Search

Patients aged 65 years and older account for an increasing proportion of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Older TBI patients experience increased morbidity and mortality compared to their younger counterparts. Our prior data demonstrated that by blocking α4 integrin, anti-CD49d antibody (aCD49d Ab) abrogates CD8+ T-cell infiltration into the injured brain, improves survival, and attenuates neurocognitive deficits. Here, we aimed to uncover how aCD49d Ab treatment alters local cellular responses in the aged mouse brain. Consequently, mice incur age-associated toxic cytokine and chemokine responses long-term post-TBI. aCD49d Ab attenuates this response along with a T helper (Th)1/Th17 immunological shift and remediation of overall CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity. Furthermore, aCD49d Ab reduces CD8+ T cells exhibiting higher effector status, leading to reduced clonal expansion in aged, but not young, mouse brains with chronic TBI. Together, aCD49d Ab is a promising therapeutic strategy for treating TBI in the older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bridges to Care and Recovery program supports the behavioral health assessment, treatment, and recovery of individuals through partnerships with the African-American faith community. Church members receive mental health training and skill building, so they can serve as personal mental health educators and advocates. A Community Connector provides guidance and referral to behavioral health services, including access to free counseling. The program reduces the perceived stigma of mental illness and strengthens partnerships between behavioral health service providers and the African-American community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with major burn injuries typically require numerous blood transfusions. It is not known if an inhalation injury (INHI) directly influences the need for blood transfusion. The purpose of this study was to determine whether INHI increases the amount of blood transfused to major burn patients. A secondary analysis from the Transfusion Requirement in Burn Care Evaluation (TRIBE) study was conducted. Patients with INHI were compared with patients without INHI. The number of red blood cell (RBC) transfusions per day (RBC per day) between INHI and No INHI was analyzed with a multivariable regression. Patients with INHI (n = 78) had significantly larger burns (P = .0004), larger full-thickness burns (P = .0007), greater admission APACHE score (P < .0001), higher admission multiple organ dysfunction scores (P < .0001), and were transfused more RBC per day (P = .009) than No INHI patients (n = 267). In the multivariable regression analysis, RBC per day was significantly associated with the %TBSA burn (P < .0001), age of the patient (P = .004), the need for more than 1 day of mechanical ventilation (P < .0001), the occurrence of at least one blood stream infection (BSI; P = .044), and being assigned to the liberal transfusion arm of TRIBE (P < .001) but not the presence of INHI (P = .056). The null hypothesis that INHI exerts no influence on the amount of blood transfused could not be rejected. Larger burn size, advanced patient age, mechanical ventilation, and BSIs are important determinants of the blood transfusion rate in major burn patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early excision and autografting are standard care for deeper burns. However, donor sites are a source of significant morbidity. To address this, the ReCell® Autologous Cell Harvesting Device (ReCell) was designed for use at the point-of-care to prepare a noncultured, autologous skin cell suspension (ASCS) capable of epidermal regeneration using minimal donor skin. A prospective study was conducted to evaluate the clinical performance of ReCell vs meshed split-thickness skin grafts (STSG, Control) for the treatment of deep partial-thickness burns. Effectiveness measures were assessed to 1 year for both ASCS and Control treatment sites and donor sites, including the incidence of healing, scarring, and pain. At 4 weeks, 98% of the ASCS-treated sites were healed compared with 100% of the Controls. Pain and assessments of scarring at the treatment sites were reported to be similar between groups. Significant differences were observed between ReCell and Control donor sites. The mean ReCell donor area was approximately 40 times smaller than that of the Control (P < .0001), and after 1 week, significantly more ReCell donor sites were healed than Controls (P = .04). Over the first 16 weeks, patients reported significantly less pain at the ReCell donor sites compared with Controls (P ≤ .05 at each time point). Long-term patients reported higher satisfaction with ReCell donor site outcomes compared with the Controls. This study provides evidence that the treatment of deep partial-thickness burns with ASCS results in comparable healing, with significantly reduced donor site size and pain and improved appearance relative to STSG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy use of alcohol can lead to addictive behaviors and to eventual alcohol‐related tissue damage. While increased consumption of alcohol has been attributed to various factors including level of alcohol exposure and environmental factors such as stress, data from behavioral scientists and physiological researchers are revealing roles for the circadian rhythm in mediating the development of behaviors associated with alcohol use disorder as well as the tissue damage that drives physiological disease. In this work, we compile recent work on the complex mutually influential relationship that exists between the core circadian rhythm and the pharmacodynamics of alcohol. As we do so, we highlight implications of the relationship between alcohol and common circadian mechanisms of effected organs on alcohol consumption, metabolism, toxicity, and pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Alcoholic liver disease ( ALD) is commonly associated with intestinal permeability. An unanswered question is why only a subset of heavy alcohol drinkers develop endotoxemia. Recent studies suggest that circadian disruption is the susceptibility factor for alcohol-induced gut leakiness to endotoxins. The circadian protein PER2 is increased after exposure to alcohol and si RNA knockdown of PER2 in vitro blocks alcohol-induced intestinal barrier dysfunction. We have shown that blocking CYP2E1 (i.e., important for alcohol metabolism) with si RNA inhibits the alcohol-induced increase in PER2 and suggesting that oxidative stress may mediate alcohol-induced increase in PER2 in intestinal epithelial cells. The aim of this study was to elucidate whether a mechanism incited by alcohol-derived oxidative stress mediates the transcriptional induction of PER2 and subsequent intestinal hyperpermeability. Methods Caco-2 cells were exposed to 0.2% alcohol with or without pretreatment with modulators of oxidative stress or PKA activity. Permeability of the Caco-2 monolayer was assessed by transepithelial electrical resistance. Protein expression was measured by Western blot and mRNA with real-time polymerase chain reaction. Wild-type C57 BL/6J mice were fed with alcohol diet (29% of total calories, 4.5% v/v) for 8 weeks. Western blot was used to analyze PER2 expression in mouse proximal colon tissue. Results Alcohol increased oxidative stress, caused Caco-2 cell monolayer dysfunction, and increased levels of the circadian clock proteins PER2 and CLOCK. These effects were mitigated by pretreatment of Caco-2 cells with an antioxidant scavenger. Alcohol-derived oxidative stress activated cAMP response element-binding (CREB) via the PKA pathway and increased PER2 mRNA and protein. Inhibiting CREB prevented the increase in PER2 and Caco-2 cell monolayer hyperpermeability. Conclusions Taken together, these data suggest that strategies to reduce alcohol-induced oxidative stress may alleviate alcohol-mediated circadian disruption and intestinal leakiness, critical drivers of ALD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since their inception in 1992, the number of charter schools has grown to more than 6,800 nationally, serving nearly three million students. Various studies have examined charter schools' impacts on test scores, and a few have begun to examine longer-term outcomes including graduation and college attendance. This paper is the first to estimate charter schools' effects on earnings in adulthood, alongside effects on educational attainment. Using data from Florida, we first confirm previous research (Booker et al., ) that students attending charter high schools are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college. We then examine two longer-term outcomes not previously studied in research on charter schools-college persistence and earnings. We find that students attending charter high schools are more likely to persist in college, and that in their mid-20s they experience higher earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The purpose of this article is to provide a descriptive study of the management of burns in the prehospital setting of a combat zone. Methods. A retrospective chart review was performed of U.S. casualties with >20%% total-body-surface-area thermal burns, transported from the site of injury to Ibn Sina Combat Support Hospital (CSH) between January 1, 2006, and August 30, 2009. Results. Ibn Sina CSH received 225 burn casualties between January 2006 and August 2009. Of these, 48 met the inclusion criteria. The mean Injury Severity Score was 31.7 (range 4 to 75). Prehospital vascular access was obtained in 24 casualties (50%%), and 20 of the casualties received fluid resuscitation. Out of the 48 casualties enrolled, 28 (58.3%%) did not receive prehospital fluid resuscitation. Of the casualties who received fluid resuscitation, nearly all received volumes in excess of the guidelines established by the American Burn Association and those recommended by the Committee for Tactical Combat Casualty Care. With regard to pain management in the prehospital setting, 13 casualties (27.1%%) received pain medication. Conclusions. With regard to the prehospital fluid resuscitation of primary thermal injury in the combat zone, two extremes were noted. The first group did not receive any fluid resuscitation; the second group was resuscitated with fluid volumes higher than those expected if established guidelines were utilized. Pain management was not uniformly provided to major burn casualties, even in several with vascular access. These observations support improved education of prehospital personnel serving in a combat zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nicotine is the primary psychoactive substance in tobacco, and it exerts its effects by interaction with various subtypes of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in the brain. One of the major subtypes expressed in brain, the α4β2-nAChR, endogenously modulates neuronal excitability and thereby, modifies certain normal as well as nicotine-induced behaviors. Although α4-containing nAChRs are widely expressed across the brain, a major focus has been on their roles within midbrain dopaminergic regions involved in drug addiction, mental illness, and movement control in humans. We developed a unique model system to examine the role of α4-nAChRs within dopaminergic neurons by a targeted genetic deletion of the α4 subunit from dopaminergic neurons in mice. The loss α4 mRNA and α4β2-nAChRs from dopaminergic neurons was confirmed, as well as selective loss of α4β2-nAChR function from dopaminergic but not GABAergic neurons. Two behaviors central to nicotine dependence, reward and anxiety relief, were examined. α4-nAChRs specifically on dopaminergic neurons were demonstrated to be necessary for nicotine reward as measured by nicotine place preference, but not for another drug of addiction, cocaine. α4-nAChRs are necessary for the anxiolytic effects of nicotine in the elevated plus maze, and elimination of α4β2-nAChRs specifically from dopaminergic neurons decreased sensitivity to the anxiolytic effects of nicotine. Deletion of α4-nAChRs specifically from dopaminergic neurons also increased sensitivity to nicotine-induced locomotor depression; however, nicotine-induced hypothermia was unaffected. This is the first work to develop a dopaminergic specific deletion of a nAChR subunit and examine resulting changes in nicotine-related behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the late 1980s and early 2000s, schools, districts, states, and the federal government devoted enormous resources to the implementation of Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) models. With more than 1.6 billion federal dollars distributed through the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) project and its successor, the CSR project, states and districts made CSR adoption a central reform strategy for their lowest performing schools. Today, however, federal funding for CSR has dried up, and this policy has been left behind with few explicit efforts to assess the effect of these CSR funds on schools. In this article, the authors look back on this federal reform initiative and the effect it had on Texas students. Using promising analytic techniques for nonexperimental studies to investigate the effects of federal CSR awards on student achievement, the authors find that CSRD funding did not significantly effect students' reading performance and that its effect on math performance varied across different student types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A speech is presented, delivered by Booker T. Anthony, president of the College Language Association (CLA) at the 68th annual CLA convention, held at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina on April 10, 2008, discussing the status of the association and the convention theme of the transatlantic slave trade and African American literature.

The article presents a preface to the September 1, 2007 issue of "CLA Journal," highlighting the central issue of religion in literature.

The Plasma Experiment for Planetary Exploration (PEPE) flown on Deep Space 1 combines an ion mass spectrometer and an electron spectrometer in a single, low-resource instrument. Among its novel features PEPE incorporates an electrostatically swept field-of-view and a linear electric field time-of-flight mass spectrometer. A significant amount of effort went into developing six novel technologies that helped reduce instrument mass to 5.5 kg and average power to 9.6 W. PEPE’s performance was demonstrated successfully by extensive measurements made in the solar wind and during the DS1 encounter with Comet 19P/Borrelly in September 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons express many nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunits capable of forming multiple nAChR subtypes. These subtypes are expressed differentially along the neuron and presumably mediate diverse responses. β3 subunit mRNA has restricted expression but is abundant in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental areas. To investigate the potential tole(s) of nicotinic receptors containing the β3 subunit in dopaminergic tracts, we generated mice with a null mutation in the β3 gene. We were thereby able to identify a population of β3-dependent α-conotoxin MII-binding nAChRs that modulate striatal dopamine release. Changes were also observed in locomotor activity and prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle, behaviors that are controlled, in part, by nigrostriatal and mesolimbic dopaminergic activity, respectively, suggesting that β3-containing nAChRs modulate these behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Use of the Internet as an information-gathering tool continues to grow. Among many Internet attributes, three stand out: it is vast, it continues to change, and it continues to grow. Thus, finding information on a topic can have high transaction costs in terms of time and effort. We have tried to solve this problem by compiling a guide to resources available on a topic. The purpose of this guide is to help researchers, practitioners, and others find information about sustainable development, broadly defined, on the Internet. We provide a general description of the Internet and a categorized list of electronic information sites. We have also developed an online, Internet version of this guide, which contains links to each World Wide Web site we list. We provide the addresses for the sites in this paper. In accessing and using this information, be cognizant that, like any other tool, the Internet has advantages and limitations, which we address in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A toroidal electrostatic analyzer of a design suitable for space plasma instrumentation has been constructed and tested. Experimental results are compared with second-order ion optical theory and are in good agreement. Verifying the ion optics of the toroid was simplified by use of a position-sensing microchannel-plate detector mounted on a positioning system with three translational degrees of freedom located at the toroid exit. The toroidal analyzer described here is the first optical element in a fully toroidal mass spectrograph intended for analysis of kilovolt magnetospheric plasmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]