Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Medical School Watercooler Newsletter - November 16, 2014, Lindsey Lyle

Watercooler Newsletter

This is the November 16, 2014 edition of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine's newsletter - Watercooler.

Contents Include:

• USA Welcomes Dr. Melody Petty
• Dumas Wesley Toy Drive Underway at USA Medical Center
• USA Medical Students Attend AMSA Leadership Conference
• USA Mourns Loss of Dr. Frederick N. Meyer
• Grant Awarded For Forensic Medical Equipment To Diagnose Child Sexual Abuse

Cost Estimates Of Foundational Public Health Services: Results From Piloting The Expert Consensus Methodology In Kentucky, C. B. Mamaril, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

We developed a methodology for estimating the resources required to deliver a set of foundational public health capabilities as recommended in the 2012 Institute of Medicine report on public health financing. The capabilities are based on IOM recommendations and defined by a national expert panel convened as part of the Public Health Leadership Forum. This paper presents preliminary estimates from a pilot test of the cost estimation methodology in Kentucky, and outlines plans for the national estimation strategy.

Therapeutic Targeting Of The Inflammome, Kyle T. Wright, Charles Giardina, Anthony T. Vella

UCHC Articles - Research

Inflammatory responses can vary depending on a myriad of factors including: 1) the initiating stimulus or trigger, 2) the cell types, involved in the response, and 3) the specific effector cytokine-chemokine milieus produced. The compilation of these and other factors in a given mechanistic context is sometimes referred to as the “inflammome”. Humans and other higher order mammals have evolved (over time) several discrete inflammomes to counter the effects of pathogens. However, when these inflammomes are induced inappropriately, they drive the development of chronic inflammatory diseases. The vast majority of biological anti-inflammatory treatments currently being developed are focused on the …

Phenylephrine Alteration Of Cerebral Blood Flow During Orthostasis: Effect On N-Back Performance In Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Marvin S. Medow, Shilpa Sood, Zachary Messer, Seli Dzogbeta, Courtney Terilli, Julian M. Stewart

NYMC Faculty Publications

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) with orthostatic intolerance is characterized by neurocognitive deficits and impaired working memory, concentration, and information processing. In CFS, upright tilting [head-up tilt (HUT)] caused decreased cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFv) related to hyperventilation/hypocapnia and impaired cerebral autoregulation; increasing orthostatic stress resulted in decreased neurocognition. We loaded the baroreflex with phenylephrine to prevent hyperventilation and performed n-back neurocognition testing in 11 control subjects and 15 CFS patients. HUT caused a significant increase in heart rate (109.4 ± 3.9 vs. 77.2 ± 1.6 beats/min, P < 0.05) and respiratory rate (20.9 ± 1.7 vs. 14.2 ± 1.2 breaths/min, P < 0.05) and decrease in end-tidal CO2 (ETCO2; 42.8 ± 1.2 vs. 33.9 ± 1.1 Torr, P < 0.05) in CFS vs. control. HUT caused CBFv to decrease 8.7% in control subjects but fell 22.5% in CFS. In CFS, phenylephrine prevented the HUT-induced hyperventilation/hypocapnia and the significant drop in CBFv with HUT (-8.1% vs. -22.5% untreated). There was no difference in control subject n-back normalized response time (nRT) comparing supine to HUT (106.1 ± 6.9 vs. 97.6 ± 7.1 ms at n = 4), and no difference comparing control to CFS while supine (97.1 ± 7.1 vs 96.5 ± 3.9 ms at n = 4). However, HUT of CFS subjects caused a significant increase in nRT (148.0 ± 9.3 vs. 96.4 ± 6.0 ms at n = 4) compared with supine. Phenylephrine significantly reduced the HUT-induced increase in nRT in CFS to levels similar to supine (114.6 ± 7.1 vs. 114.6 ± 9.3 ms at n = 4). Compared with control subjects, CFS subjects are more sensitive both to orthostatic challenge and to baroreflex/chemoreflex-mediated interventions. Increasing blood pressure with phenylephrine can alter CBFv. In CFS subjects, mitigation of the HUT-induced CBFv decrease with phenylephrine has a beneficial effect on n-back outcome.

Plasticity In The Contribution Of T Cell Receptor Variable Region Residues To Binding Of Peptide-Hla-A2 Complexes, Sheena N. Smith, Daniel Sommermeyer, Kurt H. Piepenbrink, Sydney J. Blevins, Helga Bernhard, Wolfgang Uckert, Brian M. Baker, David M. Kranz

Food for Health: Publications

One hypothesis to account for MHC-restriction by T cell receptors (TCRs) holds that there are several evolutionary-conserved residues in TCR variable regions that contact MHC. While this ‘germline-codon’ hypothesis is supported by various lines of evidence, it has been difficult to test. The difficulty stems in part from the fact that TCRs exhibit low affinities for pep/MHC, thus limiting the range of binding energies that can be assigned to these key interactions using mutational analyses. To measure the magnitude of binding energies involved, here we used high affinity TCRs engineered by mutagenesis of CDR3. The TCRs included a high-affinity, MART-1/ …

Camk2n1 Inhibits Prostate Cancer Progression Through Androgen Receptor-Dependent Signaling., Tao Wang, Shuiming Guo, Zhuo Liu, Licheng Wu, Mingchao Li, Jun Yang, Ruibao Chen, Xiaming Liu, Hua Xu, Shaoxin Cai, Hui Chen, Weiyong Li, Shaohua Xu, Liang Wang, Zhiquan Hu, Qianyuan Zhuang, Liping Wang, Kongming Wu, Jihong Liu, Zhangqun Ye, Jun-Yuan Ji, Chenguang Wang, Ke Chen

Department of Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

Castration resistance is a major obstacle to hormonal therapy for prostate cancer patients. Although androgen independence of prostate cancer growth is a known contributing factor to endocrine resistance, the mechanism of androgen receptor deregulation in endocrine resistance is still poorly understood. Herein, the CAMK2N1 was shown to contribute to the human prostate cancer cell growth and survival through AR-dependent signaling. Reduced expression of CAMK2N1 was correlated to recurrence-free survival of prostate cancer patients with high levels of AR expression in their tumor. CAMK2N1 and AR signaling form an auto-regulatory negative feedback loop: CAMK2N1 expression was down-regulated by AR activation; while …

Inhibition Of Rac1 Gtpase Sensitizes Pancreatic Cancer Cells To Γ-Irradiation., Y Yan, Ashley L. Hein, Asserewou Etekpo, Katrina M. Burchett, Chi Lin, Charles A. Enke, Surinder K. Batra, Kenneth Cowan, M Ouellette

Journal Articles: Radiation Oncology

Radiation therapy is a staple treatment for pancreatic cancer. However, owing to the intrinsic radioresistance of pancreatic cancer cells, radiation therapy often fails to increase survival of pancreatic cancer patients. Radiation impedes cancer cells by inducing DNA damage, which can activate cell cycle checkpoints. Normal cells possess both a G1 and G2 checkpoint. However, cancer cells are often defective in G1 checkpoint due to mutations/alterations in key regulators of this checkpoint. Accordingly, our results show that normal pancreatic ductal cells respond to ionizing radiation (IR) with activation of both checkpoints whereas pancreatic cancer cells respond to IR with G2/M arrest …

The Induction Of The P53 Tumor Suppressor Protein Bridges The Apoptotic And Autophagic Signaling Pathways To Regulate Cell Death In Prostate Cancer Cells., Lymor Ringer, Paul Sirajuddin, Lucas Tricoli, Sarah Waye, Muhammad Umer Choudhry, Erika Parasido, Angiela Sivakumar, Mary Heckler, Aisha Naeem, Iman Abdelgawad, Xuefeng Liu, Adam S Feldman, Richard J Lee, Chin-Lee Wu, Venkata Yenugonda, Bhaskar Kallakury, Anatoly Dritschilo, John Lynch, Richard Schlegel, Olga Rodriguez, Richard Pestell, Maria Laura Avantaggiati, Chris Albanese

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

The p53 tumor suppressor protein plays a crucial role in influencing cell fate decisions in response to cellular stress. As p53 elicits cell cycle arrest, senescence or apoptosis, the integrity of the p53 pathway is considered a key determinant of anti-tumor responses. p53 can also promote autophagy, however the role of p53-dependent autophagy in chemosensitivity is poorly understood. VMY-1-103 (VMY), a dansylated analog of purvalanol B, displays rapid and potent anti-tumor activities, however the pathways by which VMY works are not fully defined. Using established prostate cancer cell lines and novel conditionally reprogrammed cells (CRCs) derived from prostate cancer patients; …

Anticipators Job Stressors Of Nurses Returning To The Workplace: A Mixed Methodology, Carol Peterson

Learning Showcase 2014

Multifactorial reasons have produced a growing nursing shortage. One possible group that could reverse this shortage in inactive nurses. Many stakeholders wonder about allocating scarce resources to identify, locate, educate, and redeploy this group into active practice. The purpose of this one-phase embedded validating quantitative mixed methodology was to identify the anticipated job stressors of registered nurse (RN) refresher students as they prepare to enter the work force following a career break. The Likert-type Expanded Nurse Stress Scale (French, Lenton, Walters, & Eyles, 2000; Gray-Toft & Anderson, 1981) was used. The independent variables were the job stressors of RNs. The …

Factors That Hinder Underrepresented Minority Adn Students From Initially Pursuing Baccalaureate Nursing Education, Tanika Cherry-Montgomery

Learning Showcase 2014

The lack of minority representation in the nursing profession has been an area of concern for quite some time because of its direct correlation on the health of our nation. However, the lack of minority representation in the nursing workforce and on baccalaureate (BSN) college campuses persists. Students from underrepresented backgrounds comprise 26.6% of entry-level nursing baccalaureate programs (AACN, 2014) and 16.8% of the nursing workforce (HRSA, 2010), yet 32% of the US population is from a racially or ethnically diverse background (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). The numbers of diverse nurses who are in practice pales in comparison to the …

Building The Future Of Healthcare, Gregory D. Norton

Learning Showcase 2014

The Wexner Medical Center (WMC) at The Ohio State University (OSU) is a non-profit, academic medical center serving central and southern Ohio. WMC is a large system with 6 hospitals and a vast support network of healthcare providers and researcher. This presentation contains an overview of OSUWMC and its strategic plans, key result areas and challenges it will face during its ongoing growth and development as a premiere health system.

Healthcare Expansion Of Scope, Steve Adkins

Learning Showcase 2014

The healthcare system of OhioHealth has a reputation for providing quality care. As with any healthcare system, there are some populations who are underserved. There are several changes OhioHealth can make to enlarge its customer base. Some of the techniques OhioHealth can use involve increasing its scope of practice in these areas: complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), long-term care, men’s bone health, and social media. The need for long-term care will continue to increase as the population ages. OhioHealth can merge with a long-term care company to provide OhioHealth with the facilities. This strategy is more likely to be successful …

Mount Carmel Health System, Peggy Anderson

Learning Showcase 2014

Addresses the following for Mount Carmel Health System:

• Methods
• Organizational Structure
• Existing Plans
• Environmental Assessment
• Leadership Challenges
• Legal & Ethical Challenges
• Performance Challenges
• Operations Challenges
• Financial Challenges
• Recommended Change Strategies

Ohio Department Of Youth Services: Juveniles And Their Mental Health Issues, Danya E. Gregory

Learning Showcase 2014

During the 1960’s, an explosion of interest in child abuse and neglect became prominent and it all came together with the case of Gerald Frances Gault, gained national attention to the plight of juveniles. Gerald and his friend were making obscene phone calls and he was taken to jail without the benefit of is parents being notified, being detained until his hearing and charges being lodged against him, convicted and sent to a juvenile correctional facility until his 21st birthday. Until this case became prominent, many youth were not given legal counsel, and just being sent to away because it …

Ohiohealth: A System Overview, Meghan Parsley

Learning Showcase 2014

The OhioHealth health system is a network of not-for-profit hospitals and healthcare organizations in central Ohio. The growing system is expanding regionally, which leads to a variety of challenges. The major challenges faced by the organization relate to the overall size of the organization, competitive market, external environmental factors such as healthcare reform, and physician alignment. The organization pursues a cost leadership strategy and while still offering state of the art equipment and facilities.

OhioHealth’s central operating location is Franklin County, Ohio. They compete against two major healthcare providers, The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and Mount Carmel. To build …

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Strategic Analysis, Ryan Cottrell, David Meckstroth

Learning Showcase 2014

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is a health system located in Columbus, Ohio that provides healthcare services to more than 2.3 Million residents of Central Ohio. OSUWMC is the third largest health system in the region behind OhioHealth and Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel operates four hospitals and two urgent care facilities and employs over 8,000 individuals, of which 1,500 are physicians. OhioHealth is a faith-based health system that contracts more than 2,000 physicians in 17 hospitals and 20 surgical centers. Competing against these two systems will prove to be a challenge that requires the use of strategic analysis. …

The Key Variables Healthcare Executives Consider When Altering Services, David Meckstroth

Learning Showcase 2014

Health care executives face a multitude of challenges and changes on a daily basis. Health care reform and the Accountable Care Act will require executives to increase the value of the services offered by hospitals to insurance companies and patients. The literature search identified 11 key variables executives consider when altering services. The research study conducted a quantitative survey of the entire population of top health care executives in Ohio non-profit short-term acute care hospitals. In addition, qualitative individual depth interviews of 48 top executives at 13 hospitals were conducted by the researcher. A mixed methods approach was utilized to …

Collaborative Model For South Korean Nurses: Education, U.S. Rn Licensure, And Employment, Gail K. Baumlein

Learning Showcase 2014

The purpose of this poster is to describe the collaborative model developed between a private university in the U.S. and constituents in South Korea to facilitate nurses’ attainment of a U.S. registered nurse (RN) license, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree, and employment in the U.S.

Throughout the world, nurses are being encouraged to increase their educational preparation from an entry level diploma or associate’s degree, to the BSN degree (International Council of Nurses, 2009). In South Korea, the government has recently mandated that nurses attain a BSN degree, and has closed all programs offering only the lower …

Short Term Medical Mission To The Aztecs In The Mountains, Leslie Mathew

Learning Showcase 2014

Introduction: A team of 17 members which included 4 doctors from OH, IL & TX planned a 10-day visit to assess and provide for the medical needs of the Aztec tribal populations living in the mountains near Rio Blanco, Veracruz State, Mexico, altitude varying between 5,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level.

Purpose: With the information provided that there was very little organized medical care for the tribal populations in the mountains, the plan was for 2 medical teams with 2 doctors in each team to visit 12 different villages / small towns Monday through Saturday, each team getting to …

Tai Chi And Stress Reduction In Premedical Students, Joseph G. Weber, Suzanne Coleman, Mark Johannsson, Libby Hill

Learning Showcase 2014

A randomized, controlled pilot study was performed to determine the correlation between the practice of Tai Chi exercise and anxiety scores, among full-time pre-med undergraduate students who reside in college campus housing. The sample (N = 14) was recruited from 70 pre-med students enrolled at Lake Erie College (LEC) located in Painesville, Ohio. Participants included: (a) full-time LEC pre-med students; (b) between 18 and 25 years old; and (c) residents of either on-campus housing or within two miles of the college campus. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: (a) Tai Chi (n = 8); (b) control (n …

Exploring The Use Patterns Of A Mobile Health Application For Alcohol Addiction Before The Initial Lapse After Detoxification, Ming-Yuan Chih

Health and Clinical Sciences Faculty Publications

How patients used Addiction-Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (A-CHESS), a mobile health intervention, while quitting drinking is worthy exploring. This study is to explore A-CHESS use patterns prior to the initial lapse reported after discharge from inpatient detoxification programs. 142 patients with alcohol addiction from two treatment agencies in the U.S. were included. A comprehensive set of A-CHESS use measures were developed based on a three-level system use framework and three A-CHESS service categories. In latent profile analyses, three A-CHESS system use patterns-inactive, passive, and active users-were found. Compared to the passive users (with the highest chance of the initial …

Prescription Drug Abuse And Misuse In Southern Appalachia: An Epidemiologic Perspective, Billy Brooks

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Connecting Undergraduate Science Education With The Needs Of Today's Graduates, Viviane Callier, Richard H. Singiser, Nathan L. Vanderford

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Undergraduate science programs are not providing graduates with the knowledgebase and skills they need to be successful on today’s job market. Curricular changes relevant to today’s marketplace and more opportunities for internships and work experience during students’ secondary education would facilitate a smoother transition to the working world and help employers find graduates that possess both the hard and soft skills needed in the workplace. In this article, we discuss these issues and offer solutions that would generate more marketplace-ready undergraduates.

Generation And Characterization Of Nanoaerosols Using A Portable Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer And Electron Microscopy, Adam J. Marty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the ability to generate and characterize a nanometer sized aerosol using solutions, suspensions, and a bulk nanopowder, and to research the viability of using an acoustic dry aerosol generator/elutriator (ADAGE) to aerosolize a bulk nanopowder into a nanometer sized aerosol. The research compares the results from a portable scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) to the more traditional method of counting and sizing particles on a filter sample using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Sodium chloride aerosol was used for the comparisons. The sputter coating thickness, a conductive coating necessary for SEM, was measured …

Examination Of Possible Protective Effect Of Rhesus D Positive Blood Factor On Toxoplasma-Related Depressive Symptoms In Pregnancy, Lisa Lynn Parnell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Toxoplasma gondii infects approximately one third of the population worldwide. There is strong evidence that a relationship between T. gondii titer and depressive symptoms exists. There is also evidence suggesting a protective effect of RhD positive blood factor on toxoplasma-induced behavioral and personality changes. This protective effect may influence the relationship between T. gondii and prenatal depressive symptoms. The purpose of this secondary data analysis was to examine the possible protective effect of RhD positive blood factor on prenatal depressive symptoms in 56 pregnant women with T. gondii infection. The cross-sectional design was utilized to answer the question “Does positive …

The Santa Clara, 2014-11-13, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

3,4,5-Trichloroaniline Nephrotoxicity In Vitro: Potential Role Of Free Radicals And Renal Biotransformation, Christopher Racine, Dakota Ward, Dianne K. Anestis, Travis Ferguson, Deborah Preston, Gary O. Rankin

Pharmaceutical Science and Research

Chloroanilines are widely used in the manufacture of drugs, pesticides and industrial intermediates. Among the trichloroanilines, 3,4,5-trichloroaniline (TCA) is the most potent nephrotoxicant in vivo. The purpose of this study was to examine the nephrotoxic potential of TCA in vitro and to determine if renal biotransformation and/or free radicals contributed to TCA cytotoxicity using isolated renal cortical cells (IRCC) from male Fischer 344 rats as the animal model. IRCC (~4 million cells/mL; 3 mL) were incubated with TCA (0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 or 1.0 mM) for 60–120 min. In some experiments, IRCC were pretreated with an antioxidant or a …

Textile And Apparel Studies Student Wins National Scholarship, College Of Education And Human Development

Family and Consumer Sciences News

Textile and apparel studies student, Emily Olson, has won the Wil Conard Regent’s University Fashion Marketing scholarship for 2014.

Current Perspectives On Primary Care Workforce, Kathleen Klink

Health Workforce Speaker Series

No abstract provided.

Dual Destructive And Protective Roles Of Adaptive Immunity In Neurodegenerative Disorders., Kristi M. Anderson, Katherine E. Olson, Katherine A. Estes, Ken Flanagan, Howard E. Gendelman, R. Lee Mosley

Journal Articles: Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience

Inappropriate T cell responses in the central nervous system (CNS) affect the pathogenesis of a broad range of neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders that include, but are not limited to, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. On the one hand immune responses can exacerbate neurotoxic responses; while on the other hand, they can lead to neuroprotective outcomes. The temporal and spatial mechanisms by which these immune responses occur and are regulated in the setting of active disease have gained significant recent attention. Spatially, immune responses that affect neurodegeneration may occur within or outside the CNS. Migration of …