In-beam γ-ray spectroscopy of Pt isotopes located at the proton drip line

In-beam g rays have been observed in the neutron-deficient isotopes 170,171,172Pt using the recoil-decay tagging technique. The yrast transition sequence proposed for 172Pt indicates that the 01 bandhead of the deformed intruder band is situated about 900 keV above the weakly deformed ground state, i.e., its excitation energy has risen by about 300 keV compared to 174Pt. The measured energy of the 21 !01 transition in 170Pt supports an even larger increase in the excitation energy of the intruder configuration with the departure from the middle of the 82–126 major neutron shell. Furthermore, a band with transition energies almost identical to those found in 172Pt has been assigned to 171Pt and was interpreted as corresponding to a rotationally aligned i13/2 neutron orbital coupled to the core excitations

Spectroscopy of 193,195,197Po

Excited states built on the 13/21 isomers of the odd-mass 193,195,197Po isotopes have been observed via in-beam g-ray spectroscopy. The a radioactivity of these isotopes has been used to tag g -ray transitions following the AEr1164 MeV 32S reactions, where A5164, 166, 167, 168, and 170. Prompt g radiation was measured by ten Compton-suppressed Ge detectors at the target position and the Fragment Mass Analyzer was used to select evaporation residues. The results are compared with the first excited states of the heavier odd-mass polonium isotopes and of the even-mass cores

Plasma lipid profiles discriminate bacterial from viral infection in febrile children

Fever is the most common reason that children present to Emergency Departments. Clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of bacterial infection ar

Detection of the CMT1A/HNPP recombination hotspot in unrelated patients of European descent

Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1 disease (CMT1) and hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies (HNPP) are common inherited disorders of the peripheral nervous system. The majority of CMT1 patients have a 1.5Mb tandem duplication (CMT1A) in chromosome 17p11.2 while most HNPP patients have a deletion of the same 1.5 Mb region. The CMT1A duplication and HNPP deletion are the reciprocal products of an unequal crossing over event between misaligned flanking CMT1A-REP elements. We analysed 162 unrelated CMT1A duplication patients and HNPP deletion patients from 11 different countries for the presence of a recombination hotspot in the CMT1A-REP sequences. A hotspot for unequal crossing over between the misaligned flanking CMT1A-REP elements was observed through the detection of novel junction fragments in 76.9% of 130 unrelated CMT1A patients and in 71.9% of 32 unrelated HNPP patients. This recombination hotspot was also detected in eight out of 10 de novo CMT1A duplication and in two de novo HNPP deletion patients. These data indicate that the hotspot of unequal crossing over occurs in several populations independently of ethnic background and is directly involved in the pathogenesis of CMT1A and HNPP. We conclude that the detection of junction fragments from the CMT1A-REP element on Southern blot analysis is a simple and reliable DNA diagnostic tool for the identification of the CMT1A duplication and HNPP deletion in most patients