Perceived barriers to the implementation of social distancing in the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran during 2020-2021: A cross-sectional study.

Background And Aims: This research has been on the effective role of social distancing in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and the obstacles to its implementation. The results of this research can highlight the major barriers to distancing and suggest appropriate solutions to remove them.

Methods: We conducted this cross-sectional study during 2020-2021 among 277 faculty members, students of medical universities and ordinary people of Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran.

Examining reliability of WHOBARS: a tool to measure the quality of administration of WHO surgical safety checklist using generalisability theory with surgical teams from three New Zealand hospitals.

Objectives: To extend reliability of WHO Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (WHOBARS) to measure the quality of WHO Surgical Safety Checklist administration using generalisability theory. In this context, extending reliability refers to establishing generalisability of the tool scores across populations of teams and raters by accounting for the relevant sources of measurement errors.

Design: Cross-sectional random effect measurement design assessing surgical teams by the five items on the three Checklist phases, and at three sites by two trained raters simultaneously.

Spectrin breakdown products in the cerebrospinal fluid in severe head injury--preliminary observations.

Background: Calcium-induced proteolytic processes are considered key players in the progressive pathobiology of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Activation of calpain and caspases after TBI leads to the cleavage of cytoskeletal proteins such as non-erythroid alpha II-spectrin. Recent reports demonstrate that the levels of spectrin and spectrin breakdown products (SBDPs) are elevated in vitro after mechanical injury, in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and brain tissue following experimental TBI, and in human brain tissue after TBI.

Peer tutoring in patient-centred interviewing skills: experience of a project for first-year students.

Peer tutoring is a potentially valuable resource in higher education. There are few published accounts of the impact of peer tutoring in medical education. College-wide experience of peer tutoring together with difficulties recruiting medical teachers for a communication programme led to the development of a peer-tutoring project.

N(epsilon)(gamma-glutamyl)lysine in cerebrospinal fluid marks Alzheimer type and vascular dementia.

N(epsilon)(gamma-glutamyl)lysine isodipeptide is released from the breakdown of proteins cross-linked by transglutaminase enzymes. Transglutaminase activation is a marker of apoptosis and elevated isodipeptide concentrations in body fluids might correlate with the intensity of apoptotic cell turnover. The concentration of N(epsilon)(gamma-glutamyl)lysine was measured in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (n = 14) and vascular type dementia (n = 11) and compared with not demented surgical controls (n = 17).