University of North Carolina at Greensboro

About: University of North Carolina at Greensboro is a education organization based out in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 5481 authors who have published 13715 publications receiving 456239 citations. The organization is also known as: UNCG & UNC Greensboro.

ACL Research Retreat VI: An Update on ACL Injury Risk and Prevention

Abstract: It has been well recognized that multiple factors, whether individually or in combination, contribute to noncontact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. The ongoing mission of the ACL Research Retreat is to bring clinicians and researchers together to present and discuss the most recent advances in ACL injury epidemiology, risk factor identification, and injury-risk screening and prevention strategies and to identify future research directives. The sixth retreat held March 22–24, 2012, in Greensboro, North Carolina, was attended by more than 70 clinicians and researchers, including representatives from Canada, Iceland, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, and South Africa. The meeting featured keynote presentations and discussion forums by expert scientists in ACL injury risk and prevention and 34 podium and poster presentations by attendees. Keynotes delivered by Ajit Chaudhari, PhD (The Ohio State University), Malcolm Collins, PhD (Medical Research Council and University of Cape Town, South Africa), and Tron Krosshaug, PhD (Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center, Norway) described their ongoing work related to proximal trunk control and lower extremity biomechanics, genetic risk factors associated with ACL injury, and methodologic approaches to understanding ACL loading mechanisms, respectively. Discussion forums led by Jennifer Hootman, PhD, ATC, FNATA, FACSM (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and Scott McLean, PhD (University of Michigan), focused on strategies for implementing injury-prevention programs in community settings and took a critical look at the strengths and limitations of motion-capture systems and how we might continue to refine our research approaches to increase the relevance and influence of our biomechanical research, respectively. Podium and poster presentations were organized into thematic sessions of anatomical, genetic, and hormone risk factors; the role of body position in ACL injury risk; pubertal and sex differences in lower extremity biomechanics; injury-risk screening and prevention; and methodologic considerations in risk factor research. Substantial time was provided for group discussion throughout the conference. From these discussions, the 2010 consensus statement1 was updated to reflect recent advances in the field and to chart new directions for future research. Following is the updated consensus statement. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-47.5.13. PMID: 23068597

Evidence for “Rose‐Colored Glasses”: An Examination of the Positivity Bias in Young Children’s Personality Judgments

Abstract: Young children exhibit a positivity bias in their judgment of personality traits, wherein they attend to or process information selectively to maintain optimistic views of the self and others. In addition to its theoretical relevance for developing a cohesive model of personality reasoning, the positivity bias has implications for several aspects of psychosocial well-being (e.g., peer relations, personal safety). Despite its importance and recurrence across many research studies, little attention has been devoted to studying the positivity bias systematically. This article describes 3 lines of research that demonstrate a positivity bias in early personality reasoning and presents arguments for the role of adaptive immaturity and socialization factors in setting the stage for, and perpetuating, the positivity bias. Suggestions for future research center on the need to consider the positivity bias as a profile of personality attribution, to identify the factors that contribute to the bias, and to understand the significance of the bias over the course of development.

Response rate viewed as engagement bouts: effects of relative reinforcement and schedule type.

Abstract: The rate of a reinforced response is conceptualized as a composite of engagement bouts (visits) and responding during visits. Part I of this paper describes a method for estimating the rate of visit initiations and the average number of responses per visit from log survivor plots: the proportion) of interresponse times (IRTs) longer than some elapsed time (log scale) plotted as a function of elapsed time. In Part 2 the method is applied to IRT distributions from rats that obtained food pellets by nose poking a lighted key under various multiple schedules of reinforcement. As expected, total response rate increased as a function of (a) increasing the rate of reinforcement (i.e., variable-interval [VI] 4 min vs. VI 1 mi), (b) increasing the amount of the reinforcer (one food pellet vs. four pellets), (c) increasing the percentage of reinforcers that were contingent on nose poking (25% vs. 100%), and (d) requiring additional responses after the end of the VI schedule (i.e., adding a tandem variable-ratio [VR] 9 requirement). The first three of these variables (relative reinforcement) increased the visit-initiation rate. The tandem VR, in contrast, increased the number of responses per visit. Thus, variables that have similar effects on total response rate can be differentiated based on their effects on the componemts of response rate.

Obesity Alters Adipose Tissue Macrophage Iron Content and Tissue Iron Distribution

Abstract: Adipose tissue (AT) expansion is accompanied by the infiltration and accumulation of AT macrophages (ATMs), as well as a shift in ATM polarization. Several studies have implicated recruited M1 ATMs in the metabolic consequences of obesity; however, little is known regarding the role of alternatively activated resident M2 ATMs in AT homeostasis or how their function is altered in obesity. Herein, we report the discovery of a population of alternatively activated ATMs with elevated cellular iron content and an iron-recycling gene expression profile. These iron-rich ATMs are referred to as MFehi, and the remaining ATMs are referred to as MFelo. In lean mice, ~25% of the ATMs are MFehi; this percentage decreases in obesity owing to the recruitment of MFelo macrophages. Similar to MFelo cells, MFehi ATMs undergo an inflammatory shift in obesity. In vivo, obesity reduces the iron content of MFehi ATMs and the gene expression of iron importers as well as the iron exporter, ferroportin, suggesting an impaired ability to handle iron. In vitro, exposure of primary peritoneal macrophages to saturated fatty acids also alters iron metabolism gene expression. Finally, the impaired MFehi iron handling coincides with adipocyte iron overload in obese mice. In conclusion, in obesity, iron distribution is altered both at the cellular and tissue levels, with AT playing a predominant role in this change. An increased availability of fatty acids during obesity may contribute to the observed changes in MFehi ATM phenotype and their reduced capacity to handle iron.