Ensemble Concerts: Philharmonia Orchestra, February 28, 2024

Kemp Recital HallFebruary 28, 2024Wednesday Evening7:30 p.m

The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions

We conducted a field experiment in a 401(k) plan to measure the effect of disseminating information about peer behavior on savings. Low-saving employees received simplified plan enrollment or contribution increase forms. A randomized subset of forms stated the fraction of age-matched coworkers participating in the plan or age-matched participants contributing at least 6% of pay to the plan. We document an oppositional reaction: the presence of peer information decreased the savings of non-participants who were ineligible for 401(k) automatic enrollment, and higher observed peer savings rates also decreased savings. Discouragement from upward social comparisons seems to drive this reaction.

'It's Up to You': Experimentally Manipulated Autonomy Support for Prosocial Behavior Improves Well-Being in Two Cultures Over Six Weeks

Previous research has demonstrated a strong link between prosocial behavior – particularly autonomous prosocial behavior – and well-being. Little is known, however, about whether and how autonomy might be boosted in the context of everyday kindnesses. We tested the effect of supporting students’ autonomy on well-being gains from practicing acts of kindness in a six-week randomized experimental study in the United States and South Korea. As predicted, performing kind acts while receiving autonomy support led to greater improvements in well-being than performing kind acts without autonomy support or engaging in comparison activities (i.e. focusing on one’s academic work, with or without autonomy support). Notably, these well-being improvements were mediated by feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The current study is one of the first to demonstrate the causal effect of autonomous prosocial behavior on well-being, as well as the psychological mechanism (i.e. need satisfaction) explaining this effect

Evaluating the Predictive Performance of Genomic Data-based Machine Learning Models for 4 Different Mental Health Disorders

Clinical psychiatry can greatly benefit from using polygenic risk scores (PRS) to assess the risk of developing certain mental health disorders. While the PRS performance can be evaluated considering exclusively the disorder, we aim to leverage recent findings which state that mental health disorders may share genetic variants and have created features sets that are not only disorder-specific, but also encompass multiple mental health disorders. To evaluate the performance of these different features sets, we developed an automated polygenic risk score script that calculates the PRS of each patient in the UK Biobank, and a logistic regression script that utilizes a linear model to evaluate the performance. The predictive performance of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder showed significant improvement from the disorder-specific features set vs. the general ’Mental Health Disorders’ features set, suggesting that these two disorders may possess an overlapping polygenic architecture. This finding may help PRS become a robust tool used in clinical psychiatry to encourage earlier diagnosis of these disorders that greatly benefit from early treatment/intervention.Undergraduat

Ensemble Concerts: Illinois State University Philharmonia Orchestra and String Project Sinfonia Orchestra, April 22, 2024

Kemp Recital HallApril 22, 2024Monday Evening7:30 p.m

Nanoscale Hafnium Metal-organic Frameworks Enhance Radiotherapeutic Effects by Upregulation of Type I Interferon and TLR7 Expression

Recent preclinical and clinical studies have highlighted the improved outcomes of combination radiotherapy and immunotherapy. Concurrently, the development of high-Z metallic nanoparticles as radiation dose enhancers has been explored to widen the therapeutic window of radiotherapy and potentially enhance immune activation. In this study, we evaluate folate-modified hafnium-based metal-organic frameworks (HfMOF-PEG-FA) in combination with imiquimod, a TLR7 agonist, as a well-defined interferon regulatory factor (IRF) stimulator for local antitumor immunotherapy. The enhancement of radiation dose deposition by HfMOF-PEG-FA and subsequent generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) deregulates cell proliferation and increases apoptosis. HfMOF-PEG-FA loaded with imiquimod (HfMOF-PEG-FA@IMQ) increases DNA double-strand breaks and cell death, including apoptosis, necrosis, and calreticulin exposure, in response to X-ray irradiation. Treatment with this multipronged therapy promotes IRF stimulation for subsequent interferon production within tumor cells themselves. We report the novel observation that, HfMOF itself increased TLR7 expression, unexpectedly pairing immune agonist and receptor up-regulation in a tumor intrinsic manner, and supporting the synergistic affect observed with the γH2AX assay. T cell analysis of CT26 tumors following intratumoral administration of HfMOF-PEG-FA@IMQ with radiotherapy reveals a promising antitumor response, characterized by an increase in CD8+ and proliferative T cells

Following through on Good Intentions: The Power of Planning Prompts

We study whether prompts to form and recall a plan can increase individuals’ responsiveness to reminders to make and attend beneficial appointments. At four companies, all employees due for a colonoscopy were randomly assigned to receive either a control mailing or a treatment mailing. The mailings were identical except that the control mailing included a blank sticky note while the treatment mailing included a sticky note that prompted the recipient to write down the appointment date for a colonoscopy and the name of the doctor who would conduct the procedure. During the seven-month follow-up period, 7.2% of treatment employees received a colonoscopy compared to 6.2% of control employees, a statistically significant difference that is roughly equal to the variation in compliance associated with a 10 percent increase in the fraction of the procedure’s cost covered by insurance. The treatment effect was largest for demographic groups judged to be at the highest risk of failing to receive a colonoscopy due to forgetfulness

The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions

Using a field experiment in a 401(k) plan, we measure the effect of disseminating information about peer behavior on savings. Low-saving employees received simplified plan enrollment or contribution increase forms. A randomized subset of forms stated the fraction of age-matched coworkers participating in the plan or age-matched participants contributing at least 6% of pay to the plan. We document an oppositional reaction: the presence of peer information decreased the savings of nonparticipants who were ineligible for 401(k) automatic enrollment, and higher observed peer savings rates also decreased savings. Discouragement from upward social comparisons seems to drive this reaction

Planning Prompts as a Means of Increasing Preventive Screening Rates

In the U.S., 18,800 lives could be saved annually if those advised to obtain colorectal screenings based on national guidelines complied (Zauber et al., 2012). Subtle suggestions embedded in a decision-making environment can change people\u27s choices (Thaler and Sunstein, 2008). Past research has shown that prompting people to form plans about where and when they will complete an intended behavior increases engagement in activities ranging from voting to vaccination (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006; Milkman et al., 2011; Nickerson and Rogers, 2010). When plans are formed, they link intended behaviors with a concrete future moment and course of action, creating cues that reduce forgetfulness and procrastination. We studied whether planning prompts increase colonoscopy rates