Ultimate Hope Research Articles

Cardiovascular News

Cardiovascular News

Introduction.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the commonest form of dementia in developed countries, accounting for approx. 50-60% of the overall cases of dementia among persons over 65 years of age. Furthermore, because of the world's ageing population, and without an effective prevention or treatment, a sharp rise in the prevalence of dementia with age is predicted. AD itself is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disorder associated with three main clinical features in the domains of declines in cognitive function (neuropsychologic) and activities of daily living, together with neuropsychiatric symptoms (including behavioural disturbances). These expressions of the pathology of AD impact tremendously not only in terms of the patient, but also the carer and society in general. Considering the high frequency of AD in the aged population, the rapid growth of the elderly population, and the heavy impact in terms of disability, AD has become a major problem for healthcare systems, public health planning and society as a whole. The scale of this problem presents a huge economic burden, in terms of both direct (healthcare system resources) and indirect (unpaid carer services) costs. Thus, the last two decades have witnessed an enormous research effort directed towards discovering the cause of AD with the ultimate hope of developing safe and effective pharmacological treatments.

Hope: future imagined reality. The meaning of hope as described by a group of healthy Pentecostalists.

A holistic health care approach involves body, mind and spirit. Religiosity, spirituality and hope, as a part of the spiritual dimension, are often linked to various health-related outcomes such as physical health, spiritual well-being and experienced meaning in life. A person's outlook on life and the experience of hope are essential issues in all health care. The purpose of this paper is to describe the meaning of hope as expressed by a group of healthy adult Pentecostalists (n = 15). Using narratives, the ultimate hope was described as life after death, the future imagined reality, promised by God. Hope was strengthened by reading the Bible and saying prayers, through experienced meetings with God and shared values. Hope was quite stable but sometimes God was experienced as being at a distance, which resulted in a sense of alienation. Hope unconnected to Christian belief was of no significant importance to the interviewees.

Catharine Macaulay's: Letters on Education

Catherine Macaulay (1731–1791) is best known as an English historian. She was also, however, an insightful and articulate author on the topic of the education of young people. This article presents Macaulay's views as expressed in her noteworthy work Letters on Education, printed originally in 1787 and in revised form in 1790. In Letters, Macaulay articulated her philosophy of education, which integrated her metaphysical beliefs and her epistemological views with the pedagogy and practice they implied. Her ultimate hope from the educational process was to yield an educated person who had attained the character, morals, and knowledge that she values in citizens of both genders. The purpose of this article is to present a brief description of Catherine Macaulay's life and work within a social and political context that will offer detailed information and analysis on specific significant educational ideas as written Letters on Education. The vision undergirding her thought that is, Macaulay's views on human nature, the educated person, and moral education well be treated first. Second, the implementation of this vision in the educational process through curriculum, discipline, school, policy, and teacher dispositions and behaviors will be. explored

Vibrational spectroscopy and structural analysis of Na-Y zeolite

Infrared spectra of Na-Y zeolite and its cobalt-exchanged form have been used to study the effect of the nature of the exchange cation as well as the effect of hydrochloric acid on the spectra. An adsorption band in the 3656 cm−1 region is identified with hydroxyl groups associated with the divalent cation. The objective of this study was to apply infrared spectroscopy to Na-Y zeolite structural problems, with the ultimate hope of using this technique, a relatively rapid and readily available analytical method, as a tool to characterize the framework structure of zeolites.

New Psychotherapeutic Drugs

Many new psychotherapeutic drugs are being developed for the major clinical indications for which they might be useful. As usual, we hope not only to obtain better drugs but also to posit hypotheses based on the presumed mode of action of effective drugs. Thus, we have a chance to test the role of serotonin, via the 5HT1A receptor, in anxiety or to test the possible significance of multiple benzodiazepine receptors. Among antidepressant agents, we have a chance to determine the relative roles of norpinephrine and serotonin in the pathogenesis of these disorders. We may also determine whether antidepressant actions involve a number of aminergic neurotransmitters. Among antipsychotic drugs, the importance of dopamine D2 receptor blockade has diminished with the advent of atypical drugs affecting a variety of other receptors. It might also be possible to delineate more clearly the role of serotonin in psychosis. The GABA hypothesis of mania can be tested in a number of ways by current drugs. The role of calcium antagonism remains to be demonstrated. The acetylcholine hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease will be tested further by new compounds under trial. However, it seems increasingly doubtful that current drugs under test will explicate the current hypothesis of the abnormal processing of beta-amyloid precursor protein in that disorder. Thus, we hope, as we have for the past three decades, to be able to use drugs not only to treat, but also to generate hypotheses. It is a kind of bootstrapping enterprise, but our ultimate hope is not only to be better able to treat our patients, but also to better understand their afflictions.

The Ets family of transcription factors.

Interest in the Ets proteins has grown enormously over the last decade. The v-ets oncogene was originally discovered as part of a fusion protein expressed by a transforming retrovirus (avian E26), and later shown to be transduced from a cellular gene. About 30 related proteins have now been found in species ranging from flies to humans, that resemble the vEts protein in the so-called 'ets domain'. The ets domain has been shown to be a DNA-binding domain, that specifically interacts with sequences containing the common core trinucleotide GGA. Furthermore, it is involved in protein-protein interactions with co-factors that help determine its biological activity. Many of the Ets-related proteins have been shown to be transcription activators, like other nuclear oncoproteins and anti-oncoproteins (Jun, Fos, Myb, Myc, Rel, p53, etc.). However, Ets-like proteins may have other functions, such as in DNA replication and a general role in transcription activation. Ets proteins have been implicated in regulation of gene expression during a variety of biological processes, including growth control, transformation, T-cell activation, and developmental programs in many organisms. Signals regulating cell growth are transmitted from outside the cell to the nucleus by growth factors and their receptors. G-proteins, kinases and transcription factors. We will discuss how several Ets-related proteins fit into this scheme, and how their activity is regulated both post- and pre-translationally. Loss of normal control is often associated with conversion to an oncoprotein. vEts has been shown to have different properties from its progenitor, which might explain how it has become oncogenic. Oncogene-related products have been implicated in the control of various developmental processes. Evidence is accumulating for a role for Ets family members in Drosophila development, Xenopus oocyte maturation, lymphocyte differentiation, and viral infectious cycles. An ultimate hope in studying transformation by oncoproteins is to understand how cells become cancerous in humans, which would lead to more effective treatments. vEts induces erythroblastosis in chicken. Cellular Ets-family proteins can be activated by proviral insertion in mice and, most interestingly, by chromosome translocation in humans. We are at the beginning of understanding the multiple facets of regulation of Ets activity. Future work on the Ets family promises to provide important insights into both normal control of growth and differentiation, and deregulation in illness.

The Ets family of transcription factors

Interest in the Ets proteins has grown enormously over the last decade. The v‐ets oncogene was originally discovered as part of a fusion protein expressed by a transforming retrovirus (avian E26), and later shown to be transduced from a ceilular gene. About 30 related proteins have now been found in species ranging from flies to humans, that resemble the vEts protein in the so‐called ‘ets domain’. The ets domain has been shown to be a DNA‐binding domain, that specifically interacts with sequences containing the common core trinucleotide GGA. Furthermore, it is involved in protein–protein interactions with co‐factors that help determine its biological activity. Many of the Ets‐related proteins have been shown to be transcription activators, like other nuclear oncoproteins and anti‐oncoproteins (Jun, Fos, Myb, Myc, Rel, p53, etc.). However, Ets‐like proteins may have other functions, such as in DNA replication and a general role in transcription activation.Ets proteins have been implicated in regulation of gene expression during a variety of biological processes, including growth control, transformation, T‐cell activation, and developmental programs in many organisms. Signals regulating cell growth are transmitted from outside the cell to the nucleus by growth factors and their receptors, G‐proteins, kinases and transcription factors. We will discuss how several Ets‐related proteins fit into this scheme, and how their activity is regulated both post‐and pre‐translationally. Loss of normal control is often associated with conversion to an onco‐protein. vEts has been shown to have different properties from its progenitor, which might explain how it has become oncogenic. Oncogene‐related products have been implicated in the control of various developmental processes. Evidence is accumulating for a role for Ets family members in Drosophila development, Xenopus oocyte maturation, lymphocyte differentiation, and viral infectious cycles. An ultimate hope in studying transformation by oncoproteins is to understand how cells become cancerous in humans, which would lead to more effective treatments. vEts induces erythroblastosis in chicken. Cellular Ets‐family proteins can be activated by proviral insertion in mice and, most interestingly, by chromosome translocation in humans. We are at the beginning of understanding the multiple facets of regulation of Ets activity. Future work on the Ets family promises to provide important insights into both normal control of growth and differentiation, and deregulation in illness.

Commentary concerning demonstration of safety and efficacy of investigational anticancer agents in clinical trials.

Expeditious clinical development and approval of new drugs that are beneficial to patients are matters of high priority. There has been a great deal of discussion within the oncology community about what should constitute evidence of effectiveness of new anticancer agents for purposes of drug approval. This commentary is intended to illustrate a variety of end points that can lead to approval of new anticancer agents for specific clinical situations. Although the ultimate hope of antineoplastic therapy is prolongation of life, there are other effects of anticancer drugs that constitute clear clinical benefit and represent evidence of effectiveness. The guiding principle is that the beneficial effects obtained from a new drug should sufficiently outweigh the adverse effects such that the potential risk:benefit ratio achieved by an individual patient is favorable. The assessment of a new drug should flexibly evaluate safety and efficacy in the context of the specific clinical condition being treated. Early discussions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are recommended to identify prospectively the end points and trial designs needed to demonstrate effectiveness of a new drug. The general principles discussed will likely apply to the drug approval process for other medical disciplines as well.

Tissue Changes Around Loose Prostheses

The aseptically loosened prosthesis provided a means for investigating the in vivo and in vitro activity of the cells associated with the loosening process in seven dogs. The cells were isolated and maintained in culture for sufficient periods of time so that their biologic activity could be studied as well as the effect of different agents added to the cells in vivo or in vitro. The biologic response as determined by interleukin-1 and prostaglandin E2 activity paralleled the roentgenographic appearance of loosening and the technetium images and observations made at the time of revision surgery. The correlation between clinical, roentgenographic, histologic, and biochemical loosening indicates that the canine model is suitable for investigating the mechanisms of prosthetic failure. A canine model permits the study of possible nonsurgical therapeutic interventions with the ultimate hope of stopping or slowing the loosening process.

Structure detection through automated covariance search

This paper summarizes our investigations into the computational detection of secondary and tertiary structure of ribosomal RNA. We have developed a new automated procedure that not only identifies potential secondary and tertiary structural interactions, but also provides the covariation evidence that supports the proposed bondings, and any counterevidence that can be detected in the known sequences. A small number of previously unknown higher-order structural features have been detected in individual RNA molecules (16S rRNA and 7S RNA) through the use of our automated procedure. We are systematically studying mitochondrial rRNA, seeking tertiary structure within 16S rRNA and quaternary structure between 16S and 23S rRNA. To test hypotheses suggested by an examination of our program's output, our colleagues in biology are sequencing key portions of the 23S ribosomal RNA for species in which the known 16S ribosomal RNA exhibits variation (from the dominant pattern) at the site of a proposed bonding. Our ultimate hope is that automated covariation analysis will contribute significantly to a refined picture of ribosomal structure.

Imagination and Modernity: Or the Taming of the Human Mind

D uring those surrealistic events which took place on the streets of Paris in May '68, one of the most popular slogans or so the legend has it was: L'imagination aupouvoir. Empower the imagination. What I will attempt in this essay could be called an archaeology of that slogan. My hope is that as I proceed from the most obvious to the least obvious strata underlying (and thus preceding) the slogan, its socio-historical and socio-anthropological preconditions will become visible. This visibility that is my ultimate hope may allow us to reflect more adequately than in most of the current literature on that hazy period of (social) postmodernity and (artistic) postmodernism that succeeded social modernity and artistic responses to it not just chron-

Reflections on the First Successful Kidney Transplantation

All progress is a continuum. One generation initiates, another germinates, the next sees the flowering, and finally, the nourishing fruit is made available to all the world. Instead of tracing the origins of organ transplantation back to its beginnings, I will relate the story of the first successful organ transplant as it developed for me as I stepped onto the walking escalator of surgical progress. I first became interested in tissue and organ transplantation at Valley Forge General Hospital, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, during World War II while caring for seriously injured burn casualties. Many were aviator burns involving total destruction of the face and hands. The Chief of the Plastic Surgical Service was Dr. James Barrett Brown, then the outstanding plastic surgeon in the United States, if not the world. Often, while scrubbing with Dr. Brown, we would discuss the use of skin homografts (as allografts were then termed) to resurface the severely burned patient as the ultimate hope to save life. Dr. Brown had worked previously with Dr. E. Padgett of Kansas City who had invented the dermatome and popularized the use of skin grafts. Dr. Padgett, in the late 1920's, grafted a severely burned patient with skin from an identical twin sibling. The grafts seemed to survive and the patient lived. However, the survival of the twin's skin could not be documented or distinguished from creeping substitution by epithelium from the recipient. Dr. Brown, later at Washington University in St. Louis, demonstrated conclusively that exchanged skin grafts between identical twins could survive intact with histology indistinguishable from that of autografts [1].

Reflections on the first successful kidney transplantation.

All progress is a continuum. One generation initiates, another germinates, the next sees the flowering, and finally, the nourishing fruit is made available to all the world. Instead of tracing the origins of organ transplantation back to its beginnings, I will relate the story of the first successful organ transplant as it developed for me as I stepped onto the walking escalator of surgical progress. I first became interested in tissue and organ transplantation at Valley Forge General Hospital, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, during World War II while caring for seriously injured burn casualties. Many were "aviator" burns involving total destruction of the face and hands. The Chief of the Plastic Surgical Service was Dr. James Barrett Brown, then the outstanding plastic surgeon in the United States, if not the world. Often, while scrubbing with Dr. Brown, we would discuss the use of skin homografts (as allografts were then termed) to resurface the severely burned patient as the ultimate hope to save life. Dr. Brown had worked previously with Dr. E. Padgett of Kansas City who had invented the dermatome and popularized the use of skin grafts. Dr. Padgett, in the late 1920's, grafted a severely burned patient with skin from an identical twin sibling. The grafts seemed to survive and the patient lived. However, the survival of the twin's skin could not be documented or distinguished from "creeping substitution" by epithelium from the recipient. Dr. Brown, later at Washington University in St. Louis, demonstrated conclusively that exchanged skin grafts between identical twins could survive intact with histology indistinguishable from that of autografts [1].

THE JOB SATISFACTION OF WOMEN IN BRITAIN

In examining the relatively disadvantaged labour market position of women in Britain existing studies have overwhelmingly concentrated on the issues of pay and their occupational distribution in the workforce. The issue of job satisfaction has been scarcely touched upon. To illustrate, in Jain and Sloane's recent book on race and sex discrimination in the U.S.A., Canada, and Britain, which was published in 1981, there is only a single, one page reference to job satisfaction in their index The relative absence of such studies is particularly unfortunate given that job satisfaction is arguably the ultimate aim and hope that many people have with regard to employment. In making this statement we do, of course, acknowledge the potential importance of the distinction between satisfaction in a job and satisfaction with a job; the latter being essentially the perspective of instrumentally orientated workers who view a job as simply the means of obtaining satisfaction elswhere in their life.

Breast Reconstruction Following Mastectomy for Malignant Disease: A Surgical Oncologist’s Point of View

The various factors that enter into the decision and recommendation for breast reconstruction after mastectomy must include the time and number of procedures which may be required and the probability of recurrent cancer, but most of all, the degree of enthusiasm of the woman herself for the procedure. Only a small percentage of women who initially express interest in reconstruction actually carry it through to completion, for many reasons. What may have been considered initially as a "must" may lose its attractiveness with the passage of time and the realization that mutilation need not be an absolute synonym for mastectomy. Since there is no perfect reconstruction yet available, there cannot be any arbitrary and dogmatic rules established to separate the "should's" from the "should not's". We must await more technical advances from innovative surgeons and biomedical scientists before that millennium arrives. Concurrently, we must endeavor to find techniques of earlier and earlier detection, in the ultimate hope that the diagnosis of breast cancer may be made at a time early enough in its natural history that mastectomy would no longer be required and cure would be guaranteed!

Personality correlates of patients with temporomandibular joint dysfunction

A study was conducted to compare the personality characteristics of a group of patients with temporomandibular joint problems with a control group. Results indicated that a number of the characteristics tested could be identified with the problem group. From the standpoint of the dentist treating a patient with TMJ problems, the importance of recognizing psychologic factors cannot be overemphasized. This study shows that the responsibility of the dentist is not discharged merely by treating occlusal and habit patterns. The dentist should recognize the problems of his patients and should refer them to competent therapists for adjunctive treatment. The involvement of trained medical and dental personnel, aware of the interrelationship of the psychophysiologic problems in this and other dental difficulties, can serve to improve treatment. An attempt will be made with a population of clinical patients to further refine the determination of those factors which differentiate the TMJ patient from ‛nor-mal” patients. It is the ultimate hope to provide the dentist with a means by which pertinent personality factors can be determined as a corroboration of other characteristics of the TMJ dysfunction syndrome.

The Euclid House: a therapeutic community halfway house for prisoners.

Euclid House represents an attempt to create an effective therapeutic community for prisoners in a halfway house staffed almost totally by blacks and by some ex-offenders. This experiment is viewed as a long-term investment in training staff, developing ideas and concepts, and taking chances in order to tap the creativeness of the staff and residents. The ultimate hope is that this model will serve for some prisoners as an alternative to incarceration.

Pragmatism and Behavioralism

SAM TAKING my cue from the Presidential address of Gabriel Almond.' He stated, If Dahl was correct when he wrote the epitaph for a monument to a successful protest, then it may be that the battle of has been won, and this may be an appropriate moment for the victors to take a look back at their intellectual origins. 2 Political scientists can, I believe, take judicial notice of the fact that the scientific or impact in political has been sweeping and pervasive. As David Easton has recently noted, We are in a process of transition in political toward a more rigorous science... and this development . represents a break with the past, the enormity of which slowly being absorbed into the consciousness of political scientists.3 In view of the magnitude of the impact of the behavioral persuasion, I agree with Almond that it appropriate to examine its intellectual origins, not for simply historical interest, but so that as political scientists we may know from whence we have come and where we are going. I am using the term to denote that approach in twentieth-century American political which employs primarily empirical, quantitative, mathematical, and statistical methods. This approach emphasizes the discovery of the realities the is of the political realm. To ascertain the is the mood decidedly empirical and descriptive, and the ultimate hope to build a science of politics. In the words of Heinz Eulau, persuasion in politics aspires to the status of science.4 This orientation to be contrasted with the a priori, deductive, prescriptive, impressionistic, and ought-to inclinations of the traditional approach. In brief, I am using the term in the sense in which it usually employed. The intellectual origins of behavioralism are varied. They would certainly include the impact of the evolutionary mood of the post-Darwinian period, positivism, utilitarianism, the vitalism of Bergson, the dialectic of Hegel and Marx, naturalism, and the general intense interest in that permeated intellectual thought in the late nineteenth and into the twentieth century. However, I believe the evidence compelling that pragmatism probably the single greatest intellectual cornerstone of behavioralism. It my hypothesis that contemporary behavioralism departing to a considerable extent from its pragmatic roots, and because of this departure in danger of evolving into a closed orthodoxy.

Family Goals in a Democratic Society

The method of character education employed by the Communists, their system of developing socialist morality, and their childrearing practices are reviewed and commented upon in the light of practices and standards prevalent in the United States. The tremendous social problems that are confronting us present the greatest challenge that humanity has ever faced. These problems must be solved by individuals who have learned to live responsibly in a democracy. The ultimate hope of humanity lies in man's capacity to be concerned for others in such a way as to establish a human fellowship that will cross all lines of political difference, social class, race, sex, philosophy, and religion.