Impact of Food Assistance Programs on Food Insecurity, Diet Quality and Obesity

Food insecurity and participation in food assistance programs may place families at risk for obesity. Secondary data analyses of the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) was conducted. Logistic regression analysis results indicated marginal food security was associated with obesity among SNAP (OR = 1.28) and NON-SNAP participants (OR = 1.54). Full food security was associated with obesity among NON-SNAP participants (OR = 1.65). Among both groups, the greater the diet quality the greater the odds of obesity. Policies and programs to improve the nutritional impact of SNAP and targeted interventions to address food security in low-income adults should be implemented. Recommended Citation Hill, J. E. (2020, October 1-2). Impact of food assistance programs on food insecurity, diet quality, and obesity [Poster presentation]. Walden University Research Conference 2020 (online). https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/researchconference/2020/posters/2

Facilitating a “Last Class Workshop” – A tool for course evaluation and evolution

Recognizing that the last session of class at the end of term is often not very materially productive, we searched for a way to make this last class meaningful and functional. In this presentation, we describe our implementation of and research surrounding a workshop oriented towards obtaining real-time course evaluations, and driving course evolution (Bleicher, 2011). During this session we will describe models of the “Last Class Workshop” for in-person learning as well as both synchronous and asynchronous online learning environments, alongside data speaking to its success in these environments (Styles & Polvi 2022). We will describe the preparative work required of students and instructors. The success of the “Last Class Workshop” depends on the openness of the facilitator to accepting feedback of all types, and on the active engagement and deliberate self-reflection of students (Bovill et al., 2011, Pintrich, 2004), and much of the preparation before the session is oriented towards appropriately framing it for success in these areas. We’ll invite the audience to participate in a mock mini-workshop to illustrate the dynamics and utility of this tool. Fundamentally, the “Last Class Workshop” is built on the idea that the students themselves are the best source of constructive critique, innovative adaptations, and meaningful updates in a course. It is not difficult to implement, has a noticeable impact on participants, and can provide transformative feedback. This research was approved by the University of Toronto Research Ethics Board Protocol #42582 and #40718

Bridging Opportunities in Human Health Services

The Campus to Community project aims to develop facilitated, in-depth site visits for VCU faculty and staff interested in exploring human health services opportunities in the Richmond community. The site visit experience will provide exposure to various community organizations specializing in human health, essentially creating a “bridge” between VCU’s campus and these facilities. This initiative is intended to motivate employees to action within the Richmond community by enabling them to observe first-hand the services that these organizations provide, learn more about the organizations’ missions, and engage in meaningful interactions with representatives on site. Likewise, it will allow Richmond community organizations to discuss unique needs and opportunities for partnerships with VCU

CLIMATIC VARIABILITY AND CROP PRICE TRENDS IN WEST TENNESSEE: A BIVARIATE GRANGER CAUSALITY ANALYSIS

Weather aberrations like drought and extremely high temperatures have been associated with adverse impacts on crop yields particularly in agricultural production areas that extensively rely on rainfall. Extremely dry weather accompanied with low or negligible precipitation often leads to crop failure, resulting in decline of supplies and increasing crop prices. Among the recent climatic events of importance, U.S agriculture as a whole experienced one of its worst droughts in mid-year 2012 over a three decade horizon. The 2012 drought had serious implications particularly in the major production areas of Midwest and Southeast U.S damaging vast portions of field crops like corn and soybeans subsequently leading to increase in farm prices. The objective of this study is to conduct a bivariate granger causality analysis for climatic indicators causing soybean price changes over a study period from 1975-2013. The results indicate that a significant causality was detected for precipitation impacting commodity price movements for soybeans. No significant evidence was obtained for the presence of Granger causality between temperature related indicators (maximum, minimum, and average) and soybeans prices. The outcome of this study provides an initial insight into the causality between climatic indicators and commodity price movements for soybeans in the study region, and emphasizes the existence of causality for commodity prices by precipitation changes as compared to changes in temperature, especially in the absence of irrigation based production in the region

The Status of Women Leaders in Utah Higher Education: A 2021 Update

In 2014, the Utah Women & Leadership Project (UWLP) released a research and policy brief titled, “The Status of Women Leaders in Utah Education,” and in 2017 an update brief was published. These reports focused on the status of women’s leadership in both K–12 and postsecondary education across the state of Utah. This brief provides an update for 2021, focused only on the higher education portion of the previous briefs. The purpose of this brief is to determine what, if any, progress has been made in women’s leadership within Utah’s higher education sector, including public and the two largest private institutions, as well as technical colleges, which were combined with the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) in July 2020 to form the Utah Board of Higher Education (UBHE). This brief compares Utah data with national data and reviews the applicable literature. Comparisons will also be drawn by looking at Utah’s data from 2014, 2017, and 2021

CLIMATIC VARIABILITY AND CROP PRICE TRENDS IN WEST TENNESSEE: A BIVARIATE GRANGER CAUSALITY ANALYSIS

Weather aberrations like drought and extremely high temperatures have been associated with adverse impacts on crop yields particularly in agricultural production areas that extensively rely on rainfall. Extremely dry weather accompanied with low or negligible precipitation often leads to crop failure, resulting in decline of supplies and increasing crop prices. Among the recent climatic events of importance, U.S agriculture as a whole experienced one of its worst droughts in mid-year 2012 over a three decade horizon. The 2012 drought had serious implications particularly in the major production areas of Midwest and Southeast U.S damaging vast portions of field crops like corn and soybeans subsequently leading to increase in farm prices. The objective of this study is to conduct a bivariate granger causality analysis for climatic indicators causing soybean price changes over a study period from 1975-2013. The results indicate that a significant causality was detected for precipitation impacting commodity price movements for soybeans. No significant evidence was obtained for the presence of Granger causality between temperature related indicators (maximum, minimum, and average) and soybeans prices. The outcome of this study provides an initial insight into the causality between climatic indicators and commodity price movements for soybeans in the study region, and emphasizes the existence of causality for commodity prices by precipitation changes as compared to changes in temperature, especially in the absence of irrigation based production in the region

Effects of a Severe Cold Event on the Subtropical, Estuarine-Dependent Common Snook, Centropomus undecimalis

The effects of infrequent disturbance events on marine fishes are often difficult to determine, due largely to lack of sufficient pre- and post-disturbance event data. In January 2010, subtropical southwestern Florida (USA) experienced extreme cold for 13 days, which caused extensive mortality of many fish species. The effect of this severe cold event on common snook (Centropomus undecimalis), an economically important gamefish, was assessed using three years (2007-2009) of pre-event and one year (2010) of post-event data from a tag-recapture program conducted over 28 km of Gulf of Mexico barrier islands of Florida. All metrics pointed to a significant effect of the severe cold event: post-disturbance apparent survival of marked fish was 96-97% lower than pre-disturbance, and post-disturbance common snook abundance was 75.57% and 41.88% less than in 2008 and 2009, the two years immediately pre-event. Although severe cold events have impacted subtropical Florida in the past, these events are infrequent (the previous recorded event was \u3e30 years prior), and documentation of the impacts on common snook have not previously been published

cAMP Response Element-Binding Protein Deficiency Allows for Increased Neurogenesis and a Rapid Onset of Antidepressant Response

cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) has been implicated in the molecular and cellular mechanisms of chronic antidepressant (AD) treatment, although its role in the behavioral response is unclear. CREB-deficient (CREBαΔ mutant) mice demonstrate an antidepressant phenotype in the tail suspension test (TST) and forced-swim test. Here, we show that, at baseline, CREBαΔ mutant mice exhibited increased hippocampal cell proliferation and neurogenesis compared with wild-type (WT) controls, effects similar to those observed in WT mice after chronic desipramine (DMI) administration. Neurogenesis was not further augmented by chronic DMI treatment in CREBαΔ mutant mice. Serotonin depletion decreased neurogenesis in CREBαΔ mutant mice toWTlevels, which correlated with a reversal of the antidepressant phenotype in the TST. This effect was specific for the reversal of the antidepressant phenotype in these mice, because serotonin depletion did not alter a baseline anxiety-like behavior in CREB mutant mice. The response to chronic AD treatment in the novelty-induced hypophagia (NIH) test may rely on neurogenesis. Therefore, we used this paradigm to evaluate chronic AD treatment in CREB mutant mice to determine whether the increased neurogenesis in these mice alters their response in the NIH paradigm. Whereas both WT and CREBαΔ mutant mice responded to chronic AD treatment in the NIH paradigm, only CREBαΔ mutant mice responded to acute AD treatment. However, in the elevated zero maze, DMI did not reverse anxiety behavior in mutant mice. Together, these data show that increased hippocampal neurogenesis allows for an antidepressant phenotype as well as a rapid onset of behavioral responses to AD treatment

Vascular Health in American Football Players: Cardiovascular Risk Increased in Division III Players

Studies report that football players have high blood pressure (BP) and increased cardiovascular risk. There are over 70,000 NCAA football players and 450 Division III schools sponsor football programs, yet limited research exists on vascular health of athletes. This study aimed to compare vascular and cardiovascular health measures between football players and nonathlete controls. Twenty-three athletes and 19 nonathletes participated. Vascular health measures included flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT). Cardiovascular measures included clinic and 24 hr BP levels, body composition, VO2 max, and fasting glucose/cholesterol levels. Compared to controls, football players had a worse vascular and cardiovascular profile. Football players had thicker carotid artery IMT (0.49 ± 0.06 mm versus 0.46 ± 0.07 mm) and larger brachial artery diameter during FMD (4.3 ± 0.5 mm versus 3.7 ± 0.6 mm), but no difference in percent FMD. Systolic BP was significantly higher in football players at all measurements: resting (128.2 ± 6.4 mmHg versus 122.4 ± 6.8 mmHg), submaximal exercise (150.4 ± 18.8 mmHg versus 137.3 ± 9.5 mmHg), maximal exercise (211.3 ± 25.9 mmHg versus 191.4 ± 19.2 mmHg), and 24-hour BP (124.9 ± 6.3 mmHg versus 109.8 ± 3.7 mmHg). Football players also had higher fasting glucose (91.6 ± 6.5 mg/dL versus 86.6 ± 5.8 mg/dL), lower HDL (36.5±11.2 mg/dL versus 47.1±14.8 mg/dL), and higher body fat percentage (29.2±7.9% versus 23.2±7.0%). Division III collegiate football players remain an understudied population and may be at increased cardiovascular risk