Nutrition Campaign Knowledge and Dietary Behavior in Middle School Students

Background and Purpose: Federal nutrition campaigns are designed to make dietary recommendations accessible but have not been extensively evaluated. This paper explores whether knowledge of nutrition campaigns is associated with dietary behavior among young adolescents. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 4,773 middle school students in Southern California. Hierarchical logistic regression models were used to assess the association between dietary behaviors and nutrition campaign knowledge, controlling for gender and ethnicity. Results: Knowledge of the Fruit & VeggiesMore Matters campaign was associated with increased odds of high fruit and vegetable consumption, knowledge of the MyPlate campaign was associated with neither, and both were associated with increased odds of not consuming soda. Conclusion: Overall, low percentages of students demonstrated knowledge of nutrition campaigns, and knowledge was associated with some dietary behaviors. More research is needed to examine the impact of nutrition campaigns while also accounting for other psychosocial and environmental factors that may affect soda, fruit, and vegetable consumption

Helping behaviour during cooperative learning and learning gains

Is helping behaviour (i.e., solicited help and peer tutoring) during cooperative learning (CL) related to subsequent learning gains? And can teachers influence pupils’ helping behaviour? One hundred one 5th grade pupils from multiethnic schools, 10-12 years old, participated in the study. Forty two pupils (31 immigrant) worked in an experimental condition, characterized by the stimulation of solicited high quality help and 59 (24 immigrant) worked in a control condition. It was found that learning gains were predicted positively by pupils’ unsolicited helping behaviour (i.e., peer tutoring) and negatively by solicited help. Furthermore, teachers were able to affect pupils’ low quality solicited help only. Lastly, immigrant pupils used less helping behaviour than local pupils, irrespective of CL setting

Expression and knockdown of zebrafish folliculin suggests requirement for embryonic brain morphogenesis.

BACKGROUND: Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome (BHD) is a dominantly inherited familial cancer syndrome characterised by the development of benign skin fibrofolliculomas, multiple lung and kidney cysts, spontaneous pneumothorax and susceptibility to renal cell carcinoma. BHD is caused by mutations in the gene encoding Folliculin (FLCN). Little is known about what FLCN does in a healthy individual and how best to treat those with BHD. As a first approach to developing a vertebrate model for BHD we aimed to identify the temporal and spatial expression of flcn transcripts in the developing zebrafish embryo. To gain insights into the function of flcn in a whole organism system we generated a loss of function model of flcn by the use of morpholino knockdown in zebrafish. RESULTS: flcn is expressed broadly and upregulated in the fin bud, somites, eye and proliferative regions of the brain of the Long-pec stage zebrafish embryos. Together with knockdown phenotypes, expression analysis suggest involvement of flcn in zebrafish embryonic brain development. We have utilised the zFucci system, an in vivo, whole organism cell cycle assay to study the potential role of flcn in brain development. We found that at the 18 somite stage there was a significant drop in cells in the S-M phase of the cell cycle in flcn morpholino injected embryos with a corresponding increase of cells in the G1 phase. This was particularly evident in the brain, retina and somites of the embryo. Timelapse analysis of the head region of flcn morpholino injected and mismatch control embryos shows the temporal dynamics of cell cycle misregulation during development. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion we show that zebrafish flcn is expressed in a non-uniform manner and is likely required for the maintenance of correct cell cycle regulation during embryonic development. We demonstrate the utilisation of the zFucci system in testing the role of flcn in cell proliferation and suggest a function for flcn in regulating cell proliferation in vertebrate embryonic brain development.Funding for this project was provided by the Myrovlytis Trust and a KWF travel grant to Monique Luijten.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from BioMed Central via http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12861-016-0119-

Translational control of E2f1 regulates the Drosophila cell cycle

E2F transcription factors are master regulators of the eukaryotic cell cycle. In Drosophila, the sole activating E2F, E2F1, is both required for and sufficient to promote G1 -> S progression. E2F1 activity is regulated both by binding to RB Family repressors and by posttranscriptional control of E2F1 protein levels by the EGFR and TOR signaling pathways. Here, we investigate cis-regulatory elements in the E2f1 messenger RNA (mRNA) that enable E2f1 translation to respond to these signals and promote mitotic proliferation of wing imaginal disc and intestinal stem cells. We show that small upstream open reading frames (uORFs) in the 5' untranslated region (UTR) of the E2f1 mRNA limit its translation, impacting rates of cell proliferation. E2f1 transgenes lacking these 5'UTR uORFs caused TOR-independent expression and excess cell proliferation, suggesting that TOR activity can bypass uORF-mediated translational repression. EGFR signaling also enhanced translation but through a mechanism less dependent on 50'TR uORFs. Further, we mapped a region in the E2f1 mRNA that contains a translational enhancer, which may also be targeted by TOR signaling. This study reveals translational control mechanisms through which growth signaling regulates cell cycle progression.Peer reviewe

MRI-targeted or standard biopsy for prostate-cancer diagnosis

Background Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), with or without targeted biopsy, is an alternative to standard transrectal ultrasonography-guided biopsy for prostate-cancer detection in men with a raised prostate-specific antigen level who have not undergone biopsy. However, comparative evidence is limited. Methods In a multicenter, randomized, noninferiority trial, we assigned men with a clinical suspicion of prostate cancer who had not undergone biopsy previously to undergo MRI, with or without targeted biopsy, or standard transrectal ultrasonography-guided biopsy. Men in the MRI-targeted biopsy group underwent a targeted biopsy (without standard biopsy cores) if the MRI was suggestive of prostate cancer; men whose MRI results were not suggestive of prostate cancer were not offered biopsy. Standard biopsy was a 10-to-12-core, transrectal ultrasonography-guided biopsy. The primary outcome was the proportion of men who received a diagnosis of clinically significant cancer. Secondary outcomes included the proportion of men who received a diagnosis of clinically insignificant cancer. Results A total of 500 men underwent randomization. In the MRI-targeted biopsy group, 71 of 252 men (28%) had MRI results that were not suggestive of prostate cancer, so they did not undergo biopsy. Clinically significant cancer was detected in 95 men (38%) in the MRI-targeted biopsy group, as compared with 64 of 248 (26%) in the standard-biopsy group (adjusted difference, 12 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4 to 20; P=0.005). MRI, with or without targeted biopsy, was noninferior to standard biopsy, and the 95% confidence interval indicated the superiority of this strategy over standard biopsy. Fewer men in the MRI-targeted biopsy group than in the standard-biopsy group received a diagnosis of clinically insignificant cancer (adjusted difference, -13 percentage points; 95% CI, -19 to -7; P<0.001). Conclusions The use of risk assessment with MRI before biopsy and MRI-targeted biopsy was superior to standard transrectal ultrasonography-guided biopsy in men at clinical risk for prostate cancer who had not undergone biopsy previously. (Funded by the National Institute for Health Research and the European Association of Urology Research Foundation; PRECISION ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02380027 .)

Selective redox regulation of cytokine receptor signaling by extracellular thioredoxin-1

The thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase thioredoxin-1 (Trx1) is known to be secreted by leukocytes and to exhibit cytokine-like properties. Extracellular effects of Trx1 require a functional active site, suggesting a redox-based mechanism of action. However, specific cell surface proteins and pathways coupling extracellular Trx1 redox activity to cellular responses have not been identified so far. Using a mechanism-based kinetic trapping technique to identify disulfide exchange interactions on the intact surface of living lymphocytes, we found that Trx1 catalytically interacts with a single principal target protein. This target protein was identified as the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 8 (TNFRSF8/CD30). We demonstrate that the redox interaction is highly specific for both Trx1 and CD30 and that the redox state of CD30 determines its ability to engage the cognate ligand and transduce signals. Furthermore, we confirm that Trx1 affects CD30-dependent changes in lymphocyte effector function. Thus, we conclude that receptor–ligand signaling interactions can be selectively regulated by an extracellular redox catalyst

Long-term Mortality in HIV-Positive Individuals Virally Suppressed for >3 Years With Incomplete CD4 Recovery

Virally suppressed HIV-positive individuals on combination antiretroviral therapy who do not achieve a CD4 count >200 cells/µL have substantially increased long-term mortality. The increased mortality was seen across different patient groups and for all causes of deat