Interview with Donald W. Hinrichs, January 30, 2004

Professor of Sociology and Dean of the College Donald W. Hinrichs was interviewed on January 30, 2004 as the first part of two interviews by Michael J. Birkner. During these interviews, he discusses his childhood in Baltimore, going to college in the 1960\u27s, and his experience in the US Army during the Vietnam War. He also describes his time at Gettysburg, in particular the growth and development of the Sociology Department and his experience as a gay faculty member. Length of Interview: 69 minutes Collection Note: This oral history was selected from the Oral History Collection maintained by Special Collections & College Archives. Transcripts are available for browsing in the Special Collections Reading Room, 4th floor, Musselman Library. GettDigital contains the complete listing of oral histories done from 1978 to the present. To view this list and to access selected digital versions please visit -- http://gettysburg.cdmhost.com/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16274coll

Submitting to MedEdPORTAL: Do it right the first time

Presented as a Small Group/Roundtable Discussion at 2020 IUSM Education Day.Medical educators at Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) are encouraged to publish in MedEdPORTAL: The Journal of Teaching and Learning Resources. Published by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), MedEdPORTAL is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal for medical education scholarship. These publications contain complete curricula, including objectives, instructor guides, slides, and assessments, ready to be implemented in the classroom. When faculty members apply for promotion, MedEdPORTAL can demonstrate the quality of their work through peer-review, citation counts, and other usage reports. Despite submitting high quality learning modules, medical educators receive rejections from the MedEdPORTAL 62% of time. Reasons for rejection include insufficient educational context and assessment, mismatch of educational objectives and instructional content, and failure to build on existing curricula. Of immediately rejected submissions, 90% also have copyright issues. MedEdPORTAL is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and therefore has strict requirements for copyright and licensing images in the education materials. These requirements are difficult to navigate. For faculty who are not familiar with copyright and licensing, these barriers can be frustrating enough to deter them from submitting curricula. This workshop introduced MedEdPORTAL, described the submission process, and shared our strategies for putting together a successful submission. By the end of the workshop, participants were able to: • Identify curricula they have developed that would fit with the goals of MedEdPORTAL’s publishers • Use template to complete the Educational Summary Report (ESR) • Classify content as that which requires copyright permission, is in the public domain, or has a Creative Commons license • Navigate the process of manuscript submission and revisio

Sterilization of heparinized Cuprophan hemodialysis membranes

The effects of sterilization of dry heparinized Cuprophan hemodialysis membranes by means of ethylene oxide (EtO) exposure, gamma irradiation, or steam on the anticoagulant activity and chemical characteristics of immobilized heparin and the permeability of the membrane were investigated. Sterilization did not result in a release of heparin or heparin fragments from heparinized Cuprophan. Sterilization of heparinized Cuprophan by means of EtO exposure and gamma irradiation induced a slight, insignificant decrease of the anticoagulant activity. In contrast, steam-sterilized heparinized Cuprophan showed a higher anticoagulant activity than unsterilized heparinized Cuprophan, which was most likely caused by cleavage of some of the covalent bonds between heparin and Cupropha. The effects of sterilization on the permeability of unmodified Cuprophan and heparinized Cuprophan were compared. The permeability of unmodified Cuprophan for vitamin B12 (Vit B12) and sulfobromophthalein (SBP) was reduced by 20–35% after EtO exposure and gamma irradiation and was reduced by 90–95% after steam sterilization. The water permeability of unmodified Cuprophan remained the same after EtO exposure and gamma irradiation but also dramatically reduced after steam sterilization. These reductions were ascribed to the collapse of pores of the membrane. The permeability of heparinized Cuprophan was not affected by EtO exposure and gamma irradiation but dramatically reduced after steam sterilization, although to a lesser extent than in the case of unmodified Cuprophan. Apparently, the presence of immobilized heparin (partially) prevented the collapse of pores during sterilization. Gamma irradiation was recommended as the preferred method of sterilization for heparinized Cuprophan.\u

Predicting the outcome of renal transplantation

ObjectiveRenal transplantation has dramatically improved the survival rate of hemodialysis patients. However, with a growing proportion of marginal organs and improved immunosuppression, it is necessary to verify that the established allocation system, mostly based on human leukocyte antigen matching, still meets today's needs. The authors turn to machine-learning techniques to predict, from donor-recipient data, the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of the recipient 1 year after transplantation.DesignThe patient's eGFR was predicted using donor-recipient characteristics available at the time of transplantation. Donors' data were obtained from Eurotransplant's database, while recipients' details were retrieved from Charite Campus Virchow-Klinikum's database. A total of 707 renal transplantations from cadaveric donors were included.MeasurementsTwo separate datasets were created, taking features with <10% missing values for one and <50% missing values for the other. Four established regressors were run on both datasets, with and without feature selection.ResultsThe authors obtained a Pearson correlation coefficient between predicted and real eGFR (COR) of 0.48. The best model for the dataset was a Gaussian support vector machine with recursive feature elimination on the more inclusive dataset. All results are available at http://transplant.molgen.mpg.de/.LimitationsFor now, missing values in the data must be predicted and filled in. The performance is not as high as hoped, but the dataset seems to be the main cause.ConclusionsPredicting the outcome is possible with the dataset at hand (COR=0.48). Valuable features include age and creatinine levels of the donor, as well as sex and weight of the recipient

Design of a new type of coating for the controlled release of heparin

Thrombus formation at the surface of blood contacting devices can be prevented by local release of heparin. Preferably, the release rate should be constant for prolonged periods of time. The minimum heparin release rate to achieve thromboresistance will be different for various applications and should therefore be adjustable. In this study a new type of heparin release system is presented which may be applied as a coating for blood contacting devices. The system is based on the covalent immobilization of heparin onto porous structures via hydrolysable bonds. This approach was evaluated by the immobilization of heparin onto a porous cellulosic substrate via ester bonds. Cuprophan was used as a model substrate and N,N¿-carbonyldiimidazole as a coupling agent. Heparinized Cuprophan incubated in phosphate buffered saline showed a release of heparin due to the hydrolysis of the ester bonds between heparin and Cuprophan. The release rate could be easily adjusted by varying the amount of coupling agent used during immobilization. Cuprophan with a rather stable heparin coating (release rate: 6.1 mU/cm2·h) and Cuprophan which shows a substantial release of heparin (release rate up to 23.0 mU/cm2·h) could be prepared. Except when the release was relatively high, release rates were constant for at least 1 week. Storage of the release system at ambient conditions up to 6 months or sterilization by means of steam, ethylene oxide exposure, or gamma irradiation did not affect the release properties. It was concluded that this concept for a heparin release system is highly promising to prepare thromboresistant surfaces for various blood contacting devices