1,080 research outputs found
Metabolic dysfunction following weight cycling in male mice
Background: Combatting over-weight or obesity can lead to large fluctuations in an individualâs body weight, often referred to as weight cycling or âyo-yoâ dieting. Current evidence regarding the potentially damaging effects of these changes is conflicting.
Methods: Here, we assess the metabolic effects of weight cycling in a murine model, comprising three dietary switches to normal or high fat diets at 6 week intervals; male C57BL/6 mice were fed either a control (C) or high fat (F) diet for 6 weeks (n=140/group). C and F groups were then either maintained on their initial diet (CC and FF respectively) or
switched to a high fat (CF) or control (FC) diet (n=35/group). For the final 6 week interval, CC and CF groups were returned to the control diet (CCC and CFC groups) while FC and FF groups were placed on a high fat diet (FCF and FFF) (n=28/group).
Results: For the majority of metabolic outcomes changes aligned with dietary switches; however assessment of neuropeptides and receptors involved in appetite regulation and reward signalling pathways reveal variable patterns of expression. Furthermore, we demonstrate that multiple cycling events leads to a significant increase in internal fat
deposition, even when compared to animals maintained on a high fat diet (Internal Fat: FCF: 7.4 ± 0.2g vs. FFF: 5.6 ± 0.2g; p<0.01).
Conclusions: Increased internal adipose tissue is strongly linked to the development of metabolic syndrome associated conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease
and hypertension. While further work will be required to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the neuronal control of energy homeostasis, these studies provide a causative
link between weight cycling and adverse health
Comparison of LOQC C-sign gates with ancilla inefficiency and an improvement to functionality under these conditions
We compare three proposals for non-deterministic C-sign gates implemented
using linear optics and conditional measurements with non-ideal ancilla mode
production and detection. The simplified KLM gate [Ralph et al, Phys.Rev.A {\bf
65}, 012314 (2001)] appears to be the most resilient under these conditions. We
also find that the operation of this gate can be improved by adjusting the
beamsplitter ratios to compensate to some extent for the effects of the
imperfect ancilla.Comment: to appear in PR
Exercise Training Reduces Liver Fat and Increases Rates of VLDL Clearance, but not VLDL Production in NAFLD
Context Randomised controlled trials in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have shown that regular exercise, even without calorie restriction, reduces liver steatosis. A previous study has shown that 16 weeks supervised exercise training in NAFLD did not affect total VLDL kinetics.
Objective To determine the effect of exercise training on intrahepatocellular fat (IHCL) and the kinetics of large triglyceride-(TG)-rich VLDL1 and smaller denser VLDL2 which has a lower TG content.
Design A 16 week randomised controlled trial.
Patients 27 sedentary patients with NAFLD.
Intervention Supervised exercise with moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or conventional lifestyle advice (control).
Main outcome Very low density lipoprotein1 (VLDL1) and VLDL2-TG and apolipoproteinB (apoB) kinetics investigated using stable isotopes before and after the intervention.
Results In the exercise group VO2max increased by 31±6% (mean±SEM) and IHCL decreased from 19.6% (14.8, 30.0) to 8.9% (5.4, 17.3) (median (IQR)) with no significant change in VO2max or IHCL in the control group (change between groups p<0.001 and p=0.02, respectively). Exercise training increased VLDL1-TG and apoB fractional catabolic rates, a measure of clearance, (change between groups p=0.02 and p=0.01, respectively), and VLDL1-apoB production rate (change between groups p=0.006), with no change in VLDL1 -TG production rate. Plasma TG did not change in either group.
Conclusion An increased clearance of VLDL1 may contribute to the significant decrease in liver fat following 16 weeks of exercise in NAFLD. A longer duration or higher intensity exercise interventions may be needed to lower plasma TG and VLDL production rate
4f spin density in the reentrant ferromagnet SmMn2Ge2
The spin contribution to the magnetic moment in SmMn2Ge2 has been measured by
magnetic Compton scattering in both the low and high temperature ferromagnetic
phases. At low temperature, the Sm site is shown to possess a large 4f spin
moment of 3.4 +/- 0.1 Bohr magnetons, aligned antiparallel to the total
magnetic moment. At high temperature, the data show conclusively that ordered
magnetic moments are present on the samarium site.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, transferred from PRL to PRB (Rapid Comm.
SARS-CoV-2 testing in North Carolina: Racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities
SARS-CoV-2 testing data in North Carolina during the first three months of the state's COVID-19 pandemic were analyzed to determine if there were disparities among intersecting axes of identity including race, Latinx ethnicity, age, urban-rural residence, and residence in a medically underserved area. Demographic and residential data were used to reconstruct patterns of testing metrics (including tests per capita, positive tests per capita, and test positivity rate which is an indicator of sufficient testing) across race-ethnicity groups and urban-rural populations separately. Across the entire sample, 13.1% (38,750 of 295,642) of tests were positive. Within racial-ethnic groups, 11.5% of all tests were positive among non-Latinx (NL) Whites, 22.0% for NL Blacks, and 66.5% for people of Latinx ethnicity. The test positivity rate was higher among people living in rural areas across all racial-ethnic groups. These results suggest that in the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, access to COVID-19 testing in North Carolina was not evenly distributed across racial-ethnic groups, especially in Latinx, NL Black and other historically marginalized populations, and further disparities existed within these groups by gender, age, urban-rural status, and residence in a medically underserved area
External validation of the fatty liver index and lipid accumulation product indices, using H-1-magnetic resonance spectroscopy, to identify hepatic steatosis in healthy controls and obese, insulin-resistant individuals
Background and Aims. Simple clinical algorithms including the Fatty Liver Index (FLI) and Lipid Accumulation Product (LAP) have been developed as a surrogate marker for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). These algorithms have been constructed using ultrasonography, a semi-quantitative method. This study aimed to validate FLI and LAP as measures of hepatic steatosis, as measured quantitatively by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS).
Methods. Data were collected from 168 patients with NAFLD and 168 controls who had undergone clinical, biochemical and anthropometric assessment in the course of research studies. Values of FLI and LAP were determined, and assessed both as predictors of the presence of hepatic steatosis (liver fat >5.5 %) and of actual liver fat content, as measured by 1H MRS. The discriminative ability of FLI and LAP was estimated using the area under the Receiver Operator Characteristic curve (AUROC). Since FLI can also be interpreted as a predictive probability of hepatic steatosis, we assessed how well calibrated it was in our cohort. Linear regression with prediction intervals was used to assess the ability of FLI and LAP to predict liver fat content.
Results. FLI and LAP discriminated between patients with and without hepatic steatosis with an AUROC of 0.79 (IQR= 0.74, 0.84) and 0.78 (IQR= 0.72, 0.83), although quantitative prediction of liver fat content was unsuccessful. Additionally, the algorithms accurately matched the observed percentages of patients with hepatic steatosis in our cohort.
Conclusions. FLI and LAP may be used clinically, and for metabolic and epidemiological research, to identify patients with hepatic steatosis, but not as surrogates for liver fat content
An efficient algorithm to calculate intrinsic thermoelectric parameters based on Landauer approach
The Landauer approach provides a conceptually simple way to calculate the
intrinsic thermoelectric (TE) parameters of materials from the ballistic to the
diffusive transport regime. This method relies on the calculation of the number
of propagating modes and the scattering rate for each mode. The modes are
calculated from the energy dispersion (E(k)) of the materials which require
heavy computation and often supply energy relation on sparse momentum (k)
grids. Here an efficient method to calculate the distribution of modes (DOM)
from a given E(k) relationship is presented. The main features of this
algorithm are, (i) its ability to work on sparse dispersion data, and (ii)
creation of an energy grid for the DOM that is almost independent of the
dispersion data therefore allowing for efficient and fast calculation of TE
parameters. The inclusion of scattering effects is also straight forward. The
effect of k-grid sparsity on the compute time for DOM and on the sensitivity of
the calculated TE results are provided. The algorithm calculates the TE
parameters within 5% accuracy when the K-grid sparsity is increased up to 60%
for all the dimensions (3D, 2D and 1D). The time taken for the DOM calculation
is strongly influenced by the transverse K density (K perpendicular to
transport direction) but is almost independent of the transport K density
(along the transport direction). The DOM and TE results from the algorithm are
bench-marked with, (i) analytical calculations for parabolic bands, and (ii)
realistic electronic and phonon results for .Comment: 16 Figures, 3 Tables, submitted to Journal of Computational
electronic
Asymmetric quantum channel for quantum teleportation
There are a few obstacles, which bring about imperfect quantum teleportation
of a continuous variable state, such as unavailability of maximally entangled
two-mode squeezed states, inefficient detection and imperfect unitary
transformation at the receiving station. We show that all those obstacles can
be understood by a combination of an {\it asymmetrically-decohered} quantum
channel and perfect apparatuses for other operations. For the
asymmetrically-decohered quantum channel, we find some counter-intuitive
results; one is that teleportation does not necessarily get better as the
channel is initially squeezed more and another is when one branch of the
quantum channel is unavoidably subject to some imperfect operations, blindly
making the other branch as clean as possible may not result in the best
teleportation result. We find the optimum strategy to teleport an unknown field
for a given environment or for a given initial squeezing of the channel.Comment: 4pages, 1figur
Entanglement of two-mode Bose-Einstein condensates
We investigate the entaglement characteristics of two general bimodal
Bose-Einstein condensates - a pair of tunnel-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates
and the atom-molecule Bose-Einstein condensate. We argue that the entanglement
is only physically meaningful if the system is viewed as a bipartite system,
where the subsystems are the two modes. The indistinguishibility of the
particles in the condensate means that the atomic constituents are physically
inaccessible and thus the degree of entanglement between individual particles,
unlike the entanglement between the modes, is not experimentally relevant so
long as the particles remain in the condensed state. We calculate the
entanglement between the modes for the exact ground state of the two bimodal
condensates and consider the dynamics of the entanglement in the tunnel-coupled
case.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Physical Review A, to be presented
at the third UQ Mathematical Physics workshop, Oct. 4-6; changes made in
response to referee comment
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