Dose reduction and discontinuation of biologic and targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) for people with psoriatic arthritis in remission or low disease activity.

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To determine the benefits and harms of dose reduction or discontinuation of biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs or targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in adults with psoriatic arthritis who are in remission or a low disease activity state.

Improving adverse drug event reporting by healthcare professionals.

Background: Adverse drug events, encompassing both adverse drug reactions and medication errors, pose a significant threat to health, leading to illness and, in severe cases, death. Timely and voluntary reporting of adverse drug events by healthcare professionals plays a crucial role in mitigating the morbidity and mortality linked to unexpected reactions and improper medication usage.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of different interventions aimed at healthcare professionals to improve the reporting of adverse drug events.

Models for delivery and co-ordination of primary or secondary health care (or both) to older adults living in aged care facilities.

Background: The number of older people is increasing worldwide and public expenditure on residential aged care facilities (ACFs) is expected to at least double, and possibly triple, by 2050. Co-ordinated and timely care in residential ACFs that reduces unnecessary hospital transfers may improve residents' health outcomes and increase satisfaction with care among ACF residents, their families and staff. These benefits may outweigh the resources needed to sustain the changes in care delivery and potentially lead to cost savings.

Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative: Summary of the evidence base for pregnancy-related interventions to prevent overweight and obesity in children.

This overview of systematic reviews (SRs) aimed to identify dietary and lifestyle interventions in pregnant women that reduce the prevalence of overweight, obesity, and/or risk factors thereof, in their children. Following identification of eligible SRs, a matrix of all included studies identified overlap between SRs. The most recent, comprehensive, high-quality SRs were selected for further dissagregation.

The epidemiology of tuberculosis in health care workers in South Africa: a systematic review.

Background: In South Africa, workplace acquired tuberculosis (TB) is a significant occupational problem among health care workers. In order to manage the problem effectively it is important to know the burden of TB in health care workers. This systematic review describes the epidemiology of TB in South African health care workers.

Nutritional supplements for people being treated for active tuberculosis.

Background: Tuberculosis and malnutrition are linked in a complex relationship. Tuberculosis may cause undernutrition through increased metabolic demands and decreased intake, and nutritional deficiencies may worsen the disease, or delay recovery by depressing important immune functions. At present, there is no evidence-based nutritional guidance for adults and children being treated for tuberculosis.

Interventions for increasing the proportion of health professionals practising in rural and other underserved areas.

Background: The inequitable distribution of health professionals, within countries, poses an important obstacle to the optimal functioning of health services.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of interventions aimed at increasing the proportion of health professionals working in rural and other underserved areas.

Search Methods: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, including specialised register of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group; March 2014), MEDLINE (1966 to March 2014), EMBASE (1988 to March 2014), CINAHL (1982 to March 2014), LILACS (February 2014), Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index (up to April 2014), Global Health (March 2014) and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (June 2013).

Interferon after surgery for women with advanced (Stage II-IV) epithelial ovarian cancer.

Background: Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a life-threatening disease. Most often women become symptomatic only in the advanced stages of the disease, increasing the difficulty of treatment. Whilst the disease responds well to surgery and chemotherapy, the relapse rate is high.

Nutritional supplements for people being treated for active tuberculosis.

Background: Tuberculosis and malnutrition are linked in a complex relationship. The infection may cause undernutrition through increased metabolic demands and decreased intake, and nutritional deficiencies may worsen the disease, or delay recovery by depressing important immune functions. At present, there are no evidence-based nutritional guidance for adults and children being treated for tuberculosis.

Developing a geographic search filter to identify randomised controlled trials in Africa: finding the optimal balance between sensitivity and precision.

Background: Research on identifying trials using geographic filters is limited.

Objectives: To test the sensitivity and precision of a filter to identify African randomised controlled trials (RCTs).

Methods: We searched medline and embase for RCTs published in 2004 using a Cochrane filter for RCTs.

MVA-85A, a novel candidate booster vaccine for the prevention of tuberculosis in children and adults.

MVA-85A, in development by Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium Ltd and the EU-funded research program TB-VAC, is a live attenuated viral vaccine expressing the immunodominant tuberculosis (TB) antigen 85A, and is intended for use in a heterologous prime-boost strategy to prevent TB. MVA-85A is highly immunogenic in both animals and humans, eliciting strong polyfunctional CD4+ T-cell responses when administered as a boost following BCG vaccination or when administered to individuals previously exposed to TB. Animal studies have demonstrated trends toward reduced pathology and bacillary burden for animals vaccinated with BCG prime followed by MVA-85A boost compared with BCG alone; however, these positive effects appear to be modest, and interpretation is limited by the small number of animals tested.

Interventions for increasing the proportion of health professionals practising in rural and other underserved areas.

Background: The inequitable distribution of health professionals, within and between countries, poses an important obstacle to the achievement of optimal attainable health for all.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of interventions aimed at increasing the proportion of health professionals working in rural and other underserved areas.

Search Strategy: We searched the specialised register of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group (up to July 2007), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (up to July 2007), MEDLINE (1966 to July 2007), EMBASE (1988 to July 2007), CINAHL (1982 to July 2007) and LILACS (up to July 2007).

Nutritional supplements for people being treated for active tuberculosis.

Background: Tuberculosis is a serious infection affecting mainly the lungs. It may contribute to nutritional deficiencies which in turn may delay recovery by depressing immune functions. Nutritional supplements might therefore promote recovery in people being treated for tuberculosis.

Exercise and CaMK activation both increase the binding of MEF2A to the Glut4 promoter in skeletal muscle in vivo.

In vitro binding assays have indicated that the exercise-induced increase in muscle GLUT4 is preceded by increased binding of myocyte enhancer factor 2A (MEF2A) to its cis-element on the Glut4 promoter. Because in vivo binding conditions are often not adequately recreated in vitro, we measured the amount of MEF2A that was bound to the Glut4 promoter in rat triceps after an acute swimming exercise in vivo, using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays. Bound MEF2A was undetectable in nonexercised controls or at 24 h postexercise but was significantly elevated approximately 6 h postexercise.

Athletes with exercise-associated fatigue have abnormally short muscle DNA telomeres.

Introduction/purpose: Although the beneficial health effects of regular moderate exercise are well established, there is substantial evidence that the heavy training and racing carried out by endurance athletes can cause skeletal muscle damage. This damage is repaired by satellite cells that can undergo a finite number of cell divisions. In this study, we have compared a marker of skeletal muscle regeneration of athletes with exercise-associated chronic fatigue, a condition labeled the "fatigued athlete myopathic syndrome" (FAMS), with healthy asymptomatic age- and mileage-matched control endurance athletes.