Objectives

Fetuses with pulmonary outflow tract obstruction (POTO) have altered blood flow to the pulmonary vasculature. We sought to determine whether pulmonary vascular impedance, as assessed by the pulsatility index (PI), is different in fetuses with POTO compared with normal controls.

Methods

Branch pulmonary artery PI was evaluated in age-matched normal control fetuses (n=22) and 20 POTO fetuses (pulmonary stenosis n=15, pulmonary atresia n=5). Pulsed-wave Doppler was performed in the proximal (PA1), mid (PA2) and distal (PA3) branch pulmonary artery. The direction of flow in the ductus arteriosus was noted. The study and control groups were compared with Student's t-test and ANOVA. A linear mixed model evaluated the relationship between PI and ductus arteriosus flow patterns.

Results

There was no difference in PI between control, pulmonary stenosis and pulmonary atresia subjects at PA1 and PA2; however, there was a significant difference at PA3. Subjects with pulmonary atresia had a lower PI at PA3 than did controls (P=0.003) and pulmonary stenosis subjects (P=0.003). Subjects with retrograde flow in the ductus arteriosus had lower PIs in PA2 and PA3 than did those with antegrade flow (P=0.01 and 0.005, respectively). The PI in PA3 was lower in fetuses that required prostaglandin postnatally than in those that did not (P=0.008).

Conclusions

Fetuses with pulmonary atresia or severe pulmonary stenosis with retrograde flow in the ductus arteriosus have decreased PI in the distal pulmonary vasculature. Our findings indicate the capacity of the fetal pulmonary vasculature to vasodilate in response to anatomical obstruction of flow.

Associated production of bottomonia and open charm hadrons in pp collisions at s=7 and 8 TeV is observed using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb−1 accumulated with the LHCb detector. The observation of five combinations, Y(1S)D0, Y(2S)D0, Y(1S)D+, Y(2S)D+ and Y(1S)Ds+, is reported. Production crosssections are measured for Y(1S)D0 and Y(1S)D+ pairs in the forward region. The measured cross-sections and the differential distributions indicate the dominance of double parton scattering as the main production mechanism.[Figure not available: see fulltext.]

The difference between the CP asymmetries in the decays Λc+ → pK−K+ and Λc+ → pπ−π+ is presented. Proton-proton collision data taken at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV collected by the LHCb detector in 2011 and 2012 are used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb−1. The Λc+ candidates are reconstructed as part of the Λb0 → Λc+μ−X decay chain. In order to maximize the cancellation of production and detection asymmetries in the difference, the final-state kinematic distributions of the two samples are aligned by applying phase-space-dependent weights to the Λc+ → pπ−π+ sample. This alters the definition of the integrated CP asymmetry to ACPwgt(pπ−π+). Both samples are corrected for reconstruction and selection efficiencies across the five-dimensional Λc+ decay phase space. The difference in CP asymmetries is found to be ΔACPwgt=ACP(pK−K+)−ACPwgt(pπ−π+)=(0.30±0.91±0.61)%, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.[Figure not available: see fulltext.].

A search for the non-resonant decays Bs0 → μ+μ−μ+μ− and B0 → μ+μ−μ+μ− is presented. The measurement is performed using the full Run 1 data set collected in proton-proton collisions by the LHCb experiment at the LHC. The data correspond to integrated luminosities of 1 and 2 fb−1 collected at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, respectively. No signal is observed and upper limits on the branching fractions of the non-resonant decays at 95% confidence level are determined to beℬ(Bs0→μ+μ−μ+μ−)<2.5×10−9,[Figure not available: see fulltext.]

The first observation of the B_{s}^{0}→D[over ¯]^{0}K_{S}^{0} decay mode and evidence for the B_{s}^{0}→D[over ¯]^{*0}K_{S}^{0} decay mode are reported. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3.0  fb^{-1} collected in pp collisions by LHCb at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The branching fractions are measured to be B(B_{s}^{0}→D[over ¯]^{0}K[over ¯]^{0})=[4.3±0.5(stat)±0.3(syst)±0.3(frag)±0.6(norm)]×10^{-4},B(B_{s}^{0}→D[over ¯]^{*0}K[over ¯]^{0})=[2.8±1.0(stat)±0.3(syst)±0.2(frag)±0.4(norm)]×10^{-4},where the uncertainties are due to contributions coming from statistical precision, systematic effects, and the precision of two external inputs, the ratio f_{s}/f_{d} and the branching fraction of B^{0}→D[over ¯]^{0}K_{S}^{0}, which is used as a calibration channel.