Developing new smallpox vaccines.

New stockpiles of smallpox vaccine are required as a contingency for protecting civilian and military personnel against deliberate dissemination of smallpox virus by terrorists or unfriendly governments. The smallpox vaccine in the current stockpile consists of a live animal poxvirus (Vaccinia virus [VACV]) that was grown on the skin of calves. Because of potential issues with controlling this earlier manufacturing process, which included scraping VACV lesions from calfskin, new vaccines are being developed and manufactured by using viral propagation on well-characterized cell substrates. We describe, from a regulatory perspective, the various strains of VACV, the adverse events associated with calf lymph-propagated smallpox vaccine, the issues regarding selection and use of cell substrates for vaccine production, and the issues involved in demonstrating evidence of safety and efficacy

Exploring standardized persons\u27 expectations for practice-readiness among student pharmacists

Although patient expectations and preferences for healthcare selection have been described in the literature, there are no studies exploring what qualities and behaviors standardized persons (SPs) identify for the practice-ready pharmacist. This manuscript explores those qualities and behaviors within an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) to determine SP interest in having the student as their pharmacy provider. Methods: Using open-ended questions via a Qualtrics survey, SPs were asked to provide qualities and behaviors they associated with each of three practice-readiness rating levels. Using a constant comparative approach, the researchers coded the collected data over multiple stages to allow for authentic reflection and interpretation of the data. Coders used both inductive and deductive processes prior to establishing a unified understanding and corresponding codebook. Results: A total of 55 SPs (61.1% response rate) participated in the survey, with the majority of participants working for the organization no more than two years (58.2%). Through the coding process, several major themes emerged across each of the three ratings including professionalism, patient-centered skills, communication, and preparation. Findings indicated the differences in ratings were influenced by the degree that students demonstrated each theme. Conclusions: Overall, these findings provide a better understanding of the qualities and behaviors SPs associate with student pharmacists completing OSCEs acting as practicing pharmacists. However, additional research is needed to determine if the same qualities and behaviors would be viewed as essential with SPs at other academic institutions

Inclusion of virtual nuclear excitations in the formulation of the (e,e'N)

A wave-function framework for the theory of the (e,e'N) reaction is presented in order to justify the use of coupled channel equations in the usual Feynman matrix element. The overall wave function containing the electron and nucleon coordinates is expanded in a basis set of eigenstates of the nuclear Hamiltonian, which contain both bound states as well as continuum states.. The latter have an ingoing nucleon with a variable momentum Q incident on the daughter nucleus as a target, with as many outgoing channels as desirable. The Dirac Eqs. for the electron part of the wave function acquire inhomogeneous terms, and require the use of distorted electron Green's functions for their solutions. The condition that the asymptotic wave function contain only the appropriate momentum Q_k for the outgoing nucleon, which corresponds to the electron momentum k through energy conservation, is achieved through the use of the steepest descent saddle point method, commonly used in three-body calculations.Comment: 30 page

Sans contrast variation on a dendrimer host-guest complex

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) technique was used to study the configurational changes in an oligoethyleneoxy-functionalized poly(propyleneimine) dendrimer (host) when forming complexes with rose bengal (guest). Guinier fits to the scattering data recorded at max. contrast indicated a decrease in the radius of gyration (Rg = 2.2 nm) of the dendritic system after complex formation (Rg = 1.9 nm). The structure of the host system must fluctuate strongly with the endgroups revealing a significant amt. of backfolding. Moreover, SANS data indicated clear evidence for changes in the macromol

Structure of dendrimer-dye host-guest complexes as revealed by small-angle X-ray scattering

Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) expts. were performed on dil. aq. solns. of a new type of water-sol. ethyleneoxy-terminated poly(propyleneimine) dendrimer system. They reveal that the dimensions and d. distributions of the dendrimer are hardly affected by a change in the degree of protonation. This is in contrast to recent predictions regarding the structure of polyelectrolyte dendrimers but in line with the results of recent structural studies on charged PAMAM dendrimers. These dendrimer systems were applied as nanosized containers for guests like xanthene dyes. Structural studies with SAXS provide clear evidence for a complex formation but despite higher molar mass the max. dimensions of the complex are only slightly changed compared to the dendritic host. Since the radius of gyration represents the second moment of the electron d. distribution it appears to be very sensitive to changes in this distribution upon encapsulation of heavy-atom contg. guest mols. These are reflected in a decrease of the radius of gyration upon an increase of the guest-host ratio in the soln., a behavior that strongly indicates an accumulation of guest mols. in the center of the dendritic host. [on SciFinder (R)