Here Today, Gone Tomorrow – Adaptation to Change in Memory-Guided Visual Search

PubMed Central

Zellin, Martina; Conci, Markus; von Mühlenen, Adrian; Müller, Hermann J.

2013-01-01

Visual search for a target object can be facilitated by the repeated presentation of an invariant configuration of nontargets (‘contextual cueing’). Here, we tested adaptation of learned contextual associations after a sudden, but permanent, relocation of the target. After an initial learning phase targets were relocated within their invariant contexts and repeatedly presented at new locations, before they returned to the initial locations. Contextual cueing for relocated targets was neither observed after numerous presentations nor after insertion of an overnight break. Further experiments investigated whether learning of additional, previously unseen context-target configurations is comparable to adaptation of existing contextual associations to change. In contrast to the lack of adaptation to changed target locations, contextual cueing developed for additional invariant configurations under identical training conditions. Moreover, across all experiments, presenting relocated targets or additional contexts did not interfere with contextual cueing of initially learned invariant configurations. Overall, the adaptation of contextual memory to changed target locations was severely constrained and unsuccessful in comparison to learning of an additional set of contexts, which suggests that contextual cueing facilitates search for only one repeated target location. PMID:23555038

Multiscale Region-Level VHR Image Change Detection via Sparse Change Descriptor and Robust Discriminative Dictionary Learning

PubMed Central

Xu, Yuan; Ding, Kun; Huo, Chunlei; Zhong, Zisha; Li, Haichang; Pan, Chunhong

2015-01-01

Very high resolution (VHR) image change detection is challenging due to the low discriminative ability of change feature and the difficulty of change decision in utilizing the multilevel contextual information. Most change feature extraction techniques put emphasis on the change degree description (i.e., in what degree the changes have happened), while they ignore the change pattern description (i.e., how the changes changed), which is of equal importance in characterizing the change signatures. Moreover, the simultaneous consideration of the classification robust to the registration noise and the multiscale region-consistent fusion is often neglected in change decision. To overcome such drawbacks, in this paper, a novel VHR image change detection method is proposed based on sparse change descriptor and robust discriminative dictionary learning. Sparse change descriptor combines the change degree component and the change pattern component, which are encoded by the sparse representation error and the morphological profile feature, respectively. Robust change decision is conducted by multiscale region-consistent fusion, which is implemented by the superpixel-level cosparse representation with robust discriminative dictionary and the conditional random field model. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed change detection technique. PMID:25918748

Changes in heart rate variability are associated with expression of short-term and long-term contextual and cued fear memories.

PubMed

Liu, Jun; Wei, Wei; Kuang, Hui; Zhao, Fang; Tsien, Joe Z

2013-01-01

Heart physiology is a highly useful indicator for measuring not only physical states, but also emotional changes in animals. Yet changes of heart rate variability during fear conditioning have not been systematically studied in mice. Here, we investigated changes in heart rate and heart rate variability in both short-term and long-term contextual and cued fear conditioning. We found that while fear conditioning could increase heart rate, the most significant change was the reduction in heart rate variability which could be further divided into two distinct stages: a highly rhythmic phase (stage-I) and a more variable phase (stage-II). We showed that the time duration of the stage-I rhythmic phase were sensitive enough to reflect the transition from short-term to long-term fear memories. Moreover, it could also detect fear extinction effect during the repeated tone recall. These results suggest that heart rate variability is a valuable physiological indicator for sensitively measuring the consolidation and expression of fear memories in mice.

Semantic Image Segmentation with Contextual Hierarchical Models.

PubMed

Seyedhosseini, Mojtaba; Tasdizen, Tolga

2016-05-01

Semantic segmentation is the problem of assigning an object label to each pixel. It unifies the image segmentation and object recognition problems. The importance of using contextual information in semantic segmentation frameworks has been widely realized in the field. We propose a contextual framework, called contextual hierarchical model (CHM), which learns contextual information in a hierarchical framework for semantic segmentation. At each level of the hierarchy, a classifier is trained based on downsampled input images and outputs of previous levels. Our model then incorporates the resulting multi-resolution contextual information into a classifier to segment the input image at original resolution. This training strategy allows for optimization of a joint posterior probability at multiple resolutions through the hierarchy. Contextual hierarchical model is purely based on the input image patches and does not make use of any fragments or shape examples. Hence, it is applicable to a variety of problems such as object segmentation and edge detection. We demonstrate that CHM performs at par with state-of-the-art on Stanford background and Weizmann horse datasets. It also outperforms state-of-the-art edge detection methods on NYU depth dataset and achieves state-of-the-art on Berkeley segmentation dataset (BSDS 500).

Fearful, but not angry, expressions diffuse attention to peripheral targets in an attentional blink paradigm.

PubMed

Taylor, James M; Whalen, Paul J

2014-06-01

We previously demonstrated that fearful facial expressions implicitly facilitate memory for contextual events whereas angry facial expressions do not. The current study sought to more directly address the implicit effect of fearful expressions on attention for contextual events within a classic attentional paradigm (i.e., the attentional blink) in which memory is tested on a trial-by-trial basis, thereby providing subjects with a clear, explicit attentional strategy. Neutral faces of a single gender were presented via rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) while bordered by four gray pound signs. Participants were told to watch for a gender change within the sequence (T1). It is critical to note that the T1 face displayed a neutral, fearful, or angry expression. Subjects were then told to detect a color change (i.e., gray to green; T2) at one of the four peripheral pound sign locations appearing after T1. This T2 color change could appear at one of six temporal positions. Complementing previous attentional blink paradigms, participants were told to respond via button press immediately when a T2 target was detected. We found that, compared with the neutral T1 faces, fearful faces significantly increased target detection ability at four of the six temporal locations (all ps < .05) whereas angry expressions did not. The results of this study demonstrate that fearful facial expressions can uniquely and implicitly enhance environmental monitoring above and beyond explicit attentional effects related to task instructions.

Contextual Change After Fear Acquisition Affects Conditioned Responding and the Time Course of Extinction Learning-Implications for Renewal Research.

PubMed

Sjouwerman, Rachel; Niehaus, Johanna; Lonsdorf, Tina B

2015-01-01

Context plays a central role in retrieving (fear) memories. Accordingly, context manipulations are inherent to most return of fear (ROF) paradigms (in particular renewal), involving contextual changes after fear extinction. Context changes are, however, also often embedded during earlier stages of ROF experiments such as context changes between fear acquisition and extinction (e.g., in ABC and ABA renewal). Previous studies using these paradigms have however focused exclusively on the context switch after extinction (i.e., renewal). Thus, the possibility of a general effect of context switch on conditioned responding that may not be conditional to preceding extinction learning remains unstudied. Hence, the current study investigated the impact of a context switch between fear acquisition and extinction on immediate conditioned responding and on the time-course of extinction learning by using a multimodal approach. A group that underwent contextual change after fear conditioning (AB; n = 36) was compared with a group without a contextual change from acquisition to extinction (AA; n = 149), while measuring physiological (skin conductance and fear potentiated startle) measures and subjective fear ratings. Contextual change between fear acquisition and extinction had a pronounced effect on both immediate conditioned responding and on the time course of extinction learning in skin conductance responses and subjective fear ratings. This may have important implications for the mechanisms underlying and the interpretation of the renewal effect (i.e., contextual switch after extinction). Consequently, future studies should incorporate designs and statistical tests that disentangle general effects of contextual change from genuine ROF effects.

Ecological theories of systems and contextual change in medical education.

PubMed

Ellaway, Rachel H; Bates, Joanna; Teunissen, Pim W

2017-12-01

Contemporary medical practice is subject to many kinds of change, to which both individuals and systems have to respond and adapt. Many medical education programmes have their learners rotating through different training contexts, which means that they too must learn to adapt to contextual change. Contextual change presents many challenges to medical education scholars and practitioners, not least because of a somewhat fractured and contested theoretical basis for responding to these challenges. There is a need for robust concepts to articulate and connect the various debates on contextual change in medical education. Ecological theories of systems encompass a range of concepts of how and why systems change and how and why they respond to change. The use of these concepts has the potential to help medical education scholars explore the nature of change and understand the role it plays in affording as well as limiting teaching and learning. This paper, aimed at health professional education scholars and policy makers, explores a number of key concepts from ecological theories of systems to present a comprehensive model of contextual change in medical education to inform theory and practice in all areas of medical education. The paper considers a range of concepts drawn from ecological theories of systems, including biotic and abiotic factors, panarchy, attractors and repellers, basins of attraction, homeostasis, resilience, adaptability, transformability and hysteresis. Each concept is grounded in practical examples from medical education. Ecological theories of systems consider change and response in terms of adaptive cycles functioning at different scales and speeds. This can afford opportunities for systematic consideration of responses to contextual change in medical education, which in turn can inform the design of education programmes, activities, evaluations, assessments and research that accommodates the dynamics and consequences of contextual change. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

System and method for automated object detection in an image

DOEpatents

Kenyon, Garrett T.; Brumby, Steven P.; George, John S.; Paiton, Dylan M.; Schultz, Peter F.

2015-10-06

A contour/shape detection model may use relatively simple and efficient kernels to detect target edges in an object within an image or video. A co-occurrence probability may be calculated for two or more edge features in an image or video using an object definition. Edge features may be differentiated between in response to measured contextual support, and prominent edge features may be extracted based on the measured contextual support. The object may then be identified based on the extracted prominent edge features.

Compressive Information Extraction: A Dynamical Systems Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-24

sparsely encoded in very large data streams. (a) Target tracking in an urban canyon; (b) and (c) sample frames showing contextually abnormal events: onset...extraction to identify contextually abnormal se- quences (see section 2.2.3). Formally, the problem of interest can be stated as establishing whether a noisy...relaxations with optimality guarantees can be obtained using tools from semi-algebraic geometry. 2.2 Application: Detecting Contextually Abnormal Events

Ground Penetrating Radar as a Contextual Sensor for Multi-Sensor Radiological Characterisation

PubMed Central

Ukaegbu, Ikechukwu K.; Gamage, Kelum A. A.

2017-01-01

Radioactive sources exist in environments or contexts that influence how they are detected and localised. For instance, the context of a moving source is different from a stationary source because of the effects of motion. The need to incorporate this contextual information in the radiation detection and localisation process has necessitated the integration of radiological and contextual sensors. The benefits of the successful integration of both types of sensors is well known and widely reported in fields such as medical imaging. However, the integration of both types of sensors has also led to innovative solutions to challenges in characterising radioactive sources in non-medical applications. This paper presents a review of such recent applications. It also identifies that these applications mostly use visual sensors as contextual sensors for characterising radiation sources. However, visual sensors cannot retrieve contextual information about radioactive wastes located in opaque environments encountered at nuclear sites, e.g., underground contamination. Consequently, this paper also examines ground-penetrating radar (GPR) as a contextual sensor for characterising this category of wastes and proposes several ways of integrating data from GPR and radiological sensors. Finally, it demonstrates combined GPR and radiation imaging for three-dimensional localisation of contamination in underground pipes using radiation transport and GPR simulations. PMID:28387706

Change detection in urban and rural driving scenes: Effects of target type and safety relevance on change blindness.

PubMed

Beanland, Vanessa; Filtness, Ashleigh J; Jeans, Rhiannon

2017-03-01

The ability to detect changes is crucial for safe driving. Previous research has demonstrated that drivers often experience change blindness, which refers to failed or delayed change detection. The current study explored how susceptibility to change blindness varies as a function of the driving environment, type of object changed, and safety relevance of the change. Twenty-six fully-licenced drivers completed a driving-related change detection task. Changes occurred to seven target objects (road signs, cars, motorcycles, traffic lights, pedestrians, animals, or roadside trees) across two environments (urban or rural). The contextual safety relevance of the change was systematically manipulated within each object category, ranging from high safety relevance (i.e., requiring a response by the driver) to low safety relevance (i.e., requiring no response). When viewing rural scenes, compared with urban scenes, participants were significantly faster and more accurate at detecting changes, and were less susceptible to "looked-but-failed-to-see" errors. Interestingly, safety relevance of the change differentially affected performance in urban and rural environments. In urban scenes, participants were more efficient at detecting changes with higher safety relevance, whereas in rural scenes the effect of safety relevance has marginal to no effect on change detection. Finally, even after accounting for safety relevance, change blindness varied significantly between target types. Overall the results suggest that drivers are less susceptible to change blindness for objects that are likely to change or move (e.g., traffic lights vs. road signs), and for moving objects that pose greater danger (e.g., wild animals vs. pedestrians). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Object-based implicit learning in visual search: perceptual segmentation constrains contextual cueing.

PubMed

Conci, Markus; Müller, Hermann J; von Mühlenen, Adrian

2013-07-09

In visual search, detection of a target is faster when it is presented within a spatial layout of repeatedly encountered nontarget items, indicating that contextual invariances can guide selective attention (contextual cueing; Chun & Jiang, 1998). However, perceptual regularities may interfere with contextual learning; for instance, no contextual facilitation occurs when four nontargets form a square-shaped grouping, even though the square location predicts the target location (Conci & von Mühlenen, 2009). Here, we further investigated potential causes for this interference-effect: We show that contextual cueing can reliably occur for targets located within the region of a segmented object, but not for targets presented outside of the object's boundaries. Four experiments demonstrate an object-based facilitation in contextual cueing, with a modulation of context-based learning by relatively subtle grouping cues including closure, symmetry, and spatial regularity. Moreover, the lack of contextual cueing for targets located outside the segmented region was due to an absence of (latent) learning of contextual layouts, rather than due to an attentional bias towards the grouped region. Taken together, these results indicate that perceptual segmentation provides a basic structure within which contextual scene regularities are acquired. This in turn argues that contextual learning is constrained by object-based selection.

Negotiating Academic Teacher Identity Shifts during Higher Education Contextual Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNaughton, Susan Maree; Billot, Jennie

2016-01-01

Higher education teachers' roles and identities are constantly shifting in response to contextual change. Pedagogy, values, and professional and personal narratives of self are all affected, particularly by technological change. This paper explores the role and identity shifts of academics during the introduction of large-class videoconferencing.…

Cross-cultural adjustment to the United States: the role of contextualized extraversion change

PubMed Central

Liu, Mengqiao; Huang, Jason L.

2015-01-01

Personality traits can predict how well-sojourners and expatriates adjust to new cultures, but the adjustment process remains largely unexamined. Based on recent findings that reveal personality traits predict as well as respond to life events and experiences, this research focuses on within-person change in contextualized extraversion and its predictive validity for cross-cultural adjustment in international students who newly arrived in US colleges. We proposed that the initial level as well as the rate of change in school extraversion (i.e., contextualized extraversion that reflects behavioral tendency in school settings) will predict cross-cultural adjustment, withdrawal cognitions, and school satisfaction. Latent growth modeling of three-wave longitudinal surveys of 215 new international students (54% female, Mage = 24 years) revealed that the initial level of school extraversion significantly predicted cross-cultural adjustment, (lower) withdrawal cognitions, and satisfaction, while the rate of change (increase) in school extraversion predicted cross-cultural adjustment and (lower) withdrawal cognitions. We further modeled global extraversion and cross-cultural motivation as antecedents and explored within-person change in school extraversion as a proximal factor that affects adjustment outcomes. The findings highlight the malleability of contextualized personality, and more importantly, the importance of understanding within-person change in contextualized personality in a cross-cultural adjustment context. The study points to more research that explicate the process of personality change in other contexts. PMID:26579033

Cross-cultural adjustment to the United States: the role of contextualized extraversion change.

PubMed

Liu, Mengqiao; Huang, Jason L

2015-01-01

Personality traits can predict how well-sojourners and expatriates adjust to new cultures, but the adjustment process remains largely unexamined. Based on recent findings that reveal personality traits predict as well as respond to life events and experiences, this research focuses on within-person change in contextualized extraversion and its predictive validity for cross-cultural adjustment in international students who newly arrived in US colleges. We proposed that the initial level as well as the rate of change in school extraversion (i.e., contextualized extraversion that reflects behavioral tendency in school settings) will predict cross-cultural adjustment, withdrawal cognitions, and school satisfaction. Latent growth modeling of three-wave longitudinal surveys of 215 new international students (54% female, M age = 24 years) revealed that the initial level of school extraversion significantly predicted cross-cultural adjustment, (lower) withdrawal cognitions, and satisfaction, while the rate of change (increase) in school extraversion predicted cross-cultural adjustment and (lower) withdrawal cognitions. We further modeled global extraversion and cross-cultural motivation as antecedents and explored within-person change in school extraversion as a proximal factor that affects adjustment outcomes. The findings highlight the malleability of contextualized personality, and more importantly, the importance of understanding within-person change in contextualized personality in a cross-cultural adjustment context. The study points to more research that explicate the process of personality change in other contexts.

A neuronal network model for context-dependence of pitch change perception.

PubMed

Huang, Chengcheng; Englitz, Bernhard; Shamma, Shihab; Rinzel, John

2015-01-01

Many natural stimuli have perceptual ambiguities that can be cognitively resolved by the surrounding context. In audition, preceding context can bias the perception of speech and non-speech stimuli. Here, we develop a neuronal network model that can account for how context affects the perception of pitch change between a pair of successive complex tones. We focus especially on an ambiguous comparison-listeners experience opposite percepts (either ascending or descending) for an ambiguous tone pair depending on the spectral location of preceding context tones. We developed a recurrent, firing-rate network model, which detects frequency-change-direction of successively played stimuli and successfully accounts for the context-dependent perception demonstrated in behavioral experiments. The model consists of two tonotopically organized, excitatory populations, E up and E down, that respond preferentially to ascending or descending stimuli in pitch, respectively. These preferences are generated by an inhibitory population that provides inhibition asymmetric in frequency to the two populations; context dependence arises from slow facilitation of inhibition. We show that contextual influence depends on the spectral distribution of preceding tones and the tuning width of inhibitory neurons. Further, we demonstrate, using phase-space analysis, how the facilitated inhibition from previous stimuli and the waning inhibition from the just-preceding tone shape the competition between the E up and E down populations. In sum, our model accounts for contextual influences on the pitch change perception of an ambiguous tone pair by introducing a novel decoding strategy based on direction-selective units. The model's network architecture and slow facilitating inhibition emerge as predictions of neuronal mechanisms for these perceptual dynamics. Since the model structure does not depend on the specific stimuli, we show that it generalizes to other contextual effects and stimulus types.

Two (or three) is one too many: testing the flexibility of contextual cueing with multiple target locations.

PubMed

Zellin, Martina; Conci, Markus; von Mühlenen, Adrian; Müller, Hermann J

2011-10-01

Visual search for a target object is facilitated when the object is repeatedly presented within an invariant context of surrounding items ("contextual cueing"; Chun & Jiang, Cognitive Psychology, 36, 28-71, 1998). The present study investigated whether such invariant contexts can cue more than one target location. In a series of three experiments, we showed that contextual cueing is significantly reduced when invariant contexts are paired with two rather than one possible target location, whereas no contextual cueing occurs with three distinct target locations. Closer data inspection revealed that one "dominant" target always exhibited substantially more contextual cueing than did the other, "minor" target(s), which caused negative contextual-cueing effects. However, minor targets could benefit from the invariant context when they were spatially close to the dominant target. In sum, our experiments suggest that contextual cueing can guide visual attention to a spatially limited region of the display, only enhancing the detection of targets presented inside that region.

Sociodemographic and social contextual predictors of multiple health behavior change: data from the Healthy Directions-Small Business study.

PubMed

Harley, Amy E; Sapp, Amy L; Li, Yi; Marino, Miguel; Quintiliani, Lisa M; Sorensen, Glorian

2013-03-01

Multiple modifiable health behaviors contribute to the chronic diseases that are the leading causes of death in the USA. Disparities for meeting recommended health behavior guidelines exist across occupational classes and socioeconomic levels. The purpose of this paper was to investigate sociodemographic and social contextual predictors of multiple health behavior change in a worksite intervention. We analyzed data on four diet and exercise variables from an intervention trial with worksite-level randomization. Eight hundred forty-one employees had complete data from baseline (response rate = 84 %) and follow-up surveys (response rate = 77 %). Multilevel logistic regression estimated associations between least absolute shrinkage and selection operator-selected sociodemographic and social contextual predictor variables and the multiple health behavior change outcome (changing 2+ versus 0 behaviors). Gender, being married/partnered, and perceived discrimination were significantly associated with multiple health behavior change. Sociodemographic and social contextual factors predict multiple health behavior change and could inform the design and delivery of worksite interventions targeting multiple health behaviors.

Applying a Comprehensive Contextual Climate Change Vulnerability Framework to New Zealand's Tourism Industry.

PubMed

Hopkins, Debbie

2015-03-01

Conceptualisations of 'vulnerability' vary amongst scholarly communities, contributing to a wide variety of applications. Research investigating vulnerability to climate change has often excluded non-climatic changes which may contribute to degrees of vulnerability perceived or experienced. This paper introduces a comprehensive contextual vulnerability framework which incorporates physical, social, economic and political factors which could amplify or reduce vulnerability. The framework is applied to New Zealand's tourism industry to explore its value in interpreting a complex, human-natural environment system with multiple competing vulnerabilities. The comprehensive contextual framework can inform government policy and industry decision making, integrating understandings of climate change within the broader context of internal and external social, physical, economic, and institutional stressors.

Integration and segregation in auditory scene analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sussman, Elyse S.

2005-03-01

Assessment of the neural correlates of auditory scene analysis, using an index of sound change detection that does not require the listener to attend to the sounds [a component of event-related brain potentials called the mismatch negativity (MMN)], has previously demonstrated that segregation processes can occur without attention focused on the sounds and that within-stream contextual factors influence how sound elements are integrated and represented in auditory memory. The current study investigated the relationship between the segregation and integration processes when they were called upon to function together. The pattern of MMN results showed that the integration of sound elements within a sound stream occurred after the segregation of sounds into independent streams and, further, that the individual streams were subject to contextual effects. These results are consistent with a view of auditory processing that suggests that the auditory scene is rapidly organized into distinct streams and the integration of sequential elements to perceptual units takes place on the already formed streams. This would allow for the flexibility required to identify changing within-stream sound patterns, needed to appreciate music or comprehend speech..

Contextual cueing of pop-out visual search: when context guides the deployment of attention.

PubMed

Geyer, Thomas; Zehetleitner, Michael; Müller, Hermann J

2010-05-01

Visual context information can guide attention in demanding (i.e., inefficient) search tasks. When participants are repeatedly presented with identically arranged ('repeated') displays, reaction times are faster relative to newly composed ('non-repeated') displays. The present article examines whether this 'contextual cueing' effect operates also in simple (i.e., efficient) search tasks and if so, whether there it influences target, rather than response, selection. The results were that singleton-feature targets were detected faster when the search items were presented in repeated, rather than non-repeated, arrangements. Importantly, repeated, relative to novel, displays also led to an increase in signal detection accuracy. Thus, contextual cueing can expedite the selection of pop-out targets, most likely by enhancing feature contrast signals at the overall-salience computation stage.

The Duration of Nicotine Withdrawal-Associated Deficits in Contextual Fear Conditioning Parallels Changes in Hippocampal High Affinity Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Upregulation

PubMed Central

Gould, Thomas J.; Portugal, George S.; André, Jessica M.; Tadman, Matthew P.; Marks, Michael J.; Kenney, Justin W.; Yildirim, Emre; Adoff, Michael

2012-01-01

A predominant symptom of nicotine withdrawal is cognitive deficits, yet understanding of the neural basis for these deficits is limited. Withdrawal from chronic nicotine disrupts contextual learning in mice and this deficit is mediated by direct effects of nicotine in the hippocampus. Chronic nicotine treatment upregulates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR); however, it is unknown whether upregulation is related to the observed withdawal-induced cognitive deficits. If a relationship between altered learning and nAChR levels exists, changes in nAChR levels after cessation of nicotine treatment should match the duration of learning deficits. To test this hypothesis, mice were chronically administered 6.3 mg/kg/day (freebase) nicotine for 12 days and trained in contextual fear conditioning on day 11 or between 1 to 16 days after withdrawal of treatment. Changes in [125I]-epibatidine binding at cytisine-sensitive and cytisine-resistant nAChRs and chronic nicotine-related changes in α4, α7, and β2 nAChR subunit mRNA expression were assessed. Chronic nicotine had no behavioral effect but withdrawal produced deficits in contextual fear conditioning that lasted 4 days. Nicotine withdrawal did not disrupt cued fear conditioning. Chronic nicotine upregulated hippocampal cytisine-sensitive nAChR binding; upregulation continued after cessation of nicotine administration and the duration of upregulation during withdrawal paralleled the duration of behavioral changes. Changes in binding in cortex and cerebellum did not match behavioral changes. No changes in α4, α7, and β2 subunit mRNA expression were seen with chronic nicotine. Thus, nicotine withdrawal-related deficits in contextual learning are time-limited changes that are associated with temporal changes in upregulation of high-affinity nAChR binding. PMID:22285742

School Contextual Experiences and Longitudinal Changes in Depressive Symptoms from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wickrama, Thulitha; Vazsonyi, Alexander T.

2011-01-01

The current study examined the direct and multiplicative influences by adolescent school context experiences (disengagement and maltreatment) and contextual characteristics (school minority concentration and school aggregated family poverty) on changes in depressive symptoms from adolescence to young adulthood. Adolescent experiences with…

Beyond scene gist: Objects guide search more than scene background.

PubMed

Koehler, Kathryn; Eckstein, Miguel P

2017-06-01

Although the facilitation of visual search by contextual information is well established, there is little understanding of the independent contributions of different types of contextual cues in scenes. Here we manipulated 3 types of contextual information: object co-occurrence, multiple object configurations, and background category. We isolated the benefits of each contextual cue to target detectability, its impact on decision bias, confidence, and the guidance of eye movements. We find that object-based information guides eye movements and facilitates perceptual judgments more than scene background. The degree of guidance and facilitation of each contextual cue can be related to its inherent informativeness about the target spatial location as measured by human explicit judgments about likely target locations. Our results improve the understanding of the contributions of distinct contextual scene components to search and suggest that the brain's utilization of cues to guide eye movements is linked to the cue's informativeness about the target's location. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Guidance of attention to objects and locations by long-term memory of natural scenes.

PubMed

Becker, Mark W; Rasmussen, Ian P

2008-11-01

Four flicker change-detection experiments demonstrate that scene-specific long-term memory guides attention to both behaviorally relevant locations and objects within a familiar scene. Participants performed an initial block of change-detection trials, detecting the addition of an object to a natural scene. After a 30-min delay, participants performed an unanticipated 2nd block of trials. When the same scene occurred in the 2nd block, the change within the scene was (a) identical to the original change, (b) a new object appearing in the original change location, (c) the same object appearing in a new location, or (d) a new object appearing in a new location. Results suggest that attention is rapidly allocated to previously relevant locations and then to previously relevant objects. This pattern of locations dominating objects remained when object identity information was made more salient. Eye tracking verified that scene memory results in more direct scan paths to previously relevant locations and objects. This contextual guidance suggests that a high-capacity long-term memory for scenes is used to insure that limited attentional capacity is allocated efficiently rather than being squandered.

Striatal and midbrain connectivity with the hippocampus selectively boosts memory for contextual novelty

PubMed Central

Kafkas, Alexandros; Montaldi, Daniela

2015-01-01

The role of contextual expectation in processing familiar and novel stimuli was investigated in a series of experiments combining eye tracking, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and behavioral methods. An experimental paradigm emphasizing either familiarity or novelty detection at retrieval was used. The detection of unexpected familiar and novel stimuli, which were characterized by lower probability, engaged activity in midbrain and striatal structures. Specifically, detecting unexpected novel stimuli, relative to expected novel stimuli, produced greater activity in the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA), whereas the detection of unexpected familiar, relative to expected, familiar stimuli, elicited activity in the striatum/globus pallidus (GP). An effective connectivity analysis showed greater functional coupling between these two seed areas (GP and SN/VTA) and the hippocampus, for unexpected than for expected stimuli. Within this network of midbrain/striatal–hippocampal interactions two pathways are apparent; the direct SN–hippocampal pathway sensitive to unexpected novelty and the perirhinal–GP–hippocampal pathway sensitive to unexpected familiarity. In addition, increased eye fixations and pupil dilations also accompanied the detection of unexpected relative to expected familiar and novel stimuli, reflecting autonomic activity triggered by the functioning of these two pathways. Finally, subsequent memory for unexpected, relative to expected, familiar, and novel stimuli was characterized by enhanced recollection, but not familiarity, accuracy. Taken together, these findings suggest that a hippocampal–midbrain network, characterized by two distinct pathways, mediates encoding facilitation and most critically, that this facilitation is driven by contextual novelty, rather than by the absolute novelty of a stimulus. This contextually sensitive neural mechanism appears to elicit increased exploratory behavior, leading subsequently to greater recollection of the unexpected stimulus. © 2015 The Authors Hippocampus Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:25708843

The effect of contextual cues on the encoding of motor memories.

PubMed

Howard, Ian S; Wolpert, Daniel M; Franklin, David W

2013-05-01

Several studies have shown that sensory contextual cues can reduce the interference observed during learning of opposing force fields. However, because each study examined a small set of cues, often in a unique paradigm, the relative efficacy of different sensory contextual cues is unclear. In the present study we quantify how seven contextual cues, some investigated previously and some novel, affect the formation and recall of motor memories. Subjects made movements in a velocity-dependent curl field, with direction varying randomly from trial to trial but always associated with a unique contextual cue. Linking field direction to the cursor or background color, or to peripheral visual motion cues, did not reduce interference. In contrast, the orientation of a visual object attached to the hand cursor significantly reduced interference, albeit by a small amount. When the fields were associated with movement in different locations in the workspace, a substantial reduction in interference was observed. We tested whether this reduction in interference was due to the different locations of the visual feedback (targets and cursor) or the movements (proprioceptive). When the fields were associated only with changes in visual display location (movements always made centrally) or only with changes in the movement location (visual feedback always displayed centrally), a substantial reduction in interference was observed. These results show that although some visual cues can lead to the formation and recall of distinct representations in motor memory, changes in spatial visual and proprioceptive states of the movement are far more effective than changes in simple visual contextual cues.

Preserved memory-based orienting of attention with impaired explicit memory in healthy ageing

PubMed Central

Salvato, Gerardo; Patai, Eva Z.; Nobre, Anna C.

2016-01-01

It is increasingly recognised that spatial contextual long-term memory (LTM) prepares neural activity for guiding visuo-spatial attention in a proactive manner. In the current study, we investigated whether the decline in explicit memory observed in healthy ageing would compromise this mechanism. We compared the behavioural performance of younger and older participants on learning new contextual memories, on orienting visual attention based on these learnt contextual associations, and on explicit recall of contextual memories. We found a striking dissociation between older versus younger participants in the relationship between the ability to retrieve contextual memories versus the ability to use these to guide attention to enhance performance on a target-detection task. Older participants showed significant deficits in the explicit retrieval task, but their behavioural benefits from memory-based orienting of attention were equivalent to those in young participants. Furthermore, memory-based orienting correlated significantly with explicit contextual LTM in younger adults but not in older adults. These results suggest that explicit memory deficits in ageing might not compromise initial perception and encoding of events. Importantly, the results also shed light on the mechanisms of memory-guided attention, suggesting that explicit contextual memories are not necessary. PMID:26649914

RadMAP: The Radiological Multi-sensor Analysis Platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bandstra, Mark S.; Aucott, Timothy J.; Brubaker, Erik; Chivers, Daniel H.; Cooper, Reynold J.; Curtis, Joseph C.; Davis, John R.; Joshi, Tenzing H.; Kua, John; Meyer, Ross; Negut, Victor; Quinlan, Michael; Quiter, Brian J.; Srinivasan, Shreyas; Zakhor, Avideh; Zhang, Richard; Vetter, Kai

2016-12-01

The variability of gamma-ray and neutron background during the operation of a mobile detector system greatly limits the ability of the system to detect weak radiological and nuclear threats. The natural radiation background measured by a mobile detector system is the result of many factors, including the radioactivity of nearby materials, the geometric configuration of those materials and the system, the presence of absorbing materials, and atmospheric conditions. Background variations tend to be highly non-Poissonian, making it difficult to set robust detection thresholds using knowledge of the mean background rate alone. The Radiological Multi-sensor Analysis Platform (RadMAP) system is designed to allow the systematic study of natural radiological background variations and to serve as a development platform for emerging concepts in mobile radiation detection and imaging. To do this, RadMAP has been used to acquire extensive, systematic background measurements and correlated contextual data that can be used to test algorithms and detector modalities at low false alarm rates. By combining gamma-ray and neutron detector systems with data from contextual sensors, the system enables the fusion of data from multiple sensors into novel data products. The data are curated in a common format that allows for rapid querying across all sensors, creating detailed multi-sensor datasets that are used to study correlations between radiological and contextual data, and develop and test novel techniques in mobile detection and imaging. In this paper we will describe the instruments that comprise the RadMAP system, the effort to curate and provide access to multi-sensor data, and some initial results on the fusion of contextual and radiological data.

Contextual fear conditioning depresses infralimbic excitability.

PubMed

Soler-Cedeño, Omar; Cruz, Emmanuel; Criado-Marrero, Marangelie; Porter, James T

2016-04-01

Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) show hypo-active ventromedial prefrontal cortices (vmPFC) that correlate with their impaired ability to discriminate between safe and dangerous contexts and cues. Previously, we found that auditory fear conditioning depresses the excitability of neurons populating the homologous structure in rodents, the infralimbic cortex (IL). However, it is undetermined if IL depression was mediated by the cued or contextual information. The objective of this study was to examine whether contextual information was sufficient to depress IL neuronal excitability. After exposing rats to context-alone, pseudoconditioning, or contextual fear conditioning, we used whole-cell current-clamp recordings to examine the excitability of IL neurons in prefrontal brain slices. We found that contextual fear conditioning reduced IL neuronal firing in response to depolarizing current steps. In addition, neurons from contextual fear conditioned animals showed increased slow afterhyperpolarization potentials (sAHPs). Moreover, the observed changes in IL excitability correlated with contextual fear expression, suggesting that IL depression may contribute to the encoding of contextual fear. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Contextual Fire Detection Algorithm for Simulated HJ-1B Imagery.

PubMed

Qian, Yonggang; Yan, Guangjian; Duan, Sibo; Kong, Xiangsheng

2009-01-01

The HJ-1B satellite, which was launched on September 6, 2008, is one of the small ones placed in the constellation for disaster prediction and monitoring. HJ-1B imagery was simulated in this paper, which contains fires of various sizes and temperatures in a wide range of terrestrial biomes and climates, including RED, NIR, MIR and TIR channels. Based on the MODIS version 4 contextual algorithm and the characteristics of HJ-1B sensor, a contextual fire detection algorithm was proposed and tested using simulated HJ-1B data. It was evaluated by the probability of fire detection and false alarm as functions of fire temperature and fire area. Results indicate that when the simulated fire area is larger than 45 m(2) and the simulated fire temperature is larger than 800 K, the algorithm has a higher probability of detection. But if the simulated fire area is smaller than 10 m(2), only when the simulated fire temperature is larger than 900 K, may the fire be detected. For fire areas about 100 m(2), the proposed algorithm has a higher detection probability than that of the MODIS product. Finally, the omission and commission error were evaluated which are important factors to affect the performance of this algorithm. It has been demonstrated that HJ-1B satellite data are much sensitive to smaller and cooler fires than MODIS or AVHRR data and the improved capabilities of HJ-1B data will offer a fine opportunity for the fire detection.

Threat captures attention but does not affect learning of contextual regularities.

PubMed

Yamaguchi, Motonori; Harwood, Sarah L

2017-04-01

Some of the stimulus features that guide visual attention are abstract properties of objects such as potential threat to one's survival, whereas others are complex configurations such as visual contexts that are learned through past experiences. The present study investigated the two functions that guide visual attention, threat detection and learning of contextual regularities, in visual search. Search arrays contained images of threat and non-threat objects, and their locations were fixed on some trials but random on other trials. Although they were irrelevant to the visual search task, threat objects facilitated attention capture and impaired attention disengagement. Search time improved for fixed configurations more than for random configurations, reflecting learning of visual contexts. Nevertheless, threat detection had little influence on learning of the contextual regularities. The results suggest that factors guiding visual attention are different from factors that influence learning to guide visual attention.

Facilitating Lewin's change model with collaborative evaluation in promoting evidence based practices of health professionals.

PubMed

Manchester, Julianne; Gray-Miceli, Deanna L; Metcalf, Judith A; Paolini, Charlotte A; Napier, Anne H; Coogle, Constance L; Owens, Myra G

2014-12-01

Evidence based practices (EBPs) in clinical settings interact with and adapt to host organizational characteristics. The contextual factors themselves, surrounding health professions' practices, also adapt as practices become sustained. The authors assert the need for better planning models toward these contextual factors, the influence of which undergird a well-documented science to practice gap in literature on EBPs. The mechanism for EBP planners to anticipate contextual effects as programs Unfreeze their host settings, create Movement, and become Refrozen (Lewin, 1951) is present in Lewin's 3-step change model. Planning for contextual change appears equally important as planning for the actual practice outcomes among providers and patients. Two case studies from a Geriatric Education Center network will illustrate the synthesis of Lewin's three steps with collaborative evaluation principles. The use of the model may become an important tool for continuing education evaluators or organizations beginning a journey toward EBP demonstration projects in clinical settings. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Promoting Positive Youth Development in the Face of Contextual Changes and Challenges: The Roles of Individual Strengths and Ecological Assets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lerner, Richard M.; Bowers, Edmond P.; Geldhof, G. John; Gestsdottir, Steinunn; DeSouza, Lisette

2012-01-01

Contemporary developmental theory is framed by relational developmental systems models that emphasize that change across life occurs through mutually regulative relations between individuals and their contexts (represented as individual [left arrow][right arrow] context relations). Within these models, all contextual levels are involved in these…

Hippocampus-based contextual memory alters the morphological characteristics of astrocytes in the dentate gyrus.

PubMed

Choi, Moonseok; Ahn, Sangzin; Yang, Eun-Jeong; Kim, Hyunju; Chong, Young Hae; Kim, Hye-Sun

2016-07-26

Astrocytes have been reported to exist in two states, the resting and the reactive states. Morphological changes in the reactive state of astrocytes include an increase in thickness and number of processes, and an increase in the size of the cell body. Molecular changes also occur, such as an increase in the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). However, the morphological and molecular changes during the process of learning and memory have not been elucidated. In the current study, we subjected Fvb/n mice to contextual fear conditioning, and checked for morphological and molecular changes in astrocytes. 1 h after fear conditioning, type II and type III astrocytes exhibited a unique status with an increased number of processes and decreased GFAP expression which differed from the typical resting or reactive state. In addition, the protein level of excitatory excitatory amino acid transporter 2 (EAAT2) was increased 1 h to 24 h after contextual fear conditioning while EAAT1 did not show any alterations. Connexin 43 (Cx43) protein was found to be increased at 24 h after fear conditioning. These data suggest that hippocampus-based contextual memory process induces changes in the status of astrocytes towards a novel status different from typical resting or reactive states. These morphological and molecular changes may be in line with functional changes.

ViCoMo: visual context modeling for scene understanding in video surveillance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Creusen, Ivo M.; Javanbakhti, Solmaz; Loomans, Marijn J. H.; Hazelhoff, Lykele B.; Roubtsova, Nadejda; Zinger, Svitlana; de With, Peter H. N.

2013-10-01

The use of contextual information can significantly aid scene understanding of surveillance video. Just detecting people and tracking them does not provide sufficient information to detect situations that require operator attention. We propose a proof-of-concept system that uses several sources of contextual information to improve scene understanding in surveillance video. The focus is on two scenarios that represent common video surveillance situations, parking lot surveillance and crowd monitoring. In the first scenario, a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera tracking system is developed for parking lot surveillance. Context is provided by the traffic sign recognition system to localize regular and handicapped parking spot signs as well as license plates. The PTZ algorithm has the ability to selectively detect and track persons based on scene context. In the second scenario, a group analysis algorithm is introduced to detect groups of people. Contextual information is provided by traffic sign recognition and region labeling algorithms and exploited for behavior understanding. In both scenarios, decision engines are used to interpret and classify the output of the subsystems and if necessary raise operator alerts. We show that using context information enables the automated analysis of complicated scenarios that were previously not possible using conventional moving object classification techniques.

Preserved memory-based orienting of attention with impaired explicit memory in healthy ageing.

PubMed

Salvato, Gerardo; Patai, Eva Z; Nobre, Anna C

2016-01-01

It is increasingly recognised that spatial contextual long-term memory (LTM) prepares neural activity for guiding visuo-spatial attention in a proactive manner. In the current study, we investigated whether the decline in explicit memory observed in healthy ageing would compromise this mechanism. We compared the behavioural performance of younger and older participants on learning new contextual memories, on orienting visual attention based on these learnt contextual associations, and on explicit recall of contextual memories. We found a striking dissociation between older versus younger participants in the relationship between the ability to retrieve contextual memories versus the ability to use these to guide attention to enhance performance on a target-detection task. Older participants showed significant deficits in the explicit retrieval task, but their behavioural benefits from memory-based orienting of attention were equivalent to those in young participants. Furthermore, memory-based orienting correlated significantly with explicit contextual LTM in younger adults but not in older adults. These results suggest that explicit memory deficits in ageing might not compromise initial perception and encoding of events. Importantly, the results also shed light on the mechanisms of memory-guided attention, suggesting that explicit contextual memories are not necessary. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Developmental trajectory of contextual learning and 24-h acetylcholine release in the hippocampus

PubMed Central

Takase, Kenkichi; Sakimoto, Yuya; Kimura, Fukuko; Mitsushima, Dai

2014-01-01

To determine the developmental trajectory of hippocampal function in rats, we examined 24-h changes in extracellular acetylcholine (ACh) levels and contextual learning performance. Extracellular ACh significantly correlated with spontaneous behavior, exhibiting a 24-h rhythm in juvenile (4-week-old), pubertal (6-week-old), and adult (9- to 12-week-old) rats. Although juveniles of both sexes exhibited low ACh levels, adult males had higher ACh levels than adult females. Moreover, juveniles exhibited much more spontaneous activity than adults when they showed equivalent ACh levels. Similarly, juveniles of both sexes exhibited relatively low contextual learning performance. Because contextual learning performance was significantly increased only in males, adult males exhibited better performance than adult females. We also observed a developmental relationship between contextual learning and ACh levels. Scopolamine pretreatment blocked contextual learning and interrupted the correlation. Since long-term scopolamine treatment after weaning impaired contextual learning in juveniles, the cholinergic input may participate in the development of hippocampus. PMID:24435246

The Time-Course of Ultrarapid Categorization: The Influence of Scene Congruency and Top-Down Processing.

PubMed

Vanmarcke, Steven; Calders, Filip; Wagemans, Johan

2016-01-01

Although categorization can take place at different levels of abstraction, classic studies on semantic labeling identified the basic level, for example, dog, as entry point for categorization. Ultrarapid categorization tasks have contradicted these findings, indicating that participants are faster at detecting superordinate-level information, for example, animal, in a complex visual image. We argue that both seemingly contradictive findings can be reconciled within the framework of parallel distributed processing and its successor Leabra (Local, Error-driven and Associative, Biologically Realistic Algorithm). The current study aimed at verifying this prediction in an ultrarapid categorization task with a dynamically changing presentation time (PT) for each briefly presented object, followed by a perceptual mask. Furthermore, we manipulated two defining task variables: level of categorization (basic vs. superordinate categorization) and object presentation mode (object-in-isolation vs. object-in-context). In contradiction with previous ultrarapid categorization research, focusing on reaction time, we used accuracy as our main dependent variable. Results indicated a consistent superordinate processing advantage, coinciding with an overall improvement in performance with longer PT and a significantly more accurate detection of objects in isolation, compared with objects in context, at lower stimulus PT. This contextual disadvantage disappeared when PT increased, indicating that figure-ground separation with recurrent processing is vital for meaningful contextual processing to occur.

The Time-Course of Ultrarapid Categorization: The Influence of Scene Congruency and Top-Down Processing

PubMed Central

Calders, Filip; Wagemans, Johan

2016-01-01

Although categorization can take place at different levels of abstraction, classic studies on semantic labeling identified the basic level, for example, dog, as entry point for categorization. Ultrarapid categorization tasks have contradicted these findings, indicating that participants are faster at detecting superordinate-level information, for example, animal, in a complex visual image. We argue that both seemingly contradictive findings can be reconciled within the framework of parallel distributed processing and its successor Leabra (Local, Error-driven and Associative, Biologically Realistic Algorithm). The current study aimed at verifying this prediction in an ultrarapid categorization task with a dynamically changing presentation time (PT) for each briefly presented object, followed by a perceptual mask. Furthermore, we manipulated two defining task variables: level of categorization (basic vs. superordinate categorization) and object presentation mode (object-in-isolation vs. object-in-context). In contradiction with previous ultrarapid categorization research, focusing on reaction time, we used accuracy as our main dependent variable. Results indicated a consistent superordinate processing advantage, coinciding with an overall improvement in performance with longer PT and a significantly more accurate detection of objects in isolation, compared with objects in context, at lower stimulus PT. This contextual disadvantage disappeared when PT increased, indicating that figure-ground separation with recurrent processing is vital for meaningful contextual processing to occur. PMID:27803794

Transformations in Kenyan Science Teachers' Locus of Control: The Influence of Contextualized Science and Emancipated Student Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, D.; Nashon, S.; Namazzi, E.; Okemwa, P.; Ombogo, P.; Ooko, S.; Beru, F.

2015-11-01

This study investigated Kenyan science teachers' pedagogical transformations, which manifested as they enacted and experienced a reformed contextualized science curriculum in which students' learning experiences were critical catalysts of teacher change. Twelve high school teachers voluntarily participated in the study and were interviewed about their pedagogical transformations following their enactment of a reformed contextualized science curriculum. The outcomes demonstrated that students' emancipated behaviours, learning and performance, qualitatively influenced teacher change and pedagogical reform. Specifically, changes in students, as a result of the ways the science curriculum was implemented, resulted in epiphanies and dilemmas for teachers who subsequently resolved to surrender their tightly held pedagogical control (locus of control) for the betterment of the learning environment and their sense of professional satisfaction.

A Contextual Fire Detection Algorithm for Simulated HJ-1B Imagery

PubMed Central

Qian, Yonggang; Yan, Guangjian; Duan, Sibo; Kong, Xiangsheng

2009-01-01

The HJ-1B satellite, which was launched on September 6, 2008, is one of the small ones placed in the constellation for disaster prediction and monitoring. HJ-1B imagery was simulated in this paper, which contains fires of various sizes and temperatures in a wide range of terrestrial biomes and climates, including RED, NIR, MIR and TIR channels. Based on the MODIS version 4 contextual algorithm and the characteristics of HJ-1B sensor, a contextual fire detection algorithm was proposed and tested using simulated HJ-1B data. It was evaluated by the probability of fire detection and false alarm as functions of fire temperature and fire area. Results indicate that when the simulated fire area is larger than 45 m2 and the simulated fire temperature is larger than 800 K, the algorithm has a higher probability of detection. But if the simulated fire area is smaller than 10 m2, only when the simulated fire temperature is larger than 900 K, may the fire be detected. For fire areas about 100 m2, the proposed algorithm has a higher detection probability than that of the MODIS product. Finally, the omission and commission error were evaluated which are important factors to affect the performance of this algorithm. It has been demonstrated that HJ-1B satellite data are much sensitive to smaller and cooler fires than MODIS or AVHRR data and the improved capabilities of HJ-1B data will offer a fine opportunity for the fire detection. PMID:22399950

Misleading contextual cues: how do they affect visual search?

PubMed

Manginelli, Angela A; Pollmann, Stefan

2009-03-01

Contextual cueing occurs when repetitions of the distractor configuration are implicitly learned. This implicit learning leads to faster search times in repeated displays. Here, we investigated how search adapts to a change of the target location in old displays from a consistent location in the learning phase to a consistent new location in the transfer phase. In agreement with the literature, contextual cueing was accompanied by fewer fixations, a more efficient scan path and, specifically, an earlier onset of a monotonic gaze approach phase towards the target location in repeated displays. When the repeated context was no longer predictive of the old target location, search times and number of fixations for old displays increased to the level of novel displays. Along with this, scan paths for old and new displays became equally efficient. After the target location change, there was a bias of exploration towards the old target location, which soon disappeared. Thus, change of implicitly learned spatial relations between target and distractor configuration eliminated the advantageous effects of contextual cueing, but did not lead to a lasting impairment of search in repeated displays relative to novel displays.

Object-location training elicits an overlapping but temporally distinct transcriptional profile from contextual fear conditioning.

PubMed

Poplawski, Shane G; Schoch, Hannah; Wimmer, Mathieu; Hawk, Joshua D; Walsh, Jennifer L; Giese, Karl P; Abel, Ted

2014-12-01

Hippocampus-dependent learning is known to induce changes in gene expression, but information on gene expression differences between different learning paradigms that require the hippocampus is limited. The bulk of studies investigating RNA expression after learning use the contextual fear conditioning task, which couples a novel environment with a footshock. Although contextual fear conditioning has been useful in discovering gene targets, gene expression after spatial memory tasks has received less attention. In this study, we used the object-location memory task and studied gene expression at two time points after learning in a high-throughput manner using a microfluidic qPCR approach. We found that expression of the classic immediate-early genes changes after object-location training in a fashion similar to that observed after contextual fear conditioning. However, the temporal dynamics of gene expression are different between the two tasks, with object-location memory producing gene expression changes that last at least 2 hours. Our findings indicate that different training paradigms may give rise to distinct temporal dynamics of gene expression after learning. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Object-Location Training Elicits an Overlapping but Temporally Distinct Transcriptional Profile from Contextual Fear Conditioning

PubMed Central

Wimmer, Mathieu; Hawk, Joshua D.; Walsh, Jennifer L.; Giese, Karl P.; Abel, Ted

2014-01-01

Hippocampus-dependent learning is known to induce changes in gene expression, but information on gene expression differences between different learning paradigms that require the hippocampus is limited. The bulk of studies investigating RNA expression after learning use the contextual fear conditioning task, which couples a novel environment with a footshock. Although contextual fear conditioning has been useful in discovering gene targets, gene expression after spatial memory tasks has received less attention. In this study, we used the object-location memory task and studied gene expression at two time points after learning in a high-throughput manner using a microfluidic qPCR approach. We found that expression of the classic immediate-early genes changes after object-location training in a fashion similar to that observed after contextual fear conditioning. However, the temporal dynamics of gene expression are different between the two tasks, with object-location memory producing gene expression changes that last at least 2 hours. Our findings indicate that different training paradigms may give rise to distinct temporal dynamics of gene expression after learning. PMID:25242102

Reconsolidation and update of morphine-associated contextual memory in mice.

PubMed

Escosteguy-Neto, Joao Carlos; Varela, Patricia; Correa-Neto, Nelson Francisco; Coelho, Laura Segismundo; Onaivi, Emmanuel S; Santos-Junior, Jair Guilherme

2016-04-01

Drug addiction can be viewed as a pathological memory that is constantly retrieved and reconsolidated. Since drug abuse takes place in different contexts, it could be considered that reconsolidation plays a role in memory updating. There is consistent evidence supporting the role of reconsolidation in the strength and maintenance of contextual memories induced by drugs of abuse. However, this role is not well established in memory update. The purpose of the current study was to assess the reconsolidation process over memory update. C57BL6 mice were subjected to a morphine-induced, conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm. Based on CPP results, animals were divided into distinct experimental groups, according to the contextual characteristics of the re-exposure and a second CPP Test. Re-exposure in the original context was important for memory maintenance and re-exposure under discrete contextual changes resulted in memory updating, although original memory was maintained. Interestingly, cycloheximide, an inhibitor of protein synthesis, had different outcomes in our protocol. When the re-exposure was done under discrete contextual changes, cycloheximide treatment just after re-exposure blocked memory updating, without changes in memory maintenance. When re-exposure was done under the original context, only two subsequent cycloheximide injections (3 and 6h) disrupted later CPP expression. Considering the temporal window of protein synthesis in consolidation and reconsolidation, these findings suggest that re-exposure, according to the contextual characteristics in our protocol, could trigger both phenomena. Furthermore, when new information is present on retrieval, reconsolidation plays a pivotal role in memory updating. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contextual knowledge reduces demands on working memory during reading.

PubMed

Miller, Lisa M Soederberg; Cohen, Jason A; Wingfield, Arthur

2006-09-01

An experiment is reported in which young, middle-aged, and older adults read and recalled ambiguous texts either with or without the topic title that supplied contextual knowledge. Within each of the age groups, the participants were divided into those with high or low working memory (WM) spans, with available WM capacity further manipulated by the presence or absence of an auditory target detection task concurrent with the reading task. Differences in reading efficiency (reading time per proposition recalled) between low WM span and high WM span groups were greater among readers who had access to contextual knowledge relative to those who did not, suggesting that contextual knowledge reduces demands on WM capacity. This position was further supported by the finding that increased age and attentional demands, two factors associated with reduced WM capacity, exaggerated the benefits of contextual knowledge on reading efficiency. The relative strengths of additional potential predictors of reading efficiency (e.g., interest, effort, and memory beliefs), along with knowledge, WM span, and age, are reported. Findings showed that contextual knowledge was the strongest predictor of reading efficiency even after controlling for the effects of all of the other predictors.

A bridge over troubled water: A contextual analysis of social vulnerability to climate change in a riverine landscape in south-east Norway

Treesearch

Vegard Gundersen; Bjorn Petter Kaltenborn; Daniel R. Williams

2016-01-01

Local communities in the Gudbrandsdalen region in Norway are increasingly exposed to climateinduced hazards such as floods and landslides. A core question is how community members respond to climate change and what factors contribute to more resilient communities. The authors used a contextual approach to analyze data from semi-structured interviews along five...

A Novel Fiber Optic Based Surveillance System for Prevention of Pipeline Integrity Threats.

PubMed

Tejedor, Javier; Macias-Guarasa, Javier; Martins, Hugo F; Piote, Daniel; Pastor-Graells, Juan; Martin-Lopez, Sonia; Corredera, Pedro; Gonzalez-Herraez, Miguel

2017-02-12

This paper presents a novel surveillance system aimed at the detection and classification of threats in the vicinity of a long gas pipeline. The sensing system is based on phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry ( ϕ -OTDR) technology for signal acquisition and pattern recognition strategies for threat identification. The proposal incorporates contextual information at the feature level and applies a system combination strategy for pattern classification. The contextual information at the feature level is based on the tandem approach (using feature representations produced by discriminatively-trained multi-layer perceptrons) by employing feature vectors that spread different temporal contexts. The system combination strategy is based on a posterior combination of likelihoods computed from different pattern classification processes. The system operates in two different modes: (1) machine + activity identification, which recognizes the activity being carried out by a certain machine, and (2) threat detection, aimed at detecting threats no matter what the real activity being conducted is. In comparison with a previous system based on the same rigorous experimental setup, the results show that the system combination from the contextual feature information improves the results for each individual class in both operational modes, as well as the overall classification accuracy, with statistically-significant improvements.

The interplay of contextual elements in implementation: an ethnographic case study.

PubMed

McCullough, Megan B; Chou, Ann F; Solomon, Jeffrey L; Petrakis, Beth Ann; Kim, Bo; Park, Angela M; Benedict, Ashley J; Hamilton, Alison B; Rose, Adam J

2015-02-14

Contextual elements have significant impact on uptake of health care innovations. While existing conceptual frameworks in implementation science suggest contextual elements interact with each other, little research has described how this might look in practice. To bridge this gap, this study identifies the interconnected patterns among contextual elements that influence uptake of an anticoagulation clinic improvement initiative. We completed 51 semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations across five case study sites involved in an evidence-based practice (EBP) quality improvement initiative. We analyzed data in NVivo 10 using an a priori approach based on the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) model and an emergent thematic analysis. Key contextual elements, such as leadership, teamwork, and communication, interacted with each other in contributing to site-level uptake of the EBP, often yielding results that could not be predicted by looking at just one of these elements alone. Sites with context conducive to change in these areas predictably had high uptake, while sites with uniformly weak contextual elements had low uptake. Most sites presented a mixed picture, with contextual elements being strongly supportive of change in some areas and weak or moderate in others. In some cases, we found that sites with strong context in at least one area only needed to have adequate context in other areas to yield high uptake. At other sites, weak context in just one area had the potential to contribute to low uptake, despite countervailing strengths. Even a site with positive views of EBPs could not succeed when context was weak. Interrelationships among different contextual elements can act as barriers to uptake at some sites and as facilitators at others. Accounting for interconnections among elements enables PARIHS to more fully describe the determinants of successful implementation as they operate in real-world settings.

A Saliency Guided Semi-Supervised Building Change Detection Method for High Resolution Remote Sensing Images

PubMed Central

Hou, Bin; Wang, Yunhong; Liu, Qingjie

2016-01-01

Characterizations of up to date information of the Earth’s surface are an important application providing insights to urban planning, resources monitoring and environmental studies. A large number of change detection (CD) methods have been developed to solve them by utilizing remote sensing (RS) images. The advent of high resolution (HR) remote sensing images further provides challenges to traditional CD methods and opportunities to object-based CD methods. While several kinds of geospatial objects are recognized, this manuscript mainly focuses on buildings. Specifically, we propose a novel automatic approach combining pixel-based strategies with object-based ones for detecting building changes with HR remote sensing images. A multiresolution contextual morphological transformation called extended morphological attribute profiles (EMAPs) allows the extraction of geometrical features related to the structures within the scene at different scales. Pixel-based post-classification is executed on EMAPs using hierarchical fuzzy clustering. Subsequently, the hierarchical fuzzy frequency vector histograms are formed based on the image-objects acquired by simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) segmentation. Then, saliency and morphological building index (MBI) extracted on difference images are used to generate a pseudo training set. Ultimately, object-based semi-supervised classification is implemented on this training set by applying random forest (RF). Most of the important changes are detected by the proposed method in our experiments. This study was checked for effectiveness using visual evaluation and numerical evaluation. PMID:27618903

A Saliency Guided Semi-Supervised Building Change Detection Method for High Resolution Remote Sensing Images.

PubMed

Hou, Bin; Wang, Yunhong; Liu, Qingjie

2016-08-27

Characterizations of up to date information of the Earth's surface are an important application providing insights to urban planning, resources monitoring and environmental studies. A large number of change detection (CD) methods have been developed to solve them by utilizing remote sensing (RS) images. The advent of high resolution (HR) remote sensing images further provides challenges to traditional CD methods and opportunities to object-based CD methods. While several kinds of geospatial objects are recognized, this manuscript mainly focuses on buildings. Specifically, we propose a novel automatic approach combining pixel-based strategies with object-based ones for detecting building changes with HR remote sensing images. A multiresolution contextual morphological transformation called extended morphological attribute profiles (EMAPs) allows the extraction of geometrical features related to the structures within the scene at different scales. Pixel-based post-classification is executed on EMAPs using hierarchical fuzzy clustering. Subsequently, the hierarchical fuzzy frequency vector histograms are formed based on the image-objects acquired by simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) segmentation. Then, saliency and morphological building index (MBI) extracted on difference images are used to generate a pseudo training set. Ultimately, object-based semi-supervised classification is implemented on this training set by applying random forest (RF). Most of the important changes are detected by the proposed method in our experiments. This study was checked for effectiveness using visual evaluation and numerical evaluation.

Facilitating the implementation of evidence- based practice through contextual support and nursing leadership.

PubMed

Kueny, Angela; Shever, Leah L; Lehan Mackin, Melissa; Titler, Marita G

2015-01-01

Nurse managers (NMs) play an important role promoting evidence-based practice (EBP) on clinical units within hospitals. However, there is a dearth of research focused on NM perspectives about institutional contextual factors to support the goal of EBP on the clinical unit. The purpose of this article is to identify contextual factors described by NMs to drive change and facilitate EBP at the unit level, comparing and contrasting these perspectives across nursing units. This study employed a qualitative descriptive design using interviews with nine NMs who were participating in a large effectiveness study. To stratify the sample, NMs were selected from nursing units designated as high or low performing based on implementation of EBP interventions, scores on the Meyer and Goes research use scale, and fall rates. Descriptive content analysis was used to identify themes that reflect the complex nature of infrastructure described by NMs and contextual influences that supported or hindered their promotion of EBP on the clinical unit. NMs perceived workplace culture, structure, and resources as facilitators or barriers to empowering nurses under their supervision to use EBP and drive change. A workplace culture that provides clear communication of EBP goals or regulatory changes, direct contact with CEOs, and clear expectations supported NMs in their promotion of EBP on their units. High-performing unit NMs described a structure that included nursing-specific committees, allowing nurses to drive change and EBP from within the unit. NMs from high-performing units were more likely to articulate internal resources, such as quality-monitoring departments, as critical to the implementation of EBP on their units. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of institutional contextual factors that can be used to support NMs in their efforts to drive EBP changes at the unit level.

The Effect of Contextual Material on Evolution in the Jordanian Secondary-School Curriculum on Students' Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Baz, Theodora; El-Weher, Mahmoud

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to detect the extent to which contextual material of a unit on "The origin and evolution of living organisms" included in the high-school biology curriculum in Jordan affected students' acceptance of the theory of evolution. The participants of this study consisted of 107 tenth-grade students randomly drawn…

Context-Based Intent Understanding for Autonomous Systems in Naval and Collaborative Robot Applications

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-29

COVERED (From - To) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d...based on contextual information, 3) develop vision-based techniques for learning of contextual information, and detection and identification of...that takes into account many possible contexts. The probability distributions of these contexts will be learned from existing databases on common sense

Using the Virtual Reality-Cognitive Rehabilitation Approach to Improve Contextual Processing in Children with Autism

PubMed Central

Reid, Denise

2013-01-01

Background. This pilot study investigated the efficacy of a novel virtual reality-cognitive rehabilitation (VR-CR) intervention to improve contextual processing of objects in children with autism. Previous research supports that children with autism show deficits in contextual processing, as well as deficits in its elementary components: abstraction and cognitive flexibility. Methods. Four children with autism participated in a multiple-baseline, single-subject study. The children were taught how to see objects in context by reinforcing attention to pivotal contextual information. Results. All children demonstrated statistically significant improvements in contextual processing and cognitive flexibility. Mixed results were found on the control test and changes in context-related behaviours. Conclusions. Larger-scale studies are warranted to determine the effectiveness and usability in comprehensive educational programs. PMID:24324379

Multilevel Contextual 3-D CNNs for False Positive Reduction in Pulmonary Nodule Detection.

PubMed

Dou, Qi; Chen, Hao; Yu, Lequan; Qin, Jing; Heng, Pheng-Ann

2017-07-01

False positive reduction is one of the most crucial components in an automated pulmonary nodule detection system, which plays an important role in lung cancer diagnosis and early treatment. The objective of this paper is to effectively address the challenges in this task and therefore to accurately discriminate the true nodules from a large number of candidates. We propose a novel method employing three-dimensional (3-D) convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for false positive reduction in automated pulmonary nodule detection from volumetric computed tomography (CT) scans. Compared with its 2-D counterparts, the 3-D CNNs can encode richer spatial information and extract more representative features via their hierarchical architecture trained with 3-D samples. More importantly, we further propose a simple yet effective strategy to encode multilevel contextual information to meet the challenges coming with the large variations and hard mimics of pulmonary nodules. The proposed framework has been extensively validated in the LUNA16 challenge held in conjunction with ISBI 2016, where we achieved the highest competition performance metric (CPM) score in the false positive reduction track. Experimental results demonstrated the importance and effectiveness of integrating multilevel contextual information into 3-D CNN framework for automated pulmonary nodule detection in volumetric CT data. While our method is tailored for pulmonary nodule detection, the proposed framework is general and can be easily extended to many other 3-D object detection tasks from volumetric medical images, where the targeting objects have large variations and are accompanied by a number of hard mimics.

Prefrontocortical dopamine loss in rats delays long-term extinction of contextual conditioned fear, and reduces social interaction without affecting short-term social interaction memory.

PubMed

Fernandez Espejo, Emilio

2003-03-01

Prefrontal dopamine loss delays extinction of cued fear conditioning responses, but its role in contextual fear conditioning has not been explored. Medial prefrontal lesions also enhance social interaction in rats, but the role of prefrontal dopamine loss on social interaction memory is not known. Besides, a role for subcortical accumbal dopamine on mnesic changes after prefrontal dopamine manipulation has been proposed but not explored. The objective was to study the involvement of dopaminergic neurotransmission in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and nucleus accumbens in two mnesic tasks: contextual fear conditioning and social interaction memory. For contextual fear conditioning, short- and long-term freezing responses after an electric shock were studied, as well as extinction retention. Regarding social interaction memory, the recognition of a juvenile, a very sensitive short-term memory test, was used. Dopamine loss was carried out by injection of 6-hydroxydopamine, and postmortem catecholamine levels were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Prefrontocortical dopamine loss (>76%) led to a reactive enhancement of accumbal dopamine content (p<0.01), supporting the hypothesis that a hyperdopaminergic tone emerges in the nucleus accumbens after prefrontocortical dopamine loss. In lesioned rats, long-term extinction of contextual fear conditioning was significantly delayed and extinction retention was impaired without changes in acquisition and short-term contextual fear conditioning and, on the other hand, acquisition and short-term social interaction memory were not affected, although time spent on social interaction was significantly reduced. Added dopamine loss in the nucleus accumbens (>76%) did not alter these behavioral changes. In summary, the results of the present study indicate that the dopaminergic network in the mPFC (but not in the nucleus accumbens) coordinates the normal long-term extinction of contextual fear conditioning responses without affecting their acquisition, and it is involved in time spent on social interaction, but not acquisition and short-term social interaction memory.

Designing in the Social Context: Using the Social Contextual Model of Health Behavior Change to Develop a Tobacco Control Intervention for Teachers in India

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nagler, Eve M.; Pednekar, Mangesh S.; Viswanath, Kasisomayajula; Sinha, Dhirendra N.; Aghi, Mira B.; Pischke, Claudia R.; Ebbeling, Cara B.; Lando, Harry A.; Gupta, Prakash C.; Sorensen, Glorian C.

2013-01-01

This article provides a theory-based, step-by-step approach to intervention development and illustrates its application in India to design an intervention to promote tobacco-use cessation among school personnel in Bihar. We employed a five-step approach to develop the intervention using the Social Contextual Model of Health Behavior Change (SCM)…

Comparison of Object-Based Image Analysis Approaches to Mapping New Buildings in Accra, Ghana Using Multi-Temporal QuickBird Satellite Imagery

PubMed Central

Tsai, Yu Hsin; Stow, Douglas; Weeks, John

2013-01-01

The goal of this study was to map and quantify the number of newly constructed buildings in Accra, Ghana between 2002 and 2010 based on high spatial resolution satellite image data. Two semi-automated feature detection approaches for detecting and mapping newly constructed buildings based on QuickBird very high spatial resolution satellite imagery were analyzed: (1) post-classification comparison; and (2) bi-temporal layerstack classification. Feature Analyst software based on a spatial contextual classifier and ENVI Feature Extraction that uses a true object-based image analysis approach of image segmentation and segment classification were evaluated. Final map products representing new building objects were compared and assessed for accuracy using two object-based accuracy measures, completeness and correctness. The bi-temporal layerstack method generated more accurate results compared to the post-classification comparison method due to less confusion with background objects. The spectral/spatial contextual approach (Feature Analyst) outperformed the true object-based feature delineation approach (ENVI Feature Extraction) due to its ability to more reliably delineate individual buildings of various sizes. Semi-automated, object-based detection followed by manual editing appears to be a reliable and efficient approach for detecting and enumerating new building objects. A bivariate regression analysis was performed using neighborhood-level estimates of new building density regressed on a census-derived measure of socio-economic status, yielding an inverse relationship with R2 = 0.31 (n = 27; p = 0.00). The primary utility of the new building delineation results is to support spatial analyses of land cover and land use and demographic change. PMID:24415810

Context-specific attentional sampling: Intentional control as a pre-requisite for contextual control.

PubMed

Brosowsky, Nicholaus P; Crump, Matthew J C

2016-08-01

Recent work suggests that environmental cues associated with previous attentional control settings can rapidly and involuntarily adjust attentional priorities. The current study tests predictions from adaptive-learning and memory-based theories of contextual control about the role of intentions for setting attentional priorities. To extend the empirical boundaries of contextual control phenomena, and to determine whether theoretical principles of contextual control are generalizable we used a novel bi-dimensional stimulus sampling task. Subjects viewed briefly presented arrays of letters and colors presented above or below fixation, and identified specific stimuli according to a dimensional (letter or color) and positional cue. Location was predictive of the cued dimension, but not the position or identity. In contrast to previous findings, contextual control failed to develop through automatic, adaptive-learning processes. Instead, previous experience with intentionally changing attentional sampling priorities between different contexts was required for contextual control to develop. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contextual factors influencing HIV risk behavior in Central Asia

PubMed Central

Smolak, Alex

2010-01-01

Central Asia has experienced a rapid increase in HIV. HIV interventions and prevention programmes are needed that adequately appreciate and account for the ways that ongoing cultural, political, and economic changes in this region affect HIV risk reduction efforts. Drawing on relevant literature, this paper provides a contextual foundation to better understand the impact of context on HIV risk behaviour in the countries of Central Asia and to begin the conversation on the contextual factors of Islam and polygamy. PMID:20301020

Significant Statistics: Viewed with a Contextual Lens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tait-McCutcheon, Sandi

2010-01-01

This paper examines the pedagogical and organisational changes three lead teachers made to their statistics teaching and learning programs. The lead teachers posed the research question: What would the effect of contextually integrating statistical investigations and literacies into other curriculum areas be on student achievement? By finding the…

Contextual cueing in 3D visual search depends on representations in planar-, not depth-defined space.

PubMed

Zang, Xuelian; Shi, Zhuanghua; Müller, Hermann J; Conci, Markus

2017-05-01

Learning of spatial inter-item associations can speed up visual search in everyday life, an effect referred to as contextual cueing (Chun & Jiang, 1998). Whereas previous studies investigated contextual cueing primarily using 2D layouts, the current study examined how 3D depth influences contextual learning in visual search. In two experiments, the search items were presented evenly distributed across front and back planes in an initial training session. In the subsequent test session, the search items were either swapped between the front and back planes (Experiment 1) or between the left and right halves (Experiment 2) of the displays. The results showed that repeated spatial contexts were learned efficiently under 3D viewing conditions, facilitating search in the training sessions, in both experiments. Importantly, contextual cueing remained robust and virtually unaffected following the swap of depth planes in Experiment 1, but it was substantially reduced (to nonsignificant levels) following the left-right side swap in Experiment 2. This result pattern indicates that spatial, but not depth, inter-item variations limit effective contextual guidance. Restated, contextual cueing (even under 3D viewing conditions) is primarily based on 2D inter-item associations, while depth-defined spatial regularities are probably not encoded during contextual learning. Hence, changing the depth relations does not impact the cueing effect.

Tyrosine receptor kinase B receptor activation reverses the impairing effects of acute nicotine on contextual fear extinction.

PubMed

Kutlu, Munir Gunes; Cole, Robert D; Connor, David A; Natwora, Brendan; Gould, Thomas J

2018-03-01

Anxiety and stress disorders have been linked to deficits in fear extinction. Our laboratory and others have demonstrated that acute nicotine impairs contextual fear extinction, suggesting that nicotine exposure may have negative effects on anxiety and stress disorder symptomatology. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the acute nicotine-induced impairment of contextual fear extinction are unknown. Therefore, based on the previous studies showing that brain-derived neurotrophic factor is central for fear extinction learning and acute nicotine dysregulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling, we hypothesized that the nicotine-induced impairment of contextual fear extinction may involve changes in tyrosine receptor kinase B signaling. To test this hypothesis, we systemically, intraperitoneally, injected C57BL/6J mice sub-threshold doses (2.5 and 4.0 mg/kg) of 7,8-dihydroxyflavone, a small-molecule tyrosine receptor kinase B agonist that fully mimics the effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or vehicle an hour before each contextual fear extinction session. Mice also received injections, intraperitoneally, of acute nicotine (0.18 mg/kg) or saline 2-4 min before extinction sessions. While the animals that received only 7,8-dihydroxyflavone did not show any changes in contextual fear extinction, 4.0 mg/kg of 7,8-dihydroxyflavone ameliorated the extinction deficits in mice administered acute nicotine. Overall, these results suggest that acute nicotine-induced impairment of context extinction may be related to a disrupted brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling.

Acceptance of lean redesigns in primary care: A contextual analysis.

PubMed

Hung, Dorothy; Gray, Caroline; Martinez, Meghan; Schmittdiel, Julie; Harrison, Michael I

Lean is a leading change strategy used in health care to achieve short-term efficiency and quality improvement while promising longer-term system transformation. Most research examines Lean intervention to address isolated problems, rather than to achieve broader systemic changes to care delivery. Moreover, no studies examine contextual influences on system-wide Lean implementation efforts in primary care. The aim of this study was to identify contextual factors most critical to implementing and scaling Lean redesigns across all primary care clinics in a large, ambulatory care delivery system. Over 100 interviews and focus groups were conducted with frontline physicians, clinical staff, and operational leaders. Data analysis was guided by a modified Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), a popular implementation science framework. On the basis of expert recommendations, the modified framework targets factors influencing the implementation of process redesigns. This modified framework, the CFIR-PR, informed our identification of contextual factors that most impacted Lean acceptance among frontline physicians and staff. Several domains identified by the CFIR-PR were critical to acceptance of Lean redesigns. Regarding the implementation process acceptance was influenced by time and intensity of exposure to changes, "top-down" versus "bottom-up" implementation styles, and degrees of employee engagement in developing new workflows. Important factors in the inner setting were the clinic's culture and style of leadership, along with availability of information about Lean's effectiveness. Last, implementation efforts were impacted by individual and team characteristics regarding changed work roles and related issues of professional identity, authority, and autonomy. This study underscores the need for change leaders to consider the contextual factors that surround efforts to implement Lean in primary care. As Lean redesigns are scaled across a system, special attention is warranted with respect to the implementation approach, internal clinic setting, and implications for professional roles and identities of physicians and staff.

Neighborhood socio-environmental vulnerability and infant mortality in Hermosillo, Sonora.

PubMed

Lara-Valencia, Francisco; Álvarez-Hernández, Gerardo; Harlow, Siobán D; Denman, Catalina; García-Pérez, Hilda

2012-01-01

This paper explores the impact of contextual variables at the neighborhood level on a health marker in the city of Hermosillo, Mexico and discusses the importance of collaboration between planners and health professional to minimize the negative effect of contextual factors on urban health. Few studies in Mexico have assessed health outcomes at the intra-urban scale and their interaction with neighborhood-level contextual variables. Using spatial analysis and geographical information systems, the paper explores the association between infant mortality and an index of socio-environmental vulnerability used to measure urban contextual factors. Two high infant mortality clusters were detected within neighborhoods characterized by relatively good environmental conditions and one in a neighborhood with a poor environment. Our results show the clustering of high infant mortality areas and some association with built environment factors in Hermosillo. The results support the need to reconnect public health and urban planning as a way to create healthier environments in Mexican cities.

HOT CELL BUILDING, TRA632, INTERIOR. CONTEXTUAL VIEW OF HOT CELL ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

HOT CELL BUILDING, TRA-632, INTERIOR. CONTEXTUAL VIEW OF HOT CELL NO. 2 FROM STAIRWAY ALONG NORTH WALL. OBSERVATION WINDOW ALONG WEST SIDE BENEATH "CELL 2" SIGN. DOORWAY IN LEFT OF VIEW LEADS TO CELL 1 WORK AREA OR TO EXIT OUTDOORS TO NORTH. RADIATION DETECTION MONITOR TO RIGHT OF DOOR. CAMERA FACING SOUTHWEST. INL NEGATIVE NO. HD46-28-3. Mike Crane, Photographer, 2/2005 - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Test Reactor Area, Materials & Engineering Test Reactors, Scoville, Butte County, ID

Cat odor causes long-lasting contextual fear conditioning and increased pituitary-adrenal activation, without modifying anxiety.

PubMed

Muñoz-Abellán, Cristina; Daviu, Nuria; Rabasa, Cristina; Nadal, Roser; Armario, Antonio

2009-10-01

A single exposure to a cat or cat odors has been reported by some groups to induce contextual and auditory fear conditioning and long-lasting changes in anxiety-like behaviour, but there is no evidence for parallel changes in biological stress markers. In the present study we demonstrated in male rats that exposure to a novel environment containing a cloth impregnated with cat fur odor resulted in avoidance of the odor, lower levels of activity and higher pituitary-adrenal (PA) response as compared to those exposed to the novel environment containing a clean cloth, suggesting increased levels of stress in the former animals. When re-exposed 9 days later to the same environment with a clean cloth, previously cat fur exposed rats again showed avoidance of the cloth area and lower levels of activity, suggesting development of contextual fear conditioning, which again was associated with a higher PA activation. In contrast, unaltered both anxiety-like behaviour and PA responsiveness to an elevated plus-maze were found 7 days after cat odor exposure. It is concluded that: (i) PA activation is able to reflect both the stressful properties of cat fur odor and odor-induced contextual fear conditioning; (ii) development of cat odor-induced contextual fear conditioning is independent of the induction of long-lasting changes in anxiety-like behaviour; and (iii) greater PA activation during exposure to the odor context is not explained by non-specific sensitization of the PA axis caused by previous exposure to cat fur odor.

A Strategy to Support Educational Leaders in Developing Countries to Manage Contextual Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolhuter, Charl; van der Walt, Hannes; Steyn, Hennie

2016-01-01

The central theoretical argument of this paper is that educational leadership and organisational development and change in educational institutions in developing countries will not be effective unless school leaders are aware of the challenges posed by contextual factors that might have an impact on their professional activities. The article…

School to Work Program as a Contributor to Adult Literacy Skill Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nuno-Toledo, Elsa

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the learning of basic reading literacy skills in a contextualized, educational career technical training program, specifically the School to Work Program. The study explores whether adult literacy rates can change through students' participation in a contextualized, educational…

ABA, AAB and ABC Renewal in Taste Aversion Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernal-Gamboa, Rodolfo; Juarez, Yectivani; Gonzalez-Martin, Gabriela; Carranza, Rodrigo; Sanchez-Carrasco, Livia; Nieto, Javier

2012-01-01

Context renewal is identified when the conditioned response (CR) elicited by an extinguished conditioned stimulus (CS) reappears as a result of changing the contextual cues during the test. Two experiments were designed for testing contextual renewal in a conditioned taste aversion preparation. Experiment 1 assessed ABA and AAB context renewal,…

Transformations in Kenyan Science Teachers' Locus of Control: The Influence of Contextualized Science and Emancipated Student Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, D.; Nashon, S.; Namazzi, E.; Okemwa, P.; Ombogo, P.; Ooko, S.; Beru, F.

2015-01-01

This study investigated Kenyan science teachers' pedagogical transformations, which manifested as they enacted and experienced a reformed contextualized science curriculum in which students' learning experiences were critical catalysts of teacher change. Twelve high school teachers voluntarily participated in the study and were interviewed about…

Hippocampal Structural Plasticity Accompanies the Resulting Contextual Fear Memory Following Stress and Fear Conditioning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giachero, Marcelo; Calfa, Gaston D.; Molina, Victor A.

2013-01-01

The present research investigated the resulting contextual fear memory and structural plasticity changes in the dorsal hippocampus (DH) following stress and fear conditioning. This combination enhanced fear retention and increased the number of total and mature dendritic spines in DH. Intra-basolateral amygdala (BLA) infusion of midazolam prior to…

Quantifying Contextual Interference and Its Effect on Skill Transfer in Skilled Youth Tennis Players

PubMed Central

Buszard, Tim; Reid, Machar; Krause, Lyndon; Kovalchik, Stephanie; Farrow, Damian

2017-01-01

The contextual interference effect is a well-established motor learning phenomenon. Most of the contextual interference effect literature has addressed simple skills, while less is known about the role of contextual interference in complex sport skill practice, particularly with respect to skilled performers. The purpose of this study was to assess contextual interference when practicing the tennis serve. Study 1 evaluated tennis serve practice of nine skilled youth tennis players using a novel statistical metric developed specifically to measure between-skill and within-skill variability as sources of contextual interference. This metric highlighted that skilled tennis players typically engaged in serve practice that featured low contextual interference. In Study 2, 16 skilled youth tennis players participated in 10 practice sessions that aimed to improve serving “down the T.” Participants were stratified into a low contextual interference practice group (Low CI) and a moderate contextual interference practice group (Moderate CI). Pre- and post-tests were conducted 1 week before and 1 week after the practice period. Testing involved a skill test, which assessed serving performance in a closed setting, and a transfer test, which assessed serving performance in a match-play setting. No significant contextual interference differences were observed with respect to practice performance. However, analysis of pre- and post-test serve performance revealed significant Group × Time interactions. The Moderate CI group showed no change in serving performance (service displacement from the T) from pre- to post-test in the skill test, but did display improvements in the transfer test. Conversely, the Low CI group improved serving performance (service displacement from the T) in the skill test but not the transfer test. Results suggest that the typical contextual interference effect is less clear when practicing a complex motor skill, at least with the tennis serve skill evaluated here. We encourage researchers and applied sport scientists to use our statistical metric to measure contextual interference. PMID:29163306

Encoding of contextual fear memory requires de novo proteins in the prelimbic cortex

PubMed Central

Rizzo, Valerio; Touzani, Khalid; Raveendra, Bindu L.; Swarnkar, Supriya; Lora, Joan; Kadakkuzha, Beena M.; Liu, Xin-An; Zhang, Chao; Betel, Doron; Stackman, Robert W.; Puthanveettil, Sathyanarayanan V.

2016-01-01

Background Despite our understanding of the significance of the prefrontal cortex in the consolidation of long-term memories (LTM), its role in the encoding of LTM remains elusive. Here we investigated the role of new protein synthesis in the mouse medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in encoding contextual fear memory. Methods Because a change in the association of mRNAs to polyribosomes is an indicator of new protein synthesis, we assessed the changes in polyribosome-associated mRNAs in the mPFC following contextual fear conditioning (CFC) in the mouse. Differential gene expression in mPFC was identified by polyribosome profiling (n = 18). The role of new protein synthesis in mPFC was determined by focal inhibition of protein synthesis (n = 131) and by intra-prelimbic cortex manipulation (n = 56) of Homer 3, a candidate identified from polyribosome profiling. Results We identified several mRNAs that are differentially and temporally recruited to polyribosomes in the mPFC following CFC. Inhibition of protein synthesis in the prelimbic (PL), but not in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) region of the mPFC immediately after CFC disrupted encoding of contextual fear memory. Intriguingly, inhibition of new protein synthesis in the PL 6 hours after CFC did not impair encoding. Furthermore, expression of Homer 3, an mRNA enriched in polyribosomes following CFC, in the PL constrained encoding of contextual fear memory. Conclusions Our studies identify several molecular substrates of new protein synthesis in the mPFC and establish that encoding of contextual fear memories require new protein synthesis in PL subregion of mPFC. PMID:28503670

14-3-3ζ turns TGF-β’s function from tumor suppressor to metastasis promoter in breast cancer by contextual changes of Smad partners from p53 to Gli2

PubMed Central

Xu, Jia; Acharya, Sunil; Sahin, Ozgur; Zhang, Qingling; Saito, Yohei; Yao, Jun; Wang, Hai; Li, Ping; Zhang, Lin; Lowery, Frank J; Kuo, Wen-Ling; Xiao, Yi; Ensor, Joe; Sahin, Aysegul A; Zhang, Xiang H.-F.; Hung, Mien-Chie; Zhang, Jitao David; Yu, Dihua

2015-01-01

Summary Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) functions as a tumor suppressor in pre-malignant cells but as a metastasis promoter in cancer cells. The dichotomous functions of TGF-β are proposed to be dictated by different partners of its downstream effectors Smads. However, the mechanism for the contextual changes of Smad partners remained undefined. Here, we demonstrate that 14-3-3ζ destabilizes p53, a Smad partner in pre-malignant mammary epithelial cells, by downregulating 14-3-3σ, thus turning off TGF-β’s tumor suppression function. Conversely, 14-3-3ζ stabilizes Gli2 in breast cancer cells, and Gli2 partners with Smads to activate PTHrP and promote TGF-β-induced bone metastasis. The 14-3-3ζ-driven contextual changes of Smad partners from p53 to Gli2 may serve as biomarkers and therapeutic targets of TGF-β-mediated cancer progression. PMID:25670079

Neural pattern change during encoding of a narrative predicts retrospective duration estimates

PubMed Central

Lositsky, Olga; Chen, Janice; Toker, Daniel; Honey, Christopher J; Shvartsman, Michael; Poppenk, Jordan L; Hasson, Uri; Norman, Kenneth A

2016-01-01

What mechanisms support our ability to estimate durations on the order of minutes? Behavioral studies in humans have shown that changes in contextual features lead to overestimation of past durations. Based on evidence that the medial temporal lobes and prefrontal cortex represent contextual features, we related the degree of fMRI pattern change in these regions with people’s subsequent duration estimates. After listening to a radio story in the scanner, participants were asked how much time had elapsed between pairs of clips from the story. Our ROI analyses found that duration estimates were correlated with the neural pattern distance between two clips at encoding in the right entorhinal cortex. Moreover, whole-brain searchlight analyses revealed a cluster spanning the right anterior temporal lobe. Our findings provide convergent support for the hypothesis that retrospective time judgments are driven by 'drift' in contextual representations supported by these regions. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16070.001 PMID:27801645

Developmental Effects of Acute, Chronic, and Withdrawal from Chronic Nicotine on Fear Conditioning

PubMed Central

Portugal, George S.; Wilkinson, Derek S.; Turner, Jill R.; Blendy, Julie A.; Gould, Thomas J.

2012-01-01

Pre-adolescence and adolescence are developmental periods associated with increased vulnerability for tobacco addiction, and exposure to tobacco during these periods may lead to long-lasting changes in behavioral and neuronal plasticity. The present study examined the short- and long-term effects of nicotine and nicotine withdrawal on fear conditioning in pre-adolescent, adolescent, and adult mice, and potential underlying substrates that may mediate the developmental effects of nicotine, such as changes in nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) binding, CREB expression, and nicotine metabolism. Age-related differences existed in sensitivity to the effects of acute nicotine, chronic nicotine and nicotine withdrawal on contextual fear conditioning (no changes in cued fear conditioning were seen); younger mice were more sensitive to the acute effects and less sensitive to the effects of nicotine withdrawal 24 hours post treatment cessation. Developmental differences in nAChR binding were associated with the effects of nicotine withdrawal on contextual learning. Developmental differences in nicotine metabolism and CREB expression were also observed, but were not related to the effects of nicotine withdrawal on contextual learning 24 hours post treatment. Chronic nicotine exposure during pre-adolescence or adolescence, however, produced long-lasting impairments in contextual learning that were observed during adulthood, whereas adult chronic nicotine exposure did not. These developmental effects could be related to changes in CREB. Overall, there is a developmental shift in the effects of nicotine on hippocampus-dependent learning and developmental exposure to nicotine results in adult cognitive deficits; these changes in cognition may play an important role in the development and maintenance of nicotine addiction. PMID:22521799

Investigating implicit statistical learning mechanisms through contextual cueing.

PubMed

Goujon, Annabelle; Didierjean, André; Thorpe, Simon

2015-09-01

Since its inception, the contextual cueing (CC) paradigm has generated considerable interest in various fields of cognitive sciences because it constitutes an elegant approach to understanding how statistical learning (SL) mechanisms can detect contextual regularities during a visual search. In this article we review and discuss five aspects of CC: (i) the implicit nature of learning, (ii) the mechanisms involved in CC, (iii) the mediating factors affecting CC, (iv) the generalization of CC phenomena, and (v) the dissociation between implicit and explicit CC phenomena. The findings suggest that implicit SL is an inherent component of ongoing processing which operates through clustering, associative, and reinforcement processes at various levels of sensory-motor processing, and might result from simple spike-timing-dependent plasticity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visual processing in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: evidence from embedded figures and configural superiority tests.

PubMed

Dillen, Claudia; Steyaert, Jean; Op de Beeck, Hans P; Boets, Bart

2015-05-01

The embedded figures test has often been used to reveal weak central coherence in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we administered a more standardized automated version of the embedded figures test in combination with the configural superiority task, to investigate the effect of contextual modulation on local feature detection in 23 adolescents with ASD and 26 matched typically developing controls. On both tasks both groups performed largely similarly in terms of accuracy and reaction time, and both displayed the contextual modulation effect. This indicates that individuals with ASD are equally sensitive compared to typically developing individuals to the contextual effects of the task and that there is no evidence for a local processing bias in adolescents with ASD.

Altering attentional control settings causes persistent biases of visual attention.

PubMed

Knight, Helen C; Smith, Daniel T; Knight, David C; Ellison, Amanda

2016-01-01

Attentional control settings have an important role in guiding visual behaviour. Previous work within cognitive psychology has found that the deployment of general attentional control settings can be modulated by training. However, research has not yet established whether long-term modifications of one particular type of attentional control setting can be induced. To address this, we investigated persistent alterations to feature search mode, also known as an attentional bias, towards an arbitrary stimulus in healthy participants. Subjects were biased towards the colour green by an information sheet. Attentional bias was assessed using a change detection task. After an interval of either 1 or 2 weeks, participants were then retested on the same change detection task, tested on a different change detection task where colour was irrelevant, or were biased towards an alternative colour. One experiment included trials in which the distractor stimuli (but never the target stimuli) were green. The key finding was that green stimuli in the second task attracted attention, despite this impairing task performance. Furthermore, inducing a second attentional bias did not override the initial bias toward green objects. The attentional bias also persisted for at least two weeks. It is argued that this persistent attentional bias is mediated by a chronic change to participants' attentional control settings, which is aided by long-term representations involving contextual cueing. We speculate that similar changes to attentional control settings and continuous cueing may relate to attentional biases observed in psychopathologies. Targeting these biases may be a productive approach to treatment.

Flavor-Intensity Perception: Effects of Stimulus Context

PubMed Central

Marks, Lawrence E.; Shepard, Timothy G.; Burger, Kelly; Chakwin, Emily M.

2011-01-01

Stimulus context affects judgments of intensity of both gustatory and olfactory flavors, and the contextual effects are modality-specific. Does context also exert separate effects on the gustatory and olfactory components of flavor mixtures? To answer this question, in each of 4 experiments, subjects rated the perceived intensity of 16 mixtures constructed by combining 4 concentrations of the gustatory flavorant sucrose with 4 concentrations of the retronasal olfactory flavorant citral. In 1 contextual condition of each experiment, concentrations of sucrose were relatively high and those of citral low; in the other condition, the relative concentrations of sucrose and citral reversed. There were 2 main results: First, consistent with earlier findings, in 5 of the 8 conditions, the ratings were consistent with linear addition of perceived sucrose and citral; departures from additivity appeared, however, in 3 conditions where the relative concentrations of citral were high. Second, changes in context produced contrast (adaptation-like changes) in perceived intensity: The contribution to perceived intensity of a given concentration of a flavorant was smaller when the contextual concentrations of that flavorant were high rather than low. A notable exception was the absence of contextual effects on the perceived intensity of near-threshold citral. These findings suggest that the contextual effects may arise separately in the gustatory and olfactory channels, prior to the integration of perceived flavor intensity. PMID:21930139

Contextual learning and context effects during infancy: 30 years of controversial research revisited.

PubMed

Revillo, D A; Cotella, E; Paglini, M G; Arias, C

2015-09-01

Over the last 30years a considerable number of reports have explored learning about context during infancy in both humans and rats. This research was stimulated by two different theoretical frameworks. The first, known as the neuromaturational model, postulates that learning and behavior are context-independent during early ontogeny, a hypothesis based on the idea that contextual learning is dependent on the hippocampal function, and that this brain structure does not reach full maturity until late in infancy. The second theoretical framework views infants not as immature organisms, but rather as perfectly matured ones, given that their behavioral and cognitive capacities allow them to adapt appropriately to the demands of their specific environment in accordance with their maturational level. This model predicts significant ontogenetic variations in learning and memory due to developmental differences in what is perceived and attended to during learning episodes, which can result in ontogenetic differences in contextual learning depending on the specific demands of the task. The present manuscript reviews those studies that have examined potential developmental differences in contextual learning and context effects in rats. The reviewed results show that, during infancy, context can exert a similar influence over learning and memory as that described for the adult rat. Moreover, in some cases, contextual learning and context effects were greater in infants than in adults. In contrast, under other experimental conditions, no evidence of contextual learning or context effects was observed. We analyzed the procedural factors of these studies with the aim of detecting those that favor or impede contextual learning during infancy, and we discussed whether existing empirical evidence supports the claim that the functionality of the hippocampus is a limiting factor for this type of learning during infancy. Finally, conclusions from human research into contextual learning capacities during infancy were also examined. In view of the wealth of evidence showing contextual learning and context effects during infancy, we suggest that future research aimed at exploring the involvement of the hippocampus in this type of learning should be conducted using parameters which allow the expression of contextual learning during each ontogenetic period. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Context matters: the experience of 14 research teams in systematically reporting contextual factors important for practice change.

PubMed

Tomoaia-Cotisel, Andrada; Scammon, Debra L; Waitzman, Norman J; Cronholm, Peter F; Halladay, Jacqueline R; Driscoll, David L; Solberg, Leif I; Hsu, Clarissa; Tai-Seale, Ming; Hiratsuka, Vanessa; Shih, Sarah C; Fetters, Michael D; Wise, Christopher G; Alexander, Jeffrey A; Hauser, Diane; McMullen, Carmit K; Scholle, Sarah Hudson; Tirodkar, Manasi A; Schmidt, Laura; Donahue, Katrina E; Parchman, Michael L; Stange, Kurt C

2013-01-01

We aimed to advance the internal and external validity of research by sharing our empirical experience and recommendations for systematically reporting contextual factors. Fourteen teams conducting research on primary care practice transformation retrospectively considered contextual factors important to interpreting their findings (internal validity) and transporting or reinventing their findings in other settings/situations (external validity). Each team provided a table or list of important contextual factors and interpretive text included as appendices to the articles in this supplement. Team members identified the most important contextual factors for their studies. We grouped the findings thematically and developed recommendations for reporting context. The most important contextual factors sorted into 5 domains: (1) the practice setting, (2) the larger organization, (3) the external environment, (4) implementation pathway, and (5) the motivation for implementation. To understand context, investigators recommend (1) engaging diverse perspectives and data sources, (2) considering multiple levels, (3) evaluating history and evolution over time, (4) looking at formal and informal systems and culture, and (5) assessing the (often nonlinear) interactions between contextual factors and both the process and outcome of studies. We include a template with tabular and interpretive elements to help study teams engage research participants in reporting relevant context. These findings demonstrate the feasibility and potential utility of identifying and reporting contextual factors. Involving diverse stakeholders in assessing context at multiple stages of the research process, examining their association with outcomes, and consistently reporting critical contextual factors are important challenges for a field interested in improving the internal and external validity and impact of health care research.

The Effect of Contextual Variety on the Practice, Retention, and Transfer of an Applied Motor Skill.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wrisberg, Craig A.; Liu, Zhan

1991-01-01

Researchers examined the effect of contextual variety on practice, retention, and transfer of the long and short badminton service in a college physical education class. Results indicated a practice schedule requiring students to change the plan of action from trial to trial facilitated retention and transfer of motor skills. (SM)

Power and Liberty: A Long-Term Course Planning Strategy to Encourage the Contextualization of Events in American History

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Endacott, Jason L.

2011-01-01

Applying a consistent historical theme throughout a social studies course is an effective long-term planning strategy that can promote student engagement, retention of information, and contextualized knowledge of history's continuity and change. This article demonstrates how one such theme, power and liberty, might be incorporated into a secondary…

The Influence of Contextual Change on Remembering in Short-Term Memory. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falkenberg, Philippe R.

If the contextual similarity between learning and recall within a single trial in a short-term memory (STM) paradigm is varied, recall varies proportionately. This context effect was demonstrated using variations of the Peterson-Peterson (1959) paradigm for both aurally and visually presented material, verbal and arithmetic context, and within and…

Transfer of contextual cueing in full-icon display remapping.

PubMed

Shi, Zhuanghua; Zang, Xuelian; Jia, Lina; Geyer, Thomas; Müller, Hermann J

2013-02-25

Invariant spatial context can expedite visual search, an effect that is known as contextual cueing (e.g., Chun & Jiang, 1998). However, disrupting learned display configurations abolishes the effect. In current touch-based mobile devices, such as the iPad, icons are shuffled and remapped when the display mode is changed. However, such remapping also disrupts the spatial relationships between icons. This may hamper usability. In the present study, we examined the transfer of contextual cueing in four different methods of display remapping: position-order invariant, global rotation, local invariant, and central invariant. We used full-icon landscape mode for training and both landscape and portrait modes for testing, to check whether the cueing transfers to portrait mode. The results showed transfer of contextual cueing but only with the local invariant and the central invariant remapping methods. We take the results to mean that the predictability of target locations is a crucial factor for the transfer of contextual cueing and thus icon remapping design for mobile devices.

The impact of signal-to-noise ratio on contextual cueing in children and adults.

PubMed

Yang, Yingying; Merrill, Edward C

2015-04-01

Contextual cueing refers to a form of implicit spatial learning where participants incidentally learn to associate a target location with its repeated spatial context. Successful contextual learning produces an efficient visual search through familiar environments. Despite the fact that children exhibit the basic ability of implicit spatial learning, their general effectiveness in this form of learning can be compromised by other development-dependent factors. Learning to extract useful information (signal) in the presence of various amounts of irrelevant or distracting information (noise) characterizes one of the most important changes that occur with cognitive development. This research investigated whether signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) affects contextual cueing differently in children and adults. S/N was operationally defined as the ratio of repeated versus new displays encountered over time. Three ratio conditions were created: high (100%), medium (67%), and low (33%) conditions. Results suggested no difference in the acquisition of contextual learning effects in the high and medium conditions across three age groups (6- to 8-year-olds, 10- to 12-year-olds, and young adults). However, a significant developmental difference emerged in the low S/N condition. As predicted, adults exhibited significant contextual cueing effects, whereas older children showed marginally significant contextual cueing and younger children did not show cueing effects. Group differences in the ability to exhibit implicit contextual learning under low S/N conditions and the implications of this difference are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A contextual model of self-regulation change mechanisms among individuals with addictive disorders.

PubMed

Roos, Corey R; Witkiewitz, Katie

2017-11-01

Numerous behavioral treatments for addictive disorders include components explicitly aimed at targeting self-regulation (e.g., coping and emotion regulation). We first provide a summary of key findings to date among studies that have examined self-regulation as a mechanism of behavior change (MOBC) in behavioral treatments for addictive disorders. Based on our review, we conclude that the role of self-regulation as a MOBC across behavioral treatments for addictive disorders is not well-characterized and findings are inconsistent across studies. For example, our review indicates that there is still inconsistent evidence that coping is a unique MOBC in cognitive-behavioral approaches for addictive behaviors. We propose that there has been slow progress in understanding self-regulation as a MOBC in addiction treatment because of a lack of attention to contextual factors. Accordingly, in the second half of this paper, we propose a contextual model of self-regulation change mechanisms, which emphasizes that the role of various facets of self-regulation as MOBC may depend on contextual factors in the immediate situational context (e.g., fluctuating internal and external cues) and in the broader context in which an individual is embedded (e.g., major life stressors, environmental conditions, dispositions). Additionally, we provide specific recommendations to guide future research for understanding both between-person and within-person self-regulation MOBC in addiction treatment. In particular, we provide key recommendations for how to capitalize on intensive longitudinal measurement methods (e.g., ecological momentary assessment) when bringing a contextual perspective to the study of self-regulation as MOBC in various addiction treatments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Understanding work contextual factors: a short-cut to evidence-based practice?

PubMed

Wallin, Lars; Ewald, Uwe; Wikblad, Karin; Scott-Findlay, Shannon; Arnetz, Bengt B

2006-01-01

It has become increasingly clear that workplace contextual factors make an important contribution to provider and patient outcomes. The potential for health care professionals of using research in practice is also linked to such factors, although the exact factors or mechanisms for enhancing this potential are not understood. From a perspective of implementing evidence-based nursing practice, the authors of this article report on a study examining contextual factors. The objective of this study was to identify predictors of organizational improvement by measuring staff perceptions of work contextual factors. The Quality Work Competence questionnaire was used in a repeated measurement survey with a 1-year break between the two periods of data collection. The sample consisted of 134 employees from four neonatal units in Sweden. Over the study period significant changes occurred among staff perceptions, both within and between units, on various factors. Changes in staff perceptions on skills development and participatory management were the major predictors of enhanced potential of overall organizational improvement. Perceived improvement in skills development and performance feedback predicted improvement in leadership. Change in commitment was predicted by perceived decreases in work tempo and work-related exhaustion. These findings indicate the potential for organizational improvement by developing a learning and supportive professional environment as well as by involving staff in decision-making at the unit level. Such initiatives are also likely to be of importance for enhanced use of research in practice and evidence-based nursing. On the other hand, high levels of work tempo and burnout appear to have negative consequences on staff commitment for improving care and the work environment. A better understanding of workplace contextual factors is necessary for improving the organizational potential of getting research into practice and should be considered in future implementation projects.

Detection of Neuron Membranes in Electron Microscopy Images Using Multi-scale Context and Radon-Like Features

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Seyedhosseini, Mojtaba; Kumar, Ritwik; Jurrus, Elizabeth R.

2011-10-01

Automated neural circuit reconstruction through electron microscopy (EM) images is a challenging problem. In this paper, we present a novel method that exploits multi-scale contextual information together with Radon-like features (RLF) to learn a series of discriminative models. The main idea is to build a framework which is capable of extracting information about cell membranes from a large contextual area of an EM image in a computationally efficient way. Toward this goal, we extract RLF that can be computed efficiently from the input image and generate a scale-space representation of the context images that are obtained at the output ofmore » each discriminative model in the series. Compared to a single-scale model, the use of a multi-scale representation of the context image gives the subsequent classifiers access to a larger contextual area in an effective way. Our strategy is general and independent of the classifier and has the potential to be used in any context based framework. We demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms in detection of neuron membranes in EM images.« less

Incorporation of operator knowledge for improved HMDS GPR classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kennedy, Levi; McClelland, Jessee R.; Walters, Joshua R.

2012-06-01

The Husky Mine Detection System (HMDS) detects and alerts operators to potential threats observed in groundpenetrating RADAR (GPR) data. In the current system architecture, the classifiers have been trained using available data from multiple training sites. Changes in target types, clutter types, and operational conditions may result in statistical differences between the training data and the testing data for the underlying features used by the classifier, potentially resulting in an increased false alarm rate or a lower probability of detection for the system. In the current mode of operation, the automated detection system alerts the human operator when a target-like object is detected. The operator then uses data visualization software, contextual information, and human intuition to decide whether the alarm presented is an actual target or a false alarm. When the statistics of the training data and the testing data are mismatched, the automated detection system can overwhelm the analyst with an excessive number of false alarms. This is evident in the performance of and the data collected from deployed systems. This work demonstrates that analyst feedback can be successfully used to re-train a classifier to account for variable testing data statistics not originally captured in the initial training data.

An Evaluation of an Intervention Sequence Outline in Positive Behaviour Support for People with Autism and Severe Escape-Motivated Challenging Behaviour

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McClean, Brian; Grey, Ian

2012-01-01

Background: Positive behaviour support emphasises the impact of contextual variables to enhance participation, choice, and quality of life. This study evaluates a sequence for implementing changes to key contextual variables for 4 individuals. Interventions were maintained and data collection continued over a 3-year period. Method: Functional…

Understanding persuasion contexts in health gamification: A systematic analysis of gamified health behavior change support systems literature.

PubMed

Alahäivälä, Tuomas; Oinas-Kukkonen, Harri

2016-12-01

Gamification is increasingly used as a design strategy when developing behavior change support systems in the healthcare domain. It is commonly agreed that understanding the contextual factors is critical for successful gamification, but systematic analyses of the persuasive contexts have been lacking so far within gamified health intervention studies. Through a persuasion context analysis of the gamified health behavior change support systems (hBCSSs) literature, we inspect how the contextual factors have been addressed in the prior gamified health BCSS studies. The implications of this study are to provide the practitioners and researchers examples of how to conduct a systematic analysis to help guide the design and research on gamified health BCSSs. The ideas derived from the analysis of the included studies will help identify potential pitfalls and shortcomings in both the research and implementations of gamified health behavior change support systems. We systematically analyzed the persuasion contexts of 15 gamified health intervention studies. According to our results, gamified hBCSSs are implemented under different facets of lifestyle change and treatments compliance, and use a multitude of technologies and methods. We present a set of ideas and concepts to help improve endeavors in studying gamified health intervention through comprehensive understanding of the persuasive contextual factors. Future research on gamified hBCSSs should systematically compare the different combinations of contextual factors, related theories, chosen gamification strategies, and the study of outcomes to help understand how to achieve the most efficient use of gamification on the different aspects of healthcare. Analyzing the persuasion context is essential to achieve this. With the attained knowledge, those planning health interventions can choose the 'tried-and-tested' approaches for each particular situation, rather than develop solutions in an ad-hoc manner. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Elevation of Hippocampal Neurogenesis Induces a Temporally Graded Pattern of Forgetting of Contextual Fear Memories.

PubMed

Gao, Aijing; Xia, Frances; Guskjolen, Axel J; Ramsaran, Adam I; Santoro, Adam; Josselyn, Sheena A; Frankland, Paul W

2018-03-28

Throughout life neurons are continuously generated in the subgranular zone of the hippocampus. The subsequent integration of newly generated neurons alters patterns of dentate gyrus input and output connectivity, potentially rendering memories already stored in those circuits harder to access. Consistent with this prediction, we previously showed that increasing hippocampal neurogenesis after training induces forgetting of hippocampus-dependent memories, including contextual fear memory. However, the brain regions supporting contextual fear memories change with time, and this time-dependent memory reorganization might regulate the sensitivity of contextual fear memories to fluctuations in hippocampal neurogenesis. By virally expressing the inhibitory designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drugs, hM4Di, we first confirmed that chemogenetic inhibition of dorsal hippocampal neurons impairs retrieval of recent (day-old) but not remote (month-old) contextual fear memories in male mice. We then contrasted the effects of increasing hippocampal neurogenesis at recent versus remote time points after contextual fear conditioning in male and female mice. Increasing hippocampal neurogenesis immediately following training reduced conditioned freezing when mice were replaced in the context 1 month later. In contrast, when hippocampal neurogenesis was increased time points remote to training, conditioned freezing levels were unaltered when mice were subsequently tested. These temporally graded forgetting effects were observed using both environmental and genetic interventions to increase hippocampal neurogenesis. Our experiments identify memory age as a boundary condition for neurogenesis-mediated forgetting and suggest that, as contextual fear memories mature, they become less sensitive to changes in hippocampal neurogenesis levels because they no longer depend on the hippocampus for their expression. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT New neurons are generated in the hippocampus throughout life. As they integrate into the hippocampus, they remodel neural circuitry, potentially making information stored in those circuits harder to access. Consistent with this, increasing hippocampal neurogenesis after learning induces forgetting of the learnt information. The current study in mice asks whether these forgetting effects depend on the age of the memory. We found that post-training increases in hippocampal neurogenesis only impacted recently acquired, and not remotely acquired, hippocampal memories. These experiments identify memory age as a boundary condition for neurogenesis-mediated forgetting, and suggest remote memories are less sensitive to changes in hippocampal neurogenesis levels because they no longer depend critically on the hippocampus for their expression. Copyright © 2018 the authors 0270-6474/18/383190-09$15.00/0.

Contextual cueing: implicit learning and memory of visual context guides spatial attention.

PubMed

Chun, M M; Jiang, Y

1998-06-01

Global context plays an important, but poorly understood, role in visual tasks. This study demonstrates that a robust memory for visual context exists to guide spatial attention. Global context was operationalized as the spatial layout of objects in visual search displays. Half of the configurations were repeated across blocks throughout the entire session, and targets appeared within consistent locations in these arrays. Targets appearing in learned configurations were detected more quickly. This newly discovered form of search facilitation is termed contextual cueing. Contextual cueing is driven by incidentally learned associations between spatial configurations (context) and target locations. This benefit was obtained despite chance performance for recognizing the configurations, suggesting that the memory for context was implicit. The results show how implicit learning and memory of visual context can guide spatial attention towards task-relevant aspects of a scene.

Culture and change blindness.

PubMed

Masuda, Takahiko; Nisbett, Richard E

2006-03-04

Research on perception and cognition suggests that whereas East Asians view the world holistically, attending to the entire field and relations among objects, Westerners view the world analytically, focusing on the attributes of salient objects. These propositions were examined in the change-blindness paradigm. Research in that paradigm finds American participants to be more sensitive to changes in focal objects than to changes in the periphery or context. We anticipated that this would be less true for East Asians and that they would be more sensitive to context changes than would Americans. We presented participants with still photos and with animated vignettes having changes in focal object information and contextual information. Compared to Americans, East Asians were more sensitive to contextual changes than to focal object changes. These results suggest that there can be cultural variation in what may seem to be basic perceptual processes. 2006 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Context Matters: The Experience of 14 Research Teams in Systematically Reporting Contextual Factors Important for Practice Change

PubMed Central

Tomoaia-Cotisel, Andrada; Scammon, Debra L.; Waitzman, Norman J.; Cronholm, Peter F.; Halladay, Jacqueline R.; Driscoll, David L.; Solberg, Leif I.; Hsu, Clarissa; Tai-Seale, Ming; Hiratsuka, Vanessa; Shih, Sarah C.; Fetters, Michael D.; Wise, Christopher G.; Alexander, Jeffrey A.; Hauser, Diane; McMullen, Carmit K.; Scholle, Sarah Hudson; Tirodkar, Manasi A.; Schmidt, Laura; Donahue, Katrina E.; Parchman, Michael L.; Stange, Kurt C.

2013-01-01

PURPOSE We aimed to advance the internal and external validity of research by sharing our empirical experience and recommendations for systematically reporting contextual factors. METHODS Fourteen teams conducting research on primary care practice transformation retrospectively considered contextual factors important to interpreting their findings (internal validity) and transporting or reinventing their findings in other settings/situations (external validity). Each team provided a table or list of important contextual factors and interpretive text included as appendices to the articles in this supplement. Team members identified the most important contextual factors for their studies. We grouped the findings thematically and developed recommendations for reporting context. RESULTS The most important contextual factors sorted into 5 domains: (1) the practice setting, (2) the larger organization, (3) the external environment, (4) implementation pathway, and (5) the motivation for implementation. To understand context, investigators recommend (1) engaging diverse perspectives and data sources, (2) considering multiple levels, (3) evaluating history and evolution over time, (4) looking at formal and informal systems and culture, and (5) assessing the (often nonlinear) interactions between contextual factors and both the process and outcome of studies. We include a template with tabular and interpretive elements to help study teams engage research participants in reporting relevant context. CONCLUSIONS These findings demonstrate the feasibility and potential utility of identifying and reporting contextual factors. Involving diverse stakeholders in assessing context at multiple stages of the research process, examining their association with outcomes, and consistently reporting critical contextual factors are important challenges for a field interested in improving the internal and external validity and impact of health care research. PMID:23690380

Attachment change processes in the early years of marriage.

PubMed

Davila, J; Karney, B R; Bradbury, T N

1999-05-01

The authors examined 4 models of attachment change: a contextual model, a social-cognitive model, an individual-difference model, and a diathesis-stress model. Models were examined in a sample of newlyweds over the first 2 years of marriage, using growth curve analyses. Reciprocal processes, whereby attachment representations and interpersonal life circumstances affect one another over time, also were studied. On average, newlyweds became more secure over time. However, there was significant within-subject variability on attachment change that was predicted by intra- and interpersonal factors. Attachment representations changed in response to contextual, social-cognitive, and individual-difference factors. Reciprocal processes between attachment representations and marital variables emerged, suggesting that these factors influence one another in an ongoing way.

Is sensory-specific satiety for a bitter-sweet infusion modulated by context?

PubMed

Garcia-Burgos, David; Secchiari, Florencia; Calviño, Amalia

2015-03-01

The sensory-affective attributes of beverages have an important influence on a given intake and successive consumptions because of sensory-specific satiety (SSS; defined as a decrease in pleasantness ratings of a food eaten relative to uneaten foods). No studies have, however, investigated how multiple sessions of SSS for familiar drinks over a period of several days up to a week may change their pleasantness and how these hedonic-related judgments are affected by the context during SSS testing. With twenty-six participants, the present study explored the medium lasting and contextual effects of repeated SSS sessions for a bitter-sweet infusion on olfactory and flavour pleasantness over the course of three exposures in either a laboratory or a cafeteria setting. The results showed olfactory and flavour SSS for the infusion following each consumption in both the artificial and the natural setting. More interestingly, despite the failure to detect medium-term SSS (i.e., a greater decrease in pleasantness ratings of a food eaten relative to uneaten foods after repeated SSS sessions over several days as compared to the first SSS session), a contextual modulation of olfactory SSS was observed with a lesser overall magnitude in the cafeteria compared to the laboratory setting. To the best of our knowledge, the impact of eating location on the development of satiation and the differential contextual sensitivity of SSS for orthonasal odours and flavours has not been reported previously. The implications of potential environmental control of SSS are considered in this study. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contextual Information Drives the Reconsolidation-Dependent Updating of Retrieved Fear Memories

PubMed Central

Jarome, Timothy J; Ferrara, Nicole C; Kwapis, Janine L; Helmstetter, Fred J

2015-01-01

Stored memories enter a temporary state of vulnerability following retrieval known as ‘reconsolidation', a process that can allow memories to be modified to incorporate new information. Although reconsolidation has become an attractive target for treatment of memories related to traumatic past experiences, we still do not know what new information triggers the updating of retrieved memories. Here, we used biochemical markers of synaptic plasticity in combination with a novel behavioral procedure to determine what was learned during memory reconsolidation under normal retrieval conditions. We eliminated new information during retrieval by manipulating animals' training experience and measured changes in proteasome activity and GluR2 expression in the amygdala, two established markers of fear memory lability and reconsolidation. We found that eliminating new contextual information during the retrieval of memories for predictable and unpredictable fear associations prevented changes in proteasome activity and glutamate receptor expression in the amygdala, indicating that this new information drives the reconsolidation of both predictable and unpredictable fear associations on retrieval. Consistent with this, eliminating new contextual information prior to retrieval prevented the memory-impairing effects of protein synthesis inhibitors following retrieval. These results indicate that under normal conditions, reconsolidation updates memories by incorporating new contextual information into the memory trace. Collectively, these results suggest that controlling contextual information present during retrieval may be a useful strategy for improving reconsolidation-based treatments of traumatic memories associated with anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder. PMID:26062788

Reduced change blindness suggests enhanced attention to detail in individuals with autism.

PubMed

Smith, Hayley; Milne, Elizabeth

2009-03-01

The phenomenon of change blindness illustrates that a limited number of items within the visual scene are attended to at any one time. It has been suggested that individuals with autism focus attention on less contextually relevant aspects of the visual scene, show superior perceptual discrimination and notice details which are often ignored by typical observers. In this study we investigated change blindness in autism by asking participants to detect continuity errors deliberately introduced into a short film. Whether the continuity errors involved central/marginal or social/non-social aspects of the visual scene was varied. Thirty adolescent participants, 15 with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and 15 typically developing (TD) controls participated. The participants with ASD detected significantly more errors than the TD participants. Both groups identified more errors involving central rather than marginal aspects of the scene, although this effect was larger in the TD participants. There was no difference in the number of social or non-social errors detected by either group of participants. In line with previous data suggesting an abnormally broad attentional spotlight and enhanced perceptual function in individuals with ASD, the results of this study suggest enhanced awareness of the visual scene in ASD. The results of this study could reflect superior top-down control of visual search in autism, enhanced perceptual function, or inefficient filtering of visual information in ASD.

Saliency Detection as a Reactive Process: Unexpected Sensory Events Evoke Corticomuscular Coupling

PubMed Central

Kilintari, Marina; Srinivasan, Mandayam; Haggard, Patrick

2018-01-01

Survival in a fast-changing environment requires animals not only to detect unexpected sensory events, but also to react. In humans, these salient sensory events generate large electrocortical responses, which have been traditionally interpreted within the sensory domain. Here we describe a basic physiological mechanism coupling saliency-related cortical responses with motor output. In four experiments conducted on 70 healthy participants, we show that salient substartle sensory stimuli modulate isometric force exertion by human participants, and that this modulation is tightly coupled with electrocortical activity elicited by the same stimuli. We obtained four main results. First, the force modulation follows a complex triphasic pattern consisting of alternating decreases and increases of force, time-locked to stimulus onset. Second, this modulation occurs regardless of the sensory modality of the eliciting stimulus. Third, the magnitude of the force modulation is predicted by the amplitude of the electrocortical activity elicited by the same stimuli. Fourth, both neural and motor effects are not reflexive but depend on contextual factors. Together, these results indicate that sudden environmental stimuli have an immediate effect on motor processing, through a tight corticomuscular coupling. These observations suggest that saliency detection is not merely perceptive but reactive, preparing the animal for subsequent appropriate actions. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Salient events occurring in the environment, regardless of their modalities, elicit large electrical brain responses, dominated by a widespread “vertex” negative-positive potential. This response is the largest synchronization of neural activity that can be recorded from a healthy human being. Current interpretations assume that this vertex potential reflects sensory processes. Contrary to this general assumption, we show that the vertex potential is strongly coupled with a modulation of muscular activity that follows the same pattern. Both the vertex potential and its motor effects are not reflexive but strongly depend on contextual factors. These results reconceptualize the significance of these evoked electrocortical responses, suggesting that saliency detection is not merely perceptive but reactive, preparing the animal for subsequent appropriate actions. PMID:29378865

Nationwide Hybrid Change Detection of Buildings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hron, V.; Halounova, L.

2016-06-01

The Fundamental Base of Geographic Data of the Czech Republic (hereinafter FBGD) is a national 2D geodatabase at a 1:10,000 scale with more than 100 geographic objects. This paper describes the design of the permanent updating mechanism of buildings in FBGD. The proposed procedure belongs to the category of hybrid change detection (HCD) techniques which combine pixel-based and object-based evaluation. The main sources of information for HCD are cadastral information and bi-temporal vertical digital aerial photographs. These photographs have great information potential because they contain multispectral, position and also elevation information. Elevation information represents a digital surface model (DSM) which can be obtained using the image matching technique. Pixel-based evaluation of bi-temporal DSMs enables fast localization of places with potential building changes. These coarse results are subsequently classified through the object-based image analysis (OBIA) using spectral, textural and contextual features and GIS tools. The advantage of the two-stage evaluation is the pre-selection of locations where image segmentation (a computationally demanding part of OBIA) is performed. It is not necessary to apply image segmentation to the entire scene, but only to the surroundings of detected changes, which contributes to significantly faster processing and lower hardware requirements. The created technology is based on open-source software solutions that allow easy portability on multiple computers and parallelization of processing. This leads to significant savings of financial resources which can be expended on the further development of FBGD.

14-3-3ζ turns TGF-β's function from tumor suppressor to metastasis promoter in breast cancer by contextual changes of Smad partners from p53 to Gli2.

PubMed

Xu, Jia; Acharya, Sunil; Sahin, Ozgur; Zhang, Qingling; Saito, Yohei; Yao, Jun; Wang, Hai; Li, Ping; Zhang, Lin; Lowery, Frank J; Kuo, Wen-Ling; Xiao, Yi; Ensor, Joe; Sahin, Aysegul A; Zhang, Xiang H-F; Hung, Mien-Chie; Zhang, Jitao David; Yu, Dihua

2015-02-09

Transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) functions as a tumor suppressor in premalignant cells but as a metastasis promoter in cancer cells. The dichotomous functions of TGF-β are proposed to be dictated by different partners of its downstream effector Smads. However, the mechanism for the contextual changes of Smad partners remained undefined. Here, we demonstrate that 14-3-3ζ destabilizes p53, a Smad partner in premalignant mammary epithelial cells, by downregulating 14-3-3σ, thus turning off TGF-β's tumor suppression function. Conversely, 14-3-3ζ stabilizes Gli2 in breast cancer cells, and Gli2 partners with Smads to activate PTHrP and promote TGF-β-induced bone metastasis. The 14-3-3ζ-driven contextual changes of Smad partners from p53 to Gli2 may serve as biomarkers and therapeutic targets of TGF-β-mediated cancer progression. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Deception Detection: Accuracy Levels Among International Military Officers Using Content and Contextual Questioning Methods

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-01

average, people are slightly better than fifty-fifty at detecting deception, as seen in a published Personality and Social Psychology Review article...at detecting deception, as seen in a published Personality and Social Psychology Review article. Modern research ideology favors using diagnostic... psychological factors such as mood, temperament, or any other conditions [that] might affect participants’ responses.” Also, participants in the current

Investigating the Interpersonal and Contextual Factors Govern Saudi Lecturers' Motivation in Creating Innovative Blended Learning Environment That Web 2.0-Based

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alghanmi, Sahar

2014-01-01

Sustaining success in higher education within an ever-changing landscape largely depends on academics' motivation to cope with it. Essentially, this study aims to explore the interpersonal and contextual factors that govern the introduction of blended learning in a Saudi context. A collective case study approach was employed with Self-…

A Longitudinal Study of Career Maturity of Korean Adolescents: The Effects of Personal and Contextual Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yon, Kyu Jin; Joeng, Ju-Ri; Goh, Michael

2012-01-01

The purpose of this longitudinal study is to examine the effects of personal factors and contextual determinants on the career maturity change of Korean adolescents over a 5-year period. This study used data from the Korea Youth Panel Survey which was administered to 3,449 junior high students from Grades 8 to 12, starting in 2003. A linear…

Context Preexposure Prevents Forgetting of a Contextual Fear Memory: Implication for Regional Changes in Brain Activation Patterns Associated with Recent and Remote Memory Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biedenkapp, Joseph C.; Rudy, Jerry W.

2007-01-01

Contextual fear conditioning was maintained over a 15-day retention interval suggesting no forgetting of the conditioning experience. However, a more subtle generalization test revealed that, as the retention interval increased, rats showed enhanced generalized fear to an altered context. Preexposure to the training context prior to conditioning,…

Contextual Mediators influencing the Effectiveness of Behavioural Change Interventions: A Case of HIV/AIDS Prevention Behaviours

PubMed Central

Musiimenta, Angella

2012-01-01

Background: Although Uganda had recorded declines in HIV infection rates around 1990’s, it is argued that HIV/AIDS risk sexual behaviour, especially among the youth, started increasing again from early 2000. School-based computer-assisted HIV interventions can provide interactive ways of improving the youth’s HIV knowledge, attitudes and skills. However, these interventions have long been reported to have limited success in improving the youth’s sexual behaviours, which is always the major aim of implementing such interventions. This could be because the commonly used health promotion theories employed by these interventions have limited application in HIV prevention. These theories tend to lack sufficient attention to contextual mediators that influence ones sexual behaviours. Moreover, literature increasingly expresses dissatisfaction with the dominant prevailing descriptive survey-type HIV/AIDS-related research. Objective and Methods: The objective of this research was to identify contextual mediators that influence the youth’s decision to adopt and maintain the HIV/AIDS preventive behaviour advocated by a computer-assisted intervention. To achieve this objective, this research employed qualitative method, which provided in-depth understanding of how different contexts interact to influence the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS interventions. The research question was: What contextual mediators are influencing the youth’s decision to adopt and maintain the HIV/AIDS preventive behaviour advocated by a computer-assisted intervention? To answer this research question, 20 youth who had previously completed the WSWM intervention when they were still in secondary schools were telephone interviewed between Sept.08 and Dec.08. The collected data was then analysed, based on grounded theory’s coding scheme. Results: Findings demonstrate that although often ignored by HIV interventionists and researchers, variety of contextual mediators influence individual uptake of HIV preventives. These include relationship characteristics, familial mediators, peer influence, gender-based social norms, economic factors and religious beliefs. Conclusion: To generate concomitant mutual efforts, rather than exclusively focusing on individual level mediators, there is an urgent need to shift to integrative approaches, which combine individual level change strategies with contextual level change approaches in the design and implementation of interventional strategies to fight against HIV/AIDS. PMID:23569636

A critical theory of medical discourse: how patients and health professionals deal with social problems.

PubMed

Waitzkin, H; Britt, T

1989-01-01

Criticism of social context does not generally appear in medical encounters. When contextual issues arise in medical discourse, messages of ideology and social control may become apparent, usually without the conscious awareness of the participants. By easing the physical or psychological impact of contextual difficulties, or by encouraging patients' conformity to mainstream expectations of desirable behavior, encounters with doctors can help win patients' consent to troubling social conditions. Seen in this light, doctor-patient encounters become micropolitical situations that do not typically encourage explicit statements or actions by health professionals to change contextual sources of their patients' difficulties. A critical theory influenced by structuralism suggests that the surface meanings of signs in medical discourse prove less important than their structural relationships. In addition, a theoretical approach adopting elements of post-structuralism and Marxist literary criticism emphasizes the marginal, absent, or excluded elements of medical discourse. Contextual features that shape a text include social class, sex, age, and race. Through the underlying structure of medical discourse, contextual problems are expressed, marginalized, and managed.

A robust object-based shadow detection method for cloud-free high resolution satellite images over urban areas and water bodies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tatar, Nurollah; Saadatseresht, Mohammad; Arefi, Hossein; Hadavand, Ahmad

2018-06-01

Unwanted contrast in high resolution satellite images such as shadow areas directly affects the result of further processing in urban remote sensing images. Detecting and finding the precise position of shadows is critical in different remote sensing processing chains such as change detection, image classification and digital elevation model generation from stereo images. The spectral similarity between shadow areas, water bodies, and some dark asphalt roads makes the development of robust shadow detection algorithms challenging. In addition, most of the existing methods work on pixel-level and neglect the contextual information contained in neighboring pixels. In this paper, a new object-based shadow detection framework is introduced. In the proposed method a pixel-level shadow mask is built by extending established thresholding methods with a new C4 index which enables to solve the ambiguity of shadow and water bodies. Then the pixel-based results are further processed in an object-based majority analysis to detect the final shadow objects. Four different high resolution satellite images are used to validate this new approach. The result shows the superiority of the proposed method over some state-of-the-art shadow detection method with an average of 96% in F-measure.

Novel cage stress alters remote contextual fear extinction and regional T2 magnetic resonance relaxation times in TASTPM mice overexpressing amyloid.

PubMed

Rattray, Ivan; Pitiot, Alain; Lowe, James; Auer, Dorothee P; Lima, Sarah-Jane; Schubert, Mirjam I; Prior, Malcolm J W; Marsden, Charles A; Diaz, Fernando Pérez; Kendall, David A; Pardon, Marie-Christine

2010-01-01

We have previously shown that repeated exposure to mild novel cage stress prevents the onset of recent contextual fear memory deficits and attenuated amyloid deposition in the TASTPM mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Here, we extended this investigation to remote contextual fear memory and extinction. TASTPM and wild-type mice acquired contextual fear at 4 months of age. Retention and extinction of contextual fear were assessed at 5.5 months prior to in vivo MRI assessment of regional T2 relaxation times and brain volumes followed by immunostaining to determine amyloid plaque load. Remote contextual fear memory was preserved in TASTPM mice regardless of the stress condition. Stress impaired extinction in wild-type mice but facilitated this process in TASTPM mice. Genotype-dependent effects of stress were observed on regional T2 times which were prolonged in the subiculum and thalamus of stressed TASTPM, possibly reflecting reduced amyloid pathology. Amyloid plaque load was particularly decreased in the retrosplenial cortex of stressed TASTPM mice, which also showed an overall reduction in the number of diffuse plaques. These findings support the hypothesis that repeated mild levels of stress induced by novel activities can delay the progression of pathological changes relevant to Alzheimer's disease.

Concentration- and age-dependent effects of chronic caffeine on contextual fear conditioning in C57BL/6J mice

PubMed Central

Poole, Rachel L.; Braak, David; Gould, Thomas J.

2015-01-01

Chronic caffeine exerts negligible effects on learning and memory in normal adults, but it is unknown whether this is also true for children and adolescents. The hippocampus, a brain region important for learning and memory, undergoes extensive structural and functional modifications during pre-adolescence and adolescence. As a result, chronic caffeine may have differential effects on hippocampus-dependent learning in pre-adolescents and adolescents compared with adults. Here, we characterized the effects of chronic caffeine and withdrawal from chronic caffeine on hippocampus-dependent (contextual) and hippocampus-independent (cued) fear conditioning in pre-adolescent, adolescent, and adult mice. The results indicate that chronic exposure to caffeine during pre-adolescence and adolescence enhances or impairs contextual conditioning depending on concentration, yet has no effect on cued conditioning. In contrast, withdrawal from chronic caffeine impairs contextual conditioning in pre-adolescent mice only. No changes in learning were seen for adult mice for either the chronic caffeine or withdrawal conditions. These findings support the hypothesis that chronic exposure to caffeine during pre-adolescence and adolescence can alter learning and memory and as changes were only seen in hippocampus-dependent learning, this suggests that the developing hippocampus may be sensitive to the effects of caffeine. PMID:25827925

Contextual and social influences on valuation and choice.

PubMed

Engelmann, Jan B; Hein, Grit

2013-01-01

To survive in our complex environment, we have to adapt to changing contexts. Prior research that investigated how contextual changes are processed in the human brain has demonstrated important modulatory influences on multiple cognitive processes underlying decision-making, including perceptual judgments, working memory, as well as cognitive and attentional control. However, in everyday life, the importance of context is even more obvious during economic and social interactions, which often have implicit rule sets that need to be recognized by a decision-maker. Here, we review recent evidence from an increasing number of studies in the fields of Neuroeconomics and Social Neuroscience that investigate the neurobiological basis of contextual effects on valuation and social choice. Contrary to the assumptions of rational choice theory, multiple contextual factors, such as the availability of alternative choice options, shifts in reference point, and social context, have been shown to modulate behavior, as well as signals in task-relevant neural networks. A consistent picture that emerges from neurobiological results is that valuation-related activity in striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex is highly context dependent during both social and nonsocial choice. Alternative approaches to model and explain choice behavior, such as comparison-based choice models, as well as implications for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contextual and interdependent causes of climate change adaptation barriers: Insights from water management institutions in Himachal Pradesh, India.

PubMed

Azhoni, Adani; Holman, Ian; Jude, Simon

2017-01-15

Research on adaptation barriers is increasing as the need for climate change adaptation becomes evident. However, empirical studies regarding the emergence, causes and sustenance of adaptation barriers remain limited. This research identifies key contextual causes of adaptation barriers in water institutions in the mountainous Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with representatives from twenty-six key governmental, non-governmental, academic and research institutions in the State with responsibilities spanning domestic water supply, irrigation and hydropower generation, environmental monitoring and research. It identified low knowledge capacity and resources, policy implementation gaps, normative attitudes, and unavailability and inaccessibility of data and information compounded with weak interinstitutional networks as key adaptation barriers. Although these barriers are similar to those reported elsewhere, they have important locally-contextual root causes. For instance, inadequate resources result from fragmented resources allocation due to competing developmental priorities and the desire of the political leadership to please diverse electors, rather than climate scepticism. The identified individual barriers are found to be highly inter-dependent and closely intertwined which enables the identification of leverage points for interventions to maximise barrier removal. For instance, breaking down key barriers hindering accessibility to data and information, which are shaped by systemic bureaucracies and cultural attitudes, will involve attitudinal change through sensitisation to the importance of accurate and accessible data and information and the building trust between different actors, in addition to institutional structural changes through legislation and inter-institutional agreements. Approaching barriers as a system of contextually interconnected cultural, systemic, geographical and political underlying factors enriches the understanding of adaptation enablers, thereby contributing to achieving a better adapted society. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Integration of contextual cues into memory depends on "prefrontal" N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors.

PubMed

Starosta, Sarah; Bartetzko, Isabelle; Stüttgen, Maik C; Güntürkün, Onur

2017-10-01

Every learning event is embedded in a context, but not always does the context become an integral part of the memory; however, for extinction learning it usually does, resulting in context-specific conditioned responding. The neuronal mechanisms underlying contextual control have been mainly investigated for Pavlovian fear extinction with a focus on hippocampal structures. However, the initial acquisition of novel responses can be subject to contextual control as well, although the neuronal mechanisms are mostly unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that contextual control of acquisition depends on glutamatergic transmission underlying executive functions in forebrain areas, e.g. by shifting attention to critical cues. Thus, we antagonized N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors with 2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (AP5) in the pigeon nidopallium caudolaterale, the functional analogue of mammalian prefrontal cortex, during the concomitant acquisition and extinction of conditioned responding to two different stimuli. This paradigm has previously been shown to lead to contextual control over extinguished as well as non-extinguished responding. NMDA receptor blockade resulted in an impairment of extinction learning, but left the acquisition of responses to a novel stimulus unaffected. Critically, when responses were tested in a different context in the retrieval phase, we observed that NMDA receptor blockade led to the abolishment of contextual control over acquisition performance. This result is predicted by a model describing response inclination as the product of associative strength and contextual gain. In this model, learning under AP5 leads to a change in the contextual gain on the learned association, possibly via the modulation of attentional mechanisms. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT): A Cytoscape app for identifying contextually relevant hubs in biological networks.

PubMed

Muetze, Tanja; Goenawan, Ivan H; Wiencko, Heather L; Bernal-Llinares, Manuel; Bryan, Kenneth; Lynn, David J

2016-01-01

Highly connected nodes (hubs) in biological networks are topologically important to the structure of the network and have also been shown to be preferentially associated with a range of phenotypes of interest. The relative importance of a hub node, however, can change depending on the biological context. Here, we report a Cytoscape app, the Contextual Hub Analysis Tool (CHAT), which enables users to easily construct and visualize a network of interactions from a gene or protein list of interest, integrate contextual information, such as gene expression or mass spectrometry data, and identify hub nodes that are more highly connected to contextual nodes (e.g. genes or proteins that are differentially expressed) than expected by chance. In a case study, we use CHAT to construct a network of genes that are differentially expressed in Dengue fever, a viral infection. CHAT was used to identify and compare contextual and degree-based hubs in this network. The top 20 degree-based hubs were enriched in pathways related to the cell cycle and cancer, which is likely due to the fact that proteins involved in these processes tend to be highly connected in general. In comparison, the top 20 contextual hubs were enriched in pathways commonly observed in a viral infection including pathways related to the immune response to viral infection. This analysis shows that such contextual hubs are considerably more biologically relevant than degree-based hubs and that analyses which rely on the identification of hubs solely based on their connectivity may be biased towards nodes that are highly connected in general rather than in the specific context of interest. CHAT is available for Cytoscape 3.0+ and can be installed via the Cytoscape App Store ( http://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/chat).

Contextual and individual influences on diabetes and heart disease in Havana primary care catchment areas.

PubMed

Díaz-Perera, Georgia; Bacallao, Jorge; Alemañy, Eduardo

2013-04-01

A population health profile is a cumulative product of socioenvironmental and political factors that create the contexts in which health problems arise, as well as opportunities and barriers to addressing them. Research on context has focused on demonstrating its effects, direct or indirect, on health indicators, but has made few incursions into assessing its role as a mediator of other factors. While individual risk factors for chronic diseases are well known, the same cannot be said for the complex of contextual factors operating at various levels and over the lifespan. Estimate relative influences by contextual versus individual factors as determinants of diabetes type 2 and heart disease. A cross-sectional study was carried out in populations served by 12 family doctor-and-nurse practices in Havana, in 840 families selected by simple random sampling, 70 per practice. Principal components analysis was used, as well as contextual logistic regression models with a nested model strategy, whose fit was meant to estimate the relative contributions of contextual compared to individual risk factors for diabetes and heart disease. Context was described and analyzed at two levels: that of the family or household and that of the catchment area served by a family doctor-and-nurse practice (geographically defined as a neighborhood). For diabetes, the contextual effect of neighborhood was modified when household effect was removed; that is, the effect of neighborhood was indirect and mediated by household. Individual coefficients were practically invariant; the principal effect of household changed noticeably on removal of individual effects, while age maintained its effect without variation. For heart disease, the effect of neighborhood was slightly modified when household effect was controlled for. Individual coefficients showed little change. There was an important direct effect of household on risk of heart disease. Age and high blood pressure coefficients hardly varied. We confirmed interactions between individual and contextual (neighborhood and household) factors, whose effects on individual health are not entirely mediated by individual factors. Research needs to pay more attention to context beyond its direct effect on individual risk factors.

The changing food outlet distributions and local contextual factors in the United States.

PubMed

Chen, Hsin-Jen; Wang, Youfa

2014-01-16

Little is known about the dynamics of the food outlet distributions associated with local contextual factors in the U.S. This study examines the changes in food stores/services at the 5-digit Zip Code Tabulated Area (ZCTA5) level in the U.S., and assesses contextual factors associated with the changes. Data from 27,878 ZCTA5s in the contiguous United States without an extreme change in the number of 6 types of food stores/services (supermarkets, small-size grocery stores, convenience stores, fresh/specialty food markets, carry-out restaurants, and full-service restaurants) were used. ZCTA5s' contextual factors were from the 2000 Census. Numbers of food stores/services were derived from the Census Business Pattern databases. Linear regression models assessed contextual factors' influences (racial/ethnic compositions, poverty rate, urbanization level, and foreign-born population%) on 1-year changes in food stores/services during 2000-2001, adjusted for population size, total business change, and census regions. Small-size grocery stores and fresh/specialty food markets increased more and convenience stores decreased more in Hispanic-predominant than other areas. Among supermarket-free places, new supermarkets were less likely to be introduced into black-predominant than white-predominant areas (odds ratio (OR) = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.30-0.92). However, among areas without the following type of store at baseline, supermarket (OR = 0.48 (0.33-0.70)), small-size grocery stores (OR = 1.32 (1.08-1.62)), and fresh/specialty food markets (OR = 0.70 (0.53-0.92)) were less likely to be introduced into areas of low foreign-born population than into areas of high foreign-born population. Higher poverty rate was associated with a greater decrease in supermarket, a less decrease in small-size grocery stores, and a less increase in carry-out restaurants (all p for trends <0.001). Urban areas experienced more increases in full-service and carry-out restaurants than suburban areas. Local area characteristics affect 1-year changes in food environment in the U.S. Hispanic population was associated with more food stores/services capable of supplying fresh food items. Black-predominant and poverty-afflicted areas had a greater decrease in supermarkets. Full-service and carry-out restaurants increased more in urban than suburban areas. Foreign-born population density was associated with introduction of grocery stores and fresh/specialty food markets into the areas.

The changing food outlet distributions and local contextual factors in the United States

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Little is known about the dynamics of the food outlet distributions associated with local contextual factors in the U.S. This study examines the changes in food stores/services at the 5-digit Zip Code Tabulated Area (ZCTA5) level in the U.S., and assesses contextual factors associated with the changes. Methods Data from 27,878 ZCTA5s in the contiguous United States without an extreme change in the number of 6 types of food stores/services (supermarkets, small-size grocery stores, convenience stores, fresh/specialty food markets, carry-out restaurants, and full-service restaurants) were used. ZCTA5s’ contextual factors were from the 2000 Census. Numbers of food stores/services were derived from the Census Business Pattern databases. Linear regression models assessed contextual factors’ influences (racial/ethnic compositions, poverty rate, urbanization level, and foreign-born population%) on 1-year changes in food stores/services during 2000–2001, adjusted for population size, total business change, and census regions. Results Small-size grocery stores and fresh/specialty food markets increased more and convenience stores decreased more in Hispanic-predominant than other areas. Among supermarket-free places, new supermarkets were less likely to be introduced into black-predominant than white-predominant areas (odds ratio (OR) = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.30-0.92). However, among areas without the following type of store at baseline, supermarket (OR = 0.48 (0.33-0.70)), small-size grocery stores (OR = 1.32 (1.08-1.62)), and fresh/specialty food markets (OR = 0.70 (0.53-0.92)) were less likely to be introduced into areas of low foreign-born population than into areas of high foreign-born population. Higher poverty rate was associated with a greater decrease in supermarket, a less decrease in small-size grocery stores, and a less increase in carry-out restaurants (all p for trends <0.001). Urban areas experienced more increases in full-service and carry-out restaurants than suburban areas. Conclusions Local area characteristics affect 1-year changes in food environment in the U.S. Hispanic population was associated with more food stores/services capable of supplying fresh food items. Black-predominant and poverty-afflicted areas had a greater decrease in supermarkets. Full-service and carry-out restaurants increased more in urban than suburban areas. Foreign-born population density was associated with introduction of grocery stores and fresh/specialty food markets into the areas. PMID:24433323

Contextual influence on evaluation capacity building in a rapidly changing environment under new governmental policies.

PubMed

Chen, Karen Hui-Jung

2017-12-01

Evaluation capacity building (ECB) is a context-dependent process. Contextual factors affecting ECB implementation have been explored theoretically and practically, but their influence within a changing environment has seldom been discussed. This study examined essential context-sensitive parameters, particularly those involved in implementing new governmental policies regarding higher education. Taiwan was used as a case study for exploring the effect of contextual change on ECB attributes from the perspectives of training receivers and providers. Surveys and interviews were used for data collection and importance-performance analysis was applied for data analysis. Four prominent features were identified. First, the ECB attributes perceived as important by receivers were performed adequately, whereas those perceived as less important were performed less well. Second, under new policies, training provider designed training covering a wide range of ECB, whereas receivers focused on those can be directly applied in evaluation process. Third, in a small education system such as Taiwan's, the complexity of peer review is high and ethical issues become important. Fourth, because the evaluation structure has been changed from single- to dual-track, receivers expect more training for institution staff, whereas providers insist on hierarchical training. Aligning ECB supply and needs is paramount for adaptation to new policies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selective early-acquired fear memories undergo temporary suppression during adolescence

PubMed Central

Pattwell, Siobhan S.; Bath, Kevin G.; Casey, B. J.; Ninan, Ipe; Lee, Francis S.

2011-01-01

Highly conserved neural circuitry between rodents and humans has allowed for in-depth characterization of behavioral and molecular processes associated with emotional learning and memory. Despite increased prevalence of affective disorders in adolescent humans, few studies have characterized how associative-emotional learning changes during the transition through adolescence or identified mechanisms underlying such changes. By examining fear conditioning in mice, as they transitioned into and out of adolescence, we found that a suppression of contextual fear occurs during adolescence. Although contextual fear memories were not expressed during early adolescence, they could be retrieved and expressed as the mice transitioned out of adolescence. This temporary suppression of contextual fear was associated with blunted synaptic activity in the basal amygdala and decreased PI3K and MAPK signaling in the hippocampus. These findings reveal a unique form of brain plasticity in fear learning during early adolescence and may prove informative for understanding endogenous mechanisms to suppress unwanted fear memories. PMID:21220344

Response-Conflict Moderates the Cognitive Control of Episodic and Contextual Load in Older Adults

PubMed Central

Eich, Teal S.; Rakitin, Brian C.

2016-01-01

Objectives: Decline in cognitive control is one of the primary cognitive changes in normal aging. Reaching a consensus regarding the nature of these age-related changes, however, is complicated by the complexity of cognitive control as a construct. Methods: Healthy older and younger adults participated in a multifactorial test of cognitive control. Within participants, the procedure varied as a function of the amount contextual load, episodic load, and response-conflict load present. Results: We found that older adults showed impaired performance relative to younger adults. We also found, however, that the response selection process underlying the response-conflict manipulation was a major moderator of age-related differences in both the contextual and episodic load conditions—suggesting a hierarchical organization. Discussion: These findings are consistent with previous findings, suggesting that deficits in cognitive control in older adults are directly related to the resolution of response-conflict and that other apparent deficits may be derivative upon the more basic response-conflict related deficit. PMID:26224757

Implicit Learning of Viewpoint-Independent Spatial Layouts

PubMed Central

Tsuchiai, Taiga; Matsumiya, Kazumichi; Kuriki, Ichiro; Shioiri, Satoshi

2012-01-01

We usually perceive things in our surroundings as unchanged despite viewpoint changes caused by self-motion. The visual system therefore must have a function to process objects independently of viewpoint. In this study, we examined whether viewpoint-independent spatial layout can be obtained implicitly. For this purpose, we used a contextual cueing effect, a learning effect of spatial layout in visual search displays known to be an implicit effect. We investigated the transfer of the contextual cueing effect to images from a different viewpoint by using visual search displays of 3D objects. For images from a different viewpoint, the contextual cueing effect was maintained with self-motion but disappeared when the display changed without self-motion. This indicates that there is an implicit learning effect in environment-centered coordinates and suggests that the spatial representation of object layouts can be obtained and updated implicitly. We also showed that binocular disparity plays an important role in the layout representations. PMID:22740837

Dynamic functional connectivity using state-based dynamic community structure: method and application to opioid analgesia.

PubMed

Robinson, Lucy F; Atlas, Lauren Y; Wager, Tor D

2015-03-01

We present a new method, State-based Dynamic Community Structure, that detects time-dependent community structure in networks of brain regions. Most analyses of functional connectivity assume that network behavior is static in time, or differs between task conditions with known timing. Our goal is to determine whether brain network topology remains stationary over time, or if changes in network organization occur at unknown time points. Changes in network organization may be related to shifts in neurological state, such as those associated with learning, drug uptake or experimental conditions. Using a hidden Markov stochastic blockmodel, we define a time-dependent community structure. We apply this approach to data from a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment examining how contextual factors influence drug-induced analgesia. Results reveal that networks involved in pain, working memory, and emotion show distinct profiles of time-varying connectivity. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Key Role for Nectin-1 in the Ventral Hippocampus in Contextual Fear Memory

PubMed Central

Grosse, Jocelyn; Krummenacher, Claude; Sandi, Carmen

2013-01-01

Nectins are cell adhesion molecules that are widely expressed in the brain. Nectin expression shows a dynamic spatiotemporal regulation, playing a role in neural migratory processes during development. Nectin-1 and nectin-3 and their heterophilic trans-interactions are important for the proper formation of synapses. In the hippocampus, nectin-1 and nectin-3 localize at puncta adherentia junctions and may play a role in synaptic plasticity, a mechanism essential for memory and learning. We evaluated the potential involvement of nectin-1 and nectin-3 in memory consolidation using an emotional learning paradigm. Rats trained for contextual fear conditioning showed transient nectin-1—but not nectin-3—protein upregulation in synapse-enriched hippocampal fractions at about 2 h posttraining. The upregulation of nectin-1 was found exclusively in the ventral hippocampus and was apparent in the synaptoneurosomal fraction. This upregulation was induced by contextual fear conditioning but not by exposure to context or shock alone. When an antibody against nectin-1, R165, was infused in the ventral-hippocampus immediately after training, contextual fear memory was impaired. However, treatment with the antibody in the dorsal hippocampus had no effect in contextual fear memory formation. Similarly, treatment with the antibody in the ventral hippocampus did not interfere with acoustic memory formation. Further control experiments indicated that the effects of ventral hippocampal infusion of the nectin-1 antibody in contextual fear memory cannot be ascribed to memory non-specific effects such as changes in anxiety-like behavior or locomotor behavior. Therefore, we conclude that nectin-1 recruitment to the perisynaptic environment in the ventral hippocampus plays an important role in the formation of contextual fear memories. Our results suggest that these mechanisms could be involved in the connection of emotional and contextual information processed in the amygdala and dorsal hippocampus, respectively, thus opening new venues for the development of treatments to psychopathological alterations linked to impaired contextualization of emotions. PMID:23418609

Sustaining organizational culture change in health systems.

PubMed

Willis, Cameron David; Saul, Jessie; Bevan, Helen; Scheirer, Mary Ann; Best, Allan; Greenhalgh, Trisha; Mannion, Russell; Cornelissen, Evelyn; Howland, David; Jenkins, Emily; Bitz, Jennifer

2016-01-01

The questions addressed by this review are: first, what are the guiding principles underlying efforts to stimulate sustained cultural change; second, what are the mechanisms by which these principles operate; and, finally, what are the contextual factors that influence the likelihood of these principles being effective? The paper aims to discuss these issues. The authors conducted a literature review informed by rapid realist review methodology that examined how interventions interact with contexts and mechanisms to influence the sustainability of cultural change. Reference and expert panelists assisted in refining the research questions, systematically searching published and grey literature, and helping to identify interactions between interventions, mechanisms and contexts. Six guiding principles were identified: align vision and action; make incremental changes within a comprehensive transformation strategy; foster distributed leadership; promote staff engagement; create collaborative relationships; and continuously assess and learn from change. These principles interact with contextual elements such as local power distributions, pre-existing values and beliefs and readiness to engage. Mechanisms influencing how these principles sustain cultural change include activation of a shared sense of urgency and fostering flexible levels of engagement. The principles identified in this review, along with the contexts and mechanisms that influence their effectiveness, are useful domains for policy and practice leaders to explore when grappling with cultural change. These principles are sufficiently broad to allow local flexibilities in adoption and application. This is the first study to adopt a realist approach for understanding how changes in organizational culture may be sustained. Through doing so, this review highlights the broad principles by which organizational action may be organized within enabling contextual settings.

The influence of mastery on mother's health in middle years: Moderating role of stressful life context.

PubMed

King, Victoria; Wickrama, K A S; Klopack, Erick; Lorenz, Frederick O

2018-06-07

Using data from 416 middle-aged mothers gathered over the course of a decade, this study examined the influence of mastery trajectories (the initial level and change), on change in physical health. Mastery is defined as one's ability to control and influence his/her life and environment to reach a desired outcome or goal. Both the initial level and change in mastery from 1991 to 1994 were associated with decreased physical health problems over the middle years (1991-2001). Contextual moderation of this association by stressful life contexts including negative life events and work-family conflict was investigated. Moderation analysis showed that under conditions of low contextual life stressors, the level and increase in mastery significantly contributed to decreases in physical health problems in middle-aged mothers. Alternatively, conditions of high contextual life stressors inhibited the ability of mastery to influence physical health of mothers, suggesting that the positive health impact of mastery on physical health is mitigated by stressful life experiences. Implications for the need to maintain important personal resources, such as mastery, during times of stress are discussed. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Changes in Sleep Duration, Timing, and Quality as Children Transition to Kindergarten

PubMed Central

Cairns, Alyssa; Harsh, John

2014-01-01

Sleep can be seen as a biologically driven behavior shaped by cultural context. A “poor fit” occurs when contextual demands for the timing and duration sleep periods are incompatible with the underlying biology. Such contextual factors are well-known for adults, yet little is known of the contextual factors that shape young children’s sleep health and to what degree such factors impact sleep duration, timing, and quality. This study attempted to identify how the transition to kindergarten was associatedwith changes in sleep timing, duration, and quality for children enrolled in preschool prior to attending kindergarten vs. those who were not. Wrist actigraphy in 38 5-yearold children was collected at three longitudinal points before and after the start of kindergarten. Our data suggested that the transition to kindergarten was associated with a reduction in weekday sleep (mostly due to lost napping) and an advance in the weekday nocturnal sleep period that was most pronounced for children not enrolled in preschool prior to kindergarten. These sleep changes paralleled objective and caregiver-reported data of increased sleep pressure that lasted well into the first month of kindergarten. PMID:24364713

Developing an In-depth Understanding of Elderly Adult's Vulnerability to Climate Change.

PubMed

Rhoades, Jason L; Gruber, James S; Horton, Bill

2018-05-08

Recent reports highlight the vulnerability of elderly adults to climate change, yet limited research has focused on this topic. To address this, the purpose of this study was to develop an in-depth understanding of elderly adult's vulnerability to climate change within the context of a specific community. A case study methodology utilizing a community-based action research approach was employed to engage elderly participants living in Bridgeport, CT, in exploring their vulnerability to current and predicted climate stressors with a focus on extreme heat, flooding and storms, and air pollution. This research identifies personal characteristics that interact with contextual factors to influence elderly adult's vulnerability to climate change. Personal characteristics include health, economic, and social considerations. Contextual factors include the adequacy of emergency preparedness measures, transportation resources, and coping and recovery resources. As a result of the interplay of these characteristics and factors, predicted climate changes could have serious consequences for Bridgeport's elderly adults. This research provides a contextualized and detailed illustration of how climate change could overwhelm elderly adult's adaptive capacity and highlights the need for support services to provide safeguards. The issues and concerns raised may bear similarities to other locations, especially urban settings facing similar climate stressors with similar socioeconomic conditions. The findings suggest a need for further research to improve our understanding and serve as the basis for collaborative adaptation planning that engages elderly communities with local governments and a broad coalition of partners to keep elders safe.

Feature-fused SSD: fast detection for small objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Guimei; Xie, Xuemei; Yang, Wenzhe; Liao, Quan; Shi, Guangming; Wu, Jinjian

2018-04-01

Small objects detection is a challenging task in computer vision due to its limited resolution and information. In order to solve this problem, the majority of existing methods sacrifice speed for improvement in accuracy. In this paper, we aim to detect small objects at a fast speed, using the best object detector Single Shot Multibox Detector (SSD) with respect to accuracy-vs-speed trade-off as base architecture. We propose a multi-level feature fusion method for introducing contextual information in SSD, in order to improve the accuracy for small objects. In detailed fusion operation, we design two feature fusion modules, concatenation module and element-sum module, different in the way of adding contextual information. Experimental results show that these two fusion modules obtain higher mAP on PASCAL VOC2007 than baseline SSD by 1.6 and 1.7 points respectively, especially with 2-3 points improvement on some small objects categories. The testing speed of them is 43 and 40 FPS respectively, superior to the state of the art Deconvolutional single shot detector (DSSD) by 29.4 and 26.4 FPS.

Hypobaric hypoxia impairs cued and contextual fear memory in rats.

PubMed

Kumari, Punita; Kauser, Hina; Wadhwa, Meetu; Roy, Koustav; Alam, Shahnawaz; Sahu, Surajit; Kishore, Krishna; Ray, Koushik; Panjwani, Usha

2018-04-26

Fear memory is essential for survival, and its dysregulation leads to disorders. High altitude hypobaric hypoxia (HH) is known to induce cognitive decline. However, its effect on fear memory is still an enigma. We aimed to investigate the temporal effect of HH on fear conditioning and the underlying mechanism. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained for fear conditioning and exposed to simulated HH equivalent to 25,000 ft for different durations (1, 3, 7, 14 and 21 days). Subsequently, rats were tested for cued and contextual fear conditioning. Neuronal morphology, apoptosis and DNA fragmentation were studied in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), hippocampus and basolateral amygdala (BLA). We observed significant deficit in cued and contextual fear acquisition (at 1, 3 and 7 days) and consolidation (cued at 1 and 3 days and contextual fear at 1, 3 and 7 days) under HH. HH exposure with retraining showed the earlier restoration of contextual fear memory. Further, we found a gradual increase in the number of pyknotic and apoptotic neurons together with the increase in DNA fragmentation in mPFC, hippocampus, and BLA up to 7 days of HH exposure. The present study concludes that HH exposure equivalent to 25000 ft induced cued and contextual fear memory deficit (acquisition and consolidation) which is found to be correlated with the neurodegenerative changes in the limbic brain regions. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Synchronous contextual irregularities affect early scene processing: replication and extension.

PubMed

Mudrik, Liad; Shalgi, Shani; Lamy, Dominique; Deouell, Leon Y

2014-04-01

Whether contextual regularities facilitate perceptual stages of scene processing is widely debated, and empirical evidence is still inconclusive. Specifically, it was recently suggested that contextual violations affect early processing of a scene only when the incongruent object and the scene are presented a-synchronously, creating expectations. We compared event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by scenes that depicted a person performing an action using either a congruent or an incongruent object (e.g., a man shaving with a razor or with a fork) when scene and object were presented simultaneously. We also explored the role of attention in contextual processing by using a pre-cue to direct subjects׳ attention towards or away from the congruent/incongruent object. Subjects׳ task was to determine how many hands the person in the picture used in order to perform the action. We replicated our previous findings of frontocentral negativity for incongruent scenes that started ~ 210 ms post stimulus presentation, even earlier than previously found. Surprisingly, this incongruency ERP effect was negatively correlated with the reaction times cost on incongruent scenes. The results did not allow us to draw conclusions about the role of attention in detecting the regularity, due to a weak attention manipulation. By replicating the 200-300 ms incongruity effect with a new group of subjects at even earlier latencies than previously reported, the results strengthen the evidence for contextual processing during this time window even when simultaneous presentation of the scene and object prevent the formation of prior expectations. We discuss possible methodological limitations that may account for previous failures to find this an effect, and conclude that contextual information affects object model selection processes prior to full object identification, with semantic knowledge activation stages unfolding only later on. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Combined effects of complex magnetic fields and agmatine for contextual fear learning deficits in rats.

PubMed

McKay, B E; Persinger, M A

2003-04-18

Acute post-training exposures to weak intensity theta-burst stimulation (TBS) patterned complex magnetic fields attenuated the magnitude of conditioned fear learning for contextual stimuli. A similar learning impairment was evoked in a linear and dose-dependent manner by pre-conditioning injections of the polyamine agmatine. The present study examined the hypothesis that whole-body applications of the TBS complex magnetic field pattern when co-administered with systemic agmatine treatment may combine to evoke impairments in contextual fear learning. Within minutes of 4 mg/kg agmatine injections, male Wistar rats were fear conditioned to contextual stimuli and immediately exposed for 30 min to the TBS patterned complex magnetic field or to sham conditions. TBS patterned complex magnetic field treatment was found to linearly summate with the contextual fear learning impairment evoked by agmatine treatment alone. Furthermore, we report for sham-treated rats, but not rats exposed to the synthetic magnetic field pattern, that the magnitude of learned fear decreased and the amount of variability in learning increased, as the K-index (a measure of change in intensity of the time-varying ambient geomagnetic field) increased during the 3-hr intervals over which conditioning and testing sessions were conducted.

The strategic control of prospective memory monitoring in response to complex and probabilistic contextual cues.

PubMed

Bugg, Julie M; Ball, B Hunter

2017-07-01

Participants use simple contextual cues to reduce deployment of costly monitoring processes in contexts in which prospective memory (PM) targets are not expected. This study investigated whether this strategic monitoring pattern is observed in response to complex and probabilistic contextual cues. Participants performed a lexical decision task in which words or nonwords were presented in upper or lower locations on screen. The specific condition was informed that PM targets ("tor" syllable) would occur only in words in the upper location, whereas the nonspecific condition was informed that targets could occur in any location or word type. Context was blocked such that word type and location changed every 8 trials. In Experiment 1, the specific condition used the complex contextual cue to reduce monitoring in unexpected contexts relative to the nonspecific condition. This pattern largely was not evidenced when the complex contextual cue was probabilistic (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 confirmed that strategic monitoring is observed for a complex cue that is deterministic, but not one that is probabilistic. Additionally, Experiments 1 and 3 demonstrated a disadvantage associated with strategic monitoring-namely, that the specific condition was less likely to respond to a PM target in an unexpected context. Experiment 3 provided evidence that this disadvantage is attributable to impaired noticing of the target. The novel findings suggest use of a complex contextual cue per se is not a boundary condition for the strategic, context-specific allocation of monitoring processes to support prospective remembering; however, strategic monitoring is constrained by the predictive utility of the complex contextual cue.

Contextual cueing in naturalistic scenes: Global and local contexts.

PubMed

Brockmole, James R; Castelhano, Monica S; Henderson, John M

2006-07-01

In contextual cueing, the position of a target within a group of distractors is learned over repeated exposure to a display with reference to a few nearby items rather than to the global pattern created by the elements. The authors contrasted the role of global and local contexts for contextual cueing in naturalistic scenes. Experiment 1 showed that learned target positions transfer when local information is altered but not when global information is changed. Experiment 2 showed that scene-target covariation is learned more slowly when local, but not global, information is repeated across trials than when global but not local information is repeated. Thus, in naturalistic scenes, observers are biased to associate target locations with global contexts. Copyright 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

Geospatial revolution and remote sensing LiDAR in Mesoamerican archaeology

PubMed Central

Chase, Arlen F.; Fisher, Christopher T.; Leisz, Stephen J.; Weishampel, John F.

2012-01-01

The application of light detection and ranging (LiDAR), a laser-based remote-sensing technology that is capable of penetrating overlying vegetation and forest canopies, is generating a fundamental shift in Mesoamerican archaeology and has the potential to transform research in forested areas world-wide. Much as radiocarbon dating that half a century ago moved archaeology forward by grounding archaeological remains in time, LiDAR is proving to be a catalyst for an improved spatial understanding of the past. With LiDAR, ancient societies can be contextualized within a fully defined landscape. Interpretations about the scale and organization of densely forested sites no longer are constrained by sample size, as they were when mapping required laborious on-ground survey. The ability to articulate ancient landscapes fully permits a better understanding of the complexity of ancient Mesoamerican urbanism and also aids in modern conservation efforts. The importance of this geospatial innovation is demonstrated with newly acquired LiDAR data from the archaeological sites of Caracol, Cayo, Belize and Angamuco, Michoacán, Mexico. These data illustrate the potential of technology to act as a catalytic enabler of rapid transformational change in archaeological research and interpretation and also underscore the value of on-the-ground archaeological investigation in validating and contextualizing results. PMID:22802623

Geospatial revolution and remote sensing LiDAR in Mesoamerican archaeology.

PubMed

Chase, Arlen F; Chase, Diane Z; Fisher, Christopher T; Leisz, Stephen J; Weishampel, John F

2012-08-07

The application of light detection and ranging (LiDAR), a laser-based remote-sensing technology that is capable of penetrating overlying vegetation and forest canopies, is generating a fundamental shift in Mesoamerican archaeology and has the potential to transform research in forested areas world-wide. Much as radiocarbon dating that half a century ago moved archaeology forward by grounding archaeological remains in time, LiDAR is proving to be a catalyst for an improved spatial understanding of the past. With LiDAR, ancient societies can be contextualized within a fully defined landscape. Interpretations about the scale and organization of densely forested sites no longer are constrained by sample size, as they were when mapping required laborious on-ground survey. The ability to articulate ancient landscapes fully permits a better understanding of the complexity of ancient Mesoamerican urbanism and also aids in modern conservation efforts. The importance of this geospatial innovation is demonstrated with newly acquired LiDAR data from the archaeological sites of Caracol, Cayo, Belize and Angamuco, Michoacán, Mexico. These data illustrate the potential of technology to act as a catalytic enabler of rapid transformational change in archaeological research and interpretation and also underscore the value of on-the-ground archaeological investigation in validating and contextualizing results.

Modeling global scene factors in attention

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torralba, Antonio

2003-07-01

Models of visual attention have focused predominantly on bottom-up approaches that ignored structured contextual and scene information. I propose a model of contextual cueing for attention guidance based on the global scene configuration. It is shown that the statistics of low-level features across the whole image can be used to prime the presence or absence of objects in the scene and to predict their location, scale, and appearance before exploring the image. In this scheme, visual context information can become available early in the visual processing chain, which allows modulation of the saliency of image regions and provides an efficient shortcut for object detection and recognition. 2003 Optical Society of America

Ethical preferences for the clinical practice of empowerment social work.

PubMed

Miley, Karla; DuBois, Brenda

2007-01-01

Social workers in health care and mental health benefit from interventions that integrate principles of contextual social work practice with standards for clinical practice. The authors articulate a conceptual framework for the ethical practice of social work that complements the social justice purpose. The sixteen ethical preferences in this framework are the ethics of care, autonomy, power, change, respect, critical thinking, praxis, discourse, critique, justice, contextual practice, inclusion, anti-oppression, advocacy, collaboration, and politicized practice.

The Influence of Context on Quality Improvement Success in Health Care: A Systematic Review of the Literature

PubMed Central

Kaplan, Heather C; Brady, Patrick W; Dritz, Michele C; Hooper, David K; Linam, W Matthew; Froehle, Craig M; Margolis, Peter

2010-01-01

Context: The mixed results of success among QI initiatives may be due to differences in the context of these initiatives. Methods: The business and health care literature was systematically reviewed to identify contextual factors that might influence QI success; to categorize, summarize, and synthesize these factors; and to understand the current stage of development of this research field. Findings: Forty-seven articles were included in the final review. Consistent with current theories of implementation and organization change, leadership from top management, organizational culture, data infrastructure and information systems, and years involved in QI were suggested as important to QI success. Other potentially important factors identified in this review included: physician involvement in QI, microsystem motivation to change, resources for QI, and QI team leadership. Key limitations in the existing literature were the lack of a practical conceptual model, the lack of clear definitions of contextual factors, and the lack of well-specified measures. Conclusions: Several contextual factors were shown to be important to QI success, although the current body of literature lacks adequate definitions and is characterized by considerable variability in how contextual factors are measured across studies. Future research should focus on identifying and developing measures of context tied to a conceptual model that examines context across all levels of the health care system and explores the relationships among various aspects of context. PMID:21166868

The influence of context on quality improvement success in health care: a systematic review of the literature.

PubMed

Kaplan, Heather C; Brady, Patrick W; Dritz, Michele C; Hooper, David K; Linam, W Matthew; Froehle, Craig M; Margolis, Peter

2010-12-01

The mixed results of success among QI initiatives may be due to differences in the context of these initiatives. The business and health care literature was systematically reviewed to identify contextual factors that might influence QI success; to categorize, summarize, and synthesize these factors; and to understand the current stage of development of this research field. Forty-seven articles were included in the final review. Consistent with current theories of implementation and organization change, leadership from top management, organizational culture, data infrastructure and information systems, and years involved in QI were suggested as important to QI success. Other potentially important factors identified in this review included: physician involvement in QI, microsystem motivation to change, resources for QI, and QI team leadership. Key limitations in the existing literature were the lack of a practical conceptual model, the lack of clear definitions of contextual factors, and the lack of well-specified measures. Several contextual factors were shown to be important to QI success, although the current body of literature lacks adequate definitions and is characterized by considerable variability in how contextual factors are measured across studies. Future research should focus on identifying and developing measures of context tied to a conceptual model that examines context across all levels of the health care system and explores the relationships among various aspects of context. © 2010 Milbank Memorial Fund. Published by Wiley Periodicals Inc.

Automated, per pixel Cloud Detection from High-Resolution VNIR Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Varlyguin, Dmitry L.

2007-01-01

CASA is a fully automated software program for the per-pixel detection of clouds and cloud shadows from medium- (e.g., Landsat, SPOT, AWiFS) and high- (e.g., IKONOS, QuickBird, OrbView) resolution imagery without the use of thermal data. CASA is an object-based feature extraction program which utilizes a complex combination of spectral, spatial, and contextual information available in the imagery and the hierarchical self-learning logic for accurate detection of clouds and their shadows.

The Influence of Social Context on Changes in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption: Results of the Healthy Directions Studies

PubMed Central

Sorensen, Glorian; Stoddard, Anne M.; Dubowitz, Tamara; Barbeau, Elizabeth M.; Bigby, JudyAnn; Emmons, Karen M.; Berkman, Lisa F.; Peterson, Karen E.

2007-01-01

As part of the Harvard Cancer Prevention Program Project, we used a social contextual model of health behavior change to test an intervention targeting multiple risk-related behaviors in working-class, multiethnic populations. We examined the relationships between the social contextual factors in our conceptual model and changes in fruit and vegetable consumption from baseline to completion of intervention in health centers and small business studies. We analyzed change in fruit and vegetable consumption, measured at baseline and final assessments by self-report, in 2 randomized controlled prevention trials: 1 in small businesses (n = 974) and 1 in health centers (n = 1954). Stronger social networks, social norms that were more supportive, food sufficiency, and less household crowding were associated with greater change in fruit and vegetable intake. We also observed differences between our intervention sites. Social context can play an important role in promoting changes in fruit and vegetable consumption. PMID:17538059

The power of contextual effects in forensic anthropology: a study of biasability in the visual interpretations of trauma analysis on skeletal remains.

PubMed

Nakhaeizadeh, Sherry; Hanson, Ian; Dozzi, Nathalie

2014-09-01

The potential for contextual information to bias assessments in the forensic sciences has been demonstrated, in several forensic disiplines. In this paper, biasability potential within forensic anthropology was examined by analyzing the effects of external manipulations on judgments and decision-making in visual trauma assessment. Three separate websites were created containing fourteen identical images. Participants were randomly assigned to one website. Each website provided different contextual information, to assess variation of interpretation of the same images between contexts. The results indicated a higher scoring of trauma identification responses for the Mass grave context. Furthermore, a significant biasing effect was detected in the interpretation of four images. Less experienced participants were more likely to indicate presence of trauma. This research demonstrates bias impact in forensic anthropological trauma assessments and highlights the importance of recognizing and limiting cognitive vulnerabilities that forensic anthropologists might bring to the analysis. © 2014 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Predicted contextual modulation varies with distance from pinwheel centers in the orientation preference map

PubMed Central

Okamoto, Tsuyoshi; Ikezoe, Koji; Tamura, Hiroshi; Watanabe, Masataka; Aihara, Kazuyuki; Fujita, Ichiro

2011-01-01

In the primary visual cortex (V1) of some mammals, columns of neurons with the full range of orientation preferences converge at the center of a pinwheel-like arrangement, the ‘pinwheel center' (PWC). Because a neuron receives abundant inputs from nearby neurons, the neuron's position on the cortical map likely has a significant impact on its responses to the layout of orientations inside and outside its classical receptive field (CRF). To understand the positional specificity of responses, we constructed a computational model based on orientation preference maps in monkey V1 and hypothetical neuronal connections. The model simulations showed that neurons near PWCs displayed weaker but detectable orientation selectivity within their CRFs, and strongly reduced contextual modulation from extra-CRF stimuli, than neurons distant from PWCs. We suggest that neurons near PWCs robustly extract local orientation within their CRF embedded in visual scenes, and that contextual information is processed in regions distant from PWCs. PMID:22355631

Assessing contextual factors that influence acceptance of pedestrian alerts by a night vision system.

PubMed

Källhammer, Jan-Erik; Smith, Kip

2012-08-01

We investigated five contextual variables that we hypothesized would influence driver acceptance of alerts to pedestrians issued by a night vision active safety system to inform the specification of the system's alerting strategies. Driver acceptance of automotive active safety systems is a key factor to promote their use and implies a need to assess factors influencing driver acceptance. In a field operational test, 10 drivers drove instrumented vehicles equipped with a preproduction night vision system with pedestrian detection software. In a follow-up experiment, the 10 drivers and 25 additional volunteers without experience with the system watched 57 clips with pedestrian encounters gathered during the field operational test. They rated the acceptance of an alert to each pedestrian encounter. Levels of rating concordance were significant between drivers who experienced the encounters and participants who did not. Two contextual variables, pedestrian location and motion, were found to influence ratings. Alerts were more accepted when pedestrians were close to or moving toward the vehicle's path. The study demonstrates the utility of using subjective driver acceptance ratings to inform the design of active safety systems and to leverage expensive field operational test data within the confines of the laboratory. The design of alerting strategies for active safety systems needs to heed the driver's contextual sensitivity to issued alerts.

Leading Change in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McRoy, Ian; Gibbs, Paul

2009-01-01

This article considers the situation in the UK higher education system and investigates specifically the leadership practice in a cluster of UK institutions as they changed their status. The research goes further to advocate a form of contextualized leadership that is relevant to higher institutions under change. (Contains 1 figure.)

Constraining Big Hurricanes: Remotely sensing Galveston Islands' changing coastal landscape from days to millennia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dougherty, A. J.; Choi, J. H.; Heo, S.; Dosseto, A.

2017-12-01

Climate change models forecast increased storm intensity, which will drive coastal erosion as sea-level rise accelerates with global warming. Over the last five years the largest hurricanes ever recorded in the Pacific (Patricia) and the Atlantic (Irma) occurred as well as the devastation of Harvey. The preceding decade was marked with Super Storm Sandy, Katrina and Ike. A century prior, the deadliest natural disaster in North America occurred as a category 4 hurricane known as `The 1900 Storm' hit Galveston Island. This research aims to contextualize the impact of storms long before infrastructure and historical/scientific accounts documented erosion. Unlike the majority of barrier islands in the US, Galveston built seaward over the Holocene. As the beach prograded it preserved a history of storms and shoreline change over millennia to the present-day. These systems (called prograded barriers) were first studied over 50 years ago using topographic profiles, sediment cores and radiocarbon dating. This research revisits some of these benchmark study sites to augment existing data utilizing state-of-the-art Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) techniques. In 2016 GPR and OSL data were collected from Galveston Island, with the aim to combine GPR, OSL and LiDAR (GOaL) to extract a high-resolution geologic record spanning 6,000 years. The resulting millennia-scale coastal evolution can be used to contextualize the impact of historic hurricanes over the past century (`The 1900 Storm'), decade (Ike in 2008) and year (now with Harvey). Preliminary results reveal a recent change in shoreline behaviour, and data from Harvey are currently being accessed within the perspective of these initial findings. This dataset will be discussed with respect to the other two benchmark prograded barriers studied in North America: Nayarit Barrier (Mexico) that Hurricane Patricia passed directly over in 2013 and Kiawah Barrier (South Carolina), which was ultimately spared from Hurricane Irma 2017.

Context modulation of learned attention deployment.

PubMed

Uengoer, Metin; Pearce, John M; Lachnit, Harald; Koenig, Stephan

2018-03-01

In three experiments, we investigated the contextual control of attention in human discrimination learning. In each experiment, participants initially received discrimination training in which the cues from Dimension A were relevant in Context 1 but irrelevant in Context 2, whereas the cues from Dimension B were irrelevant in Context 1 but relevant in Context 2. In Experiment 1, the same cues from each dimension were used in Contexts 1 and 2, whereas in Experiments 2 and 3, the cues from each dimension were changed across contexts. In each experiment, participants were subsequently shifted to a transfer discrimination involving novel cues from either dimension, to assess the contextual control of attention. In Experiment 1, measures of eye gaze during the transfer discrimination revealed that Dimension A received more attention than Dimension B in Context 1, whereas the reverse occurred in Context 2. Corresponding results indicating the contextual control of attention were found in Experiments 2 and 3, in which we used the speed of learning (associability) as an indirect marker of learned attentional changes. Implications of our results for current theories of learning and attention are discussed.

Changing American Education. Recapturing the Past or Inventing the Future?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borman, Kathryn M., Ed.; Greenman, Nancy P., Ed.

This book examines the nature of comprehensive, large scale historical and social changes that contextualize educational reform, and it amplifies the meaning of lessons learned by those who have assisted in change efforts. It also examines how the rhetoric of educational change may fall short of the reality, as translated to processes and…

Intake of Wild Blueberry Powder Improves Episodic-Like and Working Memory during Normal Aging in Mice.

PubMed

Beracochea, Daniel; Krazem, Ali; Henkouss, Nadia; Haccard, Guillaume; Roller, Marc; Fromentin, Emilie

2016-08-01

The number of Americans older than 65 years old is projected to more than double in the next 40 years. Cognitive changes associated to aging can affect an adult's day-to-day functioning. Among these cognitive changes, reasoning, episodic memory, working memory, and processing speed decline gradually over time. Early memory changes include a decline in both working and episodic memory. The aim of the present study was to determine whether chronic (up to 75 days) daily administration of wild blueberry extract or a wild blueberry full spectrum powder would help prevent memory failure associated with aging in tasks involving various forms of memory. Both blueberry ingredients were used in a study comparing young mice (6 months old) to aged mice (18 months old). At this age, mice exhibit memory decline due to aging, which is exacerbated first by a loss in working and contextual (episodic-like) memory. Contextual memory (episodic-like memory) was evaluated using the contextual serial discrimination test. Working and spatial memory were evaluated using the Morris-Water maze test and the sequential alternation test. Statistical analysis was performed using an ANOVA with the Bonferroni post-hoc test. Supplementation with wild blueberry full spectrum powder and wild blueberry extract resulted in significant improvement of contextual memory, while untreated aged mice experienced a decline in such memory. Only the wild blueberry full spectrum powder significantly contributed to an improvement of spatial and working memory versus untreated aged mice. These improvements of cognitive performance may be related to brain oxidative status, acetylcholinesterase activity, neuroprotection, or attenuation of immunoreactivity. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Context-dependent arm pointing adaptation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seidler, R. D.; Bloomberg, J. J.; Stelmach, G. E.

2001-01-01

We sought to determine the effectiveness of head posture as a contextual cue to facilitate adaptive transitions in manual control during visuomotor distortions. Subjects performed arm pointing movements by drawing on a digitizing tablet, with targets and movement trajectories displayed in real time on a computer monitor. Adaptation was induced by presenting the trajectories in an altered gain format on the monitor. The subjects were shown visual displays of their movements that corresponded to either 0.5 or 1.5 scaling of the movements made. Subjects were assigned to three groups: the head orientation group tilted the head towards the right shoulder when drawing under a 0.5 gain of display and towards the left shoulder when drawing under a 1.5 gain of display; the target orientation group had the home and target positions rotated counterclockwise when drawing under the 0.5 gain and clockwise for the 1.5 gain; the arm posture group changed the elbow angle of the arm they were not drawing with from full flexion to full extension with 0.5 and 1.5 gain display changes. To determine if contextual cues were associated with display alternations, the gain changes were returned to the standard (1.0) display. Aftereffects were assessed to determine the efficacy of the head orientation contextual cue compared to the two control cues. The head orientation cue was effectively associated with the multiple gains. The target orientation cue also demonstrated some effectiveness while the arm posture cue did not. The results demonstrate that contextual cues can be used to switch between multiple adaptive states. These data provide support for the idea that static head orientation information is a crucial component to the arm adaptation process. These data further define the functional linkage between head posture and arm pointing movements.

Context-Dependent Arm Pointing Adaptation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seidler, R. D.; Bloomberg, J. J.; Stelmach, G. E.

2000-01-01

We sought to determine the effectiveness of head posture as a contextual cue to facilitate adaptive transitions in manual control during visuomotor distortions. Subjects performed arm pointing movements by drawing on a digitizing tablet, with targets and movement trajectories displayed in real time on a computer monitor. Adaptation was induced by presenting the trajectories in an altered gain format on the monitor. The subjects were shown visual displays of their movements that corresponded to either 0.5 or 1.5 scaling of the movements made. Subjects were assigned to three groups: the head orientation group tilted the head towards the right shoulder when drawing under a 0.5 gain of display and towards the left shoulder when drawing under a 1.5 gain of display, the target orientation group had the home & target positions rotated counterclockwise when drawing under the 0.5 gain and clockwise for the 1.5 gain, the arm posture group changed the elbow angle of the arm they were not drawing with from full flexion to full extension with 0.5 and 1.5 gain display changes. To determine if contextual cues were associated with display alternations, the gain changes were returned to the standard (1.0) display. Aftereffects were assessed to determine the efficacy of the head orientation contextual cue. . compared to the two control cues. The head orientation cue was effectively associated with the multiple gains. The target orientation cue also demonstrated some effectiveness while the.arm posture cue did not. The results demonstrate that contextual cues can be used to switch between multiple adaptive states. These data provide support for the idea that static head orientation information is a crucial component to the arm adaptation process. These data further define the functional linkage between head posture and arm pointing movements.

DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND THEIR SOCIAL CONTEXTS: A QUALITATIVE SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF CONTEXTUAL INTERVENTIONS

PubMed Central

GOTTLIEB, LAURA; WAITZKIN, HOWARD; MIRANDA, JEANNE

2010-01-01

Background Numerous observational studies demonstrate associations between social context and depressive symptoms, yet few intervention trials exist in this arena. Aims This review examines intervention trials that explore the impact of contextual change on depressive symptoms. Methods Electronic literature databases of PubMed and PsycINFO, bibliographies of retrieved articles and the publicly available internet were searched for English-language articles published between 1997 and 2008. Peer-reviewed studies were eligible for inclusion if they reported contextual interventions and depressive symptoms measures in adult populations without other significant underlying medical or psychological illness. In total, 2,128 studies met search term criteria. Of these, 13 studies meeting inclusion criteria were classified by type of intervention. Qualitative synthesis was used to interpret the mental health impact of contextual interventions. Results The interventions focused on employment, housing, poverty, parenting and violence. Eight of these studies reported a decrease in depressive symptoms and/or psychological distress in intervention groups. Interventions varied in focus, length of follow-up and measures of depressive symptoms. Conclusions Contextual interventions for the prevention and treatment of depressive symptoms and psychological distress can be effective, though very limited data exist in this field. Policy implications include a greater emphasis on improving context to decrease depression and other mental disorders. PMID:20354067

Behavioral mechanisms of context fear generalization in mice

PubMed Central

Huckleberry, Kylie A.; Ferguson, Laura B.

2016-01-01

There is growing interest in generalization of learned contextual fear, driven in part by the hypothesis that mood and anxiety disorders stem from impaired hippocampal mechanisms of fear generalization and discrimination. However, there has been relatively little investigation of the behavioral and procedural mechanisms that might control generalization of contextual fear. We assessed the relative contribution of different contextual features to context fear generalization and characterized how two common conditioning protocols—foreground (uncued) and background (cued) contextual fear conditioning—affected context fear generalization. In one experiment, mice were fear conditioned in context A, and then tested for contextual fear both in A and in an alternate context created by changing a subset of A's elements. The results suggest that floor configuration and odor are more salient features than chamber shape. A second experiment compared context fear generalization in background and foreground context conditioning. Although foreground conditioning produced more context fear than background conditioning, the two procedures produced equal amounts of generalized fear. Finally, results indicated that the order of context tests (original first versus alternate first) significantly modulates context fear generalization, perhaps because the original and alternate contexts are differentially sensitive to extinction. Overall, results demonstrate that context fear generalization is sensitive to procedural variations and likely reflects the operation of multiple interacting psychological and neural mechanisms. PMID:27918275

Cotinine enhances the extinction of contextual fear memory and reduces anxiety after fear conditioning.

PubMed

Zeitlin, Ross; Patel, Sagar; Solomon, Rosalynn; Tran, John; Weeber, Edwin J; Echeverria, Valentina

2012-03-17

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder triggered by traumatic events. Symptoms include anxiety, depression and deficits in fear memory extinction (FE). PTSD patients show a higher prevalence of cigarette smoking than the general population. The present study investigated the effects of cotinine, a tobacco-derived compound, over anxiety and contextual fear memory after fear conditioning (FC) in mice, a model for inducing PTSD-like symptoms. Two-month-old C57BL/6J mice were separated into three experimental groups. These groups were used to investigate the effect of pretreatment with cotinine on contextual fear memory and posttreatment on extinction and stability or retrievability of the fear memory. Also, changes induced by cotinine on the expression of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 were assessed after extinction in the hippocampus. An increase in anxiety and corticosterone levels were found after fear conditioning. Cotinine did not affect corticosterone levels but enhanced the extinction of contextual fear, decreased anxiety and the stability and/or retrievability of contextual fear memory. Cotinine-treated mice showed higher levels of the active forms of ERK1/2 than vehicle-treated mice after FC. This evidence suggests that cotinine is a potential new pharmacological treatment to reduce symptoms in individuals with PTSD. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Reversing the Downward Spiral of Science Instruction in K-2 Classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sandholtz, Judith Haymore; Ringstaff, Cathy

2011-10-01

This study investigated the extent to which teacher professional development led to changes in science instruction in K-2 classrooms in rural school districts. The research specifically examined changes in (a) teachers' content knowledge in science; (b) teachers' self-efficacy related to teaching science; (c) classroom instructional time allotted to science; and (d) instructional strategies used in science. The study also investigated contextual factors contributing to or hindering changes in science instruction. Data sources included a teacher survey, a self-efficacy assessment, content knowledge tests, interviews, and classroom observations. After one year in the program, teachers showed increased content knowledge and self-efficacy in teaching science; they spent more instructional time on science and began using different instructional strategies. Key contextual factors included curricular demands, resources, administrative support, and support from other teachers.

Leading an IT Organization Out of Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Gregory A.

2011-01-01

With the era of control ending for campus IT organizations, leaders need to learn to use some known management approaches and methods in radically different ways. In this article, the author begins with some examples of how technology change, organizational change, and contextual change are eroding centralized control over campus information…

The Management of Large-Scale Change in Pakistani Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razzaq, Jamila; Forde, Christine

2014-01-01

This article argues that although there are increasing similarities in priorities across different national education systems, contextual differences raise questions about the replication of sets of change strategies based on particular understandings of the nature of educational change across these different systems. This article begins with an…

Effects of Contextual Information on Seeing Pareidolic Religious Inscriptions on an Artifact: Implications for the Shroud of Turin.

PubMed

Sheen, Mercedes; Jordan, Timothy R

2015-12-01

Several reports suggest that images of the Shroud of Turin contain faint religious inscriptions that support the view that the Shroud has special religious significance. Against this background, we investigated effects of contextual information on detecting religious inscriptions using an image of plain modern linen with no religious provenance and containing no writing. The image was viewed in three contexts: In the Neutral Context, participants were told that the image was of a simple piece of linen; in the Religious Context, participants were told that the image was of an important religious artifact; and in the Religious Context + Options condition, participants were also given plausible word options. Very few words were detected in the Neutral Context, significantly more in the Religious Context, and most in the Religious Context+Options condition. Some implications of these findings for reports of inscriptions in the context-laden conditions surrounding the Shroud of Turin are discussed. © The Author(s) 2015.

Epinephrine increases contextual learning through activation of peripheral β2-adrenoceptors.

PubMed

Alves, Ester; Lukoyanov, Nikolay; Serrão, Paula; Moura, Daniel; Moreira-Rodrigues, Mónica

2016-06-01

Phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase knockout (Pnmt-KO) mice are unable to synthesize epinephrine and display reduced contextual fear. However, the precise mechanism responsible for impaired contextual fear learning in these mice is unknown. Our aim was to study the mechanism of epinephrine-dependent contextual learning. Wild-type (WT) or Pnmt-KO (129x1/SvJ) mice were submitted to a fear conditioning test either in the absence or in the presence of epinephrine, isoprenaline (non-selective β-adrenoceptor agonist), fenoterol (selective β2-adrenoceptor agonist), epinephrine plus sotalol (non-selective β-adrenoceptor antagonist), and dobutamine (selective β1-adrenoceptor agonist). Catecholamines were separated by reverse-phase HPLC and quantified by electrochemical detection. Blood glucose was measured by coulometry. Re-exposure to shock context induced higher freezing in WT and Pnmt-KO mice treated with epinephrine and fenoterol than in mice treated with vehicle. In addition, freezing response in Pnmt-KO mice was much lower than in WT mice. Freezing induced by epinephrine was blocked by sotalol in Pnmt-KO mice. Epinephrine and fenoterol treatment restored glycemic response in Pnmt-KO mice. Re-exposure to shock context did not induce a significant difference in freezing in Pnmt-KO mice treated with dobutamine and vehicle. Aversive memories are best retained if moderately high plasma epinephrine concentrations occur at the same moment as the aversive stimulus. In addition, epinephrine increases context fear learning by acting on peripheral β2-adrenoceptors, which may induce high levels of blood glucose. Since glucose crosses the blood-brain barrier, it may enhance hippocampal-dependent contextual learning.

Teaching the content in context: Preparing "highly qualified" and "high quality" teachers for instruction in underserved secondary science classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tolbert, Sara E.

2011-12-01

This dissertation research project presents the results of a longitudinal study that investigates the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of 13 preservice secondary science teachers participating in a science teacher credentialing/Masters program designed to integrate issues of equity and diversity throughout coursework and seminars. Results are presented in the form of three papers: The first paper describes changes in preservice teacher knowledge about contextualization in science instruction, where contextualization is defined as facilitating authentic connections between science learning and relevant personal, social, cultural, ecological, and political contexts of students in diverse secondary classrooms; the second paper relates changes in the self-efficacy and content-specific beliefs about science, science teaching, diversity, and diversity in science instruction; and the final paper communicates the experiences and abilities of four "social justice advocates" learning to contextualize science instruction in underserved secondary placement classrooms. Results indicate that secondary student teachers developed more sophisticated understandings of how to contextualize science instruction with a focus on promoting community engagement and social/environmental activism in underserved classrooms and how to integrate science content and diversity instruction through student-centered inquiry activities. Although most of the science teacher candidates developed more positive beliefs about teaching science in underrepresented classrooms, many teacher candidates still attributed their minority students' underperformance and a (perceived) lack of interest in school to family and cultural values. The "social justice advocates" in this study were able to successfully contextualize science instruction to varying degrees in underserved placement classrooms, though the most significant limitations on their practice were the contextual factors of their student teaching placements---in particular, the extent to which their cooperating teachers gave them the autonomy and planning time to design and implement their own activities and lessons. While the "integrated approach" to diversity and equity in science teacher education was, overall, successful in helping preservice teachers' move closer toward developing the beliefs, knowledge, and practices necessary for effective instruction in underserved classrooms, suggestions are given for increasing the effectiveness of the "integrated approach," particularly in the context of a one-year credentialing program.

Contextual Development: Situating the Social Change Model of Leadership Development within a Broader Reality of Comprehensive Support

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitten-Andrews, Jeanie

2016-01-01

The social change model has proven an effective and widely utilized model assisting college students in leadership development toward positive social change. However, while this particular model gives much needed attention to the process of development leading to social change, it fails to acknowledge the external factors which significantly…

Unsupervised Change Detection for Geological and Ecological Monitoring via Remote Sensing: Application on a Volcanic Area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falco, N.; Pedersen, G. B. M.; Vilmunandardóttir, O. K.; Belart, J. M. M. C.; Sigurmundsson, F. S.; Benediktsson, J. A.

2016-12-01

The project "Environmental Mapping and Monitoring of Iceland by Remote Sensing (EMMIRS)" aims at providing fast and reliable mapping and monitoring techniques on a big spatial scale with a high temporal resolution of the Icelandic landscape. Such mapping and monitoring will be crucial to both mitigate and understand the scale of processes and their often complex interlinked feedback mechanisms.In the EMMIRS project, the Hekla volcano area is one of the main sites under study, where the volcanic eruptions, extreme weather and human activities had an extensive impact on the landscape degradation. The development of innovative remote sensing approaches to compute earth observation variables as automatically as possible is one of the main tasks of the EMMIRS project. Furthermore, a temporal remote sensing archive is created and composed by images acquired by different sensors (Landsat, RapidEye, ASTER and SPOT5). Moreover, historical aerial stereo photos allowed decadal reconstruction of the landscape by reconstruction of digital elevation models. Here, we propose a novel architecture for automatic unsupervised change detection analysis able to ingest multi-source data in order to detect landscape changes in the Hekla area. The change detection analysis is based on multi-scale analysis, which allows the identification of changes at different level of abstraction, from pixel-level to region-level. For this purpose, operators defined in mathematical morphology framework are implemented to model the contextual information, represented by the neighbour system of a pixel, allowing the identification of changes related to both geometrical and spectral domains. Automatic radiometric normalization strategy is also implemented as pre-processing step, aiming at minimizing the effect of different acquisition conditions. The proposed architecture is tested on multi-temporal data sets acquired over different time periods coinciding with the last three eruptions (1980-1981, 1991, 2000) occurred on Hekla volcano. The results reveal emplacement of new lava flows and the initial vegetation succession, providing insightful information on the evolving of vegetation in such environment. Shadow and snow patch changes are resolved in post-processing by exploiting the available spectral information.

Skipping Syntactically Illegal "the" Previews: The Role of Predictability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abbott, Matthew J.; Angele, Bernhard; Ahn, Y. Danbi; Rayner, Keith

2015-01-01

Readers tend to skip words, particularly when they are short, frequent, or predictable. Angele and Rayner (2013) recently reported that readers are often unable to detect syntactic anomalies in parafoveal vision. In the present study, we manipulated target word predictability to assess whether contextual constraint modulates…

Exploration of Metaphorical and Contextual Affect Sensing in a Virtual Improvisational Drama

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Li

Real-time affect detection from open-ended text-based dialogue is challenging but essential for the building of effective intelligent user interfaces. In this paper, we report updated developments of an affect detection model from text, including affect detection from one particular type of metaphorical affective expression (cooking metaphor) and affect detection based on context. The overall affect detection model has been embedded in an intelligent conversational AI agent interacting with human users under loose scenarios. Evaluation for the updated affect detection component is also provided. Our work contributes to the conference themes on engagement and emotion, interactions in games, storytelling and narrative in education, and virtual characters/agents development.

The Effect of Age and Type of Noise on Speech Perception under Conditions of Changing Context and Noise Levels.

PubMed

Taitelbaum-Swead, Riki; Fostick, Leah

2016-01-01

Everyday life includes fluctuating noise levels, resulting in continuously changing speech intelligibility. The study aims were: (1) to quantify the amount of decrease in age-related speech perception, as a result of increasing noise level, and (2) to test the effect of age on context usage at the word level (smaller amount of contextual cues). A total of 24 young adults (age 20-30 years) and 20 older adults (age 60-75 years) were tested. Meaningful and nonsense one-syllable consonant-vowel-consonant words were presented with the background noise types of speech noise (SpN), babble noise (BN), and white noise (WN), with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 0 and -5 dB. Older adults had lower accuracy in SNR = 0, with WN being the most difficult condition for all participants. Measuring the change in speech perception when SNR decreased showed a reduction of 18.6-61.5% in intelligibility, with age effect only for BN. Both young and older adults used less phonemic context with WN, as compared to other conditions. Older adults are more affected by an increasing noise level of fluctuating informational noise as compared to steady-state noise. They also use less contextual cues when perceiving monosyllabic words. Further studies should take into consideration that when presenting the stimulus differently (change in noise level, less contextual cues), other perceptual and cognitive processes are involved. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Patterns in Identity Change and Development in Relationships With Mothers and Friends

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reis, Olaf; Youniss, James

2004-01-01

Traditional research about identity status has been followed by investigations of identity change that challenge the notion of a general increase in maturity during adolescence while also calling for a more contextualized view on identity processes. This study examines changes in identity measured by the Identity Scale of the Erikson Psychosocial…

Prevalence and Predictors of Change in Adult-Child Primary Caregivers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szinovacz, Maximiliane E.; Davey, Adam

2013-01-01

Family caregiving research is increasingly contextual and dynamic, but few studies have examined prevalence and predictors of change in primary caregivers, those with the most frequent contact with healthcare professionals. We identified prevalence and predictors of 2-year change in primary adult-child caregivers. Data pooled from the 1992-2000…

Predicting compliance with an information-based residential outdoor water conservation program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Landon, Adam C.; Kyle, Gerard T.; Kaiser, Ronald A.

2016-05-01

Residential water conservation initiatives often involve some form of education or persuasion intended to change the attitudes and behaviors of residential consumers. However, the ability of these instruments to change attitudes toward conservation and their efficacy in affecting water use remains poorly understood. In this investigation the authors examine consumer attitudes toward complying with a persuasive water conservation program, the extent to which those attitudes predict compliance, and the influence of environmental contextual factors on outdoor water use. Results indicate that the persuasive program was successful in developing positive attitudes toward compliance, and that those attitudes predict water use. However, attitudinal variables explain a relatively small proportion of the variance in objectively measured water use behavior. Recommendations for policy are made stressing the importance of understanding both the effects of attitudes and environmental contextual factors in behavior change initiatives in the municipal water sector.

How sodium arsenite improve amyloid β-induced memory deficit?

PubMed

Nassireslami, Ehsan; Nikbin, Parmida; Amini, Elham; Payandemehr, Borna; Shaerzadeh, Fatemeh; Khodagholi, Fariba; Yazdi, Behnoosh Bonakdar; Kebriaeezadeh, Abbas; Taghizadeh, Ghorban; Sharifzadeh, Mohammad

2016-09-01

Evidence has shown that arsenic exposure, besides its toxic effects results in impairment of learning and memory, but its molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. In the present study, we examined sodium arsenite (1, 5, 10, 100nM) effects on contextual and tone memory of male rats in Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm alone and in co-administration with β-amyloid. We detected changes in the level of caspase-3, nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB), cAMP response element-binding (CREB), heme oxygenase-1 and NF-E2-related factor-2 (Nrf2) by Western blot. Sodium arsenite in high doses induced significant memory impairment 9 and 16days after infusion. By contrast, low doses of sodium arsenite attenuate memory deficit in Aβ injected rats after 16days. Our data revealed that treatment with high concentration of sodium arsenite increased caspase-3 cleavage and NF-κB level, 9days after injection. Whereas, low doses of sodium arsenite cause Nrf2 and HO-1 activation and increased CREB phosphorylation in the hippocampus. These findings suggest the concentration dependent effects of sodium arsenite on contextual and tone memory. Moreover, it seems that the neuroprotective effects of ultra-low concentrations of sodium arsenite on Aβ-induced memory impairment is mediated via an increase Nrf2, HO-1 and CREB phosphorylation levels and decrease caspase-3 and NF-κB amount. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Active Sampling State Dynamically Enhances Olfactory Bulb Odor Representation.

PubMed

Jordan, Rebecca; Fukunaga, Izumi; Kollo, Mihaly; Schaefer, Andreas T

2018-06-27

The olfactory bulb (OB) is the first site of synaptic odor information processing, yet a wealth of contextual and learned information has been described in its activity. To investigate the mechanistic basis of contextual modulation, we use whole-cell recordings to measure odor responses across rapid learning episodes in identified mitral/tufted cells (MTCs). Across these learning episodes, diverse response changes occur already during the first sniff cycle. Motivated mice develop active sniffing strategies across learning that robustly correspond to the odor response changes, resulting in enhanced odor representation. Evoking fast sniffing in different behavioral states demonstrates that response changes during active sampling exceed those predicted from feedforward input alone. Finally, response changes are highly correlated in tufted cells, but not mitral cells, indicating there are cell-type-specific effects on odor representation during active sampling. Altogether, we show that active sampling is strongly associated with enhanced OB responsiveness on rapid timescales. Copyright © 2018 The Francis Crick Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Surface or Deep Change? How Is a Curriculum Change Implemented at Ground Level?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sng, Bee Bee

2008-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out how organizational and contextual factors affect a curriculum change in a University in Singapore. There is a need to research the processes of educational change in Singapore as rapid changes can result in complex problems. The university is chosen as it is at the forefront of the government's…

Socio-contextual Determinants of Research Evidence Use in Public-Youth Systems of Care.

PubMed

Garcia, Antonio R; Kim, Minseop; Palinkas, Lawrence A; Snowden, Lonnie; Landsverk, John

2016-07-01

Recent efforts have been devoted to understanding the conditions by which research evidence use (REU) is facilitated from the perspective of system leaders in the context of implementing evidence-based child mental health interventions. However, we have limited understanding of the extent to which outer contextual factors influence REU. Outer contextual factors for 37 counties in California were gathered from public records in 2008; and child welfare, juvenile justice, and mental health system leaders' perceptions of their REU were measured via a web-based survey from 2010 to 2012. Results showed that leaders with higher educational attainment and in counties with lower expenditures on inpatient mental health services were significantly associated with higher REU. Positive relationships between gathering research evidence and racial minority concentration and poverty at the county level were also detected. Results underscore the need to identify the organizational and socio-political factors by which mental health services and resources meet client demands that influence REU, and to recruit and retain providers with a graduate degree to negotiate work demands and interpret research evidence.

Response-Conflict Moderates the Cognitive Control of Episodic and Contextual Load in Older Adults.

PubMed

Eich, Teal S; Rakitin, Brian C; Stern, Yaakov

2016-11-01

Decline in cognitive control is one of the primary cognitive changes in normal aging. Reaching a consensus regarding the nature of these age-related changes, however, is complicated by the complexity of cognitive control as a construct. Healthy older and younger adults participated in a multifactorial test of cognitive control. Within participants, the procedure varied as a function of the amount contextual load, episodic load, and response-conflict load present. We found that older adults showed impaired performance relative to younger adults. We also found, however, that the response selection process underlying the response-conflict manipulation was a major moderator of age-related differences in both the contextual and episodic load conditions-suggesting a hierarchical organization. These findings are consistent with previous findings, suggesting that deficits in cognitive control in older adults are directly related to the resolution of response-conflict and that other apparent deficits may be derivative upon the more basic response-conflict related deficit. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Beyond Instruction; Beyond a Website: Distance Learning, Disability Inclusiveness and Changing Workplace Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudstam, Hannah; Gower, Wendy Strobel

2012-01-01

Often, the aim of distance learning (DL) is to enhance individual learning, not to change workplace practices. Changing organizational policies, practices and behaviors related to disability calls for a different DL approach that engages users and contextualizes knowledge. In the disability arena, there is a need for programming that brings about…

Within-Year Changes in Children's Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivational Orientations: Contextual Predictors and Academic Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corpus, Jennifer Henderlong; McClintic-Gilbert, Megan S.; Hayenga, Amynta O.

2009-01-01

The present study was designed to investigate the nature, timing, and correlates of motivational change among a large sample (N = 1051) of third- through eighth-grade students. Analyses of within-year changes in students' motivational orientations revealed that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations decreased from fall to spring, with declines…

Chapter 2: Effective Professional Development--What We Now Know Calls for Professional Development for Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bechtel, Pamela A.; O'Sullivan, Mary

2006-01-01

There are many factors that affect the design of effective professional development (PD) programs. This review of literature focuses on some of the theoretical models used to explain teacher change, the contextual factors that impact teacher behaviors and curricular change, and the role of continuous professional development in changing teaching…

[Effect of object consistency in a spatial contextual cueing paradigm].

PubMed

Takeda, Yuji

2008-04-01

Previous studies demonstrated that attention can be quickly guided to a target location in a visual search task when the spatial configurations of search items and/or the object identities were repeated in the previous trials. This phenomenon is termed contextual cueing. Recently, it was reported that spatial configuration learning and object identity learning occurred independently, when novel contours were used as search items. The present study examined whether this learning occurred independently even when the search items were meaningful. The results showed that the contextual cueing effect was observed even if the relationships between the spatial locations and object identities were jumbled (Experiment 1). However, it disappeared when the search items were changed into geometric patterns (Experiment 2). These results suggest that the spatial configuration can be learned independent of the object identities; however, the use of the learned configuration is restricted by the learning situations.

Contextualization: Memory Formation and Retrieval in a Nested Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piefke, Martina; Markowitsch, Hans J.

Episodic memory functions are highly context-dependent. This is true for both experimental and autobiographical episodic memory. We here review neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence for effects of differential encoding and retrieval contexts on episodic memory performance as well as the underlying neurofunctional mechanisms. In studies of laboratory episodic memory, the influence of context parameters can be assessed by experimental manipulations. Such experiments suggest that contextual variables mainly affect prefrontal functions supporting executive processes involved in episodic learning and retrieval. Context parameters affecting episodic autobiographical memory are far more complex and cannot easily be controlled. Data support the view that not only prefrontal, but also further medial temporal and posterior parietal regions mediating the re-experience and emotional evaluation of personal memories are highly influenced by changing contextual variables of memory encoding and retrieval. Based on our review of available data, we thus suggest that experimental and autobiographical episodic memories are influenced by both overlapping and differential context parameters.

The influence of contextual factors on patient involvement during follow-up consultations after colorectal cancer surgery: a case study.

PubMed

Thomsen, Thora G; Soelver, Lisbeth; Hølge-Hazelton, Bibi

2017-11-01

To identify the contextual factors that influence individual patient involvement during colorectal cancer surgical follow-up consultations. The healthcare system is subject to the requirement and expectation of greater involvement of patients and relatives. Increased patient involvement requires the development and implementation of new communication initiatives. Research shows that it is also necessary to consider the contextual circumstances surrounding patient involvement in specific situations. Case study of a single Danish outpatient clinic, which allows the issues and circumstances involved in an everyday situation to be captured. 12 nonparticipative observations of outpatient visits and, subsequently, seven in-depth patient interviews. Content analysis based on a dialogical, interactive framework, which underpinned the identification of current contextual factors. The results showed five contextual factors that seemed to have an impact on patient involvement. The first, 'Two dimensions of patient involvement: treatment-oriented and person-oriented' highlighted a dual interpretation of patient involvement in the consultation situation. The two dimensions seemed to be influenced by four additional factors: 'Doctors leading the agenda', 'Traditional health professional roles', 'Unclear responsibilities' and 'Guidance primarily focused on treatment'. The results showed how patient involvement in clinical practice could be understood as a two-way movement, in which patients are invited to participate in clinical practice, while health professionals are invited to participate in the patients' lives. The movement will change from situation to situation and is influenced by several contextual factors. The results can help doctors and nurses to navigate using a goal-oriented approach towards patient involvement. The study makes visible the need for research-based development of the independent role of the nursing profession in cancer care follow-up, with a view to enhanced patient-centred care. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Contextual Influences on Eating Behaviors: Heuristic Processing and Dietary Choices

PubMed Central

Cohen, Deborah A.; Babey, Susan H.

2013-01-01

This paper reviews some of the evidence that dietary behaviors are, in large part, the consequence of automatic responses to contextual food cues, many of which lead to increased caloric consumption and poor dietary choices. We describe studies that illustrate how these automatic mechanisms underlie eating behaviors, as well as evidence that individuals are subject to inherent cognitive limitations, and mostly lack the capacity to consistently recognize, ignore or resist contextual cues that encourage eating. Restaurants and grocery stores are the primary settings from which people obtain food. These settings are often designed to maximize sales of food by strategically placing and promoting items to encourage impulse purchases. Although a great deal of marketing research is proprietary, this paper describes some of the published studies that indicate that changes in superficial characteristics of food products, including packaging and portion sizes, design, salience, health claims, and labeling strongly influence food choices and consumption in ways for which people generally lack insight. We discuss whether contextual influences might be considered environmental risk factors from which individuals may need the kinds of protections that fall under the mission of public health. PMID:22551473

Developmental perspectives on personality: implications for ecological and evolutionary studies of individual differences.

PubMed

Stamps, Judy A; Groothuis, Ton G G

2010-12-27

Developmental processes can have major impacts on the correlations in behaviour across contexts (contextual generality) and across time (temporal consistency) that are the hallmarks of animal personality. Personality can and does change: at any given age or life stage it is contingent upon a wide range of experiential factors that occurred earlier in life, from prior to conception through adulthood. We show how developmental reaction norms that describe the effects of prior experience on a given behaviour can be used to determine whether the effects of a given experience at a given age will affect contextual generality at a later age, and to illustrate how variation within individuals in developmental plasticity leads to variation in contextual generality across individuals as a function of experience. We also show why niche-picking and niche-construction, behavioural processes which allow individuals to affect their own developmental environment, can affect the contextual generality and the temporal consistency of personality. We conclude by discussing how an appreciation of developmental processes can alert behavioural ecologists studying animal personality to critical, untested assumptions that underlie their own research programmes, and outline situations in which a developmental perspective can improve studies of the functional significance and evolution of animal personality.

Contextual influences on eating behaviours: heuristic processing and dietary choices.

PubMed

Cohen, D A; Babey, S H

2012-09-01

This paper reviews some of the evidence that dietary behaviours are, in large part, the consequence of automatic responses to contextual food cues, many of which lead to increased caloric consumption and poor dietary choices. We describe studies that illustrate how these automatic mechanisms underlie eating behaviours, as well as evidence that individuals are subject to inherent cognitive limitations, and mostly lack the capacity to consistently recognize, ignore or resist contextual cues that encourage eating. Restaurants and grocery stores are the primary settings from which people obtain food. These settings are often designed to maximize sales of food by strategically placing and promoting items to encourage impulse purchases. Although a great deal of marketing research is proprietary, this paper describes some of the published studies that indicate that changes in superficial characteristics of food products, including packaging and portion sizes, design, salience, health claims and labelling, strongly influence food choices and consumption in ways for which people generally lack insight. We discuss whether contextual influences might be considered environmental risk factors from which individuals may need the kinds of protections that fall under the mission of public health. © 2012 The Authors. obesity reviews © 2012 International Association for the Study of Obesity.

Exudate detection in color retinal images for mass screening of diabetic retinopathy.

PubMed

Zhang, Xiwei; Thibault, Guillaume; Decencière, Etienne; Marcotegui, Beatriz; Laÿ, Bruno; Danno, Ronan; Cazuguel, Guy; Quellec, Gwénolé; Lamard, Mathieu; Massin, Pascale; Chabouis, Agnès; Victor, Zeynep; Erginay, Ali

2014-10-01

The automatic detection of exudates in color eye fundus images is an important task in applications such as diabetic retinopathy screening. The presented work has been undertaken in the framework of the TeleOphta project, whose main objective is to automatically detect normal exams in a tele-ophthalmology network, thus reducing the burden on the readers. A new clinical database, e-ophtha EX, containing precisely manually contoured exudates, is introduced. As opposed to previously available databases, e-ophtha EX is very heterogeneous. It contains images gathered within the OPHDIAT telemedicine network for diabetic retinopathy screening. Image definition, quality, as well as patients condition or the retinograph used for the acquisition, for example, are subject to important changes between different examinations. The proposed exudate detection method has been designed for this complex situation. We propose new preprocessing methods, which perform not only normalization and denoising tasks, but also detect reflections and artifacts in the image. A new candidates segmentation method, based on mathematical morphology, is proposed. These candidates are characterized using classical features, but also novel contextual features. Finally, a random forest algorithm is used to detect the exudates among the candidates. The method has been validated on the e-ophtha EX database, obtaining an AUC of 0.95. It has been also validated on other databases, obtaining an AUC between 0.93 and 0.95, outperforming state-of-the-art methods. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Continuity and Change: Building a Quality Culture in the Romanian Educational System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bunda, Nicoleta Ramona; Baciu, Livia Loredana

2009-01-01

Educational objectives, like educational quality, are contextual and evolving--they may exhibit both continuity and change. This paper capitalizes on the role of neo-institutionalism and on the contribution of Douglass North (one major representative of the neo-institutionalism trend) in identifying the institutional impact upon cognitive…

Contextualized Support for Urban Teachers Implementing Writer's Workshop

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaiser, Eileen

2013-01-01

Gladwell (2000) describes context as "the tipping point" for leveraging change. This paper explores how differentiated learning opportunities situated in the school context supported changes in practice for urban elementary teachers during the implementation of Writer's Work-shop (Calkins, 2003 & 2006). The teachers in this…

Life Sciences Teachers Negotiating Professional Development Agency in Changing Curriculum Times

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh-Pillay, Asheena; Samuel, Michael Anthony

2017-01-01

This article probes teacher responses to three curricular reform initiatives from a South African situated contextual perspective. It focuses on Life Sciences teachers who have initially reported feeling overwhelmed by this rapidly changing curriculum environment: adopting and re-adapting to the many expected shifts. The research question posed…

Using Workplace Changes as Learning Opportunities: Antecedents to Reflection in Professional Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hetzner, Stefanie; Heid, Helmut; Gruber, Hans

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how individual characteristics and perceived contextual conditions shape reflection in professional work, particularly in workplaces that provide a variety of work experiences related to changes. The authors examine the effects of personal initiative, self-efficacy and perceived…

Aversive Memory Reactivation Engages in the Amygdala Only Some Neurotransmitters Involved in Consolidation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bucherelli, Corrado; Baldi, Elisabetta; Mariottini, Chiara; Passani, Maria Beatrice; Blandina, Patrizio

2006-01-01

Consolidation refers to item stabilization in long-term memory. Retrieval renders a consolidated memory sensitive, and a "reconsolidation" process has been hypothesized to keep the original memory persistent. Some authors could not detect this phenomenon. Here we show that retrieved contextual fear memory is vulnerable to amnesic treatments and…

Plagiarism, Cultural Diversity and Metaphor--Implications for Academic Staff Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leask, Betty

2006-01-01

Plagiarism is a complex, culturally loaded concept which causes much anxiety for both academics and students. Exactly what constitutes plagiarism is dependent on a number of contextual factors. Despite the difficulties associated with defining and detecting plagiarism, it is said to be on the increase, and students from "other cultures"…

Priming Interpretations: Contextual Impact on the Processing of Garden Path Jokes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayerhofer, Bastian; Maier, Katja; Schacht, Annekathrin

2016-01-01

In garden path (GP) jokes, a first dominant interpretation is detected as incoherent and subsequently substituted by a hidden joke interpretation. Two important factors for the processing of GP jokes are salience of the initial interpretation and accessibility of the hidden interpretation. Both factors are assumed to be affected by contextual…

Robust visual tracking using a contextual boosting approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Wanyue; Wang, Yin; Wang, Daobo

2018-03-01

In recent years, detection-based image trackers have been gaining ground rapidly, thanks to its capacity of incorporating a variety of image features. Nevertheless, its tracking performance might be compromised if background regions are mislabeled as foreground in the training process. To resolve this problem, we propose an online visual tracking algorithm designated to improving the training label accuracy in the learning phase. In the proposed method, superpixels are used as samples, and their ambiguous labels are reassigned in accordance with both prior estimation and contextual information. The location and scale of the target are usually determined by confidence map, which is doomed to shrink since background regions are always incorporated into the bounding box. To address this dilemma, we propose a cross projection scheme via projecting the confidence map for target detecting. Moreover, the performance of the proposed tracker can be further improved by adding rigid-structured information. The proposed method is evaluated on the basis of the OTB benchmark and the VOT2016 benchmark. Compared with other trackers, the results appear to be competitive.

Effects of the swimming exercise on the consolidation and persistence of auditory and contextual fear memory.

PubMed

Faria, Rodolfo Souza; Gutierres, Luís Felipe Soares; Sobrinho, Fernando César Faria; Miranda, Iris do Vale; Reis, Júlia Dos; Dias, Elayne Vieira; Sartori, Cesar Renato; Moreira, Dalmo Antonio Ribeiro

2016-08-15

Exposure to negative environmental events triggers defensive behavior and leads to the formation of aversive associative memory. Cellular and molecular changes in the central nervous system underlie this memory formation, as well as the associated behavioral changes. In general, memory process is established in distinct phases such as acquisition, consolidation, evocation, persistence, and extinction of the acquired information. After exposure to a particular event, early changes in involved neural circuits support the memory consolidation, which corresponds to the short-term memory. Re-exposure to previously memorized events evokes the original memory, a process that is considered essential for the reactivation and consequent persistence of memory, ensuring that long-term memory is established. Different environmental stimuli may modulate the memory formation process, as well as their distinct phases. Among the different environmental stimuli able of modulating memory formation is the physical exercise which is a potent modulator of neuronal activity. There are many studies showing that physical exercise modulates learning and memory processes, mainly in the consolidation phase of the explicit memory. However, there are few reports in the literature regarding the role of physical exercise in implicit aversive associative memory, especially at the persistence phase. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between swimming exercise and the consolidation and persistence of contextual and auditory-cued fear memory. Male Wistar rats were submitted to sessions of swimming exercise five times a week, over six weeks. After that, the rats were submitted to classical aversive conditioning training by a pairing tone/foot shock paradigm. Finally, rats were evaluated for consolidation and persistence of fear memory to both auditory and contextual cues. Our results demonstrate that classical aversive conditioning with tone/foot shock pairing induced consolidation as well as persistence of conditioned fear memory. In addition, rats submitted to swimming exercise over six weeks showed an improved performance in the test of auditory-cued fear memory persistence, but not in the test of contextual fear memory persistence. Moreover, no significant effect from swimming exercise was observed on consolidation of both contextual and auditory fear memory. So, our study, revealing the effect of the swimming exercise on different stages of implicit memory of tone/foot shock conditioning, contributes to and complements the current knowledge about the environmental modulation of memory process. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increased Contextual Fear Conditioning in iNOS Knockout Mice: Additional Evidence for the Involvement of Nitric Oxide in Stress-Related Disorders and Contribution of the Endocannabinoid System

PubMed Central

Gomes, Felipe V.; Silva, Andréia L.; Uliana, Daniela L.; Camargo, Laura H. A.; Guimarães, Francisco S.; Cunha, Fernando Q.; Joca, Sâmia R. L.; Resstel, Leonardo B. M.

2015-01-01

Background: Inducible or neuronal nitric oxide synthase gene deletion increases or decreases anxiety-like behavior in mice, respectively. Since nitric oxide and endocannabinoids interact to modulate defensive behavior, the former effect could involve a compensatory increase in basal brain nitric oxide synthase activity and/or changes in the endocannabinoid system. Thus, we investigated the expression and extinction of contextual fear conditioning of inducible nitric oxide knockout mice and possible involvement of endocannabinoids in these responses. Methods: We evaluated the effects of a preferential neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, 7-nitroindazol, nitric oxide synthase activity, and mRNA changes of nitrergic and endocannabinoid systems components in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of wild-type and knockout mice. The effects of URB597, an inhibitor of the fatty acid amide hydrolase enzyme, which metabolizes the endocannabinoid anandamide, WIN55,212-2, a nonselective cannabinoid agonist, and AM281, a selective CB1 antagonist, on contextual fear conditioning were also evaluated. Results: Contextual fear conditioning expression was similar in wild-type and knockout mice, but the latter presented extinction deficits and increased basal nitric oxide synthase activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. 7-Nitroindazol decreased fear expression and facilitated extinction in wild-type and knockout mice. URB597 decreased fear expression in wild-type and facilitated extinction in knockout mice, whereas WIN55,212-2 and AM281 increased it in wild-type mice. Nonconditioned knockout mice showed changes in the mRNA expression of nitrergic and endocannabinoid system components in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus that were modified by fear conditioning. Conclusion: These data reinforce the involvement of the nitric oxide and endocannabinoids (anandamide) in stress-related disorders and point to a deregulation of the endocannabinoid system in situations where nitric oxide signaling is increased. PMID:25618404

Increased Contextual Fear Conditioning in iNOS Knockout Mice: Additional Evidence for the Involvement of Nitric Oxide in Stress-Related Disorders and Contribution of the Endocannabinoid System.

PubMed

Lisboa, Sabrina F; Gomes, Felipe V; Silva, Andréia L; Uliana, Daniela L; Camargo, Laura H A; Guimarães, Francisco S; Cunha, Fernando Q; Joca, Sâmia R L; Resstel, Leonardo B M

2015-01-24

Inducible or neuronal nitric oxide synthase gene deletion increases or decreases anxiety-like behavior in mice, respectively. Since nitric oxide and endocannabinoids interact to modulate defensive behavior, the former effect could involve a compensatory increase in basal brain nitric oxide synthase activity and/or changes in the endocannabinoid system. Thus, we investigated the expression and extinction of contextual fear conditioning of inducible nitric oxide knockout mice and possible involvement of endocannabinoids in these responses. We evaluated the effects of a preferential neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, 7-nitroindazol, nitric oxide synthase activity, and mRNA changes of nitrergic and endocannabinoid systems components in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of wild-type and knockout mice. The effects of URB597, an inhibitor of the fatty acid amide hydrolase enzyme, which metabolizes the endocannabinoid anandamide, WIN55,212-2, a nonselective cannabinoid agonist, and AM281, a selective CB1 antagonist, on contextual fear conditioning were also evaluated. Contextual fear conditioning expression was similar in wild-type and knockout mice, but the latter presented extinction deficits and increased basal nitric oxide synthase activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. 7-Nitroindazol decreased fear expression and facilitated extinction in wild-type and knockout mice. URB597 decreased fear expression in wild-type and facilitated extinction in knockout mice, whereas WIN55,212-2 and AM281 increased it in wild-type mice. Nonconditioned knockout mice showed changes in the mRNA expression of nitrergic and endocannabinoid system components in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus that were modified by fear conditioning. These data reinforce the involvement of the nitric oxide and endocannabinoids (anandamide) in stress-related disorders and point to a deregulation of the endocannabinoid system in situations where nitric oxide signaling is increased. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of CINP.

Contextual Factors Impacting a Pain Management Intervention.

PubMed

Alaloul, Fawwaz; Williams, Kimberly; Myers, John; Jones, Kayla Dlauren; Sullivan, Katelyn; Logsdon, M Cynthia

2017-09-01

To determine if findings from our preliminary study related to patient and nursing satisfaction with a pain management intervention could be replicated in a changed environment, and if contextual factors could impact the effectiveness of a pain management intervention on patient satisfaction with nursing staff's management of pain. A prospective, experimental design was used with six monthly assessments before, during, and after the intervention. Data were collected from 540 patients admitted to eight medical surgical and progressive care units and nurses that worked in these units at an academic health sciences center in the southern United States, from March to July 2015. The script-based, pain management communication intervention included three specific tactics: script-based communication, use of white boards, and hourly rounding. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey was used to assess two items: "pain is well controlled" and "staff did everything they could to help with pain." Contextual factors focused on the practice setting. Both scores for "pain is well controlled" (β = .028, p = 0.651) and scores for "staff did everything they could to help with pain" (β = .057,p = .385) did not change initially but then increased significantly and were sustained over time. Nurses had high levels of satisfaction with the intervention (M = 7.9, SD = 2.1) and compliance with the intervention (M = 8.0, SD = 1.9), and had little difficulty in implementing the intervention (M = 8.3, SD = 1.4). In terms of contextual factors, the number of beds on the unit and the number of patients being discharged negatively impacted scores for "pain is well controlled" and "staff did everything they could to help with pain." Hospital length of stay positively impacted scores for "pain is well controlled" by staff. Despite challenging contextual variables, the study extended the findings of an early preliminary study in showing the effectiveness of pain management intervention on patient satisfaction with staff's management of pain. In evaluating the impact of an intervention, it is essential to examine the contextual environment. Using simple, clear, and consistent communication between patients and nurses related to pain can positively impact patient satisfaction with pain management over time. The health care environment can enhance nursing practice and patients' outcomes. © 2017 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Mechanisms supporting superior source memory for familiar items: A multi-voxel pattern analysis study

PubMed Central

Poppenk, Jordan; Norman, Kenneth A.

2012-01-01

Recent cognitive research has revealed better source memory performance for familiar relative to novel stimuli. Here we consider two possible explanations for this finding. The source memory advantage for familiar stimuli could arise because stimulus novelty induces attention to stimulus features at the expense of contextual processing, resulting in diminished overall levels of contextual processing at study for novel (vs. familiar) stimuli. Another possibility is that stimulus information retrieved from long-term memory (LTM) provides scaffolding that facilitates the formation of item-context associations. If contextual features are indeed more effectively bound to familiar (vs. novel) items, the relationship between contextual processing at study and subsequent source memory should be stronger for familiar items. We tested these possibilities by applying multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to a recently collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) dataset, with the goal of measuring contextual processing at study and relating it to subsequent source memory performance. Participants were scanned with fMRI while viewing novel proverbs, repeated proverbs (previously novel proverbs that were shown in a pre-study phase), and previously known proverbs in the context of one of two experimental tasks. After scanning was complete, we evaluated participants’ source memory for the task associated with each proverb. Drawing upon fMRI data from the study phase, we trained a classifier to detect on-task processing (i.e., how strongly was the correct task set activated). On-task processing was greater for previously known than novel proverbs and similar for repeated and novel proverbs. However, both within- and across participants, the relationship between on-task processing and subsequent source memory was stronger for repeated than novel proverbs and similar for previously known and novel proverbs. Finally, focusing on the repeated condition, we found that higher levels of hippocampal activity during the pre-study phase, which we used as an index of episodic encoding, led to a stronger relationship between on-task processing at study and subsequent memory. Together, these findings suggest different mechanisms may be primarily responsible for superior source memory for repeated and previously known stimuli. Specifically, they suggest that prior stimulus knowledge enhances memory by boosting the overall level of contextual processing, whereas stimulus repetition enhances the probability that contextual features will be successfully bound to item features. Several possible theoretical explanations for this pattern are discussed. PMID:22820636

From Foreground to Background: How Task-Neutral Context Influences Contextual Cueing of Visual Search.

PubMed

Zang, Xuelian; Geyer, Thomas; Assumpção, Leonardo; Müller, Hermann J; Shi, Zhuanghua

2016-01-01

Selective attention determines the effectiveness of implicit contextual learning (e.g., Jiang and Leung, 2005). Visual foreground-background segmentation, on the other hand, is a key process in the guidance of attention (Wolfe, 2003). In the present study, we examined the impact of foreground-background segmentation on contextual cueing of visual search in three experiments. A visual search display, consisting of distractor 'L's and a target 'T', was overlaid on a task-neutral cuboid on the same depth plane (Experiment 1), on stereoscopically separated depth planes (Experiment 2), or spread over the entire display on the same depth plane (Experiment 3). Half of the search displays contained repeated target-distractor arrangements, whereas the other half was always newly generated. The task-neutral cuboid was constant during an initial training session, but was either rotated by 90° or entirely removed in the subsequent test sessions. We found that the gains resulting from repeated presentation of display arrangements during training (i.e., contextual-cueing effects) were diminished when the cuboid was changed or removed in Experiment 1, but remained intact in Experiments 2 and 3 when the cuboid was placed in a different depth plane, or when the items were randomly spread over the whole display but not on the edges of the cuboid. These findings suggest that foreground-background segmentation occurs prior to contextual learning, and only objects/arrangements that are grouped as foreground are learned over the course of repeated visual search.

From Foreground to Background: How Task-Neutral Context Influences Contextual Cueing of Visual Search

PubMed Central

Zang, Xuelian; Geyer, Thomas; Assumpção, Leonardo; Müller, Hermann J.; Shi, Zhuanghua

2016-01-01

Selective attention determines the effectiveness of implicit contextual learning (e.g., Jiang and Leung, 2005). Visual foreground-background segmentation, on the other hand, is a key process in the guidance of attention (Wolfe, 2003). In the present study, we examined the impact of foreground-background segmentation on contextual cueing of visual search in three experiments. A visual search display, consisting of distractor ‘L’s and a target ‘T’, was overlaid on a task-neutral cuboid on the same depth plane (Experiment 1), on stereoscopically separated depth planes (Experiment 2), or spread over the entire display on the same depth plane (Experiment 3). Half of the search displays contained repeated target-distractor arrangements, whereas the other half was always newly generated. The task-neutral cuboid was constant during an initial training session, but was either rotated by 90° or entirely removed in the subsequent test sessions. We found that the gains resulting from repeated presentation of display arrangements during training (i.e., contextual-cueing effects) were diminished when the cuboid was changed or removed in Experiment 1, but remained intact in Experiments 2 and 3 when the cuboid was placed in a different depth plane, or when the items were randomly spread over the whole display but not on the edges of the cuboid. These findings suggest that foreground-background segmentation occurs prior to contextual learning, and only objects/arrangements that are grouped as foreground are learned over the course of repeated visual search. PMID:27375530

Human Behavioral Contributions to Climate Change: Psychological and Contextual Drivers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swim, Janet K.; Clayton, Susan; Howard, George S.

2011-01-01

We are facing rapid changes in the global climate, and these changes are attributable to human behavior. Humans produce this global impact through our use of natural resources, multiplied by the vast increase in population seen in the past 50 to 100 years. Our goal in this article is to examine the underlying psychosocial causes of human impact,…

Deviance as history: the future of perversion.

PubMed

Simon, W

1994-02-01

An approach to the social construction of concepts of sexual deviance and sexual perversions is considered. Deviance is conceptualized as a problem of control, perversion a problem of desire. These are seen as related to the larger sexual and nonsexual discursive practices of society and given to change as these contextualizing practices change. Changing conceptions regarding masturbation, homosexuality, pedophilia, and sadomasochism are examined.

The potential of the inventory of learning styles to study students' learning patterns in three types of medical curricula.

PubMed

Van der Veken, J; Valcke, M; Muijtjens, A; De Maeseneer, J; Derese, A

2008-01-01

Introducing innovative curricular designs can be evaluating by scrutinizing the learning patterns students use. Studying the potential of Vermunt's Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) in detecting differences in student learning patterns in different medical curricula. Cross-sectional between-subjects comparison of ILS-scores in third-year medical students in a conventional, an integrated contextual and a PBL-curriculum using one-way post hoc ANOVA. Response rate was 85%: 197 conventional, 130 integrated contextual and 301 PBL students. The results show a differential impact from the three curricula. In relation to processing strategies, the students in the problem-based curriculum showed less rote learning and rehearsing, greater variety in sources of knowledge used and less ability to express study content in a personal manner than did the students in the conventional curriculum. The students of the integrated contextual curriculum showed more structuring of subject matter by integrating different aspects into a whole. In relation to regulation strategies, the students in the problem-based curriculum showed significantly more self-regulation of learning content and the students in the integrated contextual curriculum showed lower levels of regulation. As to learning orientations, the students in the problem-based curriculum showed less ambivalence and the students of the conventional curriculum were less vocationally oriented. The study provides empirical support for expected effects of traditional and innovative curricula which thus far were not well supported by empirical studies.

An adaptive Kalman filter technique for context-aware heart rate monitoring.

PubMed

Xu, Min; Goldfain, Albert; Dellostritto, Jim; Iyengar, Satish

2012-01-01

Traditional physiological monitoring systems convert a person's vital sign waveforms, such as heart rate, respiration rate and blood pressure, into meaningful information by comparing the instant reading with a preset threshold or a baseline without considering the contextual information of the person. It would be beneficial to incorporate the contextual data such as activity status of the person to the physiological data in order to obtain a more accurate representation of a person's physiological status. In this paper, we proposed an algorithm based on adaptive Kalman filter that describes the heart rate response with respect to different activity levels. It is towards our final goal of intelligent detection of any abnormality in the person's vital signs. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the feasibility of the algorithm.

Exponential gain of randomness certified by quantum contextuality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Um, Mark; Zhang, Junhua; Wang, Ye; Wang, Pengfei; Kim, Kihwan

2017-04-01

We demonstrate the protocol of exponential gain of randomness certified by quantum contextuality in a trapped ion system. The genuine randomness can be produced by quantum principle and certified by quantum inequalities. Recently, randomness expansion protocols based on inequality of Bell-text and Kochen-Specker (KS) theorem, have been demonstrated. These schemes have been theoretically innovated to exponentially expand the randomness and amplify the randomness from weak initial random seed. Here, we report the experimental evidence of such exponential expansion of randomness. In the experiment, we use three states of a 138Ba + ion between a ground state and two quadrupole states. In the 138Ba + ion system, we do not have detection loophole and we apply a methods to rule out certain hidden variable models that obey a kind of extended noncontextuality.

Open, aware, and active: contextual approaches as an emerging trend in the behavioral and cognitive therapies.

PubMed

Hayes, Steven C; Villatte, Matthieu; Levin, Michael; Hildebrandt, Mikaela

2011-01-01

A wave of new developments has occurred in the behavioral and cognitive therapies that focuses on processes such as acceptance, mindfulness, attention, or values. In this review, we describe some of these developments and the data regarding them, focusing on information about components, moderators, mediators, and processes of change. These "third wave" methods all emphasize the context and function of psychological events more so than their validity, frequency, or form, and for these reasons we use the term "contextual cognitive behavioral therapy" to describe their characteristics. Both putative processes, and component and process evidence, indicate that they are focused on establishing a more open, aware, and active approach to living, and that their positive effects occur because of changes in these processes. © 2011 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved

The need to promote behaviour change at the cultural level: one factor explaining the limited impact of the MEMA kwa Vijana adolescent sexual health intervention in rural Tanzania. A process evaluation.

PubMed

Wight, Daniel; Plummer, Mary; Ross, David

2012-09-14

Few of the many behavioral sexual health interventions in Africa have been rigorously evaluated. Where biological outcomes have been measured, improvements have rarely been found. One of the most rigorous trials was of the multi-component MEMA kwa Vijana adolescent sexual health programme, which showed improvements in knowledge and reported attitudes and behaviour, but none in biological outcomes. This paper attempts to explain these outcomes by reviewing the process evaluation findings, particularly in terms of contextual factors. A large-scale, primarily qualitative process evaluation based mainly on participant observation identified the principal contextual barriers and facilitators of behavioural change. The contextual barriers involved four interrelated socio-structural factors: culture (i.e. shared practices and systems of belief), economic circumstances, social status, and gender. At an individual level they appeared to operate through the constructs of the theories underlying MEMA kwa Vijana - Social Cognitive Theory and the Theory of Reasoned Action - but the intervention was unable to substantially modify these individual-level constructs, apart from knowledge. The process evaluation suggests that one important reason for this failure is that the intervention did not operate sufficiently at a structural level, particularly in regard to culture. Recently most structural interventions have focused on gender or/and economics. Complementing these with a cultural approach could address the belief systems that justify and perpetuate gender and economic inequalities, as well as other barriers to behaviour change.

Cardiorespiratory hospitalisation and mortality reductions after smoking bans in Switzerland.

PubMed

Vicedo-Cabrera, Ana M; Röösli, Martin; Radovanovic, Dragana; Grize, Leticia; Witassek, Fabienne; Schindler, Christian; Perez, Laura

2017-01-19

Smoking bans are considered one of the most effective policies to reduce population exposure to tobacco smoke and prevent adverse health outcomes. However, evidence on the effect of contextual variables on the effectiveness of smoking bans is still lacking. The patchwork of cantonal smoke-free laws in Switzerland was used as a quasi-experimental setting to assess changes after their introduction in: hospitalisations and mortality due to cardiorespiratory diseases in adults; total hospitalisations and hospitalisations due to respiratory disorders in children; and the modifying effects of contextual factors and the effectiveness of the laws. Using hospital and mortality registry data for residents in Switzerland (2005-2012), we conducted canton-specific interrupted time-series analyses followed by random effects meta-analyses to obtain nationwide smoking ban estimates by subgroups of age, sex and causes of hospitalisation or death. Heterogeneity of the impact caused by strictness of the ban and other smoking-related characteristics of the cantons was explored through meta-regression. Total hospitalisation rates due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases did not significantly change after the introduction of the ban. Post-ban changes were detected in ischaemic heart disease hospitalisations, with a 2.5% reduction (95% confidence interval [CI)] -6.2 to 1.3%) for all ages and 5.5% (95% CI -10.8 to -0.2%) in adults 35-64 years old. Total mortality due to respiratory diseases decreased by 8.2% (95% CI -15.2 to -0.6%) over all ages, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease mortality decreased by 14.0% (95% CI -22.3 to -4.5%) in adults ≥65 years old. Cardiovascular mortality did not change after the introduction of the ban, but there was an indication of post-ban reductions in mortality due to hypertensive disorders (-5.4%, 95% CI -12.6 to 2.3%), and congestive heart failure (-6.0%, 95% CI -14.5 to 3.4%). No benefits were observed for hospitalisations due to respiratory diseases in children or for infant mortality. The type of smoking ban implemented explained the heterogeneity of benefits across cantons for some outcomes. Smoking bans in Switzerland were associated with overall reductions in cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalisation and mortality in adults.

Social media: A contextual framework to guide research and practice.

PubMed

McFarland, Lynn A; Ployhart, Robert E

2015-11-01

Social media are a broad collection of digital platforms that have radically changed the way people interact and communicate. However, we argue that social media are not simply a technology but actually represent a context that differs in important ways from traditional (e.g., face-to-face) and other digital (e.g., email) ways of interacting and communicating. As a result, social media is a relatively unexamined type of context that may affect the cognition, affect, and behavior of individuals within organizations. We propose a contextual framework that identifies the discrete and ambient stimuli that distinguish social media contexts from digital communication media (e.g., email) and physical (e.g., face-to-face) contexts. We then use this contextual framework to demonstrate how it changes more person-centered theories of organizational behavior (e.g., social exchange, social contagion, and social network theories). These theoretical insights are also used to identify a number of practical implications for individuals and organizations. This study's major contribution is creating a theoretical understanding of social media features so that future research may proceed in a theory-based, rather than platform-based, manner. Overall, we intend for this article to stimulate and broadly shape the direction of research on this ubiquitous, but poorly understood, phenomenon. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Developmental Changes in the Primacy of Facial Cues for Emotion Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leitzke, Brian T.; Pollak, Seth D.

2016-01-01

There have been long-standing differences of opinion regarding the influence of the face relative to that of contextual information on how individuals process and judge facial expressions of emotion. However, developmental changes in how individuals use such information have remained largely unexplored and could be informative in attempting to…

Extinction Partially Reverts Structural Changes Associated with Remote Fear Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vetere, Gisella; Restivo, Leonardo; Novembre, Giovanni; Aceti, Massimiliano; Lumaca, Massimo; Ammassari-Teule, Martine

2011-01-01

Structural synaptic changes occur in medial prefrontal cortex circuits during remote memory formation. Whether extinction reverts or further reshapes these circuits is, however, unknown. Here we show that the number and the size of spines were enhanced in anterior cingulate (aCC) and infralimbic (ILC) cortices 36 d following contextual fear…

Development of Flexible Visual Recognition Memory in Human Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Astri J.; Pascalis, Olivier

2004-01-01

Research using the visual paired comparison task has shown that visual recognition memory across changing contexts is dependent on the integrity of the hippocampal formation in human adults and in monkeys. The acquisition of contextual flexibility may contribute to the change in memory performance that occurs late in the first year of life. To…

Achieving Sustainability through Targeted Curriculum Change. Strategies for Transformative Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Audant, B.; Kirby, C.

2016-01-01

Integrated academic skills instruction was one of the core elements of the CareerPATH consortium that provided math, reading, writing, and English language skills instruction "contextualized" to occupational training. Its goal was to engage adult learners and accelerate their progress in college and careers. The focus of this brief is…

The Relationship between Resistance to Change and Romanian Teachers' Attitude towards Continuing Education: The Moderating Role of Conscientiousness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palos, Ramona; Gunaru, Simona Alexandra

2017-01-01

Previous research highlights that personal factors are more important than contextual factors in explaining teachers' behaviours in relation to learning participation. The present study explores the relationship between two personal factors (dispositional resistance to change and teachers' attitude towards continuing education) and the moderating…

Changes in Mothers' Experiences of Receiving an Autism Diagnosis: A Contextualized Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hornstein, Shana

2011-01-01

Autism has a unique history. The definition has broadened and changed over time, from an emotional disturbance with psychogenic origins to a neurodevelopmental disability with suspected environmental and genetic origins. Diagnosis occurs later than children born with obvious disabilities such as cerebral palsy or Down syndrome, but earlier than…

Values in Political Science Students' Contextualizations of Nationalism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murstedt, Linda; Trostek, Jonas R.; Scheja, Max

2015-01-01

Recent research on conceptual change has argued that it is insufficient to assume that prior knowledge is the only aspect relevant in order to explain the conceptual change process. In addition, "warm constructs" such as emotions, epistemological beliefs, and values have been proposed to play a determinative role. In this study, we aim…

Implementing climate change mitigation in health services: the importance of context.

PubMed

Desmond, Sharon

2016-10-01

Academic interest in strategies to reduce the impact of health services on climate change is quickening. Research has largely focused on local innovations with little consideration of the contextual and systemic elements that influence sustainable development across health systems. A realistic framework specifically to guide decision-making by health care providers is still needed. To address this deficit, the literature is explored in relation to health services and climate change mitigation strategies, and the contextual factors that influence efforts to mitigate climate effects in health service delivery environments are highlighted. A conceptual framework is proposed that offers a model for the pursuit of sustainable development practice in health services. A set of propositions is advanced to provide a systems approach to assist decision-making by decoding the challenges faced in implementing sustainable health services. This has important implications for health care providers, funders and legislators since the financial, policy and regulatory environment of health care, along with its leadership and models of care generally conflict with carbon literacy and climate change mitigation strategies. © The Author(s) 2016.

Chemical and biological weapons in the 'new wars'.

PubMed

Ilchmann, Kai; Revill, James

2014-09-01

The strategic use of disease and poison in warfare has been subject to a longstanding and cross-cultural taboo that condemns the hostile exploitation of poisons and disease as the act of a pariah. In short, biological and chemical weapons are simply not fair game. The normative opprobrium is, however, not fixed, but context dependent and, as a social phenomenon, remains subject to erosion by social (or more specifically, antisocial) actors. The cross cultural understanding that fighting with poisons and disease is reprehensible, that they are taboo, is codified through a web of interconnected measures, principal amongst these are the 1925 Geneva Protocol; the Biological Weapons Convention; and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Whilst these treaties have weathered the storm of international events reasonably well, their continued health is premised on their being 'tended to' in the face of contextual changes, particularly facing changes in science and technology, as well as the changed nature and character of conflict. This article looks at the potential for normative erosion of the norm against chemical and biological weapons in the face of these contextual changes and the creeping legitimization of chemical and biological weapons.

Lifelong disturbance of serotonin transporter functioning results in fear learning deficits: Reversal by blockade of CRF1 receptors.

PubMed

Bijlsma, Elisabeth Y; Hendriksen, Hendrikus; Baas, Johanna M P; Millan, Mark J; Groenink, Lucianne

2015-10-01

The inability to associate aversive events with relevant cues (i.e. fear learning) may lead to maladaptive anxiety. To further study the role of the serotonin transporter (SERT) in fear learning, classical fear conditioning was studied in SERT knockout rats (SERT(-/-)) using fear potentiation of the startle reflex. Next, fear acquisition and concomitant development of contextual conditioned fear were monitored during training. To differentiate between developmental and direct effects of reduced SERT functioning, effects of acute and chronic SSRI treatment were studied in adult rats. Considering the known interactions between serotonin and corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), we studied the effect of the CRFR1 antagonist CP154,526 on behavioral changes observed and determined CRF1 receptor levels in SERT(-/-) rats. SERT(-/-) showed blunted fear potentiation and enhanced contextual fear, which resulted from a deficit in fear acquisition. Paroxetine treatment did not affect acquisition or expression of fear-potentiated startle, suggesting that disturbed fear learning in SERT(-/-) results from developmental changes and not from reduced SERT functioning. Although CRF1 receptor levels did not differ significantly between genotypes, CP154,526 treatment normalized both cue- and contextual fear in SERT(-/-) during acquisition, but not expression of fear-potentiated startle. The disrupted fear acquisition and concomitant increase in contextual conditioned fear-potentiated startle fear in SERT(-/-) resembles the associative learning deficit seen in patients with panic disorder and suggests that normal SERT functioning is crucial for the development of an adequate fear neuro-circuitry. Moreover, the normalization of fear acquisition by CP154,526 suggests a role for central CRF signaling in the generalization of fear. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Content in Context Improves Deception Detection Accuracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blair, J. Pete; Levine, Timothy R.; Shaw, Allison S.

2010-01-01

Past research has shown that people are only slightly better than chance at distinguishing truths from lies. Higher accuracy rates, however, are possible when contextual knowledge is used to judge the veracity of situated message content. The utility of content in context was shown in a series of experiments with students (N = 26, 45, 51, 25, 127)…

Ontogeny of Contextual Fear Memory Formation, Specificity, and Persistence in Mice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akers, Katherine G.; Arruda-Carvalho, Maithe; Josselyn, Sheena A.; Frankland, Paul W.

2012-01-01

Pinpointing the precise age when young animals begin to form memories of aversive events is valuable for understanding the onset of anxiety and mood disorders and for detecting early cognitive impairment in models of childhood-onset disorders. Although these disorders are most commonly modeled in mice, we know little regarding the development of…

Contextual behavior and neural circuits

PubMed Central

Lee, Inah; Lee, Choong-Hee

2013-01-01

Animals including humans engage in goal-directed behavior flexibly in response to items and their background, which is called contextual behavior in this review. Although the concept of context has long been studied, there are differences among researchers in defining and experimenting with the concept. The current review aims to provide a categorical framework within which not only the neural mechanisms of contextual information processing but also the contextual behavior can be studied in more concrete ways. For this purpose, we categorize contextual behavior into three subcategories as follows by considering the types of interactions among context, item, and response: contextual response selection, contextual item selection, and contextual item–response selection. Contextual response selection refers to the animal emitting different types of responses to the same item depending on the context in the background. Contextual item selection occurs when there are multiple items that need to be chosen in a contextual manner. Finally, when multiple items and multiple contexts are involved, contextual item–response selection takes place whereby the animal either chooses an item or inhibits such a response depending on item–context paired association. The literature suggests that the rhinal cortical regions and the hippocampal formation play key roles in mnemonically categorizing and recognizing contextual representations and the associated items. In addition, it appears that the fronto-striatal cortical loops in connection with the contextual information-processing areas critically control the flexible deployment of adaptive action sets and motor responses for maximizing goals. We suggest that contextual information processing should be investigated in experimental settings where contextual stimuli and resulting behaviors are clearly defined and measurable, considering the dynamic top-down and bottom-up interactions among the neural systems for contextual behavior. PMID:23675321

Creatures of habit: accounting for the role of habit in implementation research on clinical behaviour change

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Social cognitive theories on behaviour change are increasingly being used to understand and predict healthcare professionals’ intentions and clinical behaviours. Although these theories offer important insights into how new behaviours are initiated, they provide an incomplete account of how changes in clinical practice occur by failing to consider the role of cue-contingent habits. This article contributes to better understanding of the role of habits in clinical practice and how improved effectiveness of behavioural strategies in implementation research might be achieved. Discussion Habit is behaviour that has been repeated until it has become more or less automatic, enacted without purposeful thinking, largely without any sense of awareness. The process of forming habits occurs through a gradual shift in cognitive control from intentional to automatic processes. As behaviour is repeated in the same context, the control of behaviour gradually shifts from being internally guided (e.g., beliefs, attitudes, and intention) to being triggered by situational or contextual cues. Much clinical practice occurs in stable healthcare contexts and can be assumed to be habitual. Empirical findings in various fields suggest that behaviours that are repeated in constant contexts are difficult to change. Hence, interventions that focus on changing the context that maintains those habits have a greater probability of success. Some sort of contextual disturbance provides a window of opportunity in which a behaviour is more likely to be deliberately considered. Forming desired habits requires behaviour to be carried out repeatedly in the presence of the same contextual cues. Summary Social cognitive theories provide insight into how humans analytically process information and carefully plan actions, but their utility is more limited when it comes to explaining repeated behaviours that do not require such an ongoing contemplative decisional process. However, despite a growing interest in applying behavioural theory in interventions to change clinical practice, the potential importance of habit has not been explored in implementation research. PMID:22682656

Perceived Need for Change: A Test of Individual Emotion and Contextual Influences

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-03-01

to be a determinant for organizational trust (Stinglamber, De Cremer , & Mercken, 2006). The organizational trust research concurs with the findings...source of the feedback must be credible (Kinicki et al., 2004). In the present study, the organizational leadership argued that the changes needed to...W. H., & Hede, A. (2001). Resistance to organizational change: The role of cognitive and affective processes. Leadership & Organization Development

Within-Year Changes of Lesson Structure: An Exploration of Pedagogical Functions of Lessons by Means of Multilevel Growth Curve Modelling in Indonesia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maulana, Ridwan; Opdenakker, Marie-Christine; den Brok, Perry

2015-01-01

Teaching is undoubtedly complex and the complexity of classroom practice implies that the structure of lessons making up teaching may differ and subject to change over time. The aims of this study were to investigate changes in observed lesson structure, and explore the effects of several teacher and contextual characteristics on differences in…

The Mediating Roles of Internal Context Variables in the Relationship between Distributed Leadership Perceptions and Continuous Change Behaviours of Public School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kondakci, Yasar; Zayim, Merve; Beycioglu, Kadir; Sincar, Mehmet; Ugurlu, Celal T

2016-01-01

This study aims at building a theoretical base for continuous change in education and using this base to test the mediating roles of two key contextual variables, knowledge sharing and trust, in the relationship between the distributed leadership perceptions and continuous change behaviours of teachers. Data were collected from 687 public school…

Towards a social and context-aware multi-sensor fall detection and risk assessment platform.

PubMed

De Backere, F; Ongenae, F; Van den Abeele, F; Nelis, J; Bonte, P; Clement, E; Philpott, M; Hoebeke, J; Verstichel, S; Ackaert, A; De Turck, F

2015-09-01

For elderly people fall incidents are life-changing events that lead to degradation or even loss of autonomy. Current fall detection systems are not integrated and often associated with undetected falls and/or false alarms. In this paper, a social- and context-aware multi-sensor platform is presented, which integrates information gathered by a plethora of fall detection systems and sensors at the home of the elderly, by using a cloud-based solution, making use of an ontology. Within the ontology, both static and dynamic information is captured to model the situation of a specific patient and his/her (in)formal caregivers. This integrated contextual information allows to automatically and continuously assess the fall risk of the elderly, to more accurately detect falls and identify false alarms and to automatically notify the appropriate caregiver, e.g., based on location or their current task. The main advantage of the proposed platform is that multiple fall detection systems and sensors can be integrated, as they can be easily plugged in, this can be done based on the specific needs of the patient. The combination of several systems and sensors leads to a more reliable system, with better accuracy. The proof of concept was tested with the use of the visualizer, which enables a better way to analyze the data flow within the back-end and with the use of the portable testbed, which is equipped with several different sensors. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Activation of alpha2 adrenergic receptors suppresses fear conditioning: expression of c-Fos and phosphorylated CREB in mouse amygdala.

PubMed

Davies, M Frances; Tsui, Janet; Flannery, Judy A; Li, Xiangqi; DeLorey, Timothy M; Hoffman, Brian B

2004-02-01

alpha(2) adrenergic agonists such as dexmedetomidine generally suppress noradrenergic transmission and have sedative, analgesic, and antihypertensive properties. Considering the importance of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine in forming memories for fearful events, we have investigated the acute and chronic effects of dexmedetomidine on discrete cue and contextual fear conditioning in mice. When administered before training, dexmedetomidine (10-20 microg/kg, i.p.) selectively suppressed discrete cue fear conditioning without affecting contextual memory. This behavioral change was associated with a decrease in memory retrieval-induced expression of c-Fos and P-CREB in the lateral, basolateral, and central nuclei of the amygdala. Dexmedetomidine's action on discrete cue memory did not occur in alpha(2A) adrenoceptor knockout (KO) mice. When dexmedetomidine was administered after training, it suppressed contextual memory, an effect that did not occur in alpha(2A) adrenoceptor KO mice. We conclude that dexmedetomidine, acting at alpha(2A) adrenoceptors, must be present during the encoding process to decrease discrete cue fear memory; however, its ability to suppress contextual memory is likely the result of blocking the consolidation process. The ability of alpha(2) agonists to suppress fear memory may be a valuable property clinically in order to suppress the formation of memories during stressful situations.

Effects of whole body (56)Fe radiation on contextual freezing and Arc-positive cells in the dentate gyrus.

PubMed

Raber, Jacob; Allen, Antiño R; Rosi, Susanna; Sharma, Sourabh; Dayger, Catherine; Davis, Matthew J; Fike, John R

2013-06-01

The space radiation environment contains high-energy charged particles such as (56)Fe, which could pose a significant hazard to hippocampal function in astronauts during and after the mission(s). The mechanisms underlying impairments in cognition are not clear but might involve alterations in the percentage of neurons in the dentate gyrus expressing the plasticity-related immediate early gene Arc. Previously, we showed effects of cranial (56)Fe irradiation on hippocampus-dependent contextual freezing and on the percentage of Arc-positive cells in the enclosed, but not free, blade. Because it is unclear whether whole body (56)Fe irradiation causes similar effects on these markers of hippocampal function, in the present study we quantified the effects of whole body (56)Fe irradiation (600MeV, 0.5 or 1Gy) on hippocampus-dependent and hippocampus-independent cognitive performance and determined whether these effects were associated with changes in Arc expression in the enclosed and free blades of the dentate gyrus. Whole body (56)Fe irradiation impacted contextual but not cued fear freezing and the percentage of Arc-positive cells in the enclosed and free blades. In mice tested for contextual freezing, there was a correlation between Arc-positive cells in the enclosed and free blades. In addition, in mice irradiated with 0.5Gy, contextual freezing in the absence of aversive stimuli correlated with the percentage of Arc-positive cells in the enclosed blade. In mice tested for cued freezing, there was no correlation between Arc-positive cells in the enclosed and free blades. In contrast, cued freezing in the presence or absence of aversive stimuli correlated with Arc-positive cells in the free blade. In addition, in mice irradiated with 1Gy cued freezing in the absence of aversive stimuli correlated with the percentage of Arc-positive neurons in the free blade. These data indicate that while whole body (56)Fe radiation affects contextual freezing and Arc-positive cells in the dentate gyrus, the enclosed blade might be more important for contextual freezing while the free blade might be more important for cued freezing. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contextual assessment in science education: Background, issues, and policy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klassen, Stephen

2006-09-01

Contemporary assessment practices in science education have undergone significant changes in recent decades. The basis for these changes and the resulting new assessment practices are the subject of this two-part paper. Part 1 considers the basis of assessment that, more than 25 years ago, was driven by the assumptions of decomposability and decontextualization of knowledge, resulting in a low-inference testing system, often described as traditional. This assessment model was replaced not on account of direct criticism, but rather on account of a larger revolution - the change from behavioral to cognitive psychology, developments in the philosophy of science, and the rise of constructivism. Most notably, the study of the active cognitive processes of the individual resulted in a major emphasis on context in learning and assessment. These changes gave rise to the development of various contextual assessment methodologies in science education, for example, concept mapping assessment, performance assessment, and portfolio assessment. In Part 2, the literature relating to the assessment methods identified in Part 1 is reviewed, revealing that there is not much research that supports their validity and reliability. However, encouraging new work on selected-response tests is forming the basis for reconsideration of past criticisms of this technique. Despite the major developments in contextual assessment methodologies in science education, two important questions remain unanswered, namely, whether grades can be considered as genuine numeric quantities and whether the individual student is the appropriate unit of assessment in public accountability. Given these issues and the requirement for science assessment to satisfy the goals of the individual, the classroom, and the society, tentative recommendations are put forward addressing these parallel needs in the assessment of science learning.

Institutionalizing evidence-based practice: an organizational case study using a model of strategic change

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Background There is a general expectation within healthcare that organizations should use evidence-based practice (EBP) as an approach to improving the quality of care. However, challenges exist regarding how to make EBP a reality, particularly at an organizational level and as a routine, sustained aspect of professional practice. Methods A mixed method explanatory case study was conducted to study context; i.e., in terms of the presence or absence of multiple, inter-related contextual elements and associated strategic approaches required for integrated, routine use of EBP ('institutionalization'). The Pettigrew et al. Content, Context, and Process model was used as the theoretical framework. Two sites in the US were purposively sampled to provide contrasting cases: i.e., a 'role model' site, widely recognized as demonstrating capacity to successfully implement and sustain EBP to a greater degree than others; and a 'beginner' site, self-perceived as early in the journey towards institutionalization. Results The two sites were clearly different in terms of their organizational context, level of EBP activity, and degree of institutionalization. For example, the role model site had a pervasive, integrated presence of EBP versus a sporadic, isolated presence in the beginner site. Within the inner context of the role model site, there was also a combination of the Pettigrew and colleagues' receptive elements that, together, appeared to enhance its ability to effectively implement EBP-related change at multiple levels. In contrast, the beginner site, which had been involved for a few years in EBP-related efforts, had primarily non-receptive conditions in several contextual elements and a fairly low overall level of EBP receptivity. The beginner site thus appeared, at the time of data collection, to lack an integrated context to either support or facilitate the institutionalization of EBP. Conclusion Our findings provide evidence of some of the key contextual elements that may require attention if institutionalization of EBP is to be realized. They also suggest the need for an integrated set of receptive contextual elements to achieve EBP institutionalization; and they further support the importance of specific interactions among these elements, including ways in which leadership affects other contextual elements positively or negatively. PMID:19948064

Education for sustainable development at the university level: Interactions of the need for community, fear of indoctrination, and the demands of work

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qablan, Ahmad

The goal of this study was to describe the factors that influence education for sustainable development (ESD) in American universities. Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) was employed as the theoretical lens to analyze the activity of ESD (Engestrom & Miettinen 1999). Data were collected by focusing on two university professors through a series of interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts. The findings of the study demonstrated that both professors encountered serious contradictions in their activity of ESD. These contradictions were both contextual and personal in origin and caused the professors to reshape the object of their teaching activity. The contextual contradictions originated from rules of the professors' institution, their inner and outer communities, and the division of labor in their work environment. The thematic analysis of the data revealed that the contextual contradictions included demanding work responsibilities, emphasis on research over teaching, and lack of community to consider teaching in general and specifically for ESD. The personal contradictions arose from the professors' personal philosophies, perspectives, and visions of sustainable development. Again the thematic analysis revealed the personal contradictions arose from the professors' conceptions of teaching and learning, fear of indoctrination, and again lack of community to support the consideration of teaching. Due to these contradictions in their activity systems, both professors narrowed their sustainability objects to address only one side of sustainability paradigm (the science component), changing the outcomes of their teaching activity to that of preparing environmentally informed citizens. While one professor focused on his new object of delivering environmental knowledge, the other professor adopted a mitigation strategy of focusing on the dual object of sustainability and delivering environmental knowledge. The study offers several strategies to resolve the personal and contextual contradictions identified in this study. Specifically addressed are strategies to alleviate their fear of indoctrination and to access surrounding teaching communities. It also offers strategies focusing on contextual contradictions: establishing ESD communities inside the university and changing faculty incentive and reward structures within the university.

Adaptation to conflict via context-driven anticipatory signals in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

PubMed

Horga, Guillermo; Maia, Tiago V; Wang, Pengwei; Wang, Zhishun; Marsh, Rachel; Peterson, Bradley S

2011-11-09

Behavioral interference elicited by competing response tendencies adapts to contextual changes. Recent nonhuman primate research suggests a key mnemonic role of distinct prefrontal cells in supporting such context-driven behavioral adjustments by maintaining conflict information across trials, but corresponding prefrontal functions have yet to be probed in humans. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the human neural substrates of contextual adaptations to conflict. We found that a neural system comprising the rostral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and portions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex specifically encodes the history of previously experienced conflict and influences subsequent adaptation to conflict on a trial-by-trial basis. This neural system became active in anticipation of stimulus onsets during preparatory periods and interacted with a second neural system engaged during the processing of conflict. Our findings suggest that a dynamic interaction between a system that represents conflict history and a system that resolves conflict underlies the contextual adaptation to conflict.

Adaptation to Conflict via Context-Driven Anticipatory Signals in the Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex

PubMed Central

Horga, Guillermo; Maia, Tiago V.; Wang, Pengwei; Wang, Zhishun; Marsh, Rachel; Peterson, Bradley S.

2011-01-01

Behavioral interference elicited by competing response tendencies adapts to contextual changes. Recent nonhuman primate research suggests a key mnemonic role of distinct prefrontal cells in supporting such context-driven behavioral adjustments by maintaining conflict information across trials, but corresponding prefrontal functions have yet to be probed in humans. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated the human neural substrates of contextual adaptations to conflict. We found that a neural system comprising the rostral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and portions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex specifically encodes the history of previously experienced conflict and influences subsequent adaptation to conflict on a trial-by-trial basis. This neural system became active in anticipation of stimulus onsets during preparatory periods and interacted with a second neural system engaged during the processing of conflict. Our findings suggest that a dynamic interaction between a system that represents conflict history and a system that resolves conflict underlies the contextual adaptation to conflict. PMID:22072672

Context, confidentiality, and consent in tailored health communications: a cautionary note.

PubMed

Orleans, C T

1999-01-01

This article highlights key contextual factors that emerge when the evolution of tailored health communications is viewed against the backdrop of dynamic changes in the nation's health care system--including the shift from fee-for-service medicine to managed care and the proliferation of direct-to-consumer and tailored marketing strategies in the pharmaceutical industry. It focuses on contextual variables with potential to significantly mediate the impact of personally tailored health advice--including those related to confidentiality, privacy, and informed consent and to the perceived aims, intents, and sources of tailored health messages. To protect the future of tailored health messages, more research attention must be given to defining these contextual factors and understanding the roles that they play and the ways in which they can be controlled to assure the best outcomes. Such research could point the way towards a set of empirical and ethical "best practices" based on a scientific understanding of how to maximize the benefits, and minimize the potential harms, of the widescale use of tailored health communications.

Contextualized perceptions of movement as a source of expanded insight: People with multiple sclerosis' experience with physiotherapy.

PubMed

Normann, Britt; Sørgaard, Knut W; Salvesen, Rolf; Moe, Siri

2013-01-01

The hospitals' outpatient clinics for people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) are important in the health care. Research regarding physiotherapy in such clinics is limited. The purpose was to investigate how PwMS perceive movement during single sessions of physiotherapy in a hospital's outpatient clinic, and what do these experiences mean for the patient's insight into their movement disturbances? Qualitative research interviews were performed with a purposive sample of 12 PwMS and supplemented with seven videotaped sessions. Content analysis was performed. The results indicate that contextualized perceptions of movement appear to be an essential source for PwMS to gain expanded insight with regard to their individual movement disturbances regardless of their ambulatory status. The contextualization implies that perceptions of movement are integrated with the physiotherapist's explanations regarding optimizing gait and balance or other activities of daily life. Perceptions of improvement in body part movement and/or functional activities are vital to enhancing their understanding of their individual movement disorders, and they may provide expanded insight regarding future possibilities and limitations involving everyday tasks. The implementation of movements, which transforms the perceived improvement into self-assisted exercises, appeared to be meaningful. Contextualized perceptions of improvements in movement may strengthen the person's sense of ownership and sense of agency and thus promote autonomy and self-encouragement. The findings underpin the importance of contextualized perceptions of movement based on exploration of potential for change, as an integrated part of information and communication in the health care for PwMS. Further investigations are necessary to deepen our knowledge.

A sequential model to link contextual risk, perception and public support for flood adaptation policy.

PubMed

Shao, Wanyun; Xian, Siyuan; Lin, Ning; Small, Mitchell J

2017-10-01

The economic damage from coastal flooding has dramatically increased over the past several decades, owing to rapid development in shoreline areas and possible effects of climate change. To respond to these trends, it is imperative for policy makers to understand individuals' support for flood adaptation policy. Using original survey data for all coastal counties of the United States Gulf Coast merged with contextual data on flood risk, this study investigates coastal residents' support for two adaptation policy measures: incentives for relocation and funding for educational programs on emergency planning and evacuation. Specifically, this study explores the interactive relationships among contextual flood risks, perceived flood risks and policy support for flood adaptation, with the effects of social-demographic variables being controlled. Age, gender, race and partisanship are found to significantly affect individuals' policy support for both adaptation measures. The contextual flooding risks, indicated by distance from the coast, maximum wind speed and peak height of storm surge associated with the last hurricane landfall, and percentage of high-risk flood zone per county, are shown to impact one's perceptions of risk, which in turn influence one's support for both policy measures. The key finding -risk perception mediates the impact of contextual risk conditions on public support for flood management policies - highlights the need to ensure that the public is well informed by the latest scientific, engineering and economic knowledge. To achieve this, more information on current and future flood risks and options available for mitigation as well as risk communication tools are needed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Context and the leadership experiences and perceptions of professionals: a review of the nursing profession.

PubMed

Jefferson, Therese; Klass, Des; Lord, Linley; Nowak, Margaret; Thomas, Gail

2014-01-01

Leadership studies which focus on categorising leadership styles have been critiqued for failure to consider the lived experience of leadership. The purpose of this paper is to use the framework of Jepson's model of contextual dynamics to explore whether this framework assists understanding of the "how and why" of lived leadership experience within the nursing profession. Themes for a purposeful literature search and review, having regard to the Jepson model, are drawn from the contemporary and dynamic context of nursing. Government reports, coupled with preliminary interviews with a nurseleadership team, guided selection of contextual issues. The contextual interactions arising from managerialism, existing hierarchical models of leadership and increasing knowledge work provided insights into leadership experience in nursing, in the contexts of professional identity and changing educational and generational profiles of nurses. The authors conclude that employing a contextual frame provides insights in studying leadership experience. The author propose additions to the cultural and institutional dimensions of Jepson's model. The findings have implications for structuring and communicating key roles and policies relevant to nursing leadership. These include the need to: address perceptions around the legitimacy of current nursing leaders to provide clinical leadership; modify hierarchical models of nursing leadership; address implications of the role of the knowledge workers. Observing nursing leadership through the lens of Jepson's model of contextual dynamics confirms that this is an important way of exploring how leadership is enacted. The authors found, however, the model also provided a useful frame for considering the experience and understanding of leadership by those to be led.

Contextual approach to technology assessment: Implications for one-factor fix solutions to complex social problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mayo, L. H.

1975-01-01

The contextual approach is discussed which undertakes to demonstrate that technology assessment assists in the identification of the full range of implications of taking a particular action and facilitates the consideration of alternative means by which the total affected social problem context might be changed by available project options. It is found that the social impacts of an application on participants, institutions, processes, and social interests, and the accompanying interactions may not only induce modifications in the problem contest delineated for examination with respect to the design, operations, regulation, and use of the posited application, but also affect related social problem contexts.

Context-dependent interactions and the regulation of species richness in freshwater fish.

PubMed

MacDougall, Andrew S; Harvey, Eric; McCune, Jenny L; Nilsson, Karin A; Bennett, Joseph; Firn, Jennifer; Bartley, Timothy; Grace, James B; Kelly, Jocelyn; Tunney, Tyler D; McMeans, Bailey; Matsuzaki, Shin-Ichiro S; Kadoya, Taku; Esch, Ellen; Cazelles, Kevin; Lester, Nigel; McCann, Kevin S

2018-03-06

Species richness is regulated by a complex network of scale-dependent processes. This complexity can obscure the influence of limiting species interactions, making it difficult to determine if abiotic or biotic drivers are more predominant regulators of richness. Using integrative modeling of freshwater fish richness from 721 lakes along an 11 o latitudinal gradient, we find negative interactions to be a relatively minor independent predictor of species richness in lakes despite the widespread presence of predators. Instead, interaction effects, when detectable among major functional groups and 231 species pairs, were strong, often positive, but contextually dependent on environment. These results are consistent with the idea that negative interactions internally structure lake communities but do not consistently 'scale-up' to regulate richness independently of the environment. The importance of environment for interaction outcomes and its role in the regulation of species richness highlights the potential sensitivity of fish communities to the environmental changes affecting lakes globally.

Context-dependent interactions and the regulation of species richness in freshwater fish

USGS Publications Warehouse

MacDougall, Andrew S.; Harvey, Eric; McCune, Jenny L.; Nilsson, Karin A.; Bennett, Joseph; Firn, Jennifer; Bartley, Timothy; Grace, James B.; Kelly, Jocelyn; Tunney, Tyler D.; McMeans, Bailey; Matsuzaki, Shin-Ichiro S.; Kadoya, Taku; Esch, Ellen; Cazelles, Kevin; Lester, Nigel; McCann, Kevin S.

2018-01-01

Species richness is regulated by a complex network of scale-dependent processes. This complexity can obscure the influence of limiting species interactions, making it difficult to determine if abiotic or biotic drivers are more predominant regulators of richness. Using integrative modeling of freshwater fish richness from 721 lakes along an 11olatitudinal gradient, we find negative interactions to be a relatively minor independent predictor of species richness in lakes despite the widespread presence of predators. Instead, interaction effects, when detectable among major functional groups and 231 species pairs, were strong, often positive, but contextually dependent on environment. These results are consistent with the idea that negative interactions internally structure lake communities but do not consistently ‘scale-up’ to regulate richness independently of the environment. The importance of environment for interaction outcomes and its role in the regulation of species richness highlights the potential sensitivity of fish communities to the environmental changes affecting lakes globally.

Sensitivity to change and concurrent validity of direct behavior ratings for academic anxiety.

PubMed

von der Embse, Nathaniel P; Scott, Emma-Catherine; Kilgus, Stephen P

2015-06-01

Multitiered frameworks of service delivery have traditionally underserved students with mental health needs. Whereas research has supported the assessment and intervention of social and academic behavior across tiers, evidence is limited with regard to mental health concerns including internalizing behaviors (e.g., anxiety and depression). In particular, there is a notable shortage of brief anxiety assessment tools to be used for progress monitoring purposes. Moreover, traditional omnibus rating scale approaches may fail to capture contextually dependent anxiety. The purpose of the present investigation is to examine the sensitivity to change and concurrent validity of Direct Behavior Ratings (DBR; Chafouleas, Riley-Tillman, & Christ, 2009; Chafouleas, Riley-Tillman, & Sugai, 2007) of anxiety and traditional rating scales in measuring academic anxiety directly before, during, and after a potentially anxiety provoking stimulus. Research was conducted with 115 undergraduate students in a Southeastern university. Results indicated significant relationships between DBRs and pre- and postmeasures of anxiety. Change metrics suggested an overall lack of correspondence between DBR and the criterion measure, with DBR scales detecting greater change both across the testing situation and participants. The use of DBR for anxiety is considered within a multitiered, problem-solving framework. Feasibility and limitations associated with implementation are discussed. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Motor learning and consolidation: the case of visuomotor rotation.

PubMed

Krakauer, John W

2009-01-01

Adaptation to visuomotor rotation is a particular form of motor learning distinct from force-field adaptation, sequence learning, and skill learning. Nevertheless, study of adaptation to visuomotor rotation has yielded a number of findings and principles that are likely of general importance to procedural learning and memory. First, rotation learning is implicit and appears to proceed through reduction in a visual prediction error generated by a forward model, such implicit adaptation occurs even when it is in conflict with an explicit task goal. Second, rotation learning is subject to different forms of interference: retrograde, anterograde through aftereffects, and contextual blocking of retrieval. Third, opposite rotations can be recalled within a short time interval without interference if implicit contextual cues (effector change) rather than explicit cues (color change) are used. Fourth, rotation learning consolidates both over time and with increased initial training (saturation learning).

"Reconstructing a Sense of Self": Trauma and Coping Among Returned Women Survivors of Human Trafficking in Vietnam.

PubMed

Le, PhuongThao D

2017-03-01

Survivors of human trafficking who return to their community of origin must cope with the trauma they experienced as victims as well as the conditions that contributed to their trafficking vulnerabilities. In this article, I examine the psychosocial adjustment process among women survivors of trafficking who returned to Vietnam. Supplemented by participation observation, thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with survivors revealed that throughout the trafficking process, the women experienced multiple abuses and changes in relationships and environments. The women coped by navigating a process of "reconstructing a sense of self," seeking congruence between their self-understandings and the changing contextual factors while exhibiting three main coping strategies: regulating emotional expression and thought, creating opportunities within constraints, and relating to cultural schemas. The findings underscore the importance of considering contextual factors such as cultural norms and societal values in efforts to assist trafficked survivors reintegrate into their communities.

Modeling parenting stress trajectories among low-income young mothers across the child's second and third years: Factors accounting for stability and change.

PubMed

Chang, Yiting; Fine, Mark A

2007-12-01

This study investigated parenting stress trajectories among low-income young mothers and the factors that are associated with change and stability of parenting stress as children aged from 14 to 36 months old. With a sample of 580 young mothers who applied to the Early Head Start Program, growth mixture modeling identified 3 trajectory classes of parenting stress: a chronically high group (7% of the sample), an increasing group (10% of the sample), and a decreasing group (83% of the sample). Maternal personal resources distinguished between the increasing and decreasing classes, whereas maternal personal resources, child characteristics, and contextual influences explained differences between the chronically high and decreasing trajectory classes. Findings suggest that for interventions to be effective, programs need to assess maternal, child, and contextual factors to better address the particular unique needs of young mothers.

Overt attention in contextual cuing of visual search is driven by the attentional set, but not by the predictiveness of distractors.

PubMed

Beesley, Tom; Hanafi, Gunadi; Vadillo, Miguel A; Shanks, David R; Livesey, Evan J

2018-05-01

Two experiments examined biases in selective attention during contextual cuing of visual search. When participants were instructed to search for a target of a particular color, overt attention (as measured by the location of fixations) was biased strongly toward distractors presented in that same color. However, when participants searched for targets that could be presented in 1 of 2 possible colors, overt attention was not biased between the different distractors, regardless of whether these distractors predicted the location of the target (repeating) or did not (randomly arranged). These data suggest that selective attention in visual search is guided only by the demands of the target detection task (the attentional set) and not by the predictive validity of the distractor elements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

More than meets the eye: context effects in word identification.

PubMed

Masson, M E; Borowsky, R

1998-11-01

The influence of semantic context on word identification was examined using masked target displays. Related prime words enhanced a signal detection measure of sensitivity in making lexical decisions and in determining whether a probe word matched the target word. When line drawings were used as primes, a similar benefit was obtained with the probe task. Although these results suggest that contextual information affects perceptual encoding, this conclusion is questioned on the grounds that sensitivity in these tasks may be determined by independent contributions of perceptual and contextual information. The plausibility of this view is supported by a simulation of the experiments using a connectionist model in which perceptual and semantic information make independent contributions to word identification. The model also predicts results with two other analytic methods that have been used to argue for priming effects on perceptual encoding.

Responses to Orientation Discontinuities in V1 and V2: Physiological Dissociations and Functional Implications

PubMed Central

Purpura, Keith P.; Victor, Jonathan D.

2014-01-01

Segmenting the visual image into objects is a crucial stage of visual processing. Object boundaries are typically associated with differences in luminance, but discontinuities in texture also play an important role. We showed previously that a subpopulation of neurons in V2 in anesthetized macaques responds to orientation discontinuities parallel to their receptive field orientation. Such single-cell responses could be a neurophysiological correlate of texture boundary detection. Neurons in V1, on the other hand, are known to have contextual response modulations such as iso-orientation surround suppression, which also produce responses to orientation discontinuities. Here, we use pseudorandom multiregion grating stimuli of two frame durations (20 and 40 ms) to probe and compare texture boundary responses in V1 and V2 in anesthetized macaque monkeys. In V1, responses to texture boundaries were observed for only the 40 ms frame duration and were independent of the orientation of the texture boundary. However, in transient V2 neurons, responses to such texture boundaries were robust for both frame durations and were stronger for boundaries parallel to the neuron's preferred orientation. The dependence of these processes on stimulus duration and orientation indicates that responses to texture boundaries in V2 arise independently of contextual modulations in V1. In addition, because the responses in transient V2 neurons are sensitive to the orientation of the texture boundary but those of V1 neurons are not, we suggest that V2 responses are the correlate of texture boundary detection, whereas contextual modulation in V1 serves other purposes, possibly related to orientation “pop-out.” PMID:24599456

Insights into Innovative Classroom Practices with ICT: Identifying the Impetus for Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Emily M. L.; Li, Sandy S. C.; Choi, Tat-heung; Lee, Tsz-ngong

2008-01-01

This paper draws on the literature of transformational leadership and learning organisation with a concern to foster innovative changes in classroom practices. Based on the understanding that effective use of ICT has to be construed in the pedagogical and organisational context, this study focuses on the impact of the relevant contextual factors…

Reduced Change Blindness Suggests Enhanced Attention to Detail in Individuals with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Hayley; Milne, Elizabeth

2009-01-01

Background: The phenomenon of change blindness illustrates that a limited number of items within the visual scene are attended to at any one time. It has been suggested that individuals with autism focus attention on less contextually relevant aspects of the visual scene, show superior perceptual discrimination and notice details which are often…

University Students' Success: A Psycho-Sociological Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masjuan, Josep M.; Troiano, Helena

2009-01-01

The aim of this paper is to propose a basic model to analyse processes of change in educational institutions taking into account both individual and contextual variables. It aims to identify the basic factors of change in order to contribute to reduce the dispersion of research projects, both from close subjects and one subject alone within human…

A Business Studies Oriented Taxonomy for Assessing Viewpoint Change through Sustainability Education: Messages, Measures and Moves

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodward, Russell; Hagerup, Clare

2017-01-01

This paper explores and deploys a business oriented taxonomy of decisions from which to ascertain change in student viewpoint regarding the study of sustainability modules. A review of conceptual and empirical studies to date on business cohorts' viewpoints regarding sustainability study notes the lack of business contextualization and the…

Changes in Preservice Elementary Teachers' Personal Science Teaching Efficacy and Science Teaching Outcome Expectancies: The Influence of Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hechter, Richard P.

2011-01-01

This study investigated contextual changes in perceptions of science teaching self-efficacy through pre-, post- and retrospective administrations of the Science Teaching Expectancy Belief Instrument (STEBI-B) among preservice elementary teachers when exposed to a science teaching methods course. Findings revealed that the number of postsecondary…

Teaching in the Age of Humans: Helping Students Think about Climate Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Grinell

2017-01-01

To convey the magnitude and rapidity of current climate change and the severity of predictions for the next century, I present essential climate science information using four key sets of data and contextualize that information with personal anecdotes. I then consider the reasons for the large gap between the scientific consensus about…

Changes in Students' Explanations for Gender Differences after Taking a Psychology of Women Class: More Constructionist and Less Essentialist

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoder, Janice D.; Fischer, Ann R.; Kahn, Arnold S.; Groden, Jessica

2007-01-01

We explored how students' endorsements of essential (biological and personality) and constructed (socialization and contextual) explanations for gender differences changed from the start to the end of Psychology of Women (POW) classes along with their feminist attitudes. Results from surveys of 120 POW students from three universities indicated…

Changes in the redwood region from 1996-2016

Treesearch

Yana S. Valachovic; Richard B. Standiford

2017-01-01

This introductory paper highlights some of the changes in redwood region land ownership, markets and infrastructure to help contextualize the dynamic nature of the forest industry in California and to help set the stage for a management and policy dialog among symposia participants. Twenty years have passed from the first redwood symposium in 1996 and with this so too...

Changes in Context-Specificity during Memory Reconsolidation: Selective Effects of Hippocampal Lesions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winocur, Gordon; Frankland, Paul W.; Sekeres, Melanie; Fogel, Stuart; Moscovitch, Morris

2009-01-01

After acquisition, memories associated with contextual fear conditioning pass through a labile phase, in which they are vulnerable to hippocampal lesions, to a more stable state, via consolidation, in which they engage extrahippocampal structures and are resistant to such disruption. The process is accompanied by changes in the form of the memory…

Noncontextual Wirings.

PubMed

Amaral, Barbara; Cabello, Adán; Cunha, Marcelo Terra; Aolita, Leandro

2018-03-30

Contextuality is a fundamental feature of quantum theory necessary for certain models of quantum computation and communication. Serious steps have therefore been taken towards a formal framework for contextuality as an operational resource. However, the main ingredient of a resource theory-a concrete, explicit form of free operations of contextuality-was still missing. Here we provide such a component by introducing noncontextual wirings: a class of contextuality-free operations with a clear operational interpretation and a friendly parametrization. We characterize them completely for general black-box measurement devices with arbitrarily many inputs and outputs. As applications, we show that the relative entropy of contextuality is a contextuality monotone and that maximally contextual boxes that serve as contextuality bits exist for a broad class of scenarios. Our results complete a unified resource-theoretic framework for contextuality and Bell nonlocality.

Aircraft Detection in High-Resolution SAR Images Based on a Gradient Textural Saliency Map.

PubMed

Tan, Yihua; Li, Qingyun; Li, Yansheng; Tian, Jinwen

2015-09-11

This paper proposes a new automatic and adaptive aircraft target detection algorithm in high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of airport. The proposed method is based on gradient textural saliency map under the contextual cues of apron area. Firstly, the candidate regions with the possible existence of airport are detected from the apron area. Secondly, directional local gradient distribution detector is used to obtain a gradient textural saliency map in the favor of the candidate regions. In addition, the final targets will be detected by segmenting the saliency map using CFAR-type algorithm. The real high-resolution airborne SAR image data is used to verify the proposed algorithm. The results demonstrate that this algorithm can detect aircraft targets quickly and accurately, and decrease the false alarm rate.

Facilitating Student Learning through Contextualization: A Review of Evidence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perin, Dolores

2011-01-01

This is a review of evidence for contextualization, defined here as an instructional approach connecting foundational skills and college-level content. Two forms of contextualization are identified, "contextualized" and "integrated" instruction. Despite methodological limitations, the available studies suggest that contextualization has the…

Mechanisms supporting superior source memory for familiar items: a multi-voxel pattern analysis study.

PubMed

Poppenk, Jordan; Norman, Kenneth A

2012-11-01

Recent cognitive research has revealed better source memory performance for familiar relative to novel stimuli. Here we consider two possible explanations for this finding. The source memory advantage for familiar stimuli could arise because stimulus novelty induces attention to stimulus features at the expense of contextual processing, resulting in diminished overall levels of contextual processing at study for novel (vs. familiar) stimuli. Another possibility is that stimulus information retrieved from long-term memory (LTM) provides scaffolding that facilitates the formation of item-context associations. If contextual features are indeed more effectively bound to familiar (vs. novel) items, the relationship between contextual processing at study and subsequent source memory should be stronger for familiar items. We tested these possibilities by applying multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to a recently collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) dataset, with the goal of measuring contextual processing at study and relating it to subsequent source memory performance. Participants were scanned with fMRI while viewing novel proverbs, repeated proverbs (previously novel proverbs that were shown in a pre-study phase), and previously known proverbs in the context of one of two experimental tasks. After scanning was complete, we evaluated participants' source memory for the task associated with each proverb. Drawing upon fMRI data from the study phase, we trained a classifier to detect on-task processing (i.e., how strongly was the correct task set activated). On-task processing was greater for previously known than novel proverbs and similar for repeated and novel proverbs. However, both within and across participants, the relationship between on-task processing and subsequent source memory was stronger for repeated than novel proverbs and similar for previously known and novel proverbs. Finally, focusing on the repeated condition, we found that higher levels of hippocampal activity during the pre-study phase, which we used as an index of episodic encoding, led to a stronger relationship between on-task processing at study and subsequent memory. Together, these findings suggest different mechanisms may be primarily responsible for superior source memory for repeated and previously known stimuli. Specifically, they suggest that prior stimulus knowledge enhances memory by boosting the overall level of contextual processing, whereas stimulus repetition enhances the probability that contextual features will be successfully bound to item features. Several possible theoretical explanations for this pattern are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing Metacognitive Knowledge in 3-5 Year Olds: The Development of a Metacognitive Knowledge Interview (McKI)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marulis, Loren M.; Palincsar, Annemarie Sullivan; Berhenke, Amanda L.; Whitebread, David

2016-01-01

Historically, early cognitive skills have been underestimated, largely as a result of the ways these competencies have been measured, which is particularly pervasive in the area of metacognition. Only recently have researchers begun to detect evidence of contextualized metacognition in 3-5 year old preschool children through the use of…

The Mars Orbital Catalog of Hydrated Alteration Signatures (MOCHAS) - Initial release

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carter, John; OMEGA and CRISM Teams

2016-10-01

Aqueous minerals have been identified from orbit at a number of localities, and their analysis allowed refining the water story of Early Mars. They are also a main science driver when selecting current and upcoming landing sites for roving missions.Available catalogs of mineral detections exhibit a number of drawbacks such as a limited sample size (a thousand sites at most), inhomogeneous sampling of the surface and of the investigation methods, and the lack of contextual information (e.g. spatial extent, morphological context). The MOCHAS project strives to address such limitations by providing a global, detailed survey of aqueous minerals on Mars based on 10 years of data from the OMEGA and CRISM imaging spectrometers. Contextual data is provided, including deposit sizes, morphology and detailed composition when available. Sampling biases are also addressed.It will be openly distributed in GIS-ready format and will be participative. For example, it will be possible for researchers to submit requests for specific mapping of regions of interest, or add/refine mineral detections.An initial release is scheduled in Fall 2016 and will feature a two orders of magnitude increase in sample size compared to previous studies.

Abiotic ozone and oxygen in atmospheres similar to prebiotic Earth

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Domagal-Goldman, Shawn D.; Segura, Antígona; Claire, Mark W.

The search for life on planets outside our solar system will use spectroscopic identification of atmospheric biosignatures. The most robust remotely detectable potential biosignature is considered to be the detection of oxygen (O{sub 2}) or ozone (O{sub 3}) simultaneous to methane (CH{sub 4}) at levels indicating fluxes from the planetary surface in excess of those that could be produced abiotically. Here we use an altitude-dependent photochemical model with the enhanced lower boundary conditions necessary to carefully explore abiotic O{sub 2} and O{sub 3} production on lifeless planets with a wide variety of volcanic gas fluxes and stellar energy distributions. Onmore » some of these worlds, we predict limited O{sub 2} and O{sub 3} buildup, caused by fast chemical production of these gases. This results in detectable abiotic O{sub 3} and CH{sub 4} features in the UV-visible, but no detectable abiotic O{sub 2} features. Thus, simultaneous detection of O{sub 3} and CH{sub 4} by a UV-visible mission is not a strong biosignature without proper contextual information. Discrimination between biological and abiotic sources of O{sub 2} and O{sub 3} is possible through analysis of the stellar and atmospheric context—particularly redox state and O atom inventory—of the planet in question. Specifically, understanding the spectral characteristics of the star and obtaining a broad wavelength range for planetary spectra should allow more robust identification of false positives for life. This highlights the importance of wide spectral coverage for future exoplanet characterization missions. Specifically, discrimination between true and false positives may require spectral observations that extend into infrared wavelengths and provide contextual information on the planet's atmospheric chemistry.« less

The need to promote behaviour change at the cultural level: one factor explaining the limited impact of the MEMA kwa Vijana adolescent sexual health intervention in rural Tanzania. A process evaluation

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Few of the many behavioral sexual health interventions in Africa have been rigorously evaluated. Where biological outcomes have been measured, improvements have rarely been found. One of the most rigorous trials was of the multi-component MEMA kwa Vijana adolescent sexual health programme, which showed improvements in knowledge and reported attitudes and behaviour, but none in biological outcomes. This paper attempts to explain these outcomes by reviewing the process evaluation findings, particularly in terms of contextual factors. Methods A large-scale, primarily qualitative process evaluation based mainly on participant observation identified the principal contextual barriers and facilitators of behavioural change. Results The contextual barriers involved four interrelated socio-structural factors: culture (i.e. shared practices and systems of belief), economic circumstances, social status, and gender. At an individual level they appeared to operate through the constructs of the theories underlying MEMA kwa Vijana - Social Cognitive Theory and the Theory of Reasoned Action – but the intervention was unable to substantially modify these individual-level constructs, apart from knowledge. Conclusion The process evaluation suggests that one important reason for this failure is that the intervention did not operate sufficiently at a structural level, particularly in regard to culture. Recently most structural interventions have focused on gender or/and economics. Complementing these with a cultural approach could address the belief systems that justify and perpetuate gender and economic inequalities, as well as other barriers to behaviour change. PMID:22978613

Improving quality of care through routine, successful implementation of evidence-based practice at the bedside: an organizational case study protocol using the Pettigrew and Whipp model of strategic change

PubMed Central

2007-01-01

Background Evidence-based practice (EBP) is an expected approach to improving the quality of patient care and service delivery in health care systems internationally that is yet to be realized. Given the current evidence-practice gap, numerous authors describe barriers to achieving EBP. One recurrently identified barrier is the setting or context of practice, which is likewise cited as a potential part of the solution to the gap. The purpose of this study is to identify key contextual elements and related strategic processes in organizations that find and use evidence at multiple levels, in an ongoing, integrated fashion, in contrast to those that do not. Methods The core theoretical framework for this multi-method explanatory case study is Pettigrew and Whipp's Content, Context, and Process model of strategic change. This framework focuses data collection on three entities: the Why of strategic change, the What of strategic change, and the How of strategic change, in this case related to implementation and normalization of EBP. The data collection plan, designed to capture relevant organizational context and related outcomes, focuses on eight interrelated factors said to characterize a receptive context. Selective, purposive sampling will provide contrasting results between two cases (departments of nursing) and three embedded units in each. Data collection methods will include quantitative tools (e.g., regarding culture) and qualitative approaches including focus groups, interviews, and documents review (e.g., regarding integration and “success”) relevant to the EBP initiative. Discussion This study should provide information regarding contextual elements and related strategic processes key to successful implementation and sustainability of EBP, specifically in terms of a pervasive pattern in an acute care hospital-based health care setting. Additionally, this study will identify key contextual elements that differentiate successful implementation and sustainability of EBP efforts, both within varying levels of a hospital-based clinical setting and across similar hospital settings interested in EBP. PMID:17266756

Facilitating Student Learning through Contextualization. CCRC Working Paper No. 29

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perin, Dolores

2011-01-01

This paper is a literature review that explores the nature and effectiveness of contextualization as a way to improve outcomes for academically underprepared college students. Two forms of contextualization have been studied: "contextualized" and "integrated" instruction. There is more descriptive work on the contextualization of basic skills than…

Social Salience Discriminates Learnability of Contextual Cues in an Artificial Language.

PubMed

Rácz, Péter; Hay, Jennifer B; Pierrehumbert, Janet B

2017-01-01

We investigate the learning of contextual meaning by adults in an artificial language. Contextual meaning here refers to the non-denotative contextual information that speakers attach to a linguistic construction. Through a series of short games, played online, we test how well adults can learn different contextual meanings for a word-formation pattern in an artificial language. We look at whether learning contextual meanings depends on the social salience of the context, whether our players interpret these contexts generally, and whether the learned meaning is generalized to new words. Our results show that adults are capable of learning contextual meaning if the context is socially salient, coherent, and interpretable. Once a contextual meaning is recognized, it is readily generalized to related forms and contexts.

[Evaluation of Contextual Factors in Psychosomatic Rehabilitation].

PubMed

Bülau, N I; Kessemeier, F; Petermann, F; Bassler, M; Kobelt, A

2016-12-01

Objectives: Although individualized and ICF-oriented implementation of rehabilitation treatment requires knowledge of relevant contextual factors, there is a lack of operationalized documentation and measurement tools to evaluate these factors. Therefore, an ICF-oriented semi-structured interview was designed. Methods: 20 contextual factors were externally assessed whether they negatively affected mental functioning and participation of psychosomatic patients. Additionally, psychometric scales were applied. Results: Six relevant impairing contextual factors were identified. Contextual factors significantly correlated with psychometric scales. Patients with higher contextual impairment showed significantly higher psychological stress levels. Conclusions: Anamnesis of contextual factors at the beginning of psychosomatic rehabilitation yields important information for therapy planning. Further research on contextual factors in medical rehabilitation is needed. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Remote sensing and spatial analysis based study for detecting deforestation and the associated drivers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El-Abbas, Mustafa M.; Csaplovics, Elmar; Deafalla, Taisser H.

2013-10-01

Nowadays, remote-sensing technologies are becoming increasingly interlinked to the issue of deforestation. They offer a systematized and objective strategy to document, understand and simulate the deforestation process and its associated causes. In this context, the main goal of this study, conducted in the Blue Nile region of Sudan, in which most of the natural habitats were dramatically destroyed, was to develop spatial methodologies to assess the deforestation dynamics and its associated factors. To achieve that, optical multispectral satellite scenes (i.e., ASTER and LANDSAT) integrated with field survey in addition to multiple data sources were used for the analyses. Spatiotemporal Object Based Image Analysis (STOBIA) was applied to assess the change dynamics within the period of study. Broadly, the above mentioned analyses include; Object Based (OB) classifications, post-classification change detection, data fusion, information extraction and spatial analysis. Hierarchical multi-scale segmentation thresholds were applied and each class was delimited with semantic meanings by a set of rules associated with membership functions. Consequently, the fused multi-temporal data were introduced to create detailed objects of change classes from the input LU/LC classes. The dynamic changes were quantified and spatially located as well as the spatial and contextual relations from adjacent areas were analyzed. The main finding of the present study is that, the forest areas were drastically decreased, while the agrarian structure in conversion of forest into agricultural fields and grassland was the main force of deforestation. In contrast, the capability of the area to recover was clearly observed. The study concludes with a brief assessment of an 'oriented' framework, focused on the alarming areas where serious dynamics are located and where urgent plans and interventions are most critical, guided with potential solutions based on the identified driving forces.

Choice and Change of Measures in Performance-Measurement Models

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-05-01

associated costs . 3 Discussions of many current accounting and performance-measurement issues can be...change: an exploratory study. Accounting , Organizations, and Society, 24(3), 189-204. Adimando, C., Butler, R., Malley, S ., Ravid, S . A., Shepro, R...impact of contextual and process factors on the evaluation of activity-based costing systems. Accounting , Organizations and Society, 24, 525-559. Antle

U.S. Army Acquisition Workforce: Reflecting Modern Structural Changes

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-06-01

provisions ensuring oversight over a massive infusion of contracts, state grants and other measures. Interviews with acquisition workforce specialists... telecommuting .”3 Incentives for retaining qualified acquisition workforce members are discussed. Surveys were analyzed primarily for contextual...and the players who now have a voice in this expanded system. One major change was the use of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC

Link or Breach? The Role of Trust in Developing Social Capital within a Family Literacy Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, Beth

2010-01-01

This article examines survey and focus group transcripts of a well-established early years literacy project in Scotland in light of contextual information about changing local authority policy in order to look at the gains in social capital identified by participants and the extent to which these indicate lasting durable change that will reap…

Cultural Implications of a Global Context: The Need for the Reference Librarian To Ask Again "Who Is My Client?".

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McSwiney, Carolyn

Globalization provides the contextual framework for cultural changes in the library user group. In order to be more effective, and realistically, more client-focused, the reference librarian is challenged to ask again "Who is my client?" in this changing context. This paper presents a positive and practical response to cultural change…

Short-Term Total Sleep-Deprivation Impairs Contextual Fear Memory, and Contextual Fear-Conditioning Reduces REM Sleep in Moderately Anxious Swiss Mice

PubMed Central

Qureshi, Munazah F.; Jha, Sushil K.

2017-01-01

The conditioning tasks have been widely used to model fear and anxiety and to study their association with sleep. Many reports suggest that sleep plays a vital role in the consolidation of fear memory. Studies have also demonstrated that fear-conditioning influences sleep differently in mice strains having a low or high anxiety level. It is, therefore, necessary to know, how sleep influences fear-conditioning and how fear-conditioning induces changes in sleep architecture in moderate anxious strains. We have used Swiss mice, a moderate anxious strain, to study the effects of: (i) sleep deprivation on contextual fear conditioned memory, and also (ii) contextual fear conditioning on sleep architecture. Animals were divided into three groups: (a) non-sleep deprived (NSD); (b) stress control (SC); and (c) sleep-deprived (SD) groups. The SD animals were SD for 5 h soon after training. We found that the NSD and SC animals showed 60.57% and 58.12% freezing on the testing day, while SD animals showed significantly less freezing (17.13% only; p < 0.001) on the testing day. Further, we observed that contextual fear-conditioning did not alter the total amount of wakefulness and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. REM sleep, however, significantly decreased in NSD and SC animals on the training and testing days. Interestingly, REM sleep did not decrease in the SD animals on the testing day. Our results suggest that short-term sleep deprivation impairs fear memory in moderate anxious mice. It also suggests that NREM sleep, but not REM sleep, may have an obligatory role in memory consolidation. PMID:29238297

Age-related changes in neural oscillations supporting context memory retrieval

PubMed Central

Strunk, Jonathan; James, Taylor; Arndt, Jason; Duarte, Audrey

2018-01-01

Recent evidence suggests that directing attention toward single item-context associations during encoding improves young and older adults’ context memory performance and reduces demands on executive functions during retrieval. In everyday situations, there are many event features competing for our attention, and our ability to successfully recover those details may depend on our ability to ignore others. Failures of selective attention may contribute to older adults’ context memory impairments. In the current electroencephalogram (EEG) study, we assessed the effects of age on processes supporting successful context memory retrieval of selectively attended features as indexed by neural oscillations. During encoding, young and older adults were directed to attend to a picture of an object and its relationship to one of two concurrently presented contextual details: a color or scene. At retrieval, we tested their memory for the object, its attended and unattended context features, and their confidence for both the attended and unattended features. Both groups showed greater memory for attended than unattended contextual features. However, older adults showed evidence of hyper-binding between attended and unattended context features while the young adults did not. EEG results in the theta band suggest that young and older adults recollect similar amounts of information but brain-behavior correlations suggest that this information was supportive of contextual memory performance, particularly for young adults. By contrast, sustained beta desynchronization, indicative of sensory reactivation and episodic reconstruction, was correlated with contextual memory performance for older adults only. We conclude that older adults’ inhibition deficits during encoding reduced the selectivity of their contextual memories, which led to reliance on executive functions like episodic reconstruction to support successful memory retrieval. PMID:28237686

A model of self-directed learning in internal medicine residency: a qualitative study using grounded theory.

PubMed

Sawatsky, Adam P; Ratelle, John T; Bonnes, Sara L; Egginton, Jason S; Beckman, Thomas J

2017-02-02

Existing theories of self-directed learning (SDL) have emphasized the importance of process, personal, and contextual factors. Previous medical education research has largely focused on the process of SDL. We explored the experience with and perception of SDL among internal medicine residents to gain understanding of the personal and contextual factors of SDL in graduate medical education. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we conducted 7 focus group interviews with 46 internal medicine residents at an academic medical center. We processed the data by using open coding and writing analytic memos. Team members organized open codes to create axial codes, which were applied to all transcripts. Guided by a previous model of SDL, we developed a theoretical model that was revised through constant comparison with new data as they were collected, and we refined the theory until it had adequate explanatory power and was appropriately grounded in the experiences of residents. We developed a theoretical model of SDL to explain the process, personal, and contextual factors affecting SDL during residency training. The process of SDL began with a trigger that uncovered a knowledge gap. Residents progressed to formulating learning objectives, using resources, applying knowledge, and evaluating learning. Personal factors included motivations, individual characteristics, and the change in approach to SDL over time. Contextual factors included the need for external guidance, the influence of residency program structure and culture, and the presence of contextual barriers. We developed a theoretical model of SDL in medical education that can be used to promote and assess resident SDL through understanding the process, person, and context of SDL.

Long-term consolidation of declarative memory: insight from temporal lobe epilepsy.

PubMed

Tramoni, Eve; Felician, Olivier; Barbeau, Emmanuel J; Guedj, Eric; Guye, Maxime; Bartolomei, Fabrice; Ceccaldi, Mathieu

2011-03-01

Several experiments carried out with a subset of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy have demonstrated normal memory performance at standard delays of recall (i.e. minutes to hours) but impaired performance over longer delays (i.e. days or weeks), suggesting altered long-term consolidation mechanisms. These mechanisms were specifically investigated in a group of five adult-onset pharmaco-sensitive patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, exhibiting severe episodic memory complaints despite normal performance at standardized memory assessment. In a first experiment, the magnitude of autobiographical memory loss was evaluated using retrograde personal memory tasks based on verbal and visual cues. In both conditions, results showed an unusual U-shaped pattern of personal memory impairment, encompassing most of the patients' life, sparing however, periods of the childhood, early adulthood and past several weeks. This profile was suggestive of a long-term consolidation impairment of personal episodes, adequately consolidated over 'short-term' delays but gradually forgotten thereafter. Therefore, in a subsequent experiment, patients were submitted to a protocol specifically devised to investigate short and long-term consolidation of contextually-bound experiences (episodic memory) and context-free information (semantic knowledge and single-items). In the short term (1 h), performance at both contextually-free and contextually-bound memory tasks was intact. After a 6-week delay, however, contextually-bound memory performance was impaired while contextually-free memory performance remained preserved. This effect was independent of task difficulty and the modality of retrieval (recall and recognition). Neuroimaging studies revealed the presence of mild metabolic changes within medial temporal lobe structures. Taken together, these results show the existence of different consolidation systems within declarative memory. They suggest that mild medial temporal lobe dysfunction can impede the building and stabilization of episodic memories but leaves long-term semantic and single-items mnemonic traces intact.

Assessment of the magnitude of geographical variations in the duration of non-work-related sickness absence by individual and contextual factors.

PubMed

Torá-Rocamora, Isabel; Martínez, José Miguel; Gimeno, David; Alberti, Constança; Jardí, Josefina; Manzanera, Rafael; Benavides, Fernando G; Delclos, George

2015-01-01

To examine variation in the duration of non-work-related sickness absence (NWRSA) across geographical areas and the degree to which this variation can be explained by individual and/or contextual factors. All first NWRSA episodes ending in 2007 and 2010 were analyzed. Individual (diagnosis, age, sex) and contextual factors (healthcare resources, socioeconomic factors) were analyzed to assess how much of the geographical variation was explained by these factors. Median NWRSA durations in quartiles were mapped by counties in Catalonia. Multilevel Cox proportional hazard regression models with episodes nested within counties were fitted to quantify the magnitude of this variation. The proportional change in variance (PCV), median hazard ratios (MHR) and interquartile hazard ratios (IHR) were calculated. We found a geographical pattern in the duration of NWRSA, with longer duration in northwestern Catalonia. There was a small, but statistically significant, geographical variation in the duration of NWRSA, which mostly decreased after adjustment for individual factors in both women (PCV=34.98%, MHR=1.09, IHR=1.13 in 2007; PCV=34.68%, MHR=1.11, IHR=1.28 in 2010) and men (PCV=39.88%, MHR=1.10, IHR=1.27 in 2007; PCV=45.93%, MHR=1.10, IHR=1.25 in 2010); only in the case of women in 2010 was there a reduction in county-level variance due to contextual covariates (PCV=16.18%, MHR=1.12, IHR=1.32). County-level variation in the duration of NWRSA was small and was explained more by individual than by contextual variables. Knowledge of geographic differences in NWRSA duration is needed to plan specific programs and interventions to minimize these differences. Copyright © 2014 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Supplemental nutrition assistance program and body weight outcomes: the role of economic contextual factors.

PubMed

Han, Euna; Powell, Lisa M; Isgor, Zeynep

2012-06-01

We explored the extent to which economic contextual factors moderated the association of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation with body mass index (BMI) among low-income adults whose family income (adjusted for family size) is less than 130% of the federal poverty guideline. We drew on individual-level data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics in the United States, including three waves of data in 1999, 2001, and 2003. Economic contextual data were drawn from the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association for food prices and Dun & Bradstreet for food outlet measures. In addition to cross-sectional estimation, a longitudinal individual fixed effects model was used to control for permanent unobserved individual heterogeneity. Our study found a statistically significant joint moderating effect of the economic contextual factors in longitudinal individual fixed effects model for both women (BMI only) and men (both BMI and obesity). For both women and men, SNAP participants' BMI was statistically significantly lower if they faced increased numbers of available supermarkets/grocery stores in the longitudinal model. A simulated 20% reduction in the price of fruits and vegetables resulted in a larger decrease in BMI among SNAP participants than non-participants for women and men, whereas a simulated 20% increase in the availability of supermarkets and grocery stores resulted in a statistically significant difference in the change in BMI by SNAP participation for women but not for men. Policies related to economic contextual factors, such as subsidies for fruits and vegetables or those that would improve access to supermarkets and grocery stores may enhance the relationship between SNAP participation and body mass outcomes among food assistance program participants. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Age-related changes in neural oscillations supporting context memory retrieval.

PubMed

Strunk, Jonathan; James, Taylor; Arndt, Jason; Duarte, Audrey

2017-06-01

Recent evidence suggests that directing attention toward single item-context associations during encoding improves young and older adults' context memory performance and reduces demands on executive functions during retrieval. In everyday situations, there are many event features competing for our attention, and our ability to successfully recover those details may depend on our ability to ignore others. Failures of selective attention may contribute to older adults' context memory impairments. In the current electroencephalogram (EEG) study, we assessed the effects of age on processes supporting successful context memory retrieval of selectively attended features as indexed by neural oscillations. During encoding, young and older adults were directed to attend to a picture of an object and its relationship to one of two concurrently presented contextual details: a color or scene. At retrieval, we tested their memory for the object, its attended and unattended context features, and their confidence for both the attended and unattended features. Both groups showed greater memory for attended than unattended contextual features. However, older adults showed evidence of hyper-binding between attended and unattended context features while the young adults did not. EEG results in the theta band suggest that young and older adults recollect similar amounts of information but brain-behavior correlations suggest that this information was supportive of contextual memory performance, particularly for young adults. By contrast, sustained beta desynchronization, indicative of sensory reactivation and episodic reconstruction, was correlated with contextual memory performance for older adults only. We conclude that older adults' inhibition deficits during encoding reduced the selectivity of their contextual memories, which led to reliance on executive functions like episodic reconstruction to support successful memory retrieval. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Testing a cue outside the training context increases attention to the contexts and impairs performance in human predictive learning.

PubMed

Aristizabal, José A; Ramos-Álvarez, Manuel M; Callejas-Aguilera, José E; Rosas, Juan M

2017-12-01

One experiment in human predictive learning explored the impact of a context change on attention to contexts and predictive ratings controlled by the cue. In Context A: cue X was paired with an outcome four times, while cue Y was presented without an outcome four times in Context B:. In both contexts filler cues were presented without the outcome. During the test, target cues X and Y were presented either in the context where they were trained, or in the alternative context. With the context change expectation of the outcome X, expressed as predictive ratings, decreased in the presence of X and increased in the presence of Y. Looking at the contexts, expressed as a percentage of the overall gaze dwell time on a trial, was high across the four training trials, and increased with the context change. Results suggest that the presentation of unexpected information leads to increases in attention to contextual cues. Implications for contextual control of behavior are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of individual and social contextual factors on changes in leisure-time physical activity in working-class populations: results of the Healthy Directions–Small Businesses Study

PubMed Central

Stoddard, Anne; Bennett, Gary G.; Wolin, Kathleen Y.; Sorensen, Glorian G.

2012-01-01

Background As part of the Harvard Cancer Prevention Program Project, we sought to address disparities reflected in social class and race/ethnicity by developing and testing a behavioral intervention model that targeted fruit and vegetable consumption, red meat consumption, multivitamin intake, and physical activity in working-class, multiethnic populations. Methods This paper examined the associations between change in leisure-time physical activity and individual and social contextual factors in participants employed in small businesses (n = 850) at both baseline and at 18-month final. Results In bivariate analyses, age, language acculturation, social ties, and workplace social capital were significantly associated with physical activity at final. In multivariable analyses, being younger and having high language acculturation were significantly associated with greater leisuretime physical activity at final; high workplace social capital was significantly associated with a decline in physical activity at final. Conclusion These findings have implications for understanding factors that are integral to promoting change in physical activity among working-class, multiethnic populations. PMID:22806257

Introducing the Learning Practice--III. Leadership, empowerment, protected time and reflective practice as core contextual conditions.

PubMed

Rushmer, Rosemary; Kelly, Diane; Lough, Murray; Wilkinson, Joyce E; Davies, Huw T O

2004-08-01

This paper is the third of three related papers exploring the ways in which the principles of Learning Organizations (LOs) could be applied in Primary Care settings at the point of service delivery. Here we provide a systematic literature review of contextual factors that either play a key role in providing a facilitative context for a Learning Practice or manifest themselves as barriers to any Practice's attempts to develop a learning culture. Core contextual conditions are identified as, first, the requirement for strong and visionary leadership. Leaders who support and develop others, ask challenging questions, are willing to be learners themselves, see possibilities and make things happen, facilitate learning environments. The second core condition is the involvement and empowerment of staff where changes grow from the willing participation of all concerned. The third prerequisite is the setting-aside of times and places for learning and reflection. This paper contributes to the wider quality improvement debate in three main ways. First, by highlighting the local contextual issues that are most likely to impact on the success or failure of a Practice's attempts to work towards a learning culture. Second, by demonstrating that the very same factors can either help or hinder depending on how they are manifest and played out in context. Third, it adds to the evidence available to support the case for LOs in health care settings.

Structural and Contextual Dimensions of Iranian Primary Health Care System at Local Level

PubMed Central

Zanganeh Baygi, Mehdi; Seyedin, Hesam; Salehi, Masoud; Jafari Sirizi, Mehdi

2014-01-01

Background: In recent years, family physician plan was established as the main strategy of health system in Iran, while organizational structure of the primary health care system has remained the same as thirty years ago. Objectives: This study was performed to illustrate structural and contextual dimensions of organizational structure and relationship between them in Iranian primary health care system at local level. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted from January to June 2013, during which 121 questionnaires were distributed among senior and junior managers of city health centers at Medical Sciences universities in Iran. Validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts (CVI = 0.089 and CVR more than 0.85) and Cronbach α was utilized for reliability (α = 0.904). We used multistage sampling method in this study and analysis of the data was performed by SPSS software using different tests. Results: Local level of primary health care system in Iran had mechanical structure, but in contextual dimensions the results showed different types. There was a significant relationship between structural and contextual dimensions (r = 0.642, P value < 0.001). Goals and culture dimensions had strongest effects on structural dimensions. Conclusions: Because of the changes in goals and strategies of Iranian health system in recent years, it is urgently recommended to reform the current structure to increase efficiency and effectiveness of the system. PMID:25763257

Structural and contextual dimensions of Iranian primary health care system at local level.

PubMed

Zanganeh Baygi, Mehdi; Seyedin, Hesam; Salehi, Masoud; Jafari Sirizi, Mehdi

2015-01-01

In recent years, family physician plan was established as the main strategy of health system in Iran, while organizational structure of the primary health care system has remained the same as thirty years ago. This study was performed to illustrate structural and contextual dimensions of organizational structure and relationship between them in Iranian primary health care system at local level. A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted from January to June 2013, during which 121 questionnaires were distributed among senior and junior managers of city health centers at Medical Sciences universities in Iran. Validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts (CVI = 0.089 and CVR more than 0.85) and Cronbach α was utilized for reliability (α = 0.904). We used multistage sampling method in this study and analysis of the data was performed by SPSS software using different tests. Local level of primary health care system in Iran had mechanical structure, but in contextual dimensions the results showed different types. There was a significant relationship between structural and contextual dimensions (r = 0.642, P value < 0.001). Goals and culture dimensions had strongest effects on structural dimensions. Because of the changes in goals and strategies of Iranian health system in recent years, it is urgently recommended to reform the current structure to increase efficiency and effectiveness of the system.

Conceptual Change, History, and Science Stories.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stinner, Arthur; Williams, Harvey

1993-01-01

Science teachers implementing educational research findings must choose between instructional prescriptions from Piaget's theory of cognitive development and from alternative conceptual frameworks theory. Contextual teaching using large context problems or science stories addresses both. The paper outlines a program that designs historically based…

Communication as Part of the Engineering Skills Set

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lappalainen, Pia

2009-01-01

Engineering graduates are facing changing requirements regarding their competencies, as interdisciplinarity and globalization have transformed engineering communities into collaboration arenas extending beyond uniform national, cultural, contextual and disciplinary settings and structures. Engineers no longer manage their daily tasks with plain…

Social Salience Discriminates Learnability of Contextual Cues in an Artificial Language

PubMed Central

Rácz, Péter; Hay, Jennifer B.; Pierrehumbert, Janet B.

2017-01-01

We investigate the learning of contextual meaning by adults in an artificial language. Contextual meaning here refers to the non-denotative contextual information that speakers attach to a linguistic construction. Through a series of short games, played online, we test how well adults can learn different contextual meanings for a word-formation pattern in an artificial language. We look at whether learning contextual meanings depends on the social salience of the context, whether our players interpret these contexts generally, and whether the learned meaning is generalized to new words. Our results show that adults are capable of learning contextual meaning if the context is socially salient, coherent, and interpretable. Once a contextual meaning is recognized, it is readily generalized to related forms and contexts. PMID:28194122

Noncontextual Wirings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amaral, Barbara; Cabello, Adán; Cunha, Marcelo Terra; Aolita, Leandro

2018-03-01

Contextuality is a fundamental feature of quantum theory necessary for certain models of quantum computation and communication. Serious steps have therefore been taken towards a formal framework for contextuality as an operational resource. However, the main ingredient of a resource theory—a concrete, explicit form of free operations of contextuality—was still missing. Here we provide such a component by introducing noncontextual wirings: a class of contextuality-free operations with a clear operational interpretation and a friendly parametrization. We characterize them completely for general black-box measurement devices with arbitrarily many inputs and outputs. As applications, we show that the relative entropy of contextuality is a contextuality monotone and that maximally contextual boxes that serve as contextuality bits exist for a broad class of scenarios. Our results complete a unified resource-theoretic framework for contextuality and Bell nonlocality.

Pop-out in visual search of moving targets in the archer fish.

PubMed

Ben-Tov, Mor; Donchin, Opher; Ben-Shahar, Ohad; Segev, Ronen

2015-03-10

Pop-out in visual search reflects the capacity of observers to rapidly detect visual targets independent of the number of distracting objects in the background. Although it may be beneficial to most animals, pop-out behaviour has been observed only in mammals, where neural correlates are found in primary visual cortex as contextually modulated neurons that encode aspects of saliency. Here we show that archer fish can also utilize this important search mechanism by exhibiting pop-out of moving targets. We explore neural correlates of this behaviour and report the presence of contextually modulated neurons in the optic tectum that may constitute the neural substrate for a saliency map. Furthermore, we find that both behaving fish and neural responses exhibit additive responses to multiple visual features. These findings suggest that similar neural computations underlie pop-out behaviour in mammals and fish, and that pop-out may be a universal search mechanism across all vertebrates.

An Ensemble Method for Spelling Correction in Consumer Health Questions

PubMed Central

Kilicoglu, Halil; Fiszman, Marcelo; Roberts, Kirk; Demner-Fushman, Dina

2015-01-01

Orthographic and grammatical errors are a common feature of informal texts written by lay people. Health-related questions asked by consumers are a case in point. Automatic interpretation of consumer health questions is hampered by such errors. In this paper, we propose a method that combines techniques based on edit distance and frequency counts with a contextual similarity-based method for detecting and correcting orthographic errors, including misspellings, word breaks, and punctuation errors. We evaluate our method on a set of spell-corrected questions extracted from the NLM collection of consumer health questions. Our method achieves a F1 score of 0.61, compared to an informed baseline of 0.29, achieved using ESpell, a spelling correction system developed for biomedical queries. Our results show that orthographic similarity is most relevant in spelling error correction in consumer health questions and that frequency and contextual information are complementary to orthographic features. PMID:26958208

Aircraft Detection in High-Resolution SAR Images Based on a Gradient Textural Saliency Map

PubMed Central

Tan, Yihua; Li, Qingyun; Li, Yansheng; Tian, Jinwen

2015-01-01

This paper proposes a new automatic and adaptive aircraft target detection algorithm in high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of airport. The proposed method is based on gradient textural saliency map under the contextual cues of apron area. Firstly, the candidate regions with the possible existence of airport are detected from the apron area. Secondly, directional local gradient distribution detector is used to obtain a gradient textural saliency map in the favor of the candidate regions. In addition, the final targets will be detected by segmenting the saliency map using CFAR-type algorithm. The real high-resolution airborne SAR image data is used to verify the proposed algorithm. The results demonstrate that this algorithm can detect aircraft targets quickly and accurately, and decrease the false alarm rate. PMID:26378543

Army Logistician. Volume 39, Issue 1, January-February 2007

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-02-01

of electronic systems using statistical methods. P& C , however, requires advanced prognostic capabilities not only to detect the early onset of...patterns. Entities operating in a P& C -enabled environment will sense and understand contextual meaning , communicate their state and mission, and act to...accessing of historical and simulation patterns; on- board prognostics capabilities; physics of failure analyses; and predictive modeling. P& C also

The economic, institutional, and political determinants of public health delivery system structures.

PubMed

Ingram, Richard C; Scutchfield, F Douglas; Mays, Glen P; Bhandari, Michelyn W

2012-01-01

A typology of local public health systems was recently introduced, and a large degree of structural transformation over time was discovered in the systems analyzed. We present a qualitative exploration of the factors that determine variation and change in the seven structural configurations that comprise the local public health delivery system typology. We applied a 10-item semistructured telephone interview protocol to representatives from the local health agency in two randomly selected systems from each configuration--one that had maintained configuration over time and one that had changed configuration over time. We assessed the interviews for patterns of variation between the configurations. Four key determinants of structural change emerged: availability of financial resources, interorganizational relationships, public health agency organization, and political relationships. Systems that had changed were more likely to experience strengthened partnerships between public health agencies and other community organizations and enjoy support from policy makers, while stable systems were more likely to be characterized by strong partnerships between public health agencies and other governmental bodies and less supportive relationships with policy makers. This research provides information regarding the determinants of system change, and may help public health leaders to better prepare for the impacts of change in the areas discussed. It may also help those who are seeking to implement change to determine the contextual factors that need to be in place before change can happen, or how best to implement change in the face of contextual factors that are beyond their control.

Domain Anomaly Detection in Machine Perception: A System Architecture and Taxonomy.

PubMed

Kittler, Josef; Christmas, William; de Campos, Teófilo; Windridge, David; Yan, Fei; Illingworth, John; Osman, Magda

2014-05-01

We address the problem of anomaly detection in machine perception. The concept of domain anomaly is introduced as distinct from the conventional notion of anomaly used in the literature. We propose a unified framework for anomaly detection which exposes the multifaceted nature of anomalies and suggest effective mechanisms for identifying and distinguishing each facet as instruments for domain anomaly detection. The framework draws on the Bayesian probabilistic reasoning apparatus which clearly defines concepts such as outlier, noise, distribution drift, novelty detection (object, object primitive), rare events, and unexpected events. Based on these concepts we provide a taxonomy of domain anomaly events. One of the mechanisms helping to pinpoint the nature of anomaly is based on detecting incongruence between contextual and noncontextual sensor(y) data interpretation. The proposed methodology has wide applicability. It underpins in a unified way the anomaly detection applications found in the literature. To illustrate some of its distinguishing features, in here the domain anomaly detection methodology is applied to the problem of anomaly detection for a video annotation system.

Ablation of the presynaptic organizer Bassoon in excitatory neurons retards dentate gyrus maturation and enhances learning performance.

PubMed

Annamneedi, Anil; Caliskan, Gürsel; Müller, Sabrina; Montag, Dirk; Budinger, Eike; Angenstein, Frank; Fejtova, Anna; Tischmeyer, Wolfgang; Gundelfinger, Eckart D; Stork, Oliver

2018-06-18

Bassoon is a large scaffolding protein of the presynaptic active zone involved in the development of presynaptic terminals and in the regulation of neurotransmitter release at both excitatory and inhibitory brain synapses. Mice with constitutive ablation of the Bassoon (Bsn) gene display impaired presynaptic function, show sensory deficits and develop severe seizures. To specifically study the role of Bassoon at excitatory forebrain synapses and its relevance for control of behavior, we generated conditional knockout (Bsn cKO) mice by gene ablation through an Emx1 promoter-driven Cre recombinase. In these animals, we confirm selective loss of Bassoon from glutamatergic neurons of the forebrain. Behavioral assessment revealed that, in comparison to wild-type littermates, Bsn cKO mice display selectively enhanced contextual fear memory and increased novelty preference in a spatial discrimination/pattern separation task. These changes are accompanied by an augmentation of baseline synaptic transmission at medial perforant path to dentate gyrus (DG) synapses, as indicated by increased ratios of field excitatory postsynaptic potential slope to fiber volley amplitude. At the structural level, an increased complexity of apical dendrites of DG granule cells can be detected in Bsn cKO mice. In addition, alterations in the expression of cellular maturation markers and a lack of age-dependent decrease in excitability between juvenile and adult Bsn cKO mice are observed. Our data suggest that expression of Bassoon in excitatory forebrain neurons is required for the normal maturation of the DG and important for spatial and contextual memory.

Culturally Sensitive Approaches to Identification and Treatment of Depression among HIV Infected African American Adults: A Qualitative Study of Primary Care Providers' Perspectives.

PubMed

Le, Huynh-Nhu; Hipolito, Maria Mananita S; Lambert, Sharon; Terrell-Hamilton, Flora; Rai, Narayan; McLean, Charlee; Kapetanovic, Suad; Nwulia, Evaristus

2016-04-01

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly prevalent among HIV-infected (HIV+) individuals, and is associated with non-adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), and accelerated disease progression. MDD is underdiagnosed and undertreated among low-income African Americans, who are disproportionately impacted by the HIV epidemic. To improve detection and treatment of depression among African Americans living with HIV/AIDS, it is important to understand culturally and contextually relevant aspects of MDD and attitudes about mental health treatment. A focus group session was conducted with seven providers and staff at a primary care center that serves a largely African-American community heavily impacted by the HIV epidemic in Washington, DC. Data were analyzed using an inductive approach to distill prominent themes, perspectives, and experiences among participating providers. Five themes emerged to characterize the lived experiences of HIV+ African-American patients: (a) Changes in perceptions of HIV over time; (b) HIV is comorbid with mental illness, particularly depression and substance abuse; (c) Stigma is associated with both HIV and depression; (d) Existing mental health services vary and are insufficient and (e) Suggestions for optimal treatment for comorbid HIV and depression. This study reflects the views of providers from one clinic in this community. Substantial economic disadvantage, pervasive childhood adversity, limited education and limited resources jointly put members of this community at risk for acquisition of HIV and for development of depression and addictions. These contextual factors provide an important reminder that any patient-level depression identification or intervention in this community will have to be mindful of such circumstances.

Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Industrial Forest Clearcuts in the Conterminous United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huo, L. Z.; Boschetti, L.

2015-12-01

Remote sensing has been widely used for mapping and characterizing changes in forest cover, but the available remote sensing forest change products are not discriminating between deforestation (permanent transition from forest to non forest) and industrial forest management (logging followed by regrowth, with no land cover/ land use class change) (Hansen et al, 2010). Current estimates of carbon-equivalent emissions report the contribution of deforestation as 12% of total anthropogenic carbon emissions (van der Werf et al., 2009), but accurate monitoring of forest carbon balance should discriminate between land use change related to forest natural disturbances, and forest management. The total change in forest cover (Gross Forest Cover Loss, GFLC) needs to be characterized based on the cause (natural/human) and on the outcome of the change (regeneration to forest/transition to non/forest)(Kurtz et al, 2010). This paper presents the methodology used to classify the forest loss detected by the University of Maryland Global Forest Change product (Hansen, 2013) into deforestation, disturbances (fires, insect outbreaks) and industrial forest clearcuts. The industrial forest clearcuts were subsequently analysed by converting the pixel based detections into objects, and applying patch level metrics (e.g. size, compactness, straightness of boundaries) and contextual measures. The analysis is stratified by region and by dominant forest specie, to highlight changes in the rate of forest resource utilization in the 2003-2013 period covered by the Maryland Forest Cover Change Product. References Hansen, M.C., Stehman, S.V., & Potapov, P.V. (2010). Reply to Wernick et al.: Global scale quantification of forest change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, E148-E148 Hansen, M.C., Potapov, P.V., Moore, R et al., (2013), "High resolution Global Maps for the 21stCentury Forest Cover Change", Science 342: 850-853 Kurz, W.A. (2010). An ecosystem context for global gross forest cover loss estimates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 9025-9026 van der Werf, G.R., Morton, D.C., DeFries, R.S., Olivier, J.G., Kasibhatla, P.S., Jackson, R.B., Collatz, G.J., & Randerson, J. (2009). CO2 emissions from forest loss. Nature Geoscience, 2, 737-738

Simple method for experimentally testing any form of quantum contextuality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cabello, Adán

2016-03-01

Contextuality provides a unifying paradigm for nonclassical aspects of quantum probabilities and resources of quantum information. Unfortunately, most forms of quantum contextuality remain experimentally unexplored due to the difficulty of performing sequences of projective measurements on individual quantum systems. Here we show that two-point correlations between binary compatible observables are sufficient to reveal any form of contextuality. This allows us to design simple experiments that are more robust against imperfections and easier to analyze, thus opening the door for observing interesting forms of contextuality, including those requiring quantum systems of high dimensions. In addition, it allows us to connect contextuality to communication complexity scenarios and reformulate a recent result relating contextuality and quantum computation.

The influence of contextual diversity on eye movements in reading.

PubMed

Plummer, Patrick; Perea, Manuel; Rayner, Keith

2014-01-01

Recent research has shown contextual diversity (i.e., the number of passages in which a given word appears) to be a reliable predictor of word processing difficulty. It has also been demonstrated that word-frequency has little or no effect on word recognition speed when accounting for contextual diversity in isolated word processing tasks. An eye-movement experiment was conducted wherein the effects of word-frequency and contextual diversity were directly contrasted in a normal sentence reading scenario. Subjects read sentences with embedded target words that varied in word-frequency and contextual diversity. All 1st-pass and later reading times were significantly longer for words with lower contextual diversity compared to words with higher contextual diversity when controlling for word-frequency and other important lexical properties. Furthermore, there was no difference in reading times for higher frequency and lower frequency words when controlling for contextual diversity. The results confirm prior findings regarding contextual diversity and word-frequency effects and demonstrate that contextual diversity is a more accurate predictor of word processing speed than word-frequency within a normal reading task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Improving Teacher Education through Inquiry-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ortlieb, Evan T.; Lu, Lucia

2011-01-01

Preservice educators face daunting challenges throughout their professional development, but no challenge is greater than that of contextualizing their instruction within multicultural environments. Addressing the increasing diversity and ever-changing cultures within student populations is often skimmed over within teacher education curriculums;…

Organisational Culture: Electronic Support for Occupational Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saunders, Murray

1998-01-01

Outlines the interrelationship between telematic learning support and organizational culture of the workplace, defines occupational learning and types of organizationally generated knowledge, identifies concepts of organizational culture, and assesses the argument that telematics can effect changes in culture. Contextualizes these issues in new…

High-affinity α4β2 nicotinic receptors mediate the impairing effects of acute nicotine on contextual fear extinction.

PubMed

Kutlu, Munir Gunes; Holliday, Erica; Gould, Thomas J

2016-02-01

Previously, studies from our lab have shown that while acute nicotine administered prior to training and testing enhances contextual fear conditioning, acute nicotine injections prior to extinction sessions impair extinction of contextual fear. Although there is also strong evidence showing that the acute nicotine's enhancing effects on contextual fear conditioning require high-affinity α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), it is unknown which nAChR subtypes are involved in the acute nicotine-induced impairment of contextual fear extinction. In this study, we investigated the effects of acute nicotine administration on contextual fear extinction in knock-out (KO) mice lacking α4, β2 or α7 subtypes of nAChRs and their wild-type (WT) littermates. Both KO and WT mice were first trained and tested for contextual fear conditioning and received a daily contextual extinction session for 4 days. Subjects received intraperitoneal injections of nicotine (0.18 mg/kg) or saline 2-4 min prior to each extinction session. Our results showed that the mice that lack α4 and β2 subtypes of nAChRs showed normal contextual fear extinction but not the acute nicotine-induced impairment while the mice that lack the α7 subtype showed both normal contextual extinction and nicotine-induced impairment of contextual extinction. In addition, control experiments showed that acute nicotine-induced impairment of contextual fear extinction persisted when nicotine administration was ceased and repeated acute nicotine administrations alone did not induce freezing behavior in the absence of context-shock learning. These results clearly demonstrate that high-affinity α4β2 nAChRs are necessary for the effects of acute nicotine on contextual fear extinction. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

High-affinity α4β2 nicotinic receptors mediate the impairing effects of acute nicotine on contextual fear extinction

PubMed Central

Kutlu, Munir Gunes; Holliday, Erica; Gould, Thomas J.

2015-01-01

Previously, studies from our lab have shown that while acute nicotine administered prior to training and testing enhances contextual fear conditioning, acute nicotine injections prior to extinction sessions impair extinction of contextual fear. Although there is also strong evidence showing that the acute nicotine’s enhancing effects on contextual fear conditioning require high-affinity α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), it is unknown which nAChR subtypes are involved in the acute nicotine-induced impairment of contextual fear extinction. In this study, we investigated the effects of acute nicotine administration on contextual fear extinction in knock-out (KO) mice lacking α4, β2 or α7 subtypes of nAChRs and their wild-type (WT) littermates. Both KO and WT mice were first trained and tested for contextual fear conditioning and received a daily contextual extinction session for 4 days. Subjects received intraperitoneal injections of nicotine (0.18 mg/kg) or saline 2–4 mins prior to each extinction session. Our results showed that the that mice lack α4 and β2 subtypes of nAChRs showed normal contextual fear extinction but not the acute nicotine-induced impairment while the mice that lack the α7 subtype showed both normal contextual extinction and nicotine-induced impairment of contextual extinction. In addition, control experiments showed that acute nicotine-induced impairment of contextual fear extinction persisted when nicotine administration was ceased and repeated acute nicotine administrations alone did not induce freezing behavior in the absence of context-shock learning. These results clearly demonstrate that high-affinity α4β2 nAChRs are necessary for the effects of acute nicotine on contextual fear extinction. PMID:26688111

Evaluating large-scale health programmes at a district level in resource-limited countries.

PubMed

Svoronos, Theodore; Mate, Kedar S

2011-11-01

Recent experience in evaluating large-scale global health programmes has highlighted the need to consider contextual differences between sites implementing the same intervention. Traditional randomized controlled trials are ill-suited for this purpose, as they are designed to identify whether an intervention works, not how, when and why it works. In this paper we review several evaluation designs that attempt to account for contextual factors that contribute to intervention effectiveness. Using these designs as a base, we propose a set of principles that may help to capture information on context. Finally, we propose a tool, called a driver diagram, traditionally used in implementation that would allow evaluators to systematically monitor changing dynamics in project implementation and identify contextual variation across sites. We describe an implementation-related example from South Africa to underline the strengths of the tool. If used across multiple sites and multiple projects, the resulting driver diagrams could be pooled together to form a generalized theory for how, when and why a widely-used intervention works. Mechanisms similar to the driver diagram are urgently needed to complement existing evaluations of large-scale implementation efforts.

Identification with groups: the role of personality and context.

PubMed

Sagiv, Lilach; Roccas, Sonia; Hazan, Osnat

2012-04-01

Is identification a product of personality or of the context? We examine this question by adopting a multidimensional conceptualization of identification (the CIDS model) that integrates research perspectives on personality and contextual effects. We investigate (Study 1) the relationships of traits to identification with the nation (students, N = 77), the army (soldiers, N = 220), and a business school (students, N = 123). Then we show that the modes of identification vary in their stability across social contexts and in their susceptibility to contextual change. Idealizing groups' symbols ("deference" identification) is especially stable across different foci of identification (Study 2): the military and former high school (soldiers, N = 188), the business school and the nation (students, = 62), and the military and one's ethnic group (soldiers, N = 95). Perceiving the group as a central part of the self ("importance" identification) is the most susceptible to contextual effects of priming values (Study 3; students, N = 80, 60) and the group's status (Study 4; students, N = 68). © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Personality © 2012, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Thalamic nuclei convey diverse contextual information to layer 1 of visual cortex

PubMed Central

Imhof, Fabia; Martini, Francisco J.; Hofer, Sonja B.

2017-01-01

Sensory perception depends on the context within which a stimulus occurs. Prevailing models emphasize cortical feedback as the source of contextual modulation. However, higher-order thalamic nuclei, such as the pulvinar, interconnect with many cortical and subcortical areas, suggesting a role for the thalamus in providing sensory and behavioral context – yet the nature of the signals conveyed to cortex by higher-order thalamus remains poorly understood. Here we use axonal calcium imaging to measure information provided to visual cortex by the pulvinar equivalent in mice, the lateral posterior nucleus (LP), as well as the dorsolateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN). We found that dLGN conveys retinotopically precise visual signals, while LP provides distributed information from the visual scene. Both LP and dLGN projections carry locomotion signals. However, while dLGN inputs often respond to positive combinations of running and visual flow speed, LP signals discrepancies between self-generated and external visual motion. This higher-order thalamic nucleus therefore conveys diverse contextual signals that inform visual cortex about visual scene changes not predicted by the animal’s own actions. PMID:26691828

Contextual Fraction as a Measure of Contextuality.

PubMed

Abramsky, Samson; Barbosa, Rui Soares; Mansfield, Shane

2017-08-04

We consider the contextual fraction as a quantitative measure of contextuality of empirical models, i.e., tables of probabilities of measurement outcomes in an experimental scenario. It provides a general way to compare the degree of contextuality across measurement scenarios; it bears a precise relationship to violations of Bell inequalities; its value, and a witnessing inequality, can be computed using linear programing; it is monotonic with respect to the "free" operations of a resource theory for contextuality; and it measures quantifiable advantages in informatic tasks, such as games and a form of measurement-based quantum computing.

Contextual Fraction as a Measure of Contextuality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abramsky, Samson; Barbosa, Rui Soares; Mansfield, Shane

2017-08-01

We consider the contextual fraction as a quantitative measure of contextuality of empirical models, i.e., tables of probabilities of measurement outcomes in an experimental scenario. It provides a general way to compare the degree of contextuality across measurement scenarios; it bears a precise relationship to violations of Bell inequalities; its value, and a witnessing inequality, can be computed using linear programing; it is monotonic with respect to the "free" operations of a resource theory for contextuality; and it measures quantifiable advantages in informatic tasks, such as games and a form of measurement-based quantum computing.

Automatic detection of referral patients due to retinal pathologies through data mining.

PubMed

Quellec, Gwenolé; Lamard, Mathieu; Erginay, Ali; Chabouis, Agnès; Massin, Pascale; Cochener, Béatrice; Cazuguel, Guy

2016-04-01

With the increased prevalence of retinal pathologies, automating the detection of these pathologies is becoming more and more relevant. In the past few years, many algorithms have been developed for the automated detection of a specific pathology, typically diabetic retinopathy, using eye fundus photography. No matter how good these algorithms are, we believe many clinicians would not use automatic detection tools focusing on a single pathology and ignoring any other pathology present in the patient's retinas. To solve this issue, an algorithm for characterizing the appearance of abnormal retinas, as well as the appearance of the normal ones, is presented. This algorithm does not focus on individual images: it considers examination records consisting of multiple photographs of each retina, together with contextual information about the patient. Specifically, it relies on data mining in order to learn diagnosis rules from characterizations of fundus examination records. The main novelty is that the content of examination records (images and context) is characterized at multiple levels of spatial and lexical granularity: 1) spatial flexibility is ensured by an adaptive decomposition of composite retinal images into a cascade of regions, 2) lexical granularity is ensured by an adaptive decomposition of the feature space into a cascade of visual words. This multigranular representation allows for great flexibility in automatically characterizing normality and abnormality: it is possible to generate diagnosis rules whose precision and generalization ability can be traded off depending on data availability. A variation on usual data mining algorithms, originally designed to mine static data, is proposed so that contextual and visual data at adaptive granularity levels can be mined. This framework was evaluated in e-ophtha, a dataset of 25,702 examination records from the OPHDIAT screening network, as well as in the publicly-available Messidor dataset. It was successfully applied to the detection of patients that should be referred to an ophthalmologist and also to the specific detection of several pathologies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Region segmentation and contextual cuing in visual search.

PubMed

Conci, Markus; von Mühlenen, Adrian

2009-10-01

Contextual information provides an important source for behavioral orienting. For instance, in the contextual-cuing paradigm, repetitions of the spatial layout of elements in a search display can guide attention to the target location. The present study explored how this contextual-cuing effect is influenced by the grouping of search elements. In Experiment 1, four nontarget items could be arranged collinearly to form an imaginary square. The presence of such a square eliminated the contextual-cuing effect, despite the fact that the square's location still had a predictive value for the target location. Three follow-up experiments demonstrated that other types of grouping abolished contextual cuing in a similar way and that the mere presence of a task-irrelevant singleton had only a diminishing effect (by half) on contextual cuing. These findings suggest that a segmented, salient region can interfere with contextual cuing, reducing its predictive impact on search.

Contextual Factors Predict Patterns of Change in Functioning over 10 Years among Adolescents and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodman, Ashley C.; Smith, Leann E.; Greenberg, Jan S.; Mailick, Marsha R.

2016-01-01

In the present study, we jointly employ and integrate variable- and person-centered approaches to identify groups of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who have similar profiles of change over a period of 10 years across three critical domains of functioning: maladaptive behaviors, autism symptoms, and daily living skills. Two…

University Facilities Respond to the Changing Landscape of Higher Education Including the Top Ten Critical Facilities Issues. APPA Thought Leaders Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lunday, Elizabeth

2006-01-01

This report was issued from a 2006 meeting of individuals representing a variety of higher education institutions. The purpose of the meeting was to consider the future of higher education with particular attention to its built environment. The report provides a contextual overview of the changing landscape of higher education by identifying the…

[Importance of quality control for the detection of β-lactam antibiotic resistance in Enterobacteriaceae].

PubMed

Rivera, Alba; Larrosa, Nieves; Mirelis, Beatriz; Navarro, Ferran

2014-02-01

β-lactam antimicrobial agents are frequently used to treat infections caused by Enterobacteriaceae. The main mechanism of resistance to these antibiotics is the production of certain enzymes, collectively named β-lactamases. Due to their substrate profile and their epidemiological implications, the most clinically important β-lactamases are extended-spectrum β-lactamases, class C β-lactamases and carbapenemases. Phenotypic detection of these enzymes may be complicated and is based on the use of specific inhibitors of each β-lactamase and on the loss of activity on some β-lactam indicators. Various international committees postulate that it is no longer necessary to interpret the susceptibility results or determine the mechanism of resistance. Several critics disagree, however, and consider that susceptibility results should be interpreted until more data are available on the clinical efficacy of treatment with β-lactams. Given these methodological difficulties and constant changes in the interpretation criteria, we consider that training and external quality controls are essential to keep updated in this field. For learning purposes, these external quality controls should always be accompanied by a review of the results and methodology used, and the analysis of errors. In this paper we review and contextualize all the aspects related to the detection and interpretation of these β-lactamases. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Contextual and interdependent causes of climate change adaptation barriers for water management: responses from regional and local institutions in Himachal Pradesh, India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azhoni, Adani; Holman, Ian; Jude, Simon

2016-04-01

Research on adaptation barriers is gaining increasing prominence as the need for climate change adaptation becomes evident. This research seeks to identify and understand the reasons for key barriers preventing water institutions in the mountainous Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India from adapting to climate change. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in January & February 2015 with representatives from twenty-seven key governmental, academic, NGO and commercial institutions in the State, with responsibilities spanning from municipal water supply to irrigation and hydropower generation in addition to environmental conservation. Empirical analysis of the transcripts found that inadequate knowledge capacity, poor implementation of policies, inadequate resources, normative work culture, weak governance, unavailability and inaccessibility of data & information and limited inter-institutional networks are key barriers for adaptation. Although these generic barriers are similar to those reported elsewhere in literature, they are identified as having locally-contextual root causes. For example, the inadequate resources are identified to be occurring as a consequence of the fragmentation of resources allocation among others. This is due to competing developmental priorities and the desire of the political leadership to please the maximum number of electors rather than the more-usual inadequate budgetary allocation and climate scepticism. The identified individual barriers are found to be highly inter-dependent and closely intertwined which enables the identification of leverage points of interventions that can maximise removal of barriers. For example, breaking down key barriers for data and information accessibility will have to involve normative attitudinal change, through sensitisation of the larger picture of the role of accurate and accessible data; changes in working style involving moving from paper-based data management to digital; and institutional and structural changes through legislation or formal inter-institutional agreements for increasing data accessibility and sharing. This presentation will demonstrate how adaptation barriers in Himachal Pradesh are contextually interconnected by a range of cultural, systemic, geographical and political underlying causes and how this understanding can be used to increase the adaptive capacity of this climatically sensitive region.

Adaptability to Changes in Temporal Structure Is Fornix-Dependent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kwok, Sze Chai; Mitchell, Anna S.; Buckley, Mark J.

2015-01-01

Recognition memory deficits, even after short delays, are sometimes observed following hippocampal damage. One hypothesis links the hippocampus with processes in updating contextual memory representation. Here, we used fornix transection, which partially disconnects the hippocampal system, and compares the performance of fornix-transected monkeys…

Adaptability to Changes Intemporal Structure Is Fornix-Dependent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kwok, Sze Chai; Mitchell, Anna S.; Buckley, Mark J.

2015-01-01

Recognition memory deficits, even after short delays, are sometimes observed following hippocampal damage. One hypothesis links the hippocampus with processes in updating contextual memory representation. Here, we used fornix transection, which partially disconnects the hippocampal system, and compares the performance of fornix-transected monkeys…

Tertiary Education in the Noughties: The Student Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Naomi Rosh

2006-01-01

The psychodynamics of learning and teaching at a time of changing funding arrangements and priorities are explored and discussed through students' accounts of their experience of university. The contextual, organizational and socio-political characteristics implicated in these psychodynamic processes are considered. Among the psychodynamic issues…

An Interactive Model of Career Decision Making.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amundson, Norman E.

1995-01-01

The decision-making model described highlights the interaction between contextual factors, decision triggers, establishing a frame of the problem, reframing, and action planning. The interactive perspective is based on process and change. Career counseling with an interactive decision-making approach requires an acknowledgment of external…

Washing when the sun is shining! How users interact with a household energy management system.

PubMed

Kobus, Charlotte B A; Mugge, Ruth; Schoormans, Jan P L

2013-01-01

To make optimal use of sustainable energy, domestic electricity consumption should shift to match local supply conditions. Energy management systems (EMS) are a new sustainable technology that can help to disrupt consumers' habits concerning electricity consumption, whilst reinforcing desired behaviours. This research examined the factors that influence the likelihood that people will shift their electricity consumption to match sustainable supply. Twenty-one interviews were conducted with households who had used the EMS 'Smart Wash' for several months. The findings showed that the likelihood of behaviour change is influenced by a combination of the user's motivation, specific contextual factors and the design of the EMS. Based on these results, several recommendations are given for the future design of EMSs. Energy management systems (EMS) are a new technology that encourages people to shift electricity consumption to match local solar supply. Interviews among users of an EMS showed that the likelihood of behaviour change is influenced by the combination of the user's motivation, contextual factors and the EMS design.

Recollections of puberty and disordered eating in young women.

PubMed

Moore, Sarah R; McKone, Kirsten M P; Mendle, Jane

2016-12-01

Puberty begins a period of vulnerability for disordered eating that is maintained and amplified through adolescence and early adulthood. In the present study, we test the association between young women's recollections of physical maturation and disordered eating outcomes in early adulthood. Participants comprised N = 421 female undergraduate students at a large, northeastern university in the United States (M age  = 19.7 years). Three models assessed the relative contributions of recollected puberty (perceptions of changes and preparedness, and timing of puberty), current contextual (social support, romantic bond, sorority or sport participation), and demographic (race, socioeconomic status, family structure) variables to three eating-disorder outcomes. Recollections of feeling unprepared and disliking the physical changes of puberty predicted eating disorder symptoms more than any other demographic or current contextual factor. Results indicate that how young women experience the pubertal transition is related to eating disorder symptoms many years later. Copyright © 2016 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contextual memory and skill transfer in category search.

PubMed

Kole, James A; Healy, Alice F; Fierman, Deanna M; Bourne, Lyle E

2010-01-01

In three experiments, we examined transfer and contextual memory in a category search task. Each experiment included two phases (training and test), during which participants searched through category and exemplar menus for targets. In Experiment 1, the targets were from one of two domains during training (grocery store or department store); the domain was either the same or changed at test. Also, the categories were organized in one of two ways (alphabetically or semantically); the organization either remained the same or changed at test. In Experiments 2 and 3, domain and organization were held constant; however, categories or exemplars were the same, partially replaced, or entirely replaced across phases in order to simulate the dynamic nature of category search in everyday situations. Transfer occurred at test when the category organization or domain was maintained and when the categories or exemplars matched (partially or entirely) those at training. These results demonstrate that transfer is facilitated by overlap in training and testing contexts.

Object based implicit contextual learning: a study of eye movements.

PubMed

van Asselen, Marieke; Sampaio, Joana; Pina, Ana; Castelo-Branco, Miguel

2011-02-01

Implicit contextual cueing refers to a top-down mechanism in which visual search is facilitated by learned contextual features. In the current study we aimed to investigate the mechanism underlying implicit contextual learning using object information as a contextual cue. Therefore, we measured eye movements during an object-based contextual cueing task. We demonstrated that visual search is facilitated by repeated object information and that this reduction in response times is associated with shorter fixation durations. This indicates that by memorizing associations between objects in our environment we can recognize objects faster, thereby facilitating visual search.

The transfer of Cfunc contextual control through equivalence relations.

PubMed

Perez, William F; Fidalgo, Adriana P; Kovac, Roberta; Nico, Yara C

2015-05-01

Derived relational responding is affected by contextual stimuli (Cfunc) that select specific stimulus functions. The present study investigated the transfer of Cfunc contextual control through equivalence relations by evaluating both (a) the maintenance of Cfunc contextual control after the expansion of a relational network, and (b) the establishment of novel contextual stimuli by the transfer of Cfunc contextual control through equivalence relations. Initially, equivalence relations were established and contingencies were arranged so that colors functioned as Cfunc stimuli controlling participants' key-pressing responses in the presence of any stimulus from a three-member equivalence network. To investigate the first research question, the three-member equivalence relations were expanded to five members and the novel members were presented with the Cfunc stimuli in the key-pressing task. To address the second goal of this study, the colors (Cfunc) were established as equivalent to certain line patterns. The transfer of contextual cue function (Cfunc) was tested replacing the colored backgrounds with line patterns in the key-pressing task. Results suggest that the Cfunc contextual control was transferred to novel stimuli that were added to the relational network. In addition, the line patterns indirectly acquired the contextual cue function (Cfunc) initially established for the colored backgrounds. The conceptual and applied implications of Cfunc contextual control are discussed. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Organizational contextual features that influence the implementation of evidence-based practices across healthcare settings: a systematic integrative review.

PubMed

Li, Shelly-Anne; Jeffs, Lianne; Barwick, Melanie; Stevens, Bonnie

2018-05-05

Organizational contextual features have been recognized as important determinants for implementing evidence-based practices across healthcare settings for over a decade. However, implementation scientists have not reached consensus on which features are most important for implementing evidence-based practices. The aims of this review were to identify the most commonly reported organizational contextual features that influence the implementation of evidence-based practices across healthcare settings, and to describe how these features affect implementation. An integrative review was undertaken following literature searches in CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases from January 2005 to June 2017. English language, peer-reviewed empirical studies exploring organizational context in at least one implementation initiative within a healthcare setting were included. Quality appraisal of the included studies was performed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Inductive content analysis informed data extraction and reduction. The search generated 5152 citations. After removing duplicates and applying eligibility criteria, 36 journal articles were included. The majority (n = 20) of the study designs were qualitative, 11 were quantitative, and 5 used a mixed methods approach. Six main organizational contextual features (organizational culture; leadership; networks and communication; resources; evaluation, monitoring and feedback; and champions) were most commonly reported to influence implementation outcomes in the selected studies across a wide range of healthcare settings. We identified six organizational contextual features that appear to be interrelated and work synergistically to influence the implementation of evidence-based practices within an organization. Organizational contextual features did not influence implementation efforts independently from other features. Rather, features were interrelated and often influenced each other in complex, dynamic ways to effect change. These features corresponded to the constructs in the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), which supports the use of CFIR as a guiding framework for studies that explore the relationship between organizational context and implementation. Organizational culture was most commonly reported to affect implementation. Leadership exerted influence on the five other features, indicating it may be a moderator or mediator that enhances or impedes the implementation of evidence-based practices. Future research should focus on how organizational features interact to influence implementation effectiveness.

“I am not telling. The mobile is telling”: Factors influencing the outcomes of a community health worker mHealth intervention in India

PubMed Central

Dieleman, Marjolein; Kraamwinkel, Nadine; Van Belle, Sara; Chaudoury, Murari; Broerse, Jacqueline E. W.

2018-01-01

Introduction Improving maternal health outcomes remains a priority in Low and Middle Income Countries. With the rapid proliferation of mobile health technologies, there is an increased interest in understanding how these technologies can effectively improve maternal health outcomes particularly maternal health seeking knowledge and behaviors. However, few studies present clear explanations of the program developers’ rationale (theory of change) and contextual factors that could influence program outcomes. This mixed-methods study assesses Mobile for Mothers, a community health workers (CHW) utilized maternal mHealth intervention. We present the program developers’ rationale and utilize it as a framework to guide our study that aimed to identify intervention-related and contextual factors, which influence the observed outcomes of a CHW, utilized mHealth intervention. Materials and methods Quantitative methods (a questionnaire with 740 women who received the intervention and survey of 57 CHWs who utilized the intervention) and qualitative methods (12 interviews and 4 group discussions with CHWs and 20 interviews and 5 group discussions with pregnant and lactating women and 15 interviews and 2 group discussions with men) were conducted. These were used to understand how the mHealth intervention was implemented and to gain insight into contextual factors that potentially influenced the observed intervention outcomes. Results Results were grouped following three categories: (1) perceptions and experiences of CHWs utilizing the mHealth technology; (2) CHW-related outcomes; and (3) contextual factors that influence maternal health-seeking behavior. The overall response of CHWs and community members to the intervention was positive. However, contextual factors like the relationship between the CHWs and their respective communities, the pregnant women’s decision-making power and lack of access due to financial influenced the observed outcomes. Conclusion Mobile health applications are promising interventions for improving the performance of CHWs and health-seeking behavior of pregnant women. However, the contextual factors play a crucial role in intervention outcomes and need to be explicated by program developers during intervention design and implementation. PMID:29584773

Contextual effects on preattentive processing of sound motion as revealed by spatial MMN.

PubMed

Shestopalova, L B; Petropavlovskaia, E A; Vaitulevich, S Ph; Nikitin, N I

2015-04-01

The magnitude of spatial distance between sound stimuli is critically important for their preattentive discrimination, yet the effect of stimulus context on auditory motion processing is not clear. This study investigated the effects of acoustical change and stimulus context on preattentive spatial change detection. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded for stationary midline noises and two patterns of sound motion produced by linear or abrupt changes of interaural time differences. Each of the three types of stimuli was used as standard or deviant in different blocks. Context effects on mismatch negativity (MMN) elicited by stationary and moving sound stimuli were investigated by reversing the role of standard and deviant stimuli, while the acoustical stimulus parameters were kept the same. That is, MMN amplitudes were calculated by subtracting ERPs to identical stimuli presented as standard in one block and deviant in another block. In contrast, effects of acoustical change on MMN amplitudes were calculated by subtracting ERPs of standards and deviants presented within the same block. Preattentive discrimination of moving and stationary sounds indexed by MMN was strongly dependent on the stimulus context. Higher MMNs were produced in oddball configurations where deviance represented increments of the sound velocity, as compared to configurations with velocity decrements. The effect of standard-deviant reversal was more pronounced with the abrupt sound displacement than with gradual sound motion. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Individual and collective bodies: using measures of variance and association in contextual epidemiology.

PubMed

Merlo, J; Ohlsson, H; Lynch, K F; Chaix, B; Subramanian, S V

2009-12-01

Social epidemiology investigates both individuals and their collectives. Although the limits that define the individual bodies are very apparent, the collective body's geographical or cultural limits (eg "neighbourhood") are more difficult to discern. Also, epidemiologists normally investigate causation as changes in group means. However, many variables of interest in epidemiology may cause a change in the variance of the distribution of the dependent variable. In spite of that, variance is normally considered a measure of uncertainty or a nuisance rather than a source of substantive information. This reasoning is also true in many multilevel investigations, whereas understanding the distribution of variance across levels should be fundamental. This means-centric reductionism is mostly concerned with risk factors and creates a paradoxical situation, as social medicine is not only interested in increasing the (mean) health of the population, but also in understanding and decreasing inappropriate health and health care inequalities (variance). Critical essay and literature review. The present study promotes (a) the application of measures of variance and clustering to evaluate the boundaries one uses in defining collective levels of analysis (eg neighbourhoods), (b) the combined use of measures of variance and means-centric measures of association, and (c) the investigation of causes of health variation (variance-altering causation). Both measures of variance and means-centric measures of association need to be included when performing contextual analyses. The variance approach, a new aspect of contextual analysis that cannot be interpreted in means-centric terms, allows perspectives to be expanded.

Contextual influences on animal decision-making: Significance for behavior-based wildlife conservation and management.

PubMed

Owen, Megan A; Swaisgood, Ronald R; Blumstein, Daniel T

2017-01-01

Survival and successful reproduction require animals to make critical decisions amidst a naturally dynamic environmental and social background (i.e. "context"). However, human activities have pervasively, and rapidly, extended contextual variation into evolutionarily novel territory, potentially rendering evolved animal decision-making mechanisms and strategies maladaptive. We suggest that explicitly focusing on animal decision-making (ADM), by integrating and applying findings from studies of sensory ecology, cognitive psychology, behavioral economics and eco-evolutionary strategies, may enhance our understanding of, and our ability to predict how, human-driven changes in the environment and population demography will influence animal populations. Fundamentally, the decisions animals make involve evolved mechanisms, and behaviors emerge from the combined action of sensory integration, cognitive mechanisms and strategic rules of thumb, and any of these processes may have a disproportionate influence on behavior. Although there is extensive literature exploring ADM, it generally reflects a canalized, discipline-specific approach that lacks a unified conceptual framework. As a result, there has been limited application of ADM theory and research findings into predictive models that can enhance management outcomes, even though it is likely that the relative resilience of species to rapid environmental change is fundamentally a result of how ADM is linked to contextual variation. Here, we focus on how context influences ADM, and highlight ideas and results that may be most applicable to conservation biology. © 2016 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Comparative Analysis of Daytime Fire Detection Algorithms, Using AVHRR Data for the 1995 Fire Season in Canda: Perspective for MODIS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ichoku, Charles; Kaufman, Y. J.; Fraser, R. H.; Jin, J.-Z.; Park, W. M.; Lau, William K. M. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Two fixed-threshold Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and European Space Agency (CCRS and ESA) and three contextual GIGLIO, International Geosphere and Biosphere Project, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (GIGLIO, IGBP, and MODIS) algorithms were used for fire detection with Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data acquired over Canada during the 1995 fire season. The CCRS algorithm was developed for the boreal ecosystem, while the other four are for global application. The MODIS algorithm, although developed specifically for use with the MODIS sensor data, was applied to AVHRR in this study for comparative purposes. Fire detection accuracy assessment for the algorithms was based on comparisons with available 1995 burned area ground survey maps covering five Canadian provinces. Overall accuracy estimations in terms of omission (CCRS=46%, ESA=81%, GIGLIO=75%, IGBP=51%, MODIS=81%) and commission (CCRS=0.35%, ESA=0.08%, GIGLIO=0.56%, IGBP=0.75%, MODIS=0.08%) errors over forested areas revealed large differences in performance between the algorithms, with no relevance to type (fixed-threshold or contextual). CCRS performed best in detecting real forest fires, with the least omission error, while ESA and MODIS produced the highest omission error, probably because of their relatively high threshold values designed for global application. The commission error values appear small because the area of pixels falsely identified by each algorithm was expressed as a ratio of the vast unburned forest area. More detailed study shows that most commission errors in all the algorithms were incurred in nonforest agricultural areas, especially on days with very high surface temperatures. The advantage of the high thresholds in ESA and MODIS was that they incurred the least commission errors.

A Healthcare Utilization Analysis Framework for Hot Spotting and Contextual Anomaly Detection

PubMed Central

Hu, Jianying; Wang, Fei; Sun, Jimeng; Sorrentino, Robert; Ebadollahi, Shahram

2012-01-01

Patient medical records today contain vast amount of information regarding patient conditions along with treatment and procedure records. Systematic healthcare resource utilization analysis leveraging such observational data can provide critical insights to guide resource planning and improve the quality of care delivery while reducing cost. Of particular interest to providers are hot spotting: the ability to identify in a timely manner heavy users of the systems and their patterns of utilization so that targeted intervention programs can be instituted, and anomaly detection: the ability to identify anomalous utilization cases where the patients incurred levels of utilization that are unexpected given their clinical characteristics which may require corrective actions. Past work on medical utilization pattern analysis has focused on disease specific studies. We present a framework for utilization analysis that can be easily applied to any patient population. The framework includes two main components: utilization profiling and hot spotting, where we use a vector space model to represent patient utilization profiles, and apply clustering techniques to identify utilization groups within a given population and isolate high utilizers of different types; and contextual anomaly detection for utilization, where models that map patient’s clinical characteristics to the utilization level are built in order to quantify the deviation between the expected and actual utilization levels and identify anomalies. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework using claims data collected from a population of 7667 diabetes patients. Our analysis demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed approaches in identifying clinically meaningful instances for both hot spotting and anomaly detection. In future work we plan to incorporate additional sources of observational data including EMRs and disease registries, and develop analytics models to leverage temporal relationships among medical encounters to provide more in-depth insights. PMID:23304306

A healthcare utilization analysis framework for hot spotting and contextual anomaly detection.

PubMed

Hu, Jianying; Wang, Fei; Sun, Jimeng; Sorrentino, Robert; Ebadollahi, Shahram

2012-01-01

Patient medical records today contain vast amount of information regarding patient conditions along with treatment and procedure records. Systematic healthcare resource utilization analysis leveraging such observational data can provide critical insights to guide resource planning and improve the quality of care delivery while reducing cost. Of particular interest to providers are hot spotting: the ability to identify in a timely manner heavy users of the systems and their patterns of utilization so that targeted intervention programs can be instituted, and anomaly detection: the ability to identify anomalous utilization cases where the patients incurred levels of utilization that are unexpected given their clinical characteristics which may require corrective actions. Past work on medical utilization pattern analysis has focused on disease specific studies. We present a framework for utilization analysis that can be easily applied to any patient population. The framework includes two main components: utilization profiling and hot spotting, where we use a vector space model to represent patient utilization profiles, and apply clustering techniques to identify utilization groups within a given population and isolate high utilizers of different types; and contextual anomaly detection for utilization, where models that map patient's clinical characteristics to the utilization level are built in order to quantify the deviation between the expected and actual utilization levels and identify anomalies. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework using claims data collected from a population of 7667 diabetes patients. Our analysis demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed approaches in identifying clinically meaningful instances for both hot spotting and anomaly detection. In future work we plan to incorporate additional sources of observational data including EMRs and disease registries, and develop analytics models to leverage temporal relationships among medical encounters to provide more in-depth insights.

Truancy as a Contextual and School-Related Problem: A Comparative Multilevel Analysis of Country and School Characteristics on Civic Knowledge among 14 Year Olds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Claes, Ellen; Hooghe, Marc; Reeskens, Tim

2009-01-01

In recent years, various governments and education agencies have developed stricter policies to reduce truancy levels, mainly based on the argument that truancy is associated with risk behaviour, crime and substance abuse. In this article, we use a large, 28-nation comparative survey among 14 year olds to detect general patterns in consequences…

Trust-Based and Context-Aware Authentication in a Software Architecture for Context and Proximity-Aware Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lenzini, Gabriele

We describe an existing software architecture for context and proximity aware services that enables trust-based and context-aware authentication. A service is proximity aware when it automatically detects the presence of entities in its proximity. Authentication is context-aware when it uses contextual information to discern among different identities and to evaluate to which extent they are authentic. The software architecture that we describe here is functioning in our Institute: It manages a sensor network to detect the presence and location of users and their devices. A context manager is responsible to merge the different sources of contextual information, to solve potential contradictions, and to determine the level of authentication of the identity of the person approaching one of the services offered in the coffee-break corners of our Institute. In our solution for context-aware authentication, sensors are managed as if they were recommenders having subjective belief, disbelief, and uncertainty (i.e., trust) on the position and identity of users. A sensor’s subjective trust depends on what it has been sensing in the environment. We discuss the results of an array of simulations that we conducted to validate our concept of trust-based and context-aware authentication. We use Subjective Logic to manage trust.

Development of gender attitude traditionality across middle childhood and adolescence.

PubMed

Crouter, Ann C; Whiteman, Shawn D; McHale, Susan M; Osgood, D Wayne

2007-01-01

The development of gender attitudes in 402 youth (201 firstborn and 201 secondborn siblings) in 201 European American families was examined using data collected on seven occasions across 9 years. Pooling across siblings and using multilevel modeling, we examined gender attitude development from ages 7 to 19. Consistent with an ecological perspective, the combined effects of individual (i.e., sex, age, birth order) and contextual (i.e., parents' gender attitudes, sibling sex) characteristics predicted patterns of change. Although most youth declined in traditionality, the attitudes of firstborn boys with brothers and traditional parents became more traditional over time. No one longitudinal pattern captured the development of gender attitudes; trajectories varied as a function of contextual and personal characteristics.

Contextual Approach with Guided Discovery Learning and Brain Based Learning in Geometry Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kartikaningtyas, V.; Kusmayadi, T. A.; Riyadi

2017-09-01

The aim of this study was to combine the contextual approach with Guided Discovery Learning (GDL) and Brain Based Learning (BBL) in geometry learning of junior high school. Furthermore, this study analysed the effect of contextual approach with GDL and BBL in geometry learning. GDL-contextual and BBL-contextual was built from the steps of GDL and BBL that combined with the principles of contextual approach. To validate the models, it uses quasi experiment which used two experiment groups. The sample had been chosen by stratified cluster random sampling. The sample was 150 students of grade 8th in junior high school. The data were collected through the student’s mathematics achievement test that given after the treatment of each group. The data analysed by using one way ANOVA with different cell. The result shows that GDL-contextual has not different effect than BBL-contextual on mathematics achievement in geometry learning. It means both the two models could be used in mathematics learning as the innovative way in geometry learning.

The problem of contextuality and the impossibility of experimental metaphysics thereof

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hermens, Ronnie

Recently a new impulse has been given to the experimental investigation of contextuality. In this paper we show that for a widely used definition of contextuality there can be no decisive experiment on the existence of contextuality. To this end, we give a clear presentation of the hidden variable models due to Meyer, Kent and Clifton (MKC), which would supposedly nullify the Kochen-Specker theorem. Although we disagree with this last statement, the models do play a significant role in the discussion on the meaning of contextuality. In fact, we introduce a specific MKC-model of which we show that it is non-contextual and completely in agreement with quantum mechanical predictions. We also investigate the possibility of other definitions of non-contextuality-with an emphasis on operational definitions-and argue that any useful definition relies on the specification of a theoretical framework. It is therefore concluded that no experimental test can yield any conclusions about contextuality on a metaphysical level.

Changing Avatars, Changing Selves? The Influence of Social and Contextual Expectations on Digital Rendition of Identity.

PubMed

Triberti, Stefano; Durosini, Ilaria; Aschieri, Filippo; Villani, Daniela; Riva, Giuseppe

2017-08-01

Avatar creation is an interesting topic for both video game and social network studies. Research has shown that the creation of avatars is influenced by individual, contextual, and cultural features. Avatars are used to represent aspects of users' personality, but multiple avatars are used in different virtual contexts, as self-presentation strategies may vary according to the different "audiences" to be met online (say: friends, or strangers). Moreover, avatar creation is also influenced by cultural variables, such as gender, as avatars embody stereotypical aspects of being a woman or a man. This research tested whether avatars, as digital self-representations, may change depending on the above-mentioned variables. Ninety-four participants created two avatars to be used in different contexts (video game and job-themed social network). Moreover, two groups of participants were told that they would have met friends or total strangers within the two virtual contexts. Results showed that avatars changed from the game to the job context. Changes involved avatars' transient features (Clothes) more than physical (Body) and symbolic (Accessories) ones, and females changed accessories more than males. Moreover, females who expected to meet friends changed their avatars' bodies significantly more than males in both virtual contexts. The findings are discussed based on literature about computer-mediated communication and online self-disclosure. In conclusion, possible implications of the results for avatar-based interventions and the field of video games and social network design are reviewed.

76 FR 46809 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-03

... CHIPRA demonstration states' efforts affected outcomes related to knowledge and behavior change in targeted providers and/or consumers of health care. This study is being conducted by AHRQ through its..., stakeholder satisfaction with their project involvement, and contextual factors. (4) Health Care Provider...

Constant and Emerging Characteristics of Chinese Learners in Changing School Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Jian

2013-01-01

The characteristics of Chinese learners and the factors influencing these characteristics become increasingly an important focus of research in the field of educational psychology, sociology and comparative education ever since the publication of the book, "The Chinese Learner: Cultural, Psychological and Contextual Influences," edited…

Defining Purpose for Policy and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kardos, Susan M.

2012-01-01

Jonathan Woocher's "Reinventing Jewish Education for the 21st Century" presents a vision for a reimagined system of Jewish education. The educational landscape is changing, Woocher says, both because of a myriad of contextual factors (economic, geopolitical, technological, sociological) and because of the very need for Jewish educational decision…

Assessment of Barriers to Changing Practice as CME Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Price, David W.; Miller, Elaine K.; Rahm, Alanna Kulchak; Brace, Nancy E.; Larson, R. Sam

2010-01-01

Introduction: Continuing medical education (CME) is meant to drive and support improvements in practice. To achieve this goal, CME activities must move beyond simply purveying knowledge, instead helping attendees to contextualize information and to develop strategies for implementing new learning. CME attendees face different barriers to…

Adapting to Change: What Motivates Manitoban Schools to Learn

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lam, Y. L. Jack

2004-01-01

This study assesses the relative importance of environmental, intraorganizational, and contextual factors that explain the process and outcomes of organizational learning in six Manitoba schools. Based on the data provided by 265 teaching staff and their principals, the present findings verified that transformational leadership, supportive school…

Expanding the Boundaries of Adult Religious Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isaac, E. Paulette

2012-01-01

Religious institutions wear many hats. In addition to meeting spiritual needs, they also serve as educational, cultural, political, and social centers. Like the world in general, many of them have responded to societal changes. They have expanded their contextual, geographical, and physical boundaries. Also, as demonstrated throughout this…

Semantic Relationships between Contextual Synonyms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zeng, Xian-mo

2007-01-01

Contextual synonym is a linguistic phenomenon often applied but rarely discussed. This paper is to discuss the semantic relationships between contextual synonyms and the requirements under which words can be used as contextual synonyms between each other. The three basic relationships are embedment, intersection and non-coherence. The requirements…

Contextual Variability in Free Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lohnas, Lynn J.; Polyn, Sean M.; Kahana, Michael J.

2011-01-01

According to contextual-variability theory, experiences encoded at different times tend to be associated with different contextual states. The gradual evolution of context implies that spaced items will be associated with more distinct contextual states, and thus have more unique retrieval cues, than items presented in proximity. Ross and Landauer…

Does the Butcher-on-the-Bus Phenomenon Require a Dual-Process Explanation? A Signal Detection Analysis

PubMed Central

Tunney, Richard J.; Mullett, Timothy L.; Moross, Claudia J.; Gardner, Anna

2012-01-01

The butcher-on-the-bus is a rhetorical device or hypothetical phenomenon that is often used to illustrate how recognition decisions can be based on different memory processes (Mandler, 1980). The phenomenon describes a scenario in which a person is recognized but the recognition is accompanied by a sense of familiarity or knowing characterized by an absence of contextual details such as the person’s identity. We report two recognition memory experiments that use signal detection analyses to determine whether this phenomenon is evidence for a recollection plus familiarity model of recognition or is better explained by a univariate signal detection model. We conclude that there is an interaction between confidence estimates and remember-know judgments which is not explained fully by either single-process signal detection or traditional dual-process models. PMID:22745631

Successful Contextual Integration of Loose Mental Associations As Evidenced by Emotional Conflict-Processing

PubMed Central

Zimmer, Ulrike; Koschutnig, Karl; Ebner, Franz; Ischebeck, Anja

2014-01-01

Often we cannot resist emotional distraction, because emotions capture our attention. For example, in TV-commercials, tempting emotional voices add an emotional expression to a formerly neutral product. Here, we used a Stroop-like conflict paradigm as a tool to investigate whether emotional capture results in contextual integration of loose mental associations. Specifically, we tested whether the associatively connected meaning of an ignored auditory emotion with a non-emotional neutral visual target would yield a modulation of activation sensitive to emotional conflict in the brain. In an fMRI-study, nineteen participants detected the presence or absence of a little worm hidden in the picture of an apple, while ignoring a voice with an emotional sound of taste (delicious/disgusting). Our results indicate a modulation due to emotional conflict, pronounced most strongly when processing conflict in the context of disgust (conflict: disgust/no-worm vs. no conflict: disgust/worm). For conflict in the context of disgust, insula activity was increased, with activity correlating positively with reaction time in the conflict case. Conflict in the context of deliciousness resulted in increased amygdala activation, possibly due to the resulting “negative” emotion in incongruent versus congruent combinations. These results indicate that our associative stimulus-combinations showed a conflict-dependent modulation of activity in emotional brain areas. This shows that the emotional sounds were successfully contextually integrated with the loosely associated neutral pictures. PMID:24618674

Successful contextual integration of loose mental associations as evidenced by emotional conflict-processing.

PubMed

Zimmer, Ulrike; Koschutnig, Karl; Ebner, Franz; Ischebeck, Anja

2014-01-01

Often we cannot resist emotional distraction, because emotions capture our attention. For example, in TV-commercials, tempting emotional voices add an emotional expression to a formerly neutral product. Here, we used a Stroop-like conflict paradigm as a tool to investigate whether emotional capture results in contextual integration of loose mental associations. Specifically, we tested whether the associatively connected meaning of an ignored auditory emotion with a non-emotional neutral visual target would yield a modulation of activation sensitive to emotional conflict in the brain. In an fMRI-study, nineteen participants detected the presence or absence of a little worm hidden in the picture of an apple, while ignoring a voice with an emotional sound of taste (delicious/disgusting). Our results indicate a modulation due to emotional conflict, pronounced most strongly when processing conflict in the context of disgust (conflict: disgust/no-worm vs. no conflict: disgust/worm). For conflict in the context of disgust, insula activity was increased, with activity correlating positively with reaction time in the conflict case. Conflict in the context of deliciousness resulted in increased amygdala activation, possibly due to the resulting "negative" emotion in incongruent versus congruent combinations. These results indicate that our associative stimulus-combinations showed a conflict-dependent modulation of activity in emotional brain areas. This shows that the emotional sounds were successfully contextually integrated with the loosely associated neutral pictures.

Personal and contextual factors in the escalation of driving after drinking across the college years.

PubMed

Quinn, Patrick D; Fromme, Kim

2012-12-01

College students continue to drive after drinking at alarmingly high rates. Age trends suggest that driving after drinking increases from late adolescence across the college years, largely mirroring trends in binge drinking. Relatively little research, however, has examined change over time in driving after drinking among college students or tested whether some students might be at greater risk of escalations in driving after drinking. Using a sample of 1,833 nonabstaining students who completed surveys for seven semesters across the college years, we tested whether personal (i.e., age of drinking onset, gender, risk perceptions, and sensation seeking) and contextual (i.e., college residence) factors were associated with changes in driving after drinking. Using latent growth curve modeling, we found significant individual differences in rates of change in driving after drinking. Male students and students who began drinking earlier in life increased in driving after drinking more rapidly, whereas living in on-campus housing was associated with time-specific decreases in driving after drinking. These results demonstrate the value of considering driving after drinking from a longitudinal perspective and suggest possible avenues toward preventing the public health consequences of intoxicated driving. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Designing in the social context: using the social contextual model of health behavior change to develop a tobacco control intervention for teachers in India

PubMed Central

Nagler, Eve M.; Pednekar, Mangesh S.; Viswanath, Kasisomayajula; Sinha, Dhirendra N.; Aghi, Mira B.; Pischke, Claudia R.; Ebbeling, Cara B.; Lando, Harry A.; Gupta, Prakash C.

2013-01-01

This article provides a theory-based, step-by-step approach to intervention development and illustrates its application in India to design an intervention to promote tobacco-use cessation among school personnel in Bihar. We employed a five-step approach to develop the intervention using the Social Contextual Model of Health Behavior Change (SCM) in Bihar, which involved conducting formative research, classifying factors in the social environment as mediating mechanisms and modifying conditions, developing a creative brief, designing an intervention and refining the intervention based on pilot test results. The intervention engages users and non-users of tobacco, involves teachers in implementing and monitoring school tobacco control policies and maximizes teachers’ role as change agents in schools and communities. Intervention components include health educator visits, discussions led by lead teachers, cessation assistance, posters and other educational materials and is implemented over the entire academic year. The intervention is being tested in Bihar government schools as part of a randomized-controlled trial. SCM was a useful framework for developing a tobacco control intervention that responded to teachers’ lives in Bihar. PMID:22669010

Personal and Contextual Factors in the Escalation of Driving after Drinking Across the College Years

PubMed Central

Quinn, Patrick D.; Fromme, Kim

2014-01-01

College students continue to drive after drinking at alarmingly high rates. Age trends suggest that driving after drinking increases from late adolescence across the college years, largely mirroring trends in binge drinking. Relatively little research, however, has examined change over time in driving after drinking among college students or tested whether some students might be at greater risk of escalations in driving after drinking. Using a sample of 1,833 non-abstaining students who completed surveys for 7 semesters across the college years, we tested whether personal (i.e., age of drinking onset, gender, risk perceptions, and sensation seeking) and contextual (i.e., college residence) factors were associated with changes in driving after drinking. Using latent growth curve modeling, we found significant individual differences in rates of change in driving after drinking. Male students and students who began drinking earlier in life increased in driving after drinking more rapidly, whereas living in on-campus housing was associated with time-specific decreases in driving after drinking. These results demonstrate the value of considering driving after drinking from a longitudinal perspective and suggest possible avenues toward preventing the public health consequences of intoxicated driving. PMID:22229535

Graph-theoretic strengths of contextuality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Silva, Nadish

2017-03-01

Cabello-Severini-Winter and Abramsky-Hardy (building on the framework of Abramsky-Brandenburger) both provide classes of Bell and contextuality inequalities for very general experimental scenarios using vastly different mathematical techniques. We review both approaches, carefully detail the links between them, and give simple, graph-theoretic methods for finding inequality-free proofs of nonlocality and contextuality and for finding states exhibiting strong nonlocality and/or contextuality. Finally, we apply these methods to concrete examples in stabilizer quantum mechanics relevant to understanding contextuality as a resource in quantum computation.

Avoidance and contextual learning induced by a kairomone, a pheromone and a common odorant in female CD1 mice.

PubMed

Fortes-Marco, Lluís; Lanuza, Enrique; Martínez-García, Fernando; Agustín-Pavón, Carmen

2015-01-01

Chemosignals mediate both intra- and inter-specific communication in most mammals. Pheromones elicit stereotyped reactions in conspecifics, whereas kairomones provoke a reaction in an allospecific animal. For instance, predator kairomones elicit anticipated defensive responses in preys. The aim of this work was to test the behavioral responses of female mice to two chemosignals: 2-heptanone (2-HP), a putative alarm pheromone, and 2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), a fox-derived putative kairomone, widely used to investigate fear and anxiety in rodents. The banana-like odorant isoamyl acetate (IA), unlikely to act as a chemosignal, served as a control odorant. We first presented increasing amounts of these odorants in consecutive days, in a test box in which mice could explore or avoid them. Female mice avoided the highest amounts of all three compounds, with TMT and IA eliciting avoidance at lower amounts (3.8 pmol and 0.35 μmol, respectively) than 2-HP (35 μmol). All three compounds induced minimal effects in global locomotion and immobility in this set up. Further, mice detected 3.5 pmol of TMT and IA in a habituation-dishabituation test, so avoidance of IA started well beyond the detection threshold. Finally, both TMT and IA, but not 2-HP, induced conditioned place avoidance and increased immobility in the neutral compartment during a contextual memory test. These data suggest that intense odors can induce contextual learning irrespective of their putative biological significance. Our results support that synthetic predator-related compounds (like TMT) or other intense odorants are useful to investigate the neurobiological basis of emotional behaviors in rodents. Since intense odorants unlikely to act as chemosignals can elicit similar behavioral reactions than chemosignals, we stress the importance of using behavioral measures in combination with other physiological (e.g., hormonal levels) or neural measures (e.g., immediate early gene expression) to establish the ethological significance of odorants.

Avoidance and contextual learning induced by a kairomone, a pheromone and a common odorant in female CD1 mice

PubMed Central

Fortes-Marco, Lluís; Lanuza, Enrique; Martínez-García, Fernando; Agustín-Pavón, Carmen

2015-01-01

Chemosignals mediate both intra- and inter-specific communication in most mammals. Pheromones elicit stereotyped reactions in conspecifics, whereas kairomones provoke a reaction in an allospecific animal. For instance, predator kairomones elicit anticipated defensive responses in preys. The aim of this work was to test the behavioral responses of female mice to two chemosignals: 2-heptanone (2-HP), a putative alarm pheromone, and 2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), a fox-derived putative kairomone, widely used to investigate fear and anxiety in rodents. The banana-like odorant isoamyl acetate (IA), unlikely to act as a chemosignal, served as a control odorant. We first presented increasing amounts of these odorants in consecutive days, in a test box in which mice could explore or avoid them. Female mice avoided the highest amounts of all three compounds, with TMT and IA eliciting avoidance at lower amounts (3.8 pmol and 0.35 μmol, respectively) than 2-HP (35 μmol). All three compounds induced minimal effects in global locomotion and immobility in this set up. Further, mice detected 3.5 pmol of TMT and IA in a habituation–dishabituation test, so avoidance of IA started well beyond the detection threshold. Finally, both TMT and IA, but not 2-HP, induced conditioned place avoidance and increased immobility in the neutral compartment during a contextual memory test. These data suggest that intense odors can induce contextual learning irrespective of their putative biological significance. Our results support that synthetic predator-related compounds (like TMT) or other intense odorants are useful to investigate the neurobiological basis of emotional behaviors in rodents. Since intense odorants unlikely to act as chemosignals can elicit similar behavioral reactions than chemosignals, we stress the importance of using behavioral measures in combination with other physiological (e.g., hormonal levels) or neural measures (e.g., immediate early gene expression) to establish the ethological significance of odorants. PMID:26500474

Grasp cueing and joint attention.

PubMed

Tschentscher, Nadja; Fischer, Martin H

2008-10-01

We studied how two different hand posture cues affect joint attention in normal observers. Visual targets appeared over lateralized objects, with different delays after centrally presented hand postures. Attention was cued by either hand direction or the congruency between hand aperture and object size. Participants pressed a button when they detected a target. Direction cues alone facilitated target detection following short delays but aperture cues alone were ineffective. In contrast, when hand postures combined direction and aperture cues, aperture congruency effects without directional congruency effects emerged and persisted, but only for power grips. These results suggest that parallel parameter specification makes joint attention mechanisms exquisitely sensitive to the timing and content of contextual cues.

Inhibition of Rac1 Activity in the Hippocampus Impairs the Forgetting of Contextual Fear Memory.

PubMed

Jiang, Lizhu; Mao, Rongrong; Zhou, Qixin; Yang, Yuexiong; Cao, Jun; Ding, Yuqiang; Yang, Yuan; Zhang, Xia; Li, Lingjiang; Xu, Lin

2016-03-01

Fear is crucial for survival, whereas hypermnesia of fear can be detrimental. Inhibition of the Rac GTPase is recently reported to impair the forgetting of initially acquired memory in Drosophila. Here, we investigated whether inhibition of Rac1 activity in rat hippocampus could contribute to the hypermnesia of contextual fear. We found that spaced but not massed training of contextual fear conditioning caused inhibition of Rac1 activity in the hippocampus and heightened contextual fear. Furthermore, intrahippocampal injection of the Rac1 inhibitor NSC23766 heightened contextual fear in massed training, while Rac1 activator CN04-A weakened contextual fear in spaced training rats. Our study firstly demonstrates that contextual fear memory in rats is actively regulated by Rac1 activity in the hippocampus, which suggests that the forgetting impairment of traumatic events in posttraumatic stress disorder may be contributed to the pathological inhibition of Rac1 activity in the hippocampus.

Exploring the role of contextual information in bloodstain pattern analysis: A qualitative approach.

PubMed

Osborne, Nikola K P; Taylor, Michael C; Zajac, Rachel

2016-03-01

During Bloodstain Pattern Analysis (BPA), an analyst may encounter various sources of contextual information. Although contextual bias has emerged as a valid concern for the discipline, little is understood about how contextual information informs BPA. To address this issue, we asked 15 experienced bloodstain pattern analysts from New Zealand and Australia to think aloud as they classified bloodstain patterns from two homicide cases. Analysts could request items of contextual information, and were required to state how each item would inform their analysis. Pathology reports and additional photographs of the scene were the most commonly requested items of information. We coded analysts' reasons for requesting contextual information--and the way in which they integrated this information--according to thematic analysis. We identified considerable variation in both of these variables, raising important questions about the role and necessity of contextual information in decisions about bloodstain pattern evidence. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prefrontal neuronal circuits of contextual fear conditioning.

PubMed

Rozeske, R R; Valerio, S; Chaudun, F; Herry, C

2015-01-01

Over the past years, numerous studies have provided a clear understanding of the neuronal circuits and mechanisms involved in the formation, expression and extinction phases of conditioned cued fear memories. Yet, despite a strong clinical interest, a detailed understanding of these memory phases for contextual fear memories is still missing. Besides the well-known role of the hippocampus in encoding contextual fear behavior, growing evidence indicates that specific regions of the medial prefrontal cortex differentially regulate contextual fear acquisition and storage in both animals and humans that ultimately leads to expression of contextual fear memories. In this review, we provide a detailed description of the recent literature on the role of distinct prefrontal subregions in contextual fear behavior and provide a working model of the neuronal circuits involved in the acquisition, expression and generalization of contextual fear memories. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

Utilizing Peer Observation as a Professional Development Tool to Learn in Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirsch, Linda J.

2011-01-01

De-contextualized professional development is the common route taken by school districts to addresses pedagogical skills and address change within an educational organization. Research suggests that the current process of professional development activities is limited if not ineffective. Research shows that another model of professional…

Experience-Dependent Epigenomic Reorganization in the Hippocampus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duke, Corey G.; Kennedy, Andrew J.; Gavin, Cristin F.; Day, Jeremy J.; Sweatt, J. David

2017-01-01

Using a hippocampus-dependent contextual threat learning and memory task, we report widespread, coordinated DNA methylation changes in CA1 hippocampus of Sprague-Dawley rats specific to threat learning at genes involved in synaptic transmission. Experience-dependent alternations in gene expression and DNA methylation were observed as early as 1 h…

Pedagogical Transitions among Science Teachers: How Does Context Intersect with Teacher Beliefs?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Miriam

2018-01-01

This paper examines attitudes to pedagogical change, among teachers within a second level science department in Ireland. It explores the beliefs and contextual constraints that mediate diversification from a primarily didactic pedagogical approach towards more student-led pedagogies. Using a multi-method approach incorporating observations of…

School Social Work in Louisiana: A Model of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richard, Laura A.; Villarreal Sosa, Leticia

2014-01-01

Although the role of the school social worker has historically been inconsistent, fragmented, and contextual, concerns about the need to advocate for school social work positions, demonstrate the effectiveness of school social work practice, understand the consequences of role ambiguity, and respond in a proactive way to policy changes has…

Transdisciplinary, Multilevel Action Research to Enhance Ecological and Psychopolitical Validity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christens, Brian; Perkins, Douglas D.

2008-01-01

The authors explore the implications of recent proposals for a focus on power and social change in community psychology research and add needed contextual and methodological specificity. An expanded model of psychopolitical validity is presented that merges Isaac Prilleltensky's (this issue, pp. 116-136) domains, or stages of empowerment…

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2001.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Carole, Ed.

This report is the fifth to present nationwide data on the well-being of America's children. The statistical portrait is based on indicators of child well-being and on contextual measures describing the changing population and family context. Part 1 of the report, "Population and Family Characteristics," presents information illustrating…

Collaborative Signaling of Informational Structures by Dynamic Speech Rate.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koiso, Hanae; Shimojima, Atsushi; Katagiri, Yasuhiro

1998-01-01

Investigated the functions of dynamic speech rates as contextualization cues in conversational Japanese, examining five spontaneous task-oriented dialogs and analyzing the potential of speech-rate changes in signaling the structure of the information being exchanged. Results found a correlation between speech decelerations and the openings of new…

The Influence of Life Experiences on Educational Leadership Practice and Evolution of That Practice: An Autoethnography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alwin, Lance

2009-01-01

To address complexity and ongoing change in educational leadership, the literature suggests employing transformational and reflective practices. The literature calls for contextually detailed, longitudinal, varied forms of research that legitimize these leadership practices. As such, this autoethnography addresses these research questions: (1)…

Making Learning Support Contextually Responsive

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dreyer, L.; Engelbrecht, P.; Swart, E.

2012-01-01

Research indicates that the success of inclusive education lies within the provision of adequate support for learners who experience barriers to learning in mainstream schools as well as in the changing roles of teachers and support services staff. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) implemented a learning support model, designed to…

Factors Associated with Young Children's Opportunities for Maintaining Family Relationships during Maternal Incarceration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poehlmann, Julie; Shlafer, Rebecca J.; Maes, Elizabeth; Hanneman, Ashley

2008-01-01

Children affected by maternal incarceration experience challenges maintaining continuous family relationships because of changes in caregivers, separation from siblings, and limited contact with mothers. In this mixed-method study, we investigated maternal and contextual factors associated with continuity in family relationships of children living…

Professional Formation in Hong Kong: Yin & Yang in a Free-Market Economy?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forrester, Victor

2007-01-01

The relationship between the professional formation of beginning teachers, education reforms and Hong Kong's free-market economy is explored. An overview of educational change and then beginning teachers' professional formation within the context of economic cycles provides a contextual background against which two research projects are…

Developing Primary Leadership in England: Adopting an Interpretivist Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Wei; Brundrett, Mark

2011-01-01

This paper aims to investigate the perceptions of primary school leaders about the efficacy of the National College programmes. The findings from six contextually different primary schools reveal that the programmes were perceived to have exerted the least influence on school leaders' personality change and pupil outcomes because many generalised…

Alternative Models to Deliver Developmental Math: Issues of Use and Student Access

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kosiewicz, Holly; Ngo, Federick; Fong, Kristen

2016-01-01

Objective: Changing how community colleges deliver developmental education has become a key policy lever to increase student achievement. Alternative development education models reduce the amount of time a student spends in remediation, provide students with supplemental instruction and support, and contextualize content to align with student…

Indicating disturbance content and context for preserved areas

Treesearch

N. Zaccarelli; K.H. Riitters; I. Petrosillo; G. Zurlini

2007-01-01

An accepted goal of conservation is to build a conservation network that is resilient to environmental change. The conceptual patch-corridor-matrix model views individual conservation areas as connected components of a regional network capable of sustaining metapopulations and biodiversity, and assessment of contextual conditions in the matrix surrounding conservation...

Distinct Contributions of Median Raphe Nucleus to Contextual Fear Conditioning and Fear-Potentiated Startle

PubMed Central

Silva, R. C. B.; Cruz, A. P. M.; Avanzi, V.; Landeira-Fernandez, J.; Brandão, M. L.

2002-01-01

Ascending 5-HT projections from the median raphe nucleus (MRN), probably to the hippocampus, are implicated in the acquisition of contextual fear (background stimuli), as assessed by freezing behavior. Foreground cues like light, used as a conditioned stimulus (CS) in classical fear conditioning, also cause freezing through thalamic transmission to the amygdala. As the MRN projects to the hippocampus and amygdala, the role of this raphe nucleus in fear conditioning to explicit cues remains to be explained. Here we analyzed the behavior of rats with MRN electrolytic lesions in a contextual conditioning situation and in a fear-potentiated startle procedure. The animals received MRN electrolytic lesions either before or on the day after two consecutive training sessions in which they were submitted to 10 conditioning trials, each in an experimental chamber (same context) where they. received foot-shocks (0.6 mA, 1 sec) paired to a 4-sec light CS. Seven to ten days later, the animals were submitted to testing sessions for assessing conditioned fear when they were placed for five shocks, and the duration of contextual freezing was recorded. The animals were then submitted to a fear-potentiated startle in response to a 4-sec light-CS, followed by white noise (100 dB, 50 ms). Control rats (sham) tested in the same context showed more freezing than did rats with pre- or post-training MRN lesions. Startle was clearly potentiated in the presence of light CS in the sham-lesioned animals. Whereas pretraining lesions reduced both freezing and fear-potentiated startle, the post-training lesions reduced only freezing to context, without changing the fear-potentiated startle. In a second experiment, neurotoxic lesions of the MRN with local injections of N-methyl-D-aspartate or the activation of 5-HT1A somatodendritic auto-receptors of the MRN by microinjections of the 5-HT1A receptor agonist 8-hydroxy- 2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT) before the training sessions also reduced the amount of freezing and the fear-potentiated startle. Freezing is a prominent response of contextual fear conditioning, but does not seem to be crucial for the enhancement of the startle reflex by explicit aversive cues. As fear-potentiated startle may be produced in posttraining lesioned rats that are unable to freeze to fear contextual stimuli, dissociable systems seem to be recruited in each condition. Thus, contextual fear and fear-potentiated startle are conveyed by distinct 5-HT-mediated circuits of the MRN. PMID:12959153

Contributions of the Medial Temporal Lobe to Declarative Memory Retrieval: Manipulating the Amount of Contextual Retrieval

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tendolkar, Indira; Arnold, Jennifer; Petersson, Karl Magnus; Weis, Susanne; Brockhaus-Dumke, Anke; van Eijndhoven, Philip; Buitelaar, Jan; Fernandez, Guillen

2008-01-01

We investigated how the hippocampus and its adjacent mediotemporal structures contribute to contextual and noncontextual declarative memory retrieval by manipulating the amount of contextual information across two levels of the same contextual dimension in a source memory task. A first analysis identified medial temporal lobe (MTL) substructures…

A More Efficient Contextuality Distillation Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Hui-xian; Cao, Huai-xin; Wang, Wen-hua; Fan, Ya-jing; Chen, Liang

2018-03-01

Based on the fact that both nonlocality and contextuality are resource theories, it is natural to ask how to amplify them more efficiently. In this paper, we present a contextuality distillation protocol which produces an n-cycle box B ∗ B ' from two given n-cycle boxes B and B '. It works efficiently for a class of contextual n-cycle ( n ≥ 4) boxes which we termed as "the generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes". For any two generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes B and B ', B ∗ B ' is more contextual than both B and B '. Moreover, they can be distilled toward to the maximally contextual box C H n as the times of iteration goes to infinity. Among the known protocols, our protocol has the strongest approximate ability and is optimal in terms of its distillation rate. What is worth noting is that our protocol can witness a larger set of nonlocal boxes that make communication complexity trivial than the protocol in Brunner and Skrzypczyk (Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 160403 2009), this might be helpful for exploring the problem that why quantum nonlocality is limited.

A More Efficient Contextuality Distillation Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Hui-xian; Cao, Huai-xin; Wang, Wen-hua; Fan, Ya-jing; Chen, Liang

2017-12-01

Based on the fact that both nonlocality and contextuality are resource theories, it is natural to ask how to amplify them more efficiently. In this paper, we present a contextuality distillation protocol which produces an n-cycle box B ∗ B ' from two given n-cycle boxes B and B '. It works efficiently for a class of contextual n-cycle (n ≥ 4) boxes which we termed as "the generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes". For any two generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes B and B ', B ∗ B ' is more contextual than both B and B '. Moreover, they can be distilled toward to the maximally contextual box C H n as the times of iteration goes to infinity. Among the known protocols, our protocol has the strongest approximate ability and is optimal in terms of its distillation rate. What is worth noting is that our protocol can witness a larger set of nonlocal boxes that make communication complexity trivial than the protocol in Brunner and Skrzypczyk (Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 160403 2009), this might be helpful for exploring the problem that why quantum nonlocality is limited.

An update on contextual fear memory mechanisms: Transition between Amygdala and Hippocampus.

PubMed

Chaaya, Nicholas; Battle, Andrew R; Johnson, Luke R

2018-05-09

Context is an ever-present combination of discrete environmental elements capable of influencing many psychological processes. When context is associated with an aversive stimulus, a permanent contextual fear memory is formed. Context is hypothesized to greatly influence the treatability of various fear-based pathologies, in particular, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In order to understand how contextual fear memories are encoded and impact underlying fear pathology, delineation of the underlying neural circuitry of contextual fear memory consolidation and maintenance is essential. Past understandings of contextual fear suggest that the hippocampus only creates a unitary, or single, representation of context. This representation is sent to the amygdala, which creates the associative contextual fear memory. In contrast, here we review new evidence from the literature showing contextual fear memories to be consolidated and maintained by both amygdala and hippocampus. Based on this evidence, we revise the current model of contextual fear memory consolidation, highlighting a larger role for hippocampus. This new model may better explain the role of the hippocampus in PTSD. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Any Ontological Model of the Single Qubit Stabilizer Formalism must be Contextual

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lillystone, Piers; Wallman, Joel J.

Quantum computers allow us to easily solve some problems classical computers find hard. Non-classical improvements in computational power should be due to some non-classical property of quantum theory. Contextuality, a more general notion of non-locality, is a necessary, but not sufficient, resource for quantum speed-up. Proofs of contextuality can be constructed for the classically simulable stabilizer formalism. Previous proofs of stabilizer contextuality are known for 2 or more qubits, for example the Mermin-Peres magic square. In the work presented we extend these results and prove that any ontological model of the single qubit stabilizer theory must be contextual, as defined by R. Spekkens, and give a relation between our result and the Mermin-Peres square. By demonstrating that contextuality is present in the qubit stabilizer formalism we provide further insight into the contextuality present in quantum theory. Understanding the contextuality of classical sub-theories will allow us to better identify the physical properties of quantum theory required for computational speed up. This research was supported by CIFAR, the Government of Ontario, and the Government of Canada through NSERC and Industry Canada.

Contextual Awareness for Robust Robot Autonomy

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-30

are some ob - stacles that are either undetectable or only partially detectable to the sensors. Transparent obstacles are particularly challenging for...the probability that a certain object will be found in a certain space (e.g., the probability that coffee is found in the kitchen). While searching...with which it finds such objects, to find abnormal situations (e.g., if someone is actively hiding all the coffee from the CoBots). One of the most

A System for Mailpiece ZIP Code Assignment through Contextual Analysis. Phase 2

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-03-01

Segmentation Address Block Interpretation Automatic Feature Generation Word Recognition Feature Detection Word Verification Optical Character Recognition Directory...in the Phase III effort. 1.1 Motivation The United States Postal Service (USPS) deploys large numbers of optical character recognition (OCR) machines...4):208-218, November 1986. [2] Gronmeyer, L. K., Ruffin, B. W., Lybanon, M. A., Neely, P. L., and Pierce, S. E. An Overview of Optical Character Recognition (OCR

Typing for Conflict Detection in Access Control Policies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adi, Kamel; Bouzida, Yacine; Hattak, Ikhlass; Logrippo, Luigi; Mankovskii, Serge

In this paper we present an access control model that considers both abstract and concrete access control policies specifications. Permissions and prohibitions are expressed within this model with contextual conditions. This situation may lead to conflicts. We propose a type system that is applied to the different rules in order to check for inconsistencies. If a resource is well typed, it is guaranteed that access rules to the resource contain no conflicts.

Boosting Contextual Information for Deep Neural Network Based Voice Activity Detection

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-02-01

multi-resolution stacking (MRS), which is a stack of ensemble classifiers. Each classifier in a building block inputs the concatenation of the predictions ...a base classifier in MRS, named boosted deep neural network (bDNN). bDNN first generates multiple base predictions from different contexts of a single...frame by only one DNN and then aggregates the base predictions for a better prediction of the frame, and it is different from computationally

Hippocampal Regulation of Contextual Cue-Induced Reinstatement of Cocaine-Seeking Behavior

PubMed Central

Atkins, Alison L.; Mashhoon, Yasmin; Kantak, Kathleen M.

2008-01-01

Associations between cocaine and cues facilitate development and maintenance of addiction. We hypothesized that the ventral hippocampus is important for acquisition of these associations. Rats were trained to self-administer cocaine, with or without pre-exposure to distinct sets of cocaine- and saline-paired contextual cues. Next, rats were conditioned for 3 days with the distinct sets of contextual cues paired with cocaine and saline along with distinct discrete cues. Vehicle or lidocaine was infused into the ventral hippocampus prior to conditioning sessions. Following extinction, reinstatement of cocaine-seeking behavior was examined following exposure to contextual cues, discrete cues, or their combination. Inactivation of the ventral hippocampus during conditioning blocked acquisition of the association between cocaine and cocaine-paired contextual cues in that only lidocaine-treated rats with short-term cue exposure failed to reinstate responding in the presence of cocaine-paired contextual cues. Lidocaine also prevented rats in both cue exposure groups from discriminating between cocaine-and saline-paired contextual cues during reinstatement tests. Reinstatement induced by cocaine-paired discrete cues or by contextual and discrete cues together was not impaired for either cue exposure condition. The hippocampus is important for acquisition of the association between cocaine and context and in maintaining discrimination between cocaine-relevant and -irrelevant contextual cues. PMID:18499239

Selecting team players: Considering the impact of contextual performance and workplace deviance on selection decisions in the National Football League.

PubMed

Whiting, Steven W; Maynes, Timothy D

2016-04-01

Contextual performance and workplace deviance likely influence team functioning and effectiveness and should therefore be considered when evaluating job candidates for team-based roles. However, obtaining this information is difficult given a lack of reliable sources and the desire of job applicants to present themselves in a favorable light. Thus, it is unknown whether those selecting employees for teams incorporate prior contextual performance and workplace deviance into their evaluations, or whether doing so improves the quality of selection decisions. To address these issues, we examined the impact of prior task performance, contextual performance, and workplace deviance on National Football League (NFL) decision maker (organizational insider) and external expert (organizational outsider) evaluations of college football players in the NFL draft, using a content analysis methodology to generate measures of contextual performance and workplace deviance. Our findings indicate that insiders value contextual performance more than outsiders, which is likely because of differing interests and goals that lead to different levels of motivation and/or ability to acquire information about prior contextual performance. We also propose that prior task performance, contextual performance, and workplace deviance will predict player performance in the NFL. Our results support this prediction for task and contextual performance. In addition, we investigated the quality of insider and outsider judgments using Brunswik's (1952) lens model. Implications of our findings for the team selection, contextual performance, and workplace deviance literatures are discussed. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Contextualizing public stigma: Endorsed mental health treatment stigma on college and university campuses.

PubMed

Gaddis, S Michael; Ramirez, Daniel; Hernandez, Erik L

2018-01-01

Scholars suggest that public mental health stigma operates at a meso-level and is associated with severity of symptoms, disclosure, self-esteem, and treatment-seeking behavior. However, the operationalization of public stigma nearly always comes from an individual-level generalization of what others believe. Using data from over 60,000 students on 75 U.S. college and university campuses between 2009 and 2015, we contextualize public stigma by creating a school-level measure of students' individual-level endorsed mental health treatment stigma. We present multilevel logistic regression models for 21 different dependent variables. We find that even after controlling for individual-level stigma scores, school-level stigma is negatively associated with self-reports of suicidal ideation and self-injury, although not associated with screens for depression or anxiety. Moreover, school-level stigma is negatively associated with medication use, counseling and therapy visits, and to a lesser degree, informal support. We suggest that future research should continue to examine the contextual environment of public stigma, while policymakers may be able to implement changes to significantly reduce stigma at this level. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The dynamic nature of systems consolidation: Stress during learning as a switch guiding the rate of the hippocampal dependency and memory quality.

PubMed

Pedraza, Lizeth K; Sierra, Rodrigo O; Boos, Flávia Z; Haubrich, Josué; Quillfeldt, Jorge A; Alvares, Lucas de Oliveira

2016-03-01

Memory fades over time, becoming more schematic or abstract. The loss of contextual detail in memory may reflect a time-dependent change in the brain structures supporting memory. It has been well established that contextual fear memory relies on the hippocampus for expression shortly after learning, but it becomes hippocampus-independent at a later time point, a process called systems consolidation. This time-dependent process correlates with the loss of memory precision. Here, we investigated whether training intensity predicts the gradual decay of hippocampal dependency to retrieve memory, and the quality of the contextual memory representation over time. We have found that training intensity modulates the progressive decay of hippocampal dependency and memory precision. Strong training intensity accelerates systems consolidation and memory generalization in a remarkable timeframe match. The mechanisms underpinning such process are triggered by glucocorticoid and noradrenaline released during training. These results suggest that the stress levels during emotional learning act as a switch, determining the fate of memory quality. Moderate stress will create a detailed memory, whereas a highly stressful training will develop a generic gist-like memory. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Contextual and Non-Contextual Knowledge in Emergent Literacy Development: A Comparison between Children from Low Ses and Middle Ses Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korat, O.

2005-01-01

This research had three aims: first, to examine the relationship between two components of emergent literacy: contextual (environmental print, print functions, identifying literacy activities) and non-contextual knowledge (e.g., letters' names, phonemic awareness, concept of print, etc.); second, to explore the relationship between children's…

Impact of Contextuality on Mobile Learning Acceptance: An Empirical Study Based on a Language Learning App

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Böhm, Stephan; Constantine, Georges Philip

2016-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on contextualized features for mobile language learning apps. The scope of this paper is to explore students' perceptions of contextualized mobile language learning. Design/Methodology/Approach: An extended Technology Acceptance Model was developed to analyze the effect of contextual app features on students'…

The Coming Challenge: Are Community Colleges Ready for the New Wave of Contextual Learners?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hull, Dan; Souders, John C., Jr.

1996-01-01

Defines contextual learning, or presenting new information to students in familiar contexts. Argues that community colleges must be ready for an anticipated increase in contextual learners due to its use in tech prep programs. Describes elements of contextual learning, its application in the classroom, and ways that colleges can prepare for…

Race Essentialism and Social Contextual Differences in Children’s Racial Stereotyping

PubMed Central

Pauker, Kristin; Xu, Yiyuan; Williams, Amanda; Biddle, Ashley Morris

2016-01-01

The authors explored the differential emergence and correlates of racial stereotyping in 136 children ages 4–11 years across two broad social contexts: Hawai‘i and Massachusetts. Children completed measures assessing race salience, race essentialism, and in-group and out-group stereotyping. Results indicated that the type of racial stereotypes emerging with age was context dependent. In both contexts in-group stereotyping increased with age. By contrast, there was only an age-related increase in out-group stereotyping in Massachusetts. Older children in Massachusetts reported more essentialist thinking (i.e., believing that race cannot change) than their counterparts in Hawai’i, which explained their higher out-group stereotyping. These results provide insight into the factors that may shape contextual differences in racial stereotyping. PMID:27684395

Real-time road detection in infrared imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andre, Haritini E.; McCoy, Keith

1990-09-01

Automatic road detection is an important part in many scene recognition applications. The extraction of roads provides a means of navigation and position update for remotely piloted vehicles or autonomous vehicles. Roads supply strong contextual information which can be used to improve the performance of automatic target recognition (ATh) systems by directing the search for targets and adjusting target classification confidences. This paper will describe algorithmic techniques for labeling roads in high-resolution infrared imagery. In addition, realtime implementation of this structural approach using a processor array based on the Martin Marietta Geometric Arithmetic Parallel Processor (GAPPTh) chip will be addressed. The algorithm described is based on the hypothesis that a road consists of pairs of line segments separated by a distance "d" with opposite gradient directions (antiparallel). The general nature of the algorithm, in addition to its parallel implementation in a single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) machine, are improvements to existing work. The algorithm seeks to identify line segments meeting the road hypothesis in a manner that performs well, even when the side of the road is fragmented due to occlusion or intersections. The use of geometrical relationships between line segments is a powerful yet flexible method of road classification which is independent of orientation. In addition, this approach can be used to nominate other types of objects with minor parametric changes.

Effects of Context on Eye Movements When Reading About Possible and Impossible Events

PubMed Central

Warren, Tessa; McConnell, Kerry; Rayner, Keith

2009-01-01

Plausibility violations resulting in impossible scenarios lead to earlier and longer lasting eye movement disruption than violations resulting in highly unlikely scenarios (K. Rayner, T. Warren, B. J. Juhasz, & S. P. Liversedge, 2004; T. Warren & K. McConnell, 2007). This could reflect either differences in the timing of availability of different kinds of information (e.g., selectional restrictions, world knowledge, and context) or differences in their relative power to guide semantic interpretation. The authors investigated eye movements to possible and impossible events in real-world and fantasy contexts to determine when contextual information influences detection of impossibility cued by a semantic mismatch between a verb and an argument. Gaze durations on a target word were longer to impossible events independent of context. However, a measure of the time elapsed from first fixating the target word to moving past it showed disruption only in the real-world context. These results suggest that contextual information did not eliminate initial disruption but moderated it quickly thereafter. PMID:18605885

Anxiety dissociates the adaptive functions of sensory and motor response enhancements to social threats

PubMed Central

El Zein, Marwa; Wyart, Valentin; Grèzes, Julie

2015-01-01

Efficient detection and reaction to negative signals in the environment is essential for survival. In social situations, these signals are often ambiguous and can imply different levels of threat for the observer, thereby making their recognition susceptible to contextual cues – such as gaze direction when judging facial displays of emotion. However, the mechanisms underlying such contextual effects remain poorly understood. By computational modeling of human behavior and electrical brain activity, we demonstrate that gaze direction enhances the perceptual sensitivity to threat-signaling emotions – anger paired with direct gaze, and fear paired with averted gaze. This effect arises simultaneously in ventral face-selective and dorsal motor cortices at 200 ms following face presentation, dissociates across individuals as a function of anxiety, and does not reflect increased attention to threat-signaling emotions. These findings reveal that threat tunes neural processing in fast, selective, yet attention-independent fashion in sensory and motor systems, for different adaptive purposes. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.10274.001 PMID:26712157

A unified account of tilt illusions, association fields, and contour detection based on elastica.

PubMed

Keemink, Sander W; van Rossum, Mark C W

2016-09-01

As expressed in the Gestalt law of good continuation, human perception tends to associate stimuli that form smooth continuations. Contextual modulation in primary visual cortex, in the form of association fields, is believed to play an important role in this process. Yet a unified and principled account of the good continuation law on the neural level is lacking. In this study we introduce a population model of primary visual cortex. Its contextual interactions depend on the elastica curvature energy of the smoothest contour connecting oriented bars. As expected, this model leads to association fields consistent with data. However, in addition the model displays tilt-illusions for stimulus configurations with grating and single bars that closely match psychophysics. Furthermore, the model explains not only pop-out of contours amid a variety of backgrounds, but also pop-out of single targets amid a uniform background. We thus propose that elastica is a unifying principle of the visual cortical network. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Network model of top-down influences on local gain and contextual interactions in visual cortex.

PubMed

Piëch, Valentin; Li, Wu; Reeke, George N; Gilbert, Charles D

2013-10-22

The visual system uses continuity as a cue for grouping oriented line segments that define object boundaries in complex visual scenes. Many studies support the idea that long-range intrinsic horizontal connections in early visual cortex contribute to this grouping. Top-down influences in primary visual cortex (V1) play an important role in the processes of contour integration and perceptual saliency, with contour-related responses being task dependent. This suggests an interaction between recurrent inputs to V1 and intrinsic connections within V1 that enables V1 neurons to respond differently under different conditions. We created a network model that simulates parametrically the control of local gain by hypothetical top-down modification of local recurrence. These local gain changes, as a consequence of network dynamics in our model, enable modulation of contextual interactions in a task-dependent manner. Our model displays contour-related facilitation of neuronal responses and differential foreground vs. background responses over the neuronal ensemble, accounting for the perceptual pop-out of salient contours. It quantitatively reproduces the results of single-unit recording experiments in V1, highlighting salient contours and replicating the time course of contextual influences. We show by means of phase-plane analysis that the model operates stably even in the presence of large inputs. Our model shows how a simple form of top-down modulation of the effective connectivity of intrinsic cortical connections among biophysically realistic neurons can account for some of the response changes seen in perceptual learning and task switching.

Social, Organizational, and Contextual Characteristics of Clinical Decision Support Systems for Intensive Insulin Therapy: A Literature Review and Case Study

PubMed Central

Campion, Thomas R.; Waitman, Lemuel R.; May, Addison K.; Ozdas, Asli; Lorenzi, Nancy M.; Gadd, Cynthia S.

2009-01-01

Introduction: Evaluations of computerized clinical decision support systems (CDSS) typically focus on clinical performance changes and do not include social, organizational, and contextual characteristics explaining use and effectiveness. Studies of CDSS for intensive insulin therapy (IIT) are no exception, and the literature lacks an understanding of effective computer-based IIT implementation and operation. Results: This paper presents (1) a literature review of computer-based IIT evaluations through the lens of institutional theory, a discipline from sociology and organization studies, to demonstrate the inconsistent reporting of workflow and care process execution and (2) a single-site case study to illustrate how computer-based IIT requires substantial organizational change and creates additional complexity with unintended consequences including error. Discussion: Computer-based IIT requires organizational commitment and attention to site-specific technology, workflow, and care processes to achieve intensive insulin therapy goals. The complex interaction between clinicians, blood glucose testing devices, and CDSS may contribute to workflow inefficiency and error. Evaluations rarely focus on the perspective of nurses, the primary users of computer-based IIT whose knowledge can potentially lead to process and care improvements. Conclusion: This paper addresses a gap in the literature concerning the social, organizational, and contextual characteristics of CDSS in general and for intensive insulin therapy specifically. Additionally, this paper identifies areas for future research to define optimal computer-based IIT process execution: the frequency and effect of manual data entry error of blood glucose values, the frequency and effect of nurse overrides of CDSS insulin dosing recommendations, and comprehensive ethnographic study of CDSS for IIT. PMID:19815452

The 'dark side' of social capital: trust and self-rated health in European countries.

PubMed

Campos-Matos, Inês; Subramanian, S V; Kawachi, Ichiro

2016-02-01

Generalized interpersonal trust (as an indicator of social capital) has been linked to health status at both the individual and ecological level. We sought to examine how changes in contextual and individual trust are associated with changes in self-rated health in the European Social Surveys 2002-12. A multilevel analysis using a variance components model was performed on 203 452 individuals nested within 145 country cohorts covering 35 countries. Conditional on sociodemographic covariates, we sought to examine the association between self-rated health and individual trust, country average trust and a cross-level interaction between the two. Although individual trust perceptions were significantly correlated with self-rated health [OR = 0.95, 95% confidence interval (0.94-0.96)], country-level trust was not associated [OR = 1.12, 95% confidence interval (0.95-1.32)]. There was, however, a strong crosslevel interaction between contextual and individual trust (P < 0.001), such that individuals with high interpersonal trust reported better health in contexts in which other individuals expressed high average interpersonal trust. Conversely, low trust individuals reported worse health in high trust contexts. Our findings suggest that contexts with increasing average trust can be harmful for low trust individuals, which might reflect the negative impact that social capital can have in certain groups. These findings suggest that contextual trust has a complex role in explaining health inequalities and individual self-rated health. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

On the dynamic nature of the engram: evidence for circuit-level reorganization of object memory traces following reactivation.

PubMed

Winters, Boyer D; Tucci, Mark C; Jacklin, Derek L; Reid, James M; Newsome, James

2011-11-30

Research has implicated the perirhinal cortex (PRh) in several aspects of object recognition memory. The specific role of the hippocampus (HPC) remains controversial, but its involvement in object recognition may pertain to processing contextual information in relation to objects rather than object representation per se. Here we investigated the roles of the PRh and HPC in object memory reconsolidation using the spontaneous object recognition task for rats. Intra-PRh infusions of the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin immediately following memory reactivation prevented object memory reconsolidation. Similar deficits were observed when a novel object or a salient contextual change was introduced during the reactivation phase. Intra-HPC infusions of anisomycin, however, blocked object memory reconsolidation only when a contextual change was introduced during reactivation. Moreover, disrupting functional interaction between the HPC and PRh by infusing anisomycin unilaterally into each structure in opposite hemispheres also impaired reconsolidation when reactivation was done in an altered context. These results show for the first time that the PRh is critical for reconsolidation of object memory traces and provide insight into the dynamic process of object memory storage; the selective requirement for hippocampal involvement following reactivation in an altered context suggests a substantial circuit level object trace reorganization whereby an initially PRh-dependent object memory becomes reliant on both the HPC and PRh and their interaction. Such trace reorganization may play a central role in reconsolidation-mediated memory updating and could represent an important aspect of lingering consolidation processes proposed to underlie long-term memory modulation and stabilization.

Dopamine D1-like receptor signalling in the hippocampus and amygdala modulates the acquisition of contextual fear conditioning.

PubMed

Heath, Florence C; Jurkus, Regimantas; Bast, Tobias; Pezze, Marie A; Lee, Jonathan L C; Voigt, J Peter; Stevenson, Carl W

2015-07-01

Dopamine D1-like receptor signalling is involved in contextual fear conditioning, but the brain regions involved and its role in other contextual fear memory processes remain unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate (1) the effects of SCH 23390, a dopamine D1/D5 receptor antagonist, on contextual fear memory encoding, retrieval and reconsolidation, and (2) if the effects of SCH 23390 on conditioning involve the dorsal hippocampus (DH) and/or basolateral amygdala (BLA). Rats were used to examine the effects of systemically administering SCH 23390 on the acquisition, consolidation, retrieval and reconsolidation of contextual fear memory, and on locomotor activity and shock sensitivity. We also determined the effects of MK-801, an NMDA receptor antagonist, on contextual fear memory reconsolidation. The effects of infusing SCH 23390 locally into DH or BLA on contextual fear conditioning and locomotor activity were also examined. Systemic administration of SCH 23390 impaired contextual fear conditioning but had no effects on fear memory consolidation, retrieval or reconsolidation. MK-801 was found to impair reconsolidation, suggesting that the behavioural parameters used allowed for the pharmacological disruption of memory reconsolidation. The effects of SCH 23390 on conditioning were unlikely the result of any lasting drug effects on locomotor activity at memory test or any acute drug effects on shock sensitivity during conditioning. SCH 23390 infused into either DH or BLA impaired contextual fear conditioning and decreased locomotor activity. These findings suggest that dopamine D1-like receptor signalling in DH and BLA contributes to the acquisition of contextual fear memory.

Interaction between scene-based and array-based contextual cueing.

PubMed

Rosenbaum, Gail M; Jiang, Yuhong V

2013-07-01

Contextual cueing refers to the cueing of spatial attention by repeated spatial context. Previous studies have demonstrated distinctive properties of contextual cueing by background scenes and by an array of search items. Whereas scene-based contextual cueing reflects explicit learning of the scene-target association, array-based contextual cueing is supported primarily by implicit learning. In this study, we investigated the interaction between scene-based and array-based contextual cueing. Participants searched for a target that was predicted by both the background scene and the locations of distractor items. We tested three possible patterns of interaction: (1) The scene and the array could be learned independently, in which case cueing should be expressed even when only one cue was preserved; (2) the scene and array could be learned jointly, in which case cueing should occur only when both cues were preserved; (3) overshadowing might occur, in which case learning of the stronger cue should preclude learning of the weaker cue. In several experiments, we manipulated the nature of the contextual cues present during training and testing. We also tested explicit awareness of scenes, scene-target associations, and arrays. The results supported the overshadowing account: Specifically, scene-based contextual cueing precluded array-based contextual cueing when both were predictive of the location of a search target. We suggest that explicit, endogenous cues dominate over implicit cues in guiding spatial attention.

Is there contextuality in behavioural and social systems?

PubMed

Dzhafarov, E N; Zhang, Ru; Kujala, Janne

2016-01-13

Most behavioural and social experiments aimed at revealing contextuality are confined to cyclic systems with binary outcomes. In quantum physics, this broad class of systems includes as special cases Klyachko-Can-Binicioglu-Shumovsky-type, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bell-type and Suppes-Zanotti-Leggett-Garg-type systems. The theory of contextuality known as contextuality-by-default allows one to define and measure contextuality in all such systems, even if there are context-dependent errors in measurements, or if something in the contexts directly interacts with the measurements. This makes the theory especially suitable for behavioural and social systems, where direct interactions of 'everything with everything' are ubiquitous. For cyclic systems with binary outcomes, the theory provides necessary and sufficient conditions for non-contextuality, and these conditions are known to be breached in certain quantum systems. We review several behavioural and social datasets (from polls of public opinion to visual illusions to conjoint choices to word combinations to psychophysical matching), and none of these data provides any evidence for contextuality. Our working hypothesis is that this may be a broadly applicable rule: behavioural and social systems are non-contextual, i.e. all 'contextual effects' in them result from the ubiquitous dependence of response distributions on the elements of contexts other than the ones to which the response is presumably or normatively directed. © 2015 The Author(s).

The Role of the Basal Ganglia in Implicit Contextual Learning: A Study of Parkinson's Disease

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Asselen, Marieke; Almeida, Ines; Andre, Rui; Januario, Cristina; Goncalves, Antonio Freire; Castelo-Branco, Miguel

2009-01-01

Implicit contextual learning refers to the ability to memorize contextual information from our environment. This contextual information can then be used to guide our attention to a specific location. Although the medial temporal lobe is important for this type of learning, the basal ganglia might also be involved considering its role in many…

"We Do Not Know What Is the Real Story Anymore": Curricular Contextualization Principles That Support Indigenous Students in Understanding Natural Selection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sánchez Tapia, Ingrid; Krajcik, Joseph; Reiser, Brian

2018-01-01

We propose a process of contextualization based on seven empirically derived contextualization principles, aiming to provide opportunities for Indigenous Mexican adolescents to learn science in a way that supports them in fulfilling their right to an education aligned with their own culture and values. The contextualization principles we…

Hierarchical acquisition of visual specificity in spatial contextual cueing.

PubMed

Lie, Kin-Pou

2015-01-01

Spatial contextual cueing refers to visual search performance's being improved when invariant associations between target locations and distractor spatial configurations are learned incidentally. Using the instance theory of automatization and the reverse hierarchy theory of visual perceptual learning, this study explores the acquisition of visual specificity in spatial contextual cueing. Two experiments in which detailed visual features were irrelevant for distinguishing between spatial contexts found that spatial contextual cueing was visually generic in difficult trials when the trials were not preceded by easy trials (Experiment 1) but that spatial contextual cueing progressed to visual specificity when difficult trials were preceded by easy trials (Experiment 2). These findings support reverse hierarchy theory, which predicts that even when detailed visual features are irrelevant for distinguishing between spatial contexts, spatial contextual cueing can progress to visual specificity if the stimuli remain constant, the task is difficult, and difficult trials are preceded by easy trials. However, these findings are inconsistent with instance theory, which predicts that when detailed visual features are irrelevant for distinguishing between spatial contexts, spatial contextual cueing will not progress to visual specificity. This study concludes that the acquisition of visual specificity in spatial contextual cueing is more plausibly hierarchical, rather than instance-based.

Global Repetition Influences Contextual Cueing

PubMed Central

Zang, Xuelian; Zinchenko, Artyom; Jia, Lina; Li, Hong

2018-01-01

Our visual system has a striking ability to improve visual search based on the learning of repeated ambient regularities, an effect named contextual cueing. Whereas most of the previous studies investigated contextual cueing effect with the same number of repeated and non-repeated search displays per block, the current study focused on whether a global repetition frequency formed by different presentation ratios between the repeated and non-repeated configurations influence contextual cueing effect. Specifically, the number of repeated and non-repeated displays presented in each block was manipulated: 12:12, 20:4, 4:20, and 4:4 in Experiments 1–4, respectively. The results revealed a significant contextual cueing effect when the global repetition frequency is high (≥1:1 ratio) in Experiments 1, 2, and 4, given that processing of repeated displays was expedited relative to non-repeated displays. Nevertheless, the contextual cueing effect reduced to a non-significant level when the repetition frequency reduced to 4:20 in Experiment 3. These results suggested that the presentation frequency of repeated relative to the non-repeated displays could influence the strength of contextual cueing. In other words, global repetition statistics could be a crucial factor to mediate contextual cueing effect. PMID:29636716

Contextual generalized trust and immunization against the 2009 A(H1N1) pandemic in the American states: A multilevel approach.

PubMed

Rönnerstrand, Björn

2016-12-01

The aim of the study was to investigate the association between contextual generalized trust and individual-level 2009 A(H1N1) pandemic immunization acceptance. A second aim was to investigate whether knowledge about the A(H1N1) pandemic mediated the association between contextual generalized trust and A(H1N1) immunization acceptance. Data from the National 2009 H1N1 Flu Survey was used. To capture contextual generalized trust, data comes from an aggregation of surveys measuring generalized trust in the American states. To investigate the association between contextual generalized trust and immunization acceptance, while taking potential individual-level confounders into account, multilevel logistic regression was used. The investigation showed contextual generalized trust to be significantly associated with immunization acceptance. However, controlling for knowledge about the A(H1N1) pandemic did not substantially affect the association between contextual generalized trust and immunization acceptance. In conclusion, contextual state-level generalized trust was associated with A(H1N1) immunization, but knowledge about A(H1N1) was not mediating this association.

Developmental inter-relations between early maternal depression, contextual risks, and interpersonal stress, and their effect on later child cognitive functioning.

PubMed

Jensen, Sarah K G; Dumontheil, Iroise; Barker, Edward D

2014-07-01

Maternal depression and contextual risks (e.g. poverty) are known to impact children's cognitive and social functioning. However, few published studies have examined how stress in the social environment (i.e. interpersonal stress) might developmentally inter-relate with maternal depression and contextual risks to negatively affect a child in these domains. This was the purpose of the current study. Mother-child pairs (n = 6979) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents were the study participants. Mothers reported on depression, contextual risks, and interpersonal stress between pregnancy and 33 months child age. At age 8, the children underwent cognitive assessments and the mothers reported on the children's social cognitive skills. Maternal depression, contextual risks, and interpersonal stress showed strong continuity and developmental inter-relatedness. Maternal depression and contextual risks directly predicted a range of child outcomes, including executive functions and social cognitive skills. Interpersonal stress worked indirectly via maternal depression and contextual risks to negatively affect child outcomes. Maternal depression and contextual risks each increased interpersonal stress in the household, which, in turn, contributed to reduced child cognitive and social functioning. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Global Repetition Influences Contextual Cueing.

PubMed

Zang, Xuelian; Zinchenko, Artyom; Jia, Lina; Assumpção, Leonardo; Li, Hong

2018-01-01

Our visual system has a striking ability to improve visual search based on the learning of repeated ambient regularities, an effect named contextual cueing. Whereas most of the previous studies investigated contextual cueing effect with the same number of repeated and non-repeated search displays per block, the current study focused on whether a global repetition frequency formed by different presentation ratios between the repeated and non-repeated configurations influence contextual cueing effect. Specifically, the number of repeated and non-repeated displays presented in each block was manipulated: 12:12, 20:4, 4:20, and 4:4 in Experiments 1-4, respectively. The results revealed a significant contextual cueing effect when the global repetition frequency is high (≥1:1 ratio) in Experiments 1, 2, and 4, given that processing of repeated displays was expedited relative to non-repeated displays. Nevertheless, the contextual cueing effect reduced to a non-significant level when the repetition frequency reduced to 4:20 in Experiment 3. These results suggested that the presentation frequency of repeated relative to the non-repeated displays could influence the strength of contextual cueing. In other words, global repetition statistics could be a crucial factor to mediate contextual cueing effect.

Concept mapping as a tool to engage a community in health disparity identification.

PubMed

Risisky, Debra; Hogan, Vijaya K; Kane, Mary; Burt, Beneta; Dove, Cassandra; Payton, Marinelle

2008-01-01

To engage a community to critically examine local health disparities. Concept mapping is a tool used to rapidly assess the variations in thinking of large stakeholder groups' about a particular topic. Jackson, Mississippi. Community members. Dialog groups and community meetings were held, and participants were asked to respond to the statement, "A specific thing that causes African Americans to get sicker and die sooner is..." Aggregate responses were rated for importance and feasibility and then sorted into related groups. Aggregate sorts and ratings were then processed by using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. There were 132 (unduplicated) reported contributors to health disparities. These responses fell into eight general clusters: economic issues, government, contextual factors, cultural factors, HIV, stress, environment, and motivation. Factors respondents felt were the most important contributors to disparities (economic factors, contextual factors, stress) did not correlate with those that they thought were most likely to be changed in society (contextual factors, government, motivation). Concept mapping provided a mechanism for rapidly documenting community thinking about health disparities. This mechanism stimulated community dialog and was used as a first step toward the long-term goal of creating equal community, academic, and medical partnerships for addressing disparities. The concept mapping process stimulated critical thinking about contributors to health inequities and uncovered contextual factors previously unknown to researchers and public health planners. The process allowed for active engagement and exchange of knowledge between the community and researchers and allowed a mechanism for identifying and rectifying disconnects in knowledge within and between stakeholder groups.

Contextual determinants of health behaviours in an aboriginal community in Canada: pilot project.

PubMed

Joseph, Pamela; Davis, A Darlene; Miller, Ruby; Hill, Karen; McCarthy, Honey; Banerjee, Ananya; Chow, Clara; Mente, Andrew; Anand, Sonia S

2012-11-07

Rapid change in food intake, physical activity, and tobacco use in recent decades have contributed to the soaring rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Aboriginal populations living in Canada. The nature and influence of contextual factors on Aboriginal health behaviours are not well characterized. To describe the contextual determinants of health behaviours associated with cardiovascular risk factors on the Six Nations reserve, including the built environment, access and affordability of healthy foods, and the use of tobacco.In this cross-sectional study, 63 adults from the Six Nations Reserve completed the modified Neighbourhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS), questionnaire assessing food access and availability, tobacco pricing and availability, and the Environmental Profile of Community Health (EPOCH) tool. The structured environment of Six Nations Reserve scored low for walkability, street connectivity, aesthetics, safety, and access to walking and cycling facilities. All participants purchased groceries off-reserve, although fresh fruits and vegetables were reported to be available and affordable both on and off-reserve. On average $151/week is spent on groceries per family. Ninety percent of individuals report tobacco use is a problem in the community. Tobacco is easily accessible for children and youth, and only three percent of community members would accept increased tobacco taxation as a strategy to reduce tobacco access. The built environment, access and affordability of healthy food and tobacco on the Six Nations Reserve are not perceived favourably. Modification of these contextual factors described here may reduce adverse health behaviours in the community.

Contextual control of conditioning is not affected by extinction in a behavioral task with humans.

PubMed

Nelson, James Byron; Lamoureux, Jeffrey A

2015-06-01

The Attentional Theory of Context Processing (ATCP) states that extinction will arouse attention to contexts resulting in learning becoming contextually controlled. Participants learned to suppress responding to colored sensors in a video-game task where contexts were provided by different gameplay backgrounds. Four experiments assessed the contextual control of simple excitatory learning acquired to a test stimulus (T) after (Exp. 1) or during (Exp. 2-4) extinction of another stimulus (X). Experiment 1 produced no evidence of contextual control of T, though renewal to X was present both at the time T was trained and tested. In Experiment 2 no contextual control of T was evident when X underwent extensive conditioning and extinction. In Experiment 3 no contextual control of T was evident after extensive conditioning and extinction of X, and renewal to X was present. In Experiment 4 contextual control was evident to T, but it neither depended upon nor was enhanced by extinction of X. The results presented here appear to limit the generality of ATCP.

The cortical underpinnings of context-based memory distortion.

PubMed

Aminoff, Elissa; Schacter, Daniel L; Bar, Moshe

2008-12-01

Everyday contextual settings create associations that later afford generating predictions about what objects to expect in our environment. The cortical network that takes advantage of such contextual information is proposed to connect the representation of associated objects such that seeing one object (bed) will activate the visual representations of other objects sharing the same context (pillow). Given this proposal, we hypothesized that the cortical activity elicited by seeing a strong contextual object would predict the occurrence of false memories whereby one erroneously "remembers" having seen a new object that is related to a previously presented object. To test this hypothesis, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging during encoding of contextually related objects, and later tested recognition memory. New objects that were contextually related to previously presented objects were more often falsely judged as "old" compared with new objects that were contextually unrelated to old objects. This phenomenon was reflected by activity in the cortical network mediating contextual processing, which provides a better understanding of how the brain represents and processes context.

Contextual modulation and stimulus selectivity in extrastriate cortex.

PubMed

Krause, Matthew R; Pack, Christopher C

2014-11-01

Contextual modulation is observed throughout the visual system, using techniques ranging from single-neuron recordings to behavioral experiments. Its role in generating feature selectivity within the retina and primary visual cortex has been extensively described in the literature. Here, we describe how similar computations can also elaborate feature selectivity in the extrastriate areas of both the dorsal and ventral streams of the primate visual system. We discuss recent work that makes use of normalization models to test specific roles for contextual modulation in visual cortex function. We suggest that contextual modulation renders neuronal populations more selective for naturalistic stimuli. Specifically, we discuss contextual modulation's role in processing optic flow in areas MT and MST and for representing naturally occurring curvature and contours in areas V4 and IT. We also describe how the circuitry that supports contextual modulation is robust to variations in overall input levels. Finally, we describe how this theory relates to other hypothesized roles for contextual modulation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of contextual relevance on pragmatic inference during conversation: An fMRI study.

PubMed

Feng, Wangshu; Wu, Yue; Jan, Catherine; Yu, Hongbo; Jiang, Xiaoming; Zhou, Xiaolin

2017-08-01

Contextual relevance, which is vital for understanding conversational implicatures (CI), engages both the frontal-temporal language and theory-of-mind networks. Here we investigate how contextual relevance affects CI processing and regulates the connectivity between CI-processing-related brain regions. Participants listened to dialogues in which the level of contextual relevance to dialogue-final utterance (reply) was manipulated. This utterance was either direct, indirect but relevant, irrelevant with contextual hint, or irrelevant with no contextual hint. Results indicated that compared with direct replies, indirect replies showed increased activations in bilateral IFG, bilateral MTG, bilateral TPJ, dmPFC, and precuneus, and increased connectivity between rTPJ/dmPFC and both IFG and MTG. Moreover, irrelevant replies activated right MTG along an anterior-posterior gradient as a function of the level of irrelevance. Our study provides novel evidence concerning how the language and theory-of-mind networks interact for pragmatic inference and how the processing of CI is modulated by level of contextual relevance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automatic Detection of Blue-White Veil and Related Structures in Dermoscopy Images

PubMed Central

Celebi, M. Emre; Iyatomi, Hitoshi; Stoecker, William V.; Moss, Randy H.; Rabinovitz, Harold S.; Argenziano, Giuseppe; Soyer, H. Peter

2011-01-01

Dermoscopy is a non-invasive skin imaging technique, which permits visualization of features of pigmented melanocytic neoplasms that are not discernable by examination with the naked eye. One of the most important features for the diagnosis of melanoma in dermoscopy images is the blue-white veil (irregular, structureless areas of confluent blue pigmentation with an overlying white “ground-glass” film). In this article, we present a machine learning approach to the detection of blue-white veil and related structures in dermoscopy images. The method involves contextual pixel classification using a decision tree classifier. The percentage of blue-white areas detected in a lesion combined with a simple shape descriptor yielded a sensitivity of 69.35% and a specificity of 89.97% on a set of 545 dermoscopy images. The sensitivity rises to 78.20% for detection of blue veil in those cases where it is a primary feature for melanoma recognition. PMID:18804955

Contextual cuing: the effects of stimulus variation, intentionality, and aging.

PubMed

Lyon, John; Scialfa, Charles; Cordazzo, Scheila; Bubric, Katherine

2014-06-01

Three experiments investigated the generalisation of contextual cuing and whether the effect is incidental or intentional in nature. Experiment 1 assessed contextual cuing across variations in display contrast, homogeneity, and spatial separation. Cuing effects were found with all display types and reaction-time disruption was manifested for repeated displays when consistent configurations had their target locations altered. Recognition memory for repeated displays was at chance levels. Experiment 2 showed that contextual cuing was insensitive to instructions to search for and remember repeated displays. Experiment 2A found that there were no age differences in contextual cuing or effects of intentional instructions, and no memory for repeated displays. Future research questions concern the generalisation of contextual cuing to a wider variety of display conditions and naturalistic tasks.

Patients understanding of depression associated with chronic physical illness: a qualitative study

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Detection of depression can be difficult in primary care, particularly when associated with chronic illness. Patient beliefs may affect detection and subsequent engagement with management. We explored patient beliefs about the nature of depression associated with physical illness. Methods A qualitative interview study of patients registered with general practices in Leeds, UK. We invited patients with coronary heart disease or diabetes from primary care to participate in semi-structured interviews exploring their beliefs and experiences. We analysed transcripts using a thematic approach, extended to consider narratives as important contextual elements. Results We interviewed 26 patients, including 17 with personal experience of depression. We developed six themes: recognising a problem, complex causality, the role of the primary care, responsibility, resilience, and the role of their life story. Participants did not consistently talk about depression as an illness-like disorder. They described a change in their sense of self against the background of their life stories. Participants were unsure about seeking help from general practitioners (GPs) and felt a personal responsibility to overcome depression themselves. Chronic illness, as opposed to other life pressures, was seen as a justifiable cause of depression. Conclusions People with chronic illness do not necessarily regard depression as an easily defined illness, especially outside of the context of their life stories. Efforts to engage patients with chronic illness in the detection and management of depression may need further tailoring to accommodate beliefs about how people view themselves, responsibility and negative views of treatment. PMID:24555886

The effect of contextual sound cues on visual fidelity perception.

PubMed

Rojas, David; Cowan, Brent; Kapralos, Bill; Collins, Karen; Dubrowski, Adam

2014-01-01

Previous work has shown that sound can affect the perception of visual fidelity. Here we build upon this previous work by examining the effect of contextual sound cues (i.e., sounds that are related to the visuals) on visual fidelity perception. Results suggest that contextual sound cues do influence visual fidelity perception and, more specifically, our perception of visual fidelity increases with contextual sound cues. These results have implications for designers of multimodal virtual worlds and serious games that, with the appropriate use of contextual sounds, can reduce visual rendering requirements without a corresponding decrease in the perception of visual fidelity.

Changing Communities, Community Satisfaction, and Quality of Life: A View of Multiple Perceived Indicators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matarrita-Cascante, David

2010-01-01

The relationship between a community's services and conditions, satisfaction, and overall quality of life were examined in this study. As these relationships respond to specific contextual and cultural settings, qualitative methods were used to account for their complexity and depth. Key informant interviews were conducted in two rural communities…

Student Restraints to Reform: Conceptual Change Issues in Enhancing Students' Learning Processes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Gregory P.

1999-01-01

Describes a teacher-researcher's investigation into barriers to student adoption of an alternative referent for learning and its consequential learning strategies in an 11th-grade chemistry class. Suggests that various contextual factors influenced students' willingness to adopt the alternative referent, and that students' beliefs, trust of the…

Durkheim and Dewey and the Challenge of Contemporary Moral Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dill, Jeffrey S.

2007-01-01

John Dewey and Emile Durkheim are philosophical giants in the field of moral education. This paper compares and contrasts their respective visions for moral education and contextualizes the comparison in the profound intellectual and social changes modernity was casting throughout the world. They were transitional figures that attempted to make…

Two Aspects of the Rural-Urban Divide and Educational Stratification in China: A Trajectory Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hao, Lingxin; Hu, Alfred; Lo, Jamie

2014-01-01

Contextualized in China's social change of the past half-century, this article conceptualizes the two aspects of China's rural-urban divide in educational inequality--the household registration system ("hukou") assigns people to a hierarchy, and the rural-urban schooling system institutionalizes unequal resource distribution and diverse…

Cognitive Dissonance, Supervision, and Administrative Team Conflict

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zepeda, Sally J.

2006-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to record and summarize the tensions and problems experienced by a high school administrative team as they attempted to change supervision alongside instruction in a transition to a new block schedule. Design/methodology/approach: A case study method was used. As a case study, the research is contextual in…

Experimenting with Theory of Change for Interculturality and Mutual Learning in Adult Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raymer, Annalisa L.

2016-01-01

With a goal of creating conditions wherein college students of adult learning paired with international adult learners form mutual partnerships for educational mentoring, where to begin? How to take into account the contextual factors and priorities of multiple stakeholders in creating academic courses and learning-focused partnerships while…

Outsourcing the Superintendency: Contextual Changes to the Urban School Superintendent.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanders, Eugene T. W.; And Others

1998-01-01

Analyzes an urban Ohio school board's decision regarding potential employment of a business firm instead of a traditional superintendent, highlighting the board's selection process and the nature of board/community interactions. The study used an interview guide format with five board members. The board chose not to hire a Minnesota-based firm for…

A Contextualized System for Supporting Active Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gomez, Jorge E.; Huete, Juan F.; Hernandez, Velssy L.

2016-01-01

The dynamics of the world today demands a change in traditional education paradigms to enable the creation of more efficient learning environments, where students will learn more effectively and will play a more active role in their education. They should interact with the knowledge at anytime-anywhere. In order to tackle this problem we should…

Deutero-Learning: Implications for Managing Public Health Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rowe, Patricia A.; Boyce, Rosalie A.

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply an allied health subculture model to clarify key contextual factors that can emerge in the evolution of an allied health subculture as a consequence of deutero-learning. Design/methodology/approach: Two case studies are compared to illustrate these two extreme variations in deutero-learning. Findings:…

"Pygmalion": A Study of Socio-Semantics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anugerahwati, Mirjam

2010-01-01

This article discusses the novel "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw (1957) which depicts Eliza, a flower girl from East London, who became the subject of an "experiment" by a Professor of Phonetics who vowed to change the way she spoke. The story is an excellent example of a very real and contextual portrait of how language,…

The Strong African American Families Program: Translating Research into Prevention Programming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brody, Gene H.; Murry, Velma McBride; Gerrard, Meg; Gibbons, Frederick X.; Molgaard, Virginia; McNair, Lily; Brown, Anita C.; Wills, Thomas A.; Spoth, Richard L.; Luo, Zupei; Chen, Yi-fu; Neubaum-Carlan, Eileen

2004-01-01

A randomized prevention trial contrasted families who took part in the Strong African American Families Program (SAAF), a preventive intervention for rural African American mothers and their 11-year-olds, with control families. SAAF is based on a contextual model positing that regulated, communicative parenting causes changes in factors protecting…

Contextual Variability in Young Children's Gender Ingroup Stereotype.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sani, Fabio; Bennett, Mark

2001-01-01

Investigated stereotype variability among 6- and 7-year-olds. In the first condition, an outgroup was represented by adult men for boy participants, and adult women for girls; in the second, the outgroup was defined as opposite sex peers. Participants' descriptions showed that stereotypical traits attributed to the in-group change significantly…

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2002.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Carole, Ed.

This report is the sixth to present nationwide data on the well-being of U.S. children. The statistical portrait is based on indicators of child well-being and on contextual measures describing the changing population and family context. Part 1 of the report, "Population and Family Characteristics," presents information illustrating…

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2003.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Carole, Ed.

This report is the seventh to present nation-wide data on the well-being of U.S. children. The statistical portrait is based on indicators of child well-being and on contextual measures describing the changing population and family context. Part 1 of the report, "Population and Family Characteristics," presents data that illustrate the…

Training for Efficiency: Work, Time, and Systems-Based Practice in Medical Residency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szymczak, Julia E.; Bosk, Charles L.

2012-01-01

Medical residency is a period of intense socialization with a heavy workload. Previous sociological studies have identified efficiency as a practical skill necessary for success. However, many contextual features of the training environment have undergone dramatic change since these studies were conducted. What are the consequences of these…

Social Capital, Organic Agriculture, and Sustainable Livelihood Security: Rethinking Agrarian Change in Mexico

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Getz, Christy

2008-01-01

This paper explores the relevance of extra local market linkages and local-level social capital to sustainable livelihood outcomes in two agrarian communities on Mexico's Baja Peninsula. Contextualized by the specificity of Mexico's transition from state-directed rural development to neoliberally-guided rural development in the 1990s, findings…

The Influence of Workplace Attraction on Recruitment and Retention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amundson, Norman E.

2007-01-01

Economic changes have made the topics of recruitment and retention key issues for career development and human resource professionals. In this article, a model of workplace attraction is presented as 1 way of better understanding the match between workers and workplaces. Many contextual variables such as age, culture, and gender influence the…

Peer Victimization and Social-Emotional Functioning: A Longitudinal Comparison of Students in General and Special Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Brennan, Lindsey M.; Waasdorp, Tracy E.; Pas, Elise T.; Bradshaw, Catherine P.

2015-01-01

The present longitudinal study used a social-ecological framework to explore the extent to which peer victimization and aggression were associated with changes in concentration problems and emotion regulation among elementary students in general versus special education, while accounting for student demographics and school contextual factors. Data…

Taylorizing Academia, Deskilling Professors and Automating Higher Education: The Recent Role of Moocs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mirrlees, Tanner; Alvi, Shahid

2014-01-01

Since 2012, corporations, politicians, journalists and educators have asserted that MOOCs--massive open online courses--are radically changing North American and global education, and for the better. This article offers a counterpoint to the techno-deterministic and optimistic buzz surrounding for-profit MOOCs by contextualizing and analyzing…

Surface Expression of NMDA Receptor Changes during Memory Consolidation in the Crab "Neohelice granulata"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hepp, Yanil; Salles, Angeles; Carbo-Tano, Martin; Pedreira, Maria Eugenia; Freudenthal, Ramiro

2016-01-01

The aim of the present study was to analyze the surface expression of the NMDA-like receptors during the consolidation of contextual learning in the crab "Neohelice granulata". Memory storage is based on alterations in the strength of synaptic connections between neurons. The glutamatergic synapses undergo various forms of…

Father Involvement in Urban Low-Income Fathers: Baseline Associations and Changes Resulting from Preventive Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rienks, Shauna L.; Wadsworth, Martha E.; Markman, Howard J.; Einhorn, Lindsey; Etter, Erica Moran

2011-01-01

This study investigates father involvement among a sample of ethnically diverse, low-income men participating in a randomized controlled trial of a 14-hour relationship education program that teaches skills and principles for healthy relationships. Utilizing data from 137 fathers, we examined contextual, individual, and coparental relationship…

Changes in Time-Related Academic Behaviour Are Associated with Contextual Motivational Shifts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strunk, Kamden K.; Lane, Forrest C.; Mwavita, Mwarumba

2018-01-01

Research in the field of time-related academic behaviour (i.e., procrastination and timely engagement) has traditionally been focused on more stable factors, such as personality. Recent research suggests there may be a motivational component to these behaviours. The present study examines whether time-related academic behaviour is stable across…

Anchors Aweigh: The Impact of Overlearning on Entrenchment Effects in Statistical Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bulgarelli, Federica; Weiss, Daniel J.

2016-01-01

Previous research has revealed that when learners encounter multiple artificial languages in succession only the first is learned, unless there are contextual cues correlating with the change in structure or if exposure to the second language is protracted. These experiments provided a fixed amount of exposure irrespective of when learning…

The Socializing Role of Early Childhood Development and Education (ECD) in the 21st Century.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fthenakis, Wassilios E.

Noting demographic and socio-political shifts in Europe, this paper discusses challenges facing early childhood education in providing children with sufficient competence to cope successfully with discontinuities in their lives caused by rapidly changing social conditions and family structure. The paper outlines some contextual conditions which…

Changing Perceptions of Teachers Regarding the Importance and Competence of Their Principals as Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grobler, Bernardus; Bisschoff, Thomas; Beeka, Amrat

2012-01-01

We examined the perceptions of teachers on the importance and competence of principals as leaders before and after an intervention programme on holistic leadership. The research was quantitative and contextualized in the Secunda region of Mpumalanga province in South Africa. The methodology followed a literature study and an empirical…

Teacher and School Leader Quality and Sustainability. Resource Sheet No. 5

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mulford, Bill

2011-01-01

Schools need sustainable reform to meet the challenges of rapid and constant change and higher community expectations. Sustainable school reform is best achieved when teachers and school leaders: (1) understand what is happening in the broader community and the implications this has for schools (being contextually literate); (2) run their schools…

The New Reverse Transfer: A National Landscape

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedel, Janice Nahra; Wilson, Sarah L.

2015-01-01

For decades, higher education professionals and researchers have used the term reverse transfer to describe a specific group of students. A current review of community college literature and higher education policy reflects a contextual change of the term, and today reverse transfer has grown to include students who transfer from a two-year…

Characteristics of Maternal Verbal Style: Responsiveness and Directiveness in Two Natural Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Valerie; Masur, Elise Frank

2007-01-01

Twenty mothers' provision of responsive, supportive behavioural directive, and intrusive behavioural and attentional directive speech was investigated during interactions with their children at ages 0 ; 10, 1 ; 1, 1 ; 5 and 1 ; 9 in two natural contexts, free play and bathtime. Issues examined included developmental change, contextual differences,…

Contextualizing Relationship Education and Adolescent Attitude toward Sexual Behavior: Considering Class Climate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morrison, Sandra U.; Adler-Baeder, Francesca; Bub, Kristen L.; Duke, Adrienne

2018-01-01

Background: Using data from a statewide relationship education (RE) program targeting a diverse adolescent sample, this study examined RE implementation in classroom environments. Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore (1) whether there is a beneficial RE program effect for change in individual attitudes toward sexual delay, (2)…

Body Painting as a Tool in Clinical Anatomy Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMenamin, Paul G.

2008-01-01

The teaching of human anatomy has had to respond to significant changes in medical curricula, and it behooves anatomists to devise alternative strategies to effectively facilitate learning of the discipline by medical students in an integrated, applied, relevant, and contextual framework. In many medical schools, the lack of cadaver dissection as…

Context and Pedagogy: A Quarter-Century of Change in an Introductory Management Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hendry, Jamie R.; Hiller, Tammy Bunn; Martin, Eric C.; Boyd, Neil M.

2017-01-01

Twenty-five years after John A. Miller described his seminal experiential Introduction to Organization and Management course in "JME," MGMT 101 (formerly MG 101) continues to be the foundation of management education at Bucknell University. In this article, the current MGMT 101 faculty members provide their perspective on contextual and…

Developmental changes in the primacy of facial cues for emotion recognition.

PubMed

Leitzke, Brian T; Pollak, Seth D

2016-04-01

There have been long-standing differences of opinion regarding the influence of the face relative to that of contextual information on how individuals process and judge facial expressions of emotion. However, developmental changes in how individuals use such information have remained largely unexplored and could be informative in attempting to reconcile these opposing views. The current study tested for age-related differences in how individuals prioritize viewing emotional faces versus contexts when making emotion judgments. To do so, we asked 4-, 8-, and 12-year-old children as well as college students to categorize facial expressions of emotion that were presented with scenes that were either congruent or incongruent with the facial displays. During this time, we recorded participants' gaze patterns via eye tracking. College students directed their visual attention primarily to the face, regardless of contextual information. Children, however, divided their attention between both the face and the context as sources of emotional information depending on the valence of the context. These findings reveal a developmental shift in how individuals process and integrate emotional cues. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Reflecting and shaping the discourse: the role of music in AIDS communication in Tanzania.

PubMed

Bastien, Sheri

2009-04-01

Failure to recognize the importance of oral traditions in Africa and the potential of music and song for stimulating social and behavior change would represent a missed opportunity in HIV prevention strategies. Local narratives concerning AIDS are often utilized in popular songs and constitute rich sources of contextual information about the epidemic that have thus far been un- or underutilized in HIV prevention strategies. Endogenously conceived messages delivered via a channel such as music increase the likelihood of messages being contextually appropriate and culturally engaging. This form of media also presents the greatest opportunity for wide dissemination. Drawing on field work conducted in the Kilimanjaro region, this paper presents examples of how music and musicians in Tanzania reflect and potentially shape AIDS discourse. Three broad recurrent themes addressed in songs are discussed: AIDS metaphors, stigma and broader HIV prevention messages. By tapping into the wealth of information about AIDS discourse contained within popular songs, and by recognizing musicians as potential opinion leaders and agents of social change, the effectiveness of prevention strategies may be increased.

Network Modeling of Adult Neurogenesis: Shifting Rates of Neuronal Turnover Optimally Gears Network Learning according to Novelty Gradient

PubMed Central

Chambers, R. Andrew; Conroy, Susan K.

2010-01-01

Apoptotic and neurogenic events in the adult hippocampus are hypothesized to play a role in cognitive responses to new contexts. Corticosteroid-mediated stress responses and other neural processes invoked by substantially novel contextual changes may regulate these processes. Using elementary three-layer neural networks that learn by incremental synaptic plasticity, we explored whether the cognitive effects of differential regimens of neuronal turnover depend on the environmental context in terms of the degree of novelty in the new information to be learned. In “adult” networks that had achieved mature synaptic connectivity upon prior learning of the Roman alphabet, imposition of apoptosis/neurogenesis before learning increasingly novel information (alternate Roman < Russian < Hebrew) reveals optimality of informatic cost benefits when rates of turnover are geared in proportion to the degree of novelty. These findings predict that flexible control of rates of apoptosis–neurogenesis within plastic, mature neural systems optimizes learning attributes under varying degrees of contextual change, and that failures in this regulation may define a role for adult hippocampal neurogenesis in novelty- and stress-responsive psychiatric disorders. PMID:17214558

Network modeling of adult neurogenesis: shifting rates of neuronal turnover optimally gears network learning according to novelty gradient.

PubMed

Chambers, R Andrew; Conroy, Susan K

2007-01-01

Apoptotic and neurogenic events in the adult hippocampus are hypothesized to play a role in cognitive responses to new contexts. Corticosteroid-mediated stress responses and other neural processes invoked by substantially novel contextual changes may regulate these processes. Using elementary three-layer neural networks that learn by incremental synaptic plasticity, we explored whether the cognitive effects of differential regimens of neuronal turnover depend on the environmental context in terms of the degree of novelty in the new information to be learned. In "adult" networks that had achieved mature synaptic connectivity upon prior learning of the Roman alphabet, imposition of apoptosis/neurogenesis before learning increasingly novel information (alternate Roman < Russian < Hebrew) reveals optimality of informatic cost benefits when rates of turnover are geared in proportion to the degree of novelty. These findings predict that flexible control of rates of apoptosis-neurogenesis within plastic, mature neural systems optimizes learning attributes under varying degrees of contextual change, and that failures in this regulation may define a role for adult hippocampal neurogenesis in novelty- and stress-responsive psychiatric disorders.

Characteristics of participants in a cancer prevention intervention designed for multiethnic workers in small manufacturing worksites.

PubMed

Hunt, Mary K; Stoddard, Anne M; Kaphingst, Kimberly A; Sorensen, Glorian

2007-01-01

To examine worker characteristics explicated in our social-contextual intervention model that might be associated with participation in a cancer prevention intervention. These characteristics included sociodemographic variables, mediating mechanisms, and modifying conditions. Randomized, controlled study in 24 small multiethnic manufacturing worksites. Analyses were conducted on an embedded cohort of 456 employees in the intervention condition, incorporating the clustering of respondents in worksites using generalized linear mixed modeling methods. The intervention was based on an inclusive, comprehensive social-contextual model targeting fruit, vegetable, and red meat consumption, multivitamin use, and physical activity. Gender (p = .02) and self-efficacy (p < .01) were associated with participation. There were no differences in participation by race/ethnicity or occupational status. We observed no associations between participation of individual workers in intervention activities and health behavior change. The intervention attracted workers across racial/ethnic and occupational groups. The combination of a comprehensive intervention with wide diffusion of program messages may have been more powerful in influencing participation and behavior change than characteristics of individual employees.

Connecting the Links: Narratives, Simulations and Serious Games in Prehospital Training.

PubMed

Heldal, Ilona; Backlund, Per; Johannesson, Mikael; Lebram, Mikael; Lundberg, Lars

2017-01-01

Due to rapid and substantial changes in the health sector, collaboration and supporting technologies get more into focus. Changes in education and training are also required. Simulations and serious games (SSG) are often advocated as promising technologies supporting training of many and in the same manner, or increasing the skills necessary to deal with new, dangerous, complex or unexpected situations. The aim of this paper is to illustrate and discuss resources needed for planning and performing collaborative contextual training scenarios. Based on a practical study involving prehospital nurses and different simulator technologies the often-recurring activity chains in prehospital training were trained. This paper exemplifies the benefit of using narratives and SSGs for contextual training contributing to higher user experiences. The benefits of using simulation technologies aligned by processes can be easier defined by narratives from practitioners. While processes help to define more efficient and effective training, narratives and SSGs are beneficial to design scenarios with clues for higher user experiences. By discussing illustrative examples, the paper contributes to better understanding of how to plan simulation-technology rich training scenarios.

Contextual convolutional neural networks for lung nodule classification using Gaussian-weighted average image patches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Haeil; Lee, Hansang; Park, Minseok; Kim, Junmo

2017-03-01

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death. To diagnose lung cancers in early stages, numerous studies and approaches have been developed for cancer screening with computed tomography (CT) imaging. In recent years, convolutional neural networks (CNN) have become one of the most common and reliable techniques in computer aided detection (CADe) and diagnosis (CADx) by achieving state-of-the-art-level performances for various tasks. In this study, we propose a CNN classification system for false positive reduction of initially detected lung nodule candidates. First, image patches of lung nodule candidates are extracted from CT scans to train a CNN classifier. To reflect the volumetric contextual information of lung nodules to 2D image patch, we propose a weighted average image patch (WAIP) generation by averaging multiple slice images of lung nodule candidates. Moreover, to emphasize central slices of lung nodules, slice images are locally weighted according to Gaussian distribution and averaged to generate the 2D WAIP. With these extracted patches, 2D CNN is trained to achieve the classification of WAIPs of lung nodule candidates into positive and negative labels. We used LUNA 2016 public challenge database to validate the performance of our approach for false positive reduction in lung CT nodule classification. Experiments show our approach improves the classification accuracy of lung nodules compared to the baseline 2D CNN with patches from single slice image.

Gamma-Ray imaging for nuclear security and safety: Towards 3-D gamma-ray vision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vetter, Kai; Barnowksi, Ross; Haefner, Andrew; Joshi, Tenzing H. Y.; Pavlovsky, Ryan; Quiter, Brian J.

2018-01-01

The development of portable gamma-ray imaging instruments in combination with the recent advances in sensor and related computer vision technologies enable unprecedented capabilities in the detection, localization, and mapping of radiological and nuclear materials in complex environments relevant for nuclear security and safety. Though multi-modal imaging has been established in medicine and biomedical imaging for some time, the potential of multi-modal data fusion for radiological localization and mapping problems in complex indoor and outdoor environments remains to be explored in detail. In contrast to the well-defined settings in medical or biological imaging associated with small field-of-view and well-constrained extension of the radiation field, in many radiological search and mapping scenarios, the radiation fields are not constrained and objects and sources are not necessarily known prior to the measurement. The ability to fuse radiological with contextual or scene data in three dimensions, in analog to radiological and functional imaging with anatomical fusion in medicine, provides new capabilities enhancing image clarity, context, quantitative estimates, and visualization of the data products. We have developed new means to register and fuse gamma-ray imaging with contextual data from portable or moving platforms. These developments enhance detection and mapping capabilities as well as provide unprecedented visualization of complex radiation fields, moving us one step closer to the realization of gamma-ray vision in three dimensions.

Knowledge Is Not Always What We Take It To Be: Issues in the Assessment of Students' Understandings of Motion.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ridgeway, Dori

The ways in which knowledge of mechanical motion is affected by contextual factors of assessment such as means of depiction (ranging from abstract to contextualized) and the effect of sequencing of contexts (from abstract to contextualized or contextualized to abstract) on students' display of knowledge were studied for 40 fifth graders in two…

Kidney segmentation in CT sequences using graph cuts based active contours model and contextual continuity.

PubMed

Zhang, Pin; Liang, Yanmei; Chang, Shengjiang; Fan, Hailun

2013-08-01

Accurate segmentation of renal tissues in abdominal computed tomography (CT) image sequences is an indispensable step for computer-aided diagnosis and pathology detection in clinical applications. In this study, the goal is to develop a radiology tool to extract renal tissues in CT sequences for the management of renal diagnosis and treatments. In this paper, the authors propose a new graph-cuts-based active contours model with an adaptive width of narrow band for kidney extraction in CT image sequences. Based on graph cuts and contextual continuity, the segmentation is carried out slice-by-slice. In the first stage, the middle two adjacent slices in a CT sequence are segmented interactively based on the graph cuts approach. Subsequently, the deformable contour evolves toward the renal boundaries by the proposed model for the kidney extraction of the remaining slices. In this model, the energy function combining boundary with regional information is optimized in the constructed graph and the adaptive search range is determined by contextual continuity and the object size. In addition, in order to reduce the complexity of the min-cut computation, the nodes in the graph only have n-links for fewer edges. The total 30 CT images sequences with normal and pathological renal tissues are used to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of our method. The experimental results reveal that the average dice similarity coefficient of these image sequences is from 92.37% to 95.71% and the corresponding standard deviation for each dataset is from 2.18% to 3.87%. In addition, the average automatic segmentation time for one kidney in each slice is about 0.36 s. Integrating the graph-cuts-based active contours model with contextual continuity, the algorithm takes advantages of energy minimization and the characteristics of image sequences. The proposed method achieves effective results for kidney segmentation in CT sequences.

Testing conditions in shock-based contextual fear conditioning influence both the behavioral responses and the activation of circuits potentially involved in contextual avoidance.

PubMed

Viellard, Juliette; Baldo, Marcus Vinicius C; Canteras, Newton Sabino

2016-12-15

Previous studies from our group have shown that risk assessment behaviors are the primary contextual fear responses to predatory and social threats, whereas freezing is the main contextual fear response to physically harmful events. To test contextual fear responses to a predator or aggressive conspecific threat, we developed a model that involves placing the animal in an apparatus where it can avoid the threat-associated environment. Conversely, in studies that use shock-based fear conditioning, the animals are usually confined inside the conditioning chamber during the contextual fear test. In the present study, we tested shock-based contextual fear responses using two different behavioral testing conditions: confining the animal in the conditioning chamber or placing the animal in an apparatus with free access to the conditioning compartment. Our results showed that during the contextual fear test, the animals confined to the shock chamber exhibited significantly more freezing. In contrast, the animals that could avoid the conditioning compartment displayed almost no freezing and exhibited risk assessment responses (i.e., crouch-sniff and stretch postures) and burying behavior. In addition, the animals that were able to avoid the shock chamber had increased Fos expression in the juxtadorsomedial lateral hypothalamic area, the dorsomedial part of the dorsal premammillary nucleus and the lateral and dorsomedial parts of the periaqueductal gray, which are elements of a septo/hippocampal-hypothalamic-brainstem circuit that is putatively involved in mediating contextual avoidance. Overall, the present findings show that testing conditions significantly influence both behavioral responses and the activation of circuits involved in contextual avoidance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Consequences of contextual factors on clinical reasoning in resident physicians.

PubMed

McBee, Elexis; Ratcliffe, Temple; Picho, Katherine; Artino, Anthony R; Schuwirth, Lambert; Kelly, William; Masel, Jennifer; van der Vleuten, Cees; Durning, Steven J

2015-12-01

Context specificity and the impact that contextual factors have on the complex process of clinical reasoning is poorly understood. Using situated cognition as the theoretical framework, our aim was to evaluate the verbalized clinical reasoning processes of resident physicians in order to describe what impact the presence of contextual factors have on their clinical reasoning. Participants viewed three video recorded clinical encounters portraying straightforward diagnoses in internal medicine with select patient contextual factors modified. After watching each video recording, participants completed a think-aloud protocol. Transcripts from the think-aloud protocols were analyzed using a constant comparative approach. After iterative coding, utterances were analyzed for emergent themes with utterances grouped into categories, themes and subthemes. Ten residents participated in the study with saturation reached during analysis. Participants universally acknowledged the presence of contextual factors in the video recordings. Four categories emerged as a consequence of the contextual factors: (1) emotional reactions (2) behavioral inferences (3) optimizing the doctor patient relationship and (4) difficulty with closure of the clinical encounter. The presence of contextual factors may impact clinical reasoning performance in resident physicians. When confronted with the presence of contextual factors in a clinical scenario, residents experienced difficulty with closure of the encounter, exhibited as diagnostic uncertainty. This finding raises important questions about the relationship between contextual factors and clinical reasoning activities and how this relationship might influence the cost effectiveness of care. This study also provides insight into how the phenomena of context specificity may be explained using situated cognition theory.

The importance of context: evidence that contextual representations increase intrusive memories.

PubMed

Pearson, David G; Ross, Fiona D C; Webster, Victoria L

2012-03-01

Intrusive memories appear to enter consciousness via involuntary rather than deliberate recollection. Some clinical accounts of PTSD seek to explain this phenomenon by making a clear distinction between the encoding of sensory-based and contextual representations. Contextual representations have been claimed to actively reduce intrusions by anchoring encoded perceptual data for an event in memory. The current analogue trauma study examined this hypothesis by manipulating contextual information independently from encoded sensory-perceptual information. Participants' viewed images selected from the International Affective Picture System that depicted scenes of violence and bodily injury. Images were viewed either under neutral conditions or paired with contextual information. Two experiments revealed a significant increase in memory intrusions for images paired with contextual information in comparison to the same images viewed under neutral conditions. In contrast to the observed increase in intrusion frequency there was no effect of contextual representations on voluntary memory for the images. The vividness and emotionality of memory intrusions were also unaffected. The analogue trauma paradigm may fail to replicate the effect of extreme stress on encoding postulated to occur during PTSD. These findings question the assertion that intrusive memories develop from a lack of integration between sensory-based and contextual representations in memory. Instead it is argued contextual representations play a causal role in increasing the frequency of intrusions by increasing the sensitivity of memory to involuntary retrieval by associated internal and external cues. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contextual cueing of tactile search is coded in an anatomical reference frame.

PubMed

Assumpção, Leonardo; Shi, Zhuanghua; Zang, Xuelian; Müller, Hermann J; Geyer, Thomas

2018-04-01

This work investigates the reference frame(s) underlying tactile context memory, a form of statistical learning in a tactile (finger) search task. In this task, if a searched-for target object is repeatedly encountered within a stable spatial arrangement of task-irrelevant distractors, detecting the target becomes more efficient over time (relative to nonrepeated arrangements), as learned target-distractor spatial associations come to guide tactile search, thus cueing attention to the target location. Since tactile search displays can be represented in several reference frames, including multiple external and an anatomical frame, in Experiment 1 we asked whether repeated search displays are represented in tactile memory with reference to an environment-centered or anatomical reference frame. In Experiment 2, we went on examining a hand-centered versus anatomical reference frame of tactile context memory. Observers performed a tactile search task, divided into a learning and test session. At the transition between the two sessions, we introduced postural manipulations of the hands (crossed ↔ uncrossed in Expt. 1; palm-up ↔ palm-down in Expt. 2) to determine the reference frame of tactile contextual cueing. In both experiments, target-distractor associations acquired during learning transferred to the test session when the placement of the target and distractors was held constant in anatomical, but not external, coordinates. In the latter, RTs were even slower for repeated displays. We conclude that tactile contextual learning is coded in an anatomical reference frame. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Automated sleep stage detection with a classical and a neural learning algorithm--methodological aspects.

PubMed

Schwaibold, M; Schöchlin, J; Bolz, A

2002-01-01

For classification tasks in biosignal processing, several strategies and algorithms can be used. Knowledge-based systems allow prior knowledge about the decision process to be integrated, both by the developer and by self-learning capabilities. For the classification stages in a sleep stage detection framework, three inference strategies were compared regarding their specific strengths: a classical signal processing approach, artificial neural networks and neuro-fuzzy systems. Methodological aspects were assessed to attain optimum performance and maximum transparency for the user. Due to their effective and robust learning behavior, artificial neural networks could be recommended for pattern recognition, while neuro-fuzzy systems performed best for the processing of contextual information.

Contextual information and perceptual-cognitive expertise in a dynamic, temporally-constrained task.

PubMed

Murphy, Colm P; Jackson, Robin C; Cooke, Karl; Roca, André; Benguigui, Nicolas; Williams, A Mark

2016-12-01

Skilled performers extract and process postural information from an opponent during anticipation more effectively than their less-skilled counterparts. In contrast, the role and importance of contextual information in anticipation has received only minimal attention. We evaluate the importance of contextual information in anticipation and examine the underlying perceptual-cognitive processes. We present skilled and less-skilled tennis players with normal video or animated footage of the same rallies. In the animated condition, sequences were created using player movement and ball trajectory data, and postural information from the players was removed, constraining participants to anticipate based on contextual information alone. Participants judged ball bounce location of the opponent's final occluded shot. The 2 groups were more accurate than chance in both display conditions with skilled being more accurate than less-skilled (Exp. 1) participants. When anticipating based on contextual information alone, skilled participants employed different gaze behaviors to less-skilled counterparts and provided verbal reports of thoughts which were indicative of more thorough evaluation of contextual information (Exp. 2). Findings highlight the importance of both postural and contextual information in anticipation and indicate that perceptual-cognitive expertise is underpinned by processes that facilitate more effective processing of contextual information, in the absence of postural information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Contextual effects and cancer outcomes in the United States: a systematic review of characteristics in multilevel analyses.

PubMed

Zahnd, Whitney E; McLafferty, Sara L

2017-11-01

There is increasing call for the utilization of multilevel modeling to explore the relationship between place-based contextual effects and cancer outcomes in the United States. To gain a better understanding of how contextual factors are being considered, we performed a systematic review. We reviewed studies published between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2016 and assessed the following attributes: (1) contextual considerations such as geographic scale and contextual factors used; (2) methods used to quantify contextual factors; and (3) cancer type and outcomes. We searched PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science and initially identified 1060 studies. One hundred twenty-two studies remained after exclusions. Most studies utilized a two-level structure; census tracts were the most commonly used geographic scale. Socioeconomic factors, health care access, racial/ethnic factors, and rural-urban status were the most common contextual factors addressed in multilevel models. Breast and colorectal cancers were the most common cancer types, and screening and staging were the most common outcomes assessed in these studies. Opportunities for future research include deriving contextual factors using more rigorous approaches, considering cross-classified structures and cross-level interactions, and using multilevel modeling to explore understudied cancers and outcomes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Use of Context in Video Processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Chen; Aghajan, Hamid

Interpreting an event or a scene based on visual data often requires additional contextual information. Contextual information may be obtained from different sources. In this chapter, we discuss two broad categories of contextual sources: environmental context and user-centric context. Environmental context refers to information derived from domain knowledge or from concurrently sensed effects in the area of operation. User-centric context refers to information obtained and accumulated from the user. Both types of context can include static or dynamic contextual elements. Examples from a smart home environment are presented to illustrate how different types of contextual data can be applied to aid the decision-making process.

Contextual mediation of perceptions in hauntings and poltergeist-like experiences.

PubMed

Lange, R; Houran, J; Harte, T M; Havens, R A

1996-06-01

The content of perceived apparitions, e.g., bereavement hallucinations, cannot be explained entirely in terms of electromagnetically induced neurochemical processes. It was shown that contextual variables influential in hallucinatory and hypnotic states also structured reported haunting experiences. As predicted, high congruency was found between the experiential content and the nature of the contextual variables. Further, the number of contextual variables involved in an experience was related to the type of experience and the state or arousal preceding the experience. Based on these findings we argue that a more complete explanation of haunting experiences should take into account both electromagnetically induced neurochemical processes and factors related to contextual mediation.

Contextual cueing impairment in patients with age-related macular degeneration.

PubMed

Geringswald, Franziska; Herbik, Anne; Hoffmann, Michael B; Pollmann, Stefan

2013-09-12

Visual attention can be guided by past experience of regularities in our visual environment. In the contextual cueing paradigm, incidental learning of repeated distractor configurations speeds up search times compared to random search arrays. Concomitantly, fewer fixations and more direct scan paths indicate more efficient visual exploration in repeated search arrays. In previous work, we found that simulating a central scotoma in healthy observers eliminated this search facilitation. Here, we investigated contextual cueing in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who suffer from impaired foveal vision. AMD patients performed visual search using only their more severely impaired eye (n = 13) as well as under binocular viewing (n = 16). Normal-sighted controls developed a significant contextual cueing effect. In comparison, patients showed only a small nonsignificant advantage for repeated displays when searching with their worse eye. When searching binocularly, they profited from contextual cues, but still less than controls. Number of fixations and scan pattern ratios showed a comparable pattern as search times. Moreover, contextual cueing was significantly correlated with acuity in monocular search. Thus, foveal vision loss may lead to impaired guidance of attention by contextual memory cues.

Human cortical activity evoked by contextual processing in attentional orienting.

PubMed

Zhao, Shuo; Li, Chunlin; Uono, Shota; Yoshimura, Sayaka; Toichi, Motomi

2017-06-07

The ability to assess another person's direction of attention is paramount in social communication, many studies have reported a similar pattern between gaze and arrow cues in attention orienting. Neuroimaging research has also demonstrated no qualitative differences in attention to gaze and arrow cues. However, these studies were implemented under simple experiment conditions. Researchers have highlighted the importance of contextual processing (i.e., the semantic congruence between cue and target) in attentional orienting, showing that attentional orienting by social gaze or arrow cues could be modulated through contextual processing. Here, we examine the neural activity of attentional orienting by gaze and arrow cues in response to contextual processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results demonstrated that the influence of neural activity through contextual processing to attentional orienting occurred under invalid conditions (when the cue and target were incongruent versus congruent) in the ventral frontoparietal network, although we did not identify any differences in the neural substrates of attentional orienting in contextual processing between gaze and arrow cues. These results support behavioural data of attentional orienting modulated by contextual processing based on the neurocognitive architecture.

Contextual cueing in multiconjunction visual search is dependent on color- and configuration-based intertrial contingencies.

PubMed

Geyer, Thomas; Shi, Zhuanghua; Müller, Hermann J

2010-06-01

Three experiments examined memory-based guidance of visual search using a modified version of the contextual-cueing paradigm (Jiang & Chun, 2001). The target, if present, was a conjunction of color and orientation, with target (and distractor) features randomly varying across trials (multiconjunction search). Under these conditions, reaction times (RTs) were faster when all items in the display appeared at predictive ("old") relative to nonpredictive ("new") locations. However, this RT benefit was smaller compared to when only one set of items, namely that sharing the target's color (but not that in the alternative color) appeared in predictive arrangement. In all conditions, contextual cueing was reliable on both target-present and -absent trials and enhanced if a predictive display was preceded by a predictive (though differently arranged) display, rather than a nonpredictive display. These results suggest that (1) contextual cueing is confined to color subsets of items, that (2) retrieving contextual associations for one color subset of items can be impeded by associations formed within the alternative subset ("contextual interference"), and (3) that contextual cueing is modulated by intertrial priming.

Contextual cost: when a visual-search target is not where it should be.

PubMed

Makovski, Tal; Jiang, Yuhong V

2010-02-01

Visual search is often facilitated when the search display occasionally repeats, revealing a contextual-cueing effect. According to the associative-learning account, contextual cueing arises from associating the display configuration with the target location. However, recent findings emphasizing the importance of local context near the target have given rise to the possibility that low-level repetition priming may account for the contextual-cueing effect. This study distinguishes associative learning from local repetition priming by testing whether search is directed toward a target's expected location, even when the target is relocated. After participants searched for a T among Ls in displays that repeated 24 times, they completed a transfer session where the target was relocated locally to a previously blank location (Experiment 1) or to an adjacent distractor location (Experiment 2). Results revealed that contextual cueing decreased as the target appeared farther away from its expected location, ultimately resulting in a contextual cost when the target swapped locations with a local distractor. We conclude that target predictability is a key factor in contextual cueing.

Inhibition of Rac1 activity in the hippocampus impaired extinction of contextual fear.

PubMed

Jiang, Lizhu; Mao, Rongrong; Tong, Jianbin; Li, Jinnan; Chai, Anping; Zhou, Qixin; Yang, Yuexiong; Wang, Liping; Li, Lingjiang; Xu, Lin

2016-10-01

Promoting extinction of fear memory is the main treatment of fear disorders, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, fear extinction is often incomplete in these patients. Our previous study had shown that Rac1 activity in hippocampus plays a crucial role in the learning of contextual fear memory in rats. Here, we further investigated whether Rac1 activity also modulated the extinction of contextual fear memory. We found that massed extinction obviously upregulated hippocampal Rac1 activity and induced long-term extinction of contextual fear in rats. Intrahippocampal injection of the Rac1 inhibitor NSC23766 prevents extinction of contextual fear in massed extinction training rats. In contrast, long-spaced extinction downregulated Rac1 activity and caused less extinction. And Rac1 activator CN04-A promotes extinction of contextual fear in long-spaced extinction rats. Our study demonstrates that inhibition of Rac1 activity in the hippocampus impaired extinction of contextual fear, suggesting that modulating Rac1 activity of the hippocampus may be promising therapy of fear disorders. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does Contextual Cueing Guide the Deployment of Attention?

PubMed Central

Kunar, Melina A.; Flusberg, Stephen; Horowitz, Todd S.; Wolfe, Jeremy M.

2008-01-01

Contextual cueing experiments show that when displays are repeated, reaction times (RTs) to find a target decrease over time even when observers are not aware of the repetition. It has been thought that the context of the display guides attention to the target. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the effects of guidance in a standard search task to the effects of contextual cueing. Firstly, in standard search, an improvement in guidance causes search slopes (derived from RT × Set Size functions) to decrease. In contrast, we found that search slopes in contextual cueing did not become more efficient over time (Experiment 1). Secondly, when guidance is optimal (e.g. in easy feature search) we still found a small, but reliable contextual cueing effect (Experiments 2a and 2b), suggesting that other factors, such as response selection, contribute to the effect. Experiment 3 supported this hypothesis by showing that the contextual cueing effect disappeared when we added interference to the response selection process. Overall, our data suggest that the relationship between guidance and contextual cueing is weak and that response selection can account for part of the effect. PMID:17683230