Early metabolic adaptation in C57BL/6 mice resistant to high fat diet induced weight gain involves an activation of mitochondrial oxidative pathways

We investigated the short-term (7 days) and long-term (60 days) metabolic effect of high fat diet induced obesity (DIO) and weight gain in isogenic C57BL/6 mice and examined the specific metabolic differentiation between mice that were either strong-responders (SR), or non-responders (NR) to weight gain. Mice (n = 80) were fed a standard chow diet for 7 days prior to randomization into a high-fat (HF) (n = 56) or a low-fat (LF) (n = 24) diet group. The (1)H NMR urinary metabolic profiles of LF and HF mice were recorded 7 and 60 days after the diet switch. On the basis of the body weight gain (BWG) distribution of HF group, we identified NR mice (n = 10) and SR mice (n = 14) to DIO. Compared with LF, HF feeding increased urinary excretion of glycine conjugates of β-oxidation intermediate (hexanoylglycine), branched chain amino acid (BCAA) catabolism intermediates (isovalerylglycine, α-keto-β-methylvalerate and α-ketoisovalerate) and end-products of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) metabolism (N1-methyl-2-pyridone-5-carboxamide, N1-methyl-4-pyridone-3-carboxamide) suggesting up-regulation of mitochondrial oxidative pathways. In the HF group, NR mice excreted relatively more hexanoylglycine, isovalerylglycine, and fewer tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediate (succinate) in comparison to SR mice. Thus, subtle regulation of ketogenic pathways in DIO may alleviate the saturation of the TCA cycle and mitochondrial oxidative metabolism.

Weaning diet induces sustained metabolic phenotype shift in the pig and influences host response to Bifidobacterium lactis NCC2818

Background: The process of weaning causes a major shift in intestinal microbiota and is a critical period for developing appropriate immune responses in young mammals. Objective: To use a new systems approach to provide an overview of host metabolism and the developing immune system in response to nutritional intervention around the weaning period. Design: Piglets (n¼14) were weaned onto either an eggbased or soya-based diet at 3 weeks until 7 weeks, when all piglets were switched onto a fish-based diet. Half the animals on each weaning diet received Bifidobacterium lactis NCC2818 supplementation from weaning onwards. Immunoglobulin production from immunologically relevant intestinal sites was quantified and the urinary 1H NMR metabolic profile was obtained from each animal at post mortem (11 weeks). Results: Different weaning diets induced divergent and sustained shifts in the metabolic phenotype, which resulted in the alteration of urinary gut microbial co-metabolites, even after 4 weeks of dietary standardisation. B lactis NCC2818 supplementation affected the systemic metabolism of the different weaning diet groups over and above the effects of diet. Additionally, production of gut mucosa-associated IgA and IgM was found to depend upon the weaning diet and on B lactis NCC2818 supplementation. Conclusion: The correlation of urinary 1H NMR metabolic profile with mucosal immunoglobulin production was demonstrated, thus confirming the value of this multiplatform approach in uncovering non-invasive biomarkers of immunity. This has clear potential for translation into human healthcare with the development of urine testing as a means of assessing mucosal immune status. This might lead to early diagnosis of intestinal dysbiosis and with subsequent intervention, arrest disease development. This system enhances our overall understanding of pathologies under supra-organismal control.

Standards of university teaching

A set of standards is proposed for university teaching. Embedding these within the Higher Education Academy UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) would allow a more robust assessment of whether a university teacher has met a minimum acceptable threshold.

Sociodemographic determinants of diet quality of the EU elderly: a comparative analysis in four countries

Objective: To investigate the sociodemographic determinants of diet quality of the elderly in four EU countries. Design: Cross-sectional study. For each country, a regression was performed of a multidimensional index of dietary quality v. sociodemographic variables. Setting In Finland, Finnish Household Budget Survey (1998 and 2006); in Sweden, SNAC-K (2001–2004); in the UK, Expenditure & Food Survey (2006–07); in Italy, Multi-purpose Survey of Daily Life (2009). Subjects: One- and two-person households of over-50s (Finland, n 2994; UK, n 4749); over-50 s living alone or in two-person households (Italy, n 7564); over-60 s (Sweden, n 2023). Results: Diet quality among the EU elderly is both low on average and heterogeneous across individuals. The regression models explained a small but significant part of the observed heterogeneity in diet quality. Resource availability was associated with diet quality either negatively (Finland and UK) or in a non-linear or non-statistically significant manner (Italy and Sweden), as was the preference for food parameter. Education, not living alone and female gender were characteristics positively associated with diet quality with consistency across the four countries, unlike socio-professional status, age and seasonality. Regional differences within countries persisted even after controlling for the other sociodemographic variables. Conclusions: Poor dietary choices among the EU elderly were not caused by insufficient resources and informational measures could be successful in promoting healthy eating for healthy ageing. On the other hand, food habits appeared largely set in the latter part of life, with age and retirement having little influence on the healthiness of dietary choices.

International financial reporting standards (IFRS) as a change agent in Ukraine

This paper aims to examine the perception of key actors regarding the costs and benefits that result from adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Ukraine. Authors showed that IFRS implementation impacts on internal reporting quality, the relationship with customers, creditors and shareholders, the access to international markets and external financing. They also indicated that financial managers have serious concerns about implementation costs related to the introduction of IFRS. These costs relate to training, instruction on IFRS adoption and translation of current IFRS, changes in software systems, double purpose accounting and deadlines for IFRS adoption and consulting services.

A Guide to Office Clerical Time Standards

A Guide to Office Clerical Time Standards is an instructional performance piece based on a corporate manual from 1960. The pamphlet is focused on the time necessary for the accomplishment of minute labour procedures in the office, from the depressing and releasing of typewriter keys to the opening and closing of filing cabinet drawers. In the performance, seven costumed performers represent the different levels of management and employment while performing the actions described in the guide, accompanied by a live musical score. There has been much discussion of the changes to work in the west following the decline of post-Fordist service sector jobs. These increasingly emphasise the specificity of employees’ knowledge and cognitive skill. However, this greater flexibility and creativity at work has been accompanied by an opposite trajectory. The proletarisation of white collar work has given rise to more bureaucracy, target assessment and control for workers in previously looser creative professions, from academia to the arts. The midcentury office is the meeting point of these cultures, where the assembly line efficiency management of the factory meets the quantifying control of the knowledge economy. A Guide to Office Clerical Time Standards explores the survival of one regime into its successor following the lines of combined and uneven development that have turned the emancipatory promise of immaterial labour into the perma-temp hell of the cognitariat. The movement is accompanied by a score of guitar, bass and drums, the componenets of the rock ‘n’ roll music that rose from the car factories of the motor city and the cotton fields of the southern states to represent the same junction of expression and control.

Palaeobiology of the medieval population of Albano (Rome, Italy): a combined morphological and biomolecular approach

Recent years have seen increased interest in skeletal populations from the Imperial Roman Age in Italy, but much less is known about diet and standards of living in the subsequent medieval period. To fill this gap, we conducted a morphological analysis of human remains from Albano, an Italian town near Rome, as well as a stable isotope analysis of bone collagen to reconstruct diet. The sample was recovered from a Medieval cemetery (1040–1220 cal. yr. BP) located in the gardens of the historical Palazzo Doria Pamphili in Albano. A minimum number of 40 individuals (31 adults and 9 sub-adults) were examined using standard methods. Though the general health status of the population was good, signs of cribra orbitalia and diffuse enthesopathies were noted during the morphological examination. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of the bone collagen from 24 adult humans and three faunal bones indicate that the diet of the population may be described as predominantly terrestrial and C3-plant based although the data for some of the individuals suggest a modest consumption of C4-(millet) based or aquatic proteins. No evidence of significant dietary differences between the sexes was found. The comparison of the isotope data from Albano with those from populations recovered in the same region is consistent with a shift from a terrestrial, possibly plant foods-dominated subsistence in the Early Middle Ages to a diet with a higher contribution from animal proteins, both terrestrial and aquatic, in the Later Middle Ages.

In vitro batch cultures of gut microbiota from healthy and ulcerative colitis (UC) subjects suggest that sulphate-reducing bacteria levels are raised in UC and by a protein-rich diet.

Imbalances in gut microbiota composition during ulcerative colitis (UC) indicate a role for the microbiota in propagating the disorder. Such effects were investigated using in vitro batch cultures (with/without mucin, peptone or starch) inoculated with faecal slurries from healthy or UC patients; the growth of five bacterial groups was monitored along with short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production. Healthy cultures gave two-fold higher growth and SCFA levels with up to ten-fold higher butyrate production. Starch gave the highest growth and SCFA production (particularly butyrate), indicating starch-enhanced saccharolytic activity. Sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) were the predominant bacterial group (of five examined) for UC inocula whereas they were the minority group for the healthy inocula. Furthermore, SRB growth was stimulated by peptone presumably due to the presence of sulphur-rich amino acids. The results suggest raised SRB levels in UC, which could contribute to the condition through release of toxic sulphide.

Setting UK standards on the concept of control: an analysis of lobbying behaviour

The present study aims to contribute to an understanding of the complexity of lobbying activities within the accounting standard-setting process in the UK. The paper reports detailed content analysis of submission letters to four related exposure drafts. These preceded two accounting standards that set out the concept of control used to determine the scope of consolidation in the UK, except for reporting under international standards. Regulation on the concept of control provides rich patterns of lobbying behaviour due to its controversial nature and its significance to financial reporting. Our examination is conducted by dividing lobbyists into two categories, corporate and non-corporate, which are hypothesised (and demonstrated) to lobby differently. In order to test the significance of these differences we apply ANOVA techniques and univariate regression analysis. Corporate respondents are found to devote more attention to issues of specific applicability of the concept of control, whereas non-corporate respondents tend to devote more attention to issues of general applicability of this concept. A strong association between the issues raised by corporate respondents and their line of business is revealed. Both categories of lobbyists are found to advance conceptually-based arguments more often than economic consequences-based or combined arguments. However, when economic consequences-based arguments are used, they come exclusively from the corporate category of respondents.

South Korean MNEs' international HRM approach: hybridization of global standards and local practices

This paper analyses the international Human Resource Management (HRM) approaches of Korean Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). Through a study of nine major Korean MNEs’ approaches to subsidiary-HRM, it is argued that the firms pursue hybridization through a blending of localization and global standardization across detailed elements in five broad HRM practice areas. Local discretion is allowed if not counter to global HRM system requirements and “global best practices” used as the template for global standardization of selected HRM elements. This strategic orientation appears to be part of a deliberate response to the “liabilities of origin” born by firms from non-dominant economies.