Vegetarians versus Vegans

There is a gap in literature related to studies that explicitly compare vegetarians to vegans, as existing studies typically group these diets together and examine carnivorous and omnivorous diets in order to identify similarities and differences. The purpose of this study is to look at vegetarian and vegan diets to see if differences in attitudes towards animals, perceptions of animal usage, consumption, and morality exist. Participants included vegetarian and vegan Liberty University students (graduate and undergraduate, online and residential) who were at least 18 years old. Overall, one hundred students took part in the study, 50 of them were vegetarian and 50 of them were vegan. They completed an anonymous online survey measuring demographics, attitudes towards animals, perceptions of animal usage, and morality. Overall, there was a statistically significant difference between vegans and vegetarians in attitudes toward animals as well as their perception of human and animal similarity. There was also a significant difference between one of the five domains regarding moral decision-making, the fairness/reciprocity domain. However, in the other four domains (harm/care, in-group/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity), there was not a significant difference between the vegan and vegetarian group. Since past studies have grouped vegans and vegetarians as alike, these results seem support the importance of maintaining a separation between diets and subgroups in future studies since differences may exist between the groups

RWU Professor Writes Book on Personal Branding

What is your personal brand

Coene Breaks Career Scoring Record in RWU Men’s Basketball

Senior captain Austin Coene committed to Roger Williams University during the summer of 2014, before going into his senior year of high school, never expecting that he would shatter records

RWU Launches SophoMORE Year Program

Brooke LaVallie, a sophomore at Roger Williams University, just discovered something about herself: She is a leader

Comparing Compassionate Love for Humanity and Empathy as Predictors of Forgiveness

Undergraduate Applie

Artist Will Explore Intersection of Art and Activism

Wellesley College Professor Alexandria Smith, a mixed-media visual artist and co-organizer of Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter, will speak at Roger Williams University on Tuesday, April 9

RWU Construction Management Students Place Second in National Competition

Construction management students from Roger Williams University earned a second-place finish in a national competition in Nevada this month

Exploratory Research into the RNA Transcripts Present within Beluga Whale Blow Samples

Research with beluga whales is important because climate change is affecting their environment, which can impact their health. The usual approach for obtaining working samples is an invasive procedure. However, previous work has successfully developed non-invasive methods using exhales to obtain samples for hormonal and genetic analysis. DNA has been isolated from beluga whale exhales and can provide important information about whale gender and population genetics. The isolation and amplification of RNA in beluga whale exhales has not been reported. Amplification of RNA can lead to insights into gene expression related to animal health, including immune system function. In this project, messenger RNA (mRNA) was isolated using the RNeasy Microkit from beluga whale exhale samples consisting of 1-3 exhales. RNA from 3 exhale samples was isolated in concentrations from 1.95-18.66 ng/μl. The 1 exhale samples result in isolated RNA numbers from 1.889-6.661 ng/μl. Transcripts Rpl8, TNF-α, and IL-12 have been amplified in these isolations by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and visualized by gel electrophoresis. Rpl8 is theoretically present in every cell and is used to determine if the RNA is isolated properly from the exhale samples. TNF-α and IL-12 are cytokine genes that can provide information about immune system health. Sequencing of the amplified products confirmed that the transcripts were amplified. This is the first report of the amplification of transcripts related to immune function from exhale samples, which could provide a non-invasive way of gathering this information. Future research could investigate if changes in expression of these genes can indicate changes in the environment via the change in health of individual beluga whales