Prettiest in Pink? Dutch Teenage Girls and Femininity

This report is the result of a month-long qualitative examination of the various attitudes held by Dutch teenage girls on feminine behavior and presentation. Background research included examining work written about Dutch women and Dutch teen girl culture, as well as analyzing two Dutch teen magazines, Meiden and Girlz. I interviewed five Dutch girls from the ages of 13 to 17 about the acceptability and prevalence of femininity and “girliness” among them and their peers. I concluded that these Dutch girls believe that it is most acceptable for a girl to act in a certain way based on her gender: not too girly and not too masculine. My subjects also expressed dissatisfaction with the current role for adult women in the Netherlands. I also found among my subjects that they commonly labeled girls in general as gossipy and bitchy and were likely to put them down for certain feminine behaviors. This led me to discuss the concept of internalized misogyny as it related to my subjects’ attitudes towards girls in general

Determine the Effects of Propionate on the Activation of Macrophages against the Intracellular Pathogen Listeria monocytogenes

The main goal of this research is to see how propionate, a common food preservative and an important metabolite in humans, alters the activation of our immune system. The effects of propionate on macrophage activation will be determined by using nitrite and LDH assays. For these assays, different concentrations of propionate will be tested to determine how macrophages respond to the activation by LPS and interferon gamma. Another goal of this project is to determine the effects of propionate and macrophage activation on intracellular survival of L. monocytogenes. A gentamicin protection assay will be used to better establish the role of multiple variables related to L. monocytogenes infection. These variables include the length and level of propionate exposure prior to infection, macrophage activation state, and nitric oxide production. From these experiments we investigated if over stimulation of anti-inflammatory SCFAs could lead to an increase of susceptibility to L. monocytogenes infections. Results from these proposed experiments will ultimately help us better understand how propionate affects host-pathogen interactions

SELECTIVE REGULATION OF CARDIOMYOCYTE SIGNALING BY RGL2

A key cardiovascular signaling molecule involved in both physiologic and pathologic regulation of cardiomyocytes is the small molecular weight G-protein, Ras. Differential effects of Ras are mediated by multiple effector molecules, including the RalGEFs which activate Ral. Studies performed in cardiomyocytes have indicated a role for Ral in cardiac hypertrophic signaling and the RalGEF family member, Rgl2, was shown to specifically interact with Ras in the heart. Therefore, I hypothesized that Rgl2 was an important Ras effector that would regulate cardiomyocyte signaling. To elucidate the potential importance of Rgl2 in regulating cardiomyocyte signaling, a gain-of-function approach was utilized in which NRVMs were infected with an adenovirus to increase Rgl2 expression. Using this approach, I found that Rgl2 increased Ral-GTP levels, Ras-GTP levels, and PI3-kinase-Akt signaling, but decreased ERK phosphorylation. Overall, my results suggest a model in which Rgl2 disrupts Ras-Raf and Ras-RasGAP interaction to decrease ERK phosphorylation and increase Ras-GTP, respectively. Furthermore, Rgl2-induced Ral activation promotes the enhanced PI3- kinase-Akt signaling. The physiologic consequence of Rgl2 signaling is difficult to predict, but the increase in PI3-kinase-Akt signaling would be expected to promote cardiomyocyte survival and enhance cardiac function, both of which are characteristic of physiologic hypertrophy

Adding weight to judgments: The role of stimulus focality on weight-related embodied cognition

Research employing metaphors to explore embodied cognition has shown bidirectional relationships between cognitions and sensory-motor stimuli, such as importance and weight (e.g., “weighty tome”). This research has typically used cognition-relevant metaphor primes (e.g., weighted backpacks when making steepness judgments, weighted clipboards when judging importance of written information) but has yet to consider the role of stimuli features like focality in these findings. The current study examined wearing a heavy versus light backpack on social judgments to explore the effect of this unrelated weight prime on established weight-relevant cognitions. Participants were 40 undergraduate psychology students who wore a heavy (~5 kg) or light ( < 1 kg) backpack while making cognitive, affective, and interpersonal judgments. No significant differences were found between the judgments as a function of backpack weight. This finding suggests that non-task-relevant metaphorical primes have no observable effect on embodied cognition. This provides the first published evidence that embodied cognition is context sensitive and discriminating, that is, not every stimuli activates every related cognition

RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY AND SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS FACULTY IN THE SOUTHERN REGION: A QUARTER OF A CENTURY LATER

Productivity and characteristics of southern agricultural economics faculty was compared to other regional faculty. With few exceptions, faculty members in the Southern region are as productive as their counterparts. We also found that the majority of respondents in all regions considered themselves in the top-quartile in all areas.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

DETERMINANTS OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMIC FACULTY SALARIES: A QUARTER OF A CENTURY LATER

Factors influencing the salaries of university agricultural economists were examined and compared to previous work. Results suggest the impact of publication output has remained relatively constant for the past 25 years, while other factors like grantsmanship have changed significantly. Additional analyses suggest significant impacts of appointment apportionment and Ph.D. programs.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

The Unaware, Accurate, and Overly Critical: Video Technology Use of Improving Public Speaking Competency

Students often hold overly favorable views of their public speaking skills. In this study, students set goals prior to speaking, and then assess the presentation via video replay. Although some basic courses use video, the technology is not standard practice nor consistently utilized to aid student skill development for speechmaking. Differences between students’ self-estimated and earned grades students were categorized into five estimator groupings. Study 1 (N = 102) results indicated video self-evaluation positively influenced student ability for predictive goal-setting, improved accuracy for assessing speech quality, and diminished overestimation from the informative to persuasive speech. To further explore the findings and address the limitations of Study 1, a second study was conducted. Study 2 (N = 622) results supported Study 1 findings. We discussed how video technology use, as a pedagogical tool, enhances public speaking competency for students in the basic course

Native Americans

Students will locate past homelands of Native American groups using latitude and longitude. Students will explain how the location (geography and climate) affected how these groups lived

The ral exchange factor rgl2 promotes cardiomyocyte survival and inhibits cardiac fibrosis

Cardiomyocytes compensate to acute cardiac stress by increasing in size and contractile function. However, prolonged stress leads to a decompensated response characterized by cardiomyocyte death, tissue fibrosis and loss of cardiac function. Identifying approaches to inhibit this transition to a decompensated response may reveal important targets for treating heart failure. The Ral guanine nucleotide disassociation (RalGDS) proteins are Ras-interacting proteins that are upregulated by hypertrophic stimuli. The Ral guanine nucleotide dissociation stimulator-like 2 (Rgl2) is a member of the RalGDS family that modulates expression of hypertrophic genes in cardiomyocytes. However, the pathophysiologic consequence of increased Rgl2 expression in cardiomyoctyes remains unclear. To evaluate the effect of increasing Rgl2 activity in the heart, transgenic mice with cardiac-targeted over-expression of Rgl2 were generated. Although Ral activation was increased, there were no apparent morphologic or histological differences between the hearts of Rgl2 transgenic and nontransgenic mice indicating that increased Rgl2 expression had no effect on basal cardiac phenotype. To determine if Rgl2 modulates the cardiac response to stress, mice were infused with the ß-adrenergic receptor agonist, isoproterenol. Isoproterenol infusion increased heart mass in both Rgl2 transgenic and nontransgenic mice. However, unlike nontransgenic mice, Rgl2 transgenic mice showed no morphologic evidence of cardiomyocyte damage or increased cardiac fibrosis following isoproterenol infusion. Increased Rgl2 expression in cultured cardiomyocytes stimulated Ral activation and inhibited staurosporine-induced apoptosis via increased activation of PI3-kinase. Activation of the PI3-kinase signaling pathway was confirmed in hearts isolated from Rgl2 transgenic mice. Increased expression and function of Rgl2 in cardiomyocytes promotes activation of the PI3-kinase signaling cascade and protects from carciomyocyte death and pathologic cardiac fibrosis. Taken further, these results suggest that Rgl2 upregulation in hypertrophic hearts may be a protetive mechanism, and that Rgl2 may be a novel therapeutic target in treating heart disease

Instructional, Social, and Institutional Factors Affecting Teachers’ Application of Technology in L2 Secondary Spanish Classrooms

This case study examined second language (L2) instructors’ use of technology in high school and junior high Spanish classrooms in the state of Texas. Specifically, this work sought to investigate the kinds of technologies teachers employ in their practice and how they apply them in the classroom, and what personal and institutional factors influence their choices. The study collected data from six L2 Spanish teachers from both a high school and a junior high in the same school district. A qualitative analysis was conducted on the data collected, which included classroom observations, debriefings with participants, and semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that the participating L2 educators’ incorporation of technology in the study’s classes did not mirror recommended current L2 practices but was more reflective of traditional, output and grammar-based approaches. The data showed that educators’ classroom use of technology was influenced by lack of teacher training both in the area of L2 education and technology, poor institutional support, absence of information on institutional and methodological expectations for teachers’ practice, issues related to flawed technological devices and wi-fi connections, and the participants’ own personal use of and beliefs about technology. Based on the study’s findings, this work offers suggestions for the implementation of a training model that could assist institutions with teacher education and provide educators with effective theoretical and practical resources