Addressing design and suitability barriers to Telecare use: Has anything changed?

BACKGROUND: Issues relating to design and suitability of Telecare were raised twenty years ago. We explored the views of non-users of Telecare and examined whether design-related barriers exist today despite significant technological advances. OBJECTIVE: To examine the reasons why people choose not to adopt Telecare, with specific focus on reasons relating to design and suitability of the intervention. METHODS: Individual qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with people who were not using or had actively declined Telecare, a voice which is rarely heard in Telecare-barrier research. Framework analysis was used to identify existing and emergent themes for n=22 participants. RESULTS: Sub-themes relating to design and suitability of Telecare were explored: Stigma, i.e. Telecare as symbolising old age and lost independence; Design, including stigmatising aesthetics and inappropriate use; Alternative options, i.e. propensity to seek non-Telecare solutions; Awareness of the devices and service; and Cost. CONCLUSIONS: Barriers to Telecare use are similar for both users and non-users. Our results indicate that design-related barriers have yet to be addressed despite the technological revolution. The cost model of Telecare services is becoming more consumer-driven. Thus Telecare design needs to exploit technological advances in order to improve wellbeing and allow individuals their choice and independence

Making Telecare desirable rather than a last resort

Despite reported benefits of Telecare use for older adults, uptake of Telecare in the United Kingdom remains relatively low. Non-users of Telecare are an under-researched group in the Telecare field. We conducted 22 qualitative individual semi-structured interviews to explore the views and opinions of current non-users of Telecare regarding barriers and facilitators to its use, and explored considerations which may precede their decision to accept, or reject, Telecare. Framework analysis identified a number of themes which influence the outcome and timing of this decision, including peace of mind (for the individual and their family), the strength and composition of an individual's support network, the impact of changing personal and health circumstances, and lack of communication about Telecare (e.g. advertising). A cost–benefit decision process appears to take place for the potential user, whereby the benefit of peace of mind is weighed against perceived ‘costs’ of using Telecare. Telecare is often perceived as a last resort rather than a preventative measure. A number of barriers to Telecare use need to be addressed if individuals are to make fully informed decisions regarding their Telecare use, and to begin using Telecare at a time when it could provide them with optimal benefit. Although the study was set in England, the findings may be relevant for other countries where Telecare is used

Cooperation and Self-Regulation in a Model of Agents Playing Different Games

A simple model for cooperation between "selfish" agents, which play an extended version of the Prisoner's Dilemma(PD) game, in which they use arbitrary payoffs, is presented and studied. A continuous variable, representing the probability of cooperation, $p_k(t) \in$ [0,1], is assigned to each agent $k$ at time $t$. At each time step $t$ a pair of agents, chosen at random, interact by playing the game. The players update their $p_k(t)$ using a criteria based on the comparison of their utilities with the simplest estimate for expected income. The agents have no memory and use strategies not based on direct reciprocity nor 'tags'. Depending on the payoff matrix, the systems self-organizes - after a transient - into stationary states characterized by their average probability of cooperation $\bar{p}_{eq}$ and average equilibrium per-capita-income $\bar{p}_{eq},\bar{U}_\infty$. It turns out that the model exhibit some results that contradict the intuition. In particular, some games which - {\it a priory}- seems to favor defection most, may produce a relatively high degree of cooperation. Conversely, other games, which one would bet that lead to maximum cooperation, indeed are not the optimal for producing cooperation.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, keybords: Complex adaptive systems, Agent-based models, Social system

Composition of bird nests is a species-specific characteristic

Bird nests represent an extended phenotype of individuals expressed during reproduction and so exhibit variability in composition, structure and function. Descriptions of nests based on qualitative observations suggest that there is interspecific variation in size and composition but there are very few species in which this has been confirmed. For these species, data of the amounts of different materials indicate that nest construction behaviour is plastic and affected by a variety of factors, such as prevailing temperature, geographic location, and availability of materials. The lack of data on nest composition is hampering our understanding of how nests achieve their various functions and how different species solve the problem of building a nest that will accommodate incubation and allow successful hatching of eggs. This study deconstructed nests of four species of the Turdidae, four species of the Muscicapidae, and six species of the Fringillidae and quantified the size of the nests and their composition. These data were used to test: (1) whether nest size correlated with adult bird mass; (2) whether it was possible to distinguish between species on the basis of their nest composition; and (3) whether, within a species, it was possible to distinguish between the cup lining and the rest of the nest based on composition. Most but not all nest dimensions correlated with bird mass. Principal component analysis revealed species differences based on nest composition and discriminant analysis could distinguish cup lining from the outer nest based on material composition. Intraspecific variation in composition varied among species and in general fewer types of material were found in the cup lining than the outer nest. These data provide insight into how nests are constructed by the different species and in conjunction with studies of the mechanical, thermal and hydrological properties of a nest, will begin to reveal how and why individual species select particular combinations of materials to build a nest

Palaeoenvironment of Eocene prodelta in Spitsbergen recorded by the trace fossil Phycosiphon incertum

Ichnological, sedimentological and geochemical analyses were conducted on the Eocene Frysjaodden Formation in order to interpret palaeoenvironment prodelta sediments in the Central Basin of Spitsbergen. Phycosiphon incertum is the exclusive ichnotaxon showing differences in size, distribution, abundance and density, and relation to laminated/bioturbated intervals. Large P. incertum mainly occur dispersed, isolated and randomly distributed throughout the weakly laminated/non-laminated intervals. Small P. incertum occur occasionally in patches of several burrows within laminated intervals or as densely packed burrows in thin horizons in laminated intervals or constituting fully bioturbated intervals that are several centimetres thick. Ichnological changes are mainly controlled by oxygenation, although the availability of benthic food cannot be discarded. Changes in oxygenation and rate of sedimentation can be correlated with the registered variations in the Bouma sequence of the distal turbiditic beds within prodeltal shelf sediments.Funding for this research was provided by Project CGL2012-33281 (Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, Spain), Project RYC-2009-04316 (Ramón y Cajal Programme) and Projects RNM-3715 and RNM-7408 and Research Group RNM-178 (Junta de Andalucía). The authors benefited from a bilateral agreement between the universities of Granada and Oslo, supported by the University of Granada

Measurement of the Bs0→J/ψKS0B_s^0\to J/\psi K_S^0 branching fraction

The $B_s^0\to J/\psi K_S^0$ branching fraction is measured in a data sample corresponding to 0.41$fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. This channel is sensitive to the penguin contributions affecting the sin2$\beta$ measurement from $B^0\to J/\psi K_S^0$ The time-integrated branching fraction is measured to be $BF(B_s^0\to J/\psi K_S^0)=(1.83\pm0.28)\times10^{-5}$. This is the most precise measurement to date

Model-independent search for CP violation in D0→K−K+π−π+ and D0→π−π+π+π− decays

A search for CP violation in the phase-space structures of D0 and View the MathML source decays to the final states K−K+π−π+ and π−π+π+π− is presented. The search is carried out with a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. For the K−K+π−π+ final state, the four-body phase space is divided into 32 bins, each bin with approximately 1800 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 9.1%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 6.5% observed. The phase space of the π−π+π+π− final state is partitioned into 128 bins, each bin with approximately 2500 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 41%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 5.5% observed. All results are consistent with the hypothesis of no CP violation at the current sensitivity

Measurement of the CP-violating phase \phi s in Bs->J/\psi\pi+\pi- decays

Measurement of the mixing-induced CP-violating phase phi_s in Bs decays is of prime importance in probing new physics. Here 7421 +/- 105 signal events from the dominantly CP-odd final state J/\psi pi+ pi- are selected in 1/fb of pp collision data collected at sqrt{s} = 7 TeV with the LHCb detector. A time-dependent fit to the data yields a value of phi_s=-0.019^{+0.173+0.004}_{-0.174-0.003} rad, consistent with the Standard Model expectation. No evidence of direct CP violation is found.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures; minor revisions on May 23, 201

Search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓

A search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓ is performed with a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0  fb-1 of pp collisions at √s=7  TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. The observed number of Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓ candidates is consistent with background expectations. Upper limits on the branching fractions of both decays are determined to be B(Bs0→e±μ∓)101  TeV/c2 and MLQ(B0→e±μ∓)>126  TeV/c2 at 95% C.L., and are a factor of 2 higher than the previous bounds