666 research outputs found
A systematic review and meta-analysis of environmental contaminant exposure impacts on weight loss and glucose regulation during calorie-restricted diets in preclinical studies:Persistent organic pollutants may impede glycemic control
Epidemiological evidence links chemical exposure with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) risk and prevalence. Chemical exposure may therefore also limit success of weight loss or restoration of glycemic control during calorie restricted diets. Few human studies examine this hypothesis. This systematic review and clustered meta-analysis examines preclinical evidence that exposure to anthropogenic environmental contaminants impedes weight loss and resumption of glycemic control during calorie restriction. Of five eligible papers from 212 unique citations, four used C57BL/6 mice and one used Sprague Dawley rats. In four the animals received high fat diets to induce obesity and impaired glycemic control. All examined persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) 77 exposure did not affect final mass (standardised mean difference (SMD) = -0.35 [-1.09, 0.39]; n = 5 (experiments); n = 3 (papers)), or response to insulin in insulin tolerance tests (SMD = -1.54 [-3.25, 0.16] n = 3 (experiments); n = 2 (papers)), but impaired glucose control in glucose tolerance tests (SMD = -1.30 [-1.96, -0.63]; n = 6 (experiments); n = 3 (papers)). The impaired glycemic control following perfluoro-octane sulphonic acid (PFOS) exposure and enhanced mass loss following dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) exposure have not been replicated. Animal studies thus suggest some chemical groups, especially PCB and PFOS, could impair glucose control management during calorie restriction, similar to conclusions from limited existing clinical studies. We discuss the research that is urgently required to inform weight management services that are now the mainstay prevention initiative for T2DM.</p
A systematic review and meta-analysis of environmental contaminant exposure impacts on weight loss and glucose regulation during calorie-restricted diets in preclinical studies:Persistent organic pollutants may impede glycemic control
Epidemiological evidence links chemical exposure with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) risk and prevalence. Chemical exposure may therefore also limit success of weight loss or restoration of glycemic control during calorie restricted diets. Few human studies examine this hypothesis. This systematic review and clustered meta-analysis examines preclinical evidence that exposure to anthropogenic environmental contaminants impedes weight loss and resumption of glycemic control during calorie restriction. Of five eligible papers from 212 unique citations, four used C57BL/6 mice and one used Sprague Dawley rats. In four the animals received high fat diets to induce obesity and impaired glycemic control. All examined persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) 77 exposure did not affect final mass (standardised mean difference (SMD) = -0.35 [-1.09, 0.39]; n = 5 (experiments); n = 3 (papers)), or response to insulin in insulin tolerance tests (SMD = -1.54 [-3.25, 0.16] n = 3 (experiments); n = 2 (papers)), but impaired glucose control in glucose tolerance tests (SMD = -1.30 [-1.96, -0.63]; n = 6 (experiments); n = 3 (papers)). The impaired glycemic control following perfluoro-octane sulphonic acid (PFOS) exposure and enhanced mass loss following dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) exposure have not been replicated. Animal studies thus suggest some chemical groups, especially PCB and PFOS, could impair glucose control management during calorie restriction, similar to conclusions from limited existing clinical studies. We discuss the research that is urgently required to inform weight management services that are now the mainstay prevention initiative for T2DM.</p
Precision Primordial He Measurement with CMB Experiments
Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are
two major pillars of cosmology. Standard BBN accurately predicts the primordial
light element abundances (He, D, He and Li), depending on one
parameter, the baryon density. Light element observations are used as a
baryometers. The CMB anisotropies also contain information about the content of
the universe which allows an important consistency check on the Big Bang model.
In addition CMB observations now have sufficient accuracy to not only determine
the total baryon density, but also resolve its principal constituents, H and
He. We present a global analysis of all recent CMB data, with special
emphasis on the concordance with BBN theory and light element observations. We
find and
(fraction of baryon mass as He) using CMB data alone, in agreement with
He abundance observations. With this concordance established we show that
the inclusion of BBN theory priors significantly reduces the volume of
parameter space. In this case, we find
and . We also find that the inclusion of deuterium
abundance observations reduces the and ranges by a factor
of 2. Further light element observations and CMB anisotropy experiments
will refine this concordance and sharpen BBN and the CMB as tools for precision
cosmology.Comment: 7 pages, 3 color figures made minor changes to bring inline with
journal versio
Neutrino-induced lepton flavor violation in gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking
Gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking is known to greatly suppress flavor
changing neutral current effects. However, we show that gauge mediation in the
context of leptogenesis implies potentially large lepton flavor violating
signals. If the heavy right-handed neutrinos that participate in leptogenesis
are lighter than the messenger scale of gauge mediation, they will induce
flavor off-diagonal masses to the sleptons which in turn can induce large
effects in mu to e gamma, tau to mu gamma, and mu-e conversion in nuclei. We
demonstrate this result and compute numerically the lepton-flavor violating
decay and conversion rates in scenarios of direct gauge mediation.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure
The Subdominant Curvaton
We present a systematic study of the amplitude of the primordial perturbation
in curvaton models with self-interactions, treating both renormalizable and
non-renormalizable interactions. In particular, we consider the possibility
that the curvaton energy density is subdominant at the time of the curvaton
decay. We find that large regions in the parameter space give rise to the
observed amplitude of primordial perturbation even for non-renormalizable
curvaton potentials, for which the curvaton energy density dilutes fast. At the
time of its decay, the curvaton energy density may typically be subdominant by
a relative factor of 10^-3 and still produce the observed perturbation. Field
dynamics turns out to be highly non-trivial, and for non-renormalizable
potentials and certain regions of the parameter space we observe a
non-monotonous relation between the final curvature perturbation and the
initial curvaton value. In those cases, the time evolution of the primordial
perturbation also displays an oscillatory behaviour before the curvaton decay.Comment: Acknowledgments of financial support added, no further change
What is "system": the information-theoretic arguments
The problem of "what is 'system'?" is in the very foundations of modern
quantum mechanics. Here, we point out the interest in this topic in the
information-theoretic context. E.g., we point out the possibility to manipulate
a pair of mutually non-interacting, non-entangled systems to employ
entanglement of the newly defined '(sub)systems' consisting the one and the
same composite system. Given the different divisions of a composite system into
"subsystems", the Hamiltonian of the system may perform in general
non-equivalent quantum computations. Redefinition of "subsystems" of a
composite system may be regarded as a method for avoiding decoherence in the
quantum hardware. In principle, all the notions refer to a composite system as
simple as the hydrogen atom.Comment: 13 pages, no figure
UK export performance research - review and implications
Previous research on export performance has been criticized for being a mosaic of autonomous endeavours and for a lack of theoretical development. Building upon extant models of export performance, and a review and analysis of research on export performance in the UK for the period 1990-2005, an integrated model of export performance is developed and theoretical explanations of export performance are put forward. It is suggested that a multi-theory approach to explaining export performance is viable. Management and policy implications for the UK emerging from the review and synthesis of the literature and the integrated model are discussed
On MSSM charged Higgs boson production in association with an electroweak W boson at electron positron colliders
We present a calculation of the cross section for the process e+ e- --> W+/-
H-/+ in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) and the Two Higgs
Doublet Model (THDM). We study the basic features of the MSSM prediction for
some distinctive parameter scenarios. We find large effects from virtual
squarks for scenarios with large mixing in the stop sector which can lead to a
cross section vastly different from a THDM with identical Higgs sector
parameters. We investigate this interesting behaviour in more detail by
thoroughly scanning the MSSM parameter space for regions of large cross
section. For a charged Higgs boson too heavy to be pair-produced at such a
machine, it turns out that a large MSSM cross section with a good chance of
observation is linked to a squark mass scale below 600 GeV and a considerable
amount of mixing in either the stop and sbottom sector.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures (two in colour). Substantially improved on the
MSSM parameter restrictions taken into account. Added some reference
Solar Neutrino Constraints on the BBN Production of Li
Using the recent WMAP determination of the baryon-to-photon ratio, 10^{10}
\eta = 6.14 to within a few percent, big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN)
calculations can make relatively accurate predictions of the abundances of the
light element isotopes which can be tested against observational abundance
determinations. At this value of \eta, the Li7 abundance is predicted to be
significantly higher than that observed in low metallicity halo dwarf stars.
Among the possible resolutions to this discrepancy are 1) Li7 depletion in the
atmosphere of stars; 2) systematic errors originating from the choice of
stellar parameters - most notably the surface temperature; and 3) systematic
errors in the nuclear cross sections used in the nucleosynthesis calculations.
Here, we explore the last possibility, and focus on possible systematic errors
in the He3(\alpha,\gamma)Be7 reaction, which is the only important Li7
production channel in BBN. The absolute value of the cross section for this key
reaction is known relatively poorly both experimentally and theoretically. The
agreement between the standard solar model and solar neutrino data thus
provides additional constraints on variations in the cross section (S_{34}).
Using the standard solar model of Bahcall, and recent solar neutrino data, we
can exclude systematic S_{34} variations of the magnitude needed to resolve the
BBN Li7 problem at > 95% CL. Additional laboratory data on
He3(\alpha,\gamma)Be7 will sharpen our understanding of both BBN and solar
neutrinos, particularly if care is taken in determining the absolute cross
section and its uncertainties. Nevertheless, it already seems that this
``nuclear fix'' to the Li7 BBN problem is unlikely; other possible solutions
are briefly discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 3 ps figure
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