Concern for information privacy in South Africa: An empirical study using the OIPCI

Please follow the DOI link at the top of the record to access the published version of this article online on the website of the journal.The information privacy concern of consumers concerning the processing of their personal information by online organizations (websites) is investigated in this study by means of a quantitative approach. An overview of existing concerns about information privacy instruments are presented based on a literature review. The Online Information Privacy Concern Instrument (OIPCI) is used to study consumers’ expectations and experience regarding information privacy principles in order to identify their concerns about information privacy. The study was conducted in South Africa with a demographical representative sample of 1000 participants. Gaps were identified where consumers experienced that online organizations were not meeting their privacy expectations. This indicated that the regulatory requirements (in this case, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) are perceived as not being met. The results indicate that while consumers in South Africa have a high expectation for privacy, it is not met in practice. Corrective action and interventions are required from a government and online organization perspective.Women in Research Grant of UNISA.School of Computin

Machine learning for genetic prediction of psychiatric disorders: a systematic review

Machine learning methods have been employed to make predictions in psychiatry from genotypes, with the potential to bring improved prediction of outcomes in psychiatric genetics; however, their current performance is unclear. We aim to systematically review machine learning methods for predicting psychiatric disorders from genetics alone and evaluate their discrimination, bias and implementation. Medline, PsycInfo, Web of Science and Scopus were searched for terms relating to genetics, psychiatric disorders and machine learning, including neural networks, random forests, support vector machines and boosting, on 10 September 2019. Following PRISMA guidelines, articles were screened for inclusion independently by two authors, extracted, and assessed for risk of bias. Overall, 63 full texts were assessed from a pool of 652 abstracts. Data were extracted for 77 models of schizophrenia, bipolar, autism or anorexia across 13 studies. Performance of machine learning methods was highly varied (0.48–0.95 AUC) and differed between schizophrenia (0.54–0.95 AUC), bipolar (0.48–0.65 AUC), autism (0.52–0.81 AUC) and anorexia (0.62–0.69 AUC). This is likely due to the high risk of bias identified in the study designs and analysis for reported results. Choices for predictor selection, hyperparameter search and validation methodology, and viewing of the test set during training were common causes of high risk of bias in analysis. Key steps in model development and validation were frequently not performed or unreported. Comparison of discrimination across studies was constrained by heterogeneity of predictors, outcome and measurement, in addition to sample overlap within and across studies. Given widespread high risk of bias and the small number of studies identified, it is important to ensure established analysis methods are adopted. We emphasise best practices in methodology and reporting for improving future studies

Courtship behavior in Drosophila melanogaster: towards a 'courtship connectome'.

The construction of a comprehensive structural, and importantly functional map of the network of elements and connections forming the brain represents the Holy Grail for research groups working in disparate disciplines. Although technical limitations have restricted the mapping of human and mouse 'connectomes' to the level of brain regions, a finer degree of functional resolution is attainable in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, due to the armamentarium of genetic tools available for this model organism. Currently, one of the most amenable approaches employed by Drosophila neurobiologists involves mapping neuronal circuitry underlying complex innate behaviors - courtship being a classic paradigm. We discuss recent studies aimed at identifying the cellular components of courtship neural circuits, mapping function in these circuits and defining causal relationships between neural activity and behavior

Aggression: tachykinin is all the rage.

Animals are constantly receiving information about their environment that must be filtered to ensure that they respond in the appropriate manner. New data have revealed how neurons in male Drosophila promote a heightened state of aggression in response to a rival male

A circuit logic for sexually shared and dimorphic aggressive behaviors in Drosophila

Aggression involves both sexually monomorphic and dimorphic actions. How the brain implements these two types of actions is poorly understood. We have identified three cell types that regulate aggression in Drosophila: one type is sexually shared, and the other two are sex specific. Shared common aggression-promoting (CAP) neurons mediate aggressive approach in both sexes, whereas functionally downstream dimorphic but homologous cell types, called male-specific aggression-promoting (MAP) neurons in males and fpC1 in females, control dimorphic attack. These symmetric circuits underlie the divergence of male and female aggressive behaviors, from their monomorphic appetitive/motivational to their dimorphic consummatory phases. The strength of the monomorphic → dimorphic functional connection is increased by social isolation in both sexes, suggesting that it may be a locus for isolation-dependent enhancement of aggression. Together, these findings reveal a circuit logic for the neural control of behaviors that include both sexually monomorphic and dimorphic actions, which may generalize to other organisms

Interactions between the sexual identity of the nervous system and the social environment mediate lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster

Sex differences in lifespan are ubiquitous, but the underlying causal factors remain poorly understood. Inter- and intrasexual social interactions are well known to influence lifespan in many taxa, but it has proved challenging to separate the role of sex-specific behaviours from wider physiological differences between the sexes. To address this problem, we genetically manipulated the sexual identity of the nervous system—and hence sexual behaviour—in Drosophila melanogaster, and measured lifespan under varying social conditions. Consistent with previous studies, masculinization of the nervous system in females induced male-specific courtship behaviour and aggression, while nervous system feminization in males induced male–male courtship and reduced aggression. Control females outlived males, but masculinized female groups displayed male-like lifespans and male-like costs of group living. By varying the mixture of control and masculinized females within social groups, we show that male-specific behaviours are costly to recipients, even when received from females. However, consistent with recent findings, our data suggest courtship expression to be surprisingly low cost. Overall, our study indicates that nervous system-mediated expression of sex-specific behaviour per se—independent of wider physiological differences between the sexes, or the receipt of aggression or courtship—plays a limited role in mediating sex differences in lifespan

Activation of latent courtship circuitry in the brain of Drosophila females induces male-like behaviors

Courtship in Drosophila melanogaster offers a powerful experimental paradigm for the study of innate sexually dimorphic behaviors [1, 2]. Fruit fly males exhibit an elaborate courtship display toward a potential mate [1, 2]. Females never actively court males, but their response to the male’s display determines whether mating will actually occur. Sex-specific behaviors are hardwired into the nervous system via the actions of the sex determination genes doublesex (dsx) and fruitless (fru) [1]. Activation of male-specific dsx/fru+ P1 neurons in the brain initiates the male’s courtship display [3, 4], suggesting that neurons unique to males trigger this sex-specific behavior. In females, dsx+ neurons play a pivotal role in sexual receptivity and post-mating behaviors [1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Yet it is still unclear how dsx+ neurons and dimorphisms in these circuits give rise to the different behaviors displayed by males and females. Here, we manipulated the function of dsx+ neurons in the female brain to investigate higher-order neurons that drive female behaviors. Surprisingly, we found that activation of female dsx+ neurons in the brain induces females to behave like males by promoting male-typical courtship behaviors. Activated females display courtship toward conspecific males or females, as well other Drosophila species. We uncovered specific dsx+ neurons critical for driving male courtship and identified pheromones that trigger such behaviors in activated females. While male courtship behavior was thought to arise from male-specific central neurons, our study shows that the female brain is equipped with latent courtship circuitry capable of inducing this male-specific behavioral program

Embryonic progenitor pools generate diversity in fine-scale excitatory cortical subnetworks

The mammalian neocortex is characterized by a variety of neuronal cell types and precise arrangements of synaptic connections, but the processes that generate this diversity are poorly understood. Here we examine how a pool of embryonic progenitor cells consisting of apical intermediate progenitors (aIPs) contribute to diversity within the upper layers of mouse cortex. In utero labeling combined with single-cell RNA-sequencing reveals that aIPs can generate transcriptionally defined glutamatergic cell types, when compared to neighboring neurons born from other embryonic progenitor pools. Whilst sharing layer-associated morphological and functional properties, simultaneous patch clamp recordings and optogenetic studies reveal that aIP-derived neurons exhibit systematic biases in both their intralaminar monosynaptic connectivity and the post-synaptic partners that they target within deeper layers of cortex. Multiple cortical progenitor pools therefore represent an important factor in establishing diversity amongst local and long-range fine-scale glutamatergic connectivity, which generates subnetworks for routing excitatory synaptic information

Situational privacy concerns and antecedent factors.

This study examines the factors that contribute to context-based, or situational, privacy concerns drawing upon the theoretic lens of attribution theory. We posit that situational privacy concerns develop through individuals\u27 causal explanations of prior privacy incidents in addition to their trait-like, or dispositional, privacy concerns. Analysis of data from 156 participants confirms the significance of the relationships between a number of antecedent constructs and situational privacy concerns. The hypotheses developed to test these relationships were all supported through partial least squares, as were the psychometric properties of the scales used. The results further our understanding of context-based privacy concerns, particularly the mechanics of attribution in blaming, and holding online service providers responsible for privacy transgressions. Insights into situational privacy concerns help online service providers handle and ameliorate these concerns