Body Image Quality of Life Related to Light Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior among Young Adults with Overweight/Obesity

Sedentary behaviors, low levels of physical activity (PA), and low body image quality of life have been identified during college years and associated with poor health outcomes. Public health efforts have recently focused on decreasing sedentary time by increasing light physical activity, both of which have been associated with body image quality of life, though mainly through self-report. In this cross-sectional study, we examined objective actigraphy and survey data from 404 of 459 young adults with overweight and obesity (mean age 23.3 +/- 4.4 years, 78.4% female, 55.4% white). PA was measured using an accelerometer worn during waking hours for \u3e 10 h/day for four days. Body image quality of life was assessed using the Body Image Quality of Life Inventory Scale. Body image was positively correlated with light PA (r = 0.15) and inversely correlated with BMI (Pearson\u27s r = -0.20) and sedentary time (r = -0.10), but not moderate PA, vigorous PA, or MVPA. Light PA and sedentary time were significantly inversely correlated (r = -0.38). When controlling for covariates, higher body image quality of life was significantly associated with higher levels of light PA (beta = 0.39; p \u3c 0.01) and lower sedentary time (beta = -0.39; p = 0.02). Participants with lower body image quality of life enrolled in weight loss interventions may benefit from prescriptions of light PA in conjunction with decreasing sedentary behaviors

Highly Functionalized SWCNTs with a Dopamine Derivative as a Support for Pd Nanoparticles: A Recyclable Catalyst for the Reduction of Nitro Compounds and the Heck Reaction

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were functionalized with a dopamine derivative in which the amine group was converted to azide (dopamine azide). The direct reaction of SWCNTs and dopamine azide in o-dichlorobenzene at high temperature (160 °C) led to very highly functionalized CNTs (≈60 wt.%). Surprisingly, despite this high degree of functionalization, Raman spectroscopy detected a low disruption of the π-network of the carbonaceous support. This finding was justified by the rehybridization from sp3 to sp2 of the sidewall carbon atoms of CNTs involved in the functionalization process. Further characterization by means of different techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) allowed to shed some light on the chemical composition and morphology of the obtained material. Moreover, the estimation of the total content of phenolic units and their reducing potential after CNTs functionalization was also assessed using Folin and Ciocalteu and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazide (DPPH) assays. The functionalization of CNTs was exploited to immobilize palladium(II) species that were subsequently reduced with NaBH4 leading to the formation of Pd nanoparticles (NPs). The so obtained hybrid material was used as a recyclable heterogeneous catalyst for the reduction of nitro compounds and the Heck reaction

GRK2 Levels in Umbilical Arteries of Pregnancies Complicated by Gestational Hypertension and Preeclampsia

BACKGROUND G-Protein coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) represents a regulator of cell function in different cardiovascular conditions, including high blood pressure. The relationship between elevated GRK2 levels and impaired vasorelaxant responses is causative of hypertension through the increase in vascular resistances. The aim of this study is to ascertain if this feature is present in the fetal placental vasculature of pregnancies complicated by hypertensive disorders. METHODS We have assessed GRK2 levels in the umbilical arteries (UA) of 21 preeclamptic or gestational hypertensive and 23 normotensive women at time of delivery. RESULTS GRK2 levels were increased in the hypertensive group (0.83 +/- 0.14 vs. 0.48 +/- 0.06 densitometry units; P < 0.05). GRK2 levels were in correlation and in linear regression with systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressure (P < 0.05, r(2) = 0.12, r(2) = 0.11, r(2) = 0.12). Correlations did not reach a significant value for other clinical parameters such as gestational age at birth, umbilical artery pulsatility index, maternal proteinuria, and neonatal birth weight. Out of the 21 hypertensive women, 7 who developed a preeclampsia associated with early preterm delivery (before 34 weeks) had a significantly lower GRK2 levels compared to the remaining 14 (0.51 +/- 0.12 vs. 1.08 +/- 0.20 densitometry units, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that elevated GRK2 levels in the umbilical vasculature is correlated to elevated blood pressure levels, with a likely compensatory rather than causative role since the lack of protective effect of elevated GRK2 levels may negatively affect the outcome of the hypertensive state

The CUORE Cryostat: A 1-Ton Scale Setup for Bolometric Detectors

The cryogenic underground observatory for rare events (CUORE) is a 1-ton scale bolometric experiment whose detector consists of an array of 988 TeO2 crystals arranged in a cylindrical compact structure of 19 towers. This will be the largest bolometric mass ever operated. The experiment will work at a temperature around or below 10 mK. CUORE cryostat consists of a cryogen-free system based on pulse tubes and a custom high power dilution refrigerator, designed to match these specifications. The cryostat has been commissioned in 2014 at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories and reached a record temperature of 6 mK on a cubic meter scale. In this paper, we present results of CUORE commissioning runs. Details on the thermal characteristics and cryogenic performances of the system will be also given.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, LTD16 conference proceedin

The VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey: Exploring the Outskirts and Intra-cluster Regions of Galaxies in the Low-surface-brightness Regime

The VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey (VEGAS) is a deep, multi-band (u, g, r, i) imaging survey, carried out with the 2.6-metre VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile. VEGAS combines the wide (1-square-degree) OmegaCAM imager and long integration times, together with a specially designed observing strategy. It has proven to be a gold mine for studies of features at very low surface brightness, down to levels of mu_g~27-30 magnitudes arcsec^(-2), over 5-8 magnitudes fainter than the dark sky at Paranal. In this article we highlight the main science results obtained with VEGAS observations of galaxies across different environments, from dense clusters of galaxies to unexplored poor groups and in the field.Comment: Published in The Messenger, vol. 183, p. 25-2

Multi-centre and multi-vendor reproducibility of a standardized protocol for quantitative susceptibility Mapping of the human brain at 3T

: Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) is an MRI-based technique allowing the non-invasive quantification of iron content and myelination in the brain. The RIN - Neuroimaging Network established an optimized and harmonized protocol for QSM across ten sites with 3T MRI systems from three different vendors to enable multicentric studies. The assessment of the reproducibility of this protocol is crucial to establish susceptibility as a quantitative biomarker. In this work, we evaluated cross-vendor reproducibility in a group of six traveling brains. Then, we recruited fifty-one volunteers and measured the variability of QSM values in a cohort of healthy subjects scanned at different sites, simulating a multicentric study. Both voxelwise and Region of Interest (ROI)-based analysis on cortical and subcortical gray matter were performed. The traveling brain study yielded high structural similarity (∼0.8) and excellent reproducibility comparing maps acquired on scanners from two different vendors. Depending on the ROI, we reported a quantification error ranging from 0.001 to 0.017&nbsp;ppm for the traveling brains. In the cohort of fifty-one healthy subjects scanned at nine different sites, the ROI-dependent variability of susceptibility values, of the order of 0.005-0.025&nbsp;ppm, was comparable to the result of the traveling brain experiment. The harmonized QSM protocol of the RIN - Neuroimaging Network provides a reliable quantification of susceptibility in both cortical and subcortical gray matter regions and it is ready for multicentric and longitudinal clinical studies in neurological and pychiatric diseases

Phosphorylation of FAM134C by CK2 controls starvation-induced ER-phagy.

Selective degradation of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) via autophagy (ER-phagy) is initiated by ER-phagy receptors, which facilitate the incorporation of ER fragments into autophagosomes. FAM134 reticulon family proteins (FAM134A, FAM134B, and FAM134C) are ER-phagy receptors with structural similarities and nonredundant functions. Whether they respond differentially to the stimulation of ER-phagy is unknown. Here, we describe an activation mechanism unique to FAM134C during starvation. In fed conditions, FAM134C is phosphorylated by casein kinase 2 (CK2) at critical residues flanking the LIR domain. Phosphorylation of these residues negatively affects binding affinity to the autophagy proteins LC3. During starvation, mTORC1 inhibition limits FAM134C phosphorylation by CK2, hence promoting receptor activation and ER-phagy. Using a novel tool to study ER-phagy in vivo and FAM134C knockout mice, we demonstrated the physiological relevance of FAM134C phosphorylation during starvation-induced ER-phagy in liver lipid metabolism. These data provide a mechanistic insight into ER-phagy regulation and an example of autophagy selectivity during starvation.We thank G. Diez Roux and P. Ashley-Norman for critical reading of the manuscript. We thank the microscopy, MS, advanced histopathology, and FACS facilities at TIGEM Institute. We thank E. Nusco for helping us with AAV injections. Funding: This work was supported by European Research Council (ERC) (714551), Telethon intramural grants, and Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC) (IG 2015 Id 17717) (to C.S.) and Telethon Foundation (TMPGCBX16TT), AFM Telethon (Trampoline Grant), and AIRC (MFAG-2020-24856) (to P.G.). G.D.L. is a recipient of AIRC fellowship “Francesco Alicino” (25407). V.L. acknowledges funding from the ERC (101001784), the Italian MIUR-PRIN 2017 (2017FJZZRC), and the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS) (project ID u8). The work of A.S. was supported by the German Research Foundation DFG (SFB1177/2 and WO210/20-2) and the Dr. Rolf M. Schwiete Stiftung (13/2017). A.E. is supported by the RETOS projects Programme of Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Spanish State Research Agency (grants SAF2015-67538-R and PID2019-104012RB-I00), and the ERC (638891). A.B.P.-G. is a recipient of Ph.D. fellowship from MICIU/AEI (BES-2017-081381). A.R. is a recipient of Umberto Veronesi Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. Author contributions: G.D.L. and F.I. performed most of the experiments. F.I. and A.B.P.-G. performed in vivo experiments. M.M. performed mutagenesis experiments. S.A. and V.L. performed LC3-FAM134C binding analysis. C.P.Q.M. performed in vitro phosphorylation assays. L.C. analyzed CK2 substrate phosphorylation. F.S., A.P., C.C., and A.S. analyzed proteomic data. G.N. provided critical suggestions. A.R. performed proteomic experiments. A.E. supervised in vivo experiments. M.R., L.A.P., and O.M. supervised CK2 experiments. C.S. designed the study. P.G. and C.S. conceived and supervised the experiments. C.S., P.G., V.L., and M.R. wrote the paper. G.D.L. and F.I. prepared the figures. All the authors read the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials.S

Validation of techniques to mitigate copper surface contamination in CUORE

In this article we describe the background challenges for the CUORE experiment posed by surface contamination of inert detector materials such as copper, and present three techniques explored to mitigate these backgrounds. Using data from a dedicated test apparatus constructed to validate and compare these techniques we demonstrate that copper surface contamination levels better than 10E-07 - 10E-08 Bq/cm2 are achieved for 238U and 232Th. If these levels are reproduced in the final CUORE apparatus the projected 90% C.L. upper limit on the number of background counts in the region of interest is 0.02-0.03 counts/keV/kg/y depending on the adopted mitigation technique.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 6 table

Search for 14.4 keV solar axions from M1 transition of Fe-57 with CUORE crystals

We report the results of a search for axions from the 14.4 keV M1 transition from Fe-57 in the core of the sun using the axio-electric effect in TeO2 bolometers. The detectors are 5x5x5 cm3 crystals operated at about 10 mK in a facility used to test bolometers for the CUORE experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. An analysis of 43.65 kg d of data was made using a newly developed low energy trigger which was optimized to reduce the detectors energy threshold. An upper limit of 0.63 c kg-1 d-1 was established at 95% C.L.. From this value, a lower bound at 95% C.L. was placed on the Peccei-Quinn energy scale of fa >= 0.76 10**6 GeV for a value of S=0.55 for the flavor-singlet axial vector matrix element. Bounds are given for the interval 0.15 < S < 0.55.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to JCA

Minimal asbestos exposure in germline BAP1 heterozygous mice is associated with deregulated inflammatory response and increased risk of mesothelioma

Germline BAP1 mutations predispose to several cancers, in particular malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is an aggressive malignancy generally associated to professional exposure to asbestos. However, to date we found that none of the mesothelioma patients carrying germline BAP1 mutations were professionally exposed to asbestos. We hypothesized that germline BAP1 mutations might influence the asbestos-induced inflammatory response that is linked to asbestos carcinogenesis, thereby increasing the risk of developing mesothelioma after minimal exposure. Using a BAP1+/- mouse model, we found that, compared to their wild type littermates, BAP1+/- mice exposed to low-dose asbestos fibers showed significant alterations of the peritoneal inflammatory response, including significantly higher levels of pro-tumorigenic alternatively polarized M2 macrophages, and lower levels of several chemokines and cytokines. Consistent with these data, BAP1+/- mice had a significantly higher incidence of mesothelioma after exposure to very low doses of asbestos, doses that rarely induced mesothelioma in wild type mice. Our findings suggest that minimal exposure to carcinogenic fibers may significantly increase the risk of malignant mesothelioma in genetically predisposed individuals carrying germline BAP1 mutations, possibly via alterations of the inflammatory response