Cultivating Connections in 140 Characters: A Case Study of Twitter Relationship Building

Social media use is ubiquitous in the United States. Not surprisingly, an academic debate has emerged about whether or not computer-mediated communication facilitates or hurts interpersonal relationships. This exploratory case study adds to the conversation by assessing how Twitter users in the Wichita, Kansas community view the impact of Twitter on their social lives, specifically, communication and relationships. Using a grounded theory approach and inductive thematic analysis, this paper analyzed data from a two- phase study involving key informant interviews (N=15) and six focus groups (N = 32). Three themes emerged: Twitter and professional relationships; Twitter and personal relationships, and Twitter and community. Analysis indicated that Twitter is a robust tool used to build and maintain interpersonal and community relationships that range from shallow and impersonal to deep and meaningful, depending on the desires of users, all in 140 characters or less

Immunohistochemical Characterisation of GLUT1, MMP3 and NRF2 in Osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma (OSA) is an aggressive bone malignancy. Unlike many other malignancies, OSA outcomes have not improved in recent decades. One challenge to the development of better diagnostic and therapeutic methods for OSA has been the lack of well characterized experimental model systems. Spontaneous OSA in dogs provides a good model for the disease seen in people and also remains an important veterinary clinical challenge. We recently used RNA sequencing and qRT-PCR to provide a detailed molecular characterization of OSA relative to non-malignant bone in dogs. We identified differential mRNA expression of the solute carrier family 2 member 1 (SLC2A1/GLUT1), matrix metallopeptidase 3 (MMP3) and nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NFE2L2/NRF2) genes in canine OSA tissue in comparison to paired non-tumor tissue. Our present work characterizes protein expression of GLUT1, MMP3 and NRF2 using immunohistochemistry. As these proteins affect key processes such as Wnt activation, heme biosynthesis, glucose transport, understanding their expression and the enriched pathways and gene ontologies enables us to further understand the potential molecular pathways and mechanisms involved in OSA. This study further supports spontaneous OSA in dogs as a model system to inform the development of new methods to diagnose and treat OSA in both dogs and people