USE OF A PROGRAMMABLE CALCULATOR IN CARDIOPULMONARY PERFUSION

This study describes a hand-held, battery-powered, programmable instrument (Calculator Model SR-52) that can be taken directly into the operating room by cardiopulmonary perfusionists. Three programs are described in detail: 1) Cardiopulmonary perfusion parameters and estimated blood volume; 2) blood gas parameters and saturations, with temperature corrections; and 3) cardiopulmonary oxygen transfer and oxygenator efficiency. This inexpensive calculator allows perfusion personnel to manipulate easily-derived data into values which heretofore have required elaborate nomograms or special slide rules-or were not available within a reasonable computational time.     

Death on Denali: Fatalities Among Climbers in Mount McKinley National Park From 1903 to 1976—Analysis of Injuries,Illnesses and Rescues in 1976

Between 1903 and 1975 about 1 percent of climbers on Mount McKinley (Denali) and Mount Foraker in Alaska died. In 1976 a total of ten (1.7 percent) of 587 mountaineers died, but this rate of death was not significantly higher than previously.Nineteen percent of climbers in 1976 suffered major or minor injuries, illness or death. Acute mountain sickness (AMS), frostbite and fractures were common. Thirty-three rescues or retrievals of bodies were mounted at a cost of more than $82,000.Inexperience (particularly with arctic mountaineering), poor leadership, faulty equipment and undue reliance on rescue by helicopter contributed to the alarming incidence of accident, illness and death on big peaks in Mount McKinley National Park in 1976.     

Rotational flexibility of the human knee due to varus/valgus and axial moments in vivo

Knee ligamentous injuries persist in the sport of Alpine skiing. To better understand the load mechanisms which lead to injury, pure varus/valgus and pure axial moments were applied both singly and in combination to the right knees of six human test subjects. The corresponding relative knee rotations in three degrees of freedom were measured. Knee flexion angles for each test subject were 15 and 60 degrees for the individual moments and 60 degrees for the combination moments. For both knee flexion angles the hip flexion angle was 0 degrees. Leg muscles were quiescent and axial force was minimal during all tests. Tables of data include sample statistics for each of four flexibility parameters in each loading direction. Data were analyzed statistically to test for significant differences in flexibility parameters between the test conditions. In flexing the knee from 15 to 60 degrees, the resulting knee rotations under single moments depended upon flexion angle with varus, valgus, and internal rotations increasing significantly. Also, rotations were different depending on load direction; varus rotation was significantly different and greater than valgus rotation at both flexion angles. Also external rotation was significantly different and greater than internal at 15 degrees flexion, but not at 60 degrees flexion. Coupled rotations under single moments were also observed. Applying pure varus/valgus moments resulted in coupled external/internal rotations which were inconsistent and hence not significant. Applying pure axial moments resulted in consistent and hence significant varus/valgus rotations; an external axial moment induced varus rotation and an internal axial moment induced valgus rotation. For combination moments, varus/valgus rotations decreased significantly from those rotations at similar load levels in the single moment studies. Also, a varus moment significantly increased external rotation and a valgus moment significantly decreased internal rotation. These differences indicate significant interaction between corresponding load combinations. These results suggest that load interaction is a potentially important phenomenon in knee injury mechanics.     

Sensitivity of the vagina and uterus of mice neonatally exposed to estrogen or androgen to postnatal treatment with estrogen or androgen.

Newborn female BALB/cCrgl mice receiving 5 micrograms of testosterone or 0.01 micrograms of diethylstilbestrol daily for the first 5 days of life were examined at various times after secondary exposure to testosterone and 17 beta-estradiol, respectively. Neonatal administration of testosterone induced squamous stratification associated with constant cornification of the vaginal epithelium in intact mice. Later exposure to testosterone suppressed cornification, resulting in superficial epithelial mucification in almost all mice by 4 months of age. However, at 6 months of age, the incidence of mucification dropped to 58%. Cervicovaginal lesions developed in the groups of mice given neonatal testosterone in combination with later testosterone and sacrificed at 4 and 6 months of age. Continuous vaginal stratification was found in 14% of ovariectomized, neonatally diethylstilbestrol-treated mice at 13 months of age. The incidence of this ovary-independent change increased to 40% at 24 months of age. Postnatal estrogen replacement significantly increased the incidence of squamous stratification in these mice. Neonatal diethylstilbestrol treatment alone induced cervicovaginal lesions in 4.5% of ovariectomized mice at 13 months of age; secondary 17 beta-estradiol exposure significantly enhanced the development of lesions to 44%. However, at 24 months of age, there was no difference in the incidence of lesions in ovariectomized, neonatally treated mice with or without the secondary 17 beta-estradiol treatment. These results suggest that the effects of neonatal exposure to a relatively low dose of estrogen, androgen, or related substance may become obvious later in life as a result of later exposure to hormones.     

Progesterone maintenance of the placental progesterone receptor and placental growth in ovariectomized rats

These studies examine the trophic effects of progesterone (P) on the progesterone receptor (Rp) and growth of the decidua basalis (DB) and junctional zone (JZ) in the rat placenta. Pregnant rats were ovariectomized (Ovx) in mid-pregnancy and received steroid replacement therapy consisting of implantation of P pellets (25 mg) and injections of estradiol (E), 2 micrograms s.c., daily. Placental protein synthesis, measured by 3H-leucine incorporation in vitro, decreased more than 99% within 24 h of Ovx. However, treatment with P immediately after castration maintained control levels of synthesis. Delay of P treatment for 4 h caused a 60% decline in protein production measured 20 h later (p less than 0.01). Intraperitoneal implantation of a 50-mg pellet of the antiprogestin, RU-38486, in intact pregnant rats decreased protein synthesis by 50% within 6 h and by more than 90% 12 h and 24 h post-implantation (p less than 0.01). Growth of DB and JZ in Ovx rats treated for 48 h with P and/or E was studied both histologically and by changes in protein and DNA content. Rp binding activity was also measured by exchange assay under equilibrium conditions. Only P was able to reverse the effects of Ovx on growth of the DB and JZ. P also maintained Rp levels in the DB above those observed in Ovx and Ovx + E-treated groups (p less than 0.01). The Rp may be a constitutive product in the JZ since binding activity was not altered by Ovx or by steroid treatments. This study shows that P is clearly a trophic hormone of the maternal and chorioallantoic placenta and is essential for placental growth, cellular differentiation, and histological integrity.     

Interleukin 2-induced tyrosine phosphorylation. Interleukin 2 receptor beta is tyrosine phosphorylated

Interaction of interleukin 2 (IL2) with its high affinity membrane receptor complex (IL2R) is sufficient to induce proliferation of T lymphocytes. However, the biochemical mechanisms by which IL2 induces this process remain unresolved. The IL2R complex consists of at least two distinct polypeptides that bind IL2, a 75-kDa intermediate affinity subunit (IL2R beta) and a 55-kDa low affinity subunit (IL2R alpha). As indicated by Western blotting with anti-phosphotyrosine-specific antibodies and confirmed by phosphoamino acid analysis, we now demonstrate that interaction of the T cell growth factor interleukin 2 (IL2) with its high affinity receptor on IL2-sensitive human peripheral blood lymphoblasts induces tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins of 92, 80, 78, 70-75, and 57 kDa. IL2 induced tyrosine phosphorylation in YT 2C2 cells which express only the 75-kDa intermediate affinity IL2 binding molecule (IL2R beta) but not in cells which either express only the 55-kDa low affinity IL2 receptor molecule (IL2R alpha) or no IL2-binding sites. Therefore, IL2R beta, in the absence of IL2R alpha, appears sufficient to transduce the transmembrane signal leading to tyrosine phosphorylation. Two different antibodies reactive with phosphotyrosine specifically immunoprecipitated IL2R beta cross-linked to radiolabeled IL2. These findings suggest that IL2R beta is a substrate for the tyrosine kinase which is activated by IL2 binding to its receptor. Thus, like several other growth factor receptors, activation of the IL2R results in an increase in tyrosine phosphorylation with the receptor itself serving as one substrate.     

Aspects of Diversity Measurement for Microbial Communities

A useful measure of diversity was calculated for microbial communities collected from lake water and sediment samples using the Shannon index (H′) and rarefaction [E(S)]. Isolates were clustered by a numerical taxonomy approach in which limited (<20) tests were used so that the groups obtained represented a level of resolution other than species. The numerical value of diversity for each sample was affected by the number of tests used; however, the relative diversity compared among several sampling locations was the same whether 11 or 19 characters were examined. The number of isolates (i.e., sample size) strongly influenced the value of H′ so that unequal sized samples could not be compared. Rarefaction accounts for differences in sample size inherently so that such comparisons are made simple. Due to the type of sampling carried out by microbiologists, H′ is estimated and not determined and therefore requires a statement of error associated with it. Failure to report error provided potentially misleading results. Calculation of the variance of H′ is not a simple matter and may be impossible when handling a large number of samples. With rarefaction, the variance of E(S) is readily determined, facilitating the comparison of many samples.     

RNA replication: required intermediates and the dissociation of template, product, and Q beta replicase.

Replication complexes containing only one molecule of Q beta replicase and one strand of midivariant RNA (MDV-1 RNA) template were prepared by incubating the replicase with an excess of MDV-1 (-) RNA. In the presence of excess minus strands, these monoenzyme replication complexes were shown to synthesize essentially pure MDV-1 (+) RNA in both the first and second cycles of replication. When an equivalent concentration of mutant MDV-1 (-) RNA was added to this reaction before completion of the first cycle of replication, only wild-type MDV-1 (+) RNA was produced in the first cycle, but both mutant and wild-type MDV-1 (+) RNA were produced in the second cycle of replication. These results demonstrate that a monoenzyme complex is competent to synthesize RNA and, therefore, that a multienzyme replication complex is not a necessary intermediate of replication. The data also imply that after the completion of chain elongation, the product strand is released from the replication complex and that the template and the replicase then dissociate.     

Evaluation of fasciotomy and vasodilator for treatment of frostbite in the dog

Severe freezing injury was produced in the hind foot of 26 mongrel dogs. All dogs were given daily whirlpool treatment and protective bandaging for 14 days following injury. In addition, certain dogs received a vasodilator, fasciotomy, or both vasodilator and fasciotomy following injury. Deep foot temperatures, foot volumes, tissue pressures, and 14 day tissue loss-salvage scores were compared. Significant differences between fasciotomy and nonfasciotomy dogs were seen in foot temperature, volume, and tissue pressure immediately following fasciotomy. Though there was no significant difference in 14 day tissue loss, there was clinically apparent prolongation of integrity of the local vascular system for 2 to 5 days following fasciotomy, and total foot salvage in several dogs receiving fasciotomy.