Discovery of the Higgs Boson, Measurements of its Production, and a Search for Higgs Boson Pair Production

This document chronicles the discovery of the Higgs boson and early measurements in the diphoton decay channel. Particular attention is paid to photon identification, to the coupling of the Higgs to the vector bosons, and to differential cross sections of the Higgs boson. As these measurements yielded good agreement to the predictions of the Standard Model, an additional search is performed, for Higgs boson pair production in the γγbb final state. The dataset used represents 5/fb of proton- proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and 20/fb of collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded by the ATLAS experiment at CERN\u27s Large Hadron Collider in 2011 and 2012

Platelet Response in Hypercholesterol Blood to Thrombin-Induced Aggression

A report submitted by David J. Saxon to the Research and Creative Productions Committee in 1989 on whether hypercholesterol platelets are more responsive than normocholesterolemic platelets to thrombin-induced aggregation in whole blood

Longitudinal Study of Relapse From AIDS-Preventive Behavior Among Homosexual Men

There is no viable alternative to the control of AIDS besides prevention; factors contributing to relapse from behaviors presumed to reduce risk of that disease were investigated. The authors studied 524 homosexual men who had refrained from or used condoms during receptive or insertive anal sex (RAS and IAS, respectively) for at least 12 months, contacting them at 6-month intervals thereafter to ascertain current practices. They determined, via interviews, personal traits, appraised stress of maintaining safer sex, mental health, life events, and efforts to cope with potential infection. Negative life events, personal control beliefs, problem-solving abilities, and coping via problem-focused (e.g., seeking a monogamous union) rather than emotion-focused (e.g., "when I need a cure, they will have one") behaviors were associated with RAS, but less so with LAS safer sex behaviors. These findings provide a basis for individual and community-level interventions to change behavior and reduce AIDS risk.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66577/2/10.1177_109019819802500509.pd

The Central Retail Food Market of Cleveland, Ohio

A study of the Central Retail Food Market in Cleveland, Ohio was made in 1947 at the request of Mayor Thomas A. Burke (Marketing and Facilities Research Branch 3 of the Production and Marketing Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture) to determine the public need for a new market. In the previous year the city had voted favorably on a bond issue of $1,000,000 for the relocation and rebuilding of the market, provided it could be made self-supporting in a reasonable length of time. The Central Market building, built in 1857 and occupied until December 1949, when it was destroyed by fire....The final determination of whether or not a new public retail market should be built in downtown Cleveland to replace Central Market will have to be made by city officials (excerpt from survey summary).https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevmembks/1023/thumbnail.jp

Exact results for `bouncing' Gaussian wave packets

We consider time-dependent Gaussian wave packet solutions of the Schrodinger equation (with arbitrary initial central position, x_0, and momentum, p_0, for an otherwise free-particle, but with an infinite wall at x=0, so-called bouncing wave packets. We show how difference or mirror solutions of the form psi(x,t)-psi(-x,t) can, in this case, be normalized exactly, allowing for the evaluation of a number of time-dependent expectation values and other quantities in closed form. For example, we calculate _t explicitly which illustrates how the free-particle kinetic (and hence total) energy is affected by the presence of the distant boundary. We also discuss the time dependence of the expectation values of position, _t, and momentum, _t, and their relation to the impulsive force during the `collision' with the wall. Finally, the x_0,p_0 --> 0 limit is shown to reduce to a special case of a non-standard free-particle Gaussian solution. The addition of this example to the literature then expands on the relatively small number of Gaussian solutions to quantum mechanical problems with familiar classical analogs (free particle, uniform acceleration, harmonic oscillator, unstable oscillator, and uniform magnetic field) available in closed form.Comment: 14 pages, 1 embedded .eps figur

DivIVA controls progeny morphology and diverse ParA proteins regulate cell division or gliding motility in Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus

The predatory bacterium B. bacteriovorus grows and divides inside the periplasm of Gram-negative bacteria, forming a structure known as a bdelloplast. Cell division of predators inside the dead prey cell is not by binary fission but instead by synchronous division of a single elongated filamentous cell into odd or even numbers of progeny cells. Bdellovibrio replication and cell division processes are dependent on the finite level of nutrients available from inside the prey bacterium. The filamentous growth and division process of the predator maximizes the number of progeny produced by the finite nutrients in a way that binary fission could not. To learn more about such an unusual growth profile, we studied the role of DivIVA in the growing Bdellovibrio cell. This protein is well known for its link to polar cell growth and spore formation in Gram-positive bacteria, but little is known about its function in a predatory growth context. We show that DivIVA is expressed in the growing B. bacteriovorus cell and controls cell morphology during filamentous cell division, but not the number of progeny produced. Bacterial Two Hybrid (BTH) analysis shows DivIVA may interact with proteins that respond to metabolic indicators of amino-acid biosynthesis or changes in redox state. Such changes may be relevant signals to the predator, indicating the consumption of prey nutrients within the sealed bdelloplast environment. ParA, a chromosome segregation protein, also contributes to bacterial septation in many species. The B. bacteriovorus genome contains three ParA homologs; we identify a canonical ParAB pair required for predatory cell division and show a BTH interaction between a gene product encoded from the same operon as DivIVA with the canonical ParA. The remaining ParA proteins are both expressed in Bdellovibrio but are not required for predator cell division. Instead, one of these ParA proteins coordinates gliding motility, changing the frequency at which the cells reverse direction. Our work will prime further studies into how one bacterium can co-ordinate its cell division with the destruction of another bacterium that it dwells within

Mutagenesis Reveals a Role for Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Extracellular Subdomain IV in Ligand Binding

The extracellular domain of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR) comprises four subdomains (I-IV) and mediates binding of several different polypeptide ligands, including EGF, transforming growth factor-alpha, and heparin-binding EGF. Previous studies have predominantly implicated subdomain III in ligand binding. To investigate a possible role for sequences in subdomain IV, we constructed several mutant EGFRs in which clusters of charged or aromatic amino acids were replaced with alanine. Analysis of stably transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing mutant EGFRs confirmed that they were present on the cell surface at levels approaching that of the wild-type receptor. Although tyrosine phosphorylation of most mutants was markedly induced by EGF, a cluster mutation (mt25) containing four alanine substitutions in the span of residues 521-527 failed to respond. EGF-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of an alternative mutant (DeltaEN) with amino acids 518-589 deleted was also greatly diminished. Larger doses of EGF or heparin-binding EGF induced only weak tyrosine phosphorylation of mt25, whereas the response to transforming growth factor-alpha was undetectable. These results suggest that mt25 might be defective with respect to either ligand binding or receptor dimerization. Quantitative analyses showed that binding of (125)I-EGF to mt25 and DeltaEN was reduced to near background levels, whereas binding of EGF to other cluster mutants was reduced 60-70% compared with wild-type levels. Among the mutants, only mt25 and DeltaEN failed to form homodimers or to transphosphorylate HER2/Neu in response to EGF treatment. Collectively, our results are the first to provide direct evidence that discrete subdomain IV residues are required for normal binding of EGF family ligands. Significantly, they were obtained with the full-length receptor in vivo, rather than a soluble truncated receptor, which has been frequently used for structure/function studies of the EGFR extracellular region

Prevalence and characteristics of gastrointestinal infections in men who have sex with men diagnosed with rectal chlamydia infection in the UK: an 'unlinked anonymous' cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: Gastrointestinal infections (GII) can cause serious ill health and morbidity. Although primarily transmitted through faecal contamination of food or water, transmission through sexual activity is well described, especially among men who have sex with men (MSM). METHODS: We investigated the prevalence of GIIs among a convenience sample of MSM who were consecutively diagnosed with rectal Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) at 12 UK genitourinary medicine clinics during 10 weeks in 2012. Residual rectal swabs were coded, anonymised and tested for Shigella, Campylobacter, Salmonella, shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli and enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) using a real-time PCR. Results were linked to respective coded and anonymised clinical and demographic data. Associations were investigated using Fisher's exact tests. RESULTS: Of 444 specimens tested, overall GII prevalence was 8.6% (95% CI 6.3% to 11.6%): 1.8% (0.9% to 3.6%) tested positive for Shigella, 1.8% (0.9% to 3.6%) for Campylobacter and 5.2% (3.5% to 7.7%) for EAEC. No specimens tested positive for Salmonella or other diarrhoeagenic E. coli pathotypes. Among those with any GII, 14/30 were asymptomatic (2/7 with Shigella, 3/6 with Campylobacter and 9/17 with EAEC). Shigella prevalence was higher in MSM who were HIV-positive (4.7% (2.1% to 10.2%) vs 0.5%(0.1% to 3.2%) in HIV-negative MSM; p=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In this small feasibility study, MSM with rectal CT appeared to be at appreciable risk of GII. Asymptomatic carriage may play a role in sexual transmission of GII

The Central Retail Food Market of Cleveland, Ohio

A study of the Central Retail Food Market in Cleveland, Ohio was made in 1947 at the request of Mayor Thomas A. Burke (Marketing and Facilities Research Branch 3 of the Production and Marketing Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture) to determine the public need for a new market. In the previous year the city had voted favorably on a bond issue of $1,000,000 for the relocation and rebuilding of the market, provided it could be made self-supporting in a reasonable length of time. The Central Market building, built in 1857 and occupied until December 1949, when it was destroyed by fire....The final determination of whether or not a new public retail market should be built in downtown Cleveland to replace Central Market will have to be made by city officials (excerpt from survey summary). Original publication date 1951.https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevmembks/1023/thumbnail.jp

The comparative effectiveness and efficiency of cognitive behaviour therapy and generic counselling in the treatment of depression: evidence from the 2(nd) UK National Audit of psychological therapies.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is the front-line psychological intervention for step 3 within UK psychological therapy services. Counselling is recommended only when other interventions have failed and its effectiveness has been questioned. METHOD: A secondary data analysis was conducted of data collected from 33,243 patients across 103 Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services as part of the second round of the National Audit of Psychological Therapies (NAPT). Initial analysis considered levels of pre-post therapy effect sizes (ESs) and reliable improvement (RI) and reliable and clinically significant improvement (RCSI). Multilevel modelling was used to model predictors of outcome, namely patient pre-post change on PHQ-9 scores at last therapy session. RESULTS: Counselling received more referrals from patients experiencing moderate to severe depression than CBT. For patients scoring above the clinical cut-off on the PHQ-9 at intake, the pre-post ES (95% CI) for CBT was 1.59 (1.58, 1.62) with 46.6% making RCSI criteria and for counselling the pre-post ES was 1.55 (1.52, 1.59) with 44.3% of patients meeting RCSI criteria. Multilevel modelling revealed a significant site effect of 1.8%, while therapy type was not a predictor of outcome. A significant interaction was found between the number of sessions attended and therapy type, with patients attending fewer sessions on average for counselling [M = 7.5 (5.54) sessions and a median (IQR) of 6 (3-10)] than CBT [M = 8.9 (6.34) sessions and a median (IQR) of 7 (4-12)]. Only where patients had 18 or 20 sessions was CBT significantly more effective than counselling, with recovery rates (95% CIs) of 62.2% (57.1, 66.9) and 62.4% (56.5, 68.0) respectively, compared with 44.4% (32.7, 56.6) and 42.6% (30.0, 55.9) for counselling. Counselling was significantly more effective at two sessions with a recovery rate of 34.9% (31.9, 37.9) compared with 22.2% (20.5, 24.0) for CBT. CONCLUSIONS: Outcomes for counselling and CBT in the treatment of depression were comparable. Research efforts should focus on factors other than therapy type that may influence outcomes, namely the inherent variability between services, and adopt multilevel modelling as the given analytic approach in order to capture the naturally nested nature of the implementation and delivery of psychological therapies. It is of concern that half of all patients, regardless of type of intervention, did not show reliable improvement