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The prolonged, postweaning fast of northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) pups is characterized by a reliance on lipid metabolism and reversible, fasting-induced insulin resistance, providing a unique model to examine the effects of insulin on lipid metabolism. We have previously shown that acute insulin infusion induced a shift in fatty acid metabolism dependent on fasting duration. This study complements the previous study by examining the effects of fasting duration and insulin infusion on circulating levels of oxylipins, bioactive metabolites derived from the oxygenation of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Northern elephant seal pups were studied at two postweaning periods (n = 5/period): early fasting (1-2 wk postweaning; 127 ± 1 kg) and late fasting (6-7 wk postweaning; 93 ± 4 kg). Different cohorts of pups were weighed, sedated, and infused with 65 mU/kg of insulin. Plasma was collected prior to infusion (T0) and at 10, 30, 60, and 120 min postinfusion. A profile of ∼80 oxylipins was analyzed by UPLC-ESI-MS/MS. Nine oxylipins changed between early and late fasting and eight were altered in response to insulin infusion. Fasting decreased prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) and increased 14,15-dihydroxyicosatrienoic acid (14,15-DiHETrE), 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE), and 4-hydroxy-docosahexaenoic acid (4-HDoHE) (P < 0.03) in T0 samples, whereas insulin infusion resulted in an inverse change in area-under-the-curve (AUC) levels in these same metabolites (P < 0.05). In addition, 12-12-hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (HpETE) and 12-HETE decreased with fasting and insulin infusion, respectively (P < 0.04). The oxylipins altered during fasting and in response to insulin infusion may contribute to the manifestation of insulin resistance and participate in the metabolic regulation of associated cellular processes.

Current conceptualizations of youth impact the ways in which youth are understood and shape and limit the questions and policy solutions that educational theorists, practitioners and researchers can envision. This article asserts that critical arts pedagogies can create more expansive possibilities for research and practices aiming to support youth and allows for a focus on young people's knowledge production, systemic analysis and ways to support their transformative agency. Examining concepts from critical youth studies (CYS) scholarship and a framework for social justice arts education, this article applies these concepts to a research vignette of a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project that incorporates social justice art-making practices to present an example of a new way to counter dominant ways of thinking about youth. This article presents a multidimensional critical arts education framework that contextualizes conceptions of youth and youth practices in relationship to wider institutions, structures, and systems.

This case study describes the literacy development of a struggling reader over a seven-month period as he engaged in a youth-led participatory action research (PAR) project. The project's goal was for youth participants to develop a proposal for productive change in their local community and present it to community stakeholders. The study focused on ways the participants were supported in gaining skills in research, writing and oral communications. The study examines the process through which literacy skills improved for the youngest participant for whom the academic aspects of this project were extremely challenging. It describes curricular and pedagogical approaches during the process that led to his academic literacy improvements. Findings indicate the key components that increased this participant's literacy development were the caring, supportive environment that was established, an assets-based approach and apprenticeship model as well as connections of the research project to real world purposes. (Contains 2 tables.)

Prior research highlights the mismatch between adolescents' growing capacities for autonomy and the limited opportunities for influence in U.S. secondary schools. Youth-led participatory research (YPAR), an approach in which young people research and advocate for change on problems of concern to them, could increase students' autonomy in secondary schools. This qualitative study of YPAR examined whether and how the intervention meaningfully affected the interactions and roles of students and adults in two distinctive urban high school settings, identifying concepts for further empirical investigation. Results suggested that YPAR enabled processes of student professionalization that led to novel student-adult "collegial" interactions, expansion of domains of student influence, and diversification of students with opportunities to influence policies and practices across these two schools. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

In this article, the authors provide their analyses on a scenario wherein Dr. Luanda, an evaluator, facilitated an empowerment evaluation with youth. In this commentary, the authors review what they think is missing in Dr. Luanda's participatory evaluation effort to empower youth and highlight the knowledge and skills they believe are essential elements in facilitating a youth-led evaluation. The authors' commentary draws on their experience working at Youth in Focus, a nonprofit organization that provides consulting and training to support youth and adult partnerships in youth-led action research and evaluation projects. In Youth in Focus approach, young people participate in each step of the evaluation process--from research design to data collection to data analysis to creating a final evaluation report. As the authors have observed, meaningful youth participation in evaluation can lead to youth leadership development, enhanced adult capacity to collaborate with youth people in evaluation, and increased youth voice in the organizational cycle of evaluation and planning.(Contains 2 notes.)

The article discusses the acoustic detection of critically endangered North Pacific right whale in the northern Bering Sea. Topics include the impact illegal fishing and whaling on the declining population of the whale, the implementation of passive acoustic monitoring to understand the population size and distribution of the whale and the various factors that may contribute on the detection of animal sound.

Practical theologian James E. Loder engaged in a sustained 40+ year conversation with some of the most significant figures in science in the 20th century to construct a neo-Chalcedonian practical theology with enormous implications for both the science-theology dialogue and for the Church's witness to the Gospel in a scientific world. This essay focuses primarily on how Loder engaged and appropriated the post-critical epistemology of Michael Polanyi for his own critical and constructive proposals for use in the theology-science dialogue. Loder's proposal is based on the analogia spiritus--the relationality that governs and guides divine-human knowing and being. The essay encourages those working in the science-theology dialogue to engage Loder's work as a whole, in part by including an annotated bibliography of Loder's relevant works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project utilized a cross-sectional study design to assess diabetes risk among 540 individuals from 12 counties using trained extension agents and community organizations in West Virginia. Individuals were screened for diabetes using (1) the validated 7-item diabetes risk assessment survey and (2) hemoglobin A1c tests. Demographic and lifestyle behaviors were also collected. The average age, body mass index, and A1c were 51.2±16.4, 31.1±7.5, and 5.8±0.74, respectively. The majority were females, Non-Hispanic Whites with no prior diagnosis of diabetes. Screenings showed that 61.8% of participants were at high risk for diabetes. Family history of diabetes (siblings or parents), overweight or obese status, sedentary lifestyle, and older age were commonly prevalent risk factors. Higher risk scores computed from the 7-item questions correlated positively with higher A1c (r=0.221, P<0.001). In multivariate logistic regression analyses, higher diabetes risk was predicted by obesity, older age, family history of hypertension, and gestational diabetes. Females were 4 times at higher risk than males. The findings indicated that community-based screenings were an effective way to assess diabetes risk in rural West Virginia. Linking diabetes screenings with referrals to lifestyle programs for high risk individuals can help reduce the burden of diabetes in the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]