[Integration of hospital social services in the rehabilitation of accident patients by the statutory accident insurance. Results of a one-year model project]. / Einbindung des Kliniksozialdienstes in die rehabilitative Versorgung unfallverletzter Patienten durch die gesetzliche Unfallversicherung - Ergebnisse eines einjährigen Modellprojektes.

In accident patient care, there is a substantial overlap between the scope of duties of hospital social services and tasks fulfilled by the German statutory accident insurances' visiting staff that regularly takes care of accident patients. Therefore, a project on the integration of hospital social services into the organizational structures of the German statutory accident insurance was initiated which aimed at optimising communication and realising synergy effects. A formative evaluation of the project was conducted that provided process- and outcome-related data for a comprehensive evaluation of the strengths and potentials of the project. Report forms containing patient-related information were completed by hospital social services. Forms were evaluated in terms of their utility for case management by accident insurance administrators using a checklist. Project implementation and procedures were documented and evaluated using semi-structured interviews with social services staff and accident insurance employees. Through the model, a comprehensive care for accident patients could be reached. In one third of all cases reviewed, rehabilitation management could be improved by including hospital social services. Moreover, in one third of all cases, care-related activities initiated by accident insurance funds could be reduced by involving local hospital social services. The report form used by hospital social services was evaluated as a useful tool in the context of patient care and rehabilitation management. The model was evaluated by interview participants as a highly targeted approach in accident patients' care management. Implications of the study for improving health care are discussed.

Mercury concentrations in fish from Canadian Great Lakes areas of concern: an analysis of data from the Canadian Department of Environment database.

The tissue mercury concentrations in six species of fish collected at the 17 Areas of Concern identified by the International Joint Commission on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes were analyzed using an Environment Canada database. A linear increase in mercury concentration with fish length was found, but slopes differed among locations. The temporal pattern over the period 1971-1997 differed across species in fish collected in Lake St. Clair; in at least two species there was evidence of increased mercury concentration during the 1990s that had been suggested in an earlier analysis. Areas of Concern differed significantly in observed tissue concentrations. Differences observed did not consistently parallel expectations associated with the historical presence of chlor-alkali plants in the vicinities of some locations. An attempt to correlate the fish tissue mercury concentration with the frequency of occurrence of infantile cerebral palsy at Areas of Concern was unsuccessful.

N-myc enhances the expression of a large set of genes functioning in ribosome biogenesis and protein synthesis.

The myc oncogenes are frequently activated in human tumors, but there is no comprehensive insight into the target genes and downstream cellular pathways of these transcription factors. We applied serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) to identify targets of N-myc in neuroblastomas. Analysis of 42,000 mRNA transcript tags in SAGE libraries of N-myc- transfected and control neuroblastoma cells revealed 114 up-regulated genes. The majority of these genes have a role in ribosome assembly and activity. Northern blot analysis confirmed up-regulation of all tested transcripts. Induction was complete within 4 h after N-myc expression. The large majority of the ribosomal proteins were induced, as well as genes controlling rRNA maturation. Cellular rRNA content was 45% induced. SAGE libraries and northern blot analysis confirmed up-regulation of many of these genes in N-myc-amplified neuroblastomas. As N-myc can functionally replace c-myc, we analyzed whether N-myc targets were induced by c-myc as well. Approximately 40% of these N-myc targets were up-regulated in a c-myc-transfected melanoma cell line. These data suggest that myc genes function as major regulators of the protein synthesis machinery.

Equations of state for POPX lipids at the air/water interface. A comprehensive study.

We have investigated monomolecular fluid-like films of palmitoyl oleoylphosphatidyl lipids with choline, glycerol and serine head groups, respectively. Conventional Langmuir trough experiments have been evaluated towards a thermodynamic analysis applying a novel approach that was recently developed in this laboratory. Our work involves elaborate efforts to exclude possible error sources of the basic measuring parameters. By means of pertinent mass conservation plots it could then be shown that the present lipids form a practically insoluble monolayer. Relative deviations of the lateral pressure from its ideal (gaseous) value are seen to be a very pronounced linear function of the surface concentration (between 1 and about 35 mN/m). They reveal a clearly manifested Boyle point around 4 mN/m, indicating formation of aggregates in the very low pressure range. The results are discussed in terms of a rather simple quantitative formulation of the underlying equation of state including fit curves of the related partial molecular area and Gibbs free energy.

Nmi protein interacts with regions that differ between MycN and Myc and is localized in the cytoplasm of neuroblastoma cells in contrast to nuclear MycN.

Myc family proteins play an important role in cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and transformation. A number of interaction partners of Myc have been identified, such as Max, p107, TBP, YY1, Miz-1, AP-2 and Nmi. Both Max and Nmi also bind to MycN. In contrast to the well defined binding of Max to Myc family proteins the interaction of Nmi with Myc or MycN is only poorly characterized. By employing the yeast two-hybrid system we have mapped the regions of MycN and Myc responsible for binding to Nmi. For MycN exclusively a central region mediates binding to Nmi. In contrast, for Myc a C-terminal portion of the protein, and possibly also a central part, is involved in Nmi interaction. Nmi does not interact with Max and has no transactivation capabilities in yeast, suggesting that Nmi alone is not a transcriptional activator in mammalian cells. Immunofluorescence demonstrates that both in 293 embryonic kidney cells and in Kelly neuroblastoma cells all detectable ectopically expressed Nmi is localized in the cytoplasm, in part in a punctate, granular pattern. MycN, which is highly expressed in Kelly cells consequent to amplification, appears to be localized exclusively in the nuclei. This directly demonstrates that in the same cell at least the major proportion of MycN and Nmi is localized in different cellular compartments. This result is confirmed by the finding that endogenous Nmi, which is expressed in Kelly cells only after stimulation with interferon gamma, is detected exclusively in the cytoplasm of these cells. Therefore only a very small amount of MycN and Nmi is likely to be involved in MycN/Nmi interaction in vivo.

Translocation breakpoint maps 5 kb 3' from TWIST in a patient affected with Saethre-Chotzen syndrome.

Saethre-Chotzen syndrome, a common autosomal dominant craniosynostosis in humans, is characterized by brachydactyly, soft tissue syndactyly and facial dysmorphism including ptosis, facial asymmetry, and prominent ear crura. Previously, we identified a yeast artificial chromosome that encompassed the breakpoint of an apparently balanced t(6;7) (q16.2;p15.3) translocation associated with a mild form of Saethre-Chotzen syndrome. We now describe, at the DNA sequence level, the region on chromosome 7 affected by this translocation event. The rearrangement occurred approximately 5 kb 3' of the human TWIST locus and deleted 518 bp of chromosome 7. The TWIST gene codes for a transcription factor containing a basic helix-loop-helix (b-HLH) motif and has recently been described as a candidate gene for Saethre-Chotzen syndrome, based on the detection of mutations within the coding region. Potential exon sequences flanking the chromosome 7 translocation breakpoint did not hit known genes in database searches. The chromosome rearrangement downstream of TWIST is compatible with the notion that this is a Saethre-Chotzen syndrome gene and implies loss of function of one allele by a positional effect as a possible mechanism of mutation to evoke the syndrome.

Geographical variation of persistent organochlorine concentrations in blubber of ringed seal (Phoca hispida) from the Canadian Arctic: univariate and multivariate approaches.

Geographical variation of organochlorine (OC) concentrations in ringed seal (Phoca hispida) in the Canadian Arctic was studied using univariate and multivariate statistical techniques. The dataset consisted of 80 individual OC components (58 PCB congeners plus DDT- and chlordane (CHL)-related compounds, toxaphene, hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCH), chlorobenzenes (CBz), and dieldrin) determined in 221 ringed seal blubber samples from 13 locations throughout the Canadian Arctic from the period 1983 to 1989. Mean concentrations of the major OC groups in ringed seal blubber (SigmaPCBs, SigmaDDT, SigmaCHL and toxaphene), adjusted for the age and sex of the seals, showed few significant geographical differences. Principal components analysis was used to examine geographical trends. Significant differences in mean factor scores for three of four principal components were found between sampling locations. Locations in the western and high Arctic could be distinguished from those in Hudson Bay by highest scores along principal component two which was associated principally with CBz. PCB congeners with six or more chlorine substitutions declined with increasing north latitude, whereas more volatile OCs (CBz, HCH, less chlorinated PCBs) increased in the proportion of total OCs with latitude. Proportions of less chlorinated PCBs also decreased with increasing longitude, whereas slopes of regressions for more highly chlorinated PCBs increased significantly. The results were generally consistent with the 'cold condensation' hypothesis of increasing proportions of more volatile OCs with increasing latitude and distance from sources.

Preferential partitioning of melittin into the air/water interface: structural and thermodynamic implications.

The membrane active agent melittin has been investigated with regard to the formation of a Langmuir monolayer and the accordingly induced surface activities. We show that in spite of its considerable solubility in an aqueous medium, this peptide nevertheless largely accumulates in the air/water interface unless the lateral pressure is raised beyond a certain threshold value depending on the pH in the subphase. The true surface concentrations have been determined by means of a recently developed novel method based on thermodynamic principles. It affords an access to the partitioning equilibrium between the surface and subphase domains, provided the latter surrounding is not excessively preferred. In the present case this approach was used to derive quantitative information on the pertinent interfacial structure and thermodynamics. In particular, the apparent molecular area and the Gibbs energy of mutual interaction in the monolayer could be evaluated as a function of the applied surface pressure. The data suggest the existence of two structural conversions in the course of an increasing lateral compression. The surface-associated peptide accordingly assumes three different states of successively reduced area requirements, supposedly owing to an orientational transition involving a straightening up of a helical conformation. This conclusion is corroborated by surface potential measurements reflecting corresponding changes of the effective dipole moment perpendicular to the surface.

POLAR: a menu driven computerized analysis of fluorescence polarization data.

While fluorescence polarization is a powerful tool for the measurement of ligand-receptor (e.g. antigen-antibody) interactions, its application in routine clinical chemistry and immunochemistry has been limited because collection of data was error prone, and because analysis of data previously required tedious and imprecise manual graphical methods. We present the series of linear and curvilinear regressions required to calculate parameters (p', Q', pf, Qf, Pb, Qb, Fb max, a and Ko) and their corresponding standard errors. The values of a and Ko are comparable to those obtained by the method of finding the minimal the sum of squares. A menu operated computer program that uses these regressions, simplifies the collection, analysis and presentation of fluorescence polarization data. A simple spread sheet system permits the insertion, deletion or modification of data. The results are presented in graphical and tabular form, either on a monitor, a printer or an X-Y plotter. The system has its own graphical routines.

Concentrations of two organic contaminants in precipitation, soils and plants in the Essex region of Southern Ontario.

Recent research has indicated that the atmosphere is an important pathway by which pollutants enter terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. We report here concentrations of PCBs and octachlorostyrene (OCS) in precipitation, soils and plants in Essex County, Ontario. The average PCB concentration in urban precipitation (23 ng litre(-1)) was lower than that previously reported for urban areas in the Great Lakes basin. Differences between sites and with varying wind directions were not significant. OCS concentrations in precipitation averaged 1.6 ng litre(-1). Concentrations of PCBs in soils were 2-3 orders of magnitude greater than in precipitation. Concentrations of these pollutants in city soils and plant roots were consistently higher than those from suburban and rural sites. Ratios of urban to suburban concentrations in soils and precipitation were approximately 5:1 for PCBs. However, concentrations of OCS were similar in urban and suburban samples of precipitation, soils and plant tissues. These comparisons suggest an urban source for PCBs, but not OCS. Concentrations of all contaminants in plant leaves, unlike those in precipitation, roots and soils, were relatively similar in urban and suburban areas. That similarity suggests that direct foliar uptake is not an important pathway for pollutant uptake in plants.