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Biomedical subjects

J W White

Publications and source records attributed to J W White.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Effects of acyl chain length on the conformation of myelin basic protein bound to lysolipid micelles.

The interactions of myelin basic protein with micelles of lysophosphatidylcholine detergents of different acyl chain lengths were investigated by circular dichroism (CD), small-angle X-ray scattering, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and 1H, 13C and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). Circular dichroic, FT-IR, and 1H NMR measurements indicated that the conformational changes induced in the protein molecules by association with micelles depended on the acyl chain length of the detergents. Size is one of the physical properties of micelles which is a function of the length of the acyl chains. The radii of gyration of detergent micelles in complexes with the protein measured by small-angle X-ray scattering indicated that the average size of the micelles was a quadratic function of the acyl chain length. The dependence of the protein conformational changes on micelle size was used to ascertain the order in which different protein segments associate with the detergents. Several procedures were employed to change the fluidity of micelles formed with detergents of given acyl chain lengths. The conformational changes observed on the MBP molecule by varying the micelle properties without changing the length of the chain, suggested that the changes depended on the size and fluidity of the micelles.

Animals

Physicochemical characterization of dodecylphosphocholine/palmitoyllysophosphatidic acid/myelin basic protein complexes.

The stoichiometry of dodecylphosphocholine/palmitoyllysophosphatidic acid/myelin basic protein complexes and the location of the protein in the micelles have been investigated by electron paramagnetic resonance, ultracentrifugation, small-angle X-ray scattering, 31P, 13C, and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. Ultracentrifugation measurements indicated that well-defined complexes are formed by association of one protein molecule with approximately 133 detergent molecules. The spin-labels 5-, 12-, and 16-doxylstearate have been incorporated into detergent/protein aggregates. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectral parameters and 13C and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation times showed that the addition of myelin basic protein does not affect the environment and location of the labels or the organization of the micelles. Previous results suggesting that the protein lies primarily near the surface of the micelles have been confirmed by comparing 13C spectra of the detergents with and without protein with spectra of detergent/protein aggregates containing the spin labels. Electron micrographs of the complexes taken by using the freeze-fracture technique revealed the presence of particles with an estimated radius about three times the radius of the micelles measured by small-angle X-ray scattering. The structural integrity of the complexes appears to be based on intramolecular protein interactions as well as protein-detergent interactions.

Animals

National nosocomial infections surveillance system (NNIS): description of surveillance methods.

The National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System (NNIS) is an ongoing collaborative surveillance system sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to obtain national data on nosocomial infections. The CDC uses the data that are reported voluntarily by participating hospitals to estimate the magnitude of the nosocomial infection problem in the United States and to monitor trends in infections and risk factors. Hospitals collect data by prospectively monitoring specific groups of patients for infections with the use of protocols called surveillance components. The surveillance components used by the NNIS are hospitalwide, intensive care unit, high-risk nursery, and surgical patient. Detailed information including demographic characteristics, infections and related risk factors, pathogens and their antimicrobial susceptibilities, and outcome, is collected on each infected patient. Data on risk factors in the population of patients being monitored are also collected; these permit the calculation of risk-specific rates. An infection risk index, which includes the traditional wound class, is being evaluated as a predictor of the likelihood that an infection will develop after an operation. A major goal of the NNIS is to use surveillance data to develop and evaluate strategies to prevent and control nosocomial infections. The data collected with the use of the surveillance components permit the calculation of risk-specific infection rates, which can be used by individual hospitals as well as national health-care planners to set priorities for their infection control programs and to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. The NNIS will continue to evolve in finding more effective and efficient ways to assess the influence of patient risk and changes in the financing of health care on the infection rate.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.

Courtship violence: incidence in a national sample of higher education students.

An approximately representative national sample of 2,602 women and 2,105 men was surveyed regarding their frequency of inflicting and sustaining verbal and physical aggression in a heterosexual relationship. Results revealed that approximately 81% of the men inflicted, as well as received, some form of verbal aggression at least once, while the comparable figure for women was 87-88%. The percentage experiencing some form of physical aggression was lower; about 37% of the men and 35% of the women inflicted some form of physical aggression and about 39% of the men and 32% of the women sustained some physical aggression. No differences were found as a function of ethnicity, family income, and institutional characteristics. Regional differences in the use of verbal and physical aggression, and in the receipt of physical aggression, were found for men.

Adult

Basal cell carcinoma in a hair transplant recipient site.

A basal cell carcinoma developed in the central scalp of a forty-one year old man at the recipient site of a hair transplant plug that was placed five years previously. The patient was never noted to have premalignant or other malignant skin lesions. Although the relationship is probably coincidental, medico-legal factors dictate consideration of a cause and effect relationship.

Adult

Gas-liquid chromatographic test for honey adulteration by high fructose corn sirup.

A gas-liquid chromatographic (GLC) method has been developed to detect the addition to honey of high fructose corn sirup (HFCS). Samples are derivatized directly with trimethylsilane, cholestane is added as an internal standard, and the levels of maltose (includes other minor disaccharides) and isomaltose are determined after chromatography on OV-17. Domestic and imported honey samples (115) contained 2.00% maltose and 0.71% isomaltose. HFCS samples (21) contained 1.50% maltose, and 2.09% isomaltose. A discriminatory equation was developed (D = 2.73 - 5. 35 (Isomaltose/maltose)) and, when applied to the data for these samples and 37 adulterated samples, 81.4% of authentic honey samples and 78.4% of samples known to be adulterated with HFCS were correctly classified.

Chromatography, Gas

Spectrophotometric method for hydroxymethylfurfural in honey.

A new method is described for hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in honey; accuracy and precision are improved over the most used optical and chemical methods. With a clarified honey solution containing 0.1% sodium bisulfite as reference and a similar solution without bisulfite as sample, a difference spectrum is obtained which represents only the HMF in the sample, without the interfering absorption of the honey. The average recovery was 97.5% for 24 additions to honey of 0.8--40 mg HMF/100 g. Forty honey samples ranging from 0 to 40 mg/100 g were analyzed by 3 methods with the following average results: Winkler optical method, 7.25; Winkler chemical method, 4.83; and new bisulfite method, 5.05 mg HMF/100 g honey. Values by the latter 2 methods did not differ at the P = 0.05 significance level.

Food Contamination

Methods for determinging carbohydrates, hydroxymethylfurfural, and proline in honey: collaborative study.

A modification of the official selective absorption method for honey carbohydrates, 31.124--31.133, was studied collaboratively; the determinations of sucrose, total monosaccharides, disaccharides, and higher sugars by this procedure were satisfactory and were adopted by the AOAC. High pressure liquid chromatography of glucose, fructose, and sucrose in honey showed better precision than the modified official method and gave concordant results; it was also adopted. Two methods for hydroxymethylfurfural do not qualify. A method for proline was also adopted.

Carbohydrates

Charcoal column/thin layer chromatographic method for high fructose corn sirup and spectrophotometric method for hydroxymethylfurfural in honey: collaborative studies.

A new spectrophotometric method is described for determining hydroxymethylfurfural in honey in which interfering background absorption of honey is corrected for by use of a bisulfite-treated sample as blank. Two procedures for detecting high-fructose corn sirup (HFCS) in honey were also tested. In one, charcoal column pretreatment is used to concentrate trace oligosaccharides, followed by thin layer chromatography to differentiate those of HFCS from those of honey. The other method depends on measurement of the isomaltose/maltose ratio by gas-liquid chromatography. The charcoal/thin layer chromatographic method for HFCS has been adopted official first action. The bisulfite method for hydroxymethylfurfural has been adopted interim first action.

Charcoal

Honey.

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Acids

Teratogenicity studies on late blighted potatoes in nonhuman primates (Macaca mulatta and Saguinus labiatus).

Female rhesus monkeys and marmosets were fed a diet containing blighted potatoes (Phytophthora infestans) at a level of 10g/kg per day for at least two weeks prior to breeding and six weeks following conception in order to gain additional information on the association of blighted potatoes and the development of anencephaly and spina bifida in primate species. There was an absence of either of these neural-tube defects in 32 rhesus and 14 marmoset infants whose mothers had received a blighted potato diet. In addition there were no cranial osseous defects. There were, however, two rhesus monkey infants with internal hydrocephalus whose mothers had consumed blighted potatoes.

Anencephaly