Eating behaviours and food cravings; influence of age, sex, BMI and FTO genotype

Previous studies indicate that eating behaviours and food cravings are associated with increased BMI and obesity. However, the interaction between these behaviours and other variables such as age, sex, BMI and genetics is complex. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between eating behaviours and food cravings, and to examine the influence of age, sex, body mass index (BMI) and fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) genotype on these relationships. A total of 475 participants (252 female, 223 male, BMI: 25.82 ± 6.14 kg/m², age: 30.65 ± 14.20 years) completed the revised 18-question version of the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R18) to assess cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating and emotional eating, and the Food Cravings Inventory (FCI) to assess cravings for fatty food, sweet food, carbohydrates and fast food. DNA samples were genotyped for the rs9939609 polymorphism in the obesity-linked gene FTO. Questionnaire data was analysed for associations between the TFEQ-R18 and FCI subscales for the whole study group, and the group divided by sex, genotype and age (≤25 years versus >25 years). Finally, mediation analysis was used to explore the relationships between BMI, cognitive restraint and food cravings. FTO AA + AT genotype was associated with increased BMI, but not with differences in eating behavior scores or food craving scores; age was associated with increased BMI and decreases in food craving scores in which this effect was stronger in women compared to men. Increased cognitive restraint was associated with decreased food craving scores in the ≤25 years group. Mediation analysis demonstrated that in this group the association between BMI and reduced food cravings was mediated by cognitive restraint indicating that in this age group individuals use cognitive restraint to control their food cravings. The positive correlation between age and BMI confirms previous results but the findings of this study show that age, sex, FTO genotype and BMI have an influence on the relationships between eating behaviours and food cravings and that these variables interact

Development of protocols to identify high hunger and low satiety phenotypes

Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic. Impaired appetite control is associated with weight gain. People who have difficulties in recognising their appetite sensations before and after a meal and who do not eat in response to their appetite sensations seem to be more susceptible to weight gain. These individuals may represent the ‘low satiety phenotype.’ The objective of the present study was to extend and test the work identified in the literature regarding the identification of a satiety phenotype. To identify, at baseline, individuals who struggle to lose weight on weight management programmes, due to reduced satiety, to help clinical professionals to identify those people at baseline so that they can use personalised weight loss strategies to help them. The work included studies in an acute laboratory setting and clinical studies. The first laboratory setting study was a pilot study to allow the researcher to gain expertise in the methods used to assess satiety phenotypes in people with obesity by analysing blood samples for gut hormone levels, subjective ratings of appetite response to a test meal, Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) subscales, food diaries and food craving. A second laboratory based study identified a satiety phenotype in individuals with normal weight by measuring energy intake in an ad libitum test meal, as well as energy intake from a 3 day food diary. Subjective ratings of appetite response, gut hormones, TFEQ and food cravings were also assessed. This study developed methods to subsequently use in a clinical community by designing a heat map, which is a visual presentation tool including independent variables, scores to help clinical professionals working in clinical settings to follow this scoring system to identify individuals who have low or high satiety prior to participation in weight management programmes. Clinical studies were carried out on individuals with obesity by determining at baseline, variables prior to participation in a weight management programme to identify those who struggle to lose weight. In the study carried out in a Tier 3 setting, fasting samples of plasma gut hormones, subjective ratings of appetite response and TFEQ subscales were used to predict subsequent weight loss and reduced satiety. In a Tier 2 setting study, food diaries, food craving and TFEQ subscales were used to identify those who may struggle to lose weight. In the acute laboratory setting, subjective ratings of appetite response were found to be the best measure to identify satiety phenotypes and this was combined with other predictive measures to build the heat maps. In the clinical studies, subjective ratings of appetite response were the best baseline measures to predict weight loss. In the Tier 3 study, subjective ratings of appetite response predicted weight loss and people with reduced satiety, as determined using the heat map tool, on average lost more body mass, BMI and waist circumference although the difference was not significant. In the Tier 2 study, carbohydrate food craving predicted subsequent weight loss. In conclusion, the novel findings in this study are the further development of protocols to identify high hunger and low satiety phenotypes. These will inform researchers and staff in clinical community settings to identify people who have a low satiety phenotype and may inform personalised treatments. However, further studies are needed with larger sample sizes to fully elucidate and validate the above findings

Laporan kajian akhir cadangan merekabentuk ruang dalaman Restoran Kampung Boy untuk Datuk Mohd Nor Khalid di No 6 Jalan Panglima Bukit Gantang, 30000 Ipoh Perak / Noor Hameida Md Rimi

Pembentukan sesebuah rekabentuk adalah berdasarkan apa yang dilihat, dikaji dan penelitian yang tajam bagi menghasilkan rekabentuk yang berjaya. la harus dilihat dari pelbagai aspek luaran atau dalaman. Projek akhir Rekabentuk Dalaman di peringkat Diploma ini adalah merupakan manifestasi terhadap kefahaman pelajar tentang seluruh aspek projek reabentuk dalaman yang telah dipelajari dari peringkat paling asas hingga ke peringkat persembahan cadangan rekabentuk. Projek yang telah dipilih bagi projek akhir ini ialah cadangan mereka bentuk skima baru bagi Restoran Kampung Boy bertempat di No 6 Jalan Panglima Bukit Gantang, 3000 Ipoh, Perak. Objektif utama projek ini adalah untuk memberikan satu cadangan skim rekabentuk yang baru bagi restoran disamping memberikan suasana yang praktikal, sistematik, dan berfungsi kepada pelanggan serta servis yang berkualiti. Selain itu, pemilihan projek ini juga adalah untuk mengetengahkan rekabentuk dan konsep baru bagi sesebuah restoran. Dengan terhasilnya rekabentuk dalaman yang baru bagi Restoran Kampun Boy ini, adalah diharapkan bahawa ia dapat menarik perhatian orang ramai khususnya rakyat tempatan bahawa kita juga mampu memberi saingan kepada restoran lain. Disamping itu, ia juga dapat memperkembangkan lagi kerjaya pemilik restoran.Tema dan konsep juga diaplikasikan dalam ruang restoran untuk menonjolkan lagi nilai estetika restoran tersebut. Konsep dan imej yang dicadangkan dijangka mampu memberi satu kesan yang baik dan juga boleh menjadi salah satu tarikan utama pada pelanggan dan orang ramai yang datang. Beberapa penyelidikan telah di jalankan bagi menjayakan projek akhir restoran ini, antaranya termasuklah kajian pemilihan tapak, kajian temuramah, kajian pemerhatian, kajian kes dan kajian soal selidik. Kesemua kajian-kajian tersebut adalah bertujuan mengenalpasti kelemahan-kelemahan yang ada dan ada juga untuk mengatasi beberapa masalah yang timbul. Kajian-kajian yang telah dijalankan ini akan diterapkan didalam proses rekabentuk, dengan tujuan mendapatkan satu rekabentuk yang menarik dan sesuai dengan imej kampung boy yang ingin ditonjolkan samada dari segi fungsi dan nilai estetikanya. Konsep yang diterapkan disini iaiah “ Kampung Boy “ dimana membolehkan orang ramai mengingati semula memori pada waktu mereka kanak-kanak dahulu.Sebagai cabaran, saya akan cuba yang terbaik untuk melahirkan idea-idea untuk merekabentuk Restoran Kampung Boy agar ia menjadi salah satu ikon dan tarikan di Malaysia suatu hari nanti

Topology and Survivability Design of Broadband Communication Networks Using Genetic Algorithms

The efficient design of telecommunication networks has long been a challenging task. It is made difficult by the conflicting and interdependent requirements necessary to optimize network performances. Since most aspects of the network design problem are NP-hard, traditional deterministic solution methods fail to reach good quality solutions. However , heuristics have emerged as powerful techniques able to reach near-optimum solutions in reasonable amounts of time. In this dissertation, we report on our efforts to investigate the applicability , develop and test simple, speciation and hybrid genetic algorithms (GA) to solve two difficult NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems solved by telecommunication and broadband networking companies to minimize investment costs and maximize network reliability. These problems address two issues found in the planning and management stages of a network. The first aims at designing minimum cost networks considering physical topology, capacity assignment and traffic routing with and without QoS constraints. The second deals with broadband network survivability and reliability issues considering different component failures scenarios. It tries to ensure a 100% restorability and minimizes either the overall spare capacity or network cost required for a full restorable network with link(s), node(s), and or both link node failures(s) by finding a set of backup paths that enable the minimization of shared space capacity among these and satisfy QoS constraints before and after the failure(s). Binary coding for these two problems were developed and solved first with generational "simple" and steady state GAs. Performance comparisons between these two with evidences of possible improvements in the solution quality led to the investigation and development of speciation "niching" and hybrid algorithms. Able to introduce better diversity into the solution space and enhance the exploration or exploitation capabilities of these algorithms, speciation algorithms based on sequential niching, deterministic crowding, fitness sharing and restriction mating were investigated. Hybridization was investigated in two approaches, the first modified the mutation operator to include hill climbing capabilities while the second combined GA capabilities with Nelder and Mead's simplex downhill local search to form an integrated search algorithm able to take advantage of the strengths of both algorithms and hence efficiently explore and exploit the genetic search space. Numerical results from extensive tests conducted on a twenty -node network have shown the ability of the proposed implementations to better sample the search space and solve the two formulations efficiently. With varying results, all implementations have reached near-optimal and optimal solutions and comapred favorably with other similar heuristics found in the literature. Cost improvements of up to 28% have been reached if compared with similar published implementations. These implementations have also competed vigorously for the solution of the minimum cost and minimum space capacity survivable and restorable networks with up to ten-link failures. Speciation based algorithms have shown superiority over generational, steady state and Tabu search algorithms in all solution trials. Hybrid algorithm based on Nelder and Mead Simplex Downhill was found to perform better than all the applications in this dissertation. The success in solving these problems may be exploited further; it can provide network designers with tools that can be used to create efficient and reliable networks

Croissance des enfants libyens de la naissance à 5 ans : établissement de nouvelles courbes ; comparaisons historiques, géographiques et socio-économiques

Texte intégral accessible uniquement aux membres de l'Université de LorraineCross sectional study was carried out in two regions of Libya. A total of 1,614 healthy Libyan children less than five years were selected from the : residential areas, maternal and child health centers, kindergartens and the delivery section of the obstetric hospitals. The objectives of this study are the following ones : to describe the growth patterns of Libyan preschool children and to construct updated curves, to compare these curves with those of 1979, to appreciate the effect of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics on growth pattern. This study finds significant differences in the growth pattern of the Libyan children, within a homogenous population. The factors affeeting the discriminating growth patterns are : education levels of mothers, age and sex of children, geographic areas and the family size. This study allowed to provides new curyes for the Libyan children, less than five years old, to follow up and describing the growth and the development of children. The new dlata shows significant difference in the growth pattern of Libyan children less than five old between 1979 and 2000. These differences are related to improvement in socioeconomic conditions during the last decades. Finally, this study allows to compare the growth of Libyan children with those of the certain foreign references, and pointsout that the growth of Libyan children remains similar to these rererences until the third year, afterwards it goes below those of the references.Une étude transversale a été réalisée sur 1 614 enfants libyens de moins de 5 ans ne présentant pas de troubles pathologiques, recrutés dans deux régions de la Libye. Les lieux de recrutement étaient les suivants : domiciles, PMI, écoles maternelles et maternités. Les objectifs de cette étude sont les suivants : décrire la croissance des enfants libyens d'àge préscolaire et réaliser des courbes de références actualisées, comparer les courbes obtenues à celles de 1979, apprécier l'effet des caractéristiques socio-économiques et démographiques sur la croissance. La recherche met en évidence, effectivement, des associations significatives avec la croissance des enfants libyens au sein d'une population homogène. Les facteurs les plus discriminants sont le niveau d'instruction des mères, l'àge et le sexe des enfants, la zone géographique et la taille de famille. Cette étude a permis d'établir de nouvelles courbes de croissance des enfants de moins de cinq ans, pour suivre et décrire la croissance et le développement des enfants. Les nouvelles données montrent des différences significatives de la croissance des enfants libyens de moins de 5 ans entre les années 1979 et 2000. Ces différences sont liées à l'amélioration de conditions socio-économiques au cours des dernières décennies. Enfin, cette étude permet de comparer la croissance des enfants libyens avec celle de certaines références étrangères. La croissance des enfants libyens est semblable à ces références jusqu'à la troisième année ; ensuite, la croissance des enfants libyens est plus faible que celles des références

On a Nonlinear Mixed Problem for a Parabolic Equation with a Nonlocal Condition

The aim of this work is to prove the well-posedness of some linear and nonlinear mixed problems with integral conditions defined only on two parts of the considered boundary. First, we establish for the associated linear problem a priori estimate and prove that the range of the operator generated by the considered problem is dense using a functional analysis method. Then by applying an iterative process based on the obtained results for the linear problem, we establish the existence, uniqueness and continuous dependence of the weak solution of the nonlinear problem

Croissance des enfants libyens de la naissance à 5 ans (établissement de nouvelles courbes ; comparaisons historiques, géographiques et socio-économiques)

NANCY1-SCD Medecine (545472101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Relation of ABO Blood Group on Fibrinogen Levels and Platelet Count in Apparently Healthy Sudanese Subjects at Khartoum state, 2022

No diseases are known to result from the lack of expression of ABO blood group antigens, but the susceptibility to a number of diseases has been linked with a person's ABO phenotype. A cross sectional study conducted at research laboratory of Gharb El-Niel College from May to August 2022, to estimate the relation of ABO blood group on fibrinogen levels and platelet count in apparently healthy Sudanese subjects.  For the A positive blood group there was significant decreased in the fibrinogen level when compared with the B⁺, O⁺ and O⁻ blood group, and in significant differences with the AB⁺ and A⁻. For the platelets counts; there was significant increased with AB⁺ and in significant differences with other blood groups, for the B⁺; there was significant decreased in the fibrinogen level when compared with other blood groups, however in the platelets count there was insignificant differences in all blood grouping except the  O⁺.  In addition, there was significant decreased in the fibrinogen level in O⁺ when compared with the AB⁺ and A⁻.  AB⁺ when compared with the O⁻, and A⁻ when compared with O⁻.   Regarding the platelets count there was significant differences when O⁺ blood group compared with AB⁺, and AB⁺ when compared with the A⁻ and O⁻. There were insignificant differences when the fibrinogen level and platelets count compared with the age and gender.  Finally, there was a clear significant decreased in the fibrinogen levels and platelets count among the individuals with different ABO blood group. Keywords: ABO blood group, fibrinogen, platelets, phenotype, coagulometer