Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Researchers develop new theory that predicts the sensing behavior of animals – News-Medical.net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 23 2020

All animals great and small live every day in an uncertain world. Whether you are a human being or an insect, you rely on your senses to help you navigate and survive in your world. But what drives this essential sensing?

Unsurprisingly, animals move their sensory organs, such as eyes, ears and noses, while they are searching. Picture a cat swiveling its ears to capture important sounds without needing to move its body. But the precise position and orientation these sense organs take over time during behavior is not intuitive, and current theories do not predict these positions and orientations well.

Now a Northwestern University research team has developed a new theory that can predict the movement of an animal's sensory organs while searching for something vital to its life.

The researchers applied the theory to four different species which involved three different senses (including vision and smell) and found the theory predicted the observed sensing behavior of each animal. The theory could be used to improve the performance of robots collecting information and possibly applied to the development of autonomous vehicles where response to uncertainty is a major challenge.

Animals make their living through movement. To find food and mates and to identify threats, they need to move. Our theory provides insight into how animals gamble on how much energy to expend to get the useful information they need."

Malcolm A. MacIver, Lead Researcher and Professor, Department of Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering

MacIver is a professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering in Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and a professor of neurobiology (courtesy appointment) in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

The new theory, called energy-constrained proportional betting provides a unifying explanation for many enigmatic motions of sensory organs that have been previously measured. The algorithm that follows from the theory generates simulated sensory organ movements that show good agreement to actual sensory organ movements from fish, mammals and insects.

The study was published today (Sept. 22) by the journal eLife. The research provides a bridge between the literature on animal movement and energetics and information theory-based approaches to sensing.

MacIver is the corresponding author. Chen Chen, a Ph.D. student in MacIver's lab, is the first author, and Todd D. Murphey, professor of mechanical engineering at McCormick, is a co-author.

The algorithm shows that animals trade the energetically costly operation of movement to gamble that locations in space will be informative. The amount of energy (ultimately food they need to eat) they are willing to gamble, the researchers show, is proportional to the expected informativeness of those locations.

"While most theories predict how an animal will behave when it largely already knows where something is, ours is a prediction for when the animal knows very little -- a situation common in life and critical to survival," Murphey said.

The study focuses on South American gymnotid electric fish, using data from experiments performed in MacIver's lab, but also analyzes previously published datasets on the blind eastern American mole, the American cockroach and the hummingbird hawkmoth. The three senses were electrosense (electric fish), vision (moth) and smell (mole and roach).

The theory provides a unified solution to the problem of not spending too much time and energy moving around to sample information, while getting enough information to guide movement during tracking and related exploratory behaviors.

"When you look at a cat's ears, you'll often see them swiveling to sample different locations of space," MacIver said.

"This is an example of how animals are constantly positioning their sensory organs to help them absorb information from the environment. It turns out there is a lot going on below the surface in the movement of sense organs like ears and eyes and noses."

The algorithm is a modified version of one Murphey and MacIver developed five years ago in their bio-inspired robotics work. They took observations of animal search strategies and developed algorithms to have robots mimic those animal strategies.

The resulting algorithms gave Murphey and MacIver concrete predictions for how animals might behave when searching for something, leading to the current work.

Source:

Journal reference:

Chen, C., et al. (2020) Tuning movement for sensing in an uncertain world. eLife. doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52371.

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Researchers develop new theory that predicts the sensing behavior of animals - News-Medical.net

Human Behavior

What Americans say about recent climate events in the US – YouGov US

With about a hundred wildfires burning in the West, and the possibility of a record for the number of hurricanes in one season in the East, Americans must deal once again with the prospect that global climate change is affecting weather and causing more severe natural disasters. The President reminded Americans on a visit to California that he is a climate change skeptic, at least when it comes to climate changes impact on the California wildfires. Americans in the latest Economist/YouGov Poll are more likely to see the current two climate crises as the result of global climate change than the opposite, though responses on this question continue to be divided sharply along partisan lines.

Those who live in the West are especially likely to believe that global climate change is causing the Western fires. But even in the West the partisan difference remains. Two in three Democrats attribute the severity of wildfires to climate change; two-thirds of Republicans disagree. The general perceptions of whether climate change exists, and if it does, what causes it, have been mostly unaffected by natural disasters like the recent fires and hurricanes.

About half the public believes that the world is becoming warmer and that this is caused by human activity. Another fifth agrees the world is warming, but says human behavior is not the reason. That leaves one in ten who dont believe the world is becoming warmer. Just 4 percent of Democrats say this, compared with 20 percent of Republicans. Those opinions have changed little in recent years.

Not only do most Democrats believe climate change is occurring, but they also see it as a very important problem: Democrats are more than three times as likely as Republicans to describe climate change and the environment as a very important issue for them.

In fact, Democrats rank climate change and the environment as their second most important issue overall, behind only health care. One in five Democrats (20%) name it as their most important issue, compared with just 1 percent of Republicans.

Republicans are skeptical of the motivations of many climate scientists. Many Republicans believe they are influenced by their own political leanings most of the time (43% vs. 13% of Democrats); most Democrats believe the best available scientific evidence affects climate scientists opinions most of the time (63% vs. 20% of Republicans).

There is more trust today that scientists use the best available evidence than there was in 2016, when the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press asked the same questions.

See the toplines and tables results from this weeks Economist/YouGov survey

Methodology:The Economist survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,500 U.S. adult citizens interviewed online between September 13 - 15, 2020. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the US Bureau of the Census, as well as 2016 Presidential vote, registration status, geographic region, and news interest. Respondents were selected from YouGovs opt-in panel to be representative of all US citizens. The margin of error is approximately 3.4% for the overall sample.

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What Americans say about recent climate events in the US - YouGov US

Human Behavior

Putting their minds to it – McMinnville News-Register

Marcus Larson/News-Register ##Facilitators Chelsie Sanders and Tierney Ferguson lead a Rethinking Barriers job skills class at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church. The course helps people who have faced barriers to employment, such as past drug use, prison or homelessness.

Marcus Larson/News-Register ##Facilitators Chelsie Sanders and Tierney Ferguson lead a Rethinking Barriers class, which emphasizes retraining the brain to make job seekers more confident.

Program helps job seekers let go of self-defeating beliefs and behaviors

By STARLA POINTER

Of the News-Register

Some job seekers have already overcome major problemsgotten off drugs, served jail time or moved from the streets into safe housing. But they still might need help in surmounting an overwhelming obstacle in finding employment: their own self-defeating mindsets.

The Willamette Workforce Partnership (WWP) Rethinking Barriers program addresses that by training the addicted, homeless or incarcerated to think I have something to offer rather than nobody wants me anyway, so why even try?

Alot of programs look at helping people with rsum-building or interview skills, said Chelsie Sanders, one of the programs peer facilitators.

This is a different aspect thats not addressed as much, she said. This is about the mental and emotional barriers we place on ourselves, or that society places on us, that we might not even realize are barriers.

That stark contrast became clear to Sanders when she attended the Rethinking Barriers class as part of her training as a facilitator. She had been through several other programs and mentorships when she tried to re-enter the workforce after going through recovery herself.

She had found help through Hope on the Hill, a nonprofit community organization, then gone on to facilitate a group there. She also became a public speaker, offering her own experiences as examples to offer others hope with their struggles.

When she heard about the Rethinking Barriers course, it was being piloted in Yamhill County under the direction of WWP consultant Susan Barksdale.

A psychotherapist, Barksdale developed the new programs based on cognitive behavioral therapy.

We deconstruct what isnt working, and reconstruct their thinking, she said. We develop new neural pathways so it becomes automatic.

Sanders became one of the programs board members, as well as a facilitator.

I thought it would be a perfect fit with my schedule and the work I like to do, she said.

Sanders, whose experience gave herempathy, and co-facilitator Tierney Ferguson are the kind of people Barksdale was seeking.

Theres real power to having peer facilitators. Its extremely effective, shesaid. They are models who show it can be done.

A professional might not be able to offer the same insight. They have walked the walk, she explained.

The facilitators also help recruit students for the program. They work with support organizations such as Provoking Hope, the Champion Team and Hope on the Hill to find participants, along with partner Remnant Initiatives, a Newberg-based program that helps former inmates adapt to society.

We have our feelers out, Barksdale said. People dont have to have all these barriers to qualify. But they do have to meet a condition: that theyre not actively using drugs.

Rethinking Barriers is one of three WWP programs Barksdale developed during 11 years at the agency.

She first created Rethinking Job Search, which used cognitive behavioral techniques to help participants return to work more quickly. The Department of Labor contributed $3 million so the state could run the program for five years.

More recently, sheadded Rethinking Careers, a program aimed at young people and adults who have never been employed, and then Rethinking Barriers.

For the Yamhill County pilot, Barksdale trained Sanders and Ferguson, who was a student in the initial pilot class in 2019. Both facilitators are now certified bythe National Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

They have had many barriers in the past and are now contributing members of society, she said. They are perfectly poised to lead others to healthy thinking, emotions and behaviors, resulting in employment.

The facilitators recently finished leading their first set of classes. St. Barnabas Episcopal Church provided the space.The program also is supported by grants from First Federal, the Give a Little Foundation, Sunrise Rotary, Cuvee and Remnant Initiatives.

The program also receives assistance from students interns at Linfield University and Western Oregon University.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Rethinking Barriers course that started in early summer stopped after a few sessions. Facilitators resumed in late August, holding classes outside and using social distancing and facemasks.

We were excited to get back, Sanders said.

So was the group, which was intentionally small so there would be plenty of personal attention and interaction.

We all share what were comfortable sharing, Sanders said. Everyone has a chance to be heard.

They speak about confidence, and the lack of it.

For example, someone with a felony record or a history of addiction may not think theyre worthy of a job, or that society sees them that way, even if its not true, Sanders said.

Rethinking Barriers addresses those misperceptions directly. We look at how we accept criticism, and the beliefs we have, she said. Do those beliefs serve us?

Facilitators and students also examine appropriate work behavior. They discuss everything from timely attendance to wearing appropriate attire to knowing how to interact and engage.

For instance, they discuss being criticized or corrected by a manager. Its usually not personal, Sanders said. Instead of thinking they are being blamed, or blaming themselves, they learn to view instructive criticism as a way to improve.

Ferguson said she and her co-facilitator also encourage students to be in the present, rather than thinking ahead about what can go wrong.

She used an example of a job interview she had before taking the Rethinking Barriers class. She was so involved in speculating about what the interviewer might ask next, she said, that she had a hard time answering the current question.

She didnt get the job a good thing, actually, she said, since she found a better job after finishing the class.

But if she had it to do again, with the benefit of the cognitive behavioral training, she said, she would slow down and focus.

Ferguson is just the type of student who benefits from Rethinking Barriers, Barksdale said.

A former homeless addict, she now is looking toward a bright future.Shes smart, but she needed the social skills she learned in Rethinking Barriers, she said.

The cognitive restructuring aspect of the program makes all the difference in changing a defeatist attitude, she said.

It builds work readiness, builds credibility and prepares them to behave in a way thats more helpful to themselves, she said.

Kathy Byers of First Federal, one of the programs most enthusiastic champions,said she especially appreciates the psychological aspect of the program.

Building confidence and removing social and emotional barriers are key to long-term success, she said.

People who struggle to make it in the mainstream need that kind of support, she said.

Barksdale described Rethinking Barriers as the most exciting project with which she has been involved, not only by helping participants improve their thinking and their lives, but by saving the state money by reducing unemployment.

It makes such an impact, she said.

Funding already is in place for five classes, including pay for the facilitators, materials and oversight.She expects at least 30 people to have graduated by June 2021.

Afterward, she wants to take the program beyond Yamhill County, with classes in Marion, Polk and Linn counties.

Were poised to continue, she said.

Rethinking Barriers facilitator Tierney Ferguson was fresh out of jail, trying to stay sober, when she first heard about a different kind of job training program.

She met Susan Barksdale of Carlton, a mental health and jobs advocate, who founded Rethinking Barriers. Both were volunteering to serve meals to people in need at the Soup Kitchen @ St. Barnabas.

She wanted to help me, Ferguson recalled.

Soon the McMinnville woman wasenrolled in the program, which helps students retrain their brain so they gain confidence and impede when looking for employment.

I got it, she said. And now I enjoy passing that along to others and helping them have a positive mindset.

Like many people who come to Rethinking Barriers, Ferguson, 38, had a history of drug use going back to childhood and a pattern of using, getting arrested, sobering up, then using again following her release. She described herself as a slave to marijuana and methamphetamines.

I was a pothead for more than 20 years, she said.

Looking back, she said, there were periods when she wasnt using, but never long enough to completely rid herself of toxic substances. I never felt sober, she said.

In early 2019, though, she spent 30 days in jail and came out resolving to quit for good. It wasnt easy, but she was doing well even before she met Barksdale.

The Rethinking Barriers class was a huge help with the bumps in the road, so they didnt get you down.

She had already been job hunting before she started the class. She even made it to the interview stage, but wasnt hired.

She learned in the class that she shouldnt take rejection personally. Lots of people get turned down. It wasnt that she was inherently bad, she realized, and she found the courage to try again.

In Rethinking Barriers, you learn to control your emotions and turn things into a positive, she said.

She learned, as well, to not create her own barriers. Slow down, actively listen, go step-by-step, she said. I definitely recommend that.

Her own experiences helps in her work as a facilitator. She can empathize.

Its about retraining your brain, she added. That can be difficult, uncomfortable, but the more aware you are, the more you recognize that youre doing, the better youll be.

In addition to being hired to facilitate future classes, after graduating Fergusonfound a job at McDonalds. She has worked her way up to manager.

I am totally respected, and I adore my job, she said. My coworkers respect me. Thats pretty cool.

She also is supervising her childrens online learning. Shes proud to be with them, to have a home and earn a living.

Five years ago, I was on the streets, homeless. I never would have imagined this, Ferguson said. It feels really good to be able to relate to people.

Shes even planning to enroll in college. Shes considering studying psychology or social work, and learning about human behavior.

What makes the brain think that way? she asked. I wonder about that.

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Putting their minds to it - McMinnville News-Register

Human Behavior

Home on the Ranch with Travis Fimmel – The New Yorker

The Australian actor Travis Fimmel, formerly known as Ragnar Lothbrok, eighth-century Viking slaughterer-hero, on the History Channel series Vikings, can, as of this month, be found navigating the virgin planet Kepler-22B, on HBO Max. In the new Ridley Scott-produced series, Raised by Wolves, Fimmel plays Marcus, a burly, bearded guy with a mullet, a knightly white surcoat, and a dark past, living among androids and animosity. Despite this, he retains a mellow vibe; so does Fimmel. On a recent Saturday, he was relaxing at his cattle ranch, north of Los Angeles. He wore a plaid shirt and a baseball cap; his beard was shaggy. Ive been busy doing a lot of fencingi.e., putting up fenceswhile Ive got this time off because of Covid, and planting a lot of trees, he said. Fruitless mulberry, because theyre great shade trees. Peppercorn, because theyre so drought-tolerant. Eucalyptus, because Im trying to make everything as Australian as I can. He hasnt minded the time off. Id much rather be doing this sort of stuff than putting on makeup and playing make-believe, he said.

Fimmel, forty-one, grew up in southeastern Australia, on his familys farm. We had dairy cattle, beef, and crops, he said. Hed planned to farm always, but then there was a year in my life, when I was eighteen, where I was, like, I dont want to be on the farm. (Ragnar Lothbrok had a similar impulse.) He ventured to London and L.A., bartending (Working in bars, living above barsit was kind of the funnest time); modelling Calvin Klein underwear, on a traffic-stopping billboard in London (His presence was jaw-dropping, Klein has said); and acting. I had no ambition to do it, Fimmel said. I still dont. Performing live makes him uncomfortable. I cannot audition to save my life, he said. I hate it. I could never be in a play, onstage. Id break down and cry.

Onscreen, he makes do. Hes played Tarzan, in the series Tarzan; Sir Anduin Lothar, knight champion of Azeroth, in the video-game-inspired Warcraft; and Ragnar, who is both assertive and sensitivehis best friend is a monk he captured. Fimmels performance in Vikings caught the eye of Daniel Day-Lewis, whose wife, the director Rebecca Miller, cast Fimmel in her 2015 film, Maggies Plan. In it, he plays an earnest Brooklyn pickle-maker in a knit hat, opposite Greta Gerwig and Ethan Hawke. He brings to all his roles a startling lack of neurosis. On Raised by Wolves, the aesthetic is a little Blade Runner, a little Westworld, a little White House Christmas decorations, and people act accordinglybut, whenever Fimmel appears, the series enters a realm of recognizable human behavior, even amid dialogue like The necromancer took him.

Its the same as any sort of period, Fimmel said, of life in the year 2159 on Kepler-22B. Its just all about relationships. People trying to get loved or find their place in the world. In Marcuss first scene, he defuses tension between his clan, the Mithraic, who have come to the new planet after killing Earths atheists, and Mother, an atheist android, whose human children came to the planet as embryos. Wait. Please. Apologies, Marcus begins, warmly. Hes picked up a stalk. I see that you have been farming. A lot. Soon, hes at her table, slurping soup. Later, among solemn Mithraic children in a spaceship, he initiates a galumphing round of duck-duck-goose.

On his ranch, Fimmel said, Ive got a few longhorn cattle, horses, chickens, an Englishman whos staying herehes up there, walking around. He waved. Ive got a couple of emus, just because theyre Australian. Theyre not the sharpest bird in the aviary. But theyre always intrigued by whatevers going on. Theyre quirky, and they can run like thirty-five miles an hour. He headed toward a fence; two emus stood atop a hill. Come on, hey! he yelled, whistling. The emus snapped to attention and raced over, bobbing at speed. They cocked their fuzzy heads at him, then ate from his hand. Look at their feettheyre like dinosaurs, he said. Two brown horses approached, and he fed them, too.

Fimmel rides horses onscreen and off. In Vikings, Ragnar executed a daring escape on a white one; while shooting Warcraft, Fimmel was thrown from a spooked horse; he also has up-in-the-air plans to play Wyatt Earp and to star in a spaghetti Western. Beyond that, professionally, Im meant to go back to do a second season of, um, spaceships, he said. Meanwhile: the ranch. I wanted to get kangaroos, he said. Theyre illegal to keep as pets in California, but about this, too, he is serene. If someone were to let one free around me, Id rescue it, he said.

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Home on the Ranch with Travis Fimmel - The New Yorker

Human Behavior

Editor’s Note: Trump Flags Are The New Red Flags – qcnerve.com

In early September I took a trip down to Kure Beach to vacation with my immediate family, our first opportunity to spend time together since early March when COVID-19 clamped down on the country. It was during this trip that I began to notice a relatively new trend, one that points to a disturbing future for the so-called United States: all these damn Trump flags.

The flags were not only hanging from patios and porches but flying on the actual beach, where people decided that a flag was somehow an important part of their setup on the sand.

Now, Im not one to be offended by such things. People can fly whatever the hell flag they choose. As with the inarguably racist Confederate flag, a Trump flag is a good signal for whom I should avoid all interactions with. I find it helpful in that regard.

My concern is with what else this new proliferation of Trump 2020 flags signals.

When I think of what other flags I see flying on a regular basis, I think of the United States flag, the rainbow flag at LGBTQ Pride events, Carolina Panthers flags, etc.

There are also those flags that the right has always been fond of: the aforementioned Confederate flag, which only came back into fashion among racists during the civil rights movement. Theres the yellow snake flag with Dont Tread On Me, brought back into popularity by the Tea Party in 2009 in response to Barack Obamas coming to power.

All of the flags listed above, good or bad, symbolize a person identifying as part of a group that they take pride in, which is relatively normal human behavior. What Trump flags signal to is something wholly separate: loyalty to one man in power as a defining part of your identity.

Of course, this is nothing new. In 2016, we saw the red hats serve the same purpose, and those certainly havent gone anywhere. Before that, there was no shortage of Barack Obama merch, his face plastered on t-shirts worn by people who saw his election as a sign that the country was moving past its horrific racial past (so much for that idea).

I for one have always cringed at the idea that any politician should be lionized in such a way. I voted for Barack Obama twice, yet I had more than a few issues with the way he did things his immigration policy and drone-bombing campaign to name a couple.

When you claim a politician as your own, as you do when you fly their flag and regardless of what Trump sycophants say, hes the president, so hes a politician you are saying, Im on this team, and Ill do whatever I need to do to defend that.

This is exactly the type of cult following that Trump aimed to build from the beginning. He scapegoated the media so as to convince his followers ahead of time that every negative article every survivor of his sexual predation, every administrative whistleblower, every sane person who can see a scam artist for what he is is simply fake news and should be ignored.

Then he went to work on the checks and balances against his power, firing anyone who didnt do his bidding, even if that was never their job in the first place.

His followers dont care one iota about all his wrongdoing because hes owning the libs, and thats their priority. These people dont want to see things get better, per se, they want to see things get worse for the people they dont like.

Im reminded of a Trump voter in Florida who was quoted in a New York Times report from early January of this year, when Trumps government shutdown had so many people suffering around the country so he could fight for funding for his mythical wall.

I thought he was going to do good things. Hes not hurting the people he needs to be hurting, the woman said, revealing the true nature of Trumps following. This is not the reason to vote for a president, people.

Attitudes like that are how Trump was able to run and win on a racist, xenophobic platform. Its how he built his following from a foundation of folks he has no real interest in. They believe he has just a little more interest in them than in those other people those immigrants, those Black folks, those libs, those Antifa boogeymen and thats what matter.

And so now when you see hate speech, the Trump flag is never far behind. Its just become expected. In June, when an old man yelled White power from his golf cart during a procession in a Florida retirement community (in a video retweeted by Trump himself), the flag was there. In August, when Trump supporters drove through a protest in Portland and shot innocent people with paintballs, the flag was there. And on Sept. 19, when multiple members of a pro-Trump convoy passing through Elon on a Saturday afternoon yelled White power, the flags were there.

Maybe Im just a triggered lib, but Id say if this is the group you stake your claim with, thats a pretty big red flag.

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Editor's Note: Trump Flags Are The New Red Flags - qcnerve.com

Human Behavior

Anxious if smartphone not near? You’re not alone – The-review

Emma Scott Moran| The Columbus Dispatch USA Today Network

A study of young adults in Portugal has found that the sense of anxiety and fear some experience when they cannot access their smartphone could be linked to general feelings of isolation and inadequacy.

Ana-Paula Correia, an associate professor at Ohio State University and co-author of the study, said she began researching the topic in 2014 as a professor at Iowa State University. She said that she and her students noticed the number of young adults using their smartphone beyond its initial purpose, which was talking on a phone using a mobile network.

We were intrigued by that, and we wanted to make some kind of measure to indicate that people are actually stressed when they are not with their smartphone close by or in a situation where it cant work, said Correia, who works in Ohio States Department of Educational Studies and is director of the universitys Center on Education and Training for Employment.

Skyler Jackim, a senior anthropology major at Ohio State, said the results of this study hit home. She said she feels an immediate sense of dread when her cellphone is not in its usual spot specifically, her the back left pocket of her jeans.

I think a lot of people my age can relate to this, Jackim said. We do everything on our phones: social media, search on the internet, talk to important people in our lives.

The connectivity that a smartphone provides is comforting, but Jackim said she depends on her phone for much more than interacting with friends and family members.

My phone has everything cellphone numbers I dont have memorized, bank information, medical records, my entire wallet. I definitely feel like I need it at all times, Jackim said.

The measure that Correia created became known as the nomophobia questionnaire. Nomophobia, an abbreviation of the expression no-mobile-phone fear, is a term for the anxiety, discomfort and stress that people suffer when their smartphones are not readily available, according to the study.

The term nomophobia, coined in a 2008 study that was commissioned by the U.K. Post Office and conducted by research data and analytics group YouGov, is not recognized as a diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association.

In 2019, researchers at the Catholic University in Portugal learned of Correias nomophobia measure and asked her to join their project. This allowed her to extend her initial work as she translated the measure into Portuguese and analyzed the new data collected.

That university study analyzed a sample of 495 Portuguese young adults to determine the relationship between the participants smartphone use, sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle and health.

Participants filled out four questionnaires, and it was determined that those who demonstrated nomophobia also exhibited psychopathological symptoms such as obsession-compulsion, hostility and psychoticism.

The studys findings were published in the most recent issue of Computers in Human Behavior Reports, a scholarly journal that publishes research exploring human computer interactions and the impact of computers on human behavior.

Correia said the results were not necessarily surprising. She said she knows that extreme smartphone use must have consequences.

We know from daily observations that extreme use of smartphones must come with a price. Isolation, feelings of not being fit or adequate something will come with it, Correia said.

Although Correia identified a relationship between obsessive-compulsive behavior and extra smartphone use, the study does not tell the direction or nature of that relationship, she said.

We cannot say that the smartphone causes obsessive-compulsive behavior or the other way obsessive-compulsive behavior makes you use your smartphone more often, Correia said. Now a next study could be, what is the nature and direction of that relationship.

Correia said she hopes the results can spur more studies on the topic for example, research into whether the results vary among age groups. She said she is curious about any relationship between smartphone use and other mental disorders, such as depression and violent behavior.

Im not saying were going out and going to blame smartphone usage on all these bad things that happen to us psychologically, no, Correia said. Smartphone usage brings a lot of benefits to our daily lives as well. But we have to be thoughtful when we use a device to an extreme way to the point that you cannot function well if you forget your smartphone at home.

escottmoran@gannett.com

@emmascottmoran

Ana-Paula Correia is an associate professor in Ohio State University's Department of Educational Studies and director of the university's Center on Education and Training for Employment.

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Anxious if smartphone not near? You're not alone - The-review

Human Behavior

Kaine, Warner announce more than $7.7M in funding to combat human trafficking – WHSV

Leaders from Eastern Mennonite University and James Madison University joined Harrisonburg City Council members during their Tuesday night Zoom meeting to discuss COVID-19 response updates.EMU hoped to start classes in-person on Aug. 25, but an outbreak occurred on-campus when the universitys campus community assistants returned one week early for additional training.Instead of beginning in-person, EMU began classes online on Aug. 25. On Sept. 3, the university transitioned to a mix of the in-person and virtual learning models.As of Sept. 22, the EMU COVID-19 Dashboard, there are 8 cumulative positive COVID-19 cases. Seven cases were confirmed at the university and one case was self-reported.EMU President Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman said the biggest change on campus was at dining halls.Right now we dont have students that are eating inside in our expansive dining hall. We have grab and go meals with reusable materials, Schultz Huxman said. We have tents everywhere [for students to eat outdoors]. It looks like a festival of sorts.EMU plans to host Homecoming and Family Weekend events online Oct. 16 through Oct. 18.After pivoting to online learning for four weeks, JMU plans to return to in-person learning on Oct. 5. The university is implementing a number of changes when students return to campus for the second time this semester.As many as 85 percent [of students] are still here, so if we have some mix of classes along the lines of what Susan [Schultz Huxman] described, that same kind of mix, we have a greater ability to monitor behavior and require testing, JMU President Jonathan Alger said. The students returning to the residence halls in October represent a small subset of the overall student body, so we dont expect a significant impact on the community when those students return.With the help of a third-party testing company, JMU plans to test 300 non-symptomatic students per week who have not yet tested positive to get ahead of any potential coronavirus outbreaks.As of Sept. 22, the JMU COVID-19 Dashboard reports 132 active cases and 1,313 recovered cases.All JMU students signed a COVID-19 Stop the Spread Agreement before returning to campus, but weeks into the semester it is clear to the university that not all students followed expectations.We have notified 290 students of violations so far this semester, Dr. Tim Miller, VP for Student Affairs, said. Thus far, we have found 45 students responsible for [inappropriate] behavior and those sanctions have ranged from restorative justice process to probation.Dr. Miller said some cases can result in expulsion.He said before classes began, he accompanied Harrisonburg police officers on a ride-along to monitor student behavior and is in the process of scheduling another with the Harrisonburg Fire Department.I believe the only way I can understand what [police are] seeing is if I see it myself, Miller said.

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Human Behavior

Why You Probably Don’t Need to Worry About COVID-19 from Food – Healthline

Its entirely on-brand for 2020 to make something as simple as going to the grocery store or a restaurant stressful.

Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, theres still valid concern about being inside an enclosed space with other people, as well as having to touch common spaces from the handle of a shopping cart to the keypad of a credit card reader.

Thats why many stores now require masks, have markings on the floor to remind people to stand 6 feet apart, and have made hand sanitizer readily available.

But people can rest assured that the food itself isnt the dangerous part.

In fact, public health experts say essentially that once you get out of the store and get your groceries home, youre largely in the clear.

People should not be too concerned if they wash or sanitize their hands after handling the product before touching their faces, said Dr. Niket Sonpal, a New York-based internist and gastroenterologist and adjunct professor at Touro College of Medicine.

By following those simple guidelines, health experts around the globe say going to the grocery store remains safe, the same as having those groceries delivered or having prepared food delivered directly to their homes.

While the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has become so prevalent that its hard to pin down exactly where certain cases come from, leading health agencies in the United States and across the world say there arent any cases directly connected to grocery shopping or food delivery.

That includes foods coming from meat-packing plants where large-scale and fatal infections have occurred.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say the risks of developing COVID-19 from eating or handling food is very low. They also say there have been no cases linked to handling packaged food.

The CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) say theres no evidence to suggest people could develop COVID-19 from handling food even fresh fruits and vegetables.

The WHO does warn that theres also no evidence to suggest that any herbal teas, probiotics, or other so-called remedies, like eating ginger or garlic, can stave off COVID-19.

But because the initial cases of COVID-19 were associated with fresh seafood markets in China, some people may remain skeptical of certain foods, especially after some research suggested the virus could live on fresh salmon for up to a week.

So along with personal safety measures, basic food safety measures are important to maintain, such as cooking meats to the appropriate temperatures.

The CDC reports that 23 states have reported COVID-19 outbreaks in meat and poultry processing facilities, but those cases were attributed to working conditions, such as working closely with co-workers for up to 12 hours, shared transportation to and from work, and co-workers living in congregate housing.

But for fresh foods, like fruits and vegetables, health experts say people should use the same precautions as they would before: Its always best to wash those foods before eating them.

Consumers should thoroughly wash fresh produce with cold tap water, Dr. Daniel Devine, dual-board certified internist and geriatrician and co-founder of Devine Concierge Medicine in Pennsylvania, told Healthline.

The CDC recommends against using soap, alcohol, bleach, or other sanitizers for the cleaning process, he adds. Consumers may scrub firm produce with a clean brush and cold tap water.

Devine recommends people also follow CDC guidelines regarding prepackaged foods, which includes not wiping down cardboard or plastic packaging with disinfectants designed for hard surfaces, as they may contaminate the food held within.

But experts like Sonpal say, while its still unlikely to contract the coronavirus from packaged food, human behavior does play a factor in the transmission of the virus.

Viruses like COVID-19 mainly spread from person-to-person through respiratory droplets after someone coughs, sneezes, or talks, Sonpal said. If someone touches a surface or object, including food or food packaging, that has the virus on it, and then touches their mouth, nose, or eyes, it is possible to get COVID-19.

Those human-to-human contact concerns are why bars, nightclubs, and in-person dining at restaurants were quickly shut down once the severity of the pandemic was realized.

Even now, many major cities in the United States say infection rates are too high to open again safely.

But many cities, from New York to San Francisco, are now opening for outdoor dining, as health officials believe eating outdoors while tables are separated at a safe distance and servers and patrons wear masks is a safer alternative to eating indoors where the virus could linger longer in the air.

Eating outdoors is considered safer due to improved airflow as compared to indoor dining. Many states are planning to resume indoor dining with mandates for decreased indoor dining capacity to ensure patrons maintain social distancing guidelines, Devine said.

He added, As more locations resume indoor dining, physicians and public health officials will be monitoring closely for any potential outbreaks. Many restaurants have instituted robust sanitization protocols that, in addition to reduced seating capacity, should help prevent spread of the virus from an infected patron to others.

Janilyn Hutchings is a certified food safety professional at StateFoodSafety, which offers food safety training and certification programs.

She said the risk level of different types of food and food orders all depend on how much face-to-face contact youre likely to have with how many people.

Buying prepackaged food and fresh foods at a grocery store is probably about as risky as dining in a restaurant because in both cases youre going into an establishment that potentially has numerous other patrons and that may require you to get close to at least one other person the cashier or server, she said.

Hutchings said people can decrease their risk of getting COVID-19 by wearing a mask at all times in grocery stores and restaurants (except when youre eating), as well as maintaining 6 feet of distance and following any additional guidelines set by the establishment.

But getting food to-go or delivered to your home, she said, is probably the least risky way to get food right now.

With many delivery services, you pay online, so the amount of time you have to spend face-to-face with the delivery driver is slim to none, Hutchings said. You also dont have to worry about other patrons, especially ones that arent following mask or social distancing guidelines.

And, because theres no evidence that COVID-19 can be spread through food or food packaging, Hutchings and others say people shouldnt worry about the safety of food manufactured in plants, even one where a COVID-19 outbreak occurred, if basic food handling safety measures are followed.

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Why You Probably Don't Need to Worry About COVID-19 from Food - Healthline

Human Behavior

Biopharm America: Of ‘psychotic’ behavior and term sheets in online dealmaking’s brave new world – BioWorld Online

Early stage investment strategies and dealmaking in the age of COVID-19 became topics during the Biopharm America meeting, itself held virtually this year because of the pandemic. Kevin Johnson, partner and co-founder of European life sciences backer Medicxi, hailed an unprecedented upswing on the financial front. There is no winter, he said. Its amazing.

Johnson spoke with Steve Dickman, founder and CEO of the consulting firm CBT Advisors in Cambridge, Mass., on the same day that Johnsons firm closed its 200 million (US$234 million) secondary fund, led by Pantheon with co-lead LGT Capital Partners.

Drug discovery per se is not the hard bit, Johnson said; what matters most is understanding the biology of a potential therapy by way of human models. There is definitely a big role for what I will call computing enterprises to help, particularly with clinical trials and clinical trial management, patient records thats hugely laborious and important to get right, he said. But simply finding a drug, by whatever means, that seems to work in preclinical models doesnt turn him on. My old tech colleagues keep sending me stuff related to mostly unvalidated work. Im starting to sound like a stuck record, but I dont care, is the short answer, he said.

The death knell for anything is, We wont know if this works until we put it into the clinic, Johnson said. Im sorry, but no. We consider that to be a 20 million bet, and its probably more in the U.S. Even once a set of convincing human genetics data turn up, the matter becomes one of faith. Early stage drug discovery projects are a lot like religion, he said. Its a question of how much you believe, without necessarily having evidence to support that belief. As you go along, more people come into the church with you, until you get to the point where you dont need the church.

Dickman recalled the early days of what would become the breast cancer drug Herceptin (trastuzumab, Roche Holding AG), which had a solitary champion in then-CEO of Genentech, Kirk Raab. Consensus in the company was that the HER2-targeting prospect ultimately would not work and should be discontinued. The more people you ask, the more likely you are to get a huge range of opinion about anything, Johnson acknowledged. The trick with that is to ask as few people as possible. Dickman wanted Johnsons best guess about drug candidates or platforms likely to be hot in the coming months. I honestly dont know, he said. If whatever youre doing is in the interest of the patients, at some point thats going to win through, regardless. Thats the only reason any of us is here. Have that as your lodestone, and hope that the rest of the world catches up in sufficient time that you can make a return for your fund.

Medicxis portfolio includes companies such as Z Factor Ltd., of Cambridge, U.K., which was spun out of the University of Cambridge. In August, the firm dosed the first human volunteer with ZF-874, its treatment for alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency. The drug is meant to act as a molecular patch for the faulty protein, allowing it to fold correctly, relieving the liver burden of polymer accumulation while providing fully functional Z-A1AT in the circulation to protect the lungs.

Despite COVID-19s forced shift to virtual rather than face-to-face encounters, activity by his firm has been pretty intense this year by comparison to previous years, Johnson said. Obviously were doing everything by Zoom, and its been surprisingly effective. Weve managed to do some fairly elaborate things, made new investments, [and did] follow-ons as well as hiring.

With regard to negotiating via screen rather than handshake, you can get 90% there with people you havent met before, Johnson said, though theres always a little bit of a niggle at the back of your mind that you havent finally completed the picture. Hes on the watch for behaviors that might signal problems later. Im not sure youre going to see them even if youre face to face, he said. You generally only see those in the trenches, when things get tough. If youve been around for a while you know very well that some people seem like normal individuals right up to the point where theres money on the table, and then they display psychotic tendencies. I dont think you should overstate how much you can read people in an interview or pitching type of situation. Everybodys selling. Its not real. His firm often starts with a small seed financing to test drive the other party, he said, pointing out that the situation is not a one-way street. It may well be that theres some allergy to us, as well as the other way around.

Dickman, who previously served as a principal at Techno Venture Management, recalled a certain energy in the room when evaluating opportunities. I always felt that trigger [to do the deal] when it was there, he said. In the same way that audio technology cuts off the lowest lows and the highest highs, maybe the highs are lost in electronic interaction, he speculated.

Johnson doesnt think so. Im spending more time with people in this medium than I would in an office situation, he said, and is able to take the measure of entrepreneurs, who tend to be hard-to-manage mavericks. Peoples energy does come across you can still read facial expressions and body language. Some non-verbal cues are missed, but thats a necessary hazard now. You put the closed sign on the door and walk away, otherwise, he said.

Biopharm America ends Thursday.

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Biopharm America: Of 'psychotic' behavior and term sheets in online dealmaking's brave new world - BioWorld Online

Human Behavior

Positivity rates, cases, deaths all trending downward in state – The Daily World

By Evan Bush

The Seattle Times

Things are looking better to those of us who track the rise and fall of COVID-19 cases in earnest.

Daily confirmed case counts, hospitalizations and deaths have all dropped since spiking in July. The percentage of positive test results, averaged over a week, stood at about 3.3% in early September. That figure spiked to nearly 6% in mid-July, according to state data. The states goal is 2%.

We are pleased to see the testing positivity rate come down. We know the number of cases are decreasing across the state, said Dr. Cathy Wasserman, a state epidemiologist with the Department of Health (DOH), who added that people must remain vigilant, keep their distance and avoid gatherings. Human behavior is driving transmission changes.

No single behavior change likely accounts for the reduction in transmission. Instead, the health department attributes the improvement to a combination of factors such as wearing face coverings, limiting social gatherings and keeping physical distance in public. Gov. Jay Inslee required people to wear face coverings in public starting on June 26, as cases trended higher.

The encouraging drop in the states positivity rate is one sign transmission is slowing, but perhaps more importantly, the figure indicates that statewide testing is keeping up with the rate of the viruss spread.

The health department also is counting tests differently. The department in late August made several tweaks to its reporting of COVID-19 data and applied them retroactively. It was the latest in a series of adjustments to its methodology that the agency hopes will give a more accurate picture of the viruss presence in Washington.

Because some people are getting tested multiple times, the state is now counting the number of tests administered rather then the number of people tested.

We feel that is a more accurate representation of testing volume, said Wasserman, who is leading the health departments COVID-19 data efforts. The change will also help standardize Washington data for comparison with other states, she said.

Counting tests this way dropped the states overall, all-time positivity rate (the percentage of all tests in Washington that have come back positive). But, as the pandemic wears on, that figure has become less important. Instead, the health department highlights a seven-day average positivity rate, which makes it easier to spot changes and trends.

Since the pandemic began, the task of compiling COVID-19 data has been beset with problems as health departments nationwide scrambled to tweak health reporting systems to handle all the metrics needed to track the new virus. In Washington, an initial flood of data overwhelmed the states disease reporting system, and then, a computer workaround caused the state to double-count negative test results for two months. Those problems, and several others, have been corrected.

Washington state also has added to its COVID-19 data dashboard a new metric testing per capita which will help officials examine and compare peoples access to testing across geographic areas.

And on Aug. 28, the state stopped reporting deaths from COVID-19 on weekends.

We made that decision due to resource challenges at the state and local level. Many medical certifiers and public health officials we need to reconcile the count dont work on the weekends, Wasserman said.

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Positivity rates, cases, deaths all trending downward in state - The Daily World