Centralised interpretation of electrocardiograms.

A system was devised so that a peripheral hospital could transmit electrocardiograms (ECGs) to a central computer for interpretation. The link that transmits both ECGs and reports is provided by the telephone network. Initial results showed that telephone transmission did not significantly affect the accuracy of the ECG interpretation. The centralised computer programme could be much more widely used to provide ECG interpretations. A telephone link would not be justified in health centres, where the demand for ECGs is fairly small, but ECGs recorded at a health centre can be sent to the computer for interpretation and returned the next day. The most cost-effective method of providing computer interpretation for several health centres in a large city would be to have a portable electrocardiograph and transmission facilities, which could be moved from centre to centre.     

Wild Laboratories of Climate Change: Plants,Phenology, and Global Warming, 1955–1980

Journal of the History of Biology - Phenologists track the seasonal behavior of plants and animals in response to climatic change. During the second half of the twentieth century, phenologists...     

Utilization of pancreatic trypsin and chymotrypsin by proteolytic and nonproteolyticBacteroides fragilis-type bacteria

The ability of five human colonic bacteroides (B. fragilis, B. splanchnicus, B. thetaiotaomicron, B. vulgatus, andB. ovatus) to grow on pancreatic trypsin and chymotrypsin, as well as other organic nitrogen sources, was studied in batch culture. All isolates grew on trypsin and, with the exception ofB. thetaiotaomicron, on chymotrypsin. The proteolytic activities of these bacteria varied considerably. However, the ability to utilize either trypsin or chymotrypsin was not related to the proteolytic potential of the bacteria and probably depended upon their ability to assimilate low-molecular-weight peptides generated during autolysis of the enzymes.     

Phylogenetic analysis ofEremosyne pectinata (Saxifragaceae s. l.) based onrbcL sequence data

Earlier analyses ofrbcL sequences clarified phylogenetic relationships of 16 of 17 subfamilies ofSaxifragaceae s. l. This study investigates the affinities of the monotypicEremosynoideae, the only subfamily ofSaxifragaceae s. l. not examined previously forrbcL sequence variation. Our analyses suggest thatEremosyne is only distantly related to core members ofSaxifragaceae s. l. (i.e.Saxifragoideae = Saxifragaceae s. str.); it is allied instead with members ofAsteridae. A particularly close relationship is indicated betweenEremosyne andEscallonia, another traditional member ofSaxifragaceae s. l. that also appears as part ofAsteridae. Inclusion ofEremosyne withinAsteridae is in agreement with embryology, as well as with 18S rDNA sequence data.