Visceral Obesity and Its Shared Role in Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease: A Scoping Review of the Pathophysiology and Pharmacological Treatments

The association between obesity, cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been demonstrated in animal and epidemiological studies. However, the specific role of visceral obesity on cancer and CVD remains unclear. Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is a complex and metabolically active tissue, that can produce different adipokines and hormones, responsible for endocrine-metabolic comorbidities. This review explores the potential mechanisms related to VAT that may also be involved in cancer and CVD. In addition, we discuss the shared pharmacological treatments which may reduce the risk of both diseases. This review highlights that chronic inflammation, molecular aspects, metabolic syndrome, secretion of hormones and adiponectin associated to VAT may have synergistic effects and should be further studied in relation to cancer and CVD. Reductions in abdominal and visceral adiposity improve insulin sensitivity, lipid profile and cytokines, which consequently reduce the risk of CVD and some cancers. Several medications have shown to reduce visceral and/or subcutaneous fat. Further research is needed to investigate the pathophysiological mechanisms by which visceral obesity may cause both cancer and CVD. The role of visceral fat in cancer and CVD is an important area to advance. Public health policies to increase public awareness about VAT’s role and ways to manage or prevent it are needed.     

Colour and ergonomics: On the selection of a “colour of the year”

The key role of colour in ergonomics has been emphasized by a number of researchers and design professionals. Although several research studies have been published regarding the use of colour in ergonomics, there are still some areas that need to be considered. The issue of deciding a “colour of the year” is an example, which represents a new challenge for researchers in the field of ergonomics. This is of particular interest considering the fact that the nature of research on the selection of a “colour of the year” is generally based on user experience. This paper argues that ergonomics should play a more prominent role in this field to ensure better user experience and performance. This paper highlights specific areas that need further study and development.     

Classroom furniture and anthropometric characteristics of Iranian high school students: Proposed dimensions based on anthropometric data

The study evaluated the potential mismatch between classroom furniture dimensions and anthropometric characteristics of 978 Iranian high school students (498 girls, 480 boys), aged 15-18 years. Nine anthropometric measurements (stature, sitting height, sitting shoulder height, popliteal height, hip breadth, elbow-seat height, buttock-popliteal length, buttock-knee length and thigh clearance) and five dimensions from the existing classroom furniture were measured and then compared together (using match criterion equations) to identify any potential mismatch between them. The results indicated a considerable mismatch between body dimensions of the students and the existing classroom furniture, with seat height (60.9%), seat width (54.7%) and desktop height (51.7%) being the furniture dimensions with a higher level of mismatch. The levels of mismatch varied between the high-school grade levels and between genders, indicating their special requirements and possible problems. The proposed dimensions of the classroom furniture more appropriate for the students were given. This additional information on students' anthropometry can be used by local furniture industries as a starting point for designing more appropriate furniture for school children, or used by schools to aid in furniture selection.     

"The lasting effect of words on feelings: Words may facilitate exposure effects to threatening images": Correction to Tabibnia, Lieberman, and Craske (2008).

Reports an error in "The lasting effect of words on feelings: Words may facilitate exposure effects to threatening images" by Golnaz Tabibnia, Matthew D. Lieberman and Michelle G. Craske (Emotion, 2008[Jun], Vol 8[3], 307-317). The URL provided for the supplemental materials was incorrect. The correct URL is provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2008-06717-001.) Previous studies have shown that mere words, particularly affective words, can dampen emotional responses. However, the effect of affective labels on emotional responding in the long term is unknown. The authors examined whether repeated exposure to aversive images would lead to more reduction in autonomic reactivity a week later if the images were exposed with single-word labels than without labels. In Experiment 1, healthy individuals were exposed to pictures of disturbing scenes with or without labels on Day 1. On Day 8, the same pictures from the previous week were exposed, this time without labels. In Experiment 2, participants were spider fearful and were exposed to pictures of spiders. In both experiments, although repeated exposure to aversive images (without labels) led to long-term attenuation of autonomic reactivity, exposure plus affective labels, but not nonaffective labels, led to more attenuation than exposure alone. Thus, affective labels may help dampen emotional reactivity in both the short and long terms. Implications for exposure therapy and translational studies are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characterization of thermochemical properties of Al nanoparticle and NiO nanowire composites

Thermochemical properties and microstructures of the composite of Al nanoparticles and NiO nanowires were characterized. The nanowires were synthesized using a hydrothermal method and were mixed with these nanoparticles by sonication. Electron microscopic images of these composites showed dispersed NiO nanowires decorated with Al nanoparticles. Thermal analysis suggests the influence of NiO mass ratio was insignificant with regard to the onset temperature of the observed thermite reaction, although energy release values changed dramatically with varying NiO ratios. Reaction products from the fuel-rich composites were found to include elemental Al and Ni, Al₂O₃, and AlNi. The production of the AlNi phase, confirmed by an ab initio molecular dynamics simulation, was associated with the formation of some metallic liquid spheres from the thermite reaction.     

Atomically Precise Prediction of 2D Self‐Assembly of Weakly Bonded Nanostructures: STM Insight into Concentration‐Dependent Architectures

A joint experimental and computational study is reported on the concentration‐dependant self‐assembly of a flat C₃‐symmetric molecule on a graphite surface. As a model system a tripodal molecule, 1,3,5‐tris(pyridin‐3‐ylethynyl)benzene, has been chosen, which can adopt either C_3h or C_s symmetry when planar, as a result of pyridyl rotation along the alkynyl spacers. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations of 2D nanopatterns with different surface coverage reveal that the molecule can generate different types of self‐assembled motifs. The stability of fourteen 2D patterns and the influence of concentration are analyzed. It is found that ordered, densely packed monolayers and 2D porous networks are obtained at high and low concentrations, respectively. A concentration‐dependent scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) investigation of this molecular self‐assembly system at a solution/graphite interface reveals four supramolecular motifs, which are in perfect agreement with those predicted by simulations. Therefore, this DFT method represents a key step forward toward the atomically precise prediction of molecular self‐assembly on surfaces and at interfaces.     

A Facile Magnetic Extrusion Method for Preparing Endosome-Derived Vesicles for Cancer Drug Delivery

To date, the scaled-up manufacturing and efficient drug loading of exosomes are two existing challenges limiting the clinical translation of exosome-based drug delivery. Herein, a facile magnetic extrusion method is developed for preparing endosome-derived vesicles, also known as exosome mimetics (EMs), which share the same biological origin and similar morphology, composition, and biofunctions with native exosomes. The high yield and consistency of this magnetic extrusion method help to overcome the manufacturing bottleneck in exosome research. Moreover, the proposed standardized multi-step method readily facilitates the ammonium sulfate gradient approach to actively load chemodrugs such as doxorubicin into EMs. The engineered EMs developed and tested here exhibit comparable drug delivery properties as do native exosomes, and potently inhibit tumor growth by delivering doxorubicin in an orthotopic breast tumor model. These findings demonstrate that EMs can be prepared in a facile and scaled-up manner as a promising biological nanomedicine for cancer drug delivery.     

MMLT: A mutual multilevel trust framework based on trusted third parties in multicloud environments

In this article, a mutual multilevel trust framework is proposed, which involves managing trust from the perspective of cloud users (CUs) and cloud service providers (CSPs) in a multicloud environment based on a set of trusted third parties (TTPs). These independent agents are trusted by CUs and CSPs and distributed on different clouds. The TTPs evaluate the CUs' trustworthiness based on the accuracy of feedback ratings and assess the CSPs' trustworthiness based on the quality of service monitoring information. They are connected themselves through the trusted release network, which enables a TTP to obtain trust information about CSPs and CUs from other clouds. With the objective of developing an effective trust management framework, a new approach has been provided to improve trust-based interactions, that is, able to rank the trusted cloud services (CSs) based on CU's priorities via fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic is applied to manage the different priorities of CUs, all the CUs do not have the same priorities to use trusted CSs. Customizing service ranking allows CUs to apply trusted CSs based on their priorities. Experiments on real datasets well matched the analytical results, indicating that our proposed approach is effective and outperforms the existing approaches.