Using visual cues for promoting a pro-environmental behavior

El uso excesivo de bolsas plásticas tiene severas consecuencias ambientales. El objetivo de esta investigación fue evaluar la influencia de un estímulo visual alusivo a la contaminación ambiental para reducir la conducta de llevar bolsas plásticas en un contexto natural. Para ello, se registró el comportamiento de 166 clientes de un comercio de venta de materiales de estudio bajo dos condiciones: (a) presencia de la imagen de un basural y (b) presencia de una imagen sin contaminación ambiental. Los resultados indicaron que la cantidad de sujetos que llevó bolsa plástica en presencia de la imagen de contaminación fue menor que frente al estimulo alternativo. Si bien la asociación entre ambas variables fue marginalmente significativa, la cantidad de personas que llevó la bolsa en la condición contaminación estuvo significativamente por debajo de lo esperado por azar. A su vez, se observó que la influencia de la imagen sólo fue significativa para las mujeres. Estos resultados indican que la influencia de la imagen sobre la conducta sería sutil y generalizan las evidencias previas acerca del efecto de las claves visuales en el comportamiento de los consumidores a una conducta pro-ambiental. Se analiza el potencial de esta técnica de bajo costo para la modificación de comportamientos ambientales.Excessive use of carrier plastic bags has severe environmental consequences. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of visual stimuli for reducing the use of plastic bags in a natural context. In one condition, customers of a copy shop were exposed to an image of a landfill, whereas in the other they were exposed to the image of a landscape without pollution. The results indicated that the number of customers that took the plastic bag in the presence of the landfill image was lower than in the alternative condition. Whilst association between the two variables was statistically marginal, the number of people who carried the bag in the landfill condition was significantly lower than expected by chance. In turn, it was observed that reduction in plastic bag use was significantly higher for women. These results indicate that the landfill image would have a subtle influence over plastic carrier bag use behavior and generalize previous findings about the effect of visual cues on consumer behavior pro-environmental action. We analyze the potential of this low-cost technique for environmental behavior change.Fil: Ferreiro, Julián. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicologia; ArgentinaFil: Putrino, Natalia Inés. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Caballero, Romina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicologia; ArgentinaFil: Moreno, Camilo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicologia; ArgentinaFil: Streiker Díaz, Johann. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicologia; ArgentinaFil: Franco, Paul. Universidad Abierta Interamericana. Facultad de Psicologia; ArgentinaFil: Mazzeo, Nadia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomia; ArgentinaFil: Jakovcevic, Adriana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucuman. Instituto de Investigacion En Luz, Ambiente y Vision; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicologia; Argentina. Universidad Abierta Interamericana; Argentin

A Piezoelectric Passive Wireless Sensor for Monitoring Strain

Interest in passive wireless sensing has grown over the past few decades to meet demands in structural health monitoring.(Deivasigamani et al., 2013; Wilson and Juarez, 2014) This work describes a passive wireless sensor for monitoring strain, which does not have an embedded battery or chip. Without an embedded battery, the passive wireless sensor has the potential to maintain its functionality over long periods in remote/harsh environments. This work also focuses on monitoring small strain (less than 1000 micro-). The wireless sensing system includes a reader unit, a coil-like transponder, and a sensing unit. It operates in the Megahertz (MHz) frequency range, which allows for a few centimeters of separation between the reader and sensing unit during measurements. The sensing unit is a strain-sensitive piezoelectric resonator that maximizes the energy efficiency at the resonance frequency, so it converts nanoscale mechanical variations to detectable differences in electrical signal. In response to an external loading, the piezoelectric sensor breaks from its original electromechanical equilibrium, and the resonant frequency shifts as the system reaches a new balanced equilibrium. In this work, the fixture of the sensing unit is a small, sticker-like package that converts the surface strain of a test material to measurable shifts in resonant frequencies. Furthermore, electromechanical modeling provides a lumped-parameter model of the system to describe and predict the measured wireless signals of the sensor. Detailed characterization demonstrates how this wireless sensor has resolution comparable to that of conventional wired strain sensors for monitoring small strain

Uso de Claves Visuales para la Promoción de una Conducta Pro-Ambiental

El uso excesivo de bolsas plásticas tiene severas consecuencias ambientales. El objetivo de esta investigación fue evaluar la influencia de un estímulo visual alusivo a la contaminación ambiental para reducir la conducta de llevar bolsas plásticas en un contexto natural. Para ello, se registró el comportamiento de 166 clientes de un comercio de venta de materiales de estudio bajo dos condiciones: (a) presencia de la imagen de un basural y (b) presencia de una imagen sin contaminación. Los resultados indicaron que la cantidad de sujetos que llevó bolsa plástica en presencia de la imagen de contaminación fue menor que frente al estímulo alternativo. Si bien la asociación entre ambas variables fue marginalmente significativa, la cantidad de personas que llevó la bolsa en la condición contaminación estuvo  significativamente por debajo de lo esperado por azar. A su vez, se observó que la influencia de la imagen sólo fue significativa para las mujeres. Estos resultados indican que la influencia de la imagen sobre la conducta sería sutil y generalizan las evidencias previas acerca del efecto de las claves visuales en el comportamiento de los consumidores a una conducta pro-ambiental. Se analiza el potencial de esta técnica de bajo costo para la modificación de comportamientos ambientales

Effects of reducing the frequency and duration criteria for binge eating on lifetime prevalence of bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder: Implications for DSM-5

We assessed the impact of reducing the binge eating frequency and duration thresholds on the diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED)

Childhood abuse and eating psychopathology: the mediating role of core beliefs

This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of early maladaptive schemas (core beliefs) in the relationship between childhood abuse and eating psychopathology. Three self-report questionnaires assessing experiences of childhood abuse, eating psychopathology, and levels of maladaptive schemas were administered to 118 female university students. Emotional abuse predicted drive for thinness, whereas sexual abuse predicted symptoms of bulimia nervosa (BN). Mistrust and abuse beliefs were found to fully mediate relationships between childhood abuse and drive for thinness and bulimia scales. Abandonment beliefs were also shown to be partial mediators of the relationship between sexual abuse and symptoms of BN. In a sample of nonclinical women, beliefs pertaining to abandonment and mistrust or abuse appeared to be important in the explanation of the relationship between recollections of childhood abuse and adult eating disorder symptoms

Regularity of the eta function on manifolds with cusps

On a spin manifold with conformal cusps, we prove under an invertibility condition at infinity that the eta function of the twisted Dirac operator has at most simple poles and is regular at the origin. For hyperbolic manifolds of finite volume, the eta function of the Dirac operator twisted by any homogeneous vector bundle is shown to be entire.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

Association between co-twin sex and eating disorders in opposite sex twin pairs: Evaluations in North American, Norwegian, and Swedish samples

These three studies examined the hypothesis that prenatal exposure to sex hormones influences twins’ risk for eating disorders based on co-twin sex, such that individuals with a female co-twin would be more likely than individuals with a male co-twin to meet diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder

Impact of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations on sustained virologic response in HCV-infected patients: Results from the GUARD-C Cohort

BACKGROUND: Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, peginterferon alfa/ribavirin remains relevant in many resource-constrained settings. The non-randomized GUARD-C cohort investigated baseline predictors of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations (sr-RD) and their impact on sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients receiving peginterferon alfa/ribavirin in routine practice. METHODS: A total of 3181 HCV-mono-infected treatment-naive patients were assigned to 24 or 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa/ribavirin by their physician. Patients were categorized by time-to-first sr-RD (Week 4/12). Detailed analyses of the impact of sr-RD on SVR24 (HCV RNA <50 IU/mL) were conducted in 951 Caucasian, noncirrhotic genotype (G)1 patients assigned to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin for 48 weeks. The probability of SVR24 was identified by a baseline scoring system (range: 0-9 points) on which scores of 5 to 9 and <5 represent high and low probability of SVR24, respectively. RESULTS: SVR24 rates were 46.1% (754/1634), 77.1% (279/362), 68.0% (514/756), and 51.3% (203/396), respectively, in G1, 2, 3, and 4 patients. Overall, 16.9% and 21.8% patients experienced 651 sr-RD for peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, respectively. Among Caucasian noncirrhotic G1 patients: female sex, lower body mass index, pre-existing cardiovascular/pulmonary disease, and low hematological indices were prognostic factors of sr-RD; SVR24 was lower in patients with 651 vs. no sr-RD by Week 4 (37.9% vs. 54.4%; P = 0.0046) and Week 12 (41.7% vs. 55.3%; P = 0.0016); sr-RD by Week 4/12 significantly reduced SVR24 in patients with scores <5 but not 655. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, sr-RD to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin significantly impacts on SVR24 rates in treatment-naive G1 noncirrhotic Caucasian patients. Baseline characteristics can help select patients with a high probability of SVR24 and a low probability of sr-RD with peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin

Sepsis-associated hyperlactatemia

There is overwhelming evidence that sepsis and septic shock are associated with hyperlactatemia (sepsis-associated hyperlactatemia (SAHL)). SAHL is a strong independent predictor of mortality and its presence and progression are widely appreciated by clinicians to define a very high-risk population. Until recently, the dominant paradigm has been that SAHL is a marker of tissue hypoxia. Accordingly, SAHL has been interpreted to indicate the presence of an ‘oxygen debt’ or ‘hypoperfusion’, which leads to increased lactate generation via anaerobic glycolysis. In light of such interpretation of the meaning of SAHL, maneuvers to increase oxygen delivery have been proposed as its treatment. Moreover, lactate levels have been proposed as a method to evaluate the adequacy of resuscitation and the nature of the response to the initial treatment for sepsis. However, a large body of evidence has accumulated that strongly challenges such notions. Much evidence now supports the view that SAHL is not due only to tissue hypoxia or anaerobic glycolysis. Experimental and human studies all consistently support the view that SAHL is more logically explained by increased aerobic glycolysis secondary to activation of the stress response (adrenergic stimulation). More importantly, new evidence suggests that SAHL may actually serve to facilitate bioenergetic efficiency through an increase in lactate oxidation. In this sense, the characteristics of lactate production best fit the notion of an adaptive survival response that grows in intensity as disease severity increases. Clinicians need to be aware of these developments in our understanding of SAHL in order to approach patient management according to biological principles and to interpret lactate concentrations during sepsis resuscitation according to current best knowledge

Markers of physiological stress during exercise under conditions of normoxia, normobaric hypoxia, hypobaric hypoxia and genuine high altitude.

Purpose To investigate whether there is a differential response at rest and following exercise to conditions of genuine high altitude (GHA), normobaric hypoxia (NH), hypobaric hypoxia (HH) and normobaric normoxia (NN). Method Markers of sympathoadrenal and adrenocortical function (plasma normetanephrine [PNORMET], metanephrine [PMET], cortisol), myocardial injury (highly sensitive cardiac troponin T [hscTnT]) and function (N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide [NT-proBNP]) were evaluated at rest and with exercise under NN, at 3375 m in the Alps (GHA) and at equivalent simulated altitude under NH and HH. Participants cycled for 2 hours {15 minute warm-up, 105 minutes at 55% Wmax (maximal workload)} with venous blood samples taken prior (T0), immediately following (T120) and 2 hours post-exercise (T240). Results Exercise in the three hypoxic environments produced a similar pattern of response with the only difference between environments being in relation to PNORMET. Exercise in NN only induced a rise in PNORMET and PMET. Conclusion Biochemical markers that reflect sympathoadrenal, adrenocortical and myocardial responses to physiological stress demonstrate significant differences in the response to exercise under conditions of normoxia versus hypoxia while NH and HH appear to induce broadly similar responses to GHA and may therefore be reasonable surrogates