Encouraging children to eat more fruit and vegetables:Health vs. descriptive social norm-based messages

AbstractTraditional intervention approaches to promote fruit and vegetable consumption outline the health benefits of eating fruit and vegetables. More recently, social norm-based messages describing the healthy eating habits of others have been shown to increase fruit and vegetable intake in adults. Here we report two experimental studies which investigated whether exposure to descriptive social norm-based messages about the behaviour of other children and health-based messages increased fruit and vegetable intake in young children. In both studies children were exposed to messages whilst playing a board-game. After exposure to the messages, children were able to consume fruit and vegetables, as well as high calorie snack foods. Although findings were inconsistent across the two individual studies, in a pooled analysis we found evidence that both health messages and descriptive social norm-based messages increased children's fruit and vegetable intake, relative to control condition messages (p < .05). Whether descriptive social norm-based messages can be used to promote meaningful changes to children's dietary behaviour warrants further study

International consensus guidelines for scoring the histopathological growth patterns of liver metastasis

BACKGROUND: Liver metastases present with distinct histopathological growth patterns (HGPs), including the desmoplastic, pushing and replacement HGPs and two rarer HGPs. The HGPs are defined owing to the distinct interface between the cancer cells and the adjacent normal liver parenchyma that is present in each pattern and can be scored from standard haematoxylin-and-eosin-stained (H&E) tissue sections. The current study provides consensus guidelines for scoring these HGPs. METHODS: Guidelines for defining the HGPs were established by a large international team. To assess the validity of these guidelines, 12 independent observers scored a set of 159 liver metastases and interobserver variability was measured. In an independent cohort of 374 patients with colorectal liver metastases (CRCLM), the impact of HGPs on overall survival after hepatectomy was determined. RESULTS: Good-to-excellent correlations (intraclass correlation coefficient >0.5) with the gold standard were obtained for the assessment of the replacement HGP and desmoplastic HGP. Overall survival was significantly superior in the desmoplastic HGP subgroup compared with the replacement or pushing HGP subgroup (P=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: The current guidelines allow for reproducible determination of liver metastasis HGPs. As HGPs impact overall survival after surgery for CRCLM, they may serve as a novel biomarker for individualised therapies

Assembly of Linked Nanocrystal Colloids by Reversible Covalent Bonds

The use of dynamically bonding molecules designed to reversibly link solvent-dispersed nanocrystals (NCs) is a promising strategy to form colloidal assemblies with controlled structure and macroscopic properties. In this work, tin-doped indium oxide NCs are functionalized with ligands that form reversible covalent bonds with linking molecules to drive assembly of NC gels. We monitor gelation using small angle X-ray scattering and characterize how changes in the gel structure affect infrared optical properties arising from the localized surface plasmon resonance of the NCs. The assembly is reversible because of the designed linking chemistry, and we disassemble the gels using two strategies: addition of excess NCs to change the ratio of linking molecules to NCs and addition of a capping molecule that displaces the linking molecules. The assembly behavior is rationalized using a thermodynamic perturbation theory to compute the phase diagram of the NC–linking molecule mixture. Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations reveal the competition between loop and bridge linking motifs essential for understanding NC gelation. This combined experimental, computational, and theoretical work provides a platform for controlling and designing the properties of reversible colloidal assemblies that incorporate NC and solvent compositions beyond those compatible with other contemporary (e.g, DNA-based) linking strategies.We would like to acknowledge the UT Mass Spectrometry Facility for their instrumental help and the UT NMR facilities for equipment use and assistance: NIH Grant Number 1 S10 OD021508-01. This work was primarily supported by the National Science Foundation through the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials: an NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NSF MRSEC) under Cooperative Agreement DMR-1720595. This work was also supported by NSF Graduate Research Fellowships DGE-1610403 (M.N.D. and S.V.), an Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship (Z.M.S.), NSF (CHE- 1905263), and the Welch Foundation (F-1848 and F-1696). E.V.A. acknowledges support from the Welch Regents Chair (F-0046). We acknowledge the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin for providing HPC resources.Center for Dynamics and Control of Material

The Prognostic Value of the Primary Tumor's Nodal Status after Surgery for Colorectal Liver Metastases in the Era of Effective Systemic Therapy

Background: The nodal status of primary colorectal cancer is of prognostic value for survival after the resection for colorectal liver metastases (CRLM). However, in the past decade, effective adjuvant chemotherapy for lymph node positive primary colon cancer was introduced. This study evaluated the prognostic value of primary lymph node status in patients with resectable metachronous CRLM in the era of effective systemic therapy. Methods: Between January 2000 and December 2011, all consecutive patients undergoing curative liver resection for CRLM were retrospectively analyzed. Overall survival (OS) was analyzed by the localization of the primary tumor (colon vs. rectum) and by lymph node status (positive vs. negative) of the primary tumor. Results: A total of 286 patients with metachronous CRLM's were selected. Five-year OS was similar for colon and rectal primaries (42 and 40%, p = 0.62). Lymph node positivity was only a prognostic factor in rectal primaries (N+ 32% vs. N0 49%, p = 0.04) and not in colon primaries (N+ 42% vs. N0 41%, p = 0.99). In multivariate analysis, these results were confirmed. Conclusion: The current study demonstrates that the nodal status of primary colon malignancies does not have prognostic value in patients undergoing resection for nnetachronous CRLM. A possible explanation might be the administration of effective adjuvant chemotherapy in node positive colon cancer. (C) 2015 S. Karger AG, Base

The use of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with resectable colorectal liver metastases: Clinical risk score as possible discriminator

Aim: The combination of surgery and chemotherapy (CTx) is increasingly accepted as an effective treatment for patients with colorectal liver metastases (CRLM). However, controversy exists whether all patients with resectable CRLM benefit from perioperative CTx. We investigated the impact on overall survival (OS) by neo-adjuvant CTx in patients with resectable CRLM, stratified by the clinical risk score (CRS) described by Fong et al. Methods: Patients who underwent surgery for CRLM between January 2000 and December 2009 were included. We compared OS of patients with and without neo-adjuvant CTx stratified by the CRS. The CRS includes five prognosticators and defines two risk groups: low CRS (0-2) and high CRS (3-5). Results: 363 patients (64% male) were included, median age 63 years (IQR 57-70). Prior to resection, 219 patients had a low CRS (neo-adjuvant CTx: N = 65) and 144 patients had a high CRS (neo-adjuvant CTx: N = 88). Median follow-up was 47 months (IQR 25-82). In the low CRS group, there was no significant difference in median OS between patients with and without CTx (65 months (95% CI 39-91) vs. 54 months (95% CI 44-64), P = 0.31). In the high CRS group, there was a significant difference in OS between patients with and without CTx (46 months (95% CI 24-68) vs. 33 month (95% CI 29-37), P = 0.004). Conclusion: In our series, patients with a high CRS benefit from neo-adjuvant CTx. In patients with a low risk profile, neo-adjuvant CTx might not be beneficial. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved