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Medical cannabis (MC) may offer therapeutic benefits for children with complex neurological conditions and chronic diseases. In Canada, parents, and caregivers frequently report encountering barriers when accessing MC for their children. These include negative preconceived notions about risks and benefits, challenges connecting with a knowledgeable healthcare provider (HCP), the high cost of MC products, and navigating MC product shortages. In this manuscript, we explore several of these barriers and provide recommendations to decision-makers to enable a family-centered and evidence-based approach to MC medicine and research for children.

Several members of the kinesin family of microtubule motor proteins play essential roles in mitotic spindle function and are potential targets for the discovery of novel antimitotic cancer therapies. KSP, also known as HsEg5, is a kinesin that plays an essential role in formation of a bipolar mitotic spindle and is required for cell cycle progression through mitosis. We identified a potent inhibitor of KSP, CK0106023, which causes mitotic arrest and growth inhibition in several human tumor cell lines. Here we show that CK0106023 is an allosteric inhibitor of KSP motor domain ATPase with a Ki of 12 nm. Among five kinesins tested, CK0106023 was specific for KSP. In tumor-bearing mice, CK0106023 exhibited antitumor activity comparable to or exceeding that of paclitaxel and caused the formation of monopolar mitotic figures identical to those produced in cultured cells. KSP was most abundant in proliferating human tissues and was absent from cultured postmitotic neurons. These findings are the first to demonstrate the feasibility of targeting mitotic kinesins for the treatment of cancer.

Supplementary Fig. 1 from Antitumor Activity of a Kinesin Inhibitor

Legends to Supplementary Figures from Antitumor Activity of a Kinesin Inhibitor

Supplementary Fig. 3 from Antitumor Activity of a Kinesin Inhibitor

Supplementary Fig. 2 from Antitumor Activity of a Kinesin Inhibitor

BACKGROUND: A small body of evidence suggests medical cannabis may facilitate wound healing, but the exact mechanism of this effect is unclear. PURPOSE: This case report describes a patient with a pressure injury (PI) who received cannabis oil treatment for pain management and sleep improvement. METHODS: A 37-year-old woman with multiminicore disease, scoliosis, short-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency, and epilepsy presented to the Neurology Centre of Toronto with chronic pain and sleep disturbance, including difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep. She also had a 5-year history of a PI between her right iliac crest and right rib cage that had progressively worsened. The patient received a medical cannabis oil protocol that used a combination of cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol. RESULTS: Cannabis oil was effective in treating pain and sleep difficulties. Unexpectedly, during the first 2 weeks of treatment, the PI started to heal and was almost completely closed at the 2-month follow-up. CONCLUSION: Although it is unknown if the observed healing of this refractory PI was indirectly or directly related to the cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol treatment, the potential relationships among pain, sleep disturbance, cannabis treatment, and healing should be explored.

The contents of awareness can substantially change without any modification to the externalworld. Such effects are exemplified in binocular rivalry, where a different stimulus is presented to each eye causing instability in perception. This phenomenon has made binocular rivalry a quintessential method for studying consciousness and the necessary neural correlates for awareness. However, to conduct research on binocular rivalry usually requires self-reports of changes in percept, which can produce confounds and exclude states and contexts where self- reports are undesirable. Here we use a novel multivariate spatial filter dubbed ‘Rhythmic Entrainment Source Separation’ to extract steady state visual evoked potentials from EEG data. We show that this method can be used to very accurately quantify the perceptual switch-rate of participants during binocular rivalry and therefore may be valuable in experimental contexts where self-reports are methodologically problematic or impossible. Our analyses also reveal that “no-report” conditions may affect the deployment of attention and thereby neural correlates; another important consideration for consciousness research.

Arabidopsis Thaliana, a model organism for genetic modification, was tested to discover whether or not a genetic increase in biomass affects the plant’s rate of carbon fixation. An experimental design was employed, involving the testing of the carbon fixation rates from 4 separate experimental groups, genetically modified and a control group, both sterilized and unsterilized. Sterile water and a 50% bleach solution were used for seed sterilization, and once complete, all types of seeds were given a week long cold treatment. After the cold treatment had concluded, these plants were grown on moist fertilized soil, and were watered using a glass tray. Water was added into the flat surface every 2 days, and this nourishment was absorbed by the soil through holes in 4.409 x 3.937 terracotta pots. This absorption allowed for dry soil to remoisten, ultimately providing hydration to A. Thaliana. Growth measurements of the observed largest leaf were taken each week for a 4 week growth period. Once fully grown, a procedure known as photosynthetic flotation was used to uncover carbon fixation rates between the experimental groups, involving 0.5 cm leaf disks rising in a bicarbonate solution as carbon dioxide was converted to oxygen. The faster the leaf disk rose, the more rapidly carbon dioxide was fixated. Overall, data gathered from this experiment showed little difference between carbon fixation rates of biomass genetic modification and a control group, causing for this genetic modification only being able to be used to combat overpopulation with larger food being produced, but not that of reversing climate change. However, there was a significant gap in terms of the time to rise of leaf disks between sterilized and unsterilized groups, revealing that a more specific study in regards to this variable must be conducted.

Isthmic spondylolisthesis (IS) is the slippage of one spinal vertebra on another, which is the result of a defect in the pars interarticularis. IS can be clinically asymptomatic or can present with axial back pain, leg pain, or neurological dysfunction. There are multiple treatment approaches to a patient with IS that include conservative and operative techniques. Patients with IS in the absence of neurological deficits should initially be managed conservatively. Individuals who fail conservative therapies or individuals with neurological deficits are candidates for operative intervention. There are many different operative approaches to treating IS. Operative techniques fall into two major categories: decompression versus decompression and instrumented fusion.

Objective To describe an ongoing pharmacist-managed tobacco cessation clinic and assess the long-term effectiveness of the program. Setting Veterans Health Administration (VHA) community-based outpatient clinic in Missoula, Montana. Participants Pharmacy professor/clinical pharmacy specialist, advanced pharmacy practice experience students, and tobacco cessation participants. Practice Description Ongoing, pharmacist-managed tobacco cessation program offered to veterans. Practice Innovation With use of the “Vets without Cigarettes” program developed by the Montana VHA and the most current strategies reported in the literature, the clinical pharmacy specialist and pharmacy students provide tobacco cessation services for Missoula Veterans Affairs Primary Care Center veterans. Activities include a three-session program using the Transtheoretical Model of Change, tobacco cessation pharmacotherapy, behavioral strategies, cognitive techniques, documentation, and follow-up survey. Main Outcome Measure Percentage of veterans contacted reporting tobacco abstinence. Results Follow-up survey results were obtained for 130 (87.8%) of 148 veterans attending one or more sessions of the tobacco cessation class between November 1999 and December 2003. Of the 130 veterans contacted, 54 (41.5%) continued to be tobacco free. Conclusion This program demonstrates that pharmacists are effective providers of tobacco cessation services. Furthermore, a comprehensive tobacco cessation program is provided that can serve as a model to guide pharmacists in assisting more patients to become tobacco free and live healthier lifestyles.

The Iraq war and its aftermath have raised compelling questions about the capacity of the executive branch to elicit public consent for the use of military force and about the role the media plays in this process. From the outset, the Bush administration was faced with unique challenges in its effort to legitimate its decision to go to war. Because the war was not prompted by an overt act against the United States or its interests, and was not approved by the UN Security Council, the Bush administration argued that the war was necessary on the basis of a potential threat. Because the evidence for this threat was not fully manifest, the Bush administration led the public to believe that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and providing substantial support to the al Qaeda terrorist group. The challenge for the administration was later intensified when the United States occupied Iraq and was unable to find the expected corroborating evidence. From the outset the public was sympathetic to the idea of removing Saddam Hussein, though only a small minority of Americans was ready to go to war with Iraq without UN Security Council approval.' The majority was inclined to believe that Iraq had a WMD program and was supporting al Qaeda. However

Purpose. To evaluate the impact of an optional thoracic dissection elective upon anatomy subject acquisition and determine whether peer-mediated teaching has a beneficial effect. Methodology. First year medical students’ results on thoracic anatomy laboratory examinations over a five-year period were obtained. All students were taught in the laboratory using prosected specimens as part of a standard curriculum. A subset of students from each class volunteered to participate in an optional thoracic dissection. A comparison of exam performance between the two groups was made, and the results were analyzed to see if incorporating peer teaching into the elective had an impact on the students’ performance on anatomy examinations. Results. With the exception of one year’s results, no significant statistical difference was found in student performance on anatomy examinations between the two groups. The addition of peer teaching did not result in superior performance. Conclusion. It is believed that prosected specimens are suitable for anatomy laboratory teaching in an undergraduate medical curriculum. Our study did not reveal that an opportunity for dissection offered any added benefit in terms of exam performance. In addition, peer teaching did not affect exam performance. This study strictly compared student exam results. It did not assess the possible impact of the dissection process to influence student attitudes towards death or the development of clinically relevant visuospatial abilities and procedural skills.

Peer review is a widely accepted instrument for raising the quality of science. Peer review limits the enormous unstructured influx of information and the sheer amount of dubious data, which in its absence would plunge science into chaos. In particular, peer review offers the benefit of eliminating papers that suffer from poor craftsmanship or methodological shortcomings, especially in the experimental sciences. However, we believe that peer review is not always appropriate for the evaluation of controversial hypothetical science. We argue that the process of peer review can be prone to bias towards ideas that affirm the prior convictions of reviewers and against innovation and radical new ideas. Innovative hypotheses are thus highly vulnerable to being "filtered out" or made to accord with conventional wisdom by the peer review process. Consequently, having introduced peer review, the Elsevier journal Medical Hypotheses may be unable to continue its tradition as a radical journal allowing discussion of improbable or unconventional ideas. Hence we conclude by asking the publisher to consider re-introducing the system of editorial review to Medical Hypotheses.

The potential hazards to the environment and to human health posed by several types of household hazardous wastes (HHW) and waste products are discussed in this paper. This discussion serves to lead into an evaluation of the design and operating parameters of a collection program for these wastes, and the influence that various design parameters may have on the ability of the collection program to remove the wastes from uncontrolled waste stream. A review of existing HHW collection programs and of surveys regarding HHW's is presented. A survey of over 200 households in Vancouver was conducted to determine stored quantities and generation characteristics of specific household hazardous wastes. Respondents were also asked to identify their preferences and concerns regarding the design of a collection program for these wastes. The results were used to estimate the quantities of HHW disposed of annually, and the quantities and profiles of wastes that could be received at a typical depot collection program in the City. Different operating parameters for both depot collection programs and household collection programs were compared. Public willingness to participate in different collection programs was evaluated, and the collection needs of different residential areas was assessed. Significant differences in waste generation and storage practices were indicated to exist between types of dwellings, and between areas of differing economic status. Examples include the result that as many or more apartments residents generated HHW's as did detached dwelling residents, but in significantly smaller quantities, especially for liquid HHW's. Apartment residents also tended to store less HHW than detached dwelling residents. Between upper income and lower income detached dwelling areas, the composition of HHW's was significantly different, with automotive products more prevalent in the lower income area and paints more prevalent in the upper income area. Other differences between dwelling type and income level differentiated areas were also noted. Further observations included the difference in the willingness of respondents to participate in various types of collection programs, and the disposal practices for different waste types. Also, concerns of the respondents with regard to the issue of HHW in general and to each type of collection program in specific were solicited and discussed. Recommendations were made to assist in the design of an effective HHW collection program for the City of Vancouver.

The principle underlying all methods of blood purification for the treatment of uremia is based on the assumption that most symptoms of uremia depend on the concentrations of dialysable substances which are the end products of metabolism normally eliminated by the kidney. Therefore, dialysis therapy can only be effective if the concentrations of these endogenous substances remain below toxic limits.