Recent advances in optical technologies have produced laser systems capable of optimizing the appearance of scars from various etiologies. Laser treatment can commence as early as the time of the initial injury and as late as several years after the injury. Optimal results can now be attained with minimal down time. Herein, we review several available optical technologies for treatment of surgical, traumatic, and inflammatory scars, based upon our clinical experience.

The generation of DNA sequencing templates is typically inconsistent and labor-intensive procedure, especially in a high-throughput facility. Purification of recombinant plasmids from E. coli with subsequent PCR amplification of corresponding inserts has generally been employed, but this requires many laborious/time-consuming steps and does not always yield suitable amount of high-quality templates to be used in downstream applications. Replication by rolling-circle mechanism is common among bacteriophages in nature. Recently, rolling-circle amplification (RCA) with Phi29 DNA polymerase has been applied in vitro to marker DNA sequences (using specific primers) and to circular cloning vectors (using random hexamer primers) to achieve their exponential amplification via the DNA strand displacement. The US DOE Joint Genome Institute has successfully implemented random-primed RCA into the high-throughput process for production of sequencing templates. Here, we describe the RCA-based plasmid amplification protocol, as well as several practical applications for thus amplified DNA in sequencing and related procedures.

We propose a novel application of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to monitor pit formation in laser irradiated optical storage materials. A multilayer optical storage recordable compact disk, is composed of multiple layers, each of different structure. Disks were irradiated with a Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser with an energy of 373 mJ. Post-irradiated disks were evaluated by OCT and those images were compared with optical microscopy. Our results indicate that OCT is a useful instrument to investigate pit formation in multilayer optical storage disks and might also provide information to optimize optical memory technology.

Atopic dermatitis is a multifactorial skin disease characterised by chronic and relapsing inflammation whose pathogenesis is incompletely understood. We found that the expression of TGFβR1 and the activation of SMAD2, RhoA, JNK, PKC-βII/δ and c-Src were upregulated in the infiltrated inflammatory cells, fibroblasts and vasculatures in the dermis and epidermis. In addition, increases in the expression of TGFβR1 and phosphorylation levels of JNK and c-Src were positively correlated with the inflammatory progression of atopic dermatitis severity.

Despite reducing progression and promoting regression of coronary atherosclerosis, statin therapy does not fully address residual cardiovascular (CV) risk. High-purity eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) added to a statin has been shown to reduce CV events and induce regression of coronary atherosclerosis in imaging studies; however, data are from Japanese populations without high triglyceride (TG) levels and baseline EPA serum levels greater than those in North American populations. Icosapent ethyl is a high-purity prescription EPA ethyl ester approved at 4 g/d as an adjunct to diet to reduce TG levels in adults with TG levels >499 mg/dL. The objective of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled EVAPORATE study is to evaluate the effects of icosapent ethyl 4 g/d on atherosclerotic plaque in a North American population of statin-treated patients with coronary atherosclerosis, TG levels of 200 to 499 mg/dL, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels of 40 to 115 mg/dL. The primary endpoint is change in low-attenuation plaque volume measured by multidetector computed tomography angiography. Secondary endpoints include incident plaque rates; quantitative changes in different plaque types and morphology; changes in markers of inflammation, lipids, and lipoproteins; and the relationship between these changes and plaque burden and/or plaque vulnerability. Approximately 80 patients will be followed for 9 to 18 months. The clinical implications of icosapent ethyl 4 g/d treatment added to statin therapy on CV endpoints are being evaluated in the large CV outcomes study REDUCE-IT. EVAPORATE will provide important imaging-derived data that may add relevance to the clinically derived outcomes from REDUCE-IT.