Dietary habits and obesity: the role of emotional and cognitive factors

In post-industrialised societies, food is more plentiful, accessible and palatable than ever before and technological development has reduced the need for physical activity. Consequently, the prevalence of obesity is increasing, which is problematic as obesity is related to a number of diseases. Various psychological and social factors have an important influence on dietary habits and the development of obesity in the current food-rich and sedentary environments. The present study concentrates on the associations of emotional and cognitive factors with dietary intake and obesity as well as on the role these factors play in socioeconomic disparities in diet. Many people cognitively restrict their food intake to prevent weight gain or to lose weight, but research on whether restrained eating is a useful weight control strategy has produced conflicting findings. With respect to emotional factors, the evidence is accumulating that depressive symptoms are related to less healthy dietary intake and obesity, but the mechanisms explaining these associations remain unclear. Furthermore, it is not fully understood why socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals tend to have unhealthier dietary habits and the motives underlying food choices (e.g., price and health) could be relevant in this respect. The specific aims of the study were to examine 1) whether obesity status and dieting history moderate the associations of restrained eating with overeating tendencies, self-control and obesity indicators; 2) whether the associations of depressive symptoms with unhealthier dietary intake and obesity are attributable to a tendency for emotional eating and a low level of physical activity self-efficacy; and 3) whether the absolute or relative importance of food choice motives (health, pleasure, convenience, price, familiarity and ethicality) contribute to the socioeconomic disparities in dietary habits. The study was based on a large population-based sample of Finnish adults: the participants were men (N=2325) and women (N=2699) aged 25-74 who took part in the DILGOM (Dietary, Lifestyle and Genetic Determinants of Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome) sub-study of the National FINRISK Study 2007. The participants weight, height, waist circumference and body fat percentage were measured in a health examination. Psychological eating styles (the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18), food choice motives (a shortened version of the Food Choice Questionnaire), depressive symptoms (the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) and self-control (the Brief Self-Control Scale) were measured with pre-existing questionnaires. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to assess the average consumption of sweet and non-sweet energy-dense foods and vegetables/fruit. Self-reported total years of education and gross household income were used as indicators of socioeconomic position. The results indicated that 1) restrained eating was related to a lower body mass index, waist circumference, emotional eating and uncontrolled eating, and to a higher self-control in obese participants and current/past dieters. In contrast, the associations were the opposite in normal weight individuals and those who had never dieted. Thus, restrained eating may be related to better weight control among obese individuals and those with dieting experiences, while among others it may function as an indicator of problems with eating and an attempt to solve them. 2) Emotional eating and depressive symptoms were both related to less healthy dietary intake, and the greater consumption of energy-dense sweet foods among participants with elevated depressive symptoms was attributable to the susceptibility for emotional eating. In addition, emotional eating and physical activity self-efficacy were both important in explaining the positive association between depressive symptoms and obesity. 3) The lower vegetable/fruit intake and higher energy-dense food intake among individuals with a low socioeconomic position were partly explained by the higher priority they placed on price and familiarity and the lower priority they gave to health motives in their daily food choices. In conclusion, although policy interventions to change the obesogenic nature of the current environment are definitely needed, knowledge of the factors that hinder or facilitate people s ability to cope with the food-rich environment is also necessary. This study implies that more emphasis should be placed on various psychological and social factors in weight control programmes and interventions.

海洋红藻多管藻和松节藻的化学成分及抗氧化活性研究

海洋生物具有产生丰富多样的次生代谢产物的能力，其中红藻门松节藻科海藻卤代次生代谢产物以其结构新颖、生物活性独特引起了天然产物化学家的重视。 本论文对海洋红藻多管藻和松节藻进行了化学成分研究，综合利用各种色谱学方法 (硅胶柱层析、反相硅胶柱层析、凝胶Sephadex LH-20柱层析、半制备高效液相色谱以及重结晶等) 和现代波谱学技术 (IR、UV、EI-MS、FAB-MS、HR-ESI-MS、CD、1H-NMR、13C-NMR、DEPT、1H-1H COSY、HSQC、HMBC等)，共分离鉴定了100个化合物，发现25个新化合物。 从多管藻中分离鉴定38个化合物 (24个溴酚化合物)，其中7个新化合物 (均为溴酚化合物)，包括1个菲并呋喃结构溴酚 (P1), 2个二氢菲结构溴酚 (P2, P3)，1个含 5,7-dihydrodibenzo[c,e]oxepine 结构溴酚 (P4)和3个简单溴酚 (P5, P6, P7)。P1 (urceolatin) 属首例报道的具有菲并呋喃结构的天然产物，从该种中分离的化合物P12 和 P13 可能是其生源合成的前体。P2和P3为第二例报道的具有二氢菲结构的溴酚化合物。 从松节藻中分离并鉴定了62 个化合物，其中18 个为溴酚类新化合物，44 个为已知化合物。化合物具有多变的取代基团，包括2 个脲基吡咯烷酮溴酚化合物 (R1, R2), 4 个γ-脲基丁酸溴酚化合物 (R3-R6)，5 个酰胺溴酚化合物 (R7, R8, R9, R13, R14)，1 个溴酚砜化合物 (R12), 1 个Xanthene 溴酚化合物 (R10)和5 个简单溴酚化合物 (R11, R15, R16, R17, R18)。R1、R2 是首例报道的含有脲基吡咯烷酮片段的天然产物，R10 为首次报道的溴代Xanthene 类天然产物。 对分离到的化合物进行了清除DPPH 和ABTS两种自由基活性的筛选。结果发现溴酚类天然产物具有显著的DPPH自由基清除活性，其中R3 的IC50 仅为3.3 μM, 其活性强度约为阳性对照BHT (IC50 为82.1 μM) 的24倍。另外，溴酚类天然产物对ABTS自由基有较强的清除活性，R2 的TEAC（Trolox efficency activity capacity）值为5.2 mM，约为阳性对照 (ascorbic acid, 1.02 mM) 的 5 倍。初步的构效关系研究发现，稠环分子、多羟基和邻位甲氧基等结构特点能有效增强DPPH 自由基清除活性；特殊取代基如脲基、吡咯烷酮等含有氮原子的基团，能有效增强ABTS 自由基清除活性，多羟基、溴代等结构特点也使其活性有所增强。 本研究结果丰富了海藻卤代化合物的结构类型，为多管藻和松节藻的合理利用提供了一定的科学依据。

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Codon and mRNA sequence optimization of microdystrophin transgenes improves expression and physiological outcome in dystrophic mdx mice following AAV2/8 gene transfer

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a fatal muscle-wasting disorder. Lack of dystrophin compromises the integrity of the sarcolemma and results in myofibers that are highly prone to contraction-induced injury. Recombinant adenoassociated virus (rAAV)-mediated dystrophin gene transfer strategies to muscle for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) have been limited by the small cloning capacity of rAAV vectors and high titers necessary to achieve efficient systemic gene transfer. In this study, we assess the impact of codon optimization on microdystrophin (ΔAB/R3-R18/ΔCT) expression and function in the mdx mouse and compare the function of two different configurations of codon-optimized microdystrophin genes (ΔAB/R3-R18/ΔCT and ΔR4-R23/ΔCT) under the control of a muscle-restrictive promoter (Spc5-12). Codon optimization of microdystrophin significantly increases levels of microdystrophin mRNA and protein after intramuscular and systemic administration of plasmid DNA or rAAV2/8. Physiological assessment demonstrates that codon optimization of ΔAB/R3-R18/ΔCT results in significant improvement in specific force, but does not improve resistance to eccentric contractions compared with noncodon-optimized ΔAB/ R3-R18/ΔCT. However, codon-optimized microdystrophin ΔR4-R23/ΔCT completely restored specific force generation and provided substantial protection from contraction-induced injury. These results demonstrate that codon optimization of microdystrophin under the control of a muscle-specific promoter can significantly improve expression levels such that reduced titers of rAAV vectors will be required for efficient systemic administration.

Optimization Of Groundwater Remediation With New Efficient Parallel Algorithm For Global Optimization

Application of optimization algorithm to PDE modeling groundwater remediation can greatly reduce remediation cost. However, groundwater remediation analysis requires a computational expensive simulation, therefore, effective parallel optimization could potentially greatly reduce computational expense. The optimization algorithm used in this research is Parallel Stochastic radial basis function. This is designed for global optimization of computationally expensive functions with multiple local optima and it does not require derivatives. In each iteration of the algorithm, an RBF is updated based on all the evaluated points in order to approximate expensive function. Then the new RBF surface is used to generate the next set of points, which will be distributed to multiple processors for evaluation. The criteria of selection of next function evaluation points are estimated function value and distance from all the points known. Algorithms created for serial computing are not necessarily efficient in parallel so Parallel Stochastic RBF is different algorithm from its serial ancestor. The application for two Groundwater Superfund Remediation sites, Umatilla Chemical Depot, and Former Blaine Naval Ammunition Depot. In the study, the formulation adopted treats pumping rates as decision variables in order to remove plume of contaminated groundwater. Groundwater flow and contamination transport is simulated with MODFLOW-MT3DMS. For both problems, computation takes a large amount of CPU time, especially for Blaine problem, which requires nearly fifty minutes for a simulation for a single set of decision variables. Thus, efficient algorithm and powerful computing resource are essential in both cases. The results are discussed in terms of parallel computing metrics i.e. speedup and efficiency. We find that with use of up to 24 parallel processors, the results of the parallel Stochastic RBF algorithm are excellent with speed up efficiencies close to or exceeding 100%.