DETERMINING THE BEST PRACTICES TO ENHANCE THE SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE AND INCREASE REVENUE FOR FAMILY CARE NETWORK, INC.

Research was conducted to determine the best practices for using social media to encourage target audiences to engage with the nonprofit Family Care Network, Inc. (FCNI). The agency had not been successful in this endeavor and wanted community members to interact with it via its social media platforms, with the end goal of increasing donations and volunteers. FCNI’s fundraiser Miracle Miles for Kids 2012 (MM4K) was the focus of this study as it was determined by the agency to be the best avenue for a social media campaign to increase financial resources. Academic papers among other sources were studied to determine specific best practices that have been successful. This study concluded that FCNI should implement a Facebook campaign aimed to showing multimedia content to MM4K participants to encourage increased donations, as well as create user-submitted contests to increase participant enthusiasm for the event. These practices would likely generate the results desired by FCNI as well as serve as a model for future events

Kinosternon integrum

Number of Pages: 6Integrative BiologyGeological Science

A search for starlight reflected from HD 75289 b

We have used a doppler tomographic analysis to conduct a deep search for the starlight reflected from the planetary companion to HD 75289. In 4 nights on VLT2/UVES in January 2003, we obtained 684 high resolution echelle spectra with a total integration time of 26 hours. We establish an upper limit on the planet's geometric albedo p < 0.12 (to the 99.9% significance level) at the most probable orbital inclination i ~ 60 degrees, assuming a grey albedo, a Venus-like phase function and a planetary radius R_p = 1.6 R_Jup. We are able to rule out some combinations of the predicted planetary radius and atmospheric albedo models with high, reflective cloud decks.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS accepted 12 Oct 200

Inflammation and resolution in exercise-induced skeletal muscle injury: The effect of NSAID treatment on pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory/pro-resolving lipid mediators.

Current approaches in the treatment of exercise-induced muscle injury rely on the inhibition of pro-inflammatory pathways to alleviate cardinal signs of inflammation; redness, swelling, heat and pain. However, recent research suggests that the cellular events which occur early in acute inflammation engage an active and coordinated inflammatory resolution program characterised by a switch from pro-inflammatory mediators to production of active pro-resolution factors that govern the withdrawal of inflammation whilst facilitating tissue healing. This led to the identification of novel classes of anti-inflammatory/pro-resolving lipid mediators, including the lipoxins (LX), resolvins (Rv), and protectins (P), which may provide new targets in the treatment of inflammation. METHODS: Sixteen untrained male subjects (age 23±0.7yr, mass 88±3.1kg) were assigned to a placebo (PLA) (n=8) or ibuprofen (IBU) (n=8) group. Subjects completed a single bout of resistance exercise consisting of 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions of a squat, leg press and leg extensions at 80% 1RM. Intravenous blood samples were obtained at rest, at 30 min intervals between 0 and 3 h and again at 24 h post exercise. The IBU group orally consumed 400mg of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) ibuprofen pre-exercise, and again at 5 and 10 h post exercise (1200 mg/day). Serum lipid mediator profiles were analysed via LC-MS targeted lipidomics. RESULTS: Acute exercise increased serum levels of pro-inflammatory eicosanoid species derived from both the COX-1 and 2 (prostaglandins: e.g. PGF2α, PGE2, PGD2, TXB2) and 5-LOX (leukotrienes: e.g. LTB4, LTB5) pathways. Additionally, heightened circulating levels of novel pro-resolving lipid mediators derived from arachidonic acid (LXA4 and LXB4), EPA (RvE1) and DHA (RvD1 andPD1 isomer) were detected post-exercise. Both the pro-inflammatory COX-1 & 2/5-LOX responses, as well as pro-resolving lipid mediator biosynthesis were blunted by the administration of the COX-1 and 2 inhibiting NSAID ibuprofen. CONCLUSION: Pro-inflammatory eicosanoids as well as novel pro-resolving bioactive lipid mediators are acutely up regulated following unaccustomed resistance exercise; a response which is diminished by IBU treatment. We hypothesize that the active resolution of exercise-induced inflammation may be important in effective post-exercise recovery and that a shift from anti-inflammatory interventions towards those which promote active resolution may hasten natural withdrawal of inflammation whilst facilitating the successful repair and regeneration of damaged muscle tissue

Acute Resistance Exercise Induces Sestrin2 Phosphorylation and p62 Dephosphorylation in Human Skeletal Muscle

Sestrins (1, 2, 3) are a family of stress-inducible proteins capable of attenuating oxidative stress, regulating metabolism, and stimulating autophagy. Sequestosome1 (p62) is also a stress-inducible multifunctional protein acting as a signaling hub for oxidative stress and selective autophagy. It is unclear whether Sestrin and p62Ser403 are regulated acutely or chronically by resistance exercise (RE) or training (RT) in human skeletal muscle. Therefore, the acute and chronic effects of RE on Sestrin and p62 in human skeletal muscle were examined through two studies. In Study 1, nine active men (22.1 ± 2.2 years) performed a bout of single-leg strength exercises and muscle biopsies were collected before, 2, 24, and 48 h after exercise. In Study 2, 10 active men (21.3 ± 1.9 years) strength trained for 12 weeks (2 days per week) and biopsies were collected pre- and post-training. Acutely, 2 h postexercise, phosphorylation of p62Ser403 was downregulated, while there was a mobility shift of Sestrin2, indicative of increased phosphorylation. Forty-eight hours postexercise, the protein expression of both Sestrin1 and total p62 increased. Chronic exercise had no impact on the gene or protein expression of Sestrin2/3 or p62, but Sestrin1 protein was upregulated. These findings demonstrated an inverse relationship between Sestrin2 and p62 phosphorylation after a single bout of RE, indicating they are transiently regulated. Contrarily, 12 weeks of RT increased protein expression of Sestrin1, suggesting that despite the strong sequence homology of the Sestrin family, they are differentially regulated in response to acute RE and chronic RT

Disagreeable Privacy Policies: Mismatches between Meaning and Users’ Understanding

Privacy policies are verbose, difficult to understand, take too long to read, and may be the least-read items on most websites even as users express growing concerns about information collection practices. For all their faults, though, privacy policies remain the single most important source of information for users to attempt to learn how companies collect, use, and share data. Likewise, these policies form the basis for the self-regulatory notice and choice framework that is designed and promoted as a replacement for regulation. The underlying value and legitimacy of notice and choice depends, however, on the ability of users to understand privacy policies. This paper investigates the differences in interpretation among expert, knowledgeable, and typical users and explores whether those groups can understand the practices described in privacy policies at a level sufficient to support rational decision-making. The paper seeks to fill an important gap in the understanding of privacy policies through primary research on user interpretation and to inform the development of technologies combining natural language processing, machine learning and crowdsourcing for policy interpretation and summarization. For this research, we recruited a group of law and public policy graduate students at Fordham University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Pittsburgh (“knowledgeable users”) and presented these law and policy researchers with a set of privacy policies from companies in the e-commerce and news & entertainment industries. We asked them nine basic questions about the policies’ statements regarding data collection, data use, and retention. We then presented the same set of policies to a group of privacy experts and to a group of non-expert users. The findings show areas of common understanding across all groups for certain data collection and deletion practices, but also demonstrate very important discrepancies in the interpretation of privacy policy language, particularly with respect to data sharing. The discordant interpretations arose both within groups and between the experts and the two other groups. The presence of these significant discrepancies has critical implications. First, the common understandings of some attributes of described data practices mean that semi-automated extraction of meaning from website privacy policies may be able to assist typical users and improve the effectiveness of notice by conveying the true meaning to users. However, the disagreements among experts and disagreement between experts and the other groups reflect that ambiguous wording in typical privacy policies undermines the ability of privacy policies to effectively convey notice of data practices to the general public. The results of this research will, consequently, have significant policy implications for the construction of the notice and choice framework and for the US reliance on this approach. The gap in interpretation indicates that privacy policies may be misleading the general public and that those policies could be considered legally unfair and deceptive. And, where websites are not effectively conveying privacy policies to consumers in a way that a “reasonable person” could, in fact, understand the policies, “notice and choice” fails as a framework. Such a failure has broad international implications since websites extend their reach beyond the United States

Calibrating Water Depths of Ordovician Communities: Lithological and Ecological Controls on Depositional Gradients in Upper Ordovician Strata of Southern Ohio and North-Central Kentucky, USA

Limestone and shale facies of the Upper Ordovician Grant Lake Formation (Katian: Cincinnatian, Maysvillian) are well exposed in the Cincinnati Arch region of southern Ohio and north-central Kentucky, USA. These rocks record a gradual change in lithofacies and biofacies along a gently northward-sloping ramp. This gradient spans very shallow, olive-gray, platy, laminated dolostones with sparse ostracodes in the south to offshore, nodular, phosphatic, brachiopod-rich limestones and marls in the north. This study uses facies analysis in outcrop to determine paleoenvironmental parameters, particularly those related to water depth (e.g., position of the photic zone and shoreline, relative degree of environmental energy). Within a tightly correlated stratigraphic interval (the Mount Auburn and Straight Creek members of the Grant Lake Formation and the Terrill Member of the Ashlock Formation), we document the occurrence of paleoenvironmental indicators, including desiccation cracks and light-depth indicators, such as red and green algal fossils and oncolites. This permitted recognition of a ramp with an average gradient of 10.20 cm water depth per horizontal kilometer. Thus, shallow subtidal (.lagoonal.) deposits in the upramp portion fall within the 1.5.6 m depth range, cross-bedded grainstones representing shoal-type environments fall within the 6.18 m depth range and subtidal, shell-rich deposits in the downramp portion fall within the 20.30 m depth range. These estimates match interpretations of depth independently derived from faunal and sedimentologic evidence that previously suggested a gentle ramp gradient and contribute to ongoing and future high-resolution paleontologic and stratigraphic studies of the Cincinnati Arch region

A new upper limit on the reflected starlight from Tau Bootis b

Using improved doppler tomographic signal-analysis techniques we have carried out a deep search for starlight reflected from the giant planet orbiting the star Tau Bootis. We combined echelle spectra secured at the 4.2 m William Herschel telescope in 1998 and 1999 (which yielded a tentative detection of a reflected starlight component from the orbiting companion) with new data obtained in 2000 (which failed to confirm the detection). The combined dataset comprises 893 high resolution spectra with a total integration time of 75 hr 32 min spanning 17 nights. We establish an upper limit on the planet's geometric albedo p<0.39 (at the 99.9 % significance level) at the most probable orbital inclination i=36 degrees, assuming a grey albedo, a Venus-like phase function and a planetary radius R_p=1.2 R_Jup. We are able to rule out some combinations of the predicted planetary radius and atmospheric albedo models with high, reflective cloud decks. Although a weak candidate signal appears near to the most probable radial velocity amplitude, its statistical significance is insufficient for us to claim a detection with any confidence.Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures, MNRAS accepted 12 June 200

Intramuscular inflammatory and resolving lipid profile responses to an acute bout of resistance exercise in men

Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society. Lipid mediators including classical arachidonic acid-derived eicosanoids (e.g. prostaglandins and leukotrienes) and more recently identified specialized pro-resolving-mediator metabolites of the omega-3 fatty acids play essential roles in initiation, self-limitation, and active resolution of acute inflammatory responses. In this study, we examined the bioactive lipid mediator profile of human skeletal muscle at rest and following acute resistance exercise. Twelve male subjects completed a single bout of maximal isokinetic unilateral knee extension exercise and muscle biopsies were taken from the m.vastus lateralis before and at 2, 4, and 24&nbsp;h of recovery. Muscle tissue lipid mediator profile was analyzed via liquid chromatography&ndash;mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based targeted lipidomics. At 2&nbsp;h postexercise, there was an increased intramuscular abundance of cyclooxygenase (COX)-derived thromboxanes (TXB2: 3.33 fold) and prostaglandins (PGE2: 2.52 fold and PGF2&alpha;: 1.77 fold). Resistance exercise also transiently increased muscle concentrations of lipoxygenase (LOX) pathway-derived leukotrienes (12-Oxo LTB4: 1.49 fold and 20-COOH LTB4: 2.91 fold), monohydroxy-eicosatetraenoic acids (5-HETE: 2.66 fold, 12-HETE: 2.83 fold, and 15-HETE: 1.69 fold) and monohydroxy-docosahexaenoic acids (4-HDoHE: 1.69 fold, 7-HDoHE: 1.58 fold and 14-HDoHE: 2.35 fold). Furthermore, the abundance of CYP pathway-derived epoxy- and dihydroxy-eicosatrienoic acids was increased in 2&nbsp;h postexercise biopsies (5,6-EpETrE: 2.48 fold, 11,12-DiHETrE: 1.66 fold and 14,15-DiHETrE: 2.23 fold). These data reveal a range of bioactive lipid mediators as present within human skeletal muscle tissue and demonstrate that acute resistance exercise transiently stimulates the local production of both proinflammatory eicosanoids and pathway markers in specialized proresolving mediator biosynthesis circuits