Food portion sizes, obesity, and related metabolic complications in children and adolescents [Tamaño de las porciones de alimentos, obesidad y complicaciones metabólicas asociadas en niños y adolescentes]

The purpose of this narrative review is to provide evidence for the impact of food portion sizes on the development of obesity in children and adolescents. Strategies are needed on portion size estimation and on the relationship of portion size with certain health problems such as obesity, insulin resistance, and emotional eating in all age groups, in order to provide information for parents, teachers, and health professionals aiming to promote healthy eating. A wide range of controlled laboratory studies have found that portion size (PS) had the strongest effect on the amount of food consumed. The effect of PS on total energy intake has been already observed with different types of foods and beverages, especially with energy-dense foods. The influence of large PS was persistent and happened regardless of demographic characteristics such as age, gender, income level, or body mass index. Although a direct causal link between PS and obesity remains controversial, some health and dietetics organi-zations recommend to moderate PS, especially for energy-dense foods. Research studies in both laboratory and free-living contexts are needed to determine the causal link between increased PS, obesity, and related metabolic complications in children and adolescents

119 AUTOMATED MRI ATLAS-BASED STANDARDIZED QUANTIFICATION OF SUBCHONDRAL BONE PLATE CURVATURE: DATA FROM THE OSTEOARTHRITIS INITIATIVE

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The Big Trip and Wheeler-DeWitt equation

Of all the possible ways to describe the behavior of the universe that has undergone a big trip the Wheeler-DeWitt equation should be the most accurate -- provided, of course, that we employ the correct formulation. In this article we start by discussing the standard formulation introduced by Gonz\'alez-D\'iaz and Jimenez-Madrid, and show that it allows for a simple yet efficient method of the solution's generation, which is based on the Moutard transformation. Next, by shedding the unnecessary restrictions, imposed on aforementioned standard formulation we introduce a more general form of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. One immediate prediction of this new formula is that for the universe the probability to emerge right after the big trip in a state with $w=w_0$ will be maximal if and only if $w_0=-1/3$.Comment: accepted in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

High-resolution spatio-temporal analyses of drought episodes in the western Mediterranean basin (Spanish mainland, Iberian Peninsula)

The purpose of this research was to identify major drought events on the Spanish mainland between 1961 and 2014 by means of two drought indices, and analyze the spatial propagation of drought conditions. The indices applied were the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and the standardized evaporation precipitation index (SPEI). The first was calculated as standardized anomalies of precipitation at various temporal intervals, while the second examined the climatic balance normalized at monthly scale, incorporating the relationship between precipitation and the atmospheric water demand. The daily meteorological data from Spanish Meteorological Archives (AEMet) were used in performing the analyses. Within the framework of the DESEMON project, original data were converted into a high spatial resolution grid (1.1 km2) following exhaustive quality control. Values of both indices were calculated on a weekly scale and different timescales (12, 24 and 36 months). The results show that during the first half of the study period, the SPI usually returned a higher identification of drought areas, while the reverse was true from the 1990s, suggesting that the effect from atmospheric evaporative demand could have increased. The temporal propagation from 12- to 24-month and 36-month timescales analyzed in the paper seems to be a far from straightforward phenomenon that does not follow a simple rule of time lag, because events at different temporal scales can overlap in time and space. Spatially, the propagation of drought events affecting more than 25% of the total land indicates the existence of various spatial gradients of drought propagation, mostly east–west or west–east, but also north–south have been found. No generalized episodes were found with a radial pattern, i.e., from inland to the coast

Effect Of Fixative Type And Fixation Time On The Morphology Of Equine Preantral Ovarian Follicles

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of the tissue fixatives Bouin, Carnoy and 10% Formaldehyde in equine ovarian fragments. Ovaries (n=4) from mares of mixed breeds were obtained at a local slaughterhouse and transported at 20 oC in a thermo container. Immediately after collection, the ovaries were washed with a modified PBS solution (CultilabR, Campinas-SP, Brazil) and divided into nine fragments with approximately 5x5x1 mm, removed from the parenchyma of each ovary. The ovarian fragments were then immersed in three different fixatives, Bouin (B) Carnoy (C) or 10% Formaldehyde (F) for 6, 12 or 24 hours. Each fragment was individually immersed in a 20 mL tube containing 20 times the volume of fixative solution. After this period, the fragments were held in 70% ethanol for 24 hours. Each procedure was performed in four replicates. For histological analysis, the specimens were dehydrated in increasing concentrations of alcohol, submitted to diaphanization in xylol and embedded in paraffin. Serial sections of 5 'Êm were made with the use of a rotating microtome (LeicaR type, Wetzlar, Germany), followed by slide mounting and staining with periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) and hematoxylin. A total of 540 slides with 1,620 sections were evaluated, which contained 465 preantral follicles that were classified as normal or degenerated. Follicles were considered as degenerated when presented at least one of the following aspects: cytoplasm retraction, pyknotic nucleus, cytoplasmic vacuoles, displacement of granulosa cells and/or disruption of the basal membrane. A logistic regression test was used for statistical analysis, and differences were considered significant when P<0.05. The Carnoy fixative, when used for 24 hours, provided the best conditions of morphological integrity (53.3%; 32/60) compared to all others, and the use of Boiun for 24 hours was considered the worst treatment (19.1%; 9/47). The other treatments lead to the following results: C12h 50% (30/60), C6 H 40% (24/60), F24h 37.8% (17/45), F12h 35.1% (13/37), F6h 32% (16/50), B12h 30.5% (18/59) and B6h 24.4% (11/45). Therefore, we suggest that fixation of equine ovarian tissue with Carnoy for 24 hours is the most suitable protocol for morphological preservation of pre-antral follicles.37124325

Tools to study the kinesin mechanome using optical tweezers

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biological Engineering, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-111).Molecular motors play an important role in driving some of the most complex and important tasks in biological systems, ranging from transcribing RNA from a DNA template (Polymerases) to muscle contraction (Myosin) and propelling bacteria (Flagellum). Key to the understanding of the fundamental principles and designs by which molecular motor function has been the kinesin family. Missing, however, is a clear understanding of the series of events that take place at the atomistic level when kinesin walks on a microtubule and generates force. Recent MD simulations have identified the force-generating mechanism in kinesin, the cover-neck bundle, and strongly suggest that the formation of the CNB by the N-terminal cover strand and the C-terminal neck linker of the motor head are responsible for force generation. In this thesis we present tools developed in the Lang Laboratory to further elucidate the stepping motion and force generation mechanism of kinesin using Drosophila kinesin as a model system. We demonstrate the function of a force clamp specifically designed for the laboratory and show traces of WT kinesin walking under constant load. We also purified and tested kinesin mutants running under a force load. We present two assays specifically designed to study the interaction between kinesin and the last 10-18 C-terminal residues of a-p tubulin, the E-hook. We were unable to observe kinesin - e-hook interactions, such as those suggested by the formation of tethers, when the e-hook was bound to the surface. In the case of e-hook in solution, our results indicate that 2G kinesin was still functional and its stall force approximately 3 pN just as for the case when no e-hook is present. We also propose ways that the work in this thesis can be expanded. The force clamp can be easily adapted to study novel kinesin mutants under constant load in 2D. In addition, the force clamp can be used to probe the kinesin - e-hook interactions by looking at kinesin walking over microtubules with cleaved e-hooks. The e-hook assays presented in this thesis can also be expanded to include higher concentrations of e-hook or be performed using labeled e-hook to assess single molecule interactions and concentrations.by Ricardo González Rubio.S.M

Wormholes and Ringholes in a Dark-Energy Universe

The effects that the present accelerating expansion of the universe has on the size and shape of Lorentzian wormholes and ringholes are considered. It is shown that, quite similarly to how it occurs for inflating wormholes, relative to the initial embedding-space coordinate system, whereas the shape of the considered holes is always preserved with time, their size is driven by the expansion to increase by a factor which is proportional to the scale factor of the universe. In the case that dark energy is phantom energy, which is not excluded by present constraints on the dark-energy equation of state, that size increase with time becomes quite more remarkable, and a rather speculative scenario is here presented where the big rip can be circumvented by future advanced civilizations by utilizing sufficiently grown up wormholes and ringholes as time machines that shortcut the big-rip singularity.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Continued Use Of Drugs And Working Conditions Among Truck Drivers

Few studies have been conducted on truck drivers with regard to their health problems, especially their drug consumption profile. This study aimed to determine the continuous use of drugs and to identify use-related professional characteristics among this category. A cross-sectional study was carried out with truck drivers parked at the sorting yard of the, Port of Paranaguá, Paraná. An interview to obtain socioeconomic data, data on health problems, working conditions and continued use of medication was performed. Of the drivers evaluated (n = 665), 21.1% reported a continuous use of some medication, mainly captopril (10.7%), metformin (10.3%), omeprazole (6.2%) and simvastatin (6.2%). Drivers with 16 or more years of professional experience (Prevalence Ratio [PR] 1.67; Confidence Interval [CI] 95% 1.11-2.51), truck owners (PR 1.38; CI 95% 1.03-1.86) and without formal labor contract (PR 1.49; CI 95% 1.11-2.00) had a higher prevalence of continuous use of medication. We noted that some working conditions play an important role in the continuous use of drugs by truck drivers. © 2016, Associacao Brasileira de Pos - Graduacao em Saude Coletiva. All rights reserved.21123769377

His452Tyr polymorphism in the human 5-HT2A receptor affects clozapine-induced signaling networks revealed by quantitative phosphoproteomics

Antipsychotic drugs remain the current standard for schizophrenia treatment. Although they directly recognize the orthosteric binding site of numerous monoaminergic G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), these drugs, and particularly second-generation antipsychotics such as clozapine, all have in common a very high affinity for the serotonin 5-HT receptor (5-HTR). Using classical pharmacology and targeted signaling pathway assays, previous findings suggest that clozapine and other atypical antipsychotics behave principally as 5-HTR neutral antagonists and/or inverse agonists. However, more recent findings showed that antipsychotics may also behave as pathway-specific agonists. Reversible phosphorylation is a common element in multiple signaling networks. Combining a quantitative phosphoproteomic method with signaling network analysis, we tested the effect of clozapine treatment on the overall level of protein phosphorylation and signal transduction cascades in vitro in mammalian cell lines induced to express either the human 5-HTR or the H452Y variant of the gene encoding the 5-HTR receptor. This naturally occurring variation within the 5-HTR gene was selected because it has been repeatedly associated with schizophrenia patients who do not respond to clozapine treatment. Our data show that short time exposure (5 or 10 min) to clozapine (10 M) led to phosphorylation of numerous signaling components of pathways involved in processes such as endocytosis, ErbB signaling, insulin signaling or estrogen signaling. Cells induced to express the H452Y variant showed a different basal phosphoproteome, with increases in the phosphorylation of mTOR signaling components as a translationally relevant example. However, the effect of clozapine on the functional landscape of the phosphoproteome was significantly reduced in cells expressing the 5-HTR-H452Y construct. Together, these findings suggest that clozapine behaves as an agonist inducing phosphorylation of numerous pathways downstream of the 5-HTR, and that the single nucleotide polymorphism encoding 5-HTR-H452Y affects these clozapine-induced phosphorylation-dependent signaling networks

Parameter estimation in spatially extended systems: The Karhunen-Loeve and Galerkin multiple shooting approach

Parameter estimation for spatiotemporal dynamics for coupled map lattices and continuous time domain systems is shown using a combination of multiple shooting, Karhunen-Loeve decomposition and Galerkin's projection methodologies. The resulting advantages in estimating parameters have been studied and discussed for chaotic and turbulent dynamics using small amounts of data from subsystems, availability of only scalar and noisy time series data, effects of space-time parameter variations, and in the presence of multiple time-scales.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 4 Tables Corresponding Author - V. Ravi Kumar, e-mail address: [email protected]