Considerable evidence suggests that the time of day at which calories are consumed markedly impacts body weight gain and adiposity. However, a precise quantification of energy balance parameters ...during controlled animal studies enforcing time-of-day-restricted feeding is currently lacking in the absence of direct human interaction.
The purpose of the present study was therefore to quantify the effects of restricted feeding during the light (sleep)-phase in a fully-automated, computer-controlled comprehensive laboratory animal monitoring system (CLAMS) designed to modulate food access in a time-of-day-dependent manner. Energy balance, gene expression (within metabolically relevant tissues), humoral factors and body weight were assessed.
We report that relative to mice fed only during the dark (active)-phase, light (sleep)-phase fed mice: (1) consume a large meal upon initiation of food availability; (2) consume greater total calories per day; (3) exhibit a higher respiratory exchange ratio (indicative of decreased reliance on lipid/fatty acid oxidation); (4) exhibit tissue-specific alterations in the phases and amplitudes of circadian clock and metabolic genes in metabolically active tissues (greatest phase differences observed in the liver and diminution of amplitudes in epididymal fat, gastrocnemius muscle and heart); (5) exhibit diminished amplitude in humoral factor diurnal variations (for example, corticosterone); and (6) exhibit greater weight gain within 9 days of restricted feeding.
Collectively, these data suggest that weight gain following light (sleep)-phase restricted feeding is associated with significant alterations in energy balance, as well as dyssynchrony between metabolically active organs.
Numerous scholars have argued that the terms environmental literacy, ecological literacy, and ecoliteracy have been used in so many different ways and/or are so all-encompassing that they have very ...little useful meaning. However, despite the seemingly arbitrary and, at times, indiscriminate use of these terms, tremendous efforts have in fact been made to explicitly define and delineate the essential components of environmental literacy, ecological literacy, and ecoliteracy, and to firmly anchor their characterizations in deep theoretical and philosophical foundations. A driving purpose behind these ongoing conversations has been to advance complete, pedagogy-guiding, and broadly applicable frameworks for these ideals, allowing for standards and assessments of educational achievement to be set. In this manuscript, we review a diversity of perspectives related to the often nuanced differences and similarities of these terms. A classification of the numerous proposed frameworks for environmental literacy, ecological literacy, and ecoliteracy (advanced within the fields of environmental education, ecology, and the broader humanities, respectively) is presented, and used to compare and contrast frameworks across multiple dimensions of affect, knowledge, skills, and behavior. This analysis facilitates close examination of where we have been, where we are, and where we might be headed with respect to these vital conversations. This work also offers points of reference for continued critical discourse, and illuminates a diversity of inspiration sources for developing and/or enriching programs aimed at cultivating these types of literacies.
Abstract Background and aim Little is known about the relationship between neurocognitive performance and functional outcome before the onset of frank psychosis. This longitudinal study aimed to ...investigate neurocognitive predictors of poor functional outcome in a group identified as ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis between two and 13 years prior. Method Individuals ( N = 230) identified as UHR for psychosis at the PACE Clinic in Melbourne completed assessment of psychopathology, functioning and neurocognition at baseline and follow-up. The mean length of follow-up was 7.26 years ( SD 3.05). Results Forty-one individuals with the poorest functional outcome were identified. Only 48.8% of this group had transitioned to psychosis. Poor functional outcome was associated with reduced performance at baseline in the specific neurocognitive domains of verbal learning and memory, processing speed and attention, and verbal fluency, but not global cognitive impairment. Reduced performance on a verbal story recall task, in combination with higher negative symptoms at baseline, was the best predictor of later poor outcome. Baseline positive psychotic symptoms and GAF scores were not associated with later poor outcome. Discussion To date, this is the longest follow-up study of an UHR sample. Poor functional outcome was associated with specific neurocognitive decrements, regardless of transition to psychosis. The detection of individuals with poor functioning at follow-up, against a background of previously identified risk factors for psychotic disorder, may yield a valid group in which to study biomarkers and treatment of schizophrenia.
The excitation functions for quasielastic scattering of ^{22}Ne+^{248}Cm, ^{26}Mg+^{248}Cm, and ^{48}Ca+^{238}U are measured using a gas-filled recoil ion separator. The quasielastic barrier ...distributions are extracted for these systems and are compared with coupled-channel calculations. The results indicate that the barrier distribution is affected dominantly by deformation of the actinide target nuclei, but also by vibrational or rotational excitations of the projectile nuclei, as well as neutron transfer processes before capture. From a comparison between the experimental barrier distributions and the evaporation residue cross sections for Sg (Z=106), Hs (108), Cn (112), and Lv (116), it is suggested that the hot fusion reactions take advantage of a compact collision, where the projectile approaches along the short axis of a prolately deformed nucleus. A new method is proposed to estimate the optimum incident energy to synthesize unknown superheavy nuclei using the barrier distribution.
Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) promotes the transfer of cholesteryl esters from antiatherogenic HDLs to proatherogenic apolipoprotein B (apoB)-containing lipoproteins, including VLDLs, ...VLDL remnants, IDLs, and LDLs. A deficiency of CETP is associated with increased HDL levels and decreased LDL levels, a profile that is typically antiatherogenic. Studies in rabbits, a species with naturally high levels of CETP, support the therapeutic potential of CETP inhibition as an approach to retarding atherogenesis. Studies in mice, a species that lacks CETP activity, have provided mixed results. Human subjects with heterozygous CETP deficiency and an HDL cholesterol level >60 mg/dL have a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. Evidence that atherosclerosis may be increased in CETP-deficient subjects whose HDL levels are not increased is difficult to interpret and may reflect confounding or bias. Small-molecule inhibitors of CETP have now been tested in human subjects and shown to increase the concentration of HDL cholesterol while decreasing that of LDL cholesterol and apoB. Thus, it seems important and timely to test the hypothesis in randomized trials of humans that pharmacological inhibition of CETP retards the development of atherosclerosis.
The objectives, instrumentation, methods and data leading up to launch of the NASA Living With a Star (LWS) Space Environment Testbed (SET) payload onboard the Air Force Research Laboratory ...Demonstration and Science Experiments (DSX) spacecraft are described. The experiments characterize the space radiation environment and how it affects hardware performance. The payload consists of a compact space weather instrument and a carrier containing four board experiments.
Individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis show reduced neurocognitive performance across domains but it is unclear which reductions are associated with transition to frank psychosis. The aim ...of this study was to investigate differences in baseline neurocognitive performance between UHR participants with (UHR-P) and without transition to psychosis (UHR-NP) and a healthy control (HC) group and examine neurocognitive predictors of transition over the medium to long term.
A sample of 325 UHR participants recruited consecutively from the Personal Assessment and Crisis Evaluation (PACE) Clinic in Melbourne and 66 HCs completed a neurocognitive assessment at baseline. The UHR group was followed up between 2.39 and 14.86 (median = 6.45) years later. Cox regression was used to investigate candidate neurocognitive predictors of psychosis onset.
The UHR group performed more poorly than the HC group across a range of neurocognitive domains but only performance on digit symbol coding and picture completion differed between the groups. The risk of transition was only significantly associated with poorer performance on visual reproduction hazard ratio (HR) 0.919, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.876-0.965, p = 0.001 and matrix reasoning (HR 0.938, 95% CI 0.883-0.996, p = 0.037). These remained significant even after controlling for psychopathology at baseline.
This study is the longest follow-up of an UHR sample to date. UHR status was associated with poorer neurocognitive performance compared to HCs on some tasks. Cognition at identification as UHR was not a strong predictor of risk for transition to psychosis. The results suggests the need to include more experimental paradigms that isolate discrete cognitive processes to better understand neurocognition at this early stage of illness.
Acetone is one of the most abundant carbonyl compounds in the atmosphere, and it serves as an important source of HOx (OH + HO2) radicals in the upper troposphere and a precursor for peroxyacetyl ...nitrate. We present a global sensitivity analysis targeted at several major natural source and sink terms in the global acetone budget to find the input factor or factors to which the simulated acetone mixing ratio was most sensitive. The ranges of input factors were taken from literature. We calculated the influence of these factors in terms of their elementary effects on model output. Of the six factors tested here, the four factors with the highest contribution to total global annual model sensitivity are direct emissions of acetone from the terrestrial biosphere, acetone loss to photolysis, the concentration of acetone in the ocean mixed layer, and the dry deposition of acetone to ice‐free land. The direct emissions of acetone from the terrestrial biosphere are globally important in determining acetone mixing ratios, but their importance varies seasonally outside the tropics. Photolysis is most influential in the upper troposphere. Additionally, the influence of the oceanic mixed layer concentrations are relatively invariant between seasons, compared to the other factors tested. Monoterpene oxidation in the troposphere, despite the significant uncertainties in acetone yield in this process, is responsible for only a small amount of model uncertainty in the budget analysis.
Key Points
We present an elementary effect sensitivity analysis of the natural factors on the global acetone budget
Of the factors tested, uncertainty associated with direct emissions of acetone from the terrestrial biosphere is the most important factor
Without representing ocean exchange, models are unlikely to accurately simulate atmospheric acetone, especially in the Southern Hemisphere
Background
Intranasally administered insulin has shown promise in both rodent and human studies in Alzheimer’s disease; however, both effects and mechanisms require elucidation.
Objective
We assessed ...the effects of intranasally administered insulin on white matter health and its association with cognition and cerebral spinal fluid biomarker profiles in adults with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease in secondary analyses from a prior phase 2 clinical trial (NCT01767909).
Design
A randomized (1:1) double-blind clinical trial.
Setting
Twelve sites across the United States.
Participants
Adults with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease.
Intervention
Participants received either twice daily placebo or insulin (20 IU Humulin R U-100 b.i.d.) intranasally for 12 months. Seventy-eight participants were screened, of whom 49 (32 men) were enrolled.
Measurements
Changes from baseline in global and regional white matter hyperintensity volume and gray matter volume were analyzed and related to changes in cerebral spinal fluid biomarkers, Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognition, Clinical Disease Rating-Sum of Boxes, Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living Scale, and a memory composite.
Results
The insulin-treated group demonstrated significantly reduced changes in white matter hyperintensity volume in deep and frontal regions after 12 months, with a similar trend for global volume. White matter hyperintensity volume progression correlated with worsened Alzheimer’s disease cerebral spinal fluid biomarker profile and cognitive function; however, patterns of correlations differed by treatment group.
Conclusion
Intranasal insulin treatment for 12 months reduced white matter hyperintensity volume progression and supports insulin’s potential as a therapeutic option for Alzheimer’s disease.
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