...Running head: NUCLEAR MEDICINE 1 Concepts of Nuclear Medicine NUCLEAR MEDICINE 2 Concepts of Nuclear Medicine * What type of radiation is typically exploited in most nuclear medicine procedures? Nuclear Medicine is a specialty used to diagnose and treat diseases in a painless and safe manner, which uses a pharmaceutical (medicine) that’s attached to a small amount of radioactive material (a radioisotope). The procedures can often identify disease in an early stage, thus allowing for treatment to be started sooner. The most common of nuclear enhanced medical procedures involve the use of x-rays — a type of radiation that can pass through our skin. X-rays and other forms of radiation also have a variety of therapeutic uses. When used in this way, they’re intended to kill cancerous tissue, reduce the size of a tumor, or reduce pain ("Medicinal Radiocompounds). * How are patients prepared for nuclear medicine procedures? For a nuclear medicine exam, the patient is given a small amount of radioisotope, either orally or by injection, to enhance the visualization of selected organs or vascular structures. * What are the advantages and limitations of nuclear medicine? Advantages Nuclear medicine is a tool for physicians and scientists to diagnose several diseases. Nuclear Medicine is already being used as the most effective treatment for many cancerous diseases and conditions. X-rays used in nuclear medicine can scan the most sensitive...
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...SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER Name: Institutional affiliation: Date: Introduction Somatic cell nuclear transfer utilizes an egg cell and a body cell to create a viable embryo. As part of the studies of genetics and developmental biotechnology, somatic cell nuclear transfer is commonly known as cloning and has elicited a lot of debate and criticism from fundamentalists and bioethicists who feel it is a breech of ethical boundaries. Also called cloning, this process traces its development back to the mid and late 1800’s when scientists discovered that cell twining was possible. By separating embryonic cells, these scientists created twins with the same characteristics teaching them about genetic material and DNA. McLaren & Council of Europe report “it was not until the mid1950’s that scientists manipulated these cells to form new organisms as frogs became the first subjects of embryonic cloning” (pg. 35). By the mid-1990’s, technical knowhow had improved, and cloning moved up the animal chain to more complex vertebrates such as farm animals. 1996 saw the first instance of a cloning process that had utilized an adult body cell. Dolly, a lamb, received a lot of public attention, but that fizzled out with the realization that human cloning was imminent...
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...A nuclear weapon is a device that produces enormous explosive energy of mass destruction. A single bomb can destroy an entire city which can potentially kill millions of people, and cause severe damage to the environment. One nuclear bomb jeopardises the lives of future generations through long-term catastrophic effects. Today, there is a total of 16,400 nuclear weapons on Earth, more than 20 years after the cold war ended. That's enough nuclear bombs to destroy the world and make it completely uninhabitable. The US set up the 'Manhattan Project' to develop the first nuclear weapon, and were the first and only country to use nuclear weapons during the second world war on Japan. The first atomic bomb hit Hiroshima on 6th August 1945, killing...
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...Grenada is a small island in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. There was evidence of the country cooperating with communist Cuba, and that Cuban workers were arriving to build an airfield for modern military aircrafts. There was fear the new base would be for Soviet and Cuban spy planes. There were American medical students on the island, and Reagan made the executive decision to invade Grenada. Two-thousand American marines were sent to Grenada. The American soldiers easily took over the country and rescued the medical students. America suffered just nineteen fatalities, and Reagan claimed a Cold War victory. Effectively, the victory corroborated his promise that United States would interfere against pro-Soviet and pro-Cuban regimes (The Ronald Reagan Administrations, Commentary on 1983). Also, on October twenty-third, just two days before the U.S invaded Grenada, 241 U.S marines, who were there as peacekeepers, were killed in Lebanon by a suicide-bomber who drove a truck, with explosives on it, into U.S barracks (Commentary on 1983). Therefore, the victory also displayed Reagan’s ability to bounce back from a loss and come back...
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...In 1938, three chemists in Berlin discovered how to split a uranium atom, and with it, they learned that the energy from this could be enough to be used as a bomb. Soon after that, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, expressing his concerns that the Germans might successfully build such a bomb. President Roosevelt agreed to start a nuclear research program, which only moved slowly at first. Over the next two years, the “critical mass” of uranium needed was determined, and it was also proven that plutonium could be used to make a similar bomb. These new findings made the development of an atomic bomb a priority for the United States. As a result, in 1941, the United States officially started the Manhattan Project.1 One of the main research and production sites for the Manhattan Project was located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In the years since, countless scientific developments have stemmed from this area, but have its facilities done more to help or hurt the areas surrounding it? At the time, Oak Ridge was known as Clinton Engineer Works, named after the nearby town of Clinton, Tennessee. It was an extremely secretive city, in which most of the workers were on a need-to-know basis and did not know the end goal of their jobs. Oak Ridge was designed...
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...called somatic cell nuclear transfer or SCNT. SCNT involves isolating a somatic cell, or any cell that is not a reproductive cell, and removing the nucleus and DNA from an egg cell. The nucleus is then transferred from the somatic cell to the egg cell. Now, the egg cell with a new nucleus develops like...
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...Terrorists have a huge impact on society and have for many years and even though terrorists are winning by putting continual fear into citizens, trying to disrupt the economy, with continuing advances in our technology and security we hopefully prevail. Terrorists use explosive devices to create fear in people and the people cannot go about their daily life they normally would. These catastrophic events have forced military medical and physiological experts to re-evaluate their understanding of mass casualty terrorism. The primary goal of terrorism is to disrupt society by provoking intense fear and shattering all sense of personal and community safety. When a terror attack occurs in the USA the impact from the attack is felt economically. Whether the attack be nuclear or biological. From the point of view of threatened governments there has been two tasks: first, to try to prevent the terrorist event from taking place and second, if prevention fails, to deal with the after-effects or consequences, (Heymann, Philip 2001) including the remarkably large political effect of acts of terrorism. Although terrorists plan is to spread as much fear into citizens of the United States of America, our security continues to strengthen and we become stronger as a nation. Through advances in technology and the use of special resources, hopefully one day we can stop all terrorist attempts thus making more peace on earth. When a terrorist strikes it is to make a statement or to...
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...Engineering Essay GENETIC ENGINEERING - The benefits and problems Genetic engineering is a powerful and potentially very dangerous tool. To alter the sequence of nucleotides of the DNA that code for the structure of a complex living organism, can have extremely ill effects although the potential benefits can be huge. Before advances in genetic applications, gene therapy was unheard of and genetic defects were always inherited, plaguing generations. Today genetic testing is widely available, such as prenatal karyotyping of chromosomes to check for genetic abnormalities. Genetic testing is also useful for families in which autosomal recessive disorders are known to exist, when these are planning to have children. In addition, genetic testing is available for people who might have inherited a genetic disorder which only becomes apparent later in life (for example Huntington's Disease). Individual choice decides whether a person would rather know if they are particularly vulnerable to certain diseases or more likely to die young. Knowing that your life may be short could inspire you to make the most of it while it could equally well cause severe depression. Today`s advances in gene therapy make it possible to even remove a faulty gene and replace it with a functioning gene in cells lacking this function. Though these techniques are available, they are still in the experimental stages. Somatic cell therapy, for example, uses faulty genes to target the affected areas for genetic treatment...
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...People vs Nuclear Power in Jaitapur, Maharashtra In the Konkan, thousands of families in the environmentallyrich and verdant Jaitapur area are waging a non-violent battle against the Department of Atomic Energy’s plan to construct the world’s biggest nuclear power complex in the region. A report of the struggle that has been met with repression and a critique of the proposed European Pressurised Reactors which are currently not operational anywhere in the world and have been criticised for their design flaws. T This writer visited Jaitapur in early January 2011 on behalf of the Coalition of Nuclear Disarmament and Peace as part of a team of citizens which wanted to examine popular concerns about the environmental, safety, livelihood and governance issues raised by the project, to assess violations of civil liberties by the state, and to express solidarity with the movement against it. The team included former Planning Commission member S P Shukla, journalist Bhasha Singh, and filmmaker Rafeeq Ellias. It was guided by Vaishali Patil of the Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti. Some portions of this article are paraphrased from CNDP’s booklet, Courting Nuclear Disaster in Maharashtra: Why the Jaitapur Project Must Be Scrapped, available at www.cndpindia.org Praful Bidwai (prafulbidwai@gmail.com) is a well-known columnist and writer on current affairs. he first thing that strikes the visitor to Jaitapur-Madban in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district, about 400 km from...
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...DMC Career Website --- Tips on Use of Search Categories The search categories are as follows, with the job titles listed being examples of some of the most frequently posted jobs from that category. Note: The jobs listed are NOT a list of ALL jobs that may be in this category, only examples. |Advance Practice Nurses |Rehabilitation Therapy (PT/OT/SLP) | |Nurse Practitioner |Occupational Therapist | |Clinical Nurse Specialist |Occupational Therapy Assistant | |Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist |Physical Therapist | | |Physical Therapy Assistant | | |Rehabilitation supervisor / management positions | | |Speech / Language Pathologist | |Nursing – Licensed |Respiratory | |Care Management Specialist |Certified Respiratory Therapist ...
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...plants and animal embryos have been performed for years, yet experiments involving human beings have never been tried or thought possible, until "Dolly". Her birth shocked the scientific community and has spurred discussion about the possibility of human clones. In the following essay I am going to speak about the subject of Human Cloning, its pros and cons, and speak against the following issues. Pros of Human Cloning Prior to arguing against the human cloning it is imperative to note the positives of this genetic technology. Human cloning will allow doctors to determine the cause of spontaneous abortions, give oncologists an understanding of the rapid cell growth of cancer, allow the use of stem cells to regenerate nerve tissues, and advance work on aging, genetics, and medicines. Some people argue that cloning is the logical next step in reproductive technology. Identical twins are natural clones, so reproductive cloning can be regarded as a technological version of a natural process (McGee, 82). If a couple are infertile, why shouldn't they be able to produce clones of themselves? If a couple have lost a child, why shouldn't they be able to replace that loved individual with a clone if that is possible? Equally if someone has made a great contribution to science, music, the arts or literature, it seems like a good idea to produce more of them in the hope that we might benefit even more from what would effectively be a much longer working life. What is more, cloning a child...
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...Purposes of Gene Cloning To study genes in the laboratory, it is necessary to have many copies on hand to use as samples for different experiments. Such experiments include Southern or Northern blots, in which genes labeled with radioactive or fluorescent chemicals are used as probes for detecting specific genes that may be present in complex mixtures of DNA. Cloned genes also make it easier to study the proteins they encode. Because the genetic code of bacteria is identical to that of eukaryotes, a cloned animal or plant gene that has been introduced into a bacterium can often direct the bacterium to produce its protein product, which can then be purified and used for biochemical experimentation. Cloned genes can also be used for DNA sequencing, which is the determination of the precise order of all the base pairs in the gene. All of these applications require many copies of the DNA molecule that is being studied. Gene cloning also enables scientists to manipulate and study genes in isolation from the organism they came from. This allows researchers to conduct many experiments that would be impossible without cloned genes. For research on humans, this is clearly a major advantage, as direct experimentation on humans has many technical, financial, and ethical limitations. Importance for Medicine and Industry The ability to clone a gene is not only valuable for conducting biological research. Many important pharmaceutical drugs and industrial enzymes are produced from cloned...
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...conflicts and tensions. Even when authority seems absolute, there are always counter-powers which question it, aim at limiting its excesses and resist it. Examples can be: - the power of the media (reality tv, internet v written press) - Financial power (the power of money) - Inequalities between blacks and whites - the fight against oppression and segregation (South Africa, USA) - The American Dream - The Civil Rights movement and political recognition : Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X (can also be linked to the notion of Myths and Heroes) Idea of Progress The idea of progress can be defined as an improvement, a development or a change - a technical, scientific or social advance which contributes to making the world a better place. Examples can be: - Scientific Progress - Medical advances, cures for illnesses, cloning, performance enhancing drugs, genetically modified organisms. - Technological Progress- technologies to slow down climate...
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...During the Iran Revolution U.S.A. placed sanctions on Iraq because they didn’t want them to have control over weapons of mass destruction. Although I acknowledge that economic sanctions have the right idea, it does not necessarily mean that they are effective. When big sanctions regulating finance and all imports were place on Iran, U.S.A had the goal to stop the import of uranium, but this actually resulted in Iran getting more. After years of the sanctions, Iran adapted and became a self-sustained nation and was able to operate by themselves. This actually allowed the development of nuclear plants more, and intern created more of a threat of nuclear...
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...All available evidence points to the fact that the Universe is open and it is ceaselessly expanding. Space means the whole universe, including the earth, while outer space refers to space other than the earth; outer space begins where the earth's atmosphere ends and extends in all directions. Like, the air we breathe, space is everywhere and all around us. Most people describe space as the universe and do not distinguish between them. When the Universe was first talked of, as an orderly unit, it was called the cosmos, to distinguish it from chaos or disorder. The study of the cosmos was known as Cosmogony or Cosmology. The popular references now are to space and space sciences. Space is a wholly natural phenomenon and cannot either be created or destroyed by mankind, while the space sciences are evolved by talented scientists, a part of mankind. The observable universe has a diameter of 25 billion light years and the number of galaxies it contains is still uncertain. Theories of space also differ, and these are based on the flight of galaxies. Outer space is infinite; in fact it is so vast that the usual terrestrial units of measurement hardly suit its dimensions. The new units of measurement evolved by scientists are Light Years and the Astronomical Unit. It is well known that light and sound are the two principal media through which we gather our impressions of the external world. The study of space and of outer space is, of course, not the common man's cup of tea...
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