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Trial Spacing And The Conditioned Motivational Effects Of A Food-Predictive Cue, Gabrielle M. Sutton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Stimuli in the environment can come to influence motivation and behavior through a process known as Pavlovian conditioning. During Pavlovian conditioning, stimuli in the environment come to predict the availability of a reward. Two different procedures are used to investigate how stimuli can modify ongoing behavior and reward consumption, known as Pavlovian-instrumental transfer and potentiated feeding, respectively. In other procedures that investigate how stimuli modify behavior, certain time intervals during Pavlovian training can influence how much a stimulus can modify behavior. One of those intervals is the time between the presentation of a stimulus and the associated reward. This interval …

A Translational Examination Of Alternative-Response Discrimination Training And Resurgence, Kaitlyn O. Browning

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders often engage in severe forms of problem behavior. Reward-based behavioral interventions are highly effective at reducing levels of problem behavior and teaching more appropriate and adaptive alternative behaviors. Despite successful reduction in problem behavior during treatment, problem behaviors are susceptible to reoccurrence or relapse. Resurgence is a type of behavioral relapse that is particularly relevant to the treatment of problem behavior and may occur following the worsening of conditions of a more recently learned alternative behavior. That is, if the rewards that were used to teach the alternative behavior are removed …

A Temporal Information-Theoretic Model Of Suboptimal Choice, Paul J. Cunningham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Humans and animals often make decisions not in their long-term best interest. In one example, called suboptimal choice, pigeons sacrifice food for food-predictive stimuli. The study of suboptimal choice can reveal insights into the role of reward-predictive stimuli in maladaptive decision-making that characterizes numerous behavioral disorders. However, there is currently little evidence that rats engage in suboptimal choice, thereby raising questions about the species-generality of suboptimal choice. According to the temporal information-theoretic model, developed in Chapter 2, suboptimal choice emerges when pigeons pay more attention to the bits of temporal information conveyed by food-predictive stimuli than the rate of food …

Resurgence Of Cocaine-Seeking In Rats Following Long Access And Punishment, Rusty W. Nall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Strategies that provide access to alternative non-drug rewards are among the most effective at reducing substance use in individuals with substance use disorders, but relapse often occurs when alternative rewards are removed. Relapse induced by the loss of alternative rewards is called resurgence, and represents a challenge to otherwise effective strategies for reducing drug use. An animal model has been useful for studying resurgence, but the extant model has two limitations. First, humans usually refer to the negative consequences of drug use as the reason they stop taking drugs, but the extant model uses drug unavailability to reduce drug seeking. …

Effects Of A Synthetic Cannabinoid On The Reinforcing Efficacy Of Ethanol In Rats, Ericka M. Bailey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The co-abuse of alcohol and marijuana is widespread, although the mechanisms underlying this behavior are unclear. There is some evidence of a relationship between the neural processes that mediate the effects of ethanol and marijuana. For example, research has shown that exposure to marijuana increases responding for, and intake of, ethanol. The alcohol deprivation effect is an anima l model of alcoholism that suggests that the reinforcing efficacy of ethanol, as measured by intake, increases following a period of deprivation. Recent research indicates that rats chronically exposed to marijuana during periods of alcohol deprivation consume ethanol above and beyond deprivation …

Physiological Effects Of Chitosan And Chitorichtm On Rats Fed At Two Levels Of Lipid And Fiber, Hyung-Suk Lee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Chitin is a polysaccharide derived from the shell of crustaceans. Chitosan is a deacylated chitin derivative and ChitoRich™ is a chitosan-based formulation. Chitosan is known to inhibit dietary fat absorption. ChitoRich™ and chitosan were evaluated for their ability to control fat absorption in growing rats.

Forty-eight rats (about 150 g) were fed for 4 weeks on 12 different diets containing two levels of vegetable shortening (15 and 5%) and fiber (5 and 2.5%) with cellulose, chitosan, or ChitoRich™ as the dietary fiber sources.

Rats fed ChitoRich™ ate less and gained less body weight than rats fed the other fiber sources. …

Uptake, Absorption, And Adsorption Kinetics Of Ferrous And Ferric Iron In Iron-Replete And Iron-Deficient Rats, Madhavi Ummadi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Various concentrations of ferrous and ferric iron solutions were held at room temperature for 60 min before they were assayed for ferrous iron, which may be unstable due to oxidation. The ferrous and ferric solutions (in pH 2 HCl) were maintained as such for 60 min without the use of chelators. There was no significant oxidation of ferrous iron. Also, four different levels of each ferrous and ferric iron were injected into proximal duodenal loops of rat intestine and uptake was determined at four different time intervals. Two iron-replete rats were assigned to each of the treatments. The in situ …

Effects Of Ketoconazole On Uterine Weight And On Unbound Serum Estradiol Relative To Vaginal Cornification In Rats, Leonard L. Hall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ketoconazole is a broad-spectrum antifungal with oral activity and is documented to block steroid biosynthesis in fungi and mammals.

Estradiol-primed ovariectomized rats lose the estradiol-induced, cornified layer of the vaginal epithelium as a result of ketoconazole treatment. This effect is not explained by current knowledge of ketoconazole's mechanism of action.

Ketoconazole's effect on estradiol's binding to either receptors in target tissues (target-cell receptors) or serum-estradiol-carrying proteins in the aforementioned rats was investigated.

The uterus is responsive to estradiol treatment, which causes an increase in uterine size and weight. This tissue is a sensitive means of studying the effects of ketoconazole …

The Bioavailability Of Iron From Meat, Spinach, Soy Protein Isolate, Meat:Spinach And Meat:Spi Mixtures Fed To Anemic And Healthy Rats, Dejia Zhang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Two Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of iron status and iron source on iron bioavailability using the rat model. Beef was proportionally mixed with spinach (Experiment I) or soy protein isolate (Experiment II) to test if meat enhances the absorption of iron from spinach or SPI. Five diets with the iron from meat:spinach (or SPI) ratios of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100 were prepared and fed to rats. FeS04 was used as a reference. Two trials of rats were used in Experiment I. In trial I, half of the rats were made severely iron deficient (Hb 6.3 …

Durational Control Of Defensive Burying In Rats: An Investigation Of A Species-Specific Defense Reaction, Stephen Gregory Goldberg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Six experiments were run to determine whether the duration of conditioned defensive burying (COB) in rats is a function of its consequences.

Four experiments developed the methodology. Experiment 1 replicated the standard one-trial experiment, where rats are shocked once by a prod. All three rats exhibited CDB. Experiment 2 used a lever-press-for-water contingency to force recontact with the lever, following shock deliveries in Sessions 6 and 14. All three rats buried the lever in both sessions. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2, employing albino and hooded rats. All six buried the lever. The albinos exhibited longer burying durations. Experiment 4 used …

Iron Bioavailability Of Meat:Bread Mixtures And Meat Loaves Fed To Anemic And Healthy Rats, Abdullah M. Thannoun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

To study the effect of meat (beef) on dietary iron bioavailability from enriched white bread (EWB) or whole wheat bread (WWB), diets were prepared in which the ratios of beef iron to bread iron were 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 or 0:100. Hemoglobin regeneration efficiency (HRE), apparent iron absorption, and dry matter absorption were determined using weanling anemic and healthy male rats.

Meat iron was more available than EWB or WWB. Fortification iron in EWB was less available than the iron naturally present in WWB. At the iron dose given, HRE was similar for both anemic and healthy rats. Although healthy …

The Effect Of Dietary Calcium And Phosphorus Levels On Audiogenic Seizure Susceptibility And Brain Neurotransmitters In Magnasium Deficient Rats, Rachaneeporn Chaistitwanich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effects of dietary calcium and phosphorus levels on audiogenic seizure susceptibility and brain neurotransmitter were investigated in magnesium deficient rats. For 17 days, male weanling rats were fed magnesium deficient diets which also contained deficient (-), adequate (=}, and excess (+) amounts of calcium and/or phosphorus. Reduction of seizure incidence was seen in low calcium and/or low phosphorus diets. High calcium, and high calcium in combination with high phosphorus increased the severity of seizures. High calcium and low phosphorus, and high phosphorus and low calcium diets prevented seizuring. Most magnesium deficient diets resulted in elevation of serum phosphorus, calcium, …

Effects Of Physical And Emotional Stress, Catecholamines And Naloxone On Hdl And Ldl Cholesterol Levels In Rats And Man, Andrew G. Goliszek

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A series of investigations were undertaken to determine whether physical or emotional stress, catecholamines or naloxone (B-endorphon blocker) would increase serum total cholesterol and LDL and HDL levels. Physical stress given daily over a period of time caused a steady increase in serum total cholesterol and LDL without a significantly altering high density lipoproteins (HDL) or serum triglycerides. Daily injections of epinerphrine in oil caused an increase in both serum total cholesterol and LDL levels while daily injections of norepinephrine did not. Reversal of the treatments caused a reversed response in both groups of rats. Similar increases in both total …

Transitivity In The Choice Behavior Of Rats, Richard Duus

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigated the unidimensional assumption underlying choice behavior by examining the transitivity properties of rats' choice behavior. In Experiment 1, two variables of reinforcement, amount and delay, were manipulated simultaneously in a two lever choice situation. The conditions of strong transitivity were not present in either reponse count or indifference-measured choice behavior, indicating that choice behavior was not distributed along a single dimension with ratio scale characteristics. Moderate transitivity conditions were characteristic of both response and indifference- measured choice which was consistent with a single dimension possessing interval scale characteristics. In Experiment 2, only one reinforcement variable, amount, was …

Effect Of Atmospheric Oxidation On Bioavailability Of Meat Iron And Liver Weights In Rats, Kathleen M. Cardon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Iron bioavailability of diets containing oxidized turkey and oxidized beef meat was investigated in two experiments. In both studies male, weanling rats were made anemic by consumption of a low iron diet and bleeding. The experimental diets were prepared so that meat was the only source of iron. Hemoglobin regeneration served as the basis for measuring iron utilization. In experiment 1, lyophilized, uncooked turkey meat was allowed to oxidize at 20-22°C for 0, 48, 96, 144, 216, or 264 hours and then fed to the rats. The length of oxidation time of the turkey meat did not significantly affect the …

The Effect Of Inescapable Shock On Competitive Dominance In Rats, Pamela A. Cheney

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Experimental examination of the generality of learned helplessness has previously been confined to treatment and tests employing aversive motivators, such as electric shock. In the present study, rats were used to evaluate the effect of inescapable shock on their performance in a water test of competitive dominance which employs no aversive motivator. The subjects were paired and pre-tested for competitive dominance. In the experimental groups one member of each pair was treated with inescapable shock and the pairs were then post-tested for competitive dominance either 48, 72, or 168 hours after treatment. The control subjects were pre- and post-tested with …

Subtle Teratogenic Effects Of Locoweed In Rats, Benjamin K. Nelson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Locoweed, a well-known teratogenic plant affecting livestock, is prevalent in mountain regions of the Western United States. Two common species (Astragalus lentiginosus and A. wootoni), administered to pregnant rats, induced behavioral deviations in their offspring. Treated mothers consumed less feed and gained less wieght during gestation than controls when gavaged locoweed at the rate of 1 gram whole plant per day on days 7 through 17 of gestation. A. lentiginosus reduced pup weight at birth (13% less than controls) and this weight reduction (as much as 29% less than controls) continued at least four weeks. A. lentiginosus also …

Effects Of X-Ray Induced Achlorhdria On The Utilization Of Dietary Calcium And Iron From Different Salts By Rats, Reid Scott Holbrook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dietary calcium has been classified as one of the minerals frequently limiting in the American diet (FAO, 1962) . Bone demineralization has been observed as a result of calcium deficient diets (Salomon et al., 1972), partial gastrectomies (Eddy, 1971) and inadequate hormonal balance (Albright et al., 1948). Although bone demineralization, or osteoporosis, has been attributed to many factors, the interrelationship of gastric acidity and the utilization of dietary calcium may be a key to the etiology of osteoporosis.

Eighty weanling male albino rats were divided into eight groups. All animals had their stomachs exposed through a mid-line incision. Control rats …

Effects Of Magnesium Deficiency On Discriminative Avoidance Behavior Of Rats, Mahlon B. Dalley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to develop and test a group of predictors that could be used by fundraisers to determine potential corporate support for environmental and recreational programs. Local surveys were conducted to determine environmental and recreational needs for Cache Valley and twenty interviews were held with local corporate managers. The information gathered in these interviews and the literature review provided a list of approximately 20 variables which were narrowed down to 10 to predict both the potential for giving and the level of giving.

A proposal for a youth training project was developed and local Forest Service …

Effects Of Zinc Deficiency On Hemoglobin, Red Cell Counts, Red Cell Fragility And Circulating And Storage Levels Of Zinc, Iron And Copper In The Rat, Rekha R. Dalvi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Three experiments were conducted to study the effect of zinc deficiency on hemoglobin, red cell counts, red cell fragility, storage of erythropoietic minerals in livers and circulating levels of zinc, iron and copper in the rat.

In the experiment 1, twenty weanling rats were divided into four groups. Two groups were fed zinc-deficient diet ( <0.5 ppm); and two groups, zinc-supplemented diet (50 ppm). The rats in the first and third groups were bled three times a week (bled), however the rats in remaining groups were bled once a week (non-bled). All rats received ad libitum food.

Mean food intake per day was considerably less for zinc-deficient rats than that for zinc-supplemented rats. Approximately 2 to 3 times as much food was required for each gram of body weight gained by the zinc-deficient group as by the controls.

In the experiment 2, …

Adaptive Changes Of Some Enzyme Activities In Rats And Humans To Dietary Protein, Jung Ja Kim

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A study of the adaptive changes of some enzyme activities to the dietary protein intake was made in the liver, kidney, and pancreas of rats and serum of humans.

The rats fed the 40 per cent casein diet had a higher rate of weight gain and the weights of the liver and kidney were higher than in the rats fed the 10 per cent casein diet.

Three enzymes involved in the elimination of excess nitrogen from the body were found to show a similar response to increased dietary protein intake. These enzymes were: D-amino acid oxidase in the kidneys, arginase …

A Method For Quantifying The Effects Of Apomorphine Upon The Gnawing Syndrome Of The Rat, Paul Robinson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Various methods were tried in an attempt to obtain a technique for quantifying the gnawing effects of apomorphine on rats. A technique using a restraining tube was developed.

Under a 2 milligram per kilogram intraperitoneal injection of apomorphine, four female Long Evans hooded rats were placed on continuous and fixed reinforcement schedules using a gnawable pine block. Subjects would learn to turn their heads away from the gnawable object in order to obtain 15 seconds of gnawing time. The rate of response increased from less than one response in 5 minutes to over 3 responses per minute in 10 one-half …

Effects On Urinary Metabolites Of Rats Fed Various Edible Fats, Cleve R. Winkel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For many years, substitutes for butterfat have been the subject of much controversy. Their acceptance as being nutritionally equal to butterfat has often been question. The importance of this problem lies primarily in its economic and nutritional significance.

A recent study of public attitudes toward dairy products conducted by Alfred Politz Research, Inc. for the American Dairy Association, shows that 48.4 per cent of the population believed that butter is a more nutritions food than oleomargarine. Only 6 per cent thought that oleomargarine is more nutritious while 27.2 per cent believed they are about the same. The remainder, 18.4 per …