Defining the momiome: Promiscuous information transfer by mobile mitochondria and the mitochondrial genome.

Mitochondria are complex intracellular organelles that have long been identified as the powerhouses of eukaryotic cells because of the central role they play in oxidative metabolism. A resurgence of interest in the study of mitochondria during the past decade has revealed that mitochondria also play key roles in cell signaling, proliferation, cell metabolism and cell death, and that genetic and/or metabolic alterations in mitochondria contribute to a number of diseases, including cancer. Mitochondria have been identified as signaling organelles, capable of mediating bidirectional intracellular information transfer: anterograde (from nucleus to mitochondria) and retrograde (from mitochondria to nucleus).

A pilot and feasibility study to assess children's consumption in quick-service restaurants using plate waste methodology.

Background: Children regularly consume foods from quick-service restaurants (QSR), but little is known about the foods that children order, the calories and nutrients consumed, the accuracy of stated calorie information, or the ability to assess food orders and consumption in QSRs. This study evaluated the feasibility of plate waste collection in QSRs and examined children's orders and consumption of meals from the standard and children's menus. Additional aims were to examine if the meals ordered met healthier standards for children's menu items and determine the accuracy of the QSR-stated energy content of foods.

Health literacy in the urgent care setting: What factors impact consumer comprehension of health information?

Background: An increasing number of Americans are using urgent care (UC) clinics due to: improved health insurance coverage, the need to decrease cost, primary care offices with limited appointment availability, and a desire for convenient care. Patients are treated by providers they may not know for episodic illness or injuries while in pain or not feeling well. Treatment instructions and follow-up directions are provided quickly.

Question, Explanation, Follow-Up: A Mechanism for Learning From Others?

This study explored differences in caregiver-child interactions following children's information-seeking questions. Naturalistic speech from thirty-seven 4-year-olds and their caregivers was used to explore children's information-seeking questions, the caregiver's response, and children's subsequent follow-up. Half of the families were low-socioeconomic status (SES) and the other half were mid-SES.

Cybercycling Effects on Classroom Behavior in Children With Behavioral Health Disorders: An RCT.

Background And Objectives: Exercise is linked with improved cognition and behavior in children in clinical and experimental settings. This translational study examined if an aerobic cybercycling intervention integrated into physical education (PE) resulted in improvements in behavioral self-regulation and classroom functioning among children with mental health disabilities attending a therapeutic day school.

Methods: Using a 14-week crossover design, students (N = 103) were randomly assigned by classroom (k = 14) to receive the 7-week aerobic cybercycling PE curriculum during fall 2014 or spring 2015.

Accelerometer Assessment of Physical Activity and Its Association with Physical Function in Older Adults Residing at Assisted Care Facilities.

Objectives: To describe levels of physical activity among older adults residing at assisted care facilities and their association with physical function.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis.

Setting: Assisted care facilities within the greater Boston, MA area.

Are short (blue) wavelengths necessary for light treatment of seasonal affective disorder?

Despite widely published speculation regarding a potential potency advantage of short-wavelength (blue-appearing) light for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) treatment, there have been few systematic studies. Those comparing short-wavelength to broad-wavelength (white) light under actual clinical conditions suggest equivalent effectiveness. This multicenter, parallel-group design trial was undertaken to compare the effects of light therapy on SAD using blue (~465 nm) versus blue-free (595-612 nm) LED lights.

The effect of healthy dietary consumption on executive cognitive functioning in children and adolescents: a systematic review.

A systematic review was conducted to evaluate whether healthier dietary consumption among children and adolescents impacts executive functioning. PubMed, Education Resources Information Center, PsychINFO and Thomson Reuters' Web of Science databases were searched, and studies of executive functioning among children or adolescents aged 6-18 years, which examined food quality, macronutrients and/or foods, were included. Study quality was also assessed.

Beyond Objectivity and Subjectivity: The Intersubjective Foundations of Psychological Science.

The question of whether psychology can properly be regarded as a science has long been debated (Smedslund in Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science, 50, 185-195, 2016). Science is typically understood as a method for producing reliable knowledge by testing falsifiable claims against objective evidence. Psychological phenomena, however, are traditionally taken to be "subjective" and hidden from view.

Limited School Drinking Water Access for Youth.

Purpose: Providing children and youth with safe, adequate drinking water access during school is essential for health. This study used objectively measured data to investigate the extent to which schools provide drinking water access that meets state and federal policies.

Methods: We visited 59 middle and high schools in Massachusetts during spring 2012.

Healthier Standards for School Meals and Snacks: Impact on School Food Revenues and Lunch Participation Rates.

Introduction: In 2012, the updated U.S. Department of Agriculture school meals standards and a competitive food law similar to the fully implemented version of the national Smart Snack standards went into effect in Massachusetts.

Impact of Nutrition Standards on Competitive Food Quality in Massachusetts Middle and High Schools.

Objectives: To examine changes in competitive foods (items sold in à la carte lines, vending machines, and school stores that "compete" with school meals) in Massachusetts middle and high schools before and after implementation of a statewide nutrition law in 2012.

Methods: We photographed n = 10 782 competitive foods and beverages in 36 Massachusetts school districts and 7 control state districts to determine availability and compliance with the law at baseline (2012), 1 year (2013), and 2 years (2014) after the policy (overall enrollment: 71 202 students). We examined availability and compliance trends over time.

Teaching Domestic Violence in the New Millennium: Intersectionality as a Framework for Social Change.

This article describes an intersectional approach to teaching about domestic violence (DV), which aims to empower students as critical thinkers and agents of change by merging theory, service learning, self-reflection, and activism. Three intersectional strategies and techniques for teaching about DV are discussed: promoting difference-consciousness, complicating gender-only power frameworks, and organizing for change. The author argues that to empower future generations to end violence, educators should put intersectionality into action through their use of scholarship, teaching methods, and pedagogical authority.

Effects of a School-Based Social-Emotional and Character Development Program on Health Behaviors: A Matched-Pair, Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

There is considerable research that suggests that school-based social-emotional programs can foster improved mental health and reduce problem behaviors for participating youth; in contrast, much less is known about the impact of these programs on physical health, even though some of these programs also include at least limited direct attention to promoting physical health behaviors. We examined the effects of one such program, Positive Action (PA), on physical health behaviors and body mass index (BMI), and tested for mediation of program effects through a measure of social-emotional and character development (SECD). Participating schools in the matched-pair, cluster-randomized trial were 14 low-performing K-8 Chicago Public Schools.

Parental Involvement in Intensive Treatment for Adolescent Panic Disorder and Its Impact on Depression.

The present study investigated whether an 8-day intensive treatment for panic disorder in adolescents conferred a corollary benefit of ameliorating symptoms of depression. Participants included 57 adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 who were randomly assigned to an intensive panic treatment for adolescents with or without parental involvement. Paired samples tests and hierarchical linear models (HLM) indicated that participants' total depression score and scores on depression subscales declined from baseline to the 3-month follow-up.

The specter of discrimination: Fear of interpersonal racial discrimination among adolescents in Chicago.

This analysis examines fear of interpersonal racial discrimination among Black, Hispanic, and White adolescents. The extent and correlates of these concerns are examined using survey data from the Project for Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Borrowing from the fear-of-crime literature, the contact hypothesis, and group threat theory, several hypotheses are developed linking discrimination fear to direct personal experience with discrimination, indirect or vicarious experience, and environmental signals of discrimination.

Casual Video Games as Training Tools for Attentional Processes in Everyday Life.

Three experiments examined the attentional components of the popular match-3 casual video game, Bejeweled Blitz (BJB). Attentionally demanding, BJB is highly popular among adults, particularly those in middle and later adulthood. In experiment 1, 54 older adults (Mage = 70.

Macrophage cell death and transcriptional response are actively triggered by the fungal virulence factor Cbp1 during H. capsulatum infection.

Microbial pathogens induce or inhibit death of host cells during infection, with significant consequences for virulence and disease progression. Death of an infected host cell can either facilitate release and dissemination of intracellular pathogens or promote pathogen clearance. Histoplasma capsulatum is an intracellular fungal pathogen that replicates robustly within macrophages and triggers macrophage lysis by unknown means.

Acculturation and health behaviors among international students: A qualitative approach.

The process of acculturation often results in changes in the health behavior of international students. This study employed an open-ended, qualitative approach in an attempt to gain an in-depth understanding of the acculturation process for physical activity, diet, and drinking behavior among international students. Eighteen undergraduate international students (average age 19.

Treatment Strategies that Enhance the Efficacy and Selectivity of Mitochondria-Targeted Anticancer Agents.

Nearly a century has passed since Otto Warburg first observed high rates of aerobic glycolysis in a variety of tumor cell types and suggested that this phenomenon might be due to an impaired mitochondrial respiratory capacity in these cells. Subsequently, much has been written about the role of mitochondria in the initiation and/or progression of various forms of cancer, and the possibility of exploiting differences in mitochondrial structure and function between normal and malignant cells as targets for cancer chemotherapy. A number of mitochondria-targeted compounds have shown efficacy in selective cancer cell killing in pre-clinical and early clinical testing, including those that induce mitochondria permeability transition and apoptosis, metabolic inhibitors, and ROS regulators.

Leucanthemum vulgare lam. crude oil phytoremediation.

Sites with crude oil pollution have been successfully treated using phytoremediation, but expanding the range of plants that can be used and understanding how exposure impacts the plants are two areas of study that are important to continue. Leucanthemum vulgare has been shown to grow well under a variety of stressful conditions. To examine L.

Studies of OC-STAMP in Osteoclast Fusion: A New Knockout Mouse Model, Rescue of Cell Fusion, and Transmembrane Topology.

The fusion of monocyte/macrophage lineage cells into fully active, multinucleated, bone resorbing osteoclasts is a complex cell biological phenomenon that utilizes specialized proteins. OC-STAMP, a multi-pass transmembrane protein, has been shown to be required for pre-osteoclast fusion and for optimal bone resorption activity. A previously reported knockout mouse model had only mononuclear osteoclasts with markedly reduced resorption activity in vitro, but with paradoxically normal skeletal micro-CT parameters.

Recruitment of Mobility Limited Older Adults Into a Facility-Led Exercise-Nutrition Study: The Effect of Social Involvement.

Purpose Of The Study: Older adults are among the most challenging population groups to enroll into health-related research. This article describes two methods used by investigators to recruit mobility limited older adults residing at assisted living or senior housing (SH) facilities into a facility-led exercise-nutrition research study.

Design And Methods: Sedentary older adults were recruited from 42 different assisted living facilities (ALFs) or SH communities.

Acute resistance exercise stimulates sex-specific dimeric immunoreactive growth hormone responses.

Purpose: We sought to determine if an acute heavy resistance exercise test (AHRET) would elicit sex-specific responses in circulating growth hormone (GH), with untreated serum and serum treated with a reducing agent to break disulfide-bindings between GH dimers.

Methods: 19 untrained participants (nine men and ten women) participated in an acute heavy resistance exercise test using the back squat. Blood samples were drawn before exercise (Pre), immediate post (IP), +15 min (+15), and +30 min (+30) afterwards.

Development and implementation of client-centered nutrition education programs in a 4-stage framework.

The Texas Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) sought to engage the WIC staff and community in the implementation of relevant and effective client-centered nutrition education. The program was implemented in a 4-stage framework. The collaborative process of developing client-centered nutrition education allowed members to learn from one another, thus ensuring commitment to client-centered nutrition education from all levels of staff.