Metabolic dysfunction following weight cycling in male mice

Background: Combatting over-weight or obesity can lead to large fluctuations in an individual‟s body weight, often referred to as weight cycling or “yo-yo” dieting. Current evidence regarding the potentially damaging effects of these changes is conflicting. Methods: Here, we assess the metabolic effects of weight cycling in a murine model, comprising three dietary switches to normal or high fat diets at 6 week intervals; male C57BL/6 mice were fed either a control (C) or high fat (F) diet for 6 weeks (n=140/group). C and F groups were then either maintained on their initial diet (CC and FF respectively) or switched to a high fat (CF) or control (FC) diet (n=35/group). For the final 6 week interval, CC and CF groups were returned to the control diet (CCC and CFC groups) while FC and FF groups were placed on a high fat diet (FCF and FFF) (n=28/group). Results: For the majority of metabolic outcomes changes aligned with dietary switches; however assessment of neuropeptides and receptors involved in appetite regulation and reward signalling pathways reveal variable patterns of expression. Furthermore, we demonstrate that multiple cycling events leads to a significant increase in internal fat deposition, even when compared to animals maintained on a high fat diet (Internal Fat: FCF: 7.4 ± 0.2g vs. FFF: 5.6 ± 0.2g; p<0.01). Conclusions: Increased internal adipose tissue is strongly linked to the development of metabolic syndrome associated conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension. While further work will be required to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the neuronal control of energy homeostasis, these studies provide a causative link between weight cycling and adverse health

Interaction of two modulational instabilities in a semiconductor resonator

The interaction of two neighboring modulational instabilities in a coherently driven semiconductor cavity is investigated. First, an asymptotic reduction of the general equations is performed in the limit of a nearly vertical input-output characteristic. Next, a normal form is derived in the limit where the two instabilities are close to one other. An infinity of branches of periodic solutions are found to emerge from the unstable portion of the homogeneous branch. These branches have a nontrivial envelope in the bifurcation diagram that can either smoothly join the two instability points or form an isolated branch of solutions

Co-precipitation synthesis of nickel-rich cathodes for Li-ion batteries

The preparation of Ni-rich cathode materials is challenging due to the Ni2+ ion sensitivity to oxidation during synthesis. The synthesis conditions during the manufacture of Ni-rich materials such as LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 (NMC811) therefore require stringent control. The co-precipitation step, applied in the synthesis of the metal hydroxide precursor, determines the secondary particle assembly formation, where it is typically desirable to produce uniform, spherical, ∼10μm-diameter structures. A stirred tank reactor is often employed to maintain a constant temperature of 60 °C and a controlled pH of between 10.5 and 11.5 in an inert atmosphere to maintain a high Ni2+/Ni3+ ion ratio. This promotes the formation of an NMC hydroxide precursor (NixMnyCoz(OH)2) which is typically milled with a lithium salt and calcined to form LiNixMnyCozO2 with a layered α-NaFeO2 crystalline structure. This review outlines some of the critical synthetic parameters for the formation of spherical secondary assemblies of metal hydroxide precursors for nickel-rich layered cathodes

Analysis of the radiative decays among the charmonium states

In this article, we study the radiative decays among the charmonium states with the heavy quark effective theory, and make predictions for the ratios among the radiative decay widths of an special multiplet to another multiplet. The predictions can be confronted with the experimental data in the future and put additional constraints in identifying the $X$, $Y$, $Z$ charmonium-like mesons.Comment: 12 pages, revised revisio

Ab initio atomistic thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of surface properties and functions

Previous and present "academic" research aiming at atomic scale understanding is mainly concerned with the study of individual molecular processes possibly underlying materials science applications. Appealing properties of an individual process are then frequently discussed in terms of their direct importance for the envisioned material function, or reciprocally, the function of materials is somehow believed to be understandable by essentially one prominent elementary process only. What is often overlooked in this approach is that in macroscopic systems of technological relevance typically a large number of distinct atomic scale processes take place. Which of them are decisive for observable system properties and functions is then not only determined by the detailed individual properties of each process alone, but in many, if not most cases also the interplay of all processes, i.e. how they act together, plays a crucial role. For a "predictive materials science modeling with microscopic understanding", a description that treats the statistical interplay of a large number of microscopically well-described elementary processes must therefore be applied. Modern electronic structure theory methods such as DFT have become a standard tool for the accurate description of individual molecular processes. Here, we discuss the present status of emerging methodologies which attempt to achieve a (hopefully seamless) match of DFT with concepts from statistical mechanics or thermodynamics, in order to also address the interplay of the various molecular processes. The new quality of, and the novel insights that can be gained by, such techniques is illustrated by how they allow the description of crystal surfaces in contact with realistic gas-phase environments.Comment: 24 pages including 17 figures, related publications can be found at http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm

Measurement of νˉμ\bar{\nu}_{\mu} and νμ\nu_{\mu} charged current inclusive cross sections and their ratio with the T2K off-axis near detector

We report a measurement of cross section $\sigma(\nu_{\mu}+{\rm nucleus}\rightarrow\mu^{-}+X)$ and the first measurements of the cross section $\sigma(\bar{\nu}_{\mu}+{\rm nucleus}\rightarrow\mu^{+}+X)$ and their ratio $R(\frac{\sigma(\bar \nu)}{\sigma(\nu)})$ at (anti-)neutrino energies below 1.5 GeV. We determine the single momentum bin cross section measurements, averaged over the T2K $\bar{\nu}/\nu$-flux, for the detector target material (mainly Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Copper) with phase space restricted laboratory frame kinematics of $\theta_{\mu}$500 MeV/c. The results are $\sigma(\bar{\nu})=\left( 0.900\pm0.029{\rm (stat.)}\pm0.088{\rm (syst.)}\right)\times10^{-39}$ and $\sigma(\nu)=\left( 2.41\ \pm0.022{\rm{(stat.)}}\pm0.231{\rm (syst.)}\ \right)\times10^{-39}$in units of cm$^{2}$/nucleon and$R\left(\frac{\sigma(\bar{\nu})}{\sigma(\nu)}\right)= 0.373\pm0.012{\rm (stat.)}\pm0.015{\rm (syst.)}$.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure

Demonstration of the temporal matter-wave Talbot effect for trapped matter waves

We demonstrate the temporal Talbot effect for trapped matter waves using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We investigate the phase evolution of an array of essentially non-interacting matter waves and observe matter-wave collapse and revival in the form of a Talbot interference pattern. By using long expansion times, we image momentum space with sub-recoil resolution, allowing us to observe fractional Talbot fringes up to 10th order.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Measurement of W Polarisation at LEP

The three different helicity states of W bosons produced in the reaction e+ e- -> W+ W- -> l nu q q~ at LEP are studied using leptonic and hadronic W decays. Data at centre-of-mass energies \sqrt s = 183-209 GeV are used to measure the polarisation of W bosons, and its dependence on the W boson production angle. The fraction of longitudinally polarised W bosons is measured to be 0.218 \pm 0.027 \pm 0.016 where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic, in agreement with the Standard Model expectation