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OBJECTIVE: To assess whether dog bites requiring hospital admission occur more at the full moon. DESIGN: Review of dates of admission for dog bites to accident and emergency departments, June 1997 to June 1998, compared with dates of the full moon. SETTING: All public hospitals in Australia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Admissions for dog bites. RESULTS: 12 peak clusters of admissions were unrelated to the time of the full moon. CONCLUSION: Dog bites are no more frequent on full moons than at any other time of the month. Sceptics rejoice.

Objective/Introduction. Lengthy surveys have the potential to burden users and can lead to inaccuracies. Conducting analyses to shorten existing validated surveys is beneficial. The objective, therefore, was to shorten the Pittsburgh Quality Sleep Index (PSQI) for young adults. Methods. PSQI data from 1246 college students were used. An exploratory factor analysis (FA) was utilized to shorten survey after dropping select items. Nonparametric correlation analysis (Spearman’s rho) was conducted between the global sleep scores of the shortened and original surveys. Agreements tests (Kappa and McNemar’s test) measured the agreement of the surveys and sensitivity and specificity were evaluated. Results. Six factors were examined using maximum likelihood factoring method, applying squared multiple correlations with Promax rotation to allow for correlated variables. FA with six factors explained 100% of shared variance based on eigenvalues and accounted for 61% of variability based on variables. The FA resulted in 13 selected questions (“shortPSQI”), corresponding to 5 of the 7 components of the original survey. High correlation was found between the global scores of the original survey and the “shortPSQI” (rho = 0.94, p<0.001). When the global score was converted to the categorical variable of good or poor sleepers, the agreement test indicated strong agreement (Kappa 0.83, 95% CI 0.79–0.86, p<0.0001). Conclusion. The validated, 19-item PSQI survey was shortened to 13 items. Tests of correlation and agreement indicate the “shortPSQI” may be an acceptable alternative to the original survey for young adults. Clinical Trial Registration. Data for this study was taken from the Get Fruved study, registered on October 21, 2016, on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02941497).

It has previously been observed that with methohexitone and propanidid the incidence and severity of induction side effects increases with increase in dosage. A mixture containing methohexitone 10 mg and propanidid 25 mg per ml was used as main anaesthetic agent with nitrous oxide-oxygen for a standard operative procedure in adult females. It was anticipated that the mixture would be followed by fewer side effects than comparable doses of propanidid and methohexitone alone. This hope was fulfilled and it proved to be a satisfactory induction agent. Dosage studies showed that there was some loss of potency, which is more likely to have affected the propanidid component in view of the pH of the mixture (10.15). It became more acid on storage over six weeks and there was further detectable loss of potency. It is recommended that methohexitone-propanidid mixtures should only be used when freshly prepared.

A study was made of the effects of mixing thiopentone and mediohexitone with blood in the proportions likely to occur in accidental intra-arterial injection of die barbiturates. In addition to crystal formation, which had been previously reported, red blood cell haemolysis and platelet aggregation also occurred. Since these all lead to intravascular clotting the damaging effect of intra-arterial injection of barbiturates could be explained on this basis. On the basis of a further study of the crystal-forming properties of the commercially available barbiturates in aqueous solutions at differing dilutions, it was concluded that diis was less likely to occur with low concentrations. Thus the more potent the drug the safer it is with respect to the sequelae of intra-arterial injection because it can be used in a more dilute solution.