Relationships between body image, nutritional supplement use, and attitudes towards doping in sport among adolescent boys: implications for prevention programs

BACKGROUND: Reports of high levels of use of protein powders and nutritional supplements among young men is a concern because these substances may act as a gateway for the use of drugs and illegal substances to enhance appearance or sports performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between body dissatisfaction, weight change behaviors, supplement use, and attitudes towards doping in sport among an adolescent male sample. METHODS: Participants were 1148 male adolescents (age range 11-21 years) in Australia who completed a self-report questionnaire that measured weight change behaviors, supplement use, body dissatisfaction (Male Body Attitudes Scale; MBAS) and attitudes towards doping in sport (Performance Enhancing Attitudes Survey; PEAS). RESULTS: There was a positive correlation between MBAS total and PEAS scores (r = .19, p < .001), indicating that the young men who were more dissatisfied with their bodies were more likely to support the use of doping in sport. Young men who were currently attempting weight loss or weight gain, and those currently consuming energy drinks (ηp(2) = .01, p < .01) and vitamin/mineral supplements (ηp(2) = .01, p < .01) were also significantly more supportive of doping in sport. However, those involved in weight lifting, and using protein powders were not (p > .05). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that body dissatisfaction, weight change behaviors, and supplement use are related to more lenient attitudes towards doping in sport among adolescent boys. Future research might examine whether combining educational content for the prevention of body dissatisfaction and the use of drugs in sport may have a greater preventive impact than current programs aimed at young men

Epistemological beliefs and self-directed learning readiness of hospitality students: the necessary precursor to academic performance / Rahmat Hashim ...[et al.]

Throughout the philosophical literature, studies on epistemological beliefs have been well documented. However, within the educational context, this philosophical construct is a recent phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the conception of knowledge (epistemological beliefs) as measured by Schommer’s Epistemological Questionnaire (SEQ), learner perception of self-directedness as measured by Guglielmino’s Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) and academic achievement. The value of CMIN/DF was 2.22, below the recommended value of 3.0 (Kline, 1998). In this case, the U^sup 2^/df of 2.22 and CFI of .926 indicate an adequate fit between the hypothetical model and the sample data. The RMSEA for the measurement model was .077 (adequate fit). Other fit indices also point to an acceptable model fit between the model and the data (GFI = .921, AGFI = .879, CFI =.926). The entire model had an R2 of .064 and was not significant F(12, 210)=1.112, p > .05. The mediating effect of self-directed learning on GPA, falls short of statistical significance, b = .133, p = .074. However, when reviewing the effects of each of the regression coefficients, only 5 predictor variables (innate, simple, self assessment, goal setter, self control) were found to be of practical significance. MANOVA shows that there was no significant difference in epistemological beliefs, self regulated learning and gender at .05 level across GPA (Wilk’s lambda = .94, F = 1.153’ df = 5, p > .05)

Survey on software maintenance profile and knowledge requirement in public higher learning institutions

Software maintenance (SM) environment is highly complex, knowledge-driven and collaborative. Therefore, Knowledge management (KM) is critical to provide an environment for sharing and sustaining knowledge. Issues such as inadequate knowledge and lack on information sharing are still regarded as major challenges in SM. This paper presents the results of a survey on KM of SM process in selected higher learning institutions (HLIs) in Malaysia. Based on the survey, several deficiencies are identified as common to HLIs. Domain knowledge is important but these are seldom stored in KMS or other electronic means. Maintainers also spent considerable efforts collaborating with other parties to obtain information. Therefore, resolving these issues should be given high priority

Four novel germline mutations in the MLH1 and PMS2 mismatch repair genes in patients with hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer

Background: Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) is the most common cause of early onset hereditary colorectal cancer. In the majority of HNPCC families, microsatellite instability (MSI) and germline mutation in one of the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes are found. Materials and methods: The entire coding sequence of MMR genes (MLH1, MLH2, MLH6, and PMS2) was analyzed using direct sequencing. Also, tumor tests were done as MSI and immunohistochemistry testing. Results: We were able to find three novel MLH1 and one novel PMS2 germline mutations in three Iranian HNPCC patients. The first was a transversion mutation c.346A>C (T116P) and happened in the highly conserved HATPase-c region of MLH1 protein. The second was a transversion mutation c.736A>T (I246L), which caused an amino acid change of isoleucine to leucine. The third mutation (c.2145,6 delTG) was frameshift and resulted in an immature stop codon in five codons downstream. All of these three mutations were detected in the MLH1 gene. The other mutation was a transition mutation, c.676G>A (G207E), which has been found in exon six of the PMS2 gene and caused an amino acid change of glycine to glutamic acid. MSI assay revealed high instability in microsatellite for two patients and microsatellite stable for one patient. Conclusion: In all patients, an abnormal expression of the MMR proteins in HNPCC was related to the above novel mutation

A Predictive Model for Assessment of Successful Outcome in Posterior Spinal Fusion Surgery

Background: Low back pain is a common problem in many people. Neurosurgeons recommend posterior spinal fusion (PSF) surgery as one of the therapeutic strategies to the patients with low back pain. Due to the high risk of this type of surgery and the critical importance of making the right decision, accurate prediction of the surgical outcome is one of the main concerns for the neurosurgeons.Methods: In this study, 12 types of multi-layer perceptron (MLP) networks and 66 radial basis function (RBF) networks as the types of artificial neural network methods and a logistic regression (LR) model created and compared to predict the satisfaction with PSF surgery as one of the most well-known spinal surgeries.Results: The most important clinical and radiologic features as twenty-seven factors for 480 patients (150 males, 330 females; mean age 52.32 ± 8.39 years) were considered as the model inputs that included: age, sex, type of disorder, duration of symptoms, job, walking distance without pain (WDP), walking distance without sensory (WDS) disorders, visual analog scale (VAS) scores, Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score, diabetes, smoking, knee pain (KP), pelvic pain (PP), osteoporosis, spinal deformity and etc. The indexes such as receiver operating characteristic–area under curve (ROC-AUC), positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy calculated to determine the best model. Postsurgical satisfaction was 77.5% at 6 months follow-up. The patients divided into the training, testing, and validation data sets.Conclusion: The findings showed that the MLP model performed better in comparison with RBF and LR models for prediction of PSF surgery.Keywords: Posterior spinal fusion surgery (PSF); Prediction, Surgical satisfaction; Multi-layer perceptron (MLP); Logistic regression (LR) (PDF) A Predictive Model for Assessment of Successful Outcome in Posterior Spinal Fusion Surgery. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325679954_A_Predictive_Model_for_Assessment_of_Successful_Outcome_in_Posterior_Spinal_Fusion_Surgery [accessed Jul 11 2019].Peer reviewe