Increased Adenine Nucleotide Degradation in Skeletal Muscle Atrophy

Adenine nucleotides (AdNs: ATP, ADP, AMP) are essential biological compounds that facilitate many necessary cellular processes by providing chemical energy, mediating intracellular signaling, and regulating protein metabolism and solubilization. A dramatic reduction in total AdNs is observed in atrophic skeletal muscle across numerous disease states and conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, heart failure, COPD, sepsis, muscular dystrophy, denervation, disuse, and sarcopenia. The reduced AdNs in atrophic skeletal muscle are accompanied by increased expression/activities of AdN degrading enzymes and the accumulation of degradation products (IMP, hypoxanthine, xanthine, uric acid), suggesting that the lower AdN content is largely the result of increased nucleotide degradation. Furthermore, this characteristic decrease of AdNs suggests that increased nucleotide degradation contributes to the general pathophysiology of skeletal muscle atrophy. In view of the numerous energetic, and non-energetic, roles of AdNs in skeletal muscle, investigations into the physiological consequences of AdN degradation may provide valuable insight into the mechanisms of muscle atrophy

An Evaluation of the Effects of Adult Social Interaction on Infant Vocalizations

The results of previous studies suggest that infant vocalizations may be sensitive to social interaction as a reinforcer (e.g., Poulson, 1983, 1988; Rheingold, Gewirtz, & Ross, 1959). The purpose of Study 1 was to conduct descriptive analyses to examine teacher-infant interactions in three early education settings to determine (a) the prevalence of vocalizations, (b) the temporal contiguity between infant vocalizations and adult social interaction, and (c) the nature of adult social interaction. The purpose of Study 2 was to replicate the results of previous experimental analyses by demonstrating higher levels of vocalizations in a reinforcement condition as compared to levels of vocalizations in an extinction (EXT) condition. Results of Study 1 showed that (a) levels of vocalizations were similar across classrooms, (b) potential neutral contingencies between social interaction and vocalizations existed in two of the three classrooms, and (c) the nature of adult social interaction varied across the classrooms. Results of Study 2 failed to replicate those of previous research in demonstrating consistently higher levels of vocalizations in the reinforcement condition as compared to levels of vocalizations in the EXT condition. The author discusses potential reasons for this failure to replicate, including the possibility of automatically maintained vocalizations. Additional experimental analyses are necessary to further explain the inconsistent results obtained in Study 2

To What Extent Might Beaver Dam Building Buffer Water Storage Losses Associated with a Declining Snowpack?

Dam building activity by North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) alters the timing and delivery of stream water and facilitates groundwater infiltration, overall increasing natural water storage behind and adjacent to dams. At the stream reach scale, increased water storage often alters hydrologic regimes by attenuating annual, and storm-event hydrographs, and increasing base flows. In the montane west, the most important water storage reservoirs are not human-made dams, but mountain snowpack, which slowly releases water through a mix of runoff and infiltration. Given estimates of decreasing snowpack with warming temperatures, beaver dams could provide a conceptually similar function to snowpack by delaying the delivery of precipitation by increasing surface and groundwater storage, thus lengthening residence time as water travels downstream. However, lack of predictive methods for modeling storage increases associated with relatively small magnitude beaver ponds at large spatial scales has precluded further investigation of this hypothesis. I address this knowledge gap by supplementing existing empirical data regarding the height of beaver dams and implement these empirical height distributions to develop the Beaver Dam Surface Water Estimation Algorithm (Chapter 2), a predictive model estimating beaver pond water storage that can be applied spatially at large scales. I then apply this model to estimate potential surface water storage and parameterize a groundwater model to estimate resulting groundwater storage increases for the entire Bear River basin under four different beaver dam capacity scenarios (Chapter 3). Estimated water storage changes from beaver dams are presented in the context of expected reductions in average annual maximum snow water equivalent, and existing and proposed reservoir storage within the basin. While the water storage provided by beaver dams is only a small fraction of expected snow water equivalent loss, it is not insubstantial and may prove beneficial for ecosystems where human-made reservoirs are not available to regulate hydrologic regimes. These results also stress the importance of further research examining how the cumulative effects of dams may affect the timing of runoff under changing precipitation regimes

Forging the Mormon Myth

The work of the forger Mark Hofmann frames many key problems and changes in Mormon historiography. More specifically, it reveals a tension between versions of Mormon history that are propagated in the religion. On one hand, there is a documented and literal history. On the other, a sacred and engaging myth. However, these two cannot coexist harmoniously

The role of assessment in identifying effective teaching interventions

Experimental analyses are designed to identify the variables maintaining responding, the results of which can be used to develop a treatment that directly addresses the function of the behavior. Experimental analyses of acquisition are a means to quickly compare treatment alternatives to identify the conditions that are likely to result in child learning. Assessment conditions are typically designed to identify skill versus performance deficits, and a number of variations in experimental arrangement have been reported. The purposes of the current study were to (a) replicate the results of previous research, specifically those obtained by Lerman et al. (2004), with a younger population with no known diagnoses and (b) compare three experimental designs in terms of efficiency and validity. The methodology designed by Lerman et al. was sufficient to identify an effective intervention for 20 of the 23 tasks that were assessed in Study 1. Results of Study 2 indicated that the brief multielement design was most efficient while the standard reversal was most efficacious. Given these findings, potential modifications to the assessment arrangement to enhance efficiency, while maintaining a high degree of predictive validity, are discussed

Review of \u3ci\u3eWhen Did Indians Become Straight?: Kinship, the History of Sexuality, and Native Sovereignty\u3c/i\u3e by Mark Rifkin

Mark Rifkin\u27s When Did Indians Become Straight? is a thoughtful examination of the complicated landscape that lends itself to answering the question the title poses. Rifkin carefully and methodically scrutinizes the rhetoric of straightness within settler colonialism, highlights the intersection between Indigenous kinship models and conjugal couplehood, and problematizes subsequent nuclear/bourgeois homemaking as the dominant model for family within U.S. borders