Effect of an infant stimulation program on children

A planned stimulation program for infants with developmental problems utilizing individual program plans has greater beneficial effects than does traditional periodic follow-up care alone

Psychopathy and Empathy: A Correlational Study

Cognitive and affective empathy have long been thought to play an important role in moral decision making. While most individuals have intact capabilities, certain populations are believed to have deficits in empathy , especially individuals high in psychopathy. Specifically, psychopathic individuals are known to have the capacity for cognitive empathy but not affective empathy. The present study further examined the relationship between psychopathy, cognitive empathy, and affective empathy using undergraduates from Belmont University. Participants were recruited from introduction to psychology courses and completed the 4th edition of the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP 4) ) as well as the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) . We expect that psychopathy will be positively correlated with cognitive empathy and negatively correlated with affective empathy

What's for dinner? Relative and absolute differences in food prices

Please add to the NZCYES collectionBackground: Women with children experiencing food insecurity report difficulty affording healthy food and express concern that high fat processed food and sugar sweetened beverages are often less expensive than fresh foods and milk. The New Zealand food price index monitors changes in price of various food items relative to their price in 2006. This presentation will examine how prices of food items have changed over time and consider how this may impact on the diet of children and young people in New Zealand. Methods: Analysis of data from the 2016 Food Price Index to identify for which goods prices have remained most similar to 2006 and which goods have had the greatest relative increase in price. Weighted average retail prices in June 2016 were used to compare absolute differences in price of food items at that point in time. Results: The price of pastry goods such as pies, sausage rolls and custard squares increased 5% from 2006 to 2016, the price of processed meat increased around 10% whereas the price of beef and veal increased by 50%. The largest single rise of 65% was seen for fruit. The least expensive single item in the June 2016 list of weighted average retail prices was white bread and the most expensive items were fresh meats. At $3.98 a hot meat pie was the least expensive item in the ‘ready-to-eat’ food subgroup. Conclusion: Increasing disparities in the relative prices of foods is likely to have contributed to material hardship and food insecurity in New Zealand. For households with children highly processed foods may be the most economic food choices, and may be the only choices available to those living in income poverty.Peer Reviewe

Exploring Mobile Social Networking Sites Continuance Intention from the Perspective of Network Externalities and Mobile Value

Key shifts in the nature and characteristics of technology have led to evolutions in social media usage. For the first time in history, the internet is being accessed from more mobile devices than desktop computers. This revolution is especially felt among social networking sites, many of whom have presciently developed and released mobile applications of their platforms. Drawing from the Perceived Value Theory, Network Externalities and the Expectation Confirmation Theory of IS Continuance, we tested a model that sought to explain the effect of Network Externalities on Perceived Value and in turn Continuance Intention. Data was collected from 452 students from a university in Ghana and analyzed using the Partial Least Square approach to Structural Equation Modeling. Results from the current study showed that Referent Network Size and Perceived Complementarity had significant effects on both Utilitarian and Hedonic Value as well as Satisfaction. Hedonic Value, Utilitarian Value and Satisfaction in turn were found to be significant predictors of Continuance Intention. In all, the model accounted for 58.0% of the variance in continuance intention. The implications and limitations of the current study are discussed, and directions for future research proposed

Glareosin : A novel sexually dimorphic urinary lipocalin in the bank vole, Myodes glareolus

Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3859369. Detailed methods are presented in the electronic supplementary material. The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE [32] partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD006645 and 10.6019/PXD006645 This work was funded in part by BBSRC (BB/J002631/1 and BB/M012557/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Predicting students’ response to entrepreneurship in hospitality and tourism education: An application of the theory of planned behavior

Globally, the study of entrepreneurship is increasingly becoming a prominent component of hospitality and tourism education. However, uncertainties arising from an unpredictable business environment, inadequate governmental support as well as the ramifications of the recent Covid-19 pandemic have heightened the risks of starting business ventures. Yet the role of risk-taking propensity in driving entrepreneurial attitudes and career decisions in the context of developing economies has received limited attention. Using a survey of 547 hospitality and tourism students from five public universities, the structural equation modeling technique of partial least squares was applied in examining students’ response to entrepreneurship. While entrepreneurial attitudes are driven by risk-taking inclination, the findings suggest that entrepreneurial career decisions are more complicated. The study outcome further underscores the critical roles of personal attitude, normative influence, and behavioral control in shaping entrepreneurial mind-sets

Increased posterior cingulate functional connectivity following 6-month high-dose B-vitamin multivitamin supplementation : a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

B vitamins are essential for optimal brain and body function, and are particularly important for cortical metabolic processes that have downstream effects on mitigating oxidative stress. Oxidative stress has been linked to poor psychological outcomes including psychological distress, which has wide-reaching implications for the community and the workplace. Given work-related stress has been associated with poor mental health outcomes, high-dose B vitamin supplementation may be effective in improving brain function and psychological outcomes via attenuation of oxidative stress. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study investigated psychological outcomes following 6-month supplementation of a high-B-vitamin multivitamin in a large sample of healthy adults (n = 108, aged 30–70 years), as well as changes in default mode network functional connectivity in a subset of the original sample (n = 28). Improvements in occupational stress, general health, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and mood profiles were identified for both active and placebo groups over time (p < 0.05 corrected). Seed-based functional connectivity analysis centered on the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) showed that connectivity between the PCC and the caudate increased for the active treatment group, but decreased for the placebo group (p < 0.05 corrected). These findings reveal a substantial intervention effect for both active and placebo treatments, which could in part be associated with a placebo effect in subjective measures. There was, however, a significant treatment effect in the objective measure of functional connectivity, suggesting that reduced psychological stress and high-B-vitamin multivitamin supplementation may lead to an increase in DMN and caudate functional connectivity, which might reflect a strengthening of neurocircuitry within areas associated with reward and emotion at rest. Future studies should consider a placebo run-in methodology to reduce the placebo effect on the subjective measures of stress