The motivation to loosing weight in overweight and obese people

WSTĘP. Podstawę leczenia nadwagi i otyłości stanowi między innymi zmiana stylu życia, leczenie dietetyczne oraz farmakologiczne. Niestety, działania zmierzające do redukcji nadmiaru masy ciała na podstawie tych elementów nie zawsze dają wymierne efekty. Często po sukcesie trwającym kilka miesięcy u większości osób następuje powrót do wyjściowej masy ciała. Stąd też potrzeba terapii, w której działania dietetyka czy lekarza zostałyby wzmocnione przez pomoc psychologiczną. MATERIAŁ I METODY. Badanie ankietowe przeprowadzono na przełomie marca i kwietnia 2009 roku. Badaniem objęto 104 celowo dobranych respondentów. Kryterium doboru stanowiły nadwaga lub otyłość osób biorących udział w badaniu oraz podjęcie próby jej redukcji. Badani byli pacjentami Poradni Chorób Metabolicznych przy Instytucie Żywności i Żywienia w Warszawie. Badana grupa składała się z 74 kobiet i 30 mężczyzn, wśród których 36 osób miało nadwagę, a 68 otyłość. WYNIKI. Ankietowani, mimo że w ocenie subiektywnej uważali się za osoby cierpliwe dążące do wyznaczonego celu, w większości mieli za sobą nieudane próby odchudzania. Z uwagi na brak jasno określonego celu i chęć utraty masy ciała w krótkim czasie dochodziło u nich do zniechęcenia i przedwczesnej rezygnacji z odchudzania się. Okazało się ponadto, że respondenci w większości nie mieli określonego planu działania. WNIOSKI. W badaniu wykazano, że podejmowanie wielokrotnych prób odchudzania przez pacjentów wiązało się z brakiem jasno określonego celu i planu działania, a w konsekwencji utraty motywacji do odchudzania, z tego względu konieczne wydaje się wsparcie zespołu profesjonalistów złożonego z: lekarza, dietetyka, psychologa, którzy pomogą w określeniu realnego wyniku, wyznaczą etapy i będą kontrolować w długim okresie proces utraty masy ciała. Endokrynologia, Otyłość i Zaburzenia Przemiany Materii 2010, tom 6, nr 2, 85-92INTRODUCTION. The framework of treatment overweight and obesity is among others changing life style, dietetic attitude and proper drug treatment. Unfortunately all these actions oriented at body weight reduction do not always give the results expected. Very often after the first success lasting some months most people go back to the starting point. It implies the need for therapy in which dietetic and medical actions would be strengthened by psychological support. MATERIAL AND METHODS. Questionnaire surveys were carried out at the end of March and the beginning of April 2009 and embraced 104 chosen patients. The criteria to enter were patient’s overweight or obesity and starting the trial to reduce it. The participants were the patients of Out-Patients Clinic of Metabolic Diseases in Institute of Food and Nutrition in Warsaw. The group consisted of 74 women and 30 men, 36 of them with overweight and 68 of them with obesity. RESULTS. The surveyed, thought themselves as going to aim patiently, had generally some failures in approaching overweight problems. Because of imprecisely defined goals they often did not succeed and they lost their willingness and surrounded. Moreover it turned out that most of them did not have the defined detailed plan of actions. CONCLUSIONS. Analyzing the results proved the need of specialists support. The proper working team of specialists - dietitian, psychologist and doctor - seems to be vital. Owing that team the stages of supervised actions can be precisely determined which enables controlling the process of loosing weight. Having precisely determined goals at particular stages the patient will be is more aware of progress done, which strengthens their motivation. Endocrinology, Obesity and Metabolic Disorders 2010, vol. 6, No 2, 85-9

Structural properties and Raman spectroscopy of lipid Langmuir monolayers at the air-water interface

Spectra of octadecylamine (ODA) Langmuir monolayers and egg phosphatidylcholine (PC)/ODA-mixed monolayers at the air-water interface have been acquired. The organization of the monolayers has been characterized by surface pressure-area isotherms. Application of polarized optical microscopy provides further insight in the domain structures and interactions of the film components. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) data indicate that enhancement in Raman spectra can be obtained by strong interaction between headgroups of the surfactants and silver particles in subphase. By mixing ODA with phospholipid molecules and spreading the mixture at the air-water interface, we acquired vibrational information of phospholipid molecules with surfactant-aided SERS effect.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

Multivariate spectral analysis of pH SERS probes for improved sensing capabilities

Appropriate functional groups adsorbed to the surface of plasmonic nanoparticles provides a platform for localised optical sensing. For example, intracellular pH nanosensors based on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) have been developed. However, the measurement methods and analysis of pH-SERS can greatly impact the precision and accuracy of pH calibration. This paper provides several key improvements to the performance and analysis pH nanosensors which thus transforms the performance into a useable intracellular pH sensor. We report the plasmon-induced decarboxylation of para-mercaptobenzoic acid (pMBA) pH-reporters which are bound to the gold nanoparticles, and attribute this to the laser power. This detrimental decarboxylation of pMBA has significant implications for accurate reporting and analysis due to the sensitivity and reliability of the pH sensor. The greatest implication of decarboxylation of pH sensors is inaccurate or false pH reporting, because the decarboxylation spectral signatures map directly onto those that are typically used to record pH changes. Here a unique application of the multivariate statistical technique, principal components analysis (PCA) is presented along with an optimal spectral region for pH calibration. By direct comparisons between the PCA method with the typically employed ratio-metric analysis a significant improvement in generating accurate pH sensing is demonstrated. An application of intracellular pH sensing in macrophage cells using these nanosensors promotes these step-changes in pH measurement methodology

Extraction and sensitive detection of toxins A and B from the human pathogen Clostridium difficile in 40 seconds using microwave-accelerated metal-enhanced fluorescence.

Clostridium difficile is the primary cause of antibiotic associated diarrhea in humans and is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Thus the rapid and accurate identification of this pathogen in clinical samples, such as feces, is a key step in reducing the devastating impact of this disease. The bacterium produces two toxins, A and B, which are thought to be responsible for the majority of the pathology associated with the disease, although the relative contribution of each is currently a subject of debate. For this reason we have developed a rapid detection assay based on microwave-accelerated metal-enhanced fluorescence which is capable of detecting the presence of 10 bacteria in unprocessed human feces within 40 seconds. These promising results suggest that this prototype biosensor has the potential to be developed into a rapid, point of care, real time diagnostic assay for C. difficile

Ultra-Fast and Sensitive Detection of Non-Typhoidal Salmonella Using Microwave-Accelerated Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence (“MAMEF”)

Certain serovars of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica cause invasive disease (e.g., enteric fever, bacteremia, septicemia, meningitis, etc.) in humans and constitute a global public health problem. A rapid, sensitive diagnostic test is needed to allow prompt initiation of therapy in individual patients and for measuring disease burden at the population level. An innovative and promising new rapid diagnostic technique is microwave-accelerated metal-enhanced fluorescence (MAMEF). We have adapted this assay platform to detect the chromosomal oriC locus common to all Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovars. We have shown efficient lysis of biologically relevant concentrations of Salmonella spp. suspended in bacteriological media using microwave-induced lysis. Following lysis and DNA release, as little as 1 CFU of Salmonella in 1 ml of medium can be detected in <30 seconds. Furthermore the assay is sensitive and specific: it can detect oriC from Salmonella serovars Typhi, Paratyphi A, Paratyphi B, Paratyphi C, Typhimurium, Enteritidis and Choleraesuis but does not detect Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae or Acinetobacter baumanii. We have also performed preliminary experiments using a synthetic Salmonella oriC oligonucleotide suspended in whole human blood and observed rapid detection when the sample was diluted 1∶1 with PBS. These pre-clinical data encourage progress to the next step to detect Salmonella in blood (and other ordinarily sterile, clinically relevant body fluids)

SERS-based monitoring of the intracellular pH in endothelial cells:the influence of the extracellular environment and tumour necrosis factor-alpha

The intracellular pH plays an important role in various cellular processes. In this work, we describe a method for monitoring of the intracellular pH in endothelial cells by using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA) anchored to gold nanoparticles as pH-sensitive probes. Using the Raman microimaging technique, we analysed changes in intracellular pH induced by buffers with acid or alkaline pH, as well as in endothelial inflammation induced by tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha). The targeted nanosensor enabled spatial pH measurements revealing distinct changes of the intracellular pH in endosomal compartments of the endothelium. Altogether, SERS-based analysis of intracellular pH proves to be a promising technique for a better understanding of intracellular pH regulation in various subcellular compartments.This work was supported by the National Center of Science (grant PRELUDIUM DEC-2012/05/N/ST4/00218) and by the European Union from the resources of the European Regional Development Fund under the Innovative Economy Programme (grant coordinated by JCET-UJ, no. POIG.01.01.02-00-069/09). We also thank the University of Edinburgh School of Chemistry for the Neil Campbell Travel Award for supporting LJ. We also thank Joanna Jalmuzna from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Jagiellonian University in Krakow for fitting the calibration curve using Gnuplot software

Controlled synthesis of monodisperse gold nanorods with different aspect ratios in the presence of aromatic additives

This paper reports the synthesis of monodisperse gold nanorods (GNRs) via a simple seeded growth approach in the presence of different aromatic additives, such as 7-bromo-3-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (7-BrHNA), 3-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (HNA), 5-bromosalicylic acid (5-BrSA), salicylic acid (SA) or phenol (PhOH). Effects of the aromatic additives and hydrochloric acid (HCl) on the structure and optical properties of the synthesized GNRs were investigated. The longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak wavelength of the resulting GNRs was found to be dependent on the aromatic additive in the following sequence: 5-BrSA (778 nm) > 7-BrHNA (706 nm) > SA (688 nm) > HNA (676 nm) > PhOH (638 nm) without addition of HCl, but this was changed to 7-BrHNA (920 nm) > SA (890 nm) > HNA (872 nm) > PhOH (858 nm) > 5-BrSA (816 nm) or 7-BrHNA (1005 nm) > PhOH (995 nm) > SA (990 nm) > HNA (980 nm) > 5-BrSA (815 nm) with the addition of HCl or HNO3 respectively. The LSPR peak wavelength was increased with the increasing concentration of 7-BrHNA without HCl addition, however, there was a maximum LSPR peak wavelength when HCl was added. Interestingly, the LSPR peak wavelength was also increased with amount of HCl added. The results presented here thus established a simple approach to synthesize monodisperse GNRs of different LSPR wavelength