Impact of a Simulation Exercise on Pharmacy Student Attitude toward Poverty

Objective. To evaluate the impact of a simulation on pharmacy student attitudes toward poverty using the Attitude toward Poverty (ATP) Short Form scale.Methods. Second-year pharmacy students participated in the 3-hour Missouri Association for Community Action Poverty Simulation. Students completed a survey of the ATP Short Form scale prior to and following participation in the simulation.Results. Significant improvements in attitude were noted in 15 of 21 ATP Short Form items. Improvements in the stigma and structural domains were significant while improvement in the personal deficiency domain was not significant.Conclusions. This poverty simulation exercise positively altered pharmacy student attitudes toward poverty. When combined with didactic and experiential curriculum, this simulation may enhance student achievement of the 2013 Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Education (CAPE) outcome subdomain of cultural sensitivity.     

Safety of growth factor administration for leukapheresis in those with WBC counts greater than 60,000/µl

Purpose: Peripheral blood stem cell mobilization using growth factors is a common method of stem cell collection for transplantation, however, little is reported concerning safety of continued growth factor delivery in exceptional responders with very high white blood cell (WBC) counts in preparation for pheresis. We performed a retrospective study of the safety of growth factor delivery for leukapheresis in those with WBC counts greater than 60,000/µl. Methods: Allogeneic donors received 5 days of granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor (G‐CSF) at a daily dose of 10 or 16 µg/kg. Autologous donors received G‐CSF 10 µg/kg/day +/? chemotherapy until peripheral blood CD34⁺count reached 10/µl. Granulocyte donors received 300 µg dose of G‐CSF the day prior to donation. Results: Out of 3,037 leukapheresis collections from 1998 to 2005, we identified 303 collections from 204 donors or patients who had a WBC > 60,000/µl. WBC counts were ≥100,000/µl in seven of these subjects. If inadequate stem cell dose was obtained with pheresis with WBC counts this high, patients had growth factor dosing decreased 50% but still received a dose till stem cell collection was completed. Of the 204 subjects, 122 were patients and 82 were donors. These 204 donors/patients had no serious adverse events reported other than the common reports of myalgia, bone pain, and headache associated with administration of growth factors. Pain levels ranged from mild to severe and usually were managed by over the counter analgesics. Conclusions: Continuing ½ the dose of neupogen to complete the pheresis process appears safe in subjects with very high white blood counts. J. Clin. Apheresis 30:28–31, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Impact of Time on Predicate Forms in the Manual Modality: Signers,Homesigners, and Silent Gesturers

It is difficult to create spoken forms that can be understood on the spot. But the manual modality, in large part because of its iconic potential, allows us to construct forms that are immediately understood, thus requiring essentially no time to develop. This paper contrasts manual forms for actions produced over three time spans—by silent gesturers who are asked to invent gestures on the spot; by homesigners who have created gesture systems over their life spans; and by signers who have learned a conventional sign language from other signers—and finds that properties of the predicate differ across these time spans. Silent gesturers use location to establish co-reference in the way established sign languages do, but they show little evidence of the segmentation sign languages display in motion forms for manner and path, and little evidence of the finger complexity sign languages display in handshapes in predicates representing events. Homesigners, in contrast, not only use location to establish co-reference but also display segmentation in their motion forms for manner and path and finger complexity in their object handshapes, although they have not yet decreased finger complexity to the levels found in sign languages in their handling handshapes. The manual modality thus allows us to watch language as it grows, offering insight into factors that may have shaped and may continue to shape human language.     

Biologic adjuvants and bone: current use in orthopedic surgery

Normal bone healing is a complex process that eventually restores original structure and function to the site of trauma. However, clinical circumstances such as nonunion, critical-sized defects, systemic bone disease, and fusion procedures have stimulated a search for ways to enhance this normal healing process. Biologics are an important part of this search and many, including bone marrow aspirate concentrate, demineralized bone matrix, platelet-rich plasma, bone morphogenic proteins, and platelet-derived growth factor, are currently in clinical use. Many others, including mesenchymal stem cells, parathyroid hormone, and Nel-like molecule-1 (NELL-1) will likely be in use in the future depending on the results of preclinical and clinical trials.