Medications for weight loss in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus

Fluoxetine (Prozac) and orlistat (Xenical) produce modest short-term weight loss, but their long-term benefits are unclear and their safety is uncertain. (Strength of Recommendation [SOR]: B, based on a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.) Topiramate (Topamax; immediate- and controlled-release formulations) can produce weight loss, but potential psychiatric and neurologic adverse effects limit its usefulness (SOR: B, based on randomized controlled trials.) Sibutramine (Meridia) produces weight loss but has been withdrawn from the U.S. market because of potential cardiovascular adverse effects

Patterns of Implicit and Explicit Attitudes in Children and Adults: Tests in the Domain of Religion

Among the most replicated results in social cognition is the split between explicit and implicit attitudes; adults demonstrate weaker group-based preferences on explicit rather than implicit measures. However, the developmental origins of this pattern remain unclear. If implicit attitudes develop over a protracted period of time, children should not demonstrate the implicit preferences observed among adults. Additionally, unlike adults, children may report group-based preferences due to their lesser concern with social desirability. In Study 1, Christian adults showed the expected pattern of robust implicit preference but no explicit preference. In 4 additional experiments, 6- to 8-year-old children whose parents identified them as Christian viewed characters described as belonging to 2 starkly different religious groups (“strong religious difference”) or 2 relatively similar religious groups (“weak religious difference”). Participants then completed explicit and implicit (IAT) measures of attitude toward Christians and either Hindus (Study 2) or Jews (Studies 3–5). Three main results emerged. First, like adults, children showed significant implicit pro-Christian preferences across all studies. Second, unlike adults, children in the “strong religious difference” case reported preferences of approximately the same magnitude as their implicit attitudes (i.e., no dissociation). Third, even in the “weak religious difference” case, children showed implicit pro-Christian preferences (although, like adults, their explicit attitudes were not sensitive to intergroup difference). These data suggest that the seeds of implicit religious preferences are sown early and that children’s explicit preferences are influenced by the social distance between groups.Psycholog

What do different beliefs tell us? An examination of factual, opinion-based, and religious beliefs

Children and adults differentiate statements of religious belief from statements of fact and opinion, but the basis of that differentiation remains unclear. Across three experiments, adults and 8–10-year-old children heard statements of factual, opinion-based, and religious belief. Adults and children judged that statements of factual belief revealed more about the world, statements of opinion revealed more about individuals, and statements of religious belief provided information about both. Children—unlike adults—judged that statements of religious belief revealed more about the world than the believer. These results led to three conclusions. First, judgments concerning the relative amount of information statements of religious belief provide about individuals change across development, perhaps because adults have more experience with diversity. Second, recognizing that statements of religious belief provide information about both the world and the believer does not require protracted learning. Third, statements of religious belief are interpreted as amalgams of factual and opinion-based statements.Psycholog

Comparative Study of Influenza Virus Replication in MDCK Cells and in Primary Cells Derived from Adenoids and Airway Epithelium

Although clinical trials with human subjects are essential for determination of safety, infectivity, and immunogenicity, it is de- sirable to know in advance the infectiousness of potential candidate live attenuated influenza vaccine strains for human use. We compared the replication kinetics of wild-type and live attenuated influenza viruses, including H1N1, H3N2, H9N2, and B strains, in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, primary epithelial cells derived from human adenoids, and human bron- chial epithelium (NHBE cells). Our data showed that despite the fact that all tissue culture models lack a functional adaptive im- mune system, differentiated cultures of human epithelium exhibited the greatest restriction for all H1N1, H3N2, and B vaccine viruses studied among three cell types tested and the best correlation with their levels of attenuation seen in clinical trials with humans. In contrast, the data obtained with MDCK cells were the least predictive of restricted viral replication of live attenuated vaccine viruses in humans. We were able to detect a statistically significant difference between the replication abilities of the U.S. (A/Ann Arbor/6/60) and Russian (A/Leningrad/134/17/57) cold-adapted vaccine donor strains in NHBE cultures. Since live at- tenuated pandemic influenza vaccines may potentially express a hemagglutinin and neuraminidase from a non-human influenza virus, we assessed which of the three cell cultures could be used to optimally evaluate the infectivity and cellular tropism of vi- ruses derived from different hosts. Among the three cell types tested, NHBE cultures most adequately reflected the infectivity and cellular tropism of influenza virus strains with different receptor specificities. NHBE cultures could be considered for use as a screening step for evaluating the restricted replication of influenza vaccine candidates

Electrostatically confined monolayer graphene quantum dots with orbital and valley splittings

The electrostatic confinement of massless charge carriers is hampered by Klein tunneling. Circumventing this problem in graphene mainly relies on carving out nanostructures or applying electric displacement fields to open a band gap in bilayer graphene. So far, these approaches suffer from edge disorder or insufficiently controlled localization of electrons. Here we realize an alternative strategy in monolayer graphene, by combining a homogeneous magnetic field and electrostatic confinement. Using the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope, we induce a confining potential in the Landau gaps of bulk graphene without the need for physical edges. Gating the localized states towards the Fermi energy leads to regular charging sequences with more than 40 Coulomb peaks exhibiting typical addition energies of 7-20 meV. Orbital splittings of 4-10 meV and a valley splitting of about 3 meV for the first orbital state can be deduced. These experimental observations are quantitatively reproduced by tight binding calculations, which include the interactions of the graphene with the aligned hexagonal boron nitride substrate. The demonstrated confinement approach appears suitable to create quantum dots with well-defined wave function properties beyond the reach of traditional techniques

Seesaw scales and the steps from the Standard Model towards superstring-inspired flipped E_6

Recently in connection with Superstring theory E_8 and E_6 unifications became very promising. In the present paper we have investigated a number of available paths from the Standard Model (SM) to the E_6 unification, considering a chain of flipped models following the extension of the SM: SU(3)_C\times SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y \to SU(3)_C\times SU(2)_L\times U(1)_X \times U(1)_Z \to SU(5)\times U(1)_X \to SU(5)\times U(1)_{Z1} \times U(1)_{X1} \to SO(10) \times U(1)_{X1} \to SO(10) \times U(1)_{Z2}\times U(1)_{X2} \to E_6\times U(1)_{X2} or E_6, Also we have considered a chain with a left-right symmetry: SU(3)_C\times SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y \to SU(3)_C\times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R\times U(1)_X\times U(1)_Z \to SU(4)_C\times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R\times U(1)_Z \to SO(10)\times U(1)_Z \to E_6. We have presented four examples including non-supersymmetric and supersymmetric extensions of the SM and different contents of the Higgs bosons providing the breaking of the flipped SO(10) and SU(5) down to the SM. It was shown that the final unification E_6\times U(1) or E_6 at the (Planck) GUT scale M_{SSG} depends on the number of the Higgs boson representations considered in theory.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

The Development of Reasoning About Beliefs: Fact, Preference, and Ideology

The beliefs people hold about the social and physical world are central to self-definition and social interaction. The current research analyzes reasoning about three kinds of beliefs: those that concern matters of fact (e.g., dinosaurs are extinct), preference (e.g., green is the prettiest color), and ideology (e.g., there is only one God). The domain of ideology is of unique interest because it is hypothesized to contain elements of both facts and preferences. If adults' distinct reasoning about ideological beliefs is the result of prolonged experience with the physical and social world, children and adults should reveal distinct patterns of differentiating kinds of beliefs, and this difference should be particularly pronounced with respect to ideological beliefs. On the other hand, if adults' reasoning about beliefs is a basic component of social cognition, children and adults should demonstrate similar belief representations and patterns of belief differentiation. Two experiments demonstrate that 5–10 year old children and adults similarly judged religious beliefs to be intermediate between factual beliefs (where two disagreeing people cannot both be right) and preferences (where they can). From the age of 5 years and continuing into adulthood, individuals distinguished ideological beliefs from other types of mental states and demonstrated limited tolerance for belief-based disagreements.Psycholog

Implications of Diet for the Extinction of Saber-Toothed Cats and American Lions

The saber-toothed cat, Smilodon fatalis, and American lion, Panthera atrox, were among the largest terrestrial carnivores that lived during the Pleistocene, going extinct along with other megafauna ~12,000 years ago. Previous work suggests that times were difficult at La Brea (California) during the late Pleistocene, as nearly all carnivores have greater incidences of tooth breakage (used to infer greater carcass utilization) compared to today. As Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA) can differentiate between levels of bone consumption in extant carnivores, we use DMTA to clarify the dietary niches of extinct carnivorans from La Brea. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that times were tough at La Brea with carnivorous taxa utilizing more of the carcasses. Our results show no evidence of bone crushing by P. atrox, with DMTA attributes most similar to the extant cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, which actively avoids bone. In contrast, S. fatalis has DMTA attributes most similar to the African lion Panthera leo, implying that S. fatalis did not avoid bone to the extent previously suggested by SEM microwear data. DMTA characters most indicative of bone consumption (i.e., complexity and textural fill volume) suggest that carcass utilization by the extinct carnivorans was not necessarily more complete during the Pleistocene at La Brea; thus, times may not have been tougher than the present. Additionally, minor to no significant differences in DMTA attributes from older (~30-35 Ka) to younger (~11.5 Ka) deposits offer little evidence that declining prey resources were a primary cause of extinction for these large cats

Microglia activation due to obesity programs metabolic failure leading to type two diabetes

Obesity is an energy metabolism disorder that increases susceptibility to the development of metabolic diseases. Recently, it has been described that obese subjects have a phenotype of chronic inflammation in organs that are metabolically relevant for glucose homeostasis and energy. Altered expression of immune system molecules such as interleukins IL-1, IL-6, IL-18, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), serum amyloid A (SAA), and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), among others, has been associated with the development of chronic inflammation in obesity. Chronic inflammation modulates the development of metabolic-related comorbidities like metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance, glucose tolerance, hypertension and hyperlipidemia). Recent evidence suggests that microglia activation in the central nervous system (CNS) is a priority in the deregulation of energy homeostasis and promotes increased glucose levels. This review will cover the most significant advances that explore the molecular signals during microglia activation and inflammatory stage in the brain in the context of obesity, and its influence on the development of metabolic syndrome and type two diabetes