Search

Intermittent fasting (IF), an alternating pattern of dietary restriction, reduces obesity-induced insulin resistance and inflammation. However, the crosstalk between adipose tissue and the hippocampus in diabetic encephalopathy is not fully understood. Here, we investigated the protective effects of IF against neuroinflammation and cognitive impairment in high-fat diet(HFD)-fed mice. Histological analysis revealed that IF reduced crown-like structures and adipocyte apoptosis in the adipose tissue of HFD mice. In addition to circulating lipocalin-2 (LCN2) and galectin-3 (GAL3) levels, IF reduced HFD-induced increases in LCN2- and GAL3-positive macrophages in adipose tissue. IF also improved HFD-induced memory deficits by inhibiting blood–brain barrier breakdown and neuroinflammation. Furthermore, immunofluorescence showed that IF reduced HFD-induced astrocytic LCN2 and microglial GAL3 protein expression in the hippocampus of HFD mice. These findings indicate that HFD-induced adipocyte apoptosis and macrophage infiltration may play a critical role in glial activation and that IF reduces neuroinflammation and cognitive impairment by protecting against blood–brain barrier leakage.

The Japanese sea lion (Z. japonicus) has been regarded as an extinct species since the last report on Dokdo in 1951. Not much ecological information on the Z. japonicus on Dokdo (hereafter Dokdo sea lion) is currently available. Using a discrete time stage-structured population model, we reconstructed the Dokdo sea lion population to explore the effect of human hunting pressure on them. This study provides the first estimate for the Dokdo sea lion population from 1900 to 1951. The reconstructed capture numbers of the Dokdo sea lion and the parameters estimated in this study were well matched with the recorded numbers and ecological parameters reported previously for the Californian sea lion. Based on the reconstructed population, their number rapidly declined after hunting started and it took less than 10 years for a 70% decline of the initial population, which would be considered to be an extinction risk. Since some caveats exist in this study, some caution about our results is necessary. However, this study demonstrates how rapidly human over-hunting can cause the extermination of a large local population. This study will be helpful to raise people’s awareness about endangered marine animals such as local finless porpoises in Korea.

Rice flour gels with different amylose contents were subjected to instrumental compression cycles under artificial saliva-spraying conditions to simulate oral mastication and their structural breakdowns were evaluated in terms of rheological and tomographic characteristics. Both mechanical disruption of the gel structure by successive compressions and enzymatic degradation by artificial saliva featured in the simulated chewing process. Highly linear correlations (R2 > 0.95) were observed in the log plots of peak chewing force and time. The rice flour gels containing higher levels of amylose required high forces to be deformed by compression. Micro-CT analysis demonstrated that the rice flour gels with a weak cohesive texture were fragmented into smaller pieces by chewing, consequently providing channels for artificial saliva to penetrate inside the gel samples. The cohesive nature of foods appeared thus to play an important role in their disruption rate during chewing, probably influencing the masticatory performance with salvia and subsequent swallowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study an analytical tide model of uniform width with three sub-regions is presented. The three-subregions model takes into account step-like variations in depths in the direction of the channel as a way to examine the M2 tide of the East China Sea (ECS) as well as the Yellow Sea (YS). A modified Proudman radiation condition has been applied at the northern open head, while the sea surface elevation is specified at the southern open boundary. It is seen that, due to the presence of an abrupt change in depth, co-amplitude lines of the M2 tide are splitted to the east and west near the end of the ECS shelf region. Variations in depths, bottom friction and the open head boundary conditions all contribute to the determination of formation of amphidromes as well as overall patterns of M2 tidal distribution. It is seen that increasing water depth and bottom friction in the ECS shelf results in the westward shift of the southern amphidrome. There is however no hint at all of the well-known degenerated tidal pattern being formed. It is inferred that a lateral variation of water depth has to be somehow incorporated to represent the tidal patterns in ECS in a realistic manner. Regarding the radiation factor introduced by Fang et al. (1991), use of a value larger than one, possibly with a phase shift, appears to be a proper way of incorporating the reflected waves from the northern Yellow Sea (NYS). Key words - analytical model, M2 tide, Kelvin wave, Yellow Sea, East China Sea [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]