Nutrition Environment Measures Study in restaurants (NEMS-R): development and evaluation.

Background: Americans are increasingly eating out, but nutrition environments in restaurants are poorly understood. An observational measure was developed to assess factors believed to contribute to food choices in restaurants, including availability of more healthy foods, facilitators and barriers to healthful eating, pricing, and signage/promotion of healthy and unhealthy foods.

Methods: Inter-rater and test-retest reliability were assessed in 217 sit-down and fast-food restaurants in four neighborhoods in 2004 and 2005.

The development of self-efficacy and outcome expectation measures regarding glycaemic load and the nutritional management of type 2 diabetes.

Objective: Traditionally, carbohydrate has been the largest contributor to energy intake among people with diabetes, yet different carbohydrate foods produce different glycaemic responses. Glycaemic load represents the total glycaemic effect of the diet and influences glycaemic control. Adequate self-efficacy and outcome expectations are needed to change carbohydrate intake and to evaluate relevant interventions.

Association of neighborhood design and recreation environment variables with physical activity and body mass index in adolescents.

Purpose: To examine associations of neighborhood walkability and recreation environment variables with physical activity in adolescents.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted with 98 white or Mexican-American adolescents (mean age = 16.2 years).

Recognizing delirium superimposed on dementia: assessing nurses' knowledge using case vignettes.

Delirium is a serious and prevalent problem that occurs in many hospitalized older adults. Delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD) occurs when a delirium occurs concurrently with a pre-existing dementia. DSD is typically underrecognized by medical and nursing staff.

Quantification of red myotomal muscle volume and geometry in the shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) and the salmon shark (Lamna ditropis) using T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging.

T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in conjunction with image and segmentation analysis (i.e., the process of digitally partitioning tissues based on specified MR image characteristics) was evaluated as a noninvasive alternative for differentiating muscle fiber types and quantifying the amounts of slow, red aerobic muscle in the shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) and the salmon shark (Lamna ditropis).

Destinations that matter: associations with walking for transport.

Associations between access to destinations and walking for transport were examined. Households (N=2650) were selected from 32 urban communities varying in walkability and socio-economic status. Respondents reported perceived proximity of destinations, transport-related walking, reasons for neighbourhood selection, and socio-demographic characteristics.

Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale: validity and development of a short form.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the factorial and criterion validity of the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS) and to develop an abbreviated version (NEWS-A).

Methods: A stratified two-stage cluster sample design was used to recruit 1286 adults. The sample was drawn from residential addresses within eight high- and eight low-walkable neighborhoods matched for socioeconomic status.

Comparative strategies for using cluster analysis to assess dietary patterns.

Objectives: To characterize dietary patterns using two different cluster analysis strategies.

Design: In this cross-sectional study, diet information was assessed by five 24-hour recalls collected over 10 months. All foods were classified into 24 food subgroups.

Role of diastolic properties in the transition to failure in a mouse model of the cardiac dilatation.

Although the physiological states of hypertrophic remodeling and congestive heart failure have been intensively studied, less is known about the transition from one to the other. The use of genetically engineered murine models of heart failure has proven valuable in characterizing the progression of remodeling and its ultimate decompensation to failure. Mice deficient in the cytoskeletal muscle LIM-only protein (MLP) are known to present with a clinical picture of dilated cardiomyopathy and transition to failure as adults.

Velocity-selective arterial spin labeling.

In pathologies in which slow or collateral flow conditions may exist, conventional arterial spin labeling (ASL) methods that apply magnetic tags based on the location of arterial spins may not provide robust measures of cerebral blood flow (CBF), as the transit delay for the delivery of blood to target tissues may far exceed the relaxation time of the tag. Here we describe current methods for ASL with velocity-selective (VS) tags (termed VSASL) that do not require spatial selectivity and can thus provide quantitative measures of CBF under slow and collateral flow conditions. The implementation of a robust multislice VSASL technique is described in detail, and data obtained with this technique are compared with those obtained with conventional pulsed ASL (PASL).

Active commuting to school: Associations with environment and parental concerns.

Purpose: This study examined the association of objective and perceived neighborhood environmental characteristics and parent concerns with active commuting to school, investigated whether parental concerns varied by environmental characteristics, and compared the association of the perceived environment, parental concerns, and objective environment on the outcome active commuting to school.

Methods: Randomly selected parents of children (aged 5-18 yr), in neighborhoods chosen for their variability in objectively measured walkability and income, completed questionnaires about their neighborhood environment, concerns about children walking to school, and children's behavior (N = 259). Objective measures of the environment were available for each participant and each neighborhood.

Improved anatomic delineation of the antidepressant response to partial sleep deprivation in medial frontal cortex using perfusion-weighted functional MRI.

This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to clarify the sites of brain activity associated with the antidepressant effects of sleep deprivation (SD). We hypothesized: 1) depressed responders' baseline ventral anterior cingulate (AC) perfusion will be greater than that of nonresponders and controls; 2) following partial sleep deprivation (PSD), ventral AC perfusion will significantly decrease in responders only. Seventeen unmedicated outpatients with current major depression and eight controls received perfusion-weighted fMRI and structural MRI at baseline and following 1 night of late-night PSD.

Measuring Physical Environments of Parks and Playgrounds: EAPRS Instrument Development and Inter-Rater Reliability.

Background: Reliable and comprehensive measurement of physical activity settings is needed to examine environment-behavior relations.

Methods: Surveyed park professionals (n = 34) and users (n = 29) identified park and playground elements (e.g.

Walkability of local communities: using geographic information systems to objectively assess relevant environmental attributes.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to objectively measure features of the built environment that may influence adults' physical activity, which is an important determinant of chronic disease. We describe how a previously developed index of walkability was operationalised in an Australian context, using available spatial data. The index was used to generate a stratified sampling frame for the selection of households from 32 communities for the PLACE (Physical Activity in Localities and Community Environments) study.

Anterior cingulate activity modulates nonlinear decision weight function of uncertain prospects.

Prospect theory developed by Kahneman and Tversky has been among the most influential psychological models and explains many nonnormative decision-making phenomena, e.g. why people play the lottery or bet on long-shots.

Combining in-school and community-based media efforts: reducing marijuana and alcohol uptake among younger adolescents.

This study tests the impact of an in-school mediated communication campaign based on social marketing principles, in combination with a participatory, community-based media effort, on marijuana, alcohol and tobacco uptake among middle-school students. Eight media treatment and eight control communities throughout the US were randomly assigned to condition. Within both media treatment and media control communities, one school received a research-based prevention curriculum and one school did not, resulting in a crossed, split-plot design.

Expression profiling of rat femur revealed suppression of bone formation genes by treatment with alendronate and estrogen but not raloxifene.

The pharmacological preservation of bone in the ovariectomized rat by estrogen, selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), and bisphosphonates has been well described. However, comprehensive molecular analysis of the effects of these pharmacologically diverse antiresorptive agents on gene expression in bone has not been performed. This study used DNA microarrays to analyze RNA from the proximal femur metaphysis of sham and ovariectomized vehicle-treated rats, and ovariectomized rats treated for 35 days with maximally efficacious doses of 17-alpha ethinyl estradiol, the benzothiophene SERM, raloxifene, the benzopyran SERM, (S)-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-4-methyl-2-[4-[2-(1-piperidinyl)ethoxy]phenyl]-2H-1-benzopyran-7-ol (EM652), and the aminobisphosphonate, alendronate.

Healthy nutrition environments: concepts and measures.

The authors provide a conceptual model of a healthy nutrition environment, then review the types of measures required to assess various aspects of this environment. Measures fall into priority categories of consumer and community environments.

Residents' perceptions of walkability attributes in objectively different neighbourhoods: a pilot study.

Physical attributes of local environments may influence walking. We used a modified version of the Neighbourhood Environment Walkability Scale to compare residents' perceptions of the attributes of two neighbourhoods that differed on measures derived from Geographic Information System databases. Residents of the high-walkable neighbourhood rated relevant attributes of residential density, land-use mix (access and diversity) and street connectivity, consistently higher than did residents of the low-walkable neighbourhood.

Linking objectively measured physical activity with objectively measured urban form: findings from SMARTRAQ.

Background: To date, nearly all research on physical activity and the built environment is based on self-reported physical activity and perceived assessment of the built environment.

Objective: To assess how objectively measured levels of physical activity are related with objectively measured aspects of the physical environment around each participant's home while controlling for sociodemographic covariates.

Methods: Objective measures of the built environment unique to each household's physical location were developed within a geographic information system to assess land-use mix, residential density, and street connectivity.

Blood oxygen level dependent response and spatial working memory in adolescents with alcohol use disorders.

Background: Previous studies have suggested neural disruption and reorganization in young and older adults with alcohol use disorders (AUD). However, it remains unclear at what age and when in the progression of AUD changes in brain functioning might occur.

Methods: Alcohol use disordered (n = 15) and nonabusing (n = 19) boys and girls aged 15 to 17 were recruited from local high schools.

Economic determinants of urban form: resulting trade-offs between active and sedentary forms of travel.

Economic factors have an impact on how the built environment is shaped, which in turn affects how we choose to travel. Regional transportation investment decisions are firmly rooted in economic "cost-benefit" trade-off considerations. The placement (central or outlying) and mode of transportation in which investments are made (transit, highway, sidewalks, or bikeways) influence where homes, businesses, schools, and other types of uses are located.

Economic interventions to promote physical activity: application of the SLOTH model.

Physical inactivity is responsible for major health and economic costs in the United States. Despite widespread recognition of the scope and importance of the problem of physical inactivity, only modest progress has been made in improving overall physical activity in the U.S.

Obesity relationships with community design, physical activity, and time spent in cars.

Background: Obesity is a major health problem in the United States and around the world. To date, relationships between obesity and aspects of the built environment have not been evaluated empirically at the individual level.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between the built environment around each participant's place of residence and self-reported travel patterns (walking and time in a car), body mass index (BMI), and obesity for specific gender and ethnicity classifications.

Rheumatoid arthritis of the cervical spine.

Background Context: Rheumatoid arthritis affects over 2 million patients in the United States. It is the most common inflammatory disorder of the cervical spine. The natural history is variable.