Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs)-independent functions of fish oil on glucose and lipid metabolism in diet-induced obese mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Fish oil is known to improve lifestyle-related diseases. These effects occur partly via activation of PPARs by the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids included abundantly in fish oil. We investigated fish oil functions on glucose and lipid metabolism that are both dependent on and independent of PPARs pathway.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Mice were fed a diet containing 30 en% beef tallow (B diet) for twelve weeks to induce obesity. The mice were then divided into two groups which were fed either a B diet or a diet containing 30 en% fish oil (F diet). Each group was further divided into two groups which were administered PPARα and γ antagonists or vehicle once a day for three weeks.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The F diet groups showed lower triglyceride levels in plasma and liver than the B diet groups, but PPARs antagonists did not affect the triglyceride levels in either diet groups. The F diet groups also showed improvement of glucose tolerance compared with the B diet groups. However, PPARs antagonists made glucose tolerance worse in the F diet group but improved it in the B diet group. Therefore, by the administration of antagonists, glucose tolerance was inversely regulated between the B and F diets, and hypolipidemic action in the plasma and liver of the F diet group was not affected.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggest that fish oil decreases lipid levels in plasma and liver via PPARs pathway-independent mechanism, and that glucose tolerance is inversely regulated by PPARs antagonists under diets containing different oils.</p

Spin-Outs and Patterns of Subsequent Innovation: Technological Development of Laser Diodes in the US and Japan

By exploring the technological development of laser diodes in the US and Japan, this study examines how the existence or absence of an entrepreneurial strategic choice for spin-outs influences patterns of subsequent technological development. The results show that spin-outs could hinder the subsequent development of existing technology when that technology is still at a nascent level, because the cumulative effects of technological development could disappear if research and development personnel left their parent firms in order to target different sub-markets

EXPERIMENT ON UAV PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING FOR ICT-INTEGRATED CONSTRUCTION

In the 2016 fiscal year the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan started a program integrating construction and ICT in earthwork and concrete placing. The new program named “i-Construction” focusing on productivity improvement adopts such new technologies as UAV photogrammetry and TLS. We report a field experiment to investigate whether the procedures of UAV photogrammetry and TLS following the standards for “i-Construction” are feasible or not. In the experiment we measured an embankment of about 80 metres by 160 metres immediately after earthwork was done on the embankment. We used two sets of UAV and camera in the experiment. One is a larger UAV enRoute Zion QC730 and its onboard camera Sony &alpha;6000. The other is a smaller UAV DJI Phantom 4 and its dedicated onboard camera. Moreover, we used a terrestrial laser scanner FARO Focus3D X330 based on the phase shift principle. The experiment results indicate that the procedures of UAV photogrammetry using a QC730 with an &alpha;6000 and TLS using a Focus3D X330 following the standards for “i-Construction” would be feasible. Furthermore, the experiment results show that UAV photogrammetry using a lower price UAV Phantom 4 was unable to satisfy the accuracy requirement for “i-Construction.” The cause of the low accuracy by Phantom 4 is under investigation. We also found that the difference of image resolution on the ground would not have a great influence on the measurement accuracy in UAV photogrammetry