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Biomedical subjects

E P Richards

Publications and source records attributed to E P Richards.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Legal considerations in screening pregnant women for human immunodeficiency virus.

This article examines the legal implications of studies showing that the probability of maternal-to-infant human immunodeficiency virus transmission can be reduced by physician interventions. These interventions require knowledge of a pregnant woman's human immunodeficiency status. Hence the offering of human immunodeficiency virus testing has become a standard of care in pregnancy. This standard of care is examined with respect to the following: (1) the physician's legal duty to the infant, (2) negligence for failing to test, (3) liability when testing only reduces the probability of transmission, (4) damages, (5) informing women about the results of their testing, (6) protecting against liability, and (7) dealing with human immunodeficiency virus-infected pregnant women. It is concluded that the physicians are likely to have legal difficulties if a human immunodeficiency virus-infected baby is born to a woman who was not offered testing or if testing is done without documenting consent. Suggestions are made for reducing liability when testing is done, when patients refuse testing, and when one is caring for human immunodeficiency virus-infected women.

Female↗
PubMed1999

The role of the police power in 21st century public health.

The police power is the right of the state to take coercive action against individuals for the benefit of society. The companion article by Potterat et al., "Invoking, monitoring, and relinquishing a public health power: the health hold order," is a classic use of the police power in the control of a communicable disease, yet one that is increasingly controversial. Reaching an acceptable balance between the rights of society and those of individuals is the central issue facing public health in the next millennium, and the police power is at the center of this balance. This article reviews the constitutional basis of the police power, its historical use in public health, and the structural reasons why health departments preoccupied with personal health care cannot effectively use the police power to carry out public health enforcement.

Civil Rights↗
PubMed1977

Analysis of the carbon-13 and proton NMR spectra of bovine chromaffin granules.

Natural abundance carbon-13 and proton NMR spectra of bovine chromaffin granules have been obtained and analyzed using computer simulation techniques. High resolution spectra show the presence of a fluid aqueous phase containing epinephrine, ATP and a random coil protein. The protein spectrum contains unusually intense resonances due to glutamic acid and proline and has been simulated satisfactorily using the known amino acid composition of chromogranin A. The lipid phase of chromaffin granules gives rise to intense, but very broad, resonances in the carbon-13 spectrum. Protons in the lipid phase are also observable as a very rapid component of the proton-free induction decay (T2 approximately equal to 15 microns). Linewidths of the carbon-13 spectra have been used to set upper limits on rotational correlation times and on the motional anisotropy in the aqueous phase. These limits show that the aqueous phase is a simple solution (not a gel) that is isotropic over regions much larger than solute dimensions. No gel transition is observed between -3 and 25 degrees C. The carbon-13 spectra are definitely inconsistent with a lipoprotein matrix model and chromaffin granules previously proposed by Helle and Serck-Hanssen ((1975) Mol. Cell, Biochem. 6, 127-146). Relative carbon-13 intensities of ATP and epinephrine are not consistent with the known 1 : 4 mol ratio of these components. This fact suggests that epinephrine and ATP are not directly complexed in intact chromaffin granules.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed1977

Molecular mobilities of soluble components in the aqueous phase of chromaffin granules.

NMR relaxation times have been used to characterize molecular motion and intermolecular complexes in the aqueous phase of bovine chromaffin granules. Partially relaxed 13C and proton spectra have been obtained at 3 and 25 degrees C. T1 measurements of five protonated carbons on epinephrine (C2, C5, C6, CHOH and NCH3) give a correlation time of 0.15 (10(-9)) s at 25 degrees C for the catechol ring and methine carbon, while the effective correlation time for the NCH3 group is somewhat shorter due to its internal degree of rotational freedom. Resonances of protonated carbons on the soluble protein chromogranin give very similar correlation times: 0.20 (10(-9)) s for the peptide alpha-carbon and 0.2 (10(-9)) s for the methylene sidechain carbons of glutamic acid. The correlation time (tauR) of ATP was not measured directly using 13C T1 data due to the weakness of its spectrum, but its reorientation appears to be substantially slower than that of epinephrine or chromogranin. This conclusion is based on three observations: (1) the qualitative temperature dependence of T1 for H2 and H8 on the adenine ring places tauR for ATP to the right of the T1 minimum, or tauR greater than or equal to 1.0 (10(-9)) s; (2) 13C-resonances of ATP have anomalously low amplitudes compared with epinephrine resonances, a fact that is readily explained only if ATP undergoes substantially slower reorientation; and (3) a comparison of the T1 data of H8 in chromaffin granules and in a dilute aqueous solution, where tauR for ATP can be measured directly indicates that tauR approximately 1.0 (10(-9)) s at 25 degrees C in the granules. The relaxation data are consistent with the concept of a storage complex based on electrostatic interactions between a polyion (chromogranin) and its counterions (ATP and epinephrine), in which ATP cross-links cationic sidechains of the protein.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗