Chatham House Primer: Social media and democracy 21 March 2023 — 6:00PM TO 6:45PM Anonymous (not verified) 23 February 2023 Chatham House

From the Arab Spring to the 2016 Trump election win, how have democracies benefited and suffered from the impact of social media? 

With social media now a well-entrenched, yet still recent, component of societies, democracies are still grappling with the impact bought about by this new form of communication and promotion.

For all that social media has bought people closer together and brought government, business and civic leaders, it has also been said to have fuelled divisions and hate. Governments and businesses are now drawing battle lines on the legal responsibilities required of social media platforms as we slowly determine the role they play in our society.

This Primer will discuss key questions including:

• What are the current legal responsibilities of social media companies? What sort of laws and regulations must they abide by?
• How are governments looking to change to this?
• How have some countries manipulated social media to monitor and censor their populations?
• Can social media truly tackle harmful and dangerous content?
• Is it possible to combat disinformation and what role should social media platforms play?
• How can we make social media best fit our society in the future?
• How should we govern online space?

A drinks reception will follow this event.

As with all member events, questions from the audience drive the conversation.

McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc. entered into an agreement with the Labor Department on Monday resolving employment discrimination issues involving nearly 900 Black, Hispanic, and White applicants at a distribution center

Trump Media and Technology Group shares rose 15% in value on Tuesday as voters cast ballots on Election Day.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday his government will introduce legislation to ban children under 16 years of age from social media.

President-elect Donald Trump wants legal authorities to investigate what he said were possibly illegal rumors he is going to sell his majority stock stake in Trump Media. He claims he won't sell.

A low-carbohydrate diet may help adults with type 2 diabetes gain better blood sugar control and make it possible to decrease diabetes medication, a new study suggests.

Joel Bervell was one of the only Black students in his medical school program. After noticing how misconceptions about race were embedded in health care, he turned to social media to raise awareness about the harmful impact of biases in medicine. He unpacks the long history of race-based health care disparities — and shows what the medical field can do to better serve all patients.

What if AI could help connect you with the right medical care, exactly when you need it? Health systems entrepreneur, surgeon and TED Fellow Mohamed Aburawi explores how his digital health platform, Speetar, uses AI to bridge the healthcare gap in underserved regions, like his native Libya, by connecting patients with doctors who truly understand their needs.

Did you grow up in a world void of social media platforms? Then, you’re probably the last ‘lucky’ generation. A part of Generation Y and most of Generation Z have been raised alongside the internet and social media. Individuals belonging to the latter have practically been raised by such platforms, as they interact with strangers […]

The post Sacrificing the Human Psyche at the Altar of Social Media? 4 Concerning Ill-Effects to Know first appeared on What is Psychology?.

Matthew Utterback, the superintendent of the North Clackamas district in Oregon, was named last week as the 2017 National Superintendent of the Year.

Lawmakers in Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Utah have all gave previews this to their 2018 fiscal year budget proposals.

An Ohio appellate court struck down a district's policy allowing staff members to carry concealed weapons in school with 24 hours of "active shooter/killer training."

Public and private schools named for leaders of the Confederacy have come under renewed scrutiny amid the national Black Lives Matter protests.

The demand for substitute teacher positions is outpacing the supply, and the quality of those applying is a concern in many places.

Data suggest low-income communities are hit much harder than affluent ones, writes researcher Heather C. Hill.

An Education Week analysis found that at least 140 schools, almost all below the Mason-Dixon line, still bear the names of figures from that era.

Tennessee improved its teacher evaluation and training systems by integrating data and teacher voice, according to a new report. But value-added measures that evaluate teachers based on student test scores remain controversial.

Here's a clue: the governor has said the teachers' unions need to be punched in the face.

New Jersey used an incorrect method to calculate Medicaid reimbursements for services provided to students with disabilities, according to a federal audit, but the state disputes that claim.

Mary Jackson's story is among those depicted in the book "Hidden Figures," which focused on the lives of black women who worked as mathematicians and engineers for NASA during the Space Race. Before landing there, Jackson worked as a math teacher in Maryland.

Florida's governor signed a bill that will allow schools to arm classroom teachers, part of a longer list of school safety changes made after a school shooting in Parkland, Fla., last year.

Arming some school staff provides a needed safety option for rural districts far from law enforcement, educators told the Federal School Safety Commission during an Arkansas site visit Wednesday.

The Vancouver Canucks take on the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.

Texas Longhorns fans were very happy after the second edition of the College Football Playoff rankings were released Tuesday.

The court declined to take up an appeal backed by school groups of a ruling allowing some property taxpayers challenge their assessments in federal court.

Nebraska women’s basketball star Alexis Markowski was named to the Preseason Women’s Top 50 Watch List for the John R. Wooden Award. This news was confirmed on Thursday per a release from the athletic department. The award is given annually to that season's mos

Per GoBearcats:University of Cincinnati star forward Jillian Hayes has been named Big 12 Player of the Week, the conference announced on Monday. She becomes the first Bearcat to win a weekly Big 12 women's basketball honor in program history.

AMERICUS, Ga. — Georgia Southwestern State University graduate guard Destiny Garrett was named the Peach Belt Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week this afternoon by the league office. Garrett set a school record with 13 assists in the 17th-ranked Lady Hurricanes 85-61 win over Florida Tech on Saturday and completed her first-ever double-double with a career-best 21 points. Garrett ...

Tsuneya Ikezu
Oct 2, 2024; 44:e1170242024-e1170242024
Symposium

Christelle Anaclet
Dec 12, 2012; 32:17970-17976
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Fadel Zeidan
Nov 18, 2015; 35:15307-15325
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Abnormal neuronal morphological features, such as dendrite branching, axonal branching, and spine density, are thought to contribute to the symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, the role and molecular mechanisms of aberrant neuronal morphology in the regulation of mood disorders remain poorly characterized. Here, we show that neuritin, an activity-dependent protein, regulates the axonal morphology of serotonin neurons. Male neuritin knock-out (KO) mice harbored impaired axonal branches of serotonin neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex and basolateral region of the amygdala (BLA), and male neuritin KO mice exhibited depressive and anxiety-like behaviors. We also observed that the expression of neuritin was decreased by unpredictable chronic stress in the male mouse brain and that decreased expression of neuritin was associated with reduced axonal branching of serotonin neurons in the brain and with depressive and anxiety behaviors in mice. Furthermore, the stress-mediated impairments in axonal branching and depressive behaviors were reversed by the overexpression of neuritin in the BLA. The ability of neuritin to increase axonal branching in serotonin neurons involves fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling, and neuritin contributes to FGF-2-mediated axonal branching regulation in vitro. Finally, the oral administration of an FGF inhibitor reduced the axonal branching of serotonin neurons in the brain and caused depressive and anxiety behaviors in male mice. Our results support the involvement of neuritin in models of stress-induced depression and suggest that neuronal morphological plasticity may play a role in controlling animal behavior.

Reelin, a secreted glycoprotein, plays a crucial role in guiding neocortical neuronal migration, dendritic outgrowth and arborization, and synaptic plasticity in the adult brain. Reelin primarily operates through the canonical lipoprotein receptors apolipoprotein E receptor 2 (Apoer2) and very low-density lipoprotein receptor (Vldlr). Reelin also engages with noncanonical receptors and unidentified coreceptors; however, the effects of which are less understood. Using high-throughput tandem mass tag (TMT) liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based proteomics and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), we identified both shared and unique intracellular pathways activated by Reelin through its canonical and noncanonical signaling in primary murine neurons of either sex during dendritic growth and arborization. We observed pathway cross talk related to regulation of cytoskeleton, neuron projection development, protein transport, and actin filament-based process. We also found enriched gene sets exclusively by the noncanonical Reelin pathway including protein translation, mRNA metabolic process, and ribonucleoprotein complex biogenesis suggesting Reelin fine-tunes neuronal structure through distinct signaling pathways. A key discovery is the identification of aldolase A, a glycolytic enzyme and actin-binding protein, as a novel effector of Reelin signaling. Reelin induced de novo translation and mobilization of aldolase A from the actin cytoskeleton. We demonstrated that aldolase A is necessary for Reelin-mediated dendrite growth and arborization in primary murine neurons and mouse brain cortical neurons. Interestingly, the function of aldolase A in dendrite development is independent of its known role in glycolysis. Altogether, our findings provide new insights into the Reelin-dependent signaling pathways and effector proteins that are crucial for dendritic development.

Dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) have been repeatedly implicated in neuropsychiatric vulnerability, in part via their roles in mediating the decision-making processes. Although two neuromodulators share a synthesis pathway and are coactivated under states of arousal, they engage in distinct circuits and modulatory roles. However, the specific role of each neuromodulator in decision-making, in particular the exploration–exploitation tradeoff, remains unclear. Revealing how each neuromodulator contributes to exploration–exploitation tradeoff is important in guiding mechanistic hypotheses emerging from computational psychiatric approaches. To understand the differences and overlaps of the roles of these two catecholamine systems in regulating exploration, a direct comparison using the same dynamic decision-making task is needed. Here, we ran male and female mice in a restless two-armed bandit task, which encourages both exploration and exploitation. We systemically administered a nonselective DA antagonist (flupenthixol), a nonselective DA agonist (apomorphine), a NE beta-receptor antagonist (propranolol), and a NE beta-receptor agonist (isoproterenol) and examined changes in exploration within subjects across sessions. We found a bidirectional modulatory effect of dopamine on exploration. Increasing dopamine activity decreased exploration and decreasing dopamine activity increased exploration. The modulatory effect of beta-noradrenergic receptor activity on exploration was mediated by sex. Reinforcement learning model parameters suggested that dopamine modulation affected exploration via decision noise and norepinephrine modulation affected exploration via sensitivity to outcome. Together, these findings suggested that the mechanisms that govern the exploration–exploitation transition are sensitive to changes in both catecholamine functions and revealed differential roles for NE and DA in mediating exploration.

The precise regulation of Ca²⁺ signals plays a crucial role in the physiological functions of neurons. Here, we investigated the rapid effect of glucocorticoids on Ca²⁺ signals in cultured hippocampal neurons from both female and male rats. In cultured hippocampal neurons, glucocorticoids inhibited the spontaneous somatic Ca²⁺ spikes generated by Kv2.1-organized Ca²⁺ microdomains. Furthermore, glucocorticoids rapidly reduced the cell surface expressions of Kv2.1 and Ca_V1.2 channels in hippocampal neurons. In HEK293 cells transfected with Kv2.1 alone, glucocorticoids significantly reduced the surface expression of Kv2.1 with little effect on K⁺ currents. In HEK293 cells transfected with Ca_V1.2 alone, glucocorticoids inhibited Ca_V1.2 currents but had no effect on the cell surface expression of Ca_V1.2. Notably, in the presence of wild-type Kv2.1, glucocorticoids caused a decrease in the surface expression of Ca_V1.2 channels in HEK293 cells. However, this effect was not observed in the presence of nonclustering Kv2.1S586A mutant channels. Live-cell imaging showed that glucocorticoids rapidly decreased Kv2.1 clusters on the plasma membrane. Correspondingly, Western blot results indicated a significant increase in the cytoplasmic level of Kv2.1, suggesting the endocytosis of Kv2.1 clusters. Glucocorticoids rapidly decreased the intracellular cAMP concentration and the phosphorylation level of PKA in hippocampal neurons. The PKA inhibitor H89 mimicked the effect of glucocorticoids on Kv2.1, while the PKA agonist forskolin abrogated the effect. In conclusion, glucocorticoids rapidly suppress Ca_V1.2-mediated Ca²⁺ signals in hippocampal neurons by promoting the endocytosis of Kv2.1 channel clusters through reducing PKA activity.

Impaired inhibitory synapse development is suggested to drive neuronal hyperactivity in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and epilepsy. We propose a novel mechanism by which astrocytes control the development of parvalbumin (PV)-specific inhibitory synapses in the hippocampus, implicating ephrin-B/EphB signaling. Here, we utilize genetic approaches to assess functional and structural connectivity between PV and pyramidal cells (PCs) through whole-cell patch–clamp electrophysiology, optogenetics, immunohistochemical analysis, and behaviors in male and female mice. While inhibitory synapse development is adversely affected by PV-specific expression of EphB2, a strong candidate ASD risk gene, astrocytic ephrin-B1 facilitates PV->PC connectivity through a mechanism involving EphB signaling in PV boutons. In contrast, the loss of astrocytic ephrin-B1 reduces PV->PC connectivity and inhibition, resulting in increased seizure susceptibility and an ASD-like phenotype. Our findings underscore the crucial role of astrocytes in regulating inhibitory circuit development and discover a new role of EphB2 receptors in PV-specific inhibitory synapse development.

A new study from Smithsonian scientists analyzes ant and fungus species, and uncovers the origins of their close partnership

Rome, 2 December 2014 – The Ministers of Agriculture of the European Union and of other Mediterranean countries welcomed FAO’s transformational changes implemented in the last two years, and underlined [...]

The 2016-17 Programme of Work and Budget will consolidate the existing actions within the Medium Term Plan and the Strategic Framework, emphasizing areas to reflect recent trends and developments, with [...]

MANUEL PLANELLES, EL PAÍS, Paris- “Agriculture is seen as a threat in the fight against climate change,” Maria Helena Semedo warns. The Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization [...]

FAO was the international guest of honour at the 2017 Salon Goûts et Terroirs, a Swiss cultural and gastronomic exhibition that took place from 29 November - 3 December.

In 1963, civil rights leader Medgar Evers arrived home when he was shot and killed. It would be over 30 years before his killer was brought to justice.

A London blacksmith has perfected a technique known as pattern welding to create elaborately-designed replica Saxon swords and knives. He demonstrates his technique on camera.

A step-by-step tour of the renovation of the National Museum of American History (Narration by Beth Py-Lieberman / Edited by Ryan Reed and Brian Wolly)

Read more about SONG 1: http://j.mp/GTZ0Ru & http://j.mp/GVlcMx Watch how artist Doug Aitken transforms the outside of the art museum into a panoramic movie screen

David Lynch | Smithsonian Magazine’s 2016 American Ingenuity Award Winner for Education As a filmmaker, Lynch has a reputation for creating dark, surreal movies such as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart as well as the TV show “Twin Peaks.” In the education world, he's becoming known for something very different: promoting inner peace. Over the past decade, the David Lynch Foundation has sponsored Transcendental Meditation classes for half a million children in places as far-flung as the Bronx, Detroit, Los Angeles, Congo and the West Bank. The program, called Quiet Time, is now at the center of one of the largest-ever studies of meditation for children—a 6,800-pupil research project conducted by the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago and designed to learn if meditation can help kids in highly stressful environments fare better at home and in school. Read more about Lynch’s work: http://smithmag.co/9sHhtm | #IngenuityAwards And more about the American Ingenuity Awards: http://smithmag.co/77xPqy

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered microRNA, tiny molecules that play a crucial role in how cells develop, paving the way for new treatments for diseases

The new research could change history's understanding of the sprawling trade network that connected Europe and the Middle East to East Asia