Global Repetition Influences Contextual Cueing

Science.gov (United States)

Zang, Xuelian; Zinchenko, Artyom; Jia, Lina; Li, Hong

2018-01-01

Our visual system has a striking ability to improve visual search based on the learning of repeated ambient regularities, an effect named contextual cueing. Whereas most of the previous studies investigated contextual cueing effect with the same number of repeated and non-repeated search displays per block, the current study focused on whether a global repetition frequency formed by different presentation ratios between the repeated and non-repeated configurations influence contextual cueing effect. Specifically, the number of repeated and non-repeated displays presented in each block was manipulated: 12:12, 20:4, 4:20, and 4:4 in Experiments 1–4, respectively. The results revealed a significant contextual cueing effect when the global repetition frequency is high (≥1:1 ratio) in Experiments 1, 2, and 4, given that processing of repeated displays was expedited relative to non-repeated displays. Nevertheless, the contextual cueing effect reduced to a non-significant level when the repetition frequency reduced to 4:20 in Experiment 3. These results suggested that the presentation frequency of repeated relative to the non-repeated displays could influence the strength of contextual cueing. In other words, global repetition statistics could be a crucial factor to mediate contextual cueing effect. PMID:29636716

The effects of acute nicotine on contextual safety discrimination.

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Kutlu, Munir G; Oliver, Chicora; Gould, Thomas J

2014-11-01

Anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), may be related to an inability to distinguish safe versus threatening environments and to extinguish fear memories. Given the high rate of cigarette smoking in patients with PTSD, as well as the recent finding that an acute dose of nicotine impairs extinction of contextual fear memory, we conducted a series of experiments to investigate the effect of acute nicotine in an animal model of contextual safety discrimination. Following saline or nicotine (at 0.0275, 0.045, 0.09 and 0.18 mg/kg) administration, C57BL/6J mice were trained in a contextual discrimination paradigm, in which the subjects received presentations of conditioned stimuli (CS) that co-terminated with a foot-shock in one context (context A (CXA)) and only CS presentations without foot-shock in a different context (context B (CXB)). Therefore, CXA was designated as the 'dangerous context', whereas CXB was designated as the 'safe context'. Our results suggested that saline-treated animals showed a strong discrimination between dangerous and safe contexts, while acute nicotine dose-dependently impaired contextual safety discrimination (Experiment 1). Furthermore, our results demonstrate that nicotine-induced impairment of contextual safety discrimination learning was not a result of increased generalized freezing (Experiment 2) or contingent on the common CS presentations in both contexts (Experiment 3). Finally, our results show that increasing the temporal gap between CXA and CXB during training abolished the impairing effects of nicotine (Experiment 4). The findings of this study may help link nicotine exposure to the safety learning deficits seen in anxiety disorder and PTSD patients. © The Author(s) 2014.

Nicotine Withdrawal Disrupts Contextual Learning but Not Recall of Prior Contextual Associations: Implications for Nicotine Addiction

OpenAIRE

Portugal, George S.; Gould, Thomas J.

2008-01-01

Interactions between nicotine and learning could contribute to nicotine addiction. Although previous research indicates that nicotine withdrawal disrupts contextual learning, the effects of nicotine withdrawal on contextual memories acquired before withdrawal are unknown. The present study investigated whether nicotine withdrawal disrupted recall of prior contextual memories by examining the effects of nicotine withdrawal on recall of nicotine conditioned place preference (CPP) and contextual...

Individual and contextual factors related to binge drinking among adolescents in Spain: a multilevel approach.

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Teixidó-Compañó, Ester; Sordo, Luis; Bosque-Prous, Marina; Puigcorbé, Susanna; Barrio, Gregorio; Brugal, M Teresa; Belza, María José J; Espelt, Albert

2018-01-15

The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of binge drinking by regions in Spain and assess the effect of individual and contextual factors related to this drinking pattern in adolescents. A cross-sectional study was performed with data from the 2014 Spanish School Survey on Drug Use (ESTUDES) in students aged 14-18 years (N = 34,259). The outcome was binge drinking in adolescents during the last 30 days. Individual independent variables were socioeconomic variables and variables related to access to alcohol and its availability. Contextual variables consisted of adult alcohol consumption, public policies on alcohol, and socioeconomic factors. Multilevel Poisson regression models with robust variance were estimated, obtaining prevalence ratios (PR) and their 95% confidence intervals.  The results showed that the prevalence of youth binge drinking by region of residence was similar for both sexes (r = 0.72). At the individual level, binge drinking was mainly associated with the perception of easy access to alcohol (PR: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.23-1.55), consumption in open areas [(PR: 3.82; 95% CI: 3.44-4.24) < once a month and (PR: 6.57; 95% CI: 5.85-7.37) ≥ once a month], at least one parent allowing alcohol consumption (PR: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.37-1.47), and receiving >30 euros weekly (PR :1.51; 95% CI: 1.37-1.67). Contextual variables were not associated with youth binge drinking when individual variables were considered. In conclusion, youth binge drinking was associated with individual variables related to high alcohol accessibility and availability, regardless of contextual variables. These variables explained the variability in binge drinking among Spanish regions.

Individual and contextual factors influencing dental health care utilization by preschool children: a multilevel analysis

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Piovesan, Chaiana; Ardenghi, Thiago Machado; Mendes, Fausto Medeiros; Agostini, Bernardo Antonio; Michel-Crosato, Edgard

2017-03-30

The effect of contextual factors on dental care utilization was evaluated after adjustment for individual characteristics of Brazilian preschool children. This cross-sectional study assessed 639 preschool children aged 1 to 5 years from Santa Maria, a town in Rio Grande do Sul State, located in southern Brazil. Participants were randomly selected from children attending the National Children's Vaccination Day and 15 health centers were selected for this research. Visual examinations followed the ICDAS criteria. Parents answered a questionnaire about demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Contextual influences on children's dental care utilization were obtained from two community-related variables: presence of dentists and presence of workers' associations in the neighborhood. Unadjusted and adjusted multilevel logistic regression models were used to describe the association between outcome and predictor variables. A prevalence of 21.6% was found for regular use of dental services. The unadjusted assessment of the associations of dental health care utilization with individual and contextual factors included children's ages, family income, parents' schooling, mothers' participation in their children's school activities, dental caries, and presence of workers' associations in the neighborhood as the main outcome covariates. Individual variables remained associated with the outcome after adding contextual variables in the model. In conclusion, individual and contextual variables were associated with dental health care utilization by preschool children.

Dual-state modulation of the contextual cueing effect: Evidence from eye movement recordings.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Guang; Liu, Qiang; Jiao, Jun; Zhou, Peiling; Li, Hong; Sun, Hong-jin

2012-06-08

The repeated configurations of random elements induce a better search performance than that of the displays of novel random configurations. The mechanism of such contextual cueing effect has been investigated through the use of the RT × Set Size function. There are divergent views on whether the contextual cueing effect is driven by attentional guidance or facilitation of initial perceptual processing or response selection. To explore this question, we used eye movement recording in this study, which offers information about the substages of the search task. The results suggest that the contextual cueing effect is contributed mainly by attentional guidance, and facilitation of response selection also plays a role.

Contextual learning and context effects during infancy: 30 years of controversial research revisited.

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Revillo, D A; Cotella, E; Paglini, M G; Arias, C

2015-09-01

Over the last 30years a considerable number of reports have explored learning about context during infancy in both humans and rats. This research was stimulated by two different theoretical frameworks. The first, known as the neuromaturational model, postulates that learning and behavior are context-independent during early ontogeny, a hypothesis based on the idea that contextual learning is dependent on the hippocampal function, and that this brain structure does not reach full maturity until late in infancy. The second theoretical framework views infants not as immature organisms, but rather as perfectly matured ones, given that their behavioral and cognitive capacities allow them to adapt appropriately to the demands of their specific environment in accordance with their maturational level. This model predicts significant ontogenetic variations in learning and memory due to developmental differences in what is perceived and attended to during learning episodes, which can result in ontogenetic differences in contextual learning depending on the specific demands of the task. The present manuscript reviews those studies that have examined potential developmental differences in contextual learning and context effects in rats. The reviewed results show that, during infancy, context can exert a similar influence over learning and memory as that described for the adult rat. Moreover, in some cases, contextual learning and context effects were greater in infants than in adults. In contrast, under other experimental conditions, no evidence of contextual learning or context effects was observed. We analyzed the procedural factors of these studies with the aim of detecting those that favor or impede contextual learning during infancy, and we discussed whether existing empirical evidence supports the claim that the functionality of the hippocampus is a limiting factor for this type of learning during infancy. Finally, conclusions from human research into contextual learning

The impact of distracter-target similarity on contextual cueing effects of children and adults.

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Yang, Yingying; Merrill, Edward C

2014-05-01

Contextual cueing reflects a memory-based attentional guidance process that develops through repeated exposure to displays in which a target location has been consistently paired with a specific context. In two experiments, we compared 20 younger children's (6-7 years old), 20 older children's (9-10 years old), and 20 young adults' (18-21 years old) abilities to acquire contextual cueing effects from displays in which half of the distracters predicted the location of the target and half did not. Across experiments, we varied the similarity between the predictive and nonpredictive distracters and the target. In Experiment 1, the predictive distracters were visually similar to the target and dissimilar from the nonpredictive distracters. In Experiment 2, the nonpredictive distracters were also similar to the target and predictive distracters. All three age groups exhibited contextual cueing in Experiment 1, although the effect was not as strong for the younger children relative to older children and adults. All participants exhibited weaker contextual cueing effects in Experiment 2, with the younger children not exhibiting significant contextual cueing at all. Apparently, when search processes could not be guided to the predictive distracters on the basis of salient stimulus features, younger children in particular experienced difficulty in implicitly identifying and using aspects of the context to facilitate with the acquisition of contextual cueing effects. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Individual and contextual factors influencing dental health care utilization by preschool children: a multilevel analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chaiana PIOVESAN

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract The effect of contextual factors on dental care utilization was evaluated after adjustment for individual characteristics of Brazilian preschool children. This cross-sectional study assessed 639 preschool children aged 1 to 5 years from Santa Maria, a town in Rio Grande do Sul State, located in southern Brazil. Participants were randomly selected from children attending the National Children’s Vaccination Day and 15 health centers were selected for this research. Visual examinations followed the ICDAS criteria. Parents answered a questionnaire about demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Contextual influences on children’s dental care utilization were obtained from two community-related variables: presence of dentists and presence of workers’ associations in the neighborhood. Unadjusted and adjusted multilevel logistic regression models were used to describe the association between outcome and predictor variables. A prevalence of 21.6% was found for regular use of dental services. The unadjusted assessment of the associations of dental health care utilization with individual and contextual factors included children’s ages, family income, parents’ schooling, mothers’ participation in their children’s school activities, dental caries, and presence of workers’ associations in the neighborhood as the main outcome covariates. Individual variables remained associated with the outcome after adding contextual variables in the model. In conclusion, individual and contextual variables were associated with dental health care utilization by preschool children.

Social and economic inequalities in induced abortion in Spain as a function of individual and contextual factors.

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Pérez, Gloria; Ruiz-Muñoz, Dolores; Gotsens, Merce; Cases, Mariona Casals; Rodríguez-Sanz, Maica

2014-02-01

The socioeconomic position of women who have an induced abortion has been explored extensively, but without taking contextual factors into account. The objective was to describe socioeconomic inequalities in the rate of induced abortion in Spain in 2001, jointly evaluating the effects of both regional and individual socioeconomic characteristics. A cross-sectional study using a multilevel approach was carried out among women who were resident in Spain in 2001, considering the hierarchical structure of relevant factors. Analyses were carried out at the individual and regional level. We fit Poisson regression models to calculate adjusted relative risks (aRR) of induced abortion and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The estimated abortion rate was 6.26 per 1000 women aged 20-49 years. Induced abortion was more frequent among younger women (aRR = 1.55 for women aged 20-24 years, compared with those aged 25-34 years) and those with less than primary education (aRR = 2.25 compared with women with university studies). Women residing in regions with lower public spending on non-university education (aRR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.70-0.98) and a higher percentage of non-European Union immigrants (aRR = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.02-1.10) were also more likely to have had an induced abortion. Socioeconomic inequalities in the practice of induced abortion in Spain exist not only at the individual level but also at the regional level. The prevention of unintended pregnancy should be approached using a global political strategy aimed at changing contextual and individual factors that contribute to unintended pregnancy.

The roles of contextual and individual social determinants of oral health-related quality of life in Brazilian adults.

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Vettore, Mario Vianna; Aqeeli, Amal

2016-04-01

This study investigated the relationship between contextual and individual social determinants of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in Brazilian adults. Data of 4594 Brazilian adults aged 35-44 years from the 2010 Brazilian Oral Health Survey were analysed. OHRQoL was measured using the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP). Contextual socio-economic characteristics at city level assessed in 1991 and 2000 included social deprivation measured by Human Development Index (HDI) and income inequality (Gini index). Individual socio-economic characteristics included family income, schooling and number of goods. Covariates were age, sex, ethnicity and clinical oral measures. Multilevel multivariable Poisson regression analysis was carried to investigate the association of contextual and individual social characteristics with OIDP extent and with each OIDP item. Eating and cleaning teeth were the most reported daily activities influenced by oral conditions. In the adjusted analysis, low HDI 1991 and individual social characteristics (lower family income and lower schooling) were associated with OIDP extent. Sex (females) and all clinical oral measures were also associated with OIDP. Adults living in the cities with low HDI 1991 were more likely to have impact on eating and sleeping, whereas living in cities with high Gini index 1991 increased the prevalence of impact on emotional status, work and social contact. Low income was associated with all OIDP items. Poor contextual social determinants and lower individual socio-economic position are associated with worse OHRQoL among Brazilian adults, even after adjusting for individual socio-demographic and clinical oral health variables.

Socioeconomic context in area of living and risk of myocardial infarction: results from Stockholm Heart Epidemiology Program (SHEEP)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kölegård Stjärne, M; Diderichsen, F; Reuterwall, C

2002-01-01

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To analyse if socioeconomic characteristics in area of living affect the risk of myocardial infarction in a Swedish urban population, and to evaluate to what extent the contextual effect is confounded by the individual exposures. DESIGN: A population based case-referent study......; class structure, social exclusion and poverty. Among men, there were increased relative risks of similar magnitudes (1.28 to 1.33) in the more deprived areas according to all three dimensions of the socioeconomic context. However, when adjusting for individual exposures, the poverty factor had...

The Effects of Spatial Contextual Familiarity on Remembered Scenes, Episodic Memories, and Imagined Future Events

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Robin, Jessica; Moscovitch, Morris

2014-01-01

Several recent studies have explored the effect of contextual familiarity on remembered and imagined events. The aim of this study was to examine the extent of this effect by comparing the effect of cuing spatial memories, episodic memories, and imagined future events with spatial contextual cues of varying levels of familiarity. We used…

Neuroscientific evidence for contextual effects in decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Hytönen, Kaisa

2014-02-01

Both internal and external states can cause inconsistencies in decision behavior. I present examples from behavioral decision-making literature and review neuroscientific knowledge on two contextual influences: framing effects and social conformity. The brain mechanisms underlying these behavioral adjustments comply with the dual-process account and simple learning mechanisms, and are weak indicators for unintentionality in decision-making processes.

Contextual effect of positive intergroup contact on outgroup prejudice

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Christ, Oliver; Schmid, Katharina; Lolliot, Simon; Swart, Hermann; Stolle, Dietlind; Tausch, Nicole; Al Ramiah, Ananthi; Wagner, Ulrich; Vertovec, Steven; Hewstone, Miles

2014-01-01

We assessed evidence for a contextual effect of positive intergroup contact, whereby the effect of intergroup contact between social contexts (the between-level effect) on outgroup prejudice is greater than the effect of individual-level contact within contexts (the within-level effect). Across seven large-scale surveys (five cross-sectional and two longitudinal), using multilevel analyses, we found a reliable contextual effect. This effect was found in multiple countries, operationalizing context at multiple levels (regions, districts, and neighborhoods), and with and without controlling for a range of demographic and context variables. In four studies (three cross-sectional and one longitudinal) we showed that the association between context-level contact and prejudice was largely mediated by more tolerant norms. In social contexts where positive contact with outgroups was more commonplace, norms supported such positive interactions between members of different groups. Thus, positive contact reduces prejudice on a macrolevel, whereby people are influenced by the behavior of others in their social context, not merely on a microscale, via individuals’ direct experience of positive contact with outgroup members. These findings reinforce the view that contact has a significant role to play in prejudice reduction, and has great policy potential as a means to improve intergroup relations, because it can simultaneously impact large numbers of people. PMID:24591627

Contextual effect of positive intergroup contact on outgroup prejudice.

Science.gov (United States)

Christ, Oliver; Schmid, Katharina; Lolliot, Simon; Swart, Hermann; Stolle, Dietlind; Tausch, Nicole; Al Ramiah, Ananthi; Wagner, Ulrich; Vertovec, Steven; Hewstone, Miles

2014-03-18

We assessed evidence for a contextual effect of positive intergroup contact, whereby the effect of intergroup contact between social contexts (the between-level effect) on outgroup prejudice is greater than the effect of individual-level contact within contexts (the within-level effect). Across seven large-scale surveys (five cross-sectional and two longitudinal), using multilevel analyses, we found a reliable contextual effect. This effect was found in multiple countries, operationalizing context at multiple levels (regions, districts, and neighborhoods), and with and without controlling for a range of demographic and context variables. In four studies (three cross-sectional and one longitudinal) we showed that the association between context-level contact and prejudice was largely mediated by more tolerant norms. In social contexts where positive contact with outgroups was more commonplace, norms supported such positive interactions between members of different groups. Thus, positive contact reduces prejudice on a macrolevel, whereby people are influenced by the behavior of others in their social context, not merely on a microscale, via individuals' direct experience of positive contact with outgroup members. These findings reinforce the view that contact has a significant role to play in prejudice reduction, and has great policy potential as a means to improve intergroup relations, because it can simultaneously impact large numbers of people.

Contextual Fraction as a Measure of Contextuality

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Abramsky, Samson; Barbosa, Rui Soares; Mansfield, Shane

2017-08-01

We consider the contextual fraction as a quantitative measure of contextuality of empirical models, i.e., tables of probabilities of measurement outcomes in an experimental scenario. It provides a general way to compare the degree of contextuality across measurement scenarios; it bears a precise relationship to violations of Bell inequalities; its value, and a witnessing inequality, can be computed using linear programing; it is monotonic with respect to the "free" operations of a resource theory for contextuality; and it measures quantifiable advantages in informatic tasks, such as games and a form of measurement-based quantum computing.

Survival of the Partial Reinforcement Extinction Effect after Contextual Shifts

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Boughner, Robert L.; Papini, Mauricio R.

2006-01-01

The effects of contextual shifts on the partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE) were studied in autoshaping with rats. Experiment 1 established that the two contexts used subsequently were easily discriminable and equally salient. In Experiment 2, independent groups of rats received acquisition training under partial reinforcement (PRF) or…

Memory under pressure: secondary-task effects on contextual cueing of visual search.

Science.gov (United States)

Annac, Efsun; Manginelli, Angela A; Pollmann, Stefan; Shi, Zhuanghua; Müller, Hermann J; Geyer, Thomas

2013-11-04

Repeated display configurations improve visual search. Recently, the question has arisen whether this contextual cueing effect (Chun & Jiang, 1998) is itself mediated by attention, both in terms of selectivity and processing resources deployed. While it is accepted that selective attention modulates contextual cueing (Jiang & Leung, 2005), there is an ongoing debate whether the cueing effect is affected by a secondary working memory (WM) task, specifically at which stage WM influences the cueing effect: the acquisition of configural associations (e.g., Travis, Mattingley, & Dux, 2013) versus the expression of learned associations (e.g., Manginelli, Langer, Klose, & Pollmann, 2013). The present study re-investigated this issue. Observers performed a visual search in combination with a spatial WM task. The latter was applied on either early or late search trials--so as to examine whether WM load hampers the acquisition of or retrieval from contextual memory. Additionally, the WM and search tasks were performed either temporally in parallel or in succession--so as to permit the effects of spatial WM load to be dissociated from those of executive load. The secondary WM task was found to affect cueing in late, but not early, experimental trials--though only when the search and WM tasks were performed in parallel. This pattern suggests that contextual cueing involves a spatial WM resource, with spatial WM providing a workspace linking the current search array with configural long-term memory; as a result, occupying this workspace by a secondary WM task hampers the expression of learned configural associations.

Factors affecting public prejudice and social distance on mental illness: analysis of contextual effect by multi-level analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Jang, Hyeongap; Lim, Jun-Tae; Oh, Juhwan; Lee, Seon-Young; Kim, Yong-Ik; Lee, Jin-Seok

2012-03-01

While there have been many quantitative studies on the public's attitude towards mental illnesses, it is hard to find quantitative study which focused on the contextual effect on the public's attitude. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that affect the public's beliefs and attitudes including contextual effects. We analyzed survey on the public's beliefs and attitudes towards mental illness in Korea with multi-level analysis. We analyzed the public's beliefs and attitudes in terms of prejudice as an intermediate outcome and social distance as a final outcome. Then, we focused on the associations of factors, which were individual and regional socio-economic factors, familiarity, and knowledge based on the comparison of the intermediate and final outcomes. Prejudice was not explained by regional variables but was only correlated with individual factors. Prejudice increased with age and decreased by high education level. However, social distance controlling for prejudice increased in females, in people with a high education level, and in regions with a high education level and a high proportion of the old. Therefore, social distance without controlling for prejudice increased in females, in the elderly, in highly educated people, and in regions with a high education and aged community. The result of the multi-level analysis for the regional variables suggests that social distance for mental illness are not only determined by individual factors but also influenced by the surroundings so that it could be tackled sufficiently with appropriate considering of the relevant regional context with individual characteristics.

Socio-economic factors associated with a healthy diet: results from the E3N study.

Science.gov (United States)

Affret, Aurélie; Severi, Gianluca; Dow, Courtney; Rey, Grégoire; Delpierre, Cyrille; Boutron-Ruault, Marie-Christine; Clavel-Chapelon, Françoise; Fagherazzi, Guy

2017-06-01

To identify individual and contextual socio-economic factors associated with a healthy diet. Dietary data from a large cohort study were used to derive two mutually exclusive dietary patterns through a latent class analysis. Associations between dietary patterns and socio-economic factors were studied with logistic regression. E3N, a French prospective cohort study composed of women recruited from a national health insurance plan covering people working in the national education system. E3N participants (n 73 031) with dietary and socio-economic data available. The 'Healthy' pattern was characterized by a large consumption of fruits and vegetables and the 'Less Healthy' pattern by a large consumption of pizza and processed meat. When all socio-economic factors were analysed together, all of the individual factors considered were associated with a healthy diet (e.g. women with three or more children were less likely to follow a healthy diet v. women with no children, OR (95 % CI): 0·70 (0·66, 0·75)) while the contextual factors associated with a healthy diet included the size of the agglomeration of residence and the area of birth and residence (e.g. women living in the West of France were less likely to follow a healthy diet v. those living in the South of France: 0·78 (0·72, 0·83)). We demonstrated that individual and contextual factors are both associated with diet. Rather than focusing only on individual factors, we recommend future studies or public health and nutritional strategies on diet to consider both types of factors.

Combining individual and ecological data to determine compositional and contextual socio-economic risk factors for suicide

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agerbo, Esben; Sterne, J.A.; Gunnell, D.J.

2006-01-01

(contextual effects) is uncertain. Denmark's Medical Register on Vital Statistics and its Integrated Database for Longitudinal Labour Market Research were used to identify suicides and 20 matched controls per case in 25-60-year-old men and women between 1982 and 1997. Individual and area (municipality......The social and economic characteristics of geographic areas are associated with their suicide rates. The extent to which these ecological associations are due to the characteristics of the people living in the areas (compositional effects) or the influence of the areas themselves on risk...... area levels of employment and income and increasing proportions of people living alone were much attenuated after controlling for compositional effects. We found no consistent evidence that associations with individual-level risk factors differed depending on the areas' characteristics (cross...

Combining individual and ecological data to determine compositional and contextual socio-economic risk factors for suicide

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agerbo, Esben; Sterne, J.A.; Gunnell, D.J.

2007-01-01

(contextual effects) is uncertain. Denmark's Medical Register on Vital Statistics and its Integrated Database for Longitudinal Labour Market Research were used to identify suicides and 20 matched controls per case in 25-60-year-old men and women between 1982 and 1997. Individual and area (municipality......The social and economic characteristics of geographic areas are associated with their suicide rates. The extent to which these ecological associations are due to the characteristics of the people living in the areas (compositional effects) or the influence of the areas themselves on risk...... area levels of employment and income and increasing proportions of people living alone were much attenuated after controlling for compositional effects. We found no consistent evidence that associations with individual-level risk factors differed depending on the areas' characteristics (cross...

Adolescents' utilisation of psychiatric care, neighbourhoods and neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation: a multilevel analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna-Karin Ivert

Full Text Available Mental health problems among adolescents have become a major public health issue, and it is therefore important to increase knowledge on the contextual determinants of adolescent mental health. One such determinant is the socioeconomic structure of the neighbourhood. The present study has two central objectives, (i to examine if neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation is associated to individual variations in utilisation of psychiatric care in a Swedish context, and (ii to investigate if neighbourhood boundaries are a valid construct for identifying contexts that influence individual variations in psychiatric care utilization. Data were obtained from the Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis in Scania (LOMAS database. The study population consists of all boys and girls aged 13-18 years (N=18,417, who were living in the city of Malmö, Sweden, in 2005. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was applied to estimate the probability of psychiatric care utilisation. The results from the study indicate that the neighbourhood of residence had little influence on psychiatric care utilisation. Although we initially found a variation between neighbourhoods, this general contextual effect was very small (i.e. 1.6%. The initial conclusive association between the neighbourhood level of disadvantage and psychiatric care utilisation (specific contextual effect disappeared following adjustment for individual and family level variables. Our results suggest the neighbourhoods in Malmö (at least measured in terms of SAMS-areas, do not provide accurate information for discriminating adolescents utilisation of psychiatric care. The SAMS-areas appears to be an inappropriate construct of the social environment that influences adolescent utilisation of psychiatric care. Therefore, public health interventions should be directed to the whole city rather than to specific neighbourhoods. However, since geographical, social or cultural contexts may be important for our

The effect of contextual cues on the encoding of motor memories.

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, Ian S; Wolpert, Daniel M; Franklin, David W

2013-05-01

Several studies have shown that sensory contextual cues can reduce the interference observed during learning of opposing force fields. However, because each study examined a small set of cues, often in a unique paradigm, the relative efficacy of different sensory contextual cues is unclear. In the present study we quantify how seven contextual cues, some investigated previously and some novel, affect the formation and recall of motor memories. Subjects made movements in a velocity-dependent curl field, with direction varying randomly from trial to trial but always associated with a unique contextual cue. Linking field direction to the cursor or background color, or to peripheral visual motion cues, did not reduce interference. In contrast, the orientation of a visual object attached to the hand cursor significantly reduced interference, albeit by a small amount. When the fields were associated with movement in different locations in the workspace, a substantial reduction in interference was observed. We tested whether this reduction in interference was due to the different locations of the visual feedback (targets and cursor) or the movements (proprioceptive). When the fields were associated only with changes in visual display location (movements always made centrally) or only with changes in the movement location (visual feedback always displayed centrally), a substantial reduction in interference was observed. These results show that although some visual cues can lead to the formation and recall of distinct representations in motor memory, changes in spatial visual and proprioceptive states of the movement are far more effective than changes in simple visual contextual cues.

Does Contextual Cueing Guide the Deployment of Attention?

Science.gov (United States)

Kunar, Melina A.; Flusberg, Stephen; Horowitz, Todd S.; Wolfe, Jeremy M.

2008-01-01

Contextual cueing experiments show that when displays are repeated, reaction times (RTs) to find a target decrease over time even when observers are not aware of the repetition. It has been thought that the context of the display guides attention to the target. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the effects of guidance in a standard search task to the effects of contextual cueing. Firstly, in standard search, an improvement in guidance causes search slopes (derived from RT × Set Size functions) to decrease. In contrast, we found that search slopes in contextual cueing did not become more efficient over time (Experiment 1). Secondly, when guidance is optimal (e.g. in easy feature search) we still found a small, but reliable contextual cueing effect (Experiments 2a and 2b), suggesting that other factors, such as response selection, contribute to the effect. Experiment 3 supported this hypothesis by showing that the contextual cueing effect disappeared when we added interference to the response selection process. Overall, our data suggest that the relationship between guidance and contextual cueing is weak and that response selection can account for part of the effect. PMID:17683230

Contextual effects of socioeconomic level on academic achievement in obligatory secondary education in the Basque Autonomous Community (Spain. Differential study about socioeconomic level of families and school centers. El efecto contextual del nivel socioeconómico sobre el rendimiento académico en la educación secundaria obligatoria en la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca (España. Estudio diferencial del nivel socioeconómico familiar y el del centro escolar.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luis Lizasoain

2007-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to analyze the contextual effect of the socioeconomic status (SES on the academic achievement in Mathematics and Language in Compulsory Secondary Education at the Basque Autonomous Community (Spain. We have carried out a differential study taking into account family SES and school SES in a multi-level study context. First, via tested hierarchical models, the hypothesis of the contextual effects (i.e., double jeopardy is accepted, showing that the academic achievement of students from low SES families tend to worsen when they attend low SES schools. In order to illustrate the different effect of both SES, a new variable is generated so that, for each student, it combines the values of the previously categorized family and school SES. Using statistical segmentation techniques (regression and classification trees, CART, the present study has found that low family SES students attending high SES schools obtain the best academic achievement results, only outperformed by high family SES students who are studying at high SES schools, and also, even better than the sample subgroups who were expected to get much better scores. The study ends with some explanatory hypotheses about the findings and with some suggestions for further research. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el efecto contextual del nivel socioeconómico (SES sobre el rendimiento académico en Matemáticas y Lengua en la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO en la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca (España, realizando un estudio diferencial del nivel socioeconómico familiar (SESF y el del centro escolar (SESC. Para ello, en primer lugar, se verifica dicho efecto contextual mediante modelos jerárquicos lineales y se acepta la hipótesis de doble riesgo en el sentido de que los estudiantes de nivel socioeconómico familiar bajo obtienen un rendimiento académico aún más bajo cuando estudian en centros escolares de nivel socioeconómico bajo. Para estudiar con m

High-affinity α4β2 nicotinic receptors mediate the impairing effects of acute nicotine on contextual fear extinction.

Science.gov (United States)

Kutlu, Munir Gunes; Holliday, Erica; Gould, Thomas J

2016-02-01

Previously, studies from our lab have shown that while acute nicotine administered prior to training and testing enhances contextual fear conditioning, acute nicotine injections prior to extinction sessions impair extinction of contextual fear. Although there is also strong evidence showing that the acute nicotine's enhancing effects on contextual fear conditioning require high-affinity α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), it is unknown which nAChR subtypes are involved in the acute nicotine-induced impairment of contextual fear extinction. In this study, we investigated the effects of acute nicotine administration on contextual fear extinction in knock-out (KO) mice lacking α4, β2 or α7 subtypes of nAChRs and their wild-type (WT) littermates. Both KO and WT mice were first trained and tested for contextual fear conditioning and received a daily contextual extinction session for 4 days. Subjects received intraperitoneal injections of nicotine (0.18 mg/kg) or saline 2-4 min prior to each extinction session. Our results showed that the mice that lack α4 and β2 subtypes of nAChRs showed normal contextual fear extinction but not the acute nicotine-induced impairment while the mice that lack the α7 subtype showed both normal contextual extinction and nicotine-induced impairment of contextual extinction. In addition, control experiments showed that acute nicotine-induced impairment of contextual fear extinction persisted when nicotine administration was ceased and repeated acute nicotine administrations alone did not induce freezing behavior in the absence of context-shock learning. These results clearly demonstrate that high-affinity α4β2 nAChRs are necessary for the effects of acute nicotine on contextual fear extinction. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Proportion of contextual effects in the treatment of fibromyalgia-a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Whiteside, Nicola; Sarmanova, Aliya; Chen, Xi; Zou, Kun; Abdullah, Natasya; Doherty, Michael; Zhang, Weiya

2018-05-01

The objective of this study is to examine the proportion of the total treatment effect that is attributable to contextual effects in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of treatments for fibromyalgia. A systematic literature search was undertaken in Medline, Web of Science, EMBASE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Allied and Complementary Medicine in September 2015. The proportion of contextual effect (PCE) was calculated by dividing the improvement in the placebo arm by the improvement in the treatment arm. The measure was log-transformed for each trial and the random effects model was used to pool data. The primary outcome was pain. Secondary outcomes were fibromyalgia impact questionnaire (FIQ) total and fatigue. Heterogeneity was quantified using I 2 . Publication bias was assessed using a funnel plot and Egger's test. Subgroup analysis was undertaken to explore heterogeneity and potential determinants of the PCE. Fifty-one eligible trials (9599 participants) were identified. The PCE was 0.60 (95% CI 0·56 to 0·64) for pain, 0·57 (95% CI 0·53 to 0·61) for FIQ total, and 0·63 (95% CI 0·59 to 0·68) for fatigue. The I 2 was 99.4% for pain, 99.2% for FIQ total, and 97.6% for fatigue. More than half of the treatment effect in fibromyalgia RCTs results from non-specific contextual factors. This suggests that optimising contextual care may enhance treatment effects and improve outcomes. Reporting the total treatment effect and the proportion of contextual effect in trials may help to better translate research evidence into practice.

Teacher beliefs, teacher characteristics, and school contextual factors: what are the relationships?

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Rubie-Davies, Christine M; Flint, Annaline; McDonald, Lyn G

2012-06-01

There is a plethora of research around student beliefs and their contribution to student outcomes. However, there is less research in relation to teacher beliefs. Teacher factors are important to consider since beliefs mould thoughts and resultant instructional behaviours that, in turn, can contribute to student outcomes. The purpose of this research was to explore relationships between the teacher characteristics of gender and teaching experience, school contextual variables (socio-economic level of school and class level), and three teacher socio-psychological variables: class level teacher expectations, teacher efficacy, and teacher goal orientation. The participants were 68 male and female teachers with varying experience, from schools in a variety of socio-economic areas and from rural and urban locations within New Zealand. Teachers completed a questionnaire containing items related to teacher efficacy and goal orientation in reading. They also completed a teacher expectation survey. Reading achievement data were collected on students. Interrelationships were explored between teacher socio-psychological beliefs and the teacher and school factors included in the study. Mastery-oriented beliefs predicted teacher efficacy for student engagement and classroom management. The socio-economic level of the school and teacher gender predicted teacher efficacy for engagement, classroom management, instructional strategies, and a mastery goal orientation. Being male predicted a performance goal orientation. Teacher beliefs, teacher characteristics, and school contextual variables can result in differences in teacher instructional practices and differing classroom climates. Further investigation of these variables is important since differences in teachers contribute to differences in student outcomes. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Time-dependent effects of cortisol on the contextualization of emotional memories

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Ast, V.A.; Cornelisse, S.; Meeter, M.; Joëls, M.; Kindt, M.

2013-01-01

Background: The inability to store fearful memories into their original encoding context is considered to be an important vulnerability factor for the development of anxiety disorders like posttraumatic stress disorder. Altered memory contextualization most likely involves effects of the stress

Contextual factors in maternal and newborn health evaluation: a protocol applied in Nigeria, India and Ethiopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabot, Kate; Marchant, Tanya; Spicer, Neil; Berhanu, Della; Gautham, Meenakshi; Umar, Nasir; Schellenberg, Joanna

2018-01-01

Understanding the context of a health programme is important in interpreting evaluation findings and in considering the external validity for other settings. Public health researchers can be imprecise and inconsistent in their usage of the word "context" and its application to their work. This paper presents an approach to defining context, to capturing relevant contextual information and to using such information to help interpret findings from the perspective of a research group evaluating the effect of diverse innovations on coverage of evidence-based, life-saving interventions for maternal and newborn health in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and India. We define "context" as the background environment or setting of any program, and "contextual factors" as those elements of context that could affect implementation of a programme. Through a structured, consultative process, contextual factors were identified while trying to strike a balance between comprehensiveness and feasibility. Thematic areas included demographics and socio-economics, epidemiological profile, health systems and service uptake, infrastructure, education, environment, politics, policy and governance. We outline an approach for capturing and using contextual factors while maximizing use of existing data. Methods include desk reviews, secondary data extraction and key informant interviews. Outputs include databases of contextual factors and summaries of existing maternal and newborn health policies and their implementation. Use of contextual data will be qualitative in nature and may assist in interpreting findings in both quantitative and qualitative aspects of programme evaluation. Applying this approach was more resource intensive than expected, in part because routinely available information was not consistently available across settings and more primary data collection was required than anticipated. Data was used only minimally, partly due to a lack of evaluation results that needed further explanation

Does the mortality risk of social isolation depend upon socioeconomic factors?

Science.gov (United States)

Patterson, Andrew C

2016-10-01

This study considers whether socioeconomic status influences the impact of social isolation on mortality risk. Using data from the Alameda County Study, Cox proportional hazard models indicate that having a high income worsens the mortality risk of social isolation. Education may offset risk, however, and the specific pattern that emerges depends on which measures for socioeconomic status and social isolation are included. Additionally, lonely people who earn high incomes suffer especially high risk of accidents and suicides as well as cancer. Further research is needed that contextualizes the health risks of social isolation within the broader social environment. © The Author(s) 2015.

The Contextual Antecedents of Organizational Trust

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Peter Ping; Bai, Yuntao; Xi, Youmin

2012-01-01

In this article we seek to explore the contextual antecedents of organizational trust. In light of the complex links between organizational contexts and organizational behaviours, we focus on the effects of the three most critical contextual antecedents, i.e., leadership role, structural rule...... in China, lent support for our multidimensional cross-level model of context–trust–behaviour link. We extend the research on organizational trust by treating it as a cross-level phenomenon and by specifying its core contextual antecedents and behavioural consequences....

The influence of socioeconomic status on women's preferences for modern contraceptive providers in Nigeria: a multilevel choice modeling

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Aremu O

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Olatunde Aremu School of Health, Sport, and Bioscience, Health Studies Field, University of East London, London, United Kingdom Background: Contraceptives are one of the most cost effective public health interventions. An understanding of the factors influencing users' preferences for contraceptives sources, in addition to their preferred methods of contraception, is an important factor in increasing contraceptive uptake. This study investigates the effect of women’s contextual and individual socioeconomic positions on their preference for contraceptive sources among current users in Nigeria. Methods: A multilevel modeling analysis was conducted using the most recent 2008 Nigerian Demographic and Health Surveys data of women aged between 15 and 49 years old. The analysis included 1,834 ever married women from 888 communities across the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja. Three outcome variables, private, public, and informal provisions of contraceptive sources, were considered in the modeling. Results: There was variability in women's preferences for providers across communities. The result shows that change in variance accounted for about 31% and 19% in the odds of women's preferences for both private and public providers across communities. Younger age and being from the richest households are strongly associated with preference for both private and public providers. Living in rural areas and economically deprived neighborhoods were the community level determinants of women's preferences. Conclusion: This study documents the independent association of contextual socioeconomic characteristics and individual level socioeconomic factors with women's preferences for contraceptive commodity providers in Nigeria. Initiatives that seek to improve modern contraceptive uptake should jointly consider users’ preferences for sources of these commodities in addition to their preference for contraceptive type

Predicting Performance with Contextualized Inventories, No Frame-of-reference Effect?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Holtrop, D.J.; Born, M.P.; de Vries, R.E.

2014-01-01

A recent meta-analysis showed that contextualized personality inventories have incremental predictive validity over generic personality inventories when predicting job performance. This study aimed to investigate the differences between two types of contextualization of items: Adding an 'at work'

Does job strain mediate the effect of socioeconomic group on smoking behaviour? The impact of different health policies in Denmark and Sweden

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ingelise; Rasmussen, Niels Kr; Ostergren, P O

2008-01-01

AIMS: The aim was to compare the impact of socioeconomic groups (SEG) on the risk of being a daily smoker or quitter, and to investigate whether the potentially mediating effect of psychosocial working conditions was similar in the Danish and the Swedish populations. METHODS: The study populations....... The association between SEG, current smoking, quitting, and influence at work, job demand and jobstrain, respectively, was tested by means of logistic regression. RESULTS: The contextual determinants defined by country had a different effect on smoking prevalence among men and women and among age groups. Low...... and more socially skewed among the Swedes, but did not mediate the effect of SEG on smoking behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: The smoking prevalence was lower and the quit-rates higher among Swedes than Danes. Both countries had social differences in smoking that in absolute terms were rather similar...

Using multilevel models to evaluate the influence of contextual factors on HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, and risky sexual behavior in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Ward-Peterson, Melissa; Fennie, Kristopher; Mauck, Daniel; Shakir, Maryam; Cosner, Chelsea; Bhoite, Prasad; Trepka, Mary Jo; Madhivanan, Purnima

2018-02-01

To describe the use of multilevel models (MLMs) in evaluating the influence of contextual factors on HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and risky sexual behavior (RSB) in sub-Saharan Africa. Ten databases were searched through May 29, 2016. Two reviewers completed screening and full-text review. Studies examining the influence of contextual factors on HIV/AIDS, STIs, and RSB and using MLMs for analysis were included. The Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies was used to evaluate study quality. A total of 118 studies met inclusion criteria. Seventy-four studies focused on HIV/AIDS-related topics; 46 focused on RSB. No studies related to STIs other than HIV/AIDS met the eligibility criteria. Of five studies examining HIV serostatus and community socioeconomic factors, three found an association between poverty and measures of inequality and increased HIV prevalence. Among studies examining RSB, associations were found with numerous contextual factors, including poverty, education, and gender norms. Studies using MLMs indicate that several contextual factors, including community measures of socioeconomic status and educational attainment, are associated with a number of outcomes related to HIV/AIDS and RSB. Future studies using MLMs should focus on contextual-level interventions to strengthen the evidence base for causality. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Current smoking among young adolescents: assessing school based contextual norms

OpenAIRE

Pokorny, S; Jason, L; Schoeny, M

2004-01-01

Objective: To extend research on the relation of school based contextual norms to current smoking among adolescents by using three analytic techniques to test for contextual effects. It was hypothesised that significant contextual effects would be found in all three models, but that the strength of these effects would vary by the statistical rigor of the model.

The effects of contextual learning instruction on science achievement of male and female tenth-grade students

Science.gov (United States)

Ingram, Samantha Jones

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the contextual learning method on science performance, attitudes toward science, and motivational factors that influence high school students to learn science. Gender differences in science performance and attitudes toward science were also investigated. The sample included four tenth-grade classes of African-American students enrolled in Chemistry I. All students were required to review for the Alabama High School Graduation Exam in Science. Students were administered a science pretest and posttest to measure science performance. A two-way analysis of covariance was performed on the test data. The results showed a main effect of contextual learning instruction on science achievement and no significant differences between females' and males' performance in science. The Science Attitude and the Alabama High School Graduation Exam (AHSGE) Review Class Surveys were administered to assess students' beliefs and attitudes toward science. The Science Attitude Survey results indicated a control effect in three subscales: perception of guardian's attitude, attitude toward success in science, and perception of teacher's attitude. No significant differences resulted between males and females in their beliefs about science from the attitude survey. However, students' attitudes toward science were more favorable in the contextual learning classes based on the results of the Review Class Survey. The survey data revealed that both males and females in the contextual classes had positive attitudes toward science and toward being active participants in the learning process. Qualitative data on student motivation were collected to examine the meaningfulness of the contextual learning content and materials. The majority of the students in the treatment (96%) and the control groups (86%) reported high interest in the lesson on Newton's three laws of motion. Both the treatment and the control groups indicated their interest

Combining individual and ecological data to determine compositional and contextual socio-economic risk factors for suicide

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agerbo, Esben; Sterne, J.A.; Gunnell, D.J.

2007-01-01

The social and economic characteristics of geographic areas are associated with their suicide rates. The extent to which these ecological associations are due to the characteristics of the people living in the areas (compositional effects) or the influence of the areas themselves on risk (context......The social and economic characteristics of geographic areas are associated with their suicide rates. The extent to which these ecological associations are due to the characteristics of the people living in the areas (compositional effects) or the influence of the areas themselves on risk...... (contextual effects) is uncertain. Denmark's Medical Register on Vital Statistics and its Integrated Database for Longitudinal Labour Market Research were used to identify suicides and 20 matched controls per case in 25-60-year-old men and women between 1982 and 1997. Individual and area (municipality...... area levels of employment and income and increasing proportions of people living alone were much attenuated after controlling for compositional effects. We found no consistent evidence that associations with individual-level risk factors differed depending on the areas' characteristics (cross...

Contextual sensitivity in scientific reproducibility

Science.gov (United States)

Van Bavel, Jay J.; Mende-Siedlecki, Peter; Brady, William J.; Reinero, Diego A.

2016-01-01

In recent years, scientists have paid increasing attention to reproducibility. For example, the Reproducibility Project, a large-scale replication attempt of 100 studies published in top psychology journals found that only 39% could be unambiguously reproduced. There is a growing consensus among scientists that the lack of reproducibility in psychology and other fields stems from various methodological factors, including low statistical power, researcher’s degrees of freedom, and an emphasis on publishing surprising positive results. However, there is a contentious debate about the extent to which failures to reproduce certain results might also reflect contextual differences (often termed “hidden moderators”) between the original research and the replication attempt. Although psychologists have found extensive evidence that contextual factors alter behavior, some have argued that context is unlikely to influence the results of direct replications precisely because these studies use the same methods as those used in the original research. To help resolve this debate, we recoded the 100 original studies from the Reproducibility Project on the extent to which the research topic of each study was contextually sensitive. Results suggested that the contextual sensitivity of the research topic was associated with replication success, even after statistically adjusting for several methodological characteristics (e.g., statistical power, effect size). The association between contextual sensitivity and replication success did not differ across psychological subdisciplines. These results suggest that researchers, replicators, and consumers should be mindful of contextual factors that might influence a psychological process. We offer several guidelines for dealing with contextual sensitivity in reproducibility. PMID:27217556

Contextual sensitivity in scientific reproducibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Bavel, Jay J; Mende-Siedlecki, Peter; Brady, William J; Reinero, Diego A

2016-06-07

In recent years, scientists have paid increasing attention to reproducibility. For example, the Reproducibility Project, a large-scale replication attempt of 100 studies published in top psychology journals found that only 39% could be unambiguously reproduced. There is a growing consensus among scientists that the lack of reproducibility in psychology and other fields stems from various methodological factors, including low statistical power, researcher's degrees of freedom, and an emphasis on publishing surprising positive results. However, there is a contentious debate about the extent to which failures to reproduce certain results might also reflect contextual differences (often termed "hidden moderators") between the original research and the replication attempt. Although psychologists have found extensive evidence that contextual factors alter behavior, some have argued that context is unlikely to influence the results of direct replications precisely because these studies use the same methods as those used in the original research. To help resolve this debate, we recoded the 100 original studies from the Reproducibility Project on the extent to which the research topic of each study was contextually sensitive. Results suggested that the contextual sensitivity of the research topic was associated with replication success, even after statistically adjusting for several methodological characteristics (e.g., statistical power, effect size). The association between contextual sensitivity and replication success did not differ across psychological subdisciplines. These results suggest that researchers, replicators, and consumers should be mindful of contextual factors that might influence a psychological process. We offer several guidelines for dealing with contextual sensitivity in reproducibility.

[Effect of object consistency in a spatial contextual cueing paradigm].

Science.gov (United States)

Takeda, Yuji

2008-04-01

Previous studies demonstrated that attention can be quickly guided to a target location in a visual search task when the spatial configurations of search items and/or the object identities were repeated in the previous trials. This phenomenon is termed contextual cueing. Recently, it was reported that spatial configuration learning and object identity learning occurred independently, when novel contours were used as search items. The present study examined whether this learning occurred independently even when the search items were meaningful. The results showed that the contextual cueing effect was observed even if the relationships between the spatial locations and object identities were jumbled (Experiment 1). However, it disappeared when the search items were changed into geometric patterns (Experiment 2). These results suggest that the spatial configuration can be learned independent of the object identities; however, the use of the learned configuration is restricted by the learning situations.

Contextual interference effects on the acquisition of skill and strength of the bench press.

Science.gov (United States)

Naimo, Marshall A; Zourdos, Michael C; Wilson, Jacob M; Kim, Jeong-Su; Ward, Emery G; Eccles, David W; Panton, Lynn B

2013-06-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate contextual interference effects on skill acquisition and strength gains during the learning of the bench press movement. Twenty-four healthy, college-aged males and females were stratified to control, high contextual interference (HCI), and low contextual interference (LCI) groups. Treatment groups were provided with written and visual instruction on proper bench press form and practiced the bench press and dart throwing for four weeks. Within each session, LCI performed all bench press sets before undertaking dart-throws. HCI undertook dart-throws immediately following each set of bench press. Control only did testing. Measurements, including one repetition maximum (1RM), checklist scores based on video recordings of participants' 1RM's, and dart-throw test scores were taken at pre-test, 1 week, 2 week, post-test, and retention test. Results were consistent with the basic premise of the contextual interference effect. LCI had significant improvements in percent 1RM and checklist scores during training, but were mostly absent after training (post-test and retention test). HCI had significant improvements in percent 1RM and checklist scores both during and after training. Thus, HCI may augment strength and movement skill on the bench press since proper technique is an important component of resistance exercise movements. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The acquisition of contextual cueing effects by persons with and without intellectual disability.

Science.gov (United States)

Merrill, Edward C; Conners, Frances A; Yang, Yingying; Weathington, Dana

2014-10-01

Two experiments were conducted to compare the acquisition of contextual cueing effects of adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) relative to typically developing children and young adults. Contextual cueing reflects an implicit, memory based attention guidance mechanism that results in faster search for target locations that have been previously experienced in a predictable context. In the study, participants located a target stimulus embedded in a context of numerous distracter stimuli. During a learning phase, the location of the target was predictable from the location of the distracters in the search displays. We then compared response times to locating predictable relative to unpredictable targets presented in a test phase. In Experiment 1, all of the distracters predicted the location of the target. In Experiment 2, half of the distracters predicted the location of the target while the other half varied randomly. The participants with ID exhibited significant contextual facilitation in both experiments, with the magnitude of facilitation being similar to that of the typically developing (TD) children and adults. We concluded that deficiencies in contextual cueing are not necessarily associated with low measured intelligence that results in a classification of ID. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attentional and Contextual Priors in Sound Perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolmetz, Michael; Elhilali, Mounya

2016-01-01

Behavioral and neural studies of selective attention have consistently demonstrated that explicit attentional cues to particular perceptual features profoundly alter perception and performance. The statistics of the sensory environment can also provide cues about what perceptual features to expect, but the extent to which these more implicit contextual cues impact perception and performance, as well as their relationship to explicit attentional cues, is not well understood. In this study, the explicit cues, or attentional prior probabilities, and the implicit cues, or contextual prior probabilities, associated with different acoustic frequencies in a detection task were simultaneously manipulated. Both attentional and contextual priors had similarly large but independent impacts on sound detectability, with evidence that listeners tracked and used contextual priors for a variety of sound classes (pure tones, harmonic complexes, and vowels). Further analyses showed that listeners updated their contextual priors rapidly and optimally, given the changing acoustic frequency statistics inherent in the paradigm. A Bayesian Observer model accounted for both attentional and contextual adaptations found with listeners. These results bolster the interpretation of perception as Bayesian inference, and suggest that some effects attributed to selective attention may be a special case of contextual prior integration along a feature axis.

Effects of Normal Aging on Memory for Multiple Contextual Features

Science.gov (United States)

Gagnon, Sylvain; Soulard, Kathleen; Brasgold, Melissa; Kreller, Joshua

2007-01-01

Twenty-four younger (18-35 years) and 24 older adult participants (65 or older) were exposed to three experimental conditions involving the memorization words and their associated contextual features, with contextual feature complexity increasing from Conditions 1 to 3. In Condition 1, words presented varied only on one binary feature (color,…

Acute alcohol effects on narrative recall and contextual memory: an examination of fragmentary blackouts.

Science.gov (United States)

Wetherill, Reagan R; Fromme, Kim

2011-08-01

The present study examined the effects of alcohol consumption on narrative recall and contextual memory among individuals with and without a history of fragmentary blackouts in an attempt to better understand why some individuals experience alcohol-induced memory impairments whereas others do not, even at comparable blood alcohol concentrations (BACs). Standardized beverage (alcohol and no alcohol) administration procedures and neuropsychological assessments measured narrative recall and context memory performance before and after alcohol consumption in individuals with (n=44) and without (n=44) a history of fragmentary blackouts. Findings indicate that acute alcohol intoxication led to impairments in free recall, but not next-day cued recall. Further, participants showed similar memory performance when sober, but individuals who consumed alcohol and had a positive history of fragmentary blackouts showed greater contextual memory impairments than those who had not previously experienced a fragmentary blackout. Thus, it appears that some individuals may have an inherent vulnerability to alcohol-induced memory impairments due to alcohol's effects on contextual memory processes. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of brain based learning with contextual approach viewed from adversity quotient

Science.gov (United States)

Kartikaningtyas, V.; Kusmayadi, T. A.; Riyadi, R.

2018-05-01

The aim of this research was to find out the effect of Brain Based Learning (BBL) with contextual approach viewed from adversity quotient (AQ) on mathematics achievement. BBL-contextual is the model to optimize the brain in the new concept learning and real life problem solving by making the good environment. Adversity Quotient is the ability to response and faces the problems. In addition, it is also about how to turn the difficulties into chances. This AQ classified into quitters, campers, and climbers. The research method used in this research was quasi experiment by using 2x3 factorial designs. The sample was chosen by using stratified cluster random sampling. The instruments were test and questionnaire for the data of AQ. The results showed that (1) BBL-contextual is better than direct learning on mathematics achievement, (2) there is no significant difference between each types of AQ on mathematics achievement, and (3) there is no interaction between learning model and AQ on mathematics achievement.

[The effect of age, gender and socioeconomic status on the use of services for psychological distress symptoms in the general medical sector: Results from the ESA research program on mental health and aging].

Science.gov (United States)

Préville, Michel; Gontijo-Guerra, Samantha; Mechakra-Tahiri, Samia-Djemaâ; Vasiliadis, Helen-Maria; Lamoureux-Lamarche, Catherine; Berbiche, Djamal

2014-01-01

The objective of this study was, first, to document the psychometric characteristics of a measure of the older adults' socioeconomic status and, secondly, to test the effect of the socioeconomic status on the association between the older adults perceived need to improve their mental health and their use of services in the general medical sector for psychological distress symptoms taking into account the effect of age and gender. Data used in this study come from the ESA study (Enquête sur la santé des ainés) on mental health and aging, conducted in 2005-2008 using a probabilistic sample (n=2811) of the older adult population aged 65 years and over living at home in Quebec. Our results showed that a measurement model of the older adults' socioeconomic status including an individual-level (SES_I) and an area/contextual-level dimension of socioeconomic deprivation (SES_C) was plausible. The reliability of the SES index used in the ESA research program was .92. Our results showed that women (b=-.43) and older people (b=-.16) were more at risk to have a disadvantaged socioeconomic status. However, our results did not show evidence of a significant association between the older adults' socioeconomic status, their perception of a need to improve their mental health and the use of medical services for psychological distress symptoms in the general medical sector in the older adult population in Quebec. Our results do not support the idea suggested in other studies that socioeconomic status has an effect on the older adults use of services for psychological distress symptoms in the general medical sector and suggest that in a context where medical health services are provided under a public insurance programme context, the socioeconomic status does not influence access to services in the general medical sector in the older adult population.

Multiculturalism and contextualism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lægaard, Sune

2015-01-01

Many political theorists of multiculturalism (e.g. Joseph Carens, Bhikhu Parekh, James Tully) describe their theories as “contextualist.” But it is unclear what “contextualism” means and what difference it makes for political theory. I use a specific prominent example of a multiculturalist...... discussion, namely Tariq Modood’s argument about “moderate secularism,” as a test case and distinguish between different senses of contextualism. I discuss whether the claim that political theory is contextual in each sense is novel and interesting, and whether contextualism is a distinct feature...... of political theory of multiculturalism. I argue that the forms of contextualism which concern the scope and methodology of political theory are sensible, but not novel or distinctive of multiculturalism. I then discuss the more controversial forms of contextualism, which I call political and theoretical...

Inferencing Processes after Right Hemisphere Brain Damage: Effects of Contextual Bias

Science.gov (United States)

Blake, Margaret Lehman

2009-01-01

Purpose: Comprehension deficits associated with right hemisphere brain damage (RHD) have been attributed to an inability to use context, but there is little direct evidence to support the claim. This study evaluated the effect of varying contextual bias on predictive inferencing by adults with RHD. Method: Fourteen adults with no brain damage…

Using contextual advertising in Internet marketing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Тетяна Олександрівна Левицька

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This article is devoted to the substantiation of the use of contextual advertising in Internet marketing as one of the most universal and expedient tools of modern advertising, applied for the first time in 1994, describing the principles of its implementation and the prospects for using it. The shortcomings and advantages of Internet marketing and contextual advertising in particular, its types and technologies, on which it is implemented, the possibilities, as well as the purposes of application, are considered. The main characteristics of contextual advertising, namely its characteristic properties as compared to the other types of Internet marketing, were highlighted. The use of contextual advertising in the search, on partner sites of the advertising network and an example of the report that was received by means of the Yandex.Metrika service have been shown. On the basis of the analysis the use of contextual advertising has been proved and its basic types and methods of measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns using deep analytics services have been demonstrated. The factor of the complexity of the configuration process has been singled out, and in this connection, a variant of professional intervention in setting up contextual advertising by specialized agencies has been offered. In the long term, the tools of contextual advertising are to expand. Every year, more and more services are being created for a deeper analysis of statistics, end-to-end analytics, and the improvement of the campaign management interface

The Effectiveness of Using Contextual Clues, Dictionary Strategy and Computer Assisted Language Learning (Call In Learning Vocabulary

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zuraina Ali

2013-07-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the effectiveness of three vocabulary learning methods that are Contextual Clues, Dictionary Strategy, and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL in learning vocabulary among ESL learners. First, it aims at finding which of the vocabulary learning methods namely Dictionary Strategy, Contextual Clues, and CALL that may result in the highest number of words learnt in the immediate and delayed recall tests. Second, it compares the results of the Pre-test and the Delayed Recall Post-test to determine the differences of learning vocabulary using the methods. A quasi-experiment that tested the effectiveness of learning vocabulary using Dictionary Strategy, Contextual clues, and CALL involved 123 first year university students. Qualitative procedures included the collection of data from interviews which were conducted to triangulate the data obtain from the quantitative inquiries. Findings from the study using ANOVA revealed that there were significant differences when students were exposed to Dictionary Strategy, Contextual Clues and CALL in the immediate recall tests but not in the Delayed Recall Post-test. Also, there were significant differences when t test was used to compare the scores between the Pre-test and the Delayed Recall Post-test in using the three methods of vocabulary learning. Although many researchers have advocated the relative effectiveness of Dictionary Strategy, Contextual Clues, and CALL in learning vocabulary, the study however, is still paramount since there is no study has ever empirically investigated the relative efficacy of these three methods in a single study.

Tracking Adolescents With Global Positioning System-Enabled Cell Phones to Study Contextual Exposures and Alcohol and Marijuana Use: A Pilot Study.

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Byrnes, Hilary F; Miller, Brenda A; Wiebe, Douglas J; Morrison, Christopher N; Remer, Lillian G; Wiehe, Sarah E

2015-08-01

Measuring activity spaces, places adolescents spend time, provides information about relations between contextual exposures and risk behaviors. We studied whether contextual exposures in adolescents' activity spaces differ from contextual risks present in residential contexts and examined relationships between contextual exposures in activity spaces and alcohol/marijuana use. Adolescents (N = 18) aged 16-17 years carried global positioning system (GPS)-enabled smartphones for 1 week, with locations tracked. Activity spaces were created by connecting global positioning system points sequentially and adding buffers. Contextual exposure data (e.g., alcohol outlets) were connected to routes. Adolescents completed texts regarding behaviors. Adolescent activity spaces intersected 24.3 census tracts and contained nine times more alcohol outlets than that of residential census tracts. Outlet exposure in activity spaces was related to drinking. Low-socioeconomic status exposure was related to marijuana use. Findings suggest substantial differences between activity spaces and residential contexts and suggest that activity spaces are relevant for adolescent risk behaviors. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture and personality disorder: from a fragmented literature to a contextually grounded alternative.

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Ryder, Andrew G; Sunohara, Momoka; Kirmayer, Laurence J

2015-01-01

The aim of this review is twofold: to review recent literature on personality disorders, published in 2013 and the first half of 2014; and to use recent theoretical work to argue for a contextually grounded approach to culture and personality disorder. Recent large-sample studies suggest that U.S. ethnoracial groups differ in personality disorder diagnostic rates, but also that minority groups are less likely to receive treatment for personality disorder. Most of these studies do not test explanations for these differences. However, two studies demonstrate that socioeconomic status partly explains group differences between African-Americans and European Americans. Several new studies test the psychometric properties of instruments relevant to personality disorder research in various non-Western samples. Ongoing theoretical work advocates much more attention to cultural context. Recent investigations of hikikomori, a Japanese social isolation syndrome with similarities to some aspects of personality disorder, are used to demonstrate approaches to contextually grounded personality disorder research. Studies of personality disorder must understand patients in sociocultural context considering the dynamic interactions between personality traits, developmental histories of adversity and current social context. Research examining these interactions can guide contextually grounded clinical work with patients with personality disorder.

Empathy and contextual social cognition.

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Melloni, Margherita; Lopez, Vladimir; Ibanez, Agustin

2014-03-01

Empathy is a highly flexible and adaptive process that allows for the interplay of prosocial behavior in many different social contexts. Empathy appears to be a very situated cognitive process, embedded with specific contextual cues that trigger different automatic and controlled responses. In this review, we summarize relevant evidence regarding social context modulation of empathy for pain. Several contextual factors, such as stimulus reality and personal experience, affectively link with other factors, emotional cues, threat information, group membership, and attitudes toward others to influence the affective, sensorimotor, and cognitive processing of empathy. Thus, we propose that the frontoinsular-temporal network, the so-called social context network model (SCNM), is recruited during the contextual processing of empathy. This network would (1) update the contextual cues and use them to construct fast predictions (frontal regions), (2) coordinate the internal (body) and external milieus (insula), and (3) consolidate the context-target associative learning of empathic processes (temporal sites). Furthermore, we propose these context-dependent effects of empathy in the framework of the frontoinsular-temporal network and examine the behavioral and neural evidence of three neuropsychiatric conditions (Asperger syndrome, schizophrenia, and the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia), which simultaneously present with empathy and contextual integration impairments. We suggest potential advantages of a situated approach to empathy in the assessment of these neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as their relationship with the SCNM.

Socioeconomic Status Moderates Genetic and Environmental Effects on the Amount of Alcohol Use

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Hamdi, Nayla R; Krueger, Robert F.; South, Susan C.

2015-01-01

Background Much is unknown about the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and alcohol use, including the means by which SES may influence risk for alcohol use. Methods Using a sample of 672 twin pairs (aged 25–74) derived from the MacArthur Foundation Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), the present study examined whether SES, measured by household income and educational attainment, moderates genetic and environmental influences on three indices of alcohol use: amount used, frequency of use, and problem use. Results We found significant moderation for amount of alcohol used. Specifically, genetic effects were greater in low-SES conditions, shared environmental effects (i.e., environmental effects that enhance the similarity of twins from the same families) tended to increase in high-SES conditions, and non-shared environmental effects (i.e., environmental effects that distinguish twins) tended to decrease with SES. This pattern of results was found for both income and education, and it largely replicated at a second wave of assessment spaced nine years after the first. There was virtually no evidence of moderation for either frequency of alcohol use or alcohol problems. Conclusions Our findings indicate that genetic and environmental influences on drinking amount vary as a function of the broader SES context, whereas the etiologies of other drinking phenomena are less affected by this context. Efforts to find the causes underlying the amount of alcohol used are likely to be more successful if such contextual information is taken into account. PMID:25778493

Socioeconomic status moderates genetic and environmental effects on the amount of alcohol use.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamdi, Nayla R; Krueger, Robert F; South, Susan C

2015-04-01

Much is unknown about the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and alcohol use, including the means by which SES may influence risk for alcohol use. Using a sample of 672 twin pairs (aged 25 to 74) derived from the MacArthur Foundation Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, this study examined whether SES, measured by household income and educational attainment, moderates genetic and environmental influences on 3 indices of alcohol use: amount used, frequency of use, and problem use. We found significant moderation for amount of alcohol used. Specifically, genetic effects were greater in low-SES conditions, shared environmental effects (i.e., environmental effects that enhance the similarity of twins from the same families) tended to increase in high-SES conditions, and nonshared environmental effects (i.e., environmental effects that distinguish twins) tended to decrease with SES. This pattern of results was found for both income and education, and it largely replicated at a second wave of assessment spaced 9 years after the first. There was virtually no evidence of moderation for either frequency of alcohol use or alcohol problems. Our findings indicate that genetic and environmental influences on drinking amount vary as a function of the broader SES context, whereas the etiologies of other drinking phenomena are less affected by this context. Efforts to find the causes underlying the amount of alcohol used are likely to be more successful if such contextual information is taken into account. Copyright © 2015 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Family and school socioeconomic disadvantage: interactive influences on adolescent dating violence victimization.

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Spriggs, Aubrey L; Halpern, Carolyn Tucker; Herring, Amy H; Schoenbach, Victor J

2009-06-01

Although low socioeconomic status has been positively associated with adult partner violence, its relationship to adolescent dating violence remains unclear. Further, few studies have examined the relationship between contextual disadvantage and adolescent dating violence, or the interactive influences of family and contextual disadvantage. Guided by social disorganization theory, relative deprivation theory, and gendered resource theory, we analyzed data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1994-1996) to explore how family and school disadvantage relate to dating violence victimization. Psychological and minor physical victimization were self-reported by adolescents in up to six heterosexual romantic or sexual relationships. Family and school disadvantage were based on a principal component analysis of socioeconomic indicators reported by adolescents and parents. In weighted multilevel random effects models, between-school variability in dating violence victimization was proportionately small but substantive: 10% for male victimization and 5% for female victimization. In bivariate analyses, family disadvantage was positively related to victimization for both males and females; however, school disadvantage was only related to males' physical victimization. In models adjusted for race/ethnicity, relative age within the school, and mean school age, neither family nor school disadvantage remained related to males' victimization. For females, family disadvantage remained significantly positively associated with victimization, but was modified by school disadvantage: family disadvantage was more strongly associated with dating violence victimization in more advantaged schools. Findings support gendered resource theory, and suggest that status differentials between females and their school context may increase their vulnerability to dating violence victimization.

The UKCAT-12 study: educational attainment, aptitude test performance, demographic and socio-economic contextual factors as predictors of first year outcome in a cross-sectional collaborative study of 12 UK medical schools.

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McManus, I C; Dewberry, Chris; Nicholson, Sandra; Dowell, Jonathan S

2013-11-14

Most UK medical schools use aptitude tests during student selection, but large-scale studies of predictive validity are rare. This study assesses the United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT), and its four sub-scales, along with measures of educational attainment, individual and contextual socio-economic background factors, as predictors of performance in the first year of medical school training. A prospective study of 4,811 students in 12 UK medical schools taking the UKCAT from 2006 to 2008 as a part of the medical school application, for whom first year medical school examination results were available in 2008 to 2010. UKCAT scores and educational attainment measures (General Certificate of Education (GCE): A-levels, and so on; or Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA): Scottish Highers, and so on) were significant predictors of outcome. UKCAT predicted outcome better in female students than male students, and better in mature than non-mature students. Incremental validity of UKCAT taking educational attainment into account was significant, but small. Medical school performance was also affected by sex (male students performing less well), ethnicity (non-White students performing less well), and a contextual measure of secondary schooling, students from secondary schools with greater average attainment at A-level (irrespective of public or private sector) performing less well. Multilevel modeling showed no differences between medical schools in predictive ability of the various measures. UKCAT sub-scales predicted similarly, except that Verbal Reasoning correlated positively with performance on Theory examinations, but negatively with Skills assessments. This collaborative study in 12 medical schools shows the power of large-scale studies of medical education for answering previously unanswerable but important questions about medical student selection, education and training. UKCAT has predictive validity as a predictor of medical school outcome

Contextual remapping in visual search after predictable target-location changes.

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Conci, Markus; Sun, Luning; Müller, Hermann J

2011-07-01

Invariant spatial context can facilitate visual search. For instance, detection of a target is faster if it is presented within a repeatedly encountered, as compared to a novel, layout of nontargets, demonstrating a role of contextual learning for attentional guidance ('contextual cueing'). Here, we investigated how context-based learning adapts to target location (and identity) changes. Three experiments were performed in which, in an initial learning phase, observers learned to associate a given context with a given target location. A subsequent test phase then introduced identity and/or location changes to the target. The results showed that contextual cueing could not compensate for target changes that were not 'predictable' (i.e. learnable). However, for predictable changes, contextual cueing remained effective even immediately after the change. These findings demonstrate that contextual cueing is adaptive to predictable target location changes. Under these conditions, learned contextual associations can be effectively 'remapped' to accommodate new task requirements.

Effects of neighborhood socioeconomic status on blood pressure in older adults

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Katia Jakovljevic Pudla Wagner

Full Text Available ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To test if the neighborhood socioeconomic status is associated with systolic blood pressure and hypertension in older adults. METHODS A cross-sectional population-based study with a sample of 1,705 older adults from Florianópolis, SC, Southern Brazil. The contextual variable used was the average years of schooling of the head of the household in census tracts. Participants were considered hypertensive when the systolic blood pressure was ≥ 140 mmHg, diastolic ≥ 90 mmHg, or both. Additionally, the use of antihypertensive medication was also considered. Data were analyzed by using multilevel models of logistic and linear regression. RESULTS The average age of the sample was 70.7 years and the average of systolic and diastolic blood pressure was 133.5 mmHg (SD = 20.5 mmHg and 81.9 mmHg (SD = 12.5 mmHg, respectively. The systolic blood pressure was 4.46 mmHg (95%CI 1.00–7.92 higher and the chance of hypertension was 1.80 (95%CI 1.26–2.57 among those who lived in census tracts with lower level of schooling. When the use of antihypertensive medication was combined with blood pressure levels, none association was found between the outcome and the level of schooling of the census tract. CONCLUSIONS Analytical models more robust (such as multilevel analysis in Brazil are still little used, with a small number of articles published. Neighborhood socioeconomic status is associated with systolic blood pressure and the chance of hypertension, regardless of individual characteristics.

Gene-environment correlation in the development of adolescent substance abuse: selection effects of child personality and mediation via contextual risk factors.

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Hicks, Brian M; Johnson, Wendy; Durbin, C Emily; Blonigen, Daniel M; Iacono, William G; McGue, Matt

2013-02-01

We used a longitudinal twin design to examine selection effects of personality traits at age 11 on high-risk environmental contexts at age 14 and the extent to which these contexts mediated risk for substance abuse at age 17. Socialization at age 11 (willingness to follow rules and endorse conventional values) predicted exposure to contextual risk at age 14. Contextual risk partially mediated the effect of socialization on substance abuse, though socialization also had a direct effect. In contrast, boldness at age 11 (social engagement and assurance, thrill seeking, and stress resilience) also predicted substance abuse directly but was unrelated to contextual risk. There was substantial overlap in the genetic and shared environmental influences on socialization and contextual risk, and genetic risk in socialization contributed to substance abuse indirectly via increased exposure to contextual risk. This suggests that active gene-environment correlations related to individual differences in socialization contributed to an early, high-risk developmental trajectory for adolescent substance abuse. In contrast, boldness appeared to index an independent and direct genetic risk factor for adolescent substance abuse.

Representing idioms: syntactic and contextual effects on idiom processing.

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Holsinger, Edward

2013-09-01

Recent work on the processing of idiomatic expressions argues against the idea that idioms are simply big words. For example, hybrid models of idiom representation, originally investigated in the context of idiom production, propose a priority of literal computation, and a principled relationship between the conceptual meaning of an idiom, its literal lemmas and its syntactic structure. We examined the predictions of the hybrid representation hypothesis in the domain of idiom comprehension. We conducted two experiments to examine the role of syntactic, lexical and contextual factors on the interpretation of idiomatic expressions. Experiment I examines the role of syntactic compatibility and lexical compatibility on the real-time processing of potentially idiomatic strings. Experiment 2 examines the role of contextual information on idiom processing and how context interacts with lexical information during processing. We find evidence that literal computation plays a causal role in the retrieval of idiomatic meaning and that contextual, lexical and structural information influence the processing of idiomatic strings at early stages during processing, which provide support for the hybrid model of idiom representation in the domain of idiom comprehension.

Contextualism in Normative Political Theory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lægaard, Sune

2016-01-01

Contextualism denotes a set of ideas about the importance of attention to context. The topic of the article is contextualism in normative political theory/philosophy, in relation to the part of political theory concerned with systematic political argument for normative claims—evaluative claims...... that can be invoked to contextualize a specific object of political discussion such as a law, an institution, or the like. Contextualism denotes any view that political theory should take context into account, but there are many different views about what this means. Contextualism can be characterized...... by way of different contrasts, which imply that the resulting conceptions of contextualism are views about different things, such as justification, the nature of political theory, or methodology. Here the focus is on characterizations of contextualism in terms of methodology and justification...

Discovering complex interrelationships between socioeconomic status and health in Europe: A case study applying Bayesian Networks.

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Alvarez-Galvez, Javier

2016-03-01

Studies assume that socioeconomic status determines individuals' states of health, but how does health determine socioeconomic status? And how does this association vary depending on contextual differences? To answer this question, our study uses an additive Bayesian Networks model to explain the interrelationships between health and socioeconomic determinants using complex and messy data. This model has been used to find the most probable structure in a network to describe the interdependence of these factors in five European welfare state regimes. The advantage of this study is that it offers a specific picture to describe the complex interrelationship between socioeconomic determinants and health, producing a network that is controlled by socio-demographic factors such as gender and age. The present work provides a general framework to describe and understand the complex association between socioeconomic determinants and health. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chronic fluoxetine dissociates contextual from auditory fear memory.

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Sanders, Jeff; Mayford, Mark

2016-10-06

Fluoxetine is a medication used to treat Major Depressive Disorder and other psychiatric conditions. These experiments studied the effects of chronic fluoxetine treatment on the contextual versus auditory fear memory of mice. We found that chronic fluoxetine treatment of adult mice impaired their contextual fear memory, but spared auditory fear memory. Hippocampal perineuronal nets, which are involved in contextual fear memory plasticity, were unaltered by fluoxetine treatment. These data point to a selective inability to form contextual fear memory as a result of fluoxetine treatment, and they suggest that a blunting of hippocampal-mediated aversive memory may be a therapeutic action for this medication. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The influence of contextual diversity on eye movements in reading

OpenAIRE

Plummer, Patrick; Perea, Manuel; Rayner, Keith

2013-01-01

Recent research has shown contextual diversity (i.e., the number of passages in which a given word appears) to be a reliable predictor of word processing difficulty. It has also been demonstrated that word-frequency has little or no effect on word recognition speed when accounting for contextual diversity in isolated word processing tasks. An eye-movement experiment was conducted wherein the effects of word-frequency and contextual diversity were directly contrasted in a normal sentence readi...

Is there contextuality in behavioural and social systems?

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Dzhafarov, E N; Zhang, Ru; Kujala, Janne

2016-01-13

Most behavioural and social experiments aimed at revealing contextuality are confined to cyclic systems with binary outcomes. In quantum physics, this broad class of systems includes as special cases Klyachko-Can-Binicioglu-Shumovsky-type, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bell-type and Suppes-Zanotti-Leggett-Garg-type systems. The theory of contextuality known as contextuality-by-default allows one to define and measure contextuality in all such systems, even if there are context-dependent errors in measurements, or if something in the contexts directly interacts with the measurements. This makes the theory especially suitable for behavioural and social systems, where direct interactions of 'everything with everything' are ubiquitous. For cyclic systems with binary outcomes, the theory provides necessary and sufficient conditions for non-contextuality, and these conditions are known to be breached in certain quantum systems. We review several behavioural and social datasets (from polls of public opinion to visual illusions to conjoint choices to word combinations to psychophysical matching), and none of these data provides any evidence for contextuality. Our working hypothesis is that this may be a broadly applicable rule: behavioural and social systems are non-contextual, i.e. all 'contextual effects' in them result from the ubiquitous dependence of response distributions on the elements of contexts other than the ones to which the response is presumably or normatively directed. © 2015 The Author(s).

Brain based learning with contextual approach to mathematics achievement

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V Kartikaningtyas

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to know the effect of Brain Based Learning (BBL with a contextual approach to mathematics achievement. BBL-contextual is the learning model that designed to develop and optimize the brain ability for getting a new concept and solving the real life problem. This study method was a quasi-experiment. The population was the junior high school students. The sample chosen by using stratified cluster random sampling. The sample was 109 students. The data collected through a mathematics achievement test that was given after the treatment. The data analyzed by using one way ANOVA. The results of the study showed that BBL-contextual is better than direct learning on mathematics achievement. It means BBL-contextual could be an effective and innovative model.

Tyrosine receptor kinase B receptor activation reverses the impairing effects of acute nicotine on contextual fear extinction.

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Kutlu, Munir Gunes; Cole, Robert D; Connor, David A; Natwora, Brendan; Gould, Thomas J

2018-03-01

Anxiety and stress disorders have been linked to deficits in fear extinction. Our laboratory and others have demonstrated that acute nicotine impairs contextual fear extinction, suggesting that nicotine exposure may have negative effects on anxiety and stress disorder symptomatology. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the acute nicotine-induced impairment of contextual fear extinction are unknown. Therefore, based on the previous studies showing that brain-derived neurotrophic factor is central for fear extinction learning and acute nicotine dysregulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling, we hypothesized that the nicotine-induced impairment of contextual fear extinction may involve changes in tyrosine receptor kinase B signaling. To test this hypothesis, we systemically, intraperitoneally, injected C57BL/6J mice sub-threshold doses (2.5 and 4.0 mg/kg) of 7,8-dihydroxyflavone, a small-molecule tyrosine receptor kinase B agonist that fully mimics the effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or vehicle an hour before each contextual fear extinction session. Mice also received injections, intraperitoneally, of acute nicotine (0.18 mg/kg) or saline 2-4 min before extinction sessions. While the animals that received only 7,8-dihydroxyflavone did not show any changes in contextual fear extinction, 4.0 mg/kg of 7,8-dihydroxyflavone ameliorated the extinction deficits in mice administered acute nicotine. Overall, these results suggest that acute nicotine-induced impairment of context extinction may be related to a disrupted brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling.

CONTEXTUAL STRATEGIES FOR CONDUCTING EFFECTIVE NEGOTIATION

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Camelia\tBĂEȘU

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Within this paper we try to argue the development of contextual strategies for conducting effective negotiation. Throughout the paper we present that the first motivation which we manage to identify is that we negotiate to improve whatever situation we are involved in. It is of great relevance to identify a few reasons for what we negotiate. Another motivation is that negotiation is an opportunity for creativity and it does allow you to fashion a solution according to, usually different kinds of facts, different fact situation so you may get to express some creativity. Negotiation is perceived as an opportunity where we can also build relationship with the other person. We can also communicate better with the other side about where they are, what they want and where they want to go. Next, we try to identify what makes for successful negotiation during each stage of the negotiation process. According to this paper there are five things which are the essence of business negotiation.

Competing definitions of contextual environments

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Jerrett Michael

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The growing interest in the effects of contextual environments on health outcomes has focused attention on the strengths and weaknesses of alternate contextual unit definitions for use in multilevel analysis. The present research examined three methods to define contextual units for a sample of children already enrolled in a respiratory health study. The Inclusive Equal Weights Method (M1 and Inclusive Sample Weighted Method (M2 defined communities using the boundaries of the census blocks that incorporated the residences of the CHS participants, except that the former estimated socio-demographic variables by averaging the census block data within each community, while the latter used weighted proportion of CHS participants per block. The Minimum Bounding Rectangle Method (M3 generated minimum bounding rectangles that included 95% of the CHS participants and produced estimates of census variables using the weighted proportion of each block within these rectangles. GIS was used to map the locations of study participants, define the boundaries of the communities where study participants reside, and compute estimates of socio-demographic variables. The sensitivity of census variable estimates to the choice of community boundaries and weights was assessed using standard tests of significance. Results The estimates of contextual variables vary significantly depending on the choice of neighborhood boundaries and weights. The choice of boundaries therefore shapes the community profile and the relationships between its components (variables. Conclusion Multilevel analysis concerned with the effects of contextual environments on health requires careful consideration of what constitutes a contextual unit for a given study sample, because the alternate definitions may have differential impact on the results. The three alternative methods used in this research all carry some subjectivity, which is embedded in the decision as to what

Improving Acquisition Outcomes with Contextual Ambidexterity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Meglio, Olimpia; King, David R.; Risberg, Annette

2015-01-01

The results of research on mergers and acquisitions often point to a need to improve acquisition outcomes and lessen the organizational turmoil that can often follow integration efforts. We assert that viewing acquisition integration through the lens of contextual ambidexterity may improve...... acquisition outcomes in two ways: by providing an integrated solution to the economic and social tensions in acquisitions, and by enabling managers to effectively confront the competing needs of task and human integration. We also posit that by building on contextual ambidexterity, we can extend...... the possibilities for both research and practice regarding task and human integration in acquisitions. We also emphasize the role of an integration manager and integration mechanisms in enabling contextual ambidexterity for successful acquisition integration. Finally, we identify implications for research...

Effect of Early- and Adult-Life Socioeconomic Circumstances on Physical Inactivity.

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Cheval, Boris; Sieber, Stefan; Guessous, Idris; Orsholits, Dan; Courvoisier, Delphine S; Kliegel, Matthias; Stringhini, Silvia; Swinnen, Stephan P; Burton-Jeangros, Claudine; Cullati, Stéphane; Boisgontier, Matthieu P

2018-03-01

This study aimed to investigate the associations between early- and adult-life socioeconomic circumstances and physical inactivity (level and evolution) in aging using large-scale longitudinal data. This study used the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe, a 10-yr population-based cohort study with repeated measurements in five waves, every 2 yr between 2004 and 2013. Self-reported physical inactivity (waves 1, 2, 4, and 5), household income (waves 1, 2, 4, and 5), educational attainment (wave of the first measurement occasion), and early-life socioeconomic circumstance (wave 3) were collected in 22,846 individuals 50 to 95 yr of age. Risk of physical inactivity was increased for women with the most disadvantaged early-life socioeconomic circumstances (odds ratio [OR], 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20-1.86). With aging, the risk of physical inactivity increased for both sexes and was strongest for those with the most disadvantaged early-life socioeconomic circumstances (OR, 1.04 (95% CI, 1.02-1.06) for women; OR, 1.02 (95% CI, 1.00-1.05) for men), with the former effect being more robust than the latter one. The association between early-life socioeconomic circumstances and physical inactivity was mediated by adult-life socioeconomic circumstances, with education being the strongest mediator. Early-life socioeconomic circumstances predicted high levels of physical inactivity at older ages, but this effect was mediated by socioeconomic indicators in adult life. This finding has implications for public health policies, which should continue to promote education to reduce physical inactivity in people at older ages and to ensure optimal healthy aging trajectories, especially among women with disadvantaged early-life socioeconomic circumstances.

Sociodemographic and social contextual predictors of multiple health behavior change: data from the Healthy Directions-Small Business study.

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Harley, Amy E; Sapp, Amy L; Li, Yi; Marino, Miguel; Quintiliani, Lisa M; Sorensen, Glorian

2013-03-01

Multiple modifiable health behaviors contribute to the chronic diseases that are the leading causes of death in the USA. Disparities for meeting recommended health behavior guidelines exist across occupational classes and socioeconomic levels. The purpose of this paper was to investigate sociodemographic and social contextual predictors of multiple health behavior change in a worksite intervention. We analyzed data on four diet and exercise variables from an intervention trial with worksite-level randomization. Eight hundred forty-one employees had complete data from baseline (response rate = 84 %) and follow-up surveys (response rate = 77 %). Multilevel logistic regression estimated associations between least absolute shrinkage and selection operator-selected sociodemographic and social contextual predictor variables and the multiple health behavior change outcome (changing 2+ versus 0 behaviors). Gender, being married/partnered, and perceived discrimination were significantly associated with multiple health behavior change. Sociodemographic and social contextual factors predict multiple health behavior change and could inform the design and delivery of worksite interventions targeting multiple health behaviors.

Moderating effects of contextual factors on relationship between ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Decision–making by physicians on patients' treatment has received increased research attention. ... The main objective of this paper is to review the influence of the marketing strategies by pharmaceutical firms and contextual factors on ...

Contextual diversity facilitates learning new words in the classroom.

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Eva Rosa

Full Text Available In the field of word recognition and reading, it is commonly assumed that frequently repeated words create more accessible memory traces than infrequently repeated words, thus capturing the word-frequency effect. Nevertheless, recent research has shown that a seemingly related factor, contextual diversity (defined as the number of different contexts [e.g., films] in which a word appears, is a better predictor than word-frequency in word recognition and sentence reading experiments. Recent research has shown that contextual diversity plays an important role when learning new words in a laboratory setting with adult readers. In the current experiment, we directly manipulated contextual diversity in a very ecological scenario: at school, when Grade 3 children were learning words in the classroom. The new words appeared in different contexts/topics (high-contextual diversity or only in one of them (low-contextual diversity. Results showed that words encountered in different contexts were learned and remembered more effectively than those presented in redundant contexts. We discuss the practical (educational [e.g., curriculum design] and theoretical (models of word recognition implications of these findings.

Stimulus homogeneity enhances implicit learning: evidence from contextual cueing.

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Feldmann-Wüstefeld, Tobias; Schubö, Anna

2014-04-01

Visual search for a target object is faster if the target is embedded in a repeatedly presented invariant configuration of distractors ('contextual cueing'). It has also been shown that the homogeneity of a context affects the efficiency of visual search: targets receive prioritized processing when presented in a homogeneous context compared to a heterogeneous context, presumably due to grouping processes at early stages of visual processing. The present study investigated in three Experiments whether context homogeneity also affects contextual cueing. In Experiment 1, context homogeneity varied on three levels of the task-relevant dimension (orientation) and contextual cueing was most pronounced for context configurations with high orientation homogeneity. When context homogeneity varied on three levels of the task-irrelevant dimension (color) and orientation homogeneity was fixed, no modulation of contextual cueing was observed: high orientation homogeneity led to large contextual cueing effects (Experiment 2) and low orientation homogeneity led to low contextual cueing effects (Experiment 3), irrespective of color homogeneity. Enhanced contextual cueing for homogeneous context configurations suggest that grouping processes do not only affect visual search but also implicit learning. We conclude that memory representation of context configurations are more easily acquired when context configurations can be processed as larger, grouped perceptual units. However, this form of implicit perceptual learning is only improved by stimulus homogeneity when stimulus homogeneity facilitates grouping processes on a dimension that is currently relevant in the task. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A re-examination of the effect of contextual group size on people's attitude to risk

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Kazumi Shimizu

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Using Kahneman and Tversky's life-death decision paradigm, Wang and colleagues (e.g., Wang and Johnston, 1995; Wang, 1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 2008; Wang et al., 2001 have shown two characteristic phenomena regarding people's attitude to risk when the contextual group size is manipulated. In both positive and negative frames, people tend to take greater risks in life-death decisions as the contextual group size becomes smaller; this risk-seeking attitude is greater when framed positively than negatively. (This second characteristic often leads to the disappearance of the framing effect in small group contexts comprising of 6 or 60 people. Their results could shed new light on the effect of contextual group size on people's risk choice. However these results are usually observed in laboratory experiments with university student samples. This study aims to examine the external validity of these results through different ways of experimentation and with a different sample base. The first characteristic was replicated in both a face-to-face interview with a randomly selected sample of the Japanese general public, and a web-based experiment with a non-student sample, but not the second.

Health inequalities by socioeconomic characteristics in Spain: the economic crisis effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Barroso, Clara; Abásolo, Ignacio; Cáceres, José J

2016-04-11

An economic crisis can widen health inequalities between individuals. The aim of this paper is to explore differences in the effect of socioeconomic characteristics on Spaniards' self-assessed health status, depending on the Spanish economic situation. Data from the 2006-2007 and 2011-2012 National Health Surveys were used and binary logit and probit models were estimated to approximate the effects of socioeconomic characteristics on the likelihood to report good health. The difference between high and low education levels leads to differences in the likelihood to report good health of 16.00-16.25 and 18.15-18.22 percentage points in 2006-07 and 2011-12, respectively. In these two periods, the difference between employees and unemployed is 5.24-5.40 and 4.60-4.90 percentage points, respectively. Additionally, the difference between people who live in households with better socioeconomic conditions and those who are in worse situation reaches 5.37-5.46 and 3.63-3.74 percentage points for the same periods, respectively. The magnitude of the contribution of socioeconomic characteristics to health inequalities changes with the economic cycle; but this effect is different depending on the socioeconomic characteristics indicator that is being measured. In recessive periods, health inequalities due to education level increase, but those linked to individual professional status and household living conditions are attenuated. When the joint effects of individuals' characteristics are considered, the economic crisis brings about a slight increase in the inequalities in the probability of reporting good health between the two extreme profiles of individuals. The design of public policies aimed at preventing any worsening of health inequalities during recession periods should take into account these differential effects of socioeconomic characteristics indicators on health inequalities.

Mission as liberation in socio-economic and political contexts: towards contextual and liberating theology of mission in the context of migration and human dislocation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Buffel, Olehile A.

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The article argues that for mission to be contextual and liberating it has to take seriously the plight of those who for various socio-economic and political factors have been forced to migrate from their countries of birth. Furthermore it critically analyses those factors that have led to the uprooting and the dislocation of Africans who are further impoverished, if not enslaved in the new countries where they are domiciled, particularly in the South African context. The paper argues that it is time, just like at Melbourne (1980 with regard to the poor, for those people who are dislocated to be put in the very centre of missiological reflection. In addition they also have to be put in the centre of theological reflection, and in particular theological education. Only if the plight of foreigners (migrants who have been dislocated is placed at the centre of theological education can the churches through their main functionaries who benefit directly from theological education play a liberating and humanising role in welcoming and humanising the foreigners who have been dislocated. Clergy, theologians and laity have significant roles to play in view of uprooting and dispelling the myths, stereotypes and resentment that often fuel xenophobia, in view making Africa hospitable to Africans.

Neighborhood differences in social capital: a compositional artifact or a contextual construct?

Science.gov (United States)

Subramanian, S V; Lochner, Kimberly A; Kawachi, Ichiro

2003-03-01

Assessment of social capital at the neighborhood level is often based on aggregating individual perceptions of trust and reciprocity. Individual perceptions, meanwhile, are influenced through a range of individual attributes. This paper examines the socioeconomic and demographic attributes that systematically correlate with individual perception of social capital and determines the extent to which such attributes account for neighborhood differences in social capital. Using improved multilevel modeling procedures, we ascertain the extent to which differences in social capital perception can be ascribed to true neighborhood-level variations. The analysis is based on the 1994-95 Community Survey of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). The response measure is based on survey respondent's perceptions of whether people in their neighborhood can be trusted. The results suggest that even after accounting for individual demographic (age, sex, race, marital status) and socioeconomic characteristics (income, education), significant neighborhood differences remain in individual perceptions of trust, substantiating the notion of social capital as a true contextual construct.

Contextual influences on reverse knowledge transfer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søberg, Peder Veng

2010-01-01

Further development of theories about how contextual factors influence the beneficial reverse knowledge transfer from subsidiary to head quarters in disparate national country contexts, is the aim of our study. Earlier studies do not fully capture the different effects national country cultures can....... A proposition model is developed where the dependent variable is beneficial reverse knowledge transfer. The independent variables are: higher relative knowledge level in subsidiaty than in HQ, authority respect, activity fit with contextual learning preference. The conclusion suggest that different contexts...

Experimental demonstration of quantum contextuality with nonentangled photons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, B. H.; Huang, Y. F.; Gong, Y. X.; Sun, F. W.; Zhang, Y. S.; Li, C. F.; Guo, G. C.

2009-01-01

We present an experimental test of quantum contextuality by using two-photon product states. The experimental results show that the noncontextual hidden-variable theories are violated by nonentangled states in spite of the local hidden-variable theories can be violated or not. We find that the Hong-Ou-Mandel-type quantum interference effect causes the quantum contextuality.

Contextual cueing effects despite spatially cued target locations.

Science.gov (United States)

Schankin, Andrea; Schubö, Anna

2010-07-01

Reaction times (RT) to targets are faster in repeated displays relative to novel ones when the spatial arrangement of the distracting items predicts the target location (contextual cueing). It is assumed that visual-spatial attention is guided more efficiently to the target resulting in reduced RTs. In the present experiment, contextual cueing even occurred when the target location was previously peripherally cued. Electrophysiologically, repeated displays elicited an enhanced N2pc component in both conditions and resulted in an earlier onset of the stimulus-locked lateralized readiness potential (s-LRP) in the cued condition and in an enhanced P3 in the uncued condition relative to novel displays. These results indicate that attentional guidance is less important than previously assumed but that other cognitive processes, such as attentional selection (N2pc) and response-related processes (s-LRP, P3) are facilitated by context familiarity.

Contextualizing Intergroup Contact: Do Political Party Cues Enhance Contact Effects?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar; Thomsen, Jens Peter Frølund

2015-01-01

This article examines intergroup contact effects in different political contexts. We expand on previous efforts of social psychologists by incorporating the messages of political parties as a contextual trigger of group membership awareness in contact situations. We argue that the focus among...... political parties on us-them categorizations heightens the awareness of group memberships. This focus in turn enhances the positive intergroup contact effect by stimulating majority members to perceive contacted persons as prototypical outgroup members. A multilevel analysis of 22 countries and almost 37......,000 individuals confirms that the ability of intergroup contact to reduce antiforeigner sentiment increases when political parties focus intensively on immigration issues and cultural differences. Specifically, both workplace contact and interethnic friendship become more effective in reducing antiforeigner...

The Role of Search Speed in the Contextual Cueing of Children's Attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Darby, Kevin; Burling, Joseph; Yoshida, Hanako

2014-01-01

The contextual cueing effect is a robust phenomenon in which repeated exposure to the same arrangement of random elements guides attention to relevant information by constraining search. The effect is measured using an object search task in which a target (e.g., the letter T) is located within repeated or nonrepeated visual contexts (e.g., configurations of the letter L). Decreasing response times for the repeated configurations indicates that contextual information has facilitated search. Although the effect is robust among adult participants, recent attempts to document the effect in children have yielded mixed results. We examined the effect of search speed on contextual cueing with school-aged children, comparing three types of stimuli that promote different search times in order to observe how speed modulates this effect. Reliable effects of search time were found, suggesting that visual search speed uniquely constrains the role of attention toward contextually cued information.

Association between competitive food and beverage policies in elementary schools and childhood overweight/obesity trends: differences by neighborhood socioeconomic resources.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez-Vaznaugh, Emma V; Sánchez, Brisa N; Crawford, Patricia B; Egerter, Susan

2015-05-01

decline in the odds of overweight was 1.2% for females (95% CI, 0.4 to 1.9) and 1.0% for males (95% CI, 0.3 to 1.8). Findings were similar for school neighborhood education. Our study found population-level improvements in the prevalence of childhood overweight/obesity that coincided with the period following implementation of statewide CF&B policies (2005-2010). However, these improvements were greatest at schools in the most advantaged neighborhoods. This suggests that CF&B policies may help prevent child obesity; however, the degree of their effectiveness is likely to depend on socioeconomic and other contextual factors in school neighborhoods. To reduce disparities and prevent obesity, school policies and environmental interventions must address relevant contextual factors in school neighborhoods.

Does Contextual Cueing Guide the Deployment of Attention?

OpenAIRE

Kunar, Melina A.; Flusberg, Stephen; Horowitz, Todd S.; Wolfe, Jeremy M.

2007-01-01

Contextual cueing experiments show that when displays are repeated, reaction times (RTs) to find a target decrease over time even when observers are not aware of the repetition. It has been thought that the context of the display guides attention to the target. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the effects of guidance in a standard search task to the effects of contextual cueing. Firstly, in standard search, an improvement in guidance causes search slopes (derived from RT × Set Size func...

Involving Customer Relations in Contextual Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simonsen, Jesper

1996-01-01

This paper presents a case study in the form of a contextual design project, the aim of which was to design a system for a particular organization. The starting point in the case was a need in the organization for a specific system. The case involved an analysis of the organizations customer...... point of the design project, how the project was conducted, and which results it ended up with. This is followed by a discussion of the effects of, and lessons learned by, involving customer relations in contextual design....

Psychopathology and prosocial behavior in adolescents from socio-economically disadvantaged families: the role of proximal and distal adverse life events.

Science.gov (United States)

Flouri, Eirini; Tzavidis, Nikos

2008-12-01

The study investigated if proximal contextual risk (number of adverse life events experienced in the last year) or distal contextual risk (number of adverse life events experienced before the last year) is a better predictor of adolescent psychopathology and prosocial behavior. It also tested for the specificity, accumulation and gradient of contextual risk in psychopathology and prosocial behavior, and for the interaction between proximal and distal contextual risk in psychopathology and prosocial behavior. The sample was 199 11-18 year old children from a socio-economically disadvantaged area in North-East London. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), which measures four difficulties (hyperactivity, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, and peer problems) and prosocial behavior, was used. Confounders were age, gender, and maternal educational qualifications. To model the relationship between the five SDQ scales and contextual risk multivariate response regression models and multivariate response logistic regression models that allow the error terms of the scale specific models to be correlated were fitted. This study highlighted the importance of proximal contextual risk in predicting both broad and externalizing psychopathology, and the importance of considering risk accumulation rather than specificity in predicting psychopathology. By showing that the number of proximal adverse life events experienced had a steady, additive effect on broad and externalizing psychopathology, it also highlighted the need to protect adolescents experiencing current risk from further risk exposure. By showing that the number of distal adverse life events experienced did not affect the proximal risk's impact on either broad or externalizing psychopathology, it highlighted the need to protect all adolescents, irrespective of experience of early life adversities, from risk.

Contextual Variability in Free Recall

Science.gov (United States)

Lohnas, Lynn J.; Polyn, Sean M.; Kahana, Michael J.

2011-01-01

According to contextual-variability theory, experiences encoded at different times tend to be associated with different contextual states. The gradual evolution of context implies that spaced items will be associated with more distinct contextual states, and thus have more unique retrieval cues, than items presented in proximity. Ross and Landauer…

Pigeons Exhibit Contextual Cueing to Both Simple and Complex Backgrounds

Science.gov (United States)

Wasserman, Edward A.; Teng, Yuejia; Castro, Leyre

2014-01-01

Repeated pairings of a particular visual context with a specific location of a target stimulus facilitate target search in humans. We explored an animal model of this contextual cueing effect using a novel Cueing-Miscueing design. Pigeons had to peck a target which could appear in one of four possible locations on four possible color backgrounds or four possible color photographs of real-world scenes. On 80% of the trials, each of the contexts was uniquely paired with one of the target locations; on the other 20% of the trials, each of the contexts was randomly paired with the remaining target locations. Pigeons came to exhibit robust contextual cueing when the context preceded the target by 2 s, with reaction times to the target being shorter on correctly-cued trials than on incorrectly-cued trials. Contextual cueing proved to be more robust with photographic backgrounds than with uniformly colored backgrounds. In addition, during the context-target delay, pigeons predominately pecked toward the location of the upcoming target, suggesting that attentional guidance contributes to contextual cueing. These findings confirm the effectiveness of animal models of contextual cueing and underscore the important part played by associative learning in producing the effect. PMID:24491468

Contextual Drivers of Environmental Values Cross-Culturally: Evidence from Europe Between 2004 and 2012

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kati Orru

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Environmental issues continue to grow in international prominence, owing to the importance of environ- mental conditions to human wellbeing globally. This paper focuses on why people’s values toward care for nature and environmental protection change — one of the antecedents to pro-environmental norms and behaviour. We aimed to clarify how individual and country-level contextual factors affect environmental values in Europe. Our cross-national study used data on individual environmental values from the 2004 and 2012 rounds of the European Social Survey, in combination with macro-level data on socio-economic security, countries’ environmental performance and educational levels. Country-level results revealed that throughout the studied years, nature held more importance to people in countries with increased levels of unemployment and exacerbated income disparities, including in transitional, post-socialist economies. Care for environment is less prominent in countries already performing well in terms of socio-economic and environmental performance, i.e. in states that may have higher resilience capacity towards adverse environmental impacts. Besides a state’s science education, which functions as an effective socialiser of caring for nature, practical experiences with adverse environmental impacts (e.g. health impairment could be used to predict an increase in the mean value of the natural environment in a country.

The contextual effects of social capital on health: a cross-national instrumental variable analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Daniel; Baum, Christopher F; Ganz, Michael L; Subramanian, S V; Kawachi, Ichiro

2011-12-01

Past research on the associations between area-level/contextual social capital and health has produced conflicting evidence. However, interpreting this rapidly growing literature is difficult because estimates using conventional regression are prone to major sources of bias including residual confounding and reverse causation. Instrumental variable (IV) analysis can reduce such bias. Using data on up to 167,344 adults in 64 nations in the European and World Values Surveys and applying IV and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, we estimated the contextual effects of country-level social trust on individual self-rated health. We further explored whether these associations varied by gender and individual levels of trust. Using OLS regression, we found higher average country-level trust to be associated with better self-rated health in both women and men. Instrumental variable analysis yielded qualitatively similar results, although the estimates were more than double in size in both sexes when country population density and corruption were used as instruments. The estimated health effects of raising the percentage of a country's population that trusts others by 10 percentage points were at least as large as the estimated health effects of an individual developing trust in others. These findings were robust to alternative model specifications and instruments. Conventional regression and to a lesser extent IV analysis suggested that these associations are more salient in women and in women reporting social trust. In a large cross-national study, our findings, including those using instrumental variables, support the presence of beneficial effects of higher country-level trust on self-rated health. Previous findings for contextual social capital using traditional regression may have underestimated the true associations. Given the close linkages between self-rated health and all-cause mortality, the public health gains from raising social capital within and across

Effects of postretrieval-extinction learning on return of contextually controlled cued fear.

Science.gov (United States)

Meir Drexler, Shira; Merz, Christian J; Hamacher-Dang, Tanja C; Marquardt, Veronica; Fritsch, Nathalie; Otto, Tobias; Wolf, Oliver T

2014-08-01

Reactivation of an already consolidated memory makes it labile for a period of several hrs, which are required for its reconsolidation. Evidence suggests that the return of conditioned fear through spontaneous recovery, reinstatement, or renewal can be prevented by blockading this reconsolidation process using pharmacological or behavioral interventions. Postretrieval-extinction learning has been shown to prevent the return of cued fear in humans using fear-irrelevant stimuli, as well as cued and contextual fear in rodents. The effects of postretrieval extinction on human contextually controlled cued fear to fear-relevant stimuli remain unknown, and are the focus of the present study. The experimental design was based on 3 consecutive days: acquisition, reactivation and extinction, and re-extinction. For the fear conditioning, 2 zoo frames served as different contexts, 5 fear-relevant stimuli (aversive animal pictures) served as conditioned stimuli (CS), electric shocks served as unconditioned stimuli (UCS). Expectancy ratings and skin-conductance response (SCR) were used as measures of fear responses; spontaneous recovery and renewal were used as indicators of the return of fear. The expectancy ratings and SCR results indicated spontaneous recovery on the third day, regardless of retrieval prior to extinction. No robust renewal effect was seen. It is suggested that the use of fear-relevant stimuli, the context salience, or reactivation context may explain the lack of reconsolidation effect. Our study indicates that the beneficial effects of postretrieval-extinction learning are sensitive to subtle methodological changes.

Contextual Approach with Guided Discovery Learning and Brain Based Learning in Geometry Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Kartikaningtyas, V.; Kusmayadi, T. A.; Riyadi

2017-09-01

The aim of this study was to combine the contextual approach with Guided Discovery Learning (GDL) and Brain Based Learning (BBL) in geometry learning of junior high school. Furthermore, this study analysed the effect of contextual approach with GDL and BBL in geometry learning. GDL-contextual and BBL-contextual was built from the steps of GDL and BBL that combined with the principles of contextual approach. To validate the models, it uses quasi experiment which used two experiment groups. The sample had been chosen by stratified cluster random sampling. The sample was 150 students of grade 8th in junior high school. The data were collected through the student’s mathematics achievement test that given after the treatment of each group. The data analysed by using one way ANOVA with different cell. The result shows that GDL-contextual has not different effect than BBL-contextual on mathematics achievement in geometry learning. It means both the two models could be used in mathematics learning as the innovative way in geometry learning.

Examining transgender health through the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health's (ICF) Contextual Factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacob, Melissa; Cox, Steven R

2017-12-01

For many transgender individuals, medical intervention is necessary to live as their desired gender. However, little is known about Contextual Factors (i.e., Environmental and Personal) that may act as facilitators and barriers in the health of transgender individuals. Therefore, this paper sought to examine Contextual Factors of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health that may facilitate or negatively impact the physical, psychological, and social functioning of transgender individuals. A literature review was conducted to identify Environmental and Personal Factors that may influence transgender individuals' physical, psychological, and social functioning. Seven electronic databases were searched. In total, 154 records were reviewed, and 41 articles and other records met inclusion criteria. Three general themes emerged for Environmental Factors: family and social networks, education, and health care. Three general themes also emerged for Personal Factors: socioeconomic status, race, and age. Transgender individuals benefit from gender-affirming services, improved family and social support systems, and competent provider care. Educational training programs, including medical curricula or workshops, might provide the greatest benefit in improving transgender health by increasing the knowledge and cultural competency of health professionals working with this population. Given the diversity of gender expression, differences in lived experiences, and potential for enduring persistent "double discrimination" due to the intersectional relationships between socioeconomic status, race, and/or age, health professionals must approach transgender health using a holistic lens such as the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health.

The Role of Search Speed in the Contextual Cueing of Children’s Attention

Science.gov (United States)

Darby, Kevin; Burling, Joseph; Yoshida, Hanako

2013-01-01

The contextual cueing effect is a robust phenomenon in which repeated exposure to the same arrangement of random elements guides attention to relevant information by constraining search. The effect is measured using an object search task in which a target (e.g., the letter T) is located within repeated or nonrepeated visual contexts (e.g., configurations of the letter L). Decreasing response times for the repeated configurations indicates that contextual information has facilitated search. Although the effect is robust among adult participants, recent attempts to document the effect in children have yielded mixed results. We examined the effect of search speed on contextual cueing with school-aged children, comparing three types of stimuli that promote different search times in order to observe how speed modulates this effect. Reliable effects of search time were found, suggesting that visual search speed uniquely constrains the role of attention toward contextually cued information. PMID:24505167

Effect of Socio-Economic Status of Parents on Educational ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Effect of Socio-Economic Status of Parents on Educational Attainment of Female ... of educational infrastructure like textbooks and well-equipped laboratories. ... homes the opportunity to acquire basic primary education to university level.

[Gaps in effective coverage by socioeconomic status and poverty condition].

Science.gov (United States)

Gutiérrez, Juan Pablo

2013-01-01

To analyze, in the context of increased health protection in Mexico, the gaps by socioeconomic status and poverty condition on effective coverage of selected preventive interventions. Data from the National Health & Nutrition Survey 2012 and 2006, using previously defined indicators of effective coverage and stratifying them by socioeconomic (SE) status and multidimensional poverty condition. For vaccination interventions, immunological equity has been maintained in Mexico. For indicators related to preventive interventions provided at the clinical setting, effective coverage is lower among those in the lowest SE quintile and among people living in multidimensional poverty. Comparing 2006 and 2012, there is no evidence on gap reduction. While health protection has significantly increased in Mexico, thus reducing SE gaps, those gaps are still important in magnitude for effective coverage of preventive interventions.

The Simultaneous Effects of Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Child Health on Children’s Cognitive Development

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Dohoon; Jackson, Margot

2018-01-01

Family socioeconomic status (SES) and child health are so strongly related that scholars have speculated child health to be an important pathway through which a “cycle of poverty” is reproduced across generations. Despite increasing recognition that SES and health work reciprocally and dynamically over the life course to produce inequality, however, existing research has yet to address how these two pathways simultaneously shape children’s development. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and marginal structural models, we ask three questions: 1) how does the reciprocal relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and child health affect estimates of each circumstance on children’s cognitive development?; 2) how do their respective effects vary with age?; and 3) do family SES and child health have differential effects on cognitive development across population subgroups? The results show that the negative effects of socioeconomic disadvantage and poor health are insensitive to their reciprocal relationships over time. We find divergent effects of socioeconomic disadvantage and poor health on children’s cognitive trajectories, with a widening pattern for family SES effects and a leveling-off pattern for child health effects. Finally, the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage are similar across all racial/ethnic groups, while the effects of child health are largely driven by white children. We discuss theoretical and policy implications of these findings for future research. PMID:28836169

The time course of attentional deployment in contextual cueing.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Yuhong V; Sigstad, Heather M; Swallow, Khena M

2013-04-01

The time course of attention is a major characteristic on which different types of attention diverge. In addition to explicit goals and salient stimuli, spatial attention is influenced by past experience. In contextual cueing, behaviorally relevant stimuli are more quickly found when they appear in a spatial context that has previously been encountered than when they appear in a new context. In this study, we investigated the time that it takes for contextual cueing to develop following the onset of search layout cues. In three experiments, participants searched for a T target in an array of Ls. Each array was consistently associated with a single target location. In a testing phase, we manipulated the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the repeated spatial layout and the search display. Contextual cueing was equivalent for a wide range of SOAs between 0 and 1,000 ms. The lack of an increase in contextual cueing with increasing cue durations suggests that as an implicit learning mechanism, contextual cueing cannot be effectively used until search begins.

Contextualizing Informal Labeling Effect on Adolescent Recidivism in South Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jonathan

2017-08-01

Symbolic interactionism argues that the effect of informal labeling by general others, such as family and friends, on behavior depends on the social context under which labeling takes place. Despite abundant research on informal labeling, little effort has been made to contextualize its impact on adolescent reoffending. Also, compared with other theories, only a few studies have been conducted among youths in Asian population. Using three consecutive waves of self-reported survey data from a nationally representative sample of 2,406 Korean adolescents, this study examined an interactional model for the informal labeling effect. Findings suggest that informal labeling, as well as school commitment and delinquent peer association, has an independent effect on delinquency. Also supported is the symbolic interactionist hypothesis that adolescents with greater involvement in delinquent subcultures were less susceptible to informal labeling. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Object-based implicit learning in visual search: perceptual segmentation constrains contextual cueing.

Science.gov (United States)

Conci, Markus; Müller, Hermann J; von Mühlenen, Adrian

2013-07-09

In visual search, detection of a target is faster when it is presented within a spatial layout of repeatedly encountered nontarget items, indicating that contextual invariances can guide selective attention (contextual cueing; Chun & Jiang, 1998). However, perceptual regularities may interfere with contextual learning; for instance, no contextual facilitation occurs when four nontargets form a square-shaped grouping, even though the square location predicts the target location (Conci & von Mühlenen, 2009). Here, we further investigated potential causes for this interference-effect: We show that contextual cueing can reliably occur for targets located within the region of a segmented object, but not for targets presented outside of the object's boundaries. Four experiments demonstrate an object-based facilitation in contextual cueing, with a modulation of context-based learning by relatively subtle grouping cues including closure, symmetry, and spatial regularity. Moreover, the lack of contextual cueing for targets located outside the segmented region was due to an absence of (latent) learning of contextual layouts, rather than due to an attentional bias towards the grouped region. Taken together, these results indicate that perceptual segmentation provides a basic structure within which contextual scene regularities are acquired. This in turn argues that contextual learning is constrained by object-based selection.

Acute ethanol has biphasic effects on short- and long-term memory in both foreground and background contextual fear conditioning in C57BL/6 mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Gulick, Danielle; Gould, Thomas J

2007-09-01

Ethanol is a frequently abused, addictive drug that impairs cognitive function. Ethanol may disrupt cognitive processes by altering attention, short-term memory, and/or long-term memory. Interestingly, some research suggests that ethanol may enhance cognitive processes at lower doses. The current research examined the dose-dependent effects of ethanol on contextual and cued fear conditioning. In addition, the present studies assessed the importance of stimulus salience in the effects of ethanol and directly compared the effects of ethanol on short-term and long-term memory. This study employed both foreground and background fear conditioning, which differ in the salience of contextual stimuli, and tested conditioning at 4 hours, 24 hours, and 1 week in order to assess the effects of ethanol on short-term and long-term memory. Foreground conditioning consisted of 2 presentations of a foot shock unconditioned stimulus (US) (2 seconds, 0.57 mA). Background conditioning consisted of 2 auditory conditioned stimulus (30 seconds, 85 dB white noise)-foot shock (US; 2 seconds, 0.57 mA) pairings. For both foreground and background conditioning, ethanol enhanced short-term and long-term memory for contextual and cued conditioning at a low dose (0.25 g/kg) and impaired short-term and long-term memory for contextual and cued conditioning at a high dose (1.0 g/kg). These results suggest that ethanol has long-lasting, biphasic effects on short-term and long-term memory for contextual and cued conditioning. Furthermore, the effects of ethanol on contextual fear conditioning are independent of the salience of the context.

A More Efficient Contextuality Distillation Protocol

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Hui-xian; Cao, Huai-xin; Wang, Wen-hua; Fan, Ya-jing; Chen, Liang

2018-03-01

Based on the fact that both nonlocality and contextuality are resource theories, it is natural to ask how to amplify them more efficiently. In this paper, we present a contextuality distillation protocol which produces an n-cycle box B ∗ B ' from two given n-cycle boxes B and B '. It works efficiently for a class of contextual n-cycle ( n ≥ 4) boxes which we termed as "the generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes". For any two generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes B and B ', B ∗ B ' is more contextual than both B and B '. Moreover, they can be distilled toward to the maximally contextual box C H n as the times of iteration goes to infinity. Among the known protocols, our protocol has the strongest approximate ability and is optimal in terms of its distillation rate. What is worth noting is that our protocol can witness a larger set of nonlocal boxes that make communication complexity trivial than the protocol in Brunner and Skrzypczyk (Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 160403 2009), this might be helpful for exploring the problem that why quantum nonlocality is limited.

Templates and Queries in Contextual Hypermedia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Anderson, Kenneth Mark; Hansen, Frank Allan; Bouvin, Niels Olof

2006-01-01

discuss a framework, HyConSC, that implements this model and describe how it can be used to build new contextual hypermedia systems. Our framework aids the developer in the iterative development of contextual queries (via a dynamic query browser) and offers support for con-text matching, a key feature...... of contextual hypermedia. We have tested the framework with data and sensors taken from the HyCon contextual hypermedia system and are now migrating HyCon to this new framework....

Validating Domains of Patient Contextual Factors Essential to Preventing Contextual Errors: A Qualitative Study Conducted at Chicago Area Veterans Health Administration Sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Binns-Calvey, Amy E; Malhiot, Alex; Kostovich, Carol T; LaVela, Sherri L; Stroupe, Kevin; Gerber, Ben S; Burkhart, Lisa; Weiner, Saul J; Weaver, Frances M

2017-09-01

"Patient context" indicates patient circumstances and characteristics or states that are essential to address when planning patient care. Specific patient "contextual factors," if overlooked, result in an inappropriate plan of care, a medical error termed a "contextual error." The myriad contextual factors that constitute patient context have been grouped into broad domains to create a taxonomy of challenges to consider when planning care. This study sought to validate a previously identified list of contextual domains. This qualitative study used directed content analysis. In 2014, 19 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) providers (84% female) and 49 patients (86% male) from two VA medical centers and four outpatient clinics in the Chicago area participated in semistructured interviews and focus groups. Topics included patient-specific, community, and resource-related factors that affect patients' abilities to manage their care. Transcripts were analyzed with a previously identified list of contextual domains as a framework. Analysis of responses revealed that patients and providers identified the same 10 domains previously published, plus 3 additional ones. Based on comments made by patients and providers, the authors created a revised list of 12 domains from themes that emerged. Six pertain to patient circumstances such as access to care and financial situation, and 6 to patient characteristics/states including skills, abilities, and knowledge. Contextual factors in patients' lives may be essential to address for effective care planning. The rubric developed can serve as a "contextual differential" for clinicians to consider when addressing challenges patients face when planning their care.

Contextual control over expression of fear is affected by cortisol

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vanessa Anna Van Ast

2012-10-01

Full Text Available At the core of anxiety disorders is the inability to use contextual information to modulate behavioral responses to potentially threatening events. Models of the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders incorporate stress and concomitant stress hormones as important vulnerability factors, while others emphasize sex as an important factor. However, translational basic research has not yet investigated the effects of stress hormones and sex on the ability to use contextual information to modulate responses to threat. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was threefold: first, we aimed at developing an experimental paradigm specifically capable of capturing contextual modulation of the expression of fear. Second, we tested whether cortisol would alter the contextualization of fear expression. Third, we aimed at assessing whether alterations in contextualization due to cortisol were different for men and women. Healthy participants (n = 42 received placebo or hydrocortisone (20 mg prior to undergoing a newly developed differential contextual fear conditioning paradigm. The results indicated that people rapidly acquire differential contextual modulation of the expression of fear, as measured by fear potentiated startle and skin conductance responses. In addition, cortisol impaired the contextualization of fear expression leading to increased fear generalization on fear potentiated startle data in women. The opposite pattern was found in men. Finally, as assessed by skin conductance responses, cortisol impaired differential conditioning in men. The results are in line with models suggesting heightened vulnerability in women for developing anxiety disorders after stressful events.

Effects of socioeconomic factors on secular trends in suicide in Japan, 1953-86.

Science.gov (United States)

Motohashi, Y

1991-04-01

The effects of socioeconomic factors on secular trends in suicide rates in Japan for the periods 1953-72 and 1973-86 were investigated using twelve socioeconomic indicators. Multiple regression analysis showed that the socioeconomic indicators affecting suicide rates were not identical in the two periods. The rates in both sexes in 1953-72 were closely related to unemployment rate and the labour force but between 1973 and 1986, divorce rate and the proportion in tertiary industry were most influential. The changes reflect the socioeconomic changes in industrial structure in Japan in transition from an industrial to a service economy.

Concentration- and age-dependent effects of chronic caffeine on contextual fear conditioning in C57BL/6J mice

Science.gov (United States)

Poole, Rachel L.; Braak, David; Gould, Thomas J.

2015-01-01

Chronic caffeine exerts negligible effects on learning and memory in normal adults, but it is unknown whether this is also true for children and adolescents. The hippocampus, a brain region important for learning and memory, undergoes extensive structural and functional modifications during pre-adolescence and adolescence. As a result, chronic caffeine may have differential effects on hippocampus-dependent learning in pre-adolescents and adolescents compared with adults. Here, we characterized the effects of chronic caffeine and withdrawal from chronic caffeine on hippocampus-dependent (contextual) and hippocampus-independent (cued) fear conditioning in pre-adolescent, adolescent, and adult mice. The results indicate that chronic exposure to caffeine during pre-adolescence and adolescence enhances or impairs contextual conditioning depending on concentration, yet has no effect on cued conditioning. In contrast, withdrawal from chronic caffeine impairs contextual conditioning in pre-adolescent mice only. No changes in learning were seen for adult mice for either the chronic caffeine or withdrawal conditions. These findings support the hypothesis that chronic exposure to caffeine during pre-adolescence and adolescence can alter learning and memory and as changes were only seen in hippocampus-dependent learning, this suggests that the developing hippocampus may be sensitive to the effects of caffeine. PMID:25827925

Concentration- and age-dependent effects of chronic caffeine on contextual fear conditioning in C57BL/6J mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Poole, Rachel L; Braak, David; Gould, Thomas J

2016-02-01

Chronic caffeine exerts negligible effects on learning and memory in normal adults, but it is unknown whether this is also true for children and adolescents. The hippocampus, a brain region important for learning and memory, undergoes extensive structural and functional modifications during pre-adolescence and adolescence. As a result, chronic caffeine may have differential effects on hippocampus-dependent learning in pre-adolescents and adolescents compared with adults. Here, we characterized the effects of chronic caffeine and withdrawal from chronic caffeine on hippocampus-dependent (contextual) and hippocampus-independent (cued) fear conditioning in pre-adolescent, adolescent, and adult mice. The results indicate that chronic exposure to caffeine during pre-adolescence and adolescence enhances or impairs contextual conditioning depending on concentration, yet has no effect on cued conditioning. In contrast, withdrawal from chronic caffeine impairs contextual conditioning in pre-adolescent mice only. No changes in learning were seen for adult mice for either the chronic caffeine or withdrawal conditions. These findings support the hypothesis that chronic exposure to caffeine during pre-adolescence and adolescence can alter learning and memory and as changes were only seen in hippocampus-dependent learning, which suggests that the developing hippocampus may be sensitive to the effects of caffeine. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Does community capacity influence self-rated health? Multilevel contextual effects in Seoul, Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Jung, Minsoo; Viswanath, K

2013-01-01

This study examined the relationship between community-level contextual effects and self-rated health (SRH) based on the perspective of community capacity rather than social capital. Community capacity for mobilization is broad cooperation for networking among indigenous social agents and grassroots organizations that may serve as potential resources. The idea of community capacity is rooted in the philosophy that a community not only faces problems but also possesses the necessary resources to solve its problems. We used nationally representative data from South Korea, 2010, drawing on 14,228 residents in 404 communities. Community capacity was measured at two levels: an individual-level indicator of community satisfaction, and community-level indicators of participation rate in community organizations, number of community-based organizations (CBOs), and number of volunteer work camps (VWCs). The outcome variable was SRH, which was categorized into two groups: the low-SRH and high-SRH groups. Confounders included gender, age, and income at the individual level, and aggregate length of residency, financial independence ratio, and aggregate income at the community level. We estimated the effects of community capacity on SRH using hierarchical generalized linear models. The likelihood of belonging to the group having low-SRH is significantly high among those respondents living in places with lower community capacity at the community level, that report lower community satisfaction, and that have lower income at the individual level. After controlling for socio-economic confounders, the odds ratios were attenuated but remained significant in the final model, which included the gender-specific model. This study revealed that SRH is related to the level of community capacity for mobilization. It is probably because CBOs and VWCs not only provide necessary information and complementary services but also play an active role in identifying and resolving health problems

Contextual cueing impairment in patients with age-related macular degeneration.

Science.gov (United States)

Geringswald, Franziska; Herbik, Anne; Hoffmann, Michael B; Pollmann, Stefan

2013-09-12

Visual attention can be guided by past experience of regularities in our visual environment. In the contextual cueing paradigm, incidental learning of repeated distractor configurations speeds up search times compared to random search arrays. Concomitantly, fewer fixations and more direct scan paths indicate more efficient visual exploration in repeated search arrays. In previous work, we found that simulating a central scotoma in healthy observers eliminated this search facilitation. Here, we investigated contextual cueing in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who suffer from impaired foveal vision. AMD patients performed visual search using only their more severely impaired eye (n = 13) as well as under binocular viewing (n = 16). Normal-sighted controls developed a significant contextual cueing effect. In comparison, patients showed only a small nonsignificant advantage for repeated displays when searching with their worse eye. When searching binocularly, they profited from contextual cues, but still less than controls. Number of fixations and scan pattern ratios showed a comparable pattern as search times. Moreover, contextual cueing was significantly correlated with acuity in monocular search. Thus, foveal vision loss may lead to impaired guidance of attention by contextual memory cues.

Investigating Associations between School Climate and Bullying in Secondary Schools: Multilevel Contextual Effects Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Konishi, Chiaki; Miyazaki, Yasuo; Hymel, Shelley; Waterhouse, Terry

2017-01-01

This study examined how student reports of bullying were related to different dimensions of school climate, at both the school and the student levels, using a contextual effects model in a two-level multilevel modeling framework. Participants included 48,874 secondary students (grades 8 to 12; 24,244 girls) from 76 schools in Western Canada.…

Economic contextual factors, food consumption, and obesity among U.S. adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, Lisa M; Han, Euna; Chaloupka, Frank J

2010-06-01

Adolescents have poor dietary behaviors and high overweight prevalence. Economic contextual factors such as food prices and food store and restaurant availability are hypothesized and increasingly being explored empirically as contributors to the obesity epidemic. Evidence showed that healthful compared with less healthful foods increasingly cost more and that fast food restaurants are increasingly available. In addition, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities have been documented in access to food outlets, particularly chain supermarkets, and such disparities have been shown to be increasing recently. Empirical evidence based on nationally representative U.S. adolescent data revealed that lower fruit and vegetable prices, higher fast food prices, and greater supermarket availability were related to higher fruit and vegetable consumption and lower BMI, in particular for BMI among teens who are overweight or at risk for overweight and who are low- to middle-socioeconomic status. The availability of fast food restaurants was not associated with youth BMI. Overall, this research implies that pricing interventions of taxes on energy-dense foods such as fast food and/or subsidies to healthful foods such as fruits and vegetables and policy efforts to improve access to supermarkets may help to improve adolescent weight outcomes.

Contextual inquiry for medical device design

CERN Document Server

Privitera, Mary Beth

2015-01-01

Contextual Inquiry for Medical Device Design helps users understand the everyday use of medical devices and the way their usage supports the development of better products and increased market acceptance. The text explains the concept of contextual inquiry using real-life examples to illustrate its application. Case studies provide a frame of reference on how contextual inquiry is successfully used during product design, ultimately producing safer, improved medical devices. Presents the ways contextual inquiry can be used to inform the evaluation and business case of technologyHelps users

Structuring mobile and contextual learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Glahn, Christian; Specht, Marcus

2011-01-01

Glahn, C., & Specht, M. (2011). Structuring mobile and contextual learning. In Proceedings of the 10th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (pp. 188-195). October, 18-21, 2011, Beijing, China.

French Nursery Schools and German Kindergartens: Effects of Individual and Contextual Variables on Early Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Tazouti, Youssef; Viriot-Goeldel, Caroline; Matter, Cornelie; Geiger-Jaillet, Anemone; Carol, Rita; Deviterne, Dominique

2011-01-01

The present article investigates the effects of individual and contextual variables on children's early learning in French nursery schools and German kindergartens. Our study of 552 children at preschools in France (299 children from French nursery schools) and Germany (253 children from German kindergartens) measured skills that facilitate the…

Generation and memory for contextual detail.

Science.gov (United States)

Mulligan, Neil W

2004-07-01

Generation enhances item memory but may not enhance other aspects of memory. In 12 experiments, the author investigated the effect of generation on context memory, motivated in part by the hypothesis that generation produces a trade-off in encoding item and contextual information. Participants generated some study words (e.g., hot-c__) and read others (e.g., hot-cold). Generation consistently enhanced item memory but did not enhance context memory. More specifically, generation disrupted context memory for the color of the target word but did not affect context memory for location, background color, and cue-word color. The specificity of the negative generation effect in context memory argues against a general item-context trade-off. A processing account of generation meets greater success. In addition, the results provide no evidence that generation enhances recollection of contextual details. Copyright 2004 APA, all rights reserved

The Influence of Contextual Diversity on Eye Movements in Reading

Science.gov (United States)

Plummer, Patrick; Perea, Manuel; Rayner, Keith

2014-01-01

Recent research has shown contextual diversity (i.e., the number of passages in which a given word appears) to be a reliable predictor of word processing difficulty. It has also been demonstrated that word-frequency has little or no effect on word recognition speed when accounting for contextual diversity in isolated word processing tasks. An…

Contextual knowledge reduces demands on working memory during reading.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Lisa M Soederberg; Cohen, Jason A; Wingfield, Arthur

2006-09-01

An experiment is reported in which young, middle-aged, and older adults read and recalled ambiguous texts either with or without the topic title that supplied contextual knowledge. Within each of the age groups, the participants were divided into those with high or low working memory (WM) spans, with available WM capacity further manipulated by the presence or absence of an auditory target detection task concurrent with the reading task. Differences in reading efficiency (reading time per proposition recalled) between low WM span and high WM span groups were greater among readers who had access to contextual knowledge relative to those who did not, suggesting that contextual knowledge reduces demands on WM capacity. This position was further supported by the finding that increased age and attentional demands, two factors associated with reduced WM capacity, exaggerated the benefits of contextual knowledge on reading efficiency. The relative strengths of additional potential predictors of reading efficiency (e.g., interest, effort, and memory beliefs), along with knowledge, WM span, and age, are reported. Findings showed that contextual knowledge was the strongest predictor of reading efficiency even after controlling for the effects of all of the other predictors.

Consequences of contextual factors on clinical reasoning in resident physicians.

Science.gov (United States)

McBee, Elexis; Ratcliffe, Temple; Picho, Katherine; Artino, Anthony R; Schuwirth, Lambert; Kelly, William; Masel, Jennifer; van der Vleuten, Cees; Durning, Steven J

2015-12-01

Context specificity and the impact that contextual factors have on the complex process of clinical reasoning is poorly understood. Using situated cognition as the theoretical framework, our aim was to evaluate the verbalized clinical reasoning processes of resident physicians in order to describe what impact the presence of contextual factors have on their clinical reasoning. Participants viewed three video recorded clinical encounters portraying straightforward diagnoses in internal medicine with select patient contextual factors modified. After watching each video recording, participants completed a think-aloud protocol. Transcripts from the think-aloud protocols were analyzed using a constant comparative approach. After iterative coding, utterances were analyzed for emergent themes with utterances grouped into categories, themes and subthemes. Ten residents participated in the study with saturation reached during analysis. Participants universally acknowledged the presence of contextual factors in the video recordings. Four categories emerged as a consequence of the contextual factors: (1) emotional reactions (2) behavioral inferences (3) optimizing the doctor patient relationship and (4) difficulty with closure of the clinical encounter. The presence of contextual factors may impact clinical reasoning performance in resident physicians. When confronted with the presence of contextual factors in a clinical scenario, residents experienced difficulty with closure of the encounter, exhibited as diagnostic uncertainty. This finding raises important questions about the relationship between contextual factors and clinical reasoning activities and how this relationship might influence the cost effectiveness of care. This study also provides insight into how the phenomena of context specificity may be explained using situated cognition theory.

Tools of Contextualization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bouvin, Niels Olof; Brodersen, Ann Christina; Hansen, Frank Allan

2005-01-01

Project based education is growing in importance in elementary schools though it is still quite poorly technologically supported, particularly with respect to actively taking advantage of contextual information. Based on an empirical study of teaching and in particular project based education...... in Danish elementary schools, we present the HyConExplorer, a geospatial hypermedia system supporting project based education and learning outside of the classroom through contextualization of information. More specifically, the HyCon-Explorer provides means for: browsing with your feet, annotating...

The impact of signal-to-noise ratio on contextual cueing in children and adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yingying; Merrill, Edward C

2015-04-01

Contextual cueing refers to a form of implicit spatial learning where participants incidentally learn to associate a target location with its repeated spatial context. Successful contextual learning produces an efficient visual search through familiar environments. Despite the fact that children exhibit the basic ability of implicit spatial learning, their general effectiveness in this form of learning can be compromised by other development-dependent factors. Learning to extract useful information (signal) in the presence of various amounts of irrelevant or distracting information (noise) characterizes one of the most important changes that occur with cognitive development. This research investigated whether signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) affects contextual cueing differently in children and adults. S/N was operationally defined as the ratio of repeated versus new displays encountered over time. Three ratio conditions were created: high (100%), medium (67%), and low (33%) conditions. Results suggested no difference in the acquisition of contextual learning effects in the high and medium conditions across three age groups (6- to 8-year-olds, 10- to 12-year-olds, and young adults). However, a significant developmental difference emerged in the low S/N condition. As predicted, adults exhibited significant contextual cueing effects, whereas older children showed marginally significant contextual cueing and younger children did not show cueing effects. Group differences in the ability to exhibit implicit contextual learning under low S/N conditions and the implications of this difference are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The role of peripheral vision in implicit contextual cuing.

Science.gov (United States)

van Asselen, Marieke; Castelo-Branco, Miguel

2009-01-01

Implicit contextual cuing refers to the ability to learn the association between contextual information of our environment and a specific target, which can be used to guide attention during visual search. It was recently suggested that the storage of a snapshot image of the local context of a target underlies implicit contextual cuing. To make such a snapshot, it is necessary to use peripheral vision. In order to test whether peripheral vision can underlie implicit contextual cuing, we used a covert visual search task, in which participants were required to indicate the orientation of a target stimulus while foveating a fixation cross. The response times were shorter when the configuration of the stimuli was repeated than when the configuration was new. Importantly, this effect was still found after 10 days, indicating that peripherally perceived spatial context information can be stored in memory for long periods of time. These results indicate that peripheral vision can be used to make a snapshot of the local context of a target.

Contextualized teaching on the problem solving performance of students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rolando V. Obiedo

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study investigated the effect of contextualized teaching on students’ problem solving skills in physics through a quasi-experimental approach. Problem solving performance of students was described quantitatively through their mean problem solving scores and problem solving skills level. A unit plan patterned from the cognitive apprenticeship approach and contextualized using maritime context of ship stability was implemented on the experimental group while the control group had the conventional lecture method. Pre and post assessment, which is a researcher-developed word problem assessment, was administered to both groups. Results indicated increased problem solving mean scores (p < 0.001, problem solving skill level (p < 0.001 of the experimental group while the control group increased only their problem solving skill level (p = 0.008. Thus, contextualized teaching can improve the problem solving performance of students. This study recommends using contextualization using other physics topics where other contexts can be applied.

Effects of socioeconomic factors on household appliance, lighting, and space cooling electricity consumption

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aydinalp, M. [Itron Inc., Boston, MA (United States); Ismet Ugursal, V.; Fung, A.S. [Dalhousie University, Halifax (Canada). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

2003-07-01

Two methods are currently used to model residential energy consumption at the national or regional level: the engineering method and the conditional demand analysis (CDA) method. One of the major difficulties associated with the use of engineering models is the inclusion of consumer behaviour and socioeconomic factors that have significant effects on the residential energy consumption. The CDA method can handle socioeconomic factors if they are included in the model formulation. However, the multicollinearity problem and the need for a very large amount of data make the use of CDA models very difficult. It is shown in this paper that the neural network (NN) method can be used to model the residential energy consumption with the inclusion of socioeconomic factors. The appliances, lighting, and cooling component of the NN based energy consumption model developed for the Canadian residential sector is presented here and the effects of some socioeconomic factors on the residential energy consumption are examined using the model. (author)

Brogaard's Moral Contextualism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Binderup, Lars Grassme

2008-01-01

Brogaard's non-indexical version of moral contextualism has two related problems. It is unable to account for the function of truth-governed assertoric moral discourse, since it leaves two (semantically clearheaded) disputants without any incentive to resolve seemingly contradictory moral claims....... The moral contextualist could explain why people do feel such an incentive by ascribing false beliefs about the semantic workings of their own language. But, secondly, this leaves Brogaard's moral contextualism looking weaker than a Mackie-style invariantist error theory about morals. The latter is equally...

Effects of age, socioeconomic status, and menstrual cycle on pulmonary response to ozone

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seal, E. Jr.; McDonnell, W.F.; House, D.E. [Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC (United States)

1996-03-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of age, socioeconomic status, and menstrual cycle phase on the pulmonary response to ozone exposure. Three hundred seventy-two healthy white and black young adults, between the ages of 18 and 35 y, were exposed only once to 0.0, 0.12, 0.18, 0.24, 0.30, or 0.40 ppm ozone for 2.3 h. Prior to and after exposure, pulmonary function tests were obtained. Prior to exposure, each subject completed a personal and family-history questionnaire. The response to this questionnaire were used to investigate age, socioeconomic status, and menstrual cycle phase effects on pulmonary responsiveness to ozone. We concluded that the ages of subjects, within the age range studied, had an effect on responsiveness (i.e., decrements in forced expiratory volume in 1 s decreased as the subjects` ages decreased). Socioeconomic status, as reflected by education of fathers, also appeared to affect forced expiratory volume in 1-s responsiveness to ozone, with the middle socioeconomic group being the most responsive. The phase of menstrual cycle did not have an impact on individual responsiveness to ozone. 14 refs., 4 figs.

Acute Alcohol Effects on Narrative Recall and Contextual Memory: An Examination of Fragmentary Blackouts

OpenAIRE

Wetherill, Reagan R.; Fromme, Kim

2011-01-01

The present study examined the effects of alcohol consumption on narrative recall and contextual memory among individuals with and without a history of fragmentary blackouts in an attempt to better understand why some individuals experience alcohol-induced memory impairments whereas others do not, even at comparable blood alcohol concentrations (BACs). Standardized beverage (alcohol, no alcohol) administration procedures and neuropsychological assessments measured narrative recall and context...

EFFECTS OF SOCIOECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS ON CONSUMPTION OF SELECTED FOOD NUTRIENTS

OpenAIRE

Nayga, Rodolfo M., Jr.

1994-01-01

The effects of socioeconomic and demographic factors on the consumption of food energy, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, and iron are examined. Socioeconomic and demographic factors analyzed are urbanization, region, race, ethnicity, sex, employment status, food stamp participation, household size, weight, height, age, and income. Several of these factors significantly affect consumption of certain nutrients. Income is an important factor affect...

Discussing school socioeconomic segregation in territorial terms: the differentiated influence of urban fragmentation and daily mobility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudia Alejandra Cordoba Calquin

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Chile is one of the OECD countries with higher levels of socioeconomic segregation in its educational system. This may be explained by the incidence of institutional factors (fees and school selection processes, sociocultural factors (families’ appraisals and behaviors towards school choice and contextual factors, among which residential segregation would stand as the most relevant. This article analyzes the relation between school location, students’ socioeconomic status and student’s place of origin (mobility. The data used was gathered from 1613 surveys responded by primary students’ families. The results evidence that residential segregation only partially influences educational socioeconomic segregation, since the capacity of mobility is a key factor to “break” the association between both phenomena. Therefore, residential segregation would affect to a greater extent low socioeconomic status students who attend schools near their homes and travel distances shorter than children from higher socioeconomic status, who tend to cover longer distances between home and school. Nevertheless, the comparative analysis of the cases complicates drawing conclusions, because students of equal socioeconomic status travel very different distances. The characteristics of the territories where schools are located shed some light on the cause of these differences. From these results, we propose re-discussing the use of the residential segregation concept for explaining phenomena like school segregation, due to the complex interrelations between both territorial fragmentation and urban mobility.

Hypobaric hypoxia impairs cued and contextual fear memory in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumari, Punita; Kauser, Hina; Wadhwa, Meetu; Roy, Koustav; Alam, Shahnawaz; Sahu, Surajit; Kishore, Krishna; Ray, Koushik; Panjwani, Usha

2018-04-26

Fear memory is essential for survival, and its dysregulation leads to disorders. High altitude hypobaric hypoxia (HH) is known to induce cognitive decline. However, its effect on fear memory is still an enigma. We aimed to investigate the temporal effect of HH on fear conditioning and the underlying mechanism. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained for fear conditioning and exposed to simulated HH equivalent to 25,000 ft for different durations (1, 3, 7, 14 and 21 days). Subsequently, rats were tested for cued and contextual fear conditioning. Neuronal morphology, apoptosis and DNA fragmentation were studied in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), hippocampus and basolateral amygdala (BLA). We observed significant deficit in cued and contextual fear acquisition (at 1, 3 and 7 days) and consolidation (cued at 1 and 3 days and contextual fear at 1, 3 and 7 days) under HH. HH exposure with retraining showed the earlier restoration of contextual fear memory. Further, we found a gradual increase in the number of pyknotic and apoptotic neurons together with the increase in DNA fragmentation in mPFC, hippocampus, and BLA up to 7 days of HH exposure. The present study concludes that HH exposure equivalent to 25000 ft induced cued and contextual fear memory deficit (acquisition and consolidation) which is found to be correlated with the neurodegenerative changes in the limbic brain regions. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Estimating the effect of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage on oral cancer in India using marginal structural models.

Science.gov (United States)

Krishna Rao, Sreevidya; Mejia, Gloria C; Roberts-Thomson, Kaye; Logan, Richard M; Kamath, Veena; Kulkarni, Muralidhar; Mittinty, Murthy N

2015-07-01

Early life socioeconomic disadvantage could affect adult health directly or indirectly. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies of the direct effect of early life socioeconomic conditions on oral cancer occurrence in adult life. We conducted a multicenter, hospital-based, case-control study in India between 2011 and 2012 on 180 histopathologically confirmed incident oral and/or oropharyngeal cancer cases, aged 18 years or more, and 272 controls that included hospital visitors, who were not diagnosed with any cancer in the same hospitals. Life-course data were collected on socioeconomic conditions, risk factors, and parental behavior through interview employing a life grid. The early life socioeconomic conditions measure was determined by occupation of the head of household in childhood. Adult socioeconomic measures included participant's education and current occupation of the head of household. Marginal structural models with stabilized inverse probability weights were used to estimate the controlled direct effects of early life socioeconomic conditions on oral cancer. The total effect model showed that those in the low socioeconomic conditions in the early years of childhood had 60% (risk ratio [RR] = 1.6 [95% confidence interval {CI} = 1.4, 1.9]) increased risk of oral cancer. From the marginal structural models, the estimated risk for developing oral cancer among those in low early life socioeconomic conditions was 50% (RR = 1.5 [95% CI = 1.4, 1.5]), 20% (RR = 1.2 [95% CI = 0.9, 1.7]), and 90% (RR = 1.9 [95% CI = 1.7, 2.2]) greater than those in the high socioeconomic conditions when controlled for smoking, chewing, and alcohol, respectively. When all the three mediators were controlled in a marginal structural model, the RR was 1.3 (95% CI = 1.0, 1.6). Early life low socioeconomic condition had a controlled direct effect on oral cancer when smoking, chewing tobacco, and alcohol were separately adjusted in marginal structural models.

Cortisol response mediates the effect of post-reactivation stress exposure on contextualization of emotional memories.

Science.gov (United States)

Bos, Marieke G N; Jacobs van Goethem, Tessa H; Beckers, Tom; Kindt, Merel

2014-12-01

Retrieval of traumatic experiences is often accompanied by strong feelings of distress. Here, we examined in healthy participants whether post-reactivation stress experience affects the context-dependency of emotional memory. First, participants studied words from two distinctive emotional categories (i.e., war and disease) presented against a category-related background picture. One day later, participants returned to the lab and received a reminder of the words of one emotional category followed by exposure to a stress task (Stress group, n=22) or a control task (Control group, n=24). Six days later, memory contextualization was tested using a word stem completion task. Half of the word stems were presented against the encoding context (i.e., congruent context) and the other half of the word stems were presented against the other context (i.e., incongruent context). The results showed that participants recalled more words in the congruent context than in the incongruent context. Interestingly, cortisol mediated the effect of stress exposure on memory contextualization. The stronger the post-reactivation cortisol response, the more memory performance relied on the contextual embedding of the words. Taken together, the current findings suggest that a moderate cortisol response after memory reactivation might serve an adaptive function in preventing generalization of emotional memories over contexts. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Achieving recommended daily physical activity levels through commuting by public transportation: unpacking individual and contextual influences.

Science.gov (United States)

Wasfi, Rania A; Ross, Nancy A; El-Geneidy, Ahmed M

2013-09-01

This paper estimates the amount of daily walking associated with using public transportation in a large metropolitan area and examines individual and contextual characteristics associated with walking distances. Total walking distance to and from transit was calculated from a travel diary survey for 6913 individuals. Multilevel regression modelling was used to examine the underlying factors associated with walking to public transportation. The physical activity benefits of public transportation varied along gender and socio-economic lines. Recommended minutes of daily physical activity can be achieved for public transportation users, especially train users living in affluent suburbs. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prenatal care and socioeconomic status: effect on cesarean delivery.

Science.gov (United States)

Milcent, Carine; Zbiri, Saad

2018-03-10

Cesarean deliveries are widely used in many high- and middle-income countries. This overuse both increases costs and lowers quality of care and is thus a major concern in the healthcare industry. The study first examines the impact of prenatal care utilization on cesarean delivery rates. It then determines whether socioeconomic status affects the use of prenatal care and thereby influences the cesarean delivery decision. Using exclusive French delivery data over the 2008-2014 period, with multilevel logit models, and controlling for relevant patient and hospital characteristics, we show that women who do not participate in prenatal education have an increased probability of a cesarean delivery compared to those who do. The study further indicates that attendance at prenatal education varies according to socioeconomic status. Low socioeconomic women are more likely to have cesarean deliveries and less likely to participate in prenatal education. This result emphasizes the importance of focusing on pregnancy health education, particularly for low-income women, as a potential way to limit unnecessary cesarean deliveries. Future studies would ideally investigate the effect of interventions promoting such as care participation on cesarean delivery rates.

An Order-Theoretic Quantification of Contextuality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ian T. Durham

2014-09-01

Full Text Available In this essay, I develop order-theoretic notions of determinism and contextuality on domains and topoi. In the process, I develop a method for quantifying contextuality and show that the order-theoretic sense of contextuality is analogous to the sense embodied in the topos-theoretic statement of the Kochen–Specker theorem. Additionally, I argue that this leads to a relation between the entropy associated with measurements on quantum systems and the second law of thermodynamics. The idea that the second law has its origin in the ordering of quantum states and processes dates to at least 1958 and possibly earlier. The suggestion that the mechanism behind this relation is contextuality, is made here for the first time.

Perceived Best Friend Delinquency Moderates the Link between Contextual Risk Factors and Juvenile Delinquency

Science.gov (United States)

Fite, Paula; Preddy, Teresa; Vitulano, Michael; Elkins, Sara; Grassetti, Stevie; Wimsatt, Amber

2012-01-01

The current study evaluated the effects of contextual risk factors (i.e., negative life events and neighborhood problems) and perceived best friend delinquency on child self-reported delinquency. More specifically, the present study extended the literature by evaluating whether best friend delinquency moderated the effects of contextual risk…

Intact memory for implicit contextual information in Korsakoff's amnesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oudman, Erik; Van der Stigchel, Stefan; Wester, Arie J.; Kessels, Roy P. C.; Postma, Albert

Implicit contextual learning is the ability to acquire contextual information from our surroundings without conscious awareness. Such contextual information facilitates the localization of objects in space. In a typical implicit contextual learning paradigm, subjects need to find a target among a

Intact memory for implicit contextual information in Korsakoff's amnesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oudman, E.; Stigchel, S. van der; Wester, A.J.; Kessels, R.P.C.; Postma, A.

2011-01-01

Implicit contextual learning is the ability to acquire contextual information from our surroundings without conscious awareness. Such contextual information facilitates the localization of objects in space. In a typical implicit contextual learning paradigm, subjects need to find a target among a

Social context of neighborhood and socioeconomic status on leisure-time physical activity in a Brazilian urban center: The BH Health Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Andrade, Amanda Cristina de Souza; Peixoto, Sérgio Viana; Friche, Amélia Augusta de Lima; Goston, Janaína Lavalli; César, Cibele Comini; Xavier, César Coelho; Proietti, Fernando Augusto; Diez Roux, Ana V; Caiaffa, Waleska Teixeira

2015-11-01

This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of leisure-time physical activity and investigate its association with contextual characteristics of the social and physical environment in different socioeconomic statuses, using a household survey in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil (2008-2009). Leisure-time physical activity was measured by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire; and the social and physical environment by scales arising from perception of neighborhood attributes. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was performed separately for each socioeconomic status stratum. The overall prevalence of leisure-time physical activity was 30.2%, being 20.2% amongst participants of low socioeconomic status, 25.4% in the medium and 40.6% in the high socioeconomic status group. A greater perception of social cohesion was associated with increased leisure-time physical activity only amongst participants of the lowest socioeconomic status even after adjusting for individual characteristics. The results demonstrate the importance of social cohesion for the promotion of leisure-time physical activity in economically disadvantaged groups, supporting the need to stimulate interventions for enhancing social relationships in this population.

Differential effects of α4β2 nicotinic receptor antagonists and partial-agonists on contextual fear extinction in male C57BL/6 mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Kutlu, Munir Gunes; Tumolo, Jessica M; Cann, Courtney; Gould, Thomas J

2018-04-01

Numerous studies have attributed the psychopathology of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to maladaptive behavioral responses such as an inability to extinguish fear. While exposure therapies are mostly effective in treating these disorders by enhancing extinction learning, relapse of PTSD symptoms is common. Although several studies indicated a role for cholinergic transmission and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in anxiety and stress disorder symptomatology, very little is known about the specific contribution of nAChRs to fear extinction OBJECTIVES: In the present study, we examined the effects of inhibition and desensitization of α4β2 nAChRs via a full antagonist (Dihydro-beta-erythroidine (DhβE)) and two α4β2 nAChR partial-agonists (varenicline and sazetidine-A) on contextual fear extinction, locomotor activity, and spontaneous recovery of contextual fear in mice. We trained and tested the subjects in a contextual fear extinction as well as an open field paradigm and spontaneous recovery following injections of DhβE, varenicline, and sazetidine-A. Our results demonstrated that lower doses of DhβE (1 mg/kg) and sazetidine-A (0.01 mg/kg) enhanced contextual fear extinction whereas higher doses of varenicline (0.1 mg/kg) and sazetidine-A (0.1 mg/kg) resulted in impaired contextual fear extinction. However, the higher dose of sazetidine-A (0.1 mg/kg) decreased locomotor activity, which may contribute to increased freezing response observed during fear extinction. Finally, we found that the low dose of DhβE, but not sazetidine-A, also decreased spontaneous recovery of contextual fear following fear extinction. Overall, these results suggest that inhibition and desensitization of α4β2 nAChRs enhance extinction of contextual fear memories. This suggests that modulation of α4β2 nAChRs may be employed as an alternative pharmacological strategy to aid exposure therapies associated with PTSD by augmenting contextual fear extinction

Synchronous contextual irregularities affect early scene processing: replication and extension.

Science.gov (United States)

Mudrik, Liad; Shalgi, Shani; Lamy, Dominique; Deouell, Leon Y

2014-04-01

Whether contextual regularities facilitate perceptual stages of scene processing is widely debated, and empirical evidence is still inconclusive. Specifically, it was recently suggested that contextual violations affect early processing of a scene only when the incongruent object and the scene are presented a-synchronously, creating expectations. We compared event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by scenes that depicted a person performing an action using either a congruent or an incongruent object (e.g., a man shaving with a razor or with a fork) when scene and object were presented simultaneously. We also explored the role of attention in contextual processing by using a pre-cue to direct subjects׳ attention towards or away from the congruent/incongruent object. Subjects׳ task was to determine how many hands the person in the picture used in order to perform the action. We replicated our previous findings of frontocentral negativity for incongruent scenes that started ~ 210 ms post stimulus presentation, even earlier than previously found. Surprisingly, this incongruency ERP effect was negatively correlated with the reaction times cost on incongruent scenes. The results did not allow us to draw conclusions about the role of attention in detecting the regularity, due to a weak attention manipulation. By replicating the 200-300 ms incongruity effect with a new group of subjects at even earlier latencies than previously reported, the results strengthen the evidence for contextual processing during this time window even when simultaneous presentation of the scene and object prevent the formation of prior expectations. We discuss possible methodological limitations that may account for previous failures to find this an effect, and conclude that contextual information affects object model selection processes prior to full object identification, with semantic knowledge activation stages unfolding only later on. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Independence of long-term contextual memory and short-term perceptual hypotheses: Evidence from contextual cueing of interrupted search.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlagbauer, Bernhard; Mink, Maurice; Müller, Hermann J; Geyer, Thomas

2017-02-01

Observers are able to resume an interrupted search trial faster relative to responding to a new, unseen display. This finding of rapid resumption is attributed to short-term perceptual hypotheses generated on the current look and confirmed upon subsequent looks at the same display. It has been suggested that the contents of perceptual hypotheses are similar to those of other forms of memory acquired long-term through repeated exposure to the same search displays over the course of several trials, that is, the memory supporting "contextual cueing." In three experiments, we investigated the relationship between short-term perceptual hypotheses and long-term contextual memory. The results indicated that long-term, contextual memory of repeated displays neither affected the generation nor the confirmation of short-term perceptual hypotheses for these displays. Furthermore, the analysis of eye movements suggests that long-term memory provides an initial benefit in guiding attention to the target, whereas in subsequent looks guidance is entirely based on short-term perceptual hypotheses. Overall, the results reveal a picture of both long- and short-term memory contributing to reliable performance gains in interrupted search, while exerting their effects in an independent manner.

[Prediction of mathematics achievement: effect of personal, socioeducational and contextual variables].

Science.gov (United States)

Rosário, Pedro; Lourenço, Abílio; Paiva, Olímpia; Rodrigues, Adriana; Valle, Antonio; Tuero-Herrero, Ellián

2012-05-01

Based upon the self-regulated learning theoretical framework this study examined to what extent students' Math school achievement (fifth to ninth graders from compulsory education) can be explained by different cognitive-motivational, social, educational, and contextual variables. A sample of 571 students (10 to 15 year old) enrolled in the study. Findings suggest that Math achievement can be predicted by self-efficacy in Math, school success and self-regulated learning and that these same variables can be explained by other motivational (ej., achievement goals) and contextual variables (school disruption) stressing this way the main importance of self-regulated learning processes and the role context can play in the promotion of school success. The educational implications of the results to the school levels taken are also discussed in the present paper.

Contextual Validity in Hybrid Logic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blackburn, Patrick Rowan; Jørgensen, Klaus Frovin

2013-01-01

interpretations. Moreover, such indexicals give rise to a special kind of validity—contextual validity—that interacts with ordinary logi- cal validity in interesting and often unexpected ways. In this paper we model these interactions by combining standard techniques from hybrid logic with insights from the work...... of Hans Kamp and David Kaplan. We introduce a simple proof rule, which we call the Kamp Rule, and first we show that it is all we need to take us from logical validities involving now to contextual validities involving now too. We then go on to show that this deductive bridge is strong enough to carry us...... to contextual validities involving yesterday, today and tomorrow as well....

Contextual deprivation, daily travel and road traffic injuries among the young in the Rhône Département (France).

Science.gov (United States)

Licaj, Idlir; Haddak, Mouloud; Pochet, Pascal; Chiron, Mireille

2011-09-01

This study investigated the effect of the socioeconomic level of the municipality of residence on personal injury road traffic accident risk among young persons of 10-24 years of age in the Rhône Département. This effect was assessed by comparing incidences of injuries (n=2792 casualties) on the basis of three denominators: the resident population of young people, the number of users of each mode and the distances covered by each mode. The results are presented for each type of road users (pedestrians, car passengers, car drivers, motorised two-wheeler riders, cyclists, public transport users). Young persons from deprived municipalities use motorised-two wheelers, bicycles and the car (as passengers and drivers) less frequently, they walk more and take public transports more often than those from other municipalities. When considering injury risk, motorised two wheeler injuries among adolescent males, for example, are significantly less frequent in deprived municipalities. But the motorised two-wheeler riders as well as car passengers from deprived municipalities are characterized by an excess injury risk, whether the selected denominator is the number of users or the kilometres travelled by this mode. For the first time in France, this study has enabled a comparison of the effects of a contextual socioeconomic indicator (the type of municipality of residence, deprived, or not) on daily travel practices and injury incidences among the population, among the users of each mode and per km of travel. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Describing the association between socioeconomic inequalities and cancer survival: methodological guidelines and illustration with population-based data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Belot A

2018-05-01

and described the changes of the EMH over the time since diagnosis at different levels of deprivation. We illustrated nonlinear and/or time-dependent associations between the EDI and the EMH by plotting the excess hazard ratio according to EDI values at different times after diagnosis. The median excess hazard ratio quantified the general contextual effect. Lip–oral cavity–pharynx cancer in men showed the widest deprivation gap, with 5-year ASNS at 41% and 29% for deprivation quintiles 1 and 5, respectively, and we found a nonlinear association between the EDI and the EMH. The EDI accounted for a substantial part of the general contextual effect on the EMH. The association between the EDI and the EMH was time dependent in stomach and pancreas cancers in men and in cervix cancer. Conclusion: The methodological guidelines proved efficient in describing the way socioeconomic inequalities influence cancer survival. Their use would allow comparisons between different health care systems. Keywords: cancer net survival, socioeconomic inequalities, European Deprivation Index, excess mortality hazard, flexible parametric model

Individual and contextual factors for the child abuse potential of Croatian mothers: The role of social support in times of economic hardship.

Science.gov (United States)

Ajduković, Marina; Rajter, Miroslav; Rezo, Ines

2018-04-01

The study assessed mothers' risk for abusing their children in middle adolescence in relation to individual and contextual factors during the economic crisis in Croatia. Socioeconomic status of mothers, family economic pressure, and mothers' exposure to stress were measured. Special attention was given to the perceived availability of social support as one of protective factors potentially buffering the negative impact of risks of child abuse. The community sample included 746 mothers (Mage = 42.85; SDage = 5.319). The results showed that the risk of child abuse is higher for mothers with lower education, those who perceive themselves as suffering greater family economic hardship, those who have experienced a higher number of stressful events, and those with lower social support. When the mothers perceive a lower availability of social support, the effects of exposure to cumulative risk, namely the combination of socioeconomic status, economic pressure, and exposure to stress, are stronger. Since social support proved to be one of the key protective factors in the relationship between adverse life circumstances and parenting, the development of effective and non-stigmatized interventions aiming to increase social support, positive social relationships, and adequate parenting practices for parents facing economic hardship is an important direction for future family policy measures. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Role of contextual factors in the rehabilitation of adolescent survivors of traumatic brain injury: emerging concepts identified through modified narrative review.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciccia, Angela Hein; Threats, Travis

2015-07-01

style (TBI survivor and their caregivers), and socioeconomic status of the family. Given the promise of these findings, research and clinical application efforts should be focused on identifying well-prescribed rehabilitation paradigms that capitalize on the modification of contextual factors throughout the recovery process. The results of this modified narrative review provide an initial summary of the available evidence for addressing contextual factors in the rehabilitation process for adolescents with TBI. This is an area that is wide open for both systematic research and clinical application and holds potential to improve long-term outcome for survivors of adolescent TBI. © 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Effect of some Socio-economic Factors on the Nutritional Status of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Effect of some Socio-economic Factors on the Nutritional Status of Pregnant ... Conclusion: The need for nutrition education, women empowerment, health support and ... in reducing prevalence of malnutrition among these vulnerable groups.

Impact of Contextual Factors on the Effect of Interventions to Improve Health Worker Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Review of Randomised Clinical Trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Blacklock, Claire; Gonçalves Bradley, Daniela C; Mickan, Sharon; Willcox, Merlin; Roberts, Nia; Bergström, Anna; Mant, David

2016-01-01

Africa bears 24% of the global burden of disease but has only 3% of the world's health workers. Substantial variation in health worker performance adds to the negative impact of this significant shortfall. We therefore sought to identify interventions implemented in sub-Saharan African aiming to improve health worker performance and the contextual factors likely to influence local effectiveness. A systematic search for randomised controlled trials of interventions to improve health worker performance undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa identified 41 eligible trials. Data were extracted to define the interventions' components, calculate the absolute improvement in performance achieved, and document the likelihood of bias. Within-study variability in effect was extracted where reported. Statements about contextual factors likely to have modified effect were subjected to thematic analysis. Interventions to improve health worker performance can be very effective. Two of the three trials assessing mortality impact showed significant reductions in death rates (age<5 case fatality 5% versus 10%, p<0.01; maternal in-hospital mortality 6.8/1000 versus 10.3/1000; p<0.05). Eight of twelve trials focusing on prescribing had a statistically significant positive effect, achieving an absolute improvement varying from 9% to 48%. However, reported range of improvement between centres within trials varied substantially, in many cases exceeding the mean effect. Nine contextual themes were identified as modifiers of intervention effect across studies; most frequently cited were supply-line failures, inadequate supervision or management, and failure to follow-up training interventions with ongoing support, in addition to staff turnover. Interventions to improve performance of existing staff and service quality have the potential to improve patient care in underserved settings. But in order to implement interventions effectively, policy makers need to understand and address the contextual

Impact of Contextuality on Mobile Learning Acceptance: An Empirical Study Based on a Language Learning App

Science.gov (United States)

Böhm, Stephan; Constantine, Georges Philip

2016-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on contextualized features for mobile language learning apps. The scope of this paper is to explore students' perceptions of contextualized mobile language learning. Design/Methodology/Approach: An extended Technology Acceptance Model was developed to analyze the effect of contextual app features on students'…

The effect of contextual factors on unintentional injury hospitalization: from the Korea National Hospital Discharge Survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hye Ah; Han, Hyejin; Lee, Seonhwa; Park, Bomi; Park, Bo Hyun; Lee, Won Kyung; Park, Ju Ok; Hong, Sungok; Kim, Young Taek; Park, Hyesook

2018-03-13

It has been suggested that health risks are affected by geographical area, but there are few studies on contextual effects using multilevel analysis, especially regarding unintentional injury. This study investigated trends in unintentional injury hospitalization rates over the past decade in Korea, and also examined community-level risk factors while controlling for individual-level factors. Using data from the 2004 to 2013 Korea National Hospital Discharge Survey (KNHDS), trends in age-adjusted injury hospitalization rate were conducted using the Joinpoint Regression Program. Based on the 2013 KNHDS, we collected community-level factors by linking various data sources and selected dominant factors related to injury hospitalization through a stepwise method. Multilevel analysis was performed to assess the community-level factors while controlling for individual-level factors. In 2004, the age-adjusted unintentional injury hospitalization rate was 1570.1 per 100,000 population and increased to 1887.1 per 100,000 population in 2013. The average annual percent change in rate of hospitalizations due to unintentional injury was 2.31% (95% confidence interval: 1.8-2.9). It was somewhat higher for females than for males (3.25% vs. 1.64%, respectively). Both community- and individual-level factors were found to significantly influence unintentional injury hospitalization risk. As community-level risk factors, finance utilization capacity of the local government and neighborhood socioeconomic status, were independently associated with unintentional injury hospitalization after controlling for individual-level factors, and accounted for 19.9% of community-level variation in unintentional injury hospitalization. Regional differences must be considered when creating policies and interventions. Further studies are required to evaluate specific factors related to injury mechanism.

Action Centered Contextual Bandits.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenewald, Kristjan; Tewari, Ambuj; Klasnja, Predrag; Murphy, Susan

2017-12-01

Contextual bandits have become popular as they offer a middle ground between very simple approaches based on multi-armed bandits and very complex approaches using the full power of reinforcement learning. They have demonstrated success in web applications and have a rich body of associated theoretical guarantees. Linear models are well understood theoretically and preferred by practitioners because they are not only easily interpretable but also simple to implement and debug. Furthermore, if the linear model is true, we get very strong performance guarantees. Unfortunately, in emerging applications in mobile health, the time-invariant linear model assumption is untenable. We provide an extension of the linear model for contextual bandits that has two parts: baseline reward and treatment effect. We allow the former to be complex but keep the latter simple. We argue that this model is plausible for mobile health applications. At the same time, it leads to algorithms with strong performance guarantees as in the linear model setting, while still allowing for complex nonlinear baseline modeling. Our theory is supported by experiments on data gathered in a recently concluded mobile health study.

Impact of Contextual Factors on the Effect of Interventions to Improve Health Worker Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Review of Randomised Clinical Trials

Science.gov (United States)

Mickan, Sharon; Willcox, Merlin; Roberts, Nia; Bergström, Anna; Mant, David

2016-01-01

Background Africa bears 24% of the global burden of disease but has only 3% of the world’s health workers. Substantial variation in health worker performance adds to the negative impact of this significant shortfall. We therefore sought to identify interventions implemented in sub-Saharan African aiming to improve health worker performance and the contextual factors likely to influence local effectiveness. Methods and Findings A systematic search for randomised controlled trials of interventions to improve health worker performance undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa identified 41 eligible trials. Data were extracted to define the interventions’ components, calculate the absolute improvement in performance achieved, and document the likelihood of bias. Within-study variability in effect was extracted where reported. Statements about contextual factors likely to have modified effect were subjected to thematic analysis. Interventions to improve health worker performance can be very effective. Two of the three trials assessing mortality impact showed significant reductions in death rates (agematernal in-hospital mortality 6.8/1000 versus 10.3/1000; pimprovement varying from 9% to 48%. However, reported range of improvement between centres within trials varied substantially, in many cases exceeding the mean effect. Nine contextual themes were identified as modifiers of intervention effect across studies; most frequently cited were supply-line failures, inadequate supervision or management, and failure to follow-up training interventions with ongoing support, in addition to staff turnover. Conclusions Interventions to improve performance of existing staff and service quality have the potential to improve patient care in underserved settings. But in order to implement interventions effectively, policy makers need to understand and address the contextual factors which can contribute to differences in local effect. Researchers therefore must recognise the importance of

Asian American women in science, engineering, and mathematics: Background contextual and college environment influences on self-efficacy and academic achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Vogt, Kristen E.

2005-07-01

The purpose of this research study was to examine, for undergraduate women of various Asian American ethnic backgrounds, the influence of background contextual and college environment factors on their sense of academic self-efficacy and achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. Social cognitive career theory and its critiques provided a theoretical foundation for relationships from past performance, socioeconomic status, acculturation, and college environment variables (compositional diversity, racial climate, gendered climate, academic peer support), to academic self-efficacy and achievement. Data were collected through an online survey. Instrumentation included the scales of Language, Identity, and Behavioral Acculturation; Gender Discrimination; Faculty and Classroom Behavior; Interactions with Peers; and Academic Milestones Self-efficacy. The participants were 228 Asian American undergraduate women in STEM at a large public, doctoral research extensive university on the east coast; the response rate was 51%. In three MANOVAs for nine social cognitive career variables, four ethnic groups (East, South, Southeast, and Multi-ethnic Asian American) significantly differed only on socioeconomic status. In path analysis, the initial model was not a good fit and was rejected. The model was respecified through statistical and theoretical evaluation, tested in exploratory analysis, and considered a good fit. The respecified model explained 36% of semester GPA (achievement) and 28% of academic self-efficacy. The academic achievement of Asian American women in STEM was related to past performance, background contextual factors, academic self-efficacy, academic peer support, and gendered climate. The strongest direct influence on achievement was academic self-efficacy followed by past performance. The total effect of Asian acculturation on achievement was negative and the total effect of American acculturation on achievement was not

Tackling inequalities in obesity: a protocol for a systematic review of the effectiveness of public health interventions at reducing socioeconomic inequalities in obesity among adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Bambra, Clare L; Hillier, Frances C; Moore, Helen J; Cairns-Nagi, Joanne-Marie; Summerbell, Carolyn D

2013-05-10

Socioeconomic inequalities in obesity and associated risk factors for obesity are widening throughout developed countries worldwide. Tackling obesity is high on the public health agenda both in the United Kingdom and internationally. However, what works in terms of interventions that are able to reduce inequalities in obesity is lacking. The review will examine public health interventions at the individual, community and societal level that might reduce inequalities in obesity among adults aged 18 years and over, in any setting and in any country. The following electronic databases will be searched: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index, ASSIA, IBSS, Sociological Abstracts, and the NHS Economic Evaluation Database. Database searches will be supplemented with website and gray literature searches. No studies will be excluded based on language, country or publication date. Randomized and non-randomized controlled trials, prospective and retrospective cohort studies (with/without control groups) and prospective repeat cross-sectional studies (with/without control groups) that have a primary outcome that is a proxy for body fatness and have examined differential effects with regard to socioeconomic status (education, income, occupation, social class, deprivation, poverty) or where the intervention has been targeted specifically at disadvantaged groups or deprived areas will be included. Study inclusion, data extraction and quality appraisal will be conducted by two reviewers. Meta-analysis and narrative synthesis will be conducted. The main analysis will examine the effects of 1) individual, 2) community and 3) societal level public health interventions on socioeconomic inequalities in adult obesity. Interventions will be characterized by their level of action and their approach to tackling inequalities. Contextual information on how such public health interventions are organized, implemented and delivered will also be examined. The review

Cumulative ecological and socioeconomic effects of forest policies in coastal Oregon.

Science.gov (United States)

T.A. Spies; K.N. Johnson; K.M. Burnett; J.L. Ohmann; B.C. McComb; G.H. Reeves; P. Bettinger; J.D. Kline; B. Garber-Yonts

2007-01-01

Forest biodiversity policies in multiownership landscapes are typically developed in an uncoordinated fashion with little consideration of their interactions or possible unintended cumulative effects. We conducted an assessment of some of the ecological and socioeconomic effects of recently enacted forest management policies in the 2.3-million-ha Coast Range...

Childhood Vitamin A Capsule Supplementation Coverage in Nigeria: A Multilevel Analysis of Geographic and Socioeconomic Inequities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olatunde Aremu

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Vitamin A deficiency (VAD is a huge public health burden among preschool-aged children in sub-Saharan Africa, and is associated with a high level of susceptibility to infectious diseases and pediatric blindness. We examined the Nigerian national vitamin A capsule (VAC supplementation program, a short-term cost-effective intervention for prevention of VAD-associated morbidity for equity in terms of socioeconomic and geographic coverage. Using the most current, nationally representative data from the 2008 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey, we applied multilevel regression analysis on 19,555 children nested within 888 communities across the six regions of Nigeria. The results indicate that there was variability in uptake of VAC supplement among the children, which could be attributed to several characteristics at individual, household, and community levels. Individual-level characteristics, such as maternal occupation, were shown to be associated with receipt of VAC supplement. The results also reveal that household wealth status is the only household-level characteristic that is significantly associated with receipt of VAC, while neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and geographic location were the community-level characteristics that determined receipt of VAC. The findings from this study have shown that both individual and contextual socioeconomic status, together with geographic location, is important for uptake of VAC. These findings underscore the need to accord the VAC supplementation program the much needed priority with focus on characteristics of neighborhoods (communities, in addition to individual-level characteristics.

Adverse life events, area socioeconomic disadvantage, and psychopathology and resilience in young children: the importance of risk factors' accumulation and protective factors' specificity.

Science.gov (United States)

Flouri, Eirini; Tzavidis, Nikos; Kallis, Constantinos

2010-06-01

Few studies on resilience in young children model risk appropriately and test theory-led hypotheses about its moderation. This study addressed both issues. Our hypothesis was that for preschool children's emotional/behavioral adjustment in the face of contextual risk protective factors should be located in the cognitive domain. Data were from the first two sweeps of the UK's Millennium Cohort Study. The final study sample was 4,748 three-year-old children clustered in 1,549 Lower layer Super Output Areas in nine strata. Contextual risk was measured at both area (with the Index of Multiple Deprivation) and family (with proximal and distal adverse life events experienced) level. Moderator variables were parenting, verbal and non-verbal ability, developmental milestones, and temperament. Multivariate multilevel models-that allowed for correlated residuals at both individual and area level-and univariate multilevel models estimated risk effects on specific and broad psychopathology. At baseline, proximal family risk, distal family risk and area risk were all associated with broad psychopathology, although the most parsimonious was the proximal family risk model. The area risk/broad psychopathology association remained significant even after family risk was controlled but not after family level socioeconomic disadvantage was controlled. The cumulative family risk was more parsimonious than the specific family risks model. Non-verbal ability moderated the effect of proximal family risk on conduct and emotional problems, and developmental milestones moderated the effect of proximal family risk on conduct problems. The findings highlight the importance of modeling contextual risk appropriately and of locating in the cognitive domain factors that buffer its effect on young children's adjustment.

Facets of contextual realism in quantum mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pan, Alok Kumar; Home, Dipankar

2011-01-01

In recent times, there is an upsurge of interest in demonstrating the quantum contextuality. In this proceedings, we explore the two different forms of arguments that have been used for showing the contextual character of quantum mechanics. First line of study concerns the violations of the noncontextual realist models by quantum mechanics, where second line of study that is qualitatively distinct from the earlier one, demonstrates the contextuality within the formalism of quantum mechanics.

Communication Games Reveal Preparation Contextuality

Science.gov (United States)

Hameedi, Alley; Tavakoli, Armin; Marques, Breno; Bourennane, Mohamed

2017-12-01

A communication game consists of distributed parties attempting to jointly complete a task with restricted communication. Such games are useful tools for studying limitations of physical theories. A theory exhibits preparation contextuality whenever its predictions cannot be explained by a preparation noncontextual model. Here, we show that communication games performed in operational theories reveal the preparation contextuality of that theory. For statistics obtained in a particular family of communication games, we show a direct correspondence with correlations in spacelike separated events obeying the no-signaling principle. Using this, we prove that all mixed quantum states of any finite dimension are preparation contextual. We report on an experimental realization of a communication game involving three-level quantum systems from which we observe a strong violation of the constraints of preparation noncontextuality.

Australian blue-collar men's health and well-being: contextual issues for workplace health promotion interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Du Plessis, Karin; Cronin, David; Corney, Tim; Green, Emma

2013-09-01

In Australia, blue-collar workers are predominantly male and form a unique and large (approximately 30%) subset of the Australian workforce. They exhibit particular health-related issues and, in comparison to other groups, often a lack of health promoting behavior. This article briefly discusses the Australian context and some of the key health issues blue-collar men face, in particular as it relates to construction workers. It reviews the impact of gender and socioeconomic factors in designing workplace health promotion interventions. This article considers practice strategies for health promoters in a specific workplace setting: it looks at meta-factors and industry-based contextual factors, including barriers to implementation and participation, while addressing common misconceptions about Australian blue-collar workers.

Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT): A Cytoscape app for identifying contextually relevant hubs in biological networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Muetze, Tanja; Goenawan, Ivan H; Wiencko, Heather L; Bernal-Llinares, Manuel; Bryan, Kenneth; Lynn, David J

2016-01-01

Highly connected nodes (hubs) in biological networks are topologically important to the structure of the network and have also been shown to be preferentially associated with a range of phenotypes of interest. The relative importance of a hub node, however, can change depending on the biological context. Here, we report a Cytoscape app, the Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT), which enables users to easily construct and visualize a network of interactions from a gene or protein list of interest, integrate contextual information, such as gene expression or mass spectrometry data, and identify hub nodes that are more highly connected to contextual nodes (e.g. genes or proteins that are differentially expressed) than expected by chance. In a case study, we use CHAT to construct a network of genes that are differentially expressed in Dengue fever, a viral infection. CHAT was used to identify and compare contextual and degree-based hubs in this network. The top 20 degree-based hubs were enriched in pathways related to the cell cycle and cancer, which is likely due to the fact that proteins involved in these processes tend to be highly connected in general. In comparison, the top 20 contextual hubs were enriched in pathways commonly observed in a viral infection including pathways related to the immune response to viral infection. This analysis shows that such contextual hubs are considerably more biologically relevant than degree-based hubs and that analyses which rely on the identification of hubs solely based on their connectivity may be biased towards nodes that are highly connected in general rather than in the specific context of interest. CHAT is available for Cytoscape 3.0+ and can be installed via the Cytoscape App Store ( http://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/chat).

Significant Statistics: Viewed with a Contextual Lens

Science.gov (United States)

Tait-McCutcheon, Sandi

2010-01-01

This paper examines the pedagogical and organisational changes three lead teachers made to their statistics teaching and learning programs. The lead teachers posed the research question: What would the effect of contextually integrating statistical investigations and literacies into other curriculum areas be on student achievement? By finding the…

The transfer of Cfunc contextual control through equivalence relations.

Science.gov (United States)

Perez, William F; Fidalgo, Adriana P; Kovac, Roberta; Nico, Yara C

2015-05-01

Derived relational responding is affected by contextual stimuli (Cfunc) that select specific stimulus functions. The present study investigated the transfer of Cfunc contextual control through equivalence relations by evaluating both (a) the maintenance of Cfunc contextual control after the expansion of a relational network, and (b) the establishment of novel contextual stimuli by the transfer of Cfunc contextual control through equivalence relations. Initially, equivalence relations were established and contingencies were arranged so that colors functioned as Cfunc stimuli controlling participants' key-pressing responses in the presence of any stimulus from a three-member equivalence network. To investigate the first research question, the three-member equivalence relations were expanded to five members and the novel members were presented with the Cfunc stimuli in the key-pressing task. To address the second goal of this study, the colors (Cfunc) were established as equivalent to certain line patterns. The transfer of contextual cue function (Cfunc) was tested replacing the colored backgrounds with line patterns in the key-pressing task. Results suggest that the Cfunc contextual control was transferred to novel stimuli that were added to the relational network. In addition, the line patterns indirectly acquired the contextual cue function (Cfunc) initially established for the colored backgrounds. The conceptual and applied implications of Cfunc contextual control are discussed. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Contextual Sensing: Integrating Contextual Information with Human and Technical Geo-Sensor Information for Smart Cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Sagl, Günther; Resch, Bernd; Blaschke, Thomas

2015-07-14

In this article we critically discuss the challenge of integrating contextual information, in particular spatiotemporal contextual information, with human and technical sensor information, which we approach from a geospatial perspective. We start by highlighting the significance of context in general and spatiotemporal context in particular and introduce a smart city model of interactions between humans, the environment, and technology, with context at the common interface. We then focus on both the intentional and the unintentional sensing capabilities of today's technologies and discuss current technological trends that we consider have the ability to enrich human and technical geo-sensor information with contextual detail. The different types of sensors used to collect contextual information are analyzed and sorted into three groups on the basis of names considering frequently used related terms, and characteristic contextual parameters. These three groups, namely technical in situ sensors, technical remote sensors, and human sensors are analyzed and linked to three dimensions involved in sensing (data generation, geographic phenomena, and type of sensing). In contrast to other scientific publications, we found a large number of technologies and applications using in situ and mobile technical sensors within the context of smart cities, and surprisingly limited use of remote sensing approaches. In this article we further provide a critical discussion of possible impacts and influences of both technical and human sensing approaches on society, pointing out that a larger number of sensors, increased fusion of information, and the use of standardized data formats and interfaces will not necessarily result in any improvement in the quality of life of the citizens of a smart city. This article seeks to improve our understanding of technical and human geo-sensing capabilities, and to demonstrate that the use of such sensors can facilitate the integration of different

Contextual Sensing: Integrating Contextual Information with Human and Technical Geo-Sensor Information for Smart Cities

Science.gov (United States)

Sagl, Günther; Resch, Bernd; Blaschke, Thomas

2015-01-01

In this article we critically discuss the challenge of integrating contextual information, in particular spatiotemporal contextual information, with human and technical sensor information, which we approach from a geospatial perspective. We start by highlighting the significance of context in general and spatiotemporal context in particular and introduce a smart city model of interactions between humans, the environment, and technology, with context at the common interface. We then focus on both the intentional and the unintentional sensing capabilities of today’s technologies and discuss current technological trends that we consider have the ability to enrich human and technical geo-sensor information with contextual detail. The different types of sensors used to collect contextual information are analyzed and sorted into three groups on the basis of names considering frequently used related terms, and characteristic contextual parameters. These three groups, namely technical in situ sensors, technical remote sensors, and human sensors are analyzed and linked to three dimensions involved in sensing (data generation, geographic phenomena, and type of sensing). In contrast to other scientific publications, we found a large number of technologies and applications using in situ and mobile technical sensors within the context of smart cities, and surprisingly limited use of remote sensing approaches. In this article we further provide a critical discussion of possible impacts and influences of both technical and human sensing approaches on society, pointing out that a larger number of sensors, increased fusion of information, and the use of standardized data formats and interfaces will not necessarily result in any improvement in the quality of life of the citizens of a smart city. This article seeks to improve our understanding of technical and human geo-sensing capabilities, and to demonstrate that the use of such sensors can facilitate the integration of different

Socio-economic effects of bioenergy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maeenpaeae, I.; Maennistoe, J.

1995-01-01

This report studies the socio-economic effects and benefits of domestic fuels - peat and wood, and agricultural energy plants also - in power and heat generation. For evaluation of employment and income effects, it compares the costs of domestic as well a imported fuels as regards production, transportation and power stations by looking especially at the direct labour input and inputs in terms of intermediate products and investment. Their indirect employment effects and allocation to domestic factor income and imports are introduced by means of an input-output model. The net changes in the disposable incomes of local households, firms and municipalities, the government and others are derived from factor incomes by means of income redistribution. The economy-wide profitability of the domestic fuels was evaluated using a macroeconomic model, the FMS model system. The particular question posed was how much the domestic fuels could cost at most to be economically profitable. It was shown that macroeconomic profitability is affected essentially by real production costs and the import prices of the imported fuels. Subsidies and differentiated fuel taxes have only little impact on the macroeconomic profitability although they change the private profitability of the fuels considerably. This is why fuel taxes were excluded in the macroeconomic profitability evaluations

The componential processing of fractions in adults and children: effects of stimuli variability and contextual interference.

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Zhang, Li; Fang, Qiaochu; Gabriel, Florence C; Szücs, Dénes

2014-01-01

Recent studies have indicated that people have a strong tendency to compare fractions based on constituent numerators or denominators. This is called componential processing. This study explored whether componential processing was preferred in tasks involving high stimuli variability and high contextual interference, when fractions could be compared based either on the holistic values of fractions or on their denominators. Here, stimuli variability referred to the fact that fractions were not monotonous but diversiform. Contextual interference referred to the fact that the processing of fractions was interfered by other stimuli. To our ends, three tasks were used. In Task 1, participants compared a standard fraction 1/5 to unit fractions. This task was used as a low stimuli variability and low contextual interference task. In Task 2 stimuli variability was increased by mixing unit and non-unit fractions. In Task 3, high contextual interference was created by incorporating decimals into fractions. The RT results showed that the processing patterns of fractions were very similar for adults and children. In task 1 and task 3, only componential processing was utilzied. In contrast, both holistic processing and componential processing were utilized in task 2. These results suggest that, if individuals are presented with the opportunity to perform componential processing, both adults and children will tend to do so, even if they are faced with high variability of fractions or high contextual interference.

Contextual Factors in Adolescent Substance Use.

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Hochhauser, Mark; And Others

Research on adolescent substance use has focused on prevalence and incidence; however, contextual factors have been largely ignored. A survey of 155 adolescents from a Minneapolis suburb was conducted to assess contextual factors affecting adolescent substance use. Subjects reported their use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marihuana with respect to…

Using the Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT) in Cytoscape to Identify Contextually Relevant Network Hubs.

Science.gov (United States)

Muetze, Tanja; Lynn, David J

2017-09-13

Highly connected nodes in biological networks are called network hubs. Hubs are topologically important to the structure of the network and have been shown to be preferentially associated with a range of phenotypes of interest. The relative importance of a hub node, however, can change depending on the biological context. Here, we provide a step-by-step protocol for using the Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT), an application within Cytoscape 3, which enables users to easily construct and visualize a network of interactions from a gene or protein list of interest, integrate contextual information, such as gene or protein expression data, and identify hub nodes that are more highly connected to contextual nodes than expected by chance. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Contextual Database of the Generations and Gender Programme: Concept, content, and research examples

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arianna Caporali

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Background: Differences in demographic behaviours across countries and subnational regions have stimulated interest in studying the relationships between individual characteristics and the contexts in which individuals are embedded. Analytical approaches that include contextual indicators in statistical analyses of demographic behaviour need well-documented comparative data at the national and the subnational regional level. The Contextual Database (CDB of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP; http://www.ggp-i.org/data/ggp-contextual-database supports such analyses by providing comparative data on demographic and socio-economic contexts in up to 60 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania. Objective: This paper presents conceptual considerations and an overview of the content and the functionality of the CDB. Research examples illustrate how data from this database can increase the analytical potential of demographic analyses. Conclusions: The CDB is a state-of-the-art research tool that provides well-documented comparative data at the national and the subnational regional level. Although it is conceptually linked to the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS, it can also be used to analyse data from other surveys, to study macro developments, and for teaching and lecturing. The CDB has a number of valuable features. First, it has a large number of indicators specifically geared towards demographic analyses, which provide extensive temporal and geographic coverage. Second, its dynamic web environment provides a high degree of transparency on data sources, as it offers meta-data for each individual entry. Finally, the CDB supports geocoding schemes that are used by the GGS and other surveys to denote region and country of residence.

Long-term contextual memory in infant rats as evidenced by an ethanol conditioned tolerance procedure.

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Castelló, Stefanía; Molina, Juan Carlos; Arias, Carlos

2017-08-14

Conditioned tolerance can be conceptualized as a particular case of Pavlovian conditioning in which contextual cues play the role of the conditioned stimulus. Although the evidence is contradictory, it is frequently assumed that long-term contextual conditioning in pre-weanling rats is weak or even absent. This hypothesis comes from and is sustained mainly by behavioral studies that explored different contextual effects in 16-18day-old rats using a fear-conditioning paradigm, but their conclusions are stated in terms of an immature (hippocampal-dependent) declarative memory system. The main goal of the present manuscript was based on a recent antecedent from our laboratory, to analyze whether context-dependent tolerance induced by ethanol during the pre-weanling period persists over time. Results showed that the context was able to modulate ethanol-induced tolerance in 2- and 3-week-old rats. Interestingly, contextual conditioned tolerance was stronger (in terms of persistence) during the third than during the second postnatal week. When subjects were tested 8days after training, when the context presumably lost its influence over tolerance, the opposite effect emerged (sensitization). These results are important for the ethanol literature, adding new evidence of long-term retention of ethanol effects acquired during infancy, whilst also showing striking ontogenetic differences in the sensitivity to ethanol between the 2nd and 3rd postnatal weeks. Importantly, contextual information modulates the expression of these ethanol effects even eight days after training, a result that is particularly relevant to the discussion of the ontogeny of contextual memory. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contextual modulation and stimulus selectivity in extrastriate cortex.

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Krause, Matthew R; Pack, Christopher C

2014-11-01

Contextual modulation is observed throughout the visual system, using techniques ranging from single-neuron recordings to behavioral experiments. Its role in generating feature selectivity within the retina and primary visual cortex has been extensively described in the literature. Here, we describe how similar computations can also elaborate feature selectivity in the extrastriate areas of both the dorsal and ventral streams of the primate visual system. We discuss recent work that makes use of normalization models to test specific roles for contextual modulation in visual cortex function. We suggest that contextual modulation renders neuronal populations more selective for naturalistic stimuli. Specifically, we discuss contextual modulation's role in processing optic flow in areas MT and MST and for representing naturally occurring curvature and contours in areas V4 and IT. We also describe how the circuitry that supports contextual modulation is robust to variations in overall input levels. Finally, we describe how this theory relates to other hypothesized roles for contextual modulation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contextual Autism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Raahauge, Kirsten Marie

2009-01-01

This project deals with the notion of ghost anthropologically and artistic. The contextual autism of ghosting reveals itself as a sensation of in-betweeness in art as well as in everyday life. The ghost is not easily defined; as Jacques Derrida states in Spectres of Marx (1993/1994) about...

Effectiveness of Adaptive Contextual Learning Model of Integrated Science by Integrating Digital Age Literacy on Grade VIII Students

Science.gov (United States)

Asrizal, A.; Amran, A.; Ananda, A.; Festiyed, F.

2018-04-01

Educational graduates should have good competencies to compete in the 21st century. Integrated learning is a good way to develop competence of students in this century. Besides that, literacy skills are very important for students to get success in their learning and daily life. For this reason, integrated science learning and literacy skills are important in 2013 curriculum. However, integrated science learning and integration of literacy in learning can’t be implemented well. Solution of this problem is to develop adaptive contextual learning model by integrating digital age literacy. The purpose of the research is to determine the effectiveness of adaptive contextual learning model to improve competence of grade VIII students in junior high school. This research is a part of the research and development or R&D. Research design which used in limited field testing was before and after treatment. The research instruments consist of three parts namely test sheet of learning outcome for assessing knowledge competence, observation sheet for assessing attitudes, and performance sheet for assessing skills of students. Data of student’s competence were analyzed by three kinds of analysis, namely descriptive statistics, normality test and homogeneity test, and paired comparison test. From the data analysis result, it can be stated that the implementation of adaptive contextual learning model of integrated science by integrating digital age literacy is effective to improve the knowledge, attitude, and literacy skills competences of grade VIII students in junior high school at 95% confidence level.

Efeitos do contínuo de níveis de interferência contextual na aprendizagem do "putt" do golfe Effects of a contextual interference continuum on golf putting task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gonçalo Dias

2010-12-01

Full Text Available A estruturação da prática motora é uma variável de aprendizagem muito estudada na área de Controle Motor e Aprendizagem, sendo, neste âmbito, o efeito de Interferência Contextual um dos pressupostos teóricos mais investigados (TANI, 2005. Tendo como suporte a hipótese de PORTER e MAGILL (2004, 2005, o objetivo deste estudo foi verificar se o grupo com prática num contínuo de níveis Interferência Contextual alcançava melhores resultados na aprendizagem do "putt", do golfe, comparativamente com os grupos de prática por blocos, em séries e aleatória. Participaram voluntariamente 48 estudantes (24 de cada gênero do ensino superior com 21,2 ± 1,4 anos de idade, todos destros e inexperientes. Na fase de aquisição foram realizados 126 ensaios de "putt" às distâncias de 2, 2,75 e 3,5 metros do buraco. Vinte e quatro horas depois ocorreu a fase de retenção e o teste de tranferência. Na fase de retenção foram praticados 30 ensaios de forma aleatória. O teste de tranferência consistiu em 20 ensaios, 10 ensaios a 2,5 metros e 10 ensaios a 2,5 metros com 10 graus de desvio face ao centro do buraco. A análise dos resultados demonstra que não existem diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre grupos. O efeito do incremento de Interferência Contextual não foi verificado neste estudo.The purpose of this study was to investigate the contextual interference (CI effect on learning a golf putting task. PORTER and MAGILL (2004, 2005 conducted studies where they applied a new concept of practice: the contextual interference continuum. The hypothesis is that practicing with gradual increases of CI will lead to better performance on retention and transfer tests that both the blocked and random groups. Forty undergraduate students (N = 48 were randomly assigned to one of four groups: blocked, serial, random, or increasing CI practice schedule. Participants were inexperienced with the task and were blinded to the purpose of the

The ecology of team science: understanding contextual influences on transdisciplinary collaboration.

Science.gov (United States)

Stokols, Daniel; Misra, Shalini; Moser, Richard P; Hall, Kara L; Taylor, Brandie K

2008-08-01

Increased public and private investments in large-scale team science initiatives over the past two decades have underscored the need to better understand how contextual factors influence the effectiveness of transdisciplinary scientific collaboration. Toward that goal, the findings from four distinct areas of research on team performance and collaboration are reviewed: (1) social psychological and management research on the effectiveness of teams in organizational and institutional settings; (2) studies of cyber-infrastructures (i.e., computer-based infrastructures) designed to support transdisciplinary collaboration across remote research sites; (3) investigations of community-based coalitions for health promotion; and (4) studies focusing directly on the antecedents, processes, and outcomes of scientific collaboration within transdisciplinary research centers and training programs. The empirical literature within these four domains reveals several contextual circumstances that either facilitate or hinder team performance and collaboration. A typology of contextual influences on transdisciplinary collaboration is proposed as a basis for deriving practical guidelines for designing, managing, and evaluating successful team science initiatives.

The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and CV Risk Factors

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Quispe, Renato; Benziger, Catherine P.; Bazo-Alvarez, Juan Carlos; Howe, Laura D.; Checkley, William; Gilman, Robert H.; Smeeth, Liam; Bernabé-Ortiz, Antonio; Miranda, J. Jaime; Bernabé-Ortiz, Antonio; Casas, Juan P.; Smith, George Davey; Ebrahim, Shah; García, Héctor H.; Gilman, Robert H.; Huicho, Luis; Málaga, Germán; Miranda, J. Jaime; Montori, Víctor M.; Smeeth, Liam; Checkley, William; Diette, Gregory B.; Gilman, Robert H.; Huicho, Luis; León-Velarde, Fabiola; Rivera, María; Wise, Robert A.; Checkley, William; García, Héctor H.; Gilman, Robert H.; Miranda, J. Jaime; Sacksteder, Katherine

2016-01-01

Background Variations in the distribution of cardiovascular disease and risk factors by socioeconomic status (SES) have been described in affluent societies, yet a better understanding of these patterns is needed for most low- and middle-income countries. Objective This study sought to describe the relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and SES using monthly family income, educational attainment, and assets index, in 4 Peruvian sites. Methods Baseline data from an age- and sex-stratified random sample of participants, ages ≥35 years, from 4 Peruvian sites (CRONICAS Cohort Study, 2010) were used. The SES indicators considered were monthly family income (n = 3,220), educational attainment (n = 3,598), and assets index (n = 3,601). Behavioral risk factors included current tobacco use, alcohol drinking, physical activity, daily intake of fruits and vegetables, and no control of salt intake. Cardiometabolic risk factors included obesity, elevated waist circumference, hypertension, insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high triglyceride levels. Results In the overall population, 41.6% reported a monthly family income education. Important differences were noted between the socioeconomic indicators: for example, higher income and higher scores on an asset index were associated with greater risk of obesity, whereas higher levels of education were associated with lower risk of obesity. In contrast, higher SES according to all 3 indicators was associated with higher levels of triglycerides. Conclusions The association between SES and cardiometabolic risk factors varies depending on the SES indicator used. These results highlight the need to contextualize risk factors by socioeconomic groups in Latin American settings. PMID:27102029

Chronic nicotine differentially alters spontaneous recovery of contextual fear in male and female mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Tumolo, Jessica M; Kutlu, Munir Gunes; Gould, Thomas J

2018-04-02

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a devastating disorder with symptoms such as flashbacks, hyperarousal, and avoidance of reminders of the traumatic event. Exposure therapy, which attempts to extinguish fear responses, is a commonly used treatment for PTSD but relapse following successful exposure therapy is a frequent problem. In rodents, spontaneous recovery (SR), where extinguished fear responses resurface following extinction treatment, is used as a model of fear relapse. Previous studies from our lab showed that chronic nicotine impaired fear extinction and acute nicotine enhanced SR of contextual fear in adult male mice. In addition, we showed that acute nicotine's effects were specific to SR as acute nicotine did not affect recall of contextual fear conditioning in the absence of extinction. However, effects of chronic nicotine administration on SR are not known. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated if chronic nicotine administration altered SR or recall of contextual fear in adult male and female C57BL/6J mice. Our results showed that chronic nicotine significantly enhanced SR in female mice and significantly decreased SR in males. Chronic nicotine had no effect on recall of contextual fear in males or females. Female sham mice also had significantly less baseline SR than male sham mice. Overall, these results demonstrate sex differences in SR of fear memories and that chronic nicotine modulates these effects on SR but nicotine does not alter recall of contextual fear. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cumulative contextual and individual disadvantages over the life course and adult functional somatic symptoms in Sweden.

Science.gov (United States)

Gustafsson, Per E; Hammarström, Anne; San Sebastian, Miguel

2015-08-01

Disadvantage, originating in one's residential context or in one's past life course, has been shown to impact on health in adulthood. There is however little research on the accumulated health impact of both neighbourhood and individual conditions over the life course. This study aims to examine whether the accumulation of contextual and individual disadvantages from adolescence to middle-age predicts functional somatic symptoms (FSS) in middle-age, taking baseline health into account. The sample is the age 16, 21, 30 and 42 surveys of the prospective Northern Swedish Cohort, with analytical sample size n = 910 (85% of the original cohort). FSS at age 16 and 42, and cumulative socioeconomic disadvantage, social adversity and material adversity between 16 and 42 years were operationalized from questionnaires, and cumulative neighbourhood disadvantage between 16 and 42 years from register data. Results showed accumulation of disadvantages jointly explained 9-12% of FSS variance. In the total sample, cumulative neighbourhood and socioeconomic disadvantage significantly predicted FSS at age 42 in the total sample. In women, neighbourhood disadvantage but not socioeconomic disadvantage contributed significantly, whereas in men, socioeconomic but not neighbourhood disadvantage contributed significantly. In all analyses, associations were largely explained by the parallel accumulation of social and material adversities, but not by symptoms at baseline. In conclusion, the accumulation of diverse forms of disadvantages together plays an important role for somatic complaints in adulthood, independently of baseline health. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

Negative emotional stimuli reduce contextual cueing but not response times in inefficient search.

Science.gov (United States)

Kunar, Melina A; Watson, Derrick G; Cole, Louise; Cox, Angeline

2014-02-01

In visual search, previous work has shown that negative stimuli narrow the focus of attention and speed reaction times (RTs). This paper investigates these two effects by first asking whether negative emotional stimuli narrow the focus of attention to reduce the learning of a display context in a contextual cueing task and, second, whether exposure to negative stimuli also reduces RTs in inefficient search tasks. In Experiment 1, participants viewed either negative or neutral images (faces or scenes) prior to a contextual cueing task. In a typical contextual cueing experiment, RTs are reduced if displays are repeated across the experiment compared with novel displays that are not repeated. The results showed that a smaller contextual cueing effect was obtained after participants viewed negative stimuli than when they viewed neutral stimuli. However, in contrast to previous work, overall search RTs were not faster after viewing negative stimuli (Experiments 2 to 4). The findings are discussed in terms of the impact of emotional content on visual processing and the ability to use scene context to help facilitate search.

Does the use of specialist palliative care services modify the effect of socioeconomic status on place of death? A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hong; Nicolson, Donald J; Macleod, Una; Allgar, Victoria; Dalgliesh, Christopher; Johnson, Miriam

2016-05-01

Cancer patients in lower socioeconomic groups are significantly less likely to die at home and experience more barriers to access to palliative care. It is unclear whether receiving palliative care may mediate the effect of socioeconomic status on place of death. This review examines whether and how use of specialist palliative care may modify the effect of socioeconomic status on place of death. A systematic review was conducted. Eligible papers were selected and the quality appraised by two independent reviewers. Data were synthesised using a narrative approach. MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Web of Knowledge were searched (1997-2013). Bibliographies were scanned and experts contacted. Papers were included if they reported the effect of both socioeconomic status and use of specialist palliative care on place of death for adult cancer patients. Nine studies were included. All study subjects had received specialist palliative care. With regard to place of death, socioeconomic status was found to have (1) no effect in seven studies and (2) an effect in one study. Furthermore, one study found that the effect of socioeconomic status on place of death was only significant when patients received standard specialist palliative care. When patients received more intense care adapted to their needs, the effect of socioeconomic status on place of death was no longer seen. There is some evidence to suggest that use of specialist palliative care may modify the effect of socioeconomic status on place of death. © The Author(s) 2015.

Developmental inter-relations between early maternal depression, contextual risks, and interpersonal stress, and their effect on later child cognitive functioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Sarah K G; Dumontheil, Iroise; Barker, Edward D

2014-07-01

Maternal depression and contextual risks (e.g. poverty) are known to impact children's cognitive and social functioning. However, few published studies have examined how stress in the social environment (i.e. interpersonal stress) might developmentally inter-relate with maternal depression and contextual risks to negatively affect a child in these domains. This was the purpose of the current study. Mother-child pairs (n = 6979) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents were the study participants. Mothers reported on depression, contextual risks, and interpersonal stress between pregnancy and 33 months child age. At age 8, the children underwent cognitive assessments and the mothers reported on the children's social cognitive skills. Maternal depression, contextual risks, and interpersonal stress showed strong continuity and developmental inter-relatedness. Maternal depression and contextual risks directly predicted a range of child outcomes, including executive functions and social cognitive skills. Interpersonal stress worked indirectly via maternal depression and contextual risks to negatively affect child outcomes. Maternal depression and contextual risks each increased interpersonal stress in the household, which, in turn, contributed to reduced child cognitive and social functioning. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effects of Forward and Backward Contextual Elaboration on Lexical Inferences: Evidence from a Semantic Relatedness Judgment Task

Science.gov (United States)

Hamada, Akira

2015-01-01

Three experiments examined whether the process of lexical inferences differs according to the direction of contextual elaboration using a semantic relatedness judgment task. In Experiment 1, Japanese university students read English sentences where target unknown words were semantically elaborated by prior contextual information (forward lexical…

On Contextuality.

Science.gov (United States)

Thayer-Bacon, Barbara J.

This exploration of what feminism has to contribute to pragmatism, and vice versa, considers the idea of contextuality through an examination of the role of current pragmatists, such as Cornel West and Richard Rorty, and current feminists, including Charlene Haddock Siegfried, Maxine Greene, and Seyla Benhabib. To set the stage historically for…

Gender and perceptions of leadership effectiveness: a meta-analysis of contextual moderators.

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Paustian-Underdahl, Samantha C; Walker, Lisa Slattery; Woehr, David J

2014-11-01

Despite evidence that men are typically perceived as more appropriate and effective than women in leadership positions, a recent debate has emerged in the popular press and academic literature over the potential existence of a female leadership advantage. This meta-analysis addresses this debate by quantitatively summarizing gender differences in perceptions of leadership effectiveness across 99 independent samples from 95 studies. Results show that when all leadership contexts are considered, men and women do not differ in perceived leadership effectiveness. Yet, when other-ratings only are examined, women are rated as significantly more effective than men. In contrast, when self-ratings only are examined, men rate themselves as significantly more effective than women rate themselves. Additionally, this synthesis examines the influence of contextual moderators developed from role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002). Our findings help to extend role congruity theory by demonstrating how it can be supplemented based on other theories in the literature, as well as how the theory can be applied to both female and male leaders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Women's relative immunity to the socio-economic health gradient: artifact or real?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan P. Phillips

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Individual and area socio-economic status (SES are significant predictors of morbidity and mortality in developed and developing countries. However, the span in health from poorest to richest, that is, the socio-economic gradient, appears steeper for men than women. Objective: Our aim is to understand women's apparent immunity to the health harms of the SES gradient. Design: Findings from a non-systematic search of Medline for population-based, SES gradient studies reporting results for both men and women and with health outcomes of morbidity, mortality or self-rated health (SRH were reflectively analyzed. Results: The 36 papers reviewed generally showed women to be relatively immune to the SES gradient for all but cardiovascular health outcomes. However, addressing the interconnected nature of socio-economic circumstances, exploring whether some measures of SES had ambiguous meanings for either women or men, including modifiers of SES such as household circumstances, social capital or area gender equity, or using indicators of area SES that were contextual rather than aggregates of individual, compositional measures increased the SES gradient for women. Outcome measures that combined mental and physical health, accounted for gender differences in SRH and adjusted for sex-specific differences in causes of mortality also explained some of the observed amelioration of the SES gradient among women. Conclusions: Socio-economic circumstances have a real and sustained impact on individual health. The SES gradient appears stronger for men than for women for all health outcomes other than heart disease. However, some of the observed variability between men and women may be an artifact of biased methodology. Considering webs of causation rather than individual markers of SES along with other sources of gender bias can explain much of women's blunted socio-economic gradient and deepen understanding of the pathways from SES to morbidity and

Effect of socioeconomic status disparity on child language and neural outcome: how early is early?

Science.gov (United States)

Hurt, Hallam; Betancourt, Laura M

2016-01-01

It is not news that poverty adversely affects child outcome. The literature is replete with reports of deleterious effects on developmental outcome, cognitive function, and school performance in children and youth. Causative factors include poor nutrition, exposure to toxins, inadequate parenting, lack of cognitive stimulation, unstable social support, genetics, and toxic environments. Less is known regarding how early in life adverse effects may be detected. This review proposes to elucidate "how early is early" through discussion of seminal articles related to the effect of socioeconomic status on language outcome and a discussion of the emerging literature on effects of socioeconomic status disparity on brain structure in very young children. Given the young ages at which such outcomes are detected, the critical need for early targeted interventions for our youngest is underscored. Further, the fiscal reasonableness of initiating quality interventions supports these initiatives. As early life adversity produces lasting and deleterious effects on developmental outcome and brain structure, increased focus on programs and policies directed to reducing the impact of socioeconomic disparities is essential.

[Relevance of the socioeconomic and health context in patient satisfaction].

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez-Romero, Shirley; Gascón-Cánovas, Juan J; Salmerón-Martínez, Diego; Parra-Hidalgo, Pedro; Monteagudo-Piqueras, Olga

To determine which factors of the socioeconomic and health contexts influence the perception of the satisfaction of the population with the health services. The data come from the European Health Survey of 2009. In the 22,188 subjects surveyed, the relationship between the perception of satisfaction with the health services received and the individual and contextual variables was studied, applying a multilevel analysis. The factors of the socioeconomic and health contexts that influence satisfaction are: higher rates of low level of studies where the perception of excellence is less likely (odds ratio [OR]: 0.48-0.82) and dissatisfaction is more prevalent (OR: 1.46-1.63). Likewise, the proportion of unsatisfied citizens is lower when per capita expenditure on health services is very high (>1400 €) (OR: 0.49-0.87) and the ratio "primary health care physicians/inhabitants" is high (>60) (OR: 0.500.85). In addition, the prevalence of dissatisfaction describes a positive linear trend with the unemployment rate (OR: 1.12; p=0.0001) and the relative magnitude of the services sector (OR: 1.03; p=0.001). By contrast, this linear trend is negative as the Health Care Coverage Ratio increases (OR: 0.88; p=0.04). The individual factors that determine patient satisfaction are: sex, age, mental health and country of birth. In addition, there are differences in patient satisfaction among the autonomous communities according to socio-economic determinants such as GDP per capita, low-level study rates, unemployment rates or number of inhabitants/doctor's ratio. User satisfaction studies as well as being adjusted for individual variables such as sex, age or health level should also take into account characteristics of the socioeconomic environment of the geographic area where they reside. Copyright © 2017 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Interaction between scene-based and array-based contextual cueing.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenbaum, Gail M; Jiang, Yuhong V

2013-07-01

Contextual cueing refers to the cueing of spatial attention by repeated spatial context. Previous studies have demonstrated distinctive properties of contextual cueing by background scenes and by an array of search items. Whereas scene-based contextual cueing reflects explicit learning of the scene-target association, array-based contextual cueing is supported primarily by implicit learning. In this study, we investigated the interaction between scene-based and array-based contextual cueing. Participants searched for a target that was predicted by both the background scene and the locations of distractor items. We tested three possible patterns of interaction: (1) The scene and the array could be learned independently, in which case cueing should be expressed even when only one cue was preserved; (2) the scene and array could be learned jointly, in which case cueing should occur only when both cues were preserved; (3) overshadowing might occur, in which case learning of the stronger cue should preclude learning of the weaker cue. In several experiments, we manipulated the nature of the contextual cues present during training and testing. We also tested explicit awareness of scenes, scene-target associations, and arrays. The results supported the overshadowing account: Specifically, scene-based contextual cueing precluded array-based contextual cueing when both were predictive of the location of a search target. We suggest that explicit, endogenous cues dominate over implicit cues in guiding spatial attention.

A diffusion modelling approach to understanding contextual cueing effects in children with ADHD

Science.gov (United States)

Weigard, Alexander; Huang-Pollock, Cynthia

2014-01-01

Background Strong theoretical models suggest implicit learning deficits may exist among children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Method We examine implicit contextual cueing (CC) effects among children with ADHD (n=72) and non-ADHD Controls (n=36). Results Using Ratcliff’s drift diffusion model, we found that among Controls, the CC effect is due to improvements in attentional guidance and to reductions in response threshold. Children with ADHD did not show a CC effect; although they were able to use implicitly acquired information to deploy attentional focus, they had more difficulty adjusting their response thresholds. Conclusions Improvements in attentional guidance and reductions in response threshold together underlie the CC effect. Results are consistent with neurocognitive models of ADHD that posit sub-cortical dysfunction but intact spatial attention, and encourage the use of alternative data analytic methods when dealing with reaction time data. PMID:24798140

Effects of the swimming exercise on the consolidation and persistence of auditory and contextual fear memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Faria, Rodolfo Souza; Gutierres, Luís Felipe Soares; Sobrinho, Fernando César Faria; Miranda, Iris do Vale; Reis, Júlia Dos; Dias, Elayne Vieira; Sartori, Cesar Renato; Moreira, Dalmo Antonio Ribeiro

2016-08-15

consolidation as well as persistence of conditioned fear memory. In addition, rats submitted to swimming exercise over six weeks showed an improved performance in the test of auditory-cued fear memory persistence, but not in the test of contextual fear memory persistence. Moreover, no significant effect from swimming exercise was observed on consolidation of both contextual and auditory fear memory. So, our study, revealing the effect of the swimming exercise on different stages of implicit memory of tone/foot shock conditioning, contributes to and complements the current knowledge about the environmental modulation of memory process. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Marginal socio-economic effects of an employer's efforts to improve the work environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Rezagholi, Mahmoud

2018-01-01

Workplace health promotion (WHP) strongly requires the employer's efforts to improve the psychosocial, ergonomic, and physical environments of the workplace. There are many studies discussing the socio-economic advantage of WHP intervention programmes and thus the internal and external factors motivating employers to implement and integrate such programmes. However, the socio-economic impacts of the employer's multifactorial efforts to improve the work environment need to be adequately assessed. Data were collected from Swedish company Sandvik Materials Technology (SMT) through a work environment survey in April 2014. Different regression equations were analysed to assess marginal effects of the employer's efforts on overall labour effectiveness (OLE), informal work impairments (IWI), lost working hours (LWH), and labour productivity loss (LPL) in terms of money. The employer's multifactorial efforts resulted in increasing OLE, decreasing IWI and illness-related LWH, and cost savings in terms of decreasing LPL. Environmental factors at the workplace are the important determinant factor for OLE, and the latter is where socio-economic impacts of the employer's efforts primarily manifest.

Session II-E. Socioeconomic evaluations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Finley, J.R.

1981-01-01

Major tasks of the socioeconomic program are designed to address and resolve issues raised by federal, state, and local agencies and the public, and to meet legal and regulatory requirements. The tasks are intended to: (1) characterize socioeconomic and other nontechnical issues, and recommend possible resolution, (2) develop socioeconomic impact methodologies and provide impact assessments, (3) design and implement a community development approach to impact mitigation, and (4)conduct institutional and organizational analyses. The following papers relate to these socioeconomic tasks: (1) an integrated approach to socioeconomic considerations in nuclear waste management; (2)ethical considerations surrounding nuclear waste isolation and mitigation; (3) institutional issues in transportation of nuclear wastes; (4) framework for evaluating the utility of incentive systems for radioactive waste repository siting; (5)special issues in impact mitigation; (6) effective programs for public participation in siting large public facilities; (7) a program for community development assistance; and (8) examination of factors affecting socioeconomic mitigation costs

The extreme relativity of perception: A new contextual effect modulates human resolving power.

Science.gov (United States)

Namdar, Gal; Ganel, Tzvi; Algom, Daniel

2016-04-01

The authors report the discovery of a new effect of context that modulates human resolving power with respect to an individual stimulus. They show that the size of the difference threshold or the just noticeable difference around a standard stimulus depends on the range of the other standards tested simultaneously for resolution within the same experimental session. The larger this range, the poorer the resolving power for a given standard. The authors term this effect the range of standards effect (RSE). They establish this result both in the visual domain for the perception of linear extent, and in the somatosensory domain for the perception of weight. They discuss the contingent nature of stimulus resolution in perception and psychophysics and contrast it with the immunity to contextual influences of visually guided action. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of Divergence in Patients' Socioeconomic Background on their ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Conclusion: The findings of this study is important for future social pharmacy studies in the area, as it shows that socioeconomic status influences patient's perception of the role of the community pharmacist in Amman, Jordan. Keywords: Socioeconomic status, Community pharmacist, Jordan, Patient perception, Counseling ...

A Sociolinguistic Profile of 100 Mothers from Middle to Upper-Middle Socio-Economic Backgrounds in Penang-Chinese Community: What Languages Do They Speak at Home with Their Children?

Science.gov (United States)

Low, Hui Min; Nicholas, Howard; Wales, Roger

2010-01-01

This paper reports the findings of a survey of 100 mothers of Chinese children aged between 6 and 36 months from middle to upper-middle socio-economic backgrounds in Penang, Malaysia. The findings include the language backgrounds of these mothers, their contextual uses of multiple languages and their language choices with their children. Through…

Effect of socioeconomic position on patient outcome after hysterectomy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Daugbjerg, Signe B; Cesaroni, Giulia; Ottesen, Bent

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between socioeconomic position (assessed by education, employment and income) and complications following hysterectomy and assess the role of lifestyle, co-morbidity and clinical conditions on the relationship. DESIGN: Register-based cohort study. SETTING...... significantly higher odds of complications following hysterectomy compared with women with a high socioeconomic position. Unhealthy lifestyle and presence of co-morbidity in women with low socioeconomic position partially explains the differences in complications.......OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between socioeconomic position (assessed by education, employment and income) and complications following hysterectomy and assess the role of lifestyle, co-morbidity and clinical conditions on the relationship. DESIGN: Register-based cohort study. SETTING...... and employed women. Furthermore, unemployed women had higher odds of hospitalization >4 days than women in employment. Lifestyle factors (smoking and body mass index) and co-morbidity status seemed to explain most of the social differences. However, an association between women with less than high school...

Evaluation of socio-economic effects of R and D results at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. 2. Socio-economic evaluation of the basic research at JAERI

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-11-01

The Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI), as a core organization devoted to comprehensive nuclear energy research, has steadily promoted various types of research and development (R and D) studies since its establishment in June 1956. Research activities are aimed at performing (1) R and D for nuclear energy, (2) the utilization and application of radiation-based technologies, and (3) the establishment of basic and fundamental research in the nuclear field. Last year, the socio-economic effects on items (1) and (2) were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated. The quantitative evaluation of item (3) from the viewpoint of a socio-economic effect, however, calls for a different concept and methodology than previously used cost-benefit approach. Achievements obtained from the activities conducted over the last 10 years implied that socio-economics in basic research funded by the public could contribute to the (1) increase in useful intellectual stocks, (2) upbringing of highly skilled college graduates, (3) construction of new scientific facilities and creation of methodologies, (4) stimulation and promotion of social interrelations by networking, (5) increase of one's ability to solve scientific problems, and (6) establishment of venture companies. In this study, we focused on item (4) for the analysis because it assumed that the external economic effect has a link with the socio-economic effects accompanying the networking formation. For the criteria of socio-economic effects we assume that the external effect becomes significant in proportion to the width of networking and/or the magnitude of cooperation measured by numbers of co-writing studies between JAERI and the research bodies, namely private and governmental sectors and universities. Taking these criteria into consideration, the subsequent four items are prepared for quantitative study. They are (1) to clarify the basic research fields where JAERI has been established a significant effort to

Contextual factors and social consequences of incident disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Ulla; Kriegbaum, Margit; Hougaard, Charlotte Ørsted

2008-01-01

practice modify the employment effect of disease. We have studied risk of labour market exclusion following incident hospitalization for ischaemic heart disease (IHD), and whether this risk may be modified by contextual factors on the municipal level. Methods: A cohort design on a 10% random sample...

Socioeconomic influences on the effects of a genetic testing direct-to-consumer marketing campaign.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowen, D J; Harris, J; Jorgensen, C M; Myers, M F; Kuniyuki, A

2010-01-01

Direct-to-consumer marketing of genetic tests is beginning to appear in select markets, and little independent evaluation has been conducted on the effects of this marketing on consumer attitudes or behavior. The purpose of this paper is to identify the effects of socioeconomic status on women's reactions to such a campaign, including knowledge of the test, perceptions of personal risk, communications with others about the test, and interest in pursuing the test. The only United States provider of genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility (BRCA1/2 testing) conducted a pilot marketing campaign that targeted women aged 25-54 and their health care providers in 2 cities, Atlanta, Ga., and Denver, Colo. The design for the evaluation was a post campaign consumer survey, based on a cross-sectional stratified random sample of women in the 2 intervention sites and 2 comparison sites. The campaign had no differential impact by socioeconomic status. However, there was a consistent relationship between socioeconomic status and several outcome variables, including knowledge of the test, beliefs about the test, and desire to know about genetic risk. These data indicate that socioeconomic status may play a role in uptake of genetic services, regardless of response to a media campaign. Copyright 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

The effect of human engagement depicted in contextual photographs on the visual attention patterns of adults with traumatic brain injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Thiessen, Amber; Brown, Jessica; Beukelman, David; Hux, Karen

2017-09-01

Photographs are a frequently employed tool for the rehabilitation of adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with these individuals must select photos that are easily identifiable and meaningful to their clients. In this investigation, we examined the visual attention response to camera- (i.e., depicted human figure looking toward camera) and task-engaged (i.e., depicted human figure looking at and touching an object) contextual photographs for a group of adults with TBI and a group of adults without neurological conditions. Eye-tracking technology served to accurately and objectively measure visual fixations. Although differences were hypothesized given the cognitive deficits associated with TBI, study results revealed little difference in the visual fixation patterns of adults with and without TBI. Specifically, both groups of participants tended to fixate rapidly on the depicted human figure and fixate more on objects in which a human figure was task-engaged than when a human figure was camera-engaged. These results indicate that strategic placement of human figures in a contextual photograph may modify the way in which individuals with TBI visually attend to and interpret photographs. In addition, task-engagement appears to have a guiding effect on visual attention that may be of benefit to SLPs hoping to select more effective contextual photographs for their clients with TBI. Finally, the limited differences in visual attention patterns between individuals with TBI and their age and gender matched peers without neurological impairments indicates that these two groups find similar photograph regions to be worthy of visual fixation. Readers will gain knowledge regarding the photograph selection process for individuals with TBI. In addition, readers will be able to identify camera- and task-engaged photographs and to explain why task-engagement may be a beneficial component of contextual photographs. Copyright © 2017

State-independent quantum contextuality for continuous variables

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plastino, Angel R.; Cabello, Adan

2010-01-01

Recent experiments have shown that nature violates noncontextual inequalities regardless of the state of the physical system. So far, all these inequalities involve measurements of dichotomic observables. We show that state-independent quantum contextuality can also be observed in the correlations between measurements of observables with genuinely continuous spectra, highlighting the universal character of the effect.

Spatiotemporal Exploration of Impacts of Coupled Climate and Socioeconomic Changes on Grassland Ecosystems (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Y.

2013-12-01

Although the coupled impacts of climate change and human adaptation on land cover change has been a prime research topic in recent years, a majority of reported efforts are examining the coupled effects of climate and socioeconomic factors qualitatively. Even though some are applying statistical methods, they often look into the impacts of coupled climate variations and socioeconomic transformations on land cover changes in a detached or sequential manner, or they handle socioeconomic influences indirectly through land use changes. Very few of them deal with the coupled effects concurrently through times and cross regions. We assimilate a big dataset of climate change, plant community growth condition, and socioeconomic transformation in Inner Mongolia of China. The study area consists of twelve types of plant communities, reflecting an east-to-west water-temperature gradient from moist meadow-type, to typical steppe-type and then to arid desert-type communities. The enhanced vegetation index (EVI), derived from MODIS at a 250 m resolution and 16-day intervals from May 8 to September 28 during 2000-2010, is adopted as a proxy for vegetation growth. The inter-annual and intra-annual changes of seven climate factors (barometric pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunlight hours, temperature, vapor pressure and wind speed) during the same period are synchronized with the EVI observations. Ten socioeconomic variables (urban population, urban GDP, rural GDP, grain output, livestock, fixed assets investment, local government revenue, per capita net income of farmers and pastoralists, the total length of highways, and rural population) are collected over 34 counties in the study area and during the same period. The GIS-based spatial database approach is adopted to integrate all of the above data into a big spatiotemporal dataset. We develop a multi-controlled panel-data regression model to investigate spatiotemporal changes of vegetation growth and their underlying causes

Effects of Socio-Economic Background Factors on Typewriting Speed and Accuracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Erickson, Lawrence W.

The socioeconomic backgrounds of typewriting students as such backgrounds affect typewriting performance is evaluated in this research. There is convincing evidence that socioeconomic factors play a significant role in affecting typewriting performance. Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are almost always associated with the poorest…

Effect of socioeconomic status on mortality after bacteremia in working-age patients. A Danish population-based cohort study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koch, Kristoffer; Nørgaard, Mette; Schønheyder, Henrik Carl

2013-01-01

To examine the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on mortality in patients with bacteremia and the underlying factors that may mediate differences in mortality.......To examine the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on mortality in patients with bacteremia and the underlying factors that may mediate differences in mortality....

Testing quantum contextuality. The problem of compatibility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Szangolies, Jochen

2015-01-01

Jochen Szangolies contributes a novel way of dealing with the problem of the experimental testability of the Kochen-Specker theorem posed by realistic, that is, noisy, measurements. Such noise spoils perfect compatibility between successive measurements, which however is a necessary requirement to test the notion of contextuality in usual approaches. To overcome this difficulty, a new, extended notion of contextuality that reduces to Kochen-Specker contextuality in the limit of perfect measurement implementations is proposed by the author, together with a scheme to test this notion experimentally. Furthermore, the behaviour of these tests under realistic noise conditions is investigated.

Linear contextual modal type theory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schack-Nielsen, Anders; Schürmann, Carsten

Abstract. When one implements a logical framework based on linear type theory, for example the Celf system [?], one is immediately con- fronted with questions about their equational theory and how to deal with logic variables. In this paper, we propose linear contextual modal type theory that gives...... a mathematical account of the nature of logic variables. Our type theory is conservative over intuitionistic contextual modal type theory proposed by Nanevski, Pfenning, and Pientka. Our main contributions include a mechanically checked proof of soundness and a working implementation....

Contextual Risk Profiles and Trajectories of Adolescent Dating Violence Perpetration.

Science.gov (United States)

Reyes, H Luz McNaughton; Foshee, Vangie A; Markiewitz, Nathan; Chen, May S; Ennett, Susan T

2018-04-09

Social ecological and developmental system perspectives suggest that interactions among factors within and across multiple contexts (e.g., neighborhood, peer, family) must be considered in explaining dating violence perpetration. Yet, to date, most extant research on dating violence has focused on individual, rather than contextual predictors, and used variable-centered approaches that fail to capture the configurations of factors that may jointly explain involvement in dating violence. The current study used a person-centered approach, latent profile analysis, to identify key configurations (or profiles) of contextual risk and protective factors for dating violence perpetration across the neighborhood, school, friend and family contexts. We then examine the longitudinal associations between these contextual risk profiles, assessed during middle school, and trajectories of psychological and physical dating violence perpetration across grades 8 through 12. Five contextual risk profiles were identified: school, neighborhood, and family risk; school and family risk; school and friend risk; school and neighborhood risk; and low risk. The highest levels of psychological and physical perpetration across grades 8 through 12 were among adolescents in the profile characterized by high levels of school, neighborhood, and family risk. Results suggest that early interventions to reduce violence exposure and increase social regulation across multiple social contexts may be effective in reducing dating violence perpetration across adolescence.

Hierarchical acquisition of visual specificity in spatial contextual cueing.

Science.gov (United States)

Lie, Kin-Pou

2015-01-01

Spatial contextual cueing refers to visual search performance's being improved when invariant associations between target locations and distractor spatial configurations are learned incidentally. Using the instance theory of automatization and the reverse hierarchy theory of visual perceptual learning, this study explores the acquisition of visual specificity in spatial contextual cueing. Two experiments in which detailed visual features were irrelevant for distinguishing between spatial contexts found that spatial contextual cueing was visually generic in difficult trials when the trials were not preceded by easy trials (Experiment 1) but that spatial contextual cueing progressed to visual specificity when difficult trials were preceded by easy trials (Experiment 2). These findings support reverse hierarchy theory, which predicts that even when detailed visual features are irrelevant for distinguishing between spatial contexts, spatial contextual cueing can progress to visual specificity if the stimuli remain constant, the task is difficult, and difficult trials are preceded by easy trials. However, these findings are inconsistent with instance theory, which predicts that when detailed visual features are irrelevant for distinguishing between spatial contexts, spatial contextual cueing will not progress to visual specificity. This study concludes that the acquisition of visual specificity in spatial contextual cueing is more plausibly hierarchical, rather than instance-based.

Object based implicit contextual learning: a study of eye movements.

Science.gov (United States)

van Asselen, Marieke; Sampaio, Joana; Pina, Ana; Castelo-Branco, Miguel

2011-02-01

Implicit contextual cueing refers to a top-down mechanism in which visual search is facilitated by learned contextual features. In the current study we aimed to investigate the mechanism underlying implicit contextual learning using object information as a contextual cue. Therefore, we measured eye movements during an object-based contextual cueing task. We demonstrated that visual search is facilitated by repeated object information and that this reduction in response times is associated with shorter fixation durations. This indicates that by memorizing associations between objects in our environment we can recognize objects faster, thereby facilitating visual search.

Social Salience Discriminates Learnability of Contextual Cues in an Artificial Language.

Science.gov (United States)

Rácz, Péter; Hay, Jennifer B; Pierrehumbert, Janet B

2017-01-01

We investigate the learning of contextual meaning by adults in an artificial language. Contextual meaning here refers to the non-denotative contextual information that speakers attach to a linguistic construction. Through a series of short games, played online, we test how well adults can learn different contextual meanings for a word-formation pattern in an artificial language. We look at whether learning contextual meanings depends on the social salience of the context, whether our players interpret these contexts generally, and whether the learned meaning is generalized to new words. Our results show that adults are capable of learning contextual meaning if the context is socially salient, coherent, and interpretable. Once a contextual meaning is recognized, it is readily generalized to related forms and contexts.

Contextuality under weak assumptions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simmons, Andrew W; Rudolph, Terry; Wallman, Joel J; Pashayan, Hakop; Bartlett, Stephen D

2017-01-01

The presence of contextuality in quantum theory was first highlighted by Bell, Kochen and Specker, who discovered that for quantum systems of three or more dimensions, measurements could not be viewed as deterministically revealing pre-existing properties of the system. More precisely, no model can assign deterministic outcomes to the projectors of a quantum measurement in a way that depends only on the projector and not the context (the full set of projectors) in which it appeared, despite the fact that the Born rule probabilities associated with projectors are independent of the context. A more general, operational definition of contextuality introduced by Spekkens, which we will term ‘probabilistic contextuality’, drops the assumption of determinism and allows for operations other than measurements to be considered contextual. Even two-dimensional quantum mechanics can be shown to be contextual under this generalised notion. Probabilistic noncontextuality represents the postulate that elements of an operational theory that cannot be distinguished from each other based on the statistics of arbitrarily many repeated experiments (they give rise to the same operational probabilities) are ontologically identical. In this paper, we introduce a framework that enables us to distinguish between different noncontextuality assumptions in terms of the relationships between the ontological representations of objects in the theory given a certain relation between their operational representations. This framework can be used to motivate and define a ‘possibilistic’ analogue, encapsulating the idea that elements of an operational theory that cannot be unambiguously distinguished operationally can also not be unambiguously distinguished ontologically. We then prove that possibilistic noncontextuality is equivalent to an alternative notion of noncontextuality proposed by Hardy. Finally, we demonstrate that these weaker noncontextuality assumptions are sufficient to prove

Racial/Ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic disparities of cervical cancer advanced-stage diagnosis in Texas.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhan, F Benjamin; Lin, Yan

2014-01-01

Advanced-stage diagnosis is among the primary causes of mortality among cervical cancer patients. With the wide use of Pap smear screening, cervical cancer advanced-stage diagnosis rates have decreased. However, disparities of advanced-stage diagnosis persist among different population groups. A challenging task in cervical cancer disparity reduction is to identify where underserved population groups are. Based on cervical cancer incidence data between 1995 and 2008, this study investigated advanced-stage cervical cancer disparities in Texas from three social domains: Race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and geographic location. Effects of individual and contextual factors, including age, tumor grade, race/ethnicity, as well as contextual SES, spatial access to health care, sociocultural factors, percentage of African Americans, and insurance expenditures, on these disparities were examined using multilevel logistic regressions. Significant variations by race/ethnicity and SES were found in cervical cancer advanced-stage diagnosis. We also found a decline in racial/ethnic disparities of advanced cervical cancer diagnosis rate from 1995 to 2008. However, the progress was slower among African Americans than Hispanics. Geographic disparities could be explained by age, race/ethnicity, SES, and the percentage of African Americans in a census tract. Our findings have important implications for developing effective cervical cancer screening and control programs. We identified the location of underserved populations who need the most assistance with cervical cancer screening. Cervical cancer intervention programs should target Hispanics and African Americans, as well as individuals from communities with lower SES in geographic areas where higher advanced-stage diagnosis rates were identified in this study. Copyright © 2014 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A diffusion modeling approach to understanding contextual cueing effects in children with ADHD.

Science.gov (United States)

Weigard, Alexander; Huang-Pollock, Cynthia

2014-12-01

Strong theoretical models suggest implicit learning deficits may exist among children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We examine implicit contextual cueing (CC) effects among children with ADHD (n = 72) and non-ADHD Controls (n = 36). Using Ratcliff's drift diffusion model, we found that among Controls, the CC effect is due to improvements in attentional guidance and to reductions in response threshold. Children with ADHD did not show a CC effect; although they were able to use implicitly acquired information to deploy attentional focus, they had more difficulty adjusting their response thresholds. Improvements in attentional guidance and reductions in response threshold together underlie the CC effect. Results are consistent with neurocognitive models of ADHD that posit subcortical dysfunction but intact spatial attention, and encourage the use of alternative data analytic methods when dealing with reaction time data. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. © 2014 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Contextual profiles of young adult Ecstasy users: a multisite study

Science.gov (United States)

Ramtekkar, Ujjwal P.; Striley, Catherine W; Cottler, Linda B

2010-01-01

These analyses assess contextual profiles of 612 young adult Ecstasy users, 18–30 years of age, from St. Louis (USA), Miami (USA) and Sydney (Australia). Bivariate analyses revealed different contextual factors influencing Ecstasy use. Friends were the most common sources of Ecstasy at all sites and most used with friends. St. Louis and Miami use mostly occurred in residences, whereas in Sydney use was mostly at clubs, bars or restaurants. Ecstasy consumption at public places and in cars, trains or ferries was significantly higher in Miami (89% and 77%) than in St. Louis (67% and 65%) and Sydney (67% and 61%). At all sites, simultaneous use of LSD/mushroom and nitrous oxide with Ecstasy was common; concurrent amphetamines predominated in Sydney and heroin/opiates in St. Louis Contextual factors influencing Ecstasy use among young adults vary by geographic region. Their inclusion may help tailor effective prevention programs to reduce or ameliorate Ecstasy use. PMID:21094585

Exploring subgroup effects by socioeconomic position of three effective school-based dietary interventions: the European TEENAGE project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lien, N.; Haerens, L.; te Velde, S.J.; Mercken, L.; Klepp, K.I.; Moore, L.; de Bourdeaudhuij, I.; Faggiano, F.; Lenthe, F.J.

2014-01-01

Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore subgroup effects by high and low socioeconomic position (SEP) of three previously conducted, effective European interventions. Methods: Reanalyses stratified by SEP were conducted by the research groups of each study. All studies were school-based:

Is atmospheric pollution exposure during pregnancy associated with individual and contextual characteristics? A nationwide study in France.

Science.gov (United States)

Ouidir, Marion; Lepeule, Johanna; Siroux, Valérie; Malherbe, Laure; Meleux, Frederik; Rivière, Emmanuel; Launay, Ludivine; Zaros, Cécile; Cheminat, Marie; Charles, Marie-Aline; Slama, Rémy

2017-10-01

Exposure to atmospheric pollutants is a danger for the health of pregnant mother and children. Our objective was to identify individual (socioeconomic and behavioural) and contextual factors associated with atmospheric pollution pregnancy exposure at the nationwide level. Among 14 921 women from the French nationwide ELFE (French Longitudinal Study of Children) mother-child cohort recruited in 2011, outdoor exposure levels of PM 2.5 , PM 10 (particulate matter atmospheric pollutants with individual (maternal age, body mass index, parity, education level, relationship status, smoking status) and contextual (European Deprivation Index, urbanisation level) factors. Patterns of associations were globally similar across pollutants. For the CART approach, the highest tertile of exposure included mainly women not in a relationship living in urban and socially deprived areas, with lower education level. Linear regression models identified different determinants of atmospheric pollutants exposure according to the residential urbanisation level. In urban areas, atmospheric pollutants exposure increased with social deprivation, while in rural areas a U-shaped relationship was observed. We highlighted social inequalities in atmospheric pollutants exposure according to contextual characteristics such as urbanisation level and social deprivation and also according to individual characteristics such as education, being in a relationship and smoking status. In French urban areas, pregnant women from the most deprived neighbourhoods were those most exposed to health-threatening atmospheric pollutants. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Household crowding as a potential mediator of socioeconomic determinants of tuberculosis incidence in Brazil.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniele Maria Pelissari

Full Text Available Although many studies have identified social conditions associated with tuberculosis, contextual and individual factors have rarely been analysed simultaneously. Consequently, we aimed to identify contextual and individual factors associated with tuberculosis incidence in general population in Brazil in 2010. We also assessed whether household crowding mediates the association between socioeconomic determinants and tuberculosis incidence. Individual data of tuberculosis cases were obtained from 5,565 municipalities in Brazil in 2010 (last year of national census, and merged with contextual variables. The associations were evaluated in a multilevel analysis using negative binomial regression. After adjusting for individual factors (age, sex and race and geographic region, the following contextual factors were associated with tuberculosis incidence rate: AIDS incidence rate [incidence rate ratio (IRR, 1.21; 95% confidence interval (CI, 1.18-1.24], unemployment rate (IRR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.13-1.19, Gini coefficient (IRR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02-1.08, proportion of inmates (IRR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.09-1.14, mean per capita household income (IRR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.91-0.97 and primary care coverage (IRR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.92-0.96. Inclusion of household crowding in the multivariate model led to a loss of the associations of both Gini coefficient and mean per capita household income. In conclusion, our findings suggest that income inequality and poverty, as determinants of tuberculosis incidence, can be mediated by household crowding. Moreover, prison population can represent a potential social reservoir of tuberculosis in Brazil and should be addressed as a priority for disease control. Finally, the negative association between primary health coverage and tuberculosis incidence highlights the importance of this level of care as a strategy to control this disease.

Memory cost of quantum contextuality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kleinmann, Matthias; Gühne, Otfried; Portillo, José R; Larsson, Jan-Åke; Cabello, Adán

2011-01-01

The simulation of quantum effects requires certain classical resources, and quantifying them is an important step to characterize the difference between quantum and classical physics. For a simulation of the phenomenon of state-independent quantum contextuality, we show that the minimum amount of memory used by the simulation is the critical resource. We derive optimal simulation strategies for important cases and prove that reproducing the results of sequential measurements on a two-qubit system requires more memory than the information-carrying capacity of the system. (paper)

Variations in health status within and between socioeconomic strata

OpenAIRE

Ferrer, R; Palmer, R

2004-01-01

Objectives: To analyse the variability in health status within as well as between socioeconomic groups. What is the range of individual variability in the health effects of socioeconomic status? Is the adverse effect of lower socioeconomic status uniform across the entire distribution of health status?

3D Bayesian contextual classifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Rasmus

2000-01-01

We extend a series of multivariate Bayesian 2-D contextual classifiers to 3-D by specifying a simultaneous Gaussian distribution for the feature vectors as well as a prior distribution of the class variables of a pixel and its 6 nearest 3-D neighbours.......We extend a series of multivariate Bayesian 2-D contextual classifiers to 3-D by specifying a simultaneous Gaussian distribution for the feature vectors as well as a prior distribution of the class variables of a pixel and its 6 nearest 3-D neighbours....

Contextualizing symbol, symbolizing context

Science.gov (United States)

Maudy, Septiani Yugni; Suryadi, Didi; Mulyana, Endang

2017-08-01

When students learn algebra for the first time, inevitably they are experiencing transition from arithmetic to algebraic thinking. Once students could apprehend this essential mathematical knowledge, they are cultivating their ability in solving daily life problems by applying algebra. However, as we dig into this transitional stage, we identified possible students' learning obstacles to be dealt with seriously in order to forestall subsequent hindrance in studying more advance algebra. We come to realize this recurring problem as we undertook the processes of re-personalization and re-contextualization in which we scrutinize the very basic questions: 1) what is variable, linear equation with one variable and their relationship with the arithmetic-algebraic thinking? 2) Why student should learn such concepts? 3) How to teach those concepts to students? By positioning ourselves as a seventh grade student, we address the possibility of children to think arithmetically when confronted with the problems of linear equation with one variable. To help them thinking algebraically, Bruner's modes of representation developed contextually from concrete to abstract were delivered to enhance their interpretation toward the idea of variables. Hence, from the outset we designed the context for student to think symbolically initiated by exploring various symbols that could be contextualized in order to bridge student traversing the arithmetic-algebraic fruitfully.

An Exploratory Study of the Impact of Contextual Cues of Violence in an Active Videogame.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Wei; Pfeiffer, Karin; Winn, Brian

2014-04-01

With the expanded genres of active videogames, one inevitably raises the question of whether it is worthwhile to use active videogames to promote physical activity if games involve violent themes. The purpose of the current study was to explore the effects of contextual cues of violence in an active videogame on (1) state hostility, (2) perceived arousal, (3) game enjoyment, (4) perceived effort in the game, and (5) activity intensity in the game. A one-factor between-subjects experiment with three conditions (minimal, moderate, and extreme contextual cues of violence) of playing an in-house-developed active videogame was conducted. Activity intensity was objectively measured using the ActiGraph (Pensacola, FL) model GT3X accelerometer. Psychological outcomes were measured using established scales. We did not find that the level of contextual cues of violence had any effect on the outcome variables, although the moderate level of contextual cues of violence resulted in a greater amount of feeling mean (P=0.011) and unsociable (P=0.038) among the players immediately after gameplay than players in the minimal contextual cues of violence condition. We did not find any statistically significant difference among the three conditions in terms of enjoyment, perceived arousal, or activity intensity. This study empirically examined the effects of contextual cues of violence in active videogames on player hostility, arousal, and enjoyment after gameplay as well as their physical activity intensity during gameplay. These findings provide some initial evidence to guide active videogame designers and researchers on how to design the games to be more engaging and thus elicit more activities among the players.

The interplay among socioeconomic status, household chaos, and parenting in the prediction of child conduct problems and callous-unemotional behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Mills-Koonce, W Roger; Willoughby, Michael T; Garrett-Peters, Patricia; Wagner, Nicholas; Vernon-Feagans, Lynne

2016-08-01

Child conduct problems (CP) reflect a heterogeneous collection of oppositional, aggressive, norm-violating, and sometimes violent behaviors, whereas child callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors reflect interpersonal styles of interactions reflecting a lack of guilt and empathy as well as uncaring and shallow emotional responses to others. Taken together, high levels of child CP and CU behaviors are thought to identify a relatively homogenous group of children at elevated risk for persistent and more severe problem behaviors across childhood and into adulthood. Although a large body of research has examined the developmental etiology of CP behaviors, only recently has a developmental psychopathology approach been applied to early CU behaviors. The current study examines multiple levels of contextual influences during the first years of life, including family socioeconomic status, household chaos, and parenting behaviors, on CP and CU behaviors assessed during the first-grade year. Whereas previous studies found associations between parenting behaviors and child problem behaviors moderated by household chaos, the current study found no evidence of moderation. However, path analyses suggest that the associations between child CP and CU behaviors and the contextual variables of socioeconomic status (family income and parental education) and household chaos (disorganization and instability) were mediated by maternal sensitive and harsh-intrusive parenting behavior. Analyses are presented, interpreted, and discussed with respect to both bioecological and family stress models of development.

Memory contextualization: The role of prefrontal cortex in functional integration across item and context representational regions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhang, W.; Ast, V.A. van; Klumpers, F.; Roelofs, K.; Hermans, E.

2018-01-01

Memory recall is facilitated when retrieval occurs in the original encoding context. This context dependency effect likely results from the automatic binding of central elements of an experience with contextual features (i.e., memory "contextualization") during encoding. However, despite a vast body

Methylphenidate enhances extinction of contextual fear

OpenAIRE

Abraham, Antony D.; Cunningham, Christopher L.; Lattal, K. Matthew

2012-01-01

Methylphenidate (MPH, Ritalin) is a norepinephrine and dopamine transporter blocker that is widely used in humans for treatment of attention deficit disorder and narcolepsy. Although there is some evidence that targeted microinjections of MPH may enhance fear acquisition, little is known about the effect of MPH on fear extinction. Here, we show that MPH, administered before or immediately following extinction of contextual fear, will enhance extinction retention in C57BL/6 mice. Animals that ...

Sleep modulates the neural substrates of both spatial and contextual memory consolidation.

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Géraldine Rauchs

Full Text Available It is known that sleep reshapes the neural representations that subtend the memories acquired while navigating in a virtual environment. However, navigation is not process-pure, as manifold learning components contribute to performance, notably the spatial and contextual memory constituents. In this context, it remains unclear whether post-training sleep globally promotes consolidation of all of the memory components embedded in virtual navigation, or rather favors the development of specific representations. Here, we investigated the effect of post-training sleep on the neural substrates of the consolidation of spatial and contextual memories acquired while navigating in a complex 3D, naturalistic virtual town. Using fMRI, we mapped regional cerebral activity during various tasks designed to tap either the spatial or the contextual memory component, or both, 72 h after encoding with or without sleep deprivation during the first post-training night. Behavioral performance was not dependent upon post-training sleep deprivation, neither in a natural setting that engages both spatial and contextual memory processes nor when looking more specifically at each of these memory representations. At the neuronal level however, analyses that focused on contextual memory revealed distinct correlations between performance and neuronal activity in frontal areas associated with recollection processes after post-training sleep, and in the parahippocampal gyrus associated with familiarity processes in sleep-deprived participants. Likewise, efficient spatial memory was associated with posterior cortical activity after sleep whereas it correlated with parahippocampal/medial temporal activity after sleep deprivation. Finally, variations in place-finding efficiency in a natural setting encompassing spatial and contextual elements were associated with caudate activity after post-training sleep, suggesting the automation of navigation. These data indicate that post

Probing contextuality with pre- and post-selection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tollaksen, Jeff

2007-01-01

By analyzing the concept of contextuality (Bell-Kochen-Specker) in terms of pre-and-post-selection (PPS), it is possible to assign definite values to observables in a new way. Physical reasons are presented for restrictions on these assignments. When measurements are performed which do not disturb the pre- and post-selection (i.e. weak measurements), then novel experimental aspects of contextuality can be demonstrated including a proof that every PPS-paradox with definite predictions implies contextuality. Certain results of these measurements (eccentric weak values with e.g. negative values outside the spectrum), however, cannot be explained by a 'classical-like' hidden variable theory. Surprising theoretical implications are discussed

Using the Virtual Reality-Cognitive Rehabilitation Approach to Improve Contextual Processing in Children with Autism

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Michelle Wang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background. This pilot study investigated the efficacy of a novel virtual reality-cognitive rehabilitation (VR-CR intervention to improve contextual processing of objects in children with autism. Previous research supports that children with autism show deficits in contextual processing, as well as deficits in its elementary components: abstraction and cognitive flexibility. Methods. Four children with autism participated in a multiple-baseline, single-subject study. The children were taught how to see objects in context by reinforcing attention to pivotal contextual information. Results. All children demonstrated statistically significant improvements in contextual processing and cognitive flexibility. Mixed results were found on the control test and changes in context-related behaviours. Conclusions. Larger-scale studies are warranted to determine the effectiveness and usability in comprehensive educational programs.

Using the Virtual Reality-Cognitive Rehabilitation Approach to Improve Contextual Processing in Children with Autism

Science.gov (United States)

Reid, Denise

2013-01-01

Background. This pilot study investigated the efficacy of a novel virtual reality-cognitive rehabilitation (VR-CR) intervention to improve contextual processing of objects in children with autism. Previous research supports that children with autism show deficits in contextual processing, as well as deficits in its elementary components: abstraction and cognitive flexibility. Methods. Four children with autism participated in a multiple-baseline, single-subject study. The children were taught how to see objects in context by reinforcing attention to pivotal contextual information. Results. All children demonstrated statistically significant improvements in contextual processing and cognitive flexibility. Mixed results were found on the control test and changes in context-related behaviours. Conclusions. Larger-scale studies are warranted to determine the effectiveness and usability in comprehensive educational programs. PMID:24324379

A Comparative Study of Paper-based and Computer-based Contextualization in Vocabulary Learning of EFL Students

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Mousa Ahmadian

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Vocabulary acquisition is one of the largest and most important tasks in language classes. New technologies, such as computers, have helped a lot in this way. The importance of the issue led the researchers to do the present study which concerns the comparison of contextualized vocabulary learning on paper and through Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL. To this end, 52 Pre-university EFL learners were randomly assigned in two groups: a paper-based group (PB and a computer-based (CB group each with 26 learners. The PB group received PB contextualization of vocabulary items, while the CB group received CB contextualization of the vocabulary items thorough PowerPoint (PP software. One pretest, posttest, along with an immediate and a delayed posttest were given to the learners. Paired samples t-test of pretest and posttest and independent samples t-test of the delayed and immediate posttest were executed by SPSS software. The results revealed that computer-based contextualization had more effects on vocabulary learning of Iranian EFL learners than paper-based contextualization of the words. Keywords: Computer-based contextualization, Paper-based contextualization, Vocabulary learning, CALL

Moral contextualism and the problem of triviality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Evers, Daan

Moral contextualism is the view that claims like ‘A ought to X’ are implicitly relative to some (contextually variable) standard. This leads to a problem: what are fundamental moral claims like ‘You ought to maximize happiness’ relative to? If this claim is relative to a utilitarian standard, then

Moral contextualism and the problem of triviality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Evers, H.W.A.

2013-01-01

Moral contextualism is the view that claims like ‘A ought to X’ are implicitly relative to some (contextually variable) standard. This leads to a problem: what are fundamental moral claims like ‘You ought to maximize happiness’ relative to? If the claim is relative to a utilitarian standard, then

Pre- and post-selection, weak values and contextuality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tollaksen, Jeff

2007-01-01

By analysing the concept of contextuality (Bell-Kochen-Specker) in terms of pre- and post-selection, it is possible to assign definite values to observables in a new and surprising way. Physical reasons are presented for restrictions on these assignments. When measurements are performed which do not disturb the pre- and post-selection (i.e. weak measurements), then novel experimental aspects of contextuality can be demonstrated. We also prove that every PPS-paradox with definite predictions directly implies 'quantum contextuality' which is introduced as the analogue of contextuality at the level of quantum mechanics rather than at the level of hidden variable theories. Finally, we argue that certain results of these measurements (e.g. eccentric weak values outside the eigenvalue spectrum) cannot be explained by a 'classical-like' hidden variable theory

The gendered effects of family migration law: contextual interpretation as a possible judicial remedy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fulvia Staiano

2016-06-01

Full Text Available At all normative levels, family migration law can disproportionally and negatively affect immigrant women’s rights in this field, producing gendered effects. In some cases, such effects are related to the normative and judicial imposition of unviable family-related models (e.g., the ʻgood mother ̕ the one-breadwinner family, or a rigid distinction between productive and reproductive work. In other cases, they are due to family migration law’s overlooking of the specific needs and difficulties of immigrant women, within their families and in the broader context of their host countries’ social and normative framework.To effectively expose and correct this gender bias, in this article I propose an alternative view of immigrant women’s right to family life, as a cluster of rights and entitlements rather than as a mono-dimensional right. As a theoretical approach, this construction is better equipped to capture the complex experiences of immigrant women in the European legal space, and to shed light on the gendered effects generated not by individual norms but by the interaction of norms that are traditionally assigned to separated legal domains (e.g., immigration law and criminal law. As a judicial strategy, this understanding is capable of prompting a consideration by domestic and supranational courts of immigrant women not as isolated individuals, but as ‘individuals in context’. I shall define this type of approach as ‘contextual interpretation’, understood as the consideration of immigrant women in the broader contexts of their families, their host societies and the normative frameworks applicable to them. Performed in a gendersensitive manner, a contextual judicial interpretation has the potential to neutralize the gendered effects of certain family migration norms. To illustrate these points, I will discuss selected judicial examples offered by the European Court on Human Rights, as well as from domestic jurisdictions of

Scene-Based Contextual Cueing in Pigeons

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Wasserman, Edward A.; Teng, Yuejia; Brooks, Daniel I.

2014-01-01

Repeated pairings of a particular visual context with a specific location of a target stimulus facilitate target search in humans. We explored an animal model of such contextual cueing. Pigeons had to peck a target which could appear in one of four locations on color photographs of real-world scenes. On half of the trials, each of four scenes was consistently paired with one of four possible target locations; on the other half of the trials, each of four different scenes was randomly paired with the same four possible target locations. In Experiments 1 and 2, pigeons exhibited robust contextual cueing when the context preceded the target by 1 s to 8 s, with reaction times to the target being shorter on predictive-scene trials than on random-scene trials. Pigeons also responded more frequently during the delay on predictive-scene trials than on random-scene trials; indeed, during the delay on predictive-scene trials, pigeons predominately pecked toward the location of the upcoming target, suggesting that attentional guidance contributes to contextual cueing. In Experiment 3, involving left-right and top-bottom scene reversals, pigeons exhibited stronger control by global than by local scene cues. These results attest to the robustness and associative basis of contextual cueing in pigeons. PMID:25546098

Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Social Support on Violence against Pregnant Women: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ribeiro, Marizélia Rodrigues Costa; Silva, Antônio Augusto Moura da; Alves, Maria Teresa Seabra Soares de Britto E; Batista, Rosângela Fernandes Lucena; Ribeiro, Cecília Cláudia Costa; Schraiber, Lilia Blima; Bettiol, Heloisa; Barbieri, Marco Antônio

2017-01-01

Few studies have used structural equation modeling to analyze the effects of variables on violence against women. The present study analyzed the effects of socioeconomic status and social support on violence against pregnant women who used prenatal services. This was a cross-sectional study based on data from the Brazilian Ribeirão Preto and São Luís birth cohort studies (BRISA). The sample of the municipality of São Luís (Maranhão/Brazil) consisted of 1,446 pregnant women interviewed in 2010 and 2011. In the proposed model, socioeconomic status was the most distal predictor, followed by social support that determined general violence, psychological violence or physical/sexual violence, which were analyzed as latent variables. Violence was measured by the World Health Organization Violence against Women (WHO VAW) instrument. The São Luis model was estimated using structural equation modeling and validated with 1,378 pregnant women from Ribeirão Preto (São Paulo/Brazil). The proposed model showed good fit for general, psychological and physical/sexual violence for the São Luís sample. Socioeconomic status had no effect on general or psychological violence (p>0.05), but pregnant women with lower socioeconomic status reported more episodes of physical/sexual violence (standardized coefficient, SC = -0.136; p = 0.021). This effect of socioeconomic status was indirect and mediated by low social support (SC = -0.075; psocioeconomic status. Physical/sexual violence was more common for pregnant women with lower socioeconomic status and lower social support. Better social support contributed to reduction of all types of violence. Results were nearly the same for the validation sample of Ribeirão Preto except that SES was not associated with physical/sexual violence.

Socioeconomic differences in health check-ups and medically certified sickness absence: a 10-year follow-up among middle-aged municipal employees in Finland.

Science.gov (United States)

Piha, Kustaa; Sumanen, Hilla; Lahelma, Eero; Rahkonen, Ossi

2017-04-01

There is contradictory evidence on the association between health check-ups and future morbidity. Among the general population, those with high socioeconomic position participate more often in health check-ups. The main aims of this study were to analyse if attendance to health check-ups are socioeconomically patterned and affect sickness absence over a 10-year follow-up. This register-based follow-up study included municipal employees of the City of Helsinki. 13 037 employees were invited to age-based health check-up during 2000-2002, with a 62% attendance rate. Education, occupational class and individual income were used to measure socioeconomic position. Medically certified sickness absence of 4 days or more was measured and controlled for at the baseline and used as an outcome over follow-up. The mean follow-up time was 7.5 years. Poisson regression was used. Men and employees with lower socioeconomic position participated more actively in health check-ups. Among women, non-attendance to health check-up predicted higher sickness absence during follow-up (relative risk =1.26, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.37) in the fully adjusted model. Health check-ups were not effective in reducing socioeconomic differences in sickness absence. Age-based health check-ups reduced subsequent sickness absence and should be promoted. Attendance to health check-ups should be as high as possible. Contextual factors need to be taken into account when applying the results in interventions in other settings. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Effects of childhood socioeconomic position on subjective health and health behaviours in adulthood: how much is mediated by adult socioeconomic position?

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Blakely Tony

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Adult socioeconomic position (SEP is one of the most frequently hypothesised indirect pathways between childhood SEP and adult health. However, few studies that explore the indirect associations between childhood SEP and adult health systematically investigate the mediating role of multiple individual measures of adult SEP for different health outcomes. We examine the potential mediating role of individual measures of adult SEP in the associations of childhood SEP with self-rated health, self-reported mental health, current smoking status and binge drinking in adulthood. Methods Data came from 10,010 adults aged 25-64 years at Wave 3 of the Survey of Family, Income and Employment in New Zealand. The associations between childhood SEP (assessed using retrospective information on parental occupation and self-rated health, self-reported psychological distress, current smoking status and binge drinking were determined using logistic regression. Models were adjusted individually for the mediating effects of education, household income, labour market activity and area deprivation. Results Respondents from a lower childhood SEP had a greater odds of being a current smoker (OR 1.70 95% CI 1.42-2.03, reporting poorer health (OR 1.82 95% CI 1.39-2.38 or higher psychological distress (OR 1.60 95% CI 1.20-2.14 compared to those from a higher childhood SEP. Two-thirds to three quarters of the association of childhood SEP with current smoking (78%, and psychological distress (66% and over half the association with poor self-rated health (55% was explained by educational attainment. Other adult socioeconomic measures had much smaller mediating effects. Conclusions This study suggests that the association between childhood SEP and self-rated health, psychological distress and current smoking in adulthood is largely explained through an indirect socioeconomic pathway involving education. However, household income, area deprivation and labour

Contextual Factors for Finding Similar Experts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hofmann, Katja; Balog, Krisztian; Bogers, Toine

2010-01-01

-seeking models, are rarely taken into account. In this article, we extend content-based expert-finding approaches with contextual factors that have been found to influence human expert finding. We focus on a task of science communicators in a knowledge-intensive environment, the task of finding similar experts......, given an example expert. Our approach combines expertise-seeking and retrieval research. First, we conduct a user study to identify contextual factors that may play a role in the studied task and environment. Then, we design expert retrieval models to capture these factors. We combine these with content......-based retrieval models and evaluate them in a retrieval experiment. Our main finding is that while content-based features are the most important, human participants also take contextual factors into account, such as media experience and organizational structure. We develop two principled ways of modeling...

Contextualizing the Impacts of Homelessness on Academic Growth

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlakis, Alexandra E.; Goff, Peter; Miller, Peter M.

2017-01-01

Background/Context: Students experiencing homelessness are also often living in poverty and may share many of the same characteristics and experiences with children in low-income housing. Scholars aim to understand the impacts of homelessness above and beyond the effects of poverty, but studies are mixed. Contextual factors--such as the localized…

Experimental demonstration of quantum contextuality on an NMR qutrit

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dogra, Shruti; Dorai, Kavita, E-mail: kavita@iisermohali.ac.in; Arvind

2016-05-20

We experimentally test quantum contextuality of a single qutrit using NMR. The contextuality inequalities based on nine observables developed by Kurzynski et al. are first reformulated in terms of traceless observables which can be measured in an NMR experiment. These inequalities reveal the contextuality of almost all single-qutrit states. We demonstrate the violation of the inequality on four different initial states of a spin-1 deuterium nucleus oriented in a liquid crystal matrix, and follow the violation as the states evolve in time. We also describe and experimentally perform a single-shot test of contextuality for a subclass of qutrit states whose density matrix is diagonal in the energy basis. - Highlights: • A contextuality inequality for a single qutrit was designed using traceless observables. • The violation of the inequality was experimentally demonstrated using NMR. • A single-shot test was experimentally performed for a subclass of diagonal qutrit states.

Experimental demonstration of quantum contextuality on an NMR qutrit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dogra, Shruti; Dorai, Kavita; Arvind

2016-01-01

We experimentally test quantum contextuality of a single qutrit using NMR. The contextuality inequalities based on nine observables developed by Kurzynski et al. are first reformulated in terms of traceless observables which can be measured in an NMR experiment. These inequalities reveal the contextuality of almost all single-qutrit states. We demonstrate the violation of the inequality on four different initial states of a spin-1 deuterium nucleus oriented in a liquid crystal matrix, and follow the violation as the states evolve in time. We also describe and experimentally perform a single-shot test of contextuality for a subclass of qutrit states whose density matrix is diagonal in the energy basis. - Highlights: • A contextuality inequality for a single qutrit was designed using traceless observables. • The violation of the inequality was experimentally demonstrated using NMR. • A single-shot test was experimentally performed for a subclass of diagonal qutrit states.

The socialization of dominance: peer group contextual effects on homophobic and dominance attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Poteat, V Paul; Espelage, Dorothy L; Green, Harold D

2007-06-01

Using the framework of social dominance theory, the current investigation tested for the contextual effects of adolescent peer groups on individuals' homophobic and social dominance attitudes. Results from multilevel models indicated that significant differences existed across peer groups on homophobic attitudes. In addition, these differences were accounted for on the basis of the hierarchy-enhancing or -attenuating climate of the group. A group socialization effect on individuals' social dominance attitudes over time was also observed. Furthermore, the social climate of the peer group moderated the stability of individuals' social dominance attitudes. Findings support the need to examine more proximal and informal group affiliations and earlier developmental periods in efforts to build more comprehensive theoretical models explaining when and how prejudiced and dominance attitudes are formed and the way in which they are perpetuated. (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved.

The Effect of the Global Financial Crisis and the Sovereign Debt Crisis on Public Sector Accounting: A Contextual Analysis

OpenAIRE

Emmanuel Igbawase Abanyam; Paul Aondona Angahar

2015-01-01

This paper examines the effect of global financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis on public sector accounting. The global financial crisis and sovereign debt crisis were contextually analysed bringing out clearly its effect on public sector accounting which include accounting issues related to public sector intervention, accounting for recapitalization of investment, accounting for fiscal support, accounting for financial guarantees. The paper found out that, the unresolved fiscal and d...

Affective theory of mind inferences contextually influence the recognition of emotional facial expressions.

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, Suzanne L K; Schepman, Astrid; Haigh, Matthew; McHugh, Rhian; Stewart, Andrew J

2018-03-14

The recognition of emotional facial expressions is often subject to contextual influence, particularly when the face and the context convey similar emotions. We investigated whether spontaneous, incidental affective theory of mind inferences made while reading vignettes describing social situations would produce context effects on the identification of same-valenced emotions (Experiment 1) as well as differently-valenced emotions (Experiment 2) conveyed by subsequently presented faces. Crucially, we found an effect of context on reaction times in both experiments while, in line with previous work, we found evidence for a context effect on accuracy only in Experiment 1. This demonstrates that affective theory of mind inferences made at the pragmatic level of a text can automatically, contextually influence the perceptual processing of emotional facial expressions in a separate task even when those emotions are of a distinctive valence. Thus, our novel findings suggest that language acts as a contextual influence to the recognition of emotional facial expressions for both same and different valences.

Factores socioeconómicos y contextuales que determinan la actividad reproductiva de las adolescentes en Colombia Socioeconomic and contextual determinants of reproductive activity among adolescent women in Colombia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carmen Elisa Flórez

2005-12-01

quantitative and qualitative research methods, using information generated by a survey of adolescents conducted in 2003. The survey included 550 adolescents in Bogotá and 550 adolescents in Cali, from all socioeconomic strata. To analyze the determinants, discrete-time proportional hazards models were used. For the qualitative study, 72 in-depth interviews and four focus groups were done. With the information organized by subjects and categories that were defined in relation to the purposes of the study, categories were identified that arose from the patterns and recurrences in the data, in order to see sociocultural trends by sex, stratum, and city. RESULTS: The patterns of sexual activity, union (married or unmarried relationship, and maternity differ considerably among the socioeconomic strata, in both of the cities. The adolescent women in the low stratum begin having sexual relations, form unions, and become mothers earlier in life and with greater frequency than do adolescent women in the medium or high strata. The main determinant of the reproductive behavior of adolescent women is the set of contextual and socioeconomic factors in the home, mainly the family context (environment and supervision and the educational climate (the average number of years of formal education of the family members over the age of 15. CONCLUSIONS: Sex education has been provided in the schools in Colombia since 1993, but our results clearly indicate that it has had only a limited impact on the reproductive behavior of adolescent women.

Longitudinal changes in functional capacity: effects of socio-economic position among ageing adults

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Sulander Tommi

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction Health and functional capacity have improved especially in Western countries over the past few decades. Nevertheless, the positive secular trend has not been able to decrease an uneven distribution of health. The main aim of this study was to follow-up changes in functional capacity among the same people in six years time and to detect whether the possible changes vary according to socio-economic position (SEP. In addition, it is of interest whether health behaviours have an effect on these possible changes. Methods This longitudinal follow-up study consisted of 1,898 individuals from three birth cohorts (1926–1930, 1936–40, 1946–50 who took part in clinical check-ups and answered to a survey questionnaire in 2002 and 2008. A sub-scale of physical functioning from the RAND-36 was used to measure functional capacity. Education and adequacy of income were used as indicators of socio-economic position. Repeated-measures ANOVA was used as a main method of analysis. Results Physical functioning in 2002 and 2008 was poorest among those men and women belonging to the oldest cohort. Functional capacity deteriorated in six years among men in the oldest cohort and among women in all three cohorts. Socio-economic disparities in functional capacity among ageing people existed. Especially lower adequacy of income was most consistently associated with poorer functional capacity. However, changes in functional capacity by socio-economic position remained the same or even narrowed independent of health behaviours. Conclusion Socio-economic disparities in physical functioning are mainly incorporated in the level of functioning at the baseline. No widening socioeconomic disparities in functional capacity exist. Partly these disparities even seem to narrow with ageing.

Effect of some socio-economic activities on fish diversity of lagoon ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Effect of some socio-economic activities on fish diversity of lagoon systems in Ogun waterside Local Government of Ogun State, Nigeria. ... The PDF file you selected should load here if your Web browser has a PDF reader plug-in installed (for example, a recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader). If you would like more ...

Contextuality in canonical systems of random variables

Science.gov (United States)

Dzhafarov, Ehtibar N.; Cervantes, Víctor H.; Kujala, Janne V.

2017-10-01

Random variables representing measurements, broadly understood to include any responses to any inputs, form a system in which each of them is uniquely identified by its content (that which it measures) and its context (the conditions under which it is recorded). Two random variables are jointly distributed if and only if they share a context. In a canonical representation of a system, all random variables are binary, and every content-sharing pair of random variables has a unique maximal coupling (the joint distribution imposed on them so that they coincide with maximal possible probability). The system is contextual if these maximal couplings are incompatible with the joint distributions of the context-sharing random variables. We propose to represent any system of measurements in a canonical form and to consider the system contextual if and only if its canonical representation is contextual. As an illustration, we establish a criterion for contextuality of the canonical system consisting of all dichotomizations of a single pair of content-sharing categorical random variables. This article is part of the themed issue `Second quantum revolution: foundational questions'.

Mobile Contextualized learning games for decision support training

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klemke, Roland; Börner, Dirk; Suarez, Angel; Schneider, Jan; Antonaci, Alessandra

2015-01-01

This interactive workshop session introduces mobile serious games as situated, contextualized learning games. Example cases for mobile serious games for decision support training are introduced and discussed. Participants will get to know contextualization techniques used in modern mobile

The Effect of Contextual and Conceptual Rewording on Mathematical Problem-Solving Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Haghverdi, Majid; Wiest, Lynda R.

2016-01-01

This study shows how separate and combined contextual and conceptual problem rewording can positively influence student performance in solving mathematical word problems. Participants included 80 seventh-grade Iranian students randomly assigned in groups of 20 to three experimental groups involving three types of rewording and a control group. All…

Two (or three) is one too many: testing the flexibility of contextual cueing with multiple target locations.

Science.gov (United States)

Zellin, Martina; Conci, Markus; von Mühlenen, Adrian; Müller, Hermann J

2011-10-01

Visual search for a target object is facilitated when the object is repeatedly presented within an invariant context of surrounding items ("contextual cueing"; Chun & Jiang, Cognitive Psychology, 36, 28-71, 1998). The present study investigated whether such invariant contexts can cue more than one target location. In a series of three experiments, we showed that contextual cueing is significantly reduced when invariant contexts are paired with two rather than one possible target location, whereas no contextual cueing occurs with three distinct target locations. Closer data inspection revealed that one "dominant" target always exhibited substantially more contextual cueing than did the other, "minor" target(s), which caused negative contextual-cueing effects. However, minor targets could benefit from the invariant context when they were spatially close to the dominant target. In sum, our experiments suggest that contextual cueing can guide visual attention to a spatially limited region of the display, only enhancing the detection of targets presented inside that region.

Contextualized personality: traditional and new assessment procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

Heller, Daniel; Watson, David; Komar, Jennifer; Min, Ji-A; Perunovic, Wei Qi Elaine

2007-12-01

We describe our ongoing program of research related to the assessment of contextualized personality, focusing on social roles and cultural cues as contextual factors. First, we present our research employing the traditional assessment approach, wherein participants are asked to rate explicitly their personality across several different roles. We argue that this hypothetical approach is potentially susceptible to the influence of stereotypes, social desirability, and demand characteristics. We therefore describe the development of three novel and subtle assessment procedures that are based on obtaining online self-representations that are activated while occupying a specific context. Finally, the strengths and limitations of all four approaches, as well as directions for future research in the study of contextualized personality, are discussed.

Contextual consistency facilitates long-term memory of perceptual detail in barely seen images.

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Gronau, Nurit; Shachar, Meytal

2015-08-01

It is long known that contextual information affects memory for an object's identity (e.g., its basic level category), yet it is unclear whether schematic knowledge additionally enhances memory for the precise visual appearance of an item. Here we investigated memory for visual detail of merely glimpsed objects. Participants viewed pairs of contextually related and unrelated stimuli, presented for an extremely brief duration (24 ms, masked). They then performed a forced-choice memory-recognition test for the precise perceptual appearance of 1 of 2 objects within each pair (i.e., the "memory-target" item). In 3 experiments, we show that memory-target stimuli originally appearing within contextually related pairs are remembered better than targets appearing within unrelated pairs. These effects are obtained whether the target is presented at test with its counterpart pair object (i.e., when reiterating the original context at encoding) or whether the target is presented alone, implying that the contextual consistency effects are mediated predominantly by processes occurring during stimulus encoding, rather than during stimulus retrieval. Furthermore, visual detail encoding is improved whether object relations involve implied action or not, suggesting that, contrary to some prior suggestions, action is not a necessary component for object-to-object associative "grouping" processes. Our findings suggest that during a brief glimpse, but not under long viewing conditions, contextual associations may play a critical role in reducing stimulus competition for attention selection and in facilitating rapid encoding of sensory details. Theoretical implications with respect to classic frame theories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Large Mines and the Community : Socioeconomic and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

1 janv. 2001 ... Large Mines and the Community : Socioeconomic and Environmental Effects in Latin America, Canada, and Spain. Couverture du livre Large Mines and the Community : Socioeconomic and Environmental Effects in Latin America. Directeur(s):. Gary McMahon et Felix Remy. Maison(s) d'édition: Banque ...

Mobile Contextualized learning games for decision support training

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klemke, Roland

2014-01-01

This interactive workshop session introduces mobile serious games as situated, contextualized learning games. Example cases for mobile serious games for decision support training are introduced and discussed. Participants will get to know contextualization techniques used in modern mobile devices

Effects of bilateral eye movements on the retrieval of item, associative, and contextual information.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Andrew; Relph, Sarah; Dagnall, Neil

2008-01-01

Two experiments are reported that investigate the effects of saccadic bilateral eye movements on the retrieval of item, associative, and contextual information. Experiment 1 compared the effects of bilateral versus vertical versus no eye movements on tests of item recognition, followed by remember-know responses and associative recognition. Supporting previous research, bilateral eye movements enhanced item recognition by increasing the hit rate and decreasing the false alarm rate. Analysis of remember-know responses indicated that eye movement effects were accompanied by increases in remember responses. The test of associative recognition found that bilateral eye movements increased correct responses to intact pairs and decreased false alarms to rearranged pairs. Experiment 2 assessed the effects of eye movements on the recall of intrinsic (color) and extrinsic (spatial location) context. Bilateral eye movements increased correct recall for both types of context. The results are discussed within the framework of dual-process models of memory and the possible neural underpinnings of these effects are considered.

Task-relevant information is prioritized in spatiotemporal contextual cueing.

Science.gov (United States)

Higuchi, Yoko; Ueda, Yoshiyuki; Ogawa, Hirokazu; Saiki, Jun

2016-11-01

Implicit learning of visual contexts facilitates search performance-a phenomenon known as contextual cueing; however, little is known about contextual cueing under situations in which multidimensional regularities exist simultaneously. In everyday vision, different information, such as object identity and location, appears simultaneously and interacts with each other. We tested the hypothesis that, in contextual cueing, when multiple regularities are present, the regularities that are most relevant to our behavioral goals would be prioritized. Previous studies of contextual cueing have commonly used the visual search paradigm. However, this paradigm is not suitable for directing participants' attention to a particular regularity. Therefore, we developed a new paradigm, the "spatiotemporal contextual cueing paradigm," and manipulated task-relevant and task-irrelevant regularities. In four experiments, we demonstrated that task-relevant regularities were more responsible for search facilitation than task-irrelevant regularities. This finding suggests our visual behavior is focused on regularities that are relevant to our current goal.

The problem of contextuality and the impossibility of experimental metaphysics thereof

Science.gov (United States)

Hermens, Ronnie

Recently a new impulse has been given to the experimental investigation of contextuality. In this paper we show that for a widely used definition of contextuality there can be no decisive experiment on the existence of contextuality. To this end, we give a clear presentation of the hidden variable models due to Meyer, Kent and Clifton (MKC), which would supposedly nullify the Kochen-Specker theorem. Although we disagree with this last statement, the models do play a significant role in the discussion on the meaning of contextuality. In fact, we introduce a specific MKC-model of which we show that it is non-contextual and completely in agreement with quantum mechanical predictions. We also investigate the possibility of other definitions of non-contextuality-with an emphasis on operational definitions-and argue that any useful definition relies on the specification of a theoretical framework. It is therefore concluded that no experimental test can yield any conclusions about contextuality on a metaphysical level.

Socioeconomic and modifiable predictors of blood pressure control ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background. Low socioeconomic status is associated with the risk of hypertension. There are few reports of the effect of socioeconomic and potentially modifiable factors on the control of hypertension in South Africa (SA). Objectives. To investigate associations between patients' socioeconomic status and characteristics of ...

Childhood socioeconomic status amplifies genetic effects on adult intelligence.

Science.gov (United States)

Bates, Timothy C; Lewis, Gary J; Weiss, Alexander

2013-10-01

Studies of intelligence in children reveal significantly higher heritability among groups with high socioeconomic status (SES) than among groups with low SES. These interaction effects, however, have not been examined in adults, when between-families environmental effects are reduced. Using 1,702 adult twins (aged 24-84) for whom intelligence assessment data were available, we tested for interactions between childhood SES and genetic effects, between-families environmental effects, and unique environmental effects. Higher SES was associated with higher mean intelligence scores. Moreover, the magnitude of genetic influences on intelligence was proportional to SES. By contrast, environmental influences were constant. These results suggest that rather than setting lower and upper bounds on intelligence, genes multiply environmental inputs that support intellectual growth. This mechanism implies that increasing SES may raise average intelligence but also magnifies individual differences in intelligence.

ONWI socioeconomic activities in support of SRPO socioeconomic program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1986-03-01

The introduction describes the purpose of ONWI's Socioeconomic Program for SRPO nuclear waste repository program and the organization within ONWI dedicated to socioeconomic activities. Chapter 2 of this report, Statutory Requirements and Mission Plan Strategy, documents the specific directives and guidelines contained in the NWPA and in the Mission Plan that define DOE's socioeconomic responsibilities. Chapter 3, ONWI Socioeconomic Objectives and Activities to Assist SRPO, describes ONWI's socioeconomic objectives and provides a detailed discussion of the major activities planned to assist SRPO in the impact assessment, mitigation, and monitoring phases of the program. Chapter 4 lists references cited in the report. 15 refs., 8 figs., 3 tabs

Fine-scale geographic variations of inflammatory bowel disease in France: correlation with socioeconomic and house equipment variables.

Science.gov (United States)

Nerich, Virginie; Monnet, Elisabeth; Weill, Alain; Vallier, Nathalie; Vanbockstael, Vincent; Auleley, Guy-Robert; Balaire, Corine; Dubost, Patrick; Rican, Stéphane; Allemand, Hubert; Carbonnel, Franck

2010-05-01

In a previous study we found a north-south gradient for Crohn's disease (CD) incidence in France. The aim of the present study was to determine if socioeconomic factors may influence the geographic distribution of CD and ulcerative colitis (UC) in France. Using the national health insurance databases, incidence rates of CD and UC were estimated for each of 341 metropolitan "job areas" in 2000-2002. Relationships between incidence rates and relevant contextual variables from the 1999 French census were tested for significance using a Poisson regression. Mapping of smoothed relative risks (sRR) for CD and UC at the scale of job areas, using a Bayesian approach and adjusting for significant contextual variables, was carried out in order to search for geographic variations. CD incidence rates were negatively related to the percentage of farmers and to the percentage of housing with bathroom and toilets and positively related to the unemployment rate and to the percentage of households below the poverty threshold. Mapping of sRR for CD showed a clear north-south gradient, which was slightly improved after including the percentage of farmers and the percentage of housing with toilets. In UC we found no significant correlation between either incidence and socioeconomic variables or incidence and house equipment variables, and there was no north-south gradient. However, there was a positive and significant correlation between CD and UC incidence. The present study shows that geographic risk factors of CD in France are northern latitude, nonrural areas, and areas with poor sanitary house equipment. Among these factors the most important is northern latitude.

Contextually in a Peres—Mermin square using arbitrary operators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laversanne-Finot, A; Ketterer, A; Coudreau, T; Milman, P; Barros, M R; Walborn, S P; Keller, A

2016-01-01

The contextuality of quantum mechanics can be shown by the violation of inequalities based on measurements of well chosen observables. These inequalities have been designed separately for both discrete and continuous variables. Here we unify both strategies by introducing general conditions to demonstrate the contextuality of quantum mechanics from measurements of observables of arbitrary dimensions. Among the consequences of our results is the impossibility of having a maximal violation of contextuality in the Peres-Mermin scenario with discrete observables of odd dimensions. In addition, we show how to construct a large class of observables with a continuous spectrum enabling the realization of contextuality tests both in the Gaussian and non-Gaussian regimes. (paper)

Cumulative Socioeconomic Status Risk, Allostatic Load, and Adjustment: A Prospective Latent Profile Analysis with Contextual and Genetic Protective Factors

Science.gov (United States)

Brody, Gene H.; Yu, Tianyi; Chen, Yi-Fu; Kogan, Steven M.; Evans, Gary W.; Beach, Steven R. H.; Windle, Michael; Simons, Ronald L.; Gerrard, Meg; Gibbons, Frederick X.; Philibert, Robert A.

2013-01-01

The health disparities literature has identified a common pattern among middle-aged African Americans that includes high rates of chronic disease along with low rates of psychiatric disorders despite exposure to high levels of cumulative socioeconomic status (SES) risk. The current study was designed to test hypotheses about the developmental…

Understanding contextual influences of community reintegration among injured servicemembers.

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Hawkins, Brent L; McGuire, Francis A; Linder, Sandra M; Britt, Thomas W

2015-01-01

As part of a larger mixed-methods research project investigating the influence of contextual factors on community reintegration (CR), this qualitative study sought to understand the subjective experiences of injured servicemembers and their perception of how contextual factors influenced their CR. More specifically, this article addresses how the influences of contextual factors differ between injured servicemembers with different levels of CR. Using a phenomenological framework, semistructured interviews were conducted with nine injured, community-dwelling servicemembers with low, moderate, and high levels of CR (three per category). Participants provided in-depth descriptions of the contextual barriers and facilitators of CR. Thematic analysis indicated the importance of social support and personal factors (e.g., self-efficacy, personal motivation) as the primary means for being reintegrated into their homes and communities. Other themes indicated factors that had an indirect but important influence on CR, including adapted sports, recreation, and other social programs; rehabilitation programs and therapists; school, work, and volunteering; and organizations and policies in developing social supports and personal factors. Comparisons between servicemembers indicated participants with low CR described many more contextual barriers and far fewer contextual facilitators to reintegration than those with high CR. Those with moderate CR were unique in that they described many facilitators and barriers to reintegration.

The effects of marriage partners' socio-economic positions on the risk of divorce in Finland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marika Jalovaara

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The high and increasing incidence of divorce, with the various consequences for adults and children, has aroused interest among social scientists in understanding the contributory factors. Prominent economic and psychosocial theories suggest that the husband’s social and economic resources tend to stabilize a marriage, whereas the wife’s economic success tends to destabilize it (the gendered hypothesis. Register-based follow-up data from Statistics Finland on first marriages in Finland that were intact at the end of 1990 and divorces in 199193 (n=21,309, and Poisson regression were used to analyze the impact of the socio-economic positions of the spouses on the risk of divorce. This thesis consists of three articles published in international refereed journals, and a summary article. The aim of sub-study I was to disentangle the influences of various aspects of the spouses’ socio-economic positions on divorce risk and to reveal the causal pathways through which each socio-economic factor was related to it. Sub-study II investigated the joint effects of both spouses’ socio-economic positions. Finally, sub-study III explored the possibility that the effect of spouses’ socio-economic positions on divorce risk might vary according to the duration of the marriage.  When examined individually, divorce risk was inversely associated with socio-economic status for all its various indicators (i.e. each spouse’s education, occupational class, economic activity, and income, as well as housing tenure and housing density except the wife’s income. All of these factors had an independent effect. The independent effect was weak for both spouses’ occupational rankings and housing density, however, and it was positive for the wife’s income. The divorce risk for couples with both partners at the lowest educational level was lower than expected on the basis of its overall inverse association with each spouse’s education. Employed and

Socio-economic homogamy and its effects on the stability of cohabiting unions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elina Mäenpää

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The tendency towards socio-economic homogamy – partner similarity in terms of socio-economic status – is of great interest to social scientists, for two reasons. First, socio-economic homogamy is an indicator of social closure between status groups in a society. Second, given that homogamy leads to the accumulation of advantageous and disadvantageous socio-economic conditions within couples, it also intensifies social and economic inequalities between families. The objective of this thesis is to enhance knowledge of socio-economic homogamy and its consequences for union stability in Finland. The first aim was to analyse the strength and patterns of socio-economic homogamy in partner choice. The second aim was to determine whether and, if so, how homogamy is associated with the likelihood of ending non-marital cohabitation – through separation on the one hand, or marriage on the other. In addition, two dimensions of socio-economic status, individual educational attainment and social class of the family of origin, were analysed to find out whether matching on individually achieved status or on the status of the parental family had a bigger effect on union dynamics. The analyses were based on sets of register data compiled at Statistics Finland. Log-linear models were applied to study homogamy tendencies and their changes in marriages and cohabitations of women born in 1957–1979 at the age of 30. The effects of homogamy and heterogamy on the likelihood of separation and marriage were analysed with Cox proportional hazards model in cohabitations formed in the period 1995–2002 by women born in 1960–1977. An elaborate approach was adopted: marriage and separation rates were examined in each possible combination of partner status. The results imply that people tend to choose partners who are similar to them in terms of educational attainment and class background. However, homogamy was stronger with regard to education than to social

Exhibition of Monogamy Relations between Entropic Non-contextuality Inequalities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu Feng; Zhang Wei; Huang Yi-Dong

2017-01-01

We exhibit the monogamy relation between two entropic non-contextuality inequalities in the scenario where compatible projectors are orthogonal. We show the monogamy relation can be exhibited by decomposing the orthogonality graph into perfect induced subgraphs. Then we find two entropic non-contextuality inequalities are monogamous while the KCBS-type non-contextuality inequalities are not if the orthogonality graphs of the observable sets are two odd cycles with two shared vertices. (paper)

Health status and air pollution related socioeconomic concerns in urban China.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiao, Kaishan; Xu, Mengjia; Liu, Meng

2018-02-05

China is experiencing environmental issues and related health effects due to its industrialization and urbanization. The health effects associated with air pollution are not just a matter of epidemiology and environmental science research, but also an important social science issue. Literature about the relationship of socioeconomic factors with the environment and health factors is inadequate. The relationship between air pollution exposure and health effects in China was investigated with consideration of the socioeconomic factors. Based on nationwide survey data of China in 2014, we applied the multilevel mixed-effects model to evaluate how socioeconomic status (represented by education and income) contributed to the relationship between self-rated air pollution and self-rated health status at community level and individual level. The findings indicated that there was a non-linear relationship between the community socioeconomic status and community air pollution in urban China, with the highest level of air pollution presented in the communities with moderate socioeconomic status. In addition, health effects associated air pollution in different socioeconomic status groups were not equal. Self-rated air pollution had the greatest impact on self-rated health of the lower socioeconomic groups. With the increase of socioeconomic status, the effect of self-rated air pollution on self-rated health decreased. This study verified the different levels of exposure to air pollution and inequality in health effects among different socioeconomic groups in China. It is imperative for the government to urgently formulate public policies to enhance the ability of the lower socioeconomic groups to circumvent air pollution and reduce the health damage caused by air pollution.

Contextual Change After Fear Acquisition Affects Conditioned Responding and the Time Course of Extinction Learning-Implications for Renewal Research.

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Sjouwerman, Rachel; Niehaus, Johanna; Lonsdorf, Tina B

2015-01-01

Context plays a central role in retrieving (fear) memories. Accordingly, context manipulations are inherent to most return of fear (ROF) paradigms (in particular renewal), involving contextual changes after fear extinction. Context changes are, however, also often embedded during earlier stages of ROF experiments such as context changes between fear acquisition and extinction (e.g., in ABC and ABA renewal). Previous studies using these paradigms have however focused exclusively on the context switch after extinction (i.e., renewal). Thus, the possibility of a general effect of context switch on conditioned responding that may not be conditional to preceding extinction learning remains unstudied. Hence, the current study investigated the impact of a context switch between fear acquisition and extinction on immediate conditioned responding and on the time-course of extinction learning by using a multimodal approach. A group that underwent contextual change after fear conditioning (AB; n = 36) was compared with a group without a contextual change from acquisition to extinction (AA; n = 149), while measuring physiological (skin conductance and fear potentiated startle) measures and subjective fear ratings. Contextual change between fear acquisition and extinction had a pronounced effect on both immediate conditioned responding and on the time course of extinction learning in skin conductance responses and subjective fear ratings. This may have important implications for the mechanisms underlying and the interpretation of the renewal effect (i.e., contextual switch after extinction). Consequently, future studies should incorporate designs and statistical tests that disentangle general effects of contextual change from genuine ROF effects.

Direct and contextual effects of individual values on organizational citizenship behavior in teams.

Science.gov (United States)

Arthaud-Day, Marne L; Rode, Joseph C; Turnley, William H

2012-07-01

The authors use Schwartz's values theory as an integrative framework for testing the relationship between individual values and peer-reported organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in teams, controlling for sex, satisfaction, and personality traits. Using hierarchical linear modeling in a sample of 582 students distributed across 135 class project teams, the authors find positive, direct effects for achievement on citizenship behaviors directed toward individuals (OCB-I), for benevolence on citizenship behaviors directed toward the group (OCB-O), and for self-direction on both OCB-I and OCB-O. Applying relational demography techniques to test for contextual effects, the authors find that group mean power scores negatively moderate the relationship between individual power and OCB-I, whereas group mean self-direction scores positively moderate the relationship between self-direction and both OCB-I and OCB-O. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of immigration background and country-of-origin contextual factors on adolescent substance use in Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarasa-Renedo, Ana; Sordo, Luis; Pulido, José; Guitart, Anna; González-González, Rocío; Hoyos, Juan; Bravo, María J; Barrio, Gregorio

2015-08-01

The effects of adolescent- and parental-birthplace and country-of-origin contextual factors on substance use among adolescents with recent immigrant background (ARIBs) are poorly understood. We aimed to assess these effects and identify the main mediating factors in Spain. Participants were 12,432 ARIBs (≥1 foreign-born parent) and 75,511 autochthonous adolescents from pooled 2006-2010 school surveys. Outcomes were prevalence of use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, stimulants and sedative-hypnotics. ARIBs were classified by adolescent birthplace (Spain/abroad), whether they had mixed-parents (one Spanish-born and one foreign-born), and country-of-origin characteristics. Adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) and percent change expressing disparities in risk were estimated using Poisson regression with robust variance. Compared to autochthonous adolescents, foreign-born ARIBs without mixed-parents showed significant aPRs leisure environments and less association with peers who use such substances. ARIBs' lower risk depended more on country-of-origin characteristics and not having mixed-parents than being foreign-born. Tobacco, cannabis and stimulant use in ARIBs increased with increasing population use of these substances in the country-of-origin. ARIBs from the non-Muslim-regions had a lower risk of using alcohol and higher risk of using sedative-hypnotics than those from the Muslim-region. Among ARIBs in Spain, parental transmission of norms and values could influence substance use as much as or more than exposure to the Spanish context. Future research should better assess effects of adolescent- and parental-birthplace and country-of-origin contextual factors on substance use. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Individual and Contextual Inhibitors of Sexual Harassment Training Motivation

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Benjamin M.; Bauerle, Timothy J.; Magley, Vicki J.

2013-01-01

Studies have evaluated the outcomes of sexual harassment training, but considerably less research has focused on variables that influence sexual harassment training effectiveness. To address this need, we developed and tested a model of individual and contextual inhibitors of sexual harassment training motivation to learn. Survey data collected…

No apparent influence of psychometrically-defined schizotypy on orientation-dependent contextual modulation of visual contrast detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Damien J. Mannion

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We investigated the relationship between psychometrically-defined schizotypy and the ability to detect a visual target pattern. Target detection is typically impaired by a surrounding pattern (context with an orientation that is parallel to the target, relative to a surrounding pattern with an orientation that is orthogonal to the target (orientation-dependent contextual modulation. Based on reports that this effect is reduced in those with schizophrenia, we hypothesised that there would be a negative relationship between the relative score on psychometrically-defined schizotypy and the relative effect of orientation-dependent contextual modulation. We measured visual contrast detection thresholds and scores on the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE from a non-clinical sample (N = 100. Contrary to our hypothesis, we find an absence of a monotonic relationship between the relative magnitude of orientation-dependent contextual modulation of visual contrast detection and the relative score on any of the subscales of the O-LIFE. The apparent difference of this result with previous reports on those with schizophrenia suggests that orientation-dependent contextual modulation may be an informative condition in which schizophrenia and psychometrically-defined schizotypy are dissociated. However, further research is also required to clarify the strength of orientation-dependent contextual modulation in those with schizophrenia.

Memory Contextualization: The Role of Prefrontal Cortex in Functional Integration across Item and Context Representational Regions.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wei; van Ast, Vanessa A; Klumpers, Floris; Roelofs, Karin; Hermans, Erno J

2018-04-01

Memory recall is facilitated when retrieval occurs in the original encoding context. This context dependency effect likely results from the automatic binding of central elements of an experience with contextual features (i.e., memory "contextualization") during encoding. However, despite a vast body of research investigating the neural correlates of explicit associative memory, the neural interactions during encoding that predict implicit context-dependent memory remain unknown. Twenty-six participants underwent fMRI during encoding of salient stimuli (faces), which were overlaid onto unique background images (contexts). To index subsequent context-dependent memory, face recognition was tested either in intact or rearranged contexts, after scanning. Enhanced face recognition in intact relative to rearranged contexts evidenced successful memory contextualization. Overall subsequent memory effects (brain activity predicting whether items were later remembered vs. forgotten) were found in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and right amygdala. Effective connectivity analyses showed that stronger context-dependent memory was associated with stronger coupling of the left IFG with face- and place-responsive areas, both within and between participants. Our findings indicate an important role for the IFG in integrating information across widespread regions involved in the representation of salient items and contextual features.

Contextual control over task-set retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Crump, Matthew J C; Logan, Gordon D

2010-11-01

Contextual cues signaling task likelihood or the likelihood of task repetition are known to modulate the size of switch costs. We follow up on the finding by Leboe, Wong, Crump, and Stobbe (2008) that location cues predictive of the proportion of switch or repeat trials modulate switch costs. Their design employed one cue per task, whereas our experiment employed two cues per task, which allowed separate assessment of modulations to the cue-repetition benefit, a measure of lower level cue-encoding processes, and to the task-alternation cost, a measure of higher level processes representing task-set information. We demonstrate that location information predictive of switch proportion modulates performance at the level of task-set representations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that contextual control occurs even when subjects are unaware of the associations between context and switch likelihood. We discuss the notion that contextual information provides rapid, unconscious control over the extent to which prior task-set representations are retrieved in the service of guiding online performance.

Predicting Effects of the Self and Contextual Factors on Violence: A Comparison between School Students and Youth Offenders in Macau

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Wing Lo

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This study was designed to explore the self and contextual factors for violence in two samples of school students and youth offenders in Macau. There were 3085 participants who were between 12 and 20 years old; 48.3% of them were male and 51.7% female. Findings revealed that youth offenders exhibited more violence than school students. For the self factors, while lower self-esteem and higher self-efficacy of school students were associated with more violent behavior, these two variables had no significant effects for youth offenders. For the contextual factors, family conflict was the strongest predictor of violence, and school commitment/attachment was the weakest predictor for both samples. For youth offenders, family conflict had the largest direct effect, followed by susceptibility to negative peer influence and influence of the Triad gangs, while school commitment/attachment had a significant though mild direct effect. For school students, family conflict mediated the effect of self-esteem and self-efficacy on violence. While Triad gangs’ influence was the second strongest predictor of violence, being exposed to Triad gangs’ influence also mediated the effect of self-esteem and self-efficacy on violence. It is recommended that youth outreach services with a focus on family support and gang detachment for at-risk youth be strengthened.

Predicting Effects of the Self and Contextual Factors on Violence: A Comparison between School Students and Youth Offenders in Macau

Science.gov (United States)

Lo, T. Wing; Cheng, Christopher H. K.

2018-01-01

This study was designed to explore the self and contextual factors for violence in two samples of school students and youth offenders in Macau. There were 3085 participants who were between 12 and 20 years old; 48.3% of them were male and 51.7% female. Findings revealed that youth offenders exhibited more violence than school students. For the self factors, while lower self-esteem and higher self-efficacy of school students were associated with more violent behavior, these two variables had no significant effects for youth offenders. For the contextual factors, family conflict was the strongest predictor of violence, and school commitment/attachment was the weakest predictor for both samples. For youth offenders, family conflict had the largest direct effect, followed by susceptibility to negative peer influence and influence of the Triad gangs, while school commitment/attachment had a significant though mild direct effect. For school students, family conflict mediated the effect of self-esteem and self-efficacy on violence. While Triad gangs’ influence was the second strongest predictor of violence, being exposed to Triad gangs’ influence also mediated the effect of self-esteem and self-efficacy on violence. It is recommended that youth outreach services with a focus on family support and gang detachment for at-risk youth be strengthened. PMID:29401666

Contextual and social influences on valuation and choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Engelmann, Jan B; Hein, Grit

2013-01-01

To survive in our complex environment, we have to adapt to changing contexts. Prior research that investigated how contextual changes are processed in the human brain has demonstrated important modulatory influences on multiple cognitive processes underlying decision-making, including perceptual judgments, working memory, as well as cognitive and attentional control. However, in everyday life, the importance of context is even more obvious during economic and social interactions, which often have implicit rule sets that need to be recognized by a decision-maker. Here, we review recent evidence from an increasing number of studies in the fields of Neuroeconomics and Social Neuroscience that investigate the neurobiological basis of contextual effects on valuation and social choice. Contrary to the assumptions of rational choice theory, multiple contextual factors, such as the availability of alternative choice options, shifts in reference point, and social context, have been shown to modulate behavior, as well as signals in task-relevant neural networks. A consistent picture that emerges from neurobiological results is that valuation-related activity in striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex is highly context dependent during both social and nonsocial choice. Alternative approaches to model and explain choice behavior, such as comparison-based choice models, as well as implications for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Combined effects of socioeconomic position, smoking, and hypertension on risk of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nordahl, Helene; Osler, Merete; Frederiksen, Birgitte Lidegaard

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Combined effects of socioeconomic position and well-established risk factors on stroke incidence have not been formally investigated. METHODS: In a pooled cohort study of 68 643 men and women aged 30 to 70 years in Denmark, we examined the combined effect and interaction...... between socioeconomic position (ie, education), smoking, and hypertension on ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke incidence by the use of the additive hazards model. RESULTS: During 14 years of follow-up, 3613 ischemic strokes and 776 hemorrhagic strokes were observed. Current smoking and hypertension were...... more prevalent among those with low education. Low versus high education was associated with greater ischemic, but not hemorrhagic, stroke incidence. The combined effect of low education and current smoking was more than expected by the sum of their separate effects on ischemic stroke incidence...

Gender-based violence and socioeconomic inequalities: does living in more deprived neighbourhoods increase women's risk of intimate partner violence?

Science.gov (United States)

Kiss, Ligia; Schraiber, Lilia Blima; Heise, Lori; Zimmerman, Cathy; Gouveia, Nelson; Watts, Charlotte

2012-04-01

This study investigates the influence of neighbourhood socioeconomic conditions on women's likelihood of experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Data from 940 women who were interviewed as part of the WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence against women, and census data for Sao Paulo City, were analyzed using multilevel regression techniques. A neighbourhood socioeconomic-level scale was created, and proxies for the socioeconomic positions of the couple were included. Other individual level variables included factors related to partner's behaviour and women's experiences and attitudes. Women's risk of IPV did not vary across neighbourhoods in Sao Paulo nor was it influenced by her individual socioeconomic characteristics. However, women in the middle range of the socioeconomic scale were significantly more likely to report having experienced violence by a partner. Partner behaviours such as excessive alcohol use, controlling behaviour and multiple sexual partnerships were important predictors of IPV. A women's likelihood of IPV also increased if either her mother had experienced IPV or if she used alcohol excessively. These findings suggest that although the characteristics of people living in deprived neighbourhoods may influence the probability that a woman will experience IPV, higher-order contextual dynamics do not seem to affect this risk. While poverty reduction will improve the lives of individuals in many ways, strategies to reduce IPV should prioritize shifting norms that reinforce certain negative male behaviours. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of suicidality within socioeconomic context: mediation effect of parental control and anomie.

Science.gov (United States)

Heydari, Arash; Teymoori, Ali; Nasiri, Hedayat

Despite some scientific research on suicide as one of the most serious social and mental health problems in Iran, there is still lack of research on the effective structural and socio-familial factors contributing to the issue in Iran. The purpose of this study is to investigate some of the effective variables conditioning suicidality while also establishing a synthetic model. Three hundred-fifty university students (165 males, 185 females) were randomly chosen from Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran. The participants were asked to complete a package of self-report questionnaires including subjective socioeconomic status (SES), feeling of anomie, perceived parental control, and suicidality. The results show that all correlations among variables are significant. For testing the theoretical model, results of standardized regression coefficients suggest that SES has direct effect on suicidality and indirect effect via anomie and parental control. In addition, parental control has direct effects on suicidality and indirect effect via anomie as well. The findings confirm the expected paths hypothesized among variables which are consistent with the theories of Durkheim, Merton, Kohn, and Agnew. It implies that the development of suicidality takes place within socioeconomic context through the influence of parental control and feeling of anomie.

Contextual Aspects of Smart City Energy Systems Analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thellufsen, Jakob Zinck

The thesis defines the concept of smart city energy systems. The thesis emphasises the need to investigate the smart city energy system and two contextual aspects. The system integration context and the geographical context. The system integration context emphasises that increased interrelation...... of the different contextual aspects....

The Effects of a Warm or Chilly Climate Toward Socioeconomic Diversity on Academic Motivation and Self-Concept.

Science.gov (United States)

Browman, Alexander S; Destin, Mesmin

2016-02-01

Persistent academic achievement gaps exist between university students from high and low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. The current research proposes that the extent to which a university is perceived as actively supporting versus passively neglecting students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds can influence low-SES students' academic motivation and self-concepts. In Experiments 1 and 2, low-SES students exposed to cues suggestive of an institution's warmth toward socioeconomic diversity demonstrated greater academic efficacy, expectations, and implicit associations with high academic achievement compared with those exposed to cues indicating institutional chilliness. Exploring the phenomenology underlying these effects, Experiment 3 demonstrated that warmth cues led low-SES students to perceive their socioeconomic background as a better match with the rest of the student body and to perceive the university as more socioeconomically diverse than did chilliness cues. Contributions to our understanding of low-SES students' psychological experiences in academic settings and practical implications for academic institutions are discussed. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Anterior prefrontal involvement in implicit contextual change detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Pollmann

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Anterior prefrontal cortex is usually associated with high level executive functions. Here, we show that the frontal pole, specifically left lateral frontopolar cortex, is involved in signaling change in implicitly learned spatial contexts, in the absence of conscious change detection. In a variant of the contextual cueing paradigm, participants first learned implicitly contingencies between distractor contexts and target locations. After learning, repeated distractor contexts were paired with new target locations. Left lateral frontopolar (BA10 and superior frontal (BA9 cortices showed selective signal increase for this target location change in repeated displays in an event-related fMRI experiment, which was most pronounced in participants with high contextual facilitation before the change. The data support the view that left lateral frontopolar cortex is involved in signaling contextual change to posterior brain areas as a precondition for adaptive changes of attentional resource allocation. This signaling occurs in the absence of awareness of learned contingencies or contextual change.

Experimental Detection of Information Deficit in a Photonic Contextuality Scenario

Science.gov (United States)

Zhan, Xiang; Kurzyński, Paweł; Kaszlikowski, Dagomir; Wang, Kunkun; Bian, Zhihao; Zhang, Yongsheng; Xue, Peng

2017-12-01

Contextuality is an essential characteristic of quantum theory, and supplies the power for many quantum information processes. Previous tests of contextuality focus mainly on the probability distribution of measurement results. However, a test of contextuality can be formulated in terms of entropic inequalities whose violations imply information deficit in the studied system. This information deficit has not been observed on a single local system. Here we report the first experimental detection of information deficit in an entropic test of quantum contextuality based on photonic setup. The corresponding inequality is violated with more than 13 standard deviations.

Socioeconomic Site Study Plan: Draft

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1987-07-01

Social and economic issues and concerns of the Deak Smith County site area will be evaluated during site characterization. Effects that the area could experience from a repository project include demographic, economic, community service, fiscal, and social impacts. The Socioeconomic Site Study Plan is designed to provide a strategy to assess the potential for those impacts. The Socioeconomic Site Study Plan is structured to provide an overview of the socioeconomic program requirements, objectives, and activities to be conducted during site characterization. This report will describe the study design and its rationale; data collection, management, and reporting; program schedules and milestones; site study organization and management; and quality assurance issues. 43 refs

Contextual Text Mining

Science.gov (United States)

Mei, Qiaozhu

2009-01-01

With the dramatic growth of text information, there is an increasing need for powerful text mining systems that can automatically discover useful knowledge from text. Text is generally associated with all kinds of contextual information. Those contexts can be explicit, such as the time and the location where a blog article is written, and the…

Acute nicotine disrupts consolidation of contextual fear extinction and alters long-term memory-associated hippocampal kinase activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Kutlu, Munir Gunes; Garrett, Brendan; Gadiwalla, Sana; Tumolo, Jessica M; Gould, Thomas J

2017-11-01

Previous research has shown that acute nicotine, an agonist of nAChRs, impaired fear extinction. However, the effects of acute nicotine on consolidation of contextual fear extinction memories and associated cell signaling cascades are unknown. Therefore, we examined the effects of acute nicotine injections before (pre-extinction) and after (post-extinction) contextual fear extinction on behavior and the phosphorylation of dorsal and ventral hippocampal ERK1/2 and JNK1 and protein levels on the 1st and 3rd day of extinction. Our results showed that acute nicotine administered prior to extinction sessions downregulated the phosphorylated forms of ERK1/2 in the ventral hippocampus, but not dorsal hippocampus, and JNK1 in both dorsal and ventral hippocampus on the 3rd extinction day. These effects were absent on the 1st day of extinction. We also showed that acute nicotine administered immediately and 30 min, but not 6 h, following extinction impaired contextual fear extinction suggesting that acute nicotine disrupts consolidation of contextual fear extinction memories. Finally, acute nicotine injections immediately after extinction sessions upregulated the phosphorylated forms of ERK1/2 in the ventral hippocampus, but did not affect JNK1. These results show that acute nicotine impairs contextual fear extinction potentially by altering molecular processes responsible for the consolidation of extinction memories. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Disentangling effects of socioeconomic status on obesity: A cross-sectional study of the Spanish adult population.

Science.gov (United States)

Merino Ventosa, María; Urbanos-Garrido, Rosa M Maria Merino Ven Gmail Com

2016-09-01

This paper complements previous estimations regarding socioeconomic inequalities in obesity for Spanish adults, and provides new evidence about the mechanisms through which socioeconomic status (SES) affects obesity. Microdata from the Spanish National Health Survey (SNHS) 2011-2012 are analysed. Corrected concentration indices (CCI) are calculated to measure inequality. Path analysis is employed to disentangle direct and indirect effects of SES on obesity, where dietary patterns, physical activity and sleep habits act as mediator variables. Multivariate logistic models are used to select those exogenous variables to be included in the path diagram. Men and women are analysed separately. Our results show significant pro-rich inequality in the distribution of obesity (the poorer the more obese), particularly for women (CCI=-0.070 for men, CCI=-0.079 for women). The indirect effects of SES on obesity (those transmitted via mediator variables) are quite modest (3.3% for males, 2.4% for females) due to three reasons. Firstly, dietary habits do not show a significant mediating effect. Secondly, the mediating effect of physical activity in leisure time, although significant (14% for males, 11.1% for females), is offset by that related to main activity. Finally, sleep habits contribution to total effect of SES on obesity is statistically significant but small (roughly 1%). Our results indicate that promoting physical activity in leisure time for those with a low SES, particularly for men, would contribute to prevent obesity and to reduce health inequalities. Promotion of adequate sleep habits for women with a low SES might have a similar effect. However, interventions aimed to reduce sedentarism related to main activity, although useful to prevent obesity, would amplify the obesity socioeconomic gradient. Since effects of SES are different for men and women, socioeconomic health inequalities should be addressed also from a gender perspective. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B

Note about socio-economic calculations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Landex, Alex; Andersen, Jonas Lohmann Elkjær; Salling, Kim Bang

2006-01-01

these effects must be described qualitatively. This note describes the socio-economic evaluation based on market prices and not factor prices which has been the tradition in Denmark till now. This is due to the recommendation from the Ministry of Transport to start using calculations based on market prices...... alternative. In socio-economic evaluations it is intended to describe the effects in economic terms whenever possible (”+” is used when it is positive for the society, and ”–” when it is negative for the society). However, not all the effects for the society can be described in economic terms, and instead...

Contextual cueing based on the semantic-category membership of the environment

OpenAIRE

GOUJON, A

2005-01-01

During the analysis of a visual scene, top-down processing is constantly directing the subject's attention to the zones of interest in the scene. The contextual cueing paradigm developed by Chun and Jiang (1998) shows how contextual regularities can facilitate the search for a particular element via implicit learning mechanisms. In the proposed study, contextual cueing task with lexical displays was used. The semantic-category membership of the contextual words predicted the location of the t...

Involvement of the prelimbic cortex in contextual fear conditioning with temporal and spatial discontinuity.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Thays Brenner; Kramer-Soares, Juliana Carlota; Favaro, Vanessa Manchim; Oliveira, Maria Gabriela Menezes

2017-10-01

Time plays an important role in conditioning, it is not only possible to associate stimuli with events that overlap, as in delay fear conditioning, but it is also possible to associate stimuli that are discontinuous in time, as shown in trace conditioning for a discrete stimuli. The environment itself can be a powerful conditioned stimulus (CS) and be associated to unconditioned stimulus (US). Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine the parameters in which contextual fear conditioning occurs by the maintenance of a contextual representation over short and long time intervals. The results showed that a contextual representation can be maintained and associated after 5s, even in the absence of a 15s re-exposure to the training context before US delivery. The same effect was not observed with a 24h interval of discontinuity. Furthermore, optimal conditioned response with a 5s interval is produced only when the contexts (of pre-exposure and shock) match. As the pre-limbic cortex (PL) is necessary for the maintenance of a continuous representation of a stimulus, the involvement of the PL in this temporal and contextual processing was investigated. The reversible inactivation of the PL by muscimol infusion impaired the acquisition of contextual fear conditioning with a 5s interval, but not with a 24h interval, and did not impair delay fear conditioning. The data provided evidence that short and long intervals of discontinuity have different mechanisms, thus contributing to a better understanding of PL involvement in contextual fear conditioning and providing a model that considers both temporal and contextual factors in fear conditioning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rising U.S. income inequality and the changing gradient of socioeconomic status on physical functioning and activity limitations, 1984-2007.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Hui; George, Linda K

2012-12-01

This study examines the interactive contextual effect of income inequality on health. Specifically, we hypothesize that income inequality will moderate the relationships between individual-level risk factors and health. Using National Health Interview Survey data 1984-2007 (n = 607,959) and U.S. Census data, this paper estimates the effect of the dramatic increase in income inequality in the U.S. over the past two decades on the gradient of socioeconomic status on two measures of health (i.e., physical functioning and activity limitations). Results indicate that increasing income inequality strengthens the protective effects of family income, employment, college education, and marriage on these two measures of health. In contrast, high school education's protective effect (relative to less than a high school education) weakens in the context of increasing income inequality. In addition, we find that increasing income inequality exacerbates men's disadvantages in physical functioning and activity limitations. These findings shed light on research about growing health disparities in the U.S. in the last several decades. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of lifestyle, education and socioeconomic status on periodontal health

Science.gov (United States)

Gundala, Rupasree; Chava, Vijay K.

2010-01-01

Background: The health model which forms the basis is knowledge, attitude, temporary, and permanent behaviors. Currently, more emphasis has been directed towards the combined influence of lifestyle, education, levels and socioeconomic factors, instead of regular risk factors in dealing with chronic illnesses. The present study is conducted to correlate the periodontal health of people with reference to lifestyle, education level, and socioeconomic status. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Periodontics, Narayana Dental College and Hospital, Nellore. A total of 1350 subjects were examined and 948 patients were randomly selected from out patient department. Information about their lifestyle, education level, and socioeconomic status were recorded using a questionnaire and correlated with the periodontal status. Results: The statistical analysis showed significant decrease in periodontitis when income and education levels increased. Also the prevalence of periodontitis associated with a healthy lifestyle is significantly lower when compared to an unhealthy lifestyle. Conclusions: There is a strong association of lifestyle, education level, and socioeconomic status with periodontal health. PMID:22114373

Assessment of the magnitude of geographical variations in the duration of non-work-related sickness absence by individual and contextual factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Torá-Rocamora, Isabel; Martínez, José Miguel; Gimeno, David; Alberti, Constança; Jardí, Josefina; Manzanera, Rafael; Benavides, Fernando G; Delclos, George

2015-01-01

To examine variation in the duration of non-work-related sickness absence (NWRSA) across geographical areas and the degree to which this variation can be explained by individual and/or contextual factors. All first NWRSA episodes ending in 2007 and 2010 were analyzed. Individual (diagnosis, age, sex) and contextual factors (healthcare resources, socioeconomic factors) were analyzed to assess how much of the geographical variation was explained by these factors. Median NWRSA durations in quartiles were mapped by counties in Catalonia. Multilevel Cox proportional hazard regression models with episodes nested within counties were fitted to quantify the magnitude of this variation. The proportional change in variance (PCV), median hazard ratios (MHR) and interquartile hazard ratios (IHR) were calculated. We found a geographical pattern in the duration of NWRSA, with longer duration in northwestern Catalonia. There was a small, but statistically significant, geographical variation in the duration of NWRSA, which mostly decreased after adjustment for individual factors in both women (PCV=34.98%, MHR=1.09, IHR=1.13 in 2007; PCV=34.68%, MHR=1.11, IHR=1.28 in 2010) and men (PCV=39.88%, MHR=1.10, IHR=1.27 in 2007; PCV=45.93%, MHR=1.10, IHR=1.25 in 2010); only in the case of women in 2010 was there a reduction in county-level variance due to contextual covariates (PCV=16.18%, MHR=1.12, IHR=1.32). County-level variation in the duration of NWRSA was small and was explained more by individual than by contextual variables. Knowledge of geographic differences in NWRSA duration is needed to plan specific programs and interventions to minimize these differences. Copyright © 2014 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Human cortical activity evoked by contextual processing in attentional orienting.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Shuo; Li, Chunlin; Uono, Shota; Yoshimura, Sayaka; Toichi, Motomi

2017-06-07

The ability to assess another person's direction of attention is paramount in social communication, many studies have reported a similar pattern between gaze and arrow cues in attention orienting. Neuroimaging research has also demonstrated no qualitative differences in attention to gaze and arrow cues. However, these studies were implemented under simple experiment conditions. Researchers have highlighted the importance of contextual processing (i.e., the semantic congruence between cue and target) in attentional orienting, showing that attentional orienting by social gaze or arrow cues could be modulated through contextual processing. Here, we examine the neural activity of attentional orienting by gaze and arrow cues in response to contextual processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results demonstrated that the influence of neural activity through contextual processing to attentional orienting occurred under invalid conditions (when the cue and target were incongruent versus congruent) in the ventral frontoparietal network, although we did not identify any differences in the neural substrates of attentional orienting in contextual processing between gaze and arrow cues. These results support behavioural data of attentional orienting modulated by contextual processing based on the neurocognitive architecture.

Contextual mediation of perceptions in hauntings and poltergeist-like experiences.

Science.gov (United States)

Lange, R; Houran, J; Harte, T M; Havens, R A

1996-06-01

The content of perceived apparitions, e.g., bereavement hallucinations, cannot be explained entirely in terms of electromagnetically induced neurochemical processes. It was shown that contextual variables influential in hallucinatory and hypnotic states also structured reported haunting experiences. As predicted, high congruency was found between the experiential content and the nature of the contextual variables. Further, the number of contextual variables involved in an experience was related to the type of experience and the state or arousal preceding the experience. Based on these findings we argue that a more complete explanation of haunting experiences should take into account both electromagnetically induced neurochemical processes and factors related to contextual mediation.

Brazilian readers and contextual reference Brazilian readers and contextual reference

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lilia M. O. Carioni

2008-04-01

Full Text Available This article describes an experiment carried out using Brazilian university students at UFSC, the purpose being to check comprehension relationships between two types of contextual reference and two languages, Portuguese and English. A major stimulus for the research was the question: are Brazilian students' difficulties in reading English related more to English language difficulties or to difficulties in processing text in general?

Effects of Climate Change on Global Food Production from SRES Emissions and Socioeconomic Scenarios

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Effects of Climate Change on Global Food Production from SRES Emissions and Socioeconomic Scenarios is an update to a major crop modeling study by the NASA Goddard...

Contextualizing the self: the emergence of a biographical understanding in adolescence.

Science.gov (United States)

Habermas, Tilmann; Hatiboğlu, Neşe

2014-01-01

In adolescence, remembering the personal past and understanding what kind of person one is intertwine to form a story of one's life as the most extant, informative, and flexible form of self-representation. In adolescence, the striving for self-coherence translates into a quest for global coherence of the life story. We suggest that contextualizing is a fifth means for creating global coherence in life narratives besides the cultural concept of biography, temporal, causal-motivational, and thematic coherence. We present three kinds of contextualizing in life narratives, the temporal macrostructure, sociohistorical contextualizing of one's life, and hierarchical and linear segmenting of the text and life. These three forms of contextualizing in life narratives by their authors are complemented by three forms of contextual influences on life narratives analyzed by researchers, namely the historical, personal, and communicative situation in which they are recounted. Contextualizing is exemplified by the life narrative of a young migrant. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Contextual change after fear acquisition affects conditioned responding and the time course of extinction learning – Implications for renewal research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachel eSjouwerman

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Context plays a central role in retrieving (fear memories. Accordingly, context manipulations are inherent to most return of fear (ROF paradigms (in particular renewal, involving contextual changes after fear extinction. Context changes are, however, also often embedded during earlier stages of ROF experiments such as context changes between fear acquisition and extinction (e.g. in ABC and ABA renewal. Previous studies using these paradigms have however focused exclusively on the context switch after extinction (i.e. renewal. Thus, the possibility of a general effect of a context switch on conditioned responding that may not be conditional to preceding extinction learning remains unstudied.Hence, the current study investigated the impact of a context switch between fear acquisition and extinction on immediate conditioned responding and on the time-course of extinction learning by using a multimodal approach. A group that underwent contextual change after fear conditioning (AB; n = 36 was compared with a group without a contextual change from acquisition to extinction (AA; n = 149, while measuring autonomic (skin conductance and fear potentiated startle measures and subjective fear ratings. Contextual change between fear acquisition and extinction had a pronounced effect on both immediate conditioned responding and on the time course of extinction learning in skin conductance responses and subjective fear ratings. This may have important implications for the mechanisms underlying and the interpretation of the renewal effect (i.e. contextual switch after extinction. Consequently, future studies should incorporate designs and statistical tests that disentangle general effects of contextual change from genuine ROF effects.

Assessing roles of vocabulary knowledge predominating in contextual clues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patcharawadee Promduang

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and the use of contextual clues and whether EFL learners who are well-equipped with reading skills are able to comprehend the text despite a low level of vocabulary knowledge. Therefore, the study focused on which vocabulary dimensions help students guess unfamiliar words. The study was carried out at Hatyai University in Thailand. The population of this study consisted of 34 undergraduates who were studying International Business English and had taken a course in reading techniques. The present study was conducted to conceptually validate the roles of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge to improve skills by contextual clue. Vocabulary Depth was specially employed to evaluate two dimensions namely Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic. The Schmitt and Clapham Vocabulary Level Test was used to test vocabulary breadth, while the vocabulary depth was implemented by Read’s Vocabulary Depth Test. Reading parts of the TOEFL were adopted for contextual clue items. There were two statistical analysis tools also implemented in this study: paired-sample t-test and bivariate correlation. First, in an attempt to find which vocabulary dimension predominates in guessing word meaning from the text, a paired-sample t-test was utilized to compare the difference of two vocabulary dimensions in reading part: vocabulary depth and contextual clues, and vocabulary breadth and contextual clues. Second, a bivariate correlation was used to find the degree of relationship between vocabulary knowledge and contextual clues. The consequences of this study identified empirical results that 1 there was a positive relationship between contextual clues and vocabulary depth, the reverse is true in vocabulary breadth. Moreover, vocabulary depth is more significantly crucial than breadth to enhance student’s ability to guess words’ meaning from the context.

Decision Tree-Based Contextual Location Prediction from Mobile Device Logs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Linyuan Xia

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Contextual location prediction is an important topic in the field of personalized location recommendation in LBS (location-based services. With the advancement of mobile positioning techniques and various sensors embedded in smartphones, it is convenient to obtain massive human mobile trajectories and to derive a large amount of valuable information from geospatial big data. Extracting and recognizing personally interesting places and predicting next semantic location become a research hot spot in LBS. In this paper, we proposed an approach to predict next personally semantic place with historical visiting patterns derived from mobile device logs. To address the problems of location imprecision and lack of semantic information, a modified trip-identify method is employed to extract key visit points from GPS trajectories to a more accurate extent while semantic information are added through stay point detection and semantic places recognition. At last, a decision tree model is adopted to explore the spatial, temporal, and sequential features in contextual location prediction. To validate the effectiveness of our approach, experiments were conducted based on a trajectory collection in Guangzhou downtown area. The results verified the feasibility of our approach on contextual location prediction from continuous mobile devices logs.

Personal health records: retrieving contextual information with Google Custom Search.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahsan, Mahmud; Seldon, H Lee; Sayeed, Shohel

2012-01-01

Ubiquitous personal health records, which can accompany a person everywhere, are a necessary requirement for ubiquitous healthcare. Contextual information related to health events is important for the diagnosis and treatment of disease and for the maintenance of good health, yet it is seldom recorded in a health record. We describe a dual cellphone-and-Web-based personal health record system which can include 'external' contextual information. Much contextual information is available on the Internet and we can use ontologies to help identify relevant sites and information. But a search engine is required to retrieve information from the Web and developing a customized search engine is beyond our scope, so we can use Google Custom Search API Web service to get contextual data. In this paper we describe a framework which combines a health-and-environment 'knowledge base' or ontology with the Google Custom Search API to retrieve relevant contextual information related to entries in a ubiquitous personal health record.

Testing a pedagogy for promoting historical contextualization in classrooms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huijgen, Tim; Holthuis, Paul; van Boxtel, Carla; van de Grift, Wim

2016-01-01

This study describes the development and testing of a pedagogy aimed at promoting students’ ability to perform historical contextualization. Promoting historical contextualization was conceptualized as three different pedagogical principles: 1) the awareness of the consequences of a present-oriented

The effects of cognitive load during intertrial intervals on judgements of control: The role of working memory and contextual learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Cavus, H A; Msetfi, Rachel M

2016-11-01

When there is no contingency between actions and outcomes, but outcomes occur frequently, people tend to judge that they have control over those outcomes, a phenomenon known as the outcome density (OD) effect. Recent studies show that the OD effect depends on the duration of the temporal interval between action-outcome conjunctions, with longer intervals inducing stronger effects. However, under some circumstances OD effect is reduced, for example when participants are mildly depressed. We reasoned that working memory (WM) plays an important role in learning of context; with reduced WM capacity to process contextual information during intertrial intervals (ITIs) during contingency learning might lead to reduced OD effects (limited capacity hypothesis). To test this, we used a novel dual-task procedure that increases the WM load during the ITIs of an operant (e.g., action-outcome) contingency learning task to impact contextual learning. We tested our hypotheses in groups of students with zero (Experiments 1, N=34), and positive contingencies (Experiment 2, N=34). The findings indicated that WM load during the ITIs reduced the OD effects compared to no load conditions (Experiment 1 and 2). In Experiment 2, we observed reduced OD effects on action judgements under high load in zero and positive contingencies. However, the participants' judgements were still sensitive to the difference between zero and positive contingencies. We discuss the implications of our findings for the effects of depression and context in contingency learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The use of contextual cues to improve warning symbol comprehension: making the connection for older adults

Science.gov (United States)

Lesch, Mary F.; Powell, W. Ryan; Horrey, William J.; Wogalter, Michael S.

2013-01-01

This study teased apart the effects of comprehensibility and complexity on older adults' comprehension of warning symbols by manipulating the relevance of additional information in further refining the meaning of the symbol. Symbols were systematically altered such that increased visual complexity (in the form of contextual cues) resulted in increased comprehensibility. One hundred older adults, aged 50–71 years, were tested on their comprehension of these symbols before and after training. High comprehensibility–complexity symbols were found to be better understood than low- or medium-comprehensibility–complexity symbols and the effectiveness of the contextual cues varied as a function of training. Therefore, the nature of additional detail determines whether increased complexity is detrimental or beneficial to older adults' comprehension – if the additional details provide ‘cues to knowledge’, older adults' comprehension improves as a result of the increased complexity. However, some cues may require training in order to be effective. Practitioner Summary: Research suggests that older adults have greater difficulty in understanding more complex symbols. However, we found that when the complexity of symbols was increased through the addition of contextual cues, older adults' comprehension actually improved. Contextual cues aid older adults in making the connection between the symbol and its referent. PMID:23767856

Contextual Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janani Harish

2015-10-01

Full Text Available When the knowledge gained over centuries has to be presented to students through a 12-15 year study, it has to be abridged and organized elaborately. This process of encapsulating all knowledge into an educational course often results in fragmentation of knowledge and a mental divorce from life. Life knowledge that is reduced to objective principles may be intelligible to the intellect, but is incomprehensible to the imagination, creativity and emotional intelligence, all of which are important to the full development of personality. A study of Economics without the human and social dimensions, industrialization detached from ecology, or science devoid of moral accountability results in problems. Education of each part must be in the context of the whole. Knowing the whole context helps one get the right perspective to address the issue effectively. In the education of the future, the gap between abstract concept and social relevance must be bridged. The following article explores the need for contextual education and the ways in which it can be implemented.

Running rescues a fear-based contextual discrimination deficit in aged mice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melody V. Wu

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Normal aging and exercise exert extensive, often opposing, effects on the dentate gyrus (DG of the hippocampus altering volume, synaptic function, and behaviors. The DG is especially important for behaviors requiring pattern separation—a cognitive process that enables animals to differentiate between highly similar contextual experiences. To determine how age and exercise modulate pattern separation in an aversive setting, young, aged, and aged mice provided with a running wheel were assayed on a fear-based contextual discrimination task. Aged mice showed a profound impairment in contextual discrimination compared to young animals. Voluntary exercise rescued this deficit to such an extent that behavioral pattern separation of aged-run mice was now similar to young animals. Running also resulted in a significant increase in the number of immature neurons with tertiary dendrites in aged mice. Despite this, neurogenesis levels in aged-run mice were still considerably lower than in young animals. Thus, mechanisms other than DG neurogenesis likely play significant roles in improving behavioral pattern separation elicited by exercise in aged animals.

Sustainable Livestock Farming for Improving Socio-Economic Condition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Shamsuddoha

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Sustainability is the most effective concept to improve socio-economic condition, including environment. Constructive socio-economic changes are getting priority in recent years among academia and business sector in Bangladesh. Bangladesh poultry sub-sector has long supply chains having associated with various stakeholders. In this paper, a case poultry farm was taken to examine a production process that links with socio-economic benefits. Design science method under the quantitative paradigm was chosen to develop a model for the case industry. A Simulation model was developed using simul8 software to construct the real poultry operation. The objectives of this paper are to construct a sustainable model for a case poultry industry along with socio-economic issues. Later, simulated model output will examine it through various performance indicators (KPIs to find out the impacts on socio-economic benefits. Numbers of KPIs have been briefly discussed in light of the research problem to illustrate positive effects of sustainable production.

Neural correlates of contextual cueing are modulated by explicit learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Westerberg, Carmen E; Miller, Brennan B; Reber, Paul J; Cohen, Neal J; Paller, Ken A

2011-10-01

Contextual cueing refers to the facilitated ability to locate a particular visual element in a scene due to prior exposure to the same scene. This facilitation is thought to reflect implicit learning, as it typically occurs without the observer's knowledge that scenes repeat. Unlike most other implicit learning effects, contextual cueing can be impaired following damage to the medial temporal lobe. Here we investigated neural correlates of contextual cueing and explicit scene memory in two participant groups. Only one group was explicitly instructed about scene repetition. Participants viewed a sequence of complex scenes that depicted a landscape with five abstract geometric objects. Superimposed on each object was a letter T or L rotated left or right by 90°. Participants responded according to the target letter (T) orientation. Responses were highly accurate for all scenes. Response speeds were faster for repeated versus novel scenes. The magnitude of this contextual cueing did not differ between the two groups. Also, in both groups repeated scenes yielded reduced hemodynamic activation compared with novel scenes in several regions involved in visual perception and attention, and reductions in some of these areas were correlated with response-time facilitation. In the group given instructions about scene repetition, recognition memory for scenes was superior and was accompanied by medial temporal and more anterior activation. Thus, strategic factors can promote explicit memorization of visual scene information, which appears to engage additional neural processing beyond what is required for implicit learning of object configurations and target locations in a scene. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contextual risk factors for low birth weight: a multilevel analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gbenga A Kayode

Full Text Available Low birth weight (LBW remains to be a leading cause of neonatal death and a major contributor to infant and under-five mortality. Its prevalence has not declined in the last decade in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA and Asia. Some individual level factors have been identified as risk factors for LBW but knowledge is limited on contextual risk factors for LBW especially in SSA.Contextual risk factors for LBW in Ghana were identified by performing multivariable multilevel logistic regression analysis of 6,900 mothers dwelling in 412 communities that participated in the 2003 and 2008 Demographic and Health Surveys in Ghana.Contextual-level factors were significantly associated with LBW: Being a rural dweller increased the likelihood of having a LBW infant by 43% (OR 1.43; 95% CI 1.01-2.01; P-value <0.05 while living in poverty-concentrated communities increased the risk of having a LBW infant twofold (OR 2.16; 95% CI 1.29-3.61; P-value <0.01. In neighbourhoods with a high coverage of safe water supply the odds of having a LBW infant reduced by 28% (OR 0.74; 95% CI 0.57-0.96; P-value <0.05.This study showed contextual risk factors to have independent effects on the prevalence of LBW infants. Being a rural dweller, living in a community with a high concentration of poverty and a low coverage of safe water supply were found to increase the prevalence of LBW infants. Implementing appropriate community-based intervention programmes will likely reduce the occurrence of LBW infants.

Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT: A Cytoscape app for identifying contextually relevant hubs in biological networks [version 2; referees: 2 approved

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tanja Muetze

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Highly connected nodes (hubs in biological networks are topologically important to the structure of the network and have also been shown to be preferentially associated with a range of phenotypes of interest. The relative importance of a hub node, however, can change depending on the biological context. Here, we report a Cytoscape app, the Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT, which enables users to easily construct and visualize a network of interactions from a gene or protein list of interest, integrate contextual information, such as gene expression or mass spectrometry data, and identify hub nodes that are more highly connected to contextual nodes (e.g. genes or proteins that are differentially expressed than expected by chance. In a case study, we use CHAT to construct a network of genes that are differentially expressed in Dengue fever, a viral infection. CHAT was used to identify and compare contextual and degree-based hubs in this network. The top 20 degree-based hubs were enriched in pathways related to the cell cycle and cancer, which is likely due to the fact that proteins involved in these processes tend to be highly connected in general. In comparison, the top 20 contextual hubs were enriched in pathways commonly observed in a viral infection including pathways related to the immune response to viral infection. This analysis shows that such contextual hubs are considerably more biologically relevant than degree-based hubs and that analyses which rely on the identification of hubs solely based on their connectivity may be biased towards nodes that are highly connected in general rather than in the specific context of interest.   Availability: CHAT is available for Cytoscape 3.0+ and can be installed via the Cytoscape App Store (http://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/chat.

Unfinished Student Answer in PISA Mathematics Contextual Problem

Science.gov (United States)

Lutfianto, Moch.; Zulkardi; Hartono, Yusuf

2013-01-01

Solving mathematics contextual problems is one way that can be used to enable students to have the skills needed to live in the 21st century. Completion contextual problem requires a series of steps in order to properly answer the questions that are asked. The purpose of this study was to determine the steps performed students in solving…

Contextualized pain management in newborns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlo Valerio Bellieni

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Neonatal pain treatment requires personalization, and pain assessment should be contextualized to be effective. Here we summarize the available tools in neonatal analgesia, paying a special attention to highlight the personalization of antalgic behavior, both in assessment and in treatment of neonatal pain. Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Neonatology and Satellite Meetings · Cagliari (Italy · October 26th-31st, 2015 · From the womb to the adultGuest Editors: Vassilios Fanos (Cagliari, Italy, Michele Mussap (Genoa, Italy, Antonio Del Vecchio (Bari, Italy, Bo Sun (Shanghai, China, Dorret I. Boomsma (Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Gavino Faa (Cagliari, Italy, Antonio Giordano (Philadelphia, USA

Gendered socioeconomic conditions and HIV risk behaviours ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Despite this possibility, there are surprisingly few definitive studies that examine the effects of socioeconomic status on HIV risk and prevention behaviours among youth in South Africa. Using household survey data collected in 2001, this study investigates how socioeconomic disadvantage has influenced the sexual ...

Contextual effects and psychological features influencing decoy options: A review and research agenda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Gonzalez-Prieto

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop future research proposals aiming to contribute the extant theory which explains decoy effects.Design/methodology/approach: Firstly, a review of the existing literature about decoy options and its interactions with contextual effects that could affect their performance is presented. Next, two research proposals are presented: the introduction of a double decoy choice set and the evaluation of decoy effect under different levels of cognitive effort in a purchasing process.Findings and Originality/value: For the research proposal concerning double decoy choice sets, different hypothesis are introduced based on the different theories aiming to explain the effect of simple decoy choice sets. This hypothesis predict different outcomes for the same experimental design, fact that could provide further support for at least one of the current explanations for decoy effects. Regarding the effect of decoy options under different levels of cognitive effort, implications for experimental design for sequential purchasing process are expected. Especially for those designed with complex options, with many steps or high number of options.Originality/value: Two new research proposal approaches are presented in order enhance the current theory. Moreover, both have managerial implications concerning the real usage of decoy options in reduced choice sets as well as in sequential purchasing processes.

School Effects, Gender and Socioeconomic Differences in Reading Performance: A Multilevel Analysis

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Shera, Perparim

2014-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of Albanian secondary schools, which are associated with reading achievement and the effects of gender and socio-economic status on reading performance of 15-year-old students. This study used data on the background and achievement of 4,596 students in 181 Albanian schools from the 2009…

The median hazard ratio: a useful measure of variance and general contextual effects in multilevel survival analysis.

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Austin, Peter C; Wagner, Philippe; Merlo, Juan

2017-03-15

Multilevel data occurs frequently in many research areas like health services research and epidemiology. A suitable way to analyze such data is through the use of multilevel regression models (MLRM). MLRM incorporate cluster-specific random effects which allow one to partition the total individual variance into between-cluster variation and between-individual variation. Statistically, MLRM account for the dependency of the data within clusters and provide correct estimates of uncertainty around regression coefficients. Substantively, the magnitude of the effect of clustering provides a measure of the General Contextual Effect (GCE). When outcomes are binary, the GCE can also be quantified by measures of heterogeneity like the Median Odds Ratio (MOR) calculated from a multilevel logistic regression model. Time-to-event outcomes within a multilevel structure occur commonly in epidemiological and medical research. However, the Median Hazard Ratio (MHR) that corresponds to the MOR in multilevel (i.e., 'frailty') Cox proportional hazards regression is rarely used. Analogously to the MOR, the MHR is the median relative change in the hazard of the occurrence of the outcome when comparing identical subjects from two randomly selected different clusters that are ordered by risk. We illustrate the application and interpretation of the MHR in a case study analyzing the hazard of mortality in patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction at hospitals in Ontario, Canada. We provide R code for computing the MHR. The MHR is a useful and intuitive measure for expressing cluster heterogeneity in the outcome and, thereby, estimating general contextual effects in multilevel survival analysis. © 2016 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. © 2016 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Contextual risk, maternal parenting and adolescent externalizing behaviour problems: the role of emotion regulation.

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Walton, A; Flouri, Eirini

2010-03-01

The objective of this study was to test if emotion regulation mediates the association between mothers' parenting and adolescents' externalizing behaviour problems (conduct problems and hyperactivity). The parenting dimensions were warmth, psychological control and behavioural control (measured with knowledge, monitoring and discipline). Adjustment was made for contextual risk (measured with the number of proximal adverse life events experienced), gender, age and English as an additional language. Data were from a UK community sample of adolescents aged 11-18 from a comprehensive school in a disadvantaged area. At the multivariate level, none of the parenting variables predicted hyperactivity, which was associated only with difficulties in emotion regulation, contextual risk and English as a first language. The parenting variables predicting conduct problems at the multivariate level were warmth and knowledge. Knowledge did not predict emotion regulation. However, warmth predicted emotion regulation, which was negatively associated with conduct problems. Contextual risk was a significant predictor of both difficulties in emotion regulation and externalizing behaviour problems. Its effect on conduct problems was independent of parenting and was not via its association with difficulties in emotion regulation. The findings add to the evidence for the importance of maternal warmth and contextual risk for both regulated emotion and regulated behaviour. The small maternal control effects on both emotion regulation and externalizing behaviour could suggest the importance of paternal control for adolescent outcomes.

The power of contextual effects in forensic anthropology: a study of biasability in the visual interpretations of trauma analysis on skeletal remains.

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Nakhaeizadeh, Sherry; Hanson, Ian; Dozzi, Nathalie

2014-09-01

The potential for contextual information to bias assessments in the forensic sciences has been demonstrated, in several forensic disiplines. In this paper, biasability potential within forensic anthropology was examined by analyzing the effects of external manipulations on judgments and decision-making in visual trauma assessment. Three separate websites were created containing fourteen identical images. Participants were randomly assigned to one website. Each website provided different contextual information, to assess variation of interpretation of the same images between contexts. The results indicated a higher scoring of trauma identification responses for the Mass grave context. Furthermore, a significant biasing effect was detected in the interpretation of four images. Less experienced participants were more likely to indicate presence of trauma. This research demonstrates bias impact in forensic anthropological trauma assessments and highlights the importance of recognizing and limiting cognitive vulnerabilities that forensic anthropologists might bring to the analysis. © 2014 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Religious Affiliation and Attendance Among Immigrants in EightWestern Countries : Individual and Contextual Effects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tubergen, Frank van

2006-01-01

This study examines the religious affiliation and participation of immigrants from a large-scale, comparative perspective. I propose a “specific migration” framework, in which immigrants’ religiosity is an outcome of both individual characteristics and contextual properties related to immigrants’

Using Embedded Visual Coding to Support Contextualization of Historical Texts

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Baron, Christine

2016-01-01

This mixed-method study examines the think-aloud protocols of 48 randomly assigned undergraduate students to understand what effect embedding a visual coding system, based on reliable visual cues for establishing historical time period, would have on novice history students' ability to contextualize historic documents. Results indicate that using…

Investigating the Contextual Interference Effect Using Combination Sports Skills in Open and Closed Skill Environments.

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Cheong, Jadeera P G; Lay, Brendan; Razman, Rizal

2016-03-01

This study attempted to present conditions that were closer to the real-world setting of team sports. The primary purpose was to examine the effects of blocked, random and game-based training practice schedules on the learning of the field hockey trap, close dribble and push pass that were practiced in combination. The secondary purpose was to investigate the effects of predictability of the environment on the learning of field hockey sport skills according to different practice schedules. A game-based training protocol represented a form of random practice in an unstable environment and was compared against a blocked and a traditional random practice schedule. In general, all groups improved dribble and push accuracy performance during the acquisition phase when assessed in a closed environment. In the retention phase, there were no differences between the three groups. When assessed in an open skills environment, all groups improved their percentage of successful executions for trapping and passing execution, and improved total number of attempts and total number of successful executions for both dribbling and shooting execution. Between-group differences were detected for dribbling execution with the game-based group scoring a higher number of dribbling successes. The CI effect did not emerge when practicing and assessing multiple sport skills in a closed skill environment, even when the skills were practiced in combination. However, when skill assessment was conducted in a real-world situation, there appeared to be some support for the CI effect. Key pointsThe contextual interference effect was not supported when practicing several skills in combination when the sports skills were assessed in a closed skill environment.There appeared to be some support for the contextual interference effect when sports skills were assessed in an open skill environment, which were similar to a real game situation.A game-based training schedule can be used as an alternative

From Foreground to Background: How Task-Neutral Context Influences Contextual Cueing of Visual Search

OpenAIRE

Zang, Xuelian; Geyer, Thomas; Assump??o, Leonardo; M?ller, Hermann J.; Shi, Zhuanghua

2016-01-01

Selective attention determines the effectiveness of implicit contextual learning (e.g., Jiang and Leung, 2005). Visual foreground-background segmentation, on the other hand, is a key process in the guidance of attention (Wolfe, 2003). In the present study, we examined the impact of foreground-background segmentation on contextual cueing of visual search in three experiments. A visual search display, consisting of distractor ‘L’s and a target ‘T’, was overlaid on a task-neutral cuboid on the s...

The effects of socioeconomic status on stroke risk and outcomes

OpenAIRE

Marshall, Iain James; Wang, Yanzhong; Crichton, Siobhan Laura; McKevitt, Christopher John; Rudd, Anthony; Wolfe, Charles David Alexander

2015-01-01

The latest evidence on socioeconomic status and stroke shows that stroke not only disproportionately affects low-income and middle-income countries, but also socioeconomically deprived populations within high-income countries. These disparities are reflected not only in risk of stroke but also in short-term and long-term outcomes after stroke. Increased average levels of conventional risk factors (eg, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, excessive alcohol intake, smoking, obesity, and sedentary lif...

Contextual cueing improves attentional guidance, even when guidance is supposedly optimal.

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Harris, Anthony M; Remington, Roger W

2017-05-01

Visual search through previously encountered contexts typically produces reduced reaction times compared with search through novel contexts. This contextual cueing benefit is well established, but there is debate regarding its underlying mechanisms. Eye-tracking studies have consistently shown reduced number of fixations with repetition, supporting improvements in attentional guidance as the source of contextual cueing. However, contextual cueing benefits have been shown in conditions in which attentional guidance should already be optimal-namely, when attention is captured to the target location by an abrupt onset, or under pop-out conditions. These results have been used to argue for a response-related account of contextual cueing. Here, we combine eye tracking with response time to examine the mechanisms behind contextual cueing in spatially cued and pop-out conditions. Three experiments find consistent response time benefits with repetition, which appear to be driven almost entirely by a reduction in number of fixations, supporting improved attentional guidance as the mechanism behind contextual cueing. No differences were observed in the time between fixating the target and responding-our proxy for response related processes. Furthermore, the correlation between contextual cueing magnitude and the reduction in number of fixations on repeated contexts approaches 1. These results argue strongly that attentional guidance is facilitated by familiar search contexts, even when guidance is near-optimal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploration of Opinion-aware Approach to Contextual Suggestion

Science.gov (United States)

2014-11-01

effectiveness of the proposed method. 1 Introduction TREC 1014 Contextual Suggestion Track gives researchers the chance to test their methods on providing...each category. Information including the name, average rating, address, business hour, all ratings and the associated text reviews of the candidate...Annals of Statistics , 29:1189–1232, 2000. 5. K. Ganesan, C. Zhai, and J. Han. Opinosis: a graph-based approach to abstractive summarization of highly

Time to learn: evidence for two types of attentional guidance in contextual cueing.

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Ogawa, Hirokazu; Watanabe, Katsumi

2010-01-01

Repetition of the same spatial configurations of a search display implicitly facilitates performance of a visual-search task when the target location in the display is fixed. The improvement of performance is referred to as contextual cueing. We examined whether the association process between target location and surrounding configuration of distractors occurs during active search or at the instant the target is found. To dissociate these two processes, we changed the surrounding configuration of the distractors at the instant of target detection so that the layout where the participants had searched for the target and the layout presented at the instant of target detection differed. The results demonstrated that both processes are responsible for the contextual-cueing effect, but they differ in the accuracies of attentional guidance and their time courses, suggesting that two different types of attentional-guidance processes may be involved in contextual cueing.

ORDERED MODEL PROCESSES, REFERENCE DECLARATION AND THE ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR A BALANCED SCORECARD CONTEXTUAL FRAMEWORK

OpenAIRE

Jenkins , D. Randall

2007-01-01

Since its 1992 introduction, the Balanced Scorecard has received deserving accolades while academics continue investigating its pragmatic aspects. This paper contributes to the Balanced Scorecard literature, first, by proffering a logical explanation for its successful acclaim and, second, by setting forth an ordered management structure Balanced Scorecard contextual framework. The contextual framework reforms the Balanced Scorecard’s Learning and Growth Perspective by (i) effecting (subjecti...

Oxytocin receptor antagonist atosiban impairs consolidation, but not reconsolidation of contextual fear memory in rats.

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Abdullahi, Payman Rasise; Eskandarian, Sharaf; Ghanbari, Ali; Rashidy-Pour, Ali

2018-05-23

There is increasing evidence that oxytocin is involved in learning and memory process. This study investigated the effects of blockade of oxytocin receptors using the selective oxytocin receptor antagonist atosiban (ATO) on contextual fear memory consolidation and reconsolidation in male rats. Post-training injections of different doses of ATO (1, 10, 100 or 1000 µg/kg) impaired the 48 h retention performance in a dose-dependent manner. The same doses of ATO following memory reactivation did not impair subsequent expression of contextual fear memories which formed under low or high shock intensities and tested 24 h or one week following memory reactivation. Also, no effect was found when ATO was administrated in the absence of memory reactivation. Our finding is the first report that indicates endogenous oxytocin released during training play an important role in the consolidation, but not reconsolidation of contextual fear memory in rats. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Elaborated contextual framing is necessary for action-based attitude acquisition.

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Laham, Simon M; Kashima, Yoshihisa; Dix, Jennifer; Wheeler, Melissa; Levis, Bianca

2014-01-01

Although arm flexion and extension have been implicated as conditioners of attitudes, recent work casts some doubt on the nature and strength of the coupling of these muscle contractions and stimulus evaluation. We propose that the elaborated contextual framing of flexion and extension actions is necessary for attitude acquisition. Results showed that when flexion and extension were disambiguated via elaborated contextual cues (i.e., framed as collect and discard within a foraging context), neutral stimuli processed under flexion were liked more than neutral stimuli processed under extension. However, when unelaborated framing was used (e.g., mere stimulus zooming effects), stimulus evaluation did not differ as a function of muscle contractions. These results suggest that neither arm contractions per se nor unelaborated framings are sufficient for action-based attitude acquisition, but that elaborated framings are necessary.

Socioeconomic effects of the DOE Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant. Volume 1: methodology and analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1979-01-01

The socioeconomic effects of the Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant being built in Portsmouth, Ohio were studied. Chapters are devoted to labor force, housing, population changes, economic impact, method for analysis of services, analysis of service impacts, schools, and local government finance

Tackling inequalities in obesity: a protocol for a systematic review of the effectiveness of public health interventions at reducing socioeconomic inequalities in obesity amongst children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bambra Clare L

2012-02-01

Index, ASSIA, IBSS, Sociological Abstracts and the NHS Economic Evaluation Database. Database searches will be supplemented with website and grey literature searches. No studies will be excluded on the basis of language, country of origin or publication date. Study inclusion, data extraction and quality appraisal will be conducted by two reviewers. Meta-analysis and narrative synthesis will be conducted. The main analysis will examine the effects of (1 individual, (2 community and (3 societal level public health interventions on socioeconomic inequalities in childhood obesity. Interventions will be characterised by their level of action and their approach to tackling inequalities. Contextual information on how such public health interventions are organised, implemented and delivered will also be examined. Discussion In this review, we consider public health strategies which reduce and prevent inequalities in the prevalence of childhood obesity, highlight any gaps in the evidence base and seek to establish how such public health interventions are organised, implemented and delivered. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42011001740

Tackling inequalities in obesity: a protocol for a systematic review of the effectiveness of public health interventions at reducing socioeconomic inequalities in obesity amongst children.

Science.gov (United States)

Bambra, Clare L; Hillier, Frances C; Moore, Helen J; Summerbell, Carolyn D

2012-02-23

NHS Economic Evaluation Database. Database searches will be supplemented with website and grey literature searches. No studies will be excluded on the basis of language, country of origin or publication date. Study inclusion, data extraction and quality appraisal will be conducted by two reviewers. Meta-analysis and narrative synthesis will be conducted. The main analysis will examine the effects of (1) individual, (2) community and (3) societal level public health interventions on socioeconomic inequalities in childhood obesity. Interventions will be characterised by their level of action and their approach to tackling inequalities. Contextual information on how such public health interventions are organised, implemented and delivered will also be examined. In this review, we consider public health strategies which reduce and prevent inequalities in the prevalence of childhood obesity, highlight any gaps in the evidence base and seek to establish how such public health interventions are organised, implemented and delivered. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42011001740.

Chronic Nicotine Treatment During Adolescence Attenuates the Effects of Acute Nicotine in Adult Contextual Fear Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Holliday, Erica D; Gould, Thomas J

2017-01-01

Adolescent onset of nicotine abuse is correlated with worse chances at successful abstinence in adulthood. One reason for this may be due to enduring learning deficits resulting from nicotine use during adolescence. Previous work has indicated that chronic nicotine administration beginning in late adolescence (PND38) caused learning deficits in contextual fear when tested in adulthood. The purpose of this study was to determine if chronic nicotine treatment during adolescence would alter sensitivity to nicotine's cognitive enhancing properties in adulthood. C57BL/6J mice received saline or chronic nicotine (12.6mg/kg/day) during adolescence (postnatal day 38) or adulthood (postnatal day 54) for a period of 12 days. Following a 30-day protracted abstinence, mice received either an acute injection of saline or nicotine (0.045, 0.18, and 0.36mg/kg) prior to training and testing a mouse model of contextual fear. It was found that chronic nicotine administration in adult mice did not alter sensitivity to acute nicotine following a protracted abstinence. In adolescent mice, chronic nicotine administration disrupted adult learning and decreased sensitivity to acute nicotine in adulthood as only the highest dose tested (0.36mg/kg) was able to enhance contextual fear learning. These results suggest that adolescent nicotine exposure impairs learning in adulthood, which could increase the risk for continued nicotine use in adulthood by requiring administration of higher doses of nicotine to reverse learning impairments caused by adolescent nicotine exposure. Results from this study add to the growing body of literature suggesting chronic nicotine exposure during adolescence leads to impaired learning in adulthood and demonstrates that nicotine exposure during adolescence attenuates the cognitive enhancing effects of acute nicotine in adulthood, which suggests altered cholinergic function. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for

Contextuality for preparations, transformations, and unsharp measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spekkens, R.W.

2005-01-01

The Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem establishes the impossibility of a noncontextual hidden variable model of quantum theory, or equivalently, that quantum theory is contextual. In this paper, an operational definition of contextuality is introduced which generalizes the standard notion in three ways: (i) it applies to arbitrary operational theories rather than just quantum theory (ii) it applies to arbitrary experimental procedures rather than just sharp measurements, and (iii) it applies to a broad class of ontological models of quantum theory rather than just deterministic hidden variable models. We derive three no-go theorems for ontological models, each based on an assumption of noncontextuality for a different sort of experimental procedure; one for preparation procedures, another for unsharp measurement procedures (that is, measurement procedures associated with positive-operator valued measures), and a third for transformation procedures. All three proofs apply to two-dimensional Hilbert spaces, and are therefore stronger than traditional proofs of contextuality

Using mobile phone contextual information to facilitate managing image collections

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Jakob Eg; Luniewski, Maciej

2009-01-01

In this paper, we describe a prototype application that utilizes the embedded sensors in advanced mobile phones to infer meaningful contextual information, with the potential to support the users in managing their personal information. Contextual information such as time, location, movement...... in personal information management. We hypothesize that information inferred from embedded mobile phone sensors can offer useful contextual information for managing personal information, including the domain of interest here, namely image collections. This has potential for individuals as well as groups...

Pre-Training Reversible Inactivation of the Basal Amygdala (BA Disrupts Contextual, but Not Auditory, Fear Conditioning, in Rats.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elisa Mari Akagi Jordão

Full Text Available The basolateral amygdala complex (BLA, including the lateral (LA, basal (BA and accessory basal (AB nuclei, is involved in acquisition of contextual and auditory fear conditioning. The BA is one of the main targets for hippocampal information, a brain structure critical for contextual learning, which integrates several discrete stimuli into a single configural representation. Congruent with the hodology, selective neurotoxic damage to the BA results in impairments in contextual, but not auditory, fear conditioning, similarly to the behavioral impairments found after hippocampal damage. This study evaluated the effects of muscimol-induced reversible inactivation of the BA during a simultaneous contextual and auditory fear conditioning training on later fear responses to both the context and the tone, tested separately, without muscimol administration. As compared to control rats micro-infused with vehicle, subjects micro-infused with muscimol before training exhibited, during testing without muscimol, significant reduction of freezing responses to the conditioned context, but not to the conditioned tone. Therefore, reversible inactivation of the BA during training impaired contextual, but not auditory fear conditioning, thus confirming and extending similar behavioral observations following selective neurotoxic damage to the BA and, in addition, revealing that this effect is not related to the lack of a functional BA during testing.

The effects of socioeconomic status and short stature on overweight, obesity and the risk of metabolic complications in adults

Science.gov (United States)

Restrepo, Alejandro Estrada; Rueda, Juan Diego Gomez; Aguirre, Cristina Carreño; López, Lorena Patricia Mancilla

2013-01-01

Objective: to observe the relationship between socioeconomic status, height and nutritional problems related to obesity, overweight and risk of metabolic complications in men and women of Medellin (Colombia). Methods: cross-sectional study with a sample of 5556 adults between 18 and 69 years of age. We assessed weight, height and waist circumference. Socioeconomic variables were evaluated by family income, socioeconomic stratum and academic level achieved. Results: we found that in men and women the height reached in adulthood is associated with socioeconomic conditions as measured by the socioeconomic strata and family income. In women, height, age, and socioeconomic strata are associated with obesity, overweight and risk of obesity, and risk of metabolic complications. Conclusion: These results are not only from individual unhealthy habits, such as eating patterns based on high density foods combined with low energy expenditure, but also from the cumulative effect of food deprivation throughout life. Therefore, policies intended to prevent them should take a preventive approach that begins before birth and continues during childhood and adulthood. PMID:24892612

The roles of Eph receptors in contextual fear conditioning memory formation.

Science.gov (United States)

Dines, Monica; Grinberg, Svetlana; Vassiliev, Maria; Ram, Alon; Tamir, Tal; Lamprecht, Raphael

2015-10-01

Eph receptors regulate glutamate receptors functions, neuronal morphology and synaptic plasticity, cellular events believed to be involved in memory formation. In this study we aim to explore the roles of Eph receptors in learning and memory. Toward that end, we examined the roles of EphB2 and EphA4 receptors, key regulators of synaptic functions, in fear conditioning memory formation. We show that mice lacking EphB2 (EphB2(-/-)) are impaired in short- and long-term contextual fear conditioning memory. Mice that express a carboxy-terminally truncated form of EphB2 that lacks forward signaling, instead of the full EphB2, are impaired in long-term, but not short-term, contextual fear conditioning memory. Long-term contextual fear conditioning memory is attenuated in CaMKII-cre;EphA4(lx/-) mice where EphA4 is removed from all pyramidal neurons of the forebrain. Mutant mice with targeted kinase-dead EphA4 (EphA4(KD)) exhibit intact long-term contextual fear conditioning memory showing that EphA4 kinase-mediated forward signaling is not needed for contextual fear memory formation. The ability to form long-term conditioned taste aversion (CTA) memory is not impaired in the EphB2(-/-) and CaMKII-cre;EphA4(lx/-) mice. We conclude that EphB2 forward signaling is required for long-term contextual fear conditioning memory formation. In contrast, EphB2 mediates short-term contextual fear conditioning memory formation in a forward signaling-independent manner. EphA4 mediates long-term contextual fear conditioning memory formation in a kinase-independent manner. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Inhibitory control and the onset of combustible cigarette, e-cigarette, and hookah use in early adolescence: The moderating role of socioeconomic status.

Science.gov (United States)

Riggs, Nathaniel R; Pentz, Mary Ann

2016-01-01

The purpose of the study was to test the moderating influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on the associations between inhibitory control and the onset of combustible cigarette, electronic (e-) cigarette, and hookah use in early adolescence. A total of 407 adolescents self-reported nicotine use, inhibitory control, and SES. The hypothesis that inhibitory control would be significantly associated with nicotine use onset (i.e., combustible cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and hookah) only under the condition of low SES was tested. Direct associations were found for inhibitory control on "ever use" of all three nicotine use variables. A moderating effect was also found whereby low inhibitory control was significantly associated with nicotine use onset when participants were from low, but not high, SES families. Findings illustrate one contextual condition under which inhibitory control is associated with early onset of nicotine use.

The sheaf-theoretic structure of non-locality and contextuality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abramsky, Samson; Brandenburger, Adam

2011-01-01

We use the mathematical language of sheaf theory to give a unified treatment of non-locality and contextuality, in a setting that generalizes the familiar probability tables used in non-locality theory to arbitrary measurement covers; this includes Kochen-Specker configurations and more. We show that contextuality, and non-locality as a special case, correspond exactly to obstructions to the existence of global sections. We describe a linear algebraic approach to computing these obstructions, which allows a systematic treatment of arguments for non-locality and contextuality. We distinguish a proper hierarchy of strengths of no-go theorems, and show that three leading examples—due to Bell, Hardy and Greenberger, Horne and Zeilinger, respectively—occupy successively higher levels of this hierarchy. A general correspondence is shown between the existence of local hidden-variable realizations using negative probabilities, and no-signalling; this is based on a result showing that the linear subspaces generated by the non-contextual and no-signalling models, over an arbitrary measurement cover, coincide. Maximal non-locality is generalized to maximal contextuality, and characterized in purely qualitative terms, as the non-existence of global sections in the support. A general setting is developed for the Kochen-Specker-type results, as generic, model-independent proofs of maximal contextuality, and a new combinatorial condition is given, which generalizes the ‘parity proofs’ commonly found in the literature. We also show how our abstract setting can be represented in quantum mechanics. This leads to a strengthening of the usual no-signalling theorem, which shows that quantum mechanics obeys no-signalling for arbitrary families of commuting observables, not just those represented on different factors of a tensor product. (paper)

Effects of Family Socioeconomic Status on Parents’ Views Concerning the Integration of Computers into Preschool Classrooms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Triantafillia Natsiopoulou

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background: The rapid growth of ICT has led to an important increase in the use of computers in preschool age. However the benefits of this use are a debatable issue. Some focus on the positive effects of computers on learning and kids’ cognitive development while others believe that computers may negatively affect their social and motivational impact.Aim: The aim of this research was to study Greek parents’ views on preschools’ computer programs and how these views are influenced by the family’s socioeconomic level.Methodology: The survey involved 280 parents of children aged 3-5 years, of whom 140 were in the upper socioeconomic level and the other 140 in a lower one.Results: The upper socioeconomic level parents thought that the use of computers was appropriate for preschool children more than parents of lower socioeconomic status (P=0.01. and that its inclusion in the preschool center’s program would work in favor for children who have no computer at home (P=0.00. Parents with higher socioeconomic status felt more than the others that such a program can support the provision of knowledge (P=0.00, the development of mathematical (P=0.00 and linguistic skills (P=0.00 and entertain children (P=0.04. Furthermore, the upper socioeconomic level parents as opposed to the other group do not consider that the computer will remove preschool educator from their leading and teaching role (P=0.04 or reduce their communication with the preschoolers (P=0.00.Conclusions: The results of this study revealed that Greek parents, especially those of higher socioeconomic level, have a positive view on the integration of a computer program into the preschoolclassroom.

A taxonomy for contextual information in electronic health records.

Science.gov (United States)

Weir, Charlene R; Staggers, Nancy; Doing-Harris, Kristina; Dunlea, Robert; McCormick, Teresa; Barrus, Robyn

2012-01-01

Contextual information is functional, social and financial information about patients and is central to many health-care decisions, including end-of-life care, living arrangements, and the aggressiveness of treatment. It is the language of patients when talking about their health and frequently the focus of nursing interventions. In this study, we report the results of a qualitative analysis of interviews of 17 clinicians focusing on their use of contextual information during the process of care, decision-making and documentation. We identified seven characteristics of contextual information relevant to its use in a clinical setting. Implications for Natural Language Processing and Ontology construction are discussed.

Contextual Cueing Improves Attentional Guidance, Even When Guidance Is Supposedly Optimal

OpenAIRE

Harris, A. M.; Remington, R. W.

2017-01-01

Visual search through previously encountered contexts typically produces reduced reaction times compared with search through novel contexts. This contextual cueing benefit is well established, but there is debate regarding its underlying mechanisms. Eye-tracking studies have consistently shown reduced number of fixations with repetition, supporting improvements in attentional guidance as the source of contextual cueing. However, contextual cueing benefits have been shown in conditions in whic...

Socio-economic effects of a HYSOL CSP plant located in different countries: An input output analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Corona, B.; López, A.; San Miguel, G.

2016-01-01

The aim of this paper is to estimate the socioeconomic effects associated with the production of electricity by a CSP plant with HYSOL configuration, using Input Output Analysis. These effects have been estimated in terms of production of Goods and Services (G&S), multiplier effect, value added,

A multimodal investigation of contextual effects on alcohol's emotional rewards.

Science.gov (United States)

Fairbairn, Catharine E; Bresin, Konrad; Kang, Dahyeon; Rosen, I Gary; Ariss, Talia; Luczak, Susan E; Barnett, Nancy P; Eckland, Nathaniel S

2018-05-01

Regular alcohol consumption in unfamiliar social settings has been linked to problematic drinking. A large body of indirect evidence has accumulated to suggest that alcohol's rewarding emotional effects-both negative-mood relieving and positive-mood enhancing-will be magnified when alcohol is consumed within unfamiliar versus familiar social contexts. But empirical research has never directly examined links between contextual familiarity and alcohol reward. In the current study, we mobilized novel ambulatory technology to examine the effect of social familiarity on alcohol reward in everyday drinking contexts while also examining how alcohol reward observed in these field contexts corresponds to reward observed in the laboratory. Heavy social drinking participants (N = 48, 50% male) engaged in an intensive week of ambulatory assessment. Participants wore transdermal alcohol sensors while they reported on their mood and took photographs of their social contexts in response to random prompts. Participants also attended 2 laboratory beverage-administration sessions, during which their emotional responses were assessed and transdermal sensors were calibrated to estimate breathalyzer readings (eBrACs). Results indicated a significant interaction between social familiarity and alcohol episode in everyday drinking settings, with alcohol enhancing mood to a greater extent in relatively unfamiliar versus familiar social contexts. Findings also indicated that drinking in relatively unfamiliar social settings was associated with higher eBrACs. Finally, results indicated a correspondence between some mood effects of alcohol experienced inside and outside the laboratory. This study presents a novel methodology for examining alcohol reward and indicates social familiarity as a promising direction for research seeking to explain problematic drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Contextual Effects on Kindergarten Teachers' Intention to Report Child Abuse

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Jui-Ying; Wu, Yow-Wu B.; Fetzer, Susan; Chang, Hsin-Yi

2012-01-01

Child abuse is underreported for children with socioeconomic inequalities. The impact of geographic location combined with sociocultural characteristics on teachers' reports of child abuse remains unclear. A national survey of 572 kindergarten teachers from 79 schools in Taiwan used hierarchical linear modeling to investigate the contribution of…

Time to Guide: Evidence for Delayed Attentional Guidance in Contextual Cueing.

Science.gov (United States)

Kunar, Melina A; Flusberg, Stephen J; Wolfe, Jeremy M

2008-01-01

Contextual cueing experiments show that, when displays are repeated, reaction times (RTs) to find a target decrease over time even when the observers are not aware of the repetition. Recent evidence suggests that this benefit in standard contextual cueing tasks is not likely to be due to an improvement in attentional guidance (Kunar, Flusberg, Horowitz & Wolfe, 2007). Nevertheless, we ask whether guidance can help participants find the target in a repeated display, if they are given sufficient time to encode the display. In Experiment 1 we increased the display complexity so that it took participants longer to find the target. Here we found a larger effect of guidance than in a condition with shorter RTs. Experiment 2 gave participants prior exposure to the display context. The data again showed that with more time participants could implement guidance to help find the target, provided that there was something in the search stimuli locations to guide attention to. The data suggest that although the benefit in a standard contextual cueing task is unlikely to be a result of guidance, guidance can play a role if it is given time to develop.

Socioeconomic evaluations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1980-01-01

The session on Socioeconomic Evaluations consisted of the following seven papers: (1) Socioeconomic Considerations in Nuclear Waste Management; (2) High-Level Radioactive Waste - the Social Decision; (3) Role of Impact Assessment in Program Planning - A Social Science Perspective; (4) Social and Demographic Impacts Associated with Large-Scale Resource Developments - Implications for Nuclear Waste Repositories; (5) Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Large-Scale Development Projects - Implications for Nuclear Waste Repositories; (6) Socioeconomic Analyses of the Proposed Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Project; and (7) Existing Institutional Arrangements and Fiscal Incentives for Siting Publicly Sensitive Facilities

Visual search and contextual cueing: differential effects in 10-year-old children and adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Couperus, Jane W; Hunt, Ruskin H; Nelson, Charles A; Thomas, Kathleen M

2011-02-01

The development of contextual cueing specifically in relation to attention was examined in two experiments. Adult and 10-year-old participants completed a context cueing visual search task (Jiang & Chun, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54A(4), 1105-1124, 2001) containing stimuli presented in an attended (e.g., red) and unattended (e.g., green) color. When the spatial configuration of stimuli in the attended and unattended color was invariant and consistently paired with the target location, adult reaction times improved, demonstrating learning. Learning also occurred if only the attended stimuli's configuration remained fixed. In contrast, while 10 year olds, like adults, showed incrementally slower reaction times as the number of attended stimuli increased, they did not show learning in the standard paradigm. However, they did show learning when the ratio of attended to unattended stimuli was high, irrespective of the total number of attended stimuli. Findings suggest children show efficient attentional guidance by color in visual search but differences in contextual cueing.

From Foreground to Background: How Task-Neutral Context Influences Contextual Cueing of Visual Search.

Science.gov (United States)

Zang, Xuelian; Geyer, Thomas; Assumpção, Leonardo; Müller, Hermann J; Shi, Zhuanghua

2016-01-01

Selective attention determines the effectiveness of implicit contextual learning (e.g., Jiang and Leung, 2005). Visual foreground-background segmentation, on the other hand, is a key process in the guidance of attention (Wolfe, 2003). In the present study, we examined the impact of foreground-background segmentation on contextual cueing of visual search in three experiments. A visual search display, consisting of distractor 'L's and a target 'T', was overlaid on a task-neutral cuboid on the same depth plane (Experiment 1), on stereoscopically separated depth planes (Experiment 2), or spread over the entire display on the same depth plane (Experiment 3). Half of the search displays contained repeated target-distractor arrangements, whereas the other half was always newly generated. The task-neutral cuboid was constant during an initial training session, but was either rotated by 90° or entirely removed in the subsequent test sessions. We found that the gains resulting from repeated presentation of display arrangements during training (i.e., contextual-cueing effects) were diminished when the cuboid was changed or removed in Experiment 1, but remained intact in Experiments 2 and 3 when the cuboid was placed in a different depth plane, or when the items were randomly spread over the whole display but not on the edges of the cuboid. These findings suggest that foreground-background segmentation occurs prior to contextual learning, and only objects/arrangements that are grouped as foreground are learned over the course of repeated visual search.

User Adoption Tendency Modeling for Social Contextual Recommendation

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Wang Zhisheng

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Most of studies on the existing recommender system for Netflix-style sites (scenarios with explicit user feedback focus on rating prediction, but few have systematically analyzed users’ motivations to make decisions on which items to rate. In this paper, the authors study the difficult and challenging task Item Adoption Prediction (IAP for predicting the items users will rate or interact with. It is not only an important supplement to previous works, but also a more realistic requirement of recommendation in this scenario. To recommend the items with high Adoption Tendency, the authors develop a unified model UATM based on the findings of Marketing and Consumer Behavior. The novelty of the model in this paper includes: First, the authors propose a more creative and effective optimization method to tackle One-Class Problem where only the positive feedback is available; second, the authors systematically and conveniently integrate the user adoption information (both explicit and implicit feedbacks included and the social contextual information with quantitatively characterizing different users’ personal sensitivity to various social contextual influences.

Community economic status and intimate partner violence against women in bangladesh: compositional or contextual effects?

Science.gov (United States)

VanderEnde, Kristin E; Sibley, Lynn M; Cheong, Yuk Fai; Naved, Ruchira Tabassum; Yount, Kathryn M

2015-06-01

In this research, we used a multi-level contextual-effects analysis to disentangle the household- and community-level associations between income and intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in Bangladesh. Our analyses of data from 2,668 women interviewed as part of the World Health Organization (WHO) multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence against women showed that household income was negatively associated with women's risk of experiencing IPV. Controlling for residence in a low-income household, living in a low-income community was not associated with women's risk of experiencing IPV. These results support a household-level, not community-level, relationship between income and IPV in Bangladesh. © The Author(s) 2015.

A cross-sectional survey to assess the effect of socioeconomic status on the oral hygiene habits.

Science.gov (United States)

Oberoi, Sukhvinder Singh; Sharma, Gaurav; Oberoi, Avneet

2016-01-01

It is widely accepted that there are socioeconomic inequalities in oral health. A socioeconomic gradient is found in a range of clinical and self-reported oral health outcomes. The present study was conducted to assess the differences in oral hygiene practices among patients from different socioeconomic status (SES) visiting the Outpatient Department of the Sudha Rustagi College of Dental Sciences. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from June to October 2014 to assess the effect of SES on the oral hygiene habits. The questionnaire included the questions related to the demographic profile and assessment of the oral hygiene habits of the study population. Toothbrush and toothpaste were being used significantly ( P oral hygiene practices of the patients from upper and lower middle class was found to be satisfactory whereas it was poor among patients belonging to lower and upper lower class.

Contextualization processes and the initial education of physics teachers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina Cândida de Macedo

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Contextualization of school contents has been seen as a possibility of facilitating students’ learning, since it makes the educative process more significant to them. However, there is no agreement as to the meaning and the forms of applying such processes. Particularly in the area of Science teaching, the creation of thematic projects has been seen as a way of contextualizing school contents. It is noteworthy that the experience with the education of Physics teachers shows that the creation and execution of such projects brings many difficulties to teachers, the main obstacle being the understanding of what contextualized educative processes are. Having this in mind, a project has been elaborated with the objective of analyzing the comprehension Physics teachers that are going through teacher education courses have of the processes of contextualization. The data for this investigation has been obtained from students who attended a course of the Physics Teacher Education module at the Federal University of Itajubá. It is significant to mention that in this course students are asked to create three versions of a thematic project. In order to analyze the data, the procedure of Thematic Content and Category Analysis was adopted. This research shows that Physics teachers to be incorporate the discourses of the educative ideas throughout the course. However, there is a series of obstacles they face as they attempt to understand and carry out contextualized educative processes. Those difficulties are connected to their experience with this kind of educative process throughout the years they spend at school and in the teacher education course. We conclude thus that it is essential that contextualized educative activities be part of the reality of teacher education programs.

Effects of socioeconomic position and clinical risk factors on spontaneous and iatrogenic preterm birth.

Science.gov (United States)

Joseph, K S; Fahey, John; Shankardass, Ketan; Allen, Victoria M; O'Campo, Patricia; Dodds, Linda; Liston, Robert M; Allen, Alexander C

2014-03-27

The literature shows a variable and inconsistent relationship between socioeconomic position and preterm birth. We examined risk factors for spontaneous and iatrogenic preterm birth, with a focus on socioeconomic position and clinical risk factors, in order to explain the observed inconsistency. We carried out a retrospective population-based cohort study of all singleton deliveries in Nova Scotia from 1988 to 2003. Data were obtained from the Nova Scotia Atlee Perinatal Database and the federal income tax T1 Family Files. Separate logistic models were used to quantify the association between socioeconomic position, clinical risk factors and spontaneous preterm birth and iatrogenic preterm birth. The study population included 132,714 singleton deliveries and the rate of preterm birth was 5.5%. Preterm birth rates were significantly higher among the women in the lowest (versus the highest) family income group for spontaneous (rate ratio 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03, 1.25) but not iatrogenic preterm birth (rate ratio 0.95, 95% CI 0.75, 1.19). Adjustment for maternal characteristics attenuated the family income-spontaneous preterm birth relationship but strengthened the relationship with iatrogenic preterm birth. Clinical risk factors such as hypertension were differentially associated with spontaneous (rate ratio 3.92, 95% CI 3.47, 4.44) and iatrogenic preterm (rate ratio 14.1, 95% CI 11.4, 17.4) but factors such as diabetes mellitus were not (rate ratio 4.38, 95% CI 3.21, 5.99 for spontaneous and 4.02, 95% CI 2.07, 7.80 for iatrogenic preterm birth). Socioeconomic position and clinical risk factors have different effects on spontaneous and iatrogenic preterm. Recent temporal increases in iatrogenic preterm birth appear to be responsible for the inconsistent relationship between socioeconomic position and preterm birth.

Unpaired shocks during extinction weaken the contextual renewal of a conditioned discrimination

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vervliet, B.; Vansteenwegen, D.; Hermans, D.

2010-01-01

Extinction is generally more fragile than conditioning, as illustrated by the contextual renewal effect. The traditional extinction procedure entails isolated presentations of the conditioned stimulus. Extinction may be boosted by adding isolated presentations of the unconditioned stimulus, as this

Contextual Compression of Large-Scale Wind Turbine Array Simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gruchalla, Kenny M [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Brunhart-Lupo, Nicholas J [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Potter, Kristin C [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Clyne, John [National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

2017-12-04

Data sizes are becoming a critical issue particularly for HPC applications. We have developed a user-driven lossy wavelet-based storage model to facilitate the analysis and visualization of large-scale wind turbine array simulations. The model stores data as heterogeneous blocks of wavelet coefficients, providing high-fidelity access to user-defined data regions believed the most salient, while providing lower-fidelity access to less salient regions on a block-by-block basis. In practice, by retaining the wavelet coefficients as a function of feature saliency, we have seen data reductions in excess of 94 percent, while retaining lossless information in the turbine-wake regions most critical to analysis and providing enough (low-fidelity) contextual information in the upper atmosphere to track incoming coherent turbulent structures. Our contextual wavelet compression approach has allowed us to deliver interative visual analysis while providing the user control over where data loss, and thus reduction in accuracy, in the analysis occurs. We argue this reduced but contextualized representation is a valid approach and encourages contextual data management.

Contextualization: Memory Formation and Retrieval in a Nested Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Piefke, Martina; Markowitsch, Hans J.

Episodic memory functions are highly context-dependent. This is true for both experimental and autobiographical episodic memory. We here review neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence for effects of differential encoding and retrieval contexts on episodic memory performance as well as the underlying neurofunctional mechanisms. In studies of laboratory episodic memory, the influence of context parameters can be assessed by experimental manipulations. Such experiments suggest that contextual variables mainly affect prefrontal functions supporting executive processes involved in episodic learning and retrieval. Context parameters affecting episodic autobiographical memory are far more complex and cannot easily be controlled. Data support the view that not only prefrontal, but also further medial temporal and posterior parietal regions mediating the re-experience and emotional evaluation of personal memories are highly influenced by changing contextual variables of memory encoding and retrieval. Based on our review of available data, we thus suggest that experimental and autobiographical episodic memories are influenced by both overlapping and differential context parameters.

Analysis of Some Recent Tests of Quantum Contextuality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

La Cour, Brian R.

2010-01-01

Contextuality plays a central role in many key proofs for the impossibility of hidden variables in quantum mechanics. The most famous among these is the Kochen-Specker theorem, which originally applied to a Hilbert space of three dimensions, but much simpler proofs in higher dimensions have since been found. In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in contextuality, and a number of experiments have been performed to test it in the four-dimensional context. Recently, it has been shown that contextuality may be interpreted as the result of simple measurement disturbance if the set of measurements chosen are time-like separated [B. La Cour, Phys. Rev. A, 79, 012102 (2009)]. In this work, several such experiments will be reviewed, and it will be shown that none are capable of ruling out a realistic, local hidden variable interpretation.

Contextual and intrapersonal predictors of adolescent risky sexual behavior and outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Shneyderman, Yuliya; Schwartz, Seth J

2013-08-01

The present study was designed to test a model of contextual and intrapersonal predictors of adolescent risky sexual behaviors and of sexually transmitted infection diagnoses. Using Waves I and II from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors estimated a structural model in which intrapersonal factors such as adolescents' attitudes about sex, perceived parental norms, knowledge about sexual health, and birth-control self-efficacy partially mediated the effects of contextual factors such as parent-adolescent relationship quality, school connectedness, and exposure to AIDS and pregnancy education on a number of risky sexual behaviors and outcomes: early sex initiation, sex under the influence of substances, condom use at last intercourse, and having been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection. Different patterns of direct and mediated effects emerged for each sexual outcome. Results are discussed in terms of the complex interplay between environment and individual and in terms of how, when, and with whom to intervene in order to improve adolescent sexual health outcomes.

socio-economic population

African Journals Online (AJOL)

not ideal, underscores the peculiarities of experience in a general hospital in a low socio-economic setting. In conclusion, hernia surgery in a general hospital setting can be safely performed with the judicious use of intravenous Kctamine in children and emergency adult surgery as long as awareness of its side-effects and.

Selecting team players: Considering the impact of contextual performance and workplace deviance on selection decisions in the National Football League.

Science.gov (United States)

Whiting, Steven W; Maynes, Timothy D

2016-04-01

Contextual performance and workplace deviance likely influence team functioning and effectiveness and should therefore be considered when evaluating job candidates for team-based roles. However, obtaining this information is difficult given a lack of reliable sources and the desire of job applicants to present themselves in a favorable light. Thus, it is unknown whether those selecting employees for teams incorporate prior contextual performance and workplace deviance into their evaluations, or whether doing so improves the quality of selection decisions. To address these issues, we examined the impact of prior task performance, contextual performance, and workplace deviance on National Football League (NFL) decision maker (organizational insider) and external expert (organizational outsider) evaluations of college football players in the NFL draft, using a content analysis methodology to generate measures of contextual performance and workplace deviance. Our findings indicate that insiders value contextual performance more than outsiders, which is likely because of differing interests and goals that lead to different levels of motivation and/or ability to acquire information about prior contextual performance. We also propose that prior task performance, contextual performance, and workplace deviance will predict player performance in the NFL. Our results support this prediction for task and contextual performance. In addition, we investigated the quality of insider and outsider judgments using Brunswik's (1952) lens model. Implications of our findings for the team selection, contextual performance, and workplace deviance literatures are discussed. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Quantum contextuality in neutron interferometer experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hasegawa, Yuji; Loidl, Rudolf; Baron, Matthias; Badurek, Gerald; Rauch, Helmut

2006-01-01

Non-local correlations between sufficiently separated subsystems have been extensively discussed. Such a non-locality can be interpreted as a consequence of the correlation between commuting observables. A more general concept, i.e., contextuality, compared to non-locality can be introduced to describe striking phenomena predicted by quantum theory. As the first example, we report a neutron interferometer experiment, where the spin and the path degrees of freedom are used to exhibit the clear violation of a Bell-like inequality. Other aspects of the quantum contextuality is presented, e.g., a flavor of Kochen-Specker-like contradiction in neutron optical experiments, in addition to the quantum state tomography of the Bell-states which are used in the experiments

Contextual Treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Gold, Steven N; Elhai, Jon D; Rea, Bayard D; Weiss, Donna; Masino, Theodore; Morris, Staci Leon; McIninch, Jessica

2001-01-01

Evidence for the effectiveness of contextual therapy, a new approach for treating adult survivors of prolonged child abuse (PCA), is provided via case studies of three women with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Contextual therapy is based on the premise that it is not only traumatic experiences that account for PCA survivors' psychological difficulties. Even more fundamentally, many survivors grow up in an interpersonal context in which adequate resources for secure attachment and acquisition of adaptive living skills are not available. As a result, they are left with lasting deficits that undermine not only their current functioning, but also their ability to cope with reliving their traumatic memories in therapy. The primary focus of this treatment approach, therefore, is on developing capacities for feeling and functioning better in the present, rather than on extensive exploration and processing of the client's trauma history or, in the case of DID, of identity fragments. Treatment of the three cases presented ranged from eight months to two and one-half years' duration, and culminated in very positive outcomes. The women's reports of achievements, such as obtaining and maintaining gainful employment, greater self-sufficiency, and the establishment of more intimate and gratifying relationships, indicated marked improvements in daily functioning. Objective test data obtained at admission and discharge, and in one case, at follow-up, documented substantial reductions in dissociative, posttraumatic stress, depressive, and other symptoms.

Individual and community level socioeconomic inequalities in contraceptive use in 10 Newly Independent States: a multilevel cross-sectional analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Janevic, Teresa; Sarah, Pallas W; Leyla, Ismayilova; Elizabeth, Bradley H

2012-11-16

-level inequalities of the largest magnitude were found in the Caucasus. There were no distinct patterns found in Eastern European countries. Community-level socioeconomic inequalities in MCU were most pronounced in Central Asian countries, whereas individual-level socioeconomic inequalities in MCU were most pronounced in the Caucasus. It is important to consider multilevel contextual determinants of modern contraceptive use in the development of reproductive health and family planning programs.

Glucocorticoids interact with the hippocampal endocannabinoid system in impairing retrieval of contextual fear memory

Science.gov (United States)

Atsak, Piray; Hauer, Daniela; Campolongo, Patrizia; Schelling, Gustav; McGaugh, James L.; Roozendaal, Benno

2012-01-01

There is extensive evidence that glucocorticoid hormones impair the retrieval of memory of emotionally arousing experiences. Although it is known that glucocorticoid effects on memory retrieval impairment depend on rapid interactions with arousal-induced noradrenergic activity, the exact mechanism underlying this presumably nongenomically mediated glucocorticoid action remains to be elucidated. Here, we show that the hippocampal endocannabinoid system, a rapidly activated retrograde messenger system, is involved in mediating glucocorticoid effects on retrieval of contextual fear memory. Systemic administration of corticosterone (0.3–3 mg/kg) to male Sprague–Dawley rats 1 h before retention testing impaired the retrieval of contextual fear memory without impairing the retrieval of auditory fear memory or directly affecting the expression of freezing behavior. Importantly, a blockade of hippocampal CB1 receptors with AM251 prevented the impairing effect of corticosterone on retrieval of contextual fear memory, whereas the same impairing dose of corticosterone increased hippocampal levels of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol. We also found that antagonism of hippocampal β-adrenoceptor activity with local infusions of propranolol blocked the memory retrieval impairment induced by the CB receptor agonist WIN55,212–2. Thus, these findings strongly suggest that the endocannabinoid system plays an intermediary role in regulating rapid glucocorticoid effects on noradrenergic activity in impairing memory retrieval of emotionally arousing experiences. PMID:22331883

Withdrawal from Chronic Nicotine Administration Impairs Contextual Fear Conditioning in C57BL/6 Mice

OpenAIRE

Davis, Jennifer A.; James, John R.; Siegel, Steven J.; Gould, Thomas J.

2005-01-01

The effects of acute nicotine administration (0.09 mg/kg nicotine), chronic nicotine administration (6.3 mg/kg/d nicotine for 14 d), and withdrawal from chronic nicotine administration on fear conditioning in C57BL/6 mice were examined. Mice were trained using two coterminating conditioned stimulus (30 s; 85 dB white noise)– unconditioned stimulus (2 s; 0.57 mA foot shock) pairings and tested 24 h later for contextual and cued fear conditioning. Acute nicotine administration enhanced contextu...

Against Contextualism: Belief, Evidence, & the Bank Cases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Logan Paul Gage

2013-04-01

Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1808-1711.2013v17n1p57 Contextualism (the view that ‘knowledge’ and its variants are context-sensitive has been supported in large part through appeal to intuitions about Keith DeRose’s Bank Cases. Recently, however, the contextualist construal of these cases has come under fire from Kent Bach and Jennifer Nagel who question whether the Bank Case subject’s confidence can remain constant in both low- and high-stakes cases. Having explained the Bank Cases and this challenge to them, I argue that DeRose has given a reasonable reply to this initial challenge. However, I proceed to argue that the current stalemate can be broken. Seeking to extend the Bach–Nagel critique, I offer a novel interpretation of the Bank Cases according to which the subject’s evidence changes between low- and high-stakes cases. If I am correct, then, given the amount of support the Bank Cases have been thought to lend contextualism, the case for contextualism is seriously weakened.

Contextuality supplies the 'magic' for quantum computation.

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, Mark; Wallman, Joel; Veitch, Victor; Emerson, Joseph

2014-06-19

Quantum computers promise dramatic advantages over their classical counterparts, but the source of the power in quantum computing has remained elusive. Here we prove a remarkable equivalence between the onset of contextuality and the possibility of universal quantum computation via 'magic state' distillation, which is the leading model for experimentally realizing a fault-tolerant quantum computer. This is a conceptually satisfying link, because contextuality, which precludes a simple 'hidden variable' model of quantum mechanics, provides one of the fundamental characterizations of uniquely quantum phenomena. Furthermore, this connection suggests a unifying paradigm for the resources of quantum information: the non-locality of quantum theory is a particular kind of contextuality, and non-locality is already known to be a critical resource for achieving advantages with quantum communication. In addition to clarifying these fundamental issues, this work advances the resource framework for quantum computation, which has a number of practical applications, such as characterizing the efficiency and trade-offs between distinct theoretical and experimental schemes for achieving robust quantum computation, and putting bounds on the overhead cost for the classical simulation of quantum algorithms.

Perpendicularity misjudgments caused by contextual stimulus elements.

Science.gov (United States)

Bulatov, Aleksandr; Bulatova, Natalija; Surkys, Tadas

2012-10-15

It has been demonstrated in previous studies that the illusions of extent of the Brentano type can be explained by the perceptual positional shifts of the stimulus terminators in direction of the centers-of-masses (centroids) of adjacent contextual flanks [Bulatov, A. et al. (2011). Contextual flanks' tilting and magnitude of illusion of extent. Vision Research, 51(1), 58-64]. In the present study, the applicability of the centroid approach to explain the right-angle misjudgments was tested psychophysically using stimuli composed of three small disks (dots) forming an imaginary rectangular triangle. Stimuli comprised the Müller-Lyer wings or line segments (bars) as the contextual distracters rotated around the vertices of the triangle, and changes in the magnitude of the illusion of perpendicularity were measured in a set of experiments. A good resemblance between the experimental data and theoretical predictions obtained strongly supports the suggestion regarding the common "centroid" origin of the illusions of extent of the Brentano type and misperception of the perpendicularity investigated. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Contextual memory, psychosis-proneness, and the experience of intrusive imagery.

Science.gov (United States)

Glazer, Daniel A; Mason, Oliver; King, John A; Brewin, Chris R

2013-01-01

This study tested the hypothesis that the presence and characteristics of naturally occurring involuntary imagery would be related to poorer context-dependent spatial memory and higher levels of proneness to psychotic experiences. Poorer contextual memory was also predicted to be associated with a greater sense of "nowness". Participants completed a virtual environment task that assessed contextual memory through responses that required allocentric and egocentric processing of virtual stimuli. Two questionnaires assessing predisposition to psychotic experiences were employed. Finally, participants completed an interview that required details of recent, naturally occurring involuntary images. Reports of involuntary imagery were associated with greater proneness to psychotic experiences but not with memory. In those participants who reported imagery, however, poorer memory performance was associated with more vivid and detailed intrusive imagery. Poorer contextual memory was specifically associated with a greater sense of "nowness". Possible links between contextual memory and proneness to psychosis are discussed.

Acceptance of lean redesigns in primary care: A contextual analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hung, Dorothy; Gray, Caroline; Martinez, Meghan; Schmittdiel, Julie; Harrison, Michael I

Lean is a leading change strategy used in health care to achieve short-term efficiency and quality improvement while promising longer-term system transformation. Most research examines Lean intervention to address isolated problems, rather than to achieve broader systemic changes to care delivery. Moreover, no studies examine contextual influences on system-wide Lean implementation efforts in primary care. The aim of this study was to identify contextual factors most critical to implementing and scaling Lean redesigns across all primary care clinics in a large, ambulatory care delivery system. Over 100 interviews and focus groups were conducted with frontline physicians, clinical staff, and operational leaders. Data analysis was guided by a modified Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), a popular implementation science framework. On the basis of expert recommendations, the modified framework targets factors influencing the implementation of process redesigns. This modified framework, the CFIR-PR, informed our identification of contextual factors that most impacted Lean acceptance among frontline physicians and staff. Several domains identified by the CFIR-PR were critical to acceptance of Lean redesigns. Regarding the implementation process acceptance was influenced by time and intensity of exposure to changes, "top-down" versus "bottom-up" implementation styles, and degrees of employee engagement in developing new workflows. Important factors in the inner setting were the clinic's culture and style of leadership, along with availability of information about Lean's effectiveness. Last, implementation efforts were impacted by individual and team characteristics regarding changed work roles and related issues of professional identity, authority, and autonomy. This study underscores the need for change leaders to consider the contextual factors that surround efforts to implement Lean in primary care. As Lean redesigns are scaled across a system

Preserved local but disrupted contextual figure-ground influences in an individual with abnormal function of intermediate visual areas

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Brooks, Joseph L.; Gilaie-Dotan, Sharon; Rees, Geraint; Bentin, Shlomo; Driver, Jon

2012-01-01

Visual perception depends not only on local stimulus features but also on their relationship to the surrounding stimulus context, as evident in both local and contextual influences on figure-ground segmentation. Intermediate visual areas may play a role in such contextual influences, as we tested here by examining LG, a rare case of developmental visual agnosia. LG has no evident abnormality of brain structure and functional neuroimaging showed relatively normal V1 function, but his intermediate visual areas (V2/V3) function abnormally. We found that contextual influences on figure-ground organization were selectively disrupted in LG, while local sources of figure-ground influences were preserved. Effects of object knowledge and familiarity on figure-ground organization were also significantly diminished. Our results suggest that the mechanisms mediating contextual and familiarity influences on figure-ground organization are dissociable from those mediating local influences on figure-ground assignment. The disruption of contextual processing in intermediate visual areas may play a role in the substantial object recognition difficulties experienced by LG. PMID:22947116

PREDOMINANCE AND SOCIAL DETERMINANTS IN OCCURRENCE OF PARASITOSIS IN CENTEREASTERN REGION OF PARANÁ: A SOCIOECONOMIC ANALYZES OF THE PROBLEM.

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Patricia Regina Cenci Queiroz, Angela Patricia Motin, Cristiane Aparecida Verbaneck, Franciely Damaris de Cristo, Marcia de Souza Oliveira, Marcia Maria Veronese e Shirley Rak Mantovani

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Considering the high incidence of parasitic diseases in centereastern region of Paraná, an inquiry about its probable determinants was carried out. Particularly, the occurrence of Ascaris Lumbricoides was analyzed. Bibliographical research referring to this theme and data-collecting from centereastern region have been carried out, attempting to contextualize the epidemiological condition of this region. We can conclude that the high occurrence of ascariasis in analyzed region is linked to life conditions of general population, the deficiency in urban and sanitary planning, socioeconomic conditions and, essentially, the absence of investments in basic infrastructure. Thus, this study demonstrates the need of an urgent prophylactic action.

Leadership Factor in National Socio-Economic Development and Building: A Biblical and Contemporary Perspective

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Ekundayo Lawrence Olabode

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The thrust of this paper is on theological concept of leadership.  It enunciates the leadership adroitness of Joseph and the acuity of Moses in Jewish nation-building.  The aim and objective of the paper is to contextualize leadership astuteness of these biblical icons (Joseph and Moses with the contemporary leadership in Nigeria in relation to nation-building.  The focus of the paper was to assess the performances of Nigerian leaders in socio-economic development of the nation from her independence in 1960 to 2013.  The work, having employed historical and contextualization methodologies, discovered that Nigeria is backward and at the verge of collapse due to the selfishness and nonchalance of its leaders to rise to the responsibility of the hallmarks of true leadership.  To avert disintegration and collapse of the nation and to build an enviable prosperous nation, the paper recommended that Nigerian leaders must respect, uphold and obey the law of the land, the nation must execute corruption revolution that will force all Nigerians irrespective of their status to declare their assets, all ill-gotten wealth must be   confiscated to remove the culture of corruption, the inequality in income distribution must be rectified to alleviate poverty.  Servant-leadership exemplified by Joseph and Moses must be imbibed in Nigerian culture of leadership.

Psychomotor skills acquisition of novice learners: a case for contextual learning.

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DeBourgh, Gregory A

2011-01-01

Deficiencies in procedural competency compromise patient safety and the quality of care provided. Educators in prelicensure nursing programs are challenged to design effective instruction to develop psychomotor skills abilities among novice learners. Highly contextualized learning and frequent opportunities for performance rehearsal promote knowledge retention and procedural competence. The author discusses data from an evaluation study that explored students' perceptions of the effectiveness of skills instruction and suggests strategies for curricular integration and effective instruction.

Contextual approach to quantum formalism

CERN Document Server

Khrennikov, Andrei

2009-01-01

The aim of this book is to show that the probabilistic formalisms of classical statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics can be unified on the basis of a general contextual probabilistic model. By taking into account the dependence of (classical) probabilities on contexts (i.e. complexes of physical conditions), one can reproduce all distinct features of quantum probabilities such as the interference of probabilities and the violation of Bell’s inequality. Moreover, by starting with a formula for the interference of probabilities (which generalizes the well known classical formula of total probability), one can construct the representation of contextual probabilities by complex probability amplitudes or, in the abstract formalism, by normalized vectors of the complex Hilbert space or its hyperbolic generalization. Thus the Hilbert space representation of probabilities can be naturally derived from classical probabilistic assumptions. An important chapter of the book critically reviews known no-go theorems...

A cross-sectional survey to assess the effect of socioeconomic status on the oral hygiene habits

Science.gov (United States)

Oberoi, Sukhvinder Singh; Sharma, Gaurav; Oberoi, Avneet

2016-01-01

Background: It is widely accepted that there are socioeconomic inequalities in oral health. A socioeconomic gradient is found in a range of clinical and self-reported oral health outcomes. Aim: The present study was conducted to assess the differences in oral hygiene practices among patients from different socioeconomic status (SES) visiting the Outpatient Department of the Sudha Rustagi College of Dental Sciences. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from June to October 2014 to assess the effect of SES on the oral hygiene habits. The questionnaire included the questions related to the demographic profile and assessment of the oral hygiene habits of the study population. Results: Toothbrush and toothpaste were being used significantly (P oral hygiene practices of the patients from upper and lower middle class was found to be satisfactory whereas it was poor among patients belonging to lower and upper lower class. PMID:29242690

The influence of socioeconomic environment on the effectiveness of alcohol prevention among European students: a cluster randomized controlled trial

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Faggiano Fabrizio

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Although social environments may influence alcohol-related behaviours in youth, the relationship between neighbourhood socioeconomic context and effectiveness of school-based prevention against underage drinking has been insufficiently investigated. We study whether the social environment affects the impact of a new school-based prevention programme on alcohol use among European students. Methods During the school year 2004-2005, 7079 students 12-14 years of age from 143 schools in nine European centres participated in this cluster randomised controlled trial. Schools were randomly assigned to either control or a 12-session standardised curriculum based on the comprehensive social influence model. Randomisation was blocked within socioeconomic levels of the school environment. Alcohol use and alcohol-related problem behaviours were investigated through a self-completed anonymous questionnaire at baseline and 18 months thereafter. Data were analysed using multilevel models, separately by socioeconomic level. Results At baseline, adolescents in schools of low socioeconomic level were more likely to report problem drinking than other students. Participation in the programme was associated in this group with a decreased odds of reporting episodes of drunkenness (OR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.44-0.83, intention to get drunk (OR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.45-0.79, and marginally alcohol-related problem behaviours (OR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.46-1.06. No significant programme's effects emerged for students in schools of medium or high socioeconomic level. Effects on frequency of alcohol consumption were also stronger among students in disadvantaged schools, although the estimates did not attain statistical significance in any subgroup. Conclusions It is plausible that comprehensive social influence programmes have a more favourable effect on problematic drinking among students in underprivileged social environments. Trial registration ISRCTN: ISRCTN

People, clothing, music, and arousal as contextual retrieval cues in verbal memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Standing, Lionel G; Bobbitt, Kristin E; Boisvert, Kathryn L; Dayholos, Kathy N; Gagnon, Anne M

2008-10-01

Four experiments (N = 164) on context-dependent memory were performed to explore the effects on verbal memory of incidental cues during the test session which replicated specific features of the learning session. These features involved (1) bystanders, (2) the clothing of the experimenter, (3) background music, and (4) the arousal level of the subject. Social contextual cues (bystanders or experimenter clothing) improved verbal recall or recognition. However, recall decreased when the contextual cue was a different stimulus taken from the same conceptual category (piano music by Chopin) that was heard during learning. Memory was unaffected by congruent internal cues, produced by the same physiological arousal level (low, moderate, or high heart rate) during the learning and test sessions. However, recall increased with the level of arousal across the three congruent conditions. The results emphasize the effectiveness as retrieval cues of stimuli which are socially salient, concrete, and external.

Cultural and Contextual Influences on Parenting in Mexican American Families

Science.gov (United States)

White, Rebecca M. B.; Roosa, Mark W.; Weaver, Scott R.; Nair, Rajni L.

2009-01-01

Family stress theory can explain associations between contextual stressors and parenting. The theory, however, has not been tested among Mexican Americans or expanded to include cultural-contextual risks. This study examined associations between neighborhood, economic, and acculturative stressors and parenting behaviors in a sample of 570…

A Dynamic Analysis of the Effects of Intelligence and Socioeconomic Background on Job-Market Success

Science.gov (United States)

Ganzach, Yoav

2011-01-01

We compare the effects of socioeconomic background (SEB) and intelligence on wage trajectories in a dynamic growth modeling framework in a sample that had completed just 12 years of education. I show that the main difference between the two is that SEB affected wages solely by its effect on entry pay whereas intelligence affected wages primarily…

The effects of summer temperature, age and socioeconomic circumstance on Acute Myocardial Infarction admissions in Melbourne, Australia

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Tapper Nigel J

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Published literature detailing the effects of heatwaves on human health is readily available. However literature describing the effects of heat on morbidity is less plentiful, as is research describing events in the southern hemisphere and Australia in particular. To identify susceptible populations and direct public health responses research must move beyond description of the temperature morbidity relationship to include social and spatial risk factors. This paper presents a spatial and socio-demographic picture of the effects of hot weather on persons admitted to hospital with acute myocardial infarction (AMI in Melbourne. Results In this study, the use of a spatial and socio-economic perspective has identified two groups within the population that have an increased 'risk' of AMI admissions to hospital during hot weather. AMI increases during hot weather were only identified in the most disadvantaged and the least disadvantaged areas. Districts with higher AMI admissions rates during hot weather also had larger proportions of older residents. Age provided some explanation for the spatial distribution of AMI admissions on single hot days whereas socio-economic circumstance did not. During short periods (3-days of hot weather, age explained the spatial distribution of AMI admissions slightly better than socioeconomic circumstance. Conclusions This study has demonstrated that both age and socioeconomic inequality contribute to AMI admissions to hospital in Melbourne during hot weather. By using socioeconomic circumstance to define quintiles, differences in AMI admissions were quantified and demographic differences in AMI admissions were described. Including disease specificity into climate-health research methods is necessary to identify climate-sensitive diseases and highlight the burden of climate-sensitive disease in the community. Cardiac disease is a major cause of death and disability and identifying cardiac

Short-Term Total Sleep-Deprivation Impairs Contextual Fear Memory, and Contextual Fear-Conditioning Reduces REM Sleep in Moderately Anxious Swiss Mice

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Munazah F. Qureshi

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The conditioning tasks have been widely used to model fear and anxiety and to study their association with sleep. Many reports suggest that sleep plays a vital role in the consolidation of fear memory. Studies have also demonstrated that fear-conditioning influences sleep differently in mice strains having a low or high anxiety level. It is, therefore, necessary to know, how sleep influences fear-conditioning and how fear-conditioning induces changes in sleep architecture in moderate anxious strains. We have used Swiss mice, a moderate anxious strain, to study the effects of: (i sleep deprivation on contextual fear conditioned memory, and also (ii contextual fear conditioning on sleep architecture. Animals were divided into three groups: (a non-sleep deprived (NSD; (b stress control (SC; and (c sleep-deprived (SD groups. The SD animals were SD for 5 h soon after training. We found that the NSD and SC animals showed 60.57% and 58.12% freezing on the testing day, while SD animals showed significantly less freezing (17.13% only; p < 0.001 on the testing day. Further, we observed that contextual fear-conditioning did not alter the total amount of wakefulness and non-rapid eye movement (NREM sleep. REM sleep, however, significantly decreased in NSD and SC animals on the training and testing days. Interestingly, REM sleep did not decrease in the SD animals on the testing day. Our results suggest that short-term sleep deprivation impairs fear memory in moderate anxious mice. It also suggests that NREM sleep, but not REM sleep, may have an obligatory role in memory consolidation.

Robust Actor-Critic Contextual Bandit for Mobile Health (mHealth) Interventions

OpenAIRE

Zhu, Feiyun; Guo, Jun; Li, Ruoyu; Huang, Junzhou

2018-01-01

We consider the actor-critic contextual bandit for the mobile health (mHealth) intervention. State-of-the-art decision-making algorithms generally ignore the outliers in the dataset. In this paper, we propose a novel robust contextual bandit method for the mHealth. It can achieve the conflicting goal of reducing the influence of outliers while seeking for a similar solution compared with the state-of-the-art contextual bandit methods on the datasets without outliers. Such performance relies o...

Systematic literature review on effectiveness of self-management support interventions in patients with chronic conditions and low socio-economic status

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Van Hecke, Ann; Heinen, Maud; Fernández-Ortega, Paz

2017-01-01

of patients with a low socio-economic status. No differences were found for interventions developed based on health behaviour theoretical models. CONCLUSION: Limited evidence was found for self-management support interventions in chronically ill patients with low socio-economic status. Essential......AIM: To assess the quality of evidence and determine the effect of patient-related and economic outcomes of self-management support interventions in chronically ill patients with a low socio-economic status. BACKGROUND: Integrated evidence on self-management support interventions in chronically ill...... people with low socio-economic status is lacking. DESIGN: Systematic literature review. DATA SOURCES: Cochrane database of trials, PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, PsycINFO and Joanna Briggs Institute Library were searched (2000-2013). Randomized controlled trials addressing self-management support...

From foreground to background: how task-neutral context influences contextual cueing of visual search

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Xuelian eZang

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Selective attention determines the effectiveness of implicit contextual learning (e.g., Jiang & Leung, 2005. Visual foreground-background segmentation, on the other hand, is a key process in the guidance of attention (Wolfe, 2003. In the present study, we examined the impact of foreground-background segmentation on contextual cueing of visual search in three experiments. A visual search display, consisting of distractor ‘L’s and a target ‘T’, was overlaid on a task-neutral cuboid on the same depth plane (Experiment 1, on stereoscopically separated depth planes (Experiment 2, or spread over the entire display on the same depth plane (Experiment 3. Half of the search displays contained repeated target-distractor arrangements, whereas the other half was always newly generated. The task-neutral cuboid was constant during an initial training session, but was either rotated by 90º or entirely removed in the subsequent test sessions. We found that the gains resulting from repeated presentation of display arrangements during training (i.e., contextual-cueing effects were diminished when the cuboid was changed or removed in Experiment 1, but remained intact in Experiments 2 and 3 when the cuboid was placed in a different depth plane, or when the items were randomly spread over the whole display but not on the edges of the cuboid. These findings suggest that foreground-background segmentation occurs prior to contextual learning, and only objects/arrangements that are grouped as foreground are learned over the course of repeated visual search.

From Foreground to Background: How Task-Neutral Context Influences Contextual Cueing of Visual Search

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Zang, Xuelian; Geyer, Thomas; Assumpção, Leonardo; Müller, Hermann J.; Shi, Zhuanghua

2016-01-01

Selective attention determines the effectiveness of implicit contextual learning (e.g., Jiang and Leung, 2005). Visual foreground-background segmentation, on the other hand, is a key process in the guidance of attention (Wolfe, 2003). In the present study, we examined the impact of foreground-background segmentation on contextual cueing of visual search in three experiments. A visual search display, consisting of distractor ‘L’s and a target ‘T’, was overlaid on a task-neutral cuboid on the same depth plane (Experiment 1), on stereoscopically separated depth planes (Experiment 2), or spread over the entire display on the same depth plane (Experiment 3). Half of the search displays contained repeated target-distractor arrangements, whereas the other half was always newly generated. The task-neutral cuboid was constant during an initial training session, but was either rotated by 90° or entirely removed in the subsequent test sessions. We found that the gains resulting from repeated presentation of display arrangements during training (i.e., contextual-cueing effects) were diminished when the cuboid was changed or removed in Experiment 1, but remained intact in Experiments 2 and 3 when the cuboid was placed in a different depth plane, or when the items were randomly spread over the whole display but not on the edges of the cuboid. These findings suggest that foreground-background segmentation occurs prior to contextual learning, and only objects/arrangements that are grouped as foreground are learned over the course of repeated visual search. PMID:27375530

3-D contextual Bayesian classifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Rasmus

In this paper we will consider extensions of a series of Bayesian 2-D contextual classification pocedures proposed by Owen (1984) Hjort & Mohn (1984) and Welch & Salter (1971) and Haslett (1985) to 3 spatial dimensions. It is evident that compared to classical pixelwise classification further...

Unilateral hippocampal inactivation or lesion selectively impairs remote contextual fear memory.

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Zhou, Heng; Zhou, Qixin; Xu, Lin

2016-10-01

Contextual fear memory depends on the hippocampus, but the role of unilateral hippocampus in this type of memory remains unclear. Herein, pharmacological inactivation or excitotoxic lesions were used to study the role of unilateral hippocampus in the stages of contextual fear memory. The pharmacological experiments revealed that compared with the control groups, unilateral hippocampal blockade did not impair 1-day recent memory following learning, whereas bilateral hippocampal blockade significantly impaired this memory. The lesion experiments showed that compared with the control groups, the formed contextual fear memory was retained for 7 days and that 30-day remote memory was markedly reduced in unilateral hippocampal lesion groups. These results indicate that an intact bilateral hippocampus is required for the formation of remote memory and that unilateral hippocampus is sufficient for recent contextual fear memory.

Contextual Stress and Health Risk Behaviors among African American Adolescents

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Copeland-Linder, Nikeea; Lambert, Sharon F.; Chen, Yi-Fu; Ialongo, Nicholas S.

2011-01-01

This study examined the longitudinal association between contextual stress and health risk behaviors and the role of protective factors in a community epidemiologically-defined sample of urban African American adolescents (N = 500; 46.4% female). Structural equation modeling was used to create a latent variable measuring contextual stress…

Socioeconomic Status and Bullying: A Meta-Analysis

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Wolke, Dieter

2014-01-01

We examined whether socioeconomic status (SES) could be used to identify which schools or children are at greatest risk of bullying, which can adversely affect children’s health and life. We conducted a review of published literature on school bullying and SES. We identified 28 studies that reported an association between roles in school bullying (victim, bully, and bully-victim) and measures of SES. Random effects models showed SES was weakly related to bullying roles. Adjusting for publication bias, victims (odds ratio [OR] = 1.40; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.24, 1.58) and bully-victims (OR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.36, 1.74) were more likely to come from low socioeconomic households. Bullies (OR = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.97, 0.99) and victims (OR = 0.95; 95% CI = 0.94, 0.97) were slightly less likely to come from high socioeconomic backgrounds. SES provides little guidance for targeted intervention, and all schools and children, not just those with more socioeconomic deprivation, should be targeted to reduce the adverse effects of bullying. PMID:24825231

Unpaired Shocks during Extinction Weaken the Contextual Renewal of a Conditioned Discrimination

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Vervliet, Bram; Vansteenwegen, Deb; Hermans, Dirk

2010-01-01

Extinction is generally more fragile than conditioning, as illustrated by the contextual renewal effect. The traditional extinction procedure entails isolated presentations of the conditioned stimulus. Extinction may be boosted by adding isolated presentations of the unconditioned stimulus, as this should augment breaking the contingency between…

Demarcation of local neighborhoods to study relations between contextual factors and health

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Chor Dora

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Several studies have highlighted the importance of collective social factors for population health. One of the major challenges is an adequate definition of the spatial units of analysis which present properties potentially related to the target outcomes. Political and administrative divisions of urban areas are the most commonly used definition, although they suffer limitations in their ability to fully express the neighborhoods as social and spatial units. Objective This study presents a proposal for defining the boundaries of local neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro city. Local neighborhoods are constructed by means of aggregation of contiguous census tracts which are homogeneous regarding socioeconomic indicators. Methodology Local neighborhoods were created using the SKATER method (TerraView software. Criteria used for socioeconomic homogeneity were based on four census tract indicators (income, education, persons per household, and percentage of population in the 0-4-year age bracket considering a minimum population of 5,000 people living in each local neighborhood. The process took into account the geographic boundaries between administrative neighborhoods (a political-administrative division larger than a local neighborhood, but smaller than a borough and natural geographic barriers. Results The original 8,145 census tracts were collapsed into 794 local neighborhoods, distributed along 158 administrative neighborhoods. Local neighborhoods contained a mean of 10 census tracts, and there were an average of five local neighborhoods per administrative neighborhood. The local neighborhood units demarcated in this study are less socioeconomically heterogeneous than the administrative neighborhoods and provide a means for decreasing the well-known statistical variability of indicators based on census tracts. The local neighborhoods were able to distinguish between different areas within administrative neighborhoods

Demarcation of local neighborhoods to study relations between contextual factors and health.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Simone M; Chor, Dora; Werneck, Guilherme Loureiro

2010-06-29

Several studies have highlighted the importance of collective social factors for population health. One of the major challenges is an adequate definition of the spatial units of analysis which present properties potentially related to the target outcomes. Political and administrative divisions of urban areas are the most commonly used definition, although they suffer limitations in their ability to fully express the neighborhoods as social and spatial units. This study presents a proposal for defining the boundaries of local neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro city. Local neighborhoods are constructed by means of aggregation of contiguous census tracts which are homogeneous regarding socioeconomic indicators. Local neighborhoods were created using the SKATER method (TerraView software). Criteria used for socioeconomic homogeneity were based on four census tract indicators (income, education, persons per household, and percentage of population in the 0-4-year age bracket) considering a minimum population of 5,000 people living in each local neighborhood. The process took into account the geographic boundaries between administrative neighborhoods (a political-administrative division larger than a local neighborhood, but smaller than a borough) and natural geographic barriers. The original 8,145 census tracts were collapsed into 794 local neighborhoods, distributed along 158 administrative neighborhoods. Local neighborhoods contained a mean of 10 census tracts, and there were an average of five local neighborhoods per administrative neighborhood.The local neighborhood units demarcated in this study are less socioeconomically heterogeneous than the administrative neighborhoods and provide a means for decreasing the well-known statistical variability of indicators based on census tracts. The local neighborhoods were able to distinguish between different areas within administrative neighborhoods, particularly in relation to squatter settlements. Although the literature on

Contextualizing Data Warehouses with Documents

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Perez, Juan Manuel; Berlanga, Rafael; Aramburu, Maria Jose

2008-01-01

warehouse with a document warehouse, resulting in a contextualized warehouse. Thus, the user first selects an analysis context by supplying some keywords. Then, the analysis is performed on a novel type of OLAP cube, called an R-cube, which is materialized by retrieving and ranking the documents...

A 3-D Contextual Classifier

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Rasmus

1997-01-01

In this paper we will consider an extension of the Bayesian 2-D contextual class ification routine developed by Owen, Hjort \\$\\backslash\\$& Mohn to 3 spatial dimensions. It is evident that compared to classical pixelwise classification further information can be obtained by tak ing into account...

Effects of infants' birth order, maternal age, and socio-economic status on birth weight.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghaemmaghami, Seyed J; Nikniaz, Leila; Mahdavi, Reza; Nikniaz, Zeinab; Razmifard, Farzad; Afsharnia, Farzaneh

2013-09-01

To determine the effects of infants' birth order, maternal age, and socioeconomic status (SES) on birth weight. This cross-sectional study included a sample of 858 mothers recruited over a 6-month period in 2010, in a defined population of 9 urban health centers, and who were admitted for their infants' first vaccination. Maternal clinical data, demographic data, and infants' birth weight were obtained from the interview and maternal hospital files. Multiple regression and analysis of variance were used for data analysis. First and fourth births had lower birth weights compared with second and third births in all maternal ages in controlling parity, birth weight increases with maternal age up to the early 24, and then tends to level off. Male gender, maternal age 20-24 years, second and third births had a significant positive effect on birth weight. Lower family economic status and higher educational attainment were significantly associated with lower birth weight. For women in the 15-19 and 40-44 years age groups, the second birth order was associated with the most undesirable effect on birth weight. Accessibility of health care services, parity, maternal age, and socioeconomic factors are strongly associated with infants' birth weight.

The Impact of Contextual Background Fusion on Perceived Value and Quality of Unclassified Terrorism Intelligence

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Eaneff, Charles

2007-01-01

...). Simply pushing intelligence products to NTR is not enough, NTR must possess adequate contextual background in order to effectively utilize intelligence provided by the Intelligence Community (IC...

Contextuality is about identity of random variables

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dzhafarov, Ehtibar N; Kujala, Janne V

2014-01-01

Contextual situations are those in which seemingly ‘the same’ random variable changes its identity depending on the conditions under which it is recorded. Such a change of identity is observed whenever the assumption that the variable is one and the same under different conditions leads to contradictions when one considers its joint distribution with other random variables (this is the essence of all Bell-type theorems). In our Contextuality-by-Default approach, instead of asking why or how the conditions force ‘one and the same’ random variable to change ‘its’ identity, any two random variables recorded under different conditions are considered different ‘automatically.’ They are never the same, nor are they jointly distributed, but one can always impose on them a joint distribution (probabilistic coupling). The special situations when there is a coupling in which these random variables are equal with probability 1 are considered noncontextual. Contextuality means that such couplings do not exist. We argue that the determination of the identity of random variables by conditions under which they are recorded is not a causal relationship and cannot violate laws of physics. (paper)

Spatial working memory in aging and mild cognitive impairment: effects of task load and contextual cueing.

Science.gov (United States)

Kessels, Roy P C; Meulenbroek, Olga; Fernández, Guillén; Olde Rikkert, Marcel G M

2010-09-01

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is characterized by episodic memory deficits, while aspects of working memory may also be implicated, but studies into this latter domain are scarce and results are inconclusive. Using a computerized search paradigm, this study compares 25 young adults, 25 typically aging older adults and 15 amnestic MCI patients as to their working-memory capacities for object-location information and potential differential effects of memory load and additional context cues. An age-related deficit in visuospatial working-memory maintenance was found that became more pronounced with increasing task demands. The MCI group additionally showed reduced maintenance of bound information, i.e., object-location associations, again especially at elevated memory load. No effects of contextual cueing were found. The current findings indicate that working memory should be considered when screening patients for suspected MCI and monitoring its progression.

Implicit Sequence Learning and Contextual Cueing Do Not Compete for Central Cognitive Resources

Science.gov (United States)

Jimenez, Luis; Vazquez, Gustavo A.

2011-01-01

Sequence learning and contextual cueing explore different forms of implicit learning, arising from practice with a structured serial task, or with a search task with informative contexts. We assess whether these two learning effects arise simultaneously when both remain implicit. Experiments 1 and 2 confirm that a cueing effect can be observed…

Personal and contextual determinants of attitudes towards immigrants

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Petrović Boban

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The issues of immigrants and attitudes towards immigrants are an important social issue in our country, and in recent years these issues have become more topical due to the large number of immigrants from the Middle East and Africa who pass through Serbia. This research was aimed at identifying the determinants of social attitudes towards immigrants. Contextual determinants, first of all, economic security and life in a multiethnic environment, as well as individual determinants, operationalized through the HEXACO model of personality, were examined. The research was conducted on the convenience sample of 540 participants. The results have shown that economic security has no direct effect on the attitudes towards immigrants, while the multiethnic environment is an important determinant of these attitudes. Personality traits, especially Openness, as well as Honesty- Humility, have better predictive power than the contextual variables. The factors of economic security are significant moderators of the relationship between personality and attitudes towards immigrants. The importance of the obtained results for understanding the formation of attitudes towards immigrants is discussed, as well as the methodological framework for future studies of attitudes towards immigrants and other social groups.

The interplay of contextual elements in implementation: an ethnographic case study.

Science.gov (United States)

McCullough, Megan B; Chou, Ann F; Solomon, Jeffrey L; Petrakis, Beth Ann; Kim, Bo; Park, Angela M; Benedict, Ashley J; Hamilton, Alison B; Rose, Adam J

2015-02-14

Contextual elements have significant impact on uptake of health care innovations. While existing conceptual frameworks in implementation science suggest contextual elements interact with each other, little research has described how this might look in practice. To bridge this gap, this study identifies the interconnected patterns among contextual elements that influence uptake of an anticoagulation clinic improvement initiative. We completed 51 semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations across five case study sites involved in an evidence-based practice (EBP) quality improvement initiative. We analyzed data in NVivo 10 using an a priori approach based on the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) model and an emergent thematic analysis. Key contextual elements, such as leadership, teamwork, and communication, interacted with each other in contributing to site-level uptake of the EBP, often yielding results that could not be predicted by looking at just one of these elements alone. Sites with context conducive to change in these areas predictably had high uptake, while sites with uniformly weak contextual elements had low uptake. Most sites presented a mixed picture, with contextual elements being strongly supportive of change in some areas and weak or moderate in others. In some cases, we found that sites with strong context in at least one area only needed to have adequate context in other areas to yield high uptake. At other sites, weak context in just one area had the potential to contribute to low uptake, despite countervailing strengths. Even a site with positive views of EBPs could not succeed when context was weak. Interrelationships among different contextual elements can act as barriers to uptake at some sites and as facilitators at others. Accounting for interconnections among elements enables PARIHS to more fully describe the determinants of successful implementation as they operate in real-world settings.

Inhibition of Rac1 activity in the hippocampus impaired extinction of contextual fear.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Lizhu; Mao, Rongrong; Tong, Jianbin; Li, Jinnan; Chai, Anping; Zhou, Qixin; Yang, Yuexiong; Wang, Liping; Li, Lingjiang; Xu, Lin

2016-10-01

Promoting extinction of fear memory is the main treatment of fear disorders, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, fear extinction is often incomplete in these patients. Our previous study had shown that Rac1 activity in hippocampus plays a crucial role in the learning of contextual fear memory in rats. Here, we further investigated whether Rac1 activity also modulated the extinction of contextual fear memory. We found that massed extinction obviously upregulated hippocampal Rac1 activity and induced long-term extinction of contextual fear in rats. Intrahippocampal injection of the Rac1 inhibitor NSC23766 prevents extinction of contextual fear in massed extinction training rats. In contrast, long-spaced extinction downregulated Rac1 activity and caused less extinction. And Rac1 activator CN04-A promotes extinction of contextual fear in long-spaced extinction rats. Our study demonstrates that inhibition of Rac1 activity in the hippocampus impaired extinction of contextual fear, suggesting that modulating Rac1 activity of the hippocampus may be promising therapy of fear disorders. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contextual Bandits for Information Retrieval

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hofmann, K.; Whiteson, S.; de Rijke, M.

2011-01-01

In this paper we give an overview of and outlook on research at the intersection of information retrieval (IR) and contextual bandit problems. A critical problem in information retrieval is online learning to rank, where a search engine strives to improve the quality of the ranked result lists it

Study on Uncertainty and Contextual Modelling

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Klimešová, Dana; Ocelíková, E.

2007-01-01

Roč. 1, č. 1 (2007), s. 12-15 ISSN 1998-0140 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : Knowledge * contextual modelling * temporal modelling * uncertainty * knowledge management Subject RIV: BD - Theory of Information

Ecological theories of systems and contextual change in medical education.

Science.gov (United States)

Ellaway, Rachel H; Bates, Joanna; Teunissen, Pim W

2017-12-01

Contemporary medical practice is subject to many kinds of change, to which both individuals and systems have to respond and adapt. Many medical education programmes have their learners rotating through different training contexts, which means that they too must learn to adapt to contextual change. Contextual change presents many challenges to medical education scholars and practitioners, not least because of a somewhat fractured and contested theoretical basis for responding to these challenges. There is a need for robust concepts to articulate and connect the various debates on contextual change in medical education. Ecological theories of systems encompass a range of concepts of how and why systems change and how and why they respond to change. The use of these concepts has the potential to help medical education scholars explore the nature of change and understand the role it plays in affording as well as limiting teaching and learning. This paper, aimed at health professional education scholars and policy makers, explores a number of key concepts from ecological theories of systems to present a comprehensive model of contextual change in medical education to inform theory and practice in all areas of medical education. The paper considers a range of concepts drawn from ecological theories of systems, including biotic and abiotic factors, panarchy, attractors and repellers, basins of attraction, homeostasis, resilience, adaptability, transformability and hysteresis. Each concept is grounded in practical examples from medical education. Ecological theories of systems consider change and response in terms of adaptive cycles functioning at different scales and speeds. This can afford opportunities for systematic consideration of responses to contextual change in medical education, which in turn can inform the design of education programmes, activities, evaluations, assessments and research that accommodates the dynamics and consequences of contextual change. �

Socioeconomic assessment guidance report: Determining the effects of amenity characteristics on business location decisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allison, T.

1993-02-01

Evaluating perception-based impacts of hazardous waste facilities has become an increasingly important part of socioeconomic impact assessments in recent years. One area of discussion has been the potential effect of risk perceptions on business location decision making. This report evaluates the importance of environmental amenities (broadly defined to include natural, cultural, and recreational features; environmental quality; and other indexes of quality of life) with respect to decisions on locating both manufacturing and business service activities. It discusses the major theoretical and empirical issues that arise in attempting to determine the effects of environmental amenities on the location choices for businesses and business activities. This discussion is followed by a survey of major findings from the academic literature and a review of research by the state of Nevada. A number of recommendations for further research are also provided to help the US Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management better understand the importance of perception-based impacts in business location decision making and estimate the scale of socioeconomic impacts that would result from siting a high-level waste repository in Nevada

Post-Training Unilateral Amygdala Lesions Selectively Impair Contextual Fear Memories

Science.gov (United States)

Flavell, Charlotte R.; Lee, Jonathan L. C.

2012-01-01

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the dorsal hippocampus (dHPC) are both structures with key roles in contextual fear conditioning. During fear conditioning, it is postulated that contextual representations of the environment are formed in the hippocampus, which are then associated with foot shock in the amygdala. However, it is not known to what…

Contextual analysis of coping: implications for immigrants' mental health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Donnelly, Tam Truong

2002-01-01

Providing high quality and effective health care services that are culturally acceptable and appropriate to clients has become an important issue for many health care providers. This paper explores problems associated with the traditional model that views coping according to hierarchical style and traits. While some scholars who have adopted this theoretical framework have made many contributions to the development of stress and coping theories, limitations are present. Using Vietnamese immigrants' experiences as examples, I argue that coping theories should emphasize the contextual nature of stress and coping, and that coping should be viewed as a dynamic process that varies under different social, cultural, political, economic, and historical conditions. Drawing from the work of others on coping, culture, imperialism, and colonialism, I explore the way that certain cultural conceptualizations determine how individuals cope. An understanding of the contextual nature of coping and of a Vietnamese immigrant's experience of coping with stressors and illness has implications for mental health care practice and research.

Socioeconomic status as an effect modifier of alcohol consumption and harm: analysis of linked cohort data.

Science.gov (United States)

Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal; Whitley, Elise; Lewsey, Jim; Gray, Linsay; Leyland, Alastair H

2017-06-01

Alcohol-related mortality and morbidity are high in socioeconomically disadvantaged populations compared with individuals from advantaged areas. It is unclear if this increased harm reflects differences in alcohol consumption between these socioeconomic groups, reverse causation (ie, downward social selection for high-risk drinkers), or a greater risk of harm in individuals of low socioeconomic status compared with those of higher status after similar consumption. We aimed to investigate whether the harmful effects of alcohol differ by socioeconomic status, accounting for alcohol consumption and other health-related factors. The Scottish Health Surveys are record-linked cross-sectional surveys representative of the adult population of Scotland. We obtained baseline demographics and data for alcohol consumption (units per week and binge drinking) from Scottish Health Surveys done in 1995, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. We matched these data to records for deaths, admissions, and prescriptions. The primary outcome was alcohol-attributable admission or death. The relation between alcohol-attributable harm and socioeconomic status was investigated for four measures (education level, social class, household income, and area-based deprivation) using Cox proportional hazards models. The potential for alcohol consumption and other risk factors (including smoking and body-mass index [BMI]) mediating social patterning was explored in separate regression models. Reverse causation was tested by comparing change in area deprivation over time. 50 236 participants (21 777 men and 28 459 women) were included in the analytical sample, with 429 986 person-years of follow-up. Low socioeconomic status was associated consistently with strikingly raised alcohol-attributable harms, including after adjustment for weekly consumption, binge drinking, BMI, and smoking. Evidence was noted of effect modification; for example, relative to light drinkers living in

Contextual risks linking parents' adolescent marijuana use to offspring onset.

Science.gov (United States)

Kerr, David C R; Tiberio, Stacey S; Capaldi, Deborah M

2015-09-01

We studied the extent to which parent marijuana use in adolescence is associated with marijuana use onset in offspring through contextual family and peer risks. Fathers assessed (n=93) since childhood, their 146 offspring (n=83 girls), and offspring's mothers (n=85) participated in a longitudinal study. Using discrete-time survival analysis, fathers' (prospectively measured) and mothers' (retrospective) adolescent marijuana use was used to predict offspring marijuana use onset through age 19 years. Parental monitoring, child exposure to marijuana use, peer deviance, peer marijuana use, and perceptions of parent disapproval of child use were measured before or concurrent with onset. Parents' adolescent marijuana use was significantly associated with less monitoring, offspring alcohol use, the peer behaviors, exposure to adult marijuana use, and perceptions of less parent disapproval. Male gender and the two peer behaviors were positively associated with children's marijuana use onset, controlling for their alcohol use. Parents' adolescent marijuana use had a significant indirect effect on child onset through children's deviant peer affiliations and a composite contextual risk score. Parents' histories of marijuana use may contribute indirectly to children's marijuana use onset through their influence on the social environments children encounter; specifically, those characterized by more liberal use norms, exposure to marijuana use and deviant and marijuana-using peers, and less adult supervision. Given that alcohol use onset was controlled, findings suggest that the contextual factors identified here confer unique risk for child marijuana use onset. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Drinking games and contextual factors of 21st birthday drinking.

Science.gov (United States)

Neighbors, Clayton; Rodriguez, Lindsey M; Rinker, Dipali V; DiBello, Angelo M; Young, Chelsie M; Chen, Chun-Han

2014-09-01

21st birthday celebrations are among the highest risks for alcohol use throughout emerging adulthood and celebrants often experience a range of alcohol-related consequences. The present research considered what happens when drinking games are paired with an already high-risk event (i.e., 21st birthday celebrations) and how drinking games compare with other contextual factors on 21st birthdays. Approximately four days after turning 21, 1124 college students (55% women) completed an online survey assessing alcohol use and related consequences experienced during their birthday celebrations. Participants were also asked whether drinking games and other contextual factors were associated with their celebrations. Overall, 18% of participants reported playing drinking games during their 21st birthday celebrations. These individuals reported consuming more alcohol, had higher estimated BACs, and experienced more negative consequences than those who did not play drinking games. The association between playing drinking games and alcohol use and negative consequences was stronger for men. The effect of drinking games on negative consequences was mediated through elevated BAC levels. Receiving bar specials, having drinks purchased, playing drinking games, and loud music were uniquely and significantly associated with all alcohol outcomes. Together, these results suggest that drinking games are part of a larger context of risk contributing to extreme drinking on 21st birthdays. Furthermore, these results will help to facilitate interventions that are more individually tailored to target specific contextual risks, behaviors, and events.

The effect of obesity prevention interventions according to socioeconomic position: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Beauchamp, A; Backholer, K; Magliano, D; Peeters, A

2014-07-01

Obesity prevention is a major public health priority. It is important that all groups benefit from measures to prevent obesity, but we know little about the differential effectiveness of such interventions within particular population subgroups. This review aimed to identify interventions for obesity prevention that evaluated a change in adiposity according to socioeconomic position (SEP) and to determine the effectiveness of these interventions across different socioeconomic groups. A systematic search of published and grey literature was conducted. Studies that described an obesity prevention intervention and reported anthropometric outcomes according to a measure of SEP were included. Evidence was synthesized using narrative analysis. A total of 14 studies were analysed, representing a range of study designs and settings. All studies were from developed countries, with eight conducted among children. Three studies were shown to have no effect on anthropometric outcomes and were not further analysed. Interventions shown to be ineffective in lower SEP participants were primarily based on information provision directed at individual behaviour change. Studies that were shown to be effective in lower SEP participants primarily included community-based strategies or policies aimed at structural changes to the environment. Interventions targeting individual-level behaviour change may be less successful in lower SEP populations. It is essential that our efforts to prevent obesity do not leave behind the most disadvantaged members of society. © 2014 The Authors. obesity reviews © 2014 International Association for the Study of Obesity.

Employment and contextual impact of safe and unsafe sexual practices for STI and HIV: the situation in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, S M; Gao, M Y

2000-08-01

China's dual employment system plays a crucial role in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV-related safe and unsafe sexual practices among young Chinese people. Social and psychological determinants of safe and unsafe sexual practices for HIV infection among young people in Sichuan, China were examined. Our findings indicate that changes in China's social structure and employment system impact upon the social contextual involvement and socio-sexual practice of young Chinese people. The findings in the study suggest that the employment-related contextual involvement was a major predictor in the relationships between demography, information, and psychological risk-taking factors on one hand and the people's safe and unsafe sexual practices on the other. Self-employed people (officially called 'getihu') were more likely than the state-employed people to engage in unprotected sex with casual sexual partners. As China undergoes social restructuring and many state-employed people are laid off, the risk may also extend into the broader non-self-employed population as more state-employed people become involved not only in the self-employed getihu's socioeconomic activities but also in their unconventional socio-sexual practices. Collective vulnerability to STI and HIV, due to the current socio-sexual practices of the getihu young people, has created a new frontier for STI and HIV prevention in today's China, as well as demonstrating the importance of collective action with STI and AIDS prevention strategies within relevant social and sub-cultural contexts.

Impairment in extinction of contextual and cued, fear following post-training whole body irradiation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reid HJ Olsen

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Because of the use of radiation in cancer therapy, the risk of nuclear contamination from power plants, military conflicts, and terrorism, there is a compelling scientific and public health interest in the effects of environmental radiation exposure on brain function, in particular hippocampal function and learning and memory. Previous studies have emphasized changes in learning and memory following radiation exposure. These approaches have ignored the question of how radiation exposure might impact recently acquired memories, which might be acquired under traumatic circumstances (cancer treatment, nuclear disaster, etc.. To address the question of how radiation exposure might affect the processing and recall of recently acquired memories, we employed a fear-conditioning paradigm wherein animals were trained, and subsequently irradiated (whole-body X-ray irradiation 24 hours later. Animals were given two weeks to recover, and were tested for retention and extinction of hippocampus-dependent contextual fear conditioning. Exposure to irradiation following training was associated with reduced daily increases in body weights over the 22 days of the study and resulted in greater freezing levels and aberrant extinction 2 weeks later. This was also observed when the intensity of the training protocol was increased. Cued freezing levels and measures of anxiety 2 weeks after training were also higher in irradiated than sham-irradiated mice. In contrast to contextual freezing levels, cued freezing levels were even higher in irradiated mice receiving 5 shocks during training than sham-irradiated mice receiving 10 shocks during training. In addition, the effects of radiation on extinction of contextual fear were more profound than those on the extinction of cued fear. Thus, whole body irradiation elevates contextual and cued fear memory recall.

Molecular genetic contributions to socioeconomic status and intelligence.

Science.gov (United States)

Marioni, Riccardo E; Davies, Gail; Hayward, Caroline; Liewald, Dave; Kerr, Shona M; Campbell, Archie; Luciano, Michelle; Smith, Blair H; Padmanabhan, Sandosh; Hocking, Lynne J; Hastie, Nicholas D; Wright, Alan F; Porteous, David J; Visscher, Peter M; Deary, Ian J

2014-05-01

Education, socioeconomic status, and intelligence are commonly used as predictors of health outcomes, social environment, and mortality. Education and socioeconomic status are typically viewed as environmental variables although both correlate with intelligence, which has a substantial genetic basis. Using data from 6815 unrelated subjects from the Generation Scotland study, we examined the genetic contributions to these variables and their genetic correlations. Subjects underwent genome-wide testing for common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). DNA-derived heritability estimates and genetic correlations were calculated using the 'Genome-wide Complex Trait Analyses' (GCTA) procedures. 21% of the variation in education, 18% of the variation in socioeconomic status, and 29% of the variation in general cognitive ability was explained by variation in common SNPs (SEs ~ 5%). The SNP-based genetic correlations of education and socioeconomic status with general intelligence were 0.95 (SE 0.13) and 0.26 (0.16), respectively. There are genetic contributions to intelligence and education with near-complete overlap between common additive SNP effects on these traits (genetic correlation ~ 1). Genetic influences on socioeconomic status are also associated with the genetic foundations of intelligence. The results are also compatible with substantial environmental contributions to socioeconomic status.

Privacy implications of location and contextual data on the social web

OpenAIRE

Zafeiropoulou, Aristea-Maria; Millard, David; Webber, Craig; O'Hara, Kieron

2011-01-01

Location-based applications have recently begun to emerge on the Social Web. After their appearance numerous concerns with regards to location privacy have been provoked. However, these privacy concerns seem to have effects beyond location, as other contextual information can be inferred through location information. This research addresses these implications, which keep on growing on the Social Web.

Socio-economic factors affecting the participation of women in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Tools for the analyses were percentages and Chi-Square (χ2), used to test existence of relationships between level of participation and socio-economic characteristics of respondents, and correlation analysis, used to test cause-effect relationship between socio-economic variables and some indicators of cooperative ...

Individual and community level socioeconomic inequalities in contraceptive use in 10 Newly Independent States: a multilevel cross-sectional analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janevic Teresa

2012-11-01

MCU were in Central Asia, whereas at the individual-level inequalities of the largest magnitude were found in the Caucasus. There were no distinct patterns found in Eastern European countries. Conclusions Community-level socioeconomic inequalities in MCU were most pronounced in Central Asian countries, whereas individual-level socioeconomic inequalities in MCU were most pronounced in the Caucasus. It is important to consider multilevel contextual determinants of modern contraceptive use in the development of reproductive health and family planning programs.

A sequential model to link contextual risk, perception and public support for flood adaptation policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Wanyun; Xian, Siyuan; Lin, Ning; Small, Mitchell J

2017-10-01

The economic damage from coastal flooding has dramatically increased over the past several decades, owing to rapid development in shoreline areas and possible effects of climate change. To respond to these trends, it is imperative for policy makers to understand individuals' support for flood adaptation policy. Using original survey data for all coastal counties of the United States Gulf Coast merged with contextual data on flood risk, this study investigates coastal residents' support for two adaptation policy measures: incentives for relocation and funding for educational programs on emergency planning and evacuation. Specifically, this study explores the interactive relationships among contextual flood risks, perceived flood risks and policy support for flood adaptation, with the effects of social-demographic variables being controlled. Age, gender, race and partisanship are found to significantly affect individuals' policy support for both adaptation measures. The contextual flooding risks, indicated by distance from the coast, maximum wind speed and peak height of storm surge associated with the last hurricane landfall, and percentage of high-risk flood zone per county, are shown to impact one's perceptions of risk, which in turn influence one's support for both policy measures. The key finding -risk perception mediates the impact of contextual risk conditions on public support for flood management policies - highlights the need to ensure that the public is well informed by the latest scientific, engineering and economic knowledge. To achieve this, more information on current and future flood risks and options available for mitigation as well as risk communication tools are needed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Natural amyloid-β oligomers acutely impair the formation of a contextual fear memory in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Kittelberger, Kara A; Piazza, Fabrizio; Tesco, Giuseppina; Reijmers, Leon G

2012-01-01

Memory loss is one of the hallmark symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). It has been proposed that soluble amyloid-beta (Abeta) oligomers acutely impair neuronal function and thereby memory. We here report that natural Abeta oligomers acutely impair contextual fear memory in mice. A natural Abeta oligomer solution containing Abeta monomers, dimers, trimers, and tetramers was derived from the conditioned medium of 7PA2 cells, a cell line that expresses human amyloid precursor protein containing the Val717Phe familial AD mutation. As a control we used 7PA2 conditioned medium from which Abeta oligomers were removed through immunodepletion. Separate groups of mice were injected with Abeta and control solutions through a cannula into the lateral brain ventricle, and subjected to fear conditioning using two tone-shock pairings. One day after fear conditioning, mice were tested for contextual fear memory and tone fear memory in separate retrieval trials. Three experiments were performed. For experiment 1, mice were injected three times: 1 hour before and 3 hours after fear conditioning, and 1 hour before context retrieval. For experiments 2 and 3, mice were injected a single time at 1 hour and 2 hours before fear conditioning respectively. In all three experiments there was no effect on tone fear memory. Injection of Abeta 1 hour before fear conditioning, but not 2 hours before fear conditioning, impaired the formation of a contextual fear memory. In future studies, the acute effect of natural Abeta oligomers on contextual fear memory can be used to identify potential mechanisms and treatments of AD associated memory loss.

Natural Amyloid-Beta Oligomers Acutely Impair the Formation of a Contextual Fear Memory in Mice