From Self-Help to Self-Harm: Rhetoric in the Self-Help Industry

Over the past several years, the self-help industry has become increasingly more successful and sought out; especially in the United States, whose modern society celebrates individualism and self-improvement. However, within this new and unregulated field lie several unknowns and invisible dangers. Multiple instances involving popular and beloved gurus have ended in tragedy, twisting cases of self-help into self-harm. This paper chases after just how this is possible and discovers that weaponized communication is largely to blame. From Self-Help to Self-Harm: Rhetoric in the Self-Help Industry discusses the cases of James Arthur Ray, Keith Raniere, and Isaac Hershkopf to uncover how inappropriate rhetoric usage can turn something enlightening into something drastically harmful. Demagoguery, along with weaponized and exhaustive rhetoric, are concepts used to explain how this is possible. Using a mix of creative writing and scholarly research, this paper will illustrate some of the major threats that lie in influential communication, in light of self-help’s current popularity today

Maximum size binary matroids with no AG(3,2)-minor are graphic

We prove that the maximum size of a simple binary matroid of rank $r \geq 5$ with no AG(3,2)-minor is $\binom{r+1}{2}$ and characterise those matroids achieving this bound. When $r \geq 6$, the graphic matroid $M(K_{r+1})$ is the unique matroid meeting the bound, but there are a handful of smaller examples. In addition, we determine the size function for non-regular simple binary matroids with no AG(3,2)-minor and characterise the matroids of maximum size for each rank

Decentering mediates the relationship between vmPFC activation during a stressor and positive emotion during stress recovery

The stress response has profound implications on health and behaviour and stress is considered a risk factor for the development of psychopathologies including depression. The neural mechanisms supporting successful stress recovery are not fully understood, however a novel study by Yang et al. demonstrates that vmPFC activation during a stressor is related to improved stress recovery, and that decentering is able to mediate this relationship, suggesting a role during stress recovery. It was also revealed that vmPFC activation at different time points during the stressor predicts altering aspects of stress recovery, an observation that was only possible due to the adoption of change-point analysis

Artificial maturation of iron- and sulfur-rich Mars analogues: Implications for the diagenetic stability of biopolymers and their detection with pyrolysis gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Acidic iron- and sulfur-rich streams are appropriate analogues for the late Noachian and early Hesperian periods of martian history, when Mars exhibited extensive habitable environments. Any past life on Mars may have left behind diagnostic evidence of life that could be detected at the present day. For effective preservation, these remains must have avoided the harsh radiation flux at the martian surface, survived geological storage for billions of years, and remained detectable within their geochemical environment by analytical instrument suites used on Mars today, such as thermal extraction techniques. We investigated the detectability of organic matter within sulfur stream sediments that had been subjected to artificial maturation by hydrous pyrolysis. After maturation, the samples were analyzed by pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (py-GC-MS) to determine whether organic matter could be detected with this commonly used technique. We find that macromolecular organic matter can survive the artificial maturation process in the presence of iron- and sulfur-rich minerals but cannot be unambiguously distinguished from abiotic organic matter. However, if jarosite and goethite are present in the sulfur stream environment, they interfere with the py-GC-MS detection of organic compounds in these samples. Clay reduces the obfuscating effect of the oxidizing minerals by providing nondeleterious adsorption sites. We also find that after a simple alkali and acid leaching process that removes oxidizing minerals such as iron sulfates, oxides, and oxyhydroxides, the sulfur stream samples exhibit much greater organic responses during py-GC-MS in terms of both abundance and diversity of organic compounds, such as the detection of hopanes in all leached samples. Our results suggest that insoluble organic matter can be preserved over billions of years of geological storage while still retaining diagnostic organic information, but sample selection strategies must either avoid jarosite- and goethite-rich outcrops or conduct preparative chemistry steps to remove these oxidants prior to analysis by thermal extraction techniques

Solid Phase Micro Extraction: Potential for Organic Contamination Control for Planetary Protection of Life-Detection Missions to the Icy Moons of the Outer Solar System

Conclusively detecting, or ruling out the possibility of, life on the icy moons of the outer solar system will require spacecraft missions to undergo rigorous planetary protection and contamination control procedures to achieve extremely low levels of organic terrestrial contamination. Contamination control is necessary to avoid forward contamination of the body of interest and to avoid the detection of false positive signals which could either mask indigenous organic chemistry of interest or cause an astrobiological false alarm. Here we test a new method for rapidly and inexpensively assessing the organic cleanliness of spaceflight hardware surfaces using solid phase micro extraction (SPME) fibres to directly swab surfaces. The results suggest that the method is both time and cost efficient. The SPME-gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method is sensitive to common mid-weight, non-polar contaminant compounds, e.g. aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, which are common contaminants in laboratory settings. While we demonstrate the potential of SPME for surface sampling, the GC-MS instrumentation restricts the SPME-GC-MS technique’s sensitivity to larger polar and non-volatile compounds. Although not used in this study, to increase the potential range of detectable compounds, SPME can also be used in conjunction with high performance liquid chromatography/liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry systems suitable for polar analytes [Kataoka et al., 2000]. Thus, our SPME method presents an opportunity to monitor organic contamination in a relatively rapid and routine way that produces information-rich data sets

Solid phase micro extraction for organic contamination control throughout assembly and operational phases of space missions

Space missions concerned with life detection contain highly sensitive instruments for the detection of organics. Terrestrial contamination can interfere with signals of indigenous organics in samples and has the potential to cause false positive biosignature detections, which may lead to incorrect suggestions of the presence of life elsewhere in the Solar System. This study assessed the capability of solid phase micro extraction (SPME) as a method for monitoring organic contamination encountered by spacecraft hardware during assembly and operation. SPME-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) analysis was performed on potential contaminant source materials, which are commonly used in spacecraft construction. The sensitivity of SPME-GC-MS to organics was assessed in the context of contaminants identified in molecular wipes taken from hardware surfaces on the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover. SPME was found to be effective at detecting a wide range of common organic contaminants that include aromatic hydrocarbons, non-aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrogen-containing compounds, alcohols and carbonyls. A notable example of correlation of contaminant with source material was the detection of benzenamine compounds in an epoxy adhesive analyzed by SPME-GC-MS and in the ExoMars rover surface wipe samples. The current form of SPME-GC-MS does not enable quantitative evaluation of contaminants, nor is it suitable for the detection of every group of organic molecules relevant to astrobiological contamination concerns, namely, large and/or polar molecules such as amino acids. However, it nonetheless represents an effective new monitoring method for rapid, easy identification of organic contaminants commonly present on spacecraft hardware and could thus be utilized in future space missions as part of their contamination control and mitigation protocols

A methodology to extract outcomes from routine healthcare data for patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND: Outcomes for patients in UK with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA NSCLC) are amongst the worst in Europe. Assessing outcomes is important for analysing the effectiveness of current practice. However, data quality is inconsistent and regular large scale analysis is challenging. This project investigates the use of routine healthcare datasets to determine progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients treated with primary radical radiotherapy for LA NSCLC. METHODS: All LA NSCLC patients treated with primary radical radiotherapy in a 2 year period were identified and paired manual and routine data generated for an initial pilot study. Manual data was extracted information from hospital records and considered the gold standard. Key time points were date of diagnosis, recurrence, death or last clinical encounter. Routine data was collected from various data sources including, Hospital Episode Statistics, Personal Demographic Service, chemotherapy data, and radiotherapy datasets. Relevant event dates were defined by proxy time points and refined using backdating and time interval optimization. Dataset correlations were then tested on key clinical outcome indicators to establish if routine data could be used as a reliable proxy measure for manual data. RESULTS: Forty-three patients were identified for the pilot study. The manual data showed a median age of 67 years (range 46- 89 years) and all patients had stage IIIA/B disease. Using the manual data, the median PFS was 10.78 months (range 1.58-37.49 months) and median OS was 16.36 months (range 2.69-37.49 months). Based on routine data, using proxy measures, the estimated median PFS was 10.68 months (range 1.61-31.93 months) and estimated median OS was 15.38 months (range 2.14-33.71 months). Overall, the routine data underestimated the PFS and OS of the manual data but there was good correlation with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.94 for PFS and 0.97 for OS. CONCLUSIONS: This is a novel approach to use routine datasets to determine outcome indicators in patients with LA NSCLC that will be a surrogate to analysing manual data. The ability to enable efficient and large scale analysis of current lung cancer strategies has a huge potential impact on the healthcare system

A methodology to extract outcomes from routine healthcare data for patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND: Outcomes for patients in UK with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA NSCLC) are amongst the worst in Europe. Assessing outcomes is important for analysing the effectiveness of current practice. However, data quality is inconsistent and regular large scale analysis is challenging. This project investigates the use of routine healthcare datasets to determine progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients treated with primary radical radiotherapy for LA NSCLC. METHODS: All LA NSCLC patients treated with primary radical radiotherapy in a 2 year period were identified and paired manual and routine data generated for an initial pilot study. Manual data was extracted information from hospital records and considered the gold standard. Key time points were date of diagnosis, recurrence, death or last clinical encounter. Routine data was collected from various data sources including, Hospital Episode Statistics, Personal Demographic Service, chemotherapy data, and radiotherapy datasets. Relevant event dates were defined by proxy time points and refined using backdating and time interval optimization. Dataset correlations were then tested on key clinical outcome indicators to establish if routine data could be used as a reliable proxy measure for manual data. RESULTS: Forty-three patients were identified for the pilot study. The manual data showed a median age of 67 years (range 46- 89 years) and all patients had stage IIIA/B disease. Using the manual data, the median PFS was 10.78 months (range 1.58-37.49 months) and median OS was 16.36 months (range 2.69-37.49 months). Based on routine data, using proxy measures, the estimated median PFS was 10.68 months (range 1.61-31.93 months) and estimated median OS was 15.38 months (range 2.14-33.71 months). Overall, the routine data underestimated the PFS and OS of the manual data but there was good correlation with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.94 for PFS and 0.97 for OS. CONCLUSIONS: This is a novel approach to use routine datasets to determine outcome indicators in patients with LA NSCLC that will be a surrogate to analysing manual data. The ability to enable efficient and large scale analysis of current lung cancer strategies has a huge potential impact on the healthcare system

Environmental transmission of a personality trait: foster parent exploration behaviour predicts offspring exploration behaviour in zebra finches

Consistent behavioural differences among individuals are common in many species and can have important effects on offspring fitness. To understand such ‘personality’ variation, it is important to determine the mode ofinheritance, but this has been quantified for only a few species. Here, we report results from a breeding experiment in captive zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, in which we cross-fostered offspring to disentangle the importance of genetic and nongenetic transmission of behaviour. Genetic and foster-parents’ exploratory type was measured in a novel environment pre-breeding and offspring exploratory type was assessed at adulthood. Offspring exploratory type was predicted by the exploratory behaviour of the foster but not the genetic parents, whereas offspring sizewas predicted by genetic but not foster-parents’ size. Other aspects of the social environment, such as rearing regime (uni- versus biparental), hatching position, brood size or an individual’s sex did not influence offspring exploration. Our results therefore indicate that non-genetic transmission of behaviour can play an important role in shaping animal personality variation