Possible correlated or pleiotropic effects on food intake, growth rate and carcass traits (meat quality and carcass composition traits) were investigated for the prolificacy related Booroola gene (FecB). This gene was introgressed in a Texel sheep population by systematic backcrossing with sires carrying the Booroola gene. In a 3-year experiment 273 spring-born male lambs were offered concentra...

Cardiovascular risk factors affecting arterial stiffness in adulthood may develop at different critical periods earlier in life. We examined whether the trajectories, from adolescence to young adulthood, of blood pressure, body fatness and fat distribution, blood lipids, cardiorespiratory fitness, and heart rate determined levels of arterial stiffness in young adults. We investigated 373 appare...

Comparison of skinfold thicknesses measured in childhood and again 15 years later in 318 male and 303 female subjects disclosed only a moderate relation between the two measurements. Where adult fatness could be predicted from combinations of skinfold thicknesses in childhood the accuracy in 95% of cases lay at the mean between +/- 8% and +/- 18% according to age and sex.

The hypothesis developed from single-gene mutant obese rodents that brown adipose tissue (BAT), through its thermogenic ability, is an important factor in the development of obesity, was tested in a randombred population of mice in which degree of adiposity is polygenically determined. Additive direct genetic parameters for measures of body size, lean, fatness and BAT at 6 wk of age were estima...

An emerging evidence suggests that dietary calcium may play a role in the regulation of body weight in humans. This study examined the relationship of calcium intake with body mass index and body fatness in Thai children. Methods: A cross-sectional study in 1570, 6 12 year-old children were conducted in representative provinces of Thailand. Body weight, height, sitting height and 4 sites skinfo...

Human babies not only are reliable triggers of tender feelings and protective tendencies, they also happen to be exceptionally fat compared to the newborns of most other species. These two facts are used to formulate a hypothesis predicting that overweight males, due to their great physical resemblance to babies, not only are perceived as cute, but also are associated with negatively evaluated ...

Cardiorespiratory fitness [maximal O2 consumption (VO2max)] is an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes; but in individuals at risk, factors influencing VO2max are poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that VO2max is associated with diastolic function [subendocardial variability ratio (SEVR), %], as diastolic function influences myocardial perfusion. We studied 47 men and women with...

The main objective of this paper was to determine the utility of various anthropometric measures to assess total and regional body fatness using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as the criterion in 454 adolescent boys and girls aged 12-19 years. Multivariable regression analyses of gender-specific and gender-combined models were used to determine anthropometric measures on DXA-derived bod...

BACKGROUND Recent research indicates that levels of conventional coronary heart disease risk factors in children are related to the premature development of atheroma. It is therefore important to determine how risk factors might be modified on a population scale in children. METHODS AND RESULTS In 1985, the Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey was conducted on a representative sample ...