Interhemispheric Communication and Lateralization in the Mouse Hippocampus

The hippocampus is essential for memory and spatial navigation. Many theories have been proposed to explain how the hippocampus contributes to cognition; however, none has fully explained relevant neurophysiological and behavioral data. Hemispheric lateralization of hippocampal function has been reported in humans and in rodents, and lateralization of hippocampal neural circuitry has been reported in rodents. Most theories of hippocampal function fail to consider the hippocampus as a bilateral structure with hemispheric differences. Further, proposed theories of hippocampal lateralization have their own limitations in explaining empirical data concerning left/right function. Little is known about communication between the hippocampi across hemispheres. In addition, the information that we do have about hippocampal lateralization has been acquired in examination of CA3 or CA1, while less is known about the dentate gyrus. Here, my goal is to further our understanding of the hippocampus as a bilateral structure via novel theoretical and empirical contributions. In this dissertation, I will argue for a new model of bilateral hippocampal function, demonstrate a function of interhemispheric communication across hemispheres, and show that lateralization extends to the dentate gyrus. I will: formulate a model of left/right hippocampal function in Chapter 1; characterize lateralization in hippocampus-dependent learning and memory in Chapter 2; examine activity-dependent gene expression in the dentate gyrus across hemispheres in Chapter 3; and quantify adult neurogenesis in the left and right dentate gyrus in relation to experience in Chapter 4. The data collected in Chapters 2-4 are not tests of the model presented in Chapter 1. Rather, they are examinations of interhemispheric communication and lateralization that may be used in the future to produce more robust models of the bilateral hippocampus. Collectively, these contributions suggest that the mouse hippocampus is indeed lateralized and that the sharing of information across hemispheres enables some behaviors that are hippocampus-dependent

Treating Emotional Distress through the use of Emotion and Cognitive-Based Therapies

This article will present an integrated approach for treating emotional distress. The authors review the purposes of emotions and explore how they operate in individuals’ lives based on learned responses and inaccurate perceptions. Distinct categories of emotions are identified, including both maladaptive and adaptive forms. Basic ideologies and negative evaluations will also be reviewed to illustrate how these patterns develop and maintain disturbing conditions. The authors will examine the complimentary association between affective and cognitive material and how treating both in therapy can be beneficial. Emotion and cognitive-based interventions will be presented through the use of a case study

Landscaping in the Utah Wildland-Urban Interface

The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is simply where human development mingles with wildland, or in other words, developed land next to undeveloped land. This area is at the highest risk for damage from wildfire. As our communities grow outward, the WUI is only expanding, putting more people at risk from wildfire. Therefore, it is important for homes built there to have fire-protective landscaping. Also, because Utah is a desert state currently in a drought, low-water landscaping is important for all Utah landscapes, including the WUI. This fact sheet addresses these issues and provides guidance on fire-protective and low-water landscaping

Teacher Experiences in a Community-Based Rural Partnership: Recognizing Community Assets

The purpose of this research study is to understand teacher experiences throughout their second year of engagement in the Virginia Tech Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools partnership. This partnership is an assets-based community partnership in a rural environment between middle school teachers, regional industry, and university affiliates that is focused on implementing recurrent, hands-on, culturally relevant engineering activities for middle school students. This qualitative study uses constant comparative methodology informed by grounded theory on teacher interviews to capture both teacher experiences in the partnership as well as teacher-identified assets in their classrooms and school communities. Using the sensitizing concepts of pedagogical content knowledge, self-efficacy, and the Interconnected Model of Teacher Growth, this study found that while teachers experienced the program differently depending on their contextual setting of their schools, all teachers expressed shifts in their recognition of and value placed on community assets. Findings also suggest that teachers greatly value involving industry and university partners in the classroom to highlight the applications of engineering in their communities and support a reimagination of engineering conceptions and careers for both students and teachers. Teachers reported that the hands-on, team-based, culturally relevant engineering activities engaged learners and showcased individual strengths in ways they otherwise do not see exhibited in their traditional curriculum. The partnership ultimately allowed teachers to identify how assets in schools’ rural communities, beyond those previously identified within their schools, could aid them in further developing and implementing engineering activities. With teachers serving as role models for students, it is important to support teachers’ reimagination of engineering conceptions and integration into the classroom to ultimately increase students’ engineering engagement. Our findings highlight the value of community-based approaches in supporting engineering integration in the classroom and describe the assets that teachers note as being the most significant in their community

Incentive-Theoretic Bayesian Inference for Collaborative Science

Contemporary scientific research is a distributed, collaborative endeavor, carried out by teams of researchers, regulatory institutions, funding agencies, commercial partners, and scientific bodies, all interacting with each other and facing different incentives. To maintain scientific rigor, statistical methods should acknowledge this state of affairs. To this end, we study hypothesis testing when there is an agent (e.g., a researcher or a pharmaceutical company) with a private prior about an unknown parameter and a principal (e.g., a policymaker or regulator) who wishes to make decisions based on the parameter value. The agent chooses whether to run a statistical trial based on their private prior and then the result of the trial is used by the principal to reach a decision. We show how the principal can conduct statistical inference that leverages the information that is revealed by an agent's strategic behavior -- their choice to run a trial or not. In particular, we show how the principal can design a policy to elucidate partial information about the agent's private prior beliefs and use this to control the posterior probability of the null. One implication is a simple guideline for the choice of significance threshold in clinical trials: the type-I error level should be set to be strictly less than the cost of the trial divided by the firm's profit if the trial is successful

Collaborative Development of Utah\u27s Outdoor Recreation Strategic Plan: Process and Findings From 14 Regional Workshops

Outdoor recreation within Utah is managed and provided through a patchwork of federal and state agencies as well as county and municipal governments. Each of these entities manages outdoor recreation following different mandates and internal objectives. Rarely has there been an opportunity for representatives from federal, state, county, and local governments to sit down, discuss the long-standing and emerging challenges they face, and collectively develop ideas about how to work towards less-disparate and more aligned outdoor recreation management systems. In late 2022 and early 2023, we convened hundreds of land managers, outdoor recreation and tourism professionals, and elected officials across 14 workshops to do just that. The goals of the workshops were to: 1) facilitate a discussion about the threats to, and opportunities for, outdoor recreation within different regions of the state; and 2) use the identified threats and opportunities to solicit input on region-specific outdoor recreation policy, program, and project needs. Information gather through the workshop process was also used to identify outdoor recreation policy, program, and project needs common throughout the state. The common needs identified in the regional workshops directly informed the development of the objectives of Utah\u27s Outdoor Recreation Strategic Plan - a guiding document intended to improve outdoor recreation opportunities and support the alignment of policy and management actions across the many outdoor recreation providers within the state. The purpose of this report is to document the collaborative process for engaging stakeholders in the development of the objectives of Utah\u27s Outdoor Recreation Strategic Plan and to detail the findings generated from the process

Concert recording 2018-11-03

[Track 1]. Broodin\u27 / Asher Perkins -- [Track 2]. Mary had a little lamb / Buddy Guy arranger Stevie Ray Vaughan -- [Track 3]. Little wing / Jimi Hendrix arranger Stevie Ray Vaughan -- [Track 4]. Scuttlebuttin / Stevie Ray Vaughan -- [Track 5]. Sirabhorn / Pat Metheny -- [Track 6]. Outerstellar mozy [Track 7]. Truth? [Track 8]. Street swing [Track 9]. Warm kages / Asher Perkins -- [Track 10]. The saga of Harrison Crabfeathers / Steve Kuhn