Physiology Commons^™

Relationship Between Leptin And Obesity In Mexican Chidren, Armando Avila-Rodríguez, E.Humberto Avila-Rodríguez, Jesus M. Araujo-Contreras, Abelardo Camacho-Luis, Alfredo Tellez-Valencia, L. Joel Rodríguez-Ortega, Efrén Rivas-Avila

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Purpose: The expression and secretion of the leptin are thoroughly related with the regulation of food intake, energy balance and body fat. Obesity is defined as excess of body fat. The purpose of this research was to determine the relationship among the nutritional state and the percentage of body fat with the levels of leptin in 10 to 13 year old children living in the city of Durango, Mexico. Method: The study was carried out with 823 elementary school children. The selection was done at random. The biochemical studies were done in a subpopulation of 425 children. Each child underwent …

Health Behaviors Among Students With Different Weight Change Outcomes, Katrina Serrano, Chanam Lee, Peter S. Murano, Xuemei Zhu

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Studies have identified various behavioral and environmental factors associated with physical inactivity and unhealthy diet among children and adults. While the lifestyles of college students may be risk factors to the development of an unhealthy body weight, they have not been sufficiently studied in previous research. Utilizing the dataset collected from a larger project, Campus Environment, Diet and Activity (CEDA), this study examines physical activity (PA), dietary behaviors, and perceptions of environmental barriers among those who have lost, maintained, or gained weight after living on a campus environment for one year. Method: The pretest data (focusing on past behaviors before …

Insulin Resistance And Obesity In Mexican Youth, Jesus M. Araujo-Contreras, E. Humberto Avila-Rodriguez, Nohe Vargas-Chavez, Efren Rivas-Avila, Armando Avila-Rodriguez, Abelardo Camacho-Luis, Luis A. Sepulveda-Chapa, Nelda Mier, Alfredo Tellez-Valencia

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Purpose: Although research shows that prevalence rates of insulin resistance (IR) is increasing in children, little is known about the impact of obesity in IR in Mexican youth. This study investigated the association between overweight, obesity, and insulin resistance in Mexican adolescents. Methods: Data were collected from 448 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years from a random sample of a high school student population in Durango, Mexico. After fasting overnight, blood samples were obtained from participants. Glucose, insulin, lipid profile, leptin, insulin growth factor, growth hormone, cortisol, TNF-alpha, and C-reactive protein were determined in serum. Body Mass Index (BMI) was …

Acculturation, Body Mass Index, Waist Circumference, And Physical Activity In Mexican Origin Women, Daisy Y. Morales-Campos, Jennifer J. Salinas, Deborah Parra-Medina, Deanne K. Hilfinger Messias, Patricia Sharpe, Alexis M. Koskan

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Purpose: Longer time in the United States (US) is associated with increased risk of obesity in Hispanic immigrants, particularly for women. Although previous research has established an association between nutrition and acculturation, little attention has focused on physical activity. In this study, we examine the associations between acculturation on Mexican origin women’s body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and report of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA).

Method: Mexican origin women ≥18 years (n=120) from South Carolina (n=60) and Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley (n=60) completed a survey and anthropometric measures. Participants reported MVPA in hours per week, country …

An Obesity Management Intervention For Hispanic Children In A Pediatric Clinic, Laura A. Rubalcava, Dorothy A. Long Parma, Deborah Parra- Medina, Cynthia M. Mojica

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Title: AN OBESITY MANAGEMENT INTERVENTION FOR HISPANIC CHILDREN IN A PEDIATRIC CLINIC: STUDY DESIGN AND BASELINE CHARACTERISTICS Authors: Laura A. Rubalcava, MA, Dorothy A. Long Parma, MD, Deborah Parra-Medina, MPH, PhD, Cynthia M. Mojica, PhD, MPH Affiliation: Institute for Health Promotion Research, Dept of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Purpose: This study describes a pediatric obesity management intervention trial in a rural Hispanic clinic. Methods: Hispanic children aged 5-14 (goal N=200) who are overweight (body mass index [BMI] 85th-94th percentile for age and gender) or obese (BMI ≥ 95th percentile) and a parent …

C&I As A Tool To Elicit Change In Health, Jon Aoki

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Title: C&I AS A TOOL TO ELICIT CHANGE IN HEALTH Authors: Jon M. Aoki, Ed.D. Affiliations: Department of Natural Sciences, University of Houston-Downtown Purpose: American has become obesogenic and the trend of people gaining weight is a continuing problem. The purpose of this study was to describe an action research modified C&I (curriculum and instruction) unit on health in an upper-level university life science course for EC-6 and 4-8 pre-service teachers that elicited change in student knowledge and lifestyle of health. Method: A phenomenological approach using a constant comparative method was used to describe the post-unit responses from teacher candidates. …

Hispanic Parent Attitudes And Preschool Children's Time With Activity-Promoting Media, Carol J. Spaulding, Alexandra Loukas

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Purpose: Home media that promote physical activity offer potential benefits in obesity prevention efforts for children, to the extent that they may represent “screen time” that is not sedentary. This study examined the relationships of home media density and parent media attitudes to preschool children’s time with TV, DVDs, and videogames, and children’s time with activity-promoting genres.

Methods: Hispanic mothers (N=237) of children aged six to 60 months reported on their preschool-aged children’s time with television, DVD players, and videogames, and time spent using activity-promoting programs or genres. Surveys in Spanish and English assessed the number of screen media channels …

College Students’ Percieved Barriers And Failitators To Maintaining A Healthy Bodyweight, Timothy K. Jones, Arely Perez, Summmer R. Wilmoth, Bonnie Dillon, Lesli Biediger- Friedman, Meizi He

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

PURPOSE:

It has been evident that on average college students experienced excess weight gain as they transited from high school. The objectives of this study were to qualitatively explore college students’ perceived barriers and facilitators to maintaining a healthy bodyweight and identify the key modifiable factors underlying unhealthy behaviors.

METHOD:

The study employed photovoice (PV), a qualitative research method, in undergraduate students in South Texas. Participants took pictures and wrote descriptions of three perceived barriers and three facilitators to maintaining a healthy body weight; they were then asked to choose one of each for discussion. Eight focus groups were conducted …

Building A Heathly Temple, Meizi He, Zenong Yin, Jessica Leeds, Summmer R. Wilmoth, Arely Perez, Timothy K. Jones

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

PURPOSE:

This study aimed to qualitatively explore the Hispanic faith-based communities' perceptions and willingness to address the childhood obesity epidemic. We will gain insights on faith-based communities’ perceptions of childhood obesity; their openness and willingness to address the issue of childhood obesity; their perceived barriers and facilitators to implementing faith-based community obesity prevention programs; and their ideas of appropriate obesity interventions in faith-based community settings.

METHOD:

In-depth interviews with 30 Hispanic church leaders and 7 focus groups with 38 church attending Hispanic children and 38 parents in San Antonio’s West Side, a low-income Hispanic community, were used to collect qualitative …

Mediation And Moderation Effects Of The "5 A Day Achievement Badge" Intervention For Boy Scouts, Tracey Ledoux, Kathy Watson, Janice Baranowski, Tom Baranowski

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Title: MEDIATION AND MODERATION EFFECTS OF THE “5 A DAY ACHIEVEMENT BADGE” INTERVENTION FOR BOY SCOUTS. Authors: Tracey Ledoux, PhD, RD1, 2, Kathy Watson, PhD2, Janice Baranowski, MPH, RD2, & Tom Baranowski, PhD2 Affiliations: 1Health and Human Performance Department, University of Houston; Children’s Nutrition Research Center, USDA/ARS, Baylor College of Medicine. Purpose: To test the moderating effect of parent value for health (PVH) and mediating effects of fruit and vegetable (FV) availability, FV accessibility, child asking behavior (CAB), and FV preference changes on the relationship between program dose and change in FV consumption from an intervention that increased FV consumption …

Improving Secondary Stroke Prevention Among Underserved African Americans: Moving Beyond Health Attitudes, Chelsea Gilts, Lisa Hughes, Gina Evans Hudnall

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Obesity, a known risk factors for stroke, poses a great health risk for the African American community. Beliefs about health locus of control (HLOC) are predictive of many health behaviors related to both obesity and stroke prevention. Some have recommended targeting health interventions to individuals with internal HLOC, as they tend to be more amenable to changing health behaviors, but this can be exclusionary to African Americans, who tend to have higher levels of external locus of control. The present study is a pretest-posttest randomized control design examining the impact of a brief, CBT-based health management intervention developed for overweight …

Therapeutic Potential Of Insulin-Sensitizing Drugs In The Treatment Of Prostate Cancer With Coexisting Obesity, Alison Schwein, Mong-Hong Lee, Sai-Ching Yeung

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

TITLE: Insulin-sensitizing Drugs to Treat Obese Prostate Cancer Patients

AUTHORS: Alison Schwein, B.S.1, Dr. Mong-Hong Lee PhD2, Dr. Sai-Ching Yeung PhD, MD2

AFFILIATIONS: 1University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 2M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Purpose: Prostate cancer (PC) in obese men is more likely to cause a more aggressive disease that recurs after radical prostatectomy than in non-obese men; also, risks of advanced PC or death from PC are increased when associated with obesity. The biological mechanisms underlying the association between obesity and the progression of PC have yet to be established. Insulin resistance is associated with obesity. Insulin …

Type Ii Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 5 (Prmt5) Is Required For Circadian Pperiod Determination In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Sunghyun Hong, Hae-Ryoung Song, Kerry Lutz, Randall A. Kerstetter, Todd P. Michael, C. Robertson Mcclung

Dartmouth Scholarship

Posttranslational modification is an important element in circadian clock function from cyanobacteria through plants and mammals. For example, a number of key clock components are phosphorylated and thereby marked for subsequent ubiquitination and degradation. Through forward genetic analysis we demonstrate that protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5; At4g31120) is a critical determinant of circadian period in Arabidopsis. PRMT5 is coregulated with a set of 1,253 genes that shows alterations in phase of expression in response to entrainment to thermocycles versus photocycles in constant temperature. PRMT5 encodes a type II protein arginine methyltransferase that catalyzes the symmetric dimethylation of arginine residues (Rsme2). …

Lateral Blood Flow Velocity Estimation Based On Ultrasound Speckle Size Change With Scan Velocity, Tiantian Xu, Gregory R. Bashford

Biomedical Imaging and Biosignal Analysis Laboratory

Conventional (Doppler-based) blood flow velocity measurement methods using ultrasound are capable of resolving the axial component (i.e., that aligned with the ultrasound propagation direction) of the blood flow velocity vector. However, these methods are incapable of detecting blood flow in the direction normal to the ultrasound beam. In addition, these methods require repeated pulse-echo interrogation at the same spatial location. A new method has been introduced which estimates the lateral component of blood flow within a single image frame using the observation that the speckle pattern corresponding to blood reflectors (typically red blood cells) stretches (i.e., is smeared) if the …

Cloning Of A Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii Marker Into A Rna Interference Construct To Test Whether The Photoreceptor Chlamyrhodopsin Is Involved In Circadian Clock Resetting, Shravya Reddy Maddi

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a unicellular eukaryotic green alga, serves as a model organism to study the circadian clock in plants and animals. Rhodopsins are blue/green-light photoreceptors also found in C. reinhardtii. Chlamyrhodopsin (COP), the most abundant eyespot protein, was reported to have no role in the phototactic and photophobic responses in C. reinhardtii. Its function is yet unknown.
In the present study, we hypothesized that the function of COP is to mediate entrainment of the circadian clock by light. In order to test this hypothesis, a C. reinhardtii selection marker conferring resistance to the antibiotic paromomycin was cloned …

Flank Gland-Secreted Putative Chemosignals Pertaining To Photoperiod, Endocrine States, And Sociosexual Behavior In Golden Hamsters, Ying-Juan Liu, Da-Wei Wang, Lixing Sun, Jin-Hua Zhang, Jian-Xu Zhang

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Behavioral studies have shown that flank glands are involved in chemical communication in golden hamsters Mesocricetus auratus but little chemical analysis has been conducted on volatiles arising from these glands. Using gas chromatography- mass spectrometry, we detected compounds from the flank glands of males, only eight of which were also produced in females. Based on these chemical data we performed a number of further experiments. By manipulating light we found that males exposed to short-photoperiods developed smaller flank glands than those exposed to long-photoperiods. Six flank gland volatiles reduced in relative abundance, which possibly coded for reproductive status of males …

Changes In The Proliferation Of The Subventricular Zone Neural Stem Cell Pool Throughout Aging In The Murine Brain, Olayinka Edwards

Honors Scholar Theses

Previous studies regarding subventricular zone (SVZ) neural stem cells (NSCs) have either observed global changes in the SVZ niche containing NSCs or an impure NSC population. By imaging wholemount preparations of mouse brains and staining with molecular markers specific for proliferating NSC nuclei, the study was able to give a more accurate depiction of the SVZ NSC population than its predecessors. This study will quantify the percentage of proliferating NSCs at various ages of adult murine brain development in order to elucidate a possible correlation between NSC division kinetics and the declining neurogenic output witnessed with aging.

Elucidating Functional Roles For Myogenin In Adult Skeletal Muscle Metabolism, Exercise Capacity, And Regeneration, Jesse Flynn

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The four basic helix-loop-helix myogenic transcription factors, myogenin, Myf5, MRF4, and MyoD are critical for embryonic skeletal muscle development. Myogenin is necessary for the terminal differentiation of myoblasts into myofibers during embryogenesis, but little is known about the roles played by myogenin in adult skeletal muscle function and metabolism. Furthermore, while metabolism is a well-studied physiological process, how it is regulated at the transcriptional level remains poorly understood. In this study, my aim was to determine the function of myogenin in adult skeletal muscle metabolism, exercise capacity, and regeneration. To investigate this, I utilized a mouse strain harboring the Myogflox …

Characterization Of Neuronal Groups Regulating Sexual And Agonistic Behavior In Male Chicken (Gallus Gallus), Jingjing Xie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study aimed to understand the neuronal regulation of male sexual and agonistic behavior in broiler breeders. First, brain structures associated with sexual and agonistic behavior were identified by mapping Fos expression. The ventromedial subnucleus of medial portion of bed nucleus of the stria teriminalis (BSTM2) was specifically activated by male courtship behavior. The medial preoptic nucleus (POM) and lateral septum (SL) were associated with both sexual and agonistic behaviors. The bed nucleus of the pallial commissure (NCPa) and the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) were closely related to stress. Second, Fos-ir neurons were phenotyped by double labeling Fos with aromatase (ARO) …

Physiological Implications Of Natural Versus Induced Arousal From Torpor, Jenifer C. Utz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

During the hibernation season, animals oscillate between periods of torpor and periods of interbout arousal (IBA). During torpor, body temperature is often near 0° C and metabolism is severely depressed. Oxygen consumption, a proxy for aerobic metabolism, may fall to 1% of active values. Many physiological processes including cardiovascular, respiratory, and cellular functions nearly cease. During the IBA, euthermic body temperature is restored and most systemic and cellular processes function at fully active levels. The transition period between these two physiologically dissimilar states is called arousal.

The rate of rewarming (RRW) during arousal was previously expected to progressively increase until …