National Telemedicine Initiatives: Essential to Healthcare Reform

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78116/1/tmj.2009.9960.pd

The Empirical Foundations of Telemedicine Interventions for Chronic Disease Management

The telemedicine intervention in chronic disease management promises to involve patients in their own care, provides continuous monitoring by their healthcare providers, identifies early symptoms, and responds promptly to exacerbations in their illnesses. This review set out to establish the evidence from the available literature on the impact of telemedicine for the management of three chronic diseases: congestive heart failure, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. By design, the review focuses on a limited set of representative chronic diseases because of their current and increasing importance relative to their prevalence, associated morbidity, mortality, and cost. Furthermore, these three diseases are amenable to timely interventions and secondary prevention through telemonitoring. The preponderance of evidence from studies using rigorous research methods points to beneficial results from telemonitoring in its various manifestations, albeit with a few exceptions. Generally, the benefits include reductions in use of service: hospital admissions/re-admissions, length of hospital stay, and emergency department visits typically declined. It is important that there often were reductions in mortality. Few studies reported neutral or mixed findings.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140284/1/tmj.2014.9981.pd

Dietary zinc supplementation of 3xTg-AD mice increases BDNF levels and prevents cognitive deficits as well as mitochondrial dysfunction

The overall effect of brain zinc (Zn2+) in the progression and development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is still not completely understood. Although an excess of Zn2+ can exacerbate the pathological features of AD, a deficit of Zn2+ intake has also been shown to increase the volume of amyloid plaques in AD transgenic mice. In this study, we investigated the effect of dietary Zn2+ supplementation (30 p.p.m.) in a transgenic mouse model of AD, the 3xTg-AD, that expresses both β amyloid (Aβ)- and tau-dependent pathology. We found that Zn2+ supplementation greatly delays hippocampal-dependent memory deficits and strongly reduces both Aβ and tau pathology in the hippocampus. We also evaluated signs of mitochondrial dysfunction and found that Zn2+ supplementation prevents the age-dependent respiratory deficits we observed in untreated 3xTg-AD mice. Finally, we found that Zn2+ supplementation greatly increases the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) of treated 3xTg-AD mice. In summary, our data support the idea that controlling the brain Zn2+ homeostasis may be beneficial in the treatment of AD

Dengue Virus Infection Perturbs Lipid Homeostasis in Infected Mosquito Cells

Dengue virus causes ∼50–100 million infections per year and thus is considered one of the most aggressive arthropod-borne human pathogen worldwide. During its replication, dengue virus induces dramatic alterations in the intracellular membranes of infected cells. This phenomenon is observed both in human and vector-derived cells. Using high-resolution mass spectrometry of mosquito cells, we show that this membrane remodeling is directly linked to a unique lipid repertoire induced by dengue virus infection. Specifically, 15% of the metabolites detected were significantly different between DENV infected and uninfected cells while 85% of the metabolites detected were significantly different in isolated replication complex membranes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that intracellular lipid redistribution induced by the inhibition of fatty acid synthase, the rate-limiting enzyme in lipid biosynthesis, is sufficient for cell survival but is inhibitory to dengue virus replication. Lipids that have the capacity to destabilize and change the curvature of membranes as well as lipids that change the permeability of membranes are enriched in dengue virus infected cells. Several sphingolipids and other bioactive signaling molecules that are involved in controlling membrane fusion, fission, and trafficking as well as molecules that influence cytoskeletal reorganization are also up regulated during dengue infection. These observations shed light on the emerging role of lipids in shaping the membrane and protein environments during viral infections and suggest membrane-organizing principles that may influence virus-induced intracellular membrane architecture

Development of solid polymer electrolytes for water electrolysis at intermediate temperatures

The hydrolytic stability of a number of high-temperature polymers was determined at 200°, 300° and 400°C. None of the better-known ion-conducting polymers, such as perfluorinated alkyl sulfonate and poly(ethylene oxide) were stable at these temperatures. Based on 24 h exposure under steam/H2 and steam/O2 atmospheres at 200°C, liquid crystal polyesters, polybenzimidazoles and some polyimides showed sufficient stability to warrant further study. Polyphenylene sulfides, polysulfones, polyketones and some polyimides showed reasonable stability at 300°C. No candidates were found to be stable under steam/O2 at 400°C, although some were stable under steam/H2 at that temperature. The possibility of converting high-temperature polymers into highly conductive polymer electrolytes is discussed. © 1993

Water Uptake And Conductivity Of Cross-Linked Speek Membranes

Water uptake is an important attribute of all membrane electrolytes, as it is related to mechanical strength, creep, and dimensional stability. Thus some means of controlling water uptake by a hydrophilic sulfonic acid polymer is desirable. This is particularly important for SPEEK, which at high degrees of sulfonation (i.e., low equivalent weight) has demonstrated substantial water uptake, on order of 10\u27s of water molecules per sulfonic acid unit. We have attempted to control water uptake in SPEEK membranes by performing cross-linking reactions on the finished polymer. Water-soluble SPEEK (85% degree of sulfonation, or 418 g/eq EW), 1,4-benzenedimethanol, and various transition metal chloride catalysts were cast together to form a membrane that was heated at 200 °C for 10 min. The resulting insoluble membrane was shown to have conductivity comparable to an uncross-linked SPEEK membrane over a range of relative humidities. © The Electrochemical Society

Production of hydrogen in non oxygen-evolving systems: co-produced hydrogen as a bonus in the photodegradation of organic pollutants and hydrogen sulfide

This report was prepared as part of the documentation of Annex 10 (Photoproduction of Hydrogen) of the IEA Hydrogen Agreement. Subtask A of this Annex concerned photo-electrochemical hydrogen production, with an emphasis on direct water splitting. However, studies of non oxygen-evolving systems were also included in view of their interesting potential for combined hydrogen production and waste degradation. Annex 10 was operative from 1 March 1995 until 1 October 1998. One of the collaborative projects involved scientists from the Universities of Geneva and Bern, and the Federal Institute of Technology in Laussane, Switzerland. A device consisting of a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) with a WO{sub 3} photoanode connected in series with a so-called Grazel cell (a dye sensitized liquid junction photovoltaic cell) was developed and studied in this project. Part of these studies concerned the combination of hydrogen production with degradation of organic pollutants, as described in Chapter 3 of this report. For completeness, a review of the state of the art of organic waste treatment is included in Chapter 2. Most of the work at the University of Geneva, under the supervision of Prof. J. Augustynski, was focused on the development and testing of efficient WO{sub 3} photoanodes for the photoelectrochemical degradation of organic waste solutions. Two types of WO{sub 3} anodes were developed: non transparent bulk photoanodes and non-particle-based transparent film photoanodes. Both types were tested for degradation and proved to be very efficient in dilute solutions. For instance, a solar-to-chemical energy conversion efficiency of 9% was obtained by operating the device in a 0.01M solution of methanol (as compared to about 4% obtained for direct water splitting with the same device). These organic compounds are oxidized to CO{sub 2} by the photocurrent produced by the photoanode. The advantages of this procedure over conventional electrolytic degradation are that much (an order of magnitude) less energy is required and that sunlight can be used directly. In the case of photoproduction of hydrogen, as compared to water splitting, feeding the anodic compartment of the PEC with an organic pollutant, instead of the usual supporting electrolyte, will bring about a substantial increase of the photocurrent at a given illumination. Thus, the replacement of the photo-oxidation of water by the photodegradation of organic waste will be accompanied by a gain in solar-to-chemical conversion efficiency and hence by a decrease in the cost of the photoproduced hydrogen. Taking into account the benefits and possible revenues obtainable by the waste degradation, this would seem to be a promising approach to the photoproduction of hydrogen. Hydrogen sulfide (H{sub 2}S) is another waste effluent requiring extensive treatment, especially in petroleum refineries. The so-called Claus process is normally used to convert the H{sub 2}S to elemental sulfur. A sulfur recovery process developed at the Florida Solar Energy Center is described briefly in Chapter 4 by Dr. C. Linkous as a typical example of the photoproduction of hydrogen in a non oxygen-evolving system. The encouraging results obtained in these investigations of photoelectrochemical hydrogen production combined with organic waste degradation, have prompted a decision to continue the work under the new IEA Hydrogen Agreement Annex 14, Photoelectrolytic Hydrogen Production