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Background: Although several types of risk factors for anorexia nervosa (AN) have been identified, including birth-related factors, somatic, and psychosocial risk factors, their interplay with genetic susceptibility remains unclear. Genetic and epidemiological interplay in AN risk were examined using data from Danish nationwide registers. AN polygenic risk score (PRS) and risk factor associations, confounding from AN PRS and/or parental psychiatric history on the association between the risk factors and AN risk, and interactions between AN PRS and each level of target risk factor on AN risk were estimated. Methods: Participants were individuals born in Denmark between 1981 and 2008 including nationwide-representative data from the iPSYCH2015, and Danish AN cases from the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative and Eating Disorder Genetics Initiative cohorts. A total of 7003 individuals with AN and 45 229 individuals without a registered AN diagnosis were included. We included 22 AN risk factors from Danish registers. Results: Risk factors showing association with PRS for AN included urbanicity, parental ages, genitourinary tract infection, and parental socioeconomic factors. Risk factors showed the expected association to AN risk, and this association was only slightly attenuated when adjusted for parental history of psychiatric disorders or/and for the AN PRS. The interaction analyses revealed a differential effect of AN PRS according to the level of the following risk factors: sex, maternal age, genitourinary tract infection, C-section, parental socioeconomic factors and psychiatric history. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence for interactions between AN PRS and certain risk-factors, illustrating potential diverse risk pathways to AN diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study examined prevalence and correlates of pica behaviors during childhood using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) study. Method: Data on 10,109 caregivers from the ALSPAC study who reported pica behavior at 36, 54, 65, 77, and 115 months on their child were included. Autism was obtained through clinical and education records, while DD was derived from the Denver Developmental Screening Test. Results: A total of 312 parents (3.08%) reported pica behaviors in their child. Of these, 19.55% reported pica at least at two waves (n = 61). Pica was most common at 36 months (N = 226; 2.29%) and decreased as children aged. A significant association was found between pica and autism at all five waves (p <.001). There was a significant relationship between pica and DD, with individuals with DD more likely to experience pica than those without DD at 36 (p =.01), and 54 (p <.001), 65 (p =.04), 77 (p <.001), and 115 months (p =.006). Exploratory analyses examined pica behaviors with broader eating difficulties and child body mass index. Discussion: This study enhances understanding of childhood pica behaviors, addressing a significant gap in knowledge. Pica occurrence in the general population is poorly understood due to few epidemiological studies. Findings from the present study indicate pica is an uncommon behavior in childhood; however, children with DD or autism may benefit from pica screening and diagnosis between ages 36 and 115 months. Children who exhibit undereating, overeating, and food fussiness may also engage in pica behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background: Given the body image and disordered eating struggles prevalent in young adults, weight-inclusive anti-diet programs are needed on college campuses. Such programs replace weight loss advice with changes that center physical and mental well-being. Methods/Program Design: University health and wellness programs such as University Coaching for Activity and Nutrition (UCAN) is a novel weight-inclusive health and wellness coaching program designed to support university students and faculty/staff in their development and maintenance of self-care behaviors related to physical activity, nutrition, sleep, and stress management. Specifically, we describe the program’s mechanisms for participant recruitment, health coach training, session protocol, program evaluation, and supervision so other campuses can replicate the program model at their respective universities. Discussion: This work can help campuses cultivate positive self-care habits that improve physical and mental health through the lens of a weight-inclusive paradigm while also creating research and service-learning experiences for pre-health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The 26-item Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) is a commonly used tool to assess eating disorder risk. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the EAT-26 with a combined sample: (1) of adults with overweight and obesity enrolled in a behavioral weight loss program and (2) general adult sample (n = 469; age = 36.17 ± 17.83 years; female = 72.5%; white = 66.3%; obese BMI category = 58%). Methods: Rasch modeling was used to assess model-data fit, create an item-person map to evaluate relative distribution items and persons, item difficulty, and person's eating disorder (ED) risk level of the EAT-26. Differential item functioning (DIF) and rating scale functioning of the EAT-26 were also evaluated using Rasch analysis. Results: A total of 7 misfit items were removed from the final analysis due to unacceptable Infit and Outfit mean square residual values. The item-person map showed that the items were biased toward participants with moderate to high levels of ED risk and did not cover those who had low risk for having an ED (< − 1 logits). The DIF analyses results showed that none of the items functioned differently across sex, but 5 items were flagged based on obesity status. The six-category Likert-type rating scale did not function well indicating a different response format may be needed. Conclusion: Several concerns were identified with the psychometric evaluation of the EAT-26 that may question its utility in assessing ED risk in individuals at low risk for ED, within samples of people who have overweight and obesity seeking weight loss treatment. Plain English Summary: The 26-item Eating Attitudes Test is a self-rated measure of eating attitudes that measures symptoms and concerns of eating disorders (ED). Very little is known about how this instrument performs differently based on individual factors like body mass index (BMI) and sex (male/female). We used an advanced measurement theory (i.e., Rasch analysis) to determine if the EAT-26 is an adequate measure to detect disordered eating in men and women of different BMIs. Results indicated that the EAT-26 was biased toward participants with moderate to high levels of disordered eating risk and did not adequately detect individuals at low risk for disordered eating. The EAT-26 did not function differently based on sex (male/female). However, five questions did function differently based on obesity status (those without obesity/ those with obesity). Finally, we observed the six-category rating scale did not function appropriately and that a new response format may be warranted. In sum, there were several issues (e.g., poor rating scale and different item functioning) with the EAT-26 and future work should develop screening tools that detect low risk of disordered eating as well as function well in adults with overweight and obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The radiative and electrical properties of an inhomogeneous material made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC, insulating polymer) in granular form on which a polypyrrole (PPy, conducting polymer) coating has been deposited by polymerization of pyrrole are described in this paper. The properties of the obtained encapsulated powders (PVC–PPy) are directly related to the nature of the substrate (composition, granulometry and surface state) and to the preparation conditions (concentration of reactants, temperature and duration of the polymerization). In the following, we report the spectral study of powders PVC, PVC–PPy and of their mixtures in the UV, visible, near (NIR)- and mid-infrared (MIR) wavelength ranges. In other respects, the study of the electrical conduction of the materials allows us, on one hand, to demonstrate the influence of the conditions of polymerization on the electrical behavior, and on the other hand, to show off the electrical threshold of the insulator–conductor mixtures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Assess the impact of a weight-inclusive podcast (WIP) intervention on body appreciation, intuitive eating (IE), anti-fat attitudes, and weight and health attitudes in university students enrolled in an upper-division nutrition course. Quasi-experimental design: Intervention participants listened to 8 weekly WIP episodes (n = 16); the comparison group listened to 8 weekly general nutrition podcasts (n = 29). Intuitive eating, body appreciation, anti-fat attitudes, and general weight and health attitudes were measured preintervention and postintervention. Two-way, repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant interaction effects of time × group, with participants in the WIP group experiencing significantly greater improvements in body appreciation (P = 0.03) and IE (P = 0.02) and greater reductions in anti-fat attitude scores (P = 0.006) than the comparison group. Podcasts may be a cost-effective tool to improve body appreciation and IE and reduce anti-fat attitudes in future nutrition professionals. Future research would benefit from recruiting prehealth professionals across different majors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to describe how women academic department chairs in emergency medicine, surgery, and anesthesiology experience humor in the workplace. Method: Interviews were conducted with 35 women department chairs in academic medicine from 27 institutions that aimed to describe women's leadership emergence. The data from the primary study yielded rich and revealing themes involving participants' experiences with humor in the context of their leadership roles, justifying a secondary analysis focusing specifically on these experiences. Relevant remarks were extracted, coded, and summarized. Results: Participants discussed two broad types of humor-related experiences. First, they described how they responded to aggressive gender-based humor directed at themselves or their colleagues by tolerating it or expressing disapproval. This humor includes demeaning quips, insulting monikers, sexist jokes, and derogatory stories. Participants often did not confront this humor directly as they feared being rejected or ostracized by colleagues. Second, they described how they initiated humor to address gender-related workplace issues by highlighting gender inequalities, coping with sexual harassment and assault, and managing gender-based leadership challenges. Participants felt constrained in their own use of humor because of the need to be taken seriously as women leaders. Conclusion: Women leaders in academic medicine use humor to confront gender-related issues and experience aggressive gender-based humor in the workplace. The constraints placed on women leaders discourage them from effectively confronting this aggressive gender-based humor and perpetuating gender inequities. Eliminating aggressive gender-based humor is needed to create safe and equitable work environments in academic medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flotation is an important process used in the concentration of iron ores. One of the challenges for process engineers is the low metallurgical recovery associated mainly with the fines fraction. In this work, the use of synthetic flocculants in iron ore reverse cationic flotation was investigated. The flocculants utilised were polyacrylamides of high molecular weight and different ionic degrees. Bench scale flotation tests were performed to compare the flotation performance with and without addition of polyacrylamides. It was observed that cationic and non-ionic polyacrylamides cause a significant increase in the metallurgical recovery. The anionic flocculant did not improve the flotation performance. An adverse effect was a slight increase in the silica content of the concentrate. Flotation with polyacrylamides was influenced by the hydrodynamic conditions of the pulp, such as agitation and the weight percentage of solids in the flocculant conditioning and flotation stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Side chain-to-side chain cyclizationsrepresent a strategy to selecta family of bioactive conformations by reducing the entropy and enhancingthe stabilization of functional ligand-induced receptor conformations.This structural manipulation contributes to increased target specificity,enhanced biological potency, improved pharmacokinetic properties,increased functional potency, and lowered metabolic susceptibility.The CuI-catalyzed azide–alkyne 1,3-dipolar Huisgen’scycloaddition, the prototypic click reaction, presents a promisingopportunity to develop a new paradigm for an orthogonal bioorganicand intramolecular side chain-to-side chain cyclization. In fact,the proteolytic stable 1,4- or 4,1-disubstituted [1,2,3]triazolylmoiety is isosteric with the peptide bond and can function as a surrogateof the classical side chain-to-side chain lactam forming bridge. Hereinwe report the design, synthesis, conformational analysis, and functionalbiological activity of a series of i-to-i+5 1,4- and 4,1-disubstituted[1,2,3]triazole-bridged cyclopeptides derived from MT-II, the homodeticAsp5to Lys10side chain-to-side chain bridgedheptapeptide, an extensively studied agonist of melanocortin receptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present work aimed to compare the use of kaolinite, activated carbon and beta zeolite in the removal of etheramine from water. It evaluated the influence of physical–chemical parameters on etheramine adsorption in the three adsorbent materials. The initial concentration of etheramine was 200mgL−1 and the water/adsorbent ratio was 1:100; the adsorption was favorable at pH10.0. The adsorption equilibrium was reached in 30min and the removal efficiencies of etheramine for kaolinite, activated carbon and beta zeolite were 80%, 96% and 98%, respectively. The adsorption isotherms were determined under optimized conditions and in the concentration range of 0 to 4000mgL−1. The etheramine adsorbed per unit mass of adsorbent was 33.5mgg−1, 65.5mgg−1 and 80.8mgg−1 for kaolinite, activated carbon and beta zeolite, respectively. However, comparing the amount adsorbed for monolayer formation and the available specific surface area of the adsorbent, kaolinite is the most efficient adsorbent. The etheramine adsorption isotherms are better fitted to the Langmuir model. The adsorption kinetics of etheramine on kaolinite could be explained by a pseudo second-order model, while on activated carbon and beta zeolite by a pseudo-first-order model. The results suggest that the influence of the interaction of adsorbate/adsorbent is more important for the adsorption of etheramine on kaolinite, which has a smaller specific surface area and larger pore size, than it is for the activated carbon and beta zeolite which present a larger specific surface area and smaller pore size. The adsorbents may be regenerated by washing: kaolinite showed 1.1% of loss of efficiency after the third re-use, while the activated carbon showed 1.5% after the first re-use. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The effects of chemical and thermal treatments on the structure of kaolinite were examined, as well as the influence of those changes upon the removal of etheramine, a cationic collector used in the processing of iron ore. The materials were characterized using XRD, XRF, specific surface area (S BET), FTIR, zeta potential and a test for determination of acid sites. The effects of the treatments on the structure of kaolinite were evaluated using chemometric tools developed from principal components analysis algorithms and hierarchical components analysis. The parameters evaluated in the kinetic study of adsorption were contact time, initial concentration of etheramine, quantity of adsorbent and pH. The adsorption of etheramine in the samples subjected to chemical treatments could be explained by a pseudo-second order model, whilst for the sample subjected to thermal treatment, better fit was with the pseudo-first order model. With regard to adsorption isotherms, it was shown that for the three adsorbents used, adsorption followed the Langmuir model. The maximum quantities adsorbed were 27 mg g−1, 29 mg g−1 and 59 mg g−1, respectively, for the samples subjected to acid, thermal and peroxide treatments. The treatment with peroxide was found to be the most suitable for removal of etheramine. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The results of laboratory experiments aimed at determining the influence of physicochemical parameters on the adsorption of etheramine (adsorbate) on white, pink and yellow kaolinites (adsorbent) are presented. The adsorption of etheramine was favoured at pH 10.0 under conditions where the initial concentration of etheramine was 200mgl−1 and the ratio of adsorbent to volume of etheramine solution was 1:100gml−1. Equilibrium adsorption was attained within 30min and the efficiencies of removal of etheramine by white, pink and yellow kaolinite were 77%, 80% and 69%, respectively. The adsorption isotherms of the kaolinites were determined under optimum conditions and with adsorbate in the concentration range of 0–4000mgl−1. The amounts of etheramine adsorbed per unit mass of adsorbent were 33.03, 34.32 and 23.11mgg−1 for white, pink and yellow kaolinites, respectively. The adsorption of etheramine on kaolinites was better fitted to the Langmuir rather than the Freundlich isotherm, and could be explained by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. It is concluded that kaolinites offer significant potential in the treatment of effluents originating from the processing of lower grade iron ores by froth flotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inter- and intramolecular interactions of the carbonyl moieties at the polar interface of a phospholipid membrane are probed by using nonlinear femtosecond infrared spectroscopy. Two-dimensional IR correlation spectra separate homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadenings and show a distinct cross-peak pattern controlled by electrostatic interactions. The inter- and intramolecular electrostatic interactions determine the inhomogeneous character of the optical response. Using molecular dynamics simulation and the nonlinear exciton equations approach, we extract from the spectra short-range structural correlations between carbonyls at the interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: CSF114(Glc) is the first synthetic Multiple Sclerosis Antigenic Probe able to identify autoantibodies in a statistically significant number of Multiple Sclerosis patients. The β-turn conformation of this glucopeptide is fundamental for a correct presentation of the epitope Asn(Glc). To verify the influence of sugar mimics in antibody recognition in Multiple Sclerosis, we synthesized Fmoc-protected Asn derivatives containing alkaloid-type sugar mimics. The corresponding glycomimetics-containing peptide derivatives of the CSF114-type sequence were tested in competitive and solid-phase non-competitive ELISA on Multiple Sclerosis patients’ sera. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Optimization of coupling reactions of glycosylamines with Fmoc-protected aspartic acid, by microwave approach, is described. Different reaction conditions, quantities of substrates and solvents were tested to develop simple and reproducible methodologies. The best results were obtained using new triazine-based coupling reagents with a monomode microwave Discover® BenchMate™ instrument (CEM). The N-glycosyl amino acids were then deprotected to achieve final products for SPPS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The new fluorescent lipophilic moiety 11-[(7-amino-4-methyl-2-oxo-2H-1-benzopyran-3-acetyl)amino]undecanoic acid (AMCA-ωAud-OH) was introduced by SPPS at the N-terminus of the immunodominant epitope GpMBP(74–85). FRET experiments using the new fluorescent lipopeptide demonstrate that the peptide interacts with much more affinity with the membrane compared to the lipid free analogue. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Stoichiometry, stability constants and solution structures of the copper(II) complexes of the N-acetylated tetrapeptide HisGlyHisGly were determined in aqueous solution in the pH range 2–11. The potentiometric and spectroscopic data (UV–Vis, CD, EPR and Raman scattering) show that acetylation of the amino terminal group induces drastic changes in the coordination properties of AcHGHG compared to HGHG. The N3 atoms of the histidine side chains are the first anchoring sites of the copper(II) ion. At pH 4.7 and 5.6 both the imidazole rings cooperate in the formation of a 2N equatorial set, while, at higher pH values, 3N and 4N complexes are formed through the coordination of peptide N− atoms. The log β values of the copper complexes of AcHGHG are by far lower than those of the corresponding species in the parent CuII–HGHG system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We performed the first synthesis of new Asn derivatives bearing α- or β-ribose as pure anomers, linked by an N-glycosidic bond, on the side chain of the Asn residue orthogonally protected for Fmoc/ t Bu SPPS, by an efficient five-step strategy with a global yield of 73% starting from d-ribose. These building blocks are obtained in a large scale and can be useful tools for glycopeptide and glycoproteins synthesis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cyclen derivatives, as coordinating ligands, have recovered considerable interest for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic drugs, mimicking the binding site of metalloproteins. We demonstrate that the on-resin reduction of head-to-tail cyclotetrapeptides, anchored to a solid support by the side-chain of a trifunctional amino acid, is an efficient synthetic strategy. The proposed approach leads to the cyclen scaffold still bound to the resin, ready for further decorations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]