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Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods
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A long‐term obesogenic high‐fat diet in mice partially dampens the anti‐frailty benefts of late‐life intermittent fasting
Get PDFThe global obesity pandemic coupled with ever-growing life expectancies equates to hundreds of millions of individuals with potentially longer but not healthier lives. Aging is one of the risk factors for numerous maladies such as metabolic dis- order and frailty, which are exacerbated under obesity. Thus, therapeutic approaches that address obesity to ultimately improve afected individuals’ quality of life and extend their lifespan are needed. We previously reported that the every other day (EOD) fasting initiated late-life improved metabolic, musculoskeletal, and cognitive endpoints in standard rodent diet-fed mice. In the present study, using the same dietary intervention methodology, we tested if 2.5 months of EOD fasting could improve metabolic, physiological, and cognitive endpoints in mice after an 18 month obesogenic high-fat diet (HFD). The positive efects of EOD fasting were generally consistent across the endpoints; EOD fasting decreased total body mass, maintained more %lean mass, improved glucose tol- erance and utilization, and improved neuromuscu- lar function. In contrast to our previous study, grip strength, hippocampal-dependent memory, and renal hydrogen sulfde (H2S) production were not improved by the HFD EOD fasting. Thus, efcacy for late- life initiated intermittent fasting to improve specifc frailty markers may be partially dependent on nutritional compositions of the diet
SPECIES RESPONSES TO HABITAT EDGES AND FRAGMENTATION PER SE: A CROSS TAXA META-ANALYSIS
Get PDFAim We examined the scale equivalency of fragmentation effects at the patch scale and landscape scale to determine if patch level effects scale up to landscape level effects. First, we examined species responses to fragmentation effects at the patch scale and landscape scale. Second, we evaluated whether there is a difference in response between taxonomic groups and across latitudes. Finally, we analyzed the data at the level of individual species in order to determine how species respond to edge effects and fragmentation effects. Location Data for 71 studies were gathered from the BioFrag database. Studies used were located in 48 unique landscapes across the globe. Major taxa studied Our global dataset comprised 7619 species from 5 different taxonomic groups (1212 birds, 279 herps, 3490 invertebrates, 136 mammals, and 2502 plants). Methods We used vote counting in tandem with a meta-analysis comparing effect sizes of local-scale edge effects to landscape-scale fragmentation effects. We analyzed data at the species level using random placement models to determine how species individually respond to edge effects and fragmentation effects. Results Negative edge effects and fragmentation effects were not the most prevalent in our study landscapes. Nonsignificant responses to edges and fragmentation were more common than either negative or positive responses. Negative edge effects also do not scale up to negative fragmentation effects. Negative effects of fragmentation per se also do not predominate with species abundance permutations. Our abundance results show that species with significant negative responses were in the minority, indicating that individual species responses are not overwhelmingly negative. Main conclusions Overall, our results suggest that patch scale effects of fragmentation (edge effects) should not be extrapolated to landscape scale effects of fragmentation (fragmentation per se effects). In contrast to much of the literature, species responses were largely nonsignificant across both scales and individual species responses do not show a variation from this trend. Based on the results of our study, we suggest that researchers strongly consider the scale at which a study is conducted and recommend that researchers avoid untested extrapolation across scales
Extending Research of Neighborhood Governance Systems: An Empirical Study of Community Councils in Cincinnati, Ohio
Get PDFNeighborhood governance systems have been developed as a way to enhance citizen engagement in local government, particularly in major cities. Scholarly research on these systems is quite limited, and most articles focus on neighborhood councils in Los Angeles, California. Our study extends this research to another system in a different city – specifically, community councils in Cincinnati, Ohio. Based on Li, Wen, and Cooper (2019), we surveyed their governing board members and analyzed relationships between three aspects of board performance (internal capacity, attention-action congruence, external networking) and three dimensions of community council effectiveness (promoting civic engagement, resolving neighborhood issues, advising on city policies). There were significant and positive relationships between internal capacity and all three dimensions of effectiveness; that is, more competent board governance is associated with stronger community council effectiveness overall. These findings contribute to the neighborhood governance literature that has been developing gradually over the past 15 years
