L.A. River Project

A field note that reflected the artists\u27 experience of the city and the making of art through an activity at the L.A. River

Erin Payne MFA Thesis Statement

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Scapular Stabilizer Force Output Measurements in Collegiate Softball Players Over the Course of Fall, Non-traditional Season

Please enjoy Volume 6, Issue 1 of the JSMAHS. In this issue, you will find Professional, Graduate, and Undergraduate research abstracts, and case reports. Thank you for viewing this 6th Annual OATA Special Edition

MEMS 411: The Water Bike

This design project explored the concept of a bike that can float on water and be used to assist lifeguards in rescues. The goal was for it to be quickly converted from a road to water configuration and be quick and stable enough to be a useful tool in saving drowning swimmers

Genetic Studies of Salivary Cortisol Profiles and their Influence on Chronic Disease Risk Factors.

A growing body of work has examined the contribution of stress to various health outcomes. The hormone cortisol is likely a key mediator of the stress response that influences multiple physiologic systems that are involved in common chronic disease (e.g. cardiovascular system, immune system, metabolism). An individual’s daily cortisol response (e.g. waking, peak, end of day) has been shown to be patterned by race/ethnicity as well as socioeconomic factors. Despite evidence of associations of various risk factors with cortisol levels, considerable intra- and inter-individual variability in cortisol remains unexplained. Alone or through interaction with environmental features, genetic factors could contribute to unexplained variability in cortisol concentrations or cortisol responsivity. Furthermore, genetic factors may influence how cortisol affects a wide range of anthropometric, metabolic, and inflammatory processes underlying chronic disease risk. In this dissertation, both a gene-based approach and a genome-wide association study (GWAS) were used to investigate genetic contributions to cortisol variability and its physiological effects in a sample of European Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). The sequence kernel association test (SKAT) was used for gene-based analysis. In the gene-based analysis of six stress response genes, we found that three genes had significant influence on cortisol features in at least one ethnic group. Only one gene, SLC6A4, had a significant effect across ethnic groups in meta-analysis (p < 0.05). Extending this work to an analysis of gene-by-cortisol interaction effects on BMI, glucose, and inflammatory factors, we used SKAT and its interaction based extension to identify four genes (ADRB2, NR3C1, NR3C2, SLC6A4) that have significant evidence of interaction with cortisol features to influence anthropometric, metabolic, and inflammatory markers (p < 0.05). In GWAS, we found 18 regions with p < 1x10-6 across the seven cortisol features evaluated in the three ethnic groups. Meta-analyses across ethnic groups identified only five genomic regions with p < 5x10-6; none of the GWAS results replicated in meta-analysis. Overall, this dissertation illustrates that genetic analyses across ethnic groups can provide new insights into the role of genes in cortisol features and their relationship with chronic disease risk factors.PhDEpidemiological ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99825/1/payneer_1.pd

Apolipoprotein E4 Genotype Increases the Risk of Being Diagnosed With Posttraumatic Fibromyalgia

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146974/1/pmr2193.pd

Memory for Semantically Related and Unrelated Declarative Information: The Benefit of Sleep, the Cost of Wake

Numerous studies have examined sleep's influence on a range of hippocampus-dependent declarative memory tasks, from text learning to spatial navigation. In this study, we examined the impact of sleep, wake, and time-of-day influences on the processing of declarative information with strong semantic links (semantically related word pairs) and information requiring the formation of novel associations (unrelated word pairs). Participants encoded a set of related or unrelated word pairs at either 9am or 9pm, and were then tested after an interval of 30 min, 12 hr, or 24 hr. The time of day at which subjects were trained had no effect on training performance or initial memory of either word pair type. At 12 hr retest, memory overall was superior following a night of sleep compared to a day of wakefulness. However, this performance difference was a result of a pronounced deterioration in memory for unrelated word pairs across wake; there was no sleep-wake difference for related word pairs. At 24 hr retest, with all subjects having received both a full night of sleep and a full day of wakefulness, we found that memory was superior when sleep occurred shortly after learning rather than following a full day of wakefulness. Lastly, we present evidence that the rate of deterioration across wakefulness was significantly diminished when a night of sleep preceded the wake period compared to when no sleep preceded wake, suggesting that sleep served to stabilize the memories against the deleterious effects of subsequent wakefulness. Overall, our results demonstrate that 1) the impact of 12 hr of waking interference on memory retention is strongly determined by word-pair type, 2) sleep is most beneficial to memory 24 hr later if it occurs shortly after learning, and 3) sleep does in fact stabilize declarative memories, diminishing the negative impact of subsequent wakefulness

Experiences during the first four years of a postpartum perineal clinic in the USA

ObjectiveTo assess the characteristics of patients seen at a postpartum perineal clinic in the USA during the first 4 years of its existence, and to identify factors contributing to the clinic’s success.MethodsIn a retrospective study, the charts of patients presenting to the clinic between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2011, were reviewed for presenting complaint, findings, treatment, number of visits, and referral source. Strategies that led to successful clinic implementation were reviewed.ResultsA total of 247 patients were seen during the 4‐year period. Indications for referral included lacerations, pain, urinary and fecal incontinence, and fistulas. The most common referral indication was a third‐ or fourth‐degree laceration, which affected 154 (62.3%) patients. Overall, 53 (21.5%) patients required a procedure, of whom 20 (8.1%) underwent surgery. Most women were counseled about pelvic floor exercises, and 39 (15.8%) were referred for pelvic floor physical therapy. Nurse‐led triage, patient education, and follow‐up were key to the success of the program.ConclusionThe postpartum perineal clinic is sustainable and offers an opportunity for early assessment and treatment of pelvic floor dysfunction after a complicated vaginal delivery.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135192/1/ijgo68.pd