Diet and Inflammation Galland, Leo
Nutrition in Clinical Practice,
12/2010, Letnik:
25, Številka:
6
Book Review, Journal Article
Recenzirano
The emerging role of chronic inflammation in the major degenerative diseases of modern society has stimulated research into the influence of nutrition and dietary patterns on inflammatory indices. ...Most human studies have correlated analyses of habitual dietary intake as determined by a food frequency questionnaire or 24-hour recall with systemic markers of inflammation like high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HS-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). An occasional study also includes nutrition analysis of blood components. There have been several controlled interventions which evaluated the effect of a change in dietary pattern or of single foods on inflammatory markers in defined populations. Most studies reveal a modest effect of dietary composition on some inflammatory markers in free-living adults, although different markers do not vary in unison. Significant dietary influences have been established for glycemic index (GI) and load (GL), fiber, fatty acid composition, magnesium, carotenoids, and flavonoids. A traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern, which typically has a high ratio of monounsaturated (MUFA) to saturated (SFA) fats and ω-3 to ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFAs) and supplies an abundance of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains, has shown anti-inflammatory effects when compared with typical North American and Northern European dietary patterns in most observational and interventional studies and may become the diet of choice for diminishing chronic inflammation in clinical practice.
We tested the hypothesis that administration of omega (o)-9, rn-3, and rn-6 to mice can prevent oxidative alterations responsible for behavioral and cognitive alterations related with aging. ...Twenty-eight-day- old mice received skim milk (SM group), SM enriched with omega oil mixture (EM group), or water (control group) for 10 and 14 months, equivalent to middle age. Mice were evaluated for behavioral alterations related to depression and memory and oxidative status brain levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), reduced glutathione (GSH), and myeloperoxidase (MPO). The 10-month EM group increased immobility time during the forced swimming test compared with control, indicating increased stress response. The 14-month SM- and EM-treated groups increased sucrose consumption compared with control, showing an expanded motivational state. The 14-month SM group decreased the number of rearings compared with the 14- month control and EM groups. The number of entries and time spent in the central square of the open field was higher in the 10-month EM group than in the control, revealing an anxiolytic-like behavior. TBARS decreased in the hippocampus and striatum of the 10-month EM group compared with the control. A similar decrease was observed in the striatum of the 10-month SM group. GSH levels were higher in all 14-month treated groups compared with 10-month groups. MPO activity was higher in the 14- month EM group compared with the 14-month control and SM groups, revealing a possible pro-inflammatory status. In conclusion, omega oils induced conflicting alterations in middle-aged mice, contributing to enhanced behavior and anxiolytic and expanded motivational state, but also to increased stress response and pro-inflammatory alterations. Key words: Aging; Nutraceuticals; Omega 3 fatty acids; Omega 6 fatty acids; Omega 9 fatty acids; Oxidative stress markers
Coefficient omega indices are model-based composite reliability estimates that have become increasingly popular. A coefficient omega index estimates how reliably an observed composite score measures ...a target construct as represented by a factor in a factor-analysis model; as such, the accuracy of omega estimates is likely to depend on correct model specification. The current paper presents a simulation study to investigate the performance of omega-unidimensional (based on the parameters of a one-factor model) and omega-hierarchical (based on a bifactor model) under correct and incorrect model misspecification for high and low reliability composites and different scale lengths. Our results show that coefficient omega estimates are unbiased when calculated from the parameter estimates of a properly specified model. However, omega-unidimensional produced positively biased estimates when the population model was characterized by unmodeled error correlations or multidimensionality, whereas omega-hierarchical was only slightly biased when the population model was either a one-factor model with correlated errors or a higher-order model. These biases were higher when population reliability was lower and increased with scale length. Researchers should carefully evaluate the feasibility of a one-factor model before estimating and reporting omega-unidimensional.
We consider the statistical mechanical ensemble of bit string histories that are computed by a universal Turing machine. The role of the energy is played by the program size. We show that this ...ensemble has a first-order phase transition at a critical temperature, at which the partition function equals Chaitin’s halting probability Ω. This phase transition has curious properties: the free energy is continuous near the critical temperature, but almost jumps: it converges more slowly to its finite critical value than any computable function. At the critical temperature, the average size of the bit strings diverges. We define a non-universal Turing machine that approximates this behavior of the partition function in a computable way by a super-logarithmic singularity, and discuss its thermodynamic properties. We also discuss analogies and differences between Chaitin’s Omega and the partition function of a quantum mechanical particle, and with quantum Turing machines. For universal Turing machines, we conjecture that the ensemble of bit string histories at the critical temperature has a continuum formulation in terms of a string theory.
•We study computations of universal Turing machines by means of statistical physics.•The “energy” of a bit string history is defined as its program size complexity.•The partition function reveals a first-order phase transition at a critical temperature.•There, it converges to Chaitin’s Omega more slowly than any computable function.•At the critical point, we conjecture that bit strings are described by a string theory.
Soft $ \omega $-almost-regularity, soft $ \omega $ -semi-regularity, and soft $ \omega $-$ T_{2\frac{1}{2}} $ as three novel soft separation axioms are introduced. It is demonstrated that soft $ ...\omega $ -almost-regularity is strictly between "soft regularity" and "soft almost-regularity"; soft $ \omega $-$ T_{2\frac{1}{2}} $ is strictly between "soft $ T_{2\frac{1}{2}} $" and "soft $ T_{2} $", and soft $ \omega $ -semi-regularity is a weaker form of both "soft semi-regularity" and "soft $ \omega $-regularity". Several sufficient conditions for the equivalence between these new three notions and some of their relevant ones are given. Many characterizations of soft $ \omega $-almost-regularity are obtained, and a decomposition theorem of soft regularity by means of "soft $ \omega $ -semi-regularity" and "soft $ \omega $-almost-regularity" is obtained. Furthermore, it is shown that soft $ \omega $-almost-regularity is heritable for specific kinds of soft subspaces. It is also proved that the soft product of two soft $ \omega $-almost regular soft topological spaces is soft $ \omega $-almost regular. In addition, the connections between our three new conceptions and their topological counterpart topological spaces are discussed.
The Dalitz decays η → e+e-γ and ω → π0e+e- have been measured in the γp → ηp and γp → ωp reactions, respectively, with the A2 tagged-photon facility at the Mainz Microtron. The value obtained for the ...slope parameter of the electromagnetic transition form factor of η, Λ$-2\atop{η}$ = (1.97 ± 0.11tot) GeV-2, is in good agreement with previous measurements of the η → e+e-γ and η → μ+μ-γ decays. The uncertainty obtained in the value of Λ$-2\atop{η}$ is lower than in previous results based on the η → e+e-γ decay. The value obtained for the ω slope parameter, Λ$-2\atop{ωπ^0}$ = (1.99 ± 0.21tot) GeV-2, is somewhat lower than previous measurements based on ω → π0μ+μ-, but the results for the ω transition form factor are in better agreement with theoretical calculations, compared to earlier experiments.
Tonic pain has been difficult to demonstrate in animals. Because relief of pain is rewarding, analgesic agents that are not rewarding in the absence of pain should become rewarding only when there is ...ongoing pain. We used conditioned place preference to concomitantly determine the presence of tonic pain in rats and the efficacy of agents that relieve it. This provides a new approach for investigating tonic pain in animals and for evaluating the analgesic effects of drugs.
In weighted automata theory, many classical results on formal languages have been extended into a quantitative setting. Here, we investigate weighted context-free languages of infinite words, a ...generalization of ω-context-free languages (as introduced by Cohen and Gold in 1977) and an extension of weighted context-free languages of finite words (that were already investigated by Chomsky and Schützenberger in 1963). As in the theory of formal grammars, these weighted context-free languages, or ω-algebraic series, can be represented as solutions of mixed ω-algebraic systems of equations and by weighted ω-pushdown automata.
In our first main result, we show that (mixed) ω-algebraic systems can be transformed into Greibach normal form. We use the Greibach normal form in our second main result to prove that simple ω-reset pushdown automata recognize all ω-algebraic series. Simple ω-reset automata do not use ϵ-transitions and can change the stack only by at most one symbol. These results generalize fundamental properties of context-free languages to weighted context-free languages.
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