Search tactics used in solving everyday how-to technical tasks: Repertoire, selection and tenacity

With greater access to computational resources, people use search to address many everyday challenges in their lives, including solving technology problems. Although there are now many useful ‘how-to’ resources online (especially videos on YouTube), it can still be difficult to identify, understand, and resolve certain kinds of technical problem. While research tasks have been studied for many years and we know the tactics people use, we know far less about searchers’ tactics for how-to technical tasks that involve actually being able to apply found information to resolve a problem. Crucial to our study was developing and studying a highly realistic, how-to technical task, for which there was no single guidance resource: making a phone safe for a child. After providing 39 participants with an actual phone to fix, and a search engine to perform the task, we analysed their search tactics using retrospective cued think aloud interviews. Our primary contribution is a set of 77 tactics used, in three categories, along with detail of how common they were. We conclude that people had a lot of tactics in their repertoire. Although it was not hard for participants to find relevant information, what was hard was for participants to find information they could use; indeed only 23% of participants successfully completed the entire task. Domain knowledge affected the choice of tactics used (although not necessarily towards better task success). We discuss these influences and make design recommendations for how future search systems can support those in resolving how-to technical tasks

Atypical audiovisual speech integration in infants at risk for autism

The language difficulties often seen in individuals with autism might stem from an inability to integrate audiovisual information, a skill important for language development. We investigated whether 9-month-old siblings of older children with autism, who are at an increased risk of developing autism, are able to integrate audiovisual speech cues. We used an eye-tracker to record where infants looked when shown a screen displaying two faces of the same model, where one face is articulating/ba/and the other/ga/, with one face congruent with the syllable sound being presented simultaneously, the other face incongruent. This method was successful in showing that infants at low risk can integrate audiovisual speech: they looked for the same amount of time at the mouths in both the fusible visual/ga/− audio/ba/and the congruent visual/ba/− audio/ba/displays, indicating that the auditory and visual streams fuse into a McGurk-type of syllabic percept in the incongruent condition. It also showed that low-risk infants could perceive a mismatch between auditory and visual cues: they looked longer at the mouth in the mismatched, non-fusible visual/ba/− audio/ga/display compared with the congruent visual/ga/− audio/ga/display, demonstrating that they perceive an uncommon, and therefore interesting, speech-like percept when looking at the incongruent mouth (repeated ANOVA: displays x fusion/mismatch conditions interaction: F(1,16) = 17.153, p = 0.001). The looking behaviour of high-risk infants did not differ according to the type of display, suggesting difficulties in matching auditory and visual information (repeated ANOVA, displays x conditions interaction: F(1,25) = 0.09, p = 0.767), in contrast to low-risk infants (repeated ANOVA: displays x conditions x low/high-risk groups interaction: F(1,41) = 4.466, p = 0.041). In some cases this reduced ability might lead to the poor communication skills characteristic of autism

The Mitochondrial Ca(2+) Uniporter: Structure, Function, and Pharmacology.

Mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake is crucial for an array of cellular functions while an imbalance can elicit cell death. In this chapter, we briefly reviewed the various modes of mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake and our current understanding of mitochondrial Ca(2+) homeostasis in regards to cell physiology and pathophysiology. Further, this chapter focuses on the molecular identities, intracellular regulators as well as the pharmacology of mitochondrial Ca(2+) uniporter complex

A Trouble Shared Is a Trouble Halved: Social Context and Status Affect Pain in Mouse Dyads

In mice behavioral response to pain is modulated by social status. Recently, social context also has been shown to affect pain sensitivity. In our study, we aimed to investigate the effects of interaction between status and social context in dyads of outbred CD-1 male mice in which the dominance/submission relationship was stable. Mice were assessed for pain response in a formalin (1% concentration) test either alone (individually tested-IT), or in pairs of dominant and subordinate mice. In the latter condition, they could be either both injected (BI) or only one injected (OI) with formalin. We observed a remarkable influence of social context on behavioral response to painful stimuli regardless of the social status of the mice. In the absence of differences between OI and IT conditions, BI mice exhibited half as much Paw-licking behavior than OI group. As expected, subordinates were hypoalgesic in response to the early phase of the formalin effects compared to dominants. Clear cut-differences in coping strategies of dominants and subordinates appeared. The former were more active, whereas the latter were more passive. Finally, analysis of behavior of the non-injected subjects (the observers) in the OI dyads revealed that dominant observers were more often involved in Self-grooming behavior upon observation of their subordinate partner in pain. This was not the case for subordinate mice observing the pain response of their dominant partner. In contrast, subordinate observers Stared at the dominant significantly more frequently compared to observer dominants in other dyads. The observation of a cagemate in pain significantly affected the observer's behavior. Additionally, the quality of observer's response was also modulated by the dominance/submission relationship

The parallel development of ODD and CD symptoms from early childhood to adolescence

This study examined the developmental relations between symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) from early childhood to adolescence. Specifically we tested, according to parent-reported problems, whether symptoms of ODD precede the development of CD symptoms, whether ODD and CD symptoms are reciprocally associated across time, or whether ODD and CD symptoms develop parallel to each other across time. Participants were a community-based sample (at time 1: N = 485, 48% boys) assessed biannually five times from age 4 to 6 until age 12-14. The findings suggested that, with control for stability effects, baseline SES, and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ODD and CD symptoms develop parallel to each other. No gender differences were obtained. We conclude that without the initial presence of CD symptoms, ODD symptoms are not developmental precursors to CD symptoms

Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Resilience Scale and its short version

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The clinical relevance of resilience has received considerable attention in recent years. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Resilience Scale (RS) and short version of the RS (RS-14).</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The original English version of RS was translated to Japanese and the Japanese version was confirmed by back-translation. Participants were 430 nursing and university psychology students. The RS, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) were administered. Internal consistency, convergent validity and factor loadings were assessed at initial assessment. Test-retest reliability was assessed using data collected from 107 students at 3 months after baseline. Mean score on the RS was 111.19. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the RS and RS-14 were 0.90 and 0.88, respectively. The test-retest correlation coefficients for the RS and RS-14 were 0.83 and 0.84, respectively. Both the RS and RS-14 were negatively correlated with the CES-D and SDS, and positively correlated with the RSES, SSQ and PSS (all p < 0.05), although the correlation between the RS and CES-D was somewhat lower than that in previous studies. Factor analyses indicated a one-factor solution for RS-14, but as for RS, the result was not consistent with previous studies.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study demonstrates that the Japanese version of RS has psychometric properties with high degrees of internal consistency, high test-retest reliability, and relatively low concurrent validity. RS-14 was equivalent to the RS in internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity. Low scores on the RS, a positive correlation between the RS and perceived stress, and a relatively low correlation between the RS and depressive symptoms in this study suggest that validity of the Japanese version of the RS might be relatively low compared with the original English version.</p

Repeated exposure to socioeconomic disadvantage and health selection as life course pathways to mid-life depressive and anxiety disorders

The biomedical examination was funded by Medical Research Council [G0000934], awarded under the Health of the Public initiative. Charlotte Clark is supported by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Fellowship. Bryan Rodgers is supported by Research Fellowships Nos 148948 and 366758 and by Program Grant No. 179805 from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. Research at the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust benefits from R&D funding received from the NHS Executive

Memory development: implications for adults recalling childhood experiences in the courtroom

Adults frequently provide compelling, detailed accounts of early childhood experiences in the courtroom. Judges and jurors are asked to decide guilt or innocence based solely on these decades-old memories using 'common sense' notions about memory. However, these notions are not in agreement with findings from neuroscientific and behavioural studies of memory development. Without expert guidance, judges and jurors may have difficulty in properly adjudicating the weight of memory evidence in cases involving adult recollections of childhood experiences

Obstetric and perinatal factors as predictors of child behaviour at 5 years

Objective To identify whether obstetric and perinatal factors are independent predictors of child behaviour at 5 years. Methodology The Mater University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) is a prospective cohort study of 8556 mothers enrolled in early pregnancy. The relationship of obstetric and perinatal factors, maternal lifestyle, age and gender of the child, and social disadvantage were examined as predictors of child behaviour in 5005 children completing a modified child behaviour checklist at 5 years. This checklist contained three independent groups of behaviour: externalizng, internalizing and SAT (social, attentional and thought problems). Results In the initial analysis a limited number of associations were present. After adjusting for measures of social disadvantage, only number of antenatal admissions was associated with child behaviour in all three scales, while maternal cigarette smoking in pregnancy and male gender were associated with externalising and SAT behaviours. Conclusions Most common epidemiologic obstetric and perinatal risk factors were not independent predictors of behaviour problems in children at 5 years