Protein-protein interactions in concentrated electrolyte solutions.

Protein-protein interactions were measured for ovalbumin and for lysozyme in aqueous salt solutions. Protein-protein interactions are correlated with a proposed potential of mean force equal to the free energy to desolvate the protein surface that is made inaccessible to the solvent due to the protein-protein interaction. This energy is calculated from the surface free energy of the protein that is determined from protein-salt preferential-interaction parameter measurements.

TRPV3 is a calcium-permeable temperature-sensitive cation channel.

Transient receptor potential (TRP) proteins are cation-selective channels that function in processes as diverse as sensation and vasoregulation. Mammalian TRP channels that are gated by heat and capsaicin (>43 degrees C; TRPV1 (ref. 1)), noxious heat (>52 degrees C; TRPV2 (ref.

Risk networks and racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence of HIV infection among injection drug users.

Studies among injection drug users (IDUs) find a higher prevalence of HIV infection among black and Puerto Rican IDUs than among white IDUs. Risk behaviors seldom explain these differences. We examine how risk networks contribute to racial/ethnic variations in HIV prevalence.

Simplifying metabolic complexity.

A complete description of the regulation of metabolism in even a single cell will be very hard to achieve, enormous and indigestible. However, there are two powerful ways to simplify the complexity. Firstly, related processes and intermediates can be grouped into a small number of modules, and the regulation of the simplified system can be studied.

Effect of perforations in burr hole covers on cranial bone regeneration in rabbits.

The reconstruction of bone defects is a significant problem in cranio-maxillofacial surgery. In an effort to avoid the known disadvantages of autogenous bone grafting, alternatives have been investigated. Bone substitute materials, degradable or nondegradable, aim at facilitating bone regeneration, while they take over load-bearing functions for a period of time.

Haemophilia Utilization Group Study: assessment of functional health status in haemophilia.

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between health care and utilization of that health care, and to provide a base measurement of health status in patients with haemophilia. Provider interview and retrospective chart review of 336 patients with haemophilia treated during 1995 at one of five comprehensive haemophilia treatment centres was conducted to measure patient health status characteristics and utilization of health care. Two health status scales were included.

Differential modulation of sodium channel gating and persistent sodium currents by the beta1, beta2, and beta3 subunits.

Brain sodium channels are complexes of a pore-forming alpha subunit with auxiliary beta subunits, which are transmembrane proteins that modulate alpha subunit function. The newly cloned beta3 subunit is shown to be expressed broadly in neurons in the central and peripheral nervous systems, but not in glia and most nonneuronal cells. Beta1, beta2, and beta3 subunits are coexpressed in many neuronal cell types, but are differentially expressed in ventromedial nucleus of the thalamus, brain stem nuclei, cerebellar Purkinje cells, and dorsal root ganglion cells.

A novel membrane potential-sensitive fluorescent dye improves cell-based assays for ion channels.

The study of ion channel-mediated changes in membrane potential using the conventional bisoxonol fluorescent dye DiBAC(4)(3) has several limitations, including a slow onset of response and multistep preparation, that limit both the fidelity of the results and the throughput of membrane potential assays. Here, we report the characterization of the FLIPR Membrane Potential Assay Kit (FMP) in cells expressing voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels. The steady-state and kinetics fluorescence properties of FMP were compared with those of DiBAC(4)(3), using both FLIPR and whole-cell patch-clamp recording.

Lung cancer following chemotherapy and radiotherapy for Hodgkin's disease.

Background: Lung cancer is a frequent cause of death in patients cured of Hodgkin's disease, but the contributions of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and smoking are not well described. We quantified the risk of treatment-associated lung cancer, taking into account tobacco use.

Methods: Within a population-based cohort of 19 046 Hodgkin's disease patients (diagnosed from 1965 through 1994), a case-control study of lung cancer was conducted.

Sensitivity of a disc rupture strength test to air bubble pores in phosphate-bonded investment materials at elevated temperatures.

Objectives: To investigate the sensitivity of a modified disc rupture test to variables affecting the strength of four phosphate-bonded investment materials under conditions closely resembling the in-service environment. This study examined the influence of air bubble pores on the strength of phosphate bonded investment materials at a temperature of 900 degrees C.

Methods: A modified disc rupture configuration was used to test a circular investment diaphragm with clamped edges, in tension, initiated by bending.

Locomotion evaluation for racing in thoroughbreds.

The potential racing and locomotory profile of a Thoroughbred yearling should be taken into account for its training programme and racing career. A gait test has been designed to assist the trainer in this task. The aim of this study was to investigate the temporal and kinetic locomotory variables of Thoroughbreds at the gallop, in relationship to their racing ability.

Stigmatized drug use, sexual partner concurrency, and other sex risk network and behavior characteristics of 18- to 24-year-old youth in a high-risk neighborhood.

Background: Sex risks and drug use are related. This relation in youth is described.

Goal: To determine how stigmatized drug use is related to sexual risk behaviors and network characteristics among youth.

Private purchasing pools to harness individual tax credits for consumers.

While health insurance tax credits could help people who otherwise could not afford to purchase coverage, many might still find individual coverage too expensive and its marketplace dynamics bewildering. As an alternative, this paper outlines an approach using private purchasing pools for tax-credit recipients. The objective is to offer these individuals and families a choice among competing health plans, and provide many of the same advantages enjoyed by workers in large employer groups, such as relatively low administrative costs, no health rating, and an effective "sponsor.

The quality and isolation of habitat patches both determine where butterflies persist in fragmented landscapes.

Habitat quality and metapopulation effects are the main hypotheses that currently explain the disproportionate decline of insects in cultivated Holarctic landscapes. The former assumes a degradation in habitat quality for insects within surviving ecosystems, the latter that too few, small or isolated islands of ecosystem remain in landscapes for populations to persist. These hypotheses are often treated as alternatives, and this can lead to serious conflict in the interpretations of conservationists.

Sodium channel beta1 and beta3 subunits associate with neurofascin through their extracellular immunoglobulin-like domain.

Sequence homology predicts that the extracellular domain of the sodium channel beta1 subunit forms an immunoglobulin (Ig) fold and functions as a cell adhesion molecule. We show here that beta1 subunits associate with neurofascin, a neuronal cell adhesion molecule that plays a key role in the assembly of nodes of Ranvier. The first Ig-like domain and second fibronectin type III-like domain of neurofascin mediate the interaction with the extracellular Ig-like domain of beta1, confirming the proposed function of this domain as a cell adhesion molecule.

Outcomes of child sexual contacts: patterns of incarcerations from a national sample.

Objective: In a test of the relationships between sexual touching before puberty and later incarcerations during adolescence and adulthood, two theoretical models were examined. These models focus on examination of crime from the developmental origins of criminals and the adaptive and maladaptive outcomes of early experiences.

Method: Data were taken from the National Health and Social Life Survey to study the sexual touching and social origin variables in childhood and incarceration variable during teen years.

Consistent condom use in the heterosexual relationships of young adults who live in a high-HIV-risk neighbourhood and do not use "hard drugs".

This study was set up to determine the predictors of condom use in the heterosexual non-commercial sexual relationships of young adults who neither inject drugs nor use cocaine, heroin or crack, in a neighbourhood with widespread drug-use-connected HIV. The analytic sample is 279 young adults, aged 18-24, who have never injected drugs and who have not used heroin, cocaine or crack in the last year. They were recruited in the Bushwick neighbourhood of New York City, July 1997 to September 1999.

Chickenpox and stroke in childhood: a study of frequency and causation.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether infection with varicella is causal for arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) in children.

Methods: First, a prospective cohort study was conducted in young children (aged 6 months to 10 years) with AIS at 2 institutions (cohort study). The presence of varicella infection <12 months before AIS was determined and compared with the published frequency of varicella infection in the healthy pediatric population.

A comparison of two nickel-titanium instrumentation techniques in teeth using microcomputed tomography.

Aim: The aim of the study was to compare the shaping of root canals by two nickel-titanium instrumentation techniques using microcomputed tomography (MCT).

Methodology: Ten mandibular first molar teeth (30 canals) that had intact crowns and fully formed roots were scanned using MCT. Fifteen canals were instrumented using NiTiFlex hand files (Maillefer) using balanced force.

Measurement of the setting and thermal expansion of dental investments used for the superplastic forming of dental implant superstructures.

Objectives: The study examined the setting and thermal expansions of seven dental casting investments intended for use in the superplastic forming (SPF) of Ti6A14V for dental implant superstructures. The total expansion is compared with the coefficient of thermal expansion of the alloy.

Methods: The unrestricted setting expansion of the investment was measured at room temperature using a lined brass trough and dial gauge.

Characterisation of a collagen gene subfamily from the potato cyst nematode Globodera pallida.

We have isolated two full-length genomic DNA sequences, which encode the cuticle collagen proteins GP-COL-1 and GP-COL-2, from the potato cyst nematode Globodera pallida. A third, partial collagen gene ORF termed gp-col-t(t=truncated) has also been isolated and appears to represent an unexpressed pseudogene. The gp-col-1 and gp-col-2 genes both contain three short (<97 bp) introns which disrupt coding regions predicted to specify proteins with molecular weights of 33 and 32.

The influence of handling technique on the strength of phosphate-bonded investments.

Objectives: This study examined the influence of six handling techniques on the strength of four phosphate-bonded investment (PBI) materials. The size and distribution of pores produced by the handling techniques were investigated and their effect on room temperature strength determined.

Methods: Specimens were tested for strength using four point bend at a cross-head speed of 1 mm min-1.