Over nutrition, Obesity and Inflammation

Over nutrition, Obesity and Inflammation HSN301 DIET AND DISEASE ASSIGNMENT 2. Assignment Requirements Students are asked to construct a mock-research article using the methods and results provided on D2L. This is an extremely challenging yet very rewarding assignment. An extensive description of the assignment criteria plus a wealth of resources are available on D2L. My advice would be – get started. Put pen-to-paper/fingers-to-keyboard and write something….anything. Getting momentum is difficult. You might begin by writing a general description of the overall article or you could write a few sentences about each of the major characters (e.g. fructans and biomarkers). Write as if you were talking to someone – you can polish it up later. The important thing is – getting started. The following information describes the major requirements of each section. Use this in conjunction with the other support materials provided to get the most out of this assignment. A: TITLE: Do not exceed two lines – 100 characters including spaces (The penalty for exceeding this limit = 1% of total mark for every 10% or part thereof word excess) Titles should include sufficient detail for indexing purposes (on databases such as PubMed) but be general enough for readers outside the field to appreciate what the paper is about. C: ABSTRACT Please provide an abstract of 250 words. (The penalty for exceeding this limit = 1% of total mark for every 10% or part thereof word excess) Typically an abstract provides one or two lines regarding the importance and context of the current work, a brief description of the methods, major findings and a conclusion. This is often difficult to fit into such a brief number of words. You can however, assume a large amount of previous knowledge in terms of background and methodology on behalf of the reader. This allows you to focus more on what new information the current article is presenting. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references. You may use subheadings in your abstract if you like. I prefer these as a reader because it helps me organize what I am reading in my own mind. METHODS: The methods section is primarily used by me to put the assignment into the right context (i.e. being a proper research article). I DO NOT require you to research the validity of the actual techniques used to measure biomarker concentrations! There is however, a slight issue with what is being measured as part of this study compared to the apparent focus of the research question. This issue is with the STUDY DESIGN. Some students may identify this issue and others won’t. Identifying this is NOT a major focus of this assignment so don’t stress if you can’t see it. Adequate coverage of the major points described in the Discussion section below is the primary focus for marking this assignment. HSN301 DIET AND DISEASE ASSIGNMENT 2 CRITERIA RESULTS: Whether or not the biomarkers being measured improved/did-not-improve following the intervention can actually be summed up in one or two sentences (done in the Discussion section). The results section is an important one to consider as it provides you with a list and the structure of what you need to focus on within your discussion. If something is worth spending time and money researching then it is certainly worth talking about in the associated research article. D: DISCUSSION 1200 words maximum. (The penalty for exceeding this limit = 1% of total mark for every 10% or part thereof excess) Your discussion needs to be succinct providing a critique of work undertaken within the current article, highlighting it’s major findings, the importance of the results in terms of the dietary intervention, through what mechanism this may work and how this information adds to the common body of knowledge (i.e. why should other researchers and the general population care). Also suggest future research directions following on from this work. This discussion will take the form of those found in “brief communication” type articles i.e. the background information that you would normally find in an introduction section is instead combined with your discussion of the results. This format does allow for a shorter article but presents challenges in deciding what background information to include and what results to discuss (and the number of words given to each). The following are some tips on structuring your discussion section: 1. You need to provide enough information for a reader to ensure they can understand the nature and importance of your results. Make a list of the major items investigated in your work. They may include the following: a. fructans b. Obesity c. Inflammation d. The biomarkers of metabolic pathologies (as listed in table 1) Research articles are typically written about experiments that have only one or two questions that need to be answered. Answering the question is the “aim” of a research topic. Part of this assignment is working out what the research question was. You will need to look at the experiments and the results and then decide what the main question(s) was. You should focus mostly on the results rather than the methods. The results follow a logical progression through a dietary intervention trial. What do you think the research question for this particular article was? The aim of this work was to investigate… Writing the aim and hypothesis (what you believe the outcome will be) is an excellent place to start as it helps focus your attention on the important components of the research. HSN301 DIET AND DISEASE ASSIGNMENT 2 CRITERIA When it comes to deciding the structure of each section, including the discussion, I like to remember the phrase “walk the reader through the article”. Keep everything in the same order throughout – the results are written in the same order as the methods and the discussion should normally follow this as well right down to when/where you mention each biomarker listed in table 1. A suggested structure for your writing which follows the overall theme and structure of the article is: • Define/describe the major aspects of inflammation • How is inflammation affected by obesity • What is insulin resistance and how is it different from diabetes. How does obesity, linked with inflammation, help drive these pathologies? • What is the intervention and why would a researcher think it might help with the above problems (requires a review of the literature). • Did the intervention work? Why were these particular biomarkers measured? What does each biomarker tell us about the pathologies listed above? E: CONCLUSIONS 100 words maximum. (The penalty for exceeding this limit = 1% of total mark for every 10% or part thereof excess) A final conclusion is different from that presented in the abstract. It should be a touch more wordy and is really your final say regarding the importance of the major outcome(s) of this work and how this information can be used for the common good (e.g. as therapeutic aid to a particular pathology). Don’t however overstate your achievements for example by claiming you have cured cancer (unless you have indeed done this). A conclusion should never present ideas or results that have not been described previously within the article. F: REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY IT IS STRONGLY SUGGESTED THAT YOU USE THIS ASSIGNMENT TO PRACTICE USING A REFERENCING SOFTWARE PACKAGE SUCH AS ENDNOTE. A very handy online course for using endnote is provided by the library and is available on your D2L website. The last thing authors generally do when writing an article is format the references. Also, most students leave assignments until the last minute. This means you will be looking for stray commas, full stops and “ghost” references (references from slabs of text you deleted but forgot to take out of the bibliography) at 11.55 pm on the due date - I suspect submitting at 5PM then sleeping would be much more enjoyable. Let the referencing software do the work for you!!!! Deakin Library has an excellent online help and training site for endnote. You can find the link to this on D2L. The referencing and bibliographical format can also be found using the instructions to authors from the NATURE JOURNAL HSN301 DIET AND DISEASE ASSIGNMENT 2 CRITERIA NOTE: This is the format listed within EndNote. G: RESEARCH TRANSLATION 450 words maximum. (The penalty for exceeding this limit = 1% of total mark for every 10% or part thereof excess) A very important part of scientific research (particularly health-based research) is to promote your work and your professional opinions to the general public and/or government bodies. After all - the reason we are interested in this field is to improve the health of the population and so that information needs to get out there. You will notice in the general media there are constant announcements about research into health issues. These announcements typically come from the public relations (PR) departments of research institutes, universities and professional bodies, such as the Australian Medical Association, and help promote your group. SCENARIO: You have been asked to write your exciting results up as a brief (450 words maximum) report to be used as a press release by the PR officer of your research institute. The article will be made available to the general public as well as policy makers within government. You need to keep the language simple without losing the impact of your findings or, on the flip-side, without over-stating your findings. There are a number of excellent articles to be found on how to write a Plain English statement within the HSN301 D2L assignment 2 support documents.