Beans provide a rich source of plant-based proteins and carbohydrates. It is well documented in the literature that the raffinose family of oligosaccharides (RFOs: raffinose, stachyose, and ...verbascose) is linked with flatulence issues. In this study, the soluble sugar content of 23 dry beans was investigated using a newly developed and validated analytical method with high-performance anion-exchange chromatography coupled to an amperometric pulse detection. All seven sugars (galactose, glucose, fructose, sucrose, raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose) showed good linearity (
≥ 0.99) between 0.156 and 20 μg/mL. The limit of detection and quantification were determined as 0.01-0.11 μg/mL and 0.04-0.32 μg/mL, respectively. Significant variations in the profiles and concentrations of individual and total sugars were observed in 23 dry beans. Sucrose and stachyose were the two prominent soluble sugars combinedly representing an average of 86% of the total soluble sugars. Yellow split beans, large lima, and black eyed peas contained higher amounts of total soluble sugars (79.8-83.6 mg/g), whereas lower amounts were observed in speckled butter peas and lentils (53.6-56.6 mg/g). Garbanzo beans contained maximum levels of mono and disaccharides (MD), and yellow split beans showed the highest levels of RFOs. Based on the hierarchical cluster analysis of the total soluble sugars (TS), MD, RFOs, and MD/RFOs ratio, 23 beans can be classified into five groups. The average TS content and the MD/RFOs ratios of the five groups were determined as group 1 (TS = 55.1 mg/g and MD/RFOs = 0.30), group 2 (TS = 77.6 mg/g and MD/RFOs = 0.31), group 3 (TS = 78.3 mg/g and MD/RFOs = 0.51), group 4 (TS = 59.1 mg/g and MD/RFOs = 1.06), and group 5 (TS = 68.5 mg/g and MD/RFOs = 0.62). This information is useful for researchers, food industries, and consumers that are looking for plant-based protein source as an alternative to animal proteins with reduced flatulence problems.
Selenium (Se), an essential nutrient, is needed for activity of several important proteins. Additionally, the consumption of Se in amounts that exceed the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) may ...protect against prostate and colorectal cancer. Supplemental Se may be acquired through the diet, but Se bioavailability depends on the source. Therefore, dietary advice concerning improvement of Se intake depends on characterization of Se bioavailability from Se-containing food sources.
Abstract
Objective
Few studies have examined the use of embedded validity indicators (EVIs) in criminal-forensic practice settings, where judgements regarding performance validity can carry severe ...consequences for the individual and society. This study sought to examine how various EVIs perform in criminal defendant populations, and determine relationships between EVI scores and intrapersonal variables thought to influence performance validity.
Method
Performance on 16 empirically established EVI cutoffs were examined in a sample of 164 criminal defendants with valid performance who were referred for forensic neuropsychological evaluation. Subsequent analyses examined the relationship between EVI scores and intrapersonal variables in 83 of these defendants.
Results
Half of the EVIs (within the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Digit Span Total, Conners’ Continuous Performance Test Commissions, Wechsler Memory Scale Logical Memory I and II, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Trail Making Test Part B, and Stroop Word and Color) performed as intended in this sample. The EVIs that did not perform as intended were significantly influenced by relevant intrapersonal variables, including below-average intellectual functioning and history of moderate–severe traumatic brain injury and neurodevelopmental disorder.
Conclusions
This study identifies multiple EVIs appropriate for use in criminal-forensic settings. However, based on these findings, practitioners may wish to be selective in choosing and interpreting EVIs for forensic evaluations of criminal court defendants.
Subjective organization (SO) is the ability to structure information to help facilitate storage and retrieval. There is a paucity of research concerning how a person subjectively organizes visual ...information.
This study investigates whether traumatic brain injury (TBI) hinders the ability to subjectively organize and recall visual symbols. The authors use an Association Rule Modeling (ARM) procedure to measure SO and explore whether the complexity of the rules generated from the ARM predicted recall of symbols.
Twenty-two collegiate athletes with self-reported, repetitive, mild TBI and 22 college students without TBI participated. All participants completed a list learning task that assessed their free recall of unfamiliar symbols. ARM revealed the associative structure among the symbols in the list for each participant.
Results showed that collegiate athletes with repetitive, mild TBI develop significantly fewer association rules for visual stimuli compared to college students without TBI. Furthermore, collegiate athletes with TBI produce fewer complex SO rules for the visual stimuli relative to college students without TBI.
Brain injury diminishes a person's ability to subjectively organize novel visual information. ARM is a sensitive clinical measure of SO for patients with TBI.
The Making Change Test (MCT) is a brief, digitized freestanding performance validity test (PVT) designed for tele-neuropsychology (TeleNP). The objective of this study was to report the initial ...validation of the MCT in a mixed neuropsychiatric sample referred for neuropsychological evaluation using a known-groups design.
The sample consisted of 136 adult outpatients who underwent a neuropsychological evaluation. Patients were classified as valid (
= 115) or invalid (
= 21) based on several established PVTs. Two validity indicators were calculated and assessed, including an Accuracy Response-Score and an Abbreviated Index. The Accuracy Response-Score incorporated both response time and errors. The Abbreviated Index aggregated response time and errors across the most sensitive test items in terms of predicting performance validity status.
Correlational analyses indicated that the MCT Accuracy Response-Score and Abbreviated Index were more similar to non-memory-based PVTs than memory-based PVTs. Both the MCT Accuracy Response-Score and Abbreviated Index indicated acceptable classification accuracy (area under the curve of .77). The optimal cut score for the MCT Accuracy Response-Score (≥24) yielded a sensitivity of .38 and specificity of .90. The optimal cut score associated with the Abbreviated Index yielded slightly better operating characteristics, with a sensitivity of .50 and specificity of .90.
Initial findings provide support for the criterion and construct validity of the MCT and suggest a promising TeleNP future for this performance validity tool. However, additional support is necessary before the MCT can be used clinically.
To characterize neurocognitive response to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) diversion during a multiday external lumbar drainage (ELD) trial in patients with suspected normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH).
...Inpatients (
= 70) undergoing an ELD trial as part of NPH evaluation participated. Cognition and balance were assessed using standardized measures before and after a three-day ELD trial. Cognitive change pre- to post-ELD trial was assessed in relation to change in balance, baseline neuroimaging findings, NPH symptoms, demographics, and other disease-relevant clinical parameters.
Multiday ELD resulted in significant cognitive improvement (particularly on measures of memory and language). This improvement was independent of demographics, test-retest interval, number of medical and psychiatric comorbidities, NPH symptom duration, estimated premorbid intelligence, baseline level of cognitive impairment, cerebrovascular disease burden, degree of ventriculomegaly, or other NPH-related morphological brain alterations. Balance scores evidenced a greater magnitude of improvement than cognitive scores and were weakly, but positively correlated with cognitive change scores.
Findings suggest that cognitive improvement associated with a multiday ELD trial can be sufficiently captured with bedside neurocognitive testing. These findings support the utility of neuropsychological consultation, along with balance assessment, in informing clinical decision-making regarding responsiveness to temporary CSF diversion for patients undergoing elective NPH evaluation. Implications for the understanding of neuroanatomical and cognitive underpinnings of NPH are discussed.
The Clinical Assessment of Attention Deficit-Adult is among the few questionnaires that offer validity indicators (i.e., Negative Impression NI, Infrequency IF, and Positive Impression PI) for ...classifying underreporting and overreporting of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. This is the first study to cross-validate the NI, IF, and PI scales in a sample of adults with suspected or known ADHD.
Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to examine the independent and combined value of the NI, IF, and PI scores in predicting invalid symptom reporting and neurocognitive performance in a sample of 543 adults undergoing ADHD evaluation.
The NI scale demonstrated better classification accuracy than the IF scale in discriminating patients with and without valid scores on measures of overreporting. Only NI scores significantly predicted validity status when used in combination with IF scores. Optimal cut-scores for the NI (≤51; 30% sensitivity / 90% specificity) and IF (≥4; 18% sensitivity / 90% specificity) scales were consistent with those reported in the original manual; however, these indicators poorly discriminated patients with invalid and valid neurocognitive performance. The PI scale demonstrated acceptable classification accuracy in discriminating patients with invalid and valid scores on measures of underreporting, albeit with an optimal cut-score (≥27; 36% sensitivity / 90% specificity) lower than that described in the manual.
Findings provide preliminary evidence of construct validity for these scales as embedded validity indicators of symptom overreporting and underreporting. However, these scales should not be used to guide clinical judgment regarding the validity of neurocognitive test performance.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic heart disease characterized by a diverse clinical and phenotypic spectrum. This study reports the prevalence, morphology, clinical course, ...and management of an underrecognized subgroup of HCM patients with left ventricular apical aneurysms.
Of 1299 HCM patients, 28 (2%) were identified with left ventricular apical aneurysms, including a pair of identical twins. Aneurysms were recognized at a wide age range (26 to 83 years), including 12 patients (43%) who were <or=50 years of age. Apical aneurysms varied considerably in size (maximum dimension, 10 to 66 mm), were dyskinetic/akinetic with thin rims, and were associated with transmural (and often more extensive) myocardial scarring identified by late gadolinium enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance. Apical aneurysms were recognized by echocardiography in only 16 of 28 patients (57%) but by cardiovascular magnetic resonance in the 12 patients undetected by echocardiography. Left ventricular chamber morphology varied; however, 19 patients (68%) showed an "hourglass" contour, with midventricular hypertrophy producing muscular narrowing and intracavitary gradients in 9 patients (74+/-42 mm Hg). Sarcomeric protein missense mutations known to cause other phenotypic expressions of HCM were present in 3 patients. Over 4.1+/-3.7 years of follow-up, 12 patients (43%) with left ventricular apical aneurysms experienced adverse disease complications (event rate, 10.5%/y), including sudden death, appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator discharges, nonfatal thromboembolic stroke, and progressive heart failure and death.
Patients with left ventricular apical aneurysms represent an underappreciated subset in the heterogeneous HCM disease spectrum with important clinical implications, often requiring a high index of suspicion and cardiovascular magnetic resonance for identification. Apical aneurysms in HCM are associated with substantial cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and raise novel treatment considerations.
There is no agreed upon measure of subjective clustering for clinical use in patients following moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).
This study investigated whether measures of subjective ...clustering, subjective organization (SO) and adjusted ratio of clustering (ARC), were appropriate for use in patients following moderate-severe TBI.
Twenty participants with moderate-severe TBI in the chronic stage of recovery and 20 control participants recalled a list of unrelated words over six trials. The authors assessed if the SO and ARC measures could discriminate the groups' ability to subjectively cluster the words. The authors also examined whether the SO and ARC measures correlated with recall and learning rate, and if combining the measures improved the predictive accuracy.
Participants with moderate-severe TBI performed significantly worse on the SO measure, but there were no group differences regarding the ARC measure. The SO measure positively correlated with recall, but not learning rate. The ARC measure did not positively correlate with recall or learning rate, and combining the measures did not enhance the predictive accuracy.
The SO measure is likely an appropriate candidate for clinical use. However, there are problems with the ARC measure that limit its use as a clinical tool.
PDF