UARK (University of Arkansas )
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The impact of 16 weeks of protein and omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on appetite regulation in postmenopausal women.
No full textWith life expectancy continuing to increase and menopause typically occurring at age 51, women now spend a significant portion of their lifespan in the postmenopausal stage, facing increased health risks such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and cancer. Estradiol, which postmenopausal women show deficiency in, has been shown to be associated with appetite- related peptide hormones cholecystokinin (CCK), leptin, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), and peptide tyrosine-tyrosine (PYY). This study aimed to investigate the effects of protein and omega- 3 fatty acid (O3FA) supplementation on appetite hormones, energy intake (kcal/day), and BMI (kg/m!) in postmenopausal women over a 16-week supplementation period to promote appetite regulation. Thirty-nine postmenopausal women were randomly assigned one of five treatment groups: 1) control (CON, no intervention, n=6); 2) whey protein isolate (PRO, 25g/day, n=7); 3) omega-3 fatty acid (O3FA, 4.3 g/day, n=10); 4) PRO + placebo soybean oil (PRO+PLA, 25 g /d+4.1 g/d, n=7); 5) PRO+O3FA (25 g/d + 4.3 g/d, n=9). We assessed anthropometric outcomes and body composition, and plasma biomarkers were measured at baseline and at 16 weeks via enzyme–linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. Energy intake was measured monthly using 3-day food records. Our findings suggest that 16-week supplementation with protein, O3FA, and protein + soybean oil may decrease appetite, partly through the elevation of plasma GLP-1 concentrations. However, plasma CCK, PYY, and leptin concentration measurements varied and did not consistently correlate with decreased energy intake or changes in body composition
Examining Award Compliance to Inform Resource Allocation
No full textThis project focuses on JB Hunt Transport Inc\u27s intermodal business unit (JBI) by focusing on the challenges associated with Published Pricing and Contractual Pricing. The primary issue revolves around the variance between the awarded freight volumes in Requests for Pricing (RFPs) and the actual volumes realized when the freight is shipped. This discrepancy poses challenges for effective sales planning, revenue goals, and optimal freight network management within JBI. Reporting tools, such as PowerBI, are currently used by JBI to provide insights into award compliance on a weekly basis. However, our goal with this project was to provide a deeper understanding by examining a variety of subsets of customers, lanes, and industries in the data to identify patterns of primary award compliance. Any specific subsets with predictive power are used as inputs for the OASIS optimization engine, used to maximize network profitability.
The analysis includes categorizing national accounts and lanes into industries and assessing the consistency of award compliance seen across different combinations. The study also investigates the seasonality of primary award compliance, focusing on specific industries and customer accounts. This allows us to examine the correlation between primary award volumes and compliance, utilizing subsets based on multiples of key numerical values. This analysis was designed to uncover predictability in the data, which was used to create preliminary predictive models for subsets of the data that exhibit consistent award compliance. Any finds
My individual contributions to this project mainly include comprehensive boxplot analyses, offering nuanced insights for the group into the distribution and variability of award compliance across different customer and lane subsets. I also ran Granger causality tests to explore potential causal relationships between various factors and award compliance, providing a deeper understanding of the interaction effects between factors and across industries. Overall, my individual contributions in the statistical analysis —boxplot analysis and Granger causality testing— contributed to the broader objectives of this capstone project, such as enhancing the group’s understanding of factors influencing award compliance which led to informed decision-making and recommendations for JB Hunt Transport Inc\u27s intermodal business unit
How Engaged Are Infants and Toddlers While Picture Book Reading?
Get PDFIntroduction: Literacy is a very important skill that begins to be acquired at birth. Most children start to develop pre-literacy skills by being read to by their parents or other adults around them. Being read aloud to can occur at many different ages and can start as early as infancy. As children grow, they interact and engage with books in different ways. This thesis aims to investigate the read-aloud behaviors of two different groups of young children, to reveal differences in engagement interactions among infants and young toddlers when being read picture books by their teacher.
Methods: The research and data collection portion of this thesis was completed at a campus childhood care center. The intervention took place over two months. In total, four different groups were studied each week, two small groups of infants, and two small groups of young toddlers. All children in reading sessions were read to by a teacher from their classroom. Every week the groups read two new picture books selected and provided by the research team. The groups were evaluated on their level of engagement through four categories: involvement, activeness, joint attention, and mood and playfulness. During live observations, each child was given a score from 1-5 in each engagement category based on the level of engagement demonstrated. When a moment of engagement occurred, the primary investigator made note of it using a time-sampling observation technique.
Results: The overall average engagement per engagement category was higher for young toddlers than for infants. For each book, variation was found in whether infants or young toddlers had a higher score for each category. There was also variety in the behaviors observed for each category.
Conclusion: Overall, it was found that there are differences in engagement levels of infants and young toddlers while they are being read picture books. Young toddlers were found to have higher average engagement levels in every category studied, but when the specific book reading sessions were considered, some books had average scores that were higher in some categories for infants. Infants were more likely to engage with books through physical engagement like grabbing or pointing, while young toddlers were more likely to engage with books through vocalizations and speaking with the teacher engaged in the read-aloud
Developing and Modernizing Small Businesses in Dangriga, Belize
Get PDFThis thesis evaluates the effectiveness of the Small Business Development project located in Dangriga, Belize, and includes research on the challenges of entrepreneurship in developing countries. The project consisted of research and the implementation of marketing workshops to teach businesses how to manage their online and social media presence through the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA) Dangriga. The impact of the project was significantly important because many Belizeans struggle to survive and succeed within their businesses. Belize contains multiple microenterprises that cannot meet their potential because of a lack of knowledge and communication. Overall, the project aims to give BTIA Dangriga the necessary information and resources it desperately needs
Community Development in Stann Creek, Belize
Get PDFThis research attempts to understand the inner workings of community development by taking part in ongoing development projects in Belize. Through collaboration with existing government entities, we took part in meetings, surveys, and site visits to gather the data necessary for the development projects. These projects consisted of finding cost of production, collecting market research, and constructing business plans. During our time, we experienced multiple difficulties similar to those that developers consistently encounter. Ultimately, we gained valuable insight into procedures involved in community development, as well as being able to aid in ongoing development work
Maximizing the capability of a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiphene) (PEDOT)-modified microelectrode array for manipulating fluids with redox-magnetohydrodynamics (R-MHD) for applications in chip-based chemical analysis
No full textAs small-scale “lab-on-a-chip” devices become more prevalent for chemical and biological analysis, it is critical to have precise control of small volumes of solutions. A relatively new microfluidic technique is redox-magnetohydrodynamics (R-MHD), which utilizes the force produced by an ionic current in the presence of a magnetic field to propel solution. This project sought to determine the extent to which nanoliter volumes can be manipulated by R-MHD. The chip design used in this study features two, parallel linear arrays of nine microelectrodes, each of which can be individually addressed and modified with the conducting polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) to convert an externally-applied electric current into ionic current within the solution without bubble formation or electrode corrosion and allow compatibility with a wide variety of liquid conditions. Strategic activation of these PEDOT-modified microelectrodes to produce various magnitudes and directions of ionic current over a permanent magnet can generate fluid flow with different speeds, paths, and profiles that redirect, split, or combine solutions. The prospects for electrodeposition of PEDOT onto the small microelectrodes that are in close proximity to each other while retaining their individuality was explored, and the R-MHD pumping capacity of the resulting system was characterized. A “magnet-switching” device was automated to sustain R-MHD fluid flow in a single direction, indefinitely extending the maximum pumping duration of the system. These studies of the fluid flow profiles at the nanoliter scale are motivated by possible applications in lab-on-a-chip devices, including chemical separations and sampling, chemical synthesis, and point-of-care analysis utilized in healthcare
