Research dissertation to published paper: the journey to a successful publication.

Background Many dental professionals are now completing higher degrees that involve a research project. However, many of those research projects, although worthwhile, are not written up for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.Aim To encourage and assist novice authors in transferring their project report into a paper to submit for publication.Discussion The relationship between the authors and contributors is considered, and advice is given on how to focus on the specific research question and produce a succinct paper within the target journal's word limit. Emphasis is placed on choosing the right journal for submission and the need to follow the 'instructions to authors', as well as what happens post-submission, post-acceptance and post-publication. Furthermore, some of the difficulties that the authors have encountered on their own publication journeys are highlighted.Conclusion Great satisfaction will be derived if the novice researcher makes the most of their opportunity of undertaking a research project and subsequently getting it published in a peer-reviewed journal. Publishing gives the author recognition within their professional community, a feeling of personal achievement, can create better career perspectives and allows others to build on the work.

#Teeth&Tweets: the reach and reaction of an online social media oral health promotion campaign.

Aim The aim of the study was to investigate: i) the geographical reach and reaction of the online participants engaging in an oral health campaign 'National Smile Month' UK 2016 (NSM); and ii) whether dental practices during NSM were using Twitter to help address regional oral health inequalities.Methods Twitter posts, that is 'tweets', were collected using the application programming interface (API) software Mozdeh, for one month. Tweets were classified into high, medium or low engagement. Participants' postcode data of the organisation/practice were obtained via an internet search using Google. The geolocation of tweets was then linked by organisations' postcode to the 2015 Index of Multiple Deprivation and the oral health survey of five-year-olds 2014/15, and subsequently mapped using Google Fusion Tables.Results A total of 23,100 tweets were captured with a final total of 2,968 usable tweets from 763 separate accounts. Two hundred and twelve tweets were from dental practices, with 107 classified as low engagement, 99 medium, and 45 high engagement (39 of those tweets were from organisations allied to oral health). Interactive maps were created to give a visual representation of the relationship between those participants producing 'high' impact tweets and the level of dental decay in five-year-olds and deprivation levels.Conclusion The majority of tweets did not promote any specific preventative behaviour. Dental practices in England were not contributing to National Smile Month via Twitter in a way that would improve regional oral health inequalities. In areas of high-need there is evidence of proactive engagement with NSM via Twitter by local authorities and their healthcare partners.

Parental and chromosomal origins of microdeletion and duplication syndromes involving 7q11.23, 15q11-q13 and 22q11.

Non-allelic homologous recombination between chromosome-specific LCRs is the most common mechanism leading to recurrent microdeletions and duplications. To look for locus-specific differences, we have used microsatellites to determine the parental and chromosomal origins of a large series of patients with de novo deletions of chromosome 7q11.23 (Williams syndrome), 15q11-q13 (Angelman syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome) and 22q11 (Di George syndrome) and duplications of 15q11-q13. Overall the majority of rearrangements were interchromosomal, so arising from unequal meiotic exchange, and there were approximately equal numbers of maternal and paternal deletions. Duplications and deletions of 15q11-q13 appear to be reciprocal products that arise by the same mechanisms. The proportion arising from interchromosomal exchanges varied among deletions with 22q11 the highest and 15q11-q13 the lowest. However, parental and chromosomal origins were not always independent. For 15q11-q13, maternal deletions tended to be interchromosomal while paternal deletions tended to be intrachromosomal; for 22q11 there was a possible excess of maternal cases among intrachromosomal deletions. Several factors are likely to be involved in the formation of recurrent rearrangements and the relative importance of these appear to be locus-specific.

Parental and chromosomal origin of unbalanced de novo structural chromosome abnormalities in man.

We report the parental origin, and where possible the chromosomal origin of 115 de novo unbalanced structural chromosome abnormalities detectable by light microscopy. These consisted of 39 terminal deletions, 35 interstitial deletions, 8 rings, 12 duplications and 21 unbalanced translocations. In all categories the majority of abnormalities were of paternal origin, although the proportions varied from a high of 84% in the interstitial deletions and rings to a low of 58% in the duplications. Among the interstitial deletions and duplications, there were approximately equal numbers of intra- and interchromosomal abnormalities, while the majority of unbalanced translocations were isodisomic for the duplicated chromosome. The examination of the parental ages in the four main classes of abnormality showed terminal deletions of maternal origin to be associated with a significantly reduced maternal age. Thus, there is a clear propensity for structural chromosome abnormalities to occur in male germ cells, although the chromosomal origin seems similar irrespective of the parental origin.

A high-density SNP map for the FRAX region of the X chromosome. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most common type of genetic variation within the human genome, occurring approximately once every kilobase. However, for association studies, SNPs are not as informative as microsatellite markers and a large number of SNPs and substantial population sizes are required for linkage and mapping studies. A SNP map was generated for the FRAX region of the X chromosome, approximately 0.8 Mb proximal and 1.8 Mb distal to the FRAXA repeat, at a density of at least 1 SNP every 100 kb. SNPs were identified in a population of 28 women with a FRAXA expan-sion (including three women with a FRAXE expansion) on a background of different DXS548, CA1 and CA2 haplotypes, and a normal X chromosome with a different microsatellite haplotype. Fifty-four polymorphisms were identified in a total of 52 257 bp distributed over 2.6 Mb. This represented about 1 SNP every 1024 bp, which was consistent with a nondesert region (1 : 1000 bp). Because the SNPs identified in this study have haplotype and frequency data from an affected population, they should provide a useful resource for researchers to investigate the genetic mechanisms behind instability and expansion of both FRAXA and FRAXE triplet repeats.