Adiposity, reproductive and metabolic health, and activity levels in zoo Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)

Acknowledgements The authors thank Dr Barbara Gower, Maryellen Williams, Heather Hunter and Cindy Zeng at the UAB NORC's Metabolism Core for their assistance with hormone assays and mass spectroscopy, and Dr Katie Edwards, Steve Paris and Niki Boisseau at SCBI for inflammatory and estradiol analyses. The authors thank African Lion Safari, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Columbus Zoo & Aquarium, Fort Worth Zoo, Little Rock Zoo, Oklahoma City Zoo, Oregon Zoo, Santa Barbara Zoo and Saint Louis Zoo for their participation in this study. Specifically, a very big thank you to the zoos' elephant keepers and elephants, who made this study possible and enjoyable. A special thank you to the Birmingham Zoo and Pat Flora and his elephant team for their continued support, help and input with method improvement. Funding This work was supported in part by the Smithsonian Institution, the UAB Nutrition Obesity Research Center (P30DK056336), the Diabetes Research Center (P30DK079626), the Nathan Shock Center on Aging (P30AG050886), and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (T32HL105349 to D.E.C.). Deposited in PMC for release after 12 months.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Benefits of calorie restriction in mice are mediated via energy imbalance, not absolute energy or protein intake

We thank Jifeng Huang and Xuemei Cao for their assistance with mouse care and data collection, the UAB Small Animal Phenotyping Core for body composition and indirect calorimetry measures, and the UAB Metabolism Core for hormone and metabolite assessments. We also acknowledge and thank the Biological Services Unit staff in Aberdeen for their help with animal care in facilities at the University of Aberdeen.Peer reviewe

Re-Analysis and Additional Information Needed to Inform Conclusions. Comment on Halenova et al. Deuterium-Depleted Water as Adjuvant Therapeutic Agent for Treatment of Diet-Induced Obesity in Rats. Molecules 2020, 25, 23

We were interested to read the report by Halenova et al. [...

Adiposity and Reproductive Cycling Status in Zoo African Elephants

Funded by Eppley Foundation for Research . Grant Number: P30DK056336 Diabetes Research Center . Grant Number: P30DK079626 Nathan Shock Center on Aging . Grant Number: P30AG050886 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute . Grant Number: T32HL105349 Nutrition Obesity Research Center, University of Alabama, BirminghamPeer reviewedPostprin

The Second Annual Symposium of the Midwest Aging Consortium: The Future of Aging Research in the Midwestern United States

While the average human life span continues to increase, there is little evidence that this is leading to a contemporaneous increase in “healthy years” experienced by our aging population. Consequently, many scientists focus their research on understanding the process of aging and trialing interventions that can promote healthspan. The 2021 Midwest Aging Consortium consensus statement is to develop and further the understanding of aging and age-related disease using the wealth of expertise across universities in the Midwestern United States. This report summarizes the cutting-edge research covered in a virtual symposium held by a consortium of researchers in the Midwestern United States, spanning topics such as senescence biomarkers, serotonin-induced DNA protection, immune system development, multisystem impacts of aging, neural decline following severe infection, the unique transcriptional impact of calorie restriction of different fat depots, the pivotal role of fasting in calorie restriction, the impact of peroxisome dysfunction, and the influence of early life trauma on health. The symposium speakers presented data from studies conducted in a variety of common laboratory animals as well as less-common species, including Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, mice, rhesus macaques, elephants, and humans. The consensus of the symposium speakers is that this consortium highlights the strength of aging research in the Midwestern United States as well as the benefits of a collaborative and diverse approach to geroscience.This article is published as Green, Cara L., Davis A. Englund, Srijit Das, Mariana M. Herrerias, Matthew J. Yousefzadeh, Rogan A. Grant, Josef Clark et al. "The Second Annual Symposium of the Midwest Aging Consortium: The Future of Aging Research in the Midwestern United States." The Journals of Gerontology: Series A 76, no. 12 (2021): 2156-2161. doi:10.1093/gerona/glab210. Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted

From Model Organisms to Humans, the Opportunity for More Rigor in Methodologic and Statistical Analysis, Design, and Interpretation of Aging and Senescence Research

This review identifies frequent design and analysis errors in aging and senescence research and discusses best practices in study design, statistical methods, analyses, and interpretation. Recommendations are offered for how to avoid these problems. The following issues are addressed: (a) errors in randomization, (b) errors related to testing within-group instead of between-group differences, (c) failing to account for clustering, (d) failing to consider interference effects, (e) standardizing metrics of effect size, (f) maximum life-span testing, (g) testing for effects beyond the mean, (h) tests for power and sample size, (i) compression of morbidity versus survival curve squaring, and (j) other hot topics, including modeling high-dimensional data and complex relationships and assessing model assumptions and biases. We hope that bringing increased awareness of these topics to the scientific community will emphasize the importance of employing sound statistical practices in all aspects of aging and senescence research