Obesity Due to Poor Snack Choices and Lack of Physical Activity

Obesity Due to Poor Snack Choices and Lack of Physical Activity A chronic issue in my immediate community, Murray State University, is obesity due to unhealthy diets and a generally lethargic lifestyle. The muffin picture represents the average healthiness of snacks available on campus. While students are working towards their education on campus it has become increasingly difficult to acquire snacks that are both convenient and health conscious. Places such as the T-Room cater towards less healthy foods by making them far more available and also making them much less expensive. For a student to get a quick lunch consisting of a grilled cheese, fries, and soft drink the price is $8.48 while if that same student wanted a ready-made cobb salad with turkey, a water, a sausage and cheese stick pack, and a fruit dip cup the price would cost$11.36. Both of these meals are similar in their respective caloric densities but meal one has a far less healthy macro balance, being high in fats and carbs, and is also fried or cooked with a lot of butter. Furthermore, the amount of sugar in the soft drink has its own health implications as well. These factors lead to students putting on unhealthy weight and the unhealthy food also does not fuel the body well for physical activity. Leading on to my community asset I posted a picture of me in D.C. I work as a personal trainer at a local gym Downtown Dynabody and I have worked as a group fitness instructor at the MSU wellness center for a number of years. During my time a a fitness professional I have worked with many people to help change their views of what it takes to become fit, promote working towards a better version of themselves, and I have helped a few people reach fitness goals beyond what they believed possible. My job as personal trainer is to be team motivation as well as to listen to my clients, adapt their training to optimize its effectiveness, and to teach them how to so things properly. By doing my part working with the few clients I have, I am able to also influence those who come in contact with my clients. People see others in the community making healthy life changes to better their health, lose weight, and improve their body image and the idea that it is obtainable for them as well spreads like wild fire. Case based examples in the community as well as changing the community views of obesity are crucial in fighting this epidemic. To combat the obesity problem at MSU a two-part challenge is set before us. Both a physical aspect, stressing the importance of being more physically active, and the nutritional aspect, eating correctly and having healthy food available to busy students. Using community ambassadors, community based challenges, and using the assets at our disposal can help change the trend of the freshman 15 or worse the sophomore 30 . With less unhealthy weight gain and a more balanced diet health risks associated with obesity as well as health issues students may currently have as well as those that may present in the future due to obesity, poor nutrition, or lack of exercise. Our country as a whole has a large population of people suffering from or at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure; all of which can be reduced or completely resolved with a healthier diet, active lifestyle, and lower body fat. As with most things, education and understanding are the most important factors in making lifestyle changes towards a healthier life

King, Levinas and the interruption of love: The alchemy of the fire fable

Levinas begins Totality and Infinity with a haunting allusion from the 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud, “though the true life is absent”, we are in the world. This lamentation is a fitting beginning for his exposition of a radical reformulation of an Ethics that precedes all thought, language, or systematic attempts to cast morality as a Truth. Similarly, Martin Luther King Jr. presented a lamentation for a dream of a world where the transcendence of race, creed, or classification of any kind could allow children to grow up to be first ethical human beings in relation to one another before identities. The source of this sorrow and lament points also to its relent; if we can dream and then imagine this “true life”, then we can begin to devote our strivings to bringing it to life, to manifesting something that is prior to our means-to-an-end destructive proclivities, in other words, an end to war. Both visionaries asked us to participate in the imagining or dreaming of a different future while drawing from a past that was absorbed in our collective ancient memories, visions of what was perhaps once ours as our ontogenetic and phylogenetic indigenous birthright, the “true life” of our human interconnection and interdependency

Development of fad7-1 single mutant Arabidopsis thaliana plants that are resistant to aphids

Aphids are a group of sap-feeding insects that attack most of the world’s crops. The loss of function of fatty acid desaturase7 (FAD7) in Solanum lycopersicum (tomato plant) induces aphid resistance that is dependent upon the accumulation of plant defense hormones such as salicylic acid (SA). Tomato lacks most of the genetic resources found in the model plant Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). There is an analogous fad7-1 line of Arabidopsis; however, the line has a background mutation, the glabra-1 (gl1), that causes the absence of trichomes (small hairs), which are essential to plant defense. In order to study aphid resistance, a single mutant line of fad7-1 mutants were developed using cross breeding between the fad7-1/gl1 mutant and wild-type plants. Homozygous fad7-1 mutants were then identified using the Kasajima DNA extraction method, followed by the use of single nucleotide polymorphism-polymerase chain reaction (SNP-PCR) primers using allele-specific PCR. A phenotypic screening was then performed to screen out the plants with the glabra-1 mutation using the presence or absence of trichomes. Two single Arabidopsis fad7-1 mutant lines were identified, and subsequently verified using a bioassay to be aphid resistant relative to other genotypes as seen in tomato

Faktor yang Berhubungan dengan Kejadian Stunting pada Balita Usia 24-59 Bulan di Wilayah Kerja Puskesmas Baa Kabupaten Rote Ndao

Stunting describes the unfulfilled intake of nutrients needed by toddlers that has been going on for a long time since the fetus is in the womb until the child is born and the first 2 years of the child's life. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors associated with the incidence of stunting in toddlers aged 24-59 months. This research is an analytic survey research based on a cross sectional study. The sample in this study amounted to 103 toddlers who were selected by simple random sampling technique. This research was conducted from September to October 2020. Data were collected by conducting interviews, observations, filling out questionnaires and also documentation. In the bivariate analysis the chi-square test was used and the multivariate analysis used the multiple logistic regression test. The results of multivariate analysis showed a significant relationship between exclusive breastfeeding (p-value = 0.003), feeding patterns (p-value = 0.010), maternal education (p-value = 0.019) and a history of LBW (p-value = 0.000). LBW history is the factor most associated with the incidence of stunting. It is hoped that expectant mothers and mothers will understand correctly about the problem of stunting, its causes and protection factors so that efforts to prevent and overcome stunting can be carried out. It is hoped that the Puskesmas will continue to make health promotion efforts regarding stunting and the factors that influence it

MicroRNA in autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small conserved non-coding RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression by targeting the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of specific messenger RNAs (mRNAs) for degradation or translational repression. miRNA-mediated gene regulation is critical for normal cellular functions such as the cell cycle, differentiation, and apoptosis, and as much as one-third of human mRNAs may be miRNA targets. Emerging evidence has demonstrated that miRNAs play a vital role in the regulation of immunological functions and the prevention of autoimmunity. Here we review the many newly discovered roles of miRNA regulation in immune functions and in the development of autoimmunity and autoimmune disease. Specifically, we discuss the involvement of miRNA regulation in innate and adaptive immune responses, immune cell development, T regulatory cell stability and function, and differential miRNA expression in rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus

Presence of \u3cem\u3ePorphyromonas gingivalis\u3c/em\u3e in gingival squamous cell carcinoma

Periodontal disease has been recently linked to a variety of systemic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, preterm delivery, and oral cancer. The most common bacteria associated with periodontal disease, Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) has not yet been studied in the malignant gingival tissues. The objective of this study was to investigate the presence of P. gingivalis in specimens from squamous cell carcinoma patients. We have performed immunohistochemical staining to investigate the presence of P. gingivalis and Streptococcus gordonii (S. gordonii), a non invasive oral bacteria, in paraffin embedded samples of gingival squamous cell carcinoma (n=10) and normal gingiva (n=5). Staining for P. gingivalis revealed the presence of the bacteria in normal gingival tissues and gingival carcinoma, with higher levels (more than 33%,P\u3c0.05) detected in the carcinoma samples. The staining intensity was also significantly enhanced in the malignant tissue by 2 folds (P\u3c0.023) compared to specimens stained for the non‐invasive S. gordonii. P. gingivalis is abundantly present in malignant oral epithelium suggesting a potential association of the bacteria with gingival squamous cell carcinoma

Effect of Metformin on miR-146a Expression

Sjögren’s Syndrome (SjS) is an autoimmune disorder that affects secretory glands in the human body, restricting their function and causing extreme dryness in areas like the mouth and eyes. miR-146a is an anti-inflammatory microRNA that targets the NFκB activation pathway. Previous studies have shown that SjS patients have increased miR-146a expression, despite having high levels of inflammation. The objective of this study was to investigate whether metformin, a diabetes drug with a wide variety of effects and potential functions, reduces levels of miR-146a expression. Metformin is known to reduce inflammation by inhibiting the activation of NFκB. THP-1 human monocytes were treated with various concentrations of metformin ranging from 12.5uM to 200uM. The cells were treated for 24 hours before total RNA was isolated, and qRT-PCR was utilized to compare miR-146a expression in metformin-treated versus untreated cells. Our results showed a dose-dependent decrease of miR-146a expression in the presence of metformin. These results are reasonable since miR-146a expression is dependent on NFκB activation, and metformin is known to inhibit the activation of NFκB. Further studies will investigate metformin’s ability to suppress inflammation in varying conditions

Gene expression response of the alga Fucus virsoides (Fucales, Ochrophyta) to glyphosate solution exposure

Fucus virsoides is an ecologically important canopy-forming brown algae endemic to the Adriatic Sea. Once widespread in marine coastal areas, this species underwent a rapid population decline and is now confined to small residual areas. Although the reasons behind this progressive disappearance are still a matter of debate, F. virsoides may suffer, like other macroalgae, from the potential toxic effects of glyphosate-based herbicides. Here, through a transcriptomic approach, we investigate the molecular basis of the high susceptibility of this species to glyphosate solution, previously observed at the morphological and eco-physiological levels. By simulating runoff event in a factorial experiment, we exposed F. virsoides to glyphosate (Roundup\uae 2.0), either alone or in association with nutrient enrichment, highlighting significant alterations of gene expression profiles that were already visible after three days of exposure. In particular, glyphosate exposure determined the near-complete expression shutdown of several genes involved in photosynthesis, protein synthesis and stress response molecular pathways. Curiously, these detrimental effects were partially mitigated by nutrient supplementation, which may explain the survival of relict population in confined areas with high nutrient inputs. Our results show that glyphosate impairs the expression of genes involved in photosynthesis and protein synthesis in F. virsoides