Money, Marketing, and Missions: Ethics and the Structure of Not-for-Profits

This article explores the relationship between the structure of not-for-profit organizations and the ethical issues, moral hazards, and public perceptions they are likely to face. It offers a preliminary taxonomy of organizations based on their structures and relates key ethical issues to each of those categories. It also ties these issues to the role that marketing plays in both creating and dealing with ethical issues

The For-Profit Prison as Social Enterprise: Problems with Classification and Ethical Assessment

This article explores the problems presented to taxonomies and definitions of social enterprise by a specific kind of organization, for-profit prisons. While these organizations are often and rightly criticized for their performance, they are fundamentally social enterprises by many of the definitions and taxonomies offered in the literature. This analysis uses a naïve matrix for classifying social enterprise to outline the problems created by these ethically and socially challenged organizations

Sequence of a complete chicken BG haplotype shows dynamic expansion and contraction of two gene lineages with particular expression patterns.

Many genes important in immunity are found as multigene families. The butyrophilin genes are members of the B7 family, playing diverse roles in co-regulation and perhaps in antigen presentation. In humans, a fixed number of butyrophilin genes are found in and around the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), and show striking association with particular autoimmune diseases. In chickens, BG genes encode homologues with somewhat different domain organisation. Only a few BG genes have been characterised, one involved in actin-myosin interaction in the intestinal brush border, and another implicated in resistance to viral diseases. We characterise all BG genes in B12 chickens, finding a multigene family organised as tandem repeats in the BG region outside the MHC, a single gene in the MHC (the BF-BL region), and another single gene on a different chromosome. There is a precise cell and tissue expression for each gene, but overall there are two kinds, those expressed by haemopoietic cells and those expressed in tissues (presumably non-haemopoietic cells), correlating with two different kinds of promoters and 5' untranslated regions (5'UTR). However, the multigene family in the BG region contains many hybrid genes, suggesting recombination and/or deletion as major evolutionary forces. We identify BG genes in the chicken whole genome shotgun sequence, as well as by comparison to other haplotypes by fibre fluorescence in situ hybridisation, confirming dynamic expansion and contraction within the BG region. Thus, the BG genes in chickens are undergoing much more rapid evolution compared to their homologues in mammals, for reasons yet to be understood.This is the final published version. It was originally published by PLOS in PLOS Genetics here: http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1004417

Nanostructured porous silicon scaffolds and augmented surface coatings for enhanced biocompatibility of multichannel microelectrodes

Poster presented at Biomedical Technology Showcase 2006, Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved 18 Aug 2006 from http://www.biomed.drexel.edu/new04/Content/Biomed_Tech_Showcase/Poster_Presentations/Moxon_3.pdf.Many different types of microelectrodes have been developed for use as a direct Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) to chronically record. Unfortunately, the recordings from these microelectrode devices are not consistent and often last for only a few weeks. The loss of these recordings is most likely due to damage to surrounding tissue that results in the formation of non-conductive glial-scar. In conjunction with developing nanostructured electrode surfaces to mimic the extracellular environment, we have also begun to study the effects of novel surface coatings. Preliminary data show that Poloxamer has a positive effect on neuronal survival and is successful in decreasing the proliferation of glial cells

Long-Term Recordings of Multiple, Single-Neurons for Clinical Applications: The Emerging Role of the Bioactive Microelectrode

In 1999 we reported an important demonstration of a working brain-machine interface (BMI), in which recordings from multiple, single neurons in sensorimotor cortical areas of rats were used to directly control a robotic arm to retrieve a water reward. Subsequent studies in monkeys, using a similar approach, demonstrated that primates can use a BMI device to control a cursor on a computer screen and a robotic arm. Recent studies in humans with spinal cord injuries have shown that recordings from multiple, single neurons can be used by the patient to control the cursor on a computer screen. The promise is that one day it will be possible to use these control signals from neurons to reactivate the patient’s own limbs. However, the ability to record from large populations of single neurons for long periods of time has been hampered because either the electrode itself fails or the immunological response in the tissue surrounding the microelectrode produces a glial scar, preventing single-neuron recording. While we have largely solved the problem of mechanical or electrical failure of the electrode itself, much less is known about the long term immunological response to implantation of a microelectrode, its effect on neuronal recordings and, of greatest importance, how it can be reduced to allow long term single neuron recording. This article reviews materials approaches to resolving the glial scar to improve the longevity of recordings. The work to date suggests that approaches utilizing bioactive interventions that attempt to alter the glial response and attract neurons to the recording site are likely to be the most successful. Importantly, measures of the glial scar alone are not sufficient to assess the effect of interventions. It is imperative that recordings of single neurons accompany any study of glial activation because, at this time, we do not know the precise relationship between glial activation and loss of neuronal recordings. Moreover, new approaches to immobilize bioactive molecules on microelectrode surfaces while maintaining their functionality may open new avenues for very long term single neuron recording. Finally, it is important to have quantitative measures of glial upregulation and neuronal activity in order to assess the relationship between the two. These types of studies will help rationalize the study of interventions to improve the longevity of recordings from microelectrodes