Handedness and hand injuries.

Data are reported from a study of 1,003 patients attending with hand injuries at an Accident and Emergency Department. Among both left- and right-handers, injuries to the right hand were more common than to the left hand, except for accidents to right-handers at work. For this group there were more injuries to the left hand.

Intracellular pH of giant salivary gland cells of the leech Haementeria ghilianii: regulation and effects on secretion.

1. Intracellular pH (pHi) and membrane potential (Em) of giant salivary gland cells of the leech, Haementeria ghilianii, were measured with double-barrelled, neutral-carrier, pH-sensitive microelectrodes. 2.

Lipoxin biosynthesis by trout macrophages involves the formation of epoxide intermediates.

Rainbow trout macrophages incubated with calcium ionophore A23187 or zymosan synthesize a range of lipoxygenase products, including lipoxins from endogenous arachidonic and eicosapentaenoic acids. The profile of products formed was consistent with the presence of 5- and 12-lipoxygenase activity in intact cells, whereas freeze-thaw disruption of macrophages revealed a further 15-lipoxygenase activity. To examine the mechanism of lipoxin biosynthesis in these cells, macrophages from the hemopoietic head kidney were incubated with potential intermediates and substrates, including 5-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (5-HETE), 5-hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (5-HPETE), 15-HETE, 15-HPETE, 5,15-dihydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (5,15-diHPETE), 5,15-dihydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (5,15-diHETE), and LTA4.

Absolute measurements of total-body calcium using prompt gamma neutron analysis and internal chlorine standardization: results in renal patients.

Measurement of total-body calcium (TBCa) is important in the study of several medical conditions. Neutron activation analysis (NAA) is sufficiently precise for serial measurements, but in order to provide single, absolute determinations of TBCa, it requires a correction for body habitus. A method is described for the absolute determination of TBCa by comparing the total-body chlorine, obtained by NAA, with that obtained by stable bromine dilution.

Simulation in training questionnaire design.

Teaching students about the practicalities of questionnaire design and application can raise serious ethical problems if patients are involved in their research. The authors describe how the skills can be effectively taught without recourse to involving patients at all.

Personal experiences of designing questionnaires.

So much for the theory, hut what about the practice? Donna Mead provides an account of creating, implementing and evaluating questionnaires, drawn from her own research.

Cellular and chromosomal hypersensitivity to DNA crosslinking agents and topoisomerase inhibitors in the radiosensitive Chinese hamster irs mutants: phenotypic similarities to ataxia telangiectasia and Fanconi's anaemia cells.

The mutants irs1, irs2 and irs3 were previously isolated from the Chinese hamster line V79-4 on the basis of their hypersensitivity (2-3-fold) to cell inactivation by X-rays. Here the cross-sensitivities of the irs mutants to an array of chemical mutagens and topoisomerase inhibitors was determined in a differential cytotoxicity assay. Irs2 showed moderate hypersensitivity (2-3-fold) to simple alkylating agents and oxidative mutagens but was most sensitive (8-fold) to the topisomerase I inhibitor camptothecin.

Effect of lipoxins and other eicosanoids on phagocytosis and intracellular calcium mobilisation in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) leukocytes.

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) macrophages generated lipoxin (LX) A4, LXA5, leukotriene (LT) B4, LTB5 and 12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (12-HETE) during the phagocytosis of zymosan and Escherichia coli, but not of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Prostaglandin (PG) E2 was also detected in supernatants from macrophages incubated with either zymosan or calcium ionophore A23187. LXA4 (10(-8)-10(-6) M) and LTB4 (10(-9)-10(-7) M) provoked rapid and transient dose-dependent increases in intracellular calcium ([Ca]i) concentrations in leukocyte suspensions containing 40-60% macrophages.

Understanding flux patterns in membrane processing of protein solutions and suspensions.

Membrane microfiltration is one of the most effective ways of separating proteins from materials of larger size, such as microbial cells and cell debris. Ultrafiltration is the most effective means of concentrating protein solutions. This review describes the scope and operating patterns of these processes.

Health care in Moscow.

In the Russian Federation privatisation is affecting the health care sector as much as it is industry and commerce. That the general public support the transfer of state clinics to the private sector is a mark of their dissatisfaction with the old state run system. Doctors too see better opportunities to practise good medicine and be paid better for doing so.

Ethanol-induced enhancement of defensive behavior in different models of murine aggression.

The effects of alcohol on agonistic behavior in mice were studied by introducing an intruder mouse to a resident, alcohol-treated test animal (or saline-injected control). Alcohol (0.1-2.

Diversity of animal models of aggression: their impact on the putative alcohol/aggression link.

Many attempts have been made to "model" the putative link between alcohol and "aggression" using a variety of situations employing a wide range of animal species. In general, these attempts have proved somewhat disappointing. One reason for this appears to be the fact that the different "aggression" tests tap varied mixtures of offensive, defensive and predatory motivations (i.

SAR distributions in interstitial microwave antenna arrays with a single dipole displacement.

The use of interstitial microwave antenna array hyperthermia (IMAAH) as a treatment for cancer, in conjunction with radiation therapy and chemotherapy, has been investigated widely. The heating pattern produced by a coherently phased 915 MHz asymmetric antenna array displays the maximum power deposition in the array center. This paper investigates the effect of variable insertion depth between antennas of an array on the heating patterns produced.

An adaptive finite-element approach for the analysis of dental restorations.

The present paper deals with the problem of stresses generated during the setting process of polymer tooth fillings. A finite element procedure capable of accurately predicting the stresses along an interface between two different materials is presented. Adaptation of the finite element mesh is carried out based on a simple error estimator.

A quantitative test of the neutral theory using pooled allozyme data.

Neutral theory predicts a positive correlation between the amount of polymorphism within species and evolutionary rate. Previous tests of this prediction using both allozyme and DNA data have led to conflicting conclusions about the influence of selection and mutation drift. It is argued here that quantitative conclusions about the adequacy of neutral theory can be obtained by analyzing genetic data pooled from many sources.

The generalisability of confidence-accuracy studies in eyewitnessing.

This paper discusses the evidence on the confidence-accuracy relationship in eyewitness research. It is pointed out that the conclusion often drawn on the basis of such research, that there is little or no relationship between eyewitness confidence and accuracy, is an unwarranted generalisation based on the use of experimental paradigms that are limited in terms of their generalisability to courtroom situations. In particular, almost all studies involve between-subject rather than within-subject designs, thereby limiting the generalisability of findings.

Detection, isolation and characterization of multiple lectins from the haemolymph of the cockroach Blaberus discoidalis.

Three agglutinins (lectins), designated BDL1, BDL2 and BDL3, were identified in the haemolymph of the cockroach Blaberus discoidalis by erythrocyte cross-adsorption and sugar inhibition tests. With the use of (NH4)2SO4 fractionation, anion-exchange and affinity chromatography, BDL1 and BDL2 have been purified to homogeneity, and BDL3 has been partially purified to three bands on SDS/PAGE. BDL1 has a molecular-mass estimate of 390 kDa by gel filtration and approx.

Predicting the uptake of health checks in general practice: invitation methods and patients' health beliefs.

General practice is in an ideal position to encourage people to adopt healthier lifestyles. One way in which this might be achieved is through the offering of health checks. This paper sought to identify some of the factors which may be important in predicting the uptake of health checks.

Double-ionization energies of fluorinated benzene molecules.

Results are reported of an experimental determination by double-charge transfer spectroscopy of the previously unknown double-ionization energies of the fluorinated benzene molecules C6H5F, l,2-C6H4F2, 1,3-C6H4F2, 1,4-C6H4F2, 1,2,3-C6H3F3, 1,2,4-C6H3F3, 1,3,5-C6H3F3, 1,2,3,4-C6H2F4, 1,2,3,5-C6H2F4, 1,2,4,5-C6H2F4, and C6HF5. The data are remarkably similar; the lowest double-ionization energies for all the molecules are within ±0.5 of 25.

The measurement of silicon in a lung phantom--a comparison of two nuclear reactions for in vivo activation analysis.

The amount of silica in the human lung may be estimated by measurement of silicon using in vivo neutron activation analysis. A pulsed, fast neutron beam, produced with a 2 MV Van de Graaff generator using the 2H + 2H reaction, was used to irradiate a Si-doped chest phantom in order to determine minimum detection limits (MDL). Two 'in-beam' nuclear reactions on Si were studied; prompt fast neutron inelastic scatter 28Si (n,n' gamma)28Si reaction was measured during the beam burst and the slow neutron prompt capture reaction was measured between the fast neutron bursts.