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Biomedical subjects

A H Bishop

Publications and source records attributed to A H Bishop.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

The analysis of microorganisms by microcalorimetry in the pharmaceutical industry.

Many features of microorganisms make them pre-eminently suitable for study by microcalorimetry. They have thus, in the past, been the basis of fundamental studies in metabolism and cellular physiology. In this review we look at the application of calorimetry to the impact of bacteria and fungi on the pharmaceutical industry both in the exploitation of useful microorganisms and the fight against harmful ones. Obviously they are of great relevance to the pharmaceutical industry as agents of human disease, with more antimicrobial products registered for production than for any other type of human affliction. Microcalorimetry offers the opportunity to study microorganisms in real time and in heterogeneous systems, allowing for more descriptive and representative analysis. Other advantages that microcalorimetry confers over traditional microbiological techniques are reductions in time, better reproducibility and simplicity. Also the manufacture of all pharmaceutical products requires the exclusion of microorganisms to a greater or lesser degree. The enumeration and identification of such contaminants is of great importance for the well-being of patients and to maintain the integrity of the product. New techniques are required to increase the reliability and sensitivity over conventional methods. Finally, as our understanding of biology develops, the sophistication of therapeutic agents available, such as vaccines, cytokines and engineered antibodies, is increasing. Necessarily, prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, possibly transformed with the appropriate genes, are the producers of such proteins. Microcalorimetry offers a sensitive means of developing the conditions for optimum production of such products in active form since it gives instantaneous information on the physiology of the producer cell.

Bacteria↗
PubMed2000

Effects of media composition of delta-endotoxin production and morphology of Bacillus thuringiensis in wild types and spontaneously mutated strains.

Bacillus thuringiensis strains HD-73 and 4412, and two spontaneous mutants termed 4412aa-ind and 4412sph-cry were studied for the ability to produce crystals of different size and shape when grown in a rich medium and in an appropriate minimal medium defined during this study. Strain 4412aa-ind showed medium-dependent variation in the crystal phenotype. Scanning electron microscopy was utilized in order to show crystal variations in size and shape. B. thuringiensis strains 4412aa-ind and 4412sph-cry grown in rich and in minimal media produced differences in crystal morphology, and SDS-PAGE gel indicated that crystal variation was only at the morphological level and not in composition of the amino acids. A further nineteen B. thuringiensis strains were tested for the ability to sporulate in two simple defined media. Of these strains thirteen were able to complete sporulation with crystal production in one or both media. All strains grew and sporulated in a medium containing the usual twenty amino acids, and no vitamins or other growth factors were required.

Bacillus thuringiensis↗
PubMed1999

Amplification of fluorescently labelled DNA within gram-positive and acid-fast bacteria.

Representative organisms from a variety of Gram-positive genera were subjected to varying regimes in order to optimise the intracellular amplification of DNA. The bacteria were subjected to treatments with paraformaldehyde, muramidases and mild acid hydrolysis to discover which regime made each organism permeable to the amplification reagents yet allowed retention of the fluorescein-labelled amplified products within the cell. Scanning electron micrographs were used to corroborate the effectiveness of the treatments, as seen by fluorescent photomicrographs, with the damage caused to the bacterial walls. A combination of mutanolysin and lysozyme was found most effective for Bacillus cereus, whereas permeabilisation of Streptomyces coelicolor, Lactococcus lactis and Clostridium sporogenes was most effective when exposed to lysozyme only. Surprisingly, direct amplification with no pre-treatment gave the brightest fluorescence in Mycobacterium phlei. Comparing the techniques of whole cell PCR, primed in situ labelling (PRINS), and cycle PRINS showed that under the conditions used the strongest intensity of fluorescence was obtained with in situ PCR; only L. lactis and M. phlei produced signals with cycle PRINS, fluorescence was not seen for any of the organisms with PRINS.

DNA, Bacterial↗
PubMed1999

A philosophical interpretation of nursing.

The authors discuss their interpretation of nursing as the practice of caring. Through interpretive phenomenology, they lift out the essential meaning of nursing as practiced, and through generative interpretation of philosophical treatments of relationships, practice, and caring, they enlighten nursing practice. They discuss the implications of interpreting nursing as the practice of caring for nursing scholarship, education, and ethics.

Education, Nursing↗
PubMed1998

Prevalence of beta-exotoxin, diarrhoeal toxin and specific delta-endotoxin in natural isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis.

Of newly isolated colonies with the appearance of Bacillus thuringiensis, 47.5% were found to produce the parasporal crystals characteristic of this species. These positive isolates were screened using the polymerase chain reaction for their possession of a gene encoding a specific protoxin type, CryIB. Strains with and without this gene were screened for their ability to produce beta-exotoxin and Bacillus cereus-type enterotoxin. It was found that 35% of the isolates possessed the cryIB gene; of these 83% also produced enterotoxin and 58% produced beta-exotoxin. No statistical significance was found for linkage between any of these characteristics. The probability, therefore, of isolating a strain of B. thuringiensis which specifically possessed the cryIB gene but did not produce either of the other, undesired, toxins, from the soil sample used, was 1.2%.

Adenosine↗
PubMed1997

A phenomenological interpretation of holistic nursing.

Phenomenology contributes to holistic nursing by interpreting the first-person encounter with the lived world. Holistic nursing care integrates biopsychosociological knowledge with the practical care that is the legacy of generations of practicing nurses. A practice, when interpreted phenomenologically, is a historically developed way of fostering human well-being. Nursing is the practice of caring. Because nursing care concerns helping persons to live better in their world, it includes the moral, esthetic, and interpersonal aspects of care. These spiritual aspects are integrally enmeshed in holistic nursing. The spiritual in holistic nursing also designates the value dimension of meaning that gives life its worth and patients and nurses the courage to be. Interpreted phenomenologically, holistic nursing integrally relates scientific meaning with the meanings of nursing practice, the lived world of patients, and the meaning that gives patients and nurses the courage to seek well-being in a world altered by illness and debilitation.

Existentialism↗
PubMed1991

Characterisation of potential adhesins of the bacterium Pasteuria penetrans, and of putative receptors on the cuticle of Meloidogyne incognita, a nematode host.

Pasteuria penetrans spores were fragmented by glass bead vortexing, producing exosporial membranes and spore fragments, which consisted of fibre bundles. Both exosporia and spore fragments are capable of host-specific attachment to the cuticle of Meloidogyne incognita, a root-knot nematode host. Putative M. incognita receptors appear to be soluble in beta-mercaptoethanol (BME) but not SDS, and are also sensitive to tryptic digestion and deglycosylation by endoglycosidase F. Polyclonal antibodies against intact spores and spore fragments of antispore antibodies produced 100% inhibition. The antibodies, however, did not show preferential staining of particular spore structures in thin section immunolabelling studies. Exposure of Pasteuria penetrans spores to HCl or urea-SDS-dithiothreitol renders them incapable of attachment to their host juveniles and extensively disrupts fibres that surround the spore core. Protein extracts from spore fragments or from exosporial membranes are identical, and urea-BME extracts from either structure, but not SDS extracts, can inhibit the attachment of spores to juveniles by 60-80%. An inhibitory BME extract from spore fragments was analysed by anion-exchange chromatography and adsorption onto host cuticle followed by immunoblotting. It appeared to contain six potential spore adhesins of approximate Mr 24-29, 38-47, 59, 89, 126, and 190 (x10(3)). Lectin affinity blotting with wheat germ agglutinin and concanavalin A showed that all of these proteins bear terminal N-acetylglucosamine residues and the 38-47 kDa band also bears terminal Glc/Man residues.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Nursing ethics in an age of controversy.

Nursing ethics is examined within the context of the health care controversy concerning care v cure. Yarling and McElmurry's contention that nursing ethics should focus on autonomy and reform is critically appraised. In opposition, the moral sense of nursing practice is affirmed as the primary focus of nursing ethics. Reform concerns enhancing excellence in nursing within an expanding legitimate authority. The "in-between" situation of nurses is regarded as an excellent position from which to foster communal decisions by teams of health care workers engaged in the moral practice of fostering the well-being of the ill.

Clinical Competence↗