How mothers parent their children with behavior disorders: implications for unintentional injury risk

INTRODUCTION: This study was designed to test the role of parental supervision in explaining why children with behavior disorders have increased risk of unintentional injury. METHOD: Children referred to a pediatric behavior disorders clinic and their mothers were unknowingly observed in a "hazard room" environment that housed several items that appeared dangerous but actually were altered to be safe. RESULTS: Mother and child behavior in the hazard room was correlated to parent-, teacher-, and observational-reports of children's externalizing behavior patterns, children's injury history, and mother's parenting styles. Maternal ignoring of children's dangerous behavior in the hazard room was the strongest correlate to children's injury history. CONCLUSIONS: Poor parental supervision might serve as a mechanism to explain why children with behavior disorders, and those with oppositional behavior patterns in particular, have increased risk of unintentional injury.     

Representativity and univocity of traffic signs and their effect on trajectory movement in a driving simulation task: Warning signs

Objective: The effect of traffic signs on the behavior of drivers is not completely understood. Knowing about how humans process the meaning of signs (not just by learning but instinctively) will improve reaction time and decision making when traveling. The economic, social, and psychological consequences of car accidents are well known.

Methods: This study sounds out which traffic signs are more ergonomic for participants, from a cognitive point of view, and determines, at the same time, their effect in participants' movement trajectories in a driving simulation task.

Results: Results point out that the signs least representative of their meaning produce a greater deviation from the center of the road than the most representative ones.

Conclusions: This study encourages both an in-depth analysis of the effect on movement of roadside signs and the study of how this effect can be modified by the context in which these signs are presented (with the aim to move the research closer to and analyze the data in real contexts). The goal is to achieve clarity of meaning and lack of counterproductive effects on the trajectory of representative signs (those that provoke fewer mistakes in the decision task).     

基于多源数据融合的煤矿工作面瓦斯浓度预测*

为了解决瓦斯浓度预测使用的单一数据在预测中影响还不够深入的问题,提出基于LSTM神经网络的多源数据融合瓦斯浓度预测模型。模型将上隅角瓦斯浓度、采煤机速度、工作面吨煤瓦斯涌出量等不同数据融合作为输入层参数,使用Adam优化算法更新LSTM网络层参数,利用Attention机制突出关键影响瓦斯浓度的因素,开展多源数据融合的瓦斯浓度预测,结合某矿1008工作面的实际数据,分析不同数据在瓦斯浓度预测中的作用。研究结果表明:单变量下的Attention-aLSTM预测效果相比LSTM提升14.2%;多源数据融合下的Attention-aLSTM相比自身提升了5%。     

Enhancing the benefits of outdoor walking with cognitive engagement strategies

Being physically active in natural environments has been associated with improvements to physical health and mental well-being. Unfortunately, gaining access to outdoor settings that are supportive of both psychological well-being and year-round physical activity poses major challenges. Might altering how one engages in and interacts with the outdoor environment encouraging greater physical activity and enhance well-being? In order to investigate this approach, 117 adults were randomly assigned to one of two treatments - Standard Care (schedule setting, commitment) or Engagement (awareness plans) - and asked to take at least three, 30 minutes outdoor walks each week for two weeks. Participants in both treatment conditions reported significant increases in total time spent walking (p ≤ .05). Only those in the Engagement condition, however, experienced significant improvements in multiple dimensions of psychological well-being, including attentional functioning and feelings of frustration. In addition, participants in the engagement-based condition who walked at low to moderate levels were more likely to obtain psychological benefits. The results of this study suggest that promoting cognitive engagement with the environment may make it easier for individuals to achieve the psychological benefits typically associated with outdoor physical activity, even in settings that are less than ideal.     

Deciphering urban traffic impacts on air quality by deep learning and emission inventory

Air pollution is a major obstacle to future sustainability, and traffic pollution has become a large drag on the sustainable developments of future metropolises. Here, combined with the large volume of real-time monitoring data, we propose a deep learning model, iDeepAir, to predict surface-level PM_2.5 concentration in Shanghai megacity and link with MEIC emission inventory creatively to decipher urban traffic impacts on air quality. Our model exhibits high-fidelity in reproducing pollutant concentrations and reduces the MAE from 25.355 µg/m³ to 12.283 µg/m³ compared with other models. And identifies the ranking of major factors, local meteorological conditions have become a nonnegligible factor. Layer-wise relevance propagation (LRP) is used here to enhance the interpretability of the model and we visualize and analyze the reasons for the different correlation between traffic density and PM_2.5 concentration in various regions of Shanghai. Meanwhile, As the strict and effective industrial emission reduction measurements implementing in China, the contribution of urban traffic to PM_2.5 formation calculated by combining MEIC emission inventory and LRP is gradually increasing from 18.03% in 2011 to 24.37% in 2017 in Shanghai, and the impact of traffic emissions would be ever-prominent in 2030 according to our prediction. We also infer that the promotion of vehicular electrification would achieve further alleviation of PM_2.5 about 8.45% by 2030 gradually. These insights are of great significance to provide the decision-making basis for accurate and high-efficient traffic management and urban pollution control, and eventually benefit people's lives and high-quality sustainable developments of cities.     

煤矿噪声对人的注意力影响实验研究

为了研究煤矿噪声对作业人员注意力的影响,采用舒尔特方格法对20名被试者进行5 d的测试,以反应时间和错误次数为评价标准,测试了5种不同分贝煤矿噪声下的注意力水平。运用SPSS,Excel等软件对实验所得的反应时间、出错次数和超时次数进行分析。结果表明:不同噪声等级刺激对矿工的注意力水平存在差异。噪声等级在35~85 db时,注意力水平变化不显著,当噪声等级超过85 db后,对注意力水平的影响趋于显著。煤矿安全规程规定井下作业场所的噪声不应超过85 db,如果超过此临界值,噪声会对矿工的注意力产生较大的负面影响,导致不安全行为的发生;不同噪声等级分别与矿工出错次数、超时次数成正相关关系。当噪声等级在35~85 db时,随噪声刺激的增大,矿工出错次数的增长率先增大后减小,而超时次数的增长率刚好相反。噪声等级超过85 db后,矿工出错次数、超时次数的增长率一致。     

Sensory displeasure reduces complex cognitive performance in the heat

The aim of this study was to verify that in a hot environment, the subjective state could affect cognitive performance before any increase in core temperature. Eighteen volunteers performed a planning (OTS) and a reaction time task in hot and control environments. Before starting the cognitive assessment, subjects completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and provided subjective measures of thermal comfort and thermal sensation. Our results showed that while simple tasks were not affected, complex cognitive task performance was significantly reduced in the HOT. Furthermore, although subjects responded faster during the complex task (OTS) they took longer to find the correct solution. Within the 15 min of heat exposure, skin temperature (T_skin) significantly increased by ∼3 °C. However, core temperature remained unchanged and there were cortical excitability alterations that could have influenced cognitive performance. Therefore, the increase in T_skin appears to be a sufficient physiological response to alter the subjective state of individuals and impair effective decision-making that could have important consequences in occupational settings.     

Traffic noise and executive functioning in urban primary school children: The moderating role of gender

The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between noise and school children's executive functioning (EF). The study included 311 children (146 boys and 165 girls) aged 7–11 years, who lived in the center of Belgrade. Teachers rated children's EF on a standard scale evaluating their ability to work independently in a focused manner to achieve an end goal as well as children's ability to follow directions carefully. Residential noise exposure was estimated in three daytime intervals, one evening interval and two nighttime intervals in the middle of the streets where children lived. School noise exposure was measured on three different school days in front of children's schools. Socioeconomic status (mother's highest level of education and family income) was used as a statistical control. There were no significant main effects of ambient noise levels on EF, however, a significant interaction indicated adverse noise impacts on boy's EF. We discuss possible reasons for male EF vulnerability to noise.     

Effects of two doses of methylphenidate on simulator driving performance in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

INTRODUCTION: Numerous studies have documented an increased frequency of vehicular crashes, traffic citations, driving performance deficits, and driving-related cognitive impairments in teens and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. METHOD: The present study evaluated the effects of two single, acute doses of methylphenidate (10 and 20 mg) and a placebo on the driving performance of 53 adults with ADHD (mean age=37 years, range=18-65) using a virtual reality driving simulator, examiner and self-ratings of simulator performance, and a continuous performance test (CPT) to evaluate attention and inhibition. A double-blind, drug-placebo, within-subjects crossover design was used in which all participants were tested at baseline and then experienced all three drug conditions. RESULTS: A significant beneficial effect for the high dose of medication was observed on impulsiveness on CPT, variability of steering in the standard driving course, and driving speed during the obstacle course. A beneficial effect of the low dose of medication also was evident on turn signal use during the standard driving course. An apparent practice effect was noted on some of the simulator measures between the baseline and subsequent testing sessions that may have interacted with and thereby obscured drug effects on those measures. CONCLUSIONS: The results, when placed in the context of prior studies of stimulants on driving performance, continue to recommend their clinical use as one means of reducing the driving risks in ADHD teens and adults. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Given the significantly higher risk of adverse driving outcomes associated with ADHD, industry needs to better screen for ADHD among employees who drive as part of employment so as to improve safety and reduce costs. Use of stimulants to treat the adult ADHD driver may reduce safety risks.     

Aircraft and road traffic noise exposure and children's mental health

There have been few studies examining noise and psychological disorders in children and the results are equivocal. The objective of this study was to examine exposure–effect relationships between aircraft and road traffic noise exposure and children's mental health. We conducted a cross-national, cross-sectional study assessing 2844 pupils, aged 9–10, from 89 schools around three major airports in the Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom matched within country for socio-economic position. We selected children on the basis of exposure to external aircraft and road traffic noise exposure. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) assessed child mental health, including emotional problems, conduct disorder, hyperactivity, peer problems and prosocial behaviour. Aircraft noise exposure was significantly associated with an increased score on the hyperactivity subscale (pooled B estimate 0.013 CI 0.007–0.019) after full adjustment. Road traffic noise was significantly associated with lower scores on the conduct problems subscale maintained after full adjustment (pooled B estimate 0.010 95%CI −0.020 to −0.001). There was no association between either aircraft or road traffic noise exposure and the SDQ total score. The hyperactivity results have been found in a previous UK study and may indicate that high aircraft noise exposure exacerbates hyperactivity symptoms in children although this finding requires further replication.