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Sympathetic innervation of interscapular brown adipose tissue is not a predominant mediator of OT-elicited reductions of body weight gain and adiposity in male diet-induced obese rats
Get PDFRecent studies indicate that central administration of oxytocin (OT) reduces body weight (BW) in high fat diet-induced obese (DIO) rodents by reducing energy intake and increasing energy expenditure (EE). Previous studies in our lab have shown that administration of OT into the fourth ventricle (4V; hindbrain) elicits weight loss and stimulates interscapular brown adipose tissue temperature (TIBAT) in DIO rats. We hypothesized that OT-elicited stimulation of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation of IBAT contributes to its ability to activate BAT and reduce BW in DIO rats. To test this, we determined the effect of disrupting SNS activation of IBAT on OT-elicited stimulation of TIBAT and reduction of BW in DIO rats. We first confirmed that bilateral surgical SNS denervation to IBAT was successful based on having achieved ≥ 60% reduction in IBAT norepinephrine (NE) content from DIO rats. NE content was selectively reduced in IBAT by 94.7 ± 2.7, 96.8 ± 1.8 and 85.9 ± 6.1% (P\u3c0.05) at 1, 6 and 7-weeks post-denervation, respectively, and was unchanged in liver or inguinal white adipose tissue. We then measured the impact of bilateral surgical SNS denervation to IBAT on the ability of acute 4V OT (1, 5 µg) to stimulate TIBAT in DIO rats. We found that the high dose of 4V OT (5 µg) stimulated TIBAT similarly between sham and denervated rats (P=NS) and that the effects of 4V OT to stimulate TIBAT did not require beta-3 adrenergic receptor signaling. We subsequently measured the effect of bilateral surgical denervation of IBAT on the effect of chronic 4V OT (16 nmol/day) or vehicle infusion to reduce BW, adiposity and energy intake in DIO rats. Chronic 4V OT reduced BW gain by –7.2 ± 9.6 g and –14.1 ± 8.8 g in sham and denervated rats (P\u3c0.05 vs vehicle treatment), respectively, and this effect was similar between groups (P=NS). These effects were associated with reductions 4 5 in adiposity and energy intake (P\u3c0.05). Collectively, these findings support the 106 hypothesis that sympathetic innervation of IBAT is not required for central OT to increase 107 BAT thermogenesis and reduce BW gain and adiposity in male DIO rats
Guide to MS708 Mary Carmen Saucedo papers
No full textMary Carmen Saucedo taught in the El Paso Catholic Schools and El Paso Independent School District before promotions to Assistant Principle, Principle, Consultant, Director of Personnel and finally Associate Superintendent of the El Paso Independent School District. She was the first woman to hold the position of Associate Superintendent. She was also active in the leadership of several professional organizations and was appointed as Chairman of the Board to the El Paso Community Foundation, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and the West Texas Council of Governments
Guide to MS555 Joseph Friedkin papers
No full textJoseph Friedkin was a graduate of the Texas School of Mines (now UTEP). He worked as a Civil Engineer with the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) for his entire professional career (with the exception of his time serving in the military during WWII). Friedkin was appointed commissioner of the IBWC in 1962 by President Kennedy and appointed to the position of Ambassador by President Johnson following Chamizal negotiations. Friedkin was instrumental in coordinating the resolution of the “Chamizal Issue” and led the IBWC through several other water resource concerns. Friedkin retired in 1986 and passed away in 2008
Why Is Grade Distribution Often Bimodal? Why Individualized Teaching Adds Two Sigmas to the Average Grade? And How Are These Facts Related?
Get PDFTo make education more effective, to better use emerging technologies in education, we need to better understand the education process, to gain insights on this process. How can we check whether a new idea is indeed a useful insight? A natural criterion is that the new idea should explain some previously-difficult-to-explain empirical phenomenon. Since one of the main advantages of emerging educational technologies -- such as AI -- is the possibility of individualized education, a natural phenomenon to explain is the fact -- discovered by Benjamin Bloom -- that individualization adds two sigmas to the average grade. In this paper, we provide a possible theoretical explanation for this two-sigma phenomenon. In our explanation, we use another previously-difficult-to-explain empirical fact: that the grade distribution is often bimodal -- and we explain this auxiliary fact too. In view of the above, we hope that our explanations will eventually lead to a more effectively use of emerging technologies in education
Shall We Place More Advanced Students in a Separate Class?
Get PDFIn every class, we have students who are more advanced and students who are more behind. From this viewpoint, it seems reasonable to place more advanced students in a separate class. This should help advanced students progress faster, and it should help other students as well, since the teachers in the remaining class can better attend to their needs. However, empirically, this does not work: when we form a separate class, the overall amount of gained knowledge decreases. In this paper, we provide a possible explanation for this seemingly counterintuitive phenomenon
Examining the Relationships Between Social Media Use Constructs and Mental and Sleep Health in Hispanic University Emerging Adults
No full textThe number of social media users and platforms have increased dramatically in recent years. Several different social media use constructs have developed from past research to assess social media engagement, including overall social media use, nighttime in-bed social media use, social media addiction, social media self-control failure, and emotional investment in social media. Such constructs are distinct from each other and may adversely impact mental and sleep health, especially during emerging adulthood. This study investigated the relationships between such social media use constructs and mental and sleep health in Hispanic university emerging adults through a framework of Uses and Gratifications Theory. Three hundred and fifty-eight Hispanic university emerging adults completed a cross-sectional online survey assessing sociodemographics, overall social media use frequency, nighttime in-bed social media use, social media addiction, social media self-control failure, emotional investment in social media, depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep quality. It was hypothesized that the above social media use constructs of interest would be positively associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and poor sleep quality after controlling for participant age and sex. Four multiple linear regression models were performed to test hypotheses. Hypotheses were partially supported such that social media addiction was positively associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and poor sleep quality, and social media self-control failure was positively associated with anxiety, stress, and poor sleep quality. These findings indicate that Hispanic university emerging adults may use social media problematically to cope with pre-existing poor mental and sleep health or that poor mental and sleep health stem from using social media problematically. Assessing problematic forms of social media use seems vital in clinical settings. Future studies may wish to investigate these observed relationships longitudinally to establish temporality
Talking About Sex: The Relationship Between Cultural Constructs and Sexual Behaviors Among Latina Emerging Adults
No full textEmerging adults account for a significant portion of yearly STI cases with Latinxs living in border regions often being disproportionally affected. Moreover, Latinas may hold much of the responsibility for sexual health when compared to their male counterparts; however, culture may serve as both a protective and risk factor for deleterious sexual behaviors. These disparities highlight the importance of assessing Latina sexual risk and to a further extent, perceptions of sexual and reproductive health services. The present study assessed how cultural constructs were associated with sexual risk and STI testing views among Latinas and how these associations may be moderated by parental sex messages. It was hypothesized that cultural constructs would be positively associated with sexual risk and negatively associated with STI testing perceptions; however, familial communication would moderate these relationships relative to the type of messages employed. Latina college students (N=444) were recruited from a Hispanic Serving Institution and completed the following measures: sociodemographics; the Attitudinal Familism Scale, the Marianismo Belief Scale, the Intragroup Marginalization Inventory, the Child and Adolescent Sexual Messages Scale, the Sexual Risk Survey, and the Adapted STI Testing Beliefs measure. Multiple hierarchical negative binomial and hierarchical regressions were conducted to test these associations. Five of the six hypotheses were partially supported highlighting nuances in these associations. These present findings indicate that cultural constructs may serve as both protective and risk factors for sexual behaviors, and familial messages about sex moderate these relationships. Latinas and their families may benefit from interventions focused on individualized sex communication to frame culture as a strength
Examining the Effects of a Week-Long Social Media Abstinence Intervention, iWeek, on General Well-Being, Mental Health, and Body Image Concerns in Latina College Students
No full textLatina college students, on average, spend approximately 30 hours per week on social media, highlighting the pervasive influence of social media on their lives. While social media can facilitate interpersonal relationships, its impact on mental and physical health is evident in the literature. Problematic social media use has been associated with increased rates of depression, anxiety, and decreased life satisfaction. Additionally, exposure to idealized images on social media platforms often leads to lower body satisfaction, particularly among women. Social media may also influence eating behaviors through the abundance of food advertisements and contribute to sedentary behavior, as individuals spend significant amounts of time on their phones rather than engaging in physical activity. While taking a break from social media has shown promise in improving mental health outcomes, its effects on other aspects of health remain uncertain. Thus, the present study assessed the effects of a social media break intervention grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT) on various health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, stress, well-being, body image, healthy eating, physical activity, and sleep. Additionally, the study explored whether the intervention influenced participants’ basic psychological needs related to autonomy competence, and relatedness. Latina college students (N = 221; Mage= 19.84) completed a demographic questionnaire, objective and subjective measures of weekly social media use, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress scale, the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being scale, the Body Image States scale, the Healthy Eating Scale – 5, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire – Short Form, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire – Autonomy subscale, the Perceived Competence Scale, the Basic Psychological Needs scale – relatedness subscale, and an evaluation survey online before being randomized into the intervention or control group. The intervention group abstained from social media for a week, while the control group continued using social media as usual. A total of eight 2 (pre, post) X 2 (iWeek, control) mixed ANOVAs assessed changes in pre- and post-intervention scores on each outcome variable for iWeek compared to the control condition. Results indicated improvements in depression, anxiety, stress, and body image satisfaction among the intervention group. However, no significant effects were observed for well-being, healthy eating, or physical activity. Interestingly, sleep showed improvement favoring the intervention condition. There were no changes in autonomy, competence, or relatedness scores.Overall, the study replicates previous findings regarding the positive effects of a social media break on mental health outcomes. The observed effects on body image satisfaction and sleep are nuanced and warrant further investigation to elucidate the mechanisms underlying these improvements. By shedding light on the potential benefits of social media breaks for various aspects of health, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how Latina college students can manage their social media use to promote overall well-being
Mav Localization in GPS-Denied Environments and Synthetic Data Collection in Challenging Simulated Conditions
No full textThe development of unmanned aerial systems presents an opportunity for conducting industrial inspections in environments where traditional navigation systems, such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), are compromised. This dissertation investigates the implementation of a micro aerial vehicle (MAV) capable of autonomous data acquisition in complex, GNSS-degraded industrial settings. The primary challenge addressed is the robust localization of MAVs, a critical aspect in ensuring reliable operation under varying and uncertain environmental conditions. The work is divided into two main parts. The first part focuses on the design and integration of a MAV system specifically for power plant inspections in GPS-denied environments. This system leverages vision-based sensors to achieve reliable and accurate pose tracking, overcoming the limitations encountered in GPS-degraded environments of real-world industrial settings. The physical system enabled the acquisition of inspection data from hard-to-reach locations, mitigating the risks associated with manual inspections and enhancing safety. The second part of this dissertation develops a realistic simulation framework that allows for the collection of large synthetic datasets. These datasets are required for training a deep neural network (DNN) for environment classification and sensor failure detection, addressing the challenges posed by unreliable perception data in unstructured environments. The resulting data was collected in varied locations under different challenging simulated conditions, such as low light, dusty environments, or settings with lighting that creates sudden contrast changes. Key contributions of this work include the successful deployment of an autonomous MAV for power plant inspections in GPS-denied environments and the creation of a significant dataset with the potential to support the development of AI-driven localization and inspection techniques. This dataset, comprised of simulated perceptual data, is packed in a format that simplifies distribution in order to further research and development in the field. By focusing on the robustness of MAV localization for safe and efficient application in challenging environments, this research confirms the viability of MAVs as tools for autonomous data collection and validates the effectiveness of realistic simulations in creating synthetic data that can be used to improve machine learning models for autonomous systems. The outcomes of this study are expected to significantly advance the capabilities of autonomous drones in industrial applications, particularly in settings where GPS is unreliable or unavailable
Resource Scarcity Caused by Environmental Changes: Driving Factor in Terrorism Attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria
No full textClimate change, resource scarcity, and terrorist attacks are ever-growing crises that disproportionately impact different states. They are crises that can impact the stability and resilience of humanity in the following decades if they are not addressed and mitigated. This study addresses the impact of resource scarcity caused by climate change that can then serve as a driving force in terrorist attacks in climate-sensitive and conflict-prone states. The objective of this mixed-methods study is to identify the correlation between climate changes that lead to resource scarcity such as rainfall and surface temperatures with terrorist attacks when taking into consideration other demographic, economic, and political stressors, in the states of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria. This study will obtain time series data between 1989 and 2019 from the following sources: World Bank, Freedom House, UN Database, and the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database. The correlation between the independent variables of rainfall and surface temperatures and the number of total annual terrorist attacks per state will be evaluated and compared to the correlation that the control variables (stressors) will have on these documented terrorist attacks. Upon lagging all the variables observed and running a fixed-effects model on STATE to assess the relationship amongst variables, the results proved to be unsupported by the data. Such results were likely attributed to the overall sample size used and limitation of data. However, to further evaluate the trends that exist within the observed variables line charts were created. Such trends further indicated the need for future studies that integrate data from a larger sample size across a greater range of states