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Biomedical subjects

D Moore

Publications and source records attributed to D Moore.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Disabilities, developmental handicaps, and substance misuse: a review.

Although increased attention has been directed toward the special risks for substance misuse of persons with disabilities, there continues to be a paucity of epidemiologic data detailing prevalence and potential etiologies for use. This review describes the research problems contributing to the limited findings in the field. The risk factors of special relevance to persons with disabilities are discussed, and the data related to specific disabilities are presented. A hierarchy of research needs is suggested, along with several working hypotheses concerning substance use/misuse and persons with disabilities. Finally, current issues impacting intervention and treatment services in this field are discussed.

Alcoholism

Prospective randomized multicenter comparison of in situ and reversed vein infrapopliteal bypasses.

We have performed a prospective, randomized, multicenter study to compare in situ and reversed vein grafts for long limb salvage bypasses from the proximal thigh to an infrapopliteal artery. Three hundred eighty-four patients required an infrapopliteal bypass for critical lower extremity ischemia. Of these, 259 were excluded because a short vein bypass was performed or because the vein was considered inadequate. The remaining 125 patients had a randomized vein bypass, 63 reversed, 62 in situ. The two groups were similar with regard to risk factors, indications, graft dimensions, and outflow. Secondary patency at 30 months was similar for both techniques: reversed 67% +/- 9% (+/- SE); in situ 69% +/- 8%. For veins less than or equal to 3.0 mm in minimum distended diameter 24-month patency rates were 61% +/- 22% for 12 in situ veins and 37% +/- 29% for 10 reversed veins (p greater than 0.05). Angiographic evaluation of failing grafts revealed lesions similar in type and frequency in both types of grafts. These included focal (in situ, n = 4; reversed, n = 7) and diffuse vein hyperplasia (in situ, n = 2; reversed, n = 1), and inflow and outflow stenoses (in situ, n = 4; reversed, n = 3). The incidence of wound complications and the mortality rate were similar for the two groups. These data show no significant difference in overall patency rates for the two types of vein grafts at 2 1/2 years.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aged

Protracted alanine aminotransferase levels in tamarins infected with hepatitis A virus.

Eighteen red-bellied tamarins (Saguinus labiatus), experimentally infected with hepatitis A virus (HAV), were followed for up to 1.5 years after initial challenge. Half of these animals developed protracted alanine aminotransferase (ALT) abnormalities, which lasted for between 23 and 55 weeks post-challenge. IgM anti-HAV was detected intermittently during the early phase of their relapsing hepatitis and never after return of ALT levels to normal. The possibility that these findings may be related to continued HAV replication, coinfection with another agent, or the result of an autoimmune phenomenon triggered by HAV are discussed.

Alanine Transaminase

A hyaluronan-binding protein shows a partial and temporally regulated codistribution with actin on locomoting chick heart fibroblasts.

The ultrastructural distribution of a hyaluronan-binding protein (HABP) and its relationship to actin-containing microfilaments were studied with immunocytochemistry. Ultrastructural analysis localized HABP to the cell coat and demonstrated that it occurred largely in cell processes where the apical surfaces were immunopositive. The codistribution of HABP with actin-containing microfilaments in cell processes was demonstrated with double immunolabeling using monoclonal antibodies to actin and monospecific, polyclonal antibodies to HABP. Both the topological localization of HABP and its cytoskeletal coassociations were modulated by cells during different cellular phases. Thus, in cells exhibiting large lamellae and few actin fibrils, typical of rapidly locomoting cells, HABP codistributed primarily with the actin meshwork occurring in cell processes, although some codistribution between the two proteins occurred over the cell body. In cells containing prominent stress fibers and less obvious lamellae, HABP was absent in cell processes but, rather, was aligned primarily along actin fibrils occurring in the cell body. A functional association between HABP and the actin-containing cytoskeleton was suggested by the ability of cytochalasin D to coordinately alter the distribution of HABP and disrupt its coassociation with actin. As well, the addition of hyaluronan to monolayers increased the association of HABP with a Triton-insoluble cytoskeleton. The possible roles of HABP in cell motility and cytoskeletal organization are discussed.

Actin Cytoskeleton

Drinking, the construction of ethnic identity and social process in a Western Australian youth subculture.

This paper presents an anthropological analysis of the meaning of drinking for the male members of the Skinhead youth subculture in Perth, Western Australia. Perth Skinheads are an exported and modified form of the original English Skinhead subculture. Using participant observation as the primary research method, the style of drinking is analysed as one of the ways in which the members of this subculture express their English ethnicity and constitutive of the social processes which underpin the subculture. The article also explores the reasons why Perth Skinheads do not conform to a pattern of drinking in rounds held to be characteristic of some working class drinking groups.

Adolescent

Characterization of the F-plasmid conjugative transfer gene traU.

We characterized the traU gene of the Escherichia coli K-12 conjugative plasmid F. Plasmids carrying segments of the F transfer operon were tested for their capacity to complement F lac traU526. The protein products of TraU+ clones were identified, and the nucleotide sequence of traU was determined. traU mapped between traW and trbC. It encodes a 330-amino-acid, Mr36,786 polypeptide that is processed. Ethanol caused accumulation of a precursor polypeptide; removal of ethanol permitted processing of the protein to occur. Because F lac traU526 strains appear to be resistant to F-pilus-specific phages, traU has been considered an F-pilus assembly gene. However, electron microscopic analysis indicated that the traU526 amber mutation caused only a 50% reduction in F-piliation. Since F lac traU526 strains also retain considerable transfer proficiency, new traU mutations were constructed by replacing a segment of traU with a kanamycin resistance gene. Introduction of these mutations into a transfer-proficient plasmid caused a drastic reduction in transfer proficiency, but pilus filaments remained visible at approximately 20% of the wild-type frequency. Like traU526 strains, such mutants were unable to plaque F-pilus-specific phages but exhibited a slight sensitivity on spot tests. Complementation with a TraU+ plasmid restored the wild-type transfer and phage sensitivity phenotypes. Thus, an intact traU product appears to be more essential to conjugal DNA transfer than to assembly of pilus filaments.

Amino Acid Sequence

Placebo controlled trial of xamoterol versus digoxin in chronic atrial fibrillation.

Thirteen patients in chronic atrial fibrillation with a normal resting heart rate but with exercise tachycardia and episodes of bradycardia were randomised to treatment periods of two weeks on xamoterol (200 mg twice daily), low dose digoxin, or placebo, in a blind crossover study. The results (mean SEM) of symptom scores, a treadmill exercise test, and 24 hour ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring were obtained. Xamoterol improved symptom scores and controlled exercise heart rate better than digoxin. Xamoterol was better than digoxin or placebo in reducing the heart rate response to exercise and tended to improve exercise duration. Xamoterol, by reducing the daytime maximum hourly heart rate and increasing the night time minimum hourly heart rate, significantly reduced the difference between the two compared with placebo. In contrast, digoxin tended to reduce both the maximum and minimum hourly heart rates through day and night. Both the frequency and duration of ventricular pauses were reduced by xamoterol but tended to increase with digoxin. Xamoterol reduced both the circadian variation in ventricular response to atrial fibrillation and exercise tachycardia by modulating the heart rate according to the prevailing level of sympathetic activity. These changes were translated into symptomatic benefit for the patients studied.

Adrenergic beta-Agonists

Soft-tissue sarcomas: MR imaging and MR spectroscopy for prognosis and therapy monitoring. Work in progress.

The authors studied the usefulness of hydrogen-1 T2 measurements and phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy as indicators of prognosis and monitors of response to therapy in a group of patients with soft-tissue sarcomas. All eight patients were treated with combined local hyperthermia and fractionated radiation therapy, followed by surgical resection of the tumor. Each patient underwent T2 measurements and five patients underwent MR spectroscopy (phase encoded in one dimension) before treatment, after the first hyperthermia treatment, at the end of the therapy course, and just before surgery. Catheter thermometry was performed at each hyperthermia treatment. The T2 and MR spectroscopic variables were compared with thermometric data and the histologic findings from the complete surgical specimen. Changes in T2 correlated with histologic grade of tumor and thermometric data. The pretherapy tumor pH correlated positively, and changes during therapy in pH, ratio of phosphocreatine to inorganic phosphate (Pi), ratio of nucleoside triphosphate to Pi, and the phosphomonoester signal-to-noise ratio correlated negatively, with the percentage of tumor necrosis on the surgical specimen. These preliminary data suggest MR imaging and MR spectroscopy may be useful in the evaluation of such patients before and during therapy.

Adult

Soft-tissue sarcomas: detection of metabolic heterogeneity with P-31 MR spectroscopy.

Regional variations in metabolic parameters derived with multivoxel, localized phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy in spontaneous human-soft-tissue sarcomas were compared with variations in the same parameters in normal human legs. In addition, multivoxel P-31 MR spectroscopy of transplanted rodent sarcomas and microelectrode measurement of pH and PO2 in several locations within them were performed, and, when appropriate, results were compared with the clinical data. Striking voxel-voxel variability in parameters derived with P-31 spectroscopy was found in tumors, with less marked variability seen in normal legs. In the rodent tumors, spatial variations also were found in pH and PO2 measured by means of microelectrodes. These data are consistent with the results of regional measurements in tumors by means of other methods and suggest that clinical MR spectroscopic studies of tumors may need to consider the variability within malignant lesions.

Animals

Transcriptional analysis of the CDC7 protein kinase gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The 5' flanking region of the CDC7 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been sequenced to a point 797 nucleotides upstream of the putative translational initiation codon (designated +1). The sequence reveals a number of symmetry elements between -100 to -380 and two blocks of high local AT content between -29 to -75 and -112 to -144. Transcription initiates heterogeneously at about 10 discrete sites up to 110 nucleotides upstream of the putative translational initiation codon. Some minor transcriptional start sites were also observed between the ATG at +1 and a second in-frame ATG at +55, suggesting that CDC7 may also be translationally heterogeneous. Deletion analysis of the CDC7 upstream region has shown that the gene lacks a functional TATA box, and has identified a 30bp element that is necessary for normal CDC7 promoter function during mitosis. This motif has significant homology with a component of the c-fos promoter which acts to regulate c-fos expression by binding a transcription activating factor. The results suggest that the 30bp motif may play a similar role in regulating CDC7 expression and that there may be similarities between factors that regulate CDC7 expression in yeast and c-fos expression in vertebrate cells.

Amino Acid Sequence

Studies of GB hepatitis agent in tamarins.

Three tamarins (Saguinus labiatus), two of which had previously been infected with hepatitis A virus and parenteral non-A, non-B hepatitis, were inoculated intravenously with the agent of GB hepatitis. All three animals developed alanine aminotransferase abnormalities 2 weeks after inoculation. Peak alanine aminotransferase levels were recorded 4 weeks postinoculation. These declined thereafter but continued to fluctuate at abnormal levels for 32 weeks. Liver biopsies showed liver cell swelling and inflammation with focal necrosis. Portal tracts and areas around central veins were heavily infiltrated with mononuclear cells. A fourth animal (no previous exposure to hepatitis viruses) inoculated with GB was killed on Day 15 postinoculation. Serum and extracts of liver and feces from this day were used as inocula for three other animals. Only the serum and liver extract transmitted GB hepatitis. The fecal specimen did not transmit and a fecal extract taken at a later date from another animal was also noninfectious. GB hepatitis virus is distinct from the viruses causing Type A and blood-borne non-A, non-B-hepatitis. Although the virus is present in serum and has previously been transmitted per os, it is not shed in feces.

Alanine Transaminase

The predictive value of progesterone receptor levels in endometrial cancer.

Recent reports have suggested that the presence of progesterone receptor correlates with other well known predictors of a favorable outcome for endometrial cancer patients. To test this hypothesis, we reviewed the records of 154 patients who had undergone a hysterectomy for adenocarcinoma of the endometrium, and pelvic irradiation if poor prognostic factors were present. The 3 year disease-free survival for all clinical Stage I patients was 80%. Patients with progesterone receptor levels greater than or equal to 100 had a 3 year disease-free survival of 93% compared with only a 36% 3 year disease-free survival for patients with progesterone receptor less than 100 (p less than .0001, log rank test). To determine whether elevated progesterone receptor was an independent prognostic factor for disease-free survival in endometrial cancer, or just correlated with the other well-known predictors, bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. Our results indicate the progesterone receptor levels are the single most important prognostic indicator of 3 year disease-free survival in clinical Stage I endometrial cancer, with only cervical involvement and peritoneal cytology being significant prognostic variables after adjusting for progesterone receptor levels.

Analysis of Variance