Best Practices for Social Media Branding

Social media is a fast growing marketplace for businesses to advertise themselves to established and potential consumers. Each platform has different algorithms, demographics, and ways for users to interact and connect. Even with a constantly growing research field and course options around the subject, understanding the behaviors of viewers on each app can still be a tough guessing game. Therefore, I have used both research studies and online courses, to present a strategy with which to efficiently and effectively market one’s business for Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. I then present ways to understand the success of this and personal marketing strategies. Using social media can improve your business, using a strategy specific for your brand can drastically improve your business

Solution characterization and fabrication of hydrogel microstructures on an optical fiber

Sociomicrobiology has recently come to the forefront of bioanalytical research, primarily due to its physiological impact in the medical field. The interaction of bacterial cells in small, dense populations can reveal emergent properties of microbial communities, such as increased virulence and pathogenicity, as well as create a more accurate model for bacterial behavior in natural environments. Such systems are particularly relevant in mono- and polymicrobial communities, which exhibit social behaviors as well as the potential for symbiotic and/or adversarial interactions between species. The standard techniques for culturing bacteria lack the tools to provide adequate control over polymicrobial organization on a microscopic scale or to evaluate the spatiotemporal dynamics of bacterial interactions. Using our previously developed micro-3D printing platform, we can arrange cells in biocompatible, pico-liter sized containers, allowing us to overcome these prior spatial limitations. However, key questions still exist regarding the dynamics of interactions between distinct cellular populations. This dissertation focuses on the development of a modified micro-3D printing platform that enables us to fabricate protein-based structures around bacteria on the tip of a moveable substrate. Fabricating structures on moveable substrates such as a glass rod or optical fiber allows us to precisely tune where bacterial clusters are located in relation to varying stimuli and enables delivery of fabricated structures to remote environments such as chronic wounds. However, several challenges were faced in the development of this technique, such as optimization of fabrication solutions, successful layering of hydrogels of varying composition on glass rods, and creation of a custom-built fabrication setup for fabrication on optical fiber tips. Development of these techniques enables us to better appreciate the intricacies of sociomicrobial behavior and interactions, allowing for a better understanding of microbial responses leading to antibiotic resistance, and directing a better approach towards the treatment of various microbial infections.Chemistr

Community Mobilization to Prevent HIV Transmission in Adolescent MSM

Objectives: As of 2006, the CDC reported that of men who have sex with men (MSM), HIV/AIDS cases increased most among 12-24 year-old young men who have sex with men (YMSM). In response to this epidemic, Connect to Protect ® (C2P) Philadelphia employs a collaborative approach to the development and implementation of HIV prevention strategies for YMSM. The mission of C2P, based on the theoretical concepts of structural change and community mobilization, is aimed at modifying programs, practices, laws and policies linked to HIV transmission in YMSM. This project sought to facilitate the identification and implementation of structural change objectives aimed at reducing the HIV risk behaviors of YMSM. Methods: The data in this project consisted of the ideas, structural change objectives, and action plans generated by the coalition. Through the interaction with coalition members at subcommittee meetings, structural change objectives (SCOs) and action plans were formulated. The variables of interest in this study are the SCOs, operationally defined as the specific modifications to programs, policies, and practices proposed by the coalition. After SCOs were identified by the coalition, they were recorded on Action Plan Worksheets (APW) and in the Community Activities Log (CAL). All data from the APWs and CALs was entered into the Adolescent Trials Network database. Results: This project explored the linkage between the disproportionate rate of unstable housing among LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning) youth and their risk of engaging in survival sex and contracting HIV. Two structural change objectives aimed at reducing this risk were completed: (1) a hygiene kit donation drive was held and the proceeds were distributed to housing insecure youth through community based agencies and (2) the Philadelphia LGBTQ Alliance of Students Organized for Health (LASOH) was created as a city-wide health students coalition that supports LGBTQ-health initiatives and serves as a vehicle of sustainable structural change. Conclusions: The collaborative work of LASOH is a powerful way to provide service to the city’s LGBTQ community. Through coalition building and community mobilization, LASOH and C2P create sustainable structural change and ultimately contribute to decreasing the rate of HIV transmission in YMSM and LGBTQ youth.M.P.H., Public Health -- Drexel University, 201

From Media Advocacy to Health Behaviors: Examining the Relationships between Mass Media Messages, Public Opinion, and Point-of-Sale Tobacco Control Policy Implementation in the United States

Policy interventions affecting the point of sale (POS) are an emerging focus within comprehensive tobacco control programming. Whereas mass media may play an important role in advancing policy implementation, these relationships have rarely been studied. The current studies examine the relationships between POS news media content, policy progression, and public support. In Manuscript One, we analyzed 917 POS-news articles, published between 01/01/2007 and 12/31/2014, and retrieved from a sample of 273 newspapers. The most common frame present was regulation (71.3%). Government officials (52.3%) and tobacco retailers (39.6%) were the most frequent sources. Articles presenting a health frame, a greater number of pro-tobacco control sources, and statistical evidence were significantly more likely to also have a pro-tobacco control slant. In Manuscript Two, we examined the extent to which newspaper content characteristics were associated with policy progression from 2012 to 2014. We found positive, significant bivariate relationships between the news content variables overall POS-related volume, and number of articles with any public health source, with both a local quote and local angle, and with a pro-tobacco control slant, and the dependent variable, Time 2 POS Index. Significant relationships between news content and policy progression did not hold in a multivariate regression model. In Manuscript Three, we investigated the relationship between news exposure and public support. We randomized an Internet-based convenience sample of 702 voting US adults to one of eight mock POS-related news articles, written to vary on (1) frame and (2) localization, and then measured their level of support for 22 POS policies. The mean POS support score was 12.88 (SD 6.67; Range 0 to 22). No significant main effects of frame or localization were apparent. Rather, we found significant differences in POS support by gender, age, tobacco use status, political affiliation and trust in government. Findings suggest that news content characteristics can shape article slant towards support for tobacco control objectives, and that newspaper coverage can be a marker of POS policy progression. Future work should continue to investigate the role of media in the policy change process.Doctor of Philosoph

Characterization of the Impact of Fire on Terrestrial Organic Carbon and Its Fate in the Environment

Pyrogenic carbon (PyC) is a heterogeneous continuum of compounds resulting from incomplete combustion of organic matter. The understanding of PyC in the environment has mainly focused on high-temperature combustion by-products. However, the portion of this continuum produced at low temperatures, mainly during wildfire and prescribed burning events, is particularly labile and water-soluble. Therefore, low-temperature PyC is imperative to study during dynamic transport across environmental interfaces. This dissertation presents new characterization of low-temperature PyC at the interfaces of terrestrial, aquatic and atmospheric environments. I use biomarkers of biomass combustion, plant materials, and inorganic tracers to elucidate sources, composition, and degradation of PyC during transport within and between environmental reservoirs. In large Arctic rivers, low-temperature PyC biomarkers are present in detectable concentrations during all flow regimes. PyC export occurs predominately in the dissolved phase and is an intrinsic component of the DOC pool mobilized by hydrologic events. Around half of the low-temperature PyC exported may be remineralized during transit time from fire source to river mouth, implying a labile source of PyC to these watersheds. Phase partitioning of low-temperature PyC suggests that it sorbs to particles at levels orders of magnitude higher than what equilibrium theory would predict. The higher than expected association of these soluble components with particles may help explain the recorded presence of these biomarkers in sedimentary deposits, which have helped track historical wildfire signatures in watersheds. However, as partitioning coefficients of low-temperature PyC biomarkers are lower than those reported for high temperature PyC biomarkers, there is a higher potential for exchange with the aqueous phase and thus accessibility to microbial degradation during transport to the coastal ocean, especially during the spring freshet. In the atmosphere, low-temperature PyC biomarkers may be more labile than previously considered, with potential abiotic degradation (such as hydroxyl radical reactions) occurring on time scales relevant to atmospheric transport (days). As this could affect the composition of PyC biomarkers at depositional sites, the assumption that they are conservative in the atmosphere must be questioned. This dissertation quantifies PyC dynamics to help solidify flux and pool estimates and missing parameters in model assessments of carbon cycling

Does sub-cluster merging accelerate mass segregation in local star formation?

The nearest site of massive star formation in Orion is dominated by the Trapezium subsystem, with its four OB stars and numerous companions. The question of how these stars came to be in such close proximity has implications for our understanding of massive star formation and early cluster evolution. A promising route toward rapid mass segregation was proposed by McMillan et al. (2007), who showed that the merger product of faster-evolving sub clusters can inherit their apparent dynamical age from their progenitors. In this paper we briefly consider this process at a size and time scale more suited for local and perhaps more typical star formation, with stellar numbers from the hundreds to thousands. We find that for reasonable ages and cluster sizes, the merger of sub-clusters can indeed lead to compact configurations of the most massive stars, a signal seen both in Nature and in large-scale hydrodynamic simulations of star formation from collapsing molecular clouds, and that sub-virial initial conditions can make an un-merged cluster display a similar type of mass segregation. Additionally, we discuss a variation of the minimum spanning tree mass-segregation technique introduced by Allison et al. (2009).Comment: 9 pages, submitted to MNRA

Implementation strategies to promote community-engaged efforts to counter tobacco marketing at the point of sale

The US tobacco industry spends $8.2 billion annually on marketing at the point of sale (POS), a practice known to increase tobacco use. Evidence-based policy interventions (EBPIs) are available to reduce exposure to POS marketing, and nationwide, states are funding community-based tobacco control partnerships to promote local enactment of these EBPIs. Little is known, however, about what implementation strategies best support community partnerships' success enacting EBPI. Guided by Kingdon's theory of policy change, Counter Tools provides tools, training, and other implementation strategies to support community partnerships' performance of five core policy change processes: document local problem, formulate policy solutions, engage partners, raise awareness of problems and solutions, and persuade decision makers to enact new policy. We assessed Counter Tools' impact at 1 year on (1) partnership coordinators' self-efficacy, (2) partnerships' performance of core policy change processes, (3) community progress toward EBPI enactment, and (4) salient contextual factors. Counter Tools provided implementation strategies to 30 partnerships. Data on self-efficacy were collected using a pre-post survey. Structured interviews assessed performance of core policy change processes. Data also were collected on progress toward EBPI enactment and contextual factors. Analysis included descriptive and bivariate statistics and content analysis. Following 1-year exposure to implementation strategies, coordinators' self-efficacy increased significantly. Partnerships completed the greatest proportion of activities within the “engage partners” and “document local problem” core processes. Communities made only limited progress toward policy enactment. Findings can inform delivery of implementation strategies and tests of their effects on community-level efforts to enact EBPIs

Test–retest Reliability and Minimal Detectable Change of Corticospinal Tract Integrity in Chronic Stroke

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can be used to index white matter integrity of the corticospinal tract (CST) after stroke; however, the psychometric properties of DTI‐based measures of white matter integrity are unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine test–retest reliability as determined by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and calculate minimal detectable change (MDC) of DTI‐based measures of CST integrity using three different approaches: a Cerebral Peduncle approach, a Probabilistic Tract approach, and a Tract Template approach. Eighteen participants with chronic stroke underwent DTI on the same magnetic resonance imaging scanner 4 days apart. For the Cerebral Peduncle approach, a researcher hand drew masks at the cerebral peduncle. For the Probabilistic Tract approach, tractography was seeded in motor areas of the cortex to the cerebral peduncle. For the Tract Template approach, a standard CST template was transformed into native space. For all approaches, the researcher performing analyses was blind to participant number and day of data collection. All three approaches had good to excellent test–retest reliability for fractional anisotropy (FA; ICCs \u3e0.786). Mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity were less reliable than FA. The ICC values were highest and MDC values were the smallest for the most automated approach (Tract Template), followed by the combined manual/automated approach (Probabilistic Tract) then the manual approach (Cerebral Peduncle). The results of this study may have implications for how DTI‐based measures of CST integrity are used to define impairment, predict outcomes, and interpret change after stroke

A Vehicle for Research: Using Street Sweepers to Explore the Landscape of Environmental Community Action

Researchers are developing mobile sensing platforms to facilitate public awareness of environmental conditions. However, turning such awareness into practical community action and political change requires more than just collecting and presenting data. To inform research on mobile environmental sensing, we conducted design fieldwork with government, private, and public interest stakeholders. In parallel, we built an environmental air quality sensing system and deployed it on street sweeping vehicles in a major U.S. city; this served as a "research vehicle" by grounding our interviews and affording us status as environmental action researchers. In this paper, we present a qualitative analysis of the landscape of environmental action, focusing on insights that will help researchers frame meaningful technological interventions.Comment: 10 page