Does Self-Objectification Entail an Opposition Between Appearance and Competence? The Likert Version of the Self-Objectification Questionnaire (LSOQ).

We propose a new method to test the reliability of Fredrickson et al.'s self-objectification questionnaire (SOQ). This scale being based on a ranking, traditional reliability estimates are inappropriate. Based on generalizability theory, we suggest to compute the reliability of each subset of questions related to physical appearance vs. physical competence separately in order to average them. We applied this method to a sample of female US undergraduates (n = 395) and evidenced that the reliability of the scale is very low (corrected Cronbach's alpha = .31). We also noted that a large proportion of the sample (32%) failed to complete the scale correctly. In a second study (n = 93), we propose a Likert adaptation of the scale and show that the two dimensions of the SOQ are independent. In Study 3 (n = 195), we confirm results of Study 2 and demonstrate that the general structure of the Likert version has satisfactory model fit statistics. These observations lead us to discourage the use of the original version of the SOQ and rely on the Likert version of the Self-Objectification Questionnaire (LSOQ, see appendix).

Suboptimal Temperature Acclimation Affects Kennedy Pathway Gene Expression, Lipidome and Metabolite Profile of Nannochloropsis salina during PUFA Enriched TAG Synthesis.

In humans, dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are involved in therapeutic processes such as prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, neuropsychiatric disorders, and dementia. We examined the physiology, PUFA accumulation and glycerol lipid biosynthesis in the marine microalga Nannochloropsis salina in response to constant suboptimal temperature (<20 °C). As expected, N. salina exhibited significantly reduced growth rate and photosynthetic activity compared to optimal cultivation temperature. Total fatty acid contents were not significantly elevated at reduced temperatures. Cultures grown at 5 °C had the highest quantity of eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) (C20:5n3) and the lowest growth rate. Additionally, we monitored broadband lipid composition to model the occurrence of metabolic alteration and remodeling for various lipid pools. We focused on triacylglycerol (TAG) with elevated PUFA content. TAGs with EPA at all three acyl positions were higher at a cultivation temperature of 15 °C. Furthermore, monogalactosyldiacylglycerol and digalactosyldiacylglycerol, which are polar lipids associated with chloroplast membranes, decreased with reduced cultivation temperatures. Moreover, gene expression analysis of key genes involved in Kennedy pathway for de novo TAG biosynthesis revealed bimodal variations in transcript level amongst the temperature treatments. Collectively, these results show that Nannochloropsis salina is a promising source of PUFA containing lipids.