Does social desirability compromise self-reports of physical activity in web-based research?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study investigated the relation between social desirability and self-reported physical activity in web-based research.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>A longitudinal study (<it>N </it>= 5,495, 54% women) was conducted on a representative sample of the Dutch population using the Marlowe-Crowne Scale as social desirability measure and the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Social desirability was not associated with self-reported physical activity (in MET-minutes/week), nor with its sub-behaviors (i.e., walking, moderate-intensity activity, vigorous-intensity activity, and sedentary behavior). Socio-demographics (i.e., age, sex, income, and education) did not moderate the effect of social desirability on self-reported physical activity and its sub-behaviors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study does not throw doubt on the usefulness of the Internet as a medium to collect self-reports on physical activity.</p

Tropospheric water-vapour and ozone cross-sections in a zonal plane over the Central Equatorial Pacific Ocean

Tropospheric water-vapour and ozone measurements, using calibrated balloon-borne sensors, are reported from the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX). The sensors were launched from the Research Vessel Vickers along 2 degrees S latitude between 156 degrees E (west of the international date line) and 155 degrees W (east of the date line). These measurements are combined with those from water-vapour sondes launched over the western Pacific warm pool, during the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA-COARE). Taking the two experiments CEPEX and TOGA-COARE together, the sensors included frost-point hygrometers, Humicap-A Vaisala sondes, Humicap-H Vaisala sondes and electrochemical ozone-sondes. Taken together, the CEPEX and TOGA-COARE data provide over 150 vertical profiles of water vapour within the troposphere in varied conditions of convective activity ranging from disturbed to suppressed. The primary motivation behind the present analyses is to understand the role of tropical deep convection in the vertical distribution of water-vapour. With this in mind, the profiles have been analysed in relation to occasions of recent deep convection and occasions when convection was suppressed. We employ three different criteria to identify the profiles influenced by deep convection brightness temperature in the infrared-window channel of the Japanese Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS); ozone as a quasi-conservative tracer for deep convection; and using water vapour itself, that is the wettest versus the driest soundings. Irrespective of the criteria used, we report here that the atmosphere, while under the influence of active deep convection, was found to have relative humidities in excess of 75% over most of the troposphere between the surface and about 14 km. The sondes were launched routinely over a period of 45 days (between CEPEX and TOGA-COARE), without biasing the sample towards convectively disturbed conditions. A feature of the convectively disturbed profile is a distinct minimum in relative humidity at about 700 hPa, where it was as low as 65%. The low relative humidity was accompanied by relatively high ozone mixing ratios, which raises the possibility of long-range transport of dry sub-tropical air into the warm, convectively disturbed, regions of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Inspection of the analysed fields, and the wind fields from the sondes, supports this assertion. It then follows that the omnipresent minimum of moist static energy and minimum relative humidity at 700 hPa in the inner tropics may be the result of long-range, inclined, transport of dry air from non-convective regions. This detection suggests a linkage between the large-scale circulation, deep convection and the thermodynamic structure within the equatorial troposphere. The results presented here demonstrate the applicability of ozone as a quasi-conservative tracer of transport in the context of deep convection. The ozone-based criterion is used to diagnose recent deep convection, independent of the GMS satellite observations, and allows one to follow the evolution of relative humidity and of water-vapour mixing ratio after the dissipation of the cloud anvil to optically thin conditions. We show that the troposphere dries to low humidity soon after anvil dissipation. This observation leads to the hypothesis that moistening of the atmosphere, away from the core of Cb convection, occurs by evaporation of precipitation falling out of the anvils. After anvil dissipation, the ensuing subsidence in clear air causes the relative humidity and the water mixing ratio to decrease

Exploration of the effects of an innovative mentalization-based training on patient-centered communication skills of pharmacy staff:A video-observation study

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether a mentalization-based communication training for pharmacy staff impacts their ability to elicit and recognize patients' implicit and explicit medication related needs and concerns.METHODS: A single-arm intervention pilot study was conducted, in which pre-post video-recordings of pharmacy counter-conversations on dispensed-medication (N = 50 and N = 34, respectively; pharmacy staff: N = 22) were coded. Outcome measures included: detecting needs and concerns, and implicitly and explicitly eliciting and recognizing them. Descriptive statistics and a multi-level logistic regression were conducted. Excerpts of videos with needs or concerns were analyzed thematically on mentalizing attitude aspects.RESULTS: Indications show that patients more often express their concerns in an explicit way post-measurement, just as pharmacy staffs' explicit recognition and elicitation of needs and concerns. This was not seen for patients' needs. No statistically significant differences were found for determinants for detecting needs or concerns (i.e., measurement-, professional-type, or interaction). Differences in mentalizing attitude were observed between pre-post-measurements, e.g., more attention for patients.CONCLUSION: This mentalizing training shows the potential of mentalizing to improve pharmacy staff members' explicit elicitation and recognition of patients' medication-related needs and concerns.PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The training seems promising for improving patient-oriented communication skills in pharmacy staff. Future studies should confirm this result.</p

Carbon and climate system coupling on timescales from the Precambrian to the Anthropocene

Author Posting. © Annual Reviews, 2007. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Annual Reviews for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Annual Review of Environment and Resources 32 (2007): 31-66, doi:10.1146/annurev.energy.32.041706.124700.The global carbon and climate systems are closely intertwined, with biogeochemical processes responding to and driving climate variations. Over a range of geological and historical time-scales, warmer climate conditions are associated with higher atmospheric levels of CO2, an important climate-modulating greenhouse gas. The atmospheric CO2-temperature relationship reflects two dynamics, the planet’s climate sensitivity to a perturbation in atmospheric CO2 and the stability of non-atmospheric carbon reservoirs to evolving climate. Both exhibit non-linear behavior, and coupled carbon-climate interactions have the potential to introduce both stabilizing and destabilizing feedback loops into the Earth System. Here we bring together evidence from a wide range of geological, observational, experimental and modeling studies on the dominant interactions between the carbon cycle and climate. The review is organized by time-scale, spanning interannual to centennial climate variability, Holocene millennial variations and Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles, and million year and longer variations over the Precambrian and Phanerozoic. Our focus is on characterizing and, where possible quantifying, the emergent behavior internal to the coupled carbon-climate system as well as the responses of the system to external forcing from tectonics, orbital dynamics, catastrophic events, and anthropogenic fossil fuel emissions. While there are many unresolved uncertainties and complexity in the carbon cycle, one emergent property is clear across time scales: while CO2 can increase in the atmosphere quickly, returning to lower levels through natural processes is much slower, so the consequences of the human perturbation will far outlive the emissions that caused them.S. Doney acknowledges support from the NSF Geosciences Carbon and Water program (NSF ATM-0628582) and the WHOI W. Van Alan Clark Sr. Chair. D. Schimel acknowledges support from the NSF Biocomplexity in the Environment program (NSF EAR-0321918)

An Intervention to Increase Condom Use Among Users of Chlamydia Self-Sampling Websites (Wrapped): Intervention Mapping and Think-Aloud Study.

BACKGROUND: Young people aged 16-24 years are disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted infections (STIs). STIs can have serious health consequences for affected individuals and the estimated annual cost of treatment to the National Health Service is £620 million. Accordingly, the UK government has made reducing the rates of STIs among this group a priority. A missed opportunity to intervene to increase condom use is when young people obtain self-sampling kits for STIs via the internet. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to develop a theory-based tailored intervention to increase condom use for 16-24-years-olds accessing chlamydia self-sampling websites. METHODS: The intervention, Wrapped, was developed using Intervention Mapping and was co-designed with young people. The following steps were performed: (1) identification of important determinants of condom use and evidence of their changeability using computer and digital interventions; (2) setting the intervention goal, performance objectives, and change objectives; (3) identification of Behavior Change Principles (BCPs) and practical strategies to target these determinants; and (4) development of intervention materials able to deliver the BCPs and practical strategies. RESULTS: Users of existing chlamydia self-sampling websites are signposted to Wrapped after placing an order for a sampling kit. Salient barriers to condom use are identified by each user and relevant intervention components are allocated to target these. The components include the following: (1) a sample box of condoms, (2) an online condom distribution service, (3) a product for carrying condoms, (4) a condom demonstration video, (5) a series of videos on communication about condom use, and (6) erotic films of real couples discussing and demonstrating condom use. CONCLUSIONS: This intervention will be directed at young people who may be particularly receptive to messages and support for behavior change due to their testing status

Four Transducer Ultrasonic Array for Detecting and Sizing Defects in Plate and Pipe Materials

Ultrasonic pulse-echo techniques are widely used for detection and sizing of defects. However, studies over recent years have shown that the detection and sizing capability of many of the widely accepted ultrasonic techniques do not provide accuracy required to assure safety, reliability or maintainability. While certain types and orientations of defects can be detected, others may go undetected. Even after detection, studies have shown that the ability to size defects is far from accurate. [1,2,3