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Telecommunications and old-school postal systems use a hierarchy of identifying characteristics (number, exchange, zip or area code, state or country code, etc.) to break the process of transmitting messages into manageable steps, each of which may be handled by mechanisms appropriate to a given stage (mailbox, local sorting office, etc.).

The same holds true for network and internet communications, where part of the hierarchy of identifying traits is provided by MAC, or Media Access Control.

In a LAN (Local Area Network) or other type of network such as the internet, a Media Access Control or MAC address serves as a unique identifier for each piece of hardware. The MAC protocol provides a channel of access and an addressing mechanism, so that each available node on the network may communicate with other nodes which are available either on the same network, or on others.

MAC addresses are sometimes known as physical addresses or hardware addresses, and are set by hardware manufacturers to uniquely identify their devices. A traditional MAC address is a twelve-digit hexadecimal number, 48 bits or six bytes long, written in one of the following manners:

MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SSMM-MM-MM-SS-SS-SSMMM.MMM.SSS.SSS

The string of Ms on the left (six digits, or 24 bits) is called a prefix, and is associated with the device manufacturer. The IEEE standards authority issues a given set of MAC prefixes to each vendor that registers with it. These may be assigned to the various products making up their range of hardware.

The S digits on the right give the identification number associated with a specific device. Each piece of hardware manufactured by a given vendor (and operating under a given MAC prefix) has its own unique 24-bit number. But as different vendors are issued with different MAC prefixes, its possible for devices originating from different manufactures to use the same sequence of S digits in their MAC address, without confusing the system.

Some wireless home automation networks defined by IEEE 802.15.4 require hardware devices to be configured with MAC addresses of 64 bits, rather than 48.

In telecommunication protocols, MAC addresses are used by the Media Access Control sub-layer of the Data Link Control (DLC) layer, which is the protocol layer of a program that handles the flow of data moving in and out over physical links in the network. Each type of physical device has a different MAC sub-layer.

Media Access Control is itself a sub-layer of the Data Link Layer (DLL) defined within the seven-layer OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) network reference model. MAC assumes responsibility for transmitting data packets to and from a network interface card, or to and from other remotely shared channels.

Media Access Control has its roots in network computing under the Ethernet protocol, where it provides the data link layer for LAN systems. MAC encapsulates payload data by adding Protocol Control Information (PCI) as a 14-byte header before the information, and adding a checksum for integrity checking.

Before data transmission, theres a short idle time of 9.6 microseconds (S) to allow for the receiver circuitry in each node to settle after completion of the previous transmission frame. A special pattern (binary 11) is used to mark the last two bits of the preamble. Once this is received, the Ethernet receive interface begins gathering the bits into bytes for processing by the MAC layer.

The MAC header consists of three parts:

Sometimes referred to as a as a Frame Check Sequence, the Cyclic Redundancy Check or CRC is a 32-bit checksum calculated to provide error detection in the case of Ethernet transmission collisions or line errors which could corrupt the MAC frame. Any frame returning an invalid CRC is rejected by the MAC frame, without processing.

The Inter-Frame Gap or IFG is the period of 9.6 microseconds (at 10 Mbps) that a transmitter must wait between sending frames, to allow for signal propagation at the receiver end. This is the same period as the preamble at the start of a transmission.

Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) with Collision Detection (CD) protocol regulates access to shared Ethernet media.

Any received frame having less than 64 bytes is known as a runt and is considered illegitimate. Runt frames typically arise from data collision, and are discarded by the receiver.

A received frame which is larger than the maximum designated size is referred to as a giant. These may stem from failures or imperfections in the networks physical layer, and are also discarded.

Some Gigabit Ethernet NICs (Network Interface Cards) support frames in excess of the 1500 bytes specified by the IEEE standard. This mode of transmission requires both ends of the communication link to support these jumbo frames.

As mentioned earlier, the maximum size of a data packet which may be carried in a MAC frame using Ethernet is 1500 bytes. This limit is known as the MTU, under Internet Protocol or IP.

Ethernet also requires a minimum frame size of 46 bytes for every MAC frame. If the network layer wishes to transmit less than this, the MAC protocol adds a set of null padding characters (zero bytes, or 0x00) to make up the difference.

The Address Resolution Protocol or ARP is used to establish the MAC source address of remote computers whenever IP is used over an Ethernet LAN. In turn, IP networks use ARP to manage the conversion between IP and MAC addresses. And the unique assignment of IP addresses to various devices is managed by the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), in conjunction with ARP.

TCP/IP networks use both IP and MAC addresses. A MAC address will remain fixed to a hardware device, but the IP address may alter dynamically in accordance with its TCP/IP network configuration.

In the OSI model, Internet Protocol operates at Layer 3, while the MAC protocol works at Layer 2. Media Access Control is able to support other networks besides TCP/IP, for this reason.

Some ISPs (Internet Service Providers) map each of their residential customer accounts to the MAC address of their home network router or gateway device. If the customer installs a new router, the address seen by the provider will change with the ISP seeing a different MAC address. This can lead to blocking or revocation of the account.

This situation can be avoided through a process called cloning whereby a router or gateway may be configured to continue reporting the same MAC address to the provider, even if the new hardware has a different identifier. Otherwise, customers need to contact their ISP to register the new device.

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The MAC Address (Media Access Control) and its Role in Communications

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In a Local Area Network (or other network such as the internet), a Media Access Control or MAC address serves as a unique identifier for each piece of hardware.

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The MAC Address (Media Access Control) and its Role in ...

Boyle, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Department of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego and a graduate student in the Master of Public Health program at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Carlsbad.

Policymakers are grappling with an inconvenient truth that the public was played by the social media titans as they reckon with the revelations from Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower. Now what?

The reveal: Facebook, Google and Twitter designers use sophisticated neuroscience knowledge to add addiction and habit-forming features to social media platforms. Social media platforms use gamification tactics to manipulate users to stay engaged with the application longer. User connectivity is directly related to advertisement exposure and increased profits. The manipulated users earn small random prizes that reward their brains with dopamine hits the effect of the dopamine fuels a compulsive habit-forming loop. MIT neuroscientist Anne Graybiel confirms that addictive behavior and habit formation physically change the brains structure. The structural brain changes make it almost impossible to resist the cue-impelling, habit-forming behavior.

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Social media companies specifically design their applications for the adolescent market. Adolescents are inherently more sensitive to rewards and risk-taking behavior.

As the teenage brain progresses to an adult brain, the decision-making brain structures are exceptionally responsive to environmental cues. The dopaminergic receptors reach their highest lifetime density during this developmental stage. The receptor density biases adolescent decision-making towards rewarding stimuli and renders them vulnerable to social media compulsions and addictions.

Recent neuroscience research confirms that the adolescent brain is more sensitive to cue-based learning than adults. For example, habits are formed when behavior is triggered repeatedly, and the repeated cue-response behavior becomes rigid and challenging to change. This result is significant in understanding why adolescents are exceptionally responsive to social media notification cues.

Addictive behavior formation during adolescence can have a long-term destructive effect on mental health. In a longitudinal study, Andrew Lapierre of the University of Arizona showed that smartphone usage was a direct risk factor for depression and loneliness in older adolescents. This study is crucial as it demonstrates that smartphone usage preceded the decline in mental health.

Ironically, these mental health repercussions have led many social media developers to disallow their children from using smartphones. In some cases, they go so far as to lock themselves out of the devices they were instrumental in developing.

Social media usage can be harmful for the adolescent population. The leaked Facebook documents indicate that officials were aware of the potential for harm to adolescents. Yet they pressed forward with technology that could specifically undermine the mental health of this vulnerable population. Here policymakers must use the weight of scientific evidence to warn and protect this age group.

Regulators need to have social media platforms move away from incentive-based features requiring users to check their smartphone application constantly.

In addition, the social media ecosystem relies on leveraging the teens data to promote highly personalized content. Incentivized by ad revenue and profits, such customized and compelling content has the effect of engaging and maximizing app usage and scroll time. Here regulators have an opportunity to demand that social media platforms adhere to data protection and transparency standards.

Moreover, our legislators can prohibit addictive digital tactics, toxic cyberbullying and the use of personal data associated with a minor.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is the federal law that bestows internet companies protection from liability for user-generated content disseminated on their platforms. Policymakers can demand that the content presented on their platform adhere to current rights laws covering libel, slander and defamation to help curb cyberbullying. Such regulations would incentivize the tech companies to take responsibility for the content on their apps.

Social media platforms are not simply pass-through conduits for third-party-generated content. They employ artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to curate and control information on their platform. Their involvement in data management disqualifies them from Section 230 protections. The Communications Decency Act was passed in 1996, long before we knew the consequences of social media on the adolescent mind. It is time to stand up for the children, update Section 230 exclusions, and protect the future of our nation.

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Opinion: Wish the law could protect teens on social media? It can but it needs an update. - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Williams is a political science major originally from Carmel Valley. Ziment is a public policy analysis major, originally from 4S Ranch. Both are students at Pomona College in Claremont.

A new conspiracy theory is gaining traction: Omicron is a variant invented by the Democrats in order to help them in the midterm elections. Pete Hegseth, a Fox News commentator, suggested that you could count on a variant about every October, every two years. Its natural to wonder who would believe ridiculous conspiracy theories like these. Maybe its not necessarily a sudden widespread belief in the accuracy of conspiracies, but rather a new digital world that is allowing them to spread and prosper.

This digital world is led by social media, which is the main perpetrator in causing an increasing support for conspiracy theories by driving inaccurate sharing and causing the processing of information to remain at the surface level.

We provide this platform for community commentary free of charge. Thank you to all the Union-Tribune subscribers whose support makes our journalism possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider becoming one today.

Many assume that political ideology drives belief in fake news and conspiracy theories, and while its true that partisanship matters, it isnt as important as many make it out to be. Its also not that people are unable to distinguish accurate news from false news. While people are more likely to believe partisan political views with which they agree, studies show that when people are asked to rate true headlines, their ratings are accurate. They may even be more able to assess the accuracy of views of those with politics similar to theirs.

So what actually drives this phenomenon?

It comes down to heuristics (mental shortcuts) and the degree of analytical thinking. The idea that like goes with like leads people to believe conspiracy theories because your brain instinctually believes that big causes must have big effects.

The illusory truth effect is another heuristic that describes how prior exposure to a fake news headline increases belief later on. The amount of time of exposure to a media can be an extremely influential factor in belief. Psychology researchers Gordon Pennycook and David G. Rand highlight that peoples likelihood to believe in fake news content decreases when they are more reflective and are able to differentiate between truth and falsities. Overconfidence obstructs reflective thinking, leading to more belief in conspiracy theories.

In the tug of war between the intuitive and the rational systems, social media aids in jump-starting processing at the intuitive level. By bypassing deeper processing, support for conspiracy theories is increasing because they are not being fully processed for their accuracy. It is not necessarily that people are not caring about ensuring the accuracy of what they are reading and sharing. Instead, social media is aiding in focusing their attention on other factors that distract from the necessary deeper processing to discern what is truth and what is not.

A recent study found that distractors on social media and their desire to attract followers are all contributing to an increased likelihood of sharing misinformation. For conspiracy theories, increased sharing of media regardless of its veracity means a more prolific message and a wider base for these false stories to grow with. And with more of a following, these stories gain validity, and the self-perpetuating cycle driven by social media feeds the fire of the spread of misinformation.

What is at the crux of this new development is the finding that the form of digital media influences how information is processed. Images or text blurbs, commonly found on platforms like Twitter, are processed quickly and automatically. Thus, the conspiracy theories being presented in this format and on these platforms are being processed more quickly in a less controlled and accuracy-based manner.

These recent findings surrounding the influence of the type of media on processing coupled with the rise to fame in concise and approachable media platforms like Twitter and TikTok are what are breeding an environment in which conspiracy theories are finding greater traction and are thriving now more than ever.

Given all of this, its no surprise that research by Xizhu Xiao at Chinas Qingdao University and Porismita Borah and Yan Su at Washington State University shows that social media news use was associated with higher conspiracy beliefs, and trust in social media news was found to be a significant moderator of the relationship between social media news use and conspiracy beliefs.

So whats the solution? Studies show that credibility indicators, which fact-check sources and present a rating, reduce false sharing. But this isnt something that everyday people have control over. What can individuals like you do to combat this effect? Research shows that being an active, thoughtful and open-minded social media user is associated with good online behavior. Before you share something, spend a few seconds simply thinking, Is this something that you think is true?

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Opinion: People can spot fake news. So why do conspiracy theories thrive on social media? - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Singer Britney Spears poses at the 29th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., April12, 2018. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

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LOS ANGELES, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Britney Spears has signaled she is not yet ready to return to making music after 13 years under a conservatorship that took away control of her personal and business affairs and left her scared of the entertainment business.

Spears, 40, who last month was freed from the court-imposed arrangement in 2008 sought by her father, said in a lengthy Instagram post on Monday that she wanted to "push myself a bit more and do things that scare me but not too much" in 2022.

I guess it seems odd to most why I dont even do music anymore... People have no idea the awful things they have done to me personally and after what I've been through, I'm scared of people and the business!!!, wrote Spears, who last performed publicly in October 2018.

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"Not doing my music anymore is my way of saying 'Fuck You' in a sense when it only actually benefits my family by ignoring my real work. Its like Ive subconsciously let them win,' the "Toxic" singer added.

Spears, who is engaged to boyfriend Sam Asghari, complained to the judge in charge of her conservatorship case earlier this year that she found her father Jamie Spears, who was in charge of her career, controlling.

Jamie Spears was removed as conservator in September. He has said his only goal was to help his daughter rehabilitate her career after she suffered a mental health breakdown in 2007 and that he always acted in her best interest.

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Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Howard Goller

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Britney Spears not ready to return to music business she calls 'scary' - Reuters

One morning this summer, I sat at my desk feeling restlessness boil inside me. Id recently moved from a chaotic and deadline-driven job to one with a lot of downtime and zero pressure. On paper it sounded amazing, but I was putting off projects for weeks.

The tasks were either overwhelmingly big or mind-numbingly boring. And I was starting to feel guilty about not getting them done.

So what did I do? Water the plants, start a to-do list, respond to a few emails, check social media, buy my sister a gift, check social media, add to my to-do list, turn on music, leave and go to the gym everything but the most important tasks.

Then, in a panic, Id pull an all-nighter, relying on a caffeine-fueled crunch to get me to the finish line. The next day, feeling deflated, depleted, and embarrassed by the quality of my work, Id crash.

After a few of these vicious cycles, I worried that I was either too burned out to muster any strength or discipline, or that decades of multitasking had broken my brain. Trying to focus and prioritize was like listening to a symphony in which all of the instruments were always center stage, all playing at the same volume at the same time.

So I scheduled an appointment with a psychiatric nurse, who, after an hour and a half phone session, diagnosed me with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

ADHD a neurodevelopmental disorder marked by varying degrees of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity is more common in children, affecting more than 9 percent of kids under the age of 18 in the US, according to 2016 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Estimates of the prevalence of ADHD in adults vary significantly, but a 2016 study published in the journal Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders found that nearly 3 percent of adults globally have received the diagnosis. Another study of US cases reported a 123 percent increase in adult ADHD diagnoses from 2007 to 2016, four times the increase in ADHD diagnoses among children.

My diagnosis was both a blow and a relief.

I left the appointment with a prescription for Adderall, a stimulant that increases dopamine and norepinephrine levels in the brain to improve motivation and focus. (Doctors also often prescribe cognitive behavioral therapy, a form of psychotherapy that can help challenge negative thought patterns that can lead to anxiety or addictions.)

The Adderall worked like a charm. I felt calmer, my attention only pulled in a few directions, rather than 100. But it also felt like a temporary fix. Adderall works on a day-to-day basis and doesnt help rewire your brain to help build focus over time.

Id heard mindfulness practices could be useful for attention training and longer-term emotional regulation, and were backed by a strong body of scientific evidence. Could they work for ADHD too? I ended up on a website called MindfullyADD.

Developed by educators, nurses, and doctors whove worked with ADHD patients, the platform offers short breath-, attention-, and movement-based practices designed to help people find focus and feel more settled and in control.

I tried something called a 1-Minute Do-Nothing Practice, described as a way to build tolerance to boredom. There was near-constant narration to help hold my focus, but it was still agony: I wanted to check my phone, straighten up my desk, pick up my matcha.

Next, I tried a 1-Minute Elevator Practice, a narrated exercise that asks you to bring your hands together at your belly button, and then move the top hand up with your inhalations and back down with your exhalations. This was remarkably more effective at helping me focus, as I had something to track: my breath.

I started adding these practices to my day, randomly, whenever they fit in. And I began to see how fast and furiously my brain switched from one task or thought to the next.

I went through moments of self-loathing, thinking, mindfulness should be easy for me. (I had a meditation practice, but sitting for 30 minutes, focused on a single object, had been, if I was honest with myself, overwhelming.)

Often, I felt too tired or busy to practice even the short mindfulness practices on MindfullyADD. The growing awareness of my distracted and disjointed mind became really uncomfortable. But I was starting to find pauses between the distractions and thoughts, which felt empowering.

Casey Dixon, the strategist behind MindfullyADD and the founder of a program called Live Well ADHD, told me that my situation was not unusual. Right now, most people who are getting diagnosed are women who are not in their 20s anymore and who are learning suddenly that a lot of their lifestyle habits are related to ADHD. (Im 46.) And one of the biggest obstacles her clients face is following through on work and life plans.

After experiencing some of the benefits of mindfulness firsthand, I called up Lidia Zylowska, a psychiatrist at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the author of The Mindfulness Prescription for Adult ADHD, to find out how the brains of people with ADHD are different from other people who feel distracted.

Many people, she said, have ADHD-like symptoms, including difficulty focusing and organizing, when were faced with stressful situations, inadequate sleep, burnout, and unrelenting bad news in the media. But if you have actual ADHD, you have these symptoms even when youre not stressed.

Studies that track whats happening in ADHD brains through imaging, or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have shown atypical activity in neural networks associated with cognitive control, attention, and working memory. In addition, parts of the brain related to emotional regulation and motivation may look different in people with ADHD. Imaging also shows that the default mode network (DMN) which is linked to mind wandering is more active in people with ADHD when they are attending to tasks.

Some people with ADHD have enough coping strategies and support to mask it. But then the context changes and their symptoms can become less manageable.

A couple of common pain points are when people move into jobs with less structure and they are expected to self-manage throughout the day (aha!), and when people become parents and have to manage more than just themselves. For women specifically, hormonal changes, particularly during perimenopause, can bring ADHD to the surface.

Some of the psychiatric nurses questions made me realize that constant triaging at work had become my coping strategy. I also started thinking about patterns of procrastination that went as far back as elementary school. I started to see that Id always been paralyzed by the fear of not completing something perfectly. Id set myself up, over and over, for failure.

Mindfulness, the practice of present-moment awareness without judgment, has a nearly 5,000-year history with roots in Hinduism, Buddhism, and other Eastern religions and philosophies. It has been studied in the US since the 1970s for various mental health issues, including stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, and pain management.

One of the first major research studies to look at mindfulness as a treatment for ADHD was done by Zylowska, when she was working at the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the University of California Los Angeles. Her original study, published in 2007 in the Journal of Attention Disorders, looked at the effects of a mindfulness program on adolescents and adults with ADHD.

The 24 adults and eight adolescents in the study were asked to practice sitting meditation, body and breath awareness, mindful listening and speaking, and self-compassion on a daily basis for eight weeks. Afterward, they reported improvements in their symptoms, tested better on attention tasks, and even saw reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. Zylowska and her colleagues concluded that mindfulness could be an effective intervention in some adults and adolescents with ADHD yielding improvements in overall ADHD symptoms but that a controlled clinical study was needed.

Since 2007, there have been dozens of other studies, some with small sample sizes and no controls, others with larger sample sizes and active controls that support the use of mindfulness for ADHD, says John Mitchell, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine.

A 2021 research review of 31 studies on mindfulness for ADHD, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, concluded that mindfulness is just as effective as, if not slightly more than, education and life skills training for treating adults with inattentiveness. The evidence isnt in for mindfulness and children with ADHD.

Both Zylowska and Mitchell agree that more research would help determine which mindfulness practices are best for different folks with ADHD. The research is in early stages, compared to other interventions for ADHD, says Zylowska. Based on the existing data, if symptoms of ADHD are mild to moderate, mindfulness may be a great stand-alone treatment, says Zylowska. But if symptoms are severe, people with ADHD may want to use mindfulness as a complement to other treatments

Meditation and mindfulness may not at first seem like a good fit for chronically restless ADHD people, says Mitchell.

Thats why Zylowskas eight-week program includes both formal seated or walking meditation and informal mindfulness, like being present with tastes, sounds, textures, and sounds while you eat. You start with practicing for five minutes and work your way up to 15. If five minutes is still too much, Zylowska says, start with three.

When you have ADHD, you have to find solutions that are easy enough to fit into your life, explains Dixon. If they create a lot of friction, they wont get done.

Zylowska agrees: These are not new practices, but we are making them more accessible to people who have difficulty sustaining attention. They are shorter, are introduced more gradually, and have more variety, so you can experiment with what works for you.

You can also tailor the practice depending on the type of distractibility or ADHD you have. If you have more hyperactivity and impulsivity, you may want to focus on mindful movement. If this is all overwhelming, just think of an activity that already helps you calm down, like cooking or gardening, and do more of that, with awareness, advises Zylowska.

As I continue with the practices from MindfullyADD, I start to feel more space in my brain and my life. I try to practice daily, even if just for a minute. While I can still procrastinate and overcommit, this one-minute-at-a-time approach has ultimately translated into a one-step-at-a-time effort at work. (I still take Adderall, but infrequently.)

I can now better tolerate mind-numbing spreadsheets, and I can read for more than five minutes at a time. I dont beat myself up about not accomplishing more. Instead, I celebrate the small wins, take conscious breaks that help me reset and feel less enmeshed with work, and I feel perfectionism and black-and-white thinking losing their hold.

Dixon reminds me to keep it simple: You dont need to have the perfect mindfulness set-up and practice, just pick something and try it.

Tasha Eichenseher is a science and wellness writer based in Boulder, Colorado.

Read more from the original source:
ADHD treatments: Why more psychiatrists think mindfulness can help - Vox.com