Browsing by Author "Won, Samantha Gwai Lan"

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    Acute and chronic heat stress alters the metabolic profile of skeletal muscle in growing swine
    Won, Samantha Gwai Lan (Virginia Tech, 2012-08-02)
    Heat stress (HS) causes significant losses to the U.S. swine industry in several production and health areas including efficient lean tissue accretion. Perturbations in skeletal muscle metabolism may participate in this defect. The study objectives were to examine the cellular bioenergetic profile in skeletal muscle of piglets subjected to thermal stress in utero and/or during postnatal life. To accomplish this, 96 offspring from 14 sows were prenatally exposed to 1 of 4 environmental treatments involving thermal neutral (TN, 25°C) or HS conditions (cyclical 28-34°C). Sows exposed to TN or HS throughout gestation are denoted TNTN and HSHS, respectively whereas sows heat-stressed for the first or second half of gestation are denoted HSTN and TNHS, respectively. At 14 weeks of age, offspring were exposed to one of two postnatal thermal environments, constant TN (21°C) or HS (35°C) for 24 hrs (acute study) or 5 weeks (chronic study). Pigs were sacrificed after treatment and longissimus dorsi skeletal muscle samples collected for molecular analyses. Differences (p<0.05) were observed in protein abundance of p-4eBP1 and total Rs6 and gene expression of Cox5B, CytB, EEF2, HK2, MURF, ND1, PGC-1α, SDHA, and TFAM during the acute heat stress study. Differences (p<0.05) were observed in protein abundance of 4eBP1, total Akt, and p-Rs6 and gene expression of CytB, MURF, and PGC-1α during the chronic heat stress study. These data indicate that acute postnatal HS alters skeletal muscle metabolism, which may favor a reduction in mitochondrial respiration and protein synthesis potentially via the mTOR pathway.
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    Social Media as Connected Learning Technology:  A Mixed Methods Investigation of Facebook for Undergraduate Education
    Won, Samantha Gwai Lan (Virginia Tech, 2015-05-04)
    Social media technologies are networked technological tools that can provide opportunities for productive socialization and collaboration. While social media are being incorporated increasingly into formal classroom settings, there is very little research available providing specific evidence for the affordances and limitations of social media as educational tools. It is also unclear whether undergraduates are open to, or already using social media for educational purposes. The current study explores Facebook as a collaborative and participatory learning tool to provide information on sex-related topics to undergraduate students. Connected learning was used as the guiding framework for exploring the ways that social media blend peer culture, academics, and learner interests to promote learning through interactions with a learning community. Results of the study indicate that undergraduate students were open and willing to using social media in academic contexts. However, students did not contribute comments directly to the study page resulting in a lack of evidence confirming whether connected learning occurred. Based on student responses, instructors hoping to integrate social media into their courses would do well to focus on maintaining responsiveness to students, promoting the development of a learning community, and varying the style and format of posts. It was determined that social media sites such as Facebook would serve best as supplemental, but intentional educational technologies rather than the basis for creating entire courses. Further research should center on understanding the participation and lurking patterns of students in educational social media environments, as well as the driving factors behind these participation patterns.