Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Steven Benvenisti
Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, USA
Keynote: Spring break: A true story of hope and determination
Time : 09:35-10:20
Biography:
Steven Benvenisti, Esq. is a Partner at the Law Firm of Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, PC. He is certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Civil Trial Attorney. As
an attorney, he is an Advocate for those injured by intoxicated drivers. He also is an Advocate for those suffering catastrophic injuries including brain and spinal cord injuries.
Abstract:
This program is presented by an Attorney in the USA and features the powerful story of an “All American” college student on vacation with his fraternity brothers. Midway through his vacation, he was walking and struck by a drunk driver’s vehicle.
His parents were called in the middle of the night and asked to consent to organ donation due to their son’s severe traumatic brain injury and other catastrophic injuries. The family declined to consent to organ donation and instead got a room in the hospital to be with their son 24/7. The audience will witness powerful before and after photographs of this student. The “after” photographs depict the student in a coma and on full life-support. The remainder of the program educates the audience about TBI from the perspective of the survivor and the family, while also providing them with needed tools to help them in their own professional and personal capacities in their dealings with Traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury is the silent epidemic of our time. In spite of the tens of millions of people who sustain a TBI every year, only a very small minority of medical professionals, legal scholars, employers, educators and people understand the reality of what the survivor and family members are going through. The most effective and efficient
Keynote Forum
Trevor Archer
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Keynote: Physical exercise ensures health and longevity in brain integrity
Time : 10:20-11:05
Biography:
Trevor Archer has received his PhD from Uppsala University during the period of 1976-79. Currently, he is working as Professor in Gothenburg University. He has successfully completed his administrative responsibilities as Head of Department and Dean of Faculty. His research has included biopsychology, health, sports, personality, learning and memory, neurotoxicity, brain disorders and epigenetics. Based on this research and fellowship training, he has received several awards and honors, such as: Honorary Doctor and Honorary Professor in Pharmacology of the Polish Pharmacology Society, Sansone Award of the School of Medicine, University of Washington, St. Louis, Missouri. He is serving as an Editorial Member of 24 reputed journals like Neurotoxicity Research and Acta Neurologica Scandinavica & expert reviewer for 117 journals like Psychopharmacology, European Journal of Pharmacology and Journal of Addiction Research and Therapy. He authored 318 research articles, 150 book chapters, edited 42 books, and one general psychology book. He is a member of Neurotoxicity Society. He has been honored as Founding Member of European Behavioral Pharmacology Society.
Abstract:
The outcome of combining physical exercise, whether endurance-type or resistance-type, with dietary selection, or even the exercise regime by itself has been shown repeatedly to endower numerous beneficial manifestations that stretch over multiple domains that include immune defense systems and anti-disease pathological effects, chronic metabolic disorder, cognitive-affective states and alimentary canal micro biota. The combination of exercise with selective, not merely restrictive, diets mobilizes a multiplicity of cellular adaptive responses and signaling pathways, reduced pro-inflammatory and increased anti-inflammatory cytokines, more effective cognitive performance in emotionally-charged situations and general health, wellbeing and quality-of-life improvements. Physical exercise presents a particularly useful intervention in individuals employed in sedentary occupations or afflicted by a neurodegenerative disorder, such as PD. The several links between exercise and qualityof-life, disorder progression and staging, risk factors and symptoms-biomarkers in PD all endower a promise for improved prognosis. Nutrition provides a strong determinant for disorder vulnerability and prognosis with fish oils and vegetables with a Mediterranean diet offering both protection and resistance. Three factors determining the effects of exercise on disorder severity of patients may be presented: Exercise effects upon motor impairment, gait, posture and balance; Exercise reduction of oxidative stress, stimulation of mitochondrial biogenesis and up-regulation of autophagy, and Exercise stimulation of dopamine (DA) neurochemistry and trophic factors. Running-wheel performance, as measured by distance run by individual mice from different treatment groups, was related to DA-integrity, indexed by striatal DA levels.