Detection and verification of malting quality QTLs using wild barley introgression lines

A malting quality quantitative trait locus (QTL) study was conducted using a set of 39 wild barley introgression lines (hereafter abbreviated with S42ILs). Each S42IL harbors a single marker-defined chromosomal segment from the wild barley accession ‘ISR 42-8’ (Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum) within the genetic background of the elite spring barley cultivar ‘Scarlett’ (Hordeum vulgare ssp. vulgare). The aim of the study was (1) to verify genetic effects previously identified in the advanced backcross population S42, (2) to detect new QTLs, and (3) to identify S42ILs exhibiting multiple QTL effects. For this, grain samples from field tests in three different environments were subjected to micro malting. Subsequently, a line × phenotype association study was performed with the S42ILs in order to localize putative QTL effects. A QTL was accepted if the trait value of a particular S42IL was significantly (P < 0.05) different from the recurrent parent as a control, either across all tested environments or in a particular environment. For eight malting quality traits, altogether 40 QTLs were localized, among which 35 QTLs (87.5%) were stable across all environments. Six QTLs (15.0%) revealed a trait improving wild barley effect. Out of 36 QTLs detected in a previous advanced backcross QTL study with the parent BC2DH population S42, 18 QTLs (50.0%) could be verified with the S42IL set. For the quality parameters α-amylase activity and Hartong 45°C, all QTLs assessed in population S42 were verified by S42ILs. In addition, eight new QTL effects and 17 QTLs affecting two newly investigated traits were localized. Two QTL clusters harboring simultaneous effects on eight and six traits, respectively, were mapped to chromosomes 1H and 4H. In future, fine-mapping of these QTL regions will be conducted in order to shed further light on the genetic basis of the most interesting QTLs

Gallstones and the risk of biliary tract cancer: a population-based study in China

We conducted a population-based study of 627 patients with biliary tract cancers (368 of gallbladder, 191 bile duct, and 68 ampulla of Vater), 1037 with biliary stones, and 959 healthy controls randomly selected from the Shanghai population, all personally interviewed. Gallstone status was based on information from self-reports, imaging procedures, surgical notes, and medical records. Among controls, a transabdominal ultrasound was performed to detect asymptomatic gallstones. Gallstones removed from cancer cases and gallstone patients were classified by size, weight, colour, pattern, and content of cholesterol, bilirubin, and bile acids. Of the cancer patients, 69% had gallstones compared with 23% of the population controls. Compared with subjects without gallstones, odds ratios associated with gallstones were 23.8 (95% confidence interval (CI), 17.0–33.4), 8.0 (95% CI 5.6–11.4), and 4.2 (95% CI 2.5–7.0) for cancers of the gallbladder, extrahepatic bile ducts, and ampulla of Vater, respectively, persisting when restricted to those with gallstones at least 10 years prior to cancer. Biliary cancer risks were higher among subjects with both gallstones and self-reported cholecystitis, particularly for gallbladder cancer (OR=34.3, 95% CI 19.9–59.2). Subjects with bile duct cancer were more likely to have pigment stones, and with gallbladder cancer to have cholesterol stones (P<0.001). Gallstone weight in gallbladder cancer was significantly higher than in gallstone patients (4.9 vs 2.8 grams; P=0.001). We estimate that in Shanghai 80% (95% CI 75–84%), 59% (56–61%), and 41% (29–59%) of gallbladder, bile duct, and ampulla of Vater cancers, respectively, could be attributed to gallstones

Team Learning: the Missing Construct from a Cross-Cultural Examination of Higher Education?

Team learning should be an important construct in organizational management research because team learning can enhance organizational learning and overall performance. However, there is limited understanding of how team learning works in different cultural contexts. Using an international comparative research approach, we developed a framework of antecedents and outcomes in the higher education context and tested it with samples from the UK and Vietnam. The results show that a common framework is applicable in the two different contexts, subject to slight modifications. However, this study does not find that team learning (measured via the proxy of “attitude towards team learning”) exhibits any statistically significant relationship as a predictor of the proposed outcomes. Other findings from this study on educational contexts are important not only to scholars in this field, but also for practicing managers, particularly those who study and operate in the extensive global market

Direction-Selective Circuitry in Rat Retina Develops Independently of GABAergic, Cholinergic and Action Potential Activity

The ON-OFF direction selective ganglion cells (DSGCs) in the mammalian retina code image motion by responding much more strongly to movement in one direction. They do so by receiving inhibitory inputs selectively from a particular sector of processes of the overlapping starburst amacrine cells, a type of retinal interneuron. The mechanisms of establishment and regulation of this selective connection are unknown. Here, we report that in the rat retina, the morphology, physiology of the ON-OFF DSGCs and the circuitry for coding motion directions develop normally with pharmacological blockade of GABAergic, cholinergic activity and/or action potentials for over two weeks from birth. With recent results demonstrating light independent formation of the retinal DS circuitry, our results strongly suggest the formation of the circuitry, i.e., the connections between the second and third order neurons in the visual system, can be genetically programmed, although emergence of direction selectivity in the visual cortex appears to require visual experience

Search for dark matter produced in association with a single top quark or a top quark pair in proton-proton collisions at s=13 TeV

A search has been performed for heavy resonances decaying to ZZ or ZW in 2l2q final states, with two charged leptons (l = e, mu) produced by the decay of a Z boson, and two quarks produced by the decay of a W or Z boson. The analysis is sensitive to resonances with masses in the range from 400 to 4500 GeV. Two categories are defined based on the merged or resolved reconstruction of the hadronically decaying vector boson, optimized for high- and low-mass resonances, respectively. The search is based on data collected during 2016 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in proton-proton collisions with a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). No excess is observed in the data above the standard model background expectation. Upper limits on the production cross section of heavy, narrow spin-1 and spin-2 resonances are derived as a function of the resonance mass, and exclusion limits on the production of W' bosons and bulk graviton particles are calculated in the framework of the heavy vector triplet model and warped extra dimensions, respectively.A search has been performed for heavy resonances decaying to ZZ or ZW in 2l2q final states, with two charged leptons (l = e, mu) produced by the decay of a Z boson, and two quarks produced by the decay of a W or Z boson. The analysis is sensitive to resonances with masses in the range from 400 to 4500 GeV. Two categories are defined based on the merged or resolved reconstruction of the hadronically decaying vector boson, optimized for high- and low-mass resonances, respectively. The search is based on data collected during 2016 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in proton-proton collisions with a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). No excess is observed in the data above the standard model background expectation. Upper limits on the production cross section of heavy, narrow spin-1 and spin-2 resonances are derived as a function of the resonance mass, and exclusion limits on the production of W' bosons and bulk graviton particles are calculated in the framework of the heavy vector triplet model and warped extra dimensions, respectively.A search for dark matter produced in association with top quarks in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is presented. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1) recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC. Whereas previous searches for neutral scalar or pseudoscalar mediators considered dark matter production in association with a top quark pair only, this analysis also includes production modes with a single top quark. The results are derived from the combination of multiple selection categories that are defined to target either the single top quark or the top quark pair signature. No significant deviations with respect to the standard model predictions are observed. The results are interpreted in the context of a simplified model in which a scalar or pseudoscalar mediator particle couples to a top quark and subsequently decays into dark matter particles. Scalar and pseudoscalar mediator particles with masses below 290 and 300 GeV, respectively, are excluded at 95% confidence level, assuming a dark matter particle mass of 1 GeV and mediator couplings to fermions and dark matter particles equal to unity.Peer reviewe

Search for the pair production of light top squarks in the e(+/-)mu(-/+) final state in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search for the production of a pair of top squarks at the LHC is presented. This search targets a region of parameter space where the kinematics of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar, because of the mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino being close to the top quark mass. The search is performed with 35.9 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV, collected by the CMS detector in 2016, using events containing one electron-muon pair with opposite charge. The search is based on a precise estimate of the top quark pair background, and the use of the M-T2 variable, which combines the transverse mass of each lepton and the missing transverse momentum. No excess of events is found over the standard model predictions. Exclusion limits are placed at 95% confidence level on the production of top squarks up to masses of 208 GeV for models with a mass difference between the top squark and the lightest neutralino close to that of the top quark.Peer reviewe

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe