A new toxin, Lqh alpha IT, which caused a unique mode of paralysis of blowfly larvae, was purified from the venom of the scorpion Leiurus quinquestriatus hebraeus, and its structural and pharmacological properties were compared to those of three other groups of neurotoxins found in Buthinae scorpion venoms. Like the excitatory and depressant insect-selective neurotoxins, Lqh alpha IT was highly toxic to insects, but it differed from these toxins in two important characteristics: (a) Lqh alpha IT lacked strict selectivity for insects; it was highly toxic to crustaceans and had a measurable but low toxicity to mice. (b) It did not displace an excitatory insect toxin, 125I-AaIT, from its binding sites in the insect neuronal membrane; this indicates that the binding sites for Lqh alpha IT are different from those shared by the excitatory and depressant toxins. However, in its primary structure and its effect on excitable tissues, Lqh alpha IT strongly resembled the well-characterized alpha scorpion toxins, which affect mammals. The amino acid sequence was identical with alpha toxin sequences in 55%-75% of positions. This degree of similarity is comparable to that seen among the alpha toxins themselves. Voltage- and current-clamp studies showed that Lqh alpha IT caused an extreme prolongation of the action potential in both cockroach giant axon and rat skeletal muscle preparations as a result of the slowing and incomplete inactivation of the sodium currents. These observations indicate that Lqh alpha IT is an alpha toxin which acts on insect sodium channels.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Past studies of dissatisfied consumers have either examined what kinds of people get upset about business practices or what kinds of people complain about the way they have been treated in the marketplace. This article develops a new profile of the dissatisfied consumer by considering not only who gets upset about business practices, but also what they do about it. This profile appears more complete than profiles presented in earlier studies. Several important conclusions are offered concerning the nature of consumer dissatisfaction and consumer policy.

The complete nucleotide sequence of Helicoverpa zea single-nucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (HzSNPV) has been determined (130869 bp) and compared to the nucleotide sequence of Helicoverpa armigera (Ha) SNPV. These two genomes are very similar in their nucleotide (97% identity) and amino acid (99% identity) sequences. The coding regions are much more conserved than the non-coding regions. In HzSNPV/HaSNPV, the 63 open reading frames (ORFs) present in all baculoviruses sequenced so far are much more conserved than other ORFs. HzSNPV has four additional small ORFs compared with HaSNPV, one of these (Hz42) being in a correct transcriptional context. The major differences between HzSNPV and HaSNPV are found in the sequence and organization of the homologous regions (hrs) and the baculovirus repeat ORFs (bro genes). The sequence identity between the HzSNPV and HaSNPV hrs ranges from 90% (hr1) to almost 100% (hr5) and the hrs differ in the presence/absence of one or more type A and/or B repeats. The three HzSNPV bro genes differ significantly from those in HaSNPV and may have been acquired independently in the ancestral past. The sequence data suggest strongly that HzSNPV and HaSNPV are variants of the same virus species, a conclusion that is supported by the physical and biological data.

What types of shoppers are most loyal to their local retail area? What types are most likely to travel long distances in order to shop in other areas? What do these out-of-town shoppers buy? This analysis of out-of-town shopping by the residents of a small Pennsylvania city investigates the relationship between shoppers' personal characteristics and attitudes toward local market conditions and their movements outside their local retail area.

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Two general approaches have been taken to examine consumers' search for and use of information about food and nutrition. The first approach, adopted largely by consumer researchers, has focused on the extent, methods, and strategies of prepurchase informationseeking (Jacoby, Chestnut, and Silberman 1977;McCullough and Best 1980;Moore and Lehmann 1980). The other research approach, used largely by nutrition education researchers, has focused on intervention programs. This work has examined the diet and knowledge changes resulting from information provision programs (Axelson and

Factors affecting the frequency of purchase of fish and other seafood for at-home and restaurant consumption by Northeastern consumers were investigated. Cluster analysis identified six groups of consumers with similar perceptions of the attributes of fish. Demographic and cluster membership variables were employed in logistic regressions to identify the characteristics of frequent at-home use and restaurant purchasers. At-home purchase was more likely to be frequent among respondents with white collar occupations, older ages, urban/suburban and New England residence, recreational fishing participation, and membership in one of five attitudinal clusters. Restaurant purchase was more likely to be frequent among whites and among those with higher incomes, white collar occupations, recreational fishing involvement and among members of two clusters with favorable attitudes toward fish; it was less likely to be frequent in households with children age 10 and under present.