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International audience; Sargassum (class: Phaeophyceae, order: Fucales) is a complex group of marine brown macroalgae. There are 361 accepted species, mostly benthic, distributed globally in temperate and tropical waters (Guiry & Guiry, 2021). Among these, however, the world's only holopelagic macroalgae are as follows: Sargassum fluitans and S. natans. These drifters are suspected to reproduce asexually, maintain buoyancy via gas-filled floats, and establish a surface ocean habitat in the subtropical North Atlantic, equatorial Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico that is unparalleled in the open ocean. Individual, radial branching clumps are dispersed across the sea surface, aggregated by helical Langmuir circulation into parallel windrows, or concentrated into dense mats measuring 10s of meters across

Background To address the obesity epidemic, there is a need for novel paradigms, including those that address the timing of eating and sleep in relation to circadian rhythms. Electronic health records (EHRs) are an efficient way to identify potentially eligible participants for health research studies. Mobile health (mHealth) apps offer available and convenient data collection of health behaviors, such as timing of eating and sleep. Objective The aim of this descriptive analysis was to report on recruitment, retention, and app use from a 6-month cohort study using a mobile app called Daily24. Methods Using an EHR query, adult patients from three health care systems in the PaTH clinical research network were identified as potentially eligible, invited electronically to participate, and instructed to download and use the Daily24 mobile app, which focuses on eating and sleep timing. Online surveys were completed at baseline and 4 months. We described app use and identified predictors of app use, defined as 1 or more days of use, versus nonuse and usage categories (ie, immediate, consistent, and sustained) using multivariate regression analyses. Results Of 70,661 patients who were sent research invitations, 1021 (1.44%) completed electronic consent forms and online baseline surveys; 4 withdrew, leaving a total of 1017 participants in the analytic sample. A total of 53.79% (n=547) of the participants were app users and, of those, 75.3% (n=412), 50.1% (n=274), and 25.4% (n=139) were immediate, consistent, and sustained users, respectively. Median app use was 28 (IQR 7-75) days over 6 months. Younger age, White race, higher educational level, higher income, having no children younger than 18 years, and having used 1 to 5 health apps significantly predicted app use (vs nonuse) in adjusted models. Older age and lower BMI predicted early, consistent, and sustained use. About half (532/1017, 52.31%) of the participants completed the 4-month online surveys. A total of 33.5% (183/547), 29.3% (157/536), and 27.1% (143/527) of app users were still using the app for at least 2 days per month during months 4, 5, and 6 of the study, respectively. Conclusions EHR recruitment offers an efficient (ie, high reach, low touch, and minimal participant burden) approach to recruiting participants from health care settings into mHealth research. Efforts to recruit and retain less engaged subgroups are needed to collect more generalizable data. Additionally, future app iterations should include more evidence-based features to increase participant use.

BACKGROUND To address the obesity epidemic, there is a need for novel paradigms, including those that address the timing of eating and sleep in relation to circadian rhythms. Electronic health records (EHRs) are an efficient way to identify potentially eligible participants for health research studies. Mobile health (mHealth) apps offer available and convenient data collection of health behaviors, such as timing of eating and sleep. OBJECTIVE The aim of this descriptive analysis was to report on recruitment, retention, and app use from a 6-month cohort study using a mobile app called Daily24. METHODS Using an EHR query, adult patients from three health care systems in the PaTH clinical research network were identified as potentially eligible, invited electronically to participate, and instructed to download and use the Daily24 mobile app, which focuses on eating and sleep timing. Online surveys were completed at baseline and 4 months. We described app use and identified predictors of app use, defined as 1 or more days of use, versus nonuse and usage categories (ie, immediate, consistent, and sustained) using multivariate regression analyses. RESULTS Of 70,661 patients who were sent research invitations, 1021 (1.44%) completed electronic consent forms and online baseline surveys; 4 withdrew, leaving a total of 1017 participants in the analytic sample. A total of 53.79% (n=547) of the participants were app users and, of those, 75.3% (n=412), 50.1% (n=274), and 25.4% (n=139) were immediate, consistent, and sustained users, respectively. Median app use was 28 (IQR 7-75) days over 6 months. Younger age, White race, higher educational level, higher income, having no children younger than 18 years, and having used 1 to 5 health apps significantly predicted app use (vs nonuse) in adjusted models. Older age and lower BMI predicted early, consistent, and sustained use. About half (532/1017, 52.31%) of the participants completed the 4-month online surveys. A total of 33.5% (183/547), 29.3% (157/536), and 27.1% (143/527) of app users were still using the app for at least 2 days per month during months 4, 5, and 6 of the study, respectively. CONCLUSIONS EHR recruitment offers an efficient (ie, high reach, low touch, and minimal participant burden) approach to recruiting participants from health care settings into mHealth research. Efforts to recruit and retain less engaged subgroups are needed to collect more generalizable data. Additionally, future app iterations should include more evidence-based features to increase participant use.

Pelagic Sargassum macroalgal rafts in the North Atlantic support sessile and motile epifauna that attract ecologically and economically important migratory organisms. Three prevalent pelagic Sargassum morphotypes vary in their degree of branching and foliation, and thus have different structural complexities that can influence their respective value as motile epifauna habitat. Sargassum fluitans III and S. natans I have denser foliation, creating a complex habitat; in contrast, S. natans VIII is more open and architecturally simple. In 2015/2016, 373 dip net samples of algae were collected from the Tropical Atlantic, Greater Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Stream, and Sargasso Sea. 20,975 individual motile epifauna from 32 taxa were recorded. Sargassum fluitans III supported higher densities of individuals and greater numbers of taxa than S. natans VIII or S. natans I, a pattern attributed to its more complex architecture and consistent with communities on benthic and floating macroalgae. Most assemblages comprised a few dominant and many rare motile epifauna; when compared to historical studies, dominant motile epifauna had shifted. These findings suggest important differences in ecological value between pelagic Sargassum morphotypes with implications for coastal and pelagic conservation strategies, which warrant consideration given recent shifts in morphotype distribution and recurring pelagic Sargassum inundation events.

Bopyrid isopod parasitic infestation of a variety of decapod definitive hosts is common worldwide. We report frequencies of a parasite infestation in the shrimp Latreutes fucorum associated with the pelagic macroalgae Sargassum in the Gulf of Mexico, Sargasso Sea and Eastern Caribbean. Average Probopyrinella latreuticola infestation frequency was 6.7% and did not significantly vary between regions. The presence of the ectoparasite appeared to impact fertility with only one infested individual found carrying eggs. In contrast, across all three regions, 13% (of n = 4001) of the non-infested shrimp were carrying eggs. With L. fucorum accounting for three quarters of lower trophic level biomass in the pelagic Sargassum-associated faunal community, parasite infestation may have negative consequences for ecologically and commercially important populations that rely directly or indirectly on the host as a food source.

Objective Mindfulness-informed cognitive behavioral interventions for obesity are promising. However, results on the efficacy of such treatments are inconsistent which in part may be due to their substantially different methods of practice. This study is the first direct comparison of two theoretically distinct mindfulness-based weight loss approaches: increasing awareness of homeostatic/innate physiological cues versus hedonic/externally-driven cues for eating. Methods Overweight adults were randomized to one of three group-based workshops: Mindful Eating (ME; n = 21), Mindful Decision-Making (MD; n = 17), or active standard behavioral control (SC; n = 19). Outcome measures included percent weight change and reduction in caloric intake from baseline to 6 weeks. Results Differences in weight loss and calorie reduction did not differ significantly among groups. However, the difference in weight loss between the MD and ME groups trended towards significance, with medium-large effect sizes. Conclusions Results provide modest preliminary evidence for the utility of mindful decision-making strategies over mindful eating for short-term weight loss and calorie reduction.

Objective Obesity is largely attributable to excess caloric intake, in particular from “junk” foods, including salty snack foods. Evidence suggests that neurobiological preferences to consume highly hedonic foods translate (via implicit processes) into poor eating choices, unless overturned by inhibitory mechanisms or interrupted by explicit processes. The primary aim of the current study was to test the independent and combinatory effects of a computerized inhibitory control training (ICT) and a mindful decision-making training (MDT) designed to facilitate de-automatization. Methods We randomized 119 habitual salty snack food eaters to one of four short, training conditions: MDT, ICT, both MDT and ICT, or neither (i.e., psychoeducation). For 7 days prior to the intervention and 7 days following the intervention, participants reported on their salty snack food consumption 2 times per day, on 3 portions of their days, using a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment system. Susceptibility to emotional eating cues was measured at baseline. Results Results indicated that the effect of MDT was consistent across levels of trait emotional eating, whereas the benefit of ICT was apparent only at lower levels of emotional eating. No synergistic effect of MDT and ICT was detected. Conclusions These results provide qualified support for the efficacy of both types of training for decreasing hedonically-motivated eating. Moderation effects suggest that those who eat snack foods for reasons unconnected to affective experiences (i.e., lower in emotional eating) may derive benefit from a combination of ICT and MDT. Future research should investigate the additive benefit of de-automization training to standard weight loss interventions.

Mindfulness has become a fixture of both clinical treatment and popular culture. Much research and theoretical scholarship have operationalized “mindfulness” as clinicians use the term, yet no research has examined popular (i.e., lay) conceptions of mindfulness. Mindfulness trainings and interventions are now widely offered on college campuses. Thus, as a starting point for assessing lay conceptions of the construct, we examined how undergraduate college students at an urban university (N = 361) conceptualize mindfulness. In open-ended responses, participants linked mindfulness to awareness of external objects, internal sensations, or being in the present moment. When rating sentences on how well they represented mindfulness, participants strongly associated mindfulness with controlling emotions. In both the open-ended and sentence stem responses, mindfulness was rarely associated with psychological acceptance, which is notable because of the importance of acceptance in mindfulness-based clinical treatments. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Background and aims Tropical understorey plant communities are highly diverse and characterized by variable resource availability, especially light. Plants in these competitive environments must carefully partition resources to ensure ecological and evolutionary success. One mechanism of effective resource partitioning is the optimization of functional traits to enhance competition in highly heterogeneous habitats. Here, we surveyed the ecophysiology of two early lineage vascular plant groups from a tropical forest understorey: Selaginella (a diverse lineage of lycophytes) and ferns. Methods In a lowland rain forest in Costa Rica, we measured a suite of functional traits from seven species of Selaginella and six fern species. We evaluated species microclimate and habitat; several photosynthetic parameters; carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus content; chlorophyll concentration; leaf mass per area (LMA); and stomatal size and density. We then compare these two plant lineages and search for relationships between key functional parameters that already exist on a global scale for angiosperms. Key results Convergence of trait function filtered Selaginella species into different habitats, with species in heavily shaded environments having higher chlorophyll concentrations and lower light compensation points compared with open habitats. Alternatively, lower foliar nitrogen and higher stomatal densities were detected in species occupying these open habitats. Selaginella species had denser and smaller stomata, lower LMA and lower foliar nutrient content than ferns, revealing how these plant groups optimize ecophysiological function differently in tropical forest floors. Conclusions Our findings add key pieces of missing evidence to global explorations of trait patterns that define vascular plant form and function, which largely focus on seed plants. Broadly predictable functional trait relationships were detected across both Selaginella and ferns, similar to those of seed plants. However, evolutionary canalization of microphyll leaf development appears to have driven contrasting, yet successful, ecophysiological strategies for two coexisting lineages of extant homosporous vascular plants.

Distress tolerance (DT) refers to an individual’s capacity to cope with aversive internal (e.g., physical, cognitive, emotional) states. A growing body of evidence suggests that there is a relationship between DT and the development and maintenance of problematic behavioral patterns. Despite emerging evidence for such associations, a number of issues remain unresolved. The results of recent studies suggest problems with the convergent validity of the primary measures used to assess DT, despite the fact that these measures are used interchangeably in the DT literature. In order to further examine the relationships among DT assessments, we evaluated intercorrelations among various self-report and behavioral measures of DT in an unselected undergraduate sample (n = 83). Results indicate that two self-report measures of DT were highly correlated with one another, but that neither measure was significantly correlated with the behavioral measures. The relationships among the behavioral measures and between self-report and behavioral measures were weak and non-significant. Correlations between self-report measures only were strong. The findings partially replicate prior research indicating weak correlations between certain, commonly used measures of DT, and raise questions about the current conceptualization of the construct.

Objective Cohort study from February 2003 through May 2011 to determine weight restoration and refeeding complication outcomes for patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) treated in an integrated inpatient-partial hospital eating disorder program designed to produce rapid weight gain and weight restoration in the majority. Method Consecutive admissions (females and males, adolescents and adults; N = 361 patients, 461 admissions) at least 1.8 kg below target weight with AN or subthreshold variants were included. Main outcome measures were rates of hypophosphatemia, transfer to medicine, or death; rates of weight gain and percent achieving weight restoration. Results Hypophosphatemia was present in 7.9% of cases at admission and in 18.5% at some point during treatment. Hypophosphatemia was mild to moderate. Lower admission body mass index (BMI), but not rate of weight gain, predicted hypophosphatemia [OR = 0.65; p

Body dissatisfaction is highly predictive of disordered eating cognitions and behavior, however many more individuals experience body dissatisfaction than disordered eating. While several variables appear to influence the relationship between body dissatisfaction and disordered eating, one potential under-studied construct is experiential avoidance (EA) of body image. Individuals with high body image EA may be more likely to engage in behaviors designed to reduce body dissatisfaction and its associated cognitions and emotions, including disordered eating (i.e., restricting, purging, laxative use, etc.). The Body Image-Acceptance and Action questionnaire (BIAAQ; Sandoz, Wilson, Merwin, & Kellum, 2013 ) was recently developed to assess EA of body image, however despite promising initial validation data, it is still a relatively novel instrument and additional validation is warranted. The present study includes a series of cross-sectional studies designed to accomplish three goals: (1) to provide additional validation data for the BI-AAQ, (2) to assess the potential indirect effect of EA on the relationship between body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating cognition and behavior, and (3) to compare the BI-AAQ to an existing measure of body avoidance. Overall, results indicate that the BI-AAQ is a valid measure of body image EA; it partially explains the relationship between body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating. The measure also appears to have incremental validity over pre-existing measures. Future research is needed to further clarify the role of body image EA and to examine whether treatments targeting this construct can prevent or treat disordered eating.

Objective: Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors are common among college women, yet only a subset of this population develops clinically significant disordered eating symptoms during college. Appearance-based social comparisons, particularly those made to others with “better” bodies (i.e., upward appearance comparisons), have demonstrated concurrent relationships with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Little is known about the value of these comparisons for predicting the development of eating pathology, however. Method: The present study examined the predictive value of upward appearance comparisons, as well as established risk factors (e.g., body dissatisfaction, negative affect), for the onset of clinically significant eating pathology over one college semester. College women (N 5454) completed validated selfreport measures at the beginning of one semester, and again nine weeks later. Results: Women who were newly above the clinical threshold for eating pathology at follow-up (n 531) exhibited stronger baseline tendencies toward upward appearance comparisons than women who were below the threshold at both time points. In contrast, women who were already above the clinical threshold at baseline scored higher on established risk factors. Discussion: These findings suggest that the extent of upward appearance comparison may be useful for identifying college women at particular risk for developing clinically significant disordered eating

Despite the rising prevalence rates of eating disorders in today’s society, few effective treatments exist. Recently, acceptance and mindfulness-based processes have begun to receive increasing attention. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a cognitive behavioral treatment that promotes mindfulness-based processes in the context of personal values clarification and engagement. The addition of values to treatment protocols has yielded promising effects in several populations, but investigations of the role of values in eating behaviors are largely nonexistent. This study explored the relationship between valuing in interpersonal domains and aspects of mindfulness in the context of eating disorder symptomatology. Results indicate that both lack of success at living important interpersonal values and pliant valuing predict eating disorder symptoms and that pliant valuing predicts interpersonal problems. However, the relationship between pliance and both disordered eating and interpersonal problems disappears after aspects of mindfulness are added to the model. Implications for the use of ACT in the treatment of eating disorders are discussed.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that utilizes six core psychological process of change (acceptance, defusion, present moment awareness, self as context, values and committed action) to help individuals achieve psychological flexibility (i.e., the ability to choose one's behavior even when doing so brings a person into contact with aversive internal experiences). ACT shares many features of traditional CBT and its distinctiveness has been a subject of debate. However, ACT appears to operate at least partially through distinct processes, and to emphasize experiential acceptance and valued behavior change over attempts to restructure thoughts or achieve symptom reduction. Empirical support for ACT and its hypothesized therapeutic processes is mounting quickly, but much of it suffers from methodological shortcomings. Keywords: acceptance; psychotherapies; behavior therapy; cognitive behavior therapy

Cohort study from February 2003 through May 2011 to determine weight restoration and refeeding complication outcomes for patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) treated in an integrated inpatient-partial hospital eating disorder program designed to produce rapid weight gain and weight restoration in the majority.Consecutive admissions (females and males, adolescents and adults; N = 361 patients, 461 admissions) at least 1.8 kg below target weight with AN or subthreshold variants were included. Main outcome measures were rates of hypophosphatemia, transfer to medicine, or death; rates of weight gain and percent achieving weight restoration.Hypophosphatemia was present in 7.9% of cases at admission and in 18.5% at some point during treatment. Hypophosphatemia was mild to moderate. Lower admission body mass index (BMI), but not rate of weight gain, predicted hypophosphatemia [OR = 0.65; p .00001 (95% CI 0.57-0.76)]. Five patients (1.1%) were transferred to medicine or surgery, none because of refeeding. There were no deaths. Mean inpatient weight gain was 1.98 kg/week; mean partial hospital weight gain was 1.36 kg/week. By program discharge, 71.8% of adults reached a BMI of 19, 58.5% a BMI of 20. For adolescents, 80.4% came within 2 kg of their target weight; 76.1% came within 1 kg.Refeeding patients with AN using a hospital-based, behavioral protocol may be accomplished safely and more rapidly than generally recognized, weight restoring most patients by discharge. Helpful elements may include the program's integrated, step-down structure; multidisciplinary team approach emphasizing group therapy to effect behavior change; and close medical monitoring for those with BMI 15.

Bone is highly dynamic and responsive. Bone location, bone type and gender can influence bone responses (positive, negative or none) and magnitude. Type I diabetes induces bone loss and increased marrow adiposity in the tibia. We tested if this response exhibits gender and location dependency by examining femur, vertebrae and calvaria of male and female, control and diabetic BALB/c mice. Non-diabetic male mice exhibited larger body, muscle, and fat mass, and increased femur BMD compared to female mice, while vertebrae and calvarial bone parameters did not exhibit gender differences. Streptozotocin-induced diabetes caused a reduction in BMD at all sites examined irrespective of gender. Increased marrow adiposity was evident in diabetic femurs and calvaria (endochondrial and intramembranous formed bones, respectively), but not in vertebrae. Leptin-deficient mice also exhibit location dependent bone responses and we found that serum leptin levels were significantly lower in diabetic compared to control mice. However, in contrast to leptin-deficient mice, the vertebrae of T1-diabetic mice exhibit bone loss, not gain. Taken together, our findings indicate that TI-diabetic bone loss in mice is not gender, bone location or bone type dependent, while increased marrow adiposity is location dependent.