Designing theoretically-informed implementation interventions.

Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Ontario Ministry of Healt

A behavioural framework for designing educational computer games

Research has indicated that computer games can be innovative and powerful tools for education. Indeed, combining psychological research and games design principles offers a framework for developing educational games that promote learning while maintaining high motivation of the players. If designed correctly, it appears that games can utilize the inherent motivation demonstrated by game players to teach skills that are of immediate practical benefit. The current paper explores “the edges of gaming” in terms of proposing a novel theoretical and methodological framework for the design of educational games

Does a social/behavioural gradient in dental health exist among adults? A cross-sectional study

Objective To explore the potential presence of a social/behavioural gradient in dental health among Italian adults using a cross-sectional study. Methods Caries indices were recorded among 480 subjects (52.9% men, 47.1% women) who also completed a structured self-administered social and behavioural questionnaire. A social/behavioural gradient was generated as the sum of the worst circumstances recorded on the questionnaire (cariogenic diet, smoking, lowest occupational profile, brushing teeth < twice daily, lowest educational level, uneven dental examination attendance). Results Caries figures (DMFT) and the number of filled sound teeth (FS-T) were statistically significantly linked to the social/behavioural gradient (DMFT: χ(2)(9) = 20.17 p = 0.02, Z = 0.02 p = 0.99; FS-T: χ(2)(9) = 25.68 p < 0.01, Z = -4.31 p < 0.01). DMFT was statistically significantly associated with gender and with social and behavioural variables. FS-T was higher in women (p = 0.03) and was linked to smoking ( p < 0.01). Conclusions The proposed social/behavioural gradient demonstrated how subjects reporting the worst circumstances on the questionnaire exhibited the worst dental health. The use of the gradient demonstrates that health promotion and prevention cannot be compartmentalized

Measuring the Behavioural Component of the S&P 500 and its Relationship to Financial Stress and Aggregated Earnings Surprises

Scholars in management and economics have shown increasing interest in isolating the behavioural dimension of market evolution. Indeed, by improving forecast accuracy and precision, this exercise would certainly help firms to anticipate economic fluctuations, thus leading to more profitable business and investment strategies. Yet, how to extract the behavioural component from real market data remains an open question. By using monthly data on the returns of the constituents of the S&P 500 index, we propose a Bayesian methodology to measure the extent to which market data conform to what is predicted by prospect theory (the behavioural perspective), relative to the (standard) subjective expected utility theory baseline.We document a significant behavioural component that reaches its peaks during recession periods and is correlated to measures of financial volatility, market sentiment and financial stress with expected sign. Moreover, the behavioural component decreases around macroeconomic corporate earnings news, while it reacts positively to the number of surprising announcements

Behavioural equivalences for timed systems

Timed transition systems are behavioural models that include an explicit treatment of time flow and are used to formalise the semantics of several foundational process calculi and automata. Despite their relevance, a general mathematical characterisation of timed transition systems and their behavioural theory is still missing. We introduce the first uniform framework for timed behavioural models that encompasses known behavioural equivalences such as timed bisimulations, timed language equivalences as well as their weak and time-abstract counterparts. All these notions of equivalences are naturally organised by their discriminating power in a spectrum. We prove that this result does not depend on the type of the systems under scrutiny: it holds for any generalisation of timed transition system. We instantiate our framework to timed transition systems and their quantitative extensions such as timed probabilistic systems

Typing Context-Dependent Behavioural Variation

Context Oriented Programming (COP) concerns the ability of programs to adapt to changes in their running environment. A number of programming languages endowed with COP constructs and features have been developed. However, some foundational issues remain unclear. This paper proposes adopting static analysis techniques to reason on and predict how programs adapt their behaviour. We introduce a core functional language, ContextML, equipped with COP primitives for manipulating contexts and for programming behavioural variations. In particular, we specify the dispatching mechanism, used to select the program fragments to be executed in the current active context. Besides the dynamic semantics we present an annotated type system. It guarantees that the well-typed programs adapt to any context, i.e. the dispatching mechanism always succeeds at run-time.Comment: In Proceedings PLACES 2012, arXiv:1302.579

Attribution Patterns, Attitude and Knowledge of HIV/AIDS on Sexual Behavioural Change Among Students of Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

Sexual behavioural change is central to HIV/AIDS control programme. This study was carried out among students (n = 603; average age = 18.9) of Covenant University, Nigeria. The study was designed to examine the impact of attribution patterns, attitude and knowledge of HIV/AIDS on sexual behavioural change. Three hypotheses were raised. Regression analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson’s r were used to analyze the data. The results show that attribution patterns and attitude towards HIV did not influence sexual behavioural change. In effect, knowledge of HIV was the best predictor of sexual behavioural change of respondents. The study also revealed that there was a significant effect of gender on sexual behavioural change of respondents while there was no significant effect of age. Another result shows that there was a strong correlation between perceived benefits and all the other variables. Fourteen percent (14%) of the respondents are sexually active, 520 or 86% indicated they are not sexually active. Eighty-nine percent (89%) of the respondents do not know of anyone who is HIV positive or died from AIDS while 11% knows someone who is HIV positive or had died from AIDS related complications. This study shows that young people using the perceived benefits variable in the Health Belief Model (HBM) coupled with adequate knowledge of HIV knowledge have the power and ability to change their risky sexual behaviour. Key words: Attribution patterns, Attitude, Knowledge, HIV/AIDS, Students, Young people, Perceived benefits and Sexual behavioural change

Contextualising over-engagement in work: towards a more global understanding of workaholism as an addiction

Purpose: Despite increasing empirical research into workaholism, no single definition or conceptualisation has emerged, and current understandings of workaholism are arguably problematic. The primary purpose of this paper is to clarify some of these issues, by defining and contextualising over-engagement in work that leads to severe negative consequences (i.e., workaholism) as a genuine behavioural addiction. Approach: By conceptualising work behaviours as manifestations of behavioural engagement and placing them on a continuum from withdrawal/under-engagement (e.g., persistent absenteeism) to over-engagement (e.g., work conflicting with all other activity), this paper argues that workaholism is an extreme negative aspect of behavioural engagement. It then examines the extent to which workaholism can be viewed as a genuine addiction by using criteria applied to other more traditional behavioural addictions (e.g., gambling addiction, exercise addiction), before briefly outlining an approach towards a more global understanding of workaholism. Findings: The framework presented here helps to contextualise over-engagement to work as a genuine addiction. It presents more comprehensive understanding of workaholism that takes into account the individual factors of the employee, situational factors of the working environment, and structural factors of the work activity itself. It provides theoretically derived links between workaholism and other work behaviours that can be empirically demonstrated. Practical implications: Viewing workaholism as an addiction that comprises extreme and prolonged behavioural over-engagement can be invaluable for promoting healthy work engagement. A clearer understanding of the underpinnings of workaholism can allow for a better assessment and management by practitioners. Originality/value: This paper is one the first to contextualise workaholism in relation to other work behaviours, conceptualise it as a genuine behavioural addiction, and to apply clinical criteria for addiction to under- stand workaholism as prolonged and extreme behavioural engagement