Interval life events are an important determinant of heterogeneity in outcomes in a randomised trial: a novel, simple method of assessment.

Objective: Although life events are clearly important to health, most of the scientific focus has been on baseline life events that occur prior to a study. Life events that occur after enrolment, that is, interval life events, have had almost no attention. The aim of this analysis of data was to develop a method for measuring interval life events that could be used in clinical trials and other longitudinal studies.

Effects of Antibiotic Treatment with Piperacillin/Tazobactam versus Ceftriaxone on the Composition of the Murine Gut Microbiota.

Effective antimicrobial stewardship requires a better understanding of the impact of different antibiotics on the gut microflora. Studies with humans are confounded by large interindividual variability and difficulty in identifying control cohorts. However, controlled murine models can provide valuable information.

'Calibrating to scale: a framework for humanitarian health organizations to anticipate, prevent, prepare for and manage climate-related health risks'.

Climate Change is adversely affecting health by increasing human vulnerability and exposure to climate-related stresses. Climate change impacts human health both directly and indirectly, through extreme weather events, changing distribution of health risks, increased risks of undernutrition, population displacement, and greater risks of injuries, disease, and death (Ebi, K., Campbell-Lendrum, D.

Change and Continuity in Low-Income Working Mothers' Food Practices for Young Children in Response to Life Events.

Objective: To understand how changes in low-income mothers' work, home, and childcare environments impact their food practices for young children.

Methods: The grounded theory, theory-guided, design included two in-depth qualitative interviews (6 to 8 months apart) with each of 19 low income, working/student mothers of Head Start children, living in a rural county in Upstate New York. Interviews covered mothers' experiences of employment, school, family, household, and childcare events over one school year and whether and how events changed child food practices.

": The Influence of Childhood Experience and Life Course Events on Dietary Acculturation.

Life course perspective provides a framework for examining the immigrant experience within the context of globalization and transnationalism. Life course perspective states that individuals develop food choice trajectories based on childhood experiences with food. This study examined the influence of childhood experiences and life events on eating behaviors of Dominican born women in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and New York City.

Targeting mTOR and Src restricts hepatocellular carcinoma growth in a novel murine liver cancer model.

Liver cancer is a poor prognosis cancer with limited treatment options. To develop a new therapeutic approach, we derived HCC cells from a known model of murine hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We treated adiponectin (APN) knock-out mice with the carcinogen diethylnitrosamine, and the resulting tumors were 7-fold larger than wild-type controls.

"Doing our best to keep a routine:" How low-income mothers manage child feeding with unpredictable work and family schedules.

Significant changes in work and family conditions over the last three decades have important implications for understanding how young children are fed. The new conditions of work and family have placed pressures on families. The aim of this study was to explore the work and family pressures shaping the ways parents feed their young children on a day-to-day basis.

Innovative approaches to weight loss in a high-risk population: The small changes and lasting effects (SCALE) trial.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of a small change behavioral weight loss intervention with or without a positive affect/self-affirmation (PA/SA) component on weight loss at 12 months.

Methods: Black and Hispanic adults (N = 405) with body mass index 25-50 kg/m selected one of ten small change eating strategies and a physical activity goal, randomly with/without PA/SA. Participants were followed by community health workers at set intervals (weekly in months 1-3; biweekly in months 4-9; once monthly in months 10-12).

Adiponectin confers protection from acute colitis and restricts a B cell immune response.

Adiponectin demonstrates beneficial effects in various metabolic diseases, including diabetes, and in bowel cancer. Recent data also suggest a protective role in colitis. However, the precise molecular mechanisms by which adiponectin and its receptors modulate colitis and the nature of the adaptive immune response in murine models are yet to be elucidated.

Obese women experience multiple challenges with breastfeeding that are either unique or exacerbated by their obesity: discoveries from a longitudinal, qualitative study.

Obese women are at risk for shorter breastfeeding duration, but little is known about how obese women experience breastfeeding. The aim of this study was to understand obese women's breastfeeding experiences. We enrolled pregnant women in upstate New York, who were either obese [n = 13; body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m ] or normal weight (n = 9; BMI 18.

Characteristics associated with the application of an ecological approach to preventing childhood obesity.

Objective: Applying an ecological approach to childhood obesity prevention requires a new way of thinking and working for many community-based practitioners who are used to focusing on individual behaviour change. The present study investigated individual and organizational characteristics associated with the application of an ecological approach by practitioners 6 months post-training.

Design: Individual and organizational characteristics and outcomes of a 6-week online training course were assessed at pre-course, post-course and 6-month follow-up.

Eating Together at the Firehouse: How Workplace Commensality Relates to the Performance of Firefighters.

Cooperative activities among coworkers can provide valuable group-level benefits; however, previous research has often focused on artificial activities that require extraordinary efforts away from the worksite. We investigate organizational benefits that firms might obtain through various supports for coworkers to engage in commensality (i.e.

The Relationship between Social Network Body Size and the Body Size Norms of Black and Hispanic Adults.

Objective: To examine the relationship between the body size norms of Black and Hispanic adults and the body sizes of their social network members.

Methods: Egocentric network data were examined for 245 adults recruited from 2012-2013 in New York City. A multivariable regression model was used to examine the relationship between participants' perception of normal body size and the body sizes of their network members adjusted for participant age, education, race/ethnicity and network size.

Environmental influences on small eating behavior change to promote weight loss among Black and Hispanic populations.

Small eating behavior changes are proposed as more feasible to achieve and maintain than larger changes used in traditional behavioral weight loss studies. However, it is unclear whether overweight Black and Hispanic adults in a low-income urban setting experience small changes as feasible and what might influence feasibility. Participants' experiences in a 12-week pilot weight loss intervention were explored qualitatively to determine the feasibility of making small eating behavior changes in this population.

"Because we missed the way that we eat at the middle of the day:" Dietary acculturation and food routines among Dominican women.

Better understanding of dietary change mechanisms among growing immigrant populations is needed in light of increased risk for diet-related chronic health conditions and inconsistent associations between acculturation and diet. This grounded theory research aimed to understand the lived experiences of interactions between food culture and social, economic, and physical environments in an immigrating population, Dominican women living in the Dominican Republic and New York City. Twenty-nine Dominican women participated in qualitative interviews about food and eating behaviors, life course experiences, and environments.

Social network characteristics associated with weight loss among black and hispanic adults.

Objective: To examine social network member characteristics associated with weight loss.

Methods: A cross-sectional examination included egocentric network data from 245 Black and Hispanic adults with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m(2) enrolled in a small change weight loss study. The relationships between weight loss at 12 months and characteristics of helpful and harmful network members (relationship, contact frequency, living proximity, and body size) were examined.

Images of a Healthy Worksite: A Group-Randomized Trial for Worksite Weight Gain Prevention With Employee Participation in Intervention Design.

Objectives: We assessed the effects of a worksite multiple-component intervention addressing diet and physical activity on employees' mean body mass index (BMI) and the percentage of employees who were overweight or obese.

Methods: This group-randomized trial (n = 3799) was conducted at 10 worksites in the northeastern United States. Worksites were paired and allocated into intervention and control conditions.

Small Changes and Lasting Effects (SCALE) Trial: the formation of a weight loss behavioral intervention using EVOLVE.

Background: Obesity is a major health problem that disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic adults. This paper presents the rationale and innovative design of a small change eating and physical activity intervention (SC) combined with a positive affect and self-affirmation (PA/SA) intervention versus the SC intervention alone for weight loss.

Methods: Using a mixed methods translational model (EVOLVE), we designed and tested a SC approach intervention in overweight and/ or obese African American and Hispanic adults.

Health professionals' experiences providing breastfeeding-related care for obese women.

Background: Obese women are at high risk of early breastfeeding cessation, and health professionals (HPs) have a unique opportunity to provide them with breastfeeding support. Our objective was to describe HPs' experiences providing breastfeeding care for obese women during the prenatal, peripartum, and postpartum periods.

Materials And Methods: In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with 34 HPs (including obstetricians, midwives, pediatricians, nurses, and lactation consultants) who care for pregnant or lactating women.

A second chance: meanings of body weight, diet, and physical activity to women who have experienced cancer.

Objective: To understand the meanings of diet, physical activity, and body weight in the context of women's cancer experiences.

Design: Grounded theory using 15 qualitative interviews and 3 focus groups.

Setting: Grassroots community cancer organizations in the northeastern United States.

Diet and body composition outcomes of an environmental and educational intervention among men in treatment for substance addiction.

Objective: To determine the effect of an educational and environmental intervention on diet, body mass index, and waist circumference of men in substance addiction treatment.

Methods: One hundred three racially/ethnically diverse men in 6 urban substance addiction residential treatment facilities in Upstate New York participated in weekly nutrition and food classes and food environment changes to increase healthful food choices. The main outcomes of this controlled, quasi-experimental, pre-post evaluation study were diet, body mass index, and waist circumference.

Eating maps: places, times, and people in eating episodes.

This project developed a method for constructing eating maps that portray places, times, and people in an individual's eating episodes. Researchers used seven consecutive days of qualitative eating recall interviews from 42 purposively sampled U.S.

Process evaluation of an environmental and educational nutrition intervention in residential drug-treatment facilities.

Objective: To evaluate the implementation of a controlled, 6-week, environmental and educational intervention to improve dietary intake and body composition, and to study the association of implementation fidelity with diet and body composition outcomes.

Design: A process evaluation documented participation, dose of nutrition education delivered, participant satisfaction, fidelity and completeness of the food environment intervention implementation, and context through observations and interviews with staff and residents. Intervention sites were scored and categorized as high or low participation and implementation and compared on essential elements of the food environment and on diet and body composition outcomes.