There are modifiable health behavior differences between rural and urban children which may account for the significantly higher obesity rates among rural children.

As expected, the use of focus group methodology yielded evidence of barriers to communication that had not been previously identified in the literature, as well as those that had been well documented. Consistent with a socioecological view of pediatric healthcare, results suggest a number of systems that could be targeted to improve nurses' weight-related communications with families.

Both telemedicine and structured physician visit may be feasible and acceptable methods of delivering pediatric obesity treatment to rural children.

Objective The objective of the current study was to examine the feasibility of telemedicine vs. telephone for the delivery of a multidisciplinary weekly family based behavioral group intervention to treat pediatric obesity delivered to families living in rural areas using a randomized controlled trial methodology. Methods 103 rural children and their families were recruited. Feasibility measures included participant satisfaction, session attendance and retention. Treatment outcome measures included child BMIz, Parent BMI, 24-hour dietary recalls, accelerometer data, Child Behavior Checklist and the Behavioral Pediatrics Feeding Assessment Scale. Results Participants were highly satisfied with the intervention both via telemedicine and via telephone. Completion rates were much higher than for other pediatric obesity intervention programs, and both methodologies were highly feasible. There were no differences in telemedicine and telephone groups on primary outcomes. Conclusion Both telemedicine and telephone intervention appear to be feasible and acceptable methods of delivering pediatric obesity treatment to rural children.

When shown food logos, obese children showed significantly less brain activation than the healthy weight children in regions associated with cognitive control. This provides initial neuroimaging evidence that obese children may be more vulnerable to the effects of food advertising.

Results suggest the effectiveness of family-based interventions for pediatric obesity in clinical settings among younger children. Neither intervention was effective in terms of reducing zBMI among adolescents.

Branding and advertising have a powerful effect on both familiarity and preference for products, yet no neuroimaging studies have examined neural response to logos in children. Food advertising is particularly pervasive and effective in manipulating choices in children. The purpose of this study was to examine how healthy children’s brains respond to common food and other logos. A pilot validation study was first conducted with 32 children to select the most culturally familiar logos, and to match food and non-food logos on valence and intensity. A new sample of 17 healthy weight children were then scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Food logos compared to baseline were associated with increased activation in orbitofrontal cortex and inferior prefrontal cortex. Compared to non-food logos, food logos elicited increased activation in posterior cingulate cortex. Results confirmed that food logos activate some brain regions in children known to be associated with motivation. This marks the first study in children to examine brain responses to culturally familiar logos. Considering the pervasiveness of advertising, research should further investigate how children respond at the neural level to marketing.

Davis MJ, Lane MM, Davis AM, Durtschi D, Zawieja DC, Muthuchamy M, Gashev AA. Modulation of lymphatic muscle contractility by the neuropeptide substance P. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 295: H587-H597, 2008. First published June 6, 2008 doi:10.1152/ajpheart.01029.2007.-Substance P (SP) is a neuropeptide associated with sensory innervation of lymphoid tissue and a suspected modulator of lymphatic function in inflammation. Only a few studies have examined the effects of SP on lymphatic contraction, and it is not clear to what extent SP acts directly on the lymphatic muscle and/or endothelium or indirectly through changes in intraluminal filling pressure secondary to increases in capillary permeability/ filtration. We tested the effects of SP on the spontaneous contractions of rat isolated mesenteric lymphatic vessels under isometric and isobaric conditions, hypothesizing that low concentrations would stimulate lymphatic pumping by enhancing lymphatic muscle contraction in a manner complementary to the effect of increased preload. Under isometric conditions, SP (10 nM) dramatically enhanced lymphatic chronotropy and inotropy. Unlike guinea pig lymphatics, SP actions were not blocked by cyclooxygenase or PLA2 inhibition. In the absence of SP, ramp increases in isometric preload resulted in ϫϳ1.6 increases in contraction amplitude (Amp) and ϫϳ1.7 increases in frequency (Freq). SP increased Freq by ϫϳ2.4, Amp by ϫϳ1.9, and the Amp-Freq product (AFP) by ϫϳ3.5. Under isobaric conditions, the pressure elevation from 0.5 to 10 cmH2O in the absence of SP decreased Amp by ϫϳ0.6 and increased Freq by ϫϳ1.8. SP caused a modest increase in Amp, a robust increase in Freq at all pressures, and shifted the AFP-pressure relationship upward and leftward. Therefore, SP has substantial positive inotropic and chronotropic effects on rat lymphatic muscle, improving pump efficiency independent of the effects of preload and broadening of the working range of the lymphatic pump. neurokinin; edema; inflammation; lymphatic pump; inotropy; chronotropy; thromboxane A2 SUBSTANCE P (SP) is an 11-amino acid neuropeptide (36) often associated with cells of lymphoid tissue (15,19,21,22,46,47). SP is released from enteric nerves, sensory nerves, and inflammatory cells (27,41,45,52). Correspondingly, SP receptors are expressed on endothelium and muscle of blood and lymphatic vessels, on nerves innervating those vessels, and on associated immune and inflammatory cells (31,36,44).SP appears to have both direct and indirect effects on vascular targets. For example, SP is a powerful stimulator of endothelium-dependent nitric oxide production (28), evoking vasodilation and increasing local blood flow. In addition, SP enhances vascular permeability (18,25) and stimulates the release of cytokines and chemokines (4, 36) that would indirectly elicit vasodilation and increase vascular permeability. These vascular effects of SP would collectively increase flow/ pressure in capillaries and post-capillary venules and lead to increases in transcapillary fluid ...