You won’t know if you don’t ask discrepancy and ambivalence in attitudes toward behavior change

Background: Behavior change is challenging following an acute cardiac event, and commonly, individuals are ambivalent. Aim: The objective of this study was to describe the experience of behavior change of survivors of an acute cardiac event. Method: Semistructured interviews were undertaken with 25 participants attending 3 cardiac rehabilitation programs. An inductive process of qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyze the transcripts. Results: Analysis revealed ambivalence to change, misconceptions, and confusion about terminology. Discrepancies between what participants felt they should be doing and what they actually were doing reflected their ambivalence. Further inconsistencies were reflected in participants' misunderstandings and confusion regarding disease processes and management of heart disease. Conclusions: These findings reflect the misconception and ambivalence regarding behavior change that individuals experience. Clinicians may require greater skills in detecting conflicting or ambivalent discourse to support patients through sustainable health behavior change.

Ontogeny of manipulative behavior and nut-cracking in young tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella): a Perception-action perspective

How do capuchin monkeys learn to use stones to crack open nuts? Perception-action theory posits that individuals explore producing varying spatial and force relations among objects and surfaces, thereby learning about affordances of such relations and how to produce them. Such learning supports the discovery of tool use. We present longitudinal developmental data from semifree-ranging tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) to evaluate predictions arising from Perception-action theory linking manipulative development and the onset of tool-using. Percussive actions bringing an object into contact with a surface appeared within the first year of life. Most infants readily struck nuts and other objects against stones or other surfaces from 6 months of age, but percussive actions alone were not sufficient to produce nut-cracking sequences. Placing the nut on the anvil surface and then releasing it, so that it could be struck with a stone, was the last element necessary for nut-cracking to appear in capuchins. Young chimpanzees may face a different challenge in learning to crack nuts: they readily place objects on surfaces and release them, but rarely vigorously strike objects against surfaces or other objects. Thus the challenges facing the two species in developing the same behavior (nut-cracking using a stone hammer and an anvil) may be quite different. Capuchins must inhibit a strong bias to hold nuts so that they can release them; chimpanzees must generate a percussive action rather than a gentle placing action. Generating the right actions may be as challenging as achieving the right sequence of actions in both species. Our analysis suggests a new direction for studies of social influence on young primates learning sequences of actions involving manipulation of objects in relation to surfaces.

Advanced Techniques for Face Recognition under Challenging Environments

Automatically recognizing faces captured under uncontrolled environments has always been a challenging topic in the past decades. In this work, we investigate cohort score normalization that has been widely used in biometric verification as means to improve the robustness of face recognition under challenging environments. In particular, we introduce cohort score normalization into undersampled face recognition problem. Further, we develop an effective cohort normalization method specifically for the unconstrained face pair matching problem. Extensive experiments conducted on several well known face databases demonstrate the effectiveness of cohort normalization on these challenging scenarios. In addition, to give a proper understanding of cohort behavior, we study the impact of the number and quality of cohort samples on the normalization performance. The experimental results show that bigger cohort set size gives more stable and often better results to a point before the performance saturates. And cohort samples with different quality indeed produce different cohort normalization performance. Recognizing faces gone after alterations is another challenging problem for current face recognition algorithms. Face image alterations can be roughly classified into two categories: unintentional (e.g., geometrics transformations introduced by the acquisition devide) and intentional alterations (e.g., plastic surgery). We study the impact of these alterations on face recognition accuracy. Our results show that state-of-the-art algorithms are able to overcome limited digital alterations but are sensitive to more relevant modifications. Further, we develop two useful descriptors for detecting those alterations which can significantly affect the recognition performance. In the end, we propose to use the Structural Similarity (SSIM) quality map to detect and model variations due to plastic surgeries. Extensive experiments conducted on a plastic surgery face database demonstrate the potential of SSIM map for matching face images after surgeries.

Behavior Genetics and Post Genomics

The science of genetics is undergoing a paradigm shift. Recent discoveries, including the activity of retrotransposons, the extent of copy number variations, somatic and chromosomal mosaicism, and the nature of the epigenome as a regulator of DNA expressivity, are challenging a series of dogmas concerning the nature of the genome and the relationship between genotype and phenotype. DNA, once held to be the unchanging template of heredity, now appears subject to a good deal of environmental change; considered to be identical in all cells and tissues of the body, there is growing evidence that somatic mosaicism is the normal human condition; and treated as the sole biological agent of heritability, we now know that the epigenome, which regulates gene expressivity, can be inherited via the germline. These developments are particularly significant for behavior genetics for at least three reasons: First, these phenomena appear to be particularly prevalent in the human brain, and likely are involved in much of human behavior; second, they have important implications for the validity of heritability and gene association studies, the methodologies that largely define the discipline of behavior genetics; and third, they appear to play a critical role in development during the perinatal period, and in enabling phenotypic plasticity in offspring in particular. I examine one of the central claims to emerge from the use of heritability studies in the behavioral sciences, the principle of “minimal shared maternal effects,” in light of the growing awareness that the maternal perinatal environment is a critical venue for the exercise of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. This consideration has important implications for both developmental and evolutionary biology

Signalling changes to individuals who show resistance to change can reduce challenging behaviour

Background & objectives Several neurodevelopmental disorders are associated with resistance to change and challenging behaviours – including temper outbursts – that ensue following changes to routines, plans or expectations (here, collectively: expectations). Here, a change signalling intervention was tested for proof of concept and potential practical effectiveness. Methods Twelve individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome participated in researcher- and caregiver-led pairing of a distinctive visual-verbal signal with subsequent changes to expectations. Specific expectations for a planned subset of five participants were systematically observed in minimally manipulated natural environments. Nine caregivers completed a temper outburst diary during a four week baseline period and a two week signalling evaluation period. Results Participants demonstrated consistently less temper outburst behaviour in the systematic observations when changes imposed to expectations were signalled, compared to when changes were not signalled. Four of the nine participants whose caregivers completed the behaviour diary demonstrated reliable reductions in temper outbursts between baseline and signalling evaluation. Limitations An active control group for the present initial evaluation of the signalling strategy using evidence from caregiver behaviour diaries was outside the scope of the present pilot study. Thus, findings cannot support the clinical efficacy of the present signalling approach. Conclusions Proof of concept evidence that reliable pairing of a distinctive cue with a subsequent change to expectation can reduce associated challenging behaviour is provided. Data provide additional support for the importance of specific practical steps in further evaluations of the change signalling approach.

Running Mechanics During the World's Most Challenging Mountain Ultramarathon

The aim of study was to examine the effects of the world's most challenging mountain ultramarathon (Tor des Geants [TdG]) on running mechanics. Mechanical measurements were undertaken in male runners (n = 16) and a control group (n = 8) before (PRE), during (MID), and after (POST) the TdG. Contact (tc) and aerial (ta) times, step frequency (f), and running velocity (v) were sampled. Spring-mass parameters of peak vertical ground-reaction force (Fmax), vertical downward displacement of the center of mass (Deltaz), leg-length change (DeltaL), and vertical (kvert) and leg (kleg) stiffness were computed. Significant decreases were observed in runners between PRE and MID for ta (P < .001), Fmax (P < .001), Deltaz (P < .05), and kleg (P < .01). In contrast, f significantly increased (P < .05) between PRE and MID-TdG. No further changes were observed at POST for any of those variables, with the exception of kleg, which went back to PRE. During the TdG, experienced runners modified their running pattern and spring-mass behavior mainly during the first half. The current results suggest that these mechanical changes aim at minimizing the pain occurring in lower limbs mainly during the eccentric phases. One cannot rule out that this switch to a "safer" technique may also aim to anticipate further damages.

Salt intakes, knowledge, and behavior in Samoa: monitoring salt-consumption patterns through the World Health Organization's Surveillance of Noncommunicable Disease Risk Factors (STEPS)

This project measured population salt intake in Samoa by integrating urinary sodium analysis into the World Health Organization's (WHO's) STEPwise approach to surveillance of noncommunicable disease risk factors (STEPS). A subsample of the Samoan Ministry of Health's 2013 STEPS Survey collected 24-hour and spot urine samples and completed questions on salt-related behaviors. Complete urine samples were available for 293 participants. Overall, weighted mean population 24-hour urine excretion of salt was 7.09 g (standard error 0.19) to 7.63 g (standard error 0.27) for men and 6.39 g (standard error 0.14) for women (P=.0014). Salt intake increased with body mass index (P=.0004), and people who added salt at the table had 1.5 g higher salt intakes than those who did not add salt (P=.0422). A total of 70% of the population had urinary excretion values above the 5 g/d cutoff recommended by the WHO. A reduction of 30% (2 g) would reduce average population salt intake to 5 g/d, in line with WHO recommendations. While challenging, integration of salt monitoring into STEPS provides clear logistical and cost benefits and the lessons communicated here can help inform future programs.

The Behavior of Hydroxyl Units of Synthetic Goethite and its Dehydroxylated Product Hematite

The behavior of the hydroxyl units of synthetic goethite and its dehydroxylated product hematite was characterized using a combination of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) during the thermal transformation over a temperature range of 180-270 degrees C. Hematite was detected at temperatures above 200 degrees C by XRD while goethite was not observed above 230 degrees C. Five intense OH vibrations at 3212-3194, 1687-1674, 1643-1640, 888-884 and 800-798 cm(-1), and a H2O vibration at 3450-3445 cm(-1) were observed for goethite. The intensity of hydroxyl stretching and bending vibrations decreased with the extent of dehydroxylation of goethite. Infrared absorption bands clearly show the phase transformation between goethite and hematite: in particular. the migration of excess hydroxyl units from goethite to hematite. Two bands at 536-533 and 454-452 cm(-1) are the low wavenumber vibrations of Fe-O in the hematite structure. Band component analysis data of FTIR spectra support the fact that the hydroxyl units mainly affect the a plane in goethite and the equivalent c plane in hematite.

Let's Dance: A Language for Service Behavior Modeling

In Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs), software systems are decomposed into independent units, namely services, that interact with one another through message exchanges. To promote reuse and evolvability, these interactions are explicitly described right from the early phases of the development lifecycle. Up to now, emphasis has been placed on capturing structural aspects of service interactions. Gradually though, the description of behavioral dependencies between service interactions is gaining increasing attention as a means to push forward the SOA vision. This paper deals with the description of these behavioral dependencies during the analysis and design phases. The paper outlines a set of requirements that a language for modeling service interactions at this level should fulfill, and proposes a language whose design is driven by these requirements.

Challenging 'best practice' subtropical design

Genuine sustainability would require that urban development provide net positive social and ecological gains to compensate for previous lost natural capital and carrying capacity. Thus far, green buildings do not contribute to net sustainability. While they reduce relative resource consumption, they consume vast quantities of materials, energy and water.i Moreover, they replace land and ecosystems with structures that, at best, ‘mimic’ ecosystems. Elsewhere, the author has proposed a‘sustainability standard’, where development would leave the ecology, as well as society, better off after construction than before.ii To meet this standard, a development would need to add natural and social capital beyond what existed prior to development. Positive DesignTM or Positive DevelopmentTM is that which expands both the ecological base (life support system) and the public estate (equitable access to means of survival). How to achieve this is discussed in Positive Development (Birkeland 2008). This paper examines how net positive gains can be achieved in a ubtropical as well as temperate environment.