One of the most widely studied lymphokine systems is the T lymphocyte growth factor interleukin 2 (IL-2). This unit describes two basic methods for the quantitation and biochemical characterization of IL-2 receptors. The first method employs the radioreceptor assay. Support protocols to this technique describe quantification of data via calculations of association and dissociation rates and the...

Scatchard analyses of erythropoietin (EPO) binding to its receptor (EPO-R) have shown that some erythroid cells display a biphasic nature of the ligand-saturation curve, indicating the presence of two classes of binding sites with different affinities. The biochemical basis accounting for this observation is unknown. We found that the culture of a human erythroleukemia cell line with tunicamyci...

One of the best approaches to date to obtain overall binding constants (Ko) for Al and dissolved organic matter (DOM) from acidic soil solutions is to collect 'free' Al data with diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) and to infer the Ko values by fitting a continuous distribution model based on Scatchard plots. Although there is clear established literature demonstrating the usefulness of the...

BACKGROUND The voice of foster families is a valuable tool in the development and improvement of foster family services. Regularly evaluating the satisfaction of foster carers can facilitate the early identification of a range of problems that might pose a risk to the placement. METHOD This article reports the experience of 200 Spanish foster families (kinship and non-kinship) with foster ser...

The experience of parenting foster children with chronic illness and complex medical needs was explored in a phenomenological inquiry with 10 foster families. Thirteen participants currently fostering chronically ill children with complex medical needs were interviewed. Recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed using van Manen's method. Data analysis yielded five essential themes: Foste...

OBJECTIVE This study assessed the effects of unified family and drug treatment courts (DTCs) on the resolution of cases involving foster care children and the resulting effects on school performance. METHOD The first analytic step was to assess the impacts of presence of unified and DTCs in North Carolina counties on time children spent in foster care and the type of placement at exit from fo...