Dietary fat and body weight control

The global obesity epidemic has heightened the debate about dietary factors contributing to weight gain. Media stories have promulgated the notion that obesity has increased despite reductions in dietary fat intake. Some have even speculated that lower dietary fat levels may be driving the rapid rise in weight gain within the population. A close examination of the science reveals a different picture and supports the hypothesis that dietary fat, within the context of the total dietary composition consumed by many populations, promotes obesity. Hence, dietary fat control is still an important strategy as part of an overall approach to body weight management in our modern environment. Dietary fat increases the energy density of foods. Abundant evidence from preclinical and clinical studies indicates that fat promotes excess energy intake and positive energy balance. Dietary fat does not promote its own oxidation in the body and is stored efficiently, promoting a positive fat balance. Thus, both the behavioral and metabolic responses to dietary fat increase the probability of positive energy balance and body fat gain. Restoring fat balance when consuming diets rich in fat requires increasing the size of the body fat mass, increasing physical activity, or reducing dietary fat intake. Numerous epidemiologic, preclinical, and controlled clinical studies have shown that body fat is positively associated with dietary fat intake and that dietary fat manipulation leads to appropriate changes in body fat mass. Finally, data from the National Weight Control Registry, a database of >3000 individuals who have successfully maintained a substantial weight loss, indicate that moderating dietary fat intake is a key strategy for long-term management of body weight.     

A Flavanone and Two Phenolic Acids from Chrysanthemum morifolium with Phytotoxic and Insect Growth Regulating Activity

Leaves of Chrysanthemum morifolium cv. Ramat were extracted sequentially with hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol. The methanol fraction, when incorporated into artificial diet was found to reduce the growth of cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni Hubner) larvae at concentrations between 500 and 5000 ppm of diet. Fractionation of the methanol extract on a Sephadex column yielded five fractions, three of which reduced the weight of larvae relative to the control. One fraction was analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and found to contain three main constituents. These compounds were purified using a combination of gel permeation chromatography on Sephadex LH20 and HPLC, and analyzed by 1H and 13CNMR as well as undergoing chemical and physical analyses. The compounds were identified as: 1, chlorogenic acid (5-O-caffeoylquinic acid); 2, 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid; and 3, 3', 4',5-trihydroxyflavanone7-O-glucuronide (eriodictyol7-O-glucuronide). At concentrations between 100 to 1000 ppm these compounds reduced both growth and photosynthesis of Lemna gibba L. with the order of efficacy being: flavanone > chlorogenic acid > 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid. Furthermore, when incorporated separately into artificial diet these compounds, at 10 to 1000 ppm, enhanced or reduced growth of the cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni) and gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.).     

杆状病毒杀虫剂现状及与苏云金杆菌的比较

为解决广谱性化学杀虫剂因大量施用或滥用而引起一系列潜在问题的一种对策——害虫生物防治技术发展至今已有许多年了,化学杀虫剂的超量施用引起最严重的后果是环境和水源污染、食物链中可能的残留物、因天敌数量下降而使次要害虫上升为主要害虫以及害虫抗性品系的选择性等。生物防治剂一般可粗分为食虫昆虫(寄生和天敌昆虫)和昆虫致病源(如病毒、细菌、真菌、原生动物和线虫等)。这些不同的生物防治剂的主要特点见(表1)。     

Field Evaluation of Plant Odor and Pheromonal Combinations for Attracting Plum Curculios

The attractiveness of different synthetic host odors and a synthetic aggregation pheromone (grandisoic acid [GA]) to overwintered adult plum curculios (PCs), Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), was examined using two types of traps (sticky panels and black pyramids) placed in border areas surrounding an unsprayed section of an apple orchard in Massachusetts. In 2001, we evaluated the response of PCs to three synthetic fruit volatiles (benzaldehyde [BEN], ethyl isovalerate [EIV], and limonene [LIM]) assessed alone and in combination with GA, as well as the response to GA alone and a no-odor (control) treatment. BEN was the only host volatile that synergized the response of PCs to GA for both trap types. For both trap types, GA was as attractive to PCs as a single component as when in combination with either EIV or LIM. In 2002, four release rates of BEN (0, 2.5, 10, and 40 mg/day) and two release rates of GA (1 and 2 mg/day) were evaluated for attractiveness to PCs using panel and pyramid traps. For panel traps, an increase in amount of GA released (from 1 to 2 mg/day) was associated with a 35% increase in captures. However, PC captures by pyramid traps were similar regardless of the amount of GA released. For panel traps, 10 and 40 mg/day of BEN were the most attractive release rates regardless of the amount of GA released. For pyramid traps baited with GA. PC captures were enhanced by the presence of BEN, regardless of release rate. In 2003, GA at 1 mg/day + BEN at 80 mg/day of release did not enhance PC captures by panel traps relative to lower release rates of BEN. Pyramid traps releasing GA at 1 mg/day performed best when baited with BEN at 10 mg/day of release; a release rate of 80 mg/day of BEN decreased the attractiveness of the binary combination of BEN + GA. Combined results suggest that BEN at 10 mg/day + GA at 1 mg/day of release constitutes an attractive lure that may improve the effectiveness of monitoring traps for PCs.     

Volume rendering of multimodal images: application to MRI and PET imaging of the human brain

A procedure for combining and visualizing complementary structural and functional information from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) is described. MR and PET images of the human brain were obtained and correlated to form three-dimensional volumes of image data. Volume rendering and solid-texturing concepts were combined to develop a new volume imaging technique for ;volume texture-mapping' brain glucose metabolism (from PET) onto brain anatomy (from MRI). The technique was used to produce sequences of three-dimensional views: these sequences were dynamically displayed in a ;cine-loop' to better visualize the three-dimensional relationship between brain structure and function. The techniques provide a means of presenting vast amounts of multidimensional data in a form that is easily understood, and the resulting images are essential to an understanding of the normal and pathologic states of the human brain.     

Fast template tracking in video sequences

Tracking of poorly defined, rotating and/or distorted objects in a video sequence poses significant problems especially in medical diagnostics including ultrasound (sonographic) video used for examination and diagnosis of internal movement of tissue or muscle and nerve action. Cross-correlation techniques have been successful in retrieving dynamic information directly from ultrasound video data. We outline a fast implementation of tracking based on normalized cross-correlation using an adaptive template and present results from our application, developed in MATLAB?, which successfully tracks arbitrarily selected objects in deformed or severely compromised images. Common ultrasound image evaluation is qualitative but there is need to retrieve quantitative dynamic information such as the trajectory or velocity of selected areas. Our approach uses normalized two-dimensional cross-correlation to find the position of an initially selected template enclosing the feature of interest and map its trajectory frame-by-frame to produce displacement and velocity plots. We illustrate operation of the application using routine ultrasound data and demonstrate its performance using test video of objects rotating full circle and rolling down a ramp. We analyse errors associated with sampling to compare performance of our implementation with a more rigorous but tedious and computationally expensive correlation of a resampled, rotated, and shifted template.     

Towards ETEM serial crystallography: Electron diffraction from liquid jets

A sufficiently thin column of liquid was produced to permit penetration with a 200 keV electron beam as evidenced by the observation of diffraction rings due to the intermolecular spacing of the liquid samples. For liquid thickness below 800 nm, the diffraction rings became visible above the inelastic background. Studies were carried out in the environmental chamber of a transmission electron microscope using water and isopropanol.     

Proteomic Helicobacter pylori biomarkers discriminative of low-grade gastric MALT lymphoma and duodenal ulcer

To date no reliable diagnostic method exists to predict, among the very large and clinically heterogeneous group of Helicobacter pylori‐infected patients, the extremely small group at risk for developing low‐grade gastric MALT lymphoma (LG‐MALT). Search of proteomic biomarkers holds promise for the classification of the H. pylori strains with regard to this severe clinical outcome. In the present study 69 H. pylori strains isolated from patients with two different H. pylori‐associated diseases, duodenal ulcer (DU, n=29) and LG‐MALT (n=40) were used. Protein expression patterns of the strains were analyzed by using the high‐throughput methodology SELDI. Selected proteins were purified by means of chromatographic and electrophoretic methods in view of further sequencing by LC‐MS/MS. Univariate analysis (Mann–Whitney test) of the protein expression patterns generated nine significant biomarkers that can discriminate between H. pylori strains from patients with DU and LG‐MALT. These biomarkers are of low molecular weight, ranging from 6 to 26.6 kDa. Among them, two are overexpressed in LG‐MALT strains and seven – in DU strains. Two biomarker proteins, one overexpressed in LG‐MALT strains (13.2 kDa) and another one – overexpressed in DU strains (26.6 kDa), were purified to homogeneity and identified by using LC‐MS/MS as a 50S ribosomal protein L7/L12 and a urease subunit, respectively. These biomarkers can be included in novel protein arrays for the differential diagnosis of H. pylori‐associated clinical outcomes.     

Post-embryonic development of the antennal sensilla in Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides (Hymenoptera: Meliponini)

The sensilla are sensory organs formed by cuticular and cellular structures specialized in reception of chemical and physical stimuli from the environment and transmission to the insect's central nervous system. In function of the great concentration of sensilla, the antennae are the main organs for interaction between bees and with the environment. This work studied the presence of antennal sensilla in the different phases of pupal development of the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides by means of scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy. The results showed that antennal sensilla begin their development in the transition of the prepupae to the white-eyed pupae and finish it in the pigmented-body pupae phase. The antennal sensilla were exposed to the environment in the black-eyed pupae when the old cuticle is completely digested, suggesting that only in the final pupal phases can these bees perceive the environmental stimuli.