Development of the American College of Rheumatology Electronic Clinical Quality Measures for Gout

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143639/1/acr23500.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143639/2/acr23500-sup-0001-AppendixS1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143639/3/acr23500_am.pd

Ex vivo correction of selenoprotein N deficiency in rigid spine muscular dystrophy caused by a mutation in the selenocysteine codon

Premature termination of translation due to nonsense mutations is a frequent cause of inherited diseases. Therefore, many efforts were invested in the development of strategies or compounds to selectively suppress this default. Selenoproteins are interesting candidates considering the idiosyncrasy of the amino acid selenocysteine (Sec) insertion mechanism. Here, we focused our studies on SEPN1, a selenoprotein gene whose mutations entail genetic disorders resulting in different forms of muscular diseases. Selective correction of a nonsense mutation at the Sec codon (UGA to UAA) was undertaken with a corrector tRNASec that was engineered to harbor a compensatory mutation in the anticodon. We demonstrated that its expression restored synthesis of a full-length selenoprotein N both in HeLa cells and in skin fibroblasts from a patient carrying the mutated Sec codon. Readthrough of the UAA codon was effectively dependent on the Sec insertion machinery, therefore being highly selective for this gene and unlikely to generate off-target effects. In addition, we observed that expression of the corrector tRNASec stabilized the mutated SEPN1 transcript that was otherwise more subject to degradation. In conclusion, our data provide interesting evidence that premature termination of translation due to nonsense mutations is amenable to correction, in the context of the specialized selenoprotein synthesis mechanism

Regulatory elements and transcriptional control of chicken vasa homologue (CVH) promoter in chicken primordial germ cells

BACKGROUND: Primordial germ cells (PGCs), the precursors of functional gametes, have distinct characteristics and exhibit several unique molecular mechanisms to maintain pluripotency and germness in comparison to somatic cells. They express germ cell-specific RNA binding proteins (RBPs) by modulating tissue-specific cis- and trans-regulatory elements. Studies on gene structures of chicken vasa homologue (CVH), a chicken RNA binding protein, involved in temporal and spatial regulation are thus important not only for understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate germ cell fate, but also for practical applications of primordial germ cells. However, very limited studies are available on regulatory elements that control germ cell-specific expression in chicken. Therefore, we investigated the intricate regulatory mechanism(s) that governs transcriptional control of CVH. RESULTS: We constructed green fluorescence protein (GFP) or luciferase reporter vectors containing the various 5′ flanking regions of CVH gene. From the 5′ deletion and fragmented assays in chicken PGCs, we have identified a CVH promoter that locates at −316 to +275 base pair fragment with the highest luciferase activity. Additionally, we confirmed for the first time that the 5′ untranslated region (UTR) containing intron 1 is required for promoter activity of the CVH gene in chicken PGCs. Furthermore, using a transcription factor binding prediction, transcriptome analysis and siRNA-mediated knockdown, we have identified that a set of transcription factors play a role in the PGC-specific CVH gene expression. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that cis-elements and transcription factors localizing in the 5′ flanking region including the 5′ UTR and an intron are important for transcriptional regulation of the CVH gene in chicken PGCs. Finally, this information will contribute to research studies in areas of reproductive biology, constructing of germ cell-specific synthetic promoter for tracing primordial germ cells as well as understanding the transcriptional regulation for maintaining germness in PGCs

Joint Transform Correlator Based on Photo-induced Anisotropy in Fluorescein-doped Boric Acid Glass*

Anisotropy in the nonlinear optical properties of fixed organic dye molecules has been used for polarization sensitive four wave mixing1 or transient holography.2,3 Here we demonstrate a joint transform correlator4 which is based on anisotropic angular distribution of fluorescein molecules fixed in boric acid glass.5 Linearly polarized pump light (457.9 nm wavelength) is used excite molecules into their long lived triplet state (lifetime = 0.2 s to 0.008 s depending on temperature). Excited molecules are probed by light from a second, linearly polarised, read beam and make transitions to higher lying triplet states. Since the transition electric dipole moments and the main axis of the polarizability tensor are aligned with the molecular axis, dichroism and birefringence in the glass, which change the state of the read beam polarisation, are controlled by the local pump intensity.</jats:p

Compact diode-pumped passively Q-switched tunable Er-Yb double-clad fiber laser

Highly-efficient repetitive passive Q-switching of a cladding-pumped Er-Yb fiber laser has been demonstrated by employing an external cavity configuration containing a Co2+:ZnS crystal as saturable absorber. Energies up to 60µJ in pulses of duration as short as 3.5ns (FWHM), corresponding to a peak power &gt;10kW, have been generated, and the maximum slope efficiency with respect to absorbed pump power was 13%. Using a bulk diffraction grating in Littrow configuration to provide wavelength selective feedback, the passively Q-switched fiber laser was tuned over 31nm from 1532nm to 1563nm. The prospects for further improvement in performance will be discussed

Gaussian-Mode Radius Polynomials for Modeling Doped Fiber Amplifiers Lasers

NRC publication: Ye

Erbium-doped devices and their applica-tions

Recently, rapid technological progress has been made in rare-earth-doped single-mode fiber amplifiers and lasers.</jats:p