Sleep Duration Mediates the Relationship Between Health Behavior Patterns and Obesity

Objective: To examine associations between health behavior patterns and childhood obesity, and the mediating effect of sleep duration. Design: Population-based survey. Participants: Secondary analysis of data from the Infant Feeding Practices Study (age 6 years, n = 1073). Measurements: Mothers self-reported their child’s health behaviors including physical activity (PA), screen time, sleep duration, and diet. Latent class analysis determined the child’s patterns based on health behaviors. Sleep was examined as a mediator between the class membership variable and %BMIp95. Results: A 3-class model fit the data best, with classes labeled as “Poorest eaters” (low fruit/vegetable consumption, high fast food), “Healthy” (low screen time, highest fruit/vegetable consumption) and “Active, super-eaters, highest screen time” (highest PA and screen time, ate the most). “Poorest eaters” had an increased %BMIp95 (β = 4.11, P = .006) relative to the “Healthy” class. The “Poorest eaters” and “Active, super-eaters, highest screen time” classes had shorter sleep duration (β = −0.51, P \u3c .001; β = −0.38, P \u3c .001; respectively) relative to the “Healthy” class. Independent of class membership, each additional hour of sleep was associated with a %BMIp95 that was 2.93 U lower (P \u3c .001). Conclusions: Our results indicate that health behavior patterns mediated by sleep duration may influence a child’s %BMIp95. The bi-directionality of the relationship between health behaviors and sleep remains unclear. Our findings suggest the importance of a constellation of health behaviors on childhood obesity. Interventions should include a multitude of health behaviors and consider the possibility that improving diet and activity behaviors may facilitate improved sleep and lowered obesity risk among children

The National Childrens Study: An Introduction and Historical Overview

The National Children’s Study (NCS) was an ambitious attempt to map children’s health and development in a large representative group of children in the United States. In this introduction, we briefly review the background of the NCS and the history of the multiple strategies that were tested to recruit women and children. Subsequent articles then detail the protocols and outcomes of 4 of the recruitment strategies. It is hoped that lessons learned from these attempts to define a study protocol that could achieve the initial aims of the NCS will inform future efforts to conceptualize and execute strategies to provide generalizable insights on the longitudinal health of our nation’s children

The Association between Change in Physical Activity and Weight during Adolescence

Abstract Objective: To investigate the association between annual change in physical activity and subsequent annual change in weight status in adolescents over a 4 year period. Design: Longitudinalstudy design with annualdata collection over 4 years. Setting: Suburban school district in Pittsburgh, PA. Participants: 1245 adolescents aged 11-16 years. Main outcome measures: Physical activity and body mass index (BMI) percentile. Analysis: Generalized estimating equation (GEE). Results: 994 participants (53% male) were included in the analyses. The longitudinal associations between changes in physical activity and BMI% were mostly small and non-significant. However, compared with those who did not change their physical activity, a large annual increase in physical activity (>10 hr/wk) was associated with a significant increase in BMI%. Results were broadly similar for total and vigorous physical activity, boys and girls and for healthy and unhealthy (>85th percentile) BMI%. Conclusions and Implications: The role of physical activity in the development of obesity during adolescence therefore remains unclear. Further work is needed to elucidate the role of physical activity in the preventionof obesity

‘She was Like “Don’t Try This” and “Don’t Drink This” and “Don’t Mix These”’: Older Siblings and the Transmission of Embodied Knowledge Surrounding Alcohol Consumption

© 2019 Sage Publications and YOUNG Editorial Group. This article draws on qualitative research conducted with 40 young people, aged 15–24, in the Chorlton and Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK. With a focus on alcohol consumption, this article shows how older siblings transmit embodied knowledge to younger siblings. This article finds that older siblings are an important source of protection for younger siblings when starting their drinking careers. Moreover, they play a fundamental role in facilitating open intragenerational dialogue surrounding alcohol consumption. Through highlighting the important role of older siblings in transmitting embodied knowledge to younger siblings during the transition to adulthood, this article argues that there is a need to encourage greater involvement of siblings in formal educational settings surrounding learning about important issues, such as: alcohol consumption; drug consumption; and relationships and sex education, to help ensure consistent messages

Longitudinal association between television watching and computer use and risk markers in diabetes in the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study: Television watching and risk markers in diabetes

The study provides evidence of the longitudinal association between screen time with hemoglobin A1c and cardiovascular risk markers among youth with type 1 (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D)

Regeneration of Soft Tissues Is Promoted by MMP1 Treatment after Digit Amputation in Mice

The ratio of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) to the tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) in wounded tissues strictly control the protease activity of MMPs, and therefore regulate the progress of wound closure, tissue regeneration and scar formation. Some amphibians (i.e. axolotl/newt) demonstrate complete regeneration of missing or wounded digits and even limbs; MMPs play a critical role during amphibian regeneration. Conversely, mammalian wound healing re-establishes tissue integrity, but at the expense of scar tissue formation. The differences between amphibian regeneration and mammalian wound healing can be attributed to the greater ratio of MMPs to TIMPs in amphibian tissue. Previous studies have demonstrated the ability of MMP1 to effectively promote skeletal muscle regeneration by favoring extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling to enhance cell proliferation and migration. In this study, MMP1 was administered to the digits amputated at the mid-second phalanx of adult mice to observe its effect on digit regeneration. Results indicated that the regeneration of soft tissue and the rate of wound closure were significantly improved by MMP1 administration, but the elongation of the skeletal tissue was insignificantly affected. During digit regeneration, more mutipotent progenitor cells, capillary vasculature and neuromuscular-related tissues were observed in MMP1 treated tissues; moreover, there was less fibrotic tissue formed in treated digits. In summary, MMP1 was found to be effective in promoting wound healing in amputated digits of adult mice. © 2013 Mu et al

Identification of emulsifier potato peptides by bioinformatics: application to omega-3 delivery emulsions and release from potato industry side streams

We are grateful for the financial support from Innovation Fund Denmark (Grant nr: 7045-00021B, PROVIDE project). We also acknowledge K.M.C. amba (Brande, Denmark) and A.K.V. amba (Langholt, Denmark) for providing the potato samples used in this study.In this work, we developed a novel approach combining bioinformatics, testing of functionality and bottom-up proteomics to obtain peptide emulsifiers from potato side-streams. This is a significant advancement in the process to obtain emulsifier peptides and it is applicable to any type of protein. Our results indicated that structure at the interface is the major determining factor of the emulsifying activity of peptide emulsifiers. Fish oil-in-water emulsions with high physical stability were stabilized with peptides to be predicted to have facial amphiphilicity: (i) peptides with predominantly α-helix conformation at the interface and having 18–29 amino acids, and (ii) peptides with predominantly β-strand conformation at the interface and having 13–15 amino acids. In addition, high physically stable emulsions were obtained with peptides that were predicted to have axial hydrophobic/hydrophilic regions. Peptides containing the sequence FCLKVGV showed high in vitro antioxidant activity and led to emulsions with high oxidative stability. Peptide-level proteomics data and sequence analysis revealed the feasibility to obtain the potent emulsifier peptides found in this study (e.g. γ-1) by trypsin-based hydrolysis of different side streams in the potato industry.Innovation Fund Denmark 7045-00021

Enzymatic hydrolysis of sorghum straw using native cellulase produced by T. reesei NCIM 992 under solid state fermentation using rice straw

Cellulose is a major constituent of renewable lignocellulosic waste available in large quantities and is considered the most important reservoir of carbon for the production of glucose, for alternative fuel and as a chemical feedstock. Over the past decade, the emphasis has been on the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose and the efficiency of which depends on source of cellulosic substrate, its composition, structure, pretreatment process, and reactor design. In the present study, efforts were made to produce cellulase enzyme using rice straw. The produced enzyme was used for the hydrolysis of selected lignocellulosic substrate, i.e., sorghum straw. When rice straw was used as a substrate for cellulase production under solid state fermentation, the highest enzyme activity obtained was 30.7 FPU/gds, using T. reesei NCIM 992. 25 FPU/g of cellulase was added to differently treated (native, alkali treated, alkali treated followed by 3% acid treated and alkali treated followed by 3 and 5% acid treated) sorghum straw and hydrolysis was carried out at 50 °C for 60 h. 42.5% hydrolysis was obtained after 36 h of incubation. Optimization of enzyme loading, substrate concentration, temperature, time and buffer yielded a maximum of 546.00 ± 0.55 mg/g sugars (54.60 ± 0.44 g/l) with an improved hydrolysis efficiency of 70 ± 0.45%. The enzymatic hydrolyzate can be used for fermentation of ethanol by yeasts

Should patients with hip joint prosthesis receive antibiotic prophylaxis before dental treatment?

The safety committee of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) recommended in 2009 that clinicians should consider antibiotic prophylaxis for all patients with total joint replacement before any invasive procedure that may cause bacteremia. This has aroused confusion and anger among dentists asking for the evidence. The present review deals with different aspects of the rationale for this recommendation giving attention to views both in favor of and against it

Focus on collagen: in vitro systems to study fibrogenesis and antifibrosis _ state of the art

Fibrosis represents a major global disease burden, yet a potent antifibrotic compound is still not in sight. Part of the explanation for this situation is the difficulties that both academic laboratories and research and development departments in the pharmaceutical industry have been facing in re-enacting the fibrotic process in vitro for screening procedures prior to animal testing. Effective in vitro characterization of antifibrotic compounds has been hampered by cell culture settings that are lacking crucial cofactors or are not holistic representations of the biosynthetic and depositional pathway leading to the formation of an insoluble pericellular collagen matrix. In order to appreciate the task which in vitro screening of antifibrotics is up against, we will first review the fibrotic process by categorizing it into events that are upstream of collagen biosynthesis and the actual biosynthetic and depositional cascade of collagen I. We point out oversights such as the omission of vitamin C, a vital cofactor for the production of stable procollagen molecules, as well as the little known in vitro tardy procollagen processing by collagen C-proteinase/BMP-1, another reason for minimal collagen deposition in cell culture. We review current methods of cell culture and collagen quantitation vis-à-vis the high content options and requirements for normalization against cell number for meaningful data retrieval. Only when collagen has formed a fibrillar matrix that becomes cross-linked, invested with ligands, and can be remodelled and resorbed, the complete picture of fibrogenesis can be reflected in vitro. We show here how this can be achieved. A well thought-out in vitro fibrogenesis system represents the missing link between brute force chemical library screens and rational animal experimentation, thus providing both cost-effectiveness and streamlined procedures towards the development of better antifibrotic drugs