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Human Behavior

Sandboxing Link Isolation: Solution to Neutralize Malicious URLs – Spiceworks News and Insights

Isolating malicious links and attachments in a sandbox environment allows you to develop and test low-risk applications safely. In addition, sandboxing catches and quarantines evasive, harmful email content and associated attachments, discusses Oliver Paterson, product director of VIPRE Security Group.

Sandboxing protects organizations from phishing, viruses, and malware using advanced technology to quarantine harmful email attachments that can evade other antivirus or anti-spam software. Such solutions also identify new malware and viruses that have never been seen before the email reaches an inbox. Using link isolation, IT teams can detect how a link behaves in the sandbox environment using an isolated browser not connected to the network.

It scans the site against known malicious website lists and AV engines and follows the link to its destination path. In addition, machine learning and heuristic engines look for zero-day and polymorphic threats that are otherwise undiscoverable with traditional signature-based scanning techniques. Therefore, you get deeper and more complete protection.

While emails are vitally important to business communication, there are risks. Cybercriminals are developing more sophisticated attacks daily to scam distracted users. Emails are still a scammers primary attack vector for cyber threats. According to Verizons 2022 DBIROpens a new window , 82% of data breaches involve a human element, including phishing and the use of stolen credentials. This figure is supported by research from the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), whose most recent Internet Crime ReportOpens a new window found that phishing is the most prevalent threat in the US.

And ransomware is also a rapidly growing threat category that can affect your entire network. It can restrict access to files, devices, servers or even take an entire network offline. This results in significant productivity, financial and reputational losses.

Cybercrime is still big business, with larger players attacking companies of all sizes using email as their route in. The traditional methods for blocking known bad URLs and sandboxing attached files are no longer suitable for these increasingly sophisticated attacks.

Most businesses need more time or resources to address these evolving threats, leaving them exposed both legally and financially. School systems, municipalities, and small and medium-sized companies are the primary targets because their security holes leave them ripe for exploitation.

Email attacks can threaten your organization and end users. Hence, businesses need the right tools to deliver protection on the front end to fight threats and educate users on how to improve overall security.

A solid email isolation tool defends your email, users, and business with potent capabilities designed to neutralize cyberattacks through email. Using a tool that sees through cyber attackers tricks, such as authentic logos and branding is important, but educating your users to see through the same tactics is a perfect example of layered cyber security.. By neutralizing these threats and educating the users, the attacks become useless if they should reach your inbox.

Malicious URLs cannot automatically launch a threat and compromise your device, network, or users when the proper tools are used to neutralize them.

When links are rewritten, you are protected against cases where even legitimate websites have been compromised, something not all products can detect. A deep scan can reveal hidden and embedded components to ensure a messages validity. This scan can comprehend an entire chain, from the inbox back to linked web servers or services.

While cloud sandboxes are not new, many security products can only handle email file attachments. Instead, when sandboxing, consider a tool that extends the reach and impact of the cloud sandbox to isolate an entire message, including all URLs in an email message.

IT departments are challenged as cybercrime expands and becomes more sophisticated, launching new hacking-as-a-service in conjunction with phishing-embedded emails. However, they can only stay on top of known vectors or methods, the zero-day threats are much harder to protect against.

Link isolation is a powerful security tool that rewrites all links, sandboxes URLs and landing pages, intercepts click-throughs, and provides live feedback on threats. This prevents zero-day attacks from infiltrating your system.

There must be more than intelligent tools to solve the email safety problem. Human behavior and user error can have a detrimental effect on overall security. So, you must also address the human side of email security as a potential point of failure.

A good system immediately blocks a page when a user clicks on a suspicious link and can be used as training scenarios to better educate the user about the threat and the cybersecurity issues that could have ensued as a result. This helps inform the user and diminishes the probability they will be susceptible in the future. All Security Awareness training is not created equal; employees could watch an educational phishing video to drive the lesson home, yet great eLearning solutions actually increase the efficacy of a training program by ensuring employee engagement and can improve your organizations security posture.

The key is to find a powerful tool for fighting against both the technological and human elements of cybersecurity. A solution that is streamlined and straightforward to use and helps to protect your employees against any attack cybercriminals might throw your way.

How are you fighting malicious URLs? Share your thoughts and strategies on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window . Wed love to know!

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Sandboxing Link Isolation: Solution to Neutralize Malicious URLs - Spiceworks News and Insights

Human Behavior

Teenagers smoking marijuana: The brain research – WBEZ Chicago

The experiments setup, or rig as professor Kuei Tseng calls it, looks like a cartoon version of something cobbled together by a mad scientist.

Clear plastic hoses snake from jars and containers, down to two large liquid-filled beakers on the floor and back up and around, ending in a tiny pipette poised at an angle under a high-powered microscope. Its called a patch clamp, and it sounds like a backyard water fountain gurgling on the sixth floor of the University of Illinois Chicago medical building on Wood Street in Chicago.

A lab assistant spins a dial, bringing into focus on a screen a single rodent brain cell about one-seventh the diameter of a human hair. This tiny cell is from a teenage lab rat who had been high on tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in the marijuana plant, Cannabis sativa.

The cell will live only about five hours in this solution, but its reaction to stimuli during the experiment offers Tseng and his research team evidence to a question that has eluded scientists, parents, even educators: How bad is smoking pot for a teenager?

Tseng, 50, is one of the countrys foremost neuroscientists, and his lab rats, high on weed, are aiding our understanding of the long-term effects of cannabis on the teen brain. Over the past 20 years working in advanced research, mostly in Chicago institutions, Tseng has carved out a niche studying adolescent brain changes in Rattus.

Its no secret that getting high makes it harder for teens and adults to learn, remember, focus, use motor skills and do complicated things. And THC stays in the body for days, even weeks. But as for long-term effects mainly, Will smoking pot regularly at 16 make my kid a bust at age 30? Tsengs research suggests there is much more the public needs to know.

The rapid wave of marijuana legalization has moved faster than the research on its health impact, particularly when it comes to teens.

In 2020, Illinois became the 11th state to legalize marijuana for recreational use. The law, which requires buyers of recreational marijuana to be 21, presumed adult use. But no one doubts that weed, in all its forms, is more freely available, and perhaps more appealing in all its variety, to teens than ever before. More teens think of it as a natural substance, not a harmful drug, surveys show.

So far, the federal government hasnt witnessed a dramatic increase in young users, according to Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. One-fifth of the 17 million high school seniors have used cannabis in the last 30 days, according to Monitoring the Future, a recurring University of Michigan survey.

What has changed is the scientific evidence about what marijuana can do to the developing teen brain. Teens who use marijuana regularly are more likely to quit high school or not get a college degree, warns the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But whats the biological evidence for the concern?

Tsengs rodent studies indicate that regular marijuana use prevents the teen brain from fully maturing. Older studies showed IQ deficits in adults who were teens users. But those results were hotly contested by the scientific community itself, making the new research on both rodents and humansaided by recent advances in technology and more robust funding from American health agenciesso important.

Tseng, who trained as a medical doctor in Argentina, has become a key figure in the emerging field of biological psychiatry in the United States, and his research has uncovered big differences in the brains of adolescent and adult rodents.

Key to these differences are the brains internal cannabinoid system, a relatively recent discovery. Our brains are a virtual cannabis factory, producing their own supply that helps carry chemical messages to and from neurons. Cannabinoid receptors are in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thinking, concentration, movement and others and act like traffic signals to regulate almost every aspect of our functioning.

They turn up the heat, or signal hunger. They are also, Tsengs research shows, a vital mechanism in engineering an adaptive, mature brain through adolescence into adulthood.

When a person uses a vape pen or eats a gummy infused with THC, they ingest a substance that looks about the same to the brain as its natural cannabinoids. The ingested THC molecules flood the receptors with a wave of excess chemical messages that hijack the brains normal processing.

But in a teenager, the prefrontal cortex is still under construction, so to speak, and not fully developed until about age 20-25. Toying with that circuitry while it is still malleable appears to have long-lasting effects on intelligence, social behavior and other capabilities, according to the research of Tseng and other neuroscientists. In one of his studies, teenage lab rats, about 30 to 50 days old, were injected with THC. Rodents who were high during adolescence showed impaired learning lasting long into adulthood.

In such experiments, typically a rat will hear a buzzer, and receive a mild electrical pulse. When the rat hears the buzzer again, it freezes up, anticipating the pulse. After a few instances of a buzzer but no shock, the rat will learn and stop freezing up.

But when adult rats who were given THC as adolescents heard the buzzer, they kept freezing up again and again in the absence of any shock.

Tseng concluded that the rats adolescent brains were impaired by cannabis, and did not develop to their full potential in adulthood. They couldnt process the new information. That brain maturation process stopped somewhere. The normal gain of that maturation didnt happen.

It is a nightmare scenario for human parents: Having a child who is stuck in adolescence like one of Tsengs rats.

One night a few years ago, Tseng was invited to speak about his research at a bar in Lincoln Park in front of an audience of parents and teenagers. Parents wanted to know if it was healthy for their kids to smoke pot. The kids wanted to know how much was too much.

Tseng, who does not have kids of his own, told them he would rather the teens not use cannabis. But he added, I would never say, Dont do it. Its your call, not my call.

Tseng is hesitant to answer such questions authoritatively because theres so much more to learn, especially when it comes to human brains. How long is the period of susceptibility in adolescence? Why is cannabis delaying or stopping brain development? Can the effect be reversed?

This slow, painstaking research to investigate these questions is being carried on all over the world, including by a young cohort of scientists who worked in Tsengs lab.

Hanna Molla, 34, co-authored with Tseng a 2020 overview of rodent and human adolescent brain performance on cannabis. Mollas scholarly path began after she worked in a drug detox facility and became curious about why various drugs had such profound effects on peoples lives.

Theres so much thats not known about cannabis, said Molla, who is now conducting studies on microdosing LSD in the lab of veteran drug researcher Harriet de Wit, founder of the Human Behavioral Pharmacology Lab at the University of Chicago.

Another graduate student who rotated through Tsengs lab, Conor Murray, 33, is finishing up an experiment to see whether Tsengs rat results can be reproduced in humans. In a study at the UCLA Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids, Murray is using mobile headbands to measure brain waves and see if heavy, lifetime cannabis use shows up as a biomarker of brain development.

Tseng, meanwhile, is building new rigs for one of his most innovative studies yet. In the past, Tsengs lab injected rodents with straight THC. Under a five-year, $2 million grant proposal, a group of lab rats would inhale cannabis that is piped into a specially made box called a smoke jammer. They would get five puffs over 30 minutes; the next day, same thing, for about five days running.

He hopes it will help researchers learn more about how and why cannabis alters the normal maturing process of the teenage prefrontal cortex.

While Tseng is studying rodent brains, U.S. researchers are five years into the most comprehensive and thorough study ever done of brain development in young people. More than 11,000 children from age 9 are being tracked by more than 100 scientists at 21 study sites around the country, as they grow up, develop and mature to age 20. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study will track drug and alcohol use, screen time and many other formative influences.

Such a study has only become possible in the last 10 years, because of technological improvements in data storage and brain imaging as well as leaps in understanding of the brain, said professor Krista Lisdahl, director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukees Brain Imaging and Neuropsychology Laboratory.

For Lisdahl, the ABCD study that she coordinates for UWM, is close to home. Her 14-year old son is the same age as the study volunteers.

Ive been living it, Lisdahl said. Having a kid and being a parent, it just increases my motivation to provide some evidence-based parenting advice.

Like Tseng, she is not anti-cannabis, but age and potency are two big risk factors in her eyes. The weed that previous generations got their hands on was pretty mild, about 2-6% THC. Today, its 15-25% for plant products, or flower. Some cannabis extract products such as edibles, oil, shatter and dab contain stratospheric THC levels, from 50% up to 90%. Vaping cannabis is especially risky, Lisdahl said, because the THC concentrations are higher, and the device is portable and easy to hide.

The way I explain it to my own son: I dont think its worth it in your teenage years. Youre laying the groundwork for your career, for your social groups, your physical and mental health.

The effects are subtle, Lisdahl said, but to me, if youre trying to build your brain, you want to avoid risk factors like cannabis and alcohol. It does not optimize your cognitive development.

These scientists view cannabis legalization in the United States as a gigantic national experiment involving almost 50 million Americans, and they eagerly anticipate the valuable data being generated. A nation once frightened by the 1936 propaganda film Reefer Madness now sees almost half its states collecting millions of dollars in new taxes, and a business sector earning billions in new revenue. Each day the powerful new industry continues its search for profitability and new markets.

The concerns of parents, and the health of their children, have gotten less attention. Scientists like Tseng and Lisdahl are doing their best to fill that void.

Zachary Nauth is a freelance writer who lives in Oak Park.

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Teenagers smoking marijuana: The brain research - WBEZ Chicago

Human Behavior

Brown widow spiders’ aggression likely driver – EurekAlert

image:Black widow spiders have earned a fearsome reputation for their venomous bite. But in parts of the southern United States these spiders have much to fear themselvesfrom spider relatives who really don't like their company. In the past couple decades, researchers have noticed black widow spiders (adult female shown at right) commonly being displaced by the brown widow (adult female at left), a fellow species in the same genus, Latrodectus. But new research suggests this isn't a just simple case of one species winning the competition for food or habitat. Instead, a study shows brown widow spiders have a striking propensity to seek out and kill nearby black widows. (Note: Images are not shown to matching scale and thus do not reflect relative sizes of the two spiders.) view more

Credit: Louis Coticchio

Annapolis, MD; March 13, 2023Black widow spiders have earned a fearsome reputation for their venomous bite. But in parts of the southern United States these spiders have much to fear themselvesfrom spider relatives who really don't like their company.

In the past couple decades, researchers have noticed black widow spiders commonly being displaced by the brown widow, a fellow species in the same genus, Latrodectus. But new research suggests this isn't a just simple case of one species winning the competition for food or habitat. Instead, a study shows brown widow spiders have a striking propensity to seek out and kill nearby black widows.

In experiments pairing brown widow spiders in container habitats with related cobweb spider species, the brown widows were 6.6 times more likely to kill southern black widows than other related species. The findings of the study, conducted by researchers at the University of South Florida (USF), are reported in an article to be published March 13 in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

"We have established brown widow behavior as being highly aggressive towards the southern black widows, yet much more tolerant of other spiders within the same family," says Louis Coticchio, who led the study as part of his undergraduate research at USF.

Brown widow spiders (Latrodectus geometricus) are believed to be native to Africa but have been introduced on all continents but Antarctica. Black widow spiders are native to North America and comprise two closely related species, the western black widow (Latrodectushesperus) and the southern black widow (Latrodectus mactans).

Coticchio spent the first part of his career as a zookeeper specializing in venomous animals in California and returned to Florida to earn a degree in biology, channeling a passion for spiders into his research projects. In collecting wild spiders in Florida, he says he noticed brown widows displacing black widows but not other related species. This got him wondering.

"I had a sneaking suspicion that Florida in particular provided plenty of food and habitat for both the brown and black widow, and that there was possibly some other area such as behavioral differences that were playing a role," he says. "My observations in the field showed that brown widows appeared to be much more tolerant of other species outside of their genus, and so if resources were the main factor, then we should have seen the same behavior with other spiders competing for the same resources, but that did not seem to be that case."

Coticchio partnered with advisor Deby Cassill, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at USF. Along with spider expert Richard Vetter of the University of California, Riverside, they devised a three-part study to explore the potential drivers of brown widows displacing black widows.

One element of their study applied mathematical modeling to the risk factors to survival that brown and black widow spiders face, which showed both species are far more likely to die by predation than by starvation. In other words, "competition for scarce resources is not a significant cause of mortality among spiderlings for either species," the researchers say.

They also compared rates of growth and fertility between brown and black widows, finding that sub-adult brown widow females were 9.5 percent larger than black widows, and adult female brown widows reached reproductive maturity 16 percent sooner. While adult male brown widows were 25 percent smaller than adult male black widows, they reached reproductive maturity 21 percent sooner. Meanwhile, brown widow females were about twice as fertile as black widows, with brown widows often producing multiple egg sacs at a time versus black widows producing just one.

Placing brown widows in proximity with black widows and other spider species, however, showed the clearest results. Sub-adult brown widow females simply cohabitated with red house spider (Nesticodes rufipes) females in 50 percent of pairings and were killed and consumed by the red house spiders in 40 percent. Brown widows cohabitated with triangulate cobweb spiders (Steatoda triangulosa) in 80 percent of pairings and were killed in just 10 percent. But when sub-adult brown and black widow females were paired, the brown widows killed and consumed the black widows in 80 percent of pairings. In pairings of adults, black widows were killed in 40 percent of trials, while they defensively killed brown widows in 30 percent of trials and cohabitated in the remaining 30 percent.

Throughout the experiments, brown widow spiders regularly ventured into black widow webs, the researchers say. Red house spiders and triangulate cobweb spiders also showed such "bold" behavior, but black widows were never observed as aggressors.

"We didn't expect to find such a dramatic and consistent difference in the personalities of the brown widow and the black widow," Cassill says. "Brown widows are boldly aggressive and will immediately investigate a neighbor and attack if there is no resistance from the neighbor. For two bold spiders, the initial attack is often resolved by both individuals going to separate corners and eventually being OK with having a nearby neighbor. The black widows are extremely shy, counterattacking only to defend themselves against an aggressive spider."

The characterization of brown widow spiders as "aggressive," however, is a relative term, reflecting their stance toward black widow spiders, but not toward humans. While widow spiders are "synanthropic" (i.e., commonly found around human-made structures, such as barns, garages, and sheds), they "are very shy when harassed by humans or larger animals that are not considered prey," Coticchio says. "They will run or roll up into a ball and play dead when being attacked or harassed by most other animals outside of their prey range." Brown widow venom causes less severe reactions to humans than black widows, and bites to people are very rare.

Brown widow spiders' evident aggression toward black widows raises many questions, perhaps first and foremost: Why? What drives such behavior toward a closely related species? The researchers note that invasive species typically outcompete natives through advantages in factors such as fertility, growth, dispersal, or defenses against predators. Direct predation by an invasive species on its native relative, across the animal kingdom, is rare.

"One question I would love to answer is how brown widows interact with other species of spiders, more specifically black widows in Africa, where brown widows are believed to have originated," Coticchio says. "I would love to see if their behavior and displacement of black widows is something that they have adapted here in North America, or if this behavior is something they exhibit naturally even in areas where they have coevolved with black widows for much longer periods of time."

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"Predation by the Introduced Brown Widow Spider (Araneae: Theridiidae) May Explain Local Extinctions of Native Black Widows in Urban Habitats" will be published online on March 13, 2023, in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Journalists may request advance copies of the article via the contact below or download the published paper after 10 a.m. March 13, 2023, athttps://academic.oup.com/aesa/advance-article/doi/10.1093/aesa/saad003/7044733.

CONTACT: Joe Rominiecki, jrominiecki@entsoc.org, 301-731-4535 x3009

ABOUT: ESA is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Founded in 1889, ESA today has more than 7,000 members affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, the Society stands ready as a non-partisan scientific and educational resource for all insect-related topics. For more information, visit http://www.entsoc.org.

The Annals of the Entomological Society of America publishes cutting-edge entomological research, reviews, collections of articles, and discussions of topics of broad interest and national or international importance. It aims to stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue across the entomological disciplines and advance cooperative interaction among diverse groups of entomologists. For more information, visit https://academic.oup.com/aesa, or visit http://www.insectscience.org to view the full portfolio of ESA journals and publications.

Annals of the Entomological Society of America

Experimental study

Animals

Predation by the Introduced Brown Widow Spider (Araneae: Theridiidae) May Explain Local Extinctions of Native Black Widows in Urban Habitats

13-Mar-2023

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Brown widow spiders' aggression likely driver - EurekAlert

Human Behavior

Celebrity sightings have a built-in contradiction – UC Riverside

Their popularity makes celebrities easy to spot. Strangers, however, can also get mistaken for celebrities, resulting in cases of false celebrity sightings. In attempting to explain the contradiction, a University of California, Riverside, study reports that celebrity faces are remembered more precisely but less accurately.

(UCR/Zhang lab)

Precision, in this context, refers to how memories for a particular face resemble each other over repeated memory retrievals, which can be likened to the clustering of arrows on a target in archery. Accuracy measures how remembered faces resemble newly encountered faces or the deviation from the target in archery.

What our findings say is that people might accept errors by misidentifying someone as a celebrity in the interest of securing a celebrity sighting, said Weiwei Zhang, an associate professor of psychology, who led the study that appears in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. Our study explains why people are good and bad at spotting celebrities and highlights the importance of assessing both memory imprecision and bias in memory performance.

The study tested 52 college students memory for morphed faces that looked like the celebrities Anne Hathaway, Brad Pitt, Zendaya Coleman, or George Clooney. The goal was to assess whether and how prior familiarity with celebrities affects participants memory performance.

An example of the morphed faces used in the face-change-detection task. (UCR/Zhang lab)

The researchers collected a total of eight face stimuli: those of Hathaway, Pitt, Coleman, and Clooney, and four non-celebrity faces. Participants were first briefly presented with a photo of a celebrity or non-celebrity. After a short interval, they were presented with a test face and asked if it was the same face as the studied face (test faces were the same half the time and altered the rest of the time). For instance, if the first photo was 100% celebrity, the test face could be altered to 78% celebrity 50% of the time, Zhang said. The same procedure was followed when participants were first shown photos of non-celebrities.

We found that familiarity with celebrities led to sharpened and more precise memories for celebrities as compared to non-celebrities, he said. But it also led to impaired memory accuracy, where celebrity lookalikes or morphed faces were misremembered as celebrities.

According to Zhang, the findings can help explain a tradeoff in human behavior.

Familiarity with celebrities in our study is key for the variance-bias tradeoff in face recognition for celebrities, he said. We don't seem to do this for anyone else.

Bias and variance are prediction errors. The total error is the sum of these two error terms, resulting in a trade-off between the two. In machine learning, bias is the difference between the average prediction and the correct value. Variance is a measure of the spread of data points. The variance-bias tradeoff, as its name suggests, is the tradeoff between variance and bias. Finding a good balance between these prediction errors helps minimize the total error.

Zhang explained that human cognition appears to work like machine learning; where cognition is concerned, variance, which is the opposite of precision, and bias, which is the opposite of accuracy, would need to trade off each other to maximize the opportunity to process and represent information.

The conventional wisdom is that we want our memory to be super accurate and precise, he said. But such a rigid memory would not be able to accommodate the variance seen in natural stimuli. For instance, with different lighting conditions, makeup, dresses, and hairstyle, a persons look can vary greatly. Our memories have to be noisy and vague enough high variance to support face recognition with all the variance we find in looks. However, when our memory is vague, face recognition can fail from time to time, which is not optimal in celebrity sightings, given that we don't want to miss encounters with celebrities. So as a solution, we introduce recognition biases in the mix. We start identifying strangers or celebrity lookalikes as celebrities as an overcorrection for vague memories.

Zhang is unsure if the findings have applications beyond faces to objects and places, for example.

It is at least theoretically possible that the variance-bias trade off may be extended to objects and places of importance to individuals, he said. We think our findings may be related to dj vu experiences in that we may have inaccurate but subjectively strong memories.

Next, the research team plans to conduct research to assess how memory accuracy and precision interact with each other and how these two aspects of memories are encoded in the brain.

Zhang was joined in the study by BoYeong Won and HyungBum Park. Won is now an assistant professor of psychology at California State University Chico. Park is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the lead federal agency for research on mental disorders.

The research paper is titled Familiarity enhances mnemonic precision but impairs mnemonic accuracy in visual working memory.

Header image credit:Robert Daly/Getty Images.

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Celebrity sightings have a built-in contradiction - UC Riverside

Human Behavior

Beaufort responds to the death of Tyre Nichols. Can it happen here? – Charleston Post Courier

BEAUFORT On an unseasonably warm late-winter day, notable for clouds of biting gnats that descended on Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park, several dozen people gathered to honor Tyre Nichols and hear city officials discuss the relationship between the police and local residents.

Following the Jan. 10 beating death of Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers, Beaufort Councilman Mitch Mitchell noted that city officials had fielded questions from residents about the likelihood of a similar incident occurring here.

To address some of those questions, Mayor Stephen Murray and the council has reviewed procedures with police Chief Dale McDorman.

Several dozen people attend an event organized by the City of Beaufort to discuss the death of Tyre Nichols held in Beaufort, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023. Nichols was beaten to death by Memphis police officers, who now face criminal charges in the wake of the beating. Tony Kukulich/Staff

While he expressed a high level of confidence in the city's police force, Murray acknowledged the impossibility of guaranteeing Beaufort would never see a situation like the one involving Nichols.

"I'll stop just short of saying that an incident that happened in Memphis could never happen in our hometown, as the chaos and unpredictability of the world that we live in has shown me that almost anything is possible," Murray said at a Feb. 25 event.

Speaking to The Post and Courier, McDorman said law enforcement too often waits for a tragic incident before they discuss policing issues.

"We're finally realizing that you have to get in front of these things before they happen," he said.

By discussing police procedures in public, the chances of avoiding dangerous situations in the future are improved, he added.

According to reports, officers from the Memphis Police Department stopped Nichols, a29-year-old Black man, on Jan. 7 for reckless driving.

Video of the nighttime incident shows Nichols being pulled from his car as police officers shout commands. As the situation escalated, officers pepper sprayed Nichols before tasing him. Nichols then fled.

Several minutes later, police again detained Nichols. He can be heard in a video shouting for his mother, who lived a short distance from where he was being beaten.

Emergency medical personnel were dispatched to the scene. The New York Times reported that, after crews arrived, they waited 19 minutes to begin treatment.

Nichols died three days later.

Following the incident, five officers, all of whom are Black, were fired and now face a variety of criminal charges. Two additional Memphis police officers and three members of the Memphis Fire Department were also fired for their actions related to the incident.

Mitchell, a councilman who was shocked by the brutality of the beating that led to Nichols' death, received calls from residents who thought an event to commemorate Nichols was in order. Mitchell saw an opportunity for an open discussion of the incident in Memphis in the context of local community policing efforts.

After speaking with the mayor, city manager and other council members, Mitchell took the lead on a plan to bring elected officials, law enforcement and the public together for a difficult conversation.

"I thought it was an opportunity for ourcity to show its heart and do something to commemorate his memory, and to leverage this unfortunate experience as a relationship-building opportunity for our law enforcement in our community," Mitchell said during his opening remarks.

City of Beaufort Councilman Mitch Mitchell makes opening remarks during an event organized by the city to discuss the death of Tyre Nichols held in Beaufort, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023. Nichols was beaten to death by Memphis police officers, who now face criminal charges in the wake of the beating. Tony Kukulich/Staff

McDorman offered an assessment of the actions of the Memphis police related to Nichols' beating. While still waiting for the full story to come out, ... "I can tell you that I'm fairly confident that what I saw on that was a criminal act conducted by criminals," he said.

The chief added that, like Murray, he is confident his officers would not engage in the behavior witnessed in Memphis.

"There are no guarantees when you're dealing with human behavior," McDorman said. "However, I sleep very well at night, and I'm very comfortable feeling that this is not something that would happen as the Beaufort Police Department."

He credited the department's hiring, as well as the training his officers receive, as being differentiating factors.

Deputy Chief Stephenie Price of the Beaufort Police Department speaks with an attendee after an event organized by the City of Beaufort to discuss the death of Tyre Nichols held in Beaufort, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023. Nichols was beaten to death by Memphis police officers, who now face criminal charges in the wake of the beating. Tony Kukulich/Staff

Each Beaufort police applicant is subject to apsychological exam, polygraph test, background check and a review of the applicant's social media presence, McDorman said. Officers receive de-escalation and bias-based profiling training annually.

The department also randomly reviews video from body cameras and from inside police cars. Every incident in which an officer has to apply force greater than a voice command is documented and reviewed by multiple levels in the department's chain of command up to and including the chief.

The rigorous pre-hiring process sometimes means filling open positions takes longer, a tradeoff McDorman is willing to make. He added that he'd rather the department pass up a qualified applicant than accept someone who ultimately proves unqualified.

Attendees join hands during the closing prayer offered by Pastor Theresa Roberts after an event organized by the City of Beaufort to discuss the death of Tyre Nichols held in Beaufort, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023. Nichols was beaten to death by Memphis police officers, who now face criminal charges in the wake of the beating. Tony Kukulich/Staff

Mitchell said that the news of Nichols' death left him feeling like he needed to do something.

"It's good to know that other citizens were thinking similarly," he said.

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Beaufort responds to the death of Tyre Nichols. Can it happen here? - Charleston Post Courier

Human Behavior

Defining the Psychosexual Thriller Genre in Movies and TV (With … – No Film School

Things can get a little weird in the psychosexual thriller sub-genre.

Do you like your movies and TV shows to be a little titillating? The psychosexual thriller genre in movies and TV is a complex, yet fascinating genre that explores the darker side of relationships.

These stories often involve sexual tension, psychological manipulation, and danger. They are designed to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. They are closely aligned withpsychological thrillersas well.

Some of the most popular and iconic films and TV shows of the past few decades like Fatal Attraction, Gone Girl, and YOU have been psychosexual thrillers.

In this article, we will define the psychosexual thriller genre in movies and TV, and explore some of the key themes and tropes that make these stories so compelling. We will also look at examples of some of the most notable films and TV shows in this genre to give you a better understanding of what makes a great psychosexual thriller.

Strap in because things are about to get hot up in here.

What makes psychosexual thrillers exciting is their ability to tap into our primal fears and desires. These stories often explore themes of obsession, manipulation, and power dynamics, which can be both exhilarating and terrifying.

Additionally, the sexual tension between characters in these films and TV shows adds another layer of complexity and intrigue to the story.

The psychosexual thriller genre in movies and TV typically involves a story that combines elements of psychological suspense, sexual tension, and danger. These stories often explore the darker side of human relationships, particularly those involving power dynamics and sexual attraction.

These movies and TV shows feature main characters that are often involved in complex, manipulative relationships that are driven by sexual desire and obsession. The storylines frequently involve psychological gamesmanship, as characters try to gain the upper hand over one another.

Themes in psychosexual thrillers can include sexual exploitation, emotional manipulation, sexual violence, and sexual identity. The genre often includes elements of mystery, as the audience is often left guessing about the true intentions and motivations of the characters.

Penn Badgley and Charlie Barnett in YOUCredit: Netflix

Psychosexual thrillers also keep us on the edge of our seats with their unpredictable twists and turns. The tension and suspense created by these stories can be incredibly thrilling, making it difficult to look away or stop watching.

What are some tropes that build this genre?Let's break them down:

Power dynamics: These films often explore power imbalances in relationships, where one character may be trying to exert control over another. This can manifest as a boss and employee relationship, a teacher and student relationship, or even a romantic relationship.

Manipulation: Characters in psychosexual thrillers are often manipulative and use their charm, wit, and sexual prowess to get what they want from others. They may use lies, deceit, and even violence to achieve their goals.

Obsession: Characters in these films often become obsessed with one another, either sexually or emotionally. This can lead to stalking, violence, and even murder.

Dual identities: Many psychosexual thrillers feature characters with dual identities, such as serial killers who are also respected members of society. This adds an element of suspense and mystery to the story.

Sexuality: Sexuality is a key theme in psychosexual thrillers, and characters may use their sexuality to manipulate others. Sexual tension is often a major part of the story as characters use sex as a weapon or a means of control. Typically, stock characters like a femme fatale are used to ensnare their lovers in deadly traps.

Unreliable narration: These films often play with the audience's perceptions of reality, using unreliable narration and unexpected plot twists to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

Psychological trauma: Many psychosexual thrillers feature characters who have experienced some form of psychological trauma, which may be driving their behavior. This trauma can be linked to past sexual abuse, childhood trauma, or other traumatic experiences.

'Fatal Attraction'Credit: Paramount Pictures

The psychosexual thriller genre is important for several reasons. First, it provides a space for exploring the complex and often taboo subjects related to sexuality and power dynamics. These themes are not always easy to discuss in real life, but psychosexual thrillers offer a way to examine them in a controlled and safe environment.

Second, psychosexual thrillers challenge our assumptions and perceptions about human relationships. They force us to confront uncomfortable truths about ourselves and the people around us, and they can serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers of obsession, manipulation, and violence.

Finally, the psychosexual thriller genre is simply a fascinating and engaging genre of storytelling. It provides a unique blend of suspense, mystery, and sexual tension, making for a thrilling and often unpredictable viewing experience. Whether we're watching a classic film or a modern TV show, we can't help but be drawn into the complex and seductive world of the psychosexual thriller.

'Big Little Lies'Credit: Warner Bros. Television Distribution

This genre often involves complex and morally ambiguous characters, which can be both compelling and thought-provoking. These characters are not always easy to understand or sympathize with, but they offer a glimpse into the darker aspects of human behavior and relationships.

What better place to explore them than TV?

'Killing Eve'Credit: IMG

What makes psychosexual thrillers so exciting is their ability to captivate and challenge viewers, drawing us into a world of intrigue, suspense, and danger. All of these thematics and ideals are fun to explore in movies.

'Black Swan'Credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures

The psychosexual thriller genre is a unique and fascinating genre that continues to captivate audiences around the world.

With its exploration of power dynamics, manipulation, obsession, and sexuality, this genre delves into some of the most complex and taboo aspects of the human mind and relationships.

Whether you're a fan of classic films like Basic Instinct or newer TV shows like You, there is no denying the enduring appeal of the psychosexual thriller. By understanding the key themes and tropes of this genre, viewers can gain a deeper appreciation for the artistry and complexity of these compelling stories.

What are some of your favorite psychosexual thrillers? Let us know in the comments!

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Defining the Psychosexual Thriller Genre in Movies and TV (With ... - No Film School

Human Behavior

What Makes Humans Tick? Exploring the Brains Sensory Network … – Neuroscience News

Summary: The sensory cortex is much more involved in threat processing and perception than previously believed.

Source: FSU

A Florida State University researchers work to understand exactly what part of the brain is involved in disorders such as anxiety, PTSD and other phobias is giving scientists and clinicians valuable insights into how to treat such disorders.

FSUProfessor of PsychologyWen Li has published a pair of papers that lay out how the brains sensory cortex is much more involved in the way potential threats are processed than scientists previously understood.

We are translating basic science done in the lab into treatment at the clinic, Li said. By isolating specific neural mechanisms and inventing non-invasive techniques to target these mechanisms, we are developing new treatments for these debilitating and hard-to-treat conditions.

Findings from her latest study were published this month inThe Neuroscientistalong with a review paper inTrends in Cognitive Sciences.

The sensory cortex refers to all cortical brain areas associated with sensory function. Its primary job is to detect information such as body temperature, touch, texture or pain. Li, who is also affiliated with FSUs Neuroscience Program, debunks the myth that the sensory cortex is absent from active threat evaluation and subservient to top-down instruction from other parts of the brain in the processing of threat information.

Identification of this new frontier the sensory cortex in the threat network will open many new opportunities and promises major breakthroughs in the research of threat processing and its various disorders that have affected humankind in general, for which there is still extremely limited remedy, Li said.

In the review piece published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Li and co-author Andreas Keil of the University of Florida synthesized a wide range of existing peer-reviewed research and findings from both human and animal models.

Li and Keil reviewed studies involving human brain activity, the magnetic fields generated by neuron activity, and blood flow associated with brain activity. They also examined how specific areas of damage in the brain affect behavior and cognition.

They complemented this work with a thorough review of animal studies utilizing optogenetics, which uses light and genetic engineering to control and track neural activity, providing more accurate information into which areas of the brain are involved in threat processing.

Mounting evidence from human and animal studies supports Lis concept of a new roadmap of how threats are processed in the sensory cortex.

This theory fills a long-standing gap and resolves an important controversy and myth in the research of threat processing, Li said.

The amygdala, an almond-shaped structure in the center of the brain, has been long considered by scientists to be the center of fear and thought to be largely responsible for how an individual responds to frightening circumstances or perceives threats.Research published by Liin 2022 revealed a new pathway to fear through the sensory cortex.

The brains sensory cortex stores long-term mnemonic representations of threat, meaning humans can re-live the past or simulate future scenarios by integrating features of a memory into their assessment of a new situation. This feature causes the brain to input information into the memory system about perceived environmental threats.

The resulting threat-filled sensory neurons then trigger downstream threat processing in the amygdala portion of the brain and other areas of the brain.

These ideas motivate a sensory account of threat processing, involving an initial threat evaluation in the sensory cortex and extending throughout the brains networks, Li said.

This understanding has the potential to revolutionize the conceptualization of threat-related disorders and their treatment.

For the past several decades, researchers had focused on a narrow view of exactly how the brain is able to quickly identify and respond to threats a critical survival skill.

Dr. Li has consistently been at the forefront of new, much broader models of threat processing involving many sensory systems, said Distinguished Research Professor and Director of FSUs Anxiety and Behavioral Health Clinic Brad Schmidt.

This work is reshaping how scientists understand fear and anxiety and may ultimately underpin new treatment methods. This review paper appears in one of the leading journals in the field and is very likely to be a seminal paper that will influence work in the area for the next decade.

Lis work in The Neuroscientist is a complement to the research in Trends and provides an in-depth analysis on how mnemonic representation of threat is stored in the brains sensory cortex.

Particularly, this research highlights the powerful content-addressable memory, arising from the architecture of the sensory cortex, that is capable of supporting smart fast and precise threat processing, Li said.

Li and co-author Donald Wilson of the New York University School of Medicine and the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research used similar review techniques to conduct this research, exploring more deeply into the brains basic cellular and microcircuit processes.

The sensory cortex stores engrams that hold our threat memories, and the simple, well-understood architecture of the olfactory, or piriform, cortex provides a primal entry point for research to unlock this mystery, Li said.

Both studies provide a springboard for further scientific research into the brains highly complex network of neural processes and represent a disruptive break from the long-held idea that threat conceptualization is centered on the amygdala or the limbic system.

Funding: This work was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Author: Kathleen HaughneySource: FSUContact: Kathleen Haughney FSUImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.Threat Memory in the Sensory Cortex: Insights from Olfaction by Wen Li et al. The Neuroscientist

Open access.Sensing fear: fast and precise threat evaluation in human sensory cortex by Wen Li et al. Trends in Cognitive Neuroscience

Abstract

Threat Memory in the Sensory Cortex: Insights from Olfaction

The amygdala has long held the center seat in the neural basis of threat conditioning. However, a rapidly growing literature has elucidated extra-amygdala circuits in this process, highlighting the sensory cortex for its critical role in the mnemonic aspect of the process.

While this literature is largely focused on the auditory system, substantial human and rodent findings on the olfactory system have emerged.

The unique nature of the olfactory neuroanatomy and its intimate association with emotion compels a review of this recent literature to illuminate its special contribution to threat memory.

Here, integrating recent evidence in humans and animal models, we posit that the olfactory (piriform) cortex is a primary and necessary component of the distributed threat memory network, supporting mnemonic ensemble coding of acquired threat.

We further highlight the basic circuit architecture of the piriform cortex characterized by distributed, auto-associative connections, which is prime for highly efficient content-addressable memory computing to support threat memory.

Given the primordial role of the piriform cortex in cortical evolution and its simple, well-defined circuits, we propose that olfaction can be a model system for understanding (transmodal) sensory cortical mechanisms underlying threat memory.

Abstract

Sensing fear: fast and precise threat evaluation in human sensory cortex

Animal models of threat processing have evolved beyond the amygdala to incorporate a distributed neural network.

In human research, evidence has intensified in recent years to challenge the canonical threat circuitry centered on the amygdala, urging revision of threat conceptualization.

A strong surge of research into threat processing in the sensory cortex in the past decade has generated particularly useful insights to inform the conceptualization.

Here, synthesizing findings from both animal and human research, we highlight sensitive, specific, and adaptable threat representations in the sensory cortex, arising from experience-based sculpting of sensory coding networks.

We thus propose that the human sensory cortex can drive smart (fast and precise) threat evaluation, producing threat-imbued sensory afferents to elicit network-wide threat responses.

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What Makes Humans Tick? Exploring the Brains Sensory Network ... - Neuroscience News

Emergency Medicine

Libyas Emergency Medicine and Support Center serves the people affected by the Turkeys Stricken Areas – EIN News

LIBYA, TRIPOLI, March 14, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Emergency Medicine and Support Center (EMSC) is a specialist center responsible for the provision of humanitarian assistance, medical care, and relief aid to people affected by war and natural disasters, in addition to the treatment of wounded victims and providing healthcare to all with impartiality.

Upon the instructions of His Highness, the Prime Minister of the National Unity Government, EMSC strives to provide medical care and relief aid to people affected by Turkey's stricken areas. The EMSC worked, together with the National Safety Authority, the Criminal Investigation Department, the Medical Treatment Support and Development Agency, and the Military Medicine Division, to dispatch a joint team for relief and rescue consisting of 106 medical and paramedical personnel. The team is divided into four groups and serves as humanitarian assistance.

The first group was stationed in Adana province and was assigned the task of coordinating logistics and follow-up.

The second group stationed in Jumhoriet district, Antakya, and Hatay province also contributed to rescue operations. The group recovered 69 bodies and pulled out six people alive. The location of 380 bodies was also determined, and the relevant Turkish authorities were informed.

In all duration, coordinates were provided to the authorities and were used by other foreign agencies to recover the bodies.

The third group was stationed in the Hattay Field Hospital, where first aid, advanced medical aid, resuscitation, and minor operations were provided to more than 600 cases. The group was the only one that worked hand in hand with Turkish personnel.

In addition, the fourth group conducted a field investigation of cases in camps set up for the displaced people near the epicenter of the earthquake in Jumhorit, district of Hatay Province. The group provides treatment and medication to more than 40 patients inside the aforementioned camps.

About Emergency Medicine and Support Center:

The Emergency Medicine and Support Center (EMSC) is a specialist center that provides services for the provision of humanitarian assistance, medical care, and relief aid to people affected by war and natural disasters such as flood disasters and earthquakes. Additionally, to the treatment of wounded victims and providing healthcare to all with impartiality. Consequently, the Libyan team, which consists of EMSC personnel, focuses on the treatment of Syrian cases as well as Arabic-speaking Turkish patients and other cases in general.

http://emsc.ly/

Tarek ElhamsharyEmergency Medicine and Support Centeremail us here

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Libyas Emergency Medicine and Support Center serves the people affected by the Turkeys Stricken Areas - EIN News

Emergency Medicine

Over 550 Emergency Medicine Positions Unfilled in This Year’s Match – Medpage Today

In this year's Match, 555 positions in emergency medicine went unfilled -- more than double the 219 unfilled positions last year and only 14 unfilled spots in the 2021 Match, according to preliminary data.

This year's data were shared across social media but not officially by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), and most of the spots will likely be filled in the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP). Nonetheless, emergency medicine physicians are concerned about the recent trend.

"It's a radical change," said Robert McNamara, MD, chair of emergency medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia and chief medical officer of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM). "If you go back 3 or 4 years, emergency medicine was one of the most competitive specialties."

The reasons for the jump in unfilled positions -- the exact spots and programs were also posted on social media -- are multifactorial, according to a joint statement from several emergency medicine groups published on the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) website. Reasons include workforce projections, increased clinical demands, emergency department boarding, economic challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic, the corporatization of medicine, and others.

"It's still a great profession, we just don't have the narrative we did 15 to 20 years ago," said Ryan Stanton, MD, an emergency medicine physician in Lexington, Kentucky, and an ACEP board member. "It's a negative narrative. We hear about struggles with payers, and threats of continued cuts. Students listen to that."

McNamara placed special emphasis on workforce issues -- in particular, a study by ACEP that warned of future challenges with emergency physician oversupply -- and on the increasing involvement of corporate entities.

"Emergency medicine residents always have among the highest debt of any specialty," McNamara said. "They have a strong sense of social justice and often don't come from privileged backgrounds ... so they're likely to accumulate debt."

Residents carrying a lot of debt who suspect they won't be able to get a job when they graduate may be deterred from entering the specialty, he noted.

Additionally, fewer graduates are finding placement with physician-owned groups, and instead more are working for corporate entities, which can impact physician autonomy, he added.

"Doctors who work for these companies don't like it," McNamara said. "They're burning out. They get treated like a money-making machine, like a cog in the wheel. ... Emergency medicine is a 24/7/365 specialty, and with the nature of the things we see, you can't do a difficult specialty long-term if you feel someone is taking advantage of you."

Facilities have created more emergency medicine residency spots in recent years, he pointed out, noting that, in a way, the specialty is a victim of its own success. "Once you attract talented doctors, you want more," he said. "Some hospitals say, wow, they have an emergency medicine residency, I want one too. We just created too many."

He said it's not just corporations pushing to create new positions, but academic centers as well.

Stanton was particularly concerned about the creation of new residency positions. "There are no guardrails on the number of programs, whether they're produced by HCA or the expansion of academic programs," he said. "You can open up a residency program as long as you meet ACGME [Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education] criteria."

"A residency program is not a cost-effective staffing strategy. It is an educational opportunity," he added. "Any program expanding simply to find a cheap workforce is doing it for the wrong reasons."

Bryan Carmody, MD, of Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, who posts frequently about Match data, noted in a blog post last fall that even while emergency medicine residency positions are up -- they more than doubled in the past 15 years -- the number of applicants took a significant dip last year, and fell again in this year's Match cycle.

"Regardless of why, the what is clear," Carmody wrote. "There are unquestionably fewer emergency medicine applicants. So the next question is, if you care about emergency medicine, what -- if anything -- should you do about it?"

In the joint statement, ACEP, AAEM, and others noted that they convened a Match Task Force to identify the factors that have led to the increase in unfilled positions, and to develop a strategy to mitigate the crisis.

"Although these are challenging results, emergency medicine remains a vibrant and appealing specialty for many, with almost 2,500 new trainees already joining the emergency medicine family," the group wrote.

McNamara said there are no easy solutions. "We have to restore emergency medicine to a practice where physicians can enjoy the job," he said. "It's not going to be good for a while."

Kristina Fiore leads MedPages enterprise & investigative reporting team. Shes been a medical journalist for more than a decade and her work has been recognized by Barlett & Steele, AHCJ, SABEW, and others. Send story tips to k.fiore@medpagetoday.com. Follow

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Emergency Medicine

I’m an ER pediatrician. Here are 7 things I never let my kid do – TODAY

Kids will be kids, and accidents happen, but certain activities carry more risk than others. Injury is still the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and unfortunately, many of these are preventable.

We spoke to pediatricians who are also parents about things theyd never let their children do because of the heightened risk of injury or death, and how to make sure your child is as safe as possible.

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of unintentional injury and death in the U.S., per the CDC. Children should always be in the backseat with the proper restraints, the experts note.

This means using the appropriate size and type of restraints whether thats a car seat, booster seat, seatbelt for their age, height and weight, Dr. Brent Kaziny, medical director of emergency management at Texas Childrens Hospital, tells TODAY.com.

While it may be obvious to buckle up younger children, parents also need to be vigilant about school-aged children and preteens, the experts say.

Even if a child seems large enough to ride in the passenger seat, stick to this hard and fast rule. My kids will not ride in the front seat before the age of 13, which is the recommended age that kids can move to the front, Dr. Katie Lockwood, a primary care pediatrician at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, tells TODAY.com.

The (front) airbags are potentially dangerous to children, whose skeletons are still developing and arent the right size to be in the front, says Lockwood, adding airbags can cause rib fractures, punctured lungs and injuries to the head, neck and spine.

No matter how much pressure kids put on their parents because their friends ride in the front, Lockwood stresses that 12-year-olds and younger go in the back, no matter how short the drive.

Unfortunately, the highs of this beloved backyard accessory may not be worth the lows. Some trampolines are riskier than others, the experts say.

Dr. Ee Tay, apediatric emergency medicine specialist at Hassenfeld Childrens Hospital at NYU Langone, tells TODAY.com that public trampolines or trampoline parks are out of the question for her kids. Theres just so many broken bones and orthopedic injuries, says Tay, adding that the uncontrolled environment and greater number of kids increases the risk of collisions and falls.

It depends on the weight of the child, how hard they can bounce, how high they can jump, if theres another child next to them. ... Its just very unpredictable, says Tay. Other trampoline-associated injuries include lacerations, concussions and spinal injuries.

While he does see many trampoline injuries, Kaziny says he thinks there are ways to do it safely. Trampolines that are in-ground or have enclosure nets are safer, and parents should always supervise trampoline sessions, minimize the number of kids jumping at once, and make sure there aren't significant differences in age or weight among kids, says Kaziny. (The same applies to bounce houses.)

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons recommends children under 6 do not use trampolines at all, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children only use them in supervised training programs for gymnastics or other sports.

My kids will never, ever go on an ATV. ... They are so dangerous, says Tay, adding that the all-terrain vehicles cause many preventable accidents among children. This applies to both riding and driving ATVs, though most are built for just one person.

Motor sports have become increasingly popular in the U.S., and ATV-related injuries are on the rise, TODAY.com previously reported.

ATVs do not require any training or a license, Tay points out, and children often dont have the ability to properly judge speed or distance. They just kind of go at it, says Tay. The heavy machines can also flip easily.

Although ATVs do come in youth sizes, Kaziny says he commonly sees parents get an ATV that the child won't outgrow too quickly. The child ends up being on something thats really not age appropriate ... from a size and power perspective, says Kaziny.

The AAP recommends that no one under the age of 16 ride or operate an ATV, and that this is the most effective way to reduce ATV-associated injury or death.

If parents choose to let their child ride an ATV, Kaziny recommends making sure it is age-appropriate, the child is wearing a helmet and other protective equipment, and that they follow safety measures.

Drowning is another leading cause of unintentional injury among children. More children ages 1 to 4 die from drowning than any other cause of death (per the CDC), says Lockwood, adding that these often occur in swimming pools but also bathtubs (especially among infants) and natural water sources.

The experts encourage parents to teach their children how to swim as early as possible but even after kids learn, parents should remain vigilant and set rules.

As kids get older and they know how to swim, they have increased confidence," which can lead kids to take more risks, such as swimming alone, Lockwood says. So it's important to remember your child can still drown, even if they know how to swim.

I teach my kids from a young age not to swim alone and that they should always have an adult whos watching them, Lockwood continues. She stresses parents should ensure there is always one designated and sober "water watcher."

Even if the child is swimming in their own pool at home, the experts warn that tragedies can happen. Its shocking how quickly a kid can end up getting themselves in trouble if youre not really paying attention, says Kaziny. He recommends that all home pools should have child-resistant barriers, like locking gates.

I dont let my kids ride anything with wheels without wearing a helmet, says Lockwood. This includes bikes, scooters, skateboards, rollerblades and hoverboards.

"Kids have a disproportionately large head compared to their body, so theyre more likely than adults to fall and hit their head," explains Lockwood. Resulting injuries range from bumps and lacerations to concussions and severe brain bleeds that cause permanent damage.

Tay agrees: There are too many injuries that we see in the ER for something that can be very easily prevented with (head) protection.

Children should also wear helmets while skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, horseback riding and during water sports. "If they make a helmet for it, you should wear one," says Kaziny.

Lockwood encourages parents to remind children that no matter how good they are at something, accidents happen and other people can cause crashes.

"I also try to model that good behavior by always wearing a helmet myself," adds Kaziny.

Parents can prevent a lot of ER visits by teaching kids how to behave appropriately around animals, especially ones they do not know.

We have a rule at my house. ... If we see an animal we want to interact with, that we do it in a safe and controlled way and make sure the owner is OK with it, says Kaziny.

Children may feel more confident approaching animals if they have pets at home, but Kaziny recommends teaching kids about boundaries with animals. For example, a child cant kiss or hug any dog because they do this to their own dog.

One of the common types of injuries that we see is when the child gets right up in the animal's face then the child gets bitten on their face, says Tay, adding that she also sees bites occur when children approach an animal while it is eating.

"I would not let my kids go to someones house without verifying if they own guns, and if they do that theyre safely stored," says Lockwood. Safely stored means they are locked in a safe and out of reach of children which is especially important as kids get older and hang out without parental supervision, she explains.

Firearm injury has now exceeded motor vehicle collision injury as a cause of child mortality, Dr. MarcAuerbach, professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Yale School of Medicine, tells TODAY.com. Unfortunately we have seen a large number of both unintentional firearm injuries and in the older child or teenage population, related to suicide or homicide."

Fortunately, firearm-related injuries and deaths in children are preventable, says Kaziny. Families that own firearms should always practice firearm safety and store them appropriately, and parents should feel empowered to ask about firearms in any home their child will be.

Auerbach also encourages parents to have early conversations with children so they can really understand how dangerous and life-threatening firearms can be.

Caroline Kee

Caroline Kee is a health reporter for TODAY Digital. She previously worked for Healthline and Buzzfeed News.

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I'm an ER pediatrician. Here are 7 things I never let my kid do - TODAY