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Biomedical subjects

M Pallen

Publications and source records attributed to M Pallen.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

A group II intron in a conjugative transposon from the gram-positive bacterium, Clostridium difficile.

We have been studying the conjugative transposon Tn5397, originally isolated from the Gram-positive pathogen Clostridium difficile. Physical analysis of this transposon demonstrated that it contained a group II intron. This is the first report of an intron in a conjugative transposon and the first report of a group II intron in Gram-positive bacteria. The intron interrupted a gene in Tn5397 that is almost identical to orf14 from Tn916. DNA hybridisation analysis showed that elements related to Tn5397, containing the group II intron, were present in five other C. difficile strains from different geographical locations suggesting that the element is likely to be widely distributed.

Cloning, Molecular

Guide to the Internet. Logging in, fetching files, reading news.

Aside from email and the world wide web, there are several other systems for distributing information on the Internet. Telnet is a system that allows you to log on to a remote computer from anywhere on the Internet and affords access to many useful biomedical sites on the Internet. File transfer protocol (FTP) is a method of transferring files from one computer to another over the Internet. It can be used to download files, including software, from numerous publiclly accessible "anonymous FTP archives" around the world. Such archives can be searched using a tool known as Archie. Network News is a system of electronic discussion groups covering almost every imaginable subject, including many areas of medicine and the biomedical sciences; MOOs are virtual environments that allow real time electronic conferencing and teaching over the Internet. It is difficult to predict the future of medicine on the Internet. However, the net opens up many possibilities not available through previous technologies. It is now up to medical practitioners to realise the Internet's full potential.

Computer Communication Networks

Guide to the Internet. The world wide web.

The world wide web provides a uniform, user friendly interface to the Internet. Web pages can contain text and pictures and are interconnected by hypertext links. The addresses of web pages are recorded as uniform resource locators (URLs), transmitted by hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), and written in hypertext markup language (HTML). Programs that allow you to use the web are available for most operating systems. Powerful on line search engines make it relatively easy to find information on the web. Browsing through the web--"net surfing"--is both easy and enjoyable. Contributing to the web is not difficult, and the web opens up new possibilities for electronic publishing and electronic journals.

Computer Communication Networks

Electronic mail.

Electronic mail (email) has many advantages over other forms of communication: it is easy to use, free of charge, fast, and delivers information in a digital format. As a text only medium, email is usually less formal in style than conventional correspondence and may contain acronyms and other features, such as smileys, that are peculiar to the Internet. Email client programs that run on your own microcomputer render email powerful and easy to use. With suitable encoding methods, email can be used to send any kind of computer file, including pictures, sounds, programs, and movies. Numerous biomedical electronic mailing lists and other Internet services are accessible by email.

Computer Communication Networks

Introducing the Internet.

The benefits to medical practitioners of using the Internet are growing rapidly as the Internet becomes easier to use and ever more biomedical resources become available on line. The Internet is the largest computer network in the world; it is also a virtual community, larger than many nation states, with its own rules of behaviour or "netiquette." There are several types of Internet connection and various ways of acquiring a connection. Once connected, you can obtain, free of charge, programs that allow easy use of the Internet's resources and help on how to use these resources; you can access many of these resources through the hypertext references in the on line version of this series (go to http:@www.bmj.com/bmj/ to reach the electronic version). You can then explore the various methods for accessing, manipulating, or disseminating data on the Internet, such as electronic mail, telnet, file transfer protocol, and the world wide web. Results from a search of the world wide web for information on the rare condition of Recklinghausen's neurofibromatosis illustrate the breadth of medical information available on the Internet.

Computer Communication Networks