The Relationships of Plasma Leptin, Backfat Thickness and TDN Intake across Finishing Stage of Holstein Steers

Vega, R.A.,Hidari, H.,Kuwayama, H.,Suzuki, M.,Manalo, D.D. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2004 Animal Bioscience Vol.17 No.3

Six 16 months old Holstein steers were offered ad libitum feed for 7 months, to determine the (1) relationships of backfat thickness (BFT) to plasma leptin, and insulin; and (2) associations of TDN intake/kg body weight (BW) to plasma leptin, BFT and insulin. Feed intake, body weight and BFT were measured on selected monthly ages from day 1 to 8, day 1 and 8, and day 8, respectively. Blood was sampled on day 8 and the plasma was analyzed for leptin, insulin, glucose, NEFA, total cholesterol and triglyceride. Body weight and BFT increased, while TDN intake per kg BW decreased from 16 to 23 months old. Plasma leptin increased and mimicked the level of insulin, resulting to significant correlation (r=0.54; p<0.002). TDN intake was negatively related to plasma leptin (r=0.49; p<0.004), insulin (r=0.41; p<0.02) and BFT at 12 to 13th rib (r=0.48; p<0.005). Backfat thickness at 12 to 13th rib was positively related to plasma leptin (r=0.45; p<0.01). Negative associations of TDN intake with plasma leptin and BFT during finishing period suggest long-term involvement of adipose tissues in the feed intake regulation of steers fed high concentrate diet.

A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF USA FOOD AND BEVERAGE ADVERTISEMENTS ON CHILDREN’S TELEVISION: FOCUS ON HEALTH PROMOTION AND OTHER PERSUATION TECHNIQUES

Kanae Suzuki,Michelle R. Nelson 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2018 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2018 No.07

Introduction Despite the rise of digital media, TV remains the number one place children spend their media time (Moses, 2014). Past research has shown that less healthy food and beverages such as those containing high fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) are prominent in TV commercials (e.g., Carter, Patterson, Donovan, Ewing, & Roberts, 2011). In these commercials, various persuasive techniques (e.g., taste/smell, convenience), which promote the purchase of the products, have been used (Hebden, King, & Kelly, 2011). Extensive studies have found that exposure to advertising for HFSS products, including confectionery, soft drinks, crisps or savory snacks, fast food, pre-sugared breakfast cereals, is associated with children‟s cognition, food consumption, and obesity (e.g., Harris, Bargh, & Brownell, 2009; Macklin, 1994; see also Moore, Wilkie, & Desrochers, 2017). Since younger children, especially those in the “perceptual stage” of development, may not understand the persuasive or selling intent of commercials (e.g., John, 1999), they may be vulnerable to this advertising. As a result, several countries such as UK and Ireland (Hawkes, Lobstein, & For the Polmark Consortium, 2011) have introduced restrictions or regulations for broadcasting food and beverage commercials for children. The commercials of HFSS food and beverage have sometimes introduced these products with healthier images and words / phrases like health and nutrition claims. Health claims refer to any representation that states, suggests, or implies that a relationship exists between a food (/beverage) or a constituent of that food (/beverage) and health. Nutrition claims mean any representation which states, suggests or implies that a food (/beverage) has particular nutritional properties including but not limited to the energy value and to the content of protein, fat and carbohydrates, as well as the content of vitamins and minerals (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States & World Health Organization, 2013). Using health messages for HFSS food presents the risk of a biased image of the products (i.e., they are „healthy‟), which may result in unhealthy life styles and conditions. In recent years, there has been regulatory pressure on food advertisers to market their products responsibly (e.g., WHO regulations; Kraak et al., 2016). At the same time, the Children‟s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) emerged, in which several leading companies pledged to market their products to children responsibly (see editorial by Boyland & Harris, 2017). Therefore, we were interested in seeing if food and beverage advertising had changed in 2017. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine the relative frequency of food and beverage commercials targeting children with a focus on healthy aspects of the products, their health and nutrition claims, as well as other persuasive techniques. Method A total of twenty hours of programming targeting children was recorded on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Networks in the United States during the hours of 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on two weekdays in September 2017. The advertisements were coded for product type (“food”, “beverage”, fast-food restaurant (“Restaurant: Quick-service/fast food restaurant”), and sit-down restaurant (“Restaurant: Sit-down restaurant”), food type (e.g., “confectionary”, “savory snacks”, “pre-prepared convenience foods”, “bread”, “fruits”, and “vegetables”) (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations & World Health Organization, 2016; Suzuki, 2018), and persuasive techniques (e.g., “health claims”, “nutrition claims”, “taste/smell/flavor”, “convenience”, “scientific information”, “celebrities/a well-known person”, and “eating /drinking behavior”) (e.g., Hebden et. al., 2011; Jenkin, Madhvani, Signal & Bowers, 2014; Kraak & Story, 2015; Warren, Wicks, Wicks, Fosu, & Chung, 2008). Food type can be classified into two categories; Less healthy (“confectionary”, “savory snacks”, “sweet bakery wares”, “other sweets/desserts”, “Sugared breakfast cereals”, “pre-prepared convenience foods”) or healthier categories related to other food categories (Ofcom, 2004; Nutrition Australia, 2013; Suzuki, 2018). Seven coders independently evaluated the advertisements, with two coders assigned to every programming block. They were trained for about three weeks to read the coding manual, practice coding and discuss the coding scheme, and revise their coding after receiving feedback of the trial coding. To check coding reliability, two independent coders evaluated the same programs. 94.3% agreement was achieved for product type. Results and discussion A total of 856 commercials appeared. Food and beverage advertisements represented 29.0% (N=248). On average, children were exposed to 12.4 food and beverage advertisements per hour. Of all the food, beverage and restaurant advertisements, “food” and fast-food commercials were frequently broadcasted; 40.7% (N=101) were for “food” commercials, and fast-food restaurant commercials accounted for 43.5% (N=108). 12.1% (N=30) “beverage” commercials and 3.6% (N=9) sit-down restaurant commercials were included. Food, beverage and restaurant commercials were more likely to appear on Nickelodeon (36.2%, N=129) than on the Cartoon network (28.4%, N=419) (χ2=5.43, df=1, p<.05). As for the appearances of product type, “food” advertisements frequently appeared on Nickelodeon (54.6%, N=65), whereas the programs of Cartoon network included a lot of fast food commercials (61.2%, N=79). In examining the appearances of “beverage”, “food”, “fast food”, and “others (except food, beverage, and restaurant)” between the channels, the results showed that the programs of Cartoon network were more likely to broadcast “fast food” commercials than those of Nickelodeon, whereas the programs of Nickelodeon were more likely to broadcast “food” commercials (χ2=38.23, df=3, p<.01)1. The majority of food types were “confectionary” (25.7%, N=26), “savory snacks” (16.8%, N=17), “breakfast cereals” (14.9%, N=15), and “pre-prepared convenience foods” (13.9%, N=14). In classifying various kinds of foods into two big categories related to health (healthier or less healthy) as above-mentioned, less healthy food accounted for 88.1% (N=89). No commercials were categorized into three of the healthier categories (bread, fruits, and vegetables). As persuasive techniques for consumers, “health claims”, and “nutrition claims” were low (8.9%). For example, grape juice produced by Welch‟s used the appeal “sugar free”. In the commercials with nutrition claims, there was no significant difference in the appearance between the “beverage” and “food” commercials (χ2=1.70, df=1, n.s.). The other persuasive techniques like “convenience” (75.8%, N=188), “taste/smell/flavor” (51.2%, N=127), and “eating/drinking behavior” (49.2%, N=122) were frequently used. In contrast, the rates of some techniques (e.g., “celebrities/a well-known person”, “scientific information”) were very low. As for the persuasive technique of “celebrities/a well-known person”, the category of product type was classified in only the “beverage” category. Thus, this study indicated that there were not many less-healthy food commercials that appealed to health and nutrition aspects of the products by using health and nutrition claims, or scientific information. In previous studies, the rate of health and nutrition claims varied between less than 10% to more than 30% (Jenkin et al., 2014). This may be due to the differences in the definitions of health and nutrition claims. Our study referred to the international standard definitions. Therefore, the findings regarding the rate of health and nutrition claims in this study can contribute to overall knowledge about the current spread of health and nutrition claims in “less healthy” food commercials of children‟s television programs. It may also be the case that food companies are acting more responsibly by limiting their persuasion techniques to those that relate to taste or convenience and not by misrepresenting the products as healthy. However, overall, the proportion of less healthy food commercials was high, and various persuasive techniques were used. At the same time, there were no commercials for fruits or vegetables presented during this time frame despite governmental regulations for eating these healthier foods. These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the ways that certain foods are promoted (or are not promoted) among parents and policy-makers. As the sample used in this study was recorded only on weekdays and through the two kids' channels. It would be expected that the future study develop the analysis for the recorded commercials on weekends and on the other local channels. The sample used in this study was analyzed only on weekdays and through two children‟s channels. Future research might examine food and beverage advertising across different time frames and channels.

Promoting international, multidisciplinary efforts in detecting and understanding high-latitude changes, and searching for their global impacts

Polyakov, I.V.,Bolton, R.,Greve, R.,Hutchings, J.,Kim, S.J.,Kim, Y.,Lee, S.H.,Ohata, T.,Saito, F.,Sugimoto, A.,Suzuki, R. Elsevier Science 2014 Polar science Vol.8 No.2

Rapid and dramatic climate changes in the Arctic and the projection of their impacts on lower-latitude regions require careful evaluation, understanding, and use of multidisciplinary, internationally coordinated efforts. The Third International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR-3), devoted to these objectives, was held on January 14-17, 2013 in Tokyo, and was an essential step in this direction. The pool of papers that make up this Special Issue provides an insight into the discussions conducted during the ISAR-3 meeting.

Sequential chemotherapy/radiotherapy was comparable with concurrent chemoradiotherapy for stage I/II NK/T-cell lymphoma

Kwong, Y.L.,Kim, S.J.,Tse, E.,Oh, S.Y.,Kwak, J.Y.,Eom, H.S.,Do, Y.R.,Mun, Y.C.,Lee, S.R.,Shin, H.J.,Suh, C.,Chuang, S.S.,Lee, Y.S.,Lim, S.T.,Izutsu, K.,Suzuki, R.,Relander, T.,d’Amore, F.,Schmitz, N. Elsevier 2018 Annals of oncology Vol.29 No.1

Minimum variation log-aesthetic surfaces and their applications for smoothing free-form shapes

Suzuki, Sho,Gobithaasan, R.U.,Salvi, Peter,Usuki, Shin,Miura, Kenjiro T. Society for Computational Design and Engineering 2018 Journal of computational design and engineering Vol.5 No.2

The log-aesthetic curve, which includes the logarithmic (equiangular) spiral, clothoid, and involute of a circle, achieves a control over curvature distribution by defining its shape as an integral form of its curvature and they are expected to be utilized for the field of design. However, it is very difficult to extend it to surfaces and the existing formulations have some problems that they cannot use arbitrary boundary curves. In this paper, we propose ''minimum variation log-aesthetic surface" as a new formulation for the log-aesthetic surface. Based on variational principle our method can generate surfaces by minimizing the objective function newly proposed in this paper for given arbitrary boundary curves.

Discovery of a strange tribaryon S⁰(3115) in ⁴He(stopped ^K−,p) reaction

Suzuki, T.,Bhang, H.,Franklin, G.,Gomikawa, K.,Hayano, R.S.,Hayashi, T.,Ishikawa, K.,Ishimoto, S.,Itahashi, K.,Iwasaki, M.,Katayama, T.,Kondo, Y.,Matsuda, Y.,Nakamura, T.,Okada, S.,Outa, H.,Quinn, B. Elsevier 2004 Physics letters: B Vol.597 No.3

<P><B>Abstract</B></P><P>We have measured the proton energy distribution from the <SUP>4</SUP>He(stopped <SUP>K−</SUP>,p) reaction by means of time-of-flight. A mono-energetic peak was observed, which is interpreted as the formation of a new kind of neutral tribaryon S<SUP>0</SUP>(3115) with isospin T=1 and strangeness S=−1. The mass and width of the state were deduced to be 3117.0−4.4+1.5MeV/<SUP>c2</SUP> and <21MeV/<SUP>c2</SUP>, respectively. The state mainly decays into ΣNN.</P>

Automatic Battery Replacement System for UAVs: Analysis and Design

Suzuki, Koji A. O.,Kemper Filho, Paulo,Morrison, James R. Springer-Verlag 2012 Journal of intelligent & robotic systems Vol.65 No.1

A Likely Detection of a Two-planet System in a Low-magnification Microlensing Event

Suzuki, D.,Bennett, D. P.,Udalski, A.,Bond, I. A.,Sumi, T.,Han, C.,Kim, Ho-il.,Abe, F.,Asakura, Y.,Barry, R. K.,Bhattacharya, A.,Donachie, M.,Freeman, M.,Fukui, A.,Hirao, Y.,Itow, Y.,Koshimoto, N.,Li, American Astronomical Society 2018 The Astronomical journal Vol.155 No.6

Minimum variation log-aesthetic surfaces and their applications for smoothing free-form shapes

Sho Suzuki,R.U. Gobithaasan,Péter Salvi,Shin Usuki,Kenjiro T. Miura 한국CDE학회 2018 Journal of computational design and engineering Vol.5 No.2

The log-aesthetic curve, which includes the logarithmic (equiangular) spiral, clothoid, and involute of a circle, achieves a control over curvature distribution by defining its shape as an integral form of its curvature and they are expected to be utilized for the field of design. However, it is very difficult to extend it to surfaces and the existing formulations have some problems that they cannot use arbitrary boundary curves. In this paper, we propose ‘‘minimum variation log-aesthetic surface” as a new formulation for the log-aesthetic surface. Based on variational principle our method can generate surfaces by minimizing the objective function newly proposed in this paper for given arbitrary boundary curves.

Promotion of grain growth in NiFe₂O₄ by annealing with oleic acid

Kurosawa, R.,Suzuki, T.,Nakayama, T.,Suematsu, H.,Niihara, K.,Jeong, Y.K.,Kim, K.H. Elsevier 2012 CURRENT APPLIED PHYSICS Vol.12 No.suppl2

For investigation of the grain-size dependence on magnetization, NiFe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB> nanoparticles were heated at 440 <SUP>o</SUP>C, 600 <SUP>o</SUP>C, 800 <SUP>o</SUP>C, and 1000 <SUP>o</SUP>C with and without oleic acid. It was recognized that the median diameter (D<SUB>50</SUB>) increased from 5.9 to 145.9 nm by the heat treatments from 440 to 1000 <SUP>o</SUP>C. In addition, it was confirmed that NiFe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB> nanoparticles after the heat treatment with oleic acid at 600 <SUP>o</SUP>C have higher grain growth rate than that after only heat treatment without oleic acid. It was deduced that NiFe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB> was dissolved in oleic acid, so that sintering speed became fast. From these results, it was concluded that the formally observed saturation magnetization increase in heat treated NiFe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB> nanoparticles with oleic acid was caused partly by grain growth enhancement with the presence of oleic acid.