Our objective was to investigate associations of body size (birth weight and body mass index (BMI)) and growth in height, body fat (adiposity) and lean mass during childhood and adolescence, with risk markers for diabetes in young South Asian adults. We studied 357 men and women aged 21 years from the Pune Children’s Study birth cohort. Exposures were 1) birth weight, 21-year BMI, both of these mutually adjusted, and their interaction, and 2) uncorrelated conditional measures of growth in height and proxies for gain in adiposity and lean mass from birth to 8 years (childhood) and 8 to 21 years (adolescence) constructed from birth weight, and weight, height, and skinfolds at 8 and 21 years. Outcomes were plasma glucose and insulin concentrations during an oral glucose tolerance test and derived indices of insulin resistance and secretion. Higher 21-year BMI was associated with higher glucose and insulin concentrations and insulin resistance, and lower disposition index. After adjusting for 21-year BMI, higher birth weight was associated with lower 120-min glucose and insulin resistance, and higher disposition index. In the growth analysis, greater adiposity gain during childhood and adolescence was associated with higher glucose, insulin and insulin resistance, and lower disposition index, with stronger effects from adolescent gain. Greater childhood lean gain and adolescent height gain were associated with lower 120-min glucose and insulin. Consistent with other studies, lower birth weight and higher childhood weight gain increases diabetes risk. Disaggregation of weight gain showed that greater child/adolescent adiposity gain and lower lean and height gain may increase risk.

Recently, Kit Fine's (1994) view that modal truths are true in virtue of, grounded in, or explained by essentialist truths has been under attack. In what follows we offer two responses to the wave of criticism against his view. While the first response is pretty straightforward, the second is based on the distinction between, what we call, Reductive Finean Essentialism and Non-Reductive Finean Essentialism. Engaging the work of Bob Hale on Non-Reductive Finean Essentialism, we aim to show that the arguments against Fine's view are unconvincing, while we acknowledge the presence of a deep standoff between the two views.

This naturalistic, observational pan-European study assessed the safety and early effectiveness of intramuscular (IM) psychotropic treatments in patients with acute agitation suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar mania. One thousand nine hundred and forty of 1945 patients completed the 24-hour observation period after initial IM treatment. Patients from 12 European countries were included (mean age 39 years; 58% male, 66% schizophrenia). IM treatment was at the physician's discretion. The primary objective was to describe the acute tolerability of IM psychotropic therapies in clinical practice, with particular emphasis on EPS. At baseline, 68% of the patients received IM monotherapy, with IM olanzapine most commonly prescribed (36%). During the first 24hours, 190 (9.8%) patients experienced EPS. The occurrence of EPS was statistically significantly lower in patients treated with IM olanzapine compared to those treated with other IM psychotropic medications (mainly typical antipsychotics and benzodiazepines): acute dystonia: 1.1%, 95% CI 0.5–2.3 and 2.9%, CI 2.0–4.0; akathisia: 2.3%, CI 1.3–3.7 and 5.5%, CI 4.3–6.9; Parkinsonism: 2.9%, CI 1.8–4.4 and 7.8%, CI 6.4–9.4, respectively. Anticholinergic treatment was given to 12% IM olanzapine versus 31% non-olanzapine treated patients. Acute agitation after 24hours was reduced by 1.68 (95% CI 1.46–1.91) points on the Clinical Global Impression of Severity (CGI-S) in IM olanzapine patients and 1.51 (95% CI 1.30–1.73) points in non-olanzapine patients. Additional psychotropic medication was required for 90% of the patients during the first 24hours of treatment. Results provide naturalistic evidence for low EPS rates and improvement of agitation with IM psychotropic medications during acute states of patients suffering from acute mania or schizophrenia.

Dual inhibition (2i) of Ras–MEK–ERK and GSK3β pathways enables the derivation of embryo stem cells (ESCs) from refractory mouse strains and, for permissive strains, allows ESC derivation with no external protein factor stimuli involvement. In addition, blocking of ERK signalling in 8-cell-stage mouse embryos leads to ablation of GATA4/6 expression in hypoblasts, suggesting fibroblast growth factor (FGF) dependence of hypoblast formation in the mouse. In human, bovine or porcine embryos, the hypoblast remains unaffected or displays slight-to-moderate reduction in cell number. In this study, we demonstrated that segregation of the hypoblast and the epiblast in rabbit embryos is FGF independent and 2i treatment elicits only a limited reinforcement in favour of OCT4-positive epiblast populations against the GATA4-/6-positive hypoblast population. It has been previously shown that TGFβ/Activin A inhibition overcomes the pervasive differentiation and inhomogeneity of rat iPSCs, rat ESCs and human iPSCs while prompting them to acquire naïve properties. However, TGFβ/Activin A inhibition, alone or together with Rho-associated, coiled-coil containing protein kinase (ROCK) inhibition, was not compatible with the viability of rabbit embryos according to the ultrastructural analysis of preimplantation rabbit embryos by electron microscopy. In rabbit models ovulation upon mating allows the precise timing of progression of the pregnancy. It produces several embryos of the desired stage in one pregnancy and a relatively short gestation period, making the rabbit embryo a suitable model to discover the cellular functions and mechanisms of maintenance of pluripotency in embryonic cells and the embryo-derived stem cells of other mammals.

An inscribed hexagonal fractal slotted patch antenna with some additional geometry and slots is proposed for the optimization in this paper. This research work is concerned with the optimization of this slotted fractal antenna with the help of the curve-fitting method in conjunction with the modified version of Lightning Attachment Procedure Optimization (MLAPO) technique. The data required for the curve-fitting technique and for the optimization technique have been obtained by varying some of the parameters of the proposed antenna. Different equations are developed to know the relations between these parameters of the proposed antenna. The MLAPO technique is applied thereafter to calculate the different optimized geometrical parameters to optimize the bandwidth for the proposed antenna. The optimized geometrical parameters are verified with the help of a parametric variation to justify the reliable optimization. The bandwidth obtained by the MLAPO technique has been found to be better than that obtained by PSO and normal LAPO algorithm. The prototype of the optimized antenna is fabricated and the experimental results are found to be compatible with the results obtained by simulation. The proposed optimized antenna may be utilized in various applications in C and X bands.

To avoid degradation of silicon anodes in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the authors report a new two-dimensional multi-layered Si-intercalated rGO (rGO/Si) anode prepared by direct growth of Si into a porous multi-layered reduced graphene oxide (rGO) film. Direct Si deposition onto the porous rGO film allows the Si layers to be intercalated into the film via in situ replacement of the oxygen groups of the multi-layered graphene oxide (GO) with Si through thermal reduction of the GO film. The porous rGO acts as a cushion against the expansion of the Si layer during lithiation, preventing the Si from being pulverized and producing highly stable LIBs.