Description and analysis of variation in dairy product and concomitant nutrient purchases between Hispanic and non -Hispanic households using a panel of shoppers' purchase records

The purpose of this research was development of a method of estimating nutrient availability in populations as approximated by supermarket purchase records. Demographic information describing 12,516 panel households was obtained from a marketing and advertising program operated by H. E. Butt Grocery Company of San Antonio, Texas. A non-probability sample of 2,161 households meeting expenditure criteria was selected and all purchases of dairy products for this sample of households were organized into a database constructed to facilitate the retrieval, aggregation, and analysis of dairy product purchases and their nutrient contents. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) no difference would be found between Hispanic and non-Hispanic purchases of dairy product categories during the study period and (2) no difference would be found between Hispanic and non-Hispanic purchases of nutrients contained in those dairy products during the thirteen-week study period.^ Food purchase records were used to estimate nutrient exposure on a weekly, per capita basis for Hispanic and non-Hispanic households by linking some 40,000 dairy purchase Universal Product code (UPC) numbers with food composition values contained in USDA Handbook 8-1. Results of this study suggest Hispanic sample households consistently purchased fewer dairy products than did non-Hispanic sample households and consequently had fewer nutrients available from dairy purchases. While weekly expenditures for dairy products among the sample households remained relatively constant during the study period, shifts in the types of dairy products purchased were observed. The effect of ethnicity on dairy product and nutrient purchases was significant over the thirteen-week period. A database consisting of customer, household, and purchase information can be developed to successfully associate food item UPC numbers with a standard reference of food composition to estimate nutrient availability in a population over extended periods of time. ^

Bcr: A conditional inhibitor of Bcr -Abl oncoprotein

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is characterized cytogenetically by the presence of the Philadelphia chromosome and clinically by the clonal expansion of the hematopoietic stem cells and the accumulation of large numbers of myeloid cells. Philadelphia chromosome results from the reciprocal translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22 [t(9;22)(324;q11)], which fuses parts of the ABL proto-oncogene to 5′ portions of the BCR gene. The product of the fused gene is Bcr-Abl oncoprotein. Bcr-Abl oncoprotein has elevated protein tyrosine kinase activity, and is the cause of Philadelphia chromosome associated leukemias. The Bcr sequence in the fusion protein is crucial for the activation of Abl kinase activity and transforming phenotype of Bcr-Abl oncoprotein. Although the Bcr-Abl oncoprotein has been studied extensively, its normal counterpart, the Bcr protein, has been less studied and its function is not well understood. At this point, Bcr is known to encode a novel serine/threonine protein kinase. In Bcr-Abl positive leukemia cells, we found that the serine kinase activity of Bcr is impaired by tyrosine phosphorylation. Both the Bcr protein sequences within Bcr-Abl and the normal cellular Bcr protein lack serine/threonine kinase activity when they become phosphorylated on tyrosine residues by Bcr-Abl. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate the role of Bcr in Bcr-Abl positive leukemia cells. We found that overexpression of Bcr can inhibit Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase activity, and the inhibition is dependent on its intact serine/threonine kinase function. Using the tet repressible promoter system, we demonstrated that Bcr when induced in Bcr-Abl positive leukemia cells inhibited the Bcr-Abl oncoprotein tyrosine kinase. Furthermore, induction of Bcr also increased the number of cells undergoing apoptosis and inhibited the transforming ability of Bcr-Abl. In contrast to the wild-type Bcr, the kinase-inactive mutant of Bcr (Y328F/Y360F) had no effects on Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase in cells. Results from other experiments indicated that phosphoserine-containing Bcr sequences within the first exon, which are known to bind to the Abl SH2 domain, are responsible for observed inhibition of the Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase. Several lines of evidence suggest that the phosphoserine form of Bcr, which binds to the Abl SH2 domain, strongly inhibits the Abl tyrosine kinase domain of Bcr-Abl Previously published findings from our laboratory have also shown that Bcr is phosphorylated on tyrosine residue 177 in Bcr-Abl positive cells and that this form of Bcr recruits the Grb2 adaptor protein, which is known to activate the Ras pathway. These findings implicate Bcr as an effector of Bcr-Abl's oncogenic activity. Therefore based on the findings presented above, we propose a model for dual Function of Bcr in Bcr-Abl positive leukemia cells. Bcr, when active as a serine/threonine kinase and thus autophosphorylating its own serine residues, inhibits Bcr-Abl's oncogenic functions. However, when Ber is tyrosine phosphorylated, its Bcr-Abl inhibitory function is neutralized thus allowing Bcr-Abl to exert its full oncogenic potential. Moreover, tyrosine phosphorylated Bcr would compliment Bcr-Abl's neoplastic effects by the activation of the Ras signaling pathway. ^

Impact of BCR -ABL on DNA repair

The BCR-ABL fusion gene is the molecular hallmark of Philadelphia-positive leukemias. Normal Bcr is a multifunctional protein, originally localized to the cytoplasm. It has serine kinase activity and has been implicated in cellular signal transduction. Recently, it has been reported that Bcr can interact with xeroderma pigmentosum group B (XPB/ERCC3)—a nuclear protein active in UV-induced DNA repair. Two major Bcr proteins (p160 Bcr and p130Bcr) have been characterized, and our preliminary results using metabolic labeling and immunoblotting demonstrated that, while both the p160 and p130 forms of Bcr localized to the cytoplasm, the p130 form (and to a lesser extent p160) could also be found in the nucleus. Furthermore, electron microscopy confirmed the presence of Bcr in the nucleus and demonstrated that this protein associates with metaphase chromatin as well as condensed interphase heterochromatin. Since serine kinases that associate with condensed DNA are often cell cycle regulatory, these observations suggested a novel role for nuclear Bcr in cell cycle regulation and/or DNA repair. However, cell cycle synchronization analysis did not demonstrate changes in levels of Bcr throughout the cell cycle. Therefore we hypothesized that BCR serves as a DNA repair gene, and its function is altered by formation of BCR-ABL. This hypothesis was investigated using cell lines stably transfected with the BCR-ABL gene, and their parental counterparts (MBA-1 vs. M07E and Bcr-AblT1 vs. 4A2+pZAP), and several DNA repair assays: the Comet assay, a radioinimunoassay for UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs), and clonogenic assays. Comet assays demonstrated that, after exposure to either ultraviolet (UV)-C (0.5 to 10.0 joules m −2) or to gamma radiation (200–1000 rads) there was greater efficiency of DNA repair in the BCR-ABL-transfected cells compared to their parental controls. Furthermore, after UVC-irradiation, there was less production of CPDs, and a more rapid disappearance of these adducts in BCR-ABL-bearing cells. UV survival, as reflected by clonogenic assays, was also greater in the BCR-ABL-transfected cells. Taken together, these results indicate that, in our systems, BCR-ABL confers resistance to UVC-induced damage in cells, and increases DNA repair efficiency in response to both UVC- and gamma-irradiation. ^

Republican Scientific-Medical Library, The Republic of Armenia: progress and programs*

In 1990, the Republican Scientific-Medical Library (RSML) of the Ministry of Health of Armenia in collaboration with the Fund for Armenian Relief created a vision of a national library network supported by information technology. This vision incorporated four goals: (1) to develop a national resource collection of biomedical literature accessible to all health professionals, (2) to develop a national network for access to bibliographic information, (3) to develop a systematic mechanism for sharing resources, and (4) to develop a national network of health sciences libraries. During the last decade, the RSML has achieved significant progress toward all four goals and has realized its vision of becoming a fully functional national library. The RSML now provides access to the literature of the health sciences including access to the Armenian medical literature, provides education and training to health professionals and health sciences librarians, and manages a national network of libraries of the major health care institutions in Armenia. The RSML is now able to provide rapid access to the biomedical literature and train health professionals and health sciences librarians in Armenia in information system use. This paper describes the evolution of the RSML and how it was accomplished.

Discontinuous epitopes of hepatitis B surface antigen derived from a filamentous phage peptide library.

The structure of the small hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) was investigated by epitope mapping of four anti-HBsAg monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Amino acid sequences of epitopes were derived from affinity-enrichment experiments (biopanning) using a filamentous phage peptide library. The library consists of 10(9) different clones bearing a 30-residue peptide fused to gene III. Sequence homologies between peptides obtained from panning the library against the antibodies and the native HBsAg sequence allowed for precise description of the binding regions. Three of four mAbs were found to bind to distinct discontinuous epitopes between amino acid residues 101 and 207 of HBsAg. The fourth mAb was demonstrated to bind to residues 121-124. The sequence data are supported by ELISA assays demonstrating the binding of the HBsAg-specific peptides on filamentous phage to mAbs. The sequence data were used to map the surface of HBsAg and to derive a topological model for the alpha-carbon trace of the 101-207 region of HBsAg. The approach should be useful for other proteins for which the crystal structure is not available but a representative set of mAbs can be obtained.

Inhibitors of human heart chymase based on a peptide library.

We have synthesized two sets of noncleavable peptide-inhibitor libraries to map the S and S' subsites of human heart chymase. Human heart chymase is a chymotrypsin-like enzyme that converts angiotensin I to angiotensin II. The first library consists of peptides with 3-fluorobenzylpyruvamides in the P1 position. (Amino acid residues of substrates numbered P1, P2, etc., are toward the N-terminal direction, and P'1, P'2, etc., are toward the C-terminal direction from the scissile bond.) The P'1 and P'2 positions were varied to contain each one of the 20 naturally occurring amino acids and P'3 was kept constant as an arginine. The second library consists of peptides with phenylalanine keto-amides at P1, glycine in P'1, and benzyloxycarbonyl (Z)-isoleucine in P4. The P2 and P3 positions were varied to contain each of the naturally occurring amino acids, except for cysteine and methionine. The peptides of both libraries are attached to a solid support (pins). The peptides are evaluated by immersing the pins in a solution of the target enzyme and evaluating the amount of enzyme absorbed. The pins with the best inhibitors will absorb most enzyme. The libraries select the best and worst inhibitors within each group of peptides and provide an approximate ranking of the remaining peptides according to Ki. Through this library, we determined that Z-Ile-Glu-Pro-Phe-CO2Me and (F)-Phe-CO-Glu-Asp-ArgOMe should be the best inhibitors of chymase in this collection of peptide inhibitors. We synthesized the peptides and found Ki values were 1 nM and 1 microM, respectively. The corresponding Ki values for chymotrypsin were 10 nM and 100 microM. The use of libraries of inhibitors has advantages over the classical method of synthesis of potential inhibitors in solution: the libraries are reusable, the same libraries can be used with a variety of different serine proteases, and the method allows the screening of hundreds of compounds in short periods of time.

Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania.

1, 1892-1897

Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania.

5, 1919-1920

Monography of the family Unionidae, or Naiades of Lamarck (fresh water bivalve shells,) of North America, : illustrated by figures drawn on stone from nature. / by T.A. Conrad ...

1

The royal charter of King Charles the Second to William Penn, esquire, proprietor of the province of Pennsylvania, 1701

A copy of the charter giving William Penn land in the colonies. Also contains Penn's "Frame of the Government of Pennsylvania in America", the laws he established, and the charter of the city of Philadelphia.

American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. By Henry C. McCook.

v.3

American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. By Henry C. McCook.

v.2

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1797 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: This plan of the city of Philadelphia and it's environs (shewing the improved parts) is dedicated to the mayor, aldermen and citizens thereof, by their most obedient servant John Hills surveyor and draughtsman ; May 30th 1796 ; engraved by John Cooke of Hendon Middlesex near London. It was Published and Sold by John Hills Surveyor and Draughsman in 1797. Scale [1:7,200]. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to Pennsylvania South State Plane Coordinate System NAD83 (in Feet) (Fipszone 3702). All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, drainage, built-up areas, selected public and private buildings, schools, churches, industry locations (e.g. mills, factories, mines, etc.), docks, fortification, ground cover, and more. Relief shown by hachures. Includes also references to points of interest. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps of New England from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and map purposes.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey, 1886 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Plan of the city of Philadelphia and Camden, drawn and engraved by W.H. Gamble. It was published by Wm. M. Bradley & Bro. in 1886. Scale [ca.1:25,000]. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Pennsylvania South State Plane Coordinate System NAD83 (in Feet) (Fipszone 3702). All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, railroads, drainage, selected public buildings, city wards, parks, cemeteries, ferry routes, wharves, and more. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from The Harvard Map Collection as part of the Imaging the Urban Environment project. Maps selected for this project represent major urban areas and cities of the world, at various time periods. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features at a large scale. The selection represents a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes.