Digital Commons Network^™

Aged Rats: Sex Differences And Responses To Chronic Stress, Rachel E. Bowman, Neil J. Maclusky, Samantha Diaz-Weinstein, Mark C. Zrull, Victoria N. Luine

Psychology Faculty Publications

Cognitive, as well as physiological, sex differences exist in young adult rats under both basal conditions and following chronic stress; however, few studies have examined whether sex differences remain in aged subjects and whether responses to stress are altered. We compared aged male and female Fischer 344 rats (21.5 months at testing) without stress and when given 21 days of restraint for 6 h/day on locomotion, anxiety-related behaviors, object recognition (non-spatial memory), object placement (spatial memory), body weight and serum steroid hormone levels. Control (unstressed) females had lower levels of estradiol and testosterone and higher corticosterone than males, and stress …

Feeding And Managing Sheep In Dry Times, Ian Mcfarland, Mandy Curnow, Mike Hyder, Brian Ashton, Danny Roberts

Bulletins 4000 -

Feeding sheep is a significant cost to any sheep or mixed farm enterprise in southern Australia. The cost is usually managed by annually sourcing feed on-farm. However, this feed source can become scarce when we experience unusual dry spells within seasons (termed a 'dry season', such as a dry winter or spring), a late break to the season, a drought year, or even worse, successive drought years.

Climate change research suggests that southern Australia will experience higher annual temperatures and a decline in mean growing season rainfall (particularly winter and spring) over the coming decades. This will affect the productivity …

Stress Reduction: A Neighborhood Introduction, Barbara D. Johnson

Master's Projects

Responding to reported health concerns a stress reduction program was developed for residents of an urban Latino neighborhood struggling with poverty, crime, and limited access to healthcare. The revised Health Promotion Model (HPM) was used as a framework (Pender, 1996). A qualitative study testing a 5-week Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention was imbedded into the program 18 months after its implementation. Utilizing a pre/post test design participants were predicted to demonstrate significant reductions in post-intervention mean scores for 3 self-report measures, the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale, General Sleep Disturbance Scale, and a modified Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale. A 91% drop …

Differential Endogenous Estrogen Exposure Influences Prefrontal Cortex Response To Acute Stress, Katya Rubinow

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

The present study was conducted to determine the effect of differential endogenous estrogen exposure in rats on stress-induced changes in spatial working memory. Subjects comprised male (n=8) and female (n=10) Sprague-Dawley rats, which were trained to complete a T maze, delayed alternation task. Performance was scored as a percentage of trials during which the correct maze arm was selected. Subjects scores were recorded after 1 and 2 hours of restraint stress, as well as after 1 hour of unimpeded movement in a cage placed in the testing room. Restraint stress was effected through physical confinement within plastic, cylindrical tubing. Female …

Robot Rescue, Hui Yu Ruan

Theses

Recently, it is very common in Asia that people put little toys on their office desks. It doesn’t mean they sometimes have their kids visiting them nor they are not grown up yet. These are toys, which can soothe their stress from work. I am always attracted by toys and also animations designed or directed by many artists and designers. In this fantasy world of toys, there may not be only human beings. As in Hayao Miyazaki’s animation “Spirited Away,” where there was a magic world ruled by a witch; and there was also an old spider man, a frog …

Uncovering The Role Of Stress In Craniosynosostosis, Justin Heller

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Craniosynostosis is the premature fusion of one or more of the cranial sutures resulting in skull deformity and possible brain dysfunction. It occurs in roughly 1 in 2,000 live births.1 It may be associated with syndromes or occur sporadically. Any cranial suture may be involved. The descriptions of the skull dysmorphologies have led to numerous hypotheses regarding the developmental trajectory of the synostosed skull, including the role of the cranial vault and cranial base. As proposed originally by Virchow (1851),2 the shape of the skull in craniosynostosis is usually attributed to a lack of local growth perpendicular to the fused …

Ethyleneproduction As An Indicator Of Stress Conditions In Hydroponically-Grown Strawberries, Justin D. Hogan, Elizabeth E. Murray, Marcia Harrison-Pitaniello Phd

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

As a soilless system, hydroponics eliminates competing weeds and soil-born pests while conserving water and providing conditions that can be quickly altered to suit specific crops. However, stress-induced physiological conditions may arise within the system from factors such as mechanical injury, pests, or inconsistent nutrient flow rates that result in some plants receiving too much or too little water. Most abiotic stress conditions result in increased production of the plant hormone ethylene. High levels of ethylene inhibit growth, cause premature ripening, and induce the onset of senescence, potentially reducing the productivity of hydroponically-grown crops. In this study, we demonstrate that …

Hope As A Source Of Resilience In Later Adulthood, Anthony D. Ong, Lisa Edwards, C. S. Bergeman

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

This research provided a preliminary investigation of how variations in trait and state hope are associated with positive adaptation to stress in later adulthood. Trait hope and neuroticism were measured by questionnaires and state hope, stress, and negative emotions were assessed daily for 45 days. Results from multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses suggested that daily hope provides protective benefits by keeping negative emotions low, while also contributing to adaptive recovery from stress. The dynamic linkages between daily hope, stress, and emotion were further moderated by individual differences in trait hope. Compared with those low in trait hope, high-hope individuals showed …

Software And Internet Industry Workers: Implications For The Future Of Work In Massachusetts, Sarah Kuhn, Paula Raymann

New England Journal of Public Policy

Those at the leading edge of the new economy — workers in software and Internet workplaces — can tell us something about the future of work in our new world. The authors have conducted a National Science Foundation-funded study of women and men working in IT. They find that while pay and the opportunity to do interesting work are major attractions, challenges facing this workforce include stress, difficulties balancing work and family, and concerns about employment security. While women and men reported similar attitudes and experiences in many areas, in others there were still significant differences.

Taking Care Of Your Nutritional And Physical Needs, Joan Hegerfeld

SDSU Extension Extra Archives

When asked what they value most, many people will say their health. However, when faced with a stressful situation that will not go away, the same people forget all about their health and start worrying. Farm and ranch families struggle with extreme stress from uncontrollable forces such as weather, low market prices, or farm machinery breaking down. For many farmers, ranchers, and farm workers, decision making and adjusting to the extraordinary stress consumes their whole thinking, their whole days, their sleepless nights. Their livelihood is dependent upon forces over which they have no control. Eating right and getting adequate amounts …

Soft-Started Induction Motor Modeling And Heating Issues For Different Starting Profiles Using A Flux Linkage Abc Frame Of Reference, M. G. Solveson, Behrooz Mirafzal, Nabeel Demerdash

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In order to mitigate the adverse effects of starting torque transients and high inrush currents in induction motors, a popular method is to use electronically controlled soft-starting voltages utilizing series-connected silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs). Investigation of semioptimum soft-starting voltage profiles was implemented using a flux linkage ABC frame of reference model of a soft-started three-phase induction motor. A state-space model of the soft-starter thyristor switching sequence for the motor and load was developed and implemented in a time-domain simulation to examine winding heating and shaft stress issues for different starting profiles. Simulation results of line starts and soft starts were compared …

Technology As A Cultural Force: For Alena And Griffin, Albert Borgmann

Philosophy Faculty Publications

To various degrees, the citizens of the advanced industrial countries are suffering from a crisis that is as profound as it is vague and therefore hard to deal with. The problem is particularly acute in the United States, however, and in what follows, some of the illustrations pertain particularly to that country, the one I live in and know best. In any case, though vagueness obscures the crisis, there have to be symptoms of some sort; otherwise we would not feel troubled. What are the signs of trouble in the culture of technology and democracy? First there are economic problems …

The Unexpected Anabolic Phenotype And Extended Longevity Of Skin Fibroblasts After Chronic Glucocorticoid Excess, Harris Pratsinis, Stylianos Tsagarakis, Irene Zervolea, Dimitri Stathakos, Nikos Thalassinos, Dimitris Kletsas

Dose-Response: An International Journal

Intense stress can challenge tissue homeostasis and accelerate the ageing process. However, several lines of evidence indicate that repeated mild stresses can have beneficial and even life-prolonging effects. Hypersecretion of glucocorticoids (GC) represents the major hormonal response to stress. Besides its life-sustaining role, GC excess, usually due to several side-effects that promote a “catabolic” phenotype, can be detrimental for several tissues. Cushing’s syndrome patients are characterized by chronic endogenous GC excess and consequently at the time of diagnosis they have an atrophic elderly-like skin. Interestingly, when Cushing’s syndrome fibroblasts were removed from the high-GC milieu in vivo and cultured in …

A Study Of Adolescent Depression Among Middle School Students, Cristina Lee

Master's Projects

Adolescent depression and teenage suicide should not be neglected and underestimated. While mental health is one of the ten health indicators that Healthy People 20 I 0 is focused on, and there are goals for the health community to work on, statistics are showing that teenagers in a county in Northern California were at high risk for mental health problem. This study was an introductory screening of the depression level of 7th graders attending middle school, and explored sources of adolescent perceived stress and routes of assistance. Results of the study show that almost one in every five 7th graders …

Possible Undue Stress Factors On Graduating Seniors, Steven L. Hahne

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the hypothesis of the experiment is true, which was to find if the student body thinks that a policy to which the graduating seniors must turn in all graded work two weeks before the final exam is fair. It also offers a chance for the student body to voice opinions or suggestions in an open and anonymous questionnaire format. Fifty students chose to partake in a questionnaire that included questions about the university’s policy. They were divided into two groups: one group had twenty-three students [freshman and sophomores] of Human Subject …

Reproduction, Stress, And The Death Drive: Go With The Flow, Matt Weir

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

The Mind / Reproduction, Stress, And The Death Drive: Go With The Flow (Detail), Matt Weir

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Lung Circulation Modeling: Status And Prospect, Anne V. Clough, Said H. Audi, Robert C. Molthen, Gary S. Krenz

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Mathematical modeling has been used to interpret anatomical and physiological data obtained from metabolic and hemodynamic studies aimed at investigating structure-function relationships in the vasculature of the lung, and how these relationships are affected by lung injury and disease. The indicator dilution method was used to study the activity of redox processes within the lung. A steady-state model of the data was constructed and used to show that pulmonary endothelial cells may play an important role in reducing redox active compounds and that those reduction rates can be altered with oxidative stress induced by exposure to high oxygen environments. In …

The Express: February 20, 2006, Taylor University Fort Wayne

2005-2006 (Volume 10)

TUFW men’s basketball team heads to national tournament — Former Fort Wayne Bible College president passes away — The mission is possible — SAC Schedule of Events — Your last breath: whose choice is it? — Dr. Hensley’s Oxford Trip — Marriage 101: the college years — Don’t stress about stress: 6 tips to help keep your cool — Women’s Basketball — Women’s b-ball player receives recognition — Lose weight the unorthodox way — Spirit Week

Social Supports Among Parents Of Children Recently Diagnosed With Autism: Comparisons Between Mothers And Fathers, Aaron Deris

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Parents are best able to identify their own support needs, and professionals can assist parents in receiving supports to assist with these needs. There has been an increase of children diagnosed with autism, which has resulted in a major concern for education professionals. Teachers, therapists, and medical personnel are better able to assist families of children with autism in obtaining supports because they are able to view the family and child objectively and are not emotionally tied to the situation. The focus of this study was to identify the forms of social support that mothers and fathers of children recently …

Corticotropin Releasing Factor Receptors And Agonistic Behavior In Syrian Hamsters, Alicia N. Faruzzi

Psychology Dissertations

Social conflict is a part of everyday life, and it can be a potent stressor for both humans and other animals. In the laboratory, when two Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) compete for territory, a dominance hierarchy is quickly formed. Becoming subordinate is a significant stressor resulting in increased release of adrenocorticotropic hormone, β-endorphin, and cortisol. Defeated hamsters will also subsequently fail to display territorial aggression in future social encounters and will instead display increased submissive behavior, even in the presence of a smaller, non-aggressive intruder. This change in behavior is consistent and long-lasting and has been termed conditioned defeat (CD). …

Factors That Determine The Non-Linear Amygdala Influence On Hippocampus-Dependent Memory, Irit Akirav, Gal Richter-Levin

Dose-Response: An International Journal

Stressful experiences are known to either improve or impair hippocampal-dependent memory tasks and synaptic plasticity. These positive and negative effects of stress on the hippocampus have been largely documented, however little is known about the mechanism involved in the twofold influence of stress on hippocampal functioning and about what factors define an enhancing or inhibitory outcome. We have recently demonstrated that activation of the basolateral amygdala can produce a biphasic effect, enhancement or inhibition, of hippocampal synaptic plasticity, depending on the timing of activation (priming or spaced activation). A key question is under which conditions do the effects of amygdala …

An Assessment Of The Levels Of Stress Among Beginning Counselor Education Graduate Students, Students Beginning The Counseling Practicum And Students Graduating From Their Program Of Studies, Richard Christian Hoffman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following study examines stress among graduate level counselor education students at different stages during their training program. The students were assigned to three groups according to training level: (1) beginning, (2) practicum, and (3) graduating. The Stress Profile (Nowack, 1999) was administered to the students (N= 58). Three constructs were chosen from the survey: (1) stress, (2) cognitive hardiness, and (3) psychological well-being. The constructs were developed using the theoretical framework of Lazarus's (1999) theory of appraisal and stress. These variables were compared among the students to determine if a difference in stress levels exists at different times during …

Ethics And Welfare: Pain Perception In Fish, L. U. Sneddon

Aquaculture Collection

Fish welfare is currently a controversial subject with many scientific studies now demonstrating the possibility for fish to experience negative events such as pain, fear and stress. This has important implications in the treatment of fish during commercial and experimental procedures in terms of ethics and welfare. In this review, the evidence for pain perception in fish is considered and the repercussions for the use of fish as a research model as well as in aquaculture and largescale fisheries. These issues are discussed briefly from a welfare and ethical perspective.

Monitoring A Potentially Stressful Situation In Captive Western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla) Through Analysis Of Behavior And Urinary Cortisol, Douglas Skurski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The concept of quantifying animal welfare has received much discussion, in various industries such as agriculture, laboratory, and zoological facilities. Behavioral, physical, and physiological indicators of welfare have previously been used to assess animal welfare; each having advantages and disadvantages, ranging from the practicality of data collection, to the validity of the data and how it is interpreted. Concurrent assessment of multiple measures is a more robust way to examine animal welfare, which utilizes the advantages of each measure, and provides additional information on which to base conclusions and animal care management decisions. This study used measures of behavior and …

Characterization Of Residual Stress And Defects In Welded Specimen, Srinivas Chanda

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The residual stresses developed at different locations of welded specimens consisting of austenitic Type 304L stainless steel (SS) and/or martensitic Alloy EP-823 has been characterized in terms of S-, W- and T-parameters based on a classical positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) technique. The resultant data indicate that the magnitude of residual stress was higher near the fusion-line (FL) compared to that of the base region of the welded specimen consisting of similar materials on both sides. However, for welded specimens of dissimilar materials on opposite side, the extent of residual stress was somewhat lower at the FL compared to that of …

Investigating Stress Related To Beginning Teacher Standards, Michelle Dupree

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of stress experienced by novice special education teachers related to The Council for Exceptional Children national standards for beginning teachers. The Participants in this study were novice resource room and novice self-contained teachers in the Clark County School District. Data were collected using the Teacher Stress Survey. This survey measured levels of stress experienced by novice special education resource room and self-contained teachers at the beginning and end of the first semester; There was no statistically significant difference in total reported stress between self-contained and resource room teachers. There was …

Organizational Stress In Social Care, Brian Mccarthy

Other resources

The aim of this research project was to develop a model of understanding, coping with and preventing work-related stress in social care organizations. The research was framed conceptually in a model of organizational stress developed and adapted from Beehr’s (1998) integrative model of organizational stress. The first two stages of the research project explored by interview and survey staff and management perceptions of stress in their organizations. It was found that both acute and chronic stressors occurred and were seen to have increased; organizational stressors were also likely to be more persistent and chronic when they occurred. Interviewees were
concerned …

Detection Of Moisture Stress In Eucalyptus Camaldulensis Using Leaf-Level Spectral Reflectance: Implications For Remote Sensing, Laurie A. Chisholm

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Foliage moisture stress may be detectable by remote sensing using high resolution spectral data, but meaningful diagnosis requires that plant water status be assessed on the ground under controlled conditions. Design parameters of an experimental plantation of E. camaldulensis (River red gum), were used to examine tree-level responses to moisture stress, as measured by xylem water potential, and relationships to physiological parameters including spectral reflectance, chlorophyll flurescence, and cholorphyll across a range of stress categories.

The Relationship Between Self-Reported Chronic Stress And Divided Attention Performance, Diane Petrac

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While previous research has extensively examined the effect of acute stress on cognitive performance, relatively little research has explored the relationship between chronic stress and cognitive performance. The current study aimed to control for current state anxiety to better isolate more chronic stress, when examining the relationship with performance on divided attention tasks. Fifty-four university undergraduates, who self-reported a wide range of perceived chronic stress (10-item Perceived Stress Scale), completed the Trail-Making Test and a dual (auditory and visual) Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Hierarchical regressions were performed to explore cognitive predictors of chronic perceived stress. After covarying for state anxiety …