The weight-loss experience : qualitative exploration

BACKGROUND: Long-term weight management consists of weight-loss, weight-loss maintenance, and weight-gain stages. Qualitative insights into weight management are now appearing in the literature however research appears to be biased towards explorations of weight-loss maintenance. The qualitative understanding of weight loss, which begets weight-loss maintenance and might establish the experiences and behaviours necessary for successful long-term weight management, is comparatively under-investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the weight-loss experiences of a sample of participants not aligned to clinical intervention research, in order to understand the weight-loss experiences of a naturalistic sample. METHODS: Participants (n=8) with weight-loss (n=4) and weight-maintenance experiences (n=4) were interviewed using a semi-structured interview to understand the weight-loss experience. Interview data was analysed thematically using Framework Analysis and was underpinned by realist meta-theory. RESULTS: Weight loss was experienced as an enduring challenge, where factors that assisted weight loss were developed and experienced dichotomously to factors that hindered it. Participants described barriers to (dichotomous thinking, environments, social pressures and weight centeredness) and facilitators of (mindfulness, knowledge, exercise, readiness to change, structure, self-monitoring and social support) their weight-loss goals in rich detail, highlighting that weight loss was a complex experience. CONCLUSIONS: Weight loss was a difficult task, with physical, social, behavioural and environmental that appeared to assist and inhibit weight-loss efforts concurrently. Health professionals might need to better understand the day-to-day challenges of dieters in order to provide more effective, tailored treatments. Future research should look to investigate the psycho-social consequences of weight-loss dieting, in particular self-imposed social exclusion and spousal sabotage and flexible approaches to treatment

Angel investor's selection criteria: a comparative institutional perspective

Despite the important role of angel investors as critical financial providers for new ventures, little is known regarding how institutions make their investment decisions. While angels make decisions based on selection criteria during the first stage, they are also embedded within and affected by different institutional settings and as a result weight these criteria differently than other investors. We compare angel investors' selection criteria in China and Denmark using the comparative institutional perspective. We use a policy capturing approach and hierarchy linear modeling, revealing that since Chinese angels are embedded within relationship-based institutional settings they tend to reply more on strong ties such as family and friends in management team, as well as weighting risks less compared to Danish angels operating within more rule-based institutional contexts

Live Recombinant Salmonella Typhi Vaccines Constructed to Investigate the Role of rpoS in Eliciting Immunity to a Heterologous Antigen

We hypothesized that the immunogenicity of live Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi vaccines expressing heterologous antigens depends, at least in part, on its rpoS status. As part of our project to develop a recombinant attenuated S. Typhi vaccine (RASTyV) to prevent pneumococcal diseases in infants and children, we constructed three RASTyV strains synthesizing the Streptococcus pneumoniae surface protein PspA to test this hypothesis. Each vector strain carried ten engineered mutations designed to optimize safety and immunogenicity. Two S. Typhi vector strains (χ9639 and χ9640) were derived from the rpoS mutant strain Ty2 and one (χ9633) from the RpoS+ strain ISP1820. In χ9640, the nonfunctional rpoS gene was replaced with the functional rpoS gene from ISP1820. Plasmid pYA4088, encoding a secreted form of PspA, was moved into the three vector strains. The resulting RASTyV strains were evaluated for safety in vitro and for immunogenicity in mice. All three RASTyV strains were similar to the live attenuated typhoid vaccine Ty21a in their ability to survive in human blood and human monocytes. They were more sensitive to complement and were less able to survive and persist in sewage and surface water than their wild-type counterparts. Adult mice intranasally immunized with any of the RASTyV strains developed immune responses against PspA and Salmonella antigens. The RpoS+ vaccines induced a balanced Th1/Th2 immune response while the RpoS− strain χ9639(pYA4088) induced a strong Th2 immune response. Immunization with any RASTyV provided protection against S. pneumoniae challenge; the RpoS+ strain χ9640(pYA4088) provided significantly greater protection than the ISP1820 derivative, χ9633(pYA4088). In the pre-clinical setting, these strains exhibited a desirable balance between safety and immunogenicity and are currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial to determine which of the three RASTyVs has the optimal safety and immunogenicity profile in human hosts