A rank based social norms model of how people judge their levels of drunkenness whilst intoxicated

Background: A rank based social norms model predicts that drinkers’ judgements about their drinking will be based on the rank of their breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the immediate environment, rather than their actual breath alcohol level, with lower relative rank associated with greater feelings of safety. This study tested this hypothesis and examined how people judge their levels of drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking whilst they are intoxicated in social drinking environments. Methods: Breath alcohol testing of 1,862 people (mean age = 26.96 years; 61.86 % male) in drinking environments. A subset (N = 400) also answered four questions asking about their perceptions of their drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking (plus background measures). Results: Perceptions of drunkenness and the health consequences of drinking were regressed on: (a) breath alcohol level, (b) the rank of the breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the same environment, and (c) covariates. Only rank of breath alcohol level predicted perceptions: How drunk they felt (b 3.78, 95 % CI 1.69 5.87), how extreme they regarded their drinking that night (b 3.7, 95 % CI 1.3 6.20), how at risk their long-term health was due to their current level of drinking (b 4.1, 95 % CI 0.2 8.0) and how likely they felt they would experience liver cirrhosis (b 4.8. 95 % CI 0.7 8.8). People were more influenced by more sober others than by more drunk others. Conclusion: Whilst intoxicated and in drinking environments, people base judgements regarding their drinking on how their level of intoxication ranks relative to that of others of the same gender around them, not on their actual levels of intoxication. Thus, when in the company of others who are intoxicated, drinkers were found to be more likely to underestimate their own level of drinking, drunkenness and associated risks. The implications of these results, for example that increasing the numbers of sober people in night time environments could improve subjective assessments of drunkenness, are discussed

Token-based typology and word order entropy: A study based on universal dependencies

The present paper discusses the benefits and challenges of token-based typology, which takes into account the frequencies of words and constructions in language use. This approach makes it possible to introduce new criteria for language classification, which would be difficult or impossible to achieve with the traditional, type-based approach. This point is illustrated by several quantitative studies of word order variation, which can be measured as entropy at different levels of granularity. I argue that this variation can be explained by general functional mechanisms and pressures, which manifest themselves in language use, such as optimization of processing (including avoidance of ambiguity) and grammaticalization of predictable units occurring in chunks. The case studies are based on multilingual corpora, which have been parsed using the Universal Dependencies annotation scheme

The CASE Programme Implemented Across the Primary and Secondary School Transition in Ireland

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.In the Irish education system, there is little continuity between the primary and secondary education systems. The transfer between these systems is particularly problematic in the area of science. In order to alleviate some of these problems, as well as to enhance the cognitive development of students, the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education programme was adapted for use and implemented across the primary–secondary school transition in Ireland. The programme was delivered in a variety of ways across the two levels, including the teacher and researcher teaching the programmes individually and team-teaching arrangements. The results on cognitive development measures showed that the students who were taught the programme in primary and secondary school made significant gains, when compared to the non-intervention group. There were also gains evident for students who only received one part of the programme (i.e. in either primary or secondary school). The greater gains, in terms of effect size, were evident at secondary school. The rationale, methodology and results are detailed in this paper

Haptics Rendering and Applications

There has been significant progress in haptic technologies but the incorporation of haptics into virtual environments is still in its infancy. A wide range of the new society's human activities including communication, education, art, entertainment, commerce and science would forever change if we learned how to capture, manipulate and reproduce haptic sensory stimuli that are nearly indistinguishable from reality. For the field to move forward, many commercial and technological barriers need to be overcome. By rendering how objects feel through haptic technology, we communicate information that might reflect a desire to speak a physically- based language that has never been explored before. Due to constant improvement in haptics technology and increasing levels of research into and development of haptics-related algorithms, protocols and devices, there is a belief that haptics technology has a promising future

Enhancing engagement in evidence-based tobacco cessation treatment for smokers with mental illness: A pilot randomized trial.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the efficacy of a brief telephone-delivered Motivational Interviewing (MI)-based intervention to facilitate engagement in evidence-based cessation treatment for Veterans with mental illness referred to smoking cessation treatment.Methods86 military Veteran smokers with mental illness were recruited from a tobacco cessation consult clinic and randomized to receive either a MI-based treatment engagement intervention (TE; n = 48) or a non-MI assessment and information control (CON; n = 38) condition. Intervention was delivered during a single brief telephone contact. Primary engagement outcomes were 1) attending a treatment session within 30 days and 2) combination treatment (attending session plus using pharmacotherapy). Cessation outcomes included self-reported 24 h cessation attempts and 7 day point abstinence at 3 months post-intervention. Outcomes were assessed at 1 and 3 months post intervention.ResultsOutcome analyses included 85 participants (47 TE, 38 CON) using an intent-to-treat analytic approach. Participants were on average 49.5 (13.4) years old, 88% Male, 59% white, 18% African American and 14% Hispanic/Latino(a). Following intervention delivery TE and CON participants did not differ on likelihood of attending a treatment session during the subsequent 30 days (47% vs 45%, respectively). A significant difference was observed when classified as utilizing combination treatment, 40% of TE versus 18% of CON reported use of smoking cessation medication and behavioral counseling (p = 0.04). No statistical differences were observed for cessation outcomes, although more TE than CON participants reported 7 day point abstinence at 3 months post-intervention (30% vs 18%).ConclusionsThe present pilot study provides initial evidence for the feasibility, acceptability and efficacy of a telephone delivered TE intervention for enhancing engagement in combinationevidence evidence-based treatment in a sample of Veteran smokers with mental illness referred to smoking cessation treatment. Smokers with mental illness typically have greater difficulty stopping smoking than those without mental illness. Increased engagement in combination treatment thus has the potential to increase quit rates and ultimately reduce the burden of tobacco use for this population

Research on food healthiness: Supporting decisions on public health, package design, and everyday consumption situations

Food marketing can be used as a means to combat the current obesity epidemic by increasing the healthiness of a consumer’s diet. The negative and positive influence of marketing practices on food intake has been investigated for advertisement via traditional (media) and modern (online, in-store, events, etc.) channels, branding campaigns, or product placement. Another increasingly applied, yet underresearched marketing tool to communicate with consumers is product packaging. Therefore, this cumulative dissertation empirically investigates consumers’ understanding of healthy nutrition and effects of multiple package design elements on subjective food healthiness perceptions. The first article (Chapter 2) provides an exploration of fundamental lay theories regarding healthy nutrition among German consumers by using Q methodology. Relating to package design effects, Chapter 3 implicitly and explicitly establishes basic and food-related design-healthiness association for color lightness (vs. darkness) and shape roundness (vs. angularity). Chapter 4 examines how the design factor weight—as expressed by light-weighted vs. heavy-weighted colors and typefaces applied on a package design—influences the respective food healthiness perception. It also reveals boundary conditions of the effect for individuals’ health regulatory focus. Following up on this, Chapter 5 investigates the overall shape of a package design, i.e., its slimness (vs. thickness) and how it subsequently shapes food healthiness perceptions depending on participants’ gender and body mass index (BMI). It also introduces the social construct of self-referencing as an explanatory mechanism. The last chapter extends design-related findings by utilizing symbolic meaning in product images on packages that are shown to not only impact a food’s healthiness, but perceptions of its level of processing, quality, and, ultimately, its actual taste. Findings can be used to address the current public health concern by deriving implications for public health officials, marketing managers, and the informed consumer

Ambiguities and paradoxes in a competence-based approach to vocational education and training in France

This article aims to show the effects of the prevalence of the competence regime within several sectors of vocational education and training in France. The first part of the article outlines the origin of the concept of competence and the evolution of its meaning. Later, the underlying theoretical and epistemological foundations are examined and two different paradigms are distinguished. The second part of the article focuses on ambiguities and paradoxes of effect of competence approaches, in specific educational programmes in the healthcare professions and social work in France. This study is based on the analysis of a corpus of documents concerning French vocational education and training that use a competence-based approach. (DIPF/Orig.

Negative body image and cognitive biases to body size

This thesis explored the relationship between cognitive biases to body size and one’s developed levels of body image concerns and weight status. Women with higher body image concerns were hypothesised to process body-related information in a biased fashion, specifically, to choose thin body ideals and rate thinner bodies higher on attractiveness, display an attentional bias towards thin bodies, and to estimate their own body size inaccurately. In study 1 (N = 84), although an attentional bias to thin bodies was not found, a positive thinness bias in young females was identified and related to one’s level of body image concerns. In study 2 (N = 61), an even more pronounced positive thinness bias was identified in a female sample with average to high levels of body image concerns. The study provided evidence that this bias can be successfully modified and that shifting the interpretation of body size can result in less extreme attitudes towards body size and improve one’s negative body image. Study 3 showed that a positive attitude towards thin female bodies exists in both young men (N = 67) and women (N = 67), but the choice of attractiveness ideals is related to one’s body image only when judging the bodies of one’s own gender. Study 4 (N = 87) indicated that regardless of one’s weight status, women higher in body image concerns present a greater discrepancy between their estimated and ideal size. However, the magnitude of one’s body size underestimation and inaccuracy in judging the amount of weight one would need to lose to achieve their body ideal was related to body image concerns for overweight and obese, but not normal weight women. Overall, the results show that cognitive body biases exist in young women and are related to one’s body image concerns and weight status