Counseling Customers: Emerging Roles for Genetic Counselors in the Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing Market

Individuals now have access to an increasing number of internet resources offering personal genomics services. As the direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC GT) industry expands, critics have called for pre- and post-test genetic counseling to be included with the product. Several genetic testing companies offer genetic counseling. There has been no examination to date of this service provision, whether it meets critics’ concerns and implications it may have for the genetic counseling profession. Considering the increasing relevance of genetics in healthcare, the complexity of genetic information provided by DTC GT, the mediating role of the internet in counseling, and potential conflicts of interest, this is a topic which deserves further attention. In this paper we offer a discourse analysis of ways in which genetic counseling is represented on DTC GT websites, blogs and other online material. This analysis identified four types of genetic counseling represented on the websites: the integrated counseling product; discretionary counseling; independent counseling; and product advice. Genetic counselors are represented as having the following roles: genetics educator; mediator; lifestyle advisor; risk interpreter; and entrepreneur. We conclude that genetic counseling as represented on DTC GT websites demonstrates shifting professional roles and forms of expertise in genetic counseling. Genetic counselors are also playing an important part in how the genetic testing market is taking shape. Our analysis offers important and timely insights into recent developments in the genetic counseling profession, which have relevance for practitioners, researchers and policy makers concerned with the evolving field of personal genomics. Keywords Genetic counseling Internet Direct-to-consumer genetic testing Discourse analysis

Discrete Group Actions on Spacetimes: Causality Conditions and the Causal Boundary

Suppose a spacetime $M$ is a quotient of a spacetime $V$ by a discrete group of isometries. It is shown how causality conditions in the two spacetimes are related, and how can one learn about the future causal boundary on $M$ by studying structures in $V$. The relations between the two are particularly simple (the boundary of the quotient is the quotient of the boundary) if both $V$ and $M$ have spacelike future boundaries and if it is known that the quotient of the future completion of $V$ is past-distinguishing. (That last assumption is automatic in the case of $M$ being multi-warped.)Comment: 32 page

A Small Target Neutrino Deep-Inelastic Scattering Experiment at the First Muon Collider

Several different scenarios for neutrino scattering experiments using a neutrino beam from the muon collider complex are discussed. The physics reach of a neutrino experiment at the front end of a muon collider is shown to extend far beyond that of current neutrino experiments, since the high intensity neutrino beams one would see at the muon collider allow for a large flexibility in choosing neutrino targets. Measurements of quark spin, A-dependence of the structure function $xF_3$ and neutral current chiral couplings to quarks are outlined.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the Workshop on Physics at the First Muon Collider and at the Front End of a Muon Collider, November 1997, Fermila

Nonlocal Modulation of Entangled Photons

We consider ramifications of the use of high speed light modulators to questions of correlation and measurement of time-energy entangled photons. Using phase modulators, we find that temporal modulation of one photon of an entangled pair, as measured by correlation in the frequency domain, may be negated or enhanced by modulation of the second photon. Using amplitude modulators we describe a Fourier technique for measurement of biphoton wave functions with slow detectors

Quantum state transfer between field and atoms in Electromagnetically Induced Transparency

We show that a quasi-perfect quantum state transfer between an atomic ensemble and fields in an optical cavity can be achieved in Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT). A squeezed vacuum field state can be mapped onto the long-lived atomic spin associated to the ground state sublevels of the Lambda-type atoms considered. The EIT on-resonance situation show interesting similarities with the Raman off-resonant configuration. We then show how to transfer the atomic squeezing back to the field exiting the cavity, thus realizing a quantum memory-type operation.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Ultrabright Backward-wave Biphoton Source

We calculate the properties of a biphoton source based on resonant backward-wave spontaneous parametric down-conversion. We show that the biphotons are generated in a single longitudinal mode having a subnatural linewidth and a Glauber correlation time exceeding 65 ns.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Traveling waves and homogeneous fragmentation

We formulate the notion of the classical Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovskii-Piscounov (FKPP) reaction diffusion equation associated with a homogeneous conservative fragmentation process and study its traveling waves. Specifically, we establish existence, uniqueness and asymptotics. In the spirit of classical works such as McKean [Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 28 (1975) 323-331] and [Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 29 (1976) 553-554], Neveu [In Seminar on Stochastic Processes (1988) 223-242 Birkh\"{a}user] and Chauvin [Ann. Probab. 19 (1991) 1195-1205], our analysis exposes the relation between traveling waves and certain additive and multiplicative martingales via laws of large numbers which have been previously studied in the context of Crump-Mode-Jagers (CMJ) processes by Nerman [Z. Wahrsch. Verw. Gebiete 57 (1981) 365-395] and in the context of fragmentation processes by Bertoin and Martinez [Adv. in Appl. Probab. 37 (2005) 553-570] and Harris, Knobloch and Kyprianou [Ann. Inst. H. Poincar\'{e} Probab. Statist. 46 (2010) 119-134]. The conclusions and methodology presented here appeal to a number of concepts coming from the theory of branching random walks and branching Brownian motion (cf. Harris [Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 129 (1999) 503-517] and Biggins and Kyprianou [Electr. J. Probab. 10 (2005) 609-631]) showing their mathematical robustness even within the context of fragmentation theory.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AAP733 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Final analysis/design and prototype construction of a selected mobility and restraint device Final report

Underwater tests of prototype construction of selected mobility and restraint devic