http://www.cbu.edu/
Caduceus Newsletter: Fall 2008.09, Week of October 20 Dr. Stan Eisen, Director Preprofessional Health Programs Christian Brothers University 650 East Parkway South Memphis, TN 38104 Home page: http://www.cbu.edu/~seisen/	Caduceus Newsletter Archives: http://www.cbu.edu/~seisen/Caduceus.html

Table of Contents:
1. ACS/BBB/PHP (American Chemical Society, Beta Beta Beta/Preprofessional Health Programs) Activities.
2. The Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program is a nine-week program (May 18-July 27, 2009) where college seniors and recent graduates gain knowledge about federal legislative procedure and health policy issues, while further developing their critical thinking and leadership skills.
3. A brief summary of Dr. Malinda Fitzgerald’s research and of her presentation at last month’s International Congress of Eye Research in Beijing, China.
4. The subject was “Facebook and med school”: It is a good idea to exercise a degree of professionalism now to avoid possible issues in the future. (Thanks to Barbara Huntington, PHP Director at SDSU for sending me this.)
5. Is beer bad for science? From nytimes.com, August 19, 2008.
6. Ya know, Christmas isn’t that far away. Here’s this week’s suggestion for a Christmas gift for the person who has everything.

7. Marginalia: HERE IS THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION THAT HAS PERPLEXED US FOR YEARS!

1. ACS/BBB/PHP (American Chemical Society, Beta Beta Beta/Preprofessional Health Programs) Activities.

• Tuesday, October 28 -- DEDICATION & BLESSING OF NEW CBU SCIENCE COMPLEX: The formal dedication and blessing of the new Cooper-Wilson Center for Life Sciences and the newly-renovated Assisi Hall Science Learning Center will be celebrated on Tuesday, October 28, at 5:00 p.m. The entire CBU Community is invited to join the President and Board of Trustees for this historic dedication and its blessing by Bishop Terry Steib. Guided tours and a receptions will follow;
• Wednesday, November 5 – BBB: Mock Interviews for health-related professional schools. The interviews will still begin with a dinner at 6:30 pm. All sophomore, junior, and senior science majors are encouraged to attend. Please contact Dr. Ogilvie (mogilvie@cbu.edu ), Daniel Darnell (ddarnell@cbu.edu ), or John Legge (jlegge@cbu.edu ) to sign-up for a 30-minute interview slot.
• Thursday, November 6 or possibly Nov. 13, starting at 6 p.m.: Bowling tournament to benefit Hope North, Uganda (Contact Caitlin);
• Thursday, November 6, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. – PHP: Annual Health Career Opportunities Fair. This event, anchored by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, will include representatives from regional health-related professional and military scholarship programs. At this point, we will have representatives from the following:

University of Arkansas Medical Center

· College of Medicine

· College of Nursing

University of Tennessee Health Science Center Colleges of

· Allied Health (includes Dental Hygiene, Cytotechnology, Health Information Management, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy)

· Dentistry

· Graduate Health Sciences

· Medicine

· Nursing

· Pharmacy

Southern College of Optometry

St. Louis University School of Public Health (Programs in Public Health and in Health Administration)

Military Scholarship Programs:

United States Air Force
United States Army

· Thursday, November 13 – BBB: Bowl-a-thon for Uganda. Bowl-A-Thon has been scheduled for November 13th. We will let you know when it will start once we hear back from the bowling alley.

December 6, all day – BBB: St. Jude Marathon (Contact Antony)

2. The Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program is a nine-week program (May 18-July 27, 2009) where college seniors and recent graduates gain knowledge about federal legislative procedure and health policy issues, while further developing their critical thinking and leadership skills.

http://www.kff.org/minorityhealth/bjscholars/index.cfm The deadline to apply for the 2009 program is December 12, 2008.  Please check back in October to apply, or sign up to receive 'Minority Health' emails and receive an email from us when the application becomes available.

PROGRAM
The Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program brings talented college seniors and recent graduates to Washington, D.C., where they are placed in congressional offices and learn about health policy issues, with a focus on issues affecting racial and ethnic minority and underserved communities. Through the nine-week program (May 18-July 27, 2009), Scholars gain knowledge about federal legislative procedure and health policy issues, while further developing their critical thinking and leadership skills. In addition to gaining experience in a congressional office, Scholars participate in seminars and site visits to augment their knowledge of health care issues, and write and present a health policy research memo that addresses a problem of concern to disadvantaged populations.

PURPOSE
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation established the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program at Howard University to honor the legacy of former Foundation Trustee and Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and to expand the pool of students in the field of health policy who are interested in issues affecting racial and ethnic minority and underserved communities. As a member of the United States Congress and the Texas State Legislature, Barbara Jordan's distinguished career was exemplified by her tireless advocacy of behalf of vulnerable populations. She brought this passion to her work, inspiring others to become involved in addressing challenging health policy issues.

--
***********************
Mary Carol Jennings
Jack Rutledge Legislative Director
American Medical Student Association
cell: 864-992-3391
JRLD(at)amsa(dot)org
************************

3. A brief summary of Dr. Malinda Fitzgerald’s research and of her presentation at last month’s International Congress of Eye Research in Beijing, China.

In September I attended the International Congress of Eye Research in Beijing, China.  This meeting is held in various countries around the world and meets every other year. 

It is a small meeting usually less than 1000 people.  The other meeting I go to in May that involves vision

research has around 12,000 participants.  One of the most wonderful things about scientific research is the ability to interact with scientists from all over the world.  I have been fortunate enough to travel to many wonderful places and not only learn about other countries, but also other areas of research and how these might apply to my own research.

My research involves the neural regulation of choroidal blood flow.  The choroid is the vascular supply to the retina, specifically the photoreceptors. 

(Image from http://www.eyetec.net/group5/M24S1.htm )	(Image from: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~opt065/Web%20pages%20only/drh-06.htm )

This blood flow is important for retinal health.  A decline in blood flow has been implicated in several ocular diseases.  At the ICER meeting, I presented data that involves two parasympathetic pathways that include neurons from two cranial nerves, facial and oculomotor.  We have data that show that these two neural circuits respond to different stimuli that both increase choroidal blood flow.  I had three collaborators in this research all from the University of TN.

In birds, two parasympathetic ganglia innervate the choroid, the ciliary ganglion (CG) and the pterygopalatine ganglion (PPG).  Of these, the CG provides the more substantial input, and a major central circuit mediating light-regulated choroidal vasodilation via this circuit has been identified, whose components are the retina the suprachiasmatic nucleus the medial part of the nucleus of Edinger-Westphal (EW, parasympathetic subdivision of the oculomotor nucleus).  This circuit appears to produce

adaptive increases in ChBF in response to the increased metabolic demands on the retina that attend heightened retinal activity.  The existence in mammals of ChBF increases in response to flickering light suggests that a comparable circuit is present.

The PPG input to choroid in rats and birds appears to vasodilate choroid during periods of low systemic blood pressure (BP), to maintain stable flow to the eye.  The preganglionic neurons innervating PPG (namely the superior salivatory nucleus, or SSN, which is the parasympathetic subdivision of the facial nucleus) receive input from brain regions such as the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), the nucleus of the solitary tract and the lateral parabrachial region that are all part of

the central circuitry for adaptive peripheral vascular responses to diminished systemic BP.

In our presentation we showed data that indicate the CG and PPG inputs to the choroid play differing roles the CG input mediating adaptive increases in ChBF during heightened retinal activity to ensure adequate metabolic supply, and the PPG input maintaining stable ChBF irrespective of downward swings in the driving force for choroidal blood flow (i.e.

systemic BP), again ensuring steady metabolic support of the retina.

This research was supported by several NIH grants:

[Supported by NIH EY 05298 (AR), NIH EY 12232 (MSL) and USPHS EY 013808]

Malinda E.C. Fitzgerald, Ph.D.

Professor

Biology Department

Christian Brothers University

Memphis, TN 38104

4. The subject was “Facebook and med school”: It is a good idea to exercise a degree of professionalism now to avoid possible issues in the future. (Thanks to Barbara Huntington, PHP Director at SDSU for sending me this.)

Subject: Facebook and med school
It is a good idea to exercise a degree of professionalism now to avoid possible issues in the future. 

Social networking could haunt doctors...

The Palm Beach Post reports that medical students are being urged to clean up their Facebook and other social networking web sites. The paper reports that the call follows "A University of Florida study published this week in the Journal of General Internal Medicine examined the Facebook pages of 362 medical students and found information that some faculty members believe is
inappropriate for future doctors."

Article
http://tinyurl.com/5td22v

Study
http://tinyurl.com/55ktnx

Valerie Poulson
Director of Program Development
School of Medicine
University of Kansas Medical Center

5. Is beer bad for science? From nytimes.com, August 19, 2008.

August 19, 2008,  9:49 am

FREAK Shots: Is Beer Bad for Science?

By Freakonomics

The more beer scientists drink, the less likely they are to have a paper published or cited, according to a new study by Thomas Grim, an ornithologist at Palacky University, Czech Republic.

Grim surveyed the behavior of Czech scientists and found a correlation between amount of beer consumed and papers published.

But the Czech Republic may just be an strange exception, points out a New York Times article; it beats Ireland as having the highest per capita rate of beer consumption in the world.

Or maybe, suggests ornithologist Mike Webster: “Those with poor publication records are drowning their sorrows.”

It probably doesn’t matter if you’re drinking Pabst or Vielle Bon Secours — the study didn’t mention the price of the beer making a difference.

Another study in Denmark (which ranks eighth on the beer consumption list) showed a correlation between high I.Q. and wine drinkers — and low I.Q. and beer drinkers.

Maybe Freakonomics is better read at a wine bar than a pub.

· Comments (46)

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6. Ya know, Christmas isn’t that far away. Here’s this week’s suggestion for a Christmas gift for the person who has everything.

Tectonic Sandbox

Watch geologic time unfold in your classroom! The Tectonic Sandbox vividly demonstrates convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries in an easy-to-use, self-contained, hands-on model. Students predict landform creations along tectonic boundaries as the crustal plates push, pull, and slide past each other in minutes instead of millions of years. The intricacies of deformation are enhanced with the use of colored sand(included). Ample materials are provided to perform the demonstration several times.

Here’s the link:
http://www.carolina.com/product/geo779.do?s_cid=em_earthsci_10072008&code=f4#

A bargain at $109!!

7. Marginalia: HERE IS THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION THAT HAS PERPLEXED US FOR YEARS!

Here is the answer we have all been waiting for for years! K:-)

Here, my friends, is a picture to answer the question we've all been hearing and asking about for many years!

Answer seems to be........'Yes.'

Dr. Stan Eisen, Director
Preprofessional Health Programs
Biology Department
Christian Brothers University
650 East Parkway South
Memphis, TN 38104
E-mail: seisen@cbu.edu
http://www.cbu.edu/~seisen/
Caduceus Newsletter Archives: http://www.cbu.edu/~seisen/Caduceus.html