Effect of aerobic exercise and low-carbohydrate high-fat diet on glucose tolerance and android/gynoid fat in overweight/obese women: A randomized controlled trial

The study was designed to compare the effects of weight loss induced by a low-carbohydrate-high-fat diet or a normal diet, with and without exercise, on glucose tolerance measured as area under the curve (AUC), and android (A) and gynoid (G) fat distribution. The study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov; NCT04100356. In total, 57 women classified as overweight or obese (age 40 ± 3.5 years, body mass index 31.1 ± 2.6 kg/m2) were randomly assigned and completed a 10-week intervention using a low-carbohydrate high-fat diet or a normal diet, with or without aerobic interval exercise. An equal deficit of 700 kcal/day was prescribed, either restricting the diet only, or moderately restricting diet and including three 50-min high-intensity bicycle sessions per week. There were thus four groups: normal diet (NORM); low-carbohydrate-high-fat diet (LCHF); normal diet with exercise (NORM-EX); and low-carbohydrate-high-fat diet with exercise (LCHF-EX). Linear mixed models was used to assess differences between groups. With all groups pooled, the intervention resulted in a weight loss of 6.7 ± 2.5% (p < 0.001). The intervention did not result in differences between groups in AUC glucose, nor in fasting glucose or indicis for insulin resistance such as Homeostatic Model Assessment, Matsuda Insulin Sensitivity Index, insulinogenic index and disposition index. Post-intervention android fat was lower in LCHF than NORM (3,223 ± 727 vs. 2,533 ± 535 g, p = 0.041). LCHF reached a lower A/G ratio than NORM (0.94 ± 0.12 vs. 1.04 ± 0.09, p = 0.011) and LCHF-EX (0.94 ± 0.12 vs. 1.09 ± 0.09, p < 0.001) after the intervention. LCHF resulted in lower android fat mass compared to NORM and the lowest A/G ratio compared to the other matched groups, but with no accompanying improvement in AUC glucose. In conclusion, although all groups achieved improvements in glucose tolerance, no superior effect was observed with the LCHF diet, neither with nor without exercise.publishedVersio

Menstrual Cycle Phase Has No Influence on Performance-Determining Variables in Endurance-Trained Athletes: The FENDURA Project

Female athletes frequently perceive performance changes throughout the menstrual cycle (MC). However, if and how the MC influences performance-determining variables remain unclear. Purpose This study aimed to investigate the effect of the MC and endogenous sex hormone concentrations on performance-determining variables in three distinct MC phases in endurance-trained females. Methods Twenty-one eumenorrheic trained/highly trained endurance athletes completed a standardized test battery during the early follicular phase (EFP), ovulatory phase (OP), and midluteal phase (MLP) for either one (n = 7) or two test cycles (n = 14). MC phases were determined using calendar-based counting, urinary ovulation testing, and verified with serum hormone analysis. MCs were retrospectively classified as eumenorrheic or disturbed. Disturbed MCs were excluded from analysis. The test battery consisted of 4–6 × 5-min submaximal stages with stepwise speed increases, a 30-s all-out double-poling ski ergometer test, and a maximal incremental treadmill running test. Results At a group level, there was no effect of MC phase or the serum concentrations of estrogen and progesterone on peak oxygen uptake (V̇O2peak), oxygen uptake at 4 mmol·L−1 blood lactate concentration, time to exhaustion, running economy, or mean 30-s power output (MPO30s). Serum testosterone concentration was positively associated with MPO30s (P = 0.016). Changes in V̇O2peak from EFP to MLP were inconsistent between individuals and across cycles. Conclusions None of the measured performance-determining variables were influenced by MC phase or serum estrogen or progesterone concentrations. Although some individual patterns could be observed, there was no indication that any single MC phase is consistently associated with improved or impaired V̇O2peak on a group level.acceptedVersio

Fremtidige muligheter for å utnytte krabbe som en lokal ressurs på Svalbard. Svalbardplan - En leveranse fra prosjektet «Fishery at 78° – Small scale fishery for local value creation on Svalbard»

I fremtiden forventes det at snøkrabbe vil være tilgjengelig for fiske i kystnære områder på Svalbard. Havforskningsinstituttet har observert at snøkrabbe etablerer seg rundt Svalbard, og kongekrabbe er funnet i snøkrabbeteiner i Barentshavet. Prosjektet «Fishery at 78°» ble opprettet for å utforske mulighetene for krabbefiske som en ny næringsvei, spesielt med tanke på økt turisme og behovet for nye næringer etter utfasing av gruvedriften. Prosjektet har inkludert aktiviteter som krabbefiske, bearbeiding av krabbe, og bruk av krabbe i kulinarisk turisme. Det har også blitt undersøkt hvilke muligheter og begrensninger dagens lovverk gir for lokalt fiskeri. Nåværende reguleringer begrenser yrkesfiske, men fritidsfiskere kan fiske og selge krabbe innenfor en årlig inntektsgrense på 50 000 kroner. Testfiske etter snøkrabbe ble gjennomført, og det ble funnet små snøkrabber i teinene. Riktig håndtering og transport av krabben er viktig for å sikre dyrevelferd og kvalitet. På grunn av regelverksbegrensninger ble forsøk med levendelagring, slakting og prosessering utført på fastlandet. Dersom det blir aktuelt med slike aktiviteter en gang i fremtiden, anbefaler vi at det gjøres i småskala. En start kan f.eks. være å teste ut slakting og prosessering på et storkjøkken. Turister på Svalbard ønsker å oppleve lokalmat, inkludert lokalfanget krabbe. Populære konsepter inkluderer krabbemåltider på restauranter og sightseeing-turer med båt. Når det blir aktuelt, kan denne rapporten tjene som en veiledning for fiske, håndtering og videre bearbeiding av krabbe, med mål om å skape verdier av ressursen og fremme lokale arbeidsplasser.Fremtidige muligheter for å utnytte krabbe som en lokal ressurs på Svalbard. Svalbardplan - En leveranse fra prosjektet «Fishery at 78° – Small scale fishery for local value creation on Svalbard»publishedVersio

OATL1, a novel autophagosome-resident Rab33B-GAP, regulates autophagosomal maturation

The GAP activity of OATL1, which is recruited to autophagosomes by Atg8, regulates autophagosome–lysosome fusion

Thousands of Rab GTPases for the Cell Biologist

Rab proteins are small GTPases that act as essential regulators of vesicular trafficking. 44 subfamilies are known in humans, performing specific sets of functions at distinct subcellular localisations and tissues. Rab function is conserved even amongst distant orthologs. Hence, the annotation of Rabs yields functional predictions about the cell biology of trafficking. So far, annotating Rabs has been a laborious manual task not feasible for current and future genomic output of deep sequencing technologies. We developed, validated and benchmarked the Rabifier, an automated bioinformatic pipeline for the identification and classification of Rabs, which achieves up to 90% classification accuracy. We cataloged roughly 8.000 Rabs from 247 genomes covering the entire eukaryotic tree. The full Rab database and a web tool implementing the pipeline are publicly available at www.RabDB.org. For the first time, we describe and analyse the evolution of Rabs in a dataset covering the whole eukaryotic phylogeny. We found a highly dynamic family undergoing frequent taxon-specific expansions and losses. We dated the origin of human subfamilies using phylogenetic profiling, which enlarged the Rab repertoire of the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor with Rab14, 32 and RabL4. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of the Choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis Rab family pinpointed the changes that accompanied the emergence of Metazoan multicellularity, mainly an important expansion and specialisation of the secretory pathway. Lastly, we experimentally establish tissue specificity in expression of mouse Rabs and show that neo-functionalisation best explains the emergence of new human Rab subfamilies. With the Rabifier and RabDB, we provide tools that easily allows non-bioinformaticians to integrate thousands of Rabs in their analyses. RabDB is designed to enable the cell biology community to keep pace with the increasing number of fully-sequenced genomes and change the scale at which we perform comparative analysis in cell biology

Association of mechanical bowel preparation with oral antibiotics and anastomotic leak following left sided colorectal resection:an international, multi-centre, prospective audit

Introduction: The optimal bowel preparation strategy to minimise the risk of anastomotic leak is yet to be determined. This study aimed to determine whether oral antibiotics combined with mechanical bowel preparation (MBP+Abx) was associated with a reduced risk of anastomotic leak when compared to mechanical bowel preparation alone (MBP) or no bowel preparation (NBP). Methods: A pre-planned analysis of the European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP) 2017 Left Sided Colorectal Resection audit was performed. Patients undergoing elective left sided colonic or rectal resection with primary anastomosis between 1 January 2017 and 15 March 2017 by any operative approach were included. The primary outcome measure was anastomotic leak. Results: Of 3676 patients across 343 centres in 47 countries, 618 (16.8%) received MBP+ABx, 1945 MBP (52.9%) and 1099 patients NBP (29.9%). Patients undergoing MBP+ABx had the lowest overall rate of anastomotic leak (6.1%, 9.2%, 8.7% respectively) in unadjusted analysis. After case-mix adjustment using a mixed-effects multivariable regression model, MBP+Abx was associated with a lower risk of anastomotic leak (OR 0.52, 0.30–0.92, P&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.02) but MBP was not (OR 0.92, 0.63–1.36, P&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.69) compared to NBP. Conclusion: This non-randomised study adds ‘real-world’, contemporaneous, and prospective evidence of the beneficial effects of combined mechanical bowel preparation and oral antibiotics in the prevention of anastomotic leak following left sided colorectal resection across diverse settings. We have also demonstrated limited uptake of this strategy in current international colorectal practice

Evaluating the incidence of pathological complete response in current international rectal cancer practice

The mainstay of management for locally advanced rectal cancer is chemoradiotherapy followed by surgical resection. Following chemoradiotherapy, a complete response may be detected clinically and radiologically (cCR) prior to surgery or pathologically after surgery (pCR). We aim to report the overall complete pathological response (pCR) rate and the reliability of detecting a cCR by conventional pre-operative imaging.A pre-planned analysis of the European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP) 2017 audit was performed. Patients treated by elective rectal resection were included. A pCR was defined as a ypT0 N0 EMVI negative primary tumour; a partial response represented any regression from baseline staging following chemoradiotherapy. The primary endpoint was the pCR rate. The secondary endpoint was agreement between post-treatment MRI restaging (yMRI) and final pathological staging.Of 2572 patients undergoing rectal cancer surgery in 277 participating centres across 44 countries, 673 (26.2%) underwent chemoradiotherapy and surgery. The pCR rate was 10.3% (67/649), with a partial response in 35.9% (233/649) patients. Comparison of AJCC stage determined by post-treatment yMRI with final pathology showed understaging in 13% (55/429) and overstaging in 34% (148/429). Agreement between yMRI and final pathology for T-stage, N-stage, or AJCC status were each graded as 'fair' only (n = 429, Kappa 0.25, 0.26 and 0.35 respectively).The reported pCR rate of 10% highlights the potential for non-operative management in selected cases. The limited strength of agreement between basic conventional post-chemoradiotherapy imaging assessment techniques and pathology suggest alternative markers of response should be considered, in the context of controlled clinical trials

Exploring Fully Bayesian Unfolding for γ-ray Spectra

In this thesis a new method for the unfolding of γ-ray spectra using Bayesian statistics has been investigated. The method in question goes by the name Fully Bayesian Unfolding. By making use of Bayes’ theorem the method samples from a likelihood function and prior distribution to achieve a posterior distribution for each energy-bin of the spectrum. The γ-ray spectra are obtained from experiments at the Oslo Cyclotron Laboratory with OSCAR an array of LaBr3 :Ce scintillator detectors and SiRi a particle telescope. The reaction chosen to test the method was the 28Si(p,p'γ) reaction. The new FBU method was compared to the iterative unfolding method that was developed and is currently used for unfolding in the Oslo nuclear physics group. In addition, the iterative unfolding method is a well known unfolding method used in nuclear physics research outside of the Oslo nuclear physics group. The motivation of the study is to extract the uncertainty from the unfolding method. These uncertainties can be propagated into further analysis such as the Oslo-Method or others. In addition the iterative unfolding method can suffer from negative fluctuations. Using Bayesian unfolding prevents this since the priors can have lower bounds set to zero, thus only the positive solutions are presented in the outcome. The Fully Bayesian Unfolding was found to deliver on these terms both giving reasonable uncertainty estimates and give a stable solutions for the γ-ray spectra tested in this work. The main source of discrepancy was found in the threshold region ([0, 160] keV), which in turn seems to have an effect on the re-distribution of counts to the γ-ray peaks. The discrepancy was decreased for the FBU when including the background into the unfolding. Since the raw spectra are zero in this region the only effect in this area can be from the response matrix. The response matrix was made under different conditions than the experiment tested in this thesis, and is still a work in progress. The total efficiency of OSCAR has not been fully established either and was estimated using the geometric efficiency. There is uncertainty in the total efficiency assumed in this thesis and it can also have an affect on the discrepancies seen in the unfolded spectrum