The Effects of Mindful Instagram Use on Social Comparison and College Life Satisfaction

Mindless social media use is associated with heightened social comparison, and with negative impacts on mood, well-being, and life satisfaction. I hypothesize that a mindful social media intervention will cause decreased levels of social comparison and envy, increased well-being and college life satisfaction, and an increase in overall mindfulness. Data were collected across a span of seven days, during which participants came in for an initial session to receive a mindful Instagram use intervention or a control intervention and complete a battery of questionnaires. For the following six days, intervention participants received daily text reminders to use Instagram mindfully. At the end of the week, participants came back in and completed the same questionnaires. Results revealed that the mindfulness intervention increased participants’ nonjudgement mindfulness from pre- to immediate post-intervention. No significant changes between pre-intervention and one-week post-intervention were observed. Additional analyses revealed that higher baseline life satisfaction and lower malicious envy among participants predicted more mindful social media use in daily life, according to text data. More daily mindful social media use became related to mindful nonjudgment at the end of the study period. And regression analyses of baseline and follow-up data highlighted mindful nonreactivity as a potential predictor of decreases in problematic Instagram use over time. Because research has consistently found that social media use can be detrimental to mental health, these findings have important implications for the use of mindfulness interventions to lessen the harm of social media sites, particularly Instagram

A process model for curriculum theorizing

The investigator has created and explained a process oriented conceptual model for curriculum theorizing as one alternative to technical, behavioral models currently in use exemplified by the work of theorists, such as Ralph Tyler. The investigator's model draws from the fields of anthropology, communication theory, curriculum theory and general semantics as they exhibit a process orientation. The model has been created through the development of axiological, ontological and epistemological groundings which are process oriented. The model is bounded by the school setting and includes the following variables; process orientation, learners, teachers, human knowledge and human interactions within the school. Basic assumptions include first, to be interested in curriculum theory is to be primarily concerned about the lived-in experience of persons in school settings; second, to be interested in curriculum theory is to be concerned above all else about learners as unique and valued individuals; and third, all curriculum statements are value laden. The model has been evaluated in part through the use of questionnaires given to the investigator's undergraduate students including one utilizing McQuail's questions for analyzing a communication model. The questions are: Is the process one directional or interactional? Is the process open or closed? Are meanings fixed or transacted? Is the process seen from the perspective of the sender or receiver? Is the process purposive or non-purposive? Is the process system linked or system free? The model can be further tested through participant observation techniques as developed by Severyn Bruyn

Social seed networks and climate change adaptation in East Africa

Our study investigates the routes of information flow through which smallholder exchange seed and information. We then examine how these exchanges among farmer networks can be improved. In order to examine the characteristics of these networks, our study analyzed household-level survey data collected by Bioversity International from sites in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Current seed sources and climate adaptation strategies were determined by creating summary statistics from the survey data. UCINET network analyses were conducted to acquire a more specific understanding of the current social networks among farmers. Seed networks were categorized by country, gender, and crop and then analyzed to determine where the distribution of seed and information can be improved and utilized

Antigen targeting to dendritic cells elicits long-lived T cell help for antibody responses

Resistance to several prevalent infectious diseases requires both cellular and humoral immune responses. T cell immunity is initiated by mature dendritic cells (DCs) in lymphoid organs, whereas humoral responses to most antigens require further collaboration between primed, antigen-specific helper T cells and naive or memory B cells. To determine whether antigens delivered to DCs in lymphoid organs induce T cell help for antibody responses, we targeted a carrier protein, ovalbumin (OVA), to DCs in the presence of a maturation stimulus and assayed for antibodies to a hapten, (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl) acetyl (NP), after boosting with OVA-NP. A single DC-targeted immunization elicited long-lived T cell helper responses to the carrier protein, leading to large numbers of antibody-secreting cells and high titers of high-affinity antihapten immunoglobulin Gs. Small doses of DC-targeted OVA induced higher titers and a broader spectrum of anti-NP antibody isotypes than large doses of OVA in alum adjuvant. Similar results were obtained when the circumsporozoite protein of Plasmodium yoelii was delivered to DCs. We conclude that antigen targeting to DCs combined with a maturation stimulus produces broad-based and long-lived T cell help for humoral immune responses

Defining the proteolytic landscape during enterovirus infection.

Viruses cleave cellular proteins to remodel the host proteome. The study of these cleavages has revealed mechanisms of immune evasion, resource exploitation, and pathogenesis. However, the full extent of virus-induced proteolysis in infected cells is unknown, mainly because until recently the technology for a global view of proteolysis within cells was lacking. Here, we report the first comprehensive catalog of proteins cleaved upon enterovirus infection and identify the sites within proteins where the cleavages occur. We employed multiple strategies to confirm protein cleavages and assigned them to one of the two enteroviral proteases. Detailed characterization of one substrate, LSM14A, a p body protein with a role in antiviral immunity, showed that cleavage of this protein disrupts its antiviral function. This study yields a new depth of information about the host interface with a group of viruses that are both important biological tools and significant agents of disease

Frequent and specific immunity to the embryonal stem cell–associated antigen SOX2 in patients with monoclonal gammopathy

Specific targets of cellular immunity in human premalignancy are largely unknown. Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) represents a precursor lesion to myeloma (MM). We show that antigenic targets of spontaneous immunity in MGUS differ from MM. MGUS patients frequently mount a humoral and cellular immune response against SOX2, a gene critical for self-renewal in embryonal stem cells. Intranuclear expression of SOX2 marks the clonogenic CD138− compartment in MGUS. SOX2 expression is also detected in a proportion of CD138+ cells in MM patients. However, these patients lack anti-SOX2 immunity. Cellular immunity to SOX2 inhibits the clonogenic growth of MGUS cells in vitro. Detection of anti-SOX2 T cells predicts favorable clinical outcome in patients with asymptomatic plasmaproliferative disorders. Harnessing immunity to antigens expressed by tumor progenitor cells may be critical for prevention and therapy of human cancer

Locating the Social and Political in Secondary School Literacy

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88064/1/RRQ.33.1.6.pd

Different Words: Response to James Paul Gee

Our collective response to James Paul Gee will build on the many similar beliefs that the three of us share with Gee to examine the disputes that we have with some of his words. Our response will push forward, suggesting transformative practices that composition teachers can do to create a more democratic classroom and a more democratic profession