Body image dissatisfaction is a leading contributor to the development of eating disorders. Eating disorders have the highest mortality of all mental illnesses, are most common among females, and most often develop between ages 16 and 20. Research shows that Facebook use is associated with increased risk of eating disorders among female college students, and that appearance comparisons mediate this relationship. However, it remains unclear whether Instagram increases the risk of eating disorders among this population. Instagram is an image-based social networking platform that is more commonly used among women compared to men ages 18-29. The purpose of this pilot study is to examine the influence of Instagram use on body image perceptions among college females. Higher Instagram use is expected to be associated with an increased risk of body dissatisfaction. Female undergraduate public health majors were recruited through an email list-serve to complete an online survey. The survey asked about frequency and patterns of Instagram use. Additional questions assessed appearance comparison to peers, family members, celebrities, and models on Instagram. The survey also assessed prevalence of and appearance comparison to fitness motivation accounts on feeds. Finally, body dissatisfaction is assessed with the Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) scale. Analyses include descriptive statistics for quantitative data and thematic analysis for open-ended responses. Predictive models will be created to predict BDD from Instagram use per week and per day. Results include descriptive statistics of demographic information, Instagram use, and body dysmorphic scores. Assessment of social group appearance comparison on Instagram will also be included. Additionally, open-ended responses may reveal themes in fitness motivation accounts or general Instagram use. Findings will inform relationship patterns between Instagram use and body image dissatisfaction. Future studies could determine whether Instagram should be targeted for eating disorder interventions.

The prevalence of non-medical prescription drug use has recently increased dramatically. It is estimated that 52 million Americans over the age of 12 have used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes in their lifetime. Prolonged use of benzodiazepines, and Alprazolam (Xanax) in particular, has detrimental effects ranging from physical and psychological dependence to increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Xanax displays are present on social media such as Twitter, a popular social networking site with approximately 320 million users. These social media displays provide novel opportunities to capture epidemiologic trends in displays about Xanax. While Xanax abuse is more common among females, it’s unclear whether and how Xanax social media displays are present across genders. The purpose of this study is to examine the different types of Xanax displays on Twitter and compare them between males and females. To identify profiles, we identified common Internet nicknames for Xanax including “Xanax”, “xan”, “zanland”, “zannies”, and “zans” and will use these as search terms on Twitter. Inclusion criteria include profiles being publicly available and the gender of the profile owner clearly being determined by the profile picture and/or pronouns used in their tweets. Profiles were excluded if the age was clearly stated under 18 years old. One hundred participants’ Twitter profiles will be analyzed. We will conduct content analysis on the profiles’ tweets for a 3 month span. The tweets will be coded into 1 of 3 categories based on content: anti-Xanax sentiment, Xanax use in reference to “blacking out”, and describing Xanax co-use with another substance. Analyses will include evaluating the proportion of Xanax-related tweets among total amount of tweets in the coding period and will be compared between males and females. Results from this study could inform gender based interventions for prescription drug use.

Social media, as a source for social connection and information, has been shown to be a platform by which users display content related to risky health behaviors such as problem drinking. This type of content has both the potential to influence social norms and behaviors especially in populations that are greatly interacting with social media such as young adults. Snapchat, a social media application (app), is used by 77% of college students at least once a day. As an app, Snapchat allows users to display information through pictures and videos, 10 seconds or less in length, that are then erased or self-destroyed after being viewed by a recipient. This unique feature for transient content and popularity among college students positions Snapchat as a potential platform for displaying both intoxication and general alcohol references due to the lack of permanent display. In the current literature there exists a gap in understanding of alcohol displays and college student behavior in regards to Snapchat. The purpose of this study is to investigate self-reported alcohol content and displays on Snapchat among college students. Surveys will include questions related to participants’ own experience with viewing alcohol on Snapchat, their own display or lack of display of alcohol, which social media platforms they believe have the highest amount of alcohol content, and how likely friends are, if intoxicated, to post to Snapchat. Data from this study could indicate the prevalence of alcohol displays on Snapchat among college students, provide evidence for the monitoring of Snapchat use by peers and friends, as well as support a potential area for intervention.

Eating disorders (ED) such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa currently affect more than 30 million individuals in the United States. Eating disorders are linked to adverse health consequences including osteoporosis, multi-organ damage, and even death. Many studies have found a clear association between social media exposure and social comparison with idealized body figures leading to disordered eating. It remains unknown the impact that Instagram, a visually driven social media platform has on individuals already experiencing the symptoms of disordered eating. The purpose of this study is to compare the attitudes and motivations displayed on pro-ED and ED-recovery Instagram profiles, in order to understand how social media platforms can be utilized as a tool for encouraging and sustaining ED recovery. In this retrospective content analysis study, 30 public pro-ED and 30 public ED-recovery profiles were selected based on the profiles use of specific ED related hashtags. Posts within this three month period on these profiles were thematically categorized and coded based upon themes in the grounded theory tradition. Data collected from both types of profiles were comparatively analyzed. Descriptive data included the quantity of followers, comments, and likes received per post displayed on the profile. With the pro-ED and ED-recovery data, categorical and quantitative comparisons were conducted using Chi-squared tests and t-tests. Findings from this study could potentially inform ED related agencies and clinicians on how social media can be used as a tool for effective prevention, screening, and early treatment for eating related disorders.

Impulsivity is defined as behavior characterized by little to no forethought of the consequences of an action, particularly one involving risk taking. Impulsivity is a multifaceted personality trait that can take on both pathological and non-pathological, but still problematic, forms. A period of time characterized in part by heightened impulsivity is adolescence, defined as ages 10-25 years. Currently, 81% of adolescents use some kind of social media; however, the manner in which impulsivity exists in this setting is largely unknown. Because social media has been demonstrated to affect older adolescents’ relationship with substance use, understanding their impulsivity may inform interventions to prevent future problems with substance use. Therefore, this pilot study aims to understand the relationship between older adolescents’ impulsivity, social media use, and substance use. Participants, ages 18-22, were recruited through a snowball sampling method on a college campus. Participants were invited and completed (1) a validated impulsivity questionnaire, (2) a social media profile evaluation of their Facebook account for displayed references to substance use on their Wall and Photos within the past 6-months, and (3) a semi-structured phone interview intended to provide self-reported relationships of impulsivity, social media use, and substance use. Analysis included examining correlations between participants’ impulsivity scores provided by the questionnaire, displayed social media use and substance use, and content from the interview. Expected results include finding a positive correlation between participants’ impulsivity, social media use, and substance use. Implications of this research will guide future studies examining impulsivity, social media use, and substance use, and potentially provide evidence for future interventions for adolescents.

Alcohol use is associated with high amounts of significant injury and mortality among college students. Experimental research has revealed gender differences in how males and females communicate about alcohol use, with females favoring more moderate terms such as “tipsy." However, it is unclear whether these gender differences are present on social media. The purpose of this study was to explore the gender differences in alcohol and intoxication terms in status updates (SU) posted among college students. Incoming freshmen from two large state universities were identified through registrar lists and recruited to a longitudinal study. Participants accepted a Facebook friend request from the study team. During freshman and sophomore year, participants’ Facebook posts were evaluated for references to alcohol using a validated codebook. SU with alcohol references underwent further analysis. Content analysis included reference type (i.e., alcohol state, type of drink, etc.) and whether alcohol use was problematic based on a validated problem drinking criteria. Inter-rater agreement was 83.3%. A total of 166 alcohol references were eligible for further analysis. Of ‘alcohol state’ posts (i.e., drunk, tipsy, etc.), females used the term ‘drunk’ 88% of the time with no mention of tipsy or buzzed. No gender difference between displays of problematic alcohol use was observed. Overall, the gender differences frequently present in studies of non-digital settings were often not observed on Facebook. This data could prove useful in gender-specific prevention and intervention efforts, and understanding the differences in interactions observed on social media compared to real life interactions.

Suction feeding is a valuable process to study since most aquatic vertebrates, which make up nearly half of all vertebrates, eat this way. Having a better understanding of this may give important insight into the evolution of vertebrates as a whole. During suction feeding the cranium elevates, causing bending in the vertebral column, resulting in a rotation of the cranium and body plane about an axis of rotation located on the vertebral column. We hypothesized that the vertebral column behaves like a flexible rod and accordingly asked if axial rotation is located more posteriorly with larger degrees of cranial elevation. Using video reconstruction of moving morphology and joint coordinate systems, which use coordinates to measure the 3D motions of bones in a anatomicaly meaningful coordinate space, we compared movement of the cranium in relation to the body in striped surfperch, largemouth bass, and Pacific staghorn sculpin. We found no significant correlation between degree of cranial elevation and location of axial rotation. However, the degree of cranial elevation and location of axial rotation varied among these species in a consistent way. These species’ unique ways of performing these movements could be related to their differences in morphologies.

Therapsids (mammal-like reptiles) document the transition to modern mammals and are an important study tool in examining how the past informs the present. Understanding diseases today requires understanding the deep evolutionary history in our fossil ancestors. We present an instance of dental pathology in a gorganopsid therapsid (~260 million years old). Using fossil histological techniques, we examine a gorganopsian canine and preliminary results reveal abnormal mixture of dental tissue next to the functional tooth. These individual ectopically expressed teeth have preserved tissue layers such as enamel, dentine and a pulp cavity. Based off of the histological characters of our specimen as compared to modern clinical studies we hypothesized two possible diagnoses: odontoma and enamel pearls. Enamel pearls show dento-enamel pearl nodules protruding from the enamel of a functional tooth. Odontoma presents as individual teeth with their own histological packaging (i.e. dentine and enamel). These results suggest that our specimen most likely had odontoma. In modern cases, this results in excess dentinal tissue growth and un-alignment of teeth. The cause of this odontoma in modern clinical practices is a result of either trauma or rapid tooth replacement. The canine tooth of this gorgonopsid was prone to trauma since it served to pierce prey and was subjected to intense forces. Alternatively, gorgonopsids replaced their teeth continuously. This continous replacement could have gone awry resulting in this disease. This study presents the oldest possible case of cancer in the fossil record and elucidates the evolution of such pathologies. This study has relevance in dental clinical studies because understanding how diseases operate in humans requires an understanding of how they evolved in our deep evolutionary history. 

Seattle has a well-established reputation as a progressive haven, and yet significant problems surround certain issues such as racial justice. One of the most striking examples is the current segregation of Seattle public schools; the north end schools are predominately White and the South End schools are predominately Black and Asian. My overall research question is: why is Seattle still unable to integrate its schools in 2016? To explore this question I am researching the mandatory bussing program that the city of Seattle instituted in 1977 that desegregated the schools within two years. This program was fiercely opposed by some community members, predominately White, at the time, and the main anti-bussing organizing group was the Citizens for Voluntary Integration Committee (CiVIC). I am using CiVIC as a case study and asking how it fits into a larger pattern of "Seattle racial backlash," a phenomenon that arises whenever Seattle tries to advance racial justice issues and involves predominately White community members pushing back against changes to the status quo. My qualitative methodology is primarily based on interviews with people that were involved with both sides of the bussing issue. My research thus far suggests that the ultimate downfall of bussing in Seattle was that the plan failed to attack the root of the school segregation problem, which was, and remains, housing segregation.