Pro-smoking information scanning using social media and increased smoking among young adults

textThe amount of pro-smoking information appearing on social media has increased sharply in the past few years (Freeman & Chapman, 2007, 2010). This proliferation has expanded the potential for widespread exposure to information about smoking. Such potential highlights the need to understand how individuals acquire and use this information to make decisions about smoking initiation and cessation behaviors. Being in a critical age group (aged 18-25) for lifelong smoking behavior (Gilpin, White, & Pierce, 2005), young adults use social media ubiquitously. This study introduces information scanning (Niederdeppe, Hornik, Kelly, Frosch, Romantan, Stevens, Barg, Weiner, & Schwartz, 2007; Hornik & Niederdeppe, 2008) and the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction (Fishbein and Cappella, 2006; Fishbein, Hennessy, Yzer and Douglas, 2003; Fishbein and Yzer, 2003; Yzer, 2012) as useful constructs for understanding young adult smoking in the context of social media. Information scanning, understood in this research as routine patterns of exposure to mediated and interpersonal sources, has been found to be useful in predicting cancer-related behaviors (e.g., Kelly, Hornik, & Niederdeppe, 2009; Shim, Kelly, & Hornik, 2006) but has never used to understand smoking behavior. This study builds on research that has found that only a small number of variables need to be considered to predict, change, or strengthen a particular behavior in certain population (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975, 2010). To understand the extent to which a young adult’s pro-smoking information scanning using social media affects the likelihood of being susceptible to smoking, being an experimental smoker, and being an established smoker. Specifically, this thesis hypothesizes (1) that pro-smoking information scanning using social media will influence smoking behavior, (2) that pro-smoking information scanning will interact with attitudes toward smoking, social norms regarding smoking, and smoking self-efficacy, interpersonal information scanning, and participation level on social media to impact smoking behavior, and (3) information scanning will contribute to the predictive validity of the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction to predict intentions to smoke. To test these hypotheses, a cross-sectional survey of 247 young adults (aged 18-25) was conducted. Results of this survey indicated that pro-smoking information scanning through social media significantly impacted attitudes toward smoking, social norms regarding smoking, and smoking self-efficacy. Pro-smoking information scanning using social media is independently related to smoking behavior after controlling for factors such as gender, ethnicity, academic achievement, interpersonal information scanning, attitudes toward smoking, social norms regarding smoking, and smoking self-efficacy. Only attitudes toward smoking and interpersonal information scanning mediate the relationship between pro-smoking information scanning through social media and experimental and established smoking. Additionally, inclusion of information scanning variables increased the predictive ability of the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction. This study should be a wakeup call for more comprehensive and concerted efforts on the interaction between tobacco control and social media use. It concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, especially the theory-based antismoking interventions using social media.Radio-Television-Fil

Transactive Memory and the Job Search: Finding Expertise and Influence in Socio-technical Networks

This article has been accepted for publication in Western Journal of Communication, published by Taylor & Francis.Structural, communicative, and relational attributes of transactive memory (TM) affect the expertise and influence job seekers perceive in their job information networks. Using a sample of U.S. job seekers (N = 285), we found perceived expertise and influence varied across structural attributes (both source status and bridging ability) and relational attributes (emotional closeness) of job search sources. Communicative attributes (communication frequency) were associated with influence, but not expertise. In addition, we found a significant divergence in perceived influence across different sources. This study contributes to an understanding of job information networks, extends transactive memory to a socio-technical context, and adds influence as a meaningful outcome of transactive memory systems

Meetings as Persistent Conversations that use ICTs and Face-to-Face to Build Social Capital

Attending meetings is a common activity where people accomplish tasks and extend their relationships. But what happens when a meeting is over? Is that the end of the meeting conversation? This study empirically demonstrates that meetings are not discrete events; rather they are a form of persistent conversation processes, involving combinations of ICTs and face-to-face communication. Conversations between meetings contribute to a meeting process-perspective and link to the development of bonding and bridging social capital. The findings suggest that the frequency of face-to-face conversations and text messaging between meetings, positively impact bonding social capital. Peoples’ attitudes toward continuing conversations between meetings positively impacts bridging social capital. The frequency of using many contemporary ICTs—e.g., Facebook, Twitter, and GroupMe—between meetings was not a significant predictor in developing social capital, even in a sample of young adults

Galloping Trajectory Generation of a Legged Transport Robot Based on Energy Consumption Optimization

Legged walking robots have very strong operation ability in the complex surface and they are very suitable for transportation of tools, materials, and equipment in unstructured environment. Aiming at the problems of energy consumption of legged transport robot during the fast moving, a method of galloping trajectory planning based on energy consumption optimization is proposed. By establishing transition angle polynomials of flight phase, lift-off phase, and stance phase and constraint condition between each state phase, the locomotion equations of the ellipse trajectory are derived. The transition angle of each state phase is introduced into the system energy consumption equations, and the energy optimization index based on transition angles is established. Inverse kinematics solution and trajectory planning in one gait cycle are applied to genetic algorithm process to solve the nonlinear programming problem. The results show that the optimized distribution of transition angles of state phases is more reasonable, and joint torques and system energy consumption are reduced effectively. Thus, the method mentioned above has a great significance to realize fast operation outdoors of transport robot

Boundary Work and Transactive Memory Systems in Teams: Moderating Effects of the Visibility Affordance

Individuals in work teams frequently cross boundaries across teams, often by using information and communication technologies (ICTs). The current study investigates the effects of members’ boundary work and the visibility affordance of teams’ ICTs on Transactive Memory Systems (TMS) in teams. Survey data from 212 full-time employees whose work hours were divided between multiple teams reveals that boundary spanning enhances the focal team’s TMS credibility and specialization and negatively influences TMS coordination. Additionally, boundary reinforcement positively affects TMS credibility and coordination. The visibility affordance has a direct positive impact on all three dimensions of TMS and a moderating effect for boundary reinforcement such that higher visibility overrides the positive direct effect of boundary reinforcement on TMS. These findings suggest that different types of boundary work contribute to different dimensions of TMS and that teams might consider prioritizing the use of ICTs with high visibility to enhance their TMS

Iterative point-wise reinforcement learning for highly accurate indoor visible light positioning

Iterative point-wise reinforcement learning (IPWRL) is proposed for highly accurate indoor visible light positioning (VLP). By properly updating the height information in an iterative fashion, the IPWRL not only effectively mitigates the impact of non-deterministic noise but also exhibits excellent tolerance to deterministic errors caused by the inaccurate a priori height information. The principle of the IPWRL is explained, and the performance of the IPWRL is experimentally evaluated in a received signal strength (RSS) based VLP system and compared with other positioning algorithms, including the conventional RSS algorithm, the k-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm and the PWRL algorithm where iterations exclude. Unlike the supervised machine learning method, e.g., the KNN, whose performance is highly dependent on the training process, the proposed IPWRL does not require training and demonstrates robust positioning performance for the entire tested area. Experimental results also show that when a large height information mismatch occurs, the IPWRL is able to first correct the height information and then offers robust positioning results with a rather low positioning error, while the positioning errors caused by the other algorithms are significantly higher

Bring Your Own Mobile Device (BYOD) to the Hospital: Layered Boundary Barriers and Divergent Boundary Management Strategies

This study examined how one US hospital implemented a mobile communication app to improve workplace communication. The hospital did not provide the technology, instead they asked their workers to use their own personal mobiles at work, through a permissive bring your own device to work (BYOD) policy. Using boundary theory, we conducted a constant-comparative analysis to examine the layers of boundary management issues. At the organizational level, the key issues were policy legacy, communicating the policy, control, dead zones, and mobile costs. At the group level, different hospital units created their own formal and informal policies. At the individual level, themes included personal mobile device use, job role expectations, and decision-making autonomy. The discussion presents examples of how healthcare workers enacted segregator and integrator boundaries. Our findings explain why it is not easy to tell hospital employees, “Go ahead and use your mobiles for patient care,” and have them embrace this practice

A Biodegradable Polyethylenimine-Based Vector Modified by Trifunctional Peptide R18 for Enhancing Gene Transfection Efficiency In Vivo

Lack of capacity to cross the nucleus membrane seems to be one of the main reasons for the lower transfection efficiency of gene vectors observed in vivo study than in vitro. To solve this problem, a new non-viral gene vector was designed. First, a degradable polyethylenimine (PEI) derivate was synthesized by crosslinking low-molecular-weight (LMW) PEI with N-octyl-N-quaternary chitosan (OTMCS), and then adopting a designed trifunctional peptide (RGDC- TAT-NLS) with good tumor targeting, cell uptake and nucleus transport capabilities to modify OTMCS-PEI. The new gene vector was termed as OTMCS- PEI-R18 and characterized in terms of its chemical structure and biophysical parameters. Gene transfection efficiency and nucleus transport mechanism of this vector were also evaluated. The polymer showed controlled degradation and remarkable buffer capabilities with the particle size around 100–300 nm and the zeta potential ranged from 5 mV to 40 mV. Agraose gel electrophoresis showed that OTMCS-PEI-R18 could effectively condensed plasmid DNA at a ratio of 1.0. Besides, the polymer was stable in the presence of sodium heparin and could resist digestion by DNase I at a concentration of 63U DNase I/DNA. OTMCS-PEI-R18 also showed much lower cytotoxicity and better transfection rates compared to polymers OTMCS-PEI-R13, OTMCS-PEI and PEI 25 KDa in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, OTMCS-PEI-R18/DNA complexes could accumulate in the nucleus well soon and not rely on mitosis absolutely due to the newly incorporated ligand peptide NLS with the specific nuclear delivery pathway indicating that the gene delivery system OTMCS-PEI-R18 could reinforce gene transfection efficiency in vivo

Binding Affinity, Cellular Uptake, and Subsequent Intracellular Trafficking of the Nano-Gene Vector P123-PEI-R13

A nano-gene vector PEI-P123-R13 was synthesized by cross-linking low molecular weight PEI with P123 and further coupling bifunctional peptide R13 to the polymer for targeting tumor and increasing cellular uptake. The binding assessment of R13 to αvβ3 positive cells was performed by HRP labeling. The internalization pathways of P123-PEI-R13/DNA complexes were investigated based on the effect of specific endocytic inhibitors on transfection efficiency. The mechanism of intracellular trafficking was investigated based on the effect of endosome-lysosome acidification inhibitors, cytoskeleton, and dynein inhibitors on transfection efficiency. The results indicated that the bifunctional peptide R13 had the ability of binding to αvβ3 positive cells in vitro. The modification of P123-PEI-R13 with R13 made it display new property of internalization. P123-PEI-R13/DNA complexes were conducted simultaneously via clathrin-mediated endocytosis, caveolin-mediated endocytosis, macropinocytosis, and possible energy-independent route. After internalization, P123-PEI-R13/DNA complexes could escape from the endosome-lysosome system because of its acidification and further took microtubule as the track and dynein as the dynamic source to be transported toward the microtubule (+) end, to wit nucleus, under the action of microfilament, and with the aid of intermediate filament