Virtual eating disorder support group utilization is associated with lower eating disorder symptoms and multiple types of social support.

Support groups are a promising resource, but eating disorder (ED) support group research is scarce. This study aimed to examine associations between support group utilization, psychosocial health, and ED symptoms to guide future research on this resource. Participants ( = 494) were sampled from virtual, clinician-moderated ED support groups.

Development of new bilingual oral health behavior social support (OHBSS) scales in English and Spanish.

This paper describes the simultaneous co-development of Oral Health Behavior Social Support (OHBSS) scales in English and Spanish. OHBSS scales assess social support for toothbrushing, flossing, and dental care utilization, which are targets for interpersonal-level interventions to promote oral health among Hispanic/Latino adults. The focus was on Mexican-origin adults, who comprise the largest United States Hispanic/Latino subgroup and experience a high oral disease burden.

Differences in Age, Stage and Biology of Breast Cancer Presentations at A Private Breast Unit in Johannesburg Before and During The COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: Prior to the 2020 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, breast cancer (BC) was already a major healthcare concern globally, including in South Africa (SA). The pandemic forced adjustments in BC management and may have also impacted BC presentation characteristics due to social behavior changes. The aim of this study was to describe BC presentations before and during the COVID-19 pandemic at a single facility in SA.

Social media use among patients before and after metabolic and bariatric surgery: a systematic review.

Social media (SM) use among individuals before and after metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) has dramatically increased in recent years, yet the benefits and risks to patients remain unclear. This systematic review sought to synthesize the literature on SM use among individuals pre- and post-MBS. Objectives were to: 1) explore the patterns of SM use in this population, 2) identify the benefits and risks of MBS-focused SM use, and 3) inform clinicians and patients about strategies to more effectively engage with MBS-focused SM.

Do empirically-derived personality subtypes relate to cognitive inflexibility in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa?

Background: Accruing evidence suggests that personality-based approaches to eating disorder classification may offer several advantages over current diagnostic models, with prior research consistently identifying three personality-based groups characterized by either (1) high levels of impulsivity and dysregulation (termed the "undercontrolled" group), (2) high levels of rigidity and avoidance (termed the "overcontrolled" group), or (3) relatively normative levels of personality functioning (termed the "low psychopathology" group). Cognitive inflexibility (i.e.

Examining effects of race and ethnic identity on body dissatisfaction following media exposure of thin and curvy body ideals.

This study examined moderating effects of race and ethnic identity on associations between thin and curvy media exposure and body dissatisfaction in a community sample of Black and white women. Participants (n = 200 white, n = 199 Black) completed a pre-exposure measure of ethnic identity and pre-post measure of body satisfaction (where lower scores indicate dissatisfaction) after randomization to thin or curvy body ideal conditions. Black women endorsed higher pre-exposure ethnic identity than white women but did not differ in level of body dissatisfaction.

Centering the role of community health workers in social risk screening, referral, and follow-up within the primary care setting.

Background: Community health workers (CHWs) remain an underutilized resource in social risk diagnostics in the primary care setting. This process evaluation study seeks to assess the role of CHWs in social risk screening, referral, and follow-up through process mapping to identify barriers to the process for future quality improvement efforts.

Methods: Researchers at the Arizona Prevention Research Center (AzPRC) engaged with two Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in two of Arizona's major urban areas to evaluate their internal processes for social risk screening and intervention.

Examining the bidirectional longitudinal associations between body mass index and episodic memory following bariatric surgery.

Background: The relationship between obesity and episodic memory (i.e., conscious memory for specific events) is hypothesized to be bidirectional.

Habitual behavioural control moderates the relation between daily perceived stress and purging.

Objective: Evidence suggests that interpersonal stress plays a role in maintaining binge eating and purging (e.g., self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives).

Behaviourally assessed negative urgency is uniquely associated with binge-eating frequency.

Objective: Binge eating appears to be associated with impulsivity, especially in response to negative affect (i.e., negative urgency).

Pathway-based analyses of gene expression profiles at low doses of ionizing radiation.

Radiation exposure poses a significant threat to human health. Emerging research indicates that even low-dose radiation once believed to be safe, may have harmful effects. This perception has spurred a growing interest in investigating the potential risks associated with low-dose radiation exposure across various scenarios.

BMPR2 Loss Activates AKT by Disrupting DLL4/NOTCH1 and PPARγ Signaling in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive cardiopulmonary disease characterized by pathologic vascular remodeling of small pulmonary arteries. Endothelial dysfunction in advanced PAH is associated with proliferation, apoptosis resistance, and endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) due to aberrant signaling. DLL4, a cell membrane associated NOTCH ligand, plays a pivotal role maintaining vascular integrity.

Dysphoric mood may explain the relation between sleep reactivity and binge eating but not purging.

This study investigated whether sleep reactivity (i.e., a propensity to experience sleep disturbances when stressed) relates to eating disorder behavioral symptoms indirectly through dysphoric mood in a sample of college students.

Fear of negative evaluation and intolerance of uncertainty: Assessing potential internalizing correlates of eating disorder-related clinical impairment and differences across diagnostic presentations.

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Internalizing Dimensions for Eating Disorders model positions eating disorder (ED) symptoms on an internalizing dimension alongside anxiety and mood symptoms. Symptom dimensions falling under the internalizing subfactors of distress (e.g.

Changes in evening-shifted loss of control eating severity following treatment for binge-eating disorder.

Background: Loss of control eating is more likely to occur in the evening and is uniquely associated with distress. No studies have examined the effect of treatment on within-day timing of loss of control eating severity. We examined whether time of day differentially predicted loss of control eating severity at baseline (i.

Evaluation of a novel, sensitive thyroid-stimulating hormone assay as a diagnostic test for thyroid disease in cats.

Objective: Clinicians commonly use thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) concentrations to diagnose thyroid disorders in humans and dogs. In cats, canine TSH chemiluminescent immunoassays (CLIA) assays are commonly used to measure TSH, but these TSH-CLIAs cannot measure low TSH concentrations (< 0.03 ng/mL) and therefore cannot distinguish between low-normal concentrations and truly low TSH concentrations (characteristic of hyperthyroidism).

Prospective associations between cognitive flexibility and eating disorder symptoms in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

This study investigated concurrent and prospective associations between measures of reversal learning and attentional set-shifting and eating disorder symptoms at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months among individuals with anorexia nervosa restricting subtype (AN-R, n = 26), AN binge eating/purging subtype (AN-BP, n = 22), bulimia nervosa (BN, n = 35), and healthy controls (n = 27), and explored whether these associations differed by diagnosis. At baseline, participants completed diagnostic interviews, height/weight measurements, and measures of set-shifting (the Intradimensional/Extradimensional shift task) and reversal learning (a probabilistic reversal learning task). At 3- and 6-month follow-up, participants with eating disorders completed assessments of weight and eating disorder symptoms.

Knowledge-driven learning, optimization, and experimental design under uncertainty for materials discovery.

Significant acceleration of the future discovery of novel functional materials requires a fundamental shift from the current materials discovery practice, which is heavily dependent on trial-and-error campaigns and high-throughput screening, to one that builds on knowledge-driven advanced informatics techniques enabled by the latest advances in signal processing and machine learning. In this review, we discuss the major research issues that need to be addressed to expedite this transformation along with the salient challenges involved. We especially focus on Bayesian signal processing and machine learning schemes that are uncertainty aware and physics informed for knowledge-driven learning, robust optimization, and efficient objective-driven experimental design.

Optimal decision-making in high-throughput virtual screening pipelines.

The need for efficient computational screening of molecular candidates that possess desired properties frequently arises in various scientific and engineering problems, including drug discovery and materials design. However, the enormous search space containing the candidates and the substantial computational cost of high-fidelity property prediction models make screening practically challenging. In this work, we propose a general framework for constructing and optimizing a high-throughput virtual screening (HTVS) pipeline that consists of multi-fidelity models.

The role of habit in maintaining binge/purge behaviors: An ecological momentary assessment study.

Objective: Individuals with eating disorders transdiagnostically engage in binge eating (BE) and/or purging, despite life-threatening consequences. Little is known about factors that contribute to the persistence of these behaviors. This study explored whether habitual control over binge/purge (B/P) spectrum behaviors contributes to symptom persistence and whether negative reinforcement via reductions in negative affect is less influential in maintaining B/P behaviors that are under habitual control and are persistent.

Reconceptualizing emotion regulation and coping strategy usage in eating disorders research: The utility of a regulatory flexibility framework.

Emotion regulation and coping strategies are often conceptualized in eating disorder (ED) research as inherently adaptive or maladaptive, and successful regulation is often defined as greater overall use of adaptive strategies. However, recent empirical work outside of the field of EDs challenges this categorical conceptualization of strategies, demonstrating that adaptiveness is determined by the ability to flexibly implement and adjust strategies based on contextual demands (i.e.

Nicotinamide Antagonizes Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Hypoxic Cell Signals in Human Macrophages.

Mechanisms to control the immune response are important to pathogen evasion and host defense. Gram-negative bacteria are common pathogens that can activate host immune responses through their outer membrane component, LPS. Macrophage activation by LPS induces cell signals that promote hypoxic metabolism, phagocytosis, Ag presentation, and inflammation.

Accelerometer-Based Physical Activity and Shape and Weight Concerns Among Youth With Overweight and Obesity: A Pilot Exploratory Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

A bidirectional association between shape and weight concerns (SWC) and physical activity (PA) has been previously documented. This relationship may be particularly salient among youth with overweight/obesity, given that social marginalization of larger bodies has been associated with elevated SWC and barriers to PA. This pilot study explores reciprocal relationships between momentary SWC and accelerometer-assessed PA behavior.