Initial development and testing of a questionnaire of parental self-efficacy for enacting healthy lifestyles in their children.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop and test a questionnaire to assess parental self-efficacy for enacting healthy diet and physical activity behaviors in their 6- to 11-year-old children. DESIGN AND METHODS: A 35-item questionnaire was developed and tested with 146 U.S. parents. RESULTS: Participant responses resulted in a 34-item questionnaire with two subscales (dietary behaviors and physical activity behaviors), which were valid and reliable in the study sample. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This new measure will serve as a tool for the assessment of parental self-efficacy for enacting healthy lifestyles in their children 6-11 years old.

Evaluation of trend localization with multi-variate visualizations.

Multi-valued data sets are increasingly common, with the number of dimensions growing. A number of multi-variate visualization techniques have been presented to display such data. However, evaluating the utility of such techniques for general data sets remains difficult. Thus most techniques are studied on only one data set. Another criticism that could be levied against previous evaluations of multi-variate visualizations is that the task doesn't require the presence of multiple variables. At the same time, the taxonomy of tasks that users may perform visually is extensive. We designed a task, trend localization, that required comparison of multiple data values in a multi-variate visualization. We then conducted a user study with this task, evaluating five multivariate visualization techniques from the literature (Brush Strokes, Data-Driven Spots, Oriented Slivers, Color Blending, Dimensional Stacking) and juxtaposed grayscale maps. We report the results and discuss the implications for both the techniques and the task.

Seroreactivities against Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis p35 and p36 antigens in Crohn's disease patients.

Crohn's disease (CD) is an idiopathic chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Accurate diagnosis of the disease is of great clinical importance to assess its prognosis and success of therapy. Recent studies have validated and confirmed the potential utility of anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast; ASCA) IgG/IgA antibodies and anti-M. avium ss. paratuberculosis p35/p36 antibodies, separately, as serological markers to identify patients with CD. The efficacy of these markers was evaluated in the same patients with Crohn's disease. The anti-ASCA IgA/IgG and the anti-M. avium ss. paratuberculosis p35/p36 antibodies were positive in 60% (36/60) and 86.7% (52/60) of CD patients, respectively. When all the serologic markers were considered, the sensitivity in detecting CD was increased to 95.0% (57/60); 21 of 24 ASCA-negative patients were p35/p36-positive and five of eight of p35/p36-negative patients were ASCA-positive. This investigation further establishes the utility of p35 and p36 recombinant clones for the diagnosis of CD, and reveals the complimentary role of ASCA and p35 and p36 for effective detection of CD. Larger studies are needed to investigate the combined use of these serologic markers for the diagnosis of CD.