Increase in ghrelin levels after weight loss in obese Zucker rats is prevented by gastric banding.

Obes Surg. 2007 Dec;17(12):1599-607. Epub 2007 Nov 30. Increase in ghrelin levels after weight loss in obese Zucker rats is prevented by gastric banding. Monteiro MP, Ribeiro AH, Nunes AF, Sousa MM, Monteiro JD, Aguas AP, Cardoso MH. Department of Anatomy and UMIB (Unit for Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research) of ICBAS (Abel Salazar Institute for the Biomedical Sciences), University of Porto, 4099-003 Porto, Portugal. [email protected] Abstract BACKGROUND: Gastric banding is thought to decrease appetite in addition to the mechanical effects of food restriction, although this has been difficult to demonstrate in human studies. Our aim was to investigate the changes in orexigenic signals in the obese Zucker rat after gastric banding. METHODS: Obese Zucker rats (fa/fa) were submitted to gastric banding (GBP), sham gastric banding fed ad libitum (sham), or sham operation with food restriction, pair-fed to the gastric banding group (sham-PF). Lean Zucker rats (fa/+) were used as additional controls. Body weight and food intake were daily recorded for 21 days after surgery when epididymal fat was weighed and fasting ghrelin and hypothalamic NPY mRNA expression were measured. RESULTS: Gastric banding in obese Zucker rats resulted in a significant decrease of cumulative body weight gain and food intake. Furthermore, gastric banded rats were leaner than Sham-PF, as expressed by a significantly lower epididymal fat weight. Ghrelin levels of gastric banded rats were not increased when compared to sham-operated animals fed ad libitum and were significantly lower than the levels of weight matched sham-PF rats (1116.9 +/- 103.3 g GBP vs 963.2 +/- 54.3 g sham, 3,079.5 +/- 221.6 sham-PF and 2,969.9 +/- 150.9 g lean rats, p < 0.001); hypothalamic NPY mRNA expression was not increased in GBP when compared to sham-operated rats. CONCLUSION: In obese Zucker rats, GBP prevents the increase in orexigenic signals that occur during caloric deprivation. Our data support the hypothesis that sustained weight loss observed after gastric banding does not depend solely on food restriction

Plant protein blends in diets for Senegalese sole affect skeletal muscle growth, flesh texture and the expression of related genes

Author's accepted version (postprint).Available from 26/11/2017.Skeletal muscle growth and flesh quality of Senegalese sole fed diets containing increasing levels of plant protein blends to replace fishmeal were evaluated using muscle cellularity, texture profile and gene expression. A control fish meal-based diet (FM) was compared with three isonitrogenous (54%) and isolipidic (9%) diets with increasing levels of plant protein (PP) blends (50% PP50, 75% PP75 and 100% PP100). By the end of the experiment sole fed PP50 and PP75 had a final body length similar to the CTR (25 cm), but fish fed PP100 were significantly smaller (23 cm). Total FM replacement by PP sources resulted in significantly smaller muscle cross sectional area (CSA) mainly due to a decrease in the muscle fibre size as the total number of fibres did not vary significantly among treatments. The dietary incorporation of PP significantly reduced the expression of several key genes involved in myogenesis and muscle growth (mrf4, fgf6, myhc and mylc2). Fillet texture analysed instrumentally was affected by the total substitution of FM. Fish fed PP100 diet had a significantly higher modulus of elasticity, i.e. lower flesh stiffness, compared with the other groups. Muscle fibre size was moderately related (r = − 0.573) to the modulus of elasticity and positively correlated with the expression of lysyl oxidase (r = 0.495). The observed changes in muscle cellularity could not be associated with the expression of texture-related genes (capn2, ctsb, ctsd), since no significant differences were observed among diets. The present results point towards a modulation of the expression of several muscle growth related genes by increasing levels of PP sources that alter muscle cellularity and textural properties of Senegalese sole when total FM is replaced by PP

Resistência ao fogo de vigas parcialmente embebidas com betão

Neste artigo serão apresentados resultados dos ensaios de resistência ao fogo de elementos de viga parcialmente embebidos com betão. Os elementos de viga foram ensaiados à flexão, com aplicação de uma carga constante localizada a meio vão, submetida a uma curva de incêndio nominal ISO 834, [1-2]. Foram determinados os tempos de resistência ao fogo, as temperaturas críticas e os modos de colapso para cada grau de utilização

Induced vacuum energy-momentum tensor in the background of a d-2 - brane in d+1 - dimensional space-time

Charged scalar field is quantized in the background of a static d-2 - brane which is a core of the magnetic flux lines in flat d+1 - dimensional space-time. We find that vector potential of the magnetic core induces the energy-momentum tensor in the vacuum. The tensor components are periodic functions of the brane flux and holomorphic functions of space dimension. The dependence on the distance from the brane and on the coupling to the space-time curvature scalar is comprehensively analysed.Comment: 32 pages, 3 figures, journal version, some references adde

Does business commitment to sustainability increase job seekers' perceptions of organisational attractiveness? The role of organisational prestige and cultural masculinity

This study analyses how recruiting messages showing commitment to sustainability influence job seekers' perceptions of organisational attractiveness. To address a call from prior research, we propose that organisational prestige mediates the positive relationship between commitment to sustainability and attractiveness. As job seekers from different cultures can have different responses to companies' information, the moderating role of the masculinity dimension of national culture is also examined. In a study of 412 job seekers from four different countries, experimental manipulation was used to assess perceptions of different recruiting messages containing information on business sustainability. Results support the proposed relationships. Theoretical and practical contributions include the integration of signalling and social identity theories to considering a wide variety of mechanisms which show how individuals are attracted to organisations and useful information for helping managers to recruit young talent. Using a sample of young part-time job seekers is a limitation of this workS

Influence of Business Commitment to Sustainability, Perceived Value Fit, and Gender in Job Seekers’ Pursuit Intentions: A Cross-Country Moderated Mediation Analysis

Recruitment messages can help organizations to attract talent by influencing job seekers perceived fit with the company. As sustainability issues have become more relevant for 21st century citizens, messages communicating companies’ commitment to sustainability can send information that could influence young job seekers perceived fit with their future organizations. This between-subjects study analyses the influence of six messages showing business commitment to sustainability on job seekers pursuit intentions, considering a sample of 265 job applicants from three countries (Spain, Kazakhstan, and Germany). We are particularly interested in studying the role of perceived value fit as a mediating mechanism, as well as the moderating role of gender. Results obtained from a between-subjects factorial design confirm that different actions showing business commitment to sustainability positively affect job seekers’ job pursuit intentions. Our findings also show that the importance of every message is different depending on the studied country. The obtained results confirm that recruitment messages showing business commitment to sustainability influence job seekers’ pursuit intensions by increasing the perceived fit between job seekers’ and business values. Finally, results show the moderating role of prospective employees’ gender in the proposed modelS

Fermions in three-dimensional spinfoam quantum gravity

We study the coupling of massive fermions to the quantum mechanical dynamics of spacetime emerging from the spinfoam approach in three dimensions. We first recall the classical theory before constructing a spinfoam model of quantum gravity coupled to spinors. The technique used is based on a finite expansion in inverse fermion masses leading to the computation of the vacuum to vacuum transition amplitude of the theory. The path integral is derived as a sum over closed fermionic loops wrapping around the spinfoam. The effects of quantum torsion are realised as a modification of the intertwining operators assigned to the edges of the two-complex, in accordance with loop quantum gravity. The creation of non-trivial curvature is modelled by a modification of the pure gravity vertex amplitudes. The appendix contains a review of the geometrical and algebraic structures underlying the classical coupling of fermions to three dimensional gravity.Comment: 40 pages, 3 figures, version accepted for publication in GER

Export Activity, R&D Investment And Foreign Ownership: Does It Matter For Productivity?

Purpose: The paper examines the impact of export activity on productivity and how this effect is moderated by R&D investment and foreign ownership. Design/methodology/approach: A time-lag effect is taken into account when examining the proposed model. Data are collected from the Annual Industrial Survey of the National Bureau of Statistics of China. A dataset containing 117,340 firms across the sample period (2001-2007) are used to test the hypotheses. Findings: The results indicate that while R&D investment plays a significant role in strengthening the positive effect of levels of export activity on a firm’s productivity, foreign ownership surprisingly has a negative moderating role. Originality/value: Scholarly interest in the links between export activity and productivity is on the rise. However, the bulk of research has been focused on understanding the effects of export activity on productivity at the country or industry level. Little has been done at the firm-level. Another gap in the literature is that the mechanism through which the impact of export activity can be leveraged to enhance the firm’s productivity has been largely ignored. To address these issues, the study adopts the learning-by-exporting theory to examine the relationship between export and productivity at the firm-level and how R&D investment and foreign ownership may explain how learning can be leveraged to enhance the firm’s productivity. Finally, these relationships are examined in the context of firms from an emerging market, China, which is especially relevant for the learning-by-exporting argument used in this study