What Are Consumers Looking For In Dark Chocolate?

In this paper, we conduct a conjoint analysis to measure the relative importance of attributes of dark chocolate brand, country of origin, certification, cacao content in the formation of consumers preferences. Results show that the cacao content is the most important attribute

The feasibility of using a parenting programme for the prevention of unintentional home injuries in the under-fives: A cluster randomised controlled trial

Background: Unintentional injury is the leading cause of preventable death of children over the age of 1 year in the UK and a major cause of attendance at emergency departments. Children having one injury are at increased risk of further injuries. Parenting programmes can reduce injuries in preschool children if delivered in the home and on a one-to-one basis. It is not known if group-based programmes delivered outside the home are effective. Objectives: To develop (1) a parenting programme to prevent recurrent unintentional home injuries in preschool children and (2) a tool for parents to report unintentional home injuries occurring to their preschool children. To assess the feasibility of delivering and evaluating the parenting programme through a cluster randomised controlled trial, specifically to (1) assess methods for the recruitment and retention of parents; (2) determine the training, equipment and facilities needed for the delivery of the programme; (3) establish appropriate primary and secondary outcome measures and methods for their collection; (4) determine how 'normal care' in a comparison arm should be defined; and (5) determine the resource utilisation and costing data that would need to be collected for the cost-effectiveness component of a future trial; and (6) produce estimates of effect sizes to inform sample size estimation for a main trial. Design: Feasibility multicentre, cluster, randomised, unblinded trial. Setting: Eight children's centres in Bristol and Nottingham, UK. Participants: Ninety-six parents of preschool children who had sustained an unintentional injury requiring medical attention in the previous 12 months. Interventions: The First-aid Advice and Safety Training (FAST) parent programme, comprising parenting support and skills combined with first aid and home safety advice. Main outcome measures: Parent-reported medically attended injuries in the index child and any preschool siblings sustained during a 6-month period of observation. Results: An 8-week parenting programme was produced, designed with participant-friendly, incrementally progressive content. A slimline, month-to-a-view injury calendar, spiral bound and suitable for hanging on a wall, was designed for parents to record injuries occurring to their preschool children during the 6-month period of observed time. Fifty-one parents were recruited (40 meeting eligibility criteria plus 11 following 'open invite' to participate); 15 parents completed the FAST parent programme and 49 provided data at baseline and during follow-up. Completion of the programme was significantly greater for participants using the 'open invite' approach (85%) than for those recruited using the original eligibility criteria (31%). Prototype resource use checklists, unit costs and total costs were developed for phases 0, 1 and 2 of the study for use in a future trial. Conclusions: This feasibility study has developed an innovative injury prevention intervention and a tool to record parent-reported injuries in preschool children. It was not feasible to recruit parents of children who had sustained a recent injury, or to ask health visitor teams to identify potential participants and to deliver the programme. A trial should target all families attending children's centres in disadvantaged areas. The intervention could be delivered by a health professional supported by a member of the children's centre team in a community setting. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN03605270. Source of funding: This project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 18, No. 3. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information. © Queen's Printer and Controller of HMSO 2014

Changes in liver and spleen volumes after living liver donation: A report from the adult‐to‐adult living donor liver transplantation cohort study (A2ALL)

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110585/1/lt24062.pd

Consensus recommendations on the use of 18F-FDG PET/CT in lung disease

Positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) has been increasingly applied, predominantly in the research setting, to study drug effects and pulmonary biology and monitor disease progression and treatment outcomes in lung diseases, disorders that interfere with gas exchange through alterations of the pulmonary parenchyma, airways and/or vasculature. To date, however, there are no widely accepted standard acquisition protocols and imaging data analysis methods for pulmonary 18F-FDG PET/CT in these diseases, resulting in disparate approaches. Hence, comparison of data across the literature is challenging. To help harmonize the acquisition and analysis and promote reproducibility, acquisition protocol and analysis method details were collated from seven PET centers. Based on this information and discussions among the authors, the consensus recommendations reported here on patient preparation, choice of dynamic versus static imaging, image reconstruction, and image analysis reporting were reached.                   </p

Prevalence and predictors of children’s persistent screen time requests: A national sample of parents

Child screen media use may cause family conflict, and risk factors for such conflict are not well characterized. This study examined risk factors of persistent requesting to use screen media among preschool‐age children, focusing on parent‐reported characteristics of parent and child screen media use. Data were collected through an online survey completed in 2017 by a nationally recruited sample of 383 parents of 2–5‐year‐old children. Parents reported on their child’s and their own screen media use, household/sociodemographic measures, and child requests to use screen media. Persistent requesting was defined as exhibiting “bothersome” or “very bothersome” behaviors to use screen media. Poisson regression with robust standard errors computed the prevalence risk ratio of persistent requests on parent and child screen media use characteristics, adjusted for household and sociodemographic characteristics. Overall, based on parents’ reports, 28.7% of children exhibited persistent requesting, which was often accompanied by whining, crying, gesturing, or physically taking a device. In an adjusted regression model, higher amounts of parental time spent using social media, but not parental time spent using other screen media, was associated with a greater prevalence of children’s persistent requests. In latter models, children’s use of smartphones and engagement with online videos were independently related to persistent requests. Across all models, children’s total quantity of screen media use was unrelated to persistent requests. Practitioners advising families on managing conflict around child screen media use should consider characteristics of both child and parent screen media use.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/171558/1/hbe2322_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/171558/2/hbe2322.pd

The first aid advice and safety training (FAST) parents programme for the prevention of unintentional injuries in preschool children: A protocol

Background Unintentional injury is the leading cause of preventable death in children in the UK, and 0–4-year-olds frequently attend emergency departments following injuries in the home. Parenting programmes designed to support parents, promote behaviour change and enhance parent–child relationships have been shown to improve health outcomes in children. It is not known whether group-based parenting programmes have the potential to prevent unintentional injuries in preschool children. Methods A study to develop a group-based parenting programme to prevent unintentional home injuries in preschool children, and assess the feasibility of evaluation through a cluster-randomised controlled trial. The intervention, designed for parents of children who have sustained a medically attended injury, will be developed with two voluntary sector organisations. The feasibility study will assess ability to recruit parents, deliver the programme and follow-up participants. Participants will complete questionnaires at baseline, 3 months and 6 months, and report injuries in their preschool children using a tool designed and validated for this study. Qualitative methods will assess user and deliverer perceptions of the programme. Discussion This study will develop the first group-based parenting programme to prevent injuries in preschool children, and design tools for parent-reported injury outcomes. A key challenge will be to recruit parents to participate in a manner that is non-stigmatising, and does not result in feelings of guilt or belief that they are perceived to be a bad parent. The findings will be used to prepare a trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the intervention

Effects of the donor factors and freezing protocols on the bovine embryonic lipid profile

International audienceAbstract Embryo lipid profile is affected by in vitro culture conditions, that lead to an increase in lipids. Efforts have been made to optimize embryo lipid composition as it is associated with their quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the diet supplementation of donor cows (n-3 or n-6 PUFA), or the slow freezing protocols (ethylene glycol sucrose EG-S vs. glycerol trehalose GLY-TRE), or the physiological stage of the donor (nulliparous heifers vs. primiparous lactating cows) may impact the bovine embryo lipid profile. Lipid extracts of 97 embryos were individually analysed by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry, highlighting 246 lipids including 85% being overabundant in cow embryos compared to heifer embryos. Among 105 differential lipids, 72 were overabundant after EG-S protocol, including a single glycerophosphate PA(32:1) representing 27.3% of the significantly modulated lipids, suggesting that it is degraded when GLY-TRE is used. No lipids were different according to the n-3 or n-6 supplementation of the donor cows. In conclusion, the embryonic lipid profile was mainly affected by the physiological stage of the donors and the slow freezing protocols. The overabundance of lipids in lactating cow embryos and the resulting lower quality of these embryos is consistent with the lower pregnancy rate observed in cows compared to heifers. Unlike GLY-TRE protocol, EG-S freezing allowed to preserve glycerophospholipids potentially improving the slow freezing of in vitro-produced embryos. Further studies are required to modulate embryo quality and freezability by modulating the lipidome and integrating all stages of embryonic production

Lipid profile of bovine grade-1 blastocysts produced either in vivo or in vitro before and after slow freezing process

International audienceCurrently, in vitro embryo production (IVP) is successfully commercially applied in cattle. However, the high sensitivity of embryos to cryopreservation in comparison to in vivo (IVD) embryos slows the dissemination of this biotechnology. Reduced cryotolerance is frequently associated with lipid accumulation in the cytoplasm mainly due to in vitro culture conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the lipid composition of biopsied and sexed embryos, produced either in vivo or in vitro from the same Holstein heifers before and after a slow freezing protocol. Lipid extracts were analysed by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry, which enabled the detection of 496 features. Our results highlighted a lipid enrichment of IVP embryos in triglycerides and oxidised glycerophospholipids and a reduced abundance in glycerophospholipids. The slow freezing process affected the lipid profiles of IVP and IVD embryos similarly. Lysophosphatidylcholine content was reduced when embryos were frozen/thawed. In conclusion, the embryonic lipid profile is impacted by IVP and slow freezing protocols but not by sex. Lysophosphatidylcholine seemed highly sensitive to cryopreservation and might contribute to explain the lower quality of frozen embryos. Further studies are required to improve embryo freezability by modulating the lipidome