Describes issues involved when converting traditional classrooms into smart classrooms that include appropriate educational technology. Highlights include faculty training in advance; flexibility; ...design considerations; technical support; and an example based on experiences at Virginia Commonwealth University. (LRW)
The Na+/Ca2+ exchanger was characterized in plasma membrane vesicles derived from frozen human postmortem tissues. The frontal cortex, temporal cortex and cerebellum of control and Alzheimer's ...disease (AD) tissues were compared. Na+/Ca2+ exchange activity was defined as the change in vesicular Ca2+ content seen after Na+ loaded vesicles were diluted into choline buffer. The time course of changes in Ca2+ content after dilution was similar in all three regions of control brain. In AD brain, both frontal and temporal cortex vesicles showed elevated Ca2+ content, most evident as an increased peak Ca2+ content at 2 min. The AD cerebellar cortex time course was similar to control and did not show an elevated peak at 2 min. No differences were seen in the passive permeability to Ca2+ when comparing plasma membrane vesicles prepared from control and AD brain. Vesicles from the frontal and temporal cortex of AD brain showed increases in the Vmax of the initial velocity of Ca2+ uptake when compared to control brain, whereas, the cerebellum did not. There were no significant effects of AD on the Km for Ca2+ activation of the initial velocity. Ca2+ influx measured during the rise in vesicular Ca2+ content was elevated in vesicles from AD temporal cortex when compared to control. Two known inhibitors (exchange inhibitory peptide and dichlorobenzamil) of the cardiac Na+/Ca2+ exchanger inhibited the human brain exchanger equally well in control and AD vesicles. Increased Na+/Ca2+ exchange activity was not due to astrocytic gliosis.
Na+/Ca2+ exchange activity and passive permeability to Ca2+ were analyzed in plasma membrane vesicles (PMV) purified from whole rat brain and three regions of human brain: frontal cortex, temporal ...cortex, and cerebellum. Accumulation of Ca2+ due to Na+/Ca2+ exchange activity showed a characteristic pattern of an initial rapid rise in Ca2+ content followed by a stable plateau in both rat and human brain. Total Ca2+ accumulation in rat brain PMV was on average three-fold higher than in human brain. Passive permeability to Ca2+ was measured as the rate of Ca2+ release from PMV first loaded with 45Ca by Na+/Ca2+ exchange and then exposed to 1 mM EGTA. The Ca2+ permeabilities of human and rat brain PMV were similar. Ca2+ release from rat brain PMV was faster overall and was resolved into fast and slow components while in human brain a single slow component was found. Post mortem delay up to 4 h had no effect on Na+/Ca2+ exchange Km for Ca2+, Vmax, and peak uptake and Ca2+ release rate in rat brain PMV. Human frontal cortex was shown to have a greater Na+/Ca2+ exchange activity than that found in the cerebellum. The frontal cortex, temporal cortex and cerebellum had similar Ca2+ permeabilities. Age-related effects on Na+/Ca2+ exchange activity and Ca2+ permeability were determined in 15 tissues from human frontal cortex (age at death 21 to 93 years). No significant age related effects were seen.
Coming off the most profitable year in its 85-year history, conservative Palmetto Bank (Laurens, SC) has responded to the economic downturn with a hard-hitting marketing plan for 1991. Rather than ...retreating into a recessionary bunker, the bank plans to flaunt its stability by expanding into a new market area, introducing a service oriented Seniority Program, continuing to develop its corporate financial packaging program, and initiating limited service branches in retirement communities. An extensive study of the new market area was commissioned, and a comprehensive marketing customer information file (MCIF) will help the bank to cross sell its products. The bank uses newsletters, direct mail, statement stuffers, and newspaper advertising to maintain contact with its customers and to introduce new products. Palmetto hopes to double in size by the year 2000 by adopting this aggressive marketing strategy. (Available for purchase from the Bank Marketing Association).
