Neutralino Dark Matter, b-tau Yukawa Unification and Non-Universal Sfermion Masses

We study the implications of minimal non-Universal Boundary Conditions in the sfermion Soft SUSY Breaking (SSB) masses of mSUGRA. We impose asymptotic b-tau Yukawa coupling Unification and we resort to a parameterization of the deviation from Universality in the SSB motivated by the multiplet structure of SU(5) GUT. A set of cosmo-phenomenological constraints, including the recent results from WMAP, determines the allowed parameter space of the models under consideration. We highlight a new coannihilation corridor where neutralino-sbottom and neutralino-tau sneutrino-stau coannihilations significantly contribute to the reduction of the neutralino relic density.Comment: 38 pages, 27 Figures, Latex; Version accepted for publication in PR

Resolving Fermi, PAMELA and ATIC anomalies in split supersymmetry without R-parity

A long-lived decaying dark matter as a resolution to Fermi, PAMELA and ATIC anomalies is investigated in the framework of split supersymmetry (SUSY) without R-parity, where the neutralino is regarded as the dark matter and the extreme fine-tuned couplings for the long-lived neutralino are naturally evaded in the usual approach.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Erroneous results concerning the cascade processes removed. Main results unchange

Genome-wide association analyses identify 143 risk variants and putative regulatory mechanisms for type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a very common disease in humans. Here we conduct a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) with ~16 million genetic variants in 62,892 T2D cases and 596,424 controls of European ancestry. We identify 139 common and 4 rare variants associated with T2D, 42 of which (39 common and 3 rare variants) are independent of the known variants. Integration of the gene expression data from blood (n = 14,115 and 2765) with the GWAS results identifies 33 putative functional genes for T2D, 3 of which were targeted by approved drugs. A further integration of DNA methylation (n = 1980) and epigenomic annotation data highlight 3 genes (CAMK1D, TP53INP1, and ATP5G1) with plausible regulatory mechanisms, whereby a genetic variant exerts an effect on T2D through epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Our study uncovers additional loci, proposes putative genetic regulatory mechanisms for T2D, and provides evidence of purifying selection for T2D-associated variants

Reproductive health of Gulf War veterans.

In this review we summarize the scientific literature on reproductive health following deployment to the first Gulf war by armed service personnel. All the studies examined had methodological limitations, making interpretation difficult. Nonetheless we conclude that for male veterans there is no strong or consistent evidence to date for an effect of service in the first Gulf war on the risk of major, clearly defined, birth defects or stillbirth in offspring conceived after deployment. Effects on specific rare defects cannot be excluded at this stage since none of the studies had the statistical power to examine them. For miscarriage and infertility, there is some evidence of small increased risks associated with service, but the role of bias is likely to be strong. For female veterans, there is insufficient information to make robust conclusions, although the weight of evidence to date does not indicate any major problem associated specifically with deployment to the Gulf. None of the studies have been able to examine risk according particular exposures, and so possible associations with specific exposures for smaller groups of exposed veterans cannot be excluded. We suggest that the way forward to address the question of veterans' reproductive health with confidence in the future is prospective surveillance following deployment. Anything less will result in further problems of interpretation and continued anxiety for parents, as well as prospective parents, in the armed forces