Search

The multi-decade debates within the field of behavior analysis as to the possible value and threat of group design methodology and statistical analyses on the purity of the field have weakened the discipline's maximal impact on the world. This paper rebukes the concerns and suggests that through such adoption behavior analysis may likely better achieve its world-changing ideals, and pragmatic initiatives. We begin with a historical trace of the current debate and describe the pros and cons to design/analysis inclusion, frame such matters within the context of contemporary issues which applied behavior analysts find themselves concerned, and ultimately put forward means by which broader, and perhaps more impactful, research questions can be asked and interpreted.

ObjectiveTo establish lactate and glucose differences between affected and non-affected limbs in cats with feline arterial thromboembolism (FATE). To evaluate the correlation between these values and survival to discharge as well as congestive heart failure (CHF).MethodsBlood glucose and lactate concentrations were prospectively obtained on admission from client-owned FATE cats and client-owned cats presented for other conditions. The glucose and lactate concentrations of the front limbs (or non-affected) and the hind limbs (or affected) were measured. Lactate (Δlactate) and glucose (Δglucose) differences between the two limbs were calculated.ResultsThe FATE group and control groups included 18 and 41 cats, respectively. The median age of the cats within the FATE group and control groups was 9.5 years and 5 years, respectively. The median Δlactate was significantly higher in the FATE group than in the control group (7.2 mmol/L versus 0.1 mmol/L, respectively; p ≤ 0.01). The median Δglucose was significantly higher in the FATE group than in the control group (155 mg/dL versus 3 mg/dL, respectively; p ≤ 0.01). A diagnosis of FATE was made using a ∆lactate cutoff of 2.2 mmol/L (100% sensitivity and 95% specificity) or a ∆glucose cutoff of 41 mg/dL (100% sensitivity and specificity). There was no correlation between Δlactate and Δglucose and survival to discharge. A higher ∆glucose was significantly associated with concurrent CHF (p = 0.01).ConclusionBoth Δlactate and Δglucose were accurate diagnostic tools for cats with FATE. Neither were correlated with survival to discharge. Higher Δglucose values were significantly associated with the presence of CHF.

To combat food insecurity in Madagascar, organizations have promoted the Système de Riziculture Intensifiée (SRI), or System of Rice Intensification, an agroecological rice-growing technique. However, despite its many benefits, adoption remains low (and disadoption remains high) in Madagascar. To better understand these dynamics, we use data from two surveys of 328 rice farming households in southeastern Madagascar to conduct an analysis of decisions to adopt SRI, as well as look at the differences between adopters and non-adopters. Results show that despite strong intentions to adopt the technique, actual rates of adoption were lower than expected. Indeed, while 89.8% (n = 291) of respondents stated intention to adopt SRI, only 21.6% (n = 60) had trialed it one year later. Results also indicate that exposure to SRI trainings did not have spill-over effects to “untreated” farmers, as nearly all (95%, n = 57) of the farmers adopting SRI had registered for the training, with the majority (89.5%, n = 51) attending some days of training. Reasons given for not adopting SRI included lack of rice seeds deemed suitable by farmers, as well as insufficient labor, time and other resources. Furthermore, using an integrated Theory of Planned Behavior - Technology Acceptance Model framework and structural equation modeling (SEM), we find that perceived behavioral control, training participation and household assets are significant predictors of adoption. This research is important in efforts to better support uptake of improved agricultural practices among food insecure farming populations. It also fills a gap in the literature regarding SRI adoption among lowland coastal farming populations.

IntroductionThe present study examined the prevalence of food insecurity and perceived stress among food system workers relative to other members of the population during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also explored perspectives on the role of food system workers during the pandemic and their experiences working during this time.MethodsData were collected via an online survey in spring 2021. The sample was comprised of 441 residents of Vermont, United States, including 41 food system workers.ResultsRegression models identified higher rates of food insecurity and perceived stress among food system workers during the first year of the pandemic. However, these relationships were not maintained when the models were adjusted for income and job disruption, suggesting that the associations were primarily due to the economic vulnerability of food system workers. Most respondents indicated concern for the health and well-being of food system workers, felt that food system workers were undervalued, and agreed that the well-being of food system workers should be prioritized. However, opinions were split regarding whether it was worth the health risk to require farms and food processing plants to stay open to maintain the food supply. Half of food system workers believed that their work had compromised their well-being during the pandemic, although several also identified their jobs as pathways for accessing food.DiscussionThe findings provide valuable information for decision-makers seeking to increase the resilience of the food supply and the food system workforce.

A key purpose of the transportation system is to provide access to critical services such as grocery stores. Maintaining food access during an emergency or other disruption is all the more important, particularly for vulnerable households. Most people in the United States rely on the use of private automobiles for grocery shopping. Thus, disruptions to road networks due to heavy precipitation, flooding, or even major maintenance and repair projects present notable threats to accessibility. Regional planning models that address food accessibility issues (not all do) typically do not consider households’ familiarity with grocery locations. However, during a disruptive event, a household’s familiarity with at least one available route to a retail grocery location becomes paramount. Identifying the roadways that are most critical to food access can help decision makers devise strategies to mitigate the risks of food insecurity for vulnerable households and populations.Researchers at the University of Vermont developed a methodology that provides an ordinal measure of demand-side food access. It takes into account the spatial distribution of both the origin and destination, the topology of the road network, and the characteristics of the roadway network such as capacities, volumes, and travel speeds. The analysis considers household familiarity with retail grocery locations, destination weighting to account for retail grocery characteristics (square footage), and origin weighting to account for household vulnerability. The researchers demonstrated the methodology using the travel demand model for Chittenden County, Vermont. This policy brief summarizes the findings from that research and provide policy implications.View the NCST Project Webpage

Background Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are required for patient-centred care. There are limited PROMs with good psychometric properties, and limitations to any language-based scale are often constrained by the written words or numerals used. Therefore, we developed the Functional Activity Scoring Tool (FAST), a self-reporting pictorial scale. FAST measures the impact of knee osteoarthritis on essential activities of daily living (ADL) and the significant changes in the self-perceived functional status over time.Objectives This study aims to (1) develop FAST with adaptation from the Wong-Baker FACES pain rating scale, (2) validate FAST against the Patient-Specific Functional Scale (PSFS) and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) and (3) establish the reliability, validity and responsiveness of FAST in individuals with knee osteoarthritis.Methods and analysis The prospective study protocol investigates the validity, responsiveness and reliability of FAST. The PSFS and KOOS will be gold standard comparisons. Participant recruitment will occur at four public polyclinics that offer physiotherapy outpatient services in Singapore. Onsite physiotherapists familiar with the study eligibilities will refer potential participants to the investigators after the routine physiotherapy assessment. After providing written consent, eligible participants will complete outcome measurements with FAST, the PSFS and KOOS during baseline and follow-up assessments. The Global Rating of Change (GROC) scale will determine how the participant’s knee status was changed compared with the beginning of the physiotherapy intervention.Ethics and dissemination SingHealth Centralised Institutional Review Board approved the study (CIRB reference number: 2022/2602). The final results will be published via scientific publication. FAST will benefit the evaluation and management of those who suffer knee osteoarthritis regardless of English proficiency or language barriers.Trial registration number NCT05590663

Abstract Farmers are increasingly planting cover crops to improve soil health and provide other ecosystem services. Cover crop incentive programs in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont were compared and farmers using cover crops were surveyed (n = 328) to characterize program participants and assess the effects of programs on cover crop adoption. Farmers who participated in incentive programs differed from nonparticipants in their perspectives about incentive programs, challenges they faced using cover crops, and reasons for cover crop use. When averaged across farmers, results show that incentive programs doubled average farmer cropland with cover crops from 50.7 ha prior to participation to 101.0 ha during participation. Among participants who no longer were enrolled in a program, cover crop use remained on average 37.2% greater than before enrollment. Results highlight the role of incentive programs in facilitating adoption and provide insights for expanding participation to different farmers and increasing program impact.

This project focuses on modeling access to food locations by identifying the most critical roadway links in a transportation network. This project extends the Critical Closeness Accessibility (CCA) measure developed by Novak and Sullivan (2014) to identify the roadway infrastructure components that are most critical with respect to food accessibility. Specifically, origin and destination weighting are included for the application of food security, where origins are weighted according to household vulnerability and destinations are weighted by retail-grocery square footage. The CCA is further extended by calibrating the trip impedance constant, ω, in the original formulation of the CCA with actual grocery-shopping data from the National Household Travel Survey. This calibration modifies the functional form of the accessibility measure to address trips focused on food access and thus incorporates realistic travel expectations for retail grocery familiarity of households. The project also provides a unique method for estimating household-level vulnerability characteristics using population synthesis. The modification of the CCA to address food accessibility can be used to support more targeted investment in transportation assets, as the CCA is indexed to specific roadway links in the network. The methodology is demonstrated using the Travel Demand Model of Chittenden County, Vermont.View the NCST Project Webpage

Background/Purpose: To date, there are no published validated Chinese versions of the incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT) instructions despite its wide clinical applications. Translation of the Chinese ISWT instruction is done in an ad-hoc manner within the Chinese-speaking populations, affecting the test’s reliability and validity since translation can differ significantly between individuals. This warrants the need for psychometric testing of such translation. Objectives: To develop a Chinese (Mandarin) version of the ISWT instructions (ISWT-CHN) that is conceptually equivalent to the original English version (ISWT-ENG) and establish its reliability and validity. Methods: Forward and backward translations from the ISWT-ENG were done to generate the ISWT-CHN. Face and content validity was determined during the translation process. Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of the ISWT-CHN, construct and criterion validity were established by analysing the ISWT and the gold standard cardiopulmonary exercise test results. Results: The Item-Content validity index (I-CVI), Scale-level-Content validity index (S-CVI), and content validity ratio (CVR) of the ISWT-CHN were 1.0. Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for inter-rater reliability between two raters were excellent ([Formula: see text], 95% CI 0.97–1.0, [Formula: see text]; [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m, [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m). The intra-rater reliability of both Raters A ([Formula: see text], 95% CI 0.53–0.98, [Formula: see text]; [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m, [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m) and B ([Formula: see text], 95% CI 0.76–0.96, [Formula: see text]; [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m, [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m) were good. In a sample of 32 healthy participants, both ISWT-CHN and ISWT-ENG instruction results showed low-positive correlations with the VO[Formula: see text] determined from the cardiopulmonary exercise test ([Formula: see text] = 0.439, [Formula: see text]; [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]). There is a very high correlation between ISWT-ENG and ISWT-CHN results with no statistically significant differences ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]). The construct and criterion validity of the ISWT-CHN were established. Conclusion: This study developed the ISWT-CHN and showed that it is a valid and reliable measure conceptually comparable to the ISWT-ENG. It will benefit the determination of functional exercise capacity in Chinese-speaking populations. Key messages •This study is aimed to develop a Chinese (Mandarin) version of the ISWT instructions. •The ISWT Chinese translation is valid and reliable that is conceptually comparable to the original English instruction. •The translated ISWT-Chinese instruction will enable the use of ISWT among the Chinese-speaking populations.

Summary at a glance: The 6-min walk test (6MWT) is a widely used field walking test. This study reports the normative reference values (NRV) of distance walked during 6MWT (6MWD) in healthy Singaporeans (aged 21–80) and updates the 6MWD reference equations. This information may facilitate the interpretation of the 6MWD in clinical populations. Ethics approval: The Singapore Institute of Technology-Institutional Review Board (SIT-IRB Project Number: 2019099) approved this study to be carried out from June 2019 to January 2021. All participants gave written informed consent before data collection began. Background: The six-minute walk test (6MWT) is a widely adopted submaximal field-walking test to evaluate functional exercise capacity. This validated test is a reliable, safe, inexpensive, and straightforward assessment tool commonly used as an outcome measure, using the distance walked (6MWD) as the primary outcome. An earlier study has established the normative reference values (NRV) and equation in healthy Singaporeans — however, the small sample size and narrow age range curb adequate representation of the adult population profile. Objectives: This study aims to update the NRV and reference equations to predict the distance walked during 6MWT (6MWD) for healthy Singaporeans aged 21–80. Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited community-dwelling healthy subjects aged 21–80 via convenience sampling. Each subject completed two trials of 6MWT according to the standard protocol. Primary outcome measures included 6MWD, pre-and post-test heart rate (HR), oxygen saturation, and blood pressure (BP). Results: 172 healthy Singaporeans ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) participated. The overall mean 6MWD was [Formula: see text] metres. The age-stratified mean 6MWD ranged from [Formula: see text] metres (aged 21–39) to [Formula: see text] metres (aged 60–80). Age, gender, and percentage maximum HR predicted (%PredHRmax) were the most significant variables ([Formula: see text]). 6MWD reference [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] (HR reserve, bpm) [Formula: see text] (weight, kg), [Formula: see text]. Applying equations from other studies to the Singaporean population resulted in an overestimation of the 6MWD. Conclusion: This study updated the NRV and reference equations of 6MWD for healthy Singaporeans aged between 21–80 years. This update revises the local benchmarks of 6MWD in Singapore, a widely adopted outcome measure.

Common-pool resource theory suggests that the direct participation of local natural resource users in the management of common-pool resources can lead to effective management regimes. Nevertheless, the drivers of participation in common-pool resource management, including policy decision processes, and the effects of participation on stakeholder attitudes and policy preferences are relatively understudied. Here, we combine the social-ecological system (SES) framework with the political science concept of political efficacy to examine both contextual and personal drivers of farmer participation in California, USA’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), as well as the effect of participation on support for policy mechanisms from the SGMA. We surveyed a total of 553 farmers in three counties across the California Central Valley and Central Coast. Overall, we find that < 50% of the farmers surveyed have participated in any SGMA-related events, with attending a meeting being the most common (45%), and testifying before a board being the least common (6%). Participation in any type of SGMA policy event was associated with multiple characteristics of the groundwater SES context, including the resource system (farm size) and actor attributes (farm bureau membership and receiving information about the policy), that likely combine to indicate a higher level of social, financial, and built capital. Higher participation was also associated with higher internal efficacy ratings, i.e., an individual’s self-assessment of their ability to understand and participate in the political process. Higher levels of internal efficacy were also correlated with support for both incentive- and regulatory-based policy mechanisms, as well as the perception that groundwater impacts are occurring now or soon, and exclusive reliance on groundwater. These results demonstrate that political competence and experience with policy processes and programs are not only associated with participation in current policy issues, which is widely recognized in existing research, but are also associated with policy mechanisms, in particular, with potentially more costly regulatory-based mechanisms.

ObjectivesCochlear implants (CIs) are remarkable in allowing individuals with severe to profound hearing loss to perceive speech. Despite these gains in speech understanding, however, CI users often struggle to perceive elements such as vocal emotion and prosody, as CIs are unable to transmit the spectro-temporal detail needed to decode affective cues. This issue becomes particularly important for children with CIs, but little is known about their emotional development. In a previous study, pediatric CI users showed deficits in voice emotion recognition with child-directed stimuli featuring exaggerated prosody. However, the large intersubject variability and differential developmental trajectory known in this population incited us to question the extent to which exaggerated prosody would facilitate performance in this task. Thus, the authors revisited the question with both adult-directed and child-directed stimuli.DesignVocal emotion recognition was measured using both child-directed (CDS) and adult-directed (ADS) speech conditions. Pediatric CI users, aged 7-19 years old, with no cognitive or visual impairments and who communicated through oral communication with English as the primary language participated in the experiment (n = 27). Stimuli comprised 12 sentences selected from the HINT database. The sentences were spoken by male and female talkers in a CDS or ADS manner, in each of the five target emotions (happy, sad, neutral, scared, and angry). The chosen sentences were semantically emotion-neutral. Percent correct emotion recognition scores were analyzed for each participant in each condition (CDS vs. ADS). Children also completed cognitive tests of nonverbal IQ and receptive vocabulary, while parents completed questionnaires of CI and hearing history. It was predicted that the reduced prosodic variations found in the ADS condition would result in lower vocal emotion recognition scores compared with the CDS condition. Moreover, it was hypothesized that cognitive factors, perceptual sensitivity to complex pitch changes, and elements of each child's hearing history may serve as predictors of performance on vocal emotion recognition.ResultsConsistent with our hypothesis, pediatric CI users scored higher on CDS compared with ADS speech stimuli, suggesting that speaking with an exaggerated prosody-akin to "motherese"-may be a viable way to convey emotional content. Significant talker effects were also observed in that higher scores were found for the female talker for both conditions. Multiple regression analysis showed that nonverbal IQ was a significant predictor of CDS emotion recognition scores while Years using CI was a significant predictor of ADS scores. Confusion matrix analyses revealed a dependence of results on specific emotions; for the CDS condition's female talker, participants had high sensitivity (d' scores) to happy and low sensitivity to the neutral sentences while for the ADS condition, low sensitivity was found for the scared sentences.ConclusionsIn general, participants had higher vocal emotion recognition to the CDS condition which also had more variability in pitch and intensity and thus more exaggerated prosody, in comparison to the ADS condition. Results suggest that pediatric CI users struggle with vocal emotion perception in general, particularly to adult-directed speech. The authors believe these results have broad implications for understanding how CI users perceive emotions both from an auditory communication standpoint and a socio-developmental perspective.

Rural communities face unique food and nutrition challenges. Analyzing population-level survey data from 2021 to 2022 in two predominantly rural U.S. states using regression and multiple hypothesis testing procedures, we examined how well diets align with national recommendations and associations between diet, age, food security, and rurality. We found dietary intake of key foods and ingredients to differ significantly from recommendations and overall diet quality to increase with age. Food secure adults had higher diet quality than food insecure adults. Neither dietary intake nor dietary quality differed by degree of rurality. Continued action is needed to address nutrition challenges among underserved populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable diets have been identified as an important component of a food systems transformation that is urgently needed to meet global sustainability and development goals. This study addresses the lack of a comprehensive synthesis and overview of the sustainable diets literature, including its evolution over time and across disciplines, and sheds light on whether and how this body of work addresses dimensions of sustainability as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation’s (FAO) sustainable diets framework. Topic modeling, a type of natural language processing, was used to perform a thematic scoping review of 855 articles published between 2000–2022 to identify trends and themes in a way that was rapid, transparent, reliable, and reproducible. This research finds demonstrated growth in the field of sustainable diets research, with the majority (66%) of sustainable diets articles considered in this study published in the last three years of the study period. Sixty-three percent of the sustainable diets research articles can be characterized by two topics, ‘sustainability impacts of dietary patterns’ and ‘sustainable diets and food system policy.’ FAO components of sustainable diets related to local and seasonal foods, culture, and equity receive relatively little research attention, whereas components of health, environment, and food security each align with approximately a third of the research literature. This is also reflected in the subject classification analysis, in which nearly half of the research (44%) was classified as Nutrition and Dietetics and/or Environmental Studies. This research highlights the need for more transdisciplinary research that addresses areas of equity, culture, social processes, and context as well as the intersections of sustainability dimensions to better understand the need for, implications, and directions of sustainable diets to support a sustainable food systems transformation.

Research has found that factors such as content, prompts, and individual motivational differences affect instructional effectiveness. While instructional effectiveness is acritical outcome variable, the limited availability of instructional time results in instructional efficiency being acritical consideration. This study evaluated whether varying instructional set sizes (i.e. the number of unknown items taught within a specified period of time) produced differential learning. Instruction was provided on arbitrary number-word relationships. Response to learning sets was studied using a within-participants experimental design. This study differs from prior research by examining set size for the commonly used constant time delay procedure. The results suggested that, for the majority of students, learning five novel items at a time was less efficient than one of the larger sets of unknown items. Additionally, participants demonstrated individual differences in learning rates. The implications of these findings for instructional presentation and intervention efficiency are discussed.

Research evaluating the variables that influence learning has devoted inadequate attention to the influence of the amount of new material presented at one time. The current study evaluated the impact of varying instructional set size (ISS) on the rate at which elementary school students mastered multiplication facts while receiving constant time delay (CTD) instruction. Instructional time was equated across conditions. Instruction was provided for an ISS of five and 20 using CTD instruction for multiplication facts. ISS 20 was more efficient for two out of the three participants. This suggests a much larger efficient ISS than previous research. The implications of this finding for the importance of the instructional method in attempting to identify an efficient ISS, as well as the study's connection to prior research, in this area are discussed.

BackgroundThe validated Incremental Shuttle Walk Test (ISWT) is widely used for evaluating maximal exercise capacity, with the distance-walked (IWSD) as the primary outcome. However, there are no normative reference values (NRV) and reference equations to predict ISWD for the Singaporean population.ObjectivesThis study aims to establish the NRV and reference equations for ISWD in healthy Singaporeans aged 21 to 80 and investigate the determining variables during ISWT.MethodsThis cross-sectional study recruited community-dwelling healthy subjects aged 21-80 from the community via convenience sampling. Each subject completed two trials of the ISWT according to the standard protocol. Variables measured during the trials included ISWD, pre-and post-test heart rate (HR), oxygen saturation, blood pressure (BP), modified Borg's dyspnoea score and Borg's rate of perceived exertion (RPE).Results199 healthy Singaporean (females = 114, males = 85) participated in the study. The overall median ISWD was 660.0 metres (m) [interquartile range (IQR):440.0-850.0]. The age-stratified mean ISWD ranged from 430.0 m (IQR:350.0-450.0) (aged 60-80) to 480.0 m (IQR:438.0-650.0) (aged 40-59) to 780.0 m (IQR:670.0-960.0) (aged 21-39). Gender, age, weight, height and HR change (highest post-test HR minus pre-test HR) were the most significant variables (p < 0.001). IWSD (m) = 651.4(Height, m) +89.7(Gender, male = 1; female = 0) -6.31(Age, years) -3.61(Weight, kilograms) +2.54(HR change, beats per minute); R2 = 0.741. Previously published ISWT reference equations cannot accurately predict the ISWD in the Singaporean population.ConclusionsThis study investigated the ISWD NRV and established reference equations for healthy Singaporeans aged 21-80. The information would be beneficial in setting performance benchmarks to guide physical assessment, intervention and rehabilitation.