Cologuard: Stool DNA Testing for Colorectal Cancer Screening

https://digitalcommons.psjhealth.org/other_pubs/1084/thumbnail.jp

Development of Social Exclusion Detection: Behavioral and Physiological Correlates

The present work aimed to directly test the theoretical claims about how we as human detect social exclusion using both physiological and behavioral methods across different life stages. Because feeling excluded from a group is a common human experience that starts in early childhood, this basic human need to belong or connect with others is argued to be universal and thought to have an evolutionary basis. In fact, it has been argued that the ability to detect being excluded may be present from birth and detecting exclusion occurs rapidly with little cognitive processing. Study 1 tested whether this rapid detection of exclusion is reflected in pupil dilation and how discerning this signal is of the social nature of exclusion. Study 2 tested how social exclusion detection emerges across the preschool years using both verbal and nonverbal measures. Findings from Study 1 indicate that greater pupil dilation occurs when viewing exclusive individuals compared to inclusive individuals, regardless of whether participants were excluded by human players or non-human computerized players. Furthermore, pupil dilation occurred even when viewing third-party social exclusion, suggesting pupil dilation was sensitive to even exclusion that participants did not necessarily experience themselves. The magnitude of pupil dilation to exclusion was not correlated to self-reported distress levels or individual differences in rejection sensitivity. The present study is the first to show that social pain response — as indexed by pupil dilation — occurs even in non-social interactions and is not limited to first-hand experiences. This result supports the hypothesized “quick” and “crude” ostracism detection system: physiological arousal to exclusion appears to be independent of the social nature of exclusion. Thus, social pain from exclusion appears to reflect the high sensitivity to detect any instances of exclusion. Findings from Study 2 indicate that that even 3-year-old children could detect social exclusion, but their ability to detect and respond to social exclusion improves with age. Strikingly, children were able to detect social exclusion occurred regardless of whether exclusion was verbally communicated (explicit) or nonverbally communicated (implicit). Furthermore, contrary to expectations from previous research on social cognitive reasoning in infancy, young children’s nonverbal responses (i.e., preferences and sharing behavior) did not necessarily reflect detection of exclusion at an earlier age than their verbal responses. Children’s preferences closely matched their verbal distinction of exclusive and inclusive agents and both preferences and verbal reasoning appeared to mature at a similar rate across development. Such finding suggests that children show remarkably early emerging ability to notice when one is left out. Taken together, the present body of work clarified the physiological component behind ostracism detection and the developmental trajectory of social exclusion detection in early childhood. Findings from this work have important methodological implications for the field of developmental social cognition as well as practical and clinical implications of bullying and atypical social development

Pupillometric Response to Implicit Social Exclusion

Previous research suggests that people are highly sensitive to rejection, and may even display physiological reactions, such as increased pupil dilation, when they are explicitly rejected by others compared to when they are accepted (Silk et al., 2012). To our knowledge, no research to date has investigated pupil dilation in response to implicit social exclusion. To address this gap, we obtained pupillometric values using a Cyberball paradigm, in which 11 participants were either included or indirectly excluded while playing an online ball game. Participants were told before each game that they would be playing with either human players (i.e., other participants in the study) or pre-programmed computer players; in reality, all players were computerized. We found that difference in maximum pupil dilation was significantly larger for exclusion compared to inclusion games after playing with human players, t(10)=2.947, p=.015. However, difference in maximum pupil dilation did not differ between exclusion and inclusion games after playing with computerized players, t(9)=-.087, p=.933. Consistent with extant literature, participants reported lower self-ratings of mood, control, belonging, and self-esteem after exclusion games compared to inclusion games on both human and computerized trials. These findings suggest that pupillometry is a sensitive and useful measure for investigating responses to social exclusion

The Roles of SMC5/6 in Mammalian Germ Cell Genome Maintenance

The SMC5/6 complex is a member of the structural maintenance of chromosome (SMC) family, which includes cohesion and condensin. SMC5/6 has been implicated to have roles homologous recombination, restart of stalled replication forks, maintenance of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and heterochromatin, telomerase-independent telomere elongation, and regulation of chromosome topology in the mitotic cell cycle. From research using yeast and worms, the SMC5/6 complex is required for proficient meiotic recombination and chromosome segregation. However, the details of how the complex accomplishes these meiotic functions are unknown. Furthermore, there is limited information on the genome maintenance role of SMC5/6 in mammals. This thesis focuses on determining how SMC5/6 complex regulates cell cycle progression and DNA repair in mammals. Using conditional mutant mice of Smc5, I explore the molecular function of SMC5/6 during germ cell progression in both sexes. I demonstrate that SMC5/6 is essential for the formation of bivalents that are capable of accurate segregation during meiosis I, and age-related meiotic aberrancies may be directly related to a gradual reduction in SMC5/6 protein levels. On the other hand, I show that SMC5/6 complex is not essential for pre-meiotic DNA replication and meiotic progression during mouse spermatogenesis. However, if DNA processing events are compromised, for example by exogenous sources of DNA damage, the SMC5/6 complex is required to ensure genome integrity. Taken together, this dissertation supports the sexual dimorphic roles of SMC5/6 in mammalian genome maintenance in germ cells

Examining Relational Dynamics in Couples through an Art-Making Experience: A Replication Study

This qualitative research looked at the relational dynamics and attachment styles of research participants through individual and dyadic art-making tasks. This research is a replication study of Snir & Wiseman’s (2010) research on Attachment in Romantic Couples and Perceptions of a Joint Drawing Session. In this particular research, three couples completed a demographic questionnaire, the ECR-S, the DAS, an individual art-making task, and a joint nonverbal drawing task with their partner, followed by a verbal reflection facilitated by researchers. Researchers found patterns suggesting attachment style may be correlated with an individual’s cultural background, relationship satisfaction, past relationship experience, and the dyadic art making process and product. Limitations and considerations were further discussed for future research

Domain model as problem-oriented architecture application for mobile applications

Domain modeling is an activity that develops a generic model of a family of systems. It has been considered as one of the significant activities in systematic reuse. Frameworks can be used for allowing the design layers, permitting the construction of an intricate structures and reusing development information. In this paper, we will discuss the domain modeling supporting tool that extracts candidate domain model objects to construct frameworks from domain descriptions in a typical text form

Development of smart talking plant with voice recognition function

Plants can tell us what is affecting them with the electrical signals they emit with the help of (Internet of things) IoT.In such ways that is your plant thriving under current light levels? Is your plant thirsty? Or even satisfy with your care? The goal this project is to encourage a happy relationship between plants and people as a lot of people are afraid of plants. Not they are not green handed. The idea of taking good care is a responsibility. This makes it possible for them to have a plant in their lives. As Arduino came into the picture in bringing a better solution for plant care, we proposed an ideal smart plant based on an existing system that will add more features to it to make an all in one architecture. We also presented some useful projects related to this for comparison and future references