Tulane University

About: Tulane University is a education organization based out in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Blood pressure. The organization has 24478 authors who have published 47205 publications receiving 1944993 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Louisiana.

Designing research to study the effects of institutionalization on brain and behavioral development: the Bucharest Early Intervention Project.

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the largest longitudinal investigation of institutionalized children less than 2 years old ever conducted. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project is an ongoing randomized controlled trial of foster placement as an alternative to institutionalization in abandoned infants and toddlers being conducted in Bucharest, Romania. In addition to describing the contexts in which this study is imbedded, we also provide an overview of the sample, the measures, and the intervention. We hope that the natural experiment of institutionalization will allow us to examine directly the effects of intervention on early deprivation. We hope it will provide answers to many of the critical questions that developmentalists have asked about the effects of early experience, the timing of deprivation, and the ameliorating effects of early intervention and provide clues to which underlying neurobiological processes are compromised by, and resilient to, dramatic changes in early experience.

Effect of recombinant human osteogenic protein-1 on healing of segmental defects in non-human primates.

Abstract: The effect of recombinant human osteogenic protein-1 on the healing of segmental bone defects was studied in twenty-eight African green monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops). A 2.0-centimeter osteoperiosteal defect was created in the middle of the ulnar shaft in fourteen animals and in the diaphysis of the tibia in the other fourteen. The ulnar defect was filled with an implant consisting of 1000 micrograms of recombinant human osteogenic protein-1 in 400 milligrams of bovine bone-collagen carrier in six animals, with collagen carrier alone in two animals, and with autogenous cancellous bone graft from the contralateral tibia and femur in six animals. The tibial defect was filled with 250, 500 (two tibiae), 1000, or 2000 micrograms of recombinant human osteogenic protein-1 in 400 milligrams of collagen carrier in five animals, with collagen carrier alone in one animal, and with autogenous cancellous bone graft in six animals; in the two remaining animals (controls), the tibial defect was left unfilled. The tibial defects were stabilized with an intramedullary Steinmann pin. All animals were killed at twenty weeks postoperatively. Healing of the defects was evaluated with biweekly radiographs, with histological examination, and with mechanical testing. Radiographically, all of the defects that had been treated with recombinant human osteogenic protein-1 exhibited new-bone formation, but they differed in the degree of healing and remodeling. Five of the six ulnae treated with recombinant human osteogenic protein-1 and four of the five tibiae treated with this substance exhibited complete healing at six to eight weeks, with bridging of the defect by new bone first observed at four weeks. The two unhealed defects both exhibited new-bone formation but incomplete union, which precluded mechanical testing. No defect that had been filled with collagen carrier or that had been left unfilled exhibited any signs of healing or major new-bone formation. None of the six ulnae that had been filled with autogenous bone graft exhibited complete healing, compared with five of the six tibiae that had been so treated. Histological evaluation of the defects treated with recombinant human osteogenic protein-1 revealed the formation of new cortices with areas of woven and lamellar bone and normal-appearing marrow elements at twenty weeks postoperatively. The tibial defects that had been treated with autogenous bone graft had a similar appearance. All control ulnar and tibial defects and all ulnar defects that had been treated with autogenous bone graft had fibrous union with little new-bone formation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Biofluidmechanics of Reproduction

Abstract: Mammalian fertilization requires the coordinated activity of motile spermatozoa, muscular contractions of the uterus and oviduct, as well as ciliary beating. These elastic structures generate forces that drive fluid motion, but their configurations are, in turn, determined by the fluid dynamics. We review the basic fluid mechanical aspects of reproduction, including flagellar/ciliary beating and peristalsis. We report on recent biological studies that have shed light on the relative importance of the mechanical ingredients of reproduction. In particular, we examine sperm motility in the reproductive tract, ovum pickup and transport in the oviduct, as well as sperm-egg interactions. We review recent advances in understanding the internal mechanics of cilia and flagella, flagellar surface interaction, sperm motility in complex fluids, and the role of fluid dynamics in embryo transfer. We outline promising computational fluid dynamics frameworks that may be used to investigate these complex, fluid-structure interactions.