Effects of feedback stimulation training and cyclical electrical stimulation on knee extension in hemiparetic patients.

Positional feedback stimulation training and cyclical electrical stimulation were used in combination as a treatment for facilitating knee extension in hemiparetic patients. Forty adult hemiparetic patients who demonstrated minimal active control of their quadriceps femoris muscles were randomly assigned to control or study groups. The control patients received a program of physical therapy, and the study patients received the positional feedback stimulation training in addition to their therapy program.

Biochemical, metabolic and morphological characteristics of human neutrophil activation with pepstatin A.

Pepstatin A, a chemotactic pentapeptide, elicited a concentration-dependent extracellular release of granule-associated beta-glucuronidase and lysozyme from, and generation of superoxide anion (O2-) by, cytochalasin B (CB)-treated human neutrophils. Prior exposure of neutrophils to pepstatin A before the addition of CB, suppressed, in a time-dependent fashion, the subsequent production of O2- and exocytotic response. The rate and amount of enzymes released and O2- generated by pepstatin A-activated neutrophils were significantly enhanced in the presence of extracellular calcium.

Tissue, cellular, and subcellular distribution of 241Pu in the rat testis.

The distribution and localization of 241Pu in rat testes were determined by quantitative autoradiography. Rats were given an intravenous injection of 241Pu citrate and tissues were collected 1 week later. The tissue distribution of 241Pu was determined by light microscope autoradiography.

Further water solubility determinations of insecticidal compounds.

The aqueous solubility of 39 insecticidal and related compounds was determined at 20 +/- 1.5 degrees C, using a previously described shaking and centrifugation method. Fenamiphos, fenthion and methidathion produced values substantially less than those reported in the literature whereas, aminocarb, diazinon, dicapthon, pirimiphos-ethyl and pirimiphos-methyl gave solubilities substantially greater than reported literature values.

Vanadate-resistant mutants of Neurospora crassa are deficient in a high-affinity phosphate transport system.

Mutant strains of Neurospora crassa have been selected which grow on media containing vanadate, an inhibitor of the plasma membrane ATPase. The mutations all map to a single region (designated van) on the left arm of linkage group VII. The van mutants are unable to take up vanadate from the medium and are also deficient in the uptake of phosphate via a derepressible, high-affinity phosphate transport system.

Vanadate uptake in Neurospora crassa occurs via phosphate transport system II.

Vanadate, a potent inhibitor of plasma membrane ATPases, is taken up by Neurospora crassa only when cells are growing in alkaline medium and starving for phosphate. The appearance of a vanadate uptake system (Km = 8.2 microM; Vmax = 0.

Folate nutrition in the elderly.

The consensus of this panel is that average dietary intake of folate in the free-living elderly population is probably adequate in most. Certainly more good data are needed; in addition, safe and reasonable dietary goals for folate intake are required. However, patients who have diseases requiring hospitalization or conditions for which institutionalization are required are obviously at greater risk.

Identification and properties of an ATPase in vacuolar membranes of Neurospora crassa.

Using a vacuolar preparation virtually free of contamination by other organelles, we isolated vacuolar membranes and demonstrated that they contain an ATPase. Sucrose density gradient profiles of vacuolar membranes show a single peak of ATPase activity at a density of 1.11 g/cm3.

Intestinal physiology and parasitic diseases.

This paper reviews the major steps in alimentation, digestion, and absorption, which must be intact as a basis for normal nutrition, and discusses evidence relating parasitic infection in humans to effects on intestinal physiology. Parasites, with their ability to induce systemic toxicity and fever, to release active and toxic substances into the intestinal lumen, to compete for certain nutrients, to cause both functional and structural changes in the intestinal mucosa, and to stimulate hypermotility, which lessens the time available for digestion and absorption, can influence the alimentary process a almost every one of its steps. However, parasitic infection is likely to exert its most important impact at the very first step of the alimentary process, by adversely affecting the intake of food through any of a variety of mechanisms.

Testing and modelling of spasticity.

The aim of this investigation was to develop a clinically applicable method for quantitative evaluation of spasticity about the knee and to determine the minimum instrumentation necessary for a quick and simple estimation of spasticity. Skeletal muscle spasticity is assessed by physical therapists as increased resistance of a particular muscle group to manually induced passive movement. In this study the passive movement was produced by the force of gravity while the resistance was observed from the joint goniogram.

Cystic fibrosis. I. Fractionation of the mucociliary inhibitor from plasma.

A protein fraction present in low concentrations in plasma of cystic fibrosis homozygotes and heterozygotes has been identified by its biologic activity in ciliary preparations of gills from Crassostrea virginica, where it causes mucociliary inhibition. In the present study, mucociliary inhibition was shown to be associated with an IgG-rich fraction. The cystic fibrosis mucociliary inhibitor was obtained as a low molecular weight protein after dissociation from IgG in 5 M guanidinium chloride.

Adsorption, desorption, soil mobility, aqueous persistence and octanol-water partitioning coefficients of terbufos, terbufos sulfoxide and terbufos sulfone.

Terbufos, t.sulfoxide and t.sulfone (5 micrograms ml-1) were incubated in natural, sterilized natural and distilled water, with initial pH values of 8.

Cystic fibrosis. II. The urinary mucociliary inhibitor.

In the current study, the cystic fibrosis cationic mucociliary inhibitor has been purified from urine by ion exchange chromatography, gel filtration, lectin affinity chromatography, isoelectric focusing, and high performance liquid chromatography. The molecular size of the cationic mucociliary inhibitor was estimated to be in the range of 4,000 to 13,500 MW, by its elution on Sephadex G-50, and between 7,500 and 2,750 MW, by urea-sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In addition to the cationic mucociliary inhibitor, an anionic mucociliary inhibitor was also detected in the urinary fraction isoelectrically focused between pH 4.

Purification and characterization of the plasma membrane ATPase of Neurospora crassa.

The plasma membrane of Neurospora crassa contains a proton-translocating ATPase, which functions to generate a large membrane potential and thereby to drive a variety of H+-dependent co-transport systems. We have purified this ATPase by a three-step procedure in which 1) loosely bound membrane proteins are removed by treatment with 0.1% deoxycholate; 2) the ATPase is solubilized with 0.

Isolation and characterization of plasma membranes from wild type Neurospora crassa.

A method has been developed to isolate plasma membranes with high ATPase activity from wild type Neurospora. Cells are treated with snail enzyme to weaken their cell walls, disrupted by gentle homogenization in a medium designed to keep mitochondria and other organelles intact, and fractionated by differential centrifugation. After removal of mitochondria, several higher speed particulate fractions (particularly one sedimenting at 40,000 X g) contain an ATPase that can be identified as the plasma membrane enzyme on the basis of sensitivity to vanadate and kinetic properties.

Effects of trifluoperazine on human neutrophil function.

The interaction of cytochalasin B-treated human neutrophils with the synthetic tripeptide, N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP) results in a time- and concentration-dependent generation of superoxide anion (O2-) by an extracellular release of granule-associated beta-glucuronidase and lysozyme from these cells. Granule exocytosis was not accompanied by significant cytoplasmic lactate dehydrogenase extrusion. FMLP-stimulated O2- production occurs but is significantly curtailed in the absence of extracellular calcium.