BIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL RESEARCH DIVISION SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT FOR JULY THROUGH DECEMBER 1958

Progress is reported in the following studies: the control of a scabies- like mange of rats and pinworms in mice; in vivo measurement of Sr/sup 90/ in dogs; the effects of the chronic ingestion of Sr/sup 90/ in mice; investigation of the tritium labeling of organic compounds by the self-irradiation method; the delayed effects of x irradiation in chickens; development of a new method for the assay of enzymatic activity of various homocysteine transmethylases; the use of a punched-card system for the location of filed prints of electron micrographs; the specific chromosomal control of the mass of the nucleolus and of the cytoplasm in plants; the effect of deuterium oxide on peripheral blood cells in rats; spermatogenesis in irradiated mice; the development of mathematical models for the maintenance and regulation of populations of blood cells of both erythroid and myeloid origin; the effect of boron on the uptake of iron, copper, manganese, and molybdenum in a monocatyledonous plant, the grass Setaria spacelata;, the photoperiodic behavior of sunflowers; the morphology of the mitotic spindle and chromosomes as seen under the interference microscope; the thirty-day survival of female mice and rats given single whole-body exposures to fission neutrons; the effectiveness of combined therapy with cysteine, bone marrow cells, and streptomycin and of cerbartrol, a bone marrow extract, against radiation injuries in mice; the biological effects of gamma radiation in mice and fission neutrons in chick embryos; modification of the membrane filter technique for studies of radiation effects in bacterial spores; Sr/sup 85/ retention by the rat as a function of age at injection; the kinetics of granulocyte production in the normal dog; sedimentation rate studies; the effect of three polyamino acid chelating agents on acute experimental lead poisoning in rats; the treatment of radiostrontium poisoning by means of a diuretic, acetazolamid; the preparation and properties of toxohormone from tumors; the potentiation of tumor radiosensitivity; the fractionation of cholesterol esters by silicic acid chromatography; and the bacterial metabolism of unsaturated fatty acids. (For preceding period see ANL5916.) (C.H.