Ureaplasma urealyticum has been subspeciated by a number of serologic methods. Eight serotypes have been identified by modified metabolic inhibition, growth inhibition and indirect hemagglutination. Fourteen serovars have been identified by immunofluorescence and 16 by the mycoplasmacidal assay. The present studies were performed to determine if group-specific antigens could be detected by immunofluorescence and if group- or serovar-specific antigens could be detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunoblotting. Reaction of rabbit antisera to U. urealyticum with homologous and heterologous serotypes based upon end point immunofluorescent titration did not differentiate the serovars into the two biotypes. In attempts to quantitate the number of a given serovar present in clinical specimens, the total number of colonies that were stained often exceeded 100%, suggesting either that the serovars represented in stock cultures are not truly representative of those present in humans or that certain strains express multiple serovar specificities. End point titration in an enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay using either whole cells or cell lysates and rabbit antisera failed to distinguish between group and serovars (i.e. in many cases end point titers were only 2-fold lower with heterologous antigens). Furthermore convalescent sera from patients infected with a single serovar failed to induce a serovar-specific response detectable in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Likewise immunoblotting of one dimensional electrophoretograms with sera from humans known to be infected with a single serovar showed that antibodies against that serovar recognized peptides present in all serovars and reacted with those bands with various degrees of intensity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Antigens, Bacterial↗

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Developing a customer-service and cost-effectiveness team.

A healthcare organization in northeast Georgia developed a team approach to meet the challenge of unacceptable customer service scores, improve numerous system inefficiencies, promote staff accountability, and maintain an emphasis on cost-effective and efficient utilization of resources. This article describes the development of a team comprising a variety of staff members to support all managers in this effort. The outcome was an improvement in customer satisfaction scores from the lower half of the survey database to the top third.

Consumer Behavior↗

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Health insurance coverage after welfare.

This DataWatch examines the health insurance coverage of former welfare recipients who left welfare between January 1995 and mid-1997, using data from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families. Although the majority of women who left welfare were working, only 33 percent of these women obtained health coverage through their jobs. Rates of uninsurance increase with the number of months since leaving welfare and with declines in Medicaid coverage. A year or more after leaving welfare, 49 percent of women and 30 percent of children were uninsured.

Adult↗

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Copyright--what's right?

As information and its methods of storage and transmission continue to expand dramatically, it becomes more important than ever to understand copyright law. Since continuing education means providing current knowledge, educators are in a position to find copyright law the means to that end or the grounds for legal action against them.

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Progress report.

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Anthropometry↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Wound care--healing messengers.

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Cell Communication↗