Publications by authors named "Colin L Berry"

Several recent and prominent articles in Science and Nature deliberately mischaracterized the nature of genuine scientific evidence. Those articles take issue with the United States Environmental Protection Agency's recent proposal to structure its policies and rules only from studies with transparently published raw data. The articles claim it is an effort to obfuscate with transparency, by eliminating a host of studies not offering raw data.

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The evaluation of data obtained from scientific investigations is not easy and the process often seems counterintuitive to the uninformed. Some commentators hold the conviction that ideological motives colour all deliberations-this makes it easy to suggest that in any scientific debate an opponent's reason for holding a particular viewpoint or belief depends on his or her motives, rather than their knowledge base. This position may be useful in providing the grounds on which to mount a polemic against any perceived threat (drugs in modern medicine, pesticides in intensive agriculture or genetically modified organisms).

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The “Spanish influenza pandemic swept the globe in the autumn and winter of 1918–19, and resulted in the deaths of approximately 40 million people. Clinically, epidemiologically, and pathologically, the disease was remarkably uniform, which suggests that similar viruses were causing disease around the world. To assess the homogeneity of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus, partial hemagglutinin gene sequences have been determined for five cases, including two newly identified samples from London, United Kingdom.

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Exposure to atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM), even at low ambient concentrations, has clearly been linked to increases in mortality and morbidity. A 10- micro g m(-3) increase in PM10 (PM < 10 micro m) has been found to produce a 0.5% increase in daily mortality.

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Increased hepatic gluconeogenesis maintains glycemia during fasting and has been considered responsible for elevated hepatic glucose output in type 2 diabetes. Glucose derived periportally via gluconeogenesis is partially taken up perivenously in perfused liver but not in adult rats whose mothers were protein-restricted during gestation (MLP rats)-an environmental model of fetal programming of adult glucose intolerance exhibiting diminished perivenous glucokinase (GK) activity. We now show that perivenous glucose uptake rises with increasing glucose concentration (0-8 mmol/l) in control but not MLP liver, indicating that GK is flux-generating.

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