A Lifestyle Modification Intervention in Hispanic Adolescents with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

U.S. population studies have confirmed that the Hispanic population has the highest prevalence and the worst prognosis for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) (Katz et al., 2021). The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to implement a multicomponent, lifestyle modification intervention in Hispanic pediatric primary care patients to combat the disease process and sequela of NAFLD. The PICOT question for this project was: In Hispanic adolescents aged 10-21 with obesity and NAFLD (P), what is the effect of a multicomponent, lifestyle modification intervention (I), on alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (O), over a 12-week time period (T)? A comprehensive literature search of six databases yielded sixteen pieces of moderate to high-quality evidence supporting lifestyle modifications related to principals of the Mediterranean diet, physical activity, and increased adherence via parental involvement, education, psychosocial support, and frequent follow-up. A sample of 29 Hispanic adolescents, age 10-21, with a history of NAFLD or elevated ALT levels, from an underserved urban pediatric clinic in the Northeastern U.S., were provided an educational intervention based on the Mediterranean diet and physical activity recommendations. Over the next 12 weeks, to promote adherence to the lifestyle changes, four follow-up phone calls were made to promote compliance and provide psychosocial support. Two nutritional educational classes were also offered to all participants. The KIDMED tool was assessed at the beginning and end of the intervention. A Wilcoxon test examined the results of the pre-intervention mean ALT and postintervention mean ALT. No significant difference was found in the results (Z = -1.113, p \u3e .05). The mean pre-intervention was 76.48 (SD = 43.92), and the mean post-intervention was 69.81 (SD = 33.65). These findings suggest more time may be needed to assess the longitudinal benefits of lifestyle interventions on NAFLD in Hispanic adolescents. Future research should address preventable health care disparities related to poor nutrition and improve access to healthy, affordable food in low-socioeconomic neighborhoods

Evaluating the Intra-variability and Inter-variability of Fibers in Cotton T-shirts using Microspectrophotometry

The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the differentiation of cotton fibers by the means of intra-garment and inter-garment comparison while utilizing Microspectrophotometry. Five different colors of cotton fibers were used: gold, kelly green, orange, red and royal. Ten t-shirts of each color were used in this study. Phase I of this study involved using the CRAICRTM QDI QDS II(TM) Stereomicrospectrophotometer to produce a spectrum of the front, back, sleeve and armpit of the t-shirt. These sections were then compared to the color chips in the Munsell Book of Color by observing them with the naked eye. Phase II of this study involved varying the boxcar width, the average scans and the integration time to find the optimal settings that should be used when collecting spectra on the CRAIC RTM QDI 1000 Microspectrophotometer. A time trial was completed during Part 1 and Part 2 of Phase III to determine the proper time the instrument\u27s lamp should be allowed to warm-up prior to collecting spectra of samples. Phase IV of this study involved preparing 200 slides of fibers from the front, back, armpit and sleeve of each color repeated for all ten t-shirts to allow for the intra-garment comparison. Phase V used the front section of each t-shirt and a fiber from that section was cut into three different sections providing 150 slides to demonstration the inter-garment comparison. To conclude the study, the five colors used in this study were compared to each other to determine if they could be differentiated

Intervention Development to Improve Foster Youth Mental Health by Targeting Coping Self-Efficacy and Help-seeking

This study articulates the iterative development of an intervention called Strengthening Youth Networks and Coping (SYNC), which is designed to target coping self-efficacy and help-seeking intentions and behaviors among youth in foster care. The overarching goal is to design an intervention that will be a feasible and acceptable enhancement to existing child welfare services, and that will address modifiable determinants among adolescents involved in child welfare system that are related to elevated risk for mental health challenges, limited support network capacity, and service disengagement after exiting foster care. In this paper, we describe our initial needs assessment, explain how we selected proximal intervention mechanisms (i.e., intermediate outcomes) to target, and outline the preliminary intervention development process, including ongoing insights we received from a research advisory group including members with lived experience. Next, we report and discuss the initial acceptability pre-testing data collected from youth (N=30) as well as feasibility data collected from providers (N=82), results from which were used to refine the SYNC intervention framework prior to robust efficacy testing. Findings highlight the need and importance of targeting youth coping and help-seeking, integrating programming within existing transition services, delivering this content in a group-based format that includes near-peer mentors and facilitators with lived experience, and developing options that work for the heterogeneous population of young people in foster care. The results also highlight the key objective of capturing youth’s interests prior to enrolling in the program (e.g., language used in recruitment materials), holding their interest throughout the program (e.g., creating opportunities for youth to engage with other youth with similar experiences), and suggestions to encourage youth’s engagement and participation. This paper articulates the value of this intervention development approach, and the sequential phases of this intervention development process as well as the results, which may be useful to applied researchers and practitioners working with youth in foster care and other priority populations

Influence of Vocal and Verbal Cues on Ratings of Interview Anxiety and Interview Performance

In two studies, we examined the effect of the presence (versus absence) of vocal cues on judges’ ratings of interview anxiety and interview performance. In Study 1, we designed an experiment in which participants rated either a high-anxiety candidate or a low-anxiety candidate and were exposed to either an audio version of the interview or a text-only version. In Study 2, we added a third condition—a text-only version with filler words (um and ah) cleaned out. In two online studies (n = 72 and n = 411), we found that the high-anxiety interviewee was rated higher on observer-rated anxiety and lower on observer ratings of interview performance as compared to the low-anxiety interviewee across both text and audio conditions, which did not support our hypothesis that anxiety would be less detectable when vocal cues were restricted in the text-only condition. Overall, this study provides powerful evidence of the ability of observers to recognize interviewee anxiety and highlights the negative impact of interview anxiety on the perceived interview performance of interviewees by observers

Make Your Escape: Experiences with Gamified Library Programming

To increase student engagement, the Humboldt State University Library ventured into the realm of gamified programming, exploring several strategies with the goal of trans- forming library outreach and instruction. Our efforts range from simple outreach to highly structured information literacy instruction and workshops that use gamification to encourage students to engage with knowledge practices and dispositions outlined in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Using gamified activities in library instruction led us to create lesson plans that are purely game-based, including escape room drop-in sessions where students race against the clock to solve a series of puzzles in order to “escape” the room. This model aimed to promote collaboration and problem-solving skills through inquiry-based learning

Peer Mentoring: Benefits to First-Time College Students and Their Peer Mentors

The experiences of first-year, first-time college students are impacted by a variety of challenges that pose a threat to student success and retention. One intervention universities are implementing to address these challenges are peer mentorship programs. While the benefits to first-time students of peer mentorship programs are well-researched, there is a lack of research on the benefits for mentors themselves. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived and demonstrable benefits for peer mentors working within a first-year seminar. This mixed-methods study assessed both first-time student achievement outcomes (i.e., first-term GPA and one-year persistence; N = 7,154) as well as the professional and personal development benefits of peer mentors (n = 52). Results showed first-time students who participated in the peer mentor program had significantly higher student achievement and peer mentors themselves had increased academic self-efficacy, improved communication, leadership, and interpersonal presence, and strengthened social and professional networks

Interleukin-6, age, and corpus callosum integrity.

The contribution of inflammation to deleterious aging outcomes is increasingly recognized; however, little is known about the complex relationship between interleukin-6 (IL-6) and brain structure, or how this association might change with increasing age. We examined the association between IL-6, white matter integrity, and cognition in 151 community dwelling older adults, and tested whether age moderated these associations. Blood levels of IL-6 and vascular risk (e.g., homocysteine), as well as health history information, were collected. Processing speed assessments were administered to assess cognitive functioning, and we employed tract-based spatial statistics to examine whole brain white matter and regions of interest. Given the association between inflammation, vascular risk, and corpus callosum (CC) integrity, fractional anisotropy (FA) of the genu, body, and splenium represented our primary dependent variables. Whole brain analysis revealed an inverse association between IL-6 and CC fractional anisotropy. Subsequent ROI linear regression and ridge regression analyses indicated that the magnitude of this effect increased with age; thus, older individuals with higher IL-6 levels displayed lower white matter integrity. Finally, higher IL-6 levels were related to worse processing speed; this association was moderated by age, and was not fully accounted for by CC volume. This study highlights that at older ages, the association between higher IL-6 levels and lower white matter integrity is more pronounced; furthermore, it underscores the important, albeit burgeoning role of inflammatory processes in cognitive aging trajectories

Muscle volume is related to trabecular and cortical bone architecture in typically developing children

Introduction: Muscle is strongly related to cortical bone architecture in children; however, the relationship between muscle volume and trabecular bone architecture is poorly studied. The aim of this study was to determine if muscle volume is related to trabecular bone architecture in children and if the relationship is different than the relationship between muscle volume and cortical bone architecture. Materials and methods: Forty typically developing children (20 boys and 20 girls; 6 to 12. y) were included in the study. Measures of trabecular bone architecture [i.e., apparent trabecular bone volume to total volume (appBV/TV), trabecular number (appTb.N), trabecular thickness (appTb.Th) and trabecular separation (appTb.Sp)] in the distal femur, cortical bone architecture [cortical volume, total volume, section modulus (Z) and polar moment of inertia (J)] in the midfemur, muscle volume in the midthigh and femur length were assessed using magnetic resonance imaging. Total physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were assessed using an accelerometer-based activity monitor worn around the waist for four days. Calcium intake was assessed using diet records. Relationships among the measures were tested using multiple linear regression analysis. Results: Muscle volume was moderately-to-strongly related to measures of trabecular bone architecture [appBV/TV (r=0.81), appTb.N (r=0.53), appTb.Th (r=0.67), appTb.Sp (r=-0.71); all p0.05). Because muscle volume and femur length were strongly related (r=0.91, p2.77). When muscle volume/femur length2.77 was included in a regression model with femur length, sex, physical activity and calcium intake, muscle volume/femur length2.77 was a significant predictor of appBV/TV, appTb.Th and appTb.Sp (partial r=0.44 to 0.49, p<0.05) and all measures of cortical bone architecture (partial r=0.47 to 0.54; p<0.01). Conclusions: The findings suggest that muscle volume in the midthigh is related to trabecular bone architecture in the distal femur of typically developing children. The relationship is weaker than the relationship between muscle volume in the midthigh and cortical bone architecture in the midfemur, but the discrepancy is driven, in large part, by the greater dependence of cortical bone architecture measures on femur length

Comparing methods suitable for monitoring marine mammals in low visibility conditions during seismic surveys

Funding: This work was supported by the Joint Industry Programme on E&P Sound and Marine Life - Phase III. TAM was partially supported by CEAUL (funded by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, through the project UID/MAT/00006/2013).Loud sound emitted during offshore industrial activities can impact marine mammals. Regulations typically prescribe marine mammal monitoring before and/or during these activities to implement mitigation measures that minimise potential acoustic impacts. Using seismic surveys under low visibility conditions as a case study, we review which monitoring methods are suitable and compare their relative strengths and weaknesses. Passive acoustic monitoring has been implemented as either a complementary or alternative method to visual monitoring in low visibility conditions. Other methods such as RADAR, active sonar and thermal infrared have also been tested, but are rarely recommended by regulatory bodies. The efficiency of the monitoring method(s) will depend on the animal behaviour and environmental conditions, however, using a combination of complementary systems generally improves the overall detection performance. We recommend that the performance of monitoring systems, over a range of conditions, is explored in a modelling framework for a variety of species.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Long-baseline neutrino oscillation physics potential of the DUNE experiment

The sensitivity of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) to neutrino oscillation is determined, based on a full simulation, reconstruction, and event selection of the far detector and a full simulation and parameterized analysis of the near detector. Detailed uncertainties due to the flux prediction, neutrino interaction model, and detector effects are included. DUNE will resolve the neutrino mass ordering to a precision of 5σ, for all ΑCP values, after 2 years of running with the nominal detector design and beam configuration. It has the potential to observe charge-parity violation in the neutrino sector to a precision of 3σ (5σ) after an exposure of 5 (10) years, for 50% of all ΑCP values. It will also make precise measurements of other parameters governing long-baseline neutrino oscillation, and after an exposure of 15 years will achieve a similar sensitivity to sin22θ13 to current reactor experiments