The development and validation of measures to assess cooking skills and food skills

BACKGROUND: With the increase use of convenience food and eating outside the home environment being linked to the obesity epidemic, the need to assess and monitor individuals cooking and food skills is key to help intervene where necessary to promote the usage of these skills. Therefore, this research aimed to develop and validate a measure for cooking skills and one for food skills, that are clearly described, relatable, user-friendly, suitable for different types of studies, and applicable across all sociodemographic levels. METHODS: Two measures were developed in light of the literature and expert opinion and piloted for clarity and ease of use. Following this, four studies were undertaken across different cohorts (including a sample of students, both 'Food preparation novices' and 'Experienced food preparers', and a nationally representative sample) to assess temporal stability, psychometrics, internal consistency reliability and construct validity of both measures. Analysis included T-tests, Pearson's correlations, factor analysis, and Cronbach's alphas, with a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: Both measures were found to have a significant level of temporal stability (P < 0.001). Factor analysis revealed three factors with eigenvalues over 1, with two items in a third factor outside the two suggested measures. The internal consistency reliability for the cooking skills confidence measure ranged from 0.78 to 0.93 across all cohorts. The food skills confidence measure's Cronbach's alpha's ranged from 0.85 to 0.94. The two measures also showed a high discriminate validity as there were significant differences (P < 0.05 for cooking skills confidence and P < 0.01 for food skills confidence) between Food preparation novices' and 'Experienced food preparers.' CONCLUSIONS: The cooking skills confidence measure and the food skills confidence measure have been shown to have a very satisfactory reliability, validity and are consistent over time. Their user-friendly applicability make both measures highly suitable for large scale cross-sectional, longitudinal and intervention studies to assess or monitor cooking and food skills levels and confidence

Understanding communication networks in the emergency department

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Emergency departments (EDs) are high pressure health care settings involving complex interactions between staff members in providing and organising patient care. Without good communication and cooperation amongst members of the ED team, quality of care is at risk. This study examined the problem-solving, medication advice-seeking and socialising networks of staff working in an Australian hospital ED.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A social network survey (Response Rate = 94%) was administered to all ED staff (n = 109) including doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, administrative staff and ward assistants. Analysis of the network characteristics was carried out by applying measures of density (the extent participants are concentrated), connectedness (how related they are), isolates (how segregated), degree centrality (who has most connections measured in two ways, in-degree, the number of ties directed to an individual and out-degree, the number of ties directed from an individual), betweenness centrality (who is important or powerful), degree of separation (how many ties lie between people) and reciprocity (how bi-directional are interactions).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In all three networks, individuals were more closely connected to colleagues from within their respective professional groups. The problem-solving network was the most densely connected network, followed by the medication advice network, and the loosely connected socialising network. ED staff relied on each other for help to solve work-related problems, but some senior doctors, some junior doctors and a senior nurse were important sources of medication advice for their ED colleagues.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Network analyses provide useful ways to assess social structures in clinical settings by allowing us to understand how ED staff relate within their social and professional structures. This can provide insights of potential benefit to ED staff, their leaders, policymakers and researchers.</p

General practitioners apply the usual care for shoulder complaints better than expected – analysis of videotaped consultations

BACKGROUND: The education and activation program (EAP) is a newly developed intervention to prevent the development of chronic shoulder complaints (SCs). Trained general practitioners (GPs) administer the EAP. The EAP addresses inadequate cognitions and maladaptive behavior related to the SCs. The effect of the EAP is evaluated in a randomized clinical trial. The aim of the present study is to use videotaped consultations to study (1) the performance of trained GPs administering the EAP and (2) the presence of key features of the EAP already embedded in usual care (UC). METHODS: Five trained GPs were videotaped while treating a standardized patient with EAP. Additionally, five GPs administering UC were videotaped. Two blinded observers evaluated the videotapes in relation to key features of the EAP which were scored on the EAP checklist. RESULTS: The mean total score on the EAP checklist was 4.7 (SD = 2.9) for the UC group and 7.1 (SD = 2.1) for the EAP group. Neither group reached a score higher than 8, which was considered to reflect an acceptable number of key EAP features. CONCLUSION: Our comparison of the presence of key features of EAP shows that the UC and EAP groups differed less than was expected. GPs in the UC group performed above expectation, with a mean total score of 4.7. Moreover, the low number of key features present in the EAP group may very well have led to a reduced effectiveness of the EAP. The results of this study can be used to optimize the training of GPs using the EAP

Genetic variation in five genes important in telomere biology and risk for breast cancer

Telomeres, consisting of TTAGGG nucleotide repeats and a protein complex at chromosome ends, are critical for maintaining chromosomal stability. Genomic instability, following telomere crisis, may contribute to breast cancer pathogenesis. Many genes critical in telomere biology have limited nucleotide diversity, thus, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in this pathway could contribute to breast cancer risk. In a population-based study of 1995 breast cancer cases and 2296 controls from Poland, 24 SNPs representing common variation in POT1, TEP1, TERF1, TERF2 and TERT were genotyped. We did not identify any significant associations between individual SNPs or haplotypes and breast cancer risk; however, data suggested that three correlated SNPs in TERT (−1381C>T, −244C>T, and Ex2-659G>A) may be associated with reduced risk of breast cancer among individuals with a family history of breast cancer (odds ratios 0.73, 0.66, and 0.57, 95% confidence intervals 0.53–1.00, 0.46–0.95 and 0.39–0.84, respectively). In conclusion, our data do not support substantial overall associations between SNPs in telomere pathway genes and breast cancer risk. Intriguing associations with variants in TERT among women with a family history of breast cancer warrant follow-up in independent studies

The Comparative Osteology of the Petrotympanic Complex (Ear Region) of Extant Baleen Whales (Cetacea: Mysticeti)

Anatomical comparisons of the ear region of baleen whales (Mysticeti) are provided through detailed osteological descriptions and high-resolution photographs of the petrotympanic complex (tympanic bulla and petrosal bone) of all extant species of mysticete cetaceans. Salient morphological features are illustrated and identified, including overall shape of the bulla, size of the conical process of the bulla, morphology of the promontorium, and the size and shape of the anterior process of the petrosal. We place our comparative osteological observations into a phylogenetic context in order to initiate an exploration into petrotympanic evolution within Mysticeti.The morphology of the petrotympanic complex is diagnostic for individual species of baleen whale (e.g., sigmoid and conical processes positioned at midline of bulla in Balaenoptera musculus; confluence of fenestra cochleae and perilymphatic foramen in Eschrichtius robustus), and several mysticete clades are united by derived characteristics. Balaenids and neobalaenids share derived features of the bulla, such as a rhomboid shape and a reduced anterior lobe (swelling) in ventral aspect, and eschrichtiids share derived morphologies of the petrosal with balaenopterids, including loss of a medial promontory groove and dorsomedial elongation of the promontorium. Monophyly of Balaenoidea (Balaenidae and Neobalaenidae) and Balaenopteroidea (Balaenopteridae and Eschrichtiidae) was recovered in phylogenetic analyses utilizing data exclusively from the petrotympanic complex.This study fills a major gap in our knowledge of the complex structures of the mysticete petrotympanic complex, which is an important anatomical region for the interpretation of the evolutionary history of mammals. In addition, we introduce a novel body of phylogenetically informative characters from the ear region of mysticetes. Our detailed anatomical descriptions, illustrations, and comparisons provide valuable data for current and future studies on the phylogenetic relationships, evolution, and auditory physiology of mysticetes and other cetaceans throughout Earth's history

Cell Proliferation in the Presence of Telomerase

BACKGROUND: Telomerase, which is active early in development and later in stem and germline cells, is also active in the majority of human cancers. One of the known functions of telomerase is to extend the ends of linear chromosomes, countering their gradual shortening at each cell division due to the end replication problem and postreplication processing. Telomerase concentration levels vary between different cell types as well as between different tumors. In addition variable telomerase concentrations will exist in different cells in the same tumor when telomerase inhibitors are used, because of limitations of drug delivery in tissue. Telomerase extends short telomeres more frequently than long telomeres and the relation between the extension frequency and the telomere length is nonlinear. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, the biological data of the nonlinear telomerase-telomere dynamics is incorporated in a mathematical theory to relate the proliferative potential of a cell to the telomerase concentration in that cell. The main result of the paper is that the proliferative capacity of a cell grows exponentially with the telomerase concentration. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The theory presented here suggests that long term telomerase inhibition in every cancer progenitor or cancer stem cell is needed for successful telomere targeted cancer treatment. This theory also can be used to plan and assess the results of clinical trials targeting telomerase

Tectonic Reconstructions of the Southernmost Andes and the Scotia Sea During the Opening of the Drake Passage

Study of the tectonic development of the Scotia Sea region started with basic lithological and structural studies of outcrop geology in Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Peninsula. To nineteenth- and early twentieth-century geologists, the results of these studies suggested the presence of a submerged orocline running around the margins of the Scotia Sea. Subsequent increases in detailed knowledge about the fragmentary outcrop geology from islands distributed around the margins of the Scotia Sea, and later their interpretation in the light of the plate tectonic paradigm led to large modifications in the hypothesis such that by the present day the concept of oroclinal bending in the region persists only in vestigial form. Of the early comparative lithostratigraphic work in the region, only the likenesses between Jurassic–Cretaceous basin floor and fill sequences in South Georgia and Tierra del Fuego are regarded as strong enough to be useful in plate kinematic reconstruction by permitting the interpretation of those regions’ contiguity in mid-Mesozoic times. Marine and satellite geophysical data sets reveal features of the remaining, submerged, 98 % of the Scotia Sea region between the outcrops. These data enable a more detailed and quantitative approach to the region’s plate kinematics. In contrast to long-used interpretations of the outcrop geology, these data do not prescribe the proximity of South Georgia to Tierra del Fuego in any past period. It is, however, possible to reinterpret the geology of those two regions in terms of the plate kinematic history that the seafloor has preserved