Faecal candida and diarrhoea.

Background: Candida species are frequently isolated from stools of children with diarrhoea but are not proven enteropathogens. It is hypothesised that faecal candida causes diarrhoea.

Aims: To determine the prevalence of faecal candida in childhood diarrhoea and the relation between faecal yeasts and diarrhoea.

Enhancing mastery and sense of coherence: important determinants of health in older adults.

The purpose of the study was to expand existing knowledge of the determinants of health for community-dwelling young-old and old-old people. A subsample (n = 2413) from the Health Canada Supplement to the 1994 National Population Health Survey was analyzed. The factors examined were biographic attributes, sociodemographic indicators, sense of coherence (SOC), mastery, self-esteem, informal social support, and use of health care services.

Purification of the vertebrate nuclear pore complex by biochemical criteria.

The nuclear pore is a large and complex biological machine, mediating all signal-directed transport between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. The vertebrate pore has a mass of approximately 120 million daltons or 30 times the size of a ribosome. The large size of the pore, coupled to its tight integration in the nuclear lamina, has hampered the isolation of pore complexes from vertebrate sources.

Identification of a new vertebrate nucleoporin, Nup188, with the use of a novel organelle trap assay.

The study of the nuclear pore in vertebrates would benefit from a strategy to directly identify new nucleoporins and interactions between those nucleoporins. We have developed a novel two-step "organelle trap" assay involving affinity selection and in vitro pore assembly. In the first step, soluble proteins derived from Xenopus egg extracts are applied to a column containing a ligand of interest.

Prevalence and pattern of childhood abdominal pain in an Australian general practice.

Objective: Abdominal pain is a common problem in childhood and accounts for a significant workload in general practice. The aim of this study was assess the nature of abdominal pain in a sample of Australian children attending a Western Australian general practice for any reason, and to determine factors associated with the reporting of such pain.

Methodology: A prospective study of children and their families attending a rural general practice was undertaken using a parental survey to assess the frequency and nature of abdominal pain, demographic features, physical and behavioural characteristics.

Genetically distinct strains of Candida albicans with elevated secretory proteinase production are associated with diarrhoea in hospitalized children.

Background: Candida albicans has been implicated as the aetiological agent in a significant percentage of children with diarrhoea. The virulence properties of C. albicans strains associated with acute and chronic diarrhoea in hospitalized children were investigated.

Detection and importance of laxative use in adolescents with anorexia nervosa.

Objective: The frequency of laxative use in adolescents with anorexia nervosa is poorly described. This study of adolescents with anorexia nervosa examined self-report and biochemical screening methods for the detection of laxative use, the pattern of laxative use in this population over time, and the associated medical complications and psychopathology.

Method: Forty-three consecutive patients with anorexia nervosa were studied.

A porcine model of prolonged closed chest venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

The sheep has been the standard laboratory animal for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) research for many years and has proven to be an invaluable and reliable model. However the coagulation system of the sheep is significantly different from humans. These differences make it difficult to investigate the coagulative and inflammatory response to ECMO in sheep.

Psychological and social characteristics and precipitants of vomiting in children with cyclic vomiting syndrome.

A psychological etiology or predisposition for cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) has long been suspected. Much of the psychiatric literature to date has blamed patients or their families for the problem or focused on psychoanalytic interpretation to account for the syndrome. Thirty-two patients with CVS were compared with 64 age- and sex-matched controls.

MMPI-2 data for Australian Vietnam Veterans with combat-related PTSD.

Considerable attention has been devoted to the MMPI in the assessment of combat-related PTSD. To date, published data have focused almost exclusively on American Vietnam veterans. This study investigated MMPI-2 profiles of 100 Australian Vietnam veterans admitted to an intensive PTSD treatment program.

Warrantable evidence in nursing science.

Consensus among nurse scholars has not been reached regarding suitable qualities for accepting or rejecting the evidence arising from various world views. The authors' purpose in writing the paper is to describe the qualities or warrants for evaluating scientific findings (the 'evidence') of different research perspectives. The warrantable evidence pertinent to post-positivist, interpretivist, critical social theorist, and feminist perspectives are described and common warrants are suggested.

Sequence and PCR-RFLP analysis of the internal transcribed spacers of the rDNA repeat unit in isolates of Cryptosporidium from different hosts.

The Cryptosporidium ITS1, 5.8S and ITS2 rDNA regions from a number of Cryptosporidium isolates from different hosts and geographical areas were cloned and sequenced in order to investigate the extent of sequence heterogeneity between human and cattle-derived isolates from different geographical locations and also between isolates of Cryptosporidium from different hosts such as cats, pigs, mice and a koala. Calf-derived isolates from different continents were virtually identical as were human-derived isolates from the UK and Australia.

The nucleoporin nup153 plays a critical role in multiple types of nuclear export.

The fundamental process of nucleocytoplasmic transport takes place through the nuclear pore. Peripheral pore structures are presumably poised to interact with transport receptors and their cargo as these receptor complexes first encounter the pore. One such peripheral structure likely to play an important role in nuclear export is the basket structure located on the nuclear side of the pore.

Goal Attainment Scaling. A responsive measure of client outcomes.

Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) was developed by Kiresuk and Sherman in 1968. Although highly criticized in the early years of its conception, GAS is beginning to be recognized as a reliable, valid, and responsive outcome measurement approach. This article describes the application of GAS, using elderly home health care clients as an example.

Separate nuclear import pathways converge on the nucleoporin Nup153 and can be dissected with dominant-negative inhibitors.

Background: Proteins generally enter or exit the nucleus as cargo of one of a small family of import and export receptors. These receptors bear distant homology to importin beta, a subunit of the receptor for proteins with classical nuclear localisation sequences (NLSs). To understand the mechanism of nuclear transport, the next question involves identifying the nuclear pore proteins that interact with the different transport receptors as they dock at the pore and translocate through it.

Birth outcome, not pregnancy process: reply to van der Veen.

In a recent article (Frisbie, Forbes, and Pullum 1996) we documented racial/ethnic differences in birth outcomes according to a more fine-grained classification than has typically been employed in the demographic literature. In his commentary, van der Veen focuses on the measurement of one of the dimensions of that classification, maturity of the infant, as proxied by the fetal growth ratio. The crux of the critique is easily seen in van der Veen's statement that "all of my disagreements with Frisbie et al.

Strategies for managing behavioural symptomatology associated with dementia of the Alzheimer type: a systematic overview.

The purpose of this systematic overview was to summarize research findings on strategies for managing the behavioural symptomatology associated with dementia of the Alzheimer type. A search of the published and unpublished literature resulted in 265 articles, 45 of which were judged to be relevant. Using validity criteria, 1 article was judged to be strong, 6 moderate, 20 weak, and 18 poor.

Molecular characterization of Cryptosporidium from various hosts.

A 298 bp region of the Cryptosporidium parvum 18S rDNA and a 390 bp region of the acetyl-CoA synthetase gene were sequenced for a range of human and animal isolates of Cryptosporidium from different geographical areas. A distinct genotype is common to isolates from cattle, sheep and goats and also an alpaca from Peru and is referred to here as the 'calf'-derived Cryptosporidium genotype. Another genotype of 'human'-derived isolates also appears to be conserved amongst human isolates although humans are also susceptible to infection with the 'calf' Cryptosporidium genotype.

Comparison of PCR and microscopy for detection of Cryptosporidium parvum in human fecal specimens: clinical trial.

PCR technology offers alternatives to conventional diagnosis of Cryptosporidium for both clinical and environmental samples. We compared microscopic examination by a conventional acid-fast staining procedure with a recently developed PCR test that can not only detect Cryptosporidium but is also able to differentiate between what appear to be host-adapted genotypes of the parasite. Examinations were performed on 511 stool specimens referred for screening on the basis of diarrhea.

Major binding sites for the nuclear import receptor are the internal nucleoporin Nup153 and the adjacent nuclear filament protein Tpr.

A major question in nuclear import concerns the identity of the nucleoporin(s) that interact with the nuclear localization sequences (NLS) receptor and its cargo as they traverse the nuclear pore. Ligand blotting and solution binding studies of isolated proteins have attempted to gain clues to the identities of these nucleoporins, but the studies have from necessity probed binding events far from an in vivo context. Here we have asked what binding events occur in the more physiological context of a Xenopus egg extract, which contains nuclear pore subcomplexes in an assembly competent state.

Precipitants and aetiology of cyclic vomiting syndrome.

Thirty-two patients aged 2-22 y with cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS), and 64 age- and gender-matched controls were assessed to determine the nature, severity, precipitants and associated features of attacks and the incidence of potential aetiological factors. The mean age of onset was 3.5 y.

Racial and ethnic differences in determinants of intrauterine growth retardation and other compromised birth outcomes.

Objectives: This study examined the extent of variation by race/ethnicity in the prevalence of adverse birth outcomes, whether differentials persisted after other risk factors were controlled for, and whether the direction and magnitude of relationships differed by type of outcome.

Methods: A revised system of measurement was used to estimate multinomial logistic models in a large, nationally representative US data set.

Results: Considerable racial/ethnic variation was found across birth outcome categories; differences persisted in the adjusted parameter estimates; and the effects of other risk factors on birth outcomes were similar as to direction, but varied somewhat in magnitude.

Inhibition of mRNA export in vertebrate cells by nuclear export signal conjugates.

Leucine-rich nuclear export signals (NESs) are recognized by the NES receptor exportin 1 and are central to the export of multiple shuttling proteins and RNAs. The export of messenger RNA in vertebrates was, however, thought to occur by a different pathway, because inhibition by injection of a synthetic Rev NES conjugate could not be demonstrated. Here we find that peptide conjugates composed of the NES of either protein kinase A inhibitor protein (PKI) or the HIV-1 Rev protein, when coupled to human serum albumin, are potent inhibitors of mRNA and small nuclear RNA export.