A Survey of Social Media Usage Integrating Daily Facebook Participation Time with In-Person Social Interaction among College Undergraduate Students

The initial stage of this academically-sanctioned research study gathered basic demographic information from a selected sample of university undergraduate students in an array of courses administered by faculty members and research members of this study. The stated questions elicited student responses in twenty-four aspects of the social networking spectrum involving student opinions, concerns, attitudes, practices, personal participation and usage parameters. The research model is based on the resulting relationship of the dependent variable, which is the frequency of Facebook usage, and the independent variables of religion/ethnicity, academic major, access device, and employment status. From these data, four null hypotheses were developed and tested. Usage hours were compared and correlated across the four independent variables. Conclusions were statistically derived, resulting in the retention of two null hypotheses, and the rejection of two null hypothesis.

The Role of Demographic Characteristics in Health Care Strategic Security Planning

The purpose of this paper is to foster understanding of the perception of members in healthcare organizations concerning three specific dimensions in the realm of security: strategic planning for security, proactive initiatives for security controls, and training preparedness for security perspective within the context of HIPAA compliance. The research data was collected using a survey instrument with 43 items of demographic information. The data collected was analyzed using demographic characteristics such as age, gender, education and relevant work experience. The aim of the analysis is to assess whether any significant differences exist between groups regarding the perception of security strategic planning, proactive initiatives and training issues. The statistical results are presented in tabular form with descriptive analysis applied to each of the categories. Data-based conclusions are drawn and future research directions are indicated and discussed

Impacts of Hydrophobic Mismatch on Antimicrobial Peptide Efficacy and Bilayer Permeabilization.

Antimicrobial resistance continues to be a major threat to world health, with the continued emergence of resistant bacterial strains. Antimicrobial peptides have emerged as an attractive option for the development of novel antimicrobial compounds in part due to their ubiquity in nature and the general lack of resistance development to this class of molecules. In this work, we analyzed the antimicrobial peptide C18G and several truncated forms for efficacy and the underlying mechanistic effects of the sequence truncation. The peptides were screened for antimicrobial efficacy against several standard laboratory strains, and further analyzed using fluorescence spectroscopy to evaluate binding to model lipid membranes and bilayer disruption. The results show a clear correlation between the length of the peptide and the antimicrobial efficacy. Furthermore, there is a correlation between peptide length and the hydrophobic thickness of the bilayer, indicating that hydrophobic mismatch is likely a contributing factor to the loss of efficacy in shorter peptides

A Comprehensive Study Of The Perceptions And Support Structures Of Women Engaged In IT/IS Careers

Women engaged in the Information Technology/Information Systems (IT/IS) sphere of the American collegiate and corporate experience have made significant strides in employment and opportunities for advancement culminating in the recent achievement of women reaching the CEO and presidential levels of the largest corporations in the IT sphere. Despite this significant and welcomed departure from past experiences, the progression of women matriculating in the university IT/IS major, and following through to the career phase has not materialized in numbers that equal the proliferation of male entrants. This research study relates to the factors that have the most influence on the perceptions, constraints and positive experiences leading to the choice of career development at the collegiate level. The specific areas that will be investigated and tabulated within this context are that of role models, mentoring, pre-college perceptions, and equal opportunity considerations

Heme Dissociation from Myoglobin in the Presence of the Zwitterionic Detergent N,N-Dimethyl-N-Dodecylglycine Betaine: Effects of Ionic Liquids

We have investigated myoglobin protein denaturation using the zwitterionic detergent Empigen BB (EBB, N,N-Dimethyl-N-dodecylglycine betaine). A combination of absorbance, fluorescence, and circular dichroism spectroscopic measurements elucidated the protein denaturation and heme dissociation from myoglobin. The results indicated that Empigen BB was not able to fully denature the myoglobin structure, but apparently can induce the dissociation of the heme group from the protein. This provides a way to estimate the heme binding free energy, ΔGdissociation. As ionic liquids (ILs) have been shown to perturb the myoglobin protein, we have investigated the effects of the ILs 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMICl), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EMIAc), and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIBF4) in aqueous solution on the ΔGdissociation values. Absorbance experiments show the ILs had minimal effect on ΔGdissociation values when compared to controls. Fluorescence and circular dichroism data confirm the ILs have no effect on heme dissociation, demonstrating that low concentrations ILs do not impact the heme dissociation from the protein and do not significantly denature myoglobin on their own or in combination with EBB. These results provide important data for future studies of the mechanism of IL-mediated protein stabilization/destabilization and biocompatibility studies

The Role Of Awareness And Communications In Information Security Management: A Health Care Information Systems Perspective

The purpose and intent of this research study is to understand and interpret the perception of stakeholders in healthcare organizations concerning security awareness and communications. The data is analyzed using the demographic characteristics of age, gender, education, and relevant work experience in order to determine if there are any significant differences between the groups regarding the state of awareness and the communication functions in a health care environment. The statistical results are presented in tabular form with descriptive analysis applied to each of the categories. Data-based conclusions are drawn and future research directions are indicated and discussed

Characterization of Lysozyme Stability in the Presence of lonic Liquids

Hen egg white lysozyme (Lyz) has been a well studied model system in biophysical investigations for decades. The protein is a small, primarily helical, highly soluble protein that is both commercially available and easily accessible. lonic liquids (ILs), often referred to as room-temperature ionic liquids or molten salts, have garnered great interest in the last 15-20 years as potential components of electrochemical devices or applications. More recently, the biocompatibility of these molecules has developed an increased interest in the field, especially considering that some IL species can stabilize biomolecular structures while other ILs strongly destabilize 3D structures. In this study, we used fluorescence spectroscopy to characterize the unfolding of lysozyme and the impact imidazolium-based ILs had on this process. The ILs 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride were first evaluated for their impacts alone, and subsequently on their ability to destabilize the lysozyme when denatured with Guanidinium HCl. Consistent with previous findings, the alkyl chain length had an impact on the destabilization potential of the ILs. Subsequent studies on the denaturation process in using thermal-induced denaturation, as well as quenching studies throughout the process, were also investigated to gain insight into the denaturation process. Overall, longer alkyl chain length ILs more strongly destabilize the lysozyme 3D structure

Beneficial Impacts of Incorporating the Non-Natural Amino Acid Azulenyl-Alanine into the Trp-Rich Antimicrobial Peptide buCATHL4B.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) present a promising scaffold for the development of potent antimicrobial agents. Substitution of tryptophan by non-natural amino acid Azulenyl-Alanine (AzAla) would allow studying the mechanism of action of AMPs by using unique properties of this amino acid, such as ability to be excited separately from tryptophan in a multi-Trp AMPs and environmental insensitivity. In this work, we investigate the effect of Trp→AzAla substitution in antimicrobial peptide buCATHL4B (contains three Trp side chains). We found that antimicrobial and bactericidal activity of the original peptide was preserved, while cytocompatibility with human cells and proteolytic stability was improved. We envision that AzAla will find applications as a tool for studies of the mechanism of action of AMPs. In addition, incorporation of this non-natural amino acid into AMP sequences could enhance their application properties

Effects of Ionic Liquids on Metalloproteins.

In the past decade, innovative protein therapies and bio-similar industries have grown rapidly. Additionally, ionic liquids (ILs) have been an area of great interest and rapid development in industrial processes over a similar timeline. Therefore, there is a pressing need to understand the structure and function of proteins in novel environments with ILs. Understanding the short-term and long-term stability of protein molecules in IL formulations will be key to using ILs for protein technologies. Similarly, ILs have been investigated as part of therapeutic delivery systems and implicated in numerous studies in which ILs impact the activity and/or stability of protein molecules. Notably, many of the proteins used in industrial applications are involved in redox chemistry, and thus often contain metal ions or metal-associated cofactors. In this review article, we focus on the current understanding of protein structure-function relationship in the presence of ILs, specifically focusing on the effect of ILs on metal containing proteins