A new approach to modeling vertical stiffness in heel-toe distance runners.

Various models have been used to describe distance running technique. Among these, the mass-spring model is fairly simple to use and apply, but when employed as a model, does not predict vertical force accurately especially when a heel strike is exhibited. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the mass-spring model can be modified to provide a simple, yet accurate prediction of ground reaction forces in distance running.

Hepatitis C infection among dental personnel in the West of Scotland, UK.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is considered a serious occupational hazard for healthcare workers, particularly those performing exposure-prone procedures. In the UK, the majority of dental procedures are classified as exposure prone. In order to gauge the prevalence and determinants of infection among dental healthcare workers, a voluntary anonymous survey of HCV infection among primary care dental workers employed in the West of Scotland was undertaken, in which occupational and personal risk data were collected in parallel with a blood specimen.

Massive pulmonary embolism due to late-onset heparin-induced thrombocytopenia following coronary artery bypass graft surgery: successful treatment with lepirudin.

Most cardiac surgical patients have had previous exposure to heparin for diagnostic or therapeutic interventions and hence have an increased susceptibility to developing heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) postoperatively. HIT is an immune-mediated adverse drug reaction that may be associated with limb or life-threatening thrombosis. Heparin cessation is a vital first step in treatment; however, alternative anticoagulant therapy is essential.

Dynamics of the human head-neck system in the horizontal plane: joint properties with respect to a static torque.

The vestibular system has often been studied by perturbing the position of the head. This study was conducted to identify the dynamic properties of the head-neck system in response to horizontal plane perturbations. A quasilinear approach was used to quantify the dynamics of the head-neck system at different levels of static torque.

Recognition of adenosine triphosphate binding sites using parallel cascade system identification.

Parallel cascade identification (PCI) is a method for approximating the behavior of a nonlinear system, from input/output training data, by constructing a parallel array of cascaded dynamic linear and static nonlinear elements. PCI has previously been shown to provide an effective means for classifying protein sequences into structure/function families. In the present study, PCI is used to distinguish proteins that are binding to adenosine triphosphate or guanine triphosphate molecules from those that are nonbinding.

Production of diarrheal enterotoxins and other potential virulence factors by veterinary isolates of bacillus species associated with nongastrointestinal infections.

With the exceptions of Bacillus cereus and Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus species are generally perceived to be inconsequential. However, the relevance of other Bacillus species as food poisoning organisms and etiological agents in nongastrointestinal infections is being increasingly recognized. Eleven Bacillus species isolated from veterinary samples associated with severe nongastrointestinal infections were assessed for the presence and expression of diarrheagenic enterotoxins and other potential virulence factors.

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha-induced activation of RhoA in airway smooth muscle cells: role in the Ca2+ sensitization of myosin light chain20 phosphorylation.

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF), an inflammatory cytokine, has a potentially important role in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma and may contribute to airway hyper-responsiveness. Recent evidence has revealed that TNF can increase the Ca(2+) sensitivity of agonist-stimulated myosin light chain(20) (MLC(20)) phosphorylation and contractility in guinea pig airway smooth muscle (ASM). In the present study, the potential intracellular pathways responsible for this TNF-induced Ca(2+) sensitization were investigated.

Laser Raman spectroscopic analysis of polymorphic forms in microliter fluid volumes.

Knowledge and control of the polymorphic phase of chemical compounds are important aspects of drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. We report herein in situ and real-time Raman spectroscopic polymorphic analysis of optically trapped microcrystals in a microliter volume format. The system studied in particular was the recrystallization of carbamazepine (CBZ) in methanol.

Azole antifungals are potent inhibitors of cytochrome P450 mono-oxygenases and bacterial growth in mycobacteria and streptomycetes.

The genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has revealed the presence of 20 different cytochrome P450 mono-oxygenases (P450s) within this organism, and subsequent genome sequences of other mycobacteria and of Streptomyces coelicolor have indicated that these actinomycetes also have large complements of P450s, pointing to important physiological roles for these enzymes. The actinomycete P450s include homologues of 14alpha-sterol demethylases, the targets for the azole class of drugs in yeast and fungi. Previously, this type of P450 was considered to be absent from bacteria.

The structure and mechanism of the type II dehydroquinase from Streptomyces coelicolor.

The structure of the type II DHQase from Streptomyces coelicolor has been solved and refined to high resolution in complexes with a number of ligands, including dehydroshikimate and a rationally designed transition state analogue, 2,3-anhydro-quinic acid. These structures define the active site of the enzyme and the role of key amino acid residues and provide snap shots of the catalytic cycle. The resolution of the flexible lid domain (residues 21-31) shows that the invariant residues Arg23 and Tyr28 close over the active site cleft.

Importance of pH monitoring in the care of long-term catheters.

One of the main complications encountered by patients with long-term in-dwelling catheters is that of catheter blockage as a result of encrustation. This is usually managed at a district nurse level by the administration of catheter maintenance solutions (CMSs) or frequent catheter changes. However, catheter changes and maintenance solutions are often only employed after blockage has occurred.

Putative virulence factor expression by clinical and food isolates of Bacillus spp. after growth in reconstituted infant milk formulae.

Forty-seven strains representing 14 different Bacillus species isolated from clinical and food samples were grown in reconstituted infant milk formulae (IMF) and subsequently assessed for adherence to, invasion of, and cytotoxicity toward HEp-2 and Caco-2 cells. Cell-free supernatant fluids from 38 strains (81%) were shown to be cytotoxic, 43 strains (91%) adhered to the test cell lines, and 23 strains (49%) demonstrated various levels of invasion. Of the 21 Bacillus cereus strains examined, 5 (24%) were invasive.

Parallel cascade identification and its application to protein family prediction.

Parallel cascade identification is a method for modeling dynamic systems with possibly high order nonlinearities and lengthy memory, given only input/output data for the system gathered in an experiment. While the method was originally proposed for nonlinear system identification, two recent papers have illustrated its utility for protein family prediction. One strength of this approach is the capability of training effective parallel cascade classifiers from very little training data.

Caspase-dependent cleavage of cadherins and catenins during osteoblast apoptosis.

As transmembrane, Ca2+-dependent cell-cell adhesion molecules, cadherins play a central role in tissue morphogenesis and homeostasis. Stable adhesion is dependent on interactions of the cytoplasmic domain of the cadherins with a group of intracellular proteins, the catenins. In the present study, we have detected the expression of alpha-, beta-, and gamma-catenins in human osteoblasts, which assemble with cadherins to form two distinct complexes containing cadherin and alpha-catenin, with either beta- or gamma-catenin.

Stimulation of stress-activated but not mitogen-activated protein kinases by tumour necrosis factor receptor subtypes in airway smooth muscle.

The multifunctional cytokine tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) displays many physiological effects in a variety of tissues, especially proliferative and cytotoxic actions in immunological cells. Recently, we uncovered an important new mechanism by which TNF can sensitise airway smooth muscle (ASM) to a fixed intracellular Ca2+ concentration which in vivo would produce a marked hypercontractility of the airways. Here, we report that both 50-60 kDa type I TNFR (TNFR1) and 70-80 kDa type II TNFR (TNFR2) receptor subtypes were expressed in ASM cells and selectively activated the stress kinases, c-Jun N-terminal kinase and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK).

3D-1D threading methods for protein fold recognition.

The threading approach to protein fold recognition attempts to evaluate how well a query sequence fits into an already-solved fold. 3D-1D threaders rely on matching 1-dimensional strings of 3-dimensional information predicted from the query sequence with corresponding features of the target structure. In many cases this is combined with a sequence comparison.

A waterborne outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul.

Contamination of a tank water supply system led to an outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul with 28 cases of gastroenteritis amongst over 200 workers at a large construction site. The outbreak was identified following notification of two salmonellosis cases by general practitioners from different towns during March 1999. The source of infection, contaminated drinking water, was identified through environmental sampling and confirmed by epidemiological investigations.

Fat absorption in cystic fibrosis after correction of hypokalaemia.

Extracellular potassium up-regulates exocrine pancreatic function in tissue preparations of mammalian pancreatic lobules. We report on a child with cystic fibrosis in whom clinical evidence suggested that this laboratory observation may be of relevance to clinical practice.

Design and characterization of a laser-based instrument with spectroscopic feedback control for treatment of vascular lesions: the "Smart Scalpel".

To improve the effectiveness of microsurgical techniques, we are developing a semi-autonomous robotic surgical tool (called the "Smart Scalpel") as an alternate approach to treatment of vascular lesions. The device employs optical reflectance spectroscopy as part of a line scan imaging system to identify and selectively target blood vessels in a vascular lesion for thermal treatment with a focused laser beam. Our proof-of-concept reported here presents the design and construction of a prototype instrument, initial quantification of imaging system resolution and contrast, and preliminary verification of the imaging and targeting strategies with standard targets and live dermal tissue.

Automatic classification of protein sequences into structure/function groups via parallel cascade identification: a feasibility study.

A recent paper introduced the approach of using nonlinear system identification as a means for automatically classifying protein sequences into their structure/function families. The particular technique utilized, known as parallel cascade identification (PCI), could train classifiers on a very limited set of exemplars from the protein families to be distinguished and still achieve impressively good two-way classifications. For the nonlinear system classifiers to have numerical inputs, each amino acid in the protein was mapped into a corresponding hydrophobicity value, and the resulting hydrophobicity profile was used in place of the primary amino acid sequence.

Prevalence and aetiology of hypothyroidism in the young.

Aims: To define the prevalence of hypothyroid disease in children and young people, and describe its aetiology.

Methods: We identified all patients on the Medicines Monitoring Unit (MEMO) database in the Tayside region of Scotland who had received two or more prescriptions for thyroxine during the study period (January 1993 to December 1995). Using this as a surrogate marker of hypothyroidism, we calculated the prevalence of hypothyroidism in those aged less than 22 years.