Leptin, acylcarnitine metabolites and development of adiposity in the Rhea mother-child cohort in Crete, Greece.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate relations of serum leptin at age 4 with development of adiposity and linear growth during 3 years of follow-up among 75 Greek children and to identify serum metabolites associated with leptin at age 4 and to characterize their associations with adiposity gain and linear growth. METHODS: Linear regression models that accounted for maternal age, education and gestational weight gain and child's age and sex were used to examine associations of leptin and leptin-associated metabolites measured at age 4 with indicators of adiposity and linear growth at age 7. RESULTS: Each 1-unit increment in natural log-(ln)-transformed leptin corresponded with 0.33 (95% CI: 0.10, 0.55) units greater body mass index-for-age z-score gain during follow-up. Likewise, higher levels of the leptin-associated metabolites methylmalonyl-carnitine and glutaconyl-carnitine corresponded with 0.14 (95% CI: 0.01, 0.27) and 0.07 (95% CI: -0.01, 0.16) units higher body mass index-for-age z-score gain, respectively. These relationships did not differ by sex or baseline weight status and were independent of linear growth. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that leptin, methylmalonyl-carnitine and possibly glutaconyl-carnitine are associated with weight gain during early childhood. Future studies are warranted to confirm these findings in other populations

Intratumoral CRH modulates immuno-escape of ovarian cancer cells through FasL regulation

Although corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and Fas ligand (FasL) have been documented in ovarian carcinoma, a clear association with tumour progression and immuno-escape has not been established. FasL plays an important role in promoting tumour cells' ability to counterattack immune cells. Here, we examined immunohistochemically the expression of CRH, CRHR1, CRHR2 and FasL in 47 human ovarian cancer cases. The ovarian cancer cell lines OvCa3 and A2780 were further used to test the hypothesis that CRH might contribute to the immune privilege of ovarian tumours, by modulating FasL expression on the cancer cells. We found that CRH, CRHR1, CRHR2 and FasL were expressed in 68.1, 70.2, 63.8 and 63.8% of the cases respectively. Positivity for CRH or FasL expression was associated with higher tumour stage. Finally, CRH increased the expression of FasL in OvCa3 and A2780 cells through CRHR1 thereby potentiated their ability to induce apoptosis of activated peripheral blood lymphocytes. Corticotropin-releasing hormone produced by human ovarian cancer might favour survival and progression of the tumour by promoting its immune privilege. These findings support the hypothesis that CRHR1 antagonists could potentially be used against ovarian cancer

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Participation motives in physical education: An expectancy-value approach

This study applied an expectancy-value approach in examining participation motives of students in physical education. As predicted outcome expectancy, a variable formed by the combination of outcome value and outcome likelihood correlated significantly higher with motivational indices than these two factors

Teaching mathematics with selfregulation and for self-regulation: Teachers' reports

The aim of this study was to investigate whether elementary school teachers' reported use of self-regulatory instructional strategies regarding mathematics corresponds to the different aspects of the construct of self-regulatory teaching described in literature. Two hundred and ninety two Greek teachers responded to two questionnaires assessing: (a) the strategies they use themselves to plan, monitor, and evaluate mathematics instruction, i.e., teaching with self-regulation, and (b) the strategies they use to activate and enhance students' self-regulated learning in mathematics, i.e., teaching for self-regulation. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that teachers' reported use of self-regulatory teaching is explained by factors of various levels of generality. Teaching with and teaching for self-regulation emerged as distinct conceptual factors. In addition, the cyclic model of self-regulation (Zimmerman, 2000) was confirmed regarding promotion of students' self-regulated learning in mathematics (i.e., strategies enacted before, during, and after learning) but not regarding teachers' self-regulatory instruction. Associations between teachers' gender, teaching experience, and age, and their reported self-regulatory strategy use were also investigated. Gender differences in favour of women teachers were found with regard to the use of strategies for planning learning and instruction. The results are discussed within the frame of teachers' professional growth and students' improvement of mathematics learning

The effects of instructional and motivational self-talk on students' motor task performance in physical education

Objective: The aim of the study was to examine the effects of instructional and motivational self-talk on students' motor task performance in a chest pass and a modified push-ups test in physical education. Design: The design involved one between-groups factor, the group with three levels (instructional, motivational, no self-talk), and two within-groups factors, the task (chest pass, modified push-ups) and the time (pre-test, post-test). Method: Participants were 54 fifth and sixth grade students who were randomly assigned to two experimental groups (instructional self-talk, motivational self-talk) and one control group. Students were pre-tested in a chest pass and in a modified push-ups test, were instructed to use the respective self-talk type and were post-tested in the two tests. Results: Results showed that both self-talk groups surpassed control group in both tasks. Instructional and motivational self-talk were equally effective in the chest pass test, but motivational self-talk was more effective compared to instructional self-talk in the modified push-ups test. Conclusions: Self-talk was an effective technique for motor task performance enhancement in physical education. These results were discussed with reference to the task-demand-oriented matching hypothesis. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Self-regulatory teaching in mathematics: relations to teachers' motivation, affect and professional commitment

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between teachers' reports on self-regulatory strategy use in mathematics instruction and individual motivational and affective factors. Two hundred and ninety-two Greek primary school teachers responded to two questionnaires assessing (a) the strategies they use themselves to plan, monitor and evaluate mathematics instruction and (b) the strategies they use to activate and enhance students' self-regulated learning in mathematics. Path analysis showed that teachers' self-regulation strategies both for their own teaching and for enhancing students' self-regulation in mathematics were predicted by their self-efficacy beliefs in teaching mathematics, the value they attribute to mathematics and their emotional commitment to their profession. Teachers' enjoyment of mathematics teaching did not directly predict their reported use of self-regulatory instructional strategies. The implications of the study are related to the development of teachers' training programmes in self-regulated instruction

Self-regulated learning and students’ metacognitive feelings in physical education

The aim of this study was to examine students’ self-regulated learning and metacognitive feelings regarding a sport skill in elementary physical education. Participants were 88 fifth-and sixth-grade students who were assigned to four groups and practised basketball shooting at different levels of self-regulated learning (i.e. observation, emulation, self-control, and self-regulation). Students were pre- and post-tested in basketball shooting performance and their knowledge regarding technical aspects of the basketball shooting. They also reported their metacognitive feelings of effort, difficulty, and correctness regarding basketball shooting before and after the practice. Results showed that students who experienced both observational learning and emulative practice (i.e. practice with social feedback) improved their knowledge regarding technical aspects of the basketball shooting. However, no differences were found among groups in basketball shooting performance. Moreover, students’ post-test basketball shooting performance was negatively correlated with students’ feelings of difficulty and positively correlated with students’ feelings of correctness. Results are discussed with reference to social cognitive models of self-regulated learning. The role of metacogitive feelings in the process of self-regulated learning of a sport skill is also discussed. © 2015 International Society of Sport Psychology

Relations between young students' strategic behaviours, domain-specific self-concept, and performance in a problem-solving situation

This study aimed at investigating the relations between students' strategic behaviour during problem solving, task performance and domain-specific self-concept. A total of 167 first- and second-graders were individually examined in tasks involving cubes assembly and in academic self-concept in mathematics. Students' cognitive, metacognitive, and Motivational/Volitional Strategic Behaviours were video-recorded and rated by two independent observers. Structural equation modelling showed that the cognitive and Metacognitive Strategic Behaviours were explained by a cognitive self-regulation factor which correlated with the Motivational/Volitional Strategic Behaviour factor. The importance of the cognitive self-regulation factor for task performance and the association of domain-specific self-concept with Motivational/Volitional Strategic Behaviour were shown. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved