When a Spoonful of Fallacies Helps the Sweetener Go Down: The Corn Refiner Association’s Use of Straw-Person Arguments in Health Debates Surrounding High-Fructose Corn Syrup

The American public is increasingly concerned about risks associated with food additives like high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). To promote its product as safe, the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) employed two forms of straw-person arguments. First, the CRA opportunistically misrepresented HFCS opposition as inept. Second, the CRA strategically chose to refute claims that were easier to defeat while remaining ambiguous about more complex points of contention. We argue that CRA’s discursive contributions represented unreasonable yet sustainable use of straw-person arguments in debates surrounding health and risk.     

Acute-phase inflammatory response to periodontal disease in the US population

Moderate elevation of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease among apparently healthy individuals, although factors that create this inflammatory response in the absence of systemic illness have not been clarified. This study aimed to: (1) evaluate associations among periodontal disease, established risk factors for elevated CRP, and CRP levels within the US population; and (2) determine whether total tooth loss is associated with reduced CRP. Data were obtained from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A random sample of the US population was interviewed in their homes and examined at mobile examination centers. CRP was quantified from peripheral blood samples and analyzed as a continuous variable and as the prevalence of elevated CRP (> or = 10 mg/L). Some 12,949 people aged 18+ years who had periodontal examinations and an additional 1,817 edentulous people aged 18+ years were included in the analysis. Dentate people with extensive periodontal disease (> 10% of sites with periodontal pockets 4+ mm) had an increase of approximately one-third in mean CRP and a doubling in prevalence of elevated CRP compared with periodontally healthy people. Raised CRP levels among people with extensive periodontal disease persisted in multivariate analyses (P < 0.01), with established risk factors for elevated CRP (diabetes, arthritis, emphysema, smoking, and anti-inflammatory medications) and sociodemographic factors controlled for. However, CRP levels were similarly raised in edentulous people. Furthermore, the established risk factors for elevated CRP modified relationships between oral status and CRP levels. Periodontal disease and edentulism were associated with systemic inflammatory response in the US population, most notably among people who had no established risk factors for elevated CRP.     

Transvaginal hybrid NOTES cholecystectomy—results of a randomized clinical trial after 6 months

Introduction

For cholecystectomy (CHE), both the needlescopic three-trocar technique with 2–3-mm instruments (needlescopic cholecystectomy (NC)) and the umbilically assisted transvaginal technique with rigid instruments (transvaginal cholecystectomy (TVC)) have been established for further reduction of the trauma remaining from laparoscopy.

Methods

To compare the further outcome of both techniques for elective CHE in female patients, we analyzed the secondary end points of a prospective randomized single-center trial (needlescopic versus transvaginal cholecystectomy (NATCH) trial; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0168577), in particular, satisfaction with aesthetics, overall satisfaction, abdominal pain, and incidence of trocar hernias postoperatively at both 3 and 6 months. After 3 months, the domains “satisfaction” and “pain” of the German version of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI-d) were additionally evaluated to detect respective complications. A gynecological control examination was conducted in all TVC patients after 6 months.

Results

Forty patients were equally randomized into the therapy and the control groups between February 2010 and June 2012. No significant differences were found for overall satisfaction with the surgical result, abdominal pain, sexual function, and the rate of trocar hernias. However, aesthetics were rated significantly better by TVC patients both after 3 and after 6 months (P?=?0.004 and P?<?0.001). There were no postoperative pathological gynecological findings.

Conclusions

Following TVC, there is a significantly better aesthetic result as compared to NC, even at 3 and 6 months after the procedure. No difference was found for sexual function.     

Early signs of cardiovascular dysregulation in young adult binge drinkers

Binge drinking is widespread on American college campuses, but its effects on the cardiovascular system are poorly understood. This study sought evidence of preclinical cardiovascular changes in binge drinking young adults (n = 24) compared to nondrinking (n = 24) and social drinking (n = 23) peers during baseline, paced sighing (0.033 Hz), and paced breathing (0.1 Hz) tasks. Binge drinkers showed consistent but often statistically nonsignificant evidence of greater sympathetic activation and reduced baroreflex sensitivity. Interestingly, the structure of group‐averaged baseline heart rate spectra was considerably different between groups in the low frequency range (0.05–0.15 Hz). In particular, the binge drinking group–averaged spectra showed several spectral peaks not evident in the other groups, possibly indicating two functionally distinct subranges (0.05–0.08 and 0.08–0.15 Hz) that reflect vascular tone baroreflex activity and heart rate baroreflex activity, respectively. Vascular tone baroreflex gain and power in two peaks in the 0.05–0.08 Hz range were associated with years of drinking in the binge drinking group. Vascular dysfunction may be an early indicator of drinking‐related change in the cardiovascular system.     

Extensor tendon ruptures in rheumatoid wrists

European Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery & Traumatology - Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease. The associated involvement of hands and tendons is over 90% and impairs overall...     

Fast and robust registration of PET and MR images of human brain

In recent years, mutual information has proved to be an excellent criterion for registration of intra-individual images from different modalities. Multi-resolution coarse-to-fine optimization was proposed for speeding-up of the registration process. The aim of our work was to further improve registration speed without compromising robustness or accuracy. We present and evaluate two procedures for co-registration of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance (MR) images of human brain that combine a multi-resolution approach with an automatic segmentation of input image volumes into areas of interest and background. We show that an acceleration factor of 10 can be achieved for clinical data and that a suitable preprocessing can improve robustness of registration. Emphasis was laid on creation of an automatic registration system that could be used routinely in a clinical environment. For this purpose, an easy-to-use graphical user interface has been developed. It allows physicians with no special knowledge of the registration algorithm to perform a fast and reliable alignment of images. Registration progress is presented on the fly on a fusion of images and enables visual checking during a registration.     

两种荧光显微成像系统亚细胞定位的对比

目的:应用高分辨率荧光显微成像系统采集细胞器探针图像,并与激光共聚焦显微成像系统进行对比。方法:实验于2003-05/2004-01在解放军总医院完成。①实验材料:鼠肺毛细血管内皮细胞株(1H11)由上海复旦张江生物公司提供;荧光探针Rhodamine-123,Lucifer Yellow,DiOC6[3],BODIPY(美国Sigma公司)。②细胞培养及荧光探针染色:细胞培养采用含体积分数为0.2胎牛血清的低糖DMEM培养基,密度5×107L-1。选择Rhodamine-123作为细胞线粒体特异性荧光探针,选择DiOC6[3]作为细胞内质网特异性荧光探针,选择BODIPY作为细胞高尔基体特异性荧光探针,选择Lucifer Yellow作为细胞溶酶体探针。前3个探针在完全避光条件下与培养的细胞共同孵育0.5h,后者则共同孵育15h。③高分辨率荧光成像系统的图像采集:线粒体荧光图像采集,选取经Rhodamine-123共孵育完成的细胞,选择激发滤色镜为BP460-490,吸收滤色镜为BA515,分光镜为DM500,另加一绿通道液晶滤光片,激发出Rhodamine-123的荧光。电荷耦合器件采集图像并送入计算机。重复上述步骤,采用DiOC6[3]标记内质网,BODIPY标记高尔基体,Lucifer Yellow标记细胞溶酶体,激发条件同Rhodamine-123。分别采集同一视野靶细胞DiOC6[3]、BODIPY或Lucifer Yellow的荧光图像,完成全部图像采集并储存在计算机中。④激光共聚焦显微成像系统的图像采集:选择经4种探针染色的靶细胞,使用氩离子激光器在488nm激发Rhodamine-123,Rhodamine-123荧光通过配置有530/60-G发射滤光片的通道1探测。重复上述步骤,在488nm激发DiOC6[3]和BODIPY,在457nm激发Lucifer yellow,3种荧光均由通道1探测,后2个探针的发射滤光片的配置为515/30-G,DiOC6[3]选择530/60-G。由光电倍增管接收信号并传输入计算机成像。结果:①高分辨率荧光成像系统所采集图像,靶细胞中由荧光探针Rhodamine-123染色的线粒体呈多个典型的小棒状或卵圆状,聚集在核周;Lucifer yellow染色的溶酶体呈多个非对称球型,在胞浆内随机分布,颗粒尺寸通常大于线粒体;荧光探针DiOC6[3]着色的内质网占据胞浆的很大空间,以囊状聚集为特征;BODIPY特异性地结合在高尔基体上,荧光图像显示围绕在细胞核周围呈条索状。②与高分辨率荧光成像系统比较,激光共聚焦显微成像系统所采集的图像其荧光强度基本相同,但分辨率低、细节显示模糊、胞浆中细胞器的准确分布信息和形态特征显示效果欠佳。结论:两种荧光显微成像系统均可采集到细胞器探针的荧光图像。但高分辨率荧光成像系统采集的荧光图像具有细节清晰、分辨度高、准确显示胞浆中细胞器的分布信息和形态特征等优点。