SPRING: an RCT study of probiotics in the prevention of gestational diabetes mellitus in overweight and obese women

Background: Obesity is increasing in the child-bearing population as are the rates of gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is associated with higher rates of Cesarean Section for the mother and increased risks of macrosomia, higher body fat mass, respiratory distress and hypoglycemia for the infant. Prevention of gestational diabetes through life style intervention has proven to be difficult. A Finnish study showed that ingestion of specific probiotics altered the composition of the gut microbiome and thereby metabolism from early gestation and decreased rates of gestational diabetes in normal weight women. In SPRING (the Study of Probiotics IN the prevention of Gestational diabetes), the effectiveness of probiotics ingestion for the prevention of gestational diabetes will be assessed in overweight and obese women

Neuroprotective Potential of Biphalin, Multireceptor Opioid Peptide, Against Excitotoxic Injury in Hippocampal Organotypic Culture

Biphalin is a dimeric opioid peptide that exhibits affinity for three types of opioid receptors (MOP, DOP and KOP). Biphalin is undergoing intensive preclinical study. It was recognized that activation of δ-opioid receptor elicits neuroprotection against brain hypoxia and ischemia. We compare the effect of biphalin and morphine and the inhibition of opioid receptors by naltrexone on survival of neurons in rat organotypic hippocampal cultures challenged with NMDA. Findings: (1) 0.025–0.1 μM biphalin reduces NMDA-induced neuronal damage; (2) biphalin neuroprotection is abolished by naltrexone; (3) reduced number of dead cells is shown even if biphalin is applied with delay after NMDA challenge

Swarming Behavior in Plant Roots

Interactions between individuals that are guided by simple rules can generate swarming behavior. Swarming behavior has been observed in many groups of organisms, including humans, and recent research has revealed that plants also demonstrate social behavior based on mutual interaction with other individuals. However, this behavior has not previously been analyzed in the context of swarming. Here, we show that roots can be influenced by their neighbors to induce a tendency to align the directions of their growth. In the apparently noisy patterns formed by growing roots, episodic alignments are observed as the roots grow close to each other. These events are incompatible with the statistics of purely random growth. We present experimental results and a theoretical model that describes the growth of maize roots in terms of swarming

Two-Photon Imaging of Calcium in Virally Transfected Striate Cortical Neurons of Behaving Monkey

Two-photon scanning microscopy has advanced our understanding of neural signaling in non-mammalian species and mammals. Various developments are needed to perform two-photon scanning microscopy over prolonged periods in non-human primates performing a behavioral task. In striate cortex in two macaque monkeys, cortical neurons were transfected with a genetically encoded fluorescent calcium sensor, memTNXL, using AAV1 as a viral vector. By constructing an extremely rigid and stable apparatus holding both the two-photon scanning microscope and the monkey's head, single neurons were imaged at high magnification for prolonged periods with minimal motion artifacts for up to ten months. Structural images of single neurons were obtained at high magnification. Changes in calcium during visual stimulation were measured as the monkeys performed a fixation task. Overall, functional responses and orientation tuning curves were obtained in 18.8% of the 234 labeled and imaged neurons. This demonstrated that the two-photon scanning microscopy can be successfully obtained in behaving primates

Statistical Mechanics and the Physics of the Many-Particle Model Systems

The development of methods of quantum statistical mechanics is considered in light of their applications to quantum solid-state theory. We discuss fundamental problems of the physics of magnetic materials and the methods of the quantum theory of magnetism, including the method of two-time temperature Green's functions, which is widely used in various physical problems of many-particle systems with interaction. Quantum cooperative effects and quasiparticle dynamics in the basic microscopic models of quantum theory of magnetism: the Heisenberg model, the Hubbard model, the Anderson Model, and the spin-fermion model are considered in the framework of novel self-consistent-field approximation. We present a comparative analysis of these models; in particular, we compare their applicability for description of complex magnetic materials. The concepts of broken symmetry, quantum protectorate, and quasiaverages are analyzed in the context of quantum theory of magnetism and theory of superconductivity. The notion of broken symmetry is presented within the nonequilibrium statistical operator approach developed by D.N. Zubarev. In the framework of the latter approach we discuss the derivation of kinetic equations for a system in a thermal bath. Finally, the results of investigation of the dynamic behavior of a particle in an environment, taking into account dissipative effects, are presented.Comment: 77 pages, 1 figure, Refs.37

Confusion and diffusion in local government; a case study from Eastern Nigeria

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityPLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you.This dissertation is a case study of the development of local government in former Eastern Nigeria. In discussing this topic several inter-related themes and analytic problems are dealth with. A primary concern of this project is to present an analysis of political change in a non-Western society and to relate this process to several topics such as the use of representative local government as an agent of political development and urbanization as a focus of social change. In this respect an urban case study is presented as a perspective from which to inquire into the politics of the larger society of which the city is a part. There is an attempt to analyse the process of "modernization" in what was Eastern Nigeria by studying the development of local government in the urban milieu. And finally, I attempted to illustrate why political institutions imported into Igbo society have not functioned as expected by tracing the historical development of British colonial administration and the subsequent introduction of representative local government. The principle contention of the dissertation is that the processes of "Westernization" modernization" and "political development" have served to stretch and diversify rather than to destroy the traditional order among the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria. In contrast to other studies which have stressed the breaking down of traditional culture upon contact with a more "modern" one, this study emphasizes that in this case contact with Western culture reinforced, rather than disrupted, traditional values and methods of doing things. The traditional Igbo political system is a compound of self-governing primary units such as family, clan and village. The functions of formal government were minimal and the superimposed formal apparatus of representative local government based on the "model" of local government in Britain was never accorded full legitimacy and never succeeded in replacing the substructure of decentralized autonomous political cells characteristic of the traditional culture. It is suggested that elements of cultural resilience may yet prove to be most significant in understanding the modernization and development process in any given society. This study is based on research conducted during two trips to Nigeria in the summer of 1960 and the spring and summer of 1966. Material was also collected in libraries and archives in Los Angeles, Boston, London, Ibadan and Enugu. In Nigeria in 1966 I spent three months in Aba, Eastern Nigeria, which is the focus of my case study. Here I interviewed thirty ex-councillors of the Aba Urban County Council, fifteen "retired" politicians active in regional and national politics prior to Nigeria's first military coup of January, 1966, and a cross section of twenty-five lawyers, doctors and teachers living in the city. In addition, a questionnaire was administered to 250 secondary school pupils in the city's schools. While in Aba I was also given access to all the records and minutes of the Council. The military regime at that time placed no restrictions whatsoever on my research, and in fact, by granting me immediate access to pertinent material, greatly facilitated it.2031-01-0