Are Non-Eligible Students Affected by Special Education?

We investigate whether the academic performance of non-eligible students - in an institutional setting of full inclusion - are affected by special education resources. Special education resources are per definition provided in a compensatory manner, and are increasingly being targeted to misbehaving students. The hypothesis is thus that special education resources might dampen the negative externalities associated with misbehaving students, and thus work to improve the performance of non-eligible students. We take advantage of a large, across-the-board increase in the proportion of eligible students, and combine fixed effects with an IV-approach, to identify the causal effects of special education on the academic performance of non-eligible students. We find that non-eligible students are positively affected by an increase in the number of hours in special education per eligible student

Low birth weight and zygosity status is associated with defective muscle glycogen and glycogen synthase regulation in elderly twins

  Udgivelsesdato: 2007-NovOBJECTIVE: An adverse intrauterine environment indicated by both low birth weight and monozygosity is associated with an age- or time-dependent reduction in glucose disposal and nonoxidative glucose metabolism in twins, suggesting impaired regulation of muscle glycogen synthesis. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We measured the activities of glycogen synthase (GS), GS kinase (GSK)3 alpha, GS phosphorylation, and glycogen levels in muscle biopsies obtained from 184 young and elderly twins before and after a euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp. RESULTS: Elderly monozygotic twins had significantly lower fractional GS activity amidst higher glycogen and GS protein levels compared with dizygotic twins. In addition, we demonstrated strong nongenetic associations between birth weight and defect muscle glycogen metabolism in elderly--but not in younger--twins. Thus, for every 100 g increase in birth weight within pairs, GS fractional activity, GS protein level, and glycogen content was increased by 4.2, 8.7, and 4.5%, respectively, in elderly twins. Similarly, for every 100 g increase in birth weight, GSK3 alpha activity and GS phosphorylation at the sites 2, 2+2a, and 3a+3b were decreased by 3.1, 9.0, 10.1, and 9.5%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The age- or time-dependent nongenetic impact of birth weight on insulin action in twins may partly be explained by reduced insulin activation of muscle GS, mediated through increased GSK3 alpha activity and GS phosphorylation. Reduced GS activity and negative feedback inhibition of glycogen metabolism by glycogen per se may contribute to the insulin resistance in elderly monozygotic compared with dizygotic twin

Data regarding the growth of Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM on different carbohydrates and recombinant production of elongation factor G and pyruvate kinase

The present study describes the growth of the very well-known probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM on different carbohydrates. Furthermore, recombinant production of putative moonlighting proteins elongation factor G and pyruvate kinase from this bacterium is described. For further and detailed interpretation of the data presented here, please see the research article “Mucin- and carbohydrate-stimulated adhesion and subproteome changes of the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM” (Celebioglu et al., 2017) [1]

Plasma amino acid levels are elevated in young, healthy low birth weight men exposed to short-term high-fat overfeeding

Low birth weight (LBW) individuals exhibit a disproportionately increased, incomplete fatty acid oxidation and a decreased glucose oxidation, compared with normal birth weight (NBW) individuals, and furthermore have an increased risk of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. We hypothesized that changes in amino acid metabolism may occur parallel to alterations in fatty acid and glucose oxidation, and could contribute to insulin resistance. Therefore, we measured fasting plasma levels of 15 individual or pools of amino acids in 18 LBW and 25 NBW men after an isocaloric control diet and after a 5‐day high‐fat, high‐calorie diet. We demonstrated that LBW and NBW men increased plasma alanine levels and decreased valine and leucine/isoleucine levels in response to overfeeding. Also, LBW men had higher alanine, proline, methionine, citrulline, and total amino acid levels after overfeeding compared with NBW men. Alanine and total amino acid levels tended to be negatively associated with the insulin‐stimulated glucose uptake after overfeeding. Therefore, the higher amino acid levels in LBW men could be a consequence of their reduction in skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity due to overfeeding with a possible increased skeletal muscle proteolysis and/or could potentially contribute to an impaired insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, the alanine level was negatively associated with the plasma acetylcarnitine level and positively associated with the hepatic glucose production after overfeeding. Thus, the higher alanine level in LBW men could be accompanied by an increased anaplerotic formation of oxaloacetate and thereby an enhanced tricarboxylic acid cycle activity and as well an increased gluconeogenesis

Plasma acylcarnitine profiling indicates increased fatty acid oxidation relative to tricarboxylic acid cycle capacity in young, healthy low birth weight men

We hypothesized that an increased, incomplete fatty acid beta‐oxidation in mitochondria could be part of the metabolic events leading to insulin resistance and thereby an increased type 2 diabetes risk in low birth weight (LBW) compared with normal birth weight (NBW) individuals. Therefore, we measured fasting plasma levels of 45 acylcarnitine species in 18 LBW and 25 NBW men after an isocaloric control diet and a 5‐day high‐fat, high‐calorie diet. We demonstrated that LBW men had higher C2 and C4‐OH levels after the control diet compared with NBW men, indicating an increased fatty acid beta‐oxidation relative to the tricarboxylic acid cycle flux. Also, they had higher C6‐DC, C10‐OH/C8‐DC, and total hydroxyl‐/dicarboxyl‐acylcarnitine levels, which may suggest an increased fatty acid omega‐oxidation in the liver. Furthermore, LBW and NBW men decreased several acylcarnitine levels in response to overfeeding, which is likely a result of an upregulation of fatty acid oxidation due to the dietary challenge. Moreover, C10‐OH/C8‐DC and total hydroxyl‐/dicarboxyl‐acylcarnitine levels tended to be negatively associated with the serum insulin level, and the total hydroxyl‐/dicarboxyl‐acylcarnitine level additionally tended to be negatively associated with the hepatic insulin resistance index. This indicates that an increased fatty acid omega‐oxidation could be a compensatory mechanism to prevent an accumulation of lipid species that impair insulin signaling

Plasma ceramide levels are altered in low and normal birth weight men in response to short-term high-fat overfeeding

AbstractLow birth weight (LBW) individuals have an increased risk of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes compared with normal birth weight (NBW) individuals. We hypothesised that LBW individuals exhibit an increased fatty acid flux into lipogenesis in non-adipose tissue with a resulting accumulation of lipotoxic lipids, including ceramides, in the blood. Therefore, we measured fasting plasma levels of 27 ceramides in 18 young, healthy, LBW men and 25 NBW controls after an isocaloric control diet and a 5-day high-fat, high-calorie diet by HPLC-HRMS. LBW men did not show elevated plasma ceramide levels after the control or high-fat, high-calorie diet. An increased fatty acid oxidation rate in these individuals during both diets may limit ceramide synthesis and thereby compensate for a likely increased fatty acid load to non-adipose tissue. Interestingly, LBW and NBW men decreased d18:0–18:1/d18:1–18:0 and d18:1–24:2/d18:2–24:1 levels and increased the d18:0–24:1a level in response to overfeeding. Plasma d18:0–24:1a and total ceramide levels were positively associated with the fasting blood glucose level and endogenous glucose production after the control diet, and the total ceramide level was in addition positively associated with hepatic insulin resistance. Further studies are needed to determine if lipotoxicity contributes to insulin resistance in LBW individuals.</jats:p