The Social Media Bubble: An Examination of Social Media User Motivations and Their Implications for Future Users and Communication Technologies

This research project focuses on examining social media user motivations and their impact on future users. Analysis of previous communication technologies is included in this paper to show how human behavior has changed in the past century. A survey was conducted among current communication students to study social media behaviors and to help new developments for social media. Populations of social media users, such as small businesses and students, were also looked at to determine the strength of their social media presences. A website, TheSocialMediaBubble.com, was developed to accompany this project to provide free tips, advice and research to small businesses, students, and educators. The SocialMediaBubble.com was designed as resource to advance the ideas of how social media is evolving and affecting other technology advancements

Preventing and countering CSE in SE Kent school-based peer mentorship schemes

This report describes a range of routes through which CSE could be tackled within a school setting. CSE is closely linked to deficits in social, economic and psychological capital as suggested by research exploring adverse childhood experiences. It follows that a preventative response to CSE needs to be varied and flexible, encompassing a multitude of agencies, areas, treatment and delivery to address interrelated effects. In practice, this means ensuring that CSE is tackled not just by a stand-alone initiative such as a peer mentoring scheme but through a wider body of work which starts early in a young person’s life, is sustained and incorporates other points of contact such as PSHE, pastoral and other school services. The important role for young people in tackling CSE is a thread that ran through our scoping. Young people are undeniably experts in their own preferences and what will engage and motivate them and their peers and, with appropriate support and guidance, they can become intrinsic to a successful initiative. It should be emphasised however, that young mentors require a support structure around them which should comprise robust initial and ongoing training, access to expert advice and regular opportunities for debriefs with trained adults

Changing Needs of Individuals with Disabilities in the Time of COVID-19 as Observed by a Family Navigation Program in Miami, FL

The Family Navigator Program (FNP) is designed to help families navigate the complex system of services available to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), chronic health conditions, mental health issues, and other special health care needs. Based at the Mailman Center for Child Development at the University of Miami, the FNP is free and available to all families in South Florida. Most families enrolled in the FNP are receiving medical services from a university clinic; however, the program also accepts referrals from outside agencies and self-referrals. The aim of this study was to investigate the needs of families enrolled in the FNP before and after March 2020, when stay-at-home orders were put in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic. One hundred forty-five families enrolled in the FNP between November 2019 and mid-March 2020 were selected as a pre-COVID sample to be compared with 197 families enrolled from mid-March to September 2020. Families were deidentified, and data on demographics and specific needs were extracted. Demographics included race and ethnicity, language, age group, zip code, and disability or medical condition. Specific needs were defined as (1) topics on which families required education and (2) resources to which families were referred. There were no statistically significant differences in demographics before and after March 2020. There was a significant increase in referrals to financial resources during COVID (OR= 3.019, 95% CI [1.445-6.308]). There were also significant changes in the number of families provided with education on the following: increases in federal and state programs (OR = 2.156, 95% CI [1.306-3.560]) and other miscellaneous topics (1.902, 95% CI [1.081-3.348]); and decreases in school systems (OR=0.531 CI, 95% [0.328-0.858]) and therapies (CI, 95% [0.345-0.825]). These differences likely reflect the economic and social toll that the pandemic has taken on families caring for individuals with IDD and special health care needs in South Florida. Families’ priorities shifted from school and therapy to economic needs. The FNP adjusted by administering services by telephone or online, rather than by in-person meetings. These data provide a snapshot of how the needs of families changed during COVID-19 in one diverse, urban community

Neighborhoods of trees in circular orderings

In phylogenetics, a common strategy used to construct an evolutionary tree for a set of species X is to search in the space of all such trees for one that optimizes some given score function (such as the minimum evolution, parsimony or likelihood score). As this can be computationally intensive, it was recently proposed to restrict such searches to the set of all those trees that are compatible with some circular ordering of the set X. To inform the design of efficient algorithms to perform such searches, it is therefore of interest to find bounds for the number of trees compatible with a fixed ordering in the neighborhood of a tree that is determined by certain tree operations commonly used to search for trees: the nearest neighbor interchange (nni), the subtree prune and regraft (spr) and the tree bisection and reconnection (tbr) operations. We show that the size of such a neighborhood of a binary tree associated with the nni operation is independent of the tree’s topology, but that this is not the case for the spr and tbr operations. We also give tight upper and lower bounds for the size of the neighborhood of a binary tree for the spr and tbr operations and characterize those trees for which these bounds are attained

Mapping the Learning Pathways of Larval Zebrafish through Positively Stimulating Their Reward Pathways Using Paramecium

Zebrafish rely on visual acuity to hunt for prey all of their lives, for this reason, their eyesight develops when they are embryos. The zebrafish in this experiment are between 5 and 20 days old. Once their egg yolks are completely reabsorbed the zebrafish have a need to eat, and only then will they have an interest in eating Paramecium. The zebrafishes’ eyes will be able to see clearly by 5 days post fertilization as well, so when food is introduced to them, a certain colored light will be simultaneously shined in the same direction as the one the food is coming from. The purpose of this experiment is to use different colored visual cues to train larval zebrafish into expecting food whenever they are shone. The usage of lights also tests their extraordinary visual abilities. Red lights will be associated with a food reward in one group of larvae, and in the second group, green lights will be associated with a food reward, demonstrating associative learning. The zebrafishes’ unconditioned response (eating Paramecium when they appear) will be trained into a conditioned response (looking to eat Paramecium when the light is shined). After they have been conditioned to respond to these signals, the zebrafishes’ brains will be studied to find changes in their neural pathways. The expected results of this experiment should lead to the fish thinking Paramecium are coming at just the glimpse of a light

The Sec1/Munc18 protein Vps45 regulates cellular levels of its SNARE binding partners Tlg2 and Snc2 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Intracellular membrane trafficking pathways must be tightly regulated to ensure proper functioning of all eukaryotic cells. Central to membrane trafficking is the formation of specific SNARE (soluble N-ethylmeleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor) complexes between proteins on opposing lipid bilayers. The Sec1/Munc18 (SM) family of proteins play an essential role in SNARE-mediated membrane fusion, and like the SNAREs are conserved through evolution from yeast to humans. The SM protein Vps45 is required for the formation of yeast endosomal SNARE complexes and is thus essential for traffic through the endosomal system. Here we report that, in addition to its role in regulating SNARE complex assembly, Vps45 regulates cellular levels of its SNARE binding partners: the syntaxin Tlg2 and the v-SNARE Snc2: Cells lacking Vps45 have reduced cellular levels of Tlg2 and Snc2; and elevation of Vps45 levels results in concomitant increases in the levels of both Tlg2 and Snc2. As well as regulating traffic through the endosomal system, the Snc v-SNAREs are also required for exocytosis. Unlike most vps mutants, cells lacking Vps45 display multiple growth phenotypes. Here we report that these can be reversed by selectively restoring Snc2 levels in vps45 mutant cells. Our data indicate that as well as functioning as part of the machinery that controls SNARE complex assembly, Vps45 also plays a key role in determining the levels of its cognate SNARE proteins; another key factor in regulation of membrane traffic

The genetic contribution of single male immigrants to small, inbred populations: A laboratory study using drosophila melanogaster

This study examined the genetic contribution of single male immigrants to small, inbred laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetic contribution was assessed by measuring the relative frequency of immigrant marker alleles in the first and second generations after immigration, while controlling for any selection effects at the marker locus, and for the experience of male immigrants. When immigrants were outbred, the mean frequency of the immigrant allele was significantly higher than its initial frequency, in both the first and second generations after immigration. There was no significant change in allele frequency for populations receiving inbred immigrants. The increase in allele frequency for outbred immigrants was attributed to an initial outbred vigour fitness advantage of immigrant males over resident males experiencing inbreeding depression. Hybrid vigour of immigrant progeny and the rare-male effect did not have a statistically significant role in the fitness advantage of the immigrant allele. The results suggest that inbreeding may have a considerable impact on the contribution of immigrants to the genetic diversity of populations

A fresh look at the evolution and diversification of photochemical reaction centers

In this review, I reexamine the origin and diversification of photochemical reaction centers based on the known phylogenetic relations of the core subunits, and with the aid of sequence and structural alignments. I show, for example, that the protein folds at the C-terminus of the D1 and D2 subunits of Photosystem II, which are essential for the coordination of the water-oxidizing complex, were already in place in the most ancestral Type II reaction center subunit. I then evaluate the evolution of reaction centers in the context of the rise and expansion of the different groups of bacteria based on recent large-scale phylogenetic analyses. I find that the Heliobacteriaceae family of Firmicutes appears to be the earliest branching of the known groups of phototrophic bacteria; however, the origin of photochemical reaction centers and chlorophyll synthesis cannot be placed in this group. Moreover, it becomes evident that the Acidobacteria and the Proteobacteria shared a more recent common phototrophic ancestor, and this is also likely for the Chloroflexi and the Cyanobacteria. Finally, I argue that the discrepancies among the phylogenies of the reaction center proteins, chlorophyll synthesis enzymes, and the species tree of bacteria are best explained if both types of photochemical reaction centers evolved before the diversification of the known phyla of phototrophic bacteria. The primordial phototrophic ancestor must have had both Type I and Type II reaction centers

Re-examination of the Controversial Coexistence of Traumatic Brain Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Misdiagnosis and Self-Report Measures

The coexistence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains a controversial issue in the literature. To address this controversy, we focused primarily on the civilian-related literature of TBI and PTSD. Some investigators have argued that individuals who had been rendered unconscious or suffered amnesia due to a TBI are unable to develop PTSD because they would be unable to consciously experience the symptoms of fear, helplessness, and horror associated with the development of PTSD. Other investigators have reported that individuals who sustain TBI, regardless of its severity, can develop PTSD even in the context of prolonged unconsciousness. A careful review of the methodologies employed in these studies reveals that investigators who relied on clinical interviews of TBI patients to diagnose PTSD found little or no evidence of PTSD. In contrast, investigators who relied on PTSD questionnaires to diagnose PTSD found considerable evidence of PTSD. Further analysis revealed that many of the TBI patients who were initially diagnosed with PTSD according to self-report questionnaires did not meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD upon completion of a clinical interview. In particular, patients with severe TBI were often misdiagnosed with PTSD. A number of investigators found that many of the severe TBI patients failed to follow the questionnaire instructions and erroneously endorsed PTSD symptoms because of their cognitive difficulties. Because PTSD questionnaires are not designed to discriminate between PTSD and TBI symptoms or determine whether a patient's responses are accurate or exaggerated, studies that rely on self-report questionnaires to evaluate PTSD in TBI patients are at risk of misdiagnosing PTSD. Further research should evaluate the degree to which misdiagnosis of PTSD occurs in individuals who have sustained mild TBI