A problem in spontaneous dream psi studies is validation of purported psi elements. Dreams rarely have enough specifi city to satisfy critics that they point to paranormal knowledge of a specifi c event. This creates evidential hurdles to overcome when evaluating whether a dream contains psi-derived information such as scenes of future events or physically distant locations. In this study, the goal is to arrive at a reasonable method to establish that information derived from spontaneous dream experiences can be established as veridical. To accomplish this, a method for fi nding the equivalent of a target within a spontaneous experience is used to fi x a specifi c locale and time for comparison. Adverse scoring criteria are used to address complaints about confi rmation bias. The result is a psi-adverse method for scoring spontaneous experiences that are anchored to a specifi c locale and time. This method regularly produced signifi cant p-values when used to assess 20 consecutive dream records, comprising 598 individual line items. These records were taken as a sample from a group of 3,305 dream records made over the past 22 years by the author.
Aim and method: To examine in obese people the potential effectiveness of a six-week, two times weekly aquajogging program on body composition, fitness, health-related quality of life and exercise beliefs. Fifteen otherwise healthy obese persons participated in a pilot study. Results: Total fat mass and waist circumference decreased 1.4 kg (p = .03) and 3.1 cm (p = .005) respectively. The distance in the Six-Minute Walk Test increased 41 meters (p = .001). Three scales of the Impact of Weight on Quality of Life-Lite questionnaire improved: physical function (p = .008), self-esteem (p = .004), and public distress (p = .04). Increased perceived exercise benefits (p = .02) and decreased embarrassment (p = .03) were observed. Conclusions: Aquajogging was associated with reduced body fat and waist circumference, and improved aerobic fitness and quality of life. These findings suggest the usefulness of conducting a randomized controlled trial with long-term outcome assessments.
Objectives: Malnutrition is associated with a twofold higher risk of dying in patients with tuberculosis (TB) and considered an important potentially reversible risk factor for failure of TB treatment. The construct of malnutrition has three domains: intake or uptake of nutrition; body composition and physical and cognitive function. The objectives of this systematic review are to identify malnutrition assessment methods, and to quantify how malnutrition assessment methods capture the international consensus definition for malnutrition, in patients with TB.Design: Different assessment methods were identified. We determined the extent of capturing of the three domains of malnutrition, that is, intake or uptake of nutrition, body composition and physical and cognitive function.Results: Seventeen malnutrition assessment methods were identified in 69 included studies. In 53/69 (77%) of studies, body mass index was used as the only malnutrition assessment method. Three out of 69 studies (4%) used a method that captured all three domains of malnutrition.Conclusions: Our study focused on published articles. Implementation of new criteria takes time, which may take longer than the period covered by this review. Most patients with TB are assessed for only one aspect of the conceptual definition of malnutrition. The use of international consensus criteria is recommended to establish uniform diagnostics and treatment of malnutrition.
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