The Beneficial Effect of 12-Hour Fasting, 45 Minutes Exercise Thrice Weekly and Their Combination on Weight Loss, Anthropometric Measures and Metabolic Syndrome

Background: Obesity is the leading preventable cause of death worldwide. It is associated with significant increases in morbidity and mortality. Few studies have addressed, prospectively, the impact of life-style modification in weight-reduction in 1) morbidly obese patients with BMI > 35 kg/m2 and 2) on its associated co-morbid risk factors for metabolic syndrome viz. high blood pressure, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and steatohepatitis as well as psychiatric disorders. Patients and Methods: We prospectively evaluated the role of 1) two meals daily with in between 12-hour fasting, 2) thrice weekly 45-minute active-walk, and 3) their combination, in management of ambulant obese patients, at BMI of 35 to 39.9 kg/m2 who had such multiple acquired metabolic disorders. The study was conducted over 3 years with 45 patients in 3 matched groups with regards to gender, age, BMI, waist circumference, lipid profile (LDL and TG), fibroscan steatosis grade, psychiatric assessment, antidiabetic drugs and antihypertensive ones. Results: At 6 and 12 months, the 3 regimens were well tolerated and were effective in weight loss, improvement in anthropometric measures and management of metabolic syndrome yet the combined one was significantly better in all endpoints. Conclusion: Our protocols of exercise and dieting were effective measures in managing obesity and its associated co-morbidities and their combination is synergetic.

Comprehensive lifestyle intervention vs soy protein-based meal regimen in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

BACKGROUND Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH) has become one of the leading causes of liver disease in the western world. In obese patients weight reduction is recommended. Up to now there are no specific guidelines for weight loss in order to reduce hepatic fat content.AIM To investigate the effects of a 24-wk guided lifestyle intervention program compared to a meal replacement regimen based on soy protein.METHODS Twenty-six subjects with NASH participated in a randomized single-center study. They were randomly assigned to either meal replacement group(MR-G)with soy-yogurt-honey preparation or to guided lifestyle change group(LC-G)with endurance activity and nutrition counselling. Serum alanine transaminase(ALT), aspartate transaminase(AST), lipid parameters, and adipokines were measured. Liver fat content and lipid composition were determined by magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Body fat mass and lean body mass were assessed using Bod Pod? device. Pre-and post-intervention monitoring of parameters was performed. Statistical analyses were conducted with SPSS software, results were expressed as median(interquartile range).RESULTS Twenty-two subjects(MR-G, n = 11 and LC-G, n = 11) completed the study(9 women, 13 men; age 52.1(15.0) years, body mass index(BMI) 32.3(3.3) kg/m^2).In both groups a significant weight loss was achieved(MR-G:-6.4(3.6) kg, P <0.01; LC-G:-9.1(10.4) kg, P < 0.01). BMI dropped in both groups(MR-G:-2.3(1.5)kg/m^2, P = 0.003; LC-G:-3.0(3.4) kg/m^2, P = 0.006). Internal fat and hepatic lipid content were markedly reduced in both groups in comparable amount. There was a strong correlation between reduction in liver fat and decrease in ALT.Likewise, both groups showed an improvement in glycemic control and lipid profile. Changes in adipokines, particularly in adiponectin and leptin were closely related to intrahepatic lipid changes.CONCLUSION Comprehensive lifestyle intervention and meal replacement regimen have comparable effects on body and liver fat, as well as decrease in markers of hepatic inflammation among NASH patients.

Design of Korean Standard Modular Buoy Body Using Polyethylene Polymer Material for Ship Safety

Buoy is the structure which is floated on sea surface in order to indicate the presenting obstacle such as reef and shallow sea and to show the direction of sea route to ship during sailing. Generally, the conventional material of buoy is steel and it has some problems. Firstly this steel light buoy has safety risk in case of collision between ship and steel buoy. Secondly steel buoy revealed high corrosion environment of salted water and oxide and corrosion of steel can lead to marine pollution. Thirdly it needs too much maintain cost because of its heavy weight. In this study, in order to overcome these problems we changed the buoy material from conventional steel body to polyethylene body. Polymer buoy body was designed with module type part and it can reduce total weight up to 43.12%. To evaluate the strength of that part, the structure analysis simulation was carried out with respect to stress, displacement, and strain. Maximum stress was 1.667 × 107 N/m2 and it was 25% of yielding stress of base material. Maximum displacement and strain were 3.164 mm and 0.00433353 and they are too small value and in safe range with comparing to total length of body. The stability of polymer buoy body was compared with conventional buoy with respect to center of gravity, center of buoyancy, metacenter, oscillation period, and tilt angle by wind, tidal current, and wave. Every value was improved comparing conventional one and we can get more stable buoy. Therefore the new polymer buoy body could prove its safety and stability.

Implementation of N-Bit Binary Multiplication Using N - 1 Bit Multiplication Based on Nikhilam Sutra and Karatsuba Principles Using Complement Method

This paper is designed to introduce new hybrid Vedic algorithm to increase the speed of the multiplier. This work combines the principles of Nikhilam sutra and Karatsuba algorithm. Vedic Mathematics is the mathematical system to solve the complex computations in an easier manner. There are specific sutras to perform multiplication. Nikhilam sutra is one of the sutra. But this has some limitations. To overcome the limitations, this sutra is combined with Karatsuba algorithm. High speed devices are required for high speed applications with compact size. Normally multipliers require more power for its computation. In this paper, new multiplication algorithm for the multiplication of binary numbers is proposed based on Vedic Mathematics. The novel portion in the algorithm is found to be in the calculation of remainder using complement method. The size of the remainder is always set as N - 1 bit for any combination of input. The multiplier structure is designed based on Karatsuba algorithm. Therefore, N × N bit multiplication is done by (N - 1) bit multiplication. Numerical strength reduction is done through Karatsuba algorithm. The results show that the reduction in hardware leads to reduction in the delay.

Application of Composite Materials in the Fire Explosion Suppression System

In order to lighten the weight of the special vehicles and improve their mobility and flexibility, the weight of all subsystems of the whole vehicle must be reduced in the general planning. A fire explosion suppression system is an important subsystem for the self-protection of vehicle, protection of crews and safety of a vehicle. The performances of the special vehicles determine their survival ability and combat capability. The composite bottle is made of aluminum alloy with externally wrapped carbon fiber ; it has been proven by a large number of tests that the new type explosion suppression fire distinguisher made of such composite materials applied in the special vehicle has reliable performance, each of its technical indexes is higher or equal to that of a steel distinguisher, and the composites can also optimize the assembly structure of the bottle, and improve the reliability and corrosion resistance. Most important is that the composite materials can effectively lighten the weight of the fire explosion suppression system to reach the target of weight reduction of the subsystem in general planning.

Novel bake hardening mechanism for bainite-strengthened complex phase steel

In the automobile industry,stamping and paint baking processes are used to strengthen components,and this not only saves costs,but also further reduces the bodyweight of automobiles.In this work,the bake hardening mechanism of the complex phase(CP)steel CP980 was explored by comparing it with that of DP1180,which has a clear bake hardening mechanism and a carbon content similar to that of CP980.By analyzing the bake hardening response and the microstructural changes of the two steels,we found that the bake hardening process of CP980 was divided into three stages.In the first two stages,the carbon atoms diffused into dislocations to form Cottrell atmosphere pinning dislocations,and excess car-bon atoms formed carbon clusters or low-temperature carbide pinning dislocations that were similar to DP1180.In the third stage,the dislocation acted as rapid channels for carbon diffusion,and fine cementite gradually formed when the carbon clusters gathered at the dislocations as precursors,resulting in pre-cipitation hardening.This novel bake-hardening(BH)mechanism is crucial for obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the strain-baking behavior of advanced high-strength steals(AHSS).

Application of Conservative Surrogate to Reliability Based Vehicle Design for Crashworthiness

Surrogate models are commonly used for approximation of large computationally expensive vehicle crash simulation to facilitate rapid design space exploration and optimization. Unfortunately, the optimum design based on surrogates may turn out to be infeasible after running finite element crash simulation due to the surrogate errors. To meet this challenge, conservative strategy of surrogate modeling through compensating fitting errors was used for reliability based design optimization of vehicle structures for crashworthiness and weight reduction. The critical crash responses were constructed by unbiased kriging models, and conservative surrogates were obtained via adding safety margin to estimate the crash responses conservatively. The benefits of using conservative surrogates for reliability based design optimization were investigated in the context of constraint feasibility of the optimum designs through a mathematical example and a case study on vehicle crashworthiness design. The results demonstrate that optimization based on conservative surrogate helps to achieve the feasible optimum design, showing more attractive for reliability based design optimization in engineering applications.

Current Evidence Concerning Effects of Ketogenic Diet and Intermittent Fasting in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is emerging globally, while no therapeutic medication has been approved as an effective treatment to date, lifestyle intervention through dietary modification and physical exercise plays a critical role in NAFLD management. In terms of dietary modification, Mediterranean diet is the most studied dietary pattern and is recommended in many guidelines, however, it may not be feasible and affordable for many patients. Recently, a ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting have gained public attention and have been studied in the role of weight management. This article reviews specifically whether these trendy dietary patterns have an effect on NAFLD outcomes regarding intrahepatic fat content, fibrosis, and liver enzymes, the scientific rationales behind these particular dietary patterns, as well as the safety concerns in some certain patient groups.

因果、加权系统与还原论——因果与反事实的本体论地位之争

始于20世纪70年代,在可能世界的框架内讨论反事实及其相关问题依然是学术研究的主流,但对于可能世界语义和逻辑的批评从未停止。在还原主义的框架中讨论反事实的语义问题,说明使用可能世界语义分析会得出与直觉不符的结论,从而质疑可能世界语义本身的合法性是可行的径路之一。具体而言,可能世界语义至少面临五个反例,谢弗引入因果独立的概念力图消解它们,虽然谢弗径路有悖于还原主义的热望且依然有其不可解释的反例,但其合理性却被社会科学的因果推断实践所证成。