Biomedical subjects

F Banks

Publications and source records attributed to F Banks.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2002

The outcome of drug smuggling by 'body packers'--the British experience.

Body packing or internal concealment used by drug dealers to smuggle illicit substances, puts the body packer at risk of both imprisonment and death. We report our experience over a 4 year period from January 1996 to December 1999 of suspects presenting to our hospital (the largest series in Europe). A total of 572 cases were assessed radiographically and 180 were shown to be carrying foreign bodies. The commonest reasons for admission were suspected overdose or gastrointestinal obstruction. Thirty-six cases were admitted, of whom 7 required surgical intervention. No deaths occurred. Of all people detained for smuggling by internal concealment into Britain during this period, 27% were seen in our hospital. These cases may present alone or escorted by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise personnel, and one must be aware of this possibility even when situated away from a port of entry.

Abdominal Pain↗

PubMed1998

Capillary electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis-electrospray-mass spectroscopy for the analysis of heterocyclic amines.

Fourteen heterocyclic amines (HAs) were analyzed by capillary electrophoresis (CE) on a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-coated capillary column. The optimized electrolyte is composed of 20 mM ammonium acetate, pH 3.0, and 20% methanol. Similar conditions were applied in electrospray-mass spectrometry (CE-ES-MS). The CE-ES-MS optimization procedure includes the position of the capillary in the stainless steel interface, the flow of the sheath liquid and its composition.

Acetates↗

PubMed1991

On the time course of surgically induced compensatory muscle hypertrophication of the rat plantaris muscle.

1. The time course of the hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the rat plantaris muscle was determined from measurements of total muscle mass and cross-section analysis of fixed muscle. 2. Muscle enlargement was induced by the surgical removal of the plantaris synergist muscles, the gastrocnemius and the soleus. 3. From the date of surgery through the third post-operative week, muscle enlargement is due to fiber hypertrophication (approximately 100% increase in diameter). After post-operative week three, muscle enlargement is due to a combination of hyperplasia and hypertrophy. At week four the cross-sectional areas return to control values. 4. The neuromuscular junction area was determined by measuring Karnovsky stained post-synaptic membrane. Only a modest 10-30% increase was noted at weeks 2 and 3 with a return to control levels at week 4. The differences were not statistically different.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

PubMed1978

A yeast mutant which accumulates precursor tRNAs.

It has been proposed that the conditional yeast mutant ts136 is defective in the transport of mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm (Hutchinson, Hartwell and McLaughlin, 1969). We have examined ts136 to determine whether it is defective in tRNA biosynthesis. At the restrictive temperature, the mutant accumulates twelve new species of RNA. These species co-migrate on polyacrylamide gels with some of the pulse-labeled precursor tRNAs. Three of the new RNAs (species 1a, 1b and 1c are large enough to contain two tandom tRNAs. Although RNAs 1a, 1b, and 1c do not contain detectable levels of modified and methylated bases, at least one of them hybridizes to DNA from an E. coli plasmid containing a yeast tRNA gene. All the remaining RNAs (2--8) contain modified and methylated bases typical of tRNA. Three of these species were tested and were found to hybridize to tRNA genes. Ribosomal RNA synthesis is also defective in ts136. It is suggested that ts136 may be defective in a nucleolytic activity, which is a prerequisite to RNA transport.

DNA↗