Peer-Education as a Tool to Educate on Antibiotics, Resistance and Use in 16-18-Year-Olds: A Feasibility Study.

Peer education (PE) interventions may help improve knowledge and appropriate use of antibiotics in young adults. In this feasibility study, health-care students were trained to educate 16-18 years old biology students, who then educated their non-biology peers, using e-Bug antibiotic lessons. Knowledge was assessed by questionnaires, and antibiotic use by questionnaire, SMS messaging and GP record searches.

Proactive Evaluation of an Operating Room Prototype: A Simulation-Based Modeling Approach.

Objectives: There is a pressing need to improve safety and efficiency in the operating room (OR). Postsurgical adverse events, such as surgical site infections and surgical flow disruption, occur at a significant rate in industrial countries where a considerable portion of such complications result in death. The aim of the study was to identify an ideal room design that improves the flow of staff members using risk and safety performance measures.

Murine genetic models of obesity: type I error rates and the power of commonly used analyses as assessed by plasmode-based simulation.

Background/objectives: Genetic contributors to obesity are frequently studied in murine models. However, the sample sizes of these studies are often small, and the data may violate assumptions of common statistical tests, such as normality of distributions. We examined whether, in these cases, type I error rates and power are affected by the choice of statistical test.

Eating versus skipping breakfast has no discernible effect on obesity-related anthropometric outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Eating or skipping breakfast for weight interests scientific and lay communities. Our objective was to systematically review and meta-analyze causal effects of eating versus skipping breakfast on obesity-related anthropometric outcomes in humans. Six databases were searched for obesity- and breakfast-related terms (final search: 02 JAN 2020).

Science dialogue mapping of knowledge and knowledge gaps related to the effects of dairy intake on human cardiovascular health and disease.

Dairy has been described as everything from a superfood to a poison; yet, arguments, assumptions, and data justifying these labels are not always clear. We used an issue-based information system, "dialogue mapping™," to summarize scientific points of a live panel discussion on the putative effects of dairy on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) from a day-long session among experts in nutrition and CVD. Dialogue mapping captures relations among ideas to explicitly, logically, and visually connect issues/questions, ideas, pro/con arguments, and agreements, even if discussed at different times.

Data anomalies and apparent reporting errors in 'Randomized controlled trial testing weight loss and abdominal obesity outcomes of moxibustion'.

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the best method to determine causal effects for treatments if they are well done and well reported. Good evidence about proposed treatments for obesity is needed, and Hsieh et al. (Biomed Eng Online 17:149, 2018) are to be commended for putting moxibustion to the test.

Potential Cardiometabolic Health Benefits of Full-Fat Dairy: The Evidence Base.

Since their inception in 1980, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans have promoted low- or fat-free dairy foods. Removing fat from dairy does not reduce putatively beneficial nutrients per serving, including calcium, vitamin D, and potassium. Additionally, links between saturated fat and dietary cholesterol intakes with cardiovascular disease risk have helped to sustain the view that low-fat dairy foods should be recommended.

Hepatic actinomycosis - A potential mimicker of malignancy.

Actinomycosis is a rare granulomatous disease caused by commensal bacteria (Actinomycetaceae family) of the oropharynx, gastrointestinal, and urogenital tract. Infection most commonly involves the cervicofacial region but less frequently the abdominal region, typically secondary to a disruption of normal gastrointestinal mucosa. We present a patient with vague symptoms of fevers and myalgias and a recent diagnosis of rectal cancer.

Neglecting regression to the mean continues to lead to unwarranted conclusions: Letter regarding "The magnitude of weight loss induced by metformin is independently associated with BMI at baseline in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: Post-hoc analysis from data of a phase IV open-labeled trial".

As the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity increases worldwide, scientifically rigorous research is needed in this field to determine effective interventions for the prevention and treatment of these chronic diseases. In a recent study published in this journal, Zhou et al. conclude that metformin, a drug used for treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, can be used effectively for weight loss, and that this effect is even more pronounced in individuals who weigh more at baseline.

Cognitive and neural effects of exercise following traumatic brain injury: A systematic review of randomized and controlled clinical trials.

: Sub-maximal aerobic exercise can alleviate brain injury-related symptom burden. There is substantial data from animal studies and a growing clinical evidence base to suggest that exercise may also improve cognitive and neural outcomes following brain injury. We performed this systematic review to consolidate evidence from randomized and controlled clinical trials on the effects of exercise on cognitive and neuroimaging outcomes following brain injury in humans.

Clearance of Staphylococcus aureus from Models of Chronic Infection by Immunization Requires Both Planktonic and Biofilm Antigens.

is a causative agent of chronic biofilm-associated infections that are recalcitrant to resolution by the immune system or antibiotics. To combat these infections, an antistaphylococcal, biofilm-specific quadrivalent vaccine against an osteomyelitis model in rabbits has previously been developed and shown to be effective at eliminating biofilm-embedded bacterial populations. However, the addition of antibiotics was required to eradicate remaining planktonic populations.

A randomized cross-over trial to determine the effect of a protein vs. carbohydrate preload on energy balance in ad libitum settings.

Background: Although high protein diets have been tested in controlled environments for applications to weight management, it is not understood if adding high protein foods to the diet would impact ad libitum energy balance in the absence of other lifestyle changes.

Methods: This double-blinded randomized crossover trial compared the effects of a protein shake (PS) to a carbohydrate shake (CS), consumed prior to each major meal to equate to 20% of total energy needs over the course of the day, on energy balance over two 5-day treatment periods in healthy adults with BMI 20-30 kg/m2. Tri-axial accelerometers estimated physical activity energy expenditure.

Vaccine protection against rectal acquisition of SIVmac239 in rhesus macaques.

A prophylactic vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains a top priority in biomedical research. Given the failure of conventional immunization protocols to confer robust protection against HIV, new and unconventional approaches may be needed to generate protective anti-HIV immunity. Here we vaccinated rhesus macaques (RMs) with a recombinant (r)DNA prime (without any exogenous adjuvant), followed by a booster with rhesus monkey rhadinovirus (RRV)-a herpesvirus that establishes persistent infection in RMs (Group 1).

Best (but oft-forgotten) practices: identifying and accounting for regression to the mean in nutrition and obesity research.

Background: Regression to the mean (RTM) is a statistical phenomenon where initial measurements of a variable in a nonrandom sample at the extreme ends of a distribution tend to be closer to the mean upon a second measurement. Unfortunately, failing to account for the effects of RTM can lead to incorrect conclusions on the observed mean difference between the 2 repeated measurements in a nonrandom sample that is preferentially selected for deviating from the population mean of the measured variable in a particular direction. Study designs that are susceptible to misattributing RTM as intervention effects have been prevalent in nutrition and obesity research.

Does exclusion of extreme reporters of energy intake (the "Goldberg cutoffs") reliably reduce or eliminate bias in nutrition studies? Analysis with illustrative associations of energy intake with health outcomes.

Background: The Goldberg cutoffs are used to decrease bias in self-reported estimates of energy intake (EISR). Whether the cutoffs reduce and eliminate bias when used in regressions of health outcomes has not been assessed.

Objective: We examined whether applying the Goldberg cutoffs to data used in nutrition studies could reliably reduce or eliminate bias.