Monthly Archives: December 2019

Neuroscience

Will there ever be a supercomputer that can think like HAL? – Macquarie University

Whether or not Hal will one day refuse to 'open the pod bay doors' IRL will depend on the research goals the field of artificial intelligence (AI) sets for itself.

Supercomputer: HAL 9000 is a fictional artificial intelligence character and the main antagonist in the Space Odyssey series.

Currently, the field is not prioritising the goal of developing a flexible, general purpose intelligent system like HAL. Instead, most efforts are focused on building specialised AI systems that perform well often much better than humans in highly restricted domains.

These are the AI systems that power Googles search, Facebooks news feed and Netflixs recommendation engine; answer phones at call centres; translate natural languages from one to another; and even provide medical diagnoses. So the portrait of AI that Stanley Kubrick developed in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey, while appropriate for the time (after all, Kubricks film came out in 1968), appears pretty outdated in light of current developments.

That is not to say a superhuman general intelligence like HAL could not be built in principle, although what exactly it would take remains an open scientific question. But from a practical perspective, it seems highly unlikely that anything like HAL will be built in the near future either by academic researchers or industry.

The future of AI is probably more accurately depicted by a toaster that knows when you want to eat breakfast in the morning, than anything resembling a super intelligence like HAL.

Does this mean that artificial intelligence and other related fields like machine learning and computational neuroscience have nothing interesting to offer? Far from it. Its just that the goals have changed.

Artificial intelligence these days is more closely connected to the rapidly growing fields of machine learning, neural networks, and computational neuroscience. Major tech companies like Google and Facebook, among many others, have been investing heavily in these areas in recent years and large in-house AI research groups are quickly becoming the norm.A perfect example of this is Google Brain.

So AI isnt going anywhere, its just being transformed and incorporated into quite literally everything from internet search to self-driving cars to 'intelligent' appliances. The future of AI is probably more accurately depicted by a toaster that knows when you want to eat breakfast in the morning, than anything resembling a super intelligence like HAL.

Virtually everything in the popular media today about AI concerns deep learning. These algorithms work by using statistics to find patterns in data, and they have revolutionised the field of AI in recent years. Despite their immense power and ability to match, and in many cases exceed, human performance on image categorisation and other tasks, there are some things at which humans still excel.

For instance, deep convolutional neural networks must be trained on massive amounts of data, far more than humans require to exhibit comparable performance. Moreover, network training must be supervised in the sense that when the network is learning, each output the network produces for a given input is compared against a stored version of the correct output. The difference between actual and ideal provides an error signal to improve network performance.

Incredible brainpower: AI software has been designed with cognitive abilities similar to those of the human brain, explain Crossley and Kaplan.

And yet humans can learn to do a remarkable variety of things like visually categorise objects and drive cars based on relatively small data sets without explicit supervision. By comparison, a deep neural network might require a training set of millions of images or tens of millions of driving trials, respectively.

The critical question is, how do we do this? Our brains are powerful neural networks shaped by millions of years of evolution to do unsupervised, or better, self-supervised, learning sometimes on the basis of limited data. This is where AI will be informed by ongoing work in the cognitive science and neuroscience of learning.

Cognitive science is the study of how the brain gives rise to the many facets of the mind, including learning, memory, attention, decision making, skilled action, emotion, etc. Cognitive science is therefore inherently interdisciplinary. It draws from biology, neuroscience, philosophy, physics, psychology, among others.

In particular, cognitive science has a long and intimate relationship with computer science and artificial intelligence. The influence between these two fields is bidirectional. AI influences cognitive science by providing new analysis methods and computational frameworks with which neural and psychological phenomena can be crisply described.

Will artificial intelligence ever match or surpass human intelligence on every dimension? At the moment, all we can do is speculate, but a few things seem unambiguously true.

Cognitive science is at the heart of AI in the sense that the very concept of "intelligence" is fundamentally entangled with comparisons to human behaviour, but there are much more tangible instances of cognitive science influencing AI. For instance, the earliest artificial neural nets were created in an attempt to mimic the processing methods of the human brain.

More recent and further advanced artificial neural nets (e.g., deep neural nets) are sometimes deeply grounded in contemporary neuroscience. For instance, the architecture of artificial deep convolutional neural nets (the current state of the art in image classification) is heavily inspired by the architecture of the human visual system.

The spirit of appealing to how the brain does things to improve AI systems remains prevalent in the current AI research (e.g., complimentary learning systems, deep reinforcement learning, training protocols inspired by "memory replay" in the hippocampus), and it is common for modern AI research papers to include a section on biological plausibility that is, how closely matched are the workings of the computational system to what is known about how the brain performs similar tasks.

This all raises an interesting question about the frontiers of cognitive science and AI. The reciprocity between cognitive science and artificial intelligence can be seen even at the final frontier of each discipline. In particular, will cognitive science ever fully understand how the brain implements human cognition, and the corresponding general human intelligence?

And back to our a version of our original question about HAL: Will artificial intelligence ever match or surpass human intelligence on every dimension?

At the moment, all we can do is speculate, but a few things seem unambiguously true. The continued pursuit of how the brain implements the mind will yield ever richer computational principles that can inspire novel artificial intelligence approaches. Similarly, ongoing progress in AI will continue to inspire new frameworks for thinking about the wealth of data in cognitive science.

Dr Matthew Crossley is a researcher in the Department of Cognitive Science at Macquarie University working on category and motor learning. Dr David Kaplan is a researcher in the Department of Cognitive Science at Macquarie University working on motor learning and the foundations of cognitive science.

Understanding cognition, which includes processes such as attention, perception, memory, reading and language, is one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time. The new Bachelor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences degree the only one of its kind in Australia provides a strong foundation in the rapidly growing fields of cognitive science, neuroscience and computation.

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Will there ever be a supercomputer that can think like HAL? - Macquarie University

Neuroscience

Carclo motors after it completes exit from Wipac business – Proactive Investors UK

A look at the day's major movers, including Carclo, IXICO, Powerhouse Energy, OnTheMarket and Nichols

() saw its shares top the market gainers on Monday, leaping nearly 77% higher to 1.15p after the global learning and skills development partner, announced the sale of its Malaysian business, to AAA Management Science Academy PLT for a total cash consideration of MYR 400,000 (about75,000).

The group said the cash consideration will be payable over a 13 month period and will be used towards the repayment of an existing bank loan in Malaysia, with the proposed transaction expected to complete on 31 December 2019.

Sam Malafeh, the chief executive officer of Malvern, said: "We are pleased to have agreed the sale of the Malaysian business, which will now allow us to focus on growing our core operations in the UK and Singapore."

PLC (), the manufacturer of injection moulded plastic parts, hardened 39% to 14.6p after it completed its exit from the Wipac business.

The business has been put into administration and most of its assets have been bought by a subsidiary of Wuhu Technology for 10.5mln.

The net proceeds from the sale will be applied by the administrators to reduce the outstanding liabilities owed to the creditors of Wipac Limited. About 3.5mln of the net proceeds will be paid by the administrator to the 's pension scheme and roughly 5.0mln will be used to reduce the outstanding drawn balance of the group's revolving credit facility.

() stormed 15% higher to 81p after revealing a 2.4mln expansion of study programmes with two large pharma client contracts.

The data analytics company that deliver insights in neuroscience said it has agreed around a 1.8mln extension to a Phase III study in Huntington's Disease (HD), previously announced in September 2018.

In addition, it continued, it has been awarded around a 0.6mln extension to a study programme in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), previously announced in October 2019.

IXICO reveals 2.4mln expansion of study programmes

() stormed 15% higher to 81p after revealing a 2.4mln expansion of study programmes with two large pharma client contracts.

The data analytics company that deliver insights in neuroscience said it has agreed around a 1.8mln extension to a Phase III study in Huntington's Disease (HD), previously announced in September 2018.

In addition, it continued, it has been awarded around a 0.6mln extension to a study programme in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), previously announced in October 2019.

PowerHouse Energy Group PLC () slipped 4% to 0.47p after the waste-to-energy company said it is in talks to acquire its development partner, Waste2Tricity (W2T).

The acquisition would be in the form of a non-cash transaction using PowerHouse shares to acquire the whole of the issued share capital of W2T, at a ratio of 60% PowerHouse to 40% W2T.

The directors of PowerHouse believe that the enlarged company would be better understood by its customers and investors.

Shares in Rightmove wannabe () fell 4.0% to 73p after it placed shares at 70p each, raising 3.4mln.

The property listings website also announced it is to take a 20% stake in Glanty, the owner and developer of 'teclet', an automated portal for the lettings industry that is designed to reduce overheads and maximise efficiencies for lettings agents.

The 20% stake will cost OnTheMarket 797,000, spread over 10 months.

The fizz went out of () the shares were down 16% at 1,435p after it flagged new soft drink taxes in the Middle East.

The companys flagship product, Vimto, is a popular drink in the Muslim community during Ramadan and the concern is that sales of the drink will be hit by a recently implemented excise tax of 50% to be levied on the retail price of non-carbonated sweetened drinks in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Ramadan trading period accounts for roughly 80% of annual in-country revenues, Nichols revealed.

() late on Fridayunveiled plans to raise up to 3.25mln with backing from private and professional investors. A 1.5mln tranche is being undertakenvia the financial platform Primary bid at 8p a share, a 26% discount to the close last Thursday. Lombard Odier, meanwhile, will pay 1.75mln for 21.875mln Futura shares.

() the battery metals and energy storage company has announced a partnership deal with ion Ventures Ltd, an investor in and developer of energy storage and flexibility assets. In a statement, Regency - which is strategically focused around battery metals - said the parties have executed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to partner on Regency's existing pipeline of projects, with a view to identifying and prioritising the most commercially attractive projects, securing funding and then moving quickly to first cash flow.

Augmented and virtual reality investor PLC () has notched up its first realised gain with the sale of 3D artificial intelligence platform Artomatix. The investment was held by 25.9% owned associate Suir Valley Ventures (SVV) with the sale price a cash multiple of approximately five times its initial investment. will book a profit of 1.6mln from the sale.

() has signed its second exclusive distribution contract in a week for grape fungicide Mevalone. Italian group Sipcam will market, distribute and sell the product in Portugal and the Benelux region.

(), the data analytics company delivering insights in neuroscience, has got a pre-Christmas boost, revealing a 2.4mln expansion of study programmes with two large pharma client contracts. In a brief statement, the AIM-listed firm said it has agreed around a 1.8mln extension to a Phase III study in Huntington's Disease (HD), previously announced in September 2018. In addition, it continued, it has been awarded around a 0.6mln extension to a study programme in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), previously announced in October 2019.

() said its interim results revealed the CBD specialists seed to shelf strategy was working, with the companys chief executive upbeat on the prospects for next year. Shareholders have come to know me for my conservative approach and I am not one for grand predictions but I remain confident that our multi-channel sales approach can bring success to our company, said Nick Tulloch in commentsaccompanying its first-half update.

Just in time for a bit of last-minute Christmas shopping for the devoted angler, () has opened a new store. It is located in Swinton, Greater Manchester and brings the total number of Angling Direct stores across the UK to 34, ten of which have been opened this year.

Minds + Machines Group Limited (), the top-level domain registry company, has revealed that it has continued to trade well in the fourth quarter as it announced the completed renegotiation of an onerous legacy contract. In a brief statement, the group said that further to its announcement of 18 July 2019, all existing and future liabilities, estimated at US$7.9mln, arising from that contract have been settled through a single one-off payment of US$5.1mln.

U.S. Oil & Gas PLC (USOIL) told investors that it is presently preparing applications for permits to drill three new wells. The company said it hopes to drill a well in the first quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approvals, and subsequent drilling would depend upon the outcome of the first well

() has told investors it has kicked off a new drill programme at the Baita Plai polymetallic minein Romania. Findings from the programme will be used to further define the grades and resource, the company said. It will support existing efforts to confirm a JORC compliant resource statement for the project. Operations are advancing at Baita Plai where the cold commissioning of new mine operations also started last week.

() has updated on the Horse Hill oil project where the new horizontal well has completed its initial flow testing period, showing positive rates but also a requirement for certain interventions. Fellow Horse Hill stakeholder () highlighted that the new horizontal well initially flowed at some 1,087 barrels of fluid per day during clean-up with oil cuts of up to 60%.

() is looking forward to commencing phase 2 of its drilling programme at the Namibia Tantalite Investment (NTI) Mine. In its final results statement covering the year to the end of June, the Namibia-focused company said Phase 2 exploration step-out drilling should be completed in the first half of 2020 and is expected to identify further mineral resources.

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Carclo motors after it completes exit from Wipac business - Proactive Investors UK

Neuroscience

Intermittent fasting could lead to improved health – News-Medical.net

For many people, the New Year is a time to adopt new habits as a renewed commitment to personal health. Newly enthusiastic fitness buffs pack into gyms and grocery stores are filled with shoppers eager to try out new diets.

But, does scientific evidence support the claims made for these diets? In a review article published in the Dec. 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine neuroscientist Mark Mattson, Ph.D., concludes that intermittent fasting does.

Mattson, who has studied the health impact of intermittent fasting for 25 years, and adopted it himself about 20 years ago, writes that "intermittent fasting could be part of a healthy lifestyle." A professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Mattson says his new article is intended to help clarify the science and clinical applications of intermittent fasting in ways that may help physicians guide patients who want to try it.

Intermittent fasting diets, he says, fall generally into two categories: daily time-restricted feeding, which narrows eating times to 68 hours per day, and so-called 5:2 intermittent fasting, in which people limit themselves to one moderate-sized meal two days each week.

An array of animal and some human studies have shown that alternating between times of fasting and eating supports cellular health, probably by triggering an age-old adaptation to periods of food scarcity called metabolic switching. Such a switch occurs when cells use up their stores of rapidly accessible, sugar-based fuel, and begin converting fat into energy in a slower metabolic process.

Mattson says studies have shown that this switch improves blood sugar regulation, increases resistance to stress and suppresses inflammation. Because most Americans eat three meals plus snacks each day, they do not experience the switch, or the suggested benefits.

In the article, Mattson notes that four studies in both animals and people found intermittent fasting also decreased blood pressure, blood lipid levels and resting heart rates.

Evidence is also mounting that intermittent fasting can modify risk factors associated with obesity and diabetes, says Mattson. Two studies at the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust of 100 overweight women showed that those on the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet lost the same amount of weight as women who restricted calories, but did better on measures of insulin sensitivity and reduced belly fat than those in the calorie-reduction group.

More recently, Mattson says, preliminary studies suggest that intermittent fasting could benefit brain health too. A multicenter clinical trial at the University of Toronto in April found that 220 healthy, nonobese adults who maintained a calorie restricted diet for two years showed signs of improved memory in a battery of cognitive tests. While far more research needs to be done to prove any effects of intermittent fasting on learning and memory, Mattson says if that proof is found, the fasting -; or a pharmaceutical equivalent that mimics it -; may offer interventions that can stave off neurodegeneration and dementia.

We are at a transition point where we could soon consider adding information about intermittent fasting to medical school curricula alongside standard advice about healthy diets and exercise."

Mark Mattson, Ph.D., neuroscientist, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Mattson acknowledges that researchers do "not fully understand the specific mechanisms of metabolic switching and that "some people are unable or unwilling to adhere" to the fasting regimens. But he argues that with guidance and some patience, most people can incorporate them into their lives. It takes some time for the body to adjust to intermittent fasting, and to get beyond initial hunger pangs and irritability that accompany it. "Patients should be advised that feeling hungry and irritable is common initially and usually passes after two weeks to a month as the body and brain become accustomed to the new habit," Mattson says.

To manage this hurdle, Mattson suggests that physicians advise patients to gradually increase the duration and frequency of the fasting periods over the course of several months, instead of "going cold turkey." As with all lifestyle changes, says Mattson, it's important for physicians to know the science so they can communicate potential benefits, harms and challenges, and offer support.

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Intermittent fasting could lead to improved health - News-Medical.net

Neuroscience

Heres what happens in the brain when we disagree – Metro Newspaper UK

Andreas Kappes, lecturer, City, University of London; Tali Sharot, professor of cognitive neuroscience, UCL

WEVE all been there. You are in the middle of a heated disagreement when you lose respect for the opposing party. Whether it is about the latest election or childcare, you feel like your considered arguments are not appreciated perhaps even ignored. But did you ever wonder what exactly is happening in the mind of the person on the other side?

In a recent study, just published in Nature Neuroscience, we and our colleagues recorded peoples brain activity during disagreements to find out.

In our experiment, we asked 21 pairs of volunteers to make financial decisions. In particular, they each had to assess the value of real estates and bet money on their assessments. The more confident they were in their assessment, the more money they wagered.

Each volunteer lay in a brain imaging scanner while performing the task so we could record their brain activity. The two scanners were separated by a glass wall, and the volunteers were able to see the assessments and bets of the other person on their screen.

When volunteers agreed on the price of the real estate, each of them became more confident in their assessment, and they bet more money on it. That makes sense if I agree with you then you feel more sure that you must be right. Each persons brain activity also reflected the encoding of the confidence of their partner. In particular, activity of a brain region called the posterior medial frontal cortex, which we know is involved in cognitive dissonance, tracked the confidence of the partner. We found that the more confident one volunteer was, the more confident the partner became, and vice versa.

However and this is the interesting part when people disagreed, their brains became less sensitive to the strength of others opinions. After disagreement, the posterior medial frontal cortex could no longer track the partners confidence. Consequently, the opinion of the disagreeing partner had little impact on peoples conviction that they were correct, regardless of whether the disagreeing partner was very sure in their assessment or not at all.

It was not the case that the volunteers were not paying attention to their partner when they disagreed with them. We know this because we tested our volunteers memory of their partners assessments and bets. Rather, it seems that contradictory opinions were more likely to be considered categorically wrong and therefore the strength of those opinions was unimportant.

We suspect that when disagreements are about heated topics such as politics, people will be even less likely to take note of the strength of contradictory opinions.

Our findings may shed light on some puzzling recent trends in society. For instance, over the last decade, climate scientists have expressed greater confidence that climate change is man-made. Yet, a survey by the Pew research centre in Washington, DC shows that the percentage of Republicans in the US who believe this notion to be true has dropped over the same period. While there are complex, multi-layered reasons for this specific trend, it may also be related to a bias in how the strength of other peoples opinions is encoded in our brain.

The findings can also be extrapolated to political current events. Take the recent impeachment hearings against US president Donald Trump. Our study suggests that whether a witness appears calm, confident and in command of the facts (as government official Bill Taylor was described when testifying during the hearings) or unsteady and uncertain (as FBI chief Robert Muller was described when testifying about his special counsel investigation back in July) will matter little to those who already oppose impeachment when testimonies are unsupportive of the president. But they will affect the conviction of those who are in favour of impeachment.

So how can we increase our chances of being heard by members of an opposing group? Our study lends new support to a tried and tested recipe (as the Queen recently put it while addressing a country divided over Brexit) finding the common ground.

The strength of a carefully reasoned opinion is less likely to be registered when launching into a disagreement with a sturdy pile of evidence describing why we are right and the other side is wrong. But if we start from common ground that is the parts of the problem we agree on we will avoid being categorised as a disputer from the very beginning, making it more likely that the strength of our arguments will matter.

Take, for example, the attempt to alter the conviction of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children because they falsely believe vaccines are linked to autism. It has been shown that presenting strong evidence refuting the link does little to change their minds. Instead, focusing solely on the fact that vaccines protect children from potentially deadly disease a statement that the parents can more easily agree with can increase their intention to vaccinate their children by threefold.

So in the midst of that heated disagreement, try to remember that the key to change is often finding a shared belief or motive.

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Heres what happens in the brain when we disagree - Metro Newspaper UK

Neuroscience

Nine Out of Ten Visual Neurons Don’t Work The Way We Thought – Technology Networks

A new survey of the activity of nearly 60,000 neurons in the mouse visual system reveals how far we have to go to understand how the brain computes. The analysis, led by researchers at the Allen Institute, reveals that more than 90% of neurons in the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes our visual world, dont work the way scientists thought and its not yet clear how they do work.

We thought that there are simple principles according to which these neurons process visual information, and those principles are in all the textbooks, said Christof Koch, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and President of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, a division of the Allen Institute, and co-senior author on the study along with R. Clay Reid, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. But now that we can survey tens of thousands of cells at once, we get a more subtle and much more complicated picture.

Nearly 60 years ago, two neuroscientists, David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel, made groundbreaking discoveries about how mammals brains perceive the visual world around us. Their work uncovered individual neurons that switch on only in response to very specific kinds of images.

Hubel and Wiesel made their discoveries by showing simple pictures things like a black bar or dot on a white background to cats and monkeys. The general principle they uncovered says that as you view the world around you, specific neurons in your brain are responsible for recognizing exact parts in a particular region of that scene and the recognition gets more specialized and fine-tuned in higher-order parts of the brain.

Say youre in a park: One set of neurons will fire a rapid electrical response to a dark tree branch in a precise spot in your line of sight. Other neurons switch on only when a bird flies across your field of vision from left to right. Your brain would then stitch together information from the tree branch neurons and the moving bird neurons to get a complete picture of the world around you, or so the theory goes.

Hubel and Wiesels findings were recognized by a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and formed the backbone of the neural networks that underlie most computer vision applications. In the past decade, with the advent of new neuroscience methods that enable the study of more and more brain cells at once, scientists have come to understand that this model of how our brains see is likely not the whole story some neurons clearly dont follow the classic model of tuning into specific features.

But it wasnt clear just how incomplete the story was.

Brain activity variability

The new study is the first large-scale analysis of the publicly available data from the Allen Brain Observatory, a broad survey that captures the activity of tens of thousands of neurons in the mouse visual system. The researchers analyzed the activity of nearly 60,000 different neurons in the visual parts of the cortex, the outermost shell of the brain, as animals see different simple images, photos and short video clips including the opening shot from the classic Orson Welles movie Touch of Evil (chosen because it has a lot of movement and is a single shot with no cuts).

1950s and 60s neuroscience studies, by necessity, were like fishing expeditions researchers hunted through the brain with a single electrode until they found a neuron that reliably responded to a certain image. Its akin to trying to watch a widescreen movie through a few scattered pinholes, Koch said it would be impossible to get a complete picture. The Allen Brain Observatory dataset doesnt capture the activity of every neuron under every scenario, but it allows researchers to study more neurons at once, including those with more subtle responses.

The researchers new analysis found that less than 10% of the 60,000 neurons responded following the textbook model. Of the rest, about two-thirds showed some reliable response, but their responses were more specialized than the classic models would predict. The last third of neurons showed some activity, but they didnt light up reliably to any of the stimuli in the experiment its not clear what these neurons are doing, the researchers said.

Its not that the previous studies were all a big mistake, its just that those cells turn out to be a very small fraction of all neurons in the cortex, said Saskia de Vries, Ph.D., an Assistant Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science who led the study along with Jrme Lecoq, Ph.D., and Michael Buice, Ph.D. It turns out that the mouse visual cortex is much more complex and richer than we previously thought, which underscores the value of doing this type of survey.

That these more variable, less specific neurons exist is not news. But it was a surprise that they dominate the visual parts of the mouse brain, the researchers said.

How the brain computes

Its not yet clear how these other neurons contribute to processing visual information. Other research groups have seen that locomotion can drive neuron activity in the visual part of the brain, but whether the mice were running or still only explains a small amount of the variability in visual responses, the researchers found.

Their next steps are to run similar experiments with more natural movies, offering the neurons a larger set of visual features to respond to. Buice has made a 10-hour specialized reel of clips from pretty much every nature documentary he could get his hands on.

The researchers also point out that the classic model came from studies of cats and primates, animals which both evolved to see their worlds in sharper focus at the center of their gaze than did mice. Its possible that mouse vision is just a completely different ballgame than ours. But there are still principles from these studies that might apply to our own brains, said Buice, an Associate Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

Our goal was not to study vision; our goal was to study how the cortex computes. We think the cortex has a structure of computation thats universal, similar to the way different types of computers can run the same programs, Buice said. In the end, it doesnt matter what kind of program the computer is running; we want to understand how it runs programs at all.

Reference

de Vries et al. (2019) A large-scale standardized physiological survey reveals functional organization of the mouse visual cortex. Nature Neuroscience. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0550-9

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Nine Out of Ten Visual Neurons Don't Work The Way We Thought - Technology Networks

Genetics

Seattle Genetics Announces U.S. FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Tucatinib in Locally Advanced or Metastatic HER2-Positive Breast…

BOTHELL, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seattle Genetics, Inc. (Nasdaq:SGEN) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to tucatinib, in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine, for treatment of patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, including patients with brain metastases, who have been treated with trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and T-DM1. The positive topline results of the pivotal HER2CLIMB clinical trial were announced in October 2019, and additional data were presented at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) on December 11, 2019 and were simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Tucatinib is an oral, small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that is highly selective for HER2.

The FDAs Breakthrough Therapy process is intended to expedite the development and review of promising drug candidates intended for serious or life-threatening conditions. Designation is based upon preliminary clinical evidence of the potential for substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints.

The addition of tucatinib to the commonly used combination of trastuzumab and capecitabine demonstrated superior activity compared to trastuzumab and capecitabine alone in patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, including those with and without brain metastases, said Roger Dansey, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Seattle Genetics. The decision by the FDA to grant Breakthrough Therapy designation to tucatinib recognizes the urgent need for new medicines that can impact the lives of those with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. We intend to submit a New Drug Application to the FDA and an MAA to the EMA by the first quarter 2020, with the goal of making tucatinib available to patients in this setting as soon as possible.

This Breakthrough Therapy designation was based on data from the pivotal HER2CLIMB clinical trial, which compared tucatinib in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine to trastuzumab and capecitabine alone in patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. Patients had previously received trastuzumab, pertuzumab and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1). Patients had received a median of four prior lines of therapy overall and three in the metastatic setting. Forty-seven percent of the patients enrolled in the trial had brain metastases at the time of enrollment.

Data presented at SABCS and published in NEJM include the primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) as assessed by blinded independent central review (BICR) in the first 480 patients enrolled in the trial. The primary endpoint of PFS showed that the addition of tucatinib was superior to trastuzumab and capecitabine alone, with a 46 percent reduction in the risk of disease progression or death (hazard ratio (HR)=0.54 (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.42, 0.71); p<0.00001). The trial met the two key secondary endpoints at interim analysis. The tucatinib arm demonstrated an improvement in overall survival, with a 34 percent reduction in the risk of death (HR=0.66 [95% CI: 0.50, 0.88]; p=0.0048), compared to the control arm. For patients with brain metastases at baseline, the tucatinib arm also demonstrated superior PFS, with a 52 percent reduction in the risk of disease progression or death, compared to the control arm (HR=0.48 [95% CI: 0.34, 0.69]; p<0.00001).

Tucatinib in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine was generally well tolerated. The most common adverse events occurring in more than 20 percent of patients in the tucatinib arm vs. the control arm included diarrhea, palmar-plantar erythrodysaesthesia syndrome (PPE), nausea, fatigue, and vomiting. Discontinuation of tucatinib and placebo due to adverse events was 5.7 percent in the tucatinib arm and 3.0 percent in the control arm. Greater than or equal to Grade 3 diarrhea was seen in 12.9 percent of the patients in the tucatinib arm vs. 8.6 percent in the control arm. Antidiarrheal prophylaxis was not required per protocol. Antidiarrheals were used in less than half of all cycles where diarrhea was reported. In both treatment arms, when used, the duration of antidiarrheal treatment was short (median of 3 days/cycle). Greater than or equal to Grade 3 aspartate aminotransferase (AST) was seen in 4.5 percent of the patients in the tucatinib arm vs. 0.5 percent in the control arm, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevation in 5.4 percent vs. 0.5 percent, respectively. Discontinuations due to liver transaminase elevations were infrequent in both arms (ALT: 1.0 vs. 0.5 percent; AST: 0.7 vs. 0.5 percent).

About HER2-Positive Breast Cancer

Patients with HER2-positive breast cancer have tumors with high levels of a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes the aggressive spread of cancer cells. An estimated 271,270 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2019.1 Between 15 and 20 percent of breast cancer cases worldwide are HER2-positive.2 Historically, HER2-positive breast cancer tends to be more aggressive and more likely to recur than HER2-negative breast cancer.2, 3, 4 In patients with metastatic breast cancer, the most common site of first metastasis is in bone, followed by lung, brain, and liver.5, 6 Up to 50 percent of metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer patients develop brain metastases over time.2, 7 Despite recent treatment advances, there is still a significant need for new therapies that can impact metastatic disease, especially brain metastases. There are currently no approved therapies demonstrating progression-free survival or overall survival benefit for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer after progression on T-DM1.8, 9, 10

About HER2CLIMB

HER2CLIMB is a multinational randomized (2:1), double-blind, placebo-controlled, active comparator, pivotal clinical trial comparing tucatinib in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine compared with trastuzumab and capecitabine alone in patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who were previously treated with trastuzumab, pertuzumab and T-DM1. The primary endpoint of the trial was PFS per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) v1.1 as determined by blinded independent central review (BICR) in the first 480 patients enrolled in the trial. HER2CLIMB enrolled a total of 612 patients to support the analyses of key secondary endpoints, including overall survival, PFS per BICR in patients with brain metastases at baseline and confirmed objective response rate. Safety data were evaluated throughout the study.

About Tucatinib

Tucatinib is an investigational, orally bioavailable, potent tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is highly selective for HER2 without significant inhibition of EGFR. Inhibition of EGFR has been associated with significant toxicities, including skin rash and diarrhea. Tucatinib has shown activity as a single agent and in combination with both chemotherapy and other HER2 targeted agents such as trastuzumab.1,2 Studies of tucatinib in these combinations have shown activity both systemically and in brain metastases. HER2 is a growth factor receptor that is overexpressed in multiple cancers, including breast, colorectal and gastric cancers. HER2 mediates cell growth, differentiation and survival. Tucatinib has been granted orphan drug designation by the FDA for the treatment of breast cancer patients with brain metastases.

In addition to HER2CLIMB, tucatinib is being evaluated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center phase 3 trial of tucatinib in combination with T-DM1 compared to T-DM1 alone, in patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, including those with brain metastases, who have had prior treatment with a taxane and trastuzumab. The primary endpoint is progression-free survival per RECIST criteria. Secondary endpoints include overall survival, objective response rate and duration of response. The trial is being conducted in North America and is expected to enroll approximately 460 patients. More information about the phase 3 trial, including enrolling centers, is available at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov.

Tucatinib is also being evaluated in a multi-center, open-label, single-arm phase 2 clinical trial known as MOUNTAINEER, which is evaluating tucatinib in combination with trastuzumab in patients with HER2-positive, RAS wildtype metastatic or unresectable colorectal cancer. The primary endpoint of the trial is objective response rate by RECIST criteria. Progression-free survival, duration of response, overall survival and safety and tolerability of the combination regimen are secondary objectives. Results for 26 patients were evaluated in an analysis and presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2019 Congress. Enrollment is ongoing. More information about the MOUNTAINEER trial, including enrolling centers, is available at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov.

About Seattle Genetics

Seattle Genetics, Inc. is an emerging multi-product, global biotechnology company that develops and commercializes transformative therapies targeting cancer to make a meaningful difference in peoples lives. ADCETRIS (brentuximab vedotin) utilizes the companys industry-leading antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology and is currently approved for the treatment of multiple CD30-expressing lymphomas. Beyond ADCETRIS, the company has a late-stage pipeline including enfortumab vedotin for metastatic urothelial cancer, currently being reviewed for approval by the FDA, and tisotumab vedotin in clinical trials for metastatic cervical cancer, which utilize our proprietary ADC technology. In addition, tucatinib, a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is in late-stage development for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer and in clinical development for metastatic colorectal cancer. We are also leveraging our expertise in empowered antibodies to build a portfolio of proprietary immuno-oncology agents in clinical trials targeting hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. The company is headquartered in Bothell, Washington, and has a European office in Switzerland. For more information on our robust pipeline, visit http://www.seattlegenetics.com and follow @SeattleGenetics on Twitter.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain of the statements made in this press release are forward looking, such as those, among others, relating to the therapeutic potential of tucatinib, including its possible efficacy, safety and therapeutic uses; anticipated development activities including ongoing and future clinical trials; and intended regulatory actions, including the plan to submit an NDA to the FDA and a MAA to the EMA by the first quarter of 2020. Actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected or implied in these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such a difference include the difficulty and uncertainty of pharmaceutical product development, the risk of adverse events or safety signals, the possibility of disappointing results in ongoing or future clinical trials despite earlier promising clinical results, the possibility of delays in the submission of an NDA to the FDA and a MAA to the EMA, the possibility that data from the HER2CLIMB trial may not be sufficient to support approval of tucatinib, the possibility of adverse regulatory action. More information about the risks and uncertainties faced by Seattle Genetics is contained under the caption Risk Factors included in the companys Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2019 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Seattle Genetics disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

References:

1. American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts and Figures 2018-2019.

2. Loibl S, Gianni L (2017). HER2-positive breast cancer. The Lancet 389(10087): 2415-29.

3. Slamon D, Clark G, Wong S, et al. (1987). Human breast cancer: correlation of relapse and survival with amplification of the HER-2/neu oncogene. Science 235(4785): 177-82.

4. American Cancer Society (ACS) (2018). Breast cancer HER2 status. Accessed: December 10, 2018.

5. Kennecke H, Yerushalmi R, Woods R, et al. (2010). Metastatic Behavior of Breast Cancer Subtypes. Journal of Clinical Oncology 28(20): 3271-7.

6. Berman AT, Thukral AD, Hwang W-T, et al. (2013). Incidence and Patterns of Distant Metastases for Patients With Early-Stage Breast Cancer After Breast Conservation Treatment. Clinical Breast Cancer 13(2): 88-94.

7. Duchnowska R, Loibl S, Jassem J (2018). Tyrosine kinase inhibitors for brain metastases in HER2-positive breast cancer. Cancer Treatment Reviews 67: 71-7.

8. Verma S, Miles D, Gianni L, et al. (2012). Trastuzumab Emtansine for HER2-Positive Advanced Breast Cancer. New England Journal of Medicine 367(19): 1783-91.

9. Geyer CE, Forster J, Lindquist D, et al. (2006). Lapatinib plus Capecitabine for HER2-Positive Advanced Breast Cancer. New England Journal of Medicine 355(26): 2733-43.

10. Blackwell KL, Burstein HJ, Storniolo AM, et al. (2012). Overall Survival Benefit With Lapatinib in Combination With Trastuzumab for Patients With Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer: Final Results From the EGF104900 Study. Journal of Clinical Oncology 30(21): 2585-92.

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Seattle Genetics Announces U.S. FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Tucatinib in Locally Advanced or Metastatic HER2-Positive Breast...

Human Behavior

‘Levels Of The Game’: Looking At Human Behavior Through Tennis – Tennis TourTalk

International Blog Michael Dickens

With another tennis season finished and the decade almost complete, Ive been enjoying a brief, holiday respite from the Centre Courts of the world by reading a book Ive been wanting to re-visit for a long time,Levels of the Gameby John McPhee. Published in 1969, contents of the book originally appeared as an essay in The New Yorker magazine. Levels of the Game hasbeen a part of my personal library for many years and its arguably the best book ever written about tennis.

Yet,Levels of the Gameisnt really as much a book about tennis as it is a battle of wills and ideals between two very different American gentlemen and what each symbolizes in a sport that was just opening itself to a brand new Open era in 1968.

On one side of the net on the outdoor grass courts at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, then the home of the US Open, is Clark Graebner. Hes 25 years-old, rich, white, conservative. On the other side opposite him is Arthur Ashe Jr., also 25, striving middle class, black and open to new ideas. There is a sense of tension between these two talented individuals that goes far beyond the fact that both are college-educated athletes and competitors Graebner, conservative scion and only-son of a dentist who matriculated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and Ashe, a liberal who grew up in Richmond, Va., then migrated west and graduated from UCLA in Los Angeles, Calif. Despite being rivals, they are also friends even U.S. Davis Cup teammates.

Over the course of this brilliant 150-page narrative, from first ball to last ball during an epic semifinal-round match at the 1968 US Open, the Princeton and Cambridge-educated McPhee develops a sense of tension between Graebner and Ashe on the court. He goes inside the mind and game of these two great players. Through a stroke-by-stroke description of this singular match, McPhee examines their socio-economic backgrounds and attitudes touching on both race and politics which molds each player, mentally and physically.

Heres how Graebner describes his style of play with Ashes, filled with both racial and political undercurrents that prevailed at the time:

Ive never been a flashy stylist, like Arthur. Im a fundamentalist. Arthur is a bachelor. I am married and conservative. Im interested in business, in the market, in childrens clothes. It affects the way you play the game. Hes not a steady player. Hes a wrists slapped. Sometimes he doesnt even know where the ball is going. Hes carefree, lackadaisical, forgetful. Negroes are getting more confidence. They are asking for more and more, and they are getting more and more. They are looser. Theyre liberal. In a way, liberal is a synonym for loose. And thats exactly the way Arthur plays.

And in contrast, heres how Ashe analyzes Graebner:

There is not much variety in Clarks game. It is steady, accurate, and conservative. He makes few errors. He plays still, compact, Republican tennis. Hes a damned smart player, a good thinker, but not a limber and flexible thinker. His game is predictable, but he has a sounder volley than I have, and a better forehand more touch, more power. His forehand is a hell of a weapon. His moves are mediocre. His backhand is under spin, which means he cant hit it hard. He just cant hit a heavily top-spun backhand. He hasnt much flair or finesse, except in the lob. He has the best lob of any of the Americans. Hes solid and consistent. He tries to let you beat yourself.

One reviewer described McPhees approach as a highly original way of looking at human behavior. After all, as the author notes, When physical assets are about equal, psychology is paramount to any game.

Consider the attention to detail McPhee provides readers from the very beginning of Levels of the Game:

Arthur Ashe, his feet apart, his knees slightly bent, lifts a tennis ball into the air. The toss is high and forward. If the ball were allowed to drop, it would, in Ashes words, make a parabola and drop to the grass three feet in front of the baseline. He has practiced tossing a tennis ball just so thousands of times. But he is going to hit this one. His feet draw together. His body straightens and tilts forward far beyond the point of balance. He is falling. The force of gravity and a muscular momentum from legs to arm compound as he whips his racquet up and over the ball. He weighs a hundred and fifty-five pounds; he is six feet tall, and right-handed. His build is barely full enough not to be describable as frail, but his cordination is so extraordinary that the ball comes off his racquet at furious speed. With a step forward that stops his fall, he moves to follow.

On the other side of the net, the serve hits the grass and, taking off in a fast skid, is intercepted by the backhand of Clark Graebner. Graebner has a plan for this match. He does not intend to hit out much. Even if he sees the moon, he may decide not to shoot it. He will, in his words, play the ball in the court and make Arthur play it, because Arthur blows his percentages by always trying a difficult or acute shot. Arthur sometimes tends to miss easy shots more often than he makes hard shots. The only way to get his confidence down is to get every shot into the court and let him make mistakes. Graebner, standing straight up, pulls his racquet across and then away from the ball as if he had touch something hot, and with this gesture he blocks back Ashes serve.

Later in the book, McPhee delves inside the mind of each player with great insight:

Graebner happens to be as powerful as anyone who plays tennis. He is six feet two inches tall; he weighs a hundred and seventy-five pounds. The firmly structured muscles of his legs stand out in symmetrical perfection. His frame is large, but his reactions are instant and there is nothing sluggish about him. He is right-handed, and his right forearm is more than a foot in circumference. His game is built on power. His backswing is short, his strokes are compact; nonetheless, the result is explosive. There have to be exceptions to any general strategy. Surely this particular shot is a setup, a sitter, hanging there soft and helpless in the air. With a vicious backhand drive, Graebner tries to blow the ball crosscourt, past Ashe. But it does into the net. Fifteen-love.

Graebner is nervous. He looks down at his feet somberly. This is Forest Hills, and this is one of the semifinal matches in the first United States Open Championships. Graebner and Ashe are both Americans. The other semifinalists are a Dutchman and an Australian. It has been thirteen years since an American won the mens singles final at Forest Hills, and this match will determine whether Ashe or Graebner is to have a chance to be the first American since Tony Trabert to win it all. Ashe and Graebner are still amateurs, and it was imagined that in this tournament, playing against professionals ,they wouldnt have much of a chance. But they are here, close to the finish, playing each other. For Graebner to look across the net and see Ashe and the reverse is not in its unusual. They were both born in 1943, they have known each other since they were thirteen, and they have played tournaments and exhibitions and have practiced together in so many countries and seasons that details blur. They are members of the United States Davis Cup Team and, as such, travel together throughout the year, playing for the United States and also entering general tournaments less as individuals than en bloc, with the team.

A persons tennis game begins with his nature and background and comes out through his motor mechanisms into shot patterns and characteristics of play. If he is deliberate, he is a deliberate tennis player; and if he is flamboyant, his game probably is, too. A tight, close match unmarried by error and representative of each players game at its highest level will be primarily a psychological struggle, particularly when the players are so familiar with each other that there can be no technical surprises There is nothing about Ashes game that Graebner does not know, and Ashe says that he knows Graebners game like a favorite tune. Ashe feels that Graebner. Plays the way he does because he is a middle-class white conservative. Graebner feels that Ashe plays the way he does because he is black. Ashe, at this moment, is nervous. He is famous for what journalists have called his majestic cool, his towering, calm, his icy elegance. But he is scared stiff, and other tennis players who know him well can see this, because it is literally true. His legs are stiff. Now, like a mechanical soldier, he walks into position to serve again. He lifts the ball, and hits it down the middle.

Ashes principal problem in tennis has been consistency. He has brilliance to squander, but steadiness has not been characteristic of him. He shows this, woodenly hitting three volleys into the net in this first game, letting Graebner almost break him, then shooting his way out of trouble with two serves hit so hard that Graebner cannot touch them. Ashe wins the first game. Graebner shrugs and tells himself, He really snuck out of that one.

In a 2014 review of Levels of the Game for the London Guardian, William Fiennes suggests that McPhees use of tenses are a subtle source of power. He notes how the author uses past tense for history and backstory, present tense for the match and for the comments and reactions of those watching it.

For instance: When, after an account of (Robert) Johnsons first meeting with Ashe (he wondered if the child had been a victim of rickets, he was so bony and frail), McPhee cuts back to the semifinal at Forest Hills, the reversion to the present tense is an electric quickening. Sometimes these transitions are bold and imaginative, as when McPhee shows us two of Johnsons trophy-winning students watching television, and the match theyre watching is Ashe vs. Graebner at Forest Hills, and suddenly were back in the game, spirited via a wormhole, Graebner serving an ace that splits the court.

Another example: Both Ashe and Graebner have a great deal of finesse in reserve behind their uncomplicated power, but it surfaces once or twice a game rather than once or twice a point. Ashe is a master of drop shots, of drop half volleys, of miscellaneous dinks and chips. He is, in the idiom of tennis, very tough at cat-and-mouse the texture of the game in which both players, near the net, exchange light, floppy shots, acutely angled and designed for inaccessibility. Graebner is a deft volleyer, reacting quickly and dangerously at the net, but in general although the two players technically have the same sort of game Graebner does not have the variety of shots or the versatility that Ashe has. Ashe says that Graebner could use a little more junk in his game.

Throughout this fun-to-read book, it becomes apparent how freely and honestly Ashe and Graebner discuss race and personal politics and the changing landscape of the tennis world. We find out what makes each succeed on and off the court and looking back, the book remains a great historical document. Remember, the Open Era of professional tennis was just starting to take shape and some of the greats of the game that we feel deep admiration for today, like Rod Laver, were still playing. Also, in terms of U.S. history, this match took place in the same year as the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and the United States was in the height of fighting the Vietnam War. Worth noting is Ashe was a second lieutenant stationed at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., when he won the 1968 US Open.

Of many things Ive come to appreciate from reading Levels of the Game is how much McPhee admires both Ashe and Graebner and throughout, he maintains a sense of impartiality. However, its apparent that McPhee assumes that the reader will side with Ashe more than Graebner and, its Ashe who not only wins the match 4-6, 8-6, 7-5, 6-2 but also goes on to win the 1968 US Open, defeating Tom Okker of the Netherlands, 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, in the championship final. Still an amateur and unable to accept the $14,000 first-prize money awarded to the winner, it was Ashes first career Grand Slam singles title and his only US Open singles championship. He became the first African-American man to win the US Open.

Looking back at this clash of conservative values versus liberal ideals, one of the primary take aways after re-reading McPhees Levels of the Gameis simple: You are the way you play.

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'Levels Of The Game': Looking At Human Behavior Through Tennis - Tennis TourTalk

Human Behavior

How to Win on Women, Peace and Security – smallwarsjournal

How to Win on Women, Peace and Security

Rosarie Tucci

New strategies employing behavioral science may help push governments to implement National Action Plans.

For almost 15 years, Jacqueline ONeill, now Canadas first ambassador for women, peace and security, pondered a question that dogs policymakers everywhere and bears heavily on her work: How can governments speed up the implementation of major shifts in policy?

For ONeill, the problem was specific. In 2000, the United Nations Security Council approved U.N. Resolution 1325, which calls for every nation to recognize the particular impact of war on women and girls and to ensure that women have a central role in peacemaking efforts. Five years later, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked the worlds governments to create National Action Plans to bring the promise of 1325 to fruition. ONeill, who advised dozens of countries on 1325, observed a frustrating phenomenon: Many governments had robust plans, but key components of them remained little more than words on paper. (USIP has worked on the issue for a decade.)

ONeills quest for a more effective way to get NAPs implemented coincided with expanding research by social scientists into why things door do notget done within every type of organization be it a government, business or nonprofit. The emerging answer wasin simplest termsbecause normal human behavior tends toward inertia when translated to an organizational setting. Building off the growing use of behavioral science to inform policy and improve public services, ONeill figured insights from the expanding field, such as the much-discussed Nudge Theory, might help solve her NAP problem.

ONeill recalled what Paul Cairney and Richard Kwiatkowski, leading scholars in public policy and behavioral science, said about policymakers: They need to gather information quickly and effectivelyand often in highly charged political environmentsand that pushes them to rely on mental shortcuts such as ingrained perceptions and emotions. Scholars recognize that while shortcuts, known in behavioral science as heuristics, can be useful, they can also cause policymakers to fall back on the status quo.

We need to better understand and navigate these human tendencies in order to make more rapid progress toward implementation of the NAPs, Neill said.

So, she gathered experts in both behavioral science and inclusive security to explore how behavioral insights might be used to advance National Action Plans. The group turned to a framework for policymakers known by the acronym EASTmaking change Easy, Attractive, Social and Timelythen customized elements of it to the NAP challenge.

As the 20th anniversary of 1325 approaches, heres the advice they came up with for WPS practitioners and policymakers.

Make It Easy

To ease people into new processes, the EAST framework advises harnessing the power of defaults and reducing the hassle factor. That can include simple steps: Maximize the repeated use of templates or employ a box-check to habituate officials to collecting new information. For example, does analysis of protests against government policy include estimates of the gender distribution of demonstrators? A prompt such as a single, required click or tag can yield sex-disaggregated data. Such items can usually be added to existing standard forms.

The importance of simplifying messages cant be overstated; ultimately, the NAP is also a communications document. Jargon and confusing, lengthy language cause readers and viewers to disengage. Consistent and accurate use of terms help create clarity.

NAPs should be customized to reflect, and integrate with, national priorities and policymakers interests. Most of the worlds 84 NAPs, for example, are structured around 1325s four strategic pillars: protection, participation, prevention, and relief and recovery. Yet no government is organized that way. Several countries are now reframing their WPS commitments. For example, a key priority in Jordans NAP relates to violent extremism. In Tonga, the strategic-level focus is on climate change.

Implementation is also more likely when the benefits are spelled out clearly and driven home. An example particularly germane to conflict zones might be stressing that research shows women often raise issues addressing the root of a conflicta key to sustainable peacewhen they are meaningfully involved in peace negotiations.

Make It Attractive

Effective communications help attract attention for NAPs and lend urgency to their implementation. To a significant degree, that means invoking human narratives that illustrate the importance and impact of the plans for women. With such a backdrop, sympathetic policymakers can then reinforce NAP messages in policy documents and speechesincluding those delivered by unconventional messengers such as military officers or economists. A specialized fund devoted to initiatives linked explicitly to NAP creates another avenue to strengthen implementation efforts.

Rewards and sanctions can shift behavior as well. A manager who says NAP is an important policy yet fails to score subordinates work in the area in job evaluations isnt promoting increased attention. Likewise, recognizing progress and achievements on a NAP is a crucial tool for encouraging implementation. USAID, for example, established an annual agency-wide WPS award.

Finally, governments often respond to pressure from oversight bodies. Encouraging hearings or inquiries by lawmakers can create an opportunity to publicly highlight obstacles to action or a lack of commitment. Similarly, engaging civil society organizations to offer praise as well as highlight ongoing shortcomings can be another way to mobilize public officials.

Make It Social

As social beings, humans tend to follow the herd, amplifying behavior for better or worse. Pointing out negative behavior, therefore, should be done sparingly. For instance, WPS practitioners repeatedly cite the paucity of women at negotiating tables (in peace processes, women are 2 percent of mediators, 5 percent of witnesses and signatories, and 8 percent of negotiators globally). Understanding the extent of the problem is important, of course, but over-emphasizing the scale of exclusion might be counterproductive. Practitioners might do better to highlight what those few women have achieved. Offering concrete examples to emulate is one of the most effective ways to move people in a desired direction.

Sharing material online is perhaps the simplest form of social interaction. Through social media, practitioners can discuss successful means for developing and implementing plans, such as how to engage civil society or create a steering committee for a NAP comprised of policymakers from relevant government departments.

Contacts in the analog world can be even more powerful. WPS practitioners should nurture networks of gender specialists, promote gatherings at conferences, encourage engagement in community activities, and establish opportunities for academics, civil society, other gender points of contact within those organizations to exchange experiences and expertise. In 2020, for example, Canada and Uruguay will co-chair the Women, Peace and Security Focal Points Network, and co-host its annual gathering in Ottawa.

Creating opportunities or safe space for people to ask authentic questions or test assumptions might be helpful. At times, policymakers implementing NAPs hesitate to ask challenging questions or express doubts about policy options, fearful of giving offense in a time of fast-changing cultural and social norms.

Finally, commitments made in face-to-face meetings create a sense of shared responsibility and greater urgency for action whether they are expressed through a job description, evaluation or promises by senior-level officials.

Make It Timely

Applying principles like prompting people when they are likely to be most receptive can help accelerate change.

Periods of transitionfrom elections to waroften disrupt hard-to-alter behaviors and end in a period of reform. When such events are predictable, the lead up phase may be an optimal time to create a NAP. Conversely, NAP advocates may foresee regression coming out of a disruptive time. In that case, the best strategy may be designing NAPs that span government administrations (often four to six years), the idea being to force a new government that opposes a plan to cancel it outright rather than making the politically easier choice of simply failing to adopt one.

Furthermore, by emphasizing the linkages between WPS and current events, implementers can more effectively stimulate action. This may work best when preparation is possible, such as getting ready to counter arguments typically used to stymie action on WPS (for example: The situation is too complex to bring more actors to the table now; we can do that once a peace agreement is reached). Other forms of preparation might include scenario-based trainings for practitioners and women in civil society to react in real-time to events like terrorist attacks, peace talks or rising inter-communal tensions.

Finally, stressing short-term advantages that flow from a NAP may expedite action because people are more likely to respond to immediate costs and benefits. A convincing case in point: Naming a woman as lead negotiator of the Philippines government team in 2012 immediately resulted in an increase in Filipinos public trust in the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

More Research

Existing research explores the impact of behavioral processes on peace, including the influence culture has on the ways in which people negotiate to end conflicts. Further explorations are underway on how to operationalize these insights, one of them being USIPs partnership with ideas42, an organization focused on applied behavioral science.

As we learn more about how best to effectuate change, it is clear that behavioral science complements the various strategies used to drive the larger, transformational accomplishments so far on the Women Peace and Security agenda.

Tinu Luu is a senior program assistant for the Inclusive Peace Process Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

This article is cross-posted here with the permission (on agreement) from the United States Institute of Peace.

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How to Win on Women, Peace and Security - smallwarsjournal

Human Behavior

26 Questions I Had While Watching the Cats Movie – Vogue

The Cats movie is finally out, after months of anticipation, and believe me when I say it more than lives up to the hype. One thing I must admit, though, is that Cats is...confusing.

Below, find an in-no-way-exhaustive list of the questions that Cats raised for me, in real time.

Did everyone else in the theater also turn to their movie companion and whisper "Those are the cats" when the cats first came onscreen? Because I did.

Why did this British woman put a cat in a pillowcase and throw it in an alley? Are there no no-kill shelters in London? This seems like a less-than-ideal method of cat removal.

Is it normal that I find some of the cats hot? Jason Derulo, a.k.a. Rum Tum Tugger, and his hip thrusts in particular, stand out to me.

If the cats can speak, then why can they also hiss? What does hissing connote to a cat blessed with the faculty of language?

Why in God's name is Rebel Wilson, a.k.a. Jennyanydots, splaying her legs in that borderline-perverse manner? This is not cat behavior, nor is it appropriate human behavior, and it's raising a whole lot more questions for me about cat anatomy that I'd prefer not to think about.

Did Jennyanydots just...eat an anthropomorphized, sentient cockroach?

Why are mice and cockroaches roughly the same size in the Cats universe? Shouldn't the mice be bigger than the cats? I feel like the scale is off.

So Jennifer Hudson, a.k.a. Grizabella, has a tattered shawl on, and James Corden, a.k.a. Bustopher Jones, wears a full suit. How exactly do cats acquire or earn clothes?

Continued here:
26 Questions I Had While Watching the Cats Movie - Vogue

Human Behavior

PSFK Retail Conference Preview: Tomorrow’s Store Will Sell Feelings, Not Things – PSFK

What will the future retail store look like? One of the founders of award-winning experiential design agency YourStudio shares his vision based on emerging trends, describing a retailscape defined by real-life fulfillment, wellbeing for the mind and soul, and human spaces to fuel the imagination.

What are the weak signals you see emerging in retail right now?

Human behavior is driving all of the best new retail experiences. We are seeing retail and digital integration to help remove friction, new fulfillment models to give time back, and experiences that nourish and elevate the human spirit.

Shoppers have been using the store partly as a showroom to order online, so new smart offers create this showcase with no need for direct sales. Samsungs space at Coal Drops Yard is a good example of this: leave without a product, but with a huge baptism into what Samsung means to your life and how it can make it better. Were moving into an era of selling emotions and feelings, not things.

Retail spaces will continue to shift away from focus around stuff, moving towards real-life fulfillment, wellbeing for the mind and soul, and human spaces to fuel the imagination. Generation selfie is declining; people are looking to retail spaces to connect, find a sense of purpose, and enrich their knowledge and point of view.

How do you see innovative retailers delivering on these new demands?

Stores are experimenting with different formats. The legacy department stores are creating smaller capsule spaces. Galleries Lafayette Champs-Elyses is a perfect example. Big brands are slicing up what they do so, instead of large multi-format stores, they are creating more specialized, local branches. To stay competitive and keep up, we need to build architecture thats agile, from our digital to our physical brand moments. Storytelling and keeping up the connections with our audiences is key to survival. All of this depends on great creative minds to understand and empathize with what people need as well as creating material people feel drawn to.

Can you guess what the store experience five years from now will be like?

The film Her creates a vision of the future thats not all space rockets and levitating furniture, but has a soul through its touch of the familiar augmented with some new and clever tech. This is how I see the store in five years' time. We will still appreciate the human qualities of touch and visual language that soothes or stimulates us, but we will see more services and dwell spaces customized to us, our moods and anticipating our every desire.

What do you plan to share at the Future Of Retail 2020 Conference?

Driven by PSFKs insight, I will be presenting three future retail concepts that pioneer thinking around loyalty, brand connection and the next generation of experience design. I will be showing what the future of fresh food might look like at a supermarket scale, how luxury loyalty can be unpacked at home and how whole-life fulfillment might be experienced at a place-making scale for a mall of the future. Cant wait!

YourStudio

To learn more from Howard, come see him take the stage at PSFK's upcoming Future Of Retail conference 2020, tickets available now!

What will the future retail store look like? One of the founders of award-winning experiential design agency YourStudio shares his vision based on emerging trends, describing a retailscape defined by real-life fulfillment, wellbeing for the mind and soul, and human spaces to fuel the imagination.

What are the weak signals you see emerging in retail right now?

Human behavior is driving all of the best new retail experiences. We are seeing retail and digital integration to help remove friction, new fulfillment models to give time back, and experiences that nourish and elevate the human spirit.

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PSFK Retail Conference Preview: Tomorrow's Store Will Sell Feelings, Not Things - PSFK