Creating an acute energy deficit without stimulating compensatory increases in appetite: is there an optimal exercise protocol?

Recent years have witnessed significant interest from both the scientific community and the media regarding the influence of exercise on subsequent appetite and energy intake responses. This review demonstrates a consensus among the majority of scientific investigations that an acute bout of land-based endurance exercise does not stimulate any compensatory increases in appetite and energy intake on the day of exercise. Alternatively, preliminary evidence suggests that low volume, supramaximal exercise may stimulate an increase in appetite perceptions during the subsequent hours. In accordance with the apparent insensitivity of energy intake to exercise in the short term, the daily energy balance response to exercise appears to be primarily determined by the energy cost of exercise. This finding supports the conclusions of recent training studies that the energy expenditure of exercise is the strongest predictor of fat loss during an exercise programme

Using Experimental Economics to Measure the Role of Parental Generosity and Food Control in Childhood Obesity

This research uses experimental economics to measure the effect of parental generosity and child response on childhood overweight and obesity. The 'Carrot-Stick' experiment, an adaptation of the standard dictator game in which the respondent (the child) can punish or reward the dictator (the parent) based on the dictator's generosity, served as basis of our examination. Two treatments are conducted, in which the child spends his or her earnings on non-food and food items. Our empirical analysis shows significant relationships between parental weight and their level of generosity regarding food items. We conclude that child response behavior, obesigenic factors in the household, and the child's tendency toward being overweight and obese are significantly related.Overweight, Obesity, Childhood, Family, Bargaining, Carrot-Stick, Dictator, Experimental Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

Nutrition, Health and Athletic Performance

Optimal nutrition is fundamental for enhancing training, recovery and performance in sport. Therefore, research has aimed to determine the efficacy of appropriate intake of nutrients, fluids, and supplements and their role in exercise performance. The purpose of this Special Issue entitled “Nutrition, Health and Athletic Performance” is to highlight recent research examining aspects of sports nutrition and exercise performance. Manuscript submissions of original research, meta-analyses, or reviews of the scientific literature, which targets nutritional strategies to benefit performance and health, are welcome. Studies performed in humans are preferred given the applied nature of this issue

The Formation of the First Stars II. Radiative Feedback Processes and Implications for the Initial Mass Function

We consider the radiative feedback processes that operate during the formation of the first stars, including the photodissociation of H_2, Ly-alpha radiation pressure, formation and expansion of an HII region, and disk photoevaporation. These processes may inhibit continued accretion once the stellar mass has reached a critical value, and we evaluate this mass separately for each process. Photodissociation of H_2 in the local dark matter minihalo occurs relatively early in the growth of the protostar, but we argue this does not affect subsequent accretion since by this time the depth of the potential is large enough for accretion to be mediated by atomic cooling. However, neighboring starless minihalos can be affected. Ionization creates an HII region in the infalling envelope above and below the accretion disk. Ly-alpha radiation pressure acting at the boundary of the HII region is effective at reversing infall from narrow polar directions when the star reaches ~20-30Msun, but cannot prevent infall from other directions. Expansion of the HII region beyond the gravitational escape radius for ionized gas occurs at masses ~50-100Msun, depending on the accretion rate and angular momentum of the inflow. However, again, accretion from the equatorial regions can continue since the neutral accretion disk has a finite thickness and shields a substantial fraction of the accretion envelope from direct ionizing flux. At higher stellar masses, ~140Msun in the fiducial case, the combination of declining accretion rates and increasing photoevaporation-driven mass loss from the disk act to effectively halt the increase in the protostellar mass. We identify this process as the mechanism that terminates the growth of Population III stars... (abridged)Comment: 31 pages, including 10 figures, accepted to Ap

Shear-melting of a hexagonal columnar crystal by proliferation of dislocations

A hexagonal columnar crystal undergoes a shear-melting transition above a critical shear rate or stress. We combine the analysis of the shear-thinning regime below the melting with that of synchrotron X-ray scattering data under shear and propose the melting to be due to a proliferation of dislocations, whose density is determined by both techniques to vary as a power law of the shear rate with a 2/3 exponent, as expected for a creep model of crystalline solids. Moreover, our data suggest the existence under shear of a line hexatic phase, between the columnar crystal and the liquid phase