Metabolic effects of a high-fat diet post-weaning after low maternal dietary folate during pregnancy and lactation

Scope Investigate the influence of low-folate supply during pregnancy and lactation on obesity and markers of the metabolic syndrome in offspring, and how provision of a high-fat diet post weaning may exacerbate the resultant phenotype. Methods and results Female C57Bl/6 mice were randomized to low or normal folate diets (0.4 or 2 mg folic acid/kg diet) prior to and during pregnancy and lactation. At 4 wk of age, offspring were randomized to high- or low-fat diets, weighed weekly and food intake assessed at 9 and 18 wk old. Adiposity was measured at 3 and 6 months. Plasma glucose and triacylglycerol (TAG) concentrations were measured at 6 months. Maternal folate supply did not influence adult offspring body weight or adiposity. High-fat feeding post weaning increased body weight and adiposity at 3 and 6 months (p > 0.001). Maternal low folate lowered plasma glucose (p = 0.010) but increased plasma TAG (p = 0.048). High-fat feeding post weaning increased plasma glucose and TAG (p = 0.023, p = 0.049 respectively). Offspring from folate-depleted (but not folate-adequate) dams had 30% higher TAG concentration when fed the high-fat diet from weaning (p = 0.005 for interaction). Conclusion Inadequate maternal folate intake has long-term effects on offspring metabolism, manifested as increased circulating TAG, particularly in offspring with high-fat intake post weaning

RELIC: a novel dye-bias correction method for Illumina Methylation BeadChip

Supplementary_Material. This docx file contains all supplementary tables and supplementary figures. (DOCX 424 kb

Surface Magnetization of Aperiodic Ising Quantum Chains

We study the surface magnetization of aperiodic Ising quantum chains. Using fermion techniques, exact results are obtained in the critical region for quasiperiodic sequences generated through an irrational number as well as for the automatic binary Thue-Morse sequence and its generalizations modulo p. The surface magnetization exponent keeps its Ising value, beta_s=1/2, for all the sequences studied. The critical amplitude of the surface magnetization depends on the strength of the modulation and also on the starting point of the chain along the aperiodic sequence.Comment: 11 pages, 6 eps-figures, Plain TeX, eps

Local critical behaviour at aperiodic surface extended perturbation in the Ising quantum chain

The surface critical behaviour of the semi--infinite one--dimensional quantum Ising model in a transverse field is studied in the presence of an aperiodic surface extended modulation. The perturbed couplings are distributed according to a generalized Fredholm sequence, leading to a marginal perturbation and varying surface exponents. The surface magnetic exponents are calculated exactly whereas the expression of the surface energy density exponent is conjectured from a finite--size scaling study. The system displays surface order at the bulk critical point, above a critical value of the modulation amplitude. It may be considered as a discrete realization of the Hilhorst--van Leeuwen model.Comment: 13 pages, TeX file + 6 figures, epsf neede

Comet assay to measure DNA repair: approach and applications

Cellular repair enzymes remove virtually all DNA damage before it is fixed; repair therefore plays a crucial role in preventing cancer. Repair studied at the level of transcription correlates poorly with enzyme activity, and so assays of phenotype are needed. In a biochemical approach, substrate nucleoids containing specific DNA lesions are incubated with cell extract; repair enzymes in the extract induce breaks at damage sites and the breaks are measured with the comet assay. The nature of the substrate lesions defines the repair pathway to be studied. This in vitro DNA repair assay has been modified for use in animal tissues, specifically to study the effects of aging and nutritional intervention on repair. Recently, the assay was applied to different strains of Drosophila melanogaster proficient and deficient in DNA repair. Most applications of the repair assay have been in human biomonitoring. Individual DNA repair activity may be a marker of cancer susceptibility; alternatively, high repair activity may result from induction of repair enzymes by exposure to DNA-damaging agents. Studies to date have examined effects of environment, nutrition, lifestyle and occupation, in addition to clinical investigations

TINJAUAN YURIDIS ATAS ABORSI DI INDONESIA (Studi Kasus di Kota Manado)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana pertanggungjawaban yuridis tindakan aborsi provucatus ditinjau dari aspek pidana berdasarkan hukum berlaku dan bagaimana faktor-faktor yang menjadi  kendala  dalam penanganan tindakan abortus provacatus criminalis beserta upaya-upaya penanggulangan dan pencegahannya. Pertama, menurut hukum-hukum yang berlaku di Indonesia, aborsi atau pengguguran janin termasuk kejahatan, yang dikenal dengan istilah “Abortus Provocatus Criminalis”. Tindakan aborsi menurut Kitab Undang-undang Hukum Pidana (KUHP) di Indonesia dikategorikan sebagai tindakan kriminal. Dengan diundangkannya UU No 36 tahun 2009 tentang Kesehatan yang juga mengatur tindak pidana aborsi, maka pasal-pasal tentang aborsi dalam KUHP ini tidak berlaku lagi atas dasar Lex Specialis Derogat Lex Generalis. Kedua, kendala dalam penanganan tindakan abortus.  Kendala yang pertama adalah dari masyarakat itu sendiri. Kendala yang lain yang menjadi penyebab sulitnya mengungkap kasus abortus provocatus kriminalis adalah pihak kepolisian sering sekali sulit mengidentifikasi hasil dari barang bukti abortus provocatus kriminalis. Ruang lingkup penelitian ini adalah pada disiplin ilmu hukum, maka penelitian ini merupakan bagian dari penelitian hukum kepustakaan yakni dengan “cara meneliti bahan pustaka” atau yang dinamakan “penelitian hukum normatif” dan dapat  disimpulkan bahwa dalam perundang-undangan Indonesia, pengaturan tentang aborsi terdapat dalam dua undang-undang yaitu KUHP & UU Kesehatan. Dalam KUHP & UU Kesehatan diatur ancaman hukuman melakukan aborsi (pengguguran kandungan, tidak disebutkan soal jenis aborsinya), sedangkan aborsi buatan legal (terapetikus atau medisinalis), diatur dalam UU Kesehatan. Dengan perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan, baik teknologi maupun hukum sampai saat ini, para dokter kini harus berhadapan dengan adanya hak otonomi pasien. Dalam hak otonomi ini, pasien berhak menentukan sendiri tindakan apa yang hendak dilakukan dokter terhadap dirinya, maupun berhak menolaknya. Sedangkan jika tidak puas, maka pasien akan berupaya untuk menuntut ganti rugi atas dasar kelalaian yang dilakukan dokter tersebut. Kata kunci: Aborsi, Indonesi

Anomalous Diffusion in Aperiodic Environments

We study the Brownian motion of a classical particle in one-dimensional inhomogeneous environments where the transition probabilities follow quasiperiodic or aperiodic distributions. Exploiting an exact correspondence with the transverse-field Ising model with inhomogeneous couplings we obtain many new analytical results for the random walk problem. In the absence of global bias the qualitative behavior of the diffusive motion of the particle and the corresponding persistence probability strongly depend on the fluctuation properties of the environment. In environments with bounded fluctuations the particle shows normal diffusive motion and the diffusion constant is simply related to the persistence probability. On the other hand in a medium with unbounded fluctuations the diffusion is ultra-slow, the displacement of the particle grows on logarithmic time scales. For the borderline situation with marginal fluctuations both the diffusion exponent and the persistence exponent are continuously varying functions of the aperiodicity. Extensions of the results to disordered media and to higher dimensions are also discussed.Comment: 11 pages, RevTe

Surface Magnetization of Aperiodic Ising Systems: a Comparative Study of the Bond and Site Problems

We investigate the influence of aperiodic perturbations on the critical behaviour at a second order phase transition. The bond and site problems are compared for layered systems and aperiodic sequences generated through substitution. In the bond problem, the interactions between the layers are distributed according to an aperiodic sequence whereas in the site problem, the layers themselves follow the sequence. A relevance-irrelevance criterion introduced by Luck for the bond problem is extended to discuss the site problem. It involves a wandering exponent for pairs, which can be larger than the one considered before in the bond problem. The surface magnetization of the layered two-dimensional Ising model is obtained, in the extreme anisotropic limit, for the period-doubling and Thue-Morse sequences.Comment: 19 pages, Plain TeX, IOP macros + epsf, 6 postscript figures, minor correction

Community-Building Among Phd Students In Engineering Education Research: The Sefi Summer School And Aaee Winter School

Engineering Education Research (EER) is a rapidly evolving and increasingly valued research field. This supports the number of PhD students to grow steadily, but unfortunately, they are often limited to a few within the large engineering faculty/department, having different backgrounds and interests. Additionally, the research methodologies needed by EER researchers are usually different from the classical technical engineering research (TER) methodologies. This translates into a need for specific training and opportunities to get to know each other better in order to promote international collaboration and develop a community of practice. SEFI and the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) both organized a summer/winter school for EER PhD students in 2022, attended by 34/14 participants respectively (note: attendance at the AAEE winter school is not limited to PhD students). We have designed a survey to elicit a mixture of background information (facts), perception data (opinions), and evaluative data (evaluation of the school). By using confirmatory factor analysis on half of the items and descriptive statistical analysis of all data, we aim to provide insights into the success factors of these schools. Both schools attracted a diverse group of EER-PhD students in different areas. The SEFI summer school excelled in building an inclusive and international research community, whereas the AAEE winter school was superior in gaining domain-specific knowledge needed for EER research. The results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the issues experienced by researchers who are beginning their career in EER and support organizers in designing international research schools