"No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth." These were the words of former Facebook Vice President Chamath Palihapitiya who publicly expressed his regret in a 2017 interview over his role in co-creating Facebook. Palihapitiya shared that social media is ripping apart the social fabric of society and he also sounded the alarm regarding social media’s unavoidable global impact. He is only one of social media’s countless critics. The more disturbing issue resides in the empirical evidence supporting such notions. At least 95% of adolescents own a smartphone and spend an average time of two to four hours a day on social media. Moreover, 91% of 16-24-year-olds use social media, yet youth rate Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as the worst social media platforms. However, the social, clinical, and neurodevelopment ramifications of using social media regularly are only beginning to emerge in research. Early research findings show that social media platforms trigger anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and other negative mental health effects. These negative mental health symptoms are commonly reported by individuals from of 18-25-years old, a unique period of human development known as emerging adulthood. Although emerging adulthood is characterized by identity exploration, unbounded optimism, and freedom from most responsibilities, it also serves as a high-risk period for the onset of most psychological disorders. Despite social media’s adverse impacts, it retains its utility as it facilitates identity exploration and virtual socialization for emerging adults. Investigating the “user-centered” design and neuroscience underlying social media platforms can help reveal, and potentially mitigate, the onset of negative mental health consequences among emerging adults. Effectively deconstructing the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (i.e., hereafter referred to as “The Big Three”) will require an extensive analysis into common features across platforms. A few examples of these design features include: like and reaction counters, perpetual news feeds, and omnipresent banners and notifications surrounding the user’s viewport. Such social media features are inherently designed to stimulate specific neurotransmitters and hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, and cortisol. Identifying such predacious social media features that unknowingly manipulate and highjack emerging adults’ brain chemistry will serve as a first step in mitigating the negative mental health effects of today’s social media platforms. A second concrete step will involve altering or eliminating said features by creating a social media platform that supports and even enhances mental well-being.

In this thesis paper, the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed. Chapter 1 discusses what inspired me to write this thesis and follows with a discussion of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 2 takes a step back and discusses biological effects of social isolation in general. Chapter 3 discusses the psychological effects of social isolation. Finally, this thesis concludes with a discussion of what can be done to help those experiencing social isolation during the pandemic.

My research aims to determine the effectiveness of meditation and sleep applications (apps) on the reduction of anxiety and stress in college students, with a focus on sedative piano music. Results showed a significant reduction of stress and anxiety levels in college students when listening to sedative piano music versus non-sedative piano music. Music along with other therapy modalities in meditation and sleep apps show promise in reducing students’ anxiety and stress and promoting their successes.

Glioblastoma (GB) is one of the deadliest cancers and the most common form of adult primary brain tumors. SGEF (ARHGEF26) has been previously shown to be overexpressed in GB tumors, play a role in cell invasion/migration, and increase temozolomide (TMZ) resistance.[3] It was hypothesized parental LN229 cell lines with SGEF knockdown (LN229-SGEFi) will show decreased metabolism in the MTS assay and decreased colony formation in a colony formation assay compared to parental LN229 cells after challenging the two cell lines with TMZ. For WB and co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP), parental LN229 cells with endogenous SGEF and BRCA were expected to interact and stain in the BRCA1:IP WB. LN229-SGEFi cells were expected to show very little SGEF precipitated due to shRNA targeted knockdown of SGEF. In conditions with mutations in the BRCA1 binding site (LN229-SGEFi + AdBRCAm/AdDM), SGEF expression was expected to decrease compared to parental LN229 or LN229-SGEFi cells reconstituted with WT SGEF (LN229-SGEFi + AdWT). LN229 infected with AdSGEF with a mutated nuclear localization signal (LN229-SGEFi + AdNLS12m) were expected to show BRCA and SGEF interaction since whole cell lysates were used for the co-IP. MTS data showed no significant differences in metabolism between the two cell lines at all three time points (3, 5, and 7 days). Western blot analysis was successful at imaging both SGEF and BRCA1 protein bands from whole cell lysate. The CFA showed no significant difference between cell lines after being challenged with 500uM TMZ. The co-IP immunoblot showed staining for BRCA1 and SGEF for all lysate samples, including unexpected lysates such as LN229-SGEFi, LN229-SGEFi + AdBRCAm, and LN229-SGEFi + AdDM. These results suggested either an indirect protein interaction between BRCA1 and SGEF, an additional BRCA binding site not included in the consensus, or possible detection of the translocated SGEF in knockdown cells lines since shRNA cannot enter the nucleus. Further optimization of CO-IP protocol, MTS assay, and CFA will be needed to characterize the SGEF/BRCA1 interaction and its role in cell survival.

Cancer rates vary between people, between cultures, and between tissue types, driven by clinically relevant distinctions in the risk factors that lead to different cancer types. Despite the importance of cancer location in human health, little is known about tissue-specific cancers in non-human animals. We can gain significant insight into how evolutionary history has shaped mechanisms of cancer suppression by examining how life history traits impact cancer susceptibility across species. Here, we perform multi-level analysis to test how species-level life history strategies are associated with differences in neoplasia prevalence, and apply this to mammary neoplasia within mammals. We propose that the same patterns of cancer prevalence that have been reported across species will be maintained at the tissue-specific level. We used a combination of factor analysis and phylogenetic regression on 13 life history traits across 90 mammalian species to determine the correlation between a life history trait and how it relates to mammary neoplasia prevalence. The factor analysis presented ways to calculate quantifiable underlying factors that contribute to covariance of entangled life history variables. A greater risk of mammary neoplasia was found to be correlated most significantly with shorter gestation length. With this analysis, a framework is provided for how different life history modalities can influence cancer vulnerability. Additionally, statistical methods developed for this project present a framework for future comparative oncology studies and have the potential for many diverse applications.

The goal of this project was to design and create a genetic construct that would allow for <br/>tumor growth to be induced in the center of the wing imaginal disc of Drosophila larvae, the <br/>R85E08 domain, using a heat shock. The resulting transgene would be combined with other <br/>transgenes in a single fly that would allow for simultaneous expression of the oncogene and, in <br/>the surrounding cells, other genes of interest. This system would help establish Drosophila as a <br/>more versatile and reliable model organism for cancer research. Furthermore, pilot studies were <br/>performed, using elements of the final proposed system, to determine if tumor growth is possible <br/>in the center of the disc, which oncogene produces the best results, and if oncogene expression <br/>induced later in development causes tumor growth. Three different candidate genes were <br/>investigated: RasV12, PvrACT, and Avli.

For my thesis/creative project, I created a prototype for a mental health app. Each section of the prototype has a purpose of instilling mindfulness and healthy habits that can promote and lead to sustainable mental health. Throughout the paper I explain my reasoning for starting this project, the science of mindfulness and how it can bring about positive mental and physical changes, and the design theory behind the prototype.

COVID-19 has shocked the bedrock of society, impacting both human life and the economy. Accompanying this shock has been the psychological distress inflicted onto the general population as a result of the emotion strain stemming from isolation/quarantine policies, being sick with COVID-19, dealing with COVID-19 losses, and post-COVID syndrome and its effect on quality of life. The psychological distress has been experienced by the general population, but compared to middle age (30-50) and older adults (>50 years of age), it has been young adults (18-30 years old) who have been more psychologically affected (Glowacz & Schmits, 2020). Psychological distress, specifically anxiety and depression, has been exacerbated by feelings of uncertainty, fear of illness, losing loved ones, and fear of post-COVID syndrome. Post-COVID syndrome, as with other post-viral syndromes such as post viral SARS involve lingering symptoms such as myalgic encephalomyelitis or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), and loss of motivation (Underhill, 2015). In addition to these symptoms, patients suffering from post-COVID syndrome have also presented brain inflammation and damaged brain blood vessels (Meinhardt et al., 2021), Endotheliitis (Varga et al., 2020), CV abnormalities and changes in glucose metabolism (Williams et al., 2020). CV abnormalities and changes in glucose metabolism are connected to chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease respectively. These chronic illnesses are then associated with higher risk for depression as a result of the stress induced by the symptoms and their impact on quality of life (NIMH, 2021). Further monitoring, and research will be important to gauge ultimate physiological and psychological impact of COVID-19.

We think about hope every day, even if we do not consciously think about it. It is an important part of our lives. It affects our subjective well-being and physical health. Yet, many people do not know the importance of hope and how it can be created within one's self. A workshop was designed to increase the knowledge of hope, primarily for college students. The workshop focused on defining hope, explaining how hope plays a part in a healthy lifestyle, and how to create hope for themselves. This project looked at the Hope Theory, discovered by Charles Snyder, and how it can be measured hope through goal attainment<br/>onattainment.

Stress for college students is nothing new and as more kids go to college the number of cases are on the rise. This issue is apparent at colleges across the nation including Arizona State University. StreetWise aims to help students prevent or appropriately deal with stress through interactive lessons teaching students life skills, social skills, and emotional intelligence.<br/>In order to prove the value of our service, StreetWise conducted a survey that asked students about their habits, thoughts on stress, and their future. Students from Arizona State University were surveyed with questions on respondent background, employment, number one stressor, preferred learning method, and topics that students were interested in learning. We found that students’ number one stressor was school but was interested in learning skills that would prepare them for their future after graduation. We used the results to make final decisions so that StreetWise could offer lessons that students would get the most value out of. This led to us conducting a second survey which included mock ups of the website, examples of interactive lesson plans, and an overview of the app. Students from the first survey were surveyed in addition to new respondents. This survey was intended for us to ensure that our service would maintain its value to students with the aesthetic and interface that we envisioned.