Isolation of a spotted fever group rickettsia from the Pacific Coast tick, Ixodes pacificus, in Oregon

A rickettsia of the spotted fever group was isolated on three occasions from Ixodes pacificus in western Oregon. These isolations, and additional evidence furnished by complement fixation tests on guinea pigs inoculated with other Oregon ticks of this species, indicate that the association of this rickettsia with the Pacific Coast tick may be widespread. This is the first isolation of a spotted fever group rickettsia from I. pacificus. Because the Oregon isolates are mildly virulent for guinea pigs they resemble the Western U and Rickettsia montana strains of rickettsiae. However, preliminary evidence from cross-immunofluorescence tests of mouse antisera suggests the Tillamook and Grants Pass strains are antigenically different from all known spotted fever group agents.     

LINEARIZATION OF EMPIRICAL RHEOLOGICAL DATA FOR USE IN COMPOSITION CONTROL OF MULTICOMPONENT FOODSTUFFS

Abstract An empirical measure of viscosity, which is often far from being a linear function of composition, was used together with refractive index to build up a function which bears a linear relationship to the composition of tomato paste-water-sucrose mixtures. The new function can be used directly for rapid composition control by linear vector-vector transformation.     

Cysteine and cystine transport at the blood-brain barrier

The nature of cysteine and cystine uptake from the cerebral capillary lumen was studied in the rat using the carotid injection technique, [35S]-Cysteine uptake was readily inhibited by the synthetic amino acid 2-aminobicyclo(2,2,1)heptane-2-carboxylic acid (BCH), the defining substrate for the leucine-preferring (L) system in the Ehrlich ascites cell. The addition of nonradioactive alanine or serine, representatives of the alanine, serine, and cysteine-preferring (ASC) system, produced no significant decrease in the uptake of cysteine after cysteine transport by the L system was blocked with BCH. This indicated that the major component of cysteine's transport from the brain capillary lumen was by the L system with no detectable uptake of cysteine by the ASC system. No carrier-mediated transport of cystine, the disulfide form of the amino acid, was detected, nor was there any inhibition by cystine of the transport of the neutral amino acid methionine or the basic amino acid arginine. These results suggest that the ASC system, if present, is not quantitatively important for the transport of neutral amino acids from the brain capillary lumen.     

Liposome accumulation in ischaemic intestine following experimental mesenteric occlusion

Chromosome complements of murine thymic lymphomas induced by an alkylating agent N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNUA) were analyzed microscopically and karyotypically using the Q-banding technique. The chemical carcinogen was injected intraperitoneally into either neonatal or 7-week-old CFW/D mice. In addition, thymic lymphomas induced in 7-week-old AKR mice and thymic lymphomas developed spontaneously in this strain were also examined. All six lymphomas induced in neonatal CFW/D had hyperdiploid cell lines that accounted for 90% of the cells analyzed. Chromosome analysis of lymphomas induced in adult DFW/D mice showed that only out of nine lymphomas had predominantly hyperdiploid cell lines. The remaining five lymphomas had diploid modal chromosome number although they also carried a variant line characterized by 41 chromosomes. All eight lymphomas induced in adult AKR mice and six out of seven spontaneous AKR lymphomas showed predominantly diploid modal line. The remaining spontaneous lymphoma had a hyperdiploid stem line of 41 chromosomes. Microscopic and karyotypic analysis further identified trisomy 15 as the regular chromosome abnormality in the hyperdiploid cells in lymphomas of each group, whereas cells with diploid chromosome number had no detectable chromosome abnormality. Additional trisomies were also found, but their appearance was restricted to individual tumors. Thus, the incidence of trisomy 15 in lymphomas induced by MNUA in adult CFW/D and AKR mice, as well as in the spontaneous AKR lymphomas, is significantly lower than that in lymphomas induced in neonatal mice by the same carcinogen.     

Fatty acid composition of the fat in selected food items with emphasis on trans components1

The fat in 220 samples from 35 food types has been analyzed for component fatty acids by gas liquid chromatography on a 15-m capillary column coated with SP-2340. The methodology permitted the determination of trans-octadecenoic fatty acids in the food samples. For food types in which the majority of samples containedtrans fatty acids, the range (weight percent of methyl esters) of this class of acids arranged by fat content of the food types was: high fat levels (>70% fat) — animal and dairy fats, 0.3–6.6%, stick margarines, 15.9–31.0%, tub margarines, 6.8–17.6%, and vegetable shortenings, 8.7–35.4%; moderately high fat levels (40–70% fat) —diet margarines, 11.3–13.3%; moderate fat levels (10–40% fat) — breading mixes and fried crusts, 8.1–32.7%, cakes, candies and frostings, 3.2–33.2%, cream substitutes, 0.4–11.5%, cookies, 2.5–34.2%, crackers, 1.9–29.0%, pastries and pastry crusts, 0.6–31.2%, corn and mixed grain snack chips, 0.4–30.4%; low fat levels (<10% fat) - breads and rolls, 0.2–23.6%, pretzels, 10.8–29.2%, and puddings, 28.4-35.1%. The majority of samples in the following food types did not containtrans fatty acids, except in cases where the label indicated partial hydrogenation of the oil: mayonnaises and salad dressings, salad and cooking oils and potato chips. For samples in these three food types which containedtrans fatty acids, the range was 0.2-23.2%. None of the peanut butters or pizza crusts analyzed containedtrans fatty acids.     

Biochemical markers of strophanthin arrhythmia

The increase of the concentration of fatty acids, the reduction in the concentration of serotonin, the lowering of the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and transketolase, and the development of compensated metabolic acidosis were discovered in the stage that preceded strophanthine arrhythmia. These characteristics may be recommended for a wider use on the clinical basis for predicting arrhythmias in the treatment of cardiac glycosides.