IntroductionAnimal studies showed that germ-free mice inoculated with normal mouse gut bacteria developed obesity, insulin resistance and higher triglyceride levels, despite similar food intake. In ...humans, an association has been found between obesity and gut microbiome dysbiosis. However, gut microbiome transfer has not been evaluated for the treatment of human obesity. We will examine the effectiveness of gut microbiome transfer using encapsulated material for the treatment of obesity in adolescents.Methods and analysisA two-arm, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised clinical trial of a single course of gut microbiome transfer will be conducted in 80 obese body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m2 adolescents (males and females, aged 14–18 years) in Auckland, New Zealand. Healthy lean donors (males and females, aged 18–28 years) will provide fresh stool samples from which bacteria will be isolated and double encapsulated. Participants (recipients) will be randomised at 1:1 to control (placebo) or treatment (gut microbiome transfer), stratified by sex. Recipients will receive 28 capsules over two consecutive mornings (~14 mL of frozen microbial suspension or saline). Clinical assessments will be performed at baseline, 6, 12 and 26 weeks, and will include: anthropometry, blood pressure, fasting metabolic markers, dietary intake, physical activity levels and health-related quality of life. Insulin sensitivity (Matsuda index), gut microbiota population structure characterised by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and body composition (using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) will be assessed at baseline, 6, 12 and 26 weeks. 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring will be performed at baseline and at 6 weeks. The primary outcome is BMI SD scores (SDS) at 6 weeks, with BMI SDS at 12 and 26 weeks as secondary outcomes. Other secondary outcomes include insulin sensitivity, adiposity (total body fat percentage) and gut microbial composition at 6, 12 and 26 weeks. Statistical analysis will be performed on the principle of intention to treat.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval was provided by the Northern A Health and Disability Ethics Committee (Ministry of Health, New Zealand; 16/NTA/172). The trial results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences.Trial registration numberACTRN12615001351505; Pre-results.
Monitoring of ice-shelf and sub-ice-shelf ocean temperatures represents an important component in understanding ice-sheet stability. Continuous monitoring is challenging due to difficult surface ...access, difficulties in penetrating the ice shelf, and the need for long-term operation of non-recoverable sensors. We aim to develop rapid lightweight drilling and near-continuous fiber-optic temperature-monitoring methods to meet these challenges. During November 2011, two instrumented moorings were installed within and below the McMurdo Ice Shelf (a sub-region of the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica) at Windless Bight. We used a combination of ice coring for the upper portion of each shelf borehole and hot-point drilling for penetration into the ocean. The boreholes provided temporary access to the ice-shelf cavity, into which distributed temperature sensing (DTS) fiber-optic cables and conventional pressure/temperature transducers were installed. The DTS moorings provided near-continuous (in time and depth) observations of ice and ocean temperatures to a depth of almost 800 m beneath the ice-shelf surface. Data received document the presence of near-freezing water throughout the cavity from November through January, followed by an influx of warmer water reaching ∼150 m beneath the ice-shelf base during February and March. The observations demonstrate prospects for achieving much higher spatial sampling of temperature than more conventional oceanographic moorings.
Structure in the Eridani Debris Disk Greaves, J. S; Holland, W. S; Wyatt, M. C ...
The Astrophysical journal,
02/2005, Letnik:
619, Številka:
2
Journal Article
We present models of the submillimetre dust emission around four Vega-excess stars. The results are adjusted to fit simultaneously the spectral energy distribution from millimetre through to optical ...wavelengths, as well as the submillimetre image. The combination of spatially resolved images with continuum fluxes over a range of wavelengths can remove some of the previous ambiguities in estimating the dust emission characteristics and circumstellar distributions. Fomalhaut shows the brightest and best-resolved submillimetre image, and so gives the most unambiguous fit. Both the imaging and photometric results can best be modelled by an edge-on thick torus, of inner radius 100 au, outer radius 140 au and thickness ∼120 au. The observed sharp outer boundary cannot be fitted by a reasonable power-law density distribution. Furthermore, inside 100 au the density also drops abruptly, by at least a factor of 10. The structures of Vega and ε Eri are also best modelled by radially thin rings rather than discs, in both cases viewed almost pole-on. However, there are clearly clumps in their morphologies which cannot be explained by simple axisymmetric models. The submillimetre disc in β Pic can be adequately fitted by the same model as that used to account for the extended structure seen in scattered light. However, the additional south-western emission component, if it lies in the β Pic system, must have a dust mass comparable to that of the whole visible disc. In all cases, the spectral energy distribution can be fitted by a single ring or disc-like structure. Grain sizes of a few tens of μm and β=0.8–1.1 provide the best fits, and we place limits on the dust size distribution. The dust temperatures are too low and there is too much temperature variation between the sources for grain sublimation to be effective at creating the central holes. All rings are dominated by grain-grain collisions, and we discuss methods of creating and sustaining the observed structures. Most likely they arise from a mechanism such as planet shepherding. The outer cut-off may arise in a similar way, although external stripping of material is not discounted.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows non-invasive assessment of human brain function in vivo by detecting blood flow differences. In this review, we want to illustrate the background ...and different aspects of performing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the pediatric age group. An overview over current and future applications of fMRI will be given, and typical problems, pitfalls, and benefits of doing fMRI in the pediatric age group are discussed. We conclude that fMRI can successfully be applied in children and holds great promise for both research and clinical purposes.
We describe a search for submillimeter emission in the vicinity of one of the most distant, luminous galaxies known, HerMES FLS3, at z = 6.34, exploiting it as a signpost to a potentially biased ...region of the early universe, as might be expected in hierarchical structure formation models. Imaging to the confusion limit with the innovative, wide-field submillimeter bolometer camera, SCUBA-2, we are sensitive to colder and/or less luminous galaxies in the surroundings of HFLS3. We use the Millennium Simulation to illustrate that HFLS3 may be expected to have companions if it is as massive as claimed, but find no significant evidence from the surface density of SCUBA-2 galaxies in its vicinity, or their colors, that HFLS3 marks an overdensity of dusty, star-forming galaxies. We cannot rule out the presence of dusty neighbors with confidence, but deeper 450 mu m imaging has the potential to more tightly constrain the redshifts of nearby galaxies, at least one of which likely lies at z > ~ 5. If associations with HFLS3 can be ruled out, this could be taken as evidence that HFLS3 is less biased than a simple extrapolation of the Millennium Simulation may imply. This could suggest either that it represents a rare short-lived, but highly luminous, phase in the evolution of an otherwise typical galaxy, or that this system has suffered amplification due to a foreground gravitational lens and so is not as intrinsically luminous as claimed.
The Vega debris disc: A view from Herschel Sibthorpe, B.; Vandenbussche, B.; Greaves, J. S. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
07/2010, Letnik:
518, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We present five band imaging of the Vega debris disc obtained using the Herschel Space Observatory. These data span a wavelength range of 70–500 μm with full-width half-maximum angular resolutions of ...5.6–36.9”. The disc is well resolved in all bands, with the ring structure visible at 70 and 160 μm. Radial profiles of the disc surface brightness are produced, and a disc radius of 11” (~85 AU) is determined. The disc is seen to have a smooth structure thoughout the entire wavelength range, suggesting that the disc is in a steady state, rather than being an ephemeral structure caused by the recent collision of two large planetesimals.
Structure in the ε Eridani Debris Disk Greaves, J. S.; Holland, W. S.; Wyatt, M. C. ...
The Astrophysical journal,
02/2005, Letnik:
619, Številka:
2
Journal Article
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