Search

PURPOSE Many family practitioners prescribe antibiotics for patients with upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) to meet patients' expectations. We evaluated the impact of providing brief tablet-based information about antibiotic treatment of URTIs on patients' expectations for antibiotics and on family practitioners' antibiotic-prescribing behavior. METHODS We performed a 3-arm randomized controlled trial among patients presenting with URTIs at 2 urban family practices in Auckland, New Zealand, during winter 2018. Participants were randomly allocated to view a presentation about the futility of antibiotic treatment of URTIs, the adverse effects associated with antibiotics, or the benefits of healthy diet and exercise (active control), immediately before their consultation. Before and after viewing the presentations, participants used a Likert scale to rate the strength of their belief that antibiotics are effective for treating URTIs and of their desire to be prescribed an antibiotic. Patients reported whether an antibiotic had been prescribed, and pharmacy dispensing records were reviewed to determine whether an antibiotic was dispensed. RESULTS Participants who viewed either the futility or the adverse effects presentation had greater reductions in their expectations to receive antibiotics than the control group. The mean reduction (95% CI) was 1.1 (0.8-1.3) for the futility group, 0.7 (0.4-0.9) for the adverse effects group, and 0.1 (0-0.3) for the control group (Cohen d = 0.7; P CONCLUSIONS A brief tablet-based waiting room intervention significantly reduced participants' expectations about receiving antibiotics for URTI immediately before their family practitioner consultation. The intervention did not influence family practitioner prescribing behavior, however. Key words: patient expectations; respiratory tract infections; antibiotic prescriptions; antimicrobial stewardship education; physician-patient communication; family practice; primary health care; practice-based research, INTRODUCTION Overuse of antibiotics drives the emergence and spread of antimicrobial-resistant organisms, which pose a major threat to public health. (1) Globally, 85% to 95% of human antibiotics consumed are [...]

Abstract: It has been suggested that dorsal colour patterns and defence strategies could have coevolved in reptiles, the striped species being more prone to flee compared with the spotted species [...]

The Seychelles is a remarkably interesting archipelago for evolutionary studies, but only recently have molecular markers been used to explore its biogeographic patterns. Here we used morphological and molecular data to examine diversity and phylogenetic relationships of two endemic skink sister-species from this archipelago: Trachylepis sechellensis and Trachylepis wrightii. Mitochondrial DNA genealogy rendered a monophyletic T. wrightii nested within a paraphyletic T. sechellensis, whereas nuclear DNA sequences from five unlinked markers reflected the accepted taxonomy. Hybridization and massive mt DNA introgression leading to the complete replacement of the native mt DNA lineage of T. sechellensis in some of the islands were invoked to explain this result, and morphological variation also seemed to reflect this pattern of reticulation. A Mio-Pliocene divergence between both species is suggested. Multilocus molecular data were used to uncover biogeographic patterns within the archipelago, which reflected shared patterns with other co-distributed lizard taxa; specifically a north-south marked structure, a close relationship between populations from Fregate and the southern islands, and a detectable isolation within the southern group, between Mahé, and Silhouette and North Islands. Gene flow from these latter islands towards the northern group was also suggested. These results add to the growing body of evidence of the influence of geographic distance and sea-level oscillations in shaping the genetic structure of Seychellois taxa and of the existence of common biogeographic patterns across the archipelago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The only Italian population of the lacertid Psammodromus algirus is found in Conigli islet whereas the species is absent from the nearby island of Lampedusa.The phylogeographic relationships of this population were investigated. Mitochondrial DNA (12S rRNA and 16S rRNA) fragment sequences were analysed and compared with already published sequences from the whole species range. In all the analyses, the sample from Conigli grouped with those from Morocco and not with the closer Tunisian ones. Such surprising result poses serious doubts to the traditional interpretation of the enigmatic distribution pattern of this species in Italy suggesting a recent colonisation of the islet from NW Africa, probably human-mediated, rather than a land crossing from Tunisia during the Pleistocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which focused on the lizard, Podarcis lilfordi, as a seed disperser of the Mediterranean plant, Phillyrea media. Information on the phenomenon of saurochory; Background on the plant Phillyrea media; Details of the seed germination experiments.