Enhancing Attendance of the Greater Burlington YMCA Diabetes Fitness Program

Introduction: Since 1999, the Burlington YMCA has offered a free aerobics class to members of the community with diabetes. Additionally, the class regularly monitors participants’ health status. These data support the well-established benefit of exercise in diabetes. Medical Monitoring •hemoglobin A1C •blood pressure •resting pulse rate (before and after each twelve week session) About the Program •Began in 1999 •Free •Physician’s referral required •2h aerobics, twice per week: 1h land + 1h waterhttps://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1001/thumbnail.jp

Promoting Physical Activity in Local Communities: Understanding Health, Nutrition, and Physical Activity Needs in Winooski, VT

Introduction: Since the Winooski YMCA opened in March 2008, enrollment has been much lower than expected, with only 200 members enrolled by September 2008. One goal of the YMCA is to promote the health of the community by increasing involvement in physical activity in Winooski. Regular exercise is associated with enhanced health and decreased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, as well as many cancers. In order to promote physical activity in the Winooski community, the YMCA set a goal to increase their enrollment to 500 members by December 2008.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1005/thumbnail.jp

Statistical Analysis of Readthrough Levels for Nonsense Mutations in Mammalian Cells Reveals a Major Determinant of Response to Gentamicin

The efficiency of translation termination depends on the nature of the stop codon and the surrounding nucleotides. Some molecules, such as aminoglycoside antibiotics (gentamicin), decrease termination efficiency and are currently being evaluated for diseases caused by premature termination codons. However, the readthrough response to treatment is highly variable and little is known about the rules governing readthrough level and response to aminoglycosides. In this study, we carried out in-depth statistical analysis on a very large set of nonsense mutations to decipher the elements of nucleotide context responsible for modulating readthrough levels and gentamicin response. We quantified readthrough for 66 sequences containing a stop codon, in the presence and absence of gentamicin, in cultured mammalian cells. We demonstrated that the efficiency of readthrough after treatment is determined by the complex interplay between the stop codon and a larger sequence context. There was a strong positive correlation between basal and induced readthrough levels, and a weak negative correlation between basal readthrough level and gentamicin response (i.e. the factor of increase from basal to induced readthrough levels). The identity of the stop codon did not affect the response to gentamicin treatment. In agreement with a previous report, we confirm that the presence of a cytosine in +4 position promotes higher basal and gentamicin-induced readthrough than other nucleotides. We highlight for the first time that the presence of a uracil residue immediately upstream from the stop codon is a major determinant of the response to gentamicin. Moreover, this effect was mediated by the nucleotide itself, rather than by the amino-acid or tRNA corresponding to the −1 codon. Finally, we point out that a uracil at this position associated with a cytosine at +4 results in an optimal gentamicin-induced readthrough, which is the therapeutically relevant variable

Deep whole-genome sequencing of 100 southeast Asian malays

10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.12.005American Journal of Human Genetics92152-66AJHG

Reproducibility of fluorescent expression from engineered biological constructs in E. coli

We present results of the first large-scale interlaboratory study carried out in synthetic biology, as part of the 2014 and 2015 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competitions. Participants at 88 institutions around the world measured fluorescence from three engineered constitutive constructs in E. coli. Few participants were able to measure absolute fluorescence, so data was analyzed in terms of ratios. Precision was strongly related to fluorescent strength, ranging from 1.54-fold standard deviation for the ratio between strong promoters to 5.75-fold for the ratio between the strongest and weakest promoter, and while host strain did not affect expression ratios, choice of instrument did. This result shows that high quantitative precision and reproducibility of results is possible, while at the same time indicating areas needing improved laboratory practices.Peer reviewe