Exploring the Relationship Between the Co-Curriculum and Academic Outcomes: A Methodology

Higher education is currently evaluating the value of non-academic components of four-year institutions, particularly in relation to their impact on academic outcomes. In evaluating these areas, new methodologies are consistently developed exploring the co-curriculum and academic outcomes. However, no methodologies exist that evaluate the relationship between student involvement and academic outcomes. The methodology outlined in this research develops a quantitative means of measuring the relationship between student involvement in the co-curriculum and academic outcomes abilities using two new measures. These measures were then tested for reliability and validity. The researcher collected and scored student essays, which measured student ability in academic outcomes. Students also completed a questionnaire asking questions about involvement in seven areas of campus: residence hall activities, all campus events, leadership, multicultural, spiritual, intellectual, and athletics. Scores from the essays and the surveys were matched, and then analyzed. Both measures were found to have reliability and validity

The Co-Curriculum and the Core Curriculum: Exploring the Relationship Between Student Involvement and Academic Outcomes

Higher Education leaders have long been interested in the relationship between the curricular and co-curricular components of a four-year undergraduate institution (Fried, 2007). Leaders of traditional four-year residential universities are especially interested in this relationship as a potential value-added factor supporting their intentionally student-focused, highly interactive program. Astin’s (1999) theory of student involvement points out that the more energy a student exerts in her or his experience, the better she or he will perform academically. Astin’s theory applies both within and outside of the classroom. Kuh’s seminal research (1995) focused on the effects of student engagement in extracurricular activities outside of the classroom and with faculty and staff in levels of student learning. His research confirmed the powerful impact of the co-curriculum on student learning (Kinzie & Kuh, 2007). This research project was designed as a quantitative correlational study for the purpose of measuring the impact of the co-curriculum as an integral component in student academic success. It examined a group of 180 seniors at a private, liberal arts, four-year institution in the Midwest. The researcher collected and scored student essays, which measured student ability in academic outcomes. Students also completed a survey asking questions about involvement in seven areas of campus: residence hall activities, all-campus events, leadership, multicultural, spiritual, intellectual, and athletics. Scores from the essays and the surveys were matched and then analyzed. It was found that students who were more involved in the areas of the co-curriculum including multicultural, all-campus events, leadership, and residence hall events had higher outcome scores than those students who were less involved in these areas

The effects of emotion on executive functions in ageing

Executive functions are control mechanisms that allow us to direct thoughts and behaviour according to goals and play an important role in everyday life. Research suggests that emotion can affect these functions, but it is less clear how the emotion-cognition interactions change with age, as ageing is associated with changes in both emotional and cognitive functioning. The aim of the present research was to investigate the effects of emotion on younger and older adults’ performance in tasks targeting three executive functions: updating, inhibition and task switching. It was also investigated whether emotional valence, the task relevance of emotion and the modality of emotional items (e.g., verbal or facial material) played a role in the modulating effect of emotion on cognition. Across nine behavioural experiments, the following main results were observed. First, it was found that age modulated the effects of emotional valence on executive functions. More specifically, positive emotion improved cognitive performance in both age groups, whereas the mixed but predominantly impairing effects of negative emotion were more pronounced in older adults. Second, emotion affected executive functions when it was task-relevant and older adults were not more affected by task-irrelevant emotional material than younger adults. Third, effects observed for emotional faces could not be replicated with emotional words and the effects of emotion varied for different executive functions, suggesting that the effects of emotion are modality- and task-specific. This dissertation highlights that theories aimed at explaining the effects of emotion on executive functions need to be extended to accommodate age-related differences in this interaction. A better understanding of the facilitating and impairing effects of emotion on executive functions in ageing is important, as it can help identifying areas in which emotion buffers age-related cognitive decline

Differential effects of angry faces on working memory updating in younger and older adults

Research suggests that cognition-emotion interactions change with age. Here, younger and older adults completed a 2-back task, and the effects of negative stimuli were analyzed as a function of their status in the n-back sequence. Older adults were found to benefit more from angry than from neutral probes relative to younger adults. However, they were slower when lures were angry and less accurate when lures and probes had the same emotion. The results suggest that recollection of the n-back sequence was reduced in older adults, making them more susceptible to the facilitating and impairing effects of negative emotion

The effects of emotion on executive functions in ageing

Executive functions are control mechanisms that allow us to direct thoughts and behaviour according to goals and play an important role in everyday life. Research suggests that emotion can affect these functions, but it is less clear how the emotion-cognition interactions change with age, as ageing is associated with changes in both emotional and cognitive functioning. The aim of the present research was to investigate the effects of emotion on younger and older adults’ performance in tasks targeting three executive functions: updating, inhibition and task switching. It was also investigated whether emotional valence, the task relevance of emotion and the modality of emotional items (e.g., verbal or facial material) played a role in the modulating effect of emotion on cognition. Across nine behavioural experiments, the following main results were observed. First, it was found that age modulated the effects of emotional valence on executive functions. More specifically, positive emotion improved cognitive performance in both age groups, whereas the mixed but predominantly impairing effects of negative emotion were more pronounced in older adults. Second, emotion affected executive functions when it was task-relevant and older adults were not more affected by task-irrelevant emotional material than younger adults. Third, effects observed for emotional faces could not be replicated with emotional words and the effects of emotion varied for different executive functions, suggesting that the effects of emotion are modality- and task-specific. This dissertation highlights that theories aimed at explaining the effects of emotion on executive functions need to be extended to accommodate age-related differences in this interaction. A better understanding of the facilitating and impairing effects of emotion on executive functions in ageing is important, as it can help identifying areas in which emotion buffers age-related cognitive decline

PAGE4 Positivity Is Associated with Attenuated AR Signaling and Predicts Patient Survival in Hormone-Naive Prostate Cancer

Aberrant activation of the androgen receptor (AR) plays a key role during prostate cancer (PCa) development and progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CR-PCa) after androgen deprivation therapy, the mainstay systemic treatment for PCa. New strategies to abrogate AR activity and biomarkers that predict aggressive tumor behavior are essential for improved therapeutic intervention. PCa tissue microarrays herein reveal that prostate-associated gene 4 (PAGE4), an X-linked cancer/testis antigen, is highly up-regulated in the epithelium of preneoplastic lesions compared with benign epithelium, but subsequently decreases with tumor progression. We show that AR signaling is attenuated in PAGE4-expressing cells both in vitro and in vivo, most likely via impaired androgen-induced AR nuclear translocation and subsequently reduced AR protein stabilization and phosphorylation at serines 81 and 213. Consistently, epithelial PAGE4 protein levels inversely correlated with AR activation status in hormone-naive and CR-PCa clinical specimens. Moreover, PAGE4 impaired the development of CR-PCa xenografts, and strong PAGE4 immunoreactivity independently predicted favorable patient survival in hormone-naive PCa. Collectively, these data suggest that dysregulation of epithelial PAGE4 modulates AR signaling, thereby promoting progression to advanced lethal PCa and highlight the potential value of PAGE4 as a prognostic and therapeutic target

Effects of Emotion and Age on Cognitive Control in a Stroop Task

Abstract Research indicates that cognitive control is affected by aging and by emotion. However, no studies have addressed whether performance in an emotional Stroop task varies in older relative to younger adults. We examined the effect of aging in a classic Stroop color-naming task (Experiment 1) and in an emotional Stroop task using faces (Experiment 2). Results suggest that aging is associated with changes in cognitive control but that older adults benefit more than younger adults from positive information in an emotional Stroop paradigm

Microscopic and Genetic Characterization of Bacterial Symbionts With Bioluminescent Potential in Pyrosoma atlanticum

The pelagic tunicate pyrosome, Pyrosoma atlanticum, is known for its brilliant bioluminescence, but the mechanism causing this bioluminescence has not been fully characterized. This study identifies the bacterial bioluminescent symbionts of P. atlanticum collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico using several methods such as light and electron microscopy, as well as molecular genetics. The bacteria are localized within the pyrosome light organs. Greater than 50% of the bacterial taxa present in the tunicate samples were the bioluminescent symbiotic bacteria Vibrionaceae as determined by utilizing current molecular genetics methodologies. A total of 396K MiSeq16S rRNA reads provided total pyrosome microbiome profiles to determine bacterial symbiont taxonomy. After comparing with the Silva rRNA database, a Photobacterium sp. r33-like bacterium (which we refer to as “Photobacterium Pa-1”) matched at 99% sequence identity as the most abundant bacteria within Pyrosoma atlanticum samples. Specifically designed 16S rRNA V4 probes for fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) verified the Photobacterium Pa-1 location as internally concentrated along the periphery of each dual pyrosome luminous organ. While searching for bacterial lux genes in two tunicate samples, we also serendipitously generated a draft tunicate mitochondrial genome that can be used for Pyrosoma atlanticum identification. Scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy confirmed the presence of intracellular rod-like bacteria in the light organs. This intracellular localization of bacteria may represent bacteriocyte formation reminiscent of other invertebrates