Identification on sensory attributes and children’s ratings of fruits and vegetables with and without appearance modification: A pilot study

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Predicting actual weight loss: A review of the determinants according to the theory of planned behaviour

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Teledietetics improves weight reduction by modifying eating behavior: A randomized controlled trial

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Shoulder mobility, muscular strength and quality of life in breast cancer survivors with and without Tai Chi Qigong training

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Effects of Microstructure Architecture on the Fracture of Fibrous Materials

Fibrous materials is one of the potential scaffolds used for tissue engineered constructs. One of prerequisite properties for tissue engineered construct is fracture property. The work here study the relationship between microstructure architecture and fracture behaviour of fibrous networks by using finite element analysis. The result shows that fibrous networks are toughened by either reducing the fibre density or cross-link percentage of networks. Such implementation increases the degree of non-affine deformation and produces a more compliant response at the crack-tip region. The non-affine deformation in fibrous networks involves fibre movement like fibre rearrangement and reorientation, where such mechanisms allow stress delocalization to occur at the crack-tip region and results in a better fracture toughness of fibrous networks. The findings form this work provide the design guideline of fibrous materials with enhanced toughness for multiple applications

A cost-effectiveness analysis of teledietetics in short-, intermediate-, and long-term weight reduction

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of teledietetics in weight loss for 24 weeks and the cost-effectiveness of weight loss between face-to-face and teledietetics services. Study setting The study was conducted at a community health center and a community dietetics clinic. Study design The study was a quasiexperimental design. Methods Fifty adults aged 20–50 with a BMI ≥23 participated in the study. The face-to-face (FD) group received 12 dietary counselling sessions and recorded their diet in a log book. The teledietetics (TD) group attended three group nutrition seminars and recorded their diet on a Web-based platform. Changes in variables were compared using an independent t-test. Direct and indirect costs were applied to compute cost-effectiveness ratios. Results At week 6, the FD group showed greater reductions in all variables than did the TD group. At week 12, the effects reversed. At week 24, the accumulated reductions in weight and fat in the TD group were significantly higher than those in the FD group (all at p < 0.0001). The observed direct costs for 1% weight loss and 1% fat loss were USD 28.24 and USD17.09, respectively. Conclusion A dietetic service delivered as a teledietetics model is more cost-effective than the face-to-face dietetics model in weight reduction.postprin

Effects of Qigong training on health-related quality of life, functioning, and cancer-related symptoms in survivors of nasopharyngeal cancer: A pilot study

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Epac2-deficiency leads to more severe retinal swelling, glial reactivity and oxidative stress in transient middle cerebral artery occlusion induced ischemic retinopathy

Ischemia occurs in diabetic retinopathy with neuronal loss, edema, glial cell reactivity and oxidative stress. Epacs, consisting of Epac1 and Epac2, are cAMP mediators playing important roles in maintenance of endothelial barrier and neuronal functions. To investigate the roles of Epacs in the pathogenesis of ischemic retinopathy, transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) was performed on Epac1-deficient (Epac1) mice, Epac2-deficient (Epac2) mice, and their wild type counterparts (Epac1+/+ and Epac2+/+). Two-hour occlusion and 22-hour reperfusion were conducted to induce ischemia/reperfusion injury to the retina. After tMCAO, the contralateral retinae displayed similar morphology between different genotypes. Neuronal loss, retinal edema and increase in immunoreactivity for aquaporin 4 (AQP4), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), peroxiredoxin 6 (Prx6) were observed in ipsilateral retinae. Epac2 ipsilateral retinae showed more neuronal loss in retinal ganglion cell layer, increased retinal thickness and stronger immunostaining of AQP4, GFAP, and Prx6 than those of Epac2+/+. However, Epac1 ipsilateral retinae displayed similar pathology as those in Epac1+/+ mice. Our observations suggest that Epac2-deficiency led to more severe ischemic retinopathy after retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury.published_or_final_versio

Effects of post-exercise ice-water and room-temperature water immersion on the sensory organization of balance control and lower limb proprioception in amateur rugby players: A randomized controlled trial

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Word learning deficit among Chinese dyslexic children

The present study examined word learning difficulties in Chinese dyslexic children, readers of a nonalphabetic script. A total of 105 Hong Kong Chinese children were recruited and divided into three groups: Dyslexic (mean age 8;8), CA control (mean age 8;9), and RL control (mean age 6;11). They were given a word learning task and a familiar word writing task. It was found that the Dyslexic group performed less well than the RL group in learning irregular words over trials but not the regular ones. Error analyses showed that the Dyslexic group made more orthographic and word association errors but less intra-wordlist interference errors than the RL control group. The Dyslexic group also performed significantly less well than both control groups in writing familiar words (e.g. their own name). These findings suggest that Chinese dyslexic children have difficulty learning new words, especially irregular ones, and retaining overlearned words in long-term memory. We conclude that Chinese dyslexic children have a specific impairment in word learning like their alphabetic counterparts. © 2006 Cambridge University Press.published_or_final_versio