Induced impulsiveness? Eating behaviour and the modulation of behavioural sub-types of impulsivity

Previous research has implicated the role of food associated cues or pre-task reward exposure with eating behaviour. Eating behaviour (specifically overeating) has itself been associated with subtypes of impulsivity. To date, no research has examined the direct relationship between (food) reward-associated cues, or rewarding food exposure on behavioural impulsivity – a possible underlying mechanism. This thesis aimed to examine how behavioural impulsivity may be modulated by external cues, or by hedonic reward consumption, and how this interacts with eating attitudes (TFEQ). Experiment 1 examined the aims explicitly, giving participants a hedonic preload (or nothing) before they completed impulsivity tasks. Those who received a preload were more impulsive in terms of their impulsive choice, and inhibitory control than those who had not received a preload. This effect did not replicate in experiment 3, where 2 further conditions were added, a non-hedonic preload, and an anticipation condition, but no differences were found between the groups. Experiment 4 conditioned rewarding cues to novel stimuli, and presented them before the behavioural tasks, but again, no difference was found between the groups. This thesis discusses the theoretical and methodological concepts, which may explain some of these null findings. Experiment 2 aimed to examine how the reinforcing value of food (RRV) may be associated with types of impulsivity. However, no relationship was found between RRV and impulsivity, but RRV was consistent in predicting ad libitum food intake, as shown in previous studies. Chapter 6 of this thesis is a meta-analysis of our laboratory’s research linking delayed discounting (DDT), the TFEQ, and cue exposure paradigms. The analysis showed that those in high in dietary disinhibition (TFEQ-D) who were shown food cues, or consumed a hedonic preload were more impulsive on the DDT than those high in TFEQ-D that did not consume anything. The key limitations of this thesis are discussed, most notably the lack of statistical power in the experimental studies conducted. The general discussion of this thesis discusses the important implications of this finding in understanding modulation of behavioural impulsivity

SkpA restrains synaptic terminal growth during development and promotes axonal degeneration following injury

The Wallenda (Wnd)/dual leucine zipper kinase (DLK)-Jnk pathway is an evolutionarily conserved MAPK signaling pathway that functions during neuronal development and following axonal injury. Improper pathway activation causes defects in axonal guidance and synaptic growth, whereas loss-of-function mutations in pathway components impairs axonal regeneration and degeneration after injury. Regulation of this pathway is in part through the E3 ubiquitin ligase Highwire (Hiw), which targets Wnd/DLK for degradation to limit MAPK signaling. To explore mechanisms controlling Wnd/DLK signaling, we performed a large-scale genetic screen in Drosophila to identify negative regulators of the pathway. Here we describe the identification and characterization of SkpA, a core component of SCF E3 ubiquitin ligases. Mutants in SkpA display synaptic overgrowth and an increase in Jnk signaling, similar to hiw mutants. The combination of hypomorphic alleles of SkpA and hiw leads to enhanced synaptic growth. Mutants in the Wnd-Jnk pathway suppress the overgrowth of SkpA mutants demonstrating that the synaptic overgrowth is due to increased Jnk signaling. These findings support the model that SkpA and the E3 ligase Hiw function as part of an SCF-like complex that attenuates Wnd/DLK signaling. In addition, SkpA, like Hiw, is required for synaptic and axonal responses to injury. Synapses in SkpA mutants are more stable following genetic or traumatic axonal injury, and axon loss is delayed in SkpA mutants after nerve crush. As in highwire mutants, this axonal protection requires Nmnat. Hence, SkpA is a novel negative regulator of the Wnd-Jnk pathway that functions with Hiw to regulate both synaptic development and axonal maintenance

IGNITE Self-Discovery: The Pursuit of Cultural Competence

This is a workbook in an effort to provide a single entry-point for students of interpreting and professional interpreters to analyze and synthesize their own beliefs, biases, and values in order to apply the learning to their professional practice

Distinct developmental and degenerative functions of SARM1 require NAD+ hydrolase activity

SARM1 is the founding member of the TIR-domain family of NAD+ hydrolases and the central executioner of pathological axon degeneration. SARM1-dependent degeneration requires NAD+ hydrolysis. Prior to the discovery that SARM1 is an enzyme, SARM1 was studied as a TIR-domain adaptor protein with non-degenerative signaling roles in innate immunity and invertebrate neurodevelopment, including at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Here we explore whether the NADase activity of SARM1 also contributes to developmental signaling. We developed transgenic Drosophila lines that express SARM1 variants with normal, deficient, and enhanced NADase activity and tested their function in NMJ development. We find that NMJ overgrowth scales with the amount of NADase activity, suggesting an instructive role for NAD+ hydrolysis in this developmental signaling pathway. While degenerative and developmental SARM1 signaling share a requirement for NAD+ hydrolysis, we demonstrate that these signals use distinct upstream and downstream mechanisms. These results identify SARM1-dependent NAD+ hydrolysis as a heretofore unappreciated component of developmental signaling. SARM1 now joins sirtuins and Parps as enzymes that regulate signal transduction pathways via mechanisms that involve NAD+ cleavage, greatly expanding the potential scope of SARM1 TIR NADase functions

Drought legacy interacts with wildfire to alter soil microbial communities in a Mediterranean climate-type forest

Mediterranean forest ecosystems will be increasingly affected by hotter drought and more frequent and severe wildfire events in the future. However, little is known about the longer-term responses of these forests to multiple disturbances and the forests\u27 capacity to maintain ecosystem function. This is particularly so for below-ground organisms, which have received less attention than those above-ground, despite their essential contributions to forest function. We investigated rhizosphere microbial communities in a resprouting Eucalyptus marginata forest, southwestern Australia, that had experienced a severe wildfire four years previously, and a hotter drought eight years previously. Our aim was to understand how microbial communities are affected over longer-term trajectories by hotter drought and wildfire, singularly, and in combination. Fungal and bacterial DNA was extracted from soil samples, amplified, and subjected to high throughput sequencing. Richness, diversity, composition, and putative functional groups were then examined. We found a monotonic decrease in fungal, but not bacterial, richness and diversity with increasing disturbance with the greatest changes resulting from the combination of drought and wildfire. Overall fungal and bacterial community composition reflected a stronger effect of fire than drought, but the combination of both produced the greatest number of indicator taxa for fungi, and a significant negative effect on the abundance of several fungal functional groups. Key mycorrhizal fungi, fungal saprotrophs and fungal pathogens were found at lower proportions in sites affected by drought plus wildfire. Wildfire had a positive effect on bacterial hydrogen and bacterial nitrogen recyclers. Fungal community composition was positively correlated with live tree height. These results suggest that microbial communities, in particular key fungal functional groups, are highly responsive to wildfire following drought. Thus, a legacy of past climate conditions such as hotter drought can be important for mediating the responses of soil microbial communities to subsequent disturbance like wildfire

The Grizzly, November 2, 2000

Students Rally to End Sexual Assault, Violence • Homecoming Case Closed, all Charges Dropped • Scuffle at Duryea Still Being Investigated • UC House of Horrors: Children Enjoy Ghoulish Experience • Operation Christmas Child • Goldstein Appointed Hillel Director • Study Abroad in London, Florence Next Fall • Annual Halloween Decorating Contest Winners Announced • Opinions: Where\u27s the Rush? Shortening of Rushing Activities has Some Greeks Angry, Upset; Up in Smoke: Non-smokers Fed up with UC Students Lighting up; Gore Does More to Combat Hate Crimes; Are we too old for Halloween?; A Vote for Al Gore is a Vote for our Future; Don\u27t Waste Your Vote on Majority Party Candidates, Elect Nader Nov. 7; Amidst Campus Safety Concerns, are IDs the Answer?; Rewards of Mideast Outweigh Risks for one UC Student • Students Make MTV Debut on \u27Total Request Live\u27 • Gone with the Wind: Bears Drop Heartbreaker to Mules on Blustery Day • It\u27s Madness!: Hoops Squad Scores Big with Annual Slam-dunk, Kick-off Festivities • Volleyball Drops Season Finale to Conference Rival • Men\u27s Soccer Falls to Fords • Men\u27s Lacrosse Gears up for Spring Season • Breast Cancer: What College Students Need to Know • Annual Health Fair Acquires new Name, Attitude • Tips for Female Lifters to Make it big in the Weight Room • Bears Field Hockey Rocks Rider, Finishes Season with Patriot League Win • XC Takes on WMC Course at Conference Champshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1477/thumbnail.jp

A threatened ecological community: Research advances and priorities for Banksia woodlands

The rapid expansion of urban areas worldwide is leading to native habitat loss and ecosystem fragmentation and degradation. Although the study of urbanisation\u27s impact on biodiversity is gaining increasing interest globally, there is still a disconnect between research recommendations and urbanisation strategies. Expansion of the Perth metropolitan area on the Swan Coastal Plain in south-western Australia, one of the world\u27s thirty-six biodiversity hotspots, continues to affect the Banksia Woodlands (BWs) ecosystem, a federally listed Threatened Ecological Community (TEC). Here, we utilise the framework of a 1989 review of the state of knowledge of BWs ecology and conservation to examine scientific advances made in understanding the composition, processes and functions of BWs and BWs\u27 species over the last 30 years. We highlight key advances in our understanding of the ecological function and role of mechanisms in BWs that are critical to the management of this ecosystem. The most encouraging change since 1989 is the integration of research between historically disparate ecological disciplines. We outline remaining ecological knowledge gaps and identify key research priorities to improve conservation efforts for this TEC. We promote a holistic consideration of BWs with our review providing a comprehensive document that researchers, planners and managers may reference. To effectively conserve ecosystems threatened by urban expansion, a range of stakeholders must be involved in the development and implementation of best practices to conserve and maintain both biodiversity and human wellbeing

Cued to act on impulse: more impulsive choice and risky decision making by women susceptible to overeating after exposure to food stimuli

There is increasing evidence that individual differences in tendency to overeat relate to impulsivity, possibly by increasing reactivity to food-related cues in the environment. This study tested whether acute exposure to food cues enhanced impulsive and risky responses in women classified on tendency to overeat, indexed by scores on the three factor eating questionnaire disinhibition (TFEQ-D), restraint (TFEQ-R) and hunger scales. Ninety six healthy women completed two measures of impulsive responding (delayed discounting, DDT and a Go No-Go, GNG, task) and a measure of risky decision making (the balloon analogue risk task, BART) as well as questionnairemeasures of impulsive behaviour either after looking at a series of pictures of food or visually matched controls. Impulsivity (DDT) and risk-taking (BART) were both positively associated with TFEQ-D scores, but in both cases this effect was exacerbated by prior exposure to food cues. No effects of restraint were found. TFEQ-D scores were also related tomore commission errors on the GNG, while restrained women were slower on the GNG, but neither effect was modified by cue exposure. Overall these data suggest that exposure to food cues act to enhance general impulsive responding in women at risk of overeating and tentatively suggest an important interaction between tendency for impulsive decision making and food cues thatmay help explain a key underlying risk factor for overeating

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication