The Effects of Greater Dietary Protein Spread and Quality on Muscle Health in Healthy Adults

Skeletal muscle is critically important, but is often overlooked, not getting the respect or attention the tissue demands. Muscle is responsible for locomotion and physical performance, uses large amount of energy preventing gains in fat mass, and acts as an amino acid reservoir during trauma. Nonetheless, as individuals age, they lose muscle and to a greater extent strength. Maintaining muscle mass and strength is paramount for preventing disability and mortality. There are many aspects of diet that affect muscle tissue, but dietary protein directly activates muscle protein synthesis, so is important to consider as part of a balanced diet. Research regarding dietary protein intake has focused on the amount of protein consumed, but the quality and distribution of dietary protein also determines the body?s anabolic response. Two different cross-sectional studies were completed to determine the associations between dietary protein intake and muscular performance. Dietary intake was measured using three-day food diaries. Isokinetic dynamometry determined lower-body strength and endurance. Handgrip strength measured upper-body strength. Dual x-ray absorptiometry evaluated lean body mass. Thirty-second chair stand and six-meter gait speed tests determined functional ability. Self-reported age and moderate-to-vigorous physical activty, assessed via accelerometry, were included in all models as covariates. Increased intake of higher quality proteins from animal sources was positively associated with lower-body strength (? ? S.E.; 65.874?19.855, p =0.001), lower-body endurance (549.944?232.478, p =0.020), and handgrip strength (0.349?0.171, p = 0.045) in the cross-sectional sample of 91 middle-aged men (n=41) and women (n=50) when controlling for relative energy intake and percent energy from the macronutrients. Using another sample of 192 women 18 to 79 years, achieving intakes of at 25 grams per meal was positively associated with lean mass (1.067?0.273 kg, p<0.001) and upper-body (3.274?0.737 kg, p<0.001) and lower-body strength (22.858?7.918 Nm, p=0.004) controlling for relative energy intake and percent of energy from protein. In a subgroup of this sample aged 61-79, animal-based protein intake was related to increased lower-body strength (14.834?7.287 Nm, p=0.049) and faster gait speed (-0.177?0.087 s, p=0.049). To benefit muscle and performance, people should strive to consume enough high-quality protein at each meal

Increasing occurrence of cold and warm extremes during the recent global warming slowdown.

The recent levelling of global mean temperatures after the late 1990s, the so-called global warming hiatus or slowdown, ignited a surge of scientific interest into natural global mean surface temperature variability, observed temperature biases, and climate communication, but many questions remain about how these findings relate to variations in more societally relevant temperature extremes. Here we show that both summertime warm and wintertime cold extreme occurrences increased over land during the so-called hiatus period, and that these increases occurred for distinct reasons. The increase in cold extremes is associated with an atmospheric circulation pattern resembling the warm Arctic-cold continents pattern, whereas the increase in warm extremes is tied to a pattern of sea surface temperatures resembling the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. These findings indicate that large-scale factors responsible for the most societally relevant temperature variations over continents are distinct from those of global mean surface temperature

Research Panel: Monetary Compensation of Full-Time Faculty at American Public Regional Universities: The Impact of Geography and the Existence of Collective Bargaining

This work builds upon an analysis of regional universities that began in 2009, to build a geographically-based, quantifiable definition of the nation\u27s regional universities. It builds on efforts begun by Katsinas (1993) to geographically map access oriented community colleges, which resulted in the geographic coding of Associate\u27s Colleges as part of the 2005 and 2010 Basic Classification of Institutions of Higher Education published by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Katsinas, Lacey, & Hardy, 2005). Key findings 1. Wide variation in salaries and fringe benefits based upon geographic region served. 2. Wide variation in salaries and fringe benefits based if collective bargaining exists. 3. Access institutions need a 21st century classification scheme to reflect mission, workloa

Research Panel: Monetary Compensation of Full-Time Faculty at American Public Regional Universities: The Impact of Geography and the Existence of Collective Bargaining

This work builds upon an analysis of regional universities that began in 2009, to build a geographically-based, quantifiable definition of the nation\u27s regional universities. It builds on efforts begun by Katsinas (1993) to geographically map access oriented community colleges, which resulted in the geographic coding of Associate\u27s Colleges as part of the 2005 and 2010 Basic Classification of Institutions of Higher Education published by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Katsinas, Lacey, & Hardy, 2005). Key findings 1. Wide variation in salaries and fringe benefits based upon geographic region served. 2. Wide variation in salaries and fringe benefits based if collective bargaining exists. 3. Access institutions need a 21st century classification scheme to reflect mission, workloa

Christian Themes in German Fairy Tales

This research attempts to locate and identify Christian motifs in German fairy tales based on the research of Ronald Murphy in The Owl, the Raven and the Dove (2002). We selected 12 stories from the famous book by the Brothers Grimm, Kinder und Haus Märchen, and analyzed them in order to find direct and indirect Christian values and morals. The Germanic culture is historically grounded in Christian ideology; therefore, folk tales throughout the centuries included Christian themes as a means of infusing the culture with Biblical concepts, and to serve as a conduit for teaching Christian values. This is apparent in the fairy tales that we analyzed. Our research reveals various and varied Christian and moral motifs

Bar coding MS2 spectra for metabolite identification

[Image: see text] Metabolite identifications are most frequently achieved in untargeted metabolomics by matching precursor mass and full, high-resolution MS(2) spectra to metabolite databases and standards. Here we considered an alternative approach for establishing metabolite identifications that does not rely on full, high-resolution MS(2) spectra. First, we select mass-to-charge regions containing the most informative metabolite fragments and designate them as bins. We then translate each metabolite fragmentation pattern into a binary code by assigning 1’s to bins containing fragments and 0’s to bins without fragments. With 20 bins, this binary-code system is capable of distinguishing 96% of the compounds in the METLIN MS(2) library. A major advantage of the approach is that it extends untargeted metabolomics to low-resolution triple quadrupole (QqQ) instruments, which are typically less expensive and more robust than other types of mass spectrometers. We demonstrate a method of acquiring MS(2) data in which the third quadrupole of a QqQ instrument cycles over 20 wide isolation windows (coinciding with the location and width of our bins) for each precursor mass selected by the first quadrupole. Operating the QqQ instrument in this mode yields diagnostic bar codes for each precursor mass that can be matched to the bar codes of metabolite standards. Furthermore, our data suggest that using low-resolution bar codes enables QqQ instruments to make MS(2)-based identifications in untargeted metabolomics with a specificity and sensitivity that is competitive to high-resolution time-of-flight technologies

The Impact of Family Stressors on the Social Development of Adolescents Admitted to a Residential Treatment Facility

The focus of this research was to determine the impact of family stressors on the social development of adolescents at admission to long-term mental health residential care. The study was conducted at the Waco Center for Youth, the only long-term residential care agency serving emotionally and behaviorally challenged adolescents and their families that functions under the authority of the Texas Department of State Health Services. Data was obtained from social assessment forms (N=457) in case records of clients. The prevalence of problem behaviors exhibited by the youth upon entry to the residential facility was examined and it was found that the youth entering the facility were experiencing severe impairment in their social development across several domains. Results indicated that youth with more family stressors exhibited significantly greater impairment in their social development (b = .19, p = .000) which suggests that the combination of multiple stressors within a family inhibits adolescent social development. The research supports a family systems approach to treatment that focuses on building family strengths and actively involving family in the intervention process

Monetary Compensation of Full-Time Faculty at American Public Regional Universities: The Impact of Geography and the Existence of Collective Bargaining

This paper examines monetary compensation of 127,222 full-time faculty employed by the 390 regional universities in the United States who are members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. Compensation data published by the U.S. Department of Education and organizations concerned with faculty, including the American Association of University Professors and others, typically lump all four-year public university faculty together, ignoring well-known differences in teaching workloads at different types of public four-year universities (four instead of two courses taught each term, etc.). Further, many compensation studies do not examine fringe benefits, which are 30 percent of total monetary compensation. Regional universities serve nearly 4 million students nationwide, and are highly committed to be good stewards of place. They are worthy of study as a separate institutional type on their own. As large numbers of “baby boom” era faculty at regional universities approach retirement, an accurate base-line assessment of total monetary compensation (salaries and fringe benefits) is important. This study examines (1) salaries and fringe benefits, (2) includes the entire universe of U.S. regional universities, (3) examines differences by geographic peer institutional types, and (4) examines if the presence or lack of collective bargaining matters. The 2011 Human Resources Survey from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System is the most recent year for which both salary and fringe benefits data are available. The 390 regional universities were divided into seven sub-types: Rural-Small, Rural-Medium, Rural-Large, Suburban Smaller, Suburban Larger, Urban Smaller, and Urban Larger. Katsinas’ geographically-based classification scheme of regional universities (2016, forthcoming), similar to the geographically-based 2005 and 2010 Carnegie Basic Classification of Associate’s Colleges on which he was lead author, was used. The average total monetary compensation for the 127,222 full-time faculty employed by the 390 regional universities was $97,174, of which$71,348 came in the form of salaries and $25,828 in fringe benefits. The 15,872 full-time faculty employed by the 90 Rural-Medium regional universities received on average$84,720 in salaries and fringe benefits, while the 18,884 faculty employed by the 42 Suburban-Larger regional universities received $101,366. In general, full-time faculty at the 55 Suburban regional faculty were highest paid, closely followed by faculty at the 74 urban regional universities, with faculty at the 261 rural regional universities well behind. The range of monetary compensation across the seven sub-categories of regional universities was large--and this one-year difference of nearly$17,000 is magnified further when considered over an entire 30-plus year teaching career, adjusted for inflation. The differences are even wider when the presence or lack of collective bargaining is considered. Among the 127, 222 full-time faculty at regional universities, 74,468 or 63% worked at the 219 institutions in the 30 states that in 2011 had collective bargaining (as reported in the 2012 Directory of Collective Bargaining published by the National Center for Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions), while 52,754 or 37% were employed at the 171 regional universities in the 20 states that did not. Full-time faculty at rural, suburban, and urban regional universities with collective bargaining received on average $92,407,$116,353, and $108,399 in total monetary compensation in FY2011; this compared to averages of$82,722, $84,813, and$86,594 at rural, suburban, and urban regional universities without. This study revealed that regional universities, currently spread across many subcategories of doctoral, master’s, and baccalaureate universities within the Carnegie Basic Classification universe, deserve analysis in their own right

Prospectus, November 20, 1996

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1996/1030/thumbnail.jp