Forming partnerships: Indiana-Ohio Center for Traumatic Amputation Rehabilitation Research.

As schools of allied health and health professions must increasingly conform to the research missions of their universities, positioning for faculty and funding resources will require creative collaborations among institutions. In 2004 Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis and the Ohio State University collaborated to create the Indiana-Ohio Center for Traumatic Amputation Rehabilitation Research which received substantial funding through the Department of Defense to support a project of significant national importance. This article describes the initial vision of the project, the development of the organizational structure, and the research agenda that produced a unique model that is now generating substantial research data for dissemination.

A review of the long-term health outcomes associated with war-related amputation.

The rate of war-related amputations in current U.S. military personnel is now twice that experienced by military personnel in previous wars.

Performance requirements of physically strenuous occupations: validating minimum standards for muscular strength and endurance.

Employment rights legislative mandates passed in the USA over the last three decades emphasize the importance of validating performance standards for physically strenuous occupations. This study validated minimally acceptable standards for the muscular strength and endurance necessary to perform fire suppression activities. Incumbent firefighters (n=153) selected for key demographic characteristics completed a simulated set of firefighting tasks (Fire Suppression Evolution) and then a Predictor Test Battery of physical abilities tests.

Brain norepinephrine changes with simulated weightlessness and relation to exercise training.

Maintenance of nervous system function during periods of a deconditioning syndrome is important to prevent diminished psychological/behavioral, and physiological function observed during periods of bed rest, physical inactivity, and weightlessness. A main neurotransmitter is norepinephrine (NE), and its regulation yields insight into nervous system function. This research tested the hypotheses that, 1) deconditioning syndrome induced by simulated weightlessness of 9 days via the head-down tilt (HDT) model results in a blunted noradrenergic turnover rate in selected brain tissue and, 2) that exercise training acts as a countermeasure for these changes in noradrenergic activity.