Infant food users' perceptions of safety: A web-based analysis approach.

This paper aims to explore consumer beliefs about health hazards in infant foods by analyzing data gathered from the web, focusing on forums for parents in the UK. After selecting a subset of posts and classifying them by topic, according to the food product discussed and the health hazard discussed, two types of analyses were performed. Pearson correlation of term-occurrences highlighted what hazard-product pairs are most prevalent. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression performed on sentiment measures generated from the texts provided significant results indicating positive or negative sentiment, objective or subjective language, and confident or unconfident modality associated with different food products and health hazards. The results allow comparison between perceptions obtained in different countries in Europe and may lead to recommendations concerning information and communication priorities.

Low molecular mass dinitrosyl nonheme-iron complexes up-regulate noradrenaline release in the rat tail artery.

BACKGROUND: Dinitrosyl nonheme-iron complexes can appear in cells and tissues overproducing nitric oxide. It is believed that due to their chemical nature these species may be implicated in certain pathophysiological events. We studied the possible role of low molecular mass dinitrosyl iron complexes in the control of noradrenaline release in electrically stimulated rat tail artery. RESULTS: A model complex, dinitrosyl-iron-thiosulfate (at 1-10 microM) produced a concentration-dependent enhancement of electrical field stimulated [3H]noradrenaline release (up to 2 fold). At the same time, dinitrosyl-iron-thiosulfate inhibited neurogenic vasoconstriction, consistent with its nitric oxide donor properties. A specific inhibitor of cyclic GMP dependent protein kinase, Rp-8pCPT-cGMPS, partially inhibited the effect of dinitrosyl-iron-thiosulfate on neurogenic vasoconstriction, but not on [3H]noradrenaline release. Another model complex, dinitrosyl-iron-cysteine (at 3 microM) elicited similar responses as dinitrosyl-iron-thiosulfate. Conventional NO and NO+ donors such as sodium nitroprusside, S-nitroso-L-cysteine or S-nitroso-glutathione (at 10 microM) had no effect on [3H]noradrenaline release, though they potently decreased electrically-induced vasoconstriction. The "false complex", iron(II)-thiosulfate showed no activity. CONCLUSIONS: Low molecular mass iron dinitrosyl complexes can up-regulate the stimulation-evoked release of vascular [3H]noradrenaline, apparently independently of their NO donor properties. This finding may have important implications in inflammatory tissues.