Objective: This study examined the liking of fruits and vegetables among college students and the relationship between skin carotenoid levels and liking of fruits and vegetables. Participants: Sixty-six undergraduate students enrolled at a university in the southeastern United States participated in this study beginning August 2019. Methods: Skin…

The emergence of ChatGPT as one of the most advanced chatbots and its ability to generate diverse data has given room for numerous discussions worldwide regarding its utility, particularly in advancing medical education and research. This study seeks to assess the performance of ChatGPT in medical biochemistry to evaluate its potential as an…

The study examined the relationship between perfectionism (categorized by adaptive, maladaptive, and non-perfectionist clusters), substance use (i.e., drinking and smoking), and mental health in a large sample of college student (N = 841; M = 19.6 years of age) in a time-lagged design. Students were classified using a two-step cluster analysis…

Objective: This study tested the hypothesized stress-buffering effects of social support on physical activity, sitting time, and blood lipid profiles. Participants: 537 college students. Methods: College students volunteered to self-report stress, social support for exercise, physical activity and sitting time, and provided blood samples to assess…

Carbohydrates, or in strictly chemical terms, polyhydroxy-aldehydes or ketones represent enormous structural diversity in terms of the arrangement of atoms in space, resulting in hundreds of stereoisomers. Although the chemical properties of most stereoisomers may not be very different, their metabolic fate and utilization in biological systems is…

Excessive drinking is commonplace among college students and can lead to numerous negative consequences. Alcohol expectancies are a well-studied correlate of alcohol consumption, and greater understanding of expectancies in relation to drinking behavior and alcohol-related consequences could inform future assessment and intervention. Past research…

There is interest in admission criteria that predict future success in biomedical graduate school programs, but identifying predictors of PhD attainment is inherently complex. In particular, high noncompletion rates of PhD programs have long been recognized as a major crisis. Here, we present a quantitative analysis of the PhD students enrolled in…

We used a technique known as reach tracking to investigate how individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) relate to the functioning of two processes proposed to underlie cognitive control: a threshold adjustment process that temporarily inhibits motor output in response to signals of conflict and a controlled selection process that…

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate biomechanical and physiological responses to soccer-specific exercise incorporating an extra-time period (ET) and assess the test-retest reliability of these responses. Methods: Twelve soccer players performed 120 min of soccer-specific exercise. Tri-axial (PL[subscript Total]) and uni-axial…

College freshmen experience unique stressors when transitioning from high school to college. In Idaho, the freshman attrition rate is higher than the national average, which may be partially explained by the higher prevalence of depression in this region. The current study investigated the potential of cortisol, a stress hormone, to be a biomarker…

Project-based (research-driven) laboratory courses stimulate student involvement, improve critical thinking and initiate cooperative learning. To this end, a 7-week laboratory project was designed for a sophomore cell biology course to reinforce the fundamental relationship between genotype and phenotype using yeast alcohol dehydrogenase I (ADH1).…

In an increasingly complex world, it is imperative that undergraduate science courses prepare students to make confident, informed decisions and predictions. The research presented in this thesis focuses on supporting students to engage in mechanistic reasoning (MR) about phenomena in chemistry and biology (that is, thinking about how and why…

Enzyme kinetics is the study of enzymatic catalytic rates in biochemical reactions. This topic is commonly taught to life science students in introductory biochemistry courses during their undergraduate education. Unlike most other biochemistry topics, which focus on visual structures of biomolecules and their processes, enzyme kinetics is…

When trying to prevent deaths from alcohol overdose, potentially intoxicated companions of the inebriated person must know when to intervene. The current project examined the relation between intoxication level and the signs of alcohol poisoning. In a local bar district, interviewers asked college students (N = 178; 52% female students) to…

A critical goal for science education is to design and implement learning activities that develop a deep conceptual understanding, are engaging for students, and are scalable for large classes or those with few resources. Approaches based on peer learning and online technologies show promise for scalability but often lack a grounding in cognitive…