Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative task force report: Improving participation in a survey on hospital pharmacy practices in Texas.

Purpose: Results of an initiative to increase participation in a survey on hospital pharmacy practices are reported.

Methods: In an initiative led by pharmacy residents at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, a task force was created to boost the rate of response to the Hospital-Assessment Survey (HSA), an online benchmarking tool developed as part of the ASHP-sponsored Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative (PPMI). Under the guidance of leaders from ASHP's Texas affiliate and state health-system pharmacy leaders, an 11-member team of residents targeted Texas hospitals that had not responded to the HSA as of December 2013 and used phone and e-mail methods to encourage survey participation.

Icilin-induced wet-dog shakes in rats are dependent on NMDA receptor activation and nitric oxide production.

Icilin is a cold channel agonist that produces vigorous wet-dog shaking in rats. The shaking is accompanied by an increase in the level of extracellular glutamate in the brain. Hence, we hypothesized that icilin-induced wet-dog shakes are dependent on increased glutamatergic transmission and nitric oxide (NO) production.