Aerobic exercise training performed by parents reduces mice offspring adiposity

The present study aimed to determine the effects of physical training performed by parents on mice offspring adiposity. Male and female parents underwent an aerobic training protocol for 7 weeks. The trained and sedentary parents were allowed to mate and the resultant offspring divided in: S (Offspring from Sedentary Parents), T (Offspring from Trained Parents), ST (Offspring from Sedentary Father and Trained Mother) and TS (Offspring from Trained Father and Sedentary Mother). After weaning, offspring was euthanized, blood collected and samples of mesenteric and inguinal fat pads used to isolate adipocytes for morphologic and histological analyses. Lee index, mesenteric fat pad, sum of visceral fat and total fat weight of female T was reduced in comparison to the other groups (p < 0.05). Periepididymal and sum of visceral fat in male T group was also reduced when compared to the other groups (p < 0.05). The diameter of mesenteric and inguinal adipocytes of T group was smaller compared to all groups comparisons for both sexes (p < 0.05). In summary, exercise training performed by parents reduced visceral offspring adiposity, the diameter of subcutaneous adipocytes and improved metabolic parameters associated to metabolic syndrome.     

A model for the effective engagement of all stakeholders in engineering education and its pilot implementation

Methodologies for engineering learning and teaching (MELT) approach aims to enhance the attractiveness of education through science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among young people, while promoting awareness of future careers in these areas. To this end, students’ expectations are considered within university programmes, aiming to an increased engagement in STEM careers. To accomplish these goals, a new and integrated approach (MELT) is presented, involving the main stakeholders in both scientific education and society. An education framework is presented, providing guidelines for an improved collaborative approach to STEM education in the future. Results from the pilot implementation of MELT are presented, from a small-scale education parliament prototype. From these initial stage and results, it is seen that there is a need for a proper alignment of expectations from all involved stakeholders, concerning the engineering education towards society’s demands.     

Comments on “the uses of Lawson's test of formal reasoning in the israeli science education context”

In a recent article that appeared in this journal, Hofstein and Mandler (1985) reported a study which employed the Lawson's (1978) classroom test of formal reasoning to determine, among other things, the relationship between achievement in science and mathematics in a sample of Israeli students. Based on their findings, the authors raised objections to the classroom utility of the test for diagnosing students' developmental levels. The present author, however, argued that the case has not been properly established in view of one major methodological problem which seemed to characterize the study. Accordingly, the plea to abandon Lawson's test of formal reasoning was questioned.     

Extending Previous cG×I Findings on 5‐HTTLPR's Moderation of Intervention Effects on Adolescent Substance Misuse Initiation

This study addresses replication in candidate gene × environment interaction (cG×E) research by investigating if the key findings from Brody, Beach, Philibert, Chen, and Murry (2009) can be detected using data (N = 1,809) from the PROSPER substance use preventive intervention delivery system. Parallel to Brody et al., this study tested the hypotheses that substance misuse initiation would increase faster from age 11 to age 14 and be higher at age 14 among: (a) 5‐HTTLPR short carrier adolescents versus long homozygotes, (b) control versus intervention adolescents, and (c) 5‐HTTLPR short carriers in the control condition versus all other participants. The hypotheses were generally supported and results were consistent with Brody et al.'s cG×I finding. Results are discussed in light of replication issues in cG×E research and implications for intervention.     

Segmental awareness and dyslexia: Is it possible to learn to segment well and yet continue to read and write poorly?

This study is focused on the relationship between the development of segmental awareness and dyslexia. More specifically we have tried to address the question, is it possible to learn to segment well and yet continue to read and write poorly? For this purpose, 14 second and third grade dyslexic children were assigned to three different training programs. Those who participated in the first two programs were taught the skills required to use the phonemes, while those in the third program, who served as a pseudo-control group, were given the exercises in perceptual and psychomotor activities. After the training program, children who had received the first two training programs reached a level of performance similar to that of normal readers in different tasks of segmentation of phonemes. The improvements observed in these tasks were correlated in dictation but not in reading, where there was no difference after training.     

Using body donor demographics to assist the implementation of donation programs in Brazil

The use of human material in anatomy education depends upon the generosity of body donors. However, little is known regarding the demographics of body donors in Brazil, where voluntary body donation is a relatively rare phenomenon. Hence, the aim of the present study was to elucidate the demographic profile of applicants to the Body Donation Program (BDP) at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre in Brazil, as well as to assess whether the observed characteristics of body donors are unique to that sample, or if they merely reflect the characteristics of the regional population. Information derived from the specific forms filled out by donors between January 2008 and June 2016 at the time of registration were collected. Data from 416 forms were analyzed. Based on this study, the typical applicant in Brazil is typically a white female (67.4%), over 60 years of age (60.3%), unmarried or single (70.6%), affiliated with a religious group (89.1%), of middle class background (40.4%), who has completed high school and/or holds a university degree (93.8%). The motivation of donors was, in most cases, an altruistic gesture, represented by the desire to help society and science. Elucidating these demographic characteristics of potential donors may help identify the target public to which information regarding body donation campaigns could be directed. Anat Sci Educ 10: 475–486. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Balancing technology and physician-patient knowledge through an unlearning context

The Spanish health care system has undergone important changes with regard to the development of new homecare services known as “Hospital in the Home”. This paper investigates the approaches that hospital in the home units (HHUs) have used to update physician/patient knowledge and the technology knowledge of their members and relates them to an unlearning context and improvement in the quality of health services. These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 55 doctors and 62 nurses belonging to 44 HHUs. The research findings suggest that the key benefits of an unlearning context in HHUs are clear: it enables them to identify and replace poor practices and also avoids the reinvention of the wheel; it enables cost reduction by minimizing unnecessary work caused by the use of poor methods; and it enables improvements in services to patients.     

Research and Learning Information Resources

Identification of the factors that contribute to the fear of success in women's career development is important for community college educators and counselors wanting to assist women in their professional goals. In this article the factors associated with fear of success in women are categorized as follows: familial socialization, psychological influences, and cultural norms. It is generally conceded that any one or combination of these factors can precipitate a fear of success which becomes manifest in the woman's defeatist behaviors, and in turn, undermines her career development. It is imperative that professionals recognize the factors causing the fear of success orientation in women so that they may develop coping strategies with the client.     

Contamination of lithium heparin blood by K2-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA): an experimental evaluation

Introduction:

The contamination of serum or lithium heparin blood with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) salts may affect accuracy of some critical analytes and jeopardize patient safety. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of lithium heparin sample contamination with different amounts of K₂EDTA.

Materials and methods:

Fifteen volunteers were enrolled among the laboratory staff. Two lithium heparin tubes and one K₂EDTA tube were collected from each subject. The lithium-heparin tubes of each subject were pooled and divided in 5 aliquots. The whole blood of K₂EDTA tube was then added in scalar amount to autologous heparinised aliquots, to obtained different degrees of K₂EDTA blood volume contamination (0%; 5%; 13%; 29%; 43%). The following clinical chemistry parameters were then measured in centrifuged aliquots: alanine aminotranspherase (ALT), bilirubin (total), calcium, chloride, creatinine, iron, lactate dehydrogenase (LD), lipase, magnesium, phosphate, potassium, sodium.

Results:

A significant variation starting from 5% K₂EDTA contamination was observed for calcium, chloride, iron, LD, magnesium (all decreased) and potassium (increased). The variation of phosphate and sodium (both increased) was significant after 13% and 29% K₂EDTA contamination, respectively. The values of ALT, bilirubin, creatinine and lipase remained unchanged up to 43% K₂EDTA contamination. When variations were compared with desirable quality specifications, the bias was significant for calcium, chloride, LD, magnesium and potassium (from 5% K₂EDTA contamination), sodium, phosphate and iron (from 29% K₂EDTA contamination).

Conclusions:

The concentration of calcium, magnesium, potassium, chloride and LD appears to be dramatically biased by even modest K₂EDTA contamination (i.e., 5%). The values of iron, phosphate, and sodium are still reliable up to 29% K₂EDTA contamination, whereas ALT, bilirubin, creatinine and lipase appear overall less vulnerable towards K₂EDTA contamination.     

The rhetoric of American Indian activism in the 1960s and 1970s 1

Political rhetoric in a democracy is, in at least some sense, educative and constitutive even as it is instrumentally persuasive. For members of ethnic, racial, or cultural groups that lie outside of the dominant culture, the educative processes that underlie policy advocacy require attention to specific cultures, traditions, historical experiences, and group interests. Thus, even though all out‐groups share many common challenges, they all face unique situations as well. This essay explores these rhetorical challenges and some of the strategies designed to meet them through an examination of the political rhetoric of American Indian activists from the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties through the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Particular attention is paid to the question of audience.