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Human Behavior

Faculty note: Professor Chu’s new article is featured by the Center for Self-Determination Theory Inside UW-Green Bay News – UWGB

Assistant Professor and Chair, Alan Chu (M.S Sport, Excercise, and Performance Psychology) and his colleagues published a new article that shows high school athletes might be less active when coaches are disempowering, such as using punishing and yelling techniques. This article is featured by the Center for Self-Determination Theory, one of the most established motivation theories to explain human behavior and psychological needs.

To read the full feature, visit this LinkedIn page.

To learn more about Chus Self-Determination Theory publications, visit the International Scholars profile.

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Faculty note: Professor Chu's new article is featured by the Center for Self-Determination Theory Inside UW-Green Bay News - UWGB

Human Behavior

Resident Alien: Why The Reviews Are So Positive | Screen Rant – Screen Rant

Critics have lauded Resident Alien for its star Alan Tudyk's performance and the charming off-beat comedy. Here's a quick review round-up.

Resident Alienhas garnered a lot of positive buzz since its SyFy premiere last Wednesday.Several critics credit Alan Tudyk's performance as a clueless, cynical alien for the show's burgeoning success. Based on the Dark Horse comic series by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, Resident Alienis sure to be a win formany viewers.

The show follows Alan Tudyk's alien, disguised asDr. Harry Vanderspeigle, as he navigates being stranded on Earth after a failed mission to destroy humankind.Heassumes the doctor's appearance after he throws the human version into a frozen lake, thereby killing him. Though he spends three months isolated and learning human behavior via television, he is by no means an expert. Surprisingly,the imposter doesn't fool anyone, albeit the mayor's son, when he's called on to examine the body of the town's only other doctor and begins the show's ultimate murder mystery.

Related: Why The Little Things' Reviews Are So Bad

Over on Rotten Tomatoes, Resident Aliencurrently holds a near-perfect 96% rating from critics. For the most part, critics laud Alan Tudykas anextraterrestrialinitially resistant to the charms of human living. Theypraise his physicality and versatility in the role, as well as complimenting the supporting cast, who play completely normal characters around his odd man out. Many also claim the blend of dark humor and sincerityworks to the show's advantage. With these critiques in mind, let's take a look at some of the most positive reviews.

Decider:

A show likeResident Alienhas to take on a delicate balance, where it should be funny but not goofy, dramatic and heartfelt but not smarmy, and scary but not violent. Sheridan and his writers have done a good job having all three of these elements in the pilot, but much of it is thanks to the casting of Tudyk as Harry.

CNN:

Adapted by "Family Guy" writer Chris Sheridan, "Resident Alien" possesses the quirky qualities of a live-action cartoon, capitalizing on Tudyk's weirdly endearing performance, which makes you root for Harry even with his occasional homicidal tendencies.

Roger Ebert:

The writing isnt quite of that caliberit too often goes for easy character beats instead of nuanced storytellingbut this is a consistently likable show at a time when people could use something comfortable and easy. And theres enough talent and potential in it that it could still develop into something even richer and deeper.

Wall Street Journal:

Among all the secret weapons inhabiting Resident Alien, the principal one is Mr. Tudyk, who often provides voices for animated series but can assume the otherworldly look, and charms, of a creature cut loose from his reality.

While many are in favor of Alan Tudyk,some reviewers believe the storyline becomes a little muddled as the series progresses and the show is just too long to warrant one-hour episodes. Several critics say half-hour episodes would have worked best for this dramedy. Some also claim the heavier subject matter outweighs the lighthearted moments at times, so it strikes an uneven balance in tone. A fewsay that the showdoesn't provide fresh perspectivesto thesci-figenreor small town tropes, which may deter from the overall quality of the show. See below for some less favorable remarks.

The Hollywood Reporter:

The TV incarnation of Resident Alien struggles to find a consistent tone, layers in more artificial storytelling obstacles than the premise requires and only occasionally figures out how to use its appealing cast. ... After seven episodes I'd grown tired of wading through the half-dozen plotlines I didn't care about for the one or two that I did.

The Times:

It's a nice send-up of various genres, based on the Dark Horse comic books. However, it feels too slight to warrant hour-long episodes and would perhaps be snappier in half-hour bites.

Despite these misgivings, it seems as though Resident Alienhas enough steam to be a hit.The overarching opinion from critics for thereason to tune in and keep watching is because of Alan Tudyk. However convoluted the plot may become, Tudyk carries the show and makes it an entertaining and worthwhile watch.

Next: Most Anticipated New TV Shows Releasing In 2021

WandaVision's Magic Could Replace Ms Marvel's Power Origin In The MCU

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Resident Alien: Why The Reviews Are So Positive | Screen Rant - Screen Rant

Human Behavior

Will MnDOT be responsive to communities’ I-94 non-expansion demands? – MinnPost

For years, advocates and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) have been engaged in a subtle game of three-dimensional advocacy chess. It centers on the central portion of Interstate 94, the states most used freeway, which carries around 150,000 cars a day between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Built more than 60 years ago, the central link of I-94 is approaching its design life and soon much of it will have to be reconstructed at great expense. The open question is whether MnDOT will try to expand the freeway when it undergoes construction.

The agency is rapidly approaching a key decision point as a committee meets this week. Following a multiyear agency public-engagement effort on one hand, titled Rethinking I-94, groups of social justice and environmental advocates have taken a preemptive position on the future of the states busiest freeway.

There are a lot of layers and complexities to any kind of transportation project, explained Keith Baker, the managing director of Reconnect Rondo. This is the most important corridor in the state, and having MnDOT, the city, the Met Council, and Ramsey County on the same page in reference to this opportunity is critical.

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Before he began working with Reconnect Rondo, an advocacy organization for St. Pauls freeway-adjacent communities, Baker worked for 15 years at MnDOT. Last October, his Reconnect Rondo organization sent the agency a detailed eight-page position paper [PDF] calling for an equitable and restorative development model in planning for the freeways future. And in December, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed a resolution [PDF] laying out a series of demands and expectations for how the freeway is used.(The St. Paul City Council is expected to pass a very similar resolution next week.)

The elephant in the room remains climate change, now a more urgent problem than ever. The problem is that, statewide and nationally, the transportation sector poses the largest challenge for decarbonization. While Minnesota has succeeded in cutting emissions from sectors like electricity generation, transportation pollution has grown as larger cars, trucks, and SUVs continue to increase the states overall Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT).

In 2019, MnDOT released a report on its goals for reducing carbon through encouraging electric vehicles. But even those plans barely included overall VMT reductions, making it difficult to reach ambitious climate goals.

The decision around central I-94 might be an opportunity to take the next step.

Minnesota Department of Transportation

Minnesota Department of Transportation

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If you look at the Minneapolis City Council resolution, its full of ideas that point to reducing traffic on the freeway. In it, the council states flatly that it strongly opposes the repair or reconstruction of I-94 in its current form and categorically rejects any roadway expansion within its boundaries or any right of way expansion.

In place of some existing freeway traffic, the City Council proposes taking an existing travel lane and converting it to a transit/carpool lane that would allow express buses and other high occupancy vehicles to speed between the cities, even during rush hour.

The resolutions other details include better bridges and connections for walking and bike paths, sidewalks, and trails over the freeway, alongside mitigation efforts to reduce harmful pollution for people living nearby.

I-94 was the most destructive project, and this is a once in a generation opportunity to repair that damage, explained Burns. The Sierra Club position is that if, MnDOT wants to brand this thing as Rethinking 94, were calling on them to do that, and to really create infrastructure that centers on the health of people and ecosystems.

Of course, the central spur of I-94 is not just any freeway, but a particularly infamous stretch of urban highway that is held up as a national example of the worst kind of midcentury freeway construction. When it was built it destroyed St. Pauls largely African-American Rondo neighborhood, and that story has filled several books, a handful of documentaries, and at least one play. Thanks to the tireless work of African American community leaders in St. Paul, commemorating the historic Rondo neighborhood has long been the subject of an annual summer festival.

While this is a transportation project, it cannot be viewed solely as a transportation project, said Keith Baker of Reconnect Rondo.Bakers four-year-old nonprofit centers on building support and funding for a land bridge that would put a lid over a central stretch of the freeway, relinking both sides of the historic Rondo community.

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Since then, Reconnect Rondo has reframed its mission, to focus less on infrastructure specifics and more on revitalizing the citys African American community that the freeway destroyed in the first place.

Reconnect Rondo will help to create a unified voice within the community that will lead a restorative movement, explained Baker. By leading a restorative movement, we aim to revitalize the past of Rondo, looking to the future of an African American cultural enterprise district thats connected by a community land bridge. The land bridge [itself] is merely a tool.

For Baker, the Minneapolis City Councils I-94 resolution is a good step forward, and he suggested we dont see anything within the resolution that hinders the work were doing.

But as Baker sees it, the key for the future of Rondo community will be for MnDOT to truly rethink its goals. Thats why their position paper lays out an alternative vision for the DOT, rethinking the purpose and need of the freeway in the first place.

The position paper speaks to the importance of social, economic, and environmental considerations to be up front in purpose and need rather than simply talking about infrastructure, Baker explained.

For generations, traffic engineering has been nearly synonymous with freeway expansion. DOTs have long been tasked with the problem of reducing traffic congestion, which is an almost impossible goal given the perniciousness of human behavior around induced demand.

But this year, during a pandemic that saw travel behavior rapidly shift, there were some glimmers that MnDOT is starting to change its habits. In December, an external committee that advises the agency on climate policy,theSustainable Transportation Advisory Council, approved recommendations to set goals for reducing driving statewide. Among the adopted principles are reducing VMT statewide by 20% by 2050 and the corollary tostop expanding highway capacity to reduce congestion.[PDF]

Thirty years in the future might not seem like a significant time horizon, but even that goal represents a massive shift for an agency that has predicted growth in driving since its inception.

Minnesota Department of Transportation

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Elsewhere around the country, its another story. Destructive urban freeway expansion projects continue to be pitched and planned in cities like Portland (Oregon), Houston, Cleveland, Los Angeles and dozens of other cities.

Ending highway expansion would represent a huge political fight, especially for fast-growing exurban communities. But with incoming U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg openly calling for an urban freeway removal fund, the time might be right for MnDOT to shift gears.

MinnPost photo by Bill Lindeke

I-94 at sunset in Minneapolis' Seward Neighborhood.

Our community has a continuum, and people are at different places, said Baker. Some want the doggone thing just to be filled in. Others say its OK to have a freeway, but dont want expansion. Or that we need transit considerations, as well as ensuring connectivity so that biking and walking can take place.

Baker and others will be closely watching this weeks meeting of the freeways policy advisory committee, as is members draft their Purpose and Need Statement for the freeway project.

We are at an important point, talking about mobility equity, he said. Anything that gets us to mobility equity, we completely support.

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Will MnDOT be responsive to communities' I-94 non-expansion demands? - MinnPost

Human Behavior

REVIEW: The Dark and Profoundly Uninhibited World of ‘PVT Chat’ – Substream Magazine

In PVT Chat, writer-director Ben Hozie pulls back the curtain on our most private moments to explore our collective longing for connection and recognition. Though his writing ultimately succumbs to the allure of fantasy over reality, the execution of Hozies narrative vision is one of the most visceral and exciting depictions of life in the digital age that the world of cinema has seen.

Jack (Peter Vack) is a low-level professional internet poker player on the verge of losing his New York City apartment. Single, socially awkward, and painfully alone, Jack finds comfort and companionship through hiring cam girls he finds online. His interactions range from mundane to highly sexual, but something about one girl a dominatrix named Scarlett (Julia Fox) captivates young Jack. His infatuation grows as the sessions continue, leading Jack to believe he has a bond with the woman hes never met.

Want more movie coverage? Check out our review of Shadow In The Cloud.

Viewers are introduced to Jack while hes hunched over his laptop, masturbating to a woman hes chatting with online. A handheld camera pans over the tiny space Jack occupies and his naked body before lingering on his contorting facial expressions. Its an abrupt and jarring introduction to the uninhibited world where Hozies characters exist that informs the audience of everything they can expect moving forward.

The voyeuristic look and feel of the film emphasize the blurring boundaries of its protagonists. Jack and Scarlet are not people to feel sorry for, nor are they meant to be your new best friends. Their every motivation and insecurity is laid bare to create relatability through a universal sense of discomfort. Hozie exposes human behavior elements that rarely appear in cinema, and he does so with an unflinching eye that demands we acknowledge our true nature. Try as we might to be modest and put together, were all profoundly flawed creatures yearning for a sense of happiness none of us feel we deserve, yet we look for it all the same.

When Jack spots Scarlet in a New York bodega near his home, he cannot believe his eyes. While his desperation to legitimize their connection intensifies, PVT Chat pivots to follow Scarlet, and in doing so, provides Fox an opportunity to showcase her range. The Uncut Gems star takes what could easily be a two-dimensional character and makes her seem fully alive, with fears and ambitions that extend far beyond her laptop.

PVT Chat is not a tale of romance with elements of eroticism; its an erotic thriller with ruminations on romance. Though the final act succumbs to absurd ideas regarding Jack and Scarlets bonds strength, there is a grit to the film that will linger with viewers long after the credits roll. Hozie has resurrected a rough and tumble style of indie filmmaking that cinema desperately needs. In doing so, hes given two promising young actors a platform to launch their careers into the stratosphere. This is a film made to make you squirm as if youre witnessing something you shouldnt see, but its energy and delivery will keep you hanging on every moment like no other feature in recent memory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgXYBd6M2JA

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REVIEW: The Dark and Profoundly Uninhibited World of 'PVT Chat' - Substream Magazine

Human Behavior

January: Cell phone data | News and features – University of Bristol

Being prepared for a pandemic, like COVID-19, depends on the ability to predict the course of the pandemic and the human behaviour that drives spread in the event of an outbreak. Cell phone metadata that is routinely collected by telecommunications providers can reveal changes of behavior in people who are diagnosed with a flu-like illness, while also protecting their anonymity, a new study has found. The research, led by Emory University and devised by the University of Bristol, is based on data drawn from a 2009 outbreak of H1N1 influenza in Iceland and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Dr Ymir Vigfusson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Emory University and first author of the study, said: "To our knowledge, our project is the first major, rigorous study to individually link passively-collected cell phone metadata with actual public health data, says. Weve shown that its possible to do so without compromising privacy and that our method could potentially provide a useful tool to help monitor and control infectious disease outbreaks."

The research team collaborated with a major cell phone service provider in Iceland, along with public health officials on the island. They analyzed metadata for over 90,000 encrypted cell phone numbers, which represents over a quarter of Icelands population. They were able to link the encrypted cell phone metadata to 1,400 anonymous individuals who received a clinical diagnosis of a flu-like illness during the H1N1 outbreak, while preserving privacy at all stages. The study, which began long before the COVID-19 pandemic, took ten years to complete.

Dr Vigfusson stated: "The individual linkage is key. Many public-health applications for smartphone data have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic but tend to be based around correlations. In contrast, we can definitively measure the differences in routine behavior between the diagnosed group and the rest of the population."

Dr Leon Danon, Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Modelling and Data Analytics from the University of Bristol, and the Alan Turing Institute, senior author and who designed the study, added: "This careful study was designed to do two things: inform mathematical models that seldom take into account behaviour change due to infection and provide evidence for infectious disease surveillance through mobile phone data. The result that behaviour change is clearly observable in our study points to the tantalising possibility that infectious disease burden is measurable through routinely collected data, our future direction. This work required close collaboration between a government health department and a mobile phone operator and highlights the power of close ties between academic efforts, government and industry."

The results showed that, on average, those who received a flu-like diagnosis changed their cell phone usage behavior a day before their diagnosis and the two-to-four days afterward: They made fewer calls, from fewer unique locations. On average, they also spent longer time than usual on the calls that they made on the day following their diagnosis.

Dr Vigfusson added: "We were going into new territory and we wanted to make sure we were doing good science, not just fast science. We worked hard and carefully to develop protocols to protect privacy and conducted rigorous statistical analyses of the data.

"While only about 40 per cent of humanity has access to the Internet, cell phone ownership is universal, even in lower and middle-income countries, and cell phone service providers routinely collect billing data that provide insights into the routine behaviors of a population", he explained.

Dr Vigfusson added: "The COVID pandemic has raised awareness of the importance of monitoring and measuring the progression of an infectious disease outbreak, and how it is essentially a race against time.

"More people also realise that there will likely be more epidemics during our lifetimes. It is vital to have the right tools to give us the best possible information quickly about the state of an epidemic outbreak."

Privacy concerns are a major reason why cell phone data has not been linked to public health data in the past. For the PNAS paper, the researchers developed a painstaking protocol to minimise these concerns.

The cell phone numbers were encrypted, and their owners were not identified by name, but by a unique numerical identifier not revealed to the researchers. These unique identifiers were used to link the cell phone data o deidentified health records.

Dr Vigfusson said: "We were able to maintain anonymity for individuals throughout the process. The cell phone provider did not learn about any individuals health diagnosis and the health department did not learn about any individuals phone behaviors."

The study encompassed 1.5 billion call record data points including calls made, the dates of the calls, the cell tower location where the calls originated, and the duration of the calls. The researchers linked this data to clinical diagnoses of a flu-like illness made by health providers in a central database. Laboratory confirmation of influenza was not required.

The analyses of the data focused on 29 days surrounding each clinical diagnosis, and looked at changes in mobility, the number of calls made and the duration of the calls. They measured these same factors during the same time-period for location-matched controls.

Dr Vigfusson added: "Even though individual cell phones generated only a few data points per day, we were able to see a pattern where the population was behaving differently near the time they were diagnosed with a flu-like illness."

While the findings are significant, they represent only a first step for the possible broader use of the method. Specifically, if an emerging disease displays a sufficiently distinct signature of behavioral changes, the methodology could prove useful to augment monitoring efforts.

The current work was limited to the unique environment of Iceland: an island with only one port of entry, with a similar, affluent, and small population. It was also limited to a single infectious disease, H1N1, and those who received a clinical diagnosis for a flu-like illness.

Dr Vigfusson concluded: "Our work contributes to the discussion of what kinds of anonymous data linkages might be useful for public health monitoring purposes. We hope that others will build on our efforts and study whether our method can be adapted for use in other places and for other infectious diseases."

Paper

'Cell-phone traces reveal infection-associated behavioral change' by Ymir Vigfusson et al in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Dr Ymir Vigfusson, Assistant Professor at Emory University, USA, is an expert on data security and developing software and algorithms that work at scale.

Dr Vigfusson is first author of the study with two of his former graduate students: Thorgeir Karlsson, a graduate student at Reykjavik University who spent a year at Emory working on the project, and Derek Onken, a PhD student in the Computer Science department.

Dr Leon Danon, Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Modelling and Data Analytics from the University of Bristol, and the Alan Turing Institute of the British Library, devised the study.

Co-authors include the late Gudrun Sigmundsdottir, Directorate of Health and Icelands Center for Health Security and Communicable Disease Control; Congzheng Song (Cornell University); Atli F. Einarsson (Reykjavik University); Nishant Kishore (Harvard University); Rebecca M. Mitchell (formerly with Emorys Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing); and Ellen Brooks-Pollock (University of Bristol).

The work was funded by the Icelandic Center for Research, Emory University, the National Science Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the Alan Turing Institute, the Medical Research Council, and a hardware donation from NVIDIA Corporation.

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January: Cell phone data | News and features - University of Bristol

Human Behavior

How Can Friendly Competition Solve the World’s Biggest Problems? – zocalopublicsquare.org

by Janet OShea and Daniel T. Blumstein|January28,2021

Ours is a time of reduced civility, heightened political partisanship, and decreased faith in institutions. If we dont figure out how to engage respectfully, we will all lose out. COVID will continue to advance, and overrun our hospitals as we wait months to receive a vaccine that some 35 percent of Americans have said they will avoid. The climate crisis will bring more and more polluted air, hurricanes, floods, and fires as we hop from one not-so-natural disaster to another. The political discord of the past four yearsand past two monthswill continue to upend everyday life.

Americans need to find another way forward, a way to come together to solve the issues of the day and enable our continued survival as individuals, as a nation, and as a species. We have an audacious suggestion: Turn solving these critical tasks into a game. Lets take our innate and life-preserving love of play and competition and harness it to change human behavior. By doing so we could improve the world in a way that decades of failed public discourse have not.

This idea takes its cues from the animal kingdom. In the wild, many animals use games and play to learn and improve themselvesand, ultimately, to survive. When wolf pups or fox kits chase their siblings around and pounce on each other near their den, they are predators playing hunt, perfecting their prey-catching skills and improving their odds of survival. When prey such as marmot pups chase their siblings near their burrows, they are playing escape; their survival depends on not being killed by the likes of wolves and foxes.

Importantly, these play bouts are ritualized and highly structured, and they involve communicating through strict signals to ensure that everyone involved realizes that what follows is play. Animals take turns. They let each other know through clear signals that even though theyre playing rough, its still play. If someone yelps in pain, for instance, everyone pauses for a moment to give the crying play partner a chance to recover.

Hunting and escaping, of course, are crucial skills for predators and prey; engaging in this kind of behavior helps them practice managing the difficult realities they will face as adults. But play is not limited only to chasing. Animals play fight and play wrestle to learn to navigate hierarchy and difference, to negotiate with one another, and to build social bonds. The marmots Dan studies begin to create their dominance hierarchies through play. And, when the time comes to guard valued resourceswhether they be food or matesthey will be ready.

Some animal play operates just as human play does: mainly for fun! Crows slide down snowy rooftops just for the thrill of doing so. Monkeys leap from treetops into ponds to experience freefall with a reassuring splash of cool water at the end. Through this seemingly purposeless play, animals learn how to navigate challenging conditions, turning chaotic experiences into manageable ones. Indeed, by playing, they learn how to contend with failure, loss, vulnerability, and also successwhere the stakes are relatively low.

Yes, play is evolutionarily expensive. It can be dangerous and it takes time away from practical tasks such as procuring food and finding shelter. And, yet, it is widespread throughout a large part of the animal kingdom. Its universality is striking.

Humans are, of course, familiar with the power of play. Athletic competitions, from Little League to the Olympics, present us with goals to be achieved and obstacles to be overcome. It doesnt matter that both goals and obstacles are artificial: landing a ball into a net carries no real weight in the outside world and has no impact on it, aside from the meaning humans ascribe to it. Participating in sports helps humans learn to manage our competitive nature, taking an adversarial drive and harnessing it to build strength and health, to learn discipline, and to even create beauty when we play a game with skill, intelligence, and grace. Sports teach us to function within a social group and can build a sense of unity and cohesion. To play with someone else, one must agree to the rules of engagement.

What if we took the model of sport further, intentionally reverse engineering serious problems and turning them into games where friendly competition can reign? If problems could be tackled in such a way, in a safe environment with agreed-upon rules, we might be able to meet more of our goalsor at least, be more prepared to face them when they reach a crisis point.

People have tried it before, as theyve searched for certain kinds of technological solutions. The Defense AdvancedResearchProjects Agency, or DARPA, is an advanced-technology branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, charged with trying out and perfecting new technologies for potential use on the battlefield and beyond. The agency created prize competitions called DARPA Challenges that ask engineers to compete in tackling seemingly unsolvable tasks under set rules of engagement. If a team manages to solve a particular problem, it wins a prize and gloryand society benefits.

Lets take our innate and life-preserving love ofplayandcompetition and harness it to change human behavior.

One DARPA Challenge tasked engineers with inventing self-driving vehicles. The end goal was to develop automated weapons as well as create ways to transport critical supplies on and off the battlefield, but in the process it also gave us the self-driving vehicle technology that is slowly making its way onto our streets. The X-Prize Foundation does something similar, regularly announcing an audacious goal to improve health, technology, or the environment, and asking teams to self-organize and compete for acknowledgement and a cash prize.

Leaders could expand this competitive model to confront different sorts of pressing challenges that contest designers have often overlookedthose that require behavioral change, institutional investment, and sustained action. What if we treated societys response to the climate crisis, the COVID pandemic, or even declining faith in politics as an opportunity for international competition and Olympics-like play? Think the Eurovision Song Contest, but for carbon reduction or civic participation.

Or, if international competition seems a step too far, the focus could be local and cooperative. We already know that neighborhood play can drive immediate benefits. When cities block off traffic during Ciclova events, for instance, encouraging the public to ride bicycles, skate, or walk, and refrain from using cars, air quality improves immediately, local businesses get increased foot traffic, and people meet neighbors and interact with strangers in ways that would otherwise be unlikely.

Government and other leaders could create friendly competition among communities to walk and bike more, buy used or reusable products, install insulation, or favor high-efficiency appliances. We could track rides on public transit and offer prizes when ridership goes up and traffic congestion goes down. What if COVID transmission rates were monitored not just as a reminder of encroaching threat but also to celebrateand rewarddeclining transmission rates? Instead of bemoaning a lack of political engagement, we might instead recognize the recent upsurge in voting and encourage cities, towns, or neighborhoods to get as close to 100 percent voting as possible, vying against one another toward that goal. We could create systems to facilitate, acknowledge, and reward success while encouraging communities to see failure as useful feedbacka learning experience much like a loss on a playing field.

If we create competition between communities in the interest of solving major problems, we will also need to set limits on what can be done in the interest of winning. Rules, structures, and parameters of engagement would be key. As we encourage communities to maximize voting, for example, we will need to give them reminders that voter intimidation is beyond the bounds of healthy competition.

Fair play will matter not just as much but more than whether we win. Rules extend beyond the game space to become a code of behavior, a process for respectful interaction. And here we would be following our nonhuman relativesincluding marmots, crows, monkeys, foxes, and wolvesthat directly benefit from their enjoyable and structured play.

Increasingly, it seems that Americans are losing the skills that come from respectful competition and dynamic collaboration. We can reverse that trend. We can relearn how to be adaptable and collaborative, and to respect one another even as we disagree.

Americans dont play as much as we used to; our excuse is that we dont have the time. The majority of children play a sport but, by age 15, most have quit. If people dont playwhether its soccer or chesshow will they learn how to navigate competition with civility and care? What opportunities are they taking to practice working together in a group? How will they know that coming together with respect matters more than winning, and that losing can sometimes be an opportunity for learning?

Successful public discourse, at its root, is about respect for a process, and acceptable parameters for action: honoring the limits to which we, and others, have agreed. It hinges on recognizing that our opponents are worthy. It also involves a desire for an opponent to fully engage so that we can hone our skills, refine our position, and come to a satisfying compromise.

In other words, its a lot like a game.

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How Can Friendly Competition Solve the World's Biggest Problems? - zocalopublicsquare.org

Human Behavior

The Duchess of Cornwall Recommends "Heart-breaking" Novel Where The Crawdads Sing – TownandCountrymag.com

Since the Duchess of Cornwall released her lockdown reading list last year, she has been contacted by people from all over the world wanting to share their thoughts and book recommendations. And now, Camilla is highlighting four titles every eight weeks in a bid to continue sharing her enjoyment of reading with others.

The latest work to be the focus of her Instagram-based book club is best-selling novel Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, which tells the story of young Kya Clark growing up alone in the marshes of North Carolina. All is not as it seems in this beautifully written, heart-breaking coming-of-age novel. I couldnt put it (or my handkerchief) down! the Duchess says about the book. For her part, author Owens has shared thoughts on the story, which is her debut novel.

Where the Crawdads Sing

When I wrote Where the Crawdads Sing I had a particular story in mind that I wanted to tell, Owens says in a video shared with T&C (above). After studying wildlife in Africa for 23 years, I had learned how much human behavior is still similar to the behavior of wild animals. So, I wanted to write this novel that it would explore how much we can learn about human behavior, and how much we learn about human nature from nature itself.

Owens adds that she included a lot of different traits and different behavior patterns in her characters, saying, I wanted to include some of these behaviors that we still exhibit like wild animals. Describing the book as spanning multiple genres, Owens says: I don't know of anybody's life that is just a love story, or just a mystery. Most peoples lives include a lot of different aspects, so I think it was fairly realistic that way.

Where the Crawdads Sing is the second book to be featured on The Duchess of Cornwalls Reading Room. The first was Hilary Mantels The Mirror and The Light. The final two books which will be highlighted in season one of the book club are Restless by William Boyd and The Architects Apprentice by Elif Shafak.

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The Duchess of Cornwall, who married into the royal family in 2005, has long used her platform to advocate for literacy charities and organizations. In a recently-released video she described reading as a passion, adding that once the lockdown began she saved up all the books I wanted to read and sat down and read them. She concluded, You know, whatever other awful things came out of lockdown I think reading has come out extremely well and I think its revived and we just want to keep that going.

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The Duchess of Cornwall Recommends "Heart-breaking" Novel Where The Crawdads Sing - TownandCountrymag.com

Anatomy

Grey’s Anatomy: 10 Major Flaws Of The Show That Fans Chose To Ignore – Screen Rant

While there are several things that haven't aged well on the show, fans have also noticed several flaws they overlooked the first time.

Other medical dramas may come and go, but not ABCs Greys Anatomy, arguably the most successful show of its kind in tv history. There's a reason why it has become one of thelongest-running showson TVas the show has an ability to continuously present compelling stories and craft characters fans cant help but fall in love with.

RELATED: 10 Medical Dramas That Are Better Than Grey's Anatomy

Throughout its run, though, the show has also met criticism. And while some of these are relatively minor issues, fans have also discovered that there are major flaws with this medical drama that everyone has let them get away with.

The shows lead star herself, Ellen Pompeo, pointed this out in a recent interview. Specifically, she took issue with Merediths apparent desperation to cling to Derek as evidenced by one of Merediths most dramatic lines.

[...] That, Pick me, choose me, love me [line]; I was like, Why am I begging a man to love me? the actress told Variety. To me, thats not empowering. Behind the scenes, Pompeo also found herself to be earning less than Dempsey. While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress revealed she tried to ask for more. They wouldn't give it to me.

Sure, it is understandable for tv dramas to raise the stakes and make us hold our breath from time to time. However, one could argue that the show took things too far when it presented the storyline involving Izzie and her patient Denny.

Granted, it was hard not to root for Denny. However, a storyline wherein a medical intern readily goes against medical ethics just comes across as far-fetched. Heigls performance may have been compelling but one cant help but question the competency and reliability of all the doctors on the show.

When fans first meet George, hes a shy and nervous medical intern who freezes up during his first surgical procedure, earning him the nickname 007. At some point, the viewers also come to realize that OMalley has a serious crush on Meredith and that hes always hoped she would feel the same way.

RELATED: Grey's Anatomy: 5 Of George's Sweetest Moments (& 5 Most Heartbreaking)

To some, this storyline may look cute. But considering all of Merediths other romances, it did feel like they were wasting George's character development. Fans always wished that the character could have had more solo storylines so he had time to shine prior to his seriously traumatic death.

Meredith and Derek have a love story that endures throughout several seasons of the show. Fans see them date. They watch them fight. And, eventually, they witness them get married. Their relationship is meant to be a compelling love story. However, in hindsight, many fans believe there are someproblematic tendencies.

For starters, the power relations between Derek and Meredith has been a topic of conversation for a while now, especially since he was her boss and she was an intern. Even Krista Vernoff believes their relationship wouldn't have lasted if their love story unfolded the way it did

In the season 10 episode entitled "Throwing It All Away," Arizona deals with a young patient with a failing liver. However, when she goes to explain the condition, Arizona mistakenly refers to it as the psoriasis of the liver. Psoriasis happens to be a skin condition characterized by bumpy red patches that are covered by white scales. It can appear on ones scalp, knees, lower back and elbows. On the other hand, cirrhosis refers to the scarring of ones liver and loss of liver function. This is, most likely, what Arizona was referring to.

Although her one true love has always been Derek, Meredith has also dated several other men over the years. Following Dereks death, the show faced the tricky situation of introducing a man into her life. For Pompeo, the timing of it all was too soon.

RELATED: Grey's Anatomy: Meredith's 5 Best Pieces Of Advice (& Her 5 Worst)

But the truth is, the ink wasn't even dry on his exit papers before they rushed in a new guy, the actress told The Hollywood Reporter. That new guy came in the form of Nathan Riggs. Their relationship was heartwarming but it was also awkward. They didnt love the storyline, so that ended.

Throughout the shows run, fans have seen a lot of characters hook up at some point and sometimes, these relationships end up taking over most of the storyline. While one understands that relationships are vital to a drama like this,the show does have a tendency to force characters unnecessarily.

For instance, a lot of fans cringed when Addison and Alex Karev hooked up. Granted, the relationship did not last but one wonders why it had to happen in the first place. Wasnt it enough that Addison was already in a tight situation because of Derek and Mark?

April Kepner is a fearless doctor who suffers from one life-threatening allergy, peanuts (see: "Unbreak My Heart"). However, in the season 14 episode entitled "Judgement Day," a whole batch of cookies with cannabis got distributed among various hospital staff.

In the end, several doctors get high, including Arizona, Avery, Maggie, Alex, Bailey and yes, April. Interestingly, Aprils world gets a little trippy, along with the rest of the affected staff. If she was allergic to peanuts though, her reaction to the cookie would be worse since they are made with peanut butter.

Over the years, fans have seen Merediths dedication to the job. She would do just about anything to save a patient. And when she encounters a young girl with cancer, her heart simply breaks, especially after learning that her immigrant father didnt have proper healthcare to support her treatment.

And so, Meredith decides to commit insurance fraud by claiming that it was her daughter that underwent the procedure instead, allowing the girls treatment to be covered. Some may see this course of action as heroic but there could have been other way to help a critical patient without jeopardizing her career.

Since, the show started, Meredith has been involved in more life-threatening incidents than anyone can count. She ended up holding a bomb inside a patients stomach to keep it from detonating. She nearly drowns after falling into the pier, she's involved in a hospital shooting and she also ends up in a plane crash. It seems that Meredith has been thrown into harms way too much and its about time that it stops.

NEXT: Grey's Anatomy: The First & Last Line For Each Character Who Has Left The Show

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Anatomy

2021 IPPE: Anatomy of an outbreak a researcher’s take on cases of H2N2 avian influenza from a live bird market – The Poultry Site

Speaking at the 2021 International Poultry Science Forum, researcher Jongseo Mo from the Southeast Poultry Research Lab explained how different poultry species at live bird markets (LBMs) could serve as reservoirs of avian influenza.

His research, which focuses on the fluctuations of bird flu viruses at these markets in the north-eastern United States, found that the viruses quickly adapted to infect different poultry species. He observed that over the course of a year, one bird flu virus, H2N2/Ck/NY/19, became more transmissible due to a single genetic mutation. Infected Guinea fowl and Pekin ducks shed significant amounts of the virus for an extended period increasing the likelihood of new bird flu infections.

Mos results showed that bird flu viruses with this mutation had the ability to adapt to a new species reservoir. The H2N2 virus could exploit the live bird markets and circulate among multiple bird species, amplifying and sustaining the infection. He stressed that animal health authorities should increase disease surveillance in live bird markets. This bird flu outbreak was low-pathogenic and produced no mortalities the next one might not.

Bird flu, like other avian diseases, can be transmitted through direct contact. For most bird flu outbreaks, a sick bird usually shares space with a healthy one and the disease quickly spreads. This is why poultry farmers are encouraged to limit their birds contact with other flocks and implement biosecurity measures.

LBMs are uniquely challenging from a biosecurity and disease management perspective. Though the birds might be caged while they are in the market setting, there is still a high probability of contact between flocks and between species. People who go to the markets will often walk through other areas or accidentally step in bird faeces before entering the market space, introducing new pathogens to the environment. According to Jongseo Mo, the markets serve as a human-made reservoir for avian diseases. They could have serious animal and public health consequences if they arent properly managed.

Mo wanted to examine the pathogenicity, infectivity and transmissibility of two strains of H2N2 bird flu that he isolated from a live market in New York in 2018 and 2019. He specifically wanted to determine if the virus was changing and if it had the ability to adapt to new species chickens, Guinea fowl, and Pekin ducks.

The two isolated viruses, H2N2 Ck/NY/18 and H2N2 Ck/NY/19, were both low-pathogenic and collected from the three different bird species. However, Mo noted that the Ck/NY/19 isolate had NA stalk deletion in its genome. He hypothesised that this deletion would increase the virus transmissibility in poultry and waterfowl since this association had been observed in other studies.

He designed an experiment with three separate inoculation doses with the isolated viruses. He exposed the three bird species to a low, medium and high virus load, and collected samples to see how the virus was shed and transmitted between the bird species.

His results showed that the H2N2 Ck/NY/18 virus could infect all three bird species if they were exposed to high doses. In terms of shedding and transmission, Guinea fowl shed more virus than chickens. Birds exposed to low and medium doses of the virus did not transmit the infection.

However, birds inoculated with the H2N2 Ck/NY/19 virus at medium and high doses showed higher infectivity and shed the virus for a longer period. This meant that the virus could be transmitted to contact birds something that was not observed in birds inoculated with the Ck/NY/18 strain. Mo noted that Guinea fowl shed the most virus, with Pekin ducks and chickens shedding less respectively.

Mos research suggests that the NA stalk deletion seen in the Ck/NY/19 strain allowed the virus to proliferate quickly, making it more infective and transmissible as a result. The deletion also allowed the virus to replicate in two new bird species, ensuring that the virus remained active in its environment.

Going forward, Mo suggests collecting routine cloacal and oropharyngeal samples from birds at LBMs. If researchers can identify the NA stalk deletion in other bird flu viruses, they could take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of disease.

The International Poultry Science Forum ran on 25 and 26 January as part of the virtual IPPE Conference. Click here for more information about the event.

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2021 IPPE: Anatomy of an outbreak a researcher's take on cases of H2N2 avian influenza from a live bird market - The Poultry Site

Anatomy

LSD Lets The Brain ‘Free Itself’ From Divisions Dictated by Anatomy, Scientists Find – ScienceAlert

Where does the mind 'meet' the brain? While there's no shortage of research into the effects of psychedelics, drugs like LSD still have much to teach us about the way the brain operates and can shine a light on the mysterious interface between consciousness and neural physiology, research suggests.

In a new study investigating the effects of LSD on volunteers, scientists found that the psychedelic enables the brain to function in a way beyond what anatomy usually dictates, by altering states of dynamic integration and segregation in the human brain.

"The psychedelic compound LSD induces a profoundly altered state of consciousness," explains first author and neuroscience researcher Andrea Luppi from the University of Cambridge.

"Combining pharmacological interventions with non-invasive brain imaging techniques such as functional MRI (fMRI) can provide insight into normal and abnormal brain function."

The new research falls within the study of dynamic functional connectivity the theory that brain phenomena demonstrate states of functional connectivity that change over time, much in the same way that our stream of consciousness is dynamic and always flowing.

As this happens, and the human brain processes information, it has to integrate that information into an amalgamated form of understanding but at the same time segregate information as well, keeping distinct sensory streams separate from one another, so that they can be handled by particular neural systems.

This distinction the dynamics of brain integration and segregation is something that gets affected by psychedelic drugs, and with the advent of brain imaging technology, we can observe what happens when our regular functional connectivity gets disrupted.

In the study, a group of 20 healthy volunteers underwent brain scans in two separate sessions, a fortnight apart. In one of the sessions, the participants took a placebo before entering the fMRI scanner, while in the other slot, they were given an active dose of LSD.

In comparing the results from the two sessions, the researchers found that LSD untethers functional connectivity from the constraints of structural connectivity, while simultaneously altering the way that the brain handles the balancing act between integration and segregation of information.

"Our main finding is that the effects of LSD on brain function and subjective experience are not uniform in time," Luppi says.

"In particular, the well-known feeling of 'ego dissolution' induced by LSD correlates with reorganisation of brain networks during a state of high global integration."

In effect, the drug's state of altered consciousness could be seen as an abnormal increase in the functional complexity of the brain with the data showing moments where the brain revealed predominantly segregated patterns of functional connectivity.

In other words, the 'ego dissolution' of a psychedelic trip might be the subjective experience of your brain cranking up its segregation dynamics, decoupling the brain's structure from its functioning meaning your capacity to integrate and amalgamate separate streams of information into a unified whole becomes diminished.

"Thus, LSD appears to induce especially complex patterns of functional connectivity (FC) by inducing additional decoupling of FC from the underlying structural connectome, precisely during those times when structural-functional coupling is already at its lowest," the authors explain in their paper.

"Due to the effects of LSD, the brain is free to explore a variety of functional connectivity patterns that go beyond those dictated by anatomy presumably resulting in the unusual beliefs and experiences reported during the psychedelic state."

The findings are reported in NeuroImage.

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LSD Lets The Brain 'Free Itself' From Divisions Dictated by Anatomy, Scientists Find - ScienceAlert