A role for brown adipose tissue in diet-induced thermogenesis

Measurement of energy balance during voluntary overeating in rats unequivocally establishes the quantitative importance of diet-induced thermogenesis in energy balance. Like cold-induced thermogenesis, this form of heat production involves changes in the activity of the sympathetic nervous system and brown adipose tissue which suggest that this tissue may determine metabolic efficiency and resistance to obesity.     

Alternatively activated macrophages produce catecholamines to sustain adaptive thermogenesis

All homeotherms use thermogenesis to maintain their core body temperature, ensuring that cellular functions and physiological processes can continue in cold environments. In the prevailing model of thermogenesis, when the hypothalamus senses cold temperatures it triggers sympathetic discharge, resulting in the release of noradrenaline in brown adipose tissue and white adipose tissue. Acting via the β(3)-adrenergic receptors, noradrenaline induces lipolysis in white adipocytes, whereas it stimulates the expression of thermogenic genes, such as PPAR-γ coactivator 1a (Ppargc1a), uncoupling protein 1 (Ucp1) and acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 1 (Acsl1), in brown adipocytes. However, the precise nature of all the cell types involved in this efferent loop is not well established. Here we report in mice an unexpected requirement for the interleukin-4 (IL-4)-stimulated program of alternative macrophage activation in adaptive thermogenesis. Exposure to cold temperature rapidly promoted alternative activation of adipose tissue macrophages, which secrete catecholamines to induce thermogenic gene expression in brown adipose tissue and lipolysis in white adipose tissue. Absence of alternatively activated macrophages impaired metabolic adaptations to cold, whereas administration of IL-4 increased thermogenic gene expression, fatty acid mobilization and energy expenditure, all in a macrophage-dependent manner. Thus, we have discovered a role for alternatively activated macrophages in the orchestration of an important mammalian stress response, the response to cold.     

SCH三环减速器发热的分析研究

本文针对ＳＣＨ三环减速器实际应用中出现的发热现象进行了分析，提出轮齿内啮合产生的“挤油功率损耗”也是此类传动结构在运转中发热的主要因素，试验测试了减速器主要热源的温度值及温度分布，用几种不同的润滑方式对三环减速器的发热进行了研究。     

Reduced sleep in Drosophila Shaker mutants

Most of us sleep 7-8 h per night, and if we are deprived of sleep our performance suffers greatly; however, a few do well with just 3-4 h of sleep-a trait that seems to run in families. Determining which genes underlie this phenotype could shed light on the mechanisms and functions of sleep. To do so, we performed mutagenesis in Drosophila melanogaster, because flies also sleep for many hours and, when sleep deprived, show sleep rebound and performance impairments. By screening 9,000 mutant lines, we found minisleep (mns), a line that sleeps for one-third of the wild-type amount. We show that mns flies perform normally in a number of tasks, have preserved sleep homeostasis, but are not impaired by sleep deprivation. We then show that mns flies carry a point mutation in a conserved domain of the Shaker gene. Moreover, after crossing out genetic modifiers accumulated over many generations, other Shaker alleles also become short sleepers and fail to complement the mns phenotype. Finally, we show that short-sleeping Shaker flies have a reduced lifespan. Shaker, which encodes a voltage-dependent potassium channel controlling membrane repolarization and transmitter release, may thus regulate sleep need or efficiency.     

冷驯化对黑腹绒鼠能量代谢和产热的影响

以南方常见种之一黑腹绒鼠(Eothenomeys melanogaster)为对象,经过(5±1)℃冷驯化0,7,14,21,28 d后,测定其体质量、能量收支、基础代谢率(BMR)和非颤抖性产热(NST)等代谢产热指标及褐色脂肪组织(BAT)的产热活性变化.结果表明:体质量随冷驯化时间的延长缓慢下降;摄入能、消化能、可代谢能、BMR和NST呈现增加的趋势,21 d达到最高水平或趋于稳定;随着冷驯化时间的逐渐增加,BAT的相对质量、线粒体蛋白含量及细胞色素C氧化酶(COX)活性均明显提高,21 d达到最大值.说明在寒冷胁迫下,黑腹绒鼠采用增加能量摄入和提高产热能力等对策维持能量的收支平衡.而黑腹绒鼠代谢和产热模式的特点与其自身的生活习性及生境条件密切相关.     

约化环的推广

称环R是约化环,如果α2=0,那么α=0.讨论了约化环和3-Armendariz环之间的关系,证明了不带单位元的约化环上的幂级数环和某些特殊的上三角矩阵环是3-Armendariz环.     

Reduced nitrogen fixation in the glacial ocean inferred from changes in marine nitrogen and phosphorus inventories.

To explain the lower atmospheric CO2 concentrations during glacial periods, it has been suggested that the productivity of marine phytoplankton was stimulated by an increased flux of iron-bearing dust to the oceans. One component of this theory is that iron-an essential element/nutrient for nitrogen-fixing organisms-will increase the rate of marine nitrogen fixation, fuelling the growth of other marine phytoplankton and increasing CO2 uptake. Here we present data that questions this hypothesis. From a sediment core off the northwestern continental margin of Mexico, we show that denitrification and phosphorite formation-processes that occur in oxygen-deficient upwelling regions, removing respectively nitrogen and phosphorus from the ocean-declined in glacial periods, thus increasing marine inventories of nitrogen and phosphorus. But increases in phosphorus were smaller and less rapid, leading to increased N/P ratios in the oceans. Acknowledging that phytoplankton require nitrogen and phosphorus in constant proportions, the Redfield ratio, and that N/P ratios greater than the Redfield ratio are likely to suppress nitrogen fixation, we suggest therefore that marine productivity did not increase in glacial periods in response to either increased nutrient inventories or greater iron supply.     

约化模型下的公司债券定价

公司债券是一种可违约风险债券.公司债券定价的约化模型将违约时间定义为具有违约强度的绝不可及时,将违约过程看作跳过程.违约过程的强度过程既可依赖外生宏观状态变量,也可以受到其他公司违约的影响.本文分析了违约强度过程的构造,给出了风险债券的定价原理,得到了可违约债券定价的一般公式,并推导出了交易对手风险存在时公司债券定价公式.