Perinatal Obesity Induces Hepatic Growth Restriction with Increased DNA Damage Response,Senescence, and Dysregulated Igf-1-Akt-Foxo1 Signaling in Male Offspring of Obese Mice

Maternal obesity predisposes for hepato-metabolic disorders early in life. However, the underlying mechanisms causing early onset dysfunction of the liver and metabolism remain elusive. Since obesity is associated with subacute chronic inflammation and accelerated aging, we test the hypothesis whether maternal obesity induces aging processes in the developing liver and determines thereby hepatic growth. To this end, maternal obesity was induced with high-fat diet (HFD) in C57BL/6N mice and male offspring were studied at the end of the lactation [postnatal day 21 (P21)]. Maternal obesity induced an obese body composition with metabolic inflammation and a marked hepatic growth restriction in the male offspring at P21. Proteomic and molecular analyses revealed three interrelated mechanisms that might account for the impaired hepatic growth pattern, indicating prematurely induced aging processes: (1) Increased DNA damage response (γH2AX), (2) significant upregulation of hepatocellular senescence markers (Cdnk1a, Cdkn2a); and (3) inhibition of hepatic insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1-AKT-p38-FoxO1 signaling with an insufficient proliferative growth response. In conclusion, our murine data demonstrate that perinatal obesity induces an obese body composition in male offspring with hepatic growth restriction through a possible premature hepatic aging that is indicated by a pathologic sequence of inflammation, DNA damage, senescence, and signs of a possibly insufficient regenerative capacity.     

Application of a rapid transesterification method for identification of individual fatty acids by gas chromatography on three different nut oils

The lack of uniformity of analytical techniques employed for quantification of fatty acids led to the successful implementation of a rapid transesterification method using tetramethylammonium hydroxide to determine and compare the total fatty acid content of almond, pecan and macadamia oils. Palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids comprised the largest part of the total fatty acid content in almond and pecan oils. Although oleic acid was also the main constituent of macadamia oil, its concentration was substantially lower than in the other oils.     

Optical and electrical properties and phonon drag effect in low temperature TEP measurements of AgSbSe2 thin films

Polycrystalline thin films of silver antimony selenide have been deposited using a reactive evaporation technique onto an ultrasonically cleaned glass substrate at a vacuum of 10-5 torr. The preparative parameters, like substrate temperature and incident fluxes, have been properly controlled in order to get stoichiometric, good quality and reproducible thin film samples. The samples are characterized by XRD, SEM, AFM and a UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer. The prepared sample is found to be polycrystalline in nature. From the XRD pattern, the average particle size and lattice constant are calculated. The dislocation density, strain and number of crystallites per unit area are evaluated using the average particle size. The dependence of the electrical conductivity on the temperature has also been studied and the prepared AgSbSe2 samples are semiconducting in nature. The AgSbSe2 thin films exhibited an indirect allowed optical transition with a band gap of 0.64 eV. The compound exhibits promising thermoelectric properties, a large Seebeck coefficient of 30 mV/K at 48 K due to strong phonon electron interaction. It shows a strong temperature dependence on thermoelectric properties, including the inversion of a dominant carrier type from p to n over a low temperature range 9-300 K, which is explained on the basis of a phonon drag effect.     

Induction of Oxidative Stress and Antioxidative Mechanisms in Arabidopsis thaliana after Uranium Exposure at pH 7.5

To evaluate the environmental impact of uranium (U) contamination, it is important to investigate the effects of U at ecologically relevant conditions. Since U speciation, and hence its toxicity, strongly depends on environmental pH, the present study aimed to investigate dose-dependent effects of U at pH 7.5. Arabidopsis thaliana plants (Mouse-ear Cress) were exposed for three days to different U concentrations at pH 7.5. In the roots, the increased capacities of ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase indicate an important role for the ascorbate-glutathione cycle during U-induced stress. However, a significant decrease in the ascorbate redox state was observed after exposure to 75 and 100 µM U, indicating that those roots are severely stressed. In accordance with the roots, the ascorbate-glutathione cycle plays an important role in the antioxidative defence systems in A. thaliana leaves exposed to U at pH 7.5 as the ascorbate and glutathione biosynthesis were upregulated. In addition, small inductions of enzymes of the antioxidative defence system were observed at lower U concentrations to counteract the U-induced stress. However, at higher U concentrations it seems that the antioxidative defence system of the leaves collapses as reductions in enzyme activities and gene expression levels were observed.     

Interdependent technology attributes and the diffusion of consumer electronics

In many studies on innovation diffusion, five attributes of innovations by Rogers [Rogers, E.M., 2003. Diffusion of Innovations. Free Press, New York] are used to explain the adoption of innovations. These five attributes (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability) are related to each other. This paper develops a theoretical framework on how these attributes are interrelated. We show empirically that modelling the theoretical interdependencies leads to better results in predicting the adoption of consumer electronics. Further, we show that our framework is not only valid on a product-domain level, but also for separate clusters within the product domain.     

Stationary, nonstationary, and hybrid iterative method of momentssolution schemes

The purpose of this paper is to report on the convergence rates of two iterative matrix solution methods individually and then to combine the two methods into a hybrid scheme to achieve additional convergence rate benefits. One iterative matrix solver investigated is the sparse iterative method (SIM) which is a stationary, Jacobi-like solver but uses a sparse and not a banded matrix, with matrix elements corresponding to strong interactions, rather than position in the matrix. In this paper, the SIM is modified to include an adaptive relaxation scheme to improve its convergence speed and numerical stability. Another iterative scheme investigated is the nonstationary biconjugate gradient stabilized (BiCGSTAB) method. It is shown that the BiCGSTAB is considerably improved when the method is preconditioned by the sparse matrix used in the SIM method. Finally, a hybrid scheme is proposed which combines both SIM-AR and BiCGSTAB-precon and it is shown that the hybrid gives best results on the problems considered. Examples giving convergence time versus accuracy are presented for two problems: a wire-grid plate, and a wire-grid partial helicopter     

Numerical Modeling of Cemented Mine Backfill Deposition

In current underground mining practice, it is common to use tailings, without added cement, to fill mined-out voids (“stopes”). If fine-grained tailings are used, the high placement rates and low permeability can often result in undrained loading conditions and, hence, lower effective stress, when assessed in the conventional manner. Where cement is added, the cement modifies the consolidation characteristics in a number of ways, including increasing the strength and stiffness, reducing the permeability, and inducing volumetric changes associated with the hydration reactions leading to “self-desiccation.” As a result, conventional consolidation-analysis techniques are unsuitable for assessing the behavior. The one-dimensional mine-tailings-consolidation program (MinTaCo) has been modified, and renamed CeMinTaCo, to couple cement hydration with conventional consolidation analysis. The fundamental theory behind the modifications is presented. The model is used to undertake a sensitivity study, which highlights some of the important features of the behavior of cemented backfill, and shows how complex interactions between the various properties produce some outcomes that are counterintuitive.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript> mapping of cerebrospinal fluid: 3 T versus 7 T

Object

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) T ₂ mapping can potentially be used to investigate CSF composition. A previously proposed CSF T ₂–mapping method reported a T ₂ difference between peripheral and ventricular CSF, and suggested that this reflected different CSF compositions. We studied the performance of this method at 7 T and evaluated the influence of partial volume and B ₁ and B ₀ inhomogeneity.

Materials and methods

T ₂-preparation-based CSF T ₂-mapping was performed in seven healthy volunteers at 7 and 3 T, and was compared with a single echo spin-echo sequence with various echo times. The influence of partial volume was assessed by our analyzing the longest echo times only. B ₁ and B ₀ maps were acquired. B ₁ and B ₀ dependency of the sequences was tested with a phantom.

Results

T _2,CSF was shorter at 7 T compared with 3 T. At 3 T, but not at 7 T, peripheral T _2,CSF was significantly shorter than ventricular T _2,CSF. Partial volume contributed to this T ₂ difference, but could not fully explain it. B ₁ and B ₀ inhomogeneity had only a very limited effect. T _2,CSF did not depend on the voxel size, probably because of the used method to select of the regions of interest.

Conclusion

CSF T ₂ mapping is feasible at 7 T. The shorter peripheral T _2,CSF is likely a combined effect of partial volume and CSF composition.