Psychological and social aspects of burns.

Although the literature on the psychological consequences of burns is fairly extensive, the evidence gathered by the charity 'Changing Faces' over the last 2 years suggests that the resources allocated to psychological rehabilitation are still far from adequate. This article draws on the personal experience of one of the authors who was in a car fire 24 years ago, reviews some of the literature, briefly looks at the work done by Changing Faces and discusses some of the tasks of the 'burns team'. The authors are aware that generalizations about the consequences of burns are fraught with risk because every fire has its own causes and complications, but it is hoped that the themes expressed here do raise important general points.

Patterns and implications of MR contrast enhancement in perinatal asphyxia: a preliminary report.

Purpose: To determine the presence and location of MR contrast enhancement in infants with perinatal asphyxia and to evaluate the utility of enhancement in assessing extent of brain damage.

Methods: Precontrast and postcontrast MR examinations within the first 10 days of life were evaluated in 10 infants with suspected hypoxic-ischemic birth injury. Findings were correlated with clinical birth history and short-term neurologic follow-up.

A novel 13C isotopic labelling strategy for probing the structure and dynamics of glycan chains in situ on glycoproteins.

A protocol is described for uniform 13C labelling of terminal galactose residues of the glycan chains of glycoproteins, using an enzymatic method which does not perturb the protein. The technique is illustrated by application to the biantennary N-linked glycan chains attached at Asn 297 of immunoglobulin G (IgG). Isotope-edited NMR experiments on this glycoprotein yield data which suggest that the galactose residues on the glycan exist in two discrete environments, with the galactose in one environment having greater mobility than that in the other.

Asphyxia while swallowing solid food caused by bronchial compression: a variant of the pneumonectomy syndrome.

A 40 year old man presented with recurrent episodes of dyspnoea whilst swallowing solid food. He had undergone right pneumonectomy and thoracoplasty for recurrent pneumonias and empyema 23 years previously. Solid food boluses appeared to cause bronchial obstruction by compressing the surgically distorted left main bronchus.

Characterization of the extent of internal motions in oligosaccharides.

A detailed investigation has been undertaken on the extent and nature of torsional fluctuations about the glycosidic linkage of the model disaccharide Man alpha 1-3Man alpha 1-OMe. In particular, we sought to determine whether the three nuclear Overhauser effects and the two long-range heteronuclear 3JCH spin coupling constants measurable across the glycosidic linkage were consistent with a single conformation or multiple conformations about that linkage. Within experimental error, we have found that these five parameters can be interpreted in terms of a single, rigid geometry.

Effect of bundling and high environmental temperature on neonatal body temperature.

Objective: The effect of bundling and ambient heat on newborn body temperature has not been systematically studied. It was hypothesized that bundling and warm environments can elevate the newborn's temperatures to the range that would prompt clinical concern of neonatal sepsis.

Methods: Twenty well, term newborns more than 1 day old were assigned to the control group (one blanket; 24.

Nucleotide sequence analysis and heterologous expression of the Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae dnaJ gene.

DNA sequence analysis of chromosomal DNA from the Gram-positive facultative intracellular pathogen, Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae has identified a dnaJ heat shock gene homolog. A 1109-bp open reading frame encoding dnaJ is located immediately 3' to the E. rhusiopathiae dnaK gene.

The psychological effects of facial disfigurement.

A study of the aftermath of facial disfigurement and a report of an initiative to tackle the inner scars of that experience.

A new component of the transcription factor DRTF1/E2F.

Transcription factor DRTF1/E2F coordinates events in the cell cycle with transcription by its cyclical interactions with important regulators of cellular proliferation like the retinoblastoma tumour-suppressor gene product (Rb) and the Rb-related protein, p107 (refs 1-8). DRTF1/E2F binding sites occur in the control regions of genes involved in proliferation, and both Rb and p107 repress the capacity of DRTF1/E2F to activate transcription (refs 11, 12; M. Zamanian and N.

Cloning, heterologous expression, and characterization of the Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae DnaK protein.

The dnaK (hsp70) gene from the facultative intracellular pathogen Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae was cloned by heterologous DNA hybridization of a genomic library using the Escherichia coli dnaK gene as a probe. A 3.2-kb fragment which encoded an 1,800-bp open reading frame was recovered.

Postischemic hyperglycemia is not protective to the neonatal rat brain.

Brain glucose concentration during and after hypoxia-ischemia may be one of the variables affecting outcome of asphyxial insults. Glucose given before global ischemic forebrain injury to adult rats increases morphologic brain damage, and postischemic insulin administration reduces selective neuronal necrosis and cortical infarction. Because glucose infusions are routinely used in the clinical management of perinatal asphyxia, we evaluated the role of glucose administration after ischemic neuronal damage to neonatal rat brain.

Microspectrophotometric determinations of rod visual pigments in some adult and larval Australian amphibians.

Visual pigments from the red rods of adults of eight species of Australian anuran amphibians, from a variety of habitats, were analyzed by microspectrophotometry. The lambda max in all cases fell between 502 nm and 506 nm, and the absorption spectra were well fitted by an A1-based visual pigment template curve. Red rod pigments were also analyzed for a number of tadpoles.

Postnatal human immunodeficiency virus antibody testing. The effects of current policy on infant care and maternal informed consent.

Routine human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody screening of umbilical cord blood identifies neonates at risk for HIV infection but may hold risks as well as benefits for infants and mothers. We describe the effect of testing on infant placement and care and report the women's understanding of pretest counseling and consent. In a case-control analysis of 327 tested infants, seropositive infants (13) had a higher rate of discharge to home (62%) than did controls (31%).

Consultation time, workload, and problems for audit in outpatient clinics.

Fifty four of 74 paediatricians in the West Midlands (43 general medical, 11 subspecialist) replied to a postal questionnaire about their outpatient practice: 37 timed each consultation in one clinic. On average, subspecialty consultations lasted 37 minutes for new patients and 29 minutes for review. In general clinics new patient consultations took 23 minutes, review 12.

The absorbance spectrum and photosensitivity of a new synthetic "visual pigment" based on 4-hydroxyretinal.

The firefly squid, Watasenia scintillans, is the only animal known to possess a visual pigment in which the chromophore is 4-hydroxyretinal. This paper describes the absorbance spectrum and some properties of a synthetic "A4" visual pigment generated from bovine opsin and 4-hydroxyretinal. The absorbance spectrum of this pigment is compared with (a) bovine rhodopsin and (b) a rhodopsin template with the same lambda max as the synthetic visual pigment.

A developmentally regulated and tissue-dependent transcription factor complexes with the retinoblastoma gene product.

DRTF1 is a cellular transcription factor which complexes with the retinoblastoma (Rb) gene product and cyclin A, an association modulated by certain viral oncogenes, such as adenovirus E1a. Complexed DRTF1, referred to as DRTF1a, has similar DNA binding specificity and DNA binding polypeptides to DRTF1b, which lacks Rb. DRTF1b is abundant in both F9 embryonal carcinoma (EC) stem cells and pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells and is strongly down-regulated during the differentiation of both cell types, suggestive of a stem cell E1a-like activity.

Influence of maternal body habitus and glucose tolerance on birth weight.

Many physicians believe that macrosomia is a hallmark of a pregnancy complicated by glucose intolerance. Because the prevalence of obesity is increased among women with gestational diabetes, fetal overgrowth may be attributable at least in part to maternal obesity. We studied 2069 black, Latina, Chinese, and white mother-infant pairs to determine the interaction between maternal body habitus, maternal glucose homeostasis, and certain indices of fetal growth.

Monitoring bovine viral diarrhea virus vaccines for adventitious virus, using T1 ribonuclease viral RNA oligonucleotide fingerprinting.

Viral RNA oligonucleotide fingerprinting was used to discriminate 3 cytopathic vaccine bovine viral diarrhea viruses (BVDV) grown in medium supplemented with serum contaminated with noncytopathic BVDV from the same 3 viruses grown in cell culture free of BVDV. Oligonucleotide fingerprinting also effectively discriminated between reference Singer BVDV, NADL BVDV, and New York-1 BVDV grown in BVDV-free noncontaminated or BVDV-contaminated cell cultures. Oligonucleotide fingerprint mapping of viral RNA maybe used to determine the purity of virus stocks, as well as that of BVDV vaccines.

Monoclonal antibodies define linear and conformational epitopes of HIV-1 pol gene products.

Purified recombinant reverse transcriptase (RT) from human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) was used to raise 21 monoclonal antibodies with anti-RT specificities. The antibodies were characterized using Western blotting against native virus and recognized either the p66 or p66, p51 components of RT. Further immunoblotting using either cyanogen bromide fragmented RT or truncated mutants of RT along with cross-competition studies enabled the location of various immunogenic regions of RT to be identified.

A new template for rhodopsin (vitamin A1 based) visual pigments.

A new template curve for rhodopsin visual pigments is presented. The template was constructed from absorbance spectra of purified bovine rhodopsin with an abscissa transform of lambda max/lambda. Absorbance curves generated from the template are compared with absorbance spectra of visual pigments measured in situ in single cells by microspectrophotometry (msp).

The modelling of optimal visual pigments of dichromatic teleosts in green coastal waters.

We have constructed a computer model that attempts to predict which pairs of rhodopsins are most suitable for making various luminosity and chromaticity discriminations in green coastal water. The model, which is based on the statistics of photon capture by retinal photoreceptors, predicts the optimal visual pigment pairs for different visual tasks. The results obtained from the model compare well with the rhodopsins possessed by dichromatic fish living at moderate depth in green coastal water.