestation mouse embryos using molecular genotyping. Information on the parental origin as well as the number of chromosomes a given progeny carried was obtained in our analysis

Light dark matter in the NMSSM: upper bounds on direct detection cross sections

In the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, a bino-like LSP can be as light as a few GeV and satisfy WMAP constraints on the dark matter relic density in the presence of a light CP-odd Higgs scalar. We study upper bounds on the direct detection cross sections for such a light LSP in the mass range 2-20 GeV in the NMSSM, respecting all constraints from B-physics and LEP. The OPAL constraints on e^+ e^- -> \chi^0_1 \chi^0_i (i > 1) play an important role and are discussed in some detail. The resulting upper bounds on the spin-independent and spin-dependent nucleon cross sections are ~ 10^{-42} cm^{-2} and ~ 4\times 10^{-40} cm^{-2}, respectively. Hence the upper bound on the spin-independent cross section is below the DAMA and CoGeNT regions, but could be compatible with the two events observed by CDMS-II.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure