Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M Rice

Publications and source records attributed to M Rice.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Factors associated with closed head injury in a pediatric population.

The purpose of this study was to identify characteristic factors in children who sustained closed head injury (CHI) between birth and less than 15 years of age. A two-year retrospective audit of charts from a large metropolitan pediatric hospital with a trauma center yielded a sample of 138 charts that met the established criteria for inclusion in the study. Using a descriptive design, data were gathered on age, sex, race, cause of injury, severity of injury, season of accident, time of accident and length of hospital stay. Data analysis revealed that males were 1.5 times more likely to sustain CHI than females. Both sexes showed the highest incidence of CHI during the first year with a second less dramatic peak at around 6 years of age. Transportation-related causes accounted for 57.2% of the injuries with falls accounting for another 22.5%. Of the transportation-related injuries, 27.5% were associated with motor vehicle accidents. The lack of restraint use for subjects in the motor vehicle accident group was associated with 5 deaths as opposed to no deaths in subjects who were restrained. Over 70% of the injuries occurred in the time periods of 2:00-6:00 p.m. (31.9%) and 6:00-10:00 p.m. (40.7%). CHI occurred less frequently in the winter (13.8%) than any other season. Using the Glasgow Coma Scale scores, 56.5% of the injuries were categorized as mild, 17.4% were moderate and 26.1% were severe. There was an 8% mortality rate secondary to injury in the sample.

Accidental Falls↗
PubMed1991

Analysis of the herpes simplex virus type 1 promoter controlling the expression of UL38, a true late gene involved in capsid assembly.

The cistrons encoding the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) UL37 and UL38 genes are adjacent to one another but are transcribed from opposite strands of the viral DNA. The UL37 gene encodes a 1,123-amino-acid protein of unknown function, while the 465-amino-acid UL38 protein is involved in capsid assembly. Previous work from our laboratory indicated that the transcripts encoding these proteins are expressed with significantly different kinetics in productive infection. In the present communication we confirm the kinetic classes and precisely map the cap sites of the UL37 and UL38 mRNAs. A bifunctional reporter gene vector was used to demonstrate that divergent promoters control the expression of these reporter genes in trans-activation assays. The UL38 promoter is functionally separable from that controlling UL37 in a recombinant virus. We used deletion analysis to demonstrate that as few as 29 bases 5' of the mRNA cap site are adequate for full activity of the UL38 promoter in trans-activation assays. Finally, we analyzed the protein-binding properties of the UL38 promoter; several sites that form complexes containing ICP4, with clear homology to those identified in the HSV-1 gamma 42 promoter, are present. Thus, in general, the properties of this promoter are quite similar to those of other gamma promoters.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

A simple guide for design, use, and evaluation of educational materials.

Few health workers in Latin America are trained in how to produce effective and appropriate health education materials. In order to provide an instrument and a strategy to help overcome this problem, the Pan American Health Organization developed an effective methodology to orient the design, use, and evaluation of health education materials. This article describes the development of this methodology and summarizes the basic operating principles and criteria for evaluation. These operating principles include developing educational materials from the community perspective, ensuring that they are an integral part of a health education program, relating them to health services delivery, pretesting the materials, and distributing instructions for use along with these materials. An evaluation scale helps health personnel assess materials that have been designed elsewhere and decide if they would be appropriate for their own target audiences. The scale also promotes self-evaluation by the community in the development of its own materials. This simple and straightforward methodology has been successfully applied in courses and seminars as well as in the design, use, and evaluation of health education materials throughout Latin America.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1990

Overwhelming odds: caregiving and the risk of institutionalization.

In this study we explored whether informally or formally provided long-term care services reduce the risk of institutionalization among the impaired elderly and the nature of the relationship between support and risk. We relied principally on the 1982 National Long-Term Care Survey (NLTCS) with supplementary data from the 1984 NLTCS and the national American Housing Survey. Five specific types of effects were tested: direct effects of formal and informal care on institutional risk; buffering effects of support moderating risk factors; supplementation effects of formal support on the risk-reducing impact of informal care; facilitating effects of the housing environment in enabling support to continue; and intervening effects mediating the direct effects. The effects of each type of support differ substantially. The analyses do not confirm the notion that formal, paid care reduces institutional risk. In fact, the use of paid caregivers is associated with greater risk of institutionalization, other things equal. The results for informal care are more mixed. A general measure that accounts for all types of informal support has no effect on institutional risk in any of the formulations tested. But the marginally significant effects of quality and proximate support in the direct effects model are consistent with the hypothesis that caregiving reduces institutional risk. The findings also indicate that a small number of housing or locational features are facilitators of formal support and particular types of informal support.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1989

SecA protein, a peripheral protein of the Escherichia coli plasma membrane, is essential for the functional binding and translocation of proOmpA.

We have reconstituted protein translocation across plasma membrane vesicles of Escherichia coli using purified proOmpA and trigger factor, a 63 kd soluble protein. Treatment of membrane vesicles with urea inactivates them for translocation unless a factor present in cytoplasmic extracts is added during the translocation reaction. Sedimentation analysis showed that the stimulatory activity is of distinctly higher mol. wt than trigger factor. Cytoplasmic extracts from a strain that greatly overproduces the SecA protein are highly enriched in the stimulatory activity for untreated membranes and restore translocation to urea-treated membranes, suggesting that this protein is the stimulatory factor. This assay was used to monitor the isolation of SecA protein from the overproducing strain. The purified protein is soluble, yet binds peripherally to membranes with high affinity and supports translocation. Using pure proOmpA, SecA protein, trigger factor and urea-treated membranes, the protein export process was resolved into binding and translocation steps. We find that proOmpA binds to membrane vesicles with or without SecA protein, but that translocation only occurs when SecA was bound prior to proOmpA.

Amino Acid Isomerases↗
PubMed1989

[Minimal standards in the practice of health education--a pioneer project].

PAHO/WHO sought an institution which could be asked to prepare a definition--in concrete, operational terms--of the basic responsibilities and areas of activity of the health professionals in charge of the educational actions appropriate to the health system. The School of Public Health (Health Education area) of the University of S. Paulo accepted this responsibility for the study of the definition of the health educator's role. This article sets out some of the positive results which have arisen, as a result of that study, over the two last years.

Brazil↗
PubMed1989

School performance and psychological adjustment of children treated for leukemia. A long-term follow-up.

This paper describes a long-term follow-up study in which the prevalence of emotional/behavioral problems in a group of 32 children and adolescents treated for leukemia is compared with both their siblings and a matched control group drawn from the general population. The performance of the groups at school and in social activities is also compared. Separate reports on the children were obtained from parents, teachers, and the children themselves using Child Behavior Checklist Lists (CBCLs). In general, there are now fewer differences between the leukemic group and the sibling and control groups than in a previous assessment; however, all of the informants consistently report that children treated for leukemia are still performing significantly worse at school than the matched control group. Possible causes for the continuing poor school performance of the children treated for leukemia are discussed.

Achievement↗
PubMed1988

ProOmpA spontaneously folds in a membrane assembly competent state which trigger factor stabilizes.

The precursor protein proOmpA can translocate across purified Escherichia coli inner membrane vesicles in the absence of any other soluble proteins. ProOmpA, purified 2000-fold in the presence of 8 M urea, is competent for translocation following rapid renaturation via dilution. ATP, the transmembrane electrochemical potential, and functional secY protein are essential for the translocation of proOmpA renatured by dilution. The kinetics of its translocation and the level of translocation at each concentration of ATP are indistinguishable from that of proOmpA renatured by dialysis with trigger factor. After dilution, the proOmpA rapidly loses its competence for membrane assembly. However, this competence is stabilized by trigger factor. Assembly-competent proOmpA is in a protease-sensitive conformation, whereas proOmpA which has lost this competence is more resistant to degradation. This suggests that the primary role for trigger factor in in vitro protein translocation is to maintain precursor proteins in a translocation-competent conformation. We propose that a properly folded precursor protein and ATP are the only soluble components which are essential for bacterial protein translocation.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed1988

Health promotion, education and community participation in the Americas. Reality or myth?

The concepts and understanding of community promotion, education and participation for health have many interpretations and applications in the countries of the Americas. Even though many of the countries have written policies indicating that these are important strategies, very few have developed ways to make them effective and operational. In most cases they are not defined, nor have countries developed concrete objectives and goals. Although the Primary Health Care strategy has been adopted in principle by countries of the Americas, they are encountering serious difficulties in implementing the concept, particularly within large-scale national health programmes. In actuality, the community promotion, education and participation concepts in the health arena are vague and often misunderstood.

Community Health Services↗
PubMed1987

The effect of elevated levels of herpes simplex virus alpha-gene products on the expression of model early and late genes in vivo.

The rate of synthesis in vivo and the steady-state level of mRNA of four "model" herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) genes were measured as a function of high levels of alpha-gene products. The genes studied were ICP4 (alpha), deoxy-UTPase (beta), VP5 (beta gamma), and glycoprotein C (gC, gamma). Accumulation of high levels of alpha proteins was accomplished either by infection with an HSV-1 mutant, temperature-sensitive in ICP4 (ts606) at the nonpermissive temperature then shift-down to permissive temperature, or by infection with wild-type virus under cycloheximide blockage of protein synthesis followed by release. Compared to RNA expression in normal infections, beta gamma and gamma transcription rates were both transiently stimulated under the experimental conditions employed. The greatest effect was seen with the gamma-gC mRNA transcription rates. In addition, at nonpermissive temperatures with ts 606, the amount of expression of gC mRNA was significantly increased over normal early levels, in contrast to the case with the VP5 transcript. The impact of such results on models of HSV gene expression in vivo are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Aminoacyl-tRNA(anticodon): codon adaptation in human and rabbit reticulocytes.

A highly significant correlation was observed between the relative abundances of isoacceptor aminoacyl-tRNAs in human and rabbit reticulocytes and the frequency of their cognate codons in alpha and beta globin mRNAs from the respective tissue. The correlation coefficient (r value) for human reticulocytes was 0.78 and for rabbit reticulocytes was 0.88. These results provide strong evidence that the amounts of most isoacceptors in human and rabbit reticulocytes are adapted to requirements for translating their cognate codons in globin mRNA, i.e., there is an aa-tRNA(anticodon): codon adaptation in these tissues.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Effects of two sec genes on protein assembly into the plasma membrane of Escherichia coli.

We have examined the effects of thermosensitive mutations in secA and secY (prlA) genes on the export of proteins to the three layers of the Escherichia coli cell surface. After several hours at the nonpermissive temperature, the export of two major outer membrane proteins, lipoprotein and OmpA, is delayed, then essentially blocked, in either a secA or secY strain. These mutations also have a strong effect on the export of several proteins, such as maltose binding protein, to the periplasm, though the export of many periplasmic proteins is not affected. secA and secY block the assembly of leader peptidase, which is made without a leader sequence, into the inner membrane. However, the membrane assembly of M13 coat protein (an inner membrane protein made with an amino-terminal leader sequence) is not affected. Thus, the requirement for sec function for export does not correlate with the presence or absence of leader peptide or with a particular subcellular compartment, but rather is specific to each particular protein.

ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters↗
PubMed1985

Atrioventricular block following overdose of decongestant cold medication.

A 24-year-old man developed high-degree atrioventricular (A-V) block with a pulse rate of 40 beats per minute and hypertension following an overdose of a combination decongestant cold medication that contained phenylpropanolamine, phenylephrine, chlorpheniramine, and phenyltoloxamine. The patient was treated with ipecac, activated charcoal, and cathartics in the emergency department (ED). After his admission to the coronary care unit, the A-V block gradually resolved to sinus rhythm with periods of second-degree block, Mobitz types I and II. No treatment was required. The patient had a normal sinus rhythm and normal blood pressure prior to discharge.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Binding of glycosaminoglycans to the surface of Treponema pallidum and subsequent effects on complement interactions between antigen and antibody.

Acidified bovine serum albumin (acid BSA) reacts with glycosaminoglycans to form a precipitate. This reaction was adapted to Treponema pallidum to show glycosaminoglycans associated with the surface of the micro-organism. As testicular infection progressed from days 4 to 18, treponemes showed increasing amounts of these surface components. High speed centrifuging effectively removed the glycosaminoglycans, thus indicating that they were loosely bound. The subsequent addition of commercial preparations of hyaluronic acid or chondroitin sulphate resulted in their immediate adherence to the surface of the pathogens T pallidum and T pertenue, but not to the non-pathogens T vincenti, T denticola, or T phagedenis. The amount adhering to the treponemal surface varied depending on the concentration added. Intradermal inoculation showed that the virulence of T pallidum was not altered by the glycosaminoglycans associated with its surface. The coating of treponemes with hyaluronic acid or chondroitin sulphate did not interfere with neutralising antibodies or antibodies found by radioimmunoassay using whole organisms. In contrast, hyaluronic acid or chondroitin sulphate on the treponemal surface did interfere with immobilising antibodies. Results are discussed in terms of the potential role of the treponemal glycosaminoglycans in the infectious process.

Animals↗