The exploration of young adults\u27 online and offline interpersonal relationships

The present study sought to learn about the ways in which young adults who are avid social networking site users (SNS) build and maintain interpersonal relationships given the ways in which social media shapes how young adults connect. This research explored how experiences via SNS such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tinder played a role in one\u27s online and offline relationships. Inclusion criteria included being between the ages of 18 and 30, being an English speaker, logging onto SNS at least 10 times per day, and being able to speak in person or on the phone for one hour. With a sample of twelve young adults, the majority of participants identified as Caucasian, 9, and female, 9, with a mean age of 24.3. The study concluded that the majority of participants\u27 relationships with friends originated offline via in-person encounters. Offline relationships were strengthened due to online SNS activity due to SNS\u27s ability to connect long distance friends and family members, post photos online that increased offline engagement, reinforce positive aspects of offline relationships, and deepen one\u27s personal development offline. Participants also noted the ways in which SNS adversely impacted their relationships offline, including trust, embarrassment, and exclusion. The findings also showed a gender-specific pattern, revealing that all three male participants used SNS as a tool for developing businesses; the women never spoke about using SNS to assist in the development of a business but, rather, spoke only about using it exclusively as a social environment and tool

An assessment of fall chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha) spawning habitat for present and pre-impoundment river conditions in a section of the John Day Reservoir, Columbia River

The Columbia River system in the Pacific Northwest is currently comprised of a series of reservoirs, resulting from regulation of river flow due to a series of hydroelectric dams. A return to pre-dam conditions might improve salmon (Oncorhynchus sp.) survival rates and increase migration efficiency. This study modeled both historic and current river conditions for a part of a reservoir on the Columbia River in order to characterize the impact of a river reservoir drawdown to historic (pre-dam) water levels. The study area is a 48-kilometer stretch of the John Day reservoir in the middle Columbia region that is currently being considered for water level drawdown. Within this study, historic pre-dam aerial and oblique photographs and hard-copy bathymetric survey maps were incorporated into a GIS (Geographic Information System) to characterize the wetted perimeter of the river, substrate distribution, water depth, and overall channel morphology of the original channel. The current river conditions were also characterized using digital orthophotos, hydrographic survey data, and fisheries sampling information. The spatial distribution of habitat in the historic and current river channels were compared using existing knowledge of salmonid behavior and habitat requirements in large river systems for adult spawning activities. The results of this study can be used to indicate similarities and differences between historic and present conditions, which may help designate how well a "return to the river" drawdown concept could be implemented to achieve the desired increase in preferred salmon habitats

Let Bengal be Heard: Dealing with Covid and Cyclone Amphan together

Reeling under the double burden of a biological and a natural disaster, West Bengal needs civil society mobilization in terms of both local and global synergy to rebuild the state and its economy. By acknowledging the lack of constitutional clarity regarding ‘disaster’ and hence the inherently conflicting centre-state relationship over disaster management, this paper argues that exclusive dependency on the government will yield no result at this hour. What is needed is a partnership between government and private initiatives and the civil society, especially the Bengal diaspora

F O R M U L A RY M A N A G E M E N T Comparison of Risedronate to Alendronate and Calcitonin for Early Reduction of Nonvertebral Fracture Risk: Results From a Managed Care Administrative Claims Database

steoporosis is an increasing concern for older adults as painful fragility fractures can significantly affect overall health and quality of life. In the United States, the lifetime risk of fracture at age 50 is estimated at 40% for women and 12.5% for men. Reductions in relative risk (RR) of radiographic vertebral fracture were comparable for the 2 drugs, ranging from 41% to 49% over 3 years (3.0% to 10.9% absolute risk reduction [ARR]). 9 Osteoporosis is considered to be a "silent" disease, and patients may fail to be compliant with therapy due to multiple ). Most were women (93%); mean age was similar for alendronate and risedronate, and nasal calcitonin patients were about 3 years older, on average. Risedronate and alendronate patients were more likely to have used estrogen, while nasal calcitonin patients were more likely to have been hospitalized and had higher use of concomitant medications and more physician visits. Relative risks were adjusted for these differences. Risedronate and alendronate patients were similar with respect to these indicators of general health status. In the 6-month analysis, nonvertebral fractures were observed in 2.2% of patients receiving nasal calcitonin, 1.4% of patients receiving alendronate, and 0.6% of patients receiving risedronate. The adjusted RR reduction was 69% for risedronate versus calcitonin (RR = 0.31; 95% CI, 0.12 to 0.81; P = 0.02), 54% for risedronate versus alendronate (RR = 0.46; 95% CI, 0.20 to 1.06; P = 0.07), and 26% for alendronate versus calcitonin (RR = 0.74; 95% CI, 0.43 to 1.27; P = 0.28). In the 12-month analysis, nonvertebral fracture rates were 2.9% for nasal calcitonin, 2.4% for alendronate, and 0.9% for risedronate patients. The adjusted RR reduction was 75% for risedronate versus calcitonin (RR = 0.25; 95% CI, 0.10 to 0.64; P<0.01), 59% for risedronate versus alendronate (RR = 0.41; 95% CI, 0.18 to 0.94; P = 0.04), and 25% for alendronate versus calcitonin (RR = 0.75; 95% CI, 0.45 to 1.25; P = 0.27). CONCLUSIONS: This analysis of medical and pharmacy claims contained in an administrative database confirms the early fracture reduction with risedronate that was shown in randomized clinical trials. Risedronate was more effective than calcitonin in reducing the risk of nonvertebral fractures within the first 6 months of treatment. Risedronate was more effective than either calcitonin or alendronate in reducing the risk of nonvertebral fractures within 12 months of treatment

Microglia promote glioblastoma via mTOR-mediated immunosuppression of the tumour microenvironment

Tumour-associated microglia/macrophages (TAM) are the most numerous non-neoplastic populations in the tumour microenvironment in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common malignant brain tumour in adulthood. The mTOR pathway, an important regulator of cell survival/proliferation, is upregulated in GBM, but little is known about the potential role of this pathway in TAM. Here, we show that GBM-initiating cells induce mTOR signalling in the microglia but not bone marrow-derived macrophages in both in vitro and in vivo GBM mouse models. mTOR-dependent regulation of STAT3 and NF-κB activity promotes an immunosuppressive microglial phenotype. This hinders effector T-cell infiltration, proliferation and immune reactivity, thereby contributing to tumour immune evasion and promoting tumour growth in mouse models. The translational value of our results is demonstrated in whole transcriptome datasets of human GBM and in a novel in vitro model, whereby expanded-potential stem cells (EPSC)-derived microglia-like cells are conditioned by syngeneic patient-derived GBM-initiating cells. These results raise the possibility that microglia could be the primary target of mTOR inhibition, rather than the intrinsic tumour cells in GBM

Black Holes as Effective Geometries

Gravitational entropy arises in string theory via coarse graining over an underlying space of microstates. In this review we would like to address the question of how the classical black hole geometry itself arises as an effective or approximate description of a pure state, in a closed string theory, which semiclassical observers are unable to distinguish from the "naive" geometry. In cases with enough supersymmetry it has been possible to explicitly construct these microstates in spacetime, and understand how coarse-graining of non-singular, horizon-free objects can lead to an effective description as an extremal black hole. We discuss how these results arise for examples in Type II string theory on AdS_5 x S^5 and on AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4 that preserve 16 and 8 supercharges respectively. For such a picture of black holes as effective geometries to extend to cases with finite horizon area the scale of quantum effects in gravity would have to extend well beyond the vicinity of the singularities in the effective theory. By studying examples in M-theory on AdS_3 x S^2 x CY that preserve 4 supersymmetries we show how this can happen.Comment: Review based on lectures of JdB at CERN RTN Winter School and of VB at PIMS Summer School. 68 pages. Added reference

Kerr/CFT, dipole theories and nonrelativistic CFTs

We study solutions of type IIB supergravity which are SL(2,R) x SU(2) x U(1)^2 invariant deformations of AdS_3 x S^3 x K3 and take the form of products of self-dual spacelike warped AdS_3 and a deformed three-sphere. One of these backgrounds has been recently argued to be relevant for a derivation of Kerr/CFT from string theory, whereas the remaining ones are holographic duals of two-dimensional dipole theories and their S-duals. We show that each of these backgrounds is holographically dual to a deformation of the DLCQ of the D1-D5 CFT by a specific supersymmetric (1,2) operator, which we write down explicitly in terms of twist operators at the free orbifold point. The deforming operator is argued to be exactly marginal with respect to the zero-dimensional nonrelativistic conformal (or Schroedinger) group - which is simply SL(2,R)_L x U(1)_R. Moreover, in the supergravity limit of large N and strong coupling, no other single-trace operators are turned on. We thus propose that the field theory duals to the backgrounds of interest are nonrelativistic CFTs defined by adding the single Schroedinger-invariant (1,2) operator mentioned above to the original CFT action. Our analysis indicates that the rotating extremal black holes we study are best thought of as finite right-moving temperature (non-supersymmetric) states in the above-defined supersymmetric nonrelativistic CFT and hints towards a more general connection between Kerr/CFT and two-dimensional non-relativistic CFTs.Comment: 48+8 pages, 4 figures; minor corrections and references adde

Binding binding: Departure points for a different version of the perceptual retouch theory

In the perceptual retouch theory, masking and related microgenetic phenomena were explained as a result of interaction between specific cortical representational systems and the non-specific sub-cortical modulation system. Masking appears as deprivation of sufficient modulation of the consciousness mechanism suffered by the target-specific signals because of the temporal delay of non-specific modulation (necessary for conscious representation), which explicates the later-coming mask information instead of the already decayed target information. The core of the model envisaged relative magnitudes of EPSPs of single cortical cells driven by target and mask signals at the moment when the nonspecific, presynaptic, excitatory input arrives from the thalamus. In the light of the current evidence about the importance of synchronised activity of specific and non-specific systems in generating consciousness, the retouch theory requires perhaps a different view. This article presents some premises for modification of the retouch theory, where instead of the cumulative presynaptic spike activities and EPSPs of single cells, the oscillatory activity in the gamma range of the participating systems is considered and shown to be consistent with the basic ideas of the retouch theory. In this conceptualisation, O-binding refers to specific encoding which is based on gamma-band synchronised oscillations in the activity of specific cortical sensory modules that represent features and objects; C-binding refers to the gamma-band oscillations in the activity of the non-specific thalamic systems, which is necessary for the O-binding based data to become consciously experienced

Anti-cancer effects and mechanism of actions of aspirin analogues in the treatment of glioma cancer

INTRODUCTION: In the past 25 years only modest advancements in glioma treatment have been made, with patient prognosis and median survival time following diagnosis only increasing from 3 to 7 months. A substantial body of clinical and preclinical evidence has suggested a role for aspirin in the treatment of cancer with multiple mechanisms of action proposed including COX 2 inhibition, down regulation of EGFR expression, and NF-κB signaling affecting Bcl-2 expression. However, with serious side effects such as stroke and gastrointestinal bleeding, aspirin analogues with improved potency and side effect profiles are being developed. METHOD: Effects on cell viability following 24 hr incubation of four aspirin derivatives (PN508, 517, 526 and 529) were compared to cisplatin, aspirin and di-aspirin in four glioma cell lines (U87 MG, SVG P12, GOS – 3, and 1321N1), using the PrestoBlue assay, establishing IC50 and examining the time course of drug effects. RESULTS: All compounds were found to decrease cell viability in a concentration and time dependant manner. Significantly, the analogue PN517 (IC50 2mM) showed approximately a twofold increase in potency when compared to aspirin (3.7mM) and cisplatin (4.3mM) in U87 cells, with similar increased potency in SVG P12 cells. Other analogues demonstrated similar potency to aspirin and cisplatin. CONCLUSION: These results support the further development and characterization of novel NSAID derivatives for the treatment of glioma