Two analyses are performed using data collected by the LHCb experiment during 2011. Both consider decays of charged B mesons reconstructed in the π±μ+μ− final state. Decays involving dimuons provide an experimentally clean signature, even in the high-background environment of the √s = 7 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The first analysis measures the CP asymmetry of B±→Ψπ± decays using 0.37 fb-1 of data, where the dimuon decays of two resonances are considered, J/ψ→μ+μ− and ψ(2S)→μ+μ−. The branching fraction is measured relative to the Cabibbo favoured B±→ΨK± mode. The second analysis uses 1 fb-1 of data to make the first observation of the non-resonant B±→π±μ+μ− decay. The branching fraction is measured relative to that of B±→K±μ+μ−, and measurements of the CP asymmetry and the ratio of CKM matrix elements Vtd/Vts are obtained. The branching fractions of the decays of interest are found to be B(B±→J/ψ π±) = (3.88 ± 0.11 ± 0.15) x 10-5, B(B±→ψ(2S) π±) = (2.52 ± 0.26 ± 0.15) x 10-5 and B(B±→π±μ+μ−) = (2.48 + 0.57 −0.52 ± 0.17) x 10-8, where the first uncertainty is related to the statistical size of the sample and the second quantifies systematic effects. The measured CP asymmetries in these modes are A CP (J/ψ π) = 0.005 ± 0.027 ± 0.011, A CP (ψ(2S) π) = 0.048 ± 0.090 ± 0.011 and A CP (μμπ) = -0.045 ± 0.220 ± 0.066, with no evidence of direct CP violation seen. The ratio of matrix elements is measured as Vtd/Vts = 0.274 + 0.031 − 0.028 ± 0.008, which is in agreement with previous results.

This thesis describes the incorporation of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles into sol-gel matrices to improve the optical properties of lanthanide ions and these materials can potentially be used in white light devices, optical amplifiers. lasers. and biolabeling. Bright white light has been generated from sol-gel thin films (SiO2 and ZrO2) made with lanthanide-doped nanoparticles through up-conversion of a single 980 nm light source. The up-conversion mechanisms involved in the generation of light has been discussed. A new and potentially efficient up-conversion process named cross-relaxation-enhanced energy-transfer (CREET) up-conversion process has been described. Preparation of semiconductor sol-gel thin films with lanthanide-doped nanoparticles has been discussed and they show energy transfer from the semiconductor matrix to the lanthanide ions. The preparation and bioconjugation of nearly monodisperse (40 nm) silica-coated LaF3:Ln3 nanoparticles has been described.

Abstract INFORMATION NEEDS AND INFORMATION SOURCES OF PATIENTS DIAGNOSED WITH RARE CANCERS By Dana L. Ladd, Ph.D., MS, SLIS BACKGROUND: Approximately 25% of all cancers diagnosed are considered rare. Patients may face many significant challenges including difficulty obtaining information about their rare conditions. Patients often have high information needs and may seek desired information from a variety of informational sources including healthcare providers, media, print, government and non-profit organizations in order to meet their needs. Accessing reliable consumer-level information can be challenging and often information needs are unmet. Dissatisfaction with health information provision can result in negative health-related outcomes and factors including decreased health-related quality of life. METHOD: This cross-sectional design study used validated measures to assess the information needs, information sources, information satisfaction, and health-related quality of life of patients diagnosed with rare cancers (n=113). Adult patients at the VCU Health Massey Cancer Center who had been diagnosed with a rare cancer in the past 12 months were contacted via mail survey. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize patients’ information need and information received levels. Unmet needs were analyzed using a two-sample T-test. Chi-square tests were used to analyze information needs and received by demographics for gender and race and logistic regression analysis was used for age. Descriptive statistics summarized information sources used and preferred. Finally, descriptive statistics were used to summarize information satisfaction. The relationship between information satisfaction and health-related quality of life was assessed using a two-sample T-test. RESULTS: Study participants had high information needs, particularly for information about disease, medical tests, and treatment. Though patients also reported receiving information at high levels, 21 participants (18.9%) reported being unsatisfied with information provision. Unmet needs were found for information about disease and on the item level for information about causes of cancer, whether their cancer was under control, expected benefits of treatment, and financial, insurance, and work-related information. Although participants reported preferring information from their healthcare providers, they most commonly sought information from the Internet more than any other source. CONCLUSION: By identifying patients’ information needs and sources, this study fills an important gap in the information needs and sources literature of patients diagnosed with rare cancers. Identification of these needs allows healthcare providers to tailor information provision to more effectively meet patients’ information needs.

The impact of rare disasters on equity premium and term premium in a New Keynesian DSGE model is explored in the thesis. Andreasen's (2012) model with Epstein-Zin preferences, bonds and a rare disaster shock in total factor productivity process is extended by a variable capital stock and an equity-type asset. We find that the variable capital significantly changes behavior of the model, capital depreciation must be substantially increased to counter the effect of variable capital and stochastic mean of inflation increases. The model calibrated to the US economy and a high risk aversion generates 10-year term premium of 90 basis points, rare disasters increase the premium only by 3 basis points. The equity premium is 163 basis points and rare disasters increase it also only by 3 basis points. The model with a low coefficient of relative risk aversion of 5.5 generates negative risk premia. Rare disasters increase the risk premia by mere 4 basis points in comparison to a model with i.i.d. shocks. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Matthew Totten / The REE distribution patterns and total concentrations of the organic matter of the Woodford shale reveal a potential avenue to investigate hydrocarbon maturation processes in a source rock. Ten samples of the organic matter fraction and 10 samples of the silicate-carbonate fraction of the Woodford shale from north central Oklahoma were analyzed by methods developed at KSU. Thirteen oil samples from Woodford Devonian oil and Mississippian oil samples were analyzed for REE also. REE concentration levels in an average shale range from 170 ppm to 185 ppm, and concentration levels in modern day plants occur in the ppb levels. The REE concentrations in the organic matter of the Woodford Shale samples analyzed ranged from 300 to 800 ppm. The high concentrations of the REEs in the Woodford Shale, as compared to the modern-day plants, are reflections of the transformations of buried Woodford Shale organic materials in post-depositional environmental conditions with potential contributions of exchanges of REE coming from associated sediments. The distribution patterns of REEs in the organic materials normalized to PAAS (post-Archean Australian Shale) had the following significant features: (1) all but two out of the ten samples had a La-Lu trend with HREE enrichment in general, (2) all but two samples showed Ho and Tm positive enrichments, (3) only one sample had positive Eu anomalies, (4) three samples had Ce negative anomalies, although one was with a positive Ce anomaly, (5) all but three out of ten had MREE enrichment by varied degrees. It is hypothesized that Ho and Tm positive anomalies in the organic materials of the Woodford Shale are reflections of enzymic influence related to the plant physiology. Similar arguments may be made for the Eu and the Ce anomalies in the Woodford Shale organic materials. The varied MREE enrichments are likely to have been related to some phosphate mineralization events, as the Woodford Shale is well known for having abundant presence of phosphate nodules. The trend of HREE enrichment in general for the Woodford Shale organic materials can be related to inheritance from sources with REE-complexes stabilized by interaction between the metals and carbonate ligands or carboxylate ligands or both. Therefore, a reasonable suggestion about the history of the REEs in the organic materials would be that both source and burial transformation effects of the deposited organic materials in association with the inorganic constituents had an influence on the general trend and the specific trends in the distribution patterns of the REEs. This study provides a valuable insight into the understandings of the REE landscapes in the organic fraction of the Woodford Shale in northern Oklahoma, linking these understandings to the REE analysis of an oil generated from the same source bed and comparing it to oil produced from younger Mississippian oil. The information gathered from this study may ultimately prove useful to trace the chemical history of oils generated from the Woodford Shale source beds.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Matthew Totten / There are some who hold the view that liquid hydrocarbons in the upper Paleozoic formations in Kansas are being locally derived. It has been the long held belief that the liquid hydrocarbons found in Kansas have come from distant sources in Oklahoma. To shed further light on this issue about the origin of hydrocarbons in the upper Paleozoic formations in Kansas, a study was conducted to analyze the geochemical characteristics of REE in Lansing-Kansas City oils that were collected from several locations in a small area within Rooks County, Kansas. The total REE contents in these oils ranges from about 3.1 ng (or 10-12 gram) per Liter of oil to about 131 ng per Liter of oil. The pattern of relative distribution of the REEs for each oil sample has been constructed from values that were obtained by dividing the individual REE concentrations of a given oil sample by the respective concentrations of the REEs in a standard or a reference sample (such as PAAS, a representation of average argillaceous sediments in the crust that is commonly used for the analyses of a variety of crust originated sedimentary products). A standard- normalized relative distribution pattern of an oil sample can reveal an important history of chemical evolution of the oil of interest. The PAAS-normalized patterns of relative distribution of the REEs in the Lansing-Kansas City oils from Rooks County, Kansas are significantly diverse. Although nearly all oil samples investigated in this study have varied degrees of light REE-enrichment across the REE series from La to Sm, they differed in their relative Ce abundances. Some samples have positive Ce anomalies; some have negative Ce anomalies, and some others with the absence of any Ce anomaly. The oils also differed in their PAAS-normalized relative distribution of the middle rare earth elements (MREEs), ranging from Sm to Tb. All oil samples were relatively enriched in the MREEs, but with varied degrees of enrichment from a prominent one to almost a barely noticeable one. The oils differed in their relative distributions of Eu, as some were with a positive Eu anomaly, some with a negative Eu anomaly, and some with the absence of any Eu anomaly. The trends of the heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) from Tb to Lu among the oils ranged from nearly flat for the most oils to a progressive depletion across the series for few samples. Furthermore, the oils were varied in having prominently anomalous relative distributions, in some cases with a positive anomaly and in others with negative anomaly, for such elements as Tb, Ho, and Tm (MM-JS-04, MM-MC-3A, and MM-MC-01). The anomalies for Tb, Ho, Tm are reflections of enzyme activity of source material during its primary (growth) environment. The metals are known to be preferentially located at the active sites of the enzymes. The oils not only differed significantly in their REE-geochemical characteristics, they also had a wide range of K/Rb weight ratios from about 877 to about 2000. These high values are typically the ones that can be assigned to organic materials, well exceeding the range of values that are associated with common silicate minerals and rocks, having an average value of 250-350ppm. Different zones in the Lansing-Kansas City formations also show distinct REE distribution patterns. There are four broadly classified distribution patterns. MREE enrichment can be observed in samples with production from the middle Lansing-Kansas City zones (G-I). In samples with comingling Lansing-Kansas City zones, amplification of anomalies from differing source materials can be observed. The diversity in the REE distribution patterns and K/Rb ratios in oils collected from central Kansas makes a strong argument against long distance transportation from a distant source in Oklahoma

Abstract : Rare diseases are debilitating conditions often leading to severe clinical manifestations for affected patients. Orphan drugs have been developed to treat these rare diseases affecting a small number of individuals. Incentives in the legal framework aimed to recoup the research and development cost of orphan drugs for pharmaceutical companies have been implemented in the United States and the European Union. At the present time, Canada is still lacking a legal and policy framework for orphan drugs. Several problems at the federal and provincial levels remain: lack of research funds for rare diseases, discrepancies on orphan drug policies between provinces, difficulties to access and reimburse these high price drugs. Recommendations and measures are proposed, such as a pan-Canadian (national) scientific committee to establish evidence-based guidelines for patients to access orphan drugs uniformly in all provinces with a disease specific registry, a formal agreement for a centralized Canadian public funding reimbursement procedure, and increasing the role of “guardian” for prices by the Patented Medicines Review Board in Canada. These recommendations and measures will be beneficial for the implementation of a policy framework for orphan drugs in Canada. / Résumé : Les maladies rares sont des maladies sérieuses pouvant causer des manifestations cliniques sévères chez les patients atteints. Les médicaments orphelins ont été développés pour le traitement de ces maladies rares qui touchent un petit nombre d’individus. Un cadre légal permettant des incitatifs pour les compagnies pharmaceutiques aux États-Unis et au niveau de l’Union Européenne a favorisé la recherche et le développement desdits médicaments. Présentement, il n’existe pas de cadre juridique et de politiques spécifiques au Canada entourant les médicaments orphelins. Ceci a mené à plusieurs problèmes tant au niveau fédéral que provincial dont: un manque de support financier consacré à la recherche pour les maladies rares, des disparités entre les provinces concernant les politiques pour les médicaments orphelins, des difficultés d’accès et de remboursement desdits médicaments dont les coûts sont élevés. Des recommandations et mesures sont proposées, telles l’implantation d’un comité scientifique pancanadien (national) afin d’établir des lignes directrices fondées sur des données probantes pour faciliter un accès uniforme aux médicaments orphelins pour les patients, y compris un registre spécifique élaboré pour chaque maladie, établir une entente formelle centralisée pour tout le Canada pour un financement public de remboursement des médicaments orphelins, augmenter le rôle de « gardien » des prix par le Conseil d’examen du prix des médicaments brevetés au Canada. Ces recommandations et mesures serviront à l’implantation d’un cadre de politiques pour les médicaments orphelins au Canada.

The Dumper Dew is a newly discovered pegmatite located on the eastfacing slope of Uncle Tom Mountain in Oxford County, Maine. It is a geochemically evolved LCT-type pegmatite petrogenetically linked to the middle Paleozoic Sebago batholith. Shallow emplacement of the Dumper Dew is evidenced by abundant miarolitic cavities found in the pegmatite. The sheet-like structure of the pegmatite coupled with its intrusion in lowmetamorphic grade country rock suggests rapid crystallization. Northern portions of the wall zone and intermediate zones have undergone hydrothermal alteration by the migration of late-stage fluids. The pegmatite hosts a diverse assemblage of rare-element mineral phases due to its high degree of geochemical fractionation. Trends of geochemical fractionation of individual mineral phases such as K-feldspar, muscovite, garnet, apatite, beryl, spodumene, triphylite-lithiophilite, tourmaline, cassiterite, and columbite-tantalite were attained via instrumentation assay. These trends illustrate an enhanced degree of magmatic differentiation relative to other pegmatites in the area.

The probability that a sum of random variables (RVs) exceeds (respectively falls below) a given threshold, is often encountered in the performance analysis of wireless communication systems. Generally, a closed-form expression of the sum distribution does not exist and a naive Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is computationally expensive when dealing with rare events. An alternative approach is represented by the use of variance reduction techniques, known for their efficiency in requiring less computations for achieving the same accuracy requirement. For the right-tail region, we develop a unified hazard rate twisting importance sampling (IS) technique that presents the advantage of being logarithmic efficient for arbitrary distributions under the independence assumption. A further improvement of this technique is then developed wherein the twisting is applied only to the components having more impacts on the probability of interest than others. Another challenging problem is when the components are correlated and distributed according to the Log-normal distribution. In this setting, we develop a generalized hybrid IS scheme based on a mean shifting and covariance matrix scaling techniques and we prove that the logarithmic efficiency holds again for two particular instances. We also propose two unified IS approaches to estimate the left-tail of sums of independent positive RVs. The first applies to arbitrary distributions and enjoys the logarithmic efficiency criterion, whereas the second satisfies the bounded relative error criterion under a mild assumption but is only applicable to the case of independent and identically distributed RVs. The left-tail of correlated Log-normal variates is also considered. In fact, we construct an estimator combining an existing mean shifting IS approach with a control variate technique and prove that it possess the asymptotically vanishing relative error property. A further interesting problem is the left-tail estimation of sums of ordered RVs. Two estimators are presented. The first is based on IS and achieves the bounded relative error under a mild assumption. The second is based on conditional MC approach and achieves the bounded relative error property for the Generalized Gamma case and the logarithmic efficiency for the Log-normal case.

As fissuras orofaciais não-sindrômicas (FO-NS) correspondem a 70% de todos os casos de FO, possuem etiologia complexa e pouco compreendida, sendo consideradas de herança multifatorial com forte influência de fatores genéticos e ambientais. Apesar de estudos de análise de ligação e associação apontarem vários loci de susceptibilidade às FO-NS, o componente genético ainda não está totalmente explicado. Fatores ambientais também possuem um importante papel na etiologia das FO, e alguns já foram replicados em várias populações. Fatores como exposição materna ao álcool, drogas, tabaco, medicamentos, desnutrição e baixo nível socioeconômico são alguns dos fatores já associados a esta condição. As infecções periodontais são comuns em mulheres grávidas e estão associadas a parto prematuro, baixo peso fetal e, mais recentemente, foram reportadas como fator de risco aumentado para FO-NS nos fetos. Adicionalmente, o avanço das tecnologias de sequenciamento do DNA melhorou exponencialmente a compreensão do microbioma humano e sua influência no estado de saúde e doença, e, mais especificamente, o conhecimento sobre o impacto do microbioma na gravidez. O objetivo deste projeto foi identificar novos fatores etiológicos genéticos e ambientais das FO-NS. Para isso, primeiramente, sequenciamos 68 genes candidatos a FO por sequenciamento de nova geração em 193 indivíduos com FO-NS familial. Nós encontramos enriquecimento significativo de variantes raras e patogênicas de perda de função nos indivíduos com FO-NS e observamos que essas variantes estão em genes intolerantes a esse tipo de mutação. Também reportamos novas variantes raras do tipo perda de função no gene ARHGAP29 e sua importância na susceptibilidade as FO-NS familiais. Além disso, sugerimos o uso de um ponto de corte baseado no escore pLI do banco de dados ExAC como parâmetro para priorizar variantes em estudos de FO-NS familiares, assumindo modelo de herança mono ou oligogênico. Adicionalmente, estudamos o microbioma oral de mães de crianças com FO-NS e mães de crianças sem malformações, utilizando o sequenciamento da subunidade 16S do rRNA das bactérias com o objetivo de verificar diferenças consistentes na composição do microbioma oral de mães de crianças com FO-NS, levando em consideração a presença ou não de doenças infecciosas periodontais maternas. A casuística foi composta de 6 mães de recém-nascidos de até 1 mês que apresentaram FO-NS ao nascimento e mães de crianças sem qualquer malformação congênita. As análises de alfa e beta diversidades não demonstraram diferença significativa na composição do microbioma oral de mães de crianças com FO-NS e mães de crianças controle, contudo observamos que o grupo com infecções periodontais possui a diversidade taxonômica mais abundante do que o grupo hígido. Em resumo, nesse estudo piloto não foi possível identificar alterações no microbioma oral como um fator etiológico das FO-NS. Novas análises em uma casuística maior são necessárias para a confirmação desse achado / The non-syndromic orofacial clefts (nsOFC) correspond to 70% of all OFC cases, have complex etiology and are poorly understood, being considered multifactorial inheritance with a strong influence of genetic and environmental factors. Although linkage and association analysis studies point to several nsOFC susceptibility loci, the genetic component is not yet fully explained. Environmental factors also play an important role in OFC etiology, and some have been replicated in several populations. Factors such as maternal exposure to alcohol, drugs, tobacco, drugs, malnutrition and low socioeconomic status are some of the factors already associated with this condition. Periodontal infections are common in pregnant women and are associated with preterm birth, low birth weight and, more recently, have been reported as an increased risk factor for nsOFC in fetuses. Additionally, the advancement of DNA sequencing technologies has exponentially improved the understanding of the human microbiome and its influence on health and disease status, and, more specifically, knowledge about the impact of the microbiome on pregnancy. The objective of this project was to identify new genetic and environmental etiological factors of nsOFC. For this, we first sequenced 68 candidate genes by next generation sequencing in 193 individuals with familial nsOFC. We found significant enrichment of rare and pathogenic loss of function variants in individuals with nsOFC and we observed that these variants were in genes intolerant to this type of mutation. We also reported new rare loss-of-function variants in the ARHGAP29 gene and its importance in the liability of familial nsOFC. In addition, we suggested the use of a cutoff point based on the ExAC database pLI score as a parameter to prioritize variants in familial nsOFC studies, assuming a mono or oligogenic inheritance model. In addition, we studied the oral microbiome of 6 mothers of newborns up to 1-month-old with nsOFC and 6 mothers of newborns without congenital malformations using the 16S rRNA sequencing in order to verify consistent differences in the composition of the oral microbiome of mothers of children with nsOFC, taking into account the presence or absence of maternal periodontal infectious diseases. The analysis of alpha and beta diversities did not show a significant difference in the composition of the oral microbiome of mothers of nsOFC children and mothers of control children, however, we observed that the group with periodontal infectious diseases has more abundant taxonomic diversity than the healthy group. In summary, in this pilot study, it was not possible to identify alterations in the oral microbiome as an etiological factor of FO-NS. New analyzes in a larger cohort are necessary to confirm this finding