No abstract

No abstract

The contribution that the Chemical Abstracts structural database (CAST-3D) and the Maybridge database (MAY) would make to diversifying the structural information and property space spanned by our corporate database (CBI) is assessed. A subset of the CAST-3D database has been selected to augment the structural diversity of various electronic databases used in computer-assisted drug design projects. The analysis of the MAY database directly offers the potential to expand the CBI compound library, but also provides a source for structural diversity in a format suitable for computer-assisted database searching and molecular design. The analysis performed is twofold. First, a nonhierarchical clustering technique available in the Daylight clustering package is applied to evaluate the structural differences between databases. The comparison is then extended to analyze various structure-derived property spaces calculated from molecular descriptors such as the logarithm of the octanol-water partition coefficient (CLOGP), the molar refractivity (CMR) and the electronic dipole moment (CDM). The diversity contribution of each database to these property spaces is quantified in relation to our corporate database.

Escherichia coli O157:H7 (EC O157) is an important zoonosis. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have been implicated in transmission of this bacterium to humans and have been suggested as reservoirs that might affect carriage in cattle populations. Our study objectives were to estimate prevalence of EC O157 in feces of hunter-harvested deer and to describe fecal shedding patterns in a captive herd sampled over 1 yr. Prevalence of EC O157 in hunter-harvested deer was 0.3% (nϭ338). In August 2001, EC O157 was detected in one of 55 deer (1.8%) from the captive herd. Prevalence over the 1-yr period was 0.4% (nϭ226). Escherichia coli O157:H7 was rarely isolated from hunter-harvested deer during the winter. We could not describe a seasonal shedding pattern based on one positive sample in the captive herd. These data do not support a prominent role of deer as a reservoir for EC O157 for cattle or humans.

No abstract