Analysis of the Caloric and Macronutrient Content of Meal Options Offered to Children at Popular Restaurant Chains

Background: Previous research suggests that consumption of foods from restaurants is associated with poor dietary quality and adverse health outcomes. There are few studies that examine the nutrient content of children’s meal options offered at both sit-down and fast-food chain restaurants. The main objective was to describe the average energy and nutrient profiles of meal options on children’s menus at chain restaurants in the United States (US) and compare them to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Methods: The sample consisted of 13 sit-down and 16 fast-food restaurants ranked within the top 50 US restaurant chains in 2009 (meal nutrient content was accessed in 2010). There were 421 and 275 meal options listed on children’s menus from sit-down and fast-food restaurants, respectively. Descriptive statistics are presented for calories, fat, saturated fat, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and sodium. Results: In general, nutrient contents of children’s meal options at sit-down and fast-food restaurants were similar. Meal options accounted for large percentages of the recommended daily intakes of calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium and small percentages of the recommended daily intakes of fiber, carbohydrate, and protein for children. More than half of children’s meals at these restaurants exceeded recommendations for fat and saturated fat. Conclusions: Children’s meal options at sit-down and fast-food restaurant chains that complied with the US Dietary Guidelines were limited. The majority of the meal options had fat, saturated fat and sodium contents that exceed recommendations, while providing low amounts of fiber

An Initial Membership Profile of the Financial Therapy Association

The Financial Therapy Association (FTA) was established in 2010 to bring practitioners and researchers together to develop tools and techniques to address emotional, behavioral, relational, cognitive, and economic aspects of financial health. Ultimately, those interested in the new field of financial therapy are most interested in answering the following key questions: Why do people do what they do with money and how can practitioners better help their clients deal with the complexities of the volatile economy that places tremendous stress on individuals and families? Financial therapy is emerging as a unique field that links scholars, practitioners, and mental health professionals in ways that consider these and other important questions. FTA is especially unique because of its diverse and accomplished membership, which includes mental health and financial professionals, educators, and researchers. The purpose of this “Profile” is to highlight how experienced and established professionals from both the mental health and finance domains have joined together to build a new profession, and to provide benchmark information regarding how the practice of financial therapy is occurring in the United States and other countries

What is Financial Therapy? Discovering Mechanisms and Aspects of an Emerging Field

Very little research currently exists specifically on the topic of financial therapy. In this emerging field, it is important to lay the groundwork for future practice and study. The purpose of this study was to answer the question, “What are the mechanisms and aspects of financial therapy?” Using qualitative methods, eighteen members of the Financial Therapy Association were interviewed by members of the research team. The participants included six financial professionals, six mental health professions, and six researchers/educators all engaged in financial therapy. Six categories emerged from the analysis of data, including: (a) integration, (b) complexity, (c) help seeker issues, (d) helper issues, (e) process, and (f) research. The analysis resulted in a conceptual framework and ten theoretical assumptions of financial therapy

A Centre-Stable Manifold for the Focussing Cubic NLS in R1+3R^{1+3}

Consider the focussing cubic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation in $R^3$: $$i\psi_t+\Delta\psi = -|\psi|^2 \psi.$$ It admits special solutions of the form $e^{it\alpha}\phi$, where $\phi$ is a Schwartz function and a positive ($\phi>0$) solution of $$-\Delta \phi + \alpha\phi = \phi^3.$$ The space of all such solutions, together with those obtained from them by rescaling and applying phase and Galilean coordinate changes, called standing waves, is the eight-dimensional manifold that consists of functions of the form $e^{i(v \cdot + \Gamma)} \phi(\cdot - y, \alpha)$. We prove that any solution starting sufficiently close to a standing wave in the $\Sigma = W^{1, 2}(R^3) \cap |x|^{-1}L^2(R^3)$ norm and situated on a certain codimension-one local Lipschitz manifold exists globally in time and converges to a point on the manifold of standing waves. Furthermore, we show that \mc N is invariant under the Hamiltonian flow, locally in time, and is a centre-stable manifold in the sense of Bates, Jones. The proof is based on the modulation method introduced by Soffer and Weinstein for the $L^2$-subcritical case and adapted by Schlag to the $L^2$-supercritical case. An important part of the proof is the Keel-Tao endpoint Strichartz estimate in $R^3$ for the nonselfadjoint Schr\"odinger operator obtained by linearizing around a standing wave solution.Comment: 56 page

Measurement of the Decay Amplitudes of B0 --> J/psi K* and B0s --> J/psi phi Decays

A full angular analysis has been performed for the pseudo-scalar to vector-vector decays, B0 --> J/psi K* and B_s --> J/psi phi, to determine the amplitudes for decays with parity-even longitudinal and transverse polarization and parity-odd transverse polarization. The measurements are based on 190 B0 candidates and 40 B_s candidates collected from a data set corresponding to 89 inverse pb of pbarp collisions at root(s) = 1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. In both decays the decay amplitude for longitudinal polarization dominates and the parity-odd amplitude is found to be small.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Regulation of Coronary Blood Flow

The heart is uniquely responsible for providing its own blood supply through the coronary circulation. Regulation of coronary blood flow is quite complex and, after over 100 years of dedicated research, is understood to be dictated through multiple mechanisms that include extravascular compressive forces (tissue pressure), coronary perfusion pressure, myogenic, local metabolic, endothelial as well as neural and hormonal influences. While each of these determinants can have profound influence over myocardial perfusion, largely through effects on end-effector ion channels, these mechanisms collectively modulate coronary vascular resistance and act to ensure that the myocardial requirements for oxygen and substrates are adequately provided by the coronary circulation. The purpose of this series of Comprehensive Physiology is to highlight current knowledge regarding the physiologic regulation of coronary blood flow, with emphasis on functional anatomy and the interplay between the physical and biological determinants of myocardial oxygen delivery. © 2017 American Physiological Society. Compr Physiol 7:321-382, 2017

IVIG – A cure to severe refractory NAP-1 Clostridium difficile colitis? A case of successful treatment of severe infection, which failed standard therapy including fecal microbiota transplants and fidaxomicin

The mainstay treatment of Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) is antimicrobials with growing support for fecal microbiota transplants. We report the first case of an elderly man with severe refractory NAP-1 pseudomembranous CDI who failed all medical therapy and two fecal transplants with response only seen after administration of intravenous immunoglobulin