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Eating behaviors, which are shaped during childhood, are one of the important factors influencing children's growth. This study aimed to investigate the variations in eating behaviors among Vietnamese preschool children aged 3 to 6 years using the Children Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) and their association with anthropometric Z -scores. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 10 172 children from 36 to 72 months old, recruited from three different socioeconomic regions of Hanoi. Differentiation of eating behaviors between two sexes was observed across all age groups, but most obvious at 36 to 48 months of age. The subscales of emotional overeating (EOE), enjoyment of food (EF), and desire to drink (DD) were higher in 60- to 72-month age groups and vice versa for slowness in eating (SE) and emotional undereating (EUE) subscales. Analyses using the general linear model showed that CEBQ subscales were associated with anthropometric Z -scores in both girls and boys., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Sausage is a convenient food that is widely consumed in the world and in Vietnam. Due to the rapid development of this product, the authenticity of many famous brands has faded by the rise of adulteration. Therefore, in this study, principal component analysis (PCA) was combined with chemical analysis to identify 6 sausage brands. Sausage samples were dried and then ground to a fine powder for both instrumental analyses of attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Dried measurements of ATR-FTIR was performed directly on the ZnSe crystal, while elemental data were obtained through microwave digestion before the ICP-MS analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) within the framework software of XLSTAT and STATISTICA 12 was performed on the spectroscopy and elemental dataset of sausage samples. PCA visualized the distinction of 6 sausage brands on both datasets of ATR-FTIR and ICP-MS. The classification on the spectroscopy profile showed that although more than 90% variation of the dataset was explained on the first two PCs, the difference between several brands was not detected as the distribution of data overlapped with one another. The PCA observation of the elemental composition on PC1 and PC3 has separated the sausage brands into 6 distinctive groups. Besides, several key elements contributed to the brands' identification have been detected, and the most distinctive elements are Na, K, Ca, and Ba. PCA visualization showed the feasibility of the classification of sausage samples from different brands when combined with the results of FT-IR and ICP-MS methods. The experiment was able to differentiate the sausages from the 5 brands using multivariate statistics., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest or personal relationships, which have or could be perceived to have influenced the work reported in this article., (Copyright © 2024 Quang Minh Bui et al.)

Fingerprinting techniques, which utilize the unique chemical and physical properties of food samples, have emerged as a promising approach for food authentication and traceability. Recent studies have demonstrated significant advancements in food authentication through the use of fingerprinting methods, such as multivariate statistical analysis techniques applied to trace elements and isotope ratios. However, further research is required to optimize these methods and ensure their validity and reliability in real-world applications. In this study, the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analytical method was employed to determine the content of 21 elements in 300 cashew nut ( Anacardium occidentale L.) samples from 5 brands. Multivariate statistical methods, such as principal components analysis (PCA), were employed to analyze the data obtained and establish the provenance of the cashew nuts. While cashew nuts are widely marketed in many countries, no universal method has been utilized to differentiate the origin of these nuts. Our study represents the initial step in identifying the geographical origin of commercial cashew nuts marketed in Vietnam. The analysis showed significant differences in the means of 21 of the 40 analyzed elements among the cashew nut samples from the 5 brands, including 7 Li, 11 B, 24 Mg, 27 Al, 44 Ca, 48 Ti, 51 V, 52 Cr, 55 Mn, 57 Fe, 60 Ni, 63 Cu, 66 Zn, 93 Nb, 98 Mo, 111 Cd, 115 In, 121 Sb, 138 Ba, 208 Pb, and 209 Bi. The PCA analysis indicated that the cashew nut samples can be accurately classified according to their original locations. This research serves as a prerequisite for future studies involving the combination of elemental composition analysis with statistical classification methods for the accurate establishment of cashew nut provenance, which involves the identification of key markers for the original discrimination of cashew nuts., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this article., (Copyright © 2023 Trung Nguyen-Quang et al.)

This paper presents a systematic literature review focused on the use of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) combined with PCA, a multivariate technique, for determining the geographical origin of plant foods. Recent studies selected and applied the ICP-MS analytical method and PCA in plant food geographical traceability. The collected results from many previous studies indicate that ICP-MS with PCA is a useful tool and is widely used for authenticating and certifying the geographic origin of plant food. The review encourages scientists and managers to discuss the possibility of introducing an international standard for plant food traceability using ICP-MS combined with PCA. The use of a standard method will reduce the time and cost of analysis and improve the efficiency of trade and circulation of goods. Furthermore, the main steps needed to establish the standard for this traceability method are reported, including the development of guidelines and quality control measures, which play a pivotal role in providing authentic product information through each stage of production, processing, and distribution for consumers and authority agencies. This might be the basis for establishing the standards for examination and controlling the quality of foods in the markets, ensuring safety for consumers.

The research goal was to estimate the level of risk to human health posed by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Vietnamese takeaway coffee. A variety of roasted coffee beans were collected and tested for the presence of PAHs in various takeaway locations throughout Vietnam. Furthermore, the effect of roasting conditions on PAH concentrations in Vietnamese Robusta coffee was also studied and demonstrated. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, a modern, accurate, and fast method, was used to determine the research results. Six PAHs, namely naphthalene, anthracene, pyrene, fluorene, phenanthrene, and benz[a]anthracene, were found in the 100 collected samples, with average concentrations (μg/kg dry weight) of 943.7 ± 40.3, 195.1 ± 4.9, 36.1 ± 1.1, 33.3 ± 2.2, 28.2 ± 1.7, and 2.0 ± 0.1, respectively. It was found that the tested samples were almost free of PAH4 contamination. The research showed that the total value of PAH quantifications in Robusta coffee increased with increasing roasting temperature and decreased with increasing roasting time. In addition, the calculated value of the total hazard quotient (THQ) was less than 1, and the obtained value of the incremental lifetime carcinogenic risk (ILCR) did not exceed 1·10 -5 , meaning that coffee consumers in Vietnam are safe from exposure to PAHs present in the investigated coffee beans.

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analytical method was used to determine the content of 40 elements in 38 soybean samples ( Glycine Max ) from 4 countries. Multivariate statistical methods, such as principal components analysis (PCA), were performed to analyze the obtained data to establish the provenance of the soybeans. Although soybean is widely marketed in many countries, no universal method is used to discriminate the origin of these cereals. Our study introduced the initial step to the identification of the geographical origin of commercial soybean marketed in Vietnam. The analysis pointed out that there are significant differences in the mean of 33 of the 40 analyzed elements among 4 countries' soybean samples, namely, 11 B, 27 Al, 44 Ca, 45 Sc, 47 Ti, 55 Mn, 56 Fe, 59 Co, 60 Ni, 63 Cu, 66 Zn, 69 Ga, 75 As, 78 Se, 85 Rb, 88 Sr, 89 Y, 90 Zr, 93 Nb, 95 Mo, 103 Rh, 137 Ba, 163 Dy, 165 Ho, 175 Lu, 178 Hf, 181 Ta, 182 W, 185 Re, 197 Au, 202 Hg, 205 Tl, and 208 Pb. The PCA analysis showed that the soybean samples can be classified correctly according to their original locations. This research can be used as a prerequisite for future studies of using the combination of elemental composition analysis with statistical classification methods for an accurate provenance establishment of soybean, which determined a variation of key markers for the original discrimination of soybean., Competing Interests: All authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Trung Nguyen-Quang et al.)

Amino acid substitution models play a crucial role in phylogenetic analyses. Maximum likelihood (ML) methods have been proposed to estimate amino acid substitution models; however, they are typically complicated and slow. In this article, we propose QMaker, a new ML method to estimate a general time-reversible $Q$ matrix from a large protein data set consisting of multiple sequence alignments. QMaker combines an efficient ML tree search algorithm, a model selection for handling the model heterogeneity among alignments, and the consideration of rate mixture models among sites. We provide QMaker as a user-friendly function in the IQ-TREE software package (http://www.iqtree.org) supporting the use of multiple CPU cores so that biologists can easily estimate amino acid substitution models from their own protein alignments. We used QMaker to estimate new empirical general amino acid substitution models from the current Pfam database as well as five clade-specific models for mammals, birds, insects, yeasts, and plants. Our results show that the new models considerably improve the fit between model and data and in some cases influence the inference of phylogenetic tree topologies.[Amino acid replacement matrices; amino acid substitution models; maximum likelihood estimation; phylogenetic inferences.]., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists.)

Objective: To examine the interrelationships between fragile X mental retardation 1 ( FMR1 ) mRNA and the FMR1 exon 1/intron 1 boundary methylation, white matter microstructure, and executive function, in women with a FMR1 premutation expansion (PM; 55-199 CGG repeats) and controls (CGG < 44)., Methods: Twenty women with PM without fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) and 20 control women between 22 and 54 years of age completed this study. FMR1 mRNA and methylation levels for 9 CpG sites within the FMR1 exon 1/intron 1 boundary from peripheral blood samples were analyzed. To measure white matter microstructure, diffusion-weighted imaging was used, from which fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) values from anatomic regions within the corpus callosum and cerebellar peduncles were extracted. Executive function was assessed across a range of tasks., Results: No differences were revealed in white matter microstructure between women with PM and controls. However, we reveal that for women with PM (but not controls), higher FMR1 mRNA correlated with lower MD values within the middle cerebellar peduncle and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test scores, higher methylation of the FMR1 exon 1/intron 1 boundary correlated with lower MD within the inferior and middle cerebellar peduncles and longer prosaccade latencies, and higher FA values within the corpus callosum and cerebellar peduncle regions corresponded to superior executive function., Conclusions: We provide evidence linking white matter microstructure to executive dysfunction and elevated FMR1 mRNA and FMR1 exon 1/intron 1 boundary methylation in women with PM without FXTAS. This suggests that the FXTAS phenotype may not be distinct but may form part of a spectrum of PM involvement., (© 2017 American Academy of Neurology.)

Objective: To examine the epigenetic basis of psychiatric symptoms and dysexecutive impairments in FMR1 premutation (PM: 55 to 199 CGG repeats) women., Methods: A total of 35 FMR1 PM women aged between 22 and 55 years and 35 age- and IQ-matched women controls (CGG <45) participated in this study. All participants completed a range of executive function tests and self-reported symptoms of psychiatric disorders. The molecular measures included DNA methylation of the FMR1 CpG island in blood, presented as FMR1 activation ratio (AR), and 9 CpG sites located at the FMR1 exon1/intron 1 boundary, CGG size, and FMR1 mRNA levels., Results: We show that FMR1 intron 1 methylation levels could be used to dichotomize PM women into greater and lower risk categories (p = 0.006 to 0.037; odds ratio = 14-24.8), with only FMR1 intron 1 methylation, and to a lesser extent AR, being significantly correlated with the likelihood of probable dysexecutive or psychiatric symptoms (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the significant relationships between methylation and social anxiety were found to be mediated by executive function performance, but only in PM women. FMR1 exon 1 methylation, CGG size, and FMR1 mRNA could not predict probable dysexecutive/psychiatric disorders in PM women., Conclusions: This is the first study supporting presence of specific epigenetic etiology associated with increased risk of developing comorbid dysexecutive and social anxiety symptoms in PM women. These findings could have implications for early intervention and risk estimate recommendations aimed at improving the outcomes for PM women and their families., (© 2015 American Academy of Neurology.)

Fragility fractures commonly involve metaphyses. The distal radius is assembled with a thin cortex formed by fusion (corticalization) of trabeculae arising from the periphery of the growth plate. Centrally positioned trabeculae reinforce the thin cortex and transfer loads from the joint to the proximal thicker cortical bone. We hypothesized that growth- and age-related deficits in trabecular bone disrupt this frugally assembled microarchitecture, producing bone fragility. The microarchitecture of the distal radius was measured using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography in 135 females with distal radial fractures, including 32 girls (aged 7 to 18 years), 35 premenopausal women (aged 18 to 44 years), and 68 postmenopausal women (aged 50 to 76 years). We also studied 240 fracture-free controls of comparable age and 47 healthy fracture-free premenopausal mother-daughter pairs (aged 30 to 55 and 7 to 20 years, respectively). In fracture-free girls and pre- and postmenopausal women, fewer or thinner trabeculae were associated with a smaller and more porous cortical area (r = 0.25 to 0.71 after age, height, and weight adjustment, all p < 0.05). Fewer and thinner trabeculae in daughters were associated with higher cortical porosity in their mothers (r = 0.30 to 0.47, all p < 0.05). Girls and premenopausal and postmenopausal women with forearm fractures had 0.3 to 0.7 standard deviations (SD) fewer or thinner trabeculae and higher cortical porosity than controls in one or more compartment; one SD trait difference conferred odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for fracture ranging from 1.56 (1.01-2.44) to 4.76 (2.86-7.69). Impaired trabecular corticalization during growth, and cortical and trabecular fragmentation during aging, may contribute to the fragility of the distal radius., (© 2014 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.)

Early-onset breast cancer (EOBC) causes substantial loss of life and productivity, creating a major burden among women worldwide. We analyzed 1,265,548 Hapmap3 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) among a discovery set of 3,523 EOBC incident cases and 2,702 population control women ages ≤ 51 years. The SNPs with smallest P values were examined in a replication set of 3,470 EOBC cases and 5,475 control women. We also tested EOBC association with 19,684 genes by annotating each gene with putative functional SNPs, and then combining their P values to obtain a gene-based P value. We examined the gene with smallest P value for replication in 1,145 breast cancer cases and 1,142 control women. The combined discovery and replication sets identified 72 new SNPs associated with EOBC (P < 4 × 10(-8)) located in six genomic regions previously reported to contain SNPs associated largely with later-onset breast cancer (LOBC). SNP rs2229882 and 10 other SNPs on chromosome 5q11.2 remained associated (P < 6 × 10(-4)) after adjustment for the strongest published SNPs in the region. Thirty-two of the 82 currently known LOBC SNPs were associated with EOBC (P < 0.05). Low power is likely responsible for the remaining 50 unassociated known LOBC SNPs. The gene-based analysis identified an association between breast cancer and the phosphofructokinase-muscle (PFKM) gene on chromosome 12q13.11 that met the genome-wide gene-based threshold of 2.5 × 10(-6). In conclusion, EOBC and LOBC seem to have similar genetic etiologies; the 5q11.2 region may contain multiple distinct breast cancer loci; and the PFKM gene region is worthy of further investigation. These findings should enhance our understanding of the etiology of breast cancer.

Taller women are at increased risk for fracture despite having wider bones that better tolerate bending. Because wider bones require less material to achieve a given bending strength, we hypothesized that taller women assemble bones with relatively thinner and more porous cortices because excavation of a larger medullary canal may be accompanied by excavation of more intracortical canals. Three-dimensional images of distal tibia, fibula, and radius were obtained in vivo using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HRpQCT) in a twin study of 345 females aged 40 to 61 years, 93 with at least one fracture. Cortical porosity <100 µm as well as >100 µm, and microarchitecture, were quantified using Strax1.0, a new algorithm. Multivariable linear and logistic regression using generalized estimating equation (GEE) methods quantified associations between height and microarchitecture and estimated the associations with fracture risk. Each standard deviation (SD) greater height was associated with a 0.69 SD larger tibia total cross-sectional area (CSA), 0.66 SD larger medullary CSA, 0.50 SD higher medullary CSA/total CSA (i.e., thinner cortices relative to the total CSA due to a proportionally larger medullary area), and 0.42 SD higher porosity (all p < 0.001). Cortical area was 0.45 SD larger in absolute terms but 0.50 SD smaller in relative terms. These observations were confirmed by examining trait correlations in twin pairs. Fracture risk was associated with height, total CSA, medullary CSA/total CSA, and porosity in univariate analyses. In multivariable analyses, distal tibia, medullary CSA/total CSA, and porosity predicted fracture independently; height was no longer significant. Each 1 SD greater porosity was associated with fracture; odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) are as follows: distal tibia, OR = 1.55 (95% CI, 1.11-2.15); distal fibula, OR = 1.47 (95% CI, 1.14-1.88); and distal radius, OR = 1.22 (95% CI, 0.96-1.55). Taller women assemble wider bones with relatively thinner and more porous cortices predisposing to fracture., (Copyright © 2013 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.)

The effects of a monosomy of either the maternally or paternally derived X chromosome in Turner's syndrome (TS) on general neurocognitive status and some executive abilities were assessed using the maximum likelihood estimators for pedigree data. This method increases the power of analysis by accounting for the effect of background heritable variation on a trait. The sample comprised 42 females with regular non-mosaic X monosomy and their non-affected relatives. Wechsler neurocognitive scores and several executive function tests' scores, including the Behaviour Dyscontrol Scale (BDS-2), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT), were considered in the analysis. Results showed a significant effect of TS on all Wechsler index and subtest scores, with greatest deficits observed in Arithmetic, Block Design, Object Assembly and Picture Arrangement, and on the total BDS, RCFT and WCST scores, regardless of parental origin of the single X-chromosome. Our data also showed a significantly higher effect of a paternally derived X chromosome in diminishing the performance on several Wechsler scores relevant to verbal skills, which might suggest X-linked imprinting loci relevant to these skills. Possible reasons for the inconsistency of the results concerning X-linked imprinting of cognitive loci using TS patients are discussed, and the relevance of pedigree analysis to future studies of this problem is emphasized.