BACKGROUND Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is associated with a depression of T cell function, as suggested by the impaired production of cytokines by Th cells collected from PD patients. Although treatment biocompatibility could be implicated in this immune dysfunction, it has been poorly investigated, thus far. Therefore, we undertook a study aiming to analyze the effects of different peritoneal dia...

Injected ion drift tube techniques have been used to examine the structures and to study the isomerization of Lac,+ (n = 2-90) clusters. Three families of metal-containing carbon rings ("ring Ia", "ring Ib", and "ring II"), metal-containing graphite sheets, and metallofullerenes have been resolved. Several plausible geometries with similar mobilities can be suggested for all of the ring isomers...

2033. Evaluation of the FilmArray Meningitis/Encephalitis Molecular Panel in a Tertiary Care Public County Hospital Tae Hun Kim, MD; Emi Minejima, PharmD; Brad Spellberg, MD; Ira Shulman, MD; Paul Holtom, MD; Tarina Kang, MD and Susan M. Butler-Wu, PhD; Pathology, LAC-USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, Pharmacy, USC School of Pharmacy, Los Angeles, California, LAC-USC Medical Center, ...

Genes are regulated because their expression involves a fitness cost to the organism. The production of proteins by transcription and translation is a well-known cost factor, but the enzymatic activity of the proteins produced can also reduce fitness, depending on the internal state and the environment of the cell. Here, we map the fitness costs of a key metabolic network, the lactose utilizati...

When a particular lac mutant of Escherichia coli starves in the presence of lactose, nongrowing cells appear to direct mutations preferentially to sites that allow growth (adaptive mutation). This observation suggested that growth limitation stimulates mutability. Evidence is provided here that this behavior is actually caused by a standard Darwinian process in which natural selection acts in t...

The genes for proline utilization were fused to the structural genes of the lac operon by use of the hybrid Mu phage derivative Mu d(Ap lac). Stable deletion derivatives of these fusions were selected and used to study the transcriptional regulation of the put genes. Analysis of these fusions showed that the putA gene product, a bifunctional oxidase-dehydrogenase, also serves to negatively cont...

During selection for lactose utilization, Lac+ revertants of FC40, a Lac- strain of Escherichia coli, appear at a high rate. Yet, no Lac+ revertants appear in the absence of lactose, or in its presence if the cells have another, unfulfilled requirement for growth. This study investigates more fully the population dynamics of FC40 when incubated in the absence of a carbon source or when undergoi...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the long-term outcome of laparoscopy-assisted colectomy (LAC) and open colectomy (OC) for nonmetastatic colon cancer. METHODS From November 1993 to July 1998 all patients with adenocarcinoma of the colon were assessed for entry in this single center, clinically randomized trial. Adjuvant therapy and postoperative follow-up were similar in both gr...