852 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
The Promise of Music Therapy: Understanding and Treating Individuals With Comorbid Eating Disorders and Physical Disabilities
Research has historically dismissed the prevalence of eating disorders in people with disabilities, yet studies and clinical observations suggest that individuals with physical disabilities are at increased risk for developing eating disorders. Due to this discrepancy, there is little awareness of how to treat eating disorders among this population. Self-understanding is a key component in treating both individuals with physical disabilities and individuals with eating disorders. With this finding, this article seeks to demonstrate that music therapy is an effective treatment option for those with both an eating disorder and a physical disability due to its focus on self-understanding
Erikson's 'Sense of identity' occupational fit, and enculturation in adolescence
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityIn Childhood and Society (1950), Erikson suggested that societies provide mechanisms which permit the maturational development of their constituent members. Passage through each life stage is facilitated by the adoption of these socially-provided processes, which allow one to deal with the major problems of that stage. In Erikson's developmental schema, the principal problem of adolescence is identity-formation [TRUNCATED]
Innovations in pediatric drug formulations and administration technologies for low resource settings
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Despite advances in regulations and initiatives to increase pediatric medicine development, there is still an unmet need for age-appropriate medicines for children. The availability of pediatric formulations is particularly lacking in resource poor areas, due to, for example, area-specific disease burden and financial constraints, as well as disconnected supply chains and fragmented healthcare systems. The paucity of authorized pediatric medicines often results in the manipulation and administration of products intended for adults, with an increased risk of mis-dosing and adverse reactions. This article provides an overview of the some of the key difficulties associated with the development of pediatric medicines in both high and low resource areas, and highlights shared and location specific challenges and opportunities. The utilization of dispersible oral dosage forms and suppositories for low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are described in addition to other platform technologies that may in the future offer opportunities for future pediatric medicine development for low resource settings
Perceptual atoms: proximal motion vector-structures and the perception of object motion in depth
Ovalbumin sensitization and challenge increases the number of lung cells possessing a mesenchymal stromal cell phenotype
Abstract Background Recent studies have indicated the presence of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in human lung diseases. Excess airway smooth muscle, myofibroblasts and activated fibroblasts have each been noted in asthma, suggesting that mesenchymal progenitor cells play a role in asthma pathogenesis. We therefore sought to determine whether MSCs are present in the lungs of ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized and challenged mice, a model of allergic airways disease. Methods Balb/c mice were sensitized and challenged with PBS or OVA over a 25 day period. Flow cytometry as well as colony forming and differentiation potential were used to analyze the emergence of MSCs along with gene expression studies using immunochemical analyses, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and gene expression beadchips. Results A CD45-negative subset of cells expressed Stro-1, Sca-1, CD73 and CD105. Selection for these markers and negative selection against CD45 yielded a population of cells capable of adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation. Lungs from OVA-treated mice demonstrated a greater average colony forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F) than control mice. Sorted cells differed from unsorted lung adherent cells, exhibiting a pattern of gene expression nearly identical to bone marrow-derived sorted cells. Finally, cells isolated from the bronchoalveolar lavage of a human asthma patient showed identical patterns of cell surface markers and differentiation potential. Conclusions In summary, allergen sensitization and challenge is accompanied by an increase of MSCs resident in the lungs that may regulate inflammatory and fibrotic responses.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78265/1/1465-9921-11-127.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78265/2/1465-9921-11-127.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78265/3/1465-9921-11-127-S1.DOCPeer Reviewe
Two Decades of Publishing Excellence in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Recombinant biological products have revolutionized modern medicine by providing both remarkably effective vaccines to prevent disease and therapeutic drugs to treat a wide variety of unmet medical needs. Since the early 1980s, dozens of new therapeutic protein drugs and macromolecular vaccines have been commercialized, which have benefitted millions of patients worldwide. The pharmaceutical development of these biological products presented many scientific and technical challenges, some of which continue today with newer candidates including recombinant protein-based vaccines with novel adjuvants, peptide and RNA-based drugs, and stem cellular therapies. Compared with small molecule drugs, the characterization, stabilization, formulation, and delivery of biomolecules share common hurdles as well as unique challenges. This area of drug development research has been referred to as âpharmaceutical biotechnologyâ, in recognition of the critical role that recombinant DNA technology plays in the design and production of most of these biological products. Current research focus areas in this field include (i) determination of structural integrity of the primary sequence, post-translational modifications, and higher-order three dimensional shapes, (ii) assessment of physicochemical degradation pathways and their effects on biological activity and potency, (iii) formulation design and development to optimize stability and delivery, (iv) evaluating and optimizing process development steps including lyophilization and fill-finish, (v) analytical method development and applications of new instruments and data visualization tools, (vi) design and development of drug delivery approaches, and (vii) studies of biological effects including pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and adverse immunogenicity.
During the early days of pharmaceutical biotechnology research, there were numerous scientific challenges because the analytical characterization approaches needed for development of recombinant biological molecules in âreal worldâ pharmaceutical dosage forms were essentially unknown. Furthermore, understanding critical drug product manufacturing issues (e.g., stability of biological compounds during processing, storage, and shipping as well as reproducibility of fill-finish production technologies) and behavior during and after patient administration was often achieved by âon-the-jobâ training. Fortunately, the pioneers in the field regularly presented research at key conferences and started publishing early in pharmaceutical sciences journals such as Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Recognizing this critically important new field, the then Editor of the journal, Professor Bill Higuchi, instituted a new âpharmaceutical biotechnologyâ category for research papers. This insightful move was coupled with an equally wise decision to recruit Dr. C. Russell Middaugh as the new Associate Editor for the new research category. As will be detailed below, under Dr. Middaughâs diligent and expert guidance, pharmaceutical biotechnology papers have grown in number, scope, and impact over the past 20 years, and these days, the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences is viewed by scientific leaders in the field as the âgo toâ place for publication of the most important results and descriptions of innovations in pharmaceutical biotechnology
Connecting the Dots: A Rare Cause of Pulmonary Nodules in a 13-Year-Old Boy
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140177/1/ped.2014.0392.pd
MM Algorithms for Geometric and Signomial Programming
This paper derives new algorithms for signomial programming, a generalization
of geometric programming. The algorithms are based on a generic principle for
optimization called the MM algorithm. In this setting, one can apply the
geometric-arithmetic mean inequality and a supporting hyperplane inequality to
create a surrogate function with parameters separated. Thus, unconstrained
signomial programming reduces to a sequence of one-dimensional minimization
problems. Simple examples demonstrate that the MM algorithm derived can
converge to a boundary point or to one point of a continuum of minimum points.
Conditions under which the minimum point is unique or occurs in the interior of
parameter space are proved for geometric programming. Convergence to an
interior point occurs at a linear rate. Finally, the MM framework easily
accommodates equality and inequality constraints of signomial type. For the
most important special case, constrained quadratic programming, the MM
algorithm involves very simple updates.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figur
H. influenzae potentiates airway epithelial cell responses to rhinovirus by increasing ICAMâ1 and TLR3 expression
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154674/1/fsb2fj065806fje.pd
Macrophage activation state determines the response to rhinovirus infection in a mouse model of allergic asthma
Abstract
Background
The mechanisms by which viruses cause asthma exacerbations are not precisely known. Previously, we showed that, in ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized and -challenged mice with allergic airway inflammation, rhinovirus (RV) infection increases type 2 cytokine production from alternatively-activated (M2) airway macrophages, enhancing eosinophilic inflammation and airways hyperresponsiveness. In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that IL-4 signaling determines the state of macrophage activation and pattern of RV-induced exacerbation in mice with allergic airways disease.
Methods
Eight week-old wild type or IL-4 receptor knockout (IL-4R KO) mice were sensitized and challenged with OVA and inoculated with RV1B or sham HeLa cell lysate.
Results
In contrast to OVA-treated wild-type mice with both neutrophilic and eosinophilic airway inflammation, OVA-treated IL-4R KO mice showed increased neutrophilic inflammation with few eosinophils in the airways. Like wild-type mice, IL-4R KO mice showed OVA-induced airway hyperreactivity which was further exacerbated by RV. There was a shift in lung cytokines from a type 2-predominant response to a type 1 response, including production of IL-12p40 and TNF-α. IL-17A was also increased. RV infection of OVA-treated IL-4R KO mice further increased neutrophilic inflammation. Bronchoalveolar macrophages showed an M1 polarization pattern and ex vivo RV infection increased macrophage production of TNF-α, IFN-Îł and IL-12p40. Finally, lung cells from OVA-treated IL-4R KO mice showed reduced CD206+ CD301+ M2 macrophages, decreased IL-13 and increased TNF-α and IL-17A production by F4/80+, CD11b+âmacrophages.
Conclusions
OVA-treated IL-4R KO mice show neutrophilic airway inflammation constituting a model of allergic, type 1 cytokine-driven neutrophilic asthma. In the absence of IL-4/IL-13 signaling, RV infection of OVA-treated mice increased type 1 cytokine and IL-17A production from conventionally-activated macrophages, augmenting neutrophilic rather than eosinophilic inflammation. In mice with allergic airways inflammation, IL-4R signaling determines macrophage activation state and the response to subsequent RV infection.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109511/1/12931_2014_Article_1503.pd
- âŠ