The Hip in Hip Hop: Toward a Discipline of Hip Hop Studies

Editorial

Neighborhood Typology and Cardiometabolic Pregnancy Outcomes in the Maternal Adiposity Metabolism and Stress Study.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess associations between neighborhood typologies classified across multiple neighborhood domains and cardiometabolic pregnancy outcomes and determine variation in effectiveness of a mindfulness-based stress-reduction intervention on outcomes across neighborhood types.MethodsNeighborhoods of participants in the Maternal Adiposity Metabolism and Stress (MAMAS) intervention (n = 208) were classified across dimensions of socioeconomic, food, safety, and service/resource environments using latent class analysis. The study estimated associations between neighborhood type and three cardiometabolic pregnancy outcomes-glucose tolerance (GT) during pregnancy, excessive gestational weight gain, and 6-month postpartum weight retention (PPWR)-using marginal regression models. Interaction between neighborhood type and intervention was assessed.ResultsFive neighborhood types differing across socioeconomic, food, and resource environments were identified. Compared with poor, well-resourced neighborhoods, middle-income neighborhoods with low resources had higher risk of impaired GT (relative risk [RR]: 4.1; 95% confidence Interval [CI]: 1.1, 15.5), and wealthy, well-resourced neighborhoods had higher PPWR (beta: 3.9 kg; 95% CI: 0.3, 7.5). Intervention effectiveness varied across neighborhood type with wealthy, well-resourced and poor, moderately resourced neighborhoods showing improvements in GT scores. PPWR was higher in intervention compared with control groups within wealthy, well-resourced neighborhoods.ConclusionsConsideration of multidimensional neighborhood typologies revealed important nuances in intervention effectiveness on cardiometabolic pregnancy outcomes

Recruitment and retention of pregnant women for a behavioral intervention: lessons from the maternal adiposity, metabolism, and stress (MAMAS) study.

IntroductionRecruiting participants for research studies can be challenging. Many studies fall short of their target or must prolong recruitment to reach it. We examined recruitment and retention strategies and report lessons learned in a behavioral intervention developmental trial to encourage healthy pregnancy weight gain and stress reduction in low-income overweight pregnant women.MethodsIn the San Francisco Bay area from February 2010 through March 2011, we used direct and indirect strategies to recruit English-speaking overweight and obese pregnant women who were aged 18 to 45, were in the early stages of pregnancy, and who had an annual household income less than 500% of the federal poverty guidelines. Eligible women who consented participated in focus groups or an 8-week behavioral intervention. We identified successful recruiting strategies and sites and calculated the percentage of women who were enrolled and retained.ResultsOf 127 women screened for focus group participation, 69 were eligible and enrolled. A total of 57 women participated in 9 focus groups and 3 women completed individual interviews for a completion rate of 87%. During recruitment for the intervention, we made contact with 204 women; 135 were screened, 33% were eligible, and 69.1% of eligible women enrolled. At 1 month postpartum, 82.6% of eligible women completed an assessment. Recruiting at hospital-based prenatal clinics was the highest-yielding strategy.ConclusionThe narrow window of eligibility for enrolling early stage pregnant women in a group intervention presents obstacles. In-person recruitment was the most successful strategy; establishing close relationships with providers, clinic staff, social service providers, and study participants was essential to successful recruitment and retention

Sixteen years of Collaborative Learning through Active Sense-making in Physics (CLASP) at UC Davis

This paper describes our large reformed introductory physics course at UC Davis, which bioscience students have been taking since 1996. The central feature of this course is a focus on sense-making by the students during the five hours per week discussion/labs in which the students take part in activities emphasizing peer-peer discussions, argumentation, and presentations of ideas. The course differs in many fundamental ways from traditionally taught introductory physics courses. After discussing the unique features of CLASP and its implementation at UC Davis, various student outcome measures are presented showing increased performance by students who took the CLASP course compared to students who took a traditionally taught introductory physics course. Measures we use include upper-division GPAs, MCAT scores, FCI gains, and MPEX-II scores.Comment: Also submitted to American Journal of Physic

The Development of Day-night Differences in Sleep and Wakefulness in Norway Rats and the Effect of Bilateral Enucleation

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) exhibits circadian rhythmicity in fetal and infant rats, but little is known about the consequences of this rhythmicity for infant behavior. Here, in Experiment 1, we measured sleep and wakefulness in rats during the day and night in postnatal day (P)2, P8, P15 and P21 subjects. As early as P2, day-night differences in sleep-wake activity were detected. Nocturnal wakefulness began to emerge around P15 and was reliably expressed by P21. We hypothesized that the process of photic entrainment over the first postnatal week, which depends upon the development of connectivity between the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT) and the SCN, influences the later emergence of nocturnal wakefulness. To test this hypothesis, in Experiment 2 infant rats were enucleated bilaterally at P3 and P11, that is, before and after photic entrainment. Whereas pups enucleated at P11 and tested at P21 exhibited increased wakefulness at night, identical to sham controls, pups enucleated at P3 and tested at P21 exhibited the opposite pattern of increased wakefulness during the day. Pups tested at P28 and P35 exhibited this same pattern of increased daytime wakefulness. All together, these results suggest that prenatal and postnatal experience modulates the development of species-typical circadian sleep-wake patterns. Moreover, we suggest that visual system stimulation, via the RHT’s connections with the SCN, exerts an organizational influence on the developing circadian system and, consequently, contributes to the emergence of nocturnality in this species

Development of Twitching in Sleeping Infant Mice Depends on Sensory Experience

SummaryMyoclonic twitches are jerky movements that occur exclusively and abundantly during active (or REM) sleep in mammals, especially in early development [1–4]. In rat pups, limb twitches exhibit a complex spatiotemporal structure that changes across early development [5]. However, it is not known whether this developmental change is influenced by sensory experience, which is a prerequisite to the notion that sensory feedback from twitches not only activates sensorimotor circuits but modifies them [4]. Here, we investigated the contributions of proprioception to twitching in newborn ErbB2 conditional knockout mice that lack muscle spindles and grow up to exhibit dysfunctional proprioception [6–8]. High-speed videography of forelimb twitches unexpectedly revealed a category of reflex-like twitching—comprising an agonist twitch followed immediately by an antagonist twitch—that developed postnatally in wild-types/heterozygotes, but not in knockouts. Contrary to evidence from adults that spinal reflexes are inhibited during twitching [9–11], this finding suggests that twitches trigger the monosynaptic stretch reflex and, by doing so, contribute to its activity-dependent development [12–14]. Next, we assessed developmental changes in the frequency and organization (i.e., entropy) of more-complex, multi-joint patterns of twitching; again, wild-types/heterozygotes exhibited developmental changes in twitch patterning that were not seen in knockouts. Thus, targeted deletion of a peripheral sensor alters the normal development of local and global features of twitching, demonstrating that twitching is shaped by sensory experience. These results also highlight the potential use of twitching as a uniquely informative diagnostic tool for assessing the functional status of spinal and supraspinal circuits

Feasibility of Using a Commercial Fitness Tracker as an Adjunct to Family-Based Weight Management Treatment: Pilot Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND: Fitness trackers can engage users through automated self-monitoring of physical activity. Studies evaluating the utility of fitness trackers are limited among adolescents, who are often difficult to engage in weight management treatment and are heavy technology users. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a pilot randomized trial to describe the impact of providing adolescents and caregivers with fitness trackers as an adjunct to treatment in a tertiary care weight management clinic on adolescent fitness tracker satisfaction, fitness tracker utilization patterns, and physical activity levels. METHODS: Adolescents were randomized to 1 of 2 groups (adolescent or dyad) at their initial weight management clinic visit. Adolescents received a fitness tracker and counseling around activity data in addition to standard treatment. A caregiver of adolescents in the dyad group also received a fitness tracker. Satisfaction with the fitness tracker, fitness tracker utilization patterns, and physical activity patterns were evaluated over 3 months. RESULTS: A total of 88 adolescents were enrolled, with 69% (61/88) being female, 36% (32/88) black, 23% (20/88) Hispanic, and 63% (55/88) with severe obesity. Most adolescents reported that the fitness tracker was helping them meet their healthy lifestyle goals (69%) and be more motivated to achieve a healthy weight (66%). Despite this, 68% discontinued use of the fitness tracker by the end of the study. There were no significant differences between the adolescent and the dyad group in outcomes, but adolescents in the dyad group were 12.2 times more likely to discontinue using their fitness tracker if their caregiver also discontinued use of their fitness tracker (95% CI 2.4-61.6). Compared with adolescents who discontinued use of the fitness tracker during the study, adolescents who continued to use the fitness tracker recorded a higher number of daily steps in months 2 and 3 of the study (mean 5760 vs 4148 in month 2, P=.005, and mean 5942 vs 3487 in month 3, P=.002). CONCLUSIONS: Despite high levels of satisfaction with the fitness trackers, fitness tracker discontinuation rates were high, especially among adolescents whose caregivers also discontinued use of their fitness tracker. More studies are needed to determine how to sustain the use of fitness trackers among adolescents with obesity and engage caregivers in adolescent weight management interventions