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Biomedical subjects

M Emery

Publications and source records attributed to M Emery.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

The theory and practice of behaviour change in the school context.

There is a large volume of teaching material on health education which provides factual information. Although facts are important, other factors are also involved in bringing about attitude and behaviour change. Taking the teaching of a difficult subject, that of "responsible sexual behaviour" to lower ability pupils aged 14-15 years, the author describes her approach which involves (a) the use of humour to remove defences; (b) the use of games to hold interest and promote involvement, the objective being to lead to serious discussion of sex before marriage, the use of contraception, abortion, adolescent-parent relationships, etc.; and (c) the use of self-assessment to determine individual contributions to the lesson and the impact of the teaching. The author then reviews current theories of attitude and behaviour change. "Health education", she says, "aims to immunize teenagers against pressures by exposure to them in small doses, as with measles. We need further to undermine harmful pressures and create new positive ones." This is no easy task for teachers, involving as it does individual motivation as well as the long-term modification of social norms. Hence the importance of adequate basic and in-service training to help teachers think in behavioural terms rather than in terms of imparting knowledge and to use tested methods of attitude and behaviour change.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

High-performance liquid chromatography of benzodiazepines I: Stability-indicating assay of diazepam tablets.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic procedure was developed for diazepam tablet analysis. This procedure separates the manufacturing intermediate, 7-chloro-1,3-dihydro-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one, and the decomposition products, 3-amino-6-chloro-1-methyl-4-phenylcarbostyril and 2-methylamino-5-chlorobenzophenone, from diazepam. The liquid chromatographic procedure is superior to the USP UV assay because it is stability indicating. The method is simple, accurate, and fast, involving only one extraction step. A reversed-phase column and a methanol-water mobile phase were used. Under these conditions, 0.1% of the decomposition products was detectable. Typical samples of diazepam tablets showed no degradation.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Detection of interleukin-1 bioactivity in various brain regions of normal healthy rats.

Although interleukin-1 (IL-1) has been implicated in an array of brain functions, past studies usually have failed to detect IL-1 bioactivity in the brain of normal healthy animals. However, in view of the potency of IL-1 in brain, small amounts of this cytokine may normally act in brain, and such quantities can escape detection by assay methods usually employed. Although bioassays are highly sensitive for detecting IL-1, these can be compromised by molecules in brain tissue other than IL-1, and attempts to purify IL-1 from brain tissue can result in significant loss of IL-1 from samples. In this study, we have refined our method of assessing brain IL-1 bioactivity by first semi-isolating IL-1 with a Sephadex minicolumn and then measuring IL-1 activity with a sensitive D10 cell assay. To confirm that our assay was specific for IL-1, a monoclonal antibody against IL-1 receptor was used to block any observed IL-1 activity. We report here that IL-1 bioactivity can be reliably detected in both the cell-free supernatant and cell lysate of brainstem, cortex, diencephalon, and hippocampus of normal rat brain. These results lend support to some recent studies that found IL-1 may play important roles in the functions of normal brain.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

In vivo induction of interleukin-1 bioactivity in brain tissue after intracerebral infusion of native gp 120 and gp 160.

We have previously reported that intracerebral infusion of recombinant human immunodeficiency virus envelope protein gp 120 induced interleukin-1 (IL-1) bioactivity in rat brain. In this study, we tested the ability of native gp 120 and gp 160 to induce IL-1 activity in rat brain and also examined whether altering the secondary and tertiary structures of these proteins by carboxymethylation could influence the IL-1-inducing effect of these peptides. Results showed that both native gp 120 and gp 160 can induce IL-1 activity in rat brain in vivo, and that intact secondary and tertiary structures of these proteins appear critical for this effect.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Liquid chromatographic determination of polydextrose in food matrixes.

A liquid chromatographic (LC) method has been developed to determine the content of polydextrose, a water-soluble 1 calorie/g bulking agent, in food matrixes such as cookies, cakes, fruit spreads, and chocolate toppings. This analysis, which requires use of a blank matrix, provides a feasible means to control the manufacture of foods containing this additive and provides a component for the accurate determination of the caloric value of a particular food product. The method involves aqueous extraction of the polydextrose from the food matrix followed by separation on a carbohydrate analysis column. The LC system uses a mobile phase of 0.005M CaSO4.2H2O and a refractive index detector for quantitation. Polydextrose recoveries from the food matrixes varied from 91.5 to 100.9% with assay precision, expressed as coefficient of variation, ranging from 0.7 to 4.3%. Each error estimate was derived from 5 parallel determinations. The present methodology is precise and selective in contrast to the modified classical phenol-sulfuric acid colorimetric method for assaying carbohydrates, which had been used for polydextrose determination in food matrixes in the past. Because the coefficient of variation frequently exceeded 10%, replicate analyses were necessary to achieve quantitation.

Cacao↗