Other Medical Sciences Commons^™

Toward A Mechanistic Understanding Of Narcolepsy With Cataplexy, William Mccurdy

McNair Poster Presentations

Narcolepsy (hypersomnolence) is a disorder that affects 1 in 2000 individuals in the United States and it is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and catalepsy, which is a sudden loss of muscle tone. As of relatively recent years, there has been a general consensus amongst the scientific community concerning the etiology of narcolepsy as numerous studies suggest that it is caused by the deficiency of neurotransmitters called orexin-A and orexin-B (or hypocretin-1 and hypocretin-2). Research suggests that deficiencies of these proteins are related to a mutation on chromosome 6 in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex which is a …

Effects Of Managed Care On The Health And Health-Care Of The Non-Elderly With Diabetes, Meihua Lu

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation attempts to examine the quality effect of managed care plans (as compared with traditional fee-for-service plans, or FFS) on the health outcome and health care use of patients with diabetes. As the number of diabetics is growing rapidly with many of them are relying on managed care plans, knowing better the effects of different plans on health status and health care utilization is of great interest and significance to consumers, employers, and policymakers, especially at a time that universal health care is under being implemented.

Using up-to-date data from MEPS, a nationally representative survey, I compared 484 HMO …

The Effect Of Spiritualism On The Neuropsychological Function Of Memory, Carla Farcello

McNair Poster Presentations

The amount of physiological-neurological research performed over the past few years has dramatically increased due to our ability to view the structure and function of the brain in living human beings. The use of imaging tools has resulted in huge strides forward in unlocking some of the mysteries of the 3 pound universe-the human brain. One of the more unique neural processes being recently addressed is the affect of belief and spiritualism-the sense of being connected to something larger than oneself-on the human brain. This study hypothesized that better memory will be documented among the experimental group who report being …

The Effects Of Pre-Exercise Carbohydrate Supplementation On Resistance Training Performance During An Acute Resistance Training Session, Kelly Raposo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It appears that "carbohydrate loading" may enhance the performance of resistance training, but studies on CHO supplementation prior to a resistance-training bout are limited and have resulted in conflicting findings. PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of pre-exercise CHO supplementation on high-intensity (>75% 1RM) resistance training performance for resistance-trained women during an acute bout of resistance exercise. METHODS: Thirteen resistance trained female participants (21.9 ± 4.8 yrs; 64.5 ± 3.0 in; 137.0 ± 14.8 lbs) came to the Exercise and Performance Nutrition Laboratory on three separate occasions; the day of the Familiarization Trial (FT) and the two Exercise Testing sessions …

The Effect Of Various Carbohydrate Supplements On Postprandial Blood Glucose Response In Female Soccer Players, Nina Pannoni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of different types of carbohydrates on blood glucose response in collegiate soccer athletes at rest. This will help to determine the effectiveness of a carbohydrate supplement in providing sustained energy and maintained performance if ingested prior to a soccer match. METHODS: In a cross-over design, 10 female collegiate soccer players (n= 10, age 20.10 ± .99 years, height 65.55 ± 2.77 inches, weight 64.12 ± 8.36 kilograms) from the University of South Florida reported to the laboratory on five separate occasions after an overnight fast. Once a baseline blood …

An Assessment Of The Use Of Chimpanzees In Hepatitis C Research Past, Present And Future: 2. Alternative Replacement Methods, Jarrod Bailey

Experimentation Collection

The use of chimpanzees in hepatitis C virus (HCV) research was examined in the report associated with this paper (1: Validity of the Chimpanzee Model), in which it was concluded that claims of past necessity of chimpanzee use were exaggerated, and that claims of current and future indispensability were unjustifiable. Furthermore, given the serious scientific and ethical issues surrounding chimpanzee experimentation, it was proposed that it must now be considered redundant — particularly in light of the demonstrable contribution of alternative methods to past and current scientific progress, and the future promise that these methods hold. This paper builds on …

An Assessment Of The Use Of Chimpanzees In Hepatitis C Research Past, Present And Future: 1. Validity Of The Chimpanzee Model, Jarrod Bailey

Experimentation Collection

The USA is the only significant user of chimpanzees in biomedical research in the world, since many countries have banned or limited the practice due to substantial ethical, economic and scientific concerns. Advocates of chimpanzee use cite hepatitis C research as a major reason for its necessity and continuation, in spite of supporting evidence that is scant and often anecdotal. This paper examines the scientific and ethical issues surrounding chimpanzee hepatitis C research, and concludes that claims of the necessity of chimpanzees in historical and future hepatitis C research are exaggerated and unjustifiable, respectively. The chimpanzee model has several major …

Evaluation Of The Quantitative Accuracy Of A Commercially-Available Positron Emission Mammography Scanner, Adam Springer

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Objective: The PEM Flex Solo II (Naviscan, Inc., San Diego, CA) is currently the only commercially-available positron emission mammography (PEM) scanner. This scanner does not apply corrections for count rate effects, attenuation or scatter during image reconstruction, potentially affecting the quantitative accuracy of images. This work measures the overall quantitative accuracy of the PEM Flex system, and determines the contributions of error due to count rate effects, attenuation and scatter.

Materials and Methods: Gelatin phantoms were designed to simulate breasts of different sizes (4 – 12 cm thick) with varying uniform background activity concentration (0.007 – 0.5 μCi/cc), cysts and …

Thoracic Target Volume Delineation Using Various Maximum-Intensity Projection Computed To Mography Image Sets For Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy, David A. Zamora

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The motion of lung tumors during respiration makes the accurate delivery of radiation therapy to the thorax difficult because it increases the uncertainty of target position. The adoption of four-dimensional computed tomography (4D-CT) has allowed us to determine how a tumor moves with respiration for each individual patient. Using information acquired during a 4D-CT scan, we can define the target, visualize motion, and calculate dose during the planning phase of the radiotherapy process. One image data set that can be created from the 4D-CT acquisition is the maximum-intensity projection (MIP). The MIP can be used as a starting point to …

An Implantable Mosfet Dosimeter Modified To Act As A Fiducial Marker, Joseph S. Dick

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

In external beam radiation therapy, it is imperative that the prescribed dose is administered to the correct location and in the correct amount. Though several ex vivo methods of quality assurance are currently employed to achieve this goal, verifying that the correct dose is received within the patient in situ is impossible without the capability of measuring dose inside the patient. Recently, a method of measuring dose delivered within the patient has been developed, an implantable MOSFET dosimeter. This dosimeter is implanted within the patient and records the dose received. Since the dosimeter is implanted in the patient, it could …

The Vision Of Toxicity Testing In The 21st Century: Moving From Discussion To Action, Melvin E. Andersen, Daniel Krewski

Toxicology and Animal Models in Research Collection

Over the past year, a series on commentaries have appeared in the Toxicological Sciences Forum Series related to the 2007 National Research Council (NRC) publication, Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and A Strategy. The first article in the series provided an overview of the vision and was accompanied by an editorial by the three editors of Toxicological Sciences. During the past year, eight invited commentaries from the academic, industrial, and regulatory sectors have provided diverse perspectives on the vision, noted challenges to its implementation, and highlighted aspects of toxicity testing that were not addressed in …

A Modular One-Generation Reproduction Study As A Flexible Testing System For Regulatory Safety Assessment, Richard Vogel, Troy Seidle, Horst Spielmann

Experimentation Collection

The European Union’s Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) legislation mandates testing and evaluation of approximately 30,000 existing substances within a short period of time, beginning with the most widely used “high production volume” (HPV) chemicals. REACH testing requirements for the roughly 3000 HPV chemicals specify three separate tests for reproductive toxicity: two developmental toxicity studies on different animal species (OECD Test Guideline 414) and a two-generation reproduction toxicity study (OECD TG 416). These studies are highly costly in both economic and animal welfare terms. OECD TG 416 is a fertility study intended to evaluate reproductive performance of animals …

Practical Considerations In Regenerative Medicine Research: Iacucs, Ethics, And The Use Of Animals In Stem Cell Studies, Susan Vandewoude, Bernard E. Rollin

Biomedicine and Animal Models in Research Collection

The intent of US federal laws mandating IACUC review of animal-related activities was to satisfy contemporary socioethical concerns by introducing deliberations about ethics and animal welfare into the research process when animals are used. These laws and the system they chartered have worked well for the most part in providing opportunities for consideration of animal welfare as a vital part of animal research. As a result, investigators today are far less naïve about the ethical issues raised by research on animals and typically more sympathetic about the need for such consideration. As evidence of this growing awareness, the literature on …

Development And Validation Of A Measurement Scale To Analyze The Environment For Evidence-Based Medicine Learning And Practice By Medical Residents, Fangqiong Mi

Wayne State University Dissertations

A growing number of residency programs are instituting curricula to include the component of evidence-based medicine (EBM) principles and process. However, these curricula may not be able to achieve the optimal learning outcomes, perhaps because various contextual factors are often overlooked when EBM training is being designed, developed, and implemented. The purpose of the study was to develop and validate an instrument, the EBM Environment Scale, to analyze the environment for EBM learning and practice as perceived by medical residents.

The development of the EBM Environment Scale underwent the process of content domain identification, item generation, review by content experts …

Epocrates….Is It Useful At The Neonatal Bedside?, Bobby L. Miller Md

Biochemistry and Microbiology

Most physicians, including residents and medical students have heard of, and many use, a mobile drug database called Epocrates. The purpose of this review is to evaluate Epocrates as a bedside tool from the perspective of a neonatologist on a busy teaching service.

An Examination Of Chimpanzee Use In Human Cancer Research, Jarrod Bailey

Laboratory Experiments Collection

Advocates of chimpanzee research claim the genetic similarity of humans and chimpanzees make them an indispensable research tool to combat human diseases. Given that cancer is a leading cause of human death worldwide, one might expect that if chimpanzees were needed for, or were productive in, cancer research, then they would have been widely used. This comprehensive literature analysis reveals that chimpanzees have scarcely been used in any form of cancer research, and that chimpanzee tumours are extremely rare and biologically different from human cancers. Often, chimpanzee citations described peripheral use of chimpanzee cells and genetic material in predominantly human …

Field Testing Adolescent Females For Cardiovascular Disease Risk, C. Jayne Brahler, Wesley R. Stephens, Betsy Donahoe Fillmore

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Over-fatness and poor cardiovascular (CV) fitness are well-documented risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults, but less is known about their association with disease risk in adolescents. This study aimed to determine the relationship between anthropometrics, fitness, and CVD risk.

Six anthropometric indicators of body fatness, seven measures of fitness, and seven metabolic and hemodynamic CVD risk factors were measured in a convenience sample of 28 female high school students (15-18 years of age). A tally was made of the number of factors for which each subject was outside the normal reference range (CVD risk).

Correlation analyses were completed …

Clinical Field-Strength Mri Of Amyloid Plaques Induced By Low-Level Cholesterol Feeding In Rabbits, John A. Ronald, Yuanxin Chen, Lisa Bernas, Hagen H. Kitzler, Kem A. Rogers, Robert A. Hegele, Brian K. Rutt

Robarts Imaging Publications

Two significant barriers have limited the development of effective treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. First, for many cases the aetiology is unknown and likely multi-factorial. Among these factors, hypercholesterolemia is a known risk predictor and has been linked to the formation of b-amyloid plaques, a pathological hallmark this disease. Second, standardized diagnostic tools are unable to definitively diagnose this disease prior to death; hence new diagnostic tools are urgently needed. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using high field-strength scanners has shown promise for direct visualization of b-amyloid plaques, allowing in vivo longitudinal tracking of disease progression in mouse models. Here, we present …

From Traumatic Brain Injury To Posttraumatic Epilepsy: What Animal Models Tell Us About The Process And Treatment Options, Asla Pitkänen, Riikka J. Immonen, Olli H.J. Gröhn, Irina Kharatishvili

Biomedicine and Animal Models in Research Collection

A large number of animal models of traumatic brain injury (TBI) are already available for studies on mechanisms and experimental treatments of TBI. Immediate and early seizures have been described in many of these models with focal or mixed type (both gray and white matter damage) injury. Recent long-term video-electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring studies have demonstrated that TBI produced by lateral fluid-percussion injury in rats results in the development of late seizures, that is, epilepsy. These animals develop hippocampal alterations that are well described in status epilepticus–induced spontaneous seizure models and human posttraumatic epilepsy (PTE). In addition, these rats have damage …

Gender Differences In Motivation To Resolve Eating And Body Image Concerns In College Students, Harold L. Merriman, C. Jayne Brahler, Laura Dinan, Lauren Finzer

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to identify similarities and differences between college women and men with respect to their eating and body image concerns, weight fluctuation and level of motivation to resolve these concerns. 101 University of Dayton students participated in this study. Students completed an eating and body concern survey online.

Body image concerns were significantly greater for females compared to males (p=0.007) and significantly greater as motivation level to resolve the concerns increased (p=0.019). Eating concerns followed the same trends but did not reach statistical significance. Weight fluctuation in both genders increased significantly as motivation level increased …

Three-Dimensional Arm Movements At Constant Equi-Affine Speed, Frank E. Pollick, Uri Maoz, Amir A. Handzel, Peter J. Giblin, Guillermo Sapiro, Tamar Flash

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

It has long been acknowledged that planar hand drawing movements conform to a relationship between movement speed and shape, such that movement speed is inversely proportional to the curvature to the power of one-third. Previous literature has detailed potential explanations for the power-law’s existence as well as systematic deviations from it. However, the case of speed-shape relations for three-dimensional (3D) drawing movements has remained largely unstudied. In this paper we first derive a generalization of the planar power law to 3D movements, which is based on the principle that this power law implies motion at constant equi-affine speed. This generalization …

Design, Synthesis, And Evaluation Of Small Molecules In The Discovery Of Novel Antimicrobial Agents, Kimberly D. Grimes

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus faecalis, pushes us to discover new antibacterial agents to maintain adequate patient coverage. This body of work highlights the use of medicinal chemistry methodologies that encompass cross-disciplinary fields of study. Chapter 1 gives an introduction to the antibacterial drug targets, resistance, and how scientists are working to overcome obstacles encountered with drug-resistant bacteria. It also details modern medicinal chemistry applications in antimicrobial drug discovery. Chapter 2 details the use of a structure-guided library approach to drug design, in which large virtual libraries against the target …

The Mind-Body Connection: The Association Between Adolescent Locus Of Control And Indicators Of Physical Health, C. Jayne Brahler, James Cropper

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Locus of control (LOC) describes an individual’s generalized beliefs or expectancies that their reinforcements are under internal versus external control (1). An individual exhibits either an internal or external LOC. This study examines the link between LOC and selected health risk factors in adolescents. A convenience sample of 167 high school physical education students completed a 13-item LOC questionnaire based on Rotter’s 1966 instrument.

Various anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and body fat were recorded on all subjects. A subsample of 61 female students received blood chemistry analysis that included a lipid profile, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), Apo …

Composites Comprising Cholesterol And Carboxymethyl Cellulose, Vuk Uskoković

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Whereby cholesterol presents one of the major fatty substances in human body, carboxymethyl cellulose is a water-soluble derivative of cellulose, the most abundant dietary fiber. Whereas on one hand in vivo precipitation of cholesterol is the major cause of atherosclerosis, dietary fibers are on the other hand known for their ability to clean the fatty plaque deposited on intestinal pathways, and prevent its build-up in other critical areas within the organism. In this work, a method for the preparation of a composite material comprising cholesterol and carboxymethyl cellulose from 1-hexanol/water biphase mixtures is reported. Specificity of the interaction between the …

Chimpanzee Research: An Examination Of Its Contribution To Biomedical Knowledge And Efficacy In Combating Human Diseases, Jarrod Bailey, Jonathan Balcombe, Theodora Capaldo

Experimentation Collection

Research on captive chimpanzees incurs considerable animal welfare, ethical and financial costs. Advocates of such research claim these costs are outweighed by substantial advancements in biomedical knowledge, and that the genetic similarity of chimpanzees to humans enables the former to make critical contributions to preventing, diagnosing and combating human diseases. To assess these claims, we examined the disciplines investigated in 749 studies of captive chimpanzees published from 1995-2004 inclusive, and subjected 95 randomly selected papers to a detailed citation analysis:

49.5% (47/95) of papers had not been cited at the time of this study; 38.5% (34/95) were cited by 116 …

Animal Carcinogenicity Studies: Implications For The Reach System, Andrew Knight, Jarrod Bailey, Jonathan Balcombe

Experimentation Collection

The 2001 European Commission proposal for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) aims to improve public and environmental health by assessing the toxicity of, and restricting exposure to, potentially toxic chemicals. The greatest benefits are expected to accrue from decreased cancer incidences. Hence the accurate identification of chemical carcinogens must be a top priority for the REACH system. Due to a paucity of human clinical data, the identification of potential human carcinogens has conventionally relied on animal tests. However, our survey of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) toxic chemicals database revealed that, for a majority of the …

Animal Carcinogenicity Studies: 1. Poor Human Predictivity, Andrew Knight, Jarrod Bailey, Jonathan Balcombe

Experimentation Collection

The regulation of human exposure to potentially carcinogenic chemicals constitutes society’s most important use of animal carcinogenicity data. Environmental contaminants of greatest concern within the USA are listed in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) chemicals database. However, of the 160 IRIS chemicals lacking even limited human exposure data but possessing animal data that had received a human carcinogenicity assessment by 1 January 2004, we found that in most cases (58.1%; 93/160), the EPA considered animal carcinogenicity data inadequate to support a classification of probable human carcinogen or non-carcinogen. For the 128 chemicals with human or …

Animal Carcinogenicity Studies: 2. Obstacles To Extrapolation Of Data To Humans, Andrew Knight, Jarrod Bailey, Jonathan Balcombe

Experimentation Collection

Due to limited human exposure data, risk classification and the consequent regulation of exposure to potential carcinogens has conventionally relied mainly upon animal tests. However, several investigations have revealed animal carcinogenicity data to be lacking in human predictivity. To investigate the reasons for this, we surveyed 160 chemicals possessing animal but not human exposure data within the US Environmental Protection Agency chemicals database, but which had received human carcinogenicity assessments by 1 January 2004. We discovered the use of a wide variety of species, with rodents predominating, and of a wide variety of routes of administration, and that there were …

Animal Carcinogenicity Studies: 3. Alternatives To The Bioassay, Andrew Knight, Jarrod Bailey, Jonathan Balcombe

Experimentation Collection

Conventional animal carcinogenicity tests take around three years to design, conduct and interpret. Consequently, only a tiny fraction of the thousands of industrial chemicals currently in use have been tested for carcinogenicity. Despite the costs of hundreds of millions of dollars and millions of skilled personnel hours, as well as millions of animal lives, several investigations have revealed that animal carcinogenicity data lack human specificity (i.e. the ability to identify human non-carcinogens), which severely limits the human predictivity of the bioassay. This is due to the scientific inadequacies of many carcinogenicity bioassays, and numerous serious biological obstacles, which render profoundly …

Cancerous Contradictions: The Mis-Regulation Of Human Carcinogens Based On Animal Data, Andrew Knight, Jarrod Bailey, Jonathan Balcombe

Experimentation Collection

The regulation of human exposures to potential carcinogens constitutes society’s most important use of animal carcinogenicity data. However, for environmental contaminants of greatest U.S. concern, we found that in most cases (58.1%; 93/160) the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considered the animal data inadequate to support a classification of probable human carcinogen or noncarcinogen.

The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is a leading international authority on carcinogenicity assessments. For chemicals lacking human exposure data (the great majority), IARC classifications of identical chemicals were significantly more conservative than EPA classifications (p