Corporate governance for sustainability : Statement

The current model of corporate governance needs reform. There is mounting evidence that the practices of shareholder primacy drive company directors and executives to adopt the same short time horizon as financial markets. Pressure to meet the demands of the financial markets drives stock buybacks, excessive dividends and a failure to invest in productive capabilities. The result is a ‘tragedy of the horizon’, with corporations and their shareholders failing to consider environmental, social or even their own, long-term, economic sustainability. With less than a decade left to address the threat of climate change, and with consensus emerging that businesses need to be held accountable for their contribution, it is time to act and reform corporate governance in the EU. The statement puts forward specific recommendations to clarify the obligations of company boards and directors and make corporate governance practice significantly more sustainable and focused on the long term

Corporate Governance for Sustainability

The current model of corporate governance needs reform. There is mounting evidence that the practices of shareholder primacy drive company directors and executives to adopt the same short time horizon as financial markets. Pressure to meet the demands of the financial markets drives stock buybacks, excessive dividends and a failure to invest in productive capabilities. The result is a ‘tragedy of the horizon’, with corporations and their shareholders failing to consider environmental, social or even their own, long-term, economic sustainability. With less than a decade left to address the threat of climate change, and with consensus emerging that businesses need to be held accountable for their contribution, it is time to act and reform corporate governance in the EU. The statement puts forward specific recommendations to clarify the obligations of company boards and directors and make corporate governance practice significantly more sustainable and focused on the long term

Development and testing indicators of restoration success: Punakaiki coastal restoration project

The Punakaiki Coastal Restoration Project (PCRP) was established to restore sand plain forest to a landscape that had been previously mined and farmed. Over 100,000 trees have been planted to date. The site is adjacent to the Nikau Scenic Reserve which is highly ecologically significant, and it is in the flight path of a unique Westland black petrel colony. Research investigating the potential indicators of ecological restoration success at the PCRP was undertaken over two years. This 12-month research report adds to a baseline survey of the site completed in 2012

Plastic materials used for the reinforcement of soils Durability of such materials

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Quantification des graisses abdominales sous-cutanées et viscérales par résonance magnétique nucléaire du proton à 3T : application à un protocole de surnutrition

International audienc

Attentional bias and response inhibition in severe obesity with food disinhibition: a study of P300 and N200 event-related potential

International audienceBACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: In obesity there is growing evidence for common mechanism between food intake regulation and substance use disorders, especially more attentional bias and less cognitive control. In the present study we investigated whether severely obese subjects with or without disordered eating exhibit electroencephalographic (EEG) event-related potential (ERP) modifications as observed in substance abusers. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A total of 90 women were included; 30 in the normal-weight (NW) group (18.5 \textless BMI \textless 24.5 kg/m(2); no food disinhibition or restriction on the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire) and 60 participants with BMI \textgreater/= 35 kg/m(2) were separated into two groups (n = 30): without food disinhibition (disinhibition score \textless/=8; ObFD- group) and with food disinhibition (score \textgreater8; ObFD+). Clinical and metabolic parameters as well as compartmental aspects (Eating Disorders Inventory-2, EDI-2) were assessed. Participants underwent an ERP recording with an auditory oddball paradigm. RESULTS: The mean +/- SD P300 amplitudes in Pz were significantly (p \textless 0.05) lower in ObFD- (12.4 +/- 4.6) and ObFD+ (12.5 +/- 4.4) groups than in the NW group (15.8 +/- 5.9). The mean +/- SD N200 amplitude in Cz was significantly lower in the ObFD- group (-2.0 +/- 5.4) than in the NW group (-5.2 +/- 4.2 vs; p = 0.035). N200 Cz amplitude was correlated with EDI-2 Binge eating risk score (rho = 0.331; p = 0.01), EDI-2 Body Dissatisfaction score (rho = 0.351; p = 0.007), and Drive for Thinness score (rho = 0.26; p = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides evidence for reduction of P300 and N200 amplitude in obese women and that N200 amplitude may be related to more disordered eating and eating disorder risk. This leads to consider attentional bias and response inhibition as core mechanisms in obesity and as possible targets for new therapeutic strategy

Adipose Tissue Expansion by Overfeeding Healthy Men Alters Iron Gene Expression

Context: Iron overload has been associated with greater adipose tissue (AT) depots. We retrospectively studied the potential interactions between iron and AT during an experimental overfeeding in participants without obesity. Methods: Twenty-six participants (mean body mass index +/- SD, 24.7 +/- 3.1 kg/m2) underwent a 56-day overfeeding (+760 kcal/d). Serum iron biomarkers (ELISA), subcutaneous AT (SAT) gene expression, and abdominal AT distribution assessed by MRI were analyzed at the beginning and the end of the intervention. Results: Before intervention: SAT mRNA expression of the iron transporter transferrin (Tf) was positively correlated with the expression of genes related to lipogenesis (lipin 1, ACSL1) and lipid storage (SCD). SAT expression of the ferritin light chain (FTL) gene, encoding ferritin (FT), an intracellular iron storage protein, was negatively correlated to SREBF1, a gene related to lipogenesis. Serum FT (mean, 92 +/- 57 ng/mL) was negatively correlated with the expression of SAT genes linked to lipid storage (SCD, DGAT2) and to lipogenesis (SREBF1, ACSL1). After intervention: Overfeeding led to a 2.3 +/- 1.3-kg weight gain. In parallel to increased expression of lipid storage-related genes (mitoNEET, SCD, DGAT2, SREBF1), SAT Tf, SLC40A1 (encoding ferroportin 1, a membrane iron export channel) and hephaestin mRNA levels increased, whereas SAT FTL mRNA decreased, suggesting increased AT iron requirement. Serum FT decreased to 67 +/- 43 ng/mL. However, no significant associations between serum iron biomarkers and AT distribution or expansion were observed. Conclusion: In healthy men, iron metabolism gene expression in SAT is associated with lipid storage and lipogenesis genes expression and is modulated during a 56-day overfeeding diet

Etude de modèles paramétriques pour l'estimation de la composition lipidique en spectroscopie de résonance magnétique : comparaison théorique des fonctions modèles et application in vivo

International audienc

Comparison of MRI-derived vs. traditional estimations of fatty acid composition from MR spectroscopy signals.

The composition of fatty acids in the body is gaining increasing interest, and can be followed up noninvasively by quantitative magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). However, current MRS quantification methods have been shown to provide different quantitative results in terms of lipid signals, with possible varying outcomes for a given biological examination. Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging using multigradient echo sequence (MGE-MRI) has recently been added to MRS approaches. In contrast, these methods fit the undersampled magnetic resonance temporal signal with a simplified model function (expressing the triglyceride [TG] spectrum with only three TG parameters), specific implementations and prior knowledge. In this study, an adaptation of an MGE-MRI method to MRS lipid quantification is proposed. Several versions of the method - with time data fully or undersampled, including or excluding the spectral peak T <sub>2</sub> knowledge in the fitting - were compared theoretically and on Monte Carlo studies with a time-domain, peak-fitting approach. Robustness, repeatability and accuracy were also inspected on in vitro oil acquisitions and test-retest in vivo subcutaneous adipose tissue acquisitions, adding results from the reference LCModel method. On simulations, the proposed method provided TG parameter estimates with the smallest variability, but with a possible bias, which was mitigated by fitting on undersampled data and considering peak T <sub>2</sub> values. For in vitro measurements, estimates for all approaches were correlated with theoretical values and the best concordance was found for the usual MRS method (LCModel and peak fitting). Limited in vivo test-retest variability was found (4.1% for PUFAindx, 0.6% for MUFAindx and 3.6% for SFAindx), as for LCModel (7.6% for PUFAindx, 7.8% for MUFAindx and 3.0% for SFAindx). This study shows that fitting the three TG parameters directly on MRS data is one valuable solution to circumvent the poor conditioning of the MRS quantification problem