Homeopathy can offer empirical insights on treatment effects in a null field.

Objectives: A "null field" is a scientific field where there is nothing to discover and where observed associations are thus expected to simply reflect the magnitude of bias. We aimed to characterize a null field using a known example, homeopathy (a pseudoscientific medical approach based on using highly diluted substances), as a prototype.

Study Design And Setting: We identified 50 randomized placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy interventions from highly cited meta-analyses.

Baroreceptor Modulation of the Cardiovascular System, Pain, Consciousness, and Cognition.

Baroreceptors are mechanosensitive elements of the peripheral nervous system that maintain cardiovascular homeostasis by coordinating the responses to external and internal environmental stressors. While it is well known that carotid and cardiopulmonary baroreceptors modulate sympathetic vasomotor and parasympathetic cardiac neural autonomic drive, to avoid excessive fluctuations in vascular tone and maintain intravascular volume, there is increasing recognition that baroreceptors also modulate a wide range of non-cardiovascular physiological responses via projections from the nucleus of the solitary tract to regions of the central nervous system, including the spinal cord. These projections regulate pain perception, sleep, consciousness, and cognition.

Redundant meta-analyses are common in genetic epidemiology.

Objectives: The massive growth in the publication of meta-analyses may cause redundancy and wasted efforts. We performed a metaepidemiologic study to evaluate the extent of potential redundancy in published meta-analyses in genetic epidemiology.

Study Design And Setting: Using a sample of 38 index meta-analyses of genetic associations published in 2010, we retrieved additional meta-analyses that evaluated identical associations (same genetic variant and phenotype) using the Human Genome Epidemiology (HuGE) Navigator and PubMed databases.

AC electrothermal enhancement of heterogeneous assays in microfluidics.

AC-driven electrothermal flow is used to enhance the temporal performance of heterogeneous immuno-sensors in microfluidic systems by nearly an order of magnitude. AC electrokinetic forces are used to generate electrothermal flow, which in turn produces a circular stirring fluid motion that enhances the transport of diffusion-limited proteins. This provides more binding opportunities between suspended antigens and wall-immobilized antibodies.

Electrothermal stirring for heterogeneous immunoassays.

A technique is proposed to enhance microfluidic immuno-sensors, for example, immunoassays, in which a ligand immobilized on a microchannel wall specifically binds analyte flowing through the channel. These sensors can be limited in both response time and sensitivity by the diffusion of analyte to the sensing surface. In certain applications, the sensitivity and response of these heterogeneous immunoassays may be improved by using AC electrokinetically-driven microscale fluid motion to enhance antigen motion towards immobilized ligands.

Effects of cardioselective and nonselective beta-adrenergic antagonists on pulmonary mechanics.

After a 7-day lead-in period, one of three beta-adrenergic antagomists was taken for 2 wk by 10 healthy male subjects. The drugs were metoprolol (cardioselective) and propranolol and nadolol (both nonselective). Dosage was according to currently recommended regimens and was increased after the first week (50 to100 mg b.

Lung elastic recoil and reduced airflow in clinically stable asthma.

Lung volumes, maximum expiratory flow rates, and static volume-ressure curves were measured in 16 patients with clinically stable asthma. It was found that flow rates were reduced in such patients because of the combined effects of reduced elastic recoil (transpulmonary pressure) and intrinsic diseases of the airways. In nine patients treated with an aerosol of isoprenaline, flow rates improved as a result of reduction in airways resistance as the static recoil pressure of the lungs fell further in those patients.

Elastic recoil of the lung in cigarette smokers: the effect of nebulized bronchodilator and cessation of smoking.

The mechanical properties of the lung, forced vital capacity, flow-volume relationships, lung volume, and single-breath N2 curve were determined in 16 nonsmokers and 19 smokers. Pulmonary elastic recoil, Pst (1), was significantly lower at all lung volumes, as were flow parameters, whereas lung volumes were higher in smokers of both sexes. The variables derived from forced vital capacity and single-breath N2 were significantly different from nonsmokers in male smokers but not in female smokers.

19 Years later: a mental hygiene clinic revisited--a comparison of three methods to describe a clinic caseload.

This is a replication of a 1956 study that compared three ways to describe the case load of a mental hygiene clinic. The methods used were to follow-up of a cohort group, cases closed, and a survey of all active cases. In 1975, as compared to 1956, it was found that patients are more likely to be psychotic, to be receiving psychotropic drugs, and to stay in treatment much longer.