Drugs Affecting 5-HT Systems

Seminar transcriptIt was in the very early hours of a February morning in 1977 that I first looked down the microscope and saw yellow fluorescence, characteristic of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in frozen sections of Octopus brain. After struggling for two years with the capricious fluorescence histochemical technique to locate catecholamines and 5-HT, I finally had a successful result, and the PhD that had seemed a remote possibility for many months finally began to look feasible. Given the enormously important topic of this volume – the discovery and development of drugs affecting 5-HT systems – this small excursion into Octopus neurochemistry might seem irrelevant. However, cephalopod molluscs have played important roles in the history of 5-HT. More than 30000 pairs of posterior salivary glands of Octopus vulgaris were used by Vittorio Erspamer, for the first extraction and identification of enteramine, which was later shown to be identical to serotonin discovered by John Gaddum, and chemically characterized as 5-hydroxytryptamine. Other molluscs have provided some of the most sensitive bioassays for 5-HT, as Gaddum and Paasonen described in 1955, and several participants in this Witness Seminar recollected either using such bioassays or investigating invertebrate pharmacology at the beginning of their careers. Many reflected, however, that invertebrate receptors seemed to be very different from those found in mammals; they had, as David Wallis put it, ‘a parallel pharmacology’. One Witness, Merton Sandler, remembered attending a lecture by Vittorio Erspamer in London in the early 1950s, and being intrigued enough to start work on the degradative enzyme monoamine oxidase, a field which became highly significant for the development of a whole class of therapeutic drugs: the monoamine oxidase inhibitor

Technology Criticism in the Classroom (Chapter in The Nature of Technology)

I first heard about a tragedy in Tucson, not from major television news networks, but from a direct message sent by a politically-active friend who was attending the political gathering where a mass shooting took place, including the shooting of an Arizona congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords. While the television news sputtered around trying to offer details (initially wrongly claiming that she was dead, likely from pressure to be the first to report big news), I found myself reading Google News, piecing together Facebook posts, e-mailing friends and reading Twitter updates

The Discovery, Use and Impact of Platinum Salts as Chemotherapy Agents for Cancer

Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 4 April 2006. Introduction by Professor Matti Aapro, Grenolier, Switzerland.First published by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 2007.©The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, London, 2007. All volumes are freely available online at: www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/wellcome_witnesses/Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 4 April 2006. Introduction by Professor Matti Aapro, Grenolier, Switzerland.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 4 April 2006. Introduction by Professor Matti Aapro, Grenolier, Switzerland.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 4 April 2006. Introduction by Professor Matti Aapro, Grenolier, Switzerland.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 4 April 2006. Introduction by Professor Matti Aapro, Grenolier, Switzerland.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 4 April 2006. Introduction by Professor Matti Aapro, Grenolier, Switzerland.Proposed by Dr Mark Walport (Wellcome Trust) this Seminar examined the discovery, use and impact of platinum salts as chemotherapy agents for cancer. Organized with the assistance of Professor Paul Andrews (St George's Hospital Medical School) and Dr Tony Woods (Wellcome Trust) and chaired by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman (Durham) the Seminar discussed the serendipitous emergence of platinum salts as widely used anticancer agents from a chance observation in a microbiology laboratory; through their use especially for the treatment of previously untreatable solid tumours such as those of the testes and ovary; and their significance in the development of antiemetic agents for chemotherapy patients. Participants included chemists, oncologists, and academic and industrial pharmacologists who devised, in particular, the 5HT3 receptor antagonists. Participants included: Professor Kenneth Bagshawe, Dr Penelope Brock, Professor Hilary Calvert, Professor David Grahame-Smith, Professor Richard Gralla, Professor Kenneth Harrap, Dr James Hoeschele, Professor Ian Judson, Mr Wesley Miner, Professor Robert Naylor, Mrs Brenda Reynolds, Dr John Rudd, Dr Gareth Sanger, Dr David Tattersall, Professor Andrew Thomson, Professor Robert Williams and Dr Eve Wiltshaw. Christie D A, Tansey E M. (eds) (2007) The discovery, use and impact of platinum salts as chemotherapy agents for cancer, Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine, vol. 30. London: The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL.The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL is funded by the Wellcome Trust, which is a registered charity, no. 210183

End-of-Life Heart Failure Education With Staff Nurses; A Quality Improvement Project

Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCEHeart failure (HF) is a serious diagnosis and a major public health concern. The symptoms can be exhausting and can vary from person to person with periods of acute exacerbations requiring hospital admission. It is important for hospital staff nurses to be able to speak with knowledge and comfort about end‐of‐life planning. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to increase nurses’ awareness of the functional classification systems of HF, options and timing for palliative care, and describe nurses’ intent to use the information in practice. Nurses reported planning on using the information to “Be more Sensitive and Listen.” The prevailing theme to barriers to implementing this into practice was “Not enough time and discomfort.” Nurses who were comfortable having end‐of‐life discussions did not feel they had enough time, and those who were not comfortable did not engage because of discomfort toward the topic. Furthermore, recommendations from this study were the addition of a supportive palliative care team to manage patients with HF.End-of-Life Heart Failure Education with Staff Nurses; A Quality Improvement Project / Abstract / Table of Contents / Project / Background and Significant / Project Purpose / Literature Review / Methods / Analysis and Findings / Dissemination / Discussion / Conclusion / Impact on Practice / References / Appendix A New York Heart Failure Classification System / Appendix B Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle / Appendix C Consent Form / Appendix D IRB Approval Letter / Appendix E Permission Letter / Appendix F Pre-Education Survey / Appendix G Post-Education Survey / Appendix H Case Study #1 / Appendix I Case Study #2 / Appendix J 'Do' Phase Education Intervention Lesson Plan / Appendix K Themes from QI Projec

Research-based assessment affordances and constraints: Perceptions of physics faculty

To help faculty use research-based materials in a more significant way, we learn about their perceived needs and desires and use this information to suggest ways for the Physics Education Research community to address these needs. When research-based resources are well aligned with the perceived needs of faculty, faculty members will more readily take them up. We used phenomenographic interviews of ordinary physics faculty and department chairs to identify four families of issues that faculty have around research-based assessments (RBA). First, many faculty are interested in using RBAs but have practical needs around how to do so: how to find them, which ones there are, and how to administer them. They want help addressing these needs. Second, at the same time, many faculty think that RBAs are limited and don't measure many of the things they care about, or aren't applicable in their classes. They want assessments to measure skills, perceptions, and specific concepts. Third, many faculty want to turn to communities of other faculty and experts to help them interpret their assessment results and suggest other ways to do assessment. They want to norm their assessment results by comparing to others and interacting with faculty from other schools to learn about how they do assessment. Fourth, many faculty consider their courses in the broader contexts of accountability and their departments. They want help with assessment in these broader contexts. We also discuss how faculty members role in their department and type of institution influence their perceived wants and needs around assessment.Comment: submitted to Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Researc

Should WCOB 3016 Business Strategy and Planning be Restructured?

Review of the WCOB 3016 Business Strategy and Planning course and what areas of the course should and/or shouldn\u27t be restructured, based on student surveys, faculty/professor interviews, and benchmarks

Making American Foundations Relevant

The work and impact of foundations is not registering with critical audiences, according to philanthropy leaders and observers interviewed for this Philanthropy Awareness Initiative report. To find the solution, foundations need to look in the mirror, they argue, and make changes to their communications culture and practice

Migraine: Diagnosis, treatment and understanding c1960-2010

seminar transcriptThere are around eight million migraine sufferers in the UK today. This Witness Seminar looked at the last 50 years of research into the diagnosis and treatment of the condition and the changing attitudes of the medical profession towards this debilitating disorder. Chaired by Dr Mark Weatherall, the participants, some of whom were also migraine sufferers, included neurologists and pharmacologists, representatives from patient organizations such as Migraine Action and the Migraine Trust, and GPs and headache nurses. The discussion covered the vascular and neuronal theories of migraine, the early treatment with ergotamine, analgesics and antiemetics, and investigations into the importance of 5-HT. It then moved on to examine the scientific research behind the development of the triptans during the 1980s and impact of their introduction in the early 1990s. More recent treatments, such as the use of Botox (botulinum toxin), were also considered. Other topics included the development of headache classification and diagnostic criteria for migraine; the support for migraine sufferers such as headache clinics, specialist headache nurses, and charities; and the reason why, despite the number of sufferers and its high socio-economic cost, there is often little interest in migraine and research attracts limited fundin