8 weeks of physical training reduces weight but not leptin, insulin and glucose

 

Obesity plays a key role in developing diabetes as there’s a relation between serum leptin made by fat cells and insulin. Several studies validated that serum leptin resistance may lead to insulin resistance and diabetes, and many researchers tried to discover how physical exercises can affect fat serum and insulin resistance including a new research that has been published recently.

This new study is carried by group of researchers from University of Tehran, Iran, Department of Sport Sciences, and has published in a Journal of Research in Endocrinology. The study’s objective was to study effects of 8 weeks training on levels of leptin and insulin in 20 obese females.

Previous studies have find out that “exercise training and physical activity can reduce fat mass, play a critical role in energy expenditure and affect hormonal concentrations and metabolites… and could modify the leptin response.” But, the results of this current study shows that “8 weeks resistance training have a positive effect  on reducing body weight, BMI, WHR and percent body fat but could not decrease leptin, insulin and glucose levels and insulin resistance.”

However, researchers of the study still believe that “fat mass is associated with insulin levels. So, reduced fat mass, also vary insulin levels. Perhaps, lack of significant amounts of leptin is related to the nutrition status and its type.” They also went on explaining that “this study had … limitation such as small sample size, no follow-up study and no measurements of daily physical activity in two groups during eight weeks… and based on these results, it could be suggested that further research is recommended to examine the effects of resistance training on leptin and insulin resistance with control of factors such as lifestyle or daily energy expenditure, diet or without it, cortisol and hormonal concentrations.

Though the study finds that the physical exercises don’t necessarily affect leptin and insulin resistance and only reduces obesity, but weight loss reduces a lot of health risks including chronic diseases as stated by different studies.

Relation between Hormone Risk Factors and Breast Cancer

 

Breast Cancer is one of the most cancers that affect females over the world and the death rate of the disease reaches 18.2% worldwide including both in men and women. According to National Cancer Institute, breast cancer is a “Cancer that forms in tissues of the breast. The most common type of breast cancer is ductal carcinoma, which begins in the lining of the milk ducts.” But, what stands behind this disease and what are its risk factors?

A new study which is conducted by a group of Indian Researchers at the Government Medical College Aurangabad in Maharashtra, India has investigated a number of hormone risk factors that lie behind this disease. The study stated that “Breast cancer is a heterogeneous multifactorial disease caused due to genetic, reproductive, environmental, and dietary and lifestyle related risk factors.”

This new research which is published in a Journal of Research in Endocrinology was led for 4 years and “a total number of 220 histopathologically diagnosed women with carcinoma of breast…were included in the present hospital based case control study.”

The researchers mentioned that Risk factors for breast cancer are categorized in two groups: Non-modifiable and Modifiable risk factors.” The first category includes “old age, height, personal history of benign or other breast disease, positive family history in first degree relatives, genetic mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, menstrual history of early menarche and late menopause, exposure to radiation, breast density mammogram and null parity” while the second category is related to “age at first childbirth, nulliparous women, obesity, less duration of breastfeeding and hormone replacement therapy.”

The research also added that in addition to the aforementioned risk factors “early age at menarche, late menopause, nulliparous state, and first childbirth at late age and less duration of breast feeding are reproductive risk factors.” The study stated also that the consumption of oral contraceptive pills and hormone replacement therapy in addition to obesity are among risk factors behind the development of breast cancer.

This infographic summarizes this.

 

Social Presence is a Key to Customer Trust in an Online Retailer Website

Customer’s trust has always been a key to successful commerce. But if earning clientele’s trust in physical commerce is hard, it’s a challenge in e-commerce and the key to survival of online businesses. In e-commerce, social presence is one of the factors that affect customer’s trust and online retailers that maintain strong social presence are those that win that trust.

A research carried by tow researchers, Mouna Thabet and Mustapha Zghal from the Faculty of Economics and Management at Tunis-Tunisia and published recently in a Journal of Internet and e-Business Studies, has highlighted this issue. The study “aims to identify the dimensions of this form of trust and explore the manifestations of this “need for contact” required by users in a virtual shopping.”

The shopper always looks forward to reduce uncertainty, and this could be easily reached when there’s physical contact, something which is not relevant in online commerce. As this new research stated it “trust in a virtual environment is characterized by uncertainty, vulnerability and dependence.” Then, trust can only be reached if the “website fulfills its promises, accomplishing its ethical obligations as the delivery of goods and services or their confidentiality with respect to information disclosed” and if the “the website does not take advantage of the vulnerability of the client and is in the interest of its customers in Instead of worrying maximize its profit.”

Among the factors that affect the customer’s trust in a retailer website is social presence. As stated by the research “social presence is a determinant of trust in a retail website.” It’s an emotional and psychological and in order to build a relationship with the customer and earn his confidence, the retailer needs to maintain a social presence so that the customer feels of “being present with a real vendor. This feeling comes from the emotion during the interaction with the website” the research affirmed.

What makes earning the customer’s trust online is the lack of human contact. It’s different to have physical contact with speech tone, facial expressions and all human communication aspects than making contact from behind dead screens. So even when online, customers look for that human touch. “I want to feel that I am in front of a salesperson or a technician that I could request any information that I need” the study mentioned.

According to the study, there are a number of aspects that manifest social presence of a an online retailer including website data, animations on the website, human photos, personalized welcome, virtual agents, frequently asked questions , instant messaging, number of entries, discussion forums, and social networks. But, “the human photos and data especially about prices represent the heavier forms in determining trust in a retail website.”

Adolescents’ Perception of Sense of Community and How It Could Help

 

Understanding adolescents’ behaviors and how they perceive community will help to easily communicate with them and how to target them in marketing strategies and make offers. This is what has been stressed by a new study that has been published recently.

Like adults, adolescents want to belong to a community. The adolescent looks forward to break her or his parents’ long control since early ages. That belonging is not always negative but has also positive effects on the development of the adolescent’s personality and has an impact on how s/he behaves. These are some of the facts discussed by the study which is conducted by two researchers from Faculty of Economics and Management of Tunis, Tunisia and published in a Journal of Marketing Research & Case Studies.

Both adolescents and adults need that sense of community and have a need to belong to a group, but “Structure of sense of community in adolescents is different from that in adults”, the study cited. In addition to the four components of which adults structure is composed “(belonging, influence, needs fulfillment and emotional connection)”, Structure of sense of community in adolescents includes additional items “related to trust, identification and pleasure/fun” the study stated.

Belonging to a group gives one a kind of security and protection and “During adolescence, young people express a strong need to belong to a group. This latter helps them to take distance from their parents and find their own identities” as mentioned by the research. The adolescent get bothered by the limits imposed on him by his parents, so “with friends, adolescents often look for transgressing the rules imposed by parents and free themselves from parents’ control of their reactions and decisions” the study stated.

Understanding the sense of community within adolescents and how they behave within their groups “may serve many professionals. In marketing, firms interested in communities of adolescents should develop communication, positioning and segmentation strategies that consider the aspects the most important for these communities in order to better target their offers.”

The study stressed out that “In the social field, understanding sense of community in adolescents and distinguishing it from that of adults helps better understand social behavior of this age category.”