Whelan, Thomas

Evidently, Hank s letter did not arrive in time to influence the promotion board. On the very day of his retirement ceremony, a different letter was en route from Brigadier General Thomas Whelan, Special Assistant to the Surgeon General for Medical Affairs. It offered heartiest congratulations on my selection for promotion to Colonel in the Army of the United States. Fortunately, Hank s timing was not as precise as it had been when he was jogging. My promotion... 

Peat, S., Whelan, W. J., Thomas, G. J. (1952). Evidence of multiple branching in waxy maize starch. J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 4546 54%. 

It is worth while noting, however, that Thomas, Whelan, and Peat found that sweet potato, crystalline jS-amylase or soybean, purified /3-amyl-ase will cleave pure amylose only 70% to completion. Cruder soybean preparations contain an additional factor ( Z enzyme ) which when added to the purified amylase will allow hydrolysis of the amylose to proceed to completion. The Z enzyme has been purified and found to have all the properties of a jS-glucosidase, and, in fact, emulsin will replace it. Consequently it appears that amylose contains one or more /3-linked glucose residues in the chain, or more likely attached to the chain at the free 2, 3, 5, or 6 position of an intra-chain glucose residue. Since it would probably take only one such /8-linked residue per chain to interrupt the progress of /3-amylase, it is not imusual that methylation studies have not detected it. The structure outlined previously for amylose may be modified somewhat to include these observations. 

Hirsch, R, Howie, A., Nocholson, R., Pashley, D. W., Whelan, M. J. - Electron Microscopy of Thin Crystals, Krieger Publishing Company, 1997 Thomas, G., Goiinge, M. J. - Transmission Electron Microscopy of Materials, John Wiley Son, 1979... 

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