The Impact of Different Antibiotic Regimens on the Emergence of Antimicrobial-Resistant Bacteria

Backgroud: The emergence and ongoing spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria is a major public health threat. Infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria are associated with substantially higher rates of morbidity and mortality compared to infections caused by antimicrobial-susceptible bacteria. The emergence and spread of these bacteria is complex and requires incorporating numerous interrelated factors which clinical studies cannot adequately address. Methods/Principal Findings: A model is created which incorporates several key factors contributing to the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria including the effects of the immune system, acquisition of resistance genes and antimicrobial exposure. The model identifies key strategies which would limit the emergence of antimicrobial-resistant bacterial strains. Specifically, the simulations show that early initiation of antimicrobial therapy and combination therapy with two antibiotics prevents the emergence of resistant bacteria, whereas shorter courses of therapy and sequential administration of antibiotics promote the emergence of resistant strains. Conclusions/Significance: The principal findings suggest that (i) shorter lengths of antibiotic therapy and early interruption of antibiotic therapy provide an advantage for the resistant strains, (ii) combination therapy with two antibiotics prevents the emergence of resistance strains in contrast to sequential antibiotic therapy, and (iii) early initiation of antibiotics is among the most important factors preventing the emergence of resistant strains. These findings provide new insights into strategies aimed at optimizing the administration of antimicrobials for the treatment of infections and the prevention of the emergence of antimicrobial resistance

ISSN exercise & sport nutrition review: research & recommendations

Sports nutrition is a constantly evolving field with hundreds of research papers published annually. For this reason, keeping up to date with the literature is often difficult. This paper is a five year update of the sports nutrition review article published as the lead paper to launch the JISSN in 2004 and presents a well-referenced overview of the current state of the science related to how to optimize training and athletic performance through nutrition. More specifically, this paper provides an overview of: 1.) The definitional category of ergogenic aids and dietary supplements; 2.) How dietary supplements are legally regulated; 3.) How to evaluate the scientific merit of nutritional supplements; 4.) General nutritional strategies to optimize performance and enhance recovery; and, 5.) An overview of our current understanding of the ergogenic value of nutrition and dietary supplementation in regards to weight gain, weight loss, and performance enhancement. Our hope is that ISSN members and individuals interested in sports nutrition find this review useful in their daily practice and consultation with their clients

Asymptotic behavior of solutions to a class of diffusive predator-prey systems

[[abstract]]We study the large time behavior of a class of diffusive predator–prey systems posed on the whole Euclidean space. By studying a family of similar problems with all possible spatial translations, we first prove the asymptotic persistence of the prey for the spatially heterogeneous case under certain assumptions on the coefficients. Then, applying this persistence theorem, we prove the convergence of the solution to the unique positive equilibrium for the spatially homogeneous case, under certain restrictions on the space dimension and the predation coefficient.[[notice]]補正完

Age-Structured Models

In this chapter we apply the results obtained in the previous chapters to age-structured models. In Section 8.1, a Hopf bifurcation theorem is established for the general age-structured systems. Section 8.2 deals with a susceptible-infectious epidemic model with age of infection, uniform persistence of the model is established, local and global stability of the disease-free equilibrium is studied by spectral analysis, and global stability of the unique endemic equilibrium is discussed by constructing a Liapunov functional. Section 8.3 focuses on a scalar age-structured model, detailed results on the existence of integrated solutions, local stability of equilibria, Hopf bifurcation, and normal forms are presented