Fructose intake from added sugars has been implicated as a cause of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Here we tested the hypothesis that fructose may interact with a high‐fat diet to induce fatty ...liver, and to determine if this was dependent on a key enzyme in fructose metabolism, fructokinase. Wild‐type or fructokinase knockout mice were fed a low‐fat (11%), high‐fat (36%), or high‐fat (36%) and high‐sucrose (30%) diet for 15 weeks. Both wild‐type and fructokinase knockout mice developed obesity with mild hepatic steatosis and no evidence of hepatic inflammation on a high‐fat diet compared to a low‐fat diet. In contrast, wild‐type mice fed a high‐fat and high‐sucrose diet developed more severe hepatic steatosis with low‐grade inflammation and fibrosis, as noted by increased CD68, tumor necrosis factor alpha, monocyte chemoattractant protein‐1, alpha‐smooth muscle actin, and collagen I and TIMP1 expression. These changes were prevented in the fructokinase knockout mice. Conclusion: An additive effect of high‐fat and high‐sucrose diet on the development of hepatic steatosis exists. Further, the combination of sucrose with high‐fat diet may induce steatohepatitis. The protection in fructokinase knockout mice suggests a key role for fructose (from sucrose) in this development of steatohepatitis. These studies emphasize the important role of fructose in the development of fatty liver and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. (Hepatology 2013;58:1632–1643)
Retrospective pretests ask respondents to report after an intervention on their aptitudes, knowledge, or beliefs before the intervention. A primary reason to administer a retrospective pretest is ...that in some situations, program participants may over the course of an intervention revise or recalibrate their prior understanding of program content, with the result that their posttest scores are lower than their traditional pretest scores, even though their understanding or abilities have increased. This phenomenon is called response-shift bias. The existence of response-shift bias is undisputed, but it does not always occur, and use of the retrospective pretest in place of a traditional pretest often introduces new problems. In this commentary, I provide a brief overview of the literature on response-shift bias and discuss common pitfalls in the use and reporting of retrospective pretest results, including a failure to consider multiple factors that may affect all test scores, as well as claims that retrospective pretests are less biased than traditional pretests, provide more accurate estimates of effects, and are necessarily superior to traditional pretests in program evaluation. I comment on the article by Little et al. (2019) in this issue in light of the literature on retrospective pretests and discuss the need for a theoretical framework to guide research on response-shift bias. The goal of the commentary is to provide readers with an informed and critical lens through which to evaluate and use retrospective pretest methods.
Even at low concentrations in the environment, mercury has the potential to biomagnify in food chains and reaches levels of concern in apex predators. The aim of this study was to relate the transfer ...of total mercury (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) in a Gulf of St. Lawrence food web to the trophic structure, from primary consumers to seabirds, using stable nitrogen (
δ
15N) and carbon (
δ
13C) isotope analysis and physical environmental parameters. The energy reaching upper trophic level species was principally derived from pelagic primary production, with particulate organic matter (POM) at the base of the food chain. We developed a biomagnification factor (BMF) taking into account the various prey items consumed by a given predator using stable isotope mixing models. This BMF provides a more realistic estimation than when using a single prey. Lipid content, body weight, trophic level and benthic connection explained 77.4 and 80.7% of the variation in THg and MeHg concentrations, respectively in this food web. When other values were held constant, relationships with lipid and benthic connection were negative whereas relationships with trophic level and body weight were positive. Total Hg and MeHg biomagnified in this food web with biomagnification power values (slope of the relationship with
δ
15N) of 0.170 and 0.235, respectively on wet weight and 0.134 and 0.201, respectively on dry weight. Values of biomagnification power were greater for pelagic and benthopelagic species compared to benthic species whereas the opposite trend was observed for levels at the base of the food chain. This suggests that Hg would be readily bioavailable to organisms at the base of the benthic food chain, but trophic transfer would be more efficient in each trophic level of pelagic and benthopelagic food chains.
Abstract
Background
Pre-transplant evaluation is mandated by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but there is wide institutional variation in implementation, and the family experience of the ...process is incompletely understood. Current literature largely focuses on adult transplant recipients.
Methods
This qualitative study begins to fill the knowledge gap about family experience of the pre-transplant evaluation for children through interviews with caregivers at a large pediatric transplant center.
Results
Prominent themes heard from caregivers include (1) the pre-transplant evaluation is overwhelming and emotional, (2) prior experiences and background knowledge frame the evaluation experience, and (3) frustration with communication among teams is common.
Conclusions
These findings are relevant to efforts by transplant centers to optimize information delivery, minimize concrete barriers, and address healthcare systems issues.
Graphical abstract
A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information
Use of daily controller medications is a critical task in management of persistent asthma. Study aims were to examine (1) the association between child age and extent of daily controller-medication ...responsibility in a sample aged 4 to 19 years, (2) parent, child, and disease predictors of child daily controller-medication responsibility and overall daily controller-medication adherence, and (3) the association between child daily controller-medication responsibility and overall daily controller-medication adherence.
We conducted a cross-sectional telephone survey of 351 parents of children who were prescribed daily controller medication. Children's mean age was 10.4 years; 61.5% were male, and 88.1% were white. Parents provided all data, including an estimate of the percentage of child and parent daily controller-medication responsibility. Daily controller-medication adherence was measured as parents' report of percentage of daily doses taken per doses prescribed in a typical week. We used multivariate linear regression to determine associations between parent race/ethnicity, education, income, number of dependents, child age, gender, years since diagnosis, parent perception of symptom severity and control, and dependent variables (child daily controller-medication responsibility and daily controller-medication adherence). We also examined associations between child daily controller-medication responsibility and daily controller-medication adherence.
Child daily controller-medication responsibility increased with age. By age 7, children had assumed, on average, almost 20% of daily controller-medication responsibility; by age 11, approximately 50%; by age 15, 75%; and by age 19, 100%. In multivariate models, child age and male gender remained significantly associated with child daily controller-medication responsibility, and child's age and parents' race/ethnicity remained significantly associated with daily controller-medication adherence.
Clinicians may need to screen for child daily controller-medication management and include even young children when educating families on the use of asthma medications and other key asthma-management tasks.
•Size of the product: from designing trees with customised lignin and modifying wood dried by supercritical processing to bioaromatics from lignin hydrogenolysis.•Scale of the product: from wood ...fibre plastic composites at commercial scale and lignin-rich bioadhesives to bio-based materials for 3D printing.•Value of the product(s): lignin-based nanofibres and supercritical extraction of chemicals and compounds to utilising biomass side streams.
Unlike a traditional review, this article does not summarise and discuss scientific progress in terms of traditional focus topics such as upstream processes or conversion and downstream processes, but instead provides examples proving that “Yes, we can make money from lignin and other bio-based resources”. The nine success stories from Scion's research are differentiated by the size of the product from designing trees with customised lignin and modifying wood dried by supercritical processing to bioaromatics from lignin hydrogenolysis, the scale of the product – from wood fibre plastic composites at commercial scale and lignin-rich bioadhesives to bio-based materials for 3D printing and the value of the product(s) – from lignin-based nanofibres and supercritical extraction of chemicals and compounds to utilising biomass side streams.
Rationale
A combination of stable carbon (δ13C) and hydrogen (δ2H) isotope ratios and carbon content (% C) was evaluated as a rapid, low‐cost analytical approach to authenticate bioplastics, ...complementing existing radiocarbon (14C) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analytical methods.
Methods
Petroleum‐ and bio‐based precursor materials and in‐market plastics were analysed and their δ13C, δ2H and % C values were used to establish isotope criteria to evaluate plastic claims, and the source and biocontent of the samples. 14C was used to confirm the findings of the isotope approach and FTIR analysis was used to vertify the plastic type of the in‐market plastics.
Results
Distinctive carbon and hydrogen stable isotope ratios were found for authentic bio‐based and petroleum‐based precursor plastics, and it was possible to classify in‐market plastics according to their source materials (petroleum, C3, C4, and mixed sources). An estimation of C4 biocontent was possible from a C4‐petroleum isotope mixing model using δ13C which was well correlated (R2 = 0.98) to 14C. It was not possible to establish a C3‐petroleum isotope mixing model due to δ13C isotopic overlap with petroleum plastics; however, the addition of δ2H and % C was useful to evaluate if petroleum‐bioplastic mixes contained C3 bioplastics, and PLS‐DA modelling reliably clustered each plastic type.
Conclusions
A combined dual stable isotope and carbon content approach was found to rapidly and accurately identify C3 and C4 bio‐based products from their petroleum counterparts, and identify instances of petroleum and bio‐based mixes frequently found in mislabelled bioplastics. Out of 37 in‐market products labelled as bioplastic, 19 were found to contain varying amounts of petroleum‐based plastic and did not meet their bio‐based claims.
The objective of this study was to describe comprehensively the structure and process of the childhood mealtime environment. A socioeconomically diverse sample of 142 families of kindergarteners (52% ...females) was observed at dinnertime using a focused-narrative observational system. Eighty-five percent of parents tried to get children to eat more, 83% of children ate more than they might otherwise have, with 38% eating moderately to substantially more. Boys were prompted to eat as often as girls and children were prompted to eat as many times in single- as in two-parent households. Children were very rarely restricted in their mealtime intake. High-SES parents used reasoning, praise, and food rewards significantly more often than low-SES families. Mothers used different strategies than fathers: fathers used pressure tactics with boys and mothers praised girls for eating. Future research should examine the meanings children ascribe to their parents’ communications about food intake and how perceived parental messages influence the development of long-term dietary patterns. Interpreted alongside the evidence for children's energy self-regulation and the risk of disruption of these innate processes, it may be that parents are inadvertently socializing their children to eat past their internal hunger/satiety cues. These data reinforce current recommendations that parents should provide nutritious foods and children, not parents, should decide what and how much of these foods they eat.
We report a new method for the electrochemical detection of glycosylation on proteins, which relies on lectin-protein interaction on a bare gold electrode. The target protein isolated by ...immunoaffinity is directly adsorbed onto a gold surface and its glycosylation status is retrieved by subsequent addition of specific lectins. The adsorption and subsequent recognition process is monitored electrochemically in the presence of Fe(CN)6(3-/4-) redox system. By decoupling target protein capture from glycosylation read-out steps, this approach circumvents unwanted antibody-lectin crosstalk while enabling specific glycosylation detection of a glycoprotein in serum-spiked samples in less than 1 h.
In order to achieve wide-scale impact in community settings, programs must be sustained. Theory and empirical evidence suggest that intervention characteristics, organizational context, capacity for ...program implementation, and processes related to implementation are associated with continued program delivery. However, few studies examine how combinations of these factors work together in different settings to influence program sustainment.
Using scales specified in the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool (PSAT), the current cross-sectional study aims to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for the sustainment of the Strengthening Families Program for Parents and Youth 10-14 (SFP 10-14). Staff (n = 59) at SFP 10-14 implementation sites across Washington State completed an online survey reporting on their current level of SFP 10-14 sustainment. They also completed PSAT, with eight scales designed to assess conditions that consistently produce sustainment. Data were analyzed using qualitative comparative analysis.
Environmental support was the only necessary condition for sustainment success. Four solutions sufficient to achieve sustainment were also identified. These included the combined presence of (1) environmental support, organizational capacity, and funding stability; (2) environmental support, organizational capacity, communication, and program evaluation, in the absence of strategic planning; (3) environmental support, organizational capacity, program evaluation, and partnerships, in the absence of strategic planning; and (4) environmental support, communication, partnerships, and funding stability, in the absence of program evaluation.
Environmental support in combination with organizational capacity appeared to most consistently produce sustainment of SFP 10-14 programs in Washington State. Program providers will benefit from a focusing on enhancing those conditions to increase program sustainment.
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