Retinal gene therapy with a large MYO7A cDNA using adeno-associated virus.

Usher 1 patients are born profoundly deaf and then develop retinal degeneration. Thus they are readily identified before the onset of retinal degeneration, making gene therapy a viable strategy to prevent their blindness. Here, we have investigated the use of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) for the delivery of the Usher 1B gene, MYO7A, to retinal cells in cell culture and in Myo7a-null mice. MYO7A cDNA, under control of a smCBA promoter, was packaged in single AAV2 and AAV5 vectors and as two overlapping halves in dual AAV2 vectors. The 7.9-kb smCBA-MYO7A exceeds the capacity of an AAV vector; packaging of such oversized constructs into single AAV vectors may involve fragmentation of the gene. Nevertheless, the AAV2 and AAV5 single vector preparations successfully transduced photoreceptor and retinal pigment epithelium cells, resulting in functional, full-length MYO7A protein and correction of mutant phenotypes, suggesting successful homologous recombination of gene fragments. With discrete, conventional-sized dual AAV2 vectors, full-length MYO7A was detected, but the level of protein expression was variable, and only a minority of cells showed phenotype correction. Our results show that MYO7A therapy with AAV2 or AAV5 single vectors is efficacious; however, the dual AAV2 approach proved to be less effective

Parents' and Teachers' Perceptions of Effective Parent Involvement

98 leavesThe purpose of this study was two-fold: to learn if parents and teachers have different perceptions of the ways parents can effectively be involved in their children's education and to learn what parents and teachers would suggest to improve parent involvement in the school. These perceptions were measured using an original survey of two questions. The first question asked those surveyed to define parental involvement; the second question asked what the school could do to improve parental involvement. The participants included 117 parents and 16 teachers from an elementary school located in Des Moines Iowa. Each response was recorded verbatim on individual note cards. The individual responses of both parents and teachers were then content-analyzed for each survey question. The note cards were sorted by the researcher looking for trends that would lead to common categories. A preliminary label was then assigned to each group of statement cards. The researcher reevaluated each set of cards looking at the individual statements to determine if they fit within a category. After reevaluating the statement cards several times, they were further subdivided according to common themes until each statement had been properly assigned within a category. A frequency count was completed for each category. The total number of surveys completed was then divided by the number of statements in each category to provide percentages for categories and sub-categories. A team of experts was asked to validate the researcher's categorization of the responses by teachers and parents. The team included a female elementary principal, a male elementary principal, and a university professor who brought an analytical perspective to the team. Six research questions were addressed regarding parental involvement. The first three evaluated what parents and teachers each believe to be effective parent involvement and then how their perceptions are similar and different. The last three evaluated what parents and teachers each believe the school can do to improve parental involvement and how their perceptions are similar and different. The study indicates that both parents and teachers define effective involvement using many of the same qualities but differ when determining how frequent parents should be involved. Parents and teachers both viewed communication as the most important factor in improving effective parent involvement. This exploratory study provides the insight that the perceptions of both parents and teachers are not easily predictable nor can they be summarized in two or three statements. Both parents and teachers shared strong views about what they believe to be effective. Among the recommendations is that the school has a base of information in understanding the differences of both parents and teachers to taylor the parental involvement program to be more meaningful to both parties. The survey also provides topic for staff inservices to help staff better understand parent involvement from both parent and teacher perspectives

energy performance of chp system integrated with citrus peel air steam gasification a comparative study

Abstract The aim of this work is to exploit the potential of residual biomass, different from the traditional wood feedstock, by thermochemical gasification process. In particular, citrus peels waste of the juice extraction process, was selected since it is a typical local Sicilian residue. The citrus peel conversion performances in air-steam gasification process were evaluated and compared with those obtained with pinewood as feedstock. Experimental activities of air-steam gasification were carried out in a bench-scale fluidized bed reactor at 1023 K, for both citrus peel and pinewood, varying the steam to biomass ratio (S/B). A simulation model of the experimental facility was developed in order to find a useful tool to realize the virtual scale-up of the system with downstream syngas utilization. The cold gas efficiency (CGE) and the net cold gas efficiency (CGE net ) were calculated to define the best gasification conditions. Results showed that using pinewood a very low reactivity can be observed, showing a very low net CGE. The highest net CGE for citrus peel was observed at S/B = 0.5, while for pinewood the addition of water did not improve the net CGE. Finally, an integration of the citrus peel gasification system with a commercial CHP unit was proposed and the efficiencies were evaluated

Syzygies of torsion bundles and the geometry of the level l modular variety over M_g

We formulate, and in some cases prove, three statements concerning the purity or, more generally the naturality of the resolution of various rings one can attach to a generic curve of genus g and a torsion point of order l in its Jacobian. These statements can be viewed an analogues of Green's Conjecture and we verify them computationally for bounded genus. We then compute the cohomology class of the corresponding non-vanishing locus in the moduli space R_{g,l} of twisted level l curves of genus g and use this to derive results about the birational geometry of R_{g, l}. For instance, we prove that R_{g,3} is a variety of general type when g>11 and the Kodaira dimension of R_{11,3} is greater than or equal to 19. In the last section we explain probabilistically the unexpected failure of the Prym-Green conjecture in genus 8 and level 2.Comment: 35 pages, appeared in Invent Math. We correct an inaccuracy in the statement of Prop 2.

The subgroup identification problem for finitely presented groups

We introduce the subgroup identification problem, and show that there is a finitely presented group G for which it is unsolvable, and that it is uniformly solvable in the class of finitely presented locally Hopfian groups. This is done as an investigation into the difference between strong and weak effective coherence for finitely presented groups.Comment: 11 pages. This is the version submitted for publicatio

Poster 312 Efficacy of Combined Intra‐articular Facet Joint and Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection in the Management of Symptomatic Lumbosacral Lateral Recess Stenosis: A Retrospective Analysis

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147060/1/pmr2s280a.pd

Cervical Transforaminal Epidural Injection in the Management of a Stinger

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146907/1/pmr273.pd

Analysis of Reforming Gas Combustion in Internal Combustion Engine

Abstract The present paper deals with the study of the combustion of reforming gas in a small size Internal Combustion Engine. Therefore, mathematical models of both reforming process and internal combustion engine were implemented. In particular, steams reforming of glycerol to produce synthesis gas and spark ignition four strokes ICE were studied. The reforming process mathematical model was verified using experimental data. Synthesis gas was used to feed the ICE with different syngas and engine configuration. On the basis of the comparison with the experimental results, it is possible to state that the mathematical model is validated. Engine performance and pollutant emission evaluation was carried out using the integrated mathematical models with reference to the engine running on standard commercial fuel. The results highlight a reduction in engine performance and, at the same time a reduction of pollutant emissions in terms of CO and CO 2