Intertemporal choices: framing effect on household food waste

Food waste has several long-term implications for the environmental, economic, and social domains, with households assuming the major responsibility for these losses. Specifically, the fear of not being a “good” provider is linked to an over-serving behaviour. Despite literature suggesting that this over-serving behaviour could be due to a risk aversion effect towards facing status losses, this was never experimentally tested. So, we hypothesized that status losses would prevent people from reducing their served food quantities, and that this would be explained by a higher risk aversion towards these immediate losses. To accomplish that, 126 participants were presented with binary choice paradigms regarding hypothetical food quantities options (cook just the enough food vs cook more than the enough food). In a within-subjects design, where each of these two options were accompanied by a description of its possible consequences relatively to two different specific domains (environmental, economic, social, and status), we manipulated the temporal framing perspective of those consequences (immediate losses and delayed gains vs immediate gains and delayed losses). The results show that the salience of the status losses increased the served food quantities, while temporal effect had no significant effect in this relationship. Overall, our findings open a path for other researchers to explore the household food waste from an empirically perspective, as well as these have practical implications for consumers, for packaged goods managers, and for public policy officials, since these findings may be a useful insight towards the designing of effective food waste reduction nudging interventions.O desperdício alimentar acarreta implicações a longo prazo em termos ambientais, económicos, e sociais, sendo as famílias os principais responsáveis. O medo de não ser um “bom” anfitrião está associado a um comportamento de preparar comida em excesso. A literatura sugere que este comportamento poder-se-á dever a um efeito de aversão ao risco face às perdas de estatuto, contudo isto nunca foi testado experimentalmente. Desta forma, hipotetizámos que as perdas de estatuto impediriam a redução das quantidades de comida servida, sendo isto explicado por uma aversão ao risco superior para perdas imediatas. Assim, 126 participantes foram apresentados com paradigmas de escolhas binárias relativamente a opções hipotéticas de escolhas de quantidades de comida (cozinhar à justa vs cozinhar de sobra). Num desenho intra-sujeitos, estas duas opções foram acompanhadas por uma descrição das suas possíveis consequências relativamente a dois domínios específicos diferentes (ambiental, económico, social, e de estatuto), sendo manipulado o enquadramento temporal dessas mesmas consequências (perdas imediatas e ganhos futuros vs ganhos imediatos e perdas futuras). Os resultados mostram que as perdas de estatuto aumentaram as quantidades de comida servida, enquanto que o efeito temporal não teve um efeito significativo nesta relação. As nossas descobertas possibilitam que outros investigadores explorem o desperdício alimentar doméstico do ponto de vista empírico, assim como têm implicações práticas para os consumidores, para os responsáveis por mercadorias embaladas, e para os oficiais de políticas públicas, uma vez que poderão ser um insight útil para o desenho de intervenções com vista à redução do desperdício alimentar

Ectopic beats arise from micro-reentries near infarct regions in simulations of a patient-specific heart model

Ectopic beats are known to be involved in the initiation of a variety of cardiac arrhythmias. Although their location may vary, ectopic excitations have been found to originate from infarct areas, regions of micro-fibrosis and other heterogeneous tissues. However, the underlying mechanisms that link ectopic foci to heterogeneous tissues have yet to be fully understood. In this work, we investigate the mechanism of micro-reentry that leads to the generation of ectopic beats near infarct areas using a patient-specific heart model. The patient-specific geometrical model of the heart, including scar and peri-infarct zones, is obtained through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The infarct region is composed of ischemic myocytes and non-conducting cells (fibrosis, for instance). Electrophysiology is captured using an established cardiac myocyte model of the human ventricle modified to describe ischemia. The simulation results clearly reveal that ectopic beats emerge from micro-reentries that are sustained by the heterogeneous structure of the infarct regions. Because microscopic information about the heterogeneous structure of the infarct regions is not available, Monte-Carlo simulations are used to identify the probabilities of an infarct region to behave as an ectopic focus for different levels of ischemia and different percentages of non-conducting cells. From the proposed model, it is observed that ectopic beats are generated when a percentage of non-conducting cells is near a topological metric known as the percolation threshold. Although the mechanism for micro-reentries was proposed half a century ago to be a source of ectopic beats or premature ventricular contractions during myocardial infarction, the present study is the first to reproduce this mechanism in-silico using patient-specific data.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A review of capture-recapture methods and its possibilities in ophthalmology and vision sciences

Epidemiological information is expected to be used to develop key aspects of eye care such as to control and minimise the impact of diseases, to allocate resources, to monitor public health actions, to determine the best treatment options and to forecast the consequence of diseases in populations. Epidemiological studies are expected to provide information about the prevalence and/or incidence of eye diseases or conditions. To determine prevalence is necessary to perform a cross-sectional screening of the population at risk to ascertain the number of cases.The aim of this review is to describe and evaluate capture-recapture methods (or models) to ascertaining the number of individuals with a disease (e.g. diabetic retinopathy) or condition (e.g. vision impairment) in the population.The review covers the fundamental aspects of capture-recapture methods that would enable non-experts in epidemiology to use it in ophthalmic studies. The review provides information about theoretical aspects of the method with examples of studies in ophthalmology in which it has been used. We also provide a problem/solution approach for limitations arising from the lists obtained from registers or other reliable sources.We concluded that capture-recapture models can be considered reliable to estimate the total number of cases with eye conditions using incomplete information from registers. Accordingly, the method may be used to maintain updated epidemiological information about eye conditions helping to tackle the lack of surveillance information in many regions of the globe.- This study was supported by FCT (COMPETE/QREN) grant reference [PTDC/DPT-EPI/0412/2012] in the context of the Prevalence and Costs of Visual Impairment in Portugal: a hospital-based study (PCVIP-study) and FCT Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2013. PLR is funded by FCT (COMPETE/QREN) grant reference [SFRH/BD/119420/2016]

a living systematic review

Background: Hamstrings injuries are common in sports and the reinjury risk is high. Despite the extensive literature on hamstrings injuries, the efectiveness of the diferent conservative (i.e., non-surgical) interventions (i.e., modalities and doses) for the rehabilitation of athletes with acute hamstrings injuries is unclear. Objective: We aimed to compare the efects of diferent conservative interventions in time to return to sport (TRTS) and/or time to return to full training (TRFT) and reinjury-related outcomes after acute hamstrings injuries in athletes. Data Sources: We searched CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science databases up to 1 January, 2022, complemented with manual searches, prospective citation tracking, and consultation of external experts. Eligibility Criteria: the eligibility criteria were multi-arm studies (randomized and non-randomized) that compared conservative treatments of acute hamstrings injuries in athletes. Data Analysis: We summarized the characteristics of included studies and conservative interventions and analyzed data for main outcomes (TRTS, TRFT, and rate of reinjuries). The risk of bias was judged using the Cochrane tools. Quality and completeness of reporting of therapeutic exercise programs were appraised with the i-CONTENT tool and the certainty of evidence was judged using the GRADE framework. TRTS and TRFT were analyzed using mean diferences and the risk of reinjury with relative risks. Results Fourteen studies (12 randomized and two non-randomized) comprising 730 athletes (mostly men with ages between 14 and 49 years) from diferent sports were included. Nine randomized studies were judged at high risk and three at low risk of bias, and the two non-randomized studies were judged at critical risk of bias. Seven randomized studies compared exercise-based interventions (e.g., L-protocol vs C-protocol), one randomized study compared the use of low-level laser therapy, and three randomized and two non-randomized studies compared injections of platelet-rich plasma to placebo or no injection. These low-level laser therapy and platelet-rich plasma studies complemented their interventions with an exercise program. Only three studies were judged at low overall risk of inefectiveness (i-CONTENT). No single intervention or combination of interventions proved superior in achieving a faster TRTS/TRFT or reducing the risk of reinjury. Only eccentric lengthening exercises showed limited evidence in allowing a shorter TRFT. The platelet-rich plasma treatment did not consistently reduce the TRFT or have any efect on the risk of new hamstrings injuries. The certainty of evidence was very low for all outcomes and comparisons. Conclusions: Available evidence precludes the prioritization of a particular exercise-based intervention for athletes with acute hamstrings injuries, as diferent exercise-based interventions showed comparable efects on TRTS/TRFT and the risk of reinjuries. Available evidence also does not support the use of platelet-rich plasma or low-level laser therapy in clinical practice. The currently available literature is limited because of the risk of bias, risk of inefectiveness of exercise protocols (as assessed with the i-CONTENT), and the lack of comparability across existing studies. Clinical Trial Registration PROSPERO CRD42021268499 and OSF (https://osf.io/3k4u2/).9513-E3E4-C5C9 | Sílvia Fernanda Rocha RodriguesN/

Studies in the mouse model identify strain variability as a major determinant of disease outcome in Leishmania infantum infection

Visceral leishmaniasis is a severe and potentially fatal disease caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania, transmitted by phlebotomine sandflies. In Europe and the Mediterranean region, L. infantum is the commonest agent of visceral leishmaniasis, causing a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations, including asymptomatic carriage, cutaneous lesions and severe visceral disease. Visceral leishmaniasis is more frequent in immunocompromised individuals and data obtained in experimental models of infection have highlighted the importance of the host immune response, namely the efficient activation of host's macrophages, in determining infection outcome. Conversely, few studies have addressed a possible contribution of parasite variability to this outcome.No funders or funding refered in the paper

Diaqua­bis(ethyl­enediamine-κ2 N,N′)copper(II) bis­(4-phenyl­benzoate) 2.66-hydrate

In the title complex, [Cu(C2H8N2)2(H2O)2](C13H9O2)2·2.66H2O, the CuII centre (located at an inversion centre) is coordinated by two bidentate ethyl­enediamine (en) ligands and two water O atoms in a typical Jahn–Teller distorted octahedral geometry. The amino groups and the water mol­ecules are disordered over two distinct crystallographic positions with occupancies of 1/3 and 2/3. In the crystal, the cations and anions are disposed in alternating layers. One of the water mol­ecules of crystallization is disordered and the other has a fractional occupation. In the 2/3 occupancy component, water mol­ecules are organized into a chain composed of hexa­meric units inter­connected by carboxyl­ate bridges

trans-Bis(4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline-κ2 N,N′)bis­(nitrato-κ2 O,O′)zinc(II)

The title compound, [Zn(NO3)2(C24H16N2)2], is a twofold axially symmetric coordination compound. Given that the Zn—O interactions [2.4926 (15) and 2.6673 (15) Å] can be considered as weakly bonding and the nitrate ions share the same C 2 axis of the Zn(dpp)2 fragment (dpp is 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline), these anions belong to the coordination sphere of Zn2+, leading to a complex with an overall coordination number of 8 for the metal ion

Trends, geographical variation and factors associated with the use of anti-VEGF intravitreal injections in Portugal (2013-2018): a retrospective analysis of administrative data.

AIMS: The arrival of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapies represented a treatment shift for several ophthalmological disorders and led to an increasing number of patients undergoing intravitreal injections. The aims of this observational study were to assess the expansion of anti-VEGF intravitreal injections in the Portuguese National Health System (NHS) and to identify factors correlated with geographical variations in episode rates. METHODS: Administrative database on discharge from Portuguese NHS hospitals was analysed for annual values and rates of intravitreal anti-VEGF injections at a national and regional level, between 2013 and 2018. RESULTS: The number of episodes of anti-VEGF treatment and patients treated increased 16% and 9% per year, respectively, between 2013 and 2018. During the study period around 72% of patients were treated in the Metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto and in the Central region. Intravitreal anti-VEGF treatment rates in 2018 were 560 per 100 000 population and presented high variability between municipalities. Higher anti-VEGF treatment rates at the municipality level were associated with shorter distances between their residence and the hospital. At the hospital level, higher ratio of ophthalmologists and higher organisational level were associated with higher anti-VEGF treatment rates. CONCLUSION: The number of episodes and patients treated with anti-VEGF injections has been growing in recent years. Proximity to healthcare, more access to ophthalmologists and hospitals with higher organisational levels are associated with higher anti-VEGF treatment rates. Improving access is crucial to reduce regional discrepancies and ensure optimal treatment frequency, which may improve health outcomes

(R)-(1-Ammonio­eth­yl)phospho­nate

The title compound, C2H8NO3P, crystallizes in its zwitterionic form H3N+CH(CH3)PO(O−)(OH). In the crystal, the molecules are linked by N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds