THE INFLUENCE OF CELEBRITY POP MUSIC ARTISTS WHO DISCLOSE MENTAL HEALTH DIFFICULTIES ON THE DEPRESSION SUPPORT-SEEKING ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS OF AT-RISK U.S. YOUTH.

In December 2021, the United States Surgeon General issued a public health advisory warning of an emerging mental health crisis among U.S. youth. Among potential interventions that might be effective with young people, recent literature suggests leveraging pop culture, and pop music culture in particular, to promote mental health care. This dissertation had two aims focused on increasing young people’s intentions to disclose depression symptoms and seek support from a close friend, in addition to other sources. The first aim was to explore mental health attitudes, intentions to seek help, and wishful identification with celebrity pop music artists who have disclosed mental health difficulties. A survey of U.S. youth ages 16 to 24 (N = 417) indicated that self-efficacy is the most robust predictor of intentions to seek support from a close friend and that increasing outcome expectations of support-seeking is a promising avenue for increasing support-seeking intentions for youth regardless of whether they have elevated depressive symptomatology. Increased wishful identification was associated with increased outcome expectations and support-seeking intentions, but also increased public stigma. Finally, the survey was used to identify which contemporary pop music artists would serve as the best celebrity spokespeople in a depression support-seeking campaign. The second aim was to test effects of health messages using music celebrities as spokespeople (vs. non-celebrities) and language referencing “your” vs. a friend’s depression (direct vs. mistargeted language, respectively). An experiment was conducted with U.S. youth (age 16-24) experiencing depressive symptoms who have never been diagnosed with or treated for depression (N = 752). Findings suggest the use of celebrities in public service messages promoting depression support-seeking from friends might result in a boomerang effect increasing stigmatizing beliefs among this audience. Referent language did not affect responses except for participants’ intention to seek depression support from a website. Similar to Aim 1, positive associations with wishful identification emerged alongside associations with increased stigma and depression romanticizing, both problematic responses to a health message. Nuanced demographic and symptomatic differences in responses are also discussed, along with the first empirical evidence of depression romanticizing by this population and its potential implications.Doctor of Philosoph

Genome-wide association studies identify 137 genetic loci for DNA methylation biomarkers of aging

Background Biological aging estimators derived from DNA methylation data are heritable and correlate with morbidity and mortality. Consequently, identification of genetic and environmental contributors to the variation in these measures in populations has become a major goal in the field. Results Leveraging DNA methylation and SNP data from more than 40,000 individuals, we identify 137 genome-wide significant loci, of which 113 are novel, from genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses of four epigenetic clocks and epigenetic surrogate markers for granulocyte proportions and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 levels, respectively. We find evidence for shared genetic loci associated with the Horvath clock and expression of transcripts encoding genes linked to lipid metabolism and immune function. Notably, these loci are independent of those reported to regulate DNA methylation levels at constituent clock CpGs. A polygenic score for GrimAge acceleration showed strong associations with adiposity-related traits, educational attainment, parental longevity, and C-reactive protein levels. Conclusion This study illuminates the genetic architecture underlying epigenetic aging and its shared genetic contributions with lifestyle factors and longevity.Peer reviewe

Genome-wide association studies identify 137 genetic loci for DNA methylation biomarkers of aging

Background Biological aging estimators derived from DNA methylation data are heritable and correlate with morbidity and mortality. Consequently, identification of genetic and environmental contributors to the variation in these measures in populations has become a major goal in the field. Results Leveraging DNA methylation and SNP data from more than 40,000 individuals, we identify 137 genome-wide significant loci, of which 113 are novel, from genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses of four epigenetic clocks and epigenetic surrogate markers for granulocyte proportions and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 levels, respectively. We find evidence for shared genetic loci associated with the Horvath clock and expression of transcripts encoding genes linked to lipid metabolism and immune function. Notably, these loci are independent of those reported to regulate DNA methylation levels at constituent clock CpGs. A polygenic score for GrimAge acceleration showed strong associations with adiposity-related traits, educational attainment, parental longevity, and C-reactive protein levels. Conclusion This study illuminates the genetic architecture underlying epigenetic aging and its shared genetic contributions with lifestyle factors and longevity.</p

Deciphering Influence on Social Media: A Comparative Analysis of Influential Account Detection Metrics in the Context of Tobacco Promotion

Influencer marketing spending in the United States was expected to surpass $6 billion in 2023. This marketing tactic poses a public health threat, as research suggests it has been utilized to undercut decades of public health progress—such as gains made against tobacco use among adolescents. Public health and public opinion researchers need practical tools to capture influential accounts on social media. Utilizing X (formerly Twitter) little cigar and cigarillo (LCC) data, we compared seven influential account detection metrics to help clarify our understanding of the functions of existing metrics and the nature of social media discussion of tobacco products. Results indicate that existing influential account detection metrics are non-harmonic and time-sensitive , capturing distinctly different users and categorically different user types. Our results also reveal that these metrics capture distinctly different conversations among influential social media accounts. Our findings suggest that public health and public opinion researchers hoping to conduct analyses of influential social media accounts need to understand each metric’s benefits and limitations and utilize more than one influential account detection metric to increase the likelihood of producing valid and reliable research

The Sorghum bicolor genome and the diversification of grasses.

Sorghum, an African grass related to sugar cane and maize, is grown for food, feed, fibre and fuel. We present an initial analysis of the approximately 730-megabase Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench genome, placing approximately 98% of genes in their chromosomal context using whole-genome shotgun sequence validated by genetic, physical and syntenic information. Genetic recombination is largely confined to about one-third of the sorghum genome with gene order and density similar to those of rice. Retrotransposon accumulation in recombinationally recalcitrant heterochromatin explains the approximately 75% larger genome size of sorghum compared with rice. Although gene and repetitive DNA distributions have been preserved since palaeopolyploidization approximately 70 million years ago, most duplicated gene sets lost one member before the sorghum-rice divergence. Concerted evolution makes one duplicated chromosomal segment appear to be only a few million years old. About 24% of genes are grass-specific and 7% are sorghum-specific. Recent gene and microRNA duplications may contribute to sorghum&#39;s drought tolerance

Genome-wide association studies identify 137 genetic loci for DNA methylation biomarkers of aging.

BackgroundBiological aging estimators derived from DNA methylation data are heritable and correlate with morbidity and mortality. Consequently, identification of genetic and environmental contributors to the variation in these measures in populations has become a major goal in the field.ResultsLeveraging DNA methylation and SNP data from more than 40,000 individuals, we identify 137 genome-wide significant loci, of which 113 are novel, from genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses of four epigenetic clocks and epigenetic surrogate markers for granulocyte proportions and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 levels, respectively. We find evidence for shared genetic loci associated with the Horvath clock and expression of transcripts encoding genes linked to lipid metabolism and immune function. Notably, these loci are independent of those reported to regulate DNA methylation levels at constituent clock CpGs. A polygenic score for GrimAge acceleration showed strong associations with adiposity-related traits, educational attainment, parental longevity, and C-reactive protein levels.ConclusionThis study illuminates the genetic architecture underlying epigenetic aging and its shared genetic contributions with lifestyle factors and longevity