Using Social Media for Clinical Research: A White Paper from the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED Social media integration into research has increased and 92% of American social media users state they would share their data with researchers. Yet, the potential of this data to transform health outcomes and the way clinical research is performed has been held back. The use of these technologies in research is dependent on investigators’ awareness of its potential and their ability to innovate within regulatory and institutional guidelines. The Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health has launched an initiative to address these challenges and provide a framework to expand social media use in clinical research.

Improvement in Salinity Tolerance in Rice Using Biotechnology

Rice has been amongst the most important cereal crop on earth, or more correctly the second most staple diet of people after wheat. The statement is self-explanatory to the demand of rice worldwide and the supply. But with increasing population, the demand of rice is also undoubtedly increasing. The increase in supply is though held back by many factors that adversely affect the growth of a healthy rice crop. One of these factors is salinity. Rice being a glycophyte has very low tolerance to salt, and salt stress results in a damaged yield. However, rice has its own mechanisms for salt tolerance to a certain level, the knowledge of which scientists have put in use to develop the few improvements in rice varieties providing them with better tolerance. Though these improvements have faced many challenges themselves, science still strives to make further achievements. This study aims to highlight the mechanisms rice use to tolerate salt up to a certain level and how they are affected by salinity at levels above that. It also aims to enumerate the methods biotechnology has developed in the past years to improve the varieties, the advantages they have had, the increase in yield they have shown and the challenges they have had to face. Also, it includes if there are any further developments undergoing and the future scope of salinity tolerance increase in rice, with the help of biotechnology.

Transition bonds market will grow from slow start

Significance Lack of clarity over standards has held back transition bonds, but the rising imperative to reduce the carbon footprint of the most polluting firms in the coming years could provide impetus. This applies particularly to emerging economies. Impacts ESG-focused investors are likely to continue favouring green bonds over transition bonds as the latter means investing in brown sectors. ‘Transition washing’ (similar to ‘greenwashing’ among green bond issuers) will remain a problem. Investors will demand clear goals from issuers, further blurring the boundaries between transition bonds and sustainability-linked bonds. Recent developments suggest that the market for transition bonds could grow particularly fast in Asia Pacific.

Exploration of the Profile and Intention in Restricting Online Game in Teenagers with Gaming Disorder: A Qualitative Study

Background Gaming disorder is one of the mental disorders when someone does his spare time activity by playing the game and is addicted to playing online games. This condition is more common in adolescents and eventually could harm their health. Hence, the researchers interested to study the teenagers' profiles and intentions to identify their efforts and obstacles in restricting online games. Objective This study aimed to explore the profile and addiction scales of teenagers with online gaming disorder and to identify their intentions, plans, and obstacles in reducing their addictions. Method The study employed qualitative research with a phenomenology approach. The research included six online gamer participants. The researcher selected the participants by using a purposive sampling technique. They were game-addicted teenagers according to the scale of gaming addiction. The researchers collected the data with a guided interview and an observation list. They analyzed the data using phenomenology analysis. Results The scale of addiction data showed that all informants were in a high category of addiction. This scale of addiction was in line with their profiles of playing games at least five hours a day because they perceived playing games as an urgent activity to relieve stress or as entertainment. When they played online games, they held back hunger and skipped their meals, even though they were hungry and often held back urinating. Besides, being actively playing at night made them sleep in the daytime. In addition, the data showed that four of the informants stated that they had some intentions and plans to reduce or quit playing, but they did not have specific plans. They had not followed up on their readiness and had not known when to reduce or stop playing online games. Some obstacles cause them to have no intentions. Conclusion The profiles of the teenagers with gaming disorders showed a high category of addiction scale. They played online games as stress-relieving entertainment. When playing, they often held hunger, thirsty, urinating, and did not sleep at night. There were some teenagers with gaming disorders who had no intention of reducing or stopping the games. Meanwhile, some others were willing to reduce and quit the game, but they did not have any alternative activities and did not know when they will stop playing online games. Friends' invitation, the fun of playing games, problems of self-control/habits, the temptation of watching other gamers playing, boredom, and the new trend of the electronic game sport were the obstacles for the addictive teenagers to control their online gaming.

We don’t know what we don’t know

For thousands of years, healthcare was held back because we couldn’t see and didn’t understand the germs making us ill. Today, healthcare is being held back because we don’t see computer bugs, and we don’t understand the risks caused by them.

Biased credit assignment in motivational learning biases arises through prefrontal influences on striatal learning

Actions are biased by the outcomes they can produce: Humans are more likely to show action under reward prospect, but hold back under punishment prospect. Such motivational biases derive not only from biased response selection, but also from biased learning: humans tend to attribute rewards to their own actions, but are reluctant to attribute punishments to having held back. The neural origin of these biases is unclear; in particular, it remains open whether motivational biases arise solely from an evolutionarily old, subcortical architecture or also due to younger, cortical influences. Simultaneous EEG-fMRI allowed us to track which regions encoded biased prediction errors in which order. Biased prediction errors occurred in cortical regions (ACC, vmPFC, PCC) before subcortical regions (striatum). These results highlight that biased learning is not a mere feature of the basal ganglia, but arises through prefrontal cortical contributions, revealing motivational biases to be a potentially flexible, sophisticated mechanism.

Opposition to Novel Biotechnologies: Testing An Omission Bias Account

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a significant toll on the global population, but biotechnology has a big role to play in arresting the spread of the virus. However, the adoption of biotechnologies may be held back by cognitive biases. In particular, omission bias – the observation that people are more sensitive to the negative outcomes of acting than to those of failing to act – has been suggested to influence vaccination decision making. Omission bias might also underpin attitudes towards newer biotechnologies. In this study, we explored the role of omission bias in vaccination, gene editing, and nanotechnology decision-making using a US sample (N = 613). We examined participant’s risk choices across these three biotechnologies, focussing on the point at which they would use the respective biotechnology to treat a fictional illness (COVID-23). Although our findings are nuanced, overall we observed evidence consistent with an omission bias across all three biotechnologies.

Bankruptcy rules will improve SME efficiency in China

Significance However, the sector is held back by inefficiency in resolving financial distress, which prevents effective restructuring, closure and, more broadly, access to bank finance. Simplified insolvency procedures for SMEs that aim to remedy this are being trialled across China. Impacts Better resolution of SME insolvency is crucial for start-ups, which are the focus of recent policies for innovation-driven growth. A more flexible framework for resolving corporate failures would help China’s economy recover from shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. SME insolvencies and their resolution are policy challenges in many jurisdictions; solutions adopted in China may inform reforms elsewhere.

Virtual Reality Cinemas: The Challenges of an Individual Medium

Virtual reality can be used to tell stories in ways that humans have never before experienced. Why doesn’t the display of virtual reality content reflect it’s immersive nature? Could the development of a spatial design and entrance/exit protocols allow for people to have more enticing experiences with this evolving medium? This MRP explores the reasons that have held back growth for virtual reality narrative experiences and displays. Through research, by observation of public virtual reality spaces and interviews of the operators of virtual reality experience centres, I have explored various sets of best practices. I culled together the best practices from each resource to create a physical virtual reality cinema where I could test and refine my findings.

Virtual Reality Cinemas: The Challenges of an Individual Medium

Virtual reality can be used to tell stories in ways that humans have never before experienced. Why doesn’t the display of virtual reality content reflect it’s immersive nature? Could the development of a spatial design and entrance/exit protocols allow for people to have more enticing experiences with this evolving medium? This MRP explores the reasons that have held back growth for virtual reality narrative experiences and displays. Through research, by observation of public virtual reality spaces and interviews of the operators of virtual reality experience centres, I have explored various sets of best practices. I culled together the best practices from each resource to create a physical virtual reality cinema where I could test and refine my findings.