Natural behavior in everyday settings.

Recent research suggests that omnidirectional hearing aids are relatively ineffective at improving speech understanding in everyday conversational speech settings when the background noise contains both energetic and informational masking components. Energetic masking refers to situations where the peripheral (or neural) activity of the target is less than that of the masker, thus making the target inaudible. In contrast, informational masking effects, in this paper, refer to additional masking effects that are not energetic in nature. The current study evaluated the benefits of directional technology in the presence of background noises that contained both energetic and informational masking components. Aided speech recognition (in both omnidirectional and directional modes) was assessed in the presence of three types of maskers (forward and reversed speech and speech-modulated noise) that varied in the amount of informational masking they were expected to produce. Study results showed significant directional benefit in all conditions. This finding suggests that in everyday conversational speech environments, directional technology is equally efficacious regardless of the magnitude of informational masking present in the background noise. In addition, study findings suggest that the semantic information present in the masking speech may play only a limited role in contributing to informational masking in everyday environments.

The pace of infant learning is inspiring. Babies learn new skills while interacting with the people, objects, and spaces in their everyday environments. Grounded in a developmental-systems approach, we highlight the embodied and embedded nature of infant learning. Learning is embodied in that the exuberant infant serendipitously creates an ideal curriculum for learning through immense amounts of varied, time-distributed practice across behavioral domains. Learning is embedded in that infants’ behaviors elicit timely responses from caregivers that are situated in richly informative and structured environments. Feedback loops generated by the active infant, the salience of caregiver responses, and the regularity of environmental contexts propel learning. The study of natural behaviors in natural environments spotlights the roles of infant, caregiver, and context in everyday learning.

Behavior Modification has gone a long way since its start as a reaction to the traditional psychiatric and psychotherapeutic methods. It is no longer a monolithic term, as it includes a variety of theoretical and conceptual positions, different methodological approaches and many therapeutic techniques.

Bivalves are extremely sensitive to environmental conditions. The movement of their shells and the gap in-between the valves can serve as indicators of water pollutants entering surface water bodies. This letter proposes a novel sensing system to accurately calculate the valve-gaping angle in bivalves. The sensor unit is comprised of two inertial measurement units for each bivalve to estimate the angle between the two valves. Monitoring of multiple bivalves is possible with several water-insulated sensor units tethered with flexible cables to a central base station housing the processing unit. Miniaturization of the sensor packaging and flexibility of the wires ensured minimum hindrance to the animals' natural behavior. The precision and accuracy of the angle measurement were tested with a benchtop servo motor setup simulating the gaping behavior. The standard deviation of measurements at a steady state was 0.78 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> , and the average change in measurement during a 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> step was 9.98 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> . Over 250 h of in vivo validation experiments demonstrated the consistency of the angle measurements using the presented method alongside a magnetic alternative, which had an average correlation coefficient of $-$0.89. The sensor system provides an accurate study of bivalve gaping behavior and facilitates the potential use of bivalves as environmental sentinels due to their valve-gaping being a biomarker for monitoring water pollution.

A comparative comprehensive analysis of the socio-pedagogical problem field of modernization of the educational system of Ukraine and the EU in the context of administrative reform and taking into account economic needs and the establishment of universal democratic values has been conducted. A comparative pedagogical study of the theoretical, organizational, methodological and regulatory principles of reforming the educational system of Ukraine, which is currently acquiring national features and integrated into the world educational space, has been carried out. Conceptual principles of reforming the educational system of Ukraine as a basis for improving the quality of life of citizens from the standpoint of an innovative educational project in the context and professional psychological and pedagogical aspects of training in the field of educational policy have been theoretically substantiated. The provision is that education, like other institutions of public life, requires operational and strategic management actions, aimed at its modernization and renewal. A conceptual integral dynamic model of reforming educational policy in Ukraine with substantiation of methodological approaches and theoretical positions has been developed on the basis of comparative pedagogical research. A necessity of expansion and qualitative improvement of the network of preschool educational institutions has been proved. There are trends that Ukrainian secondary education will eventually become on a par with the world standards of secondary school. A need to create and coordinate a strong system of out-of-school education in Ukraine has been justified, as the mass unemployment of children and youth in out-of-school time entails huge negative consequences. Peculiarities of reforming the system of training of working professions and vocational education in Ukraine have been specified. A strategic issue is the state policy on teacher training. Ukrainian origins of the phenomenon of pedagogical skill as a fundamental basis of the theory and practice of educational policy to improve the quality of teaching and learning in EU countries have been revealed. A necessity of development of a target program of professional and pedagogical selection and preparation of experts in the field of educational policy for Ukraine and an algorithm of estimation of its efficiency on the basis of the comparative analysis has been proved. The content of the concept of "educational policy" has been clarified, knowledge of the regulatory framework for reforming educational policy in the EU has been deepened.

Introduction. In the modern economy, the ongoing transformations of socio-economic development and the influence of time on business entities create the need for continuous re-evaluation of the value and usefulness of a company’s assets, which is directly reflected through the process of depreciation. At the same time, the emergence of new non-current assets and the expansion of their functional characteristics highlight the necessity to improve the methodology of accounting and depreciation calculation as a key tool for ensuring the accurate and comprehensive reflection of asset value in a dynamic business environment. Purpose of the article is to specify and supplement the determinants of depreciation accounting for non-current assets by improving its theoretical positioning, methods of calculation, and procedures for recognition in accounting accounts and registers. Results. The study analyzes the peculiarities of depreciation accounting for non-current assets of construction enterprises and substantiates the need to enhance methodological approaches to their depreciation. The relationship between the concepts of “wear” and “depreciation” is identified, and the expediency of considering this interdependence when forming sub-accounts under the account “Depreciation (wear) of non-current assets” is justified. The necessity of unifying the methodology for calculating depreciation of fixed and non-current tangible assets by abandoning the simplified “50%–50%” and “100%” methods, which distort the financial results of enterprises, is substantiated. The paper reveals the potential of using accounting information to form electronic accounting registers that reflect structural, dynamic, and cost-related characteristics of depreciation processes. Conclusions and prospects. The implementation of the proposed improvements in the accounting of non-current asset depreciation contributes to the formation of a comprehensive information base for meeting the needs of internal and external stakeholders involved in managing the efficiency of non-current tangible assets in the construction sector. In the future, data from electronic registers on depreciation can be used to develop variable forms of internal and external reporting on the company’s non-current assets, which represents a promising direction for further scientific inquiry.

Investigations of left hand praxis in imitation and object use in patients with callosal disconnection have yielded divergent results, inducing a debate between two theoretical positions. Whereas Liepmann suggested that the left hemisphere is motor dominant, others maintain that both hemispheres have equal motor competences and propose that left hand apraxia in patients with callosal disconnection is secondary to left hemispheric specialization for language or other task modalities. The present study aims to gain further insight into the motor competence of the right hemisphere by investigating pantomime of object use in split-brain patients. Three patients with complete callosotomy and, as control groups, five patients with partial callosotomy and nine healthy subjects were examined for their ability to pantomime object use to visual object presentation and demonstrate object manipulation. In each condition, 11 objects were presented to the subjects who pantomimed or demonstrated the object use with either hand. In addition, six object pairs were presented to test bimanual coordination. Two independent raters evaluated the videotaped movement demonstrations. While object use demonstrations were perfect in all three groups, the split-brain patients displayed apraxic errors only with their left hands in the pantomime condition. The movement analysis of concept and execution errors included the examination of ipsilateral versus contralateral motor control. As the right hand/left hemisphere performances demonstrated retrieval of the correct movement concepts, concept errors by the left hand were taken as evidence for right hemisphere control. Several types of execution errors reflected a lack of distal motor control indicating the use of ipsilateral pathways. While one split-brain patient controlled his left hand predominantly by ipsilateral pathways in the pantomime condition, the error profile in the other two split-brain patients suggested that the right hemisphere controlled their left hands. In the object use condition, in all three split-brain patients fine-graded distal movements in the left hand indicated right hemispheric control. Our data show left hand apraxia in split-brain patients is not limited to verbal commands, but also occurs in pantomime to visual presentation of objects. As the demonstration with object in hand was unimpaired in either hand, both hemispheres must contain movement concepts for object use. However, the disconnected right hemisphere is impaired in retrieving the movement concept in response to visual object presentation, presumably because of a deficit in associating perceptual object representation with the movement concepts.

Herring schools can be studied by standard acoustic methods, but to understand the relationship between the individual and school levels as well as the interactions between subpopulations of herring, it is essential to learn more about individual herring behavior. Acoustic tagging has successfully been used to track individual fish of various species, but herring are highly sensitive to being handled and are therefore not easy to tag. In this study, we tagged herring with acoustic transmitters to track prespawning and spawning individuals. The conditions for a tagging experiment were ideal because the herring remained in a single school (>100,000 fish) for more than 1 mo within an area of ∼200 m2 in the sheltered semienclosed Lindåspollene basins (Johannessen et al. 2009). This is a small (7-km2) well-defined ecosystem in western Norway, which comprises 3 distinct 60- to 90-m-deep basins containing numerous islets along with several sheltered sites. Here we evaluate whether acoustic tagging is a suitable method for the study of the natural behavior of herring around spawning.KeywordsAcoustic TransmitterDead FishSheltered SiteScale LossPrespawning PeriodThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Safety systems, like the passive containment air-cooling system, are used to remove heat from a containment during accident conditions in advanced nuclear reactors, including small modular reactors having a steel containment. For the effective performance of the passive containment air cooling system with and without a chimney, it is highly important to understand the natural convection air flow around the containment. The experimental investigation of passive containment air cooling of an experimental test setup with and without a chimney, with a geometry very similar to that of an actual reactor, is presented in this paper. Comparisons between the air-side transient natural convection characteristics with and without a chimney were studied in detail based on the temperature measurement. The effect of a chimney was found to have an adverse effect on natural convection behavior due to possible air recirculation zones and restrictions to air flow due to its present shape.

Comparative studies of diverse species provide a wealth of information about active touch and corresponding brain specializations in the somatosensory system. Here the results of numerous studies of brain and behavior in shrews and moles are reviewed and discussed. Water shrews have elaborate whiskers and can detect prey based on both texture and movement. In contrast to rodents, shrew whiskers are not reflected by barrels in the cortex, but are reflected in the brainstem by prominent barrelettes. Although shrews have a simpler cortical anatomy than rodents, star-nosed mole’s cortices are more complex, with three histologically visible and interconnected cortical maps that reflect the nasal rays on the contralateral star. One ray of the star is used as the tactile fovea, and is greatly over-represented in the neocortex. This finding highlights similarities between specialized somatosensory, visual, and auditory systems—each of which may have a sensory fovea for high resolution sensory processing. Both water shrews and star-nosed moles exhibit the remarkable ability to sniff underwater by exhaling and reinhaling air bubbles as they forage. This allows visualization of sniffing during natural behaviors and provides a unique window into the behavioral integration of touch and smell . Finally, eastern moles have the least specialized set of mechanoreceptors but exhibit remarkable olfactory abilities using stereo nasal cues—in conjunction with touch—to efficiently locate prey. These results highlight the many insights that may be derived from specialized model animals.

Introduction. This study explores health information non-sharing behaviour in everyday social settings and interactions. The novelty and relevance of the study lies in the fact that it explores a common yet understudied information behaviour, as very few studies have examined information non-sharing. Method. Forty qualitative in-depth interviews were held in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium, with adults between the ages of fifty and eighty. Analysis. A contextual framework was drawn from information studies and health information and communication research, consisting of the concepts of health orientation, information avoidance, uncertainty management, to help understand health information non-sharing. Thematic analysis was employed to identify reasons for non-sharing behaviour. Results. Seven key themes or reasons emerge for health information non-sharing behaviour; health as a non-topic, avoid being labelled as ill, individual responsibility, avoid burdening others, lack of trust in others, lack of trust in the internet, and avoiding information overload. Conclusions. This study is not only more nuanced than earlier work on sharing behaviour, but also leads to new questions about outcomes of health information non-sharing. The findings further illuminate 'non-information behaviour' within information studies, while also offering insights relevant to health communication researchers and healthcare practitioners.

EthosVolume 29, Issue 3 p. 239-246 Introduction: Honoring the Contributions of Beatrice B. Whiting Professor Thomas S. Weisner, Professor Thomas S. Weisner Departments of Psychiatry and Anthropology, University of California, Los AngelesSearch for more papers by this authorProfessor Carolyn Pope Edwards, Professor Carolyn Pope Edwards University of NebraskaSearch for more papers by this author Professor Thomas S. Weisner, Professor Thomas S. Weisner Departments of Psychiatry and Anthropology, University of California, Los AngelesSearch for more papers by this authorProfessor Carolyn Pope Edwards, Professor Carolyn Pope Edwards University of NebraskaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 03 January 2008 https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2001.29.3.239Citations: 3AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Citing Literature Volume29, Issue3September 2001Pages 239-246 RelatedInformation

Introduction. One of the peculiarities of Ukrainian agrarian market functioning is the growth of uncertainties, whose impact has increased significantly as a result of globalization processes. The constant change of external and internal factors causes risks, which become the main problem of management, as they determine the directions and production efficiency and agricultural products sale. Therefore, there is a need to apply progressive risk management methods and tools that are effective and efficient under current conditions. Companies use derivatives (trusted derivatives) to turn their cases around and limit uncertainty about future businesses for revitalization. Therefore, derivatives are actually invested in some economies and make their effectiveness for a higher level of valuable assets in the course of exchange trading. The purpose of the article is to substantiate scientifically theoretical positions and methodological approaches, to develop alternative risk management strategies through stock exchange instruments, namely types of derivatives – options. Results. The importance of theoretical bases formation of the risk essence is substantiated that can be faced by domestic producers. The ways of uncertainties occurrence, stages of their transformation are explained. The theoretical approach to risk management through the use of futures contracts is systematized. The historical stages of using derivatives development have been evaluated. The new approach to risk management is proposed through the use of the optional Collar strategy. Conclusions. Any business activity is unthinkable without risks in developed countries, so any manufacturer seeks to insure its risk, including through a fixed market. The terminal market allows for redistribution of risks among market participants, on which a particular derivative operates. The advantage of derivatives is the leverage that allows participants to operate large amounts of risk management funds, including hedging their own products. Keywords: risk, risk management, risk management, hedges, options, futures, derivatives, derivatives.

Liberating our conceptualization of 'evidence'.

The article deals with the peculiarities of teaching cadets of economic specialties English for Specific Purposes, taking into account the interdisciplinary links. It is pointed out that teaching a foreign language to cadets at the Academy of the State Penitentiary Service must be on the basis of methodological approaches and peculiarities of unified entrance exam in a foreign language for admission to study for obtaining a master’s degree in the fields of knowledge 05 “Social and behavioral sciences”. In the article the authors analyze the latest research on teaching future specialists foreign languages on the basis of such methodological approaches as system, activity, competence, aspect, context approach and others. In the context of the study, the authors determine that mastering English communicative competence in professional communication by the cadets should take into account interdisciplinary links, especially working together with the specialized departments. The authors indicate that teaching cadets of economic specialties English for Specific Purposes should be implemented on the basis of systematic, competency-based, professionally-oriented and interdisciplinary approaches. The aim of the article is to determine the features of teaching cadets of economic specialties English for Specific Purposes on the basis of those approaches with taking into account interdisciplinary links. In the article the authors give the analysis the disciplines that the four-year cadets of economic specialties study at the Academy of the State Penitentiary Service. They state that the acquisition of professional English communicative competence is possible in case of taking into account the professional themes connected with the disciplines studied by future economists in the Academy. The requirements of the unified entrance exam in a foreign language are considered while developing the tasks and exercises to teach cadets of economic specialties English. The tasks for developing English lexical and grammatical competences and competence in reading are included.