Eight outstanding students have been chosen as the newest recipients of the prestigious Hartford Doctoral Fellowship in geriatric social work. The program is funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, administered by The Gerontological Society of America, and directed by James Lubben, DSW, MPH.

Each of the Hartford Doctoral Fellows receives a $50,000 dissertation grant plus $20,000 in matching support from their home institutions, which enables recipients to more fully concentrate on their dissertation research projects over the next two years. Fellows also receive supplemental academic career guidance and mentoring, as well as professional development enabling them to more successfully launch an academic career in gerontology and social work.

This year’s cohort consists of:

Troy Christian Andersen
University of Utah
Dissertation Topic: Proactive Dementia Care: A Pilot Study of Social Work and Health Education Interventions with Mild Dementia and Their Care Providers

Louanne Bakk
Michigan State University
Dissertation Topic: Gender and Racial Disparities in Cost-Related Medication Non-Adherence: The Effect of Medicare Part-D and Factors Impacting Compliance Among Older Women and Blacks

Melissa Brown
Boston College
Dissertation Topic: The Work-Eldercare Interface: Workplace Flexibility and Well-Being Among Family Caregivers of Older Adults

Tamara J. Cadet
Simmons College
Dissertation Topic: Exploring Psychosocial Factors and Cancer Screening: A Comparison of Older Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White Women

Ernest Gonzales
Washington University in St. Louis
Dissertation Topic: Re-Entering the Workforce After Retirement

Daniel Kaplan
Columbia University
Dissertation Topic: Home Health Care for Persons with Cognitive Impairment: The Influence of Home Health Care Agency Characteristics on the Relationship Between Consumer Cognitive Status and Service Volume and Cost

Lydia Ogden
Columbia University
Dissertation Topic: Surviving Cumulative Adversities: Understanding the Experiences of Older Adults with Schizophrenia through Life History Narrative Analysis

Tam Elisabeth Perry
University of Michigan
Dissertation Topic: Leaving Home in Late Life: Negotiating Moves Among Older Adults and Their Networks in the Mid-Western United States

The fellowship program is a component of the nationwide Geriatric Social Work Initiative, which seeks to expand the training of social workers in order to improve the health and well being of older persons and their families. It was created to help social work doctoral students overcome their greatest obstacles, such as limited teacher training and career guidance. These fellowships cultivate the next generation of geriatric social work faculty as teachers, role models and mentors for future generations of geriatric social workers.

Lubben, the Louise McMahon Ahearn University Chair at Boston College and a professor emeritus at UCLA, works together with a national program committee to select the Fellows. This year’s committee consists of Mercedes Bern-Klug, PhD, of the University of Iowa; Iris Chi, DSW, of the University of Southern California; Namkee Choi, PhD, of the University of Texas at Austin; Ruth Dunkle, PhD, of the University of Michigan; Grover Gilmore, PhD, of Case Western University; Jan Greenberg, PhD, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, of Washington University in St. Louis; Holly Nelson-Becker, PhD, of the University of Kansas; and Deborah Waldrop, PhD, of the State University of New York at Buffalo. Ad hoc members include Barbara Berkman, DSW, PhD, of Columbia University and the Hartford Faculty Scholars Program, and Carmen Morano, PhD, of Hunter College and the Hartford Pre-Dissertation Award Program.

Source:
Todd Kluss
The Gerontological Society of America

Natural compounds in cranberries are linked to the prevention of urinary tract infections (UTIs) but inconsistencies in methods currently used commercially to measure levels can result in the over- or under-estimation of potency levels, leaving product manufacturers and consumers without good data. A study published today in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture outlines a new, commercially viable method of measuring these compounds.

UTIs are caused by bacterial adhesion (bacteria growth) on cells in the bladder. To maintain urinary tract health, especially for those prone to UTIs, daily consumption of 36mg of cranberry proanthocyanidins (PACs) has shown effectiveness in inhibiting bacteria from adhering to bladder cells, multiplying and consequently causing infection. This amount of PACs can be easily consumed in a 9-10 oz (266-296 ml) serving of 27% cranberry juice cocktail.

PACs are small molecules (catechin or epicatechin) linked together to form larger polymers. The PACs in cranberries contain a high proportion of what are called “A-type double linkages” between the catechin or epicatechin molecules. Other food sources of PACs that do not contain these linkages (chocolate, grapes, apples and green tea) do not elicit the bacterial anti-adhesion activity.

With some cranberry product testing methods, overestimation of up to five times the PAC level have been reported. This study uses the new BL-DMAC method of quantifying PAC levels in cranberry products which the authors claim can now serve as the standard industry method, allowing product manufacturers to provide accurate PAC levels.

To evaluate this method, 11 samples of cranberry products were obtained (five from U.S. sources and six from European sources) for PAC quantitation analysis. Powdered samples were coded and sent blinded to five different analytical laboratories (three in the U.S., one in China and one in Europe) for analysis by the BL-DMAC method. Each laboratory reported statistically consistent results of PAC levels.

“It is important to have an accurate, standard method for cranberry PAC quantitation that can be performed quickly and inexpensively in any commercial lab,” said Ronald L. Prior, Ph.D, lead author of the study. “In our study, we have shown that the BL-DMAC method is validated for this use. It utilizes a commercially available standard, which is vital to obtaining accurate results among different laboratories.”

“Universal adoption of this standard worldwide by the cranberry industry will allow producers to use one standard method to ensure accurate labelling of PAC levels in products, and aid consumers in selecting products with sufficient PAC levels to obtain bacterial anti-adhesion activity,” added Prior.

Source:
Michelle Martella
Wiley-Blackwell

The American Nephrology Nurses’ Association (ANNA) has designated September 14-20, 2008, as “Nephrology Nurses Week” to encourage employers, patients and others to thank the nurses who work tirelessly to save kidney patients’ lives and improve care.

The event will be celebrated nationwide with activities recognizing and rewarding nephrology nurses, highly-educated specialists who care for patients with kidney disease. The theme for the week, “We Carry the Torch” symbolizes the light of hope and safety that nephrology nurses foster for their patients.

Nephrology nurses care for patients of all ages who have, or are at risk for, kidney disease. They must understand every system in the body and be familiar with many complex disease processes. Because treatment often spans many years, nurses, patients and families develop strong relationships and close bonds.

This will be the fourth year for the weeklong celebration, which ANNA launched so those who work with – or receive care from – nephrology nurses could show their appreciation. As in previous years, activities will include special events, luncheons, education programs, special presentations and proclamations from local governments.

“One of the many unique aspects of nephrology nursing is the relationship that develops between nurses and patients,” said ANNA President Sue Cary, MN, APRN, NP, CNN. “This is why the nurses are so passionate about being patient advocates and providing the best care possible.”

In addition to appreciating nurses with events in their honor, Cary said ANNA promotes the event to spark interest in other nurses about the multifaceted career opportunities available in nephrology.

About 20 million Americans suffer from kidney disease. Of those patients, over 400,000 experience kidney failure. Kidney disease affects all ages, races, cultures, social classes and religions. The rising number of people with kidney disease is in part attributed to the country’s obesity epidemic, an alarming trend that has led to more cases of diabetes and high blood pressure. These diseases are the leading causes of kidney failure.

More information about the work of nephrology nurses, the Nephrology Nurses Week celebration and resources to enhance the recognition event, such as posters, pins and T-shirts are available at annanurse/NNW.

ANNA is a professional nursing association with over 12,000 members. Its mission is to advance nephrology nursing practice and positively influence outcomes for patients with kidney disease through advocacy, scholarship, and excellence.

American Nephrology Nurses’ Association

Eating dog meat, and to a lesser extent cat meat, is common in Asia. In a case- based education article, Heiman Wertheim (Oxford University Clinical
Research Unit-Hanoi, Viet Nam) and colleagues describe two patients in Hanoi who died from laboratory-confirmed rabies. Their symptoms developed
after butchering, preparing, and consuming either a dog or a cat. The researchers were unable to test the butchered animals for rabies-so they
cannot be entirely certain that these animals were the source of the rabies. Nevertheless, they caution that butchering of unvaccinated dogs and cats
in rabies-endemic countries should be considered a risk factor for rabies transmission.

Citation:
“Furious rabies after an atypical exposure.”
Wertheim HFL, Nguyen TQ, Nguyen KAT, de Jong MD, Taylor WRJ, et al. (2009)
PLoS Med 6(3): e1000044. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000044
Click here to view full article.

About PLoS Medicine

PLoS Medicine is an open access, freely available international medical journal. It publishes original research that enhances our understanding of
human health and disease, together with commentary and analysis of important global health issues.

About the Public Library of Science

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific and medical
literature a freely available public resource.

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Scientific research published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) reports on a study of genetic variants that influence human susceptibility to peripheral arterial disease (PAD), made possible by leveraging electronic medical records (EMRs; also called EHRs or electronic health records). A team of authors from the Mayo Clinic Divisions of Cardiovascular Diseases and Biomedical Informatics and Statistics conducted the study and concluded that EMR-based data, used across institutions in a structured way, “offer great potential for diverse research studies, including those related to understanding the genetic bases of common diseases.”

The authors, Iftikhar Kullo, MD; Jin Fan, MD; Jyotishman Pathak, PhD; Guergana Savova, PhD; Zeenat Ali, MD; and Christopher G. Chute, MD, DrPH, demonstrated the feasibility of leveraging EHRs to launch a genome-wide association study of PAD, which affects approximately eight million Americans 40 years old and older, and which includes 20 percent of the elderly (70+ years old) in the United States. According to the authors, PAD is associated with “significant mortality and morbidity, underscoring the necessity of a rigorous investigation.”

The physicians used EHRs to confirm cases of PAD, and to identify phenocopies, i.e. mimics of atherosclerotic PAD. With patient consent, and the approval of Mayo’s Institutional Review Board, the research team accessed electronic health records in a federated warehouse of patient data that Mayo Clinic has used since 1997- a database of more than eight million patients. Using the Mayo Enterprise Data Trust (EDT), the researchers extracted relevant clinical variables on study participants that could confound the association of genetic susceptibility variants with PAD.

Dr. Chute observed that the EDT “provides a scalable solution for clinical research, providing comparable and consistent data that can be employed in comparative effectiveness studies, outcomes research, or translational research as illustrated by this JAMIA paper.”

In the study, PAD was defined as a resting/post-exercise ankle-brachial index (ABI) less than or equal to 0.9, a history of lower extremity revascularization, or having poorly compressible leg arteries. Controls were patients without evidence of PAD. Demographic data and laboratory values were extracted from EHRs. Medication use and smoking status were identified by natural language processing (NLP) of clinical notes.

“Although manual abstraction of medical records can provide high-quality data,” the authors write, “for large studies such as genetic association studies, manual review of medical records can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. Our study demonstrates . . . .several significant advantages over traditional approaches to genomic medicine research by simplifying logistics, reducing timelines, and overall costs through efficient data acquisition.”

In their statistical analyses, the researchers used metrics long recognized in the NLP and information-retrieval community-precision, recall, and F-measure-to evaluate EMR-based algorithms compared with manual medical record review. Most cardiovascular risk factors and co-morbidities were captured from the EMRs with an accuracy rate higher than 90 percent. The researchers analyzed age, sex, BMI, race, geographical distribution, risk factors, co-morbidities, smoking status, and medications.

Source:

American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)

Nicholas Kristof’s recent New York Times column on challenges to family planning in developing nations “rightly prescribes more than just dispensing birth control pills in helping women make informed reproductive choices,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards writes in a letter to the editor.

“In communities where conversations about sex and contraception are taboo,” Planned Parenthood and its partners “provide traditional midwives with information and training in modern contraception so that women can learn about controlling their own reproductive and sexual health from trusted sources,” Richards continues. The groups also “train young people as educators who reach out to their peers in ways that adults cannot,” she adds.

In its four decades of international work, Planned Parenthood has seen “that understanding the health, cultural and economic benefits of contraception is essential for people to embrace birth control and use it to shape their lives,” Richard concludes (Richards, New York Times, 5/28).

Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

© 2010 National Partnership for Women & Families. All rights reserved.

NexBio, Inc. announced the initiation of a double blind placebo controlled multi-center trial in the U.S. and Mexico of DAS181 (Fludase®) for the treatment of laboratory confirmed influenza infection. DAS181 is an investigational host-targeted drug candidate that blocks entry of influenza virus into cells of the respiratory tract. The trial will assess the effect of DAS181 on influenza viral load as measured by the amount of viral shedding in the upper respiratory tract. In addition, the trial will assess the drug’s safety and tolerability and will follow duration of clinical symptoms and global functionality. The study is being conducted at over 50 sites in the U.S. and Mexico. The trial is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and is being monitored by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board.

Dr. Roy Steigbigel, Professor of Medicine, SUNY at Stony Brook and principal investigator of the trial commented: “This is a well designed trial which will test the antiviral effects of DAS181 during the current influenza pandemic. I am excited about leading this trial to test a unique broad-spectrum flu medicine at a time when new therapeutic approaches are critically needed.”

NexBio has recently completed a Phase IB trial with increasing single and multiple dose regimens of DAS181 in healthy subjects. The drug was well tolerated and there were no Serious Adverse Events. NexBio recently announced peer-reviewed publications describing antiviral activity of DAS181 in multiple non-clinical models for Pandemic Influenza A(H1N1) and for influenza resistant to Neuraminidase inhibitors (NAI) such as Tamiflu®. In addition, NexBio has recently presented data from three independent studies in animal models of asthma, done with academic collaborators, demonstrating DAS181′s potential benefit for airway diseases. DAS181 inhibits the airway hyperreactivity characteristic of asthma, and does so as effectively as marketed anti-asthma drugs. People with asthma are prone to develop severe complications when they are infected by influenza viruses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of hospitalizations resulting from the ongoing H1N1 pandemic are seen in patients with asthma.

“This trial is a major milestone for the development of DAS181. It is designed to provide data not only on safety but also on DAS181′s activity against viral infection,” commented Dr. Ron Moss, Executive Vice President of Clinical Development & Medical Affairs. “We will examine viral shedding, which is relevant both to patients with influenza and also to uninfected individuals to whom the virus may be transmitted. With the pandemic ongoing, this is a critical study to evaluate the clinical activity of this innovative host-targeted, broad-spectrum, approach against various sub-types of virus currently in circulation, including virus potentially resistant to other antiviral drugs,” Dr. Moss added.

ABOUT NEXBIO

NexBio, Inc. is a privately held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company located in San Diego. NexBio’s mission is to save lives and to improve the quality of life by creating and commercializing novel, broad-spectrum biopharmaceuticals to prevent and treat current and emerging life-threatening diseases. DAS181 (Fludase®) is an investigational drug that consists of an inhaled recombinant fusion protein. It inactivates viral receptors on the cells of the human respiratory tract, and thereby may prevent and treat infection by influenza, including potential pandemic strains, and by parainfluenza viruses (which may cause serious respiratory illness similar to influenza and for which there is no approved vaccine or therapeutic). The DAS181 development program is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, under BAA Contract HHSN266200600015C and grant U01-AI070281. Viradin(TM), invented and developed by NexBio, is a parenteral protein under development, currently at lead optimization stage, directed to the treatment of viral hemorrhagic fevers and bacterial biothreat sepsis. TOSAP®, a technology invented and developed by NexBio, is used to formulate DAS181 for inhalation, as well as to make microparticles from virtually any type of molecule. TOSAP® is offered for the formulation of compounds of partners, under license.

DISCLOSURE NOTICE:

This release contains forward-looking information about the research and development program of NexBio and the potential efficacy of product candidates that might result from programs that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development activities; decisions by regulatory authorities regarding whether and when to permit the clinical investigation of or approve any drug applications that may result from the programs as well as their decisions regarding labeling and other matters that could affect the commercial potential of product candidates that may result from the program; and competitive developments.

Source: NexBio, Inc

View drug information on Tamiflu capsule.

Phantom limbs, often described after amputation, are also experienced as an extra limb in patients who are paralyzed on one side following a stroke. Referred to as supernumerary phantom limb (SPL), patients can usually perceive these limbs as a vivid somatosensory presence of an extra limb, but generally cannot see or intentionally move them. In some unusual cases, however, patients have reported seeing their phantom limb or feeling objects or body parts with it, which indicates that multiple areas of the brain may be involved in SPLs.

A new study on a patient who experienced an SPL which she could feel, see and intentionally move is published in Annals of Neurology, the official journal of the American Neurological Association and the Child Neurology Society. It is one of the very few studies to investigate brain activity connected to SPLs.

The study involved a 64-year-old woman who suffered a stroke and was subsequently paralyzed on her left side. A few days after the stroke, she experienced an SPL starting from the elbow of her paralyzed left arm, which she described as “pale,” “milk-white” and “transparent.” She claimed she could move, see and even use the SPL to touch parts of her body such as her head and right shoulder, but that she experienced it only when she decided to “trigger” it intentionally. She even claimed to be able to use it to scratch an itch on her head, with an actual sense of relief. She also reported that the phantom limb could not penetrate solid objects.

Led by Asaid Khateb of Geneva University Hospitals, researchers conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging scans to analyze the patient’s brain activity during actual and imagined movements of her healthy right hand, imagined movements of her paralyzed left hand and movements of the SPL.

The real movements of the right hand were associated the dominant activation of left areas of the brain associated with movement, perception of stimuli and visual processing, as expected. Similar but less extensive activations were seen with imaginary movements of the right hand. In contrast, imaginary movements of the paralyzed left hand showed dominant activation in areas associated with movement in right side of the brain. When asked to scratch her cheek with the SPL, areas of the brain associated with movement and vision were activated, which confirmed her report that she could see and move her SPL. In addition, a measurable sensory response was also detected when she scratched her left cheek with the SPL.

The authors note that there are probably different types of SPLs that differ in how they are manifested, the extent of motor control, the sensitivity to sensory feedback and patients’ mental framework and that it is unlikely that a single explanation will suffice for such clinically complex and diverse conditions. The current study is the first to demonstrate the neural correlates of the multimodal SPL, particularly the visual and somesthesic activation that accompanied the intentional SPL movements.

“Existing evidence from stroke-elicited SPLs convincingly implicates the mismatch between the subject’s well-established sensorimotor representations and a suddenly aberrant pattern of communication between the brain and the paralyzed limb,” the authors state, adding that the current case may represent a missing link between classical phantom limbs and autoscopic phenomena such as out of body experiences.

“Ultimately, however,” they conclude, “these conditions might offer a unique way to understand how the brain constructs a normal experience of bodily awareness and the self.”

Notes:

This study is published in Annals of Neurology.

To view the abstract for this article, please click here.

Asaid Khateb is neuropsychologist at Geneva University Hospitals.

Annals of Neurology publishes articles of broad interest with potential for high impact in understanding the mechanisms and treatment of diseases of the human nervous system. All areas of clinical and basic neuroscience, including new technologies, cellular and molecular neurobiology, population sciences, and studies of behavior, addiction, and psychiatric diseases are of interest to the journal.

Source:
Sean Wagner

Wiley-Blackwell

The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced that the actions of Canada’s New Government continue to safeguard Canadian livestock from Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).

“We continue to closely monitor the status of this situation. This is a top priority for Canada’s New Government, and we are ensuring that federal authorities are taking all the necessary steps to safeguard the health of Canadian livestock,” noted Minister Strahl. “Our response to FMD outbreaks around the world is always swift and comprehensive.”

At any given time, serious animal diseases such as FMD and avian influenza can be found throughout the world. To safeguard against these ever present threats, Canada has in place a range of safeguards that start at borders and extend to farms across the country. These measures are currently being fully employed to manage animal health risks posed by the current FMD outbreak in the United Kingdom.

Canadian imports of susceptible animals and animal products from the United Kingdom remain blocked. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has determined that no previously imported commodities pose significant risks to animal health.

The CFIA is working with the Canada Border Services Agency to increase vigilance at all Canadian borders. Both agencies are heightening travellers’ awareness, particularly those coming from the United Kingdom, of their responsibilities to declare all food, animals and animal products, which could carry FMD virus. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is also issuing a travel advisory reminding travellers from the United Kingdom to notify customs officials if they have visited a farm while abroad and if they plan to soon visit one in Canada.

Based on the rapid response actions of the United Kingdom and the extent of the outbreak-which currently appears to be contained-no additional border measures are planned at this time. If the situation changes, the CFIA will take additional measures to minimize risks posed by the international movement of people and products.

Disease control in Canada is a shared responsibility. In concert with Government border restrictions, Canadian livestock producers must always apply appropriate biosecurity principles and practices. The CFIA encourages agricultural associations to highlight for their members the absolute importance of maintaining strict disease controls on all farms in Canada.

Current speculation linking the origin of the UK outbreak to laboratory facilities has reinforced the importance of lab biosecurity in Canada. All CFIA laboratories, which are the only facilities in Canada permitted to handle FMD virus, operate under strict protocols and procedures to prevent the accidental escape of pathogens into the environment. These measures are based on international standards and are thoroughly reviewed on a regular basis.

Although disease prevention is the ultimate animal health objective of the CFIA, the ability to respond to outbreaks cannot be overlooked. To this end, the CFIA has a detailed FMD response plan that would permit Canadian authorities to identify, contain and eliminate outbreaks.

The CFIA remains in close contact with authorities in the United Kingdom to follow the situation. Any new information will be provided to the Canadian public as it becomes available.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency

University of Illinois at Chicago researcher Dr. John Quigley described a promising new approach to blocking malaria transmission during the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

Quigley spoke at a press briefing at the Orange County Convention Center, 9800 International Drive, Room 208C (West Building). His abstract, “Anopheline Orthologs of the Human Erythroid Heme Exporter, FLVCR, Export Heme: Potential Targets to Inhibit Plasmodium Transmission,” was presented at the plenary session.

The research focuses on potential targets to inhibit transmission of the parasite Plasmodium that causes malaria.

Female mosquitoes ingest large amounts of hemoglobin that serves as a food source required for mosquito egg development. When a mosquito ingests infected blood, Plasmodium reproduces in the mosquito gut. Plasmodium fertilized egg cells cross the lining of the mosquito gut and develop into oocysts. After maturing, the oocysts rupture and release thousands of parasites that allow the mosquito to transmit malaria when it bites another human.

Previous studies have shown that mosquitoes with increased oxidative stress in their midgut are resistant to Plasmodium transmission. Quigley and his colleagues hypothesize that if they can disrupt the function of a cell-surface transport protein called FLVCR that pumps heme out of the cell, it will increase the oxidative stress in the mosquito gut and hamper Plasmodium at a crucial point in the parasite’s life cycle.

The researchers isolated the FLVCR gene from two common malaria-transmitting mosquitoes and showed that the gene encodes a protein that exports heme and protects cells from oxidative stress. Using gene-silencing techniques, they were able to significantly reduce levels of FLVCR in the mosquito gut.

“If disruption of the function of the protein inhibits parasite transmission, then we can potentially use parts of the protein as an antigen to try to stimulate a vaccine in people,” said Quigley, who is assistant professor of medicine at the UIC College of Medicine and senior author of the study. “So the antibody blocks FLVCR and increases oxidative stress, and now the Plasmodium is not able to complete its life cycle, thus preventing the spread of malaria.”

Quigley’s research is ongoing, and future studies will focus on whether inhibiting FLVCR can block Plasmodium transmission. The research, he says, may be applicable to all blood-eating insects that cause a variety of diseases, such as West Nile Virus, dengue fever and leishmaniasis.

Source:
Sherri McGinnis GonzГЎlez
University of Illinois at Chicago