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M Gilmour

Publications and source records attributed to M Gilmour.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Smoking and orofacial clefts: a United Kingdom-based case-control study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between smoking and orofacial clefts in the United Kingdom. DESIGN: Case-control study in which the mother's exposure to tobacco smoke was assessed by a structured interview. SETTING: Scotland and the Manchester and Merseyside regions of England. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred ninety children born with oral cleft between September 1, 1997, and January 31, 2000, and 248 population controls, matched with the cases on sex, date of birth, and region. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Cleft lip with or without cleft palate and cleft palate. RESULTS: There was a positive association between maternal smoking during the first trimester of pregnancy and both cleft lip with or without cleft palate (odds ratio 1.9, 95% confidence interval 1.1 to 3.1) and cleft palate (odds ratio 2.3, 95% confidence interval 1.3 to 4.1). There was evidence of a dose-response relationship for both types of cleft. An effect of passive smoking could not be excluded in mothers who did not smoke themselves. CONCLUSION: The small increased risk for cleft lip with or without cleft palate in the offspring of women who smoke during pregnancy observed in this study is in line with previous evidence. In contrast to some previous studies, an increased risk was also apparent for cleft palate. In these U.K. data, there was evidence of a dose-response effect of maternal smoking for both types of cleft. The data were compatible with a modest effect of maternal passive smoking, but the study lacked statistical power to detect or exclude such an effect with confidence. It may be useful to incorporate information on the effects of maternal smoking on oral clefts into public health campaigns on the consequences of maternal smoking.

Case-Control Studies↗
PubMed2003

Precise dating of Dansgaard-Oeschger climate oscillations in western Europe from stalagmite data.

The signature of Dansgaard-Oeschger events--millennial-scale abrupt climate oscillations during the last glacial period--is well established in ice cores and marine records. But the effects of such events in continental settings are not as clear, and their absolute chronology is uncertain beyond the limit of (14)C dating and annual layer counting for marine records and ice cores, respectively. Here we present carbon and oxygen isotope records from a stalagmite collected in southwest France which have been precisely dated using 234U/230Th ratios. We find rapid climate oscillations coincident with the established Dansgaard-Oeschger events between 83,000 and 32,000 years ago in both isotope records. The oxygen isotope signature is similar to a record from Soreq cave, Israel, and deep-sea records, indicating the large spatial scale of the climate oscillations. The signal in the carbon isotopes gives evidence of drastic and rapid vegetation changes in western Europe, an important site in human cultural evolution. We also find evidence for a long phase of extremely cold climate in southwest France between 61.2 +/- 0.6 and 67.4 +/- 0.9 kyr ago.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Lung maturation.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Genetic transfer of lactate-utilizing ability in the rumen bacterium Selenomonas ruminantium.

Matings between the lactate-utilizing, tetracycline-sensitive Selenomonas ruminantium strains 5521C1 and 5934e and the lactate-non-utilizing, tetracycline-resistant strain FB322 resulted in putative recombinant strains capable of growth on lactate. Analysis of total protein by SDS-PAGE and chromosomal DNA by hybridization, indicated that the recombinants were derived from strain FB322. DNA hybridization produced no evidence that plasmid transfer occurred, leaving chromosomal DNA transfer as the most likely mechanism for the altered phenotype. Analysis of strains 5934e, FB322 and the resulting recombinant TC3 indicated that all three strains contained D-nLDH and L-nLDH activities. In addition strains 5934e and TC3 possessed D-iLDH activity when grown on DL-lactate. The ability of strain FB322 to grow on pyruvate but not lactate suggested that the lactate-utilizing recombinant had acquired the ability to synthesize D-iLDH.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Multiple lactate dehydrogenase activities of the rumen bacterium Selenomonas ruminantium.

The lactate utilizing strain of Selenomonas ruminantium 5934e was found to contain three lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities in sonicated cell extracts. One activity, an NAD dependent L-LDH (L-nLDH) was measured at 15-fold greater levels in extracts of cells grown to mid-exponential phase on glucose compared to cells grown to the equivalent growth stage on DL-lactate. A second nLDH activity specific for D-lactate (D-nLDH) was detected at similar levels in both lactate-grown cell extracts and glucose-grown cell extracts. The third activity, an NAD independent DLDH (D-iLDH) was very low in cells grown on glucose but was induced more than 10-fold when DL-lactate was used as the carbon source. The three LDH activities could be separated by gel filtration. Recovery of the activities was low due to the apparent instability of the enzymes at 4 degrees C, which was most pronounced in the case of the D-iLDH. A Km for lactate of 0.5 mM was estimated for the D-iLDH and this was considerably lower than the values of 45 mM and 70 mM measured for L-nLDH and D-nLDH respectively. It is proposed that the D-iLDH may be largely responsible for the formation of pyruvate in lactate-grown cells of S. ruminantium strain 5934e. Three other lactate utilizing strains of S. ruminantium, HD4, 5521C1 and JW13 exhibited a similar profile of LDH activities to strain 5934e when grown on glucose and DL-lactate.

Animals↗