Binge eating disorder In adolescence: the role of alexithymia and impulsivity

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is a disorder, recently included in DSM-5, often present in adolescence. Several studies highlight that adolescents with BED had high levels of impulsivity and alexithymia. Even though studies have underlined the importance of these variables, no studies have investigated their role on adolescents’ emotional-behavioral functioning. This study proposes to verify if adolescents affected by BED show higher levels of alexithymia and impulsivity than adolescents without diagnosis, and what is their role on adolescents’ emotional-behavioral functioning. Thanks to the collaboration with clinical centers for eating disorders, a group composed by 60 adolescents diagnosed with BED was paired to a 60 healthy controls. Participants completed validated self-report questionnaires investigating levels of alexithymia, impulsivity and emotional-behavioral functioning. Adolescents diagnosed with BED showed higher scores on alexithymia, impulsivity and maladaptive emotional-behavioral functioning than healthy controls. Moreover, alexithymia had a mediating effect on the relationship between impulsivity and emotional-behavioral functioning. These results show that alexithymia is a key variable influencing the emotional-behavioral functioning of adolescents affected by BED. Further studies are needed to also check other variables that might lead to the onset of BED. On the other hand, our findings can help clinicians suggesting the importance of promoting prevention and treatment polices focused on alexithymia

A NEW GENERAL CONCEPTUAL APPROACH TO MODELING THE LIVESTOCK SECTOR: AN APPLICATION TO THE JAPANESE SWINE-PORK SECTOR

Many livestock sector models have limited coverage of relevant variables, and are somewhat ad hoc in their choice of what should be specified as behavioral equations. This study develops a generic conceptual approach to modeling the livestock sector that provides consistent rules of specification and better coverage of variables. This approach is then applied to the swine-pork sector of Japan. The new approach departs significantly from existing models. The structure clearly differentiates stock and flow variables; only flow variables have behavioral specifications and stock variables are accounting identities; flow variables are expressed in rates rather than levels; logistic functions are used in most flow variables to automatically impose biological-technological limits; and swine slaughter number and weight are disaggregated into sow and other swine (i.e., gilt-barrow). The estimated Japanese swine-pork model has good fit, no serial correlation, significant coefficients, correct signs, and is better able to capture both the mean and variability of all endogenous variables.Livestock Production/Industries, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Extrapolating from Laboratory Behavioral Research on Nonhuman Primates Is Unjustified

Conducting research on animals is supposed to be valuable because it provides information on how human mechanisms work. But for the use of animal models to be ethically justified, it must be epistemically justified. The inference from an observation about an animal model to a conclusion about humans must be warranted for the use of animals to be moral. When researchers infer from animals to humans, it’s an extrapolation. Often non-human primates are used as animal models in laboratory behavioral research. The target populations are humans and other non-human primates. I argue that the epistemology of extrapolation renders the use of non-human primates in laboratory behavioral research unreliable. If the model is relevantly similar to the target, then the experimental conditions introduce confounding variables. If the model is not relevantly similar to the target, then the observations of the model cannot be extrapolated to the target. Since using non-human primates in as animal models in laboratory behavioral research is not epistemically justified, using them as animal models in laboratory behavioral research is not ethically justified

Distinct phase-amplitude couplings distinguish cognitive processes in human attention

Abstract Spatial attention is the cognitive function that coordinates the selection of visual stimuli with appropriate behavioral responses. Recent studies have reported that phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) of low and high frequencies covaries with spatial attention, but differ on the direction of covariation and the frequency ranges involved. We hypothesized that distinct phase-amplitude frequency pairs have differentiable contributions during tasks that manipulate spatial attention. We investigated this hypothesis with electrocorticography (ECoG) recordings from participants who engaged in a cued spatial attention task. To understand the contribution of PAC to spatial attention we classified cortical sites by their relationship to spatial variables or behavioral performance. Local neural activity in spatial sites was sensitive to spatial variables in the task, while local neural activity in behavioral sites correlated with reaction time. We found two PAC frequency clusters that covaried with different aspects of the task. During a period of cued attention, delta-phase/high-gamma (DH) PAC was sensitive to cue direction in spatial sites. In contrast, theta-alpha-phase/beta-low-gamma-amplitude (TABL) PAC robustly correlated with future reaction times in behavioral sites. Finally, we investigated the origins of TABL PAC and found it corresponded to behaviorally relevant, sharp waveforms, which were also coupled to a low frequency rhythm. We conclude that TABL and DH PAC correspond to distinct mechanisms during spatial attention tasks and that sharp waveforms are elements of a coupled dynamical process

Coupled ethical-epistemic analysis of public health research and practice: categorizing variables to improve population health and equity

The categorization of variables can stigmatize populations, which is ethically problematic and threatens the central purpose of public health: to improve population health and reduce health inequities. How social variables (e.g., behavioral risks for HIV) are categorized can reinforce stigma and cause unintended harms to the populations practitioners and researchers strive to serve.<p></p> Although debates about the validity or ethical consequences of epidemiological variables are familiar for specific variables (e.g., ethnicity), these issues apply more widely.<p></p> We argue that these tensions and debates regarding epidemiological variables should be analyzed simultaneously as ethical and epistemic challenges. We describe a framework derived from the philosophy of science that may be usefully applied to public health, and we illustrate its application.<p></p&gt

`Been there done that': Disentangling option value effects from user heterogeneity when valuing natural resources with a use component.

Endogeneity bias arises in contingent valuation studies when the error term in the willingness to pay (WTP) equation is correlated with explanatory variables because observable and unobservable characteristics of the respondents affect both their WTP and the value of those variables. We correct for the endogeneity of variables that capture previous experience with the resource valued, humpback whales, and with the area of study. We consider several endogenous behavioral variables, so we apply a multivariate probit approach to jointly model them with WTP. In this case, correcting for endogeneity increases econometric efficiency and substantially corrects the bias affecting the estimated coefficients of the experience variables, by isolating the decreasing effect on option value caused by having experienced the resource. Stark differences are unveiled between the marginal effects on willingness to pay of experience of the resources in an alternative location versus experience in the location studied

Empirical forecasting practices of a British university

This article is based on a single case study aimed at examining behavioral issues of forecasting, in particular the role and practice of forecasting in a British university settings. Key variables were identified in establishing associations between the variables that provide suitable criteria for the purpose of this study. Data collection was based on questionnaires distributed to people involved and interviews which were held with prominent staff of the University. Fisher-exact tests were performed to identify significant associations between variables. Results indicated the various levels of perceptions and practices of forecasting produced by the people involved at the University. The study implies that useful insights can be gathered through forecasting from a different perspective of the non-profit making service industry

Accounting Employees’ Behavioral Variables and Firm Performance: Evidence from Turkish Eastern Blacksea Region Companies

The purpose of this paper is to analyze interpersonal relationships of accounting employees affecting the effectiveness of firms’ performance. For this purpose, a structural equation model was adopted from Kang et al. (2004) and was tested. A questionnary was distributed to 187 companies’ accounting departments from Blacksea region of Turkiye which are choosen with arbitrary sampling method from the lists of related region’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry. We find that, although no significant relation between balanced power and confidence, there are significant relationships between conflict and confidence, shared values and confidence, conflict and collaboration, shared values and collaboration, balanced power and collaboration, communication and collaboration. Overall our findings indicate that confidence and collaboration among the accounting department employees have direct influence on the firm performance.Accounting departments; departmental behaviors; firm performance