Training course for radiation safety technicians

Course of instruction includes sections on basic information, natural radioactivity, properties of alpha, beta, gamma, X rays, and neutrons, concepts of radiation units and dose determinations, shielding, biological effects, background radiation, radiation protection standards, and internal dose calculation

Miscellaneous Problems

Contains reports on two research projects

Miscellaneous Problems

Contains reports on three research projects

Adverse mandibular bone effects associated with kidney disease are only partially corrected with bisphosphonate and/or calcium treatment

Bone Biology Laboratory http://www.iupui.edu/~bonelab/ Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Biomedical Engineering IUPUIBackground/Aims: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have high prevalence of periodontal disease that may predispose to tooth loss and inflammation. The goal of this study was to test the hypotheses that a genetic rat model of progressive CKD would exhibit altered oral bone properties and that treatment with either bisphosphonates or calcium could attenuate these adverse changes. Methods: At 25 weeks of age, rats were treated with zoledronate, calcium gluconate, or their combination for 5 or 10 weeks. Mandible bone properties were assessed using micro-computed tomography to determine bone volume (BV/TV) and cementenamel junction to alveolar crest distance (CEJ-AC). Results: Untreated CKD animals had significantly lower BV/TV at both 30 (-5%) and 35 (-14%) weeks of age and higher CEJ-AC (+27 and 29%) compared to normal animals. CKD animals had significantly higher PTH compared to normal animals yet similar levels of C-reactive protein. Zoledronate-treatment normalized BV/TV over the first 5 weeks but this benefit was lost by 10 weeks. Calcium treatment, alone or in combination with zoledronate, was effective in normalizing BV/TV at both time points. Neither zoledronate nor calcium was able to correct the higher CEJ-AC caused by CKD. Calcium, but not zoledronate, significantly reduced serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) while neither treatment affected C-reactive protein. Conclusions: 1) this progressive animal model of chronic kidney disease shows a clear mandibular skeletal phenotype consistent with periodontitis, 2) the periodontitis is not associated with systemic inflammation as measured by C-reactive protein, and 3) reducing PTH has positive effects on the mandible phenotype.This work was supported by NIH grant (AR058005). We would like to thank Dr. Xianming Chen, Mr. Alex Carr and Mr. Drew Brown for their assistance with the biochemical assays, breeding colony and micro CT scanning/analysis, respectively

Miscellaneous Problems

Contains reports on three research projects

Exploring Self-organisation in Crowd Teams

Online crowds have the potential to do more complex work in teams, rather than as individuals. Team formation algorithms typically maximize some notion of global utility of team output by allocating people to teams or tasks. However, decisions made by these algorithms do not consider the decisions or preferences of the people themselves. This paper explores a complementary strategy, which relies on the crowd itself to self-organize into effective teams. Our preliminary results show that users perceive the ability to choose their teammate extremely useful in a crowdsourcing setting. We also find that self-organisation makes users feel more productive, creative and responsible for their work product

Comment on "Evidence for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay"

We comment on the recent claim for the experimental observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay. We discuss several limitations in the analysis provided in that paper and conclude that there is no basis for the presented claim.Comment: A comment written to Modern Physics Letters A. 4 pages, no figures. Updated version, accepted for publicatio

The effect of a diet containing 70% protein from plants on mineral metabolism and musculoskeletal health in chronic kidney disease

BACKGROUND: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is associated with alterations in phosphorus excretion, and increases in fibroblast growth factor (FGF23) and parathyroid hormone (PTH). Plant protein-based phytate-bound phosphorus, is less bioavailable than that from animal sources. Our one-week study that was conducted previously showed that a nearly 100% plant protein-based diet benefits mineral metabolism in CKD; however, this diet may not be acceptable to patients. Here we hypothesize that a diet containing 70% protein from plants has similar efficacy and is tolerated by CKD patients. METHODS: Thirteen subjects with CKD 3-4 received an omnivorous diet containing 70% protein from plants for 4 weeks. The primary outcome was change in 24 h urine phosphorus. Secondary outcomes were changes in serum phosphorus, FGF23, PTH, urine sodium excretion, grip strength and fat free mass. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test differences in parameters over the 4 weeks. RESULTS: Mean age of subjects was 54.8 years. Median eGFR was 26 (IQR 14.7) ml/min/1.73 m(2). Over the 4-week period, urine phosphorus significantly decreased by 215 ± 232 mg/day (p < 0.001). No significant changes in serum FGF23, phosphorus or PTH were noted. Urine sodium and titratable acid decreased significantly on the diet. Hand grip strength and fat-free mass did not change. There were two hyperkalemia events both 5.8 mEq/l, corrected by food substitutions. No other adverse events were observed. CONCLUSIONS: A 70% plant protein diet is safe, tolerated, and efficacious in lowering urine phosphorus excretion and may be an alternative to phosphate binders