Cereal FACTS: Evaluating the Nutrition Quality and Marketing of Children's Cereals

Evaluates cereal companies' marketing practices in 2008-09, immediately before and after full implementation of their pledges to reduce unhealthy marketing to children. Ranks brands with combined scores for nutrition quality and marketing exposure

Does settlement plate material matter? The influence of substrate type on fouling community development

Benthic community composition and ascidian abundance can differ dramatically between adjacent man-made and natural substrates. Although multiple factors, including light exposure, surface orientation, predation exposure, and habitat type, are known to contribute to these patterns, few studies have directly tested the influence of substrate identity on community development. We compared fouling communities on settlement plates composed of commonly occurring natural (granite) and artificial (concrete, high density polyethylene, and PVC) marine materials deployed from late May to mid November 2014 from a floating dock in Newcastle, NH. We sought to determine if observed patterns resulted from differential recruitment onto substrate materials or post-settlement survival and growth. To do this, half of the plates were cleaned during bi-weekly examinations, and half were left un-cleaned. Preliminary analyses indicate that community composition differs between substrate types. These results will help us understand how substrate features contribute to non-native species establishment and habitat dominance, and may inform decisions regarding material usage in marine construction. These findings also underline the importance of settlement substrate choice in scientific studies, as plate material may influence experimental conclusions

Diversity in Mental Health Among Generations in the LGBTQI Community

This study captured the various mental health impacts among youth, younger adults, and older adults in the LGBTQI community. The LGBTQI community embodies a diverse set of subgroups that includes youth, younger adults, and older adults. Many in the LGBTQI community face prejudice, discrimination, harassment, and even rejection from family members. Youth and younger adults in LGBTQI communities are often victims of school violence, as well as intimate partner violence, and typically show signs of psychosocial adjustment disorder and psychological distress. LGBTQI older adults, although have a high incidence of social isolation and depression, are shown to be more resilient over psychological stressors compared to LGBTQI youth and younger adults. Recommended Citation Stone, J. L., & Harris, T. S. (2020, October 1-2). Diversity in mental health among generations in the LGBTQI community [Poster presentation]. Walden University Research Conference 2020 (online). https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/researchconference/2020/posters/20

Patient perceptions in receiving LGBTQIA culturally competent health care

Background: There is a large amount of documented evidence demonstrating that health care providers are caring for diverse populations. This warrants a level of cultural competence (CC) when making health care decisions. Traditionally, Race and ethnicity have been the focus in CC. However, criteria such as sexual orientation and gender identity are often forgotten, or left out altogether. Because of this, patients whose sexual orientation or gender is a minority, may often receive inadequate treatment. This is in part due to the health care providers lack knowledge in this type of CC or present sexual prejudices. Because of this, research is needed to investigate the perceptions of patients that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, ally (LGBTQIA) when receiving health care.Methods: Cross-sectional design consisting of 140 participants (male=78, female=50, transgender=5, other=7; heterosexual=16, gay/lesbian=72, bisexual=43, other=9, mean age=26.97 ± 7.67). Participants were recruited using a snowball sampling method via email and list-serves. A modified version of the Gay Affirmative Practice (GAP) (reliability a = 0.962), was delivered online to participants to determine need of LGBTQIA cultural competent treatment by health care providers. Means and standard deviations were calculated for each variable (gender, sexual orientation), as well as an overall GAP score (out of 150). Two, single one-way ANOVAs (gender and sexual orientation) were performed with GAP score as the dependent variable.Results: Calculated GAP scores: All=128.82 ± 18.48, male=128.49 ± 15.60, female=130.35 ± 17.10, transgender=129.80 ± 9.31, other=143. 57, heterosexual=129.33 ± 17.12, gay or lesbian=128.25 ± 15.85, bisexual/omni/pansexual/queer/non-monosexual=132.79 ± 14.99, other=131.38 ± 20.37. ANOVA results were modified with Kruskal-Wallis adjustments due to violation of normality and homogeneity of variance, and now are represented by Chi Squares. Gender was the single significant outcome, (X2(3) =8.01, p <0.05). Post hoc testing of gender demonstrated statistical significant in comparing males vs. other.Conclusions: Patients do find it necessary for health care providers to have specific training and/or knowledge in LGBTQIA CC. A majority of results demonstrate strongly agree that health care providers need better CC in LGBTQIA. In comparison of GAP scores in gender, the category of other demonstrates a great need for CC in LGBTQIA in health care providers. Males demonstrated a much lower score, indicating a low priority for LGBTQIA CC in health care. With an increasing LGBTQIA patient population, patients feel the ever increasing need for health care providers to provide knowledgeable, competent, and fair treatment/care

Bioelectric-calcineurin signaling module regulates allometric growth and size of the zebrafish fin

AbstractThe establishment of relative size of organs and structures is paramount for attaining final form and function of an organism. Importantly, variation in the proportions of structures frequently underlies adaptive change in morphology in evolution and maybe a common mechanism underlying selection. However, the mechanism by which growth is integrated within tissues during development to achieve proper proportionality is poorly understood. We have shown that signaling by potassium channels mediates coordinated size regulation in zebrafish fins. Recently, calcineurin inhibitors were shown to elicit changes in zebrafish fin allometry as well. Here, we identify the potassium channelkcnk5bas a key player in integrating calcineurin’s growth effects, in part through regulation of the cytoplasmic C-terminus of the channel. We propose that the interaction between Kcnk5b and calcineurin acts as a signaling node to regulate allometric growth. Importantly, we find that this regulation is epistatic to inherent mechanisms instructing overall size as inhibition of calcineurin is able to bypass genetic instruction of size as seen insofand wild-type fins, however, it is not sufficient to re-specify positional memory of size of the fin. These findings integrate classic signaling mediators such as calcineurin with ion channel function in the regulation of size and proportion during growth.</jats:p

Exposure to Food Advertising On Television: Associations With Children’s Fast Food and Soft Drink Consumption and Obesity

There is insufficient research on the direct effects of food advertising on children's diet and diet-related health, particularly in non-experimental settings. We employ a nationally-representative sample from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey–Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) and the Nielsen Company data on spot television advertising of cereals, fast food restaurants and soft drinks to children across the top 55 designated-market areas to estimate the relation between exposure to food advertising on television and children's food consumption and body weight. Our results suggest that soft drink and fast food television advertising is associated with increased consumption of soft drinks and fast food among elementary school children (Grade 5). Exposure to 100 incremental TV ads for sugar-sweetened carbonated soft drinks during 2002-2004 was associated with a 9.4% rise in children's consumption of soft drinks in 2004. The same increase in exposure to fast food advertising was associated with a 1.1% rise in children's consumption of fast food. There was no detectable link between advertising exposure and average body weight, but fast food advertising was significantly associated with body mass index for overweight and obese children (>=85th BMI percentile), revealing detectable effects for a vulnerable group of children. Exposure to advertising for calorie-dense nutrient-poor foods may increase overall consumption of unhealthy food categories.