Commentary: More implications of the 2008 amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act: influencing institutional policies, practices, and procedures.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law designed to ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities are not discriminated against by covered entities. Under the ADA, colleges of medicine were expected to focus their attention on implementing policies that facilitated equal educational opportunity, not on the threshold question of whether an individual was considered "disabled enough" to be protected by the law. In this issue, Allen and Smith examine the implications of the 2008 ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) for medical education, focusing on the potential for the ADAAA to eliminate the threshold question and allow individuals seeking protection to bring their cases to trial.

The John Stanley Coulter memorial lecture. Anatomy of change: the need for effective disability policy change agents.

The 2009 Coulter Lecture highlights the need for effective disability policy change agents to advocate for health care policy and research that focuses on optimizing the health and function of individuals with disabilities and chronic conditions-not only on their full restoration/cure. The lecture describes the "grotesque" historical treatment of persons with disabilities under the old policy framework, the treatment of people with disabilities under the new/emerging disability policy framework, and the critical role played by coalitions in bringing about progressive, sustainable change on behalf of individuals with disabilities.

Seizures and reduced life span in mice lacking the potassium channel subunit Kv1.2, but hypoexcitability and enlarged Kv1 currents in auditory neurons.

Genes Kcna1 and Kcna2 code for the voltage-dependent potassium channel subunits Kv1.1 and Kv1.2, which are coexpressed in large axons and commonly present within the same tetramers.

Clostridium cadaveris septic arthritis after total hip arthroplasty in a metastatic breast cancer patient.

We report the first known case of septic arthritis in the setting of total hip arthroplasty caused by Clostridium cadaveris, a gas-forming anaerobic enteric organism usually considered a non-pathogen. This case occurred in a patient treated with total hip arthroplasty for metastatic breast cancer involving the acetabulum. The patient was managed successfully with debridement, prosthetic retention, and chronic antibiotic suppression.

Scotopic visual signaling in the mouse retina is modulated by high-affinity plasma membrane calcium extrusion.

Transmission of visual signals at the first retinal synapse is associated with changes in calcium concentration in photoreceptors and bipolar cells. We investigated how loss of plasma membrane Ca2+ ATPase isoform 2 (PMCA2), the calcium transporter isoform with the highest affinity for Ca2+/calmodulin, affects transmission of rod- and cone-mediated responses. PMCA2 expression in the neuroblast layer was observed soon after birth; in the adult, PMCA2 was expressed in inner segments and synaptic terminals of rod photoreceptors, in rod bipolar cells, and in most inner retinal neurons but was absent from cones.

What policymakers need and must demand from research regarding the employment rate of persons with disabilities.

Enabling persons with disabilities to prepare for and engage in gainful employment has become a priority concern in U.S. society.