Factors Associated with Cancer Message Believability: a Mixed Methods Study on Simulated Facebook Posts.

The ability to share and obtain health information on social media (SM) places higher burden on individuals to evaluate the believability of such health messages given the growing nature of misinformation circulating on SM. Message features (i.e., format, veracity), message source, and an individual's health literacy all play significant roles in how a person evaluates health messages on SM. This study assesses how message features and SM users' health literacy predict assessment of message believability and time spent looking at simulated Facebook messages. SM users (N = 53) participated in a mixed methods experimental study, using eye-tracking technology, to measure relative time and message believability. Measures included individual health literacy, message format (narrative/non-narrative), and information veracity (evidence-based/non-evidence-based). Results showed individuals with adequate health literacy rated evidence-based posts as more believable than non-evidence-based posts. Additionally, individuals with limited health literacy spent more relative time on the source compared to individuals with adequate health literacy. Public health and health communication efforts should focus on addressing myths and misinformation found on SM. Additionally, the source of message may be equally important when evaluating messages on SM, and strategies should identify reliable sources to prevent limited health literate individuals from falling prey to misinformation.

Blue is in the Eye of the Beholder: A Cross-Linguistic Study on Color Perception and Memory.

The linguistic relativity hypothesis states that the language one speaks affects how one thinks. Color categorization across languages has often been studied in order to examine the hypothesis. However, those studies often rely on uniform color stimuli or focus on one aspect of cognition. In experiment one, we examined how Russian- and English-speaking participants rated the color of blue/grey eyes perceptually and from memory. Russian-speakers are more likely to describe such eyes as grey, whereas English-speakers are more likely to describe them as blue. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. In the first condition (perception), participants saw the color scale and an eye picture simultaneously and then chose the color that best matched the picture. In the second condition (memory), participants matched the color of an eye to the color scale from memory. The third condition (label) was similar to the second, except participants labeled the eye orally before matching the color from memory. A Bayesian analysis showed that Russian-speakers rated the eyes greyer than did English-speakers in the memory and label conditions, but not perception conditions. In experiment two, we examined how short-term linguistic memory traces are related to color memory. Overall, results find nuanced support for the linguistic relativity hypothesis: language affects color memory more than color perception.

Changes Over Time in the Comprehension of He and They as Epicene Pronouns.

An epicene pronoun is a gender-neutral singular pronoun used in sentences when the gender of the subject is unknown or unspecified. In English, he and they are commonly-used epicene pronouns. Until recently, he has been widely accepted as being grammatically correct. However, many have argued that he is sexist because it may bias people to think about males. Two experiments were performed using a lexical decision task in which participants reacted to gendered words (e.g., aunt and uncle) after reading sentences using he, they, or unrelated epicene pronouns. We conducted the experiments 15 years apart in order to explore whether change in pronoun usage and the social significance of pronouns would be associated with different priming effects. Both experiments demonstrated that pronouns influence the processing of gendered nouns. However, in Experiment 1 they facilitated the processing of feminine nouns whereas in Experiment 2, he slowed the processing of feminine nouns. We discuss these results with respect to language change and conclude that they is a more effective epicene.

Fluorescein Tri-Aldehyde Promotes the Selective Detection of Homocysteine.

Elevated homocysteine levels are a well-known independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. To date, relatively few selective fluorescent probes for homocysteine detection have been reported. The lack of sensing reagents and remaining challenges largely derive from issues of sensitivity and/or selectivity. For example, homocysteine is a structural homologue of the more abundant (ca, 20-25 fold) aminothiol cysteine, differing only by an additional methylene group side chain. Fluorescein tri-aldehyde, described herein, has been designed and synthesized as a sensitive and selective fluorophore for the detection of homocysteine in human plasma samples. It responds to analytes selectively via a photoinduced electron transfer (PET) inhibition process that is modulated by predictable analyte-dye product hybridization and ionization states. Mulliken population analysis of fluorescein tri-aldehyde and its reaction products reveals that the characteristic formation of multiple cationic of homocysteine-derived heterocycles leads to enhanced relative negative charge build up on the proximal phenolate oxygen of the fluorophore as a contributing factor to selective emission enhancement.

Simple enrichment and analysis of plasma lysophosphatidic acids.

A simple and highly efficient technique for the analysis of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) subspecies in human plasma is described. The streamlined sample preparation protocol furnishes the five major LPA subspecies with excellent recoveries. Extensive analysis of the enriched sample reveals only trace levels of other phospholipids. This level of purity not only improves MS analyses, but enables HPLC post-column detection in the visible region with a commercially available fluorescent phospholipids probe. Human plasma samples from different donors were analyzed using the above method and validated by LC-ESI/MS/MS.

Consumers pay attention to ingredients on the front of a label: an eye tracking study.

Sunscreen is an important part of skin cancer prevention. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed numerous changes to sunscreen labeling including adding active ingredients to the front of a label. The purpose of the study was to identify and describe differences in attention between current label formatting and the proposed label formatting. Forty-seven participants were interviewed. Participants were presented with mock sunscreen labels that resembled current labeling or labeling based on the proposed FDA rule. While reading the labels, eye movements were recorded. Participants spent 12.3 s longer looking at the front of the proposed rule-compliant label than they did on the front of the current label. They spent the longest time reading the directions (13-14 seconds) compared with other areas. Placing active ingredients on the front of a label in relatively large font makes it more likely consumers will look at the information.

Sunscreen offers important protection against sunburn and skin cancer. In many instances, it is not as effective as it could be. Possible reasons include not applying it frequently enough or failing to understand instructions on the label. The FDA has proposed making changes to sunscreen labeling to increase its effectiveness. This includes adding active ingredients on the front of a label. Previous research has shown that adding active ingredients to the front of a label does not help consumers remember the ingredients. It is possible that consumers are not paying attention to/reading the ingredients when placed on the front label. Using eye tracking hardware, we tracked where 47 participants were looking as they read labels that either had active ingredients or did not have them. We found that the participants looked longer at the front label when the ingredients were on the front. This shows that consumers do pay attention to important information (e.g., active ingredients) on the front of a label. Given these results, and based on previous research that shows consumers have trouble remembering active ingredients, we recommend using the front label space for other types of important information, such as instructions for use.

Associations Between College/University Physical Activity Requirements and Student Physical Activity.

Background: Most U.S. college students do not meet physical activity guidelines. Physical activity requirements (PAR) are a proposed solution for increasing undergraduate physical activity. Purpose: To determine whether college/university PAR are associated with undergraduates' self-reported physical activity. Methods: Undergraduate students (N = 383,632) attending colleges and universities taking part in the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II survey (2015-2019) self-reported physical activity and demographics. Using websites and course catalogs, researchers coded schools to indicate binary PAR status. Bayesian Hierarchical Logistic Regression was used to determine the percentage of students meeting physical activity guidelines; interactions between PAR status and student characteristics (sex, BMI) were examined. Results: PAR status was positively associated with percent of students meeting physical activity guidelines (PAR: 43.3%, without: 40.5%; difference score 95% Highest Density Interval [HDI; 1.0, 4.5]). A greater percentage of students attending schools with PAR, versus without, met physical activity guidelines across all categories of sex and weight. However, the positive relationship between PAR status and physical activity was stronger among male students (PAR: 46.7%, without: 43.2%; 95% HDI [1.6, 5.4]) compared to female students (PAR: 39.9%, without: 37.9%; 95% HCI [0.2, 3.8]), and among students with underweight (PAR: 39.2%, without: 35.5%; 95% HDI [1.2, 6.3]) or obesity (PAR: 37.1%, without: 33.7%; 95% HDI [1.4, 5.3]) compared to normal weight (PAR: 49.3%, without: 47.4%; 95% HDI [0.1, 3.7]) or overweight (PAR: 47.5%, without: 45.5%; 95% HDI [0.1, 4.0]). Conclusions: PAR are associated with meeting physical activity guidelines, particularly among college/university students with underweight or obesity.

Field effects induce bathochromic shifts in xanthene dyes.

There is ongoing interest in near-infrared (NIR) absorbing and emitting dyes for a variety of biomedical and materials applications. Simple and efficient synthetic procedures enable the judicious tuning of through-space polar (field) effects as well as low barrier hydrogen bonding to modulate the HOMO-LUMO gap in xanthene dyes. This affords unique NIR-absorbing xanthene chromophores.

Progress toward red and near-infrared (NIR) emitting saccharide sensors.

Red-shifted and near-infrared (NIR)-active rhodamine analogs and their boronic acid derivatives were synthesized and studied. These latter compounds function as fluorogenic NIR active substrates for sugar sensing. The effects of benzannulation and boronic acid functionalization on fluorophore optical and sensing properties are described.

A fast response highly selective probe for the detection of glutathione in human blood plasma.

A fluorescent probe for glutathione (GSH) detection was developed. Our study indicates a possible mechanism which couples a conjugate addition and micelle-catalyzed large membered ring formation/elimination sequence. This method enables excellent selectivity towards GSH over other biological thiols such as cysteine (Cys) and homocysteine (Hcy). The proposed method is precise with a relative standard deviation (R.S.D) lower than 6% (n = 3) and has been successfully applied to determine GSH in human plasma with recoveries between 99.2% and 102.3%.

Cross-Sectional Association of State Recess Laws With District-Level Policy and School Recess Provision in the United States.

BACKGROUND: State recess laws are recommended to encourage adequate and equitable access to recess and its benefits, but the downstream effects of state recess laws are unknown. We examined the association of state recess laws with district-level policy and school recess provision. METHODS: This is cross-sectional analysis of the School Health Policies and Practices Survey, a US nationally representative sample of school districts (2016) and schools (2014). State-level recess laws were coded as none, recommend, or require recess. Logistic and linear regression were used to examine the association between state law with district policies and school recess provision, respectively. Data from 2000 are presented to highlight changes in recess policy and provision over time. RESULTS: The odds of a district policy requiring recess were 2.22 and 2.34 times greater when state recess law recommended or required recess, respectively, compared to states with no recess policy. There were no significant differences in school-level recess provision by state recess law but point estimates from 2000 indicated states without a law had the largest declines in recess provision over time. CONCLUSIONS: State recess laws are positively associated with district-level policy. Effects at the school level are unclear and continued surveillance is needed.

Prevalence of Physical Activity Requirements Among US Colleges/Universities Participating in the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II.

Physical activity requirements (PAR; ie, courses required for graduation) have been proposed as a policy solution for increasing undergraduate physical activity. This study aimed to report prevalence of PAR among US colleges/universities participating in the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) and to understand whether these requirements were associated with campus characteristics. Data from the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II serial cross-sectional survey (2015-2019) were merged with researcher coded variables (2019): binary PAR status, nature of PAR (activity-based, conceptual, or combination), and number of courses required to fulfill the PAR. Logistic regression determined whether campus characteristics were associated with PAR in 2019. Nonparametric tests examined differences in nature and number of PAR courses. Of 379 schools, 59 (15.6%) had PAR, with 36 (61.0%) having activity-based PAR and 23 (39.0%) having a combination. Compared to public and four-year schools, private (OR=3.47 [1.77, 6.80]) and two-year schools (OR=6.55 [2.21, 19.45]) had significantly increased odds of having PAR. Private schools required significantly more PAR courses compared to public schools (2.42 vs. 1.73, P=.005). PAR were less prevalent in this sample than reported historically, indicating need for campus leadership attention to this issue. Research is needed to understand what barriers exist to implementing and maintaining PAR on college/university campuses, particularly among public and four-year schools. Understanding health promotion practices among ACHA member schools, which have made leadership commitments to promote student health, can provide greater knowledge of PAR barriers and best practices in schools across the United States and globally.

Making decisions about health information on social media: a mouse-tracking study.

Health misinformation is a problem on social media, and more understanding is needed about how users cognitively process it. In this study, participants' accuracy in determining whether 60 health claims were true (e.g., "Vaccines prevent disease outbreaks") or false (e.g., "Vaccines cause disease outbreaks") was assessed. The 60 claims were related to three domains of health risk behavior (i.e., smoking, alcohol and vaccines). Claims were presented as Tweets or as simple text statements. We employed mouse tracking to measure reaction times, whether processing happens in discrete stages, and response uncertainty. We also examined whether health literacy was a moderating variable. The results indicate that information in statements and tweets is evaluated incrementally most of the time, but with overrides happening on some trials. Adequate health literacy scorers were equally certain when responding to tweets and statements, but they were more accurate when responding to tweets. Inadequate scorers were more confident on statements than on tweets but equally accurate on both. These results have important implications for understanding the underlying cognition needed to combat health misinformation online.

Estimating population size when individuals are asynchronous: A model illustrated with northern elephant seal breeding colonies.

Our aim was to develop a method for estimating the number of animals using a single site in an asynchronous species, meaning that not all animals are present at once so that no one count captures the entire population. This is a common problem in seasonal breeders, and in northern elephant seals, we have a model for quantifying asynchrony at the Año Nuevo colony. Here we test the model at several additional colonies having many years of observations and demonstrate how it can account for animals not present on any one day. This leads to correction factors that yield total population from any single count throughout a season. At seven colonies in California for which we had many years of counts of northern elephant seals, we found that female arrival date varied < 2 days between years within sites and by < 5 days between sites. As a result, the correction factor for any one day was consistent, and at each colony, multiplying a female count between 26 and 30 Jan by 1.15 yielded an estimate of total population size that minimized error. This provides a method for estimating the female population size at colonies not yet studied. Our method can produce population estimates with minimal expenditure of time and resources and will be applicable to many seasonal species with asynchronous breeding phenology, particularly colonial birds and other pinnipeds. In elephant seals, it will facilitate monitoring the population over its entire range.

Progress Towards Simple and Direct Detection of Adenylosuccinate Lyase Deficiency in Human Urine.

A rhodamine based boronic acid linearly responds to increasing 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide riboside (AICAr) concentrations in human urine. This method is thus an advance in detecting adenylosuccinate lyase (ADSL) deficiency as AICAr is a model riboside for the ADSL substrates succinyladenosine (S-Ado) and succinylaminoimidazolecarboxamide riboside (SAICAr). ADSL deficiency is a rare but devastating disease of de novo purine synthesis in infants. Its diagnosis is also significant as it is one of the autism spectrum disorders.

Seminaphthofluorones are a family of water-soluble, low molecular weight, NIR-emitting fluorophores.

A readily accessible new class of near infrared (NIR) molecular probes has been synthesized and evaluated. Specific fluorophores in this unique xanthene based regioisomeric seminaphthofluorone dye series exhibit a combination of desirable characteristics including (i) low molecular weight (339 amu), (ii) aqueous solubility, and (iii) dual excitation and emission from their fluorescent neutral and anionic forms. Importantly, systematic changes in the regiochemistry of benzannulation and the ionizable moieties afford (iv) tunable deep-red to NIR emission from anionic species and (v) enhanced Stokes shifts. Anionic SNAFR-6, exhibiting an unusually large Stokes shift of approximately 200 nm (5,014 cm(-1)) in aqueous buffer, embodies an unprecedented fluorophore that emits NIR fluorescence when excited in the blue/green wavelength region. The successful use of SNAFR-6 in cellular imaging studies demonstrates proof-of-concept that this class of dyes possesses photophysical characteristics that allow their use in practical applications. Notably, each of the new fluorophores described is a minimal template structure for evaluation of their basic spectral properties, which may be further functionalized and optimized yielding concomitant improvements in their photophysical properties.

Amino Acid-based fluorescent chiral ionic liquid for enantiomeric recognition.

We report on the synthesis and characterization of a new fluorescent chiral ionic liquid (FCIL), l-phenylalanine ethyl ester bis(trifluoromethane) sulfonimide (l-PheC(2)NTf(2)), capable of serving simultaneously as solvent, chiral selector, and fluorescent reporter in chiral analytical measurements. Enantiomers of different analytes, including fluorescent and nonfluorescent compounds, with a variety of structures were shown to induce wavelength- and analyte-dependent changes in the fluorescence intensity of this FCIL. This system may provide both chemo- and enantioselectivity toward multiple analytes simultaneously. The newly synthesized FCIL, derived from commercially available l-phenylalanine ethyl ester chloride and lithium bis(trifluoromethane) sulfonamide, was obtained as liquid at room temperature and is stable to thermal decomposition up to 270 degrees C. Absorption and fluorescence properties of neat l-PheC(2)NTf(2) were complex. While the absorption properties were similar to phenylalanine with a weakly absorbing tail extending beyond 400 nm, multiple excitation and emission bands were observed in its Excitation-Emission Matrix (EEM). A prominent excimer emission displayed the greatest intensity of all emission bands, and a long-wavelength emission shifted toward the red with increasing excitation wavelength. These different spectral regions were shown to respond differently toward several analytes, including sugars such as glucose and mannose, making this an ideal system to exploit the multidimensional properties of fluorescence. The unique properties of l-PheC(2)NTf(2) combined with EEMs resulted in reliable identification of different enantiomers and measurement of enantiomeric composition. Importantly, the choice of excitation and emission wavelength regions was an important variable shown to improve prediction of enantiomeric composition.

Health Behaviors of Cancer Survivors and Population Controls From the National Health Interview Survey (2005-2015).

BACKGROUND: Population-based data from the National Health Interview Survey were examined to provide estimates of a wide range of health behaviors in cancer survivors (ie, physical activity, sun protection, alcohol use, cigarette and e-cigarette use, sleep, and diet) and trends over time. METHODS: Data were collected from 92 257 participants across 3 waves of the National Health Interview Survey. A total of 8050 participants reported having had cancer (2428 in 2005, 2333 in 2010, 3289 in 2015). Weighted and adjusted odds ratios (OR) between cancer survivors and controls were calculated using logistic and multivariable regressions in SPSS, and trend analyses from 2005 to 2015 were conducted. All statistical tests are 2-sided. RESULTS: After adjusting for demographics (2005-2015), cancer survivors, compared with controls, were more likely to wear sunscreen (OR = 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.32 to 1.51) and protect their skin (P < .001) and were less likely to tan indoors (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.69 to 0.95), but reported less sleep (OR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.85 to 0.98). In adjusted models, no differences were found for physical activity, sunburns, alcohol use, smoking, e-cigarette use, and diet. Smoking rates for cancer survivors decreased from 2005 to 2015 (P < .001) and physical activity increased (P = .02), but physical activity was not statistically significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons. All other health behavior rates for cancer survivors were unchanged from 2005 to 2015 (P > .14). CONCLUSION: After adjusting for covariates, cancer survivors exhibited healthier sun protection, but not sleep behaviors, compared with controls. Cancer survivors (and controls) exhibited decreased smoking rates over time. These results may inform interventions focused on improving cancer control and prevention of other chronic conditions among cancer survivors.

Combinatorial approach to enantiomeric discrimination: synthesis and (19)F NMR screening of a chiral ionic liquid-modified silane library.

A parallel library of chiral ionic liquid (CIL)-modified silanes as potential chiral selectors was synthesized, and their enantiomeric discrimination abilities were screened by use of (19)F NMR spectroscopy. The screening method allows for rapid identification of the most enantioselective members of the library and simultaneous investigation of their chiral recognition mechanisms. The library compounds were synthesized using quaternization and anion-exchange reactions. Three major parameters (type of chiral cations, anions, and linker chain lengths) were included and investigated during the synthesis and screening. As expected, the structure of the chiral cation was found to play an important role in determining chiral recognition abilities. In addition, several types of intermolecular interactions including ion-pair, hydrogen bonding, pi-pi stacking, dipole stacking, and steric interactions were found to impact chiral discrimination.