Exercise Induces Age-Dependent Neuroplastic Changes in Brain Regions Responsible for Learning Memory and Emotional Behavior

During early-life, the brain experiences a variety of developmental adaptions and undergoes a period of immense neural pruning, making the brain more plastic and susceptible to change from external events. Exercise is one such event that produces a milieu of adaptive changes including improved brain plasticity and function, increases in hippocampal brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and BDNF-mediated enhancements in hippocampal function. Recent work has shown that exercise during early life has can produce long-lasting improvements in brain function that would normally be transient in adulthood. The specific developmental period during which the hippocampus is prone to exercise-induced neuroplastic changes, however, is unknown because previous studies testing the impacts of early life exercise had rats run across multiple developmental stages. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact that exercise has on BDNF if initiated during two different and clearly defined early life developmental periods, the early juvenile period immediately post weaning versus the pubescent period surrounding puberty onset. Hippocampal BDNF mRNA levels were measured following one week of exercise and after 14 days following exercise cessation in juvenile (approx. postnatal day 24), pubescent (approx. postnatal day 40), and in adult rats (approx. postnatal day 7). Exercise produced significant increases in BDNF mRNA compared to sedentary matched counterparts across all ages in the dentate gyrus immediately following one week of exercise. Juvenile rats exhibited a trend towards long-lasting increases in BDNF 14 days after exercise within the dentate gyrus and the CA3. Thus, exercise produced trends toward enduring increases in BDNF when initiated before puberty. These data suggest that the juvenile brain may have the greatest propensity for long term increases in BDNF following exercise

The Greater Sum of Collaboration: Adding Value to Mathematics Education Through Teamwork

The role of a Mathematics Specialist can vary from pre-K through grade 8 schools. One of the most distinguishing factors involves the relationship between the Mathematics Specialists, administrators, and teachers. In this article, we share our experiences in a school culture that supports common language, collective commitments, trust, and transparency. Using this model, we have experienced high levels of teacher professionalism and student success. As lifelong learners, we continually reflect upon our practices and look for ways to meet the needs of our students. This occurs by implementing purposeful meeting structures that allow us to facilitate discussions around mathematics content, lesson planning, assessment results, and student progress. Administrators Brian Butler and Diane Kerr, along with Mathematics Specialists Tracey Hulen and Jennifer Deinhart, have formed a powerful relationship at Mason Crest Elementary School. This is a Title I school with 560 students, pre-K through grade 5, which promotes reflective practices and allows for flexibility and creativity as we continue to strengthen and improve our practices. Together, we share a story of our collaborative journey with teachers and students to create an effective mathematics program that embraces a conceptual learning philosophy. Ultimately there are two kinds of schools: learning-enriched schools and learning impoverished schools. I have yet to see a school where the learning curves ... of the adults were steeped upward and those of the students were not. Teachers and students go hand in hand as learners ... or they don\u27t go at all. [1] Roland Barth, Hand in Hand, We All Lear

Opacification of the Cornea Following Cataract Extraction.

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Toward a digital library strategy for a National Information Infrastructure

Bills currently before the House and Senate would give support to the development of a National Information Infrastructure, in which digital libraries and storage systems would be an important part. A simple model is offered to show the relationship of storage systems, software, and standards to the overall information infrastructure. Some elements of a national strategy for digital libraries are proposed, based on the mission of the nonprofit National Storage System Foundation

Songs, Storytellers, and Science: An Examination of Long-Distance Interaction in the Cook Islands

It is widely accepted in Polynesian archaeology that contact between island groups persisted after first peopling but declined over time. However, there is not a clear sense of how the dynamics and directionality of interaction change over time. Archaeological discussions of interaction in the Cook Islands often focus on quantitative materialist data. While this is certainly valuable and critical to archaeology as a scientific discipline, I see this discussion as an opportunity to incorporate more fully more qualitative or ontologically driven data from other fields of anthropology. I intend to explore the geography, chronology, and ontology of long-distance interaction between the Cook Islands and the rest of Polynesia through materialist and ontological perspectives. One of the key factors in discussing interaction between these island groups is to examine anthropological, ethnohistoric, and oral accounts of past interactions. Incorporating the social dynamics of trade and interaction through anthropological records may provide some unique perspectives that may not be apparent in materialist data. I will use these sources to provide context and discussion about an emic understanding of interaction over space in tandem with documented material evidence that serve as proxies for these ancient interactions. The synthesis of archaeological models and traditional understanding of voyaging over space and time is the ultimate focus of this thesis. As such, the anthropologic, archaeological, and predictive sides will each provide a narrative that may contradict narratives from other perspectives. However, this should not be understood as an attempt to test the truthfulness of oral traditions with archaeological evidence but rather an examination of the interaction between these different spheres providing an aggregate narrative