Recognising the importance of preference change: A call for a coordinated multidisciplinary research effort in the age of AI

As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and a ubiquitous presence in daily life, it is imperative to understand and manage the impact of AI systems on our lives and decisions. Modern ML systems often change user behavior (e.g. personalized recommender systems learn user preferences to deliver recommendations that change online behavior). An externality of behavior change is preference change. This article argues for the establishment of a multidisciplinary endeavor focused on understanding how AI systems change preference: Preference Science. We operationalize preference to incorporate concepts from various disciplines, outlining the importance of meta-preferences and preference-change preferences, and proposing a preliminary framework for how preferences change. We draw a distinction between preference change, permissible preference change, and outright preference manipulation. A diversity of disciplines contribute unique insights to this framework.Comment: Accepted at the AAAI-22 Workshop on AI For Behavior Change held at the Thirty-Sixth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-22), 7 pages, 1 figur

Advancing Racial Equity in Maternal-Child Health and Addressing Disparities through a Reproductive and Birth Justice Lens - Full Report

Fom 2014 to 2015, W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) partnered with the University of New Mexico evaluation team to conduct a study to examine if and how the Foundation's investments in the strategies of folic acid initiative, home visiting, doulas, breastfeeding peer counselors and baby-friendly hospitals were improving maternal-child health in WKKF's priority places in New Mexico. One key finding in the Healthy Birth & Early Development in New Mexico evaluation report was that these strategies supported a continuum-of-care that is essential for strengthening the health and wellbeing of babies, mothers, and families from preconception through a child's third year. A continuum of care framework was developed by the evaluators to capture achievable short-term outcomes such as healthy family behaviors, policy change and systems change that over time could be linked to improvement in the long-term outcomes of full-term births, healthy birth weights, exclusive access to mother's milk, decreased adverse childhood experiences, increased social support, improved parental well-being, and healthy developmental milestones.

20 Minute Neighbourhoods in a Scottish Context

The Programme for Government 2020 commits the Scottish Government to working with local government and other partners to take forward ambitions for 20 minute neighbourhoods: Places that are designed so residents have the ability to meet the vast majority of their day-to-day needs within a 20 minute walk (approximately 800 metres) of their home; through access to safe walking and cycling routes, or by public transport. This projects supports this by: 1) Considering the ambition for 20 minute neighbourhoods in Scotland, taking account of the differing settlement patterns across the country, and to highlight interventions that would support delivery of the concept, supported by findings from the baseline analysis. 2) Analysing international evidence of the success of interventions to achieve these ambitions, including identifying specific success factors, place-making impacts, barriers to success, regulatory frameworks, funding mechanisms and stakeholder engagement and buy-in. It uses five dimensions to capture the features and infrastructure, and quality of services and experience that make up a 20 minute neighbourhood: Stewardship, Civic, Movement, Resources and Spaces. The baseline assessment has shown that communities across Scotland have the required services and infrastructure that would allow them to be 20 minute neighbourhoods. This is the case across both urban and rural settlement areas

Microstructural analysis of IN617 and IN625 oxidised in the presence of steam for use in ultra-supercritical power plant

The nickel based alloys IN617 and IN625 that have been selected for their candidacy in the construction of the hottest regions of the supercritical steam cycle have been oxidised under isothermal conditions at 750 °C and atmospheric pressure in atmospheres of 100 % steam, 50/50 % steam/argon and air for up to 4,200 h. Both alloys developed a thin protective oxide under each condition. Scale thickness measurements using SEM micrographs were performed and showed that exposures in steam exhibited a higher rate of scale formation than exposures in air in both alloys. IN617 developed an extensive internal network of alumina which resulted in the formation of alloy protrusions into the scale altering scale growth kinetics, IN625 also formed alumina to a lesser extent. Voids formed in the matrix below the scale in both alloys in each environment. The extent of alumina formation alters the void morphology which eventually impacts the scale growth rate as inward scale growth occurred into the voids in IN625 but not in IN617

Intra-arterial nitroglycerin as directed acute treatment in experimental ischemic stroke

Background: Nitroglycerin (also known as glyceryl trinitrate (GTN)), a vasodilator best known for treatment of ischemic heart disease, has also been investigated for its potential therapeutic benefit in ischemic stroke. The completed Efficacy of Nitric Oxide in Stroke trial suggested that GTN has therapeutic benefit with acute (within 6 hours) transdermal systemic sustained release therapy. Objective: To examine an alternative use of GTN as an acute therapy for ischemic stroke following successful recanalization. Methods: We administered GTN IA following transient middle cerebral artery occlusion in mice. Because no standard dose of GTN is available following emergent large vessel occlusion, we performed a dose–response (3.12, 6.25, 12.5, and 25 .ig/.iL) analysis. Next, we looked at blood perfusion (flow) through the middle cerebral artery using laser Doppler flowmetry. Functional outcomes, including forced motor movement rotor rod, were assessed in the 3.12, 6.25, and 12.5 .ig/.iL groups. Histological analysis was performed using cresyl violet for infarct volume, and glial fibrillary activating protein (GFAP) and NeuN immunohistochemistry for astrocyte activation and mature neuron survival, respectively. Results: Overall, we found that acute post-stroke IA GTN had little effect on vessel dilatation after 15 min. Functional analysis showed a significant difference between GTN (3.12 and 6.25 .ig/.iL) and control at post-stroke day 1. Histological measures showed a significant reduction in infarct volume and GFAP immunoreactivity and a significant increase in NeuN. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that acute IA GTN is neuroprotective in experimental ischemic stroke and warrants further study as a potentially new stroke therapy

Determinants of National Guard Mental Health Service Utilization in VA versus Non‐VA Settings

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134155/1/hesr12446.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134155/2/hesr12446-sup-0001-AppendixSA1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134155/3/hesr12446_am.pd

Microstructural analysis of steam oxidation of IN617 for use in ultra-supercritical steam plants

The microstructural evolution of IN617 subjected to oxidising atmospheres of 100% steam, 50% steam/argon and air in the temperature range 700-750oC for exposures times up to 4,000 h at atmospheric pressure has been investigated using a range of analytical electron microscopy techniques. It has been found that for this alloy the presence of steam in the atmosphere has an effect on the oxidation kinetics, and influences the nature of the scale. It has also been shown that there are differences in the volume and nature of voids formed, and that the voids are often associated with an internal structure of alumina. Significant internal oxidation was observed, particularly in the presence of steam, and a 3D reconstruction of the microstructure using FIBSEM techniques showed that this comprised of interconnected alumina plates which followed the grain boundaries into the substrate

Intra-Arterial Nitroglycerin as Directed Acute Treatment in Experimental Ischemic Stroke

BACKGROUND: Nitroglycerin (also known as glyceryl trinitrate (GTN)), a vasodilator best known for treatment of ischemic heart disease, has also been investigated for its potential therapeutic benefit in ischemic stroke. The completed Efficacy of Nitric Oxide in Stroke trial suggested that GTN has therapeutic benefit with acute (within 6 hours) transdermal systemic sustained release therapy. OBJECTIVE: To examine an alternative use of GTN as an acute therapy for ischemic stroke following successful recanalization. METHODS: We administered GTN IA following transient middle cerebral artery occlusion in mice. Because no standard dose of GTN is available following emergent large vessel occlusion, we performed a dose-response (3.12, 6.25, 12.5, and 25 µg/µL) analysis. Next, we looked at blood perfusion (flow) through the middle cerebral artery using laser Doppler flowmetry. Functional outcomes, including forced motor movement rotor rod, were assessed in the 3.12, 6.25, and 12.5 µg/µL groups. Histological analysis was performed using cresyl violet for infarct volume, and glial fibrillary activating protein (GFAP) and NeuN immunohistochemistry for astrocyte activation and mature neuron survival, respectively. RESULTS: Overall, we found that acute post-stroke IA GTN had little effect on vessel dilatation after 15 min. Functional analysis showed a significant difference between GTN (3.12 and 6.25 µg/µL) and control at post-stroke day 1. Histological measures showed a significant reduction in infarct volume and GFAP immunoreactivity and a significant increase in NeuN. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that acute IA GTN is neuroprotective in experimental ischemic stroke and warrants further study as a potentially new stroke therapy

Getting ahead of Alzheimer’s disease: early intervention with focused ultrasound

The amyloid-β (Aβ) hypothesis implicates Aβ protein accumulation in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) onset and progression. However, therapies targeting Aβ have proven insufficient in achieving disease reversal, prompting a shift to focus on early intervention and alternative therapeutic targets. Focused ultrasound (FUS) paired with systemically-introduced microbubbles (μB) is a non-invasive technique for targeted and transient blood–brain barrier opening (BBBO), which has demonstrated Aβ and tau reduction, as well as memory improvement in models of late-stage AD. However, similar to drug treatments for AD, this approach is not sufficient for complete reversal of advanced, symptomatic AD. Here we aim to determine whether early intervention with FUS-BBBO in asymptomatic AD could delay disease onset. Thus, the objective of this study is to measure the protective effects of FUS-BBBO on anxiety, memory and AD-associated protein levels in female and male triple transgenic (3xTg) AD mice treated at an early age and disease state. Here we show that early, repeated intervention with FUS-BBBO decreased anxiety-associated behaviors in the open field test by 463.02 and 37.42% in male and female cohorts, respectively. FUS-BBBO preserved female aptitude for learning in the active place avoidance paradigm, reducing the shock quadrant time by 30.03 and 31.01% in the final long-term and reversal learning trials, respectively. Finally, FUS-BBBO reduced hippocampal accumulation of Aβ40, Aβ42, and total tau in females by 12.54, 13.05, and 3.57%, respectively, and reduced total tau in males by 18.98%. This demonstration of both cognitive and pathological protection could offer a solution for carriers of AD-associated mutations as a safe, non-invasive technique to delay the onset of the cognitive and pathological effects of AD