Search results for: Farrah Jacquez

Authors: Teresa Smith, Farrah Jacquez

Abstract:

Health-risk behaviors (e.g., smoking, poor diet) directly increase the risk for chronic disease and morbidity. There is substantial evidence of a negative association between socioeconomic status (SES) and engagement in health-risk behaviors. However, due to the complexity of SES, researchers have suggested looking beyond this factor to fully understand the mechanisms that underlie engagement in health-risk behaviors. Stress is one plausible mechanism through which SES impacts health-risk behaviors. Currently, it remains unclear how stress occurring across the life course might impact health behaviors and explain the association between SES and these behaviors. To address the gaps in the literature, 172 adults between the ages of 18-49 were surveyed about their lifetime stress exposure, sociodemographic variables, and health-risk behaviors via an online recruitment portal, Prolific. Five major findings emerged from the current study. First, SES was negatively associated with engagement in health-risk behaviors and lifetime stress above and beyond current stress and other relevant demographics. Second, lifetime stress was significantly associated with health-risk behaviors above and beyond current stress and relevant demographic variables. Third, lifetime stress fully mediated the association between SES and health-risk behaviors above and beyond current stress and other demographics. Fourth, the severity of stress experienced emerged as the most significant lifetime stress variable that explains the relation between SES and health-risk behaviors. Fifth and finally, lower SES and experiencing financial and legal/crime stressors increased the likelihood of engaging in health-risk behaviors. The current study results align with previous research and suggest that stress occurring over the lifespan impacts the relation between SES and health-risk behaviors, which are in turn known to impact health outcomes. However, our findings move the current literature forward by providing a more nuanced understanding of the specific aspects of stress that influence this association. Specifically, the severity of stress experienced across the entire lifespan was the most important aspect of stress when examining the association between SES and health-risk behaviors. Further, individuals most at risk for engaging in health-risk behaviors are those of the lowest SES and experience financial and legal/crime stressors. These findings have the potential to inform interventions and policies aimed at addressing health-risk behaviors by providing a more sophisticated understanding of the impact of stress.

Keywords: stress, health behaviors, socioeconomic status, health

Procedia PDF Downloads 146

Authors: Catherine McWhorter

Abstract:

Robotics is a fast-evolving field lacking comprehensive and harm-mitigating regulation; it also lacks critical data on how human-robot interaction (HRI) may affect human psychology. As most anthropomorphic robots are intended as substitutes for humans, this paper asserts that the commercial robotics industry should be preemptively regulated at the federal level such that robots capable of embodying a victim role in criminal scenarios (“vicbots”) are prohibited until clinical studies determine their effects on the user and society. The results of these studies should then inform more permanent legislation that strives to mitigate risks of harm without infringing upon fundamental rights or stifling innovation. This paper explores these concepts through the lens of the sex robot industry. The sexbot industry offers some of the most realistic, interactive, and customizable robots for sale today. From approximately 2010 until 2017, some sex robot producers, such as True Companion, actively promoted ‘vicbot’ culture with personalities like “Frigid Farrah” and “Young Yoko” but received significant public backlash for fetishizing rape and pedophilia. Today, “Frigid Farrah” and “Young Yoko” appear to have vanished. Sexbot producers have replaced preprogrammed vicbot personalities in favor of one generic, customizable personality. According to the manufacturer ainidoll.com, when asked, there is only one thing the user won’t be able to program the sexbot to do – “…give you drama”. The ability to customize vicbot personas is possible with today’s generic personality sexbots and may undermine the intent of some current legislative efforts. Current debate on the effects of vicbots indicates a lack of consensus. Some scholars suggest vicbots may reduce the rate of actual sex crimes, and some suggest that vicbots will, in fact, create sex criminals, while others cite their potential for rehabilitation. Vicbots may have value in some instances when prescribed by medical professionals, but the overall uncertainty and lack of data further underscore the need for preemptive regulation and clinical research. Existing literature on exposure to media violence and its effects on prosocial behavior, human aggression, and addiction may serve as launch points for specific studies into the hyperrealism of vicbots. Of course, the customization, anthropomorphism and artificial intelligence of sexbots, and therefore more mainstream robots, will continue to evolve. The existing sexbot industry offers an opportunity to preemptively regulate and to research answers to these and many more questions before this type of technology becomes even more advanced and mainstream. Robots pose complicated moral, ethical, and legal challenges, most of which are beyond the scope of this paper. By examining the possibility for custom vicbots via the sexbots industry, reviewing existing literature on regulation, media violence, and vicbot user effects, this paper strives to underscore the need for preemptive federal regulation prohibiting vicbot capabilities in robots while advocating for further research into the potential for the user and societal harm by the same.

Keywords: human-robot interaction effects, regulation, research, robots

Procedia PDF Downloads 206

Authors: Farrah Anne Robert, Robert McClelland, Seng Kiat Kok

Abstract:

Higher education service quality is widely regarded as key factors in the long term success of a higher education institution in attracting and retaining students. This research attempted to establish the impact of service quality on recruiting and retaining students in private higher education institutions (PHEI’s). 501 local and international students responded to a 49 item educational service measure questionnaire from PHEIs in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, two states in Malaysia which together account for 60% of private colleges in Malaysia. Results from this research revealed that, inter-alia, facilities, employability, management and administration services, academic staff competence, curriculum and student overall experiences were key driving factors in attracting and retaining students. Lack of “campus-like building” facilities and lecturer’s effectiveness in delivering lectures were keys concerns in the provision of service quality by PHEI’s in Malaysia. Over the last decade, the Government of Malaysia has set a target of recruiting 200,000 international students to study in Malaysia by PHEI’s and PHEI’s have failed to achieve this target. This research suggests that service quality issues identified above are impacting efforts to recruit and retain both local and international students by PHEIs. The researcher recommends that further and detailed research be carried on these factors and its impact on recruitment and retention. PHEI administrators can benefit from this research by conducting an evaluation of service measures delivered in their institutions and take corrective measures. Prospective students can benefit from this study by including in their choice factors the “service quality delivery” of PHEI’s when deciding to enroll in a particular PHEI.

Keywords: higher education, recruitment, retention, service quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 378

Authors: Farrah Putri Salmanida, Mei-Li Wu, Rika Wahyuningtyas, Wen-Bin Chung, Hso-Chi Chaung, Ko-Tung Chang

Abstract:

Within the field of immunotherapy, oncolytic virotherapy (OVT) employs dual approaches that directly eliminate tumor cells while preserving healthy ones and indirectly reprogram the tumor microenvironment (TME) to elicit antitumor responses. Within the TME, tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) manifest characteristics akin to those of anti-inflammatory M2 macrophages, thus earning the designation of M2-like TAMs. In prior research, two antigens denoted as A1 (g6Ld10T) and A3 (ORF6L5), derived from a complete sequence of ORF5 with partial sequence of ORF6 in Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus Genotype 2 (PRRSV-2), demonstrated the capacity to repolarize M2-type porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs) into M1 phenotypes. In this study, we sought for utilizing OVT strategies by introducing A1 or A3 on TAMs to endow them with the anti-tumor traits of M1 macrophages while retaining their capacity to target cancer cells. Upon exposing human THP-1-derived M2 macrophages to a cross-species test with 2 µg/ml of either A1 or A3 for 24 hours, real time PCR revealed that A3, but not A1, treated cells exhibited upregulated gene expressions of M1 markers (CCR7, IL-1ß, CCL2, Cox2, CD80). These cells reacted to virus-derived antigen, as evidenced by increased expression of pattern-recognition receptors TLR3, TLR7, and TLR9, subsequently providing feedback in the form of type I interferon responses like IFNAR1, IFN-ß, IRF3, IRF7, OAS1, Mx1, and ISG15. Through an MTT assay, only after 15 µg/ml of A3 treatment could the cell viability decrease, with a predicted IC50 of 16.96 µg/ml. Interestingly, A3 caused dose-dependent toxicity to a rat C6 glial cancer cell line even at doses as low as 2.5 µg/ml and reached its IC50 at 9.419 µg/ml. Using Annexin V/7AAD staining and PCR test, we deduced that a significant proportion of C6 cells were undergoing the early apoptosis phase predominantly through the intrinsic apoptosis cascade involving Bcl-2 family proteins. Following this stage, we conducted a test on A3’s repolarization ability, which revealed a significant rise in M1 gene expression markers, such as TNF, CD80, and IL-1ß, in M2-like TAMs generated in vitro from murine RAW264.7 macrophages grown with conditioned medium of 4T1 breast cancer cells. This was corroborated by the results of transcriptome analysis, which revealed that the primary subset among the top 10 to top 30 significantly upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) dominantly consisted of M1 macrophages profiles, including Ccl3, Ccl4, Csf3, TNF, Bcl6b, Stc1, and Dusp2. Our findings unveiled the remarkable potential of the PRRSV-derived antigen A3 to repolarize macrophages while also being capable of selectively inducing apoptosis in cancerous cells. While further in vivo study is needed for A3, it holds promise as an adjuvant by its dual effects in cancer therapy modalities.

Keywords: cancer cell apoptosis, interferon responses, macrophage repolarization, recombinant protein

Procedia PDF Downloads 72