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Introduction: National estimates of tobacco use are reported by racial category after excluding all individuals who identify as Hispanic (e.g., non-Hispanic [NH], Black; NH-White). In this study, we assess the impact of excluding Hispanics from racial categories on national estimates of youth tobacco use in the US., Methods: We pooled four years of Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance Survey (YRBSS) data (2015-2021). Participants were n=60,327 high school students (9-12th grade). We report prevalence of past 30-day (current) use of cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco and electronic cigarettes, stratified by racial category: (1) American Indian/Alaskan Native [AI/AN]; (2) Asian; (3) Black; (4) Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander [NHOPI]; (5) White; (6) multiracial; and (7) unspecific. Within racial category, we compared prevalence for each product between non-Hispanic and Hispanic youth; comparisons controlled for sex, grade, and year., Results: Descriptively, the majority of AI/ANs (75.6%) and Pacific Islanders (58.9%) identified as Hispanics, as did a minority of multiracial (20.6%), White (14.6%), Black (8.2%), and Asian (7.9%) youth. Prevalence estimates were significantly greater for all four tobacco products among Hispanic-Asian and Hispanic-Black youth, relative to their NH counterparts. Conversely, tobacco use was lower among Hispanic-White youth relative to non-Hispanic Whites., Conclusions: Systematically removing Hispanics from classification within each racial category results in underestimation of tobacco use among Asian and Black youth, overestimation of tobacco use among White youth, and unstable estimates among AI/AN and NHOPI youth. These findings challenge the utility of the "race/ethnicity" variable in study of youth in the US., Implications: Findings highlight the need to reconsider the operationalization of "race/ethnicity" which currently exclude Hispanics from each racial category. Hispanic ethnicity appears to function as a "within-group" difference; study of these within-group differences may provide unique insights into tobacco use disparities., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objective : The purpose of this study is to examine differences between current and non-current cigarette users, focusing on sociodemographic factors, non-cigarette tobacco product use, parental and friend use, and alcohol and marijuana use; and to identify predictors of cigarette use sixmonths later. Participants : Participants included young adults (n = 4,296) from 24 Texas colleges, participating in a young adult cohort study, beginning in fall 2014. Methods : Mixed effects logistic regressions were conducted accounting for school-level variability. Results : Cigarette users were older, more likely to report use of non-cigarette tobacco products and peer use of cigarettes than non-current users. Wave 1 cigarette and non-cigarette tobacco product use, marijuana use and binge drinking, and peer use all uniquely predicted cigarette use at wave 2. Conclusions : Colleges need prevention programs targeting multiple tobacco products, because non-cigarette tobacco use and other risky behaviors appear to be independent risk factors for cigarette use in young adults.

Industrial biotechnology provides an efficient, sustainable solution for chemical production. However, designing biochemical pathways based solely on known reactions does not exploit its full potential. Enzymes are known to accept non-native substrates, which may allow novel, advantageous reactions. We have previously developed a computational program named Biological Network Integrated Computational Explorer (BNICE) to predict promiscuous enzyme activities and design synthetic pathways, using generalized reaction rules curated from biochemical reaction databases. Here, we use BNICE to design pathways synthesizing propionic acid from pyruvate. The currently known natural pathways produce undesirable by-products lactic acid and succinic acid, reducing their economic viability. BNICE predicted seven pathways containing four reaction steps or less, five of which avoid these by-products. Among the 16 biochemical reactions comprising these pathways, 44% were validated by literature references. More than 28% of these known reactions were not in the BNICE training dataset, showing that BNICE was able to predict novel enzyme substrates. Most of the pathways included the intermediate acrylic acid. As acrylic acid bioproduction has been well advanced, we focused on the critical step of reducing acrylic acid to propionic acid. We experimentally validated that Oye2p from Saccharomyces cerevisiae can catalyze this reaction at a slow turnover rate (10(-3) s(-1) ), which was unknown to occur with this enzyme, and is an important finding for further propionic acid metabolic engineering. These results validate BNICE as a pathway-searching tool that can predict previously unknown promiscuous enzyme activities and show that computational methods can elucidate novel biochemical pathways for industrial applications. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:303-311, 2016., (© 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.)

Six members of a multigene family encoding polypeptide constituents of the fucoxanthin, chlorophyll a/c protein complex from female gametophytes of the brown alga Macrocystis pyrifera have been cloned and characterized. The deduced amino acid sequences are very similar to those of fucoxanthin chlorophyll binding proteins (Fcp) from the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum and exhibit limited homology to chlorophyll a/b binding (Cab) polypeptides from higher plants. The primary translation products from the M. pyrifera fcp genes are synthesized as higher molecular weight precursors that are processed prior to their assembly into the Fcp complex. The presumed N-terminal 40-amino acid presequence of the Fcp precursor polypeptide has features resembling that of a signal sequence. This presequence may be required for the protein to transverse the endoplasmic reticulum that surrounds the plastid in brown algae. A subsequent targeting step would be required for the protein to cross the double membrane of the plastid envelope. M. pyrifera fcp transcripts are of two sizes, 1.2 and 1.6 kb. The size difference is accounted for by the length of the 3' untranslated region, which can be up to 1000 bases. Transcript abundance's of members of the fcp gene family are dependent on light quantity, light quality, or both. Transcript levels of one gene increased approximately five- to tenfold in thalli grown in low intensity relative to high intensity white or blue light. Transcripts from this gene also significantly increase in red light relative to blue light at equivalent light intensities.