Faculty Bibliography

Ant Bully [Motion Picture] -- LUCAS NICKLE (voice by Zack Tyler Eisen) is a short, spectacled 10-year-old boy whom his mother calls 'Peanut' and treats him like a much younger child. He is bullied by Steve (Myles Jeffrey), who says, 'What are you going to do about it? Nothing, because I'm big and you're small.' Lucas turns his pent-up anger and humiliation toward an ant colony in the garden, besieging it with a water hose until the ant wizard Zoc (Nicolas Cage) devises a magic potion to shrink 'Lucas the Destroyer' down to ant size. The ants then capture the shrunken boy, and the queen ant (Meryl Streep) decides to teach him the ways of the ants: mutual respect, teamwork, rules of cooperative behavior. Ultimately, these lessons enable a newly confident, full-sized Lucas to stand up to his mother and to defeat the old bully. 'MANY bullies were once bullied themselves and they have learned to identify with the aggressor,' says Dr. Heather Krell, associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UCLA. 'It is totally believable that Lucas would transfer his aggression to the ant colony.'

Weeds [Television Program] -- NANCY BOTWIN (Mary-Louise Parker) is struggling to bring up her two sons and maintain the same lifestyle in the wake of her husband's sudden death. She secretly becomes a local pot dealer. Meanwhile, her family's life deteriorates. While Nancy is on a romantic tryst, her older son, 16-year-old Silas (Hunter Parrish), has his girlfriend stay over, and 10-year-old brother Shane (Alexander Gould) observes them having sex. Nancy's pot supplier Heylia (Tonye Patano), mother to a large brood of her own, suggests that family dinners are the 'superglue' that holds families together, and that studies have shown children do better in the long term, with higher test scores and less depression, when families eat together regularly. 'IT'S terrible to wake up in the middle of the night and not know where your mom is,' says Irene Goldenberg, family therapist and professor emeritus of psychiatry at UCLA. In her opinion, a bigger problem than the fact that Nancy isn't home much is that she is lying to her kids about her actions and whereabouts

Invincible [Motion Picture] -- VINCE PAPALE (Mark Wahlberg) is a 30-year-old teacher and part- time bartender with only one year of high school football experience, when Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear), the new coach of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, decides to hold open tryouts. Papale, possessed of more persistence and enthusiasm than pure physical ability, tries out -- and manages to make the team, avoid major injury despite using light shoulder pads and even star in an NFL game by scoring the winning touchdown. [Ray Didinger] thinks that Papale's relatively 'fresh' body was a big asset, however. 'Papale didn't have the cumulative damage, he didn't have the scarring in his knees and shoulders that the other players had,' he says. Sports medicine research has found a raised risk of arthritis in the knees, hips and ankles of such players; Didinger estimates that more than 90% of professional footballers have significant knee and shoulder scarring. Although it may seem paradoxical, [Michael L. Gross] believes that the thin, less-protective shoulder pads also might have helped Papale because they increased his maneuverability and agility and helped him to avoid injury. (In the 1970s, when Papale was playing, all shoulder pads were light compared with today's.)

Nip-Tuck [Television Program] -- As to whether [Sean McNamara] should operate on his own child, [James P. Bradley] bucks conventional wisdom. Most doctors say that the lack of emotional distance interferes with medical judgment and surgical precision. But Bradley disagrees, asserting that such a decision isn't unwise as long as the doctor is qualified. 'A good surgeon can learn to suspend the emotional component,' Bradley says. 'If you're the best-trained surgeon for the procedure, then you're the one to do it.' ECTRODACTYLY, often known as lobster claw syndrome or split hand/ foot malformation, is fairly common, with six cases per 10,000 human births. All forms are associated with at least one genetic mutation, one of the most frequent (Type 1) caused by a mutation on chromosome 7. Ectrodactyly often occurs in common with other congenital anomalies -- such as a cleft lip and palate, and ectodermal dysplasia (hair, skin and nail deformities). In 'Nip/Tuck,' McNamara views a photograph of a hand with ectrodactyly and contemplates [Connor]'s surgery

Grey's Anatomy [Television Program] -- As [Benjamin O'Leary] is being readied for brain surgery, 14-year-old Harly Hernandez is brought to the emergency room impaled on a large tree branch. Harly has sustained major damage to his kidney and intestines, and his father is told that his son has only a 60% chance of survival. After Harly's organs are repaired, the large tree branch is removed in sections, and he lives. Benjamin, however, dies when his brain hemorrhages and swells during surgery. Impalement injuries, especially with sharp objects, carry a high risk of major-organ damage, as the abdominal cavity is tightly packed with organs. Although beginning a surgical procedure with the object protruding from the body may seem counterintuitive, it can make sense -- if the object is in a stable position. This allows doctors to immediately stop the bleeding and begin to suture the damaged organs before removing the object. Removing the object prematurely or all at once can risk further bleeding and organ damage

CSI: Miami [Television Program] -- Victims suffocate from respiratory depression or sustain lethal heart arrhythmias as the cyanide interferes with hemoglobin metabolism (depriving the body's tissues of oxygen). The initial treatment is to administer pure oxygen. Common cyanide antidotes are nitrites and sodium thiosulfate, which work together to restore the hemoglobin. These aren't often completely effective, however, in part because the cyanide may have already done a lot of damage by the time the antidotes are administered

Cattle farmers are not thinking of the harmful effects of manure; they are concerned about selling their product. Sellers of organic fertilizer made from manure are hoping their product will grow vegetables, not concerned that it will contaminate water or spinach. Salad makers screen and cleanse their food but can't always afford the expensive equipment to detect the most elusive bacteria. There is also not enough separation between animal and animal products before they become human food. Multiple studies in the agricultural literature have shown that dairy cows shed harmful bacteria at variable rates. This shedding is dependent on several factors that could be controlled, including the animal's feed. Studies have shown that changing feed from grain to hay decreases the acidity in the gut of cows that allows bacteria to thrive. Because very small amounts of 0157:H7 can cause human infection and because shedding of the bacteria by cows is so variable, proper surveillance of manure is also crucial in preventing outbreaks. But sophisticated laboratory techniques that are most effective at detection are very expensive and not commonly used. Current agricultural attempts to contain manure and organic fertilizers at the farm are not sufficient to prevent occasional seepage into water supplies, which sparks outbreaks. E. coli 0157:H7 is a strain that produces a toxin that breaks down the lining of blood vessels, causing bloody diarrhea in humans and sometimes kidney failure. Because cows lack the receptor on their cells to absorb the toxin, they don't show symptoms that they are carriers of the bacteria

PPD encompasses a wide spectrum of manifestations that are often overlooked and left untreated. The article's failure to discuss some of the most common symptoms, such as panic attacks and obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behaviors, does a grave disservice to mothers-to-be and sufferers of PPD.

For the ideal combination, mix an informed patient with an inquiring physician. Arthur Caplan, chairman of the medical ethics department at the University of Pennsylvania, likes to cite a quote attributed to the ancient Greek physician Galen: 'The best physician is something of a philosopher.' Such a physician does more than 'pose questions,' says Caplan. He 'isn't afraid to have them asked. The process of questioning can lead to understanding and patient satisfaction.' I treated [Brian Morton] for high blood pressure with a diuretic and a pill, Diovan, that dilates arteries. But when I began raising his Diovan dose in response to high readings -- ranging from 160 to 180 systolic pressure over 100 to 110 diastolic pressure (normal is generally considered less than 130 over 85) -- he was uneasy. Concerned about the potential side effects of higher doses, including fatigue and dizziness, he began to measure the pressure himself and record the values at home. The readings he got were consistently lower, 120 to 140 over 80 to 90. In the meantime, my patient's cholesterol readings remain high. After reading a news report about two patients suing Pfizer over pain, weakness and memory loss they claim was caused by Lipitor, she shot me an e-mail, saying such complaints are 'exactly what concerns me about the drug du jour.' Still, she is also more concerned about her cholesterol than before. On my end, there is a growing appreciation of her right to choose as well as her intuitive wisdom regarding her health

According to a significant study published in the prestigious British journal Nature recently, the H5N1 bird flu virus is at least two large mutations and two small mutations away from being the next human pandemic virus. This virus attaches deep in the lungs of birds but cannot adhere to the upper respiratory tract of humans. Since we can't transmit the virus to each other, it poses little immediate threat to us. Even if the H5N1 virus does mutate enough to spread easily among the upper breathing tracts of humans, there are multiple scenarios in which it would not cause the next massive pandemic. In fact, the Spanish flu of 1918 made the jump to humans before killing a large number of birds. Not only do we have vaccinations, antibiotics, antiviral drugs, public information networks, steroids and heart treatments that were lacking in 1918 to treat victims of the flu; in addition, the growing worldwide immunity to H5N1 may lessen the outbreak in humans even if the dreaded mutation does occur. Cooking a chicken or turkey kills any influenza virus 100 percent of the time, yet the fear of H5N1 bird flu is already so rampant in Europe that poultry consumption is down 70 percent in Italy and 20 percent in France. In Britain people are giving away their parrots after a single parrot got the disease, and in Germany a cat died of H5N1 and the public was told to keep cats indoors. Forty-six countries outside the European Union banned French poultry exports after a single flock of turkeys was found to be infected. France, fourth in the world in poultry exports, is already hemorrhaging more than $40 million a month