Life Sciences & Biotechnology Update articles from November 1998

Life Sciences & Biotechnology Update archives from November 1998

THE EFFECTS OF CHOLINE SUPPLEMENTATION ON PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PERFORMANCE.
November 1, 1998... Dietary availability of choline, the precursor of the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, is sufficient to provide the body's requirements under normal conditions. However, some reports indicate that plasma-choline levels fall following certain...

USE OF CAFFEINE TO ENHANCE COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE INVOLVING VIGILANCE.
November 1, 1998... Caffeine has been shown to improve tasks involving a vigilance component. This (Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine) study determines the effectiveness of caffeine in sleep-deprived individuals exposed to high levels of...

STUDY OF IMMUNOLOGICAL MEMORY.
November 1, 1998... This (Los Alamos National Laboratory) paper shows that immunological memory is an associative and robust memory that belongs to the class of sparse distributed memories. This class of memories derives its associative and robust nature by...

THE ROLE OF RADIOACTIVE-TRACING TECHNIQUES IN THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN HEALTH.
November 1, 1998... This translation from China (China Nuclear Information Center) concerns the role and application of radioactive tracers in health protection. Different radioactive tracers can be applied to studies of many functions, including: immune...

STUDY OF STAPHYLOCOCCAL ENTEROTOXIN-B (SEB): DETECTION; ASSAY; MECHANISMS OF ACTION; AND TOXICITY.
November 1, 1998... This (Johns Hopkins University) report concerns Staphylococcal enterotoxin-B (SEB), which is a common enterotoxin that can cause diarrhea and death in man. These studies have developed a specific and sensitive assay for the detection of SEB...

AUTONOMIC FUNCTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH BLOOD PRESSURE REGULATION AND ORTHOSTATIC PERFORMANCE IN WOMEN.
November 1, 1998... This (Armstrong Laboratory) report compares functions of baroreflex control of heart rate and vascular resistance, adrenoreceptor responsiveness, indices of baseline vagal and sympathetic tone, plasma volume, and venous compliance, in men and...

USING BIOMARKERS TO OPTIMIZE HEAT ACCLIMATION IN WOMEN.
November 1, 1998... This (University of Iowa) report concerns a study of the effects of estrogen supplementation (ES) on heat acclimation in 14 premenopausal females (18-35 yrs old), who are randomly assigned to either ES or placebo (P) groups after being matched...

FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSES OF HUMAN JOINTS.
November 1, 1998... This (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) paper focuses on the development of finite-element models (FEMs) that describe the biomechanics of human joints. Finite-element modeling is becoming a standard tool in industrial applications. In...

ELECTRON PARAMAGNETIC RESONANCE (EPR) SPECTROSCOPY OF TEETH ENAMEL.
November 1, 1998... This (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) paper concerns a study of EPR dosimetry of teeth in past and future accidents. It takes a prospective look at a retrospective method. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) of tooth...

RELATIONSHIP OF ZINC AND IRON TO HUMAN NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION: IMPROVING THE COGNITION OF PREMENOPAUSAL WOMEN.
November 1, 1998... This (University of Texas) project investigates the relationship of zinc and iron nutriture to human neuropsychological function. Its purpose is to test the hypothesis that repletion of mild zinc and iron deficiencies will improve the...

INTERFERON'S ROLE IN THE CELLULAR RESPONSE OF THE CNS MACROPHAGE (THE MICROGLIA) DURING INJURY AND INFLAMMATION.
November 1, 1998... This brief (Georgetown University) report details a study of the response of the CNS macrophage, the microglia, to injury and inflammation, using an in vitro approach. The work shows that microglia cultured from the cerebral cortices of...

STRUCTURAL INDICES OF STRESS FRACTURE SUSCEPTIBILITY IN FEMALE MILITARY PERSONNEL.
November 1, 1998... This (Johns Hopkins University) report details a study that examines stress-fracture susceptibility in female U.S. Marine Corps recruits, using anthropometry and bone structural measurements derived from dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA)...

INTERNATIONAL IMPACT AND COOPERATION REGARDING DRUG ABUSE.
November 1, 1998... This (National Institute on Drug Abuse) volume underscores the international impact of drug abuse by epidemiologic presentations on drug abuse in Mexico, based on: school and street surveys of youth; outbreak investigations; and data from...

HEALTH-SURVEY RESEARCH METHOD AND DATA: IMPROVING QUALITY, APPLICABILITY, AND USABILITY.
November 1, 1998... This (University of Illinois) volume contains the proceedings of a conference on health-survey research methods (1996, Breckenridge, CO). The conference focused on a continuum of methodological improvements, adding to what is known and...

A BREAST-HEALTH EDUCATION STUDY.
November 1, 1998... This (Morehouse School of Medicine) report details a breast health education study focusing on two groups: 1) minority underserved women who are residents of Atlanta Housing Authority communities; and 2) primary- care physicians and other...

FOSTERING INCREASED BREAST-CANCER PROACTIVE-PREVENTION ACTIVITIES AMONG MINORITY POPULATIONS.
November 1, 1998... This (Telesonic) 2-volume report presents and discusses a breast-cancer information system, designed to foster increased proactive-prevention activities among minority populations. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, and the...

SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES TO REACH WOMEN IN NEED OF MAMMOGRAPHY SCREENING.
November 1, 1998... This (Macro International Inc.) report presents successful strategies (used by grantees of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program) to reach women in need of mammography screening -- in particular: low-income women;...

DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMON DATABASE FOR RESEARCH ON DIGITAL MAMMOGRAPHY.
November 1, 1998... This (University of Chicago) infrastructure project is aimed at the development of a large database of digitized mammograms that will be distributed free of charge to researchers working in all aspects of digital mammography. The database will...

IDENTIFYING GENES RESPONSIBLE FOR INHERITED SUSCEPTIBILITY TO BREAST CANCER WITHIN FAMILIES: MAPPING AND CLONING GENES OTHER THAN BRCA1.
November 1, 1998... The goal of this (University of California) project is to identify genes responsible for inherited susceptibility to breast cancer in families. Two such genes have been cloned (BRCA1 and BRCA2), but the existence of families with many cases of...

STUDIES OF THE MODULATION AND EXPRESSION OF THE RETINOBLASTOMA TUMOR-SUPPRESSOR GENE/PROTEIN.
November 1, 1998... This (Oklahoma State University) report details studies that evaluate the potential role of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor gene/protein during chemical carcinogenesis in the medaka (Oryzias latipes), a small fish. Cell lines from the...

USING PULSED ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS TO TREAT FEMALE PELVIC STRESS FRACTURES.
November 1, 1998... This (Madigan Army Medical Center) report concerns the use of pulsing electromagnetic fields for the treatment of pelvic stress-fractures among female soldiers. The literature and clinical experience indicate that the overwhelming incidence of...

YALE UNIVERSITY'S PROGRAM FOR TRAINING IN THE CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES INVOLVED WITH BREAST ONCOLOGY.
November 1, 1998... This (Yale University School of Medicine) report concerns the Program for Critical Technologies in Breast Oncology (PCTBO). It details expanded services (initiated in July 1994) to establish a core technical and tissue procurement resource...

USING PERCEPTUAL FEEDBACK, COMPUTER-PROCESSED IMAGES, AND ULTRASOUND, FOR EARLY DETECTION OF BREAST CANCER ON MAMMOGRAMS.
November 1, 1998... This (University of Pennsylvania) study explores several approaches for improving the detection of small tumors in the breast, including: (1) Perceptual feedback to decrease errors in missing tumors that are actually visible on the initial...

EFFECT OF PHOSPHORYLATION ON PROGESTERONE-RECEPTOR ACTIVITY AND ANTAGONIST ACTIVITY.
November 1, 1998... Phosphoprotein progesterone receptor (PR) is a key mediator of sex hormone progesterone, which regulates the development and differentiation of many organs, including mammary glands. Aberrant activity of PR may be involved in breast cancer...

THE ROLE OF NF-kB TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS IN HUMAN BREAST CANCER.
November 1, 1998... Human breast cancer is characterized by the altered expression of: growth factors; growth-factor receptors; and kinases. The downstream effectors of these molecules are transcription factors which presumably control aberrant- gene expression...

THE REVERSAL OF MULTIDRUG RESISTANCE IN BREAST CANCER.
November 1, 1998... This (Fox Chase Cancer Center) report shows that MDR1 gene expression is important in breast cancer resistance. The role of the MDR1 gene in breast cancer treatment will be further defined by sequentially determining MDR1 gene expression, pre-...

ROLE OF THE MATRIX METALLOPROTEINASE, MATRILYSIN, IN MAMMARY TUMORIGENESIS.
November 1, 1998... This (Vanderbilt University) report concerns the role of matrilysin, a matrix metalloproteinase, in mammary tumorigenesis. The processes of mammary gland development, and mammary tumor growth, require extensive remodeling of the extracellular...

THE HYDRATION OF BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES, FROM SMALL SOLUTES TO PROTEINS AND NUCLEIC ACIDS.
November 1, 1998... This (Los Alamos National Laboratory) paper concerns a method that uses two- and three-particle correlation functions between solute atoms and water molecules, to approximate the density profile of water surrounding biomolecules. The method is...

MULTIFACTORIAL NATURE OF THE INTERACTION OF A GROWTH FACTOR (TGFalpha) AND AN ONCOGENE (c-myc) IN MALIGNANT AND NONMALIGNANT MAMMARY EPITHELIAL CELLS.
November 1, 1998... This (Georgetown University) study supports predoctoral training on an experimental model relevant to breast cancer etiology. It explores the multifactorial nature of the interaction of a growth factor (TGFalpha, which is commonly expressed...

FUNCTION OF THE STROMA-DERIVED METALLOPROTEINASE, STROMELYSIN-3, IN INVASIVE BREAST CARCINOMAS.
November 1, 1998... This (University of Michigan) report concerns Stromelysin-3 (ST-3), a member of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family, that is expressed in stromal cells surrounding invasive breast carcinoma cells, where it undergoes processing to its...

TRACKING AND CONTROL OF FOODBORNE PATHOGENS FROM THE FARM TO THE TABLE.
November 1, 1998... This (Economic Research Service) document contains the proceedings of a conference on tracking food pathogens from farm to table (1995, Washington, DC). Food-safety policymakers and scientists came together to evaluate data available for...