It’s Time to Open Up the L-1B: How the Emergence of Open Source Technology will Impact the L-1B Visa Program

The L-1 visa program allows multinational companies to transfer both managerial/executive employees and employees who hold “specialized knowledge” to work in the United States. In the Information Technology (IT) industry, it has become increasingly difficult to get workers approved for intra-company transfer due to the way United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) narrowly interprets the definition of specialized knowledge. Although USCIS has issued memoranda that indicate knowledge “need not be proprietary or unique,” in practice, knowledge of proprietary software is the most effective way to prove an employee in the IT industry has specialized knowledge. However, in the last few years, there has been a large shift within the IT industry away from the creation of proprietary products and software and toward open-source technologies and platforms. By definition, open source is the opposite of proprietary software. Any developer with access to the code can use the code to build his or her own product. This Comment explores how the transition to open source platforms will affect the L-1B visa program. This Comment predicts that it will make it even more difficult for multinational IT companies to obtain L-1B approvals and argues that USCIS will need to adopt a new way of analyzing IT worker applications in order to keep up with the industry. In the alternative, this Comment recommends the creation of a new visa category specifically tailored to the changing needs of the IT industry

The Characterization of Twenty Sequenced Human Genomes

We present the analysis of twenty human genomes to evaluate the prospects for identifying rare functional variants that contribute to a phenotype of interest. We sequenced at high coverage ten “case” genomes from individuals with severe hemophilia A and ten “control” genomes. We summarize the number of genetic variants emerging from a study of this magnitude, and provide a proof of concept for the identification of rare and highly-penetrant functional variants by confirming that the cause of hemophilia A is easily recognizable in this data set. We also show that the number of novel single nucleotide variants (SNVs) discovered per genome seems to stabilize at about 144,000 new variants per genome, after the first 15 individuals have been sequenced. Finally, we find that, on average, each genome carries 165 homozygous protein-truncating or stop loss variants in genes representing a diverse set of pathways

Exome sequencing followed by large-scale genotyping fails to identify single rare variants of large effect in idiopathic generalized epilepsy.

Idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) is a complex disease with high heritability, but little is known about its genetic architecture. Rare copy-number variants have been found to explain nearly 3% of individuals with IGE; however, it remains unclear whether variants with moderate effect size and frequencies below what are reliably detected with genome-wide association studies contribute significantly to disease risk. In this study, we compare the exome sequences of 118 individuals with IGE and 242 controls of European ancestry by using next-generation sequencing. The exome-sequenced epilepsy cases include study subjects with two forms of IGE, including juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (n = 93) and absence epilepsy (n = 25). However, our discovery strategy did not assume common genetic control between the subtypes of IGE considered. In the sequence data, as expected, no variants were significantly associated with the IGE phenotype or more specific IGE diagnoses. We then selected 3,897 candidate epilepsy-susceptibility variants from the sequence data and genotyped them in a larger set of 878 individuals with IGE and 1,830 controls. Again, no variant achieved statistical significance. However, 1,935 variants were observed exclusively in cases either as heterozygous or homozygous genotypes. It is likely that this set of variants includes real risk factors. The lack of significant association evidence of single variants with disease in this two-stage approach emphasizes the high genetic heterogeneity of epilepsy disorders, suggests that the impact of any individual single-nucleotide variant in this disease is small, and indicates that gene-based approaches might be more successful for future sequencing studies of epilepsy predisposition.Journal ArticleResearch Support, N.I.H. ExtramuralResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Copy number variant analysis from exome data in 349 patients with epileptic encephalopathy

Infantile spasms (IS) and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) are epileptic encephalopathies characterized by early onset, intractable seizures, and poor developmental outcomes. De novo sequence mutations and copy number variants (CNVs) are causative in a subset of cases. We used exome sequence data in 349 trios with IS or LGS to identify putative de novo CNVs. We confirm 18 de novo CNVs in 17 patients (4.8%), 10 of which are likely pathogenic, giving a firm genetic diagnosis for 2.9% of patients. Confirmation of exome-predicted CNVs by array-based methods is still required due to false-positive rates of prediction algorithms. Our exome-based results are consistent with recent array-based studies in similar cohorts and highlight novel candidate genes for IS and LGS

Copy number variant analysis from exome data in 349 patients with epileptic encephalopathy

Infantile spasms (IS) and Lennox–Gastaut syndrome (LGS) are epileptic encephalopathies characterized by early onset, intractable seizures, and poor developmental outcomes. De novo sequence mutations and copy number variants (CNVs) are causative in a subset of cases. We used exome sequence data in 349 trios with IS or LGS to identify putative de novo CNVs. We confirm 18 de novo CNVs in 17 patients (4.8%), 10 of which are likely pathogenic, giving a firm genetic diagnosis for 2.9% of patients. Confirmation of exome‐predicted CNVs by array‐based methods is still required due to false‐positive rates of prediction algorithms. Our exome‐based results are consistent with recent array‐based studies in similar cohorts and highlight novel candidate genes for IS and LGS. Ann Neurol 2015;78:323–32

De novo mutations in epileptic encephalopathies

<p>Epileptic encephalopathies are a devastating group of severe childhood epilepsy disorders for which the cause is often unknown(1). Here we report a screen for de novo mutations in patients with two classical epileptic encephalopathies: infantile spasms (n = 149) and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (n = 115). We sequenced the exomes of 264 probands, and their parents, and confirmed 329 de novo mutations. A likelihood analysis showed a significant excess of de novo mutations in the similar to 4,000 genes that are the most intolerant to functional genetic variation in the human population (P = 2.9 x 10(-3)). Among these are GABRB3, with de novo mutations in four patients, and ALG13, with the same de novo mutation in two patients; both genes show clear statistical evidence of association with epileptic encephalopathy. Given the relevant site-specific mutation rates, the probabilities of these outcomes occurring by chance are P = 4.1 x 10(-10) and P = 7.8 x 10(-12), respectively. Other genes with de novo mutations in this cohort include CACNA1A, CHD2, FLNA, GABRA1, GRIN1, GRIN2B, HNRNPU, IQSEC2, MTOR and NEDD4L. Finally, we show that the de novo mutations observed are enriched in specific gene sets including genes regulated by the fragile X protein (P <10(-8)), as has been reported previously for autism spectrum disorders(2).</p>

Erratum : De Novo Mutations in Synaptic Transmission Genes Including DNM1 Cause Epileptic Encephalopathies (American Journal of Human Genetics (2014) 95(4) (360–370)(S0002929714003838)(10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.08.013))

(The American Journal of Human Genetics 95, 360–370; October 2, 2014) In the list of consortium members for the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project, member Dina Amrom's name was misspelled as Amron. The authors regret the error

De novo mutations in synaptic transmission genes including DNM1 cause epileptic encephalopathies

none121nononeAppenzeller, Silke; Balling, Rudi; Barisic, Nina; Baulac, Stéphanie; Caglayan, Hande; Craiu, Dana; De Jonghe, Peter; Depienne, Christel; Dimova, Petia; Djémié, Tania; Gormley, Padhraig; Guerrini, Renzo; Helbig, Ingo; Hjalgrim, Helle; Hoffman-Zacharska, Dorota; Jähn, Johanna; Klein, Karl Martin; Koeleman, Bobby; Komarek, Vladimir; Krause, Roland; Kuhlenbäumer, Gregor; Leguern, Eric; Lehesjoki, Anna-Elina; Lemke, Johannes R.; Lerche, Holger; Linnankivi, Tarja; Marini, Carla; May, Patrick; Møller, Rikke S.; Muhle, Hiltrud; Pal, Deb; Palotie, Aarno; Pendziwiat, Manuela; Robbiano, Angela; Roelens, Filip; Rosenow, Felix; Selmer, Kaja; Serratosa, Jose M.; Sisodiya, Sanjay; Stephani, Ulrich; Sterbova, Katalin; Striano, Pasquale; Suls, Arvid; Talvik, Tiina; Von Spiczak, Sarah; Weber, Yvonne; Weckhuysen, Sarah; Zara, Federico; Abou-Khalil, Bassel; Alldredge, Brian K.; Andermann, Eva; Andermann, Frederick; Amron, Dina; Bautista, Jocelyn F.; Berkovic, Samuel F.; Bluvstein, Judith; Boro, Alex; Cascino, Gregory; Consalvo, Damian; Crumrine, Patricia; Devinsky, Orrin; Dlugos, Dennis; Epstein, Michael P.; Fiol, Miguel; Fountain, Nathan B.; French, Jacqueline; Friedman, Daniel; Geller, Eric B.; Glauser, Tracy; Glynn, Simon; Haas, Kevin; Haut, Sheryl R.; Hayward, Jean; Helmers, Sandra L.; Joshi, Sucheta; Kanner, Andres; Kirsch, Heidi E.; Knowlton, Robert C.; Kossoff, Eric H.; Kuperman, Rachel; Kuzniecky, Ruben; Lowenstein, Daniel H.; Mcguire, Shannon M.; Motika, Paul V.; Novotny, Edward J.; Ottman, Ruth; Paolicchi, Juliann M.; Parent, Jack; Park, Kristen; Poduri, Annapurna; Sadleir, Lynette; Scheffer, Ingrid E.; Shellhaas, Renée A.; Sherr, Elliott; Shih, Jerry J.; Singh, Rani; Sirven, Joseph; Smith, Michael C.; Sullivan, Joe; Thio, Liu Lin; Venkat, Anu; Vining, Eileen P.G.; Von Allmen, Gretchen K.; Weisenberg, Judith L.; Widdess-Walsh, Peter; Winawer, Melodie R.; Allen, Andrew S.; Cossette, Patrick; Delanty, Norman; Eichler, Evan E.; Goldstein, David B.; Han, Yujun; Heinzen, Erin L.; Johnson, Michael R.; Marson, Anthony G.; Mefford, Heather C.; Nieh, Sahar Esmaeeli; O'Brien, Terence J.; Petrou, Stephen; Petrovski, Slavé; Ruzzo, Elizabeth K.Appenzeller, Silke; Balling, Rudi; Barisic, Nina; Baulac, Stéphanie; Caglayan, Hande; Craiu, Dana; De Jonghe, Peter; Depienne, Christel; Dimova, Petia; Djémié, Tania; Gormley, Padhraig; Guerrini, Renzo; Helbig, Ingo; Hjalgrim, Helle; Hoffman Zacharska, Dorota; Jähn, Johanna; Klein, Karl Martin; Koeleman, Bobby; Komarek, Vladimir; Krause, Roland; Kuhlenbäumer, Gregor; Leguern, Eric; Lehesjoki, Anna Elina; Lemke, Johannes R.; Lerche, Holger; Linnankivi, Tarja; Marini, Carla; May, Patrick; Møller, Rikke S.; Muhle, Hiltrud; Pal, Deb; Palotie, Aarno; Pendziwiat, Manuela; Robbiano, Angela; Roelens, Filip; Rosenow, Felix; Selmer, Kaja; Serratosa, Jose M.; Sisodiya, Sanjay; Stephani, Ulrich; Sterbova, Katalin; Striano, Pasquale; Suls, Arvid; Talvik, Tiina; Von Spiczak, Sarah; Weber, Yvonne; Weckhuysen, Sarah; Zara, Federico; Abou Khalil, Bassel; Alldredge, Brian K.; Andermann, Eva; Andermann, Frederick; Amron, Dina; Bautista, Jocelyn F.; Berkovic, Samuel F.; Bluvstein, Judith; Boro, Alex; Cascino, Gregory; Consalvo, Damian; Crumrine, Patricia; Devinsky, Orrin; Dlugos, Dennis; Epstein, Michael P.; Fiol, Miguel; Fountain, Nathan B.; French, Jacqueline; Friedman, Daniel; Geller, Eric B.; Glauser, Tracy; Glynn, Simon; Haas, Kevin; Haut, Sheryl R.; Hayward, Jean; Helmers, Sandra L.; Joshi, Sucheta; Kanner, Andres; Kirsch, Heidi E.; Knowlton, Robert C.; Kossoff, Eric H.; Kuperman, Rachel; Kuzniecky, Ruben; Lowenstein, Daniel H.; Mcguire, Shannon M.; Motika, Paul V.; Novotny, Edward J.; Ottman, Ruth; Paolicchi, Juliann M.; Parent, Jack; Park, Kristen; Poduri, Annapurna; Sadleir, Lynette; Scheffer, Ingrid E.; Shellhaas, Renée A.; Sherr, Elliott; Shih, Jerry J.; Singh, Rani; Sirven, Joseph; Smith, Michael C.; Sullivan, Joe; Thio, Liu Lin; Venkat, Anu; Vining, Eileen P. G.; Von Allmen, Gretchen K.; Weisenberg, Judith L.; Widdess Walsh, Peter; Winawer, Melodie R.; Allen, Andrew S.; Cossette, Patrick; Delanty, Norman; Eichler, Evan E.; Goldstein, David B.; Han, Yujun; Heinzen, Erin L.; Johnson, Michael R.; Marson, Anthony G.; Mefford, Heather C.; Nieh, Sahar Esmaeeli; O'Brien, Terence J.; Petrou, Stephen; Petrovski, Slavé; Ruzzo, Elizabeth K

De Novo Mutations in Synaptic Transmission Genes Including DNM1 Cause Epileptic Encephalopathies.

In the list of consortium members for the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project, member Dina Amrom’s name was misspelled as Amron. The authors regret the error