Is there a relationship between Internet dependence and eating disorders? A comparison study of Internet dependents and non-Internet dependents

OBJECTIVE

Several studies have examined the underlying psychopathology in overuse of the Internet, including depression, social anxiety, and substance dependence. A relationship between these psychological disorders appears to exist. No links have been established between Internet dependence and eating disorders.

METHOD

Fifty-four Internet dependents were compared with a control group concerning symptomatic aspects of eating disorders and psychological characteristics related to eating disorders. They all belonged to 1199 respondents of Chinese secondary school and college students between the ages of 12 and 25 years old. A Mann-Whitney U-test was used to determine the difference between Internet dependent groups and non-Internet dependent groups concerning Eating Attitudes Test and Eating Disorder Inventory scores.

RESULTS

Females and male Internet dependents rated themselves with significantly higher symptomatic aspects of eating disorders than control groups. Female and male Internet dependents showed significantly higher psychological characteristics related to eating disorders than control groups.

CONCLUSIONS

A relationship between Internet dependence and eating disorders appears to exist.

The correlation of Chinese mothers' eating attitudes and psychological characteristics with their children's eating attitudes, as well as the gender effect on eating attitudes of children

OBJECTIVE

No study has examined the connection between the mothers' weight concerns, their psychological characteristics as well as their educational level and their children's weight concerns in China. Nor has the gender effect on the eating attitudes of pre- to post-pubertal Chinese children been explored (aged 10-13).

METHOD

The children (girls N=138, boys N=103) were given a Chinese version of the EDI-C. Their mothers completed a Chinese version of the EDI-2. The Bivariate's (Pearson) correlation was used to examine the relationship between the mothers' weight concerns, psychological characteristics and educational level with their children's weight concerns. An Independent-Samples Ttest was conducted to comparing the EDI-C subscales of the girls and boys groups.

RESULTS

Regarding the mothers' and children's eating attitudes, there was a significant correlation between the mothers' weight concerns as well as their psychological characteristics with their children's eating attitudes. No significant relationship was found between the mothers' educational level and the children's eating attitudes. According to the scores of the EDI-C questionnaire, there was no general significant gender difference between Chinese children (aged 10-13). However, a differential gender effect on the body dissatisfaction of children was found for the subgroup of elders (aged 13) indicating a differential developmental dynamic.

CONCLUSIONS

The Chinese mothers' weight concerns and their psychological characteristics correlated with their children's eating attitudes. A gender effect on the Chinese children's eating attitudes (aged 13) was established.

A study of RBC aggregation-sedimentation phenomenon with conductivity method

In this paper, we present a conductivity method for measuring the RBC (red blood cell) aggregation-sedimentation phenomenon and the theoretical analysis of this phenomenon. A theory describing the RBC aggregation-sedimentation phenomenon with the conductivity method is proposed and the formula of the l-t function which depicts the RBC aggregation-sedimentation process is given. We put forward the aggregation index and sedimentation factor describing the RBC aggregation-sedimentation phenomenon for the first time.

A hypothesis on the mechanism of trauma of lung tissue subjected to impact load

When a compressive impact load is applied on the chest, as in automobile crash or bomb explosion, the lung may be injured and show evidences of edema and hemorrhage. Since soft tissues have good strength in compression, why does a compression wave cause edema? Our hypothesis is that tensile and shear stresses are induced in the alveolar wall on rebound from compression, and that the maximum principal stress (tensile) may exceed critical values for increased permeability of the epithelium to small solutes, or even fracture. Furthermore, small airways may collapse and trap gas in alveoli at a critical strain, causing traumatic atelectasis. The collapsed airways reopen at a higher strain after the wave passes, during which the expansion of the trapped gas will induce additional tension in the alveolar wall. To test this hypothesis, we made three new experiments: (1), measuring the effect of transient overstretch of the alveolar membrane on the rate of lung weight increase; (2) determining the critical pressure for reopening collapsed airways of rabbit lung subjected to cyclic compression and expansion; (3) cyclic compression of lung with trachea closed. We found that in isolated rabbit lung overstretching increases the rate of edema fluid formation, that the critical strain for airway reopening is higher than that for closing, and that these critical strains are strain-rate dependent, but independent of the state of the trachea, whether it is open or closed. Furthermore, a theoretical analysis is presented to show that the maximum principal (tensile) stress is of the same order of magnitude as the maximum initial compressive stress at certain localities of the lung.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Lungs under cyclic compression and expansion

The pressure-volume relationship of lungs subjected to repeated compression and expansion is studied in detail. The investigation was motivated by an attempt to understand why lungs are frequently injured by compression waves; hence the lung was compressed to a degree greater than normally encountered in physiological conditions. Attention was focused on the collapse of the lung at a critical strain and the reopening of the trap at a critical stress. We found that when a rabbit lung is compressed, about one-half to one-quarter of its gas may be trapped in the alveoli because of the closure of airways. Reopening of the trap occurs at a pressure higher than the critical pressure for collapsing. The difference of the critical pressures of collapsing and reopening is influenced by the rate of strain and the strain history, especially by the maximum compressive stress imposed on the lung. The stress-strain relationship of the lung tissue, which resembles the PV curves, depends strongly on the strain history.