Childhood Obesity: Do Parents Recognize This Health Risk?

Objective: This study examined parents’ understanding of excess weight as a health risk, knowledge of healthy eating habits, and recognition of obesity in their children. Research Methods and Procedures: An anonymous questionnaire was distributed during well‐care visits involving children 4 to 8 years of age at a pediatric faculty practice. Parents indicated their level of concern about excess weight and other familiar health risks using a four‐point Likert scale, answered multiple‐choice questions concerning healthy eating patterns, and communicated their perceptions about their child's weight using a visual analog scale. A parent's perception was considered “accurate” if it deviated from the child's growth chart percentile by <30 points. Results: Of the 83 parents surveyed, 23% (19/83) had overweight children (≥95th percentile of age‐ and gender‐specific BMI growth charts). These parents did not differ from other parents in their level of concern about excess weight as a health risk or in their knowledge of healthy eating patterns, but the two groups of parents did differ in the accuracy of their perceptions about their children's weight. Only 10.5% of parents of overweight children (2/19) perceived their child's weight accurately compared with 59.4% of other parents (38/64; p < 0.001). Parents of overweight children invariably underestimated their children's weight. The median difference between their perception and the growth chart percentile was ?45 points. Discussion: Given that most parents of overweight children fail to recognize that their child has a weight problem, pediatricians should develop strategies to help these parents correct their misperceptions.     

Biological Clocks: Who in This Place Set Up a Sundial?

How do circadian rhythms, alarm clocks and the light/dark cycle interact? The concept of social jetlag is informing our appreciation of the tensions and consequences of imposing an artificial temporal order upon our biology.     

‘This Is Real Misery’: Experiences of Women Denied Legal Abortion in Tunisia

Barriers to accessing legal abortion services in Tunisia are increasing, despite a liberal abortion law, and women are often denied wanted legal abortion services. In this paper, we seek to explore the reasons for abortion denial and whether these reasons had a legal or medical basis. We also identify barriers women faced in accessing abortion and make recommendations for improved access to quality abortion care. We recruited women immediately after they had been turned away from legal abortion services at two facilities in Tunis, Tunisia. Thirteen women consented to participate in qualitative interviews two months after they were turned away from the facility. Women were denied abortion care on the day they were recruited due to three main reasons: gestational age, health conditions, and logistical barriers. Nine women ultimately terminated their pregnancies at another facility, and four women carried to term. None of the women attempted illegal abortion services or self-induction. Further research is needed in order to assess abortion denial from the perspective of providers and medical staff.     

Does My Step Look Big In This? A Visual Illusion Leads To Safer Stepping Behaviour

Background

Tripping is a common factor in falls and a typical safety strategy to avoid tripping on steps or stairs is to increase foot clearance over the step edge. In the present study we asked whether the perceived height of a step could be increased using a visual illusion and whether this would lead to the adoption of a safer stepping strategy, in terms of greater foot clearance over the step edge. The study also addressed the controversial question of whether motor actions are dissociated from visual perception.

Methodology/Principal Findings

21 young, healthy subjects perceived the step to be higher in a configuration of the horizontal-vertical illusion compared to a reverse configuration (p = 0.01). During a simple stepping task, maximum toe elevation changed by an amount corresponding to the size of the visual illusion (p<0.001). Linear regression analyses showed highly significant associations between perceived step height and maximum toe elevation for all conditions.

Conclusions/Significance

The perceived height of a step can be manipulated using a simple visual illusion, leading to the adoption of a safer stepping strategy in terms of greater foot clearance over a step edge. In addition, the strong link found between perception of a visual illusion and visuomotor action provides additional support to the view that the original, controversial proposal by Goodale and Milner (1992) of two separate and distinct visual streams for perception and visuomotor action should be re-evaluated.     

Scoliosis Related Information on the Internet in China: Can Patients Benefit from This Information?

BackgroundThere has been an increasing popularity of searching health related information online in recent years. Despite that considerable amount of scoliosis patients have shown interest in obtaining scoliosis information through Internet, previous studies have demonstrated poor quality of online information. However, this conclusion may vary depending on region and culture. Since China has a restricted Internet access outside of its borders, the aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of scoliosis information available online using recognized scoring systems and to analyze the Internet as a source of health information in China.MethodsA survey-based questionnaire was distributed to 280 respondents at outpatient clinics. Information on demographics and Internet use was collected. Binary logistic analysis was performed to identify possible predictors for the use of Internet. In addition, the top 60 scoliosis related websites assessed through 4 search engines were reviewed by a surgeon and the quality of online information was evaluated using DISCERN score and JAMA benchmark.ResultsUse of the Internet as a source for scoliosis related information was confirmed in 87.8% of the respondents. College education, Internet access at home and urban residence were identified as potential predictors for Internet use. However, the quality of online scoliosis related information was poor with an average DISCERN score of 27.9±11.7 and may be misleading for scoliosis patients.ConclusionThe study outlines the profile of scoliosis patients who use the Internet as a source of health information. It was shown that 87.8% of the scoliosis patients in outpatient clinics have searched for scoliosis related information on Internet. Urban patients, higher education and Internet access at home were identified as potential predictors for Internet search. However, the overall quality of online scoliosis related information was poor and confusing. Physician based websites seemed to contain more reliable information.     

“This will clear your mind”: The use of metaphors for medication in psychiatric settings

Psychiatric medications are an important part of the interaction between patients and clinicians in psychiatric settings. This article examines metaphors used by patients and clinicians to talk about the effects of antipsychotic medication. Metaphors provide a way to communicate about issues of identity and change involved in giving and taking medication. Although metaphorical language can contribute to misunderstandings between patients and clinicians, metaphor is also a major way in which clinical experiences are given shared meanings.     

Population Bottlenecks and Pathogen Extinction: “Make This Everyone's Mission to Mars,Including Yours”

Kapusinszky et al. (J Virol 89:8152–8161, 2015, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00671-15) report that host population bottlenecks may result in pathogen extinction, which provides a compelling argument for an alternative approach to vaccination for the control of virus spread. By comparing the prevalence levels of three viral pathogens in two populations of African green monkeys (AGMs) (Chlorocebus sabaeus) from Africa and two Caribbean Islands, they convincingly show that a major host bottleneck resulted in the eradication of select pathogens from a given host.     

Is This Car Looking at You? How Anthropomorphism Predicts Fusiform Face Area Activation when Seeing Cars

Anthropomorphism encompasses the attribution of human characteristics to non-living objects. In particular the human tendency to see faces in cars has long been noticed, yet its neural correlates are unknown. We set out to investigate whether the fusiform face area (FFA) is associated with seeing human features in car fronts, or whether, the higher-level theory of mind network (ToM), namely temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) show a link to anthropomorphism. Twenty participants underwent fMRI scanning during a passive car-front viewing task. We extracted brain activity from FFA, TPJ and MPFC. After the fMRI session participants were asked to spontaneously list adjectives that characterize each car front. Five raters judged the degree to which each adjective can be applied as a characteristic of human beings. By means of linear mixed models we found that the implicit tendency to anthropomorphize individual car fronts predicts FFA, but not TPJ or MPFC activity. The results point to an important role of FFA in the phenomenon of ascribing human attributes to non-living objects. Interestingly, brain regions that have been associated with thinking about beliefs and mental states of others (TPJ, MPFC) do not seem to be related to anthropomorphism of car fronts.     

The Nurses’ Well-Being Index and Factors Influencing This Index among Nurses in Central China: A Cross-Sectional Study

Backgrounds/Objectives

A discussion and analysis of factors that contribute to nurses’ happiness index can be useful in developing effective interventions to improve nurses’ enthusiasm, sense of honor and pride and to improve the efficiency and quality of medical services.

Methods

In this study, 206 registered nurses at the 2011 annual encounter for 12 Hanchuan hospitals completed a questionnaire survey that covered three aspects of the well-being index and thus served as a comprehensive well-being and general information tool.

Results

Based on their index score, the nurses’ overall happiness level was moderate. The dimensions of the happiness index are listed in descending order of their contribution to the nurses’ comprehensive happiness levels: health concerns, friendly relationships, self-worth, altruism, vitality, positive emotions, personality development, life satisfaction and negative emotions. Four variables (positive emotion, life satisfaction, negative emotions, and friendly relationships) jointly explained 47.80% of the total variance of the happiness index; positive emotions had the greatest impact on the happiness index.

Conclusions

Appropriate nursing interventions can improve nurses’ happiness index scores, thereby increasing nurses’ motivation and promoting the development of their nursing practice.     

Dealing with Lead in Hybrid Perovskite: A Challenge to Tackle for a Bright Future of This Technology?

Hybrid Perovskite (HP) semiconductors have been skyrocketing the field of new generation photovoltaics and expanding into advanced optoelectronics. Perovskite photovoltaics (PV) can give a tremendous push to the green energy transition, which calls for efficient, low cost, but also environmentally friendly solutions. Halide perovskites present a serious drawback related to the presence of toxic materials, i.e., lead, with its associated health and environment concerns. These concerns severely hamper their commercialization. So far, only a few viable alternatives to Pb have been found, which lag behind in terms of power conversion efficiency. Here, a forward‐looking perspective is developed presenting different potential strategies to overcome the environmental and health issues related to the use and release of lead for operative HP solar cells. The possible lead‐leakage paths and related “remediation” tools are reviewed, and possible strategies are collated with a view to beginning a new era of lead containing HP devices. Finally, through a comparison with existing lead‐based technology, a comparative study is presented to provide the tools that are essential for a real evaluation of the impact of lead content on HP commercialization.     

Chemical Composition of Hypericum rumeliacum Boiss. Essential Oil. A New Chemotype of This Pharmacologically Valuable Species?

Analysis by GC and GC/MS of the essential‐oil samples obtained from dry above‐ground parts of Hypericum rumeliacum Boiss . (collected in the flowering and fruit‐forming vegetative stages) allowed the identification of 212 components in total, comprising ≥97.8% of the total oil composition. In the flowering phase, the major identified volatile compounds were undecane (6.6%), dodecanal (10.8%), and germacrene D (14.1%), whereas α‐pinene (7.3%), β‐pinene (26.1%), (Z)‐β‐ocimene (8.5%), (E)‐β‐ocimene (10.2%), bicyclogermacrene (7.7%), and germacrene D (15.1%) were dominant in the fruit‐forming phase. Some of the minor constituents found in the studied oil samples (e.g., a homologous series of four 6‐alkyl‐5,6‐dihydro‐2H‐pyran‐2‐ones, i.e., massoia dodeca‐, trideca‐, tetradeca‐, and hexadecalactones) have a restricted occurrence in the Plant Kingdom, and their presence in Hypericum L. spp. has not been previously reported. The chemical compositions of the herein studied additional 34 oils obtained from selected Hypericum taxa were compared using multivariate statistical analysis (agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis). The results of these statistical analyses could not be used to either confirm or discard the existence of different H. rumeliacum chemotypes. However, they have implied that the volatile profile of this plant species is determined by the stage of its phenological development.