The feasibility of brief dog assisted therapy on university students stress levels: The PAwS study.

Background: Pet therapy is becoming increasingly popular and is used in a variety of ways from encouraging communication in older adults to improving wellbeing in those with serious mental illness. Increasingly Universities have been offering pet therapy to students in an effort to reduce stress. However, little evidence currently exists to support the effectiveness of reducing measurable stress levels after a standalone drop-in unstructured session. The University of Sheffield’s Counselling Service works in partnership with Guide Dogs for the Blind to give students access to calm, well-trained animals for informal group stress relief. Aims: To assess the feasibility of implementing and evaluating unstructured group interventions with a Guide Dog in training within the university student population. Methods: One hundred and thirty-one students who attended pet therapy at the University Counselling Service were recruited on a voluntary basis to take part in the research. Stress, measured on the state trait anxiety inventory, and blood pressure were taken before and after a 15-min intervention. Results: All measures showed a statistically significant reduction immediately after the intervention. Conclusion: Short interactions with a Guide Dog in training appear to reduce stress in University students. A controlled study is required to investigate further

The relationship between sensory sensitivity and autistic traits in the general population.

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) tend to have sensory processing difficulties (Baranek et al. in J Child Psychol Psychiatry 47:591–601, 2006). These difficulties include over- and under-responsiveness to sensory stimuli, and problems modulating sensory input (Ben-Sasson et al. in J Autism Dev Disorders 39:1–11, 2009). As those with ASD exist at the extreme end of a continuum of autistic traits that is also evident in the general population, we investigated the link between ASD and sensory sensitivity in the general population by administering two questionnaires online to 212 adult participants. Results showed a highly significant positive correlation (r = .775, p < .001) between number of autistic traits and the frequency of sensory processing problems. These data suggest a strong link between sensory processing and autistic traits in the general population, which in turn potentially implicates sensory processing problems in social interaction difficulties

The Use of Sulfasalazine in Atrophie Blanche

Atrophie blanche can be a chronic condition for which there is no satisfactory treatment. Two patients with atrophie blanche who had not responded to various therapeutic modalities were given a trial of sulfasalazine 1 g three times daily. The ulcers healed within 3 months in both cases. In view of these positive results, patients should be treated with sulfasalazine to determine the efficacy of this drug in atrophie blanche.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65527/1/j.1365-4362.1990.tb02594.x.pd

Multi-Gene Expression Predictors of Single Drug Responses to Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Ovarian Carcinoma: Predicting Platinum Resistance

Despite advances in radical surgery and chemotherapy delivery, ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy. Standard therapy includes treatment with platinum-based combination chemotherapies yet there is no biomarker model to predict their responses to these agents. We here have developed and independently tested our multi-gene molecular predictors for forecasting patients' responses to individual drugs on a cohort of 55 ovarian cancer patients. To independently validate these molecular predictors, we performed microarray profiling on FFPE tumor samples of 55 ovarian cancer patients (UVA-55) treated with platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy. Genome-wide chemosensitivity biomarkers were initially discovered from the in vitro drug activities and genomic expression data for carboplatin and paclitaxel, respectively. Multivariate predictors were trained with the cell line data and then evaluated with a historical patient cohort. For the UVA-55 cohort, the carboplatin, taxol, and combination predictors significantly stratified responder patients and non-responder patients (p = 0.019, 0.04, 0.014) with sensitivity = 91%, 96%, 93 and NPV = 57%, 67%, 67% in pathologic clinical response. The combination predictor also demonstrated a significant survival difference between predicted responders and non-responders with a median survival of 55.4 months vs. 32.1 months. Thus, COXEN single- and combination-drug predictors successfully stratified platinum resistance and taxane response in an independent cohort of ovarian cancer patients based on their FFPE tumor samples

Effect of cyclosporine on hepatic cytosolic estrogen and androgen receptor levels before and after partial hepatectomy

Estrogen and androgen receptors within the liver have been reported to modulate the hepatic regenerative response to partial hepatectomy. Moreover, cyclosporine has several untoward effects that might occur as a consequence of alterations in sex hormone activity. To evaluate these questions the following experiments were performed. Estrogen and androgen receptors in cytosol were quantitated in livers of rats treated with cyclosporine or olive oil vehicle before and after partial hepatectomy or a sham operation. Ornithine decarboxylase activity and thymidine kinase activity were assessed as indices of hepatic regeneration. Preoperative levels of estrogen receptor activity in the hepatic cytosol were significantly greater in rats treated with cyclosporine as compared to vehicle treated controls (P<0.01). In contrast, preoperative levels of androgen receptor activity in the cyclosporine-treated and vehicle-treated animals were similar. Following partial hepatectomy, a reduction in the activity of both sex hormone receptors in the hepatic cytosol was observed and was compatible with results described previously in normal animals. Unexpectedly the preoperative levels of ornithine decarboxylase (P<0.01) and thymidine kinase activity (P<0.01) were significantly greater in the rats treated with cyclosporine as compared to the vehicle treated controls. As expected, ornithine decarboxylase activity (at 6 hr) and thymidine kinase activity (at 24 hr) rose and peaked in response to a partial hepatectomy but were significantly greater (P<0.05) in the rats treated with cyclosporine as compared to the vehicle. These results show that cyclosporine treatment causes an increase in the hepatic content of estrogen receptor activity that is associated with an enhanced potential for a regenerative response. These effects of cyclosporine treatment on the sex hormone receptor levels in liver may explain the mechanisms responsible for some of the untoward effects of treatment with this agent. © 1990 Plenum Publishing Corporation

Are Canadian General Internal Medicine training program graduates well prepared for their future careers?

BACKGROUND: At a time of increased need and demand for general internists in Canada, the attractiveness of generalist careers (including general internal medicine, GIM) has been falling as evidenced by the low number of residents choosing this specialty. One hypothesis for the lack of interest in a generalist career is lack of comfort with the skills needed to practice after training, and the mismatch between the tertiary care, inpatient training environment and "real life". This project was designed to determine perceived effectiveness of training for 10 years of graduates of Canadian GIM programs to assist in the development of curriculum and objectives for general internists that will meet the needs of graduates and ultimately society. METHODS: Mailed survey designed to explore perceived importance of training for and preparation for various aspects of Canadian GIM practice. After extensive piloting of the survey, including a pilot survey of two universities to improve the questionnaire, all graduates of the 16 universities over the previous ten years were surveyed. RESULTS: Gaps (difference between importance and preparation) were demonstrated in many of the CanMEDS 2000/2005(® )competencies. Medical problems of pregnancy, perioperative care, pain management, chronic care, ambulatory care and community GIM rotations were the medical expert areas with the largest gaps. Exposure to procedural skills was perceived to be lacking. Some procedural skills valued as important for current GIM trainees and performed frequently (example ambulatory ECG interpretation) had low preparation ratings by trainees. Other areas of perceived discrepancy between training and practice included: manager role (set up of an office), health advocate (counseling for prevention, for example smoking cessation), and professional (end of life issues, ethics). CONCLUSION: Graduates of Canadian GIM training programs over the last ten years have identified perceived gaps between training and important areas for practice. They have identified competencies that should be emphasized in Canadian GIM programs. Ongoing review of graduate's perceptions of training programs as it applies to their current practice is important to ensure ongoing appropriateness of training programs. This information will be used to strengthen GIM training programs in Canada

Invasive Predators Deplete Genetic Diversity of Island Lizards

Invasive species can dramatically impact natural populations, especially those living on islands. Though numerous examples illustrate the ecological impact of invasive predators, no study has examined the genetic consequences for native populations subject to invasion. Here we capitalize on a natural experiment in which a long-term study of the brown anole lizard (Anolis sagrei) was interrupted by rat invasion. An island population that was devastated by rats recovered numerically following rat extermination. However, population genetic analyses at six microsatellite loci suggested a possible loss of genetic diversity due to invasion when compared to an uninvaded island studied over the same time frame. Our results provide partial support for the hypothesis that invasive predators can impact the genetic diversity of resident island populations

Systems Biology by the Rules: Hybrid Intelligent Systems for Pathway Modeling and Discovery

Background: Expert knowledge in journal articles is an important source of data for reconstructing biological pathways and creating new hypotheses. An important need for medical research is to integrate this data with high throughput sources to build useful models that span several scales. Researchers traditionally use mental models of pathways to integrate information and development new hypotheses. Unfortunately, the amount of information is often overwhelming and these are inadequate for predicting the dynamic response of complex pathways. Hierarchical computational models that allow exploration of semi-quantitative dynamics are useful systems biology tools for theoreticians, experimentalists and clinicians and may provide a means for cross-communication. Results: A novel approach for biological pathway modeling based on hybrid intelligent systems or soft computing technologies is presented here. Intelligent hybrid systems, which refers to several related computing methods such as fuzzy logic, neural nets, genetic algorithms, and statistical analysis, has become ubiquitous in engineering applications for complex control system modeling and design. Biological pathways may be considered to be complex control systems, which medicine tries to manipulate to achieve desired results. Thus, hybrid intelligent systems may provide a useful tool for modeling biological system dynamics and computational exploration of new drug targets. A new modeling approach based on these methods is presented in the context of hedgehog regulation of the cell cycle in granule cells. Code and input files can be found at the Bionet website: www.chip.ord/~wbosl/Software/Bionet. Conclusion: This paper presents the algorithmic methods needed for modeling complicated biochemical dynamics using rule-based models to represent expert knowledge in the context of cell cycle regulation and tumor growth. A notable feature of this modeling approach is that it allows biologists to build complex models from their knowledge base without the need to translate that knowledge into mathematical form. Dynamics on several levels, from molecular pathways to tissue growth, are seamlessly integrated. A number of common network motifs are examined and used to build a model of hedgehog regulation of the cell cycle in cerebellar neurons, which is believed to play a key role in the etiology of medulloblastoma, a devastating childhood brain cancer