New Bioactive Peptides Identified from a Tilapia Byproduct Hydrolysate Exerting Effects on DPP-IV Activity and Intestinal Hormones Regulation after Canine Gastrointestinal Simulated Digestion

Like their owners, dogs and cats are more and more affected by overweight and obesity-related problems and interest in functional pet foods is growing sharply. Through numerous studies, fish protein hydrolysates have proved their worth to prevent and manage obesity-related comorbidities like diabetes. In this work, a human in vitro static simulated gastrointestinal digestion model was adapted to the dog which allowed us to demonstrate the promising effects of a tilapia byproduct hydrolysate on the regulation of food intake and glucose metabolism. Promising effects on intestinal hormones secretion and dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) inhibitory activity were evidenced. We identify new bioactive peptides able to stimulate cholecystokinin (CCK) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) secretions, and to inhibit the DPP-IV activity after a transport study through a Caco-2 cell monolayer.     

Impact of the industry on franchise chain efficiency: a meta-DEA and context-dependent DEA approach

A meta-DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) approach is used to analyse the impact of the industry in which the franchisor operates its business on its chain efficiency by comparing chain efficiency between and across industries (retail versus services). To provide realistic short-term and long-term objectives to inefficient chains, a level-by-level benchmarking path is developed with the context-dependent DEA approach. Furthermore, the joint implementation of both approaches enables an identification of chains for which the industry influences their efficiency, an evaluation of the efficiency share that results from industry-specific factors rather than factors common to the franchise sector as a whole, and the characterization of an implementable and achievable benchmarking defining level-by-level improvements of chain efficiency and taking into account chain characteristics. Such an analysis can help franchisors to define their future strategic and managerial orientations.     

A profile decomposition approach to the L^\infty _t(L^{3}_x) Navier–Stokes regularity criterion

In this paper we continue to develop an alternative viewpoint on recent studies of Navier–Stokes regularity in critical spaces, a program which was started in the recent work by Kenig and Koch (Ann Inst H Poincaré Anal Non Linéaire 28(2):159–187, 2011). Specifically, we prove that strong solutions which remain bounded in the space ${L^3(\mathbb R ^3)}$ do not become singular in finite time, a known result established by Escauriaza et al. (Uspekhi Mat Nauk 58(2(350)):3–44, 2003) in the context of suitable weak solutions. Here, we use the method of “critical elements” which was recently developed by Kenig and Merle to treat critical dispersive equations. Our main tool is a “profile decomposition” for the Navier–Stokes equations in critical Besov spaces which we develop here. As a byproduct of this tool, assuming a singularity-producing initial datum for Navier–Stokes exists in a critical Lebesgue or Besov space, we show there is one with minimal norm, generalizing a result of Rusin and Sverak (J Funct Anal 260(3):879–891, 2011).     

Norm Estimates for Weighted Composition Operators on Spaces of Holomorphic Functions

This paper shows that the boundedness of a weighted composition operator on the Hardy–Hilbert space on the disc or half-plane implies its boundedness on a class of related spaces, including weighted Bergman spaces. The methods used involve the study of lower-triangular and causal operators.     

Pricing stock and bond derivatives with a multi-factor Gaussian model

The martingale approach to pricing contingent claims can be applied in a multiple state variable model. The idea is used to derive the prices of derivative securities (futures on stock and bond futures, options on stocks, bonds and futures) given a continuous time Gaussian multi-factor model of the returns of stocks and bonds. The bond market is similar to Langetieg's multi-factor model, which has closed-form solutions. This model is a generalization of Vasicek's model, where the term structure depends on state variables following correlated mean reverting processes. The stock market is affected by systematic and unsystematic risk.     

Refined inequalities on graded Lie groups

We construct a Littlewood–Paley decomposition associated to a Rockland operator on graded Lie groups, which allows us to deduce refined Gagliardo–Nirenberg, Sobolev and Hardy inequalities.     

Are women better mindreaders? Sex differences in neural correlates of mentalizing detected with functional MRI

Background

Oxidative stress plays a key role in the neuropathogenesis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1) infection causing apoptosis of astroglia cells and neurons. Recent data have shown that oxidative stress is also responsible for the acceleration of human fibroblast telomere shortening in vitro. In the present study we analyzed the potential relations occurring between free radicals formation and telomere length during HIV-1 mediated astroglial death.

Results

To this end, U373 human astrocytoma cells have been directly exposed to X4-using HIV-1IIIB strain, for 1, 3 or 5 days and treated (where requested) with N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a cysteine donor involved in the synthesis of glutathione (GSH, a cellular antioxidant) and apoptosis has been evaluated by FACS analysis. Quantitative-FISH (Q-FISH) has been employed for studying the telomere length while intracellular reduced/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) ratio has been determined by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Incubation of U373 with HIV-1IIIB led to significant induction of cellular apoptosis that was reduced in the presence of 1 mM NAC. Moreover, NAC improved the GSH/GSSG, a sensitive indicator of oxidative stress, that significantly decreased after HIV-1IIIB exposure in U373. Analysis of telomere length in HIV-1 exposed U373 showed a statistically significant telomere shortening, that was completely reverted in NAC-treated U373.

Conclusion

Our results support the role of HIV-1-mediated oxidative stress in astrocytic death and the importance of antioxidant compounds in preventing these cellular damages. Moreover, these data indicate that the telomere structure, target for oxidative damage, could be the key sensor of cell apoptosis induced by oxidative stress after HIV infection.     

1H MRS detection of glycine residue of reduced glutathione in vivo

Glutathione (GSH) is a powerful antioxidant found inside different kinds of cells, including those of the central nervous system. Detection of GSH in the human brain using ¹H MR spectroscopy is hindered by low concentration and spectral overlap with other metabolites. Previous MRS methods focused mainly on the detection of the cysteine residue (GSH-Cys) via editing schemes. This study focuses on the detection of the glycine residue (GSH-Gly), which is overlapped by glutamate and glutamine (Glx) under physiological pH and temperature. The first goal of the study was to obtain the spectral parameters for characterization of the GSH-Gly signal under physiological conditions. The second goal was to investigate a new method of separating GSH-Gly from Glx in vivo. The characterization of the signal was carried out by utilization of numerical simulations as well as experiments over a wide range of magnetic fields (4.0–14 T). The proposed separation scheme utilizes J-difference editing to quantify the Glx contribution to separate it from the GSH-Gly signal. The presented method retains 100% of the GSH-Gly signal. The overall increase in signal to noise ratio of the targeted resonance is calculated to yield a significant SNR improvement compared to previously used methods that target GSH-Cys residue. This allows shorter acquisition times for in vivo human clinical studies.     

A Quasi Fixed-Point Theorem for a Product of u.s.c. or o.l.s. Correspondences with an Economic Application

In the first place, we present a quasi fixed-point theorem for a correspondence defined on some infinite-dimensional locally convex topological vector space such that some variables have open lower sections and the other ones are upper semicontinuous.In the second place, we propose a direct application of the quasi fixed-point result in an economic model. More precisely, we prove a nonemptiness result of the core of an exchange economy with asymmetric information, a continuum of states and a finite number of commodities.     

Self-energy of one electron in non-relativistic QED

We investigate the self-energy of one electron coupled to a quantized radiation field by extending the ideas developed in Hainzl (Ann. H. Poincaré, in press). We fix an arbitrary cut-off parameter Λ and recover the α²-term of the self-energy, where α is the coupling parameter representing the fine structure constant. Thereby we develop a method which allows to expand the self-energy up to any power of α. This implies that perturbation theory in α is correct if Λ is fix. As an immediate consequence we obtain enhanced binding for electrons.