Rhesus macaque model of chronic opiate dependence and neuro-AIDS: longitudinal assessment of auditory brainstem responses and visual evoked potentials

Our work characterizes the effects of opiate (morphine) dependence on auditory brainstem and visual evoked responses in a rhesus macaque model of neuro-AIDS utilizing a chronic continuous drug delivery paradigm. The goal of this study was to clarify whether morphine is protective, or if it exacerbates simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) related systemic and neurological disease. Our model employs a macrophage tropic CD4/CCR5 co-receptor virus, SIVmac239 (R71/E17), which crosses the blood brain barrier shortly after inoculation and closely mimics the natural disease course of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The cohort was divided into 3 groups: morphine only, SIV only, and SIV + morphine. Evoked potential (EP) abnormalities in sub-clinically infected macaques were evident as early as eight weeks post-inoculation. Prolongations in EP latencies were observed in SIV-infected macaques across all modalities. Animals with the highest CSF viral loads and clinical disease showed more abnormalities than those with sub-clinical disease, confirming our previous work (Raymond et al, 1998, 1999, 2000). Although some differences were observed in auditory and visual evoked potentials in morphine treated compared to untreated SIV-infected animals, the effects were relatively small and not consistent across evoked potential type. However, morphine treated animals with subclinical disease had a clear tendency toward higher virus loads in peripheral and CNS tissues (Marcario et al., 2008) suggesting that if had been possible to follow all animals to end-stage disease, a clearer pattern of evoked potential abnormality might have emerged

27th Annual Midwest/Midsouth Estate Planning Institute

Materials from the 27th Annual Midwest/Midsouth Estate Planning Institute held by UK/CLE in July 2000

Distinguishing Molecular Features and Clinical Characteristics of a Putative New Rhinovirus Species, Human Rhinovirus C (HRV C)

Background: Human rhinoviruses (HRVs) are the most frequently detected pathogens in acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) and yet little is known about the prevalence, recurrence, structure and clinical impact of individual members. During 2007, the complete coding sequences of six previously unknown and highly divergent HRV strains were reported. To catalogue the molecular and clinical features distinguishing the divergent HRV strains, we undertook, for the first time, in silico analyses of all available polyprotein sequences and performed retrospective reviews of the medical records of cases in which variants of the prototype strain, HRV-QPM, had been detected

The September 11 tragedy & the response of the banking industry.

The September 11th tragedy is a disaster that goes beyond saying, one of the worst days the world has ever seen. One industry in particular that was immensely affected by the events that unfolded that day was the banking industry. Many large banks are headquartered in New York City, so when the World Trade Centers went down, the banking industry also went down. During the week of September 11, 2001, the widespread destruction of physical communications supporting financial institutions in and around the World Trade Center and extensive telecommunications breakdowns throughout the region caused dislocations in the financial market. U.S. equity markets were closed for four days and most bond trading, including government securities trading, halted for two days. There were significant disruptions in the clearing and settlement mechanisms for government securities, repurchase agreements, and commercial paper. At the same time, the extraordinary levels of cooperation by the financial industry in the aftermath of the September 11th events, helped overcome limitations within the companies. Some firms were accommodated by other organizations (including competitors) in New York City by finding office space for staff. Customers and counter parties helped re-create transaction records that were lost. Institutions extended credit to customers and counter parties vulnerable by liquidity shortfalls despite the inherent uncertainty and lack of reliable information in the marketplace about their current financial condition. Large numbers of people inside and outside the financial industry worked long hours to restore communication links that had failed. In fact, the most often cited lesson learned from the tragedy is the importance of people, including considerations for their personal safety

The September 11 tragedy & the response of the banking industry.

The September 11th tragedy is a disaster that goes beyond saying, one of the worst days the world has ever seen. One industry in particular that was immensely affected by the events that unfolded that day was the banking industry. Many large banks are headquartered in New York City, so when the World Trade Centers went down, the banking industry also went down. During the week of September 11, 2001, the widespread destruction of physical communications supporting financial institutions in and around the World Trade Center and extensive telecommunications breakdowns throughout the region caused dislocations in the financial market. U.S. equity markets were closed for four days and most bond trading, including government securities trading, halted for two days. There were significant disruptions in the clearing and settlement mechanisms for government securities, repurchase agreements, and commercial paper. At the same time, the extraordinary levels of cooperation by the financial industry in the aftermath of the September 11th events, helped overcome limitations within the companies. Some firms were accommodated by other organizations (including competitors) in New York City by finding office space for staff. Customers and counter parties helped re-create transaction records that were lost. Institutions extended credit to customers and counter parties vulnerable by liquidity shortfalls despite the inherent uncertainty and lack of reliable information in the marketplace about their current financial condition. Large numbers of people inside and outside the financial industry worked long hours to restore communication links that had failed. In fact, the most often cited lesson learned from the tragedy is the importance of people, including considerations for their personal safety

Processing of Alnico Magnets by Additive Manufacturing

Permanent magnets without rare earth (RE) elements, such as alnico, will improve supply stability and potentially decrease permanent magnet cost, especially for traction drive motors and other increased temperature applications. Commercial alnico magnets with the highest energy product are produced by directional solidification (DS) to achieve a <001> columnar grain orientation followed by significant final machining, adding to the high cost. Additive manufacturing (AM) is an effective method to process near net-shape parts with minimal final machining of complex geometries. AM also, has potential for texture/grain orientation control and compositionally graded structures. This report describes fabrication of alnico magnets by AM using both laser engineered net shaping (LENS)/directed energy deposition (DED) and electron beam melting powder bed fusion (EBM/PBF). High pressure gas atomized (HPGA) pre-alloyed alnico powders, with high purity and sphericity, were built into cylindrical and rectangular samples, followed by magnetic annealing (MA) and a full heat treatment (FHT). The magnetic properties of these AM processed specimens were different from their cast and sintered counterparts of the same composition and show a great sensitivity to heat treatment. The AM process parameters used in this developmental study did not yet result in any preferred texture within the alnico AM builds. These findings demonstrate feasibility for near net-shape processing of alnico permanent magnets for use in next generation traction drive motors and other applications requiring increased operating temperatures and/or complex engineered part geometries, especially with further AM process development for texture control

Processing of Alnico Magnets by Additive Manufacturing

Permanent magnets without rare earth (RE) elements, such as alnico, will improve supply stability and potentially decrease permanent magnet cost, especially for traction drive motors and other increased temperature applications. Commercial alnico magnets with the highest energy product are produced by directional solidification (DS) to achieve a columnar grain orientation followed by significant final machining, adding to the high cost. Additive manufacturing (AM) is an effective method to process near net-shape parts with minimal final machining of complex geometries. AM also, has potential for texture/grain orientation control and compositionally graded structures. This report describes fabrication of alnico magnets by AM using both laser engineered net shaping (LENS)/directed energy deposition (DED) and electron beam melting powder bed fusion (EBM/PBF). High pressure gas atomized (HPGA) pre-alloyed alnico powders, with high purity and sphericity, were built into cylindrical and rectangular samples, followed by magnetic annealing (MA) and a full heat treatment (FHT). The magnetic properties of these AM processed specimens were different from their cast and sintered counterparts of the same composition and show a great sensitivity to heat treatment. The AM process parameters used in this developmental study did not yet result in any preferred texture within the alnico AM builds. These findings demonstrate feasibility for near net-shape processing of alnico permanent magnets for use in next generation traction drive motors and other applications requiring increased operating temperatures and/or complex engineered part geometries, especially with further AM process development for texture control.</p

Data from: Lectotypification of Adiantopsis alata (Pteridaceae) and descriptions of new palmate species in the Guiana Shield

Adiantopsis alata was described by Prantl in 1883 and was distinguished from A. radiata based on the presence of large adaxial carinae along the stipes. Morphological and molecular analyses of specimens meeting this general description reveal four distinct species, with one endemic to eastern Brazil and three others restricted to the Guiana Shield. The syntypes for A. alata represent two different species, one from Brazil and the other from Guyana. Here, we designate a Brazilian syntype as the lectotype for A. alata and describe and illustrate three new palmate species from the Guiana Shield with adaxial carinae along their stipes: A. aurea, A. hickeyi, and A. scalariformis. A distribution map for the new species and a key to all ten palmate members of Adiantopsis are provided

Improving Student Documentation in the Emergency Department

Learning Objectives: Demonstrate a curriculum designed to teach medical students how to successfully write the medical decision making portion of the emergency medicine note.Introduction: Documentation is an essential component of patient care in the emergency department (ED). Although students are taught the general rules of note-writing prior to clerkships, the emergency medicine (EM) note differs from most rotations. There is a need to teach the specifics of documentation of the EM note to medical students. The Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA) Education Committee created a curriculum to teach formal documentation to medical students.Educational Objective: Create a curriculum designed to teach medical students how to successfully write the medical decision making (MDM) portion of the EM note.Curricular Design: Our curriculum design assumes that all senior medical students were taught the basics of writing a history and physical. Therefore, we primarily focused on teaching the MDM portion of the EM note. Following IRB approval and consent from the 55 students in our study, each student filled out a survey about their previous experience with documentation in the ED (Image 1). Next, students watched a video of a complete simulated patient encounter in order to assess their baseline ability to document a formal MDM that included the ED course and disposition. These notes were then graded on a rubric (Image 2) by a resident physician at each site who was a member of the curriculum development team to ensure standardization. Students were then given access to the EMRA documentation template and video. After the educational intervention, students documented a new MDM based on a different video encounter and were graded again.Impact/Effectiveness: We found that a documentation curriculum significantly improved students’ MDM documentation. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed a strong effect on MDM Documentation scores [F(1, 38) = 72.547, p &lt; .001, ηp2 = .656], demonstrating that MDM documentation statistically improved after the training curriculum and that implementation improves student documentation in the ED