Obesity is associated with increased risk for postmenopausal, but not premenopausal breast cancer. Recently, we reported that intact obese Zucker rats had increased susceptibility to DMBA-induced mammary tumors compared to lean Zucker rats. In the present study, we investigated whether excessive adipose tissue would promote mammary tumor induction in the absence of ovarian estrogen. Lean and ob...

BACKGROUND Insulin stimulates cerebrocortical beta and theta activity in lean humans. This effect is reduced in obese individuals indicating cerebrocortical insulin resistance. In the present study we tested whether insulin detemir is a suitable tool to restore the cerebral insulin response in overweight humans. This approach is based on studies in mice where we could recently demonstrate incre...

OBJECTIVE Association studies in men have shown that androgens are inversely related to fat measures, while the relation between sex steroids and lean mass remains unclear. We, therefore, investigated the associations between serum sex steroid levels and body composition in elderly men with a main focus on lean mass measures. DESIGN AND METHODS A cross-sectional survey of a population-based c...

The Lean Toolkit The lean toolkit is comprised of a set of tools that are used in support of the Six Sigma DMAIC process, which is an acronym for define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (Figure 1). While this toolkit is not all inclusive, the set of tools that will be discussed over my next few columns will allow an organization to move through each of the DMAIC functions and facilitate ...

The nonperturbative aspects of string theory are explored for noncritical string in two distinct formulations, loop equations and matrix models. The effects corresponding to the D-brane in these formulations are especially investigated in detail. It is shown that matrix models can universally yield a definite value of the chemical potential for an instanton while loop equations cannot. This imp...

INTRODUCTION It is well established that obesity-related hormones can have modulatory effects associated with the immune response. Ghrelin, a hormone mainly derived from endocrine cells of the gastric mucosa, regulates appetite, energy expenditure and body weight counteracting leptin, a hormone mainly derived from adipocytes. Additionally, receptors of both have been detected on immune cells an...

Reducing wastes in the healthcare processes is crucial for developing a high performance health system. Adopted from the Toyota Production System (TPS), the Lean concept has emerged in recent years as a way of introducing innovative ideas to improve industrial processes. In the context of health care, Lean is considered as a continuous improvement model, which provides healthcare organization t...

The logic CSL of the comparative concept similarity has been introduced by Sheremet, Tishkovsky, Wolter and Zakharyaschev to capture a form of qualitative similarity comparison between concepts and/or objects. In this logic we can formulate assertions of the form “objects A are more similar to B than to C”. This kind of assertions can be added to an ontology to express qualitative comparisons b...

This paper provides a review of recently obtained spectroscopic results, ab-initio calculations and catalytic activity tests from the authors ́ laboratory of factors affecting the performance of materials used as automobile catalysts. Issues addressed include the preparation of (Ce,Zr)Ox/Al2O3 (CZA) mixed oxide supports and the use of new active metals, such as Pd and Cu, for three-way catalysts...