The Relationships Between Personality, Perceived Social Support, and Structure of Friend Groups

Friendship formation has been studied by many psychologists, focusing predominately on connectedness within the friendship and less focused on variation of characteristics within the group that influence group dynamic (Laakasu et. al., 2016). Personality traits are a large contributing factor when determining relationship satisfaction, specifically Neuroticism and Extraversion. Having high Neuroticism has shown to be a consistent predictor of low relationship quality (Finn, Mite, & Neyer, 2013). On the contrary, Extraversion’s positive affect (i.e. characterized as being cheerful, energetic, and social) is associated with better relationship outcomes (Lyubomirsky, King, & Deiner, 2005). Undergraduate students (N = 50) completed a survey containing a personality assessment, perceived social support questionnaire, friendship structure questionnaire, and demographics on Qualtrics. We anticipate participants who score higher on neuroticism will report less perceived social support and feeling less at the center of the friend group. Participants who score higher on extraversion will perceive social support positively and will report feeling at the center of the friend group. Assessing the perceived social support and structure of a friend group from an individual allows us to better understand that individual’s associated personality traits

Accuracy of Recollection Without Rehearsal

Priming refers to the influence of encountered objects on future responses to similar objects (Wang et. al., 2003). Cross-modality priming occurs when the stimuli are presented in one modality and tested within another (Marinis, 2018). However, there is not much research done on verbal and visual cross-modality priming. This study looks at the effects of cross-modality implicit priming on recall and recognition. Participants read 8 different priming stories. After each, participants completed a visual memory task where they looked at a slide of several images for 5 seconds, and then wrote which images they remembered. After this, they answered 2 questions about the story. This repeated for all 8 stories. After these tasks, participants completed a visual recognition task with 8 images that were primed and 8 novel images. They then completed a visual recognition task with 8 images that had been seen before but not primed, and 8 novel images. Lastly, they completed a visual recognition task with 8 images that related to the prime but had not been seen before, and 8 novel images. A within-subjects ANOVA was used for the primed images, and a within-subjects T test was used for the image recognition task. Results of this study are still being processed. These results provide more data for the effect of cross-modality priming, but more research needs to be done in this area

How Attachment Styles Affect Our Perception of Daily Activities

Existing research indicates that social functioning (i.e., emotional motives, social interaction, relationships, interpersonal goals) is associated with personal attachment style (Locke, 2008) and avoidance in emerging adults. Furthermore, attachment styles of individuals can predict daily activities and personal motives (Springstein et al., 2023). While evidence has pointed to interpersonal risk (i.e., physiological safety versus threat) and a sense of security, research has yet to explore these variables in the relationship between attachment styles and helping other individuals in social settings in university students. For our research, we wanted to expand on this past research and test the effects of daily activities and how people perceive these based on their attachment styles. We hypothesized that participants who have an anxious or avoidant attachment style will be less likely to help in perceptive daily social situations than those who have a secure attachment style. The participant sample are 46 introductory psychology students who participated for class credit in SONA. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire of 10 hypothetical situations of daily activities demonstrated through prosocial Qualtrics. Afterwards, participants were to take an online attachment style questionnaire consisting of 24 questions that will conclude their attachment styles based on research of attachment styles positively influencing external relationships (Natisse et. al. 2022). We found that..

Lightcurve analysis and rotation period of 6372 Walker

6372 Walker is a main-belt asteroid discovered in 1985 by C.S. Shoemaker at Palomar Observatory and was last observed in May of 2018 (JPL, 2019). It has a diameter of 42.13 km and orbital period of 5.68 yr.peer-reviewe

Adjunctive rifampicin for Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (ARREST): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia is a common cause of severe community-acquired and hospital-acquired infection worldwide. We tested the hypothesis that adjunctive rifampicin would reduce bacteriologically confirmed treatment failure or disease recurrence, or death, by enhancing early S aureus killing, sterilising infected foci and blood faster, and reducing risks of dissemination and metastatic infection. METHODS: In this multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, adults (≥18 years) with S aureus bacteraemia who had received ≤96 h of active antibiotic therapy were recruited from 29 UK hospitals. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) via a computer-generated sequential randomisation list to receive 2 weeks of adjunctive rifampicin (600 mg or 900 mg per day according to weight, oral or intravenous) versus identical placebo, together with standard antibiotic therapy. Randomisation was stratified by centre. Patients, investigators, and those caring for the patients were masked to group allocation. The primary outcome was time to bacteriologically confirmed treatment failure or disease recurrence, or death (all-cause), from randomisation to 12 weeks, adjudicated by an independent review committee masked to the treatment. Analysis was intention to treat. This trial was registered, number ISRCTN37666216, and is closed to new participants. FINDINGS: Between Dec 10, 2012, and Oct 25, 2016, 758 eligible participants were randomly assigned: 370 to rifampicin and 388 to placebo. 485 (64%) participants had community-acquired S aureus infections, and 132 (17%) had nosocomial S aureus infections. 47 (6%) had meticillin-resistant infections. 301 (40%) participants had an initial deep infection focus. Standard antibiotics were given for 29 (IQR 18-45) days; 619 (82%) participants received flucloxacillin. By week 12, 62 (17%) of participants who received rifampicin versus 71 (18%) who received placebo experienced treatment failure or disease recurrence, or died (absolute risk difference -1·4%, 95% CI -7·0 to 4·3; hazard ratio 0·96, 0·68-1·35, p=0·81). From randomisation to 12 weeks, no evidence of differences in serious (p=0·17) or grade 3-4 (p=0·36) adverse events were observed; however, 63 (17%) participants in the rifampicin group versus 39 (10%) in the placebo group had antibiotic or trial drug-modifying adverse events (p=0·004), and 24 (6%) versus six (2%) had drug interactions (p=0·0005). INTERPRETATION: Adjunctive rifampicin provided no overall benefit over standard antibiotic therapy in adults with S aureus bacteraemia. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Environmental Factors on Impulsivity & Decision Making

The idea of our environments and how they impact our level of impulsivity has been studied extensively in the field of psychology. Past studies have shown that exposure to natural environments can decrease impulsivity in decision-making (Berry et al., 2020) and expansion of space perception (Repke et al., 2018). In the few studies measuring the effects of environment and the impact it has on impulsivity, there has generally been an effect such that exposure to nature lowers impulsivity. For our research, we wanted to expand on this past research and test the effects of environments in a video form and the impact they have on impulsivity in decision- making. We hypothesized that participants engaging with a video of a mindful (i.e, calming nature) environment prior to completing impulsive tasks will show less impulsivity compared to participants who engage with a video of a highly stimulated (i.e, busy city) environment or no video engagement at all. The participant sample is introductory psychology students who participated for class credit. Participants were randomly split into three groups and given a video of nature or a busy city or they were given no video to watch. After watching the video, participants took the Barratt’s Impulsivity Scale and were then asked how they felt after the video. Participants then recorded the number they got on the Barratt’s scale into Qualtrics. Results will be presented at SURS

...East of Here... (Re)Imagining the "Orient"

Salloum provides a general context for "...East of Here..." by examining the political and cultural relations between the Middle East and the West. Bringing together works by artists from diverse backgrounds creates a multi-layered exhibition concerned with issues of cultural identity, postcolonialism, and neocolonialism. Kawaja's paper focuses on how representations of "Arab" women affect women's rights activists in the Middle East and North America. Marks questions the stereotypical representations of the "Orient" produced in the West. Hassan's analysis of the relationship between cultural production and economics focuses on questions concerning ideology, authoritarianism, and neo-orientalism. Artist's projects by Vogwill and Thorne. Brief descriptions of videotapes, films, and installations. Biographical notes. 54 bibl. ref