Preserving the impossible: conservation of soft-sediment hominin footprint sites and strategies for three-dimensional digital data capture.

Human footprints provide some of the most publically emotive and tangible evidence of our ancestors. To the scientific community they provide evidence of stature, presence, behaviour and in the case of early hominins potential evidence with respect to the evolution of gait. While rare in the geological record the number of footprint sites has increased in recent years along with the analytical tools available for their study. Many of these sites are at risk from rapid erosion, including the Ileret footprints in northern Kenya which are second only in age to those at Laetoli (Tanzania). Unlithified, soft-sediment footprint sites such these pose a significant geoconservation challenge. In the first part of this paper conservation and preservation options are explored leading to the conclusion that to 'record and digitally rescue' provides the only viable approach. Key to such strategies is the increasing availability of three-dimensional data capture either via optical laser scanning and/or digital photogrammetry. Within the discipline there is a developing schism between those that favour one approach over the other and a requirement from geoconservationists and the scientific community for some form of objective appraisal of these alternatives is necessary. Consequently in the second part of this paper we evaluate these alternative approaches and the role they can play in a 'record and digitally rescue' conservation strategy. Using modern footprint data, digital models created via optical laser scanning are compared to those generated by state-of-the-art photogrammetry. Both methods give comparable although subtly different results. This data is evaluated alongside a review of field deployment issues to provide guidance to the community with respect to the factors which need to be considered in digital conservation of human/hominin footprints

Phenotyping Superagers Using Resting-State fMRI

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Superagers are defined as older adults with episodic memory performance similar or superior to that in middle-aged adults. This study aimed to investigate the key differences in discriminative networks and their main nodes between superagers and cognitively average elderly controls. In addition, we sought to explore differences in sensitivity in detecting these functional activities across the networks at 3T and 7T MR imaging fields. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-five subjects 80 years of age or older were screened using a detailed neuropsychological protocol, and 31 participants, comprising 14 superagers and 17 cognitively average elderly controls, were included for analysis. Participants underwent resting-state-fMRI at 3T and 7T MR imaging. A prediction classification algorithm using a penalized regression model on the measurements of the network was used to calculate the probabilities of a healthy older adult being a superager. Additionally, ORs quantified the influence of each node across preselected networks. RESULTS: The key networks that differentiated superagers and elderly controls were the default mode, salience, and language networks. The most discriminative nodes (ORs > 1) in superagers encompassed areas in the precuneus posterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction, temporal pole, extrastriate superior cortex, and insula. The prediction classification model for being a superager showed better performance using the 7T compared with 3T resting-state-fMRI data set. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the functional connectivity in the default mode, salience, and language networks can provide potential imaging biomarkers for predicting superagers. The 7T field holds promise for the most appropriate study setting to accurately detect the functional connectivity patterns in superagers

Perceived barriers and facilitators of exercise and healthy dietary choices : a study of employees and managers within a large transport organisation

Objective. The objective of the research was to examine employees’ perceived barriers and facilitators of physical activity and healthy dietary choices, and managers’ perceptions of how to facilitate physical activity and healthy dietary choices among their team members. Design. A cross-sectional and qualitative design was used. Setting. Participants were employees from a large public sector organisation (N= 121), who were asked about the barriers to and facilitators of maintaining regular exercise and healthy dietary choices. Managers were additionally asked about methods for facilitating physical activity and healthy dietary choices among their team members. Methods. The research used both quantitative and qualitative methodology, with categorical and open ended survey questions. Results. Thematic analysis revealed similar themes for both physical activity and healthy dietary choices, with participants citing working patterns, commuting times, family commitments, job characteristics, and lack of motivation as barriers to exercise and healthy dietary choices. Both employees and managers identified similar facilitators of exercise and healthy dietary choices, such as improved information, facilities, and working routines. Conclusion. The results provide an insight into the perceived barriers and facilitators to adopting a healthy lifestyle among a sample of employees with differing shift patterns and job roles. The results are discussed in relation to suggested methods for promoting physical activity and healthy dietary choices at work

Enhancing assertive community treatment with cognitive behavioral social skills training for schizophrenia: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia leads to profound disability in everyday functioning (e.g., difficulty finding and maintaining employment, housing, and personal relationships). Medications can effectively reduce positive symptoms (e.g., hallucinations and delusions), but they do not meaningfully improve daily life functioning. Psychosocial evidence-based practices (EBPs) improve functioning, but these EBPs are not available to most people with schizophrenia. The field must close the research and service delivery gap by adapting EBPs for schizophrenia to facilitate widespread implementation in community settings. Our hybrid effectiveness and implementation study represents an initiative to bridge this divide. In this study we will test whether an existing EBP (i.e., Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training (CBSST)) modified to work in practice settings (i.e., Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams) commonly available to persons with schizophrenia results in better consumer outcomes. We will also identify key factors relevant to developing future CBSST implementation strategies. METHODS/DESIGN: For the effectiveness study component, persons with schizophrenia will be recruited from existing publicly funded ACT teams operating in community settings. Participants will be randomized to one of the 2 treatments (ACT alone or ACT + Adapted CBSST) and followed longitudinally for 18 months with assessments every 18 weeks after baseline (5 in total). The primary outcome domain is psychosocial functioning (e.g., everyday living skills and activities related to employment, education, and housing) as measured by self-report, testing, and observation. Additional outcome domains of interest include mediators of change in functioning, symptoms, and quality of services. Primary analyses will be conducted using linear mixed-effects models for continuous data. The implementation study component consists of a structured, mixed qualitative-quantitative methodology (i.e., Concept Mapping) to characterize and assess the implementation experience from multiple stakeholder perspectives in order to inform future implementation initiatives. DISCUSSION: Adapting CBSST to fit into the ACT service delivery context found throughout the United States creates an opportunity to substantially increase the number of persons with schizophrenia who could have access to and benefit from EBPs. As part of the implementation learning process training materials and treatment workbooks have been revised to promote easier use of CBSST in the context of brief community-based ACT visits. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02254733. Date of registration: 25 April 2014

Mapping structural diversity in networks sharing a given degree distribution and global clustering: Adaptive resolution grid search evolution with Diophantine equation-based mutations

Methods that generate networks sharing a given degree distribution and global clustering can induce changes in structural properties other than that controlled for. Diversity in structural properties, in turn, can affect the outcomes of dynamical processes operating on those networks. Since exhaustive sampling is not possible, we propose a novel evolutionary framework for mapping this structural diversity. The three main features of this framework are: (a) subgraph-based encoding of networks, (b) exact mutations based on solving systems of Diophantine equations, and (c) heuristic diversity-driven mechanism to drive resolution changes in the MapElite algorithm.We show that our framework can elicit networks with diversity in their higher-order structure and that this diversity affects the behaviour of the complex contagion model. Through a comparison with state of the art clustered network generation methods, we demonstrate that our approach can uncover a comparably diverse range of networks without needing computationally unfeasible mixing times. Further, we suggest that the subgraph-based encoding provides greater confidence in the diversity of higher-order network structure for low numbers of samples and is the basis for explaining our results with complex contagion model. We believe that this framework could be applied to other complex landscapes that cannot be practically mapped via exhaustive sampling

Developing a digital intervention for cancer survivors: an evidence-, theory- and person-based approach

This paper illustrates a rigorous approach to developing digital interventions using an evidence-, theory- and person-based approach. Intervention planning included a rapid scoping review which identified cancer survivors’ needs, including barriers and facilitators to intervention success. Review evidence (N=49 papers) informed the intervention’s Guiding Principles, theory-based behavioural analysis and logic model. The intervention was optimised based on feedback on a prototype intervention through interviews (N=96) with cancer survivors and focus groups with NHS staff and cancer charity workers (N=31). Interviews with cancer survivors highlighted barriers to engagement, such as concerns about physical activity worsening fatigue. Focus groups highlighted concerns about support appointment length and how to support distressed participants. Feedback informed intervention modifications, to maximise acceptability, feasibility and likelihood of behaviour change. Our systematic method for understanding user views enabled us to anticipate and address important barriers to engagement. This methodology may be useful to others developing digital interventions

New Constraints (and Motivations) for Abelian Gauge Bosons in the MeV-TeV Mass Range

We survey the phenomenological constraints on abelian gauge bosons having masses in the MeV to multi-GeV mass range (using precision electroweak measurements, neutrino-electron and neutrino-nucleon scattering, electron and muon anomalous magnetic moments, upsilon decay, beam dump experiments, atomic parity violation, low-energy neutron scattering and primordial nucleosynthesis). We compute their implications for the three parameters that in general describe the low-energy properties of such bosons: their mass and their two possible types of dimensionless couplings (direct couplings to ordinary fermions and kinetic mixing with Standard Model hypercharge). We argue that gauge bosons with very small couplings to ordinary fermions in this mass range are natural in string compactifications and are likely to be generic in theories for which the gravity scale is systematically smaller than the Planck mass - such as in extra-dimensional models - because of the necessity to suppress proton decay. Furthermore, because its couplings are weak, in the low-energy theory relevant to experiments at and below TeV scales the charge gauged by the new boson can appear to be broken, both by classical effects and by anomalies. In particular, if the new gauge charge appears to be anomalous, anomaly cancellation does not also require the introduction of new light fermions in the low-energy theory. Furthermore, the charge can appear to be conserved in the low-energy theory, despite the corresponding gauge boson having a mass. Our results reduce to those of other authors in the special cases where there is no kinetic mixing or there is no direct coupling to ordinary fermions, such as for recently proposed dark-matter scenarios.Comment: 49 pages + appendix, 21 figures. This is the final version which appears in JHE

Cognitive and social functioning correlates of employment among people with severe mental illness

We assess how social and cognitive functioning is associated to gaining employment for 213 people diagnosed with severe mental illness taking part in employment programs in Andalusia (Spain). We used the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status and the Social Functioning Scale and conducted two binary logistical regression analyses. Response variables were: having a job or not, in ordinary companies (OCs) and social enterprises (SEs), and working in and OC or not. There were two variables with significant adjusted odds ratios for having a job: “attention” and “Educational level”. There were five variables with significant odds ratios for having a job in an OC: “Sex”, “Educational level”, “Attention”, “Communication”, and “Independence-competence”. The study looks at the possible benefits of combining employment with support and social enterprises in employment programs for these people and underlines how both social and cognitive functioning are central to developing employment models