The amino acid pattern following total hip replacement is characterized by increases in muscle of the branched chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine), the aromatics (phenylalanine and ...tyrosine) as well as methionine. The nonessential amino acids in muscle tend to decline, glutamine having the most marked change. Plasma levels of the essential amino acids increase while the nonessentials tend to decrease. This pattern differs from that observed in other catabolic states (uremia, starvation, untreated diabetes) and is significantly different from the effects of inactivity and starvation combined. This suggests that injury can be characterized by a unique pattern of muscle and plasma amino acids.
Managing reconfigurable hardware resources at runtime is expected to be a new task for future operating systems. But due to the mixture of parallel and sequential parts of dynamically reconfigurable ...applications, it is not entirely clear so far, how to use and to program such systems. A new interpretation of dynamically reconfigurable applications is presented. It is shown, that the parallel computing concept of distributed object systems may be adapted for dynamically reconfigurable architectures. This approach answers many open questions concerning communication, interruption, and relocation of reconfigurable modules. It is explored by means of an extended Linux operating system in conjunction with a SystemC model of a dynamically reconfigurable FPGA
Simultaneous in situ measurements of N sub(2) O and CH sub(4) were made with a tunable diode laser spectrometer (ALIAS II) aboard the Observations from the Middle Stratosphere (OMS) balloon platform ...from New Mexico, Alaska, and Brazil during 1996 and 1997. We find different compact relationships of CH sub(4) with N sub(2) O in the tropics and extra-tropics because mixing is slow between these regions. Transport into the extra-tropics from the tropics or the polar vortex leads to deviations from the normal compact relationship. We use measured N sub(2) O and CH sub(4) and a simple model to quantify entrainment of mid-latitude stratospheric air into the tropics. The entrainment time scale is estimated to be 16 (+17,-8) months for altitudes between 20 and 28 km. The fraction of tropical air entrained from the extra-tropical stratosphere is 50% (+18%, -30%) at 20 km, increasing to 78% (+11%, -19%) at 28 km.
Of five patients in who sciatic paresis developed as the result of hemorrhage and hematoma following hip surgery, four were receiving prophylactic or therapeutic anticoagulants. The patient who was ...managed expectantly still had disabling motor and sensory deficity at follow-up. Three patients who had early operative decompression showed more complete return of nerve function. The fifth patient died three weeks after onset with the neuropathy still present. Severe low-back and buttock pain, ecchymosis over these regions, marked swelling in the thigh, sciatic-nerve tenderness, and a distal sciatic neural deficit in the ipsilateral lower limb of a patient who has had hip surgery are evidence of hemorrhage in the vicinity of the sciatic nerve. Early recognition and prompt surgical decompression can prevent irreversible nerve damage.
A benign epidural lesion in the thoracic spine is rare, and usually the result of intervertebral disc herniation or infection. Not long ago patients were diagnosed late in the course of their disease ...and the surgical results of the standard laminectomy usually performed were grave. The development of newer imaging techniques (CT and MRI) has made diagnosis much easier, so diagnosis is often earlier, when neurological deficit is minimal. Newer neurosurgical techniques and approaches to the thoracic spoine have been developed to treat these lesions, which we describe. Clinical data on 16 patients operated from January 1996 to January 1997 are presented.
The clinical and radiographic features of 60 cases of hydromyelia area discussed. A combination of motor and sensory symptoms and signs is the usual presentation, but pure motor or sensory forms of ...the disease are not infrequent. Pain and scoliosis are usually associated with a high degree of blockage. A normal spinal fluid protein content in the presence of an enlarged spinal cord is of diagnostic value. Important radiographic clues include widening of the spinal cord without venous stagnation and collapse of the spinal cord visualized with the patient in the upright position. Metrizamide computed tomography is now used routinely, and the contrast agent may at times appear in the dilated central spinal canal. Decompression of the foramen magnum is the treatment of choice in the presence of an associated Arnold-Chiari malformation and is the treatment most likely to succeed. In selected cases, decompressive laminectomy and syringostomy may be indicated. Percutaneous spinal cord puncture is a safe diagnostic-therapeutic procedure which, surprisingly, may afford relief equal to that of more drastic measures. Therefore, percutaneous spinal cord puncture may be an option of therapeutic value in a disorder that is frustrating to treat.
A narrow-bore normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed for separation of phospholipid classes using an HPLC diol column and a gradient of chloroform and ...methanol with 0.2% formic acid titrated to pH 5.3 with ammonia. The HPLC system was coupled on-line with an electrospray mass spectrometry (ES-MS) or electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (ES-MS–MS) system and the separation of several major phospholipid classes was shown. The molecular species of some phospholipid classes in human blood were qualitatively determined. A method was further developed for specific determination of a molecular species from phosphatidylserine, palmitoyl-stearoyl-phosphatidylserine (PSPS), in human blood using HPLC–ES-MS. The analyses were performed by single ion monitoring of the M–H
− molecular ions of PSPS and an internal standard, dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylserine. The limit of quantification of the method was 1.2 ng of PSPS. The calibration curve ranged from 0.12 to 5.81 μg/ml of PSPS dissolved in the mobile phase. The curve was fitted to a second-order polynomial equation and found to be highly reproducible. Analysis of control samples was found to be reproducible with a between-series precision below 9.2% R.S.D. The amount of endogenous PSPS in human blood was determined in 13 subjects and found to range from 1.73 to 3.09 μg/ml. The identity of endogenous PSPS was confirmed by HPLC–ES-MS–MS.
A role for the Epstein-Barr virus in initiating Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus has been proposed since Epstein-Barr virus BOLF1 (497-513) AVTPL RIFIVPPAAEY has an 11 amino acid identity ...with HLA-DQw8 beta (49-60) AVTPL GPPAAEY. Rabbit antisera to the BOLF1 (496-515) peptide crossreacted with the homologous DQw8 beta (44-63) peptide but not with the related DQw7 beta (44-63) peptide, which differed from the DQw8 peptide only in an ALA to ASP substitution in position 57. Antisera to DQw8 beta (49-60) reacted with the DQw8 beta (44-63) peptide and BOLF1 (496-515), but not with DQw7 beta (44-63). The antiserum to the BOLF1 peptide bound to denatured class II major histocompatibility complex beta chains from Epstein-Barr virus-transformed DQw8-positive lymphocytes in an immunoblotting analysis. Epstein-Barr virus antibodies were detected at equal frequencies and similar titres in sera of 30 patients with Type 1 diabetes (16 of 30; 63%) and in sera of 20 non-diabetic control subjects (13 of 20; 65%). Sera from diabetic patients did not bind to DQw8 beta (44-63) or BOLF1 (496-515) peptides. From these data we conclude that there is no simple relationship between serological evidence of Epstein-Barr virus infection and crossreactions between homologous Epstein-Barr virus and class II major histocompatibility complex peptides.
Transcriptional fusions between the phage lambda promotor pR and ATP synthase genes, atp, on plasmid pBR322 were constructed in order to study the effects upon growth and physiology of Escherichia ...coli of induced overproduction of H+‐ATPase subunits. Constitutive overproduction of the complete enzyme had earlier been found to result in decreased growth rate and cytological defects. When a 15‐fold overproduction of subunit a alone, or together with subunit c, or with all other ATP synthase subunits was suddenly induced, the following effects were observed. Inhibition of growth and protein synthesis within 10 min of induction, which effect was suppressed by N,N'‐dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, also when the chromosomal atp genes coding for the Fo subunits a, b and c were deleted. Partial collapse of the membrane potential delta psi at 4‐6 min after induction paralleled by inhibition of thiomethylgalactoside and guanosine transport. Respiration and alpha‐methylglucoside transport was not affected. The partial collapse of delta psi, and the specific inhibition of proton‐driven transport systems is taken to show that the subunit a has‐‐when suddenly overproduced and inserted into the membrane‐‐a protonophoric activity. It is suggested that this protonophoric activity of subunit a is related to the function of this subunit in the Fo sector in H+‐ATPases.
Injury is followed by a sequence of metabolic alterations which include fluid and sodium retention. This study used the percutaneous biopsy technique to analyze changes in muscle composition in ...regions nonadjacent to the area of surgical injury. The effect of nutritional intake on the changes observed in emphasized. Twenty-eight patients undergoing colectomy and 22 patients undergoing total hip replacement were studied. The patients undergoing colectomy resections received total parenteral nutrition with varying nitrogen intake. The patients undergoing hip replacement received either a) 5% dextrose solutions, b) 3.5% amino acid solutions, or c) both. Muscle biopsy procedures were performed preoperatively and postoperatively (day three on the colectomy patients) (day four on the hip replacement patients). The role of inactivity was assessed in eight healthy subjects maintained on strict bedrest for four days. Four subjects received a regular diet, while four received 5% dextrose solution for four days. The tissue samples were analyzed for water, sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, and in selected cases glycogen. No significant effects of bedrest with either a regular diet or semistarvation were observed. Surgical injury caused an increase in muscle water, sodium, and chloride while there was a slight reduction in potassium in all groups, with the exception of those colectomy patients who received no amino acids after operation. There was no effect of varying the level of nitrogen intake in the colectomy patients, nor was there an effect of different hypocaloric infusions, in the hip replacement patients. The colectomy patients on admission to the hospital, showed some signs of prior nutritional depletion. After receiving four days of preoperative nutrition, there was a decrease in extracellular water, in sodium and chloride towards normal values. Following injury, there was an increase in muscle water, sodium and chloride, while potassium decreased slightly. In the postoperative period there were only minimal effects of nutritional intake on the observed changes.
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