Evaluation of a dietary screener: The Mediterranean Eating Pattern for Americans tool

Background: Evidence exists for an association between accordance with a Mediterranean diet pattern and slower rates of cognitive decline. However, an ‘Americanized’ version of the Mediterranean diet screener is needed to assess accordance in the USA. Thus, the Mediterranean Eating Pattern for Americans (MEPA) tool was developed to assess accordance with a Mediterranean-like food pattern when time is limited. The present study aimed to determine whether the MEPA screener captured the key elements of the Mediterranean diet compared to the more comprehensive food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Methods: The study comprised a cross-sectional study in which 70 women completed both the VioScreen™ FFQ (Viocare, Princeton, NJ, USA) electronically and the 16-item MEPA screener, either electronically or by telephone, aiming to evaluate the inter-method reliability of the proposed screener. The convenience sample included patients (n = 49) and healthcare providers (n = 21) recruited from a tertiary care medical center. Results: The overall score from the MEPA screener correlated with corresponding overall MEPA FFQ score (ρ = 0.365, P = 0.002). Agreement between screener items and FFQ items was moderate-to-good for berries (κ = 0.47, P \u3c 0.001), nuts (κ = 0.42, P \u3c 0.001), fish (κ = 0.62, P \u3c 0.001) and alcohol (κ = 0.64, P \u3c 0.001), whereas those for olive oil (κ = 0.33, P = 0.001) and green leafy vegetables (κ = 0.36, P = 0.0021) were fair. Usual intakes of potassium, magnesium, vitamin C, saturated fat, selected carotenoids, folate and fiber derived from the FFQ varied with MEPA screener scores in the anticipated directions. Conclusions: The MEPA screener captures several components of the Mediterranean style pattern, although further testing of the MEPA screener is indicated

Translating Research Into Practice: Speeding the Adoption of Innovative Health Care Programs

Looks at case studies of four innovative clinical programs to determine key factors influencing the diffusion and adoption of innovations in health care

Perfect imaging: they don't do it with mirrors

Imaging with a spherical mirror in empty space is compared with the case when the mirror is filled with the medium of Maxwell's fish eye. Exact time-dependent solutions of Maxwell's equations show that perfect imaging is not achievable with an electrical ideal mirror on its own, but with Maxwell's fish eye in the regime when it implements a curved geometry for full electromagnetic waves

Disclosure of Maternal HIV Status to Children: To Tell or Not To Tell . . . That Is the Question

HIV-infected mothers face the challenging decision of whether to disclose their serostatus to their children. From the perspective of both mother and child, we explored the process of disclosure, providing descriptive information and examining the relationships among disclosure, demographic variables, and child adjustment. Participants were 23 mothers and one of their noninfected children (9 to 16 years of age). Sixty-one percent of mothers disclosed. Consistent with previous research, disclosure was not related to child functioning. However, children sworn to secrecy demonstrated lower social competence and more externalizing problems. Differential disclosure, which occurred in one-third of the families, was associated with higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Finally, knowing more than mothers had themselves disclosed was related to child maladjustment across multiple domains. Clinical implications and the need for future research are considered

Global Governance Behind Closed Doors : The IMF Boardroom, the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility, and the Intersection of Material Power and Norm Change in Global Politics

Up on the 12th floor of its 19th Street Headquarters, the IMF Board sits in active session for an average of 7 hours per week. Although key matters of policy are decided on in the venue, the rules governing Boardroom interactions remain opaque, resting on an uneasy combination of consensual decision-making and weighted voting. Through a detailed analysis of IMF Board discussions surrounding the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF), this article sheds light on the mechanics of power in this often overlooked venue of global economic governance. By exploring the key issues of default liability and loan conditionality, I demonstrate that whilst the Boardroom is a more active site of contestation than has hitherto been recognized, material power is a prime determinant of both Executive Directors’ preferences and outcomes reached from discussions. And as the decisions reached form the backbone of the ‘instruction sheet’ used by Fund staff to guide their everyday operational decisions, these outcomes—and the processes through which they were reached—were factors of primary importance in stabilizing the operational norms at the heart of a controversial phase in the contemporary history of IMF concessional lending

STM observation of electronic wave interference effect in finite-sized graphite with dislocation-network structures

Superperiodic patterns near a step edge were observed by STM on several-layer-thick graphite sheets on a highly oriented pyrolitic graphite substrate, where a dislocation network is generated at the interface between the graphite overlayer and the substrate. Triangular- and rhombic-shaped periodic patterns whose periodicities are around 100 nm were observed on the upper terrace near the step edge. In contrast, only outlines of the patterns similar to those on the upper terrace were observed on the lower terrace. On the upper terrace, their geometrical patterns gradually disappeared and became similar to those on the lower terrace without any changes of their periodicity in increasing a bias voltage. By assuming a periodic scattering potential at the interface due to dislocations, the varying corrugation amplitudes of the patterns can be understood as changes in LDOS as a result of the beat of perturbed and unperturbed waves, i.e. the interference in an overlayer. The observed changes in the image depending on an overlayer height and a bias voltage can be explained by the electronic wave interference in the ultra-thin overlayer distorted under the influence of dislocation-network structures.Comment: 8 pages; 6 figures; Paper which a part of cond-mat/0311068 is disscussed in detai

Complex networks theory for analyzing metabolic networks

One of the main tasks of post-genomic informatics is to systematically investigate all molecules and their interactions within a living cell so as to understand how these molecules and the interactions between them relate to the function of the organism, while networks are appropriate abstract description of all kinds of interactions. In the past few years, great achievement has been made in developing theory of complex networks for revealing the organizing principles that govern the formation and evolution of various complex biological, technological and social networks. This paper reviews the accomplishments in constructing genome-based metabolic networks and describes how the theory of complex networks is applied to analyze metabolic networks.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Whitehall in the Caribbean? The legacy of colonial administration for post-colonial democratic development

Colonial-era administrative institutions and doctrines are fundamental to any analysis of Westminster’s legacy in the Caribbean. Applying the lens of ‘Public Service Bargains’ (PSBs) – the formal and informal understandings of reward, competence and loyalty of public servants –we first examine constitutional and administrative doctrines regarding the public service of Crown Colonies, before analysing how these worked themselves out in Jamaica. Our analysis reveals a number of perceived deficiencies in the PSB in the pre-independence period that cast a shadow on future relations in the post-independence period