All Together Now: The Need for a Combined Empirical and Modeling Approach When Studying Primate Group Coordination

Studies of collective decision making attempt to explain the simultaneous behaviors of many individuals and how these contribute to the behavior observed at a collective level. However, this can be problematic to achieve given the general constraints of field or experimental data. This is particularly the case for primates, and results in limited reproducibility of events and it is difficult to separate the effects of different variables. Advocates of theoretical models have proposed that simple rules of interaction successfully reproduce different phases of group movement and the transitions between them, and greatly contribute to our knowledge of complex phenomena. Models can simulate practically any situation and tell us what response would emerge from it, including complex situations such as group decision making. The general heuristic value of these models has been universally recognized. However, the modeling approach tends to oversimplify real situations, and very few biological validations yet exist. I here suggest that it is essential to confront theoretical results with real data and that the combination of the 2 approaches will substantially improve our comprehension of collective decision making.     

The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City

The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City. Roger Sanjek. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. 466 pp.     

Understanding Food Scares: The Role of Ambiguity Aversion and Analogical Reasoning

Why do individuals exhibit similar reactions to manifestly different food scares? This article examines the hypothesis of analogical reasoning, a cognitive shortcut whereby individuals anchor their risk judgements in other similar previous risky events present in their memories explains together with known determinants of risks perceptions such as risk attitudes and ambiguity aversion. Considering the distribution of risk perceptions related to three food scares that people in Europe remember, namely dioxins, genetically modified food (GMF), and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Furthermore, the article explores whether intrinsic individual attitudes toward risk (risk aversion) or a common human reaction to lack of information, namely ambiguity aversion, are associated with perceptions of risk. The findings suggest that perceptions of the three food scares appear to be statically distributed in almost the same way, consistently with the presence of analogical reasoning. Results show that although risk perceptions were affected by a degree of ambiguity aversion, the intensity of risk perceptions is mainly explained by individual-specific risk attitudes.     

FEV1 Is a Better Predictor of Mortality than FVC: The PLATINO Cohort Study

Objective

To determine whether the presence of chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) and reduction of lung function parameters were predictors of mortality in a cohort.

Materials/Patients and Methods

Population based cohorts were followed in Montevideo, Santiago and Sao Paulo during 5, 6 and 9 years, respectively. Outcomes included all-cause, cardiovascular, respiratory and cancer mortality; exposures were COPD, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁) and forced vital capacity (FVC). Cox regression was used for analyses. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, receiver operator characteristics curves and Youden''s index were calculated.

Results

Main causes of death were cardiovascular, respiratory and cancer. Baseline COPD was associated with overall mortality (HR = 1.43 for FEV₁/FVC<LLN; 2.01 for GOLD 2-4; 1.46 for GOLD 1-4; 1.50 for FEV₁/FEV₆ <LLN). For cardiovascular mortality, significant associations were found with GOLD 2-4 (HR = 2.68) and with GOLD 1-4 (HR = 1.78) for both genders together (not among women). Low FEV₁ was risk for overall and respiratory mortality (both genders combined). FVC was not associated with overall mortality. For most COPD criteria sensitivity was low and specificity high. The area under the curve for FEV₁ was greater than for FVC for overall and cardiovascular mortality.

Answer to the Question

COPD and low FEV₁ are important predictors for overall and cardiovascular mortality in Latin America.     

The Role of Proteases in Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity: Putting Together Small Pieces of a Complex Puzzle

Long-term synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus is thought to underlie the formation of certain forms of memory, including spatial memory. The early phase of long-term synaptic potentiation and synaptic depression depends on post-translational modifications of synaptic proteins, while protein synthesis is also required for the late-phase of both forms of synaptic plasticity (L-LTP and L-LTD). Numerous pieces of evidence show a role for different types of proteases in synaptic plasticity, further increasing the diversity of mechanisms involved in the regulation of the intracellular and extracellular protein content. The cleavage of extracellular proteins is coupled to changes in postsynaptic intracellular mechanisms, and additional alterations in this compartment result from the protease-mediated targeting of intracellular proteins. Both mechanisms contribute to initiate signaling cascades that drive downstream pathways coupled to synaptic plasticity. In this review we summarize the evidence pointing to a role for extracellular and intracellular proteases, with distinct specificities, in synaptic plasticity. Where in the cells the proteases are located, and how they are regulated is also discussed. The combined actions of proteases and translation mechanisms contribute to a tight control of the synaptic proteome relevant for long-term synaptic potentiation and synaptic depression in the hippocampus. Additional studies are required to elucidate the mechanisms whereby these changes in the synaptic proteome are related with plasticity phenomena.     

The Role of Personalised Choice in Decision Support: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Online Decision Aid for Prostate Cancer Screening

ImportanceDecision support tools can assist people to apply population-based evidence on benefits and harms to individual health decisions. A key question is whether “personalising” choice within decisions aids leads to better decision quality.ObjectiveTo assess the effect of personalising the content of a decision aid for prostate cancer screening using the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test.DesignRandomized controlled trial.SettingAustralia.Participants1,970 men aged 40–69 years were approached to participate in the trial.Intervention1,447 men were randomly allocated to either a standard decision aid with a fixed set of five attributes or a personalised decision aid with choice over the inclusion of up to 10 attributes.Results5% of men in the fixed attribute group scored ‘Have a PSA test’ as the opinion generated by the aid, as compared to 62% of men in the personalised choice group (χ² = 569.38, 2df, p< 0001). Those men who used the personalised decision aid had slightly higher decision quality (t = 2.157, df = 1444, p = 0.031). The men in the personalised choice group made extensive use of the additional decision attributes. There was no difference between the two groups in terms of their stated intention to undergo screening in the next 12 months.ConclusionsTogether, these findings suggest that personalised decision support systems could be an important development in shared decision-making and patient-centered care.

Trial Registration

Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12612000723886     

Regulating Emotions during Difficult Multiattribute Decision Making: The Role of Pre-Decisional Coherence Shifting

Almost all real-life decisions entail attribute conflict; every serious choice alternative is better than its competitors on some attribute dimensions but worse on others. In pre-decisional “coherence shifting,” the decision maker gradually softens that conflict psychologically to the point where one alternative is seen as dominant over its competitors, or nearly so. Specifically, weaknesses of the eventually chosen alternative come to be perceived as less severe and less important while its strengths seem more desirable and significant. The research described here demonstrates that difficult multiattribute decision problems are aversive and that pre-decisional coherence shifting aids individuals in regulating that emotional discomfort. Across three studies, attribute conflict was confirmed to be aversive (Study 1), and skin conductance responses and ratings of decision difficulty both decreased in participants who coherence shifted (Study 2). Coherence shifting was also diminished among decision makers who were depleted of regulatory resources, known to be required for common emotion regulation mechanisms. Further, coherence shifting was shown to be relatively common among people who reported strong suppression tendencies in everyday emotion regulation (Study 3). Overall, the data suggest that, at least in part, coherence shifting serves as a tool that helps decision makers manage the pre-decisional discomfort generated by attribute conflict. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

When It Hurts (and Helps) to Try: The Role of Effort in Language Learning

Compared to children, adults are bad at learning language. This is counterintuitive; adults outperform children on most measures of cognition, especially those that involve effort (which continue to mature into early adulthood). The present study asks whether these mature effortful abilities interfere with language learning in adults and further, whether interference occurs equally for aspects of language that adults are good (word-segmentation) versus bad (grammar) at learning. Learners were exposed to an artificial language comprised of statistically defined words that belong to phonologically defined categories (grammar). Exposure occurred under passive or effortful conditions. Passive learners were told to listen while effortful learners were instructed to try to 1) learn the words, 2) learn the categories, or 3) learn the category-order. Effortful learners showed an advantage for learning words while passive learners showed an advantage for learning the categories. Effort can therefore hurt the learning of categories.     

Better few than hungry: flexible feeding ecology of collared lemurs Eulemur collaris in littoral forest fragments

Background

Frugivorous primates are known to encounter many problems to cope with habitat degradation, due to the fluctuating spatial and temporal distribution of their food resources. Since lemur communities evolved strategies to deal with periods of food scarcity, these primates are expected to be naturally adapted to fluctuating ecological conditions and to tolerate a certain degree of habitat changes. However, behavioral and ecological strategies adopted by frugivorous lemurs to survive in secondary habitats have been little investigated. Here, we compared the behavioral ecology of collared lemurs (Eulemur collaris) in a degraded fragment of littoral forest of south-east Madagascar, Mandena, with that of their conspecifics in a more intact habitat, Sainte Luce.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Lemur groups in Mandena and in Sainte Luce were censused in 2004/2007 and in 2000, respectively. Data were collected via instantaneous sampling on five lemur groups totaling 1,698 observation hours. The Shannon index was used to determine dietary diversity and nutritional analyses were conducted to assess food quality. All feeding trees were identified and measured, and ranging areas determined via the minimum convex polygon. In the degraded area lemurs were able to modify several aspects of their feeding strategies by decreasing group size and by increasing feeding time, ranging areas, and number of feeding trees. The above strategies were apparently able to counteract a clear reduction in both food quality and size of feeding trees.

Conclusions/Significance

Our findings indicate that collared lemurs in littoral forest fragments modified their behavior to cope with the pressures of fluctuating resource availability. The observed flexibility is likely to be an adaptation to Malagasy rainforests, which are known to undergo periods of fruit scarcity and low productivity. These results should be carefully considered when relocating lemurs or when selecting suitable areas for their conservation.     

They See Us as Resource: The Role of a Community-Based Youth Center in Supporting the Academic Lives of Low-Income Chinese American Youth

Based on a 15-week ethnographic-based research, this article examines the role of a community-based youth center in supporting the academic lives of Chinese American youth from low-income families in an east coast city I call Harborview. This study demonstrates the significant role that community-based organizations play for low-income immigrant youth in providing them with social capital. This study also challenges the portrayal of Asian Americans as model minorities who do not face any barriers.  [Asian American education, community-based organizations, out-of-school-time programs, social capital]     

When an amide is more like histidine than imidazole: the role of axial ligands in heme catalysis

 Of the many subtle protein-cofactor interactions which facilitate oxidative catalysis by heme enzymes, the role of the axial ligand has for some time appeared to be fairly well understood. Recent studies from several laboratories, however, have provided good reason to reemphasize the importance of secondary interactions between the axial ligand and protein, as the results suggest that simple ligand identity is neither necessary nor sufficient for function. It has been widely proposed that the strong hydrogen bond between a proximal carboxylate and the histidine ligand of peroxidases assists O–O bond heterolysis and stabilizes the Fe(IV)=O center that is produced. Recent replacements of the axial ligand in a number of heme proteins have produced a few surprises, suggesting that the subtle interactions between the ligand and protein may in some cases be more important than the actual identity of the ligand. Received and accepted: 7 May 1996     

The Role of Cognitive and Emotional Perspective Taking in Economic Decision Making in the Ultimatum Game

We conducted a simple resource allocation game known as the ultimatum game (UG) with preschoolers to examine the role of cognitive and emotional perspective-taking ability on allocation and rejection behavior. A total of 146 preschoolers played the UG and completed a false belief task and an emotional perspective-taking test. Results showed that cognitive perspective taking ability had a significant positive effect on the proposer’s offer and a negative effect on the responder’s rejection behavior, whereas emotional perspective taking ability did not impact either the proposer’s or responder’s behavior. These results imply that the ability to anticipate the responder’s beliefs, but not their emotional state, plays an important role in the proposer’s choice of a fair allocation in an UG, and that children who have not acquired theory of mind still reject unfair offers.     

The Role of Decision Support System (DSS) in Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background

The potential role of DSS in CVD prevention remains unclear as only a few studies report on patient outcomes for cardiovascular disease.

Methods and Results

A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials and observational studies was done using Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Amed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus databases; reference lists of relevant studies to 30 July 2011; and email contact with experts. The primary outcome was prevention of cardiovascular disorders (myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary heart disease, peripheral vascular disorders and heart failure) and management of hypertension owing to decision support systems, clinical decision supports systems, computerized decision support systems, clinical decision making tools and medical decision making (interventions). From 4116 references ten studies met our inclusion criteria (including 16,312 participants). Five papers reported outcomes on blood pressure management, one paper on heart failure, two papers each on stroke, and coronary heart disease. The pooled estimate for CDSS versus control group differences in SBP (mm of Hg) was - 0.99 (95% CI −3.02 to 1.04 mm of Hg; I² = 0; p = 0.851).

Conclusions

DSS show an insignificant benefit in the management and control of hypertension (insignificant reduction of SBP). The paucity of well-designed studies on patient related outcomes is a major hindrance that restricts interpretation for evaluating the role of DSS in secondary prevention. Future studies on DSS should (1) evaluate both physician performance and patient outcome measures (2) integrate into the routine clinical workflow with a provision for decision support at the point of care.     

Fundamental Movement Skills Are More than Run,Throw and Catch: The Role of Stability Skills

Introduction

In motor development literature fundamental movement skills are divided into three constructs: locomotive, object control and stability skills. Most fundamental movement skills research has focused on children’s competency in locomotor and object control skills. The first aim of this study was to validate a test battery to assess the construct of stability skills, in children aged 6 to 10 (M age = 8.2, SD = 1.2). Secondly we assessed how the stability skills construct fitted into a model of fundamental movement skill.

Method

The Delphi method was used to select the stability skill battery. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess if the skills loaded onto the same construct and a new model of FMS was developed using structural equation modelling.

Results

Three postural control tasks were selected (the log roll, rock and back support) because they had good face and content validity. These skills also demonstrated good predictive validity with gymnasts scoring significantly better than children without gymnastic training and children from a high SES school performing better than those from a mid and low SES schools and the mid SES children scored better than the low SES children (all p < .05). Inter rater reliability tests were excellent for all three skills (ICC = 0.81, 0.87, 0.87) as was test re-test reliability (ICC 0.87–0.95). CFA provided good construct validity, and structural equation modelling revealed stability skills to be an independent factor in an overall FMS model which included locomotor (r = .88), object control (r = .76) and stability skills (r = .81).

Discussion

This study provides a rationale for the inclusion of stability skills in FMS assessment. The stability skills could be used alongside other FMS assessment tools to provide a holistic assessment of children’s fundamental movement skills.     

Effects of Temporal Sampling Patterns of All-occurrence Recording in Behavioural Studies: Many Short Sampling Periods Are Better than a Few Long Ones

All-occurrence recording is generally thought to yield unbiased results. However, its accuracy and power to detect real effects may depend on the temporal patterning of the observation periods. Although several studies evaluated the suitability of time-sampling methods (one-zero and instantaneous sampling), there has not been an evaluation of various temporal patterns of the ‘all-occurrence’ method to date. Here we present an empirical comparison of time-sampling and all-occurrence recording methods, based on a large data set, with special reference to various temporal patterns of all-occurrence recording. The three different sampling methods were imposed on raw data protocols. The scores, obtained by the use of each method and temporal pattern, were compared with true values from the corresponding continuous video recordings. The accuracy and power of each method was estimated by comparison of medians and magnitudes of effect (r_m), respectively. We were able to confirm results of earlier studies on the suitability of time-sampling methods (one-zero and instantaneous sampling), but we found that different temporal patterns of all-occurrence sampling yielded magnitudes of effect that differed from true value magnitudes. We conclude that behavioural studies may reveal different results, even when all conditions are the same, only because of power differences of different temporal pattern of the observation periods, for example 1 × 15 min versus 15 × 1 min. Recommendations are made about appropriate application of methods.     

Adoption of Modern Agricultural Technologies by Lowland Indigenous Groups in Bolivia: The Role of Households, Villages, Ethnicity, and Markets

A survey of 102 Mojeno and 62 Yuracare Amerindian households in the department of Beni in the Bolivian rain forest was done to measure the effects of household and village attributes, ethnicity, and markets on the adoption of chemical herbicides and insecticides for farming. We hypothesized: i) that village attributes would matter more among households with weak links to the market, ii) that education and income would matter more in households integrated to the market, and iii) that ethnic membership would not matter because, as a null hypothesis, we assume all cultures are equally adept at processing information about technological innovations. The results of a probit model with Huber robust standard errors did not confirm any of the hypotheses. Village variables were statistically significant at all levels of integration to the market. Contrary to human capital theory, income and education played a more prominent role in relatively autarkic villages. Ethnicity was statistically significant in the pooled sample and at different levels of integration. Results suggest that conventional determinants of adoption of new farm technologies may need reappraisal in more autarkic settings.     

The Fate of Utopia: Adaptive Tactics in Four Japanese Groups

Utopian groups, like other kinds of revitalization movements, work to create a new cultural end-state. This implies, at the very least, a mild rejection of some of the present norms and institutions of the ambient society. To be allowed to continue its work, a utopian community must adopt to the demands of its cultural milieu, but at the same time it must do so in ways consonant with the group self-image. This essay reports on the adaptive tactics used by four Japanese utopian groups in dealing with present-day state institutions and with the public at large. It argues that in the study of utopian groups—and by extension revitalizations and revolutions—we must examine adaptive tactics as carefully as group goals if we hope to understand the fate of purposeful action in complex civilizations.