Reading Habits in Different Communities

Reading is foundational to learning and the information acquisition upon which people make decisions. For centuries, the capacity to read has been a benchmark of literacy and involvement in community life. In the 21st Century, across all types of U.S. communities, reading is a common activity that is pursued in myriad ways. As technology and the digital world expand and offer new types of reading opportunities, residents of urban, suburban, and rural communities at times experience reading and e-reading differently. In the most meaningful ways, these differences are associated with the demographic composition of differentkinds of communities -- the age of the population, their overall level of educational attainment, and the general level of household income.Several surveys by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project reveal interesting variations among communities in the way their residents read and use reading-related technology and institutions

The Effects of Exenatide on the Autoimmune Development of Diabetes

Autoimmune diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce the insulin required to properly control blood glucose levels. Also know as type 1 diabetes, this disease is caused by an autoimmune attack of a person’s T-cells on islet b cells. Exenatide, an incretin mimetic, is an analog to Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). GLP-1 has many actions that improve glucose homeostasis such as potentiation of glucose-stimulated insulin secretions, promotion of b cell proliferation and survival, and inhibition of glucagon secretion. Some studies have shown that exenatide and related compounds can protect b cells from apoptosis as well as block the migration of CD4+ T-cells to islets. Therefore, we hypothesize that exenatide may prevent the autoimmune development of diabetes in the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse model. Thirty NOD mice were split into two groups. Beginning at 6 weeks of age, Group 1 (n=15) was given a 100ng dose subcutaneous of exenatide once daily and Group 2 (n=15) was given a dose of saline once daily. Glucose levels were monitored twice per week and animals were considered diabetic when blood glucose levels exceeded 300mg/dl. Once animals were considered diabetic, the pancreas was removed for histological analysis by staining for CD4+ T-cells and insulin. By 30 weeks of age, 76.9% in Group 1 (exenatide) remained free of diabetes compared to 13.3% of animals in Group 2. Immunohistochemical staining revealed higher concentrations of insulin producing cells and lower concentrations of CD3+ T-cell presence in treatment mice from Group 1. Based on the results from this study, it appears that exenatide reduces the incidence of diabetes in NOD mice. Animals treated with exenatide showed reduced blood glucose levels compared to those receiving saline, while immunohistochemical staining revealed insight into the possible mechanisms by which exenatide may function. From this study, it can be concluded that exenatide is an effective preventative treatment for the autoimmune development of diabetes. To further study the mechanisms by which exenatide works, a second study was proposed. In this study, we hypothesize that one mechanism by which exenatide delays or prevents the onset of type 1 diabetes is by modulating the migration of T-cells to the pancreas, thus preventing islet beta cell destruction and subsequent development of the disease. Seventeen NOD mice were split into two groups. Group 1a (n=9) received a 100ng dose subcutaneous daily of exenatide while Group 2a (n=8) mice received a 100ul subcutaneous dose of saline daily. Glucose levels were monitored once per week and animals were considered diabetic when blood glucose levels exceeded 300mg/dl. Mice expressing the luciferase gene have proven useful in research due to the ability to image their cells/tissue using an in vivo imaging system (IVIS) that detects the luminescence produced after administration with the enzyme substrate luciferin. Isolated splenocytes from NOD L2G85 luciferase positive mice were transferred to the study group mice at individual euthanization time points. Bioluminescence imaging was used 3 days following T cell transfer in order to visualize the location and/or pathway of the T cells. Average photons in each experimental group were measured within a region of interest (ROI) at the approximate location of the pancreas using IVIS equipment. The exenatide group was found to have an average of 1.190 x 105 photons whereas the saline group was found to have an average of 1.445 x 105 photons. Bioluminescence imaging did show some reduction in the presence of transferred T-cells at the pancreas of exenatide-treated compared to saline mice. Although the difference in measured photons is not significant between the two groups, we do not discredit our hypothesis. We believe that the experiment should be repeated with modifications to enable a better analysis of our results.This project was funded by the Undergraduate Research Scholarship through the Arts and Sciences Honors DepartmentNo embarg

Implications of socio-cultural factors in the question response process

Die Autorin untersucht die Bedeutung von Kultur, Sprache und sozioökonomischen Faktoren im Frage-Antwort-Prozess bei allgemeinen Gesundheitssurveys. Sie stellt hierzu zwei Forschungsprojekte mit kognitiven Interviews vor, die zum einen in der ländlichen Region des Mississippi im Januar 2002 und zum anderen in Hyattsville und Northwest Ohio im Sommer 2003 durchgeführt worden sind. Sie verdeutlicht anhand von Beispielen, dass psychologische Modelle des Frage-Antwort-Prozesses nicht vollständig umfassend sind, dass der soziale Kontext den Prozess beeinflusst, in welchem der Teilnehmer auf eine bestimmte Frage antwortet und dass dies Auswirkungen auf die Qualität und die Nutzbarkeit der Erhebungsdaten hat. Die Autorin möchte mit ihren Ausführungen insbesondere eine größere Aufmerksamkeit auf den Zusammenhang zwischen Antwortfehler und der sozialen Lage des Befragten lenken. (ICI

Mental Health Stigma in College Students by Academic Major

Stigma is best defined as the disapproval and shame felt by people who display characteristics not widely accepted in society. Although mental illness has become more prevalent in society through advocacy and awareness campaigns, it fails to be accepted and often individuals may feel shame that prevents them from seeking help (Dyrbye, Eacker, Durning, Brazeau, Moutier, Massie, S., et al, 2015; Givens & Tjia, 2002). Physicians in particular have been shown to have decreased help-seeking behaviors for psychological issues due to fear of professional repercussions (Dyrbye et al., 2015). Physicians also show increased levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and elevated rates of suicide compared to their age and gender-matched peers (Lindeman, Laara, Hakko, & Lonnqvist, 1996). Medical students also show similar levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and internalization of stigma towards mental health (Givens &Tjia, 2002; Zisook, Young, Doran, Downs, Hadley, et al., 2016). The current study aimed to replicate these findings in an undergraduate population by comparing the levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and internalization of mental health stigma between pre-professional students (pre-medicine, pre-dental, pre-physical therapy, etc.) and their age-matched peers measured via an online Qualtrics survey. Pre-professional and non-pre professional students showed equal levels of anxiety, stress, and depression. However, pre-professional students had lower levels of awareness of mental health stigma held by the public (p = .025) compared to their peers

An Integrated Isotopic and Biomarker Analysis of the Glaciogenic Vazante Group, Brazil

The Vazante Group, a meta-sedimentary succession located in south-central Brazil, contains several intervals of diamictite, interpreted as glacial in origin, bracketed by well-preserved carbonate and shale. This glacial succession was previously associated with the global occurrence of Neoproterozoic low latitude glacial deposits (aka Snowball Earth), and biomarkers (molecular fossils) identified from an organic-rich interval within this succession were used to infer active photosynthesis during the ice age (Olcott et al., 2005). However, new Re-Os and detrital zircon U-Pb ages suggest that the upper Vazante Group is ca. 1.3 to 1.0 billion-years old (Geboy, 2006; Azmy et al., 2008; Rodrigues et al., 2008) and thus may preserve evidence for hitherto unknown Mesoproterozoic ice ages. Within this context, I present biomarker and time-series stable isotope data from a basin-wide distribution of pre- and post-glacial sedimentary units in order to i) evaluate the Mesoproterozoic interpretation of this succession, ii) assess the biologic and environmental conditions present when these sediments were deposited, and iii) to understand the co-evolution of life and ocean chemistry in response to rapidly changing environmental conditions. Biomarker distributions and abundances from the Serra do Garrote Formation, a pre-glacial shale, and the Serra do Poço Verde and Lapa formations, both post-glacial shales, show evidence of a diverse microbial community that would have only existed in a redox stratified water column. Additionally, the presence of aryl isoprenoids, biomarkers indicative of green sulfur bacteria, in the Serra do Garrote and Serra do Poço Verde formations suggest that reducing, sulfide-rich water was present in the photic zone. These biomarkers however, are absent from the Lapa Formation suggesting that sulfidic conditions either receded to deeper water or collapsed entirely. Carbon and sulfur isotopic signatures support the conclusions drawn from this biomarker study. Carbon and sulfur trends from the Serra do Garrote and Serra do Poço Verde formations show evidence of a large, anoxic, isotopically stable, dissolved organic carbon pool (relative to inorganic carbon) and extensive bacterial sulfate reduction of a small, oceanic sulfate reservoir. The Lapa Formation, on the other hand, displays evidence for a smaller, isotopically responsive, dissolved organic carbon pool. The carbon isotopic compositions of carbonates from these three units are consistent with other Mesoproterozic successions supporting the geochronological age constraints. Taken together, biomarker and time-series stable isotope data from the upper Vazante Group map a transition from a sulfide-rich, stratified, water column to one that, while still stratified, was no longer sulfidic. This environmental transition occurred in response to consecutive Mesoproterozoic ice ages

Basal Primatomorpha colonized Ellesmere Island (Arctic Canada) during the hyperthermal conditions of the early Eocene climatic optimum

Anthropogenically induced warming is transforming Arctic ecosystems across a geologically short timescale, but earlier episodes of Earth history provide insights on the nature and limitations of biotic change in a rapidly warming Arctic. Late early Eocene strata (~52 Ma) of the Margaret Formation on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada sample a warm temperate ecosystem with a polar light regime situated at ~77°N paleolatitude. This extinct boreal ecosystem hosted a diversity of early Cenozoic vertebrates, including thermophilic taxa such as crocodilians and tapiroid perissodactyls. Here we describe two new species of the early primatomorphan Ignacius from Ellesmere, which are by far the northernmost known records for Paleogene Primatomorpha. Ellesmere species of Ignacius are sister taxa, indicating a single colonization of Ellesmere from farther south in North America coincident with the onset of the hyperthermal Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO). The Ellesmere Ignacius clade differs from closely related taxa inhabiting mid-latitudes in being larger (thereby conforming to Bergmann’s rule) and having modified dentition and muscles of mastication for a dietary regime emphasizing hard objects, possibly reflecting an increased reliance on fallback foods during long polar winters. The late early Eocene mammalian fauna of Ellesmere indicates that its unique paleoenvironment rendered it uninhabitable to some clades, including euprimates, while selected taxa were able to adapt to its challenging conditions and diversify

Multiple myeloma presenting as spinal cord compression: a case report

Abstract Introduction Spinal cord compression is a potentially devastating condition that demands immediate attention. Efforts must be divided between addressing the symptoms of cord compression and identifying the precise etiology of the condition. Case presentation A 76-year-old Peruvian man presented to our emergency department for evaluation of the gradual onset of lower extremity weakness over one month, resulting in falls and a two day history of bladder and bowel incontinence. Surprisingly, the etiology of this case of spinal cord compression was found to be multiple myeloma presenting as a solid tumor. Conclusion We report a case of a spinal cord mass resulting in symptoms of cord compression that was diagnosed when aspects of our patient's initial magnetic resonance imaging scan did not correlate with disc herniation, which was the diagnosis with the greatest pretest probability.</p

Moving Towards Intercultural Communicative Competence and Intercultural Citizenship: Lessons from Second Language Acquisition and Language Pedagogy for the Communication Center

Studies show English language learners (ELLs) experience increased communication apprehension and foreign language anxiety more than primary English speakers. Strategies to better assist ELLs with their public speaking skills are needed, especially within communication centers. One way is to better understand the intercultural aspects of the ELL student population on specific university campuses. Using foreign language pedagogy, this article explores best practices for communication center tutors working with ELL clients. Communication centers can use this information to assess traditional tutoring models and examine how their center meets the needs of this student population. The authors argue for an organizational structure of support and inclusivity, which may be achieved with a stronger emphasis on intercultural competency, including ways to address proficiency levels and practice cultural empathy. With proper support, communication consultants can achieve intercultural communicative competence and intercultural citizenship