Top quark physics at muon and other future colliders

The top quark will be extensively studied at future muon colliders. The threshold cross section can be measured precisely, and the small beam energy spread is especially effective at making the measurement useful. We report on all the activities of the top quark working group, including talks on top quark physics at other future colliders.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, Summary report of the Top Quark Working Group at the Workshop on Physics at the First Muon Collider and at the Front End of a Muon Collider, November 6-9, 1997, Fermi National Accelerator Laborator

Impacts and Benefits of a Satellite Power System on the Electric Utility Industry

The purpose of this limited study was to investigate six specific issues associated with interfacing a Satellite Power System (5 GW) with large (by present standards) terrestrial power pools to a depth sufficient to determine if certain interface problems and/or benefits exist and what future studies of these problems are required. The issues investigated are as follows: (1) Stability of Power Pools Containing a 5 GWe SPS; (2) Extra Reserve Margin Required to Maintain the Reliability of Power Pools Containing a 5 GWe SPS; (3) Use of the SPS in Load Following Service (i.e. in two independent pools whose times of peak demand differ by three hours); (4) Ownership of the SPS and its effect on SPS Usage and Utility Costs; (5) Utility Sharing of SPS related RD and D Costs; (6) Utility Liability for SPS Related Hazards

Determination of Transgene Copy Number by Real-Time Quantitative PCR

Efficient methods to characterize transgenic plants are important to quickly understand the state of the transformant. Determining transgene copy number is an important step in transformant characterization and can differentiate between complex and simple transformation events. This knowledge can be extremely useful when determining what future experiments and uses the transgenic lines can be utilized for. The method described here uses real-time quantitative PCR to determine the transgene copy number present in the genome of the transformant. Specifically, this method measures the relative transgene copy number by comparing it with an endogenous gene with a known copy number. This method is a quick alternative to the Southern blot, a method that is commonly used to determine gene copy number, and is effective when screening large numbers of transformants

Reference gene alternatives to Gapdh in rodent and human heart failure gene expression studies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Quantitative real-time RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) is a highly sensitive method for mRNA quantification, but requires invariant expression of the chosen reference gene(s). In pathological myocardium, there is limited information on suitable reference genes other than the commonly used <it>Gapdh </it>mRNA and <it>18S </it>ribosomal RNA. Our aim was to evaluate and identify suitable reference genes in human failing myocardium, in rat and mouse post-myocardial infarction (post-MI) heart failure and across developmental stages in fetal and neonatal rat myocardium.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The abundance of <it>Arbp</it>, <it>Rpl32</it>, <it>Rpl4</it>, <it>Tbp</it>, <it>Polr2a</it>, <it>Hprt1</it>, <it>Pgk1</it>, <it>Ppia </it>and <it>Gapdh </it>mRNA and <it>18S </it>ribosomal RNA in myocardial samples was quantified by RT-qPCR. The expression variability of these transcripts was evaluated by the geNorm and Normfinder algorithms and by a variance component analysis method. Biological variability was a greater contributor to sample variability than either repeated reverse transcription or PCR reactions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The most stable reference genes were <it>Rpl32</it>, <it>Gapdh </it>and <it>Polr2a </it>in mouse post-infarction heart failure, <it>Polr2a</it>, <it>Rpl32 </it>and <it>Tbp </it>in rat post-infarction heart failure and <it>Rpl32 </it>and <it>Pgk1 </it>in human heart failure (ischemic disease and cardiomyopathy). The overall most stable reference genes across all three species was <it>Rpl32 </it>and <it>Polr2a</it>. In rat myocardium, all reference genes tested showed substantial variation with developmental stage, with <it>Rpl4 </it>as was most stable among the tested genes.</p

Global Standards in Action: Insights from Anti-Money Laundering Regulation

As organizations have come under the increasing influence of global rules of all sorts, organization scholars have started studying the dynamics of global regulation. The purpose of this article is to identify and evaluate the contribution to this interdisciplinary field by the ‘Stockholm Centre for Organisational Research’. The latter’s key proposition is that while global regulation often consists of voluntary best practice rules it can nevertheless become highly influential under certain conditions. We assess how innovative this approach is using as a benchmark the state of the art in another field of relevance to the study of global regulation, i.e. ‘International Relations’. Our discussion is primarily theoretical but we draw on the case of global anti-money laundering regulation to illustrate our arguments and for inspirations of how to further elaborate the approach

Fermi Large Area Telescope Observations of the Cosmic-Ray Induced gamma-ray Emission of the Earth's Atmosphere

We report on measurements of the cosmic-ray induced gamma-ray emission of Earth's atmosphere by the Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The LAT has observed the Earth during its commissioning phase and with a dedicated Earth-limb following observation in September 2008. These measurements yielded 6.4 x 10^6 photons with energies >100MeV and ~250hours total livetime for the highest quality data selection. This allows the study of the spatial and spectral distributions of these photons with unprecedented detail. The spectrum of the emission - often referred to as Earth albedo gamma-ray emission - has a power-law shape up to 500 GeV with spectral index Gamma = 2.79+-0.06.Comment: Accepted for publication in PR

Fermi Large Area Telescope Measurements of the Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission at Intermediate Galactic Latitudes

The diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission is produced by cosmic rays (CRs) interacting with the interstellar gas and radiation field. Measurements by the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory indicated excess gamma-ray emission > 1 GeV relative to diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission models consistent with directly measured CR spectra (the so-called ``EGRET GeV excess''). The excess emission was observed in all directions on the sky, and a variety of explanations have been proposed, including beyond-the-Standard-Model scenarios like annihilating or decaying dark matter. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has measured the diffuse gamma-ray emission with improved sensitivity and resolution compared to EGRET. We report on LAT measurements of the diffuse gamma-ray emission for energies 100 MeV to 10 GeV and Galactic latitudes 10 deg. <= |b| <= 20 deg. The LAT spectrum for this region of the sky is well reproduced by a diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission model that is consistent with local CR spectra and inconsistent with the EGRET GeV excess.Comment: 2 figures, 1 table, accepted by Physical Review Letters, available online Dec. 18th, 200