Evaluation of Superior Performing Portland Cement Concrete Pavements in Kentucky

This research report describes a program of study directed at determining common factors which have contributed to the superior performances of selected sections of Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements in Kentucky. The program involved an extensive survey of Kentucky\u27s interstate, partway and other primary routes to determine locations of PCC pavement sections greater than 15 years old that had performed satisfactorily with minimal maintenance. Twelve of the best performing PCC pavements with long service life and heavy traffic were selected for detailed evaluations. Initial designs were documented and a series of in-situ pavement tests were conducted including core dnlling and materials sampling. Laboratory tests were conducted on the pavement samples to ascertain basic physical properties

An Archaeological Inventory of Camp Swift, Bastrop County, Texas

Beginning in November 1996 and continuing until July of 1997, the Adjutant General’s Department of Texas conducted a self-sponsored Phase I cultural resources survey of Camp Swift in Bastrop County, Texas. The project surveyed approximately 5,000 acres of the camp, approximately 1,000 of which had been previously surveyed. A total of 58 new archaeological sites were recorded, of which 26 were prehistoric, 24 were historic, and 8 had both prehistoric and historic components. In addition to these sites, 42 previously identified sites were revisited. In September 2000, the Center for Archaeological Research of the University of Texas at San Antonio completed shovel tests on two sites and acquired GPS data on 28 sites. At this time, a geomorphologist excavated a series of 12 backhoe trenches and—subsequently—a report on the geoarchaeology of Camp Swift was added to this report. An assessment of the 169 sites now known on Camp Swift found one site (41BP138, the Wine Cellar Site) eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. A total of 106 sites are considered not eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. Fifty-nine sites are considered potentially eligible, and should be tested to determine their eligibility. Three marked cemeteries are protected by state law

Long-Lived Neutralino NLSPs

We investigate the collider signatures of heavy, long-lived, neutral particles that decay to charged particles plus missing energy. Specifically, we focus on the case of a neutralino NLSP decaying to Z and gravitino within the context of General Gauge Mediation. We show that a combination of searches using the inner detector and the muon spectrometer yields a wide range of potential early LHC discoveries for NLSP lifetimes ranging from 10^(-1)-10^5 mm. We further show that events from Z(l+l-) can be used for detailed kinematic reconstruction, leading to accurate determinations of the neutralino mass and lifetime. In particular, we examine the prospects for detailed event study at ATLAS using the ECAL (making use of its timing and pointing capabilities) together with the TRT, or using the muon spectrometer alone. Finally, we also demonstrate that there is a region in parameter space where the Tevatron could potentially discover new physics in the delayed Z(l+l-)+MET channel. While our discussion centers on gauge mediation, many of the results apply to any scenario with a long-lived neutral particle decaying to charged particles.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figure

Genomic identification, expression profiling, and functional characterization of CatSper channels in the bovine

peer-reviewedCation channels of sperm (CatSper) are sperm-specific calcium channels with identified roles in the regulation of sperm function in humans, mice, and horses. We sought to employ a comparative genomics approach to identify conserved CATSPER genes in the bovine genome, and profile their expression in reproductive tissue. We hypothesized that CATSPER proteins expressed in bull testicular tissue mediates sperm hyperactivation and their rheotactic response in the reproductive tract of the cow. Bioinformatic analysis identified all four known CATSPER genes (CATSPER 1-4) in the bovine genome, and profiling by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction identified site-specific variation in messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression for all four genes along the reproductive tract of the bull. Using a novel antibody against CATSPER 1, protein expression was confirmed and localized to the principal piece of bull sperm, in agreement with what has been reported in other species. Subsequent treatment of bull sperm with either the calcium chelator ethylene glycol tetraacetic acid; mibefradil, a specific blocker of CatSper channels in human sperm; or CATSPER1 antibody all significantly inhibited caffeine-induced hyperactivation and the rheotactic response, supporting the concept that the calcium influx occurs via CatSper channels. Taken together, the work here provides novel insights into expression and function of CatSper channels in bull testicular tissue and in the function of ejaculated sperm.peer-reviewe

General Neutralino NLSPs at the Early LHC

Gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB) is a theoretically well-motivated framework with rich and varied collider phenomenology. In this paper, we study the Tevatron limits and LHC discovery potential for a wide class of GMSB scenarios in which the next-to-lightest superpartner (NLSP) is a promptly-decaying neutralino. These scenarios give rise to signatures involving hard photons, $W$'s, $Z$'s, jets and/or higgses, plus missing energy. In order to characterize these signatures, we define a small number of minimal spectra, in the context of General Gauge Mediation, which are parameterized by the mass of the NLSP and the gluino. Using these minimal spectra, we determine the most promising discovery channels for general neutralino NLSPs. We find that the 2010 dataset can already cover new ground with strong production for all NLSP types. With the upcoming 2011-2012 dataset, we find that the LHC will also have sensitivity to direct electroweak production of neutralino NLSPs.Comment: 26 page

Antigen stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from Mycobacterium bovis infected cattle yields evidence for a novel gene expression program

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) caused by <it>Mycobacterium bovis </it>continues to cause substantial losses to global agriculture and has significant repercussions for human health. The advent of high throughput genomics has facilitated large scale gene expression analyses that present a novel opportunity for revealing the molecular mechanisms underlying mycobacterial infection. Using this approach, we have previously shown that innate immune genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from BTB-infected animals are repressed <it>in vivo </it>in the absence of exogenous antigen stimulation. In the present study, we hypothesized that the PBMC from BTB-infected cattle would display a distinct gene expression program resulting from exposure to <it>M. bovis</it>. A functional genomics approach was used to examine the immune response of BTB-infected (<it>n </it>= 6) and healthy control (<it>n </it>= 6) cattle to stimulation with bovine tuberculin (purified protein derivative – PPD-b) <it>in vitro</it>. PBMC were harvested before, and at 3 h and 12 h post <it>in vitro </it>stimulation with bovine tuberculin. Gene expression changes were catalogued within each group using a reference hybridization design and a targeted immunospecific cDNA microarray platform (BOTL-5) with 4,800 spot features representing 1,391 genes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>250 gene spot features were significantly differentially expressed in BTB-infected animals at 3 h post-stimulation contrasting with only 88 gene spot features in the non-infected control animals (<it>P </it>≤ 0.05). At 12 h post-stimulation, 56 and 80 gene spot features were differentially expressed in both groups respectively. The results provided evidence of a proinflammatory gene expression profile in PBMC from BTB-infected animals in response to antigen stimulation. Furthermore, a common panel of eighteen genes, including transcription factors were significantly expressed in opposite directions in both groups. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) demonstrated that many innate immune genes, including components of the TLR pathway and cytokines were differentially expressed in BTB-infected (<it>n </it>= 8) versus control animals (<it>n </it>= 8) after stimulation with bovine tuberculin.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The PBMC from BTB-infected animals exhibit different transcriptional profiles compared with PBMC from healthy control animals in response to <it>M. bovis </it>antigen stimulation, providing evidence of a novel gene expression program due to <it>M. bovis </it>exposure.</p

The Status of GMSB After 1/fb at the LHC

We thoroughly investigate the current status of supersymmetry in light of the latest searches at the LHC, using General Gauge Mediation (GGM) as a well-motivated signature generator that leads to many different simplified models. We consider all possible promptly-decaying NLSPs in GGM, and by carefully reinterpreting the existing LHC searches, we derive limits on both colored and electroweak SUSY production. Overall, the coverage of GGM parameter space is quite good, but much discovery potential still remains even at 7 TeV. We identify several regions of parameter space where the current searches are the weakest, typically in models with electroweak production, third generation sfermions or squeezed spectra, and we suggest how ATLAS and CMS might modify their search strategies given the understanding of GMSB at 1/fb. In particular, we propose the use of leptonic $M_{T2}$ to suppress $t{\bar t}$ backgrounds. Because we express our results in terms of simplified models, they have broader applicability beyond the GGM framework, and give a global view of the current LHC reach. Our results on 3rd generation squark NLSPs in particular can be viewed as setting direct limits on naturalness.Comment: 44 pages, refs added, typos fixed, improved MC statistics in fig 1

Abelian Hidden Sectors at a GeV

We discuss mechanisms for naturally generating GeV-scale hidden sectors in the context of weak-scale supersymmetry. Such low mass scales can arise when hidden sectors are more weakly coupled to supersymmetry breaking than the visible sector, as happens when supersymmetry breaking is communicated to the visible sector by gauge interactions under which the hidden sector is uncharged, or if the hidden sector is sequestered from gravity-mediated supersymmetry breaking. We study these mechanisms in detail in the context of gauge and gaugino mediation, and present specific models of Abelian GeV-scale hidden sectors. In particular, we discuss kinetic mixing of a U(1)_x gauge force with hypercharge, singlets or bi-fundamentals which couple to both sectors, and additional loop effects. Finally, we investigate the possible relevance of such sectors for dark matter phenomenology, as well as for low- and high-energy collider searches.Comment: 43 pages, no figures; v2: to match JHEP versio

Innate gene repression associated with Mycobacterium bovis infection in cattle: toward a gene signature of disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bovine tuberculosis is an enduring disease of cattle that has significant repercussions for human health. The advent of high-throughput functional genomics technologies has facilitated large-scale analyses of the immune response to this disease that may ultimately lead to novel diagnostics and therapeutic targets. Analysis of mRNA abundance in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from six <it>Mycobacterium bovis </it>infected cattle and six non-infected controls was performed. A targeted immunospecific bovine cDNA microarray with duplicated spot features representing 1,391 genes was used to test the hypothesis that a distinct gene expression profile may exist in <it>M. bovis </it>infected animals <it>in vivo</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In total, 378 gene features were differentially expressed at the <it>P </it>≤ 0.05 level in bovine tuberculosis (BTB)-infected and control animals, of which 244 were expressed at lower levels (65%) in the infected group. Lower relative expression of key innate immune genes, including the Toll-like receptor 2 (<it>TLR2</it>) and <it>TLR4 </it>genes, lack of differential expression of indicator adaptive immune gene transcripts (<it>IFNG, IL2, IL4</it>), and lower <it>BOLA </it>major histocompatibility complex – class I (<it>BOLA</it>) and class II (<it>BOLA-DRA</it>) gene expression was consistent with innate immune gene repression in the BTB-infected animals. Supervised hierarchical cluster analysis and class prediction validation identified a panel of 15 genes predictive of disease status and selected gene transcripts were validated (<it>n </it>= 8 per group) by real time quantitative reverse transcription PCR.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggest that large-scale expression profiling can identify gene signatures of disease in peripheral blood that can be used to classify animals on the basis of <it>in vivo </it>infection, in the absence of exogenous antigenic stimulation.</p

Erratum to: ‘Integrated analysis of the local and systemic changes preceding the development of post-partum cytological endometritis’

ErratumErratum to: ‘Integrated analysis of the local and systemic changes preceding the development of post-partum cytological endometritis’ -http://hdl.handle.net/11019/90