It's On: Early Interpretations of ATLAS Results in Jets and Missing Energy Searches

The first search for supersymmetry from ATLAS with 70/nb of integrated luminosity extends the Tevatron' s reach for colored particles that decay into jets plus missing transverse energy. For gluinos that decay directly or through a one step cascade into the LSP and two jets, the mass range m_g < 205 GeV is disfavored by the ATLAS searches, regardless of the mass of the LSP. In some cases the coverage extends up to m_g ~ 295 GeV, already surpassing the Tevatron's reach for compressed supersymmetry spectra.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; references and figure added; Physics Letters B (2011

Fine-mapping of prostate cancer susceptibility loci in a large meta-analysis identifies candidate causal variants

Prostate cancer is a polygenic disease with a large heritable component. A number of common, low-penetrance prostate cancer risk loci have been identified through GWAS. Here we apply the Bayesian multivariate variable selection algorithm JAM to fine-map 84 prostate cancer susceptibility loci, using summary data from a large European ancestry meta-analysis. We observe evidence for multiple independent signals at 12 regions and 99 risk signals overall. Only 15 original GWAS tag SNPs remain among the catalogue of candidate variants identified; the remainder are replaced by more likely candidates. Biological annotation of our credible set of variants indicates significant enrichment within promoter and enhancer elements, and transcription factor-binding sites, including AR, ERG and FOXA1. In 40 regions at least one variant is colocalised with an eQTL in prostate cancer tissue. The refined set of candidate variants substantially increase the proportion of familial relative risk explained by these known susceptibility regions, which highlights the importance of fine-mapping studies and has implications for clinical risk profiling. © 2018 The Author(s).Prostate cancer is a polygenic disease with a large heritable component. A number of common, low-penetrance prostate cancer risk loci have been identified through GWAS. Here we apply the Bayesian multivariate variable selection algorithm JAM to fine-map 84 prostate cancer susceptibility loci, using summary data from a large European ancestry meta-analysis. We observe evidence for multiple independent signals at 12 regions and 99 risk signals overall. Only 15 original GWAS tag SNPs remain among the catalogue of candidate variants identified; the remainder are replaced by more likely candidates. Biological annotation of our credible set of variants indicates significant enrichment within promoter and enhancer elements, and transcription factor-binding sites, including AR, ERG and FOXA1. In 40 regions at least one variant is colocalised with an eQTL in prostate cancer tissue. The refined set of candidate variants substantially increase the proportion of familial relative risk explained by these known susceptibility regions, which highlights the importance of fine-mapping studies and has implications for clinical risk profiling. © 2018 The Author(s).Peer reviewe

A Germline Variant at 8q24 Contributes to Familial Clustering of Prostate Cancer in Men of African Ancestry

Although men of African ancestry have a high risk of prostate cancer (PCa), no genes or mutations have been identified that contribute to familial clustering of PCa in this population. We investigated whether the African ancestry–specific PCa risk variant at 8q24, rs72725854, is enriched in men with a PCa family history in 9052 cases, 143 cases from high-risk families, and 8595 controls of African ancestry. We found the risk allele to be significantly associated with earlier age at diagnosis, more aggressive disease, and enriched in men with a PCa family history (32% of high-risk familial cases carried the variant vs 23% of cases without a family history and 12% of controls). For cases with two or more first-degree relatives with PCa who had at least one family member diagnosed at age <60 yr, the odds ratios for TA heterozygotes and TT homozygotes were 3.92 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.13–7.22) and 33.41 (95% CI = 10.86–102.84), respectively. Among men with a PCa family history, the absolute risk by age 60 yr reached 21% (95% CI = 17–25%) for TA heterozygotes and 38% (95% CI = 13–65%) for TT homozygotes. We estimate that in men of African ancestry, rs72725854 accounts for 32% of the total familial risk explained by all known PCa risk variants. Patient summary: We found that rs72725854, an African ancestry–specific risk variant, is more common in men with a family history of prostate cancer and in those diagnosed with prostate cancer at younger ages. Men of African ancestry may benefit from the knowledge of their carrier status for this genetic risk variant to guide decisions about prostate cancer screening. © 2020 The AuthorsThe African ancestry–specific prostate cancer risk variant at 8q24, rs72725854, is enriched in men diagnosed at younger ages and men with a prostate cancer family history. Carriers of this risk allele would benefit from regular and earlier prostate cancer screening

An integrative multi-omics analysis to identify candidate DNA methylation biomarkers related to prostate cancer risk

It remains elusive whether some of the associations identified in genome-wide association studies of prostate cancer (PrCa) may be due to regulatory effects of genetic variants on CpG sites, which may further influence expression of PrCa target genes. To search for Cp

Possible futures for fully automated vehicles : using scenario planning and system dynamics to grapple with uncertainty

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2015.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 146-148).It is widely expected that fully automated vehicles (also commonly referred to as "driverless" or "self-driving" cars) will significantly change transportation systems in the United States and around the world. By reducing or eliminating many of the costs and disincentives of travel by automobile, these vehicles may have the potential to radically alter many of the inherent dynamics that have governed transportation systems since the advent of the automobile. To date, however, there has been very little structured analysis of these potential changes. Most of the existing literature addresses the technical challenges facing vehicle automation technology or considers immediate effects on the transportation system, usually analyzing single effects in isolation. Very little attention appears to have been paid to multiple simultaneous interactions that may occur across the transportation system and potential feedback effects that may arise among elements of the system. This thesis examines how the transportation system might react to the widespread introduction of fully automated vehicles (AVs), specifically considering how these reactions will affect total usage of automobiles, as measured by vehicle miles traveled (VMT). For the purpose of this thesis, the system boundary is broadly drawn-potential system responses are considered within the transportation system itself (consisting of existing users, vehicles, and infrastructure) and the "macro-system" (which includes broader economic, regulatory, social, and political dimensions). To address the wide range of uncertainties involved, scenario-planning techniques are used to develop and explore three scenarios that span a range of important variables. Within each scenario, system dynamics methodology is used to explore potential system reactions to the scenario assumptions and to consider the ultimate implications for VMT. The main insight from this analysis is that unstable responses (rapid movement to the extremes) appear more likely than steady transitions to "moderate" states. When the scenarios assume behavior can change substantially, the structure of the system suggests either that strong and growing forces will cause automobiles to become even more dominant over other modes than they are today (and VMT will rise dramatically), or public transit will become increasingly more appealing and assume a growing role (and VMT will drop substantially). The challenge of predicting the underlying behavioral changes is substantial: Who can say with any certainty how people will use a technology that provides point-to-point, self-directed, self-scheduled travel, with no requirement for attention or effort by a human occupant, potentially at higher speeds, in greater comfort, and with safer operation than today's automobiles? There are simply not enough existing data and no precedent for such analysis. Given the potential for unstable outcomes, depending on the desired outcome, it may be critical for policy-makers to consider the initial conditions of AV deployment, as these may have a substantial impact on the transportation system over the long term.by Joseph Stanford.S.M. in Engineering and Managemen