The Life History of Ron Meier, OTR/L

Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the life history of Ron Meier and his experiences as an occupational therapist. More specifically, researchers explored his roles as a supervisor, manager, and director in the mental health setting in the states of North Dakota and Minnesota. Method: A semi-structured interview via phone was conducted. Ron was assigned to the researchers from a list developed by the Project Directors through purposive sampling. Results: the major themes that were prevalent throughout Ron\u27s career included: the many close relationships he formed, the programs he established and administered, the positions he held in the mental health setting, the challenges he overcame within the time he was practicing in, and his experience adapting to the changes to the profession throughout his career. The findings indicate that Ron was an influential leader who created many programs, among other notable accomplishments, within the mental health setting that expanded this area of practice within the state of North Dakota and Minnesota. Conclusion: Ron Meyer was an innovative, proactive, knowledgeable, and proficient leader throughout his career. He was influential in establishing programs but not the different needs of residents of North Dakota (ND) and was active in numerous professional organizations advocating for the role of occupational therapy (OT) in multiple healthcare settings. Ron serves as a great example for future occupational therapists who aspire to work with diverse areas of practice to his determination to create a name for the profession in the mental health setting.https://commons.und.edu/ot-oral-histories-posters/1022/thumbnail.jp

Using Leisure as a Therapeutic Activity to Enhance Health, Well-Being, and Quality of Life among Long Term Care Residents

Purpose The purpose of this scholarly project is to address health, well-being, and quality of life with the use of leisure activities as modalities with residents in long term care (LTC) facilities. Methodology The results of a thorough literature review supported the need for a program to address leisure participation in residents in LTC facilities. An abundance of literature supporting participation in leisure to enhance health, well-being, and quality of life emerged from the literature review, revealing an obvious gap between literature and practice. The information gathered in the literature review helped guide the development of a program manual to be used by LTC facility staff. The products were designed using concepts from the environment-health-occupational-well-being (E-HOW) theoretical model (Pizzi & Richards, 2017), as well as from the adult learning theory of andragogy (Bastable & Dart, 2011). E-HOW aims to address the health, environment, and occupational participation of an individual to enhance quality of life and well-being (Pizzi & Richards, 2017); whereas, andragogy focuses on how to best relay information to an adult learner (Bastable & Dart, 2011). Aspects from these two theories were used to increase the usability and effectiveness of the program and in-service manuals for LTC facility staff. Results The literature review and the theoretical models resulted in the development of two products. The first product is a program manual that gives LTC facility staff detailed information on how to implement a leisure-based program into the facility with collaboration between the occupational therapist, activity and restorative aide personnel, and the resident. The second product is an educational in-service aimed at educating staff on the correct ways to utilize the program manual. Conclusions It is anticipated that both the program manual and the in-service manual will be effective solutions to the barriers LTC residents currently face that result in occupational deprivation. Both manuals will serve as a resource to occupational therapists and activity and restorative aide personnel to both guide the development of health promoting functional maintenance programs (FMP) and to ensure that the leisure interests of each resident are addressed

Evolution of Occupational Therapy Practice: The Life History of Ron Meier

Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the life history of Ron Meier and his experiences as an occupational therapist. More specifically, researchers explored his roles as a supervisor, manager, and director in the mental health setting in the states of North Dakota and Minnesota. Method: A semi-structured interview via phone was conducted. Ron was assigned to the researchers from a list developed by the Project Directors through purposive sampling. Results: the major themes that were prevalent throughout Ron\u27s career included: the many close relationships he formed, the programs he established and administered, the positions he held in the mental health setting, the challenges he overcame within the time he was practicing in, and his experience adapting to the changes to the profession throughout his career. The findings indicate that Ron was an influential leader who created many programs, among other notable accomplishments, within the mental health setting that expanded this area of practice within the state of North Dakota and Minnesota. Conclusion: Ron Meyer was an innovative, proactive, knowledgeable, and proficient leader throughout his career. He was influential in establishing programs but not the different needs of residents of North Dakota (ND) and was active in numerous professional organizations advocating for the role of occupational therapy (OT) in multiple healthcare settings. Ron serves as a great example for future occupational therapists who aspire to work with diverse areas of practice to his determination to create a name for the profession in the mental health setting

Molecular characterization of vasotocin hormone receptors in the sea lamprey to address invasive species ecology and evolution: An Integrated Biosciences approach (2015-10-16)

The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is a jawless (agnathan) vertebrate at an evolutionary nexus between invertebrates and jawed (gnathostome) vertebrates. Lampreys are known to possess the arginine vasotocin (AVT) hormone utilized by all non-mammalian vertebrates. I postulated that the lamprey would possess AVT receptor orthologs of the arginine vasopressin (AVP)/oxytocin (OXT) family of G protein-coupled receptors found in mammals. Sequencing of five putative lamprey AVT receptor genes, molecular phylogeny and synteny (analysis of adjacent genes) support the recently proposed hypothesis that one round (1R) of whole-genome duplication (WGD) took place in the vertebrate lineage prior to divergence of the jawless vertebrates approximately 550 million years ago.Department of Biolog

Building an adverse outcome pathway network for COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic generated large amounts of data on the disease pathogenesis leading to a need for organizing the vast knowledge in a succinct manner. Between April 2020 and February 2023, the CIAO consortium exploited the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) framework to comprehensively gather and systematically organize published scientific literature on COVID-19 pathology. The project considered 24 pathways relevant for COVID-19 by identifying essential key events (KEs) leading to 19 adverse outcomes observed in patients. While an individual AOP defines causally linked perturbed KEs towards an outcome, building an AOP network visually reflect the interrelatedness of the various pathways and outcomes. In this study, 17 of those COVID-19 AOPs were selected based on quality criteria to computationally derive an AOP network. This primary network highlighted the need to consider tissue specificity and helped to identify missing or redundant elements which were then manually implemented in the final network. Such a network enabled visualization of the complex interactions of the KEs leading to the various outcomes of the multifaceted COVID-19 and confirmed the central role of the inflammatory response in the disease. In addition, this study disclosed the importance of terminology harmonization and of tissue/organ specificity for network building. Furthermore the unequal completeness and quality of information contained in the AOPs highlighted the need for tighter implementation of the FAIR principles to improve AOP findability, accessibility, interoperability and re-usability. Finally, the study underlined that describing KEs specific to SARS-CoV-2 replication and discriminating physiological from pathological inflammation is necessary but requires adaptations to the framework. Hence, based on the challenges encountered, we proposed recommendations relevant for ongoing and future AOP-aligned consortia aiming to build computationally biologically meaningful AOP networks in the context of, but not limited to, viral diseases.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

COVID-19 through Adverse Outcome Pathways: Building networks to better understand the disease - 3rd CIAO AOP Design Workshop

ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal ExperimentationCopyright © 2022 the author(s). On April 28-29, 2021, 50 scientists from different fields of expertise met for the 3rd online CIAO workshop. The CIAO project “Modelling the Pathogenesis of COVID-19 using the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) framework” aims at building a holistic assembly of the available scientific knowledge on COVID-19 using the AOP framework. An individual AOP depicts the disease progression from the initial contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus through biological key events (KE) toward an adverse outcome such as respiratory distress, anosmia or multiorgan failure. Assembling the individual AOPs into a network highlights shared KEs as central biological nodes involved in multiple outcomes observed in COVID-19 patients. During the workshop, the KEs and AOPs established so far by the CIAO members were presented and posi­tioned on a timeline of the disease course. Modulating factors influencing the progression and severity of the disease were also addressed as well as factors beyond purely biological phenomena. CIAO relies on an interdisciplinary crowd­sourcing effort, therefore, approaches to expand the CIAO network by widening the crowd and reaching stakeholders were also discussed. To conclude the workshop, it was decided that the AOPs/KEs will be further consolidated, inte­grating virus variants and long COVID when relevant, while an outreach campaign will be launched to broaden the CIAO scientific crowd.The CIAO project is steered by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC), the Humane Society International (HSI), and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). For Jorid Birkelund Sørli, the research is supported by FIKA, Focused Research Effort on Chemicals in the Working Environment from the Danish Government. For Daniel Jacobson, this work was supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC for the US Department of Energy (LOIS:10074) and the National Institutes of Health 3RF1AG053303-01S2

Characterization of the vasotocin neuropeptide hormone receptor system in the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. November 2015. Major: Integrated Biosciences. Advisor: Benjamin Clarke. 1 computer file (PDF); xii, 242 pages.The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is a jawless vertebrate at an evolutionary nexus between invertebrates and jawed vertebrates. Lampreys are known to possess the arginine vasotocin (AVT) hormone utilized by all non-mammalian vertebrates. We postulated that the lamprey would possess AVT receptor orthologs of predecessors to the arginine vasopressin (AVP)/oxytocin (OXT) family of G protein-coupled receptors found in mammals, providing insights into the early branching into the mammalian V1a, V1b, V2 and OXT receptors. We sequenced one partial and four full-length putative lamprey AVT receptor genes that are found on separate scaffolds in the P. marinus genome. Molecular phylogeny also utilizing the Japanese lamprey (Lethenteron japonicum) genome show that the lamprey receptors cluster with the larger V1a/V1b/OXTR and V2a/b/c clades but specific orthology is unclear. Synteny analysis supports the recently proposed one-round (1R) whole-genome duplication in the vertebrate lineage as the most likely scenario, but does not refute 2R or independent 3R scenarios. The mRNA expression patterns were determined in 15 distinct tissues for these genes, showing transcription in tissues where function has been demonstrated in jawed vertebrates. The literature provides evidence of the expression of neuropeptide hormones and receptors in jawed vertebrate immune cells. For the first time, lamprey peripheral blood leukocytes were maintained in primary culture for periods of at least six days, in which mRNA transcription of a V1a/OXTR-like gene (lamprey AVT receptor Pm807) was demonstrated. These preliminary results also support the hypothesis that neuropeptide hormones may play a role in response to pathogenic challenge in all vertebrates. The possibility of AVT involvement in mediating pheromone release from glandular cells in the gills of mature male lampreys was tested. The compound petromyzonamine disulfate (PADS) was detected at higher quantities after than before injection from several AVT and OXT injected males, but this was not true for the main sex pheromone component 3-keto petromyzonol sulfate (3kPZS). The question of whether DNA methylation of cytosine-guanine (CpG) dinucleotides function to regulate lamprey gene transcription was addressed through analysis of CpG islands in the lamprey Pm807 V1a/OXT receptor gene promoter region. Using High Resolution Melt (HRM) PCR on bisulfite-converted DNA, we pinpointed a region with tissue-specific differences in DNA melt characteristics, indicating differences in methylation level. Sequencing revealed a pattern of methylation at specific CpGs at consistently higher levels in adult heart and larval liver, where Pm807 is transcribed to mRNA, than in adult liver where Pm807 is not transcribed. The methylated CpGs are associated with putative Krüppel-like factor (KLF) 4 transcription factor binding site sequences. In humans KLF4 binds to methylated DNA to initiate transcription. The results suggest that CpG methylation regulates lamprey gene transcription. Additional Pm807 putative promoter elements such as estrogen response element consensus binding sequences were found to be organized similarly to functional OXTR promoters in mammals. The results of my research support the hypothesis that, similarly to jawed vertebrates, differential mRNA expression and resultant functional pleitropy is generated through promoter region sequence and epigenetic regulatory elements in the jawless basal vertebrate lamprey

Natural Resources Research Institute Technical Report

This is a draft conservation assessment designed to provide a synopsis of the life history, ecology, and management and conservation concerns of the Bay-breasted Warbler (Dendroica castanea). The primary focus of this conservation assessment is on information relevant to Region 9 of the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. The Bay-breasted Warbler is a neotropical migrant that inhabits boreal coniferous forests in a broad band, primarily, across central and eastern Canada. It breeds in northern spruce-fir forests, feeding and nesting in the dense foliage of these conifers. It winters in Panama and northern South America. Males and females are fairly large relative to other members of the genus Dendroica, being 13 to 14 cm long and weighing about 13 g. Bay-breasted Warbler numbers have been reported to dramatically increase and decrease in synchrony with outbreaks and declines of the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana), a key food item. Its North American breeding distribution is closely correlated with that of spruce and fir in the boreal forest. The greatest threat to the breeding range of the Bay-breasted Warbler is the reduction in the area of old-growth spruce and fir of the boreal forest. Both nesting habitat and food supply (spruce budworm) are at risk when reductions or alterations of these forest areas occurs. Spraying insecticides to control spruce budworm can have direct toxic affect on this Warbler (inhibition of brain acetylcholinesterase activity). Winter habitat degradation and loss is also a threat, as commercial and residential development activity continues to reduce the forested habitats in the tropics. No specific or dedicated management activities have been attempted for the Bay-breasted Warbler in Region 9. If management activities are developed and implemented, they should address ecological sustainability. No past or current conservation activities in Region 9 are known to be relevant to the Bay-breasted Warbler. However, the adoption of an ecosystemcentered forest management perspective within Region 9 would likely help conserve inconspicuous boreal birds such as the Bay-breasted Warbler. No surveying, monitoring or research specific to the Bay-breasted Warbler has occurred or is occurring within the national forests of Region 9, although some generalized bird monitoring is occurring. Modifications to a point-count survey protocol could improve the monitoring of Bay-breasted Warblers in national forests. Considering the limited extent of its habitat within these forests, its migratory behavior and inconspicuous nature, declines in the abundance of Bay-breasted Warblers in Region 9 forests could easily be overlooked