The most powerful woman in the world : The rhetorical image construction of Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice is recognized as one of President George W. Bush\u27s closest advisors and one of America\u27s most influential officials. During her tenure as Bush\u27s National Security Advisor and then as America\u27s first African American female Secretary of State, Rice faced situations in which her image was challenged, undermined, or questioned by other individuals. This project explores how she addressed her image through examination of her rhetorical strategies in her opening statement before the 9/11 Commission in April of 2004, her first address as Secretary of State to State Department staff in January of 2005, and her first public speech as Secretary in France in February of 2005. Using Walter R. Fisher\u27s communicative motives as a framework for analysis, this paper also examines how Fisher\u27s motives appeared in contemporary discourse, describes which motives dominated Rice\u27s remarks, and evaluates her success in enacting the dominant motive in each rhetorical act. Ultimately, the examination of these three artifacts revealed that Rice\u27s rhetoric better suited the introduction of new ideas and a new image than repairing damaged images

Summer undergraduate research: A new pipeline for pain clinical practice and research

BACKGROUND: Most medical schools fail to provide adequate training of clinicians in the treatment of pain. Similarly, despite the fact that over 1/3 of Americans suffer from chronic pain, National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for pain represents only ~1 % of the NIH budget. These issues may dissuade students from pursing pain in their clinical and research careers. To address these gaps in training and funding, we argue that exposing students to pain science early in their careers, at the undergraduate level, may be an effective method to develop a pipeline for future pain clinicians and scientists. To highlight our argument, we will describe our recent successful implementation of a cross-disciplinary and community-engaged biomedical summer research program. The Pain Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE) summer program involved both off-site and on-site experiences to expose undergraduate students to the range of careers in the pain field from basic science to clinical practice. The objective of the 10-week long PURE program was to evaluate whether a combination of basic science research, clinical practice visits, and patient interactions would increase student understanding of and exposure to the underlying science of pain. METHODS: A pre-post cohort study was used without a comparison group. Entry and exit surveys were used to evaluate students’ perceptions about pain clinical practice and research, student interest in pain, and student confidence about communicating about pain and doing basic science pain research. RESULTS: Students reported significant increases to a number of questions in the survey. Questions were scored on 5 point Likert scales and there was significant increases in student understanding of what life is like with chronic pain (2.6 vs 4.3 post survey), their confidence in explaining pain to a patient (2.8 vs 4.1) or researcher (2.8 vs 4), and their comfort with pain terminology(2.8 vs 3.9). CONCLUSIONS: With the PURE program, we wanted to entice top undergraduates to consider pain as a future area of study, practice, and/or research. We present a model that can be easily implemented at research universities throughout the United States

Antinociceptive Effects of Herkinorin, a MOP Receptor Agonist Derived from Salvinorin A in the Formalin Test in Rats: New Concepts in Mu Opioid Receptor Pharmacology

Herkinorin is the first μ opioid (MOP) selective agonist derived from salvinorin A, a hallucinogenic natural product. Previous work has shown that, unlike other opioids, herkinorin does not promote the recruitment of β-arrestin-2 to the MOP receptor and does not lead to receptor internalization. This paper presents the first in vivo evaluation of herkinorin’s antinociceptive effects in rats, using the formalin test as a model of tonic inflammatory pain. Herkinorin was found to produce a dose-dependent decrease in the number of flinches evoked by formalin. These antinociceptive effects were substantially blocked by pretreatment with the nonselective antagonist naloxone, indicating that the antinociception is mediated by opioid receptors. Contralateral administration of herkinorin did not attenuate the number of flinches evoked by formalin, indicating that its effects are peripherally restricted to the site of injection. Following chronic administration (5-day), herkinorin maintained antinociceptive efficacy in both phases of the formalin test. Furthermore, unlike morphine, herkinorin was still able to inhibit flinching in both phases of the formalin test in animals made tolerant to chronic systemic morphine treatment. Collectively, these results suggest that herkinorin may produce peripheral antinociception with decreased tolerance liability and thereby represents a promising template for the development of agents for the treatment of a variety of pain states

Marine cyanobacteria-derived serotonin receptor 2C active fraction induces psychoactive behavioral effects in mice

Context—Marine cyanobacteria offer a robust resource for natural products drug discovery due to the secondary metabolites they produce. Objective—To identify novel cyanobacterial compounds that exhibit CNS psychoactive effects. Materials and methods—Cyanobacteria were collected from Las Perlas Archipelago, Panama and subjected to dichloromethane/methanol extraction and fractionation by column chromatography before being screened for affinity against a panel of CNS targets. A 50:50 ethyl acetate:methanol fraction of one cyanobacterial extract (2064H) was subjected to HPLC and the major peak was isolated (2064H3). At a dose of 20 μg per animal, 2064H and 2064H3 were tested in mice using behavioral assays that included the forced swim, open field, and formalin tests.Context—Marine cyanobacteria offer a robust resource for natural products drug discovery due to the secondary metabolites they produce. Objective—To identify novel cyanobacterial compounds that exhibit CNS psychoactive effects. Materials and methods—Cyanobacteria were collected from Las Perlas Archipelago, Panama and subjected to dichloromethane/methanol extraction and fractionation by column chromatography before being screened for affinity against a panel of CNS targets. A 50:50 ethyl acetate:methanol fraction of one cyanobacterial extract (2064H) was subjected to HPLC and the major peak was isolated (2064H3). At a dose of 20 μg per animal, 2064H and 2064H3 were tested in mice using behavioral assays that included the forced swim, open field, and formalin tests

Unusual hemiacetal structure derived from Salvinorin A

The salvinorin A analog dimethyl (2R,3aR,4R,6aR,7R,9S,9aS,9bS)-2-(3-fur­yl)-9,9a-dihydr­oxy-3a,6a-dimethyl­dodeca­hydro­benzo[de]chromene-4,7-dicarboxyl­ate, C22H30O8, has a relatively simple spatial arrangement in which mol­ecules are linked into layers by two pairs of O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. Each mol­ecule has as the central feature a dodeca­hydro-1H-phenalene ring system. Its three six-membered rings are in the chair conformation, with two axial methyl groups, one axial OH, and one equatorial OH, these OH groups being directly responsible for linking of the mol­ecules in the crystal structure

Isolation and Chemical Modification of Clerodane Diterpenoids from Salvia Species as Potential Agonists at the Κ -Opioid Receptor

The clerodane diterpenoid salvinorin A ( 1 ), the main active component of the psychotropic herb Salvia divinorum , has been reported to be a potent agonist at the Κ -opioid receptor. Computer modeling suggested that splendidin ( 2 ) from S. splendens , as well as related compounds, might possess similar activities. In the present study, this hypothesis was tested by determination of the binding properties of a series of structural congeners, compounds 2 – 8 , at the Μ -, Δ -, and Κ -opioid receptors. However, none of these compounds showed significant binding to any of the opioid-receptor subtypes, thus disproving the above hypothesis. The novel compounds 7 and 8 were obtained semi-synthetically by selective modification of salvifarin ( 5 ), isolated from Salvia farinacea , upon epoxide-ring opening with AcOH in the presence of indium(III) triflate. Also, the X-ray crystal structure of salvifaricin ( 6 ; Fig. ), obtained from S. farinacea , was determined for the first time and used, in combination with in-depth NMR experiments, to elucidate the absolute configurations of the new products. Our experiments demonstrate that the relatively well-accessible diterpenoid 6 could be used as starting material for future studies into the structure–activity relationship at the Κ -opioid receptor.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56173/1/1586_ftp.pd

Coibacins A D, Antileishmanial Marine Cyanobacterial Polyketides with Intriguing Biosynthetic Origins

Four unsaturated polyketide lactone derivatives, coibacins A-D, were isolated from a Panamanian marine cyanobacterium, cf. Oscillatoria sp. The two different types of termini observed in these co-occurring metabolites, either a methyl cyclopropyl ring as seen in curacin A or a methyl vinyl chloride similar to that observed in the jamaicamides, suggest an intriguing flexibility in the “beta branch” forming biosynthetic process. The coibacins possess selective antileishmanial activity as well as potent anti-inflammatory activity.Four unsaturated polyketide lactone derivatives, coibacins A-D, were isolated from a Panamanian marine cyanobacterium, cf. Oscillatoria sp. The two different types of termini observed in these co-occurring metabolites, either a methyl cyclopropyl ring as seen in curacin A or a methyl vinyl chloride similar to that observed in the jamaicamides, suggest an intriguing flexibility in the “beta branch” forming biosynthetic process. The coibacins possess selective antileishmanial activity as well as potent anti-inflammatory activity