Elm Farm Research Centre Bulletin 79 July 2005

Regular newletter from Elm Farm Research Centre (EFRC)covering research, technical and policy articles, views and comment

Ecological IVIS design : using EID to develop a novel in-vehicle information system

New in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) are emerging which purport to encourage more environment friendly or ‘green’ driving. Meanwhile, wider concerns about road safety and in-car distractions remain. The ‘Foot-LITE’ project is an effort to balance these issues, aimed at achieving safer and greener driving through real-time driving information, presented via an in-vehicle interface which facilitates the desired behaviours while avoiding negative consequences. One way of achieving this is to use ecological interface design (EID) techniques. This article presents part of the formative human-centred design process for developing the in-car display through a series of rapid prototyping studies comparing EID against conventional interface design principles. We focus primarily on the visual display, although some development of an ecological auditory display is also presented. The results of feedback from potential users as well as subject matter experts are discussed with respect to implications for future interface design in this field

Affective and Motivational Responses to 3D Body Imaging

Common body weight and composition testing has been shown to impact emotional, motivational, and behavioral responses. Three-dimensional body imaging is a relatively new technology to be utilized in medical and fitness settings to provide detailed body image feedback to the patient or client, while encouraging motivation to control body weight, fat, and shape. However, such responses to 3D body imaging have not been examined. To examine the acute affective and motivational responses to 3D body imaging (Fit3D) in a sample of college-aged women (N = 32), classified as either normal weight (NW; n = 13) or overweight/obese (OWOB; n = 19). Positive and negative affect were assessed with the Positive (PA) and Negative Affect (NA) Schedule (PANAS; range: 1-5), and one item assessed motivation to lose weight (range: 1-10). These variables were assessed immediately before and after a single 3D body imaging session. Participants had 1-minute to examine their 3D body scan, and then continued to examine their scan during all post-measures. Overall, PA did not change pre- to post-scan (3.11 ± .98 to 3.18 ± 1.07, p \u3e .05), nor did NA (1.52 ± .58 to 1.63 ± .89, p \u3e .05). In addition, there was not a time by BMI (NW versus OWOB) interaction for both PA and NA. Overall, motivation to lose weight slightly increased (6.41 ± 2.78 to 7.09 ± 2.75, p = .001). There was not an interaction of time by BMI, with both groups increasing over time. However, there was a between-subjects effect with OWOB holding higher pre-motivation to lose weight than NW participants (7.63 versus 4.62, respectively; p \u3c .01). Within the present sample of college-aged women, a 3D body image scanning session did not appear impact PA or NA responses, but did produce a slight increase in motivation to lose body weight in participants classified as NW or OWOB. This research provides foundational insight to future research and the use of this novel technology for health behavior change in fitness and clinical settings

Effects of a 3D Body Imaging Trigger on Self-Perceived Attractiveness, Self-conscious Emotions and Coping

Novel technologies currently being utilized in fitness and clinical settings, such as 3D body scans, are proposed to act as a trigger or spark for weight control behavior. However, other weight-related triggers in women have been shown to produce variation in emotional and weight control responses, and there is limited research on their impact. The purpose of the study was to examine the acute effect of 3D body imaging system (Fit3D) on self-conscious emotions (guilt, shame, pride) and body weight-related coping in a sample of college-aged women (N = 30) classified as normal weight (NW, n = 12) or overweight/obese (OWOB, n = 18). To this end, the Body and Appearance-related Self-conscious Emotions Scale (BASES; range: 1-5) and the WEIGHTCOPE (range: 1-7) were used to assess self-conscious emotions and intention to utilize 10 different weight-related coping strategies following a single 3D body scanning session. Body fat percentage (BF%) was assessed via Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Following the 3D scan, participants experienced low to moderate feelings of guilt (3.18 ± .99), shame (2.67 ± 1.05), authentic pride (2.68 ± .96), and hubristic pride (2.49 ± .87). Significant differences (p \u3c .05) were found between participants classified as NW or OWOB, respectively, in shame (2.11 ± .76 vs. 3.05 ± 1.07), guilt (2.82 ± .85 vs. 3.43 ± 1.02), and authentic pride (3.10 ± .78 vs. 2.39 ± .98). Increasing physical activity and self-regulation, eating healthier, and positively reframing the situation were the highest rated coping responses (M = 5.23 to 6.25). Differences were found between BMI groups for intention to cope by suppressing appetite (NW = 2.68 ± 1.05, OWOB = 3.56 ± 1.02; t = 2.24, p \u3c .05), supplement use (NW = 1.14 ± .22, OWOB = 1.85 ± 1.28; t = 2.30, p \u3c .05), and a trend for camouflaging body (NW = 2.70 ± .51, OWOB = 3.14 ± .99, t = 1.57, p = .06). Feelings of shame were correlated with intention to camouflage body (r = .46, p = .01), while authentic pride trended toward a negative correlation with suppressing appetite (r = -.31), camouflaging (r = -.35), and supplement use (-.34). In conclusion, an acute 3D body image scan session was shown to produce variation in self-conscious emotions (shame, guilt, and pride) and coping choices between NW and OWOB participants. These individual differences should be taken into consideration to better accommodate healthy behavior change following 3D imaging use

Cross-sectional associations between sleep duration, sedentary time, physical activity, and adiposity indicators among Canadian preschool-aged children using compositional analyses

Abstract Background Sleep duration, sedentary behaviour, and physical activity are three co-dependent behaviours that fall on the movement/non-movement intensity continuum. Compositional data analyses provide an appropriate method for analyzing the association between co-dependent movement behaviour data and health indicators. The objectives of this study were to examine: (1) the combined associations of the composition of time spent in sleep, sedentary behaviour, light-intensity physical activity (LPA), and moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) with adiposity indicators; and (2) the association of the time spent in sleep, sedentary behaviour, LPA, or MVPA with adiposity indicators relative to the time spent in the other behaviours in a representative sample of Canadian preschool-aged children. Methods Participants were 552 children aged 3 to 4 years from cycles 2 and 3 of the Canadian Health Measures Survey. Sedentary time, LPA, and MVPA were measured with Actical accelerometers (Philips Respironics, Bend, OR USA), and sleep duration was parental reported. Adiposity indicators included waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI) z-scores based on World Health Organization growth standards. Compositional data analyses were used to examine the cross-sectional associations. Results The composition of movement behaviours was significantly associated with BMI z-scores (p = 0.006) but not with WC (p = 0.718). Further, the time spent in sleep (BMI z-score: γ sleep  = −0.72; p = 0.138; WC: γ sleep  = −1.95; p = 0.285), sedentary behaviour (BMI z-score: γ SB  = 0.19; p = 0.624; WC: γ SB  = 0.87; p = 0.614), LPA (BMI z-score: γ LPA  = 0.62; p = 0.213, WC: γ LPA  = 0.23; p = 0.902), or MVPA (BMI z-score: γ MVPA  = −0.09; p = 0.733, WC: γ MVPA  = 0.08; p = 0.288) relative to the other behaviours was not significantly associated with the adiposity indicators. Conclusions This study is the first to use compositional analyses when examining associations of co-dependent sleep duration, sedentary time, and physical activity behaviours with adiposity indicators in preschool-aged children. The overall composition of movement behaviours appears important for healthy BMI z-scores in preschool-aged children. Future research is needed to determine the optimal movement behaviour composition that should be promoted in this age group

A four gene signature of chromosome instability (CIN4) predicts for benefit from taxanes in the NCIC-CTG MA21 clinical trial.

Recent evidence demonstrated CIN4 as a predictive marker of anthracycline benefit in early breast cancer. An analysis of the NCIC CTG MA.21 clinical trial was performed to test the role of existing CIN gene expression signatures as prognostic and predictive markers in the context of taxane based chemotherapy.RNA was extracted from patients in cyclophosphamide, epirubicin and flurouracil (CEF) and epirubicin, cyclophosphamide and paclitaxel (EC/T) arms of the NCIC CTG MA.21 trial and analysed using NanoString technology.After multivariate analysis both high CIN25 and CIN70 score was significantly associated with an increased in RFS (HR 1.76, 95%CI 1.07-2.86, p=0.0018 and HR 1.59, 95%CI 1.12-2.25, p=0.0096 respectively). Patients whose tumours had low CIN4 gene expression scores were associated with an increase in RFS (HR: 0.64, 95% CI 0.39-1.03, p=0.06) when treated with EC/T compared to patients treated with CEF.In conclusion we have demonstrated CIN25 and CIN70 as prognostic markers in breast cancer and that CIN4 is a potential predictive maker of benefit from taxane treatment

Reputation Agent: Prompting Fair Reviews in Gig Markets

Our study presents a new tool, Reputation Agent, to promote fairer reviews from requesters (employers or customers) on gig markets. Unfair reviews, created when requesters consider factors outside of a worker's control, are known to plague gig workers and can result in lost job opportunities and even termination from the marketplace. Our tool leverages machine learning to implement an intelligent interface that: (1) uses deep learning to automatically detect when an individual has included unfair factors into her review (factors outside the worker's control per the policies of the market); and (2) prompts the individual to reconsider her review if she has incorporated unfair factors. To study the effectiveness of Reputation Agent, we conducted a controlled experiment over different gig markets. Our experiment illustrates that across markets, Reputation Agent, in contrast with traditional approaches, motivates requesters to review gig workers' performance more fairly. We discuss how tools that bring more transparency to employers about the policies of a gig market can help build empathy thus resulting in reasoned discussions around potential injustices towards workers generated by these interfaces. Our vision is that with tools that promote truth and transparency we can bring fairer treatment to gig workers.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, The Web Conference 2020, ACM WWW 202

The theory of international business: the role of economic models

This paper reviews the scope for economic modelling in international business studies. It argues for multi-level theory based on classic internalisation theory. It present a systems approach that encompasses both firm-level and industry-level analysis

Sequential quasi-Monte Carlo: Introduction for Non-Experts, Dimension Reduction, Application to Partly Observed Diffusion Processes

SMC (Sequential Monte Carlo) is a class of Monte Carlo algorithms for filtering and related sequential problems. Gerber and Chopin (2015) introduced SQMC (Sequential quasi-Monte Carlo), a QMC version of SMC. This paper has two objectives: (a) to introduce Sequential Monte Carlo to the QMC community, whose members are usually less familiar with state-space models and particle filtering; (b) to extend SQMC to the filtering of continuous-time state-space models, where the latent process is a diffusion. A recurring point in the paper will be the notion of dimension reduction, that is how to implement SQMC in such a way that it provides good performance despite the high dimension of the problem.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of MCMQMC 201

Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibition with simvastatin in acute lung injury to reduce pulmonary dysfunction (HARP-2) trial : study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common devastating clinical syndrome characterized by life-threatening respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation and multiple organ failure. There are in vitro, animal studies and pre-clinical data suggesting that statins may be beneficial in ALI. The Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibition with simvastatin in Acute lung injury to Reduce Pulmonary dysfunction (HARP-2) trial is a multicenter, prospective, randomized, allocation concealed, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial which aims to test the hypothesis that treatment with simvastatin will improve clinical outcomes in patients with ALI