Validation on Social Media and Adolescents: A matter of self esteem

Children today are part of a technologically complex and advanced society. At an early age they learn to cope up with pressures and challenges of the virtual world. Seeking validation or approval is a core component of human nature. During adolescence the need for being liked plays a critical role as it enhances child’s self-confidence. Comparing ourselves with others and the need for being liked has been there since time immemorial. Adolescence is a transitional phase of life as well as crucial phase where changes take place at all levels (Physical, emotional, and psychological). In this phase of rapid growth and development a child needs validation for his social, emotional, and physical developments. Last decade has seen mushrooming of social networking sites. Social networking sites have two salient features: acceptance and interpersonal feedback. A considerable amount of time spent on social media is on seeking validation. Teenagers share pictures, stories, funny videos, articles educational videos, informative blogpost to validate their thought process, viewpoint, opinions, and physical appearance. Social media is playing a pivotal role in shaping their personality and adding to their social emotional learning. This article contributes to the ongoing discourse in the area of social media usage and need for validation for adolescents and its implications on self-esteem. It would be interesting to find out if social networking sites/ social media has become instrumental for enhancing self-esteem and has it aggravated the need for being liked, popular, famous and has social media validation supported social esteem in adolescents

Ozone exposure is associated with acute changes in inflammation, fibrinolysis, and endothelial cell function in coronary artery disease patients

Air pollution is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, of which ozone is a major contributor. Several studies have found associations between ozone and cardiovascular morbidity, but the results have been inconclusive. We investigated associations between ozone and changes across biological pathways associated with cardiovascular disease

Food Consumption and its Impact on Cardiovascular Disease: Importance of Solutions Focused on the Globalized Food System A Report From the Workshop Convened by the World Heart Federation

Major scholars in the field, based on a 3-day consensus, created an in-depth review of current knowledge on the role of diet in CVD, the changing global food system and global dietary patterns, and potential policy solutions. Evidence from different countries, age/race/ethnicity/socioeconomic groups suggest the health effects studies of foods, macronutrients, and dietary patterns on CVD appear to be far more consistent though regional knowledge gaps are highlighted. There are large gaps in knowledge about the association of macronutrients to CVD in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), particularly linked with dietary patterns are reviewed. Our understanding of foods and macronutrients in relationship to CVD is broadly clear; however major gaps exist both in dietary pattern research and ways to change diets and food systems. Based on the current evidence, the traditional Mediterranean-type diet, including plant foods/emphasizing plant protein sources, provides a well-tested healthy dietary pattern to reduce CV

Comparison of smoking-related DNA methylation between newborns from prenatal exposure and adults from personal smoking.

Aim: Cigarette smoking influences DNA methylation genome wide, in newborns from pregnancy exposure and in adults from personal smoking. Whether a unique methylation signature exists for in utero exposure in newborns is unknown. Materials & methods: We separately meta-analyzed newborn blood DNA methylation (assessed using Illumina450k Beadchip), in relation to sustained maternal smoking during pregnancy (9 cohorts, 5648 newborns, 897 exposed) and adult blood methylation and personal smoking (16 cohorts, 15907 participants, 2433 current smokers). Results & conclusion: Comparing meta-analyses, we identified numerous signatures specific to newborns along with many shared between newborns and adults. Unique smoking-associated genes in newborns were enriched in xenobiotic metabolism pathways. Our findings may provide insights into specific health impacts of prenatal exposure on offspring

Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions from Domestic Anaerobic Digesters Linked with Sustainable Sanitation in Rural China

Anaerobic digesters provide clean, renewable energy (biogas) by converting organic waste to methane, and are a key part of China's comprehensive rural energy plan. Here, experimental and modeling results are used to quantify the net greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction from substituting a household anaerobic digester for traditional energy sources in Sichuan, China. Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy and radial plume mapping were used to estimate the mass flux of fugitive methane emissions from active digesters. Using household energy budgets, the net improvement in GHG emissions associated with biogas installation was estimated using global warming commitment ( GWC) as a consolidated measure of the warming effects of GHG emissions from cooking. In all scenarios biogas households had lower GWC than nonbiogas households, by as much as 54%. Even biogas households with methane leakage exhibited lower GWC than nonbiogas households, by as much as 48%. Based only on the averted GHG emissions over 10 years, the monetary value of a biogas installation was conservatively estimated at US$28.30 ($16.07 ton(-1) CO2.eq) , which is available to partly offset construction costs. The interaction of biogas installation programs with policies supporting improved stoves, renewable harvesting of biomass, and energy interventions with substantial health cobenefits are discussed

Sensitivity analysis of infectious disease models: methods, advances and their application.

Sensitivity analysis (SA) can aid in identifying influential model parameters and optimizing model structure, yet infectious disease modelling has yet to adopt advanced SA techniques that are capable of providing considerable insights over traditional methods. We investigate five global SA methods-scatter plots, the Morris and Sobol' methods, Latin hypercube sampling-partial rank correlation coefficient and the sensitivity heat map method-and detail their relative merits and pitfalls when applied to a microparasite (cholera) and macroparasite (schistosomaisis) transmission model. The methods investigated yielded similar results with respect to identifying influential parameters, but offered specific insights that vary by method. The classical methods differed in their ability to provide information on the quantitative relationship between parameters and model output, particularly over time. The heat map approach provides information about the group sensitivity of all model state variables, and the parameter sensitivity spectrum obtained using this method reveals the sensitivity of all state variables to each parameter over the course of the simulation period, especially valuable for expressing the dynamic sensitivity of a microparasite epidemic model to its parameters. A summary comparison is presented to aid infectious disease modellers in selecting appropriate methods, with the goal of improving model performance and design

Multicentric extramedullary myeloid tumor

Granulocytic sarcomas or extramedullary myeloid tumors represent the soft tissue counterpart of acute myeloid leukemia. The term is used for any solid collection of leukemic cells. There have been reports of these tumors occurring before the involvement of blood or bone marrow. Our patient had simultaneous involvement of three sites, which was diagnosed on cytology. Further confirmation was done on peripheral blood and bone marrow evaluation