Teaching a Stealth Information Literacy Class on Reading The New York Times: Science

Involuntary musical imagery (INMI or “earworms”)— the spontaneous recall and repeating of a tune in one’s
mind—can be attributed to a wide range of triggers, including memory associations and recent musical
exposure. The present study examined whether a song’s popularity and melodic features might also help to
explain whether it becomes INMI, using a dataset of tunes that were named as INMI by 3,000 survey
participants. It was found that songs that had achieved greater success and more recent runs in the U.K. music
charts were reported more frequently as INMI. A set of 100 of these frequently named INMI tunes was then
matched to 100 tunes never named as INMI by the survey participants, in terms of popularity and song style.
These 2 groups of tunes were compared using 83 statistical summary and corpus-based melodic features and
automated classification techniques. INMI tunes were found to have more common global melodic contours
and less common average gradients between melodic turning points than non-INMI tunes, in relation to a large
pop music corpus. INMI tunes also displayed faster average tempi than non-INMI tunes. Results are discussed
in relation to literature on INMI, musical memory, and melodic “catchiness.”

Background: Physical exertion, anger, and emotional upset are reported to trigger acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In the INTERHEART study, we explored the triggering association of acute physical activity and anger or emotional upset with AMI to quantify the importance of these potential triggers in a large, international population.
Methods: INTERHEART was a case-control study of first AMI in 52 countries. In this analysis, we included only cases of AMI and used a case-crossover approach to estimate odds ratios for AMI occurring within 1 hour of triggers.
Results: Of 12 461 cases of AMI 13.6% (n=1650) engaged in physical activity and 14.4% (n=1752) were angry or emotionally upset in the case period (1 hour before symptom onset). Physical activity in the case period was associated with increased odds of AMI (odds ratio, 2.31; 99% confidence interval [CI], 1.96-2.72) with a population-attributable risk of 7.7% (99% CI, 6.3-8.8). Anger or emotional upset in the case period was associated with an increased odds of AMI (odds ratio, 2.44; 99% CI, 2.06-2.89) with a population-attributable risk of 8.5% (99% CI, 7.0-9.6). There was no effect modification by geographical region, prior cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular risk factor burden, cardiovascular prevention medications, or time of day or day of onset of AMI. Both physical activity and anger or emotional upset in the case period were associated with a further increase in the odds of AMI (odds ratio, 3.05; 99% CI, 2.29-4.07; P for interaction <0.001).
Conclusions: Physical exertion and anger or emotional upset are triggers associated with first AMI in all regions of the world, in men and women, and in all age groups, with no significant effect modifiers.

Objective: To determine the effect of elective single ET (eSET) on live birth and multiple birth rates by a cycle-level and clinic-level analysis.
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: Not applicable.
Patient(s): Patient ages <35 and 35-37 years old.
Intervention(s): None.
Main Outcome Measure(s): Clinics were divided into groups based on eSET rate for each age group and aggregate rates of live birth per ET and multiple birth per delivery were calculated. A cycle-level analysis comparing eSET and double ET (DET) live birth and multiple birth rates was also performed, stratified based on total number (2, 3, or 4+) of embryos available, embryo stage, and patient age.
Result(s): There was a linear decrease in multiple birth rate with increasing eSET rate and no significant difference in clinic-level live birth rates for each age group. Cycle-level analysis found slightly higher live birth rates with double ET, but this was mainly observed in women aged 35-37 years or with four or more embryos available for transfer, and confirmed the marked reduction in multiple births with eSET.
Conclusion(s): Our study showed a marked and linear reduction in multiple birth rates, and important, little to no effect on clinic-level live birth rates with increasing rates of eSET supporting the growing evidence that eSET is effective in decreasing the high multiple birth rates associated with IVF and suggests that eSET should be used more frequently than is currently practiced.

Incidence rates for liver cancer have increased 3-fold since the mid-1970s in the United States in parallel with increasing trends for obesity and type II diabetes mellitus. We conducted an analysis of baseline body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and type II diabetes mellitus with risk of liver cancer. The Liver Cancer Pooling Project maintains harmonized data from 1.57 million adults enrolled in 14 U.S.-based prospective studies. Cox regression estimated HRs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusted for age, sex, study center, alcohol, smoking, race, and BMI (for WC and type II diabetes mellitus). Stratified analyses assessed whether the BMI-liver cancer associations differed by hepatitis sera-positivity in nested analyses for a subset of cases (n = 220) and controls (n = 547). After enrollment, 2,162 incident liver cancer diagnoses were identified. BMI, per 5 kg/m2, was associated with higher risks of liver cancer, more so for men (HR = 1.38; 95% CI, 1.30-1.46) than women (HR = 1.25; 95% CI, 1.17-1.35; Pinteraction = 0.02). WC, per 5 cm, was associated with higher risks of liver cancer, approximately equally by sex (overall, HR = 1.08; 95% CI, 1.04-1.13). Type II diabetes mellitus was associated with higher risk of liver cancer (HR = 2.61; 95% CI, 2.34-2.91). In stratified analyses, there was a null association between BMI and liver cancer risk for participants who were sera-positive for hepatitis. This study suggests that high BMI, high WC, and type II diabetes mellitus are associated with higher risks of liver cancer and that the association may differ by status of viral hepatitis infection.

Importance A growing body of evidence supports a link between androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and cognitive dysfunction, including Alzheimer disease. However, it is currently unknown whether ADT may contribute to the risk of dementia more broadly.

Objective To use an informatics approach to examine the association of ADT as a treatment for prostate cancer with the subsequent development of dementia (eg, senile dementia, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and Alzheimer dementia).

Design, Setting, and Participants In this cohort study, a text-processing method was used to analyze electronic medical record data from an academic medical center from 1994 to 2013, with a median follow-up of 3.4 years (interquartile range, 1.0-7.2 years). We identified 9455 individuals with prostate cancer who were 18 years or older at diagnosis with data recorded in the electronic health record and follow-up after diagnosis. We excluded 183 patients with a previous diagnosis of dementia. Our final cohort comprised 9272 individuals with prostate cancer, including 1826 men (19.7%) who received ADT.

Main Outcomes and Measures We tested the effect of ADT on the risk of dementia using propensity score–matched Cox proportional hazards regression models and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis.

To better understand the role of irisin in humans, we examined the effects of irisin in human primary adipocytes and fresh human subcutaneous white adipose tissue (scWAT). Human primary adipocytes derived from 28 female donors' fresh scWAT were used to examine the effects of irisin on browning and mitochondrial respiration, and preadipocytes were used to examine the effects of irisin on adipogenesis and osteogenesis. Cultured fragments of scWAT and perirenal brown fat were used for investigating signal transduction pathways that mediate irisin's browning effect by Western blotting to detect phosphorylated forms of p38, ERK, and STAT3 as well as uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). Individual responses to irisin in scWAT were correlated with basal expression levels of brown/beige genes. Irisin upregulated the expression of browning-associated genes and UCP1 protein in both cultured primary mature adipocytes and fresh adipose tissues. It also significantly increased thermogenesis at 5 nmol/l by elevating cellular energy metabolism (OCR and ECAR). Treating human scWAT with irisin increased UCP1 expression by activating the ERK and p38 MAPK signaling. Blocking either pathway with specific inhibitors abolished irisin-induced UCP1 upregulation. However, our results showed that UCP1 in human perirenal adipose tissue was insensitive to irisin. Basal levels of brown/beige and FNDC5 genes correlated positively with the browning response of scWAT to irisin. In addition, irisin significantly inhibited adipogenic differentiation but promoted osteogenic differentiation. We conclude that irisin promotes “browning” of mature white adipocytes by increasing cellular thermogenesis, whereas it inhibits adipogenesis and promotes osteogenesis during lineage-specific differentiation. Our findings provide a rationale for further exploring the therapeutic use of irisin in obesity and exercise-associated bone formation.

Introduction

Obesity is a pervasive public health problem in the U.S. Reducing soda consumption is important for stemming the obesity epidemic. However, several articles and one book suggest that soda companies are using their resources to impede public health interventions that might reduce soda consumption. Although corporate sponsorship by tobacco and alcohol companies has been studied extensively, there has been no systematic attempt to catalog sponsorship activities of soda companies. This study investigates the nature, extent, and implications of soda company sponsorship of U.S. health and medical organizations, as well as corporate lobbying expenditures on soda- or nutrition-related public health legislation from 2011 to 2015.

Methods

Records of corporate philanthropy and lobbying expenditures on public health legislation by soda companies in the U.S. during 2011–2015 were found through Internet and database searches.

Results

From 2011 to 2015, the Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo were found to sponsor a total of 95 national health organizations, including many medical and public health institutions whose specific missions include fighting the obesity epidemic. During the study period, these two soda companies lobbied against 29 public health bills intended to reduce soda consumption or improve nutrition.

Conclusions

There is surprisingly pervasive sponsorship of national health and medical organizations by the nation’s two largest soda companies. These companies lobbied against public health intervention in 97% of cases, calling into question a sincere commitment to improving the public’s health. By accepting funding from these companies, health organizations are inadvertently participating in their marketing plans.