Acute appendicitis and bathrooms in three samples of British children

The occurrence of appendicectomy in three national samples of British children was analysed in relation to household amenities, crowding in the home, and social class. The risk of having the operation depended on the amenities present in the home, in particular whether or not there was a bathroom. This risk was independent of social class.The findings support a relation between acute appendicitis and Western hygiene, which would explain the geographical distribution of the disease and its changing incidence over time. In the developing world, where children grow up in conditions of poor hygiene, there may be outbreaks of appendicitis when housing improves.     

Inequalities in health in Britain: specific explanations in three Lancashire towns.

The reasons why mortality is higher in the poorer areas of Britain are largely unknown. Thus how to reduce inequalities in health is a matter of conjecture. In three neighbouring towns in northern England the rates of death from all causes differ greatly. Socioeconomic conditions in the towns are similar though below average for England and Wales. The pattern of disease specific rates was analysed and related to past differences in infant mortality. It is suggested that past differences in maternal health and physique and in the postnatal environment, particularly infant feeding, housing, and overcrowding, may be determinants of current differences in adult mortality.     

Assessing photosynthetic efficiency in an experimental mangrove canopy using remote sensing and chlorophyll fluorescence

This study examined the ability of the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) to track changes in effective quantum yield (Δ F/F _m ′), non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), and the xanthophyll cycle de-epoxidation (DPS) in an experimental mangrove canopy. PRI was correlated with (Δ F/F _m ′) and NPQ over the 4-week measurement period and over the diurnal cycle. The normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) was not correlated with any aspect of photochemical efficiency measured using chlorophyll fluorescence or xanthophyll pigments. This study demonstrated that photochemical adjustments were responsible for controlling the flow of energy through the photosynthetic apparatus in this mangrove forest canopy rather than canopy structural or chlorophyll adjustments.     

Wah Soon Chow,a teacher,a friend and a colleague

Photosynthesis Research - To finish this special issue, some friends, colleagues and students of Prof. Chow (Emeritus Professor, the Research School of Biology, the Australian National University)...     

Dietary n-3 fatty acids alter the contractile response to thromboxane A(2) agonists of porcine coronary arteries

Dietary supplementation with marine fish oils rich in n-3 fatty acids reduces circulating thromboxane A(2) (TxA(2)). However, the effects on thomboxane A(2) receptor mediated vascular reactivity are uncertain. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that dietary modification of TxA(2) levels alters vascular responsiveness to TxA(2) analogues. Juvenile female white pigs were fed a diet enriched in either 5% (w/w) fish oil or beef tallow for 6 weeks. Serum and myocardial tissue levels of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid reached a plateau during this period. Vascular responses were measured in isolated coronary arterial rings with intact endothelium by isometric tension measurement. Arteries from pigs fed fish oil produced a greater maximum vasoconstrictor tension to the TxA(2) analogue U46619 than did rings from pigs fed beef tallow (120 +/- 6% compared to 92 +/- 8%, values represented as a percentage relative to the maximum vasoconstrictor effect obtained to KCl, regression analysis, analysis of variance, P 相似文献   

G-protein-coupled receptor-mediated MAPK and PI3-kinase signaling is maintained in Chinese hamster ovary cells after γ-irradiation

To expedite G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) drug screening studies, cell lines amenable to transfection (e.g. CHO cells) have been widely used as cellular models. These cells can be frozen in a ready-to-use format, allowing screening of a single batch of cells and validation of the cellular material prior to the screening run. A common method used to deliver frozen cells to screening programs is to γ-irradiate the cells, abrogating cell division after thawing and ensuring consistency in the number of cells analyzed per well. With the recognition that signaling proteins such as ERK and Akt are important markers of GPCR activation, along with the availability of suitable assays for their measurement, these outputs have become important for GPCR screening programs. Here we show that several γ-irradiated and frozen CHO-K1 cell lines expressing transfected GPCRs, initially optimized for performing cAMP or AequoScreen calcium flux assays, can be used for the measurement of GPCR-mediated ERK and Akt phosphorylation. Furthermore, CHO-K1 cells transfected with NOP or GAL(1) receptors show pharmacology for a number of agonists and antagonists that is consistent with non-irradiated cultured lines. These data indicate that γ-irradiated CHO-K1 cells can be reliably used for the measurement of GPCR-mediated kinase signaling outputs.