Priming Prosocial Behavior to Augment Bystander Interventions in Bullying Situations

Bullying is a harmful phenomenon wherein victims have difficulty defending themselves. Bystanders have been identified as a potentially effective group for reducing bullying. The goal of this research is to determine whether prosocial primes (operationalized as empathy and civility) have an effect on increasing bystander interventions among youth. A total of 52 participants between the ages of 10-14 were randomly assigned to two experimental groups or one control group. Participants either received neutral control stories or they were primed twice with stories showing characters acting empathetically or civilly. Testing measures involve a short video and questionnaire assessing willingness to act as a bystander. Results reveal that prosocial training can augment willingness to engage in defending behaviors when compared to the control V = .19, F(2, 46) = 5.53, p < .01, ω2 = .19, correcting for the sphericity violation. This finding represents a relatively easy and non-invasive way to potentially change the bullying-related attitudes of adolescents, thereby potentially reducing bullying behaviors

Solution of the EEG inverse problem by random dipole sampling

Electroencephalography (EEG) source imaging aims to reconstruct brain activity maps from the neuroelectric potential difference measured on the skull. To obtain the brain activity map, we need to solve an ill-posed and ill-conditioned inverse problem that requires regularization techniques to make the solution viable. When dealing with real-time applications, dimensionality reduction techniques can be used to reduce the computational load required to evaluate the numerical solution of the EEG inverse problem. To this end, in this paper we use the random dipole sampling method, in which a Monte Carlo technique is used to reduce the number of neural sources. This is equivalent to reducing the number of the unknowns in the inverse problem and can be seen as a first regularization step. Then, we solve the reduced EEG inverse problem with two popular inversion methods, the weighted Minimum Norm Estimate (wMNE) and the standardized LOw Resolution brain Electromagnetic TomogrAphy (sLORETA). The main result of this paper is the error estimates of the reconstructed activity map obtained with the randomized version of wMNE and sLORETA. Numerical experiments on synthetic EEG data demonstrate the effectiveness of the random dipole sampling method

A distributed bio-inspired method for multisite grid mapping

Computational grids assemble multisite and multiowner resources and represent the most promising solutions for processing distributed computationally intensive applications, each composed by a collection of communicating tasks. The execution of an application on a grid presumes three successive steps: the localization of the available resources together with their characteristics and status; the mapping which selects the resources that, during the estimated running time, better support this execution and, at last, the scheduling of the tasks. These operations are very difficult both because the availability and workload of grid resources change dynamically and because, in many cases, multisite mapping must be adopted to exploit all the possible benefits. As the mapping problem in parallel systems, already known as NP-complete, becomes even harder in distributed heterogeneous environments as in grids, evolutionary techniques can be adopted to find near-optimal solutions. In this paper an effective and efficient multisite mapping, based on a distributed Differential Evolution algorithm, is proposed. The aim is to minimize the time required to complete the execution of the application, selecting from among all the potential ones the solution which reduces the use of the grid resources. The proposed mapper is tested on different scenarios

A dose-ranging study in older adults to compare the safety and immunogenicity profiles of MF59®-adjuvanted and non-adjuvanted seasonal influenza vaccines following intradermal and intramuscular administration

Strategies to optimize responses to seasonal influenza vaccination in older adults include the use of adjuvants, higher antigen doses, and intradermal delivery. In this study adults aged >= 65 years (n = 450) received a single dose of 1 of 2 non-adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine (TIV) formulations administered intradermally (ID), both containing 6 mu g of A/H1N1 and B, differing in A/H3N2 content (6 mu g or 12 mu g), or a single dose of 1 of 8 TIV formulations administered intramuscularly (IM) all containing 15 mu g of A/H1N1 and B, differing in A/H3N2 hemagglutinin (HA) content (15 mu g or 30 mu g) and/or in MF59 (R) adjuvant content (0%, 25%, 50%, or 100% of the standard dose). This paper focuses on the comparisons of low-dose non-adjuvanted ID, full-dose non-adjuvanted IM and full-dose MF59-adjuvanted IM formulations (n = 270). At day 22 post-vaccination, at least one European licensure immunogenicity criterion was met by all groups against all 3 strains; however, all three criteria were met against all 3 vaccine strains by the low-dose non-adjuvanted ID and the full-dose MF59-adjuvanted IM groups only. The full-dose MF59-adjuvanted IM group elicited significantly higher immune response vs. the low-dose non-adjuvanted ID formulations for most comparisons. The full-dose MF59 adjuvanted IM groups were associated with increased pain at the site of injection (P < 0.01) compared to the ID groups, and the low-dose non-adjuvanted ID groups were associated with increased erythema, induration, and swelling at the injection site (P < 0.0001) and unsolicited AEs compared with the IM groups. There were no differences between IM and ID groups in the frequencies of subjects experiencing solicited systemic reactions. Overall, while MF59 adjuvantation increased pain at the site of injection, and intradermal delivery increased unsolicited adverse events, erythema, induration, and swelling at the injection site, both strategies of vaccination strongly enhanced the immunogenicity of seasonal influenza vaccine in older adults compared with conventional non-adjuvanted intramuscular delivery

Immunogenicity and tolerability of an MF59-adjuvanted, egg-derived, A/H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine in children 6-35 months of age

Background: Vaccines against pandemic A/H1N1 influenza should provide protective immunity in children, because they are at greater risk of disease than adults. This study was conducted to identify the optimal dose of an MF59 (R)-adjuvanted, egg-derived, A/H1N1 influenza vaccine for young children. Methods: Children 6-11 months (N = 144) and 12-35 months (N = 186) of age received vaccine formulations containing either 3.75 mu g antigen with half the standard dose of MF59 or 7.5 mu g antigen with a standard dose of MF59, or a nonadjuvanted formulation containing 15 mu g antigen (children 12-35 months only). Participants were given 2 primary vaccine doses 3 weeks apart, followed by 1 booster dose of MF59-adjuvanted seasonal influenza vaccine 1 year later. Immunogenicity was assessed by hemagglutination inhibition and microneutralization assays. Results: All vaccine formulations were highly immunogenic and met all 3 European licensure criteria after 2 doses. MF59-adjuvanted vaccines met all licensure criteria after 1 dose in both age cohorts, while nonadjuvanted vaccine did not meet all criteria after 1 dose in children 12-35 months. A single booster dose was highly immunogenic, and stable antibody persistence was observed in response to all vaccines. All vaccines were well tolerated. Conclusions: In this study, a single dose of 3.75 mu g antigen with half the standard dose of MF59 was shown to be optimal, providing adequate levels of immediate and long-term antibodies in pediatric subjects 6-35 months of age. These data demonstrated that MF59 adjuvant allowed for reduced antigen content and promoted significant long-term antibody persistence in children, with a satisfactory safety profile

A Distributed Bio-Inspired Method for Multisite Grid Mapping

Computational grids assemble multisite and multiowner resources and represent the most promising solutions for processing distributed computationally intensive applications, each composed by a collection of communicating tasks. The execution of an application on a grid presumes three successive steps: the localization of the available resources together with their characteristics and status; the mapping which selects the resources that, during the estimated running time, better support this execution and, at last, the scheduling of the tasks. These operations are very difficult both because the availability and workload of grid resources change dynamically and because, in many cases, multisite mapping must be adopted to exploit all the possible benefits. As the mapping problem in parallel systems, already known as NP-complete, becomes even harder in distributed heterogeneous environments as in grids, evolutionary techniques can be adopted to find near-optimal solutions. In this paper an effective and efficient multisite mapping, based on a distributed Differential Evolution algorithm, is proposed. The aim is to minimize the time required to complete the execution of the application, selecting from among all the potential ones the solution which reduces the use of the grid resources. The proposed mapper is tested on different scenarios