A high-throughput multiplexed assay (Multiplex Version 1.0) was developed for the differential laboratory diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) from viruses which cause clinically similar diseases of livestock. This assay simultaneously screens for five RNA and two DNA viruses using multiplexed reverse transcription PCR (mRT-PCR) amplification coupled with a microsphere hybridization array and flow-cytometric detection. Two of the seventeen primer-probe sets included in this multiplex assay were adopted from previously characterized real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) assays for FMDV. The diagnostic accuracy of the mRT-PCR was evaluated using 287 field samples, including 248 (true positive n= 213, true negative n=34) from suspect cases of foot-and-mouth disease collected from 65 countries between 1965 and 2006 and 39 true negative samples collected from healthy animals. The mRT-PCR assay results were compared with two singleplex rRT-PCR assays, using virus isolation with antigen-ELISA as the reference method. The diagnostic sensitivity of the mRT-PCR assay for FMDV was 93.9% [95% C.I. 89.8-96.4%], compared to 98.1% [95% C.I. 95.3-99.3%] for the two singleplex rRTPCR assays used in combination. In addition, the assay could reliably differentiate between FMDV and other vesicular viruses such as swine vesicular disease virus and vesicular exanthema of swine virus. Interestingly, the mRT-PCR detected parapoxvirus …

We discuss herein the exciting physics program that can be accomplished with a very large sample of heavy quark and heavy lepton decays produced in the very clean environment of an e{sup +}e{sup -} collider; a program complementary to that of an experiment such as LHCb at a hadronic machine. It then presents the conceptual design of a new type of e{sup +}e{sup -} collider that produces a nearly two-order-of-magnitude increase in luminosity over the current generation of asymmetric B Factories. The key idea is the use of low emittance beams produced in an accelerator lattice derived from the ILC Damping Ring Design, together with a new collision region, again with roots in the ILC final focus design, but with important new concepts developed in this design effort. Remarkably, SuperB produces this very large improvement in luminosity with circulating currents and wallplug power similar to those of the current B Factories. There is clear synergy with ILC R&D; design efforts have already influenced one another, and many aspects of the ILC Damping Rings and Final Focus would be operationally tested at SuperB. Finally, the design of an appropriate detector, based on an upgrade of BABAR as an example, is discussed …