Life Sciences & Biotechnology Update articles from August 1998

Life Sciences & Biotechnology Update archives from August 1998

POLYGRAPH TESTING: EVALUATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR ASSESSING BLOOD PRESSURE RESPONSES
August 1, 1998... This (New York University) work evaluates new technologies for the assessment of blood pressure responses during polygraph testing, to determine if they contribute to increased reliability and validity for the detection of deception. Two...

DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND EVALUATION OF CONTACT LENSES
August 1, 1998... This report (from the Ei Compendex Plus Database) concerns the design, fabrication, and evaluation of contact lenses. It covers, among other topics: soft, rigid, multifocal, and disposable contact lenses; hydrogel contact lenses;...

PATENTS CONCERNING BIOABSORBABLE IMPLANTS
August 1, 1998... This report (from the U.S. Patent Bibliographic Database) consists of a collection of up to 250 abstracts of selected issued patents concerning bioabsorbable implants. The many inventions cover, among other topics: tissue, ocular, hemostatic,...

EFFORTS BY CHILD WELFARE AGENCIES TO ADDRESS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
August 1, 1998... Child protective services and domestic violence services historically have not been closely linked; however, child welfare agencies across the country are beginning to consider how families in their child- protection caseload are affected by...

GETTING CHILD-SUPPORT PAYMENTS FOR YOUR CHILDREN
August 1, 1998... This (DHHS) handbook is a `how-to' guide to help you get the child-support payments your children need and deserve. It helps close the gap between children and the millions of dollars owed them by parents who should help support them but do not....

GROWING TISSUE CULTURES IN MICROGRAVITY
August 1, 1998... This (NASA) report concerns the growth of tissue cultures in microgravity. Attempts to simulate normal tissue micro-environments in vitro have been thwarted by the complexity and plasticity of the extracellular matrix, which is important in...

THE U.S. BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY: STRUCTURE; CURRENT AND EMERGING MARKETS; THE 21st CENTURY
August 1, 1998... This (Department of Commerce) report on the U.S. biotechnology industry discusses the structure of the industry and the current and emerging markets for biotechnology products. It discusses, in detail, the factors likely to be critical in...

MEASURES TO CONTROL MEDICARE SPENDING MAY AFFECT RURAL HEALTH SERVICES
August 1, 1998... This (Economic Research Service) report looks at issues in rural health services as a result of measures to control Medicare spending. The federal Medicare program provides subsidized health insurance for one in every seven Americans. Medicare...

PAN AMERICAN EFFORT TO IMPROVE HEALTH INVOLVING NONCOMMUNICABLE DISEASES
August 1, 1998... This (Stanford University) report concerns efforts to improves the health in Pan American countries involving noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). In 1995 the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) initiated Conjunto de Acciones para Ia Redudon...

HIV VACCINES: DEVELOPING NOVEL CONJUGATE HIV-1 SUBUNIT THERAPEUTIC VACCINES
August 1, 1998... This (Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research) report concerns highly-pure native preparations of recombinant gp120, which have been obtained from T-tropic HIV-l(LAI) and macrophage-tropic HIV-l(JR-FL) isolates. Conjugates of these HIV-l...

MOLECULAR DATA CONCERNING THE HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS (HIV) AND RELATED RETROVIRUSES
August 1, 1998... This (Los Alamos National Laboratory) compendium, and the accompanying floppy diskettes, are the result of an effort to compile and publish all relevant molecular data concerning the human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) and related retroviruses....

SHIGA TOXIN: VEROCYTOTOXIN-PRODUCING ESCHERICHIA COLI INFECTIONS
August 1, 1998... This (Lois Joy Galler Foundation for Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome Inc.) report summarizes the 3rd International Symposium on Shiga Toxin (Verocytotoxin)-Producing Escherichia Coli Infections (VTEC'97). During the decade between VTEC'87 and VTEC'97,...

A SYNTHETIC VACCINE GIVES IMMUNOLOGICAL PROTECTION AGAINST BOTULINUM NEUROTOXIN
August 1, 1998... This (Baylor College of Medicine) study maps the continuous antibody (Ab) binding epitopes on the protective Hc domain of BoNT/A, using anti-BoNT/A antisera from several outbred species (including human). It also maps the continuous Ab and T cell...

EVALUATION OF DRUG AND VACCINE CANDIDATES IN THE HUMAN MALARIA/AOTUS MONKEY MODEL
August 1, 1998... This (Promed Trading S.A.) report concerns the evaluation of drug and vaccine candidates in the human malaria/aotus monkey model. Chloroquine resistance (CQR) of the AMRU-1 strain of Plasmodium vivax is not reversed in aotus using...

ANIMAL MODEL OF BRAIN MECHANISMS THAT UNDERLY DIFFERENCES IN REACTION TO STRESS
August 1, 1998... Humans who are high-risk takers and high-sensation seekers show increasing amplitudes (augmenting) of the P1-N1 components of the visual evoked potential (VEP) due to increasing intensities of light flash, whereas low-risk takers show...

CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME
August 1, 1998... This (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) report presents information on chronic fatigue syndrome. Its contents are as follows: Introduction; Historical Perspective; Epidemiology; Clinical Picture; Evaluation of Patients;...

RISK FACTORS AND INTERVENTION FOR BREAST CANCER FOLLOWING HODGKINS DISEASE
August 1, 1998... This (University of Minnesota) study evaluates the role of genetic predisposition (as measured by family history of cancer) in the development of breast cancer among the late-effect study group cohort of survivors of Hodgkin's disease in...

BREAST CANCER: HER-2 AS A PROGRESSION FACTOR AND THERAPEUTIC TARGET
August 1, 1998... This (Georgetown University) report concerns studies of the effect of down-regulation of HER-2 expression by ribozyme-targeting on in vitro and in vivo proliferation of cancer cells. The work finds that colony formation in soft agar is dependent...

POSSIBLE MECHANISMS FOR THE REGULATION OF BREAST TUMOR MICROMETASTASIS BY NME GENES
August 1, 1998... Metastatic dissemination of primary breast tumors is controlled by positive and negative regulators. This (New York Medical College) report details research that finds that the expression of a catalytically-inactive nucleoside diphosphate kinase...

STROMAL COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRESSION OF BREAST CANCER
August 1, 1998... This (Georgetown University) work studies tumors produced in mice by native MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells or MCF-7 cells transfected with the angiogenic growth factors FOF-4, FGF-l, or VEOF, at early time points following tumor cell injection....

BREAST CELL GROWTH: THE ROLE OF NEGATIVE REGULATORY COMPONENTS OF EGF RECEPTOR
August 1, 1998... This (University of Utah) work compares an amplified epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGF-R) cell line with a non-amplified EGF-R variant of that cell line. An EGF treatment time-course shows that the amplified cell line is unable to...

HUMAN BREAST CANCER: THE INVOLVEMENT OF HEAT-SHOCK PROTEINS IN DRUG RESISTANCE
August 1, 1998... Heat shock proteins (hsps) are induced in cells in response to environmental stresses. It has been shown that some breast cancer patients express high levels of hsp27, which may augment the aggressiveness of these tumors and make them more...

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH TRAINING PROGRAM
August 1, 1998... The goal of this (Baylor College of Medicine) research training program is to produce highly qualified scientists for careers as independent investigators in the field of breast cancer. During the last 20 years there has been a steady increase in...

PROPOSED STUDY OF XENOBIOTIC MODULATION OF INTERCELLULAR COMMUNICATION AND GROWTH IN HUMAN MAMMARY EPITHELIAL CELL GAP JUNCTIONS
August 1, 1998... The incidence of breast cancer is increasing dramatically in the U.S. Man-made environmental agents, such as pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), phthalate esters, and dioxin, have been implicated in this increase. Many xenobiotics, such...

BREAST CANCER AND VITAMIN D
August 1, 1998... This (University of North Carolina) work is aimed at determining whether there are differences in blood levels of 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D between women with breast cancer and two control groups of women without breast cancer. The effort uses...

METASTATIC MELANOMA IMMUNOTHERAPY BY REVERSAL OF IMMUNE-SUPPRESSION
August 1, 1998... Beginning with the observation that the human enterovirus, Poliovirus Sabin 1, will lyse human melanoma cells in culture, these (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) clinical trials involve two patients with advance melanoma who were given...

BARRIERS TO PRENATAL CARE RESULTING FROM MAJOR MEDICAID ELIGIBILITY EXPANSIONS
August 1, 1998... The authors of this (California State University) report interviewed a representative sample of 10,132 postpartum women at 19 randomly-selected delivery hospitals in California during 1994-95, to identify barriers to prenatal care five years...

HEAD-START DENTAL HEALTH
August 1, 1998... This (Head Start Bureau) report presents and discusses a Head-Start dental-health curriculum. There are many ways to provide meaningful learning experiences about dental health that can help Head-Start children develop good attitudes and habits....

HEAD-START TRAINING GUIDES ON PREVENTING AND MANAGING COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
August 1, 1998... This (Head Start Bureau) report presents and discusses Head-Start training guides on preventing and managing communicable diseases, for the Head Start learning community. The spread of communicable diseases is a fact of life in Head Start....

HEAD-START: A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN APPROACH TO REDUCTION OF INFANT MORTALITY THROUGH COLLABORATION WITH MANAGED CARE ORGANIZATIONS
August 1, 1998... This (National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health) report presents a community-driven approach to infant mortality reduction through collaboration with HMOs. Its contents are as follows: Introduction; HMOs: The Basics; Your State's...

HEALTHY START: SUSTAINING CONTINUED REDUCTION OF INFANT MORTALITY IN HEALTHY-START COMMUNITIES
August 1, 1998... This (National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health) report discusses ways to sustain the reduction of infant mortality already realized in Healthy Start communities. In 1991, the Health Start Initiative was charged with reducing...

HEALTHY START: LESSONS LEARNED IN EARLY IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN PROGRAM TO REDUCE INFANT MORTALITY
August 1, 1998... This (National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health) report details the lessons learned from early implementation of a community-driven program to reduce infant mortality. The Healthy Start Initiative began Oct. 1, 1991, with 15...

WORKPLACE CUMULATIVE TRAUMA DISORDERS
August 1, 1998... This (NIOSH) publication provides a bibliographic compilation of materials describing research involving cumulative trauma disorders in the workplace. Selected references cover, for example: activities to prevent work-related musculoskeletal...

REPETITIVE MOTION DISORDERS IN THE WORKPLACE
August 1, 1998... This report (from the ABI/Inform Database) concerns repetitive motion disorders in the workplace. It covers, for example: work-related musculoskeletal disorders; repetitive strain injury; cumulative trauma disorders; the effects on employee...

PREVENTION OF CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME AND OTHER REPETITIVE MOTION INJURIES
August 1, 1998... This report (from the NTIS Bibliographic Database) concerns the prevention of carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive motion injuries. It focuses on: risk factors and biomechanics associated with the disorders; ergonomics; work habits; case...

CUMULATIVE TRAUMA DISORDER
August 1, 1998... This (University of West Virginia) report concerns experiments to develop a reproducible technique for producing chronic strain injury to rat skeletal muscles as a model for cumulative trauma disorder (CTD), and to measure the functional outcome...