One year results from the development and utilization of a unified strategic business plan for marketing Blood and Marrow Transplant Services' Outpatient Clinic. The goal is to increase awareness of outpatient transplants and increase referrals. This is a follow-up from the 2003 Tandem BMT meetings. Blood and Marrow Transplant Services, PLLC is a subsidiary of Texas Oncology, P.A. The outpatient clinic recently doubled in size to 14,000 square feet in capacity with 6 private rooms, 16 infusion chairs and 15 exam rooms. Charged with the goal of increasing awareness of outpatient transplants and referrals, clinic administration developed a strategic plan through surveying physicians, patients and clinic personnel. After one year of this plan being in place, we now have results that show the strategic plan streamlined the referral process, increased awareness with Managed Care plans, and assisted with the streamlining of the Outpatient Transplant Clinic Operations. The main components of the plan include: BMT Outreach Programs to key physicians in regionBMT Transplant Managed Care Contracting initiativesCommunications Plan (Publications, Conferences, PR, Advertising, Internet)Clinic Operations Plan The plans include how we communicate internally and externally. This plan includes the development of our outreach program for referring physicians. The outreach program gives easy access to our BMT physicians for consultation and to gain answers to referring physician's questions. A goal of this program will show the cost-effectiveness of the outpatient program to the insurance/payer community. Our goal is to meet with all managed care and insurance companies to provide ongoing education on blood and marrow transplant services available on an outpatient basis.

Pharmacological studies of the inferior colliculus (IC) suggest that the inhibitory amino acid neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) plays an important role in shaping responses to simple and complex acoustic stimuli. Several models of auditory dysfunction, including age-related hearing loss, tinnitus, and peripheral deafferentation, suggest an alteration of normal GABA neurotransmission in central auditory pathways. The present study attempts to further characterize noise-induced changes in GABA markers in the IC. Four groups (unexposed control, 0 h post-exposure, 42 h post-exposure, and 30 days post-exposure) of 3-month-old male Fischer 344 rats were exposed to a high intensity sound (12 kHz, 106 dB) for 10 h. Observed hair cell damage was primarily confined to the basal half of the cochlea. There was a significant decrease in glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD(65)) immunoreactivity in the IC membrane fraction compared to controls (P<0.05) at 0 h (-41%) and 42 h (-28%) post-exposure, with complete recovery by 30 days post-exposure (P>0.98). Observed decreases in cytosolic levels of GAD(65) were not significant. Quantitative muscimol receptor binding revealed a significant increase (+20%) in IC 30 days after sound exposure (P<0.05). These data suggest that changes in GABA neurotransmission occur in the IC of animals exposed to intense sound. Additional studies are needed to determine whether these changes are a result of protective/compensatory mechanisms or merely peripheral differentiation, as well as whether these changes preserve or diminish central auditory system function.

AbstractChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.

The synthesis of a thymine derivative of (S)-2-hydroxy-4-(2-aminophenyl)butanoic acid, compound 1, was achieved in high enantiomeric purity. The acyclic pyrimidine analog (S)-1 is a useful building block for the synthesis of a novel class of oligomers, the aromatic peptide nucleic acids (APNA, Scheme 1). The APNA tetramer 18 was prepared from the amino acid monomer (S)-1 using classical peptide synthesis. UV absorption spectra and 1H NMR data of this tetramer suggested that base stacking interactions in the APNA oligomers may be favorable.

The majority of older people live active lives and more are retaining their teeth. These people rely for their dental care on general dental practitioners. However, many find that the service they are offered falls short of their desires, and this study examined this problem from the points of view of the public and the dentists. Qualitative group discussions were conducted among 61 middle-aged and elderly people and 20 dentists, followed by a quantitative study involving 20 dentists and 57 of their patients. The aim was to discover what, if any, differences there may have been between their expectations of dental treatment. There were no significant differences between middle-aged and older peoples' views on barriers to the receipt of dental care. However, dentists assumed that their older patients would have significantly greater negative dental attitudes than their middle-aged patients. Dentists considered that ability to pay would be a significantly greater barrier for their working-class rather than their middle-class patients. However, among the patients themselves there was no significant difference. The comparison of dentists' and patients' views on barriers to treatment showed that dentists significantly overestimated their older patients' reluctance to receive dental treatment

The control system for a compact superconducting synchrotron (HELIOS) is described. The machine is intended to be used as a prototype production tool for X-ray lithography, so emphasis has been placed on engineering the control system for this purpose. The system has been designed to be flexible for commissioning, but easy to use for an operator at a lithography facility. With this in mind the following facilities have been included: keys to limit control functions, a HELP facility for operators, colour touch-panels and displays, limits and other software protection. The conservative hardware design is based on well established CAMAC interfaces. Similarly, the software runs on a MicroVAX with VMS, is written in FORTRAN 77, and is adapted from a well developed SLAC control system. Design features include the use of local intelligence for some subsystems, modular hardware and software, interlocks and a central database.

The motility of bovine and ovine spermatozoa has been studied under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, using a dual beam laser velocimeter. Cells swimming under aerobic conditions were found to be characterized by a translational swimming speed and a rotation rate that were approximately double those of cells swimming in an anaerobic environment. Both types of spermatozoa have been found to exhibit a sudden coordinated transition between fast and slow swimming states when the available oxygen is exhausted. This transition from aerobic to anaerobic swimming states has also been shown to be reversible. Studies of the duration of aerobic motility using the same apparatus have shown that the cells have a constant motile efficiency over the temperature range 32 degrees-42 degrees C.

Oxygen and defect distributions in Si(100), implanted at 500 °C with 400 keV molecular oxygen ions to achieve a maximum volume concentration of about 1022 O cm−3, have been studied by transmission electron microscopy, secondary ion mass spectroscopy and Auger and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. On annealing at 1150 °C for 2h, redistribution of the oxygen is observed with SiO2 precipitates (platelets) nucleating on residual damage to form a simple two-phase (silicon and SiO2) system.

Previous laser light-scattering studies of spermatozoon motility have been hampered by the large, asymmetric shape of spermatozoa, which causes difficulties in the interpretation of intensity fluctuations in the light scattered from a single laser beam. This paper describes an experimental arrangement for measuring the distribution of transit times for swimming spermatozoa using two slightly separated, focused laser beams. The theory of operation of the instrument is developed to enable the analysis of the experimentally obtained cross-correlation functions. The effects of the pronounced spermatozoon asymmetry and associated intensity modulation in the scattered light are also investigated and shown to be negligible for the twin beam experimental arrangement, provided that the swimming speed distribution has a coefficient of variation (sigma/upsilon greater than 0.1. Results obtained using this apparatus are presented for the velocity distribution of spermatozoa from a variety of bulls.

Growth hormone releasing factor (GRF) was purified from ovine hypothalami on a Sephadex G-25 column. Three fractions from one of the major protein peaks induced the release of radioimmunoassayable growth hormone (GH) from rat pituitaries incubated in vitro, but did not induce any appreciable release of other anterior pituitary hormones. The kinetics of GH release from rat pituitaries included an initial phase with an exponential release of hormones, a subsequent phase with a constant rate of release, and a terminal declining rate of release seen with high GRF doses. The minimally effective dose of this GRF preparation which stimulated GH secretion in vitro contained 1.5 µg of protein. No change in pituitary cyclic AMP was observed following the exposure of the explants to 3 or 6 µg of GRF for 10 min, but proportional increases in pituitary cyclic GMP were observed at this time period. Although the synthetic decapeptide, Val-His-Leu-Ser-Ala-Glu-Glu-Lys-Glu-Ala, has been shown to deplete bioassayable pituitary GH, it did not stimulate the release of radioimmunoassayable GH nor did it substantially elevate the pituitary cyclic AMP content at the dose levels and time intervals tested. The synthetic decapeptide did not alter pituitary cyclic GMP content after 10 or 60 min of incubation. These observations further substantiate that GRF capable of releasing radioimmunoassayable GH can be isolated from hypothalamic tissue. Preliminary studies of the mechanism of action of GRF indicate that cyclic GMP rather than cyclic AMP plays a central role in mediating the neurohormonal control of GH release.