Targeting excessive worry with internet-based extinction therapy: a randomised controlled trial with mediation analysis and economical evaluation.

Background: Excessive worry is a common phenomenon. Our research group has previously developed an online intervention for excessive worry based on operant principles of extinction (IbET; internet-based extinction therapy) and tested it against a waiting-list. The aim of this study was to evaluate IbET against an active control comparator (CTRL).

Body Composition During Pregnancy: Longitudinal Changes and Method Comparisons.

The Pregnancy Obesity Nutrition and Child Health study is a longitudinal study of reproductive health. Here we analyzed body composition of normal-weight and obese Swedish women by three methods during each trimester of pregnancy. Cross-sectional and longitudinal fat mass estimates using quantitative magnetic resonance (QMR) and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) (Tanita MC-180MA-III) were compared with fat mass determined by air displacement plethysmography (ADP) in pregnancy weeks 8-12, 24-26, and 35-37 in normal-weight women (n = 122, BMI = 22.

Multimodal Eph/Ephrin signaling controls several phases of urogenital development.

A substantial portion of the human population is affected by urogenital birth defects resulting from a failure in ureter development. Although recent research suggests roles for several genes in facilitating the ureter/bladder connection, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Signaling via Eph receptor tyrosine kinases is involved in several developmental processes.

Cerebrospinal fluid levels of insulin, leptin, and agouti-related protein in relation to BMI in pregnant women.

Objective: During pregnancy, metabolic interactions must be adapted, though neuroendocrine mechanisms for increased food intake are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to characterize differences in insulin, leptin, and agouti-related protein (AgRP) levels in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in pregnant women with normal weight (NW) and pregnant women with overweight (OW) or obesity (OB). Placenta as a source for increased peripheral AgRP levels during pregnancy was also investigated.

Genome analysis of the sugar beet pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG2-2IIIB revealed high numbers in secreted proteins and cell wall degrading enzymes.

Background: Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) is a crop cultivated for its high content in sugar, but it is vulnerable to many soil-borne pathogens. One of them is the basidiomycete Rhizoctonia solani. This fungal species has a compatibility system regulating hyphal fusions (anastomosis).

Draft genome sequence of the sugar beet pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG2-2IIIB strain BBA69670.

Rhizoctonia solani is a widespread plant pathogenic fungus featuring a broad host range including several economically important crops. Accordingly, genome analyses of R. solani isolates are important to uncover their pathogenic potential.

Revising the embryonic origin of thyroid C cells in mice and humans.

Current understanding infers a neural crest origin of thyroid C cells, the major source of calcitonin in mammals and ancestors to neuroendocrine thyroid tumors. The concept is primarily based on investigations in quail-chick chimeras involving fate mapping of neural crest cells to the ultimobranchial glands that regulate Ca(2+) homeostasis in birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes, but whether mammalian C cell development involves a homologous ontogenetic trajectory has not been experimentally verified. With lineage tracing, we now provide direct evidence that Sox17+ anterior endoderm is the only source of differentiated C cells and their progenitors in mice.

A randomized longitudinal dietary intervention study during pregnancy: effects on fish intake, phospholipids, and body composition.

Background: Fish and meat intake may affect gestational weight gain, body composition and serum fatty acids. We aimed to determine whether a longitudinal dietary intervention during pregnancy could increase fish intake, affect serum phospholipid fatty acids, gestational weight gain and body composition changes during pregnancy in women of normal weight participating in the Pregnancy Obesity Nutrition and Child Health study. A second aim was to study possible effects in early pregnancy of fish intake and meat intake, respectively, on serum phospholipid fatty acids, gestational weight gain, and body composition changes during pregnancy.

Lower vitamin D status in obese compared with normal-weight women despite higher vitamin D intake in early pregnancy.

Background: Obesity is associated with lower vitamin D concentrations than normal-weight. Pregnancy may affect vitamin D status, especially in obese subjects.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to compare vitamin D status and intake between obese and normal-weight women during pregnancy.

Maternal beef and postweaning herring diets increase bone mineral density and strength in mouse offspring.

The maternal diet during gestation and lactation affects the long-term health of the offspring. We sought to determine whether maternal and postweaning crossover isocaloric diets based on fish or meat affect the geometry, mineral density, and biomechanical properties of bone in mouse offspring in adulthood. During gestation and lactation, C57BL/6 dams were fed a herring- or beef-based diet.

Role of EphA4 receptor signaling in thyroid development: regulation of folliculogenesis and propagation of the C-cell lineage.

Transcriptome analysis revealed that the tyrosine kinase receptor EphA4 is enriched in the thyroid bud in mouse embryos. We used heterozygous EphA4-EGFP knock-in mice in which enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) replaced the intracellular receptor domain (EphA4(+/EGFP)) to localize EphA4 protein in thyroid primordial tissues. This showed that thyroid progenitors originating in the pharyngeal floor express EphA4 at all embryonic stages and when follicles are formed in late development.

Expression of Islet1 in thyroid development related to budding, migration, and fusion of primordia.

The LIM homeodomain transcription factor Isl1 was investigated in mouse thyroid organogenesis. All progenitor cells of the midline thyroid diverticulum and lateral primordia (ultimobranchial bodies) expressed Isl1. This pattern persisted until the growing anlagen fused at embryonic day (E) 13.

The developing mouse thyroid: embryonic vessel contacts and parenchymal growth pattern during specification, budding, migration, and lobulation.

Normal mouse thyroid development has been revised to identify critical morphogenetic events. The early thyroid primordium associates with the aortic sac endothelium at the time of specification and budding. The vascular contact is lost after the thyroid buds from the pharyngeal endoderm, but is resumed before the gland divides to form two lobes.