#Trending Now: Why black folk need to be in psychotherapy

Despite evidence that mental health problems (ranging from very mild to severe) affect all people, the rates of minorities engaged in personal psychotherapy have remained low throughout the past few decades. Historically, minorities have tended to devalue the importance of mental health, and stigmatize therapeutic interventions. This session will focus on why we need to shed the stigma surrounding mental health issues, and detail where we’ve been, where we are, and where we need to head in term of opening ourselves to self-exploration within the realm of psychotherapy. Also learn about how our physical health is intertwined with our mental health; thus, we cannot be holistically healthy without caring for both. If you’re human, you need to sit in on this session

Environmental Health Information on the Internet: Development of an Appropriate Website Evaluation Tool

Purpose: This research aimed to determine how health communication, risk communication, and website evaluation criteria could be utilized to evaluate environmental health information on the Internet.Public Health Significance: Concerns exist about the quality of health information on the Internet. Environmental health plays a considerable role in public health but can be difficult to communicate effectively, especially in a dynamic and diverse system like the Internet. An evaluation tool tailored specifically for environmental public health messages on the Internet should be developed to assess the quality of those sites.Methods: A literature review identified previous website evaluation tools and general health and risk communication techniques. Using those tools as a framework, a website evaluation tool tailored for assessing environmental health information on the Internet was developed. In order to pilot test this tool, five government websites and one emerging environmental health issue, particulate matter (PM), were selected and evaluated.Results: The key criteria identified in the literature review and incorporated into the website evaluation tool included: Basic Website Information, Content (with subsections: Scope, Accuracy, Risk Communication, Authority, Up-to-Date, Links, and Writing Quality), Appearance/Layout, Purpose/Audience, and Access/Use.The website evaluation tool showed considerable practicality and ease of use in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the five websites during the pilot testing. The Environmental Protection Agency's website received the highest overall score and in the content section. The Kansas Department of Health and the Environment's website received the lowest scores in most of the evaluation categories and overall. None of the websites passed the tool's readability criteria. Conclusions: Consensus exists regarding the need for evidence-based and validated website evaluation tools. A tool developed by consolidating communication recommendations from varying fields of study provides researchers throughout the interdisciplinary field of public health with a research base and evaluation framework for future Internet-based environmental health communication projects. Additionally, the organizations responsible for the pilot-tested websites can use the individualized results from the evaluations to improve and guide their online environmental health communication efforts

Academic-Related Perceptions, Beliefs, and Strategies of Undergraduate Agricultural Students

A student’s academic success is entwined with their perceived beliefs and strategies. However, the effects of personal factors have yet to be fully explored in undergraduate agricultural students. This study aims to investigate students’ academic efficacy (AE), academic self-handicapping (SH) and skepticism about the relevance of school for future success (SR). AE, SH and SR were measured according to three scales from the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales. The scales required students to rate their level of disagreement or agreement (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). A response rate of 24% or 303 usable responses were obtained from student in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at the University of Tennessee (N = 1,286). Based on the population parameter of gender, the data were weighted, because the sample population was skewed towards females. The weighted-averages were 4.17 for AE, 1.67 for SH, and 2.01 for SR. In addition, a low negative association was found between academic efficacy and self-handicapping, a negligible relationship was found between academic efficacy and skepticism about the relevance of school for future success, and a moderate relationship was found between self-handicapping and skepticism about the relevance of school for future success. This population of students do not self-handicap themselves, do not doubt the relevance of their degree, and believe they are able to meet academic expectations. The lack of skepticism about the future of students’ degrees may be due to the increasing pursuit of agricultural degrees, concurrent with a shortage of agricultural scientists. Since social cognitive theory proposes personal factors influence behavior and environmental events, these findings are promising. Therefore, instructors are encouraged to move past traditional lecture-based instruction and challenge their students at higher cognitive levels. This will allow students to realistically explore the complexities of agriculture

Evaluating Threats to the Rare Butterfly, \u3cem\u3ePieris Virginiensis\u3c/em\u3e

Humans have caused drastic changes in ecosystems and communities through their modification of the natural landscape. Rare species, often highly specialized, are more impacted by these changes. Pieris virginiensis is a rare butterfly native to eastern North America that is a species of concern due to negative influences from habitat loss and plant invasion. This thesis discusses several threats to P. virginiensis, including habitat loss, climate change, competition, and the cascading effects of a novel European invasive plant, Alliaria petiolata, that attracts oviposition but does not allow for larval survival. First, I examined a local extinction event and attributed it primarily to several seasons of poor weather and extreme climatic events, but with contributions by an increasing deer population and the introduction of A. petiolata. Second, I found that A. petiolata attracts approximately two-thirds of total eggs, but no larvae survive on the novel host. I tested several chemical causes of larval death and identified two potential contributors: sinigrin, which delays growth, and alliarinoside, which reduces survival. I also examined competition between P. virginiensis, its host plants, and novel competitors in the habitats. First, I looked at shared habitat use between P. virginiensis and another, exotic Pierid butterfly P. rapae. Although habitats are occasionally shared, P. rapae is most likely not a large influence on the success or failure of P. virginiensis. Second, I examined the influence of A. petiolata when it competes with two native host plants of P. virginiensis, and found differential effects of each life stage of A. petiolata on the native host plants. Finally, I used a combination of species distribution modeling and genetic sequencing to determine the current and future states of P. virginiensis given the changing climate and other stressors on P. virginiensis populations. Although secure currently, future stressors will most likely cause a range contraction and local extinctions

Serotonin (5-HT) Increases Olfactory Responsiveness in the Tobacco Hawkmoth Manduca sexta

Behavioral states of animals change throughout the day and the brain has developed several mechanisms in order for neural circuits to modify network function in order to produce these states. Neuromodulation allows the animal to alter neural circuits to make them more or less responsive to a given input. Little research has been conducted to understand the functional role of serotonin (5-HT), a neuromodulator,on olfactory behavioral responses. In this study, we aimed to identify the functional role of 5-HT in Manduca sexta olfactory function. Using a Pavlovian-Conditioning Paradigm, we conditioned moths to 2-hexanone and tested them using two different assays, a detection threshold assay and a generalization gradient assay. We found that 5-HT significantly increased olfactory sensitivity and significantly sharpened generalization gradients. Blocking 5-HT had no effect on detection thresholds but did lower behavioral responsiveness to odors in the generalization gradient assay.These results support similar studies focused on pheromone processing and perception and indicate that 5HT tunes the sensitivity of the olfactory system

Measuring soluble salts in soils via portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry

Soil scientists have been using the same quantification methods for soluble salts for decades. Yet they have long struggled with an effective method for quantifying gypsum content, because current methods are fraught with problems. Saline soil has been historically defined as soil containing salts more soluble than gypsum (e.g., various combinations of Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, K+, Cl-, SO42-, HCO3- and CO32-) to the extent that soil fertility is severely reduced across a wide array of climates and geological settings. Since salinity is not germane to specific soil characteristics such as texture or parent material, it can be challenging to predict salt concentrations within a profile. Given the success of previous studies using portable x-ray fluorescence (PXRF) as a tool for measuring soil characteristics, the evaluation of soluble salts in soil with PXRF seems timely. Not only does this newer technology offer more accurate, quantifiable data to investigators, it produces results in-situ, in seconds. Recent enhancements to PXRF spectrometers have provided better detection limits especially for lighter elements such as S and Cl, a key component of gypsum and other salts. Thus, this research aimed to test the effectiveness of PXRF as a means of directly quantifying gypsum and salinity in soils. A total of 102 soil samples containing a wide variety of gypsum (~2–95%) and 122 samples with various salt concentrations were subjected to both traditional laboratory analysis (thermogravimetry and electrical conductivity, respectively) and elemental analysis via PXRF. Simple and multiple linear regression were used to establish the relationship between the two data sets. Log transformation of some data sets was necessary to normalize the data. Using simple linear regression between laboratory and PXRF data, an R2 of 0.88 was produced for the gypsum data, and an R2 of 0.839 was produced for salinity data. Similarly, simple linear regression for laboratory-quantified gypsum vs. PXRF S produced an R2 of 0.91. Multiple linear regression of laboratory quantified gypsum vs. both PXRF S and Ca produced an R2 of 0.91, and 0.8669 for laboratory determined EC (dS m-1) vs. PXRF Cl, S, Ca, and K. No significant differences were observed between model generation and validation data sets. Overall, PXRF shows great promise for the direct quantification of soluble salts in soils