Quantitative analysis of electrophoresis data: novel curve fitting methodology and its application to the determination of a protein-DNA binding constant.

A computer program, GelExplorer, which uses a new methodology for obtaining quantitative information about electrophoresis has been developed. It provides a straightforward, easy-to-use graphical interface, and includes a number of features which offer significant advantages over existing methods for quantitative gel analysis. The method uses curve fitting with a nonlinear least-squares optimization to deconvolute overlapping bands. Unlike most curve fitting approaches, the data is treated in two dimensions, fitting all the data across the entire width of the lane. This allows for accurate determination of the intensities of individual, overlapping bands, and in particular allows imperfectly shaped bands to be accurately modeled. Experiments described in this paper demonstrate empirically that the Lorentzian lineshape reproduces the contours of an individual gel band and provides a better model than the Gaussian function for curve fitting of electrophoresis bands. Results from several fitting applications are presented and a discussion of the sources and magnitudes of uncertainties in the results is included. Finally, the method is applied to the quantitative analysis of a hydroxyl radical footprint titration experiment to obtain the free energy of binding of the lambda repressor protein to the OR1 operator DNA sequence.

Trends in drug abuse in the mid-1980s.

This paper summarizes some of the causes of, and some of the health and social concerns from, the growing illicit drug problem in the 1980s. It suggests that two recent developments, the decentralization of much drug production and modification to chemical laboratories in homes, and the application of increasingly innovative marketing techniques, have brought us to a new and more hazardous era of drug abuse. The new designer drugs and the new developments in cocaine abuse reveal these to be of major concern to the medical and public health professions, as well as a major worry to the public. In the absence of effective elimination of illegal drugs from the environment, attention must focus on alternative ways to reduce drug abuse. Education regarding the nature of the hazards of these drugs must increase, but there are no simple methods for reducing drug use. We must be prepared to fight growing drug abuse for some time to come.

Epidemic free-base cocaine abuse. Case study from the Bahamas.

Beginning in 1983, a sharp increase was noted in the number of new admissions for cocaine abuse to the only psychiatric hospital and to the primary outpatient psychiatric clinic in the Bahamas. For the two facilities combined, new admissions for cocaine abuse increased from none in 1982 to 69 in 1983 and to 523 in 1984. Although there was some evidence for a rise in cocaine use during this time, as the drug became cheaper and more available, a primary cause of this medical epidemic seemed to be a switch by pushers from selling cocaine hydrochloride, which has a low addictive potential, to almost exclusive selling of cocaine free base, which has a very high addictive potential and causes medical and psychological problems. Although the use of free cocaine base is rising around the world, this is the first report of a nationwide medical epidemic due almost exclusively to this form of the drug, although similar problems are reported with smoking coca paste in South America.

Psychiatry and religion: Judeo-Christian theism and Fromm's humanism.

This paper provides a discussion of the ethical humanism of the late psychoanalyst Eric Fromm as compared to traditional Judeo-Christian theism. Considering their respective views of human nature and possibility, and of the relationship between truth, reason, and revelation, the authors posit that Fromm and traditional theists take radically different positions, making their religious stances fundamentally incompatible. In conclusion, the authors suggest how these differences could have significant implication for pastoral care.

Teenage pregnancy in the Bahamas: trends and characteristics.

This survey of 99 pregnant teenagers in clinics on the island of New Providence, Bahamas, produced data suggesting that they are similar to their counterparts in urban clinics in the U.S.A. The pregnancies usually came from relationships of many months' standing, which were meaningful to the young mothers, rather than from "promiscuous" sexual behavior. Few of the young mothers had been using birth control before they became pregnant, sometimes because of a lack of expectation of needing it or from fear or ignorance about birth control, and sometimes due to an inability to organize their lives sufficiently to find, purchase, and use regularly the contraception that would have prevented the pregnancy. Most of the young mothers felt that abortion was sinful and would not have used it at any time. It is suggested that these general characteristics of teenage pregnancy are common in Western societies and are related to the perceived loneliness and uselessness of the teenage period. The pregnancies often may be seen as an attempt by teenagers, who see relatively little future for themselves in traditional education and employment, to strive for a creative life rooted in loving relationships.

Race, sex, marihuana use and alcohol intoxication in college students.

In college students, alcohol intoxication was more frequent in men than in women, in Whites than in Blacks and in White women than in Black women. The difference between White and Black men was negligible. Only gender differences were noted in marihuana use.

Dramatic religious conversion and schizophrenic decompensation.

The similarities between dramatic religious and psychotic experiences have long been observed and, just as long, have proved a source of confusion and misunderstanding. Recent surveys on decompensation to schizophrenic psychosis offer not only striking comparisons to the phenomenon of sudden and dramatic religious conversion but clues to the limits of continuity between these two mental processes. Using Docherty and his associates model of the stages of onset of schizophrenic psychosis and their own review of the literature of religious conversion, the authors suggest three principal similarities and the point of departure between the two phenomena.