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I totally agree with proflikesubstance that the timing of committee meetings should not be left up to the students, and should occur more frequently and earlier on than happened in my home department. It worked out fine for me in the end, but I have definitely observed cases where students languished a bit and prob... |
• anon says: |
this is field dependent; it is completely normal to not have a proposal until your 3rd year in my field, as the national average time to degree is 9-10 years...we do field work for at least a year and have to obtain funding ourselves, most of us at least... |
• Algae Girl says: |
Wow, so I just found this post....My usual MO is to send a blog post into the ether, and then come back in several days and do it again. Between prepping for field work and holiday and usual shenanigans, it's been longer than usual. |
In mine, my advisor's, and dept's defense: Yes, at the end of 3 years is a little late in the process. This was actually a meeting I'd been trying to set up since JANUARY, but people's schedules be crazy. |
And our dept procedure is 1) Prelim meeting 2) Proposal defense 3) Final defense. |
I'm a little late because it's wasn't until last fall that I even HAD a dissertation (I'm slow) and my dept finally has enough faculty that I can have a committee without driving someone insane. |
Long story, I know...sorry |
• proflikesubstance says: |
AG, the post isn't an attack on you, at all. Different departments do things differently and every student is a unique case. That said, many departments try and have hard deadlines for things like committee meetings to make sure no one falls through the cracks. I am often surprised how long different places will le... |
• proflikesubstance says: |
Anon, 9-10 years isn't a grad degree, it's a fucking career. As a general rule, if your grad program is longer than it takes people to get tenure, there is an issue. |
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Thorax 58:528-532 doi:10.1136/thorax.58.6.528 |
• Airway biology |
Comparison of airway immunopathology of eosinophilic bronchitis and asthma |
1. C E Brightling, |
2. F A Symon, |
3. S S Birring, |
4. P Bradding, |
5. A J Wardlaw, |
6. I D Pavord |
1. Institute for Lung Health, University of Leicester, Division of Respiratory Medicine, Leicester UK. |
1. Correspondence to: |
Dr I D Pavord, Institute for Lung Health, Department of Respiratory Medicine, University Hospitals of Leicester, Groby Road, Leicester LE3 9QP, UK; |
• Accepted 12 March 2003 |
Background: Eosinophilic bronchitis is a condition characterised by a corticosteroid responsive cough, sputum eosinophilia, and normal tests of variable airflow obstruction and airway responsiveness. We performed a detailed comparative immunopathological study to test the hypothesis that the different airway function i... |
Methods: Exhaled nitric oxide was measured and induced sputum, bronchoscopy, bronchial wash (BW), bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), and bronchial biopsy were performed in 16 subjects with eosinophilic bronchitis, 15 with asthma, and 14 normal controls. |
Results: Both eosinophilic bronchitis and asthma were characterised by an induced sputum, BW and BAL eosinophilia, an increased number of epithelial and subepithelial eosinophils, and increased reticular basement membrane thickness. The median concentration of exhaled nitric oxide was higher in those with eosinophilic ... |
Conclusion: With the exception of our previously reported association of smooth muscle mast cell infiltration with asthma, the immunopathology of eosinophilic bronchitis and asthma are similar which suggests that eosinophilic airway inflammation, increased exhaled nitric oxide, and increased basement membrane thickenin... |
The development of sputum induction has provided a safe non-invasive method for assessing airway inflammation.1–4 One of the most interesting early observations made using this method was the identification of a group of patients with a sputum eosinophilia identical to that seen in asthma, but with none of the function... |
Previous studies have suggested that the different association between airway inflammation and dysfunction in asthma and eosinophilic bronchitis is not due to localisation of the inflammatory process in the upper airway in eosinophilic bronchitis,6,9 differences in the state of activation of the inflammatory process as... |
Sixteen subjects with eosinophilic bronchitis, 15 with asthma, and 14 normal controls were recruited from Glenfield Hospital outpatients, staff, and by local advertising. The diagnostic criteria for asthma and eosinophilic bronchitis were as previously described.13 All subjects were non-smokers with a past smoking hist... |
Protocol and clinical measurements |
Subjects attended on two occasions. At the first visit the severity of the symptoms cough, breathlessness and wheeze was measured on a 100 mm visual analogue scale from no symptoms to worst ever, as previously described.14 Exhaled nitric oxide, spirometric parameters, allergen skin prick tests, and methacholine airway ... |
At the second visit 1 week later the subjects underwent bronchoscopy using an Olympus fibreoptic bronchoscope (Olympus Company, Tokyo, Japan) in accordance with recent BTS guidelines.16 A 20 ml bronchial wash of prewarmed normal saline into the bronchus intermedius was performed followed by 180 ml BAL fluid into the mi... |
Mucosal biopsy specimens were immediately transferred into ice cooled acetone containing the protease inhibitors iodoacetamide (20 mM) and PMSF (2 mM) for fixation, stored at −20°C for 24 hours, and then processed into the water soluble resin glycol methacrylate (GMA) (Polysciences, Northampton, UK) for embedding. |
Two μm sections were cut, floated on 0.2% ammonia solution in water for 1 minute, and dried at room temperature for 1–4 hours. The following mouse IgG1 monoclonal antibodies were used: CD3 (Dako Ltd, High Wycombe, UK), CD4 (Becton Dickinson, Oxford, UK), CD8 (Dako Ltd), AA1 to mast cell tryptase (Dako Ltd), MBP to eosi... |
Assessment and quantification of immunohistochemical staining |
Subepithelial mucosa and epithelium were identified morphologically and the area calculated using a computer analysis system (Scion Image). Nucleated immunostained cells present in coded sections of the submucosa and epithelium were counted and the numbers of cells expressed per mm2. Basement membrane width was measure... |
Statistical analysis |
Subject characteristics were described using descriptive statistics. Exhaled nitric oxide concentration, differential cell counts, and epithelial integrity were expressed as median (range) values. Basement membrane width was described as mean (SE). Comparisons between the three groups were undertaken using the Kruskal-... |
Characteristics of the study subjects are shown in table 1. The median exhaled nitric oxide concentration was higher in patients with eosinophilic bronchitis (12 ppb, 95% CI of difference 5 to 16, p<0.001) and asthma (8.5 ppb, 95% CI 2 to 11.3, p=0.004) than in normal controls (2 ppb). There were no differences in the ... |
Table 1 |
Clinical characteristics of subjects |
Differential inflammatory cell counts in sputum, bronchial wash (BW), and BAL fluid are shown in table 2. Induced sputum, BW, and BAL fluid eosinophil counts were significantly higher in subjects with eosinophilic bronchitis (sputum: 95% CI of difference 4 to 13.3%, p<0.0001; BW: 95% CI 1.1 to 3.5%, p<0.0001; BAL: 95% ... |
Table 2 |
Median (range) differential cell counts (%) in sputum, bronchial wash, and BAL fluid |
The median MBP+ cells/mm2 subepithelium were significantly higher than controls in both subjects with eosinophilic bronchitis (95% CI of difference 12 to 40, p=0.0004) and those with asthma (95% CI 4 to 35, p=0.01). There were no differences in the subepithelial eosinophil counts between eosinophilic bronchitis and ast... |
Table 3 |
Median (range) subepithelial and intraepithelial cell counts per mm2 |
The intraepithelial median eosinophil count/mm2 epithelium was significantly different in subjects with asthma (16.7) and with eosinophilic bronchitis (11.6) from those in normal controls (0; 95% CI of difference 0 to 25, p=0.015; 95% CI 1 to 50, p=0.007, respectively), but there were no differences between the two dis... |
The mean (SE) basement membrane width was 7.2 (0.4) μm in normal controls, 10.7 (1.1) μm in subjects with eosinophilic bronchitis (95% CI of difference 1 to 6, p=0.01), and 9 (0.7) μm in subjects with asthma (95% CI of difference 0.2 to 3.4, p=0.03). There was no difference in the basement membrane and reticular lamina... |
Sputum, bronchial wash, and BAL fluid eosinophilia, epithelial and submucosal evidence of eosinophilic airway inflammation, increased eNO levels, and increased basement membrane thickening were found in subjects with mild asthma. These findings are entirely consistent with previous studies in this patient group.1,13,19... |
Airway inflammation was assessed using a variety of complementary techniques that are likely to sample different parts of the bronchial tree.21 There were no significant differences in eosinophil counts in any samples, suggesting that differences in the localisation of the eosinophilic airway inflammation is unlikely t... |
Our findings add to a growing body of evidence questioning a direct causal association between eosinophilic airway inflammation and airway responsiveness in asthma. Recent large observational studies have found at best a weak correlation between the induced sputum eosinophil count and methacholine airway responsiveness... |
If eosinophilic airway inflammation is not important in the development of airway hyperresponsiveness, then how does it contribute to the pathophysiology of asthma? Both eosinophilic bronchitis and asthma are associated with cough, and it is possible that eosinophilic airway inflammation is directly responsible for thi... |
Previous immunopathological studies of asthma have reported thickening of the subepithelial collagen layer, increased numbers of epithelial cells in the bronchial wash,28 and a reduction in epithelial integrity in bronchial biopsy specimens.19 Bronchial epithelial cells are also activated, as reflected by increased ind... |
Neutrophil numbers were increased in the bronchial subepithelium in those with eosinophilic bronchitis compared with the other groups. Bronchial submucosal neutrophilic inflammation is a feature of severe asthma32 and the differences we observed may be a reflection of our selection of mild asthmatics. The difference in... |
In conclusion, with the exception of our previously reported association of mast cell infiltration into the airway smooth muscle with asthma, the immunopathology of eosinophilic bronchitis and asthma is very similar with both conditions being characterised by eosinophilic airway inflammation, increased exhaled nitric o... |
The authors thank the subjects who participated in the study, Mr S Barlow and Mrs D Parker for technical assistance in the laboratory, and Mrs S McKenna and Mrs B Hargadon for assistance in the clinical characterisation of some of the patients. |
• Funded by a grant from The National Asthma Campaign (UK) |
Malcolm Begemann, Willem Boute and Marijn Van Gemert (The Netherlands) |
Rhythm of Life |
In 1995, a patent was published by Dutch inventors Malcolm Begemann, Willem Boute and Marijn Van Gemert that had a dramatic effect on the quality of life experienced by pacemaker users. It was while working at Netherlands-based Vitatron that the innovators created a pacemaker with dynamic, non-linear rate responsivenes... |
Everyone has a pacemaker. |
It's pacemaker cells that create the vital rhythmic impulses which control the beat of the human heart. But if these cells have been damaged in some way and the natural pacemaker we are born with is not functioning as it should, then these electric impulses must be produced using a different method. |
Enter the artificial pacemaker. By the 1950s, several research groups were experimenting with early pacemaker technologies, and since those first tests one of the main challenges has been centered around the issue of asking a piece of machinery to work in perfect conjunction with living tissue. |
This has, of course, been overcome. But Malcolm Begemann, Willem Boute and Marijn Van Gemert felt that there was room to further develop a pacemaker that provides an even better response to the patient's physiological needs. |
In a patent published in 1995, the Dutch inventors made pacemaker history. It was while working at Netherlands-based Vitatron, a specialist pacemaker company that they made their breakthrough for a pacemaker with improved dynamic rate responsiveness. |
Begemann and his colleagues felt the relationship between the QT interval (the time between the start of the Q wave and the end of the T wave in the heart's electrical cycle) and the desired pacing rate should be variable and not fixed (that was the case in older models). They felt there should be means for automatic a... |
Double whammy |
Begemann has since retired, but patent co-author Willem Boute is now Senior Principal Scientist at Medtronic, which wholly owns Vitatron. According to Boute, the real breakthrough this patent represents is two-fold: firstly, it deals with a more complex relationship between parameters that indicate the amount of effort... |
The scientists worked closely with a physician to develop the patent to ensure the final product was som ething which would be no more complex for doctors to work with than previous models. |
In a groundbreaking moment, they found this non-linear relationship and realised that they had something on the drawing board that could really make a different in patients' lives. From then on out, it was just a case of realising the vision. |
And while they did have setbacks during the development - low processing power of the technology platform and memory shortage among them - those were eventually overcome. |
Quality of life |
To say this product has been successfully commercialised is something of an understatement. It has found its way into numerous Vitatron and Medtronic pacemaker ranges - in the 1990s it featured in their Topaz pacemakers as well as Collections I, II and III - and most impressively it is still being used in the company's... |
According to Vitatron, sales of their pacemakers have more than doubled since the introduction of this new technology in 1998. When the features were combined with the Medtronic Model 9790 programmer and available in a small-sized pacemaker, sales also surged. |
This patent has helped to increase the quality of life of people who suffer from heart problems and require pacemakers. It has taken pacemaker development a significant step forward, and it did this by closely emulating the best pacemaker of all - the natural one. |
The key breakthroughs in this patent were really two separate but related innovations: the first concerned dealing with the complex relationship between the physiological parameter and the optimal heart rate; the second was focused on achieving this without making it more complex (for the physician) by designing a prod... |
The pacemaker will, for example, vary the pacing rate between lowest (lower rate limit: when the physiological parameter is at one end of that particular patient's spectrum) and highest (upper rate limit: when the physiological parameter is at the other end of that particular patient's spectrum). |
In this way, the patient's heart rate (as dictated by the pacemaker, which is the case in many pacemaker patients whose own heart rates are absent or too slow) closely matches the metabolic demand. |
Although rate responsive pacemakers have been available for many years, this patent provides an improved response to the patient's physiological need. |
It makes significant improvements in determining the correlation between the sensed patient indicator variable and selected pacing rate. It also features rate control means for dynamically adjusting the control of pacing rate as a function of a monitored patient variable, and provides an improved means and method of ad... |
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Illinois Learning Standards |
Stage F - Physical Development |
19A — |
Students who meet the standard can demonstrate physical competency in individual and team sports, creative movement, and leisure and work-related activities. |
1. Create combinations of locomotor/non-locomotor movement and manipulative skills in selected activities. |
2. Demonstrate locomotor/non-locomotor skills while manipulating objects. |
3. Practice combinations of sport related skills using correct form. |
4. List specific elements of proper form for various sport skills. |
5. Use vocabulary specific to activities, games, or sport. |
19B — |
Students who meet the standard can analyze various movement concepts and applications. |
1. Develop movement skills that demonstrate mechanically correct form (moving into position, establishing a balanced base, preparatory phase, movement phase, follow through, and return to base). |
2. Define additional biomechanical principles (e.g., spin, rebound). |
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