The evidential value of research on cognitive training to change food-related biases and unhealthy eating behavior: A systematic review and p-curve analysis

Cognitive bias modification (CBM), which retrains implicit biases towards unhealthy foods, has been proposed as a promising adjunct to improve the efficacy of weight loss interventions. We conducted a systematic review of research on three CBM approaches (i.e., cue-specific inhibitory control, approach bias modification, and attentional bias modification) for reducing unhealthy eating biases and behavior. We performed a p-curve analysis to determine the evidential value of this research; this method is optimally suited to clarify whether published results reflect true effects or false positives due to publication and reporting biases. When considering all CBM approaches, our results suggested that the findings of CBM trials targeting unhealthy eating are unlikely to be false positives. However, only research on attentional bias modification reached acceptable levels of power. These results suggest that CBM interventions may be an effective strategy to enhance the efficacy of weight loss interventions. However, there is room for improvement in the methodological standards of this area of research, especially increasing the statistical power can help to fully clarify the clinical potential of CBM, and determine the role of potential moderatorsConsejería de Educación e Investigación, Grant/Award Numbers: 2016-T1/SOC-1395, 2020-5A/SOC-19723; Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Grant/Award Numbers: PSI2017-85159-P, Ref. FJC2018-036047-

Neurocognitive components of gambling disorder: Implications for assessment, treatment and policy

Gambling disorder (GD) is now recognized as a behavioral addiction. Evidence has shown that GD and substance use disorders (SUDs) have shared vulnerability factors, similar clinical characteristics, and neurobiological overlaps. However, these similarities have somewhat overshadowed the specificities that account for the differences between GD and SUDs, as well as the considerable heterogeneity of patients with gambling disorder (PGD). In this chapter, we aim to disentangle the key neurocognitive components involved in GD, as well as those underlying heterogeneity among PGD. Core components include the brain mechanisms for gambling reinforcement, and their association with incentive sensitization and craving. With regard to heterogeneity, we will focus on specific gambling-related rewards, and automatic (model-free) versus strategic (model-based) emotion regulation processes. These components are integrated into a psychobiologically-informed, multidimensional model for gamblers’ characterization. In such model, individual differences in sensitivity to gambling reinforcement, basic emotion regulation mechanisms, and strategic emotion regulation are used to explain heterogeneity within the GD population, and serve to re-conceptualize previous attempts to cluster GD phenotypes based on clinical observations and empirical research. The proposed model has a number of implications for policy, prevention, and treatment. First, the consideration of GD as an addiction provides ground for harm-reduction approaches. Second, the transdiagnostic nature of key vulnerability factors justifies profiling of high-risk individuals for secondary prevention of disordered gambling (along with other externalizing problems). Third, understanding individual differences within the population of disordered gamblers yields a practical avenue for health services to incorporate tailored treatment protocols

Novel use of green hydrogen fuel cell-based combined heat and power systems to reduce primary energy intake and greenhouse emissions in the building sector

Achieving European climate neutrality by 2050 requires further efforts not only from the industry and society, but also from policymakers. The use of high-efficiency cogeneration facilities will help to reduce both primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions because of the increase in overall efficiency. Fuel cell-based cogeneration technologies are relevant solutions to these points for small- and microscale units. In this research, an innovative and new fuel cell-based cogeneration plant is studied, and its performance is compared with other cogeneration technologies to evaluate the potential reduction degree in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Four energy consumption profile datasets have been generated from real consumption data of different dwellings located in the Mediterranean coast of Spain to perform numerical simulations in different energy scenarios according to the fuel used in the cogeneration. Results show that the fuel cell-based cogeneration systems reduce primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions in buildings, to a degree that depends on the heat-to-power ratio of the consumer. Primary energy consumption varies from 40% to 90% of the original primary energy consumption, when hydrogen is produced from natural gas reforming process, and from 5% to 40% of the original primary energy consumption if the cogeneration is fueled with hydrogen obtained from renewable energy sources. Similar reduction degrees are achieved in CO2 emissions

Uso potencial de arcillas modificadas con metales para la obtención de formulaciones de liberación lenta de herbicidas.

9 páginas., 5 gráficos, 2 tablas y 9 referencias. Versión extendida de la comunicación presentada en la "XIX Reunión Científica de la Sociedad Española de Arcillas - SEA05", celebrada en Salamanca del 26 al 28 de Septiembre de 2005. Enlace a la web de la Sociedad Española de Arcillas http://www.sea-arcillas.es/publicacionesSEA.htm[EN]Abstract A slow release system of the herbicide imazapyr was designed by adsorption on pillared clays. Pillared clays based on aluminum and mixed aluminum-copper solutions were synthesized. The aim was to check whether the introduction into the pillars of a metal complexing the herbicide molecules enhanced the sorption and release properties of the clay for the herbicide. A commercial aluminum pillared clay was also examined as a potential sorbent. The chemical analysis data as well as those of X-ray diffraction show that copper from pillaring solutions was partially introduced, and the basal spacing were increased about 9 Å in good agreement with the size of the Keggin ion. The textural properties indicate a reduction in the micro- and mesoporosity of the pillared clays after pillaring with copper solutions. The largest the copper content in the mixed Al-Cu pillared clays the largest the decrease in the surface area. However, imazapyr adsorption increased up to three-fold compared to the commercial pillared clay, and desorption percentages from the Cu-Al pillared clays were three-fold lower than the commercial one, whose desorption was completely reversible. These preliminary results show the potential use of Cu-Al pillared clays for the development of slow release formulations of the herbicide imzapyr, unlike those whose pillars are only made of aluminum.[ES]Resumen En el presente trabajo se ha intentado desarrollar un sistema de liberación lenta del herbicida imazayr mediante su adsorción en arcillas pilareadas. Se han sintetizado arcillas pilareadas con aluminio y con soluciones mixtas Cu-Al, a fin de comprobar si la formación de pilares mixtos de aluminio con un metal complejante del herbicida mejoraba las propiedades de adsorción y liberación del mismo. También se ha estudiado el empleo potencial de una arcilla pilareada comercial formada con pilares exclusivos de aluminio. Los resultados de análisis químico así como de difracción de rayos X muestran que parte del cobre de las soluciones pilareantes se ha introducido en las arcillas finales, cuyos espaciados basales presentan un incremento de aproximadamente 9 Å, que se corresponde con el tamaño del ión Keggin. Las propiedades texturales indican una disminución tanto de la microporosidad como de la mesoporosidad en las arcillas tras su pilarización con soluciones de Cu-Al, que es tanto mayor cuanto mayor es el contenido de Cu. A pesar de la reducción en la superficie de estas arcillas sintetizadas con Cu, la adsorción de imazapyr incrementaba hasta 3 veces con respecto a la arcilla pilareada comercial. A su vez los porcentajes de desorción en la arcillas pilareadas con Cu-Al eran hasta tres veces inferiores a los correspondientes a la arcilla pilareada comercial, cuya desorción era prácticamente reversible. Estos resultados preliminares avalan el uso potencial de arcillas pilareadas con Cu-Al para el desarrollo de formulaciones de liberación lenta del herbicida imazapyr, a diferencia de aquellas en las que los pilares se encuentran formados únicamente por aluminio.Peer Reviewe

頭部外傷の治療(交通事故による脳障害,第48回千葉医学会学術大会,第17回千葉県医師会学術大会,第10回日医医学講座,連合大会)

BACKGROUND:The negative consequences of energy dense foods are well known, yet people increasingly make unhealthy food choices leading to obesity (i.e., risky decisions). The aims of this study were: [1] to compare performance in decision-making tasks under risk and under ambiguity between individuals with obesity, overweight and normal weight; [2] to examine the associations between body mass index (BMI) and decision-making, and the degree to which these associations are modulated by reward sensitivity. METHODS:Seventy-nine adults were recruited and classified in three groups according to their BMI: obesity, overweight and normal-weight. Groups were similar in terms of age, education and socio-economic status, and were screened for comorbid medical and mental health conditions. Decision-making under risk was measured via the Wheel of Fortune Task (WoFT) and decision-making under ambiguity via the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Reward sensitivity was indicated by the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ). RESULTS:Individuals with obesity made riskier choices in the WoFT, specifically in choices with an expected value close to zero and in the propensity to risk index. No differences were found in IGT performance or SPSRQ scores. BMI was associated with risk-taking (WoFT performance), independently of reward sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS:Obesity is linked to a propensity to make risky decisions in experimental conditions analogous to everyday food choices

Altered decision-making under risk in obesity

Background: The negative consequences of energy dense foods are well known, yet people increasingly make unhealthy food choices leading to obesity (i.e., risky decisions). The aims of this study were: [1] to compare performance in decision-making tasks under risk and under ambiguity between individuals with obesity, overweight and normal weight; [2] to examine the associations between body mass index (BMI) and decision-making, and the degree to which these associations are modulated by reward sensitivity. Methods: Seventy-nine adults were recruited and classified in three groups according to their BMI: obesity, overweight and normal-weight. Groups were similar in terms of age, education and socio-economic status, and were screened for comorbid medical and mental health conditions. Decision-making under risk was measured via the Wheel of Fortune Task (WoFT) and decision-making under ambiguity via the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Reward sensitivity was indicated by the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ). Results: Individuals with obesity made riskier choices in the WoFT, specifically in choices with an expected value close to zero and in the propensity to risk index. No differences were found in IGT performance or SPSRQ scores. BMI was associated with risk-taking (WoFT performance), independently of reward sensitivity. Conclusions: Obesity is linked to a propensity to make risky decisions in experimental conditions analogous to everyday food choices

Exploiting the Hierarchical Structure of Rule-Based Specifications for Decision Planning

Rule-based specifications have been very successful as a declarative approach in many domains, due to the handy yet solid foundations offered by rule-based machineries like term and graph rewriting. Realistic problems, however, call for suitable techniques to guarantee scalability. For instance, many domains exhibit a hierarchical structure that can be exploited conveniently. This is particularly evident for composition associations of models. We propose an explicit representation of such structured models and a methodology that exploits it for the description and analysis of model- and rule-based systems. The approach is presented in the framework of rewriting logic and its efficient implementation in the rewrite engine Maude and is illustrated with a case study.

Effects of ecstasy/polydrug use on memory for associative information

Rationale Associative learning underpins behaviours that are fundamental to the everyday functioning of the individual. Evidence pointing to learning deficits in recreational drug users merits further examination. Objectives A word pair learning task was administered to examine associative learning processes in ecstasy/polydrug users. Methods After assignment to either single or divided attention conditions, 44 ecstasy/polydrug users and 48 non-users were presented with 80 word pairs at encoding. Following this, four types of stimuli were presented at the recognition phase: the words as originally paired (old pairs), previously presented words in different pairings (conjunction pairs), old words paired with new words, and pairs of new words (not presented previously). The task was to identify which of the stimuli were intact old pairs. Results Ecstasy/ploydrug users produced significantly more false-positive responses overall compared to non-users. Increased long-term frequency of ecstasy use was positively associated with the propensity to produce false-positive responses. It was also associated with a more liberal signal detection theory decision criterion value. Measures of long term and recent cannabis use were also associated with these same word pair learning outcome measures. Conjunction word pairs, irrespective of drug use, generated the highest level of false-positive responses and significantly more false-positive responses were made in the divided attention condition compared to the single attention condition. Conclusions Overall, the results suggest that long-term ecstasy exposure may induce a deficit in associative learning and this may be in part a consequence of users adopting a more liberal decision criterion value

Temperament and Impulsivity Predictors of Smoking Cessation Outcomes

Aims: Temperament and impulsivity are powerful predictors of addiction treatment outcomes. However, a comprehensive assessment of these features has not been examined in relation to smoking cessation outcomes.Methods: Naturalistic prospective study. Treatment-seeking smokers (n = 140) were recruited as they engaged in an occupational health clinic providing smoking cessation treatment between 2009 and 2013. Participants were assessed at baseline with measures of temperament (Temperament and Character Inventory), trait impulsivity (Barratt Impulsivity Scale), and cognitive impulsivity (Go/No Go, Delay Discounting and Iowa Gambling Task). The outcome measure was treatment status, coded as “dropout” versus “relapse” versus “abstinence” at 3, 6, and 12 months endpoints. Participants were telephonically contacted and reminded of follow-up face to face assessments at each endpoint. The participants that failed to answer the phone calls or self-reported discontinuation of treatment and failed to attend the upcoming follow-up session were coded as dropouts. The participants that self-reported continuing treatment, and successfully attended the upcoming follow-up session were coded as either “relapse” or “abstinence”, based on the results of smoking behavior self-reports cross-validated with co-oximetry hemoglobin levels. Multinomial regression models were conducted to test whether temperament and impulsivity measures predicted dropout and relapse relative to abstinence outcomes.Results: Higher scores on temperament dimensions of novelty seeking and reward dependence predicted poorer retention across endpoints, whereas only higher scores on persistence predicted greater relapse. Higher scores on the trait dimension of non-planning impulsivity but not performance on cognitive impulsivity predicted poorer retention. Higher non-planning impulsivity and poorer performance in the Iowa Gambling Task predicted greater relapse at 3 and 6 months and 6 months respectively.Conclusion: Temperament measures, and specifically novelty seeking and reward dependence, predict smoking cessation treatment retention, whereas persistence, non-planning impulsivity and poor decision-making predict smoking relapse.This research was funded by the Occupational Medicine Area (Prevention Service); Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, University of Granada (Spain); and Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad grant (MINICO, ref. # PSI2013-45055-P) for the first and second authors

Differences in brain volume between metabolically healthy and unhealthy overweight and obese children: the role of fitness

The aim of this study was to examine whether metabolically healthy overweight/obese children have greater global and regional gray matter volumes than their metabolically unhealthy peers. We further examined the association between gray matter volume and academic achievement, along with the role of cardiorespiratory fitness in these associations. A total of 97 overweight/obese children (10.0 +/- 1.2 years) participated. We classified children as metabolically healthy/unhealthy based on metabolic syndrome cut-offs. Global and regional brain volumes were assessed by magnetic resonance imaging. Academic achievement was assessed using the Woodcock-Munoz standardized test. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed by the 20 m shuttle run test. Metabolically healthy overweight/obese (MHO) children had greater regional gray matter volume compared to those who were metabolically unhealthy (MUO) (all p 0.05). The findings of the present study support that metabolically healthy overweight/obese children have greater gray matter volume compared to those that are metabolically unhealthy, which is in turn related to better academic achievement. However, cardiorespiratory fitness seems to explain, at least partially, these findings.The ActiveBrains project was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the 'Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)' (DEP2013-47540, DEP2016-79512-R, DEP2017-91544-EXP and RYC-2011-09011). CC-S are supported by the Government of Andalusian, Integrated Territorial Initiative 2014-2020 for the province of Cadiz (PI-0002-2017) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FJC2018-037925-I). IE-C are supported by the Alicia Koplowitz Foundation and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (RTI2018-095284-J-100). JHM and JM-G are supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (FPU15/02645 and FPU14/06837, respectively). JVR is supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (FJCI-2017-33396). PH was supported by a grant from the Strategic Research Area Health Care Science, Karolinska Institutet/Umea University. Additional funding was obtained from the University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigacion 2016, Excellence actions: Units of Excellence; Scientific Excellence Unit on Exercise and Health (UCEES). Junta de Andalucia, Consejeria de Conocimiento, Investigacion y Universidades and European Regional Development Funds (ref. SOMM17/6107/UGR). In addition, funding was provided by the SAMID III network, RETICS, funded by the PN I + D + I 2017-2021 (Spain), ISCIII-Sub-Directorate General for Research Assessment and Promotion, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (Ref. RD16/0022), the EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health in Special Populations (DEP2005-00046/ACTI) and the European Union's 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 667302