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This article summarizes outcomes of the behavioral interventions work group for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) State of the Art Conference (SOTA) for Weight Management. Sixteen VHA and non-VHA subject matter experts, representing clinical care delivery, research, and policy arenas, participated. The work group reviewed current evidence of efficacy, effectiveness, and implementation of behavioral interventions for weight management, participated in phone- and online-based consensus processes, generated key questions to address gaps, and attended an in-person conference in March 2016. The work group agreed that there is strong evidence for efficacy and effectiveness of core behavioral intervention components and processes, but insufficient evidence to determine the comparative effectiveness of multiple clinician-delivered weight management modalities, as well as technologies that may or may not supplement clinician-delivered treatments. Effective strategies for implementation of weight management services in VHA were identified. The SOTA work group's foremost policy recommendations are to establish a system-wide culture for weight management and to identify a population-level health metric to measure the impact of weight management interventions that can be tracked and clearly communicated throughout VHA. The work group's top research recommendation is to determine how to deploy and scale the most effective behavioral weight management interventions for Veterans.

Pennsylvania Shoulder Score (PSS) is a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) that is gaining use when examining shoulder-specific outcomes. To date, a systematic review of the PSS measurement properties has not been published. To systematically locate, appraise, and synthesize the evidence concerning the measurement properties of the PSS. Systematic literature review. A pair of raters conducted a literature search using pre-defined keywords from 5 databases (PubMed, CINAHL, SPORTdiscus, PsychINFO, Scopus) during the week of October 23, 2022. Critical appraisal of study design for psychometric articles was used to assess methodological quality and risk of bias. Measurement property data were synthesized with pooled estimates for the indices of test-retest reliability (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM), minimal detectable change (MDC), Cronbach α (CA), effect size (ES), and standardized response means (SRM) calculated from applicable studies. A total of 13 articles met the inclusion criteria for this review. Methodological quality was agreed upon between the 2 raters with a weighted kappa of 0.77, and 9/13 of the articles were rated above 70%. Test-retest reliability of the PSS total score ranged between 0.90 and 0.94, and construct validity was high when compared to other shoulder-specific PROMs (0.75 < r > 0.96). Responsiveness of the PSS was large across all studies with few PSS subscales dropping to moderate. Pooled MDC90 of the total PSS was 12.13 points, and the pooled ES of the total PSS was 0.85. The scope of this review demonstrates positive measurement properties of the PSS as a reliable, valid, and responsive measurement of shoulder-specific PROM. However, there are few studies examining the measurement properties of the PSS and more research is needed to assess cross-cultural appropriateness and factor analysis of the questions contained in the PSS. • Shoulder-specific functional, pain, and satisfaction questions are part of the PSS. • This paper finds the PSS to be a reliable, valid, and responsive outcome measure. • This paper provides pooled outcomes across studies of the PSS. • The PSS lacks factor-analysis and has limited evidence on measurement properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology advancement has caused various changes in education, a phenomenon which demands academics to keep up with these changes. Covid- 19 caused multiple educational challenges, as online teaching had to be adopted and implemented quickly. The scarcity of online teaching and learning resources has been one of the major problems in South African education. The establishment of open educational resources (OERs) came with some solutions during the trying times of the pandemic, where direct contact with other people was significantly reduced. OERs are educational materials in the public domain introduced with an open licence, such as digital textbooks, research papers, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audios, videos, and animations. It emerged in this study that library and information science (LIS) departments have some awareness of OER. LIS staff employ OERs in their work. However, LIS students rarely utilise them in their studies. It was discovered that LIS departments experience challenges regarding the awareness of copyright, technological problems, quality assurance, and a lack of understanding OER. It can be concluded, based on the findings, that LIS departments were not fully prepared for the changes (moving to online learning) implemented in response to the pandemic. Thus, the study recommends that there should be improved OER awareness, academic staff training, workshops, adequate ICT infrastructure, and improvement of technical skills to increase the utilisation of these resources in LIS departments. This paper depicts an overview of OER and the involvement and opportunity it holds for library and LIS professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable and valid measurements for shoulder muscular endurance should be available for clinical use. The posterior shoulder endurance test offers a potential clinical assessment, but its construct validity isn't available. Since a criterion measure of muscular endurance is not available, this study's purpose was to determine a reliable method for testing shoulder muscular endurance using an isokinetic dynamometer. The test-retest reliability, standard error measurement, and minimal detectable change were calculated on four different paradigms to quantify muscular fatigue using two isokinetic speeds (60°sec−1,180°sec−1). Calculation paradigms included peak torque fatigue index (FI), average torque FI, area-under-the-curve FI, and peak torque decay slope. Testing occurred on two days. Repeated measures analysis of variance compared the two peak torque decay slopes across both testing days. Superior reliability was found within the decay slope measurements at both 60°sec−1 (ICC = 0.941) and 180°sec−1 (ICC = 0.764) speeds, with the 60°sec−1 decay slope being the highest reliability between the two angular velocities. There was a greater amount of fatigue in the 60°sec−1 decay slope compared to the 180°sec−1 decay slope. Using the decay slope of isokinetic shoulder horizontal abduction at 60°sec−1 is a reliable method to validate other muscular endurance clinical measures. Rehabilitation specialists should utilize the decay slope of the isokinetic dynamometry to monitor responsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades, an extensive array of anthropogenic chemicals have entered the environment and have been implicated in the increased incidence of an array of diseases, including metabolic syndrome. The ubiquitous presence of these environmental chemicals (ECs) necessitates the use of real‐life exposure models to the assess cumulative risk burden to metabolic health. Sheep that graze on biosolids‐treated pastures are exposed to a real‐life mixture of ECs such as phthalates, per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and metabolites thereof, and this EC exposure can result in metabolic disorders in their offspring. Using this model, we evaluated the effects of gestational exposure to a complex EC mixture on plasma triglyceride (TG) concentrations and metabolic and epigenetic regulatory genes in tissues key to energy regulation and storage, including the hypothalamus, liver, and adipose depots of 11‐month‐old male offspring. Our results demonstrated a binary effect of EC exposure on gene expression particularly in the hypothalamus. Principal component analysis revealed two subsets (B‐S1 [n = 6] and B‐S2 [n = 4]) within the biosolids group (B, n = 10), relative to the controls (C, n = 11). Changes in body weight, TG levels, and in gene expression in the hypothalamus, and visceral and subcutaneous fat were apparent between biosolid and control and the two subgroups of biosolids animals. These findings demonstrate that gestational exposure to an EC mixture results in differential regulation of metabolic processes in adult male offspring. Binary effects on hypothalamic gene expression and altered expression of lipid metabolism genes in visceral and subcutaneous fat, coupled with phenotypic outcomes, point to differences in individual susceptibility to EC exposure that could predispose vulnerable individuals to later metabolic dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]