Background:To evaluate whether a fermented dairy drink containing the probiotic strain Lactobacillus casei DN-114 001 could reduce the incidence of common infectious diseases (CIDs) and the change of behavior because of illness in children.Subjects/Methods:We conducted a double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled allocation concealment clinical trial in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Participants were 638 children 3–6 years old in daycare/schools. The intervention was a fermented dairy drink containing a specific probiotic strain or matching placebo with no live cultures for 90 consecutive days. Two primary outcomes were assessed: incidence of CIDs and change of behavior because of illness (both assessed by parental report).Results:The rate of change of behavior because of illness was similar among active and control groups. However, the incidence rate for CIDs in the active group (0.0782) is 19% lower than that of the control group (0.0986) (incidence rate ratio=0.81, 95% CI: 0.65, 099) P=0.046.Conclusions:Daily intake of a fermented dairy drink containing the probiotic strain L. casei DN-114 001 showed some promise in reducing overall incidence of illness, but was primarily driven by gastrointestinal infections and there were no differences in change of behavior.

As part of an undergraduate pipeline program at our institution for students from underrepresented minorities in medicine backgrounds, we created an intensive four-week medical microbiology course. Team-based learning (TBL) was implemented in this course to enhance student learning of course content. Three different student cohorts participated in the study, and there were no significant differences in their prior academic achievement based on their undergraduate grade point average (GPA) and pre-course examination scores. Teaching techniques included engaged lectures using an audience response system, TBL, and guided self-directed learning. We hypothesized that more active learning exercises, irrespective of the amount of lecture time, would help students master course content. In year 2 as compared with year 1, TBL exercises were decreased from six to three with a concomitant increase in lecture time, while in year 3, TBL exercises were increased from three to six while maintaining the same amount of lecture time as in year 2. As we hypothesized, there was significant (p < 0.01) improvement in performance on the post-course examination in years 1 and 3 compared with year 2, when only three TBL exercises were used. In contrast to the students’ perceptions that more lecture time enhances learning of course content, our findings suggest that active learning strategies, such as TBL, are more effective than engaged lectures in improving student understanding of course content, as measured by post-course examination performance. Introduction of TBL in pipeline program courses may help achieve better student learning outcomes.

Objectives To evaluate the ability of pathology modules to promote learning of pathology-related course content in a preclinical medical education curriculum. Methods Pathology modules were created for the “Hematology/Oncology” and “Women’s Health” (WH) courses. Students were recruited over 2 consecutive academic years; cohorts 1 and 2 refer to 2 separate groups of students in years 1 and 2, respectively, of the study. Course performance data were collected. Results Use of pathology modules resulted in a statistically significant higher correlation between performance on the final examination and pathology-related questions in the Hematology/Oncology course and written examination and pathology-related questions in cohort 1 in the WH course. There was statistically significant improvement (P = .026) on pathology-related laboratory practical examination questions in the WH course for cohort 1, and no other statistically significant improvement for the other cohorts and examinations. The percentage of students completing all or part of the modules was highest in the WH course for cohort 1 (60%) compared with WH course cohort 2 (33%) and Hematology/Oncology cohort 1 (30%) and cohort 2 (39%). Conclusions Pathology modules may improve acquisition and retention of pathology-related course content when used appropriately.

The requirement to remember continuously changing information places substantial demands on the human operator's working memory system. Previous research (Yntema & Mueser, 1960) found that in keeping track of dynamically changing information, humans' memory for changing information was better when they kept track of many different attributes of a single object than when they kept track of the identical attribute of many different objects. Due to a confound in the Yntema and Mueser experiment, the unique and combined effects of information organization and similarity-based interference cannot be determined, limiting the information about dynamic memory. This experiment represents an attempt to overcome this limitation by assessing the roles of organization and similarity-based interference in dynamic memory. The experimental task was a keeping track task in which a series of changing attribute values were presented sequentially, and subjects were required to remember the most recent update for each attribute. Three factors were manipulated in the experiment: number of "objects" (one vs many objects), type of attribute (same vs different), and memory load (2,4, or 6 attributes to remember). Results showed that as memory load increased, keeping track performance in the many-object condition decreased to a greater extent than in the one-object condition. Also, as memory load increased, accuracy decreased at a greater rate for the same-attribute condition than for the different-attribute condition. The effect size for attribute similarity was much larger than that for number of objects. It was concluded that similarity-based interference is quite destructive to dynamic memory. It appears that the cost of attribute similarity far outweighs the benefits of organizing the continually-changing attributes. Such results have implications for structuring tasks and aiding memory in situations where operators must remember information in dynamically changing environments.

Background: Literature reviews have identified recruitment as the single most challenging obstacle in conducting pediatric trials. This paper describes a paradigm shift in recruitment design, developed from experience with grassroots campaigns through the DRINK study (Decreasing the Rates of Illness in Kids). The objective of this study was to explain a new method for recruiting in clinical trials based on lessons learned from grassroots political campaigning. Methods and findings: The study described is a randomized controlled trial of 638 3-6 year olds from the Washington, DC Area. The design involved a comparison between new recruiting approaches modeled after grassroots campaigns and traditional techniques. T raditional techniques for the purpose of this paper are defined by the use of physician referral, mass media such as radio and t elevision advertisements, along with posters in public places like the subway. Grassroots approaches alternatively developed and utilized c ommunity contacts and employed targeted small market media community. The main outcome measures were the percentage of b udget used and the number of eligible participants recruited. Conclusions:The results showed that the grassroots recruitment approach saved 30% of the budget, recruited 638 kids in 4 months and retained over 90% for the 90 day trial. New techniques need further exploration as community studies are stressed.