Three essays on economic influences for meal decisions

This dissertation focuses on two relationships: how wages and the value of time influence the decisions to spend time preparing food and eating meals, and how government food subsidies affect the types of foods that children in a household eat. Although time spent preparing food and eating regular daily meals are both known to be important to health, past research has not made it clear how increased wages may affect those decisions. In the first essay, I develop a stylized model that illustrates how higher wages may reduce meal production time but have ambiguous effects on meal consumption time. I then examine relationships using time diary information from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) supplemented with wage information from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Using standard and censored regression models, analyses indicate that for meal production time, women experience a negative effect from wages on weekdays, as predicted by theory, and no effect on weekends. However, men show no weekday effect and a surprising positive effect of wages on weekends, suggesting that men with a high value of weekday time may substitute weekend meal production time for weekday time. Higher wages are associated with more meal consumption time for both men and women on weekdays and weekends, indicating that consumption time is a normal good. The second essay combines detailed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) on eating behaviors with wages imputed using the CPS. These allow estimation of multivariate Probit and multiple Probit models for the probability that men and women will eat each of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks on weekdays and weekends. Increased wages are associated with increased probabilities of all three meals for both women and men on weekdays, with a significant effect for breakfast for men. However, on weekends, women with higher wages are less likely to eat all three meals, particularly dinner. Similarly, although higher wage men may still be more likely to eat breakfast and dinner on weekends, they are significantly less likely to eat lunch. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the School Breakfast Program (SBP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) appear to increase food consumption among households generally and among their intended beneficiaries, much less is known about whether they help other household members. The third essay {joint with David Ribar} uses 2002-2003 data from the second Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine the relationship between households' participation in the SNAP, SBP, NLSP, and WIC and individual 10 - 17 year-old children's consumption of particular food items. Analyses indicate that WIC participation by others in the household is associated with a 22 percent increase in breakfast consumption of milk and a 16 percent increase in breakfast consumption of cereal for the children in the sample, while WIC is associated with a 13 percent decrease in toast consumption. Participation in school meals is also associated with increased consumption of some foods, particularly juice, fruit, and sweet snacks. Household SNAP participation is estimated to have positive associations with some foods but negative associations with others

A qualitative exploration of mattering and belonging in the transfer student experience

Limited research has been conducted on how students' experiences at the colleges in which they initially enroll factor into the decision of where to transfer once a decision to leave the initial institution is made. This study addresses the issue in a context of mattering and belonging among college students. The data analyzed for this qualitative study were gathered through one individual interview and three electronic mail reflection prompts with each of the participants. The results show that for first-generation students the idea that a college degree would lead to a better life than their parents had motivated them to continue with their higher education by transferring instead of dropping out altogether. The amount of financial aid offered to students is important in making the decision of where to enroll for both initial and transfer institutions. When a decision between two campuses is being considered, the institution offering the most financial aid tends to be the one chosen. How positive or negative social interactions are for students at their initial institutions play a role in their expectations for such interactions at a transfer institution. Students who experienced negative social interactions at the initial institution sought more positive social connections at their transfer institutions. Upon transferring, the students found they were more focused on their academic programs, both in terms of identifying a major field of study and in connecting with the faculty members. Regarding the importance of faculty in how students perceive whether or not they matter or belong at an institution, the study shows that negative interactions are likely to drive students away, while positive ones will encourage students and make them feel more like they are part of the campus community. Through this study, it was discovered that despite a student's feelings of being in the right place, sometimes situations arise that are beyond their control. These situations may force a student to leave an institution in which they have felt a strong sense of fit and that they belonged there

Shaping perceptions of musical identity: an ethnography of non-music majors' experiences in an undergraduate music course focused on cultivating creativity

The purpose of this study was to investigate what "being a musician" means in an innovative, improvisation-based music course. Participants in this study were non-music majors enrolled in the course, MUS 2022: Cultivating Creativity through Music. Instructor and creator of the course, Dr. Liz Rose, Associate Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, was also a study participant. By studying the classroom culture as it evolved throughout the semester, and by reflecting on the experiences of students enrolled in the course, I was able to gain an understanding of how students make meaning of their experiences with creativity and improvisation. By focusing on regularly recurring classroom practices, teacher and student behaviors, and socially constructed meanings of musicianship in the classroom, I present an idea of what `being a musician' means in this particular classroom of students who have varying degrees of formal training in music. Several forms of data were collected, including participant observation, analysis of video-recorded class sessions, individual interviews with student and teacher participants, focus group interviews with students, analysis of student assignments and reflections, and examination of course documents. To find emergent patterns and themes relating to participants' acquisition of meaning throughout course experiences, field notes, observations, and interview texts were reviewed multiple times. Students enrolled in MUS 2022 felt that being a musician in this particular classroom community meant expressing themselves, taking risks, and recognizing the musician within self and others, regardless of the extent of previous musical experiences or formal musical training

UBE2QL1 is Disrupted by a Constitutional Translocation Associated with Renal Tumor Predisposition and is a Novel Candidate Renal Tumor Suppressor Gene

Investigation of rare familial forms of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has led to the identification of genes such as VHL and MET that are also implicated in the pathogenesis of sporadic RCC. In order to identify a novel candidate renal tumor suppressor gene, we characterized the breakpoints of a constitutional balanced translocation, t(5;19)(p15.3;q12), associated with familial RCC and found that a previously uncharacterized gene UBE2QL1 was disrupted by the chromosome 5 breakpoint. UBE2QL1 mRNA expression was downregulated in 78.6% of sporadic RCC and, although no intragenic mutations were detected, gene deletions and promoter region hypermethylation were detected in 17.3% and 20.3%, respectively, of sporadic RCC. Reexpression of UBE2QL1 in a deficient RCC cell line suppressed anchorage-independent growth. UBE2QL1 shows homology to the E2 class of ubiquitin conjugating enzymes and we found that (1) UBE2QL1 possesses an active-site cysteine (C88) that is monoubiquitinated in vivo, and (2) UBE2QL1 interacts with FBXW7 (an F box protein providing substrate recognition to the SCF E3 ubiquitin ligase) and facilitates the degradation of the known FBXW7 targets, CCNE1 and mTOR. These findings suggest UBE2QL1 as a novel candidate renal tumor suppressor gen

Is Individually-Targeted Food Assistance Shared among Family Members?

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the School Breakfast Program (SBP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) share a common goal of helping people with limited financial means obtain better diets than they could otherwise afford, but the programs differ in terms of the groups that they target and the types of assistance they provide. While the pro-grams appear to increase food consumption among households generally and among their intended beneficiaries, we know much less about whether they help other people. This investigation uses 2002-2003 data from the second Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine the relationship between households’ participation in the SNAP, SBP, NLSP, and WIC and individual 10 - 17 year-old children’s consumption of particular food items. Our analyses indicate that WIC participation by others in the household is associated with a 22 percent in-crease in breakfast consumption of milk and a 16 percent increase in breakfast consumption of cereal for the children in our sample, while WIC is associated with a 13 percent decrease in toast consumption. Participation in school meals is also associated with increased consumption of some foods, particularly juice, fruit, and sweet snacks. Household SNAP participation is estimated to have positive associations with some foods but negative associations with others

Cirsium species show disparity in patterns of genetic variation at their range-edge, despite similar patterns of reproduction and isolation

Genetic variation was assessed across the UK geographical range of Cirsium acaule and Cirsium heterophyllum. A decline in genetic diversity and increase in population divergence approaching the range edge of these species was predicted based on parallel declines in population density and seed production reported seperately. Patterns were compared with UK populations of the widespread Cirsium arvense.Populations were sampled along a latitudinal transect in the UK and genetic variation assessed using microsatellite markers. Cirsium acaule shows strong isolation by distance, a significant decline in diversity and an increase in divergence among range-edge populations. Geographical structure is also evident in C. arvense, whereas no such patterns are seen in C.heterophyllum. There is a major disparity between patterns of genetic variation in C. acaule and C. heterophyllum despite very similar patterns in seed production and population isolation in these species. This suggests it may be misleading to make assumptions about the geographical structure of genetic variation within species based solely on the present-day reproduction and distribution of populations

Performance of a wearable acoustic system for fetal movement discrimination

Fetal movements (FM) are a key factor in clinical management of high-risk pregnancies such as fetal growth restriction. While maternal perception of reduced FM can trigger self-referral to obstetric services, maternal sensation is highly subjective. Objective, reliable monitoring of fetal movement patterns outside clinical environs is not currently possible. A wearable and non-transmitting system capable of sensing fetal movements over extended periods of time would be extremely valuable, not only for monitoring individual fetal health, but also for establishing normal levels of movement in the population at large. Wearable monitors based on accelerometers have previously been proposed as a means of tracking FM, but such systems have difficulty separating maternal and fetal activity and have not matured to the level of clinical use. We introduce a new wearable system based on a novel combination of accelerometers and bespoke acoustic sensors as well as an advanced signal processing architecture to identify and discriminate between types of fetal movements. We validate the system with concurrent ultrasound tests on a cohort of 44 pregnant women and demonstrate that the garment is capable of both detecting and discriminating the vigorous, whole-body ‘startle’ movements of a fetus. These results demonstrate the promise of multimodal sensing for the development of a low-cost, non-transmitting wearable monitor for fetal movements

Belief Revision and Delusions: How Do Patients with Schizophrenia Take Advice?

The dominant cognitive model that accounts for the persistence of delusional beliefs in schizophrenia postulates that patients suffer from a general deficit in belief revision. It is generally assumed that this deficit is a consequence of impaired reasoning skills. However, the possibility that such inflexibility affects the entire system of a patient's beliefs has rarely been empirically tested. Using delusion-neutral material in a well-documented advice-taking task, the present study reports that patients with schizophrenia: 1) revise their beliefs, 2) take into account socially provided information to do so, 3) are not overconfident about their judgments, and 4) show less egocentric advice-discounting than controls. This study thus shows that delusional patients' difficulty in revising beliefs is more selective than had been previously assumed. The specificities of the task and the implications for a theory of delusion formation are discussed

Antarctic ice sheet discharge driven by atmosphere-ocean feedbacks at the Last Glacial Termination.

Reconstructing the dynamic response of the Antarctic ice sheets to warming during the Last Glacial Termination (LGT; 18,000-11,650 yrs ago) allows us to disentangle ice-climate feedbacks that are key to improving future projections. Whilst the sequence of events during this period is reasonably well-known, relatively poor chronological control has precluded precise alignment of ice, atmospheric and marine records, making it difficult to assess relationships between Antarctic ice-sheet (AIS) dynamics, climate change and sea level. Here we present results from a highly-resolved 'horizontal ice core' from the Weddell Sea Embayment, which records millennial-scale AIS dynamics across this extensive region. Counterintuitively, we find AIS mass-loss across the full duration of the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR; 14,600-12,700 yrs ago), with stabilisation during the subsequent millennia of atmospheric warming. Earth-system and ice-sheet modelling suggests these contrasting trends were likely Antarctic-wide, sustained by feedbacks amplified by the delivery of Circumpolar Deep Water onto the continental shelf. Given the anti-phase relationship between inter-hemispheric climate trends across the LGT our findings demonstrate that Southern Ocean-AIS feedbacks were controlled by global atmospheric teleconnections. With increasing stratification of the Southern Ocean and intensification of mid-latitude westerly winds today, such teleconnections could amplify AIS mass loss and accelerate global sea-level rise

Synergy between EngE, XynA and ManA from Clostridium cellulovorans on corn stalk, grass and pineapple pulp substrates

The synergistic interaction between various hemi/cellulolytic enzymes has become more important in order to achieve effective and optimal degradation of complex lignocellulose substrates for biofuel production. This study investigated the synergistic effect of three enzymes endoglucanase (EngE), mannanase (ManA) and xylanase (XynA) on the degradation of corn stalk, grass, and pineapple fruit pulp and determined the optimal degree of synergy between combinations of these enzymes. It was established that EngE was essential for degradation of all of the substrates, while the hemicellulases were able to contribute in a synergistic fashion to increase the activity on these substrates. Maximum specific activity and degree of synergy on the corn stalk and grass was found with EngE:XynA in a ratio of 75:25%, with a specific activity of 41.1 U/mg protein and a degree of synergy of 6.3 for corn stalk, and 44.1 U/mg protein and 3.4 for grass, respectively. The pineapple fruit pulp was optimally digested using a ManA:EngE combination in a 50:50% ratio; the specific activity and degree of synergy achieved were 52.4 U/mg protein and 2.7, respectively. This study highlights the importance of hemicellulases for the synergistic degradation of complex lignocellulose. The inclusion of a mannanase in an enzyme consortium for biomass degradation should be examined further as this study suggests that it may play an important, although mostly overlooked, role in the synergistic saccharification of lignocellulose