Preliminary investigation into the possible endocrine disrupting activity of Bonny light crude oil contaminated - diet on Wistar albino rats

Many chemicals have recently been demonstrated to be Endocrine-disrupting compounds and may potential interfere with normal reproductive processes. In this study, we quantified the effect of Bonnylight crude oil contaminated diet on Wister albino rats. Forty-five rats (twenty male and twenty five females) were expose to Bonny –light crude oil contaminated diet at concentrations of 1%, 5% and 10%(w/w). Throughout the experiment, we observed 20 % reduction in fecundity in the 1% experimental group but in 5% experimental group, it was observed that there was a 45% reduction in fecundity whencompared with parallel control group. However, the 10% group did not liter at all. There was a significant increase (

Trump-induced anxiety among Latina/os

During the 2016 election, Donald Trump castigated unauthorized immigrants as “murderers and rapists.” During his presidency, he continued the use of this rhetoric, explicitly linking unauthorized migrants to threatening narratives. Here, we consider three questions: Did Donald Trump and his immigration positions serve as an “anxiety trigger” for Latina/os? Are individuals with contextually stigmatized attributes especially sensitive to Trump and his policy proposals? Is Spanish language itself, an attribute negatively stigmatized in the context of the immigration issue, sufficient to increase deportation anxiety? Utilizing survey experiments of Latina/os, we demonstrate that exposure to a Trump immigration cue is sufficient to increase anxiety about deportation. We also demonstrate that stigmatized attributes predict anxiety, but do not moderate the effect of the Trump cue. Lastly, we provide evidence that survey language affects anxiety among Latina/os. In Studies 1 (n = 736) and 2 (n = 1,040), we show that exposure to information about Trump’s immigration agenda significantly increases reports about deportation anxiety. In Study 3 (n = 1,734), we show that the Trump exposure condition induces heightened anxiety but that Latina/o attributes (language proficiency and use, immigration status, assessed phenotype) and identity strength have an independent effect on deportation anxiety. In Study 4 (n = 775), we randomized bilingual respondents into Spanish or English language survey protocols and found that comparable bilinguals exposed to Spanish language report higher levels of anxiety compared to English-language survey takers

Minority Becomes Majority in Social Networks

It is often observed that agents tend to imitate the behavior of their neighbors in a social network. This imitating behavior might lead to the strategic decision of adopting a public behavior that differs from what the agent believes is the right one and this can subvert the behavior of the population as a whole. In this paper, we consider the case in which agents express preferences over two alternatives and model social pressure with the majority dynamics: at each step an agent is selected and its preference is replaced by the majority of the preferences of her neighbors. In case of a tie, the agent does not change her current preference. A profile of the agents' preferences is stable if the preference of each agent coincides with the preference of at least half of the neighbors (thus, the system is in equilibrium). We ask whether there are network topologies that are robust to social pressure. That is, we ask if there are graphs in which the majority of preferences in an initial profile always coincides with the majority of the preference in all stable profiles reachable from that profile. We completely characterize the graphs with this robustness property by showing that this is possible only if the graph has no edge or is a clique or very close to a clique. In other words, except for this handful of graphs, every graph admits at least one initial profile of preferences in which the majority dynamics can subvert the initial majority. We also show that deciding whether a graph admits a minority that becomes majority is NP-hard when the minority size is at most 1/4-th of the social network size.Comment: To appear in WINE 201

High level of co-occurrence of risk factors for non-communicable diseases among Gambian adults: A national population-based health examination survey

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally. Co-occurrence of risk factors predisposes an individual to NCDs; the burden increases cumulatively with the number of risk factors. Our study aimed to examine the co-occurrence of NCD risk factors among adults in The Gambia. This study is based on a random nationally representative sample of 4111 adults aged 25-64 years (78% response rate) with data collected between January and March 2010 in The Gambia using the WHO STEPwise survey methods. We restricted our analysis to non-pregnant participants with valid information on five NCD risk factors: high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, low fruit and vegetable consumption, and physical inactivity (n = 3000 adults with complete data on all risk factors). We conducted age-adjusted and fully-adjusted gender stratified multinomial logistic regression analysis to identify factors associated with the number of NCD risk factors. More than 90% of adults had at least one risk factor. Only 7% (95% CI: 5.2-9.8) had no risk factor; 22% (95% CI: 19.1-24.9) had at least three. Older age and ethnicity were significantly associated with having three or more risk factors (versus none) among men in the fully adjusted model. Lower education, older age, and urban residence were significantly associated with three or more risk factors (versus none) among women. The burden of NCDs is expected to increase in The Gambia if preventive and control measures are not taken. There should be an integrated approach targeting all risk factors, including wider treatment and control of hypertension

A lattice estimate of the g_{D^* D pi} coupling

We present the results of the first direct determination of the g_{D^* D pi} coupling using lattice QCD. From our simulations in the quenched approximation, we obtain g_{D^* D pi} = 18.8 +/- 2.3^{+1.1}_{-2.0} and hat(g) = 0.67 +/- 0.08^{+0.04}_{-0.06}. It is in agreement with a recent experimental result from CLEO.Comment: Lattice2002(heavyquark), 3 pages, 3 figure

Theory of STM Spectroscopy of Kondo Ions on Metal Surfaces

The conduction electron density of states nearby a single magnetic impurity, as measured recently by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), is calculated. It is shown that the Kondo effect induces a narrow Fano resonance as an intrinsic feature in the conduction electron density of states. The line shape varies with the distance between STM tip and impurity, in qualitative agreement with experiments, and is sensitive to details of the band structure. For a Co impurity the experimentally observed width and shift of the Kondo resonance are in accordance with those obtained from a combination of band structure and strongly correlated calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Size Dependent Magnetic Scattering", Pecs, Hungary, May 28 - June 1, 200

Effects of ingested crude oil contaminated diets on antioxidant enzyme and lipid profile in Wistar albino rat

In this study, we investigated the effect of orally administered crude oil  contaminated diet on some biochemical parameters of wistar rat. Twenty four (24) wistar rats weighing between 125-180g were randomly grouped into four (4) of six animals each. Each group was fed with different concentrations of crude oil contaminated diet for 21days. At the end of each week, blood sample (2ml) was drawn from the median cantus vein of the eyes of the rats with the aid of a capillary tube and the plasma samples prepared for the biochemical tests. Also, one animal from each group was sacrificed and dissected every week; their livers were collected, weighed, washed with normal saline and later homogenized in a mortar and the isolate used for biochemical analysis. The results obtained showed the there was an increase in the weight of wet liver, lipid peroxidation and plasma protein concentration. Similarly, a time dependent increase in cholesterol concentration was obtained, with a significant decrease (p<0.05) in the mean body weight and  percentage inhibition of superoxide dismutase. These results suggest that there was a negative alteration of the biochemical parameters examined which could have been induced by the contaminated feed they consumed.Keywords: crude oil, oxidative stress, superoxide dismutase, lipid peroxidation, cholesterol concentration, albino rat

Metformin Decreases the Incidence of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Promoted by Diet-induced Obesity in the Conditional KrasG12D Mouse Model.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a particularly deadly disease. Chronic conditions, including obesity and type-2 diabetes are risk factors, thus making PDAC amenable to preventive strategies. We aimed to characterize the chemo-preventive effects of metformin, a widely used anti-diabetic drug, on PDAC development using the KrasG12D mouse model subjected to a diet high in fats and calories (HFCD). LSL-KrasG12D/+;p48-Cre (KC) mice were given control diet (CD), HFCD, or HFCD with 5 mg/ml metformin in drinking water for 3 or 9 months. After 3 months, metformin prevented HFCD-induced weight gain, hepatic steatosis, depletion of intact acini, formation of advanced PanIN lesions, and stimulation of ERK and mTORC1 in pancreas. In addition to reversing hepatic and pancreatic histopathology, metformin normalized HFCD-induced hyperinsulinemia and hyperleptinemia among the 9-month cohort. Importantly, the HFCD-increased PDAC incidence was completely abrogated by metformin (p < 0.01). The obesogenic diet also induced a marked increase in the expression of TAZ in pancreas, an effect abrogated by metformin. In conclusion, administration of metformin improved the metabolic profile and eliminated the promoting effects of diet-induced obesity on PDAC formation in KC mice. Given the established safety profile of metformin, our findings have a strong translational potential for novel chemo-preventive strategies for PDAC

Weather in stellar atmosphere: the dynamics of mercury clouds in alpha Andromedae

The formation of long-lasting structures at the surfaces of stars is commonly ascribed to the action of strong magnetic fields. This paradigm is supported by observations of evolving cool spots in the Sun and active late-type stars, and stationary chemical spots in the early-type magnetic stars. However, results of our seven-year monitoring of mercury spots in non-magnetic early-type star alpha Andromedae show that the picture of magnetically-driven structure formation is fundamentally incomplete. Using an indirect stellar surface mapping technique, we construct a series of 2-D images of starspots and discover a secular evolution of the mercury cloud cover in this star. This remarkable structure formation process, observed for the first time in any star, is plausibly attributed to a non-equilibrium, dynamical evolution of the heavy-element clouds created by atomic diffusion and may have the same underlying physics as the weather patterns on terrestrial and giant planets.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures; to be published in Nature Physic