Eating for Environmental and Personal Health: Green Eating, Health Behavior and Environmental Perceptions at the University of Maine

The purpose of this study was to determine if green eating (GE), defined as environmentally conscious eating, in college students had an impact on BMI, health behavior, fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity, and perceptions of the campus environment. This was a cross-sectional study of undergraduate and graduate students (n=190) at the University of Maine. The GE Survey was used to determine GE stage of change; participants were classified as either pre-action (precontemplation, contemplation, preparation) (n=113) or post-action (action, maintenance) (n=77). The GE Survey was also used to assess GE behavior, decisional balance, and self-efficacy. A de novo health behavior scale was used to measure frequency of healthful behavior (10 (never) to 50 (frequently)), including looking for healthy foods and participating in on-campus health programs. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Screener was used to assess fruit and vegetable intake, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to assess physical activity in MET (Metabolic Equivalents of Task)-minutes, and a de novo environmental perceptions scale (0 (strongly disagree) to 100 (strongly agree)) was used to assess students’ perceptions of the campus environmental supports for healthful behavior, including availability of healthy foods on campus and presence of policies to promote healthy eating. Statistical analyses included chi-square and two-way ANOVA tests were used to compare pre- and post-action stages of change by gender. Significance was set at p Overall, the participants were mostly female (67.9%) and almost all were white (94.6%). The mean BMI was 24.2±4.9, with no difference between pre- and post-action. Participants in the post-action stage of change had higher scores than pre-action for GE behavior (p=0.0001), and were more confident in their ability to practice GE at school (p=0.0001) and at home (p=0.005). Post-action participants also placed greater importance on pros of GE (p=0.0001) and less importance on cons of GE (p=0.001). Post-action participants had higher health behavior scores than pre-action (30.9±5.0 vs. 33.5±4.8) (p=0.001). Based on the NCI Screener, post-action participants had higher daily intake of fruits and vegetables (5.0±4.4 cups) compared to pre-action (2.9±2.4 cups) (p=0.0001). Post-action participants also engaged in more weekly vigorous physical activity (1439.7±1475.7 MET-minutes) than pre-action (984.0±1367.2 MET-minutes) (p=0.003), and more total physical activity (2662.9±1781.5 MET-minutes) than pre-action (2237.11±2104.5 MET-minutes) (p=0.012). For perceptions of the campus environmental supports for healthful behavior, there was an interaction between GE stage of change and gender; males in the pre-action stage had more positive perceptions (65.2±12.5) and females in the pre-action stage had more negative perceptions (55.5±9.6), whereas males and females in the post-action stage had similar perceptions (males: 59.3±12.0; females: 60.4± 11.4) (p=0.047). College students who were green eaters engaged in more healthful behavior, consumed more cups of fruits and vegetables, and engaged in more physical activity than those who were not green eaters. Based on these results, increased awareness of GE may raise consciousness about the environmental impact of food choices and one’s own health behavior among college students. In the future, educating college students about GE may have an added benefit of promoting healthful behavior

PROMOTING GOOD MANAGEMENT: GOVERNANCE, PROMOTION, AND LEADERSHIP IN OPEN COLLABORATION COMMUNITIES

While we do have an idea of what the leadership of open collaboration communities is responsible for at a high level, we have little knowledge of what these leaders actually do. Similarly, in an online context we understand pieces of the process managers and leaders go through to be elected, but their change in behavior once they become a manager remains unexplored. What behaviors do these leaders engage in that is different from a typical contributor to the community? How can we empirically distinguish which behaviors are characteristic of a successful leader vs. an unsuccessful leader? We examine leadership promotion and performance in Wikipedia, a prominent open collaboration community. This study extends previous work on governance and leadership by developing and validating a more complete measurement model of leadership performance in an open collaboration community, and proposing a testable model of leadership promotion and performance within this context

CERT1 mutations perturb human development by disrupting sphingolipid homeostasis

Neural differentiation, synaptic transmission, and action potential propagation depend on membrane sphingolipids, whose metabolism is tightly regulated. Mutations in the ceramide transporter CERT (CERT1), which is involved in sphingolipid biosynthesis, are associated with intellectual disability, but the pathogenic mechanism remains obscure. Here, we characterize 31 individuals with de novo missense variants in CERT1. Several variants fall into a previously uncharacterized dimeric helical domain that enables CERT homeostatic inactivation, without which sphingolipid production goes unchecked. The clinical severity reflects the degree to which CERT autoregulation is disrupted, and inhibiting CERT pharmacologically corrects morphological and motor abnormalities in a Drosophila model of the disease, which we call ceramide transporter (CerTra) syndrome. These findings uncover a central role for CERT autoregulation in the control of sphingolipid biosynthetic flux, provide unexpected insight into the structural organization of CERT, and suggest a possible therapeutic approach for patients with CerTra syndrome.This work was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), NIH (R01NS109858, to VAG); the Paul A. Marks Scholar Program at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (to VAG); a TIGER grant from the TAUB Institute at the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Scientists (to VAG); the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF 31003A-179371, to TH); the European Joint Program on Rare Diseases (EJP RD+SNF 32ER30-187505, to TH); the Swiss Cancer League (KFS-4999-02-2020, to GD); the EPFL institutional fund (to GD); the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Foundation (to GD); the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) (310030_184926, to GD); the Swiss Foundation for Research on Muscle Disease (FSRMM, to MAL); the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery Grant 2020-04241, to JEB); the Italian Ministry of Health Young Investigator Grant (GR-2011-02347754, to EL); the Fondazione Istituto di Ricerca Pediatrica – Città della Speranza (18-04, to EL); the Wroclaw Medical University (SUB.E160.21.004, to RS); the National Science Centre, Poland (2017/27/B/NZ5/0222, to RS); Telethon Undiagnosed Diseases Program (TUDP) (GSP15001); the Temple Street Foundation/Children’s Health Foundation Ireland (RPAC 19-02, to IK); the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (PO2366/2–1, to BP); the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain (to ELM, EBS, and BMD); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81871079 and 81730036, to HG and KX); and the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), NIH (R01 DK115574, to SSC).The DEFIDIAG study is funded by grants from the French Ministry of Health in the framewok of the national French initiative for genomic medicine. The funders were not involved in the study design, data acquisition, analysis, or writing of the manuscript. Funding for the DECIPHER project was provided by Wellcome. The DDD study presents independent research commissioned by the Health Innovation Challenge Fund (grant number HICF-1009-003), a parallel funding partnership between Wellcome and the Department of Health, and the Wellcome Sanger Institute (grant number WT098051). The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of Wellcome or the Department of Health. The study has UK Research Ethics Committee approval (10/H0305/83, granted by the Cambridge South REC, and GEN/284/12, granted by the Republic of Ireland REC). The research team acknowledges the support of the National Institute for Health Research, through the Comprehensive Clinical Research Network.S

Developing an Integrated Ocean Observing System for New Zealand

New Zealand (NZ) is an island nation with stewardship of an ocean twenty times larger than its land area. While the challenges facing NZ’s ocean are similar to other maritime countries, no coherent national plan exists that meets the needs of scientists, stakeholders or kaitiakitanga (guardianship) of NZ’s ocean in a changing climate. The NZ marine science community used the OceanObs’19 white paper to establish a framework and implementation plan for a collaborative NZ ocean observing system (NZ-OOS). Co-production of ocean knowledge with Māori will be embedded in this national strategy for growing a sustainable, blue economy for NZ. The strengths of an observing system for a relatively small nation come from direct connections between the science impetus through to users and stakeholders of an NZ-OOS. The community will leverage off existing ocean observations to optimize effort and resources in a system that has historically made limited investment in ocean observing. The goal of the community paper will be achieved by bringing together oceanographers, data scientists and marine stakeholders to develop an NZ-OOS that provides best knowledge and tools to the sectors of society that use or are influenced by the ocean

Error Correction of Voicemail Transcripts in SCANMail

Despite its widespread use, voicemail presents numerous usability challenges: People must listen to messages in their entirety, they cannot search by keywords, and audio files do not naturally support visual skimming. SCANMail overcomes these flaws by automatically generating text transcripts of voicemail messages and presenting them in an email-like interface. Transcripts facilitate quick browsing and permanent archive. However, errors from the automatic speech recognition (ASR) hinder the usefulness of the transcripts. The work presented here specifically addresses these problems by evaluating user-initiated error correction of transcripts. User studies of two editor interfaces—a grammar-assisted menu and simple replacement by typing—reveal reduced audio playback times and an emphasis on editing important words with the menu, suggesting its value in mobile environments where limited input capabilities are the norm and user privacy is essential. The study also adds to the scarce body of work on ASR confidence shading, suggesting that shading may be more helpful than previously reported. Author Keywords Voicemail, error correction, speech recognition, edito

Reading, Writing, Relationships: The Impact of Social Network Sites on Relationships and Well-Being

The social web has emerged concurrent with a decline in Americans' community involvement and number of close friendships. Hundreds of millions of people connect online, but they appear to have fewer confidants and trust each other less. However, contrasting research finds that web users have better social integration and stronger relationships than their offline counterparts. This thesis resolves these contradictory views through a detailed examination of social network site (SNS) use and changes in relationships and individual well-being. The research is conducted at multiple levels looking at how different types of SNS use—direct interaction with others and more “passive consumption” of social news—influence the number and quality of individuals’ social ties and their aggregate social capital and well-being, including perceived social support, happiness, and physical health. The studies combine objective measures of SNS use (communication activity from the server logs of a popular social networking site) with self-reports of tie strength and well-being to accurately differentiate types of use with different partners. Longitudinal methods reveal how well-being changes over time with SNS use and are moderated by personal characteristics such as social communication skill and recent job loss.</p