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BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Intake of food or fluid distends the stomach and triggers mechanoreceptors and vagal afferents. Wall stretch and tension produces a feeling of fullness. Duodenal infusion studies assessing gastric sensitivity by barostat have shown that the products of fat digestion have a greater effect on the sensation of fullness and also dyspeptic symptoms than carbohydrates. We tested here the hypothesis that fat and carbohydrate have different effects on gastric sensation under physiological conditions using non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure gastric volumes. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Thirteen healthy subjects received a rice pudding test meal with added fat or added carbohydrate on two separate occasions and underwent serial postprandial MRI scans for 4.5 h. Fullness was assessed on a 100-mm visual analogue scale. RESULTS: Gastric half emptying time was significantly slower for the high-carbohydrate meal than for the high-fat meal, P = 0.0327. Fullness significantly correlated with gastric volumes for both meals; however, the change from baseline in fullness scores was higher for the high-fat meal for any given change in stomach volume (P = 0.0147), despite the lower energy content and faster gastric emptying of the high-fat meal. CONCLUSIONS: Total gastric volume correlates positively and linearly with postprandial fullness and ingestion of a high-fat meal increases this sensation compared with high-carbohydrate meal. These findings can be of clinical interest in patients presenting with postprandial dyspepsia whereby manipulating gastric sensitivity by dietary intervention may help to control digestive sensations. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2015) 69, 380-384; doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2014.194; published online 17 September 2014, INTRODUCTION The main functions of the stomach are to receive and accommodate food, break it down chemically and mechanically and deliver the digesta to the small intestine. This process is [...]

Examines the relationship between market concentration/competition and black employment in urban centers, using Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data. Overall, black employment positively relates to greater market concentration, not competition. There is little support for the contention that economic forces at work in competitive markets tend to minimize discrimination. The central city remains an important factor in black employment. (SM)

Extreme heterogeneity exists in the hypersensitive fear response exhibited by the dystrophin-deficient mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Because fear hypersensitivity can impact dystrophic phenotypes, this research aimed to understand the central pathways driving this inter-individual variability. Male and female mdx mice were phenotypically stratified into "stress-resistant" or "stress-sensitive" groups based on their response to two stressors (scruff-restraint and forced treadmill exercise). Label-free quantitative proteomics of striated muscle (heart and tibialis anterior) revealed clustering of the proteome according to sex and stress sensitivity. In both muscles, stress-resistant females were most dissimilar from all other groups, with over 250 proteins differentially regulated between stress-resistant and stress-sensitive females in each muscle. Males showed less proteomic variation with stress sensitivity (70-90 proteins in each tissue) however these changes were associated with clear pathway enrichment. In the heart, stress-sensitive males had significant enrichment of pathways related to mitochondrial ATP synthesis, suggesting that increased cardio-metabolic capacity is associated with fear sensitivity in male mdx mice. Independent of striated muscle source or sex, fear sensitivity was associated with altered expression of beta-actin-like protein 2 (ACTBL2), an actin isoform critical for the formation of focal adhesions and cell motility. Stress-sensitive individuals had ∼6-fold higher expression of ACTBL2, indicative of altered cytoskeletal organisation and focal adhesion formation. Despite identifying proteomic signatures associated with fear sensitivity, no differences in the serum metabolome were detected acutely after a stressor. These data suggest that the heterogeneity in fear hypersensitivity in mdx mice is partially driven by cytoskeletal organisation, but that sex-specific cardio-metabolic reprogramming may play a role in this phenotype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are two clashing beliefs about affirmative action: one is that affirmative action is a system of racial preferences that discriminates against innocent whites and results in the employment of unqualified or less qualified blacks and Latinos: the other is that affirmative action is merit-based and that blacks and Latinos must be better qualified than whites just to have the same education or job. College admission test scores and academic grades seem to be the most discussed way of assessing merit. However, since the education market feeds into the much larger labor market, the labor market is the place to look for outcomes. And labor market outcomes provide no evidence that an explicit policy of affirmative action in education or hiring results in the employment of blacks who are less able than white workers. Rather, given similar socioeconomic backgrounds, it is white workers and students who are more likely to be less qualified by education and actual on-the-job experience., I. Two Clashing Ideas African American popular wisdom holds that blacks must be more qualified than whites, and must work harder than whites to get the same job (Jencks 1992, [...]

The resistance of vectors to conventional insecticides has resulted in a renewed attention to natural products such as botanicals as a means of controlling mosquito vector population seeing that they are readily available and are eco-friendly. This study investigated the larvicidal efficacy of aqueous extracts of Ocimum gratissimum (leaf) and Terminalia catappa (bark) against Aedes sp. larvae and the evaluation of the phytochemical constituents present in them. The extracts were tested on laboratory bred Aedes sp. larvae at different concentrations (500, 750 and 1000ppm) at 24, 48 and 72 hrs. Data was analysed statistically using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The mortalities of the extracts were observed to increase with increase in concentration and time of exposure. Larval mortality recorded at 72 hrs of exposure to 1000ppm of O gratissimum and T. catappa were 46.7% and 13.3% respectively. LC50 and LC90 values at 72 hrs were 1017.70 and 1372.10ppm respectively for O. gratissimum and 4043.60 and 15678.10ppm for T. catappa. While only steroids were identified as the phytochemicals present in T. catappa, those identified in O. gratissimum include alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, steroids and tannins. The efficacy of both study plant extracts showed promising larvicidal potency. This is useful considering the current drive on Integrated Vector Management in controlling mosquito vector species on many fronts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Review of Black Political Economy has been a leader on issues of race and economics, politics, sociology and area studies. After half a century of shaping minds, critical ideas and arguments, the time has come to look back and ask the editors of the Review what they saw when they were at the helm, and what they see ahead. While all their views are different, common themes emerged: 1. The need to embrace new technologies, 2. Making the Review the first pick for top scholars, 3. Relevancy in the post-civil rights era, and 4. Finance for the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]