669 research outputs found

    Employed parents\u27 satisfaction with food choice coping strategies: Influence of gender and structure

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    This study aimed to understand parents\u27 evaluations of the way they integrated work-family demands to manage food and eating. Employed, low/moderate-income, urban, U.S., Black, White, and Latino mothers (35) and fathers (34) participated in qualitative interviews exploring work and family conditions and spillover, food roles, and food-choice coping and family-adaptive strategies. Parents expressed a range of evaluations from overall satisfaction to overall dissatisfaction as well as dissatisfaction limited to work, family life, or daily schedule. Evaluation criteria differed by gender. Mothers evaluated satisfaction on their ability to balance work and family demands through flexible home and work conditions, while striving to provide healthy meals for their families. Fathers evaluated satisfaction on their ability to achieve schedule stability and participate in family meals, while meeting expectations to contribute to food preparation. Household, and especially work structural conditions, often served as sizeable barriers to parents fulfilling valued family food roles. These relationships highlight the critical need to consider the intersecting influences of gender and social structure as influences on adults\u27 food choices and dietary intake and to address the challenges of work and family integration among low income employed parents as a way to promote family nutrition in a vulnerable population

    The effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of cytisine versus varenicline for smoking cessation in an Australian population: a study protocol for a randomized controlled non-inferiority trial

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    Smoking cessation medications are effective but often underutilised because of costs and side effects. Cytisine is a plant-based smoking cessation medication with over 50 years of use in Central and Eastern Europe. While cytisine has been found to be well-tolerated and more effective than nicotine replacement therapy, direct comparison with varenicline have not been conducted. This study evaluates the effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of cytisine compared with varenicline.Two arm, parallel group, randomised, non-inferiority trial, with allocation concealment and blinded outcome assessment.Australian population-based study.Adult daily smokers (N=1266) interested in quitting will be recruited through advertisements and Quitline telephone-based cessation support services.Eligible participants will be randomised (1:1 ratio) to receive either cytisine capsules (25-day supply) or varenicline tablets (12-week supply), prescribed in accordance with the manufacturer's recommended dosing regimen. The medication will be mailed to each participant's nominated residential address. All participants will also be offered standard Quitline behavioural support (up to six 10-12 minute sessions).Assessments will be undertaken by telephone at baseline, 4- and 7-months post-randomisation. Participants will also be contacted twice (two and four weeks post-randomisation) to ascertain adverse events, treatment adherence and smoking status. The primary outcome will be self-reported 6-month continuous abstinence from smoking, verified by carbon monoxide at 7-month follow-up. We will also evaluate the relative safety and cost-effectiveness of cytisine compared with varenicline. Secondary outcomes will include self-reported continuous and 7-day point prevalence abstinence and cigarette consumption at each follow-up interview.If cytisine is as effective as varenicline, its lower cost and natural plant-based composition may make it an acceptable and affordable smoking cessation medication that could save millions of lives worldwide

    Endoplasmic reticulum stress does not contribute to steatohepatitis in obese and insulin resistant high-fat diet fed foz/foz mice

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    Non-alcoholic fatty liver (steatosis) and steatohepatitis [non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)] are hepatic complications of the metabolic syndrome. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is proposed as a crucial disease mechanism in obese and insulin-resistant animals (such as ob/ob mice) with simple steatosis, but its role in NASH remains controversial. We therefore evaluated the role of ER stress as a disease mechanism in foz/foz mice, which develop both the metabolic and histological features that mimic human NASH. We explored ER stress markers in the liver of foz/foz mice in response to a high-fat diet (HFD) at several time points. We then evaluated the effect of treatment with an ER stress inducer tunicamycin, or conversely with the ER protectant tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), on the metabolic and hepatic features. foz/foz mice are obese, glucose intolerant and develop NASH characterized by steatosis, inflammation, ballooned hepatocytes and apoptosis from 6 weeks of HFD feeding. This was not associated with activation of the upstream unfolded protein response [phospho-eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (eIF2α), inositol-requiring enzyme 1α (IRE1α) activity and spliced X-box-binding protein 1 (Xbp1)]. Activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and up-regulation of activating transcription factor-4 (Atf4) and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-homologous protein (Chop) transcripts were however compatible with a ‘pathological’ response to ER stress. We tested this by using intervention experiments. Induction of chronic ER stress failed to worsen obesity, glucose intolerance and NASH pathology in HFD-fed foz/foz mice. In addition, the ER protectant TUDCA, although reducing steatosis, failed to improve glucose intolerance, hepatic inflammation and apoptosis in HFD-fed foz/foz mice. These results show that signals driving hepatic inflammation, apoptosis and insulin resistance are independent of ER stress in obese diabetic mice with steatohepatitis

    Behavioral Contexts, Food-Choice Coping Strategies, and Dietary Quality of a Multiethnic Sample of Employed Parents

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    Employed parents\u27 work and family conditions provide behavioral contexts for their food choices. Relationships between employed parents\u27 food-choice coping strategies, behavioral contexts, and dietary quality were evaluated. Data on work and family conditions, sociodemographic characteristics, eating behavior, and dietary intake from two 24-hour dietary recalls were collected in a random sample cross-sectional pilot telephone survey in the fall of 2006. Black, white, and Latino employed mothers (n=25) and fathers (n=25) were recruited from a low/moderate income urban area in upstate New York. Hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward\u27s method) identified three clusters of parents differing in use of food-choice coping strategies (ie, Individualized Eating, Missing Meals, and Home Cooking). Cluster sociodemographic, work, and family characteristics were compared using χ2 and Fisher\u27s exact tests. Cluster differences in dietary quality (Healthy Eating Index 2005) were analyzed using analysis of variance. Clusters differed significantly (P≀0.05) on food-choice coping strategies, dietary quality, and behavioral contexts (ie, work schedule, marital status, partner\u27s employment, and number of children). Individualized Eating and Missing Meals clusters were characterized by nonstandard work hours, grabbing quick food instead of a meal, using convenience entrĂ©es at home, and missing meals or individualized eating. The Home Cooking cluster included considerably more married fathers with nonemployed spouses and more home-cooked family meals. Food-choice coping strategies affecting dietary quality reflect parents\u27 work and family conditions. Nutritional guidance and family policy needs to consider these important behavioral contexts for family nutrition health

    Endovascular Thrombectomy for Mild Strokes: How Low Should We Go? A Multicenter Cohort Study

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    Background and Purpose:Endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) is effective for acute ischemic stroke with large vessel occlusion (LVO) and NIHSS ≄6. However, EVT benefit for mild deficits LVOs (NIHSS Methods: A retrospective cohort of patients with anterior circulation LVO and NIHSSoutcome; mRS=0–2 was the secondary. Symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) was the safety outcome. Clinical outcomes were compared through a multivariable logistic regression after adjusting for age, presentation NIHSS, time-last-seen-normal-to-presentation, center, IV-alteplase, ASPECTS, and thrombus location. We then performed propensity score matching as a sensitivity analysis. Results were also stratified by thrombus location. Results: 214 patients (EVT-124, medical management-90) were included from 8 US and Spain centers between January/2012 and March/2017. The groups were similar in age, ASPECTS, IValteplase rate and time-last-seen-normal-to-presentation. There was no difference in mRS=0–1 between EVT and medical management (55.7% versus 54.4%, respectively, aOR=1.3, 95%CI=0.64–2.64, p=0.47). Similar results were seen for mRS=0–2 (63.3% EVT versus 67.8% medical management, aOR=0.9, 95%CI=0.43–1.88, p=0.77). In a propensity matching analysis, there was no treatment effect in 62 matched pairs (53.5%EVT, 48.4% medical management; OR=1.17, 95%CI=0.54–2.52, p=0.69). There was no statistically significant difference when stratified by any thrombus location; M1 approached significance (p=0.07). sICH rates were higher with thrombectomy (5.8% EVT versus 0% medical management, p=0.02). Conclusions: Our retrospective multicenter cohort study showed no improvement in excellent and independent functional outcomes in mild strokes (NIHS

    Reconsidering terms for mechanisms of polymer growth: The “Step-Growth” and “Chain-Growth” Dilemma

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    © 2022 The Authors. Published by Royal Society of Chemistry. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1039/D2PY00086EThe terms “step-growth polymerization” and “chain-growth polymerization” are used widely in both written and oral communications to describe the two main mechanisms of polymer growth. As members of the Subcommittee on Polymer Terminology (SPT) in the Polymer Division of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), we are concerned that these terms are confusing because they do not describe the fundamental differences in the growth of polymers by these methods. For example, both polymerization methods are comprised of a series of steps, and both produce polymer chains. In an effort to recommend comprehensive terms, a 1994 IUPAC Recommendation from the then version of SPT suggested polycondensation and polyaddition as terms for the two variants of “step-growth polymerization”, and similarly chain polymerization and condensative chain polymerization for two variants of “chain-growth polymerization.” However, these terms also have shortcomings. Adding to the confusion, we have identified a wide variety of other terms that are used in textbooks for describing these basic methods of synthesizing polymers from monomers. Beyond these issues with “step-growth” and “chain-growth,” synthesis of polymers one monomer unit at a time presents a related dilemma in that this synthetic strategy is wholly encompassed by neither of the traditional growth mechanisms. One component of the mission of IUPAC is to develop tools for the clear communication of chemical knowledge around the world, of which recommending definitions for terms is an important element. Here we do not endorse specific terms or recommend new ones; instead, we aim to convey our concerns with the basic terms typically used for classifying methods of polymer synthesis, and in this context we welcome dialogue from the broader polymer community in a bid to resolve these issues.We acknowledge IUPAC for support of this work through project 2019-027-1-400. We thank the members of SPT for helpful discussions and critical feedback in the preparation of this manuscript
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