Say That To The Anorexic Girl : Eating Disorders and America’s Next Top Model

Today, reality television stars often become heroes to children. One such hero type is young women with ideal but unrealistic thin bodies that the show America’s Next Top Model for instance exalts. But stick-thin women should be one of the last types of heroes our society should encourage our children glorifying. My presentation will demonstrate how this show sends a contradictory message about the female body: it idealizes thin female bodies while ostensibly advocating good health and high self-esteem as well as giving warning about the dangers of eating disorders. I argue that the show’s hypocritical promotion of the internalization of the thin body ideal of women and the careless neglect of untreated eating disorders cause great harm to young teen American girls

The North Dakota Experience: Achieving High-Performance Health Care Through Rural Innovation and Cooperation

Explores how North Dakota has met the healthcare challenges of rural communities with support for primary care and the idea of a medical home, organization of care through coordination and cooperation networks, and the innovative use of technology

Measuring gender equality in education: Lessons from 43 countries

Through the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), governments committed to achieving universal secondary school completion, including eliminating gender disparities, by 2030. The period from 1997 to 2014 saw considerable progress in closing gender gaps in school enrollment and attainment in many, but not all, low- and middle-income countries. However, as this research brief explains, claims that gender parity in primary education now exists are premature, especially in the poorest countries and new gender gaps, or gender-related challenges, may emerge as attainment increases. Moreover, the extremely low levels of secondary school enrollment—and even moreso completion—demonstrate that the SDG target of universal secondary school completion is likely more aspirational than realistic without dramatic increases in investments in education in these settings. The report concludes that improvements in the overall quality of education systems have proven even more elusive than improvements in attainment and gender parity, to the detriment of both boys and girls

SBIR/STTR COMMERCIALIZATION PHASE III: TRANSITION BARRIERS

The purpose of this mixed methods research project is to identify causes of the valley of death that prevent small businesses and the Department of the Air Force organization, AFWERX, from achieving a successful Small Business Innovative Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Phase III transition.Specifically, what are the causes and the potential solutions to barriers preventing small businesses and acquisition professionals from achieving Phase III transitions within the AFWERX organization and what are the current Phase III reporting practices and are there potential gaps in data collection?The results from the questionnaires and interviews show there are specific areas that can be addressed to eliminate some of the barriers this research identifies. Specifically, advocating for the recent Congressional proposed reform to the Planning, Budgeting, Programming, and Execution Model to address funding gaps and enhance agility in acquiring current technologies such as the creation of an agile innovation fund. Additionally, research emphasizes increasing awareness and understanding of Phase III among all stakeholders within the Department of the Air Force.There is an ongoing emphasis within the DAF on accurately recording Phase III awards in the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation, which serves as the federal government's data repository. A recommendation to FPDS-NG requests an additional field be added to better track the progress of Phase III awards.Distribution Statement A. Approved for public release: Distribution is unlimited.Civilian, Department of the Air ForceCivilian, Department of the Air ForceCivilian, Department of the Air Forc

Naturopathic Physician Attitudes and Practices for Vaccination and Primary Care in the State of Vermont

Introduction: Recent increase in measles cases has sparked vaccination controversy. Naturopathic physicians (NDs) have been recognized as primary care providers by VT since 2012. It is not well understood how NDs address vaccination with patients. Our goal was to determine how Vermont NDs address vaccines and preventative care with their patients.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1234/thumbnail.jp

Comparative effectiveness trial comparing MyPlate to calorie counting for mostly low-income Latino primary care patients of a federally qualified community health center: study design, baseline characteristics.

BackgroundPrimary care-based behavior change obesity treatment has long featured the Calorie restriction (CC), portion control approach. By contrast, the MyPlate-based obesity treatment approach encourages eating more high-satiety/high-satiation foods and requires no calorie-counting. This report describes study methods of a comparative effectiveness trial of CC versus MyPlate. It also describes baseline findings involving demographic characteristics and their associations with primary outcome measures and covariates, including satiety/satiation, dietary quality and acculturation.MethodsA comparative effectiveness trial was designed to compare the CC approach (n = 130) versus a MyPlate-based approach (n = 131) to treating patient overweight. Intervenors were trained community health workers. The 11 intervention sessions included two in-home health education sessions, two group education sessions, and seven telephone coaching sessions. Questionnaire and anthropometric assessments occurred at baseline, 6- and 12 months; food frequency questionnaires were administered at baseline and 12 months. Participants were overweight adult primary care patients of a federally qualified health center in Long Beach, California. Two measures of satiety/satiation and one measure of post-meal hunger comprised the primary outcome measures. Secondary outcomes included weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, dietary quality, sugary beverage intake, water intake, fruit and vegetable fiber intake, mental health and health-related quality of life. Covariates included age, gender, nativity status (U.S.-born, not U.S.-born), race/ethnicity, education, and acculturation.AnalysisBaseline characteristics were compared using chi square tests. Associations between covariates and outcome measures were evaluated using multiple regression and logistic regression.ResultsTwo thousand eighty-six adult patients were screened, yielding 261 enrollees who were 86% Latino, 8% African American, 4% White and 2% Other. Women predominated (95%). Mean age was 42 years. Most (82%) were foreign-born; 74% chose the Spanish language option. Mean BMI was 33.3 kg/m2; mean weight was 82 kg; mean waist circumference was 102 cm. Mean blood pressure was 122/77 mm. Study arms on key baseline measures did not differ except on dietary quality and sugary beverage intake. Nativity status was significantly associated with dietary quality.ConclusionsThe two treatment arms were well-balanced demographically at baseline. Nativity status is inversely related to dietary quality.Trial registrationNCT02514889 , posted on 8/4/2015

Utilizing an Electronic Feeder to Measure Individual Mineral Intake, Feeding Behavior, and Growth Performance of Cow–Calf Pairs Grazing Native Range

Crossbred Angus cow–calf pairs (n = 28 pairs) at the Central Grasslands Research Extension Center (Streeter, North Dakota) were used to evaluate an electronic feeder to monitor individual mineral intake and feeding behavior and their relationship with growth performance and liver mineral concentrations. Cows and calves were fitted with radio frequency identification ear tags that allowed access to an electronic feeder (SmartFeed system; C-Lock Inc., Rapid City, South Dakota) and were provided ad libitum minerals (Purina Wind and Rain Storm, Land O’Lakes, Inc., Arden Hills, MN). Mineral intake, number of visits, and duration at the feeder were recorded over a 95-d monitoring period while pairs were grazing native range. Liver biopsies were collected from a subset of cows on the final day of monitoring and analyzed for mineral concentrations. Data were analyzed with the GLM procedure in SAS for mineral intake and feeding behavior with age class (cows vs. calves), intake category (high vs. low), and the interaction between class and category in the model. Correlations were calculated among cow feeding behavior and calf intake and growth performance with the CORR procedure, and a comparison of liver mineral concentrations among cows of high (\u3e90 g/d; average 125.4 g/d) and low (/d; average 33.5 g/d) mineral intake was performed using the GLM procedure. High-intake calves (\u3e50 g/d; average 72.2 g/d) consumed greater (P \u3c 0.001) amounts of minerals than low-intake calves

Utilizing an Electronic Feeder to Measure Mineral and Energy Supplement Intake in Beef Heifers Grazing Native Range

Introduction Grasslands in the Northern Plains provide the primary forage source for ruminants throughout much of the year (Schauer et al., 2004). Supplementation practices are often necessary to maintain production and offset forage nutritive decline throughout the grazing season (Schauer et al., 2004; Cline et al., 2009). Typically, to maintain a targeted production level, energy and protein supplementations are used for grazing livestock (Caton and Dhuyvetter, 1997). For developing heifers consuming low-quality forages, inclusion of energy ingredients into supplements may be beneficial for growth and reproductive performance (Schillo et al., 1992; Ciccioli et al., 2005; Cappellozza et al., 2014). In addition, the use of corn and distillers grains supplement has been compared to evaluate performance responses (Loy et al., 2007) but the influence of these strategies on intake and feeding behavior on pasture are lacking. Moreover, supplementing mineral to cattle grazing poor-quality range vegetation can improve forage utilization and animal performance (Köster et al., 1996; Caton and Dhuyvetter, 1997). An issue with providing mineral supplements to cattle, however, is the degree of variability in intake, with some cattle over consuming or under consuming supplements (Tait and Fisher, 1996; Cockwill et al., 2000; Greene, 2000). However, providing supplements to pasture-based cattle does not allow measurements of individual animal mineral and supplement intake; as a result, mineral and supplement intake is measured on a group basis. The use of electronic monitoring systems in the beef industry has been limited to systems primarily used in research settings to examine the effects on feed intake in relation to cattle growth performance (Islas et al., 2014), daily intake of salt-limited supplements (Reuter et al., 2017), health status (Wolfger et al., 2015), or animal movement in extensive pasture settings (Schauer et al., 2005). These technologies could be adapted easily for the use in beef cattle production systems to monitor activity, feeding or drinking behavior, or as tools for monitoring inventories in intensive or extensive production systems. Therefore, our objectives were to examine the relationship between mineral and energy supplementations provided via an electronic feeder on intake, liver mineral concentrations, and metabolites in heifers being managed on native range

Carbon and nitrogen isotope fractionation of amino acids in an avian marine predator, the gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua)

© The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Ecology and Evolution 5 (2015): 1278–1290, doi:10.1002/ece3.1437.Compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) of amino acids (AA) has rapidly become a powerful tool in studies of food web architecture, resource use, and biogeochemical cycling. However, applications to avian ecology have been limited because no controlled studies have examined the patterns in AA isotope fractionation in birds. We conducted a controlled CSIA feeding experiment on an avian species, the gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua), to examine patterns in individual AA carbon and nitrogen stable isotope fractionation between diet (D) and consumer (C) (Δ13CC-D and Δ15NC-D, respectively). We found that essential AA δ13C values and source AA δ15N values in feathers showed minimal trophic fractionation between diet and consumer, providing independent but complimentary archival proxies for primary producers and nitrogen sources respectively, at the base of food webs supporting penguins. Variations in nonessential AA Δ13CC-D values reflected differences in macromolecule sources used for biosynthesis (e.g., protein vs. lipids) and provided a metric to assess resource utilization. The avian-specific nitrogen trophic discrimination factor (TDFGlu-Phe = 3.5 ± 0.4‰) that we calculated from the difference in trophic fractionation (Δ15NC-D) of glutamic acid and phenylalanine was significantly lower than the conventional literature value of 7.6‰. Trophic positions of five species of wild penguins calculated using a multi-TDFGlu-Phe equation with the avian-specific TDFGlu-Phe value from our experiment provided estimates that were more ecologically realistic than estimates using a single TDFGlu-Phe of 7.6‰ from the previous literature. Our results provide a quantitative, mechanistic framework for the use of CSIA in nonlethal, archival feathers to study the movement and foraging ecology of avian consumers.This research was funded by National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs [grants ANT-0125098, ANT-0739575] and the 2013 Antarctic Science Bursaries