Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

DNA Behavior International Launches the Next Generation Behavior… – Healthcare Tech Outlook

The next generation behavior tech stack platform to allow mass personalization, distilling human behavior into actionable understanding by building apps.

FREMONT, CA:DNA Behavior International announces the launch of the next generation behavior tech stack platform, the Helix Gateway Behavioral Network, to facilitate API integration. Organizations use DNA's API, a sort of behavioral chip, to allow mass personalization, distilling human behavior into actionable understanding by developing apps. A vital facet of the collaborative platform is allowing a wide range of third-party product providers to build an expansive network of users who are interconnected through real-time sharing of DNA behavioral insights.

As the company developed its core SAAS business, customers requested a scalable API to integrate DNA insights into their business systems. This API started as a feature for its core customers but has rapidly grown into its own business. Now, tech firms are leveraging the DNA API to scale their businesses rather than develop their behavioral solutions.

These tech firms require a different skill set, and a network of experts and a community to help them. Thus, the Helix Gateway is a place tech firm can use a network of DNA users, the DNA Coach Network, other tech firms, investors, and venture capitalists. DNA Behavior has segmented this Helix Gateway platform, so users have a dedicated team to build this network.

The objective of the gateway is to connect third-party product providers with resources needed to build, develop, and scale behavior-enabled businesses. DNA Behavior's roll-out plan is to license distributors who will speed the work of organizations plugging in DNA's behavioral chip to existing software and systems and apps.

A firm that has already built a scalable, stand-alone app using DNA API data might be part of the Helix Gateway as a means to facilitate connections with business partners. A company wanting to build a behavioral science division or expertise inside their business without reinventing the wheel could become part of the Helix Gateway to collaborate with peers, partners, and resources who can facilitate deployment. This centralized gateway hinges on the concept that potential tech solutions cannot be so proprietary that they remain secret or inaccessible. Identifying the right distributors in global markets will allow organizations to access 500+ unique behavioral insights through powerful technology to create customized experiences.

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DNA Behavior International Launches the Next Generation Behavior... - Healthcare Tech Outlook

Human Behavior

Science of Security’s Annual Security Conference Goes Virtual and Gets Record Attendance – 62nd Airlift Wing

FT. MEADE, Md. --

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM), so we have been celebrating cybersecurity all month long!

The Science of Security (SoS) & Privacy program recently sponsored the Hot Topics in Science of Security (HoTSoS) Conference. This premier event brings NSA and other researchers together in an unclassified environment along with practitioners and thought leaders from government, industry, and academia, to discuss scientific foundations of cybersecurity.

HoTSoS was created as a public venue to grow and enhance the cybersecurity mission value from NSAs unclassified research engagements and partnerships with academia and private industry. While this year marked the 7th HoTSoS, it was the first to be held virtually and recorded the highest-ever attendance!

Originally scheduled to be held in-person this past spring at the University of Kansas, which is one of six universities in the country hosting a Lablet*, the HoTSoS conference was rescheduled to the fall. Ongoing COVID-19 restrictions led to reconfiguring the conference for virtual attendance and waiving registration fees for attendees. These changes, along with the new ability for participants to log in from the comfort of their homes, led to record participation.

Going virtual has had some benefits even as people missed face-to-face interactions, said Dr. Adam Tagert, SoS Technical Lead at NSA. Anyone interested could participate without a need to travel and payment of registration fees. This enabled far greater participation than in past years.

Key presentations at this years conference included: Public Trust in 5G (fifth generation wireless technology for digital cellular networks); Amazon Web Services (AWS) Amazons on-demand cloud computing platform; and Evaluating Fuzz Testing (techniques used to discover coding errors and security loopholes).

*What is a Lablet?

Funded by NSA, Lablets are small university laboratories that conduct cybersecurity research on a variety of topics ranging from governance of Big Data to Internet of Things security and predictions on the ability of hackers to compromise systems.

There are currently six universities hosting Lablets: Carnegie Mellon University, University of California, Berkeley (The International Computer Science Institute), University of Kansas, North Carolina State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Vanderbilt University.

To support engagement with additional schools with wide-ranging cybersecurity researcher talent, the SoS team recently designated some schools from within the Ivy League, Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCUs), womens colleges, and military colleges as Associate Lablets. Although not funded by the agency, professors and students from Associate Lablets present and discuss research at SoS meetings and collaborate with NSA and Lablet researchers to solve the SoSs 5 Hard Cybersecurity Problems Scalability & Composability, Metrics, Human Behavior, Policy, and Resilient Architectures.

The 8th Annual HoTSoS Conference is scheduled for April 13-15, 2021. It will again be virtual and registration fees will be waived. Proposals for presentation are being accepted by the SoS team through January 8, 2021. Registration to attend the event will open early next year.

Visit https://sos-vo.org to learn how to engage with the SoS research program.

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Science of Security's Annual Security Conference Goes Virtual and Gets Record Attendance - 62nd Airlift Wing

Human Behavior

Graham: Why ‘I’ve been busy’ isn’t always something to brag about – The Daily Herald

By Ciera Graham / Herald columnist

I was catching up with a longtime college friend. We were relishing in life joys and how were both attempting to find solace in this crazy world during what has been an abnormally difficult year.

She asked me, So how have you been?

Instinctively, I thought Ive been busy. But havent we all?

I have also tried to be cognizant of how often I use the word busy.

The phrase Ive been busy felt so robotic and mundane. This makes me wonder about how and why we have become so accustomed to using the phrase Im busy as a default response.

We often fail to realize how much we use the word busy rather unconsciously, without thinking of how others perceive this message. We are often unaware of what this message says about us and the lives we live. In a world that feels as if it is a constant state of flux, the constant access to digital forms of communication and information can be overwhelming. With this constant exposure to information, it becomes hard to calm down your brain and focus. Your thoughts become messy, and you find yourself unable to enjoy silence; your brain instantly starts thinking, what can I do next? or what new information can I find? When you deprive yourself of rest, you only continue to function with a very a tired brain and depleted energy.

The Netflix docudrama series, The Social Dilemma explores the primacy and destructive nature that social media plays in our lives. Big Tech companies such as Facebook and Google have found ways to manipulate human behavior for monetary gain. Constant scrolling and notifications lead to addictive engagement among users and creates a culture where human behavior can be predicted, altered and influenced. The series presents a sobering depiction of how social media can send us into autopilot, completely unaware of our internal self and actions. Its the culture of busyness that has created this unwavering and obsessive yearning to be constantly engrossed by external forces and events, like social media.

Many of us wake up with our cell phone in hand, waiting to feed that social media high, and find out everything that happened while we were sleeping. When our addiction to social media becomes the first thing that we feed in the morning, our happiness and satisfaction becomes tied to external factors, and not to ourselves.

2020 has been an extremely unprecedented and tiresome year. Thinking about how we as a society have had to manage the most unethical presidency in modern history, an eroding democracy, a global health pandemic, record unemployment, and more; many of the self-proclaimed busy-holics have had to contend with the complicated relationship between busyness and rest.

In many ways, covid-19 has forced us to slow down involuntarily. We no longer experience the normal hustle and bustle of life; days filled with constant meetings and commutes back and forth are becoming less frequent as we navigate the reality of remote work, increased time with family, and decreased social activity. Busyness during covid-19 has shown up in different ways; it manifest when we find ourselves filling our calendars with countless zoom meetings, our inability to resist multi-tasking during zoom meetings, and filling our calendar with zoom meetings to avoid other activities that bring meaning and joy to our lives.

As I think about this complicated relationship between busyness and rest, I think about why we as humans have such an intense resistance to being still. Tim Kreider wrote an article in the New York Times titled The Busy Trap; in this article he talks about how many of us over-schedule ourselves in order to feel more important, perhaps to avoid being alone with our thoughts. We fear the absence of work, as if our worth is somehow attached to how many meetings, obligations, and duties we have to complete. Over-performing is deeply embedded into the concept of the American dream, a dream that many of us are still chasing. We believe the harder you work, and thus the busier you are, the bigger your reward will be in the future.

But what is wrong with being busy? Isnt it OK to feel accomplished and important? Sure, its OK to feel a sense of gratification from knocking out your to-do list. The problem is when we dont feel comfortable relaxing, and when we think that our busyness is somehow tied to our worth and dignity as a person.

We measure our worth against production, and this can be especially harmful and destructive. Rest and relaxation are integral to healthy human functioning, and when the body experiences elevated stress, it can have serious health impacts. If we remove busyness and production from our lives, what lies beneath is a depleted sense of self with no real identity, consciousness and mind of its own. We become unable to enjoy life without a plethora of work and social commitments.

Busyness also is not equal to productivity or increased quality of work, as many times we feel our calendar with activities, meetings and events that dont add much depth or meaning to our lives. This in fact leads to decreased productivity. Essentially, we lose the essence of our being and we inhibit ourselves from finding our true essence when we remain busy.

So, the next time someone asks, How are you? check your impulses and avoid giving the proverbial Im busy line. You should explore the root of your busyness, and understand how your busyness is preventing you from showing up authentically in your personal and professional relationships? Most importantly, you owe it to yourself to constantly interrogate how your busyness is defining your self-worth.

Follow Herald columnist Ciera Graham on Twitter @CieraGrahamPhD.

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Graham: Why 'I've been busy' isn't always something to brag about - The Daily Herald

Human Behavior

People Do People Things: The Future of Security is Human – APN News

Published on October 28, 2020

As 2020 comes to an end, the importance of understanding the relationship between humans and technology is at an all-time high. Widespread shifts in the fabric of our society, prompted by the ongoing pandemic, exposed weaknesses in security tools and protocols for remote workers, highlighted issues of network reliability and accessibility, and demanded that humans find innovative ways to keep organizations running. While the fallout from the pandemic is unignorable, the ability for people to respond to seemingly endless challenges has been nothing short of remarkable.

The year 2021 will continue to reflect human resilience and ingenuity. It will be the year of workarounds and self-serving insider threats, where people find ways to accomplish their goals despite dealing with personal and professional adversity. Workarounds, shortcuts, and creative work strategies are simultaneously a celebration of human creativity and a risk for organizations who are desperately trying to maintain visibility of their assets. Ultimately, people sharing data and accessing corporate networks in new and potentially unsanctioned ways carries quite a bit of risk especially for organizations that are new to managing remote workers.

The result of these changes is that successful cybersecurity strategies will stop trying to use technology as a unilateral force to control human behavior. Rather, organizations will come to terms with the reality that adding more and more technology or security does not lead to behavioral conformity, especially not conformity that aligns with security principles and adequate cyber hygiene. In fact, additional layers of security may push more people outside of the guiderails due to increasingly aggravating security friction that blocks them from completing tasks or easily accessing critical organizational assets.

Understanding Precedes Predicting

In light of this, understanding how people adapt to, respond to, and inform their environments is critical for organizations heading into the new year. For far too long, the tech world has created products with the assumption that people will use them in an expected or uniform way, or that people would conform to the rules and constraints laid out by well-meaning engineering teams. If weve learned anything from 2020, it is that people are not always predictable, and making assumptions about human behavior is a dangerous game to play. Whats surfaced is that expectations, guidelines, best practices, and even commands will yield every type of behavioral response from rigid compliance to retaliatory noncompliance.

What can we do? We can learn more about what motivates behavior, and how people ultimately choose to behave. We can also commit to designing and implementing security practices and tools that work with humans instead of against them. To do this, however, we have to focus on measuring and understanding behavior instead of focusing exclusively on detecting compromises and vulnerabilities.

For instance, we know that peoples immediate needs often outweigh potential negative consequences especially when the consequences do not have a direct, individual, and immediate impact. This means that when we need to accomplish our goals we often take the easiest route. Unfortunately, the easiest route is often riskier than the ideal route. When faced with frustrating, security-heavy file and data sharing tools, we may turn to sharing via personal cloud applications. Making rules to stop people from engaging in this type of behavior is not working so rather, we have to better understand these behaviors to find ways to mitigate their risk to organizations and organizational assets.

Building Behavioral Understanding Into Systems

Within the cybersecurity industry, observing and understanding behaviors must come with context. What may appear at first glance like an obviously malicious act likely to lead to data loss for example an engineer requesting access to multiple sensitive data repositories over the course of two days could simply be a person getting their job done. Our engineer may be doing this because shes been added to several new projects and needs to be able to collaborate with her new team.

We want people to be able to do their jobs within the constraints of our corporate network and policies, so blocking them would only encourage the human tendency to find an easier (and less secure!) route for getting their jobs done. With an interdisciplinary research team, pulling experts from security, counter-intelligence, IT, and behavioral sciences together, behavioral understanding can be built into cybersecurity systems. And this is the first important step for finally starting to move cybersecurity left of breach designing security for the human element.

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People Do People Things: The Future of Security is Human - APN News

Human Behavior

A Design with Humans in Mind: Adding Automation and Color Coding to the IT Workflow – Security Boulevard

Workflow is an essential part of a daily routine, from brushing your teeth at home to performing a complex operational procedure at work. Recently, I had the exciting opportunity to address a routine-related challenge at work, one that involved realizing one of our processes was in dire need of some improvements as well as coming up with unique solutions and exploring how these solutions would impact workflow and, eventually, morale.

This blog post covers automation, including the usefulness of color-codingwith a little mindfulness mixed in too. Im sharing this with the hope you will take away some of the strategies I found were useful and use them to improve your own work environment.

Over the past several years, Ive performed a lot of maintenance planning at Hurricane Labs, checking all supported hosts for app updateswhether they had a web interface or not. Needless to say, my days were consumed by the monotonous journey through the lengthy task of checking out all the apps for any necessary updating.

For those of you who work with a distributed environment, you know this isnt always as easy as going to the apps page in your Splunk instance.

Eventually, I realized this daunting daily task was in need of some sort of automation. So decided to see if there was a better waythere had to be, right?

I ended up tearing apart the way the update-checking process works with Splunkbase, and I found a very easy pattern for formatting URLs that redirect you to the proper destination on their site. From there, I kludged together scripts and one-liners to make a workflowone which would extract information about every installed app without depending on anything past basic BASH tools. Ultimately, my approach required no additional tools or permission from management to make changes, and I was able to show my work so others can use it, too.

As we started to see places for improvement, one of our supervisorsSteve McMasterredid the idea with Python and his own vision on completing the task. Note that it is more intuitive now, and the results of the new version printed were more accurate and polished aesthetically. Ultimately, it was easy to read, effective at returning accurate results, and it left an overall good feel about planning the maintenance procedure.

P.S. Mine was a series of bash scripts that were initially one. I then made one script to run all the other scripts I eventually made. Doitforme.sh was a masterpiece of a BASH scriptery, just so you all know! Enough about my work though; it is obsolete. We are a Python family now.

As McMasters work was evolving, it was clear some other parts of our process needed to change. I was not doing maintenance for a couple months while all this was getting sorted out, so I got to work with customers a lot morewhich meant I was working more with our internal wiki.

It occurred to me that the data about the Splunk servers were pretty hard to readthe tables were lengthy and harsh on the eyes, being in just black and white. It was difficult and time consuming to read these tables, whether you were doing maintenance or working a ticket.

This year, I started doing a little research on a condition called synesthesiathis not only relates to my personal experiences with it but it also connects to the color-coding section Im about to get into in the upcoming section.

Im not going to go into much detail about that in this blog post, but according to an article in Psychology Today, synesthesia can be associativeso senses are connected and associated in a persons mind. Interestingly, the article says this can make connections between concepts easier to forge, and so can enhance creativity and memory.

Heres the article if you want to do a little more investigating about it on your own: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/synesthesia

I plan on doing more research into human behavior and psychology and finding ways to apply it to both my professional and personal lives. Its truly fascinating once you start diving into the mindthe rabbit hole never seems to end!

The cool thing about color coding, similar to what the above article on synesthesia suggests, is that it can help the mind identify items quickly. If I change the Splunk server roles in a color uniformly across all customer pages, it will become instilled into the engineers minds once they learn the system.

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A Design with Humans in Mind: Adding Automation and Color Coding to the IT Workflow - Security Boulevard

Human Behavior

Attracting IT pros with great tech talent in the time of COVID-19 – TechGenix

One of the luxuries of building a career in technology is the ability to work on a diverse selection of projects that can span multiple industries during ones professional life. Historically, hard-to-hire subject-matter experts have actively lived in cyberspace with their eyes wide open for the opportunity to work on the next big thing. Those opportunities came often and returned handsome rewards. Recently, with the threat of COVID, we may be experiencing a shift in behavior, and this is especially true for IT pros whose job it is to keep businesses up and running. The challenge is that COVID-19 has instigated the behavior of hunker down and wait it out. Normally active technical specialists seem to be choosing to stay put with their current opportunity rather than taking a chance on an entity that is unknown to them.

This is explainable human behavior. Overall, most of us dislike change. In light of that fact, if we encounter and embrace change, it is because we understand why it is important, know that overall, there is something in it for us, and we also know that we will continue to maintain control of certain aspects of our lives. While we may find a change in our business lives to be disruptive, we know that our personal lives will still supply us with the stability we crave. The same holds for the reverse. If something changes in our personal lives, we have our professional career to fall back on for stability. Apparently, that all changed in 2020.

The year 2020 brought a substantial change that impacted us both personally and professionally, and many are still reeling from the impact. Not only did we have no control over the many instant changes that were imposed upon us, but the communication was confusing, most often conflicting, and sometimes nonexistent. Add to that the fact that our lives and the lives of our families were put immediately at risk. COVID-19 really should have hired a change manager before implementation.

Considering the above, the one thing that most were not looking for was more change. And so, we hunkered down in our quickly fabricated home offices and continued to do the jobs we were doing when the madness began. We were determined to ride-it-out; to remain safe while continuing to bring home a paycheck, hoping that everything would soon return to normal.

We understand that the very talent we want to attract happens to be within the intellect of the very same people who want to avoid any further change in their lives. But we also know that technology cannot progress without the right, smart people in the room, however virtual that room may be. Do we have to re-think what it is that attracts the best talent? Perhaps not. Perhaps we only need to dust off our lessons learned from the past.

Each generation watches the last, and subsequently judges the past lifestyle in an effort to build their own set of expectations and values. Ever since the workaholic tendencies of the baby boomer generation, each subsequent generation has coveted the correct work-life balance. But the more that employers would strive to compensate, the more difficult it became. As we used compensation benefits to help alleviate the financial stress of being present at ones place of employment each day, the challenge of the taxable benefit was fast to follow. As we increased our corporate footprint to provide a workplace of comfort, property values increased and were almost preceded by increased property taxes. This game of cat and mouse quickly ran out of runway.

Being forced to work from home made positive changes to employee work-life balance that are unprecedented. The challenge is to embrace what we have learned and develop a plan to move the positive lessons forward. Being a leader and stepping forward to display a willingness to continue to support a work-life balance through the long-term implementation of lessons learned from the experiences of 2020 will show prospective employees that their lifestyle will not have to experience a dramatic change if they accept a new opportunity.

There was a time when, as a technology manager, a physical office was an expectation. Not a cubicle. Not a shared space. An office with four walls, a door, and most likely a large whiteboard. But then greed and excess entered the world of real estate development, and we had to renovate to fit more employees into less space, that was ultimately still costing the enterprise more.

This change was rather a tipping point in employee retention. Striving to move forward within an organization started to lose its appeal since the key status symbol associated with promotion was no longer being offered. The same holds true for a dedicated parking stall. With the removal of the status symbols that signify success, no longer was there a desire to work the extra hours for the same pay. The attitude was one of Its more fun to be in the weeds, and I get paid overtime.

Fast forward to 2020. As a result of the success of technical employees working from home, many employers are working on a strategy to reduce their physical footprint and allow certain employees to work from home in the future state. Overall, it appears that organizations are considering plans whereby the physical office will be reserved only for those in a management position or higher. And guess what? It will become a status symbol. The rest of us will be relegated to the home office. Its time to think about the future of the strategic plan and start to leverage the future status symbol and use it to attract and retain the top talent.

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We hear it all the time. Statements announcing that one is or is not a morning person or that one is more of a night owl. We know this, and yet we continue to enforce standard office hours.

Circadian rhythm refers to the daily cycle in response to daylight and darkness and other more individual factors. However, in todays culture, we are often forcing our bodies to respond to darkness as though it were daylight. Personal preference simply does not factor in todays working environment.

In light (pun intended) of our current work-from-home lifestyle, we have given ourselves the opportunity to make slight adjustments to our schedules that is in better alignment with our personal circadian rhythm. Flexible work schedules have been touted as a benefit from many corporations that are attractive as an employer. However, the challenge is that we still publish office hours, and the expectation is that employees will be available during those very specific hours. So how much flexibility are we really supporting? Think about a window of start times and end times. The advantage is that it will increase the advertised time that the organization is available for current and potential clientele while also supporting the personal preferences of the candidates we want to attract.

There is no question that 2020 has been a challenging time for the enterprise. While we have successfully transitioned to a work-from-home strategy and managed to continue to operate as a competitive force, we now face the challenge of attracting the best talent to maintain or grow our place in the market. While there is no question that many in the technology world are choosing to maintain the status quo and not invite any further change into their lives, we can learn from these past months and still entice the best talent by understanding the key motivators that attract the right people.

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Attracting IT pros with great tech talent in the time of COVID-19 - TechGenix

Human Behavior

This Researcher Is Sitting On A Mountain Of Covid-19 Data. Heres How He Sees The World Changing – Forbes

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Humans, by nature, are creatures of habit. It often takes near-apocalyptic scenarios to get people to make even modest changes to their routines and behaviors.

Enter Covid-19. Perhaps no event in modern history has re-routed the course of human behavior more than the Coronavirus pandemic.

Eliot Roth, president of CI-SONAR, a market research consultancy, has been diligently tracking public opinion and behavior surrounding the Covid-19 outbreak since it hit the United States in March. I recently spoke with Eliot to discuss his views on how the world has changed in response to the pandemic.

Mark Travers: First and foremost, what exactly have you been tracking, and why?

Eliot Roth: We were one of the first companies to start tracking Coronavirus back in March.We created the CoronaVirus Sentiment tracker because we wanted to do our part.Since we couldnt research a cure, we decided to do what we do best.

The CI-SONAR CoronaVirus Sentiment tracker is an online survey fielded every other week.It is weighted to be representative of the U.S. as a whole, with an average sample size of around 1400 respondents per month.Topical questions are rotated in and out, but a core group of questions have been present since March.

Travers: Looking at your data from March to now, what have been some of the biggest changes in public opinion regarding the pandemic?

Roth: To be honest, things are changing so fast, its almost hard to keep up with it all. Perhaps its best to start with some of the statistics related to the disease itself. For instance, weve found, not surprisingly, a significant decrease in the amount of people not knowing anyone who has contracted the disease. In March, approximately 90% of Americans did not know anyone who had tested positive for Covid-19. Currently, that number is at about 60%.

While the disease has certainly increased in prevalence, this has not translated into an increased appetite for a vaccine. For instance, in May, 23% of Americans indicated that they would not get vaccinated for Covid-19 even if a vaccine were free and easily available. In September, that number rose to 33%.

Travers: Any ideas on what might explain this apparent contradiction?

Roth: Thats difficult to say, but it may have to do with the politicization of the Coronavirus pandemic, especially as the U.S. presidential election draws near. Perhaps the biggest takeaway, from my perspective, is just how polarized the country is.Those who are conservative have totally different views on Coronavirus than those who are liberal, not only on how the president is doing but on whether there is even a problem in the first place.Furthermore, opinions differ widely on how quickly the country should return to normal. I know this is not shocking given the state of the nation, but it is surprising to see just how big the differences are.

Eliot Roth, CI-Sonar

Travers: Very interesting. Ill now ask the opposite question. Are there any attitudes and opinions that have remained stable over the months that you have been running the survey?

Roth: Yes. For one, its surprising how little change there has been in the percentage of Americans expressing panic/fearfulness with respect to Coronavirus. In March, 17% of respondents expressed high Covid-19 anxiety. Interestingly, that number has remained stable, at 17%, into September. There are two ways to look at this. On one hand, it suggests that the United States government has been largely ineffective at calming its citizens Covid-19 anxieties. On the other hand, anxiety has remained stable even as the virus has increased its spread.

Digging deeper, weve noticed that peoples anxiety levels depend largely on political affiliation. Across the entire data range, approximately 24% of politically liberal Americans report high levels of Covid-19 anxiety while only 12% of conservatives report the same. This, again, speaks to the politicization of the pandemic, as well as the geographic distribution of the virus.

Interestingly, Donald Trumps approval rating with respect to how hes handled the pandemic has remained surprisingly stable; 19% of Americans felt that Trump was doing an excellent job handling the pandemic in March while 19% felt the same way in September. If anything, this suggests that peoples views on Trumps handling of the virus reflects their views on Trump in general.

Travers: What about lifestyle changes? Is the new normal here to stay or will things return to the way they were?

Roth: Our data suggest that many of the lifestyle changes people have made in response to Coronavirus are here to stay. For example, we asked people how likely they would be to return to their pre-Covid routine with respect to five lifestyle activities: ordering groceries for pickup or delivery, ordering restaurant takeout, cooking at home, exercising, and shopping online. In April, approximately 42% of people expected to return to their pre-Covid routine with regard to these activities. By September, that number had dropped 16%, to 26%.

Eliot Roth, CI-Sonar

Travers: Turning to the economy, how do peoples financial anxieties compare to their concerns regarding personal and public health?

Roth: This one is interesting. Since June, we have been asking people what concerns them most about the Covid-19 pandemic. Is it the risk it poses to their own health or the health of the people they care about? Is it the risk it poses to their household finances? Or is it something else, such as the inability to access health services, not being able to take a family vacation, or rising social unrest? Among all these possibilities, the threat Covid-19 poses to the American economy is the area people are most concerned about more than the health risk, more than the threat of prolonged closures, and more than their inability to access health services.

Furthermore, the data around devastated industries are striking. The travel and entertainment industries are taking a beating, especially movie theaters, restaurants and airlines.It is not clear how soon these industries will bounce back, but for many of these companies, it will not be fast enough to survive. When these industries do bounce back, there will be room for new entrants.It could be a rebirth of sorts and an opportunity for innovation.

Travers: How can people contact you for more information regarding the CoronaVirus Sentiment tracker?

Roth: Email us at info@consumerinsights.com and we can send you a copy of the full report.

Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus

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This Researcher Is Sitting On A Mountain Of Covid-19 Data. Heres How He Sees The World Changing - Forbes

Human Behavior

Nutritional trends and opportunities in the "new normal" webinar – Natural Products INSIDER

The pandemic is influencing more than healthcare, it is producing changes in consumer attitudes, lifestyle and purchasing behaviors. These changes are influencing product development priorities. There have never before been so many social challenges, while at the same access to intelligence about human nutrition and purchasing behavior. Now is the time to insert "intelligence" into your products.

Attend this webinar to learn more about the shifts in consumer behaviors in these unprecedented times and how they seek to optimize their new normal with our expert speaker from Google, and join in the discussion with your questions for the experts and BASF about new opportunities emerging in the health and nutritional space influenced by these changes in consumer lifestyle and attitudes.

Takeaways:This webinar will provide you with:

Moderator:Francine SchoenwetterContent Marketing Director, Informa Health & Nutrition

Speakers:Nika LukovicGlobal Insights Manager, GoogleNika leads the global insights, creative and measurement workstreams for food & snacking brands. Prior to joining Google, she lived in London where she worked as a digital insights manager for the grocery e-commerce business, and as a management consultant at Accenture.Nika is passionate about using big data and analytics to better understand human behavior and cultural trends, and helping brands get inspired, make strategic decisions, bring about digital transformation and help them find ways to make their online advertising more effective, reconciling the gap between "message delivered" and "message received".

Ute Obermller-Jevic, Ph.D.Global Scientific Marketing Human Nutrition, BASF

Dr. Ute Obermller-Jevic hold a Ph.D. in nutrition science from the University of Hohenheim, Germany, with post-doctoral research at UC Davis, CA. She joined BASF in 2002. Drawing upon her 25 years of experience in research on micronutrients and human nutrition, her focus today is in the area of vitamins and carotenoids.

John FoleyHuman Nutrition Technical Services, BASF

A science focused Beverage and Dietary supplement industry veteran, John holds an M.S. in Food Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. John's technical services and R&D experience provide B2B support for varied technical and nutritional aspects of food and beverage fortification and coloration. His demonstrated expertise food science, anti-oxidants, polymers, GMP, and emulsions support problem solving and marketing requirements for brand product developers and marketers within the dietary supplement & food & beverage industries. He is a co-creator of various Vitamin E products and brings specific expertise to beta-carotene & antioxidant applications.

Abhijit NatuMarketing, Human Nutrition N.A., BASFWith an extensive background in brand strategy and consumer brand marketing and innovation, Abhijit provides strategic support for business development and commercialization of innovation formulation concepts, helping identify and develop new product opportunities for consumer packaged goods brands in varied categories.

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Nutritional trends and opportunities in the "new normal" webinar - Natural Products INSIDER

Human Behavior

Isn’t that a bit creepy? Robots with ‘human’ brains – Innovation Origins

How will robots change the world? A frequently asked and as yet unanswered question. After all, we do not have a crystal ball. What we do know is that digitalization and automation have changed the world enormously in recent decades. At Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands, the potential of smart machines in industry and daily life is being researched each and every day. Scientists immerse themselves in technology and student teams get to work on concrete solutions to social problems. This series will tell you about the latest robots, their background, and their future. Today, the seventh episode today: social robots.

In the Social Robotics Lab at TU/e, researchers and students are taking up the challenge: They are researching the ways to teach social skills to robots. Will robots still be distinguishable from humans in the future?

We are using robots more and more often in everyday life, for instance in the workplace or for domestic tasks. Practical and repetitive tasks can be performed very well by robots, even better than humans can. But how close do you actually get to someone when you want to ask something? And during a conversation, how long do you look at someone before you look away? These are all social skills that we dont even think about, these things just happen automatically. For a robot, these things are difficult to determine, especially because they are not set facts or tasks.

Emilia Barakova and Raymond Cuijpers, the founders of the Social Robotics Lab, are working on these issues each and every day. Barakova is a senior lecturer on socially intelligent systems at the Faculty of Industrial Design and Cuijpers researches cognitive robots and human-robot interactions. We teach the robots specific skills step by step, Barakova explains. This always involves a great deal of research. So it seems that in the coming years, we will not have to worry about perfect social robots that are going to lead their own lives.

It is a world in which human psychology and robotics converge, Cuijpers notes. Social robotics is a relatively new field of research. Where many researchers now focus on the practical and technological challenges posed by robots, Cuijpers and Barakova are looking further ahead. Because the more robots go and do things, the more important their social skills will become. For example, a lot of research is being done into robots in elderly care so that people can stay in their own homes for longer. What struck us is that people feel less social pressure with a robot. When a person needs assistance in going to the toilet, the elderly often feel a bit uncomfortable. They dont feel that way with a robot, Cuijpers explains. They need an impartial robot, a buddy, a bit like a pet. In that case, particular skills for putting someone at ease are very important.

The robot needs to be able to grasp both verbal and non-verbal communication, says Barakova. Cuijpers continues: If the robot asks how things are going, a person can say that they are doing fine. But that word in itself usually doesnt say that much. You look at facial expressions and listen to the tone to see if someone really means it. According to the researcher, the robot understands more of the context in which things are being said by also looking at non-verbal communication. According to him, this is important both for humanoid robots, (robots that resemble people), and for machines such as service robots. Most robots work with people and therefore need to understand people. It is easier for robots that look like humans to communicate non-verbally, for example with facial expressions.

Over the past few years, Barakova has been researching the use of robots in therapy for children living with autism. Recognizing non-verbal communication is very difficult for these children. The robot has learned a number of non-verbal forms of communication which it can then convey to the child. For instance, the robot and a child can play the memory game together. The child flips over a card and the robot looks at the matching card that is still turned upside down. This teaches the child to follow the robots viewing direction in order to find the card, Barakova continues. Following the viewing direction is a social skill that people often use in everyday life. This kind of robot is also capable of supporting people with cognitive or visual impairments. The robot is then a sort of coach that helps you to express yourself in a certain situation.

In order to train a robot in social behavior, Cuijpers primarily focuses on the psychology of humans. There is a lot of literature on human behavior. For example, qualitative rules have been drawn up by psychologists with regard to making eye contact. The person who is listening looks at the other person almost the whole time, while the person who is talking occasionally stares into space, he says. Im trying to translate this into a model, as in qualitative rules, that the robot can apply. We can subsequently test this and refine it until we are satisfied with the robots behavior.

Apart from that, Cuijpers states that the robot makes use of a number of basic social rules, e.g. traffic rules. A graduate has done research into autonomous carts that drive through hospital corridors to pick up laundry. The robot uses navigation to know where to drive to. When doing that, it makes use of the basic rules, like always driving on the right-hand side. Things get interesting when there is an obstacle on the road, he says. In principle, the robot can then drive past on the left, provided there is no oncoming traffic. Then it has to either speed up, slow down or come to a standstill. In order to make a decision, it must also look at what the other person is doing and indicate what it intends to do. Consequently, it must be able to read and give non-verbal signals.

Ultimately, a lot of testing is required to be able to use these types of applications. The interaction between people, which is often explored in psychology, is different from the interaction between people and robots, Cuijpers explains. In addition, a model can work well with a single person in a room, but it becomes more difficult when there are several people. These are all aspects that the researchers need to take into account.

Worldwide research is being done on robots. Asia is at the forefront of this, says Barakova. After her Ph.D., she worked for a number of years in various Japanese laboratories where research is focused on social robotics. Robots are much more widely accepted there, whereas people are more skeptical in the Netherlands, she says. In order to convince people of the advantages of robots, Barakova believes that more robust applications are called for. Robots have to be able to work anytime and anywhere. When people experience what its like to work with a robot and when they see what the possibilities are, they are often more open to it, she notes. In the near future, we will be investigating new applications and looking at how we can best incorporate robots into peoples work or daily lives.

Are you curious about the other special robots at the TU/e High Tech System Center? Read the previous episodes about Experts in Robotics them here.

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Isn't that a bit creepy? Robots with 'human' brains - Innovation Origins

Human Behavior

Scientists use gene therapy and a novel light-sensing protein to restore vision in mice – National Institutes of Health

News Release

Thursday, October 22, 2020

NIH-funded therapy will now be tested in humans.

A newly developed light-sensing protein called the MCO1 opsin restores vision in blind mice when attached to retina bipolar cells using gene therapy. The National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, provided a Small Business Innovation Research grant to Nanoscope, LLC for development of MCO1. The company is planning a U.S. clinical trial for later this year.

Nanoscopes findings, reported today in Nature Gene Therapy, show that totally blind micemeaning they have no light perceptionregain significant retinal function and vision after treatment. Studies described in the report showed that treated mice were significantly faster in standardized visual tests, such as navigating mazes and detecting changes in motion.

Opsins are proteins that signal other cells as part of a cascade of signals essential to visual perception. In a normal eye, opsins are expressed by the rod and cone photoreceptors in the retina. When activated by light, the photoreceptors pulse and send a signal through other retinal neurons, the optic nerve, and on to neurons in the brain.

A variety of common eye diseases, including age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, damage the photoreceptors, impairing vision. But while the photoreceptors may no longer fully function, other retinal neurons, including a class of cells called bipolar cells, remain intact. The investigators identified a way for bipolar cells to take on some of the work of damaged photoreceptors.

The beauty of our strategy is its simplicity, said Samarendra Mohanty, Ph.D., Nanoscope founder and corresponding author of a report on the mouse study that appears today in Nature Gene Therapy. Bipolar cells are downstream from the photoreceptors, so when the MCO1 opsin gene is added to bipolar cells in a retina with nonfunctioning photoreceptors, light sensitivity is restored.

The strategy could overcome challenges plagued by other approaches to retinal regeneration, according to the researchers. Gene replacement therapy has thus far worked principally in rare diseases that leave photoreceptors intact, such as Luxurna for Leber congenital amaurosis. Bionic eyes, such as the Argus II retinal prosthesis, require invasive surgery and wearable hardware. Other opsin replacement therapies require the intensification of light in order to reach the threshold required for signal transduction. Intense light risks further damage to the retina. Nanoscopes therapy requires a one-time injection into the eye and no hardware. MCO1 is sensitive to ambient light, so no need exists for strong light to be shined into the eye. And therapy with MCO1 could treat a wider range of degenerative retinal diseases, since photoreceptor survival not required.

The researchers found no concerning safety issues in treated mice. Examination of blood and tissues found no signs of inflammation due to treatment and the therapy had no off-target effect only bipolar cells expressed the MCO1 opsin.

Under a best-case scenario, the therapy could help patients achieve 20/60 vision, according to the researchers; however, no one knows how the restored vision will compare to normal vision.

A clinical study in people will help us understand how signaling through bipolar cells affects vision quality; for example, how well treated eyes can pick out fast-moving objects., said Subrata Batabyal, Ph.D., lead author of the manuscript. The therapy will likely be limited for treatment of patients with severe retinal disease.

If this optogenetic approach using cells spared in degenerated retina can prove to be effective in vision restoration in humans, beyond light perception, it could offer a valuable alternative to the retinal prosthesis approach for people with late-stage retinitis pigmentosa, said PaekGyu Lee, Ph.D., NEIs program officer for the Small Business Innovation Research program.

This press release describes a basic research finding. Basic research increases our understanding of human behavior and biology, which is foundational to advancing new and better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. Science is an unpredictable and incremental process each research advance builds on past discoveries, often in unexpected ways. Most clinical advances would not be possible without the knowledge of fundamental basic research.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a competitive awards-based funding mechanism that supports U.S.-based small businesses engaged in research and development that has the potential for commercialization. The NEI SBIR program specifically provides funding to companies developing technologies and innovations relating to blinding eye diseases, visual disorders preservation of sight, and addressing the special health problems and requirements of individuals with impaired vision.

NEI leads the federal governments research on the visual system and eye diseases. NEI supports basic and clinical science programs to develop sight-saving treatments and address special needs of people with vision loss. For more information, visit https://www.nei.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nations medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit https://www.nih.gov/.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

DOI is 10.1038/s41434-020-00200-2

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Scientists use gene therapy and a novel light-sensing protein to restore vision in mice - National Institutes of Health