Toward the reduction of population obesity: macrolevel environmental approaches to the problems of food, eating, and obesity

The authors reviewed the evidential basis of three environmental approaches to reducing population obesity: What are the effects of (a) taxing or subsidizing foods, (b) manipulating the ease of food access, and (c) restricting access to certain foods? A narrative review evaluated evidence using National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute criteria. There was strong evidence that subsidization influences food purchases, but not necessarily food consumption or body weight. Ease of food access may influence food purchases, and possibly food intake and body weight. Data on restriction were lacking. More studies are needed to justify that altering these macro-environmental variables will necessarily reduce population obesity. A proposed conceptual model posits that the steps through environmental interventions may exert intended and unintended influences on body weight and obesity prevalence. Contemplated policy changes should weigh scientific evidence with social judgments and values concerning changes to the environment.     

Academic affect shapes the relationship between racial discrimination and longitudinal college attitudes

Social Psychology of Education - Underrepresented racial minority college students attending predominantly White institutions disproportionately experience school-based racial/ethnic...     

Idiots,Ideologues, and Just Plain Interested: The Individuals who Engage in Amateur Waterboarding on the Internet

This article examines 65 amateur waterboarding videos to investigate why ordinary people become involved in waterboarding. There appears to be several explanations for this involvement: thrill-seeking, ideology, and educational reasons. The article highlights waterboarding’s dangers, and its potentially transformational effects on individuals. Findings are situated in relation to Michel Foucault’s work on torture, and what is known about health professional involvement in experimental torture during the War on Terror.     

War in Christ's World: Bonhoeffer and Just Peacemaking on War and Christology

Abstract : In this paper, I apply Dietrich Bonhoeffer's exposition of the nature of war as found in his unfinished magnum opus, Ethics, to the contemporary peacemaking movement known as “just peacemaking.” Using Bonhoeffer, I argue that the just‐peacemaking approach accomplishes tactical peace, but only by undermining its stated purposes of bringing theology to bear on war. By assuming theological reasoning as secondary to historical conditions, just peacemaking has, by Bonhoeffer's logic, already abandoned the world to itself and severed it from theological resources.     

Neuropsychologic Deficits in Children with Sickle Cell Disease and Cerebral Infarction: Role of Lesion Site and Volume

Little is known about the correlation between the location and size of cerebral infarction in children and neuropsychologic deficits. We related lesion location and volume on magnetic resonance exams to neuropsychologic performance in 28 children with cerebral infarcts due to sickle cell disease. Seventeen healthy siblings served as a comparison group. Children with anterior cerebral infarcts (n = 7) showed deficits in attention and executive skills, whereas children with more widespread cerebral infarcts (n = 18) showed additional deficits in spatial skills. The volume of cerebral infarction was associated with spatial and language performance, but minimally related to performance in other cognitive domains. The location and volume of cerebral infarction are both important for defining the type and magnitude of cognitive sequelae in childhood stroke.