Exploratory Study of the Clinical Utility of the Pizzi Healthy Weight Management Assessment (PHWMA) Among Burmese High School Students.

OBJECTIVE: Immigrant youth in the United States are at greater risk for weight management problems than non-Hispanic White youth. We used the Pizzi Healthy Weight Management Assessment (PHWMA) to capture data on health perceptions and weight management behaviors among adolescent Burmese refugees. METHOD: We conducted a retrospective descriptive study of 20 Burmese refugee high school students. RESULTS: The results captured an understanding of health perceptions and weight management behaviors of the program participants. The PHWMA was found to be a valid and reliable tool for use by occupational therapy practitioners. CONCLUSION: Findings from this study can inform program development and evaluation in outreach efforts to enhance minority youths' health and well-being.

The effects of cyber-ostracism on college students' aggressive behavior: a moderated mediation model.

Purpose: This study used questionnaire survey to explore the influence of cyber-ostracism on the aggressive behavior of college students. Specifically, this study explored the mediation role of the basic psychological needs satisfaction, and explored the moderating role of self-integrity. Method: An online questionnaire was designed through a questionnaire website, which was linked and transferred to college students nationwide. 377 valid questionnaires were obtained after excluding invalid questionnaires. Results: Cyber-ostracism had a significant positive predictive effect on the basic psychological needs satisfaction; Basic psychological needs satisfaction play a mediation role between cyber-ostracism and aggression. Self-integrity moderates the association between basic psychological needs and aggression.

Service learning in a pediatric weight management program to address childhood obesity.

This paper describes an inter-professional service learning collaboration and reflects benefits and considerations when incorporating a family-oriented approach in the community-based pediatric weight management program. Because obesity has tremendous consequences on a nation's health and economy, a pediatrician in a community health network has utilized an inter-professional team to implement a pediatric weight management program targeting children between the ages of 8 and 15 years. The team incorporates a culturally sensitive curriculum using a family-oriented approach for obesity prevention and intervention. Physicians, registered dietitians, occupational therapists, nurse practitioners, and mental health professionals assist participants in adopting a healthier lifestyle by addressing physical and psychosocial issues related to obesity, developing a nutrition plan, making healthier food choices, and finding fun ways to be more physically active. Graduate occupational therapy students work closely with the team members to assist delivery of interactive activities and behavior intervention.

Is visual gaze in children with autism spectrum disorder related to sequence of emotion intensity presentation? An eye-tracking study of natural emotion perception processes.

Emotion cognitive remediation is a critical component of social skills training for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Visual perception of emotions is highly correlated with the intensity and sequence of presented emotions. However, few studies examined the effect of presentation sequence and intensity on emotion perception. The present study examined the gaze patterns of children with ASD in receiving different sequences of emotion presentation using eye-tracking technologies. Gaze patterns of ecologically-valid video clips of silent emotion stimuli by 51 ASD children and 34 typically developing (TD) children were recorded. Results indicated that ASD and TD children showed opposite visual fixation during different intensity presentation modes: children with ASD showed better emotion perception with a weak-to-strong emotion sequence when presented. The visual reductions in emotion perception in children with ASD may due to different perceptual threshold to emotional intensity. The extent of the reductions could be related to an individual's Personal-Social ability. The present study supports the importance of intensity of emotions and the order at which the emotional stimuli were presented in yielding better emotion perceptions in children with ASD, suggesting that the order of emotion presentation may potentially influence emotion processing during ASD rehabilitation. It is anticipated that the present findings could bring more insights to clinicians for intervention planning in the future.

Correlation Between Sialidase NEU1 mRNA Expression Changes in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Abnormal alterations in enzymes functioned in sialic acid modifications may be associated with ASD. In order to study the differences in peripheral blood sialidase (neuraminidase 1; NEU1) mRNA expression between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children and healthy control, and to examine the correlation between NEU1 mRNA expression and the main behavioral phenotypes in children with ASD, we performed RT-qPCR to measure NEU1 mRNA expression in peripheral blood of 42 children with ASD and 42 healthy controls. In addition, we used the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2) to measure and evaluate the behavioral phenotypes of children with ASD. Our results showed that NEU1 mRNA in the ASD group was significantly higher than in the control group (P < 0.0001). In addition, the ADOS-2 diagnostic scores of 42 children with ASD were correlated with their NEU1 mRNA expression results (R = 0.344, P = 0.0257). Moreover, in general, NEU1 mRNA expression was also positively correlated with the Social Affect (SA) of ADOS-2 (R = 0.3598, P = 0.0193) but not with the Restricted and Repetitive Behavior (RRB) (R = 0.15, P = 0.3432). Our results indicated that sialidase NEU1 mRNA was significantly increased in children with ASD, and its expression was correlated with the SA of children with ASD, which suggested that sialidase NEU1 may affect the SA of ASD. Our data highlighted the potential of NEU1 expression change may play an important role in ASD disease and lay the foundation for further studies on the relationship between NEU1 and ASD.