1,721,091 research outputs found
The role of the intrauterine environment in the later development of type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome
No full textLinks between indices of poor fetal growth and either adult type 2 diabetes, the metabolic syndrome, or both are reproducible in many studies and many ethnic groups. It has been proposed that genetic factors, environmental factors, or a mixture of both underlie these links. Studies of monozygotic twins have shown that environmental factors operate independently of the genome. Attention has been focused recently on links with childhood growth, particularly rapid catch-up growth before puberty. Animal models have shown that poor maternal nutrition can lead to glucose intolerance and hypertension in offspring. The molecular mechanisms mediating these links are unclear. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis may be involved as may the sympathetic nervous system. It is difficult to calculate what proportions of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome may be caused by early environmental factors. Conversely, it is possible to obtain a low figure
Early programming of weight gain in mice prevents the induction of obesity by a highly palatable diet
No full textPoor early growth is associated with Type II diabetes, hypertension and other features of the metabolic syndrome in adulthood. It has been suggested that this results from the development of a thrifty phenotype by a malnourished fetus. Such a phenotype would predispose the offspring to the development of obesity if born into conditions of over-nutrition. The present study aimed to determine if early nutrition affected subsequent development of obesity. Mice were established as follows: (a) controls (offspring of control dams), (b) recuperated (offspring of dams fed a low-protein diet during pregnancy, but nursed by control dams) and (c) postnatal low-protein (offspring of control dams nursed by low-protein-fed dams). Mice were weaned on to standard laboratory chow or a cafeteria diet. Recuperated offspring, although smaller at birth (P<0.01), caught up and exceeded the weight of control offspring by 7 days of age (P<0.001). Postnatal low-protein offspring were smaller than controls by 7 days of age (P<0.001). Recuperated animals gained more weight than controls when given free access to a highly palatable diet (P<0.01). Postnatal low-protein animals showed no additional weight gain when given a highly palatable diet compared with chow-fed litter-mates. These results suggest that the early environment has long-term consequences for weight gain. These programmed responses are powerful enough to block excess weight gain from a highly palatable diet and, thus, have major implications for the drug-free regulation of food intake and obesity.<br/
Fetal and child health - impact on kidney development and long-term risk of hypertension and kidney disease
Full text linkDevelopmental programming of non-communicable diseases is now an established paradigm. With respect to hypertension and chronic kidney disease, adverse events experienced in utero can affect development of the fetal kidney and reduce final nephron number. Low birthweight and prematurity are the most consistent clinical surrogates for a low nephron number and are associated with increased risk of hypertension, proteinuria, and kidney disease in later life. Rapid weight gain in childhood or adolescence further compounds these risks. Low birthweight, prematurity, and rapid childhood weight gain should alert clinicians to an individual's lifelong risk of hypertension and kidney disease, prompting education to minimise additional risk factors and ensuring follow-up. Birthweight and prematurity are affected substantially by maternal nutrition and health during pregnancy. Optimisation of maternal health and early childhood nutrition could, therefore, attenuate this programming cycle and reduce the global burden of hypertension and kidney disease in the future.This is the fourth in a Series of six papers about global kidney disease<br/
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Examining Adolescence as a Sensitive Period for High-Fat, High-Sugar Diet Exposure: A Systematic Review of the Animal Literature
Full text linkAnimal studies suggest that poor nutrition (e.g., high-fat, high-sugar diets) may lead to impairments in cognitive functioning. Accumulating evidence suggests that the deleterious effects of these diets appear more pronounced in animals maintained on this diet early in life, consistent with the notion that the developing brain may be especially vulnerable to environmental insults. The current paper provides the first systematic review of studies comparing the effects of high-fat, high-sugar diet exposure during adolescence and adulthood on memory performance. The majority of studies (7/8) identified here report diet-induced memory problems when diet exposure began in adolescence but not adulthood. These findings lend support to the hypothesis that adolescence is a sensitive period during which palatable diets may contribute to negative neurocognitive effects. The current review explores putative mechanisms involved in diet-induced cognitive dysfunction and highlights promising areas for further research.Temple University. College of Liberal ArtsPsychologyTemple University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund, 2019-2020 (Philadelphia, Pa.
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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