Behavioural compensatory adjustments to exercise training in overweight women

<b>Purpose:</b> To examine extent to which changes in non-exercise physical activity contribute to individual differences in body fat loss induced by exercise programs. <b>Methods:</b> Thirty four overweight/obese sedentary women (age: 31.7 +/- 8.1 years, BMI: 29.3 +/- 4.3 kg m-2) exercised for 8 weeks. Body composition, total energy expenditure (TEE), exercise EE (ExEE), activity EE (AEE) calculated as energy expenditure of all active activities minus ExEE, sedentary EE (SEDEE), sleeping EE (SEE), and energy intake were determined before and during the last week of the exercise intervention. <b>Results:</b> Over the 8-week exercise program net ExEE was 30.2 +/- 12.6 MJ and based on this, body fat loss was predicted to be 0.8 +/- 0.2 kg. For the group as a whole, change in body fat (-0.0 +/- 0.2 kg) was not significant but individual body fat changes ranged from -3.2 kg to +2.6 kg. Eleven participants achieved equal or more than the predicted body fat loss and were classified as 'Responders' and 23 subjects achieved less than the predicted fat loss and were classified as 'Non-responders'. In the group as a whole, daily TEE was increased by 0.62 +/- 0.30 MJ (p<0.05) and the change tended to be different between groups (Responders, +1.44 +/- 0.49 MJ; Non-responders, +0.29 +/- 0.36 MJ, p=0.08). Changes in daily AEE of Responders and Non-responders differed significantly between groups (Responders, +0.79 +/- 0.50 MJ; Non-responders, -0.62 +/- 0.39 MJ, p<0.05). There were no differences between Responders and Non-responders for changes in SEDEE and SEE or energy intake. <b>Conclusion:</b> Overweight and obese women who during exercise intervention achieve lower than predicted fat loss are compensating by being less active outside exercise sessions

Can Maternity Benefits Have Long-Term Effects on Childbearing? Evidence from Soviet Russia

This paper quantifies the effects of Russia’s 1981 expansion in maternity benefits on completed childbearing. The program provided one year of partially paid parental leave and a small cash transfer upon a child’s birth. I exploit the program’s two-stage implementation and find evidence that women had more children as a result of the program. Fertility rates rose immediately by 8.2% over twelve months. The increase in fertility rates not only persisted for the ten-year duration of the program, but it reflected large increases in higher-order births to older women who already had children before the program started

A Qualitative Study of the Interaction between Human Rights Defenders and Society in Russia: Assessing the Impact of the 'Foreign Agents' Law

In various world regions, human rights defenders (HRDs) often become targets for smear campaigns that seek to discredit and marginalise them. Russia’s “foreign agents” law which brands NGOs as “foreign agents” – a phrase that carries Soviet-era connotations of a spy or traitor – is just one example of states’ attempts to cultivate an unfavorable image of rights defenders in society. Yet, despite the global context of such stigmatising campaigns and their potential to put defenders at further risk, there is very little systematic knowledge about the way citizens react to such rhetoric and whether they express more hostility towards HRDs. This paper seeks to address this gap and explores the interaction of rights defenders with the domestic society in Russia. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with representatives of the domestic human rights community, it demonstrates that while the wider public lacks familiarity with actors in the human rights field, certain social segments do interact with them, both in antagonistic and supportive ways. The paper argues that in the adverse conditions created by the “foreign agents” law, there is a need for rights groups to expand and strengthen the links with their constituencies

Essays on Family Policy, Fertility and Children's Outcomes.

Governments around the world have long provided financial incentives that encourage and discourage childbearing with a goal of improving children’s outcomes. Empirical evidence concerning the effects of these interventions on childbearing and children’s outcomes is crucial to resolve on-going policy debates about whether to continue providing, expand, or introduce funding for such programs. However, the long-term effectiveness of these incentives remains an open question because of the difficulty of assessing the causal effects of interventions. My dissertation provides credible estimates of the effects of the introduction of various family policies in Russia and in the United States. The first and second chapters use newly-available data from Russian censuses to estimate the effect of introducing a maternity benefit program in Russia on short-term and long-term childbearing as well as on long-term children’s outcomes. The first chapter exploits the program’s two-stage implementation and finds evidence that women had more children as a result of the program. The program induced nearly 5 million births over its duration, where an extra birth cost the government about 1.4 times a year’s average national earnings. The second chapter finds that the program resulted in slightly lower educated cohorts, but had no other influence on many economic and family structure outcomes in adulthood. Thus, the maternity benefit program was able to induce more births, but there is little evidence that it induced extra costs on the government in the longer-term based on outcomes in adulthood of children born after the start of the program. The third chapter uses restricted American census data to estimate the effect of introducing family planning program funding in the United States on children’s economic well-being. This chapter finds that household incomes were 3 percent higher among children born after family planning programs began. These children were also 8 percent less likely to live in poverty and 11 percent less likely to live in households receiving public assistance.PhDEconomicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113490/1/omalkova_1.pd

Altered gut and adipose tissue hormones in overweight and obese individuals: cause or consequence?

The aim of this article is to review the research into the main peripheral appetite signals altered in human obesity, together with their modifications after body weight loss with diet and exercise and after bariatric surgery, which may be relevant to strategies for obesity treatment. Body weight homeostasis involves the gut–brain axis, a complex and highly coordinated system of peripheral appetite hormones and centrally mediated neuronal regulation. The list of peripheral anorexigenic and orexigenic physiological factors in both animals and humans is intimidating and expanding, but anorexigenic glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), cholecystokinin (CCK), peptide YY (PYY) and orexigenic ghrelin from the gastrointestinal tract, pancreatic polypeptide (PP) from the pancreas and anorexigenic leptin from adiposites remain the most widely studied hormones. Homeostatic control of food intake occurs in humans, although its relative importance for eating behaviour is uncertain, compared with social and environmental influences. There are perturbations in the gut–brain axis in obese compared with lean individuals, as well as in weight-reduced obese individuals. Fasting and postprandial levels of gut hormones change when obese individuals lose weight, either with surgical or with dietary and/or exercise interventions. Diet-induced weight loss results in long-term changes in appetite gut hormones, postulated to favour increased appetite and weight regain while exercise programmes modify responses in a direction expected to enhance satiety and permit weight loss and/or maintenance. Sustained weight loss achieved by bariatric surgery may in part be mediated via favourable changes to gut hormones. Future work will be necessary to fully elucidate the role of each element of the axis, and whether modifying these signals can reduce the risk of obesity

Impact of phenylketonuria type meal on appetite, thermic effect of feeding and postprandial fat oxidation

Background: Dietary management of phenylketonuria (PKU) requires the replacement of natural protein-containing foods with special low protein foods. The effect of a PKU type diet on factors contributing to energy balance requires investigation. Objective: To investigate the impact of a PKU type meal on appetite ratings, gut appetite hormones, thermic effect of feeding (TEF) and fat oxidation. Methods: Twenty-three healthy adults (mean ± SD age: 24.3 ± 5.1 years; BMI: 22.4 ± 2.5 kg/m2) participated in a randomized, crossover design study. Each participant conducted two (PKU and Control) experimental trials which involved consumption of a PKU type meal and protein substitute drink or an isocaloric and weight matched ordinary meal and protein-enriched milk. Appetite, metabolic rate, fat oxidation measurements and blood collections were conducted for the duration of 300 min. On the completion of the measurements ad libitum buffet dinner was served. Results: Responses of appetite ratings, plasma concentrations of GLP-1 and PYY (P > 0.05, trial effect, two-way ANOVA) and energy intake during ad libitum buffet dinner (P > 0.05, paired t-test) were not significantly different between the two trials. The TEF (PKU, 10.2 ± 1.5%; Control, 13.2 ± 1.0%) and the total amount of fat oxidized (PKU, 18.90 ± 1.10 g; Control, 22.10 ± 1.10 g) were significantly (P < 0.05, paired t-tests) lower in the PKU than in the Control trial. The differences in TEF and fat oxidation were significant (P < 0.05, paired t-tests) for the post-meal period. Conclusions: Consumption of a meal composed of special low protein foods has no detrimental impact on appetite and appetite hormones but produces a lower TEF and postprandial fat oxidation than an ordinary meal. These metabolic alterations may contribute to the increased prevalence of obesity reported in patients with PKU on contemporary dietary management

Response of appetite and potential appetite regulators following intake of high energy nutritional supplements

Background: The net clinical benefit of high-energy nutritional supplements (HENSDs) consumption is lower than expected. Objectives: To investigate the extent to which consumption of oral HENSD in the fasted state reduces energy intake in slim females during consecutive breakfast and lunch, and whether this relates to changes in appetite and metabolic appetite regulators. Design: Twenty three females of 24.4 ± 2.8 years with BMI of 18.2 ± 0.8 kg/m2 consumed HENSD (2.5 MJ) or PLACEBO (0.4 MJ) in fasted state in a single blind randomized cross-over study. Appetite and metabolic rate measurements and blood collection were conducted prior to and during 240 min after the intake of the supplements. Energy intake was recorded during ad libitum buffet breakfast and lunch served 60 min and 240 min post supplementation respectively. Results: Energy intake during breakfast was significantly (P < 0.01) lower in the HENSD trial but the net cumulative effect on energy intake was 1.07 ± 0.34 MJ higher in the HENSD compared to PLACEBO. Plasma concentration of CCK and PYY and insulin and were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the HENSD trial while appetite measures were not significantly different between HENSD and PLACEBO trials. Correlations for the within participant relations between the responses of plasma hormones and appetite scores were significant (P < 0.05) for PYY and insulin but not CCK. The energy expended aboveresting metabolic rate was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the HENDS trial but relative increase in energy expenditure was not significantly different between the two trials. Conclusion: Oral high-energy nutritional supplements have a partial and relatively short lived suppressive action on energy intake and can be expected to increase net energy intake by approximately half the energy value of the supplement consumed

Methods of computational topology for Solar Activity forecasting (Extended abstract)

Solar activity is a space-time complex of events which produced by the Sun magnetic fields. One of the results of this activity is a huge plasma ejection which called solar flares. The solar flares occurs mainly in the areas with an especially strong magnetic fields called Active Regions (AR). Observation phenomenology indicates that significant change in the magnetic field topology precede the strong flares. We investigated changes in topology by the methods of computational topology. For this purpose the high frequency temporal sequence of AR magnetograms containing flares has been analyzed. Such data are available from the space observatory SDO. We seek distinctive patterns that could be associated with the flares through the tracking evolution of Euler characteristics and Betti numbers. These characteristics of course do not pretend on the comprehensive description of topological complexity but there are simple in construction and intuitive clear. We found that the large variations of the Betti numbers and Euler characteristics are preceded or accompanied by a large flares. These results give us hope that the approach based on computational topology could be useful in the task of monitoring of magnetic field evolution and should be developed in future