Body image, shape, and volumetric assessments using 3D whole body laser scanning and 2D digital photography in females with a diagnosed eating disorder: preliminary novel findings

We piloted three-dimensional (3D) body scanning in eating disorder (ED) patients. Assessments of 22 ED patients (including nine anorexia nervosa (AN) patients, 12 bulimia nervosa (BN) patients, and one patient with eating disorder not otherwise specified) and 22 matched controls are presented. Volunteers underwent visual screening, two-dimensional (2D) digital photography to assess perception and dissatisfaction (via computerized image distortion), and adjunctive 3D full-body scanning. Patients and controls perceived themselves as bigger than their true shape (except in the chest region for controls and anorexia patients). All participants wished to be smaller across all body regions. Patients had poorer veridical perception and greater dissatisfaction than controls. Perception was generally poorer and dissatisfaction greater in bulimia compared with anorexia patients. 3D-volume:2D-area relationships showed that anorexia cases had least tissue on the torso and most on the arms and legs relative to frontal area. The engagement of patients with the scanning process suggests a validation study is viable. This would enable mental constructs of body image to be aligned with segmental volume of body areas, overcoming limitations, and errors associated with 2D instruments restricted to frontal (coronal) shapes. These novel data could inform the design of clinical trials in adjunctive treatments for eating disorders.     

Human Rights in the Perspective of Traditional Africa: A Cosmotheandric Approach

The notion of human rights is highly controversial and contested in modern scholarship. However, human rights have been defined as ‘the rational basis… for a justified demand.’ What constitutes demand should be understood as that which is different from favor or privilege but one's due, free from racial, religious, gender, political inclinations. But since rights are basic due to the fact that they are necessary for the enjoyment of something else, we are poised to examine it from the pre-figurative, configurative and post-figurative stages of development in Africa. This enterprise anchors on the belief in cosmotheandrisation of human rights in Africa: cosmos ‘earth’, theos ‘God’ and anthropos ‘human’. These three levels of horizontal and vertical relationship guarantee the respect for human rights in traditional Africa. Through this approach, this enterprise shows that the positive approach to human rights is majorly declarative without corresponding pragmatic manifestation.     

Understanding Liberals and Conservatives

It is helpful to teach students of religion and theology that it's not just the teachings and practices of a religion that are important, but the way in which these beliefs and practices are handled that's critical, whether in a liberal or a conservative way. Recent work in Cognitive Linguistics has helped pastors and religion teachers introduce this other dimension of their subject in new ways.     

Enhancing the transfer of computer-assisted training proficiency in geographically distributed teams

The authors examined factors that determine whether knowledge gained from computer-assisted (i.e., technology-based) team training in a geographically distributed team (GDT) context transfers to organizational results. They examined the moderating effects of team trust, technology support, and leader experience on the relation between teams' average individual training proficiency on a computer-assisted (i.e., CD-ROM-based) training program and team performance as assessed by team customer satisfaction ratings. Using data collected from 40 GDTs in a high-technology company, the authors found that the relation between teams' average training proficiency and team performance was complex and moderated by several factors. In particular, teams' average training proficiency had a positive association with customer satisfaction when GDTs were higher, rather than lower, in both trust and technology support and when team leaders had longer, rather than shorter, levels of tenure with their specific team.     

Associations Between the Repressive Adaptive Style and Self-Reported Hope in Mexican American and Euro-American Children

The investigators factor-analyzed abstract art preferences and correlated art factors with traits on the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey. Factors were derived from preference ratings on the “Abstract Art Test” developed by Knapp and Green in a previous study. Two of the three multiple loading factors were “non-geometric” or expressionistic; one was “geometric,” rationalistic. Only 2 of the 30 correlations with the GZTS scales were significant at the .10 level, and these could have been due to chance. There is support for dichotomizing abstract art types into “geometric” and “non-geometric” but little support for the role of temperament in aesthetic preference.     

Pregnancy complications and neuropsychological outcomes: A review

Pregnancy complications elevate risk of associated adverse medical, socioenvironmental, and behavioral outcomes in children. These are likely to have a substantial impact on neuropsychological functioning and mental health across the child’s lifespan. Thus, an understanding of the complex relationships between pregnancy complications and neuropsychological outcomes is critical for both practitioners and researchers. This review summarizes prevalent pregnancy complications and the associated psychological and neuropsychological findings, highlighting methodological challenges that have restricted investigations of these outcomes and identifying opportune areas for future study.