Children in Adult Intensive Therapy Units

From experience in the Northampton/Kettering area 9 to 10% of all patients in a general hospital requiring care in an intensive therapy unit were aged 12 years or under. Fifty-nine children were admitted to the intensive therapy unit of Northampton General Hospital between May 1967 and August 1969. Of these, 22 had been injured in road traffic accidents, five were surgical emergencies, five had meningitis, four status epilepticus, and four respiratory infections.All of the 30 families interviewed were in favour of their child being admitted to the unit, and none considered that the experience had had any lasting adverse psychological effect on the child. It is suggested that certain carefully selected child patients do benefit from the facilities of an intensive therapy unit, and for this reason such units must be designed, equipped, and staffed with this in mind.     

Myotonia congenita (Thomsen's disease) excluded from the region of the myotonic dystrophy locus on chromosome 19

Summary Linkage analysis has been carried out in six German families with autosomal dominantly inherited myotonia congenita (Thomsen's disease) using five chromosome 19 markers known to be linked to the gene for myotonic dystrophy (DM). Two of the markers, APOC1 and APOC2, are tightly linked to DM. Close linkage between these markers and myotonia congenita (MC) has been excluded to a distance of 9cM (z=-2.158). These data support the clinical suggestion that MC and DM are non-allelic disorders.     

Early Siberians from Lake Baikal and Alaskan population affinities

Among the materials excavated by the 1975 joint USSR–USA team in Siberia are two burials from Shaman's Cape, Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal. One is a middle-aged male of the Serovo culture, 6,000 B.C. , and the other is a young male of the Glaskovo culture of 2,000 B.C. This later burial displays an unusual pathology affecting the nose and post-cranial regions of the pelvic girdle and lower limbs. Osteon analysis confirms the determination of age at death and illustrates the difference between normal and pathological bone. Numerous cultural materials were associated with these burials, including harpoon heads, knives, a compound fishhook and a pestle with the Serovo man, and nephrite ornaments with the Glaskovo man. The skulls, though far apart in time, are pronouncedly Mongoloid and alike in their low cranial vaults. A low, broad and inclined ascending ramus resembles Chukchi, Eskimos and Aleuts. These two specimens document the Mongoloid character of the early inhabitants of Lake Baikal.     

Inducible (class 3) aldehyde dehydrogenase from rat hepatocellular carcinoma and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin-treated liver: distant relationship to the class 1 and 2 enzymes from mammalian liver cytosol/mitochondria

Peptides from rat liver aldehyde dehydrogenase (AIDH) induced by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) treatment match the AIDH structure from HTC rat hepatoma cells (HTC-AIDH) at all positions examined, indicating induction of the same gene product by two independent routes. This 452 amino acid residue, class 3 AIDH structure differs substantially from the 500-residue AIDH structures isolated from normal liver cytosol (class 1) and mitochondria (class 2). Despite a 29.8% identity in 429 overlapping amino acids vs the human class 1 enzyme (27.7% vs class 2), neither the N- nor C-termini coincide, and gaps are introduced to optimize the alignment. Two residues placed in the active site of human liver AIDH by chemical modification, Cys-302 and Glu-268, are conserved in class 3 AIDH as Cys-243 and Glu-209. Cys-243/302 is the only cysteine residue conserved in all known AIDH structures. Gly-245 and Gly-250 of class 1/2 AIDHs, fitting the patterns of glycine residues in coenzyme binding fold of other dehydrogenases, are also conserved. Otherwise, Cys-49, Cys-162, and Glu-487, to which functional importance has also been ascribed, are not retained in the class 3 structure. Overall, a high conservation of Gly, Pro, and Trp and similar patterns of predicted secondary structure indicate general conservation of tertiary structure, as noted with other distantly related proteins. Three exon boundaries from the human liver mitochondria AIDH gene directly correspond to the N-terminus of the rat class 3 protein and to two of the gaps in the alignment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The effect of canopy filtered light on the growth of white clover Trifolium repens

Summary Plants of white clover (Trifolium repens) were grown under canopies of clover leaves floating on shallow glass tanks of water and their growth was compared with that of plants under canopies of black polythene leaves. The experimental design allowed the growth of the clover plants in canopy filtered light to be compared with that in unfiltered light at different intensities of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (P.A.R.). The effect of canopy filtered light was to exaggerate the effects of reduced P.A.R. especially in promoting petiole extension and inhibiting stolon branching. Two clones of white clover differed in their responses to P.A.R. and to light quality and there were significant interactions between the effects of the intensity of P.A.R. and type of shade. It is argued that it may be important for both ecologists and plant breeders to recognise the role of radiation quality in regulating the dynamics of pasture.