Gene transfer has potential as a once-only treatment that reduces viral load, preserves the immune system, and avoids lifetime highly active antiretroviral therapy. This study, the first randomized, ...double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase II cell-delivered gene transfer clinical trial, was conducted in 74 HIV-1 infected adults who received a
tat/vpr
specific anti-HIV ribozyme (OZ1) or placebo delivered in autologous CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells. There were no OZ1-related adverse events. There was no statistical difference in viral load between the OZ1 and placebo group at the primary end-point (average at weeks 47 and 48) but time weighted areas under the curve from weeks 40-48 and 40-100 were significantly lower in the OZ1 group. Throughout the 100 weeks, CD4+ lymphocyte counts were higher in the OZ1 group. This study provides the first indication that cell-delivered gene transfer is safe and biologically active in HIV patients and can be developed as a conventional therapeutic product.
Explore the creative ways music educators across the country are approaching emerging practices in music teaching and learning. Outlined in twenty-five unique case studies, each program offers a new ...perspective on music teaching and learning, often falling outside the standard music education curriculum. Find innovative ideas and models of successful practice to incorporate into your teaching, whether in school, university, or community settings. Close the gap between music inside and outside the music classroom and spark student interest. The diversity of these real-world case studies will inspire questioning and curiosity, stimulate lively discussion and innovation, and provide much food for thought. Designed for music teachers, preservice music education students, and music education faculty, this project was supported by Society for Music Teacher Education's (SMTE) Areas of Strategic Planning and Action on Critical Examination of the Curriculum, which will receive a portion of the proceeds.
We developed and tested a device to manipulate the axial position of the tibial anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) insertion in vitro to create a potential animal model that could simulate both ACL ...insufficiency and ‘optimal’ ACL reconstruction. This model is based on the concept that controlled incremental proximal displacement of the tibial ACL insertion simulates ACL insufficiency. Replacing the insertion at the joint level and then adjusting its position until the forces recorded equaled those in the ACL-intact knee can simulate ‘optimal’ ACL reconstruction. Anterior tibial translation (ATT) was quantified in vitro in 24 sheep cadaver knees with the ACL intact and after the ACL was cut or detached (ACL insufficiency). In 8 knees, a bone plug including the tibial ACL insertion was detached, mounted in a specially designed device, and adjusted to reproduce ATT of the ACL-intact knee. ATT was then measured after proximal displacement of the tibial ACL insertion in calibrated 1 mm increments. The results revealed that detaching the ACL increased ATT by 132–700%. Controlled 3 mm proximal displacement of the insertion using this device increased ATT by more than 100%. Comparing the increase in ATT due to controlled displacement of the ACL insertion to that due to detaching the ACL, in only one case was the same magnitude of ACL insufficiency reproduced. Despite the variability between knees, the device was able to reproduce ATT of the ACL-intact knee and to substantially increase ATT with controlled proximal displacement of the tibial ACL insertion. Use of this device, if successful in an in vivo ACL reconstruction model, could help define any quantitative association between altered joint kinematics and degenerative changes in the joint.
Pastoral bearings Maynard, Jane Frances; Hummel, Leonard M; Moschella, Mary Clark
2010., 2010, 2010-03-18
eBook
The study of lived religion is an enterprise which attempts to elucidate how "ordinary" men and women in all times and places draw on religious behavior, media, and meanings to make sense of ...themselves and their world. Through the influence of liberation theology and postmodernism, pastoral theologians—like other scholars of religion—have begun more closely to examine the particularity of religious practice that is reflected through the rubric of lived religion. Pastoral Bearings offers up ten studies that exemplify the usefulness of the lived religion paradigm to the field of pastoral theology. The volume presents detailed qualitative research focused on the everyday beliefs and practices of individuals and groups and explores the implications of lived religion for interdisciplinary conversation, intercultural and gender analysis, and congregational studies. Reflecting upon the utility of this approach for pastoral theological research, education, and pastoral care, the studies collected in Pastoral Bearings demonstrate the importance of the study of lived religion.
Diagnostic criteria for eating disorders influence how we recognize, research, and treat eating disorders, and empirically valid phenotypes are required for revealing their genetic bases.
To ...empirically define eating disorder phenotypes.
Data regarding eating disorder symptoms and features from 1179 individuals with clinically significant eating disorders were submitted to a latent class analysis. The resulting latent classes were compared on non-eating disorder variables in a series of validation analyses.
Multinational, collaborative study with cases ascertained through diverse clinical settings (inpatient, outpatient, and community).
Members of affected relative pairs recruited for participation in genetic studies of eating disorders in which probands met DSM-IV-TR criteria for anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa and had at least 1 biological relative with a clinically significant eating disorder. Main Outcome Measure Number and clinical characterization of latent classes.
A 4-class solution provided the best fit. Latent class 1 (LC1) resembled restricting AN; LC2, AN and bulimia nervosa with the use of multiple methods of purging; LC3, restricting AN without obsessive-compulsive features; and LC4, bulimia nervosa with self-induced vomiting as the sole form of purging. Biological relatives were significantly likely to belong to the same latent class. Across validation analyses, LC2 demonstrated the highest levels of psychological disturbance, and LC3 demonstrated the lowest.
The presence of obsessive-compulsive features differentiates among individuals with restricting AN. Similarly, the combination of low weight and multiple methods of purging distinguishes among individuals with binge eating and purging behaviors. These results support some of the distinctions drawn within the DSM-IV-TR among eating disorder subtypes, while introducing new features to define phenotypes.
Reviews of Books Tellis, Ashley J.; Vincent, Nicholas; Mansbach, Richard W. ...
International history review,
03/2007, Volume:
29, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Complement 5a receptor (C5aR) mediates both acute and chronic participation of monocytes in the immune response. In the human U937 monoblast, C5aR is maximally expressed 4 days after treatment with ...1,25(OH)2D3 (or cycloheximide) and prostaglandin E2 combined. The authors asked whether these agents altered expression of C5aR messenger RNA (mRNA). Unstimulated U937 cells expressed neither C5aR mRNA nor C5a binding. Complement 5aR mRNA rose 3 hours after prostaglandin E2 application and fell to basal levels by 12 hours. This early rise in C5aR mRNA did not cause an acute rise in C5a binding, which gradually increased between 1 and 4 days. Neither 1,25(OH)2D3 nor cycloheximide induced expression of C5aR mRNA in the absence of prostaglandin E2 but did enhance prostaglandin E2-stimulated C5aR mRNA expression and C5a binding. The authors observed a late increase in C5aR mRNA at day 3 in treated cells. Inhibition of this late rise in mRNA with 5,6-dichlorobenzimidazole riboside attenuated C5a binding by 65%, indicating its importance in the generation of C5a binding sites. The expression of functional C5aR is, therefore, a complex process involving regulation at transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels.
Sony's Shake up Irene M. Kunii, with Emily Thornton, in Tokyo and Janet Rae-Dupree in San Mateo, Calif
Bloomberg Businessweek,
03/1999
3621
Magazine Article
To rev up his staff and goose flagging profits, Sony President Nobuyuki Idei is tossing the whole organization chart in the air, pulling vagrant subsidiaries back into the parent company, and ...committing to scrapping 20% of his factories by 2003 while escorting some 17,000 workers to the door. In contrast with other manufacturing chiefs, the tightly wound Idei has seized on his company's deteriorating profits as an opportunity to force the changes he has long championed. At the crossroads of the entertainment, electronics, and information industries, there is no other company positioned like Sony. Whether the race is lost or won. Sony is demonstrating to its Japanese partners and rivals how the game is played.
A measles outbreak in a facility housing Old World nonhuman primates developed over a 2-month period in 1996, providing an opportunity to study the epidemiology of this highly infectious disease in ...an animal-handling setting.
Serum and urine specimens were collected from monkeys housed in the room where the initial measles cases were identified, other monkeys with suspicious measles-like signs, and employees working in the affected areas. Serum specimens were tested for measles virus-specific IgG and IgM antibodies, and urine specimens were tested for measles virus by virus isolation or reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
A total of 94 monkeys in two separate facilities had evidence of an acute measles infection. The outbreak was caused by a wild-type virus that had been associated with recent human cases of acute measles in the United States; however, an investigation was unable to identify the original source of the outbreak. Quarantine and massive vaccination helped to control further spread of infection.
Results emphasize the value of having a measles control plan in place that includes a preventive measles vaccination program involving human and nonhuman primates to decrease the likelihood of a facility outbreak.
PDF
