Prevalence of Caffeine Dependency and Daytime Fatigue Amongst Undergraduate Students

Caffeine is considered a legal drug with a main function of acting as a stimulant. The recommended daily dose of caffeine is up to 400 mg, however, most college students consume on average 800 mg per day (Mcllavian et al., 2013). Amongst American college students, caffeine is considered one of five most commonly consumed drugs, being compared with alcohol, marijuana, opioids, and sedatives (American Addictions Center, 2019). Within this population, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the adverse effects of caffeine and its potential impact of alertness versus sleepiness. Existing literature on this topic has shown that caffeine can decrease overall energy (Young & Benton, 2013). It was found that 53% of college students self-report fatigue and daytime sleepiness (Roth, 2015). Daytime fatigue is shown to negatively impact academic achievement, attention span, decision making, function, and quality of life (2015). This research aimed to understand the relationship between daytime sleepiness and caffeine consumption at a mid-sized southern university, measured by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (Johns, 1991) and the Caffeine Dependency Inventory (Sabau & Beiglböck, 2020). It was hypothesized to have a positive correlation between caffeine consumption and daytime sleepiness. It is anticipated that those who consume high amounts of caffeinated drinks will show high levels of daytime sleepiness. The results of this study have implications for creating potential interventions in college students to decrease caffeine consumption and increase energy and attention throughout the day

Endovascular strategy or open repair for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm: one-year outcomes from the IMPROVE randomized trial.

AIMS: To report the longer term outcomes following either a strategy of endovascular repair first or open repair of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, which are necessary for both patient and clinical decision-making. METHODS AND RESULTS: This pragmatic multicentre (29 UK and 1 Canada) trial randomized 613 patients with a clinical diagnosis of ruptured aneurysm; 316 to an endovascular first strategy (if aortic morphology is suitable, open repair if not) and 297 to open repair. The principal 1-year outcome was mortality; secondary outcomes were re-interventions, hospital discharge, health-related quality-of-life (QoL) (EQ-5D), costs, Quality-Adjusted-Life-Years (QALYs), and cost-effectiveness [incremental net benefit (INB)]. At 1 year, all-cause mortality was 41.1% for the endovascular strategy group and 45.1% for the open repair group, odds ratio 0.85 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.62, 1.17], P = 0.325, with similar re-intervention rates in each group. The endovascular strategy group and open repair groups had average total hospital stays of 17 and 26 days, respectively, P < 0.001. Patients surviving rupture had higher average EQ-5D utility scores in the endovascular strategy vs. open repair groups, mean differences 0.087 (95% CI 0.017, 0.158), 0.068 (95% CI -0.004, 0.140) at 3 and 12 months, respectively. There were indications that QALYs were higher and costs lower for the endovascular first strategy, combining to give an INB of £3877 (95% CI £253, £7408) or €4356 (95% CI €284, €8323). CONCLUSION: An endovascular first strategy for management of ruptured aneurysms does not offer a survival benefit over 1 year but offers patients faster discharge with better QoL and is cost-effective. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN 48334791

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Relationships and Eating Disorders

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Finding Success in Sports and in Life

A lot of life lessons can be learned from sports. Josie Nicholson, Ph.D. is a sports psychologist and in this talk she talks about what how overcoming obstacles in sports sets up for success in all areas of life. Josie Nicholson is a Licensed Psychologist specializing in sport performance and a Certified Mental Performance Consultant. A native of Oxford, MS, Dr. Nicholson joined Ole Miss Athletic’s Health and Sport Performance Staff in 2012. She received a B.A. in Psychology and Visual Arts from Loyola University New Orleans where she was a student-athlete and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in sport psychology at the University of Florida. Josie and her husband Steven have two sons and two German Shepherds. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/ted

Distractibility of Subtitles on Visual Attention and Working Memory

While viewing a video, human beings are required to process many components that require attention and memory to work simultaneously. For example, individuals must pay attention to audio and visual information while storing that information in memory to connect with each scene. At times, this overload of information may negatively impact performance due to increases in cognitive load. However, although providing additional context, theoretically increasing cognitive load, it has been thought that the use of subtitles may actually aid in performance. For example, research shows that the presence of subtitles is associated with less frustration (Kruger, Hefer, & Matthew, 2013), and may be superior to video during auditory lessons (Zheng, Ye, & Hsiao, 2022). However, it is less understood whether the presence of subtitles affects visual memory recall. The study will examine whether subtitles impact a subject’s ability to recall visual components of a video. The control group will watch a video with no audio or subtitles, and then be asked to recall visual information. The experimental group will watch the same video with subtitles, and then be asked to recall the same visual information. Based on the accuracy of the visual recall assessment, the study will reveal whether subtitles are a distractor to visual memory recall

ShcA signalling is essential for tumour progression in mouse models of human breast cancer

To explore the in vivo significance of ShcA during mammary tumorigenesis, we used mice expressing several phosphotyrosine-deficient ShcA alleles under the control of their endogenous promoter. We show that all three ShcA tyrosine phosphorylation sites are involved in the early stages of mammary tumour progression, including loss of the myoepithelial cell layer surrounding hyperplasias and during progression to carcinoma. We have determined that signals emanating from Y313 are important for tumour cell survival, whereas Y239/240 transduce signals promoting tumour vascularization. We further demonstrate that loss of ShcA expression in mammary epithelial cells abrogates tumour development. This study is the first to directly demonstrate that signalling downstream from the ShcA adaptor protein is critical for breast cancer development