Best Practice Guidelines on molecular diagnostics in Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophies

Meeting participants: Rosário dos Santos, Porto, PortugalIntroduction: A meeting of 29 senior scientists from Europe, the USA, India and Australia, was held in Naarden, The Netherlands on November 14–16, 2008, to establish consensus Best Practice Guidelines for molecular diagnosis of Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD). New therapeutic trials for DMD demand accurate diagnosis of the disorder, especially where the therapy is targeted towards specific mutations. These guidelines aim to help diagnostic laboratories attain that accuracy by describing the minimum standards for acceptable molecular diagnostic testing of DMD. For the different types of clinical referral received by a molecular diagnostic laboratory, the guidelines recommend the appropriate tests to be carried out, interpretation of the results and how those results should be reported.The workshop was jointly organised and sponsored by The European Molecular Genetics Quality Network (www.emqn.org); Euro- Gentest (www.eurogentest.org); EU Contract no. FP6-512148); TREAT-NMD (www.treat-nmd.org); EU Contract no. FP6-036825), and hosted by the European Neuro-Muscular Centre (www.enmc.org)

First order optical potentials and 25 to 40 MeV proton elastic scattering

The differential cross sections and analyzing powers from the elastic scattering of 25 and 40 MeV protons from many nuclei have been studied. Analyses have been made using a fully microscopic model of proton-nucleus scattering seeking to establish a means appropriate for use in analyses of radioactive beam scattering from hydrogen with ion energies 25A and 40A MeV.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, 4 figure

Expanding running coupling effects in the hard Pomeron

We study QCD hard processes at scales of order k^2 > Lambda^2 in the limit in which the beta-function coefficient - b is taken to be small, but alphas(k) is kept fixed. The (nonperturbative) Pomeron is exponentially suppressed in this limit, making it possible to define purely perturbative high-energy Green's functions. The hard Pomeron exponent acquires diffusion and running coupling corrections which can be expanded in the b parameter and turn out to be dependent on the effective coupling b alphas^2 Y. We provide a general setup for this b-expansion and we calculate the first few terms both analytically and numerically.Comment: 36 pages, 15 figures, additional references adde

Asymptotic Scaling of the Diffusion Coefficient of Fluctuating "Pulled" Fronts

We present a (heuristic) theoretical derivation for the scaling of the diffusion coefficient $D_f$ for fluctuating ``pulled'' fronts. In agreement with earlier numerical simulations, we find that as $N\to\infty$, $D_f$ approaches zero as $1/\ln^3N$, where $N$ is the average number of particles per correlation volume in the stable phase of the front. This behaviour of $D_f$ stems from the shape fluctuations at the very tip of the front, and is independent of the microscopic model.Comment: Some minor algebra corrected, to appear in Rapid Comm., Phys. Rev.

Q2Q^2 Independence of QF2/F1QF_2/F_1, Poincare Invariance and the Non-Conservation of Helicity

A relativistic constituent quark model is found to reproduce the recent data regarding the ratio of proton form factors, $F_2(Q^2)/F_1(Q^2)$. We show that imposing Poincare invariance leads to substantial violation of the helicity conservation rule, as well as an analytic result that the ratio $F_2(Q^2)/F_1(Q^2)\sim 1/Q$ for intermediate values of $Q^2$.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. C typos corrected, references added, 1 new figure to show very high Q^2 behavio

Few-nucleon systems in translationally invariant harmonic oscillator basis

We present a translationally invariant formulation of the no-core shell model approach for few-nucleon systems. We discuss a general method of antisymmetrization of the harmonic-oscillator basis depending on Jacobi coordinates. The use of a translationally invariant basis allows us to employ larger model spaces than in traditional shell-model calculations. Moreover, in addition to two-body effective interactions, three- or higher-body effective interactions as well as real three-body interactions can be utilized. In the present study we apply the formalism to solve three and four nucleon systems interacting by the CD-Bonn nucleon-nucleon potential. Results of ground-state as well as excited-state energies, rms radii and magnetic moments are discussed. In addition, we compare charge form factor results obtained using the CD-Bonn and Argonne V8' NN potentials.Comment: 25 pages. RevTex. 13 Postscript figure

Quasi-stationary regime of a branching random walk in presence of an absorbing wall

A branching random walk in presence of an absorbing wall moving at a constant velocity $v$ undergoes a phase transition as the velocity $v$ of the wall varies. Below the critical velocity $v_c$, the population has a non-zero survival probability and when the population survives its size grows exponentially. We investigate the histories of the population conditioned on having a single survivor at some final time $T$. We study the quasi-stationary regime for $v<v_c$ when $T$ is large. To do so, one can construct a modified stochastic process which is equivalent to the original process conditioned on having a single survivor at final time $T$. We then use this construction to show that the properties of the quasi-stationary regime are universal when $v\to v_c$. We also solve exactly a simple version of the problem, the exponential model, for which the study of the quasi-stationary regime can be reduced to the analysis of a single one-dimensional map.Comment: 2 figures, minor corrections, one reference adde

Hallmarks of Successful Emerging Leader Programs: An Exploration of Effective First-Year, Non-Positional, Co-Curricular Emerging Leader Programs at Colleges and Universities.

Throughout the United States, colleges and universities invest heavily in first year programming. Many of these institutions provide leadership development programs for students. The programs at the intersection at these two efforts are often called emerging leader programs. This study examines co-curricular, non-positional emerging leader programs for first-year students.Specifically, this study examines three aspects of emerging leader programs at three universities. First is an exploration of the way assessment impacts emerging leader programs. Second is an examination of the role that departmental and programmatic structures play in these programs. Finally this study explores the hallmarks of successful programs.This study uses a multi case study approach to establish an understanding of the role of assessment and structures in emerging leader programs and then employs the use of grounded theory to explore the hallmarks of successful emerging leader programs.The findings in this study suggest that assessment does not impact these programs significantly. Structures impact program success specifically relating to delivery format. Finally this study identified three hallmarks of emerging leader programs. These are connection, peer mentorship and future framing. Future framing is the ability of a program to teach leadership concepts to students in ways that support future application

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper reports a measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is based on a data sample recorded with the ATLAS detector with an integrated luminosity of 0.30 pb^-1 for jets with transverse momentum between 25 and 70 GeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta| < 2.5. D*+/- mesons found in jets are fully reconstructed in the decay chain: D*+ -> D0pi+, D0 -> K-pi+, and its charge conjugate. The production rate is found to be N(D*+/-)/N(jet) = 0.025 +/- 0.001(stat.) +/- 0.004(syst.) for D*+/- mesons that carry a fraction z of the jet momentum in the range 0.3 < z < 1. Monte Carlo predictions fail to describe the data at small values of z, and this is most marked at low jet transverse momentum.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (22 pages total), 5 figures, 1 table, matches published version in Physical Review