The effects of wealth, occupation, and immigration on epidemic mortality from selected infectious diseases and epidemics in Holyoke township, Massachusetts, 1850-1912.

Background: Previous research suggests individual-level socioeconomic circumstances and resources may be especially salient influences on mortality within the broader context of social, economic, and environmental factors affecting urban 19th century mortality.

Objective: We sought to test individual-level socioeconomic effects on mortality from infectious and often epidemic diseases in the context of an emerging New England industrial mill town.

Method: We analyze mortality data from comprehensive death records and a sample of death records linked to census data, for an emergent industrial New England town, to analyze infectious mortality and model socioeconomic effects using Poisson rate regression.

The evolution of social behavior in the prehistoric American southwest.

Long House Valley, located in the Black Mesa area of northeastern Arizona (USA), was inhabited by the Kayenta Anasazi from circa 1800 B.C. to circa A.

Population growth and collapse in a multiagent model of the Kayenta Anasazi in Long House Valley.

Long House Valley in the Black Mesa area of northeastern Arizona (U.S.) was inhabited by the Kayenta Anasazi from about 1800 before Christ to about anno Domini 1300.

Characterization of vasoactive intestinal peptide receptors in retina.

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is a neuropeptide having a wide range of effects on a large number of tissues. To gain insight into the role VIP plays in retinal function, VIP receptors in bovine retinal membranes were analyzed in competition binding assays and by affinity labeling studies and compared to VIP receptors in rat liver membranes. In both membrane preparations, high affinity VIP binding sites (KD approximately 1 nM) were detected.

Nonsurgical management of esophageal perforation from pneumatic dilatation in achalasia.

Perforation of the esophagus is a well-described complication of pneumatic dilatation in patients with achalasia. Although successful management of these patients without surgical intervention has been reported, little follow-up data exist. We report the successful nonsurgical management of esophageal perforation after pneumatic dilatation in three patients.

Genetic reconstitution of functional acetylcholine receptor channels in mouse fibroblasts.

Foreign genes can be stably integrated into the genome of a cell by means of DNA-mediated gene transfer techniques, and large quantities of homogenous cells that continuously express these gene products can then be isolated. Such an expression system can be used to study the functional consequences of introducing specific mutations into genes and to study the expressed protein in the absence of cellular components with which it is normally in contact. All four Torpedo acetylcholine receptor (AChR) subunit complementary DNA's were introduced into the genome of a mouse fibroblast cell by DNA-mediated gene transfer.

Sclerosing cholangitis from intraarterial floxuridine.

The development of biliary strictures simulating sclerosing cholangitis is now well-known. We report a patient undergoing intraarterial chemotherapy for metastatic colon cancer of the liver in whom segmental intrahepatic biliary strictures occurred remote from known metastases. The patient remains alive 3-4 years after documented liver metastases with severe progressive portal hypertension, hypersplenism, and fat malabsorption.

Population structure in the Connecticut Valley: II. A comparison of multidimensional scaling solutions of migration matrices and isonymy.

In a previous paper (Swedlund et al., 1984) we have described the population structure of the historical Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts in terms of matrimonial migration matrices. Using procedures described by Morton (1973), Harpending and Jenkins (1974), Jorde (1980), and others the exchanges between subdivisions which make up the matrices are made column stochastic and analyzed to predict genetic kinship.

Population structure in the Connecticut Valley. I. Marital migration.

This study reports on an analysis of marital migration among 12 communities in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts during the years 1790-1849. Genetic inferences are drawn, and the requisite assumptions considered. The effect of geographic distance on genetic kinship is predicted using Malécot's isolation-by-distance model.