The appropriate use of secure accommodation for very difficult adolescents continues to cause concern. Research in the 1970s highlighted the variety of young people admitted to secure units and the difficulties of fashioning treatment programmes. As a result, gate-keeping and admission criteria have been tightened. Recent research has further clarified the needs and problems of young people in secure units and has highlighted the relationship between provision offered in child-care, penal and health services. New research findings, particularly those arising out of studies of young people in Youth Treatment Centres, are discussed in the light of these issues.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Drawing on memory: exploring the expertise of a police artist.

The use by the police of artists to draw likenesses of suspects is on the increase, yet there are few studies of their professional prowess. In the current study, art students observed one of six target faces before either drawing a likeness of the person themselves or collaborating with an experienced police artist. The likenesses produced by the police artist were judged as consistently superior to those made by the students, despite the artist working indirectly from the witnesses' verbal directions. Instructions to judge the target face in terms of likely character and personality led to better drawings than instruction to examine physical features when students worked with the artist but not when they drew on their own. These findings are discussed in terms of police practice and face processing theory.

Crime↗

PubMed1990

Praying for peace.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Humans↗

PubMed1989

Chromatin-bound histone 1 kinase activity in synchronized HeLa S3 cells.

The chromatin-bound H1 kinase activity of HeLa S3 cells that had been synchronized with 2.7 mM thymidine for 24 h has been followed during their progression into mitosis. They were arrested at this stage of the cell cycle by adding 0.13 microM nocodazole 8 h after the removal of thymidine. The kinase was partially purified by extracting chromatin proteins with 0.4 M NaCl and fractionation with ammonium sulfate (17.5-35%), a procedure in which a significant amount of in vivo histone 1 phosphorylating activity was retained. H1 kinase activity increased as the cells entered mitosis, rising to a maximum level sevenfold higher than interphase as the mitotic index reached about 50%. A rapid decrease in activity followed this maximum approximately 2 h after cells started to accumulate in mitosis. At this time, the mitotic index was still increasing, although at a lower rate than during the increase of the kinase activity. Other protein kinase activities measured by using core histones, casein, and protamine as substrates remained fairly constant at a comparatively low level. HeLa H1 kinase activity was further distinguished from several known protein kinase activities by the lack of stimulation or inhibition with known modulators of protein phosphorylating activities.

Calcium↗

PubMed1989

Calcium binding properties of the beta tubulin subunit from chicken erythrocytes.

Taxol-stabilised erythrocyte microtubules assembled less readily than similarly prepared brain microtubules on adding 10(-4) M-10(-3) M concentrations of calcium at 2 degrees C. Scatchard plot analyses of the high affinity calcium binding sites showed that the erythrocyte tubulin contained only 0.9 high affinity binding sites per dimer compared to 1.4 binding sites per dimer for brain tubulin. Association constants, however, for calcium binding to both erythrocyte and brain tubulin were similar (3.0 x 10(-6) M and 2.1 x 10(-6) M). The beta-tubulin subunit appeared to be responsible for the lower calcium binding ability of erythrocyte tubulin as shown by a gel overlay assay with 45Ca. Strains-all, a dye that stains many calcium binding proteins blue, did not stain erythrocyte beta-tubulin or its chymotryptic C-terminal fragment blue as was the case for brain beta-tubulin and its chymotryptic C-terminal fragment. We suggest that the lower calcium binding ability of erythrocyte beta-tubulin may be implicated in the differential behaviour of erythrocyte microtubules.

Alkaloids↗

PubMed1988

Identification of the phosphorylated beta-tubulin isotype in differentiated neuroblastoma cells.

The tubulin molecule consists of an alpha- and a beta-subunit, each of which exists in several isotypic forms. It has been previously shown that one of the isotypes of neuroblastoma beta-tubulin is phosphorylated at a serine residue in vivo [(1985) J. Cell Biol. 100, 764-774]. Here we identify the phosphorylated isotype as beta 2 (type III). Moreover, the large size of the phosphorylated tryptic peptide and sequence comparisons of vertebrate beta-tubulins suggest that one of the two serines in positions 444 and 446 is the phosphorylated residue. Our results raise the possibility that beta 2-tubulin differs functionally from the other beta-tubulin isotypes.

Cell Differentiation↗

PubMed1988

Comparative analysis of tubulin sequences.

1. Information on the structure and evolution of tubulin has been obtained by comparing the available sequence data on 31 alpha-tubulins and 31 beta-tubulins. 2. Similar numbers of conserved amino acids are found amongst both alpha- and beta-tubulins (alpha: 48%, plus conservative substitutions: 72%; beta: 48%, plus conservative substitutions: 70%). About half of them are common to both subunits (23%, plus conservative substitutions: 45%). Four cysteines in the alpha-tubulins and 2 cysteines in the beta-tubulins are conserved. Only one cysteine (position 129) is conserved in all alpha- and beta-tubulins. 3. The longest unbroken stretch of identical amino acids between all the alpha- and beta-tubulins is found in positions 180-186 (Val-Val-Glu-Pro-Tyr-Asn), a region that appears to be important for binding the ribose moiety of GTP. Two other groups of amino acids implicated in GTP binding, one near position 70 and a glycine cluster at position 144 are also quite conserved. 4. Extra length differences between tubulin subunits, presumably present as extensions on the dimer surface, have been observed at position 50 and near position 360 in alpha-tubulins and in one case at position 57 in a beta-tubulin. 5. The introns of tubulin genes, many of them clustered in the first quarter of the tubulin coding region, do not appear to correspond to any particular structural or functional regions. 6. Mutation rates of tubulins vary considerably. The lowest alpha-tubulin homology (62.3%) is between a very divergent Drosophila alpha-tubulin and an alpha-tubulin from the yeast S. cerevisiae. The lowest beta-tubulin homology (63.3%) is between a yeast (S. cerevisiae) beta-tubulin and a mouse beta-tubulin expressed in hematopoietic tissue. In contrast, some mammalian and bird tubulins are almost identical. 7. Tubulin's heterogeneous C-termini are useful for identifying corresponding tubulins of different vertebrate species, many of which are remarkably conserved. Exceptions are the divergent beta-tubulins of erythrocyte and thrombocyte marginal bands. 8. We have proposed a model for tubulin evolution in metazoan organisms in which the release of structural constraints after gene duplication is a major cause of relatively rapid change.

Amino Acid Sequence↗