Determinants of appetite ratings: the role of age, gender, BMI, physical activity, smoking habits, and diet/weight concern

Appetite measures are often recorded by visual analogue scales (VAS), and are assumed to reflect central nervous system (CNS) perceptions and sensations. However, little is known about how physiological, psychological, social, and cultural factors influence VAS.To investigate whether age, gender, body mass index (BMI), smoking habits, physical activity, diet behaviour, and menstruation cycle are determinants of appetite ratings.We investigated appetite ratings in different groups of a population during a single meal test, including 178 healthy women (98) and men (80), aged 20–60 years with a BMI of 18.5–35.0 kg/m2. Subjects consumed an evening meal composed to meet individual requirements of energy content and recommendations regarding macronutrient composition. Before and every half hour until 3 hours after the meal, subjects filled out VAS for satiety, fullness, hunger, and prospective food intake. They also filled in a questionnaire on eating/slimming behaviour.Multiple linear regression analyses showed that gender and age were the most powerful predictors of postprandial satiety (p<0.001, adj. R 2=0.19) and hunger (p<0.001, adj. R 2=0.15). Repeated measures general linear model (GLM) analyses revealed that women felt more satisfied than men (p<0.001) and older subjects felt more satisfied than younger (p<0.01). Furthermore, light/no exercisers felt more satisfied and less hungry than hard/moderate exercisers (p<0.05), but these differences disappeared after adjusting for age and gender. Smokers rated their prospective consumption lower than non-smokers (p < 005) and women in the ovulation phase felt less hungry than women in the menstruation phase (p<005). Neither BMI nor diet/weight concern were significantly associated with appetite ratings.Appetite ratings differed according to age, gender, and physical activity and to a lesser degree for smoking habits and menstruation cycle. Appetite ratings were not influenced by BMI and diet/weight concern. These factors should be considered when planning studies and analysing data concerning appetite sensations

Noisy Monte Carlo: Convergence of Markov chains with approximate transition kernels

Monte Carlo algorithms often aim to draw from a distribution $\pi$ by simulating a Markov chain with transition kernel $P$ such that $\pi$ is invariant under $P$. However, there are many situations for which it is impractical or impossible to draw from the transition kernel $P$. For instance, this is the case with massive datasets, where is it prohibitively expensive to calculate the likelihood and is also the case for intractable likelihood models arising from, for example, Gibbs random fields, such as those found in spatial statistics and network analysis. A natural approach in these cases is to replace $P$ by an approximation $\hat{P}$. Using theory from the stability of Markov chains we explore a variety of situations where it is possible to quantify how 'close' the chain given by the transition kernel $\hat{P}$ is to the chain given by $P$. We apply these results to several examples from spatial statistics and network analysis.Comment: This version: results extended to non-uniformly ergodic Markov chain

How is place of death from cancer changing and what affects it? Analysis of cancer registration and service data

We aimed to compare trends in place of cancer death with the growth of palliative care and nursing home services, and investigate demographic, disease-related and area influences on individual place of death, using registration data for 216404 patients with breast, lung, colorectal and prostate cancer and aggregate data on services in South East England. Between 1985 and 1994 there was a trend away from hospital death (67–44%), to home (17–30%) and hospice death (8–20%). After 1995, this partly reversed. By 2002, hospital death rose to 47%, home death dropped to 23%, hospice death remained stable and nursing home death rose from 3 to 8%. Numbers of palliative care services increased, but trends for hospice and nursing home deaths most clearly followed the beds available. Cancer diagnosis and treatment influenced individual place of death, but between 1998 and 2002, age and area of residence were associated with most variation. Older patients and those living in more deprived areas died more often in hospitals and less often at home. Despite more palliative care services the proportion of people dying at home has not increased. Variation by age, deprivation and area of residence is unlikely to reflect patient preference. More active surveillance and planning must support policies for choice in end of life care

Introducing Extended Consultations for Patients with Severe Mental Illness in General Practice.:Results from the SOFIA Feasibility Study

Abstract Background People with a severe mental illness (SMI) have shorter life expectancy and poorer quality of life compared to the general population. Most years lost are due to cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and various types of cancer. We co-designed an intervention to mitigate this health problem with key stakeholders in the area, which centred on an extended consultations for people with SMI in general practice. This study aimed to1) investigate general practitioners’ (GPs) experience of the feasibility of introducing extended consultations for patients with SMI, 2) assess the clinical content of extended consultations and how these were experienced by patients, and 3) investigate the feasibility of identification, eligibility screening, and recruitment of patients with SMI. Methods The study was a one-armed feasibility study. We planned that seven general practices in northern Denmark would introduce extended consultations with their patients with SMI for 6 months. Patients with SMI were identified using practice medical records and screened for eligibility by the patients’ GP. Data were collected using case report forms filled out by practice personnel and via qualitative methods, including observations of consultations, individual semi-structured interviews, a focus group with GPs, and informal conversations with patients and general practice staff. Results Five general practices employing seven GPs participated in the study, which was terminated 3 ½ month ahead of schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. General practices attempted to contact 57 patients with SMI. Of these, 38 patients (67%) attended an extended consultation, which led to changes in the somatic health care plan for 82% of patients. Conduct of the extended consultations varied between GPs and diverged from the intended conduct. Nonetheless, GPs found the extended consultations feasible and, in most cases, beneficial for the patient group. In interviews, most patients recounted the extended consultation as beneficial. Discussion Our findings suggest that it is feasible to introduce extended consultations for patients with SMI in general practice, which were also found to be well-suited for eliciting patients’ values and preferences. Larger studies with a longer follow-up period could help to assess the long-term effects and the best implementation strategies of these consultations

Buses, cars, bicycles and walkers the influence of the type of human transport on the flight responses of waterbirds

One way to manage disturbance to waterbirds in natural areas where humans require access is to promote the occurrence of stimuli for which birds tolerate closer approaches, and so cause fewer responses. We conducted 730 experimental approaches to 39 species of waterbird, using five stimulus types (single walker, three walkers, bicycle, car and bus) selected to mimic different human management options available for a controlled access, Ramsar-listed wetland. Across species, where differences existed (56% of 25 cases), motor vehicles always evoked shorter flight-initiation distances (FID) than humans on foot. The influence of stimulus type on FID varied across four species for which enough data were available for complete cross-stimulus analysis. All four varied FID in relation to stimuli, differing in 4 to 7 of 10 possible comparisons. Where differences occurred, the effect size was generally modest, suggesting that managing stimulus type (e.g. by requiring people to use vehicles) may have species-specific, modest benefits, at least for the waterbirds we studied. However, different stimulus types have different capacities to reduce the frequency of disturbance (i.e. by carrying more people) and vary in their capacity to travel around important habita

The relativistic Sagnac Effect: two derivations

The phase shift due to the Sagnac Effect, for relativistic matter and electromagnetic beams, counter-propagating in a rotating interferometer, is deduced using two different approaches. From one hand, we show that the relativistic law of velocity addition leads to the well known Sagnac time difference, which is the same independently of the physical nature of the interfering beams, evidencing in this way the universality of the effect. Another derivation is based on a formal analogy with the phase shift induced by the magnetic potential for charged particles travelling in a region where a constant vector potential is present: this is the so called Aharonov-Bohm effect. Both derivations are carried out in a fully relativistic context, using a suitable 1+3 splitting that allows us to recognize and define the space where electromagnetic and matter waves propagate: this is an extended 3-space, which we call "relative space". It is recognized as the only space having an actual physical meaning from an operational point of view, and it is identified as the 'physical space of the rotating platform': the geometry of this space turns out to be non Euclidean, according to Einstein's early intuition.Comment: 49 pages, LaTeX, 3 EPS figures. Revised (final) version, minor corrections; to appear in "Relativity in Rotating Frames", ed. G. Rizzi and M.L. Ruggiero, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, (2003). See also http://digilander.libero.it/solciclo

Three-dimension structure of ventricular myocardial fibers after myocardial infarction

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To explore the pathological changes of three-dimension structure of ventricular myocardial fibers after anterior myocardial infarction in dog heart.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fourteen acute anterior myocardial infarction models were made from healthy dogs (mean weight 17.6 ± 2.5 kg). Six out of 14 dogs with old myocardial infarction were sacrificed, and their hearts were harvested after they survived the acute anterior myocardial infarction for 3 months. Each heart was dissected into ventricular myocardial band (VMB), morphological characters in infarction region were observed, and infarct size percents in descending segment and ascending segment were calculated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Six dog hearts were successfully dissected into VMB. Uncorresponding damages in myocardial fibers of descending segment and ascending segment were found in apical circle in anterior wall infarction. Infarct size percent in the ascending segment was significantly larger than that in the descending segment (23.36 ± 3.15 (SD) vs 30.69 ± 2.40%, P = 0.0033); the long axis of infarction area was perpendicular to the orientation of myocardial fibers in ascending segment; however, the long axis of the infarction area was parallel with the orientation of myocardial fibers in descending segment.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We found that damages were different in both morphology and size in ascending segment and descending segment in heart with myocardial infarction. This may provide an important insight for us to understand the mechanism of heart failure following coronary artery diseases.</p

Echocardiographic imaging of tricuspid and pulmonary valve abnormalities in primary ovarian carcinoid tumor

Carcinoid is a rare malignancy originating from enterochromaffin cells and is clinically characterized by flushing, diarrhea and bronchospasm, due to secretion of vasoactive substances. A dreaded complication is carcinoid heart disease, which mainly affects right cardiac chambers, resulting in thickened, immobile and retracted tricuspid and pulmonary valves. In the current report, a case of a 60-year old female presenting with symptoms of right heart failure is described. Transthoracic two-dimensional and real-time three-dimensional echocardiography findings, as well as biochemical markers, including pro-BNP and NT-pro-BNP, were consistent with carcinoid syndrome. The histological diagnosis of carcinoid was confirmed after surgical resection of an ovarian mass