Index

Metabolism & Nutrition – Tutorial 1: Caloric restriction (CR)

For the 2015 Metabolism & Nutrition course at the RuG, I'm asked to read two papers on two parralel studies on increased longevity of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) through caloric restriction (CR). Colman et al. (2014) report a positive effect of caloric restriction on longevity for the study at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC), but these effects could not be confirmed by Mattison et al. (2012), with macaques kept at the US National Institute on Aging (NIA). Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 6 years ago, on April 06, 2015, at 22:04 | 1 comment

Metabolism & Nutrition – Lecture 3: Fat metabolism

The fat metabolism lecture—lecture 3 in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course—is really two lectures: lecture 3A and 3B are delivered by Janine Kruit and Uwe Tietge, respectively. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 6 years ago, on April 06, 2015, at 18:04 | 1 comment

Metabolism & Nutrition – Lecture 6: Proteins and amino acids

The fifth lecture in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course again was delivered by Janine Kruit, the topic being the metabolism of proteins and amino acids. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 6 years ago, on April 05, 2015, at 13:04 | 1 comment

Metabolism & Nutrition – Lecture 4: Carbohydrate metabolism

After the fat lectures today, the 4th lecture in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course was about carbodydrate metabolism. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 6 years ago, on April 05, 2015, at 13:04 | 1 comment

Metabolism & Nutrition – Lecture 7: Integration of metabolism

The seventh and final lecture in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course was again delivered by Janine Kruit. This lecture tried to integrate the topics of the previous lectures, with the take-home message being that being obese is unhealthy. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 6 years ago, on April 04, 2015, at 10:04 | 1 comment

Metabolism & Nutrition – Tutorial 7: Eatmeter

During the last tutorial in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course, Janine used the aggregated data from all the eatmeter food logs submitted by Group C to bring much of the course's material closer to home. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 6 years ago, on April 01, 2015, at 15:04 | 2 comments

Metabolism & Nutrition – Tutorial 6: Metabolic regulation

Tutorial no. 6 for the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course builds on the lecture [Lecture 5] on the same subject by Hans Jonker. It is also the subject which me and two others have to give a presentation on this Friday for the rest of Group C to initiate the group discussion. The article which is to be discussed during our presentation and the rest of the tutorial is a 2014 Nature publication [doi:10.1038/nm.3760] by Sungsoon Fang et al., titled “Intestinal FXR agonism promotes adipose tissue browning and reduces obesity and insulin resistance.” Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 6 years ago, on March 25, 2015, at 15:03 | 3 comments

Metabolism & Nutrition – Lecture 5: Metabolic regulation

The topic of the fifth lecture in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course, delivered by Hans Jonker, was regulation of energy metabolism, detailing how the body maintains the homeostatic balance between energy storage (when feeding) and energy burning (during fasting or exercise). Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 6 years ago, on March 24, 2015, at 22:03 | 2 comments

Metabolism & Nutrition – Lecture 2: Energy metabolism

The second lecture in the Metabolism & Nutrition course was delivered by Bert Groen, from the department of Pediatrics. [It was originally planned after the Fat metabolism lecture, which was rescheduled for the day after, due to Janine's absence the previous day.] The unifying thread in this lecture is how metabolic pathways that have evolved for efficient energy use and storage pose serious health threats in the current age of abundant calory-dense food. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 6 years ago, on March 20, 2015, at 09:03 | 3 comments

Using papercite WordPress plugin for academic note-taking

During most of my bachelor, I've used paper and pen or pencil to take notes. Halfway my second minor [Okasys], though, I switched to my laptop and LaTeX, which I preferred, because typing is faster than writing and reworking my notes into a halfway decent summary usually proved too time-consuming with hand-written notes. Admittedly, though, although reorganizing my notes became easier with LaTeX, I still didn't really get to the finished summary stage, because I'm still way too obsessive-compulsive about the whole thing, most of the time. Now, since I figured I use my blog for all sorts of notes, I can just as well let WordPress and Google do some of the organizing for me, while taking notes for my present course. I just have to be a bit more careful about copyright issues (but, if the need strikes, I can always set a post to private). Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 6 years ago, on March 19, 2015, at 14:03 | 1 comment