Study protocol: How does cognitive flexibility relate to other executive functions and learning in healthy young adults?

Background: Cognitive flexibility (CF) enables individuals to readily shift from one concept or mode of practice/thoughts to another in response to changes in the environment and feedback, making CF vital to optimise success in obtaining goals. However, how CF relates to other executive functions (e.g.

Implicit satiety goals and food-related expectations predict portion size in older adults: Findings from the BAMMBE cohort.

Portion size selection is an indicator of appetite and within younger adults, is predicted by factors such as expected satiety, liking and motivations to achieve an ideal sensation of fullness (i.e., implicit satiety goals).

Investigation of clinical characteristics and genome associations in the 'UK Lipoedema' cohort.

Lipoedema is a chronic adipose tissue disorder mainly affecting women, causing excess subcutaneous fat deposition on the lower limbs with pain and tenderness. There is often a family history of lipoedema, suggesting a genetic origin, but the contribution of genetics is currently unclear. A tightly phenotyped cohort of 200 lipoedema patients was recruited from two UK specialist clinics.

Subjective socioeconomic disadvantage is indirectly associated with food portion selection through perceived disruption of personal resources during a nationwide COVID-19 stay-at-home order.

In addition to its public health implications, the global COVID-19 pandemic has also produced significant disruptions to individuals' socioeconomic resources and opportunities. Prior research has suggested that low subjective socioeconomic status (SSES) may stimulate appetite and motivate increased energy intake. Here, we tested whether individuals experiencing lower levels of SSES (SSES disadvantage) during a nationwide stay-at-home order for COVID-19 exhibited preferences for larger food portion sizes through perceived disruptions to personal financial and material resources.

When exercise does not pay: Counterproductive effects of impending exercise on energy intake among restrained eaters.

Evidence suggests people may overestimate the effectiveness of future positive behaviour, leading to counterproductive behaviours in the present. Applied to weight-management, we hypothesize that inaccurate expectations about impending exercise may impede weight management by promoting overconsumption prior to exercise. This study aimed to determine how expectations about impending exercise and its potential ability to expend energy may influence i) energy intake before exercise and ii) overall energy balance (energy intake minus energy expended via exercise).

Light-emitting-diode induced retinal damage and its wavelength dependency .

Aim: To examine light-emitting-diode (LED)-induced retinal neuronal cell damage and its wavelength-driven pathogenic mechanisms.

Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to blue LEDs (460 nm), green LEDs (530 nm), and red LEDs (620 nm). Electroretinography (ERG), Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL), and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining, Western blotting (WB) and the detection of superoxide anion (O·), hydrogen peroxide (HO), total iron, and ferric (Fe) levels were applied.

White light-emitting diodes (LEDs) at domestic lighting levels and retinal injury in a rat model.

Background: Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) deliver higher levels of blue light to the retina than do conventional domestic light sources. Chronic exposure to high-intensity light (2,000-10,000 lux) has previously been found to result in light-induced retinal injury, but chronic exposure to relatively low-intensity (750 lux) light has not been previously assessed with LEDs in a rodent model.

Objective: We examined LED-induced retinal neuronal cell damage in the Sprague-Dawley rat using functional, histological, and biochemical measurements.

A multicenter blinded analysis indicates no association between chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and either xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus or polytropic murine leukemia virus.

The disabling disorder known as chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) has been linked in two independent studies to infection with xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and polytropic murine leukemia virus (pMLV). Although the associations were not confirmed in subsequent studies by other investigators, patients continue to question the consensus of the scientific community in rejecting the validity of the association. Here we report blinded analysis of peripheral blood from a rigorously characterized, geographically diverse population of 147 patients with CFS/ME and 146 healthy subjects by the investigators describing the original association.

Sensitivity of PCR assays for murine gammaretroviruses and mouse contamination in human blood samples.

Gammaretroviruses related to murine leukemia virus (MLV) have variously been reported to be present or absent in blood from chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) patients and healthy controls. Using subjects from New York State, we have investigated by PCR methods whether MLV-related sequences can be identified in nucleic acids isolated from whole blood or from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) or following PBMC culture. We have also passaged the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP following incubation with plasma from patients and controls and assayed nucleic acids for viral sequences.

Discovery of amyloid-beta aggregation inhibitors using an engineered assay for intracellular protein folding and solubility.

Genetic and biochemical studies suggest that Alzheimer's disease (AD) is caused by a series of events initiated by the production and subsequent aggregation of the Alzheimer's amyloid beta peptide (Abeta), the so-called amyloid cascade hypothesis. Thus, a logical approach to treating AD is the development of small molecule inhibitors that either block the proteases that generate Abeta from its precursor (beta- and gamma-secretases) or interrupt and/or reverse Abeta aggregation. To identify potent inhibitors of Abeta aggregation, we have developed a high-throughput screen based on an earlier selection that effectively paired the folding quality control feature of the Escherichia coli Tat protein export system with aggregation of the 42-residue AD pathogenesis effecter Abeta42.

Transposition of DEH, a broad-host-range transposon flanked by ISPpu12, in Pseudomonas putida is associated with genomic rearrangements and dehalogenase gene silencing.

Pseudomonas putida strain PP3 produces two hydrolytic dehalogenases encoded by dehI and dehII, which are members of different deh gene families. The 9.74-kb DEH transposon containing dehI and its cognate regulatory gene, dehR(I), was isolated from strain PP3 by using the TOL plasmid pWW0.