Psychological Predictors of Success in Bariatric Surgery Patients: A Meta-Analytic Review

Background: Bariatric weight loss surgeries are an increasingly popular last resort option for obese individuals attempting to lose weight. Though these surgeries often produce substantial weight loss outcomes, especially in a short-term follow-up period, many individuals that undergo these procedures are unable to achieve long-term weight loss success. Within the bariatric surgery literature several psychological variables have been implicated in this long-term failure to maintain weight loss. Purpose: This study was designed to assess the effects of psychological variables on weight loss success after surgery through a meta-analytic review. Methods: The effect sizes from 10 studies were calculated and combined to determine the overall effect size across the data pool. The variables of depression and anxiety were isolated to determine the effect size within this narrower subset of studies. A test of homogeneity was performed to determine the extent to which the overall effect was representative of the findings across studies. Results: No significant relationship was found between pre-surgical general psychopathology and weight loss (r=.082, p=.122). A small non-significant positive correlation was found between pre-surgical anxiety and depression and weight loss (r=.177, p=.13). Both data sets were found to be heterogeneous (general psychopathology: Q=19.15, p=.024, I^2=52.99; anxiety/depression: Q=8.34, p=.04, I^2=64.01). Conclusions: The results indicate that pre-surgical psychopathology is not predictive of weight loss success after bariatric surgery. Given the lack of standardized test data for psychopathology prior to these surgeries and given the poor quality of data reporting in the existing literature, we recommend further investigation in this field using validated instruments, especially concerning anxiety and depression

Neuroanatomical spread of amyloid β and tau in Alzheimer's disease: implications for primary prevention.

With recent advances in our understanding of the continuous pathophysiological changes that begin many years prior to symptom onset, it is now apparent that Alzheimer's disease cannot be adequately described by discrete clinical stages, but should also incorporate the continuum of biological changes that precede and underlie the clinical representation of the disease. By jointly considering longitudinal changes of all available biomarkers and clinical assessments, variation within individuals can be integrated into a single continuous measure of disease progression and used to identify the earliest pathophysiological changes. Disease time, a measure of disease severity, was estimated using a Bayesian latent time joint mixed-effects model applied to an array of imaging, biomarker and neuropsychological data. Trajectories of regional amyloid β and tau PET uptake were estimated as a function of disease time. Regions with early signs of elevated amyloid β uptake were used to form an early, focal composite and compared to a commonly used global composite, in a separate validation sample. Disease time was estimated in 279 participants (183 cognitively unimpaired individuals, 61 mild cognitive impairment and 35 Alzheimer's disease dementia patients) with available amyloid β and tau PET data. Amyloid β PET uptake levels in the posterior cingulate and precuneus start high and immediately increase with small increases of disease time. Early elevation in tau PET uptake was found in the inferior temporal lobe, amygdala, banks of the superior temporal sulcus, entorhinal cortex, middle temporal lobe, inferior parietal lobe and the fusiform gyrus. In a separate validation sample of 188 cognitively unimpaired individuals, the early, focal amyloid β PET composite showed a 120% increase in the accumulation rate of amyloid β compared to the global composite (P < 0.001), resulting in a 60% increase in the power to detect a treatment effect in a primary prevention trial design. Ordering participants on a continuous disease time scale facilitates the inspection of the earliest signs of amyloid β and tau pathology. To detect early changes in amyloid β pathology, focusing on the earliest sites of amyloid β accumulation results in more powerful and efficient study designs in early Alzheimer's disease. Targeted composites could be used to re-examine the thresholds for amyloid β-related study inclusion, especially as the field shifts to focus on primary and secondary prevention. Clinical trials of anti-amyloid β treatments may benefit from the use of focal composites when estimating drug effects on amyloid β and tau changes in populations with minimal amyloid β and tau pathology and limited expected short-term accumulation

Improving Estimates of Genetic Maps: A Maximum Likelihood Approach

As a result of previous large, multipoint linkage studies there is a substantial amount of existing marker data. Due to the increased sample size, genetic maps estimated from these data could be more accurate than publicly available maps. However, current methods for map estimation are restricted to data sets containing pedigrees with a small number of individuals, or cannot make full use of marker data that are observed at several loci on members of large, extended pedigrees. In this article, a maximum likelihood (ML) method for map estimation that can make full use of the marker data in a large, multipoint linkage study is described. The method is applied to replicate sets of simulated marker data involving seven linked loci, and pedigree structures based on the real multipoint linkage study of Abkevich et al. (2003, American Journal of Human Genetics 73, 1271–1281). The variance of the ML estimate is accurately estimated, and tests of both simple and composite null hypotheses are performed. An efficient procedure for combining map estimates over data sets is also suggested.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66271/1/j.1541-0420.2006.00532.x.pd

Connectivity & Communication: A Study of How Small Wine Businesses Use the Internet

This paper addresses the development and effects of Internet use by small wine businesses.   It includes useful insights that can be applied to other small businesses, and also provides helpful information for consultants and entrepreneurship educators. An exploratory framework is presented that includes a four-stage sequence through which small businesses typically progress in relation to the use of Internet-related tools. The stages include awareness, design, implementation, and practice. Propositions are also developed to guide analysis of the framework, and an  empirical test of various parts of the framework is performed using a sample of 382 wineries. Results showed that, beyond the use of e-mail for communication and connectivity, awareness of the Internet's uses is moderate, while implementation is moderate to low. Thirty-nine percent of the respondents believe the Internet will make a strong contribution to sales and profitability in the future, though only 9% report they are currently achieving this with Internet utilization

Propofol Related Infusion Syndrome: A Subtle Adversary

Propofol Related Infusion Syndrome (PRIS) was first described in 1998. It has a strange collection of symptoms, including marked bradycardia, persistent, recalcitrant metabolic acidosis, liver enlargement, rhabdomyolysis, and lipemic blood. We present two recent patients who appeared to have had PRIS. Creatinine kinase seems to be an early detector of PRIS. If PRIS is recognized early, this complex metabolic process seems to be completely reversible

Catchment survey in the Karonga District: a landscape-scale analysis of provisioning and core reduction strategies during the Middle Stone Age of northern Malawi

The landscape of northern Malawi is defined by several river catchments that drain from the highlands in the west into Lake Malawi in the east. Many thousands of Middle Stone Age (MSA) artefacts are present on the surface, in particular, in areas where sedimentary units assigned to the Chitimwe Beds are exposed. The unique configuration of the region and its exposures makes it possible to address landscape-scale questions about MSA behaviour that augment information derived from excavated assemblages. In this study, data are derived from initial results of surveys conducted in 2012 which focussed on how lithic raw materials (in the form of cobbles) and core technology (in the form of mapped and analysed cores) are distributed across the landscape relative to different landforms, geologies and one another. These data are used to examine if differences in core reduction technology occur in different catchment areas with different raw material quantities and qualities, and to test hypotheses about lithic provisioning scenarios. This allows for examination of core reduction technologies in relation to raw material sources via surface finds, on a larger regional scale than is usually possible from excavations. Different catchments show differences in the type and quality of the raw material, with higher-quality quartzites occurring in the North Rukuru catchment and declining to the south. This is reflected in the types of materials that MSA people chose to use for the production of stone tools. However, differences in raw material selection and distance from cobbles did not influence preferred core reduction strategies, and most cores cluster together near cobble sources. This suggests that throughout the MSA in the study area, core reduction strategies were highly conserved even while raw material use remained flexible, and cores were not regularly transported as part of a provisioning strategy

Reflections on Mental Health Advocacy Across Differing Ecological Levels

Background: According to the World Health Organization, mental health advocacy is comprised of a range of actions designed to change aspects of attitudes and structures that impede the achievement of positive mental health in populations. Methods: According to the World Health Organization, mental health advocacy is comprised of a range of actions designed to change aspects of attitudes and structures that impede the achievement of positive mental health in populations. Results: We have proposed interventions and advocacy effort for each ecological level. Project UPLIFT, a distance-delivered intervention for mental health is presented as an example of an effort that can affect several levels of the social ecology. Conclusions: Advocacy and interventions that make an effort to encompass the levels of the social-ecological model may contribute to greater progress in improving mental health outcomes

The Role of Media and Popular Culture in the Mis/Education of Adults

The purpose of this symposium is to explore multiple perspectives on the role of media in the education and mis-education of adults, and to consider how educators might draw on media in developing a critical public pedagogy

Commentary on Guyll et al. (2023): Misuse of Statistical Method Results in Highly Biased Interpretation of Forensic Evidence

Since the National Academy of Sciences released their report outlining paths for improving reliability, standards, and policies in the forensic sciences NAS (2009), there has been heightened interest in evaluating and improving the scientific validity within forensic science disciplines. Guyll et al. (2023) seek to evaluate the validity of forensic cartridge-case comparisons. However, they make a serious statistical error that leads to highly inflated claims about the probability that a cartridge case from a crime scene was fired from a reference gun, typically a gun found in the possession of a defendant. It is urgent to address this error since these claims, which are generally biased against defendants, are being presented by the prosecution in an ongoing homicide case where the defendant faces the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence (DC Superior Court, 2023)

Aqueous Processes and Microbial Habitability of Gale Crater Sediments from the Blunts Point to the Glenn Torridon Clay Unit

A driving factor for sending the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity rover to Gale Crater was the orbital detection of clay minerals in the Glen Torridon (GT) clay unit. Clay mineral detections in GT suggested a past aqueous environment that was habitable, and could contain organic evidence of past microbiology. The mission of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument onboard Curiosity was to detect organic evidence of past microbiology and to detect volatile bearing mineralogy that can inform on whether past geochemical conditions would have supported microbiological activity. The objective of this work was to 1) evaluate the depositional/alteration conditions of Blunts Point (BP) to GT sediments 2) search for evidence of organics, and 3) evaluate microbial habitability in the BP, Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR), and GT sedimentary rock