Feelings of Belonging: An Exploratory Analysis of the Sociopolitical Involvement of Black, Latina, and Asian/Pacific Islander Sexual Minority Women

This article compares and contrasts the sociopolitical involvement of Black, Latina, and Asian/Pacific Islander American sexual minority women within lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities of color. For the analysis, a sample of over 1,200 women from the Social Justice Sexuality project was analyzed. Findings indicate that, for all groups of women, feelings of connectedness to the LGBT community was the most significant predictor of sociopolitical involvement within LGBT communities of color

Effects of the private-label invasion in food industries

Using supermarket scanner data, we test a variety of hypotheses from trade journals about the invasion of private-label food products. According to conventional industry wisdom, name-brand firms defended their brands against new private-label products by lowering their prices, engaging in additional promotional activities, and increasingly differentiating their products. Our empirical evidence is inconsistent with these beliefs.private label; entry; price; promotional activity; differentiation; supermarket

Characterization of Flake Orientation in Flakeboard By The Von Mises Probability Distribution Function

The orientation of flakes in thin experimental wood composite boards was characterized by the von Mises distribution function. An in situ measuring procedure was developed for acquiring wood flake grain angle data within the board. Parameters characterizing the extent of orientation for a variety of boards with prespecified degrees of alignment were verified using the measurement procedure

Transporting Isowean Pigs—Part I: Responses to Potential Intransit Nutritional Conditions

The goal of this research effort was to explore the feasibility and protocols to transport isowean pigs long distance. This study was the first part of the effort that examined the nutritional aspects of such a practice. Isowean pigs of PIC genetics (8 to 12 days old, weighing 8 to 9 lb) were subjected to four post-weaning nutrition regimens that lasted for a simulated transportation duration of 72 h at a constant thermoneutral condition. The four nutrition regimens tested ranged from supply of feed and water supplement to absence of both feed and water. Pigs deprived of feed and water had a greater weight loss than the fed pigs or pigs supplied with water only (17 vs. 11% of initial body weight,

Thirty shades of offensiveness: L1 and LX English users’ understanding, perception and self-reported use of negative emotion-laden words

Previous research on multilinguals’ emotion-laden words has shown that these have more emotional weight in the first language(s) than in languages acquired later in life (Dewaele, 2013). The present study investigates this further with a list of 30 emotion-laden words extracted from the British National Corpus that range in emotional valence from mildly negative to extremely negative. An analysis of data collected via an online questionnaire from 1159 native English (L1) users and 1165 English foreign language (LX) users revealed, surprisingly, that LX users overestimated the offensiveness of most words, with the exception of the most offensive one in the list. It is suggested that when coming across these words in a classroom, learners are warned about them and they attach a red flag to them reminding them of their power. As a result they generally overestimate the power they fail to perceive accurately themselves. LX users were significantly less sure about the exact meaning of most words compared to the L1 users and reported more frequent use of relatively less offensive words while the L1 users reported higher use of more taboo words. Variation among LX users was linked to having (or not) lived in English-speaking environments, to context of acquisition and to self-perceived level of proficiency in English LX

Positively Correlated miRNA-miRNA Regulatory Networks in Mouse Frontal Cortex During Early Stages of Alcohol Dependence

Although the study of gene regulation via the action of specific microRNAs (miRNAs) has experienced a boom in recent years, the analysis of genome-wide interaction networks among miRNAs and respective targeted mRNAs has lagged behind. MicroRNAs simultaneously target many transcripts and fine-tune the expression of genes through cooperative/combinatorial targeting. Therefore, they have a large regulatory potential that could widely impact development and progression of diseases, as well as contribute unpredicted collateral effects due to their natural, pathophysiological, or treatment-induced modulation. We support the viewpoint that whole mirnome-transcriptome interaction analysis is required to better understand the mechanisms and potential consequences of miRNA regulation and/or deregulation in relevant biological models. In this study, we tested the hypotheses that ethanol consumption induces changes in miRNA-mRNA interaction networks in the mouse frontal cortex and that some of the changes observed in the mouse are equivalent to changes in similar brain regions from human alcoholics. Results: miRNA-mRNA interaction networks responding to ethanol insult were identified by differential expression analysis and weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA). Important pathways (coexpressed modular networks detected by WGCNA) and hub genes central to the neuronal response to ethanol are highlighted, as well as key miRNAs that regulate these processes and therefore represent potential therapeutic targets for treating alcohol addiction. Importantly, we discovered a conserved signature of changing miRNAs between ethanol-treated mice and human alcoholics, which provides a valuable tool for future biomarker/diagnostic studies in humans. We report positively correlated miRNA-mRNA expression networks that suggest an adaptive, targeted miRNA response due to binge ethanol drinking. Conclusions: This study provides new evidence for the role of miRNA regulation in brain homeostasis and sheds new light on current understanding of the development of alcohol dependence. To our knowledge this is the first report that activated expression of miRNAs correlates with activated expression of mRNAs rather than with mRNA downregulation in an in vivo model. We speculate that early activation of miRNAs designed to limit the effects of alcohol-induced genes may be an essential adaptive response during disease progression.NIAAA 5R01AA012404, 5P20AA017838, 5U01AA013520, P01AA020683, 5T32AA007471-24/25Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Researc

Effects of Fluctuating Temperatures on Isowean Pigs

This study quantifies responses of isowean pigs (10 to 12 days of age, PIC breed) to potential in-transit temperature fluctuations for 54 h, followed by a 14-day growth period under thermoneutrality. The 54-h temperature regimens included a constant air temperature of 26.7°C (as control) and three cyclic air temperatures of 26.7 ± 2.8°C, 26.7 ± 5.6°C and 26.7 ± 8.3°C, all using woodshavings bedding atop rigid board insulation. The pigs received an average dosage of 0.91 kg/pig water replacement supply during the 54-h treatment period, and ad-libitum feeding and watering during the growth period. Pigs in all three treatments and the control had similar growth performance, physiological, and energetic responses during both treatment and growth periods. At the end of the treatment period, the pigs had elevated concentrations of hematocrit, plasma protein, blood urea nitrogen, sodium and chloride, but declined concentration of glucose (P \u3c 0.05). Potassium and bicarbonate levels remained relatively constant (P \u3e 0.05). Concentrations of the blood constituents returned to normal during the growth period. The results suggest that the isowean pigs respond well to air temperature fluctuations of up to ±8.3°C around the thermoneutral condition of 26.7°C air temperature coupled with woodshavings bedding

Effect of an Extraneous Auditory Stimulus on Ongoing Exploratory Behavior

Psycholog

The role of Rap1 in Drosophila morphogenesis

Without proper apicobasal polarity, epithelial cells cannot properly assemble into various tissues or change cell shape in a coordinated fashion to allow for proper development. Loss of polarity in Drosophila embryonic development leads to defects in cell-cell adhesion as adhesion complexes are no longer proper localized, disrupting coordination of the actin cytoskeletons between the cells that make up a tissue. As a result, tissues quickly become disorganized, appearing multilayered. Here, we show that loss of the small GTPase Rap1 causes defects in apical constriction during Drosophila gastrulation, leading to a failure to properly invaginate the mesoderm. This suggested that Rap1 modulates connection of adherens junctions to the actin cytoskeleton. As a result, we broadened our initial studies to learn the role of Rap1 in regulating the actin cytoskeleton and polarity during morphogenesis. In embryos lacking maternal and zygotic Rap1, we observed early defects in the localization of the apical polarity proteins, Baz and aPKC. Additionally, Rap1 mutants exhibit defects in apical tension as the sizes of cell apices in mutants wildly vary from cell to cell. Further exploration of these initial results suggests that Rap1 performs a critical role in the regulation of the establishment and elaboration of apical polarity during early Drosophila embryogenesis.Doctor of Philosoph