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Exploring Factors of Trauma-Related Preparation and Trauma-Related Agency Among School Counselors
Get PDFSchool counselors support students who have experienced trauma in schools worldwide. Increased awareness of the gravity of childhood trauma (CT) and relationships between exposure to trauma and personal, social, and academic development have advanced the need for schools to provide trauma-informed care. School counselors play a critical role in providing trauma-informed care in the school environment, as they are trained mental health professionals whose roles include supporting all students’ personal, social, and academic development. This study explores the relationship between school counselors’ professional and personal backgrounds and exposure to trauma and their trauma-related agency, which is identified in this study as a construct including variables of secondary traumatic stress, secondary trauma self-efficacy, and implementation of trauma-related interventions. With a sample of 210 US school counselors, canonical correlation analysis revealed significant relationships among counselors’ various backgrounds, including trauma-related exposure, training, self-efficacy, and implementation of trauma-related interventions in schools. We discuss these relationships and the implications for school counselor educators and school counselors
Developing Leadership Capacity in a Rural, Farm-Dependent Community
Get PDFThe exodus of youth from rural communities after high school graduation is a growing concern to the resiliency and vitality of rural, farm-dependent counties across the United States. These communities suffer from the outmigration of their youth, which leads to a lack of available future leadership capacity. The purpose of the study was to determine the knowledge and skills needed for youth to engage in civic leadership at the local level. In addition, we wanted to support youth with mentors comprised of current adult leaders in the community. Therefore, we also identified the skills needed for adults to mentor youth effectively. Findings from a Delphi study revealed youth need knowledge and skills in civics, communications, critical thinking and problem solving, cultural competence, decision-making, and leadership to make decisions in their local community. Mentors need knowledge and skills in coaching, ethics and values, leadership capacity, level of community engagement, personal behaviors, and creating positive youth-adult partnerships
Understanding the Genetic and Metabolic Underpinnings of Complex Traits in C4 Grasses
No full textMaize (Zea mays L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) are two important cereal crops cultivated worldwide for food, animal feed, and industrial products. Productivity of these crops is significantly impacted by various biotic and abiotic stresses, such as diseases, insect pests, drought, salinity, and heat. Among factors influencing crop performance under stress, the regulation of leaf longevity plays a critical role in determining yield. Leaf senescence is a highly regulated process essential for nutrient remobilization through the degradation of cellular components in aging leaves, but premature or accelerated senescence reduces photosynthetic efficiency and yield. Staygreen, a phenotype resulting from delayed senescence, is a critical adaptative trait influencing maize yield by regulating nutrient remobilization, photosynthetic efficiency, and stress adaptability. Despite its importance, the genetic and metabolic regulation of staygreen remains poorly resolved in important cereals, including maize and sorghum. Here, we leverage a multi-omics approach to identify genetic and metabolic factors underlying leaf senescence in these two C4 grasses. We integrated metabolomic and physiological data to dissect the regulatory networks controlling staygreen in maize to identify metabolites, pathways, and genes and used reverse genetics to validate gene function. We extended this analysis to leverage the genetic diversity of sorghum to identify metabolic pathways and genes that are species-specific or conserved across C4 grasses. Soil salinity is another major abiotic stress threatening global food security by disrupting essential physiological processes and causing significant yield losses. To address this challenge, we employed a combinatorial metabolomic and physiological approach to identify metabolites and genes associated with salinity tolerance in maize. Our integrative framework provides novel insights into the metabolic and genetic basis of these critical traits and identifies candidate genes for breeding and biotechnological interventions. Taken together, these findings contribute to a deeper understanding of stress-related traits and offer a foundation for developing climate-resilient maize and sorghum varieties to support global food security
Essays on Worker Skills and the Black-White Male Unemployment Gap in the United States
Get PDFThis dissertation is composed of two chapters examining how differences in experience and skill development, over the life-cycle of workers, shape the unemployment gap between black and white male workers in the United States. Understanding these mechanisms is crucial since the black-white unemployment gap remains a persistent feature of the US labor market across the past several decades.
In the first chapter, I study the impact of differences in life-cycle skill development on the black-white unemployment gap for high-school-educated male workers. Using a shift-share framework, I document the inability of differences in labor composition across observable characteristics such as education, age, industry, and occupation to explain the majority of the black-white male unemployment gap. I then develop a search and matching framework with worker heterogeneity across skill levels. Calibrating the model separately for black and white high-school-educated male workers, I identify differences across i) skill development patterns and ii) the returns to skill development over the life cycle. Using the calibrated model, I find that differences in life cycle skill development patterns account for about 64 percent of the black-to-white unemployment ratio. Closing the racial gap in the returns to skill development decreases the unemployment ratio by 25 percent. Finally, the interaction between the two channels explains about 81 percent of the unemployment ratio.
In the second chapter, I ask how differences in experience and life-cycle skill development impact the black-white male unemployment gap for college-educated workers. To address this question, I use the search and matching framework, developed in the first chapter, with heterogeneous workers across skill levels. I parameterize the model separately for black and white college-educated male workers, targeting key features of life-cycle wage growth and unemployment. The baseline calibration indicates the existence of racial differences across life-cycle skill development as well as returns to such skill development. Using the calibrated model, I find that differences in life-cycle skill development account for about 102 percent of the black-to-white unemployment ratio. Differences in the returns to life-cycle skill development explain about 17.18 percent of the unemployment ratio, while the interaction between the two channels explains about 111 percent of the unemployment ratio
4-H Camps: Complexities in Adult-Youth Dynamics
Get PDFSummer camp programs provide adolescent counselors with opportunities to work alongside adult staff, aiming to develop critical skills such as communication, responsibility, independence, and teamwork. Growing research supports the value of camp-based developmental relationships through youth-adult partnerships. However, tensions often arise as adults struggle to share power while youth question their roles as partners. Few studies have investigated the role of expectations and realities in camps that promote a youth-adult partnership approach. To address this gap, a qualitative study was conducted to explore the role perceptions of 14- to 18-year-old camp counselors and program directors’ expectations of counselors’ roles in three Missouri 4-H summer camps. Three core themes emerged, reflecting contrasting perceptions of adolescent camp counselors’ roles and responsibilities: managing behavior, caring for campers, and ensuring campers have fun. Despite positive intentions from program directors and counselors’ enjoyment of their experiences, the findings highlight a disconnect between program directors’ stated intentions and the actual structures supporting youth-adult partnership practice. This is the first known study to explore tensions between adolescent counselors and adult program staff in the context of youth-adult partnership practice in camping programs
Understanding and Modeling Pooled Rideshare Acceptance: Influential Factors, Preferred User Experiences, and Implications
Get PDFRidesharing allows people to share a vehicle with others traveling in the same direction, which can reduce costs and traffic congestion. Pooled rideshare (PR) services, such as UberX Share and Lyft Shared, offer an economical and environmentally friendly alternative by matching passengers traveling similar routes. However, despite these benefits, PR adoption remains low due to concerns about safety, privacy, and convenience. This research explores the factors influencing PR adoption and provides recommendations to improve user acceptance. A nationwide survey of 5,385 participants across the U.S. was conducted to understand why people choose or avoid PR. The study identified five key factors influencing PR consideration: safety, service experience, privacy, traffic/environment, and time/cost. Additional research examined ways to optimize PR experiences by identifying four critical factors: comfort/ease of use, convenience, vehicle technology/accessibility, and passenger safety. To measure the impact of these factors, a statistical model called the Pooled Rideshare Acceptance Model (PRAM) was developed, providing insights into how each element influences PR adoption. Further analysis using the Pooled Rideshare Acceptance Model Multigroup Analyses (PRAMMA) revealed how demographic characteristics such as age, gender, income, and past rideshare experience shape PR perceptions. Some key findings from the multigroup analyses showed that younger users valued technological features and environmental benefits, while older users prioritized reliability and service transparency. Additionally, privacy concerns were more significant for female users, while convenience was critical for higher-income groups. These results emphasize that a \u27one-size-fits-all\u27 approach to PR service design is not effective, highlighting the need for tailored strategies to address different user segments. Further, workshops were conducted with researchers and students to translate the findings into real-world solutions. These workshops and all the statistical analyses led to the development of 95 actionable recommendations. The recommendations focus on key areas such as safety, service reliability, user education, and accessibility, offering tangible improvements to PR services. The insights from this study provide valuable guidance for policymakers, transportation network companies (TNCs), and researchers aiming to make PR services safer, more accessible, and widely accepted. By addressing user concerns, PR can become a more viable transportation option, supporting sustainable urban mobility and reducing reliance on private vehicles. Additionally, these findings emphasize the importance of user-centric service design in encouraging broader PR adoption. Future research should explore evolving trends in PR preferences, technological advancements, and policy changes to ensure continued improvements. By implementing these recommendations, PR services can better align with user expectations, enhance trust in shared mobility, and contribute to a more efficient transportation ecosystem
Effect of Amino Acid Derivatives and Polyphenol Supplementation on Skeletal Muscle Growth In-vitro and In-vivo
No full textBackground
Satellite cells (SCs) are myogenic precursor cells that play a crucial role in muscle growth, and their activity can be influenced by nutrient supplementation. Muscle growth can also be stimulated using growth-promoting hormones; however, there are no approved growth hormones for use in sheep in the United States (Qaid & Abdoun, 2022). This limitation highlights a need to identify alternative compounds that would serve as nutrient supplements to enhance muscle growth and thereby improve meat production. Amino acid derivatives such as guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), along with the polyphenol quercetin, are naturally derived compounds that have shown to positively influence muscle growth (Chandran et al., 2012; Michiels et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2022). It is therefore important to investigate how these compounds may contribute to skeletal muscle growth in sheep.
Methods
Satellite cells were cultured in a Corning 24-well plate (45,000/well). The media was supplemented with different levels (0, 12.5, 25, and 50 μmol/L) of 5-HTP, GAA, or quercetin. Cells were counted after day 4 for proliferation and differentiation. For the in vivo study, 15 lambs were used (33 kg + 6 kg BW) with five lambs per group assigned to one of the treatments: control, GAA, or 5-HTP. Lambs were individually fed for 28 days, and supplements were administered at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg body weight via the sublingual route before feeding. At the end of the study, a muscle biopsy was carried out from the longissimus muscle at the 12th/13th rib, and real-time ultrasound measurements of ribeye area (REA) were recorded. The muscle samples were subsequently processed for mRNA sequencing to assess gene expression profiles.
Results
5-HTP (25 μmol/L) increased satellite cell number (P\u3c 0.05), and 5-HTP (12.5 and 25 μmol/L) increased proliferation of SC (P\u3c 0.05). There was no effect of 5-HTP on SC differentiation (P\u3e0.05). Quercetin (12.5 and 25 μmol/L) also increased SC proliferation when compared with 0 μmol/L (P\u3c 0.05), with no effect on SC differentiation (P\u3e0.05). GAA altered SC differentiation in a dose-dependent manner, with 12.5 and 25 μmol/L differing from 0 μmol/L (P \u3c 0.05), but showed no effect on SC proliferation (P\u3e0.05). For lamb characteristics, GAA or 5-HTP did not influence (P\u3e0.05) average daily gain, dry matter intake, or ribeye area compared to the control. miRNA qPCR showed that GAA nor 5-HTP did not alter miR-133a-3p and miR-133a-5p (P\u3e0.05) expression compared with the control. mRNA sequencing showed that GAA supplementation altered gene expression (Padj \u3c 0.05) compared to the control or 5-HTP. However, 5-HTP did not affect (P\u3e0.05) gene expression compared to the control.
Conclusion
These data suggest that nutrient supplementation could influence satellite proliferation and differentiation in vitro, which could enhance muscle mass accretion. Short-term supplementation of GAA or 5-HTP to finishing lambs did not alter growth performance, carcass REA or miRNA expression; however, GAA supplementation did alter gene expression of four genes that are involved in muscle growth