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Bioinformatic Analysis Of A Mammalian Bip Gene For Insertion Into Green Algae And Comparison Of Its Possible Effects On The Synthesis Of A Mammalian Antibody, Katrina Ghazanfar

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes a study utilizing bioinformatics to analyze homologues of a molecular chaperone, glucose-regulated protein 78 (grp 78), also known as BiP. The selected homologous proteins originate from organisms of infinitely diverse genera. Comparisons of protein sequence yielded the first clues of a common ancestry among these proteins. Furthermore, protein molecular weights, isoelectric points, N-terminal amino acids and half-lives of a known homolog and a non-homologous protein were examined. Additionally, electroporation, a state-of-the-art plasmid insertion technique, was explored using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a green alga, as the recipient of a parent plasmid, pSP124S. Distinctive hypertonic solutions and three separate field …

Calcium And Glycolysis Mediate Multiple Bursting Modes In Pancreatic Islets, Richard Bertram, Leslie S. Satin, Min Zhang, Paul Smolen, Arthur Sherman

Pharmacology and Toxicology Publications

Abstract

Pancreatic islets of Langerhans produce bursts of electrical activity when exposed to stimulatory glucose levels. These bursts often have a regular repeating pattern, with a period of 10–60 s. In some cases, however, the bursts are episodic, clustered into bursts of bursts, which we call compound bursting. Consistent with this are recordings of free Ca²⁺ concentration, oxygen consumption, mitochondrial membrane potential, and intraislet glucose levels that exhibit very slow oscillations, with faster oscillations superimposed. We describe a new mathematical model of the pancreatic β-cell that can account for these multimodal patterns. The model includes the feedback of …

Equivalence Study Of A Dental Anatomy Computer-Assisted Learning Program, Russell E. Bogacki, Al M. Best, Louis M. Abbey

Periodontics Publications

Tooth Morphology is a computer-assisted learning program designed to teach the anatomy of the adult dentition. The purpose of this study was to test whether Tooth Morphology could teach dental anatomy to first-year dental students as well as the traditional lecture. A randomized controlled trial was performed with forty-five first-year dental students. The students were randomly assigned to either the Tooth Morphology group (n=23), which used the computer-assisted learning program and did not attend lecture, or the lecture group (n=22), which attended the traditional lecture and did not useTooth Morphology. The Tooth Morphology group had a final exam …

Palifermin For Oral Mucositis After Intensive Therapy For Hematologic Cancers, Ricardo Spielberger, Patrick Stiff, William Bensinger, Teresa Gentile, Daniel Weisdorf, Tarun Kewalramani, Thomas Shea, Saul Yanovich, Keith Hansen, Stephen Noga, John Mccarty, C. Frederick Lemaistre, Eric C. Sung, Bruce R. Blazar, Dieter Elhardt, Mon-Gy Chen, Christos Emmanouilides

Internal Medicine Publications

BACKGROUND: Oral mucositis is a complication of intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy with no effective treatment. We tested the ability of palifermin (recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor) to decrease oral mucosal injury induced by cytotoxic therapy. METHODS: This double-blind study compared the effect of palifermin with that of a placebo on the development of oral mucositis in 212 patients with hematologic cancers; 106 patients received palifermin (60 microg per kilogram of body weight per day) and 106 received a placebo intravenously for three consecutive days immediately before the initiation of conditioning therapy (fractionated total-body irradiation plus high-dose chemotherapy) and after autologous …

Ten Years’ Experience With Alendronate For Osteoporosis In Postmenopausal Women, Henry G. Bone, David Hosking, Jean-Pierre Devogelaer, Joseph R. Tucci, Ronald D. Emkey, Richard P. Tornino, Jose A. Rodriguez-Portales , M.D., Robert W. Downs, Jayanti Gupta, Arthur C. Santora, Uri A. Liberman

Internal Medicine Publications

Background

Antiresorptive agents are widely used to treat osteoporosis. We report the results of a multinational randomized, double-blind study, in which postmenopausal women with osteoporosis were treated with alendronate for up to 10 years.

Methods

The initial three-year phase of the study compared three daily doses of alendronate with placebo. Women in the original placebo group received alendronate in years 4 and 5 and then were discharged. Women in the original active-treatment groups continued to receive alendronate during the initial extension (years 4 and 5). In two further extensions (years 6 and 7, and 8 through 10), women who had …

Public-Access Defibrillation And Survival After Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, Alfred Hallstrom, Joseph P. Ornato

VCU Health Publications

BACKGROUND

The rate of survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is low. It is not known whether this rate will increase if laypersons are trained to attempt defibrillation with the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

Full Text of Background...

METHODS

We conducted a prospective, community-based, multicenter clinical trial in which we randomly assigned community units (e.g., shopping malls and apartment complexes) to a structured and monitored emergency-response system involving lay volunteers trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) alone or in CPR and the use of AEDs. The primary outcome was survival to hospital discharge.

Full Text of Methods...

RESULTS

More than …

Caregiver Education And Service Utilization In African American Families Dealing With Dementia, Constance L. Coogle

Virginia Center on Aging Publications

For more than a decade attention has been focused on Alzheimer’s family caregivers in African American communities. The Fourth Report of the Advisory Panel on Alzheimer’s Disease to the U. S. Congress and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services calls for “…public education and outreach efforts specifically targeted to ethnic elders and their families and communities through the development and dissemination of culturally relevant materials emphasizing both the established facts about [Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders] and the efficacy of seeking treatment.” (Advisory Panel on Alzheimer’s Disease, 1993, p. 50). While federal financing and state initiatives have addressed …

Meeting The Challenges And Opportunities Of Aging With Lifelong Disabilities: The Area Planning And Services Committee, Allison Wilder, Edward F. Ansello

Case Studies from Age in Action

Educational Objectives

1. To generate awareness of needs and capacities of aging adults with lifelong disabilities and their effect upon human services

2. To understand the challenges and opportunities facing aging adults with lifelong disabilities in accessing appropriate community supports and services.

3. To illustrate the benefits of intersystem collaboration among human services providers through the vehicle of an Area Planning and Services Committee.

Mental Fitness And The Lifelong Learning Movement, Jane F. Stephan, Debbie Leidheiser, Edward F. Ansello

Case Studies from Age in Action

Educational Objectives

1. To identify the functional benefits of continued mental activity

2. To examine the role of Lifelong Learning Institutes in later life

3. To describe the motivations of participants in lifelong learning

Law Enforcement And Adult Protective Services Working Together: A Team Approach To Elder Abuse Cases, Anne Douglas Palmer

Case Studies from Age in Action

Educational Objectives

1. Familiarize readers with the different roles and responsibilities of Adult Protective Services and law enforcement in elder abuse cases.

2. Demonstrate the benefits of working collaboratively to resolve complex elder abuse and domestic violence cases.

Congregate Nutrition Programs Can Alleviate Loneliness And Isolation, Carol Cooper Driskill

Case Studies from Age in Action

Educational Objectives

1. Familiarize readers with the Older Americans Act congregate nutrition services provided to community-residing older adults.

2. Demonstrate how congregate nutrition services can alleviate isolation and loneliness in community-residing older adults.

The Surgical Infection Society Guidelines On Antimicrobial Therapy For Intra-Abdominal Infections: An Executive Summary, John E. Mazuski, Robert G. Sawyer, Avery B. Nathens, Joseph T. Dipiro, Moshe Schein, Kenneth A. Kudsk, Charles Yowler

Publications from the Office of the Dean

The Surgical Infection Society last published guidelines on antimicrobial therapy for intra-abdominal infections in 1992 (Bohnen JMA, et al., Arch Surg 1992;127:83-89). Since then, an appreciable body of literature has been published on this subject. Therefore, the Therapeutics Agents Committee of the Society undertook an effort to update the previous guidelines, primarily using data published over the past decade. An additional goal of the Committee was to characterize its recommendations according to contemporary principles of evidence-based medicine. To develop these guidelines, the Committee carried out a systematic search for all English language articles published between 1990 and 2000 related to …

Aminoglycosides For Intra-Abdominal Infection: Equal To The Challenge?, John A. Bailey, Katherine S. Virgo, Joseph T. Dipiro, Avery B. Nathens, Robert G. Sawyer, John E. Mazuski

Publications from the Office of the Dean

Background: Aminoglycosides, combined with antianaerobic agents, have been used widely for the treatment of intra-abdominal infection. However, some prospective randomized controlled trials and other data suggested that aminoglycosides were less efficacious than newer comparators for the treatment of these infections. We therefore performed a meta-analysis of all prospective randomized controlled trials utilizing aminoglycosides to reevaluate the efficacy of these agents for the treatment of intra-abdominal infection.

Methods: Published English-language prospective randomized controlled trials comparing aminoglycosides with other agents for treatment of intra-abdominal infection were identified by MEDLINE search. For each study, data were collected regarding the number of …

The Surgical Infection Society Guidelines On Antimicrobial Therapy For Intra-Abdominal Infections: Evidence For The Recommendations, John E. Mazuski, Robert G. Sawyer, Avery B. Nathens, Joseph T. Dipiro, Moshe Schein, Kenneth A. Kudsk, Charles Yowler

Publications from the Office of the Dean

Revised guidelines for the use of antimicrobial therapy in patients with intra-abdominal infections were recently developed by the Therapeutic Agents Committee of the Surgical Infection Society (Mazuski et al., Surg Infect2002;3:161-173). These were based, insofar as possible, on evidence published over the past decade. The objective of this document is to describe the process by which the Committee identified and reviewed the published literature utilized to develop the recommendations and to summarize the results of those reviews. English-language articles published between 1990 and 2000 related to antimicrobial therapy for intra-abdominal infections were identified by a systematic MEDLINE search and …

Virginia Dental Journal (Vol. 81, No. 2, 2004)

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Virginia Dental Journal (Vol. 81, No. 1, 2004)

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Overbite Correction And Smile Esthetics, Shannon Michelle Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

Achievement of optimum smile esthetics during orthodontic treatment has recently been the focus of several published articles in the orthodontic literature. Authors speculate that overbite correction, specifically maxillary incisor intrusion, will lead to flattening of the smile arc and consequently reduce smile attractiveness. The purpose of this prospective clinical study was to investigate differences in outcomes from two common treatment modalities used to reduce deep overbite: maxillary incisor intrusion using an intrusion arch and posterior tooth eruption using an anterior bite plate. Pre-treatment and post-overbite correction records were gathered from 20 patients who presented with deep overbite malocclusions to the …

A Structural Equation Model Examining The Effects Of Gulf War Stress Exposure On Subsequent Mental And Physical Health Problems Among Gulf War Veterans, Frank J. Kenny

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation is to better understand the complex relationship between the stresses encountered by US. service personnel during the Gulf War and eventual physical and psychological health outcomes among its veterans. By developing and validating a stress model using structural equation modeling techniques, it is hoped that knowledge regarding wartime stress and its potential impact on the health of veterans will be gained. This knowledge can be used to guide future policy decisions on how to minimize the deleterious health consequences associated with deployment and combat, as well as furnishing a basis for future studies that examine …

Graphical Technique For Identifying A Monotonic Variance Stabilizing Transformation For Absolute Gene Intensity Signals, Kellie J. Archer, Catherine I. Dumur, Viswanathan Ramakrishnan

Biostatistics Publications

Background

The usefulness of log₂ transformation for cDNA microarray data has led to its widespread application to Affymetrix data. For Affymetrix data, where absolute intensities are indicative of number of transcripts, there is a systematic relationship between variance and magnitude of measurements. Application of the log₂ transformation expands the scale of genes with low intensities while compressing the scale of genes with higher intensities thus reversing the mean by variance relationship. The usefulness of these transformations needs to be examined.

Results

Using an Affymetrix GeneChip^® dataset, problems associated with applying the log₂ transformation to absolute intensity …

Bonding Properties Of Newly Erupted And Mature Human Premolars, Diana Marie-Skinner Almy

Theses and Dissertations

Following eruption of a tooth into the oral cavity, enamel is thought to continue to calcify. The continued calcification and maturation of enamel is described as "post-eruptive enamel maturation." It is believed that an observed decrease in enamel pore size and increase in the calcification of enamel matrix over time can be attributed to this process. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of adult patients seeking orthodontic treatment. Since orthodontic attachments are bonded directly to the etched enamel using composite resin, post-eruptive enamel maturation may affect the bonding process. The purpose of this study …

Influence Of A 3-Step Disinfection Procedure On Dentin Bond Strength, Maria Pappas

Theses and Dissertations

Statement of problem. Clinicians have used disinfection materials to remove surface contaminants during cavity preparation. It has been postulated that disinfection materials may negatively affect shear bond strength of restorative materials. If so, large numbers of restorations may be predestined for early failure with the use of a disinfection protocol.Purpose. To determine whether there is a difference in the bond strength between dentin and composite resin with a 3-step disinfection technique compared to a conventional bonding technique without the additional disinfection protocol.Material and Methods. Sixty human molar teeth were sectioned parallel to the occlusal surface to expose mid-coronal dentin and …

Comparative Tensile Strengths Of Preceramic And Postceramic Solder Connectors Using High-Palladium Alloy, Abdul-Hadi Shehab

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: To evaluate the tensile strength properties of Rx Naturelle Plus and Option (high-palladium) alloys on soldered connectors under simulated preceramic and postceramic soldering conditions. Materials and methods: Eighty cylindrical castings were fabricated (40 using Rx Naturelle Plus alloy and 40 using Option alloy). The 40 castings for each alloy were subdivided into 2 groups of 20 each. In the first group, castings for each alloy were randomly paired and soldered with SMG2 solder to produce 10 preceramic test connector specimens for each alloy. In the second group, castings were similarly paired and soldered with 490 fine solder to produce …

Obesity And Health Status Among Urban Vs. Suburban Elderly In Philadelphia And Surrounding Counties, Ockidde Dufayne Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Obesity is a dangerous health condition affecting approximately 30% of all Americans and can be attributed to 300,000 deaths a year. Obesity has been found to disproportionately affect Blacks, Latinos, and those with lower SES. Although obesity is a problem for all age groups, its prevalence is highest among those 60-74 years of age. Studies have shown that there is an association between obesity and chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, arthritis, cancers, and type-2 diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control, chronic health conditions affect 80% of all elderly persons, many times limiting function and decreasing quality of …

Rabies In Virginia, 1989-2003: With Particular Attention To Animals, Geographic Distribution, And Virus Variant, William Andrew Holzgrefe

Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: The description of the raccoon rabies epizootic in Virginia over fifteen years (1989-2003). Methods: Using simple statistical methods and a geographic information system (GIS)-based approach, and fifteen years worth of animal surveillance data, the progress of this epizootic has been charted in terms of the geographic spread of the disease, the major animal species affected by the disease and its spread, and the exposure and risk to humans and livestock animals presented by the expansion of the geographic range. Results: The resulting descriptive study illustrates the eastward expansion of the epizootic, the mushrooming of the disease in the northern …

Interleukin-6 Levels In Generalized And Localized Aggressive Periodontitis Patients, Bindu Reddy

Theses and Dissertations

AbstractINTERLEUKIN-6 LEVELS IN GENERALIZED AND LOCALIZED AGGRESSIVE PERIODONTITIS PATIENTSBy Bindu Reddy, D.D.S.A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at the Virginia Commonwealth UniversityVirginia Commonwealth University, 2004Major Director: Joseph V. Califano, D.D.S., Ph.D.Associate Professor, Department of Periodontics Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease involving the supporting structures of the dentition. Many studies have shown that there is a relationship between periodontal disease, the presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and systemic disease such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus. The purpose of this study was to measure serum Interleukin-6 levels in generalized and localized aggressive …

Toothbrushing, Flossing, And Preventive Dental Visits By Richmond-Area Residents In Relation To Demographic And Socioeconomic Factors, Kim T. Isringhausen

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose. This study was conducted to identify factors that influence preventive dental behaviors and, from the results, target groups for intervention.Methods. Data were collected using the 1997 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) resulting in a probability sample of 399 dentate adults living in Richmond City, Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover Counties in Virginia. All analyses were performed using the statistical software program STATA. Initial hypothesis testing was performed using univariate logistic regression models. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to test the significance of independent variables while controlling for other possible predictors of behavior.Results. Females were more likely than males …

Effect Of Repeated Dosing Of Delta 9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, The Major Psychoactive Ingredient Of Marijuana, On Memory In Mice, Floride Niyuhire

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States. However, marijuana and cannabinoid derivatives have potential therapeutic uses. Studies in cannabis users have yielded contradictory results with regard to long-term effects on cognitive functions. There is no prospective study assessing this issue, and such studies may raise ethical issues in humans, whereas mice have been shown to exhibit similar cannabinoid-mediated behaviors as humans. The purpose of this study was to assess the consequences of chronic administration of Δ9-THC, the major psychoactive component of marijuana, in a mouse memory model. Methods: In Experiment 1, the dose-response relationship …

Antioxidants As Risk Factors For Gingival Bleeding, Hee-Jeong Bahng

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Studies of gingival bleeding and the effects of antioxidants on extracellular matrix and immunologic and inflammatory responses provide a rationale for hypothesizing that antioxidants reduce the risk for gingival bleeding.Methods: This study evaluated the role of antioxidants as contributing risk factors for gingival bleeding utilizing the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NAHNES III). A sample of 18,825 adults (20 to ≥ 90 years of age), with dental measurement and assessment of serum levels of antioxidants were included in the study. Gingival bleeding was defined as those who had more than 30 percent of gingival bleeding in 28 …

Appointment Keeping Behavior Of Medicaid Vs. Non-Medicaid Orthodontic Patients, Bryan P. Horsley

Theses and Dissertations

State Medicaid programs were established to care for the poor by eliminating financial barriers and increasing their ability to be treated within the mainstream of the heath care system. The number of children eligible for Medicaid services is increasing, yet the number of Medicaid providers remains low. Health care providers cite failed appointments as being a major problem with Medicaid patients and one of the largest deterrents to participating. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a difference in appointment keeping behavior exists between Medicaid and non-Medicaid orthodontic patients. During a twelve-month period, a tally of appointments was …

The Prevalence Of The Need For Esthetic Crown Lengthening In Post Orthodontically Treated Subjects, David Clark Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The problem of excess gingival display is difficult to diagnose and treat. By studying one aspect of excess gingival display, namely the size relationships of the clinical crowns of teeth, we can begin to quantify reasonable goals of therapy. In this study, two hundred plaster models were used as subjects. These represented two hundred patients before and after orthodontic therapy. The six anterior teeth were measured for length and width and compared to known ideals. Teeth that did not meet ideal standards may require treatment. It was found that the mean tooth length after orthodontic therapy was approximately two millimeters …