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Does School Participatory Budgeting Increase Students’ Political Efficacy? Bandura’s “Sources,” Civic Pedagogy, and Education for Democracy

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Does school participatory budgeting (SPB) increase students’ political efficacy? SPB, which is implemented in thousands of schools around the world, is a democratic process of deliberation and decision-making in which students determine how to spend a portion of the school’s budget. We examined the impact of SPB on political efficacy…

Does school participatory budgeting (SPB) increase students’ political efficacy? SPB, which is implemented in thousands of schools around the world, is a democratic process of deliberation and decision-making in which students determine how to spend a portion of the school’s budget. We examined the impact of SPB on political efficacy in one middle school in Arizona. Our participants’ (n = 28) responses on survey items designed to measure self-perceived growth in political efficacy indicated a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.46), suggesting that SPB is an effective approach to civic pedagogy, with promising prospects for developing students’ political efficacy.

ContributorsGibbs, Norman P. (Author) / Bartlett, Tara Lynn (Author) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Author)

Created2021-05-01

Towards a systems biology understanding of metabolic syndrome

Description

This dissertation investigates the condition of skeletal muscle insulin resistance using bioinformatics and computational biology approaches. Drawing from several studies and numerous data sources, I have attempted to uncover molecular mechanisms at multiple levels. From the detailed atomistic simulations of a single protein, to datamining approaches applied at the systems…

This dissertation investigates the condition of skeletal muscle insulin resistance using bioinformatics and computational biology approaches. Drawing from several studies and numerous data sources, I have attempted to uncover molecular mechanisms at multiple levels. From the detailed atomistic simulations of a single protein, to datamining approaches applied at the systems biology level, I provide new targets to explore for the research community. Furthermore I present a new online web resource that unifies various bioinformatics databases to enable discovery of relevant features in 3D protein structures.

ContributorsMielke, Clinton (Author) / Mandarino, Lawrence (Committee member) / LaBaer, Joshua (Committee member) / Magee, D. Mitchell (Committee member) / Dinu, Valentin (Committee member) / Willis, Wayne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2013

Mitochondrial physiology in avian and mammalian skeletal muscle

Description

While exercising mammalian muscle increasingly relies on carbohydrates for fuel as aerobic exercise intensity rises above the moderate range, flying birds are extraordinary endurance athletes and fuel flight, a moderate-high intensity exercise, almost exclusively with lipid. In addition, Aves have long lifespans compared to weight-matched mammals. As skeletal muscle mitochondria…

While exercising mammalian muscle increasingly relies on carbohydrates for fuel as aerobic exercise intensity rises above the moderate range, flying birds are extraordinary endurance athletes and fuel flight, a moderate-high intensity exercise, almost exclusively with lipid. In addition, Aves have long lifespans compared to weight-matched mammals. As skeletal muscle mitochondria account for the majority of oxygen consumption during aerobic exercise, the primary goal was to investigate differences in isolated muscle mitochondria between these species and to examine to what extent factors intrinsic to mitochondria may account for the behavior observed in the intact tissue and whole organism. First, maximal enzyme activities were assessed in sparrow and rat mitochondria. Citrate synthase and aspartate aminotransferase activity were higher in sparrow compared to rat mitochondria, while glutamate dehydrogenase activity was lower. Sparrow mitochondrial NAD-linked isocitrate dehydrogenase activity was dependent on phosphate, unlike the mammalian enzyme. Next, the rate of oxygen consumption (JO), electron transport chain (ETC) activity, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production were assessed in intact mitochondria. Maximal rates of fat oxidation were lower than for carbohydrate in rat but not sparrow mitochondria. ETC activity was higher in sparrows, but no differences were found in ROS production between species. Finally, fuel selection and control of respiration at three rates between rest and maximum were assessed. Mitochondrial fuel oxidation and selection mirrored that of the whole body; in rat mitochondria the reliance on carbohydrate increased as the rate of oxygen consumption increased, whereas fat dominated under all conditions in the sparrow. These data indicate fuel selection, at least in part, can be modulated at the level of the mitochondrial matrix when multiple substrates are present at saturating levels. As an increase in matrix oxidation-reduction potential has been linked to a suppression of fat oxidation and high ROS production, the high ETC activity relative to dehydrogenase activity in avian compared to mammalian mitochondria may result in lower matrix oxidation-reduction potential, allowing fatty acid oxidation to proceed while also resulting in low ROS production in vivo.

ContributorsKuzmiak, Sarah (Author) / Willis, Wayne T (Thesis advisor) / Mandarino, Lawrence (Committee member) / Sweazea, Karen (Committee member) / Harrison, Jon (Committee member) / Gadau, Juergen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2012

Next Generation Sequencing Methylation Profiling in Skeletal Muscle Pre- and Post-Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery

Description

Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation have been found to affect metabolic processes, which leads to conditions like type 2 diabetes and obesity. The aim of this project was to validate differentially methylated cytosines (DMCs) identified in skeletal muscle from seven obese, non-diabetic women pre- and 3 months post- Roux-en-Y…

Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation have been found to affect metabolic processes, which leads to conditions like type 2 diabetes and obesity. The aim of this project was to validate differentially methylated cytosines (DMCs) identified in skeletal muscle from seven obese, non-diabetic women pre- and 3 months post- Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. DNA samples extracted from skeletal muscle were sent to the Mayo Genotyping Core to undergo reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS). Differentially methylated cytosines at chr14.105353824 of the gene CEP170B, chr19.16437949 of the KLF2 gene, chr7.130126082 of MEST, and chr15.62457572 of C2CD4B were captured from the RRBS analysis using MethylSig. Bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP) was performed on all DMCs listed above which resulted in no significant changes in methylation post-surgery. It was concluded that an alternate, more precise method should be used for validation of the RRBS, such as pyrosequencing.

ContributorsKelley, Conley Lane (Author) / Coletta, Dawn K. (Thesis director) / Roust, Lori R. (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)

Created2016-05