Reliability and validity of three questionnaires measuring context-specific sedentary behaviour and associated correlates in adolescents, adults and older adults

BACKGROUND: Reliable and valid measures of total sedentary time, context-specific sedentary behaviour (SB) and its potential correlates are useful for the development of future interventions. The purpose was to examine test-retest reliability and criterion validity of three newly developed questionnaires on total sedentary time, context-specific SB and its potential correlates in adolescents, adults and older adults. METHODS: Reliability and validity was tested in six different samples of Flemish (Belgium) residents. For the reliability study, 20 adolescents, 22 adults and 20 older adults filled out the age-specific SB questionnaire twice. Test-retest reliability was analysed using Kappa coefficients, Intraclass Correlation Coefficients and/or percentage agreement, separately for the three age groups. For the validity study, data were retrieved from 62 adolescents, 33 adults and 33 older adults, with activPAL as criterion measure. Spearman correlations and Bland-Altman plots (or non-parametric approach) were used to analyse criterion validity, separately for the three age groups and for weekday, weekend day and average day. RESULTS: The test-retest reliability for self-reported total sedentary time indicated following values: ICC = 0.37-0.67 in adolescents; ICC = 0.73-0.77 in adults; ICC = 0.68-0.80 in older adults. Item-specific reliability results (e.g. context-specific SB and its potential correlates) showed good-to-excellent reliability in 67.94%, 68.90% and 66.38% of the items in adolescents, adults and older adults respectively. All items belonging to sedentary-related equipment and simultaneous SB showed good reliability. The sections of the questionnaire with lowest reliability were: context-specific SB (adolescents), potential correlates of computer use (adults) and potential correlates of motorized transport (older adults). Spearman correlations between self-reported total sedentary time and the activPAL were different for each age group: rho = 0.02-0.42 (adolescents), rho = 0.06-0.52 (adults), rho = 0.38-0.50 (older adults). Participants over-reported total sedentary time (except for weekend day in older adults) compared to the activPAL, for weekday, weekend day and average day respectively by +57.05%, +46.29%, +53.34% in adolescents; +40.40%, +19.15%, +32.89% in adults; +10.10%, -6.24%, +4.11% in older adults. CONCLUSIONS: The questionnaires showed acceptable test-retest reliability and criterion validity. However, over-reporting of total SB was noticeable in adolescents and adults. Nevertheless, these questionnaires will be useful in getting context-specific information on SB

Progress and setbacks in socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health-related behaviours in Brazil: results from three cross-sectional surveys 2009-2015.

OBJECTIVES: Despite some progress, Brazil is still one of the most unequal countries, and the extent of socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health is unclear. We assessed trends in socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent's health-related behaviours in Brazil between 2009 and 2015. DESIGN: We used cross-sectional data from the Brazilian National Survey of School Health carried out in 2009, 2012 and 2015. SETTING: Brazilian state capitals. PARTICIPANTS: Students attending ninth grade from public and private schools in Brazilian state capitals in 2009 (60 973 students), 2012 (61 145 students) and 2015 (51 192 students). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: We assessed 12 health-related behaviours (irregular fruit, vegetables and bean consumption; regular soft drink consumption; irregular physical activity; alcohol, drug and tobacco use; unsafe sex; involvement in gun fights; bullying victimisation and domestic violence victimisation), under the broad domains of lifestyle risk behaviours, engagement in risky activities and exposure to violence. Socioeconomic status was assessed through an asset-based wealth index derived from principal component analysis. Absolute and relative inequalities in these health behaviours and inequalities trends were investigated. RESULTS: From 2009 to 2015, prevalence of certain harmful health-related behaviours increased, such as unsafe sex (21.5% to 33.9%), domestic violence (9.5% to 16.2%), bullying victimisation (14.2% to 21.7%) and irregular consumption of beans (37.5% to 43.7%). Other indicators decreased: alcohol use (27.1% to 23.2%), irregular physical activity (83.0% to 75.6%) and consumption of soft drinks (37.2% to 28.8%). Over the period, we found consistent evidence of decreasing health inequalities for lifestyle behaviours (fruit, bean and soft drink consumption) and alcohol use, set against increasing inequalities in violence (domestic violence, fights using guns and bullying victimisation). CONCLUSION: Socioeconomic inequality increased in the violence domain and decreased for lifestyle behaviours among Brazilian adolescents. Widening gaps in violence domain urge immediately policy measures in Brazil

Parapharyngeal space hemangiopericytoma treated with surgery and postoperative radiation- a case report

Hemangiopericytoma (HPC) is a rare tumor of uncertain malignant potential arising from mesenchymal cells with pericytic differentiation. It accounts for 3-5% of soft tissue sarcomas and 1% of vascular tumors. It usually presents in 5th to 6th decade of life. Most common sites are limbs, pelvis and head and neck. About 20% of all hemangiopericytomas are seen in head and neck, mostly in adults. Usually it presents in orbit, nasal cavity, oral cavity, jaw, parotid gland, parapharyngeal space, masticator space and jugular foramen. Long term follow up is important because of imprecise nature of the histological criteria for prediction of biologic behavior

Biallelic Loss-of-Function NDUFA12 Variants Cause a Wide Phenotypic Spectrum from Leigh/Leigh-Like Syndrome to Isolated Optic Atrophy

BACKGROUND: Biallelic loss-of-function NDUFA12 variants have hitherto been linked to mitochondrial complex I deficiency presenting with heterogeneous clinical and radiological features in nine cases only. OBJECTIVES: To fully characterize, both phenotypically and genotypically, NDUFA12-related mitochondrial disease. METHODS: We collected data from cases identified by screening genetic databases of several laboratories worldwide and systematically reviewed the literature. RESULTS: Nine unreported NDUFA12 cases from six pedigrees were identified, with presentation ranging from movement disorder phenotypes (dystonia and/or spasticity) to isolated optic atrophy. MRI showed basal ganglia abnormalities (n = 6), optic atrophy (n = 2), or was unremarkable (n = 1). All carried homozygous truncating NDUFA12 variants, three of which are novel. CONCLUSIONS: Our case series expands phenotype–genotype correlations in NDUFA12-associated mitochondrial disease, providing evidence of intra- and inter-familial clinical heterogeneity for the same variant. It confirms NDUFA12 variants should be included in the diagnostic workup of Leigh/Leigh-like syndromes – particularly with dystonia – as well as isolated optic atrophy

Superconductivity at 44 K in K intercalated FeSe system with excess Fe

We report here that a new superconducting phase with much higher Tc has been found in K intercalated FeSe compound with excess Fe. We successfully grew crystals by precisely controlling the starting amount of Fe. Besides the superconducting (SC) transition at ~30 K, we observed a sharp drop in resistivity and a kink in susceptibility at 44 K. By combining thermodynamic measurements with electron spin resonance (ESR), we demonstrate that this is a new SC transition. Structural analysis unambiguously reveals two phases coexisting in the crystals, which are responsible respectively for the SC transitions at 30 and 44 K. The structural experiments and first-principles calculations consistently indicate that the 44 K SC phase is close to a 122 structure, but with an unexpectedly large c-axis of 18.10 {\AA}. We further find a novel monotonic dependence of the maximum Tc on the separation of neighbouring FeSe layers.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Predicting smear negative pulmonary tuberculosis with classification trees and logistic regression: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Smear negative pulmonary tuberculosis (SNPT) accounts for 30% of pulmonary tuberculosis cases reported yearly in Brazil. This study aimed to develop a prediction model for SNPT for outpatients in areas with scarce resources. METHODS: The study enrolled 551 patients with clinical-radiological suspicion of SNPT, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The original data was divided into two equivalent samples for generation and validation of the prediction models. Symptoms, physical signs and chest X-rays were used for constructing logistic regression and classification and regression tree models. From the logistic regression, we generated a clinical and radiological prediction score. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve, sensitivity, and specificity were used to evaluate the model's performance in both generation and validation samples. RESULTS: It was possible to generate predictive models for SNPT with sensitivity ranging from 64% to 71% and specificity ranging from 58% to 76%. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that those models might be useful as screening tools for estimating the risk of SNPT, optimizing the utilization of more expensive tests, and avoiding costs of unnecessary anti-tuberculosis treatment. Those models might be cost-effective tools in a health care network with hierarchical distribution of scarce resources