First Measurement Using Elliptically Polarized Photons of the Double-Polarization Observable E for γp→pπ^{0} and γp→nπ^{+}.

We report the measurement of the helicity asymmetry E for the pπ^{0} and nπ^{+} final states using, for the first time, an elliptically polarized photon beam in combination with a longitudinally polarized target at the Crystal Ball experiment at MAMI. The results agree very well with data that were taken with a circularly polarized photon beam, showing that it is possible to simultaneously measure polarization observables that require linearly (e.g.

Mitochondrial point heteroplasmy: insights from deep-sequencing of human replicate samples.

Background: Human mitochondrial heteroplasmy is an extensively investigated phenomenon in the context of medical diagnostics, forensic identification and molecular evolution. However, technical limitations of high-throughput sequencing hinder reliable determination of point heteroplasmies (PHPs) with minor allele frequencies (MAFs) within the noise threshold.

Results: To investigate the PHP landscape at an MAF threshold down to 0.

Refining the Global Phylogeny of Mitochondrial N1a, X, and HV2 Haplogroups Based on Rare Mitogenomes from Croatian Isolates.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been used for decades as a predominant tool in population genetics and as a valuable addition to forensic genetic research, owing to its unique maternal inheritance pattern that enables the tracing of individuals along the maternal lineage across numerous generations. The dynamic interplay between evolutionary forces, primarily genetic drift, bottlenecks, and the founder effect, can exert significant influence on genetic profiles. Consequently, the Adriatic islands have accumulated a subset of lineages that exhibits remarkable absence or rarity within other European populations.

Human whole mitochondrial genome sequencing and analysis: optimization of the experimental workflow.

Aim: To evaluate critical steps in Illumina® Human mtDNA Genome assay: target enrichment, limited-cycle PCR, and library normalization, in order to optimize the protocol for analysis of whole mitochondrial genomes from human reference samples.

Methods: Three long-range high-fidelity DNA polymerases (PlatinumTM PCR SuperMix High Fidelity, LA Taq® Hot Start, and PrimeSTAR® GXL) were tested for their performance in the amplification of mtDNA fragments. Sequencing results of ten samples, as well as negative controls, which underwent library preparation with 12 and 15 cycles in limited-cycle PCR were compared.

Measurement of Compton Scattering at MAMI for the Extraction of the Electric and Magnetic Polarizabilities of the Proton.

A precise measurement of the differential cross sections dσ/dΩ and the linearly polarized photon beam asymmetry Σ_{3} for Compton scattering on the proton below pion threshold has been performed with a tagged photon beam and almost 4π detector at the Mainz Microtron. The incident photons were produced by the recently upgraded Glasgow-Mainz photon tagging facility and impinged on a cryogenic liquid hydrogen target, with the scattered photons detected in the Crystal Ball/TAPS setup. Using the highest statistics Compton scattering data ever measured on the proton along with two effective field theories (both covariant baryon and heavy-baryon) and one fixed-t dispersion relation model, constraining the fits with the Baldin sum rule, we have obtained the proton electric and magnetic polarizabilities with unprecedented precision: α_{E1}=10.