Microscopic Saviors: The Use of Phages in Medicine

The influenza virus has plagued humans for centuries. Recently antiviral medications, which shorten the duration of the flu, have been introduced into society. These medications along with vaccinations, which try to give the body immunity before the virus strikes, help to stop the flu before it attacks the host. The virus, however, replicates using host cells and can slightly change itself with each replication, which over time could lead to a strain immune to the current antiviral medication and vaccines. However, using more preventative measures could help slow the changing strains of the flu virus. Using vaccines to stop the virus at the host before it mutates and using antiviral medication before the flu starts replicating inside patients are both examples of preventative measures. In the future, research must be focused on creating vaccines to limit the need for antiviral medication to slow the evolution process of the influenza virus overall

Information and drug prices: evidence from the Medicare discount drug card program

In early 2004, the U.S. Government initiated the Medicare Discount Drug Card Program (MDDCP), which created a market for drug cards that allowed elderly and handicapped subscribers to obtain discounts on their prescription drug purchases. Pharmacy-level prices for many drugs were posted on the program website weekly from May 29, 2004 to December 31, 2005, as the largest undertaking in the history of government-sponsored information release began with the hope of promoting competition by facilitating access to prices. A large panel of pharmacy-level drug price data collected from the Medicare website indicates that there was significant and persistent dispersion in prices across cards throughout the program. Moreover, the time-path of prices was non-monotonic; the prices declined initially when consumers were choosing cards but rose later when subscribers were unable to switch from one card to another. In contrast, contemporaneous control prices from on-line drug retailers, which were unrelated to the program, rose steadily over time, indicating that MDDCP prices evolved in a way different from the general evolution of prices outside the program. In view of the fact that the program rules prevented consumers from changing their cards at will, the evolution of MDDCP prices is consistent with certain models of dynamic price competition with consumer switching costs, such as Klemperer’s (1987a,b). Estimates of potential savings from purchasing at program prices are also provided.Drugs ; Medical care, Cost of

(−)‐[ 18 F]Flubatine: evaluation in rhesus monkeys and a report of the first fully automated radiosynthesis validated for clinical use

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/101867/1/jlcr3069.pd

Complementary and Alternative Medical Therapies for Chronic Low Back Pain: What Treatments are Patients Willing to Try?

Background: Although back pain is the most common reason patients use complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies, little is known about the willingness of primary care back pain patients to try these therapies. As part of an effort to refine recruitment strategies for clinical trials, we sought to determine if back pain patients are willing to try acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, meditation, and t'ai chi and to learn about their knowledge of, experience with, and perceptions about each of these therapies. Methods: We identified English-speaking patients with diagnoses consistent with chronic low back pain using automated visit data from one health care organization in Boston and another in Seattle. We were able to confirm the eligibility status (i.e., current low back pain that had lasted at least 3 months) of 70% of the patients with such diagnoses and all eligible respondents were interviewed. Results: Except for chiropractic, knowledge about these therapies was low. Chiropractic and massage had been used by the largest fractions of respondents (54% and 38%, respectively), mostly for back pain (45% and 24%, respectively). Among prior users of specific CAM therapies for back pain, massage was rated most helpful. Users of chiropractic reported treatment-related "significant discomfort, pain or harm" more often (23%) than users of other therapies (5–16%). Respondents expected massage would be most helpful (median of 7 on a 0 to 10 scale) and meditation least helpful (median of 3) in relieving their current pain. Most respondents indicated they would be "very likely" to try acupuncture, massage, or chiropractic for their back pain if they did not have to pay out of pocket and their physician thought it was a reasonable treatment option. Conclusions: Most patients with chronic back pain in our sample were interested in trying therapeutic options that lie outside the conventional medical spectrum. This highlights the need for additional studies evaluating their effectiveness and suggests that researchers conducting clinical trials of these therapies may not have difficulties recruiting patients

Environmental pH Affects Photoautotrophic Growth of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 Strains Carrying Mutations in the Lumenal Proteins of PSII.

Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 grows photoautotrophically across a broad pH range, but wild-type cultures reach a higher density at elevated pH; however, photoheterotrophic growth is similar at high and neutral pH. A number of PSII mutants each lacking at least one lumenal extrinsic protein, and carrying a second PSII lumenal mutation, are able to grow photoautotrophically in BG-11 medium at pH 10.0, but not pH 7.5. We investigated the basis of this pH effect and observed no pH-specific change in variable fluorescence yield from PSII centers of the wild type or the pH-dependent ΔPsbO:ΔPsbU and ΔPsbV:ΔCyanoQ strains; however, 77 K fluorescence emission spectra indicated increased coupling of the phycobilisome (PBS) antenna at pH 10.0 in all mutants. DNA microarray data showed a cell-wide response to transfer from pH 10.0 to pH 7.5, including decreased mRNA levels of a number of oxidative stress-responsive transcripts. We hypothesize that this transcriptional response led to increased tolerance against reactive oxygen species and in particular singlet oxygen. This response enabled photoautotrophic growth of the PSII mutants at pH 10.0. This hypothesis was supported by increased resistance of all strains to rose bengal at pH 10.0 compared with pH 7.5

Ferromagnetic Mass Localization in Check Point Configuration Using a Levenberg Marquardt Algorithm

A detection and tracking algorithm for ferromagnetic objects based on a two stage Levenberg Marquardt Algorithm (LMA) is presented. The procedure is applied to localization and magnetic moment estimation of ferromagnetic objects moving in the vicinity of an array of two to four 3-axis magnetometers arranged as a check point configuration. The algorithms first stage provides an estimation of the target trajectory and moment that are further refined using a second iteration where only the position vector is taken as unknown. The whole procedure is fast enough to provide satisfactory results within a few seconds after the target has been detected. Tests were conducted in Soreq NRC assessing various check point scenarios and targets. The results obtained from this experiment show good localization performance and good convivial with “noisy” environment. Small targets can be localized with good accuracy using either a vertical “doorway” two to four sensors configuration or ground level two to four sensors configuration. The calculated trajectory was not affected by nearby magnetic interference such as moving vehicles or a combat soldier inspecting the gateway