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Biomedical subjects

K Gardner

Publications and source records attributed to K Gardner.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

Stuttered and normal speech events in early childhood: the validity of a behavioral data language.

A set of 200 utterances from stuttering and normally speaking children aged 2-4 years was obtained. Each utterance contained a disfluency. A group of 5 sophisticated listeners assigned one of Johnson's eight disfluency categories to each of the 200 utterances. These clinicians showed poor agreement in the categories they assigned. Subsequently, the 200 disfluencies were presented to a group of generalist clinician listeners and a group of unsophisticated listeners, who were asked to judge whether each disfluency was "stuttering" or "normal." The disfluencies judged with high agreement to be "stuttering" and the disfluencies judged with high agreement to be "normal" were not categorically distinguished by the disfluency categories assigned previously by the sophisticated listeners. Further, judged presence of various disfluency categories accounted for only a small portion of the variance in numbers of "stuttering" judgments assigned to disfluencies. It is concluded that it is justifiable to question the validity of the data language used by researchers to describe stuttered and normal speech in early childhood. Several implications of this conclusion are discussed.

Child Language

Medium chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency and SIDS.

Medium chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD) is a potentially fatal genetic defect in fatty acid metabolism and may account for a proportion of all deaths initially attributed to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Effective therapy and prevention are available.

Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase

A survey of infectious diseases in wild turkeys (Meleagridis gallopavo silvestris) from Arkansas.

Wild turkeys (Meleagridis gallopavo silvestris) trapped as part of a relocation program by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission were tested for selected infectious diseases and parasites. The 45 birds were trapped at four locations in Pope, Scott, and Montgomery counties (Arkansas, USA). Forty-four blood samples for serology, 27 blood smears and 12 fecal samples were collected. Of the serum samples tested, 20 of 44 (45%) were positive for Pasteurella multocida by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), 42 of 44 (95%) were positive for Bordetella avium by ELISA, and 15 of 44 (34%) were positive for Newcastle disease virus antibody by the hemagglutination inhibition test. All serum samples were negative for Mycoplasma gallisepticum, Mycoplasma synoviae, avian paramyxovirus 3, avian influenza, hemorrhagic enteritis, Marek's disease, avian encephalomyelitis, laryngotracheitis, Salmonella pullorum and Salmonella gallinarum. Haemoproteus meleagridis was found in eight of 27 (30%) and Leucocytozoon smithi in nine of 27 (33%) blood smears; all smears were negative for Plasmodium hermani. Enteric parasites included Ascaridia dissimilis, Heterakis gallinarum, Eimeria dispersa and Raillietina spp. This study was an attempt to document the health status and disease exposure of wild turkeys in Arkansas to aid in managing and preventing the spread of disease agents to wild turkeys and other species of birds.

Animals

Multiple components are required for sequence recognition of the AP1 site in the gibbon ape leukemia virus enhancer.

At least two subunits contributed to the formation in vitro of a specific complex binding to the AP1 consensus sequence (TGAGTCA) in the gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) enhancer in MLA144 cells. This complex can be dissociated on a monomeric GALV oligonucleotide affinity column. One protein, termed the core protein, was retained on the oligonucleotide affinity column. The second protein flowed through the oligonucleotide affinity column and, when alone, did not bind to DNA; however, when present with the core protein, it bound strongly and very specifically to the GALV sequence. MLA144 cells contained only trace amounts of c-fos and c-jun by immunoblot analysis, suggesting that the proteins specifically binding to the GALV AP1 site were distinct from c-fos and c-jun. In addition to the major complex that recognized the GALV element, MLA144 cells contained a minor complex that is chromatographically different from and antigenically related to c-fos. The factor in the flowthrough complemented a human T-cell nuclear extract (Jurkat cell line), which, when alone, had no assayable complex that specifically bound to the GALV enhancer; this complementation gave rise to a specific complex similar to that seen in MLA144 cells. Together, these results suggest that the GALV enhancer can interact with multicomponent protein complexes in a cell-line-specific manner.

Animals

Brain adducin: a protein kinase C substrate that may mediate site-directed assembly at the spectrin-actin junction.

Erythrocyte adducin is a membrane skeletal protein that binds to calmodulin, is a major substrate for protein kinase C, and associates preferentially with spectrin-actin complexes. Erythrocyte adducin also promotes association of spectrin with actin, and this activity is inhibited by calmodulin. This study describes the isolation and characterization of a brain peripheral membrane protein closely related to erythrocyte adducin. Brain and erythrocyte adducin have at least 50% antigenic sites in common, each contains a protease-resistant core of Mr = 48,000-48,500, and both proteins are comprised of two partially homologous polypeptides of Mr = 103,000 and 97,000 (erythrocytes) and Mr = 104,000 and 107,000-110,000 (brain). Brain and erythrocyte adducin associate preferentially with spectrin-actin complexes as compared to spectrin or actin alone, and both proteins also promote binding of spectrin to actin. Brain adducin binds calmodulin in a calcium-dependent manner, although the Kd of 1.3 microM is weaker by 5-6-fold than the Kd of erythrocyte adducin for calmodulin. Brain adducin is a substrate for protein kinase C in vitro and can accept up to 2 mol of phosphate/mol of protein. Adducin provides a potential mechanism in cells for mediating site-directed assembly of additional spectrin molecules and possibly other proteins at the spectrin-actin junction. Brain tissue contains 12 pmol of adducin/mg of membrane protein, which is the most of any tissue examined other than erythrocytes, which have 50 pmol/mg. The presence of high amounts of adducin in brain suggests some role for this protein in specialized activities of nerve cells.

Actins

A summary of findings of a five-year comparison study of primary and team nursing.

This study compared primary and team nursing in three areas: quality of care, impact on nursing staff, and cost. Eight medical units in one hospital were evaluated. The study was conducted over a four-year period utilizing three phases: one preintervention phase and two postintervention phases. The study used multiple measures including two approaches to analysis of cost. The findings of this study confirm that primary nursing does result in a higher quality of nursing care than team nursing and that nurse retention is improved in primary nursing. In addition, this study shows that, both directly and indirectly, primary nursing reduces costs when compared to team nursing.

Costs and Cost Analysis