Search for supersymmetry with a dominant R-parity violating LQDbar couplings in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130GeV to 172 GeV

A search for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a dominant LQDbar coupling has been performed using the data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172 GeV. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. This result is translated into lower limits on the masses of charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks. For instance, for m_0=500 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=sqrt(2) charginos with masses smaller than 81 GeV/c^2 and neutralinos with masses smaller than 29 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the 95% confidence level for any generation structure of the LQDbar coupling.Comment: 32 pages, 30 figure

Genome-wide association study identifies 30 Loci Associated with Bipolar Disorder

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) founding member and Bipolar disorder working group co-chair Pamela Sklar. We thank the participants who donated their time, experiences and DNA to this research, and to the clinical and scientific teams that worked with them. We are deeply indebted to the investigators who comprise the PGC. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of any funding or regulatory body. Analyses were carried out on the NL Genetic Cluster Computer (http://www.geneticcluster.org ) hosted by SURFsara, and the Mount Sinai high performance computing cluster (http://hpc.mssm.edu).Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable psychiatric disorder. We performed a genome-wide association study including 20,352 cases and 31,358 controls of European descent, with follow-up analysis of 822 variants with P<1x10-4 in an additional 9,412 cases and 137,760 controls. Eight of the 19 variants that were genome-wide significant (GWS, p < 5x10-8) in the discovery GWAS were not GWS in the combined analysis, consistent with small effect sizes and limited power but also with genetic heterogeneity. In the combined analysis 30 loci were GWS including 20 novel loci. The significant loci contain genes encoding ion channels, neurotransmitter transporters and synaptic components. Pathway analysis revealed nine significantly enriched gene-sets including regulation of insulin secretion and endocannabinoid signaling. BDI is strongly genetically correlated with schizophrenia, driven by psychosis, whereas BDII is more strongly correlated with major depressive disorder. These findings address key clinical questions and provide potential new biological mechanisms for BD.This work was funded in part by the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, Stanley Medical Research Institute, University of Michigan, Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Fund L.L.C., Marriot Foundation and the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, the NIMH Intramural Research Program; Canadian Institutes of Health Research; the UK Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, NIHR, NRS, MRC, Wellcome Trust; European Research Council; German Ministry for Education and Research, German Research Foundation IZKF of Münster, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, ImmunoSensation, the Dr. Lisa-Oehler Foundation, University of Bonn; the Swiss National Science Foundation; French Foundation FondaMental and ANR; Spanish Ministerio de Economía, CIBERSAM, Industria y Competitividad, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Generalitat de Catalunya, EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme; BBMRI-NL; South-East Norway Regional Health Authority and Mrs. Throne-Holst; Swedish Research Council, Stockholm County Council, Söderström Foundation; Lundbeck Foundation, Aarhus University; Australia NHMRC, NSW Ministry of Health, Janette M O'Neil and Betty C Lynch

Genetic Overlap Between Alzheimer's Disease and Bipolar Disorder Implicates the MARK2 and VAC14 Genes.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) and bipolar disorder (BIP) are complex traits influenced by numerous common genetic variants, most of which remain to be detected. Clinical and epidemiological evidence suggest that AD and BIP are related. However, it is not established if this relation is of genetic origin. Here, we applied statistical methods based on the conditional false discovery rate (FDR) framework to detect genetic overlap between AD and BIP and utilized this overlap to increase the power to identify common genetic variants associated with either or both traits. Methods: We obtained genome wide association studies data from the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project part 1 (17,008 AD cases and 37,154 controls) and the Psychiatric Genetic Consortium Bipolar Disorder Working Group (20,352 BIP cases and 31,358 controls). We used conditional QQ-plots to assess overlap in common genetic variants between AD and BIP. We exploited the genetic overlap to re-rank test-statistics for AD and BIP and improve detection of genetic variants using the conditional FDR framework. Results: Conditional QQ-plots demonstrated a polygenic overlap between AD and BIP. Using conditional FDR, we identified one novel genomic locus associated with AD, and nine novel loci associated with BIP. Further, we identified two novel loci jointly associated with AD and BIP implicating the MARK2 gene (lead SNP rs10792421, conjunctional FDR = 0.030, same direction of effect) and the VAC14 gene (lead SNP rs11649476, conjunctional FDR = 0.022, opposite direction of effect). Conclusion: We found polygenic overlap between AD and BIP and identified novel loci for each trait and two jointly associated loci. Further studies should examine if the shared loci implicating the MARK2 and VAC14 genes could explain parts of the shared and distinct features of AD and BIP

Sotakarjut : Roolipelin visuaalinen taide ja ammatillinen vuorovaikutus projektityöympäristössä.

Opinnäytetyöni pohjautuu vuonna 2012 julkaistavaan roolipelikirjaan nimeltä Sotakarjut. TAMKista valmistuvana visuaalisena suunnittelijana olin mukana piirtämässä sekä konseptitaiteidetta, että kuvituskuvia kyseistä teosta varten. Kyseisen projektin aikana työskentelin sekä taiteellisen johdon alaisuudessa, että osana useamman kuvittajan/konseptitaiteilijan muodostamaa työryhmää, jolloin taiteellisesta ja ammatillisesta vuorovaikutuksesta tuli selkeä osa projektin kulkua. Näistä lähtökohdista päätin myös kirjoittaa opinnäytetyöni kirjallisen osuuden. Opinnäytetyöni tarkoitus on valaista monin tavoin vuorovaikutteiseksi muodostuvien projektityöympäristöjen vaikutusta taiteilijaan niin kuvittajan, kuin konseptitaiteilijan ammattissa. Valitsemaani aihetta lähestyn tekemäni projektin rajaaman kontekstin sisällä käymällä aluksi läpi nämä kaksi visuaalisen suunnittelun ammattihaaraa kartoittamalla taiteilijan roolia osana laajempaa projektityöympäristöä, ja tarjoamalla käytännön kautta lähestyvää näkökantaa esittelemilleni asioille. Tutkin sekä ulkoisen, että sisäisen vuorovaikutuksen merkitystä ja niiden luomia mahdollisuuksia luovalla alalla toimivan taiteilijan näkökulmasta. Esitän myös käytännön tapoja siitä, miten nämä vuorovaikutukselliset elementit voidaan valjastaa palvelemaan yksilön omaa ammatillista ja taiteellista kehitystä.My thesis work is based on a traditional role-playing-game that is set to be published in the year 2012, a book titled Sotakarjut. About to graduate from TAMK, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, as a visual designer I took part in this project, in a role that covered two distinct fields of profession: concept art and a illustration. As an single artist I worked under a artistic supervision and within a project that had several illustrators/consept artist in its ranks, thus making it essential to work as a singular creative team. In this thesis I will try to shed some light on how project-related work enviroments involves a specific kind of artististic approach from professional consept artists and illustrators. Having my project part work as my general context, I will start by making a general introduction on both of these creative professions, giving an overview on the subject of artististic work within project enviroments. I will also present a practical approach by adding examples from my actual project to support the theory based information I am presenting. In addition I will write about the many effects that professional interaction has within a working eviroment, from the artist view-point. Through this I will also explain how it is possible to assert yourself as a professional artist, so that this interaction can be made beneficial to the indivudual, both artistically and professional

Search for R-parity violating decays of supersymmetric particles in e+ e- collisions at center-of-mass energies from 189-GeV to 202-GeV

Searches for the production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a single dominant LLE, LQD or UDD coupling were performed. These use the data collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies from 188.6 to 201.6 GeV. The numbers of candidate events observed in the data are consistent with Standard Model expectations. Upper limits on the production cross sections and lower limits on the masses of charginos, sleptons, squarks and sneutrinos are derived.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figure

Search for gamma gamma decays of a Higgs boson produced in association with a fermion pair in e+ e- collisions at LEP

A search for gamma-gamma decays of a Higgs boson is performed in the data sample collected at LEP with the ALEPH detector between 1991 and 1999. This corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 672 pb-1 at centre-of-mass energies ranging from 88 to 202 GeV. The search is based on topologies arising from a Higgs boson produced in association with a fermion pair via the Higgs-strahlung process e+e- -> Hff, with ff=nu\nu, e+e-, mu+mu-, tau+tau- or qq. Twenty-two events are selected in the data, while 28 events are expected from standard model processes. An upper limit is derived, as a function of the Higgs boson mass, on the product of the e+e- -> Hff cross section and the H -> gamma-gamma branching fraction. In particular, a fermiophobic Higgs boson produced with the standard model cross section is excluded at 95% confidence level for all masses below $100.7 GeV