Shifting the Stress Curve: Using Stress Inoculation and Exercise to Promote Resilience

Problem Stress influences an organism’s physiological systems via an inverted u-shaped curve: An optimum amount of stress will optimize body functions, but too little stress or too much stress for long periods of time can impair body functions. Researchers have been very interested in exploring the mechanisms that may “delay the tipping point” between the positive and negative effects of stress. A rightward shift in the stress curve would allow one to maintain optimal performance even at higher or more prolonged stress levels. The molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie this rightward shift could result in resilience, clinically defined as the ability to endure stress without sustaining damage, or even to benefit from experiencing stress. The experiments described in this thesis investigate two potential mechanisms of resilience. The first mechanism is “stress inoculation,” in which previous exposure to a stressor “inoculates” an organism to respond more effectively to subsequent stressors. Recent studies suggest that controllable stress, even if the organism cannot predict when the stress will occur (thus called “unpredictable/controllable stress” or UST), may cause a rightward shift in the stress curve. The second mechanism is physical fitness that may improve the ability to cope with stress through molecular and cellular changes in the body. Method Experiment #1 (Stress inoculation): Thirty-three male Sprague-Dawley rats were in housing platforms for 21 days; 15 rats were exposed to unpredictable/controllable stress (UST), and 18 rats were not exposed to stressful stimuli as a control group. After 21 days, spatial memory and strategies were assessed on the Barnes maze under high stress conditions. Experiment #2 (Physical Fitness): A pilot study was conducted on 22 subjects (12 females, 10 males). Thirty human subjects (15 females, 15 males) were recruited among the freshmen taking HLED 120, Fit for Life, at Andrews University. Physical fitness was assessed with the MicroFit® FAS-2 system, a FDA-registered medical device. The students’ chronic stress levels were assessed with ICSRLE (Inventory of College Student Recent Life Experiences), and their depression and anxiety levels with DASS 21 (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale). Cognitive performance was assessed with two memory tasks: an object location task thought to be dependent on the hippocampus, and an n-back test thought to be dependent on the prefrontal cortex. Finally, the physiological stress response to the acute, cognitive stressors (performing the n-back test) was assessed by changes in salivary cortisol, heart rate, and systolic/diastolic blood pressure. Results Experiment #1: UST rats took less time to find the goal box on the Barnes maze (p\u3c0.05), and made fewer errors (p\u3c0.05) and repeat errors (p\u3c0.01). UST rats also took less time to find the goal box on reference memory trials (p\u3c0.05) and on working memory trials (p=0.05). After a new goal position was introduced, UST rats visited the previous goal position as their first error at a rate of 46.67%, while CT rats visited the previous goal position at a rate of 27.78%. UST used spatial strategies more frequently (p\u3c0.01) to find the goal box, while CT rats used random strategies more frequently (p\u3c0.01). Experiment #2 (Effects of physical fitness, stress, and depression and anxiety on memory): While higher fitness levels tended to be associated with better hippocampal memory scores (p=0.15, d=0.7), it did not affect prefrontal cortex-dependent memory (“n-back different”: p=0.286; “n-back same”: p=0.411. A significant, positive correlation was seen between ICSRLE and DASS 21 (p\u3c0.01). Higher levels of self-reported stress were not associated with worse hippocampal memory (p=0.389), but subjects with higher self-reports of depression/anxiety tended to have better hippocampal memory scores (p=0.075, d=0.8). Subjects with lower self-reported stress levels got higher “n-back different” scores than those with higher self-reported stress levels (p\u3c0.05), but no significant difference was found on “n-back same” memory scores between those two groups (p=0.898). Subjects with lower self-reports of depression/anxiety tended to get higher “n-back different” scores than those with higher self-reports of depression/anxiety (p=0.066, d=0.87). No significant difference was found between the “Top 50%” and “Bottom 50%” DASS 21 groups for “n-back same” memory scores (p=0.661). Conclusion Experiment #1 (Stress inoculation as an active resilience mechanism): The results of this study are consistent with the “stress inoculation hypothesis.” Exposure to unpredictable / controllable stress for 21 days causes “stress inoculation,” causing neural and behavioral adaptations that may represent a rightward shift of the stress curve. This would explain the optimal performance of UST with new environmental stressors on the Barnes maze. Experiment #2 (Physical activity as an active resilience mechanism): The results of this pilot study partially support the original hypotheses, but they indicate directions for future studies. First, more subjects should be added (at least 54) to validate the current statistical results. Second, more rigorous spatial memory tasks may be needed in order to avoid “ceiling effects.

CHESS (CgHExpreSS): A comprehensive analysis tool for the analysis of genomic alterations and their effects on the expression profile of the genome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genomic alterations frequently occur in many cancer patients and play important mechanistic roles in the pathogenesis of cancer. Furthermore, they can modify the expression level of genes due to altered copy number in the corresponding region of the chromosome. An accumulating body of evidence supports the possibility that strong genome-wide correlation exists between DNA content and gene expression. Therefore, more comprehensive analysis is needed to quantify the relationship between genomic alteration and gene expression. A well-designed bioinformatics tool is essential to perform this kind of integrative analysis. A few programs have already been introduced for integrative analysis. However, there are many limitations in their performance of comprehensive integrated analysis using published software because of limitations in implemented algorithms and visualization modules.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To address this issue, we have implemented the Java-based program CHESS to allow integrative analysis of two experimental data sets: genomic alteration and genome-wide expression profile. CHESS is composed of a genomic alteration analysis module and an integrative analysis module. The genomic alteration analysis module detects genomic alteration by applying a threshold based method or SW-ARRAY algorithm and investigates whether the detected alteration is phenotype specific or not. On the other hand, the integrative analysis module measures the genomic alteration's influence on gene expression. It is divided into two separate parts. The first part calculates overall correlation between comparative genomic hybridization ratio and gene expression level by applying following three statistical methods: simple linear regression, Spearman rank correlation and Pearson's correlation. In the second part, CHESS detects the genes that are differentially expressed according to the genomic alteration pattern with three alternative statistical approaches: Student's t-test, Fisher's exact test and Chi square test. By successive operations of two modules, users can clarify how gene expression levels are affected by the phenotype specific genomic alterations. As CHESS was developed in both Java application and web environments, it can be run on a web browser or a local machine. It also supports all experimental platforms if a properly formatted text file is provided to include the chromosomal position of probes and their gene identifiers.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>CHESS is a user-friendly tool for investigating disease specific genomic alterations and quantitative relationships between those genomic alterations and genome-wide gene expression profiling.</p

Increasing Asymptomatic Chlamydia Screening in the ED

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends chlamydia screening in young women and others who are at risk based on scientific evidence related to the effectiveness of screening to prevent chlamydial infection. Female patients may visit the emergency department (ED) with symptoms such as urethritis, abdominal pain, or vaginal spotting. For men, most complaints are urinary problems, discharge from the penis, and testicular pain. However, most infected patients are never symptomatic and have no abnormal physical findings. Therefore, the question that spurred this project was, “Why aren’t asymptomatic patients screened more often?” Furthermore, “Why are the CDC screening guidelines for chlamydia often not followed by providers?” The purpose of this evidence-based project was to provide an educational intervention to health care providers in the Emergency Department (ED) about the CDC guidelines for chlamydia screening and to encourage them to screen eligible asymptomatic patients in a Bronx community-based ED. As a result of the educational intervention, there was a significant improvement of the ED providers’ knowledge of the CDC guidelines; however, the screening rate remained low. During the period after the educational intervention, the ED participants did not satisfactorily comply with the CDC guidelines; however, ED participants consistently demonstrated their willingness to perform the chlamydia screening for eligible patients. This finding indicates a need for frequent education on the CDC guidelines on the importance of chlamydia testing to effectively improve the screening rates

Globalization, urban transformation and livability

textEconomic globalization in the 1980s ad 1990s gave birth to a new type of city, called a 'global city', which is assumed to perform critical functions to facilitate the contemporary global economy and which share the same characteristics. Cities, however, have different histories, economies, polities and demographies and these different local conditions do no lend themselves to the construction of a general model a global city even though they have characteristics. First, I explore the historical path of urban development in Seoul since the 1960s. Seoul is very unique in that its economic growth was mainly planned and implemented by the authoritarian Korean national government while civil and political freedom of citizens to participate the decision making process were strongly suppressed. However, the forces of globalization from the 1980s significantly altered the economic and political context in which the Korean state had successful operated in the previous decades. The role of state in regulating and planning the market was significantly weakened as well as the national political system became democratized and decentralized from the 1980s. These changes caused by the forces of globalization have made significant impacts on the organization of urban development in Seoul. Secondly, thus, I examine the social and political impacts of the globalization on the lives of the inhabitants in Seoul and I found that Seoul’s becoming a global city is closely related to the growing gap in the condition of living between the poor and the rich in Seoul. It is mainly caused by the restructuring of the urban labor market toward producer service sector orientation away from manufacturing sector. The expansion of the producer service sector has produced new trends in Seoul’s urban labor market: professionalization of regularly employed people at the top and increasing informal and low-skilled laborers and/or illegal foreign workers at the bottom. Moreover, it is found that increasing social inequality has its spatial consequence: a growing residential segregation. In Seoul, the southeast sub-region has emerged as an exclusive residential area for high-income professionals with much better living conditions, including spacious houses, easier access to heath-care facilities, more green space and educational institutions. The most important cause of the spatial concentration of professionals in this region is the concentration of the producer service sector jobs there. Yet, high price for housing in this area reinforces the clustering of the rich in the area and shuns lower-income people from moving into the area. However, the role of the national government cannot be under-estimated because the government urban policies produced the new development of residential and commercial development in the area in the 1980s. However, it is argued an opportunity to mediate the degrading economic living conditions for citizens in a global city has been created by the same force of globalization, yet in a different social system: urban politics. With particular emphasis on political democratization and decentralization under the current global economic system, it became possible for citizens to be directly involved in the public-policy making process. In theory, this situation implies that citizens are now empowered to create public policies that would minimize the negative consequences of economic globalization on their daily lives. My case study on Cheonggye Stream Restoration Project shows the opportunities and challenges of new urban political context in Seoul. The analysis of the Cheonggye Restoration Project suggests that more room has been created in the course of policy planning and the policy-making process, caused mainly by global political change toward direct democracy. However, the project also suggests that these changes at an institutional level did not lead to changes at an operational level, failing to produce an outcome that really reflects the demands of the actors.Sociolog

The Evolving Linking Law in South Korea: \u3ci\u3eChuing\u3c/i\u3e it over

South Korean hyperlink copyright law is vague and inconsistent. Given that South Korea has the fastest internet speeds in the world, and that it has the highest internet usage penetration in Asia, sophisticated development of its hyperlink copyright law must occur—with specific attention to criminal aiding and abetting and civil tortfeasor laws. This article seeks to remedy a patchwork quilt of legal precedents as well as Korean statutory norms, and provides a comparative analysis of U.S. and EU law

Evaluating the Equality of Regression Coefficients for Multiple Group Comparisons: A Case of English Learner Subgroups by Home Languages

As the theme of the 2022 annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, cultivating equitable education systems has gained renewed attention amid an increasingly diverse society. However, systemic inequalities persist for traditionally underserved student populations. As a way to better address diverse students’ needs, it is of critical importance to understand different subgroups’ performances. In the educational measurement field, evaluating the differences among multiple groups is an important consideration in addressing fairness issues for diverse groups of students. This article offers one technique to do so. It demonstrates how commonly-used multiple regression analysis can be applied to evaluate the equivalence of predictive structure across multiple groups in place of the factor analytic approach that requires a relatively large sample size per subgroup and strong assumptions. The technique is utilized in examining the relationship between English language proficiency and academic performance of English learners in one state when the subgroups are categorized by home language. The results showed statistically significant group differences between the reference group (Spanish-speaking ELs) and other focal groups (different home-language ELs) in various levels of comparisons (model fit, model structure, and individual predictor weights). The strengths and limitations of a proposed multiple group regression (MGR) approach are discussed in the educational research context

Immigration Legislation and Issues in the 111th Congress

[Excerpt] The Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader have pledged to take up comprehensive immigration reform legislation at some point in the 111th Congress. Efforts to enact broad immigration reform in the 109th and 110th Congresses were unsuccessful. It is unclear what the components of any immigration reform proposals that the 111th Congress may consider will be. In the past, comprehensive bills have addressed border security, enforcement of immigration laws within the United States (interior enforcement), employment eligibility verification, temporary worker programs, permanent admissions and, most controversially, unauthorized aliens in the United States. The 111th Congress has considered various immigration issues and has enacted a number of targeted immigration provisions. It has passed legislation (P.L. 111-8, P.L. 111-9, P.L. 111-68) to extend the life of several immigration programs—the E-Verify electronic employment eligibility verification system, the Immigrant Investor Regional Center Program, the Conrad State J-1 Waiver Program, and the special immigrant visa for religious workers—all of which are currently authorized until October 31, 2009. With respect to these programs, the House-passed and Senate-passed versions of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2010 (H.R. 2892), include different provisions to further extend E-Verify. The Senate-passed bill also would extend the other three programs. Among the other subjects of legislation enacted by this Congress are refugees (P.L. 111-8) and border security (P.L. 111-5, P.L. 111-32). This report discusses these and other immigration-related issues that have seen legislative action or are of significant congressional interest. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations are addressed in CRS Report R40642, Homeland Security Department: FY2010 Appropriations, and, for the most part, are not covered here. This report will be updated as legislative developments occur

Exercise and cancer mortality in Korean men and women: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about longitudinal associations of exercise with different types of cancer, particularly in Asian populations. The purpose of this research was to estimate the association between the duration of exercise and all-cause and cancer-specific mortality. METHOD: Data were obtained from the Korean Metabolic Syndrome Mortality Study (KMSMS), a prospective cohort study of 303,428 Korean adults aged 20 years or older at baseline between 1994 and 2004 after exclusion of individuals with missing variables on smoking and exercise. Death certificate-linked data until 31 December 2015 were provided by the Korean National Statistical Office. Cox regression models were constructed to evaluate the associations of exercise with cancer mortality after adjusting for potential confounders such as age, alcohol consumption and smoking status. RESULTS: During the follow-up period of 15.3 years (4,638,863 person-years), a total of 16,884 participants died. Both men and women who exercised showed approximately 30% decreased hazards of mortality, compared to those who did no exercise (hazard ratio (HR) 0.70, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.68-0.73 for men, HR=0.71, CI : 0.67-0.75). A notable observation of this study is the curvilinear associations between the total duration of exercise per week and cancer mortality, with the lowest risk being observed at the low-to-medium levels of exercise; this trend of associations was found for esophagus, liver, lung, and colorectal cancer mortality in men, and all-cause, all-cancer and lung cancer mortality in women. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals who exercised showed considerably lower all-cause and cancer mortality risks compared with those who did no exercise. Policies and clinical trials aimed at promoting minimal or moderate participation in exercise may minimize cancer mortality risk