New species, new synonymy, taxonomic notes and new records of bark and ambrosia beetles from the southwestern United States and northern Mexico (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Platypodinae and Scolytinae).

Chaetophloeus flourensiae new species, is described from the Chihuahuan Desert from Arizona and western Texas and Hylocurus incognitus new species is described from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. New synonymies include: Chramesus mimosae Blackman, 1938 (= Chramesus varius Wood, 1969); Hylocurus rudis (LeConte, 1876) (= Hylocurus binodatus Wood, 1974; Hypothenemus seriatus (Eichhoff, 1872) (= Stephanoderes multidentatus Hopkins, 1915, Stephanoderes nitidifrons Hopkins, 1915, Hypothenemus hopkinsi Browne, 1963); Hypothenemus pubescens Hopkins, 1915 (= Hypothenemus sparsus Hopkins, 1915, Hypothenenus similis Hopkins, 1915, Stephanoderes tridentatus Hopkins, 1915); Phloeotribus scabricollis Hopkins, 1916 (=Phloeotribus pseudoscabricollis Atkinson, 1989; Pseudothysanoes yuccae (Wood, 1956), (=Pseudothysanoes yuccavorus Wood, 1971); and Thysanoes texanus Blackman, 1943 (=Thysanoes mexicanus Wood, 1956). Hylocurus schwarzi Blackman, 1928, is redescribed including the first description of the female. New locality and host records that significantly extend the respective ranges are included for 30 species from the border region of the United States and Mexico.

The dog as a sentinel and animal model for coccidioidomycosis.

Coccidioidomycosis is a potentially fatal fungal disease of humans and animals that follows inhalation of Coccidioides spp. arthroconidia in the environment. The disease in dogs resembles that in people, and because dogs may be at increased risk of exposure due to their proximity to the ground and digging behavior, they are valuable models for the disease in humans. Dogs have been sentinels for identification of new regions of endemicity in Washington and Texas. Canine serosurveillance has also been used to predict variables associated with environmental presence of Coccidioides spp. Expansion of the endemic region of coccidioidomycosis with climate change-along with predicted population increases and increased development in the southwest United States-may result in 45.4 million additional people at risk of infection by 2090. Here we provide an overview of the value of dogs as sentinels for the disease and encourage the routine reporting of coccidioidomycosis cases in dogs to public health agencies. We also highlight the value of dogs as naturally occurring models for studying novel treatment options and preventatives, such as a novel live avirulent coccidioidomycosis vaccine.

Understanding the association between county-level unemployment and health stratified by education and income in the southwestern United States.

Past research on the relationship between unemployment rates and population health has produced mixed findings. The relationship can be influenced by the kinds of health outcomes observed, time frame, level of geographic aggregation, and other factors. Given these mixed findings, there is a need to add to our knowledge about how unemployment rates and population health are related. There is limited research that examines the association of unemployment rates with both physical and mental health, while simultaneously stratifying populations by income and education levels. Using survey-based self-reported data, this first population-based study examined the association between unemployment rates and physically and mentally unhealthy days in the southwestern United States, by county-level stratification of income (high and low) as well as education (high and low), from 2015 to 2019. After controlling for covariates, associations were modelled using negative binomial regression, with autocorrelative residuals, and were reported as rate ratios (RR). Overall, we found that a 1% rise in unemployment rates was significantly associated with an increase in physically unhealthy days [adjusted RR 1.007; 95% CI, 1.004-1.011, P < 0.001] and mentally unhealthy days [RR 1.006; 95% CI, 1.003-1.009, P < 0.001]. Upon stratification, a significant risk was found among the high education and high income category [RR 1.035; 95% CI, 1.021-1.049, P < 0.001], as well as for the high education and low income category [RR 1.026; 95% CI, 1.013-1.040, P < 0.001]. A better understanding of how unemployment is associated with the health of communities with different education and income levels could help reduce the burden on society through tailored interventions and social policies not only in the United States, but also in other developed nations.

Habitat selection of Gould's wild turkeys in southeastern Arizona.

In semi-arid environments, resources necessary for survival may be unevenly distributed across the landscape. Gould's wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo mexicana) are spatially restricted to mountainous semi-arid areas of southwestern United States and Mexico, and information on their distribution and habitat use is limited. We described how landcover type and topographical features influenced space use and habitat selection by Gould's wild turkeys in southeastern Arizona. We used GPS data from 51 Gould's wild turkeys to describe resource selection during 2016-2017 in southeastern Arizona, USA. We estimated home ranges and calculated resource selection functions using distance from landcover types, slope, aspect, and elevation at used locations and random locations within individual home ranges. Gould's wild turkeys selected areas closer to pine forest and water. Likewise, Gould's wild turkeys selected locations with moderate elevations of 1641 ± 235 m (range = 1223-2971 m), and on north and west facing slopes with a 10° ± 8.5 (range = 0.0-67.4°) incline. Our findings suggest that conserving portions of the landscape with appropriate topography and landcover types as described above will promote habitat availability for Gould's wild turkeys.

Shifts in competitive structures can drive variation in species' phenology.

For many species, a well documented response to anthropogenic climate change is a shift in various aspects of its life history, including its timing or phenology. Often, these phenological shifts are associated with changes in abiotic factors used as proxies for resource availability or other suitable conditions. Resource availability, however, can also be impacted by competition, but the impact of competition on phenology is less studied than abiotic drivers. We fit generalized additive models (GAMs) to a long-term experimental dataset on small mammals monitored in the southwestern United States and show that altered competitive landscapes can drive shifts in breeding timing and prevalence, and that, relative to a dominant competitor, other species exhibit less specific responses to environmental factors. These results suggest that plasticity of phenological responses, which is often described in the context of annual variation in abiotic factors, can occur in response to biotic context as well. Variation in phenological responses under different biotic conditions shown here further demonstrates that a more nuanced understanding of shifting biotic interactions is useful to better understand and predict biodiversity patterns in a changing world.

Limits of thermal and hydrological tolerance in a foundation tree species (Populus fremontii) in the desert southwestern United States.

Populus fremontii is among the most dominant, and ecologically important riparian tree species in the western United States and can thrive in hyper-arid riparian corridors. Yet, P. fremontii forests have rapidly declined over the last decade, particularly in places where temperatures sometimes exceed 50°C. We evaluated high temperature tolerance of leaf metabolism, leaf thermoregulation, and leaf hydraulic function in eight P. fremontii populations spanning a 5.3°C mean annual temperature gradient in a well-watered common garden, and at source locations throughout the lower Colorado River Basin. Two major results emerged. First, despite having an exceptionally high Tcrit (the temperature at which Photosystem II is disrupted) relative to other tree taxa, recent heat waves exceeded Tcrit , requiring evaporative leaf cooling to maintain leaf-to-air thermal safety margins. Second, in midsummer, genotypes from the warmest locations maintained lower midday leaf temperatures, a higher midday stomatal conductance, and maintained turgor pressure at lower water potentials than genotypes from more temperate locations. Taken together, results suggest that under well-watered conditions, P. fremontii can regulate leaf temperature below Tcrit along the warm edge of its distribution. Nevertheless, reduced Colorado River flows threaten to lower water tables below levels needed for evaporative cooling during episodic heat waves.

Summarizing Implementation Support for School-Based COVID-19 Testing Programs in Southwest American Indian Communities.

CONTEXT: American Indian communities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with school closures exacerbating health and education disparities. PROGRAM: Project SafeSchools' COVID-19 school-based testing program utilized federal and state funding to provide weekly pooled testing with follow-up rapid antigen testing to students and staff from the White Mountain Apache Tribe and Navajo Nation. IMPLEMENTATION: The project provided partner schools with training and continual logistical and technical support to aid in school-based testing and adherence to state and local reporting requirements. EVALUATION: Using the EPIS (Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, and Sustainment) framework, we identified facilitators and barriers to successful program function. While community support and buy-in were essential for successfully implementing school-based testing in these communities, communication, school staff turnover, and funding are among the most significant challenges. DISCUSSION: Community partnerships in American Indian communities involving schools and local health authorities can successfully implement testing protocols by remaining flexible and working together to maintain strong lines of communication.

The impact of postresettlement stressors and access to health care on health outcomes in recently resettled refugees in the United States.

This mixed-methods study examines mechanisms connecting the deployment of economic, social, and health care resources to emotional distress and physical health outcomes. Examining such mechanisms is critical for informing strategies, policies, and other interventions for reducing health disparities and improving refugee health in the United States and other resettlement contexts. Data for this study were collected as part of a randomized control trial in a mid-sized city in the Southwestern United States. Two-hundred ninety recently resettled (< 3 years) refugee adults from 143 households were enrolled in the study (36.2% Afghan, 32.8% Iraqi/Syrian, and 31.0% Great Lakes African; 52% women). Qualitative interview data were collected via semistructured interviews. A longitudinal structural equation path model of quantitative data from three time points over 12 months tested hypotheses that emerged from qualitative findings. In semistructured interviews, refugees in the United States (a) attributed the development of worse or new physical health problems to postresettlement stressors related to financial instability and limited social support that contributed to their emotional distress and (b) reported several barriers to accessing health care in the United States, including insufficient knowledge of health care resources, inadequate patient-provider communication, and navigating complex American health insurance systems, all of which exacerbated their physical health problems. Guided by these qualitative findings, longitudinal quantitative data revealed that: (a) postmigration stressors were associated with emotional distress and poor self-reported physical health, (b) emotional distress mediated the association between postmigration stressors and global health satisfaction, and (c) emotional distress was negatively associated with global health satisfaction. Findings document stressors refugees experience in the context of the unique environment created by the American health care system and how these stressors contribute to poor physical health through increased emotional distress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Role of Ethnic-Racial Identity and Self-Esteem in Intergroup Contact Attitudes.

Adolescents' ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration, resolution, and affirmation inform their approach and avoidance attitudes toward intergroup contact, but the potential mechanisms through which this occurs have been underexplored. Given the evidence that adolescents with higher ERI exploration, resolution, and affirmation also report higher self-esteem, and self-esteem is theorized to facilitate openness to intergroup contact, the current study explored the role of self-esteem as a mediator of the relation between adolescents' ERI and their intergroup contact attitudes. Participants were 4606 adolescents (Mage = 16.35, SD = 1.16; 37.5% White, 27.1% Black, 20.7% Latinx, 11.7% Asian American, 3% Native American) from the U.S. Southwest and Midwest. The three waves of data were collected between March 2017 and March 2018. Results from longitudinal multigroup path models indicated that across all ethnic-racial groups there were positive direct relations between Wave 1 (W1) ERI resolution and W2 self-esteem (7 months later). In turn, W2 self-esteem was positively related to W3 approach attitudes (12 months later) and negatively related to W3 avoidance attitudes. The relations between ERI resolution and both approach and avoidance attitudes were fully mediated by self-esteem across all ethnic-racial groups. Notably the baseline values (W1) of all mediation and outcome variables (W2, W3) were included, suggesting that ERI resolution at baseline predicted increases in self-esteem, which predicted subsequent increases in approach attitudes and decreases in avoidance attitudes. ERI exploration and affirmation were not significant predictors of later self-esteem or contact attitudes. These findings suggest that of the three dimensions of ERI examined, resolution is the primary driver of the increases in self-esteem that inform adolescents' attitudes towards interaction with ethnic-racial outgroup members.

Sleeping behavior and associated factors during COVID-19 in students at a Hispanic serving institution in the US southwestern border region.

Sleep is responsible for maintenance and regulatory functions in human physiology. Insufficient sleep has been associated with cardiovascular disease, weight gain, obesity, inflammation, and morbidity. University students are at high risk under normal circumstances of stress and anxiety due to extracurricular demands, competing pressures on student time, long study hours, and financial concerns. The COVID 19 pandemic has disrupted normal college students' lives adding stresses such as lost jobs and family responsibilities such as serving as caregivers, which disproportionally affect minority and rural student. This study aimed to assess the correlation of sleep disorders in New Mexico State University students during COVID 19 with selected variates including base demographics (e.g., gender, age, etc.), lifestyle metrics (e.g., employment status, discipline, class, etc.), living arrangements (e.g., housing type, number of children, etc.), alcohol and tobacco use, vaccination status, family COVID status, and family vaccination status. Single- and multi-factor logistic regressions were performed to analyze the data on the students. Qualtrics software was used to collect data on demographics and sleep disorders. R software was used for data analysis. Correlations were found between sleeping less, sleeping more, and disturbed sleep among several covariate categories. For all three responses, being married (sleeping less: OR = 0.342, 95% CI = 0.181-0.642, sleeping more: OR = 0.265, 95% CI = 0.111-0.591; disturbed sleeping: OR = 0.345, 95% CI = 0.182-0.650), frequency of feeling sleepy-very often (OR = 16.87, 95% CI = 6.571-47.434; OR = 8.393, 95% CI = 3.086-25.298; OR = 13.611, 95% CI = 5.409-36.975) and change in diet- quality decreased (OR = 7.304, 95% CI = 3.615-15.270; OR = 5.250, 95% CI = 2.309-12.558; OR = 4.181, 95% CI = 2.145-8.359) were all significant correlated to change in sleeping behavior. Other correlations were found among covariates and sleep changes. Several covariates were determined to be correlated with the effect of COVID-19 on sleeping.

A Person-Centered Analysis of Adolescent Multicultural Socialization Niches and Academic Functioning.

Despite the growing cultural diversity worldwide, there is scarce research on how socialization processes prepare youth to respond to increasing multicultural demands and the degree to which these socialization opportunities inform youth academic functioning. This study used a person-centered approach to identify profiles or niches based on the degree and consistency of multicultural socialization experiences across school, peer, and family settings and to examine the associations between identified niches and markers of academic functioning (i.e., emotional and behavioral academic engagement, academic aspirations and expectations) in a sample of adolescents (N = 717; Mage = 13.73 years). Participants (49.9% girls) were from the U.S. Southwest and represented multiple ethno-racial backgrounds (31.8% Hispanic/Latinx, 31.5% Multiethnic, 25.7% White, 7.3% Black or African American, 1.4% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 1.4% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 1% Arab, Middle Eastern, or North African). Six distinct multicultural socialization niches were identified. Three niches had similar patterns across school-peer-family but ranged in the degree of socialization. The cross-setting similar higher socialization niche (Niche 6) demonstrated greater socialization than the cross-setting similar moderate (Niche 5) and lower socialization (Niche 4) niches, which had moderate and lower socialization, respectively. Three niches demonstrated cross-setting dissimilarity which ranged in the type of cross-setting contrast and the degree of socialization. The cross-setting dissimilar school contrast socialization niche (Niche 3) had greater dissimilarities between socialization opportunities in the school setting compared to the peer and family settings and demonstrated the lowest levels of socialization of all niches. The other two niches, the cross-setting dissimilar peer contrast (Niche 1) and greater peer contrast socialization (Niche 2) niches had larger dissimilarities between socialization opportunities in the peer setting than the school and family settings. In the former, however, the contrast was lower, and socialization ranged between very low to low. In the latter, the contrast was higher and socialization ranged from very low to moderate. Most adolescents were in the cross-setting similar lower socialization niche or in the cross-setting dissimilar niches. Adolescents in the cross-setting similar higher multicultural socialization demonstrated greater emotional and behavioral academic engagement than adolescents in most of the other niches. Adolescents in the cross-setting dissimilar school contrast niches demonstrated lower emotional and behavioral academic engagement and lower academic expectations than adolescents in some of the other niches. The results emphasize the collective role of school, peer, and family multicultural socialization on emotional and behavioral academic engagement.

The North American Monsoon buffers forests against the ongoing megadrought in the Southwestern United States.

The US Southwest has been entrenched in a two-decade-long megadrought (MD), the most severe since 800 CE, which threatens the long-term vitality and persistence of regional montane forests. Here, we report that in the face of record low winter precipitation and increasing atmospheric aridity, seasonal activity of the North American Monsoon (NAM) climate system brings sufficient precipitation during the height of the summer to alleviate extreme tree water stress. We studied seasonally resolved, tree-ring stable carbon isotope ratios across a 57-year time series (1960-2017) in 17 Ponderosa pine forests distributed across the NAM geographic domain. Our study focused on the isotope dynamics of latewood (LW), which is produced in association with NAM rains. During the MD, populations growing within the core region of the NAM operated at lower intrinsic and higher evaporative water-use efficiencies (WUEi and WUEE , respectively), compared to populations growing in the periphery of the NAM domain, indicating less physiological water stress in those populations with access to NAM moisture. The disparities in water-use efficiencies in periphery populations are due to a higher atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and reduced access to summer soil moisture. The buffering advantage of the NAM, however, is weakening. We observed that since the MD, the relationship between WUEi and WUEE in forests within the core NAM domain is shifting toward a drought response similar to forests on the periphery of the NAM. After correcting for past increases in the atmospheric CO2 concentration, we were able to isolate the LW time-series responses to climate alone. This showed that the shift in the relation between WUEi and WUEE was driven by the extreme increases in MD-associated VPD, with little advantageous influence on stomatal conductance from increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration.

Competency Assessment of Pediatric Intensive Care Nurses.

One of the biggest challenges that clinical nurse educators at the unit level face today is measuring the ongoing competency of nursing staff members to ensure provision of high-quality, evidence-based care. Pediatric nursing leaders at an urban, level I trauma teaching institution in the southwestern United States used a shared governance approach to create a standardized competency assessment tool for pediatric intensive care unit nurses. Donna Wright's competency assessment model was used as a framework to guide the tool's development. The adoption of the standardized competency assessment tool was aligned with the organization's institutional goals and enabled clinical nurse educators to comprehensively evaluate staff members on a regular basis. This standardized competency assessment system for pediatric intensive care nurses is more effective than use of a practice-based, task-oriented assessment method and has improved nursing leaders' ability to staff the pediatric intensive care unit safely.

Coconut fatty acids exhibit strong repellency and week-long efficacy against several urban pest arthropods of the southwestern United States.

BACKGROUND: The southwestern United States is home to a variety of arthropods including Turkestan cockroaches, Blatta lateralis (Walker); hematophagous kissing bugs, Tritoma rubida (Uhler); and Arizona bark scorpions, Centruroides sculpturatus Ewing. These arthropods cause medical concern when they become established around homes and/or invade indoors. Traditionally, the management of these pests has relied primarily on the use of chemical insecticides; however, they offer poor prospects for control owing to their lack of efficacy as well as the effects of insecticides on humans and the environment. Botanical repellents are an option that has not been fully investigated for the management of these pests. Here, we investigated the behavioral responses of common urban pests of the southwestern USA to recently discovered coconut fatty acids (CFAs), to establish the potential use of these compounds as repellents. RESULTS: Fresh residues of CFA mixture (CFAm) and their constituents caprylic acid, capric acid, capric acid methyl ester, lauric acid, and lauric acid methyl ester, tested at a concentration of 1 mg cm-2 , strongly repelled all arthropods. The repellent activity of CFAm lasted for at least 7 days, and the addition of lavender oil, used as an odor-masking agent, did not decrease this effect. Concentrations of CFAm ten times lower (0.1 mg cm-2 ) still repelled Turkestan cockroaches, and concentrations 100 times lower (0.01 mg cm-2 ) repelled T. rubida and scorpions. CONCLUSIONS: CFAm and some of their constituents are efficacious, economical, and logistically feasible for inclusion in integrated pest management programs for these important urban pests of the southwestern USA. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Abrupt transitions in a southwest USA desert grassland related to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

Prediction of abrupt ecosystem transitions resulting from climatic change will be an essential element of adaptation strategies in the coming decades. In the arid southwest USA, the collapse and recovery of long-lived perennial grasses have important effects on ecosystem services, but the causes of these variations have been poorly understood. Here we use a quality-controlled vegetation monitoring dataset initiated in 1915 to show that grass cover dynamics during the 20th century were closely correlated to the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) index. The relationship out-performed models correlating grasses to yearly precipitation and drought indices, suggesting that ecosystem transitions attributed only to local disturbances were instead influenced by climate teleconnections. Shifts in PDO phase over time were associated with the persistent loss of core grass species and recovery of transient species, so recovery of grasses in aggregate concealed significant changes in species composition. However, the relationship between PDO and grass cover broke down after 1995; grass cover is consistently lower than PDO would predict. The decoupling of grass cover from the PDO suggests that a threshold had been crossed in which warming or land degradation overwhelmed the ability of any grass species to recover during favorable periods.

Topographic information improves simulated patterns of post-fire conifer regeneration in the southwest United States.

The western United States is projected to experience more frequent and severe wildfires in the future due to drier and hotter climate conditions, exacerbating destructive wildfire impacts on forest ecosystems such as tree mortality and unsuccessful post-fire regeneration. While empirical studies have revealed strong relationships between topographical information and plant regeneration, ecological processes in ecosystem models have either not fully addressed topography-mediated effects on the probability of plant regeneration, or the probability is only controlled by climate-related factors, for example, water and light stresses. In this study, we incorporated seedling survival data based on a planting experiment in the footprint of the 2011 Las Conchas Fire into the Photosynthesis and EvapoTranspiration (PnET) extension of the LANDIS-II model by adding topographic and an additional climatic variable to the probability of regeneration. The modified algorithm included topographic parameters such as heat load index and ground slope and spring precipitation. We ran simulations on the Las Conchas Fire landscape for 2012-2099 using observed and projected climate data (i.e., Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 and 8.5). Our modification significantly reduced the number of regeneration events of three common southwestern conifer tree species (piñon, ponderosa pine, and Douglas-fir), leading to decreases in aboveground biomass, regardless of climate scenario. The modified algorithm decreased regeneration at higher elevations and increased regeneration at lower elevations relative to the original algorithm. Regenerations of three species also decreased in eastern aspects. Our findings suggest that ecosystem models may overestimate post-fire regeneration events in the southwest United States. To better represent regeneration processes following wildfire, ecosystem models need refinement to better account for the range of factors that influence tree seedling establishment. This will improve model utility for projecting the combined effects of climate and wildfire on tree species distributions.

"If you're down, you know, get up, be proud of yourself, go forward": Exploring Urban Southwest American Indian Individual Resilience.

The diverse American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) population suffers health inequities perpetuated by colonialism and post-colonialism. The urban AI/AN population is steadily increasing in part because of federal policies relocating AI/AN away from tribal lands. However, studies of AI/AN urban communities are rare, and efforts to understand and ameliorate health inequities in AI/AN communities typically emphasize deficits rather than capacities. Resilience is an important resource in this context but mainstream, rather than community-derived definitions of resilience, predominate. The present study used multi-investigator consensus analysis in a qualitative study to identify urban American Indian (AI) derived concepts and construct a definition of resilience. The study included 25 AI adults in four focus groups in three urban locales in the southwestern United States. Four resilience themes emerged: 1) AIs built strength through toughness and wisdom; 2) the value of traditional 'lifeways' (i.e., elements of traditional culture that help people navigate their journey through life); 3) the importance of giving and receiving help; and 4) the interconnectedness of Native lifeways, family relationships, and tribal and urban communities. Themes overlap with extant resilience conceptualizations but also provide unique insights into structure and function of urban AI resilience in the Southwest United States.

Satellite solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence tracks physiological drought stress development during 2020 southwest US drought.

Monitoring and estimating drought impact on plant physiological processes over large regions remains a major challenge for remote sensing and land surface modeling, with important implications for understanding plant mortality mechanisms and predicting the climate change impact on terrestrial carbon and water cycles. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3), with its unique diurnal observing capability, offers a new opportunity to track drought stress on plant physiology. Using radiative transfer and machine learning modeling, we derive a metric of afternoon photosynthetic depression from OCO-3 solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) as an indicator of plant physiological drought stress. This unique diurnal signal enables a spatially explicit mapping of plants' physiological response to drought. Using OCO-3 observations, we detect a widespread increasing drought stress during the 2020 southwest US drought. Although the physiological drought stress is largely related to the vapor pressure deficit (VPD), our results suggest that plants' sensitivity to VPD increases as the drought intensifies and VPD sensitivity develops differently for shrublands and grasslands. Our findings highlight the potential of using diurnal satellite SIF observations to advance the mechanistic understanding of drought impact on terrestrial ecosystems and to improve land surface modeling.

"He's a little skinny and he's a little wide.": a mixed design investigation of American Indian student perceptions of healthy bodies.

BACKGROUND: Childhood is a critical developmental time of wellness patterns, yet little is known about what children know and believe. Even less is known about non-majority cultures like American Indian youth. The purpose of this study was to explore American Indian students' understandings of nutrition and physical activity. METHODS: This mixed methods study took place in 10 schools in an American Indian community in the Southwestern U.S. Ninety American Indian students in grades 3-12 (8-19 years old) were interviewed. The interview included an 8-point body size chart. Numerical data were analyzed via t-test statistics while a constant comparison process and analysis was used for the interview data. RESULTS: Students rated approximately 85% of students in Category 5 or smaller on the scale while placing 60% of adults at or above that size. There was a general trend of a larger body type for boys seen as healthy compared to that for girls. Students generally believed that their classmates were larger than the healthy body size. For students, a healthy body was the result of compliance with "eat right and exercise" rules. They exhibited little understanding of nutrition or physical activity and there were few developmental differences in understanding. Health was a corporeal concept and violators of the eat right and exercise rules were seen as lazy. CONCLUSIONS: Students held narrow and corporeal focused notions of health focused on simple rules. People who violated the rules were "lazy", a concept that seemed to underlie multiple constructs and a finding that holds true in other investigations. Students also reported few adult role models, a topic that should be explored with expanded family groups to better represent the multi-generational (e.g. grandparents, uncles, aunts) family housing common in the community. The findings are limited to a single American Indian community and a mixed design of relatively small numbers. This addition to the literature from a non-majority cultural group expands our knowledge of student perspectives on health. These findings can be used to create more effective curricula and interventions. Schools need more effective, but also alternately framed approaches that promote broader views of health.

Identification and characterization of the long non-coding RNA NFIA-AS2 as a novel locus for body mass index in American Indians.

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies have shown that body mass index (BMI), an estimate of obesity, is highly polygenic. Individual variants typically have small effect sizes, making it challenging to identify unique loci in under-represented ethnic groups which lack statistical power due to their small sample size. Yet obesity is a major health disparity and is particularly prevalent in southwestern American Indians. Here, we identify and characterize a new locus for BMI that was detected by analyzing moderate associations with BMI obtained in a population-based sample of southwestern American Indians together with the well-powered GIANT dataset. METHODS: Genotypes for 10.5 million variants were tested for association with BMI in 5870 American Indians and 2600 variants that showed an association P < 10-3 in the American Indian sample were combined in a meta-analysis with the BMI data reported in GIANT (N = 240,608). The newly identified gene, NFIA-AS2 was functionally characterized, and the impact of its lead associated variant rs1777538 was studied both in-silico and in-vitro. RESULTS: Rs1777538 (T/C; C allele frequency = 0.16 in American Indians and 0.04 in GIANT, meta-analysis P = 5.0 × 10-7) exhibited a large effect in American Indians (1 kg/m2 decrease in BMI per copy of C allele). NFIA-AS2 was found to be a nuclear localized long non-coding RNA expressed in tissues pertinent to human obesity. Analysis of this variant in human brown preadipocytes showed that NFIA-AS2 transcripts carrying the C allele had increased RNA degradation compared to the T allele transcripts (half-lives = 9 h, 13 h respectively). During brown adipogenesis, NFIA-AS2 featured a stage-specific regulation of nearby gene expression where rs1777538 demonstrated an allelic difference in regulation in the mature adipocytes (the strongest difference was observed for L1TD1, P = 0.007). CONCLUSION: Our findings support a role for NFIA-AS2 in regulating pathways that impact BMI.