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UNCG Home > School of Health and Human Performance > Office of Research

Submitted Proposals

Proposals Submitted January 2009

Linda Buettner
Sponsor: Alzheimer’s Association
Title: AD-Aware: mentally stimulating activities to treat apathy in early stage AD

This project addresses the problem of apathy in early stage AD in a 2-arm clinic trial. Based on our preliminary work, we believe we can reduce symptoms of apathy, related neuropsychiatric behaviors, and improve functional outcomes for community dwelling older adults with early stage AD by using a mentally stimulating activities (MSAs) intervention program.

This project will take place in North Carolina in :

• diverse senior centers
• retirement communities,
• and a university center for healthy aging and living.

Jennifer Etnier
Sponsor: NIH/ National Institute on Drug Abuse
Title: Exercise Participation and the Trajectory of Adolescent Substance Use

Adolescent substance use exacts a considerable toll on children, families, and communities and is a significant public health concern. The aim of this proposal is to explore a) whether exercise participation in associated with increased or decreased risk for substance use in a non-clinical sample of high school aged adolescents, and b) to determine whether a developmental biopsychosocial model can be used to understand the mechanisms and moderators that explain the link between exercise participation and how and why some adolescents are at higher risk for SU than others.

Jennifer Etnier
Sponsor: Alzheimer’s Association
Title: ApoE and physical activity effects on cognition and cerebral structure

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is a susceptiblity gene for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). ApoE is predictive of both sporadic and familial AD and has also been associated with poorer cognitive performance and a greater rate of decline in cognitive performance over time. The primary purpose of this pilot study is to use an experimental design to test the causal relationship between PA and cognitive performance relative to ApoE genotype. A secondary purpose is to use magnetic resonance imaging to examine changes in cerebral structure as a mediator of this relationship.

Paul Davis/ Charles Robison
Sponsor: American College of Sports Medicine
Title: Changes in Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein and Paraxonase 1 Following Acute Exercise

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the industrialized world. A critical event in the progression of CVD is the development of arterial plaque. This investigation will examine the acute effect of exercise intensity, exercise duration, and caloric expenditure on ox-LDL concentration and PON1 activity after exercise. Additionally, this study will measure the relationship between ox-LDL concentration and PON1 activity after physical exertion.

Linda Buettner
Sponsor: Mount Sinai School of Medicine/ National Institute on Aging
Title: Multidomain Intervention Trials to prevent cognitive Loss and Dementia

The specific aims are to

1. Establish the feasibility of conducting important aspects of a primary prevention trial of non-pharmacological interventions in those 65 years of age and older, individually and combined.
2. Develop standardized operating procedures to conduct a similar protocol in large number of subjects recruited from multiple sites, including procedures for recruitment, retention, intervention delivery, and assessment of short- and long-term outcomes.
3. Assess nutritional behavior, using a food frequency and supplement inventory, to evaluate dietary patterns that might be appropriate for intervention in a large prevention trial. This information may be used to determine what is missing from typical diets, , which might provide the necessary information to launch a nutritional intervention study.

Joseph Starnes
Sponsor: American Heart Association-Mid Atlantic Affiliate
Title: Interactions of exercise and statins on CoQ and cardioprotection

Interventions that significantly reduce cardiovascular diseases are cholesterol lowering statin drugs (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) and chronic exercise. Both interventions result in adaptations within the heart that directly protect it from ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) stress independent of cholesterol or other extrinsic changes. Therefore, the general hypothesis to be tested is that CoQ depletion is the reason a combined exercise-statin program fails to provide greater intrinsic cardioprotection than either treatment alone. This hypothesis will be tested in our Aims to determine interactions between exercise and statins on the intact heart’s intrinsic protection against I-R stress (Aim 1) and on relevant adaptations within mitochondria (Aim 2).

1. Aim 1 uses isolated perfused hearts to determine protective phenotype and amount of mechanical dysfunction and cell death.
2. Aim 2 uses isolated mitochondria to determine reactive oxygen species production, permeability transition pore opening and oxidative phosphorylation following simulated I-R stress.

The results will be an important step toward developing optimal and practical prevention therapies.

Mark Schulz/ Amit Verma
Sponsor: University of Kentucky
Title: Visual Impairment and Eye Symptoms in Latino Farmworkers

Everyone who works in agriculture is exposed to environmental risk factors that can result in occupational eye injury and illness. The overall goal of this research is to assess the prevalence and risk factors of visual impairment in Latino farmworkers in North Carolina. This study will also document the levels at which farmworkers are exposed to workplace hazards and assess behaviors and knowledge that place them at risk for visual impairments and injuries.

This project will use a cross-sectional survey design to:

1. delineate the prevalence of visual impairment and self-reported eye symptoms and illnesses;
2. determine the association between self-reported eye symptoms and individual characteristics, contextual factors, behavior and exposure;
3. and assess the feasibility of conducting visual impairment screenings at farmworker residential sites.

Kristine Lundgren
Sponsor: Winston-Salem Foundation
Title: Therapeutic Riding for Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury.

Traumatic brain injury is an epidemic in the United States with an overall incidence of 200 per 100,000 each year. Some common disabilities resulting from TBI are cognitive-linguistic in nature and include problems with thinking, memory, reasoning, expressing and understanding emotion, social communication, and social appropriateness. HorsePower provides a two week, three-hour per day experience that targets direct and indirect remediation of cognitive deficits through participation in learning centers. This clinical patient-focused experience also serves as a field research laboratory for students and faculty interested in collecting data on animal assisted therapies, therapeutic riding, and the cognitive-linguistic deficits associated with TBI.

Page last updated: 08/21/09
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