Predictors of body image dissatisfaction in kinesiology students.

Introduction: This research aimed to examine predictors of discrepancies between actual and ideal body images, specifically body fat and muscularity discrepancies, in kinesiology students. Methods: Volunteer participants (N = 174, men = 112, women = 62) filled out the sex-specific Somatomorphic Matrices (NSM-M and SM-F) as well as The Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale (PNPS), Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSE), and the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) using paper and pencil tools. Results: The median and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to determine sex differences, and regression analyses were used to determine the contribution of sex, perfectionism, self-esteem, and eating attitudes in explaining the variances in body fat and muscularity dissatisfaction. The results showed no sex differences in body fat discrepancy, while men showed more discrepancy between actual and ideal muscularity than women. In regression analyses, sex was the only significant predictor of muscularity discrepancy, while disordered eating attitudes were a positive, and positive perfectionism was a negative predictor of body fat discrepancy. Discussion: This study showed that while muscularity dissatisfaction is linked to the male sex, body fat dissatisfaction is not related to sex but to psychological variables of disordered eating attitudes and positive perfectionism in a population of youths that may be above average when it comes to physical activity.

Histological assessment of systemic granulomatosis progression in meagre Argyrosomus regius during cage ongrowing phase.

Meagre Argyrosomus regius is a potential candidate for Mediterranean aquaculture diversification, although several health issues still represent important bottlenecks for its sustainable production, including systemic granulomatosis (SG). To evaluate the SG progression in meagre during a 10 mo period of cage ongrowing, a histopathological investigation was carried out on 108 meagre fed 3 different diets (commercial pellets, hydrated commercial pellets and defrosted sardines). Histological sections of the gills and visceral organs were examined and lesions referable to SG scored from 1-3 according to the severity of the granulomatosis. The kidney and liver were the most affected organs, showing the highest percentage of positivity for granulomas and severity of lesions along the whole observation period. Using a statistical mixed model (GLMM) followed by odds ratio analysis, an effect of diet and temperature was found: the severity of liver and digestive tract SG scores decreased in the Cage 3 group (defrosted sardines) and with increasing temperature (p < 0.05, negative estimates, odds ratio <1). These observations, in accordance with the literature, suggest that SG in meagre could be related to nutritional-metabolic factors with the possible influence of environmental factors such as temperature.

Self-Reported Sleep Duration and Self-Rated Health in Young Adults.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the associations between the self-reported sleep duration and self-rated health in young adults. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, participants were 689 young adults (mean age 20 ± 1.35 years, 49.8% female). Sleep duration and self-rated health, as the main outcome of interest, were measured as self-reported. As potential covariates, we included sex, age, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity, sedentary behavior, psychological distress, and body mass index. RESULTS: Approximately 30% of participants slept 7-8 hours, 17.4% were short sleepers (categories < 6 hours and 6-7 hours), and 53.9% were long sleepers (categories 8-10 hours and > 10 hours of sleep). In an unadjusted model, compared with the reference category (7-8 hours of sleep), those who slept < 6 hours (odds ratio 0.20; 95% confidence interval 0.08 to 0.48) and between 6-7 hours (odds ratio 0.43; 95% confidence interval 0.26 to 0.69) were less likely to have good self-rated health. In an adjusted model, short (< 7 hours) and long sleep (> 10 hours) were both associated with poor self-rated health. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that both short (< 7 hours) and long (> 10 hours) sleepers have lower odds of having good self-rated health after adjusting for potential covariates. Health professionals should pay more attention to young adults, who have both short and long period of sleep, in order to prevent health problems and potential acute or chronic diseases.

Molecular characterisation of Babesia canis canis and Babesia canis vogeli from naturally infected European dogs.

The morphologically small Babesia species isolated from naturally infected dogs in Europe, Japan, and US are described as Babesia gibsoni despite the fact that molecular techniques show that they should be assigned to two or three separate taxons. The morphologically large Babesia isolated from dogs in Europe, Africa, and US were generally classified as B. canis until it was proposed to distinguish three related, albeit genetically distinct subspecies of this genus, namely B. canis canis, B. canis rossi, and B. canis vogeli. The insight into the molecular taxonomy of canine piroplasms is, however, limited because only partial small subunit ribosomal RNA (ssrRNA) sequence data exist for two species from the B. canis group. In this work, we molecularly characterised natural Babesia infections in 11 dogs from Croatia, France, Italy, and Poland. These infections were diagnosed as caused by B. canis canis and B. canis vogeli based on the analysis of the complete sequence of the ssrRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that the large Babesia species of dogs belong the to the Babesia sensu stricto clade, which includes species characterised by transovarial transmission in the tick vectors and by exclusive development inside the mammalian host erythrocytes. The new data facilitate the reliable molecular diagnosis of the subspecies of B. canis.