Reliability and validity of the Diabetes Family Behavior Scale (DFBS).

The Diabetes Family Behavior Scale (DFBS) was designed to measure diabetes-specific family support. The purposes of this study were to refine the scale and to assess reliability and criterion validity in terms of relationship to metabolic control. The DFBS was administered to 321 children and adolescents with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM).

Complementary distributions of vinculin and dystrophin define two distinct sarcolemma domains in smooth muscle.

The sarcolemma of the smooth muscle cell displays two alternating structural domains in the electron microscope: densely-staining plaques that correspond to the adherens junctions and intervening uncoated regions which are rich in membrane invaginations, or caveolae. The adherens junctions serve as membrane anchorage sites for the actin cytoskeleton and are typically marked by antibodies to vinculin. We show here by immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy that dystrophin is specifically localized in the caveolae-rich domains of the smooth muscle sarcolemma, together with the caveolae-associated molecule caveolin.

Smooth muscle differentiation in human myometrium and uterine leiomyoma.

Smooth muscle differentiation has been analysed in human myometrium and leiomyoma by Western blotting with antibodies to smooth muscle specific proteins. No differences in the expression of h-caldesmon, metavinculin, desmin, alpha-smooth muscle actin and calponin were observed. The technique of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was used, therefore, to further analyse differences between normal smooth muscle cells and their neoplastic counterparts.

Pheromone binding to two rodent urinary proteins revealed by X-ray crystallography.

The principal protein excreted in male rat urine, urinary alpha 2-globulin and the homologous mouse protein, major urinary protein, have been well characterized, although their functions remain unclear. Male rat urine affects the behaviour and sexual response of female rats, leading to the proposal that rodent urinary proteins are responsible for binding pheromones and their subsequent release from drying urine. Urinary alpha 2-globulin is also involved in hyaline droplet nephropathy, an important toxicological syndrome in male rats resulting from exposure to a number of industrial chemicals and characterized by the accumulation of liganded urinary alpha 2-globulin in lysosomes in the kidney, followed by the induction of renal cancer.

Role of integration host factor in stimulating transcription from the sigma 54-dependent nifH promoter.

In a wide variety of nitrogen-fixing organisms among the Purple Bacteria (large division of Gram-negative bacteria) the nitrogen fixation (nif) operons are transcribed by an alternative holoenzyme form of RNA polymerase, sigma 54-holoenzyme. Transcription depends on the activator protein NIFA (nitrogen fixation protein A), which catalyzes isomerization of closed complexes between this polymerase and a promoter to transcriptionally productive open complexes. NIFA-mediated activation of transcription from the nifH promoter of Klebsiella pneumoniae is greatly stimulated by the integration host factor IHF, which binds to a site between the upstream binding site for NIFA and the promoter, and bends the DNA.

Crystallization and initial X-ray analysis of the C2-subunit of crustacyanin.

Crystals of the C2-subunit of crustacyanin have been grown from solutions containing ammonium sulphate and 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol as co-precipitants. The crystals belong to space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) (a = 42.0 A, b = 80.

Purification and initial characterization of AhrC: the regulator of arginine metabolism genes in Bacillus subtilis.

The arginine-dependent repressor-activator from Bacillus subtilis, AhrC, has been overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. AhrC, expressed in E. coli, is able to repress a Bacillus promoter (argCp), which lies upstream of the argC gene.

Prokaryotic transcriptional enhancers and enhancer-binding proteins.

A number of prokaryotic enhancer-binding proteins activate transcription by specialized forms of RNA polymerase. The enhancer-binding proteins catalyse isomerization of the initial complex formed between RNA polymerase and a promoter from the closed to the open state. To do so, one class of enhancer-binding proteins contacts its cognate polymerase by DNA loop formation but the other, which is represented by a single member, does not.

Trimethoprim binds in a bacterial mode to the wild-type and E30D mutant of mouse dihydrofolate reductase.

Previous crystallographic studies of the antibacterial trimethoprim in complexes with bacterial and avian dihydrofolate reductases have shown substantial differences in the mode of binding, providing plausible explanations for the origin of the remarkable species selectivity of this inhibitor (Matthews, D. A., Bolin, J.

Mouse oncogene protein 24p3 is a member of the lipocalin protein family.

Rigorous new methods of protein sequence analysis have been applied to the lipocalins, a diverse family of ligand binding proteins. Using three conserved sequence motifs to search for similar patterns in a large sequence database, the size and composition of this protein family have been defined in an automatic and objective way. It has allowed the identification of an existing sequence, mouse 24p3 protein, as a lipocalin and the possible rejection of other putative members from this protein family.

Crystallization of and preliminary X-ray data for the mouse major urinary protein and rat alpha-2u globulin.

Crystals of the mouse major urinary protein (MUP) and rat alpha-2u globulin (AMG) have been grown from solutions of polyethylene glycol 3350 and CdCl2, respectively. The crystals differ both in their morphologies and space groups but have very similar unit cell sizes. AMG crystallized in P2(1) (a = 56.

Structure of the pig insulin dimer in the cubic crystal.

Atomic coordinates for pig insulin in the cubic crystal have been refined by reciprocal-space methods to an R factor of 0.173 for data between 10.0 and 1.

Visual and auditory coding confusability in students with and without learning disabilities.

The nature of visual and auditory coding processes in students with learning disabilities (SLDs) and student controls (SCs) was examined with a letter-matching task on four types of successively presented letter pairs: identical (A,A), visually confusable (P,R), auditorily confusable (F,S), and neither visually nor auditorily confusable (N,T). Two delay intervals (0 and 2 seconds) were used between the presentation of the first and second letters. Analysis of decision latencies on the nonidentical letter pair trials revealed that with initial exposure to the task, the SLDs responded more slowly than SCs, but their general confusability patterns (visual and auditory) were similar.

Nucleotide sequence of a Bacillus subtilis arginine regulatory gene and homology of its product to the Escherichia coli arginine repressor.

In Bacillus subtilis, arginine represses its biosynthetic enzymes and activates its catabolic ones via a regulator gene ahrC. A 6.2-kb EcoRI fragment of B.

Applications of molecular graphics for the study of recognition.

Molecular recognition depends upon a precise structural complementarity between the pairs of molecules concerned. For example, the strong affinity between an antigen and its specific antibody can be negated by replacement of a single amino-acid residue. The protein beta-lactoglobulin from cows' milk is a member of a family of ligand-binding proteins with dual molecular recognition properties--for ligand and for a target receptor cell.

Three-dimensional arrangement of conserved amino acid residues in a superfamily of specific ligand-binding proteins.

Beta-lactoglobulin has been found to be a member of a super family of protein that bind specific ligands and which share common features in their amino acid sequences. Here we show that these features are grouped spatially on the surface of the proteins and suggest that they may be concerned with binding to cell-surface receptors.

Sequences required for regulation of arginine biosynthesis promoters are conserved between Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli.

The region required for regulation of a previously characterized arginine-regulatable promoter upstream from the argC gene in the argCAEBD-cpa-argF cluster of Bacillus subtilis was defined by integration of argC-lacZ translational fusions into the chromosome at a site distant from the arginine loci. Some sequence similarity was detected between the argC regulatory region and the well-characterized Escherichia coli arginine operators (ARG boxes). This similarity was shown to be functional in vivo in that the B.

The human locus coeruleus: computer reconstruction of cellular distribution.

Quantitative neuroanatomical techniques were developed to map the distribution of norepinephrine-containing locus coeruleus (LC) neurons in the adult human brain. These neurons reside in the dorsolateral pontine tegmentum and are identifiable by their neuromelanin pigment content. Five brains, ranging in age from 60 to 104 years, were examined.

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction and orofacial pain caused by parotid gland malignancy: report of case.

A 41-year-old female with 2 years of mandibular and maxillary facial pain sought multiple medical evaluations. Symptoms were similar to those accompanying many benign temporomandibular, salivary gland, and neurological disorders. Through manual palpation, a slight swelling in the salivary gland was discovered; a malignant carcinoma was removed by parotidectomy.

[Use of discourse analysis for evaluation of the condition of patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type].

The study was concerned with the ability to discourse in a group of 10 patients with minor or moderately severe disturbances in Alzheimer disease and in a control group of healthy subjects. The aim the study was to answer the question whether patients with this disease have language deficits, and if they have, then at what level they appear and what is their influence on the communication ability. The experimental task included production of a narrative and a procedural discourse.