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Biomedical subjects

J Blake

Publications and source records attributed to J Blake.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Developing effective management for the general nursing service.

Directors of nursing services and their colleagues in the new units created by NHS restructuring face major challenges in developing effective management for the general nursing service. Emerging ideas within the profession on the organization of nursing work, severe pressures arising from financial constraints at a time of growing health care needs, and restructuring itself each demand a carefully planned response. Beginning from the basic management cycle involved in implementing the nursing process, this paper offers a redefinition of the main functions of nursing management as a whole in meeting these challenges and provides a check-list for reviewing existing management practice. The use of this check-list is then illustrated by a case study in one health district. In this example, managers sought external assistance in planning a programme of action to strengthen nursing leadership. Similar efforts elsewhere are likely to rely mainly on a range of self-help methods. This paper is intended to provide a tool for designing and implementing these local strategies of management development.

Administrative Personnel↗
PubMed1982

Synthesis of human corticotropinyl-thiolglycine and its specific conjugation to bovine serum albumin.

Human corticotropin containing a thiolglycine residue at the carboxyl terminal (I) was synthesized by the solid-phase method. The citraconyl derivative of peptide I was coupled to either a model tetrapeptide or bovine serum albumin by reaction with silver nitrate/N-hydroxysuccinimide in water. The extent of reaction with bovine serum albumin was determined by radioimmunoassay, and the peptide-protein conjugate was shown to possess 12% of the steroidogenic activity of porcine adrenocorticotropin in isolated rat adrenal cells. Peptide I and its conjugate with the model tetrapeptide were fully active in the same system.

Adrenal Cortex↗
PubMed1982

Synthesis of human beta-endorphinyl-thiolglycine and its use for the preparation of affinity columns of beta-endorphin.

The peptide human beta-endorphinyl-thiolglycine (I) has been synthesized by the solid-phase method. The citraconyl derivative of peptide I was coupled to aminohexyl-Sepharose by reaction with silver nitrate/N-hydroxysuccinimide in water. The citraconyl groups were removed in aqueous acetic acid and the resulting resin was used in affinity chromatography for the purification of antisera to beta-lipotropin and beta-endorphin.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1981

New segment-coupling method for peptide synthesis in aqueous solution: application to synthesis of human [Gly17]-beta-endorphin.

The thiolcarboxyl peptide [17-thiolglycine]-beta-endorphin-(1-17) (I) was synthesized by the solid-phase method. Reaction of peptide I with citraconic anhydride gave citraconyl-[Lys(Cit9,GlyS17]-beta-endorphin-(1-17) (Ia). Peptide Ia was coupled to another synthetic peptide, [Lys(Cit)19,24,28,29]-beta-endorphin-(18-31), by reaction with silver nitrate--N-hydroxysuccinimide in water. All citraconyl groups were removed in aqueous acetic acid, and [Gly17]-beta-endorphin was isolated in 30-40% yield. The synthetic analog had 10% analgesic potency and 59% opiate--receptor binding activity when compared with human beta-endorphin.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1981

Peptide segment coupling in aqueous medium: silver ion activation of the thiolcarboxyl group.

The use of the thiolcarboxyl function for the assemblage of deblocked peptide segments in aqueous medium has been investigated. The C-terminal thiolcarboxyl peptide Ac-Tyr-Arg-Arg-Glu-Arg-Gly-SH (2a) has been synthesized by the solid-phase method. The silver compound of peptide 2a was coupled to H-Phe-Ala-Glu-Gly-OH in 50% aqueous dimethylformamide to give a 40% yield of Ac-Tyr-Arg-Arg-Glu-Arg-Gly-Phe-Ala-Glu-Gly-OH.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1981

Ovine prolactin. Isoelectricfocusing and characterization of the separated components.

Highly purified ovine prolactin was subjected to preparative isoelectricfocusing. Although complete separation of the isoelectrically different components was not achieved, four enriched fractions of these components were prepared by this method. Studies on the separated fractions revealed that these components of ovine prolactin, probably a result of deamidation processes, have rather different properties. The more acidic components appeared to be less active in both the radioreceptor assay on mammary gland membranes and the pigeon crop-sac assay. However, the more acidic forms appeared to be more immunoreactive as revealed by radioimmunoassay.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1981

Use of thiol acids in peptide segment coupling in non-aqueous solvents.

Methods for preparing protected peptide thiol acids by solution and solid-phase procedures have been developed. The coupling of boc-Gly-Ala-SH to polymer-bound Leu was effected with dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC), 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene (FDNB), N-bromosuccinimide (NBS), and heat. In each case, the resulting H-Gly-Ala-leu-OH was analyzed for the content of H-Gly-D-Ala-Leu-OH (Izumiya test). The sensitivity of the test (0.1% epimer) was increased to 0.003% by developing a double chromatographic procedure involving partition chromatography prior to ion-exchange chromatography. The amounts of DL epimer found in the H-Gly-Ala-Leu-OH for the various tests were (solvent and temperature in parentheses): DCC (CH2Cl2, 0 degrees), 0.012%; DCC (DMF, 24 degrees),0.04%; FDNB (DMF, 24 degrees), 0.53%; NBS (DMF, 24 degrees), 0.46%, heat (DMF, 60 degrees), 0.86%. Under the same conditions conventional couplings of Boc-Gly-Ala-OH gave: DCC (DMF, 24 degrees), 16.5%; DCC/1-hydroxybenzotriazole (DMF, 24 degrees), 0.13%. In a competitive coupling of equimolar amounts of Boc-Gly-Ala-SH and Boc-Gly-Ala-OH with DCC in DMF the level of DL epimer was 0.21%, indicating that the thiol acid can be selectively coupled in the presence of carboxyl groups. In a variation of the test Boc-Gly-Leu-SH coupled with DCC (CH2Cl2, 0 degrees) to resin bound Ala with an epimer level of 0.05%.

Bromosuccinimide↗
PubMed1981

Negativism, equivocation, and wobbly assent: public "support" for the prochoice platform on abortion.

Although disapproval of all justifications for abortion is rare in the United States, our analysis of numerous surveys taken in the 1960s and 1970s shows that support for the full prochoice platform is also rare. This means that respondents who endorse some justifications for abortion and reject others typically constitute about 50 percent of these samples. If forced to choose politically between polar positions, would these people be more likely to side with a positive or a negative extreme? Using Multiple Classification Analysis as a form of discriminant analysis, we examine whether people who appear to form a "middle" group actually are closer in their characteristics to those who are positive, or to those who are negative. Finally, we test to see whether those respondents who endorse all four justifications for abortion (health, child defect, financial stress, and elective abortion) also endorse additional prochoice positions, such as government payments for abortion, abortion without the husband's or the parent's consent, and abortion after the first trimester.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMed1981

Family size and the quality of children.

If couples decide to have fewer children in order to achieve higher "quality" offspring, are they correct in assuming that the quality of children bears an important and inverse relation to family size? If they are correct, how does number of children operate to affect individual quality? This research (using U.S. whites primarily) takes educational attainment (among adults) and college plans (among youngsters) as the principal indicators of quality, but also directs some attention to measures of intelligence. The analysis supports the "dilution model" (on average, the more children the lower the quality of each child) and indicates that only children do not suffer from lack of siblings, and that other last-borns are not handicapped by a "teaching deficit." Number of siblings (relative to other background variables) is found to have an important detrimental impact on child quality--an impact compounded by the fact that, when couples are at a stage in life to make family-size decisions, most background factors (however important to the quality of their children) are no longer readily manipulable. A special path analysis of college plans among boys uses a modification of Sewell's Wisconsin Model as its base. The results show that number of siblings is a negative influence on intervening variables affecting college plans. In general, the research documents the unfavorable consequences for individual siblings of high fertility, even in a country that is (at least for whites) as socially, economically, and politically advantaged as the United States.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Lack of transmission of type B hepatitis by fiberoptic upper endoscopy.

We prospectively investigated the possibility that type B hepatitis might be transmitted during fiberoptic endoscopy from hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive patients to others subsequently endoscoped. All 186 patients having upper gastrointestinal endoscopy during a 6-month period at the Washington, D.C., Veterans Administration Medical Center had a blood sample obtained at the time of the procedure. Three patients were found to be HBsAG-positive and 45 others to have either antibody to HBsAg (anti-HBs) or antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc). Follow-up evaluation for evidence of type B hepatitis and hepatitis B virus infection was possible in only 76% of patients. One patient developed type B hepatitis. This patient's endoscopy did not follow endoscopy of any known HBsAg-positive individual, but he had received five units of blood 5 months before hepatitis developed. No other patient showed clinical, biochemical, or serologic evidence of hepatitis during the follow-up period. These data suggest that transmission of type B hepatitis during fiberoptic endoscopy is rare, if it occurs at all, and support the current policy of not sterilizing the fiberoptic endoscope between procedures and of not routinely screening patients for HBsAg.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Synthesis and analgesic activity of human beta-endorphin analogs substituted at positions 17, 18, or 19.

Three peptide analogs of beta-endorphin which are substituted in positions 17, 18 or 19 have been synthesized and their analgesic potencies have been measured by the tail-flick method in mice. The results showed that the replacement of Phe-18 or Lys-19 by alanine reduced the potency to 15% whereas the replacement of Leu-17 by alanine reduced the analgesic potency to 68%.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1980

Parallel processing of same and different form arrays in children and adults.

A simultaneous same-different task in which the number of identical forms varied was given to younger children, older children, and adults. Same and different reaction times of older subjects did not increase as the number of forms increased, while younger children's reaction times on different trials did increase, probably due to difficulty in scanning the larger arrays. The results for older subjects on same and different arrays and for younger children on same arrays are consistent with parallel, independent processing, but this conclusion is complicated by the possibility of wholistic processing in this task. However, the slower reaction times obtained for same arrays relative to different for the youngest group are inconsistent with wholistic processing and indicative of a strategy in which all feature comparisons are completed before making a same decision. A strategy to check for differences first among the younger children may have been induced in this task by the perceptual saliency of the single, odd different form.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Semisynthesis of human somatotropin analogs.

Complementation of the natural NH2-terminal 134-amino acid fragment of the reduced, carbamoylmethylated human somatotropin with synthetic analogs of COOH-terminal fragments of 57, 42, or 38 amino acids of reduced, carbamoyl-methylated human somatotropin has been investigated. It was found that synthetic fragments of 57 and 42 amino acids gave recombinants with full growth-promoting activity, whereas attempts to obtain a recombinant with the synthetic 38-amino acid fragment were unsuccessful. The synthesis of two analogs of the COOH-terminal fragment of human somatotropin, human [N]e170, Ala165,182,189] somatotropin-(150-191) and human [Nle170, Ala165,182,189] somatotropin-(154-191), is herein described.

Amino Acid Sequence↗