Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Conversation analysis”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 667 records · Page 37Linked to original sources

A quantitative method for measuring antipsoriatic activity of drugs by the mouse tail test.

Topical treatment of the mouse tail with antipsoriatic drugs enhances orthokeratotic cell differentiation in the epidermal scales. We developed a new evaluation system for this test which allows quantification of drug efficacy. Drugs were applied topically, once daily, 5 times a week, for 2 weeks. Two hours after the last treatment the animals were sacrificed, longitudinal sections of the tail skin were made and prepared for histological examination (hematoxylin-eosin staining). As indicator of orthokeratosis (OK), the length of the granular layer per scale was measured microscopically with a semiautomatic image evaluation unit and related to the total scale length (= % OK per scale). Drug activity was defined by the increase in the total length of orthokeratotic regions, 100% activity corresponds to a granular layer extending over the whole scale length. In this model dithranol and retinoic acid dose-dependently increased orthokeratosis up to 75 and 79%, respectively. Beech tar, in a concentration of 5% induced a 19% increase in orthokeratosis. Morphometric quantification by image analysis of the conversion of parakeratotic into orthokeratotic regions in mouse tail scales induced by topical drug treatment seems to be a suitable and reliable procedure to investigate new drugs from which antipsoriatic activity may be expected.

Animals↗

Isolation and characterization of a corticotropin-releasing hormone-like peptide from human placenta.

Immunoreactive CRH was detected in extracts of human term placentae [5.2 +/- 0.8 (+/- SE) pmol/g wet wt; n = 9]. Molecular sieve chromatography revealed three size classes of immunoreactive CRH. The major species eluted with the Kav of synthetic rat CRH; the minor species had apparent mol wt (MW) of 18,000 and 8,000. A placental CRH-(1-41)-sized peptide was isolated by fractional acetone precipitation, molecular sieve chromatography, and sequential reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography steps. This peptide had the same chromatographic behavior as did rat CRH in all high performance liquid chromatographic isolation steps as well as the same UV absorbance to immunoreactive CRH ratio after the final purification step. Purified placental CRH stimulated ACTH release from anterior pituitary tissue in a dose-dependent manner and was equipotent with synthetic rat CRH. Partial sequencing indicated that 32 amino acids of this peptide are identical to those of rat and human CRH (sequence deduced from genomic sequence), and comparative peptide mapping with rat CRH provided further evidence that the placental CRH-like peptide is very homologous if not identical to CRH. The high mol wt placental CRH fractions also were partially purified by acetone precipitation, immune affinity chromatography, and gel filtration. Neither of these materials [big form (MW, 18,000) or intermediate form (MWr, 8,000)] stimulated ACTH release from rat pituitary tissue in vitro. Limited trypsin digestion of the highest MW CRH, followed by gel filtration analysis, resulted in conversion to the smaller [8,000 MW-sized and CRH-(1-41)-sized] forms. The detection of a CRH-like peptide in placenta together with our previous demonstration of plasma immunoreactive CRH in pregnant women suggest that the placenta synthesizes and secretes CRH into the maternal circulation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Insulin-like growth factor-I receptors in nonfunctioning thyroid nodules.

We have recently demonstrated the production of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) as well as the presence of type I IGF receptors in human thyroid cells in primary culture. The role of IGF-I in the control of thyroid cell growth has been well established. In order to investigate the involvement of IGF-I in abnormal thyroid growth, the density of IGF-I receptors in solitary, cold, micro- and macro-follicular thyroid adenomas, and in extranodular histological normal tissue was studied. Forty-three euthyroid patients with isolated cold nodules were selected for the study. In 30 patients the presence of IGF-I receptors was evaluated by using quantitative immunohistochemistry; in 10 patients by using radioligand binding studies, and in 3 patients by using affinity labeling. Cross-linking and binding studies clearly demonstrated the presence of a homogeneous class of binding sites for type I IGF receptors. Furthermore, radioligand studies did not show any significant differences in receptor density between the 2 types of thyroidal tissues. Conversely, the computerized analysis of 900 fields of nodular and normal thyroid tissues immunostained with the monoclonal antibody alpha-IR3, strongly indicated that higher concentrations of IGF-I receptors were present in the epithelial cells of non-functioning thyroid nodules than in the adjacent extranodular thyroid tissues. These studies strongly suggest that the same type I IGF receptor is present in thyroid follicular adenomas as in histological normal thyroid tissue removed from the same patient. The higher concentration of IGF-I receptors as documented by immunostaining in the adenomas suggests that IGF-I may contribute to the abnormal growth of the neoplasms.

Adenoma↗

Methyl quadrangularates A-D and related triterpenes from Combretum quadrangulare.

From the MeOH extract of leaves of Combretum quadrangulare, fifteen new cycloartane-type triterpenes, methyl quadrangularates A-D (1-4) and N-P (8, 6, 12), methyl 24-epiquadrangularate C (5), quadrangularic acid E (9), 23-deoxojessic acid (10), 1-O-acetyl-23-deoxojessic acid (11), quadragularols A (7) and B (13) and norquadrangularic acids B (14) and C (15) were isolated together with two known cycloartane-type triterpenes, methyl 23-deoxojessate (16) and 4beta,14alpha-dimethyl-5alpha-ergosta-9beta++ +,19-cyclo-24(31)-en-3beta-hydroxy-4alpha-carboxylic acid (17). Betulinic acid (18), beta-sitosterol (19), kamatakenin (20), isokaempferide (21), 5,7,4'-trihydroxy-3,3'-dimethoxyflavone (22) and 5,4'-dihydroxy-3,7,3'-trimethoxyflavone (23) were also obtained from the same extract. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated on the basis of spectral analysis and chemical conversions. All the isolated compounds were tested for their cytotoxicity towards highly liver metastatic murine colon 26-L5 carcinoma cells, and the cycloartane-type triterpenes showed various degrees of cytotoxicity, whereas all the flavonoids possessed strong cytotoxicity with ED50 values equal to or less than 6 microM.

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy↗

New biologically active marine sesquiterpenoid and steroid from the okinawan sponge of the genus Axinyssa.

A new bisabolane-type sesquiterpenoid, (E)-3-isocyanobisabolane-7,10-diene (1), and a new epidioxyergostane-type steroid, 9(11)-dehydroaxinysterol (2), were isolated from the Okinawan sponge of the genus Axinyssa. Their structures were elucidated based on the results of spectroscopic analysis and chemical conversion. Epidioxysterol 2 was found to show significant growth inhibitory effects against human cancer cell lines.

Alkenes↗

New plastoquinones isolated from the brown alga, Sargassum micracanthum.

Four new plastoquinones were isolated from the methanolic extract of the brown alga, Sargassum micracanthum. Their structures were elucidated based on spectroscopic analysis and chemical conversions from 2-geranylgeranyl-6-methyl-1,4-benzohydroquinone. These plastoquinones exhibited significant antioxidant activities such as an inhibitory effect on lipid peroxidation and a radical scavenging effect on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). Some of the new plastoquiones showed cytotoxic activity against cancer cell line.

Animals↗

Isolation of a new anti-allergic phlorotannin, phlorofucofuroeckol-B, from an edible brown alga, Eisenia arborea.

Eisenia arborea is an edible brown alga occasionally used as a folk medicine in gynecopathy in Japan. A new phlorotannin was isolated from the alga during our search for naturally occurring anti-allergic compounds from edible algae guided by the inhibitory effect on histamine release from rat basophile leukemia (RBL)-2H3 cells. The phlorotannin was called "phlorofucofuroeckol-B." Its structure was determined by spectral analysis and chemical conversion. This paper describes the isolation, structure elucidation, and inhibitory effect of phlorofucofuroeckol-B on histamine release.

Animals↗

Determination of the absolute configurations of the anteiso acid moieties of glycoglycerolipid S365A isolated from Corynebacterium aquaticum.

The absolute configurations of the two acid moieties, 12-methyltetradecanoate and 14-methylhexadecanoate, of glycoglycerolipid S365A isolated from Corynebacterium aquaticum were determined by an HPLC analysis after their conversion with the chiral fluorescent labeling reagents, (1S,2S)- and (1R,2R)-2-(2,3-anthracenedicarboximido)cyclohexanol. Both anteiso acids had the S configuration.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid↗

Cytochrome P450-dependent N-hydroxylation of an aminoguanidine (amidinohydrazone) and microsomal retroreduction of the N-hydroxylated product.

1. The first example of a P450-dependent N-hydroxylation of an aminoguanidine (amidinohydrazone) is reported for 2-amino-5-chlorobenzophenone amidinohydrazone 1 (G 256) as substrate. 2. The N-hydroxylated metabolite 2 (2-amino-5-chlorobenzophenone N-hydroxyamidinohydrazone NOH-G256) and a further metabolite of 1, the phenol 3, were identified by tlc and ms analysis. 3. The microsomal reduction of an N-hydroxyaminoguanidine (N-hydroxy-amidino-hydrazone) was also demonstrated for the transformation of 2 to 1. 4. Both the N-hydroxylation of the aminoguanidine and the retroreduction of the N-hydroxyaminoguanidine were characterized by quantitative hplc analysis. 5. The conversion of the aminoguanidine 1 to N-hydroxyaminoguanidine 2 may be considered as an analogue of the physiological N-hydroxylation of arginine to N-hydroxyarginine by NO synthases.

Animals↗

Degradation of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in iron-supplemented cows' milk.

The fate of [6-carbon-14] ascorbic acid in iron-supplemented and unsupplemented raw milk was studied by anion-exchange chromatography, which permitted quantitative analysis of the conversion of ascorbate to dehydroascorbate and diketogulonate as a function of time. Iron catalyzed an increase in the rate of autoxidation of ascorbate to dehydroascorbate but did not alter the equilibrium concentrations of ascorbate, dehydroascorbate, and diketogulonate. The conversion of ascorbate to dehydroascorbate and of dehydroascorbate to diketogulonate occurred rapidly even in unsupplemented milk. Thus, trace metal supplementation may not affect materially the vitamin C content of stored milk.

2,3-Diketogulonic Acid↗

A search for new metabolites of N,N',N''-triethylenethiophosphoramide.

An attempt was made to unravel the metabolic profile of the alkylating agent N,N',N''-triethylenethiophosphoramide (thioTEPA). thioTEPA and its metabolite N,N',N-triethylenephosphoramide (TEPA) were quantified in urine of treated patients by gas chromatography with selective nitrogen/phosphorous detection. Total alkylating activity was assessed by p-nitrobenzylpyridine reactivity. The total alkylating activity exceeded the amount of thioTEPA and TEPA, indicating the presence of other alkylating metabolites. Solid-phase extraction and liquid-liquid extractions followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis revealed the conversion of an aziridinyl function of TEPA into a beta-chloroethyl moiety. This metabolite, N,N'-diethylene-N''-2-chloroethylphosphoramide, was quantified by gas chromatography with selective nitrogen/phosphorous detection and accounted for only 0.69% of the administered dose. Large volumes of urine were concentrated with solid-phase extraction and fractionated with high-performance liquid chromatography. Alkylating activity was determined for each 2-ml fraction and showed the presence of an alkylating compound eluting between 8 and 12 ml. The fractions with alkylating activity were collected, evaporated under a stream of nitrogen at room temperature to dryness, reconstituted in methanol, and subjected to fast atom bombardment-mass spectrometry and fast atom bombardment-tandem mass spectrometry. A new metabolite was found with a molecular mass of 352 Da, the same as that of thioTEPA-mercapturate. thioTEPA-mercapturate is likely the result of glutathione conjugation, after which the glutathione adduct loses two amino acid residues in separate stages. The fragmentation pattern and chromatographic properties of this new metabolite were identical to those of the reference, thioTEPA-mercapturate, which was obtained by incubation of thioTEPA with N-acetylcysteine at pH 11 and 95 degrees C for 30 min. Quantification of thioTEPA-mercapturate was carried out by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The thioTEPA-mercapturate levels in urine accounted for 12.3% of the administered dose and exceeded the amount of TEPA, which was previously assumed to be the main metabolite of thioTEPA. The total excreted amount of thioTEPA and its metabolites accounts for 54-100% of the total alkylating activity, indicating the presence of still other alkylating metabolites.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols↗

Fiscal options for America's best hospitals.

A review of America's "best" teaching hospitals shows a huge disparity in their fiscal positions. Among the 15 hospitals studied, roughly half experience some fiscal distress. However, a somewhat similar fiscal analysis of the nation's largest investor-owned hospital chains, HMOs, and physician practice management corporations shows an even more serious weakness in operating margins and debt-equity ratios. Aside from raising possible ethical, quality, and cost issues, this financial analysis suggests that conversion from nonprofit to for-profit ownership of America's top teaching hospitals might not guarantee an improvement in their long-term fiscal outlook.

Accounts Payable and Receivable↗

[The functional status of the cerebral cortex after replacement of skull base bone defects].

The functional status of the cerebral cortex was evaluated by EEG before and different periods after prolonged cranial osteoplasty made by the type of replacement of skull base bone defects in patients with dyscirculatory encephalopathies of various genesis. Seven patients aged 20 to 50 years undergone repair of skull base bone defects (both posttraumatic and simulated) by the procedures developed at the Russian Research Center "VTO" were examined. The bioelectrical activity of the brain was recorded and analyzed on a PEGASUS digital 16-channel EEG system (EMS, Austria) by using the Fourie prompt conversion test (spectral analysis) and amplitude-frequency mapping. After multimodality treatment, all the patients showed a positive changes in the whole range of EEG parameters, which appeared as an increase in basic rhythm power, a decrease in the focal area of slow-wave activity and in the interhemispheral asymmetry coefficient, which in combination of neurological regression is regarded as indirect evidence for the vasoactivity of prolonged cranial osteoplasty.

Adult↗

[Sexuality of individuals with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV): study based on the crisis theory].

The purpose of the investigation was to identify and analyze the sexual difficulties and their relation to the social and emotional difficulties experienced by subjects during a HIV crisis. Data were collected through semistructured interviews taped, transcribed, categorized and analyzed. Authors transcribed the conversations using thematic analysis and created five stories entitled: ... "Living with HIV". Data analysis was based on the interpretation of the content associated to the crisis theory. Data enabled authors to conclude that subjects undergoing a HIV crisis did not achieve a positive level of sexual, social or emotional adaptation. The speech of these subjects clearly showed the time of HIV crisis characterized by mechanisms of coping, usually negative. The results also indicate the need to rethink nurse's role, specially nursing intervention. Authors believe that the Model of Mental Health Nursing Procedures is adequate to help subjects in a HIV crisis to solve their sexual, emotional and social difficulties and to search for a positive level of adaptation, considering the difficulties that are inherent to the disease.

Female↗

A prognostic index of unsuccessful laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute calculous cholecystitis.

The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the accuracy of using preoperative data for the prediction of conversion from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy in patients operated on for acute calculous cholecystitis. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was scheduled in eighty-nine of 184 consecutive patients with acute calculous cholecystitis who underwent urgent or early cholecystectomy without bile duct exploration in our department between 1991 and 1998. The correlation between 11 preoperative clinical, laboratory and ultrasonographic variables, and the rate of conversion to open cholecystectomy was studied. Among the 11 variables tested, age and leukocyte count were independent factors of predictive significance. These two factors were used for constructing an additive prognostic index for conversion to open cholecystectomy. Thus, three groups of patients could be identified having a 10%, 30-70% or over 88% risk of conversion. Logistic regression analysis permits accurate preoperative identification of unsuccessful laparoscopic cholecystectomy in patients with acute calculous cholecystitis.

Age Distribution↗

[Age-induced changes in the cardiovascular system in normal subjects].

To assess the effect of age on cardiac structure and function, we performed echocardiograms on 104 physically active, normal, community-dwelling volunteers (68 men and 36 women), ranging in age from 18 to 84 years and having no evidence of hypertension or cardiovascular disease. With advancing adult aging, the following were observed: a decrease in aortic compliance (r = 0.42); an increase in systolic (r = 0.61), diastolic (r = 0.24), pulse (r = 0.60) and mean (r = 0.48) arterial pressure; and a modest enlargement of aortic root (r = 0.47) and left atrial dimension (r = 0.30) were observed. Left ventricular end-diastolic volume (r = 0.25), wall thickness (r = 0.30) and mass (r = 0.37) also increased with aging, while left ventricular end-systolic volume was not age-related. Furthermore, a stepwise multivariate linear model identified the decrease in arterial compliance (R2 = 0.06; p < 0.02) and the increase in left ventricular stroke work (R2 = 0.38; p < 0.0001) as the only variables independently related to the increase in left ventricular mass that occurs with advancing age. Regarding left ventricular systolic function, aging was also related to an increase in left ventricular stroke work (r = 0.40) and ejection time (r = 0.44), while pump function, (measured as ejection fraction and cardiac index at rest), and contractility (measured by load independent end-systolic indexes) were unaffected by aging. Conversely, pulsed Doppler analysis of mitral inflow showed a significant age-related decline in the peak early filling velocity (r = -0.45) and in the ratio of early and late diastolic filling velocity (r = -0.66), while peak late diastolic flow velocity (r = 0.50), diastolic pressure half time (r = 0.34) and duration of isovolumic relaxation (r = 0.56) increased significantly with age.

Adolescent↗

Things we talk about, how frequently, and to whom: frequency of topics in everyday conversation as a function of gender, age, and marital status.

The questionnaire "Things I Talk About, How Frequently, and to Whom" measured the frequency with which people discussed 27 topics in everyday conversation. Twenty-three topics were subdivided into the topic in which content concerned a spectator perspective or a participant perspective. Factor analyses of 515 people yielded 5 factors for each perspective. Among the topic factors were beauty, worldly issues, everyday issues, hobbies, and sports and partying. Gender and age differences were observed not only in frequency of talk but also with whom people conversed. A detailed analysis of the kinds of spectator sports people talk about was included.

Adolescent↗

[Importance and extension of the qualitative approach in phenomeno-structural method in psychopathology].

Fundamental principles of phenomeno-structural method partly originate from a phenomenological approach in psychiatry for which, as Jaspers says, "the important thing is less the study of innumerable cases than the intuitive and major comprehension of some particular ones". It means that, far from traditional statistical proceedings, it does not give any priority to the temptation of a cumulative and accumulative collection of data, for which it even receives their greatest misgivings, leaving it out of its procedures. This method also owes a lot to Bergson's insistence on the qualitative characteristics of the "immediate data of consciousness" and of experienced temporality, for which analytical and chronological fragmentations can do nothing but distort the authentically comprehensive grasping, and make them loose their specificity, unity and thus the indecomposability that, by nature, they precisely contain. According to Eugene Minkowski, the psychopathical break-up, proceeding from the deep heart of life, is essentially going to express itself, with its own properties, as a qualitative modification. In this way, the study of some cases carefully chosen, in accordance with their "typical" value, is more important than a blind acquisition of data, i.e. without previous option, orientation or perspective. Starting from their spontaneous words collected during a conversation, the meticulous analysis of the language of the patients, put in resonance with the vivid metaphors of the language in which they are expressed, as Minkowski will so brilliantly show, or via mediations connecting image and language, as in the experiment of the Rorschach--particularly approached in its essential mechanisms by his wife Francoise Minkowska--represents, from this point of view, a mediator and an irreplaceable instrument of a qualitative approach of a normal as well as a pathological personality and, more widely, of the person itself.

Humans↗