Trending on Pinterest: an examination of pins about skin tanning.

Rates of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers are on the rise in the USA with data revealing disproportionate increase in female young adults. The popularity of intentional skin tanning among U.S. adolescents is attributed to several factors, including prioritization of physical appearance, media images of tanned celebrities, ease of availability of artificial tanning facilities, and more recently, the prevalence and celebration of tanned skin on social media. Pinterest, as the third most popular social media platform, was searched for "pins" about skin tanning. The resultant "pins" were examined to understand the extent and characteristics of skin tanning portrayed on Pinterest. We analyzed pins on Pinterest about skin tanning (n = 501) through a quantitative content analysis. Overall, results indicated an overwhelmingly protanning characteristic of pins about skin tanning on Pinterest, with over 85% of pins promoting tanning behavior. The pins were generally characterized by the portrayal of a female subject (61%) and provided positive reinforcement for tanning (49%). Use of tanning for enhancing appearance was the main positive outcome expectancy portrayed in the pins (35%), and nudity or exposure of skin on arms (32%) and legs (31%) was evident in about a third of pins. With overwhelmingly positive pins promoting tanning, use of female subjects, exhibiting nudity, and appearance enhancement, there seems be to a consistent targeting of female users to accept tanning as a socially acceptable and popular behavior. The findings indicate a need for developing sun protection messages and the leveraging of social media for dissemination of skin cancer prevention and detection messages.

Studies on the nature of interaction of iron(III) with alginates.

The interactions between the polysaccharide alginate and iron(III) were investigated. The solution properties were studied through pH-metry, viscometry, zeta potential and particle size measurements. In the presence of alginate, iron(III) was stabilized and no precipitation was observed. Studies indicate that iron(III)-alginate system was more stable than iron(III) or alginate alone. The binding constant is of the order of 10(4) M(-1). A case for 'site binding model' for the interaction between alginate and Fe(III) has been made based on the studies using circular dichroism and zeta potential experiments. The number of binding sites per molecule of alginate has been estimated to be 66. This indicates that the alginate can bind more number of Fe(III) ions and thus provide a stable complex which can find wide industrial applications.