Preliminary investigation of the effects of long-term dietary intake of genistein and daidzein on hepatic histopathology and biochemistry in domestic cats (Felis catus)

Dietary isoflavones have been hypothesised to play a role in hepatic veno-occlusive disease in captive exotic felids, although empirical evidence is lacking. This study aimed to investigate the effect of long-term (>1 year) dietary genistein and daidzein exposure on the hepatic biochemistry and histology of domestic cats. Individual cats were assessed for hepatic enzyme and bile acid production before and after the removal of isoflavones from their diet in the treatment group (n=4), and at the same times in unexposed control animals (n=7). No significant differences were detectable in hepatic biochemistry between treatment and control groups, and all serum values were within the normal reference ranges for domestic cats. Additionally, treatment animals demonstrated slightly greater areas of fibrosis surrounding hepatic venules than control animals, but this difference was not statistically significant. On the basis of the results presented, dietary isoflavones, at the current dose and duration of exposure do not appear to modulate hepatic enzyme production or histological parameters

Preliminary investigation of the influence of long-term dietary isoflavone intake on reproductive tract histology and sex steroid receptor expression in female domestic cats (Felis catus)

Genistein and daidzein are isoflavones which are reported to influence the reproductive system in a variety of mammalian species. This pilot study aimed to determine if dietary isoflavones could potentially influence reproductive tract histology or morphology in domestic cats, when consumed during the postnatal development period. Cats were maintained on either treatment (150 µg/g DM genistein and 150 µg/g DM daidzein, n=4) or control (isoflavone free, n=8) diets from weaning, up to 414 (±17.2) days post-weaning. Reproductive tissues were collected during routine ovario-hysterectomy and examined for histology and sex steroid receptor expression. Findings indicate that these dietary isoflavones influenced the expression of oestrogen receptor α (ERα) and oestrogen receptor β (ERβ), and progesterone receptor in feline reproductive tissues. One cat in the treatment group developed suppurative endometritis, but no evidence of uterotrophic or histological changes were found in any other cats. The potential to alter expression of hormone receptors in the reproductive tract of domestic cats exposed to genistein and daidzein warrants further investigation

Effects and Action Mechanisms of Berberine and Rhizoma coptidis on Gut Microbes and Obesity in High-Fat Diet-Fed C57BL/6J Mice

Gut microbes play important roles in regulating fat storage and metabolism. Rhizoma coptidis (RC) and its main active compound, berberine, have either antimicrobial or anti-obesity activities. In the present study, we hypothesize that RC exerts anti-obesity effects that are likely mediated by mechanisms of regulating gut microbes and berberine may be a key compound of RC. Gut microbes and glucose and lipid metabolism in high-fat diet-fed C57BL/6J (HFD) mice in vivo are investigated after RC and berberine treatments. The results show that RC (200 mg/kg) and berberine (200 mg/kg) significantly lower both body and visceral adipose weights, and reduce blood glucose and lipid levels, and decrease degradation of dietary polysaccharides in HFD mice. Both RC and berberine significantly reduce the proportions of fecal Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes to total bacteria in HFD mice. In the trial ex vivo, both RC and berberine significantly inhibit the growth of gut bacteria under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. In in vitro trials, both RC and berberine significantly inhibit the growth of Lactobacillus (a classical type of Firmicutes) under anaerobic conditions. Furthermore, both RC and berberine significantly increase fasting-induced adipose factor (Fiaf, a key protein negatively regulated by intestinal microbes) expressions in either intestinal or visceral adipose tissues. Both RC and berberine significantly increase mRNA expressions of AMPK, PGC1α, UCP2, CPT1α, and Hadhb related to mitochondrial energy metabolism, which may be driven by increased Fiaf expression. These results firstly suggest that antimicrobial activities of RC and berberine may result in decreasing degradation of dietary polysaccharides, lowering potential calorie intake, and then systemically activating Fiaf protein and related gene expressions of mitochondrial energy metabolism in visceral adipose tissues. Taken together, these action mechanisms may contribute to significant anti-obesity effects. Findings in the present study also indicate that pharmacological regulation on gut microbes can develop an anti-obesity strategy

Climate Policy Under Fat-Tailed Risk: An Application of Dice

Uncertainty plays a significant role in evaluating climate policy, and fat-tailed uncertainty may dominate policy advice. Should we make our utmost effort to prevent the arbitrarily large impacts of climate change under deep uncertainty? In order to answer to this question, we propose a new way of investigating the impact of (fat-tailed) uncertainty on optimal climate policy: the curvature of the optimal carbon tax against the uncertainty. We find that the optimal carbon tax increases as the uncertainty about climate sensitivity increases, but it does not accelerate as implied by Weitzman's Dismal Theorem. We find the same result in a wide variety of sensitivity analyses. These results emphasize the importance of balancing the costs of climate change against its benefits, also under deep uncertainty. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Towards a consistent mechanism of emulsion polymerization—new experimental details

The application of atypical experimental methods such as conductivity measurements, optical microscopy, and nonstirred polymerizations to investigations of the ‘classical’ batch ab initio emulsion polymerization of styrene revealed astonishing facts. The most important result is the discovery of spontaneous emulsification leading to monomer droplets even in the quiescent styrene in water system. These monomer droplets with a size between a few and some hundreds of nanometers, which are formed by spontaneous emulsification as soon as styrene and water are brought into contact, have a strong influence on the particle nucleation, the particle morphology, and the swelling of the particles. Experimental results confirm that micelles of low-molecular-weight surfactants are not a major locus of particle nucleation. Brownian dynamics simulations show that the capture of matter by the particles strongly depends on the polymer volume fraction and the size of the captured species (primary free radicals, oligomers, single monomer molecules, or clusters)

Active learning and optimal climate policy

This paper develops a climate-economy model with uncertainty, irreversibility, and active learning. Whereas previous papers assume learning from one observation per period, or experiment with control variables to gain additional information, this paper considers active learning from investment in monitoring, specifically in improved observations of the global mean temperature. We find that the decision maker invests a significant amount of money in climate research, far more than the current level, in order to increase the rate of learning about climate change. This helps the decision maker make improved decisions. The level of uncertainty decreases more rapidly in the active learning model than in the passive learning model with only temperature observations. As the uncertainty about climate change is smaller, active learning reduces the optimal carbon tax. The greater the risk, the larger is the effect of learning. The method proposed here is applicable to any dynamic control problem where the quality of monitoring is a choice variable, for instance, the precision at which we observe GDP, unemployment, or the quality of education

Search for rare quark-annihilation decays, B --> Ds(*) Phi

We report on searches for B- --> Ds- Phi and B- --> Ds*- Phi. In the context of the Standard Model, these decays are expected to be highly suppressed since they proceed through annihilation of the b and u-bar quarks in the B- meson. Our results are based on 234 million Upsilon(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We find no evidence for these decays, and we set Bayesian 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions BF(B- --> Ds- Phi) Ds*- Phi)<1.2x10^(-5). These results are consistent with Standard Model expectations.Comment: 8 pages, 3 postscript figues, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO