Targeted next-generation sequencing on hirschsprung disease: A pilot study exploits DNA pooling

To adopt an efficient approach of identifying rare variants possibly related to Hirschsprung disease (HSCR), a pilot study was set up to evaluate the performance of a newly designed protocol for next generation targeted resquencing. In total, 20 Chinese HSCR patients and 20 Chinese sex-matched individuals with no HSCR were included, for which coding sequences (CDS) of 62 genes known to be in signaling pathways relevant to enteric nervous system development were selected for capture and sequencing. Blood DNAs from eight pools of five cases or controls were enriched by PCR-based RainDance technology (RDT) and then sequenced on a 454 FLX platform. As technical validation, five patients from case Pool-3 were also independently enriched by RDT, indexed with barcode and sequenced with sufficient coverage. Assessment for CDS single nucleotide variants showed DNA pooling performed well (specificity/sensitivity at 98.4%/83.7%) at the common variant level; but relatively worse (specificity/sensitivity at 65.5%/61.3%) at the rare variant level. Further Sanger sequencing only validated five out of 12 rare damaging variants likely involved in HSCR. Hence more improvement at variant detection and sequencing technology is needed to realize the potential of DNA pooling for large-scale resequencing projects. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/University College London.postprin

Constraints from Solar and Reactor Neutrinos on Unparticle Long-Range Forces

We have investigated the impact of long-range forces induced by unparticle operators of scalar, vector and tensor nature coupled to fermions in the interpretation of solar neutrinos and KamLAND data. If the unparticle couplings to the neutrinos are mildly non-universal, such long-range forces will not factorize out in the neutrino flavour evolution. As a consequence large deviations from the observed standard matter-induced oscillation pattern for solar neutrinos would be generated. In this case, severe limits can be set on the infrared fix point scale, Lambda_u, and the new physics scale, M, as a function of the ultraviolet (d_UV) and anomalous (d) dimension of the unparticle operator. For a scalar unparticle, for instance, assuming the non-universality of the lepton couplings to unparticles to be of the order of a few per mil we find that, for d_UV=3 and d=1.1, M is constrained to be M > O(10^9) TeV (M > O(10^10) TeV) if Lambda_u= 1 TeV (10 TeV). For given values of Lambda_u and d, the corresponding bounds on M for vector [tensor] unparticles are approximately 100 [3/Sqrt(Lambda_u/TeV)] times those for the scalar case. Conversely, these results can be translated into severe constraints on universality violation of the fermion couplings to unparticle operators with scales which can be accessible at future colliders.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes due to precision in numerical factors and correction in figure labels. References added. Conclusions remain unchange

Bridging dentistry and traditional Chinese medicine : a study on the current mutual understanding among the future practitioners

Objectives: This project aimed to promote the mutual understanding between dental and TCM students. The objectives were to describe the current teaching of dentistry in the TCM schools and that of TCM in the dental school, to describe the TCM students’ knowledge on dentistry and the dental students’ knowledge on TCM, and to produce promotional materials for enhancing the mutual understanding between dental and TCM students. Methods: Information on the current teaching of dentistry in the TCM schools and that of TCM in the dental school was collected through a search on the undergraduate programme syllabus and conducting interviews with the leaders of the schools. Questionnaire surveys were conducted among the final year students of the TCM and the dental schools to collect information on their knowledge of the counter profession. Two leaflets and a short video were produced with the aid of computer software and used in the promotional activities. Results: It was found that very little information on dentistry was covered in the undergraduate programmes of the three TCM schools, and vice versa in the dental school. A total of 39 TCM students and 55 dental students completed the questionnaire survey. Most of the students did not know the basic theories and practice of the counter profession. Less than half of the student knew what types of patient cases may be suitable for cross-referral to the other profession. Conclusions: The TCM and dental schools in Hong Kong do not have scheduled teaching on the counter profession. The TCM students have little knowledge on dentistry and how to collaborate with dental practitioners on patients presented with oral problems. Conversely, it is the same for the dental students. Lastly, informative printed and audio-visual promotional materials can be produced with limited resources and used to facilitate the mutual understanding between TCM and dental practitioners.published_or_final_versio

ALMA Survey of Orion Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (ALMASOP) : How Do Dense Core Properties Affect the Multiplicity of Protostars?

During the transition phase from a prestellar to a protostellar cloud core, one or several protostars can form within a single gas core. The detailed physical processes of this transition, however, remain unclear. We present 1.3 mm dust continuum and molecular line observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array toward 43 protostellar cores in the Orion molecular cloud complex (lambda Orionis, Orion B, and Orion A) with an angular resolution of similar to 0.'' 35 (similar to 140 au). In total, we detect 13 binary/multiple systems. We derive an overall multiplicity frequency (MF) of 28% +/- 4% and a companion star fraction (CSF) of 51% +/- 6%, over a separation range of 300-8900 au. The median separation of companions is about 2100 au. The occurrence of stellar multiplicity may depend on the physical characteristics of the dense cores. Notably, those containing binary/multiple systems tend to show a higher gas density and Mach number than cores forming single stars. The integral-shaped filament of the Orion A giant molecular cloud (GMC), which has the highest gas density and hosts high-mass star formation in its central region (the Orion Nebula cluster), shows the highest MF and CSF among the Orion GMCs. In contrast, the lambda Orionis GMC has a lower MF and CSF than the Orion B and Orion A GMCs, indicating that feedback from H ii regions may suppress the formation of multiple systems. We also find that the protostars comprising a binary/multiple system are usually at different evolutionary stages.Peer reviewe

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum