Tag Archives: DNA

Michigan DNR expanding accessibility for more visitors

September 29, 20213-bottom, Environment, Great Lakes, Recreation, Travel, West MichiganDNA, environmentJoanne

Michigan Department of Natural Resources: A visitor uses a track chair to access the beach. Unimproved areas are otherwise inaccessible to those in wheelchairs

LANSING — Trails that can accommodate strollers, wheelchairs with tank treads and baby changing stations in men’s bathrooms are part of a push to accommodate a surge of new visitors at Michigan state parks.

The parks system has taken an interest in serving new parents, people with physical disabilities and people who live in urban areas of the state, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials said.

One reason is that the pandemic sparked an influx of new visitors, according to the agency.

The system saw 35 million visitors in 2020, a 30% increase over the previous year, according to the department.

Pampers, a major diaper manufacturer, is partnering with the department as part of its #LoveTheChange campaign. Pampers says that nine out of 10 fathers have gone into a restroom without a changing station.

“Pampers reached out to us and asked if there was a need in the state parks,” said DNR Fund and Resource Development Coordinator Michelle O’Kelly. “They supplied us 186 units to be distributed over 52 locations.”

O’Kelly says that parks have been receiving these units over the summer and fall and that they should be installed for use by next season because the workload this year has been intense for DNR workers.

Michigan Department of Natural ResourcesPark workers use a helicopter to install a new pedestrian bridge at Tahquamenon Falls State Park.

“The parks are at capacity,” O’Kelly said. “On weekends that we would normally never fill, we are filling all our parks”

O’Kelly said that she thinks that the large number of people working remotely has been pushing back traditional vacation seasons, so maintenance that would traditionally be done in fall had to be pushed back as well.

The department is also working to pave miles of trails across the state, a welcome relief for more than just parents, said Jon Spieles, the agency’s interpretative manager.

“One of the coolest things about our efforts to improve state parks accessibility is how those improvements work for parents with strollers and all kinds of wheeled equipment.” Spieles said. “The fact is we will all benefit from these great steps forward at one point or another.”

The DNR lists over 30 trails and recreation areas with paved or accessible trails and plans to increase that number. But for areas without paved access, the DNR has also started to provide tracked chairs, which look like wheelchairs equipped with tank treads.

Video of the device provided by the department shows the chairs going over sand, forest floors, tall grass and even deep snow. These chairs are available at nine parks, but officials hope that donations to the program will allow the DNR to provide these chairs to more sites across the state.

Urban residents are the least likely to visit the park system, according to a report by the Dow Sustainability Fellows of the University of Michigan. It cited lack of access to transportation as a major reason that urban Michigan residents don’t take advantage of the state natural areas.

State officials announced this summer the creation of a state park in Flint.

The $26.2 million investment in a former industrial site was targeted to reach people disproportionately affected by COVID19.

Spieles, who primarily works with educators and children, says one of the best state parks for kids is in an old Detroit warehouse, not a location typically associated with the great outdoors.

“An opportunity for families and school or youth groups is at the Outdoor Adventure Center in William G. Milliken State Park in Detroit,” Spieles said. “The center provides a taste of Michigan’s great outdoors with hands-on activities, exhibits and simulators.”

The facility includes a multi-story waterfall, a re-creation of a Michigan oak tree and a fishing game, that allows urban park goers to learn about the outdoors and inspires future visits to the actual wilderness.

O’Kelly said that public-private partnerships like the Pampers deal are welcome additions, but most state park initiatives are funded locally.

“It’s all just based on need,” O’Kelly said. “Some of our parks have formal nonprofit ‘friends of the park’ groups. So if a park need a new playground, there is usually a strong (local) campaign to secure funding.”

Officials say that such bottom-up strategies will help the state park system meet the changing needs of visitors in both the short term and for projects in the future.

ABOUT NICHOLAS SIMON

Nicholas Simon is a multimedia reporter from South Haven, Michigan. His areas of interest include international relations, commercial spaceflight, ecology, and globalization. He has covered events for both print and broadcast outlets ranging from protests to presidential debates and currently covers the Grand Ledge community for the Spartan Newsroom.

BMI, meet DNA

August 2, 20193-bottom, Community Health, Food, Health, How-To's, Senior LivingDNA, HealthDay, Robert PreidtJoanne

Why do some folks manage to lose significant weight with casual dieting, while others will lose nary a pound with a strict plan? It often comes down to genetics, researchers say. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Robert Preidt, HealthDay

While some people fight the “battle of the bulge” for a lifetime, others seem to effortlessly stay slim. And now scientists say it all boils down to genetics.

Certain DNA helps decide whether weight gain is a torment or not for people, British researchers report.

“It’s easy to rush to judgment and criticize people for their weight, but the science shows that things are far more complex,” said study leader Sadaf Farooqi.

Instead, “we have far less control over our weight than we might wish to think,” said Farooqi. She’s a professor at the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge.

One U.S. expert agreed.

“We stigmatize people based on weight and subconsciously blame them for not taking care of themselves,” said Dr. Mitchell Roslin, chief of obesity surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “We state they lack willpower, but instead, this study shows that the most thin and the heaviest have genetic dispositions that control their body weight.”

Of course, any number of factors affect weight, including eating habits and exercise levels. But some people stay thin despite unhealthy lifestyles, while others struggle with overweight and obesity despite their best efforts, the British team noted.

Prior studies on “obesity” genes have focused on people who were already overweight or obese.

But the new study also focused on thin people (those with a body mass index of 18 or below), trying to discover why they often have an easier time staying slim.

To do so, the Cambridge group analyzed the DNA of more than 1,600 thin, healthy Brits. They then compared that data with the genetics of nearly 2,000 severely obese people and more than 10,000 normal-weight people.

The investigators spotted several common gene variants already linked with obesity. They also found new genetic regions tied to severe obesity, and some others linked to “healthy thinness.”

The researchers then added up the contribution of the different genetic variants to calculate each person’s “genetic risk score.”

“As anticipated, we found that obese people had a higher genetic risk score than normal-weight people, which contributes to their risk of being overweight,” study co-author Ines Barroso, of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said in a university news release.

“The genetic dice are loaded against them,” Barroso said.

Thin people also had fewer genetic variants known to raise the odds of being overweight, according to the study published recently in the journal PLoS Genetics.

Farooqi’s conclusion: “Healthy thin people are generally thin because they have a lower burden of genes that increase a person’s chances of being overweight and not because they are morally superior, as some people like to suggest.”

These “thin genes” appear to be passed along through generations, the study authors added. About 74 percent of the thin people in the study had a family history of people being thin and healthy.

Does all of this mean that less genetically gifted people should just shrug and give in to becoming obese? Not so, said nutritionist and weight-management expert Michelle Milgrim.

“While genetics may play a leading role in determining our ‘weight destiny,’ there is a growing body of research to suggest that how we live our lives is as important as our genetic predispositions,” said Milgrim, who manages employee wellness at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

“Staying active, sitting less, cutting out processed and fast foods and focusing on eating a balanced diet of whole foods are general healthy recommendations for everyone, despite your genes,” she said.

In the meantime, the Cambridge researchers said their research might someday end up helping everyone stay thin, regardless of their personal DNA.

“We already know that people can be thin for different reasons” Farooqi said. “Some people are just not that interested in food whereas others can eat what they like, but never put on weight. If we can find the genes that prevent them from putting on weight, we may be able to target those genes to find new weight-loss strategies and help people who do not have this advantage.”

Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.

School News Network: Drive-up DNA Lesson delivers STEM to school’s front door

March 15, 20173-bottom, City of KentwoodAgriculture & Resources in Motion, DNA, food, Kentwood Public Schools, mobile classroom, School News Netwook, Southwood ElementaryJoanne

Lisandra Yimenez and Isabelle Crotser complete the experiment

By Erin Albanese

School News Network

Inside a 40-foot mobile classroom parked outside their school, Southwood Elementary students got to the “true core” of their food — its basic building blocks — by extracting DNA from wheat germ. The activity followed a multi-step process and ended with little bits of goo on paper clips fashioned into hooks.

Resulting in “oohs,” “ahhs” and looks of both fascination and disgust, they had successfully separated DNA using a mix of water, alcohol and detergent.

During the lesson taught by Lindsay Grasman, a science lab educator at Food, Agriculture & Resources in Motion (FARM), fifth-graders learned about agriculture, and how genetics play a role in all living things including the crops raised by Michigan farmers.

Kentwood Public Schools is piloting the FARM program through the Michigan Farm Bureau’s Agriculture in the Classroom program. It is the brainchild of a group of farmers working with 26 Michigan county farm bureaus. The pilot program continues through June with 26 schools in Kent and Oakland counties.

The purpose, Grasman said, is to help teach students about how food gets to the table and the role of agriculture in their lives. The mobile lab is equipped with tablets, where students work in lab spaces, and other technologies for presenting lessons tied to Next Generation Science Standards, a set of teaching guidelines for kindergarten through 12th-graders.

In Michigan, agriculture is the second largest industry in contributing more than $101 billion to the state’s economy, according to the Michigan Agriculture in the Classroom website. Michigan produces more than 300 commodities, making it the state with the second most diverse agriculture industry in the nation, behind California.

Every Living Thing

“It helps them learn more about where their food and fiber comes from,” Grasman said. “We want them to have a more informed consumer base.”

The genetics lesson had students’ interest piqued.

“I thought it was very cool to learn that DNA is actually in every living thing, even wheat,” said Kyle Olsen.

Added Breanna Duron: “I didn’t know wheat had DNA. I thought only animals did. I like how they didn’t just show us in a movie. They had us do it ourselves and see it with our own eyes.”

The lab offers several other activities, including making plastic out of corn starch, measuring contaminants in water, making soy-based crayons, and food safety.

Nancy McKenzie, the district’s STEM coordinator, requested Kentwood be included in the pilot program. Seven district elementary schools participated. “I’m sure most of them don’t know where food comes from before the grocery store,” she said. “This gives them a little insight into that, one little part and parcel of the agricultural business, but it also fits with all our science standards.”

Alissa Minaker looks at the DNA she extracted from wheat germ

“I love to see the excitement they get when they go through the whole process and get to the end product. It’s fun to see them excited about working in a lab setting.”

The Michigan lab was modeled after the Mobile Science Activity Center from Kentucky’s Department of Agriculture, which visited North Godwin Elementary, in Godwin Heights Public Schools in 2015 at the request of Michigan Farm Bureau.

Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.