Effects of a psychosocial intervention at one-year follow-up in a PREDIMED-plus sample with obesity and metabolic syndrome.

This study examines if overweight/obesity are related to higher impulsivity, food addiction and depressive symptoms, and if these variables could be modified after 1 year of a multimodal intervention (diet, physical activity, psychosocial support). 342 adults (55-75 years) with overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) from the PREDIMED-Plus Cognition study were randomized to the intervention or to the control group (lifestyle recommendations). Cognitive and psychopathological assessments were performed at baseline and after 1-year follow-up.

[Policies to prevent the harm caused by alcohol: priorities for Spain.].

This paper presents a strategic analysis of the prevention of the harm caused by alcohol in Spain. The alcohol action plan of the European Office of the WHO offers a guide for the development of the most effective control policies. Following its scheme, the current situation and the prevention policies are reviewed with data available in 2020.

[Prevalence of binge drinking among high school students and urban contextual factors.].

Objective: Many teenagers experiment with addictive substances such as alcohol. The objective of this study was to estimate the frequency of binge drinking among secondary school students and its relationship with sex, grade, and type of school, as well as with urban contextual factors of the school neighborhood: socioeconomic level, density of alcohol outlet premises, and tourist pressure.

Methods: This was an observational cross-sectional study.

[The gambling industry: a public health perspective.].

Objective: Gambling may cause a variety of problems, both health and social, to the player, his family and his environment; Problems can be more serious for those who gamble more frequently or bet more money. Beyond the mental health gambling disorder and considering other harms derived from gambling, it is possible to develop a public health approach to the issue, including both prevention and harm reduction aspects. In recent decades gambling availability has expanded, with attempts at regulation.

Genomic methylation in plant cell cultures: A barrier to the development of commercial long-term biofactories.

Plant cell biofactories offer great advantages for the production of plant compounds of interest, although certain limitations still need to be overcome before their maximum potential is reached. One obstacle is the gradual loss of secondary metabolite production during in vitro culture maintenance, which is an important impediment in the development of large-scale production systems. The relationship between in vitro maintenance and epigenetic changes has been demonstrated in several plant species; in particular, methylation levels have been found to increase in in vitro cultures over time.

[Local public health services: a descriptive study of the municipalities of Catalonia in 2016].

Objective: The health system in Spain rests mostly in the Autonomous Communities (similar to the states in the US). The public health activities of many local governments are little studied. The objective of this work was to bring knowledge about the public health activities of the municipalities, providing information obtained from a recent survey in Catalonia.

Combining Multiple Hypothesis Testing with Machine Learning Increases the Statistical Power of Genome-wide Association Studies.

The standard approach to the analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) is based on testing each position in the genome individually for statistical significance of its association with the phenotype under investigation. To improve the analysis of GWAS, we propose a combination of machine learning and statistical testing that takes correlation structures within the set of SNPs under investigation in a mathematically well-controlled manner into account. The novel two-step algorithm, COMBI, first trains a support vector machine to determine a subset of candidate SNPs and then performs hypothesis tests for these SNPs together with an adequate threshold correction.

New insights into the molecular pathophysiology of fragile X syndrome and therapeutic perspectives from the animal model.

Fragile X syndrome is the most common monogenetic form of intellectual disability and is a leading cause of autism. This syndrome is produced by the reduced transcription of the fragile X mental retardation (FMR1) gene, and it is characterized by a range of symptoms heterogeneously expressed in patients such as cognitive impairment, seizure susceptibility, altered pain sensitivity and anxiety. The recent advances in the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved have opened novel potential therapeutic approaches identified in preclinical rodent models as a necessary preliminary step for the subsequent evaluation in patients.

FAAH deficiency promotes energy storage and enhances the motivation for food.

Rationale: Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) is the main degrading enzyme of the fatty acid ethanolamides anandamide (AEA) and oleoylethanolamide (OEA), which have opposite effects on food intake and energy balance. AEA, an endogenous ligand of CB(1) cannabinoid receptors, enhances food intake and energy storage, whereas OEA binds to peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors-alpha to reduce food intake and promoting lipolysis. To elucidate the role of FAAH in food intake and energy balance, we have evaluated different metabolic and behavioral responses related to feeding in FAAH-deficient (FAAH(-/-)) mice and their wild-type littermates.