Sleep duration mediates the relationship between health behavior patterns and obesity.

Objective: To examine associations between health behavior patterns and childhood obesity, and the mediating effect of sleep duration.

Design: Population-based survey.

Participants: Secondary analysis of data from the Infant Feeding Practices Study (age 6 years, n = 1073).

Engaging Coalitions in Community-Based Childhood Obesity Prevention Interventions: A Mixed Methods Assessment.

Background: Childhood obesity prevention interventions have engaged coalitions in study design, implementation, and/or evaluation to improve research outcomes; yet, no systematic reviews have been conducted on this topic. This mixed methods review aims to characterize the processes and dynamics of coalition engagement in community-based childhood obesity prevention interventions.

Methods: Data Sources: Studies extracted from Ovid MEDLINE, PubMed, and Web of Science; complementary original survey and interview data among researchers of included studies.

Recruitment of New Immigrants Into a Randomized Controlled Prevention Trial: The Live Well Experience.

Minority populations are hard to reach with prevention interventions because of cultural and logistical barriers to recruitment. Understanding how to overcome these barriers is pertinent to reducing the elevated burden of obesity within these underserved communities. To inform this literature gap, we explore the processes and outcomes of recruitment for Live Well-a randomized controlled obesity prevention intervention targeting new immigrant mothers and children from Brazil, Latin America, and Haiti who were residing in the greater Somerville, MA area.

Maternal overnutrition by hypercaloric diets programs hypothalamic mitochondrial fusion and metabolic dysfunction in rat male offspring.

Background: Maternal overnutrition including pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and lactation promotes a lipotoxic insult leading to metabolic dysfunction in offspring. Diet-induced obesity models (DIO) show that changes in hypothalamic mitochondria fusion and fission dynamics modulate metabolic dysfunction. Using three selective diet formula including a High fat diet (HFD), Cafeteria (CAF) and High Sugar Diet (HSD), we hypothesized that maternal diets exposure program leads to selective changes in hypothalamic mitochondria fusion and fission dynamics in male offspring leading to metabolic dysfunction which is exacerbated by a second exposure after weaning.

Long-Term Genistein Consumption Modifies Gut Microbiota, Improving Glucose Metabolism, Metabolic Endotoxemia, and Cognitive Function in Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet.

Scope: The aim of this study is to assess whether the long-term addition of genistein to a high-fat diet can ameliorate the metabolic and the cognitive alterations and whether the changes can be associated with modifications to the gut microbiota.

Methods And Results: C57/BL6 mice were fed either a control (C) diet, a high-fat (HF) diet, or a high-fat diet containing genistein (HFG) for 6 months. During the study, indirect calorimetry, IP glucose tolerance tests, and behavioral analyses were performed.

Chemical and pharmacological aspects of neutralization of heparins from different animal sources by protamine.

Unlabelled: Essentials Bovine (HBI) and porcine (HPI) heparins differ in structure and anticoagulant activity. Protamine-neutralization was evaluated on a variety of physical-chemical methods. HBI requires more protamine than HPI to fully neutralize its anticoagulant activity.

Interaction between leucine and palmitate catabolism in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and primary adipocytes from control and obese rats.

Metabolic profiling studies have highlighted increases in the plasma free fatty acid (FFA) and branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) concentrations, which are hallmarks of the obese and insulin-resistant phenotype. However, little is known about how the increase of the BCAA concentration modifies the metabolic fate of FFA, and vice versa, in adipocytes. Therefore, we incubated differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes or primary adipocytes from rats fed a control or a high-fat diet with: (1) 0, 250, 500 and 1000 μM of leucine and determined the oxidation and incorporation of [1-C]-palmitate into lipids or proteins or (2) 0, 250, 500 or 1000 μM of palmitate and evaluated the oxidation and incorporation of [U-C]-leucine into lipids or proteins.

Energy Availability, Macronutrient Intake, and Nutritional Supplementation for Improving Exercise Performance in Endurance Athletes.

Endurance athletes use nutritional guidelines and supplements to improve exercise performance and recovery. However, use is not always based on scientific evidence of improved performance, which type of athlete would benefit most, or the optimal dose and timing of a particular supplement. Health professionals that give advice to athletes need to target their recommendations on the energy systems and muscle fiber types used for the athlete's sporting event, the goal of the training block, the time of the competitive season, and the characteristics and food preferences of the individual athlete.

Development and testing of a novel survey to assess Stakeholder-driven Community Diffusion of childhood obesity prevention efforts.

Background: Involving groups of community stakeholders (e.g., steering committees) to lead community-wide health interventions appears to support multiple outcomes ranging from policy and systems change to individual biology.

A unique fucosylated chondroitin sulfate type II with strikingly homogeneous and neatly distributed α-fucose branches.

Fucosylated chondroitin sulfates (FCSs) and sulfated fucans (SFs) are conspicuous components of the body wall of sea cucumbers (Holothuroidea). FCSs are composed of a central core of chondroitin sulfate (CS) decorated with branches of mono- or both mono- and disaccharides of α-fucose (FCS types I and II, respectively). FCSs type II have heterogeneous and irregularly distributed α-fucose branches; however, the novel FCS type II from Holothuria lentiginosa described herein via solution nuclear magnetic resonance has strikingly homogeneous α-fucose branches neatly distributed along its CS core.

Community-based childhood obesity prevention intervention for parents improves health behaviors and food parenting practices among Hispanic, low-income parents.

Background: Given the current prevalence of childhood obesity among Hispanic populations, and the importance of parental feeding behaviors, we aimed to assess the impact of the evidence-based Healthy Children, Healthy Families (HCHF) intervention on responsive food parenting practices (FPPs) in a low-income Hispanic population.

Methods: This community-based pilot study used a non-experimental pre/post within-subjects design. Parents ( = 94) of children aged 3-11 years old were recruited to participate in an 8-week, weekly group-based intervention.

The family child care home environment and children's diet quality.

Background: Developing healthy eating behaviors and food preferences in early childhood may help establish future healthy diets. Large numbers of children spend time in child care, but little research has assessed the nutritional quality of meals and snacks in family child care homes. Therefore, it is important to assess foods and beverages provided, policies related to nutrition and feeding children, and interactions between providers and children during mealtimes.

Adiponectin synthesis and secretion by subcutaneous adipose tissue is impaired during obesity by endoplasmic reticulum stress.

Subcutaneous (SAT) and visceral (VAT) adipose tissues stores excess energy as triglycerides and synthesize adiponectin to prevent ectopic lipid accumulation and lipotoxicity. During obesity, an impairment in the capacity of SAT to store triglycerides and synthesize adiponectin is associated with increased free fatty acids (FFA) release, leading to VAT hypertrophy and hepatic and skeletal muscle lipotoxicity. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and the unfolded protein response (UPR) may be involved in SAT dysfunction during obesity.

Blood coagulation abnormalities in multibacillary leprosy patients.

Background: Leprosy is a chronic dermato-neurological disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae infection. In 2016, more than 200,000 new cases of leprosy were detected around the world, representing the most frequent cause of infectious irreversible deformities and disabilities.

Principal Findings: In the present work, we demonstrate a consistent procoagulant profile on 40 reactional and non-reactional multibacillary leprosy patients.

A Pilot Feasibility Study to Improve Food Parenting Practices.

Objectives: We examined the feasibility and acceptability of a novel home-based intervention to improve the food parenting practices of low-income mothers with preschool-aged children.

Methods: Mother-child dyads (N = 15) were recruited from WIC in southern Rhode Island. A non-experimental, pretest-posttest design was used to assess changes in maternal food parenting practices.

Amino acid profiles of young adults differ by sex, body mass index and insulin resistance.

Background And Aims: An increase in plasma branched-chain amino acids is associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. However, little is known about the basal plasma amino acid concentrations in young adults. Our aim was to determine the plasma amino acid profiles of young adults and to evaluate how these profiles were modified by sex, body mass index (BMI) and insulin resistance (IR).

Nutrition Knowledge, Attitudes, and Fruit and Vegetable Intake as Predictors of Head Start Teachers' Classroom Mealtime Behaviors.

Objective: To examine the association between nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and fruit/vegetable intake among Head Start teachers and their classroom mealtime behaviors (self-reported and observed).

Design: Cross-sectional design using observation and survey.

Setting: Sixteen Head Start centers across Rhode Island between September, 2014 and May, 2015.

Development and validation of new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in adults with overweight and obesity.

Background & Aims: Accurate predictive equations of resting energy expenditure (REE) are crucial in devising nutritional strategies to manage overweight/obesity, especially in countries where these are highly prevalent. REE is the most common measurement used to estimate energy requirements in the nutritional context; the most accurate method of measuring REE is indirect calorimetry (IC). However, this method is costly and often rarely feasible in many clinical settings.

A color-code for glycosaminoglycans identification by means of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis stained with the cationic carbocyanine dye Stains-all.

Cationic dyes such as toluidin blue are commonly employed to visualize glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) on electrophoresis gels; however, the carbocyanine-based dye Stains-all have been increasingly used to stain the non-sulfated hyaluronic acid and other GAGs in submicrogram quantities. In this short communication, we demonstrate that Stains-all is able to stain the most common GAGs on polyacrylamide gels with distinct and contrasting colors in a reproducible manner. We also show that this staining method is useful to identify GAGs present both in mixtures and in submicrogram quantities.

From altered synaptic plasticity to atypical learning: A computational model of Down syndrome.

Learning and memory rely on the adaptation of synaptic connections. Research on the neurophysiology of Down syndrome has characterized an atypical pattern of synaptic plasticity with limited long-term potentiation (LTP) and increased long-term depression (LTD). Here we present a neurocomputational model that instantiates this LTP/LTD imbalance to explore its impact on tasks of associative learning.

Understanding the Biology of Thermogenic Fat: Is Browning A New Approach to the Treatment of Obesity?

Obesity is characterized by an excess of white adipose tissue (WAT). Recent evidence has demonstrated that WAT can change its phenotype to a brown-like adipose tissue known as beige/brite adipose tissue. This transition is characterized by an increase in thermogenic capacity mediated by uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1).

A Neurocomputational Approach to Trained and Transitive Relations in Equivalence Classes.

A stimulus class can be composed of perceptually different but functionally equivalent stimuli. The relations between the stimuli that are grouped in a class can be learned or derived from other stimulus relations. If stimulus A is equivalent to B, and B is equivalent to C, then the equivalence between A and C can be derived without explicit training.

Emerging perspectives on branched-chain amino acid metabolism during adipocyte differentiation.

Purpose Of Review: Adipogenesis has been extensively studied in the context of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. However, little information exists on the role of amino acid metabolism during adipocyte differentiation. Here, we review how branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolism is modified during adipogenesis and, due to the limited information in the area, address questions that remain to be answered with further research.