In the early days of the Internet, both conventional wisdom and scholarship deemed online communication a threat to well-being. Later research has complicated this picture, offering mixed evidence about how technology-mediated communication affects users. With the dawn of social network sites, this issue is more important than ever. A close examination of the extensive body of research on social network sites suggests that conflicting results can be reconciled by a single theoretical approach: the interpersonal-connection-behaviors framework. Specifically, we suggest that social network sites benefit their users when they are used to make meaningful social connections and harm their users through pitfalls such as isolation and social comparison when they are not. The benefits and drawbacks of using social network sites shown in existing research can largely be explained by this approach, which also posits the need for studying specific online behaviors in future research.

Narrative transportation theory suggests that individuals' cognitive, emotional and imagery immersion in a narrative is a key mechanism of attitude, belief and behavior change. This theory provides a potentially generative and psychologically grounded framework for increasing knowledge about the boundary conditions and processes underlying the effects of entertainment media on tobacco use.

With an optimized expression cassette consisting of the soybean (Glycine max) native promoter modified for enhanced expression driving a chimeric gene coding for the soybean native amino-terminal 86 amino acids fused to an insensitive shuffled variant of maize (Zea mays) 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD), we achieved field tolerance in transgenic soybean plants to the HPPD-inhibiting herbicides mesotrione, isoxaflutole, and tembotrione. Directed evolution of maize HPPD was accomplished by progressively incorporating amino acids from naturally occurring diversity and novel substitutions identified by saturation mutagenesis, combined at random through shuffling. Localization of heterologously expressed HPPD mimicked that of the native enzyme, which was shown to be dually targeted to chloroplasts and the cytosol. Analysis of the native soybean HPPD gene revealed two transcription start sites, leading to transcripts encoding two HPPD polypeptides. The N-terminal region of the longer encoded peptide directs proteins to the chloroplast, while the short form remains in the cytosol. In contrast, maize HPPD was found almost exclusively in chloroplasts. Evolved HPPD enzymes showed insensitivity to five inhibitor herbicides. In 2013 field trials, transgenic soybean events made with optimized promoter and HPPD variant expression cassettes were tested with three herbicides and showed tolerance to four times the labeled rates of mesotrione and isoxaflutole and two times the labeled rates of tembotrione.

Active learning instructional techniques, often characterized by paired or small group work (e.g., problem solving, discussion), are typically associated with improved student performance.Socially anxious students may, however, experience unique interpersonal and learning challenges due to the social nature of these techniques. Despite its prevalence among college students, little research has examined how social anxiety relates to students experience of active learning, and whether socially anxious students derive the same benefits from it. Across three studies conducted in college classrooms (combined N = 569), we found that many college students met clinical thresholds for social anxiety (30.1%, 58.9%, and 61.3%), social anxiety was positively associated with discomfort in the active learning environment (r = .52, β = .61, and β = .65), early course performance did not moderate the social anxiety and active learning discomfort relationship (β = -.01 and β = .11), and even after controlling for GPA, social anxiety and active learning discomfort interacted to predict final course grades (β = -.22). These studies add nuance to the active learning literature, and suggest the need for further research on how to best utilize these techniques for socially anxious students.