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Medical School Watercooler Newsletter - November 13, 2011, Lindsey Lyle

Watercooler Newsletter

This is the November 13, 2011 edition of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine's newsletter - Watercooler

Contents Include

• Our Story Told in 'First Person'

• Dr. Mary Townsley Honored by American Heart Association

• Andrew Manley Receives Eran and N.Q. Adams Endowed Scholarship in Neurology

• USA College of Medicine Hosts Charlie Baugh Dog Day

Solution Structure And Dna-Binding Properties Of The Phosphoesterase Domain Of Dna Ligase D, Aswin Natarajan, Kaushik Dutta, Deniz B. Temel, Pravin A. Nair, Stewart Shuman, Ranajeet Ghose

Publications and Research

The phosphoesterase (PE) domain of the bacterial DNA repair enzyme LigD possesses distinctive manganese-dependent 3'-phosphomonoesterase and 3'-phosphodiesterase activities. PE exemplifies a new family of DNA end-healing enzymes found in all phylogenetic domains. Here, we determined the structure of the PE domain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa LigD (PaePE) using solution NMR methodology. PaePE has a disordered N-terminus and a well-folded core that differs in instructive ways from the crystal structure of a PaePE•Mn(2+)• sulfate complex, especially at the active site that is found to be conformationally dynamic. Chemical shift perturbations in the presence of primertemplate duplexes with 30-deoxynucleotide, …

Mountains Of Injustice : Social And Environmental Justice In Appalachia, Michele Morrone, Geoffrey L. Buckley

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Research in environmental justice reveals that low-income and minority neighborhoods in our nation’s cities are often the preferred sites for landfills, power plants, and polluting factories. Those who live in these sacrifice zones are forced to shoulder the burden of harmful environmental effects so that others can prosper. Mountains of Injustice broadens the discussion from the city to the country by focusing on the legacy of disproportionate environmental health impacts on communities in the Appalachian region, where the costs of cheap energy and cheap goods are actually quite high.

Through compelling stories and interviews with people who are fighting for …

New Zealand’S Bold Strategy For Reducing Health Disparities, N.A.

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

No abstract provided.

Implications Of Observation-Fact Modifiers To I2b2 Ontologies, Jack W. London, Devjani Chatterjee

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

Biomedical translational research can be facilitated by integrating clinical and research data. In particular, study cohort identification and hypothesis generation is enabled by the mining of integrated clinical observations and research resources. The "informatics for integrating biology and the bedside, " or i2b2, framework is widely used for this biomedical data mining. The i2b2 "star schema" data model using entity-attribute-value (EA V) formatted concepts is a very efficient strategy for querying large amounts of data. However, until the most recent i2b2 release, the utility of the platform was somewhat constrained by the limitations on being able to express "facts about …

Nuclease Modulates Biofilm Formation In Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus., Megan R. Kiedrowski, Jeffrey S. Kavanaugh, Cheryl L. Malone, Joe M. Mootz, Jovanka M. Voyich, Mark S. Smeltzer, Kenneth W. Bayles, Alexander R. Horswill

Journal Articles: Pathology and Microbiology

Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) is an emerging contributor to biofilm-related infections. We recently reported that strains lacking sigma factor B (sigB) in the USA300 lineage of CA-MRSA are unable to develop a biofilm. Interestingly, when spent media from a USA300 sigB mutant was incubated with other S. aureus strains, biofilm formation was inhibited. Following fractionation and mass spectrometry analysis, the major anti-biofilm factor identified in the spent media was secreted thermonuclease (Nuc). Considering reports that extracellular DNA (eDNA) is an important component of the biofilm matrix, we investigated the regulation and role of Nuc in USA300. The expression of …

Effect Of Protein Kinase C Delta (Pkc-Δ) Inhibition On The Transcriptome Of Normal And Systemic Sclerosis Human Dermal Fibroblasts In Vitro., Peter J Wermuth, Sankar Addya, Sergio A Jimenez

Jefferson Institute of Molecular Medicine Papers and Presentations

Previous studies demonstrated that protein kinase C- δ (PKC-δ) inhibition with the selective inhibitor, rottlerin, resulted in potent downregulation of type I collagen expression and production in normal human dermal fibroblasts and abrogated the exaggerated type I collagen production and expression in fibroblasts cultured from affected skin from patients with the fibrosing disorder systemic sclerosis (SSc). To elucidate the mechanisms involved in the ability of PKC-δ to regulate collagen production in fibroblasts, we examined the effects of PKC-δ inhibition on the transcriptome of normal and SSc human dermal fibroblasts. Normal and SSc human dermal fibroblasts were incubated with rottlerin (5 …

Evaluation Of Cancer From Exposure To Cyanotoxins In Drinking Water At Grand Lake Saint Marys, Timothy Edward Soward

Master of Public Health Program Student Publications

Background: The Celina Water Department treats and supplies surface water contaminated by cyanotoxins from Grand Lake Saint Marys (GLSM) to approximately 12,000 customers in Celina, Ohio. Cyanotoxins are a biochemically and bioactively diverse group of extremely potent natural toxins in water. A common cyanotoxin called microcystin-LR found in GLSM has been associated with acute liver damage and potentially liver and colorectal cancer.

Methods: In this observational study, the city of Celina (Mercer County) Ohio that had a contaminated surface water supply, the cancer incidence was compared with two control cities, St. Marys, and Wapakoneta (Auglaize County) in Ohio, both served …

Anaplasma Phagocytophilum Remodels Its Host Cell-Derived Vacuole Into A Protective Niche By Redecorating The Vacuolar Membrane With Select Rab Gtpases And Bacterial Proteins, Bernice Huang

Theses and Dissertations

Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an obligate intracellular bacterium that infects neutrophils to cause the emerging tick-transmitted disease, human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA). Following entry, the pathogen replicates within a host cell-derived vacuole that fails to mature along the endocytic pathway, does not acidify, and does not fuse with lysosomes. Selective fusogenicity is prototypical of many vacuole-adapted pathogens and has been attributed, at least in part, to pathogen modification of the vacuolar inclusion membrane and/or to selective recruitment or exclusion of host trafficking regulators. As a result, the A. phagocytophilum-occupied vacuolar membrane (AVM) provides a unique interface to study the host-pathogen interactions critical …

Death Receptor 5 Signaling Promotes Hepatocyte Lipoapoptosis., Sophie C. Cazanave, Justin L. Mott, Steven F. Bronk, Nathan W. Werneburg, Christian D. Fingas, X Wei Meng, Niklas Finnberg, Wafik S. El-Deiry, Scott H. Kaufmann, Gregory J. Gores

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is characterized by hepatic steatosis, elevated levels of circulating free fatty acids (FFA), endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and hepatocyte lipoapoptosis. Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) death receptor 5 (DR5) is significantly elevated in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and steatotic hepatocytes demonstrate increased sensitivity to TRAIL-mediated cell death. Nonetheless, a role for TRAIL and/or DR5 in mediating lipoapoptotic pathways is unexplored. Here, we examined the contribution of DR5 death signaling to lipoapoptosis by free fatty acids. The toxic saturated free fatty acid palmitate induces an increase in DR5 mRNA and protein expression in Huh-7 human hepatoma cells leading …

About The Authors

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

About the authors, Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 10, Number 2, 1992.

In Search Of The Roots Of Psychiatry, S. Nassir Ghaemi, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

APPROACHES TO THE MIND: MOVEMENT OF THE PSYCHIATRIC SCHOOLS FROM SECT TOWARD SCIENCE

Leston Havens, M.D.

Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts

1987, 399 pages, $12, paperback.

Psychoanalytic Approach To Child Development, Jeanette M.S. Zaimes, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

THE COURSE OF LIFE VOL III

MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD

Editors: Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D. and George H. Pollock, M.D., Ph.D.,

International Universities Press, Inc.

1991, revised edition

562 pages $65.00

Little Elephant Learns About Sex, Judith Watt, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

WHERE BABIES COME FROM

Stories to Help Parents Answer Preschoolers Questions About Sex

Martin Silverman, M.D. and Harriet Ziefert

Illustrated by Claire Schumacher Random House Press

1989, $19.00

Women's Psychology, Jodi Halpern, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

FEMALE PSYCHOLOGY, AN ANNOTATED PSYCHOANALYTIC BIBLIOGRAPHY

Edited by Eleanor Schuker, M.D., and Nadine A. Levin son, D.D.S., F.A.C.D.

New Jersey, The Analytic Press

1991, pp.678

Personality Disorder And The Recurrent Swallowing Of Foreign Bodies, Robert Jay Claire, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

Psychiatrists are frequently asked to assist colleagues with the medical and surgical sequela of psychiatric disorders. The Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry service was consulted by the Surgical Service to evaluate a patient who repeatedly swallowed foreign bodies. The following is a case report, brief review of the literature and discussion.

Reversal Of Catatonia With Midazolam, Larry V. Mcdonald, M.D., Barry I. Liskow, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

We report a case of dramatic reversal of catatonic symptoms with a single dose of midazolam, an ultra short acting parenteral benzodiazepine commonly used for procedure sedation.

The Risk Of Hospitalizing Suicidal Patients: A Personal Retrospective, Leora Bar-Levav, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

Many statistically significant risk factors for suicide have been identified. Unfortunately, no study can identify the patient who will, in fact, kill himself. Maintaining a low threshold for hospitalization of potentially suicidal patients generally lowers their short-term risk. Hospitalization, however, like every medical intervention, carries attendant side effects. The dynamic implications of hospitalization for suicidal patients are considered in this paper along with recommendations to lessen the deleterious effects of such an intervention.

An Overview Of The Separation Phenomenon And The Experience Of Hospitalization For Children, Tara Pressley, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

When children are psychologically bonded to a caretaking adult they experience a characteristic spectrum of emotions and behaviors upon being separated from that attachment figure. This paper reviews the literature pertaining to the separation phenomenon and the emotional experience of hospitalisation for children in an attempt to integrate this knowledge into the diagnosis and treatment of children hospitalized medically and psychiatrically.

Panic Disorder And Non-Cardiac Chest Pain: A Brief Review, Ruth Infante, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

The relationship between chest pain and panic disorder is explored; after coronary artery disease and other medical diseases have been ruled out, panic disorder remains a significant contributor to morbidity. Panic disorder is treatable; hence it is important that psychiatrists educate the non-psychiatric medical community so that appropriate referrals and treatment can be made. This would lead to a decrease in health care costs.

Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome: Diagnostic Dilemma In The Medically Ill, Mahmoud A. Parsa, M.D., Andrew J. Picken,, Robert Keating, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome is a potentially fatal complication of neuroleptic treatment. It is characterized by a variery of signs and symptoms associated with autonomic instability, and hypothalamic and extrapyramidal dysfunction. Since other medical disorders may mimic its clinical presentation, the accurate recognition of this syndrome in the medical setting is often a diagnostic dilemma. Three medically ill patients with a clinical presentation suggestive of neuroleptic malignant syndrome are presented here. The authors discuss the complexity of making the diagnosis, and offer a brief review of the literature.

A Psychiatric Presentation Of Wernicke's Encephalopathy Following Intravenous Fluid Administration, Douglas Geenans, D.O.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

Psychiatrists are frequenlly challenged to differentiate primary psychiatric symptoms from those that arise secondary to medical illness. Errors in clinical assessment can lead to significant morbidity and even mortality. Wernicke's encephalopathy is a medical condition that presents, in part, as psychiatric symptomatology. Despite an estimated incidence of 2%, 80% of the cases are undiagnosed. Of its classic triad, ophthalmoplegia and ataxia call be quite subtle, or even absent, whereas mental status changes are present in all but 10% of cases. This disorder, although widely recognized as a complication of alcoholism, has many less frequently considered etiologies, including iatrogenic causes, which …

Demystifying The Psychiatric Case Formulation, Len Sperry, M.D., Ph.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

Until recently case formulation was an ethereal art, in that there was 110 standard, agreed-upon format for conceptualizing and writing formulations. However, the increasing emphasis on accountability in psychiatric care, the trend toward theoretical integration, and the difficulty trainees experience in mastering formulation skills highlight the need for a standard format. The descriptive, etiological and treatment-prognostic components of a formulation are discussed as a standard format for conceptualizing and writing case formulations. Four written formulations are described in terms of content, structure and process to illustrate this format.

Public Perceptions Of Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Historic Review, Steven M. Jenkusky, M.D.

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

Electroconvulsive therapy, an effective treatment for depression, mania and some forms of schizophrenia, has had a tumultuous and controversial history. The dramatic nature of the therapy as well as its use in the mentally ill in a seemingly indiscriminate manner has historically captured the public's attention and concern. The evolution of this therapy and the public and psychiatric profession's responses to it are reviewed here. Often the public's understanding of the therapy, how it is administered, its applications and side effects have lagged behind how the psychiatric profession views ECT, although at times mental health professionals have remained opposed to …

Faculty Advisor's Column, Harvey J. Schwartz, Md

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

In 1982 the Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry began as a small departmental publication designed to encourage our residents to write and to acquaint our faculty with the thoughts and perspectives of our trainees. The concept of this resident written and edited journal soon attracted the attention of psychiatric educators locally and nationwide. After gradually expanding our circulation to the Philadelphia area we began working closely with Don Reed and then Ralph Kelzer of Mead Johnson to look into the prospect of becoming a national journal. With the strong and creative support of Mead Johnson we began our national circulation …

Editorial Staff

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

Editorial Board, Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 10, Number 2, 1992.

Estimating The Value Of Public Health Services & Systems: Evidence, Uncertainties, And Research Needs, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

The Affordable Care Act authorized the largest expansion in federal funding for public health services and delivery systems in decades. These provisions, designed to support programs and services that promote health and prevent disease and injury on a population-wide basis, remain controversial because of uncertainties regarding their effectiveness in improving health and constraining medical cost growth. This session examines a series of recent studies to shed light on the health and economic value of spending on public health.

An Examination Of Spiritual And Religious Coping And Well-Being And Their Impact On The Health-Related Quality Of Life For Patients With Mechanical Circulatory Support, Angela Hardy-Duncan

Theses and Dissertations

Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) improves the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for patients with end-stage heart failure (HF) (Friedrich & Bohm, 2007). Religious and spiritual practices positively influence health and well-being for cardiac patients (Ai, Park, Huang, Rodgers, & Tice, 2007; Blackhall, & Koenig, 1998). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of spiritual well-being (SWB) and religious well-being (RWB) and coping styles and methods (CSM) on health related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients with MCS. This exploratory repeated measures study used Spearmans’ rho and Wilcoxons’ Signed Rank tests for correlation and comparison analyses. The study …

Use Of The Anterolateral Thigh In Cranio-Orbitofacial Reconstruction., William J Parkes, Howard Krein, Ryan Heffelfinger, Joseph Curry

Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Faculty Papers

Objective. To detail the clinical outcomes of a series of patients having undergone free flap reconstruction of the orbit and periorbita and highlight the anterolateral thigh (ALT) as a workhorse for addressing defects in this region. Methods. A review of 47 patients who underwent free flap reconstruction for orbital or periorbital defects between September 2006 and May 2011 was performed. Data reviewed included demographics, defect characteristics, free flap used, additional reconstructive techniques employed, length of stay, complications, and follow-up. The ALT subset of the case series was the focus of the data reviewed for this paper. Selected cases were described …

About The Authors

Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry

About the authors, Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 10, Number 1, 1992.