UF IFAS, Santa Fe conducting Cedar Key ecology research
In order to improve conservation research on Florida’s Nature Coast, UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is working with Santa Fe College at Cedar Key.
UF has been conducting research about environments on the Nature Coast, which spans from Hernando County to Wakulla County, for about 30 to 40 years, said Mike Allen, the director of the Nature Coast Biological Station. The station, which opened in Cedar Key last year, will help improve the quality of research and gain direct access to ecosystems and the organisms that live within them like fish and clams.
Allen said because the area has had little commercial development, the land is ideal for research. He said he hopes the research done by IFAS and Santa Fe will help protect the area.
“We want to do research to improve the conservation and management of this region,” Allen said. “It’s one of the largest seagrass beds in North America; it’s got amazing oysteries and amazing wildlife and fishery diversity.”
At the lab, IFAS staff will work alongside researchers and students from Santa Fe College. Other partners include state and federal agencies like the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
- Romy Ellenbogen
Researchers to study children’s sleep, eating habits
UF researchers are trying to find whether the time children fall asleep influences their activity and diet.
Kendra Krietsch, a UF clinical psychology doctoral student, and David Janicke, a UF professor in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, are leading the study, which will
start this semester. The UF Health Shands Hospital Auxiliary Scholarship will provide $1,200 to fund the research.
Children between the ages of 6 and 9 will participate, Krietsch said. During the four-week study, the researchers will monitor how well children eat and how many hours per day they are active.
Parents or guardians of the children will keep track of the time their child goes to sleep and when he or
she wakes up by logging the hours in an online system, Krietsch said. They will also record what foods the children eat.
Krietsch said she expects about 15 families to participate, and all of them will receive compensation.
“I wanted to pick kids who haven’t started puberty yet; most 9-year-olds haven’t started puberty yet,” Krietsch said. “I’m hoping to learn more about how sleep timing influences how active kids are during the day.”
- Ismelda Alvarez
Heavy alcohol consumption can negatively affect mental health
A group of UF researchers recently published the results of a study that
suggests binge-drinking has negative long-term effects on mental health.
The project, which began in 2013, found that a history of heavy alcohol consumption can affect motor skills, learning and memory as individuals age, even if they no longer drink, said Adam Woods, who led the study.
“These are things that impact our everyday life,” Woods said.
Woods, the assistant director of the UF Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, had the conclusions of the study published online Sept. 22 in the journal “Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.”
Woods said a lifetime of heavy drinking can affect a person’s ability to remember simple routines such as taking medication regularly or performing easy tasks like fastening a button. Even driving skills can be affected.
“You may think that you’re young, and your body can handle the kind of impact that alcohol places on your body and your brain,” he said. “The reality is that the evidence suggests that there are consequences that may last well beyond the immediate effects of alcohol, and you may have to deal with these consequences for the remainder of your life.”
- Dylan Dixon
UF model projects few Zika virus outbreaks
If Zika cases increase in the U.S., UF researchers predict small outbreaks.
A team of researchers at UF is interpreting results made by model computations from Northeastern University. The projections are made on the Global Epidemic and Mobility Model, which takes into account every person in the population of the Americas.
It also considers factors such as where people are traveling, mosquito densities and temperatures, said Ira Longini, a UF biostatistics professor.
“If an infected mosquito bites a susceptible person, then it calculates the probability that the person will be infected,” he said.
He said the model keeps track of what happens to mosquito populations and all infected people.
“About 80 percent of people with Zika infections don’t have any symptoms, so they would never be noticed unless you took a sample from them,” he said.
The model predicted 79 symptomatic cases of Zika locally transmitted in Florida up to Sept. 15, Longini said. It puts into context the problem so people can understand what the risk may be.
“I think the model, at least in the U.S., reassures people that Zika is not super dangerous and is not going to get out of control in the U.S,” Longini said.
- Cecilia Lemus
