The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions is the official document that describes in detail the process of preparing and maintaining Cochrane systematic reviews on the effects of healthcare interventions.

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Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions

Part 1: Social Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Text Analysis 1. Introduction 2. Texts, Social Events, and Social Practices 3. Intertextuality and Assumptions Part 2: Genres and Action 4. Genres 5. Meaning Relations between Sentences and Clauses 6. Types of Exchange, Speech Functions, and Grammatical Mood Part 3: Discourses and Representations 7. Discourses 8. Representations of Social Events Part 4: Styles and Identities 9. Styles 10. Modality and Evaluation 11. Conclusion

http://disciplinas.stoa.usp.br/pluginfile.php/270695/mod_folder/content/0/ii.%20Norman_Fairclough_Analysing_discourse.pdf?forcedownload=1

Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research

Diabetes mellitus is commonly associated with systolic/diastolic hypertension, and a wealth of epidemiological data suggest that this association is independent of age and obesity. Much evidence indicates that the link between diabetes and essential hypertension is hyperinsulinemia. Thus, when hypertensive patients, whether obese or of normal body weight, are compared with age- and weight-matched normotensive control subjects, a heightened plasma insulin response to a glucose challenge is consistently found. A state of cellular resistance to insulin action subtends the observed hyperinsulinism. With the insulin/glucose-clamp technique, in combination with tracer glucose infusion and indirect calorimetry, it has been demonstrated that the insulin resistance of essential hypertension is located in peripheral tissues (muscle), is limited to nonoxidative pathways of glucose disposal (glycogen synthesis), and correlates directly with the severity of hypertension. The reasons for the association of insulin resistance and essential hypertension can be sought in at least four general types of mechanisms: Na+ retention, sympathetic nervous system overactivity, disturbed membrane ion transport, and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells. Physiological maneuvers, such as calorie restriction (in the overweight patient) and regular physical exercise, can improve tissue sensitivity to insulin; evidence indicates that these maneuvers can also lower blood pressure in both normotensive and hypertensive individuals. Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia are also associated with an atherogenic plasma lipid profile. Elevated plasma insulin concentrations enhance very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) synthesis, leading to hypertriglyceridemia. Progressive elimination of lipid and apolipoproteins from the VLDL particle leads to an increased formation of intermediate-density and low-density lipoproteins, both of which are atherogenic. Last, insulin, independent of its effects on blood pressure and plasma lipids, is known to be atherogenic. The hormone enhances cholesterol transport into arteriolar smooth muscle cells and increases endogenous lipid synthesis by these cells. Insulin also stimulates the proliferation of arteriolar smooth muscle cells, augments collagen synthesis in the vascular wall, increases the formation of and decreases the regression of lipid plaques, and stimulates the production of various growth factors. In summary, insulin resistance appears to be a syndrome that is associated with a clustering of metabolic disorders, including non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, obesity, hypertension, lipid abnormalities, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Insulin Resistance: A Multifaceted Syndrome Responsible for NIDDM, Obesity, Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease

By Matthew James Keelingand Pejman RohaniPrinceton, NJ: Princeton University Press,2008.408 pp., Illustrated. $65.00 (hardcover).Mathematical modeling of infectious dis-eases has progressed dramatically over thepast 3 decades and continues to ﬂourishat the nexus of mathematics, epidemiol-ogy, and infectious diseases research. Nowrecognized as a valuable tool, mathemat-ical models are being integrated into thepublic health decision-making processmore than ever before. However, despiterapid advancements in this area, a formaltraining program for mathematical mod-eling is lacking, and there are very fewbooks suitable for a broad readership. Tosupport this bridging science, a commonlanguage that is understood in all con-tributing disciplines is required.

Modeling Infectious Diseases in Humans and Animals

High quality protocols facilitate proper conduct, reporting, and external review
 of clinical trials. However, the completeness of trial protocols is often
 inadequate. To help improve the content and quality of protocols, an
 international group of stakeholders developed the SPIRIT 2013 Statement
 (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials). The SPIRIT
 Statement provides guidance in the form of a checklist of recommended items to
 include in a clinical trial protocol. This SPIRIT 2013 Explanation and Elaboration paper provides important
 information to promote full understanding of the checklist recommendations. For
 each checklist item, we provide a rationale and detailed description; a model
 example from an actual protocol; and relevant references supporting its
 importance. We strongly recommend that this explanatory paper be used in
 conjunction with the SPIRIT Statement. A website of resources is also available
 (www.spirit-statement.org). The SPIRIT 2013 Explanation and Elaboration paper, together with the Statement,
 should help with the drafting of trial protocols. Complete documentation of key
 trial elements can facilitate transparency and protocol review for the benefit
 of all stakeholders.

https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/346/bmj.e7586.full.pdf

SPIRIT 2013 explanation and elaboration: guidance for protocols of clinical trials

How reassuring that The BMJ allows authors to perpetuate myths, albeit whimsically, encouraging us all to do likewise, without fearing pedantic intervention from editors or rabid responses.1

Kasten’s assertion that George Bernard Shaw said that the USA and the UK were “two nations, divided by a common language” is unsupported by evidence.2 Oscar Wilde, however, in The Canterville Ghost (1887) wrote that …

https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/368/bmj.m282.full.pdf

Evidence based transatlantic orthography

2023 is the 450th anniversary of the birth of the Swiss-born Huguenot physician Théodore de Mayerne on 28 September 1573. After graduating in medicine in Montpelier and making a Grand Tour of Europe, including visits to Queen Elizabeth I in London and James VI in Edinburgh, Mayerne returned to France. However, increasing persecution of the Huguenots in France and an offer of a position as a personal physician in England led Mayerne to return to England in 1611, where he became a physician to King James I and a fellow of the College of Physicians of London. With Henry Atkins he encouraged the publication by the college of the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis in 1618, which came to 11 editions over the next 33 years and laid the foundations for other national pharmacopoeias, including the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia (1699) and the Dublin Pharmacopoeia (1807). It was eventually replaced by the British Pharmacopoeia (Pharmacopoeia Britannica), recommended and announced in the Medical Acts of 1858 and 1862, respectively, which appeared in 1864 and is still in use today. Mayerne was knighted by James I in 1624.

When I use a word . . . . Medical anniversaries in 2023: Théodore de Mayerne

<h3>Objectives</h3> Adherence to pharmacological intervention in clinical trials is crucial for the correct estimation of medication effect and side effects. The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) - a 12-item extension of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) reporting guidelines - includes two items (11 and 12) that address intervention adherence reporting in trial publications. This study sought to assess compliance with TIDieR items 11 and 12 of selected SARS-CoV-2 trial publications. <h3>Method</h3> The corpus of SARS-CoV-2 related randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, BMJ, JAMA, The Lancet, and The New England Journal of Medicine in 2021 were assessed for their compliance with TIDieR items 11 and 12. Items 11 and 12 begin with a conditional requirement: ‘if intervention adherence or fidelity was assessed…’. When this conditional requirement was unmet, the item was reported as ‘not applicable’. Item 11 was assessed in two parts; 11a) how intervention adherence was assessed and 11b) if any strategies were used to maintain or improve fidelity, how intervention adherence was maintained or improved. Where a strategy was not used to maintain or improve fidelity, item 11b was reported as ‘not applicable’. Raw and proportional (weighted) adherence were calculated. <h3>Results</h3> We found 75 eligible RCTs of which 28 (37.3%) reported results related to SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations. Compliance with item 11a and 12 could be assessed in 71 of these 75; only 7 RCTs had a fidelity strategy to assess compliance with item 11b. 37 (52.1%) of 71 RCTs were compliant with reporting of item 11a (how intervention adherence was assessed). 3 (42.9%, CI 9% - 81.6) of the 7 studies with a fidelity strategy complied with item 11b reporting. 70 of 71 RCTs complied with reporting of item 12. 1 of 71 (1.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0% – 7.6%) RCTs fully complied with TIDieR items 11a, 11b and 12. Compliance varied across journals. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Despite the endorsement of CORSORT, SARS-CoV-2 related RCTs published in high impact medical and health journals had variable compliance with intervention adherence reporting. The implications for interpretation, application and replication of findings based on these publications warrant consideration. 

186 Compliance of randomized control trials investigating pharmacological interventions for SARS-CoV-2 with medication adherence reporting standards: a cross sectional analysis

Etymology, grammar, and usage all support the view that “data” not only is a plural noun but also should be used as such in most instances. However, perhaps under the influence of the way in which it is used in news media, general usage is drifting towards singular usage. Nevertheless, regarding “data” as a plural noun also informs the more difficult question of who owns the data (the individual items) or the database (the collection). It suggests that each individual owns his or her own [plural] data, when the data exist as discrete pieces of information about the individual—using the word “information” in the general, non-technical sense, outside its use in computer science. However, no one individual or institution owns an anonymised collection of data in a database or databank, although those who collected the data or paid to have them collected may have a legitimate preferential claim. Nevertheless it is reasonable to expect that collections of data should be shared and that communally everybody owns them, while respecting the anonymity of the individuals whose data are represented.

/pdf/when-i-use-a-word-data-usage-and-ownership-2ry48897.pdf

When I use a word . . . . Data—usage and ownership

In England and Wales, coroners are legally required to send reports to interested parties when they believe that actions should be taken to prevent deaths other than those on which their conclusions are based. Recipients of the reports are statutorily required to respond to the coroner within 56 days of receiving the report, outlining actions proposed or already taken to tackle the concerns that the coroner has expressed. Similar systems are in operation in Australia and New Zealand. Reports are not, however, uniformly well prepared. Not all recipients respond, and when they do the responses may not be satisfactory. Reports are mainly sent locally and not distributed more widely. Furthermore, recommendations are often not regarded as being sound or practicable or likely to be effective in preventing deaths and injuries. Possible improvements include enhancing the ways in which coroners’ reports are produced and made available, ensuring that responses are forthcoming from all those to whom reports are sent, distributing reports more widely, and preparing systematic reviews of collections of similar reports to reinforce the concerns expressed.

/pdf/when-i-use-a-word-preventing-future-deaths-problems-and-2aa4tuyo.pdf

Jeffrey K Aronson

Papers

Evidence based transatlantic orthography

When I use a word . . . . Medical anniversaries in 2023: Théodore de Mayerne

186 Compliance of randomized control trials investigating pharmacological interventions for SARS-CoV-2 with medication adherence reporting standards: a cross sectional analysis

When I use a word . . . . Data—usage and ownership

When I use a word . . . . Preventing future deaths—problems and solutions