Social Behavior of Offspring Following Prenatal Cocaine Exposure in Rodents: A Comparison with Prenatal Alcohol

Clinical and experimental reports suggest that prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) alters the offsprings’ social interactions with caregivers and conspecifics. Children exposed to prenatal cocaine show deficits in caregiver attachment and play behavior. In animal models, a developmental pattern of effects that range from deficits in play and social interaction during adolescence, to aggressive reactions during competition in adulthood is seen. This review will focus primarily on the effects of PCE on social behaviors involving conspecifics in animal models. Social relationships are critical to the developing organism; maternally directed interactions are necessary for initial survival. Juvenile rats deprived of play behavior, one of the earliest forms of non-mother directed social behaviors in rodents, show deficits in learning tasks and sexual competence. Social behavior is inherently complex. Because the emergence of appropriate social skills involves the interplay between various conceptual and biological facets of behavior and social information, it may be a particularly sensitive measure of prenatal insult. The social behavior surveyed include social interactions, play behavior/fighting, scent marking, and aggressive behavior in the offspring, as well as aspects of maternal behavior. The goal is to determine if there is a consensus of results in the literature with respect to PCE and social behaviors, and to discuss discrepant findings in terms of exposure models, the paradigms, and dependent variables, as well as housing conditions, and the sex and age of the offspring at testing. As there is increasing evidence that deficits in social behavior may be sequelae of developmental exposure alcohol, we compare changes in social behaviors reported for prenatal alcohol with those reported for prenatal cocaine. Shortcomings in the both literatures are identified and addressed in an effort to improve the translational value of future experimentation

Facilitators and Barriers to Implementation of Community-Based Socio-Ecological Approaches to Obesity Prevention Among Cooperative Extension Agents

Perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes of Cooperative Extension Service (CES) Family and Consumer Science (FCS) agents related to the planning and implementation of community-based multi-level ecological obesity prevention strategies were identified through qualitative, exploratory research. Focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted in the five regions of the Louisiana State University CES (LSU AgCenter). Participants included CES FCS Extension agents (n = 35; 97% of agents). Participants were female and responsible for conducting programming in parishes (counties). Thematic analysis of data found principal factors that influenced FCS Extension agents’ perceived ability to plan and implement community-based multi-level obesity prevention approaches to include knowledge of the socio-ecological model, beliefs about roles of CES, funding, human resources, community connectedness, community buy-in, guidance, and internal support. Assessing what FCS agents perceived as barriers and facilitators to implementing community-based obesity prevention approaches provided valuable direction to the state FCS office. Understanding gaps in knowledge, professional development needs, and existing strengths will help make the transition to community-based obesity prevention initiatives more effective. These findings may be beneficial to other CES and public health agencies implementing multi-level, community-based obesity prevention programs in partnership with community coalitions

An Analysis of Equity in Service Provided by the SNAP-Ed Program: A Comparison of Dietary Outcomes among African American and White Participants in Louisiana

Structural racism has contributed to increased poverty, food insecurity, and obesity rates among African Americans relative to Whites. Nutrition education programs should therefore consider how well they serve this population. The objective of this investigation was to assess whether African American and White Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) participants in Louisiana had comparable dietary behavior outcomes by conducting secondary data analysis of previous program evaluations from 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 among African American and White SNAP-Ed participants (n = 434). Variables measured included pre- to post-intervention changes in dietary behaviors (e.g., self-reported consumption frequency of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy, sugar-sweetened beverages, and juice). Statistical analyses included t-tests stratified by race and Pearson’s chi-square test for categories of change in dietary behaviors. In categorical analyses, Whites had increased consumption, and African Americans had decreased consumption of whole grain pasta following SNAP-Ed participation. Among those who did not change consumption patterns following SNAP-Ed participation, African Americans were more likely to consume fruit juice and juice-flavored sugary drinks at a rate above median consumption compared to White participants. Future research should identify how program participation is followed by different dietary behavior outcomes in different races and explore how SNAP-Ed could specifically address barriers to equity

Aplicación móvil bajo la Plataforma Android para la Agenda de Actividades del Centro Cultural ¨Pablo Antonio Cuadra¨, año 2014

Los dispositivos móviles constituyen cada vez más una realidad que ofrece al usuario en un mismo y reducido aparato, funciones de comunicación y procesamiento de datos que van mucho más allá de simples llamadas telefónicas. En el presente proyecto se muestra el análisis y el diseño de una aplicación móvil aunado con un software de escritorio para el Centro Cultural Pablo Antonio Cuadra. Primeramente se dan a conocer historia, objetivos, requerimientos y necesidades del Centro Cultural PAC, los cuales fueron apoyo para la creación de la aplicación móvil y el sistema de escritorio. Luego se detallan los objetivos planteados para estos proyectos y los procedimientos y herramientas utilizadas para el desarrollo de la aplicación móvil y el software de escritorio. Al final se muestra los resultados del análisis y el desarrollo para estos dos proyecto

Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of Hydroxamic Acid-Based Molecular Probes for In Vivo Imaging of Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) in Brain

Hydroxamic acid-based histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) are a class of molecules with therapeutic potential currently reflected in the use of suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA; Vorinostat) to treat cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL). HDACis may have utility beyond cancer therapy, as preclinical studies have ascribed HDAC inhibition as beneficial in areas such as heart disease, diabetes, depression, neurodegeneration, and other disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). However, little is known about the pharmacokinetics (PK) of hydroxamates, particularly with respect to CNS-penetration, distribution, and retention. To explore the rodent and non-human primate (NHP) brain permeability of hydroxamic acid-based HDAC inhibitors using positron emission tomography (PET), we modified the structures of belinostat (PXD101) and panobinostat (LBH-589) to incorporate carbon-11. We also labeled PCI 34051 through carbon isotope substitution. After characterizing the in vitro affinity and efficacy of these compounds across nine recombinant HDAC isoforms spanning Class I and Class II family members, we determined the brain uptake of each inhibitor. Each labeled compound has low uptake in brain tissue when administered intravenously to rodents and NHPs. In rodent studies, we observed that brain accumulation of the radiotracers were unaffected by the pre-administration of unlabeled inhibitors. Knowing that CNS-penetration may be desirable for both imaging applications and therapy, we explored whether a liquid chromatography, tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) method to predict brain penetrance would be an appropriate method to pre-screen compounds (hydroxamic acid-based HDACi) prior to PET radiolabeling. LC-MS-MS data were indeed useful in identifying additional lead molecules to explore as PET imaging agents to visualize HDAC enzymes in vivo. However, HDACi brain penetrance predicted by LC-MS-MS did not strongly correlate with PET imaging results. This underscores the importance of in vivo PET imaging tools in characterizing putative CNS drug lead compounds and the continued need to discover effect PET tracers for neuroepigenetic imaging.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog

Decapitation in Rats: Latency to Unconsciousness and the ‘Wave of Death’

The question whether decapitation is a humane method of euthanasia in awake animals is being debated. To gather arguments in this debate, obsolete rats were decapitated while recording the EEG, both of awake rats and of anesthetized rats. Following decapitation a fast and global loss of power of the EEG was observed; the power in the 13–100 Hz frequency band, expressing cognitive activity, decreased according to an exponential decay function to half the initial value within 4 seconds. Whereas the pre-decapitation EEG of the anesthetized animals showed a burst suppression pattern quite different from the awake animals, the power in the postdecapitation EEG did not differ between the two groups. This might indicate that either the power of the EEG does not correlate well with consciousness or that consciousness is briefly regained in the anesthetized group after decapitation. Remarkably, after 50 seconds (awake group) or 80 seconds (anesthetized group) following decapitation, a high amplitude slow wave was observed. The EEG before this wave had more power than the signal after the wave. This wave might be due to a simultaneous massive loss of membrane potentials of the neurons. Still functioning ion channels, which keep the membrane potential intact before the wave, might explain the observed power difference. Two conclusions were drawn from this experiment. It is likely that consciousness vanishes within seconds after decapitation, implying that decapitation is a quick and not an inhumane method of euthanasia. It seems that the massive wave which can be recorded approximately one minute after decapitation reflects the ultimate border between life and death. This observation might have implications in the discussions on the appropriate time for organ donation

Sex Differences in Ethanol Intake and Sensitivity to Aversive Effects during Adolescence and Adulthood

Aims: The present experiments examined sex differences in ethanol intake and in the influence of a social context on aversive properties of ethanol in adolescent and adult Sprague-Dawley rats. Methods: Experiment 1 examined ethanol intake, with animals receiving daily 2-h access to ethanol and water for 8 days. Experiment 2 assessed the aversive effects of ethanol using a conditioned taste aversion (CTA) paradigm, with animals placed either alone or with a same-sex, same-age peer during the ethanol intoxication phase of conditioning. Results: Ethanol intake varied with both age and sex, although the sex differences emerging at each age were opposite in nature. Adolescent males consumed more ethanol relative to their body weights than adolescent females and adults of both sexes, whereas adult females generally consumed more than adult males. The CTA test revealed no sex differences in aversive effects of ethanol in adults, whereas adolescent males were less sensitive to the aversive properties of ethanol than adolescent females when intoxication occurred in the presence of a peer. Ethanol-induced CTA was evident in adults at lower doses than in adolescents. Conclusions: These results suggest that age differences in ethanol intake in males and sex differences in intake during adolescence may be associated in part with the relative insensitivity of the male adolescents to ethanol's aversive properties, especially when intoxication occurred in a social context. However, the elevated ethanol intake observed in adult females relative to their male counterparts appears to be unrelated to the aversive properties of ethanol