Gender and Weight Shape Brain Dynamics during Food Viewing

Hemodynamic imaging results have associated both gender and body weight to variation in brain responses to food-related information. However, the spatio-temporal brain dynamics of gender-related and weight-wise modulations in food discrimination still remain to be elucidated. We analyzed visual evoked potentials (VEPs) while normal-weighted men (n = 12) and women (n = 12) categorized photographs of energy-dense foods and non-food kitchen utensils. VEP analyses showed that food categorization is influenced by gender as early as 170 ms after image onset. Moreover, the female VEP pattern to food categorization co-varied with participants' body weight. Estimations of the neural generator activity over the time interval of VEP modulations (i.e. by means of a distributed linear inverse solution [LAURA]) revealed alterations in prefrontal and temporo-parietal source activity as a function of image category and participants' gender. However, only neural source activity for female responses during food viewing was negatively correlated with body-mass index (BMI) over the respective time interval. Women showed decreased neural source activity particularly in ventral prefrontal brain regions when viewing food, but not non-food objects, while no such associations were apparent in male responses to food and non-food viewing. Our study thus indicates that gender influences are already apparent during initial stages of food-related object categorization, with small variations in body weight modulating electrophysiological responses especially in women and in brain areas implicated in food reward valuation and intake control. These findings extend recent reports on prefrontal reward and control circuit responsiveness to food cues and the potential role of this reactivity pattern in the susceptibility to weight gain

Advection of the salt wedge and evolution of the internal flow structure in the Rotterdam Waterway

An analysis of field measurements recorded over a tidal cycle in the Rotterdam Waterway is presented. These measurements are the first to elucidate the processes influencing the along-channel current structure and the excursion of the salt wedge in this estuary. The salt wedge structure remained stable throughout the measuring period. The velocity measurements indicate decoupling effects between the layers and that bed-generated turbulence is confined below the pycnocline. The barotropic M4 overtide structure is imposed at the mouth of the estuary, and the generation of M4 overtides within the estuary is found to be relatively small. Internal tidal asymmetry does not make a significant contribution to the M4 velocity frequency band. Instead, the combination of barotropic and baroclinic forcing, in conjunction with the suppression of turbulence at the interface, provides the main explanation for the time dependence and mean structure of the flow in the Rotterdam Waterway. This gives rise to the observed differences in the length of the flood and ebb, in the magnitudes of the flood and ebb velocities, in the length of the slack water periods, and in the timing of the onset of slack water at the surface and near the bed. It results in the formation of distinct exchange flow profiles at the head of the salt wedge around slack water and the creation of maximal velocities at the pycnocline during flood. Advection governs the displacement and structure of the salt wedge since turbulent mixing is suppressed. The tidal displacement of the salt wedge controls the height of the pycnocline above the bed at a particular site. Hence, it controls the height to which bed-generated turbulence can protrude into the water column. Consequently, the authors find asymmetries in the structure of the internal flow, turbulent mixing, and bed stresses that are not related to classical internal tidal asymmetry.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience

The effects of the internal flow structure on SPM entrapment in the Rotterdam Waterway

Field measurements are presented, which are the first to quantify the processes influencing the entrapment of suspended particulate matter (SPM) at the limit of saltwater intrusion in the Rotterdam Waterway. The estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM) is shown to be maintained by the trapping of fluvial SPM at the head of the salt wedge. The trapping process is associated with the raining out of fluvial SPM from the upper, fresher part of the water column, into the layer below the pycnocline. The dominant mechanisms responsible are baroclinic shear flows and the abrupt change in turbulent mixing characteristics due to damping of turbulence at the pycnocline. This view contrasts with the assumption of landward transport of marine SPM by asymmetries in bed stress. The SPM transport capacity of the tidal flow is not fully utilized in the ETM, and the ETM is independent of a bed-based supply of mud. This is explained by regular exchange of part of the ETM with harbor basins, which act as efficient sinks, and that the Rotterdam Waterway is not a complete fluvial SPM trap. The supply of SPM by the freshwater discharge ensures that the ETM is maintained over time. Hence, theETMis an advective phenomenon. Relative motion between SPM and saltwater occurs because of lags introduced by resuspension. Moreover,SPM that lags behind the salt wedge after high water slack (HWS) is eventually recollected at the head. Hence, SPM follows complex transport pathways and the mechanisms involved in trapping and transport of SPM are inherently three-dimensional.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience

On total turbulent energy and the passive and active role of buoyancy in turbulent momentum and mass transfer

Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience

An explanation for salinity- and SPM-induced vertical countergradient buoyancy fluxes

Measurements of turbulent fluctuations of velocity, salinity, and suspended particulate matter (SPM) are presented. The data show persistent countergradient buoyancy fluxes. These countergradient fluxes are controlled by the ratio of vertical turbulent kinetic energy (VKE) and available potential energy (APE) terms in the buoyancy flux equation. The onset of countergradient fluxes is found to approximately coincide with larger APE than VKE. It is shown here that the ratio of VKE to APE can be written as the square of a vertical Froude number. This number signifies the onset of the dynamical significance of buoyancy in the transport of mass. That is when motions driven by buoyancy begin to actively determine the vertical turbulent transport of mass. Spectral and quadrant analyses show that the occurrence of countergradient fluxes coincides with a change in the relative importance of turbulent energetic structures and buoyancydriven motions in the transport of mass. Furthermore, these analyses show that with increasing salinity-induced Richardson number (Ri), countergradient contributions expand to the larger scales of motions and the relative importance of outward and inward interactions increases. At the smaller scales, at moderate Ri, the countergradient buoyancy fluxes are physically associated with an asymmetry in transport of fluid parcels by energetic turbulent motions. At the large scales, at large Ri, the countergradient buoyancy fluxes are physically associated with convective motions induced by buoyancy of incompletely dispersed fluid parcels which have been transported by energetic motions in the past. Moreover, these convective motions induce restratification and enhanced settling of SPM. The latter is generally the result of salinity-induced convective motions, but SPM-induced buoyancy is also found to play a role.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience

The prothrombin time/international normalized ratio (PT/INR) Line: derivation of local INR with commercial thromboplastins and coagulometers--two independent studies.

BACKGROUND: The WHO scheme for prothrombin time (PT) standardization has been limited in application, because of its difficulties in implementation, particularly the need for mandatory manual PT testing and for local provision of thromboplastin international reference preparations (IRP). METHODS: The value of a new simpler procedure to derive international normalized ratio (INR), the PT/INR Line, based on only five European Concerted Action on Anticoagulation (ECAA) calibrant plasmas certified by experienced centres has been assessed in two independent exercises using a range of commercial thromboplastins and coagulometers. INRs were compared with manual certified values with thromboplastin IRP from expert centres and in the second study also with INRs from local ISI calibrations. RESULTS: In the first study with the PT/INR Line, 8.7% deviation from certified INRs was reduced to 1.1% with human reagents, and from 7.0% to 2.6% with rabbit reagents. In the second study, deviation was reduced from 11.2% to 0.4% with human reagents by both local ISI calibration and the PT/INR Line. With rabbit reagents, 10.4% deviation was reduced to 1.1% with both procedures; 4.9% deviation was reduced to 0.5% with bovine/combined reagents with local ISI calibrations and to 2.9% with the PT/INR Line. Mean INR dispersion was reduced with all thromboplastins and automated systems using the PT/INR Line. CONCLUSIONS: The procedure using the PT/INR Line provides reliable INR derivation without the need for WHO ISI calibration across the range of locally used commercial thromboplastins and automated PT systems included in two independent international studies