Association between FTO variant and change in body weight and its interaction with dietary factors: the DiOGenes study

Although FTO is an established obesity-susceptibility locus, it remains unknown whether it influences weight change in adult life and whether diet attenuates this association. Therefore, we investigated the association of FTO-rs9939609 with changes in weight and waist circumference (WC) during 6.8 years follow-up in a large-scale prospective study and examined whether these associations were modified by dietary energy percentage from fat, protein, carbohydrate, or glycemic index (GI). This study comprised data from five countries of European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) and was designed as a case-cohort study for weight gain. Analyses included 11,091 individuals, of whom 5,584 were cases (age (SD), 47.6 (7.5) years), defined as those with the greatest unexplained annual weight gain during follow-up and 5,507 were noncases (48.0 (7.3) years), who were compared in our case-noncase (CNC) analyses. Furthermore, 6,566 individuals (47.9 (7.3) years) selected from the total sample (all noncases and 1,059 cases) formed the random subcohort (RSC), used for continuous trait analyses. Interactions were tested by including interaction terms in the models. In the RSC-analyses, FTO-rs9939609 was associated with BMI (β (SE), 0.17 (0.08) kg·m(-2)/allele; P = 0.034) and WC (0.47 (0.21) cm/allele; P = 0.026) at baseline, but not with weight change (5.55 (12.5) g·year(-1)/allele; P = 0.66) during follow up. In the CNC-analysis, FTO-rs9939609 was associated with increased risk of being a weight-gainer (OR: 1.1; P = 0.045). We observed no interaction between FTO-rs9939609 and dietary fat, protein and carbohydrate, and GI on BMI and WC at baseline or on change in weight and WC. FTO-rs9939609 is associated with BMI and WC at baseline, but association with weight gain is weak and only observed for extreme gain. Dietary factors did not influence the associations.

Association between serotonin 5-HT-2C receptor gene (HTR2C) polymorphisms and obesity- and mental health-related phenotypes in a large population-based cohort

OBJECTIVE: Studies have shown that common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the serotonin 5-HT-2C receptor (HTR2C) are associated with antipsychotic agent-induced weight gain and the development of behavioural and psychological symptoms. We aimed to analyse whether variation in the HTR2C is associated with obesity- and mental health-related phenotypes in a large population-based cohort. METHOD: Six tagSNPs, which capture all common genetic variation in the HTR2C gene, were genotyped in 4978 men and women from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk study, an ongoing prospective population-based cohort study in the United Kingdom. To confirm borderline significant associations, the -759C/T SNP (rs3813929) was genotyped in the remaining 16 003 individuals from the EPIC-Norfolk study. We assessed social and psychological circumstances using the Health and Life Experiences Questionnaire. Genmod models were used to test associations between the SNPs and the outcomes. Logistic regression was performed to test for association of SNPs with obesity- and mental health- related phenotypes. RESULTS: Of the six HTR2C SNPs, only the T allele of the -759C/T SNP showed borderline significant associations with higher body mass index (BMI) (0.23 kg m(-2); (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.01-0.44); P=0.051) and increased risk of lifetime major depressive disorder (MDD) (Odds ratio (OR): 1.13 (95% CI: 1.01-1.22), P=0.02). The associations between the -759C/T and BMI and lifetime MDD were independent. As associations only achieved borderline significance, we aimed to validate our findings on the -759C/T SNP in the full EPIC-Norfolk cohort (n=20 981). Although the association with BMI remained borderline significant (beta=0.20 kg m(-2); 95% CI: 0.04-0.44, P=0.09), that with lifetime MDD (OR: 1.01; 95% CI: 0.94-1.09, P=0.73) was not replicated. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that common HTR2C gene variants are unlikely to have a major role in obesity- and mental health-related traits in the general population.

Online dietary intake estimation: The Food4Me food frequency questionnaire

Background: Dietary assessment methods are important tools for nutrition research. Online dietary assessment tools have the potential to become invaluable methods of assessing dietary intake because, compared with traditional methods, they have many advantages including the automatic storage of input data and the immediate generation of nutritional outputs. Objective: The aim of this study was to develop an online food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for dietary data collection in the “Food4Me” study and to compare this with the validated European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC) Norfolk printed FFQ. Methods: The Food4Me FFQ used in this analysis was developed to consist of 157 food items. Standardized color photographs were incorporated in the development of the Food4Me FFQ to facilitate accurate quantification of the portion size of each food item. Participants were recruited in two centers (Dublin, Ireland and Reading, United Kingdom) and each received the online Food4Me FFQ and the printed EPIC-Norfolk FFQ in random order. Participants completed the Food4Me FFQ online and, for most food items, participants were requested to choose their usual serving size among seven possibilities from a range of portion size pictures. The level of agreement between the two methods was evaluated for both nutrient and food group intakes using the Bland and Altman method and classification into quartiles of daily intake. Correlations were calculated for nutrient and food group intakes. Results: A total of 113 participants were recruited with a mean age of 30 (SD 10) years (40.7% male, 46/113; 59.3%, 67/113 female). Cross-classification into exact plus adjacent quartiles ranged from 77% to 97% at the nutrient level and 77% to 99% at the food group level. Agreement at the nutrient level was highest for alcohol (97%) and lowest for percent energy from polyunsaturated fatty acids (77%). Crude unadjusted correlations for nutrients ranged between .43 and .86. Agreement at the food group level was highest for “other fruits” (eg, apples, pears, oranges) and lowest for “cakes, pastries, and buns”. For food groups, correlations ranged between .41 and .90. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that the online Food4Me FFQ has good agreement with the validated printed EPIC-Norfolk FFQ for assessing both nutrient and food group intakes, rendering it a useful tool for ranking individuals based on nutrient and food group intakes.

Gallic war songs (II): Marcus Cicero, Quintus Cicero, and Caesar’s invasion of Britain

This article assembles and examines the evidence for the poetic outputs of Marcus and Quintus Cicero related to Caesar’s invasion of Britain. Following the establishment of a relative chronology of the evidence for their work, it is argued that Quintus Cicero most likely produced a fabula praetexta (not an epic poem, as commonly assumed). His brother, in turn, wrote an epic, based on Quintus’ eye-witness reports. Careful analysis of the ancient discourse about this piece reveals insights in Cicero’s poetic workshop and the creation of ‘archival truth’ through narrativising historical events in epic poetry. Finally, a case is made for greater attention to financial affairs between Caesar and the Ciceros that happen to coincide with the drafting process of their respective literary works.

EdTech Innovator Chase: Rewarding Faculty Innovation through badges

Each semester we celebrate our college EdTech Innovators– everyone who’s using technology to explore new pedagogical approaches. We applaud early adopters for developing best practices, because maybe they’re doing something nobody else has. Those who innovate in the most EdTech areas and (most importantly!) help their colleagues level up, compete for the epic win. The EdTech Innovator Chase, a gamified activity (digital badges) was created to showcase faculty innovations in teaching practices.

Un estudio sociolingüístico sobre el catalán : Los efectos de la inmersión lingüística

This thesis analyzes the current state of the language immersion program in Catalonia after its implementation 30 years ago, and after the immigration wave of the last decade. The language immersion is a method of teaching a second language using a language of instruction different than the students’ mother tongue. The Catalan authorities use this as a method for preserving Catalan in the society.The aim of this study is to examine the use of Catalan at school and outside of school by students who have followed the language immersion program. Language attitudes play an important role for the maintenance of a minority language, as Catalan. Therefore, in this study, the informants’ attitudes towards Catalan have also been measured. The method applied is a quantitative method where the informants have answered a written questionnaire. The results show a high level of knowledge of Catalan and its frequent use in the classroom. In contrast, outside of school the Castilian language is more often used. The informants seem to have a positive attitude towards Catalan.The conclusion is that the language immersion works satisfactory in a school context but often fails outside of school.

Un estudio de la interferencia lingüística del uso del verboser + estado civil del castellano hablado por catalanes

This thesis aims to study the phenomenon of linguistic interference in the use of the verb ser in different marital status (single, married and divorced) in spanish spoken by catalans living in different territorial areas of Catalonia. Our theory is that individuals who reside in territorial areas where catalan is the most spoken language tend to use the verb ser + marital status rather than the verb estar + marital status due to the influence of catalan. We have used a quantitative methodology, i.e. we have collected data through a survey. The results of our study confirm our theory that individuals who reside in territorial areas where catalan is the most spoken language tend to use the verb ser + marital status rather than the verb estar + marital status due to the influence of catalan.

A travessia do trágico no romance d A Pedra do Reino de Ariano Suassuna

The present work seeks to investigate and discuss about the Greek Tragedy s elements at Ariano Suassuna s romance called τ Romance d A Pedra do Reino e o Principe do Sangue do Vai e Volta, connecting it directly to mythic, epic, poetic, and romances aspects at his work. The romance has as the protagonist the backcountry Pedro Dinis Quaderna. Quaderna is a character which is simultaneously popular, elitist, enigmatic, naive, and an intellectual man that has a great erudition. Quaderna is a character that seeks, by using the Literature, to reestablish a Brazilian backcountry kingdom which he s supposedly the king, always trying to empathizes the Brazilian northeast region like if it was a nation apart. By impressing a national personality to the Brazilian northeast , Quaderna tries to become an epic poet just like Homer, denoting a strong influence of the Epopee. Quaderna, just like many characters of Greek Tragedy, has at his family past time a lot of tragic circumstances. These facts that ocurred to his relativos like the your uncle Pedro Sebastião Garcia Barreto s death, the disappearement of his cousin Sinésio, and the contest between the brothers Arésio and Sinésio, and others aspects, remind us remarkable influences, beyond the Epopee, of the Greek Tragedy. By reading the romance we may notice many similarities between Quaderna s trajectory and Greek Tragedy heroes. To make an analysis about the tragic aspects at Suassuna s work, we need to dialogue with many theoreticals that have written about the tragic and comparate with many parts of Suassuna s with classics character s texts of Greek Tragedy. At the following chapters we seek to provide romance s elementaries notions, as well as tragic notions, the dialogue with mythics aspects and the tragic and epic aplicability at Suassuna s work

Um olhar sobre as veredas rosianas.

The present work objective to study the configurations that the hinterland it acquires in the workmanship Great hinterland: trails, of Guimarães Rosa demonstrating as this author humanize this element, conferring to it characters universal mystics and through investigations, uncertainties, the auto-corrections of Riobaldo that become hinterland a metaphor of the human interior. Three are the chapters, that they will guide this work: the chapter 1 presents as element key for characterization of the epic one in Great hinterland: trails, the mining hinterland replete of trails, palco of exuberant vegetation, huge and multidimensional scene, where it has an entrecruzamento of fiction and reality. It retakes quarrel of critics as Manuel Cavalcanti Proença, Roberto Schwarz, on the existing epic character in the Great hinterland: trails, constructed from deriving myths of the universal culture, that they had been become popular. The brave and gracious knight, that it has its representabilidade in the popular culture. Thus the medieval hero, the knight represented for the Riobaldo personage, it is cognominado by Proença as Don Riobaldo of the Urucuia, knight of the general fields. O chapter 2 is a study on the popular culture in Rosa and Cascudo. Cascudo the example of Rosa also is exímio studious of the brazilian life, the regionalization and the popular manifestations proceeding from other cultures. O chapter 3 it has as focus of analysis two mitopoéticas personages: Diadorim e Luzia-Homem, which in the cited narratives they generally they assume functions generally atribute the men. Since children, if they dresses male. Valley to point out that Diadorim is not characterized as man, since in Great hinterland:trails if trajaq always as gunman. Luzia, when complete 18 anos pass if to dress as woman, but the stigma of male and female, inherited of the time where it coexisted the father folloies it for all the life. They suffer pain to have been born to fight and to não conhecer to love. They die you deliver the God. This study detects exactly that Diadorim and Luzia-Homem, are personages associates the myths of the universal culture and popular (sphinx, Jellyfish, Venus, Mother d water), that they possess similarities n the archetypes, that transit between the sexos masculine and feminine, without any sexual connotation, possesss it proper code of honr, of this not abdicating ahead of the death. Parallel, in this chapter two cascudianas workmanships willbe studies, that contemplate thematic of the dressed woman of man and being the woman without disguice: the enchantment tale Maria Gomes and romance Flower of tragics romances. The first one will be revisited in order to present subject in Great hinterland:trails through the Diadorim personage. As it will discourse on cases of brave women, cited for Cascudo, immortalized for the tradition, who had made history, that already is not disfarçam of men to carry through acts of bravery and honor.

Uma leitura dos exercícios dos excursos n Os Lusíadas

The Lusiads is an epic poem, written by Luís de Camões, about the adventure of Vasco da Gama s trip and the history of Portugal. It's based on traditionals epics from the Greek and Roman poets, Homero and Virgílio. Camões followes especially their structures. However, the poet insert modifications that divert his poem from parameters established by Aristóteles for the classic epic poems. These deviations are centered mainly on the narrative subject and in the point of view. We intend to show an analysis focused on digressions from The Lusiads, in which the author, himself or by tellers characters, narrates the story in order to make his complaints, reflections and exhortations. Besides, we present general aspects of Maneirismo predominant in these digressions how evidences of modernity of the poem; as one brief outlook about the poem's projection in time and around the world. These points are importants elements of consolidation of a universal permanence of The Lusiads. That's why they have had to read and to study by the centuries, according the vision of the epoch's spirit

A Hora e o Nevoeiro: discurso épico, vontade de potência e mal-estar da modernidade no poema Mensagem de Fernando Pessoa

Considering articles written for Fernando Pessoa in 1912 about The new Portuguese poetry , where he already proclaimed the appearance of the Super-Camões, poet that would be able to revolutionize Portuguese literature e, concomitantly, to make resurging from rubble the Portuguese nation; we understand that, decades before the writing of Message, the poet was already armed with a Will of Power , expression of Friedrich Nietzsche that incorporate the idea of resurgence to the man like creator of news values. Fernando Pessoa believed to make his poetical word, the epic, restoring word of the ideas of Messianism and Fifth Empire as the pushing force of the new Portuguese largeness. However, we look for to investigate the conditions of Malaise that surround the universe of the poem and that restrict its capacity of action on the reality in its return, a time that the space destined in modernity to the poet and to his poetry hindered him of a devoted and positive action, We select therefore theorist like Sigmund Freud e Walter Benjamin

O aspecto polifônico d os Lusíadas

A study about the polyphonic aspect of The Lusiads. An epic poem in Portuguese Language written by Luís de Camões, that narrates the adventure of the journey of Vasco da Gama in the discoverer of new shipping lanes for the Índias. Secondarily, tells the historics battles engaged during the process of foundation and consolidation of the Portuguese Empire. The object of the study are the diverse speeches that compose the poem s narration, aiming at to the possible aesthetic relation of the epic poetry of Camões with the novelistic prose developed in the modernity, starting with D. Quijote and consacrating it at polyphonic novels written by Dostoiévski. The sdudy focuses the singularity of Camões lies in the elaboration of a narrative structurally epic, but at the same time contains several deviating speeches. Such speeches emphasize the multiple planes and multiple voices (characteristics of novelistic prose) without, however, prejudice the interlinking logical-formal epos, resulting in the monological finish conventional of the epic gender. This feature characterizes The Lusiads as monological literary work, but also shows dialogism and plurilinguism, essentials to the polyphonic phenomenon. Another prominent aspect of the poetry of Camões is the relative procedure to the expressiveness of the characters. They are, in the majority, rhetorical creations, which assume, in the speech, human or myhtological characteristics. Stratagem that permits to the poet to emit a multiple faces of vision of the facts told. The analysis of the speeches supports-itself entirely in the polyphonic theory of Mikhail Bakhtin, shall be cited, accessory, viewpoints of others theoretical, as long if it is judged compatible with the theory adopted

Outras verdades, muito extraordinárias, do grande sertão

This study explores the symbolism of evil way in the novel Grande sertão: veredas, by Guimarães Rosa, regarding faustian pact by Goethe, and so tries to understand how the rosiana language are present to the strategies which put in suspense the effectiveness of the demonic agreement and enable, with poetic intensity, different interpretations, especially as regards the anguish of the human condition. This research thus has drawn upon the Mythical Symbolism, in Literary Criticism and aspects of Metaphysics, in addition to analyzing classic literary essays in approaching of Rosa s masterpiece structure. It has also demonstrated that the incorporation of the Faust legend in Grande sertão reflects the same desire for happiness that is not done completely, and in this manner, instigates a discussion about the limits to the satisfaction of being human. Therefore, it has observed that epic narrative of ex-gangster Riobaldo to the doctor of city speculates on human man, in the continuous learning of his passing

Ressignificação existencial do pretérito e longevidade humana

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)