Examining Nutrition and Food Waste Trade-offs Using an Obesity Prevention Context

Obesity and food waste are related issues, both exacerbated by an overabundance of food. Efforts to reduce food waste can have varying unintended, obesity-related consequences, which further underscores the need for a systems approach to food waste reduction. Yet, these 2 issues are rarely examined together. It is the authors’ point of view that for nutrition educators and other public health practitioners to develop interventions that simultaneously address food waste and obesity, they need to understand how actions at the consumer-level may impact waste and its related food system consequences earlier in the supply chain.     

Psychiatric Aftercare and Suicide Risk: A Case-control Study Using Blind Rating

Blindly abstracted records of last episode of care together with aftercare records of 39 psychiatric patient suicides and their matched controls were rated blind for suicidal talk during aftercare, reduction of aftercare at last appointment and high-low suicide risk. Neither suicidal talk nor reduction of aftercare was confirmed as a predictor of suicide, although trends in the predicted directions were observed. Blind estimates of high-low risk correctly identified a significant minority (40%) of suicides but at the cost of misclassifying 60% as controls. Evidence is still lacking that clinicians blind to case identity may, from records, reliably distinguish a majority of suicides from their matched controls. Some implications for practice and research are discussed.     

History of myocardial iron loading is a strong risk factor for diabetes mellitus and hypogonadism in adults with β thalassemia major

Endocrinopathies are common complications of transfusional hemosiderosis among patients with β thalassemia major (TM). Previous studies had shown associations between some endocrinopathies and iron overload of the myocardium, liver and/or endocrine organs as assessed by MRI techniques. This retrospective analysis of 92 patients with TM (median age 36 yr) from a tertiary adult thalassemia unit in UK aimed to determine independent risk factors associated with endocrinopathies among these patients. Unlike previous studies, longitudinal data on routine measurements of iron load [worst myocardial and liver T2* values since 1999, worst LIC by MRI‐R2 since 2008 and average 10‐yr serum ferritin (SF)] up to April 2010 together with demographic features and age of initiating chelation were analyzed for associations with endocrinopathies. The most common endocrinopathies in this cohort were hypogonadism (67%) and diabetes mellitus (DM) (41%), and these were independently associated with myocardial T2* <20 ms (P < 0.001 and P = 0.008, respectively) and increased age (P = 0.002 and P = 0.016, respectively). DM and hypogonadism were independently associated with average SF >1250 μg/L (P = 0.003) and >2000 μg/L (P = 0.047), respectively. DM was also associated with initial detection of abnormal myocardial T2* at an older age (30 yr vs. 24 yr, P = 0.039). An abnormal myocardial T2* may therefore portend the development of DM and hypogonadism in patients with TM.     

Reconstruction of Mammalian Cells from Nuclear and Cytoplasmic Components Separated by Treatment with Cytochalasin B

Mouse L929 cells were separated into enucleated cytoplasmic components (cytoplasts) and nucleated subcellular fractions (karyoplasts) in the presence of cytochalasin B. Karyoplasts from cells containing tritiated nuclei were fused, using inactivated Sendai virus, to cytoplasts from cells containing large (1.0-mum diameter) latex spheres in the cytoplasm. Mononucleated cells containing radioactive nuclei and large latex spheres in the cytoplasm were observed among the products of the fusion reaction. Some of these cells were in mitotic configurations. The results indicate that cells capable of undergoing mitosis can be reconstructed from the products of cellular enucleation in the presence of cytochalasin B.     

Lack of Protection Against Ebola Virus from Chloroquine in Mice and Hamsters

The antimalarial drug chloroquine has been suggested as a treatment for Ebola virus infection. Chloroquine inhibited virus replication in vitro, but only at cytotoxic concentrations. In mouse and hamster models, treatment did not improve survival. Chloroquine is not a promising treatment for Ebola. Efforts should be directed toward other drug classes.