Acceptance and commitment therapy as an adjunct to the MOVE! programme: a randomized controlled trial.

ObjectiveThe current study tested the efficacy of an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) group intervention for disinhibited eating behaviour as an adjunct to the Veterans Affairs MOVE!© weight management programme.MethodsVeterans (N = 88) with overweight or obesity who completed the MOVE! weight management programme and self-identified as having problems with 'stress-related eating' were randomized to four 2-h weekly ACT sessions or a continued behavioural weight-loss (BWL) intervention. Assessments were completed at baseline, post-treatment and 3- and 6-month follow-up on outcomes of interest including measures of disinhibited eating patterns, obesity-related quality of life, weight-related experiential avoidance and weight.ResultsThe BWL group exhibited significantly greater reductions in binge eating behaviour at post-treatment compared with the ACT group. Significant improvements in other outcomes were found with minimal differences between groups. In both groups, decreases in weight-related experiential avoidance were related to improvements in binge eating behaviour.ConclusionsTaken together, the continued BWL intervention resulted in larger improvements in binge eating behaviour than the ACT intervention. The two groups showed similar improvements in other disinhibited eating outcomes. Future studies are encouraged to determine if more integrated or longer duration of ACT treatment may maximize eating outcomes in MOVE.Trial Registration Number: This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov database (NCT01757847)

Monitoring of sensory attributes used in the quality payment system of Trentingrana cheese

Abstract Trentingrana is a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) hard cheese manufactured in the valleys of Trento province (eastern Italian Alps) by several small cooperative dairies linked in a consortium. Nine months after production, wheels are delivered to a shared facility, ripened up to 18 mo, and assessed by a panel of 8 experts for 7 sensory attributes; namely, external aspect, rind thickness, paste color, texture, odor, taste, and aroma. The evaluation takes place every 2 mo on wheels sampled within each dairy. Based on the results of the assessment, dairies receive a price premium or penalty depending on a quality index, which is the weighted sum of the scores attributed to each sampled wheel. Sensory scores and quality index of 652 wheels representing 11 dairies and 10 yr of production were analyzed using a model that included fixed effects of dairy, year, and season of production, and first-order interactions between them. The coefficients of determination ranged from 0.50 (texture) to 0.66 (aroma). All factors significantly affected the studied traits, with the exception of interactions between dairy and season of production for texture and external aspect, and between year and season of production for odor. Dairy was the most important source of variation for visually assessed traits (external aspect, rind thickness, paste color, and texture) and for quality index, whereas year of production was the most important for flavor attributes (odor, taste, and aroma). The latter traits were always highly correlated among them and with the quality index, whereas correlations among visually assessed attributes, between them and flavor attributes, and between them and the quality index were more erratic. The sensory evaluation performed by the panel of experts has proven to be a useful tool to define the quality index and address the payment system of Trentingrana cheese, but it has some limitations in correctly describing the sensory profile of cheese and identifying specific defects and possible remedies

Transcriptional variation of sensory-related genes in natural populations of Aedes albopictus

BACKGROUND: The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is a highly dangerous invasive vector of numerous medically important arboviruses including dengue, chikungunya and Zika. In four decades it has spread from tropical Southeast Asia to many parts of the world in both tropical and temperate climes. The rapid invasion process of this mosquito is supported by its high ecological and genetic plasticity across different life history traits. Our aim was to investigate whether wild populations, both native and adventive, also display transcriptional genetic variability for functions that may impact their biology, behaviour and ability to transmit arboviruses, such as sensory perception. RESULTS: Antennal transcriptome data were derived from mosquitoes from a native population from Ban Rai, Thailand and from three adventive Mediterranean populations: Athens, Greece and Arco and Trento from Italy. Clear inter-population differential transcriptional activity was observed in different gene categories related to sound perception, olfaction and viral infection. The greatest differences were detected between the native Thai and the Mediterranean populations. The two Italian populations were the most similar. Nearly one million quality filtered SNP loci were identified. CONCLUSION: The ability to express this great inter-population transcriptional variability highlights, at the functional level, the remarkable genetic flexibility of this mosquito species. We can hypothesize that the differential expression of genes, including those involved in sensory perception, in different populations may enable Ae. albopictus to exploit different environments and hosts, thus contributing to its status as a global vector of arboviruses of public health importance. The large number of SNP loci present in these transcripts represents a useful addition to the arsenal of high-resolution molecular markers and a resource that can be used to detect selective pressure and adaptive changes that may have occurred during the colonization process

KOMPETENSI PROFESIONAL GURU BK DALAM IMPLEMENTASI ASSESMEN BK (SUATU PENELITIAN PADA GURU BK DI SMA FAVORIT KOTA BANDA ACEH)

Banda Ace

Empathy without borders? Cross-cultural heart and mind-reading in first-year medical students

Background: This cross-cultural study was designed to examine cultural differences in empathy levels of first-year medical students.Methods: A total of 257 students from the academic year 2010/11, 131 at Jimma University, Ethiopia, and 126 at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany, completed the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME-R) test, and a  questionnaire on sociodemographic and cultural characteristics. Furthermore, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the students’ personal views on the definition of empathy and possible influencing factors. Group comparisons and correlation analyses of empathy scores were performed for the entire cohort and for the Jimma and Munich students separately. We used a regression tree analysis to identify factors influencing the BEES.Results: The male students in Jimma (39.1 ± 22.3) scored significantly higher in the BEES than those male students from Munich (27.2 ± 22.6; p = 0.0002). There was no significant difference between the female groups. We found a moderate, positive correlation between the BEES and RME-R test, i.e. between emotional and cognitive empathy, within each university. Nevertheless, the RME-R test, which shows only Caucasian eyes, appears not to be suitable for use in other cultures.Conclusions: The main findings of our study were the influence of culture, religion, specialization choice, and gender on emotional empathy (assessed with the BEES) and cognitive empathy (assessed with the RME-R test) in first-year medical students. Further research is required into the nature of empathy in worldwide medical curricula.Keywords: Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale, Cross-cultural, Empathy, Medical Student