Chemerin is associated with metabolic syndrome phenotypes in a Mexican-American population

Context: Chemerin is a novel adipokine previously associated with metabolic syndrome phenotypes in a small sample of subjects from Mauritius. Objective: The aim of the study was to determine whether plasma chemerin levels were associated with metabolic syndrome phenotypes in a larger sample from a second, unrelated human population. Design, Setting, Patients, and Intervention: Plasma samples were obtained from the San Antonio Family Heart Study (SAFHS), a large family-based genetic epidemiological study including 1431 Mexican-American individuals. Individuals were randomly sampled without regard to phenotype or disease status. This sample is well-characterized for a variety of phenotypes related to the metabolic syndrome. Main Outcomes: Plasma chemerin levels were measured by sandwich ELISA. Linear regression and correlation analyses were used to determine associations between plasma chemerin levels and metabolic syndrome phenotypes. Results: Circulating chemerin levels were significantly higher in nondiabetic subjects with body mass index (BMI) greater than 30 kg/m2 compared with those with a BMI below 25 kg/m2 (P < 0.0001). Plasma chemerin levels were significantly associated with metabolic syndrome-related parameters, including BMI (P < 0.0001), fasting serum insulin (P < 0.0001), triglycerides (P < 0.0001), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P = 0.00014), independent of age and sex in nondiabetic subjects. Conclusion: Circulating chemerin levels were associated with metabolic syndrome phenotypes in a second, unrelated human population. This replicated result using a large human sample suggests that chemerin may be involved in the development of the metabolic syndrome.

Education to gain sustainability : analysis and approach from the experience obtained from two high school systems in mexican rural communities

The decade “Education for Sustainability” is just emerging and one of its goals emphasized the importance of considering the currícula in a transdisciplinary and community based programs. This includes recognizing local and regional interests as relevant topics into the currícula. “Education for sustainability” does not appear to have a strong basis on their actions as its theoretical discourse does. The study we present here about content analysis in the curricula of two high schools systems in rural Mexican communities is an example. In this research we analyzed: 1) how the curricula is oriented towards forest management and the way is connected to the social reality of the communities; 2) how does the learning process develops in the classroom and its dynamics with teachers and students and 3) how does the environmental learning take place. Results revealed that more research is needed with adolescents in order to change the educational structure in rural Mexican high schools.

Environmental learning in adolescents from a Mexican community involved in forestry

Education can generate knowledge and foster a change in attitude provided that people feel individually and collectively responsible for the state of the environment. San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro is an internationally recognised indigenous community located in western Mexico that manages its forest sustainably through a community-based forest enterprise. However, recent research has shown that both children and young people from the community show little interest in participating in forest activities or working in forest enterprise and have a poor standard of environmental knowledge. Our research project assessed the environmental learning process of 32 high-school pupils in three settings: at school at home and in a forest enterprise. The opinions of teachers and adults of teaching subjects which focus on communal forest management were collected using various methods (questionnaires, observation and interviews) and analysed. The results show that school and home alike are important places for learning. However, environmental issues were not much addressed in the schoolroom or in conversations between parents and children. Furthermore, no connection between the activities of the forest enterprise and the school curriculum was found.

Mexican wave ban reflects sponsor tyranny

The public showed an agitated reaction towards the ban on Mexican wave at the MCG, which reveals something about contemporary sport watching in Australia and perhaps about contemporary Australian cities. Cricket has developed the concept of sport as entertainment. The real issue with the wave is about proprietary control over the entertainment taking place inside the stadium. Entertainment organised by the stadium managers, which they and their sponsors can make money from, is all right, but spontaneous entertainment, even something as tame as the Mexican wave, is forbidden.

Theory and practice in environmental education: a Mexican case study

The new Mexican national curriculum proposes that Environmental Education (EE) should be a transversal topic in teachers’ practice, promoting actions for the environment. After teachers’ participation in my case study, they changed from only providing environmental information to acting to address environmental issues, implementing Participatory Action Research.

Attitudes to animal dilemmas: an exploratory comparison between Mexican and English children

This research explores some of the factors that influence the relations about empathy and /or rejection that children establish towards some animal species. The role that school has within the social context in these dynamics was considered. Attitudes of young children (aged 7 to 9) from Mexico and England towards specific animal species, examining attitudinal differences not only between cultures, and educational systems, but between species have been compared. Ecological dilemmas involving animals are used as a method to analyse children’s constructions of the environment in the field of moral development and conservation. Children expressed more negative attitudes towards spiders and snakes, than towards monkeys and birds. Although these attitudes in themselves are not surprising, the material in this study provides new information on how young children construct their moral ideas on conservation matters through the used of ecological dilemmas. Children’s reactions vary according to culture, experience, affiliation for a particular animal and school ethos.

The validation of a Spanish version of the multidimensional inventory of religious/spiritual well-being in mexican college students

After the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (MI-RSWB) was validated as a reliable instrument for the Western European context it is primarily intended in this study to translate the measure into Spanish and adapt it for the Mexican culture. Furthermore we investigate whether spirituality/religiosity has a similar impact on indicators of personality and subjective well-being in Mexico as it does in samples drawn from Western European cultures. 190 students (99 females) from public and private universities in Guadalajara, all Mexican citizens, were involved in this study. We found strong evidential support for the six factor solution of the Original MI-RSWB in this Mexican population. By mirroring previous research the measure showed a highly satisfying internal consistency (α =.91 for the total score and.75 or higher for all six sub dimensions). Furthermore the total RSWB score was observed to be related with Eysenck's personality dimensions Extraversion (r =.24, p <.01), and Psychoticism (r = -.28, p <.001), although not with Neuroticism. There was also a positive correlation with Sense of Coherence (r =.31, p <.001). In conclusion, the dimensionality of RSWB and its associations with personality and subjective well-being was well supported in this first application within a Mexican cultural context.

Understanding the role of mediating risk factors and proxy effects in the association between socio-economic status and untreated hypertension

The association between socio-economic status (SES) and untreated hypertension varies according to a country's level of development and racial/ethnic group. We sought to confirm this variation in women from China and the United States (US) as well as to investigate the impact of SES on several mediating risk factors. We also investigate the extent to which SES explains racial/ethnic differences in untreated hypertension in the US. We used cross-sectional data from 1814 non-pregnant women in China (China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), 1997) and 3266 non-pregnant women in the United States (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), 1988–1994) respectively. A variety of statistical modelling techniques was used to predict untreated hypertension as a function of several mediating factors and to simulate the impact of changes in SES. The age-adjusted prevalence of untreated hypertension was significantly higher (p<0.01) for low-income White and Black women compared to Mexican American or Chinese women. Untreated hypertension was not significantly associated with income or education in Mexican Americans or women in China. Obesity and light physical activity had the largest mediating effect on the association between SES and untreated hypertension for all racial/ethnic groups. However, this effect was not as strong as the proxy effect of income and education. SES did not completely explain racial/ethnic differences in hypertension in the US. While SES was more strongly associated with hypertension in Blacks than Whites, Blacks were still 1.97 (95% CI 1.47–2.64) times more likely to have untreated hypertension than Whites after adjusting for SES differences. The association between SES and untreated hypertension varied by country and racial/ethnic group. An important explanation for this variation was the differential effect of SES on mediating risk factors. SES disparities between Whites and Blacks in the US partly explain differences in the prevalence of untreated hypertension between these racial/ethnic groups.

Association of genetic vatiation within UBL5 with phenotypes of metabolic syndrome

The BEACON gene was initially identified using the differential display polymerase chain reaction on hypothalamic mRNA samples collected from lean and obese Psammomys obesus, a polygenic animal model of obesity. Hypothalamic BEACON gene expression was positively correlated with percentage of body fat, and intracerebroventricular infusion of the Beacon protein resulted in a dose-dependent increase in food intake and body weight. The human homolog of BEACON, UBL5, is located on chromosome 19p in a region previously linked to quantitative traits related to obesity. Our previous studies showed a statistically significant association between UBL5 sequence variation and several obesity- and diabetes-related quantitative physiological measures in Asian Indian and Micronesian cohorts. Here we undertake a replication study in a Mexican American cohort where the original linkage signal was first detected. We exhaustively resequenced the complete gene plus the putative promoter region for genetic variation in 55 individuals and identified five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), one of which was novel. These SNPs were genotyped in a Mexican American cohort of 900 individuals from 40 families. Using a quantitative trait linkage disequilibrium test, we found significant associations between UBL5 genetic variants and waist-to-hip ratio (p = 0.027), and the circulating concentrations of insulin (p = 0.018) and total cholesterol (p = 0.023) in fasted individuals. These data are consistent with our earlier published studies and further support a functional role for the UBL5 gene in influencing physiological traits that underpin the development of metabolic syndrome.

Genetic variation in selenoprotein S influences inflammatory response

Chronic inflammation has a pathological role in many common diseases and is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Here we assess the role of genetic variation in selenoprotein S (SEPS1, also called SELS or SELENOS), a gene involved in stress response in the endoplasmic reticulum and inflammation control. After resequencing SEPS1, we genotyped 13 SNPs in 522 individuals from 92 families. As inflammation biomarkers, we measured plasma levels of IL-6, IL-1b and TNF-a. Bayesian quantitative trait nucleotide analysis identified associations between SEPS1 polymorphisms and all three proinflammatory
cytokines. One promoter variant, 105G-A, showed strong evidence for an association with each cytokine (multivariate P = 0.0000002). Functional analysis of this polymorphism showed that the A variant significantly impaired SEPS1 expression after exposure to endoplasmic reticulum stress agents (P = 0.00006). Furthermore, suppression of SEPS1 by short interfering RNA in macrophage cells increased the release of IL-6 and TNF-a. To investigate further the significance of the observed associations, we genotyped 105G-A in 419 Mexican American individuals from 23 families for replication. This analysis confirmed a significant
association with both TNF-a (P = 0.0049) and IL-1b (P = 0.0101). These results provide a direct mechanistic link between SEPS1 and the production of inflammatory cytokines and suggest that SEPS1 has a role in mediating inflammation.

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, diabetes, and ethnicity in the third national health and nutrition examination survey

OBJECTIVE— To determine the association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) and diabetes risk and whether it varies by ethnicity.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS— We performed an analysis of data from participants who attended the morning examination of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988–1994), a cross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population. Serum levels of 25OHD, which reflect vitamin D status, were available from 6,228 people (2,766 non-Hispanic whites, 1,736 non-Hispanic blacks, and 1,726 Mexican Americans) aged ≥20 years with fasting and/or 2-h plasma glucose and serum insulin measurements.
RESULTS— Adjusting for sex, age, BMI, leisure activity, and quarter of year, ethnicityspecific odds ratios (ORs) for diabetes (fasting glucose ≥7.0 mmol/l) varied inversely across quartiles of 25OHD in a dose-dependent pattern (OR 0.25 [95% CI 0.11– 0.60] for non-Hispanic whites and 0.17 [0.08–0.37] for Mexican Americans) in the highest vitamin D quartile (25OHD ≥81.0 nmol/l) compared with the lowest 25OHD (≥43.9 nmol/l). This inverse association
was not observed in non-Hispanic blacks. Homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (loge) was inversely associated with serum 25OHD in Mexican Americans (P ≥ 0.0024) and non-Hispanic whites (P≥0.058) but not non-Hispanic blacks (P≥0.93), adjusting for confounders.
CONCLUSIONS— These results show an inverse association between vitamin D status and diabetes, possibly involving insulin resistance, in non-Hispanic whites and Mexican Americans. The lack of an inverse association in non-Hispanic blacks may reflect decreased sensitivity to vitamin D and/or related hormones such as the parathyroid hormone.

Fotoescultura

Fotoescultura - traditional Mexican folk artefacts which combine two-dimensional photographic portraits with three-dimensional carved busts, often presented in decorative frames and vitrines.

Entrepreneurship in Mexico : lessons for stakeholders in New Zealand

A “neighbour” separated by 6,000 km of Pacific, Mexico is by far New Zealand’s largest trading partner in Latin America and its 15th largest overall. With two-way trade worth NZ$584 million in 2002, many Mexicans grow up on New Zealand milk powder and baby formula. Not only is Mexico’s population of 100 million a huge potential economic partner in its own right, through its network of free trade agreements, Mexico has preferential access to 860 million consumers in 32 countries covering sixty percent of the world’s GDP.

Like New Zealand, Mexico is a “New World” country open to new ideas and innovation. Also like New Zealand, Mexico is known internationally for economic reforms that have created two outward-looking, world-trading, and competitive economies. During the last 50 years, the Mexican economy has shifted away from the once dominant sectors of agriculture and mining toward more industrial activities, especially in the major urban centres of Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, and other regional centres, where entrepreneurs are concentrated. With this shift, a new class of entrepreneurs arose with the support of the government.

One of those regional centres is the State of Sinaloa, with its capital city, Culiacán. Spearheaded by a visionary government and personified by the Secretary of Economic Development, Heriberto Felix Guerra. Secretary Felix is himself restaurant entrepreneur who owns a growing chain of “concept food” restaurants in the region.

It is no accident that when New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark visited Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada on 15 November 2001, one of the topics of conversation was the fact that very day their two countries had been benchmarked as two of the world’s most entrepreneurial countries in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2001 survey.

More germane, both countries have low-aspiration entrepreneurs who generate low levels of wealth and have low potential for growth. Both are dominated by micro-businesses that do not have high-value-added components and are not investment-ready and pre-qualified for risk capita.

This leads to the question, what can New Zealanders learn from the experience of Mexican entrepreneurship?

How values in education affect children's environmental knowledge

In this study we analysed the familiarity and understanding of 10 environmental concepts amongst Mexican and English school children (aged 7 to 9). The investigation considered the impact of the educational system and the school ethos on the formation of environmental concepts. Results reveal that in general, children of this age have a low to moderate level of environmental literacy. The educational system and pedagogical approach affect the way children learn environmental concepts. Schools with a strong orientation towards the environment seem more capable of helping children with their understanding of environmental concepts. School and television were the major sources of environmental information, but this varied with school ethos. The development of effective environmental policies in schools needs to be considered in order to promote environmental knowledge in the school population.