Using Experimental Economics to Measure the Role of Parental Generosity and Food Control in Childhood Obesity

This research uses experimental economics to measure the effect of parental generosity and child response on childhood overweight and obesity. The 'Carrot-Stick' experiment, an adaptation of the standard dictator game in which the respondent (the child) can punish or reward the dictator (the parent) based on the dictator's generosity, served as basis of our examination. Two treatments are conducted, in which the child spends his or her earnings on non-food and food items. Our empirical analysis shows significant relationships between parental weight and their level of generosity regarding food items. We conclude that child response behavior, obesigenic factors in the household, and the child's tendency toward being overweight and obese are significantly related.Overweight, Obesity, Childhood, Family, Bargaining, Carrot-Stick, Dictator, Experimental Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

Changes in endosymbiont complexity drive host-level compensatory adaptations in cicadas

Copyright © 2018 Campbell et al. For insects that depend on one or more bacterial endosymbionts for survival, it is critical that these bacteria are faithfully transmitted between insect generations. Cicadas harbor two essential bacterial endosymbionts, "Candidatus Sulcia muelleri" and "Candidatus Hodgkinia cicadicola." In some cicada species, Hodgkinia has fragmented into multiple distinct but interdependent cellular and genomic lineages that can differ in abundance by more than two orders of magnitude. This complexity presents a potential problem for the host cicada, because low-abundance but essential Hodgkinia lineages risk being lost during the symbiont transmission bottleneck from mother to egg. Here we show that all cicada eggs seem to receive the full complement of Hodgkinia lineages, and that in cicadas with more complex Hodgkinia this outcome is achieved by increasing the number of Hodgkinia cells transmitted by up to 6-fold. We further show that cicada species with varying

One hundred mitochondrial genomes of cicadas

Mitochondrial genomes can provide valuable information on the biology and evolutionary histories of their host organisms. Here, we present and characterize the complete coding regions of 107 mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of cicadas (Insecta: Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadoidea), representing 31 genera, 61 species, and 83 populations. We show that all cicada mitogenomes retain the organization and gene contents thought to be ancestral in insects, with some variability among cicada clades in the length of a region between the genes nad2 and cox1, which encodes 3 tRNAs. Phylogenetic analyses using these mitogenomes recapitulate a recent 5-gene classification of cicadas into families and subfamilies, but also identify a species that falls outside of the established taxonomic framework. While protein-coding genes are under strong purifying selection, tests of relative evolutionary rates reveal significant variation in evolutionary rates across taxa, highlighting the dynamic nature of mitochondrial genome evolution in cicadas. These data will serve as a useful reference for future research into the systematics, ecology, and evolution of the superfamily Cicadoidea.Fil: Lukasik, Piotr. University of Montana; Estados UnidosFil: Chong, Rebecca. University of Hawaii at Manoa; Estados UnidosFil: Nazario, Katherine. University of Connecticut; Estados UnidosFil: Matsuura, Yu. University of the Ryukyus; JapónFil: Bublitz, De Anna. University of Montana; Estados UnidosFil: Campbell, Matthew. University of Montana; Estados UnidosFil: Meyer, Mariah. University of Montana; Estados UnidosFil: Van Leuven, James. University of Montana; Estados UnidosFil: Pessacq, Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagóica. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco". Facultad de Ciencias Naturales - Sede Esquel. Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagónica; ArgentinaFil: Veloso, Claudio. Universidad de Chile; ChileFil: Simon, Chris. University of Connecticut; Estados UnidosFil: McCutcheon, John. University of Montana; Estados Unido

[18F]Difluorocarbene for Positron Emission Tomography

The advent of total-body Positron Emission Tomography (PET) has vastly broadened the range of research and clinical applications of this powerful molecular imaging technology1. Such possibilities have accelerated progress in 18F-radiochemistry with numerous methods available to 18F-label (hetero)arenes and alkanes2. However, access to 18F-difluoromethylated molecules in high molar activity (Am) is largely an unsolved problem, despite the indispensability of the difluoromethyl group for pharmaceutical drug discovery3. We report herein a general solution by introducing carbene chemistry to the field of nuclear imaging with a [18F]difluorocarbene reagent capable of a myriad of 18F-difluoromethylation processes. In contrast to the tens of known difluorocarbene reagents, this 18F-reagent is carefully designed for facile accessibility, high molar activity and versatility. The issue of Am is solved using an assay examining the likelihood of isotopic dilution upon variation of the electronics of the difluorocarbene precursor. Versatility is demonstrated with multiple [18F]difluorocarbene based reactions including O–H, S–H and N–H insertions, and cross-couplings that harness the reactivity of ubiquitous functional groups such as (thio)phenols, N-heteroarenes, and aryl boronic acids that are easy to install. Impact is illustrated with the labelling of highly complex and functionalised biologically relevant molecules and radiotracers

Using Experimental Economics to Measure the Role of Parental Generosity and Food Control in Childhood Obesity

This research uses experimental economics to measure the effect of parental generosity and child response on childhood overweight and obesity. The 'Carrot-Stick' experiment, an adaptation of the standard dictator game in which the respondent (the child) can punish or reward the dictator (the parent) based on the dictator's generosity, served as basis of our examination. Two treatments are conducted, in which the child spends his or her earnings on non-food and food items. Our empirical analysis shows significant relationships between parental weight and their level of generosity regarding food items. We conclude that child response behavior, obesigenic factors in the household, and the child's tendency toward being overweight and obese are significantly related

Relating Behavioral Elements of Household Food Negotiation to Childhood Overweight and Obesity

Researchers working in the fields of family studies and psychology show motherchild relationship dynamics affect the occurrence of childhood overweight and obesity. Many of the significant behaviors they identify relate to negotiation and generosity norms in the household. The primary objective of this study is to test the value of altruistic and collective models of household behavior using the dictator and ‘carrotstick’ laboratory experiments. We also test exploratory hypotheses relating mother’s generosity and child’s punitive behavior and mother-child weight and fitness outcomes using dictator and ‘carrot-stick’ games. The data were collected from 50 mother-child pairs in Laramie, Wyoming. The children were all eight to 10 years old. The mother’s completed a survey to measure family attitudes and beliefs around food and fitness. All of the mothers and children completed a fitness assessment and blood draw to measure their cholesterol, triglyceride, and hemoglobin levels in addition to the economic experiments. The data do not support altruistic models of familial utility maximization as suggested by Becker’s Rotten Kid Theorem. We do find children overwhelmingly influence mothers’ allocations to maximize child, not household, welfare or utility. Results also indicate there is a positive relationship between mother generosity for child junk food the child’s waist circumference. Children who demand punitive behavior in the ‘carrot-stick’ game were less fit and more likely to be overweight and obese. The results of this study offer insights into household allocation processes which effect both mother and child weight and health outcomes