Emergency Response to Radiological Releases: Have We Communicated Effectively to the First Responder Communities to Prepare Them to Safely Manage These Incidents?

The emergency responder community trains for and responds to many types of incidents on a daily basis and has done so for years. This experience with fires, emergency medical calls, chemical spills, confined spaces, and other common calls for assistance has helped responders develop an understanding of the problems and a confidence in solving them. Radiation from an accidental release in a facility or during transportation, or from a terrorist incident that causes radioactive materials to be released from their containment vessel, remains a cause of concern and fear.

Visual outcome in 879 children treated for strabismus: insufficient accommodation and vision deprivation, deficient emmetropisation and anisometropia.

Purpose: To identify the effect of infant hypermetropia on residual amblyopia in children remaining after treatment.

Materials And Methods: 879 strabismic children had cycloplegic retinoscopy at the age of 6 months and later when strabismus was diagnosed. A total of 26 hypermetropes consistently wore glasses from the age of 6 months, and 305 other hypermetropes had their accommodation periodically assessed by dynamic retinoscopy before strabismus was diagnosed.

Elongation of the Kcnq1ot1 transcript is required for genomic imprinting of neighboring genes.

The imprinted gene cluster at the telomeric end of mouse chromosome 7 contains a differentially methylated CpG island, KvDMR, that is required for the imprinting of multiple genes, including the genes encoding the maternally expressed placental-specific transcription factor ASCL2, the cyclin-dependent kinase CDKN1C, and the potassium channel KCNQ1. The KvDMR, which maps within intron 10 of Kcnq1, contains the promoter for a paternally expressed, noncoding, antisense transcript, Kcnq1ot1. A 244-base-pair deletion of the promoter on the paternal allele leads to the derepression of all silent genes tested.

Functional characterization of a testis-specific DNA binding activity at the H19/Igf2 imprinting control region.

The DNA methylation state of the H19/Igf2 imprinting control region (ICR) is differentially set during gametogenesis. To identify factors responsible for the paternally specific DNA methylation of the ICR, germ line and somatic extracts were screened for proteins that bind to the ICR in a germ line-specific manner. A specific DNA binding activity that was restricted to the male germ line and enriched in neonatal testis was identified.

Gatm, a creatine synthesis enzyme, is imprinted in mouse placenta.

To increase our understanding of imprinting and epigenetic gene regulation, we undertook a search for new imprinted genes. We identified Gatm, a gene that encodes l-arginine:glycine amidinotransferase, which catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the synthesis of creatine. In mouse, Gatm is expressed during development and is imprinted in the placenta and yolk sac, but not in embryonic tissues.

A differentially methylated region within the gene Kcnq1 functions as an imprinted promoter and silencer.

The imprinted gene cluster on mouse distal chromosome 7 contains a differentially methylated CpG island that maps within the Kcnq1 gene that has been shown to be required for the imprinting of multiple genes. To evaluate models for how this imprinting control region (ICR) regulates imprinting, we have characterized it structurally and functionally. We show that the region contains a promoter for a paternally expressed anti-sense transcript, Kcnq1ot1, and we define the extent of the minimal promoter.

Candidate genes required for embryonic development: a comparative analysis of distal mouse chromosome 14 and human chromosome 13q22.

Mice homozygous for the Ednrb(s-1Acrg) deletion arrest at embryonic day 8.5 from defects associated with mesoderm development. To determine the molecular basis of this phenotype, we initiated a positional cloning of the Acrg minimal region.