Morgan Community College

Bicycling can be a great way to support youth physical and mental health, yet participation among adolescents in the United States has steadily declined. School-based bicycling programs offer a promising approach to promote physical activity, but few in the United States have been comprehensively evaluated. This study applies the RE-AIM framework to carry out a pragmatic evaluation of Outride's Riding for Focus middle school bicycling program across 117 public schools onboarded between 2020 and 2022. We used student surveys, teacher implementation surveys, and national program data to assess the program. Reach: The Riding for Focus program reached a diverse student population. Students reported high levels of program enjoyment, cycling confidence, and safety knowledge which aligned with teacher perceptions. There was an increase in self-reported student well-being and helmet use, but no changes were observed in cycling frequency or other health behaviors after the program. Adoption: The program was adopted across a wide range of school settings, representing 1.4% of public US middle schools serving low-income communities. Moderate to high levels of implementation fidelity were reported, and modifications were often reported. Maintenance: Of the schools onboarded before 2020, 79% were still running the program in 2021, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting strong potential for program sustainability. Common challenges included equipment maintenance, staffing capacity, and scheduling flexibility. This evaluation highlights the program's potential as a scalable, school-based bicycling intervention with high levels of student enjoyment. Future research should examine long-term maintenance and program refinement to ensure program longevity.

In recent years, the integration of machine learning and com­puter vision (ML/CV) technologies has significantly advanced assisted reproductive technologies, and more specifically, the field of embryo analysis. In human in vitro fertilization (IVF), ML/CV has been used on time-lapse imaging systems to evalu­ate embryo morphological features to classify their quality and associated implantation potential. This technology has improved the accuracy and efficiency of embryo grading and selection by evaluating more parameters than the human eye can see under the microscope and removing the subjective na­ture from human evaluation. However, there has been little progress as it relates to ML/CV in the commercial bovine con­ventional embryo transfer and IVF industry. Thus, this study aimed to explore the potential of ML/CV automatic stage and grading techniques on bovine embryos. It was hypothesized that the machine learning model would outperform humans with little to no experience and perform equally or greater than humans with moderate or more experience staging and grading bovine embryos.

ABSTRACTHigh intensity alcohol drinking during binge episodes overwhelmingly contributes to the socioeconomic burden created by Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD). Novel interventions are needed to add to the current therapeutic toolkit and nociceptin receptor (NOP) antagonists have shown promise in reducing heavy drinking days in patients with an AUD. However, an endogenous locus of nociceptin peptide and discrete sites of NOP action underlying this effect remains understudied. Here we show that the lateral septum (LS), a region contributing to binge drinking, is enriched in neurons expressing mRNA coding for the nociceptin peptide (Pnoc). Pnoc-expressing neurons of the LS (LSPnoc) are tuned to stimuli associated with negative valence and display increased excitability during withdrawal from binge-like alcohol drinking. LSPnocactivation was found to have aversive qualities and also potentiates binge-like drinking behavior, suggesting a convergence of circuitry that promotes aversion and drives alcohol consumption. Viral mediated tracing and functional assessment of LSPnocprojection fields revealed GABAergic synapses locally within the LS, and downstream within the lateral hypothalamus (LH) and supramammillary nucleus (SuM). Genetic deletion of NOP from the LS attenuated binge-like alcohol intake in male mice while NOP deletion from the LH and SuM decrease alcohol intake in females. Together, these findings are the first to demonstrate an endogenous population of nociceptin-expressing neurons that contributes to alcohol consumption and identifies sex-dependent modulation of alcohol drinking by NOP.

BackgroundMultipartite mitochondrial genomes are very rare in animals but have been found previously in two insect orders with highly rearranged genomes, the Phthiraptera (parasitic lice), and the Psocoptera (booklice/barklice).ResultsWe provide the first report of a multipartite mitochondrial genome architecture in a third order with highly rearranged genomes: Thysanoptera (thrips). We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genomes of two divergent members of the Scirtothrips dorsalis cryptic species complex. The East Asia 1 species has the single circular chromosome common to animals while the South Asia 1 species has a genome consisting of two circular chromosomes. The fragmented South Asia 1 genome exhibits extreme chromosome size asymmetry with the majority of genes on the large, 14.28 kb, chromosome and only nad6 and trnC on the 0.92 kb mini-circle chromosome. This genome also features paralogous control regions with high similarity suggesting a very recent origin of the nad6 mini-circle chromosome in the South Asia 1 cryptic species.ConclusionsThysanoptera, along with the other minor paraenopteran insect orders should be considered models for rapid mitochondrial genome evolution, including fragmentation. Continued use of these models will facilitate a greater understanding of recombination and other mitochondrial genome evolutionary processes across eukaryotes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1672-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.