Factors Influencing Perceptual Distance

Previous research shows that social biases, such as pro-White racial bias, can influence a person\u27s decisions and behaviors (Correll et al. 2007; Mekawi & Bresin, 2015). Studies also suggest that social biases may influence basic functions like visual perception (Cesario & Navarrete, 2014); however, few studies have examined the relationship between visual perceptions and threat (Cesario, Placks, Hagiwara, Navarrete, & Higgins, 2010; Todd, Thiem, & Neel, 2016). The current research aims to investigate whether implicit pro-White preference can influence basic functions like visual perception. A secondary aim of this study is to examine the role of threat in this relationship. To test, White male and female participants (N= 29) were asked to complete distance estimates to either a Black or White male experimenter. It was hypothesized that participants would judge the distance to the Black confederate as closer compared to those who estimate the distance to a White confederate. The results marginally supported the idea that participants’ distance judgements were influenced by the experimenter’s race, such that the Black experimenter was viewed as closer when compared to the White experimenter. However, results showed that implicit racial attitudes did not influence distance estimations, but explicit bias did. Fully powered follow-up studies will be conducted to further examine these hypotheses and investigate whether a type one error was present

The Moderating Role of Body Appreciation on Ethnic Identity and Condom Use Intentions

The Moderating Role of Body Appreciation on Ethnic Identity and Condom Use Intentions Breanna Jones, Depts. of Psychology and Sociology, Noelle Manfredi, and Calvin Hall, Dept. of Psychology Graduate Student, with Dr. Kristina Hood, Dept. of Psychology Scholars have long explored the influence of ethnic identity affirmation, or feelings of belonging to one’s ethnic group (Phinney, 1990), on sexual health outcomes (e.g., condom use intentions; Beadnell et al., 2003). Higher ethnic identity safeguards against risky sexual behaviors (Townsend et al., 2010), such that those with higher ethnic identity affirmation reported less risky sexual behaviors. However, limited research has explored how personal factors, such as positive body image (i.e., body appreciation), may influence the relationship between ethnic identity and sexual risk behaviors. Previous research found that women with higher body appreciation tend to report greater condom use self-efficacy (Grower & Ward, 2018). Furthermore, findings suggest that body appreciation and ethnic identity affirmation are positively associated (Cotter et al., 2013), such that those with higher body appreciation reported greater ethnic identity affirmation. However, body appreciation, ethnic identity affirmation, and condom use intentions have not been studied together. Responsively, the current study aimed to examine the role of body appreciation on the relationship between ethnic identity affirmation and future condom use intentions in a sample of Black and Latinx women. This study was guided by the theory of plan behavior (Ajzen, 1985; Townsend et al., 2006)), which asserts that one’s behavioral intentions (e.g., condom use intentions) are tied to social norms and their attitudes about themselves and others. We hypothesized that body appreciation would moderate the link between ethnic identity affirmation and future condom use intentions. The current sample consisted of 148 heterosexual Black (n= 81) and Latinx women (n= 67), ages 18 to 60 (M= 30.78, SD= 7.65), who were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. The Hayes PROCESS (2017) regression-based tool was used to examine whether body appreciation moderated the relationship between ethnic identity affirmation and future condom use intentions after controlling for age and relationship status. Results suggest an interaction between ethnic identity affirmation and body appreciation on future condom use intentions, B(SE)= -.11(0.06), ΔR2= .02, p= 0.05. To interpret the statistically significant moderation effect, Hayes’s (2017) PROCESS v.3 Johnson-Neyman analysis was used. For Black and Latinx women with lower body appreciation, ethnic identity affirmation did not influence condom use scores, b(SE)= -7.20 (.05), 95% CI[-.17, 0.28], p= 0.16. However, for Black and Latinx women with higher body appreciation, those with lower ethnic identity affirmation had greater condom use intentions than those with higher ethnic identity affirmation, b(SE)= 0.84(.90) 95% CI[-.40, -0.52], p= 0.01. That is, among participants who appreciate their bodies, those who felt less belonging to their ethnic group endorsed greater intentions to use condoms in the future compared to those who felt greater belonging to their ethnic group. Findings suggest that, the influence of body appreciation differs based on one’s level of ethnic identity affirmation, which is counterintuitive to literature suggesting that low ethnic identity is associated with worse sexual health outcomes (e.g., Espinosa-Hernandez & Lefkowitz, 2009). For that reason, more research is needed to replicate the current findings.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1316/thumbnail.jp

A Phenomenological Study of Nonbinary Resilience and Mental Health

Nonbinary individuals, or those who do not exclusively identify with a male or female gender, have gained increasing recognition and representation within the past ten years. Despite these steps forward, nonbinary individuals still experience higher rates of sexual assault, police brutality/harassment, job-related discrimination, and erasure when compared to binary transgender individuals, or gender-diverse individuals who exclusively identify as male or female. These disparities in violence, discriminatory practices, and erasure have been linked to exceptionally high rates of depression and anxiety in nonbinary people within the U.S. Thus, efforts to improve nonbinary mental health are critically needed. Previous research finds that resilience factors, or those which alleviate the effects of stressors, positively influence mental health outcomes (i.e., depression and anxiety) in binary transgender participants. However, there currently is a dearth of research findings and normed models of resilience for this population. Thus, the current inquiry uses a transcendental phenomenological method to examine experiences of resiliency in practice in response to depression and anxiety in nonbinary people within the U.S. Findings revealed that nonbinary people use a variety of useful resilience tools (i.e., community, distraction, therapy, and therapeutic techniques) to combat symptoms of depression and anxiety. Themes also emerged related to the conditions by which these tactics are used (i.e., work/school, interpersonal stress, the current pandemics, identity). While the current research is supported by previous findings on resilience in gender diverse individuals, this study is both novel in its examination of study outcomes in a sample entirely comprised of nonbinary individuals and its intersectional approach. In line with these findings, the present study has the potential to first address a significant gap in the psychological literature on this group. Secondly, these findings can be used to inform future qualitative and quantitative research, clinical practice, and both employment and education-related policy work. Lastly, and most importantly, the current research identifies that nonbinary individuals are a unique, multi-faceted, resilient community who should be celebrated as such

Rapid compensatory evolution promotes the survival of conjugative plasmids

Conjugative plasmids play a vital role in bacterial adaptation through horizontal gene transfer. Explaining how plasmids persist in host populations however is difficult, given the high costs often associated with plasmid carriage. Compensatory evolution to ameliorate this cost can rescue plasmids from extinction. In a recently published study we showed that compensatory evolution repeatedly targeted the same bacterial regulatory system, GacA/GacS, in populations of plasmid-carrying bacteria evolving across a range of selective environments. Mutations in these genes arose rapidly and completely eliminated the cost of plasmid carriage. Here we extend our analysis using an individual based model to explore the dynamics of compensatory evolution in this system. We show that mutations which ameliorate the cost of plasmid carriage can prevent both the loss of plasmids from the population and the fixation of accessory traits on the bacterial chromosome. We discuss how dependent the outcome of compensatory evolution is on the strength and availability of such mutations and the rate at which beneficial accessory traits integrate on the host chromosome

Radiolysis of water ice in the outer solar system: Sputtering and trapping of radiation products

We performed quantitative laboratory radiolysis experiments on cubic water ice between 40 and 120 K, with 200 keV protons. We measured sputtering of atoms and molecules and the trapping of radiolytic molecular species. The experiments were done at fluences corresponding to exposure of the surface of the Jovian icy satellites to their radiation environment up to thousands of years. During irradiation, O2 molecules are ejected from the ice at a rate that grows roughly exponentially with temperature; this behavior is the main reason for the temperature dependence of the total sputtering yield. O2 trapped in the ice is thermally released from the ice upon warming; the desorbed flux starts at the irradiation temperature and increases strongly above 120 K. Several peaks in the desorption spectrum, which depend on irradiation temperature, point to a complex distribution of trapping sites in the ice matrix. The yield of O2 produced by the 200 keV protons and trapped in the ice is more than 2 orders of magnitude smaller than used in recent models of Ganymede. We also found small amounts of trapped H2O2 that desorb readily above 160 K.Fil: Bahr, D.A.. University of Virginia; Estados UnidosFil: Famá, M.. University of Virginia; Estados UnidosFil: Vidal, Ricardo Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; ArgentinaFil: Baragiola, Raul Antonio. University of Virginia; Estados Unido

Investigating the impact of remote neuroanatomy education during the COVID-19 pandemic using online examination performance in a National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition

Neuroanatomy is a notoriously challenging subject for medical students to learn. Due to the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, anatomical education transitioned to an online format. We assessed student performance in, and attitudes toward, an online neuroanatomy assessment compared to an in-person equivalent, as a marker of the efficacy of remote neuroanatomy education. Participants in the National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition (NUNC) 2021 undertook two online examinations: a neuroanatomically themed multiple-choice question paper and anatomy spotter. Students completed pre- and post-examination questionnaires to gauge their attitudes toward the online competition and prior experience of online anatomical teaching/assessment. To evaluate performance, we compared scores of students who sat the online (2021) and in-person (2017) examinations, using 12 identical neuroradiology questions present in both years. Forty-six percent of NUNC 2021 participants had taken an online anatomy examination in the previous 12?months, but this did not impact examination performance significantly (p?>?0.05). There was no significant difference in examination scores between in-person and online examinations using the 12 neuroradiology questions (p?=?0.69). Fifty percent of participants found the online format less enjoyable, with 63% citing significantly fewer networking opportunities. The online competition was less stressful for 55% of participants. This study provides some evidence to suggest that student performance is not affected when undertaking online examinations and proposes that online neuroanatomy teaching methods, particularly for neuroradiology, may be equally as effective as in-person approaches within this context. Participants perceived online examinations as less stressful but raised concerns surrounding the networking potential and enjoyment of online events.Peer reviewe

Reducing the need for foodbanks in County Durham

In recent years, foodbanks have become an increasingly common part of the voluntary sector landscape throughout the UK. It is estimated that there are over 2800 foodbanks in the UK at the current time, with the number of people using them steadily and, in some cases rapidly, increasing. The recent ‘cost-of-living crisis’ has seen more and more people needing to access emergency food support. It is estimated that 3% of all people in the UK have accessed a foodbank in the last 12 months (Frances-Devine, 2024).As a result of the increase in foodbanks and foodbank usage, there has been more and more interest in them from politicians, policymakers, and researchers. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) began publishing data on foodbank usage in 2023 because of the increasing numbers. There is an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ending the Need for Food Banks, established in 2020. The Trussell Trust, the largest provider of foodbanks in theUK, opened its first foodbank in 2000, and distributed emergency food parcels from 1699 locations across the UK in 2023/24 (Frances-Devine, 2024). A quick search of an academic database suggests that there have been over 150 publications on foodbanks in the UK over the last 12 years.Durham Christian Partnership (DCP) work with the Trussell Trust to provide support for people experiencing food insecurity in the county. Following discussions with researchers in the Centre for Social Justice and Community Action (CSJCA) at Durham University, it was agreed to try and look at specific actions that could be taken locally to reduce the demand for foodbanks in County Durham. Members of the DCP Wellbeing Hub at Chester-le-Street got involved with the project, and worked together with DCP and the CSJCA, to develop and design a research project to seek the views of key professionals in County Durham. Three focus groups were held with workers involved in a range of policy areas to explore work that they were currently involved with, and barriers and challenges to extending or improving that work.This short report is the outcome of that project. We would like to thank everyone who participated in the focus groups and who has contributed to the research in other ways. We have chosen not to include the names of people who attended the focus groups to ensure confidentiality and anonymity, and because we did not want to run the risk of missing somebody

Investigating the impact of remote neuroanatomy education during the COVID‐19 pandemic using online examination performance in a National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition

Neuroanatomy is a notoriously challenging subject for medical students to learn. Due to the coronavirus disease‐19 (COVID‐19) pandemic, anatomical education transitioned to an online format. We assessed student performance in, and attitudes toward, an online neuroanatomy assessment compared to an in‐person equivalent, as a marker of the efficacy of remote neuroanatomy education. Participants in the National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition (NUNC) 2021 undertook two online examinations: a neuroanatomically themed multiple‐choice question paper and anatomy spotter. Students completed pre‐ and post‐examination questionnaires to gauge their attitudes toward the online competition and prior experience of online anatomical teaching/assessment. To evaluate performance, we compared scores of students who sat the online (2021) and in‐person (2017) examinations, using 12 identical neuroradiology questions present in both years. Forty‐six percent of NUNC 2021 participants had taken an online anatomy examination in the previous 12 months, but this did not impact examination performance significantly (p = 0.05). There was no significant difference in examination scores between in‐person and online examinations using the 12 neuroradiology questions (p = 0.69). Fifty percent of participants found the online format less enjoyable, with 63% citing significantly fewer networking opportunities. The online competition was less stressful for 55% of participants. This study provides some evidence to suggest that student performance is not affected when undertaking online examinations and proposes that online neuroanatomy teaching methods, particularly for neuroradiology, may be equally as effective as in‐person approaches within this context. Participants perceived online examinations as less stressful but raised concerns surrounding the networking potential and enjoyment of online events