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AbstractObesity alters lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, which has an impact on micronutrient status. Zinc affects lipid and glucose metabolism while also acting as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant in various physiological processes. It has a direct effect on the insulin-signaling system and acts as an insulin mimic. In this study we predicted that zinc deficiency in obese Serbian adults affects anthropometric parameters, lipid and glucose metabolic profiles, inflammation, and atherosclerotic markers. We conducted a case-control study with 31 adult obese individuals and 31 controls. Different methods were used to determine the values of anthropometric and biochemical parameters. Obese participants had significantly decreased serum zinc levels compared to controls (p < .01). In obese subjects, there is a significant negative correlation between zinc and body weight (ρ = −0.324, p < .05), body mass index (ρ = −0.351, p < .05), body fat mass (%) (ρ = −0.431, p = .006), and triglycerides (ρ = −0.317, p < .05), as well as a positive correlation between zinc and high-density lipoproteins (ρ = +0.453, p < .01) and lipoprotein (a) (ρ = +0.417, p < .01). Atherosclerotic index and lipoprotein (a) were significantly related to zinc (p = .0022 and p = .0016, respectively) independently of each other in obese subjects. Our results suggest that the determination of zinc levels in obese persons and their correlation with anthropometric and metabolic parameters could help in the identification of individuals at higher risk for cardiovascular disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Obesity is a worldwide epidemic, with up to 17% of French population affected. European guidelines recommend surgical management at specific weight and comorbidity level; however, less than 2% of eligible patients undergo surgical bariatric interventions. To extend the benefits of bariatric interventions to the untreated population with obesity, endoscopic techniques such as endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) have been developed. Analysis of costs and long-term benefits of ESG across stakeholders is needed. This work aimed to assess the healthcare economic and outcomes for ESG in the French healthcare system. Methods: A cost-utility analysis study was conducted to evaluate class II obesity patients, stratified into ESG and lifestyle modifications or lifestyle modifications alone groups. Health benefits were measured as quality-adjusted life years (QALY) and costs benefits expressed as incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). A 6-state Markov model was used and base case scenario analysis was used to assess ESG benefits against lifestyle modifications only. One-way sensitivity analysis (OWSA) and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were performed to evaluate uncertainty on health care interventions and worse case scenarios, respectively. Results: ESG population from the France center included 59 patients, lifestyle modification group was drawn from the MERIT cohort. The base case scenario showed higher costs for ESG procedure compared to lifestyle modifications alone; however, gain in terms of QALY (+ 1,3) is observed maintaining ICER below the set threshold. Also OWSA and probabilistic analysis confirmed ESG cost-effectiveness. OWSA allowed identification of ICER-influencing factors; probabilistic sensitivity analysis confirmed ESG to be cost-effective in 99.29% of iterations. Conclusion: ESG is cost-effective in the French healthcare system. Its potential to reach an untreated portion of the population living with obesity should prompt its uptake into clinical practice. The results of this study should sustain ESG implementation throughout France and possible integration of its reimbursement by the public healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Overweight is thought to affect the outcome of minimally invasive surgery. There is still a lack of controlled studies of laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD) versus open pancreaticoduodenectomy (OPD) in overweight patients. This study was designed to compare short-term and long-term outcomes in overweight patients treated with LPD and OPD. Methods: Clinical and follow-up data on overweight patients who received LPD or OPD at Shandong Provincial Hospital from January 2015 to December 2022 were analyzed retrospectively. The bias between groups were balanced by 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM). Kaplan–Meier survival curves described long-term survival outcomes in overweight pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients. Results: A total of 502 overweight patients were enrolled in the study. There were 276 patients in the LPD group and 226 in the OPD group. After matching, 196 patients were enrolled in each group. Compared with the OPD group, the LPD group had fewer estimated blood loss (EBL) (140 vs. 200 mL, P < 0.001), more lymph node dissection (14 vs. 12, P = 0.010), and shorter postoperative length of stay (LOS) (13 vs. 16 days, P < 0.001). There were no significant differences in severe complications, 90-day readmission and mortality rates (all P > 0.05). The subgroup analysis of obese patients also showed that the LPD group had fewer intraoperative EBL, more lymph node dissection, and shorter LOS. The survival analysis showed that overweight patients with PDAC who underwent LPD or OPD had similar overall survival (OS) (23.8 vs.25.7 months, P = 0.963) after PSM. Conclusion: It is safe and feasible for overweight patients undergoing LPD to have less EBL, more lymph node harvesting, and a shorter LOS. There was no statistically significant difference in long-term survival outcomes among overweight PDAC patients between the two approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The SURMOUNT‐1 trial investigated effects of tirzepatide, a glucose‐dependent insulinotropic polypeptide and glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonist, on body weight in participants with obesity or overweight. This analysis evaluated changes in patient‐reported outcomes (PROs) assessing physical function, psychosocial well‐being, and overall health aspects of participants' health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) in SURMOUNT‐1. Methods: PRO instruments included the Impact of Weight on Quality of Life‐Lite Clinical Trials version (IWQOL‐Lite‐CT), Short Form Survey‐36 version 2 (SF‐36v2) and EQ‐5D‐5L. Scores were analysed by treatment group and by categorical degree of weight reduction group: >0 to <5%, ≥5 to <10%, ≥10 to <20% and ≥20%. Relevant PROs were evaluated for participants with or without physical or psychosocial limitations at baseline, as measured by Patient Global Impression of Status for physical activity (PGIS) and Patient Health Questionnaire‐2 (PHQ‐2), respectively. Results: All tirzepatide groups demonstrated significant improvements in PRO scores versus placebo. There was a consistent trend of incremental PRO improvement with greater degrees of weight reduction, starting from ≥5% weight reduction. Participants achieving ≥20% weight reduction demonstrated the greatest changes from baseline to week 72 (SF‐36v2 Physical Component Summary, 4.60; SF‐36v2 Mental Component Summary, 0.80; IWQOL‐Lite CT Total score, 24.7). Those with baseline physical and psychosocial limitations experienced greater improvements than those without. Conclusions: Tirzepatide treatment was associated with improved HRQoL compared to placebo in people with overweight or obesity. Higher percentages of weight reduction were associated with greater improvements. Clinical trial registration number for SURMOUNT‐1: NCT04184622. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite all the advances in our knowledge regarding obesity, our understanding of its etiology is still far from complete. This study aimed to evaluate the association of serum irisin levels with physical activity and some of the metabolic syndrome-related biomarkers among obese people with low-calorie intake and non-obese people with high-calorie intake. Methods: Obese and non-obese healthy individuals with respectively low and high-calorie intakes were recruited. Irisin and other biomarkers were measured using standard biochemical methods. Participants' physical activity was evaluated by administering the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). To analyze the body composition of the participants, a standard body composition device (ioi 353) was applied. Logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and to examine the effect of confounders such as age, sex, genetics, and activity. Results: Data from the seventy-seven participants were included in the final analysis. The mean age of the participants in the obese and non-obese groups was 38.33 ± 14.88 and 30.24 ± 13.37 years, respectively. Participants in the obese group had lower physical activity compared to the non-obese group (3395.38 ± 2801 MET-min/week vs. 6015.18 ± 3178 MET-min/week; p < 0.001). The Irisin concentration in the obese and non-obese groups was 7.84 ± 2.49 ng/ml and 8.06 ± 1.89 ng/ml, respectively, which wasn't significantly different (p = 0.66). We observed a noteworthy and favorable association between irisin concentration and total body water (TBW), lean body mass (LBM), and soft lean mass (SLM) in the non-obese group. Conclusions: These data indicated that although obese participants were relatively inactive compared to non-obese individuals, circulating irisin level wasn't significantly different between the two groups. Highlights: No irisin difference between obese and non-obese groups. Physical activity unrelated to irisin levels. Positive irisin correlation with lean mass in non-obese group. Triglycerides and cholesterol lower in non-obese group. Irisin linked to TSH and glucose levels in obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass communications frame fatness and COVID-19 as a dual threat. This discourse furthers well-established tendencies to degrade bodies labelled overweight or obese, positioning them as deficient and requiring correction. Empirically, this article draws from an online US right-wing news media platform, Campus Reform, including readers' comments (n = 135) on an article denouncing professors working in fat studies during the COVID-19 lockdown. This status degradation ceremony—backed by 'big money' that funds campus culture wars—not only targeted fat people but also academic disciplines, expertise, universities and social justice agenda. Analytically, this study draws from ethnomethodology and literature on media and bodyweight, meddling or health fascism, weaponized stigma and the politics of cruelty. Going beyond the flesh and a particular case study, it also challenges the ways in which cruelty enacted towards those deemed fat (especially women) can spiral into corrosive nationalist discourse in pandemic times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text-based person re-identification aims to find the target person from a large pedestrian gallery with the given natural language description. Previous works mainly focus on embedding salient textual and visual representations in a common latent space by utilizing the dual-path structure or parameter-shared network. However, they still lack the ability to effectively extract fine-grained unimodal features as well as fuse the cross-modal data, leading to the increase of misaligned cases. To settle these issues, we propose a text-and-image implicit learning Transformer (TILT) to eliminate textual anisotropy and enhance the cross-modal alignment from both domains based on the bi-direction multi-modal encoders. Specifically, we apply the pre-trained multi-modal embedding module to overcome the unimodal anisotropy problem with contrastive learning, and map fine-grained features with dual encoder in bi-directional masking. Then, we design the cross-modal interaction encoder to comprehensively mine implicit cross-modal relations by reconstructing masked tokens, and fuse rich multi-modal knowledge in a common space. In addition, the cross-modal similarity matching module is proposed to optimize the intra-domain classification and decrease the inter-domain divergence. Extensive experiments are conducted on three public benchmarks CUHK-PEDES, ICFG-PEDES, and RSTPReid to verify the effectiveness of our proposed framework. Results prove that our model outperforms state-of-the-art methods on all metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial "Making an Impact" from the Journal of Hand Surgery (Asian-Pacific Volume) emphasizes the importance of living a life that has significance in the lives of others. It discusses how making an impact starts with small actions locally, such as improving patient-centered care in the workplace. The editorial also highlights the role of mentorship, community outreach, and active participation in professional organizations in making a broader positive impact. Ultimately, the editorial encourages hand surgeons to lead impactful lives by inspiring others and setting high standards in their work. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the surge of norovirus outbreaks in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in the United States, due to a new variant of the virus and the resumption of gatherings interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Norovirus causes explosive diarrhea and vomiting, is highly infectious, and can survive on surfaces for long periods. Despite efforts to develop a vaccine, challenges remain in combating the virus, which is a leading cause of hospitalization for diarrheal disease and causes significant economic losses globally. The article highlights the need for continued research and development to address the impact of norovirus outbreaks. [Extracted from the article]

Calling someone fat is not only cruel and unkind—it also subordinates them. While the sharpest and most immediate harms of fatphobic bullying are emotional and psychological, these vary according to the resilience of the target. What one person can laugh off, another feels deeply, perhaps for years. But ‘fat-calling’ does not only have individual harms—it also perpetuates a subordinating social structure ranking fat people as inferior. Despite recent work on obesity and fatphobia, the conversational dynamics of ascribing fatness to someone else (rather than oneself) are relatively unexplored, especially in philosophy. This paper argues that fat-calling assigns its target a subordinate discourse role, constraining their subsequent conversational behaviour and permitting further discriminatory behaviour from interlocutors. And these conversational norm-changes alter the initial permissibility conditions of future conversations to the detriment of fat people. This is not to say that fat-calling is morally equivalent to slurs and hate speech—but it does show that it leverages similar conversational mechanisms to entrench injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroticism predicts behaviors symptomatic of behavior dysregulation. One idea is that Neuroticism encompasses deficits in executive functioning; despite this link being empirically substantiated, it remains poorly understood. If Neuroticism is associated with executive functioning deficits due to it activating impulsivity in response to negative emotion, and if Negative Urgency (NU) is the specific aspect of emotional impulsivity that amplifies impulsivity in response to negative emotion, then Neuroticism’s link to executive functioning deficits should be enhanced in individuals higher in NU. A large representative sample of US adults (N = 446; Mage = 46.10; 51.1% female; 78.0% White) completed validated measures of Neuroticism, NU and Positive Urgency (PU), and executive functioning deficits. As predicted, we found that Neuroticism’s link to executive functioning deficits was moderated by NU (after controlling for PU) but not PU (after controlling for NU); specifically, Neuroticism’s relation to executive functioning deficits was over twice as large for people with elevated (+1 SD) versus de-elevated (−1 SD) levels of NU. Furthermore, NU moderated relations between each Neuroticism facet (e.g., Anxiety, Anger) and executive functioning deficits. The findings extend understanding of how Neuroticism relates to executive functioning, suggesting utility in distinguishing between PU and NU and potentially studying Neuroticism and NU as interacting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novo Nordisk's amycretin, a GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist, showed promising results in a phase 1b/2a clinical trial for individuals with overweight or obesity. The trial demonstrated significant weight loss of up to 22% in participants receiving amycretin compared to those on a placebo. The safety profile of amycretin was similar to other incretin-based therapies, with gastrointestinal events being the most commonly reported adverse effects. Novo Nordisk plans to continue developing amycretin for the treatment of overweight and obesity based on these positive trial results. [Extracted from the article]