Translational Reading Research Articles

Progress and prospects in antisense oligonucleotide-mediated exon skipping therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Recent years have seen enormous progress in the field of advanced therapeutics for the progressive muscle wasting disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In particular, four antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies targeting various DMD-causing mutations have achieved FDA approval, marking major milestones in the treatment of this disease. These compounds are designed to induce alternative splicing events that restore the translation reading frame of the dystrophin gene, leading to the generation of internally-deleted, but mostly functional, pseudodystrophin proteins with the potential to compensate for the genetic loss of dystrophin. However, the efficacy of these compounds is very limited, with delivery remaining a key obstacle to effective therapy. There is therefore an urgent need for improved ASO technologies with better efficacy, and with applicability to a wider range of patient mutations. Here we discuss recent developments in ASO therapies for DMD, and future prospects with a focus on ASO chemical modification and bioconjugation strategies.

MisORFPred: A Novel Method to Mine Translatable sORFs in Plant Pri-miRNAs Using Enhanced Scalable k-mer and Dynamic Ensemble Voting Strategy.

The primary microRNAs (pri-miRNAs) have been observed to contain translatable small open reading frames (sORFs) that can encode peptides as an independent element. Relevant studies have proven that those of sORFs are of significance in regulating the expression of biological traits. The existing methods for predicting the coding potential of sORFs frequently overlook this data or categorize them as negative samples, impeding the identification of additional translatable sORFs in pri-miRNAs. In light of this, a novel method named misORFPred has been proposed. Specifically, an enhanced scalable k-mer (ESKmer) that simultaneously integrates the composition information within a sequence and distance information between sequences is designed to extract the nucleotide sequence features. After feature selection, the optimal features and several machine learning classifiers are combined to construct the ensemble model, where a newly devised dynamic ensemble voting strategy (DEVS) is proposed to dynamically adjust the weights of base classifiers and adaptively select the optimal base classifiers for each unlabeled sample. Cross-validation results suggest that ESKmer and DEVS are essential for this classification task and could boost model performance. Independent testing results indicate that misORFPred outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, we execute misORFPerd on the genomes of various plant species and perform a thorough analysis of the predicted outcomes. Taken together, misORFPred is a powerful tool for identifying the translatable sORFs in plant pri-miRNAs and can provide highly trusted candidates for subsequent biological experiments.

Machine Translation for Open Scholarly Communication: Examining the Relationship between Translation Quality and Reading Effort

This study assesses the usability of machine-translated texts in scholarly communication, using self-paced reading experiments with texts from three scientific disciplines, translated from French into English and vice versa. Thirty-two participants, proficient in the target language, participated. This study uses three machine translation engines (DeepL, ModernMT, OpenNMT), which vary in translation quality. The experiments aim to determine the relationship between translation quality and readers’ reception effort, measured by reading times. The results show that for two disciplines, manual and automatic translation quality measures are significant predictors of reading time. For the most technical discipline, this study could not build models that outperformed the baseline models, which only included participant and text ID as random factors. This study acknowledges the need to include reader-specific features, such as prior knowledge, in future research.

Bourdieu’s trajectory concept as an approach to microhistorical research in translation

Abstract This article explores the potential of Bourdieu’s trajectory concept as an approach to microhistorical research, using the life history of Egypt’s late Minister of Culture Tharwat Okasha as a case study. The focus throughout is on Okasha’s multipositionality throughout his trajectory as a military officer and then as a military attaché in France between 1939 and 1956. Through a close reading of memoirs, translations and writings, the article investigates how he traversed different fields (the military, psychology, history and journalism) and the effect of this movement on his translation practices. In so doing, the article integrates this analysis into a sociological examination of the politics of the Free Officers, who led the 1952 coup, and argues that the relational concept of trajectory allows the reconstruction of history at the intersection between the lived experience of an individual and the network of agents engaged in the same fields.

Multilingualism and mismatching: Spanish language usage in college admissions essays

In US K-12 education, the Spanish language is subject to practices and policies that limit its expression, especially among racialized Latinx students. However, higher education claims to view Spanish as a positive form of diversity. We therefore examine college admissions essays to analyze how students strategically deploy Spanish in light of these contradictions. We use two years of undergraduate application essays (n = 276,768) and metadata submitted to the University of California by every self-identified Latinx applicant and a racially representative random sample of non-Latinx applicants. To identify Spanish language usage in the text, we develop a computational mixed methods approach by combining machine translation and human reading. Spanish was used by 33% of Latinx and 15% of non-Latinx students with stylistic variation by class and ethnicity. We also find that lower income Mexican and Central American applicants were the most likely to use substantive forms of Spanish in their admissions essays as well as provide translations into English. We posit that this self-translation is an example of students identifying cultural mismatch between themselves and university admissions offices. This linguistic strategy, which we call strategic Spanish, sheds light on how language, culture, and ethnicity intersect in high-stakes evaluation and also helps surface the potential for machine translation as a method for social scientific inquiry.

RESC14 and RESC8 cooperate to mediate RESC function and dynamics during trypanosome RNA editing.

Mitochondrial transcripts in Trypanosoma brucei require extensive uridine insertion/deletion RNA editing to generate translatable open reading frames. The RNA editing substrate binding complex (RESC) serves as the scaffold that coordinates the protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions during editing. RESC broadly contains two modules termed the guide RNA binding complex (GRBC) and the RNA editing mediator complex (REMC), as well as organizer proteins. How the protein and RNA components of RESC dynamically interact to facilitate editing is not well understood. Here, we examine the roles of organizer proteins, RESC8 and RESC14, in facilitating RESC dynamics. High-throughput sequencing of editing intermediates reveals an overlapping RESC8 and RESC14 function during editing progression across multiple transcripts. Blue native PAGE analysis demonstrates that RESC14 is essential for incorporation of RESC8 into a large RNA-containing complex, while RESC8 is important in recruiting a smaller ribonucleoprotein complex (RNP) to this large complex. Proximity labeling shows that RESC14 is important for stable RESC protein-protein interactions, as well as RESC-RECC associations. Together, our data support a model in which RESC14 is necessary for assembly of editing competent RESC through recruitment of an RNP containing RESC8, GRBC and gRNA to REMC and mRNA.

Abstract 1735: DNA demethylating agents have cell type-specific effects on viability and BRCA2 alternative splicing

Abstract Introduction: BRCA2 is one of two principal tumor suppressors responsible for hereditary breast/ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC). Patients with strong family histories of breast/ovarian cancer may carry BRCA2 DNA sequence variants of unknown clinical significance (VUSs). To evaluate which of these VUSs may contribute to cancer risk by altering splicing patterns, naturally occurring BRCA2 mRNA alternate splicing events have been extensively characterized, but it is not yet known which if any of these alternate splicing events plays a role in BRCA2 function. One variant lacking exon 3 (∆3), which maintains the full length translational reading frame, lacks sequence encoding EMSY and PALB binding domains as well as transactivation function. Previous work has shown that, while some VUSs associated with increased levels of ∆3 in lymphoblastoid cell lines are not pathogenic, germline deletions that eliminate BRCA2 exon 3 are associated with increased breast cancer risk. It is therefore of interest to characterize the factors that influence the frequency of naturally occurring BRCA2 exon 3-skipping, including cell types and therapies. DNA demethylating agents are used as cancer therapy to promote expression of tumor suppressor genes that may be epigenetically silenced in tumors. However, DNA methylation has been shown to be more frequent in exonic than intronic regions of protein-coding genes, suggesting that methylation may play a role in recruiting spliceosomal components to nascent pre-mRNA. It is therefore of interest to determine whether genomic demethylation affects alternative splicing patterns. Here, we explore whether BRCA2 exon 3 alternative splicing patterns are altered by demethylating agents. Methods: To determine whether DNA demethylating agents can alter the levels of ∆3, MCF7 and/or the non-cancer breast cell line MCF 10A was treated with 5-aza 2’-deoxycytidine (5-AzadC) or 5-Azacytidine (5-AzaC), and isoform-specific RT-PCR was used to compare relative levels of splice junctions containing or skipping exon 3. Results and Conclusions: 1) While the IC50 for both 5-AzadC and 5-AzaC in MCF 10A was similar (less than 1 μM), MCF7 showed considerably more resistance to 5-AzaC than 5-AzadC (IC50 of ≥ 5 μM vs ≤ 0.2 μM). 2) 5-AzaC treatment reduces the proportion of MCF 10A cultures in apoptosis but does not increase the proportion of viable cells, indicating it causes cell death by some other means. 3) While both 5-AzaC and 5-AzadC reduce relative levels of ∆3 in MCF7, 5-azadC does not reduce relative levels of ∆3 in MCF 10A, suggesting there may be a cell type-specific splicing response to genomic demethylation therapies. Citation Format: Jordan Werner, Hiba Siddiqui, Samiha Syed, Osman Khan, Servando Casillas Garabito, James D. Fackenthal. DNA demethylating agents have cell type-specific effects on viability and BRCA2 alternative splicing [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 1735.

Implication of nucleotides near the 3' end of 16S rRNA in guarding the translational reading frame.

Loss of the translational reading frame leads to misincorporation and premature termination, which can have lethal consequences. Based on structural evidence that A1503 of 16S rRNA intercalates between specific mRNA bases, we tested the possibility that it plays a role in maintenance of the reading frame by constructing ribosomes with an abasic nucleotide at position 1503. This was done by specific cleavage of 16S rRNA at position 1493 using the colicin E3 endonuclease and replacing the resulting 3'-terminal 49mer fragment with a synthetic oligonucleotide containing the abasic site using a novel splinted RNA ligation method. Ribosomes reconstituted from the abasic 1503 16S rRNA were highly active in protein synthesis but showed elevated levels of spontaneous frameshifting into the -1 reading frame. We then asked whether the residual frameshifting persisting in control ribosomes containing an intact A1503 is due to the absence of the N6-dimethyladenosine modifications at positions 1518 and 1519. Indeed, this frameshifting was rescued by site-specific methylation in vitro by the ksgA methylase. These findings thus implicate two different sites near the 3' end of 16S rRNA in maintenance of the translational reading frame, providing yet another example of a functional role for ribosomal RNA in protein synthesis.

A Study of the Utility of Artificial Translation in English Reading Comprehension

Abstract Human translation always has an incomparable role in the process of English learning, especially in the promotion of English reading comprehension. This paper centers on the research problem of selecting suitable research objects, combining questionnaire surveys and test methods to obtain relevant data on artificial translation and English reading comprehension. Then, it analyzes the correlation between the dimensions of artificial translation and the effect on English reading comprehension, constructs the multiple regression model of artificial intelligence on English reading comprehension, and proposes the corresponding significance test method. The results show that the correlation coefficients between the five dimensions of human translation and English reading comprehension scores are, in descending order: accuracy (0.824) > completeness (0.636) > fitness (0.579) > fluency (0.485) > consistency (0.372), which are all significantly positively correlated with English reading scores. The regression results showed that the level of manual translation dimension explained 26.7% of the variation in reading achievement. Among the human translation dimensions, accuracy, completeness, and consistency have significant positive effects on English reading comprehension. The study suggests that human translation accuracy, completeness, and consistency can be optimized to improve English reading comprehension.

The New Parthian Inscription from New Nisa

The article publishes a fragment of a ceramic vessel with a Parthian inscription preserved on it, discovered in 2012 at the site of New Nisa (Turkmenistan), approximately 120 m northeast of Tower XIII, and currently kept in a private collection in Russia. A small sherd (maximum dimensions 73×45 mm) 5–8 mm thick is most likely a fragment of a jug covered with white engobe. It is possible that, judging by the color of the engobe and the shard in the fracture, as well as the use of a high-temperature oxidative firing regime, the jug was made not in Parthyene, but in Margiana. A one-line inscription written in black paint or ink, of which only nine characters have come down to us, is located on the outside of the vessel, apparently on its hangers. The surviving part of the inscription reads ](y/z) ZNH ʻL wt(?)[. Its translation reads: “[The vessel] is for Vat...” It is possible that the name of the owner of the jug read as Wtpn (*Vātapāna) – “having the protection of the wind(-god)”, known from an Aramaic inscription from Persepolis. Judging by the fact that there is no hint of cursive in the inscription – each letter is written separately, it can be dated in the same way as the entire body of documents from Old Nisa, i.e. e second half of the 2nd – end of the 1st centuries BC.

W lustrze przekładu. Translatorska biografia Cristiny Campo

The subject of this article is the translation work of the Italian writer Cristina Campo (born Vittoria Guerrini), one of the most prominent Italian writers of the 20th century, poet, translator, and essayist, analysed in a biographical key. The aim is to look more closely at Cristina Campo’s biography – described so far in the only biography book (De Stefano 2002), but also recorded in the voluminous correspondence the writer left behind – through the framework of her translation activity. Of interest from this point of view become both her translation choices and reading choices (“the lovely kinsmen of the shelf,” as the writer called her favourite books) – related to a large extent to Campo’s literary temperament, her experiences in her private life, and her friends – as well as her choice of translation activity itself, largely conditioned by the need to spend a large part of her life in seclusion due to the incurable heart disease that Campo suffered from since her birth. An attempt will be made to answer the question of how illness and other life circumstances influenced her choice of translation activity, the selection of texts to be translated and the translator’s actual working conditions.

Giving a translator’s touch to the machine: Reproducing translator style in literary machine translation

This is an interdisciplinary study investigating to what extent a machine translation (MT) system can reproduce a translator’s style if it is trained on a corpus of previous translations by the same translator. Leech and Short’s (2007) methodology of stylistic analysis was adapted to determine the stylistic features of a prominent Turkish translator, Nihal Yeğinobalı. Qualitative data analysis involved close reading of translations, whereas quantitative analysis was conducted with corpus tools and Python using keyword and morphological data. By comparing the Nihal Yeğinobalı corpus against a reference corpus representative of Turkish literary translations within the same time period, stylistic features were observed on lexical and morphological levels. An authorship attribution analysis showed that the stylistic features can help distinguish between the Nihal Yeğinobalı corpus and the reference corpus. In a following step, the Nihal Yeğinobalı corpus was used to train and test a set of MT models to obtain models fine-tuned to the translator, which were compared with a general-domain pre-trained MT model. The authorship attribution analysis of the MT output of Nihal Yeğinobalı’s works resulted in a distinction between the fine-tuned MT model output, attributing this to Nihal Yeğinobalı, and the pre-trained model output, classifying it as reference. In addition, a keyword analysis of the MT output revealed a high degree of similarity in lexical items between the fine-tuned MT model translation and that of Nihal Yeğinobalı. The present findings provide some evidence of style transfer, suggesting that an MT system can reproduce a translator’s style if trained on a corpus of their translations.

Introduction to Special Section: A Translational Reading of the Invention of Korea's Confucian Traditions

Introduction to Special Section: A Translational Reading of the Invention of Korea's Confucian Traditions

Transimperial Eyes: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Colonial Narratives about the Dutch Expedition to Southern Chile (1643)

The review of historical archives that allow us to know the observations and experiences of those who recorded scarcely explored territories in the past, especially in the context of European colonization of vast areas of the world in the seventeenth century is crucial for heritage studies. The following article analyzes how the Dutch expedition to southern Chile during the 17th century (1642–1643) was narrated, both in Dutch and in its translations into German, English, and Spanish, considering the interests of empires and the discursive differences that translational variations reveal. This transdisciplinary analysis, combining historiography, translation studies, and historical geography, consists of a critical reading of the original narration and a comparative reading of the aforementioned translations, and within them ethnographic representations made about the Mapuche-Huilliche people and the city of Valdivia and changes introduced by different translations are identified. These changes are then related to imperial contexts and discourses that shape these translations. In terms of our findings, we note that, in general, Chilean translations tend to exaggerate the representations of indigenous people as barbaric, inferior, and uncivilized. These representations are present in the European versions, but the shifts that we identified indicate an intensification of this discourse.

MRNA reading frame maintenance during eukaryotic ribosome translocation.

One of the most critical steps of protein synthesis is coupled translocation of messenger RNA (mRNA)and transfer RNAs (tRNAs)required to advance the mRNA reading frame by one codon. In eukaryotes, translocation is accelerated and its fidelity is maintained by elongation factor 2 (eEF2)1,2. At present, only a few snapshots of eukaryotic ribosome translocation have been reported3-5. Here we report ten high-resolution cryogenic-electron microscopy(cryo-EM) structures of the elongating eukaryotic ribosome bound to the full translocation module consisting of mRNA, peptidyl-tRNA and deacylated tRNA, seven of which also contained ribosome-bound, naturally modified eEF2. This study recapitulates mRNA-tRNA2-growing peptide module progression through the ribosome, from the earliest states of eEF2 translocase accommodation until the very late stages of the process, and shows an intricate network of interactions preventing the slippage of the translational reading frame. We demonstrate how the accuracy of eukaryotic translocation relies on eukaryote-specific elements of the 80S ribosome, eEF2 and tRNAs. Our findings shed light on the mechanism of translation arrest by the anti-fungal eEF2-binding inhibitor, sordarin. We also propose that the sterically constrained environment imposed by diphthamide, a conserved eukaryotic posttranslational modification in eEF2, not only stabilizes correct Watson-Crick codon-anticodon interactions but may also uncover erroneous peptidyl-tRNA, and therefore contribute to higher accuracy of protein synthesis in eukaryotes.

Ribosome Profiling of Plants.

Translation is a key step in control of gene expression, yet most analyses of global responses to a stimulus focus on transcription and the transcriptome. For RNA viruses in particular, which have no DNA-templated transcriptional control, control of viral and host translation is crucial. Here, we describe the method of ribosome profiling (ribo-seq) in plants, applied to virus infection. Ribo-seq is a deep sequencing technique that reveals the translatome by presenting a snapshot of the positions and relative amounts of translating ribosomes on all mRNAs in the cell. In contrast to RNA-seq, a crude cell extract is first digested with ribonuclease to degrade all mRNA not protected by a translating 80S ribosome. The resulting ribosome-protected fragments (RPFs) are deep sequenced. The number of reads mapping to a specific mRNA compared to the standard RNA-seq reads reveals the translational efficiency of that mRNA. Moreover, the precise positions of ribosome pause sites, previously unknown translatable open reading frames, and noncanonical translation events can be characterized quantitatively using ribo-seq. As this technique requires meticulous technique, here we present detailed step-by-step instructions for cell lysate preparation by flash freezing of samples, nuclease digestion of cell lysate, monosome collection by sucrose cushion ultracentrifugation, size-selective RNA extraction and rRNA depletion, library preparation for sequencing and finally quality control of sequenced data. These experimental methods apply to many plant systems, with minor nuclease digestion modifications depending on the plant tissue and species. This protocol should be valuable for studies of plant virus gene expression, and the global translational response to virus infection, or any other biotic or abiotic stress, by the host plant.

The Correlation Between Students’ Translation Ability and Their Reading Comprehension

The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between students' translation ability and their reading comprehension among eleventh-grade mathematics and science students at SMAN 1 Wonomulyo. This dtudy used a quantitative approach, employing a correlational research design. The sample consisted of 36 students selected through a simple random sampling technique from a total population of 212 students. The study employed translation and reading tests as its primary instruments. The data analysis using SPSS indicated a two-tailed significance value of 0.069, which was greater than the standard 0.05 threshold. Additionally, the result obtained using the multiple correlation formula showed a value of 0.329 with 34 degrees of freedom. The correlation coefficient (r-value) was -0.306, which fell below the calculated threshold of 0.329. A t-test was conducted, yielding a t-value of 1.8741724, which was less than the critical t-table value (2.03224) with 34 degrees of freedom at a 0.05 level of significance. Based on the data analysis, the study concluded that the research hypothesis (Ha) suggesting a significant correlation between students' translation ability and reading comprehension was rejected, while the null hypothesis (H0) suggesting no significant correlation was accepted.

From the proscenium: The influence of Konstantin Stanislavski and the psychology of acting in Vygotsky’s work

The Soviet psychologist L. S. Vygotsky was immersed in theater and the arts through much of his life, collaborating with scholars of the psychology of acting, including Konstantin Stanislavski’s close confidante and long-time editor Liubov Gurevich, on terms and theories expressed in his historically defining text, An Actor’s Work. This article connects linguistic, theoretical, and methodological aspects of Stanislavski’s work with Vygotsky’s quest to develop a new psychology, finding its apogee in the works of his final years, especially after he gained access to an extended draft of Stanislavski’s chapters. As Vygotsky’s theories continue to influence the field of psychology, this article looks to provide a guidepost for refining understanding of Vygotsky’s theories based on archival evidence and a close reading of contemporary translations of Vygotsky’s major works.

Based on the Typical Differences between Chinese and English, the Practical Problems and Solutions in English

Although there are differences between Chinese and English as two different languages, one of their common points is that they both carry their own cultures, and culture is one of the "key nodes" that can connect the two. Therefore, in order to achieve "common language structure" on the basis of "learning home and abroad", it is necessary to use English as a tool to spread Chinese culture, and then promote the dissemination, communication and integration of different cultures, which is also one of the important purposes of learning English. At the same time, enhancing cultural confidence is one of the important cultural strategies of the Chinese government in recent years. In order to better let the world listen to the voice of China and enhance students' cultural identity, "telling Chinese stories well in English" has become one of the distinct themes in the field of English teaching. However, due to the inherent differences in Chinese and English in vocabulary, sentences and discourse, as well as the particularity of traditional Chinese culture, students will have great problems in vocabulary memory, sentence translation and discourse reading in the teaching process of telling Chinese stories in English. therefore, In the process of middle school English teachers should be based on the typical differences between Chinese and English and the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture, Starting with the vocabulary, sentences and texts of traditional Chinese culture, By classifying traditional Chinese vocabulary, distinguishing the style characteristics of sentences and emphasizing the structural characteristics of traditional Chinese culture, To solve the problems of middle school students in vocabulary, sentences and discourse, While paying attention to students' cultural knowledge and pragmatic ability, Both input and output, To solve the problem of students learning traditional Chinese culture in English step by step, Improve the comprehensive quality, Be an envoy of cultural communication and communication, Truly achieve in the "learning of Chinese and Western" on the basis of "language structure common".

The Quality of Translated Children's Literature in the Let’s Read Application: Evaluating Source Text Meaning Accuracy Using Angelelli's Scoring Rubric

This study evaluates the translation quality of a children's story, "Dive", in the Let’s Read app using Angelelli's scoring rubric. The focus is on the accuracy, fluency, readability, cultural adaptation, and style in the Indonesian translation, "Menyelam." The research uncovers the strengths and challenges of the translation process and its impact on the young Indonesian audience. With scores from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent), the study contributes significantly to the debate on translation quality assessment in children's literature. The findings offer insights for improving the translation process and reading experience for users of the Let’s Read app. The study underscores the importance of accurate translation and cultural adaptation to maintain the educational value and reader engagement in translated children's literature for diverse audiences.