Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) as well as noradrenaline (NA) are key modulators of various fundamental brain functions including the control of appetite. While manipulations that alter brain serotoninergic signaling clearly affect body weight, studies implicating 5-HT transporters and NA transporters (5-HTT and NAT, respectively) as a main drug treatment target for human obesity have not been conclusive. The aim of this positron emission tomography (PET) study was to investigate how these central transporters are associated with changes of body weight after 6 months of dietary intervention or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery in order to assess whether 5-HTT as well as NAT availability can predict weight loss and consequently treatment success. The study population consisted of two study cohorts using either the 5-HTT-selective radiotracer [11C]DASB to measure 5-HTT availability or the NAT-selective radiotracer [11C]MRB to assess NAT availability. Each group included non-obesity healthy participants, patients with severe obesity (body mass index, BMI, >35 kg/m2) following a conservative dietary program (diet) and patients undergoing RYGB surgery within a 6-month follow-up. Overall, changes in BMI were not associated with changes of both 5-HTT and NAT availability, while 5-HTT availability in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) prior to intervention was associated with substantial BMI reduction after RYGB surgery and inversely related with modest BMI reduction after diet. Taken together, the data of our study indicate that 5-HTT and NAT are involved in the pathomechanism of obesity and have the potential to serve as predictors of treatment outcomes.

PUTNAM, the Oscar-winning producer of such modern classics as Chariots of Fire, The Killing Fields, Local Hero, Midnight Express and The Mission, shares his insights, knowledge and experience in this very well researched, captivating and, at times, humorous volume. He tells the story of cinema and he tells the story about money since, for some, money is what cinema represents. He starts his tale with the description of the first moguls in the early days of cinema, beginning with Edison and the Lumiere brothers, and continues, in chronological order, to thoroughly present the history of the film business on American and European continents to the present day. Step by step he documents the international success of Hollywood and the struggle of Europeans and their attempts to win their home markets. The economic war over the control of the world's film industry seems to have come to an end long...

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DURING the 1920s and early 1930s American films regularly accounted for as much as eighty-five to ninety-five percent of the national Canadian box office. There were quite a few attempts, already in those early decades of cinema, to boost the fortune of the national film industry and to establish production companies and studios. These, however, with a few exceptions, did not last long enough to change the picture of the American-dominated Canadian film industry. Canadians tried to fight back and win the battle for their home market. However, their efforts were doomed. When an attempt was made to prosecute the local subsidiary of the American Adolph Zukor's Famous Players... the case was thrown out by the judge for "anti-competitive behaviour"! Many Canadian scholars tried to explain the mechanisms behind the repetitive failures of Canadian producers and filmmakers in their ongoing struggle to maintain their own film industry. They...