Suboptimal CPAP adherence: half a loaf is better than no bread at all

A loaf of bread: Price and value.

In the Western world, the basic staple of nutrition is bread. It evolved, from Neolithic times in Mesopotamia and the Levant, from flour made from natural hybrids of emmer and einkorn. Its form has changed from that of a dark, coarse and heavy loaf, baked in the ashes, to the enriched artistic breads of the late twentieth century. Its variety of forms conferred status on those who ate its refin...

Evolution of bacterial transformation: is sex with dead cells ever better than no sex at all?

Computer simulations of bacterial transformation are used to show that, under a wide range of biologically reasonable assumptions, transforming populations undergoing deleterious mutation and selection have a higher mean fitness at equilibrium than asexual populations. The source of transforming DNA, the amount of DNA taken up by each transforming cell, and the relationship between number of mu...

Transcription factor haploinsufficiency: when half a loaf is not enough.

Two articles in this issue of the JCI (1, 2) describe haploinsufficiency of the transcription factor Nkx2-1 (also known as TTF1) as the cause of a heretofore unrecognized human syndrome characterized by neurological, thyroid, and pulmonary dysfunction. Definition of the disorder and elucidation of its cause is a real tribute to the astute clinicians who looked beyond unusual laboratory values a...

Dolev-Yao is no better than Machiavelli

Is extended-release guaifenesin no better than a placebo?

In this issue of RESPIRATORY CARE, Hoffer-Schaefer et al1 report the results of a double-blind randomized placebocontrolled trial examining the effects of guaifenesin on both the volume and physical properties of sputum in patients with acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs). Guaifenesin has been marketed as an FDA-approved over-thecounter (OTC) expectorant medication with annual sales of ap...