Effectiveness of Pricing Strategies on French Fries and Fruit Purchases among University Students: Results from an On-Campus Restaurant Experiment

ObjectivesThis study examined the effect of a 10 and 20% meal price increase when choosing French fries and a 10 and 20% meal price reduction when choosing fruit for dessert on university students’ purchasing behaviour in an on-campus restaurant. The moderating effect of gender was also investigated. Secondly, this study aimed at gaining further insight into reasons why these price manipulations did or did not change students’ purchasing behaviour.SignificancePricing may be a promising strategy to improve university students’ eating behaviour. The likelihood of intervention success may increase when combining pricing strategies with offering healthy, tasty and meal matching starchy alternatives to French fries and offering a variety of fresh and appealing fruits.     

MRI-Only Based Radiotherapy Treatment Planning for the Rat Brain on a Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP)

Computed tomography (CT) is the standard imaging modality in radiation therapy treatment planning (RTP). However, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging provides superior soft tissue contrast, increasing the precision of target volume selection. We present MR-only based RTP for a rat brain on a small animal radiation research platform (SARRP) using probabilistic voxel classification with multiple MR sequences. Six rat heads were imaged, each with one CT and five MR sequences. The MR sequences were: T1-weighted, T2-weighted, zero-echo time (ZTE), and two ultra-short echo time sequences with 20 μs (UTE1) and 2 ms (UTE2) echo times. CT data were manually segmented into air, soft tissue, and bone to obtain the RTP reference. Bias field corrected MR images were automatically segmented into the same tissue classes using a fuzzy c-means segmentation algorithm with multiple images as input. Similarities between segmented CT and automatic segmented MR (ASMR) images were evaluated using Dice coefficient. Three ASMR images with high similarity index were used for further RTP. Three beam arrangements were investigated. Dose distributions were compared by analysing dose volume histograms. The highest Dice coefficients were obtained for the ZTE-UTE2 combination and for the T1-UTE1-T2 combination when ZTE was unavailable. Both combinations, along with UTE1-UTE2, often used to generate ASMR images, were used for further RTP. Using 1 beam, MR based RTP underestimated the dose to be delivered to the target (range: 1.4%-7.6%). When more complex beam configurations were used, the calculated dose using the ZTE-UTE2 combination was the most accurate, with 0.7% deviation from CT, compared to 0.8% for T1-UTE1-T2 and 1.7% for UTE1-UTE2. The presented MR-only based workflow for RTP on a SARRP enables both accurate organ delineation and dose calculations using multiple MR sequences. This method can be useful in longitudinal studies where CT’s cumulative radiation dose might contribute to the total dose.     

Using Manipulated Photographs to Identify Features of Streetscapes That May Encourage Older Adults to Walk for Transport

Experimental evidence of environmental features important for physical activity is challenging to procure in real world settings. The current study aimed to investigate the causal effects of environmental modifications on a photographed street''s appeal for older adults'' walking for transport. Secondly, we examined whether these effects differed according to gender, functional limitations, and current level of walking for transport. Thirdly, we examined whether different environmental modifications interacted with each other. Qualitative responses were also reported to gain deeper insight into the observed quantitative relationships. Two sets of 16 panoramic photographs of a streetscape were created, in which six environmental factors were manipulated (sidewalk evenness, traffic level, general upkeep, vegetation, separation from traffic, and benches). Sixty older adults sorted these photographs on appeal for walking for transport on a 7-point scale and reported qualitative information on the reasons for their rankings. Sidewalk evenness appeared to have the strongest influence on a street''s appeal for transport-related walking. The effect of sidewalk evenness was even stronger when the street''s overall upkeep was good and when traffic was absent. Absence of traffic, presence of vegetation, and separation from traffic also increased a street''s appeal for walking for transport. There were no moderating effects by gender or functional limitations. The presence of benches increased the streetscape''s appeal among participants who already walked for transport at least an hour/week. The protocols and methods used in the current study carry the potential to further our understanding of environment-PA relationships. Our findings indicated sidewalk evenness as the most important environmental factor influencing a street''s appeal for walking for transport among older adults. However, future research in larger samples and in real-life settings is needed to confirm current findings.     

Psychosocial and Environmental Correlates of Walking,Cycling, Public Transport and Passive Transport to Various Destinations in Flemish Older Adolescents

Background

Active transport is a convenient way to incorporate physical activity in adolescents’ daily life. The present study aimed to investigate which psychosocial and environmental factors are associated with walking, cycling, public transport (train, tram, bus, metro) and passive transport (car, motorcycle, moped) over short distances (maximum eight kilometres) among older adolescents (17–18 years), to school and to other destinations.

Methods

562 older adolescents completed an online questionnaire assessing socio-demographic variables, psychosocial variables, environmental variables and transport to school/other destinations. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression models were performed.

Results

More social modelling and a higher residential density were positively associated with walking to school and walking to other destinations, respectively. Regarding cycling, higher self-efficacy and a higher social norm were positively associated with cycling to school and to other destinations. Regarding public transport, a higher social norm, more social modelling of siblings and/or friends, more social support and a higher land use mix access were positively related to public transport to school and to other destinations, whereas a greater distance to school only related positively to public transport to school. Regarding passive transport, more social support and more perceived benefits were positively associated with passive transport to school and to other destinations. Perceiving less walking and cycling facilities at school was positively related to passive transport to school only, and more social modelling was positively related to passive transport to other destinations.

Conclusions

Overall, psychosocial variables seemed to be more important than environmental variables across the four transport modes. Social norm, social modelling and social support were the most consistent psychosocial factors which indicates that it is important to target both older adolescents and their social environment in interventions promoting active transport. Walking or cycling together with siblings or friends has the potential to increase social norm, social modelling and social support towards active transport.     

Aflatoxin content and number of fungi in poultry feedstuffs from Indonesia

The content of aflatoxin and associated fungi was determined in 56 samples, including 34 of corn, 10 of soybean meal, nine of rice bran and three of broken rice, collected from different poultry farms and poultry feedmills situated around Jakarta-Bogor, Indonesia.
Ninety-one per cent of the corn samples contained aflatoxins and the total concentration ranged from 22 to 6171 μ g/kg. With rice bran, 100% of the samples were positive for aflatoxin B₁, ranging from 36 to 71 μ g/kg. No aflatoxin was detected in samples of soybean meal or broken rice. All the samples were contaminated by several fungi (8 times 10³–5 times 10⁶cfu/g) and further identification was limited to Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. The dominant species was A. flavus (2 times 10³–4 times 10⁶cfu/g in corn samples, 1·0 times 10³–1·0 times 10⁵cfu/g in soybean meal, 2 times 10⁴–4·4 times 10⁵cfu/g in rice bran and 2 times 10⁴–6 times 10⁴cfu/g in broken rice). Some of the corn samples also contained A. parasiticus (2 times 10³–9·5 times 10⁴cfu/g).     

Beneficial Effects of Anti-Interleukin-6 Antibodies on Impaired Gastrointestinal Motility,Inflammation and Increased Colonic Permeability in a Murine Model of Sepsis Are Most Pronounced When Administered in a Preventive Setup

MethodsOF-1 mice were randomized to either the preventive or curative protocol, in which they received 1 mg/kg of antibodies to interleukin-6, or its IgG isotype control solution. They subsequently underwent either the caecal ligation and puncture procedure, or sham-surgery. GI motility was assessed 48h following the procedure, as well as colonic permeability, serum and colon cytokines, colonic tight junction proteins at the mRNA level; cultures of blood and mesenteric lymph nodes were performed.ResultsPreventive administration of anti-interleukin-6 antibodies successfully counteracted the gastrointestinal motility disturbances and impaired colonic barrier function that could be observed in vehicle-treated septic animals. Serum and colonic levels of proinflammatory cytokines were significantly lower when animals were preventively treated with anti-interleukin-6 antibodies. A repetitive injection 24h later resulted in the most pronounced effects. Curative treatment significantly lowered systemic and colonic inflammation markers while the effects on transit and permeability were unfortunately no longer significant.ConclusionsCaecal ligation and puncture resulted in septic ileus with an increased colonic permeability. Antibodies to interleukin-6 were able to ameliorate gastro-intestinal motility, suppress inflammation and normalize the permeability of the colonic wall, with the preventive administration combined with a repeat injection being far more efficacious than the sole preventive or curative one.     

Genome-Wide Association Study of Late-Onset Myasthenia Gravis: Confirmation of TNFRSF11A and Identification of ZBTB10 and Three Distinct HLA Associations

To investigate the genetics of late-onset myasthenia gravis (LOMG), we conducted a genome-wide association study imputation of >6 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 532 LOMG cases (anti–acetylcholine receptor [AChR] antibody positive; onset age ≥50 years) and 2,128 controls matched for sex and population substructure. The data confirm reported TNFRSF11A associations (rs4574025, P = 3.9 × 10⁻⁷, odds ratio [OR] 1.42) and identify a novel candidate gene, ZBTB10, achieving genome-wide significance (rs6998967, P = 8.9 × 10⁻¹⁰, OR 0.53). Several other SNPs showed suggestive significance including rs2476601 (P = 6.5 × 10⁻⁶, OR 1.62) encoding the PTPN22 R620W variant noted in early-onset myasthenia gravis (EOMG) and other autoimmune diseases. In contrast, EOMG-associated SNPs in TNIP1 showed no association in LOMG, nor did other loci suggested for EOMG. Many SNPs within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region showed strong associations in LOMG, but with smaller effect sizes than in EOMG (highest OR ~2 versus ~6 in EOMG). Moreover, the strongest associations were in opposite directions from EOMG, including an OR of 0.54 for DQA1*05:01 in LOMG (P = 5.9 × 10⁻¹²) versus 2.82 in EOMG (P = 3.86 × 10⁻⁴⁵). Association and conditioning studies for the MHC region showed three distinct and largely independent association peaks for LOMG corresponding to (a) MHC class II (highest attenuation when conditioning on DQA1), (b) HLA-A and (c) MHC class III SNPs. Conditioning studies of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) amino acid residues also suggest potential functional correlates. Together, these findings emphasize the value of subgrouping myasthenia gravis patients for clinical and basic investigations and imply distinct predisposing mechanisms in LOMG.     

Rapid and efficient FBN1 mutation detection using automated sample preparation and direct sequencing as the primary strategy

Mutations in the fibrillin-1 (FBN1) gene cause Marfan syndrome (MFS) and the other type-1 fibrillinopathies. Finding these mutations is a major challenge considering that the FBN1 gene has a coding region of 8,600 base pairs divided into 65 exons. Most of the more than 600 known mutations have been identified using a mutation scanning method prior to sequencing of fragments with a suspected mutation. However, it is not obvious that these screening methods are ideal, considering cost, efficiency, and sensitivity. We have sequenced the entire FBN1 coding sequence and flanking intronic sequences in samples from 105 patients with suspected MFS, taking advantage of robotic devices, which reduce the cost of supplies and the quantity of manual work. In addition, automation avoids many tedious steps, thus reducing the opportunity for human error. Automated assembling of PCR, purification of PCR products, and assembly of sequencing reactions resulted in completion of the FBN1 sequence in half of the time needed for the manual protocol. Mutations were identified in 69 individuals. The mutation detection rate (76%), types, and genetic distribution of mutations resemble the findings in other MFS populations. We conclude that automated sequencing using the robotic systems is well suited as a primary strategy for diagnostic mutation identification in FBN1.