Chronic Loss of Melanin-Concentrating Hormone Affects Motivational Aspects of Feeding in the Rat

Current epidemic obesity levels apply great medical and financial pressure to the strenuous economy of obesity-prone cultures, and neuropeptides involved in body weight regulation are regarded as attractive targets for a possible treatment of obesity in humans. The lateral hypothalamus and the nucleus accumbens shell (AcbSh) form a hypothalamic-limbic neuropeptide feeding circuit mediated by Melanin-Concentrating Hormone (MCH). MCH promotes feeding behavior via MCH receptor-1 (MCH1R) in the AcbSh, although this relationship has not been fully characterized. Given the AcbSh mediates reinforcing properties of food, we hypothesized that MCH modulates motivational aspects of feeding

Investigation of the empirical relation between student sketching, attendance and performance in construction education

Traditionally students’ attendance and overall performance have been hypothesized to go hand in hand. In current study, 195 students from non-engineering background were taught athree credits core course of construction and their attendance vs performance results are empirically investigated. Further, the students’ attendance and performance have also been assessed against tutors’ experience to highlight students’performance in tutorials of fresh vs experienced tutors. The assessment criteria of two quizzes each 20% weight, 1 assignment of 20% weight and a mid-semester exam with 40% weight are utilized with an attendance criterion of below 75% as low attendance. The result highlights that a clear difference of 14% marks exist between the students with less than 75% attendance and the ones with 75% and above. The studentswith low attendanceaveraged at 53.35% in terms of overall marks obtained whereas the good attendance students secured 67.40% marks on average. Furthermore, in terms of fresh vs experienced tutors, students taught by fresh and less experienced tutors not only displayed better attendance but also out passed the experienced tutors’students by a difference of 4% marks in terms of overall marks. Additionally, students with high marks in sketches secured higher overall marks as compared to the ones with lower sketch marks validating the hypothesis that students with better sketches have better imagination and perceptions, a must to have skills for construction academics and architects. This study is useful for teaching professionals and encourages the use of sketches and visualisation in construction.This ongoing study will be aided by semi structured interviews with tutors and randomly selected students to highlight the underlying factors dictating this gap. The results are expected to lay foundation for better performance of students with non-engineering backgrounds in constructioncourses

Excellent energy absorption capacity of nanostructured Cu–Zn thin-walled tube

The present study shows that nanostructured (NS) thin-walled tubes possess an excellent energy absorption capacity, which was increased about four times compared to their course grained counterparts. Different deformation modes of axisymmetric concertina folding, three lobes diamond, and two lobe diamond forms were observed in annealed, single pass and two pass parallel tubular channel angular pressing (PTCAP) processed tubes, respectively

Fluoxetine administration to pregnant rats increases anxiety-related behavior in the offspring

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