ASU Scholarship Showcase

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) exhibit pronounced changes in brain structure, activity, and connectivity. While considerable work has begun to elucidate how these neural changes contribute to behavior, the heterogeneity of symptoms and diagnoses makes interpretation of findings and application to clinical practice challenging. In particular, whether MS related changes in brain activity or brain connectivity protect against or contribute to worsening motor symptoms is unclear. With the recent emergence of neuromodulatory techniques that can alter neural activity in specific brain regions, it is critical to establish whether localized brain activation patterns are contributing to (i.e. maladaptive) or protecting against (i.e. adaptive) progression of motor symptoms. In this manuscript, we consolidate recent findings regarding changes in supraspinal structure and activity in people with MS and how these changes may contribute to motor performance. Furthermore, we discuss a hypothesis suggesting that increased neural activity during movement may be either adaptive or maladaptive depending on where in the brain this increase is observed. Specifically, we outline preliminary evidence suggesting sensorimotor cortex activity in the ipsilateral cortices may be maladaptive in people with MS. We also discuss future work that could supply data to support or refute this hypothesis, thus improving our understanding of this important topic.

Background: The transition from the home to college is a phase in which emerging adults shift toward more unhealthy eating and physical activity patterns, higher body mass indices, thus increasing risk of overweight/obesity. Currently, little is understood about how changing friendship networks shape weight gain behaviors. This paper describes the recruitment, data collection, and data analytic protocols for the SPARC (Social impact of Physical Activity and nutRition in College) study, a longitudinal examination of the mechanisms by which friends and friendship networks influence nutrition and physical activity behaviors and weight gain in the transition to college life.

Methods: The SPARC study aims to follow 1450 university freshmen from a large university over an academic year, collecting data on multiple aspects of friends and friendship networks. Integrating multiple types of data related to student lives, ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) are administered via a cell phone application, devilSPARC. EMAs collected in four 1-week periods (a total of 4 EMA waves) are integrated with linked data from web-based surveys and anthropometric measurements conducted at four times points (for a total of eight data collection periods including EMAs, separated by ~1 month). University databases will provide student card data, allowing integration of both time-dated data on food purchasing, use of physical activity venues, and geographical information system (GIS) locations of these activities relative to other students in their social networks.

Discussion: Findings are intended to guide the development of more effective interventions to enhance behaviors among college students that protect against weight gain during college.

Attitudes and habits are extremely resistant to change, but a disruption of the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to bring long-term, massive societal changes. During the pandemic, people are being compelled to experience new ways of interacting, working, learning, shopping, traveling, and eating meals. Going forward, a critical question is whether these experiences will result in changed behaviors and preferences in the long term. This paper presents initial findings on the likelihood of long-term changes in telework, daily travel, restaurant patronage, and air travel based on survey data collected from adults in the United States in Spring 2020. These data suggest that a sizable fraction of the increase in telework and decreases in both business air travel and restaurant patronage are likely here to stay. As for daily travel modes, public transit may not fully recover its pre-pandemic ridership levels, but many of our respondents are planning to bike and walk more than they used to. These data reflect the responses of a sample that is higher income and more highly educated than the US population. The response of these particular groups to the COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps especially important to understand, however, because their consumption patterns give them a large influence on many sectors of the economy.

Cities in the Global South face rapid urbanization challenges and often suffer an acute lack of infrastructure and governance capacities. Smart Cities Mission, in India, launched in 2015, aims to offer a novel approach for urban renewal of 100 cities following an area‐based development approach, where the use of ICT and digital technologies is particularly emphasized. This article presents a critical review of the design and implementation framework of this new urban renewal program across selected case‐study cities. The article examines the claims of the so‐called “smart cities” against actual urban transformation on‐ground and evaluates how “inclusive” and “sustainable” these developments are. We quantify the scale and coverage of the smart city urban renewal projects in the cities to highlight who the program includes and excludes. The article also presents a statistical analysis of the sectoral focus and budgetary allocations of the projects under the Smart Cities Mission to find an inherent bias in these smart city initiatives in terms of which types of development they promote and the ones it ignores. The findings indicate that a predominant emphasis on digital urban renewal of selected precincts and enclaves, branded as “smart cities,” leads to deepening social polarization and gentrification. The article offers crucial urban planning lessons for designing ICT‐driven urban renewal projects, while addressing critical questions around inclusion and sustainability in smart city ventures.`

Honeybee workers are essentially sterile female helpers that make up the majority of individuals in a colony. Workers display a marked change in physiology when they transition from in-nest tasks to foraging. Recent technological advances have made it possible to unravel the metabolic modifications associated with this transition. Previous studies have revealed extensive remodeling of brain, thorax, and hypopharyngeal gland biochemistry. However, data on changes in the abdomen is scarce. To narrow this gap we investigated the proteomic composition of abdominal tissue in the days typically preceding the onset of foraging in honeybee workers.

In order to get a broader representation of possible protein dynamics, we used workers of two genotypes with differences in the age at which they initiate foraging. This approach was combined with RNA interference-mediated downregulation of an insulin/insulin-like signaling component that is central to foraging behavior, the insulin receptor substrate (irs), and with measurements of glucose and lipid levels.
Our data provide new insight into the molecular underpinnings of phenotypic plasticity in the honeybee, invoke parallels with vertebrate metabolism, and support an integrated and irs-dependent association of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism with the transition from in-nest tasks to foraging.

Background: Gene bodies are the most evolutionarily conserved targets of DNA methylation in eukaryotes. However, the regulatory functions of gene body DNA methylation remain largely unknown. DNA methylation in insects appears to be primarily confined to exons. Two recent studies in Apis mellifera (honeybee) and Nasonia vitripennis (jewel wasp) analyzed transcription and DNA methylation data for one gene in each species to demonstrate that exon-specific DNA methylation may be associated with alternative splicing events. In this study we investigated the relationship between DNA methylation, alternative splicing, and cross-species gene conservation on a genome-wide scale using genome-wide transcription and DNA methylation data.

Results: We generated RNA deep sequencing data (RNA-seq) to measure genome-wide mRNA expression at the exon- and gene-level. We produced a de novo transcriptome from this RNA-seq data and computationally predicted splice variants for the honeybee genome. We found that exons that are included in transcription are higher methylated than exons that are skipped during transcription. We detected enrichment for alternative splicing among methylated genes compared to unmethylated genes using fisher’s exact test. We performed a statistical analysis to reveal that the presence of DNA methylation or alternative splicing are both factors associated with a longer gene length and a greater number of exons in genes. In concordance with this observation, a conservation analysis using BLAST revealed that each of these factors is also associated with higher cross-species gene conservation.

Conclusions: This study constitutes the first genome-wide analysis exhibiting a positive relationship between exon-level DNA methylation and mRNA expression in the honeybee. Our finding that methylated genes are enriched for alternative splicing suggests that, in invertebrates, exon-level DNA methylation may play a role in the construction of splice variants by positively influencing exon inclusion during transcription. The results from our cross-species homology analysis suggest that DNA methylation and alternative splicing are genetic mechanisms whose utilization could contribute to a longer gene length and a slower rate of gene evolution.

Background: The number of days of pedometer or accelerometer data needed to reliably assess physical activity (PA) is important for research that examines the relationship with health. While this important research has been completed in young to middle-aged adults, data is lacking in older adults. Further, data determining the number of days of self-reports PA data is also void. The purpose of this study was to examine the number of days needed to predict habitual PA and sedentary behaviour across pedometer, accelerometer, and physical activity log (PA log) data in older adults.

Methods: Participants (52 older men and women; age = 69.3 ± 7.4 years, range= 55-86 years) wore a Yamax Digiwalker SW-200 pedometer and an ActiGraph 7164 accelerometer while completing a PA log for 21 consecutive days. Mean differences each instrument and intensity between days of the week were examined using separate repeated measures analysis of variance for with pairwise comparisons. Spearman-Brown Prophecy Formulae based on Intraclass Correlations of .80, .85, .90 and .95 were used to predict the number of days of accelerometer or pedometer wear or PA log daily records needed to represent total PA, light PA, moderate-to-vigorous PA, and sedentary behaviour.

Results: Results of this study showed that three days of accelerometer data, four days of pedometer data, or four days of completing PA logs are needed to accurately predict PA levels in older adults. When examining time spent in specific intensities of PA, fewer days of data are needed for accurate prediction of time spent in that activity for ActiGraph but more for the PA log. To accurately predict average daily time spent in sedentary behaviour, five days of ActiGraph data are needed.

Conclusions: The number days of objective (pedometer and ActiGraph) and subjective (PA log) data needed to accurately estimate daily PA in older adults was relatively consistent. Despite no statistical differences between days for total PA by the pedometer and ActiGraph, the magnitude of differences between days suggests that day of the week cannot be completely ignored in the design and analysis of PA studies that involve < 7-day monitoring protocols for these instruments. More days of accelerometer data were needed to determine typical sedentary behaviour than PA level in this population of older adults.

Background: Five accelerometer-derived methods of identifying nonwear and wear time were compared with a self-report criterion in adults ≥ 56 years of age.

Methods: Two hundred participants who reported wearing an Actical™ activity monitor for four to seven consecutive days and provided complete daily log sheet data (i.e., the criterion) were included. Four variables were obtained from log sheets: 1) dates the device was worn; 2) time(s) the participant put the device on each day; 3) time(s) the participant removed the device each day; and 4) duration of self-reported nonwear each day. Estimates of wear and nonwear time using 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 minutes of consecutive zeroes were compared to estimates derived from log sheets.

Results: Compared with the log sheet, mean daily wear time varied from -84, -43, -24, -14 and -8 min/day for the 60-min, 90-min, 120-min, 150-min and 180-min algorithms, respectively. Daily log sheets indicated 8.5 nonwear bouts per week with 120-min, 150-min and 180-min algorithms estimating 8.2-8.9 nonwear bouts per week. The 60-min and 90-min methods substantially overestimated number of nonwear bouts per week and underestimated time spent in sedentary behavior. Sensitivity (number of compliant days correctly identified as compliant) improved with increasing minutes of consecutive zero counts and stabilized at the 120-min algorithm. The proportion of wear time being sedentary and absolute and proportion of time spent in physical activity of varying intensities were nearly identical for each method.

Conclusions: Utilization of at least 120 minutes of consecutive zero counts will provide dependable population-based estimates of wear and nonwear time, and time spent being sedentary and active in older adults wearing the Actical™ activity monitor.

In spite of well-documented health benefits of vegetarian diets, less is known regarding the effects of these diets on athletic performance. In this cross-sectional study, we compared elite vegetarian and omnivore adult endurance athletes for maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) and strength. Twenty-seven vegetarian (VEG) and 43 omnivore (OMN) athletes were evaluated using VO2 max testing on the treadmill, and strength assessment using a dynamometer to determine peak torque for leg extensions. Dietary data were assessed using detailed seven-day food logs. Although total protein intake was lower among vegetarians in comparison to omnivores, protein intake as a function of body mass did not differ by group (1.2 ± 0.3 and 1.4 ± 0.5 g/kg body mass for VEG and OMN respectively, p = 0.220). VO2 max differed for females by diet group (53.0 ± 6.9 and 47.1 ± 8.6 mL/kg/min for VEG and OMN respectively, p < 0.05) but not for males (62.6 ± 15.4 and 55.7 ± 8.4 mL/kg/min respectively). Peak torque did not differ significantly between diet groups. Results from this study indicate that vegetarian endurance athletes’ cardiorespiratory fitness was greater than that for their omnivorous counterparts, but that peak torque did not differ between diet groups. These data suggest that vegetarian diets do not compromise performance outcomes and may facilitate aerobic capacity in athletes.

This manuscript explores the role of embodied views of language comprehension and production in bilingualism and specific language impairment. Reconceptualizing popular models of bilingual language processing, the embodied theory is first extended to this area. Issues such as semantic grounding in a second language and potential differences between early and late acquisition of a second language are discussed. Predictions are made about how this theory informs novel ways of thinking about teaching a second language. Secondly, the comorbidity of speech, language, and motor impairments and how embodiment theory informs the discussion of the etiology of these impairments is examined. A hypothesis is presented suggesting that what is often referred to as specific language impairment may not be so specific due to widespread subclinical motor deficits in this population. Predictions are made about how weaknesses and instabilities in speech motor control, even at a subclinical level, may disrupt the neural network that connects acoustic input, articulatory motor plans, and semantics. Finally, I make predictions about how this information informs clinical practice for professionals such as speech language pathologists and occupational and physical therapists. These new hypotheses are placed within the larger framework of the body of work pertaining to semantic grounding, action-based language acquisition, and action-perception links that underlie language learning and conceptual grounding.