Evaluating psychometric properties of the Emotional Eating Scale Adapted for Children and Adolescents (EES-C) in a clinical sample of children seeking treatment for obesity: a case for the unidimensional model.

BackgroundThe Emotional Eating Scale - Adapted for Children and Adolescents (EES-C) assesses children's urge to eat in response to experiences of negative affect. Prior psychometric studies have demonstrated the high reliability, concurrent validity, and test-retest reliability of theoretically defined subconstructs among non-clinical samples of children and adolescents who were primarily healthy weight; however, no psychometric studies exist investigating the EES-C among clinical samples of children with overweight/obesity (OW/OB). Furthermore, studies conducted in different contexts have suggested a discordant number of subconstructs of emotions related to eating. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of the EES-C in a clinical sample of children seeking weight-loss treatment.MethodUsing a hierarchical bi-factor approach, we evaluated the validity of the EES-C to measure a single general construct, a set of two separate correlated subconstructs, or a hierarchical arrangement of two constructs, and determined reliability in a clinical sample of treatment-seeking children with OW/OB aged 8-12 years (N = 147, mean age = 10.4 years.; mean BMI z = 2.0; female = 66%; Hispanic = 32%, White and other = 68%).ResultsComparison of factor-extraction methods suggested a single primary construct underlying EES-C in this clinical sample. The bi-factor indices provided clear evidence that most of the reliable variance in the total score (90.8 for bi-factor model with three grouping factors and 95.2 for bi-factor model with five grouping factors) was attributed to the general construct. After adjusting for relationships with the primary construct, remaining correlations among sets of items did not suggest additional reliable constructs.ConclusionResults suggest that the primary interpretive emphasis of the EES-C among treatment-seeking children with overweight or obesity should be placed on a single general construct, not on the 3- or 5- subconstructs as was previously suggested

Field quality control program for monitoring groundwater chemical status data

W 2012 r., w ramach zadań realizowanych w projekcie „Monitoring stanu chemicznego oraz ocena stanu jednolitych części wód podziemnych w dorzeczach w latach 2012–2014” przeprowadzono monitoring diagnostyczny. W trakcie prac terenowych opróbowano łącznie 1040 punktów pomiarowych sieci monitoringu chemicznego wód podziemnych na terenie całego kraju. Przy tak dużej sieci monitoringowej ważnym zadaniem było przeprowadzenie terenowej kontroli jakości, która polegała na pobraniu próbek kontrolnych. Metodą analizy wariancji ANOVA przy zastosowaniu programu ROBAN oceniono precyzję wyników próbek dublowanych, natomiast próbki zerowe posłużyły do obliczenia praktycznej granicy oznaczalności. Prowadzenie systematycznej kontroli jakości jest ważnym aspektem prac realizowanych w ramach monitoringu chemicznego. Pozwala kontrolować proces pobierania próbek wód podziemnych, a tym samym daje możliwość wykrycia błędów podczas pobierania próbek i odrzucenia błędnych danych.In 2012 surveillance monitoring was conducted, as part of the project Monitoring and assessment of the chemical status of groundwater bodies in the river basins in 2012–2014. During the field work, groundwater samples were taken from 1040 measurement points of groundwater chemical status of monitoring network on the whole territory of Poland. The very important task of monitoring network was conducting of field quality control, which consisted of sampling inspection. The precision of the double sample results was assessed by classical (analysis of variance ANOVA) and robust statistic procedure by mean of the ROBAN softwer. The blank samples were used to calculate the practical limit of quantification. Systematic quality controling is an important aspect of the work carried out in the framework of the chemical monitoring. It enable to control of the groundwater sampling process, and gives possibility of detection errors in sampling and rejection of invalid data

Mycological monitoring of selected aquatic ecosystems in the context of epidemiological hazards. Drinking water

Many species of microfungi are reported in aquatic ecosystems with different frequency. Their number constantly fluctuates depending on the concentration of environmental and anthropogenic factors. Drinking water, tap and bottled, is essential for the proper functioning of the human body. It is also the main component of food and hence it should be safe for human health and free of contaminants. The mycological purity of tap water in two large cities in the region (Olsztyn and Ostrołęka) and a small village (Gągławki) as well as bottled, medium-mineralized and curative water stored under different conditions were tested. The laboratory investigations followed a pathway applied in diagnostic mycological laboratories. The conducted tests demonstrated that microfungi were found in tap water originating from the cities and in bottled water. The rural water supply system was free from contaminations. Eighteen species of microfungi were identified in tap water from Olsztyn and 9 species in tap water from Ostrołęka. In bottled water, 13 fungal species were detected. Exophiala spinifera and Debaryomyces hansenii were recorded in the water supply systems of both cities, while one common species, i.e. Aspergillus fumigatus, was identified in tap water from Ostrołęka and in bottled water. The conducted studies have significant practical implications, for instance in sanitary and epidemiological water evaluation and in medicine in the context of analysing the quality of drinking water in reference to health resorts and nosocomial infections

Examination of the interpersonal model of loss of control eating in the laboratory

Background: The interpersonal model of loss of control (LOC) eating proposes that interpersonal problems lead to negative affect, which in turn contributes to the onset and/or persistence of LOC eating. Despite preliminary support, there are no data examining the construct validity of the interpersonal model of LOC eating using temporally sensitive reports of social stress, distinct negative affective states, and laboratory energy intake. Method: 117 healthy adolescent girls (BMI: 75th–97th %ile) were recruited for a prevention trial targeting excess weight gain in adolescent girls who reported LOC eating. Prior to the intervention, participants completed questionnaires of recent social stress and consumed lunch from a multi-item laboratory test meal. Immediately before the test meal, participants completed a questionnaire of five negative affective states (anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, anxiety). Bootstrapping mediation models were conducted to evaluate pre-meal negative affect states as explanatory mediators of the association between recent social stress and palatable (desserts and snack-type) food intake. All analyses adjusted for age, race, pubertal stage, height, fat mass percentage, and lean mass. Results: Pre-meal state anxiety was a significant mediator for recent social stress and palatable food intake (ps \u3c .05). By contrast, pre-meal state anger, confusion, depression, and fatigue did not mediate the relationship between social stress and palatable food intake (ps \u3e .05). Discussion: Pre-meal anxiety appears to be the salient mood state for the interpersonal model among adolescent girls with LOC eating. Interventions that focus on improving both social functioning and anxiety may prove most effective at preventing and/or ameliorating disordered eating and obesity in these adolescents

Medical applications of model based dynamic thermography

The proposal to use active thermography in medical diagnostics is promising in some applications concerning investigation of directly accessible parts of the human body. The combination of dynamic thermograms with thermal models of investigated structures gives attractive possibility to make internal structure reconstruction basing on different thermal properties of biological tissues. Measurements of temperature distribution synchronized with external light excitation allow registration of dynamic changes of local temperature dependent on heat exchange conditions. Preliminary results of active thermography applications in medicine are discussed. For skin and under- skin tissues an equivalent thermal model may be determined. For the assumed model its effective parameters may be reconstructed basing on the results of transient thermal processes. For known thermal diffusivity and conductivity of specific tissues the local thickness of a two or three layer structure may be calculated. Results of some medical cases as well as reference data of in vivo study on animals are presented. The method was also applied to evaluate the state of the human heart during the open chest cardio-surgical interventions. Reference studies of evoked heart infarct in pigs are referred, too. We see the proposed new in medical applications technique as a promising diagnostic tool. It is a fully non-invasive, clean, handy, fast and affordable method giving not only qualitative view of investigated surfaces but also an objective quantitative measurement result, accurate enough for many applications including fast screening of affected tissues