718 research outputs found
Cultural Perspectives on the Interactions Between Nutrition, Health, and Psychological Functioning
No full textFood and nutrition occupy the daily thoughts of most people, particularly the 178 million children who are malnourished and have been since their first birthday. While malnutrition is directly and indirectly responsible for one-third of child deaths in developing countries, overweight has been declared the number one health problem in other countries. More food is therefore not necessarily better when talking about health. This reading presents information on the major nutrients important for health and psychological functioning, including energy, protein, vitamin A, zinc, iron, and iodine. It also discusses how cultures differ in their food preferences and their beliefs about the good and ill effects of certain foods. Finally, solutions for tackling the problem of impaired growth and development of children are examined
Health psychology in global perspective
No full text"In Health Psychology in Global Perspective, author Frances E. Aboud examines the health issues facing developing countries and compares them with issues faced by people in developed countries. She uses a psychosocial perspective rather than the biomedical and anthropological perspectives that are usually applied to health issues in developing countries. This volume is unique because it integrates diverse literature from a variety of disciplines, including epidemiology, psychology, education, anthropology, and nursing. Accessible to a broad audience, this volume brings mainstream health psychology concepts to bear on the problems of international health and cross-cultural issues to bear on concepts and theories in mainstream health psychology." "A thought-provoking examination of the state of knowledge about health in developing countries, Health Psychology in Global Perspective is a valuable resource for academies and professionals in health psychology, cross-cultural psychology, clinical psychology, social psychology, anthropology, and public health."--BOOK JACKET
Social capital, corporate governance, and earnings management: cross-country evidence
No full textThis study investigates the impact of social capital on earnings management and the moderating role of corporate governance in shaping that relationship. We explore how the interaction between social capital and other mechanisms, namely culture and formal institutions, affects earnings management, based on the concept that corporate governance can strengthen the impact of social capital on earnings management by reinforcing ethical norms and accountability. Using data from 14 countries, we present evidence that social capital has an effect on earnings management beyond the influence of cultural attributes. Moreover, the impact of social capital is particularly significant in firms with low corporate governance quality. Further analysis shows that the influence of social capital on earnings management is heightened in countries exhibiting low levels of individualism, power distance, and indulgence, and in countries with a code law system, lower ownership concentration, and higher disclosure quality. Our study contributes to the literature by demonstrating, using a cross-country context, that social capital constrains earnings management practices. It also highlights the additional impact of social capital beyond cultural dimensions, emphasizing its distinct role as a norm-enforcing mechanism with sanctions, separate from attributes such as individualism or uncertainty avoidance. Furthermore, the study offers new insights into the interplay between social capital and corporate governance in shaping corporate financial practices
Effect of kinematic viscosity over the dynamic properties of an extra-virgin olive oil
No full textPrevious studies
1,2
have shown that kinematic viscosity values of food oils depend on the presence
of added solvents and on the nature of the oil under investigation (e.g., geographical origin and
treatments prior to oil production). However, to the best of our knowledge, only one paper
3
dealt
with the correlation between viscosity values and relaxation times of simple pure alkyl compounds.
Up to now, no papers have been found in literature dealing with viscosity of complex mixtures and
their relaxometric properties. In this study, we intended to investigate the effect of kinematic
viscosity over the dynamic properties of an extra-virgin olive oil which is known as a very complex
mixture of lipophilic triglycerides (more than 98%) and waxes, and hydrophilic secondary
metabolites (around 2%) such as chlorophyll, salts and sterols. The relaxometric model
2,4
applied
for the analyses of the NMRD profiles of the oil added with increasing amounts of n-hexane, split
the correlation time in two contributions. The first one, modulated by an amplitude indicated as AD,
was assigned to translational motions (D). The second component of the correlation time, also
modulated by an amplitude indicated as AR, was due to the rotational motions (R). Results revealed
that all the relaxometric parameters had a diametric trend. A possible explanation for such a
behavior was found in the aggregative properties of the inverse micelle-like
1
components of the
food oil. In fact, in the absence of n-hexane, all the inverse micelle-like systems, in which
triglycerides are shrink together, aggregate, thereby forming large sized units which are subjected to
very slow rotations but fast translations. Conversely, as the amount of n-hexane was increased,
kinematic viscosity decreased and rotations became preponderant over translations. In fact, n-
hexane has the effect to separate the inverse micelle-like systems and to increase rotational freedom
degrees over the translational ones. This study confirmed the inverse micelle-like nature of food oils
reported in a previous paper
1
Evaluation of HIV testing strategies and monitoring of immune responses in HIV-vaccinated individuals in Tanzania
No full textThis thesis describes studies on the evaluation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and simple rapid HIV assays for use in HIV testing strategies in resource-limited settings and studies of HIV vaccine-induced immune responses. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) preparation techniques were also studied in preparation for use in the HIV vaccine trials.The performance of two antibody ELISAs (Vironostika Uni-Form II plus O and Enzygnost anti-HIV-1/2 Plus) and two new diagnostic HIV antigen/antibody combination ELISAs (Murex and Vironostika HIV Uni-Form II antigen/antibody) was evaluated using 1380 serum samples from Tanzanian individuals (paper I). The sensitivity at initial testing was 100% for all assays except Vironostika Uni-Form II plus O which showed one false negative sample at initial testing but 100% sensitivity after repeat testing. The initial specificity was 99.8% for Enzygnost, 98.9% for each of the antigen/antibody ELISAs and 97.0% for Vironostika Plus O ELISA. An alternative confirmatory HIV testing strategy based on initial testing on any of the two antigen/antibody assays followed by testing of reactive samples on the Enzygnost anti-HIV-1/2 Plus assay gave 100% specificity (95% CI; 99.7-100%).The performance of five simple rapid HIV antibody assays was evaluated using 1433 whole blood samples (paper II). The sensitivity at initial testing of Determine, SD Bioline and Uni-Gold was 100% while First Response and Stat-Pak had a sensitivity of 99.5% and 97.7%, respectively, which increased to 100% on repeat testing. The initial specificity of the Uni-Gold assay was 100% while the specificities were 99.6%, 99.4%, 99.6% and 99.8% for Determine, SD Bioline, First Response and Stat-Pak assays, respectively. An alternative confirmatory HIV testing strategy based on initial testing on SD Bioline followed by testing of reactive samples on the Determine gave 100% sensitivity (95% CI; 99.1-100) and 100% specificity (95% CI; 96-99.1) with Uni-Gold as tiebreaker for discordant results and was adopted as a national algorithm in Tanzania.Standard Ficoll-Paque gradient (FIP) centrifugation, BD vacutainer cell preparation tube (CPT) and Greiner Bio-One LeucoSep tube techniques for PBMC preparation were evaluated (paper III). No differences in mean recovery or mean viability of fresh PBMCs were observed between FIP centrifugation and CPT techniques used in Stockholm. In Dar es Salaam, recovery and viability of PBMCs isolated by FIP technique was higher compared to CPT purified cells. LeucoSep cell separation gave a higher yield and viability than FIP cell separation. The cells purified by the different techniques at the two sites performed equally well in interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) assays.In a phase 1 HIV-1 DNA prime MVA boost vaccine trial in Sweden (HIVIS01/02), HIV-specific lymphoproliferative responses were tested by a [3H]-thymidine uptake assay and a flow-cytometric assay using whole blood (FASCIA-WB) (paper IV). A FASCIA using PBMC (FASCIA-PBMC) was also employed (n=14).Two weeks after the HIV-MVA boost 35 of 38 (92%) vaccinees were reactive by the thymidine uptake assay. Thirty-two of 38 (84%) vaccinees were reactive by the CD4+ T-cell FASCIA-WB, and 7 of 38 (18%) also exhibited CD8+ T-cell responses. There was strong correlation between the proliferative responses measured by the thymidine uptake assay and CD4+ T-cell FASCIA-WB (r=0.68; P In the HIVIS03 phase I/II HIV vaccine trial in Tanzania, sixty HIV-uninfected volunteers randomised to three groups of 20, received DNA plasmid vaccine 1 mg intradermally (id) or 3.8 mg intramuscularly (im) or placebo using a needle-free injection device (paper V). DNA plasmids vectoring HIV-1 genes gp160 subtypes A, B, C; rev B; p17/p24 gag A, B and Rtmut B were given at weeks 0, 4 and 12. Recombinant MVA (10[8] pfu) expressing HIV-1 Env, Gag, Pol of CRF01_AE or placebo was administered im at month 9 and 21. The vaccines were well tolerated. Two weeks after the first HIV-MVA boost 35/35 (100%) vaccinees had IFN-γ ELISpot responses; 35 (100%) to Gag and 31 (89%) to Env. Two to four weeks after the second HIV-MVA boost, 28/29 (97%) vaccinees had IFN-γ responses. The id-primed recipients had significantly higher responses to Env than im recipients after HIV-MVA boost. Intracellular cytokine staining for Gag-specific IFN-γ/IL-2 production showed both CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell responses. All vaccinees had HIV-specific lymphoproliferative responses. All vaccinees reacted in diagnostic HIV serological tests and 26/29 (90%) had antibodies against gp160 after the second HIV-MVA boost. A high neutralizing antibody response rate (31-83% depending on the clade B or AE virus tested) was demonstrated using a PBMC assay. In conclusion, this vaccine approach was safe and highly immunogenic.List of scientific papersI. Aboud S, Urassa W, Lyamuya E, Mhalu F, Biberfeld G. Evaluation of HIV antibody and antigen/antibody combination ELISAs for use in an alternative confirmatory HIV testing strategy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. J Virol Methods. 2006 August; 135(2):192–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2006.03.005 II. Lyamuya EF, Aboud S, Urassa WK, Sufi J, Mbwana J, Ndugulile F, Massambu C. Evaluation of simple rapid HIV assays and development of national rapid HIV test algorithms in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. BMC Infect Dis. 2009 February; 9(1):19. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-9-19 III. Nilsson C, Aboud S, Karlen K, Hejdeman B, Urassa W, Biberfeld G. Optimal blood mononuclear cell isolation procedures for gamma interferon enzyme-linked immunospot testing of healthy Swedish and Tanzanian subjects. Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2008 April; 15(4): 585-589. https://doi.org/10.1128/CVI.00161-07 IV. Aboud S, Nilsson C, Karlen K, Marovich M, Wahren B, Sandstrom E, Gaines H, Biberfeld G, Godoy-Ramirez K. Strong HIV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocyte proliferative responses in healthy individuals immunized with an HIV-1 DNA vaccine and boosted with HIV-1 recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) expressing HIV-1 genes. Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2010 July; 17(7):1124-1131. https://doi.org/10.1128/CVI.00008-10 V. Bakari M, Aboud S, Nilsson C, Francis J, Buma D, Moshiro C, Aris EA, Lyamuya EF, Janabi M, Earl P, Robb M, Marovich M, Wahren B, Pallangyo K, Biberfeld G, Mhalu F, Sandström E, for the HIVIS study group. Broad and potent immune responses to a low dose of intradermal HIV-1 DNA boosted with HIV-1 recombinant MVA among healthy adults in Tanzania. Vaccine. [Accepted] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.08.001 </p
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound: A Satisfactory Noninvasive Procedure for Neck Rejuvenation
No full textBackground: High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is an advanced technology that has been developed in response to the growing demand for noninvasive face rejuvenation. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the rejuvenation effects, patient satisfaction, and safety of HIFU treatment of the neck in a European population. Methods: This was a prospective study of 20 patients. The patients were treated with HIFU, and the outcomes were investigated. The modified FACE-Objective Assessment Scale, developed by our team, and the subjective Investigator Global Improvement Assessment Scale (IGIAS;-1 to 3) were used to judge the results of HIFU. Five blinded evaluators scored the procedure outcomes based on photographs taken before and 6 months after the procedure. Side effects were reported and pain was evaluated on a visual analog scale of 0 to 10. Results: Clinical results, such as better definition of the cervicomental angle, were observed in the treated areas. The pretreatment and posttreatment evaluation scores for double chin and skin laxity were evaluated by 4 of 5 evaluators as significantly improved. The IGIAS score was between 1 and 5 in 2 patients, between 6 and 10 in 7 patients, and between 11 and 15 in 11 patients. No patients had a score between-5 and 0. No major complications were reported. The mean pain scores for the D4, M7, and S7 transducer treatments were 5.6 (range, 4.5-6.7), 4.2 (range, 2.5-5.9), and 2.05 (range, 1.05-3.05), respectively. Conclusions: HIFU may be considered a satisfactory, simple, reproducible, rapid, and safe procedure for neck rejuvenation. Level of Evidence:
sj-pdf-1-avt-10.1177_13596535211073235 – Supplemental Material for Dolutegravir/rilpivirine 2-drug regimen comparable to commonly prescribed 3-drug regimens up to 18-months in a real-world setting
No full textSupplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-avt-10.1177_13596535211073235 for Dolutegravir/rilpivirine 2-drug regimen comparable to commonly prescribed 3-drug regimens up to 18-months in a real-world setting by Gerald Pierone Jr, Jennifer S Fusco, Vani Vannappagari, Laurence Brunet, Rachel P Weber, Michael Aboud, Jean van Wyk, Leigh Ragone, and Gregory P Fusco in Antiviral Therapy</p
Ultramicrosurgery: A new approach to treat primary male genital lymphedema
No full textSummary: Background: Lymphedema is a chronic pathology characterized by progressive swelling due to lymphatic dysfunction (1). Literature contains few studies that focus on male genital lymphedema. A variety of surgical techniques as part of the male genital lymphedema therapeutic strategy has been described. Supramicrosurgical lymphatico-venular anastomosis s-LVA, based on connecting lymphatic collectors to venules, has evidenced efficient outcomes thus far. However, the peculiarity of the genital area may lead to an innovative and even more accurate surgical technique as a treatment of male genital lymphedema: lymphatic pre-collectors located superficially over the fascial layer can be used to perform the ultramicrosurgical anastomosis. Purpose of the study: In this paper, the authors report their experience of this new surgical concept based on anastomosing lymphatic precollectors to venules. Methods: We performed a retrospective study from 2014 to 2016. Six male patients with primary genital lymphedema underwent ultramicrosurgical lymphatico-venular anastomosis in Siena University Hospital, Italy. Results: Ultramicrosurgical lymphatico-venular anastomosis has evidenced positive outcomes in terms of prognosis, infectious complications, volume reduction, and quality of life. The average cellulitis rate dropped from 2.5 episodes a year to 0.5 episodes after surgical intervention. The mean satisfaction index passed from 1.33 before the intervention to 2.83. Conclusion: Ultramicrosurgical lymphatico-venular anastomosis represents a challenging physiological approach for male genital lymphedema with promising outcomes. Keywords: Lymphedema, Genital lymphedema, Lymphatico-venular anastomosis, Primary male lymphedema, Microsurgery, Supramicrosurger
Dynamics of pistachio oils by proton nuclear magnetic resonance relaxtion dispersion
No full textA number of pistachio oils were selected in order to test the efficacy of nuclear
magnetic resonance relaxation dispersion (NMRD) technique in the evaluation of differences among oils obtained from seeds subjected to different thermal
desiccation processes, retrieved from seeds belonging to the same cultivar
grown in different geographical areas and produced by using seed cultivars
sampled in the same geographical region. NMRD measures relaxation rate
values which are related to the dynamics of the chemical components of
complex food systems. Results not only allowed to relate kinematic viscosity to
relaxometry parameters but also were successful in the differentiation among
the aforementioned oils. In fact, from the one hand, the larger the kinematic
viscosity, the faster the rotational motions appeared as compared to the
translational ones. On the other hand, relaxation rate curves (NMRD) varied
according to the oxidative stresses and chemical composition of each sample.
The present study showed for the first time that NMRD is a very promising
technique for quick evaluations of pistachio oil quality without the need for timeconsuming
chemical manipulations
- …
