Dispersant Efficacy and Effectiveness

Dispersants have been researched extensively and used for oil spill mitigation for more than 40 years, yet there are opportunities to enhance our understanding, including with respect to their long term fate and effects and how to optimize dispersant use. For example, the 2005 National Academy of Sciences report, Understanding Oil Spill Dispersants: Efficacy and Effects, suggested a number of areas where increased understanding would help support the use of dispersants. Throughout the summer of 2010 dispersants were used in unprecedented quantities and, in the case of sub-sea application, with novel application methods following the Deepwater Horizon incident. The focus of this paper is to provide a brief overview of spilled oil behavior, chemical dispersants efficacy and effectiveness, and a discussion of the state of knowledge pre-, during, and post- Deepwater Horizon

A review of the potential local mechanisms by which exercise improves functional outcomes in intermittent claudication

© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Background Intermittent claudication (IC) is a common condition which is associated with significant quality of life limitation. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines recommend a group-based supervised exercise program as the primary treatment option for claudication, based on clinical and cost effectiveness. This review aims to assess the mechanisms by which exercise improves outcomes in patients with IC. Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PubMed were searched using the search strategy "claudication" [AND] "exercise" [AND] "mechanisms." Searches were limited from 1947 to October 2014. Only full-text articles published in the English language in adults (over 18 years of age) were eligible for the review. Any trial involving a nonsupervised exercise program was excluded. Abstracts identified by the database search were interrogated for relevance and citations from the shortlisted papers were hand searched for relevant references. Results The search yielded a total of 112 studies, of which 42 were duplicates. Forty-seven of the remaining 70 were deemed appropriate for inclusion in the review. Exercise is the first-line treatment for IC. Supervised exercise programs improve walking distances, endothelial and mitochondrial function, muscle strength, and endurance. Furthermore, it leads to a generalized improvement in cardiovascular fitness and overall quality of life. Conclusions The mechanism by which exercise improves outcome in claudicants is complicated and multifactorial. Further research is required in this area to fully elucidate the precise and predominant mechanisms and to assess whether targeted exercise program modification maximizes mechanism efficacy and patient outcome

The Effects of Histone and Glycosaminoglycans on Human Factor Xa and Antithrombin III Interactions

Heparin and protamine have been found neutralize each other such that the anticoagulant effects of both compounds are not observed. In the present study, the effects of histone and glycosaminoglycans on the formation and degradation of the 1°Xaα-ATIII complex to the 3°Xaβ-ATIII complex are explored. In the presence of histone, there is a dramatic drop in the levels of 1°Xa-ATIII complexes and an increase in the levels of 3°Xa-ATIII complexes, measured relative to the control, indicating the effect of histone to promote the degradation of the 1°Xa-ATIII complexes. Heparin alone moderately reduces levels of the 1°Xa-ATIII complexes and the 3°Xaα-ATIII complex, while having no appreciable effect on the 3°Xaβ-ATIII complex. When mixed, histone and heparin return the levels of the 1°Xa-ATIII complexes to near control levels while slightly decreasing the levels of 3°Xa-ATIII complexes, indicating an inhibition of the histone effect by heparin. In the presence of chondroitin sulfate A, histone slightly lowers the 1°Xa-ATIII complexes while having no appreciable effect on the 3°Xa-ATIII complexes, indicating a slight inhibition of the histone effect, although it does not have as great an inhibitory effect as heparin does. Dermatan sulfate (CSB) and chondroitin sulfate C, when individually mixed with histone, increase levels of the 1°Xa-ATIII complexes while decreasing the levels of 3°Xa-ATIII complexes, indicating that both compounds inhibit degradation of the 1°Xa-ATIII complexes. Additionally, the data suggest that dermatan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate C exhibit a higher inhibitory effect on histone than heparin

Promoting the Kent State Ashtabula Wine Program Using Digital Commons: Challenges and Opportunities

Lessons learned and challenges explored in building the Ohio wine collection. Working with local winemakers and proprietors, the Ohio Wine Producers Association, Ohio Grape Industries, and the Viticulture Enology Science and Technology Alliance program coordinators, KSUA wine program and library staff have developed a DC site that chronicles the growth and impact of the industry statewide from the late 1960\u27s to the present through photos, letters, newsletters, and interviews

Art and Medicine: A Collaborative Project Between Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar and Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar

Four faculty researchers, two from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, and two from Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar developed a one semester workshop-based course in Qatar exploring the connections between art and medicine in a contemporary context. Students (6 art / 6 medicine) were enrolled in the course. The course included presentations by clinicians, medical engineers, artists, computing engineers, an art historian, a graphic designer, a painter, and other experts from the fields of art, design, and medicine. To measure the student experience of interdisciplinarity, the faculty researchers employed a mixed methods approach involving psychometric tests and observational ethnography. Data instruments included pre- and post-course semi-structured audio interviews, pre-test / post-test psychometric instruments (Budner Scale and Torrance Tests of Creativity), observational field notes, self-reflective blogging, and videography. This book describes the course and the experience of the students. It also contains images of the interdisciplinary work they created for a culminating class exhibition. Finally, the book provides insight on how different fields in a Middle Eastern context can share critical /analytical thinking tools to refine their own professional practices

Yucca Mountain Saturated Zone Carbon-14

This Scientific Investigation Plan (SIP) provides an overview of the work described in “Yucca Mountain Saturated Zone Carbon-14”, a proposal funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Repository Development under the UCCSN/YMP Co-op in support of the Science and Technology Initiatives. The objective of this work is to provide improved estimates of the time required for ground water to travel from the site of the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, to the accessible environment

Genetically Encoded Photo-cross-linkers Map the Binding Site of an Allosteric Drug on a G Protein-Coupled Receptor

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are dynamic membrane proteins that bind extracellular molecules to transduce signals. Although GPCRs represent the largest class of therapeutic targets, only a small percentage of their ligand-binding sites are precisely defined. Here we describe the novel application of targeted photo-cross-linking using unnatural amino acids to obtain structural information about the allosteric binding site of a small molecule drug, the CCR5-targeted HIV-1 co-receptor blocker maraviroc

Measuring the effect of airway pressure on pulmonary arterial diameter in the intact rat lung

To study the relationship between transpulomnary pressure (Ptp), intravascular pressure (Pv), and the pulmonary arterial tree structure, morphometric measurements of pulmonary arterial trees were made in intact lungs from Sprague-Dawley rats. Using cone beam micro-CT and techniques we developed for imaging small animal lungs, volumetric CT data were acquired for Ptp from 0 - 12 mmHg and Pv from 5 - 30 mmHg. The diameter, D (measured range approximately 0.08-2.0 mm), vs. pressure, P, relation can be described by D(P) = D(0)(1+ α P), where α is a distensibility coefficient. Unlike studies performed in larger animals, where changes in either Ptp or Pv had nearly identical effect on vessel distensibility, we found that there is only a small dependence of arterial diameter on Ptp in the rat. For example, using the above relation where P=Ptp and Pv is held constant at 12mmHg, alpha = 0.55±0.42(SE) %/mmHg, compared with when P=Pv and Ptp is held at 12mmHg, alpha = 2.59±0.17(SE) %/mmHg